Tower of Death — The Floor of Wisdom (1)

"So this is the inside of the Tower of Death?"

"It's enormous."

The space was far larger than any of us had expected — a chamber so vast it scarcely felt like the interior of a tower at all. Seven people had been summoned into it.

"Oh my? Nice to see you. This is the first time we're meeting in the flesh, isn't it?"

A woman came toward me with a bright, familiar smile. Geum Bit-na-ra.

I had only ever seen her through slime-camera footage, on account of her abilities. Looking at her with my own eyes was a first. I had been doing everything I could to avoid meeting her in person for that same reason, but in here there was no getting around it.

"Yeah. Nice to see you too."

"Aren't you being a little stiff? After everything that's happened between us?"

"Well, we are meeting in person for the first time."

"Pfft."

Part of it was the awkwardness of seeing her face-to-face. The bigger part was her power — and that footage I had seen last time. After watching it, I had casually circled the subject back around to her, and she had claimed she knew nothing whatsoever. I could not trust her. Not even a little. If anything, she might be the one to make us fail this climb.

A lot to keep an eye on.

Gong Jin-sa, too — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he had supposedly severed every last tie with those people after finding his younger brother, but I could not put my full faith in him either. Keeping a wary distance from both of them, I started surveying our surroundings so we could get this tower underway.

Where is everyone else, though?

Besides Geum Bit-na-ra, myself, and Jin-hwan, there was no one else in sight. All seven of us were supposed to have been transferred. Having only three of us here was odd.

"Huh? Ssaem. There's a passage over this way."

"A passage?"

Jin-hwan had been looking around and found a corridor. It was not the only one.

"There's one here too."

"Over here as well."

"And here."

Five passages in total. There was no way to tell which one would lead us to the others.

Well. There is a method.

I had no idea which was the right answer, but did I really need to decide?

Five slimes dropped into existence. Through the unification skill bound to each of them, I brought up every screen at once.

"All right. To your positions."

The five slimes bounced off toward a passage each, then started inside.

Boing. Boing. Boing.

Slime Number One went in first. The instant it crossed the threshold, iron spears came screaming out of the walls.

Thuk! Thuk! Thuk! Crack!

The spears punched straight through the slime's body and shattered its core in a heartbeat.

"Not Passage One, then."

The slime bound for Passage Two made it a little farther before something came rolling from the far end.

A boulder?

A massive stone thundered down the corridor, burst the slime like a grape, and kept going.

"Not Two either?"

Three, Four, and Five were no different. Each slime got a few steps in before the traps announced themselves without fail. Water began to rise in Passage Three. Flames roared to life in Passage Four. Something unidentified and monstrous waited in Passage Five.

"Well, this is just great. There's nowhere we can actually go."

"Ssaem, which way are we supposed to take?"

Every passage in this place was a problem. Which meant we would have to pick one of the five and punch through the traps the hard way.

"I don't know either. Hah."

While we were still standing there, turning in circles over which way to go, cameras blinked into existence all around us.

"Huh? These are the same as last time, aren't they? The cameras that showed up during the vote."

"You're right."

Same as the vote, then — people on the outside would be watching us through a live feed. A little time passed after the cameras appeared. We still had not chosen a passage when letters of light assembled in the air before us.

"So even getting everyone in one place is part of the trial?"

It looked like we were in for a rough start. We had to decide which of these five passages would take us to wherever the others were waiting.

"So. What do we do now?"

Geum Bit-na-ra tied her hair back in a tight knot and came over to ask. As if I had some brilliant answer sitting in my pocket.

"Moving at all might be the problem, don't you think?"

"Because of the others moving too?"

"Right. We have no idea how this place is laid out."

If we were the only ones who could move, picking a direction and committing to it would have been the correct call. But as things stood, the three of us were together here, and we had no way of knowing whether the others were scattered one by one or already bunched up somewhere. Charge off blindly and we might make gathering even harder.

"We still can't just sit here, though, can we?"

"No. We can't."

If everyone else was thinking the same way we were and staying put, the odds of us ever meeting up would only get worse.

But which way do we even go?

Every passage was trapped. Telling the right direction from the wrong one was nearly impossible.

"Let's send monsters through one more time."

"I think that's a good idea."

"Yeah. You've got things stronger than slimes, don't you? Send those."

Five Green Mushrooms took shape. I sent the first one into Passage One.

Iron spears of the kind that had killed a slime were a different story against a monster of this caliber. The Green Mushroom shrugged them off and pressed in. Spears kept bursting from the walls along its path, but the thing had levels enough to tank them, and it pushed forward without breaking stride. A little farther in, the traps simply stopped appearing — as if this were the correct path after all.

"Ssaem, I think this might be the one."

"Let's send the others through first."

I left the first Green Mushroom to keep going and dispatched the rest down their own passages. Passage Two produced the same rolling boulder, which this time sealed the corridor completely. Three and Four were hopeless — water and fire had turned both into places no one could advance through. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Passage Five, though, was another matter. The monster waiting there did not seem stronger than a Green Mushroom. After a vicious fight, the mushroom won, then began to inch forward.

"So it's One or Five?"

"We're going to have to start moving soon, time-wise."

Those two were the only passages that looked even remotely traversable. Geum Bit-na-ra was right — the clock was bleeding out, and a decision had to be made. I settled on Passage One, where the Green Mushroom had gotten the farthest, and started walking toward it. That was when Jin-hwan, staring at a screen, shouted.

"Ssaem! Isn't that a monster up ahead?"

"What?"

He had spotted something appearing in front of the Green Mushroom.

"Wait. That's the Green Mushroom we sent down Passage Five."

The thing that had shown up in front of Passage One's mushroom was Passage Five's mushroom. Which meant that no matter how hard we pushed down Passage One, we would only end up right back here.

"So the answer is Two, Three, or Four?"

"No — those are built so you can't advance at all."

"Then where the hell is it?"

The only two paths that had looked viable — One and Five — were dead ends. Barely thirty minutes remained.

"Maybe waiting it out is the right call?"

"I don't think so."

"Then where are we supposed to go?"

There was no telling which way was forward.

Come to think of it, it was like this last time too.

I thought back to the dungeon where I had captured Medusa. We had opened every door we could see — and the easiest path of all had been a door we could not see.

Is it the same here?

The passages in front of us looked like the only places a person could walk. We had probably locked onto them so hard we had missed another way entirely.

"Forget those passages. Look for another path."

"Another path?"

"Yeah. I think there's a different way."

At my word, Geum Bit-na-ra and Jin-hwan started searching the chamber. I did the same, ignoring the existing corridors and scanning everything else.

Nothing looks unusual.

Aside from those five passages, the surroundings were featureless. We kept looking anyway, and then Geum Bit-na-ra tipped her head back and spoke.

"What about up there?"

"Hm? The ceiling?"

"There's a gap up there. Looks just wide enough for a person."

She was right. Near the ceiling of this very high floor, there was a fissure that looked just large enough for someone to slip through.

Is that really it?

It looked like nothing more than a crack — but a crack a person could pass through could still be a passage. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I pulled out the Harpy Fries.

"Here. Eat this."

"Whoa, so these are those insanely popular Harpy Fries? I've been dying to try them."

"Yeah. Eat them and you'll be able to fly. Let's get up there. You too, Jin-hwan."

"Yes, Ssaem."

Once we had all eaten, we took to the air and rose toward the gap. A passage was waiting there, leading somewhere else entirely. We followed it through — and came out into another vast hall.

"Huh? The others are over there!"

I looked where Jin-hwan was pointing. A group stood gathered in one place. Everyone except the three of us seemed to be there already.

"You finally made it."

The moment we appeared in that hall, the tutorial-clear message bloomed in the air. And with it, the main trial.

And then the passages revealed themselves, tearing open all around us.

RRRRUMBLE—!

"You've gotta be kidding me. How are we supposed to find it among this many?!"

"Does this even make sense?"

It was not one or two new corridors. It was nine hundred and ninety-nine. Of the 999 passages that had just come ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into being, only one led to the second floor.