Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 185

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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 185. The Tower – The Princess of the Spire (2)

After Rachel had gathered the necessary supplies from the Climbers’ Association, she asked those of us who hadn’t bought anything.
“Aren’t you all restocking on supplies?”
At her question, Lee Su-young and Diana turned their eyes toward me.
“We have more than enough food and camping equipment for immediate use.”
There were still plenty of supplies left over—food that an explorer had abandoned on the 22nd Floor while searching for an ancient golden city, and provisions we’d taken from the Demon-kin on the 28th Floor. The camping gear hadn’t been heavily depleted.
“If anyone needs time to resupply personal items, let’s head up to the 29th Floor in about two hours.”
Most supplies could be found at the Climbers’ Association, but magical equipment and clothing repairs required hiring specialized craftsmen.
Since all the craftsmen knew Magic, two hours would be more than enough.
I waited for someone to say they needed resupply time, but when no one stepped forward, I laughed lightly.
After all, there’d been plenty of time for personal preparations these past couple of days—if anyone still hadn’t gathered what they needed, that would be a problem in itself.
“Looks like no one needs anything. Let’s head up right away.”
At Rachel’s words, we made our way to the City Center, placed our hands on the Crystal, and ascended to the 29th Floor.

* * *

When we arrived at the 29th Floor, there were other people besides us.
No—there were many people here.
Looking around, the space resembled the interior of a military camp, with a table set in the center of a tent and an armored Knight Commander surrounded by what looked like medieval command staff.
And beside our party were six Climbers we’d never seen before.
In all, there were twenty soldiers and ten Climbers gathered in one place.
The sudden arrival of the Climbers caught the Knight Commander and his staff off guard, while the Climbers, already familiar with such situations, surveyed their surroundings and gathered information.
Then an elderly staff officer wearing a distinctive hat clasped his hands together and began to weep.
“Ah, I understand! The divine word has spoken—God has sent Climbers to us.”
Hearing him mention God, his robes did look somewhat priestly.
So had this old man received a Divine Oracle?
At his words, those who had been tense relaxed slightly and spoke.
“If that’s true, then the divine is saying we will fail, isn’t it?”
“I thought we had prepared thoroughly enough….”
At the words of the old man in the distinctive hat, everyone seemed to have accepted that we were Climbers.
The elder’s bearing suggested he held a high rank among the priesthood.
Anyway, can priests in this world communicate directly with God?
Even Diana, who uses Holy Power, has never received any Divine Oracle or revelation.
But what’s the mechanism behind Holy Power? Faith in the divine?
Curiosity stirred for a moment, but since Diana might find that distasteful, I set aside such idle thoughts and checked the Quest for the 29th Floor while the soldiers continued their murmuring.

[Rescue the princess Phelibroulea, who has been abducted to Mar Castle, and hand her over to Rescue Force Commander Megroleta.]

After confirming the Quest, Rachel gestured to us and sent a Community Message asking if it was okay for her to take the lead.
When we nodded, Rachel stepped forward without hesitation and spoke.
“Is there someone here named Megroleta?”
At Rachel’s question, not only the soldiers but the other Climbers turned their eyes toward her.
A refined-looking young man bearing insignia on his chest stepped forward from among the soldiers and spoke.
“I’m Megroleta. Did the Tower tell you my name?”
At Megroleta’s question, Rachel nodded in affirmation.
“Yes, that’s right. The Tower told us to rescue the princess Phelibroulea and hand her over to you, the Rescue Force Commander. Could you tell us the details of the current situation?”
At Rachel’s request, Megroleta surveyed both us and the other Climbers.
Then one of the Climbers who wasn’t part of our party spoke.
“We’ll need information for accurate situational assessment.”
At those words, Megroleta hesitated for a moment.
As he deliberated, Rachel added her own words.
“After all, we’re not from this place. Whatever secrets we learn, once we’ve rescued Princess Phelibroulea, we’ll leave this world immediately. There’s likely no reason we’ll ever return here.”
At Rachel’s words, Megroleta, as if resigned, began to explain the current situation.
“I’m not sure how much you all know about what’s happened, but there may be things you’re mistaken about or don’t know at all, so I’ll explain from the beginning.”
Judging from his refined appearance and natural use of formal speech, Megroleta appeared to be of considerable rank.
Of course—that would explain why he holds the position of Rescue Force Commander for the princess.
“This began roughly eighteen years ago.”
According to the rescue commander, this world is one where humans and demon-kin have waged a long war, and the princess is said to be a Saint who received a Divine Oracle that she would bear a Hero.
When the princess reached marriageable age by this world’s standards, the demon-kin, sensing danger, abducted her.
Upon the princess’s abduction, the king grew furious and organized a rescue force to dispatch it. Megroleta, the princess’s own brother and commander of the rescue operation, has apparently already advanced to the outskirts of demon-kin territory.
No wonder he spoke in such a curt tone to someone he’d just met—he was a prince, after all.
When Megroleta finished his explanation, Lee Su-young raised her hand as if asking the Teacher a question.
“But if they’re demon-kin, does that make them demons?”
The Priest Elder, who had earlier mentioned that a god said we were Climbers, answered Lee Su-young’s question.
“They’re as good as demons. Or rather, they’re practically no different from demons.”
I corrected that assessment.
“The definition of demon-kin varies depending on region, society, and world. Usually it doesn’t refer to pure demons, but rather demon hybrids, demon-touched individuals, simple users of Dark Magic, people transformed by Dark Magic, hybrids of the transformed, or sometimes just non-human races lumped together as different from humans.”
I’d drawn this information from historical records of the City of the 33rd Magic Tower and the Library in The Tower.
Since I enjoyed history, researching various tidbits like this was something of a hobby.
For what it’s worth, demon-kin existed even in the City of the 33rd Magic Tower.
Diana narrowed her brow at my words.
“Isn’t that last one just plain discrimination?”
The Priest Elder cried out in surprise at Diana’s remark.
“It is not! While it’s true that some discriminate against mere non-humans, we do accept beastfolk, fairies, and other races as members of society! But the demon-kin—that is different! Those wretches have sold their souls to demons!”
There was something about his fervor that didn’t sit right with me.
Whether it was religion or social atmosphere, I’d learned it was best to take words from those who were blindly devoted to something with a grain of salt.
One had to see things firsthand and judge for oneself—you couldn’t arbitrarily condemn based on hearsay alone.
Still, the fact that the princess was abducted seemed real enough.
Unless The Tower was deceiving us, that is.
In any case, I had to operate under the assumption that The Tower wasn’t lying to us—that’s what it took to rescue the princess.
Only then could we advance to the next floor.
At that moment, a different Climber from our party stepped forward and spoke.
“First, we’d like to know your rescue plan. We can’t very well move without any information about how to extract the princess, can we?”
The middle-aged male Climber who stepped ahead seemed to be from South America, judging by his dark skin and sturdy build, though I wasn’t entirely certain of his origin.
Looking at the assembled Climbers, their ethnic backgrounds were quite diverse.
From the way they moved in clusters, it looked like there were three soloists and one three-person party.
In response to the South American Climber’s request, rescue commander Megroleta hesitated briefly and exchanged glances with the Knights, whereupon the Priest Elder made a distinctive hand gesture as if tracing a holy sign and spoke.
“That the Climbers have been sent is the will of the Divine. I believe we must cooperate with them, Your Highness.”
When the most distinguished-looking Knight nodded, Megroleta let out a small sigh and nodded as well.
“If the Cardinal speaks so, then… very well. I shall cooperate with you all to the fullest extent.”
Was that Priest Elder a Cardinal?
A Cardinal held voting rights in papal elections—that was a high position.
By Catholic canon law as I knew it, a Cardinal had to hold the rank of Bishop simultaneously, though I wasn’t certain if the religion here operated the same way.
Even if The Tower’s translation ability rendered the title as Cardinal, it could have been a separate rank with its own papal voting authority.
Translation wasn’t infallible.
Megroleta seemed irritated by the Cardinal but didn’t quite have the position to object openly, so his brow furrowed slightly.
“The rescue operation isn’t finalized yet. Now that we have additional forces in the form of Climbers, we need to account for that and draw up the plan from scratch.”
With Megroleta at the center, planning for the princess’s rescue operation began in earnest.
Megroleta explained the primary military strength of the demon-kin forces at a place called Mar Castle, where the princess was being held, as well as the expected positions of demon-kin soldiers.
Megroleta possessed a detailed map of Mar Castle. As it turned out, the castle had once been territory belonging to his nation, Lamberton, but had been seized by demon-kin several years prior.
Thanks to this, he could retain interior maps—in a sense, turning a defeat into an unexpected advantage.
Though the demon-kin had likely made some alterations to the interior over the years, they probably hadn’t gutted the place entirely.
Since there was a Secret Passage connecting the interior and exterior of the castle, infiltration itself didn’t seem particularly difficult.
However, as befitted a Secret Passage designed with escape in mind, it was considerably narrow and couldn’t accommodate a large group. Once entered, barring extraordinary luck, the passage’s location would certainly be exposed.
Thus, the crux of the operation was a Feign Attack While Striking from Behind.
A small infiltration team would enter via the Secret Passage while a larger rescue force attacked from outside the castle to draw attention.
While the enemy’s focus turned outward, the small infiltration team would extract the princess and escape.
Simple in concept, yet difficult to execute.
“All of you Climbers are said to possess unique powers, I take it? To draft a detailed operation, we’d need to know what abilities you possess.”
At Megroleta’s words, the Climbers seemed to tense.
And understandably so—a small infiltration team venturing into enemy territory could easily end up dead if anything went wrong.
Even if rescuing the princess was the Quest to climb The Tower, one couldn’t simply stake one’s life on it so easily.
But as one climbed higher in The Tower, the Quests would become progressively more difficult and dangerous.
If we couldn’t advance from here, we’d remain stuck in place, and ultimately have no choice but to leave The Tower.
It was then that the South American Climber who’d stepped forward first spoke again.
“We’d like to discuss this among ourselves first.”
At that, Megroleta’s expression darkened slightly, but he didn’t foolishly object or try to suppress them.
They had neither justification nor authority to suppress the Climbers, so it was only natural.
Since they didn’t know our true strength, they’d tried to oppress and conscript us—but they were wise enough to realize that fighting among themselves would be a catastrophic loss.
“Should I step outside for a moment?”
At Megroleta’s question, the South American Climber shook his head.
“There’s no need for that. Climbers have a way of communicating that only we can understand.”
Climbers possessed the Community Message.
The Community Message allowed conversation that couldn’t be overheard even if someone stood right beside you, could bridge vast distances, and worked across entirely different worlds.

(To be continued in the next installment)

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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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