#1
An eerie cave.
The smell of damp, a nose-stinging stench, sticky droppings smeared here and there.
The drone flew past, filming it all.
It created a chilling atmosphere, like the opening of a movie.
Taking it all in as he went, Hwanung peered deeper into the cave.
A troll, was it?
Jina kept chattering about trolls.
She showed off her knowledge at every turn, explaining how to kill one with ease.
“Dame Eyas, we need to roast the troll with fire magic, so just give me an opening. Attacking its joints should do it.”
“Very well.”
“I need to prove myself if I want Master to value me. Isn’t that right, Master?”
“I’ll value you either way, so don’t worry.”
The mood was warm and friendly.
Hwanung had realized that raising summons capable of growth was faster than gathering ten R-rank summons.
If Jina’s growth conditions became available, he was willing to give her his wholehearted support, too.
“He’s someone we can count on, isn’t he?”
“Of course. My lord is the only one who puts his faith in us.”
While the two women chatted, Lucas raised his hand at the head of the group.
One hand up, clenched into a fist: the signal to halt.
The chatter stopped the instant he signaled.
“There’s a troll up ahead.”
They heard a growl.
Its enormous bulk, skin covered in boils, and knobby club made for an intimidating sight.
One look was enough to tell that ordinary attacks would barely scratch it.
Hwanung thought back to his days as a Sherpa.
‘I don’t have much experience with Sobaeksan-grade towers myself. But… I know the basics of a troll’s attack patterns.’
Besides its weakness to fire magic, he recalled how it attacked.
Simple but devastating attacks.
Excellent physical defense and health regeneration.
Swing, smash, body slam, crush.
Four main patterns, any one of which could deal enough damage to kill instantly.
That was a troll.
Fortunately, Hwanung knew every one of those patterns.
“I’m calling the shots from here. Listen carefully and follow my orders.”
“Understood, Master.”
Fwoosh!
A ball of flame formed at the tip of Jina’s staff.
Fire magic was her specialty.
An element that worked well against trolls.
What about Hwanung’s spirit?
That was his trump card.
Of course he would save it.
“Trolls are vulnerable to the opening strike. Jina, attack!”
“Go!”
[Fireball – Third Circle]
[Launches a fireball at the designated target.]
[The fireball explodes, damaging the target and dealing 70% damage to the surrounding area.]
[A direct hit inflicts ‘Status Effect: Burn.’]
[GRAAAARGH!?]
KABOOM!
The dark cave lit up in an instant.
Lucas sprang forward at the same time.
Today, his role was to tank, keeping the troll’s attention on him.
Whirring, the drone began capturing the action in dynamic shots, and Hwanung’s orders followed.
He directed Lucas so he could avoid every attack.
“Get in close to its shoulder! It’s swinging sideways!”
Whoooosh!
The enormous club passed over Lucas’s head with a sound like the air being torn apart.
Lucas kept targeting the troll’s joints, making a constant nuisance of himself.
Meanwhile, Eyas ran along the wall to get behind it.
“It’s going to slam into you. Fall back!”
“GRAAAAAH!”
The troll roared and spread its arms wide.
It was so huge that there was no room to dodge to either side.
Lucas leaped backward, and just then, Eyas reached the troll’s rear.
[Wind Blade]
Her newly strengthened Wind Blade swept over the troll like a storm.
Blades of wind flew from her gracefully swinging sword, slashing it all over.
“GUAAAAARGH!?”
Momentarily incapacitated, the troll slumped to the floor.
Hwanung seized the opening.
“Now! Fire!”
“O spear of flame, pierce my enemy!”
[Fire Spear – Third Circle]
[A spear of flame pierces an enemy and explodes.]
[The first target struck directly suffers ‘Status Effect: Burn.’]
[Damage increases in proportion to the Mana stat.]
Jina, who had been chanting all this time, unleashed her third-circle spell.
The spear of flame streaked in a straight line through the troll’s head.
KABOOOOM!
The third-circle spell blew its head clean off.
The Stage 1 troll melted so quickly it hardly deserved to be called a boss.
The moment its life was extinguished, the tower’s announcement rang out.
[The Stage 1 boss has died.]
[Avatar No. 19930211 – 30 points]
[…]
[Stage 2 begins in five minutes.]
“Oh.”
In the Farming Tower, the first team to reach a hundred points, or the team with the highest score, won.
Hwanung was off to a pleasant lead.
Jina’s guidance had played a crucial part in that.
He decided to see what happened in Stage 2.
Between this and last time, something had begun to nag at him.
And so Stage 2 began.
#2
Stage 2.
This time, they were transported to rocky terrain riddled with sheer cliffs.
The moment Jina saw it, she spoke.
“Oh… This is near the Mani Mine, isn’t it?”
Sure enough, there had to be something to this.
Hwanung asked her to guide them again.
“You know this place well, too? You can show us where everything is?”
“Of course! Just put your trust in the great Jina and follow me.”
She declared it confidently, then proved her words.
This time, Hwanung succeeded in killing the [Weakened Wyvern] in the mine.
By then, he had eight R-rank summons, excluding Jina and the spirit.
[Avatar No. 19930211 – 60 points]
[Proceeding to the final stage.]
[The final stage’s boss is worth 60 points.]
[Don’t miss your chance to turn the tables.]
The tower kept them on edge right to the end.
How did the others in the session feel?
Were they despairing, or burning with competitive spirit?
The old Hwanung wouldn’t have thought anything of it.
But great power always came at a price.
He could hardly complain if the other Climbers banded together against him.
His results were that overwhelming.
‘Let’s finish this quickly.’
He had come to this tower to get footage, not to compete.
He decided to finish so decisively that they wouldn’t even have time to think.
Stage 3 began deep inside a dense forest.
Everyone nearby turned to stare at him, whether they had survived this far or were busy running their farming sweatshops.
Their gazes were full of sentiments like these.
‘Who do you think you are, hogging everything?’
‘Couldn’t you take a little longer? Why kill them so fast?’
‘Lucky bastard.’
‘Carried by his avatar.’
‘Broken character.’
It was clear those looks held far more resentment and jealousy than simple envy.
Especially from people who had made it this far.
Whether they could climb any higher was usually determined by their avatar’s stats.
Hwanung took their stares in stride.
He must have looked at someone that way himself once.
He had no time to let those looks sway his mood.
As long as he had the ability to move forward, he should keep running without looking back.
“Where are we?”
“Here? Hmm… This is the forest near the [Mage Tower]. The place I know best.”
“The forest near the Mage Tower?”
“Yes. Though I still won’t be able to tell you the details.”
With a bitter smile, Jina gazed at the tower rising in the distance.
Watching her from behind, Hwanung became certain.
‘Just as I thought. There must be a close connection between the towers’ settings and the summons.’
They all came from different backgrounds and had different experiences.
If they had truly been summoned as avatars, they would have lives they had lived, just as Hwanung did.
The only difference was whether those lives had been in reality or the world inside the towers.
The fun of discovering his summons’ stories.
The satisfaction of helping them grow further because of it.
For now, that was all he needed to pursue.
What was Jina’s story? What circumstances lay behind it?
Swallowing his curiosity, Hwanung spoke.
“Where do you think the boss will be this time?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
She raised a hand and pointed at the distant tower.
The Mage Tower.
A place Jina, the Archmage’s Apprentice, knew well.
What story was tied to it?
“I’m counting on you again.”
“All right. Leave it to me.”
“Let’s finish up and go home.”
“Okay~.”
Jina took the lead.
Oh, and—
“That makes ten. Evolve.”
Another R-rank summon appeared as well.
That brought the number he had gathered to nine.
[R-rank: Longbowman has been summoned.]
Right now, generic summons were far more useful to him than named ones.
With their new addition, they headed toward the Mage Tower.
Of course, there were also people following them in secret.
Wherever you went, there were always people brimming with malice.
“That’s Lord 93, right?”
“Yeah. Is he streaming?”
“Don’t think so. Looks like he’s just recording.”
“Then we’d better make an appearance, huh?”
“Let’s give him some real content.”
It was [Death Valley], the Climbing Club that turned up everywhere, in every tower.
They were always demanding attention.
Attention whores, as people called them.
They moved in secret.
And this time, they were lucky.
Other Death Valley crews had been placed in the same session, allowing them all to pursue a single target.
A summoner?
So what? All they had to do was kill every summon.
They gathered in one place.
“Everyone here?”
“Ooh, what are we doing for fun today?”
“Lord 93’s here. Let’s go say hello and liven things up for him.”
“Heh heh, sounds good. We just need to find the biggest group, right?”
Everyone nodded.
Their target was the largest group.
They were going to get in Lord 93 Hwanung’s way.
The enormous group set out.
#3
<You are the genius who will succeed me, Jina.>
Someone had once said that.
Someone whose face she could no longer remember, for some reason.
Looking up at the enormous tower made her head ache.
A gentle smile, a kindly face, overwhelming magic…
She remembered it all vaguely, but nothing came into focus.
The Mage Tower.
Whenever she looked at that structure, a longing welled up inside her.
‘If I go there, I feel like I might learn something, too.’
Her longing was a little different from Eyas’s.
The pure pursuit of knowledge.
A mage’s ambition.
The desire to discover what that person in her memories had wanted to pass on to her.
She thought of these things as she walked.
She was a mage.
One who craved knowledge.
[The longing of Jina, the Archmage’s Apprentice, has reached you.]
[Investigate the Mage Tower.]
[Deal the most damage to five types of boss-class monsters: 0/5]
[Investigate other types of ‘Mage Tower’ located elsewhere: 0/2]
[???]
Her longing reached Hwanung.
A path to her evolution had opened.
‘Well, now.’
When he evolved Eyas, he had come to understand her past.
This time, he would be able to understand Jina’s.
Her actions, her thoughts, every aspect of how she spoke.
As the one who commanded her, Hwanung simply wanted to know.
Wasn’t she like a game character he had raised?
This process must be how affection developed, too.
‘The Mage Tower, huh…’
His next goals were set.
A new SR-rank summon.
A video.
And Jina’s evolution.
“My lord.”
As he wondered how much stronger he would become, Eyas’s voice reached him.
Hwanung turned, and she approached him at the rear of the group.
“There are rats about.”
Her keen senses had apparently picked up the interlopers.
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