Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 114
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator (114)
The Dark Elves’ Invisibility grants only visual concealment, in the strictest sense.
Yet one reason their presence cannot be easily detected is their silent mobility.
Their shoes, lined with fur on the soles to muffle sound, left not a single crackle as they moved across the desolate Rocky Desert Terrain.
Ksandu, the Second Spear of the Sandu Tribe, and Yonbaba, the First Spear of the Yodingo Tribe, exchanged glances.
A horde of Cursed Humans visible in the distance.
We flank them. Our force takes the right, yours the left.
Understood. You’ll handle the main assault. We secure the First Spear of the Bembe Tribe.
Without a word spoken, the battle formation and movement protocol were already established among the allied forces.
All that remained was to advance with utmost caution.
Given that the First Spear of the Bembe Tribe has been captured, these creatures can certainly sense us, but they could not have anticipated when, where, or how we would approach.
So, ideally…….
“Hmm?”
“They’re… moving?”
The ones caught off guard were these very allies.
Ksandu and Yonbaba dropped their stance low in response.
Could they have sensed us and reacted?
‘At a distance where even we struggle to recognize each other as different tribes?’
‘I saw nothing unusual about their movements. Not a trace of those loud magics or techniques humans use to see through our invisibility.’
What was happening?
They decided to observe the situation for a moment.
And they could breathe easier.
‘Rising. Flight Magic!’
‘Of course. There’s no way they’d have spotted us then.’
The Cursed Human was launching skyward.
Flight Magic—nothing to be particularly surprised about.
They themselves had used it to reach this region.
They’d simply landed at a distance before approaching, since Invisibility breaks during flight.
From that perspective, the Cursed Human’s flight was likely for long-range reconnaissance as well.
‘Already here, and they still don’t know it. Now they…….’
‘Too late, Cursed Human. The First Spear of the Bembe Tribe evidently kept such secrets close. Truly worthy of respect—wait?’
Patter, pitter-patter…….
Just as Ksandu and Yonbaba wore smiles of quiet triumph.
Droplets began falling onto the heads of every Dark Elf—pit-pat, pit-pit-pat.
It was no wonder their eyes went wide.
Here? Now? Rain?
‘Even some of the youngest among us don’t know what rain is…….’
‘For water—for life itself—to fall from the sky so suddenly? And the chieftain hasn’t even performed a rain ceremony!’
Given the terrain’s nature, annual rainfall was virtually negligible.
Yet here was rain.
And it wasn’t just a few drops before stopping.
Quite a lot was falling. If this kept up…….
“Rain, it’s raining.”
“Second Spear, the rain is coming. But—.”
The Dark Elves around Ksandu and Yonbaba murmured, their thoughts still gathering.
During covert movement, even breathing should be silent, yet a climate shift bringing rain was remarkable enough to shake them.
But there was something far stranger.
“—it’s salty.”
“Since when is rain this salty…… Salt?”
The rain tasted salty.
A briny tang registered on their tongues.
Wait—when did the rain even start?
That Cursed Human that shot into the sky…….
At the moment someone glimpsed a flash of blue light and thought, ‘There—I saw it…….’
Crackling—crash—zzzzzzzt!
Blue Lightning poured down. Upon the Dark Elves, drenched and defenseless.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
“Gah—agh—.”
“Grrk——.”
What was happening?
What on earth was happening?
“Shin Hyun-dong! Kim Woo-min!”
A voice thunderous as a storm rang out from the sky above.
At that very moment, a ball of flame among the huddled Cursed Humans began to tremble violently in a fierce wind.
“F-fire, fire, fire…….”
“A whirlwind! A whirl—. A whirlwind is rising—.”
“A burning whirlwind, oh, oh no?!”
And then it became a massive inferno of flame spiraling skyward.
Watching the fiery vortex consume and incinerate even the withered brush, Yonbaba cried out.
“Everyone fall back! Fall—.”
“My body, I’m paralyzed, my body won’t move!?”
But there was no way it could move.
The bodies numbed by the lightning that had erupted moments before were simply immobilized.
Gasp, gasp, gasp.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
Only ragged breathing echoed among the dark elves.
For them, there was but one small mercy in this misfortune.
“It’s an artificially created whirlwind…….”
“It doesn’t move, phew, it doesn’t move at all.”
The burning vortex remained motionless.
Whether scattering sparks or sucking up all the brush, it stayed in place.
It posed no great threat to where the dark elves stood.
So if they could just shake off the paralysis, they could retreat for now.
Regroup their lines…….
“W-what?”
“It’s… moving. It’s moving!”
Such a plan proved impossible.
The fiery vortex was moving.
Or rather, the fiery vortex wasn’t moving at all.
But because everyone’s eyes were fixed on the burning whirlwind, they could sense it in that space.
“The ground…….”
The ground where the vortex blazed.
That ground was sliding, slipping beneath them.
Toward the dark elves.
The earth itself was moving.
“Ah, aaaah…….”
Seized by despair, the dark elves didn’t even properly register it.
The Cursed Human had descended to the ground at some point.
No—that wasn’t quite right either.
From a place like a raised platform that could never exist in natural terrain, looking down upon them.
That was all they managed to see.
Snap—!
The Cursed Human snapped a finger.
In that instant, the ground around the dark elves surged upward.
The barren, hard earth became a single dome that enclosed them all.
Water Hose infused with salt, cast from high altitude in a wide spread, then seared with Blue Lightning.
A skill combination of Shin Hyun-dong and Kim Woo-min, utilizing Attribute Magic Fusion.
“Not even Floor 40 level, and this……. Right, Wash?”
And as the finishing touch, Kim Moo-saeng’s brand-new skill.
Yugong Moves Mountains
When the stubborn man moves the mountain, a path appears where none existed before.
You can adjust the form of terrain within contact or sight (displacement, elevation, subsidence, or leveling).
You can temporarily maintain adjusted terrain or collapse it to restore its original state.
(However, it only affects a certain depth from the surface; deeper bedrock layers cannot be manipulated. Additionally, you cannot create earth that does not exist, and the adjustable range and maintenance duration scale with the user’s Stats.)
‘Yugong Moves Mountains wasn’t supposed to be this kind of Skill. At most, it should have been adequate for digging trenches. Of course, being able to dig personal trenches in an instant or excavate crawlable tunnels for considerable lengths would be extraordinary enough, but…….’
It was not meant to be a terrain manipulation Skill this absurd.
Of course, the fact that [adjustable range and maintenance duration scale with the user’s Stats] ultimately meant it was thanks to Kim Moo-saeng’s Stats—likely the All Stats tripled by the Bone-Hardening Enhancement—but…….
[Khehehehe! Be grateful to me, Kim Moo-saeng. It’s thanks to Two-Two.]
Yet Kim Moo-saeng understood that wasn’t the whole story.
The Skill itself simply had different fundamental power.
The Skill’s level itself isn’t something you’d typically obtain at Stage 3 of the Skill Tree, is it?
If so, Wash’s reasoning couldn’t help but carry weight.
Two-Two, who managed the [Reward] section of the Tower’s system—that download data merging with Wash had brought about this transformation.
What made it remarkable was that while other party members’ Stage 30 Skills had been reinforced like Stage 40 rewards, Kim Moo-saeng now wielded power close to Stage 50, perhaps even Stage 60 Skills!
“I’m grateful. Genuinely. To Two-Two.”
[……What?! You should be thanking ME, you bastard!]
“You said Two-Two handled the rewards. So why me?”
[Well, Two-Two, Two-Two now belongs to me, so I mean…. Listen to what I’m saying, Kim Moo-saeng!]
Ignoring Wash’s sputtering protests, Kim Moo-saeng activated Yugong Moves Mountains once more.
The mound of earth stacked nearly eight stories high crumbled in a rush, and Kim Moo-saeng slid smoothly toward the dome beneath the ground.
And from the camp at a considerable distance, the party members watched this unfold.
“……Just what kind of Skill did CEO Kim obtain…….”
Shin Hyun-dong muttered to himself.
But no one knew the answer.
Only Park Hyun-gu let out a hollow, satisfied laugh and offered a single comment.
“Sim City, basically. He’s playing city-building games out here by himself.”
With no casualties, 118 Dark Elves were added as prisoners.
* * *
Umbemba. Ksandu. Yonbaba.
The mightiest of each tribe, warriors who held the rank of First Spear or Second Spear, formidable both in battle and magic…….
“……Ahem.”
“Hmm.”
“Erhhem!”
The three regarded one another with embarrassed gazes.
It wasn’t merely because they’d been captured so pathetically.
It wasn’t just that all three had been fitted with mild Paralysis Drips.
It wasn’t only the humiliation of over one hundred fifty Dark Elves being escorted like dried fish, bound by merely a dozen humans.
It was, rather, the manner of that escort.
Whooooooosh…….
They weren’t moving at all.
The ground itself was moving.
“Like a moving walkway—wouldn’t it have been nice if we’d done this yesterday, Kim Moo-saeng?”
Park Hyun-gu, speaking for the party members who’d marched nearly ten hours, ventured a casual remark.
But this wasn’t the sort of man to whom such words would appeal.
“We don’t know what’s in the surrounding area or how it’s arranged. How could we move carelessly? If they’d seen us traveling like that from their side?”
With enemy numbers unclear and given the nature of the Survival/Escape Quest Structure, reinforcements would certainly arrive within a short time.
“Then…….”
“They wouldn’t have attacked preemptively. One hundred percent. They probably just scouted and left, that sort of thing.”
One of the captured Dark Elves nodded involuntarily at hearing this.
What kind of magic was this, anyway?
How was one supposed to interpret this technique—humans and Dark Elves, over one hundred fifty people combined, sliding smoothly across the earth?
“In any case, it went differently than expected. But the results turned out well.”
He hadn’t expected the prisoner count to swell like this.
He hadn’t expected them to come from different tribes.
Yet the fundamental strategy of inducing a premature additional attack from the Dark Elves had proven remarkably successful.
“Synthesizing what these three have said…… right now, at the Bembe Tribe Settlement…… the leaders of three tribes are gathered. Is that correct?”
Kim Moo-saeng turned his head.
Moving quite swiftly across the moving walkway of Yugong Moves Mountains, Umbemba spoke.
“That is so. But do not assume our leaders will be ready to face you.”
“They’ll have to be. Unless those ‘leaders’ are thoughtless.”
Kim Moo-saeng countered immediately.
Ksandu bristled and opened his mouth, but…….
“……Cursed Human. Do not underestimate the leaders. Not everything will unfold as you think——”
“That’s precisely why I’m speaking.”
Kim Moo-saeng cut him off smoothly.
Then he explained.
Why they were prisoners.
Why the leaders would meet with him.
“To be blunt, I could have just taken your heads and sought them out. Yet instead, everyone is being kept alive—yes, there was a tragic casualty, but that’s your fault for attacking first, so setting that aside, I’m bringing you in without a single additional death. If leaders saw this and still decided not to meet me, they’d need their heads examined. Are you really going to leave someone that thoughtless in power? And you’re not even from a single faction. Three leaders from three different tribes, three different tribes represented. What’s the probability that all three would simultaneously choose to abandon their people and not meet with me?”
Not only the Dark Elves were stunned by Kim Moo-saeng’s rapid exposition.
Had he thought that far ahead when he created the prisoners?
The increased number of captives would elevate his bargaining power.
And with more decision-makers in the opposing camp, their ranks would fracture into chaos…….
Kim Moo-saeng’s plan was clear.
Yet when they arrived at the Bembe Tribe Settlement two hours later?
“The tribe wasn’t quite what I expected. They’re… not what I imagined at all.”
Through the goggles worn by the sorceress Maia, what came into view was simply a gathering of staggering scale—the headcount alone exceeded the thousands.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————