Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 182

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 182. The Tower – Night Walker (3)

The man drooling profusely radiated a savage aura, an insatiable hunger, a gnawing starvation.
From the look of him, this researcher-clad monster had clearly been trapped in this Research Facility for a very long time.
It seemed likely that some magic or seal had been placed on the Research Facility to prevent soul-devouring monsters from escaping.
Why a researcher who would know such a seal existed had become a monster remained a mystery, but my best guess was that he’d either made a mistake or become a monster as an experimental subject.
Surely someone with the rank of researcher wouldn’t have been ignorant of the seal’s existence?
…Though in life, I’d often found that “surely not” was precisely what got people killed.
While I was lost in such idle thoughts, the Researcher Monster fashioned shadow arrows and sent them hurtling toward us.
The party blocked them each in their own way.
Lee Su-young created a defensive barrier with the Wind Shield, while Diana hardened her body with Holy Power.
Rachel deployed defensive magic, and Mano crouched behind a shield reinforced with Holy Power.
I weaved between the incoming shadow arrows in a zigzag pattern, evading them while charging once more toward the Statue.
“This!”
The moment I made my aggressive move toward the Statue, the Researcher Monster concentrated its shadow arrows on me.
In that window, Diana and Mano unleashed Holy Power at full force against the Researcher Monster, Lee Su-young fired Water Jade Bullets in rapid succession, and Rachel unleashed arrows of pure sunlight.
The Researcher Monster desperately blocked the barrage of attacks with shadow, all while intensifying its volleys of shadow arrows to prevent my approach to the Statue.
“Grrrrgh! Come forth! My servants!”
Unable to endure alone, the Researcher Monster summoned the walking corpses bound to him.
The way he deployed spatial magic in the midst of battle suggested he’d been a mage of considerable skill before his transformation.
His techniques appeared to be at least 5th Class level, but he’d weakened drastically from having gone without souls for so long.
For a moment, I recalled the cursed Orc Warrior I’d faced on Floor 19, but warriors and mages were built differently.
A weakened warrior loses overall combat effectiveness sharply, whereas a weakened mage suffers comparatively less loss in battle capacity.
A warrior’s body is both weapon and source of strength; a mage needs only a sound mind and knowledge of magic to continue fighting effectively, regardless of physical weakness.
And yet the Researcher Monster was clearly weakened.
Though perhaps that was only natural.
The saying that a healthy mind dwells in a healthy body was merely the inverse of another truth: an unhealthy body harbors an unhealthy mind.
A shattered body could never host an intact spirit.
There was a reason Body-Mind Balance mattered so much.
With Diana and Mano’s Holy Power already burning his entire body, he had to be suffering terribly.
“Su-young! You handle the corpses!”
“Understood!”
Lee Su-young fired Water Jade Bullets at the Warp Gate leading to the upper floors at my command.
The walking corpses failed to properly cross the gate and collapsed, riddled with holes from her bullets.
With Lee Su-young’s firepower diverted, the Researcher Monster gained some breathing room, but the situation hardly improved.
I dodged the falling shadow arrows as best I could while slashing my blade at the Statue.
Ping!
The defensive magic around the Statue sent me flying upward again, but the recoil was significantly weaker than the first strike.
Using the knockback and Lightness Kung Fu, I planted my feet on the ceiling, then kicked off toward the Statue again, blade raised.
Ping! Crack.
Knocked back once more, but this time cracks began spreading across the Statue’s surface.
Good—just one or two more strikes and I could shatter it completely.
The Researcher Monster seemed to reach the same conclusion, thinning the shadow barrier protecting himself while multiplying the shadow arrows fired at me and even deploying shadow whips as additional attacks.
I spun once through the air, channeling mana into the Magic Staff in my left hand to create footholds in empty space.
Combined with the Double Jump Bracelet from Floor 14, my footwork technique, and Lightness Kung Fu, three-dimensional evasion maneuvers were entirely feasible.
“Die! I said die!”
As I continuously shifted direction in midair, evading shadow arrows and whips while pressing toward the Statue, the Researcher Monster’s eyes flooded with bloodshot fury.
Half of the Researcher Monster’s body was already covered in grotesque burns, blazing with silver flame and trailing smoke.
I feinted toward the Statue, then pivoted toward the Researcher Monster himself, my blade cutting clean through both his shadow barrier and his right arm.
“Aaaahhhhh!!”
My sword carried both Sword Energy and Diana’s thick Holy Power; his severed right arm could not regenerate and burned away in silver flames.
While the Researcher Monster reeled from the pain of losing his arm, I turned back toward the Statue and pressed my assault.
Ping! Ping!
The Statue continued deflecting and repelling my strikes, but under my relentless barrage, the defensive magic finally shattered and crumbled completely.
Crash!
Reeling from events that had unfolded in seconds, the Researcher Monster stared in disbelief at the remains of the broken Statue, his eyes wild.
A Crystal appeared atop the Statue’s remnants, as if declaring the mission complete and offering passage to the next floor. The Researcher Monster withdrew the mana he’d been channeling to protect the Statue, then began to rampage.
“How dare you…! How dare you!! Aaaaahhhhh!!”
The Researcher Monster, enraged as though a tower of effort built over a lifetime had crumbled to dust, abandoned all reason and covered the surroundings in shadow, unleashing shadow thorns in all directions.
At the sight of this, I cried out urgently.
“Maximum Holy Power defense!”
At my shout, Diana immediately poured all her Holy Power at the Researcher Monster, and Mano, after a moment’s hesitation, unleashed his Holy Power with full force at the creature as well.
Pressed back by the brilliant silver Holy Power, the shadow thorns veered away from the spot where four of them had gathered, missing everyone but me.
I stood directly opposite the Statue, which meant I received no protection from the two of them, and the shadow thorns pierced through my entire body.
Fortunately, I had protected my head and heart with all my strength, so I avoided instant death.
“Tch—damn it, this coat’s made from irreplaceable hide.”
The coat, fashioned from Lizardman King leather, had been torn full of holes.
This was indeed an attack befitting the last rampage of at least 5th Class level.
Still, not so many holes that repairs would be impossible.
The real problem was that the shadow thorns, whether driven by the Researcher’s malice or by some contagious nature like the Vampire’s, moved with the intent to consume my flesh.
I suppressed the thorns’ power with my mana and charged at the Researcher Monster.
Having lost reason, the Researcher Monster transformed its body to attack me, but the shadow attacks were actually more threatening.
“This is why sorcerers have to keep their minds intact.”
I smiled bitterly as I severed the creature’s arm, drove in deep, cut through its neck, and pierced its heart.
My blade still held Diana’s Holy Power thickly, and where I cut, silver flames erupted, burning the Researcher Monster.
At the final blow, the creature seemed to have no more strength to resist as silver fire spread across its entire form, and in its last moment, the Researcher Monster regained awareness, glaring at me with eyes full of resentment and bitter resentment.
“Freedom… so close…!”
The Researcher Monster, burning in Holy Power, left no proper last words and simply scattered into ash.
“Phew, exhausted.”
I collapsed flat on the ground.
Because of the mana contained in the shadow thorns, I couldn’t regenerate my wounds and bled profusely.
“Are you all right?!”
Diana rushed over to me and treated my body with what little Holy Power she had left.
“Your Holy Power is helping—I think I’ll survive.”
The mana embedded in the shadow thorns dissipated when exposed to Diana’s Holy Power.
With the mana that had been hindering regeneration now gone, I could heal rapidly.
I equipped the Blood-Replenishing Magical Tool I’d obtained from Floor 16 and replenished the blood I’d lost.
Neither regeneration nor Holy Power could properly restore lost blood, so for someone like me who charged in relying on regeneration, this magical tool proved far more useful than expected.
“Wait—isn’t that an Ability Stone?”
Lee Su-young discovered a Magic Stone and an Ability Stone where the Researcher had burned away. The moment the Ability Stone appeared, everyone’s expressions became awkward.
Diana, Lee Su-young, and I were one party, but Rachel and Mano were not.
When no one dared to speak hastily about what to do with the Ability Stone, I rose to my feet and spoke.
“Everyone worked hard, so let’s do a Dutch Payment.”
At my words, Rachel asked.
“How would you distribute it?”
“Whoever wants this Ability Stone can pay the others in Shop Points or Credits. How much do Ability Stones usually go for, again….”
While I was searching my memory, Rachel spoke up.
“An unappraisal Ability Stone typically goes for around three hundred thousand dollars. In Credits, that would be about three million Credits. After appraisal, the price could drop, or it could rise several dozen times over.”
Three million Credits—roughly three hundred million won, I suppose.
Prices dropped when an ability was mediocre or carried definite risks.
For instance, the Green Wood Sword Technique I obtained from Floor 2 wasn’t impressive enough to be worth tens of millions of won, and something like the Berserker ability from Floor 9 carried definite risks, so its price was considerably cheaper than other Ability Stones.
In the early days when The Tower and Gates first appeared, any Ability Stone could command whatever price people asked, but now, with Tower Returners who’d learned martial arts from The Tower running quite a few dojos, demand for Ability Stones had dropped significantly.
Even if you gained an ability from an Ability Stone, you still had to practice and refine it like martial arts or magic, so there was no need to incur the expense and risk unnecessarily.
“What if multiple people want it?”
At Mano’s question, I shrugged.
“Then those who want it have to bid against each other. First, does anyone want it? Should we get it appraised?”
I had Appraisal Glasses, so I didn’t need to purchase an Appraisal Certificate, but I couldn’t pull such an item out just anywhere.
In response to my question, Mano pondered for a moment, then purchased an Appraisal Certificate from the Shop.
“I’ll appraise it. If it’s a shadow-related ability, I’d like to have it. My ability tends to lack offensive power, after all.”
Mano said this and used the Appraisal Certificate.
If it was shadow-related, the Ability Stone’s value would rise significantly.
It carried no risk and was a straightforward ability.
But he clicked his tongue in disappointment after the appraisal.
“Mass Spirits—gathering and controlling souls. The appraisal certificate is F-Grade, so the description isn’t very clear.”
Mano didn’t covet the Ability Stone and preferred to receive Shop Points instead.
Lee Su-young asked me.
“If it’s Mass Spirits, should the Ability Stone’s price go up? Or down?”
“I’m not sure. What do you think?”
I asked Rachel about it.
Rachel paused to consider, then answered.
“Since I’m not certain of its exact abilities, I’d say three million Credits would be a fair price.”
Three million Credits—that would be thirty thousand Shop Points, wouldn’t it?
Just from this floor alone, I’d gathered enough that such a sum wasn’t particularly steep.
“Do you want this Ability Stone for yourself?”
At my question, Rachel hesitated briefly before shaking her head.
“No, I’m fine without it.”
Hearing this, I glanced at Lee Su-young and Diana Violet, and both gave casual nods of agreement.
It meant they were willing to forgo their share as payment for the Martial Arts I’d taught them.
I’d instructed them in Cultivation Methods, Footwork Technique, Weapon Technique, and Lightness Kung Fu, and thinking of the Advanced Martial Arts I’d teach them going forward, it seemed any Ability Stones our party obtained would likely end up with me.
“In that case, I’ll purchase this Ability Stone.”
Through a handshake with Mano, I transferred six hundred points—one-fifth of the thirty-thousand-point price.
Then I attempted to shake Rachel’s hand, but she smiled and spoke first.
“I’d like to be paid in something other than Shop Points or Credits.”
Her request surprised me.
She was asking for something I hadn’t anticipated.

(To be continued)

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————