Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 128

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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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Episode 128. The Tower – Lizardman City (4)

Lee Su-young watched Han Ji-woo dart away under Invisibility and let out a low whistle.
“Wow, running solo like that—he’s seriously fast.”
She couldn’t see him with her own eyes under the Invisibility spell, but watching the speed marker on the Mini Map, he seemed to fly hundreds of meters in an instant.
The Mini Map showed only about twenty meters in radius, but when a party member moved beyond its range, a blue arrow pointed their direction and distance.
“I’m heading out now too. Good luck out there.”
“You too.”
Diana pushed forward, clumsily wielding the Lightness Skill herself.
Since stepping into the third rank, Diana had managed to awkwardly mimic Han Ji-woo’s Lightness Skill under his guidance.
Unlike Lee Su-young, who struggled just to memorize the acupuncture points, Diana had been a graduate student in medical school before entering the Tower—which was why she’d picked up the meridian locations so quickly.
Or rather, it was more accurate to say she’d applied her existing anatomical knowledge to martial arts.
By memorizing the acupuncture points in familiar English names instead of unfamiliar Chinese characters, she could simply move her inner energy through them.
She was still clumsy enough that she couldn’t fly like Han Ji-woo, but she was far faster than Lee Su-young.
“When will I be able to move like that?”
It was greedy for a rear-line ranged dealer to match the specs of a front-liner.
But watching both Han Ji-woo and Diana use the Lightness Skill while she alone couldn’t—she couldn’t help but feel ambitious about it.
Still, in this operation, Lee Su-young didn’t need to move around directly like the other two.
All she had to do was send her Slimes out to set fires here and there and sow chaos.
Of course, Slimes were small and slow.
There was no way for Lee Su-young to send them quickly on her own.
But when something was impossible by human strength alone, using tools was the wisdom of mankind.
Lee Su-young pulled out the Handkerchief Han Ji-woo had given her from her pocket.
The Handkerchief had Levitation Magic and Invisibility cast upon it, using monster blood collected so far and magic stones as catalysts.
Even at its best, a handkerchief-sized object couldn’t lift more than a kilogram—but her Slimes weighed only around two hundred grams each.
In other words, she could easily lift about two of them.
It was essentially a flying carpet for Slimes.
Lee Su-young placed a Fire Balloon that spewed flames and a Wind Balloon that exhaled gusts onto the Handkerchief and sent them soaring into the sky.
There was a limit to how far the Slimes could separate from Lee Su-young—but that distance was two hundred fifty meters.
Centered on herself, she could cover a diameter of five hundred meters, so Lee Su-young didn’t need to move around as much as her two party members did.
More importantly, she could observe the surroundings through the Slimes’ eyes from the sky above, making her far safer.
The Wind Balloon blew air from its mouth, propelling the Handkerchief swiftly across the sky.
The Invisibility spell worked flawlessly too; beneath the Handkerchief, the Slime was completely hidden from sight.
After sending the Slime ahead into the city, Lee Su-young unleashed Magic Bullets in all directions, setting fires across the city.
Where the Magic Bullets ignited flames, the Wind Balloon exhaled, fanning them larger.
As fire broke out everywhere, the Lizardmen panicked and rushed about trying to extinguish the flames, and in the chaos, Lee Su-young slipped into the city undetected, without even needing to use the Invisibility spell that had a time limit.
Now all Lee Su-young had to do was move leisurely, observe her surroundings, and keep setting fires.

* * *

I arrived at the Armory I’d scouted earlier and studied the Lizardman guard stationed there.
Those of Warlord rank and above clearly possessed human-level intelligence.
Warrior-class minds were no better than a child’s, so they’d never assign sentry duty like this.
When I’d observed from far away with the Mage’s Eye, worried about being spotted, I thought he might look no different from the others—but watching this guard stand firmly at his post rather than just idling, I realized dealing with a Warlord or Shaman would be a headache.
Then black smoke rose from the city’s outskirts.
It was Lee Su-young’s signal to move.
The Lizardman soldiers on guard duty looked startled, their eyes turning toward where the smoke rose.
The distance was far enough that they didn’t abandon their posts in front of the Armory.
But it didn’t matter. Just having their attention drawn away made assassinating two lizards child’s play.
I fired a Magic Bullet through one soldier’s skull, and as he collapsed, I turned to twist the neck of the remaining soldier.
After disposing of both soldiers, I shattered the Armory door hinges.
Then I shoved the bodies inside where they couldn’t be seen and used magic to wipe away the blood spilled by the soldiers.
I could tell this was an Armory because the door had wooden bars, letting me see right through into the interior.
Having gained fragments of intellect didn’t mean the lizards’ capabilities leaped forward dramatically.
“Still, they’ve got some blacksmithing skill.”
Swords and spears made of bronze were piled inside, their blades stained green with rust from the jungle’s humidity.
I pulled out my Subspace Cube and swept everything inside into it.

After grabbing the weapon the guard had been holding, I repositioned the wooden lattice door I’d removed so it looked reasonably intact, then headed for the next Armory.
There were four Armories in total throughout the City, as far as I’d mapped it.
To cover them all quickly, I had to move fast.
Diana would manage fine, wouldn’t she?
Both I and Lee Su-young mattered, but the linchpin of this operation was Diana.

* * *

Diana moved, watching the distant flames that roared into the sky.
Her objective was the Prisoner Camp where Lizardmen from tribes that didn’t follow the Lizardman King were being held.
The Prisoner Camp’s security was lighter than she’d expected.
The guards stationed there were startled by the fire and had abandoned their posts to help extinguish the blaze.
When Diana arrived at the camp, she naturally had no intention of freeing the prisoners immediately.
Lee Su-young hadn’t created enough commotion yet, and Han Ji-woo hadn’t finished gathering weapons.
Still, the reason Diana came to the Prisoner Camp first was her Holy Power.
Diana and her companions’ objective was to create chaos—causing the Lizardmen to either turn on each other or flee, drawing the Lizardman forces out of the City.
But for that to work, the captives needed to be in fighting condition.
In their starved, abused state, even with weapons in hand, they couldn’t fight properly or run effectively.
Diana healed the prisoners with her Holy Power, hoping they would survive—that they’d escape intact from the wicked Lizardman King and reclaim the peace that was rightfully theirs.
Though the Lizardmen were monsters, she didn’t want them to suffer the humiliation of being hunted by their own kind any longer.
After reviving the prisoners, Diana drank a Mana Recovery Potion and moved toward the next Prisoner Camp.

* * *

The King saw black smoke rising from his Royal Palace.
“What is this?”
The Shaman answered the King’s question.
“A fire of unknown origin has broken out. The Warlords Abdul and Kaldun have taken soldiers and tribesmen to suppress it.”
Warriors below that rank had no names, but the Shaman and the Warlords received theirs as a gift from the King.
Names were a means of distinguishing individuals.
The Warrior rank and below required no such distinction, so it was troublesome to assign them names.
Conversely, the King was a being utterly unique and exalted; he needed no name and was simply called the King.
Thus, among the Lizardmen, only those of the Shaman and Warlord ranks possessed names.
“This bodes ill. Ill indeed.”
A sudden foreboding gripped the King.
He couldn’t tell whether this dread came from the anxiety of his aging body, or from his inspiration as an avatar of miracles and a great king.
But the King saw no need to distinguish between them.
A king was one who could do anything he wished—and that was himself.
And so the King gave his command.
“Extinguish this fire at once, and hasten the Altar Excavation. Faster!”
At the King’s violent cry, the Shaman bowed and obeyed his will.
“I shall dispatch three more Warlords and another Shaman, and accelerate the excavation.”

* * *

Whether because my movement speed was fast or the ancient City was simply smaller than I’d assumed, the Armory raids finished sooner than expected.
“Hmm, have they caught on?”
I’d scattered Mage’s Eye throughout the City.
A single Mage’s Eye could be used like an actual eye, but multiple ones created a surveillance window with a split-screen display.
The eye monitoring the Royal Fortress at the City’s center occupied a quarter of the screen because it was such a critical position, allowing me to spot anything unusual immediately.
From the Royal Fortress, I saw Lizardmen who looked like Warlords and the Shaman emerging, and Warriors heading toward the Prisoner Camp.
The Warlords and Shaman wore more elaborate Feather Decorations than the ordinary Warriors, making them stand out even from a distance.
“Is this to give the prisoners a warning now that chaos has started? Or has something come up that requires deploying them?”
More than half of the information I’d extracted from the nameless Warrior I’d interrogated seemed false, but there was mention of an Altar Excavation of ancient people buried in the ground at the City’s center.
Perhaps they intended to use the prisoners to dig up that Altar.
That Altar was likely where the Gold we sought lay sleeping.
In this Jungle, in Tansa, the ancients made offerings of Gold to what they called gods, and altars were where offerings were made to those gods.
Now that I thought about it, even the ruling-class Warriors, Warlords, and Shamans wore only elaborate Feather Decorations—none of them wore Gold.
It wasn’t as if they lacked metallurgical skill; they forged Bronze Weapons well enough.
Gold was far easier to work than copper, so it was possible that Gold simply held no value for the Lizardmen.
Then there must be places where the earth and gold buried underground have been cleared away.
I ran across the top of a building toward the Prisoner Camp, taking a quick look.
Several spots caught my eye where soil had piled up like burial mounds.
I decided to confirm later whether those were golden mounds or not.
For now, plunging the City into chaos took priority.
Upon reaching the nearest Prisoner Camp, I unhesitatingly shot the Lizardman soldiers with my Magic Bullet pistol and scattered Bronze Weapons from the Subspace Cube onto the ground.
Then I completely smashed the gates of the Prisoner Camp.
“Take up arms! Attack the wicked enemies! We must escape now! If you stay here, you’ll die!”
I shouted with all my strength, inciting the Lizardmen.
Though they were beasts who couldn’t speak properly, they understood language and were easily swayed.
Perhaps they weren’t moved by my words so much as by their instinct that staying in the camp would mean death.
Beasts weren’t without survival instinct.
In fact, their instinct for survival surpassed that of intelligent beings.
The Lizardmen burst from the camp, grabbed the weapons rolling on the ground, and scattered in all directions—whether fleeing or seeking revenge for their slaughtered kin, I couldn’t tell.
“Shall I move to the next camp.”
I might encounter Diana as I made my rounds of the camps.
According to the operation, once Diana finished healing the prisoners, she would rejoin Lee Su-young and they’d move together, while I operated alone.
Lee Su-young would be helpless if injured or surrounded, but I could escape by any means and had regeneration, so getting hurt didn’t matter.
“They’re moving actively on the Mini Map.”
Diana had already completed one circuit of the camps and was heading to the rendezvous point with Lee Su-young.
Since chaos had already erupted, there was no need to hide and move carefully.
Even acting openly, we’d be undetectable—my entire body concealed by a Cloak and my scent masked.
The City was already filled with flames, and I continued throwing weapons and releasing prisoners.
When the prisoner liberation was complete, I surveyed the entire City with Mage’s Eye and found it had transformed into a complete battlefield.
Prisoners fleeing and soldiers chasing, prisoners attacking and the king’s kinfolk resisting.
The Lizardmen who had been prisoners, though recovered by Diana’s Holy Power, were so famished they didn’t hesitate to cannibalize their own kind.
“Shall I join the hunt.”
Time to earn Shop Points. Might as well gather some Gold while I’m at it.

(Continued in the next episode)

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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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