Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 53

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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 53. The Tower – Silver Sanctity (2)

Following Lee Su-young’s voice, I found three slimes straining and groaning as they pushed against a remarkably thick and heavy stone slab.
I doubted such small creatures could move it at all, yet to my surprise, the massive slab was actually shifting.
I realized these diminutive beings possessed far greater strength than I’d initially assumed.
Come to think of it, during the tutorial below the 10th Floor, they’d mentioned using body tackles to fight whenever they couldn’t deploy water orbs.
“Step aside for a moment.”
I pushed Lee Su-young back and channeled my inner energy, shoving the stone slab with all my might.
Grrrrrunch—!
“Wow!”
“Brother, you’re so strong!”
Diana and Lee Su-young applauded in amazement at my display of power.
“Phew, damn, that was heavy.”
Once I’d pushed the slab far enough for people to pass through, I realized some kind of mechanism was connected to it, allowing it to move.
“Ah, so this was about solving a hidden puzzle to open the slab.”
I wondered if the magical items I’d collected earlier were actually the key to opening it.
Tsk, learning martial arts seemed to be making me progressively more straightforward. I used to be the type who relied on intellect, after all.
Noticing my embarrassment, Diana smiled and spoke.
“What does it matter? All roads lead to Rome, as they say. As long as it opened, that’s what counts.”
“That’s right. As long as we found a way through, that’s all that matters.”
I cleared my throat softly, feeling self-conscious, then turned to Lee Su-young.
“It could be a trap, so let’s send Light Breeze ahead first. We’ll be able to see from here if anything lights up.”
If a slime sustains critical damage, it gets unsummoned before dying.
After being unsummoned, it can’t be resummoned for a certain period depending on the severity of injuries, but that was still better than having people check for traps with their own bodies.
At my instruction, Lee Su-young nodded and sent Light Breeze forward.
After waiting a few minutes, Lee Su-young spoke.
“It doesn’t look like there are any traps.”
“It doesn’t look like?”
“Oh.”
Lee Su-young hesitated, covering her mouth before speaking with a sheepish tone.
“Actually, I can share senses with my summoned creatures. I’m sorry for not mentioning it.”
“No need to apologize. We’ve only known each other for four days—it’s not like you need to reveal everything.”
I had my own secrets too, after all. Why would Lee Su-young be any different?
Keeping secrets was simply the natural thing to do.
Yet Lee Su-young seemed to interpret my words as criticism, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
“No, that’s not it! I was going to tell you! Really!”
“There’s no need to apologize. We didn’t really need that information until now anyway, so it’s fine.”
I spoke sincerely, but Lee Su-young remained flustered and at a loss for words.
“Lee Su-young, Ji-woo seems perfectly fine with this. Please calm down.”
Diana was the one reassuring Lee Su-young instead.
Lee Su-young glanced at me, gauging my reaction.
I let out a soft laugh at her expression.
“I’m really okay with it. I didn’t tell you everything, and I have no intention of doing so, so there’s no need to apologize. Of course, if the situation had required it and I hadn’t said anything, then I would’ve been upset.”
At my words, Lee Su-young nodded vigorously and spoke.
“If there’s anything among my abilities that you need, I’ll tell you! I promise!”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you too if I need something.”
Though the day I’d need to mention my ability to create avatars in other worlds would likely never come.
“Alright then, let’s head down.”
Since there might be traps that slimes couldn’t trigger, Diana and I took the lead down the stairs.
As we descended underground, I sensed a presence nearby.
I gestured for silence, dimmed my flashlight to its lowest setting, and moved toward where I felt the presence. I should have learned stealth techniques.
Peeking into the room, I saw three mole-like creatures with what appeared to be degenerated eyes sleeping inside.
I opened the Community and sent Lee Su-young a private message.
-Three monsters. I’ll throw my axe to ambush them, so if they wake up, attack immediately with slime.
One-on-one chatting was one of the Community’s basic features.
If I knew how to use telepathy, I would have used that instead, but telepathy was a technique that required at least first-class rank to use.
When the qi carrying sound waves scattered in the air, the transmission would fail, and such techniques were said to be harder than creating blade energy.
Lee Su-young nodded at my instructions, while Diana rolled her eyes, confused about the situation.
Oh, I should have added Diana as a friend too.
After a moment’s hesitation, I simply threw the axe.
Thunk!
Thanks to learning axe-throwing technique, hitting the sleeping monster’s head was easy.
Fortunately, it struck precisely in the head with minimal sound, so the other two showed no signs of waking.
I threw additional axes, killing the monsters one by one.
I gestured for silence again, then beckoned them over.
I entered the room, retrieved my hand axes, and examined the space.
“What do these creatures eat? Is there an exit besides the way we came in?”
Diana answered my question in a hushed voice.
“I’m not sure? Judging by their degenerated eyes, they probably haven’t left this place in several generations, maybe even dozens of generations.”
“So they might have been eating insects or rats?”
“They could surprisingly be herbivores. Considering the moss fragments scattered on the floor, isn’t that a possibility?”
Lee Su-young spoke in a small, exasperated voice during our discussion.
“Is now really the time for this debate? Let’s hurry and check, then move to the next room.”
Lee Su-young seemed indifferent to the creatures’ ecology.
But I was curious.
Diana and I felt slightly deflated.
Before moving to the next room, I sent Diana a Community friend request and created a group chat with all three of us.
-Wow, this feature exists too?
However, I had to wrestle with teaching Diana the chat function for about fifteen minutes.
It seemed the rumor about her being technologically inept with new technology was indeed true.
-If I speak in my mind, the words appear in the chat. lol How fascinating :D.
She even knew how to use emoticons.
I reduced the chat window size, pushed it to the corner of my vision, then moved toward the next room with silent footsteps. Not every room contained that mole monster.
By the time I had cleared about seven rooms—half of those in the underground—the blood scent seemed to be awakening the creatures one by one.
-It looks like I won’t be able to get free kills anymore.
While I hid my body in an empty room, the mole monsters stirred awake and emerged, spreading toward the room reeking of blood.
Fortunately, I had wiped the blood off my hand axe beforehand.
From my hiding spot, I threw my hand axe and killed one mole monster.
The mole monster’s skull shattered from the surprise attack, and it died without making a sound. I continued pulling hand axes from my inventory and hurling them.
Hand axes accumulated naturally while hunting Goblins outside Floor 10 City.
They had surprisingly good weight balance and were quite effective.
No matter how I thought about it, this wasn’t an axe that Goblins could have crafted.
-Does your inventory have a larger capacity, Ji-woo? Hand axes keep appearing.
Diana also found my inventory size peculiar.
I answered as I had told Lee Su-young before.
-I have an item similar to an inventory, so I’m taking them out from there.
Diana nodded as if fascinated.
Lee Su-young had seemed slightly suspicious when she heard my explanation, but did she have no doubts?
As I continued killing with hand axes, Lee Su-young threw water orbs, shattering the mole monsters’ heads.
Whether she had leveled up or not, the power of the water orbs now exceeded that of a stone sling.
Still, because she couldn’t use light openly, it took her longer than me to pinpoint each target.
As the mole monsters died in the corridor, even the dullest of them sensed something was amiss.
However, the mole monsters with degenerated eyes couldn’t easily locate our position.
Their hearing was drowned out by the louder footsteps of mole monsters scurrying about nearby, and their sense of smell was overwhelmed by the blood stench filling the air, making it difficult for them to track us.
But as corpses piled up, it became harder for us to continue attacking from a distance, and the mole monsters, intoxicated by the blood scent, growled and found us.
Because the two-floor space wasn’t that vast, our location was exposed in no time.
“Block the door!”
Since we were already discovered, there was no need to stay silent. I shouted and attacked the mole monsters’ eyes with my flashlight’s intense beam.
As the mole monsters flinched from the bright light, Diana and I blocked the door and swung our sword and mace.
While the two of us held the door, Lee Su-young lifted Mul-poong and attacked from above with water orbs.
After swinging the sword a few times, we were able to dispatch all the underground mole monsters.
“We were lucky. If it hadn’t been their sleeping hours, this wouldn’t have ended so smoothly.”
The mole monsters’ hides were thicker and tougher than expected, requiring the blade or axe to be reinforced with inner strength to cut effectively.
For these monsters, blunt weapons like a mace were actually more efficient than sharp blades.
“I suspect that if the stone slab above had been opened to its original position, it would have triggered them to awaken. Even if they’re herbivores, their size demands substantial food, and sleep is an excellent method for reducing consumption. The creator of this Ancient Ruin must have designed it with that intention.”
So the mole monsters’ sleep wasn’t luck—it was inevitable?
Certainly, animals that underwent hibernation or similarly long sleep cycles were common.
If that were the case, the sleep cycle would be determined by the moss growth cycle.
I nodded at Diana’s conjecture.
“Or perhaps the stone slab doesn’t awaken when opened, but rather when it’s fully opened—a triggered mechanism of sorts.”
I had forced the stone slab open just enough for a person to barely squeeze through.
Honestly, it wasn’t designed to be opened by brute force.
“Exactly! Could it have been an alarm system? Should we head back up and try it?”
“Should we?”
Lee Su-young regarded Diana and me with narrowed eyes as we debated.
“What do you mean ‘should we’? Did we come here to play? Is this a place to satisfy curiosity?”
At Lee Su-young’s point, Diana and I deflated slightly.
She was right.
We had come to climb The Tower, not to indulge our curiosity.
Above all, we couldn’t afford to take risks just to satisfy idle wonder.
Since we hadn’t found a crystal to advance to the next floor in the underground, there might be a door leading even deeper below.
So it was best to avoid making unnecessary noise. Still, it was a shame.
“It’s still a bit disappointing. We’ve finally reached a floor where it feels like we’re actually adventuring.”
Diana seemed to share my sentiment.
“We can satisfy that adventurous spirit later. Safety comes before reckless curiosity.”
Lee Su-young laid down the law decisively and ordered us to search the underground.
From the way she looked at me, it seemed her respect had dropped by about five points. Or was I just imagining things?
As we searched, we discovered another stone slab identical to the one we’d seen above.
Looking at the slab, I finally understood how Lee Su-young had known there was a space behind it.
Air flowed through the gaps in the slab, producing a faint sound.
“Should we force this one open too?”
Lee Su-young nodded at my question.
“You said fully opening it might be a trap. Then we have to force it open. Safety first.”
I reinforced my entire body with my inner energy and pushed against the stone slab.

(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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