Whoa, Penguins! Onto the Moonlight Plains
Whoa! I wanted to see penguins!
The trip to the second floor of the tower happened the next day.
"Eun-ha, starting from Floor 2, there'll be slightly stronger monsters."
"Like what...?"
While riding in Im Ji-won's super cool car that roared with a brrrrum-vroooom-boom! sound, she gave me a quick rundown on the upper floors.
"Floor 1 only had goblins, right?"
"Yeah, but there was a Goblin Lord and a Goblin King too."
"Uh... yeah, but they were all goblins anyway. Right?"
"Huh? Oh, y-yeah?"
Im Ji-won gave an awkward smile for a second before continuing.
"The most common ones are usually Britholakas."
"B-Britholakas...? That's kinda scary...."
"Eun-ha, that's... no. Never mind."
According to her, Britholakas were what people usually called werewolves.
They didn't have much intelligence, but they could smell blood from far away and attack humans. They often hid in bushes like beasts and ambushed their prey.
Fortunately, they weren't overwhelmingly strong physically, so there were plenty of ways to deal with them. Plus, up to Floor 4, it was mostly open plains, so ambushes weren't too common.
"Next most common are albino penguins."
At the words "albino penguin," I leaned a little toward Im Ji-won.
Back at the orphanage, the teacher had taken us to the aquarium once, but it happened to not be penguin show day, so I never got to see any.
Penguins are just cute, right? So why are they called monsters?
Im Ji-won stared at me for a moment, then shook her head lightly.
"They're penguins, sure, but they're a far cry from the cute ones you're imagining."
Albino penguins were named after some research from Miskatonic University.
They looked like plain white penguins on the outside, but they had saw-like teeth, and their mouths could open as wide as a person's body. Especially since they were about 6 feet tall—around the size of an average adult man. Not cute at all.
Tch, I really wanted to see some super cute penguins.
"Finally, trolls. They kinda look like monkey-sized goblins...."
She said their skin was tough and rocky, all rough and rugged. That's why attacks with attributes like electricity worked better than swords.
"That's pretty much it for monsters up to Floor 4. I said they're stronger than goblins, but honestly, they won't be much of a threat to you, Eun-ha."
"Why...?"
By now, the park with the tower entrance was coming into view outside the window.
"The tower's difficulty spikes every 5 floors. Floor 5, 10, 15, and so on. That's why clearing up to 15 took Woo Jin-seong a while."
"I see."
No wonder the news made a big deal when Woo Jin-seong cleared Floor 15. That explained it.
"Let's head in. It'll be easier to understand once you're there."
This time, I pulled out my awakener ID from my pocket and flashed it around.
I wouldn't get in trouble like last time, right?
People around started murmuring and glancing my way, one by one. The attention made my chest tingle a bit, but I got embarrassed super quick and stuffed it back in my pocket.
We passed through the portal, that weird squirmy feeling washing over my whole body again, and used the key I'd gotten from the Goblin King last time to head straight to Floor 2.
You have entered Tower Floor 2, Moonlight Plains.
"It's... night?"
As soon as we entered Floor 2, darkness spread out everywhere.
Through that darkness, a massive moon hung in the sky, casting a hazy light.
How was there a sky and moon inside the tower? I looked at Im Ji-won, but she just shook her head like she didn't know either.
"The tower's full of unsolved mysteries. Even the Woo Jin-seong raid team, who's at the forefront, probably doesn't know much about stuff like this."
Woo Jin-seong didn't know? I decided not to dwell on it. If the world's strongest awakener didn't know, there was no way I could.
"Alright, now it's your turn to shine. Got it? No getting hurt."
"Jju-ing!"
"Puuu!"
I set down Kkam-dung-i and Jju-jju from my arms onto the ground. They immediately positioned themselves in front of me and started walking ahead.
Like they were guarding me. Aww, so reliable!
"Same as Floor 1—I'll just stick right by your side and watch."
"Got it! With the kids, we can take 'em all!"
Just like on Floor 1, we crossed the yellowish-brown plains toward the horizon on the far side. That's when a signpost came into view.
As we approached, a system window popped up.
The area ahead is a dungeon zone.
"Hmph."
After a month as an awakener and killing tons of goblins, monsters didn't scare me anymore.
Plus, with how super-duper strong Jju-jju and Kkam-dung-i were, this would be easy.
"Oh. Right."
"What is it, Eun-ha?"
Right before entering the dungeon zone, I remembered the quest from two days ago.
I should tell Im Ji-won too.
"Um, so. When I put on this mermaid's necklace, a quest popped up outta nowhere."
"A quest...? Like last time?"
"Yup!"
I explained the whole quest to Im Ji-won.
Go to Floor 5, hunt slimes, and free the "descendants in the depths" or whatever.
"You have to go to Floor 5, huh.... Well, like I said earlier, up to Floor 4 is pretty standard, so it makes sense for a quest."
But then she furrowed her brows, looking puzzled.
"I have heard of 'beings in the depths' before, though. Maybe something like your Jju-jju... er, that puppy?"
"You think so too? I was thinking it might be a new summon!"
"Yeah. No idea why you'd get summons through quests, but your abilities are so unique anyway."
No point pondering it here. Like last time, we'd figure it out as we climbed.
Im Ji-won and I followed Jju-jju and Kkam-dung-i into the dungeon zone.
The first monsters we ran into were werewolves.
"Grrr, woof woof!"
"Grrr, jju-ing!"
Just like Im Ji-won said, the werewolves couldn't hide well on the open plains, but they spotted us and started circling to surround us.
This is like that wolf documentary. They tighten the encirclement to wear you down before hunting, right?
Once they had us surrounded on all sides, baring their sharp fangs, dealing with them was simple.
"Jju-jju, Kkam-dung-i, go get 'em!"
"Jju-iiing!"
"Ppu ppu ppu!"
First, Jju-jju pulled out a massive trumpet from its fluffy ball body and blared a G—!! that went bang! The werewolves froze up instantly.
Wha? Why do I always get sleepy when Jju-jju plays the trumpet?
Then Kkam-dung-i zoomed past them with its eight legs, faster than Im Ji-won's car. Right as her eyes started twitching, the werewolves went pop pop! and burst into black ink that splattered across the ground.
Im Ji-won gulped as she watched the werewolves vanish in an instant, then turned to me.
"Eun-ha."
"Huh? Yeah?"
"Doesn't your power feel stronger than before?"
Come to think of it, yeah—Kkam-dung-i did seem stronger, just like she said.
I glanced at the mermaid's necklace around my neck.
"Maybe this is why?"
"Could be."
Im Ji-won didn't seem totally sure either. The shop description had said detailed effects unknown, so nothing we could do about it.
"Anyway, let's aim for the boss room. No quest this time like last floor, so better to push up fast."
"Okay!"
When we ran into an albino penguin midway, I squealed in delight at seeing a real one for the first time—pure white and huge.
"P-Penguin! A real penguin! Im Ji-won unnie, it doesn't look like a monster at all!"
"E-Eun-ha, don't get close!"
The albino penguin waddled around with a dopey meeeh expression. It was big, sure, but still cute.
So when I started inching closer...
"KAAAAAWK!"
"Eeeek?!"
"Eun-ha!"
Its beak—which hadn't looked that big—split open as wide as my body, and it charged. I jumped in shock.
I need to pee...
Kkam-dung-i took it out super quick, but the scare lingered.
Even Kkam-dung-i seemed mad, glaring fiercely and poking my belly with its leg-tip to scold me.
"Ppu ppu! Ppu ppu ppu!"
"Uw... Okay, Kkam-dung-i, I won't go ahead of you anymore."
"Ppuu!"
Then Im Ji-won gave me an earful about being careful, which made me a tiny bit sad. But it was my fault, so I took it quietly.
No more doing that. I didn't wanna get scolded by Kkam-dung-i or unnie again.
"Jju-jju, you won't scold me, right?"
"Jju-ing! Jju-ing!"
Yup. Jju-jju's the good one. Now that I think about it, Kkam-dung-i was bullying Jju-jju last time too?
I'm watching you, Kkam-dung-i...!
"It really does feel different."
After that, everything went smoothly.
True to Im Ji-won's word, the bosses up to Floor 4 weren't much different from Floor 1.
Weird that we never ran into any trolls despite her explanation, but she said no one really knows why stuff happens in the tower.
I thought I'd make friends with other awakeners, but nope.
From Floor 3 on, we started seeing other awakener parties in the dungeon zones.
I tried greeting them, but they ignored me and hurried on. When I asked Im Ji-won why, she said it's etiquette for parties not to share zones inside the tower.
When I asked why that was, she said it was too early for me to know.
After all that, we rocketed up the tower crazy fast.
"Time to head to Floor 5 already, Eun-ha."
"Yay!"
To be precise, we came every other day and snagged the Floor 4 key in under a week.
I watched the body of Floor 4's boss, the Giant Emperor Albino Penguin, vanish. In its place, I picked up the items left behind.
One was the key to Floor 5. The other was a mermaid's necklace.
"This again."
"Yeah... I thought these only dropped from Floor 5 bosses. But Floor 2, Floor 3... keeps happening?"
Im Ji-won eyed my neck with a dubious look.
There were already three mermaid's necklaces there. This would make four.
I put the fourth one on.
"Eun-ha, Floor 5 might be tough for just us two, like I said. You're strong enough, but... just in case."
"Okay! So what do we do?"
"If you're cool with it, can I call some awakener friends? They're plenty strong—we can clear Floor 5 safely."
"Sounds good!"
Honestly, I wasn't fully listening to Im Ji-won.
The more mermaid's necklaces I added, the more voices swirled in my ears.
Chalang, chalang.
Waves were still crashing somewhere.
Da... gon...?