Chapter 43
“Tch, are you saying you’re friends!?”
Sera said in a blasé voice while looking toward Lee Hyun-ho.
“What, so I didn’t even need to come help? If this was something this guy could handle.”
Then Lee Hyun-ho turned serious.
“That’s not true. It really would have been dangerous if Miss Yumia hadn’t been there.”
Lee Hyun-ho explained what had happened earlier.
From slaughtering the spiders to piercing the boss in a single strike.
Then Sera’s eyes went wide as she looked at me.
“You got that strong?”
“What do you take me for?”
I’m not the me from before.
Sera studied me as if trying to pick me apart.
“Sure enough... the mana you give off is denser, and you’ve changed your wand too?”
“I bought one. Someone said it wasn’t very good, though.”
I remembered Lee Hyun-ho saying that those damn huge wands were better than my wand.
That remark really had me grabbing the back of my neck.
“Hmm... I’m not sure. Isn’t it something similar to the one you had before?”
“You too, really?”
“A B-rank boss monster in one shot. Looks like you really did get stronger.”
“That’s right.”
Of course, that meant the wand was now on borrowed time.
What, can’t I just not use dragon mana?
Then I’d have to keep fighting them up close and personal, wouldn’t I?
Better to just smash it and pay compensation.
The school would understand too.
“By the way, so you really were acquainted with Hunter Lee Sera?”
“We’re fairly close.”
I let go of the arm around her shoulders.
“Aren’t you going to join the White Tiger Guild?”
“I’m a bit too busy to join a guild.”
Honestly, I’m not busy now, but I still have to attend class faithfully.
Otherwise Karnarov gives me extra assignments, and then I’m really not free.
“I was trying to recruit you, but I heard you had school.”
“You really were a student? At that age, to be that strong...”
Someone seemed to be under an odd misunderstanding, but I didn’t feel like correcting it.
“So, why are you here?”
“Huh? Because I was free?”
“So you are free.”
Well, that checks out?
Honestly, Reinhardt’s assignments are manageable.
Otherwise the students would all be dropping dead.
I’d gotten used to Karnarov’s stuff too.
Isabel didn’t really give extra assignments, and I had some time left, so I came.
“For now, let’s climb the Tower a bit and think.”
Time to farm.
I hope something good drops.
* * *
[Entering the 6th Floor, the Floor of the Monster Forest!]
[From this floor onward, each floor is made up of a single small 'world'!]
[Find the clear condition and proceed to the next floor!]
[Hell Difficulty Special! You can choose whether to strengthen the enemies! Would you like to choose?]
[Y/N]
[This choice cannot be undone!]
Oh?
There isn’t a speedrun this time.
Instead, there’s an option to strengthen the enemies.
[Because of dragon blood, the rank calculation criteria are revealed!]
[Calculation criteria: Overwhelm strengthened enemies]
Having enemies get stronger in the Tower is a high-risk event.
The chance of a good reward goes up, but so does the danger of that floor.
...That’s what I learned at the training center, anyway.
[The enemies on this floor are strengthened!]
—Kieeeek!!
—Kieeeee!!!
White lines darted back and forth, and the screams of the tree monsters with pumpkin-like Halloween faces echoed through the area.
“...What? Why are they so weak?”
Even the spider monsters weren’t this bad.
It had been a pain hitting the ones that kept dodging all over the place.
Of course, later I got lazy and just used homing spells or concentrated barrages.
But these guys were weak aside from needing two or three hits to go down.
They were just numerous, and were swept away by mana bullets with boosted power.
“Well, I guess this does make sense.”
It was like that even on the 4th floor.
The 5th floor was just very weird; otherwise, basic attack magic covered everything.
‘Still, they don’t go down in one hit.’
Even at maximum firepower, it seemed they had quite a bit of magic resistance.
I opened the golden chest and collected my rewards.
[Moonlight Elixir (SR)]
Increases the drinker’s mana.
[Moonlight Earrings (SR)]
Enhances the performance of healing magic!
[Status Enhancement Choice Ticket (SR, 6th Floor)]
Hmm.
Nice.
Status enhancement tickets were always welcome.
After all, every time I used one, it strengthened my body itself.
I drank the Moonlight Elixir.
The elixir flowed sweetly down my throat.
[Your mana has been enhanced! (C+++ → B) You possess powerful mana!]
Oh.
My mana rank went up.
I finally got it up to B-rank, the same as my agility!
And then, the de facto main reward.
[You have overwhelmingly defeated all enemies!]
[Hell Difficulty Special triggered! Rank: SSS!]
[New Arcana]
[A trait will be added!]
[God-Touched Dagger Technique (SR)]
Increases the user’s skill with daggers.
*Useless to those with high technique.
[Materials acquired!]
[Gold Nugget]
It’s a gold nugget.
It sells for a high price in shops.
‘...What?’
Both of them were just duds.
My technique rank is S.
Even without putting on a trait like that, I could manage to some extent.
And what is a gold nugget supposed to be?
Still, it was quite large.
Even so, it wasn’t enough to shake the market, so let’s choose something that looks to the future over quick cash.
But first, let’s do this.
I picked up the Arcana carrying an ominous aura.
[Would you like to preview it?]
“Yep.”
[The trait [Breathing Method of the Red Moon (SR(3-))] has been strengthened to [Breathing Method of the Red Moon (SR(2-))]!]
“Gyaaaah!”
[The mathematician of the magic circle falls into a groggy state.]
“Haa... haa....”
...Still, I can endure it a little now.
And I had also understood the concept of breathing methods just a little.
Maybe I can use it once all the minus parts are stripped away?
I chose [Aura Manifestation (R)] from the Arcana.
[Ability, [Aura Manifestation (R)] has been added!]
And I threw away all the new Arcana.
Since I didn’t have anything else to do anyway, I might as well practice aura.
[Due to the Hell-difficulty special, your health and mana are fully restored!]
The special reward came out normally too.
Looks like Leokan’s was the weird one after all.
‘At this rate, I’ll have time to go to the next floor.’
Sera told me to come visit her guild after I was done, so I’d planned to clear just one floor and leave.
But it ended much faster than I expected.
I didn’t even have much time to think about the rewards.
I should go up one more floor.
* * *
And there was one more thing I realized.
That was that the wand’s performance was beyond my imagination.
[Entering the 7th Floor, the Floor of the Furious Art Gallery!]
All sorts of frames flew around, blasting magic at me.
They seemed to be ghost-type monsters.
“Casting, Bullet, Explode, Deca.”
All ten mana bullets landed exactly where I wanted and created localized explosions.
A four-part incantation I’d never even learned.
And even though I pulled off Deca Casting too, I didn’t feel any burden at all.
“This is... my talent?”
The wand sucked in my mana so much better than before.
And it clearly showed the difference between the R-rank and SSR-rank.
Mana efficiency, casting speed, stability.
It overwhelmed the R-rank wand in every measure.
“The wooden wand was trash.”
Sorry.
That’s how it turned out.
Honestly, I wasn’t really sorry.
The statues rattled as they came toward me.
“Casting, Bullet, Penta.”
White lines partially shattered the statues.
‘Hmm, yeah. If casting time is shorter, the power does drop off a bit.’
I’ll have to cover the power gap by learning beginner magic.
I drew my sword.
Zing.
Blue mana faintly shimmered on the sword.
I sliced straight through.
A clean cross-section, like neatly cut marble.
The broken statue no longer moved.
‘Aura works on some enemies too.’
Is this treated as a physical attack rather than a magical one?
However, I still wasn’t used to it, so it took some time to manifest aura.
‘Ugh... dizzy...’
And once I manifested it, it drained so much concentration that I couldn’t do it anymore.
Besides, my aura only amounted to strengthening the sword with mana.
It seemed I’d need a lot of training to make proper use of it.
“Sigh. I’ll have to handle the rest with this.”
I picked up the wand and cranked the power up to the maximum.
“Casting, Bullet, Explode.”
The mana bullets fired at maximum firepower began sweeping through the statues.
* * *
“No, seriously, how can it not drop anything good?”
What came out for now was just an enhancement ticket and an artifact.
But neither of them was something I could use.
[Protector (SR)]
Activates with the user’s mana.
Provides a temporary shield.
It was a downgraded version of basic defense magic.
It looked like something a swordsman would make better use of than a proper mage.
There still weren’t any good Arcana from the Hell-difficulty special either, so I just chose the mobility skill [Wind Riding (SR)].
I did need at least one mobility skill, so it wasn’t bad...
“Would it kill you to drop something actually tasty for once!!”
“Agh, that’s just how Towers are.”
Sera scolded me for complaining while I kicked at an empty can for no reason.
“Really?”
“To begin with, it’s stranger that SR-grade artifacts come out as often as they do.”
I guess so.
Still, there was almost nothing useful.
Of course, even just the enhancement tickets alone were more than enough reason to climb the Tower.
“By the way, don’t you want to at least register with the guild? You seem to come to the modern world more often than I expected.”
“Why?”
“If you’re registered with the guild, a lot of things are easier. Taxes, contracts, gate-related issues too.”
It seemed she was trying to get me to join purely to help me out.
Since it was Sera saying it, I figured she probably didn’t have any ulterior motive.
But...
“It’s a pain.”
“Then fine.”
And so, we arrived at the White Tiger Guild.
“...This is the building?”
I was shocked enough for my eyes to pop out.
It was more imposing than most major conglomerate buildings.
“I thought your guild was small and elite?”
I know that because the White Tiger Guild once came to the training center to promote itself.
They claimed to be a small elite force, run by only a little over a hundred hunters.
So maybe that was why almost all of the hunters were B-rank or higher.
“That’s the hunters. There aren’t many staff who support the hunters.”
“...Huh.”
“Ah, you’re hungry, aren’t you?”
Sera led me to the cafeteria.
A buffet spread that could put most restaurants to shame stretched out before my eyes.
Damn it. Maybe I should have said I was just registering.
I suddenly regretted it.
I filled my plate mostly with Korean food and sat down with Sera.
I set the artifacts and wand I’d gotten today on the empty seat beside me.
“By the way, is that wand an artifact? It doesn’t look that good.”
“...Is this an artifact?”
Honestly, I was a bit unsure myself.
People do lump together anything that contains mana as an artifact.
But strictly speaking, on Earth, artifacts were items that came out of the Tower.
“How did you get it?”
“I just borrowed it from school.”
“A school that lends out artifacts...now that really makes me curious.”
“You have to pay for it.”
And if she saw it in person, she’d be surprised.
Sera suddenly made a suggestion as she looked at me.
“Since we’ve got time to spare, want to go get those artifacts appraised?”
It seemed there was a research lab inside this building too.
“Shall we?”
Honestly, I was curious what reaction they’d have to this wand here.
And so I left it with the appraisal office.
A few hours later, the appraiser in a white coat rushed out with a flustered face.
“What on earth is this thing!?”