Chapter 138 (1/2)
The Devil of the 50th Floor (1)
The basic rules of the Tower were the same as the dungeons, but there were also apparent differences that distinguished it from ordinary ones. For example, in a crisis, one could escape to Earth using a Returning Stone, but to re-enter, one had to pay additional experience points as a penalty. Therefore, we decided to discuss whether to return to Earth on a 25-stories basis unless there were unrecoverable injured members or other significant accidents comparable to such a case. It would be unnecessary to go back and forth numerous times when we didn’t have to. And when we finally broke through the 25th floor, everyone had the same opinion.
“I don’t mind going on like this. Magic solves hygiene problems… and so does food. I didn’t even have the symptoms of claustrophobia that I was worried about at the start.”
Hibiki calmly talked about her weaknesses that she had never mentioned before in my previous life. It was a symptom caused by an accident she experienced when she was young.
“What about Nate?” “No problem. I don’t have a family that worries about me if I stayed here for as long as we need to anyway.”
I nodded to their words.
“Okay, we’ve made a decision. Then…” “Wait, why aren’t you asking me about my opinion?” “We proceed straight to the 26th floor.” “Hey, I’m asking you!”
Leaving the protesting dragon behind, we kept moving forward. The difficulty level increased noticeably from the 26th floor, which also affected the speed of the breakthrough. Still, it was much faster than our pace in my previous life, and it was incomparable to other world climbers without [The Successor’s Eyes]. A month had passed since we started climbing the Tower.
“Now, finally…. the 49th floor awaits.”
We had the half point of Clear right in front of us. A dry field appeared as we passed through the portal connecting floors.
Woosh! Swoosh!
The cool wind permeated through my collar. Its topography was no different from a typical field-type dungeon. The Tower looked like a building from the outside, but it was actually a multi-dungeon hub. It consisted of separate spaces on each floor. That much would become evident the moment a hunter stepped inside. As I looked around the familiar scenery…
Cr-rack!
I gritted my teeth quietly.
‘I can’t believe long we had been stranded here in my previous life!’
As Hibiki was informed beforehand, she invoked penetrative vision-based magic. She observed the underground scene that ordinary eyes couldn’t capture. After a while, she uttered words in a way that told me she was horrified.
“Looking through the ground like this, it’s like we’re standing on a secret mass burial site.”
Nate, who couldn’t see the view due to his eyes lacking the necessary spell, shrugged his shoulders with a look of ‘Really?’ Euclid, who had not learned even a single penetrative vision magic spell while she aged for a few hundred years, asked a question out of curiosity.
“What is it that makes you say so?”
Looking down, Hibiki gritted her teeth.
“The monsters down there… Thousands, tens of thousands? There are tens of thousands of them that stand out to me. And those are Ghost Lurkers!”
I added a few words.
“What’s worse is that they’re not dying and rotting down there, but they’re still alive and breathing.”
What Hibiki saw was an army of monsters hiding underground in such a seemingly peaceful field, waiting for food to pass by. Coherent to the name, they waited quietly below the surface for the chance to attack when their opponent approached. I had never counted the number of them hidden in the plain, even in my previous life. I wasn’t certain how many of them were there. I just knew that there was a lot. They numbered so many it felt disgusting. In fact, each of the Last Five threw up, taking turns. The reason for that was that the Clear condition for that floor was…
– Welcome to the 49th floor. To Clear this floor, destroy all the monsters hiding here!
That’s right. We had to lure out and kill all those bastards to Clear the floor.
“Taking each of them down isn’t that much of a problem. They’re stupid, too. The problem is somewhere else. Hibiki, the perspective magic you just used is SSS-Rank for sure, right?” “Yes.” “Then the limitations on your vision through the underground is 500 meters, and those gross bastards dig a few kilometers underground when they sleep. That means the number of those you haven’t discovered yet is more than the ones you’ve already seen.”
She had a nauseous look on her face.
‘Situations were worse in my past life. We had no choice but to struggle.’
At that time, Hibiki’s [Universal Mastery] was S-Rank, and the perspective magic was only at that level as well. Therefore, it was too much to find all the Ghost Lurkers hidden deep underground. And it was impossible to dig the entire field 5 kilometers deep and turn it upside down just because the situation demanded us to do so.
‘In the end, we had no choice but to take them in reverse when they were after us and when they woke up and climbed up to the shallow mess.’
From that point, the second reason why the Last Five suffered came in.
‘These maniacs will only ever wake up after three or four days since they fall asleep even though they’re only monsters!’
The monsters that we needed to catch and kill were sleeping like logs underground where they couldn’t be reached for days. There was no way that we could have sped up our Clear. In the end, those who were not that physically strong had the worst conditions, causing speed-hunting to become impossible.
“Ah, is that why you told me to prepare this?”
Nate shook his shadow.
“Yeah, they could be wiped out by an earthquake, but the plain is too wide, so it’s only going to be a waste. Instead, we’ll just do this.”
I also took out an item.
“Let’s lure them out with bait. In principle, it’s similar to squid fishing.”
In my hand, I had one of the SS-Class items that I received by trading with the ministry spirit for the first time.
[The Flute of the Imperial Palace Artist (Rank: SS)] -A musical instrument that can play a psycho-reactive score approved by the imperial court.
At that time, I received it with [Wartime Emergency Production Supply System – Type 3 (Rank: SS)] and [The 3rd Class Imperial Guard Program (Rank: SS)]. Since then, the flute’s functionality remained dormant since I hadn’t been able to experiment with it. That was because playing ordinary sheet music showed no effect at all. It was evident that it was necessary to have a ‘psycho-reactive score’ mentioned in the item description, but I didn’t have any clue on where to get it. As a result, it was left deep in the snake inventory for a long time. Sometimes, ‘snake 2,’ the smartest of the five black snakes, threw it up in front of me without me asking and hissed with a glance that seemed to say: “Perhaps you forgot that you had this?” But I shook my head quietly at it every time. I couldn’t help it because I didn’t know how to use it. I couldn’t even imagine that it would be through an unexpected event that the deadlock would be resolved.
‘Guild Master, we found something interesting while we were studying the tactical fortress!’
It was a particular piece of music prepared for the crew of the tactical fortress. As soon as I saw it, it was a given that I naturally remembered the existence of the flute. I tried to play it immediately, but performing it wasn’t easy. It didn’t work by only moving my fingers. The psycho-reactive score was editorially directing how much Mana should be infused in a particular manner to produce each note. Eventually, after stubborn practice, I was barely able to play a few sheets of it.
“Now, first, everybody in the air.”
Ghost Lurkers did not have the ability to fly, so the best place to carry out the operation was in the air. Particles of light scattered behind my back and created a wing shape. The other companions also rose to the sky in their own ways. After reaching an appropriate altitude, I started playing with my mouth closed on the flute using a sophisticated technique.
Tu-re-lu-re-lu!
Then, the faces of my colleagues, as they had been somewhat drained by long hours of climbing and hunting, changed radically.
“Huh?”
Nate’s face was becoming brighter.
“My mind is clearing up!”
Tu-re-lu! Tu-re-lu-re-lu!
I spread the notes, and I signaled with my eyes at Hibiki, who I had already spoken.
[Sonic Wave (Rank: A)]
Originally, it was a spell that turned enemies into powder with powerful vibrations, but its form had changed a little. At that moment, Hibiki could play around with such spells with as much freedom as she needed. That time, its destructive power was decreased to the lowest level, and the vibration waves, whose range had been increased all the way to the maximum, resonated across the plains. The magical vibration carried the melody I produced into places far away, deeper, and filled the space completely, not even missing a single spot. I was sure that the notes would be delivered to the Ghost Lurkers that had been hiding and sleeping deep in the underground. Such monsters wouldn’t usually respond to any noise once they had entered a state of a deep sleep, but…