Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 183

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

Episode 183. The Tower – Night Walker (4)

“Form a party with me and we’ll climb about three floors together.”
At Rachel’s request, I glanced at Lee Su-young and Diana Violet.
Both of them looked startled, their eyes moving between Rachel and me.
“When you say party, you mean including both of them, right?”
Rachel nodded at my question as if it were obvious.
“Meeting like this while climbing the Tower means ascending to the same City at Floor 30, doesn’t it?”
So she was suggesting we climb Floors 31, 32, and 33 together.
She probably wanted to observe us more, to see whether we were worth forming a party with.
And at the same time, she was trying to appeal to us as well.
Just because Rachel wanted to form a party with us didn’t mean we had to accept.
The same way I’d suggested it to William and Bogard Dellington but been turned down due to their circumstances.
“I need a moment to discuss this with the two of them.”
“By all means.”
Rachel laughed confidently, telling me to take my time.
Just then, Mano shouldered his shield and spoke.
“I’m exhausted, so I’ll go ahead. I’ve been walking all day and gave everything in that fight—I’m worn out.”
“Ah, you worked hard.”
Mano seemed genuinely tired, staggering as he touched the Safe Zone before heading off.
Lee Su-young, Diana Violet, and I exchanged glances and discussed Rachel’s proposal through the Community chat.
After talking it over, I spoke up as our representative.
“If you’ll accept one condition, we’ll consider your proposal, Rachel.”
Rachel nodded at my words.
“Go ahead.”
“First, what concerns me most about your proposal is the time it takes to climb the Tower. We’re making quite rapid progress. If we maintain our current pace, by the Lower Common Floor Time Standard, we should reach Floor 30 within four days at most.”
Rachel’s eyes widened slightly, and I saw her gaze sharpen with renewed interest.
Since the next floor was the 29th, and floors ending in 9 were notoriously difficult, it meant we weren’t even accounting for the possibility of failure.
“But the problem is, we have no way of knowing how long it will take you to reach Floor 30. Of course, you might get there much faster than we do.”
She’d made it this far alone as a support mage, so it wasn’t impossible.
Rachel shook her head.
“It’ll probably take longer. I’m capable of many things, but there are aspects where going solo becomes difficult.”
I answered her with a bitter smile.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t wait indefinitely.”
“Of course. Sixty thousand dollars isn’t really that much money anyway.”
Sixty thousand dollars is at least sixty million won—isn’t that a lot?
This woman’s sense of money is completely warped.
“As we go higher, both earnings and strength increase, so wasting time is unbearable. I understand.”
Ah, so she was calculating future earnings into her assessment of the sum.
By that logic, I suppose it really isn’t that much.
It’s a fortune now, but just as earnings before entering the Tower differ from our current income, future earnings at higher floors would inevitably differ from what we make now.
“So how long can you wait for us?”
“One week. If we’re still in the same City at Floor 20, we won’t need to wait—we’ll form the party immediately. If not, then after we reach Floor 30, we’ll wait exactly one week by the Lower Common Floor Time Standard. If you don’t make it by then, I’ll transfer 600 Points directly to your Climber-Exclusive Bank account.”
Rachel fell silent at the mention of a week, staring into the empty air as if seeing something, lost in thought.
Then she nodded.
“That works. One week by the Lower Common Floor Time Standard. Perfectly doable.”
Rachel’s eyes as she smiled seemed to burn with competitive fire.
“Then let’s add each other as Community friends first. We’re going to look around and see if there’s anything worth taking here before we leave. Will you go ahead?”
Rachel sent me a Community friend request as she answered my question.
“No, I’d like to look around too. Since the monster we just fought was a mage, I should check if there’s anything useful for me here.”
We dispersed to search the Research Facility where the researcher monster had been.
Rachel and I were examining a bookshelf that appeared to belong to the researcher when a message came through from Lee Su-young.

-Lee Su-young: But what made you agree to her? What did you see?

The three of us had different reactions to Rachel’s proposal—Diana Violet and I were in favor, while Lee Su-young was opposed.
I didn’t know what Diana Violet had seen in Rachel to approve, but what I saw was only one thing.
I replied to Lee Su-young’s question by message.

-Han Ji-woo: If you have Tower Talent.

Climbers who ascend The Tower kill monsters and gain Mana—a sort of experience points.
I’ve defined Tower Talent as having a high Mana Absorption Rate, and Rachel showed around sixty to seventy percent absorption.
The climbers I’d observed so far had absorption rates around ten percent, Lee Su-young was about fifty percent, and Diana exceeded eighty percent.
For the record, I was below one percent.
Of course, having Tower Talent didn’t mean I thought we’d stay together as a party indefinitely.
Even with talent, if someone was arrogant and self-righteous, a party could dissolve easily enough.
We hadn’t signed a contract to form the party, after all.

* * *

“It’s a shame that Mano went ahead, saying he was tired.”
Lee Su-young laughed as she divided the pile of Magic Stones.
We’d found several items and information while exploring the Research Facility, including that monsters like vampires were called “Night Walkers” and that the walking corpses enslaved by Night Walkers would turn to ash and vanish if their master died.
The Research Facility had become abandoned, and we swept through the upper levels collecting Magic Stones like we were using a broom.
Rachel’s Inventory had no space left, so she dumped Magic Stones into the Shop window and shouldered as much as she could carry—magical staves and spears made of silver or Mithril alloy.
Silver was expensive, but Mithril was expensive on an entirely different scale, so naturally she was collecting as much as possible.
I naturally let Rachel take her share, then quietly swept up everything else, and since arriving empty-handed would raise suspicion, I shouldered even more than Rachel did.
“Then I’ll see you on Floor 30.”
“See you on Floor 30.”
Rachel and I placed our hands on the Crystal and returned to the 20th Floor.
The familiar cityscape greeted us, and we couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Wait—it’s the same city?”
Rachel was right there beside us.
“Seems we were in the same city the whole time.”
We’d gone straight up from the 27th Floor when we challenged the 28th, so it made sense we never crossed paths.
When we realized that Rachel and we had been using the same city as our base, we laughed in disbelief.
“Well, we don’t need to go all the way to Floor 30—we could just form the party right now. It looks like the Association is still open, so should we form the party first?”
At Rachel’s question, I pointed to the bank visible in the distance.
“Let’s stop by the bank first. We can’t carry all this around indefinitely.”
We went to the Climber-Exclusive Bank and then to the Association to form the party.
Someone as beautiful as Rachel should have stood out even if we’d passed each other in the streets, so I wondered why we’d never seen her—it turned out Rachel had mostly moved around the West District of City, while we’d been in the North District, so our routes never overlapped.
Of course, we’d only been on the 20th Floor for about a week by Lower Levels time, and most of that week had been spent climbing The Tower, so meeting her would have been strange.
“We need rest anyway, and it’s a weird time to challenge Floor 29.”
We’d only spent around twelve hours on Floor 28, so only a little over three hours had passed in the Lower Common Floor Time Standard.
“Those who need rest should rest, and those who have things to do should do them. Let’s meet tomorrow morning.”
Everyone agreed with me and we dispersed.
Everyone seemed exhausted—probably too drained from Mana consumption to enjoy the time we now had.
Rachel, deciding to relocate to the North District of City where we usually operated, followed Lee Su-young and Diana to the same inn.
Moving lodging mostly just meant getting a new inn; most of our belongings were already stored in the Climber-Exclusive Bank.
I rented a room at the inn and examined the harvest from Floor 28 with Appraisal Glasses.

[Silver Ingot: A one-kilogram ingot made of 99.9-percent pure silver.]

[Mithril Ingot: A 100-gram ingot made of 99.9-percent pure Mithril.]

[Silver Alloy Arrow: An arrow with a arrowhead of 15 percent silver, 20 percent copper, 50 percent tin, and 15 percent lead.]

[Silver-Plated Sword: An iron sword plated with silver that has been magically treated.]

[Silver Staff: A magical staff that draws out the power of silver. Crafted to deal additional damage to Night Walkers such as vampires and Wolf Men.]

[Ability Stone – Spirit Legion: A form of Necromancy. A power that gathers souls and wields the strength of spirits. By expending souls, one can heal wounds or temporarily strengthen objects and flesh; a skilled practitioner can even materialize souls without corpses or mediums and command them as soldiers.]

The Appraisal Glasses provided detailed descriptions as always.
Judging by the ability description, it looked like a summoning or servitude-type skill, and it was quite useful.
Mano would be kicking himself if he knew.
“Well, it’s not something I need right now.”
Souls that can be commanded like soldiers—but Spirit Magic could already accomplish that.
I’ve left Spirit Legion unlearned since the environment isn’t right to train it now, and there’s no real need to master yet another ability.
Transplanting an ability into another avatar’s body consumes Avatar Points—was it a million points to graft Spirit Magic into a Reincarnation Avatar’s form?
The greatest haul from Floor 28 was obtaining the Mithril Ingot.
I smiled and turned the Mithril Ingot over in my hands.
Not as abundant as silver, but enough to outfit myself and my party members in Mithril work.
“When time permits, I should hunt down a proper craftsman who can work with Mithril.”
Unfortunately, the Dwarf Craftsman in this City specializes in leather and garments rather than metalwork.
Small quantities for alloy work might be manageable, but I’m uncertain whether he could handle a solid ingot of Mithril.
Perhaps I’ll need to venture into the Middle Levels to find a blacksmith capable of working with it properly, but finding the Mithril itself was satisfaction enough.
The Tower Shop sold Mithril as well, but the points required were hardly something a Lower Level Climber could easily accumulate.
I hummed to myself as I sent all the spoils to Tower Floor 1 and stretched out on the Inn bed to rest.

(To be continued)

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