Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 28

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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 28. The Tower – Escort (1)

“Let’s challenge the 11th Floor!”
I questioned Lee Su-young’s choice.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes, I spent about a week on the 10th Floor, so now I should challenge the higher floors. And I trust your combat skills from fighting alongside you!”
Lee Su-young then asked with a slight pause.
“Oh, you said you came to the 10th Floor yesterday, right? Should we spend a bit more time exploring the City?”
“No. We can explore the City more after we come back from the 11th Floor. Let’s just eat, get our equipment sorted, and head up right away.”
Lee Su-young normally carried a shield, but she said she had abandoned it and fled while being chased by goblins.
So we needed to buy a shield and arrows.
“Great! There’s a delicious Restaurant nearby here. It’s affiliated with the Hunter Association, so we can get a discount on official business.”
I ate as Lee Su-young guided me, then we headed to the Weapon Shop.
Lee Su-young purchased a shield and three quivers containing twenty arrows each.
The arrows were made of bamboo shafts, sturdy and light—each quiver weighed only 250 grams, she said.
She strapped one quiver to her waist and placed the other two in her inventory.
She slung the shield across her back like a turtle shell, preparing for close combat.
“Your archery accuracy is quite impressive. Did you receive professional training?”
Unlike me, her hit rate was remarkably high.
To my question, Lee Su-young answered modestly.
“I did archery until middle school. In Elementary School, I even won bronze medals in provincial competitions, but once I reached middle school, there were so many archery prodigies across the nation. So I realized my talent had limits and quit.”
Actually, Lee Su-young’s dream wasn’t to become an archery athlete, but to be a Hunter who closes Gates.
She had evacuated to avoid monsters during an outbreak when she was young, and a Hunter had saved her. After that, she found him so cool that she made it her future aspiration.
She wanted to attend a martial arts dojo that taught aura techniques established by Tower returnees, but her parents opposed the Hunter profession as too dangerous. Instead, she learned taekwondo, kendo, and archery.
The taekwondo and kendo schools she attended weren’t professional—they felt like children’s cram schools for Elementary School students, so she quit quickly. But the archery school was serious about training athletes, so she trained there until middle school.
When she entered high school, she changed her mind and decided to follow her parents’ wishes and go to university first. But as if by fate’s joke, she received an invitation to The Tower and ended up here.
“Ji-woo, what do you want to buy?”
At Lee Su-young’s question, I paused to think.
“Well, there’s nothing I want to buy right now.”
The one-handed sword I was using was slightly short, but it still worked well enough.
If my strength grew further or my inner energy increased, I could use a longer blade, but it wasn’t time to change weapons yet.
Besides, the swords sold at the Tower Shop didn’t seem that good.
Or rather, the swords I bought from the Tower Shop were thin and sturdy like factory-stamped products, but the swords at the Weapon Shop in the 10th Floor City were thick and heavy, as if hammered directly in a Blacksmith’s forge.
They were far superior to the jungle machete the Hop Goblin used, but even the one-handed sword seemed to weigh well over one kilogram.
One might think that a craftsman’s work should be better, but generally, human craftsmanship fell short of factory precision.
Which would be more precise—a person swinging a hammer or a machine applying consistent pressure evenly across a broad surface? The answer was obvious without even looking.
Of course, being thicker made it more durable, and at around 2,000 credits each—twenty percent of the Tower Shop’s one-handed sword price—buying one seemed like the better option. But my blade wasn’t broken.
So instead of weapons, I examined the armor.
I had roughly 4,500 credits in my possession—about 450,000 won.
That was barely enough to purchase a decent leather armor chest piece.
Of course, I could buy credits using shop points, but it felt wasteful.
As a Galaxy Martial Arts practitioner, spending money on heavy equipment that would weigh down my body was unthinkable.
“I think this alone will suffice.”
I selected arm guards from the defensive equipment—pieces that covered the wrists and backs of the hands.
They weren’t quite gauntlets in the traditional sense; they were closer to bracers, arm protectors.
“I can use these in place of a shield.”
“Are you sure? The surface area is too small to function as a proper shield.”
“It’s fine. Actually, shields hinder movement, so this is better.”
Even so, wearing them would make my wrist movements awkward, so I planned to equip them only on my left arm—the one I didn’t use for my sword.
Since these were protectors, there was no real issue wearing right-arm pieces on my left arm, so I’d consider it as if I’d purchased two left-arm sets.
The arm guards cost 2,600 credits per pair, but using my Hunter Association merit discount of twenty percent, I purchased them for 2,340 credits.
“If you’re short on credits, I could lend you some.”
Lee Su-young, having arrived a week before me, had apparently accumulated quite a bit of shop points from hunting Horned Rabbits and Blade Roosters.
“No need. I earned shop points earlier too, so why would I be short on credits? I’ve already secured protective gear.”
Though the premium Heavenly Silkworm Robe was too expensive to afford, I had managed to save enough allowance to purchase the latest Aramid-like Heavenly Silkworm combat suit.
On the day I decided to climb The Tower, I’d already purchased one tailored to my original body’s size, so I just needed to put it on when the time came.
After the amusement park abduction incident, it had become impossible to purchase anything without Siu knowing, but when I mentioned I’d wear it later, she accepted it with a skeptical gaze.
Though she said nothing, my internet security had become somewhat compromised.
Lee Su-young seemed puzzled by my claim that I’d secured protective gear.
“But why didn’t you wear it outside the City?”
At her question, I averted my gaze slightly.
“…It’s rather uncomfortable.”
There’s always a reason things are cheap.
Though the combat suit was lightweight and the joints moved well, wearing it properly created considerable pressure across my entire body.
The real Heavenly Silkworm Robe supposedly felt like wearing nothing at all, but even if I wanted it, a single set cost well over three years’ worth of living expenses, so it couldn’t be helped.
At my response, Lee Su-young regarded me with a half-lidded gaze and spoke.
“Wear it.”
“…Okay.”

* * *

Thirty minutes after parting ways at the Weapon Shop, we regrouped at the city center where the crystal for ascending to the 11th Floor awaited.
Lee Su-young had even showered to wash away the sweat she’d accumulated.
“Oh! Is this the armor you mentioned? It looks far more refined than I imagined!”
My pseudo-silkworm combat suit bore a striking resemblance to special forces tactical gear.
I’d never worn such gear before, but this pseudo-silkworm combat suit could withstand not only sword strikes infused with blade energy, but also several rounds from a 20mm anti-tank machine gun.
To be precise, that was its performance when reinforced with inner energy at the 2nd-class level. For someone of my 3rd-class standing, it was merely excellent protective clothing and body armor.
The combat suit’s “pseudo-silkworm polymer fibers” were structured to exhibit non-Newtonian fluid properties between the fibers, first blocking attacks, then intertwining to dissipate force secondarily and prevent further penetration.
“It’s tighter than I expected. Uncomfortable.”
Even if it was uncomfortable, loosening it would compromise its defensive capability, so there was no help for it.
Since it wasn’t genuine silkworm silk, I had to endure any residual physical force it couldn’t fully dissipate.
Still, it was far superior to restrictive plate armor.
My body felt snug, but there was no sensation of impeded movement whatsoever.
It was remarkable how such tightness didn’t create awkwardness in motion.
Was this the power of future technology?
“Safety through discomfort is worthwhile. Did you purchase this from the Tower Shop? It must have been expensive?”
“Well, yes.”
The Tower Shop’s product catalog was so extensive that searching through it manually was exhausting.
Fortunately, there was a search function.
“Let’s ascend immediately.”
“Yes.”
Lee Su-young and I placed our hands on the crystal and ascended to the 11th Floor.
Lee Su-young and I put our hands on the railing and went up to the 11th Floor.

* * *

The Quest that came to mind for Sujeong on the 11th Floor was simple.

Keep Milio safe while you’re away in the Forest.

Upon arriving at the 11th Floor, I found a boy who appeared to be around fifteen years old praying before a crystal.
The boy startled when we suddenly appeared before him.
“Oh, could you be the climbers sent by The Tower?”
Lee Su-young nodded in response to the boy’s question.
“We are climbers, but is your name Milio?”
At Lee Su-young’s question, the boy—Milio—was taken aback.
“That’s right! The Tower really did grant my wish!”
I asked in response to Milio’s words.
“A wish? What wish did you make to The Tower?”
Milio rolled his eyes at my question.
“Didn’t you come here to grant my wish?”
“That’s what I’m asking—what wish? All we know is that we’re supposed to protect you while you go to the Forest and return.”
Milio’s expression brightened again at my answer.
“Then you really did come to grant my wish! My wish was to safely go to the Forest and return!”
Milio pointed beyond the wooden palisade. Naturally, no Forest was visible from here.
“Explain in detail.”
“Well, you see…”
Milio seemed slightly nervous and gave a somewhat rambling explanation.
To summarize: his mother had fallen ill, and his father had gone to a City two months’ journey away to find medicine to cure her.
In the meantime, his mother’s condition had worsened, and she was hovering at death’s door from high fever. To bring down the fever, they needed fever-reducing medicinal herbs from the Forest.
The Forest was the territory of a wolf pack led by a monster wolf, a place even the Village’s able-bodied men wouldn’t enter alone.
The wooden palisade surrounding the Village had been erected precisely out of fear that the wolves from the Forest might venture into the Village.
“Do you know where that herb is located?”
“Yes, before Father left for the City, we went into the Forest together several times and harvested the herbs!”
There were very few proper adults left in the Village.
They had all gone to the City with Milio’s father to procure supplies.
The Village’s primary source of income was medicinal herbs that grew naturally at the Forest’s entrance and middle sections, and it seemed they periodically traveled to the City to sell these herbs and purchase necessities.
Because the City was quite far away, for safety, the adults—except for those left to guard the Village—traveled together.
Since there was no adult available to accompany Milio into the dangerous Forest to gather herbs, he had made a wish to The Tower.
“You came because I wished upon The Tower?”
“Yes, Father told me that if you wish earnestly upon The Tower, it sends climbers to fulfill that wish. I thought it was merely a legend, but you two really did come!”
Milio rejoiced at the prospect of being able to gather the herbs.
“But don’t the Village people usually leave behind medicinal supplies for their own use?”
“That’s… the medicine Mother needs is expensive, so we only left behind a minimal amount of herbs, but we’ve already used up what we had set aside as a precaution.”
“Then there’s no choice. Let’s go quickly.”
Since this was an escort mission, as long as we were reasonably careful, we shouldn’t encounter the monster wolf unless we were extraordinarily unlucky.
…Probably.

(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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