Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 26

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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 26. The Tower – Slime Summoner (3)

The slime clinging to the Female Student’s shoulder spat out a glob of water like saliva.
The goblin struck in the face by the water mass the slime ejected had corn kernels bursting from its snout like popcorn, its nose caved in as blood streamed from its nostrils before it collapsed.
Did its skull just cave in?
The slime’s attack was sufficiently devastating.
But the problem was the sheer number of goblins.
What had she done to have roughly twenty goblins chasing after her like this?
I wouldn’t have much trouble even if I were being hunted down like that since I don’t truly die, but she’s different.
There’s no helping it.
I concealed myself between the trees and drew my hand axe.
I wished I’d learned concealment techniques, but Siu said she wouldn’t teach me such things until I’d thoroughly mastered the fundamentals, so I never got the chance.
Still, I could suppress my presence and aura, so I maneuvered as stealthily as possible to get behind the goblin pack.
Whoosh—Crack!
The hand axe I threw split the skull of a goblin in the rear.
Damn! I was aiming for the one closer to me.
Naturally, the goblin right beside where the axe grazed turned around, and I rushed forward and slit its throat before it could fully turn.
Fortunately, the other goblins were too frenzied chasing the Female Student to notice their comrade falling behind them.
I picked up the hand axe the goblin had been holding and threw it, splitting the spine of a charging goblin, and when I missed, I quickly rushed in and took its throat.
As I rapidly disposed of them one by one, only seven goblins remained, and it seemed the Female Student being chased finally sensed something amiss.
When the goblins stopped and grew wary of their surroundings, I threw the hand axe stained blue with goblin blood.
The axe embedded itself precisely between the eyebrows of the goblin next to my intended target.
“Kerrrgh!”
As I revealed myself before the six remaining goblins, they roared in fury.
Now it was a 6-versus-2 situation.
That is, if the Female Student doesn’t ungratefully flee.
But contrary to my concerns, she summoned another slime and took a combat stance.
“Watch your eyes!”
The Female Student lifted the slime, issuing the warning.
I couldn’t close my eyes, so I raised my arm to restrict my vision.
Soon, the yellow-tinged slime suddenly emitted a light so sharp it stung the skin.
“Kergh!”
“Kieek!”
Two goblins clutched their eyes in agony, while the remaining four, having experienced this before, were already shielding their own eyes.
I threw the hand axe and crushed the heads and legs of the two goblins protecting their eyes.
“Tsk, should I learn throwing techniques?”
Somehow the axe keeps flying in a completely different direction than where I’m aiming.
Still, fortunately we were close enough that my accuracy was decent.
The Female Student used her slime to expel a mass of water, caving in the heads of two goblins.
It seemed the slime could only fire two water projectiles at most in a single volley, as no follow-up attacks came.
For such a powerful attack, she was being chased around rather helplessly—it appeared her offensive options were limited.
Still, judging by the sheer power, she could have easily cleared the tutorial.
The Hop Goblins had better size and strength than regular goblins, but their durability was roughly the same.
I approached the blinded goblin and severed its neck in one swift motion.
Once all the goblins were eliminated, the Female Student collapsed where she stood, her strength seeming to drain away.
“Thank you so much. I’m alive because of you.”
“How did you end up being chased like that? I heard goblins usually travel in groups of two or three at most.”
She looked like a high school student, but since we’d just met, I should use formal speech.
The Female Student wiped her sweat and answered my question.
“I was hunting goblins when I unluckily stumbled right into a goblin den.”
That was genuinely bad luck.
“Can you stand?”
“Ah… could you wait just a moment? My legs have lost their strength….”
I nodded and opened my senses to check for any hidden goblins, when I felt mana draining from the corpses of the dead goblins.
Of all the mana escaping, half scattered into the air while the other half surged toward the Female Student and me.
I instinctively threw my body to the side, and the Female Student looked at me with a puzzled expression.
Even as I dodged, the mana came toward me, lingered near my skin, and then dissipated.
Meanwhile, the Female Student absorbed roughly half of the mana that surged toward her.
“Um, are you alright?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m fine. Somehow I feel stronger now.”
As she said this, the Female Student slowly rose to her feet—no lie in her words.
Less than ten seconds had passed since she’d said her legs had lost their strength.
At that sight, the Librarian Elder’s words suddenly came back to me—that my talent for The Tower was remarkably lacking.
The Librarian Elder had said I’d understand soon, but could this mana absorption be the “talent” he was referring to?
My absorption rate was less than one percent of the mana that came toward me, while the Female Student’s absorption rate was at least fifty percent or more.
I began to understand why The Tower’s returnees said they’d simply grown stronger as they climbed without realizing when it happened.
They killed monsters and absorbed invisible mana, strengthening their bodies—so of course they wouldn’t notice exactly when they’d grown stronger.
In essence, it was like a game: kill monsters, gain experience, and grow stronger.
The only difference was that stats were distributed automatically.
Come to think of it, the term “Mana” commonly used in games also referred to the “power of struggle” that arose in the South Pacific Polynesian regions when warriors defeated formidable foes.
The defeated enemy was a kind of offering, and the victor gained strength from that offering—a form of consumption.
The Tower was strengthening its climbers by making them kill monsters and accumulate mana.
But why did The Tower invite climbers and impose such trials upon them?
The fact that one could leave The Tower at any time didn’t align with the idea that it was raising them like livestock to be harvested.
Perhaps, as the Librarian Elder said, I’d understand once I climbed higher?
As I stood quietly, lost in thought, the Female Student watched my expression.
“Um, well… this is all I have to offer in thanks for saving me….”
The Female Student handed me a mana stone she’d harvested from the monsters she’d hunted.
“Ah, don’t worry—I didn’t help you expecting a reward. The corpses of those I’ve killed are payment enough for me.”
I’d ventured outside the City in the first place only to earn Shop Points and gauge my current abilities.
Since I’d already earned enough money for immediate needs, I had no intention of demanding compensation from someone who’d helped me.
“By the way, is that slime a summon?”
“Ah, yes.”
The Female Student who’d been petting the slime smiled wryly.
“I originally tried to find a party in the City, but everyone was hesitant because they thought the slime wouldn’t be helpful, so I ended up coming out here alone.”
“It makes sense—I’ve heard summoning-type abilities have a rarity rating of 5 or higher, so the early stages must be quite challenging.”
“Huh? Rarity rating?”
The Female Student blinked, as if hearing the term “rarity rating” for the first time.
She didn’t know about rarity ratings?
“Didn’t you look up information about your ability at the Library?”
“I did look, but there was no explanation for my ability. By the way, if this rarity rating is high… is that bad?”
Now that I thought about it, I’d only learned about rarity ratings from the Librarian Elder—I’d never seen it mentioned in the Community.
It seemed likely that discussing ability rarity ratings was something that happened only in the middle layers of The Tower.
In the lower layers of The Tower, most climbers had low rarity ratings, so they probably had no interest in the concept itself.
I explained rarity ratings to her the way the Librarian Elder had taught me, drawing a graph on the ground.
“Ah, so my early growth rate will be low.”
“Well, I’ve heard that summoning-type abilities tend to have high rarity ratings.”
At my words, the Female Student let out a deep sigh.
High-rarity abilities required either obtaining low-rarity abilities through ability stones to supplement early growth, or finding allies to form a party for dungeon hunting.
My ability was probably higher rarity than summoning-type, but since I could spend time growing in another world, it wasn’t a major problem.
Come to think of it, I’d trained martial arts for a full four years—subjectively a bit over three—yet my status window showed I was only capable of operating around the 10th Floor.
From what I saw in the Community, people usually showed visible growth within about three months, so with this growth speed, how high was my ability’s rarity rating?
Could it possibly be 9 or 10?
“Um… if you don’t mind, would you be willing to form a party with me? I promise I won’t be a burden! No, I’ll be your porter!”
Faced with the Female Student’s earnest gaze, I hesitated for a moment.
Looking purely at her ability, forming a party with this girl wouldn’t be a particularly wise choice.
Even if her ability was rare, this was the very beginning of The Tower at the 10th Floor, and summoning-type abilities grew as slowly as they were rare.
But watching the magical energy absorbed into the Female Student’s body just now, it seemed climbing The Tower wasn’t accomplished by ability alone.
It was only natural, really.
No matter how good an ability was, the person wielding it ultimately mattered most, and this girl had at least a hundred times more talent for climbing The Tower than I did.
Seeing the Female Student watching me anxiously, I couldn’t help but smile.
“You don’t need to be a porter. If you’re willing, even temporarily, let’s form a party.”
As I extended my hand for a handshake, the Female Student grasped it with a bright expression and bowed her head.
“Thank you so much!”
Seeing her so grateful made me, someone with virtually no talent for climbing The Tower, feel oddly embarrassed.
“I’m… Han Ji-woo.”
I’d almost introduced myself as Cheon Ji-woo before correcting myself.
“I’m Lee Su-young! Seventeen years old! A vibrant high school girl! You seem older than me, so please speak comfortably!”
“Um… I’m twenty-two.”
According to my status window, I’d already turned twenty-one after my birthday.
“Then I’ll speak comfortably. I’m Lee Su-young.”
“Please just call me Su-young, without the family name!”
For some reason, I felt my energy being drained.
As an introvert, I wondered if I could handle the vibrant energy of Lee Su-young, who appeared to be an extrovert at first glance.
“Then should we gather the magic stones first?”
“Yes!”
Lee Su-young pulled out a dagger from her inventory, extracted the magic stone from the goblin’s heart, and severed its right ear.
“Huh? Why cut off the ear?”
It was grotesquely eerie.
Lee Su-young looked flustered at my reaction.
“Ji-woo, haven’t you visited the Climbers’ Association? They exchange goblin subjugation proof—the right ear—for one hundred credits and merit points as a beginner climber request from The Tower.”
Ah, now that I thought about it, I seemed to recall seeing mention of the Climbers’ Association in the guidebook.
I must have overlooked it since there was so much to research.
“The Association sells items needed for climbing The Tower at affordable prices, but you need to accumulate a certain amount of merit points to buy them. That’s why I came all the way here too.”
“I see. I only just arrived yesterday, so I didn’t know.”
“Ah! Then that makes sense. I’ve only been on the 10th Floor for about a week myself. On the first day, I was fascinated by the city inside The Tower and just wandered around, browsing the Community, and I think I only visited the Association around the third day.”
I see. But didn’t she say she was a high school student?
It’s early July, so high school shouldn’t be on break yet—is she allowed to be here?
If she entered The Tower a week ago, would she be okay with her final exams?
Isn’t it rude to ask such things on a first meeting?
Seeing how I’m more concerned about exams than my parents’ worry over their missing daughter, I suppose I’m an inescapable Korean after all.
I gathered the goblin spoils with Lee Su-young and distributed them according to how many each of us had defeated.
We hunted more goblin groups while walking mainly along the forest trails, then returned to the city and discussed how we’d divide things going forward.

(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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