Chapter: 30
We decided to move up to the 2nd floor the day after tomorrow.
After all, I had no way of guessing what kind of results the ăAkasha Systemă enhancement would yield.
A whole 32 hours.
That’s how long it would take for the enhancement to finish.
‘Something I’ve never experienced before.’
Until I could accurately assess it, I couldn’t act rashly.
Thanks to that, my carefully laid plans were thrown off, which was annoying, but…
‘Still, it’s better than moving in an uncertain situation.’
Eugene used to say it was nothing, but the danger of the Tower is truly immeasurable.
Even Eugene from the first round had nearly died within the 10th floor over a hundred times.
And that was despite having talent on a completely different level from others.
Of course, having experienced it once, he could probably climb a bit more smoothly.
But that didn’t mean he could let his guard down.
The malice harbored by the Tower must never be taken lightly.
In the moment of a single slip, even Eugene could become the light illuminating the 13th floor of the Alchemist Guild.
‘So I endure.’
32 hours.
No, about 30 hours left now?
I had to wait for the ăAkasha Systemă to finish enhancing, check how it had changed, and then move.
Of course, I had no intention of just sitting around at [Starlight Wanderer] until then.
Even if I stopped for a while, the other two didn’t need to.
Therefore.
“Fight.”
Eugene, who had come outside Terra through the South Gate, said to Isia and Park Ji-hu.
“…Yes.”
The faces of the two were still filled with anxiety and fear.
Even after raising their levels so much, nothing had really changed.
Just one day.
It was absurdly little time to change perception and mindset.
They had a much stronger mental fortitude than the man who was fed and thrown out of [Starlight Wanderer], but that was it.
To survive in this godforsaken Tower, they had to become much more ruthless, much more numb.
For that reason alone, hunting couldn’t stop.
Because they had to get used to blood and corpses as quickly as possible, every second and minute.
Receiving Eugene’s cold, sunken gaze, the two prepared for battle.
Drawing swords, raising fists.
Their opponents were, of course, the Red Goblin scouting party.
A mere group of five.
Enemies that Isia and Park Ji-hu could easily handle now.
But the two knew.
That those guys were merely the prelude to the hell that lay ahead.
“You know to leave one alive, right?”
“Oh, come on! I know, alright?”
Isia shot Eugene a glare before settling into her stance.
Still, having been pushed hard for a day, she was incomparably more natural than when I first saw her.
“I’ll go first.”
Thud-!
She kicked off the ground.
Her center of gravity was impossibly low.
Like a cat gliding through the grass.
In an instant, Isia reached the Red Goblins.
Keeeeeek-!
Only then noticing her, the creatures flinched and raised their weapons.
But Isia’s sword far exceeded their reaction speed.
Flash-!
A black light sliced through the air.
It was the blade gleam of ăBlack Wing[C]ă.
A C-rank weaponâso exceptional that it had caused an uproar in the first roundâbared its fangs.
Clang-!
By luck, a crude wooden sword blocked the path of ăBlack Wing[C]ă.
But it failed to stop it.
Because this item was far too good to be halted by something like that.
The Red Goblin at the front was split in two, along with its wooden sword.
Not having expected this outcome, the creature wore a smug smile on its face even up to the moment of death.
As blood sprayed and one bisected corpse began to fall,
Park Ji-hu stepped forward.
A small, frail boy.
With an appearance that seemed utterly unrelated to combat, Park Ji-hu thrust his fist wrapped in a massive chunk of metal.
There was no hesitation.
Rather, that punch, thrown without a single thought, was so deadly.
Whether by instinct or by sense,
he knew perfectly well how to bring down his opponent.
Crunch-!
Park Ji-hu’s fist drove into the throat of a Red Goblin whose vision was obscured by blood.
Instant death, without question.
His strike, aimed at a vital point, was far beyond what a mere Red Goblin could withstand.
Two had died in an instant.
Three remained.
Exchanging a brief glance, the two moved simultaneously this time.
Isia’s sword swept low across the ground, and Park Ji-hu leaped over it.
Swish- Crack-!
As a goblin fell with its ankle severed, Park Ji-hu’s knee drove into its temple.
Destructive force so immense it was hard to believe it came from that small body shattered its skull.
Blood and brains splattered, but they didn’t flinch.
Rather, they used it.
Just like Eugene.
One of the remaining two was cut down without even thinking of resisting.
The time taken so far was about 15 seconds.
‘Slow.’
It would have been a sight that would leave other players speechless, but Eugene frowned.
Because if it were him, he would have finished it within 5 seconds.
Even assuming he adjusted to Isia and Park Ji-hu’s level.
Now, it wouldn’t even take a second.
‘Need to be a bit more aggressive.’
Though it seemed utterly merciless, Eugene could see it clearly.
When they cut and crushed the Red Goblinsâ
the hesitation lingering in their hands.
Without that, they would have been twice as fast.
‘Well, that can’t be helped.’
In the end, this is a matter of time.
A week, a month, a year.
The longer they spent in the Tower, the better they would become.
Because otherwise, they’d die.
‘Overall, not bad.’
There were a few minor issues, but this was good.
The intense training from yesterday had paid off.
“Done?”
Isia, who had deliberately let the last one escape, approached while wiping the blood off ăBlack Wing[C]ă.
She looked fairly skilled now, so Eugene couldn’t help but snicker.
“Still a long way off. With that skill, if you go up to the 2nd floor, you won’t last a day.”
“Would it kill you to give a compliment or two?”
Isia frowned and grumbled at Eugene’s words.
But what could he do?
It was the truth.
“If you want compliments, just do better. Stop harboring useless sympathy or anything.”
“…Sympathy?”
Isia let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re saying I feel sympathy for monsters?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Of course not! Why would I sympathize with things trying to kill me!”
Isia shouted, as if wronged.
“Then why is there hesitation in your sword?”
“That’sâ!”
Isia looked dumbfounded.
“What person in this world wouldn’t hesitate to take a life?”
Monsters are enemies.
Hostile lifeforms that rush to kill you.
But that didn’t mean killing them was easy.
Just a few days ago, she was just an ordinary college freshman enjoying her new life.
She wasn’t a soldier who’d spent her life on battlefields, nor a hunter whose livelihood was hunting.
In all her life, the only things Isia had ever killed were mosquitoes and flies.
She was even the type who couldn’t bring herself to kill a cockroach.
For someone so ordinary, cutting down a bipedal creature the size of a child with a sword was no simple task.
If she hadn’t had the thought that she’d die if she didn’t kill, she probably wouldn’t have been able to swing her sword at all.
But.
“What are you talking about? Why hesitate?”
Eugene didn’t understand at all.
“When you kill them, your level goes up, and sometimes they drop items. So why hesitate?”
To him, monsters were a means.
A means to grow stronger.
A means to obtain items.
And ultimately, a means to conquer the Tower.
No different from a farmer harvesting crops to get rice.
So he couldn’t understand Isia’s words.
“Ugh, I knew it, you psychopath.”
Upon hearing Eugene’s words, Isia backed away, putting distance between them.
“I knew you were off the moment you drew your sword at first sight.”
To Isia, Eugene was a madman.
A madman who could casually kill others to achieve his goals.
To be caught by someone like thatâ
what terrible misfortune.
“Cut the crap. Whether you kill with hesitation or in one blow, the result is the same.”
That was true.
“In that case, isn’t it better to handle things more efficiently and quickly? If you’re going to clear the Tower ahead?”
That made sense too.
Isia couldn’t argue.
Emotionally, she felt resistant, but Eugene’s words weren’t wrong.
“Mister. You were a loner outside, weren’t you?”
Mister.
Hearing a title I never expected from Isia, who wasn’t much younger than me, left a small wound on my heart.
But I didn’t show it.
It would feel like losing.
“Yeah, I was a loner. So what, what about it?”
It wasn’t that the world had shunned me.
I shunned it.
Whether inside or outside the Tower, it was all the sameâoverflowing with idiots.
Nothing but morons, blockheads, and people who couldn’t even take care of themselves.
At least, that’s how Eugene saw it.
Which was why he never bothered to socialize with them.
“Doesn’t it get lonely living like that?”
“Lonely? What’s lonely about it?”
Being alone is good.
Being alone is comfortable.
Socializing is just tiring.
Eugene was about to answer that way.
But he couldn’t.
‘Is it?’
In the first round.
Eugene had eventually cleared the Tower.
But there was no one left around him.
They had all died.
Not a single person remained in the world who could speak with Eugene.
That was why.
In this renewed opportunity, he had planned to acquire companionsâor rather, slavesâunder the guise of teammates.
To preserve the world as intact as possible.
‘Hmm.’
Looking at that, being alone doesn’t necessarily seem all that great, and…
“Ah, enough. Let’s save this talk for later.”
Fortunately, something happened to clear Eugene’s complicated mind.
Dudududududududu-!
In the distance, something was approaching.
A Red Goblin Wave.
The brief rest was overâit was time to grind again.
“If you have time to run your mouth, kill even one more. That’ll increase your chances of survival, even if just a little.”
Isia’s face darkened.
At the thought of repeating yesterday’s experience, Eugene’s personality and tendencies were completely forgotten.
“Let’s see you fight while hesitating now.”
Eugene sneered at her.
The price for unnecessarily complicating his thoughts.
‘I’ll help a little less today.’
The mouse was thinking about the cat.
Guilt over killing, hesitationâit’s all just talk from the well-fed.
Eugene decided to strip away all the luxurious emotions she had, over the course of today.
Of course, Isia might get a bit endangered in the process, but…
‘I don’t care.’
She called him a psychopath, after all.
Wasn’t she going to have to pay the price for that?
‘Let’s see you die.’
Watching Isia draw her sword toward the Red Goblins, Eugene smiled.
A smile so utterly wicked.
