Chapter 134

Tenth Floor

After easily taking down the gatekeeper, we entered the first floor. Fortunately, no matter when the Tower was summoned, the internal structure did not change much, and the missions were similar. Since the number of people entered was smaller than in my previous life, the difficulty level was slightly lowered, but other than that, there wasn't much difference.

'And, even if I was judging it objectively... our power now is superior to the five-member party of my previous life!'

Choi Seung-Hyun was a non-combatant member in the previous life, but at that moment, I did not only have the ability to deal the most damage in the party, but I also had the ability to solve the tricks and puzzles. Hibiki learned a lot more spells than she had in her previous life. Although Nate had fewer subordinates, he controlled the undead dragon and an attack mechanism called the [Imperial Guard Program]. The Dragon, Euclid, did not actively engage in combat, but she had the primary fighting force ahead of her. Hence, she mainly played as a source of Mana. Furthermore, it did not affect the Tower's difficulty, as she was recognized as a possession, not an Awakened!

'It didn't take a year even when the Last Five party climbed in earnest, thanks to [The Successor's Eyes]. It was ridiculously fast compared to other dimensions, even though we were that desperate as well since it happened after the SSS-Class dungeon had collapsed.'

However, it would be strange that we would be delayed since all the conditions were better at the moment than in our lives before. We charged with all our might, and in only a matter of days, we reached the tenth floor.

- The tenth floor of the Tower of Choice: Siege Warfare

The system message informed us of the goal.

- Take down the castle and handle the boss monster hidden in the deepest part of it.

The siege was a bit of a different level from the general sense. Instead of being fixed on the ground, the castle we were supposed to take down was floating at a high altitude.

*

[Stardust Wing]!

It had been about 30 minutes since the attack on the tenth floor began. I was flying up into the sky and pouring long-range attacks. The target was the vast castle that had been detached from the ground and was floating hundreds of meters high. It was only defined as a castle since the message called it that, but it was a large-scale structure that was utterly different from Earth's architectural style. Staring at it, I slowly added force to pull the bow.

[Sephirot Guardian Bow]

The thin metal that hadn't been nocked an arrow with became tightly tensed.

Weing!

Follow the finger on the string; a Mana arrow was created. I changed the flow by imagining the image in my head. Then the arrows became much longer than the original form, stretching out, and the number of arrows began to multiply. After such a short time, I was loading 20 pike-like arrows larger than my height with a narrow width. As the length of the bow was a little over a meter, it was supposed to be an impossible nocking movement and a grip that surpassed the laws of physics. That was only possible since it was an energy arrow created with Mana.

Paht!

I released the bowstring.

Swish!

The arrows containing violent energy had been released. They ripped through the wind and zoomed through 20 trajectories. It was a guided strike that never missed the target and had a 25% destructive power added due to the item effect. An interception close to a homing missile rather than an arrow flew to the castle in the sky.

Boom! Boo-boo-boom!

The sounds of collisions and explosions followed, but most of the arrows were crushed before hitting the castle.

'A shield!'

There was a spherical shield surrounding the castle in the sky all around. In every place that the arrows crashed on, lights flashed and blocked them off. However, I'd been precisely setting the arrows to the same several target points, and the process had been repeated countless times. Eventually, the shield started to crack little by little. The results were showing.

Crack!

I heard the sound of cracking and something breaking in the air. One of the arrows flew through the shield and hit the wall!

Boo-boom!

Dust and debris scattered, and a portion of the outer walls was torn down. The more I broke and shattered the massive wall gradually, the more the apparent change was observable in my eyes.

'The power source of that castle... The Mana has been greatly reduced!'

It's like watching the process of shaving off the life force gauge of a boss monster. The more damage received by the shield that lingered around the entire infrastructure, the more it consumed Mana. And the altitude at which the castle floated was also decreasing as the Mana lessened. It wouldn't crash all of a sudden, but it would eventually reach the ground in that way, and the shield would have vanished by then. From then on, the battled inside the castle would begin. In order to hasten the process, the rest of the party was also doing what I was doing in the air, but they did it on the ground.

*

"There, I've filled your Mana up again. Again!"

Nate's cannon over his head was aimed at the sky.

- Following the instructions of the subject of protection.

There was one critical weakness in the [Imperial Guard Program] cannon's attack. The force of the cannonball was optimized for when the target was within 10 meters. If the distance increased beyond that, the destructive power was reduced. That was because the design itself assumed a one-on-one close-call war situation. Essentially, it was made for when one was surrounded tightly. It was only natural since it was designed to make an efficient multi-strike with limited Mana. However, that weakness was solved with the help of a colleague.

[Space Manipulation (Rank: SSS)!]

Hibiki performed a magic spell. With the spell, space was twisted, and the distance between the sky castle and the ground was narrowed. Through the haze-like shaking spaces, the multi-calibered cannon began firing its bullets out.

Pa-pa-pat!

The saturation of light poured into the fluttering eddy. The bullet jumped across the distance of hundreds of meters like teleportation. And they reappeared on the shield surrounding the castle, the threshold of which space could be folded.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

The cannonballs continuously rattled the transparent shield. In that place as well, with a cracking sound, fissures were forming.

"If we keep this up a bit more, I think we'll get a hole in the bottom, too."

While Hibiki maintained the space-twisting magic, she invoked another magic through [Multiple Cognition].

[Earthquake (Rank: SSS)]!

A desolate mountain of stone, a little off the ground from where they stood- The place began to fluctuate without mercy.

Rumble! Rattle!

It bounced crazily in all directions, causing fissure to form in the rocky mountain, leading to a collapse.

Rumbling!

Large rocks rolled all over the place like grains of sand. Hibiki also maintained the earthquake spell and activated the third spell without any breaks.

[Gravitokinesis (Rank: SSS)]!

It was an unrestricted control of gravity that ignored the laws of nature.

Float!

A group of boulders obtained from her act of splitting mountains rose to the sky.

Swish! Boom! Boom boom boom!

Like a catapult in the far history, rocks flew through the air. A blow penetrated it, leaping beyond a distorted space. The power carried in each one was heavy enough to match the SSS-Rank magic.

[Mana Legacy]!

Before the Mana capacity of the two on the ground was emptied, Euclid, the dragon, refueled them. As the attack went on, the castle eventually went down. And at last...

Boom!

The castle found the place where it's supposed to be and weighed its heavy self down on the ground. Then, there was a cheerful voice in the ears of party members on the ground.

"Alright, we're heading inside!"

*

Even after we entered the castle, there was nothing to go through. Since I had identified the shortest route in advance, we went straight to the boss room without any delay or waste of time. Meanwhile, as we approached it, the grumbling of the devil's sword in my hand became more frequent.

'... What on earth is in the boss room in this place that makes me sense this type of unpleasant feeling?' "You'll find out in a little while."

And, when we finally got to the boss room...

'G-argh!'

In that place, there was a huge heart that filled the whole room. Muscles and blood vessels stretched out like tree roots had dug holes and penetrated between walls and the ceiling.

"That's the power source that operates this castle."

I could see the shiny blue flow of Mana in the heart and the flow of Mana that seeped everywhere, following the rhythm of the beat. I explained to the party that the creature didn't attack, but its defense power was quite troublesome.

"Aha, a sacred-type barrier?"

Euclid was quick to understand as if she had ever encountered one in her past world. The reason why the devil's sword kept expressing displeasure was due to that.

"It's not a common barrier. Physical defense barrier, Mana mirroring barrier, and anti-magic barrier are all overlapping."

Pure physical force wouldn't work, and if sword energy were fired against it, it would bounce off. Likewise, when magic was invoked, it was invalidated as soon as it collided with the barrier.

"It's also got a helluva regenerative power."

A moment of silence lingered among the party. Hibiki asked with a serious expression.

"Then what do we do?" "This."

When I explained briefly, the atmosphere turned bright.

"Oh! That's nice." "For sure, it would work that way." "Then I'll prepare the spell right away."

The sword screamed.

'No! Please! Don't! I don't want to!'

I picked up the devil's sword and aimed for the target. Holy and Evil were opposite in terms of properties. In other words, the heart was experiencing the same suffering as the devil's sword as it approached the heart. When the force that repelled each other was maximized, it became a window to penetrate the shield.

Swish!

I threw the sword at it without hesitation.

'No!'

Thuck!

The devil's sword thrown from the tip of my hand became stuck in the middle of the heart. The blade, which was the gathering of evil properties, had penetrated the holy-propertied physical defense barrier. However, the sword's length was too short for the size of the heart filling the entire room. It wasn't enough to stop it from functioning. Furthermore-

Wobble! Shh!

A disgustingly fast recovery rate was triggered, and the heart muscle pushed the sword away.

"Hibiki."

She had already prepared a spell.

[Lightning Bolt]!

A ray of currents burst out from the tip of her hand!

Zap!

The sacred-propertied barrier was closely enveloping the outer portion of the heart. The blade of the devil's sword was currently located in the barrier, but the handle was outside of it. The sword had penetrated through the entire barrier. And the devil's sword was... of course, a conductor.

Tzzzz!

The lightning, which struck the handle, flowed along the blade and poured destructive high-voltage currents inside the heart tissues.

Whoooooooo!

The sound of the heart's muscles and blood vessels twisting and bursting was akin to screams. After it gave off a disgusting smell of burning and sizzling...

Ring!

- Congratulations! The tenth floor of the Tower of Choice has been Cleared!

We heard the message that we had been waiting for. Cheers burst out among the party.

"Okay, good job, everybody!"

After confirming the barrier had completely disappeared, I quietly approached and pulled out the Mana amplifier, a 50% chance brainwashing device, a divine power detector with tremendous accuracy, a holy-type-barrier-breaking crack-inducer, and a lightning rod, all in one.

'You worse-than-a-devil bastard! You used me as a lightning rod!'

Ignoring the pale murmur, I put it back in the sheath.

"Now, shall we take a night off at this castle? I think Euclid needs to be recharged as well."

Her Mana capacity, which served as the Mana tank of our party, was almost empty.

"What kind of skill is that? How do you know so well just by looking at it?"

While complaining, the dragon admitted that my guess was right. Although it could be filled back up by drinking a potion, since we have to rest in between anyway, it's more effective to arrange the schedule like that.

"There are also clean rooms without monsters in the castle, so you can each pick one."

Nate spoke while organizing and grouping the items and Mana Cores mined by the subordinates.

"Come to think of it; it's already the 10th floor." "I mean, was it supposed to be this simple to Clear the Tower of Choice?"

Euclid murmured in wonder. Although it wasn't on the same level as mine, she felt a sense of disharmony because she already had some information about the Tower before she was sucked into the dungeon.

"People in the world I lived in had to climb it while biting the bullet... But I heard that it took them years to Clear it."

Then Nate rolled his eyes and continued.

"Didn't they climb a little slower on purpose?" "No way! How couldn't they clear it with urgency when hostages were being held?"

That time, Hibiki made a guess.

"Isn't it that our pace is fast because we're in the early stages?" "Is that so..."

While my colleagues were talking- Hibiki first noticed that my expression was slightly stiff.

"What's wrong?"

It was a question that asked what there was to worry about when we had already accomplished the attack perfectly. But I had a good reason to show such a face. I heard telepathy.

'Damn it, do you feel it too?!'

I noticed because of the pain in my fingers. Nodding to the devil's sword, I answered.

"Yes, the divine power is getting stronger even though the boss is dead."

In my past life, after completing the attack, we went straight to the 11th floor without a break. That was because Angelica 'predicted' that it would be better to do so. Even though it was the best environment to rest in the Tower of choice, we left it anyway.

'No, wait a minute. Come to think of it...'

Even if I didn't try, the memories came into my mind right away.

'There were a few more floors that we went through in such a hurry.'

The devil's sword groaned.

'Ugh! That's... that's unusual!'

When I let them listen to the conversation with the devil's sword, the party members also looked grim. At that moment-

"Oh, Jin-Wook. That finger!"

I swallowed the profanity that was rising right below my throat.

'Shit!'

Blood droplets began to flow from the two sacred wounds that Igras-Sho carved on my finger.

'It's the phenomenon that occurs when another god that is not the magical god approaches!'

I climbed the Tower in my previous life, but I had never experienced such a situation before, so I didn't know what was happening.

"No way, is there a shrine or something in this castle?"

Drip!

"H-huh?!"

Nate pointed in the air and made a perplexing sound. Above us, two stems of bloodstreams flowing out of my fingers rose to the sky and drew a soft curve. As if to untie the thread floating by psychokinesis, the line made by the blood went in one direction, drawing a clear guide. It looked like an arrow leading us.