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The One That Guards The 77th Floor

Allowing the devil’s sword to control the golden armor was an excellent choice, considering the outcome, one of which was that our Clear speed increased. Our pace, which had been slowing down until we reached the 50th floor, was noticeably faster the moment the devil’s sword gained his body. In the second half of the Tower, despite its difficulty increasing, the speed had rather increased.

‘If any of the other species heard of this, they’d say it’s bullshit.’

However, almost every part of our climb was out of the ordinary. In such a short time, we had finally…

– Welcome to the 76th floor.

… broken through the three-fourths of the Tower!

‘There are only a few floors left!’

*

The system’s message was as follows.

– 76th Floor Clear Conditions: Join forces with allies to protect the castle from enemy attacks.

The theme of that floor was ‘Tower Defense.’ If the goal on the 10th floor was to attack and take down the castle, that time, it was the opposite. Our team was on the outer wall of the citadel in the middle of the plain. Under Clear conditions, the term ‘enemy’ referred to the Ogre troops that were flocking beyond that horizon.

Du-du-du-du-du!

“They’re coming!”

An overwhelming number of enemy troops flocked toward the castle as if they wanted to surround it. The wailing of the fierce monsters and heavy rumbling from running as they kicked the ground was audible all the way to where we were.

“T-the enemy is coming! User, would it really be okay to do as you have said?”

I turned my head toward the person who spoke to me. There was a furry dwarf. They were the ones the system referred to as the ‘allies’ by the system. Since they didn’t attack the climbers, they were not classified as dungeon monsters but should be considered dungeon creatures with intellectual abilities. Therefore, they were some kind of an NPC. The dwarf asked again in a voice eroded by fear and anxiety.

“Is it really okay if we don’t help you at all?”

Supposedly, the Clear condition was to collaborate with them to endure a certain amount of time in the castle. In my previous life, we protected that castle, joining our forces with the dwarves under Angelica’s command. However…

‘That method takes too much time.’

So I decided to change the approach. As soon as they came out of the portal, the dwarves, who welcomed us like saviors, showed signs of doubt and anxiety when I told them of my plan. It was the same as in my past life that the dwarves would lock the doors and hold out in the castle. However, our party would move more actively instead of focusing on passive defense.

-We just have to kill them all, right?

The devil in the golden armor, Genograche, had placed his leg on the castle wall as if he was about to charge soon.

“Yeah, it’s not that complicated.”

The screaming Ogre troops became more vividly visible. Staring in their direction, I spread my wings made of light particles and flew up.

“Initiate the attack!”

As soon as those words fell, Genograche crossed the balustrade. He then kicked the outer wall close to a vertical angle and headed down. He ran away from the bondage of gravity. The speed was faster than the fall in the natural state.

-Mwahaha! Great! This feeling, it’s exhilarating!

I shouted in the air.

“Nate!” “Got it.”

Swish!

The undead subordinates were summoned to the place where the monster troops flocked. Genograche, who came down to the ground as if to lead the zombie army, ran ahead toward the enemy army. And the two waves that were heading for each other collided!

“Squeal!” “Kwaaaaa!

All hell broke loose. The rest of the group also initiated an attack. Above, the undead dragon fired its Breath, and I scattered sword energy like an air raid. At the back, Hibiki delivered multiple wide-ranged magic spells. And in the front line…

-Yes, this is it! This is what I’m talking about!

There was a straight river of blood rushing through the battlefield like a tank. The performance of one Genograche was more prominent than that of zombies, which were far superior in numbers. Perhaps he was excited. He released telepathy that was so intense that we could hear him loud and clear from afar.

-Die! Die! K-haha! Mwahaha!

“Squeal!”

There was no hesitation in his progress. Genograche raced through the enemy lines like a wild horse bitten by a mad dog. In each sector of the battlefield that he passed, monsters would fall, crushed.

“K-aargh!”

The monsters stepped out to defend themselves, but they were simply not good enough against his might. The Ogre soldiers, who were charging with battle cries, were broken through one after another. The army was pushed back without a hitch, and the ragged corpses were scattered across the plains. The bloodbath, made by the golden armor scraping the ground, showed no signs of pause. It wa a satisfying charge. But I clicked my tongue as I watched him from above.

“He’s been spilling Mana all over the road.”

Climbing one floor after the other up to the 76th floor, I corrected preconceptions and judgments about the devil’s sword’s ego. The lord of the massacre killed countless devils to create a sea of blood and build a tower of corpses. However, my experience with Genograche’s personality before climbing the Tower was shady and insidious, and there was no such thing as charisma or dignity at all. No matter how cruel and vicious of a being he was, I guessed that his words and actions might have been twisted when his actual body was lost, and his soul was sealed inside the sword. That perhaps, the mind followed the shape of the material. But I didn’t think so anymore.

-K-kya-kya-kya! Hmm?

He panicked as if his Mana was running out. I clicked my tongue, stopped the monster massacre, and went to the rear for a while. Sitting down on the wall, I talked to Euclid.

“Hey! Please charge him up again.” “Already?!”

The dragon, standing on the wall, grumbled and invoked [Mana Legacy]. I could see that Genograche’s Mana reserves were rising again.

– The Core has charged up again. That’s amazing!

In the distance, Genograche exclaimed with his mental waves and swept through the battlefield again.

“…”

Yes, I repeated: I corrected my assessment of him. It was not because he was trapped in a narrow sword material that he felt undignified for a demon king. It’s just that his personality was always like that. The dragon grumbled.

“I’m going to say something when the battle is over. He should be frugal with Mana while fighting!”

It was natural know-how as an Awakened to act accordingly to one’s Mana capacity, but the devil’s sword had missed his timing several times so far. I thought he was still in the process of adjusting. The same events kept repeating because he was moving according to the Mana capacity from his previous life. Presumably, the artificial Mana Core prepared for Kirke, the King of Gold’s head knight, was not enough to be at the same level as the Core that Genograche originally had.

“But surely, the hunting has accelerated.”

Hibiki, who was firing off magic spells next to the dragon, muttered. I followed her gaze instead of flying back right away. It wasn’t difficult to find where Genograche was. I just had to focus on where the most colorful flashes were taking place. Every time he swung his sword energy, it changed color and quality. I had already stopped counting how many kinds of sword movements he had been performing. That’s the second reason why I thought it was a good idea to give him a body.

‘Well, aren’t there a lot of sword techniques that I’ve never heard of before?’

Of course, the task to remember everything was continuously progressing due to my unique skill, even if I didn’t mind it. The Tower Defense continued in that manner until…

– The 76th floor has been Cleared!

It ended with a welcoming message. Unlike in my previous life, we finished it in the form of annihilating the enemy monsters.

*

After taking a day off in the castle to reorganize, we headed to the portal while being greeted by dwarves who repeatedly expressed their gratitude.

‘We’re heading straight to the 77th floor.’

We never used a Returning Stone from the first floor to there. I asked the group’s opinion about returning with the interval of 25 floors, but the answer they gave me remained the same.

“Hmm? I’m fine, though? Let’s not drop the pace and finish it all the way to the 100th floor in this manner.” “Honestly… I also think that’s better. I was nervous before I came in because we were told that we had to Clear 100 dungeons in a row, but I think it’s doable.”

Nate and Hibiki, who said those words, were very different from their previous lives. I remembered vividly how the party looked like when we were climbing the Tower in the past. Everyone had bloodshot eyes due to lack of sleep, and their nerves were on edge to the point that it was about to be worn out. Nate and Hibiki, who were on bad terms in the first place, fought each other on a daily basis. There was no room to leave and come back using the Returning Stone, and even if we went out, it was meaningless. That was because we had collected all the useful items and supplies left for humankind and climbed with them. It was the heavy sense of duty and a sense of crisis that led us until the end. That was what drove the Last Five onwards.

‘Of course, Angelica had a completely different plan in mind.’

I checked my companions. Aside from the two colleagues from my past life who remained energetic, the dragon had a slightly bored look, but there seemed to be no problem thanks to the species’ remarkable mental and physical endurance. And the devil’s sword? I didn’t even have to mention that guy. He must’ve been itching to fight in the next battle.

‘In the end, will we reach the 100th floor without ever returning to Earth? In that sense, it is the same as the past life. Of course, the reasons are different.’

Before I went to the 77th floor, I spoke.

“I’ll explain once again. There will be no battle on the next floor.”

The devil’s sword shows blatant disappointment. The Clear condition there was to solve ten complex puzzles. That might make it seem easier than other floors that made people fight and kill. However, the reality was far from it.

‘In my previous life, the 77th floor was our second biggest crisis!’

The first crisis was on the 49th floor, which we had to destroy tens of thousands of Ghost Lurkers hidden in the ground. The Last Five spent months there. After that, the second big crisis happened on the 77th floor. In particular, me of the past, Choi Seung-Hyun… felt that his life was being threatened on the 77th floor several times.

“The 77th floor’s puzzle is supposed to be solved by using a magic spell that meets the conditions of the ‘gatekeeper.\'”

Those who had never modified the original magic spells that could be learned through skill cards wouldn’t be able to Clear it in the first place. That was because they would have to perform the sophisticated and precisely modified spells that the gatekeeper that kept guard there required. Each time a condition was met, one lock was disabled, and there were ten locks that had to be unlocked in total. At least we had it better thanks to [The Successor’s Eyes]. Regardless of whether Hibiki was creating the spell properly or not, I would be able to personally check the Mana patterns and guide her based on the patterns on the lock. Nevertheless, we spent more than a month on the 77th floor back then. That was because it was a completely different story from seeing it and doing it myself and teaching others to do it. The conversation we exchanged then rang in my ears.

‘No, that’s not it! Hibiki! Come on, do it right. You’re wrong again!’ ‘Ah, this is fucking annoying. Choi Seung-Hyun, you have to teach me properly!’

While teaching beside her, I feared for my life several times because the hands of the enraged Hibiki might kill me. … Her personality in my past life was very different from who she was in the present.

‘Just because I’ll do it myself, it wouldn’t mean that we will be able to pass with ease.’

The patterns in my past life were still clearly engraved in my head, but it was not easy to control the flow of Mana in the way the lock wanted. That was the case even for the current me. It would take at least a few days.

“Come on, let’s go!”

When I crossed the portal, the scenery I saw in my previous life unfolded. Centered on the Gate was an altar on the left. A door on the right with ten locks and chains was also visible.

“Huh, that statue!”

Nate recognized it and pointed. There was a spider-shaped statue that was missing a single leg.

“Yes, it’s the altar of the god whose name… I can’t speak of.”

Objects of gods had been scattered all over the Tower for them to snatch promising young leaves. There were traces of the god of life on the 10th floor and the god of spirit on the 25th floor. However, after that, we didn’t find another godly entity again until we came to that floor. The altar was dedicated to Igras-Sho, the god of magic. The deity had also tossed a bait there to snatch mortals.

‘He wouldn’t do anything weird to me again since he’s already given me the holy scar.’

Genograche muttered as if he were uncomfortable.

– Keup! That idol is different from the one on the 25th floor. It’s properly connected to a god.

The demon fell back to quite a distant place and kept his guard up. However, there was no particular movement in the statue.

‘Yes, are we going to be able to proceed without any fuss here?’

At that moment…

Wobble!

It was not the altar on the left that began to change, but rather, it was the door on the right. I wasn’t surprised. It was the same procedure as the previous life.

Rumbleee!

A black tentacle flowed down from thin air. The black flesh in front of us formed a familiar figure.

‘It’s a sacred beast!’

Under the mysterious pond that upgraded the Magic Skill Card, a tentacle monster lived that looked just like that. It was a holy creature manipulated by a god.

– Ugh!

The devil groaned painfully as sacred power must have begun to fill up the room.

Wobble! Wobble!

The gatekeeper on that floor was that sacred beast that revered Igras-Sho. As the god of life implied, it seemed that the gods had been involved in a fairly direct manner in the creation of the Tower.

‘Looking back, the giant heart we saw on the 10th floor could have been a sacred beast of some sort.’

Then, the black monster telepathically spoke.

– Anyone who wants to pass through here will have to solve the ten riddles I present.

It then stuck out a tentacle and pointed at the door tightly sealed by ten locks.

– Every time you perform the spell corresponding to the hint in front of me, I shall unlock that door one by one. Only after disabling all ten of them can you head to the next floor.

That was the same explanation as before.

– By any chance, it’s better to give up the shallow idea of trying to open that door using force early on. The power that constitutes that door is borrowed from a great being that I serve… Hmm?

The telepathy stopped abruptly as if it was baffled.

“?”

The group, who had been listening with a bored expression because it was providing information that we were already aware of, became startled.

– …!

We waited for the next words, but the sacred beast remained silent for a long time. The silence stretched on for long enough for the climbers to feel weirded out. Nate whispered.

“Jin-Wook, why did that octopus-like thing stop talking? Is it supposed to be like that?”

In fact, I couldn’t understand what was happening either. I had never seen that reaction in my previous life. Amid the pile-up of such an uncomfortable silence…

-… This couldn’t be?

It was a very confused mind wave. The tentacle wiggled and shook.

-What is this feeling… It’s so warm and tearful, like a mother’s arms? Where is this familiar power flowing from?

Oh, wait a minute. My eyebrows frowned by themselves. The situation was going in a strange direction.

-… I see. Yeah, it’s you!

The sacred beast, who was slowly stirring its body as if to search for something, suddenly changed its tentacle’s direction and pointed at me.

-What the hell are you… Gasp!

The tentacle angled slightly lower. It was pointing to my left hand. Due to its actions, we realized why the sacred beast wriggled as if it was horrified.

-O-oh, my god! You, no, thou…!

Its next movement had also dispelled our expectations. It turned around hurriedly as if it had realized something belatedly. As it stirred its tentacles toward the tightly closed door…

Click! Cha-cha-chack!

The locks and chains that sealed the door began to fall one by one… It took Hibiki and me a month to completely open it up.

Rumble!

The monster’s calm tentacle gesture caused all of it to be disabled and to fall onto the ground at once. Euclid muttered.

“… What is this?”

– F-forgive me! I didn’t recognize you! Why did such a distinguished being come all the way here…

By moving its dozens of tentacles, the sacred beast picked up the cut chains and locks rolling on the floor. Then it dragged all of them into its arms and stepped back as if it were making way for us. The sacred beast delivered a polite and respectful mental wave as it pointed to the door that had been completely freed from any form of obstacles.

– I apologize for taking your time. Now, please, pass, thou who has won the favor of a great being!