Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 54

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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 54. The Tower – Silver Sanctity (3)

I pushed the stone slab with all my strength, creating an opening large enough for a person to slip through.
This time, before I could even speak, Lee Su-young sent Light Breeze ahead first.
“There’s a spacious area. Some kind of laboratory, I think? There’s a coffin-like object in there, and behind it is a crystal.”
“Any traps or monsters?”
At my question, Lee Su-young concentrated, scanning the space for a moment.
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
“Then let’s head down immediately.”
Diana and I took the lead again, with Lee Su-young following behind.
Basement Level 2 was far more spacious than I’d anticipated.
One side of the chamber held wooden desks and bookshelves crammed with volumes, while the desk itself was neatly arranged with various beakers and experimental instruments.
“Though dust has settled slightly, the organization suggests the space hasn’t been abandoned for very long.”
At Diana’s observation, I paused to consider.
Those books on the shelves looked like grimoires—surely taking them wouldn’t be an issue?
But then again, with mole creatures, bats, and people unable to freely traverse the passages above, how could anyone regularly access this place?
Since we didn’t arrive here through someone’s wish granted by The Tower, wouldn’t it be acceptable to farm and take what’s here?
Honestly, I’m not even certain if this place has an owner.
The distinction between grave robbing and excavation, one might say?
Grave robbing is a crime, but excavation isn’t particularly criminal.
Yet Diana’s point about the meticulous organization makes it ambiguous.
Taking them outright would be convenient, but perhaps I should settle for copying them instead?
As I pondered this and reached for a book, the massive stone coffin suddenly began to move.
“What did you touch?!”
At Lee Su-young’s cry, Diana and I froze slightly.
A grimoire rested in my hand, while a crimson stone lay in Diana’s.
“No, I barely touched anything.”
As I tried to make excuses, a pale and grotesque creature rose from within the coffin.
The being stood nearly two meters tall, its entire body covered in deep wrinkles as if bearing severe burns, and lacking a nose and lips—resembling a mummy with its bandages removed.
Where lips should have been, teeth were exposed, with fangs that were distinctly long and sharp. Its ears were pointed, and it was completely bald.
Despite its hideous appearance, it wore an elegant black suit tailored from fine silk—the attire of a vampire as depicted in classic films.
Modern vampires, after all, typically default to being beautiful men and women boasting “super ultra white teeth gleaming in moonlight.”
“The scent of blood. How dare you foolish, greedy livestock set foot in my domain? You’ve dared to slaughter my emergency rations and come here.”
Ah, so the mole creatures from the upper levels had been emergency rations.
Now I understood why those mole creatures were merely eating moss.
Indeed, livestock feed should use eco-friendly plant-based fodder to avoid that musty stench.
“I shall make you my emergency rations!”
The enraged ancient-style vampire drew a dagger across his own forearm, then created thorns from the blood that poured forth and hurled them at us.
“Oh, since I’m being attacked, I can take all of these, right?”
“Is that really what matters right now?! Just attack already!”
At my words, Lee Su-young cried out, blocking the blood-formed thorns with a barrier before attacking with Mul-poong and Light Breeze, while Diana, trusting her defense, charged forward ignoring the blood-formed thorns.
I rushed in as well, swatting away the blood-formed thorns, and for any I couldn’t deflect in time, I infused my combat suit with inner energy to block them.
After taking hits, I could clearly feel the difference between reinforcing objects with inner energy and not doing so.
When the Harpy’s claws had cut me before, it felt like wearing thick leather clothing, but now it felt like wearing solid plate armor.
There was impact, but not enough to cause actual damage.
This is truly the technology of the 50th century Galaxy Martial Arts World.
Of course, I couldn’t use it constantly due to insufficient inner energy.
If I’d used it continuously, I wouldn’t have lasted even five minutes. By using it in second-long intervals, I can sustain it much longer.
As Diana and I closed in, the Vampire took flight and scattered blood-formed thorns at us intensively.
I protected my head with the shackles on my left arm and used the Feather Step technique to leap high, slashing at the Vampire.
“Tch!”
The Vampire clicked his tongue and hastily threw his body aside to evade my blade.
My sword tip grazed his arm slightly, but the Vampire’s regeneration was remarkable—I could see it healing in real time.
Since this Vampire fought by scratching his own arm with a dagger, I couldn’t claim to have inflicted a proper wound.
But then.
Bang!
“Aaagh!”
Following his evasion trajectory, our sharpshooter Lee Su-young fired a flame projectile.
His side burst open from the impact, burning and preventing regeneration. This was a critical wound.
I used the double jump technique to create footholds in the air and rushed toward the Vampire.
“How dare you lowly creatures!”
The Vampire fired dozens of blood-formed thorns at close range, targeting me.
I protected my head with my left arm while trusting the combat suit’s performance and swung my blade straight through.
Patatat!
Slash!
“Aaargh!”
“Ugh!”
The Vampire’s right arm was severed by me, and I was struck by dozens of blood-formed thorns, sent flying and rolling across the ground.
“Brother!”
“Ji-woo!”
At Lee Su-young and Diana’s worried cries, I assured them I was fine and quickly got to my feet, raising my hand.
Fortunately, thanks to the falling technique my body had learned through hundreds and thousands of practice sessions, I wasn’t seriously injured.
Real combat is like training. I was grateful for Siu’s instruction.
Without it, I would have broken my neck falling just now.
Of course, there was still damage.
You get what you pay for—even though the thorns hit my combat suit, my abdomen and ribs ached.
Fortunately, my bones weren’t broken, so I could move without issue, though I’d probably have bruises if I took my clothes off.
I wanted to use clone absorption and regeneration due to the pain, but since we were still in combat and I could move, I postponed it for later.
I must avoid overusing my trump card recovery methods.
The cooldown is frustratingly long, after all.
When I rushed at the Vampire again, he attempted to retrieve his severed right arm that had fallen to the ground so he could reattach it.
But Diana swung her mace, wreathed in silver mana that radiated holiness, and struck down the Vampire’s right arm.
“Screeeeeech—!! You accursed maggot!”
The Vampire shrieked in agony as if pain receptors still connected him to his severed limb.
It was a far more anguished cry than when my blade had severed his arm, or when Lee Su-young’s flames had torn through his ribs.
More shocking than the Vampire’s reaction was that Diana had merely swung her mace, yet his severed right arm erupted in silver flames and crumbled to ash in an instant.
“How dare you! How dare you! How dare you take my arm! I will never forgive this!”
The Vampire’s eyes rolled back as his irises inverted, and he surged toward Diana, radiating an ominous aura of mana.
Diana swung her mace, channeling silver holiness, but the Vampire wrapped his arms in crimson blood and lashed out at her.
Where Diana’s silver holiness met the blood-formed limb, it ignited in flames, yet since the main body hadn’t taken the hit, the damage seemed to barely register.
“Using such abominable power! I’ll kill you and make you my servant!”
Diana failed to block one of the Vampire’s strikes and took the full brunt of the attack.
Her sleeve tore as the sharp claws formed from blood raked across her arm, leaving deep gashes on skin that hadn’t been scratched even when pounded by the mace.
“Die—ugh! Cough!”
While the Vampire’s attention was fixed on Diana, I quickly circled behind him and drove my blade deep into his chest.
“Don’t forget about us, you bloodsucking pest!”
Pierced through the heart, the Vampire writhed in agony, thrashing to throw me off.
Lee Su-young unleashed successive flame projectiles at the Vampire’s head.
His head exploded, yet since his heart was the source of his power, his regeneration seemed to weaken—but he didn’t die immediately and simply regrew his head.
To finish this, I’d need to either dismember him so thoroughly his regeneration failed, or use a power that countered him—Diana’s power.
“I’ll end this with one strike! Please hold on just a moment longer!”
Diana gathered her silver holiness to deliver the final blow.
I drew a hand axe and severed the Vampire’s limbs to prevent him from thrashing about.
But even dismembered, the Vampire continued to writhe desperately in his struggle to survive.
“Is this really a Vampire and not a cockroach?”
No, even cockroaches and planarians would’ve died long ago if cut up like this.
By now, Diana’s mace had accumulated a thick layer of weighty silver holiness.
“It’s over!”
As Diana brought her mace down hard on the Vampire’s head, it shattered and erupted in silver flames.
Startled by the inferno, I leaped away from the Vampire’s body, but the flames felt cool rather than hot.
The silver flames spread from the Vampire’s head to his severed remains scattered across the ground, reducing everything to ash in moments.
“Phew. It’s finally over.”
Diana collapsed where she stood, exhausted from channeling so much power.
“Thank you. I’m alive because of you.”
At Diana’s gratitude, I let out a light laugh.
“That’s what I should be saying. I shudder to think how I would’ve handled that Vampire alone.”
Diana shook her head at my words and spoke.
“My defensive abilities were sufficient, but my offensive power fell short. If I’d been alone, I would’ve died in the end.”
Diana showed me the scratch wound on her arm.
The dark crimson mana clinging to the wound continued to seep into her flesh even after the Vampire’s death, tearing the wound open.
Diana calmly summoned silver holy light, dispelling the mana from the wound and regenerating it without a single scar.
“Is that holy power?”
“Yes, I’ve been blessed with such an ability, though it’s still weak compared to how much stronger it will become.”
A healer who serves as a tank—she’s a perfect holy knight.
It was hard to say such a role suited the delicate Diana, but as a comrade, she seemed more reliable than anyone.
Above all, the amount of mana distributed to us as the Vampire died was greater than what Lee Su-young absorbed.
While Lee Su-young absorbed around fifty percent, Diana absorbed approximately eighty percent.
Seeing that William and Retihoa also absorbed ten to twenty percent, it was a remarkable talent.
“Oh, brother. Isn’t that a power stone at your feet?”
Lee Su-young pointed to the red mana stone that had fallen at my feet.
“Right, it is. How should we divide this? Diana certainly contributed the most….”
“I don’t want it.”
Before I could finish speaking, Diana refused with genuine distaste.
She looked at the power stone in my hand as if it were something truly filthy.
“I don’t want to possess the ability of such a vile Vampire.”
“But this would sell for a high price.”
“Money is sufficient as long as it’s enough to live on.”
I glanced subtly at Lee Su-young.
Lee Su-young spoke as if she’d already decided it wasn’t hers.
“I already decided to learn martial arts from you in exchange for giving up my share of the power stone.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll hold onto it for now. Diana, I’ll pay you in Shop Points or credits once I sell it.”
The power stone seemed like an expensive item—taking it for free would feel like too much of a windfall.
Besides, I wanted to maintain a good relationship with Diana.
Diana seemed to contemplate something at my words.
“Is something the matter?”
Diana shook her head at my question.
“No. Now that I think about it, you said people who meet while climbing The Tower arrive at the same 20th Floor City, right?”
I nodded.
William had said so, and I’d verified it—if the Community’s information was accurate, it seemed to be true.
The 20th Floor City was supposedly much larger in scale than Floor 10 City.
“Then we’ll see each other again. That’s fine then.”
Diana brushed herself off and stood, smiling brightly as she asked.
“Will you go up, or return to the 10th Floor?”
I smiled and answered her question.
“First, I need to do some farming.”

(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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