I Became a Disaster-Class Newbie by Stealing Abilities - Chapter 67

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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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Episode 67. Dungeon ‘Jamsil World Tower’ (2)
The Dungeon Instance of World Tower.
There are three main methods to earn the greatest rewards here.
First: First Clear.
Simply reach the summit of World Tower before anyone else.
It’s the classic tower-conquest formula, straightforward as they come.
Second: Speed Run Clear.
This is the speed-run category.
Whenever someone conquers the summit, the entire tower resets, and with multiple runs repeating, it tracks who reached the top fastest.
For World Tower, the time limit was three months.
Of course, if an overwhelmingly dominant first-place finisher emerged, they’d end it early, like a mercy ruling in baseball.
Third: Most Kills Achievement.
Simply put, kill as many as you can.
Quantity over quality.
However, with hidden rooms scattered throughout and monsters swarming everywhere, the rewards typically went to large guilds.
‘And of these three… the one I’m after is First Clear.’
The optimal strategy for a veteran to showcase solo play.
Naturally, the fewer people involved, the greater the rewards.
That’s why I didn’t bring Baek Seol-gi and Heuk Bi along.
“What… what is this?”
“A Dungeon Instance? A mission?”
“What’s happening to the White Tower, anyway?”
Bewildered exclamations rippled through the onlookers.
The more confused they became, the better for me.
Ju-sang entered the interior before the apprentice mages could even stop him.
* * *
Whoosh!
The scenery shifted at once.
Goblins wandered through the lobby that greeted visitors.
The average time to clear a 100-story tower was ten days.
Of course, that was the top-tier standard. For ordinary people, it would take months at minimum.
‘Might as well try shaving some time off the record.’
My target was three days.
Anything under seventy hours would be optimal.
Tap-tap.
Ju-sang warmed up lightly and moved among the goblins.
Recently, fighting only powerhouses like Barkan and Gung Gi had dulled the sensation.
“Krruk?”
“Kirruk!”
Looking at the prey huddled together, I suddenly understood.
‘Just how much stronger I’ve become.’
The goblin count, including shamans, was roughly one hundred.
And yet.
There was no doubt in me.
No doubt that I would win.
Whoosh!
Cold Energy swept forth.
Hummmm!
Annihilation Energy flowed through the blade.
“Three minutes should do it.”
I wanted to feel it as soon as possible.
The level I now stood at.
* * *
It was several tens of minutes later when the major guilds caught wind of the irregularity at World Tower.
Rank 1 in Korea.
Lee Seong-tae, one of the main dealers of Jusin Guild, exclaimed in shock.
“That’s true? The rewards are really that incredible?”
“Yeah. When all three achievements are completed, different rewards are granted for each one, and looking at similar cases that appeared worldwide, they’re all A-grade or higher. There have even been instances where Sacred Artifacts dropped.”
The restrictions aren’t severe either. The danger level isn’t particularly high.
And yet the rewards are this extraordinary.
This was worthy of being called a treasure dungeon.
“Hmm, Seong-tae. I think we should look at this too. The White Tower has sent out a request—not just to us, but to every guild in Korea.”
“What’s the job?”
“Mage rescue and artifact recovery.”
As the dungeon instance progressed, those inside gained the authority to teleport out of the World Tower.
Most of the mages immediately fled at the first sign of the anomaly in the World Tower.
Given that they commanded salaries high enough to earn them the title of quasi-nobility, it was only natural.
But not everyone did.
A handful of mages conducting crucial research or experiments chose to remain in the World Tower, forfeiting their right to leave.
There were some things worth risking your life for.
“What’s the compensation?”
“One AA-grade item from the White Tower’s treasure vault, five billion in cash, and fifty thousand merit points redeemable across all five towers.”
“That’s decent supplementary income.”
It was enough to mobilize Jusin’s main attack party.
Just then.
Ding!
[Ranking System is tallying.]
Letters appeared on the massive scoreboard in front of the World Tower.
[Ranking 1st: Eoryeong-sa – ‘Confidential’ – ….]
[Ranking 2nd: Ssang-dok-sa – An Young-min – Ascending the 3rd floor.]
[Ranking 3rd: Unaffiliated – Jo Hee-ra – Ascending the 3rd floor.]
A ranking board displaying the top one hundred.
It hadn’t even been three hours since the dungeon instance completed.
It was meaningless who got in first—comparing acorns was all it amounted to.
“Every time regulations loosen, these parasites crawl out of the woodwork.”
Lee Seong-tae let out a bitter laugh.
What did rankings matter anyway?
The moment their team deployed, these upstarts would vanish from the rankings entirely.
Watching these small-time players gloat over their fleeting crowns was almost pitiful.
“Hey, hold on. Wait. Look at that again!”
“Look at what? Are we playing bingo with unknown guild names now?”
“No, look at the floor number for first place!”
Lee Seong-tae’s gaze snapped back to the ranking board.
He couldn’t fathom what they were making such a fuss about.
[Ranking 1st: Eoryeong-sa – ‘Confidential’ – Ascending the 31st floor.]
This was insane.
The 31st floor?
Were those numbers even possible?
“The 30th floor takes at least two days to clear, even going all out!”
“It’s a hundred-story tower. The space distortion warped its size further, and monsters spawned throughout.”
Two days was an optimistic estimate.
According to the guild’s senior analysts, they’d conservatively need four days minimum.
“So what the hell is that guy?”
“I… I have no idea.”
He couldn’t fathom what magic this unknown from an obscure guild had performed to achieve such an absurd feat.
But that wasn’t what mattered right now.
They had to move immediately.
The First Clear reward was the largest of the three.
If they missed it after all this preparation, it would be a disaster.
“Hurry!”
“Leave supplies and equipment to the second wave. The main attack party goes in now!”
“Cast Acceleration Magic on the Rangers. Find the path to the 2nd floor right away!”
The movements of major guilds including Jusin grew frantic.
* * *
‘Is someone talking about me?’
Ju Sang scratched his ear.
Given how intensely it itched, it seemed people were making quite the commotion about him.
They probably never imagined they’d be staring at the back of someone else’s head the whole time.
[Ranking 98th: Jusin Attack Party – Lee Seong-tae and 30 others – Ascending the 3rd floor]
The ranking board was visible here as well.
Still, the name “Korea’s number one” carries some weight.
Reaching the third floor in less than thirty minutes since entering—that much at least proves they’re elite.
It won’t be long before major guilds like Jeoksong, Taesan Group, and Arahan join the ranking competition.
They’ll all scramble desperately to reclaim the top spot.
‘Where else can I plant more despair?’
Ju-sang hummed to himself as he waded across the pond.
Splash, splash.
The water reaching his waist made the search a bit cumbersome.
Let me see.
It should be around here somewhere….
He rummaged through the center of the pond, hand constantly moving, sifting through lily pads and thick vegetation.
Then, just then.
Crack.
Found it.
A faint smile spread across Ju-sang’s lips.
A box brimming with fist-sized clumps of bait.
He scattered the Bronesiph Worm Powder he’d obtained on the thirty-third floor evenly over it.
Then he threw it.
Distributed across the entire pond.
Thrash, thrash, thrash!
An enormous number of shadows surged up from beneath the surface.
Giant carp measuring up to two meters.
As they thrashed about devouring the bait, they carved out a massive whirlpool at the pond’s center.
The water churned and parted rapidly.
And there, revealed between the currents, stood an enormous elevator.
‘Who’s foolish enough to climb a tower by stairs?’
One button press and you glide straight up to the higher floors.
Ju-sang stepped into the elevator.
The interior was nearly identical to a conventional elevator.
Except the buttons only went up to the fiftieth floor.
Which meant fifty floors was the limit you could reach through this route.
‘Most skilled players would be satisfied just finding a hidden opportunity like this.’
No, mere satisfaction hardly covered it.
They’d surely be drunk on admiration for their own obsession and madness, intoxicated by that rush.
But for rotten water, satisfaction was a word that didn’t exist.
It was instinct to sniff around nose-to-the-ground, chasing every clue, searching the surroundings for any scrap more to extract, any marrow not yet picked clean.
Ju-sang steadied his breathing.
Timing was critical from here on.
He pressed the eleventh, twenty-second, thirty-third, and forty-fourth floors all within a single second, then mashed the open and close buttons seven times each in rapid succession.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The elevator’s display shifted to crimson characters.
[Thank you for using our VIP service.]
[Proceeding to floor 77, the Hall of Rocks!]
This was how to skip over the tedious floors altogether.
The fifty-ninth, sixty-sixth, and seventy-first floors—each demanding seven hours minimum—were now bye-bye.
Whoooosh.
The elevator ascended without hesitation.
As he felt gravity resist beneath him, his heart thudded faster.
‘I can shave down the record even further this time.’
The reward last time had been sweet as sugar, so sweet his teeth ached, but this time he couldn’t fathom how much better it might be—the anticipation was maddening.
Ding!
But the instant the elevator doors slid open.
“Ah. I noticed a Magical Engineering device that wasn’t in the Mage Tower before and came to inspect it. Surely it’s not an elevator, is it?”
He found himself face to face with an old man whose hair was pure white.
The White Tower Mage.
And not an apprentice—a full-fledged mage, it seemed.
‘A high-tier one. Late seven-star? Or perhaps early eight-star.’
Ju-sang licked his lips with his tongue.
The magical energy pouring from the staff gripped in the mage’s hand was no ordinary thing.
“Ha. Don’t be so wary now. I’m aware that many have entered this place, which has become a Dungeon Instance, to attempt its capture.”
He doesn’t seem to be treating me as a simple intruder or thief.
That’s good news.
“If I may ask, sir — why haven’t you left, and why do you remain here? I was under the impression that those who were already in the World Tower would be excluded from compensation.”
“Such matters don’t concern me. But there are things I simply cannot abandon, even if it means staying.”
He must have high-grade Artifacts under research, or rare summoned creatures.
This smells like money.
A lot of it.
“Which brings me to my request — could you allow me to use this elevator? I’ll pay you handsomely for the trouble, of course.”
“Unfortunately, it’s single-use. You won’t be able to use it again.”
To be precise, I deliberately broke it.
So no one else could use it.
Call it faithfully kicking away the ladder, as they say.
In any case, once used, it can’t be used again — so it is single-use, isn’t it?
“Heh. That’s quite the problem, then.”
“If you offer sufficient compensation, I could escort you upward.”
Top-tier Artifacts, perhaps. Or your personal research materials.
“I appreciate the offer, but I need to go down, not up. I’ll consider it if you can take me to the first floor.”
During an ongoing Dungeon Instance, items and goods already in the World Tower cannot be removed to the outside.
So the idea is to stay put on the safest floor — the first — until the Dungeon Instance concludes.
“Mm. I don’t like that.”
“D-don’t like it?”
“Well, I’m already in first place in the climb, and you’re asking me to give it all up and go to the first floor? Is that really what you’re saying?”
It would only be acceptable if he emptied the White Tower’s entire treasure vault for me.
“Ahem! Ahem! If you gain my favor, you won’t regret it. But cross me, and your life will become far more difficult henceforth.”
That’s blackmail, isn’t it.
Still, for a mage who only tinkers away in his study, it’s almost endearing.
“It’s fine. You probably won’t survive here anyway, so debts and grudges alike will be buried with your bones. Whatever.”
“W-what? Bones?”
The White Tower Mage’s eyes bulged out like a carp I’d seen a moment before.
As a respected high-ranking mage of the White Tower, he’d never imagined hearing such harsh words.
That was his problem, not mine.
This 77th floor happened to be crawling with golems of extremely high Magic Resistance.
Even a high-ranking mage would find it dangerous to wander alone without support.
And it would take forever for reinforcements to reach this floor.
The odds of this old man surviving until then were questionable.
Not particularly high, at that.
The fact that he was already wandering around here, having abandoned even the mage’s workshop — the only true safe zone — suggested his situation was utterly dire.
“So, what will you do?”
Sang Ji smiled thinly.

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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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