I Conquered the Tower with the EX-Class Character That I Raised - Chapter 19

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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 19
Scathach’s second phase does not activate under normal circumstances.
There is only one condition that triggers it.
When Scathach is killed in a single shot from beyond her perception range—a long-distance snipe.
In such cases, Scathach resurrects in the form of a Frost Dragon.
This version of Scathach possesses a special effect called “Counter Sniping: Retribution Frost Dragon.”
Her most powerful passive, “Frozen Immunity,” vanishes entirely, but in exchange, her physical and magical abilities run wild to their absolute limits.
And she invariably teleports directly in front of the sniper.
The setting reflects her refusal to forgive being defeated through such cowardly, long-range tactics.
‘I’ve always called it the “Cheap Kill Mode.”‘
Which meant.
I knew exactly how Scathach would appear.
—I had intended for this to happen from the very beginning.
* * *
Thump!
Jin Cheon-jin leaped from the helicopter and landed on the rooftop of a building overlooking the battlefield.
The battle was already underway.
A colossal roar from Scathach tore through the air—
Kwaaaang—!
A black silhouette, coat tails billowing like the void itself, shot through the sky, barely grazing beneath the dragon’s massive jaws.
Paaaat—!
‘A person?’
It resembled a flight-capable user, but it wasn’t. Instead, the figure was creating ice platforms in mid-air and launching forward at ultra-high speed by stepping upon them.
With each footfall against the void, crystalline blue ice shards scattered like a meteor shower, accompanied by sharp crackling sounds.
Extraordinary velocity. A familiar staff gripped in the runner’s hands.
‘The Apostle!’
Jin Cheon-jin moved to rush forward, then froze.
Screeeech—!
Countless ice projectiles materialized behind the Apostle’s back, threatening to blanket the entire sky.
‘…!’
Jin Cheon-jin held his breath.
An overwhelming barrage—like a battalion’s coordinated volley.
At a glance, well over a hundred shots!
The computational ability to generate such a staggering quantity without a moment’s hesitation sent chills down his spine.
The projectiles spiraled like drills as they flew toward Scathach.
“Ah···!”
Jin Cheon-jin let out an involuntary gasp.
Fast, and abundant.
The magical casting ability was certainly impressive.
But there was a critical problem.
It was a freezing spell.
“This won’t work···.”
And Scathach was a boss that came equipped with freeze immunity.
A legendary ability—one that made it absolutely impossible to deal damage with freezing magic.
Pop, pop, pop!
Most of the ice arrows were shot down by Scathach’s defensive magic.
Only a handful of ice arrows pierced through Scathach’s magic and burrowed in.
But it was useless.
The moment Jin Cheon-jin was about to squeeze his eyes shut.
Thud!
A dull sound rang out, and blood sprayed.
‘It pierced through? How?! Scathach should definitely have freeze immunity!’
Jin Cheon-jin doubted his own eyes.
Scathach’s freeze immunity had vanished upon becoming the ‘Punishing Frost Dragon,’ but there was no way for Jin Cheon-jin to know that.
Jin Cheon-jin could only conclude that the absolute power contained within the Apostle’s magic had forcibly torn through even ‘freeze immunity’ itself.
However, because so much power had been expended in piercing through those sturdy scales, the wound was shallow.
A thin layer of frost formed over the wound, and in an instant it healed completely—the damage amounted to nothing.
Whoooosh!
Dozens of brilliant blue magic circles materialized around Scathach.
The magic circles, brimming with intricate lines and points, contained magic from such an elevated realm that Jin Cheon-jin’s level of understanding could not fathom it.
Each time the geometric patterns resonated, a suffocating pressure that felt like his heart would stop swept across his entire body.
It was an alien and overwhelming density of mana.
The moment the magic circles completed and blazed with light, a blizzard infused with the chill of eternity began to pour forth.
But the Apostle moved through the air as if dancing.
Ice fragments that formed with each instant became his stepping stones.
That movement—bending diagonally and flowing at right angles as if mocking inertia itself—even created the illusion of passing through the blizzard before him like a phantom.
‘Unbelievable.’
Jin Cheon-jin watched the Apostle’s movements, lost in wonder.
Normally, even for a frost-class mage to create an ice platform beneath their feet required enormous concentration, yet the Apostle seemed to accomplish it with mere thought.
Whooom—
The Apostle’s two hands traced a complex pattern in empty space. This time, far more ice bullets were generated.
‘Two hundred shots? No, more than two hundred and fifty.’
As the Apostle thrust both hands forward, every bullet flew forth like a tempest.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Scathach blocked the bullets with his wings and immediately launched a counterattack.
Whoooooosh—!
The surrounding air began to rush toward Scathach, and the dragon’s chest swelled greatly.
Roooooar—!
Before the dragon’s gaping maw, a condensed mass of brilliant blue mana formed.
A blue beam erupted from the dragon’s mouth.
The dragon’s ultimate technique was its breath attack—the Dragon’s Breath.
Roooaaarrr!
The breath exhaled by Scathach, the Frost Dragon, carried extreme cold and extended like a ray of death.
‘The breath! Dodge it!’
Jin Cheon-jin screamed inwardly. But the Apostle did not evade. Instead, he raised his hand and met it head-on.
“Crystal Wall.”
A transparent ice barrier rose before the Apostle.
The ice barrier split Scathach’s breath perfectly in half.
‘This is impossible.’
Jin Cheon-jin’s mouth fell open. The breath was a lethal technique capable of turning even S-rank Awakeners into corpses in an instant.
The breath could not be blocked.
One had to dodge to the side.
That was the common sense of boss raids.
Yet the Apostle met it head-on and stopped it.
But that was not the end.
The surrounding cold surged toward the Apostle.
The extreme cold created by Scathach’s breath concentrated upon him.
The Apostle’s body began to glow with blue light.
Jin Cheon-jin was astonished.
‘He’s absorbing mana?’
Roooaaarrr!
The massive dragon unleashed a furious roar.
The dragon’s rage caused the surrounding temperature to plummet drastically.
Jin Cheon-jin felt his body freeze in that instant.
‘Ugh!’
Though I had witnessed countless battles between Awakeners, this overwhelming clash of power was my first.
Seeing that the breath had no effect, and realizing that ice-binding magic could not defeat the Apostle, Scathach switched to physical attacks.
Its massive tail swung at a speed impossible to follow with the eye.
Whoosh!
But the Apostle’s reaction was faster. As if he had teleported, he evaded the tail’s strike and seized the opening to charge toward Scathach’s chest.
Behind the Apostle as he leaped across the ice, a sphere of cold energy flew in pursuit.
‘What is that…?!’
At first, I thought it was Eternal Winter, Han Seol-ah’s ultimate technique.
But it was different.
Not being a mage, I could not discern exactly how it differed.
Yet Jin Cheon-jin was a martial artist more sensitive to mana flow—an S-rank Hunter at the apex.
The mana vibration that only those standing at the peak could perceive struck my retinas.
‘An evolution… perhaps?’
In my eyes, the sphere of ice storm trailing behind the Apostle appeared to be an evolved version of Eternal Winter.
More powerful, more stable Eternal Winter!
Yet something about those numbers felt wrong.
Spheres in quantities that defied all logic began to fill the empty air.
Five, ten, twenty… The multiplying suns of frigid energy swallowed the battlefield in azure light.
Krraaagh!
Scathach unleashed a scream laced with mana, but the magical circles etched into the void shattered and tore before they could even take form.
It was a grotesque succession of misfires—as though a superior being was denying her very existence.
Thrashing wildly, she lashed out with tail and wing and claw.
The Apostle crafted ice platforms at impossible angles, inverted his body mid-air, and launched himself in unexpected directions, evading every strike.
Yet he never twisted his trajectory away from Scathach.
And then.
The Apostle succeeded in closing the distance—near enough that a single outstretched hand could brush her scales.
“Diamond Dust!”
With a sharp battle cry, the spheres—now numbering forty—detonated against Scathach’s scales.
Screeeech!
A horrific grinding sound tore across the battlefield.
As the spheres burst, the savage ice storm contained within them spiraled like a vortex, grinding her scales to dust.
Shrieeek!
Forty was not enough. Dozens more spheres materialized around the Apostle in rapid succession, detonating against her scales.
And then, as the spheres penetrated deeper, they exploded from within her body, tearing Scathach apart from the inside.
Crunch!
Ice pillars erupted from Scathach’s body in cascading torrents.
Kraaaaaaagh!
But Scathach did not die.
Even now, thin ice began to form over the torn sections—she was attempting self-healing.
“No! We can’t let her heal…!”
Jin Cheon-jin cried out without thinking.
The Apostle withdrew from Scathach with unhurried grace.
Crackle—snap—
The thin ice that should have been mending twisted grotesquely instead.
Ice blades born from within Scathach’s own body began to expand rapidly.
The colossal dragon’s form was pierced through by these blades of ice, slowly freezing solid.
As though trapped within an ice prison.
Before long, Scathach’s body had become nothing but a frozen sculpture.
It resembled a work of art.
A massive dragon statue carved from azure ice.
‘This cannot be…’
Jin Cheon-jin watched in breathless silence. The irony was exquisite—a frost dragon, slain by ice, her very element.
The Apostle flicked his fingers lightly.
Click.
Shatter!
Scathach’s perfectly frozen body shattered into countless fragments.
Innumerable shards of ice scattered in all directions, refracting light like diamond dust—breathtakingly beautiful.
In that instant.
[Notification: Tower Break – Floor 94 Boss: Ancient Blue Dragon – ‘Frost Dragon Scathach’ has been vanquished]
The subjugation notification appeared.
Jin Cheon-jin finally released the breath he’d been holding.
My legs, drained of tension, nearly buckled, but I barely managed to keep them steady.
I survived.
I made it.
The Apostle descended slowly toward the ground.
The way he descended, stepping on ice stairs that materialized beneath his feet, resembled a legendary hero from mythology.
* * *
‘Good grief, look at the gleam in this old man’s eyes.’
A burly giant with thick fur and rippling muscles was sending me such a bright, eager gaze that I felt my stomach turning.
Anyway.
Phase two was complete.
I’d conserved time.
I’d economized mana.
I hadn’t overexerted myself.
Most importantly, I’d managed to preserve the backup mana I’d stored in Eternal Winter.
Well.
Truth be told, it wasn’t easy.
Foothold manipulation. Dispelling Scathach’s magic. Casting. Dodging physical attacks.
Beyond that, there was also power management to keep Jin Cheon-jin from dying when he suddenly teleported into the fray.
It was a mission that demanded constant attention.
But I pulled it off.
If this had been S-rank, it would’ve been brutal.
But who am I?
An EX-rank Hunter, that’s who.
“Thank you so much for saving South Korea…”
Jin Cheon-jin approached and bowed deeply, a perfect ninety degrees.
“I’m heading to Pyongyang.”
I’m grateful to the old man, sure.
But I need to maintain the Apostle act to the very end.
“Pardon? Pyongyang? Hasn’t the creature been destroyed?”
I still need to save Han Seol-ah, whom he left behind.
“It’s not over yet.”
And while I’m at it, I might as well save this country too.
Ding—!
[Notification: Tower Break difficulty is sharply increasing]
“…Gasp!”
Jin Cheon-jin drew in a sharp breath of surprise.
‘I knew it would come to this.’
Let me think back on what happened.
When Han Seol-ah defeated the Frost Dragon.
The Tower responded as if to say, “Oh, you think you’re clever?” and thrust Scathaha forward as the next boss.
An opponent I couldn’t possibly defeat?
The meaning was crystal clear.
‘Don’t even think about enduring.’
The Tower would never tolerate someone clearing a boss break this way.
The truth was, I couldn’t break the Tower itself, so it was doing this instead…
—Can’t break the Tower? Then die.
From the Tower’s perspective, that was the deal.
In any case.
I defeated Scathaha.
I endured once more.
So would that be the end of it?
Would the Tower let me off easy, saying “well done”?
‘Not a chance.’
‘Oh, you think you’re clever?’ it would say.
And it would send another opponent I couldn’t possibly defeat.
[Tower Break – Floor 94]
[Tower Break Boss: “Wondrous Echo” – Resonance Entity Resonar]
‘Damn it all.’
The curse escaped my lips unbidden.
I’d expected something difficult for Han Seol-ah to handle.
But of all things…
‘This goddamn boss mob had to show up.’
The Tower’s intention became painfully clear.
Relying on a single exceptional individual named Han Seol-ah?
—Then I’ll give you a mob that absolutely cannot be cleared by one person alone.
That was it.
[Alert: Clear count for Floor 94 Tower Break has exceeded the standard threshold]
[Alert: Tower Break difficulty has been deemed inappropriate]
[Alert: Tower Break intensity has become extremely powerful, and the cycle has drastically shortened]
“M-my lord Apostle….”
[3 days until commencement]
Beep—
[Ascend the Tower]
“….”
Jin Cheon-jin collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
‘…That’s understandable.’
Just when they thought they’d overcome it, a new despair had emerged.
No one could have anticipated this.
But then.
‘I did anticipate it, though?’
My strategy—capture Scathaha and take a bow!
…This level isn’t where it ends.
Capturing Scathaha is ‘easy work’ by my standards.
The real problem is the next crisis that will follow after defeating Scathaha.
‘If this repeats, I absolutely won’t survive.’
Let’s say I defeat this disgusting boss that appears now.
Then what?
The Tower will send out an even worse one.
—Won’t climb the Tower? Then die!
The Tower’s attitude will never change.
How do I solve this structure?
My strategy was for that from the beginning.
Operation name: ‘Echo of Death’.
In other words…
Clearing the Hidden Quest.

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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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