Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 202

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

Episode 202. The Tower – The Cursed Treasure of Immortality (4)

I settled myself on a nearby rock—or more precisely, a slab of rubble the size of one—and spoke.
“Since Rachel is now a formal member of the Party, I suppose I should tell her about this significant secret of mine.”
At my words, Diana wore an apologetic expression, as if she’d wronged Rachel by keeping her in the dark.
Rachel’s face tightened slightly at the mention of a significant secret, her eyes darting between us with undisguised curiosity.
“I possess a Subspace item.”
Rachel took a moment to process my words, her expression frozen in thought, before her eyes widened in shock.
“A Subspace item?! You’re saying you have something that rare?!”
I withdrew the Subspace Cube from my Inventory, activated it, and pulled out a chair from within the Subspace to sit on.
Rachel stared at my Subspace in bewilderment for a moment before regaining her composure and asking a question.
“On the 29th Floor, didn’t you say you were expanding your Inventory using weight-reducing pouches?”
“Ah, that wasn’t a lie. It’s just that I wasn’t necessarily avoiding that method even when I had the Subspace.”
Rachel gave me a deflated look at my answer. Then, as if something had occurred to her, she asked.
“On the 28th Floor, beyond that trap he couldn’t reach—was there really nothing there?”
At the question, I smiled wryly.
“We weren’t in the same Party then, were we?”
Rachel let out a soft laugh at my answer, which essentially admitted the lie.
“I’m not sure whether to call that wisdom or cunning. Though I suppose it makes sense—in a situation like that, revealing it would only limit how much each of us could secure anyway, and it’d just create conflict. On the other hand, it would’ve been foolish not to take what we could get.”
Rachel seemed to understand my reasoning, though a faint hint of disappointment lingered in her expression.
The human heart, after all, rarely followed pure logic alone.
But she brushed it aside readily enough.
“Since Ji-woo is right that we weren’t Party members on the 28th Floor, I can’t exactly claim a share of what you found. Besides, I managed to gather a fair amount myself back then. It’d be a lie to say I’m not disappointed, but your calculations seem sound enough.”
Having said that, she turned to ask us a question.
“So in situations like this one, how have you been dividing things? It seems you’ve had experience accumulating far more than what fits in an Inventory or bag, judging by what I see here.”
Rachel’s perceptiveness had led her to that very conclusion.
Lee Su-young answered Rachel’s question.
“Most of it goes to Ji-woo. Without him, we’d have had to leave most of this behind anyway.”
I added to what Su-young had said.
“To be honest, we never had any formal distribution rules. Our Party isn’t old enough to have established that sort of structure yet. We’ve just divided things based on experience so far.”
I ticked off on my fingers as I spoke.
“First, Magic Stones we split equally among all of us. In the thick of combat, chaos breaks out frequently, and it’s impossible to tell who grabbed what.”
The recent fight was like that, and the same applied to those walking corpses that came rushing at us on the 28th Floor—that sort of situation happened often enough.
Besides, Magic Stones could be converted to Tower Shop points immediately without needing Subspace at all.
“And with Monster Byproducts, the basic rule is that whoever hunted it owns it—unless another Party member needs it, in which case they use what the owner leaves over.”
I gestured to the Coat I was wearing and Diana’s Mace.
The Coat made from the Lizardman King’s hide and the Mace—I’d used the majority of the byproducts for my own Coat, and I’d crafted Diana’s Mace from what remained.
“And when there’s extra income beyond Magic Stones and regular monster hunting, it varies depending on the situation….”
I reflected on our experience so far as I continued.
“…We split things equally when we’ve agreed beforehand on what each person can carry by weight or when the profit is determined in advance. In cases where things are too heavy, I handle it, and I distribute a portion of it among the rest of you.”
The Gold Coins from the 26th Floor had amounted to only about 120,000 dollars’ worth, but the heap of Gold on the 22nd Floor—I’d kept all of that myself.
The reason I’m being this candid about distribution is because such matters are a sensitive issue in any Party partnership.
Since our Party wasn’t formed by Rachel recruiting people but rather she’d joined an already-existing group, there could be dissatisfaction with the existing distribution method.
After all, people can’t be forced to join or leave a Party.
Rachel nodded in understanding as she watched Su-young and Diana, both of whom appeared unsatisfied by nothing.
“The two of you seem content with the arrangement.”
Then she looked at the heap of gold and silver treasures piled high and spoke.
“Well, if I only carried what I could manage alone, even if there’s a fortune here, I’d be limited to roughly fifty kilograms at most. Even with Magic, I’d probably max out at double that?”
Even if I loaded goods onto a cart and touched a Crystal, only my own body would move.
It seemed the Crystal only recognized objects a Climber was holding or objects a Climber had knocked to the ground with their own strength as the Climber’s property.
“And once word gets out in the City that we’ve found treasure, we’d become targets for scavengers and thieves.”
At Rachel’s words, Su-young and Diana nodded in agreement.
We placed the items to be distributed in a Bank and divided them through a Handshake—the formal transaction between Climbers.
We could bear several hundred kilograms for a time using Magic, but carrying beyond that amount in gold and silver would make us look like walking golden Goblins, and no one could blame others for taking notice.
Not everyone was unethical, but not everyone was ethical either—it was a problem we had to manage ourselves.
“I have a feeling Han Ji-woo’s share will be more than what an individual could normally carry. How much capacity does your Subspace have, and how much will you be taking?”
“Well… for now, I can easily carry all of this.”
Rachel looked stunned at my answer. The Subspace she knew apparently wasn’t anything close to this spacious.
True enough—the Subspace Cube I carry around is originally a warehouse-type pocket dimension meant to be set down somewhere and used. The accessory-type pocket dimension I wear casually has a capacity reduced to about one-hundredth of that.
So it could only hold a fraction of what I’d accumulated.
“And what we distributed was… around ten percent, if I recall?”
Truth be told, it wasn’t so much distribution as it was gold I’d used for those two—but when you think about it, that amounted to the same thing.
“Without me, there have only been two, or perhaps three times when you’d have had to abandon things entirely. This is the fourth.”
On the 21st Floor’s steampunk world, without a pocket dimension I wouldn’t have been able to gather all the technical books and steam devices I wanted.
Of course, since Lee Su-young and Diana didn’t want any of that, it all ended up with me anyway.
Ah, but I didn’t distribute the things we got on Floor 28 either.
Rachel murmured as she gazed at the mountain of gold and silver.
“Ten percent of this, divided three ways… that’s roughly 3.3 percent each. Still an astronomical amount, though.”
Gold coins, silver coins, ingots of unknown origin, jewels and jewelry—all piled in heaps.
The sheer weight probably couldn’t be measured in mere kilograms.
Red Beard, who’d amassed this treasure, truly deserved the title of great pirate.
And his reason for cursing a sorcerer lauded as the world’s savior became abundantly clear.
It must have felt profoundly unjust—his warehouse brimming with vast riches repurposed as the seal site for a cursed statue.
Yet according to the sorcerer’s notes, treasure tainted by turbulent thoughts, obsession, and bitter resentment held no greater sorcerous value—so perhaps it was unavoidable.
Especially since these riches came from piracy itself.
“If I kept it all myself, I’m looking at perhaps fifty kilograms maximum, and there’d be the risk of income exposure to others. But if Han Ji-woo takes it and the rest of us divide ten percent, we’re moving hundreds of kilograms or more—and no one’s the wiser. Deliberating over this would be stupid.”
Rachel seemed satisfied with our distribution scheme.
But was dividing it that way actually right?
Sure, I benefited, but we’d all suffered together—shouldn’t it be equal division?
Contrary to my doubts, Lee Su-young and Diana nodded in agreement with Rachel’s assessment.
Was my sense of fairness somehow off?
That’s when Rachel spoke to all of us.
“Though I will say, the distribution feels a bit ad hoc. We’re not family, nor are we companions who’ve walked together so long that we know each other’s hearts without speaking. Frankly, a party is simply a group assembled for mutual benefit, and we’re all horizontal partners.”
She was right.
Truth be told, even if we parted ways tomorrow, I’d only feel regret—not sorrow. We hadn’t been together that long.
Rachel proposed with a serious expression.
“Until now, except for Han Ji-woo, we’ve all had limited inventory space and the strength to move cargo, but as we climb higher, that will change. Why not establish proper distribution rules now?”
Having made her proposal, Rachel added as if stepping back slightly.
“Of course, it might grate that I—barely a party member—am suggesting this. But when these issues arise later, they might come only after damage is already done. I don’t have vast experience, but I understand enough: money and vested interests can create friction between people at any moment.”
Rachel’s words were sound through and through. Even the closest bonds require caution when money enters, and circumstances are always shifting.
At Rachel’s words, Lee Su-young, Diana, and I fell into thought.
For now, I alone possessed a vast pocket dimension, but as we climbed the Tower, my inventory weight limit would only increase.
It was likely we’d obtain at least a Space Expansion Bag eventually, if not another pocket dimension.
We’d gain the strength to carry heavy loads regardless of how many items filled such a bag.
The higher we climbed, the less valuable my pocket dimension would become—it was inevitable.
This was a problem we’d face eventually on our ascent, and if it became an issue later, as Rachel warned, our feelings would already be strained.
That’s when I realized we truly had been running our party ad hoc.
As we fell silent before the treasure, lost in thought, Rachel made a proposal.
“How about something like this?”
Rachel slowly explained her thoughts and wrote out her proposal on paper.

-1. Magic Stones are divided equally as before; Monster Byproducts belong to whoever defeated the monster; if someone needs them, they negotiate with the owner for a share.
-2. For heavy auxiliary income, when the total weight stays below “per-person inventory limit plus one hundred kilograms” (currently four hundred forty kilograms for four party members), Equal Division is the default.
-3. If per-person weight exceeds that, Han Ji-woo keeps the rest until that excess reaches ten percent of the total.
-4. When auxiliary income weighs three tons or more, ten percent of the total is distributed to party members other than Han Ji-woo; the rest goes to Han Ji-woo.

Lee Su-young frowned as she read Rachel’s summary on paper.
“Sounds like a complicated contract.”
I felt similarly—my social experience was shallow enough that I shared her sentiment.
But Rachel seemed accustomed to such things, smiling faintly.
“It’s more a rule than a contract. There’s no enforcement if someone breaks it.”
Stripped to its essence, this annoying contract-like rule simply guaranteed “one hundred kilograms of weight per party member.”
Additionally, if auxiliary profit stayed under four hundred forty kilograms, my share was twenty-five percent; beyond that, my share gradually increased until roughly three tons, where it fixed at ninety percent.
At Rachel’s proposal, Lee Su-young and Diana looked at me.
Their gazes suggested my decision was paramount.
“Are you two comfortable with this? Isn’t this rule too weighted in my favor?”
True, as my inventory grew, the per-person weight benchmark would increase, but even accounting for that, it felt too advantageous—I worried they might harbor resentment.
At my question, Lee Su-young and Diana both shrugged.
“Isn’t this a decent arrangement? If anything, it seems almost too good for us.”
“Considering the profits we’d miss out on when Ji-woo isn’t with the Party, these terms are more than fair.”
I reviewed the rules once more in light of what they’d said.
“Hmm… I suppose so.”
The rules didn’t account for scenarios like adding more Party members, acquiring a Space Expansion Bag, developing the strength to carry over a hundred kilograms, or distributing lightweight but valuable items proportionally by weight—there were plenty of gaps to address.
When I pointed this out, Lee Su-young and Diana said we could work through those details gradually.
Their reasoning was that overly rigid rules would make us feel more like business partners than trusted companions.
Rachel’s expression flickered for a moment—as if to say that sounded preferable—but our Party’s atmosphere was decidedly anything but businesslike.
Well, if Rachel was going to stay with us, she’d have to get used to how we operated.
I swept Red Beard’s treasures into the Subspace Cube and reached for the Crystal to return to Floor 30.
That’s when an unfamiliar message appeared on the Crystal.

(To be 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
—————