Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 56

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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 56. The Tower – Chimera (2)

“What do you think?”
“Give me a moment.”
At my question, William paused thoughtfully before gathering the climbers who had been waiting for him to speak all at once.
As ten of them formed a large circle, I could observe the climbers’ faces in detail.
A Korean, a Brit, an American, a Vietnamese, and what appeared to be a Black man, possibly from an African nation.
That seemed to account for five different origins.
Though the Black man could have been American or British as well.
America certainly had a significant Black population, and Britain was Europe’s nation with the largest Black demographic.
The reason I suspected an African origin was based on Community intelligence stating that people from geographically close nations rarely grouped together.
Likely because neighboring countries historically harbored conflicts, which could breed trouble.
Yet the United States and Korea had a history of facing each other’s guns during the Vietnam War….
Ah, by that logic, shouldn’t Britain be excluded from any grouping?
“First, I’ll share the information we obtained from the villagers.”
William explained the monster blocking the passage.
The creature was a chimera—bearing the heads of a goat and a lion, with a serpent’s head as its tail.
However, unlike the daughter of Typhon and Echidna from Greco-Roman mythology, this appeared to be a magically-born composite beast.
According to the villagers’ speculation, it was likely one of the creatures that escaped when a Magic Tower dedicated to life magic research, located far from here, collapsed in a massive earthquake several years ago.
Creating and researching such monsters—I wondered if bioethics existed here, but since this was an entirely different world, voicing complaints would accomplish nothing.
“The chimera’s weak points are said to be the center of the lion head’s brow and the center of the goat head’s brow.”
At William’s words, the man who appeared Vietnamese raised a question.
“Can we trust that information?”
William retrieved a worn, crudely-made piece of paper from his inventory.
“Several years ago, the Kingdom distributed flyers with a chimera’s sketch and weak points to resolve the crisis. This is that flyer. Fortunately, the Village Chief still had it preserved.”
Learning the weak points was certainly good news.
But the real problem was not knowing the monster’s actual strength.
The villagers hadn’t fought the creature themselves—they were simply terrified by rumors that may or may not have been true.
Though there had been one attempt to break through the chimera and pass the passage, five strong men who made the attempt became prey in an instant, or so they said.
This village survived by hunting, but since the chimera settled here, game had dried up completely.
If left unchecked, the chimera might attack the village and devour everyone before they starved to death.
A lean young man who appeared American glanced around nervously before raising his hand to speak.
“I think we should first confirm details about this chimera creature.”
“That’s true. Does anyone have the skills necessary for reconnaissance?”
When Bogard Dellington, who looked like a drunkard, asked, everyone fell silent.
No one wanted to volunteer for such a dangerous task.
Just as I was about to offer to scout ahead, William spoke first.
“If we’re going to fight together anyway, sharing information about our abilities is essential, even if only roughly. We can’t have those who should fight in back going forward, or those who should fight in front going back.”
As William spoke, he conjured a transparent magical arrow above his palm.
“I possess long-range attack capabilities. However, I trained in fencing before entering The Tower, so I have no intention of insisting on a rear position.”
At William’s words, Bogard and I stepped forward simultaneously.
“I learned martial arts in The Tower. I primarily use swordplay.”
“I received werewolf abilities. When I transform, my body becomes several times more durable!”
Once Bogard and I came forward, sharing our abilities and volunteering to take the vanguard, the others who had been hesitant began revealing their own powers one by one.
Roughly categorizing the abilities, we had two tanks, four melee damage dealers, two ranged damage dealers, and two supports.
The tanks were Diana, who possessed a hardening ability, and a Black climber equipped with heavy armor.
The melee dealers were me with martial arts training, werewolf Bogard, a Vietnamese climber who could transform his body into metal, and a Vietnamese tamer climber.
The ranged dealers were Lee Su-young, the slime summoner, and William, who used magical arrows.
The supports were a Black climber with druid abilities who could manipulate plants, and a gaunt American Alchemist climber.
Bogard examined the ability distribution and spoke.
“The balance is good. Perfect raid composition. But if you’re a tamer, shouldn’t you be carrying around the animals you’ve tamed? Can you summon them?”
At Bogard’s question, the tamer climber nodded.
“Yes, of course. I can summon them anytime.”
The tamer pulled a small whistle from his pocket and blew it, and a wolf appeared from thin air.
It seemed that whistle was an item for storing tamed monsters.
“Then we should conduct reconnaissance first…”
As William trailed off and scanned the climbers, their reactions varied.
Some appeared calm and unbothered, while others avoided his gaze.
Since no one stepped forward, I raised my hand.
“I’ll take a look around. My legs are fast, so I’m confident I can escape even if I’m spotted.”
At my words, some of them let out subtle coughs of embarrassment at not volunteering first, while others openly sighed with relief.
I made note of those who looked ashamed.
Once I stepped forward, Lee Su-young and Diana also volunteered.
“I’ll come with you. We’re a party, after all.”
“I’ll go too. It’s better than having you bear the risk alone.”
At their proposal, I shook my head.
“We’ll be moving with escape as our priority, and both of you are too slow.”
Lee Su-young could send her slime ahead to scout the chimera, but I couldn’t be certain how accurately the slime would perceive things, and I certainly couldn’t reveal the information that her summoned creature shared sensations with her.
Such information was best kept among party members alone.
William looked at me with worried eyes and asked.
“I know Han Ji-woo is fast, but are you sure? The chimera has wings and can fly through the sky.”
“According to what’s written there, it can only glide for about a minute at most, so it doesn’t matter.”
Using my lightness technique, I could reach speeds of 80 kilometers per hour in an instant.
Of course, I couldn’t maintain that speed for long—only about two or three minutes—but that was more than enough time to shake off the chimera.
Running at 80 kilometers per hour for three minutes would let me cover nearly four kilometers.
“Here’s the map the villagers gave us. It’s crude, but they say the passage where the chimera has settled is roughly three kilometers away.”
Observing the surrounding mountains and village, I oriented the map and had no trouble determining the general direction.
But wasn’t the distance calculation a bit odd?
Considering the distance between those two mountains and their distance from the village, shouldn’t the spacing be slightly wider than this?
I began to understand why William had criticized the map as crude.
“Then I’ll be on my way.”

* * *

Looking at the map, the pathway that the villagers frequently traveled was intuitive and detailed.
“Now I understand why he called it the only passage.”
This place was a peninsula—or more precisely, a cape. While one might think we could catch fish since the sea was right beside us, the coastal cliff behind the village made it impossible to launch boats, structurally speaking.
I couldn’t fathom why a village existed in such a place, but it was likely one of two reasons.
Either there was a unique specialty product found only here, or the villagers had been forced to relocate to such a location when the settlement was first established.
Historically, it was probably due to fleeing war or taxes, or being forcibly sent for pioneering purposes.
Since they said they made their living through hunting, hunting itself could be the specialty. Regardless of other reasons, I had no interest in the history of a village I’d never return to.
Upon arriving near where the Chimera had settled, I suppressed my presence as much as possible and extended my aura sense.
There was only one creature in the vicinity with strong aura and magical power.
Since it moved about openly, finding its location wasn’t difficult.
“Is that the Chimera?”
I obtained a telescope through my reincarnation avatar and observed the Chimera from a distance. A 50th-century telescope, as expected.
I’d purchased it with my own allowance, and turning the dial allowed for up to 200x magnification.
The Chimera’s size was twice what I’d imagined.
I’d roughly thought it would be the size of a house, but that house was two stories, not one.
The Tower had deployed ten climbers for good reason.
Wait, at that size, shouldn’t it be something that doesn’t appear on the 10th Floor tier?
You could see the lion’s mane and goat horns from the forest trees.
“Is that jewel on its forehead the weak point?”
A solid-looking red gem was embedded in the Chimera’s forehead.
Was it chosen as the Floor 17 trial precisely because of this obvious weak point?
Should I try getting a bit closer?
I suppressed my presence and approached the Chimera as much as I could.
The Chimera didn’t notice me approaching at all.
Herbivores are always vigilant of their surroundings, but apex carnivores only focus their attention when hunting for prey.
The Chimera seemed to be no different.
Come to think of it, elephants don’t care whether lions prowl nearby or not, and with that size, unless it was hungry, it probably wouldn’t pay attention to anything moving around it.
Its magical power didn’t seem that abundant relative to its size either.
It was possible its size had grown abnormally from being experimented on at the Magic Tower, which researches life magic.
Perhaps due to its size, its movements seemed somewhat sluggish.
That was only natural, of course.
Size is a plus factor in terms of muscle strength, but it’s an inefficient choice from a stamina perspective.
I think I’ve observed enough. Should I try ambushing it just in case?
Nah, never mind. If I get too excited before the attack, hunting might become a hassle.
After a moment of deliberation, I rose from my seat.
Then I channeled all my inner energy into my hand axe and hurled it.
“Damn it all! Let’s do this!”
As I expended my inner energy, the Chimera noticed my approach and moved, but sluggishly.
My hand axe struck the crimson jewel embedded in the goat’s head dead-on, shattering it completely.
“Screeeeeeeech—!!”
“Hahahaha! Time to run!”
I detonated a massive cloud of cockroach repellent smoke to mask my scent from its pursuit, then fled.
Through the billowing clouds of insecticide drifting in all directions, the goat head of the Chimera hung limp as though dead, while its lion head thrashed about in agony from the smoke, desperately searching for me.
I pushed my lightness technique to its absolute limit, escaping at the highest speed I could muster.
Ringing the bell and fleeing was undoubtedly dishonorable, but it was exhilarating.

(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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