Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 9

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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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Using Cheats as an Administrator to Climb a Mythic Tower (9)
The first thing Mu Saeng did was draw out two Pitons.
Steel spikes driven into rock face—he scraped them deliberately against the stone, producing that horrible, ear-splitting screech.
Eeeeek…!
A bone-chilling high-pitched wail cut through the air, but the Cobalts’ charge never faltered.
“Grrrowwwl!”
“Bark, bark-bark-bark!”
“I’ve chased off Shadow Wolves with this trick before… but that’s not going to work here.”
[Already saw you, didn’t I? You think a little noise makes me run?]
Different from confusing bats with sound.
Different from making wolves flee.
Cobalts are no simple beast.
They live in packs and, though crude, are Beast-Human monsters that wear clothes and carry weapons—intelligent enough to act with purpose.
They’d spotted him with their own eyes and came hunting an intruder in their territory; no amount of annoying noise would send them running.
[Please tell me you’ve got more than that, Kim Mu Saeng.]
Wash let out a sharp sound, her question more than skeptical.
Not anxiety—pure curiosity.
How did this human plan to handle forty Cobalts bearing down on him?
“Of course I do.”
Besides, the Cobalts chasing him weren’t even the full force.
These forty were essentially scouts.
There would be plenty more waiting inside the Cave.
‘He probably knows that much already…’
Wash understood that Mu Saeng possessed that level of knowledge without question.
Then what?
What more could he do here?
“Just what I expected to find.”
Thud-thud-thud-thud. After sprinting for some distance, Mu Saeng grinned.
Wash looked toward where he was staring, her head tilting in confusion.
[A mud pit? You’re going to drop them in there?]
And at that question, Mu Saeng found himself at a loss for words.
Something he’d felt from the moment they first spoke.
“Uh, yeah? It’s actually impressive you’d think of that.”
[…What do you mean?]
This one might be extraordinary as an Administrator, but when it came to anything else, she barely knew a thing, did she?
He decided to leave that observation unspoken.
“Huh-chah!”
Mu Saeng hurled himself into the Mud Pit.
Then splash-splash, thrashing about like a child at play, he rolled his body over and over again.
All the while fumbling quickly through something he’d pulled from his pack.
* * *
“Bark! Bark!”
Kkeukkeung barked. The target’s scent had stopped moving.
“Grrr… Bark! Yowl!”
His packmate called out—the target had smeared itself with mud, obscuring its scent.
“Growwwl, grrr.”
But such efforts were meaningless. He’d already seen the prey with his own eyes.
He knew exactly where the mud pit lay.
“Bark!”
At Kkeukkeung’s single call, the Cobalts began spreading out, forming a ring around the Mud Pit.
“Bark, bark-bark!”
And as they crested the shallow Hill beyond, Kkeukkeung and his pack saw it.
A human flailing in the Mud Pit.
Frantic movements. Eyes wide with panic.
Had it tried to cover its scent and escape?
Either way, it was too late now.
Soft-soft, soft-soft, soft… Kkeukkeung advanced slowly.
Even as he trampled weeds underfoot with deliberate, measured steps, the human seemed helpless to act.
And when the distance had closed enough—
Whoosh!
“Krrung?!”
Something flew through the air.
Thunk—it landed near Kkeukkeung’s feet.
Then the same thing scattered toward his other companions.
“……Sniff, sniff.”
It was obvious at a glance.
Dried meat.
With a bit of mud still clinging to it.
Kkeukkeung sniffed at it, following pure instinct.
No question. It was meat.
He couldn’t tell what animal it came from.
But his instincts screamed loud and clear—this was edible. Safe to eat.
“Arrrrrr…….”
Kkeukkeung spotted the target.
He was gesturing frantically, as if to say: Watch, I’m giving this to you.
“Krrung. Keung!”
“Wol-wol-wol!”
“Errr-rung.”
His companions felt it too.
Didn’t look dangerous. Let’s eat.
Their thoughts aligned.
And let’s get that creature too.
A few scraps of food wouldn’t buy them mercy—they weren’t the type.
Kkeukkeung shoved the dried meat into his mouth.
A faintly salty taste.
And then…….
“Wol?”
A fishy smell? A subtle fishy stench?
There’d been no smell at all moments before. It seemed fine when he ate it?
What was this reek?
“Worreuk?”
“Keung, krrr-rung-. Keung!”
Kkeukkeung panicked.
His companions panicked too.
“Kyarratt!?”
“Keung- keuu-hhh…….”
They couldn’t move.
What was happening? What was this?
It wasn’t just that his arms and legs wouldn’t obey him.
Thump, thump.
The companions who’d eaten the meat began collapsing one after another.
Those who hadn’t eaten stood frozen, slowly grasping the disaster unfolding, but there was nothing they could do.
“Hmph…… still, more than twenty of them ate it.”
Splash, splash, whoooosh…….
And then came the sound—
Kkeukkeung, still standing though his body screamed in resistance, watched.
The target was pouring water over himself.
Washing away the mud from head to toe as if scrubbing it all clean.
Then he pulled something out and began rubbing it across his body.
A thin skin. Something like bark.
No—not bark.
Some creature’s skin……. A shed. Scales.
“Keung?”
In that moment, Kkeukkeung caught the scent.
A smell.
Oddly similar to the meat he’d just swallowed.
Not quite a meat smell, but with an underlying familiarity—the same source…….
“Listen up, you lot. Remember this scent. This is the smell that kills you.”
Step, step, step……. Kkeukkeung didn’t understand what the target was saying.
But he felt it.
……I’m going to die.
The pressure radiating from the target. The overwhelming presence.
I have to run.
But how? My body won’t move!
Even my companions who can still move are just watching, frozen in place.
What do I do? Someone give an order!
“Ugh, ugh-ggh, ugh-gh.”
I can’t even move my mouth. I can’t speak.
The trembling lasted only a moment.
How long has it been since I first caught that stench?
Thud-thud…… Thud-thud…….
The target is drawing near.
Carrying something gleaming and sharp. Dangerous. That’s dangerous.
I have to move……!
In that instant, my body started to move.
“Awooooooo───────!”
Kkeukkeung howled.
Run. Home!
Every Cobalt turned and bolted.
Watching their fleeing forms, Mu Saeng was smiling.
[……Did diving into the mud just now serve as a distraction?]
“A feint. To get their attention on me. So they wouldn’t suspect the Dried Meat.”
If I’d merely injected the poison, they might not have eaten it.
If they were true beasts, they probably wouldn’t have eaten it either.
But because they were monsters.
Because they were Beast-Human Form monsters, Mu Saeng was certain it would work.
[So why are they running now? No one’s dead. Why?]
“They smell something like poison coming from me. Phew, but that fishy stench is intense.”
The moment the paralyzed individuals appeared, what Mu Saeng had been vigorously rubbing over his body was the poison-coated Slaeken’s Shed Skin.
The Cobalts had consumed meat containing infinitesimal amounts of a colorless, odorless poison extracted from Slaeken’s Poison Fang, and full-body paralysis had taken hold.
And they’d undergone the most intense experience in the world.
The terror of death approaching while unable to move.
[Is that all there is to it?]
“That’s all there is to it. I know because I’ve experienced it. There’s nothing more terrifying than that.”
The emotion Mu Saeng had felt when facing the Slaeken.
As though the world were collapsing.
Fear, moreover, is contagious.
[Hmm…… So? You’re just letting them flee? Is there a reason for this?]
“There is. It works not just on Cobalts but Shadow Wolves and Wargs too. It’s a canine monster trait. They judge enemies by scent, and once they think they can’t win, their behavior becomes predictable. They—”
Mu Saeng began running as well.
In the same direction the Cobalts were fleeing.
More precisely, toward Cobalts now running in a unified direction—different from their descent from the Hill.
“They rush toward their leader. Toward the only one who can protect them.”
In other words, at this point Mu Saeng had located the Cave where the Cobalt King dwelt.
And once a dog has tasted fear, it will not challenge again.
Canine monsters with strict hierarchies especially so.
“Yowl-yowl-yowl-yowl-yowl!”
“Yowl-yowl, growl-growl! Yowl-yowl!”
Much less Mu Saeng, whose body was thoroughly coated with the Slaeken’s poison-laden Shed Skin.
As that scent drew closer, the Cobalts were barking frantically, even losing control of their bladders……
What remained was one thing.
“Found it.”
“Grrrrrrr…….”
Facing a Cobalt King—massive, nearly human in size.
[Hidden Condition achieved.]
[Rather than a hundred minions]
[A single king]
[Additional Reward will be granted upon Clear.]
What came after was a foregone conclusion.
[……Ha.]
Wash let out a scoff, shaking his head in disbelief.
The Cobalt King never even had a chance to strike back.
Screeeeeech—…….
As the massive beast-form creature charged toward him, Mu Saeng simply splashed water from his water container. That was it.
Of course, it was water laced with poison extracted from the Slaeken’s Poison Fang.
The moment that poison seeped into the Cobalt King’s nasal mucosa, between its eyelids, into the soft tissue of its lips…….
“Kee-eeee-eng…….”
There would be no real battle.
Its body had gone rigid as a wooden puppet.
The Cobalt King simply collapsed, thud.
And the cobalts surrounding their king couldn’t move at all.
“Squeak, squee-eek…….”
“Eep, squeak.”
They couldn’t even flee—just standing frozen in place, trembling and fouling themselves.
Mu Saeng carefully mixed more poison extracted from the Slaeken’s Poison Fang into another water container.
“I used a lot this time, so it should work instantly—no paralysis delays.”
This was mercy, if anything.
Toward the paralyzed cobalts, Mu Saeng splashed water again and again—splash, splash.
[……Like I’m watering flowers. What a mess I am.]
It was such an anticlimactic conquest that even Wash grumbled about it.
[Cobalts eliminated.]
[Cobalts eliminated: 64/15]
[Congratulations!]
[Clear condition achieved.]
[Ability Point +5]
[Additional condition achieved.]
[20 or more cobalts eliminated]
[Additional Reward granted.]
[Stat by category +1]
[Additional Attack Power against small monsters +5%]
“Ey, you sure there’s no other hidden conditions or anything, Administrator?”
[……Stop saying ridiculous things.]
From eliminating 15 cobalts to the Clear message appearing—just five seconds.
Killing an additional 5 within that window was no small feat.
Let alone……killing 49 more. The thought that someone could do that and emerge from Floor 2 would strike most people as delusional.
[Additional Reward from Hidden Condition]
[Stat by category +3]
[Additional Attack Power against small monsters +20%]
“Huh, nice reward.”
Now his additional attack power against small monsters was a full 45%.
Not to mention the stat points he’d accumulated!
“Floor 3……next?”
Mu Saeng hesitated just as he was about to move on to the next challenge.
Additional stat points.
Enhanced special traits.
Even this alone was a world apart from his previous tower climbs…….
[Your understanding of poison has increased.]
[Knowledge 11 → 16]
[You can now handle poison with greater finesse.]
[New skill acquired.]
“Something like that exists too…….”
With the cobalts, he’d had to feed them meat laced with poison to induce only paralysis.
He couldn’t kill them outright, so he’d had to carefully control the poison dosage.
“Yeah, same thing happened when I was beating that bastard Wonwae—I really sweated blood trying to nail that half-a-drop-of-a-drop precision. But it paid off.”
Growth happens only in the tower.
Repeating the same actions in dungeons does nothing.
In other words, this was the first time Mu Saeng had experienced something like this.
And the system message that appeared next.
[Poison Water Offense and Defense]
Water within water, liquor within liquor.
1. Multiple poison components can be extracted from a poison. (However, extraction and separation are only possible when the poison in question causes mixed effects; the function of single-component poisons cannot be altered)
2. The potency of a poison can be adjusted. (However, it cannot be strengthened beyond its original effect)
He’d tried diluting it by mixing poison into water or hiding it in mud or something like that to adjust the concentration, but…….
“Hmm, though the name does sound a bit odd……. Puhaha.”
What did the name matter?
The ability to select functions and adjust potency—it was now just a ‘click’ away!
Mu Saeng couldn’t contain the laughter bubbling up inside him.
‘So this is what climbing the tower means. Or rather…….’
Twenty-nine years since awakening, and for the first time since he was born.
‘Now it truly begins.’
Mu Saeng had acquired a new skill.

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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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