Chapter 71
The hall stirred.
More precisely, it was a murmur steeped in contempt.
How dare the fledgling on the platform utter the words “summary execution” before these hardened warriors.
Moreover, no one had ever imagined that the Scarecrow expedition leader would be granted the authority to carry out a summary execution, let alone that he would dare exercise it.
Not even Kael himself, the expedition leader, had imagined it.
Amid the derision, the boy gripping the holy sword spoke.
“What do you think is the reason the Demon King's Tower remained a deathtrap that no one could enter for 400 years, yet the Council continued sending scouts into it!”
The boy shouted with his eyes opened wide.
“The reason the Supreme Council of the Continent has remained intact even amid this chaotic world situation is that we share a common enemy: the demonkin! Therefore, this expedition is founded on the great cause of subjugating the Demon King! Get a grip!”
The boy's cry rang through the military tent.
His conviction regarding the subjugation of the demonkin was worthy of a direct descendant of the Hero.
But this was neither the time nor the place for it to be properly appreciated.
Someone casually spat out,
“Calm down, kid. You don't need to get so immersed in your role. Nobody's stupid enough to believe that Heroes are hereditary. ”
He was the commander of the warriors directly under the emperor of the Sahad Empire.
“Ah, I'll grant you that the milky smell wafting off you is that of the female Hero. Isn't that right, everyone?”
“Pfft!”
The masked desert warriors lined up behind the commander were the first to burst out laughing.
Taking that as a signal, the entire hall soon became a sea of laughter.
“Bwahahahahaha!!!”
“Hehehehehe!!”
Once the commotion had died down, the commander of Sahad's warriors stepped forward with an arrogant stride.
He then spoke toward the boy's flushed face.
“The holy sword you're holding is nothing but a toy. It's been over 500 years since the threat of the demonkin disappeared.”
…
“Furthermore, we warriors of Sahad obey only the commands of the great Sun God. We won't listen to lectures from you or that Scarecrow expedition leader.”
The boy's jaw muscles twitched.
“Fine. I'll tell you why you should listen to me.”
Shrrring-!
The metallic sound of the holy sword being drawn from its sheath split the military tent.
At the same time, the commander of Sahad's warriors also drew the curved sword at his waist, radiating killing intent.
Chaos was about to erupt.
The commander took a step forward, and the two were just about to clash.
Vwooom-!
At that moment, magical power flowed in.
The commander of Sahad's warriors stepped back at that instant.
“Huh…?”
The boy, a descendant of the Hero, froze in place as though time had stopped.
It was magic.
Someone had cast a spell.
Everyone's eyes turned toward the same place.
A young man wearing a navy-blue pointed hat.
He was the Tower Master of Ram, dispatched by the Mage Tower Alliance.
He was a genius mage famous for becoming a Tower Master at the youngest age ever.
With a smile on his face, he leisurely walked toward the frozen boy.
Then he looked toward the commander of Sahad's warriors and spoke.
“You'd better not waste your strength here.”
The spell had hit only the boy, but it had targeted the commander as well.
Feeling insulted, the warriors of Sahad all drew their weapons and charged.
But the Tower Master didn't even blink as he raised his hand.
Fwoooooosh-!
The currents of air in midair transformed into ropes and bound the bodies of all the charging warriors.
“How many castings was that…?”
“And he activated it with incantation alone!”
“As expected of the Tower Master of Ram…”
While the mages present stood dumbfounded,
the Tower Master ignored the surrounding reactions and approached expedition leader Kael, casually draping an arm around his shoulders.
“Isn't that right, Scarecrow?”
Kael's eyes wavered.
He couldn't bring himself to speak.
Maintaining the arm around Kael's shoulders, the Tower Master stood on the platform and turned his gaze toward the old adviser who had returned alive from the Tower.
“Elder. Didn't you say that the maximum number of people who could form a party in the Demon King's Tower was 50?”
“That is so, but…”
The Tower Master of Ram then made the following proposal.
“In that case, since we have to split into parties anyway, how about separating the ones who just want the treasure from the real expedition?”
The high-ranking Council officials present were shocked by the Tower Master's blatant choice of words.
‘The ones who just want the treasure.’
‘The real expedition.’
How could he say something so blunt?
The officials had struggled to establish the expedition's legitimacy and a convincing facade by inviting three heavyweight advisers and appointing a Scarecrow expedition leader, yet all their efforts had been rendered laughable in an instant.
Even while bound by magic, the boy who was a descendant of the Hero gritted his teeth and protested.
“Are you saying we should delay eradicating the Demon King yet again··!”
“Boy, everyone who cared about hunting the Demon King died ages ago. Besides, the second Tower Rush can't be stopped anyway, can it?”
“How irresponsible. Tower Master of Ram! Are you going to stand by and watch the greedy ones?”
The boy shouted.
The Tower Master smiled slyly.
“Wouldn't it be better to place the Tower under a system and manage it? The lords of the Council probably want that too.”
At those words, the Council officials finally began to intervene, clearing their throats.
A round table was soon arranged, and a lengthy debate began.
In the end, they agreed to divide the parties into different types, just as the Tower Master of Ram had proposed.
An artifact search party and a scout party.
They were divided under those names, but borrowing the Tower Master's choice of words, the former were ‘the ones who just want the treasure,’ while the latter were ‘the real expedition.’
The allocation of personnel began immediately.
“Those volunteering for the search party, stand on the right. Those volunteering for the scout party, stand on the left!”
The expedition was a massive force numbering in the hundreds.
But the number of people among them who would go above the 100th floor was
a total of 12.
Only those twelve stood on the left. That number even included the expedition leader.
The descendant of the Hero was outraged by the result, while Kael was unable to hide his confusion.
The Tower Master of Ram said with a sly smile,
“Doesn't it feel elite?”
*
A short while after the war council ended,
Kael cautiously sought out a corner of the military tent where the Tower Master of Ram was staying.
“Scarecrow, what brings you here?”
“I came to thank you.”
Kael began speaking politely, and the Tower Master replied with a kind smile.
“I'm ashamed. I'm the expedition leader, yet you mediated in my place…”
“No, it's fine~ I hate noisy things too.”
The Tower Master lightly waved his hand.
Kael bowed his head and said,
“Thank you. It's reassuring to have someone as skilled as you step up for the upper-floor scout party.”
Kael expressed his gratitude to all 12 people who had volunteered for the scout party, but most of them were merely hot-blooded young people.
After all, none of the core personnel from the Six Great Powers were included.
Therefore, it was incredibly reassuring that the Tower Master of Ram had volunteered for the ‘real expedition,’ namely, the scout party.
But then.
“Huh?”
The Tower Master of Ram opened his eyes wide in puzzlement.
“Take the lead? I'm obviously on the side of ‘the ones who just want the treasure,’ aren't I?”
“Pardon…?”
The Tower Master of Ram seemed to realize Kael's misunderstanding and began to roar with laughter.
The more he laughed, the stiffer Kael's expression became.
This was bad. The Tower Master of Ram wasn't part of the scout party. If so, did that mean there were actually only 11 people?
Looking at the stunned Kael, the Tower Master of Ram spoke as though comforting him.
“It's okay, Scarecrow! It wouldn't matter which party I joined anyway!”
It was a strange thing to say. What did he mean, it wouldn't matter which party he joined?
“What do you mean?”
An answer soon came.
“Either way, on this expedition·· once we enter the Tower, no one is coming back out!”
It was a fairly shocking statement.
The lighthearted tone was in stark contrast to the content.
Amid his extreme confusion, Kael asked,
“The adviser who had experienced the Tower told us that it was designed so we could always descend… Are you saying his testimony was wrong?”
“No. That part is true. The Tower's system definitely works that way.”
“Then… what do you mean when you say we can't descend?”
The Tower Master of Ram patted Kael on the shoulder and chuckled.
“You really are a Scarecrow, aren't you?”
“What?”
“It's not the Tower's rules that stop us from descending.”
An eerie curve formed at the corner of the Tower Master's mouth.
“Naturally, it'll be other humans.”
*
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*
*
*
“Watch over this place, Beholder. I'm counting on you.”
<I will… obey…>
All of its eyeballs blinked at once, as though greeting me.
And so I stationed the Beholder.
Afterward, I cleared the 140th floor and opened the door to the 141st floor.
It was the final floor planned for this cycle.
[Defender: Incomplete Death Knight (141F)]
A monster in the form of a knight cloaked in a black aura.
According to the strategy guide, it had no weaknesses other than the holy attribute.
With considerable resistance to the dark attribute, it would give me quite a hard time with Death Mark.
The calculations showed that it would take more than 50 stacks to kill it.
With my current stats, it was indeed an opponent I couldn't defeat.
But I had a ridiculously overpowered skill.
The creature soon charged at me, but I didn't defend myself.
The moment its attack was directed at me.
Shhk—
.
.
.
Clack!
Time God's Oblivion activated.
And when I still didn't dodge, Sun God's Wrath activated as well.
Kwooooooong-!!!!!
An explosion erupted along with an intense flash of light.
The creature turned to ash and evaporated.
[Successfully defeated the Incomplete Death Knight on the 141st floor]
[Level up! 142Lv -> 143Lv]
[3 stat points acquired!]
“Phew...”
I sat down where I was and opened the stat distribution window.
[Strength stat increased by 1.]
[Agility stat increased by 1.]
[Sense stat increased by 1.]
If I hadn't had Sun God's Wrath, climbing with my current strategy of spreading my points around would have been difficult.
That was because monsters with weaknesses I couldn't strike occasionally appeared.
After finishing my stat distribution, I pitched a tent in a corner of the 141st floor and made camp.
I leisurely logged into the gallery and reported the situation.
______
Title: Arrived at the 141st Floor. Placed a Beholder on the 139th.
Author: ㅇㅇ(141F)
Now I can properly identify an intruder's weaknesses when one shows up ㅇㅇ.
______
I pressed refresh.
The first reactions were to the fact that I'd climbed another 20 floors.
ㅇㅇ(487F) : Damn. Another 20 floors.
ㅇㅇ(340F) : This is fucking insane
ㅇㅇ(308F) : At this rate, theoretically, you'll reach the 1,000th floor in a month and a half ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Fenrir : Bullshit lol
After that came the reactions to my creation of an undead entity.
ㅇㅇ(702F) : Good, good.
ㅇㅇ(249F) : Beholder, how does it feel to become Newbie's first undead entity in the gallery?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(168F) : It's just a clone, so I don't feel much… Newbie, what did it feel like?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(141F)(Author) : It was fucking wild. I could even see the shape of mana. But…
Afterward, I described the ominous sight of myself that I had seen through the Beholder.
In response, I received the following explanation.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(364F) : The gap in rank must be fucking huge ㄷㄷ
ㄴ Seol Harin : If the difference in existence is severe, you can look like that… The Fear passive probably played a part too.
ㄴ Death Note Tripitaka : Of course! You finally realized what level of existence the Reaper has!
I asked the Reaper, who used a named account, about something I'd suddenly wondered.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(141F)(Author) : Death Note Tripitaka, when I killed the Beholder earlier, I used Death Mark with double casting, right? Is it okay to use it this way from now on?
After the question was posted,
Master Reaper, for some reason, didn't answer right away.
The Reaper from the 710th floor then jumped in, aghast.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : What?????? Wait, you double-cast Death Mark???
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(548F) : Is that normally not possible?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(367F) : ??? : Is this difficult?
Wondering if something had gone wrong because of the intense reaction, I asked cautiously.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(141F)(Author) : Yeah. They both cast at the same time. Are there any side effects? Is this not allowed?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : It's not that it's not allowed… it's impossible… Black magic based on instant-death skills, like the teleportation you learned, can only be activated individually, so it's fundamentally impossible to deploy multiple spells simultaneously by splitting your consciousness…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(346F) : It's not “impossible” if Newbie did itㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : Isn't that just by normie standards?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(468F) : If Newbie can do it, just accept it as one of those things now ㅇㅇ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(461F) : Anyway, I guess it normally isn't possibleㅋㅋ
That was when the master posted a comment.
ㄴ Death Note Tripitaka : You brat… Do you really not know how you did it even after using it?
He seemed to know how double-casting Death Mark had been possible.
But his tone sounded displeased about something.
Soon, he began venting his frustration.
ㄴ Death Note Tripitaka : I knew you would try this! And yet you're asking such a stupid question! I refused to explain because I was annoyed at your insolence!
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(141F)(Author) : Huh?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : No, Master… Are you saying instant-death derivative techniques can be double-cast?
A reply mixed with a scolding soon poured out.
ㄴ Death Note Tripitaka : Only that brat!! He violated the laws of the Great Tablet and stole another Reaper's instant-death skill, ending up with two of them!!!
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : Ah…
That was when I realized why the master had been displeased.
Apparently, the fact that I could use ‘Double Death Mark’ was related to having two instant-death skills.
The master continued with a detailed explanation.
ㄴ Death Note Tripitaka : Having two instant-death skills means you've gained another vessel in your soul to contain the authority of death! That's why you can cast a Reaper's unique black magic in parallel!
After hearing the master's explanation, the Reaper from the 710th floor asked in utter shock,
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : Master, then does that mean that brat can double-cast all his other advanced derivative skills too?
“Oh?”
If that was possible, it would be incredible.
An answer soon came.