Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 88

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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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A Mythic-Grade Tower Climb with a Cheating Administrator (88)
[What the—? What is this? Why are you looking at me like this? With such a primitive ability?]
Wash spoke with an air of utter disbelief.
The woman’s facial muscles twitched at his words, as if she’d heard them, but nothing more.
She neither spoke nor made any gesture.
That waiting demeanor of hers… Kim Moo-saeng certainly wasn’t about to stay silent.
‘Wash? Did you see him? Who is he? Or is it an Awakened Ability—what is this?’
Who had ever seen Wash clearly until now?
Even Geum Su-ah and Yoon Pyo hadn’t managed to perceive him distinctly.
Kim Moo-saeng could tell that Geum Su-ah had begun to harbor some suspicion, but that was all.
Everyone else? Except for Lee Jeong-gi…
‘Eight Seconds grade? Out of nowhere?’
All of them were Eight Seconds members.
Geum Byeong-chul, the Heavenly Thunder Tiger.
Steve King, the Crimson Hawk.
Jean-François Hugo, the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.
Hildegard Schmidt, the Hand of Aetri.
It was hardly an exaggeration to call them the core four.
And Kim Moo-saeng knew it.
He knew who the other figures counted among Eight Seconds were, and what their caliber looked like.
That’s why he was shocked.
The woman before him had never appeared in any internet community, magazine, television, or news article he’d ever seen.
His memory hadn’t failed him.
The mage Maia’s Goggles confirmed it.
[Isabel Green]
—Age: 25
—Awakened Ability: Yaksha (S-Grade)
—Skills: Rules of Yaksha and 17 others
—Resistance: Light (SR), Darkness (SR), Confusion (SR), Fear (S-Grade), Heat (S-Grade), Cold (A-Grade), Poison (A-Grade), Lightning (B-Grade), Bleeding (C-Grade)
—Tower Climbing Record: Highest floor 63
An S-Grade Awakened Ability: Yaksha.
‘There are quite a few who share that same S-Grade Awakened Ability. Not particularly special—and I’ve never even heard her name before.’
There were about seven or eight awakened users famous for possessing Yaksha.
Isabel Green was not among those he remembered.
What caught his eye more was her Resistance.
‘Three SR-Grade Resistances?’
Possessing Resistance at or above one’s Awakened Ability Grade was extremely rare.
Much less Light, Darkness, and Confusion—
The very Resistances that were hardest to build?
‘Her climbing record is impressive, but… compared to Geum Su-ah and Yoon Pyo, it’s not that high. And she’s younger than me, isn’t she? I thought she’d be several years older, but—’
The heavy makeup—was it to make herself appear stronger?
No, Kim Moo-saeng shook his head.
A pointless thought.
Who was she?
Who was Isabel Green?
Kim Moo-saeng would find out soon enough.
—Special Notes: +150% additional damage against small monsters
+50% additional damage against large monsters
+40% additional damage against artificial monsters
+20% additional damage against animal-type monsters
+10% additional damage against plant-type monsters
Meditation anywhere
Resolve to fall into hell
Loves pomegranates
One Who Pierces Truth
Valedictorian of Raveil Grandes Écoles
The final line written in the Special Notes section.
“Valedictorian of Raveil Grandes Écoles!?”
“You saw it. As expected. Is it the Key’s power? The Goggles’ power?”
Kim Moo-saeng did not answer.
Then, at last, the white light that had enveloped her body faded away.
She turned toward Kim Moo-saeng and pressed her palms together in greeting.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Isabel Green, sent here at the instruction of Dean Hugo with the assistance of Geum Byeong-chul. I am a Key holder, come to offer my help.”
Despite her youthful appearance, her bow was sincere and earnest.
Kim Moo-saeng found several things he wanted to say on the tip of his tongue, but after a moment’s hesitation, he couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
“Well… in Asia, people don’t actually greet each other with a bow like that every time. It’s a pretty typical stereotype, but anyway—this must be what Chairman Geum was talking about.”
A gift, if one wanted to call it that.
Whether it was truly a gift would depend on how one looked at it—or more precisely, on what [Dean Hugo’s instructions] had actually been.
“Come in, please.”
Kim Moo-saeng ushered her inside.
* * *
Isabel settled quietly into a chair and looked at Kim Moo-saeng.
Kim Moo-saeng in turn stared intently at Isabel.
[That light just now definitely wasn’t an Awakened Ability. I didn’t feel any power being used at all. So what the hell was it? Hey, you! Tell me!]
He watched to see if her ears would twitch.
Or if her eyes would track Wash’s movement.
She showed no reaction.
‘Acting? No. Even Geum Byeong-chul was shocked enough to fidget with his sunglasses or shift his posture—put on some kind of show. There’s no way someone this young could completely ignore Wash’s tone and voice like this.’
It couldn’t be an act.
Which meant one thing was certain.
[What is this? Now you can’t even hear me or see me? Kehehehe! This is fun!]
“That light from before… do you have to be surrounded by something like that to be able to see it?”
That light which even Wash had declared was not an Awakened Ability.
Isabel could only sense Wash if she was using that ability.
“Correct. The pursuit of truth. The power to approach reality. A pure mind free from delusion.”
She nodded readily, confirming it.
Kim Moo-saeng let out a quiet laugh.
“Well, yes. It seems like you attach all the noble-sounding words you can find. But so? What do you want? I already told Dean Hugo I’d have to decline his offer to attend Raveil Grandes Écoles.”
“The Dean said he received a request for advice. I was sent to deliver that advice.”
“A request for advice? From whom?”
Kim Moo-saeng tilted his head in confusion.
Isabel tilted her head in exactly the same way.
“From you.”
Her expression suggested she found his question amusing.
Kim Moo-saeng was momentarily flustered, but then something came to mind.
“Oh, that!?”
After declining the admission offer from Raveil Grandes Écoles, France’s premier institution for training Awakened Ability users,
Hugo had asked Kim Moo-saeng if he’d understood him correctly.
And Kim Moo-saeng had replied.
[I understand perfectly. Perhaps if you could share some meditation techniques I could practice at home, or something like that—if you’d be willing to reveal some of Raveil Grandes Écoles’ secret methods, I’d be grateful to receive them. But given the timing and circumstances, I’m afraid I must respectfully decline.]
Back then, when he’d been more anxious about climbing the Tower faster, he’d thrown out those words half-jokingly, just to be polite.
‘Awkward to refuse like that… Anyway, why are all these Eight Seconds-caliber people always so skilled at this sort of thing?’
Hugo had remembered those half-joking remarks, and had apparently responded by sending Isabel before him now—as if granting that request.
Was he now supposed to say it was a joke?
Was he supposed to claim it was just empty politeness and ask her to leave?
Even if Kim Moo-saeng had no desire to attend Raveil Grandes Écoles, it would be foolish to deliberately offend someone Hugo counted among Eight Seconds’ ranks—someone who’d told Geum Byeong-chul himself that he never wanted to fight again.
“It will help you. Cultivation through mental discipline. Through that, you can gain what I have—the ability to see the Key without using an Awakened Ability, just as I can despite being weaker than Dean Hugo and the other professors.”
Isabel pressed forward eagerly.
Kim Moo-saeng tried to decline in the most natural and gentle way possible.
His argument was that someone who could see Wash, who could stand alongside Wash, hardly needed formal training.
“I’m truly grateful for your kind intentions, but honestly, I can already see, so what would be the point? Still, it’s absolutely not that I’m dismissing Dean Hugo’s goodwill or anything like that. I’m also grateful that you came all this way, Isabel. Why don’t we have some tea and chat about something else for a bit—”
Isabel.
No—Jean-François Hugo, the “Blue-Eyed Buddha,” had clearly anticipated that Kim Moo-saeng would respond exactly like this.
“The Dean said this.”
Perhaps.
“If you can see, you can choose not to see. If you can choose not to see, you can make it so you cannot see. This is a principle you will need now.”
In this way, she subtly revealed that Hugo saw through Kim Moo-saeng’s current state.
Of course, Kim Moo-saeng’s first instinct was to think: what is she talking about?
Yet there was no reason Hugo would have added that line about it being necessary for him without purpose. Kim Moo-saeng turned Hugo’s words over in his mind, the words Isabel had delivered.
“If you can see, you can choose not to see… If you can choose not to see, you can make it so you cannot see…”
And soon enough, he understood.
He couldn’t say exactly what method it was, but……
“You can hide the Cheonrian? Conceal yourself from the Cheonrian?”
What if Hugo had anticipated things going this far?
What if the current Dean of Raveil Grandes Écoles, one of the Eight Seconds, was offering advice like that?
[Krackle-krackle-crack! Ridiculous noise. In the crude earthling tongue of an absolute being, there’s no other way to interpret that left eye of his. Hide that eye? Even I find it difficult to do so carelessly.]
Wash laughed.
When it came to the Tower and Awakened Abilities, his word was absolute—beyond question.
But?
[What is it, Kim Moo-saeng? That look in your eyes? You don’t trust me?]
“It’s not that, exactly.”
Moo-saeng didn’t spell everything out, not with Isabel present.
A slight shrug, a slow turn of his gaze toward Isabel—that alone conveyed his meaning.
Even Maia, merely an S-Grade Awakened whose Goggles could lay bare all information, saw through you. Barely any strength to speak of.
Yet she perceived you with that mysterious power you claim isn’t an Awakened Ability.
How do you explain that?
[Screech, screech! That is—. That is…….]
Wash, understanding Moo-saeng’s wordless point, opened his beak to raise a fuss but found he had nothing to refute.
Whoooosh————————…
Again, the thin white membrane enveloped Isabel’s body.
With that aura drawn around her, she gazed at Wash.
‘At least he’s not oblivious. Then again, top graduate of that school—he wouldn’t be some bookish straight-A student.’
A single word from Moo-saeng. One movement.
That was all it took to read what subject he and Wash were discussing, what conversation they were having.
Isabel spoke, her eyes on Wash.
“The Cheonrian? The Dean’s intentions are not one thing. Even I do not know. But the Key-bearer remains weak still. The Key, too, has many constraints.”
[……She acts as though she knows about me? Presumptuous creature…….]
When Wash frowned, Isabel quickly shook her head.
The respect she maintained toward Wash throughout suggested she’d received some explanation from Hugo beforehand.
“I, Korean not speak well. Dean’s intention not conveyed precisely. But Dean’s words I convey with certainty.”
Isabel lowered herself respectfully before meeting Moo-saeng’s eyes.
“Learn. And grow stronger. This will be the first and last remote class in the history of Raveil Grandes Écoles.”
And in saying so, she revealed
how much Hugo had conceded for Moo-saeng’s sake.
That he would grant such favor despite the risk of the Academy’s secrets spilling out.
“……Mm, you’re right. Speaking so firmly almost makes me embarrassed. Very well.”
It wasn’t an order to come to Raveil Grandes Écoles.
Nor was it asking him to cross over into France.
And it certainly wasn’t telling him to abandon the Tower and remain locked away.
There was no more reason to refuse.
Rather, there was no need to refuse.
He had to grow stronger.
For Ju Ye-rin’s sake, if nothing else.
“I’m not learning this to teach others. I’ll give it a try.”
Moo-saeng extended his hand.
“Good. From now on, you are a student of Raveil Grandes Écoles.”
Isabel rose to her feet and clasped his hand.
Moo-saeng smiled wryly and spoke.
“Student…… You’re not planning to use that later in school promotional materials or something ridiculous like that, are you?”
“……Even the Dean’s intentions, I do not know.”
Moo-saeng became the first and last remote student in the history of Raveil Grandes Écoles.

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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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