Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 199

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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 199. The Tower — Cursed Eternal Life’s Treasure (1)

The moment I stepped into the cave, I grimaced at the sickly dampness, the chill in the air, and the oppressive magical aura pressing down on me.
“This place has a foul feeling to it.”
Diana nodded in agreement with my words, while Lee Su-young and Rachel gazed into the cave’s interior with expressions of uncertainty.
After surveying the inside, Lee Su-young spoke with a note of confusion.
“That strange eye we saw last night—it’s not here now. Does it only appear at night? Or do we need to see it from a distance?”
I answered Lee Su-young’s question.
“It seems to only show itself at night. I suspect that eye might be the trigger to enter the treasure vault.”
Rachel asked in response to my answer.
“Then should we wait until nightfall?”
I shook my head at Rachel’s suggestion.
“No. I think we can enter without waiting.”
I could see the flow of magical power in this cave with my own eyes.
From the pattern of that flow, the master of this magic clearly despised sunlight.
So at night, it seemed the entrance would open wide to lure visitors in, while during the day it not only closed but concealed its very existence.
“Rachel, do you have the ability to cast Mental Protection Magic for all of us?”
Rachel answered my question immediately.
“I can. What level do we need?”
If she’d said no, I’d planned to either learn it separately myself or substitute Diana’s Holy Power. Fortunate that she could do it.
My own Mental Protection Magic was simple enough and had been learned out of necessity, but casting it on others requires much greater difficulty—something I hadn’t yet mastered.
“Around Class 3 should do. If that’s not enough, Diana’s Holy Power can cover the gap.”
Given the difficulty, it would be quite expensive, yet Rachel purchased the magic without hesitation.
She truly doesn’t spare money when she deems something necessary.
“But you’re not asking why we need it?”
Rachel laughed lightly at my question and replied.
“Both you and Diana felt unease the moment you entered this cave, but I felt nothing of the sort. In fact, there’s something almost familiar about it.”
Lee Su-young nodded at Rachel’s words.
“Considering how unsettling that eye was when we saw it from a distance yesterday, you two must be right and I must be mistaken. Especially given that Diana has Holy Power—she’d sense such things even more acutely. So if something is indeed here, preparing ourselves is the right call.”
Her willingness to acknowledge that her own senses might be wrong and think rationally about it was deeply reassuring.
“Should we use it right away?”
“Ah, wait a moment. I need to prepare something to open the entrance.”
I retrieved a one-kilogram silver ingot from my Inventory and carved off about a tenth of it.
Then I used Spirit Magic to summon the contracted Level 1 fire spirit I had bonded with.
Lee Su-young marveled at the sight of the fire spirit and asked eagerly.
“Wow! What’s this adorable little lizard? It’s so cute!”
Everyone showed interest in the finger-sized, smooth-scaled lizard.
“A spirit. Not long after I entered the Tower, I was lucky enough to acquire an Ability Stone and learned Spirit Magic. I obtained it before meeting you, so this is probably your first time seeing it.”
“What’s its name?”
“Its name? Well… I haven’t given it one yet.”
In truth, this was the first time I’d properly summoned it.
The lizard glanced at me sideways, its eyes full of hopeful expectation.
“Do you want me to give you a name?”
The spirit nodded as if understanding my words.
“Let’s see, it’s red and a lizard, so… Draugh Gogh?”
Diana laughed lightly at my murmur.
“The red dragon from Arthurian legend? Doesn’t that seem a bit grand for something so cute?”
Of course she’d know it well—she’s British.
True enough, it did seem far too grand a name for such a delightfully small spirit.
Lee Su-young spoke to my naming choice.
“If the summon’s name is too difficult, it’s hard to call out. You have to call it often for affection to grow.”
“But surely something like Water Balloon or Wind Balloon is out of the question.”
“Why not? Mul-poong and Light Breeze are great! They have unity, they look similar, and they’re so fitting!”
I let Lee Su-young’s protest go in one ear and out the other.
Still, there was merit to what she said about keeping the name simple.
You grow attached only when you give something a name, and you call out to it often only when affection blooms.
I don’t know how much talent I truly have in Spirit Magic, but the art would only develop if I summoned the spirit frequently.
It was intuition perhaps, but I suspected I had little natural gift for Spirit Magic at all.
Of course it would be better than Martial Arts.
“So then, since it’s a fire spirit… Hwalyeong. Your name is Hwalyeong from now on.”
The fire salamander, having received its name, wiggled its rear end as if pleased.
I had the sense it would have been just as happy if I’d named it Dolsoe or Maksun, but now that I thought about it, Hwalyeong wasn’t a bad name at all.
Lee Su-young, having been called out for naming Mul-poong a water balloon, pouted her lip and spoke.
“The name Hwalyeong is pretty… but still, it’s just the meaning of ‘fire spirit,’ isn’t it?”
“Ha-ha-ha! That’s a lot better than balloon.”
I chuckled and teased Lee Su-young about her naming sense before speaking to Hwalyeong.
“Hwalyeong, lend me some of your power.”
I suspended silver shavings in mid-air using Telekinesis Magic and, channeling through the fire spirit, used Flame Magic to melt the silver.
The temperature needed to melt silver was nine hundred sixty-one degrees Celsius.
For a metal melting, it was a relatively low temperature, but while one could get away with just starting a quick fire, maintaining a temperature close to a thousand degrees to melt the silver drained Magical Power significantly.
However, when using magic through a spirit as a medium, Magical Power consumption dropped dramatically.
Now I understood why the Librarian Elder had given me the Ability Stone for Spirit Magic.
At this rate, I could become a walking artillery battery all on my own.
I shaped the molten silver suspended in the air, drawing out thin threads.
With those threads, I wove them like wire art to create Magical Sigils.
Silver was a metal with high Magical Power conductivity, making it excellent for creating semi-permanent Magical Formations or maintaining high-output magic.
After creating fifteen Magical Sigils, I affixed them to the cave walls, ceiling, and floor, arranging them in circles.
“Rachel, could you activate Mental Protection Magic?”
At my request, Rachel drew out a Magic Card, and I felt something wrap around my head.
I didn’t feel it distinctly, but Lee Su-young and Rachel clearly sensed it, their expressions hardening.
“What is this? Why does this place suddenly feel so awful?”
“Is this the natural atmosphere, or did something put us under Enchantment?”
It seemed we had indeed been subjected to some mild Mesmerization.
“If we’d come here at night instead, it could have been disastrous.”
At Rachel’s words, Lee Su-young nodded.
“Now, I’m opening the entrance.”
Crack—!
As I poured Magical Power into the makeshift Magical Formation, a sound like glass fracturing rang out through the air, and a doorway leading down into the underground appeared on the wall where there had been nothing before.
Once the Illusion concealing the door vanished, the oppressive magical aura grew even thicker.
“Rachel, just in case, prepare some Anti-Magic spells.”
At my instruction, Rachel swallowed dryly and nodded.
“Understood.”
Once Rachel finished purchasing her magic, I opened the door.
Looking closely, the wall with the door was actually a camouflage made of stacked stone, and the space beyond appeared to be a Natural Cave descending underground.
The deeper we went, the more spacious the cave became.
Lee Su-young took out Light Breeze to illuminate our surroundings.
Unlike the relatively narrow passages of the 28th Floor, the cave was far too vast for a flashlight to cover properly.
After walking several dozen meters or so, gold and silver treasures gleamed in the distance, reflecting light.
“Wow, I guess your Fortune of Money really is incredible, oppa.”
Despite the enormous wealth of Gold and Silver Treasures lying right before us, none of us rushed toward the bounty.
That was because from within the Gold and Silver Treasures—or rather, from the bizarre and shabby-looking Wooden Statue of a mermaid or fish, or something, surrounded by the treasure—an overwhelming wave of sickening Magical Power emanated.
Judging from the pattern of Magical Power, it seemed to be stimulating negative emotions and desires, casting Illusions and Enchantment.
“It was wise to cast Mental Protection Magic before entering.”
Just then, the eyes of the wooden statue snapped open.
“Those eyes…!”
The statue’s open eyes were the same unpleasant ones we’d seen the previous night.
—Come here.
The statue spoke in a voice like metal scraping, deeply unpleasant.
“Ugh!”
Lee Su-young, who among us had the weakest Anti-Magic resistance, winced at the voice as if her head ached, clutching at her temples.
Diana, protected by Holy Power, had the highest resistance to corruption, and both Rachel and I could use magic well enough to barely resist, but Lee Su-young, being a Summoner, lacked such strength.
—Come here. Seize me.
“This damn statue!”
When Rachel snapped irritably at the unpleasant voice and drew out a Magic Card, I stopped her.
“Our mission is recovery, not destruction.”
At my words, Rachel took a deep breath and lowered her hand holding the card.
But she kept the card in her grip, ready to attack at any moment.
For someone who’d said recovery was necessary, she seemed fully prepared to destroy the thing immediately if it seemed too dangerous, quest or no quest.
A wise decision.
No matter how crucial climbing the Tower was, safety came first.
“Let me seal it for now—”
Before I could finish, the statue, realizing we weren’t coming closer, began releasing its power.
“Damn. Should’ve just attacked it outright.”
From the gold and silver treasures heaped around the statue, grotesque, scale-covered creatures twisted out of the pile like the statue itself.
Among them, a fish-headed monstrosity wearing an eye patch and a rusty captain’s hat raised a corroded sword toward us and shrieked.
“Seize them! Make them join our crew!”
At that cry, dozens of ragged-clothed monsters came charging at us.
“Should’ve known something this unlucky was hiding behind all that talk of eternal treasure.”
I slashed the first charging creature in half with my sword wreathed in Sword Aura.
Green ichor sprayed from the severed halves instead of blood.
“Ugh! The stench!”
Beyond the sticky green, the reek of decay was overwhelming.
Lee Su-young and Rachel fired flame projectiles at the fish monsters while Diana and I followed up, hacking and beating down the ones that rushed in after.
Then one of the fish creatures I’d cleaved in half grabbed my leg.
“Join us!”
Its fangs clamped down hard on my leg.
“Argh!”
I struck the creature’s neck with my blade and thrashed my leg, sending its head flying.
Something felt wrong with the leg it had bitten.
When I rolled up my pant leg to check, the wound was beginning to necrotize, and strange scales were starting to grow.
“Damn it! Getting bitten by these things—you end up like this!”
I tried to use Regeneration, but a curse was hampering the healing.
I used my Magical Power to block the curse from climbing up my leg while I cut down the monsters.
The creatures themselves were nothing individually—even when I halved them or severed their heads, they’d regenerate quickly thanks to the statue’s power and keep charging.
“Brother! Your leg—what do we do?!”
Lee Su-young’s eyes went wide with alarm, and I kept the creatures from approaching her and Rachel as I spoke.
“I’m holding the curse back, so it’s fine. We’ll heal it once Diana unleashes her Holy Power.”
At least their fangs weren’t hard enough to pierce Diana’s sturdy form.
As I kept regenerating and cutting down the endless stream of charging monsters, I felt sensation draining from the bitten leg.
I could block the curse from climbing, but I couldn’t stop it from worsening.
And Diana had no time to heal me right now.
“Goddamn it.”
If I couldn’t break through these endlessly regenerating monsters and seal that statue, losing the use of one leg meant we were done for.
On top of that, I was pouring Magical Power into blocking the curse’s advance, leaving me short on reserves for a sealing spell.
That meant Diana would have to manage it with Holy Power somehow, but while she concentrated on the statue, I alone had to hold off the monsters rushing at Lee Su-young and Rachel.
Even if the creatures’ fangs couldn’t pierce Diana’s flesh, Lee Su-young’s slime barrier and Rachel’s defensive spells would eventually give way under constant assault.
But with my leg like this, I couldn’t protect them both from the swarm.
“My leg’s not responding! We need to retreat!”
I shouted and yanked a Hand Axe from my Inventory, pouring my full Internal Energy into it before hurling it at the statue.
The statue, sensing the danger, let out a horrific shriek and called the fish creatures to swarm over it, shielding itself.
In that moment, Diana scooped me up and bolted, and behind us came the sound of the Hand Axe tearing through flesh.
We burst out of the Cave safely, and fortunately, the creatures didn’t follow us beyond the entrance—the ones Diana’s power had wounded just lingered near the mouth before vanishing.

(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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