Shattering the Tower's First Wall

Towers spawn a boss fight every five floors.

Of course, the difficulty is way higher than regular floors.

It's a brutal roadblock that grinds climbs to a halt.

The first boss fight ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on floor 5 is no different.

As a lower floor in the Tower, the difficulty itself isn't comparable to other boss fights.

But here's the problem.

Challengers at this point are still low-level scrubs without proper skills or gear.

High-rank Awakeners?

They're fine.

They get lavish support from nations and corporations as they climb.

The issue is with average Awakeners.

It's truly a wall of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Even across the entire Tower, this section boasts an incredibly high dropout rate.

They finally Awakened... only to get shut down without a real shot...!

"That's why this floor—right here on 5—is steeped in so much resentment and grief from countless people."

"Got it!"

We were inside the Tower now.

I was giving the briefing.

"See how the floor isn't gray stone but dirt? The rats are hiding underground at first. They'll pop out one by one in sequence as time passes. The boss comes last."

Twenty subordinate rats.

One boss rat.

If the subordinates pile up, clearing gets tough, so the key is taking them out fast as they spawn.

Not that it'll be an issue for us.

I'll one-shot them all anyway.

Still, better safe than sorry.

I cast a combat power boost buff.

Whisper whisper.

"They're super creepy-looking. Long snouts, four red eyes. And get this—the size? As big as your forearm. Your forearm."

"...!"

She shuddered for a split second.

Her fiery eyes darted around wildly.

"Creepy...! Just try coming out...! I won't let them anywhere near us...!"

Effect confirmed.

Rumble rumble—!

A massive tremor shook underfoot.

Like an earthquake.

The monster rats were burrowing around with their sharp front teeth and paws.

"Just like the tip said, one every 15 seconds from any direction. Stay sharp—no letting your guard down. One-shot 'em as they pop out, okay?"

"Okay! I can sense all their positions right now! Total 21, including the boss!"

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Subordinates: one every 15 seconds.

20 means 300 seconds to spawn all.

Boss with the last one.

In other words, even the fastest clear on floor 5 takes at least 5 minutes.

The current world #1 record is 7 minutes 21 seconds.

But for me?

Early minutes, way under 5.

Boss gets one-shot by Carmina's magic the instant it spawns.

Rumble rumble—!

'Following the trend so far, around 130,000 points.'

If it rolls really well, maybe aim for 150,000?

Hmm...?

Hold up.

"Carmina, you can sense all their positions underground?"

"Yep! Vampires have super sharp senses!"

A thought flashed through my mind.

My question turned urgent.

"Can you amp up your blood magic? Bigger than needles—like spears. Could you snipe the ones underground?"

"Ooh! Yeah, I can! Never thought of that. As expected of Master! Oh, but using a ton of blood might give me anemia."

"You haven't tried VIVIQ Gold Olive Chicken yet, right?"

"You creepy evil beasts! I'll make sure those filthy heads never see daylight!"

Carmina turned into an angry chihuahua.

She sliced her finger with her nail right away.

The scattered blood droplets stretched long, forming 21 crimson spears in an instant.

And at the same time.

"Squeeee—!"

The first one burst through the dirt, head out, lunging at us.

Whoosh!

21 spears flew.

One at the airborne rat.

Twenty at the ones still underground.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Messages kept scrolling down nonstop.

Carmina's spears pierced the ground, one-shotting even the rats racing underground.

Nice. Yeah, this is it.

Boss lady! Hit me with a shot of vampire juice!

Five minutes? Just the spawn condition for the boss.

No need to wait if you can hit it underground.

Well, probably no one else thought of this before.

Pat pat.

'It pierced right through.'

The ground's hard as ice.

Most couldn't break it.

Plus, they'd be too busy with the spawning subordinates.

"Master! Amazing! I was so fixated on the tip, I figured we'd just wait for them all to come out!"

"Just hit me in the moment. If your magic wasn't strong enough to pierce the ground, it'd be meaningless anyway."

"That's your quick thinking that rocks!"

Really? Well, feels good anyway.

Praise makes even whales dance.

Carmina glanced at the dead subordinates amid the dirt clumps.

"Ugh, if I'd cast faster, we wouldn't have seen their faces at all. How are they that creepy?"

She kept sneaking peeks.

Like it had some weird addictive pull.

"Still, the record's plenty fast. Cleared right as the first one popped."

"Oh, the record! Gotta check it!"

Record. Right.

We busted our asses(?) climbing the Tower—time for reward o'clock.

I scrolled up through the messages.

Wait, 300,000 points...?

I could only stare blankly at the ranking screen, stunned by the unexpected score.

"Whoa! Master! 300k points! Insane!"

"Uh... almost double what I expected."

Compared to other world rankers?

Floors 1-4: about 10x their scores.

This floor 5: nearly 30x.

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Rough math: even summing 2nd to 30th wouldn't top mine.

Guessing killing the boss off-meta boosted the score calc big time.

Dopamine overload.

This might be addictive.

"Master! There's 'MAX' next to the score!"

"Yeah. Means max points. And it hitting exactly 300k is a bit suspicious too."

Ding!

Point cap? I'd browsed tons of Tower info, but first time hearing this.

No 'MAX' on any rankings I'd seen.

'Looks like I'm world first.'

Plus, Season 1?

Tower's seasonal?

"Master, it says point cap limit... so our real score was...!"

"Higher than 300k, yeah."

"Argh! Such a waste! All that extra points gone!"

Wasteful, sure. What was it originally?

400k? 500k? 600k?

Not that bad a loss.

Bonus: won't hit the cap often going forward?

This floor 5 was a super special gimmick-break case.

Huh? Hold on.

"This isn't a loss at all."

"Huh? Why?"

I pointed at the message list.

"No way! A feat! +20% Tower scores forever!"

"Actually a profit now."

Tower score inflation ramps up higher floors.

Points lost to caps on early floors?

Chump change compared to 20% bonus on upper floors.

"Awesome! And a world announcement! Everyone should know Master's epic feats! Two of 'em!"

"Haha, keep hyping me like that, and when I order chicken, I'll add all the sides. Wait, two feats?"

"Yeah, here's another!"

She scrolled down with a happy hum.

Whoa, what's this?

Like the first, seems world-first.

'Check the rewards.'

Limited to 1-5.

Repeat clear score buff.

Floor difficulty drop.

Not huge for me.

Why?

I'll keep climbing new floors nonstop. Repeats? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'll be way past 5.

But.

'Not just for me.'

Buff for all of Korea.

Huge for latecomers.

I explained earlier, right?

Lower floors have massive dropout rates.

Most dropouts are low-rank Awakeners.

Why low scores?

One: low clear points.

Two: climbs stall fast.

Two's the bigger issue.

But if 1-5 difficulty drops...

And they can break the dreaded 5...

'Blood vessels unclog.'

Korea's total score output skyrockets naturally.

"Ooh! Thought it wasn't helpful for you, Master, but that's actually an amazing reward!"

"Yep. Once 5's broken, 9's smooth. Plenty will push to the next boss on 10."

Mentioning floor 10 sparked a thought.

Feat name: Follow Me (1-5).

(6-10), (11-15) next?

'Rankings.'

Checked prior floors.

6-10. 11-15. 16-20.

21-25. 26-30. 31-35, etc.

Five-floor chunks.

One nation's #1 sweep? Sure.

One Awakener's? Nope.

'Makes sense.'

Monster types, quest patterns shift per floor.

Class advantages vary wildly.

Something like that.

Even topping 2-3 floors in a chunk is huge.

'I swept all 1-5.'

Low floors, sure.

Still a sweep.

And maybe, climbing up, I can sweep the rest.

Shiver.

'Thrilling just imagining.'

Kept checking notifications.

Bonus expected.

"Same as floor 1!"

"At least not mana stones."

Just looking makes me feel secure.

Save for floor 6.

This is what I was waiting for.

Check now.

Ding!

So, summary.

"It's a gacha."

"Gacha?"

"Random pull."

Dimensional rift.

Sounds like a massive warehouse stacked with pre-ruin goods from various planets.

'Item Transfer' yoinks one at random.

'Not pure random.'

Narrows to items tagged with the planet I pick.

Nosferatu for now.

"Carmina, how were Nosferatu items? Vs. Earth?"

"Dunno, don't remember well. No chicken, no pizza, no cola."

This vampire's totally corrupted by Earth's junk food violence.

"Not what's missing—what's there. Unique vs. Earth."

"Overall like Earth, but big differences..."

System memory limits maybe?

She hemmed and hawed, then shouted.

"Got it! Tons of elixirs! Not supplements—real power-ups! Massive strength boosts! Vision sharpening!"

Elixirs, huh.

Hope no total duds.

Seeing's believing.

'Use Item Transfer.'

Target: Nosferatu.

A glow, and something appeared in my hand.

"This is...?"

I read the item description and couldn't close my mouth.