Chapter 45: Tower (4)

Everyone made a confused expression.

‘What is going on…’

But Chulman just sighed.

What was the point of thinking such things.

They were going to die soon anyway.

It didn’t matter whether he died from Minhee’s hands or Youngjae’s hands.

At that instant, something flew over at a very fast speed as it smashed his head.

Puuk!

‘Dammit…’

Chulman fell unconscious as he felt his senses fade away.

Youngjae, who had gotten the 8 others unconscious by throwing the daggers, walked up and chose the 9th room.

Suuuururk.

As he chose the <dagger of the princess trapped in the tower> in front of the 9th room, the door opened and the injuries of the people inside the room disappeared.

Hansoo chuckled at the people laid around on the ground with all their injuries healed and then started to loosen up his body.

‘Though they’re a bit strong… one is easy enough’.

The underlings of the Dark Mad Lord are strong.

Since they had not only monopolized the runes of others, but skills and artifacts as well.

But that differed from person to person.

And one person could be taken care of simply by releasing the hidden strength.

If it doesn’t work out then he could just take a blade, kill them off and just heal afterwards.

Since that was his battle style anyway.

‘Which means… this girl’s artifacts are mine.’

Hansoo chuckled.

There was no need to run around from place to place in order to gather artifacts in the Tower.

Since the underlings of the Dark Mad Lord will make their way to him by themselves.

Simple.

They will set some things up and bring artifacts up with them.

And he just needed to cut off their heads and take those.

Hansoo took the runes and artifacts that came out from her body and then showed a conspicuous color as he saw an item.

‘Seven Stripe Cape… to wear something like this.’

Hansoo made a slightly astonished expression.

If she had activated this and fought then it would really have been annoying.

<seven stripe cape>

An amazing cape that increased the defense against seven different kinds of weapons.

‘It was hard enough fighting without the powerful artifacts but this is great.’

This was a huge help in his situation where his stats had decreased and where he could not use the Dekrados set.

And even more so if you take into account of the fact that he would fight against other humans more often.

The underlings of Dark Mad Lord will suspect him with it but they won’t be able to confirm.

Since it isn’t the only one of its kind despite it being hard to obtain.

Hansoo who had prepared some things started to ponder about his future plans.

‘There’s two stages left.’

If he goes through two more things then all the preparations for entering the Final Dungeon will be done.

The first one of those.

<a well-imitated philosopher’s stone.>

All the artifacts that are currently equipped on him are colorless ones.

Including the Seven Stripe Cape and the Dekrados Set.

But his runes will become red during the Final Dungeon.

And of course he could only fight the enemy if he prepares red gear.

‘But that’s impossible.’

It was quite obvious actually.

How would he gain red gear in the colorless stage?

To do that he needed to gain a growing artifact like Nurmaha’s ring and then feed it with a lot of runes to make it red.

It would impossible to cover his body with such artifacts.

But the thing that made it possible was the weaker version of the Philosopher’s Stone.

If you turn it into powder and then apply it, the quality of the energy a weapon could absorb increases by one level.

Though it’s not like a new skill is unlocked like with the growing artifacts, the simple fact of it being able to absorb the red energy and not the colorless energy was still a huge improvement.

‘Though there’s a time limit… it’s good enough.’

If you take into account of the size of that Philosopher’s stone then he could probably turn all his gear into red artifacts while he is inside the Final Dungeon.

‘I’m going to the room of the Treasure Hunt.’

This was a hidden piece which could be obtained in the 50 Man Room of the 2nd floor, at the <treasure hunt>.

If you go to the 2nd floor from the 1st then another circular plaza appears and one would get into a group there again.

As Hansoo moved, his whole body made crunching sounds as it changed again.

Soon Youngjae had disappeared and a completely different Hansoo had appeared.

He had knocked the others unconscious because of this.

‘I can’t get found out yet.’

Minhee had died in a single strike.

Even if the messaging system existed, it was impossible to send the message about something happening suddenly.

But unexpected events still happen.

In order to accomplish the final level properly he couldn’t get found out by the clansmen of the Dark Mad Lord yet.

‘Let’s see… What should my name be this time?’

Hansoo pondered for a moment and then made a simple decision.

‘Let’s do Chungjae.’

Hansoo chuckled as he started to walk into the darkness quickly.

***

Kududududu

The giant room which was filled by 50 people started to move with a small noise.

These were all people who had accomplished the room on the 1st floor.

It had taken a whole extra day to collect 50 people.

These people were mostly not part of any clans.

It was actually quite reasonable since most clans had gone up to the 2nd floor right away from the start.

Since most people here were people who had come up after clearing the mission on the 1st floor.

‘Those guys have come too.’

Hansoo laughed inwardly as he looked at Suhan and the others who were looking around the room.

They were confused because the person who had come up before had disappeared.

‘Well. They would probably think that I went into a different room.’

There were other rooms than this one on the 2nd floor.

They would probably think that he had gone into one of those while they were unconscious.

While they were thinking about this and that, the fairy’s voice resonated throughout the room clearly:

“The thing you guys will do this time is the Treasure Hunt!”

“…”

“The rule is very simple. You just need to search through all of the limited space here and find the treasure!”

Everyone frowned as they looked at the map and the view they could see outside of the room.

‘… It’s too wide.’

Though it was of limited space, the size of the Treasure Hunting area was almost half the size of Yeouido. (Yeouido is about 3 km²)

A bit too big for 50 people to roam around in.

“You just need to find this.”

While they were having numerous thoughts, a small spherical marble appeared in front of their eyes.

A pretty normal marble, though it did shine.

As everyone made strange expressions the fairy laughed as it spoke:

“The treasure itself isn’t an artifact but rather an exchange ticket. If you bring this to the center then I’ll exchange it for you. Since there’s a lot of different articles it’ll be fun pondering over it too. I’ll show it to you in advance.”

Artifacts were shown row by rows in front of their eyes.

It seemed like they varied from number 1 to 50.

1 artifact on number 1.

And 50 of the same artifact on the 50th number.

It was an obvious thought but it seemed like that the lesser the number the more precious it was.

Everyone looked at the 50th one.

<kurutan’s golden bludgeon>

The artifact which you could gain 50 of was just a bit better than the weapons they were holding.

A useful artifcat but not really at the level of being eye-catching.

“As you see it the 50th one is… well, still useful. Though it’s not as good as the 1st one. Which artifact you would exchange for is up to you.”

Everyone’s gaze had already been focused on the 1st item even without the words of the Fairy.

<inkaron’s golden cape>

An item which boosted Charisma, Charm, Luck by 15 and the 8 base stats by 5% too.

The other options were amazing too.

If you take into account that runes would be very hard to gain from now on, the price of this item was not even comparable to the other ones.

Even if it wasn’t the 1st item, items up to number 10 were pretty amazing and items up to 30 were items that were a bit hard to gain by hunting.

“Only when you bring the Treasure and exchange for the price in the center the door to the next room will open. No one can leave before that.”

Not being able to leave was something they had already heard.

They had come in here after taking that into account.

The situation wouldn’t be different in other rooms as well so it was just better to start as soon as possible when 50 people had gathered.

And who knows?

They might find the treasure if they’re lucky.

“Then let’s start! Heehee.”

With those final words the room clunked and stopped.

And a giant jungle had appeared in front of them.

‘Hmm…’

The people glanced at each other and then separated into the giant jungle.

Being in a team was not always the best option in such a place.

Actually it might be harder to find if you are grouped.

But just before everyone was apart to separate, the fairy’s voice resonated throughout the air.

— You didn’t think that you’ll just need to have some luck and find it first right? heehee. the treasure is guarded by protectors. which means that you’ll be able to find the treasure if you kill the protectors one at a time right? this is my small gift to you. since it’ll be too hard to find without this information. one of the 128 would be protecting it.

And then the images of the protectors appeared in air.

All 128 of them.

Everyone saw this and then frowned their faces.

‘Fuck. It’s not something I can kill alone…’

They realized instantly.

Though they had gotten quite a bit of skills and runes, it was not something they could solve with just that much.

It was at the level where they at least needed about 5 people to hunt it down safely.

The people who were dispersing flinched.

Since they did not have any confidence in fighting those things alone.

But there was no need for all 50 of them to group up.

One person shouted loudly in the center.

“Is there anybody who would go with me?”

Everyone started to size each other up as they started to group up in tens or so.

The good thing about this treasure hunt was that multiple people could share the result.

Since they couldn’t do anything alone, it was better to group up and act together.

There were actually a few people who weren’t interested in the treasure among the crowd.

Since it seemed like it was better to hunt for runes in the time where they would fight to earn some crappy thing.

‘And as I heard the explanation earlier, it seems like normal beasts gave artifacts too.’

It seemed like that the beasts were pretty good in giving out runes and artifacts in this place.

Which means the artifacts around the level of those in 40 to 50th spot were faster to earn through hunting.

At that moment a voice was heard in the air.

— Oh yeah. there’s one more thing, i promise this is really the last thing. it’s because it’ll be a bit boring if there is no tension, and i feel like there’s some people here ignoring the prize.

“…”

— It doesn’t matter who finds the treasure but everyone without a prize in their hands will die before they leave. remember this. there’s only one treasure but if the person who finds it exchanges it for inkaron’s gold cape before anyone can stop it then everyone else but that person would die right? ok be strong! the time limit is 2 weeks!

It meant that no matter how strong they were they would all get massacred if one crazy guy exchanged the treasure for only one artifact and left this place.

Everyone’s expressions turned hard.

***

— Lord. i feel like i might be able to massacre everyone if i’m lucky.

Wongyung nodded at the clansman’s words.

— Look for the chance as much as you can.

“Then… we should start too.”

“Uuuuaaak!”

Wongyung laughed in joy whilst looking at the room which was already in chaos as he moved his steps.