Chapter 39
Chapter 39.
'What? Where are they shooting from?'
Looking around in all directions.
A ship that was completely invisible from the rock where Lee Ganghan was standing.
No matter how long a cannon's range might be.
'Would it even reach here?'
When cannons first spewed fire from Columbus's ship, Lee Ganghan had such doubts, but.
Wiiiiing...
The distant air seemed to ripple.
A cannonball shot out from there with a whoosh.
As if it had teleported, a cannonball that leaped through space.
[Be careful!]
Swoosh!
Following the Divine Maiden's warning, Lee Ganghan jumped off the rock to avoid the cannonball, but.
The cannonball's target wasn't Lee Ganghan from the beginning.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
The rock was completely shattered the moment the cannonball hit it.
Lee Ganghan had completely lost his footing.
'This is...'
Splash...!
When Lee Ganghan, who had fallen into the water, swam with unfamiliar movements and pulled his upper body above the surface.
Zzzzt...
Columbus's voice was heard above his head.
[Then, challenger, try to find it—my Santa Maria!]
And then Columbus stopped attacking.
Did he achieve his goal by destroying the rock?
And then.
Ding.
[B1's Adversary - 'Guardian of Greed' Christopher Columbus]
[Clear Condition: Find the Santa Maria and subdue Columbus.]
The clear condition appeared.
So the ship's name from earlier was Santa Maria.
He had to find that ship and subdue Columbus to clear it.
But this.
'How do I find it in this vast ocean...?'
Swimming itself, though unfamiliar.
Since his body was so good, he could somehow continue swimming in the ocean.
But swimming around here to find the Santa Maria was another story.
When Lee Ganghan felt overwhelmed looking at the vast ocean.
[Heavenly Demon! Water Walking! Use Water Walking!]
"Water Walking means... walking on water?"
[Yes. In the Heavenly Demon Reign Step manual...]
The Divine Maiden ghost was telling Lee Ganghan how to use Water Walking.
Indeed, the 3 Mana investment seemed worthwhile.
She was telling him the method he needed most right now.
He tried to use lightness skills according to the Divine Maiden's words, but.
At that moment.
The ocean's color turned ashen.
[The dead dwell in the Sea of Darkness...]
Grayish-white smoke rose up.
"Ugh?"
Swoooosh!
Lee Ganghan's body, which had been half-floating on the water.
Was dragged downward.
Precisely, a strong force grabbed his ankle.
And pulled him underwater.
'What is this...?'
When Lee Ganghan opened his eyes underwater with a surprised face.
In the water rippling with dark blue light.
Grayish-white forms began appearing one by one.
Resembling human shapes but.
A horde of ghosts appearing with one or two limbs missing.
[Graaaaaah...]
[I curse you... I hate you...]
[You too... die!]
The wailing of vengeful spirits audible even underwater.
They swarmed Lee Ganghan, grabbing his feet and lower body.
Each one individually didn't look too strong, but.
The number of vengeful spirits that swarmed instantly was too many to shake off.
Especially since Lee Ganghan wasn't familiar with being underwater.
Resistance was even more difficult.
Then.
[You wicked spirits...!]
Flash!
From the Divine Maiden's body that had followed him underwater.
Intense light flickered.
Then.
Whoooosh!
The evil spirits grabbing Lee Ganghan's body instantly turned to smoke and disappeared.
[Now! Get out quickly!]
Even though the ghosts had disappeared for now.
The vengeful spirits swarming from all directions remained.
Lee Ganghan quickly surfaced again following the Divine Maiden's words.
"Thanks to you, I survived."
[I squeezed out all the Mana you gave me earlier. I can't help you next time! You need to use Water Walking quickly!]
"Got it. Heavenly Demon Divine Art."
Lee Ganghan activated Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Swoosh!
He jumped out of the water with all his might.
'This... there's no answer underwater. Water Walking, I must succeed.'
Perhaps because of the experience of almost drowning after being caught by ghosts.
Lee Ganghan's mind worked more sharply than ever.
Recalling the manual of Heavenly Demon Reign Step that the Divine Maiden taught him.
While simultaneously remembering the sensation when the skill 'Heavenly Demon Reign Step' activated.
'Like this... is it?'
Paaat!
He stepped on the water's surface.
Though precarious, as if he might fall at any moment.
Swoosh. Swoosh!
Lee Ganghan moved his feet faster than ever, trying to maintain Water Walking.
[Wow, ha, success on the first try? It's a bit unstable though...!]
"I don't know. Just run for now. If I step with my left foot before my right foot sinks, isn't that fine?"
[Ah. It's not like that... Ugh, let's go with that for now!]
Seeing Lee Ganghan using Water Walking almost instinctively.
The Divine Maiden decided to maintain that state rather than criticize.
When Lee Ganghan had been running on the water's surface for a few minutes under her guidance.
[I curse you...!]
Hissss...
The seawater turned murky.
The vengeful spirits began rising up.
Not dragging him down from underwater.
Were they planning to come up to the surface?
But.
'What kind of ghosts are there so many of?'
So many vengeful spirits had risen up.
The dark blue ocean looked as if it was shrouded in fog because of the ghosts.
'This... the difficulty is incomparable to regular towers.'
Lee Ganghan had only repeated smooth tower climbing until now.
But the 'First Tower' had insane difficulty starting from B1.
This, if Columbus would bring the Santa Maria and fight, it might be manageable.
But disappearing after just destroying rocks like this left no answer.
[You come too!]
While Lee Ganghan was running for a while.
Whoosh!
A giant ghost's hand grazed past his feet.
No, looking closely, that wasn't a hand.
It seemed like the vengeful spirits from the seabed had tangled chaotically to form a hand-like shape.
And from the appearance of those vengeful spirits.
'It looks somewhat like Native American clothing.'
Lee Ganghan could spot several ghosts wearing feathered hats.
The vengeful spirits in this ocean.
Could they be the vengeful spirits of Native Americans?
Come to think of it, Columbus pioneered the New World and caused tremendous damage to the natives.
'But why are they attacking me to death? They should catch Columbus instead.'
Swoosh, Swoosh.
Lee Ganghan dodged the vengeful spirits popping up from the ocean here and there.
He ran around busily to find Columbus's Santa Maria.
But.
[The duration of Heavenly Demon Divine Art has ended.]
Rather than discovering traces of the ship.
The duration of Heavenly Demon Divine Art ended first.
'Already 15 minutes have passed...'
And when Heavenly Demon Divine Art ended.
Lee Ganghan's posture, which had been maintaining Water Walking with the power of the divine art, also began to falter quickly.
[Ah, no! The power of the divine art...! Concentrate!]
The Divine Maiden ghost shouted at Lee Ganghan with a distressed voice, but.
Hissss...
Before long, grayish-white ghosts were circling around his ankles.
'This is... they've gotten stronger than before.'
If he gets dragged down this time, it won't be easy to come back up.
When Lee Ganghan's expression hardened.
Ding.
Suddenly in front of his eyes.
[All time available to stay in the 'First Tower' has passed.]
"Uh...?"
A message appeared saying the residence time had ended.
***
'The residence time has ended?'
The residence time in the First Tower that was proportional to level.
He had spent quite a bit of time in the Mana Training Hall earlier.
Did it end shortly after entering B1 because of that?
[Returning to the original world.]
When the return message appeared.
Lee Ganghan's body instantly became transparent.
[Ah, no! Where are you going!]
Then the previous screen appeared.
Columbus, who was blowing a horn, shouted angrily, but.
Paaaaaat...
A red portal appeared above Lee Ganghan's head.
Soon it drew his body inside.
[Th-thank goodness! Heavenly Demon!]
With the Divine Maiden's words as the finale, when the return ended.
"...It's my room."
Lee Ganghan had returned to his room.
"I almost died twice in one day..."
Once in the Mana Training Hall.
If he had fought more in Columbus's battlefield, the Sea of Darkness, he would have drowned.
Lee Ganghan recalled the Water Walking that had shaken drastically when Heavenly Demon Divine Art ended.
'In the end, being able to use Water Walking was thanks to Heavenly Demon Divine Art.'
The Divine Maiden's guidance was good, but.
In that urgent situation, when the power of Heavenly Demon Divine Art disappeared, Lee Ganghan saw his limits.
His concentration scattered by the ghosts rising from the ocean.
Unable to properly maintain Water Walking, his body seemed about to fall at any moment.
This was disgraceful behavior he had never experienced while climbing towers until now.
"Ah... this is somehow infuriating."
Had he become complacent from too much success?
Lee Ganghan kept recalling himself floundering on the ocean during the moment of crisis.
And what the Divine Maiden taught him in that situation.
It was the manual from the Heavenly Demon Reign Step section in the true manual of Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
'...Rather than just reciting the true manual, I should have studied it more seriously.'
The answer was ultimately within the manual.
I just memorized it thinking 'I don't know what this means.'
But even if I didn't know what it meant.
I should have tried to understand it.
Just reciting it produced reactions in my body.
So I just memorized it without thinking of digging deeper.
'I was complacent.'
Lee Ganghan reflected on himself.
"Besides, in the First Tower, Columbus is ultimately a Guardian. He's just above a minion, so he shouldn't be that strong an opponent."
The 'Minion' and 'Guardian' that appeared saying the current grade was Iron.
When the grade rises, there was a high probability that stronger beings than these would appear.
If B1 is like this now.
Going down to B2, B3.
How much stronger opponents would appear?
'...From now on, let me pull myself together and focus more on getting stronger.'
Though he survived thanks to the residence time ending.
Lee Ganghan definitely felt he had been 'defeated' today.
And when he acknowledged that.
Unlike usual.
A strange heat boiled up from his chest.
Self-reproach for his complacency, competitive spirit to definitely win next time.
And the desire to get back at Columbus who was blowing a wine bottle horn on the ship surged up.
'Well, this is strange.'
Lee Ganghan found this side of himself fascinating.
When he was suffering from Tower Syndrome, he actually had no great motivation for anything.
His grades were just about class average.
Though his body was good, he had no particular thought of competing with anyone through sports.
He had no competitive spirit with others.
Just thinking he'd live like this and end it.
He had lived without motivation in everything.
So he thought this was his original personality.
'I had this kind of heart too.'
The emotions he felt from being essentially defeated by Columbus were too fascinating for him.
Anger from defeat.
Self-reproach for being complacent.
And even the desire to definitely crush him next time.
Lee Ganghan found the heat boiling up from his chest unfamiliar, but.
'Sometimes this isn't bad either.'
On the other hand, it became an opportunity to snap him to attention.
Next time, he would smash Columbus and the Santa Maria.
He decided to properly pay back today's debt.
"Then... should I look around the room first?"
The protection that activated while rummaging through the dresser looking for his passport.
Lee Ganghan thoroughly searched his room to find something related to this.
Seeing the portal appear when he touched the bottom of the dresser.
He speculated there was something in this room.
However.
'...It looks fine on the surface.'
Even after completely disassembling the dresser and desk.
Even after flipping the bed.
He couldn't find anything that seemed related to the unknown protection anywhere.
Especially the wooden bottom of the dresser that was the starting point, he touched several times again, but.
It didn't flash red light like before.
"Well... what is this?"
Looking at it now, it just seems ordinary.
Could it have been a dream?
Just in case, he checked his status window.
His Mana was definitely raised to 10+.
'Maybe I can't discover it because my level is still low.'
After overturning the room several times and still finding no traces.
Lee Ganghan shook his head.
It won't work right now.
He thought about throwing away all the furniture and replacing it.
'...No. I can't just throw away something related to protection.'
Even if he couldn't find traces now.
When he becomes stronger, he might discover traces related to protection there.
Lee Ganghan decided to leave his room in that state for now.
'Then next is... Heavenly Mandate Tower.'
Though he still didn't know why he was recognized.
Anyway, the Heavenly Mandate Tower he could build thanks to the Divine Maiden.
'I should try building something.'
He'd have plenty of TP too.
Lee Ganghan opened the Ten Thousand Demon Battle function to build the Heavenly Mandate Tower.
"Come to think of it, I didn't test whether it works in B1."
The Ten Thousand Demon Battle function that didn't activate in Heavenly Demon Valley.
He wanted to test whether this works on lower floors.
But he was too busy falling into water to even summon it before it ended.
'I must try it next time.'
Lee Ganghan thought so.
And looked at Ten Thousand Demon Battle.
Then, in the center of the revealed screen.
'This is... I've never seen this before?'
A pure white flame.
As if about to go out, was maintaining a faint spark.