Chapter 85
[Entering the 35th Floor of the Tower (EXTREME).]
The familiar notification appeared, and the scenery changed.
A floor with the mid-boss from the thirties.
I was curious how it would progress when tied to the quest.
“This place is….”
The starting point was inside a dark corridor.
It felt like a hallway inside a huge stadium.
And someone was standing next to me.
“Huh?”
I let out a sound without thinking.
A woman in leather armor, leaning against the wall and catching her breath.
It was a face I knew all too well.
“Sharon?”
At my call, she jolted and looked up.
Her eyes widened as she recognized me.
“Sage! How did you get here….”
“That’s what I should be asking. Why are you here, Sharon?”
The presence of an NPC next to me wasn’t all that surprising.
But being alone was awkward.
‘Could it be because of that?’
I suddenly remembered that Sharon and I had upgraded our relationship on the previous floor.
Maybe I’d be entering the place where Sharon was.
Sharon hurriedly opened her mouth.
“I think I’ll have to tell you the details later. This place is too dangerous.”
Right, it was a mid-boss battle.
It probably would be dangerous.
Even I, who always cleared boss floors easily while sitting at number one, had struggled on boss floors.
“Where are we? I don’t see any enemies.”
“We’ve come deep into the orcs’ main base. During a reconnaissance mission, we found this strange structure and came inside.”
“Main base? Then I guess we won the war?”
“Yes. Thanks to you, it was easy… all thanks to you, Sage.”
They’d always seemed like they were barely holding on; apparently they’d managed a good comeback somehow.
Sharon suddenly made an apologetic face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Actually, the orcs all flee the moment they see the hourglass emblem.”
“Huh?”
“At first, it was only something the soldiers drew on their armor….”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“So….”
Sharon hesitated for some reason.
She watched my reaction and spoke carefully.
“We ended up changing the kingdom’s flag to the hourglass emblem.”
“?”
I doubted my ears.
No, was it really okay to change the flag that easily?
Sharon lowered her head deeply.
“I’m sorry! We used your symbol without your permission… my father and I kept opposing it, but….”
“It’s fine. It’s fine.”
If anything, it was a good thing.
My emblem had become the symbol of a kingdom?
This was a culture that needed to be brought outside the tower too.
From today on, Daejeon City’s emblem is the hourglass.
Well, if you make Jeong Man-ho carry around an hourglass, people will misunderstand on their own.
“Good job. I like it a lot.”
“R-really?”
“Of course. If possible, please make a biography of me as well.”
“What’s a biography?”
“Hmm, well….”
As we talked and walked down the corridor, the end finally came into view.
Beyond the arched exit, a vast space came into view.
“For some reason, this feels familiar.”
It was a circular arena.
The spectator seats were empty, and in the center of the arena a massive figure was bound in chains.
“Don’t tell me that’s….”
Sharon muttered in a tense voice.
Chains as thick as a human forearm.
But even those looked woefully insufficient to hold that thing down.
Krrrkrrrrrrk-!
As if it had noticed our arrival.
The orc began to struggle.
The chains pulled taut.
The creaking sound, as if they were about to snap at any moment, echoed through the empty arena.
Crack! Thud-crack!
The anchor pin fixing the chain to the floor was ripped out wholesale.
Finally freed, the giant slowly rose to its feet.
I narrowed my eyes at the sight.
A vaguely familiar form.
The Orc Great Chieftain we’d met on the 10th floor.
The boss monster I had faced for the first time.
It wasn’t merely similar.
Its skin had turned pitch-black, and horrible scars covered its entire body.
But its face and aura were no different from back then.
Most noticeable of all was the huge scar at the center of its chest.
The donut-shaped hole I had made on the 10th floor.
That hole remained, now filled in.
‘It’s the same one? No wonder that message said it would remember me back then….’
The creature spotted me.
Hate and rage. Red eyes blazing with madness.
I smiled and waved.
“Nice to see you, bastard.”
Sharon, standing beside me, looked at me with a shocked expression.
“You know that thing too, Sage?”
“Huh? You know it too, Sharon? That’s even more surprising.”
“Yes.... That's definitely the Orc Overlord. I thought it might just be a figment of imagination since it was never discovered during the war...”
“An overlord?”
I thought it was an Orc Great Chieftain on the 10th floor.
Looks like it got promoted.
Is this because of me too?
This time I’ll make sure to kill it for real. So it can’t show up again as a Supreme Chieftain after getting promoted.
“Krooooooarrrr—!”
The overlord roared.
A deafening sound that shook the entire arena.
It grabbed the huge weapon lying on the floor.
“No, if you’re going to keep it chained up, at least put the weapon away too. What is this?”
It wasn’t the battle axe it had held on the 10th floor.
That was already in my bank account.
What it had picked up was a massive war hammer whose weight you could tell just by looking at it.
Its gaze stayed fixed on me from start to finish.
As if Sharon didn’t even exist.
It was clear it had recognized me too.
“Sage, I’ll do whatever I can to draw its attention, so….”
“Ah, there you go again. Just rest quietly in the back.”
Before Sharon even finished speaking.
The Orc Great Chieftain moved.
The thing came charging at terrifying speed.
It looked like a truck barreling forward.
I had no intention of dragging out this reunion.
End it on the first move.
I thrust one arm straight forward.
Koo-goo-goo-goo-goong—!
Sand surged up from the arena’s solid stone floor.
The sand began gathering around my arm as its axis.
Then I added tungsten’s properties to it.
Soon, a massive stake was formed.
Bigger and thicker than the overlord’s hulking body, a divine stake.
“S-Sage….”
Sharon, standing beside me, swallowed hard.
A sight that was impossible to believe had been created by a human.
The overlord also sensed the threat instinctively.
Shock flickered in its eyes.
“Kru, kuh?”
Reason returned to the eyes that had been filled with madness.
But it was too late.
“Cannonball missile, fire.”
I gave the short command.
KWA-A-A-A-ANG—!
The tungsten stake launched with a roar that tore through the air.
It couldn’t dodge.
It couldn’t block it either.
That was the conclusion reached by me, Sharon, and perhaps even the overlord.
But it refused to give up.
“Kroooooooar!”
The overlord roared and charged forward.
A foolish act, rushing toward death.
But it wasn’t trying to kill itself.
“Hup!”
The overlord hoisted the massive war hammer in its hands over its head.
The muscles all over its body bulged as if they would explode.
And then it swung down.
Toward the godly stake flying at it.
Kaaang—!
A shockwave that shook the entire arena spread in all directions.
Instinctively, I shielded Sharon and spread a sand barrier.
“!!!”
What I saw beyond the barrier was beyond common sense.
The overlord was holding the attack back.
With just a single hammer, it stopped a tungsten stake bigger than its own body.
“Persistent…!”
The stake, empowered by my magic, kept advancing without stopping.
The overlord hanging from its tip was shoved back dozens of meters.
Long footprints were carved into the stone floor.
Steam rose from the overlord’s entire body.
“Krr… ugh… aaaaaa!”
In that state, it swung the hammer once more.
“Kaaang!”
Second impact.
The stake’s advance slowed, just a little, but unmistakably.
Kaa-aaaang!
Third.
Kaa-aaa-aaa-aaa-aaaang!
Fourth.
It swung the hammer like a madman.
Once, then again.
Each time the overlord landed a blow, the stake was chipped away little by little.
“How crude. There’s no way something like that can stop it….”
But the cost was enormous.
Kwa-jik-krrrk!
At last, the war hammer in the overlord’s hands couldn’t withstand the impact and shattered to pieces.
Fragments of the hammer flew in all directions.
Since it had lost its weapon, now it was really over.
But my prediction was miserably wrong.
The overlord didn’t hesitate.
The moment the hammer broke, it thrust out its fist.
Kwa-ja-ja-jak!
The sound of bone and flesh crashing head-on into a chunk of mineral.
Its fist was crushed.
But at the same time, the front of the tungsten stake caved in.
“Crazy.”
The curse slipped out before I knew it.
Was that even possible?
It was impossible even for an A-rank Hunter’s physical abilities.
“Kroooooooo!”
Kwa-jak! Kwa-ja-ja-ja-jak!
The overlord seemed to feel no pain at all.
With its right fist shattered, it swung its left.
Even with both fists reduced to tatters and no fingers left, it kept driving its forearms forward and smashing the stake apart.
“My God….”
A desperate yet glorious sight.
Sharon stared with her mouth hanging open, unable to say a word.
And then, finally.
KWA-AAAAAAANG!
The final fragment was chipped away at last.
My finishing move scattered into a handful of sand in midair.
“What….”
I was shocked.
My strongest attack had been broken through in such a primitive way?
“Krr… hrrr….”
The overlord sank to its knees on the spot.
It was completely exhausted.
Especially its arms, which had been reduced to an unrecognizable mess.
An arm with bones protruding and tendons torn apart.
And yet it still didn’t fall.
Those red eyes were still fixed on me.
I wasn’t unscathed either.
After all, I’d just expended one arm.
It would take some time before I could take it back.
A taut tension hung over the arena.
Neither of us could move rashly.
That was when it happened.
Behind the overlord’s back, the air shimmered faintly.
The one who had concealed himself perfectly with an illusion skill.
The ace unit I had kept hidden from the very beginning.
“…!”
Puuu-THUD!
The spear of Ace Unit pierced through the overlord’s back.
Right where its heart was.
The spear tip burst out through its chest.
“Krr… ugh….”
The overlord’s massive body swayed violently.
It looked down at the spear tip protruding from its chest as if unable to believe it.
Kuuuuung!
The overlord’s heavy body collapsed.
Dust billowed up.
Ace Unit drew a V with his fingers toward me, as if to show off.
I couldn’t help but snort at that self-assured sight.
“D-did we get it…?”
Sharon asked in a trembling voice.
I shook my head in response.
“Thanks to that, I’m sure there’s more left. Get ready.”
“Eh?”
No sooner had my words ended than an anomaly occurred.
The overlord’s body turned into black smoke and vanished.
The smoke gathered in one place, soon forming a familiar shape.
An Orc Overlord made entirely of black smoke.
I let out a dry laugh.
“Yeah, I figured. Bosses should at least have a two-phase fight.”
Ace Unit, flustered, thrust his spear in again.
But the spear passed through the overlord’s body without any resistance.
“…!”
As if Ace Unit were beneath its notice, it approached me.
Is it a ghost type?
This got troublesome.
A foe physical attacks don’t work on.
Different from the Ash Golem I’d met on the 30th floor.
That one was a mass of dust, so I could at least deal with it by compacting it somehow.
But this one was an incorporeal spirit with no form at all.
A real crisis had arrived.
Earth-type magic is basically based on physical impact.
It’s the worst possible match for a ghost type like this.
[Krr… aah….]
A hand made of smoke flew toward my heart.
But I didn’t dodge.
Kaaang!
A mithril sand barrier automatically formed around my body.
This barrier, with its magical resistance, could even defend against an incorporeal attack.
[…….]
The ghost’s eyes flickered with bewilderment.
It seemed it hadn’t expected its attack to fail.
I was just as stumped.
My attacks wouldn’t work on it either.
A perfect standoff.
It was the worst possible situation, with neither side able to land a real hit on the other.
“What do I do here?”
No sharp idea came to mind.
I looked down at the magic battery attached to my waist.
Magic cancel.
Would it work on that thing?
If the act of becoming incorporeal itself was magic, maybe I could dispel it.
But the risk of only getting one use was too great.
If this didn’t work, I would truly be left with no way to deal with it.
Just then.
“You’re an interesting junior.”
A voice came from somewhere.
Familiar yet unfamiliar.
I turned toward the direction it came from.
There was no one there.
But I knew the owner of that voice.
[Krooooooar!]
The overlord’s movements stopped.
No, it hadn’t stopped.
It was thrashing like it was being held by an invisible hand.
And before my eyes, space ripped apart.
Through the split in space, a man walked out.
His hair was neatly slicked back.
Black eyes with no whites.
And a robe exactly like mine.
The middle-aged mage compressed and sucked the overlord’s soul into his hand, like a marble.
The magic-cutting middle-aged mage grinned at me.
“You got yourself a very nice robe, didn’t you?”
“Sharon, let’s get out of here.”
I grabbed Sharon’s hand and ran.