Tower of Death: Wisdom Floor (2)
Where exactly should we go? “Do we have to check each passage one by one?” “If we had more time, that would be possible. But checking every single one of these passages within the time limit seems impossible, doesn’t it?” “There must be something special here, like when we gathered earlier.” “I already looked around, but there doesn’t seem to be anything like that.” Various opinions bubbled up from every direction.
Yet nothing truly useful emerged. It looked like the only option was to check each passage one by one.
“Ssaem. What do you think about summoning all the monsters?” “Summoning them is easy enough, but there are so many passages here, right?”
Geum Bit-na-ra stepped forward. She scanned the surroundings carefully before speaking. “Let’s divide up into groups and check the entrance of each passage.” “The entrance? Those passages?”
“Yes. No matter how I think about it, checking inside each passage would take too much time. We don’t even know how long they are. There must be a hint at the entrance.” Her words carried real weight.
Investigating all nine hundred and ninety-nine passages to the end was impossible within the time limit.
Nor did any hidden paths outside the passages appear to exist.
So, just as Kim Pu-reum had said, checking the entrances of each passage would surely reveal a hint for the next floor.
“Then let’s each take our assigned sections and go.” “Understood.”
They began searching, each person allocated passages according to their abilities.
For me, since I could summon monsters and check many locations at once, I was assigned passages one through four hundred.
The others quickly walked around, each taking about a hundred passages and noting their unique features.
“Let’s see here.”
I surveyed the surroundings I needed to check, summoning a swarm of slimes.
Then I scattered them in all directions to begin investigating the entrances.
“All right, then I’ll check from one.”
I slowly approached passage one and examined the area near the entrance. There was nothing special.
It was just like any ordinary passage. No monsters, no traps, no devices of any kind.
“I wonder if there’s something inside.”
I couldn’t be sure about hidden devices inside, but passage one looked safe for now.
“I’d better move on to the next quickly.”
Each passage took about one minute to check.
I could only note the most obvious feature and move on at that speed.
And then I reached passage two.
“This one…”
It was just the entrance, but it looked impossible to enter.
I had no idea how it had become like this, but the entire entrance was filled with water that didn’t spill out—a strange place.
Plop.
When I reached my hand inside, it felt like my hand had entered the water.
“I can’t go in here.”
It looked impossible to enter.
If I wanted to drown, this would be the place to do it.
“I’ll just skip it.”
I moved on to passage three.
The moment I approached passage three, something sharp flew toward me.
Slash.
“What the—?”
It grazed my arm before I could even dodge.
And the moment it passed, a message appeared.
Poison Resistance
Neutralizes internal toxins.
“A poison needle?”
It seemed the thing that grazed my arm must have been coated in poison.
“This place is dangerous too.”
From then on, every entrance was the same.
Traps sprang out as if to kill anyone who came in.
While I was checking dozens of passages, I heard a shout from Geum Bit-na-ra’s group. “Everyone be careful! A monster appeared!”
A few level-fifty monsters.
They weren’t monsters I could face easily.
Geum Bit-na-ra immediately backed away and tried to observe the situation!
Flash!
Something flashed before my eyes, and the giant moths were instantly beheaded, losing their lives.
Thud, thud.
The dead moths fell to the floor, their heads and bodies separated, spraying out the fluids inside them.
“Whoa. What the heck was that?”
“What happened?”
People who had witnessed it with their own eyes still couldn’t believe it.
To them it looked like one giant moth had died, but I had seen it.
“He really is insane.”
The one who killed that giant moth was Kang Ha-seong, the rank-one.
The moment he heard about the moth appearing, he rushed over in an instant, killed it, and left.
Others couldn’t even see how fast he was, but I could barely make out the speed at which he moved.
But I couldn’t see the full picture.
Kang Ha-seong was so fast that even my eyes, with my high level, couldn’t track him.
“I’ve finished my section.”
“Huh? Already?”
“Yeah. What should we do now?”
“Ah. Could you tell me about the passages that were unusual?”
And Kang Ha-seong, who had already finished checking a hundred passages.
While I was barely managing to check a hundred with all those monsters, I should have assigned more to Kang Ha-seong instead.
“Passages four hundred and twenty-five and four hundred and twenty-seven had green lights…”
Kang Ha-seong told Kim Pu-reum what he had observed.
After reporting everything to Kim Pu-reum, he quickly moved on to check the remaining passages.
About two hours passed in total.
Most passages had now been checked.
Each person summarized the passages that were unusual or strange and reported them to Kim Pu-reum.
I also told Kim Pu-reum about the few most unusual passages I had found.
“Passage one looked like a completely ordinary passage with nothing in it, and passage two was filled with water and seemed impossible to move through. And…”
After hearing everyone’s stories, Kim Pu-reum.
She combined all the information, opened her book, and began muttering something.
Based on the information heard, draw the most appropriate conclusion.
Kim Pu-reum flipped through her book, combining the information we had discussed, and soon the conclusion appeared.
She closed the book with a thud.
“It seems to be this one.”
“Which one?”
“Passage one.”
“One? But there was nothing there.”
“Exactly.”
Passage one.
It was clearly the one I had seen first.
Unlike other passages marked with traps or monsters hiding, it had nothing.
Her claim that this passage was the way to the second floor, while the others were left behind, still didn’t sit right with me.
“I think passage three hundred is more likely. There were stairs there.”
Gong Jin-sa spoke up.
Others nodded at his words.
“Yeah. That might actually be the right answer.”
“I think so too.”
It was only natural. They were looking for the way to the second floor.
To reach the second floor, they had to go up.
So everyone would think passage three hundred with the stairs was the answer.
“Is there only one passage with stairs?”
“Ah… No. There was another one at six hundred and fifty-one…”
“According to the information I heard, there are five passages with stairs: three hundred, four hundred and fifty-one, six hundred and fifty-one, seven hundred and twenty-four, and nine hundred and seventy-six. Which one should we choose?”
“……”
Gong Jin-sa fell silent at Kim Pu-reum’s words.
If they had to go up the stairs, there were five passages to choose from.
Which one to pick was unclear.
Plus, they couldn’t be sure how long it would take to move between passages.
Checking all five might take too much time.
“Passage one is the only one that is completely unique among the passable paths. That means there is no duplicate route to the second floor, so it’s the closest to the correct answer.”
She was right.
There was only one way to the second floor.
That meant no duplicates.
So her logic was sound.
Everyone nodded at her logical conclusion.
“So we’re choosing passage one?”
“Yeah. I like it too.”
“I do too.”
Everyone nodded in agreement and began moving toward passage one.
There was still plenty of time left, but it was better to move quickly in case this wasn’t the right path.
Kang Ha-seong, the strongest fighter, took the lead just in case, while I brought up the rear to watch for anything behind us.
“Teacher. Is this the right path?”
“I don’t know. There’s been nothing so far, so maybe it is.”
“Do you think so?”
Thirty minutes had passed.
We had simply been walking forward along the predetermined path.
The more time went by without anything happening, the more uneasy we felt.
Was this really the right path?
Were we just wasting time?
These thoughts began to dominate my mind.
After an hour of walking, we should have reached some conclusion about whether this path was correct or not, but there was still no sign of it.
“Hey. Is this really the right path? It feels like something’s wrong.”
“……”
Kim Pu-reum gave no answer to my question.
“Hey?”
I called again, but still no response.
“What’s going on?”
Suddenly I felt something was off.
“Jin-hwan?”
“……”
I tried speaking to Jin-hwan walking ahead, but he didn’t answer.
“Jin-hwan! Hey! Everyone, stop for a second!”
“……”
I shouted, but the people kept walking forward, ignoring me.
“What’s happening? Everyone, stop!”
The moment I shouted strongly,
They all stopped.
At the same time, the people walking in front of me turned to look at me.
Whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk!
I saw them staring at me with unfocused eyes.
It started to feel like we had chosen the wrong path.