Tower Defense (5)
Floor 16. Here, above all else, this was still a game.
And every game had rules that had to be obeyed.
The rules of Tower Defense.
No matter how powerful the monster, it could never break free of those rules.
Not even Leviathan was an exception.
Rrrrummble—
The giant scales scraped along the wall of the maze as it advanced, slow and relentless.
The strange energy pouring out from the towers pressed down on the beast, keeping Kim Jun from straying beyond the path he had set.
That was why he had turned the fortress into a maze.
To make Leviathan take even longer, to force it to circle even farther.
So that the arrows from the Archer Tower, the shells from the Cannon Tower, and the radiance of the Magic Tower could rain down on its body as many times as possible.
Of course, one swing of Kim Jun’s sword was stronger than the entire tower arsenal combined.
But in this fight, what mattered was damage over time.
[Monster Information: Leviathan]
[Rank: S]
[Level: 60]
[HP: 100,000,000,000]
Ten billion.
That wasn’t a number you could shave down with a single blow.
No matter how small the damage, it had to pile up endlessly before it could finally make a crack.
Besides, Leviathan wasn’t a simple boss.
Its head, body, arms, legs, and tail.
Only after all five parts were separately targeted would its entire body finally enter a weak point state.
In the first run, I figured that out too late.
By the time he realized it, everything had already been too late.
He still remembered the destruction—how they had failed to break its parts properly, then been crushed beneath overwhelming power.
This time was different.
He had calculated everything.
Created this maze so they could land one more hit.
So they could buy even one more turn.
“Come on in.”
He lifted his head and stared at it.
Beyond the thousands of Lunarium Towers, a massive face had shoved itself through the barrier.
Blue eyes that looked as though they could swallow even light itself were slowly glaring down at the hunters as they drew near.
*
“Huuuu… Huuuuuu…”
His fingertips trembled.
His legs shook.
Even with Kim Jun, that hero, standing right beside him, the eye visible beyond the tower felt as if it were closing around a person’s throat.
And yet—
“Oh! This one’s gonna be pretty tough, huh?”
“Hey! If you’ve got any mana potions left, hand one over!”
“Call me big brother and maybe I will.”
“You wanna die?”
“You’re always cursing at me… sniff…”
Park Minsu and Ryu Jia were acting as if the word tension didn’t exist, teasing each other and laughing.
“I’ll heal you. Just hang on a little longer.”
Lee Seoyeon was holding the shoulders of hunters covered in dust, smiling serenely as she poured recovery magic into them.
Han Suin still held a blood-slick dagger in her hand, silently keeping her eyes fixed on the plaza.
And beside her, Kim Jun was raising his greatsword as well, waiting for the monster to enter.
What were those people, anyway?
Anyone else might have crumpled under Leviathan’s pressure, but on their faces there was only a strange kind of composure.
“I want that too. I want to…!”
Once fear seeped into you, it did not easily go away.
But fighting spirit could bury it.
He had watched Kim Jun’s feats hundreds, thousands of times.
And now the one he had admired all his life stood right in front of him.
He had to show it.
To the coming monster.
To Kim Jun.
That he was someone worth keeping around.
“Kwooooooo—!”
As the monster approached, he wanted to prove it.
Prove that he could be useful.
“Huu.”
His heart, which had been pounding nonstop, slowly sank into a cold stillness.
He drew a breath.
And then he stared at the reptilian bastard rushing toward him.
“Like I explained, go for the legs first.”
“Got it!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Ready~.”
“…”
He might not be on the same level as the S-class hunters of the Han Guild he had long admired, but now that the thing was right in front of him—
Dudududududu—!
He took one long, deep breath.
Then he met those eyes, larger than himself.
One punch. The clumsy fist he had thrown as a child for the very first time.
One hundred punches. The fists he had built one by one, refusing to give up even in despair.
One thousand punches. The fists he had hurled with his whole body, desperate to become stronger.
Ten thousand punches. The fists he had driven out through sleepless nights, longing to stand beside a hero.
And now, the one-millionth punch.
A punch meant to prove something.
All of those moments gathered into this one strike.
A martial artist.
A rare class with no advancement, no flashy skills.
It had surely been ignored by the Tower’s system.
Yet the one inheritance passed down from his father burned alive within that fist.
I’ll show you.
Choi Doheon’s fist blazed.
Martial Strike—Thread
────!
With an explosive boom, his fist smashed into Leviathan’s front leg.
The enormous mass staggered and reeled, and—
“Grrrooooooaaaar—!!”
Leviathan unleashed a thunderous roar and lost its balance.
Its stone-like leg bone cracked faintly, and the monster’s massive body lurched to one side.
[Monster Information: Leviathan]
[Rank: S]
[Level: 60]
[HP: 98,831,290,150]
“Now!”
At Kim Jun’s shout, everyone moved at once.
BOOM!
KWA-KWA-KWAAANG!
Ryu Jia’s Meteor came crashing down again, sending up pillars of fire.
“Tch…! I’m not letting this chance get away!”
Park Minsu charged in behind his shield and pinned the beast’s leg down.
Fwoooosh—!
At that moment, Lee Seoyeon’s light wrapped around his body, lightening the weight on him.
Swish-
Slash-
Fssshhshshsht—!
Han Suin’s shadow daggers slipped again and again into the cracks.
Crack—!
The bones in the front leg shattered, and a red alert window flared up.
-[damage] HP
[Part Destroyed: Leviathan’s right leg]
[Damage increased by 1.5x]
Kim Jun’s gaze flashed.
The instant the part collapsed and the weak point was exposed, he swung his greatsword without hesitation.
“Dragon Slash.”
KWAOOOOOOOO—!!
A storm of black-and-red flames burst from the blade, tearing along the broken leg and ripping all the way into the body’s core, burning it apart.
[HP: 79,023,101,400]
“Good, it’s working! Keep it up!”
“Can you stop talking in the middle of a fight, you muscle-bound lump?”
Under the relentless barrage, the monster lost its footing and staggered harder.
Then, amid the continuing bombardment, another alert window popped up.
-[damage] HP
[Part Destroyed: Leviathan’s left leg]
[Damage increased by 1.5x]
Its tail, now engulfed in flames, was torn away, and a howl that shook the plaza rang out.
[HP: 65,122,502,360]
[Part Destroyed: Leviathan’s tail]
[Damage increased by 1.5x]
“Gwoooaaaarrrr!!”
The blue glow in its eyes tried to swallow the land, but this time the hunters’ momentum was greater.
Leviathan lurched wildly, off balance and thrashing.
[HP: 41,831,233,340]
And into that opening came the unending chain of attacks.
Beep—!
-[damage] HP
[Part Destroyed: Leviathan’s body]
[Damage increased by 1.5x]
Beep—!
-[damage] HP
[Part Destroyed: Leviathan’s right arm]
[Damage increased by 1.5x]
Beep—!
-[damage] HP
[Part Destroyed: Leviathan’s left arm]
[Damage increased by 1.5x]
The monster’s body twisted further and further as it lost all balance.
And then.
Kim Jun raised his greatsword above his head.
“Ragna—”
The unique skill of Dragon Eater, the one that had crushed the Floor 11 boss, Lavia, with sheer damage.
His body still hadn’t fully recovered from the aftermath of berserk mode.
But a mere Floor 16 boss like this?
He drove the greatsword deep into the ground.
“—Explosion.”
Crack—!
Dudududududu—!!
BOOOOOOOOM—!!!
-[damage] HP
[Part Destroyed: Leviathan’s head]
[All parts have been destroyed! All damage taken increased by 20%!]
[HP: 89,020,110]
When Kim Jun swung his greatsword one last time, the remaining HP plummeted to zero in the blink of an eye.
Kuuuuung—!
The giant beast collapsed like a discarded shell, and the entire maze fell silent.
[HP: 0]
[Boss defeated!]
[Floor 16 first clear achieved!]
[Hidden clear achieved! Victory earned by destroying every part before killing the boss!]
[Hidden clear reward has been granted!]
“There it is.”
The hidden clear condition for Floor 16 was to destroy all of Leviathan’s parts before killing it.
And the reward was—
◈ You obtain one memory from your future self.
◈ However, you cannot obtain memories from after your future self has died.
“My future memories?”
“W-What is this?”
They barely had time to cheer before everyone’s expressions stiffened the moment they read the description in the status window.
“So if it says memories after death are unavailable…doesn’t that mean if there’s no answer when I ask about the Hundredth Floor, that means I’m dead?”
“Hmm…yeah. That’s accurate.”
“I suddenly don’t feel so good.”
Their faces had all gone hard, but only one person laughed heartily.
“Hahahaha! Nothing to worry about!”
Park Minsu slapped the backs of the gloomy hunters as he spoke.
“It’s obvious we’re all going to stay alive and climb all the way to the Hundredth Floor together!”
But the five newcomers—including Choi Doheon and Jo Minjae—couldn’t laugh so easily.
The thought that they might face an unwanted future weighed heavily on their shoulders.
In this run, can we really bring down that thing on the Hundredth Floor?
Kim Jun was just as curious, if not more so, than anyone else.
After all, he was the only one who had seen the monster on the Hundredth Floor and actually fought it.
For a moment his gaze wavered, but Kim Jun soon shook his head.
There was something else he wanted to know now.
[Skill: Diablo]
[Rank: EX]
[Effect: When an enemy of the demon type is reduced to 10% HP or lower, it can be placed into a “contract” state. A contracted demon becomes your servant permanently and obeys you absolutely. Damage dealt to demon-type monsters increases by 100%.]
[Limit: Up to 3 demons can be contracted at the same time]
[If the skill reaches EX rank through skill point investment, an additional skill can be obtained: ???]
[Passive Skill]
The skill he had obtained after his second awakening, one he had never even seen before his regression.
The vague line about additional skill acquisition possible had kept bothering him.
Of course, he was curious.
Whether this time around they had actually conquered the Hundredth Floor at last, or whether he had been crushed by that thing again.
...What I need right now isn’t knowledge of the future. It’s solid power.
But Kim Jun made his decision.
Even if his future self had failed, he would give it everything he had; and even if he had succeeded, he would still give it everything he had.
The process would not change. So was there any need to know the future at all?
Just as his resolve began to harden—
“L-Let’s stop being so gloomy! We cleared it, didn’t we?”
“Exactly! At a time like this, we should have a light beer or two. Though of course, the bill would be on big brother, right?”
Smirk—
As Park Minsu’s joke broke the tension, laughter spread from person to person.
He was right. More than worrying over what might come, this was a time to savor the relief of having survived the battle and the satisfaction of victory.
But Kim Jun’s thoughts soon returned to reality.
There’s a lot that needs handling.
First, the profit that far exceeded the coins he himself had used.
Honestly, there was no need to divide it up.
In this clear, most of them had only followed along.
Still, I should share it. So they can grow.
Compared with the five members of the Han Guild, the five newcomers’ contributions were clearly lacking.
But that was only by current standards.
…They have potential.
Especially Choi Doheon.
C-class, and only level 12.
Yet the single blow he had shown in this battle had the force to leap over that limit in one breath.
And then—
“Book of Incomplete Advancement.” It’s about time I handed that over.
Kim Jun’s eyes quietly swept over his companions one by one.
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