I Conquered the Tower with the EX-Class Character That I Raised - Chapter 44

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 44
The process of an ordinary person receiving the Tower’s blessing and awakening as a hunter is similar to a powerless newbie changing jobs and obtaining a class.
Han Seol-ah was born with an overwhelming ability called Frost Crystallization, so I didn’t need to intervene, but Lee Ah-woon is different—he’s a complete blank slate.
If a hunter’s awakened ability determines which jobs unlock for them, then what if I cultivate this blank-slate newbie to my specifications and unlock multiple jobs at once?
That was my hypothesis.
A perfect test subject: raise him to EX-rank hunter, use him to conquer the 94th Floor, and uncover the rules of corridor unlocking.
And the cost of such a nutrient-rich test subject? Just one bottle of red elixir!
The value for money was so absurd it brought tears to my eyes.
“Hehehehe.”
All preparations for cultivating an emperor were complete.
I pulled out an item I’d prepared in advance from my inventory.
A helmet wreathed in dark mist, radiating unmistakable malevolence and ill omen.
The Lich King’s Helmet.
One of the rare “ego items” that even Lost Honor possessed only a handful of.
Living equipment—and this helmet contained the Lich King’s consciousness imprinted with extraordinary intensity.
Its properties were quite complex, but to summarize: wearing this helmet caused dark magic aptitude to skyrocket explosively.
“Put it on, Lee Ah-woon.”
I tossed the helmet in front of him.
“Become the Lich King.”
[W-wear it? This?]
Lee Ah-woon trembled at the cursed item’s characteristic spine-chilling dread, hesitating, but I showed no mercy.
“Don’t worry. You won’t have any problems right now.”
Lee Ah-woon squeezed his eyes shut and slowly lowered the helmet onto his head.
The moment he equipped it, his body convulsed violently.
[Who dares awaken me…! I am the Lich King!]
And in less than a second, contrary to my assurance, Lee Ah-woon’s consciousness was swallowed whole by the Lich King.
But I wasn’t alarmed.
My lips curved upward in satisfaction.
‘Just as planned. Everything is unfolding perfectly.’
Act One of cultivating an emperor had begun.
* * *
The moment he donned the ominous helmet.
A glacial chill consumed Lee Ah-woon’s entire soul.
Krraaaaaaagh!
He screamed silently.
Blood freezing, consciousness shattering into fragments—unbearable agony!
Even as his soul was torn to shreds, Lee Ah-woon desperately fought to maintain his grip on reality.
‘Brother, this is the trial you’ve given me…! I must endure, cough!’
But his steadfast faith proved meaningless as Lee Ah-woon’s consciousness faded to black in an instant.
However, defying his steadfast faith, Lee Ah-woon’s sense of self went dark in an instant.
Through the fractures of that shattered mind, centuries-old transcendent thoughts flooded in like a waterfall.
The memory of a world smothered beneath ice.
The arrogance of a lord who commanded the immortals.
Over Lee Ah-woon’s white canvas, the Lich King’s pitch-black hue was forcibly mixed in, shredding his very soul.
‘I… I’m being buried…!’
Just before Lee Ah-woon’s consciousness was completely devoured.
The thought that had seized Lee Ah-woon’s body let out an exultant roar.
[I shall show those who sealed me… the depths of hell!]
The Lich King, who once filled an entire world with ice, death, and immortals.
His atrocities had reached heaven itself, and he was sealed by the Guardian who descended upon him.
But the time had come.
The long ages.
The suffering he had endured…!
Was it all tribulation to obtain this soul and body?!
[Who awakens me…! I am the Lich King!]
Yet the roar of the great evil that once dominated the world lasted barely a second.
In the deepest recesses of Lee Ah-woon’s inner being.
From the very bottom of that abyss, ‘it’ opened its eyes.
—Ahhhhh
In an instant, Lee Ah-woon’s inner world twisted grotesquely.
All sense of direction—up, down, left, right—collapsed.
Even the Lich King’s icy chill was consumed by something thick and repulsive, strangely warm, melting like a swamp.
[What, what is this… this abomination…!]
The Lich King felt an enormous ‘gaze’ constricting his soul.
A distant chaos whose form could not be fathomed, whose very perception by intellect was forbidden.
An existence coated entirely with malice, ill will, and every conceivable form of hostility.
It was looking at him.
And it was clearly crawling toward him from that distant place.
It spoke.
—Thief
A sound so vast that comprehension did not come immediately.
[GYAAAAAAAA!!!]
A chilling possessiveness—as if to say, how dare you covet what is mine.
The lord of death who had reigned for centuries trembled like a microbe before an incomprehensible terror, screaming.
Tentacles? Jaws? Or merely an abyss without end?
‘Something’ that would shatter reason merely by being perceived descended upon the Lich King’s consciousness.
Crunch!
Before an irresistible terror, the great Lich King’s thoughts were nothing more than a slab of meat upon a table.
Crunch. Crunch.
Only the grotesque sound of feeding echoed wetly through the void.
* * *
Right after the Lich King’s thunderous cry.
A mist far darker than the Lich King’s helmet engulfed Lee Ah-woon, then vanished with a sharp cracking sound.
After that, Lee Ah-woon regained consciousness.
[Huh?]
Lee Ah-woon’s bewildered expression.
A soft chuckle.
“Just as expected.”
Items with curses that negatively affect their users are called “cursed items.”
The Lich King’s helmet has a curse attached that devours the user’s sense of self.
When a player equips it, the character acts on its own whims, screams loudly at speakers, and so forth.
Why not discard an item that can’t even be used?
Because its stats are absolutely insane.
If one can endure the drawback of a curse, or manage to break it—
A cursed item can transform into the strongest equipment imaginable.
Right now, Lee Ah-woon carries a curse so terrifying it makes such petty curses look trivial by comparison.
The curse is so severe that lesser curses simply dissolve on their own.
Curses tagged with the keyword “foreign deity” typically work this way.
For a curse, it’s remarkably possessive.
“I cannot tolerate any curse but myself,” is the essence of it.
In other words.
As long as the foreign deity remains fixated, the cursed item is essentially Lee Ah-woon’s exclusive equipment.
After finishing the cursed item setup, I pushed Lee Ah-woon back into the Job Change Hall.
[Available Job Change List: 9 Dark Magic Lineages]
[1. Apostle of Plague] (Master)
[2. Bone Dragon Master] (Master)
[3. Warlock] (Master)
[4. Blood Mage]
[5. Curse Sorcerer]
[6. Demon Hunter]
“Hehehehe.”
Three job classes that weren’t there before now show as “Mastered.”
Lee Ah-woon graduated without even attempting to change into those three classes.
The Lich King was a boss with the setting of having mastered three dark magic lineages in life.
Therefore, wearing his helmet—infused with his residual consciousness—grants the judgment of having mastered the three classes: Apostle of Plague, Bone Dragon Master, and Warlock.
It’s an exceptional spec, despite carrying the massive drawback of losing one’s sense of self.
Considering that mastering a single job class requires grinding from level 1 to level 99—
This is absurdly compressed.
“This is true imperial cultivation.”
And on top of that.
This is merely the first stage.
“This isn’t the end.”
I pulled out cursed items one after another from my inventory.
A brooch said to seal Jin-jo, the first vampire (equipping it results in possession by Jin-jo).
A living grimoire—the Curse Magic Progenitor who desired immortality and embedded soul fragments within itself (equipping it results in possession by the Progenitor).
A cursed sword wielded by one consumed by hatred for demons, driven to madness by an eternal hunt, transforming themselves into a weapon (equipping it inflicts a curse of berserk rage upon seeing demons).
“Ugh, reeks of filth.”
The options were absolutely terrible.
The flaws were severe, but each cursed item granted mastery over Blood Mage, Curse Sorcerer, and Demon Hunter respectively.
Lee Ah-woon reluctantly equipped the cursed items one by one.
[Ahhh— a killer moon. Huh?]
Crunch.
Jin-jo cut.
[Eek! Eeeek! This c-curse!!! Save me! Save me save me!! Jebaaal!!!]
Crunch.
Progenitor cut.
[Now I am complete! Hmm? What is that?]
Crunch.
Demon Hunter cut.
The result of feeding three cursed items to Whitey as sustenance.
[4. Blood Mage] (Master)
[5. Curse Sorcerer] (Master)
[6. Demon Hunter] (Master)
“Quite simple, isn’t it?”
I would never have conceived of this method without the curse afflicting Lee Ah-woon from that foreign entity.
‘Thanks to it, I saved tremendous time and resources.’
[Huehhh…]
Lee Ah-woon had become slightly broken.
I’d fix it soon enough anyway, so I’d let it slide for now.
‘Trivial.’
I shoved Lee Ah-woon back into the Job Change Hall.
Flash!
Golden light erupted outward.
[All qualifications for dark magic mastery fulfilled]
[9-series dark magic pinnacle unlocked]
Boom!
[Pinnacle: Undead Lord]
“Kuh.”
Text materialized in large characters, emanating an ominous aura of pitch-black and blood-red flames billowing forth.
“I’ve gone mad.”
Leveling up in Lost Honor is brutally demanding.
Mastering a single sub-class typically requires thirty days.
To unlock the apex class, I need to master all six sub-classes, which means roughly six months of grinding.
Six months.
I can compress that into a single minute!
“I can manipulate time…”
[Will you change jobs?]
[1. Yes] [2. No]
The message urges me forward, as if demanding I choose quickly.
My decision?
Of course, it’s already made.
* * *
“…Where am I now?”
Lee Ah-woon muttered weakly, his body drooping.
Frozen by an icy chill until death, only to awaken.
Drained of blood until death, only to awaken.
Paralyzed like a puppet, dying, then struggling endlessly—what felt like ten years subjectively—dying again and again…
He had endured a succession of bizarre experiences he never wished to repeat.
During that ordeal, his body was seized by transcendent beings of immense power, and he glimpsed their memories, leaving him in a state of being ‘blended’ with them.
It was as if white paint named Lee Ah-woon had been mixed with countless colors representing transcendent entities.
Before his sense of ‘self’ could dissolve in that overwhelming agony, he awakened alongside a warmth both terrifyingly and comfortingly familiar…
Yet Lee Ah-woon remained uncertain whether he was himself or a butterfly dreaming of being human.
With that strange sensation, he gazed down at the Milky Way flowing beneath his feet.
“The Cosmic Space?”
When he lifted his gaze, the world was a realm brimming with stars.
Below flowed the Milky Way; above drifted colossal planets.
Everywhere he looked, nothing but radiant stars filled his vision.
[Beautiful, isn’t it?]
“Eek!”
A melodious female voice whispered near his ear, and Lee Ah-woon flinched in alarm.
“P-please stop!”
Assuming yet another entity had come to devour him, Lee Ah-woon reflexively dropped into a fighting stance.
“Hm?”
Behind Lee Ah-woon was a diamond-shaped star radiating light.
[Aha. Please don’t be so startled. I mean you no harm.]
“…Who are you?”
[My name is Gaia.]
The star gleamed brilliantly.
[I am the god of this world.]
“…A god?”
“Yes. Well, it’s mostly collapsed, so only a tiny bit of divinity remains. But since it was created as a god of this world from the very beginning, a god is still a god.”
Chuckle, chuckle—a delighted laugh emanated from the star.
“Though the true god of this world would actually be The One, wouldn’t it?”
“The One?”
“Yes. The one who guided you here.”
“…Brother?”
“Oh?”
The star sparkled with red light, as if surprised.
“To call The One so casually… You certainly have nerve!”
“…Do I?”
“Chuckle, chuckle. I was joking.”
What?
Unable to comprehend the incomprehensible joke, Lee Ah-woon scratched his head.
“…Not very funny, is it? I apologize. It’s been far too long since I’ve conversed with a person.”
“…Yes. My apologies. I couldn’t even understand what the joke was.”
“…Ahem. Anyway.”
The embarrassed star spun in circles, changing the subject.
“You bear the marks of having received a ‘baptism’ in another world.”
“Baptism? What’s that?”
“It’s the act of drawing out the potential within a human… In your memories, you call it ‘awakening.'”
“I see.”
“Hmm… How curious. You bear the marks of baptism, yet someone has completely stolen away the fruit.”
The star drew closer, as if observing Lee Ah-woon.
Within that star, Lee Ah-woon could see a very small and beautiful fairy with green hair.
‘A fairy?’
“What do you mean…”
“That’s why your soul has become so tattered… But don’t worry.”
“Yes?”
“It seems The One is granting you a second chance.”
The star shone with bright light, as if offering congratulations.
‘A second chance?’
“Under The One’s ‘permission,’ you may be reborn as one called the pinnacle of dark magic!”
“!”
Thump. Thump.
Lee Ah-woon had never lived as a hunter, cursed by an affliction that clung to him the moment he awakened the ability called Reverse Flow.

‘The pinnacle of dark magic? I have no idea what it is, but it sounds incredibly impressive!’
Lee Ah-woon’s dreams swelled wildly.
[Huh?]
“?”
Lee Ah-woon’s heart dropped with a thud.
That ‘huh?’ sound… typically.
[That… what is it? This… this can’t be happening.]
…Yes.
It was an exclamation that emerged when ‘incomprehensible misfortune’ unfolded like this.
“W-what problem could there be…?”
[That… The Guardian…]
“Yes! My brother…?”
[He refused.]
“?”
Byeol spun in place, unable to comprehend.
[He refused to promote you.]
“What?”
Byeol’s voice trembled ever so slightly.
[Necromancer Lord… the pinnacle of dark magic. The Guardian judged that even such a tremendous destiny was insufficient to fit within the vessel of your being…!]

What did that even mean?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————