Chapter 70
Fwaaash-!
Fwaaash-!
[ - - ]
“Uh…!”
It worked.
It was a success.
At the same time, two strokes were engraved on the Beholder’s torso.
It was an astonishing result.
This effectively meant that Death Mark’s performance had doubled.
The number of stacks required had been cut in half.
But at the same time, a question occurred to me.
Why hadn’t my teacher taught me something this useful?
My teacher could have told me as soon as I learned Persona Divide.
<Kieeeeeek-!!>
The moment the second stack formed, it let out a shriek and counterattacked.
Perhaps it had been frightened, because its reaction was somewhat delayed.
I had to put those thoughts aside for now and focus on the battle.
Woooong-
Purple mana projectiles poured down from its countless eyeballs.
“Baran, dodge!”
Kroaaang-!
Baran flapped its wings and glided through the air.
Its attack sliced through empty space, grazing Baran’s tail as it passed.
The Beholder followed from far away.
‘It’s not fast.’
Compared to the monsters on the previous floors, the Beholder’s mobility and attack speed were noticeably slow.
But as I already knew, its true terror lay elsewhere.
Swoooosh-! Crackle!
As if it had predicted where I would dodge, the next mana projectile precisely covered the trajectory along which Baran was about to move.
“Not this way! Turn!”
Blood Bird Control. I hurriedly yanked the reins and wheeled around.
It was reading my movements and their flow.
At the instant it was about to fire its next attack…
‘Air Bind!’
‘Air Bind!’
I deployed the binding spell with Double Casting.
Swoooong-!
A net of wind shot toward the Beholder.
But it dodged the entire trajectory.
It was slow and lumbering, yet it never got hit.
Its movements were as if it knew where the magic would fly before it was cast.
It soon fired its magic cannon.
“Urgh!”
As if it had finished analyzing my movements, attacks came at me from every angle.
There was no angle left for me to dodge through this time.
“Magic Shield!”
Fwaaash-!
The mana barrier that unfolded before me deflected the Beholder’s rays.
“Just buying time is pretty tough…”
Kaaang-!
The barrier did not break, but the shockwave still reached me.
And in the midst of that exchange…
I could feel that the cooldown had come around.
‘Now!’
Once again, I used both consciousnesses to cast Death Mark.
Fwaaash-! Fwaaash-!
[ - - - - ]
Four stacks had formed.
‘The time…’
10.5 seconds.
Death Mark’s twelve-second cooldown had been reduced.
This was the moment I could truly feel the results of continuously investing in Intelligence.
In that manner, I built two stacks every ten seconds or so.
[ - - - - - - ]
[ - - - - - - - - ]
The Beholder struggled and fired mana projectiles along tricky trajectories, but it could not break through the combo of Baran’s mobility and Magic Shield.
And then came the final ninth stack.
Fwaaash-!
[⬛]
Dark red letters were completed at the center of its eye.
Thump-!
<G-G-G-G-G-G-G…!>
All of the Beholder’s eyes trembled violently, then lost focus and plummeted from the air.
[139th-floor Beholder defeated successfully]
[Promotion Reward 13,800G acquired!]
[Level Up! 140Lv -> 141Lv]
[3 Stat Points Acquired!]
Thud!
“Phew…”
After catching its fall, I jumped down from Baran’s back.
“I need to hurry before it disappears.”
I approached the Beholder’s corpse and immediately activated the Circle in my dantian.
Blood Drain.
Blood Command.
The extraction and reinjection of spirit blood.
After going through the stomach-churning process of ingesting it, I poured the mana-infused spirit blood back over the Beholder’s corpse.
Sssssss-!
The spilled blood covered the grotesque tentacles and eyeballs, forming new blood vessels.
It was time to perform the final step of the Blood Spirit Tea Ceremony.
“…”
But it didn’t seem necessary to change its name.
It wasn’t something I would be climbing the Tower with from now on.
“Rise, Beholder.”
As if responding to my call, it rose into the air.
[The third soldier has come under your control.]
“Good. Time for a Necro Sync test.”
I approached the Beholder without delay and reached out my hand.
Since it was an undead created through the Blood Spirit Tea Ceremony, my mana had already been embedded in it.
Therefore, there was no need to sew our bodies together or go through any similar process.
I closed my eyes and focused on the demonic energy.
Fwaaaaaash-!!!
Along with the sensation I was now familiar with, half of my consciousness was sucked into the Beholder.
“……”
I stopped breathing for a moment.
It was incredible.
Not only could I see 360 degrees in every direction at once, but countless wavelengths beyond the range of visible light appeared in my vision as colors.
And more than anything else…
“This…”
For the first time, I saw the mana scattered through the air.
Its flow and heat, along with the minute vibrations in the atmosphere created by mana, were converted into visual information and fed into my mind.
‘So that’s why it dodged all my magic.’
Then I wondered how I must look from the Beholder’s perspective.
I turned my gaze.
The Reaper girl entered my field of vision.
At that moment…
“…This…”
I was left speechless.
“……”
She was utterly ominous.
Jet-black demonic energy rose and shimmered like a heat haze over the delicate girl’s form.
Especially her eyes.
The area around her eyes swirled pitch-black, as if it had been scribbled over with a thick pencil.
‘Run. Don’t you dare oppose her.’
The Beholder’s vision interpreted what it sensed from this Reaper girl in that way.
*
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Demon Realm.
The massive encampment of the Human Alliance expedition.
Inside the enormous central war tent, a full council of war for the advance on the Demon King Tower had begun.
On the platform stood one of the expedition’s advisors.
An old woman who had personally experienced the First Tower Rush four hundred years ago stood leaning on a cane.
“As everyone knows, the Demon King Tower has been an object of fear for humanity for the past four hundred years. That was because of a monster that appeared on the first floor of the Demon King Tower four hundred years ago. I am referring to the Gatekeeper, said to rival even the Demon King.”
The old woman’s voice echoed through the war tent.
“But now that the demonic energy has vanished, the knowledge of the Tower Rush that was widely known four hundred years ago has become important once more. I shall pass it on to you now.”
The audience leaned in, and the old woman began with a rather intriguing preface.
“The Demon King Tower’s rules are remarkably generous. Generous enough to make one suspect that it welcomes intruders.”
It was strange to hear that the Demon King Tower was lenient toward humans.
“There are no qualifications required to climb the Tower. You may ascend at any time, and if you wish, you may descend to the lower floors and leave. If the monsters on the lower floors have revived, you must fight them again, but it is even a place that allows you to flee without killing the monsters…”
The old woman continued her testimony.
“You may also bring in any equipment you wish, and large parties may enter as well. The limit on the number of people who may enter at once is an astonishing fifty. All of them may enter the same floor.”
She added,
“The only restriction is the accumulation of fatigue every twenty-five floors. If you try to climb twenty-five floors in a day, you will become unable to move on the spot.”
The old woman then mentioned the fatigue recovery potions obtainable within the Demon King Tower as a way to deal with that fatigue.
At that point, another of the advisors standing behind her stepped forward—a noble from a family that had obtained immense spoils during the Tower Rush four hundred years ago.
“I’ll explain the Golden Carriage.”
Taking over from the old woman, he began sharing information about the Golden Carriage that appeared in the Demon King Tower once a month.
“Not only can you receive supplies from the carriage, but it also carries extremely rare magical tools and relics. For example…”
The items he began naming were on an entirely different level from the rewards found in other dungeons.
The room grew heated as he even mentioned the national treasures of the great powers.
Everyone began to grow ecstatic.
“You mean there are treasures like that even before the 100th floor!”
“The Eastern Empire’s imperial seal came from the Demon King Tower?!”
“So this was the true nature of the Tower Rush humanity enjoyed four centuries ago!”
No one could hide their excitement.
It was then.
Expedition Commander Kael stepped forward, as if to calm the heated atmosphere.
“Attention. I will now explain the operational objective of this expedition.”
Kael’s gaze swept over the assembled figures inside the war tent.
“Our mission is to determine where the source that turned the Tower into a deathtrap for four hundred years—the Gatekeeper’s demonic energy—is currently located.”
That was the objective set by the Council.
“Humanity can detect that energy from outside the Tower only as far as the early 100th floors. Without entering the Tower directly, there is no way to determine what lies beyond that point.”
He put force into his voice.
“Therefore, this expedition will serve as the vanguard of that investigation.”
But the fighters’ response to Kael’s speech was colder than ice.
Kael knew the reason well.
The spoils.
The Golden Carriage’s items. The pile of gold coins on the 100th floor. The enormous golden chest.
Most of the people gathered here—or perhaps every single person beneath the platform—cared only about such things.
What lay on the higher floors, why the Gatekeeper had disappeared, and which floor the Demon King lurked on were of no interest to them.
But Kael had no right to criticize them.
He, too, had come here with another motive in his heart.
He had become expedition commander solely to rescue the friends who might be stranded somewhere in the Demon King Tower.
But…
Still, there was at least one person in the expedition who genuinely pursued a greater cause.
Someone appeared, shouting angrily as if displeased by the disorderly atmosphere.
“Everyone, listen!”
The voice came from the platform—in other words, from behind Kael.
A direct descendant of the Hero and one of the expedition’s three advisors.
His voice had not yet deepened; it was that of a boy in the middle of puberty, and under the platform lights, his face looked even younger than Kael’s.
The boy stepped forward, gripping the hilt of the holy sword.
“Those who intend to take only the gold coins from the 100th floor and leave, get out of this expedition immediately!”
The entire room froze.
The boy continued with an angry expression.
“If anyone tries to flee from the 100th floor after entering the Tower… I shall order their summary execution under the authority of Expedition Commander Kael!”
The war tent erupted in commotion.