The Wolf Who Ate the Sun

'A skill with very clear strengths and weaknesses.'

It was useful for a swordsman or tank who fought face to face, and garbage for an assassin or archer.

"Heh."

That was the perfect word to define this skill.

I did face enemies head-on more often than not, but ambushes were still an essential part of combat.

"Huh?"

That was when I noticed something strange about the skill.

It wasn't a passive skill.

In other words, I could switch it on and off at will.

'Well, that changes everything.'

Of course, turning it off mid-battle effectively telegraphed that I was setting up an ambush, but an ambush was out of the question against Oman anyway.

If so, a skill like this was the better deal.

'Let's head up to the fifth floor before the dust settles.'

If I lingered here, the same thing that happened on the second floor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would happen again.

I had no intention of letting myself get dragged into another nuisance.

"Yes."

With my answer, my vision went dark.

"Made it up."

The fifth floor was one of only two rest areas in the entire Tower of Trials, the other being the room we'd passed through when we first entered the Tower.

'The layout looks the same as it was before my regression.'

I was standing in the rest area's central plaza, with the training zone to the west, the lodging zone to the east, the commercial zone to the south, and the artisans' zone to the north.

'For now, let's rest.'

I wanted a proper night's sleep in a bed, not on a hard floor.

Driven by that single thought, I made a beeline for the lodging zone.

Once inside, I looked for a reasonably priced inn.

Plenty of lavish-looking establishments lined the streets, but I didn't bother stepping into any of them.

'A pointless waste of coins.'

Saving them beat spending them on a luxury room.

"Ten coins a night."

I handed the innkeeper ten coins, went up to my room, and dropped straight onto the bed.

"I'll think about everything else after I sleep."

Starting tomorrow, I would need every ounce of rest to go hunting for the hidden pieces scattered across this floor.

I closed my eyes and sank into sleep as if I'd lost consciousness.

"That's the last one."

A week after reaching the fifth floor, I had cleared a total of twenty hidden quests.

As a result, the sum of my Tower Coins had changed considerably.

I'd earned roughly seven thousand coins across the other floors, and accounting for what I'd spent on lodging and meals, that meant I had made another nine thousand in just a week.

'Still not enough, though, is it?'

Tower Coins had two uses.

The first was spending here on the fifth floor.

Everything on this floor could be bought with coins, and the more I had, the more comfortably I could live while I was here.

The second came when I cleared the Tower.

Upon clearing it, I could purchase additional rewards on top of the standard clear reward.

The prices ranged wildly, but having coins in reserve never hurt.

'The most expensive one was definitely thirty thousand coins.'

That was for a Red Door clear, of course.

If I kept climbing as I was, I'd walk away with close to thirty thousand, but my target was fifty thousand.

'Better safe than sorry.'

Whatever coins I had left over would have a use of their own later on.

'The hidden quests are all done, so I might as well go.'

Clearing the fourth floor's hidden quest had earned me a free-use voucher for the shops, and over the past week I'd decided exactly where to spend it.

But before that, there was something I had to take care of first.

'Something I need right now, in fact.'

I headed for the junk shop tucked into a corner of the commercial zone.

It was old and on the verge of falling apart, but there was something here that existed nowhere else.

"Anyone home?"

"Come on in, ye."

At the reply, I stepped into the dilapidated building.

Barely any merchandise was visible inside, and cobwebs draped nearly every surface.

"So then, what brings our guest calling?"

"Only by swallowing both the moon and the sun shall one become strong."

"...!"

At my words, the man's expression darkened sharply.

"If ye've come to jest with me, guest..."

"Isn't this the place? The place that sells the 'sun.'"

"What in the world are ye..."

"I want to hunt the 'moon.'"

The man made no reply at all to my answer.

After a long silence, he rose from his seat.

"Follow me."

With those words, he opened the door behind the counter.

The moment it opened, a thick, cloying killing intent washed over me.

"Ha."

An involuntary, hollow laugh escaped me at the sensation.

Yet the man walked through the doorway as if he were long used to it.

'Even dead, it still carries killing intent like this?'

I followed him slowly through the door.

A little farther in, a staircase leading downward appeared.

Then the man stopped and spoke.

"Ye'd best be careful from here on."

"Understood."

I could feel it too.

Up to this point it had been mere killing intent, but from the stairs onward, mana itself was churning.

"Hoo."

Taking a deep breath, I drove my mana outward and wrapped my body in a thin membrane.

"So ye've got some skill about ye, at least."

With that, the man began descending the stairs.

I set my foot inside the stairwell as well.

Perhaps because I hadn't been awakened for long, nothing about it felt particularly wrong.

Following the stairs down brought me to a room with a fireplace.

As I entered the room, my body went slightly sluggish.

The fact that the debuff was only this severe was about the best I could hope for.

"That there be the 'sun' ye were after."

Atop the fireplace sat a pulsing, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beating heart.

That was the last hidden piece I needed to obtain on the fifth floor.

'The divine relic sealed within the Tower.'

I had no idea who built the Tower, but I knew its purpose.

To seal away the thing before my eyes.

As a byproduct of that process, the training function must have been added along the way.

"The heart of Skǫll."

"Ho... ye know the true name of the sun as well?"

Sköll, the wolf that swallowed the sun.

A child of Fenrir from Norse mythology.

The heart before me was Sköll's.

"So. Will ye undertake the trial?"

"I will."

With my answer, a black gate materialized before me.

'Black, huh...'

I shook off the stray thoughts and stepped through the gate.

Inside stretched a dense, deep forest.

'This place is...'

"The Forest of Steel."

Even as the thought formed, a voice answered from somewhere nearby.

"Another human come to face my trial?"

"Sköll..."

"Aye. I am the wolf who swallowed the sun, Sköll."

Before my eyes appeared a wolf covered in jet-black fur.

Its eyes and the tips of its tail were stained crimson, lending it an air of mystery.

"You're Sköll?"

"Aye. I am Sköll."

It was an odd feeling, hearing a wolf speak human words.

"If ye intend to seek out other divine beasts as well, ye'd best grow accustomed to it."

I said nothing, simply watching Sköll.

"Coming here means ye wish to take my test, and..."

I swallowed hard as I met its gaze.

Sköll's eyes seemed to see straight through me.

"State thy true purpose."

"Then I'll be honest."

After a deep breath, I opened my mouth again.

"Give me your essence."

With my words, the air around us pressed down, heavy and suffocating.

Then an overwhelming killing intent began pouring out of Sköll.

"You ask for my essence?"

The essence.

It was one of the two hearts a divine beast possessed.

If the original heart sustained life, the essence was a heart for storing power.

'I need to obtain the divine beasts' essences.'

For the plans ahead, I needed to acquire five of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them at minimum.

"Ha. You're the first human I've ever seen with gall this thick."

To a divine beast, asking for its essence was the same as asking it to surrender its very rank and dignity.

"I will find Hati for you."

"What did you say?"

In an instant, the weight of the killing intent bearing down on me grew.

"I said I would find Hati for you."

"Can ye take responsibility for those words?"

Hati, the wolf that swallows the moon.

Sköll's younger sister, and the boss monster I had to hunt.

'An imitation, though it may be.'

In fifteen hours, an eclipse would occur within the Tower, and an imitation of Hati would appear.

Hunting it would yield a map, of sorts, that led to Hati's sanctuary.

"I will prove it."

Enduring the killing intent raking over me, I forced my mouth to move.

"In a few hours, an imitation of Hati will appear. Hunt it, and you'll obtain a kind of map that leads to Hati."

As I finished speaking, the killing intent crushing down on me eased.

"If that tongue of thine speaks false, ye will pay the price."

As soon as I confirmed the quest, my tension drained away.

Having accepted the quest was as good as having already cleared it.

"Prove it, then, ye must."

With those words, Sköll vanished without a trace.

The moment it disappeared, an identical gate to the one I'd entered through formed behind me.

'Not much time left before Hati appears.'

There was something I had to do before then.

Something I had to acquire with the shop voucher I'd earned on the fourth floor.

The item that was absolutely essential to hunting Hati.

'Let's head back first.'

Stepping out through the gate, I found the junk shop's owner waiting for me.

"Well? Did ye see the trial through?"

"No."

"Figured as much."

The man scoffed and headed back up the stairs, and I followed behind him.

Once I left the junk shop, I hurried toward that other shop.