Rank

So “my younger self” planted in you the memory-transmission spell I had always envisioned.

The middle-aged mage who cuts magic explained calmly.

“That spell clung to your body like a kind of seed, and the moment you met me today, it activated and sprouted.”

Only then did I understand why the young man on the 15th Floor had let me go so readily.

The faint sense of unease I’d felt when parting from him.

It was because he had planted this spell in me.

“It was a good idea. Until I received that memory, I had no recollection of meeting you.”

“How is that possible? This is even further in the future than that time.”

“Well. Is it really? To put it bluntly, he and I may not even be the same person.”

I couldn’t make sense of those words at all.

Just as I was about to ask for a more detailed explanation,

“I still have something I want to ask you.”

The middle-aged mage who cuts magic said as he filled his teacup.

“My younger self said you’d met the ‘me from the future’.... What did he look like? Did he seem older than I do now?”

I thought of the mad old man I’d met on the 5th Floor.

Snow-white hair and eyes that gleamed with madness.

He was clearly different from the middle-aged man standing before me now.

“He looked much older than you do now. So I thought he might have dementia.”

At my answer, the middle-aged mage who cuts magic let out a deep sigh.

A complicated expression, tinged with disappointment, flickered across his face.

“Then... it may mean I’ve ultimately failed.”

He murmured something incomprehensible under his breath.

Failed? What exactly had he failed at?

Before I could even ask, he shook his head and continued.

“No, there’s still too little information. I can’t draw the full picture from fragmented memories alone. I need to gather more pieces.”

His gaze turned back to me.

I instinctively realized this was the middle-aged mage’s request.

“Keep meeting me in other time periods. Never give up halfway.”

“That’s not something I can just do because I want to. On each floor of the Tower….”

Without thinking, I was about to say the word Tower.

But the middle-aged mage who cuts magic quickly raised a hand to stop me.

His eyes sharpened in an instant.

“Shh.”

He brought his index finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet.

“Between us, don’t carelessly mention ‘that.’”

I stared at him, not understanding a thing.

He acted cautiously, as if someone might be eavesdropping on our conversation.

“I know what you’re worried about. But even if you don’t want it, it will happen. You’re practically chosen.”

I let out a sigh.

I hated being led around by vague words.

I said honestly,

“I honestly have no idea what’s what. Can’t you just explain it clearly without all the pretentious talk?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m not sure, but I think I’m your partner now. If you explain, I can help better, right?”

“I see.... You don’t know, huh....”

“?”

“Regrettably, I don’t think this is the time to tell you.”

“???”

“Haha, I learned it from you. It works wonderfully, doesn’t it? I see why you use this way of speaking.”

“….”

This old man actually had a ridiculously petty streak, didn’t he?

He’d even brought up the robe, and now he was paying me back for tiny jokes like this too?

The middle-aged mage who cuts magic chuckled and spoke again.

“Just keep doing what you always do. Whether you want it or not, you will inevitably come face to face with another me from another timeline.”

I had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

But one thing was certain.

I had been swept onto some enormous current.

“You want me to just take it?”

“That’s true.”

He fell silent for a moment, then stood up as if having made up his mind.

“It’s true that you’re my precious Milestone, and my only hope. It would be troublesome if someone like you died or got hurt too easily. Very troublesome.”

He came toward me and reached out his hand.

His finger lightly touched the magic battery at my waist.

Fwaat-!

A faint light bloomed from the belt.

I could feel a new spell being stored in the space where Magic Cancel had been.

A complex pattern was engraved onto the belt’s surface, then quickly vanished.

“It’s a gift.”

The middle-aged mage who cuts magic said.

“It’s a spell that turns an hourglass over.”

“I can’t understand pretentious explanations.”

“… It lets you go back one hour. It’s single-use, so use it carefully.”

A spell that rewinds time?

Was something like that even allowed to exist?

A spell I’d only ever imagined had ended up in my hands.

“It’s about time. Now, head back. Your companions too.”

When he snapped his fingers, Sharon, Sandworm, and Ace Unit, whose bodies had been frozen in place in midair, were freed.

They landed on the floor with dazed expressions, as if wondering what had happened.

“Sage!”

Sharon rushed to me with a worried look.

I nodded to show that I was fine.

By then the middle-aged mage who cuts magic had already put away the table and chairs.

He was standing before the tear in space, just like when he first appeared.

He looked back at me one last time and gave a cryptic smile.

“See you again next time, stranger of time.”

With those words, he disappeared beyond the torn space.

The moment he vanished, the arena’s scenery began to dissipate before my eyes like a mirage.

The familiar sensation of being expelled from the Tower washed over my whole body.

I closed my eyes.

My mind was a mess.

***

When I came to, I was lying on my bed in my room.

Outside the window, it was still the dark pre-dawn hours.

My whole body felt heavy.

I was overwhelmed by a crushing fatigue, as if my mental strength had been drained dry.

“Ugh....”

A groan slipped out of me.

Normally I’d have gotten up and turned on my computer to check the gallery first thing, but today I didn’t even have the energy for that.

“I really need to rest this time.”

I needed some time to pause my Tower climb and regroup.

My head was too full of tangled thoughts.

Me, becoming the magic-cutting old man’s memory conduit?

And, true to his boring, pretentious old-fart nature, he still hadn’t said anything clear.

The more I thought about it, the more my head hurt.

I pushed myself up from the bed.

Come to think of it, there was still one unresolved matter.

I took out the orb I had set aside in a corner of the room for the moment.

The second elemental essence Broker had procured. It was earth again.

The moment I took it out, the air in the room changed subtly.

Ace Unit, which had even dropped the phone it had been watching, had crawled over here.

Sandworm, which had stayed in ring form on my finger.

The gazes of both summons locked onto the essence in my hand.

“….”

Ace Unit silently came up and sat close at my feet.

Then it looked up at me in a posture far more courteous and loyal than usual.

No, honestly, I’d never seen it this docile before.

Its eyes were fixed solely on the elemental essence.

[Sandworm insists it has every right to eat that this time.]

Sandworm conveyed its intentions directly through telepathy.

Even its voice was tinged with anxiety.

I could only give this precious item to one of them.

Ace Unit and Sandworm.

A subtle air of rivalry flowed between the two loyal subordinates.

But I didn’t agonize over it.

The answer had been decided from the start.

“Look at this greedy little thing.... You already ate it last time, didn’t you?”

I shook my head at Ace Unit.

Then I saw Ace Unit’s shoulders droop.

But perhaps it understood, because it didn’t argue further.

I held the elemental essence out toward the ring inhabited by Sandworm.

“It’s yours.”

[Sandworm expresses its deep gratitude for its great master’s wise decision.]

The ring emitted a light and sucked in the essence.

The essence was absorbed into the ring and vanished in an instant.

And a change came over Sandworm.

The energy radiating from Sandworm grew deeper and more powerful than before.

But honestly, I couldn’t clearly feel the difference.

There was no dramatic outward change, like when Ace Unit had eaten the essence.

[Sandworm says its “rank” has risen by one level.]

“Rank?”

[Sandworm explains that it is the grade of existence.]

Sandworm’s explanation echoed in my head.

According to it, every being in this world possessed an invisible rank.

And there existed an absolute law that those of a lower rank could not inflict any harm on those of a higher rank.

“How do you raise it?”

[Sandworm recommends gathering the faith of mortals. This is the path to becoming a god.]

[But it says the easiest and fastest method is predation like before: absorbing the essence of a being with equal or higher rank and making it your own.]

I thought of the middle-aged mage who cuts magic I had met today.

His overwhelming power.

None of my attacks or magic worked on him at all.

[Sandworm speculates that that being must have done the same thing to raise its rank.]

I nodded.

Only now did I understand.

It wasn’t just a difference in levels or skills.

He and I had differed in the very rank of our souls.

[Sandworm advises that Master should also raise his rank as soon as possible.]

What it said made sense.

There was no guarantee I would never meet another being like the magic-cutting old man again.

No, according to him, I was fated to meet another version of him for sure.

I couldn’t keep getting helplessly overwhelmed every time that happened.

I was convinced.

That I had to raise my own “rank,” beyond merely becoming stronger.

***

Meanwhile, in Geneva, Switzerland, where the headquarters of the World Hunter Association was located.

A special training ground there reserved for certified S-rank Hunters only.

At the center of a cutting-edge facility that could create a virtual environment almost identical to reality, a man was kneeling.

“Kuhk... huff....”

His whole body was drenched in sweat as he gasped for breath.

It was Kim Suho, South Korea’s strongest S-rank Hunter.

Around him, the floor and walls of the training hall were utterly destroyed, as if a storm had swept through.

They were traces of the destruction he had caused.

Yet standing before him was another man, unhurt and completely fine.

Perfectly composed posture, a relaxed expression.

A cloak emblazoned with the stars and stripes fluttered behind him.

Demigod, the S-rank Hunter known as the world’s number one and the man closest to god.

Demigod looked down at the kneeling Kim Suho with emotionless eyes.

“Hey, Kim Kadian.”

Demigod’s voice rang low throughout the entire training hall.

“At this rate, you’ll fail to clear the next floor.”

A confident declaration.

Kim Suho couldn’t lift his head.

Because more than anyone else, he himself knew that Demigod’s words were a painful truth.