I Conquered the Tower with the EX-Class Character That I Raised - Chapter 100

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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 100
Within the squelching Mud Pit.
Thick roots of the World Tree coiled around Chul-soo’s entire body like serpents, dragging him deeper into the underground depths.
He exerted every ounce of strength to pry open gaps between them, but each time his muscles bulged, the roots twisted like snakes and constricted with even greater force.
Hard bark bit into his flesh, and his entire ribcage was crushed, his breath catching and stuttering.
His vision grew progressively darker.
Thanks to the ‘Immortal Ritual’, he wouldn’t die, but the agony of being crushed and the sensation of his lungs collapsing transmitted themselves unfiltered.
‘Damn it, immortality doesn’t mean everything goes smoothly!
This won’t do.
At this rate, I’ll truly become a living corpse.
Worse—a horrifying living corpse trapped eternally in the earth, unable even to die.
Kim Chul-soo acutely felt the limitations of immortality.
Merely refusing to die wasn’t enough to overturn the Battlefield.
I need to find another way!
‘Among the cards I hold, what do I have that can counter this insane elf?’
After clearing the 94th Floor, I’d been granted a brief window of freedom.
During that time, I’d invested considerable effort classifying and systematizing the countless B-rank abilities I’d acquired.
I’d obtained an enormous number of B-rank ability ‘beads’, but until now, I hadn’t been able to string them together.
Yet now, while not perfect, I’d developed enough to consider what cards were actually available to me.
‘First, I need to escape these roots…!’
I forcibly suppressed the panic threatening to overwhelm my reason using [Field Commander’s Judgment (B)].
‘[Beginner Earth Magic (B)].’
I dispersed the crushing pressure that threatened to collapse my lungs at any moment through earth magic, while scanning my surroundings.
I felt the density of the soil enveloping me and the trajectories of the thick roots piercing through it.
Even now, the roots pulsed like a heartbeat, proliferating as they drew mana from the surrounding earth.
I concentrated my senses on the bark and sap of the roots burrowing through my skin.
The beads I would string together now were the numerous life-skill miscellaneous abilities I’d obtained.
“[Head Gardener’s Arboricultural Management (B)], and [Artier’s Medicinal Cuisine (B)]!”
B-rank skills that seemed utterly unrelated to combat—abilities to handle plants and discern the properties of ingredients—activated in succession.
Then the true nature of the World Tree roots, which had seemed only brutal and violent, began gradually to reveal itself.
The hardness of the bark, the properties of the sap flowing within, and even the subtle vibrations it emitted.
‘…There’s no toxin or killing intent. No murkiness characteristic of offensive magic either. If anything, it’s almost excessively pure.’
To gain certainty, I strung together one final bead for confirmation.
“[Holy Kingdom Holy Magic (B)].”
The moment I drew up the faint B-rank holy power residing in my body and brought it into contact with the roots.
I nearly gasped involuntarily.
My B-rank holy power crumbled pathetically before the energy emanating from the roots—like a raindrop before a vast ocean.
‘This is…!’
An energy so pure and sacred that it couldn’t possibly be expressed in terms of mana—an endless, sublime power.
[Field Commander’s Judgment (B)] assembled all the collected fragments of information into a single coherent whole in an instant.
Infinite growth that dominated the earth itself.
The pristine, untainted essence of plants in their purest form.
And a sublime resonance that effortlessly overwhelmed even divine power.
‘The roots of the World Tree are… crystallized life force and the most pure energy itself.’
One hundred percent pure life force with not a single trace of corruption!
That was the true driving force behind the World Tree’s roots.
‘Then…’
My mind began to spin with terrifying clarity. Once I had perfectly grasped the enemy’s true nature, the method to defeat it naturally followed.
‘That overwhelming life force cannot be destroyed by crude burning or cutting. But… what if I possessed the perfect counter—a card that could pierce through that “pure life force”?’
My eyes, covered in dust and dirt, snapped wide open.
I did.
In the past, when I followed Ha Sung-woon to the Fallen God Temple.
That sinister power I had torn from that abominable god!
Until now, I had believed it to be the corrupted power of a fallen deity and refused to use it.
‘To kill the World Tree’s roots with infinite life force, I have no choice but to unleash this power I’ve been suppressing!’
[Inverse Divinity (B)]!
From deep within my mana core, the black energy that had coiled and lurked on the opposite side of divine power began to writhe as if it had been waiting for this moment.
“Ughhhh—!”
Despite knowing how to use it, the massive recoil shook my insides violently.
Inverse Divinity was originally a power wielded by ‘non-humans’.
For me, someone with a human body, to use it was fundamentally absurd.
‘This is…’
But in that very moment of unleashing Inverse Divinity.
I gained an understanding.
‘This power… was not evil!’
Divinity was light and positive force.
Inverse Divinity was darkness and negative force.
If Divinity was the power that breathed life force to heal wounds—’recovery’—then
Inverse Divinity was the power that reversed life force to rot and decay—’corruption and annihilation’.
When humans are born, age, fall ill, and die, they ultimately decay and return to the earth.
Then, is decay evil?
No. It is merely the natural phenomenon beyond life’s end.
Not good or evil.
Two sides of the same coin.
‘This power contains no morality.’
Once, the Fallen God had said that Divinity and Inverse Divinity were not a matter of good and evil.
That was correct!
Now I finally understood those words.
‘Haaah!’
I unleashed the damp and turbid Inverse Divine power that I had suppressed deep within my body toward the World Tree’s roots that bound me without mercy.
The roots of the World Tree—crystallized life force and the purest essence—convulsed violently the moment they touched the Fallen God’s murky anti-divine power.
Skreeeee—!
As if exposed to deadly venom, the roots blackened and began to rot and dissolve.
Kim Chul-soo’s anti-divine power was merely B-rank.
The destructive force needed to erase the roots themselves had never existed in the first place.
But in combat, there exists something equally important as raw power.
Compatibility!
Just as water extinguishes fire, corruption devours life.
To the World Tree’s roots, which possessed pure life force, anti-divine power was nothing less than a lethal toxin the moment it made contact.
Writhe, writhe!
The thick roots that had been strangling Chul-soo into suffocation convulsed with an eerie grinding sound.
Merely B-rank output.
Yet it was sufficient to crack the restraints that had held him immobilized.
Chul-soo did not miss that opportunity.
“[Holy Kingdom Martial Arts (B)]!”
With both fists wrapped in pitch-black anti-divine power, Chul-soo tore through the crumbling World Tree roots with savage brutality, as though ripping apart rotted rope.
Crack! Snap!
Freed at last, Chul-soo concentrated mana into both legs and kicked off the suffocating earth, launching himself upward.
Boom—!
The ground burst dully beneath him as Chul-soo erupted from the Mud Pit onto the surface.
“Gasp! Cough, spit!”
Chul-soo expelled the soil dust that had filled his mouth like blood, breathing heavily and ragged.
At the sudden commotion, three pairs of eyes snapped toward Chul-soo simultaneously.
“…?!”
For the first time, shock flickered across the Elf Queen’s noble gaze.
“Wh-what? Mother’s branches… rotted?”
Pure horror and revulsion washed over her at the fact that even a portion of the sacred World Tree’s roots had decayed and withered in that vile aura.
Instead of a healer’s characteristic radiance, a damp and murky black mirage faintly emanated from his entire body.
As a result, only the grass within a radius of one to two meters where Chul-soo stood had lost its moisture and blackened to ash.
Though the range was negligible, it was more than enough to provoke the Elf Queen’s wrath.
“You, you wretch! How dare you soil Mother’s sacred form with such filthy corruption!!!”
Kim Chul-soo raised his middle finger toward the Elf Queen.
And he shouted with a ringing voice.
“Ah-woon! Stop foolishly throwing summons! Spirits won’t work against the Queen! Use your real specialty!”
Chul-soo’s thunderous command echoed across the Battlefield like lightning.
* * *
The skeletal soldiers he had positioned as shields were being swept away by the mana barrage the Elf Queen unleashed.
‘To become this powerless merely because I cannot manipulate spirits…’
If this continued, the thin defensive line would crumble, and not only Han Seol-ah in the rear but his own main body would be torn to shreds.
It was at that very moment that Kim Chul-soo’s cry, erupting from the broken earth, struck his eardrums.
‘A signature technique…?’
Searching through my memories.
The class my older brother had granted me was no ordinary third-rate summoner.
‘Is this how I’m meant to fight… is this all I am?’
Commandant Lord.
The pinnacle of mastery over all nine schools of dark magic—capable of wielding every skill from the six lower-tier dark magic classes!
‘No.’
Lee Ah-woon drew forth dark mana.
His skin split open, blood pouring forth.
As Lee Ah-woon steadied his wavering stance, his eyes blazed with an eerie blue-green glow like ghostfire.
When Lee Ah-woon swept his hand, every summoned creature filling the Battlefield vanished.
“Removing your own shield? You’ve truly lost your mind!”
The moment the queen concentrated countless colorless, invisible arrows upon Lee Ah-woon.
[That’s precisely it, insect!]
Rat-dol, the Death Knight who had been slumbering in Lee Ah-woon’s pocket, awakened as dark mana surged through him once more.
Rat-dol burst skyward and swung his blade with ferocious speed, deflecting every transparent killing intent the Elf Queen unleashed.
Clang, clang, clang!
[You are the pinnacle of dark magic! Use it!]
“Authority: Ocean of Blood.”
A thunderous boom—!
Crimson blood erupted from beneath Lee Ah-woon’s feet, instantly transforming the ground into a scarlet lake.
An authority borrowed from the Blood Mage’s ultimate technique.
The Elf Queen’s movements atop this lake became noticeably sluggish.
“Wh-what is this…?!”
“Authority: Bone Dragon.”
[Roooaaarrr!]
From the heart of the blood-soaked lake, a colossal skeletal beast—the Bone Dragon—descended with a roar that tore the heavens asunder.
Its mountainous form completely blocked the queen’s path forward.
“Cough!”
Simply manifesting two authorities in succession left Lee Ah-woon drenched in blood from head to toe.
“Ugh…!”
Yet Lee Ah-woon gritted his teeth.
This was the reason Lee Ah-woon had never properly wielded the Commandant Lord’s magic until now.
When handling dark mana, my body breaks down.
Humans possess a safety mechanism deep within their minds.
When they sense mortal danger, they unconsciously prevent themselves from crossing that threshold.
So Lee Ah-woon had always refrained from using the Commandant Lord’s magic at full power, despite having sufficient dark mana remaining.
But if I cannot transcend my limits, I’ll forever remain a ‘summoner’ unworthy of the EX-rank Commandant Lord’s caliber.
Was that truly what a member of this party challenging Floor 95 should be doing?
No.
That couldn’t be right.
‘One more step.’
And so Lee Ah-woon.
crossed the line.
—Use any more and you’ll die
The dark mana whispered inside his mind, but…
‘One more step…!’
Lee Ah-woon drew upon the dark mana.
“Authority: Thorns…!”
The curse caster’s ultimate ability, unleashed in rapid succession, wrapped the bone dragon’s massive form in an aura of frost-edged spines.
“Gack…!”
In that instant, Lee Ah-woon’s knees buckled,
and dark mana erupted from every fiber of his being.
Dark mana surged across his entire body.
* * *
“Yes, that’s it.”
You’ve hatched, Lee Ah-woon.

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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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