Through Ordeal, We Ascend
— The seventh floor isn't just some ordinary magic tower.
— The system made a point of calling it the Blue Magic Tower the moment you entered, didn't it?
— That means it has features to match the name.
Gazing at the blue-covered book, Do-yun was still turning Jeong Se-ah's words over in his mind when a door slammed open behind him. He spun around.
"You found it!"
That same piercing flow of mana — the procedure that had seemed designed to verify identity. Lily had felt it too. Barely a minute after Do-yun discovered the hidden piece, she kicked the door in and burst through.
"Hah… hah."
She caught her breath in ragged gasps, her expression a strange mix of delight and regret. Finding the hidden piece was good news, of course — but she had clearly hoped it would take him a little longer.
Her fingers idly traced the length of her staff. Then the usual sly smile slid back into place as she looked at Do-yun.
"Shall we check the rewards together?"
Did she think she still lacked the power to turn on him? At the very least, she didn't seem ready to betray him right this second.
"You go in first."
Even so, Do-yun refused to let his guard down. You never turned your back on someone you couldn't trust. He gestured for Lily to take the lead into the passage beyond the bookshelf.
If there's a trap waiting, she'll be the one to spring it. Two birds with one stone.
He tipped his sword just enough to make the invitation sound less like a suggestion and more like a threat.
"Fine by me."
Lily stepped inside without hesitation. Do-yun followed at a measured distance.
From here on, it's uncharted territory.
Even Jeong Se-ah and the countless other returnees had never set foot in this place. Do-yun wound his nerves tight against whatever might be waiting.
"The rewards are right here."
All that tension proved almost unnecessary. They hadn't gone far before the prizes came into view.
Three objects lay on the desk. A withered staff of material much like the one Lily carried. A stone that gave off a soft blue glow. And an old book whose cover had blackened with age.
Why isn't the system flagging that one?
Do-yun tilted his head at the last item. The other two had thrown up notification windows the instant they entered his field of view, but the book offered nothing special at all.
"Would it be all right if I took this?"
Lily's manner, though, made it clear she prized the book above everything else. She barely glanced at the other objects; her eyes never left the volume.
"What is it?"
"The Tower Master's diary."
She stroked the cover with almost reverent care, as if handling the keepsake of the dead — which, in all likelihood, it was.
Is there some ancient spell written inside?
That didn't make sense either. Anything of real value was treated as an item by the system. If the diary held anything important, the window would have read something like:
S-Rank
Which means the only hidden haul in here is two F-rank items.
Do-yun looked down and frowned. No matter how he sliced it, the rewards felt painfully thin. He wasn't expecting something on the level of Sun Swordsmanship — SS-rank was a fantasy. But for a secret chamber that required special conditions just to enter, was this really all?
No way.
There had to be something more buried here. The moment Lily reached to open the diary's cover, Do-yun leveled his sword at her.
"Don't move."
Until now she had obeyed without complaint. This time she ignored him completely and kept turning the pages.
…Damn it.
That was when Do-yun realized the situation had shifted. He didn't bother with a second warning — he brought the sword down at once.
CLANG!
Sparks flared as the blade stopped dead in midair. A blue wall had materialized between them.
Lily uses Shield (F)
The same spell she had used when he first ambushed her. Back then it had been nearly useless. This time the mana barrier did its job perfectly.
Bash (F)
White light gathered along Do-yun's raised blade. He drove it down hard.
BOOOOM!
The strike thundered against the shield and shook the whole barrier — but not a single crack appeared on the blue wall.
"What the hell…"
Do-yun muttered at the untouched shield. A Shield spell's defense scaled with how much mana you poured into it at creation. Surviving Bash without a scratch meant Lily had dumped every scrap of mana she had into that wall.
"What do you think you're doing?"
He glared through the blue barrier at Lily. Once the shield broke, she would have nothing left to fight with — yet she went on reading with perfect calm.
SKREEE.
Do-yun kept swinging. Sparks burst with every blow, and still Lily's concentration never wavered. That composure only made him more restless.
CRACK.
The shield finally reached its limit and began to scream — and in that same moment, Lily finished the diary and closed it.
"Master is testing me yet again."
She shut her eyes and murmured the words under her breath. The shield was nearly gone, but there was not a trace of urgency in her bearing. She simply recited a sentence that sounded almost like an incantation.
"At the end of our ordeal, we shall set foot upon the path of ascension."
It wasn't a skill. He felt no flow of mana from her at all. The change was happening in the room itself.
HMMMmmmm.
Crimson magic circles bloomed across every wall. Those blood-red arrays were ones Do-yun remembered all too well.
The circles from the basement!
The power they radiated gathered toward Lily at the center. Do-yun raised his sword to stop the blatantly suspicious ritual — then saw the surge of mana erupting from beneath her feet and hastily crossed his arms.
KRAAAAASH!
A storm of force hurled him into the air. Notifications of plunging HP flashed as his body skipped several meters across the floor and rolled to a stop.
"Son of a—"
Caked in dust, Do-yun wiped his mouth and spat a curse. He had been sure she had burned through all her mana on the shield. Apparently the magic circles floating around her were feeding her power now.
So the diary had the keyword that activates those circles?
That would explain why the journal never registered as an item. A keyword by itself had no function at all.
I screwed up.
He should never have let her touch the diary in the first place.
WHOOOOM.
Lily, continuously supplied with mana by the surrounding arrays, radiated a pressure that set his teeth on edge — a presence that rivaled Grham when he had used the Rune of Glory. Even if Do-yun emptied every trick he had, winning was far from certain.
But I don't actually have to fight her, do I?
The goal of the seventh floor wasn't wiping out every other challenger. It was claiming the Clear Crystal.
He snatched up the battered staff and the Ice Crystal that the shockwave had sent rolling nearby, then sprinted for the exit without looking back.
That power can't be permanent.
From the look of it, the magic circles saturating the tower were the source. Once she left this place, she wouldn't be able to throw around strength like this on other floors.
THUD.
Fortunately, Lily made no move to chase him. She seemed wholly focused on absorbing the circles' energy.
I race for the Clear Crystal while she's still gathering power!
It was a contest of timing — whether Lily finished consolidating her strength first, or Do-yun escaped the seventh floor first.
Bursting out of the Tower Master's chambers, he found himself back in the white corridor he had first encountered.
HUMMMM.
Strictly speaking, it was no longer white. Blood-red magic circles floated everywhere.
"Nyaha, what's this now?"
"This damn tower never runs out of bullshit variables."
"Hey — temporary truce!"
And Do-yun was no longer alone in the corridor. While he had been hunting the Tower Master's room, several other challengers had reached the top floor.
No time to deal with them.
A few pointed and shouted as he came flying out of the chamber. Do-yun said nothing and simply activated a skill.
Bash (F)
Not for an attack this time. Just as he had on the sixth floor, he poured Bash into his feet. He hopped lightly, then slammed a kick into the wall.
The explosion launched him forward like a bullet.
WHOOSH.
Faces blurred past in a stream. His target was the Clear Crystal at the far end of the corridor. At this pace he would reach it —
"Where do you think you're going?"
A whisper brushed his ear, and every hair on Do-yun's neck stood on end. Without thinking, he triggered a skill toward the figure flashing into view.
Shadow Step (F)
His hurtling body jerked to a sudden stop and reappeared in the shadow of a nearby doorway.
SHRAAAK!
Kaya's claws tore through the space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier. She licked her lips and eyed him with bright interest.
"What was that? Teleportation?"
Do-yun didn't answer. He raised his sword.
Filthy fast.
He had poured everything he had into that burst of speed, and she had still caught up as if she were taking a stroll. Shaking her off and slipping past was looking impossible.
"Hey, buddy — trying to ditch us already? That's no fun."
The other challengers finally caught up to the situation. A mountain of a man standing in Do-yun's path grinned and swung an axe as oversized as he was.
Mandel uses Enlarge (F)
The axe kept growing even as it flew. By the time it reached Do-yun's face it filled the entire corridor.
WHOOOOM.
Do-yun kicked off and slipped past the blow, but the axe didn't vanish — it stayed right where it was. He scowled at the massive obstacle now blocking the hall.
"Are you blind? Look around you!"
Ominous magic circles were blooming everywhere. Anyone with eyes could see something catastrophic was about to hit — why stand around waiting for it?
"Sorry, but I have more fun tripping people up."
The giant of a man pulled out a fresh axe and grinned wide. Looking at that smile, Do-yun thought,
This guy's a lunatic.
Fortunately, not everyone made such unhinged choices. Some cared more about their own clear times than sabotaging others. But the moment those runners coiled to sprint down the corridor—
KRA-KOOM-BOOOOM!
A colossal torrent of energy swept the hallway from end to end. The floor shook. Sand and dust sifted from the cracked ceiling. Challengers caught in the path vanished into the light, their forms erased from sight.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Do-yun, who had barely pressed himself to the wall and escaped the blast zone, spat another curse. He knew that attack pattern far too well.
"Hahah! More of an audience than I expected!"
A bright, ringing voice filled his ears. A girl with twin-tails and oversized goggles perched on her head waved a wrench and beamed.
"Introducing — the destruction machine reborn through the engineering of Angelina's Workshop!"
The instant he saw the thing carrying her on its shoulder, Do-yun knew his worst suspicion had come true.
"Destroyer MK-2!"
The machine he had been certain he'd smashed into scrap was moving again, every step a heavy, grinding thud.