Chapter 101
The only things I had seen inside the Tower were a sea of blood and a massive castle beyond it.
And there were beings fighting in front of it.
[God-Demon War - Preliminary Skirmish]
[Molt Castle is currently engulfed in the flames of war. God's apostles, the devil's minions, and ordinary citizens!]
[The war will not end until one side, either the apostles or the minions, disappears!]
[Defeat them to enter the castle!]
[Special Clause: You have joined the preliminary skirmish of the God-Demon War with the Chaos alignment.]
[Due to your alignment, you cannot become the commander of any faction!]
[Instead, the opposing faction's commander will not appear either!]
[Due to your alignment, you can attack all factions.]
Apostles and minions were packed densely together.
There must have been at least a hundred of them altogether.
The demons' side was red, and the gods' side was white.
They noticed my presence.
I responded by activating Dragon Eye to its fullest.
“Heh.”
I leaped into the battlefield with a laugh.
“Minion of Chaos! Face my blade!”
“The price for betraying your contract will be high!”
God's apostles and the devil's minions all swung tridents and swords at me.
Strange powers dwelled within them.
The demons' side radiated demonic energy, while the gods' side possessed an authority that seemed certain to cut anything it touched.
But I wasn't so green that something like that could hurt me.
I grabbed a Tier 2 weapon.
“Aura, Draw Sword.”
—Clangclangclangclang!!!
I knocked them all aside and drove my attack into them.
“Guaaagh!”
“Guh!”
“Gaaaah…! Spare me!”
“This bastard knows how to fight!”
I let out a wry smile.
“I meant to cut down a few of you, but all but one or two are still alive.”
Of course, they weren't exactly unscathed, but they were in decent shape considering they'd been cut by Aura.
They even seemed to be recovering with demonic energy or divine power.
“This is why I climb the Tower!”
So this must be the realm of A-rank opponents from here on out.
It hadn't been an all-out attack, but even by my standards, it had been an attack meant to kill.
“You ruthless monster!!”
“The Great Demon Lord will never forgive you…”
“In that case, I guess I should return to my main job.”
“Oz Caster, Silver Shoes, Triple.”
Three hundred meters above the ground.
There, I slowly glided downward, catching a single strand of wind.
“She disappeared!! Find her!!”
“There isn't even a trace of mana! How are we supposed to find her?!”
“I guess people really do think alike.”
It never occurred to them that I might have gone up.
Just as they were about to resume the fight they'd been having,
“Casting Bullet, Explode, Double.”
Red mana passed through my wand.
When the beams fired and two glowing red spheres covered the ground,
the earth shook as if an earthquake had struck.
No one was left alive in front of the castle.
I landed lightly and muttered,
“Aw, I failed again.”
No matter what I did, I couldn't recreate the awakened state I'd entered during the exchange meet.
Back then, I'd had the feeling of omnipotence that I could blow away not only these people but the entire massive castle behind them.
The power wasn't bad, but compared to then... it was woefully lacking.
“As they say, once you've had a taste, you can't forget it.”
I should soothe this lingering disappointment with the reward.
A portal and a white wall for claiming the reward appeared at the castle entrance.
[12th Floor, God-Demon War—Preliminary Skirmish Cleared! Claim your reward!]
Another smooth clear.
***
[Mage's Robe (SSR)]
It has resistance to physical and magical attacks and is strong against slashing and fire magic.
Special Ability: Allows the wearer to perfectly blend in with surrounding objects and hide their body for a set period of time.
The artifact I got was this.
Hmm.
It was a fairly interesting one.
It was called a robe, but it was closer to a long, black cloak.
…But is this really a mage's item?
It's rather ambiguous.
Still, it went well with Oz Caster, and overall it wasn't bad.
I should take it to the magic-tool shop or Upperclassman Chloe and have them add only the Reinhart crest.
‘Well, it shouldn't matter.’
For now, I chose to save the stat-selection ticket I got this time.
Choosing was a hassle, and I could raise it whenever I wanted anyway.
It would be better to raise it at the best time and put it where it was most needed.
And so, I went to the White Tiger Guild's sales office first.
“Oh my, only Hunters are allowed in here. Where are your parents…?”
As usual, the receptionist mistook me for a child, but
her attitude changed completely the moment she saw the mountain of artifacts and my Hunter ID.
“I-Inventory!? You’re a Hunter! P-please wait a moment! I’ll call a professional appraiser!”
The appraiser arrived within a few minutes.
He asked me in a kindly tone,
“Are you new here?”
“Yep.”
When I showed him my Hunter ID, the appraiser greeted me politely.
“To be working as a Hunter at such a young age… truly impressive.”
“I'm not young.”
“Pardon?”
“Just appraise them.”
At my words, the appraiser began carefully inspecting the tridents, swords, and armor.
Apparently, I couldn't collect artifacts from every apostle or minion.
Even so, I had accumulated quite a lot of artifacts.
“They're all rare-grade or higher artifacts, but… their condition is very poor. Would you like to exchange them right away?”
“How much is the fee?”
“The White Tiger Guild charges half the industry-average fee. You’d be better off doing it here.”
“I'll do that.”
“…It’s done! Please check!”
I checked and saw that the balance had been deposited into my account.
The amount was… less than I'd expected.
It was practically nothing.
Damn it.
Maybe because those guys did nothing but fight day in and day out, their poor condition kept them from fetching their full value.
Or was the dragon's mana too strong?
Still, it wasn't a bad amount, all things considered.
I left the exchange center.
I seriously started considering saving up to get a car.
Spatial movement consumed more concentration than Aura did.
Using mana to ride the wind also drained my mental stamina…
There were various reasons, but the real reason was simply the romance of it.
Driving a car in another world.
It looked cool.
‘But my Inventory is too small to bring one inside.’
I should talk to Karnarof later and figure out some way to expand it.
As I was entertaining such pointless thoughts, I found myself back at the front desk.
“Is Sera here?”
Since I'd probably get scolded if I barged in like last time, I decided to call for her this time.
“Please wait a moment.”
Unlike last time, they recognized me.
While I waited, I decided to watch TV in the lounge seating area.
I got a drink too.
[This is a report that Filnos, an S-rank Hunter from the United States, has cleared the 15th floor on Hell difficulty! He is in the lower-middle tier among S-rank Hunters…]
Hmm.
A muscular blond man was smiling broadly.
Would I lose if I fought him?
[How did you manage to clear all the way to the 15th floor?]
[Haha, I suppose you could say I had God's luck on my side!]
[It seems you can't tell us anything more than that. When do you plan to attempt the next floor?]
[After taking some time to recover, I plan to challenge the 16th floor in about a year
He seemed to have chosen the apostles' side.
Hmm.
Seeing that, maybe the difficulty didn't increase all that much even if you chose Chaos?
‘They said the opposing commander didn't appear either.’
There had been a lot of them, but the spell I cast using dragon mana had swept them all away.
An S-rank Hunter was only now managing to conquer the 15th floor, after all.
Of course, I'd heard that losing an S-rank Hunter was a huge loss both for the country and for a guild, so they only deployed them once they were confident they could clear it.
“Hmm.”
I could clear the 12th floor in one go as a solo player right now.
“But this is only this easy because I have to use dragon mana…”
If I'd fought it properly… it might have been a little tough.
“And he's supposedly lower-tier among the S-ranks.”
Well, I didn't need to think about that right now.
There are tiers even among S-rank Hunters.
[Now for the next news story. It seems word of Korea's dark horse is spreading across the Internet.]
“Huh?”
[Their identity is shrouded in mystery, but get this: all three of the top guilds have placed bids for them!]
[In particular, the White Tiger Guildmaster, who joined the competition recently, said that if he finds them…
News travels slowly.
Those guys don't even know my gender.
…But isn't this the White Tiger Guild lounge?
“…Why don't they know?”
Well, it was convenient for me, at least.
“Hey! You should've told me you were coming!”
“Oh, Sera. You're here?”
I raised a hand.
“You sure look like you're taking it easy…”
“I may look like this, but I finished my midterms and even cleared the Tower.”
I had been pretty busy.
“How busy could that be?”
“Hmm… about half as busy as you?”
“That's not very busy.”
“You're the one who works too much.”
What a workaholic bastard.
“Unfortunately, I can't hang out right now. I have work to do.”
“I didn't come here to hang out either.”
“Really?”
Sera looked at me as though she hadn't expected that.
“Give me some work. I've been wanting to work for the first time in a while.”
I said it casually, but
Sera immediately saw through my true intentions.
“…You ran out of money?”
“Correct.”
My gold coins and magic stones were running low.
I needed to replenish them soon.
The mana-stone generator was an unexpectedly huge money pit in particular.
It was stable, but it required me to pour in magic stones and use mana to maintain the barrier.
Still, I couldn't just stop using mana, since my skill at handling mana while maintaining the barrier had improved tremendously.
As a bonus, my mana pool was growing bit by bit.
That was also why I had been able to learn Oz Caster so quickly.
‘In the end, whether it's skill or maximum mana, you have to use it a lot to improve.’
To maintain this rate of growth, I had to keep drinking potions and using my mana.
“Umm… There is some work, actually.”
Sera said with a troubled expression.
“Is this really okay? No, those guys are exactly right for it… but I feel sorry for the rookies… Damn it, why is that old man making this mess right now?”
Sera grabbed her head and agonized over it.
Was that really something worth agonizing over?
“What kind of work is it?”
Sera didn't take long to decide.
“Would you like to supervise the rookies?”