Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 25

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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 25. The Tower – Slime Summoner (2)

[Name: Han Ji-woo (1 Slot Avatar) / Age: 21]
[Strength: 9 / Agility: 11 / Stamina: 9 / Intelligence: 15 / Mana: 13]
[Status: Normal]
[Abilities: Multidimensional Avatar Lv 12, Martial Arts Lv 15, Magic Bullet Lv 1, Spirit Technique Lv 1]
[-Martial Arts: Azure Wood Sword Lv 15, Azure Wood Technique Lv 13]

Looking at my status window, the Azure Wood Sword and Azure Wood Technique had merged into a single martial arts category.
And thanks to continuously consuming spirit elixirs, while not pristine like a child’s, my body was remarkably clean.
Normally, consuming large quantities of spirit elixirs at once like this would be a direct path to death.
The reason being that qi carries away impurities meant the torrential flow of qi scraped through blood vessels, leaving them tattered and torn.
But I recovered my body by absorbing and recreating my avatars.
Avatar absorption had a cooldown, but it passed quickly through continuous cultivation.
I successfully formed my dantian and strengthened my body using the qi within it.
In martial arts, while the quantity of inner qi mattered, the sensitivity to controlling qi was far more important.
Of course, below the Fire Realm, physical ability was more important than qi control sensitivity.
After all, martial arts was ultimately the study of using one’s body.
The Tower avatar’s inner qi was considerably less compared to my Reincarnation avatar’s, and its blood vessels weren’t clean either.
The qi accumulated and latent from spirit elixirs was virtually nonexistent, but even in this state, there was no problem ascending The Tower.
“Let’s see, I have 32 beginner spirit elixirs left. Should I consume just 10 more and call it done?”
The physical fatigue disappeared during the process of absorbing and regenerating my avatar.
But the mental fatigue remained, so I decided to expand my dantian a bit more, return to my main body, get some sleep, and then move forward.
I could sleep in my Reincarnation avatar’s body, but since nap time had already passed there, Siu might refuse to let me sleep, saying I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
A four-year-old’s nap was part of her daily routine.

* * *

My Magic Power and Azure Wood Technique both reached level 15.
From experience, Magic Power would grow smoothly up to level 19.
Then it would hit a wall at 20 and stop growing, but once I broke through to 20, it would grow smoothly again.
It seemed that multiples of 10 were the walls between realms.
When my inner strength finally matched a proper third-rate level, both Magic Power and Azure Wood Technique reached level 20.
Of course, the status window only displayed information in summary form, so I couldn’t be certain about the detailed and complex factors involved.
There would likely be limits to how much elixirs could help me catch up in realm advancement.
“Let’s see… I only have 900 credits?”
One credit was roughly 100 won. 900 credits amounted to about 90,000 won.
That was barely enough for one day of food and lodging.
The money I’d earned from selling the goblin’s weapon and combat gear had quickly disappeared on meals, clothes, and a night’s accommodation.
If I wanted to survive, I needed credits. That left me with three options.
I could hunt monsters outside the city and use the Shop Points I earned to purchase credits, sell the loot from hunts, or sell the high-grade recovery potion I’d bought as emergency funds.
Selling the potion felt wasteful.
I could sell it for a premium price outside The Tower, and I needed recovery means in case my main body got injured.
Well, my main body was safe on Tower Floor 1, so there shouldn’t be any risk of injury—though I’d nearly hurt myself by accident when I accidentally dug into the floor with a sword last time, so I should be careful.
“I guess I’ll have to go hunting.”
I needed Shop Points regardless of credits.
I had plenty of uses for them—like buying stat-boosting elixirs to raise my lacking Strength and Stamina.
“I should head to the hunting grounds outside the city.”
According to WTPO’s information, the 10th Floor was a “lower residential tier” where floors 10, 20, and 30 existed together.
The lower residential tier was divided into the 10th-floor zone, 20th-floor zone, 30th-floor zone, and a common zone, with climbers only able to operate in their respective floor’s zone and the common zone.
The native inhabitants seemed to have no restrictions on zones.
Each zone contained numerous cities, and beyond the city walls, monsters appeared according to each floor level.
The 10th-floor zone had monsters from floors 11 to 19, the 20th-floor zone had monsters from floors 21 to 29, and the 30th-floor zone had monsters from floors 31 to 39, and so on.
Monsters closer to the city were from lower floors, while those farther away were from higher floors.
So if monsters grew stronger then weaker, it served as an indicator that I was approaching a neighboring city.
Most nearby cities gathered climbers belonging to the same nation, but if you ventured farther, you could supposedly encounter foreigners.
However, according to Agent K’s opinion, the distance between cities was quite far, so climbing The Tower would be faster if you wanted to see foreigners.
“Good. My body is in perfect condition. Now it’s time for real combat.”
I created a clone again, stripped off the combat gear that appeared, stored it in my inventory, and put on the clothes I’d bought from The Tower.
The combat gear was far too conspicuous.
I’d sell the combat gear again later and use the money for living expenses.
After eating at the inn’s first-floor restaurant, I checked out and left the inn.
My plan for today was to earn living expenses through hunting in the morning, then gather information from the Community while eating lunch.
I’d collect information about the 11th Floor, and if an opportunity presented itself, I’d attempt the 11th Floor.
Even if my attempt to clear the 11th Floor failed, I could return to the 10th Floor.
If I decided not to challenge the 11th Floor, I’d follow the Librarian Elder’s recommendation and visit the Magic Tower Branch.
“Are you a climber? The area outside the city walls is dangerous—wouldn’t you like to equip yourself better?”
When I arrived at the City Wall, the middle-aged guard stationed at the gate looked at me with concern.
“Ah, I just arrived, so I’m short on funds. I was planning to catch some Horned Rabbits here and use the money to outfit myself with equipment.”
“Is that so? Well, money is money. Be careful out there.”
The middle-aged guard blessed my fortune and waved me through.
Truth be told, even if I earned money, I’d probably buy an extra sword, but I had no particular intention of purchasing armor.
The martial arts of the Galactic Martial Arts World had evolved since the gunpowder era to emphasize evasion and survival over defense, making armor nothing but a hindrance.
The universal wisdom among Galactic Martial Arts practitioners was: if defense was necessary, elevate your cultivation to eliminate the need for defense altogether.
“If I die, I die. What of it?”
Death carried a penalty, but I could afford to die a few more times yet.
No matter how I thought about it, playing it safe was just wasting my clone ability.
I drew my one-handed sword and surveyed my surroundings.
With Siu and Cheon So-yeon’s help, I’d trained myself to read the qi waves of living creatures.
Fortunately, the experience from that training proved useful regardless of which body I was using.
I immediately sensed the qi wave of a small creature in the nearby brush.
As I approached, the vegetation rustled slightly before a Horned Rabbit burst forth.
Normally, I would have blocked with a shield or armor, but instead I swung my blade and severed the creature’s neck mid-air.
“…So this is the kind of attack that killed me before?”
I was struck anew by just how weak I’d been when I first entered The Tower.
I still wasn’t particularly strong by any measure, but the progress was undeniable.
I collected the mana stone and the rabbit’s corpse.
A cleanly killed rabbit drained of blood had market value for both meat and hide.
Now that I thought about it, the restaurant menus did feature quite a lot of rabbit dishes, didn’t they?
Korea didn’t consume much rabbit, but it was a fairly common ingredient abroad.
If I butchered and sold the rabbit, the meat would fetch about 20 credits per animal and the hide about 40 credits, but without proper skill, I could sell it whole for around 30 credits.
The mana stone was separate, of course.
I tossed the headless rabbit into a bag I’d purchased at the outfitter, then began exploring the area near the City Wall.
During my patrol, I hunted six more Horned Rabbits that mindlessly charged, twelve blade-legged fighting cocks that were two to three times the size of Brazilian chickens, and three rodents roughly the size of a watermelon.
Since they only awarded 1 point each, they all seemed to be 11th Floor level creatures.
According to the Community, 11th Floor monsters gave 1 point, 12th Floor monsters gave 2 points, 13th Floor monsters gave 3 points, increasing by 1 point per floor until the 20th Floor, where it jumped to 10 points per floor, and then at the 30th Floor it increased by 100 points per floor.
“Can’t be helped, being this close to the City.”
My bag was heavy enough without the headless chickens dangling from rope, weighing me down considerably.
I returned to the City and sold the Horned Rabbits and blade-legged fighting cocks to the Butcher near the City Gate.
The chickens with blades on their legs were called blade-legged fighting cocks, apparently.
While rabbits could yield hides, the chickens seemed to have higher demand and sold for more.
The rabbits went for 30 credits each, seven of them.
The chickens went for 50 credits each, twelve of them. I earned 810 credits total.
“If there’s this much game around the City, shouldn’t the supply be higher, making the prices cheaper?”
The Butcher answered my innocent question matter-of-factly.
“Demand exceeds supply, so this is the price. How many people do you think live in this City?”
“Uh… I’m not sure?”
Now that I thought about it, the City did seem quite large.
“Fifty thousand people in total. Of those, climbers like you number only around five hundred.”
The city’s population was far larger than I’d anticipated.
I’d assumed it would be around five thousand at most.
“You climbers don’t hunt like this every single day. The city has professional hunters too, and they barely manage to meet demand. The quantity you climbers bring in isn’t nearly enough to sustain the city’s needs.”
So even with abundant prey, insufficient hunters meant a supply shortage.
It made sense—even with plentiful raw materials, without enough factories to process them, production would inevitably fall short.
“And the hunters don’t fight head-on like you do either. They set traps instead. We don’t have superpowers like you, so even a moment’s carelessness outside the city usually means death.”
Fair point. I’d died twice climbing to the 10th Floor and been turned into a porcupine by arrows—I knew it well.
Yet the Butcher seemed far more terrified of the world beyond the city than I’d expected.
Was this fear itself another method of The Tower’s control?
Having earned a day’s wages, I decided to venture further from the city to search for monsters.
Following the path leading out of the city, I discovered a narrow trail branching into the forest.
Looking around, the terrain formed a basin surrounded by mountains on all sides except for the trail. To go further without using it, I’d have to climb over the peaks.
The trail seemed preferable to mountaineering, so I took it.
Fortunately, the forest’s tree density wasn’t excessive, allowing sunlight to filter through in many places.
After walking along the path for several minutes, I sensed a goblin hiding between trees, approaching me.
Before it could attack, I slipped between the trees and ambushed it first.
Whether from my martial arts training or the goblins’ carelessness, killing them proved surprisingly straightforward.
Goblins traveled in groups of two or three, and upon ambush, I found some clumsily wielding bows and arrows.
Had we fought in the open plains, I’d have struggled against multiple opponents simultaneously. But the forest allowed me to pick them off individually, making it far easier.
“The one with the bow is worth 2 points, then.”
I picked up the bow and arrows and tested the draw.
Crack!
The bow couldn’t withstand my strength and fractured. The arrow flew about five meters before embedding itself uselessly in the ground.
The broken bow was partly to blame, but even intact, my full-force stone-slinging would likely prove more effective.
I collected the goblin’s mana stone, hand axe, and dagger, then ventured deeper into the forest.
From the distance came a sharp cry—”Screech!”—and when I concealed myself to observe, I saw a female student, no older than high school, with a slime clinging to her shoulder, being chased by goblins.

(To be continued in the next chapter)

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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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