Chapter 13
#13. Magic Tower
After roughly placating the middle-aged man downstairs and sending him on his way, I decided to look into the Weakness Insight skill in a little more detail.
I wasn't particularly worried about how to use it.
The moment I obtained the skill, knowledge of how to use it had taken root in my mind as if I'd known it from the beginning.
I went in front of the mirror.
“Weakness Insight.”
The moment I used the skill, sparkling effects appeared all over my body in the mirror.
The effects sparkled brightest around my head and heart. The other areas shone too, but not nearly as brightly as those two.
“This is more useful against monsters than people.”
Human weaknesses were more or less the same, but monsters often had unexpected weaknesses, so Weakness Insight ought to come in handy.
If I hunted monsters while working as a mage, I could make a pretty decent living, couldn't I?
A smile automatically spread across my lips at the thought.
“All that's left now is the Golden Random Box.”
I laughed out loud as I said it.
Of course I did. Even just considering the Beginner's Equipment Set and the Skill Acquisition Ticket, they were absurdly generous beyond my wildest imagination.
And this wasn't even an ordinary Random Box—it was a Golden Random Box.
“Ah, maybe something like a Unique rank will pop out? Then this would be insane.”
At the moment my expectations broke through the graph and headed for Mars, I opened the Random Box.
[Would you like to open the Golden Random Box?]
[Y/N]
[Y]
[Opening……]
[TIP. Anything can appear in a Random Box]
I waited for the box to open while staring at a tip that wasn't even really a tip.
[The Golden Random Box has been opened]
It had taken less than five seconds in real time, but subjectively, it felt like ten minutes had passed.
Ah, come to think of it, did the time I spent in that world apply unchanged to Earth too?
While I was distracted by that sudden thought.
[Ta-da-da-daaam!]
[A ‘Random Shop Item Exchange Ticket’ has appeared]
[Random Shop Item Exchange Ticket]
[Rank: ??]
[You can randomly obtain one of the items currently listed in the shop. The rank of the obtained item will randomly increase]
[Time remaining: 02:59]
“...What?”
My head started spinning over a result that was neither a dud nor a jackpot.
***
[Time remaining: 02:13]
“Wait, wait... Let's think...”
The Golden Random Box had produced an exchange ticket that let me randomly obtain one of the items listed in the shop.
It was a little disappointing that it wasn't a ticket that let me choose, but the fact that the item's rank would increase made up for that disappointment.
The problem was that everything currently listed in the shop was just mediocre, low-grade junk.
“Sigh... It won't refresh within two minutes, will it...?”
It could. The odds were fucking slim, though.
But what if it didn't? I'd end up wasting the exchange ticket for nothing.
“...Still, it's not like there’s absolutely nothing worth trading it for.”
The items currently in the shop were an iron sword for 200 coins, a Basic Alchemy Package for 500 coins, a Basic Swordsmanship Book for 550 coins, a Lowest-Grade Health Potion for 600 coins, a Lowest-Grade Mana Potion for 600 coins, a Top Actress Random Pussy-Licking Ticket for 800 coins, a Mysterious Pill for 850 coins, a Strength-Enhancing Potion for 920 coins, and finally, a Forbidden Grimoire for 1,000 coins.
Honestly, everything except the iron sword and the pussy-licking ticket was fine.
If I got the Forbidden Grimoire, it would be the icing on the cake.
“God, Buddha, Jesus, Allah, Virgin Mary, the gods of heaven and earth, please, please, please...!!”
[Would you like to use the Random Shop Item Exchange Ticket?]
[Y/N]
[Y]
“Let's fucking gooooo!!!!!”
Fwoosh!
A new screen appeared along with a brilliant white beam of light.
[Thank you for purchasing the ‘Top Actress Random Pussy-Licking Ticket’]
“Fuuuuuck!!!!!!!”
The world was fucking screwing me over.
Bang bang bang!
-Hey!! I told you to keep it down earlier, didn't I?! Do you know what time it is right now!!
˙
˙
˙
Thud-
After one round of dueling with the middle-aged man downstairs, I trudged back home and threw myself onto the bed.
“...The world can't do this to me.”
A Top Actress Random Pussy-Licking Ticket, of all things. How the hell was I supposed to use a booby-trap item that might even land me an old hag's asshole...
“...By the way, what time is it now?”
I hadn't had the presence of mind to check, but it must have been around eight when I matched with Iris.
I spent half a day there, plus another thirty or forty minutes... It must be almost three in the morning by now, right?
I could understand, at least a little, why the middle-aged man had gotten angry.
Just as I was wondering whether I should at least apologize later, I looked at my phone screen and couldn't believe my eyes.
[20:47]
“Is my phone... broken?”
The date hadn't changed, either.
It was exactly the same.
Thinking back, I could have sworn it had been almost nine...
If my memory was right, that meant hardly any time had passed on Earth while I was with Iris.
“...This seriously makes no sense.”
What was this? It wasn't an onion, but every time I peeled it, something new kept coming out.
Of course, I had no complaints since there was nothing bad about it for me.
The only minor issue was that everyone else was frozen while my lifespan kept ticking away. But increasing one's lifespan was something that could be dealt with to some extent by advancing as a mage or consuming expensive elixirs.
Besides, it wasn't as if the shop in this ridiculously overpowered app wouldn't eventually offer an item that increased the user's lifespan.
In other words, I could use the app without worrying about a thing.
“I'm suddenly in a good mood.”
I'd been in a foul mood because I'd drawn that shitty pussy-licking ticket, but I felt a little better now.
Since it said the ticket would be provided with an increased rank, should I at least read its description?
You never knew. Maybe after the rank increase, it wasn't random anymore and had become a selection ticket.
With a cautious feeling, I opened my inventory.
Knowing its place, the pussy-licking ticket sat shoved into a corner, and I carefully tapped it.
[Celebrity Insertion Selection Ticket]
[Rank: Epic]
[You may choose either the vagina or anus of any celebrity and enjoy it however you wish. When the selection ticket is used, the selected body part of the actress will be summoned so that only the user can see it, and its sensations will be connected to the actress herself. ※Even if you ejaculate inside her vagina, you don't need to worry about pregnancy, so cum as much as you like]
The moment I read the item description, one thought suddenly occurred to me.
Isn't this basically a wirelessly connected fleshlight?
“It's nice, but...”
Though it was only my second item, it was still a little disappointing that an item as high-ranked as Epic was meant for sexual relief rather than providing combat or financial assistance.
Honestly, sticking it in and cumming inside the pussy of a celebrity of my choice? It was definitely fucking appealing to a man.
But maybe because I'd just seen Iris, there wasn't any celebrity I particularly wanted.
When I thought about fondling Iris's massive tits and kissing her with the wet intensity of a porn actor, then thought of the actresses and idols I usually saw on TV... Honestly, all I could think was that they fell short in many ways.
“Maybe I'll save it for now.”
I might meet a woman I liked later, so I planned to save it until then.
Equipment could be stored outside, but the insertion ticket didn't seem capable of being taken out and kept outside the inventory.
If my ten-slot inventory ran out of space, I might be forced to use it against my will.
Until then, I should diligently make a list of candidates.
‘Should I do something like an Ideal Type World Cup?’
If I gathered every female celebrity together, it would probably be a 512-person bracket, but whatever.
“Let's just sleep for now. I'm fucking exhausted.”
Maybe because I'd done everything I could for the moment, sleep suddenly came rushing over me.
That was only natural, considering I'd spent half a day taking classes with Iris in that other world without resting.
“Tomorrow, I'll go to the Magic Tower... and apply to drop out of school...”
It looked like it would be the busiest day of my life.
***
Magic Towers were located in the capitals of all the developed countries around the world.
They weren't nonexistent in developing countries, but their level wasn't particularly high, so they weren't held in high regard.
The Magic Tower located in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was called the Gray Magic Tower, and a seventh-circle mage served as its tower master.
I didn't know why Korea's Magic Tower was called the Gray Magic Tower, but the prevailing theory was that Magic Towers were named according to the tower master's tastes or magical leanings, rather than the characteristics of the country.
Of course, the Magic Tower's outward appearance was quite far from gray.
They really did seem to have an insane amount of money. It was far more elegant and larger than any landmark painstakingly built by a major corporation.
Since it was an association of mages, an irreplaceable workforce, I'd heard that they raked in money with every business they undertook, but I hadn't expected it to be this much.
To join this Magic Tower as more than an ordinary employee, one had to satisfy at least one of the following conditions.
One, be a mage.
One, have one's talent recognized by a mage officially accredited by the Magic Tower.
One, pass the tower master's test.
Those were the three.
And I was planning to join the Magic Tower by satisfying the very first condition.
Ding-dong-
“Customer number 213.”
“Yes.”
Seoul Magic Tower Branch, Gray Magic Tower.
This building consisted of 110 floors aboveground and 10 floors underground, and its first-floor lobby was always packed with people.
Hunters came looking for a mage to add to their party, staff from small and midsize companies came seeking help with new product development, and all sorts of other people visited for various reasons to commission or request assistance from mages.
“Thank you for visiting the Gray Magic Tower. What brings you in today?”
The woman in charge of Counter 2 in the Gray Magic Tower's first-floor lobby was Kim Hye-rin, twenty-seven years old.
She wasn't a mage, but after graduating from Korea University's School of Business, she had gotten lucky and landed a job at the Magic Tower a year ago—a workplace that countless job seekers dreamed of.
Her job was handling customer complaints.
Normally, it was work that countless office workers hated, but handling complaints at the Magic Tower was on an entirely different level.
Since more than a few people had ended up in the hospital after behaving rudely at the Magic Tower, most of the customers were fairly kind.
There was a lot to memorize, but most of the work wasn't difficult.
Besides, the benefits and annual salary were no worse than those of any major corporation, so she often thought that if a dream workplace really existed, this had to be it.
That said, there were still some strange people among the customers.
“I came to register as a mage.”
“...Pardon?”
“Oh, right. I also want to apply for admission to the Magic Tower. Do you have an application or something?”
The female employee doubted her own ears.
What was this customer talking about?
Mage registration? Magic Tower enrollment?
‘The customer looks like he's barely in his early twenties... Is something wrong with him?’
It wasn't that there were absolutely no people who wanted to register as mages. Some third-generation chaebol heirs took private lessons and occasionally got lucky enough to become mages.
But there was no way people like that would register at a general counter like this.
Most of them had their registrations processed electronically upstairs or registered after holding separate interviews with the Magic Tower's professors.
“Um, sir? You seem young, so I'm telling you this, but you can't play around at the Magic Tower. Last time, a customer who couldn't control his temper and went wild got served with a lawsuit...”
Fwoosh-
Just as she was about to gently send him away, thinking of him as a younger brother.
“Is this enough to convince you?”
She saw a flame bloom above the man's palm.
“...I'll bring the person in charge.”