Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: Tier
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“So, ‘the me from my youth’ planted the memory transfer spell I’d always envisioned in my mind into you.”
The middle-aged magic engraver explained calmly.
“That spell was like a seed, clinging to your body until it activated and sprouted the moment you met me today.”
Only then did I understand why the young man on the 15th floor had let me go so easily.
The faint sense of incongruity I’d felt when parting from him.
It was because he’d planted this spell in me.
“It was a good idea. Until I received the memories, I had no recollection of meeting you.”
“How could that be? This is further in the future than that time.”
“Well. Is it, really? To put it to the extreme, he and I might not even be the same person.”
I couldn’t comprehend his words at all.
It was when I wanted to hear a more detailed explanation.
“There are still questions you want to ask.”
The middle-aged magic engraver said as he refilled his teacup.
“My younger self told me that you’d met ‘the me from the future’... What did he look like? Did he seem older than I do now?”
I recalled the mad old man I’d met on the 5th floor.
His head full of white hair and eyes gleaming with madness.
It was starkly different from the middle-aged man before me now.
“He looked much older than you do now. So much so that he seemed to have dementia.”
At my answer, the middle-aged magic engraver let out a deep sigh.
A complex expression mixed with disappointment flashed across his face.
“Then... I might have ultimately failed.”
He muttered something incomprehensible in a low voice.
Failed? What exactly had he failed at?
Before I could ask, he shook his head and spoke.
“No, there’s still too little information. I can’t piece together the full picture from these fragments alone. I need to gather more pieces.”
His gaze turned back to me.
I instinctively knew this was his request.
“Please keep meeting the mes from other times. Don’t give up partway, no matter what.”
“That’s not something I can do just because I want to. Each floor of the...”
I almost uttered the word for the tower without thinking.
But the middle-aged magic engraver quickly raised his hand to stop me.
His eyes sharpened in an instant.
“Shh.”
He pressed his index finger to his lips, signaling silence.
“Don’t speak of ‘that thing’ lightly between us.”
I stared at him, clueless.
He acted as if someone might be eavesdropping on our conversation.
“I know what you’re worried about. But whether you want it or not, it’ll happen for sure. You’ve essentially been chosen.”
I let out a sigh.
I hated being dragged along ambiguously like this.
I spoke frankly.
“I have no idea what’s going on. Can’t you just explain it clearly without the cryptic talk?”
“Hmm?”
“I don’t know much, but it seems like I’m your collaborator now. If you explain, I can help better, right?”
“Is that so... You really don’t know...”
“?”
“It’s a shame, but it doesn’t seem like the right time to tell you.”
“???”
“Haha, it’s something I learned from you. It’s very effective, isn’t it? Now I see why you use this speaking style.”
“....”
Doesn’t this old guy actually hold grudges like crazy?
He brought up the robe, and now he’s paying back even these petty pranks?
The middle-aged magic engraver chuckled before speaking again.
“Just keep doing what you’ve always been doing. Whether you want to or not, you’ll definitely run into another version of me from a different time.”
I had no idea what that meant.
But one thing was clear.
I’d been swept up into some massive current.
“You want me to just go along with it?”
“That’s right.”
He fell silent for a moment, then stood up as if he’d made a decision.
“You’re certainly my precious milestone and my one hope. It’d be a real problem if someone like you died or got hurt too easily. A huge problem.”
He approached me and extended his hand.
His finger lightly touched the magic battery at my waist.
Flash-!
A faint light rose from the belt.
I felt a new spell being stored in the space that had held Magic Cancel.
Complex patterns engraved themselves on the belt’s surface before vanishing.
“It’s a gift.”
The middle-aged magic engraver said.
“It’s a spell to flip the hourglass.”
“I don’t get the cryptic explanation.”
“...It lets you go back one hour. It’s one-use, so use it wisely.”
A spell that rewinds time?
Was something like that even allowed to exist?
The magic I’d only imagined was now in my hands.
“Time’s almost up. Head back now. Your companions too.”
He snapped his fingers, and Sharon, the sandworm, and Chohogi’s body, which had been fixed in midair, were freed.
They landed on the ground with bewildered expressions, as if wondering what had happened.
“Seer!”
Sharon rushed to me with a worried face.
I nodded to show I was fine.
The middle-aged magic engraver had already packed away the table and chairs.
He stood before the spatial rift, just as when he’d first appeared.
He turned to me one last time and flashed a meaningful smile.
“See you next time, wanderer of time.”
With those words, he vanished beyond the torn space.
The moment he disappeared, the arena’s scenery began to scatter like a mirage before my eyes.
The familiar sensation of being ejected from the tower enveloped my body.
I closed my eyes.
My mind was a mess.
***
When I came to, I was lying on my bed in my room.
Outside the window, it was still the dark early morning.
My whole body felt heavy.
An immense fatigue, like my mental energy had hit rock bottom.
“Ugh....”
A groan escaped me.
Normally, I’d boot up my computer first thing and check the gallery, but today I didn’t even have the energy for that.
“I really need to rest this time.”
I needed to pause my tower climbs and regroup.
My head was too cluttered.
Me becoming the memory vessel for Magic Engraver Old Man?
And like a boring, pretentious geezer, he hadn’t explained anything clearly.
The more I thought about it, the more my head hurt.
I sat up in bed.
Come to think of it, there was one thing I still hadn’t dealt with.
I pulled out the orb I’d left in the corner of my room.
The second spirit essence the broker had procured. This one was earth attribute too.
The moment I took it out, the air in the room subtly shifted.
Chohogi, who’d been crawling out after tossing aside the phone he’d been watching.
The sandworm, lingering on my finger in ring form.
Both summons’ gazes locked onto the essence in my hand.
“....”
Chohogi silently scooted right up to my feet and sat down.
He looked up at me in a posture far more deferential and loyal than usual.
No, honestly, I’d never seen him this well-behaved.
His eyes fixed solely on the spirit essence.
[The sandworm claims it is fully qualified to eat that this time.]
The sandworm conveyed his intent directly via telepathy.
There was even impatience in his voice.
I could only give this precious item to one of them.
Chohogi and the sandworm.
A subtle air of competition flowed between my two loyal subordinates.
But I didn’t agonize over it much.
The answer had been decided from the start.
“You greedy thing... Didn’t you eat the last one?”
I shook my head at Chohogi.
His shoulders visibly slumped.
But as if he accepted it himself, he didn’t protest further.
I held the spirit essence toward the ring housing the sandworm.
“It’s yours.”
[The sandworm expresses deep gratitude for its great master’s wise decision.]
The ring glowed and absorbed the essence.
The essence vanished into the ring in an instant.
And then change came to the sandworm.
The aura emanating from the sandworm grew deeper and stronger than before.
But honestly, I couldn’t clearly feel the difference.
There was no dramatic visible change, like when Chohogi had consumed one.
[The sandworm says its ‘tier’ has risen one step.]
“Tier?”
[The sandworm explains that it is the rank of existence.]
The sandworm’s explanation echoed in my mind.
According to him, every being in this world possessed an invisible tier.
And there was an absolute law: one with a lower tier could not harm one with a higher tier.
“How do you raise it?”
[The sandworm recommends gathering the faith of mortals. It is the path to godhood.]
[But the easiest and fastest method is predation like just now. Absorbing the essence of a being with equal or higher tier and making it your own.]
I recalled the middle-aged magic engraver I’d met today.
His overwhelming power.
None of my attacks or spells had worked on him at all.
[The sandworm speculates that being surely raised its tier the same way.]
I nodded.
Now it made sense.
It wasn’t just a difference in level or skills.
Our very souls were on different tiers.
[The sandworm advises its master to raise his tier as soon as possible.]
His words made sense.
There was no guarantee I wouldn’t meet another being like the magic-engraving old man.
No, according to him, I was fated to meet another version of him.
I couldn’t keep getting crushed helplessly every time.
I was convinced.
Beyond simply getting stronger, I needed to raise my own ‘tier.’
***
Meanwhile, in Geneva, Switzerland, where the World Hunter Association headquarters was located.
In the special training ground usable only by certified S-rank hunters.
At the center of the state-of-the-art facility simulating a virtual environment nearly identical to reality, a man knelt on one knee.
“Gah... huff...”
His body, gasping ragged breaths, was drenched in sweat.
Kim Suho, South Korea’s strongest S-rank hunter.
Around him, the training ground’s floor and walls were utterly destroyed, as if a storm had swept through.
Traces of destruction he had wrought.
Yet right before him stood another man, unscathed and pristine.
Impeccable posture, relaxed expression.
A cape emblazoned with the stars and stripes fluttered.
The world’s number one rank, the S-rank hunter called the man closest to a god: Demigod.
Demigod looked down at the kneeling Kim Suho with impassive eyes.
“Hey, Kim Cardian.”
Demigod’s voice echoed lowly across the entire training ground.
“At this rate, you’ll fail the next floor conquest.”
A declaration full of certainty.
Kim Suho couldn’t lift his head.
Because he, more than anyone, knew Demigod’s words rang with painful truth.