Chapter 138
I stood still, looking at my feat.
An unreal scene.
I need to take a picture of this.
I took my phone out of the waterproof pouch without hesitation.
Having only one arm was incredibly inconvenient, but it was a pain I could bear.
Click. Click.
Sunlight poured through the parted sea. Massive walls stood on both sides.
I saved photos that looked like they belonged in a movie.
“Done.”
Kugugugung!
Just as I finished taking the photos, the wall began to shake.
The barrier was beginning to crack under the immense pressure of tens of thousands of tons.
“Already?”
I gritted my teeth and poured in more mana.
But even erecting the wall had already drained me heavily.
CRACK!
In the end, a huge hole punched through one corner of the wall.
Seawater surged in violently.
Like a dam collapsing, the cracks spread across the entire barrier in an instant.
“Nng!”
The sea came back together, throwing up a massive spray.
To keep from being swept away, I turned part of my feet into sand and anchored myself firmly to the ground.
Even after the dust and waves settled, I just stood there blankly for a moment.
A little emptiness, and a little pride.
That majestic wall had vanished without even lasting a few minutes.
“I... split the sea.”
Luckily, the collapse of my wall didn’t even trigger a tsunami.
It was only a slightly stronger wave.
If someone had been swimming nearby, it might have been dangerous, but this was an empty sea with not even a single shop in sight.
“Haa... I’m tired.”
I dragged my soaked body back up onto the beach.
I collapsed onto the sand, utterly exhausted.
But my mind was still racing.
I had to do something similar at twenty times this depth.
It looked like I’d have to give up on the plan to split the deep sea in two and dry the whale to death.
It’d be more efficient to attack with the enormous mass dragged up from the bottom instead.
“Even if I made a spear instead of a wall, I feel like I’d still run out of mana...”
I propped my chin on my hand and fell into thought.
I’d come to the sea today to check my mana consumption in actual combat.
But even erecting a barrier of barely 200 meters had used up most of my mana.
What I needed to make was a gigantic 4-kilometer spear.
At this rate, it seemed impossible.
“How can I increase my mana?”
Leveling up was, of course, impossible.
Then items? But did items even exist that could multiply my mana pool several times over?
Then, all of a sudden, a strange idea crossed my mind.
“Could I... eat mana stones too?”
Mana stones. Stones containing mana.
They were mainly used as energy sources.
I had heard that when the Tower first appeared, there were people who ground mana stones into powder and ate them, hoping to awaken.
Though instead of awakening, they just lost their precious lives.
“But I’m different.”
One of my skills, Mineral Devour.
With that skill, I’d already accumulated three kinds of minerals in my body.
With continual growth, I currently had two empty slots left.
What if I tried eating mana stones here?
“Worth a try.”
I used the flag to return home immediately.
I took out one of the mana stones stored in the basement.
I had quite a stockpile, since my usual clear bonus was twice what others got.
Without hesitation, I shoved it into my mouth and bit down.
[...You’re actually eating that?]
The black mage muttered in disbelief beside me, but I ignored them.
I chewed the stone hard.
Crunch. Crunch-crunch.
The stone shattered like candy.
Gulp.
The moment I swallowed it, a warm sensation rose from my stomach.
A distinct surge of mana.
“Hmm...”
But there was a limit.
“This is one-and-done.”
It wasn’t a permanent increase in mana.
Like a disposable battery.
But that was enough for now.
After all, it meant I could at least temporarily boost my mana.
“This is going to cost me a fortune.”
I took out my phone with a bitter smile.
I never thought there’d come a day when I’d be investing just to climb the Tower.
I explained the whole situation to the broker uncle, who answered right away.
[You want to buy mana stones? Not sell them?]
“Yes. As many as possible.”
[Did you get scammed or something?]
His reaction said he couldn’t understand me at all.
Well, if someone who had only ever sold them suddenly tried buying them back, that was understandable.
“I just suddenly found a use for them. For research, maybe?”
[Research, huh... Well, if it’s you, there’s probably a reason for everything you do.]
The broker didn’t bother to ask further.
[Understood. I’ll scrape together every available unit. You’ve got plenty of funds, right?]
“Just take it out of my account. The shield payment came in last time, so I’ve got plenty of money.”
[Understood. I’ll send it as quickly as possible.]
A few hours later.
Several trucks arrived in front of our house.
The workers, looking puzzled, unloaded the mana stones into our yard.
“If all this were turned into money, how much would it be...”
It was a shipment worth nearly several billion won.
But to me now, a few hundred million wasn’t even that much.
This was an expense I could easily stomach.
“I can just win it back, right?”
I could pay it back quickly by selling even one item from the Tower.
It’s the mid-boss of Floor 45, so it’s bound to drop something.
With the mindset of a gambling addict firmly in place, I began shoving mana stones into my mouth in earnest.
Crunch! Crunch!
It felt like electricity was sparking in my mouth.
Mana began to overflow.
It felt as though mana had filled every blood vessel to bursting.
My skin felt like it was heating up too.
When I opened my mouth, blue smoke leaked out.
But I didn’t stop.
Before I knew it, the mountain of mana stones had noticeably shrunk.
I had already eaten through the price of an apartment.
“This is starting to get rough...”
I felt like I was about to throw up.
It felt like I’d overeaten.
Every time I moved my body, a tidal wave of mana roared through my stomach.
I gritted my teeth and suppressed the mana.
“I-I can’t keep this up.”
I turned my body into sand and began enlarging myself.
I was copying what Chohogi had done last time.
My head stayed the same size even as I became a 3-meter giant.
“Why is my body shape still the same?”
The bizarre sight of a child’s build staying intact was grotesque.
Every time I exhaled, my skin crumbled like sand and then clung back together.
“Huff... huff...”
At last, I finished off the very last one.
Only empty boxes lay scattered in the yard.
My stomach was bloated.
My body was basically a balloon right now.
I had to puncture it and vent it quickly.
I dragged my thumping body toward the Tower.
***
[Entering Floor 45 of the Tower (EXTREME).]
[Time that had stopped begins to flow again.]
When I opened my eyes, I was on the ghost ship’s deck.
Teach was the first to spot me and speak.
“You really came back in no time. It feels like less than ten seconds...?”
But Teach couldn’t finish his sentence.
And it wasn’t just Teach.
The parrot, the crew—everyone had their eyes wide and mouths hanging open.
Understandable.
I was a 3-meter sand giant now.
One arm was missing, and my head was still the same size; that only made me more grotesque.
“C-Captain? Is that really you?”
“Yes. It’s me.”
I nodded and said in a far more majestic voice.
“Turn the ship around! Pursue the whale!”
“Wouldn’t that be suicide?”
The sailors were horrified.
From their perspective, my attitude had flipped 180 degrees in just a few seconds, so it was only natural they’d find it strange.
But I remained firm.
“I came for revenge. I’m not losing this time.”
I glared at the horizon, my eyes shimmering with mana.
The immense mana built up inside my body.
I wanted to pour this power out immediately. If I didn’t, I felt like I’d burst first.
“I don’t even need a compass.”
I raised my one remaining arm and pointed in one direction.
I could feel it.
My arm, even now still in the whale’s belly, was pulling me toward it.
“Go that way.”
“...Can we really win?”
“Of course.”
“In that case, understood.”
Teach swallowed hard, then grinned.
A hearty smile.
“If the captain says go, then we go! All right! Raise the sails! Begin the hunt!”
The crew moved in perfect unison under the order, even while looking like they might cry.
The ghost ship parted the waves once again.
***
How long had we been at this?
The sea was calm.
The whale had gone back under the water; there was no sign of it.
The stillness before the storm.
I stood on deck, gathering my mana.
Every nerve in my body was focused on controlling the boiling, overflowing energy.
If I was going to catch the whale, I had to pour all this power into a single attack.
Then it happened.
“Captain, over there!”
A scream burst from the crow’s nest.
A water column shot up high enough for me to see it too.
Puaaaah-!
And then, a white back slowly emerged.
The boss of Floor 45, the White Whale.
It seemed it had sensed us too. The whale opened its mouth.
“Aaaagh! It’s pulling us in again!”
Just like last time, a gigantic vortex that sucked everything in was forming.
A scene that gave me a strong sense of déjà vu. But this time, I wasn’t running.
“I’ve been waiting for this.”
I moved the sandworm onto my forearm, then cut off my last remaining hand and threw it into the sea.
Splash!
The giant hand sank beneath the water.
“Go.”
I raised the hand’s density to the absolute limit.
Heavier than lead, with the properties of orichalcum preserved intact.
The severed hand plunged into the deep sea faster than an anchor.
“Captain! When is this going to be over!”
Teach was beside me, screaming as he clutched the wheel.
I couldn’t spare any attention for them.
My consciousness was already fully focused on the hand descending toward the bottom.
Cold water. Crushing pressure.
But I couldn’t stop.
Faster, deeper.
Before the whale swallowed us all.
“Captain! This is really the limit!”
“I just reached it.”
Thud!
My arm touched the ocean floor.
The abyss where even light could not reach.
But it was no longer a problem. This was still ground, after all.
I drove my fingers into the seafloor and took control of the area.
“Everyone, cover your ears!”
I had the staff clamped against my body with my forearm.
On the deck, I drew in a breath.
“Hup—!”
I poured every last bit of my mana out at once.
My vocal cords swelled as if they would tear apart.
I could see Teach and the crew covering their ears and dropping to the deck.
They’d sensed it instinctively too.
That something tremendous was about to explode.
“Pull—!”
Kwaaaang!
The word command sent out a shockwave.
At the same time, my hand embedded in the deep sea expanded explosively.
The hand began to indiscriminately draw in the surrounding soil, sand, and rock.
Kugugugugugu!
An earthquake erupted beneath the sea.
Just as the whale opened its mouth to swallow our ship.
A black shadow began to surge up from beneath the ship.
A gigantic sand hand shot up, breaking through thousands of meters in just a few seconds.
“Grab it!”
A whale big enough to swallow our sailing ship whole.
I seized that whale with one hand.