I Possessed a Game Where I Die If I Don’t Clear the Tower - Chapter 5

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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 5. Recruiting Allies
The Adventurer Guild, situated in the heart of the cursed city of Nidst, perpetually thrummed with activity.
Those seeking companions, those verifying commissions, those arriving to appraise items obtained from The Tower—the list went on.
It was a destination sought by all manner of people.
Even now, with monsters pouring forth after the seal of The Tower had shattered, this remained true.
“When exactly will this barrier be lifted? My party members are still trapped inside!”
“Damn it, Lena… Please, you have to be safe….”
Those anguished over companions ensnared within The Tower by the barrier.
“Anyone capable of healing magic! Anyone with potions!”
Those gathering the wounded.
“What is the Guild Master doing? Shouldn’t he go speak to the Lord and demand something be done!”
“That monster squeezes us dry with taxes, yet when something like this happens, he doesn’t show his face….”
Those cursing the Lord—the administrator of The Tower—and the Guild Master, swallowing their fury with difficulty.
All of them had gathered in the Adventurer Guild.
Just as everyone teetered on the brink of losing their composure entirely, a jet-black carriage drawn by four horses came to a halt before the guild building.
“Isn’t that the Lord’s carriage?”
“The Lord has come?”
That monster, who ordinarily barricaded himself within the Lord’s Castle—why was he here?
At this news, the adventurers rose to their feet as one.
Some of the bolder ones even stepped outside, weapons still at their sides, to stand their ground.
With all eyes fixed upon the scene, the carriage door opened.
The first to emerge was a silver-haired knight clad in light armor.
Following him came a woman whose form was wrapped in a cloak-adorned robe, taking his hand as she descended.
All who witnessed this sight—man and woman alike—held their breath.
There was no help for it.
The woman who stepped from the carriage was simply….
Truly, breathtakingly beautiful.
Though they had clearly come to lodge complaints, the moment they beheld her face, all thought evaporated.
She swept her gaze across the dazed adventurers before speaking.
“Why do you all stand there with vacant expressions?”
Only then did one adventurer snap back to awareness, muttering.
“Who… are you?”
“I am the master of this Territory.”
The adventurer started in shock.
‘The Lord? Truly the Lord?!’
Shouldn’t someone who had lived a thousand years resemble a gnarled, ancient tree?
Was it true, then—that he underwent reincarnation by exchanging bodies?
As the adventurer stood there, lips trembling in bewilderment, the Lord spoke again.
“Ken. Go fetch the Guild Master for me.”
“Yes? My, no, how did you know my….”
In an instant, her gaze turned as cold as ice.
It felt as though she were rebuking him: ‘Do you dare make me repeat myself?’
“I’ll fetch the Master at once!”
Unable to withstand the pressure, he scrambled up the stairs in a panic.
The remaining adventurers’ moods grew visibly uncomfortable.
‘If Ken backs down there, what are we supposed to do?’
‘Treating a special-rank adventurer like a servant? Just because she’s a Lord?’
‘Summoning the Adventurer Guild Master downstairs like this—is she trying to break the spirits of the adventurers even now?’
Camilia paid no heed to the sharp stares and entered the first floor.
Then she boldly claimed the nearest table and sat down.
No matter how the surrounding eyes judged her, she remained unbowed.
There was a reason for everything she did.
A very serious reason at that.
‘My backside is killing me—how am I supposed to climb to the fifth floor like this?’
In the Dark Tower, the base stat value is 10.
Therefore, anything below 10 incurs a penalty.
The penalty attached to Stamina 6 is ‘Frail Constitution.’
Physical ailments strike sporadically, and worse, they become permanent afflictions.
It meant that riding in a carriage guaranteed nausea and a burning pain in the posterior.
‘Damn it, this body is absolutely maddening.’
I desperately needed a healer to restore this exhausted frame.
I desperately needed a support class with a Stamina +2 buff to transform me from a sickly Lord into a merely frail one.
‘That’s why I came looking for someone who could be both.’
I verified that my target was present.
I wanted to hire them immediately, but I had to restrain myself.
First came meeting the ‘recruitment conditions.’
And for that, I needed the Adventurer Guild Master.
‘Guild Master, please come quickly.’
Fortunately, before my tailbone could stage a full rebellion, the Adventurer Guild Master appeared.
He was a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and a considerable belly, looking more like a disreputable slave merchant than an adventurer.
“Oh my! I had no idea such an esteemed guest had graced this humble establishment!”
Nearly tumbling down the stairs, he barked at the Young Attendant who had been tidying the hall.
“You didn’t offer the Lord any hospitality? You! Go fetch tea at once!”
As the Young Attendant nervously brought the tea, the Adventurer Guild Master rubbed his hands together obsequiously and chattered away.
“You look well, thank goodness. My, this new incarnated body suits you splendidly!”
Whether it was praise or backhanded insult remained ambiguous, but I saw no reason to point it out. I hadn’t come to trade barbs.
“I intend to hire all of them. Since there’s no time for individual contracts, you’ll need to handle the arrangements yourself, Guild Master.”
The Adventurer Guild Master’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.
“All of them…?”
Camilia replied matter-of-factly.
“Yes. Everyone in this room.”
‘Adventurer Recruitment’ was a function that existed in the game as well.
It was an auxiliary feature used for material item procurement, and at maximum expansion, I could employ up to five teams.
‘But this isn’t a game anymore—it’s reality, is it?’
There was no reason to follow the system’s imposed limitations.
I intended to hire adventurers en masse and put them to work.
And in doing so, I’d fulfill the ‘recruitment condition’ as well.
“As an advance, ten platinum coins. Once the work is done, I’ll reward you generously based on your performance.”
The moment her words ended, the adventurers surrounding us began to murmur excitedly.
“Ten platinum coins? That’s a thousand gold coins, isn’t it?”
“Does hiring all of us mean we’re going inside The Tower to repair the seal?”
“We’re all doing this, right? Let’s go! We need to rescue those trapped inside!”
The gloomy atmosphere of the guild was gradually coming alive.
The eyes of the adventurers who had been glaring at Camilia with resentment softened considerably.
In stark contrast to them, the silver-haired knight Rohengreen’s expression was far from pleased. Anxiously, he kept fidgeting with his sword hilt.
It was understandable. The initial game funds—or rather, the amount of money I could currently operate with as Lord was merely twenty platinum coins.
‘The Previous Lord spent so much money on magical research that there’s almost no liquid funds left, right? That must be the setting.’
Not only had I thrown half of that already meager sum into hiring adventurers, but if I added bonus compensation on top of that, bankruptcy seemed inevitable.
‘Don’t worry, Rohengreen. Money like that can be duplicated anytime when the moment comes.’
Still, if I couldn’t persuade the Adventurer Guild Master, it would all be for nothing.
Camilia asked, trying to appear unhurried.
“Will you accept the contract?”
The Adventurer Guild Master hesitated for a long moment before answering.
“If it’s for The Tower’s conquest… Yes, I will.”
“Excellent. The contract is sealed.”
I had finally satisfied the ‘recruitment condition.’
She turned her attention to the Young Attendant who was hovering about to collect the empty teacup.
“Since I’ve hired everyone in this room, naturally that includes you as well, yes?”
“…Yes? You’re hiring me, the attendant?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said I would contract with ‘everyone in this room.’ You clearly agreed to that.”
“But, that’s…”
Camilia stared intently at the Young Attendant, not the Adventurer Guild Master.
“You entered into an ’employment contract’ with the guild. I paid the guild’s owner fair compensation and ‘inherited’ that contract.”
“Y-Your Lordship.”
Ignoring the Adventurer Guild Master who kept trying to interject, Camilia drove the point home like a wedge.
“Surely you, an apostle of the Scales, wouldn’t break a contract, would you?”
The Adventurer Guild Master, who had been about to stop her, suddenly froze.
An apostle of the Scales?
Was she referring to the high priest of the Golden Scales, the deity who protects merchants and commerce?
‘Why would the high priest appear here?’
It was absurd.
How could this be someone of such high standing when he’d been beaten just the other day for breaking a cup?
I was about to make excuses on his behalf, thinking the Lord must have misunderstood something.
“Ah….”
The boy’s face, which had been flustered and bewildered moments before, now wore a fox-like smile.
A smile that betrayed unbridled fascination.
“So it got exposed?”

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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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