Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 59

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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 59. The Tower – Chimera (5)

“What did you do to deserve a share of the byproducts?”
Wolf Man Bogard Dellington glared at the Alchemist climber with a menacing expression.
The harmonious atmosphere shattered when the Alchemist, whose hunting contribution approached zero, claimed he would take the venom and fangs from the serpent head.
“W-why are you, only me, I-I mean, I’m also a c-climber like you.”
Intimidated by Bogard’s fierce demeanor, the Alchemist stammered.
I felt a twinge of sympathy for the gaunt fellow’s obvious fear, but Bogard was right.
Unless the Alchemist had dealt at least minor damage to the Chimera, there was no justification for him to receive a share when he hadn’t even attacked—merely lurked at a distance, hesitating and shuffling about uselessly.
Moreover, according to the byproducts manual I’d purchased from the Climbers’ Association, the Chimera’s venom and fangs were the most valuable parts.
Excluding the magic stone, they accounted for roughly 40 percent of the total value.
With the remaining 60 percent consisting mostly of hide at 50 percent, the venom and fangs were practically everything worth claiming.
Of course, selling the corpse to the Village would resolve the distribution issue entirely.
The real problem was that someone with less than 1 percent contribution was brazenly trying to claim 40 percent.
“Even if Han Ji-woo, who contributed the most, took the venom and fangs, there would still be people raising eyebrows! But you—what did you do to deserve it?”
Everyone nodded in agreement with Bogard’s outburst.
Ah, so they all recognized that my contribution was the greatest.
It made sense—I’d killed the goat head, severed the serpent tail head, and contributed to killing the lion head, so acknowledging my superior contribution was only natural.
If my conscience hadn’t been screaming otherwise.
“W-we’re all c-climbers together. I’m an Alchemist, so c-combat isn’t my s-strength. You should t-take that into account.”
Yet why did that Alchemist’s conscience seem to be bothering him?
“You bastard!”
Bogard clenched his fist in anger, but William calmed him down.
“Come now, settle down. Fighting like this only hurts you, Bogard. Why waste emotion on something you can simply ignore?”
William, usually so courteous, regarded the Alchemist with unmistakable contempt.
Then, dismissing the Alchemist entirely, he addressed everyone else.
“Does anyone possess the skill or ability to properly dissect the Chimera?”
No one raised their hand at William’s question.
“Then we’ll sell the Chimera’s corpse to the Village. From my conversations with the Village Chief and the villagers, it seems they lack food and supplies but not money, so I’ll negotiate a purchase. Does anyone object?”
Everyone except the Alchemist had no objections.
“Then we’ll exchange the byproduct sales and magic stone for points and distribute them accordingly. Since not everyone contributed equally, I believe we should apply differential weighting. Any other opinions?”
“How do we calculate contribution? There’s no system for it, is there?”
William answered Bogard’s question.
“What about a point system? Each person claims their own or others’ contributions to specific tasks and assigns points accordingly. We sum those points, convert to percentages, and divide accordingly—wouldn’t that be fair?”
I objected to William’s proposal.
“Won’t that take too long? My anesthesia is starting to wear off.”
I could suppress the pressure points again, but overstimulating them might cause even more pain.
And creating a new clone in front of everyone felt somewhat awkward.
I still lacked experience in accurately locating blood vessels.
“Ah, so you numbed your left arm? That explains why you seemed so composed despite the injury. Well then, I’ll distribute paper to each of you. Please write down the percentage of how much you and others contributed. We’ll tally those percentages and make a rough calculation.”
William pulled a notebook from his inventory and tore out sheets of paper to distribute.
The rough calculation was complete. The contribution percentages assigned to me ranged from as low as 35 percent to as high as 70 percent.
The one who wrote 70 percent was Jonathan, the Black climber in medium armor.
For my part, I modestly wrote down about 45 percent.
In reality, I believed I had contributed around 70 percent like Jonathan, but others deserved their share too.
Meanwhile, the Alchemist had assigned himself 30 percent.
His conscience had clearly awakened.
“Making a rough calculation, it would come out like this.”
Me at 40 percent.
Diana and Jonathan, who fought in the most dangerous positions, at 12 percent each.
Bogard Dellington the Wolf Man, the Metal Man, and the Tamer, who engaged in close combat, at 7 percent each.
Lee Su-young and William, who fought relatively safely from a distance, along with the Druid, at approximately 5 percent each.
Naturally, the Alchemist received no share.
“Then let’s first distribute the magic stones, and take the snake head. The villagers will only buy it if they see proof that we subjugated it.”
William quickly exchanged the magic stones for points.
Then, carrying the snake head, he led the way toward the village. It looked quite heavy—truly superhuman strength.
Well, considering they all killed the Chimera and absorbed its mana, everyone must have absorbed between 10 and 20 percent.
Since I absorbed less than 1 percent, it was clear that my Tower talent was the weakest among us.
The Alchemist either didn’t contribute at all or couldn’t—the mana didn’t even drift near him.
I was hungry. The sun in the sky still hung toward the east as if morning had just begun, but my watch showed noon—it was already lunchtime.
Since every floor had different time flows, seasons, and daylight hours, climbers had no choice but to live each day based on when they woke up.
They said time differed by roughly 10 percent with each floor difference, so between Floor 17 and the 10th Floor, the difference was nearly double.
That’s why I always returned to the 10th Floor to synchronize my time.
As I walked thinking this, Lee Su-young suddenly grabbed the Alchemist by the collar and shouted.
“You! What were you trying to do to Ji-woo?!”
Everyone turned to look at Lee Su-young in shock at her sudden outburst.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“You were fiddling with something in your pocket while looking at him! What are you hiding?!”
“D-don’t do this!”
The Alchemist was overpowered and pushed back by Lee Su-young.
Since the Alchemist was so disliked, no one tried to stop Lee Su-young.
Rather, Bogard Dellington helped Lee Su-young search through the Alchemist’s belongings.
“What’s this? It doesn’t seem to be a potion… sniff sniff, ugh! What is this? Is it poison?”
“Poison?!”
When poison was discovered, the Alchemist stammered in panic.
William’s expression turned grave as he asked sharply.
“What were you planning to do with this poison? I’ve heard that among the abilities used by Alchemists who are Tower returnees, there’s one where they consume potions they’ve created to apply them to others—were you trying to poison us with this?”
What?! There’s an ability like that too?
“No, no! This isn’t poison, I’m telling you!”
“Then what is it?”
When William pressed the issue, Bogard suddenly shoved the potion bottle into the Alchemist’s mouth and spoke.
“You said it wasn’t poison! Then you can drink it!”
“W-wait, glug!”
The Alchemist gulped down a large mouthful of the potion, his complexion turning deathly pale as his eyelids drooped.
“It is poison! That’s why this is happening!”
“No… ugh.”
The Alchemist collapsed where he stood.
“Is he dead?”
At Bogard’s question, Diana checked the Alchemist’s complexion in case he’d been poisoned, ready to save him if needed.
“He doesn’t seem to be dead. Could this be… sleep?”
Everyone panicked at Diana’s words.
“Sleep? Was this a sleeping potion? Aha! You bastard! You were planning to put us to sleep and steal the serpent head and run!”
At Bogard’s outburst, everyone chimed in with their own remarks.
“The guy’s got yellow prospects, just like his head.”
“Still, since it wasn’t actually poison, doesn’t that suggest there’s room for rehabilitation?”
“Rehabilitation? Forget it! I say we just throw him off the Coastal Cliff behind the Village!”
“It’s infuriating, but murder is out of the question. The Tower is beyond the reach of law, so we must live by morality as our code.”
Each person’s nature became distinctly apparent.
My comment about his yellow prospects, William’s belief in rehabilitation, Wolf Man Bogard’s suggestion to throw him off the cliff, and Jonathan’s moral stance in his heavy armor.
Personally, I was drawn to Bogard’s idea of throwing him off the Coastal Cliff, but Jonathan’s point about living by morality as law in a place beyond the reach of law also made sense.
Once you cross a line, there’s no knowing where it ends.
Theft wasn’t a crime worthy of death.
Still, this guy had made it all the way to Floor 17—would throwing him off a cliff even kill him?
Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try.
“Su-young, how did you figure it out?”
At my question, Lee Su-young answered as if it were nothing special.
“My mother told me that if I ever encountered an Alchemist among Tower returnees, I should run if even the slightest oddity appeared in their behavior.”
Right, she mentioned her mother worked for WPTO.
Bogard casually grabbed the Alchemist by the legs and dragged him toward the Village.
Upon arriving at the Village, William immediately began negotiations with the Village Chief regarding the Chimera corpse, while I slipped away to use the restroom and created a new clone to repair my body.
Every time I created a new clone, the military uniform was recreated as well, forcing me to change clothes again—it was inconvenient. Was there any way around this?
After creating a new clone and returning, Diana looked startled.
“Your arm—how did you fix it?”
“Oh, I used a potion I had. Either way, whether I pay points to a priest on the 10th Floor or use a potion, it amounts to the same thing.”
To be precise, priests were supposedly a bit cheaper, but that meant nothing to me.
“I should have healed it for you…”
“You’re heading up right away anyway. There’s no need to waste a day because of me. Besides, we might even ascend to the 18th Floor together.”
“I hope we’ll be together on the 18th Floor too.”
The 18th Floor could have been tackled together if we climbed it now, but the 19th Floor was a different story.
According to the Community, the 19th Floor was a stage that had to be conquered individually, but the 18th Floor was often cleared by groups working together on Quests.
William finished negotiating and distributed the credits.
After haggling over the bounty on the Chimera and the price of its byproducts, William managed to extract 1 million credits.
If 1 credit equals 100 won, then 1 million would be about 100 million won in Korean currency, right?
When I thought about it, the sum seemed cheap for the lives of the villagers.
Especially since there was a bounty on top of it, the village wasn’t at a loss.
In fact, they’d essentially hired mercenaries for almost nothing.
The distribution was as we’d agreed before coming: I received 40 percent, Diana received 12 percent, and Lee Su-young received 5 percent.
This was my first time seeing a green credit worth 10,000 credits.
So a coin the size of a 200-won piece was worth a million won?
My sense of money was starting to numb.
I needed to reach the 20th Floor and deposit it in a bank as soon as possible.
With that thought, I called William aside.
“Your arm has healed completely. Diana must have had a tough time.”
William mentioned Diana, having apparently noticed her healing me during the battle.
Rather than awkwardly claim I’d used a potion, I decided to bring up what I’d originally intended to say.
“When we reach the 20th Floor, we’ll arrive in the same City. How about forming a party with us?”
People like William—with leadership, gentlemanly bearing, and the ability to negotiate with decisive strength—were rare.
I couldn’t presume to judge anyone else’s talent given my own mana absorption capacity, and with his range and close-combat capabilities, he had more than enough potential to look forward to.
Be my leader.

(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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