Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 176

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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 176. The Tower – Ancient Ruin (1)

Once the terror attack was suppressed and the situation brought under control, the signing ceremony resumed almost immediately—whether because people of this era were simply tough, or because affixing one’s seal to a surrender document was that important, I couldn’t quite say.
It seemed largely due to Diana, whose presence meant there had been no casualties despite the attack.
Even in an age that prided itself on its machismo, a ceremony wouldn’t have resumed so quickly if lives had been lost.
Still, the photographers were more interested in capturing shots of Quan shining amid the explosions and taking down tanks than in documenting the Northern Military Commander’s seal.
By the time the spotlight faded, Quan had become so famous that one might worry the historical moment of the North defeating the South would be overshadowed.
I’d made a notable impression myself in the chaos, drawing the attention of several journalists, but since I had no wish to carve my name into history, I slipped away using Concealment Art.
Watching the Commander affix his seal, I turned to Bogard with a question.
“Would you ever consider joining our party?”
At my words, Bogard stepped back slightly and gestured toward my companions instead.
“Do you ask your teammates first, or do you make proposals to them?”
“Of course I do. I’m not the sort of person who acts on a whim.”
I’d already sounded out Lee Su-young and Diana—both were inclined favorably toward the idea.
Climbers with abilities suited for the frontline but who shirk that role are everywhere, yet he showed no hesitation about leading the charge in combat, and despite appearances, he possessed a sharp tactical mind.
Diana was intelligent too, but her tactical sense left something to be desired, so having a companion who could think strategically would be welcome.
Beyond all that, his finest quality was his considerate nature—showing kindness in subtle ways while maintaining an easy, warm presence that naturally set the tone of the group.
Bogard deliberated for a moment before answering.
“Thank you for the offer. But unfortunately, I’ll have to decline.”
“Does the proud wolf prefer to roam alone?”
“Ha, there’s that. But I only recently turned down William E. Benburton’s party invitation, and it would be difficult to join another one so soon.”
I looked at him with surprise.
“William? Wait—wasn’t William’s surname Edvans?”
“Edvans is his middle name. His full name is William Edvans Benburton.”
I nodded at Bogard’s correction.
“I see. But I thought they’d be forming a party among family anyway, so it shouldn’t matter too much.”
“Even if it doesn’t matter to them, it matters to me. You don’t know the Benburton Family?”
“I don’t. Are they important?”
Bogard’s expression grew serious—a rare sight—and he nodded.
“Anyone in finance would have to know the Benburton name.”
“Finance? You worked in finance?”
“I did, once. Now I’m just a freelance accountant. After the busy season for income tax and corporate tax filings ended, I was looking into flight tickets to attend a festival at my leisure when I received the Tower invitation.”
To look at him, you’d take him for a baseball-obsessed farm owner, but he was actually white-collar through and through.
I wondered if this festival he mentioned was some kind of military enthusiast expo or something equally niche.
“As someone who’s fought alongside you, let me offer some advice: stay on good terms with the Benburton Family, but don’t get too close. Cold blood runs through that lineage.”
Cold blood?
“A dispassionate judgment is worth its weight in gold in finance. Everyone who knows William calls him the ‘Devil of The City’ and holds him in awe.”
Though my translation rendered it as “the City,” Bogard’s reference to “The City” almost certainly meant The City of London—the financial heart of London itself.
“You gain much from befriending him, but if you grow too close and your usefulness runs out, you may be discarded—like Icarus falling after flying too near the sun. That’s why he’s also known as the ‘Sun of The City.'”
Icarus’s fall was all the more devastating because the sun hung so high in the sky.
Bogard’s gravity shifted; he smiled warmly again and spoke almost apologetically.
“In East Asia, I believe they call it keeping neither too near nor too far. Well, it’s just office gossip I picked up during my Wall Street days, so take it or leave it. You won’t mention that I said this, will you?”
I nodded.
“Of course not. I’m not one to spread others’ business around.”
“Good then. If time passes and a spot opens up in the party later, I’ll give it serious thought.”
“What if there’s no room by then?”
“Then it’s a missed opportunity.”
Bogard seemed sincere in his regret, though he showed little attachment.
When the ceremony concluded and everyone was in disarray, Elliott called us over.
“I’ll remit your promised reward. Follow me.”
Elliott led us—excluding Quan, who was still being hounded by reporters—to a warehouse of military supplies that the Northern Military had confiscated from the South.
The warehouse was stacked high with 1 Dollar Gold Coins.
“Take your reward as promised and leave at once. The terrorists were the ones who stole these confiscated military funds. Is that understood?”
“Perfectly.”
Elliott closed his eyes, told us to grab what we could and go, then left swiftly. We each gathered what we could carry and made a quick exit.
“What about Quan?”
At Diana’s question, we all answered in perfect unison.
“He’ll have to look after himself, just as agreed. Who told him to keep showing off in front of the cameras and play the hero anyway?”
Quan was intoxicated by the journalists’ fervent attention, ignoring our continued calls and boasting about his own heroic exploits.
We didn’t have the courtesy to wait indefinitely, and since swift action was crucial, we couldn’t afford to dawdle on Quan’s account.
I found myself wondering whether rolling a twenty had brought misfortune down upon Quan instead of luck.
Bogard, unable to fit more gold coins into his Inventory, stuffed his pockets full and departed first, remarking as he left, “Don’t get too greedy and end up caught for nothing. Let’s just take what’s reasonable.”

While everyone else hurriedly grabbed their coins and left, Lee Su-young, Diana, and I remained until the very end.
“You know, I don’t think Elliott would have thought this far ahead either.”
I watched the heaping pile of coins left over after the three of them had taken their fill, then swept them all into my Subspace Cube.
“Is it really okay if we take all of this?”
At Lee Su-young’s question, I grinned greedily.
“If we only steal a portion, they’ll root out the inside man. But if we strip the place clean, it stays a mystery. Besides, what’s here is only a tiny fraction of the Northern Military’s supply funds anyway—no problem, right?”
And more importantly, the contract specified that we’d take what we found, but there was no clause limiting how much we could carry away.
Rationalizing it that way, we hurried back to the Tower Floor 20 District.
As a note, we’d already agreed to split everything equally.
The coins we’d swept up came to a total of 120,000 dollars.
Each 1 Dollar Gold Coin weighs 1.67 grams, with gold and copper mixed at a 9-to-1 ratio, so the gold weight per coin is roughly 1.5 grams.
We’d obtained 180 kilograms of pure gold.

* * *

By the time we returned to the 20th Floor District, roughly twenty-three hours had passed.
We’d left after lunch, and here we were back at lunchtime again.
We stopped by the Climber-Exclusive Bank to deposit the 120,000 dollars in coins, then transferred the funds to Lee Su-young and Diana using the Tower Shop’s personal trade feature.
“We could never have brought back this much ourselves. Are you sure it’s all right to split it this way?”
At Diana’s question, I laughed quietly.
“On Floor 22, my performance was honestly quite prominent, so I wouldn’t have minded receiving a higher percentage in compensation. But on Floor 26, honestly, nobody stood out particularly. I think dividing the spoils from Floor 26 fairly is the right call.”
The coins were light enough that I could have carried them all without my Subspace Cube anyway, so I felt awkward taking more.
Lee Su-young nodded at my words.
“You’re right. Taking too little can cause friction too. And unnie, you should be a bit more materialistic. You’ll need to buy personal equipment down the line, and if we run short on funds, what then? Use the pittance from our communal pool?”
Diana nodded, seeming convinced by Lee Su-young’s and my arguments.
We’d established a communal fund that I, with my Subspace Cube, managed. It wasn’t much—just money we all used together when moving as a group, like Library entrance fees or meal expenses.
“What about Floor 27? We’re here now because we had to stop by the bank anyway, but I’m ready to dive in right away if you are.”
My Mithril Sword had picked up a slight nick, but there was no helping it.
I had a Lizardman King Bone Sword to replace it with, and a Growth-type Sword as well.
We hadn’t earned many Shop Points on the previous floor, but we’d accumulated plenty on Floor 22, so there was no need to venture outside the City to earn more.
Lee Su-young and Diana both nodded at my words.
“I got plenty of sleep, so I’m not especially tired.”
“I’m in good condition too. But Ji-woo, didn’t you wake up at dawn?”
At Diana’s concern, I shrugged.
“Getting up a bit early isn’t enough to tire me out anymore. My body’s just too healthy now….”
Diana giggled at my words.
She seemed to feel it herself—that since entering the Tower, she wasn’t just healthy but positively brimming with vitality.
Truth be told, if we’d come straight away after reaching our destination, we’d have been exhausted and collapsed. But we’d decided to stay and watch the surrender documents being signed, taking a full day to rest properly. Now we were all at peak condition.
We decided to tackle Floor 27 right after lunch.
“I mentioned a nice restaurant I spotted when we came back from Floor 22. Let’s go there! If we keep eating preserved rations, we’ll lose our sense of taste. We deserve to enjoy a good meal at a proper establishment!”
Hmm, I hoped it wouldn’t be too expensive.

* * *

After lunch at the expensive restaurant Lee Su-young had insisted on, we headed to the Safe Zone in the City Center and made our way to Floor 27.
The quest on Floor 27 didn’t take long and turned out simpler than expected.
We were asked to exorcise a ghost haunting a theater—and surprisingly, Diana’s Holy Power didn’t affect it.
Still, I figured that since it was a spirit, Spirit Body Strike Magic should work, so I gave it a try. Fortunately, it did.
The ghost turned out not to be a real spirit at all, but a former actor with a grudge against the theater owner who had learned dangerous Soul Magic from somewhere and was impersonating a ghost to bankrupt the theater.
Examining the magic, it was terrifyingly dangerous and being used incorrectly. Had we been even slightly late dealing with it, it would have drained the souls of every living creature in the area and transformed into an uncontrollable monstrosity.
Though chilled by the realization, we cleared Floor 27 without trouble in just an hour and moved on to Floor 28.

* * *

The environment on Floor 28 was, once again, the entrance to an ancient ruin somewhere deep in a jungle.
Is it a bit like the 16th Floor where we subjugated the Vampire, rather than the 22nd Floor?
As I looked around thinking that, I noticed two more faces I’d never seen before.
Among the unfamiliar Climbers, a blonde young white woman exhaled softly and spoke.
“So we’re doing this with five people.”
Besides me, Lee Su-young, and Diana from the same party, a white woman and a man who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent would be ascending the 28th Floor together.
The white woman appeared to be a beautiful woman in her mid-to-late twenties, and judging by her fluent English accent and American intonation, she seemed to be American.
The man was growing his beard thick, so he could appear anywhere from mid-twenties to mid-forties.
However, he seemed far removed from religious attire like turbans.
Perhaps the very act of immediately picturing someone in a turban when thinking of Middle Easterners was itself a racial prejudice.
At that moment, the Middle Eastern man smiled and introduced himself.
“I’m Mano Hadad from Egypt. Since we’re climbing this floor together, how about we share our abilities in broad strokes?”
If it had been the teens, perhaps not—but everyone knew that once you’d reached the 20s, your abilities would inevitably be revealed once you fought together.
Mano Hadad gathered a discolored, silvery aura in his hand as he spoke.
“I’m a Debuffer, to put it in MMORPG terms. I can weaken enemies.”
Instinctively, I felt this was a different line of Holy Power from Diana’s.
Where Diana’s was a brilliant silver that restored life, this was a murky silver that harvested it.
“Han Ji-woo. I primarily use the sword.”
Once I introduced myself, Lee Su-young and Diana each explained their abilities in turn.
As all eyes turned to focus on her, the blonde beauty looked us over and answered.
“Rachel Quillenberg. My ability is Magic.”
Once everyone’s introductions were complete, we checked the 28th Floor Quest in the Crystal.

(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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