I Conquered the Tower with the EX-Class Character That I Raised - Chapter 35

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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 35
I carefully administered a Tower-climbing potion that I had crafted under my Alchemist identity.
The curse that seemed ready to detonate had halted, but Lee Ah-woon’s body was already in tatters.
Gulp.
Only after barely swallowing a single mouthful of potion did Lee Ah-woon’s expression finally ease somewhat.
“Phew, at least we’ve cleared the immediate crisis of death.”
[Thank goodness. But Agent, what was that curse you mentioned earlier?]
“Hmm.”
The curse afflicting Lee Ah-woon.
This one is particularly vicious.
The malice I naturally sensed made my brow furrow.
“They’ve turned Lee Ah-woon into a living bomb.”
[A living bomb…?]
“If we resolve the mana backflow syndrome, one bomb detonates. And if we fail to resolve the mana backflow syndrome and Lee Ah-woon dies, another bomb detonates. Think of it as two explosives planted simultaneously.”
The mana backflow syndrome is bait.
A propaganda balloon designed to draw our focus.
But the moment we bite, the game ends.
Resolve the backflow? It detonates immediately.
That’s what just happened.
Fail to resolve it?
It detonates when Lee Ah-woon dies.
Without my intervention, this would have occurred soon enough.
Without grasping the core nature of the ‘curse,’ any path leads to catastrophe.
Diabolical.
And as we just witnessed.
The destructive power of the ‘Lee Ah-woon bomb’ is potent enough to obliterate all of Incheon.
Busan has already fallen, and now Incheon remains as the sole inhabited zone.
If this city is destroyed, whether Han Seol-ah is present or not, whether we prevent the Gate Break or not—South Korea faces complete annihilation.
‘They’re intent on utterly crushing South Korea.’
Why curse with such malevolence?
Whatever the objective, treating human lives as explosives was a despicable tactic.
‘If I find who did this, I’ll kill them for real.’
Heat surged from my core to the crown of my head.
I clenched my teeth and balled my fists, then slowly exhaled.
“Haah…”
Calm down.
Rage serves no purpose.
And this ‘Lee Ah-woon bomb’ trap is no longer dangerous.
Now that I’ve grasped that the curse is the core mechanism.
All that remains is resolving the curse itself…
After explaining Lee Ah-woon’s situation, I sought Whitey’s counsel.
“How do we resolve this curse?”
Whitey’s answer was concise.
[There is no way.]
“Huh?”
[I’m hearing for the first time that something called a ‘curse’ even exists in this world.]
“So you didn’t know about it?”
[…The information I lack is truly minimal.]
“What if it falls into that tiny category?”
[…]
“Meow?”
[I’ll…search more thoroughly.]
That’s right, Whitey. That’s the attitude I need.
Does my hunter career end if you say there’s no solution?
I pushed for more investigation, but soon I quietly confronted reality.
‘That answer is probably correct.’
Even I, who spent ten years obsessed with information gathering, combing through the underground internet, have never encountered the keyword ‘curse.’
If Whitey, who possesses overwhelmingly superior information resources than me, doesn’t know? It means there isn’t even a clue to breaking the curse among publicly available information in this world.
Then, is it impossible to break Lee Ah-woon’s curse?
The answer is ‘it’s possible.’
‘Lost Honor has the answer.’
If I can just manage possession, the solution becomes simple.
However.
‘It feels wasteful to carelessly use a possession ticket. Really.’
Possession tickets are difficult to obtain.
They’re the means to unlock jobs in the Constellation Corridor.
They have direct relevance to my own power.
They’re incredibly precious.
Moreover, now that the codex has opened, I can invest only in exceptional talents capable of reaching maximum latent potential EX.
Curse or not, there’s no way I wouldn’t regret squandering such a valuable resource.
‘…And this possession ticket is especially crucial.’
An ability useful for capturing Resonar.
And I need to use it for Tower conquest afterward.
‘If I don’t use the ticket? How do I solve the curse?’
The situation is complicated.
But the conclusion was already decided.
‘I’m betting on Lee Ah-woon.’
If Lee Ah-woon’s potential for EX-rank were completely ‘unknown,’ I might have agonized over it.
But Lee Ah-woon is a talent the developer publicly stated has ‘potential for EX-rank.’
Information given as a Quest reward wouldn’t be a lie.
If there was even the slightest possibility.
I possessed the ability to transform that possibility into certainty.
‘Nebula is a god, and I am invincible.’
“Mm…”
Lee Ah-woon stirred awake at that very moment.
“Y-you are…”
Lee Ah-woon’s eyes gazing up at me were hazy and unfocused.
His face bore the expression of someone just roused from a dream.
He coughed roughly, struggling to expel the blood pooling in his mouth, then opened his lips with a trembling voice.
“Are you an angel?”
…What is he saying?
First an Apostle, now an angel?
* * *
Death.
Lee Ah-woon was adrift in that abyss.
A space devoid of all substance. Even gravity was absent.
His senses dulled, and consciousness grew dim.
Then, a whisper that seemed to emanate from distant depths burrowed into his mind.
[The seed of calamity■···.]
[■ shall ■dier···.]
[Long and endless ■■■···.]
[The one who ■■ ■···.]
What was it saying?
He could not hear clearly.
Yet from deep within his soul, beyond mere instinct, a warning screamed that he must not heed that voice.
Lee Ah-woon covered his ears and curled inward.
‘Save me,’ he cried with all his might, but no sound emerged.
A viscous voice enveloped Lee Ah-woon.
The voice itself seemed to possess mass and weight.
The whisper clung like a leech, attempting to devour the last vestiges of his consciousness.
Was this death?
It was horrifying.
In the very instant he was about to surrender.
[You have consumed the Crimson Elixir]
A voice of indeterminate gender accompanied the message.
Whoosh!
There was light.
Warm and dazzling radiance poured forth, gently thawing the frozen soul.
The sinister whispers that had clung so tenaciously shrieked and scattered.
Tranquility.
An absolute sense of relief, like the embrace of a mother I no longer remembered.
‘Ahhh···.’
Just as I was about to close my eyes, overwhelmed by the surge of emotion.
Pop!
As the light vanished, Lee Ah-woon was hurled back into reality.
“Krraaaaaaagh!”
A terrible, searing pain seized my entire body.
Every blood vessel, every muscle, every organ twisted and tore as if being ripped apart.
It was incomparable to the mana backflow that usually tormented me.
An enormous surge of mana flooded in.
And that mana reversed course at a terrifying speed, shredding my entire body.
Then it was expelled.
It felt as though my entire body was being ground to dust in a crusher called ‘mana’.
‘Please··· help···!’
All I could do was writhe helplessly.
Through the haze of blood, my vision blurring, I saw something.
‘···What is that?’
The storm of mana that had been tearing me apart was subsiding.
No—someone was suppressing it.
The mana unraveled strand by strand.
They shimmered with an emerald glow infused with the essence of life, dancing gracefully as if alive.
Tens of thousands of luminous threads.
‘Beautiful···.’
A majesty so breathtaking that even in the throes of death, my soul was captivated.
I found myself thinking.
The being orchestrating this miraculous phenomenon could not possibly be human.
An angel, or something far greater—that much was certain.
As the final strand of mana found its place and faded, the hellish agony vanished as if it had never been.
But it did not stop there.
The sensation of mana backflow that had plagued me relentlessly, that agonizing pain—it was being erased along with everything else.
‘It’s···disappearing.’
I carefully tested moving mana through my body.
Smooth.
Unobstructed, flowing gently, moving in the correct direction.
“······!”
My breath caught. My vision blurred.
I was healed. Truly healed! The mana backflow that had cursed me for decades—it was completely gone!
‘A miracle··· a true miracle···!’
I had written in my will that I ‘foolishly hoped for a miracle’, even as I mocked myself for it.
I had given up. I thought everything was over.
Yet deep within my soul, even in that dying moment, I could not release my grip on hope.
And now, that hope had become reality.
Lee Ah-woon slowly raised his upper body.
A man stood before him.
An ordinary impression.
A blurred face that would be difficult to remember if one passed by, the kind that melted seamlessly into a crowd.
Yet Lee Ah-woon fixed his gaze intently, refusing to let that face slip away.
So he would not forget.
So he could etch this person’s visage into his very soul.
Their eyes met.
Lee Ah-woon asked as if entranced.
“A-are you… an angel?”
The man tilted his head.
As if asking, ‘What do you mean by that?’
Lee Ah-woon forced his reluctant body upright and prostrated himself deeply.
“Thank you, truly thank you… How can I ever repay this debt? How can I possibly repay the miracle you have bestowed upon me?”
“…”
“I will become anything. I swear upon my life to be your sword and your shield.”
The man did not respond.
“Please, accept everything I have to offer!”
Lee Ah-woon had already steeled himself to accept whatever harsh command this man might impose to test his sincerity.
Yet the man opened his mouth with such serene composure, as if that earnestness were nothing but feathers, utterly indifferent.
“Let’s be friends first.”
‘!!!’
Lee Ah-woon responded loudly.
“Yes!!!”
* * *
‘Why is he like this?’
First he was going on about angels, and now he’s reciting knight’s poetry.
‘I did imagine that if I cured his chronic condition, he wouldn’t suffocate through awkward small talk and would immediately see me as an angel… but seeing it actually happen is a bit bewildering.’
Still… I suppose I was rather impressive.
I have to admit, there’s a certain satisfaction to it.
But I can’t simply bask in this good feeling.
Unless I resolve the curse, his mana addiction could relapse at any moment.
‘This isn’t the end.’
That’s one thing.
“….”
“….”
Silence settled between us.
[Agent? Perhaps you could say something…]
‘….’
No, wait.
What should I even say in a situation like this?
It’s been far too long since I’ve spoken with another person.
“…I am Ha Sung-woon.”
“Yes, Sung-woon!”
“You don’t need to add honorifics. How old are you?”
“I’m twenty years old, Sung-woon… angel!”
“…I’m not an angel either. But twenty?”
“Yes!”
‘…That face?’
Ugh, when time passes, you should try to avoid it somehow.
With all the hardship written across those features, there’s no way I could believe this person is only twenty.
I naturally assumed they were older than me.
“I’m your senior then. Forget the angel nonsense and just call me hyung.”
“Yes, hyung!”
“…Without the honorific.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, hyung!”
“…Fine then.”
…Exhausting.
I turned away from Lee Ah-woon’s gleaming gaze as he remained on his knees.
I tossed the crimson elixir I’d been feeding Lee Ah-woon toward him.
Since I hadn’t used all of it, roughly half the bottle of elixir remained.
“That’s called a crimson elixir—a spiritual medicine. It temporarily suppresses your mana backflow condition.”
“Ah… so this is…”
Lee Ah-woon nodded as if understanding something.
“Do you know who Lee Hyung-je is?”
“Pardon? How do you know that man, hyung?”
“I owed that man a favor long ago.”
Thank you for the meal.
Calorie stick.
“This is a gift from him to you.”
“…”
Lee Ah-woon’s expression grew visibly complicated.
“It’s worth 1.5 billion points.”
“Huh—what?!”
Lee Ah-woon jolted in shock, raising the elixir bottle high toward the sky.
“What are you doing?”
“If it were to break…”
“It won’t break. It’s sturdy.”
“Th-this is an aloe juice bottle···.”
“It’s not.”
“But there’s a sticker label on it···.”
“I said it’s not?”
Actually, it is.
I was in such a rush that I borrowed it from Chul-soo’s place.
“Be nice to him. He cares about you quite a bit.”
“···That man?”
Lee Ah-woon’s expression went blank.
Complex emotions flickered across his wavering gaze, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
There was clearly something between them that I didn’t understand.
To shift that delicate atmosphere, I casually dropped a bombshell.
“Oh, by the way, your condition will relapse again.”
“…What?”
Lee Ah-woon’s face went pale.
“Re-relapse?”
“Yeah. Your mana backflow syndrome isn’t cured. It’s just dormant.”
“Th-then if I take the remaining medicine when that happens, it should be fine, right?”
“No.”
What are you talking about.
“If you take that, Incheon will fly away. Don’t take it.”
“…What?”
“If you really can’t stand it, call me. If I’m there, you can take it with my permission.”
“Brother. Then this condition… can’t be treated?”
“It can be. Probably.”
“···!”
Lee Ah-woon’s head snapped up.
His eyes were blazing with fervent hope.
I smiled wickedly and extended my hand to him.
“Work with me on something.”
Now that I’d confirmed his loyalty, it was time to extract the true value from this precious “possession ticket.”

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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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