The Fourth-Tier Trial (3)

To put the conclusion first, his guess had been only half right. He had not gained a moving base itself, but the authority to make one.

The ability to install a base on a means of transport.

Even that alone was more than he could have hoped for. It meant he could move a base in real time, and the weakness of a stronghold that otherwise had to stay ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rooted in one place would be offset. A smile touched Hanseong's lips.

But still...

What counted as a vehicle powered by ether? Would an ordinary means of transport not qualify? The question had only just risen when a face cut across his thoughts.

"Ah!"

Uijeongbu's enchanter, Lee Minjae. Among the things he had made, there was definitely an item that converted ether into electrical power and charged electronics such as smartphones. If that was possible, couldn't he also build a vehicle that ran on ether? Feeling expectation swell in his chest, Hanseong clenched his fist tight.

I'll have to ask him when we meet.

If he stepped outside, something like two days would already have slipped past. Minjae ought to have reached Suwon by then, so he would ask the moment he got out. He was just closing the thought when V flapped a hand at him in sharp dismissal.

"If your business is finished, you will leave."

"Huh? Oh, right. Got it."

Hanseong was ready to comply without argument. The trial was over, and he had no further business here. Then, at the door that led outside, he remembered something he had failed to ask.

"Oh, right."

"...?"

"Now that I think of it, there was something I wanted to ask..."

"Then ask quickly."

"What's the requirement to challenge the next trial?"

The condition for challenging the fourth-tier trial had been the subjugation of five champion-grade monsters. So what about the next one? Surely it wasn't the subjugation of five or more boss-grade monsters? He put the question out with that uneasy guess, and V's answer came back at once—along with something he had not expected.

"In your case, you are to subjugate a single boss monster at a personal contribution of no less than ten percent."

"...What?"

The target was one boss monster. And the required contribution needed only to clear ten percent? Set beside the condition for challenging the fourth-tier trial, the figure was absurdly low.

Which means...

A boss monster was that powerful. Hanseong's expression hardened, and V went on.

"For the record, the tower's administrator once required two years to meet that condition."

It took that long? Hanseong's eyes flew wide. Watching the change come over his face, V grinned.

"Which means I need not look upon you for some time. I may rest thoroughly until then."

With those words, thick with the relief of liberation, V gave Hanseong's back a hard shove. The door swung wide at the same moment, and Hanseong was driven out as if expelled. Outside, his gaze met that of Aei, who had been waiting for him.

"Oh? Mage?"

Aei's eyes went round with surprise. She came straight over to him.

"Have you already passed the trial?"

"Ah, yes. I was lucky."

"Ah! Just as I thought—my eyes were not wrong. Across every tower, you must be the first to break through the fourth-tier trial so quickly."

Her eyes sparkled as if she were overcome. Eyes? Wait. Only then did ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the word register, and Hanseong looked at Aei again. He soon found what had changed.

I can see her eyes.

Golden irises, shining with a brilliant light. The place where a face ought to have been was still utterly empty, but the two eyes alone were perfectly distinct. Aei tilted her head.

"Um... why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well, your eyes suddenly became visible."

"Ah! You must have reached the realm of the fifth tier. Such swift progress... Congratulations."

Aei's eyes curved into thin crescents. At those words he remembered what she had told him before: that the higher his realm of magic rose, the more of her face he would be able to see.

"Then, as before, I will accept one question. Only a question I am able to answer, of course."

"Ah, in that case..."

"For reference, I cannot give any answer at all regarding what the tower's guide told you."

The line was drawn without room for argument. She had evidently foreseen that he would ask about alignment and karma. Struck speechless, Hanseong shut his mouth.

Then what do I ask?

The method of repairing his lower body, the one he had thought of last time? No. As always, that would resolve itself if he absorbed a spirit elixir. Better to ask something that would help him from here on.

For instance...

Something about boss monsters. But it would be a waste to ask only that. He had a single chance, and he was turning over what question would make the most of it when his eyes met Aei's. She was smiling with her eyes, saying nothing. In that moment a fact he had half forgotten came back to him.

Aei is well disposed toward me.

Well disposed enough that, if no limit had been placed on what she could share, she would have wanted to tell him anything. Then it would be better to leave the choice to her. Having settled it, Hanseong spoke.

"I'll leave it to you, Administrator."

"Those words..."

"Please tell me whatever you most want to tell me at this moment. Anything is fine."

Aei's eyes went round. A moment later she bent them into crescents like a new moon and nodded.

"Yes. I understand what you mean. Then I will convey the most important information I am permitted to give you."

His intent had landed exactly as he hoped. The most important information. What could it be? Expectation on his face, Hanseong waited for her to begin. And then a single shocking sentence came back.

"...Pardon?"

Hanseong's expression locked. A phase was a kind of cataclysm. When Phase 2 had begun, elite monsters had appeared in a world that until then had held nothing but zombies. A guess followed hard on the memory.

"Could it be that boss monsters are going to appear?"

It was a reasonable guess, as far as it went. Aei, however, shook her head.

"That is difficult to answer. This much I can say for certain. What matters now is not a boss monster."

"Then..."

"The moment Phase 3 begins, the first priority will be to resolve ■■."

In the midst of an explanation that had been proceeding smoothly, the sound of one particular word smeared and collapsed. Aei seemed to notice it as well, and her tone turned flustered.

"Ah, I'm sorry. It seems I cannot mention that information at the present stage."

Hanseong did not mind. He had run into something similar the last time he visited the tower. Aei, meanwhile, did her best to explain the word she was not allowed to reveal.

"Hmm. If I unpack ■■, I can say ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it is a kind of multidimensional space."

"Is it like the Dream World?"

"There are ■■ of that sort, and there are also ■■ that can be entered in one's original body."

For now he understood that ■■ was a separate space, isolated from the real world.

"And from here, it becomes important."

He had been nodding in silence when Aei's voice abruptly turned grave. Her golden eyes flashed, and she spoke as if whispering.

"If you fail to defeat the master of ■■ within the time System Eden has calculated, a great calamity will befall the region where that ■■ has opened."

A great calamity. Hearing it from none other than Aei, administrator of the tower, he felt a tension he could not quite justify. Hanseong swallowed drily and asked again.

"What is a great calamity?"

"■■ □□, and so ■■■ □□□□."

"...I can't understand a word of that."

"Ahaha, you're right. I didn't think the information would be blocked to this extent..."

Aei laughed awkwardly, then brought the explanation back around.

"In any case, if the great calamity erupts, that region will be reduced to ruins. So what matters is eliminating the master of ■■ within the allotted time."

Hearing it stressed a second time, Hanseong decided to shift the question slightly.

"Then what is this 'master'?"

"You may think of it as similar to the Ether Plunderer you faced recently."

The one who had created the Dream World. A champion monster, the Ether Plunderer. Now that he thought of it, when he had destroyed that thing, the Dream World had vanished on its own. He understood what Aei's answer meant.

"This is as much as I can tell you. I would like to say more, but the other towers are watching too closely. It can't be helped."

Aei bowed her head with careful courtesy. He wanted to hear more, but there was nothing to be done. Simply learning that Phase 3 would begin soon was already a considerable gain. Then Aei addressed him again.

"Will you be returning now? Or..."

"I'm going shopping."

"Hehe. I thought as much. Then I will guide you at once."

Aei turned. Hanseong followed her toward the tower's second floor, the Plaza, where every shop and merchant was gathered.

A short while later, the first place Hanseong sought upon reaching the Plaza was the skill-book shop. He had advanced to the fifth tier, and he meant to buy skill books to match. After looking through the shop for a time, he settled on two.

The first was an attack skill—not one for striking a wide field of enemies, but for hitting foes within a narrow area.

I already have plenty of area attacks.

Tinder, to start with. Then Magic Sphere, Poison Fog, Dimension Vortex, Gravity, and the rest. Most of the attack skills Hanseong had learned were the sort that struck enemies across a broad area.

They're good when I'm facing a crowd, but...

Against a single target, he had felt the waste of firepower keenly. He had quietly wanted a skill like Wind Cutter, something that could hit one enemy or a narrow patch of them, and so he bought this. The price was steep enough to sting, but he trusted it would earn every coin. After purchasing the skill book and learning it, he turned to the next.

The second skill book was closer to a suppression skill than an attack. It sealed, at the root, the skills of every target inside its range. And if it held against every enemy below boss-grade, then used on a champion-grade monster it could stop the creature from using skills at all.

Subjugation would be far easier, then.

The decision was already made. He bought the skill book at once and learned it. In a blink, more than a hundred thousand coins were gone. About ninety thousand remained. Hanseong left the skill-book shop immediately.

I could buy a few more, but...

Before that, he wanted to look in on the lesser-rune shop. He had more skills than on his last visit, so the variety of lesser runes ought to have grown as well. It was not long, however, before he failed to hide his disappointment.

...Nothing worth using.

No rune with an effect striking enough to catch the eye. What now? Go back to the skill-book shop and buy a few more? He was still turning it over when—

"Huh?"

Among the lesser runes heaped in piles, one stood out for its price. A high price meant it earned its cost. He examined it at once.

A lesser rune that could be added to Dream World. The moment he read it, Hanseong remembered a skill book he had forgotten completely. Spoils from subjugating the Ether Plunderer. A fifth-tier skill book: Dream World. Recalling it at last, he opened his Inventory and drew the book out.

Hanseong's eyes went wide. The power to create a dream world. And he could forcibly drag every target in a designated area into it, and without the owner's permission they could not even leave? The effect was truly absurd.

There's a condition attached, of course...

Only a sleeping target could be summoned. It was an awkward condition to meet in the middle of a fight, but for Hanseong it was hardly a problem. He had recently learned Sleep, a skill that forced a target into slumber. Used in tandem, it would serve well enough even during combat.

I'll learn it first.

There seemed nothing to lose by acquiring it. Once he had learned the skill, he bought the Dream World lesser rune as well and equipped it. Satisfied with the shopping, he turned back to Aei.

"I think I'll head back now."

"Finished with your shopping, I see. Understood. I'll prepare at once."

Having answered, Aei snapped her fingers. In that instant a silver door appeared in empty air—a passage by which one could leave the Mage's Tower and return to the real world.

"Then I'll see you again later."

"Yes. I'll be waiting for our reunion, Mage."

With the faint smile of Aei's eyes, the silver door burst open. Beyond it lay a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠darkness in which even the floor could not be seen. Hanseong stepped toward that endless dark, and at once he felt himself falling. And in that moment—

Flash!

Hanseong opened the eyes he had shut. A familiar ceiling. A familiar room. And a body still bound to its wheelchair. He had left the Mage's Tower and returned to the real world.