Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 186

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

Episode 186. The Tower – The Spire’s Princess (3)

At the words of the South American climber, Megroleta rose from her seat.
“No, that would be awkward for both of us. But I can’t give you much time to talk.”
Rachel nodded at Megroleta’s words.
“I understand. There’s a golden time in kidnapping rescues.”
Once Megroleta and the soldiers of the Ramberton Kingdom had stepped outside the barracks, the South American climber spoke up.
“A little late to the party, but shall we introduce ourselves first? I’m Jose, from Brazil.”
At the South American climber’s introduction, two others who appeared to be his party members introduced themselves in turn.
“I’m Pham Tamin, originally from Vietnam.”
“I’m Flandren from South Africa. The three of us make up one party.”
At the introductions of Pham Tamin, the Vietnamese female climber, and Flandren, the South African male climber, Rachel stepped forward as representative and introduced our party.
“I’m Rachel from the United States. And then Diana, Lee Su-young, and Han Ji-woo—the four of us form a party.”
Next, the three who had climbed solo to the 29th Floor also introduced themselves.
“I’m Na Cheol-min, from Korea. It’s good to see someone from home here.”
Na Cheol-min smiled as he looked at Lee Su-young and me.
“I’m Kylton, from Arizona.”
“I’m Gillen, from Australia.”
After the introductions were finished, Jose, the Brazilian, took the lead in openly sharing their rough abilities.
“This is what my ability is.”
Jose tossed out a mass of leather, and as it unfurled in mid-air, it took the form of a summoned creature.
Jose’s ability was a type of summoning manipulation that utilized the ‘skin’ or ‘hide’ of dead beings—a form of Necromancy.
Necromancy came in so many varieties that some practitioners like Jose used only body parts, while others like ‘Shadow Soldiers’ or ‘Living Weapons’ used things that weren’t bodies at all.
Living Weapons were closer to Lich Magic than true Necromancy, but the distinction between the two was often blurred, so it couldn’t be helped.
After Jose, Pham Tamin pulled a few insects from her clothes and began controlling them.
“I can use Insect Manipulation.”
“As you can see, I use a sword and shield.”
Pham Tamin’s ability was a commanding-type ability that controlled insects, while Flandren’s ability was straightforward—he used Martial Arts with a greatsword and shield.
By Galactic Martial Arts World standards, it seemed to be Western Martial Arts rather than Eastern, using a separate mana organ instead of a dantian. Judging by aura sensing, Flandren’s cultivation level was around late 3rd Tier.
Exactly the right level for the 20s floors.
Na Cheol-min hesitated briefly in his explanation, then, as everyone was sharing openly, he reluctantly carved two symbols into the ground by channeling mana.
“I can teleport through space.”
As Na Cheol-min stepped onto one symbol, he teleported to the other symbol.
According to Na Cheol-min’s further explanation, his ability ‘Gate Door’ had clear distance limitations and could only transport a maximum of three people at once.
Moreover, there was the constraint that the symbols disappeared after a single use.
But despite the multiple constraints, it was a ridiculously overpowered ability to install warp gates.
It’s tricky, but it seems like you’d need to use your head properly to make real use of it.
Kylton drew a handgun from his waist.
“This is my ability.”
Kylton’s ability was, well, fitting for an American—it was the power to split the bullets he fired.
The ability didn’t necessarily require a gun; it could apply to arrows as well, but since he’d acquired an ability while climbing the Tower that converted mana into bullets, he appeared to favor the personal handgun he carried as his main weapon.
Finally, Gillen silently rendered his own body invisible.
Gillen’s ability was Invisibility, or more precisely, a camouflage ability like a chameleon’s.
If you looked carefully enough, you could find him, but because the ability had a secondary effect of making his presence nearly disappear, if he didn’t move violently or anything of that sort, he seemed extremely difficult to locate.
“In our party, I’m the one attacking from range as a magic caster, and…”
Our party had Rachel carefully conceal our abilities and share only the necessary parts that were safe to reveal, and we each only demonstrated what Rachel had mentioned.
Lee Su-young has a sharp personality but lacks experience befitting her young age, and Diana has an innocent nature by disposition, so she couldn’t hide her abilities well—which made Rachel’s careful introduction feel satisfying.
As I listened to Rachel’s fluent speech, I realized our party had taken absolutely no interest in external relations until now.
Maybe it wouldn’t be bad to make Rachel our party leader?
Diana seemed unbothered by Rachel’s ability introduction, but when I saw Lee Su-young raise the corners of her mouth slightly as she listened to Rachel’s introduction, she seemed to approve.
Once the rough ability introductions were finished, Jose, the Brazilian, spoke up.
“Then we need to look at this quest from two main perspectives, first of all.”
Rachel picked up on Jose’s words.
“Whether the abilities suit an infiltration team or an attack team, and which one each person wants to belong to, right?”
Jose nodded at Rachel’s question.
Which group the ability was suited for was important by its nature.
Since there was a set limit on how many people could infiltrate, it was a loss if someone whose ability didn’t help infiltration joined in.
Of course, just because an ability was suited for infiltration didn’t mean you had to automatically assign that person to it.
The infiltration team was relatively dangerous, while the attack team drawing attention outside the fortress was comparatively safer.
I couldn’t force someone who didn’t want to go, and even if I did take them, I couldn’t expect them to perform the mission faithfully.
No matter how well-suited an ability was for infiltration, if someone was excessively tense and couldn’t use that ability properly, it was even worse than not bringing anyone with the ability at all.
So the infiltration team needed greater compensation to match the risk they were taking on.
If it was merely helping, there’d be no one who’d actually want to join the infiltration team.
Rachel knew that fact well enough, so she spoke first before I could.
“Since the infiltration team faces greater danger, they should demand corresponding compensation. If possible, the attack team should also receive compensation.”
Jose nodded at Rachel’s words and spoke.
“We’ll need to receive an advance payment first. If they refuse, we should simply attack appropriately and hope they manage to rescue the princess on their own, but…”
Jose, trailing off like that, scanned all the climbers present and asked.
“Before we negotiate, is anyone willing to volunteer for the infiltration team? Volunteering now doesn’t mean you’ll definitely be assigned to it—I’m asking whether you’d be willing to take on the risk if the compensation turns out to your liking.”
What he was saying was that even if you volunteered now, you could back out if the compensation didn’t seem appealing.
I wrote a message in the party community chat.

-Han Ji-woo: Honestly, if it were just me, I’m confident I could survive and make it back out even if combat breaks out inside.

The three of them each reacted differently to my words.

-Rachel: So you want to volunteer?
-Lee Su-young: I kind of had a feeling you’d do that.
-Diana: But isn’t that awfully dangerous?

Rachel seemed taken aback, Lee Su-young looked convinced, and Diana was worried.

-Han Ji-woo: I don’t really want to take on unnecessary risk if the compensation is poor. But I have to think about the penalty if the quest fails.

The penalty for a 20th Floor quest failure was a three-day ban on climbing attempts.
Three days on the Lower Levels’ Common Floor translates to about twenty-eight hours in Earth time.
Failing once or twice wasn’t a big deal, but if one or two failures accumulated, it couldn’t be ignored—so I wanted to climb the Tower determined to go up without even one or two failures if possible.
Personally, I was in that phase of being a useless half-employed vagrant between leaving the military and returning to school.
But the longer I stayed away from Earth, the greater the risk that the lies I’d told my parents would be exposed.
And then a beating might be the least of my worries.
If you’re going to deceive people, you have to do it thoroughly to avoid complications later.
So I wanted to move up to the middle-tier Common Floors as quickly as possible, where the time acceleration was higher.
By the math, one day on Earth equaled forty-five days in the middle tier.
When I laid out my honest thoughts, everyone let out a sigh.

-Diana: Should I volunteer to come with you then?

I was tempted by Diana’s offer.
If Diana came along, I’d feel more reassured than anyone else could provide.
But I shook my head right away.

-Han Ji-woo: No, Diana, you need to protect the other two.

Lee Su-young and Rachel were typical ranged dealers, vulnerable to close combat.
Of course, Lee Su-young’s defensive slime and Rachel’s magic weren’t utterly helpless against melee attacks, but they couldn’t engage in close combat as reliably as Diana and I could.
The team drawing attention outside the fortress would inevitably face combat too.

-Diana: But won’t you be in danger going alone?
-Han Ji-woo: I have a Regeneration ability, and honestly, just me—I can manage to get inside that fortress and back out without even needing a secret passage.
-Diana: I know you’re confident because you’re the strongest in our party, but overconfidence can be dangerous too.

Diana seemed to think I was the strongest in our party, but my instinct told me Diana was probably stronger than me.
In a melee fight, my Sword Aura would have trouble breaking through her defense.
Even if I did breach it, it would only be a light wound and would be healed instantly by her Holy Power.
If I took a direct hit from Diana’s Mace, on the other hand, I’d be shattered like a paper doll.
I had Regeneration too so I’d recover quickly, but the damage difference was so stark that I’d be overwhelmingly drained in terms of resource consumption.
Even if I tried to attack Diana from range with magic, her Holy Power could weaken or decompose spells by its very nature, making it difficult to land a proper attack.
Magic being “demonic” in nature, Holy Power held an inherent advantage in terms of matchup.
If I used Magic at a higher level than Diana’s Holy Power, I could win even in a direct clash—but that’s only possible with my Reincarnation Avatar or Magical Avatar. With a Tower Avatar lacking sufficient Mana, it would be difficult.
Though I could always burn Avatar Points to download my main body’s power into this Tower Avatar form.
Of course, Diana has her weaknesses too.
Her Holy Power range isn’t particularly wide, and she has no ranged attacks—if I exploit those points correctly….
Still, even if a draw were possible, winning outright seems difficult right now.
Between Diana and me, most fights would probably end in stalemate or a draw.
If someone had to win, I’d be at a disadvantage—maybe seventy-thirty against me.
Let me break it down in simple numerical terms, like a game.
If Diana’s defense is 100, my attack power would be around 95, and her attack power roughly 70, then my defense would come to about 20.
But speed? Diana’s probably around 50, and mine would be closer to 130.
Most Martial Arts World cultivators were evasion-based close-combat dealers, while mages were evasion-based ranged dealers.
While I mulled this over, Diana sat in thought for a moment, then nodded as if accepting the inevitable.

Diana: Understood. As you say, we do need someone to protect those two in close quarters. Unlike you, neither of them has Regeneration ability.

Once Diana agreed, Lee Su-young and Rachel both nodded.
Lee Su-young had seemed to trust me from the start; she didn’t appear concerned about whatever I decided to do.
Rachel, on the other hand, seemed reluctant to object—whether because she still lacked sufficient information about me, or because she was being cautious as a non-official party member yet—but she didn’t voice any strong opposition.
Rachel addressed the other climbers.
“From our party, one person—Han Ji-woo—will volunteer for the Infiltration Team. Of course, as Jose mentioned, the compensation needs to be agreed upon.”
The moment I volunteered for the Infiltration Team, everyone stared at me in surprise.
Unlike us, the other climbers still seemed caught in their own deliberations; they asked for a few minutes, and after roughly five minutes had passed, each offered their own opinion.

(Continued in the next installment)

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