152. The Tower Changed (2)
Dealing with the souls was not difficult.
Explosive Dragon Art, Secret Technique - Transformation (Rage).
Fwoosh, fwooosh!
It was thanks to the Explosive Dragon steadily building up damage stacks.
But that did not mean it was completely easy, either.
—My lord!
Kwa-gagagagak!
HunGyo shouted as he used the Heaven-Breaking Divine Art secret technique, World-Destroying.
—These souls are far stronger than expected! Even when I cut and cut them apart, they will not die!
"I know. I can feel it too."
If they were merely souls from the 53rd floor, the current HunGyo should have been able to handle them easily.
But?
Once ten souls clung to him, even HunGyo was gradually being pushed back.
"They seem about ten times stronger than before, roughly speaking."
—That much...?.
"Yeah. Honestly, I'm even wondering how Rachel managed to endure this far."
He said "ten times" easily, but the meaning was anything but light.
The difficulty of the Tower of Trials, already considered hell-level, was multiplied by ten?
Even Baek Jinwoo was not confident.
When enemies get stronger one by one, you can somehow try to deal with it, but when everything gets stronger, it becomes exponentially harder.
'Still.'
The current Baek Jinwoo was fine.
Eight EX-grade summons, and full endgame runes!
"Jaggeo, Dampir."
—Yeah.
—Gwoooaaaar!
Thud, thuuud!
Jaggeo firmly planted both legs and blocked the souls with his whole body.
Perched on his shoulders, Dampir sucked away Jaggeo's MP bit by bit, then restored his HP.
With that sturdy wall holding firm, the damage dealers' roles became even clearer.
The Explosive Dragon began accumulating Explosive Dragon Wave once again.
Kugagagagagak!
HunGyo and Aso, equipped with Trinity, flew across the sky.
Keheong.....!
Meanwhile, White Tiger approached and nodded his head.
He was expressing gratitude.
Thanking him for saving his master, Rachel.
While blocking the endlessly flying in souls, Baek Jinwoo checked Rachel's condition.
When he felt her pulse, fortunately, her heart was beating.
She was breathing fine too.
"She's just sleeping because she's too tired. Don't worry."
Baek Jinwoo muttered.
Seeing her sleeping soundly, breathing softly even in this noisy chaos, she must have been exhausted beyond measure.
'I'll ask about that later.'
For now.
Let's deal with those damned souls first.
* * *
Had around five hours passed?
By now, plenty of Lamba stacks had built up, so all the summons had become monstrous.
They attacked at speeds that were nearly impossible to see.
- Kyaaaak..!
With a final scream, the last soul vanished.
—My lord, we have dealt with them all.
With HunGyo's report, the once-deafening battlefield fell silent.
53rd floor clear!
Normally, that message should have appeared.
But it was still the same.
There was no separate reward, either.
"This is giving me a headache."
What was the intention here?
Was it some kind of bug?
"You all did well. Rest for a bit. Lamba, stop swinging now too. That's enough."
—Hek, hekhek, heeeek! Got it!
Lamba was drenched in sweat.
Poor thing.
Thinking the 51st floor would end quickly, he had not brought any cream bread.
He had also been wearing filming equipment.
'What a shame.'
After finishing the cleanup, Baek Jinwoo dropped down heavily to the ground.
As he waited for the sleeping Rachel to wake up, he sank into thought.
Anxiety rose within him too.
What if even defeating the boss on the 60th floor would not let them get out?
Then would they have to stay put and wait until humanity advanced enough to enter the 51st floor?
What worried him the most was none other than Yoo Jia.
'I promised I'd go back quickly.'
It felt like he might be forcibly prevented from keeping that promise.
'Up to the 57th floor, maybe.'
But from the 58th floor onward, it was truly a nightmare difficulty.
That was the scene where you had to lift all the demonic curses placed across the continent and then personally cross into the Demon Realm to deal with Asmodeus.
And that was the Demon Realm, now ten times stronger.
'Terrifying.'
Just imagining fighting against the countless demons and demonic beasts swarming at him already made him nauseous.
If it were not for the Explosive Dragon's True Devour, even Baek Jinwoo would have clicked his tongue and said there was no answer.
* * *
Rachel woke only after everything had been settled and another seven hours had passed.
"Mm."
Opening her eyes with a hoarse voice, she blinked for a moment....
"...!"
Then, realizing the situation, she jolted upright in shock.
"Wh-What?!"
Her voice was full of surprise and confusion.
Naturally so.
"You can sleep a little more."
Baek Jinwoo replied in short English.
He wished he had brought the Interpreter Bird. That was a little regrettable.
"What happened? Is this real? Is it really God Ji-nu?"
"Hoo, that damned God Ji-nu again."
Smack!
Baek Jinwoo placed his palm on his forehead and shook his head.
"Olivia asked me. She said you weren't coming back, and told me to go into the 51st floor for just a bit."
He slowly explained the overall situation.
Starting from the part where the 51st floor had already been cleared when he entered... and continuing through the entire process of flying all the way here to the 53rd floor area.
He even used body language to help her understand.
Fortunately, Rachel understood Korean to some extent.
To begin with, as a fan of Baek Jinwoo, she had studied Korean little by little and had fallen completely in love with its charm.
It did not take Rachel long to calm down.
"Ahem, so."
Rachel cleared her throat as she spoke.
"So from the 51st floor onward, it seems like the Tower of Trials is all connected? And the difficulty has gone up too, in a way that makes it something many players have to gather and clear together instead of clearing alone."
"Judging by everything so far, yeah."
"...Still, for someone like you, isn't this kind of difficulty easy?"
Rachel thought of Baek Jinwoo as a god.
To the point that she believed there was no dungeon in this world he could not clear.
"Easy to say. What if from the 61st floor onward it becomes 100 times harder?"
"...Could that happen?"
"Right now, we shouldn't be certain of anything."
Baek Jinwoo had been the same.
Maybe he had vaguely assumed that this world would unfold exactly like 「Battle of Summoners」.
How arrogant that thought had been!
Humanity still had not grasped even 1% of the cause behind this phenomenon.
They were merely accepting the situation, adapting, and living on.
"For now, food?"
With a light sigh, Baek Jinwoo opened a small backpack.
When players go to the Tower of Trials, they can bring equipment or items touching their body with them.
It worked by the same logic that allowed filming equipment to be taken in.
That was why he had packed a little emergency food in the backpack, such as drinking water and chocolate bars.
Just in case.
Thud!
He took out a 500ml bottle of water and an energy bar and handed them to Rachel, and her gaze changed instantly.
Gulp, gulp!
She drained the water in one go.
Munch, munch.
Then she devoured the energy bar just as quickly, like a starving person.
She must have been very hungry.
Well, of course.
She had been trapped in the Tower all that time, so the surprising thing was that she had endured until now.
'Ha.'
But if things were like this, then Baek Jinwoo had a problem too.
Because what he had brought was, quite literally, only enough for an "emergency".
"First of all."
In Baek Jinwoo's memory, the 54th floor began in a single kingdom.
Lumentia.
Was it a holy kingdom that served the Goddess of Light?
It was the only small nation still holding out on the continent that had been consumed by Asmodeus' curse.
From there, they were supposed to establish a foothold and begin purifying the continent....
'The problem is.'
He did not know where that kingdom was.
In the old game, the moment you entered the 54th floor, you simply started from that kingdom.
"Eat slowly. I'll look for some clues."
Baek Jinwoo called for HunGyo.
This place was the graveyard of warriors.
"Search every inch of this place. And if you find any paper that looks like a map, bring every last one of them to me."
It seemed they first needed to figure out where exactly they had fallen.
* * *
Rachel felt relieved.
She had endured alone for nearly fifty days.
'Honestly.'
She had not known that simply being with someone else could make her feel this much at ease.
But once her mind cleared....
Her body began to feel uncomfortable.
It had already been almost two months since she had washed.
Her clothes smelled, and her hair was matted together.
'Now.'
She had to admit it.
After talking enough with Baek Jinwoo, she reached a conclusion.
They were not clearing a dungeon.
They had to survive inside this place.
They had to solve the food problem and come up with a way to rest comfortably.
'Fortunately.'
Along with emergency rations, she had also brought a change of clothes.
They were even functional combat clothes well suited for use in a dungeon.
Now she would have to conserve those two sets by alternating between them.
"Baek Jinwoo."
"Yeah?"
"Leave the washing to me. I can use Archmage, so tell me anytime you need it."
As time had passed, her MP had completely recovered.
She took Archmage with her and moved to a nearby thicket.
She quickly stripped off her clothes and cast a spell.
Great Wizard, 1 Circle - Aqua Cleanse.
This was what made an S-grade Archmage so good.
As long as it knew all existing magic, it could use them appropriately.
Shhhhh!
"Haaah."
Rachel let out a pleased sigh.
The flowing stream of clear water washed every corner of her body and even cleaned her filthy clothes.
'...So refreshing!'
The magic-infused water automatically removed contamination and easily separated out anything unnecessary.
A refreshing sensation spread through her whole body, as if all the old fatigue had been washed away.
Drying the wet clothes was not difficult either.
There was no need to use Archmage.
She could just ask the sitting Explosive Dragon.
"Could you dry my clothes for me?"
—Something like that is simple, Lady Rachel.
Fwoosh!
Explosive Dragon Art, Transformation (Protection).
By now, the Explosive Dragon's control over flames had reached its peak, and adjusting the temperature was effortless.
By the time the sky began to darken.
—My lord.
HunGyo approached from afar.
—I found it.
"Oh, really?"
What HunGyo handed over was a continental map.
It was covered in dust, but its condition was still quite usable.
—It seems one of the warrior commanders had it. We found several, but I brought the one in the best condition.
"You did well."
Baek Jinwoo spread it out on the ground.
HunGyo continued his explanation.
—My guess is that we are here, on the southeastern frontier of the continent.
"Really?"
—Yes. You can tell by looking at the surrounding terrain. This plateau here and the shape of that mountain range over there are exactly the same.
"Oh."
It was definitely just as HunGyo said.
A rather uniquely shaped mountain range was drawn exactly on the map.
Since last time, this guy HunGyo...
"He's Detective Conan or something."
—What does that mean, my lord?
"Never mind. Go on."
—Mm, the place we need to go is the Holy Kingdom of Lumentia... Here, in the northwest, there is a sacred emblem drawn that stands out immediately.
"Ah, there. Right."
Baek Jinwoo nodded.
He remembered.
It was the symbol he had seen countless times on the 54th floor!
"Then the best option is to move in a straight line from the southeast to the northwest?"
—Yes. We only need to pass one river and one mountainous region. As for how far it is... There is no scale on the map, so we can only estimate, but it looks like it will take quite some time.
"Well, we're going... we can ride there this time."
Nodding, Baek Jinwoo folded up the map and put it away.
For now, since it was getting dark....
"Let's leave when the sun rises again."