Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 130

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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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Chapter 130. The Tower – Lizardman City (6)

The king facing me was visibly decrepit, worn by age.
Yet despite this, he radiated an aura far more formidable than mine.
What layer had this monster originally come from?
I couldn’t be certain, but it had to be a creature from at least the fortieth floor or beyond.
That last attack had been so visible from anywhere in the city that Lee Su-young and Diana both sent worried messages at once.

-Lee Su-young: Are you alright?
-Han Ji-woo: I’m fine.

The moment the king appeared, I felt the great warriors and sorcerers scattered throughout the city beginning to converge on my location.
The great warriors and sorcerers had stronger auras than common lizardmen, so tracking their positions was straightforward.
Still, given how many I’d already hunted, only four of them were rushing my way.
I’d ambushed and killed about seven, so that meant nine remained. Or did it?
Lee Su-young and Diana must have hunted some as well.
Just as well. If even one great warrior joined this fight now, I’d be finished.

-Han Ji-woo: Just deal with the ones heading this way.

Diana responded to my request.

-Diana: Wouldn’t it be better if we joined and fought together?
-Han Ji-woo: That’s enough help for now. Do not come here under any circumstances.

Diana’s support would certainly make things easier.
But if this turned into a numbers game, we’d be at a severe disadvantage.
Since the Lizardman King had crawled out alone, I needed to exploit this moment to its fullest.
Diana acknowledged my orders and moved to intercept the approaching warriors.
I focused on the Lizardman King before me, his aura crackling with lethal intent.
By my estimate, at the fortieth floor level, he’d be First-Rate as a martial artist, Fourth-Class as a mage.
I wasn’t sure about Fourth-Class mages, but I’d faced plenty of First-Rate martial artists in my reincarnated form.
With this much power, he was approaching Peak Mastery among First-Rate warriors.
In other words, a monster nearly at the fiftieth floor’s level.
Meanwhile, I could use Sword Qi—proof of First-Rate status—but in truth I was little better than Second-Rate.
Actually, with my physical specs at Third-Rate level, I might be even worse.
But that aged lizard across from me faced the same problem with his decaying body.
His aura was lethal, but how long could that withered frame sustain a real fight?
“You’re the one causing this chaos?”
The Lizardman King asked, his voice laden with killing intent.
Judging by the situation, he was watching his prisoners and tribesmen die by the moment—victims of the chaos I’d unleashed.
According to the warrior I’d interrogated, the king sought to regain his youth through some method, offering live sacrifices.
Now those precious sacrifices were killing each other, so his rage was understandable.
If this chaos depleted his sacrificial stock enough that he couldn’t restore his youth, the blow would be devastating indeed.
“So what if I am?”
Without another word, the Lizardman King hurled a Spear Qi at me.
Instinctively reading the spear’s trajectory, I conjured a Defensive Barrier to block it—but it shattered instantly, the attack punching through.
The barrier had dissipated enough of its force that I deflected the weakened spear thrust with my blade.
Even though I’d only parried the diminished strike, my arm tingled with numbness.
The Lizardman King stared at me, shocked that I’d actually stopped his spear.
“Insolent worm. You dare block the king’s spear?”
He looked genuinely stunned—as if he’d never imagined anyone could defend against him.
Watching him, I let out a scoffing laugh.
“What’s that supposed to mean, beast? You think commanding a mob of beasts makes you a real king? Gather as many beasts as you like—they’re still just beasts.”
My arrogant words seemed to shock the Lizardman King beyond mere surprise. He looked genuinely appalled—as if he’d never been spoken to this way in his entire life.
“You’re just going to stand there? Come at me. I don’t expect much from a rotting husk about to croak, but since you fancy yourself king, I’ll give you the courtesy of a real fight.”
At my words, the trembling Lizardman King lost his composure and charged at me like a beast.
What a fragile ego. This creature had been indulged his entire wretched life.
Rage had scattered the Lizardman King’s movements so thoroughly that I could read every trajectory with clarity.
“Ugh!”
The problem was that even reading them didn’t help much—they were too fast and powerful to dodge or block easily.
The Lizardman King thrust his spear at my heart and throat.
I traced the spear’s path and conjured ten layers of Defensive Barrier in front of it, pouring all my focus into reducing its speed and force.
The Lizardman King’s spear shattered my barriers like glass, and though the impact sapped its momentum, the thrust remained deadly.
But it was far more manageable than facing it head-on.
I could block and evade with my blade. That was enough.
The Lizardman King swept his spear in a wide arc, aiming for my neck.
I ducked beneath it and charged inward, swinging my sword.
Clang!
Despite putting my full strength behind the blow, I only grazed the Lizardman King’s ribs—his scales and outer skin parted, but the blade didn’t bite deep.
“Damn it! The bastard’s hard as steel!”
“How dare you wound the King’s flesh!”
The King brought the haft down like an overhead strike, aiming for my head.
He meant to crush me with the shaft itself, not the blade.
I rolled sideways in a full tumble to avoid it, then immediately swung my blade to cut at his thigh.
Clang!
What manner of lizard had scales made from solid iron?
Even reinforcing my blade with inner force only scraped the outer skin.
“Hiss!”
The Lizardman King continued thrusting his spear at my heart.
After parrying his attacks several times, I began to understand something.
This creature had never properly learned spear technique.
Then again, how could anyone have taught him? The thing had only recently gained intelligence and strength.
The King’s spearwork consisted of nothing but crude thrusts and wild swings.
Yet I couldn’t afford to underestimate him.
His raw power was so overwhelming that even simple thrusts and swings carried devastating force.
Besides, over a hundred years of nothing but thrusting would make even a monkey—or a lizard—a master of the form.
I sidestepped the thrusts and dodged the sweeps.
And with each opening, I cut at the Lizardman King.
The King had no experience being counterattacked; he couldn’t evade well.
With such overwhelming strength, his enemies would have fled in terror rather than attacking relentlessly like I was doing.
“Fine then—let me play the spoon assassin today!”
“Nonsense!”
The Lizardman King roared in fury and began swinging his spear wildly.
When he brought it down in an overhead strike, I stepped forward and sidestepped, slashing his forearm.
As he twisted to follow me and swept the spear horizontally, I crouched and cut at his calf and thigh.
When he thrust the spear repeatedly, I closed the distance and drove my blade forward.
“Ugh!”
A moment of carelessness cost me—his spear pierced through my ribs.
“Ahahaha! Insignificant fly! Do you now understand the King’s majesty?”
After allowing dozens of his attacks, the Lizardman King had finally landed a near-fatal wound. He laughed with arrogant triumph.
“Damn! How infuriating!”
I clutched at my wound and dropped to one knee—then launched myself forward like a spring, aiming my blade at the Lizardman King’s throat.
Kneeling was just to build momentum!
The Sword Qi coating my blade could tear through even the Lizardman King’s scales like paper.
“Gah!”
Startled, the King twisted his body desperately to avoid my strike.
This time, a deep gash opened across his neck.
At least five centimeters—a terrible wound.
But for a thick-necked creature like the Lizardman King, it wasn’t quite fatal.
“Tsk. Damn it.”
“Insolence!”
The Lizardman King, burning with rage, kicked at me where I stood close.
“Ungh!”
Even as I conjured twenty layers of Defensive Barrier and infused my inner force into my Pseudo-Heavenly Silkworm Warrior Suit for protection, the blow caught my abdomen and hurled me backward, vomiting blood as I crashed into the Ancient Ruin.
The impact dealt internal injuries, and blood gushed from the wound in my pierced ribs.
But it’s fine. I have Regeneration.
Though my vision blurred from blood loss, I still had the Blood Increase Mana Tool I’d obtained from killing the Vampire on Floor 16.
As Mana burned away and the internal and penetrating wounds regenerated in an instant, the Lizardman King—who had been advancing triumphantly to finish me off while clutching his wounded neck—froze in shock.
“Phew~! Looks like I’ll live. Pathetic lizard, you don’t have an ability like that, do you?”
I drained a Mana Recovery Potion.
My mana pool had grown larger and my consumption had increased, so I needed to drink the mid-tier version rather than the low-tier, but it didn’t matter.
I’d hunted nearly a thousand Lizardmen, so Shop Points were overflowing.
Low-tier potions cost ten points and mid-tier a hundred, but these Lizardmen here gave twenty points each—quite the haul.
“Did you buy this potion with the lives of your own subjects’ worth? Hmm~! Yami~! Your dreams of extending your own life? They’ve been replaced by my points. Damn lizard.”
The Lizardman King cried out, trembling with rage at my provocation.
“If I don’t kill you, I am no king!”
The enraged king’s aura shifted dramatically.
“From this moment, I will capture you with all my strength and grind your flesh between my teeth!”
Had he been fighting at half-strength until now, worried that his life force would drain away from age?
When the king opened his mana fully, I—sensitive to mana—could sense it.
The Lizardman King’s lifespan should have ended long ago.
He was only sustaining himself through mana and mysteries of unknown origin.
For the Lizardman King, using mana was tantamount to burning his very lifespan in battle.
No wonder he’d been a manageable First-Rate near Peak Mastery.
But the king had apparently decided to sacrifice his remaining years to kill me.
From now on, he was no longer a lizard holding back his First-Rate strength—he was a monster wielding the power of Peak-Beyond, just shy of true transcendence.
The Lizardman King wielded his spear with full force, channeling mana into every stroke.
I used the Lightness Technique to launch myself away and evade, and as the spear’s trajectory carved through the air, a section of the city collapsed and Lizardmen fell dead in its wake.
The king was so consumed by fury that he didn’t spare a glance for his dying kinsmen.
“Oh, why so serious? Touchy, aren’t we~? Getting angry~? It’s just a joke—why take it to heart? Don’t be so sensitive, lizard. You’re starting to seem like you’ve got some real character issues.”
“Kyaaaaaaaa!!”
The Lizardman King shrieked and unleashed Spear Qi in wild, sweeping arcs.
Creating Sword Qi is something anyone who reaches First-Rate can manage, but launching Qi from the blade itself—separating it from both weapon and body—isn’t something just anyone can do.
You had to reach Peak Mastery at the very minimum to pull off such a technique.
“No! Damn it! He’s not near-Peak Mastery at First-Rate—he’s a full, perfected Peak Master!”
It seemed I’d misjudged him, reading his aura as weakened by age.
If I’d known from the start he’d reached such mastery, I’d have turned tail without a second glance instead of running my mouth like an idiot!
Though, come to think of it, I probably would’ve provoked him anyway even if he were Peak-Beyond.
How could I pass up something this entertaining?
I fled his spear strikes, angling my escape away from where my companions stood.
Even dodging the cascading Spear Qi, my body was caught in the windstorms they created, making it hard to keep my balance.
Even though this city was an ancient ruin built by ancients and worn by the ages, producing enough devastation to level the surroundings took considerable effort.
In other words, with each strike, the aging Lizardman King was burning through chunks of his remaining lifespan.
“Can’t be helped. Might as well throw away my life three times over instead of once.”
I grinned wickedly and charged toward the Lizardman King.

(Continued in the next part)

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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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