Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Climbing the Mythic Tower as an Administrator with Cheats (10)
[3rd Floor]
[A Night Trembling with Fear, a Village Shrouded in Dread]
Dawn was just beginning to break.
A small Hill overlooked a Village of some twenty households clustered together.
This was the checkpoint one reached upon challenging the 3rd Floor of the Tower.
Normally, Awakeners would descend the Hill to gather information on how to clear this Floor, or if they’d already studied the Dungeon beforehand, they’d prepare accordingly. But……
“Hehehehe, the 3rd Floor, the 3rd Floor.”
Rather than head down toward the Village, Mu Saeng spun around and bolted in the opposite direction.
[Defeat the Wolf-Human.]
[Time Remaining: 96:00:00]
The Clear Condition for the 3rd Floor was simple: eliminate one monster.
Subjugate a Wolf-Human within ninety-six hours.
A creature that could command wolves, hunted only at night, and possessed a cunning intelligence so high that for beginners, it was essentially a boss-tier threat—slaying a single Wolf-Human was all that mattered.
[Where are you going?]
“It doesn’t show up on the first day anyway, does it? All that happens is a few wolves attack. So I need to find the chest as fast as possible today.”
Mu Saeng naturally knew this already.
He had more than mere Dungeon experience—he’d cleared the Tower up to the 3rd Floor with a party once before.
His mind, therefore, was fixed on something else entirely.
[……A chest?]
Wash furrowed his brow as he asked.
Mu Saeng grinned widely and sprinted forward without hesitation.
“Right. In the Dungeon, I found a chest buried somewhere, but it wouldn’t open for some reason. Even with a Lockpick Set, there was no interaction at all. So I figured I’d check if it opens in the Tower.”
Broadly speaking, the Tower rewarded growth.
The Dungeon rewarded Artifacts.
That was the basic distinction.
Yet Artifacts could be obtained in the Tower as well.
It was common knowledge that the 19th Floor’s Clear reward was a D-rank Artifact.
Awakeners had also boasted about finding Artifacts on the 20th and 30th Floors and beyond, though naturally, none of them revealed how they’d obtained them.
In the end, though uncommon, acquiring an Artifact from the Tower was hardly impossible.
The reverse held true as well.
One could not grow within the Dungeon.
Killing monsters, slaying bosses—neither would grant Stat Points or unlock Skills.
However, Growth Elixirs existed.
Just as Mu Saeng had obtained Poison Resistance (S) by consuming a fragment of Slaken’s Molt, growth-focused Artifacts did exist.
But what if an unobtainable chest had appeared in the Dungeon……?
“I even mentioned it to some Awakeners who’d paid extra fees. Strangely, they never got back to me. No way to know what they found or what happened…… so I just let it go after that. Never thought I’d be back here, pfft.”
Could it be an Artifact obtainable only in the Tower?!
Even if Mu Saeng had guessed correctly, having already cleared the 3rd Floor once before, there was no way for him to verify the theory.
And now, with his climbing record reset and his ascent restarted, he couldn’t suppress the thrill of it all.
[Haaah…… how did you even find that.]
Wash asked.
Mu Saeng answered breezily.
How he’d learned of such a secret.
“When you run loops over a hundred times, you get bored, right? So I was chatting with the kids in the Village about this and that, and they mentioned something about an old Mountain Waterfall, saying someone used to live there way back or whatever. I was curious, so I went to check, and——”
[Damn it.]
“Huh? Damn—? Suddenly? Why——. Oh?”
To be precise……
[That’s the Hidden Clear Condition and reward for the 3rd Floor.]
He’d stumbled upon the Hidden Clear Condition of the 3rd Floor without even realizing it.
He’d just blurted it out.
“Oh!? D——”
A curt curse slipped out, nearly reflexive.
Mu Saeng had known this secret.
“——I only took a hundred thousand won! I should’ve asked for more!”
And he’d sold the information for peanuts.
After all, it was only the 3rd Floor of the Tower, only a tutorial section.
Teaching how to handle a ‘boss-tier monster’ different from regular monsters—it was essentially a practice ground.
A Floor meant only to teach what preparations were needed to face a special monster, and that information about the monster had to be gathered in advance……
He’d never imagined there’d be anything particularly valuable in it.
That was the Hidden Clear Condition!?
“Now I get it. These bastards cleaned up every last scrap and licked their plates clean!? They were afraid I’d ask for some leftovers?”
The moment that thought took hold, everything made sense.
Why not a single person had reached out to Mu Saeng when he’d joked around asking if anything good had dropped, wanting to know if they found anything worthwhile.
“……Something good did come out, didn’t it, Wash?”
The rewards for achieving the hidden conditions on the 1st and 2nd Floors had been Stat Points.
Even then, barely enough to scrape together after clearing multiple floors…… so if it was an object, it could never be something as trivial as F-rank or E-rank.
[It’s a C-rank Artifact.]
“No way……”
Mu Saeng’s footsteps froze mid-stride.
That B-rank Short Sword Mu Saeng had scrimped and saved for over thirteen years as a Dungeon Sherpa was worth a fully-loaded mid-size sedan.
The price of an entire car, top-of-the-line.
But a C-rank came out of the 3rd Floor?
An Artifact worth at minimum a compact car, possibly even a full-size sedan?
“For just 100,000 won…….”
Mu Saeng murmured to himself.
Wash shook his head, watching him.
[Damn it, I wouldn’t have said a word if they hadn’t maxed out their affinity to a certain level, and yet they managed it?]
And that information couldn’t be obtained from adults either.
It had been designed so you could only gather it through the children.
During the day they run all over the Village playing and causing mischief.
By evening they eat early and fall asleep.
Children with virtually no convenient window for conversation.
So he’d deliberately planted such information inside the human child.
[Kim Mu Saeng, let me reconsider you once more—.]
Wash spoke to Mu Saeng gravely.
Or rather, tried to.
“You could’ve gotten at least 3 million won in information fees alone, yet you took just 100,000 won…….”
If Mu Saeng weren’t still grumbling about information fees,
he certainly would have called him remarkable.
[……No, there’s no need for that. For a primitive human, you’re remarkably persistent.]
Wash stared at Mu Saeng standing there, dazed.
Then he let out a sharp cry.
[How much longer are you going to waste time!? You need to move fast to claim the additional rewards!]
“Huh? What additional rewards?”
Only then did Mu Saeng snap to attention and ask.
Wash explained the conditions for the additional reward.
[Eliminate the Wolf-Human before sunset on the first day!]
This was the part that made Mu Saeng tilt his head in confusion.
Even after running through the 3rd Dungeon that many times, something like that was impossible.
“……Wait? That’s possible? Wolf-Humans only move at night, don’t they? And on the first day, you normally can’t even find them—.”
[Squawk!]
Wash’s beak gaped wide open.
As Mu Saeng listened to what the Administrator said next…… he too had to stand speechless.
The Tower’s mere 3rd Floor.
It was the moment when they each discovered a different side of the other.
* * *
“We have news about the Wolf-Human! Everyone, please gather!”
Mu Saeng raised his voice in the center of the Village.
A place with barely a handful of households.
The dwelling place of residents who didn’t even number a hundred, counting every child.
“I’ve come to tell you how to keep the Wolf-Human from approaching! Everyone, please come out!”
Mu Saeng shouted again.
The doors of the small Village, wary of outsiders, cracked open slightly.
“What’s this about?”
“Doesn’t seem to be someone sent by the Kingdom…….”
“Did the Lord send him?”
Nothing drew interest more than a matter concerning their safety, trumping wariness of an outsider.
The residents began gathering in twos and threes.
Mu Saeng was studying each and every one of them intently.
Farmers, woodcutters, herb gatherers, shopkeepers of sundries…….
“The children must all gather as well! I plan to distribute Wolf-Human Exorcism Talismans that I received from an alchemist to everyone free of charge, so please bring all the children from each household without exception!”
Mu Saeng shouted again.
An alchemist, talismans, and free.
At those words, several parents’ eyes went wide.
“Robin! Robin! Where did you go, Robin!”
“Aska! Come here for a moment! You can play later!”
The villagers began gathering faster than before.
“My husband went up the mountain at dawn……will we be able to receive one?”
“Of course. Yes, I’ll give them to everyone.”
Mu Saeng had ascended to the 3rd Floor at first light. It was now around nine or ten in the morning.
Once nearly all the villagers had assembled—save for those few who could not leave their work—
Mu Saeng murmured to himself.
“That one? That person? Ah…… yes. I understand what you mean.”
Then he walked forward with steady steps.
The villagers watched as Mu Saeng moved toward some destination.
“But you were sent by the lord, weren’t you? If an alchemist made these talismans, they must be quite valuable—to give them away for free like this——”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. Yes.”
“If the lord sent you, surely you should present some proof——”
“Hey, why don’t we just take the talismans first and ask questions later? What’s the hurry…….”
Several of the men still maintained their cautious skepticism, though it was laced with good humor.
Mu Saeng simply smiled and continued walking.
“Excuse me, are you perhaps the alchemist yourself!? Is that why you’re giving them away for free?”
Mu Saeng stopped before a small child wearing spectacles.
He did not look at the child, who asked the question with innocent, beaming joy.
His gaze was fixed just above the child’s head, into empty air.
His murmur came and went in a flash.
“This one? Ah…… a bit unsettling, but well, this is deception anyway.”
“Yes? Sir——”
Whoooosh———!
Mu Saeng pierced the child’s chest with the Serpent’s Fang.
“Hya—hya-aaah!?”
“What—what is this!? What—!?”
“Murder—murder—no, what, you—why so suddenly——”
Screams, cries, the chaos of villagers—what was happening?
But it lasted only a moment.
The child in spectacles stumbled backward.
“—Kyaa-aaah——how…… how——”
Then, with a heavy thud, the child collapsed to the ground.
The child’s body began to transform.
Limbs lengthened, clothes tore, and thick fur sprouted across the skin.
“Hya-aaah!”
“A wolf—a Wolf-Human!”
“What!? How is this possible!?”
The corpse had become a Wolf-Human.
In the midst of the panicked village, Mu Saeng murmured to himself.
“I see…… but if only I could find the Kobold King this easily, wouldn’t that be convenient?”
[Fool. There’s a difference between checking a file right in front of your eyes and searching for its location, isn’t there?]
“That’s…… true, of course.”
Mu Saeng answered with a slight chuckle.
As he was moving toward the chest, this was the method Wash had explained to him.
The Wolf-Humans were designed to be randomly designated and manifested among the villagers.
That is to say, as an Administrator, if he inspected each of them one by one, he would know who was a Wolf-Human.
“Ah, Wash. But what about the Clear Condition reward for the 3rd Floor?”
Feeling anew the power of Execute with Administrator Authority, Mu Saeng asked.
[You have defeated a Wolf-Human.]
[Congratulations!]
[You have achieved the Clear Condition.]
[You can now acquire a new Skill.]
[Awakener Ability: Transmission (O)]
[Compiling acquirable Skill list…….]
[Additional condition achieved.]
[Wolf-Human eliminated within 24 hours]
[Additional reward granted.]
[All Stat Points +2]
The bonus—the all-Stat increase—would be applied.
There was also the C-rank Artifact claimed from the chest.
But what of the standard reward itself?
With no Skill Tree branching out from the Awakening ability…… wasn’t this precisely why he’d halted his Tower ascent after clearing the 3rd Floor last time?
[Hmm, think it’ll be the same as Transmission?]
“What?”
[Pick one. See what suits you.]
Wash finished speaking and slid smoothly to the side.
Mu Saeng understood.
Finding out who the Wolf-Human was—that wasn’t the Administrator’s true power.
[Skill list compilation complete.]
[178 acquirable Skills available.]
[One chosen Skill will be acquired.]
“……Whoa.”
The turning point wasn’t Transmission.
The shift from 〈X〉 to 〈O〉.
It wasn’t that there were no branches to grow.
Now he could branch out into every attribute, every lineage.
“But just one? Come on, All-Master, you can’t do better than that?”
Mu Saeng immediately had to cover his ears.
Wash was squawking up a storm again, insisting that made no sense whatsoever.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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