I Conquered the Tower with the EX-Class Character That I Raised - Chapter 16

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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 16
After sending off Han Seol-ah, whose face had transformed into that of an underdog hero, I made time to stop by the Black Market Korean Branch.
“Here are the life-saving artifacts you requested.”
Kang Hyo-jun extended a bag toward me.
Inside lay premium potions alongside artifacts capable of snatching me back from death’s door.
‘This is an escape ring, and that’s a life-saving earring.’
“Mm.”
I swept them all up without hesitation.
‘My life is precious, after all.’
No amount of preparation could be excessive.
“Then we’ll consider the identity forgery request cancelled.”
All these artifacts were essentially obtained for free.
Kang Hyo-jun had seemed so troubled about how difficult identity forgery was that I’d demanded these items as compensation for cancelling the commission.
“Th-thank you so much!”
At my announcement, Kang Hyo-jun’s face flushed with undisguised relief.
He was that grateful? Identity forgery must be far more difficult than I’d imagined.
‘Now that I’ve established a connection with Min Ji-hee, I have a more reliable method than going through the Black Market. There’s no need to procure a forged identity from the market.’
Even if I’d left it alone, it would have become unnecessary anyway.
‘This is good fortune, pure good fortune.’
Sensing that things were aligning favorably, my steps felt lighter.
I headed toward the Appraisal Center, arriving precisely on time.
* * *
The moment I opened the door, the gazes of Han Seol-ah, Min Ji-hee, and Jin Cheon-jin—who were already present—converged upon me simultaneously.
Heavy silence. Within it lay nothing but palpable anxiety, ready to burst.
“I’ll explain the operation.”
All three held their breath at once.
My first words seemed to carry the weight of a verdict determining their very survival.
I pointed toward Han Seol-ah.
“You’ll face Scathach.”
“…?”
Min Ji-hee and Jin Cheon-jin were left speechless.
“Pardon?”
Understandably so.
I’d declared that I would kill Scathach, so naturally they’d assumed I would handle everything from start to finish.
…But that wasn’t the case.
I cannot leave Incheon.
Yet I cannot simply wait for Scathach to descend to Incheon either.
If I did, South Korea would already be lost.
While I remain in Incheon preparing an ultra-long-range sniper spell that reaches all the way to Pyongyang where Scathach spawns.
I need someone to hold the line and prevent Scathach from advancing southward.
“Just hold on.”
Why would I waste four precious days sparring with you if I didn’t think you could manage it?
“…How long must I endure?”
Min Ji-hee asked with desperate eyes.
“Two minutes.”
“Two minutes?! Apostle, the opponent is Scathaha. Not just any dragon—a calamity-class ancient dragon. For a human to withstand such a monster for two minutes…!”
“I can’t reduce it further.”
I’ve set it to the absolute minimum.
Any less time, and the ‘charging’ won’t be sufficient… I won’t be able to close the distance to Scathaha.
That’s the nature of this magic.
If I extend it any longer, Han Seol-ah won’t survive it no matter what.
Even the spell preparation is cutting it razor-thin at the minimum.
I’ve calibrated it to match Han Seol-ah’s absolute limit with no margin for error…
Two minutes is that golden window.
“Do you think it’s impossible?”
I cut off Min Ji-hee’s protest and turned my gaze to Han Seol-ah.
‘You can do this. You can.’
I’ve trained you for exactly this.
And sure enough.
“No. It’s possible.”
“Seol-ah…!”
Unwavering resolve crystallized in Han Seol-ah’s eyes.
“Two minutes. Or even longer—I’ll hold the line until you finish your preparations, Apostle.”
‘Yes. That’s how it should be.’
Three hours remained until Scathaha’s arrival.
—The preparations were complete.
* * *
Pyongyang. A land already consumed by ruin.
From the peak of a mountain overlooking the ashen wasteland, Kim Min-seok pressed his eye to the telescope.
And immediately regretted it.
Better not to have looked at all.
They call a Class 1 Gate a “mid-boss Gate”?
Whoever coined that term certainly had a convenient way with words.
If they’d ever witnessed a true “boss Gate” even once, they’d never dare attach such a comparable name.
Boss Gates exist on an entirely different tier.
‘Especially South Korea’s boss Gate… it’s in a league of its own.’
Kim Min-seok shook his head slowly.
“…It’s beginning.”
The beginning came as sound.
Screeeeeech—
At first, a piercing screech tore through my eardrums—as if a colossal chalkboard were being clawed by rusted nails.
KUUUAAAANG—!
Then the entire sky began to wail.
The mana particles saturating Pyongyang’s airspace trembled in terror at the arrival of an apex predator, shrieking in frenzied vibration.
The very atmosphere twisted and contorted in dread.
“Ugh…!”
Kim Min-seok reflexively clapped his hands over his ears and collapsed to his knees.
But it was useless.
That nerve-grating screech didn’t assault the eardrums—it traveled through the mana circuits that comprised a Hunter’s sensory organs, burrowing all the way into the brainstem.
“Retch.”
Bile surged up his throat.
His heart hammered erratically, and a chilling sensation swept across his entire body as if the blood in his veins were flowing backward.
Humanity’s most primal instinct—the survival instinct—was responding violently.
‘Even from over 10 kilometers away… it’s this intense?’
Crackle—CRACK!
The sky was splitting open like an infected wound bursting.
As if invisible giant hands were forcibly tearing the space apart, Pyongyang’s airspace was grotesquely ripped asunder.
Through that fissure.
A pallid abyss began to pour forth from the gaping wound.
An abnormal energy that devoured light and stole heat itself!
Saturation was draining away.
The moment the Gate opened, even the ashen clouds enveloping Pyongyang lost their hue, fading into a more desolate, colorless gray.
The world’s laws were being overwritten.
Not Earth’s physical laws, but those of the ‘monster’ beyond that door.
‘And it hasn’t even appeared yet, yet the corruption is already this severe…!’
Kim Min-seok thought, feeling a bone-deep chill seep into his very marrow.
‘…Hell itself has opened.’
And then…
Thud.
Sound ceased. The atmosphere’s scream that had been tearing through the eardrums moments before vanished as if it had never been.
In that deathly silence.
A dragon descended.
“…Ah.”
Not even a curse escaped his lips.
He simply stood slack-jawed, the binoculars slipping from his trembling hands.
Defeat welled up from the depths of his instincts.
Massive. Powerful. Terrifying….
Beyond such one-dimensional impressions, the conclusion crystallized in Kim Min-seok’s mind was absolute.
—To resist is to die.
He knew it instinctively.
No, I couldn’t help but know.
Kim Min-seok’s awakened ability was [Survival Instinct (A)].
An ability to instinctively sense whether he would live or die from a single blow of a demonic beast’s attack.
It was the primary reason he occupied the position of South Korea’s greatest tank.
And it was also the most crucial ability a tank could possess.
If a tank could endure just one hit, the healers behind him could keep him alive by any means necessary.
Enduring that way, surviving one blow after another, being healed, enduring again…
Until the Guardian Han Seol-ah finally arrived.
That was the sole mission demanded of South Korea’s tanks.
Kim Min-seok had tenaciously survived on every battlefield, and after countless other tanks fell, he came to be called “South Korea’s greatest tank.”
But now, that proud instinct was screaming like madness.
Run. Never stand and fight…
No matter how many thousand simulations he ran through his mind, the result was always the same. Block and die, evade and die.
‘Ah… humans are… weak.’
Kim Min-seok understood.
A future where he could no longer withstand a demonic beast’s “single blow” and would be torn apart was not far off.
And there, hovering above Pyongyang.
That existence was the very “limit” Kim Min-seok had feared so deeply.
No matter how sturdy a shield he raised, how many skills he stacked, how much full enhancement he used… no matter what he did!
Before that existence, he would be torn apart like tissue paper.
That was the limit of a tank—no, of humanity itself.
Kim Min-seok wiped his trembling hand across his chest.
His heart was pounding wildly.
It was proof that he was alive.
“…Running away was the right call.”
Cowardly?
No. He simply fled from a place of certain death.
That was the secret to how the “tank” Kim Min-seok had survived until now.
And this time, Kim Min-seok was certain that Han Seol-ah would break.
Before such an overwhelming calamity, no matter how resolute one’s will, it would shatter into pieces.
With some confidence settling in, there was no reason to linger in this horrific place any longer.
Moreover, Kim Min-seok’s survival instinct was screaming at him to flee this hell as quickly as possible.
As he urgently turned to run, in that fleeting moment as his gaze swept across the battlefield one last time.
Through the telescope lens he happened to glance past, an unbelievable sight caught his eye.
“…What?”
A single small human standing on the rooftop of an abandoned building.
Long white hair fluttering in the ominous aura radiating from Scathaha.
It was Han Seol-ah.
“Ahhhhh!!!”
Kim Min-seok screamed.
‘No, has Jin Cheon-jin, that old fool, lost his mind? Han Seol-ah should be evacuated, not left there! What is he thinking?’
No matter how much he scanned the surroundings, he couldn’t spot South Korea’s vaunted tank unit.
The absence of those tanks desperately clinging to the boss’s feet to complete Han Seol-ah’s casting meant…?
Surely not.
“They’ve given up?”
Had they chosen euthanasia?
If Han Seol-ah died, everything would end anyway.
They were simply accepting death?
“That can’t happen.”
Kim Min-seok had to save Han Seol-ah and return.
Kim Min-seok gripped the artifact in his bosom tightly.
With this, he could save Han Seol-ah.
‘…If I can survive Scathaha, that is.’
If he allowed Han Seol-ah to die, he’d be 100% dead at the Guild Master’s hands anyway.
But if he rushed to save Han Seol-ah, the artifact’s power guaranteed a 90% survival rate.
‘Damn it, damn it!’
Jin Cheon-jin.
This insane old bastard!
Min Ji-hee, you cursed witch! Iron-blooded, my ass—driving your own daughter to her death?!
Kim Min-seok gritted his teeth and hurled himself down the mountainside.
He had to extract Han Seol-ah before she could take her own life!
How long could Han Seol-ah hold out?
One minute? Three minutes?
He had no idea.
Without a tank line to hold the front, Han Seol-ah would be dead in a single blow from Scathaha.
It was as he approached the battlefield.
“Huh?”
Han Seol-ah was flung through the air and crashed down directly in front of Scathaha.
Standing before the colossal dragon, Han Seol-ah resembled a toothpick placed before a mountain.
A toothpick with its head held defiantly high.
“Damn it.”
Kim Min-seok quickly threw himself behind the abandoned building.
Any closer would be suicide.
Han Seol-ah was going to die now.
‘Where should I flee this time?’
His survival instinct burned fiercely, searching for an escape route.
In that instant.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
A piercing gale of frigid wind came rushing in.
Kim Min-seok hastily shielded his face.
Crack-crack-crack!
Shards of ice grazed past Kim Min-seok’s skin.
While not fatal, several ice fragments saturated with dense mana carved shallow wounds across his body.
The clothes Kim Min-seok wore were reduced to tatters in an instant.
Boom-boom-bang!
“What… what is this?”
A series of deafening explosions followed.
Kim Min-seok quickly concealed himself behind the abandoned building, peeking out just enough to assess the situation.
Scathaha flicked her fingers with an arrogant gesture.
At that moment, Han Seol-ah extended her hand.
Mana shot forth from her fingertips, serpentine and piercing through empty space, striking the most vulnerable link in the magical circle.
Crash-!
The colossal magical circle shattered like glass just before completion, fragmenting into countless pieces.
‘What is this… magical combat?’
Boom-boom-boom-bang!
Waves of frigid wind erupted in overlapping succession, dozens upon dozens of times.
“Are they… fighting?”
Was it even possible for humans to stand against such a calamity?
Yet the spectacle unfolding before Kim Min-seok’s eyes was undeniably real.
Kim Min-seok could only retreat further, unable to draw any closer.
Through his shock, Kim Min-seok caught sight of Han Seol-ah.
Her face was contorted with strain.
“···.”
This wasn’t fighting.
Kim Min-seok realized it then.
She was defending.
She was enduring.
The mana that Scathaha wielded playfully.
Before that mana could crystallize into grand magic, Han Seol-ah desperately extended her hand.
She interfered with the mana, intercepted it, transformed it.
Boom!
And so the mana never became magic—it dissipated as mere physical explosion.
‘This is… impossible.’
It was like plucking the fuse from an incoming artillery shell with bare hands.
Absolute madness.
– ———!
Han Seol-ah seemed to be shouting something.
This was the first time he’d ever seen her display such intense emotion, she who normally concealed her feelings so thoroughly.
A crimson stream of blood trickled from beneath Han Seol-ah’s pale nose.
It was evidence that her overloaded mind was screaming.
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-boom—!
But she didn’t stop.
My legs trembled violently.
They looked fragile enough to snap at any moment.
The enormous spheres of mana surrounding me made anyone who witnessed them feel their knees buckle.
Anything that got hit would die.
Even if they burst, death would follow.
That was the extent of their power.
But I didn’t stop.
I wouldn’t break.
“···.”
Kim Min-seok fell silent.
What made her so desperate?
‘This is a battle that can’t be won.’
The moment her mana ran out, it would be over.
Besides, that monster hadn’t even gone all out.
‘This is a fight she’s destined to lose!’
At the end of it all, only death awaited.
“Why would she—.”
Kim Min-seok closed his mouth.
His feet, which had been searching for an escape route, stopped.
His survival instinct still urged him to flee.
Yet Kim Min-seok felt that small back standing alone before the calamity was more distant and steadfast than any fortress wall.
Guardian.
Han Seol-ah’s epithet.
Throughout the entire world, Han Seol-ah was the only Hunter ever bestowed with the epithet of Guardian.
A Hunter who sacrificed everything to uphold the mission of protecting South Korea.
That was why people called her the Guardian.
Kim Min-seok felt the true weight of that epithet.
Calamity, and despair.
An unwavering will that never retreated before them.
—That was how she protected the world.

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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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