Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 195

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

Episode 195. The Tower – Avatar Stacking (2)

Upon reaching the 30th Floor, a notification appeared.

[You have reached the 30th Floor. The Multidimensional Avatar ‘4th Slot’ is now active.]

As a new slot opened up, I returned to Tower Floor 1 and fell into thought.
Should I embark on a journey to a new world with this slot, or should I use the Avatar Stacking I’d gained after surpassing level 30 to improve my avatar’s aptitude and acquire new special abilities?
Both paths had distinct advantages.
The former would grant me new experiences—something I’d wished for before entering the Tower.
The latter would accelerate my avatar’s growth, making climbing the Tower far easier.
Then I could scale the middle and upper tiers more quickly as well, and with each ascent, new slots would unlock.
Either way, I would grow through the Multidimensional Avatar and climb the Tower on the back of that growth.
It was merely a matter of proceeding steadily or moving swiftly.
Since stacking had no limit, I’d face this choice again each time I gained a new slot. And besides, the stacked slots wouldn’t disappear; I could always unstack and venture into another world.
Though I couldn’t stack into slots where I’d already created an avatar body—I’d have to remove the body first to make the slot empty again.
“If I were climbing alone, choosing the former would’ve been fine, but since we’re climbing together, I should match that pace.”
Right now, I was staying ahead by investing considerable time in my other avatars, but watching the growth trajectory of all three—the others were accelerating quickly. There was a real possibility I could fall behind later.
Especially Diana’s growth curve was steep.
Of course, much of that depended on how much Avatar Stacking would boost me.
I decided to choose Avatar Stacking to verify the performance.

[Will you stack the 4th Slot?]

I tried stacking it onto my 1st Slot Avatar—my Tower body.
The moment I stacked, options materialized.

[4th Slot – Stacking onto 1st Slot]
[1. Tower Talent Enhancement]
[2. Random Ability Awakening]
[3. Physical Aptitude Enhancement]
[4. Spiritual Aptitude Enhancement]

The selection offered numerous buffs in exchange for forgoing the experiences and items a new world would provide.
Random Ability Awakening granted random superhuman powers.
Physical Aptitude seemed to improve aptitude for learning Martial Arts, while Spiritual Aptitude appeared beneficial for Magic.
Tower Talent Enhancement, naturally, would increase the amount of Magical Power gained from hunting monsters.
I selected Tower Talent Enhancement and returned to my Tower body.
“Did you all acquire new abilities?”
They all nodded at my question, and Rachel spoke up.
“Since you’ve gained abilities, shouldn’t we each take time to confirm what they do? The Tower is surprisingly unhelpful—it doesn’t explain things clearly.”
Lee Su-young nodded in agreement at Rachel’s complaint.
“That’s right. That sounds good. We need to understand things properly before we can share them—if we try to share without really grasping what we have, we’ll just end up confusing each other.”
Lee Su-young had likely obtained a new slime, Diana something related to Holy Power, and Rachel new Magic for her Catalog.
Since we all roughly understood our main abilities already, this was about investigating the auxiliary ones.
“Then let’s split up, reconvene in an hour, and expand our Inventory and Minimap.”
According to the WPTO guidebook, the Old Witch Woman—or rather, the lady who expanded Inventories—would be available in about an hour.
My companions agreed to my proposal, dispersed briefly, and I headed outside the City to verify the effects of Avatar Stacking.
The City was far larger than the 20th Floor City, and I might have gotten lost—but thanks to the guidebook, I found my way along the avenue leading outside without wandering.
Beyond the City stretched a vast grassland where colossal, muscular bulls grazed peacefully.
Just one of those creatures would yield as much meat as three ordinary bulls, wouldn’t it?
“They’re probably mid-20th Floor monsters at the very least.”
In the 30th Floor District, even the monsters visible outside the City had grown proportionally stronger.
They looked docile enough, and seemed unlikely to attack as long as I didn’t provoke them first.
I felt a pang of guilt, but I needed to hunt one to test my abilities.

[Name: Han Ji-woo (1st Slot Avatar) / Age: 21]
[Strength: 30 / Agility: 30 / Stamina: 30 / Intellect: 55 / Magical Power: 35+]
[Status: Normal, Dual Magical Power System (35/35), Avatar Stacking]

While I was at it with Avatar Stacking, I created a new avatar and raised Strength, Agility, and Vitality to 30.
I suppressed my presence and severed one bull’s neck in a single motion; the other bulls shrieked and bolted in terror.
I’d expected them to charge immediately after witnessing their herd-mate fall, but they must have sensed the gap in our power and chose flight instead.
After hunting down the bull-like monster, I observed the magical power gathering around me and frowned.
“…About ten times more absorbed than before.”
Ten times less than one percent was still somewhere between one and two percent, though.
Now that my absorption rate had jumped tenfold, I understood. My original absorption rate barely exceeded 0.1 percent.
If I were to stack the 5th Slot as well, just how much higher would my absorption rate climb?
It was more intuition than calculation, but it seemed the rate of increase diminished with each additional stack.
At two stacks it would be five times, around 5 percent; at three stacks, three times, perhaps around 15 percent?
That’s just average for a Climber.
I’d abandoned any hope of growing through Tower Talent Enhancement long ago.
I wouldn’t obtain the next slot until Multidimensional Avatar reached level 40, so I’d figure that out when the time came.
I switched the selection for Avatar Stacking.

[2. Random Ability Awakening]

When I chose the random ability option, ‘Frozen Beam Lv1’ appeared in my status window.
Testing it, a short beam of light about ten centimeters long burst from my fingertips, and frost gathered wherever the beam touched.
At level one, the power and range were both pitiful.
I swapped out the Avatar Stacking effect for something else and tried Random Ability Awakening again.
“Can you only get one randomly-granted ability per dimension?”
When I changed the stacking effect, the Frozen Beam vanished, but when I restored the original configuration, it reappeared.
It seemed I could only obtain one ability per dimension.
As expected, ability duplication wasn’t possible. That was a shame.
When I absorbed the avatar body in this state, I could use Frozen Beam with my main body as well.
That meant Avatar Stacking was essentially a random ability acquisition skill.
Of course, acquiring too many abilities made them unwieldy.
Magic was the same—learn ten thousand varieties and you’d still only use the handful you actually wielded.
Once I’d verified everything, I switched to another option.

[3. Spiritual Aptitude Enhancement]

I had exceptional talent for magic, so I wondered if something special might change—but nothing seemed different.
Testing with the Tower avatar body was impractical, so I decided to enter my 3rd Slot Avatar—the magical summon body—and check from there.
If I used the Andromallius Family’s precision measurement devices, could I tell what had actually changed?
Once I entered the magical avatar body, I immediately went to the various testing machines in the basement and began measurements.
First, I ran tests without stacking, then immediately afterward with stacking active.
Both results: Unmeasurable.
“Hmm.”
It didn’t seem like my aptitude had grown tenfold the way Tower Talent Enhancement did.
Subjectively, barely anything felt different, though something must have changed.
Perhaps my spiritual aptitude had already reached the point where improvements wouldn’t be perceptible at this scale.
Did some ceiling exist on what aptitude could improve through stacking?
Since I could swap Avatar Stacking effects every time I entered a summon body, I could use Spiritual Aptitude Enhancement while in the magical avatar and Physical Aptitude Enhancement while in the Galactic Martial Arts avatar.
Even small gains were better than nothing.
Or I could simply create new summons in new dimensions.
Growth achieved while stacking remained intact even after I disabled the stack.
It merely meant I couldn’t gain the growth that stacking would enable.
To use an analogy: stopping protein intake after building muscle didn’t make the gains disappear—it just slowed future growth compared to continuing supplementation.
Muscle development would simply progress more slowly without the protein.
I returned to my room at the Safe House and entered the body of my Galactic Martial Arts avatar.

[2. Physical Aptitude Enhancement]

Once in the Galactic Martial Arts avatar body, I selected and applied Physical Aptitude Enhancement, then moved about in the Training Room.
“…Huh?”
The movements felt slightly smoother, perhaps?
Exercise didn’t show noticeable change in a short span, but in the 50th-century Galactic Martial Arts World, aptitude could be easily verified through specialized machinery.
I asked Siu to borrow a testing device through the school, and conducted another aptitude measurement at home.
It was the same scanning machine I’d seen when entering elementary school.
Siu looked startled as she reviewed the results.
“Your aptitude has improved.”
The previous assessment—ranked as lower-middle grade—had risen to upper-middle grade.
Since aptitude improvement without undergoing Complete Body Transformation was extraordinarily rare, we had to run the tests multiple times to confirm.
Once the same result appeared, Siu accepted that my aptitude had genuinely improved and beamed with delight.
“Do you think this happened because you forcibly broke the seal during the school trip?”
No—it’s simply an ability of the Multidimensional Avatar.
When I release the stacking, it reverts to its original state.
“At this rate, we could unlock your Internal Energy Seal far faster than expected.”
Siu had initially estimated roughly ten years to completely remove my seal.
By that time I’d be in university, which was extraordinarily fast for my original aptitude level.
But with vast Internal Energy and improved aptitude combined, the calculation shifted to roughly one year at most.
Exactly ten times faster.
By second year of middle school, I’d finally escape this tiresome Internal Energy Seal.
“Of course, that’s calculated assuming you maintain your current training intensity. You could push the training even harder if you wanted.”
Ah…! Please, just a little more time…!
I couldn’t bear to ask her to ease up as she hummed happily, genuinely delighted.

* * *

I returned to my body in the Tower avatar.
When the appointed time arrived, we gathered again at the starting point of the 30th Floor.
“How does everyone feel about their new abilities? I gained a new slime and a support ability for my summons.”
Everyone answered Lee Su-young’s question.
“I acquired Ascending Martial Arts. It’ll take some time to master properly.”
It was a lie, though I had genuinely learned the Lightning Thunder Demon God Technique, which was an ascending martial art.
“I can do slightly more with Holy Power now, but there’s no major change. My healing ability has grown stronger.”
“The Catalog has more purchasable magic, and I can now convert magical power into currency exclusive to the Catalog. If I accumulate steadily, I’ll gain some freedom from the pressure of spending Credits.”
In terms of raw ability gain, Rachel had improved the most among the three.
Though that didn’t mean Catalog magic prices would suddenly become comfortable, of course.
Once we’d compared abilities, we sought out the Old Witch Woman to expand our inventory.
The Old Witch Woman, who’d been lazily soaking in sunlight, spotted me and asked in surprise.
“You’ve already cleared the ruins? That’s a fairly difficult one—you should’ve needed to reach at least mid-30th Floor first.”
I was caught off guard by her sudden question.
“We haven’t gone yet. We only confirmed the ruin locations on a map from the Library.”
The Old Witch Woman studied me carefully after my answer.
“Looking at how thick the magical aura clings to you, you’ve clearly mastered a magical system. But the martial aura is just as thick—so you’ve definitely learned a compatible magical system. And yet you say you haven’t visited the ruin?”
“Was there a magical system in that ruin capable of combining martial arts and magic?”
I asked in surprise, and she nodded.
“Seeing you were talented in magic but fixated on martial arts, I pointed you toward a shortcut. Looks like it was unnecessary. From experience, someone like you always obsesses over whatever you lack.”
Her words stung a little.
Still, thanks to learning martial arts, I’d saved Andromallius and became his disciple.
“Regardless, as long as you keep climbing the Tower, that’s what matters. Since the Astral Gate hasn’t opened, you’re not an Astral Body. You haven’t changed sex, so you’re not a witch. You haven’t visited the ruin and you’re not emanating ghost aura, so you haven’t learned Take Soul either… which magical system did you master?”
So the magical system in the ruin must have been Take Soul.
I was slightly startled when she mentioned Astral Body.
“Are those three the standard methods?”
She let out a derisive laugh at my question.
“Standard? What nonsense. Every method of constructing magical circuits outside the body has drawbacks.”
“Drawbacks?”
“Astral Body is stable and has an extremely high growth ceiling, but it’s difficult to create from the start and extraordinarily dangerous. Plus, it has the flaw that core essence leaks outward until the Astral Gate is completely sealed.”
There’s a way to completely seal the Astral Gate?
I’d eliminated the gate through avatar absorption and regeneration, but apparently there was a separate method to close it.
I was curious about the method, but asking too directly risked exposing that I’d created an Astral Body. I’d have to investigate on my own later.
The Tower might have methods of attacking core essence that I don’t know about.
“Witches who can create external magical circuits—witch staffs—must be female to succeed at all. And Take Soul, which uses another being’s spirit as an external magical circuit, requires a robust physical body due to its characteristic ghost aura.”
Ah, so that’s why she’d recommended I visit the ruin.
If a robust physical body was essential, it would be impossible for Rachel.
“Any magical system that doesn’t rely on the body is either crude or requires a special bloodline or race to practice at all.”
She fell silent for a moment, then spoke again.
“Well, fine. I’ll count the ruin exploration as successful, since you’ve learned magic one way or another.”
“Oh, are you giving me Achievement Points?”
At my question, she looked at me with eyes that suggested I’d sold my conscience long ago.
“Should we head back to the ruins?”
Even if the Achievement Points were a secondary concern, I was still drawn to a legendary sorcerer’s ruins. There might be other things to gain there.
Who knows what else could be waiting.
But she paused, then shook her head.
“No. If you’ve learned a separate magical system, don’t go back to that ruin.”
“Why not?”
“There’s nothing left to gain, and it would be excessively dangerous. I’m not sure if you know about that ruin, but it was created by a great sorcerer for a disciple who couldn’t learn magic.”
I confirmed this using the Appraisal Glasses.
“If you enter having mastered a different magical system, the ruin will classify you as a grave robber and escalate the danger to a higher tier. If you attempt it, one of those two who hasn’t learned magic would have to face the trial to survive—but the one using Holy Power is at a disadvantage, and the one who controls slime has no magical talent, opposite to you.”
She added that the appropriate level for challenging it would be around a 75th Floor Climber.
If it was that dangerous, it was better to skip that ruin, no matter how much I regretted it.
“Instead, I’ll give you a different quest. Check that out once you reach the middle floors, and since I’m counting the exploration as a success, this time I’ll expand your party’s Inventory and Minimap for free.”
“Haha, thank you.”
She handed me a new map.
The map appeared pixelated or sealed with magic—impossible to read clearly.
Even with the Appraisal Glasses, I couldn’t make sense of it.
As she said, I’d have to find a way to unseal it once I reached the middle floors.

[The common ability ‘Inventory’ has been expanded to 10 kilograms.]
[The range of the common ability ‘Minimap’ has been expanded.]

My Inventory and that of my companions expanded.
“Then I’ll see you at the 40th Floor.”
“Yes. Before you reach the 80th Floor, try to uncover the secrets of the sphere.”

(Continued in the next part)

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