165
Clang—!
Shhk—!
The interior of the tower, made up of a massive circular stone floor.
Hanbit was cutting down monsters as they erupted from the ground.
[Tower of Vortex — Floor 1]
Classification: Individual
Trial: Normal
Objective: Hunt the Storm Moles and obtain Fragments of the Vortex.
Reward: Floor 1 Settlement
Time Limit: 1 Hour
The system prompt that had appeared upon entry.
Compared to the other world, where everything had been hopelessly vague, this was almost too considerate.
(Is this really supposed to be easy? They’re burrowing away too fast!)
(Ha ha! It seems like my damage is barely going through either!)
Voices coming through via the party voice channel.
He had already given them a briefing, but given that the monsters moved freely underground, they seemed to be having some difficulty.
Still, their combat strength was low — they were genuinely easy by any measure.
[Storm Mole (Lv.90)]
The defining feature of this dungeon was that it was scaled to the individual.
The level shown for the other four would each be calibrated to match them.
Fwish—!
Shhk—!
[Experience points increased by 3,000.]
[Experience points increased by 3,000.]
[Experience points increased by 3,000.]
…
Hanbit pressed inward and dispatched monsters at a rapid pace.
Their heads were severed the moment they broke the surface.
The experience piling up quickly was more than enough to gauge the rate of growth.
-Intense
-Blazing fast
-Exp’s not bad
-Kill 100 and that’s 300k. lol
-Black Dragon being this fast is what’s not normal.
-Can’t you just drag it out then?
-The burrowing is annoying though
-For now let’s just endure the full hour.
The viewers weighed in with their own strategies, working out the most efficient approach.
The obvious thought was to kill as many monsters as possible, but the number that could appear was fixed from the start.
And the moment a time limit entered the picture, that option was scratched from his mind entirely.
Shhk—!
Counting as he went, Hanbit steadily cleared the moles.
When the count reached thirty, his gaze landed on a crevice in a corner.
Thud-thud—
Among the holes appearing one by one, there was one with a subtly different shape.
That was the floor’s target.
Slide—
Hanbit gripped the sword in both hands and set his stance.
That one was fast.
Miss it once and things would get troublesome.
Thud-thud—
Just then, a faint sound came from within the hole.
At the same instant, Wind Leap surged forward.
Fwish—!
Hanbit’s sword cut through the air and slashed.
Shhk—!
With a sound of something being cleanly severed, his feet came to a stop.
Hanbit stood at the far edge of the floor and turned around.
[Experience points increased by 5,000.]
The mole that had poked its head out crumbled to ash, its head cut clean off.
Thud—
A grey-tinted fragment fell to the floor.
A vortex pattern was etched across its surface.
Hanbit stepped closer and picked it up.
Ding—
[Tower of Vortex — Floor 1 cleared.]
[Based on clear time, reward has been adjusted to maximum.]
[500,000 Gold obtained.]
[5 Stat Points granted.]
[Vortex Coins x3 obtained.]
[Experience points increased by 400,000.]
[Level increased by 2.]
[2 Stat Points granted.]
-What the—
-Already cleared?
-7-minute clear. lol
-Level up twice from the very first floor
-Clearing fast was the right answer.
-Black Dragon always has a plan.
-What are the coins for?
-Do they give something later?
-How many floors are there anyway?
The dungeon’s reward for just one floor and seven minutes of effort was substantial.
As he had suspected — once a time limit appeared, pulling the clear time forward was the right call.
Of course, that wouldn’t apply to every floor.
“There are 50 floors total. I probably won’t be gaining 2 levels every time, though.”
-50 floors, that’s terrifying
-2 levels every time is way too much to hope for
-Past the 100s, leveling up gets brutal. lol
-I heard 200 is a genuine nightmare.
The higher the level, the slower the growth.
A natural law that applied to the actual body in much the same way.
‘The coins matter most, though.’
The Vortex Coins that viewers had been asking about.
They could be used in a special shop that opened after clearing the fiftieth floor — the top.
Leveling up was necessary, but what could be obtained at that shop carried far greater meaning.
In the other world, it had been something close to divine to Hanbit.
Slide—
The surroundings changed cleanly with a brief moment of darkness.
On the staircase ahead was the door to the next floor.
‘The others… will take a while.’
All the way through Floor 27, the trials were imposed on each individual.
He planned for the group to reconvene on Floor 28, the rest area, but arrival times would vary.
The one who would take the longest was probably the blacksmith, Kim Jaeha.
At his pace, accounting for more than twelve hours of playtime a day, he could clear roughly four floors.
At that rate, they’d be seeing each other no sooner than about a week from now.
Hanbit opened the message window and began quickly putting together the walkthrough for the first five floors.
“Ugh, I could’ve finished even faster.”
A few minutes later, Haneul entered the waiting area.
Her record was eighteen minutes.
A remarkably good result.
-She’s fast too. lol
-Talent is broken
-Her movement alone puts her in the top one percent.
-And the fact that she made it this far with him means her luck is insane too.
-If that had been me in her place…
-I would’ve failed Floor 1.
The viewers looked on at Haneul with undisguised envy.
Hanbit finished writing the walkthrough, sent it to everyone, and looked up.
He had also finished distributing the items needed for each floor.
“I sent the walkthrough — check it. Don’t rush and make mistakes.”
“Don’t worry. I am, genuinely, concentrating harder than I ever have in my life.”
“..Your life is only sixteen years. Regardless, do your best.”
“I’ll try to catch up, even a little!”
Haneul declared her resolve in a spirited voice.
He had no intention of being caught — but at the pace she’d shown on Floor 1, she would climb quickly.
Talent was talent, it seemed.
“I’m here too!”
Just then, Noeul’s voice came from behind.
The light spirit was still sparkling above his shoulder.
“Why did it take you so long? You could’ve finished Floor 1 faster than me.”
Haneul looked at her older brother with a displeased expression.
Perhaps the pressure of needing to prove their worth was getting to her.
“I found something and got delayed. Black Dragon, could you cut the stream audio for a moment?”
“The audio?”
The sudden request was puzzling.
But Hanbit looked at Noeul’s eyes and moved his finger to cut the stream audio.
“You can talk now. What’s going on?”
“I think there’s something beneath the tower. I figured you’d already know, but just in case…”
He spoke in a slightly tense voice.
Naturally, Hanbit already knew about the underground.
What was remarkable was that Noeul, with no information whatsoever, had picked up on it.
He had a feeling he knew why.
“Did you use Path of Light?”
“Ah, yes! I was trying to find the moles, and the light just plunged straight downward.”
Path of Light — one of the abilities granted by a light spirit.
A detection skill that could pass freely through most terrain.
It wasn’t the sort of thing one would typically learn early. How had he come to know it?
“Where did you learn your spirit skills?”
“I traveled to the borderlands of the Raven Kingdom once, and I met an NPC there named Daiz. That was when I formed a contract with the light spirit and learned the skill at the same time.”
“Daiz?”
His eyes went wide at the name he hadn’t expected to hear.
A person like a mythical creature — someone who could never have been encountered at this point in the timeline.
Entangled with the Holy Nation, it should have been far later before this figure appeared in the world.
‘…Did something go wrong?’
The subtle shifts he had sensed while progressing through the storylines with Edelen and Ifrit.
Given the sheer number of times he had repeated those experiences, it was not a matter to brush past lightly.
That, too, had been a problem tangled up with the Holy Nation — and now, outside the main story, another anomaly had surfaced.
Was it the influence of his own episode progression?
Or was something happening in this world?
“I’ll explain about the underground later. For now, log off and go home.”
“What?”
“Already?”
The twins’ eyes both went wide at the sudden order to return.
It might seem like a strange thing to do to them, but it wasn’t, at all.
“The gear’s been shipped. It should be waiting when you get home — go receive it, and explain things to your grandmother.”
“Oh, the gear!”
The two of them had been about to argue, and it all came back to them.
“Thank you! We’ll head out right away.”
“Thank you! I want to try it on as soon as possible!”
The pair, buzzing with excitement, logged out on the spot.
“Let’s go.”
Hanbit made his way toward the staircase.
Kim Jaeha and Avant-garde were taking some time, but he wasn’t worried.
Creak—
Light washed over him as the door swung open.
And so the Floor 2 challenge began.
* * *
Fwish—
Shhk—!
Floors 2 through 4 were also primarily about hunting normal monsters.
A large expenditure of six hours.
Floor 3 in particular was especially tedious.
He’d had to find and combine levers while waves of monsters kept respawning around him.
Hanbit finished in eleven attempts — but the others would need to go through at least thirty rounds of trial and error.
[Tower of Vortex — Floor 2 cleared.]
[Based on clear time, reward has been adjusted to maximum.]
[Tower of Vortex — Floor 3 cleared.]
[Based on clear time, reward has been adjusted to maximum.]
[Tower of Vortex — Floor 4 cleared.]
[Based on clear time, reward has been adjusted to maximum.]
The successful run made it possible to collect maximum rewards on each floor.
‘This should be the last one for today.’
Checking the time, Hanbit followed the stairs in the waiting area up to the next floor.
Floor 5 — the last of the day.
It was a completely different kind of space from the four floors that had come before.
[Tower of Vortex — Floor 5]
Classification: Individual
Trial: Survival
Objective: Survive for 10 or more minutes against the living terrain.
Reward: Floor 5 Settlement
Time Limit: 30 Minutes
Boom—!
The trial began the moment he arrived.
The ground moved with menacing life — it really did seem alive.
Kwa-krrr—!
As the floor threw off his footing, sharp stone pillars erupted from the cracks splitting open.
Hanbit shifted his weight lightly and evaded the attack that came flying for his chest.
Then he called upon the name of the presence most needed in this situation.
“Gnome.”
Slide—
The yellow turtle appeared on his shoulder at the call.
The earth spirit, leisurely adjusting its neck, quietly lowered its gaze downward.
In that instant—
Crrrk—!
A solid layer of rock formed around Hanbit’s body.
Boom—!
The earth’s continuing assault struck the stone and crumbled against it.
-The spirit is doing all that?
-Absolutely broken
-What are people without spirits supposed to do?
-I guess you’d just have to become a spirit user…
-And how is one supposed to do that?
Boom—!
Kwa-boom—!
Attacks pouring in from pillars, ceiling, floor, and every direction were blocked without exception by the spirit’s power.
A flawless defense that yielded not a single gap.
When the ten-minute objective of Floor 5 elapsed, a circular safe zone appeared nearby.
But Hanbit did not move toward it.
Kwa-boom—!
The exchange continued with the safe zone sitting right in front of him.
The spirit’s protection held firm all the way through the floor’s maximum time of thirty minutes.
Ding—
[Tower of Vortex — Floor 5 cleared.]
[Based on excess survival time, reward has been adjusted to maximum.]
[1,000,000 Gold obtained.]
[6 Stat Points granted.]
[Vortex Coins x4 obtained.]
[Experience points increased by 500,000.]
[Level increased by 2.]
[2 Stat Points granted.]
“Thanks, Gnome.”
At his thanks, the turtle on his shoulder slowly faded from view.
Having cleared through Floor 5, Hanbit arrived at the waiting room connecting to Floor 6.
The accumulated rewards were substantial.
[Black Dragon — Lv.96]
[Title: None]
Strength: 132
Agility: 132
Intelligence: 132
Stamina: 115
Remaining Stat Points: 39
-10 levels in a day. lol
-This game is busted
-Honestly, someone open up the Tower of Vortex already.
-Seriously, please.
-Do vanguards who go through here get that much too?
-As if.
-Past level 200, even one level is brutal. lol
-It’s rough even past the 100s, people say
-Black Dragon might be different.
-For real
Ten levels of growth and additional accumulated stat points.
Vortex Coins obtained: seventeen.
It was better than expected — more than satisfying.
As he distributed his stats, Hanbit was quietly impressed.
‘I can definitely clear 150.’
The minimum target before entering the tower had been level 150.
But having already hit 96, and with 45 floors remaining, the target would be surpassed with room to spare.
Even with experience requirements jumping sharply past level 100, it wasn’t a concern.
He was planning to clear the tower’s ‘underground’ section as well.
(I’m heading to Floor 4 now!)
(I’m nearly done with Floor 3!)
(About halfway through Floor 3!)
(I’ve started Floor 3 too! I’ll climb fast!)
Updates from the others were coming through via voice chat.
The twins, logging in from home, were doing well.
Avant-garde was keeping up as best he could.
Kim Jaeha, the blacksmith, would be having the toughest time — but he was fully capable of managing.
The expensive consumable items purchased for him would do their job properly.
“I’ll be logging off now. Make sure the rest of you get enough sleep too.”
He said his goodbyes to everyone, then closed the game immediately.
He sat up in bed, finished a late dinner, and returned to his room.
“I might as well get it prepared early.”
Hanbit sat at his desk, opened a document, and began writing up the full tower walkthrough.
It was several hours later when every floor had been put in order.
