Chapter 49
A thunderous roar rang out.
The entire mine, except for the area around me, shook as if an earthquake had struck.
Dust and bits of rock pattered down from the ceiling.
Soon, the mine before my eyes collapsed in on itself.
I muttered with a satisfied smile.
“At this rate, I can really breeze through Floor 20.”
Was this the power of a Legendary-grade staff?
The feeling of dominating the cave at will sent a thrilling shiver through my whole body.
I could destroy the map itself and clear it before any monsters even appeared?
But something was odd.
A long time passed, and even after the cave's collapse had quieted, the familiar clear message still didn't appear.
“…?”
I made a puzzled expression.
What was this? A bug?
Or had it somehow survived that collapse without dying?
Was that even possible?
I tilted my head and activated Insight Vision.
My sight, scanning the flow of mana, swept over the surroundings.
Even so, I couldn't sense any trace of a living being.
“That's strange... As far as I know, the early part of Floor 20 is all kobolds.”
Though this was Extreme difficulty, and variables were possible, it was strange for monsters not to appear at all.
I fell into thought. What could I be overlooking?
That's when it happened.
쿠르르르릉!
With a sudden tremor, the ground beneath my feet surged upward.
“What?”
I didn't have time to dodge.
Of course, I didn't need to.
Just before whatever surged up touched my body, a thick sand barrier automatically formed and blocked the sharp attack.
카가강!
A dull metallic clang rang out.
Only then did I confirm what had attacked me.
“…A machine?”
What burst through the ground wasn't a living creature.
A machine shaped like an armadillo, with a massive drill attached to the front.
There was no sign of life force or mana flow coming from it at all.
That meant it was truly a 100% pure machine.
The yellow monocular lens embedded in the center of the nameless drilling machine moved up and down, then locked onto me.
위이잉, 철컥.
With a mechanical sound, the lens changed from yellow to red.
Unmistakable hostility.
“Take this!”
I fired my familiar sand bullets.
Compressed sand shot out like bullets and struck the machine's armor.
깡!
With a clear, crisp sound, the sand bullet bounced off uselessly.
“It bounced off?”
I was dumbfounded.
My attack got blocked by some trash mob on Floor 21?
That was a blow to my pride.
“This is why I kept begging for just one attack skill...!”
Cursing the Tower, I focused my mana into my staff.
At my will, the space around me collapsed once more.
콰쾅!
Massive rocks crushed the machine's body from all directions.
The drill was pinned in place, as if it had been caught in my grasp.
“Not enough power to crush it outright, huh...”
Using the surrounding rocks to press it down was enough to restrain it, but not powerful enough to crush and destroy it.
From the fact that it hadn't died in the initial collapse, its durability seemed to be quite high.
It had even bounced off my bullet.
It looked like something built to dig its way out, even if the abandoned mine caved in.
Even while pinned beneath the pile of rocks, the machine resisted by furiously spinning the massive drill on its front.
위이이이이잉-!
The sound of the spinning drill pierced my ears.
The machine gradually twisted its body.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before it broke free.
I needed another way.
Then, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
“…Should I try weathering?”
Weathering. A skill that turns everything it touches into sand.
It was a technique I had never even dared to try against living creatures before.
Because it consumed an enormous amount of mana.
That was still true even now that my mana capacity had doubled.
But the thing in front of me wasn't a living creature.
A complete inorganic object, with no mana flow detectable even through Insight Vision.
“This might work.”
I stepped closer to the struggling machine.
Then I raised my staff, as tall as I was, and carefully brought it to the tip of the violently spinning drill.
촤라라락-!
Starting from the drill tip where the staff touched, it slowly began to turn into sand.
The once-solid steel lost its strength and scattered into fine particles.
Weathering spread across the entire drill in an instant.
At last, the drill—its most dangerous weapon—completely turned to sand and crumbled away.
키기기긱!
The machine thrashed, emitting a scream-like screech, but it was useless.
Soon, only a mound of sand remained there.
I smiled with satisfaction.
“At this rate, the next floor should be a breeze too.”
At that moment, the message I had been waiting for appeared before my eyes.
[Congratulations on clearing the Tower's 21st Floor (EXTREME).]
“Looks like it's about time to level up...”
My level-ups had slight deviations, but they happened every five or six floors.
By this floor, or at worst the next, I'd be Level 6, the upper tier of A-rank.
And by the time I hunted the mid-boss in the 20s, I'd probably reach Level 7, the beginning of S-rank.
But even after waiting, the skill book never appeared.
Instead, the familiar messages appeared before me.
[First-clear bonus applied!]
[Rank 1 bonus applied!]
[You have obtained the Heart of the Mountain.]
Something heavy dropped into my palm.
A stone the size of a fist.
But it wasn't an ordinary stone.
The black stone was split into several pieces, and a red light flickered through the gaps.
“Uh, this...?”
The instant I saw it, cold sweat began trickling down my spine.
***
Soon it would be time to move, so the cluttered living room was packed with boxes.
I sat on the floor and stared blankly at the item in front of me.
The black, rough stone called the “Heart of the Mountain.”
Right. I know that too.
I'm not an idiot. I can tell that at a glance.
No matter how I looked at it, it was probably something like a World Tree Seed.
It would be the key to activating the hidden content in the 20s.
If I nurtured it well and then took down the Floor 30 boss, it'd probably toss me an Extreme-difficulty-exclusive reward.
The problem wasn't that.
I remembered when I first got the World Tree Seed.
At first, it was just a strange orb.
But once I reached the later stages, how much of a mess had that thing made of my house?
When the police came because vines had grown through the walls, that was truly hair-raising.
I glared at the stone in front of me.
This thing...
Right now it was just a black stone with no special features, but it would definitely grow.
When that happened, it'd surely turn the house upside down in some insane way.
I was already afraid of that day.
“Haa...”
I was lying in bed, letting out a deep sigh, when—
suddenly, I felt something soft touch the top of my head.
“What's wrong, Unit-01?”
It was Unit-01, which I'd left neglected in a flowerpot since Floor 20.
“Where do you think you're going, wandering off on your own?”
I reached out to put it back in the flowerpot.
But it dodged my hand and landed lightly in front of my face.
Then, at eye level, it quietly looked at the corners of my drooping mouth.
It held out its tiny hands.
Then, as if trying to force me to smile, it carefully pushed the corners of my mouth upward.
Scratch, scratch.
The gritty feel of sand against my lips.
“Are you trying to comfort me?”
At that sight, I couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter.
To think it had grown this much already.
I felt quite proud of it.
I carefully patted its head, careful not to break it.
I should replace the flowerpot soil with something better later.
And add ten more minutes of phone time.
Yes, I need to stay strong.
Enough pointless worrying.
I got up and turned on the computer.
“First, I should ask the gallery.”
I turned on the computer and logged into the Mage Gallery as usual.
A few days ago, I had met Beetle in person, but our relationship online hadn't changed at all.
He was someone who knew where to draw the line.
Even though pkkatjju kept pestering me about my identity after finding out we'd met in person, Beetle never said a word to the end.
Thanks to that, I could use the gallery as comfortably as before.
I took a picture of the stone and wrote a new post.
[Title: Got the Extreme reward from Floor 21]
Author: ㅇㅇ(33K.3K3)
It looks like it has a structure similar to the World Tree Seed from last time.
Anyone know a similar item?
(Heart of the Mountain photo.jpg)
As soon as my post went up, pkkatjju showed up first as always.
But what they said had nothing to do with the post.
ㄴ pkkatjju : Why do you only meet Beetle, nyao? Hurry up and reveal your identity, nyao.
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3) : Ah... that? It is not yet time....
ㄴ pkkatjju : (sticker crying while saying 'This isn't it...')
The usual kkatjju WWE. As I halfheartedly dealt with it, a useful comment soon appeared.
ㄴ Refrigerator : This looks kind of like the core from the Floor 25 boss.
I explained the monster I'd encountered in a little more detail in the comments.
ㄴ Refrigerator : The thing you met was the hard-mode Floor 25 boss.
ㄴ Refrigerator : And you one-shot it with one skill?
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3) : It was a good matchup.
ㄴ MagicIsFirepower : Next time, don't erase everything—only half. If you get a core from it, maybe something will combine.
A core from machines?
That was a plausible guess.
If the theme of the 20s floors was mining machinery in an abandoned mine, it made sense that it would require those parts.
Soon, the other mages all reacted as if that made sense.
I nodded while looking at the monitor.
“Hmm, it seems like it'll be hard to erase only half with weathering... Maybe cheesing this won't be as easy as I thought.”
I definitely needed another attack skill.
I looked at the sand bullet floating above my hand.
And at my staff too.
When I drew out the staff's power, the sand bullet became a rock.
But would this really be enough?
I suddenly wondered whether I could turn it into steel.
But even with my attempt, it only turned into a hard rock. It didn't become a steel bullet.
“I guess it's tough after all...”
I poured power into my staff again.
This time, the goal was control.
However, the metal objects strewn about all around didn't move according to my will.
“No, if it's earth attribute, shouldn't I be able to use metal too?”
If I could use metal too, I could fire titanium or tungsten bullets to my heart's content.
Even outside of combat, I could've become rich by crudely making gold or diamonds out of sand.
“What a shame, a real shame...”
I clicked my tongue.
But I didn't give up.
“Maybe it's just because I still don't understand it well enough.”
I recalled the experience when I first figured out reverse weathering.
Turning something into sand and then back again required countless rounds of practice.
Maybe I'd be able to control it if I'd handled enough of a certain metal?
Or maybe I could handle raw ore or unrefined stone.
“I'll have to test it once I go back in.”
After sorting out my thoughts,
I logged into the Hunter Gallery as usual.
There was nothing better for killing time until the moving company arrived.
“What? The mod died?”
The gallery was in the middle of a celebration.