Chapter 137

11th Floor → 25th Floor

The next day, 11th floor. Through the hunter that began there, the [Orb of Immortality] was charged for the first time. It had been proven that the kill count didn't go up with microorganisms or plants.

Wobble! Wobble!

A group of slimes approached from the front, their bodies jiggling. Instead of wiping out many with a sword energy screen, I deliberately aimed for only one. The monster's name was Hundred-Eyed Slime. It was a monster that's big as a house. More than a hundred eyes had densely covered over the opaque apricot-colored mucous membrane.

Shhhhhh!

The sword was stuck in the mucous membrane wall. I released the sword energy in that state. A purple ray of light penetrated the enemy. The mouthless monster fluttered without screaming. Then, as its last struggle, it stared at me, rolling its packed eyes all at once. A system message popped up.

[Petrification Resistance (Rank: SSS) skill resists the enemy's status effect attack!] [Decay Resistance (Rank: SSS) skill resists the enemy's status effect attack!] [Poison Resistance (Rank: SSS) skill resists the enemy's status effect attack!] [Cold Resistance (Rank: SSS) skill resists the enemy's status effect attack!] . . .

It was a monster that randomly caused abnormal status effects wherever its eyes landed on. However, each effect was only A-Rank level. Naturally, it didn't work against our group, as we had been plastered with various resistance skills before the battle began.

Whoong!

The blade's mental wave rang in my head.

'Damn it, are you fighting them slowly on purpose right now?'

The devil's sword, stuck in the mucus, mumbled. Instead of answering back, I gradually amplified the energy on it while it was still in the monster. The slime had already been fatally wounded, and although they would die if I left it alone, the system message hadn't appeared just yet.

'There's no point in further observation. Is it not counted if I just led it to death? Would it only count the kill once I've actually ended its life?'

I released sword energy to finish it off.

Swoosh!

The slime shattered into pieces. The fragments of mucus splashed all over my face. Only then did it pop out.

- The [Orb of Immortality] has absorbed spiritual power. - Current Spiritual Power Charged: 0.001%

'I see, so that's how the kill count goes up.'

Shaking off what's on the sword, I pondered around my thoughts.

'0.001% for one? That means if I kill 100,000 slimes of that level, the Orb will be charged right away, right?'

But in the end, that prediction was wrong. Even when I killed another slime...

-The [Orb of Immortality] has absorbed spiritual power. - Current Spiritual Power Charged: 0.001%

When the message that the spiritual energy was charged appeared, but the figure was barely rising. It seemed to be slowly filling in units below the indicated decimal point. As I devoted myself to the hunt, I could tell from the figure slightly fluctuating again that...

'Eventually, I'll have to slay a lot more than 100,000 living beings to fill it up to 100%.'

My experiment continued even after clearing the 11th floor.

12th floor.

"Squeal!"

A swarm of hydras, a type of monster that had numerous heads mounted on a snake's body, awaited us.

"Let's make some changes here."

Instead of stepping up myself, I gave Nate an order.

"Nate, kill them all!" "Okay."

Yesterday, I checked that only the monsters I killed were counted. But then, I became curious as to what would happen if I explicitly commanded others to do the killing for me.

Rarrrgh!

Following my instructions, the undead troops were summoned from the shadow and charged forth. There were some individuals whose bones were could be seen all over their bodies due to the progressed decomposition among the zombies, but they were more potent in the meantime. Their combat capability was comparable to that of A-Class or higher hunters.

"Squeal!" "Rargh... Uhhh!"

I observed the message that popped up.

'Indeed, this is different from yesterday. The kill count still goes up, but it's much slower than when I killed them myself.'

It was a result of the comparison from killing the same kinds of hydra myself. I also noticed something else.

'Oh? The count's stopped even though Nate's still hunting.'

With 'explicit instructions' in effect, the count did not go up when the agent moving for me got too far away. On the other hand, in the case of a direct remote attack from me, the count went up no matter how far the distance was. And-

"Squeaaal!"

With the zombies almost dead, When I cut off their breath with a knife, the count went up very slowly.

"I'm getting the rough gist of it. Then, let's check one last thing."

13th floor.

The enemy that appeared in the graveyard-like dreary field were undead monsters such as zombies and skeletons. They were the down-graded versions of Nate's subordinates, and their battle power was incomparable to them. I stood in front of them and prepared for the attack.

Whoong!

The purple tide amplified by the devil's sword vibrated, waiting to be unleashed. I waited for the gap to show, then I let it explode all at once.

Kwaaaaaaa!

The undead monsters got sliced and minced up. Black blood poured, and rotten flesh rolled around on the soil floor where negative energy lingered. However, there was no change in the system message.

'The undead is not counted as a life form. That at least only needed common sense.'

I spoke as I nodded.

"I've got the results. That's it for the experiment."

In the end, the principle of charging the Orb was as follows: If I killed the target myself, the count would go up at the fastest rate, and there were no restrictions to it. If I commanded someone else to kill on behalf of me, it would go up slower, and it was limited in terms of distance. What qualified as a life form to the Orb were monsters of a specific size or larger, excluding plants and microorganisms. In a universal sense, the stronger the opponent was, the more spiritual power it filled. Also, noticing that the slime was counted, the murdered entity's intelligence didn't seem to factor in the amount of spiritual power the item was charged with. I wanted to conduct additional experiments, but there were some cases where conditions couldn't be met.

'What if I killed it, but I didn't put any effort into it? For example... What if I press the launch button of an intercontinental ballistic missile, and it directly hits the 'Lost Land' and kills a monster?'

At the moment, there was no way to prove it, so I had to give up. Regardless, there was only one reason why I needed to figure out the ways that it could be charged.

"I have to give this up."

There was no trick to reducing the Orb's charging speed. If I continued hunting at the same pace as I did at the time, I expected the Orb to be fully charged within a few months or a year at the longest. The devil's sword agreed.

'After all, you'll have no choice but to be careful not to trigger it the moment you fill it all the way to 100%.'

And then it clicked its tongue.

'I can't believe you did the experiments ever so meticulously. You're indeed a terrible guy.' "I wanted to avoid it if there was a way to avoid it. But I can't see any other way."

Since I decided that further experiments were meaningless, we broke through the Tower at full speed as we did before. As a result, we reached the 25th floor after taking almost the same duration it took us to climb from the first floor to the 10th floor.

*

"It's strange... How can we go through it faster than the lower floors?"

The moment we entered the 25th floor... Hibiki murmured as if she also couldn't believe it, even if she had contributed to such a feat.

"Yeah... that's really weird. The difficulty level of the Tower that I heard of was far from this."

Euclid was deeply lost in thought with a haunted face.

"I mean, the lower floors were just the beginning, so it's pretty understandable that we went through them quickly... but why is our pace increasing?"

Nate scratched his head, too.

"I only walked when told to walk... fought when told to fight... and rested when told to rest."

They probably didn't have to get their heads running busily. It's because I had prepared all the orders and methods in advance and commanded them based on past information.

"Has there been any... particularly dangerous moments until now? Except for the altar on the 10th floor." "... There weren't any."

I murmured as if it was nothing.

"What's wrong with it? It's better if it's faster, right?"

It would've been a lot more strange to be delayed, considering I combined the vivid experiences I had in my past life, the ability to see through all the internal structures, and the unique skills I had that allowed me to avoid time-consuming puzzles and tricks. The reason why the pace was getting faster as we climbed through the Tower was the same for me as well. To add more to that, the body and mind of other party members had become familiar with the patterns and pace of consecutive hunting. All of them were growing as they climbed the Tower.

'Come to think of it, it feels like a pretty well-organized training program- This Tower of Choice.'

Throwing my glance forward, I connected my thoughts.

'Of course, there are exceptions like this floor.'

Nate spoke as if he was reminded of it.

"Oh, wait a minute. I heard that floor 25 is a unique place."

He seemed to remember what I mentioned during the meeting before entering the Tower.

"Yeah, this is kind of a bonus floor. It's a place where you can pass easily without effort." "Right! It was."

I didn't know if it was made by one of the previous successors, the past's standard system, or a system after it was already contaminated the designed the 25th floor. It was also unclear what it was initially intended for. What was certain was that that floor was not functioning properly.

"Uh, there. Aren't those monsters? All of them?"

The interior was structured like a giant factory. Countless glass tubes were lined up, and in them, hideous green-skinned monsters are asleep with their eyes closed. They were all monsters. I thought they would be close to 10,000 units if I counted their m But even when we approached them, they showed no sign of moving. The Monsters were lost in a deep sleep.

"Are they dead?"

Nate whispered lowly. I shook my head.

"No, they're all alive."

A clear Mana Core was visible in each of the monsters' hearts. I naturally didn't let them know how embarrassed we were in the past life when the Last Five party arrived on that floor. We were nervous, thinking that it was definitely a trap. However, after looking all over the place for a few days there before leaping, we were finally convinced. The 25th floor was a dungeon that was more like a free pass.

"What kind of monster is that?" "I heard that if you check it with the encyclopedia, it comes up with the name 'Bio-dolls.'"

I wrapped what I experienced as something that I heard and told them.

"Nate, do you want to experiment with it?"

I swung the knife.

Swish! Boo-boom!

The glass tube was broken, and the monster in it was exposed.

"Jin-Wook! What if it wakes up..." "No, they never wake up. It doesn't matter even if I make such a fuss."

I approached and shoved the devil's sword into the monster's big thigh.

'... Damn it. Its blood tastes worse than most things. This is not a normal creature!'

The devil's sword, which tasted a little of its bodily fluids, lamented. After pulling out the blade, the monster continued breathing, but it still remained unmoving.

"You see?" "That's so weird."

I took the Core out of its heart with a quick movement and absorbed it. Only then did the monster's life energy disappear. And as a consequence...

- Current Spiritual Power Charging Rate: 0.522%

The visible figures did not change, but a message appeared that it became charged a little bit more.

'It's certain that these creatures are alive.'

"Nate, what do you think?" "It does feel like it won't work."

While Nate replied to my query, he invoked his unique skill, [Shadow Across Boundaries]. Nate focused for a moment and shook his head right away.

"As expected, it doesn't work." "Hmm."

Although it was a creature that used to have life attached to it, it couldn't be turned into an undead even if it was killed. There might be a reason why there was the word 'doll' attached to the name, but since it didn't move, we didn't know what secrets they were carrying. The conclusion came to me fast.

"We have over 10,000 monsters waiting for their Cores to be pulled, and we can't just leave them."

Nate summoned the army of subordinates and scattered them all over the 25th floor. We reached the only obstacle on the 25th floor while zombies were pulling out Cores with skilled slaughter movements. There was a tightly closed door. It was the entrance to the maze that needed to be passed through to get to the next floor. I examine the patterns on the door. Usually, that type of obstacle was a puzzle or trick that used Mana.

"Hmm? There's no response."

It was different from the other floors where it would give out orders needed to be done to accomplish the mission when hunters approached. The gate in front of us remained silent. I explained the situation.

"It is another proof that the 25th floor has completely shut down. I think it was originally designed to open when Mana is spilled on the surface of the door, and a certain puzzle is solved."

Euclid nodded as if she finally understood.

"Aha! But now, the puzzle itself isn't working?" "But that doesn't mean the door will open as well. It's like the power's turned off with the seal locked." "Then the only way... is to destroy it, huh?"

That's right. In my past life, my colleagues, who gave up while looking for a way out, used various skills in order to smash that door. The result was a big explosion.

'Among the traps in there, there was a kind that exploded when applied with shock.'

I almost died with them back then.

'There's no need to do the same thing in this life.'

I held the sword and looked through the internal structure.

'Ah, so this is the structure.'

It was the first time I had seen it that way because everything exploded and broke back then. I thrust the sword energy in a sophisticated shape.

Swish! Pa-pa-pa-pa-pat!

The maze entrance was cut out like slicing sashimi, avoiding the place where explosive materials were located. After a while...

Boo-boo-boo-boom!

Large and small collapses took place. When I dismantled it with a sophisticated movement as if I was maneuvering a scalpel, although dust and piles of stones were suspended in the air, there was no big explosion like in the previous life. After the dust subsided, an empty passage appeared in front of us over a pile of stones.

"This is enough for us to go through, right?"

Euclid replied as if she was dumbfounded.

"The maze that has stopped functioning is definitely strange... but the man who breaks and goes through it with brute force is a lot more."

Heading straight inside, we walked quickly without paying much attention to the internal structure. After we confirmed that there were no monsters around, all we had to do was be careful of the manual traps we might not know. While doing so-

'No, what's that?'

The devil's sword screamed, shocked. Knowing what it was responding to, I spoke calmly.

"I've already checked with penetration." 'Then why are you approaching it so defenselessly...!'

At that moment, the other party members saw it, too. Euclid was the fastest to react.

"What, isn't that an altar again?"

It was shaped similarly to the altar I found in a hidden room on the 10th floor. Nate and Hibiki also looked tense. But I shook my hand as if they had nothing to worry about. There was a reason for such conviction.

"There's no response from the scar. And while we were heading all the way here, the devil's sword didn't respond to it either."

The devil's sword tried to protest, but it also realized the difference between what happened back then and the current situation, causing it to stop its telepathy. And it kept silent as if it was sensing something. It spoke as if it was determined.

'···Oh, I see. I can't feel any divine power.'

I replied to it.

"That's an altar, but it's been disconnected from its god."

Nate looked at it and asked.

"The place where the idol should be is empty... Is that why it's been cut off?" "It's not because of that kind of reason. It's because that's the original statue of the god." "Huh?" "That itself is the completed idol. The empty altar represents the god it's dedicated to."

A materially indescribable being- That altar belonged to the 'god of spirit.' There was no reason known why unlike other altars, the object of the god of spirit alone did not have any divine power remaining. Its altars were often found in places other than the Tower, but their condition remained similar. The existence of a priest or incarnation who borrowed the power of the god was also unknown.

"Now, shall we move on?"

At the same time, the subordinates who had just finished collecting Cores gathered around. After absorbing all the trophies, we stood in front of the portal to send us to the next floor.