I Possessed a Game Where I Die If I Don’t Clear the Tower - Chapter 27
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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 27. The Ambush
Camilia furrowed her brow in thought.
‘Who could it be? A monster? No, that doesn’t make sense. Monsters wouldn’t call me Lord. Then… adventurers?’
No matter how vast The Tower was, it wasn’t infinite.
The Lower Floors were roughly the size of a city, so it wasn’t unusual to stumble upon an adventurer party while exploring.
The problem was that most of them harbored rather unsavory intentions.
When they muttered about monsters and radiated hostility like now, there was a 99.9% chance they would attack.
Someone hearing this would probably say:
Adventurers attacking a Lord’s party? Isn’t that just contrived writing?
They’d list all sorts of logical arguments—that it would obviously cause problems with the Adventurer Guild, that only an idiot would attack knowing the consequences, that harming the Lord who manages The Tower was unconscionable.
Camilia wanted to answer all these modern, rational objections with this:
‘You people aren’t living in a dark fantasy at all.’
In this genre, ‘The Lord just resurrects when he dies anyway. So stabbing him should be fine, right?’ was the common sense response.
‘Well, the Lord drops loot when he dies too, doesn’t he? Let’s just rob him first and think later’ was the intelligent response.
‘Who cares if The Tower collapses? As long as I don’t go down with it’ counted as the moderate response.
Most adventurers were out of their minds.
The rare few who had any sense could only be found when the Middle Floors opened.
‘They might just be hostile, not actually planning to attack…’
But Camilia trusted the logic of this world over modern rationality, so she sent a hand signal to Netanel Fragma at the rear of the party.
It meant to stay alert.
Since she couldn’t move her allies with a mouse click like in a game, it was a makeshift solution—but better than nothing.
Netanel Fragma responded exactly as she’d hoped.
He cast the ‘Sense Enhancement’ blessing on himself, closed his eyes, and began listening to the sounds around them.
After a moment, he opened his eyes and whispered:
“…It seems like two parties are nearby. One with three humans and another with four. The group of four appears well-armed. I can hear metal clanging.”
Nol, startled by what sounded like a warning to prepare for combat, began looking around nervously.
Rohengreen Ashen steadied Nol with a hand on his shoulder, glanced casually around the area, then turned back to Camilia.
“…Shall we engage?”
“Hmm.”
Camilia fell into thought.
With not one but two parties lurking nearby, reconnaissance was necessary.
Normally, one would send a hidden rogue to scout or use a spell like ‘Shadow Eye’ that a mage possessed.
But Camilia’s party had neither.
‘I left the mage behind, so there’s no help for it. As for the rogue… damn, I really do need to hire one.’
Without a rogue—the flower of CRPG games and the ultimate utility player—inconveniences piled up.
The real problem was that rogues and Mind Sorcerers had the worst compatibility.
True to their rebellious nature, most rogue-class allies despised being controlled or dominated by others.
That’s why she hadn’t reached out to any of the rogues available for hire at the Adventurer Guild.
‘No point regretting what I don’t have. That’s just how broken characters are.’
There was no use lamenting over what she lacked.
Camilia decided to make do with the resources at hand.
“Let’s move. If they follow, we’ll confront them—otherwise, we’ll create distance.”
“Yes, Lord.”
Rohengreen Ashen took the lead and began walking.
Nol seemed somewhat anxious, but seeing the party members remain composed, he made an effort to do the same.
“Netanel, alert me immediately if they approach.”
Netanel Fragma moved closer to Camilia’s side and answered.
“Yes, employer.”
He might have asked a question like ‘How did you know there were other parties nearby?’ but unlike usual, Netanel kept his mouth shut and focused solely on the sounds around us.
He seemed to understand this was a potentially dangerous situation.
‘He didn’t waste those levels. He moves well on his own initiative.’
While not as precise as direct mouse control, he performed about as well as I’d hoped.
It was the same even after we’d moved away from the Seal Chamber and reached a point where I considered checking something.
Before Camilia could ask, Netanel spoke first.
“Neither of them are following us.”
I’d expected at least one party to pursue us, but we’d gotten lucky—or so it would seem.
The Dark Tower’s fortune never favors players.
If an event with a 99.9% trigger rate didn’t occur, it wasn’t luck—it meant a far more dangerous event was unfolding instead.
Camilia asked tensely.
“Did those two parties move at all?”
“One party followed us initially but stopped when we moved. The other hasn’t moved from the start.”
Ah, Netanel added.
“They seem to have stopped near the Seal Chamber, though I’m not certain.”
Only the Lord can manipulate the Seal Chamber. Adventurers typically pass by without a second glance.
Yet they deliberately stopped in front of it?
A specific event circled through my mind.
‘Wasn’t that a 1% spawn rate? It triggered now?’
When uncertain, direct verification beats deliberation.
“We’re going back.”
“Huh? We’re going back?”
Unlike the bewildered Nol, Rohengreen Ashen and Netanel Fragma turned without hesitation.
Camilia followed behind the frantically running Nol, praying silently.
‘Please no. Not the Pantheon event. Anything but that…!’
Elite Adventurer Ken Schmidt had been struggling lately.
He’d managed to endure the Tower suddenly rupturing and monsters pouring out, but what came after was the real problem.
The Lord, who’d been holed up in the Castle conducting suspicious magical rituals, had apparently lost his mind and kept pestering the innocent Adventurer Guild.
He’d tried to expel them for failing to complete requests properly, and even after everything was resolved, he remained obsessed with devouring the Guild.
Last time, he’d summoned the Guild Master directly to the Castle and spent a full two hours berating him with questions like ‘What exactly is your job?’
As a result, Ken had spent half a day consoling a pot-bellied, bald old man who’d cried into the Lord’s arms out of sheer terror.
It was an experience he never wanted to repeat.
But the most bothersome and infuriating task was the one the Guild Master—beaten half to death—had thrust upon them, claiming that his only trustworthy assets were elite adventurers like themselves.
‘He asked me to patrol the Seal Chamber on the 2nd Floor. Just one month, nothing more, nothing less.’
The primary floors where elite adventurers operated were the 30th Floor at the very top of The Tower.
And yet they were being asked to run circles on the 2nd Floor? Without even being given a reason?
It was absurd, but refusing the Guild Master’s plea to help save lives felt impossible.
Still, I hadn’t wanted to be the first one drawn in the lottery.
Grumbling all the while, Ken set out with his party to monitor the Seal Chamber on the 2nd Floor.
“It’s the Lord.”
“Huh, really?”
On the second day of surveillance, the Lord appeared before the Seal Chamber for reasons unknown.
Though he only glanced around briefly before leaving, there was something unsettling about his movements.
Lena, Ken’s companion and the party’s archer, paused mid-chew on her jerky and murmured.
“Hasn’t the Lord been acting strange lately?”
Ken, who had been lost in thought about the violet hair reminiscent of a sunset disappearing around the corner, answered belatedly.
“Huh? What did you say?”
“I said, hasn’t the Lord been acting strange lately? He never used to carry on like that before.”
“That’s… definitely a bit odd.”
“Could something be happening on the 2nd Floor too?”
It was hard to dismiss as baseless anxiety when something felt off.
Just days ago, a seal that hadn’t broken once in over a thousand years had shattered.
But as the party leader, Ken couldn’t afford to fuel their unease. He shook his head.
“Unlikely. If there was a problem, the Lord wouldn’t have just left like that…”
“Shh.”
Bella, who had remained silent the entire time, pressed a finger to her lips and gestured for them to stop.
Since it was party protocol to follow the rogue’s word without question, Ken and Lena fell silent simultaneously.
Bella quietly pointed toward a corner of the Seal Chamber.
‘What?’
Ken gasped sharply, drawing in a breath.
Suspicious figures clad in dark cloaks were loitering near the Seal Chamber.
He’d only looked away for a moment, yet he’d been watching the entire time—when had they appeared?
Regardless of everything else, he was an elite adventurer who traversed the 30th Floor.
Few could move without being noticed by his eyes.
“Suspicious,” Bella whispered, and Lena and Ken nodded in agreement.
“Take positions. I’m going in.”
Ken grasped the greatsword he’d leaned against the wall and rushed forward to block the suspicious figures.
“Stop right there. What are you doing loitering in front of the Seal Chamber? Don’t you know the guild rules? Adventurers aren’t supposed to linger in this area.”
They took a step back instead of answering.
He thought they understood his words, but it was the opposite.
Blazing flames erupted in the hand of the figure standing at the back.
Because flames were blazing in the hands of the man standing at the very back.
‘Damn it all!’
Ken, startled, was raising his greatsword to block when a sharp voice suddenly cried out from somewhere.
“Ken Schmidt! Duck!”
It was a voice that carried an irresistible force of command.
Instinctively ducking his upper body, a torrent of flame that had been aimed at his head scraped past and exploded against the Seal Chamber’s barrier.
Even though the heat was emanating from behind him, his back felt scorched and searing. Had he taken that head-on, it would have been far worse than a simple injury.
Ken felt cold sweat trickling down his face as he gripped his greatsword tighter.
Who was that?
Who had just saved him?
Keeping his attention forward while rolling his eyes to the side, he caught sight of figures standing at the far end of the corridor.
It was the fierce-looking Lord and her party members.
Ken felt an overwhelming surge of emotion.
‘The Lord!’
He’d been calling her the Lord, the Lord’s brat, whenever he was bored—but in this moment, she was truly the Lord.
The Lord’s assistance didn’t end there. She even revealed the identity of the suspicious cloaked party.
“Minions of the Evil God—the fact that you still draw breath is a grave blasphemy. And now you dare to lay hands upon my Tower? I shall grant you no mercy.”
‘Minions of the Evil God? Those terrifying creatures were targeting the Tower!?’
Ken felt a wave of awe wash over him as his respect for the Lord surged.
To face such dreadful beings without flinching—she was truly remarkable.
He’d always wondered what good a petty, tax-squeezing Lord could be, but now he understood—this was her purpose!
Emboldened, Ken cried out confidently.
“I shall aid you, my Lord!”
The Lord nodded with dignified approval, as if granting him permission to assist her.
Her commanding presence put Ken’s mind at ease.
Yes. The Lord would handle everything.
The fact that she’d stationed him to watch the 2nd Floor surely meant she knew something.
She must have brought some magnificent and extraordinary countermeasure to face the minions of the Evil God.
‘I trust in you, my Lord!’
Ken’s faith was not misplaced.
Camilia’s mind indeed harbored something magnificent and extraordinary.
‘Ahhhhh, seriously! Why did this 1% event trigger now! This is total bullshit! Complete and utter bullshit!’
…Primarily screams and curses.
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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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