Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 187

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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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Chapter 187. The Tower – Princess of the Spire (4)

“I’d like to volunteer from our party as well. I’ll join the infiltration team.”
Hose, who appeared to be the leader among his party members, stepped forward.
It was unexpected. An insect summoner would normally have an advantage in group combat with superior numbers rather than infiltration.
Even if they relied on numbers, on the 20th Floor they could only manage three summons across three slots, or so one might think.
But that wasn’t the case. As I’d climbed the Tower, I’d spent my spare time observing and analyzing an ability called Slime Summoning with Lee Su-young’s help.
I thought it might be useful since my Multidimensional Avatar, like her Slime Summoning, was also a slotted ability.
What I discovered was that while the Tower provides ‘slots’ as support for summoning and taming abilities, you weren’t necessarily limited to summoning only by the slot count.
A summoner could summon summons of the same ‘tier’ as themselves according to their slot count with the Tower’s support.
But if a summon’s rank was lower than the summoner’s, they could summon more than the slot limit.
When I’d conducted experiments, Lee Su-young’s slimes were creatures that had grown with her, so new slime individuals were summoned.
I couldn’t distinguish them at all, but Lee Su-young, being a summoner, could tell them apart.
Of course, if the number of summonable creatures was overwhelmingly large, it would be different, but weak and mediocrely numerous summons weren’t necessary, so I’d decided to focus on nurturing the slimes I’d already summoned.
For reference, my Multidimensional Avatar ability seemed to operate on a different mechanism than summoning—it was hard to find common ground.
After all, I wasn’t creating a new avatar right in front of me, but rather in an entirely different dimension, so they couldn’t be similar.
Of the three who’d climbed the Tower solo, two raised their hands—Na Cheol-min with Space Movement and Gillen with Concealment.
Both abilities suited infiltration, so their participation was welcome.
The fact that they’d climbed solo without forming a party suggested they had an adventurous spirit.
Or perhaps they were confident they could survive and return alive if it was just themselves.
Both abilities certainly favored survival.
“So we have four candidates for the infiltration team, including myself. Now all that’s left is negotiating the compensation.”
At Hose’s words, Rachel spoke up.
“First, we should confirm whether this military has the means to pay the compensation.”
At Rachel’s words, Hose nodded and went outside the camp to call Megroleta, who was both the prince and commander of the Rescue Force.
Megroleta returned with the same personnel he’d brought when he’d left the camp earlier.
It seemed that, no matter how much we were climbers, being meeting them for the first time and as outsiders, he remained cautious of us.
Rachel and Hose informed him of our approximate abilities and began negotiations, presenting their opinions on compensation should they join the infiltration team.
Megroleta seemed somewhat taken aback at our demands for compensation, but rather than distrusting those who asked for payment, he seemed to trust those who did more, and readily entered into negotiations.
His gaze occasionally turned toward Na Cheol-min, who possessed the Gate Door ability—it was clear he coveted his spatial magic.
The fact that he subtly kept mentioning Na Cheol-min joining the infiltration team during negotiations made it obvious.
The negotiations progressed quite quickly.
Hose proposed specific compensation terms that couldn’t have been suggested without knowing the Rescue Force’s supplies.
It seemed that Pamtamin, who was an insect summoner, had sent tiny insects to extract information from within the garrison and provided that intelligence to Hose via party message.
It was such a terrifying ability for intelligence warfare that I couldn’t imagine a better one existing.
Based on Hose’s compensation proposal, Rachel read Megroleta’s expression and led the negotiations as favorably as possible.
Since Rachel also knew of Pamtamin’s ability, she seemed to base her calculations on Hose’s assessment and pressed mercilessly.
As the old saying goes: know yourself and know your enemy, and you’ll never lose a battle.
With information superiority, there was nothing he could do but falter.
Of course, if he insisted he didn’t need our help, there’d be nothing we could do either.
But Rachel seized on the fact that the Cardinal had spoken with divine authority, saying we were climbers sent by the Tower, and deployed a gambit that accepting our aid was the will of the gods.
In a place where the church’s influence was clearly so powerful, could one ignore the will of the gods?
It was a gambit that practically invited accusations of heresy.

-Lee Su-young: Rachel, I think your negotiation skills are scarier than that versatile catalog magic ability you got from the Tower.

Diana and I found ourselves agreeing with Lee Su-young’s message.
In the end, with her uncanny negotiation prowess, Rachel secured compensation not just for the infiltration team but for the attack team as well.
The other climbers, including Hose, couldn’t hide their admiration at the negotiation results, but Rachel herself seemed displeased, her brow narrowing slightly.
“The attack team compensation being only Credits is a shame.”
As a result of the negotiations, the dangerous infiltration team would receive 5 million Credits, a set of equipment made from a special magical metal called Snow Iron, and wishes within what each could carry, while the attack team, drawing the enemy’s attention, would receive 1 million Credits.
The knights stirred slightly at the mention of Snow Iron’s rarity, but Megroleta told us there was no helping it.
“The money will take some time. We came as a Rescue Force, not merchants.”
That made sense. You wouldn’t bring money on a military operation; you’d bring weapons.
“I’ve sent trusted men to the Nearby Territory, so the money should arrive before the rescue is complete. As for the Snow Iron equipment, I’ll provide it now. But in return, you absolutely must participate in the operation and rescue my sister—the princess.”
At Megroleta’s command, the knights brought four sets of Full Plate Armor, swords, and shields.
Seeing the armor, sword, and shield, I clenched my teeth and barely suppressed an involuntary gasp.
Damn it! Snow Iron was actually Eternal Cold Iron?!
It’s not just Snow Iron—it’s Eternal Cold Iron!
That distinctive energy wave was unmistakably Eternal Cold Iron.
And not even an alloy, but solid, pure Eternal Cold Iron!
It was the same magical wavelength I’d felt from the sword on special display at the museum during a field trip to the Galaxy Martial Arts World.
In the Galaxy Martial Arts World, you couldn’t buy such a rarity even with unlimited money—yet this world had so much of it they could forge Full Plate Armor from it? Unbelievable.
Melting even a single piece to make an alloy required enormous effort, but the fact that they could craft armor like this through magic or science meant Eternal Cold Iron had to be abundant enough that related technological expertise had naturally developed.

Han Ji-woo: Rachel, could you possibly purchase that set from those people or other Climbers? I’ll cover all the costs.

I thought Rachel’s negotiation skills would get us a better price than if I haggled directly.
At my subtle request, Rachel looked at me with a puzzled expression.

Rachel: Negotiating isn’t difficult, but can we even carry it?
Han Ji-woo: There’s a way. I have a magical artifact that expands Inventory capacity.
Rachel: How much is the budget?
Han Ji-woo: Up to 12 billion Credits worth of gold. Roughly ten tons of gold.

I quoted a generous amount just in case it wasn’t enough.
Rachel looked taken aback by my generosity.

Rachel: Is it really that valuable of an item?
Han Ji-woo: By this world’s standards, I couldn’t say. But by mine, it’s precious. If you can purchase it at a reasonable price, I’ll reward you as much as I’m able.
Rachel: Hehe, I’ll do my best then.

Megroleta offered us the Military Camp to rest in until the operation began.
While the others rested, Rachel negotiated with the three people who’d received the Full Plate Armor and spears, successfully purchasing one set for 300,000 Credits—thirty million won equivalent.
Na Cheol-min and Gillen, who were climbing solo without a Party, didn’t need armor anyway and had insufficient Inventory space, so they sold theirs easily enough. But Hose took longer to negotiate with since his Party member Flandren could use the equipment.
If Flandren had been the one to receive the Eternal Cold Iron armor, weapons, and shield, we likely couldn’t have bought them at all.
Even in a Party, you can’t share compensation for personal risk—that’s simply how it works.
Rachel then attempted to negotiate with Megroleta for the Snow Iron, but was flatly refused on the grounds that it was a strategic resource.
After the rejection, Rachel came to me and said:
“With enough time, I could’ve bought some, but it’s impossible right now.”
Wait, you got flatly rejected but still see an opening?
“No, three sets is more than enough. I can use a Wish Token to purchase Snow Iron anyway.”
I transferred 900,000 Credits to Rachel—900,000 for the purchase cost and an additional 500,000 as compensation for negotiating on my behalf.
After confirming the transfer, Rachel whispered in surprise:
“You’re giving me this much?”
“Like I said—this stuff is precious.”
Honestly, watching from the sidelines, if I’d negotiated myself, it might’ve cost nine million Credits instead of 900,000.
That wasn’t just Rachel’s negotiation skill—it was also her poker face, born from the fact that she had no idea of Eternal Cold Iron’s true value.
No matter how shameless I could be, I doubted I could maintain composure buying something this rare.
In the Galaxy Martial Arts World, acquiring even a thumbnail-sized piece of Eternal Cold Iron would cost tens of billions of won without blinking.
Regular Snow Iron was expensive enough that Titanium Gold was used as a substitute, but Eternal Cold Iron, accumulated with Qi over ages? That was literally priceless.
In fact, power and social standing mattered far more than money when acquiring Eternal Cold Iron.
When nobody was looking, I stuffed the Eternal Cold Iron into my Subspace Cube.
My heart was still racing at the fact that I’d obtained treasure for an absurd price.
I’d barely managed to calm my racing pulse when Megroleta announced the start of the infiltration and rescue operation.
“We begin the rescue operation now. Infiltration Team, gather.”
Eight people answered Megroleta’s call in total.
Four Climbers including myself, and four of Megroleta’s subordinates.
Of those four, two appeared to be Knights, one a Priest, and one a Mage.
The three Knights wore the Snow Iron armor and weapons we’d been given as compensation, confirming that this world truly had an abundance of Eternal Cold Iron.
Despite being classified as a strategic resource, they were issuing solid, unmixed armor and weapons—not even alloys.
While I was pondering this, the middle-aged man leading the Infiltration Team spoke:
“By His Highness’s command, I am Owell, leader of the Infiltration Team. You heard a rough overview of the operation before rest time, but now we’ll conduct a detailed briefing and assess your actual combat strength and abilities.”
Owell unfurled a detailed map of the interior of the fortress—once human territory, now Demon-kin domain.
Perhaps there were Eternal Cold Iron weapons, armor, or ingots in that Demon-kin fortress.
Humans used Eternal Cold Iron as a strategic weapon—why wouldn’t the Demon-kin?
Though even in a world where Eternal Cold Iron refining techniques were so advanced, you couldn’t fabricate it into weapons on the spot, so there probably weren’t ingots lying around.
But there should definitely be weapons.
This is bad.
I shouldn’t feel this way, yet as I prepared to venture into enemy territory, a strange thrill began to course through me.

(To be continued in the next episode)

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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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