Any Means Necessary (Selfish OC SI, Multiverse) [In Tower of God]
- Thread starter Eiri Fllyn
- Start date
- Crossover
Yes it's canon, it's a key part of her introduction, but isn't explored in detail, since the story focuses on another protagonist during that time.
62 – Symbiotic Spirit Crest
62 – Symbiotic Spirit Crest
I actually knew very little about the Yeon flames from the story, besides the fact that they were powerful and made Yihwa surprisingly durable, so it wasn't just an offensive power.
Yihwa had explained that the flames were originally given to Yeon Hana, their Family Head, from an ancient master in the Tower, and that the power could be transferred to others if the user was skilled enough. Hana had transferred the power to Yeon Illarde, and then all her descendants inherited it to varying degrees but it was typically stronger in the daughters, and Yihwa was exceptional even among those.
Like Zahard's blood, it was a curious thing, capable of being transmitted through birth and lineage, yet was not a genetic power. It wasn't in their DNA, it could be manifested into a weapon, or even be completely transferred in a way that caused the original user to lose access to it until they reclaimed it.
The best theory I could come up with for this type of phenomenon was that it was soul-based or ritual-based inheritance. Either it was passed down spiritually, with the physical transference merely a medium with which the actual power was conveyed through such as in the case of Zahard's blood, or the very concept of natural birth and family history gave rise to a mystic grand ritual or thaumaturgical system that caused the descendants to gain the same power from the progenitor.
That also had to be why the more powerful the individual in question, the more difficulty they had in breeding at all, such that Yeon Ilarde, who was not actually one of the Family Heads, was still too powerful to the point where even ordinary Rankers couldn't impregnate her, and even after difficult "selections" every five years to choose worthy men among Rankers, she rarely gave birth.
In a way, it was similar to how magic circuits in Fate worked. They weren't quite in the genes, even though there were aspects of their physical expressions that did show up in the genes, creating strange structures in the body. The actual circuits themselves were spiritual in nature, and you could, for example, imbue a familiar with magic circuits by converting your own blood. This was a basic skill for Fate magi, but those magic circuits weren't capable of connecting to the soul and generating prana on their own that way, they still sourced the prana from the original caster.
It made sense to me that there were lots of things with alternative inheritance mechanisms that were not based in physical biology, now that I had pretty much confirmed that nothing mystical could be replicated in Worm by Amelia just using the biological materials I'd brought back. She couldn't even do much with the Endbringer flesh which I now knew to be magical, although that might've also been a Manton Limit problem. Blasto worked with the flesh as a Tinker, but even he couldn't truly bring it back to life, not without the Simurgh's help and Citrine's accidental Trump power anyway.
If I could acquire the Yeon flame myself somehow it would be a nice bonus, but just being able to study it was already a great return on my investment.
For her part, Yihwa seemed to think the research would be a lot more invasive than it was, acting far more embarrassed throughout the process than necessary. All I really needed was to collect some samples of her fluids and use Structural Analysis on her though, plus having her use the flames so that I could observe the flames themselves.
Well, that was easier said than done because her control was awful. I could not even really use Structural Analysis on her properly because her flames rejected my mana instantly, even if she tried to hold it back.
So I ended up having to try training her just for the sake of my own research.
Of course, even that was useful to me, since I could practice containing her flames.
That was why I had enshrouded her in a dense Shinsoo bubble courtesy of the water spirits, trying to suppress her flames.
It was an interesting experiment, because her flames could burn Shinsoo. So I couldn't truly suppress it, but with particular rotations I could redirect it.
"That was amazing…I've never been in Shinsoo dense enough for me to actually feel this much pressure," she said.
I'd had to raise the density to what I'd encountered myself in the White Steel Eel cage that Headon made in order for her to start feeling it at all.
"I rarely use this skill…a lot of Regulars can't deal with this density at all," I said. That would've included me, if not for the water spirits. But now that I had companion water spirits all over my body plus acclimatizing to it over time as I climbed, my personal Shinsoo resistance had also risen a lot. At this level if I didn't call on the spirits in the stone I would still have some difficulty moving, like wading through water.
It was still much higher density than the general environment above the 25th Floor where Androssi and the old gang had gone.
But we were in a rented private training facility, and I didn't sense anybody around, so it was fine for me to use it. Not that it really mattered anyways.
"Well, let's try something else," I said, lifting up my right hand, the sleeve of my shirt pulling back to reveal a flexible form-fitting bangle on my wrist. It was white silver, the whole thing made of Endbringer Crystal, with a small thin decoration hanging from it.
It was Derflinger, Compressed into a tiny form using Shinsoo. With a mental prod from me, the sword's chain extended and the sword moved to my hand in a quick motion before it detached the chain and Decompressed to a normal size, still sheathed in Armoriont crystal.
Both Derflinger and I had become skilled in using the Compression effect. We did not need the Guardians to contract to give us the ability. Back on the Floor of Tests, after being provoked, Yu Han Sung had managed to use a technique to Compress Rak (the huge alligator on Baam's team of three, who had gone off on his own with Parakewl following after him when Shibisu revealed that Khun had left with Rachel on the 25th Floor).
He had told me the theory behind the technique, and it took quite a long time to learn how to do it, and while I was not capable of doing Compression in real-time like Yu Han Sung on any random thing, given enough preparation time and the water spirits' help I could now do it to important items that needed the effect without being inside an Inventory item, after saturating the object in Shinsoo.
And both Derflinger and I had become capable of using a permanently imbued Autocompression, which was a more advanced skill that permanently granted the Compression ability to an Ignition Weapon or living being, so that they could trigger it at will without redoing the whole Compression technique from the beginning.
The Compression skill worked well with the Endbringer Crystal's spatial warping too, allowing Derflinger to assume an incredibly small size then Decompress to a massive size when fully released, or also arbitrarily enlarging only a part of him in only one dimension, such as extending without making the handle thicker.
The sheath, on the other hand, was already at its limit, back to normal size, so if I wanted Derflinger to get bigger it'd have to be unsheathed first or break through the sheath.
"The Crystal Knight's unique talking Ignition Weapon…Lord Derflinger!" Yihwa said with awe.
"Oh, I like this one, Partner!" Derflinger said. "She's cute and respectful! Nice to meetcha!"
"The honor is mine, Lord Derflinger!"
"Hahaha, she's perfect! Perfect! We're keeping her, right Partner?"
"H-huh? K-keep?" Yihwa blushed profusely at the comment.
"She's not a stray, Derf," I said. "But yes, I'd like to have her as a teammate in the future."
"So what are we doing today?" Derf asked.
"Doing some tests with Yihwa's flames and helping her with control exercises. I'd like you to try absorbing the flames," I said.
"Sounds interesting, let's do it."
"Alright, Ignite!" We channeled Shinsoo together, causing the sword to glow and wisps of energy.
This wasn't just a performance—there was actually a Shinsoo technique involved with Ignition, which Hwa Ryun had taught us. Normal Ignition weapons could all do it instinctively, bonding with their users' will and Shinsoo, if the user was qualified. By channeling Shinsoo together using Ignition Liquid as a medium, the weapon would awaken with that bond, absorb more Shinsoo with the help of the user, then release and amplify their own power that had been implanted.
We never got Ignition Liquid but Derflinger didn't need it because he was more autonomous or more "alive" and didn't need a user to activate him. Although it was a bit different with Derflinger, this was a primary reason why Ignition Weapons scaled with the user. The Thirteen Month Series weapons in the hands of a Ranker princess were incomparably more powerful as the wielder could channel more Shinsoo into them to unlock greater power within.
For Derflinger, some aspects of Ignition were redundant because I already had a magic bond with him through a familiar spell. But it was still necessary to synchronize our Shinsoo flow because Derflinger's ability to project Shinsoo control outside of himself was quite limited without it. The Soo, which meant the quantity and density of Shinsoo, that Derflinger could control was vastly greater than my own, without the water spirits. However, his Myun, or range, was extremely limited without an Ignition synchronized wielder, which significantly hampered his ability to move and project his attack-absorption power. And he couldn't make any Baangs on his own either, while I had managed to develop two Baangs on my own, five with the help of my peripheral body-cohabiting water spirits, and way more with the core spirits in the stone.
I gestured for Yihwa release her flames, so she did. A wave of flames larger than my body came towards me, and Derflinger went to meet the challenge.
"Yeeoww! These are some hot flames missy!" Derflinger said, but still managed to suck in a good amount of the flames before they hit me.
Once she stopped the stream of flames, Derflinger was revealed to be glowing reddish with heat, but otherwise fine.
"Hmm, these flames are difficult to break down, my outer layer probably won't be able to survive a stronger blast for long. But I can contain them inside my Endbringer form," said Derflinger. "It will take a while to actually digest it properly though."
"Want to try something stronger then?" I asked.
"Sure, hit me with the strongest flame you've got, miss!" Derflinger shouted to Yihwa.
"Are you sure? That might be dangerous…" Yihwa said hesitantly.
"It's fine, we can handle it. Don't bother thinking about controlling it, just release as much as you can," I said confidently while preparing my defenses. "We have contingencies in case it does too much damage."
Yihwa nodded, then made a face of concentration as she closed her eyes.
She seemed to struggle to gather her power, but after a few minutes, it rose to an unprecedented level.
I sensed the power before the flames surged around her body, and then it concentrated towards her hand as she tried to punch with it.
"Uh?! Ahhhh!" Yihwa made a surprised face, then the flames exploded against herself, but it still created a titanic explosion that engulfed me as well in a mind-melting pain that I quickly dulled my nerves for.
"That's stronger than the biggest Square class fire spell I've ever seen!" Derflinger shouted through the torrent of fire.
I dimly noted that the entire training facility had been consumed in fire, but the walls were decently well made and the flames were petering out by that point. The ground beneath us though had become a molten crater.
My clothes had been completely annihilated, even much of my skin had melted. Fortunately my new Endbringer subdermal mesh had survived pretty well, blocking the heat from transferring through to my actual vital organs. Even my eyes were fine when I shut them in time, the eyelids also covered by Endbringer crystal.
My nose and ears though had more of a problem, for which I was forced to use the water spirits to help shield me.
Thinking about it, that was a serious weakness I'd need to figure out how to shore up. A massive blast like this was obviously going to deal a lot of damage going through open orifices that led into my body, and the water spirits' shielding might not be enough next time.
The water spirits healed me at high speed while the smoke cleared and Derflinger coughed repeatedly.
Eventually it was revealed that Derflinger's outer crystal sheath had also been melted, leaving the Endbringer form glowing red hot and steam coming out of it, as Derflinger tried to expel some of the heat.
Yihwa lay on the ground in a smoking heap groaning, but otherwise did not seem particularly injured. Her resistance to her own flames seemingly extended to her clothes as well, which were slightly damaged—ruined for cosmetic purposes, but didn't actually get vaporized like mine, even though mine were reinforced Armoriont nanocellulose.
"Well, that was impressive," I said.
"You can say that again, don't expect me to absorb anything like that, Partner, haha!" Derflinger said, laughing.
O O O
Time passed, and we'd only made a tiny amount of progress on her control training. It seemed like conventional training methods for mental discipline and Shinsoo control exercises were ineffective for her.
She had a little success with tuning the heat of her flames and avoiding sudden explosive outbursts of flame after getting a better handle on her emotions, but other than that, we had little to show for our work.
I was no closer to figuring out how to reproduce the flame on my own either, but training with her had still been useful to hone my other skills since her flames were potent enough to actually threaten me, in a way that was very different from the physical training I did with Androssi.
More importantly, the opportunity was ripe to seek my true objective.
"It doesn't seem like this is working," I said with a frown. "There's barely any improvement."
"Sorry for wasting your time…I don't know why I'm so bad at this," Yihwa said.
"Not at all, failures are merely part of the research process, and the data was useful regardless. But I don't think I can help you master it like this," I said. "And the injections I used to enhance other Regulars before won't work on you either, with your flames rejecting everything. At this rate, it doesn't seem like this can be solved before your next test. Maybe not even in several tests."
"I-I'm sure I'll be fine, you've done enough for me already!" She said with a forced smile that didn't reach her eyes, which looked quite pitiful.
"There might still be one more way…" I said, hand rubbing my chin, eyes furrowed as if deep in thought.
"R-really?"
I looked at her solemnly. "Yes, I think there is a way that will work. But it will be a big decision, for both of us. Let's stop for now and head back, this will be a long conversation."
She nodded with a curious expression, then we made our way to back to my lab, to my office tea room.
Once I set the tea and we sat down, I began.
"There are some things you need to know about me first, things that I do not share lightly. I hope you appreciate the trust I'm placing in you, and do not speak of it to anyone without my permission, even if you choose not to proceed with this."
"Of course, you can trust me, I won't say a word to anyone!"
"Good. I'll be blunt then. I'm an Irregular," I said, watching her eyes widen comically as she froze in the pose of holding her teacup.
"And not just that, even among Irregulars, I'm a special type of being—it's quite complicated, but basically I'm a being from 'beyond the boundary of reality', subject to special rules," I continued, making air quotes. "The power that I can directly express in the material world is heavily restricted, and without an anchor, I can only maintain my physical presence for short periods. I require summoners, born of this world, to invite me into the world and sustain my existence with their energy, and in exchange, I can use my power on their behalf, by forming a contract with them. That is the true nature of my relationship with Androssi. She is my contractor, so in a way, she really is a Witch that summoned a demon, although she's not really a Spell user otherwise, and I'm not really a demon—that's just an analogy."
Yihwa was still listening intently with a shocked expression. I sipped some tea first before continuing.
"This is what I am offering you, if your will is strong enough—and I believe it is, you can form a contract with me too. But unlike with the princess, you have the potential for us to go a step further, create a more powerful bond, which may allow you to gain more control over your flames."
"A more powerful bond…than the princess?"
The culmination of my research, my new magnum opus, developed after studying Anak's blood I retrieved on the Floor of Tests, learning from the water spirits how they coalesced new spirits that bonded with me, learning from Derflinger how to attune to and possess the Endbringer crystal, and all the experiments of implanting things into my test subjects.
A Symbiotic Spirit Crest, which could hold a spirit derived from an advanced imprint of my will, sustaining itself off the host yet linked to me.
"That's right. The princess has already accepted Zahard's blood and her body could not handle having a second power from me, especially because Zahard's blood is quite jealous—it's hold on her was already too strong, because she'd become a princess long before she entered the Tower."
That wasn't quite confirmed, I only developed this spell after we split up so had never been able to test it on her, nor did I know if she would be willing, but Yihwa didn't need to know any of that.
"But you are different. Your flames may reject most things, but they are still borne of you. As long as you are willing, and form a basic contract first, it should be possible for you to accept my power. But it will also be far more permanent than the contract I have with the princess now, which can be broken at any time. I will be investing a living fragment of my will inside of you, and it will attune itself to your body and soul, sharing my powers with you, and helping you control your own powers. It is similar to how princesses are created…but you don't need to adopt my name."
She turned bright red after hearing the last part. I smiled at the reaction. She was too easy to tease, and it was an easy way to divert her attention from some other potential implications of doing such a thing.
"So then…what would I have to do as your contractor?"
"After the initial ritual, nothing, besides providing me with some energy and giving appropriate commands so that I can use my powers on your behalf. We would basically just be closer than normal teammates," I said.
"R-right…closer teammates…" She said in that familiar shy tone,
"That's right. Having more anchors in this world makes it easier to maintain my presence and a powerful summoner can give me more freedom to act. That's all I need from you. Though I will warn you that this type of bond may be quite draining at first, until you are fully attuned to it. But that shouldn't be a problem for you, given your power and potential."
She nodded. "…And this could help me control my flames." Then seemed to think a bit before giving me a questioning look. "Even if it didn't work…if you could share your power with me, it could help me pass the test?"
"Because the test is too soon, your body might not be able to handle it yet. But besides direct enhancements, there are also some other loopholes that can be used…at the Guardian's discretion, and also dependent on whether the Ranker test administrators find out and how friendly they are. For example, it's possible to give a Regular Shinheuh and equipment," I said.
"Equipment? You mean like Lord Derflinger?!" Her eyes went to the sword that was floating behind me.
"Nope, I'd love to let you handle my shaft but that won't be allowed," said Derf.
"W-what?! Why do you have to say it l-like that?" Yihwa spluttered.
"Hehe! You might be able to bring me into the test, but the Ranker test admins would notice me for sure," said Derf. "I'm too powerful."
"Yeah, Derf is just overkill, nor do you need that kind of help. You just need something that you can use without hurting your teammates, and to protect or heal them in case you're forced to use your flames," I said. "If you are my contractor, I can prepare a pet 'Shinheuh' for you. It will be able to help disperse and redirect your flames away from teammates and heal them, or you can just use it to attack. I'll also prepare a wand that can do the healing and dispersion as well, as backup in case something happens to the pet."
"You're right…that should be enough," she said, nodding again. "Okay, I'll become your contractor then!"
O O O
Preparing all the necessary components of the Symbiotic Spirit Crest was not easy, but I'd already been well prepared long in advance. The most difficult and time-consuming part was coalescing a spirit of my will together with the water spirits.
It was incomparably more advanced than the basic imprint I put into the Clone Familiar, which instead used the psionic pattern of the bionanites with the water spirits and my blood like a normal familiar. That was only good enough to act on simplistic feelings but couldn't form complex thoughts without me actively controlling it, and there was no way to support it with mana if I was too far away.
But this spirit would be able to form complex thoughts over time after being sufficiently attuned to the host, and become a method of empowering a nearby familiar using the host's energy, regardless of their distance from me.
It was also self-sustaining and symbiotic, capable of growing with the host. Unlike the version that was sustained only by a group of water spirits, this would be more powerful because it could afford to spend its energy on combat abilities instead of just maintaining its own integrity and spending most of its time recharging.
Yihwa sat cross legged in the ritual circle, shoulders bared to me as I carefully drew the core of the diagram that would become the Crest on the back of her right shoulder.
She had already formed the threshold invitation contract with me, easily having the will to do it with her desperation to control her flames and desire to pass the tests to prove herself.
On a table beside us was a special concoction that carried the spirit, which I prepared out of my bodily fluids, refined Shinsoo, and dissolved Endbringer crystal powder. The Endbringer crystal was a powerful vessel that resisted damage while being a uniquely malleable medium attuned to my will and later catalyze the attunement of the spirit to Yihwa.
I walked around to her front after grabbing the vial.
"It's time for the final part. Make sure you're calm and relaxed. Are you ready?"
Sho nodded and accepted the vial from me, while I went back around behind her to my designated position in the ritual circle.
"Now drink it."
She gulped it all down and I began chanting, concentrating on the magic at hand, materializing and touching the Crest with Agate.
The circle beneath us lit up, and the outer diagram began to inscribe itself around the core of the Crest on her shoulder.
There was no response from her flames so far, so I proceeded with the activation of the concoction.
She took in a sharp breath as the presence of the spirit within the concoction awakened, and the concoction was digested at high speed with magical assistance, spreading through her body.
After a few moments, the Crest was fully drawn and began to burn itself into her skin. Wisps of flame erupted from it but they weren't damaging it, instead they were bound into the Crest as well. Soon, the spirit found its way to the Crest as well, and in the center of the core diagram, a new shape appeared.
The shape was a depiction of a blooming flower with wide petals and dotted filaments, not the Zygaena's flower on her headband, but the pear flower that was her name.
"It's done," I announced. "How do you feel?"
"A little tired, but I'm fine," she said.
"That's good, I thought it might be quite painful, but I'm glad I was wrong."
She tried to glance back at her shoulder and rubbed the spot where the Spirit Crest was inscribed. "It does hurt a little here, but that's all."
I went to grab a mirror so that she could see the black markings for herself.
"It will take some time to attune itself to you until it can awaken properly before you can do anything with it," I said.
"I can already feel it, kind of…like the flame inside me, but different," said Yihwa.
Suddenly the Crest glowed and a translucent figure emerged from it, floating. It was like a reversed ball of multicolored flame that was more whitish blue than anything else, round at the top, the bottom trailing off to the point.
It swam around to Yihwa's front into her cupped hands like a fish as she stared at it with awe.
"That's a bit unexpected…for it to take a physical form like this, and so soon," I said.
"It might be because it bonded with the Yeon flame…I've seen some older members of my family do something like this!" Yihwa said excitedly. "Maybe now I can—"
"Get some rest first," I said, cutting her off. "Don't overdo things right after the ritual."
"Ah…okay."
O O O
The look on Lurker's face while Yihwa paid off her debt was quite satisfying.
I posed as a Yeon retainer in a new effeminate disguise with shoulder length black hair and pinkish red eyes, wearing a suit with the symbol of the Yeon Family, the Zygaena's flower drawn brazenly on my shoulder. I held a stiff expression on my face that looked like I was barely holding back my rage, glaring at the loan manager.
"So…about that 'suggestion' you gave me last time, Mr. Lurker…" Yihwa said while twirling her hair playfully while giving him a dirty look with an exaggerated fake smile.
"I-I didn't mean anything by it, miss! It was just a joke! A joke! This lowly one would never dare to touch an honored daughter of the Yeon Family!" Lurker shouted with sweat rolling down his face.
Yihwa scoffed. "A joke! Yeah right, you disgusting pig! But I'm not talking about that. I mean the other offer. Your boss wanted me to help his son for the test, right? Well, I don't have any debt to you people anymore, but I wouldn't mind helping if you hire me for the right price. Only for the 20th Floor test, though, and he better not try anything funny with me or I'll burn his thing off!"
"Oh, of course, you are most generous, Miss Yeon! I will contact the boss immediately!"
After some negotiations over a Pocket phone call, it was agreed that Yihwa would help the boss's son in exchange for paying her test entry fees plus an upfront payment of 25k points and 100k more if the son passed with her help.
It was a lot less than the amount of her debt that would've been forgiven, but reasonable enough given that the terms were clearly set this time and it'd be just the one test.
As we walked away from the building, Yihwa said with a smile. "That's much better! But you're sure that the son is a good teammate? He won't try anything?"
"He won't be able to without debt hanging over you. And his strength is decent, certainly not up to my standards, but he's better than most Regulars around here and the loan boss has conveniently assembled a good team for him with bribes to make sure his own people are planted in the right test brackets. It'll improve your chances, and you get paid for it."
"Alright! I can't wait for the test now! This time I'll pass for sure!"
O O O
I actually knew very little about the Yeon flames from the story, besides the fact that they were powerful and made Yihwa surprisingly durable, so it wasn't just an offensive power.
Yihwa had explained that the flames were originally given to Yeon Hana, their Family Head, from an ancient master in the Tower, and that the power could be transferred to others if the user was skilled enough. Hana had transferred the power to Yeon Illarde, and then all her descendants inherited it to varying degrees but it was typically stronger in the daughters, and Yihwa was exceptional even among those.
Like Zahard's blood, it was a curious thing, capable of being transmitted through birth and lineage, yet was not a genetic power. It wasn't in their DNA, it could be manifested into a weapon, or even be completely transferred in a way that caused the original user to lose access to it until they reclaimed it.
The best theory I could come up with for this type of phenomenon was that it was soul-based or ritual-based inheritance. Either it was passed down spiritually, with the physical transference merely a medium with which the actual power was conveyed through such as in the case of Zahard's blood, or the very concept of natural birth and family history gave rise to a mystic grand ritual or thaumaturgical system that caused the descendants to gain the same power from the progenitor.
That also had to be why the more powerful the individual in question, the more difficulty they had in breeding at all, such that Yeon Ilarde, who was not actually one of the Family Heads, was still too powerful to the point where even ordinary Rankers couldn't impregnate her, and even after difficult "selections" every five years to choose worthy men among Rankers, she rarely gave birth.
In a way, it was similar to how magic circuits in Fate worked. They weren't quite in the genes, even though there were aspects of their physical expressions that did show up in the genes, creating strange structures in the body. The actual circuits themselves were spiritual in nature, and you could, for example, imbue a familiar with magic circuits by converting your own blood. This was a basic skill for Fate magi, but those magic circuits weren't capable of connecting to the soul and generating prana on their own that way, they still sourced the prana from the original caster.
It made sense to me that there were lots of things with alternative inheritance mechanisms that were not based in physical biology, now that I had pretty much confirmed that nothing mystical could be replicated in Worm by Amelia just using the biological materials I'd brought back. She couldn't even do much with the Endbringer flesh which I now knew to be magical, although that might've also been a Manton Limit problem. Blasto worked with the flesh as a Tinker, but even he couldn't truly bring it back to life, not without the Simurgh's help and Citrine's accidental Trump power anyway.
If I could acquire the Yeon flame myself somehow it would be a nice bonus, but just being able to study it was already a great return on my investment.
For her part, Yihwa seemed to think the research would be a lot more invasive than it was, acting far more embarrassed throughout the process than necessary. All I really needed was to collect some samples of her fluids and use Structural Analysis on her though, plus having her use the flames so that I could observe the flames themselves.
Well, that was easier said than done because her control was awful. I could not even really use Structural Analysis on her properly because her flames rejected my mana instantly, even if she tried to hold it back.
So I ended up having to try training her just for the sake of my own research.
Of course, even that was useful to me, since I could practice containing her flames.
That was why I had enshrouded her in a dense Shinsoo bubble courtesy of the water spirits, trying to suppress her flames.
It was an interesting experiment, because her flames could burn Shinsoo. So I couldn't truly suppress it, but with particular rotations I could redirect it.
"That was amazing…I've never been in Shinsoo dense enough for me to actually feel this much pressure," she said.
I'd had to raise the density to what I'd encountered myself in the White Steel Eel cage that Headon made in order for her to start feeling it at all.
"I rarely use this skill…a lot of Regulars can't deal with this density at all," I said. That would've included me, if not for the water spirits. But now that I had companion water spirits all over my body plus acclimatizing to it over time as I climbed, my personal Shinsoo resistance had also risen a lot. At this level if I didn't call on the spirits in the stone I would still have some difficulty moving, like wading through water.
It was still much higher density than the general environment above the 25th Floor where Androssi and the old gang had gone.
But we were in a rented private training facility, and I didn't sense anybody around, so it was fine for me to use it. Not that it really mattered anyways.
"Well, let's try something else," I said, lifting up my right hand, the sleeve of my shirt pulling back to reveal a flexible form-fitting bangle on my wrist. It was white silver, the whole thing made of Endbringer Crystal, with a small thin decoration hanging from it.
It was Derflinger, Compressed into a tiny form using Shinsoo. With a mental prod from me, the sword's chain extended and the sword moved to my hand in a quick motion before it detached the chain and Decompressed to a normal size, still sheathed in Armoriont crystal.
Both Derflinger and I had become skilled in using the Compression effect. We did not need the Guardians to contract to give us the ability. Back on the Floor of Tests, after being provoked, Yu Han Sung had managed to use a technique to Compress Rak (the huge alligator on Baam's team of three, who had gone off on his own with Parakewl following after him when Shibisu revealed that Khun had left with Rachel on the 25th Floor).
He had told me the theory behind the technique, and it took quite a long time to learn how to do it, and while I was not capable of doing Compression in real-time like Yu Han Sung on any random thing, given enough preparation time and the water spirits' help I could now do it to important items that needed the effect without being inside an Inventory item, after saturating the object in Shinsoo.
And both Derflinger and I had become capable of using a permanently imbued Autocompression, which was a more advanced skill that permanently granted the Compression ability to an Ignition Weapon or living being, so that they could trigger it at will without redoing the whole Compression technique from the beginning.
The Compression skill worked well with the Endbringer Crystal's spatial warping too, allowing Derflinger to assume an incredibly small size then Decompress to a massive size when fully released, or also arbitrarily enlarging only a part of him in only one dimension, such as extending without making the handle thicker.
The sheath, on the other hand, was already at its limit, back to normal size, so if I wanted Derflinger to get bigger it'd have to be unsheathed first or break through the sheath.
"The Crystal Knight's unique talking Ignition Weapon…Lord Derflinger!" Yihwa said with awe.
"Oh, I like this one, Partner!" Derflinger said. "She's cute and respectful! Nice to meetcha!"
"The honor is mine, Lord Derflinger!"
"Hahaha, she's perfect! Perfect! We're keeping her, right Partner?"
"H-huh? K-keep?" Yihwa blushed profusely at the comment.
"She's not a stray, Derf," I said. "But yes, I'd like to have her as a teammate in the future."
"So what are we doing today?" Derf asked.
"Doing some tests with Yihwa's flames and helping her with control exercises. I'd like you to try absorbing the flames," I said.
"Sounds interesting, let's do it."
"Alright, Ignite!" We channeled Shinsoo together, causing the sword to glow and wisps of energy.
This wasn't just a performance—there was actually a Shinsoo technique involved with Ignition, which Hwa Ryun had taught us. Normal Ignition weapons could all do it instinctively, bonding with their users' will and Shinsoo, if the user was qualified. By channeling Shinsoo together using Ignition Liquid as a medium, the weapon would awaken with that bond, absorb more Shinsoo with the help of the user, then release and amplify their own power that had been implanted.
We never got Ignition Liquid but Derflinger didn't need it because he was more autonomous or more "alive" and didn't need a user to activate him. Although it was a bit different with Derflinger, this was a primary reason why Ignition Weapons scaled with the user. The Thirteen Month Series weapons in the hands of a Ranker princess were incomparably more powerful as the wielder could channel more Shinsoo into them to unlock greater power within.
For Derflinger, some aspects of Ignition were redundant because I already had a magic bond with him through a familiar spell. But it was still necessary to synchronize our Shinsoo flow because Derflinger's ability to project Shinsoo control outside of himself was quite limited without it. The Soo, which meant the quantity and density of Shinsoo, that Derflinger could control was vastly greater than my own, without the water spirits. However, his Myun, or range, was extremely limited without an Ignition synchronized wielder, which significantly hampered his ability to move and project his attack-absorption power. And he couldn't make any Baangs on his own either, while I had managed to develop two Baangs on my own, five with the help of my peripheral body-cohabiting water spirits, and way more with the core spirits in the stone.
I gestured for Yihwa release her flames, so she did. A wave of flames larger than my body came towards me, and Derflinger went to meet the challenge.
"Yeeoww! These are some hot flames missy!" Derflinger said, but still managed to suck in a good amount of the flames before they hit me.
Once she stopped the stream of flames, Derflinger was revealed to be glowing reddish with heat, but otherwise fine.
"Hmm, these flames are difficult to break down, my outer layer probably won't be able to survive a stronger blast for long. But I can contain them inside my Endbringer form," said Derflinger. "It will take a while to actually digest it properly though."
"Want to try something stronger then?" I asked.
"Sure, hit me with the strongest flame you've got, miss!" Derflinger shouted to Yihwa.
"Are you sure? That might be dangerous…" Yihwa said hesitantly.
"It's fine, we can handle it. Don't bother thinking about controlling it, just release as much as you can," I said confidently while preparing my defenses. "We have contingencies in case it does too much damage."
Yihwa nodded, then made a face of concentration as she closed her eyes.
She seemed to struggle to gather her power, but after a few minutes, it rose to an unprecedented level.
I sensed the power before the flames surged around her body, and then it concentrated towards her hand as she tried to punch with it.
"Uh?! Ahhhh!" Yihwa made a surprised face, then the flames exploded against herself, but it still created a titanic explosion that engulfed me as well in a mind-melting pain that I quickly dulled my nerves for.
"That's stronger than the biggest Square class fire spell I've ever seen!" Derflinger shouted through the torrent of fire.
I dimly noted that the entire training facility had been consumed in fire, but the walls were decently well made and the flames were petering out by that point. The ground beneath us though had become a molten crater.
My clothes had been completely annihilated, even much of my skin had melted. Fortunately my new Endbringer subdermal mesh had survived pretty well, blocking the heat from transferring through to my actual vital organs. Even my eyes were fine when I shut them in time, the eyelids also covered by Endbringer crystal.
My nose and ears though had more of a problem, for which I was forced to use the water spirits to help shield me.
Thinking about it, that was a serious weakness I'd need to figure out how to shore up. A massive blast like this was obviously going to deal a lot of damage going through open orifices that led into my body, and the water spirits' shielding might not be enough next time.
The water spirits healed me at high speed while the smoke cleared and Derflinger coughed repeatedly.
Eventually it was revealed that Derflinger's outer crystal sheath had also been melted, leaving the Endbringer form glowing red hot and steam coming out of it, as Derflinger tried to expel some of the heat.
Yihwa lay on the ground in a smoking heap groaning, but otherwise did not seem particularly injured. Her resistance to her own flames seemingly extended to her clothes as well, which were slightly damaged—ruined for cosmetic purposes, but didn't actually get vaporized like mine, even though mine were reinforced Armoriont nanocellulose.
"Well, that was impressive," I said.
"You can say that again, don't expect me to absorb anything like that, Partner, haha!" Derflinger said, laughing.
O O O
Time passed, and we'd only made a tiny amount of progress on her control training. It seemed like conventional training methods for mental discipline and Shinsoo control exercises were ineffective for her.
She had a little success with tuning the heat of her flames and avoiding sudden explosive outbursts of flame after getting a better handle on her emotions, but other than that, we had little to show for our work.
I was no closer to figuring out how to reproduce the flame on my own either, but training with her had still been useful to hone my other skills since her flames were potent enough to actually threaten me, in a way that was very different from the physical training I did with Androssi.
More importantly, the opportunity was ripe to seek my true objective.
"It doesn't seem like this is working," I said with a frown. "There's barely any improvement."
"Sorry for wasting your time…I don't know why I'm so bad at this," Yihwa said.
"Not at all, failures are merely part of the research process, and the data was useful regardless. But I don't think I can help you master it like this," I said. "And the injections I used to enhance other Regulars before won't work on you either, with your flames rejecting everything. At this rate, it doesn't seem like this can be solved before your next test. Maybe not even in several tests."
"I-I'm sure I'll be fine, you've done enough for me already!" She said with a forced smile that didn't reach her eyes, which looked quite pitiful.
"There might still be one more way…" I said, hand rubbing my chin, eyes furrowed as if deep in thought.
"R-really?"
I looked at her solemnly. "Yes, I think there is a way that will work. But it will be a big decision, for both of us. Let's stop for now and head back, this will be a long conversation."
She nodded with a curious expression, then we made our way to back to my lab, to my office tea room.
Once I set the tea and we sat down, I began.
"There are some things you need to know about me first, things that I do not share lightly. I hope you appreciate the trust I'm placing in you, and do not speak of it to anyone without my permission, even if you choose not to proceed with this."
"Of course, you can trust me, I won't say a word to anyone!"
"Good. I'll be blunt then. I'm an Irregular," I said, watching her eyes widen comically as she froze in the pose of holding her teacup.
"And not just that, even among Irregulars, I'm a special type of being—it's quite complicated, but basically I'm a being from 'beyond the boundary of reality', subject to special rules," I continued, making air quotes. "The power that I can directly express in the material world is heavily restricted, and without an anchor, I can only maintain my physical presence for short periods. I require summoners, born of this world, to invite me into the world and sustain my existence with their energy, and in exchange, I can use my power on their behalf, by forming a contract with them. That is the true nature of my relationship with Androssi. She is my contractor, so in a way, she really is a Witch that summoned a demon, although she's not really a Spell user otherwise, and I'm not really a demon—that's just an analogy."
Yihwa was still listening intently with a shocked expression. I sipped some tea first before continuing.
"This is what I am offering you, if your will is strong enough—and I believe it is, you can form a contract with me too. But unlike with the princess, you have the potential for us to go a step further, create a more powerful bond, which may allow you to gain more control over your flames."
"A more powerful bond…than the princess?"
The culmination of my research, my new magnum opus, developed after studying Anak's blood I retrieved on the Floor of Tests, learning from the water spirits how they coalesced new spirits that bonded with me, learning from Derflinger how to attune to and possess the Endbringer crystal, and all the experiments of implanting things into my test subjects.
A Symbiotic Spirit Crest, which could hold a spirit derived from an advanced imprint of my will, sustaining itself off the host yet linked to me.
"That's right. The princess has already accepted Zahard's blood and her body could not handle having a second power from me, especially because Zahard's blood is quite jealous—it's hold on her was already too strong, because she'd become a princess long before she entered the Tower."
That wasn't quite confirmed, I only developed this spell after we split up so had never been able to test it on her, nor did I know if she would be willing, but Yihwa didn't need to know any of that.
"But you are different. Your flames may reject most things, but they are still borne of you. As long as you are willing, and form a basic contract first, it should be possible for you to accept my power. But it will also be far more permanent than the contract I have with the princess now, which can be broken at any time. I will be investing a living fragment of my will inside of you, and it will attune itself to your body and soul, sharing my powers with you, and helping you control your own powers. It is similar to how princesses are created…but you don't need to adopt my name."
She turned bright red after hearing the last part. I smiled at the reaction. She was too easy to tease, and it was an easy way to divert her attention from some other potential implications of doing such a thing.
"So then…what would I have to do as your contractor?"
"After the initial ritual, nothing, besides providing me with some energy and giving appropriate commands so that I can use my powers on your behalf. We would basically just be closer than normal teammates," I said.
"R-right…closer teammates…" She said in that familiar shy tone,
"That's right. Having more anchors in this world makes it easier to maintain my presence and a powerful summoner can give me more freedom to act. That's all I need from you. Though I will warn you that this type of bond may be quite draining at first, until you are fully attuned to it. But that shouldn't be a problem for you, given your power and potential."
She nodded. "…And this could help me control my flames." Then seemed to think a bit before giving me a questioning look. "Even if it didn't work…if you could share your power with me, it could help me pass the test?"
"Because the test is too soon, your body might not be able to handle it yet. But besides direct enhancements, there are also some other loopholes that can be used…at the Guardian's discretion, and also dependent on whether the Ranker test administrators find out and how friendly they are. For example, it's possible to give a Regular Shinheuh and equipment," I said.
"Equipment? You mean like Lord Derflinger?!" Her eyes went to the sword that was floating behind me.
"Nope, I'd love to let you handle my shaft but that won't be allowed," said Derf.
"W-what?! Why do you have to say it l-like that?" Yihwa spluttered.
"Hehe! You might be able to bring me into the test, but the Ranker test admins would notice me for sure," said Derf. "I'm too powerful."
"Yeah, Derf is just overkill, nor do you need that kind of help. You just need something that you can use without hurting your teammates, and to protect or heal them in case you're forced to use your flames," I said. "If you are my contractor, I can prepare a pet 'Shinheuh' for you. It will be able to help disperse and redirect your flames away from teammates and heal them, or you can just use it to attack. I'll also prepare a wand that can do the healing and dispersion as well, as backup in case something happens to the pet."
"You're right…that should be enough," she said, nodding again. "Okay, I'll become your contractor then!"
O O O
Preparing all the necessary components of the Symbiotic Spirit Crest was not easy, but I'd already been well prepared long in advance. The most difficult and time-consuming part was coalescing a spirit of my will together with the water spirits.
It was incomparably more advanced than the basic imprint I put into the Clone Familiar, which instead used the psionic pattern of the bionanites with the water spirits and my blood like a normal familiar. That was only good enough to act on simplistic feelings but couldn't form complex thoughts without me actively controlling it, and there was no way to support it with mana if I was too far away.
But this spirit would be able to form complex thoughts over time after being sufficiently attuned to the host, and become a method of empowering a nearby familiar using the host's energy, regardless of their distance from me.
It was also self-sustaining and symbiotic, capable of growing with the host. Unlike the version that was sustained only by a group of water spirits, this would be more powerful because it could afford to spend its energy on combat abilities instead of just maintaining its own integrity and spending most of its time recharging.
Yihwa sat cross legged in the ritual circle, shoulders bared to me as I carefully drew the core of the diagram that would become the Crest on the back of her right shoulder.
She had already formed the threshold invitation contract with me, easily having the will to do it with her desperation to control her flames and desire to pass the tests to prove herself.
On a table beside us was a special concoction that carried the spirit, which I prepared out of my bodily fluids, refined Shinsoo, and dissolved Endbringer crystal powder. The Endbringer crystal was a powerful vessel that resisted damage while being a uniquely malleable medium attuned to my will and later catalyze the attunement of the spirit to Yihwa.
I walked around to her front after grabbing the vial.
"It's time for the final part. Make sure you're calm and relaxed. Are you ready?"
Sho nodded and accepted the vial from me, while I went back around behind her to my designated position in the ritual circle.
"Now drink it."
She gulped it all down and I began chanting, concentrating on the magic at hand, materializing and touching the Crest with Agate.
The circle beneath us lit up, and the outer diagram began to inscribe itself around the core of the Crest on her shoulder.
There was no response from her flames so far, so I proceeded with the activation of the concoction.
She took in a sharp breath as the presence of the spirit within the concoction awakened, and the concoction was digested at high speed with magical assistance, spreading through her body.
After a few moments, the Crest was fully drawn and began to burn itself into her skin. Wisps of flame erupted from it but they weren't damaging it, instead they were bound into the Crest as well. Soon, the spirit found its way to the Crest as well, and in the center of the core diagram, a new shape appeared.
The shape was a depiction of a blooming flower with wide petals and dotted filaments, not the Zygaena's flower on her headband, but the pear flower that was her name.
"It's done," I announced. "How do you feel?"
"A little tired, but I'm fine," she said.
"That's good, I thought it might be quite painful, but I'm glad I was wrong."
She tried to glance back at her shoulder and rubbed the spot where the Spirit Crest was inscribed. "It does hurt a little here, but that's all."
I went to grab a mirror so that she could see the black markings for herself.
"It will take some time to attune itself to you until it can awaken properly before you can do anything with it," I said.
"I can already feel it, kind of…like the flame inside me, but different," said Yihwa.
Suddenly the Crest glowed and a translucent figure emerged from it, floating. It was like a reversed ball of multicolored flame that was more whitish blue than anything else, round at the top, the bottom trailing off to the point.
It swam around to Yihwa's front into her cupped hands like a fish as she stared at it with awe.
"That's a bit unexpected…for it to take a physical form like this, and so soon," I said.
"It might be because it bonded with the Yeon flame…I've seen some older members of my family do something like this!" Yihwa said excitedly. "Maybe now I can—"
"Get some rest first," I said, cutting her off. "Don't overdo things right after the ritual."
"Ah…okay."
O O O
The look on Lurker's face while Yihwa paid off her debt was quite satisfying.
I posed as a Yeon retainer in a new effeminate disguise with shoulder length black hair and pinkish red eyes, wearing a suit with the symbol of the Yeon Family, the Zygaena's flower drawn brazenly on my shoulder. I held a stiff expression on my face that looked like I was barely holding back my rage, glaring at the loan manager.
"So…about that 'suggestion' you gave me last time, Mr. Lurker…" Yihwa said while twirling her hair playfully while giving him a dirty look with an exaggerated fake smile.
"I-I didn't mean anything by it, miss! It was just a joke! A joke! This lowly one would never dare to touch an honored daughter of the Yeon Family!" Lurker shouted with sweat rolling down his face.
Yihwa scoffed. "A joke! Yeah right, you disgusting pig! But I'm not talking about that. I mean the other offer. Your boss wanted me to help his son for the test, right? Well, I don't have any debt to you people anymore, but I wouldn't mind helping if you hire me for the right price. Only for the 20th Floor test, though, and he better not try anything funny with me or I'll burn his thing off!"
"Oh, of course, you are most generous, Miss Yeon! I will contact the boss immediately!"
After some negotiations over a Pocket phone call, it was agreed that Yihwa would help the boss's son in exchange for paying her test entry fees plus an upfront payment of 25k points and 100k more if the son passed with her help.
It was a lot less than the amount of her debt that would've been forgiven, but reasonable enough given that the terms were clearly set this time and it'd be just the one test.
As we walked away from the building, Yihwa said with a smile. "That's much better! But you're sure that the son is a good teammate? He won't try anything?"
"He won't be able to without debt hanging over you. And his strength is decent, certainly not up to my standards, but he's better than most Regulars around here and the loan boss has conveniently assembled a good team for him with bribes to make sure his own people are planted in the right test brackets. It'll improve your chances, and you get paid for it."
"Alright! I can't wait for the test now! This time I'll pass for sure!"
O O O
63 – 20th Floor Test
63 – 20th Floor Test
The day of the test arrived, and Yihwa went with the loan shark boss's son whose name was Prince.
He was a boy with purple cropped hair, about the same height as Yihwa, but was a decent Lightbearer and not bad with Shinsoo. Good Lightbearers were rare and valuable because most Regulars couldn't cover for those abilities, whereas all the other positions like Fishermen or Scout could be relatively easily covered by somebody else. Aside from Yihwa, the kid was actually the strongest among his assembled group, despite the appearance of his father pampering him with a good team.
It was finally time for the plot of Tower of God to resume, and this was where Baam was supposed to make his grand re-appearance as an FUG slayer candidate.
Naturally I'd been keeping tabs on Baam to make sure I wasn't surprised by anything, and it was not hard because I was also working with FUG.
There were a lot of new characters introduced during this test, who wound up becoming Baam's new teammates as he was climbing under his new FUG given identity.
Some of them were even quite important to the plot later on, but none of them came close to Yihwa or Baam in terms of strength or potential.
To be frank, there wasn't anything too useful happening in this test now that I already achieved my main objective of recruiting Yihwa, but now that I had a new powerful summoner close by who'd given me the order to help her pass the test, I had the opportunity to test more powerful spells.
Having dangerous battles and seeking great rewards was exciting to be sure, but there was a time and place for that sort of thing, while most of the time, true gains are made through accumulated hard work. Even for those critical, decisive battles, a good general knew that 90% of a war was just positioning and preparation, you only battled once the conditions were highly favorable—unless there was no choice.
As the Builder had taught me, using spells that weren't thoroughly tested was quite foolish and risky. In that respect, magic did not escape the practicalities of science and technological development. Even for well proven technology, there was such a thing as quality control and environmental factors.
Other than that, I intended to make sure events did not diverge greatly off course and create any unpleasant surprises before the plot reached the points where I had much bigger interests down the line.
So that was why, even as Yihwa went into her test section with Prince and the rest of his goons, I was also going up the elevator to the first test myself in a different section.
How did I do so when I wasn't allowed into the test, you ask?
By puppeteering the undead corpse of another Regular.
I had several of those lying around after some fatally failed experiments, and while I hadn't managed to actually resurrect them with the spell that the Andvari ring was once capable of, I was able to get the water spirits to preserve the body from decaying.
Then I turned the fresh corpse into a familiar, after modifying its body in numerous ways. Because it had been a sapient being, this was much more difficult than a familiar made from animals or the Armoriont. Just the spiritual residue left behind by the soul after its passing created great interference.
But unlike typical depictions of necromancy, I was able to heal the body back to a serviceable state so that it looked and was technically alive at the cellular level if brain dead, then fill it with Bionanites from my own Swarm so that it could bind with an Armoriont.
The Bionanites were not capable of providing most of its features to that body due to incompatibility. The Swarm had only been created through a combination of Amelia's bacterial/viral control plus Cranial's brainwave tech and Dragon's biological computer tech, and Armsmaster's psionic shielding tech. It was intrinsically customized to me in a way that simply couldn't be transferred to somebody else, using psionic signals to interface with my mind.
However, it still made it easier for me to turn something else into my familiar, then have that body receive an Armoriont locked to its DNA that could at least regenerate its organs and respond to my will through the familiar bond.
Incredibly, the Guardian did not object to my use of the body to infiltrate the test, though if the Ranker test administrators found out, they'd probably stop this.
Its capabilities were quite limited compared to the eventual potential of the Symbiotic Spirit Crest, but nevertheless it allowed me to puppet it as if I were in the test myself, albeit without access to many of my abilities, especially Shinsoo manipulation.
It could still do very basic Shinsoo techniques such as interfacing with the E-Grade Pocket the Regular had or use Arms Inventories, but something as advanced as a Lighthouse was impossible, to say nothing of a Baang.
When the elevator door opened, I found several combatants within the large arena.
There was Baam with his new waist-long hair that obscured his eyes, wearing the dark FUG robes with the slayer symbol on the bottom half.
Then Wangnan Ja, the new protagonist of this portion of the story, a blond haired guy in a green jacket who mysteriously had a ring of Zahard, but was pathetically weak and relied on Shinsoo bombs. He was standing behind Baam, far away from the main battle.
Horyang, the huge guy with the Devil in his right arm, whom I'd sent Yihwa to find during our first conversation, was there as well, facing Baam from a short distance away.
Akraptor, a grey-haired buzzcut guy with the umbrella that could fire Shinsoo beams, was smashed into a wall, sitting against broken debris.
And hiding in a corner near Wangnan was Miseng, a tiny girl that looked maybe twelve years old wearing a backpack, and Goseng, a waifish glasses-wearing woman in a pink jacket.
This entire group would wind up becoming part of Baam's new team later on as a result of Wangnan's charisma and tricks.
They all stared at me walking out of the elevator, before Baam fully turned and leapt over in a single bound, powering up a Shinsoo attack on his fist.
He had gotten much better, that was for sure, but I still dodged it, his attack blasting into and destroying the elevator.
Fully armored in a smooth grey colored Armoriont suit that also covered my head, this puppet still possessed the physical capabilities I had when I entered the Tower, plus Reinforcement. Due to it being a corpse puppet, it was less Reinforceable than my actual body had been with the Armoriont back then, but I'd also gotten better at Reinforcement, so it somewhat evened out.
"What's this? Wasn't it supposed to be a survival test?" I asked with the gruffy voice of the male Regular whose body I was puppeteering. "There's a lot of you still left in here."
They all looked at me warily, then back to Baam.
Nobody answered me before Baam charged me again. Time to test my once student's new skills.
I barely avoided his palm and the pulse of Shinsoo that blasted outwards past my shoulder.
Then I returned with a strike of my own. He dodged, then a flurry of martial arts followed as we attacked and counterattacked weaving around the other.
"…?" Baam made a surprised sound and expression while we fought, before settling back into a neutral face.
Then he countered with the exact same moves as mine, fluidly flowing into a precise counter for each move that formed part of the unnamed style of martial art that we had practiced with Androssi, which was a mix of her techniques and things I'd taken from Earth styles.
Finally he parried one of my strikes with his hand instead of dodging. As soon as the parry landed, I felt Shinsoo vibrate through my arm.
I barely felt the pain transmitted back to me, but my arm had suffered serious damage on the inside from the Shinsoo blast, despite the Armoriont itself holding with only a slight crack on the armor surface. But both the combined muscles had been damaged enough to be disabled for now.
Well, that was dangerous, so I jumped back a large distance, holding my limp arm. This was a major weakness of having armor that wasn't sufficiently Shinsoo resistant and more vulnerable parts underneath, and the particular technique that Baam used. Something that his new teacher in FUG must have taught him.
"Hey, teddy bear, I changed my mind," said Akraptor. "Let's team up against that monster. You too, new guy, we won't stand a chance against the robed dude if we don't work together."
"Alright," said Horyang.
"Sure, I'm down," I said.
"You guys, try to block his movements. I'll finish him in one shot," said Akraptor, standing back up.
"You go up first, big guy, I need a moment to recover, my left arm is fucked right now," I said.
"Fine," said Horyang.
He swiftly moved to engage, the shape of the hovering light behind his right shoulder changing according to what he was doing, obviously exposing his intent before he did the actual action. When he ran, it became a foot. When he punched towards Baam, it became a fist. When Baam knocked his fist aside and then pushed a blast of Shinsoo into his gut, it turned into a shield.
"It's no use. This shield protects me," said Horyang, after Baam held his posture with a surprised expression as his blast of Shinsoo uselessly dissipated against Horyang's body.
My arm still hadn't healed since I did not have the water spirits to help me. The Armoriont's natural regen wasn't very fast—even slower on this puppet body, and I conserved my MP since I wasn't really planning to fight much here.
So I quickly went to Wangnan Ja while the fight was happening.
"You guys part of this alliance?" I asked.
"Yeah, let's all fight that guy together," he said.
I nodded, then watched the fight again.
Baam had blocked the beam from Akraptor easily, then rushed over to the guy who blocked his first counterattack with the umbrella. However, Baam left a second ball of Shinsoo in the air as Akraptor retracted the umbrella. He was then zapped away into the wall again.
Horyang was distracted by the sight when Baam dashed back around to his side and launched a much large Shinsoo attack that smashed Horyang to another wall.
"Looks like you're up buddy, my arm is still out of action," I said, patting—shoving Wangnan on the back with my other arm.
"Ah?! I mean, so it's my turn huh…" He tried to act tough walking towards the calmly waiting Baam.
Then he threw some Shinsoo bombs and started running around as Baam dodged and chased him.
Even after catching Baam in a high powered bomb, he seemed to suffer no damage, then Baam caught up to Wangnan and knocked him down.
He turned to the side to barely avoid Baam's fist coming down and cracking the ground where he was before. Wangnan screamed as it looked like Baam was about to kill him, then desperately flung another bomb while rolling away.
The bomb exploded directionally away from him and against Baam. When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that Baam was actually hurt this time, despite the bomb being of a much cheaper, low powered non-Shinsoo variety.
"What are you waiting for? Shoot him again!" Akraptor yelled when Wangnan was stunned.
He was shaken into action and launched another bomb.
However, a red light that formed an exoskeleton over Baam appeared, both blocking the second bomb and giving him high speed regeneration, and he was fine again with only his robes shredded in a few places.
That must have been the thing that FUG implanted into him, the red light from the bottom of the wineglass on the Floor of Tests.
The timer ran out, and the first phase survival test was over.
Baam walked towards the elevator alone, while everybody watched silently, except me. I flexed my healed arm, then went after him.
"Who would want to ride with that guy?" Wangnan asked aloud, until he saw me moved past him. "Hey…are you crazy?!" He grabbed my shoulder.
"Test's over, right? We have no reason to fight anymore," I said, shrugging him off.
I went into the elevator with Baam and nobody else followed.
Baam didn't make a move as the elevator closed.
Then he spoke in a soft voice. "Where did you learn those movements from…?"
"Hm? You mean my martial arts?" I asked.
He nodded. "They were familiar…but I haven't seen them in a long time…"
"I learned them from the same man who gave me this armor," I said. "One day, after I failed the test again, and the loan sharks came after me, he saved me all of a sudden. He was unbelievably strong…I think he was a Regular from a higher floor. He taught me a little and gave me this armor before leaving just as suddenly. It took a long time for me to master what little he taught me…and now I'm here."
"What was his name?"
The door opened, and we stepped out into the next area with a big stage and curtains.
"He didn't tell me," I said, shrugging and walking along. "But he told me he was looking for something and someone. And he said…if I ever met somebody really good with Shinsoo named the Twenty-Fifth Baam, to help him pass on a message to him."
"…!" Baam stopped frozen as he heard that.
"Come to think of it, you're pretty good with Shinsoo. Your name wouldn't happen to be Twenty-Fifth Baam, would it? Haha, it couldn't that that easy…" I said, turning towards him.
Baam remained still. "What was the message?" He asked.
"Wait, is that really your name?" I asked, feigning shock.
Baam opened his mouth to speak, then the elevator opened again behind us, and the Regulars from our group came out.
"…" After seeing them come out and stare at us, Baam turned to face me again. "No…my name is Jyu Viole Grace. But the person you described sounds like somebody I might know…maybe I can help pass on the message if I meet this Twenty-Fifth Baam one day."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt. I don't think it was a secret or anything…the message was, 'The needle has been returned to Ms. Yuri, and we defeated the assassin. Everyone survived and went up,'" I said.
He smiled widely. "That's great! Everyone is okay…" Then he looked away, catching himself. "I-I mean, I will definitely pass on the message. Thank you, Mr…?"
"Canjon's my name," I said, ignoring his initial reaction. "Nice meeting you, Mr. Jyu Viole Grace."
"Thank you, Mr. Canjon. But it's not good for you to stay near me…see the symbol on my robe?" He asked.
"That's FUG's symbol, isn't it? Don't tell me you really are…?"
He nodded. "I'm a slayer candidate of FUG."
"I see…thanks for the warning," I said.
The other Regulars gave us a wide berth and sat against the stage in a group, while "Viole" went to sit by himself, and I decided to move back over to Wangnan's group.
They gave me wary looks as I neared.
"Got dumped already?" Wangnan asked me.
"We just realized that it wouldn't be a good fit and decided to separate peacefully," I said.
Akraptor sniggered.
"Serves you right for sucking up to the big bad guy," Wangnan said. I looked askance at him, the irony of his statement when he would be the one actually sucking up to Viole later.
After a while, Miseng the little schoolgirl handed out snacks to everyone, including Viole.
One of the elevator doors opened again, and a guy came in heavily injured. He collapsed begging for help.
"Please…it's my last chance…"
"It's also my last chance…" said Wangnan, looking at the man pitifully and holding Goseng back from trying to help him.
Wangnan had also been in crushing debt to the loan company and was one of those who'd signed away his organs to Lurker. So this really would be his last chance.
After the fallen Regular was teleported away, another large group came in that didn't seem to have fought much amongst each other, but the only Regular of note was a short guy that delivered noodles to Wangnan before. They greeted each other loudly and Wangnan explained to Goseng that the kid was his mentee of sorts, having inspired him.
Finally, Yihwa and Prince's group arrived, with Prince looking slightly singed and his goons trying to clean up his hair. Yihwa walked with them at the center of their formation beside Prince, but pointedly maintaining a slight distance from the boy.
Wangnan stared in surprise and horror as the girl who burnt him to a crisp in his last test showed up again.
Goseng, the nerdy glasses girl, nudged him. "Are you jealous because he's with a pretty girl? Ha, guys are all the same. The guy beside her must have helped her because of her looks, right? It's so obvious. A man's instinct is to help a pretty girl even during a test."
"It's nothing like that!" Wangnan exclaimed. "Look at her headband. She's from the Yeon family!"
"Huh? Why is a Great Family girl here?" Goseng asked.
Yihwa noticed Horyang, and waved.
"Huh? Who's she waving to?" Wangnan asked, before his eyes found Horyang, who nodded and waved back. "Teddy bear? You're friends with her?"
"We've had an encounter in the past. I wouldn't say we're friends yet, but we're acquainted," said Horyang.
"A friendly encounter with that stupid flame thrower? And you didn't get burned?" asked Wangnan.
Horyang shrugged.
Then Wangnan and Lurker noticed each other, and had a barely civil greeting before Lurker explained the situation. His boss bribed the supervisors and set up a team for Prince, with Yihwa being hired because she was low on money, along with the expensive "Devil of the Right Arm", called Rapdevil, who supposedly beat Hatsu, the talented swordsman from the Floor of Tests who had become a bit famous as he went up with the old gang.
"Sorry to say this…but you should all go home," said Lurker, after explaining things.
Our group didn't look too impressed with him, but nobody responded either.
Finally, the Ranker arrived.
He looked like a little kid wearing a baseball cap with abnormally large pupils for eyes that seemed to have a weird effect where they looked like it'd been filled in with crayons. "My name is Love. Congratulations to all of you on passing the first test. There are three tests for this Floor, now this is the second test. Your ability to reinforce your body will be tested with this Shinsoo measuring device."
He revealed an arcade punching machine featuring Quant's face. It seemed like the Ranker had focused more on branding and modeling gigs after Yu Hansung fired him from the Floor of Tests.
"After punching the machine your rank will be displayed on the scoreboard. Eight Regulars will be selected after this test for the next one."
When I had gone through this Floor the first time around, I'd received this test as well, even with the exact same Ranker.
Love Mule didn't look like much, but with Rankers appearances meant little. As he'd demonstrated by punching the machine, displaying a score of over 13 million units of whatever it was measuring.
Most of the Regulars here were not that impressive, even if they had been enhanced a bit by Shinsoo, many were not even better than peak human still. Those that were, generally didn't have great technique for a punch.
Most of these Regulars were hitting less than 3000, and I estimated that an elite martial artist from Earth could probably do the same. A legendary expert of punching like Bruce Lee could probably hit up to even 10k.
Back then, when Androssi and I got here, we decided to go all out just to see how we measured up.
I was not sure exactly how the machine measured things, but over many observations the first time around and this time, I believed that it was something similar to a very short collision impulse for a pure brute force attack at relatively lower "mundane" levels, and something more esoteric for an attack charged with Shinsoo that transferred into the machine.
Most Regulars, even with their Shinsoo Reinforcement, could only produce a basic brute force attack even after being strengthened by the Shinsoo. But the more Shinsoo you were charged with, the less that conventional physics could model the damage potential.
It was illegal to attack with an outright beam of Shinsoo, but it was permitted to charge a punch with as much Shinsoo as you wanted, even unleashing Shinsoo explosively from it.
So those who were adept at unleashing explosive force from their punch were at a significant advantage—both here and in real combat. Just because you were physically stronger or faster didn't mean you could deal more damage.
Nevertheless, mass and velocity did have an effect on the results, so both angles were potential avenues to approach this.
After all my buffs at the time, including the Boost from holding Derflinger, I had approximately 17 times the strength of an Olympic athlete and 15 times the speed. These attributes did not quite multiply each other since strength was a component of speed and vice versa, but the output of a punch from me using these buffs with good technique was incredible nonetheless, since my magically enhanced strength and power defied any relation to my actual mass, in a manner similar to a heavily charged Shinsoo punch.
Androssi had hit over 91k with a brute force punch and no special Shinsoo technique, and that was more than nine times higher than the closest competitor at the time. Nobody else had gotten past even 10k, though our cohort was also rather weak.
As for me, because we were going all out, I went beyond even using Derflinger's Boost and his skill, then further added the Burstshift at maximum velocity for 220 m/s which was higher than the best propulsion I could get out of my legs.
With all that added together, even though I also had no special technique to be unleashed from my punch, my resulting score reached 265k.
And the Ranker still casually hit 50 times more than that.
I thought I might have beaten him if I'd used an actual high powered Sword Beam from Derflinger instead, with its explosive energy release. But of course, if he'd also used a Shinsoo blast, who knows what insane number it could go to.
Once most of the weaker Regulars went, with Akraptor topping it at 3250, Prince started to talk loudly.
"This is so lame, I thought there'd be something special on this Floor but it's just a kids' game. Are there only losers here? Heh why don't we play a game? Well, for whoever comes in first…let's see. Right. I'll give my Yeon," he said.
"What?! I'm not yours to give away!" Yihwa shouted.
"S-sir, that's…!" Lurker protested, fearing Yihwa's rage.
"You don't want to?" Prince asked. "You didn't want to hang around me right? So if you win, you'll still get your payment but you don't have to stay in my group anymore. Scratch that, I'll even pay you the entire amount of the debt you borrowed from your family to pay us off. How about it? Or aren't you confident in yourself?"
Yihwa took the bait. "O-okay! I'm in! Don't regret it!"
I could guess at what she was thinking. She hadn't borrowed money from her family, but it looked like that to the loan company. She was probably thinking that she could use it to pay me back though.
"Can't you be quiet? You're making others uncomfortable here," said Horyang, looming over the boy after he noticed Goseng and Wangnan were covered by a cloud of gloom and resentment that he was playing such a game over the test scores.
"You want me to care about the Regulars who're about to fail? Don't ruin my day. Run off before I beat you up," Prince said, completely unafraid of the huge Horyang that towered over him.
"Brat," said Horyang before turning around towards the stage.
Then he went up to the machine and punched a 6350. That was pretty weak still, but he was holding back a lot here. He probably thought that there wasn't any need to go higher since less than eight Regulars remained, so his spot among the passing group was guaranteed if he got first now, and he wasn't going to play Prince's game.
Prince laughed. "This might be a bit fun after all."
Then his strongest hired help went forth. "Have you ever seen the devil? I'll show you," Rapdevil said as he passed Horyang.
The man whose eyes were a black sclera and two yellow dots, with a yellow pattern over his hair and shirt, held out his right arm. It transformed into a black and aquamarine demonic looking arm that looked an awful lot like this one guy from the Bleach anime.
He punched with an aura around his arm and hit 11988.
Prince clapped then gloated towards Horyang, then it was Yihwa's turn.
"I don't think it'll be easy to pass his score. By the way, his score is mine too," said Prince.
Yihwa smiled. "I thought you'd do better with a body like that."
Canonically she slipped and barely grazed the punch panel at an awkward angle before falling onto the machine.
…and then she did the same here. Prince laughed before the score was shown to be 22788.
"She got over 20,000?! But she barely touched it!" Prince said with a shocked face.
"Thanks for the cash," said Yihwa after she came back.
"Wait. I'm next, it's not over," said Prince.
"Let's see what you got then," said Yihwa with a scoff. "A boy who hired others to take him up the Tower…what could you possibly do?"
25517 was his score, which shocked everyone into silence.
His goons cheered him as he returned, and one of them began massaging his arm and shoulder.
"You got it backwards. They aren't taking me up. I'm the one taking them up the Tower," said Prince with a smirk. "That's why you should stay by my side."
"That's…I can do better than that! Test supervisor let me—"
"There are no retries," said Love.
"Just give up and come back to me!" Prince said gleefully.
"Do not worry miss Yeon, I will rescue you from his clutches," I said, walking forward confidently and giving her a thumbs up.
"Eh? Who are you?"
"My name is Canjon. A student of a mysterious cloaked man who taught me the meaning of true strength and honor. I never got his name or saw his face. But he passed down this 'Chromatic Cell Crystal' armor, and taught me the 'Calamity Style Demon Fist'!"
"Chromatic…Calamity…Demon…?" Yihwa asked with a surprised face. "You can't mean…?!"
"I trained for years to master this power, and I can barely handle it even now…but I fell in love with you at first sight! That's why…for the sake of a maiden in need…I will use the forbidden skill, Calamity Broken Fist!"
"W-what?! L-love at first sight?! Hey, what are you saying?" She asked as I ignored her question and walked up to the machine.
"What did I say…? It's a man's natural instinct to help a pretty girl," said Goseng.
"So courageous…is that how love should be conveyed?" Horyang said in awe of 'Canjon' while glancing towards Goseng.
"Don't get any stupid ideas, teddy bear, who knows if that guy is even serious," said Akraptor. "He's probably just pulling shit out of his ass. A student of the Calamity Demon? As if!"
I crouched into a stance and began 'powering up'. My Armor beginning to change color, slowly turning into a full black with red and purple veins from the head down.
"Oh shit, is he for real?" Wangnan asked.
I continued to 'power up', making some random gestures, then raised my right arm which began to get covered in glowing red circuit lines.
"Haaaa…!!!" Then I cried aloud while finally pulling my arm back into a punching stance.
Finally, I Broke my entire arm and the linked Armoriont section with Reinforcement. Except it wasn't actually just Breaking it immediately, but overloading a semi-stable Reinforcement to achieve a temporary higher level of power first before it self-destructed. This was a powerful spell that I'd wanted to test for a while, but was obviously very dangerous because I couldn't quite just Break the Armoriont arm section alone. Because of the way the power suit muscle-physics worked, isolating it to the Armoriont would require applying the effect to the whole thing around my body, or I could apply the effect to the actual arm that formed the core of the motion.
The Armoriont in that area cracked and glowed with even more red light. Yihwa must have felt a resonance in her Crest as she suddenly moved a hand to the back of her shoulder.
"Calamity Broken Fist!!!" I shouted and collided with the punch panel.
The Regulars watched with baited breath as the number on the scoreboard climbed.
It went passed Prince's score, and kept going. Passed 30k, then 40k…
"Holy shit!" Wangnan shouted. "Where's it gonna stop?!"
"He was the real deal?!" Akraptor asked as the score topped 60k, then 70k…
And it finally stopped at 74k.
There was silence for a moment, then my arm exploded.in blood. It wasn't completely gone, but the muscles had all been shredded, the bones had shattered, and the Armoriont was falling off in pieces.
"Oh my god! Mr. Canjon! Are you okay?!" Yihwa ran up to me and pulled out the healing wand I gave her, trying to touch it to my arm. "Let me heal you!"
I gestured for her to stop with my other arm. "I'm fine, thank you miss. I'll be able to heal this by tomorrow. No need to waste your rare item on me."
"Since you did this for me, I have to do this!" She exclaimed. "You idiot! Why did you use that forbidden skill if it was going to destroy your arm?! It was just some money, it wasn't a big deal. I agreed to be hired, it's not like I was being forced! I didn't need any rescuing!"
"This isn't a big deal for me either. Like I said, I can heal from it, thanks to this unique armor," I said.
"Stop acting tough already!"
Love allowed her to pull me away from the stage and called for a bot to clean up the mess first.
"Were you really taught by the Calamity Demon?" Yihwa asked me as we got back to the rest of the Regulars, and set me down against the wall. Then she started to activate the spell on the wand.
Because the spell on the wand wasn't fitted specifically for this body, it was still quite slow, especially considering the massive amount of damage that the arm had suffered.
"I don't know if you mean the same person, I never got his name," I said.
"Wait, who's the Calamity Demon?" Prince asked, finally looking interested.
"You dumbass, it's probably the infamous Chromatic Calamity, the Witch of Calamity's Demon Knight!" Wangnan said. "They always go around in cloaks, and that armor looks a lot like his!"
"What?! Those mass murdering psychos? But why did he talk about him like he was some great and honorable guy?" Prince asked.
"It must be a misunderstanding," said 'Viole', suddenly having stood up and walked over to check on me as well.
"Huh? You know him or something?" Wangnan asked.
"I don't know about this Chromatic Calamity…but the man who taught Canjon…is definitely a great person," said Viole.
"Forgive me if I can't believe that, coming from a guy like you," said Akraptor.
"I heard that their victims don't usually die," said Yihwa.
"Actually, I heard that too," said Wangnan, getting excited all of a sudden, as if they were talking about his favorite celebrities. "And Chromatic is supposed to be the non-violent one of the pair. He doesn't attack unless the Witch Andora orders him to, or if he gets attacked first. Plus, there's the rumor that they're actually the princess Androssi and the Crystal Knight Axion in disguise!"
"…!" Viole looked interested at Wangnan's last statement.
"And they haven't been seen for 2 years, around the same time that Axion disappeared and the princess got her new Shinheuh!" Wangnan continued.
"You're awfully talkative all of a sudden, for a guy that's failing the test," said Lurker to Wangnan.
"Urgh…damn it!" Wangnan said, looking tragic again. Goseng patted him on the back.
"Would the last Regular please come up to the stage now?" Love asked, reminding Viole that he was supposed to go next.
"Well…I thought for sure that guy was the strongest Regular here…but you surprised me, Canjon. Now I don't know if he might still get a higher score," said Akraptor, watching Viole move to the stage.
"The hell are you talking about? You think that long haired guy might beat that crazy score? Is he super strong?" Prince asked.
"He fought everyone in our group at the same time," said Wangnan. "Including Mr. Canjon."
"What the fuck? You're kidding me?" Prince asked, turning to me.
"He's probably stronger than me. He was holding back during the fight earlier, by a lot," I said. "You guys are all barely hurt after getting hit from his attacks, after all."
"…I didn't even notice that," said Horyang. "I thought it was just my shield…but now that you mention it, I wasn't the only one that wasn't hurt much."
Viole went up to the machine without much fuss, then pressed his palm against it. Shinsoo burst out from his hand in a huge wave as it touched the punch panel.
"…the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique?" Love said. "FUG?"
It was not technically a Shinsoo Beam–it had no Baang involved–but actually the same thing he did to my arm in the fight earlier. A technique that vibrates Shinsoo and pushes it into the target as a wave with a martial arts strike. Extremely dangerous because it had armor-ignoring properties and could easily hit internal organs, kind of like an advanced Qi Gong attack if Qi were real.
Now that I had faced it first hand, I was even more interested in it, but learning it without Baam's talent would be quite a challenge. I had a plan for this later, but I wouldn't be able to pursue it for a little while.
The number blew past my own score and then settled on 135k.
There was a muted reaction, full of disbelieving faces, when Love called the Regulars to step forward, and for Viole to join him at the front of the stage.
"No way…I guess you belong to the FUG now," said Prince to Yihwa.
"W-what? He can't…!" Yihwa looked at Viole, who ignored her. "Huh? I hope he forgot about that stupid bet…"
"Stop crying…you're making Miseng cry!" Goseng scolded Wangnan, who had buried his face into his knees sitting against the wall, and Miseng was crying beside him too.
"OK, Viole…now you need to choose seven teammates to take the test with," said Love, after the Regulars gathered in front of the stage.
Everyone was shocked again for a moment before Prince reacted first, complaining that it was supposed to be top eight.
Love shut him down saying he was the test administrator and could do whatever he wanted. There were more complaints but Love ignored them all and asked Viole to choose.
Then Wangnan stood up. "Regular Wangnan Ja! Let me introduce myself! I've got more than just power! The era of the Ten Great Families will end with me! You won't regret it, I can sing, I can dance, I'm the real entertainer of this era!"
The guy proceeded to actually dance and sing, then after everyone cringed, he went up to the stage and bowed down in dogeza begging Viole to take him.
"I'll bark if you want, I'll lick your shoes!"
Prince shook his head with a mocking smile. "It's better to take the test again than do that."
And yet, in a way, this was Wangnan's charisma. That desperation, the willingness to subject himself to humiliation…there were also those inspired by it, who realized that perhaps passing the test was more important than their pride, especially if their life was on the line.
Akraptor suddenly went up in dogeza as well and gave a sob story about him having a daughter he wants to see.
Then Horyang followed saying he needs to find someone.
Miseng rushed over hugging Viole's robe and crying, saying she missed her mom and dad.
Yihwa dragged me up with her. "Mr. Viole I suggest you take me as your teammate. Everybody has their own sob stories…but I think we should choose based on strengths. Mr. Canjon here is pretty strong too so we should take him as well."
"Why are you acting like you're already his teammate?" Wangnan demanded.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm from the Yeon family and I'm a Fisherman. I got one of the top scores without even hitting it properly. Who else is he going to pick?"
"Don't overestimate yourself! You kill your own teammates!"
"What?!"
"You burned so many people you don't even remember me. I failed the last test because of you!" Wangnan said smugly. "Lord Viole, don't pick her, she barbecues her own teammates!"
"Wait, that's…!"
"So? Other than killing your teammates, what are you good for?!" Wangnan asked.
"I'm healing Mr. Canjon right now! I've gotten things to help me overcome my weakness!" Yihwa said vehemently.
"She's got a point," said Akraptor.
"Hah! So you'll burn people just to heal them after?!"
"I also have a Shinheuh now that can keep my flames away from my teammates!"
"You'll just lose control of that too! You're not even an Anima! What if the Shinheuh also starts killing your teammates?!"
"Shut up! That won't—"
"What else you got huh?!" Wangnan asked. "Another secret power you can't control?!"
"I…"
"Just leave now before you kill the rest of us!"
"You…"
"You've got nothing to say anymore? Just get out then! Get away and get off the platform!"
"Breasts! I have bigger breasts, you smelly male monkey!" Yihwa finally shouted.
Wangnan had a dumbfounded look, which was shared by everyone else.
"Well, don't make me laugh, are they that big?" Wang asked while moving his hands to his belt and zipper. "Then I'll show you—"
"Don't!" Akraptor pointed his umbrella at him and Horyang gave him a hard stare with a skull face forming out of his right shoulder light.
Wangnan raised his hands back into the air in surrender. "Okay."
O O O
Everyone waited for Viole's decision. Then he announced that he won't choose any teammates.
I merely watched as the drama unfolded.
"I alone will be enough, administrator," said Viole. "Let them all go."
"The exam is for teams only," said Love. "You must choose."
"I don't want to choose unqualified teammates. Nobody here can be my teammate."
"What? Aren't you full of yourself?" Yihwa asked. "The big bad gangster with the FUG symbol! How can you be proud of that fake symbol? You should be embarrassed!"
"It's not fake. I am Jyu Viole Grace. A Slayer Candidate for FUG. I live to kill Zahard and his family. So you can't be my teammate. I'm your enemy."
There was a momentary silence, even Yihwa looked surprised. Then Love spoke again. "I understand you but whoever you are the rules can't be changed. That's the rule of the Tower. And most of the Regulars here would be willing to take a deal with the Devil. So let's play a game, you and I. If you win, I'll let you take the test by yourself."
Love gestured and a door opened at one of the walls. "Everyone who wants to participate in the game for a chance to form a team, go through that door."
O O O
Love looked at me still standing in the empty auditorium after everyone else had gone through.
"Aren't you going to join them, Mr. Canjon?" He asked.
"No, my arm still isn't healed and that forbidden technique took too much out of me. I won't be able to recover properly for many days. If I'd had a team going into the next test against a normal group of Regulars, it might be fine, but if I have to play another game with that guy? No thanks, that's way too dangerous. I'll just try my luck another time," I said.
"I understand. You can leave that way, then," said Love, opening a different door for me.
O O O
I bowed out of the test because there was nothing of interest to do in the next portion, and I wasn't planning on continuing up with this body either. It would be best if the canonical team of eight that Wangnan formed was assembled the same way, and my presence would only complicate things.
I just let things play out over the next several days, with the general course of events being similar to what I remembered, and only minor details changing. Although I observed through the new crest spirit in Yihwa, her role in this test was limited aside from being comedic relief, as direct firepower wasn't particularly useful.
In the end, Wangnan successfully tricked Viole into joining the team he assembled, while Viole established his reputation as a fearsome slayer candidate who defeated a Ranker in a game.
O O O
"…by the way, there was this one guy during the second part…his name was Canjon. He said you taught him the Calamity Style Fist or something like that? In your other disguise…did you really teach him? I thought I felt something from the Crest…" Yihwa said on a call with me after cheerfully reporting her success.
"Nope. That guy was actually my puppet that I'd smuggled into the exam," I said.
"What?!"
"He died a long time ago unfortunately, I wasn't actually able to save him. So I preserved his body. Because you were nearby, I was able to use a technique to control it. The test administrators didn't notice," I said. "His last wish before he died was to have a chance to be the hero in front of a cute girl. So I fulfilled his wish for him."
"W-wait, so all the things he said…a-about me…!"
"It was me, yes. I was just teasing you, haha. But wasn't he awesome?"
"That…that…! It was kind of cool but…it scared me! He destroyed his arm and I felt so bad!"
"A heroic sacrifice, the kind of thing he never could have done when he was alive. I thought it was a suitably moving scene."
"…you should warn me next time!"
"Sure, sure. Anyways, congratulations again. I'll be heading up to the 21st Floor myself as well now," I said.
"Wait, what about the FUG? Is it really okay for me to be on a team with a bad guy like him?"
"It's fine. You'll be able to climb faster with him. In the mean time, think of it as keeping an eye on him if you want."
"Okay, I can do that…"
O O O
A/N: This chapter was delayed a bit with some last minute adjustments. One of the new pre-release readers helpfully pointed out that some parts explaining canon events were pretty superfluous and unnecessary, as it doesn't really impact the MC. And a good reminder for anyone else interested in looking over prerelease drafts, helping to catch stuff like that which my betas might have missed, you can find it in my discord server in my signature.
The day of the test arrived, and Yihwa went with the loan shark boss's son whose name was Prince.
He was a boy with purple cropped hair, about the same height as Yihwa, but was a decent Lightbearer and not bad with Shinsoo. Good Lightbearers were rare and valuable because most Regulars couldn't cover for those abilities, whereas all the other positions like Fishermen or Scout could be relatively easily covered by somebody else. Aside from Yihwa, the kid was actually the strongest among his assembled group, despite the appearance of his father pampering him with a good team.
It was finally time for the plot of Tower of God to resume, and this was where Baam was supposed to make his grand re-appearance as an FUG slayer candidate.
Naturally I'd been keeping tabs on Baam to make sure I wasn't surprised by anything, and it was not hard because I was also working with FUG.
There were a lot of new characters introduced during this test, who wound up becoming Baam's new teammates as he was climbing under his new FUG given identity.
Some of them were even quite important to the plot later on, but none of them came close to Yihwa or Baam in terms of strength or potential.
To be frank, there wasn't anything too useful happening in this test now that I already achieved my main objective of recruiting Yihwa, but now that I had a new powerful summoner close by who'd given me the order to help her pass the test, I had the opportunity to test more powerful spells.
Having dangerous battles and seeking great rewards was exciting to be sure, but there was a time and place for that sort of thing, while most of the time, true gains are made through accumulated hard work. Even for those critical, decisive battles, a good general knew that 90% of a war was just positioning and preparation, you only battled once the conditions were highly favorable—unless there was no choice.
As the Builder had taught me, using spells that weren't thoroughly tested was quite foolish and risky. In that respect, magic did not escape the practicalities of science and technological development. Even for well proven technology, there was such a thing as quality control and environmental factors.
Other than that, I intended to make sure events did not diverge greatly off course and create any unpleasant surprises before the plot reached the points where I had much bigger interests down the line.
So that was why, even as Yihwa went into her test section with Prince and the rest of his goons, I was also going up the elevator to the first test myself in a different section.
How did I do so when I wasn't allowed into the test, you ask?
By puppeteering the undead corpse of another Regular.
I had several of those lying around after some fatally failed experiments, and while I hadn't managed to actually resurrect them with the spell that the Andvari ring was once capable of, I was able to get the water spirits to preserve the body from decaying.
Then I turned the fresh corpse into a familiar, after modifying its body in numerous ways. Because it had been a sapient being, this was much more difficult than a familiar made from animals or the Armoriont. Just the spiritual residue left behind by the soul after its passing created great interference.
But unlike typical depictions of necromancy, I was able to heal the body back to a serviceable state so that it looked and was technically alive at the cellular level if brain dead, then fill it with Bionanites from my own Swarm so that it could bind with an Armoriont.
The Bionanites were not capable of providing most of its features to that body due to incompatibility. The Swarm had only been created through a combination of Amelia's bacterial/viral control plus Cranial's brainwave tech and Dragon's biological computer tech, and Armsmaster's psionic shielding tech. It was intrinsically customized to me in a way that simply couldn't be transferred to somebody else, using psionic signals to interface with my mind.
However, it still made it easier for me to turn something else into my familiar, then have that body receive an Armoriont locked to its DNA that could at least regenerate its organs and respond to my will through the familiar bond.
Incredibly, the Guardian did not object to my use of the body to infiltrate the test, though if the Ranker test administrators found out, they'd probably stop this.
Its capabilities were quite limited compared to the eventual potential of the Symbiotic Spirit Crest, but nevertheless it allowed me to puppet it as if I were in the test myself, albeit without access to many of my abilities, especially Shinsoo manipulation.
It could still do very basic Shinsoo techniques such as interfacing with the E-Grade Pocket the Regular had or use Arms Inventories, but something as advanced as a Lighthouse was impossible, to say nothing of a Baang.
When the elevator door opened, I found several combatants within the large arena.
There was Baam with his new waist-long hair that obscured his eyes, wearing the dark FUG robes with the slayer symbol on the bottom half.
Then Wangnan Ja, the new protagonist of this portion of the story, a blond haired guy in a green jacket who mysteriously had a ring of Zahard, but was pathetically weak and relied on Shinsoo bombs. He was standing behind Baam, far away from the main battle.
Horyang, the huge guy with the Devil in his right arm, whom I'd sent Yihwa to find during our first conversation, was there as well, facing Baam from a short distance away.
Akraptor, a grey-haired buzzcut guy with the umbrella that could fire Shinsoo beams, was smashed into a wall, sitting against broken debris.
And hiding in a corner near Wangnan was Miseng, a tiny girl that looked maybe twelve years old wearing a backpack, and Goseng, a waifish glasses-wearing woman in a pink jacket.
This entire group would wind up becoming part of Baam's new team later on as a result of Wangnan's charisma and tricks.
They all stared at me walking out of the elevator, before Baam fully turned and leapt over in a single bound, powering up a Shinsoo attack on his fist.
He had gotten much better, that was for sure, but I still dodged it, his attack blasting into and destroying the elevator.
Fully armored in a smooth grey colored Armoriont suit that also covered my head, this puppet still possessed the physical capabilities I had when I entered the Tower, plus Reinforcement. Due to it being a corpse puppet, it was less Reinforceable than my actual body had been with the Armoriont back then, but I'd also gotten better at Reinforcement, so it somewhat evened out.
"What's this? Wasn't it supposed to be a survival test?" I asked with the gruffy voice of the male Regular whose body I was puppeteering. "There's a lot of you still left in here."
They all looked at me warily, then back to Baam.
Nobody answered me before Baam charged me again. Time to test my once student's new skills.
I barely avoided his palm and the pulse of Shinsoo that blasted outwards past my shoulder.
Then I returned with a strike of my own. He dodged, then a flurry of martial arts followed as we attacked and counterattacked weaving around the other.
"…?" Baam made a surprised sound and expression while we fought, before settling back into a neutral face.
Then he countered with the exact same moves as mine, fluidly flowing into a precise counter for each move that formed part of the unnamed style of martial art that we had practiced with Androssi, which was a mix of her techniques and things I'd taken from Earth styles.
Finally he parried one of my strikes with his hand instead of dodging. As soon as the parry landed, I felt Shinsoo vibrate through my arm.
I barely felt the pain transmitted back to me, but my arm had suffered serious damage on the inside from the Shinsoo blast, despite the Armoriont itself holding with only a slight crack on the armor surface. But both the combined muscles had been damaged enough to be disabled for now.
Well, that was dangerous, so I jumped back a large distance, holding my limp arm. This was a major weakness of having armor that wasn't sufficiently Shinsoo resistant and more vulnerable parts underneath, and the particular technique that Baam used. Something that his new teacher in FUG must have taught him.
"Hey, teddy bear, I changed my mind," said Akraptor. "Let's team up against that monster. You too, new guy, we won't stand a chance against the robed dude if we don't work together."
"Alright," said Horyang.
"Sure, I'm down," I said.
"You guys, try to block his movements. I'll finish him in one shot," said Akraptor, standing back up.
"You go up first, big guy, I need a moment to recover, my left arm is fucked right now," I said.
"Fine," said Horyang.
He swiftly moved to engage, the shape of the hovering light behind his right shoulder changing according to what he was doing, obviously exposing his intent before he did the actual action. When he ran, it became a foot. When he punched towards Baam, it became a fist. When Baam knocked his fist aside and then pushed a blast of Shinsoo into his gut, it turned into a shield.
"It's no use. This shield protects me," said Horyang, after Baam held his posture with a surprised expression as his blast of Shinsoo uselessly dissipated against Horyang's body.
My arm still hadn't healed since I did not have the water spirits to help me. The Armoriont's natural regen wasn't very fast—even slower on this puppet body, and I conserved my MP since I wasn't really planning to fight much here.
So I quickly went to Wangnan Ja while the fight was happening.
"You guys part of this alliance?" I asked.
"Yeah, let's all fight that guy together," he said.
I nodded, then watched the fight again.
Baam had blocked the beam from Akraptor easily, then rushed over to the guy who blocked his first counterattack with the umbrella. However, Baam left a second ball of Shinsoo in the air as Akraptor retracted the umbrella. He was then zapped away into the wall again.
Horyang was distracted by the sight when Baam dashed back around to his side and launched a much large Shinsoo attack that smashed Horyang to another wall.
"Looks like you're up buddy, my arm is still out of action," I said, patting—shoving Wangnan on the back with my other arm.
"Ah?! I mean, so it's my turn huh…" He tried to act tough walking towards the calmly waiting Baam.
Then he threw some Shinsoo bombs and started running around as Baam dodged and chased him.
Even after catching Baam in a high powered bomb, he seemed to suffer no damage, then Baam caught up to Wangnan and knocked him down.
He turned to the side to barely avoid Baam's fist coming down and cracking the ground where he was before. Wangnan screamed as it looked like Baam was about to kill him, then desperately flung another bomb while rolling away.
The bomb exploded directionally away from him and against Baam. When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that Baam was actually hurt this time, despite the bomb being of a much cheaper, low powered non-Shinsoo variety.
"What are you waiting for? Shoot him again!" Akraptor yelled when Wangnan was stunned.
He was shaken into action and launched another bomb.
However, a red light that formed an exoskeleton over Baam appeared, both blocking the second bomb and giving him high speed regeneration, and he was fine again with only his robes shredded in a few places.
That must have been the thing that FUG implanted into him, the red light from the bottom of the wineglass on the Floor of Tests.
The timer ran out, and the first phase survival test was over.
Baam walked towards the elevator alone, while everybody watched silently, except me. I flexed my healed arm, then went after him.
"Who would want to ride with that guy?" Wangnan asked aloud, until he saw me moved past him. "Hey…are you crazy?!" He grabbed my shoulder.
"Test's over, right? We have no reason to fight anymore," I said, shrugging him off.
I went into the elevator with Baam and nobody else followed.
Baam didn't make a move as the elevator closed.
Then he spoke in a soft voice. "Where did you learn those movements from…?"
"Hm? You mean my martial arts?" I asked.
He nodded. "They were familiar…but I haven't seen them in a long time…"
"I learned them from the same man who gave me this armor," I said. "One day, after I failed the test again, and the loan sharks came after me, he saved me all of a sudden. He was unbelievably strong…I think he was a Regular from a higher floor. He taught me a little and gave me this armor before leaving just as suddenly. It took a long time for me to master what little he taught me…and now I'm here."
"What was his name?"
The door opened, and we stepped out into the next area with a big stage and curtains.
"He didn't tell me," I said, shrugging and walking along. "But he told me he was looking for something and someone. And he said…if I ever met somebody really good with Shinsoo named the Twenty-Fifth Baam, to help him pass on a message to him."
"…!" Baam stopped frozen as he heard that.
"Come to think of it, you're pretty good with Shinsoo. Your name wouldn't happen to be Twenty-Fifth Baam, would it? Haha, it couldn't that that easy…" I said, turning towards him.
Baam remained still. "What was the message?" He asked.
"Wait, is that really your name?" I asked, feigning shock.
Baam opened his mouth to speak, then the elevator opened again behind us, and the Regulars from our group came out.
"…" After seeing them come out and stare at us, Baam turned to face me again. "No…my name is Jyu Viole Grace. But the person you described sounds like somebody I might know…maybe I can help pass on the message if I meet this Twenty-Fifth Baam one day."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt. I don't think it was a secret or anything…the message was, 'The needle has been returned to Ms. Yuri, and we defeated the assassin. Everyone survived and went up,'" I said.
He smiled widely. "That's great! Everyone is okay…" Then he looked away, catching himself. "I-I mean, I will definitely pass on the message. Thank you, Mr…?"
"Canjon's my name," I said, ignoring his initial reaction. "Nice meeting you, Mr. Jyu Viole Grace."
"Thank you, Mr. Canjon. But it's not good for you to stay near me…see the symbol on my robe?" He asked.
"That's FUG's symbol, isn't it? Don't tell me you really are…?"
He nodded. "I'm a slayer candidate of FUG."
"I see…thanks for the warning," I said.
The other Regulars gave us a wide berth and sat against the stage in a group, while "Viole" went to sit by himself, and I decided to move back over to Wangnan's group.
They gave me wary looks as I neared.
"Got dumped already?" Wangnan asked me.
"We just realized that it wouldn't be a good fit and decided to separate peacefully," I said.
Akraptor sniggered.
"Serves you right for sucking up to the big bad guy," Wangnan said. I looked askance at him, the irony of his statement when he would be the one actually sucking up to Viole later.
After a while, Miseng the little schoolgirl handed out snacks to everyone, including Viole.
One of the elevator doors opened again, and a guy came in heavily injured. He collapsed begging for help.
"Please…it's my last chance…"
"It's also my last chance…" said Wangnan, looking at the man pitifully and holding Goseng back from trying to help him.
Wangnan had also been in crushing debt to the loan company and was one of those who'd signed away his organs to Lurker. So this really would be his last chance.
After the fallen Regular was teleported away, another large group came in that didn't seem to have fought much amongst each other, but the only Regular of note was a short guy that delivered noodles to Wangnan before. They greeted each other loudly and Wangnan explained to Goseng that the kid was his mentee of sorts, having inspired him.
Finally, Yihwa and Prince's group arrived, with Prince looking slightly singed and his goons trying to clean up his hair. Yihwa walked with them at the center of their formation beside Prince, but pointedly maintaining a slight distance from the boy.
Wangnan stared in surprise and horror as the girl who burnt him to a crisp in his last test showed up again.
Goseng, the nerdy glasses girl, nudged him. "Are you jealous because he's with a pretty girl? Ha, guys are all the same. The guy beside her must have helped her because of her looks, right? It's so obvious. A man's instinct is to help a pretty girl even during a test."
"It's nothing like that!" Wangnan exclaimed. "Look at her headband. She's from the Yeon family!"
"Huh? Why is a Great Family girl here?" Goseng asked.
Yihwa noticed Horyang, and waved.
"Huh? Who's she waving to?" Wangnan asked, before his eyes found Horyang, who nodded and waved back. "Teddy bear? You're friends with her?"
"We've had an encounter in the past. I wouldn't say we're friends yet, but we're acquainted," said Horyang.
"A friendly encounter with that stupid flame thrower? And you didn't get burned?" asked Wangnan.
Horyang shrugged.
Then Wangnan and Lurker noticed each other, and had a barely civil greeting before Lurker explained the situation. His boss bribed the supervisors and set up a team for Prince, with Yihwa being hired because she was low on money, along with the expensive "Devil of the Right Arm", called Rapdevil, who supposedly beat Hatsu, the talented swordsman from the Floor of Tests who had become a bit famous as he went up with the old gang.
"Sorry to say this…but you should all go home," said Lurker, after explaining things.
Our group didn't look too impressed with him, but nobody responded either.
Finally, the Ranker arrived.
He looked like a little kid wearing a baseball cap with abnormally large pupils for eyes that seemed to have a weird effect where they looked like it'd been filled in with crayons. "My name is Love. Congratulations to all of you on passing the first test. There are three tests for this Floor, now this is the second test. Your ability to reinforce your body will be tested with this Shinsoo measuring device."
He revealed an arcade punching machine featuring Quant's face. It seemed like the Ranker had focused more on branding and modeling gigs after Yu Hansung fired him from the Floor of Tests.
"After punching the machine your rank will be displayed on the scoreboard. Eight Regulars will be selected after this test for the next one."
When I had gone through this Floor the first time around, I'd received this test as well, even with the exact same Ranker.
Love Mule didn't look like much, but with Rankers appearances meant little. As he'd demonstrated by punching the machine, displaying a score of over 13 million units of whatever it was measuring.
Most of the Regulars here were not that impressive, even if they had been enhanced a bit by Shinsoo, many were not even better than peak human still. Those that were, generally didn't have great technique for a punch.
Most of these Regulars were hitting less than 3000, and I estimated that an elite martial artist from Earth could probably do the same. A legendary expert of punching like Bruce Lee could probably hit up to even 10k.
Back then, when Androssi and I got here, we decided to go all out just to see how we measured up.
I was not sure exactly how the machine measured things, but over many observations the first time around and this time, I believed that it was something similar to a very short collision impulse for a pure brute force attack at relatively lower "mundane" levels, and something more esoteric for an attack charged with Shinsoo that transferred into the machine.
Most Regulars, even with their Shinsoo Reinforcement, could only produce a basic brute force attack even after being strengthened by the Shinsoo. But the more Shinsoo you were charged with, the less that conventional physics could model the damage potential.
It was illegal to attack with an outright beam of Shinsoo, but it was permitted to charge a punch with as much Shinsoo as you wanted, even unleashing Shinsoo explosively from it.
So those who were adept at unleashing explosive force from their punch were at a significant advantage—both here and in real combat. Just because you were physically stronger or faster didn't mean you could deal more damage.
Nevertheless, mass and velocity did have an effect on the results, so both angles were potential avenues to approach this.
After all my buffs at the time, including the Boost from holding Derflinger, I had approximately 17 times the strength of an Olympic athlete and 15 times the speed. These attributes did not quite multiply each other since strength was a component of speed and vice versa, but the output of a punch from me using these buffs with good technique was incredible nonetheless, since my magically enhanced strength and power defied any relation to my actual mass, in a manner similar to a heavily charged Shinsoo punch.
Androssi had hit over 91k with a brute force punch and no special Shinsoo technique, and that was more than nine times higher than the closest competitor at the time. Nobody else had gotten past even 10k, though our cohort was also rather weak.
As for me, because we were going all out, I went beyond even using Derflinger's Boost and his skill, then further added the Burstshift at maximum velocity for 220 m/s which was higher than the best propulsion I could get out of my legs.
With all that added together, even though I also had no special technique to be unleashed from my punch, my resulting score reached 265k.
And the Ranker still casually hit 50 times more than that.
I thought I might have beaten him if I'd used an actual high powered Sword Beam from Derflinger instead, with its explosive energy release. But of course, if he'd also used a Shinsoo blast, who knows what insane number it could go to.
Once most of the weaker Regulars went, with Akraptor topping it at 3250, Prince started to talk loudly.
"This is so lame, I thought there'd be something special on this Floor but it's just a kids' game. Are there only losers here? Heh why don't we play a game? Well, for whoever comes in first…let's see. Right. I'll give my Yeon," he said.
"What?! I'm not yours to give away!" Yihwa shouted.
"S-sir, that's…!" Lurker protested, fearing Yihwa's rage.
"You don't want to?" Prince asked. "You didn't want to hang around me right? So if you win, you'll still get your payment but you don't have to stay in my group anymore. Scratch that, I'll even pay you the entire amount of the debt you borrowed from your family to pay us off. How about it? Or aren't you confident in yourself?"
Yihwa took the bait. "O-okay! I'm in! Don't regret it!"
I could guess at what she was thinking. She hadn't borrowed money from her family, but it looked like that to the loan company. She was probably thinking that she could use it to pay me back though.
"Can't you be quiet? You're making others uncomfortable here," said Horyang, looming over the boy after he noticed Goseng and Wangnan were covered by a cloud of gloom and resentment that he was playing such a game over the test scores.
"You want me to care about the Regulars who're about to fail? Don't ruin my day. Run off before I beat you up," Prince said, completely unafraid of the huge Horyang that towered over him.
"Brat," said Horyang before turning around towards the stage.
Then he went up to the machine and punched a 6350. That was pretty weak still, but he was holding back a lot here. He probably thought that there wasn't any need to go higher since less than eight Regulars remained, so his spot among the passing group was guaranteed if he got first now, and he wasn't going to play Prince's game.
Prince laughed. "This might be a bit fun after all."
Then his strongest hired help went forth. "Have you ever seen the devil? I'll show you," Rapdevil said as he passed Horyang.
The man whose eyes were a black sclera and two yellow dots, with a yellow pattern over his hair and shirt, held out his right arm. It transformed into a black and aquamarine demonic looking arm that looked an awful lot like this one guy from the Bleach anime.
He punched with an aura around his arm and hit 11988.
Prince clapped then gloated towards Horyang, then it was Yihwa's turn.
"I don't think it'll be easy to pass his score. By the way, his score is mine too," said Prince.
Yihwa smiled. "I thought you'd do better with a body like that."
Canonically she slipped and barely grazed the punch panel at an awkward angle before falling onto the machine.
…and then she did the same here. Prince laughed before the score was shown to be 22788.
"She got over 20,000?! But she barely touched it!" Prince said with a shocked face.
"Thanks for the cash," said Yihwa after she came back.
"Wait. I'm next, it's not over," said Prince.
"Let's see what you got then," said Yihwa with a scoff. "A boy who hired others to take him up the Tower…what could you possibly do?"
25517 was his score, which shocked everyone into silence.
His goons cheered him as he returned, and one of them began massaging his arm and shoulder.
"You got it backwards. They aren't taking me up. I'm the one taking them up the Tower," said Prince with a smirk. "That's why you should stay by my side."
"That's…I can do better than that! Test supervisor let me—"
"There are no retries," said Love.
"Just give up and come back to me!" Prince said gleefully.
"Do not worry miss Yeon, I will rescue you from his clutches," I said, walking forward confidently and giving her a thumbs up.
"Eh? Who are you?"
"My name is Canjon. A student of a mysterious cloaked man who taught me the meaning of true strength and honor. I never got his name or saw his face. But he passed down this 'Chromatic Cell Crystal' armor, and taught me the 'Calamity Style Demon Fist'!"
"Chromatic…Calamity…Demon…?" Yihwa asked with a surprised face. "You can't mean…?!"
"I trained for years to master this power, and I can barely handle it even now…but I fell in love with you at first sight! That's why…for the sake of a maiden in need…I will use the forbidden skill, Calamity Broken Fist!"
"W-what?! L-love at first sight?! Hey, what are you saying?" She asked as I ignored her question and walked up to the machine.
"What did I say…? It's a man's natural instinct to help a pretty girl," said Goseng.
"So courageous…is that how love should be conveyed?" Horyang said in awe of 'Canjon' while glancing towards Goseng.
"Don't get any stupid ideas, teddy bear, who knows if that guy is even serious," said Akraptor. "He's probably just pulling shit out of his ass. A student of the Calamity Demon? As if!"
I crouched into a stance and began 'powering up'. My Armor beginning to change color, slowly turning into a full black with red and purple veins from the head down.
"Oh shit, is he for real?" Wangnan asked.
I continued to 'power up', making some random gestures, then raised my right arm which began to get covered in glowing red circuit lines.
"Haaaa…!!!" Then I cried aloud while finally pulling my arm back into a punching stance.
Finally, I Broke my entire arm and the linked Armoriont section with Reinforcement. Except it wasn't actually just Breaking it immediately, but overloading a semi-stable Reinforcement to achieve a temporary higher level of power first before it self-destructed. This was a powerful spell that I'd wanted to test for a while, but was obviously very dangerous because I couldn't quite just Break the Armoriont arm section alone. Because of the way the power suit muscle-physics worked, isolating it to the Armoriont would require applying the effect to the whole thing around my body, or I could apply the effect to the actual arm that formed the core of the motion.
The Armoriont in that area cracked and glowed with even more red light. Yihwa must have felt a resonance in her Crest as she suddenly moved a hand to the back of her shoulder.
"Calamity Broken Fist!!!" I shouted and collided with the punch panel.
The Regulars watched with baited breath as the number on the scoreboard climbed.
It went passed Prince's score, and kept going. Passed 30k, then 40k…
"Holy shit!" Wangnan shouted. "Where's it gonna stop?!"
"He was the real deal?!" Akraptor asked as the score topped 60k, then 70k…
And it finally stopped at 74k.
There was silence for a moment, then my arm exploded.in blood. It wasn't completely gone, but the muscles had all been shredded, the bones had shattered, and the Armoriont was falling off in pieces.
"Oh my god! Mr. Canjon! Are you okay?!" Yihwa ran up to me and pulled out the healing wand I gave her, trying to touch it to my arm. "Let me heal you!"
I gestured for her to stop with my other arm. "I'm fine, thank you miss. I'll be able to heal this by tomorrow. No need to waste your rare item on me."
"Since you did this for me, I have to do this!" She exclaimed. "You idiot! Why did you use that forbidden skill if it was going to destroy your arm?! It was just some money, it wasn't a big deal. I agreed to be hired, it's not like I was being forced! I didn't need any rescuing!"
"This isn't a big deal for me either. Like I said, I can heal from it, thanks to this unique armor," I said.
"Stop acting tough already!"
Love allowed her to pull me away from the stage and called for a bot to clean up the mess first.
"Were you really taught by the Calamity Demon?" Yihwa asked me as we got back to the rest of the Regulars, and set me down against the wall. Then she started to activate the spell on the wand.
Because the spell on the wand wasn't fitted specifically for this body, it was still quite slow, especially considering the massive amount of damage that the arm had suffered.
"I don't know if you mean the same person, I never got his name," I said.
"Wait, who's the Calamity Demon?" Prince asked, finally looking interested.
"You dumbass, it's probably the infamous Chromatic Calamity, the Witch of Calamity's Demon Knight!" Wangnan said. "They always go around in cloaks, and that armor looks a lot like his!"
"What?! Those mass murdering psychos? But why did he talk about him like he was some great and honorable guy?" Prince asked.
"It must be a misunderstanding," said 'Viole', suddenly having stood up and walked over to check on me as well.
"Huh? You know him or something?" Wangnan asked.
"I don't know about this Chromatic Calamity…but the man who taught Canjon…is definitely a great person," said Viole.
"Forgive me if I can't believe that, coming from a guy like you," said Akraptor.
"I heard that their victims don't usually die," said Yihwa.
"Actually, I heard that too," said Wangnan, getting excited all of a sudden, as if they were talking about his favorite celebrities. "And Chromatic is supposed to be the non-violent one of the pair. He doesn't attack unless the Witch Andora orders him to, or if he gets attacked first. Plus, there's the rumor that they're actually the princess Androssi and the Crystal Knight Axion in disguise!"
"…!" Viole looked interested at Wangnan's last statement.
"And they haven't been seen for 2 years, around the same time that Axion disappeared and the princess got her new Shinheuh!" Wangnan continued.
"You're awfully talkative all of a sudden, for a guy that's failing the test," said Lurker to Wangnan.
"Urgh…damn it!" Wangnan said, looking tragic again. Goseng patted him on the back.
"Would the last Regular please come up to the stage now?" Love asked, reminding Viole that he was supposed to go next.
"Well…I thought for sure that guy was the strongest Regular here…but you surprised me, Canjon. Now I don't know if he might still get a higher score," said Akraptor, watching Viole move to the stage.
"The hell are you talking about? You think that long haired guy might beat that crazy score? Is he super strong?" Prince asked.
"He fought everyone in our group at the same time," said Wangnan. "Including Mr. Canjon."
"What the fuck? You're kidding me?" Prince asked, turning to me.
"He's probably stronger than me. He was holding back during the fight earlier, by a lot," I said. "You guys are all barely hurt after getting hit from his attacks, after all."
"…I didn't even notice that," said Horyang. "I thought it was just my shield…but now that you mention it, I wasn't the only one that wasn't hurt much."
Viole went up to the machine without much fuss, then pressed his palm against it. Shinsoo burst out from his hand in a huge wave as it touched the punch panel.
"…the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique?" Love said. "FUG?"
It was not technically a Shinsoo Beam–it had no Baang involved–but actually the same thing he did to my arm in the fight earlier. A technique that vibrates Shinsoo and pushes it into the target as a wave with a martial arts strike. Extremely dangerous because it had armor-ignoring properties and could easily hit internal organs, kind of like an advanced Qi Gong attack if Qi were real.
Now that I had faced it first hand, I was even more interested in it, but learning it without Baam's talent would be quite a challenge. I had a plan for this later, but I wouldn't be able to pursue it for a little while.
The number blew past my own score and then settled on 135k.
There was a muted reaction, full of disbelieving faces, when Love called the Regulars to step forward, and for Viole to join him at the front of the stage.
"No way…I guess you belong to the FUG now," said Prince to Yihwa.
"W-what? He can't…!" Yihwa looked at Viole, who ignored her. "Huh? I hope he forgot about that stupid bet…"
"Stop crying…you're making Miseng cry!" Goseng scolded Wangnan, who had buried his face into his knees sitting against the wall, and Miseng was crying beside him too.
"OK, Viole…now you need to choose seven teammates to take the test with," said Love, after the Regulars gathered in front of the stage.
Everyone was shocked again for a moment before Prince reacted first, complaining that it was supposed to be top eight.
Love shut him down saying he was the test administrator and could do whatever he wanted. There were more complaints but Love ignored them all and asked Viole to choose.
Then Wangnan stood up. "Regular Wangnan Ja! Let me introduce myself! I've got more than just power! The era of the Ten Great Families will end with me! You won't regret it, I can sing, I can dance, I'm the real entertainer of this era!"
The guy proceeded to actually dance and sing, then after everyone cringed, he went up to the stage and bowed down in dogeza begging Viole to take him.
"I'll bark if you want, I'll lick your shoes!"
Prince shook his head with a mocking smile. "It's better to take the test again than do that."
And yet, in a way, this was Wangnan's charisma. That desperation, the willingness to subject himself to humiliation…there were also those inspired by it, who realized that perhaps passing the test was more important than their pride, especially if their life was on the line.
Akraptor suddenly went up in dogeza as well and gave a sob story about him having a daughter he wants to see.
Then Horyang followed saying he needs to find someone.
Miseng rushed over hugging Viole's robe and crying, saying she missed her mom and dad.
Yihwa dragged me up with her. "Mr. Viole I suggest you take me as your teammate. Everybody has their own sob stories…but I think we should choose based on strengths. Mr. Canjon here is pretty strong too so we should take him as well."
"Why are you acting like you're already his teammate?" Wangnan demanded.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm from the Yeon family and I'm a Fisherman. I got one of the top scores without even hitting it properly. Who else is he going to pick?"
"Don't overestimate yourself! You kill your own teammates!"
"What?!"
"You burned so many people you don't even remember me. I failed the last test because of you!" Wangnan said smugly. "Lord Viole, don't pick her, she barbecues her own teammates!"
"Wait, that's…!"
"So? Other than killing your teammates, what are you good for?!" Wangnan asked.
"I'm healing Mr. Canjon right now! I've gotten things to help me overcome my weakness!" Yihwa said vehemently.
"She's got a point," said Akraptor.
"Hah! So you'll burn people just to heal them after?!"
"I also have a Shinheuh now that can keep my flames away from my teammates!"
"You'll just lose control of that too! You're not even an Anima! What if the Shinheuh also starts killing your teammates?!"
"Shut up! That won't—"
"What else you got huh?!" Wangnan asked. "Another secret power you can't control?!"
"I…"
"Just leave now before you kill the rest of us!"
"You…"
"You've got nothing to say anymore? Just get out then! Get away and get off the platform!"
"Breasts! I have bigger breasts, you smelly male monkey!" Yihwa finally shouted.
Wangnan had a dumbfounded look, which was shared by everyone else.
"Well, don't make me laugh, are they that big?" Wang asked while moving his hands to his belt and zipper. "Then I'll show you—"
"Don't!" Akraptor pointed his umbrella at him and Horyang gave him a hard stare with a skull face forming out of his right shoulder light.
Wangnan raised his hands back into the air in surrender. "Okay."
O O O
Everyone waited for Viole's decision. Then he announced that he won't choose any teammates.
I merely watched as the drama unfolded.
"I alone will be enough, administrator," said Viole. "Let them all go."
"The exam is for teams only," said Love. "You must choose."
"I don't want to choose unqualified teammates. Nobody here can be my teammate."
"What? Aren't you full of yourself?" Yihwa asked. "The big bad gangster with the FUG symbol! How can you be proud of that fake symbol? You should be embarrassed!"
"It's not fake. I am Jyu Viole Grace. A Slayer Candidate for FUG. I live to kill Zahard and his family. So you can't be my teammate. I'm your enemy."
There was a momentary silence, even Yihwa looked surprised. Then Love spoke again. "I understand you but whoever you are the rules can't be changed. That's the rule of the Tower. And most of the Regulars here would be willing to take a deal with the Devil. So let's play a game, you and I. If you win, I'll let you take the test by yourself."
Love gestured and a door opened at one of the walls. "Everyone who wants to participate in the game for a chance to form a team, go through that door."
O O O
Love looked at me still standing in the empty auditorium after everyone else had gone through.
"Aren't you going to join them, Mr. Canjon?" He asked.
"No, my arm still isn't healed and that forbidden technique took too much out of me. I won't be able to recover properly for many days. If I'd had a team going into the next test against a normal group of Regulars, it might be fine, but if I have to play another game with that guy? No thanks, that's way too dangerous. I'll just try my luck another time," I said.
"I understand. You can leave that way, then," said Love, opening a different door for me.
O O O
I bowed out of the test because there was nothing of interest to do in the next portion, and I wasn't planning on continuing up with this body either. It would be best if the canonical team of eight that Wangnan formed was assembled the same way, and my presence would only complicate things.
I just let things play out over the next several days, with the general course of events being similar to what I remembered, and only minor details changing. Although I observed through the new crest spirit in Yihwa, her role in this test was limited aside from being comedic relief, as direct firepower wasn't particularly useful.
In the end, Wangnan successfully tricked Viole into joining the team he assembled, while Viole established his reputation as a fearsome slayer candidate who defeated a Ranker in a game.
O O O
"…by the way, there was this one guy during the second part…his name was Canjon. He said you taught him the Calamity Style Fist or something like that? In your other disguise…did you really teach him? I thought I felt something from the Crest…" Yihwa said on a call with me after cheerfully reporting her success.
"Nope. That guy was actually my puppet that I'd smuggled into the exam," I said.
"What?!"
"He died a long time ago unfortunately, I wasn't actually able to save him. So I preserved his body. Because you were nearby, I was able to use a technique to control it. The test administrators didn't notice," I said. "His last wish before he died was to have a chance to be the hero in front of a cute girl. So I fulfilled his wish for him."
"W-wait, so all the things he said…a-about me…!"
"It was me, yes. I was just teasing you, haha. But wasn't he awesome?"
"That…that…! It was kind of cool but…it scared me! He destroyed his arm and I felt so bad!"
"A heroic sacrifice, the kind of thing he never could have done when he was alive. I thought it was a suitably moving scene."
"…you should warn me next time!"
"Sure, sure. Anyways, congratulations again. I'll be heading up to the 21st Floor myself as well now," I said.
"Wait, what about the FUG? Is it really okay for me to be on a team with a bad guy like him?"
"It's fine. You'll be able to climb faster with him. In the mean time, think of it as keeping an eye on him if you want."
"Okay, I can do that…"
O O O
A/N: This chapter was delayed a bit with some last minute adjustments. One of the new pre-release readers helpfully pointed out that some parts explaining canon events were pretty superfluous and unnecessary, as it doesn't really impact the MC. And a good reminder for anyone else interested in looking over prerelease drafts, helping to catch stuff like that which my betas might have missed, you can find it in my discord server in my signature.
I expected that the fug would be a little more uh secret, or at least not openly demonstrate their candidate for the assassination of Zahard.
But in any case, it's quite curious what Axion was up to. Initially, I thought he wanted to steal the flame from Yihwa. But she has already become too complete an asset, at least as a powerful anchor in this world, while she is much more loyal than the princess and easier to manipulate.
Perhaps Axion wants to take only a part of her flame, gaining a general constant strengthening of the body and immunity, but not greatly weakening Yihwa, allowing her to replenish her strength with subtle fire control?
But in any case, it's quite curious what Axion was up to. Initially, I thought he wanted to steal the flame from Yihwa. But she has already become too complete an asset, at least as a powerful anchor in this world, while she is much more loyal than the princess and easier to manipulate.
Perhaps Axion wants to take only a part of her flame, gaining a general constant strengthening of the body and immunity, but not greatly weakening Yihwa, allowing her to replenish her strength with subtle fire control?
Without going into spoilers, his aims are many, and have already been described in broad strokes and we already see some benefits of this situation (like being able to use the puppet and test more spells, now that he has an anchor there), and it will show further uses soon. Sometimes there isn't necessarily a deep objective beyond the initial either. Simply getting into a good position or obtaining pieces is valid strategy even if there isn't a particular use for them yet.
I can also say that my typical take on acquiring powers or similar actions in the story applies a pretty severe view of balance--which is to say that it requires known mechanisms, logically extended, or something that is developed/researched very slowly.
Having said that, certainly in a previous chapter the idea of acquiring the flame somehow came up, but there was also a line which specified the particular method that was known, and any hope of achieving it by that means is probably a very long term project.
I thought that Axion had given Yihwa a tattoo customized for that very purpose. To trick the flame into believing he's already part of Yihwa. Then to take advantage of the flame's already existing transmission mechanism, and using the familiar's bond as a conduit to do so.
But apparently it's going to be more complicated than that.
Yes that's one of the things the crest does, attempt to integrate with her flame and both control it and help her achieve control over it. But whether or not that connection will be usable in reverse like that back with Axion or when it might be possible/how much can be transferred remains unknown.
If you leave out the boring rehash of the original plot that is fine with me, but do please mention whichever bits are actually relevant to the plans of the mc because I have no knowledge of or interest in tog.
I figured he would try to steal that fire or at least find a way to become immune to it, but it's not a giant disappointment if he does not get it. There are tons of firebenders and pyrokinetics out there, many of which have that power because of inheritable genetic stuff. All it really takes to get him stupidly over powered in a hurry is a dip into marvel to get DNA samples from just about everyone there and Amy can be pumping out super soldier asgardian vampire spider hulks with X genes and venom symbiotes.
I figured he would try to steal that fire or at least find a way to become immune to it, but it's not a giant disappointment if he does not get it. There are tons of firebenders and pyrokinetics out there, many of which have that power because of inheritable genetic stuff. All it really takes to get him stupidly over powered in a hurry is a dip into marvel to get DNA samples from just about everyone there and Amy can be pumping out super soldier asgardian vampire spider hulks with X genes and venom symbiotes.
Yes and no. They have been supposedly in truce for the last hundreds or thousands of years. So it's more of a very cold war kind of thing.
FUG also can't really win without an irregular because they have nothing that can actually kill Zahard and make it stick, and irregulars are stupidly rare. We know less than 15, and ten of those are the ten families, another is Zahard, then Baam, then five are spoilers and most of them are ancient history, and one last one we aren't sure of.
On the other hand FUG has lots of really strong guys on their side which makes it very inconvenient for the ten families to openly war with. So thousands of years ago they did openly war against each other but not so much now.
64 – FUG
64 – FUG
On the 21st Floor, in the residential area, Yihwa met up with her old friend Ryua, a playmate and servant of the same age from the Yeon family that was assigned to her when she was younger.
Ryua praised her beauty and suggested her teammates must all be from Great Families too, given how fast she climbed, but Yihwa tried to vaguely deflect and then spoke about how she blocked the enemies' plan and wasn't given any credit for it.
"You are so classy and noble! Helping your team without showing off!"
"No really, it's just the right thing to do…"
"By the way, did you hear the rumor? A new FUG slayer candidate has appeared…they say he's huge with monstrous powers, and the eyes hidden behind his long hair are so frightful they give you goosebumps! And they also say…he wanders around with nasty teammates who steal money and harass girls!"
"…is there such a rumor?" Yihwa asked, feigning ignorance. '…I'm one of those nasty teammates.'
"You haven't heard about it? Be careful Ms. Yihwa, that bad guy might be targeting you!" Ryua warned seriously.
"I should be careful…" Yihwa nodded helplessly.
"There's also another rumor going around…the Demon of Chromatic Calamity resurfaced recently…and he's been teaching people his dark arts! And his new students are so fanatical they use forbidden skills that destroy their own bodies!" Ryua made a horrified face.
"…"
"They say that something happened to the Witch, so the Demon's students are tricking virgin girls so that they can be used as sacrifices to restore her youth and beauty! You have to stay away from them, I heard they even went after a girl from the Great Families during a test!"
"…Thank you, Ryua, I will," said Yihwa with a sweat.
O O O
Yihwa returned to the house they were staying at, to find Goseng greeting her, with Prince and Miseng doing some sort of singing dance routine. She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
Akraptor was sitting at the table and noticed her expression. "Why so gloomy? Did something happen?"
"Not at all. And where's Viole?"
"He went to see somebody, said he was going to the marketplace."
"And nobody followed after him?!"
"Why would we? He said he'd be back soon."
"Are you crazy? You know the rumors out there, what if they're true?!"
Wangnan came by with a yawn. "I don't think those rumors are true. He's not the kind of guy who does that stuff."
"You have any proof they aren't true?" Yihwa asked.
"He seems gentle…he lets us live in the house he rented! And even does an equal share of the housework! And you're such a bad cook that he even does your share of the cooking!" Wangnan said.
"But…he's an FUG member!"
"We like an FUG that can cook, over a Great Family member who burns toast!"
Yihwa angrily declared that she would keep an eye on Viole and stormed off.
O O O
'I registered a tracking device on you just in case…you can't get away from me Viole!' She thought to herself, even though it was just a mutual consent tracking feature on their Pockets that worked when they were on the public networks.
She tailed him to a Karaoke bar. 'Is he…a bagman?'
Suddenly there was a scream from inside as Viole was going downstairs and Yihwa was hidden around the corner.
"Give me money if you want to keep this place in one piece, before I, Jyu Viole Grace, get angry!" A loud male voice reached them.
At the bar, two female employees were being threatened by a big guy with a huge club and hair that went below his shoulders, wearing a shirt that said "FUG".
The blond employee pleaded tearfully with him, while the red haired employee looked at him and said, "I wasn't expecting the new slayer to be a smelly pig like you, is FUG this lame?"
"R-Ryun!" The other employee nudged her fearfully.
"Did you call me a pig?!"
Hwa Ryun continued to insult him.
Just as the fake Viole slammed down his club on the counter, the real Viole blasted him away with Shinsoo.
"Mr. Viole!" The fake's lackeys cried. "How dare you shoot Mr. Viole?!"
"…I'm Jyu Viole Grace," said Viole, creating a powerful wave of Shinsoo that circulated around him.
Everyone except Hwa Ryun screamed and ran away. "It's the real one!"
Yihwa rushed down. "Viole! What have you done?!"
She burst onto the scene as Viole stood in front of the counter behind which sat Hwa Ryun, momentarily stunned upon seeing the latter.
"Hello," said Hwa Ryun.
'Who's that creepy girl? Is she close to Viole?' Yihwa wondered, noting Hwa Ryun's unusually deep blood red hair and eyes, which under the shadow of the room and her slight, unconcerned smile, gave off a creepy vibe.
"Huh? Who's this girl?" An older, almost middle-aged man with brown hair appeared behind Yihwa, one hand in his pocket, and the other holding a jacket over his shoulder. After Yihwa turned around, he continued. "Hey Ryun, didn't you say your guest was a man? Or is she a new member?"
"You're from…FUG!" Yihwa finally realized.
"That hairpin…it's from the Yeon family. Are you their spy?" The older man asked with a dangerous tone.
"Mr. Jinsung, stop! She's my teammate, she's not a spy!" Viole said urgently.
"Oh? Viole's teammate? I apologize," said Jinsung with an apologetic smile.
"Who's your teammate? Don't lie! You fooled your teammates by coming here secretly to meet with the FUG! What are you planning with them, huh?! You trick us like this and call us teammates?! How ridiculous! You're worse than dirt!! You pretended you were so nice and…!"
"Hey girl, isn't that enough?" Jinsung said darkly, throwing his jacket away.
"It's none of your business, you jerk with a cheap perm!"
"Stop Ms. Yihwa, he's a High Ranker!" Viole shouted.
Suddenly the door on the other side of the bar from the stairs opened.
"You should listen to Viole, Yihwa. Mr. Ha Jinsung is not someone you want to anger," said the newcomer.
"H-huh?!" Yihwa looked at him dumbfounded. "…Dr. Dua?"
"And aren't you jumping to conclusions again, Yihwa? You shouldn't be so harsh before you understand the circumstances," said Dr. Dua.
"But…were you also an FUG member?!" Yihwa asked with shock.
"He's my guest," said Hwa Ryun, while putting some empty glasses on the counter away.
"Your guest?!" Yihwa turned to Hwa Ryun, who smirked at her while sitting back down to grab the one unfinished glass of red wine that was her own.
"He was supposed to bring me a flower…"
"Huh?! B-bring you a flower?!" Yihwa turned back to Dr. Dua. "Why?!"
"I think you got the wrong flower…but this one is pretty cute too, so maybe I'll keep her…" said Hwa Ryun to Dr. Dua.
"W-what?! What are you saying?!"
"You didn't know? I'm the Witch. The real one." said Hwa Ryun, leaning forward, licking her lips. "And you look delicious."
Yihwa suddenly had a flashback to her conversation with Ryua.
"N-no way…! You can't use me as your virgin sacrifice!" She shouted, shaking her head vigorously. "And I'm not delicious! If you try to eat me I'll just burn your tongue off!"
"But I like my BBQ steak well done and sizzling hot," said Hwa Ryun, eyeing her up and down. "Then I'll enjoy it with some fine wine, just like this." She twirled the glass in her hand a bit, then drank it down in a single breath.
"Noooooo!" Yihwa backed away and held her arms around herself.
Ha Jinsung started laughing.
"Why are you laughing all of a sudden? This isn't funny!"
"It is funny, rude girl!" Jinsung said, laughing even harder.
Then Viole and Dr. Dua laughed as well.
"H-hey! Stop that…!"
"So…what's the plan, Ryun?" Jinsung asked, noticing that Hwa Ryun had stood up.
"Let's go to Viole's house, we can meet the rest of his teammates," said Hwa Ryun.
"That's…" Viole started hesitantly.
"Oh, what a great idea! What should we buy as a housewarming gift?" Jinsung asked cheerfully as Hwa Ryun began leading the way back outside.
"By the way, your hair really is ridiculous," said Hwa Ryun.
"Hey you guys can't just decide that on your own!" Yihwa shouted after them as they turned the corner. "And you're just going to act like nothing happened?"
Viole followed after them helplessly. "It's just how they are, Ms. Yihwa. Let's go back home."
"Hwa Ryun was just joking earlier. Have some patience, Yihwa, and they're not really bad guys either," said Dr. Dua, walking to Yihwa and patting her on the back gesturing for them to go with Viole.
"Not bad guys…?" Yihwa asked hesitantly.
"Not everyone in FUG is a terrible criminal. Trust me, if you met one of the bad ones, you wouldn't have gotten off like that. That man Ha Jinsung really is a High Ranker…although his reputation isn't great either. But he seems a little different than he used to be," said Dr. Dua.
"Oh, were you friends with Mr. Jinsung, Dr. Dua?" Viole asked.
"No, no, I just know of his reputation. He's famous in the Tower…or infamous I should say," said Dr. Dua.
"What for?" asked Viole.
"Well, he used to slaughter members of the Ten Families on sight. His sobriquet is Slaughterer of the Ha Family," said Dr. Dua.
"He did that?" Viole asked, looking shocked.
"S-someone like that isn't a bad guy?!" Yihwa asked.
"He was definitely a bad guy before," said Dr. Dua. "But maybe he changed? He didn't kill you back there, Yihwa, and was almost friendly."
The group found Ryun and Jinsung waiting for them outside the Karaoke place entrance, and quieted back down.
They moved together again with Hwa Ryun and Jinsung leading ahead talking about random things, while Viole, Yihwa, and Dr. Dua trailed behind.
There was an awkward silence between the three as they moved, until Viole spoke up.
"It's nice to meet you, by the way, Dr. Dua. That's what Ms. Yihwa called you, right?" Viole asked.
"Yes, it's nice to meet you as well, Mr. Viole," said Dr. Dua.
"So you're a doctor?" asked Viole.
"Sort of. It's more of a nickname, really. But yes, I do heal people. I'm also a researcher. But unfortunately I don't have a proper license for it, it's very difficult to get one without being part of the Workshop, you see. So that's why I work with FUG. In exchange for some favors, they can pull some strings for me, keep the authorities looking the other way."
Viole nodded. "So how do you know each other, Dr. Dua, Ms. Yihwa?"
"We met on the 20th Floor while I was doing my research, she helped me out a bit, so I helped her a bit too," said Dr. Dua.
"He…he gave me the healing wand," said Yihwa. "And my Shinheuh..."
"I see," said Viole, nodding again.
"Dr. Dua, what about your relationship with that girl?" Yihwa asked.
"She's my main contact with FUG. She's a very powerful Guide. But she also likes to mess with people. Don't mind her antics," said Dr. Dua.
"A Guide…?"
"A Red Witch."
"Oh. That's what she meant," said Yihwa.
"Haha yeah. She's the real deal. Although she can be troublesome and often plays the villain, I think she is not a bad person at heart either. So you should give her a chance," said Dr. Dua. "If it weren't for her, things might be much more difficult for me."
"Right…" Yihwa said reluctantly.
Eventually after buying some fruits, they got back to the house, and allowed Viole and Yihwa to take the lead opening the door.
O O O
Wangnan, Goseng and Miseng faced the trio of Hwa Ryun, Viole, and Ha Jinsung.
"I'm an FUG member but I'm not a bad guy," Jinsung said cheerfully.
Goseng trembled while peeling another apple, Miseng had a stiff expression on herself, while Wangnan laughed nervously and tried to engage in light conversation.
While Ha Jinsung introduced himself as Viole's teacher and asked whether the team was bullying Viole, Yihwa was in the kitchen with Akraptor and Dr. Dua.
"…they are more talkative than I thought. They aren't what I imagined," said Akraptor, while eating an apple slice himself. "And you say you've been working with them for a while?
Dr Dua nodded. "There are definitely worse people in FUG."
"Can we really trust them?" Yihwa asked.
"Trust is probably too strong a word," Dr. Dua admitted. "But you can't really afford to get on their bad side either, and as long as they don't have any conflict with you, it should be alright."
"But what if they're planning something horrible?" Yihwa asked.
Akraptor looked between the two in front of him as they conversed for a while longer as if he wasn't there and then Yihwa finally relented with a sigh.
"So…that guy came to check on Viole…and you came to check on Lady Yeon?" Akraptor asked.
"Eh?! No, we just ran into each other suddenly! I didn't know Dr. Dua would be there," said Yihwa.
"You're pretty observant," Dr. Dua said. "That's right. Of course, I also had some other business with FUG, so it was convenient for me to check on my Yihwa at the same time."
"…kya?" Yihwa squeaked while Dr. Dua patted her head.
"She hasn't been causing trouble with her flames, has she?" Dr. Dua asked.
"No. And Viole can stop her, anyways, so it's not a big deal. As long as she doesn't cook, we're fine," said Akraptor.
"That's good to hear. I was a little worried, but I'm happy she found a team that can accept her," said Dr. Dua.
"To be honest, she's the least of the problem members on this team. She's great in comparison," said Akraptor, glancing at the apple slice which seemed deformed and wondering who cut it.
"Sounds like it's going to be a fun team for you, Yihwa, haha!" Dr. Dua said, no longer patting Yihwa, but she was still red-faced and too embarrassed to say anything.
O O O
After Viole went up to the roof because Jinsung kept bragging about him, and Ha Jinsung followed once he noticed Viole was missing, then Goseng took Miseng to take a nap, the living room was left with just Hwa Ryun and Wangnan.
The other members of the team had all left to do other things before the FUG group had arrived.
"You're lucky. He decided to let you live," said Hwa Ryun, to Wangnan's shock.
"The heads of FUG want Viole to go up with a worthy team, not a team full of defects like this. He didn't come here just to see Viole. He came to eliminate you all…and make another team for him," said Hwa Ryun. "But he respects Viole's opinion, so he let you live for now. But don't be too relieved. There are many in FUG who don't like this situation. They need Viole to keep improving and make their dream come true."
After a while, Wangnan asked quietly if she thought Viole could really kill Zahard, in spite of the contract Zahard has that makes him invulnerable to any resident of the Tower.
And then Hwa Ryun revealed that Viole was an Irregular and therefore not bound by that contract.
"…why did he become a slayer? Does he have a vendetta?" Wangnan asked.
"He didn't do it because he wanted to kill Zahard, but because he must…" Hwa Ryun began to explain how Viole's old friends were made hostages through tracking rings, friends whom Viole wanted to protect. That if he refused to climb or failed, they would be killed one by one. At Wangnan's disbelieving face, Hwa Ryun smiled and added, "Surprised? Did you think we were nice people?"
O O O
The three in the kitchen overheard this part of the conversation, and of Wangnan yelling profanities at Hwa Ryun for forcing him to become a Slayer and committing such cruelty.
"How could you do that to him?!" Wangnan's voice raged on through the door.
"Then what should we do? Just leave him alone? Then who will make our wish come true?" Hwa Ryun's voice calmly answered. "Will you? I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like you can. Just like we can't."
Yihwa looked horrified at the truth. "So it was…like that?"
"And you believed the rumors about him," said Akraptor.
"I…"
"Sympathy and justice aren't always the answer. Anyone can talk about justice. We don't think it's right either, that god gave him such a destiny."
There was a long silence in both rooms.
"Six years ago on the Floor of Tests…for the sake of a friend, a boy demanded a test directly from the Guardian, by the right of being an Irregular. There was an undercover Ranker assassin from the Zahard Empire at the time…he sent a Shinheuh to kill the Irregular when he was in a place nobody else could reach. After the test, the boy didn't come back…and it was revealed that he made a deal with the Guardian to let the rest of his friends all pass if he died," Dr. Dua said in a whisper.
"…!" Yihwa looked at Dr. Dua with newfound shock, an expression which was shared by Akraptor.
"Well, the boy survived and FUG took him away while covering it up, then his friends went up. But the problem is…if Zahard Empire finds out he's still alive…they'll try to kill him again. So in a way…FUG is the reason he's still alive. For his own sake…Viole must not return to his old friends, at least until he's strong enough to survive on his own. As long as they think he's serious about being a Slayer candidate, FUG will protect him."
"You…you're one of his friends, aren't you?" Akraptor asked, also whispering. "That's the only way you'd know so much, if you're not part of FUG yourself."
"So that's the real reason you were there? You were checking on him…because he's your friend," said Yihwa, in an equally quiet whisper.
Dr. Dua nodded. "More specifically…I came to see what kind of person his teacher was. But it seems like that man genuinely cares for him. There are people in FUG that are much worse…"
"What a complicated situation…" said Akraptor.
"Anyways, don't say anything about me. I already had someone deliver him a message during the test on the last Floor, so that he knows everyone is still safe. For now, he should just focus on climbing and getting stronger."
"I got it…" said Yihwa.
Akraptor nodded. "Fine with me."
"And remember Yihwa…things are often not what they seem at first glance," said Dr. Dua. "Sometimes…we have to do things we don't like, because they're necessary."
"Ah…I'll…apologize to Viole…" saidi Yihwa.
O O O
Yihwa and Akraptor were in the kitchen by themselves, sitting in silence, thinking about everything they'd just learned.
"So you were into that type of older man?" Akraptor asked.
"W-what? That's not it…! He's not actually much older!"
"That's the part you're objecting to?" Akraptor asked with a slight smirk.
"N-no! You're misunderstanding! It's not like that!" She shook her head frantically.
"No? I was just surprised how different you acted with him around," Akraptor said with a light chuckle, then thought to himself. 'My daughter should also be at a similar age now…I wonder if she's found anybody…if it's also an older man I'll have to beat him up twice as hard.'
"He already has someone else…even though he said they weren't dating…I think it's just because of their circumstances," said Yihwa, now in a much smaller, slightly depressed voice. "Especially now that he explained about what happened with their team and their problems with the Zahard Empire. And just when I thought I started to understand him a little…"
Akraptor raised an eyebrow, but Yihwa did not elaborate further.
Then Wangnan came in.
"Hey guys…they left," he said. "But they said they might be back later."
"Not what you'd think when you hear FUG right?" Akraptor asked casually.
Wangnan did not immediately respond, seemingly in an internal struggle.
"You don't have to think so hard about what to say. We heard most of your conversation from here," said Akraptor. "We know. About Viole's friends."
"Ah? Were we that loud?" Wangnan asked.
"Yup. Especially the part where you were shouting at the girl," said Akraptor.
"Haha…" Wangnan laughed awkwardly, hand on the back of his head. "Then…what about the other guy? He was with you guys right? What did he want?"
"He came to check up on her." Akraptor pointed to Yihwa with a thumb.
"On flame thrower?"
"Stop calling me that!"
Akraptor nodded.
"So you had FUG connections too? Why have you been acting so outraged about Viole then? Did you just use that as an excuse to sneak off with him and look for your own friend in FUG?" Wangnan asked.
"Dr. Dua's not an FUG member!" Yihwa asked vehemently. "And I didn't know he would be there!"
"So you just randomly bumped into him with FUG…?" Wangnan asked skeptically.
"He…he works with them sometimes," Yihwa said stubbornly. "But he's not one of them."
Wangnan turned to Akraptor with a questioning gaze.
"Well, he did tell us some interesting things. It's complicated but…he seems to be one of Viole's old friends, working undercover."
"What? Really?" Wangnan asked.
"I'm not completely sure what's going on but…either he infiltrated FUG to keep an eye on Viole, or the hostage situation actually goes both ways. I'm thinking it might be both," said Akraptor.
"Wait, you mean…FUG is also using Viole as a hostage, to force him to work for them?" Wangnan asked.
"W-what?!" Yihwa asked, shocked.
"You didn't realize? Wasn't it obvious? Unless they don't know who he really is. That's what I'm not sure about. But if they do, that means you're also a hostage now," said Akraptor.
Yihwa looked aghast.
"Call me crazy, but I think the last test…and our team, was engineered by FUG somehow," said Akraptor.
"What do you mean?" Wangnan asked. "Didn't we choose our own teammates in the Trustworthy Room game?"
"Yes, but we only played that game because Viole didn't want any teammates, and because that test administrator had a grudge against FUG. If it weren't for that, the top eight would have formed a team, guaranteeing that Viole and Yihwa would be put together. If Prince's dad could bribe the supervisors to change the groupings, couldn't FUG have done the same?"
"That's true…" Wangnan nodded.
"But that's not all. That Dr. Dua guy said that he had somebody deliver a message to Viole during the last test, to tell him that all their friends were safe. So he must have known that Viole would be in that test, and somehow got a person to be placed in the same test section too."
"A message…? Wait, that crazy guy who destroyed his own arm! He went up the elevator with Viole!" Wangnan said with realization dawning on his face.
"Oh, you're right. I almost forgot about that."
"And they were talking for a while in the stage room before the second test started, that must be when the message was delivered!"
Suddenly Akraptor had a strange expression on his face. "…if that Dr. Dua sent him, he was taught by Chromatic, and Viole seemed to know his teacher personally, even though he didn't know who the Chromatic Calamity was…"
"You think maybe that guy was Chromatic?" Wangnan asked. "But it sounded like that Canjon guy only met Chromatic once a long time ago and didn't see him again after. So how could he have known which test he'd find Viole in?"
"That's true…well either way, Chromatic has to be one of Viole's old friends too. Probably Andora as well. That means we know now the identity of at least two of his old friends, maybe three if Dr. Dua is a different person," said Akraptor.
Wangnan turned to Yihwa. "Hey, flame thrower, you're friends with him or something? You must know the truth, right? Was that guy earlier the Chromatic Calamity?"
"Eh? I…I…"
"Give her a break, Wangnan. If it's a secret, it wouldn't be right for us to make her answer," said Akraptor.
"Oh, fine, whatever! I'll let you off this time," said Wangnan "I'm gonna go check on Miseng and Goseng, they must have been pretty scared."
After Wangnan left, Akraptor turned back to Yihwa. "So that's what you meant by he has someone already, huh? And if the rumors are true, that means your rival must be princess Androssi. As a princess of Zahard, she can't have a lover, much less be associated with FUG. Yes, those would be difficult circumstances to be in…you have some really tough competition."
"Guh?! I don't know what you mean!"
O O O
The FUG trio were back at the karaoke bar.
"Mirchea shouldn't be a problem if I talk to him…It's the others that might have complaints about this," said Ha Jinsung, hands in his pockets again. "But…"
"But not right away," said Hwa Ryun. "If they can climb quickly, it will be difficult for the malcontents to act for some time."
"You read my mind. They don't look like much, but if Viole gets along with them, it's better than having a team he doesn't like creating problems," said Jinsung.
"And in the meantime, Dr. Dua will monitor them through the Yeon girl, providing assistance along their climb. If there's trouble, whether it's from the others, or Viole's old friends…he can respond quickly," said Hwa Ryun.
Jinsung looked towards Dr. Dua. "Are you really one of Viole's old friends? I heard your conversation earlier, but all of his teammates that we're tracking are already accounted for…so who are you exactly?"
Dr. Dua smiled. "That's because I knew about the tracking rings from the beginning. The Deep Sea Fish told me himself. I have another body still climbing with the ring as we speak."
"Hansung told you? Oh, I see…you must be the 'wildcard' he mentioned, who defeated the RED. So that thing the princess calls Axion is a second body? Ahh…now I'm curious. That's a neat trick. So am I talking to the real one right now?" Jinsung asked.
"Who says that only one of them is real?"
Jinsung got a strange glint in his eyes.
Suddenly he was behind Axion with a hand on the latter's back.
Nothing seemed to happen.
"So that's the perfected version of Viole's technique," said Axion. "This level of control, to avoid hitting any of my vital organs, and cause so much damage yet leave no sign of the attack on the outside…it's truly remarkable."
"I could say the same to you…I can't tell if this is really just a puppet body or not. It seems like a normal body on the outside, but you're missing a lot of those vital organs…for a moment I wondered if you actually negated my attack and tricked my senses somehow…but it seems that this level of damage simply isn't a hindrance to you," said Jinsung, finally pulling back his hand.
"Are you satisfied, then?" Axion asked, turning his head backwards.
"I can't use a lethal attack just to test you, so I suppose this body is real enough that I'll accept talking to you like this. And you'd certainly be strong enough to be of assistance to Viole's team in case there's trouble," Jinsung said.
Then he walked back around to face Axion properly. "Now what about you? Are you satisfied with me? You wanted to see what kind of person I was, right? What if I told you that I did this to Viole too? Still think I genuinely care for him?"
"Knowing him, he probably asked you to do it so he could learn it faster and make sure nobody else has to suffer instead, right?"
"Damn. You really know him well." Jinsung sighed. "It's true. He asked me to do it. And I've never felt so creeped out attacking someone before. Because of him, I've remembered things I thought I'd forgotten for a long time. Even though it really was incredible how he learned it that way, I could never shake that feeling."
"It felt much better to hit this guy because he could take it, right?" Hwa Ryun asked.
"Haha…that's true. I wouldn't have any issues training this guy that way," said Jinsung.
"That's good," Hwa Ryun said, nodding. "So you can train him next."
"…huh?" Jinsung looked taken aback.
"If you could spare the time, I'd be interested in learning under you for a bit," said Axion.
The High Ranker waved him off. "I don't just teach anyone, you know? Even if it's Ryun asking…I only teach Slayers, and last I checked, we didn't have any other new Slayer candidates," said Jinsung.
"How about just the signature FUG technique? Floral Butterfly Piercing?"
"Nope."
"How can I convince you?"
"Just become a Slayer candidate," Jinsung said, grinning. "I'll nominate you. You're supposed to be some kind of demon that got summoned into the body of a Regular, right? After defeating a Ranker on the Floor of Test, I'm sure the Elders would be happy to agree. Not many people know this, but sufficiently powerful magic sourced from divinity and demons beyond the Tower is one of the things thought to be capable of harming Zahard as well, though it's never been proven in practice."
"But if I did that, I'd have a hard time moving around and keeping an eye on Viole."
"We don't need another Slayer candidate to draw attention," said Hwa Ryun. "One is enough."
"If he doesn't become a Slayer candidate then I need to know that I won't be wasting my time. I'm an important high ranking member of FUG and very busy…"
"You weren't planning on doing anything except spy on Viole and freeload in his house," said Hwa Ryun. "And you don't go on missions anymore either."
"…you're ruining my image, Ryun," Jinsung said, one hand palming his forehead.
"You do that all by yourself."
"Fine, listen kid, I'll consider teaching you a bit. But you need to pass my test first," said Jinsung.
"Sure. What kind of test?" asked Axion.
"I don't want to teach a coward that only uses puppet bodies to fight. I want to see you in action for real. Hansung talked you up quite a bit, but I want to see your strength first hand."
"You mean, you want a spar against me?"
"I'll go easy on you. There's a limit to what I can do in this Regular area anyways. It'll also be a good way to see what your skill level is and what you need to work on."
After looking to Hwa Ryun, who nodded, Axion agreed.
"Then we'll do it tomorrow," said Jinsung.
O O O
At night, Ha Jinsung went back to Viole's house to sleep over, seemingly occupying the couch with heavy snores.
Later, Wangnan found Viole on the roof, before declaring that Viole was a good person and his friend, that Wangnan would be ready to die for him, so they should pass the test.
Yihwa also found them on the roof, and apologized to Viole for her remarks earlier in the day, and she was easily forgiven.
Jinsung watched secretly from the top of the rooftop water tank, and smiled.
O O O
On the 21st Floor, in the residential area, Yihwa met up with her old friend Ryua, a playmate and servant of the same age from the Yeon family that was assigned to her when she was younger.
Ryua praised her beauty and suggested her teammates must all be from Great Families too, given how fast she climbed, but Yihwa tried to vaguely deflect and then spoke about how she blocked the enemies' plan and wasn't given any credit for it.
"You are so classy and noble! Helping your team without showing off!"
"No really, it's just the right thing to do…"
"By the way, did you hear the rumor? A new FUG slayer candidate has appeared…they say he's huge with monstrous powers, and the eyes hidden behind his long hair are so frightful they give you goosebumps! And they also say…he wanders around with nasty teammates who steal money and harass girls!"
"…is there such a rumor?" Yihwa asked, feigning ignorance. '…I'm one of those nasty teammates.'
"You haven't heard about it? Be careful Ms. Yihwa, that bad guy might be targeting you!" Ryua warned seriously.
"I should be careful…" Yihwa nodded helplessly.
"There's also another rumor going around…the Demon of Chromatic Calamity resurfaced recently…and he's been teaching people his dark arts! And his new students are so fanatical they use forbidden skills that destroy their own bodies!" Ryua made a horrified face.
"…"
"They say that something happened to the Witch, so the Demon's students are tricking virgin girls so that they can be used as sacrifices to restore her youth and beauty! You have to stay away from them, I heard they even went after a girl from the Great Families during a test!"
"…Thank you, Ryua, I will," said Yihwa with a sweat.
O O O
Yihwa returned to the house they were staying at, to find Goseng greeting her, with Prince and Miseng doing some sort of singing dance routine. She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
Akraptor was sitting at the table and noticed her expression. "Why so gloomy? Did something happen?"
"Not at all. And where's Viole?"
"He went to see somebody, said he was going to the marketplace."
"And nobody followed after him?!"
"Why would we? He said he'd be back soon."
"Are you crazy? You know the rumors out there, what if they're true?!"
Wangnan came by with a yawn. "I don't think those rumors are true. He's not the kind of guy who does that stuff."
"You have any proof they aren't true?" Yihwa asked.
"He seems gentle…he lets us live in the house he rented! And even does an equal share of the housework! And you're such a bad cook that he even does your share of the cooking!" Wangnan said.
"But…he's an FUG member!"
"We like an FUG that can cook, over a Great Family member who burns toast!"
Yihwa angrily declared that she would keep an eye on Viole and stormed off.
O O O
'I registered a tracking device on you just in case…you can't get away from me Viole!' She thought to herself, even though it was just a mutual consent tracking feature on their Pockets that worked when they were on the public networks.
She tailed him to a Karaoke bar. 'Is he…a bagman?'
Suddenly there was a scream from inside as Viole was going downstairs and Yihwa was hidden around the corner.
"Give me money if you want to keep this place in one piece, before I, Jyu Viole Grace, get angry!" A loud male voice reached them.
At the bar, two female employees were being threatened by a big guy with a huge club and hair that went below his shoulders, wearing a shirt that said "FUG".
The blond employee pleaded tearfully with him, while the red haired employee looked at him and said, "I wasn't expecting the new slayer to be a smelly pig like you, is FUG this lame?"
"R-Ryun!" The other employee nudged her fearfully.
"Did you call me a pig?!"
Hwa Ryun continued to insult him.
Just as the fake Viole slammed down his club on the counter, the real Viole blasted him away with Shinsoo.
"Mr. Viole!" The fake's lackeys cried. "How dare you shoot Mr. Viole?!"
"…I'm Jyu Viole Grace," said Viole, creating a powerful wave of Shinsoo that circulated around him.
Everyone except Hwa Ryun screamed and ran away. "It's the real one!"
Yihwa rushed down. "Viole! What have you done?!"
She burst onto the scene as Viole stood in front of the counter behind which sat Hwa Ryun, momentarily stunned upon seeing the latter.
"Hello," said Hwa Ryun.
'Who's that creepy girl? Is she close to Viole?' Yihwa wondered, noting Hwa Ryun's unusually deep blood red hair and eyes, which under the shadow of the room and her slight, unconcerned smile, gave off a creepy vibe.
"Huh? Who's this girl?" An older, almost middle-aged man with brown hair appeared behind Yihwa, one hand in his pocket, and the other holding a jacket over his shoulder. After Yihwa turned around, he continued. "Hey Ryun, didn't you say your guest was a man? Or is she a new member?"
"You're from…FUG!" Yihwa finally realized.
"That hairpin…it's from the Yeon family. Are you their spy?" The older man asked with a dangerous tone.
"Mr. Jinsung, stop! She's my teammate, she's not a spy!" Viole said urgently.
"Oh? Viole's teammate? I apologize," said Jinsung with an apologetic smile.
"Who's your teammate? Don't lie! You fooled your teammates by coming here secretly to meet with the FUG! What are you planning with them, huh?! You trick us like this and call us teammates?! How ridiculous! You're worse than dirt!! You pretended you were so nice and…!"
"Hey girl, isn't that enough?" Jinsung said darkly, throwing his jacket away.
"It's none of your business, you jerk with a cheap perm!"
"Stop Ms. Yihwa, he's a High Ranker!" Viole shouted.
Suddenly the door on the other side of the bar from the stairs opened.
"You should listen to Viole, Yihwa. Mr. Ha Jinsung is not someone you want to anger," said the newcomer.
"H-huh?!" Yihwa looked at him dumbfounded. "…Dr. Dua?"
"And aren't you jumping to conclusions again, Yihwa? You shouldn't be so harsh before you understand the circumstances," said Dr. Dua.
"But…were you also an FUG member?!" Yihwa asked with shock.
"He's my guest," said Hwa Ryun, while putting some empty glasses on the counter away.
"Your guest?!" Yihwa turned to Hwa Ryun, who smirked at her while sitting back down to grab the one unfinished glass of red wine that was her own.
"He was supposed to bring me a flower…"
"Huh?! B-bring you a flower?!" Yihwa turned back to Dr. Dua. "Why?!"
"I think you got the wrong flower…but this one is pretty cute too, so maybe I'll keep her…" said Hwa Ryun to Dr. Dua.
"W-what?! What are you saying?!"
"You didn't know? I'm the Witch. The real one." said Hwa Ryun, leaning forward, licking her lips. "And you look delicious."
Yihwa suddenly had a flashback to her conversation with Ryua.
"N-no way…! You can't use me as your virgin sacrifice!" She shouted, shaking her head vigorously. "And I'm not delicious! If you try to eat me I'll just burn your tongue off!"
"But I like my BBQ steak well done and sizzling hot," said Hwa Ryun, eyeing her up and down. "Then I'll enjoy it with some fine wine, just like this." She twirled the glass in her hand a bit, then drank it down in a single breath.
"Noooooo!" Yihwa backed away and held her arms around herself.
Ha Jinsung started laughing.
"Why are you laughing all of a sudden? This isn't funny!"
"It is funny, rude girl!" Jinsung said, laughing even harder.
Then Viole and Dr. Dua laughed as well.
"H-hey! Stop that…!"
"So…what's the plan, Ryun?" Jinsung asked, noticing that Hwa Ryun had stood up.
"Let's go to Viole's house, we can meet the rest of his teammates," said Hwa Ryun.
"That's…" Viole started hesitantly.
"Oh, what a great idea! What should we buy as a housewarming gift?" Jinsung asked cheerfully as Hwa Ryun began leading the way back outside.
"By the way, your hair really is ridiculous," said Hwa Ryun.
"Hey you guys can't just decide that on your own!" Yihwa shouted after them as they turned the corner. "And you're just going to act like nothing happened?"
Viole followed after them helplessly. "It's just how they are, Ms. Yihwa. Let's go back home."
"Hwa Ryun was just joking earlier. Have some patience, Yihwa, and they're not really bad guys either," said Dr. Dua, walking to Yihwa and patting her on the back gesturing for them to go with Viole.
"Not bad guys…?" Yihwa asked hesitantly.
"Not everyone in FUG is a terrible criminal. Trust me, if you met one of the bad ones, you wouldn't have gotten off like that. That man Ha Jinsung really is a High Ranker…although his reputation isn't great either. But he seems a little different than he used to be," said Dr. Dua.
"Oh, were you friends with Mr. Jinsung, Dr. Dua?" Viole asked.
"No, no, I just know of his reputation. He's famous in the Tower…or infamous I should say," said Dr. Dua.
"What for?" asked Viole.
"Well, he used to slaughter members of the Ten Families on sight. His sobriquet is Slaughterer of the Ha Family," said Dr. Dua.
"He did that?" Viole asked, looking shocked.
"S-someone like that isn't a bad guy?!" Yihwa asked.
"He was definitely a bad guy before," said Dr. Dua. "But maybe he changed? He didn't kill you back there, Yihwa, and was almost friendly."
The group found Ryun and Jinsung waiting for them outside the Karaoke place entrance, and quieted back down.
They moved together again with Hwa Ryun and Jinsung leading ahead talking about random things, while Viole, Yihwa, and Dr. Dua trailed behind.
There was an awkward silence between the three as they moved, until Viole spoke up.
"It's nice to meet you, by the way, Dr. Dua. That's what Ms. Yihwa called you, right?" Viole asked.
"Yes, it's nice to meet you as well, Mr. Viole," said Dr. Dua.
"So you're a doctor?" asked Viole.
"Sort of. It's more of a nickname, really. But yes, I do heal people. I'm also a researcher. But unfortunately I don't have a proper license for it, it's very difficult to get one without being part of the Workshop, you see. So that's why I work with FUG. In exchange for some favors, they can pull some strings for me, keep the authorities looking the other way."
Viole nodded. "So how do you know each other, Dr. Dua, Ms. Yihwa?"
"We met on the 20th Floor while I was doing my research, she helped me out a bit, so I helped her a bit too," said Dr. Dua.
"He…he gave me the healing wand," said Yihwa. "And my Shinheuh..."
"I see," said Viole, nodding again.
"Dr. Dua, what about your relationship with that girl?" Yihwa asked.
"She's my main contact with FUG. She's a very powerful Guide. But she also likes to mess with people. Don't mind her antics," said Dr. Dua.
"A Guide…?"
"A Red Witch."
"Oh. That's what she meant," said Yihwa.
"Haha yeah. She's the real deal. Although she can be troublesome and often plays the villain, I think she is not a bad person at heart either. So you should give her a chance," said Dr. Dua. "If it weren't for her, things might be much more difficult for me."
"Right…" Yihwa said reluctantly.
Eventually after buying some fruits, they got back to the house, and allowed Viole and Yihwa to take the lead opening the door.
O O O
Wangnan, Goseng and Miseng faced the trio of Hwa Ryun, Viole, and Ha Jinsung.
"I'm an FUG member but I'm not a bad guy," Jinsung said cheerfully.
Goseng trembled while peeling another apple, Miseng had a stiff expression on herself, while Wangnan laughed nervously and tried to engage in light conversation.
While Ha Jinsung introduced himself as Viole's teacher and asked whether the team was bullying Viole, Yihwa was in the kitchen with Akraptor and Dr. Dua.
"…they are more talkative than I thought. They aren't what I imagined," said Akraptor, while eating an apple slice himself. "And you say you've been working with them for a while?
Dr Dua nodded. "There are definitely worse people in FUG."
"Can we really trust them?" Yihwa asked.
"Trust is probably too strong a word," Dr. Dua admitted. "But you can't really afford to get on their bad side either, and as long as they don't have any conflict with you, it should be alright."
"But what if they're planning something horrible?" Yihwa asked.
Akraptor looked between the two in front of him as they conversed for a while longer as if he wasn't there and then Yihwa finally relented with a sigh.
"So…that guy came to check on Viole…and you came to check on Lady Yeon?" Akraptor asked.
"Eh?! No, we just ran into each other suddenly! I didn't know Dr. Dua would be there," said Yihwa.
"You're pretty observant," Dr. Dua said. "That's right. Of course, I also had some other business with FUG, so it was convenient for me to check on my Yihwa at the same time."
"…kya?" Yihwa squeaked while Dr. Dua patted her head.
"She hasn't been causing trouble with her flames, has she?" Dr. Dua asked.
"No. And Viole can stop her, anyways, so it's not a big deal. As long as she doesn't cook, we're fine," said Akraptor.
"That's good to hear. I was a little worried, but I'm happy she found a team that can accept her," said Dr. Dua.
"To be honest, she's the least of the problem members on this team. She's great in comparison," said Akraptor, glancing at the apple slice which seemed deformed and wondering who cut it.
"Sounds like it's going to be a fun team for you, Yihwa, haha!" Dr. Dua said, no longer patting Yihwa, but she was still red-faced and too embarrassed to say anything.
O O O
After Viole went up to the roof because Jinsung kept bragging about him, and Ha Jinsung followed once he noticed Viole was missing, then Goseng took Miseng to take a nap, the living room was left with just Hwa Ryun and Wangnan.
The other members of the team had all left to do other things before the FUG group had arrived.
"You're lucky. He decided to let you live," said Hwa Ryun, to Wangnan's shock.
"The heads of FUG want Viole to go up with a worthy team, not a team full of defects like this. He didn't come here just to see Viole. He came to eliminate you all…and make another team for him," said Hwa Ryun. "But he respects Viole's opinion, so he let you live for now. But don't be too relieved. There are many in FUG who don't like this situation. They need Viole to keep improving and make their dream come true."
After a while, Wangnan asked quietly if she thought Viole could really kill Zahard, in spite of the contract Zahard has that makes him invulnerable to any resident of the Tower.
And then Hwa Ryun revealed that Viole was an Irregular and therefore not bound by that contract.
"…why did he become a slayer? Does he have a vendetta?" Wangnan asked.
"He didn't do it because he wanted to kill Zahard, but because he must…" Hwa Ryun began to explain how Viole's old friends were made hostages through tracking rings, friends whom Viole wanted to protect. That if he refused to climb or failed, they would be killed one by one. At Wangnan's disbelieving face, Hwa Ryun smiled and added, "Surprised? Did you think we were nice people?"
O O O
The three in the kitchen overheard this part of the conversation, and of Wangnan yelling profanities at Hwa Ryun for forcing him to become a Slayer and committing such cruelty.
"How could you do that to him?!" Wangnan's voice raged on through the door.
"Then what should we do? Just leave him alone? Then who will make our wish come true?" Hwa Ryun's voice calmly answered. "Will you? I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like you can. Just like we can't."
Yihwa looked horrified at the truth. "So it was…like that?"
"And you believed the rumors about him," said Akraptor.
"I…"
"Sympathy and justice aren't always the answer. Anyone can talk about justice. We don't think it's right either, that god gave him such a destiny."
There was a long silence in both rooms.
"Six years ago on the Floor of Tests…for the sake of a friend, a boy demanded a test directly from the Guardian, by the right of being an Irregular. There was an undercover Ranker assassin from the Zahard Empire at the time…he sent a Shinheuh to kill the Irregular when he was in a place nobody else could reach. After the test, the boy didn't come back…and it was revealed that he made a deal with the Guardian to let the rest of his friends all pass if he died," Dr. Dua said in a whisper.
"…!" Yihwa looked at Dr. Dua with newfound shock, an expression which was shared by Akraptor.
"Well, the boy survived and FUG took him away while covering it up, then his friends went up. But the problem is…if Zahard Empire finds out he's still alive…they'll try to kill him again. So in a way…FUG is the reason he's still alive. For his own sake…Viole must not return to his old friends, at least until he's strong enough to survive on his own. As long as they think he's serious about being a Slayer candidate, FUG will protect him."
"You…you're one of his friends, aren't you?" Akraptor asked, also whispering. "That's the only way you'd know so much, if you're not part of FUG yourself."
"So that's the real reason you were there? You were checking on him…because he's your friend," said Yihwa, in an equally quiet whisper.
Dr. Dua nodded. "More specifically…I came to see what kind of person his teacher was. But it seems like that man genuinely cares for him. There are people in FUG that are much worse…"
"What a complicated situation…" said Akraptor.
"Anyways, don't say anything about me. I already had someone deliver him a message during the test on the last Floor, so that he knows everyone is still safe. For now, he should just focus on climbing and getting stronger."
"I got it…" said Yihwa.
Akraptor nodded. "Fine with me."
"And remember Yihwa…things are often not what they seem at first glance," said Dr. Dua. "Sometimes…we have to do things we don't like, because they're necessary."
"Ah…I'll…apologize to Viole…" saidi Yihwa.
O O O
Yihwa and Akraptor were in the kitchen by themselves, sitting in silence, thinking about everything they'd just learned.
"So you were into that type of older man?" Akraptor asked.
"W-what? That's not it…! He's not actually much older!"
"That's the part you're objecting to?" Akraptor asked with a slight smirk.
"N-no! You're misunderstanding! It's not like that!" She shook her head frantically.
"No? I was just surprised how different you acted with him around," Akraptor said with a light chuckle, then thought to himself. 'My daughter should also be at a similar age now…I wonder if she's found anybody…if it's also an older man I'll have to beat him up twice as hard.'
"He already has someone else…even though he said they weren't dating…I think it's just because of their circumstances," said Yihwa, now in a much smaller, slightly depressed voice. "Especially now that he explained about what happened with their team and their problems with the Zahard Empire. And just when I thought I started to understand him a little…"
Akraptor raised an eyebrow, but Yihwa did not elaborate further.
Then Wangnan came in.
"Hey guys…they left," he said. "But they said they might be back later."
"Not what you'd think when you hear FUG right?" Akraptor asked casually.
Wangnan did not immediately respond, seemingly in an internal struggle.
"You don't have to think so hard about what to say. We heard most of your conversation from here," said Akraptor. "We know. About Viole's friends."
"Ah? Were we that loud?" Wangnan asked.
"Yup. Especially the part where you were shouting at the girl," said Akraptor.
"Haha…" Wangnan laughed awkwardly, hand on the back of his head. "Then…what about the other guy? He was with you guys right? What did he want?"
"He came to check up on her." Akraptor pointed to Yihwa with a thumb.
"On flame thrower?"
"Stop calling me that!"
Akraptor nodded.
"So you had FUG connections too? Why have you been acting so outraged about Viole then? Did you just use that as an excuse to sneak off with him and look for your own friend in FUG?" Wangnan asked.
"Dr. Dua's not an FUG member!" Yihwa asked vehemently. "And I didn't know he would be there!"
"So you just randomly bumped into him with FUG…?" Wangnan asked skeptically.
"He…he works with them sometimes," Yihwa said stubbornly. "But he's not one of them."
Wangnan turned to Akraptor with a questioning gaze.
"Well, he did tell us some interesting things. It's complicated but…he seems to be one of Viole's old friends, working undercover."
"What? Really?" Wangnan asked.
"I'm not completely sure what's going on but…either he infiltrated FUG to keep an eye on Viole, or the hostage situation actually goes both ways. I'm thinking it might be both," said Akraptor.
"Wait, you mean…FUG is also using Viole as a hostage, to force him to work for them?" Wangnan asked.
"W-what?!" Yihwa asked, shocked.
"You didn't realize? Wasn't it obvious? Unless they don't know who he really is. That's what I'm not sure about. But if they do, that means you're also a hostage now," said Akraptor.
Yihwa looked aghast.
"Call me crazy, but I think the last test…and our team, was engineered by FUG somehow," said Akraptor.
"What do you mean?" Wangnan asked. "Didn't we choose our own teammates in the Trustworthy Room game?"
"Yes, but we only played that game because Viole didn't want any teammates, and because that test administrator had a grudge against FUG. If it weren't for that, the top eight would have formed a team, guaranteeing that Viole and Yihwa would be put together. If Prince's dad could bribe the supervisors to change the groupings, couldn't FUG have done the same?"
"That's true…" Wangnan nodded.
"But that's not all. That Dr. Dua guy said that he had somebody deliver a message to Viole during the last test, to tell him that all their friends were safe. So he must have known that Viole would be in that test, and somehow got a person to be placed in the same test section too."
"A message…? Wait, that crazy guy who destroyed his own arm! He went up the elevator with Viole!" Wangnan said with realization dawning on his face.
"Oh, you're right. I almost forgot about that."
"And they were talking for a while in the stage room before the second test started, that must be when the message was delivered!"
Suddenly Akraptor had a strange expression on his face. "…if that Dr. Dua sent him, he was taught by Chromatic, and Viole seemed to know his teacher personally, even though he didn't know who the Chromatic Calamity was…"
"You think maybe that guy was Chromatic?" Wangnan asked. "But it sounded like that Canjon guy only met Chromatic once a long time ago and didn't see him again after. So how could he have known which test he'd find Viole in?"
"That's true…well either way, Chromatic has to be one of Viole's old friends too. Probably Andora as well. That means we know now the identity of at least two of his old friends, maybe three if Dr. Dua is a different person," said Akraptor.
Wangnan turned to Yihwa. "Hey, flame thrower, you're friends with him or something? You must know the truth, right? Was that guy earlier the Chromatic Calamity?"
"Eh? I…I…"
"Give her a break, Wangnan. If it's a secret, it wouldn't be right for us to make her answer," said Akraptor.
"Oh, fine, whatever! I'll let you off this time," said Wangnan "I'm gonna go check on Miseng and Goseng, they must have been pretty scared."
After Wangnan left, Akraptor turned back to Yihwa. "So that's what you meant by he has someone already, huh? And if the rumors are true, that means your rival must be princess Androssi. As a princess of Zahard, she can't have a lover, much less be associated with FUG. Yes, those would be difficult circumstances to be in…you have some really tough competition."
"Guh?! I don't know what you mean!"
O O O
The FUG trio were back at the karaoke bar.
"Mirchea shouldn't be a problem if I talk to him…It's the others that might have complaints about this," said Ha Jinsung, hands in his pockets again. "But…"
"But not right away," said Hwa Ryun. "If they can climb quickly, it will be difficult for the malcontents to act for some time."
"You read my mind. They don't look like much, but if Viole gets along with them, it's better than having a team he doesn't like creating problems," said Jinsung.
"And in the meantime, Dr. Dua will monitor them through the Yeon girl, providing assistance along their climb. If there's trouble, whether it's from the others, or Viole's old friends…he can respond quickly," said Hwa Ryun.
Jinsung looked towards Dr. Dua. "Are you really one of Viole's old friends? I heard your conversation earlier, but all of his teammates that we're tracking are already accounted for…so who are you exactly?"
Dr. Dua smiled. "That's because I knew about the tracking rings from the beginning. The Deep Sea Fish told me himself. I have another body still climbing with the ring as we speak."
"Hansung told you? Oh, I see…you must be the 'wildcard' he mentioned, who defeated the RED. So that thing the princess calls Axion is a second body? Ahh…now I'm curious. That's a neat trick. So am I talking to the real one right now?" Jinsung asked.
"Who says that only one of them is real?"
Jinsung got a strange glint in his eyes.
Suddenly he was behind Axion with a hand on the latter's back.
Nothing seemed to happen.
"So that's the perfected version of Viole's technique," said Axion. "This level of control, to avoid hitting any of my vital organs, and cause so much damage yet leave no sign of the attack on the outside…it's truly remarkable."
"I could say the same to you…I can't tell if this is really just a puppet body or not. It seems like a normal body on the outside, but you're missing a lot of those vital organs…for a moment I wondered if you actually negated my attack and tricked my senses somehow…but it seems that this level of damage simply isn't a hindrance to you," said Jinsung, finally pulling back his hand.
"Are you satisfied, then?" Axion asked, turning his head backwards.
"I can't use a lethal attack just to test you, so I suppose this body is real enough that I'll accept talking to you like this. And you'd certainly be strong enough to be of assistance to Viole's team in case there's trouble," Jinsung said.
Then he walked back around to face Axion properly. "Now what about you? Are you satisfied with me? You wanted to see what kind of person I was, right? What if I told you that I did this to Viole too? Still think I genuinely care for him?"
"Knowing him, he probably asked you to do it so he could learn it faster and make sure nobody else has to suffer instead, right?"
"Damn. You really know him well." Jinsung sighed. "It's true. He asked me to do it. And I've never felt so creeped out attacking someone before. Because of him, I've remembered things I thought I'd forgotten for a long time. Even though it really was incredible how he learned it that way, I could never shake that feeling."
"It felt much better to hit this guy because he could take it, right?" Hwa Ryun asked.
"Haha…that's true. I wouldn't have any issues training this guy that way," said Jinsung.
"That's good," Hwa Ryun said, nodding. "So you can train him next."
"…huh?" Jinsung looked taken aback.
"If you could spare the time, I'd be interested in learning under you for a bit," said Axion.
The High Ranker waved him off. "I don't just teach anyone, you know? Even if it's Ryun asking…I only teach Slayers, and last I checked, we didn't have any other new Slayer candidates," said Jinsung.
"How about just the signature FUG technique? Floral Butterfly Piercing?"
"Nope."
"How can I convince you?"
"Just become a Slayer candidate," Jinsung said, grinning. "I'll nominate you. You're supposed to be some kind of demon that got summoned into the body of a Regular, right? After defeating a Ranker on the Floor of Test, I'm sure the Elders would be happy to agree. Not many people know this, but sufficiently powerful magic sourced from divinity and demons beyond the Tower is one of the things thought to be capable of harming Zahard as well, though it's never been proven in practice."
"But if I did that, I'd have a hard time moving around and keeping an eye on Viole."
"We don't need another Slayer candidate to draw attention," said Hwa Ryun. "One is enough."
"If he doesn't become a Slayer candidate then I need to know that I won't be wasting my time. I'm an important high ranking member of FUG and very busy…"
"You weren't planning on doing anything except spy on Viole and freeload in his house," said Hwa Ryun. "And you don't go on missions anymore either."
"…you're ruining my image, Ryun," Jinsung said, one hand palming his forehead.
"You do that all by yourself."
"Fine, listen kid, I'll consider teaching you a bit. But you need to pass my test first," said Jinsung.
"Sure. What kind of test?" asked Axion.
"I don't want to teach a coward that only uses puppet bodies to fight. I want to see you in action for real. Hansung talked you up quite a bit, but I want to see your strength first hand."
"You mean, you want a spar against me?"
"I'll go easy on you. There's a limit to what I can do in this Regular area anyways. It'll also be a good way to see what your skill level is and what you need to work on."
After looking to Hwa Ryun, who nodded, Axion agreed.
"Then we'll do it tomorrow," said Jinsung.
O O O
At night, Ha Jinsung went back to Viole's house to sleep over, seemingly occupying the couch with heavy snores.
Later, Wangnan found Viole on the roof, before declaring that Viole was a good person and his friend, that Wangnan would be ready to die for him, so they should pass the test.
Yihwa also found them on the roof, and apologized to Viole for her remarks earlier in the day, and she was easily forgiven.
Jinsung watched secretly from the top of the rooftop water tank, and smiled.
O O O
This is such a good story
65 – Ha Jinsung Test
65 – Ha Jinsung Test
[Kaleidus]
The four of us, after I called for Yihwa to come along, made our way to a large training facility.
I was in my actual appearance as Axion using my main body this time. The body that had survived Ha Jinsung's attack was just the same Canjon puppet which I'd modified to look like my Dr. Dua disguise on the outside while getting rid of a lot of unnecessary parts to replace them with Armoriont cells. Although I knew of Viole's teacher from the story, it wasn't clear how he'd react to me, and I certainly didn't want to put my real body in danger from a High Ranker without establishing friendly contact first.
"Mr. Ha has decided that he can let you guys stay as Viole's teammates, but because he's an FUG slayer candidate, there might be trouble in the future and you guys might not be able to handle it. The plan is for me to be around to help you guys for a while, but Mr. Ha wanted to test me as well. So that's why I need you," I explained to Yihwa. "He's a High Ranker in the top 100. You need to command me as my contractor, so I can use enough power to have a credible showing for this 'test' of his."
"Then if you pass, you'll be able to stay with us as we climb?" Yihwa asked.
I nodded.
"Does this mean I'll get to see you fighting seriously?" Yihwa asked excitedly.
"That's right. Well, it's just a friendly spar and he'll limit himself to make it fair at the E-Rank Regular level, but he has fairly high expectations, so I'll have to fight suitably," I said.
"Got it. So what should I do exactly?"
Ha Jinsung went to the other side of the arena and waited while Hwa Ryun went to the side to referee.
"You don't need to give any specific commands for the fighting itself—just a general order to 'Defeat him!' is fine. Make sure that you mean it, and think about why you want me to defeat him while you give the order," I said. "You can also give out some variations of that order while we're fighting, to strengthen it."
"Okay, no problem!"
I met Jinsung in the center.
"Alright, I'm looking forward to this, so you better not disappoint me, kid," Jinsung said.
"I'll do my best. Do you want me to go all out from the start, or shall we warm up and raise the level over time?" I asked.
"I'll let you set the pace, unless I get bored. So do whatever you want. Surprise me if you can," he said.
Then we bowed to each other and stepped back a short distance away before turning and taking up stances.
My circuits were already primed, the water spirits were in sync with me, and Derflinger was already awake just waiting for the right time to act.
Unlike that time when Quant took me off guard, Derflinger no longer needed to be unsheathed to react, hanging off my wrist in a Compressed form.
But since this was a battle to show my skills, I wasn't going to use him right away.
An Armoriont covered my chest, legs, and arms, but only as regenerative armor with some extra features rather than the fully integrated power suit version.
By now, my basic physical abilities had exceeded the Armoriont and it failed to grow with me, so it would only be a hindrance if used as a power suit on my main body.
"Defeat him Axion! Teach that slouching, lazy old man not to underestimate you!" Yihwa shouted with one fist raised.
"By your will, my lady," I said.
"Begin!" Hwa Ryun ordered.
I dashed forward with my full speed. Thanks to an improved base body and superior Mana Reinforcement plus an additional temporary burst of Shinsoo foot technique, it was almost as fast as I used to be with a full Derflinger Boost and the rest of my buffs added together.
The gap between us closed in an instant, though Jinsung didn't move. He blocked my first strike and counterattacked with a similar speed in close combat.
The high speed exchange quickly proved that Jinsung's mastery of martial arts was vastly superior to mine, with the old master easily handling all of my strikes, and each parry was so fast there was no time to even try a Reinforcement Break.
Suddenly he disappeared from view, and I barely dodged a flying high kick with a quick Burstshift out of the way.
He didn't let up though, with no sign of the movement surprising him, flashing over to me again to my side with another palm toward my shoulder.
Despite another Burstshift, I was unable to fully dodged and I was sent off course with a piece of the armor breaking off.
Still, I suffered no substantial damage and Jinsung was on me again.
Like this, he chased me around as I barely dodged each time.
"Come on, is that all you got? You're fast but this isn't enough to impress me! Viole could at least attack back while dodging!"
"Let's raise the level then!"
In our next exchange, as Jinsung caught up to me I fired beams from two Baangs to distract him, which he easily dodged before closing in on me, and then the Shinsoo cannon I took from Ren appeared a short distance away and fired a large beam at the spot where he was about to hit me.
The beam landed and knocked him aside.
"Not bad, but you know that level of attack isn't going to hurt me, right?" He asked, instead of resuming the chase.
"You're a High Ranker, I'd be surprised if I could hurt you," I said.
"That's true. Right now I'm limiting my Shinsoo so that you can at least knock me around a bit. But I still expect more than this. There's no way this was enough to defeat the Ranker on the Floor of Test," he said.
"There's still lots more you haven't seen, but I've also learned a lot of things since, and I don't often get to use them on any good opponents so I want to try them on you," I said.
"Well, I did say you could set the pace. Show me what else you got then!" He said, stretching a little before taking up another stance and waiting for me to make the next move.
I jumped into the air as wings Decompressed and erupted from my back out of the Armoriont armor.
Then my new E-Rank Arms Inventory appeared, with a section for holding Shinsoo ball capsules. I grabbed two extra large ones, one blue and one green, pressing the green one's unlock button as if it were actually an oversized Pokéball, and creatures burst out of them, decompressing rapidly.
A huge swarm of a hundred of small cannon fodder Shinheuh appeared from the green one. All of them had been dominated by the water spirits' Shinsoo flow, and ranged from the size of dogs to people.
The water spirits began gathering Shinsoo into the arena at extremely high speed, creating a torrent of liquid Shinsoo.
Ha Jinsung met the swarm of fodder and easily killed multiple at a time, but they were mere distractions while I continued to set up.
"You know…I can fly as well, but I wasn't planning to use such a high level technique for this spar," said Jinsung while casually destroying another group of fodder. "That doesn't mean I can't get you from here though!"
Six silver Cubes appeared moving into formation around where Jinsung was fighting.
"Lighthouse Flow Control: Paralysis!" I gestured with one hand after putting the green ball away
"Ha Jinsung Style: Shinsoo Piercer!"
The Lighthouse field created a pressure around the High Ranker attempting to restrict his movement even as more cannon fodder grabbed onto him. But with his own technique, a counteracting pulse of Shinsoo blasted out, the largest part concentrated at his legs, allowing him to blast into the air towards me.
The Shinsoo density around me was high enough now that it was suitable to bring out my boss mon, I mean Shinheuh.
I pressed the release button on the blue ball.
The White Steel Eel burst out of the capsule at incredible speed, not only was it extremely fast in medium density Shinsoo, it was further enhanced by my Mana and Shinsoo Reinforcement and the water spirits selectively controlling the flow of Shinsoo around me to boost them even faster.
It outsped and intercepted Jinsung with a tail whip, smashing him back to the ground like a bullet.
The gigantic yet agile Eel coiled back around me in the air like a monstrous serpent dragon instead of pursuing, remaining inside the central area of my sphere of control. Similarly, my Lighthouse Cubes retreated around me in a defensive formation, ready to create a barrier at any time.
"I should've figured you were an Anima, given that you could control puppet bodies. No wonder Hansung likes you," Jinsung said after landing. "Though he never mentioned you were capable of it."
"This is a more recent development. I wasn't capable of it when I fought the Lo Po Bia family assassin," I said. "But since it seemed fun, I decided to copy that guy."
"Sheesh, and I thought Viole copying my move after seeing it once when I was trying to teach him was crazy, but this takes the cake. You managed to copy the Bia family Anima techniques in an actual fight?"
"Nothing that crazy, I didn't actually copy their special techniques, I simply learned my own way to be an Anima later on. Viole is the one that can copy the actual techniques mid-battle. You should've been there for our first fight against another Ranker, he copied Reverse Flow and then used it on the Ranker himself."
"So that's where he learned that? Cheeky brat…he let me think he learned it from me too! Ah…that must be what the Deep Sea Fish saw that convinced him the boy was worth it."
"So, are we still continuing?" I asked.
"Oh you bet, I'm just getting started!"
"Same here!"
O O O
[Interlude]
The remaining Shinheuh swarm attacked Ha Jinsung again.
"If you're this good, I'll have to loosen up some of my restrictions."
After saying that, Jinsung then disappeared with a burst of Shinsoo that cracked the ground.
"Floral Butterfly Flare Wave!"
The Shinheuh around him were instantly slaughtered by an exploding wave of Shinsoo that blasted outwards from Jinsung's palm at the point of impact, annihilating the Shinheuh in its way and also killing the surrounding Shinheuh from the shockwave alone.
While he was doing so, Axion rained smaller beams of Shinsoo down from five Baangs and occasionally a much larger beam from his Shinsoo cannon.
Jinsung dodged or swept aside the incoming beams easily, but each time one of the larger beams landed, it would leave the ground cratered after the explosion.
Yihwa watched as they moved into the next stage once the weaker Shinheuh were all killed, and the old monster burst into the air again, almost too fast to see, with an equally fast move from the Eel, whose fin was glowing in a white aura, crashing into him.
A series of lightning fast clashes happened in the air, as the Cubes reorganized themselves to create barriers or disruptions, and the Eel protected both Axion and the Cubes.
At this point Yihwa could barely keep track of what was happening.
"Is this really what a top E-Rank fight looks like?" Yihwa asked, talking to herself.
However, she received an answer from Hwa Ryun who was suddenly beside her. "No, this is already beyond the E-Rank. That Eel alone, without any enhancement, is enough to be considered a difficult test for teams of Regulars at the E-Rank level. What Axion is doing with the Eel right now is far beyond that."
"What do you mean? What is he doing?"
"He is controlling the Shinsoo field around him to further accelerate the Eel while slowing down his opponent, and he also modified the Eel to be stronger, faster, and more durable than it normally is, while assisting it with his own attacks. Not only that, all of the damage that Mr. Jinsung is doing to the Eel, even though you can't see it, it's being regenerated at high speed."
"Extreme Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique!" A ray of Shinsoo erupted outwards at their next clash, destroying the Eel's left fin entirely and causing a severe wound down the whole length of its body, before crashing into the wall of the facility.
The strike was so intense that the whole arena shook, despite the protections of the facility against damage, which were only intended to be strong enough to resist E-Rank Regulars' attacks.
The Eel fell floating towards the ground, stunned.
"Derflinger, Ignite!"
"Finally!"
A yellow aura surrounded Axion just before Ha Jinsung launched another Floral Butterfly attack towards him.
The crystalline sword's outer layer was shattered on contact, but its true form underneath remained intact. The blast wave of the Floral Butterfly was diverted around the blade before an explosion knocked both fighters aside.
Yihwa noticed Axion's wings falling to the ground, seemingly discarded, as the two met in even more brutal clashes that she could no longer track, only seeing the aftereffects of the huge explosions that occurred with every contact, each shaking the arena.
"I can't see what's going on anymore," said Yihwa.
"He's not even using his full power, even now," said Hwa Ryun.
"But if this is how big the gap is, how am I supposed to be a good summoner for him? I don't want to be just a bystander while he fights. I want to be a proper teammate!"
"There comes a point where everyone faces the limit of their own potential. Leaving behind teammates that can't keep up is common in the Tower. But for Axion and Viole, it's an inevitability. Even the greatest of talents cannot compare to them, because Axion can simply break his own limits and Viole has no limit to begin with. But if you can unlock your 'true flame', maybe you would have the slightest chance to catch up."
"My true flame…?"
"A good opponent at last!" Derflinger's voice shouted in manic glee from somewhere.
"Not bad at all…!" Jinsung's voice returned. "Ha Jinsung Style: Blooming Crimson Flower!"
"Derflinger Style: Shinsoo Slash Wave!"
A red spiraling wave of Shinsoo burst from one side while a disorganized wave of Shinsoo went the other way.
Another explosion ensued forcing Yihwa to cover her eyes from the wind blowing dust and debris.
O O O
[Kaleidus]
"That's it! You can still do more, can't you?" Jinsung's voice shouted with a laugh. "But let's see how you deal with this!"
I was suddenly hit by Reverse Flow. But it only affected me for a millisecond before Derflinger took control of my body and blocked the kick that came towards us.
"Hm? You broke it that easily?" Jinsung asked before retracting his leg and moving away quickly, also floating in the air now. "I was expecting to at least get you for a second with how much power I put into that. Even a low level Ranker would've probably been stunned for longer than you were."
"I have special defenses against Reverse Flow, because it's such a dangerous technique if you can stun the opponent for even a tiny amount of time," I said. After a lot of training Derf had learned to how to give me the Boost without necessarily controlling me, so that I could direct the fighting and coordinate better using my Burstshift spell, but he was still capable of taking control, overriding my "flow".
Even if he couldn't, the water spirits could very easily break the Fast Skip technique but they were generally slower to react than Derflinger, unless I had them actively empowering me and negating all foreign flows passively.
"Unfortunately, I can't use it myself—it makes me quite jealous of Viole's talent," I continued.
"Yes, it normally takes many, many, years to train it…Fast Skip is actually harder than the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique, and both use Reverse Flow principles," said Jinsung. "Well, you're definitely hell of a lot stronger than a Regular at your level should be, but I'm going to push you a little more, because I can feel that you're still holding back quite a bit. I won't make you show me all your secret moves, but I want to see what you used to defeat that Bia family Ranker, because this is definitely not enough."
"Very well, let's do this Derf!"
"You got it!"
Derf powered up a Sword Aura Level Ten, which was still his maximum magic attack strength, far superior to the Shinsoo techniques I could do with him. Concentrating the immense power of the same level of Slash Beam into a Sword Aura was extremely dangerous, and I'd rarely had a chance to use it on anything.
Jinsung came at me again with a crimson palm. I decided not to bother blocking and instead kept swinging.
"…!" He noticed and unleashed his own attack early, before moving back to dodge.
Derflinger Decompressed suddenly and crashed into him, instantly enlarging to the size of a building and gutted the arena wall, smashing Jinsung through it at the same time.
At the same time, I was blown away by the Crimson Flower technique and lost my grip on Derflinger.
The damage inflicted onto my body had been catastrophic on the surface but it did not manage to get through my Endbringer subdermal armor. Like with Yihwa's super powered flames, I simply healed at high speed, though Ha Jinsung's attack had managed to destroy some of the Endbringer flesh so I'd need to replace it later with more from Derf. That was certainly a good test of its defensive capabilities though.
While I recovered, Derflinger continued to fight Ha Jinsung for a little bit, Compressing and Decompressing repeatedly while swinging himself around with Shinsoo, while Jinsung had flashed back into the arena and was now unleashing huge rays of Shinsoo everywhere trying to hit the sword, both fighters deftly dodging the other.
Derf's Decompression release was a lot less powerful than it might appear to be at first glance. The level of Shinsoo mastery, the quantity and density of Shinsoo required to Compress a huge mass like what Derflinger had was too high, and even with the water spirits' support he wouldn't be able to do it with his real mass that was the equivalent of a mountain.
The trick was that the Endbringer crystal functioned on a different principle, compacting or expanding physical volume in space with the same material mass, whereas Compression affected the essence of something, making it smaller or larger with a corresponding reduction or gain of mass.
So it was possible for Derf to expand only an outer layer of his blade to a flimsy, ultra-low density super size, that would be utterly useless/unstable without magical reinforcements and pathetically weak even then. However, that made Compressing that portion of the sword feasible.
Essentially, his form replicated how the Endbringers kept the real core hyperdense with the true mass using the Endbringer crystal's power, while the rest of their bodies were cosmetic and flimsy in comparison, but could be refilled with mass from the core, to be used with the Shinsoo Compression technique.
And then this simply became a delivery mechanism for the powerful Sword Aura covering it, instead of relying on the actual durability of the outer layer.
It worked because Shinsoo Compression was peculiar and did not require proportionate compression in all dimensions, things could be partially or directionally Compressed/Decompressed.
Thus as we traded attacks the arena was completely destroyed and the ceiling collapsed.
Hwa Ryun called for a stop to the match. "We'd better get out of here! The Rankers are on this floor are all distracted right now, but they'll send someone soon."
The Eel swallowed the dead Shinheuh before I returned them all to their capsule Bowls and put away the Lighthouse,
As we all raced away from the place, Jinsung was by my side. "Kid, that last attack you did with the Ignition weapon…what the hell was that? It actually scratched me. I'm not that easy to hurt, even by a tiny bit. But it's like your attack went right through my Shinsoo Resistance, even though it wasn't just physical force either…"
"It's magic," I said. "I haven't had many chances to test it, but now that you explained it that way, that's probably why I was able to defeat Ren back then. He probably wasn't expecting it, and hadn't put up any defenses."
"That would explain how you won…magic…there's something different about your magic than the Spells most other people use in this Tower. I've seen and fought many Spellcasters before…but all their attacks still controlled Shinsoo or created things out of Shinsoo with their magic. There are Spells that are a bit different, where the effects don't have much to do with Shinsoo, but I've never seen an energy attack just made of magic and nothing else."
"Is it really so incredible? It should be one of the most inefficient and basic uses of magic," I said.
"It's much crazier that you survived that with only a scratch," said Derflinger. "The power concentrated into my sword edge would have been enough to destroy a castle if I released it at once."
"Ha family martial arts makes our bodies all extremely durable, and I'm one of the strongest. There are High Rankers whose attacks I've survived without a scratch when I didn't use any Shinsoo barrier, and a mere Regular managed to hurt me."
"Does that mean I pass the test?"
"Haha, yeah you passed. I suppose I could teach you a little, though I still say you should consider being a Slayer candidate. The Elders would be clamoring to have you if they knew what you did just now. It's a good gig, we can get you whatever you want. Money, power, girls, the best training, you name it. We can get it all."
"It sounds tempting, but no thanks. Aside from what we talked about before, I just don't like getting that much attention from people and or all the complications attached to being a Slayer candidate. I'm happy with how things are right now, and Viole can keep the spotlight."
"Fine, fine. We'll get started after their test is over then. I'll need to get some things for your training and take care of a few other things first."
O O O
[Kaleidus]
The four of us, after I called for Yihwa to come along, made our way to a large training facility.
I was in my actual appearance as Axion using my main body this time. The body that had survived Ha Jinsung's attack was just the same Canjon puppet which I'd modified to look like my Dr. Dua disguise on the outside while getting rid of a lot of unnecessary parts to replace them with Armoriont cells. Although I knew of Viole's teacher from the story, it wasn't clear how he'd react to me, and I certainly didn't want to put my real body in danger from a High Ranker without establishing friendly contact first.
"Mr. Ha has decided that he can let you guys stay as Viole's teammates, but because he's an FUG slayer candidate, there might be trouble in the future and you guys might not be able to handle it. The plan is for me to be around to help you guys for a while, but Mr. Ha wanted to test me as well. So that's why I need you," I explained to Yihwa. "He's a High Ranker in the top 100. You need to command me as my contractor, so I can use enough power to have a credible showing for this 'test' of his."
"Then if you pass, you'll be able to stay with us as we climb?" Yihwa asked.
I nodded.
"Does this mean I'll get to see you fighting seriously?" Yihwa asked excitedly.
"That's right. Well, it's just a friendly spar and he'll limit himself to make it fair at the E-Rank Regular level, but he has fairly high expectations, so I'll have to fight suitably," I said.
"Got it. So what should I do exactly?"
Ha Jinsung went to the other side of the arena and waited while Hwa Ryun went to the side to referee.
"You don't need to give any specific commands for the fighting itself—just a general order to 'Defeat him!' is fine. Make sure that you mean it, and think about why you want me to defeat him while you give the order," I said. "You can also give out some variations of that order while we're fighting, to strengthen it."
"Okay, no problem!"
I met Jinsung in the center.
"Alright, I'm looking forward to this, so you better not disappoint me, kid," Jinsung said.
"I'll do my best. Do you want me to go all out from the start, or shall we warm up and raise the level over time?" I asked.
"I'll let you set the pace, unless I get bored. So do whatever you want. Surprise me if you can," he said.
Then we bowed to each other and stepped back a short distance away before turning and taking up stances.
My circuits were already primed, the water spirits were in sync with me, and Derflinger was already awake just waiting for the right time to act.
Unlike that time when Quant took me off guard, Derflinger no longer needed to be unsheathed to react, hanging off my wrist in a Compressed form.
But since this was a battle to show my skills, I wasn't going to use him right away.
An Armoriont covered my chest, legs, and arms, but only as regenerative armor with some extra features rather than the fully integrated power suit version.
By now, my basic physical abilities had exceeded the Armoriont and it failed to grow with me, so it would only be a hindrance if used as a power suit on my main body.
"Defeat him Axion! Teach that slouching, lazy old man not to underestimate you!" Yihwa shouted with one fist raised.
"By your will, my lady," I said.
"Begin!" Hwa Ryun ordered.
I dashed forward with my full speed. Thanks to an improved base body and superior Mana Reinforcement plus an additional temporary burst of Shinsoo foot technique, it was almost as fast as I used to be with a full Derflinger Boost and the rest of my buffs added together.
The gap between us closed in an instant, though Jinsung didn't move. He blocked my first strike and counterattacked with a similar speed in close combat.
The high speed exchange quickly proved that Jinsung's mastery of martial arts was vastly superior to mine, with the old master easily handling all of my strikes, and each parry was so fast there was no time to even try a Reinforcement Break.
Suddenly he disappeared from view, and I barely dodged a flying high kick with a quick Burstshift out of the way.
He didn't let up though, with no sign of the movement surprising him, flashing over to me again to my side with another palm toward my shoulder.
Despite another Burstshift, I was unable to fully dodged and I was sent off course with a piece of the armor breaking off.
Still, I suffered no substantial damage and Jinsung was on me again.
Like this, he chased me around as I barely dodged each time.
"Come on, is that all you got? You're fast but this isn't enough to impress me! Viole could at least attack back while dodging!"
"Let's raise the level then!"
In our next exchange, as Jinsung caught up to me I fired beams from two Baangs to distract him, which he easily dodged before closing in on me, and then the Shinsoo cannon I took from Ren appeared a short distance away and fired a large beam at the spot where he was about to hit me.
The beam landed and knocked him aside.
"Not bad, but you know that level of attack isn't going to hurt me, right?" He asked, instead of resuming the chase.
"You're a High Ranker, I'd be surprised if I could hurt you," I said.
"That's true. Right now I'm limiting my Shinsoo so that you can at least knock me around a bit. But I still expect more than this. There's no way this was enough to defeat the Ranker on the Floor of Test," he said.
"There's still lots more you haven't seen, but I've also learned a lot of things since, and I don't often get to use them on any good opponents so I want to try them on you," I said.
"Well, I did say you could set the pace. Show me what else you got then!" He said, stretching a little before taking up another stance and waiting for me to make the next move.
I jumped into the air as wings Decompressed and erupted from my back out of the Armoriont armor.
Then my new E-Rank Arms Inventory appeared, with a section for holding Shinsoo ball capsules. I grabbed two extra large ones, one blue and one green, pressing the green one's unlock button as if it were actually an oversized Pokéball, and creatures burst out of them, decompressing rapidly.
A huge swarm of a hundred of small cannon fodder Shinheuh appeared from the green one. All of them had been dominated by the water spirits' Shinsoo flow, and ranged from the size of dogs to people.
The water spirits began gathering Shinsoo into the arena at extremely high speed, creating a torrent of liquid Shinsoo.
Ha Jinsung met the swarm of fodder and easily killed multiple at a time, but they were mere distractions while I continued to set up.
"You know…I can fly as well, but I wasn't planning to use such a high level technique for this spar," said Jinsung while casually destroying another group of fodder. "That doesn't mean I can't get you from here though!"
Six silver Cubes appeared moving into formation around where Jinsung was fighting.
"Lighthouse Flow Control: Paralysis!" I gestured with one hand after putting the green ball away
"Ha Jinsung Style: Shinsoo Piercer!"
The Lighthouse field created a pressure around the High Ranker attempting to restrict his movement even as more cannon fodder grabbed onto him. But with his own technique, a counteracting pulse of Shinsoo blasted out, the largest part concentrated at his legs, allowing him to blast into the air towards me.
The Shinsoo density around me was high enough now that it was suitable to bring out my boss mon, I mean Shinheuh.
I pressed the release button on the blue ball.
The White Steel Eel burst out of the capsule at incredible speed, not only was it extremely fast in medium density Shinsoo, it was further enhanced by my Mana and Shinsoo Reinforcement and the water spirits selectively controlling the flow of Shinsoo around me to boost them even faster.
It outsped and intercepted Jinsung with a tail whip, smashing him back to the ground like a bullet.
The gigantic yet agile Eel coiled back around me in the air like a monstrous serpent dragon instead of pursuing, remaining inside the central area of my sphere of control. Similarly, my Lighthouse Cubes retreated around me in a defensive formation, ready to create a barrier at any time.
"I should've figured you were an Anima, given that you could control puppet bodies. No wonder Hansung likes you," Jinsung said after landing. "Though he never mentioned you were capable of it."
"This is a more recent development. I wasn't capable of it when I fought the Lo Po Bia family assassin," I said. "But since it seemed fun, I decided to copy that guy."
"Sheesh, and I thought Viole copying my move after seeing it once when I was trying to teach him was crazy, but this takes the cake. You managed to copy the Bia family Anima techniques in an actual fight?"
"Nothing that crazy, I didn't actually copy their special techniques, I simply learned my own way to be an Anima later on. Viole is the one that can copy the actual techniques mid-battle. You should've been there for our first fight against another Ranker, he copied Reverse Flow and then used it on the Ranker himself."
"So that's where he learned that? Cheeky brat…he let me think he learned it from me too! Ah…that must be what the Deep Sea Fish saw that convinced him the boy was worth it."
"So, are we still continuing?" I asked.
"Oh you bet, I'm just getting started!"
"Same here!"
O O O
[Interlude]
The remaining Shinheuh swarm attacked Ha Jinsung again.
"If you're this good, I'll have to loosen up some of my restrictions."
After saying that, Jinsung then disappeared with a burst of Shinsoo that cracked the ground.
"Floral Butterfly Flare Wave!"
The Shinheuh around him were instantly slaughtered by an exploding wave of Shinsoo that blasted outwards from Jinsung's palm at the point of impact, annihilating the Shinheuh in its way and also killing the surrounding Shinheuh from the shockwave alone.
While he was doing so, Axion rained smaller beams of Shinsoo down from five Baangs and occasionally a much larger beam from his Shinsoo cannon.
Jinsung dodged or swept aside the incoming beams easily, but each time one of the larger beams landed, it would leave the ground cratered after the explosion.
Yihwa watched as they moved into the next stage once the weaker Shinheuh were all killed, and the old monster burst into the air again, almost too fast to see, with an equally fast move from the Eel, whose fin was glowing in a white aura, crashing into him.
A series of lightning fast clashes happened in the air, as the Cubes reorganized themselves to create barriers or disruptions, and the Eel protected both Axion and the Cubes.
At this point Yihwa could barely keep track of what was happening.
"Is this really what a top E-Rank fight looks like?" Yihwa asked, talking to herself.
However, she received an answer from Hwa Ryun who was suddenly beside her. "No, this is already beyond the E-Rank. That Eel alone, without any enhancement, is enough to be considered a difficult test for teams of Regulars at the E-Rank level. What Axion is doing with the Eel right now is far beyond that."
"What do you mean? What is he doing?"
"He is controlling the Shinsoo field around him to further accelerate the Eel while slowing down his opponent, and he also modified the Eel to be stronger, faster, and more durable than it normally is, while assisting it with his own attacks. Not only that, all of the damage that Mr. Jinsung is doing to the Eel, even though you can't see it, it's being regenerated at high speed."
"Extreme Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique!" A ray of Shinsoo erupted outwards at their next clash, destroying the Eel's left fin entirely and causing a severe wound down the whole length of its body, before crashing into the wall of the facility.
The strike was so intense that the whole arena shook, despite the protections of the facility against damage, which were only intended to be strong enough to resist E-Rank Regulars' attacks.
The Eel fell floating towards the ground, stunned.
"Derflinger, Ignite!"
"Finally!"
A yellow aura surrounded Axion just before Ha Jinsung launched another Floral Butterfly attack towards him.
The crystalline sword's outer layer was shattered on contact, but its true form underneath remained intact. The blast wave of the Floral Butterfly was diverted around the blade before an explosion knocked both fighters aside.
Yihwa noticed Axion's wings falling to the ground, seemingly discarded, as the two met in even more brutal clashes that she could no longer track, only seeing the aftereffects of the huge explosions that occurred with every contact, each shaking the arena.
"I can't see what's going on anymore," said Yihwa.
"He's not even using his full power, even now," said Hwa Ryun.
"But if this is how big the gap is, how am I supposed to be a good summoner for him? I don't want to be just a bystander while he fights. I want to be a proper teammate!"
"There comes a point where everyone faces the limit of their own potential. Leaving behind teammates that can't keep up is common in the Tower. But for Axion and Viole, it's an inevitability. Even the greatest of talents cannot compare to them, because Axion can simply break his own limits and Viole has no limit to begin with. But if you can unlock your 'true flame', maybe you would have the slightest chance to catch up."
"My true flame…?"
"A good opponent at last!" Derflinger's voice shouted in manic glee from somewhere.
"Not bad at all…!" Jinsung's voice returned. "Ha Jinsung Style: Blooming Crimson Flower!"
"Derflinger Style: Shinsoo Slash Wave!"
A red spiraling wave of Shinsoo burst from one side while a disorganized wave of Shinsoo went the other way.
Another explosion ensued forcing Yihwa to cover her eyes from the wind blowing dust and debris.
O O O
[Kaleidus]
"That's it! You can still do more, can't you?" Jinsung's voice shouted with a laugh. "But let's see how you deal with this!"
I was suddenly hit by Reverse Flow. But it only affected me for a millisecond before Derflinger took control of my body and blocked the kick that came towards us.
"Hm? You broke it that easily?" Jinsung asked before retracting his leg and moving away quickly, also floating in the air now. "I was expecting to at least get you for a second with how much power I put into that. Even a low level Ranker would've probably been stunned for longer than you were."
"I have special defenses against Reverse Flow, because it's such a dangerous technique if you can stun the opponent for even a tiny amount of time," I said. After a lot of training Derf had learned to how to give me the Boost without necessarily controlling me, so that I could direct the fighting and coordinate better using my Burstshift spell, but he was still capable of taking control, overriding my "flow".
Even if he couldn't, the water spirits could very easily break the Fast Skip technique but they were generally slower to react than Derflinger, unless I had them actively empowering me and negating all foreign flows passively.
"Unfortunately, I can't use it myself—it makes me quite jealous of Viole's talent," I continued.
"Yes, it normally takes many, many, years to train it…Fast Skip is actually harder than the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique, and both use Reverse Flow principles," said Jinsung. "Well, you're definitely hell of a lot stronger than a Regular at your level should be, but I'm going to push you a little more, because I can feel that you're still holding back quite a bit. I won't make you show me all your secret moves, but I want to see what you used to defeat that Bia family Ranker, because this is definitely not enough."
"Very well, let's do this Derf!"
"You got it!"
Derf powered up a Sword Aura Level Ten, which was still his maximum magic attack strength, far superior to the Shinsoo techniques I could do with him. Concentrating the immense power of the same level of Slash Beam into a Sword Aura was extremely dangerous, and I'd rarely had a chance to use it on anything.
Jinsung came at me again with a crimson palm. I decided not to bother blocking and instead kept swinging.
"…!" He noticed and unleashed his own attack early, before moving back to dodge.
Derflinger Decompressed suddenly and crashed into him, instantly enlarging to the size of a building and gutted the arena wall, smashing Jinsung through it at the same time.
At the same time, I was blown away by the Crimson Flower technique and lost my grip on Derflinger.
The damage inflicted onto my body had been catastrophic on the surface but it did not manage to get through my Endbringer subdermal armor. Like with Yihwa's super powered flames, I simply healed at high speed, though Ha Jinsung's attack had managed to destroy some of the Endbringer flesh so I'd need to replace it later with more from Derf. That was certainly a good test of its defensive capabilities though.
While I recovered, Derflinger continued to fight Ha Jinsung for a little bit, Compressing and Decompressing repeatedly while swinging himself around with Shinsoo, while Jinsung had flashed back into the arena and was now unleashing huge rays of Shinsoo everywhere trying to hit the sword, both fighters deftly dodging the other.
Derf's Decompression release was a lot less powerful than it might appear to be at first glance. The level of Shinsoo mastery, the quantity and density of Shinsoo required to Compress a huge mass like what Derflinger had was too high, and even with the water spirits' support he wouldn't be able to do it with his real mass that was the equivalent of a mountain.
The trick was that the Endbringer crystal functioned on a different principle, compacting or expanding physical volume in space with the same material mass, whereas Compression affected the essence of something, making it smaller or larger with a corresponding reduction or gain of mass.
So it was possible for Derf to expand only an outer layer of his blade to a flimsy, ultra-low density super size, that would be utterly useless/unstable without magical reinforcements and pathetically weak even then. However, that made Compressing that portion of the sword feasible.
Essentially, his form replicated how the Endbringers kept the real core hyperdense with the true mass using the Endbringer crystal's power, while the rest of their bodies were cosmetic and flimsy in comparison, but could be refilled with mass from the core, to be used with the Shinsoo Compression technique.
And then this simply became a delivery mechanism for the powerful Sword Aura covering it, instead of relying on the actual durability of the outer layer.
It worked because Shinsoo Compression was peculiar and did not require proportionate compression in all dimensions, things could be partially or directionally Compressed/Decompressed.
Thus as we traded attacks the arena was completely destroyed and the ceiling collapsed.
Hwa Ryun called for a stop to the match. "We'd better get out of here! The Rankers are on this floor are all distracted right now, but they'll send someone soon."
The Eel swallowed the dead Shinheuh before I returned them all to their capsule Bowls and put away the Lighthouse,
As we all raced away from the place, Jinsung was by my side. "Kid, that last attack you did with the Ignition weapon…what the hell was that? It actually scratched me. I'm not that easy to hurt, even by a tiny bit. But it's like your attack went right through my Shinsoo Resistance, even though it wasn't just physical force either…"
"It's magic," I said. "I haven't had many chances to test it, but now that you explained it that way, that's probably why I was able to defeat Ren back then. He probably wasn't expecting it, and hadn't put up any defenses."
"That would explain how you won…magic…there's something different about your magic than the Spells most other people use in this Tower. I've seen and fought many Spellcasters before…but all their attacks still controlled Shinsoo or created things out of Shinsoo with their magic. There are Spells that are a bit different, where the effects don't have much to do with Shinsoo, but I've never seen an energy attack just made of magic and nothing else."
"Is it really so incredible? It should be one of the most inefficient and basic uses of magic," I said.
"It's much crazier that you survived that with only a scratch," said Derflinger. "The power concentrated into my sword edge would have been enough to destroy a castle if I released it at once."
"Ha family martial arts makes our bodies all extremely durable, and I'm one of the strongest. There are High Rankers whose attacks I've survived without a scratch when I didn't use any Shinsoo barrier, and a mere Regular managed to hurt me."
"Does that mean I pass the test?"
"Haha, yeah you passed. I suppose I could teach you a little, though I still say you should consider being a Slayer candidate. The Elders would be clamoring to have you if they knew what you did just now. It's a good gig, we can get you whatever you want. Money, power, girls, the best training, you name it. We can get it all."
"It sounds tempting, but no thanks. Aside from what we talked about before, I just don't like getting that much attention from people and or all the complications attached to being a Slayer candidate. I'm happy with how things are right now, and Viole can keep the spotlight."
"Fine, fine. We'll get started after their test is over then. I'll need to get some things for your training and take care of a few other things first."
O O O
- Location
- Central Europe
Last edited:
66 – Zygaena Flower
66 – Zygaena Flower
The test for Viole's team had started. The Ranker test administrator brought them to the outskirts of the Inner Tower in the ocean spot where the Zygaena Shinheuh was expected to appear, and then instructed them to find the Zygaena's flower inside the giant Zygaena's body.
It had been a month since the 20th Floor test, so the Crest Spirit had further developed and stabilized, which meant that I could now use it to communicate with Yihwa at any time, and get a detailed read on her surroundings just like a normal familiar.
Of course, I wasn't going to look over her shoulder constantly, but this was my new "job" with FUG for the next little while.
Yihwa rushed after Viole who had run ahead.
When they arrived, there was a tense standoff between with Horyang and Prince against a man in the shadows in the distance surrounded by dead Zygaena parasitic Shinheuh. Their other teammates had entered from a different spot and were presumably looking around for the Zygaena's flower now.
Supposedly, this test was being given to them because their rival team had given up so they couldn't administer the normal test. But actually…
"Viole, I think we should give up on this exam," said Horyang. "It seems that the test supervisor was setting you up because you're a Slayer nominee. You must have felt it too, he's beyond our ability to deal with. As long as he has the flower, there's no way we can win. Let's give up."
"I can't give up. Please get out of harm's way. I will take the exam," said Viole.
"What? Stop, Viole! We can try again next time!" Horyang shouted.
"Are you out of your mind, Viole?" Yihwa asked.
"You won't give up, huh? Even though you know you'll die?" The shadowy man asked.
"There are things that I fear more than death," Viole said, raising his hand and empowering it with Shinsoo.
"What's wrong with him?!" Prince asked.
"Damn it…it's because of his friends. Every time he fails an exam, one of his friends will die," said Yihwa. "You guys were away when the FUG people came over and explained it."
"Are you kidding? Why didn't anybody tell us sooner?" Prince asked with disbelief.
The shadowy man stood up and came into the light, revealing silver hair underneath a baseball cap, going shirtless with his jacket wrapped around his waist.
He raised his hand and Viole's hair was brushed aside by the wind.
"Your hair is unkempt, but your eyes aren't bad. Alright, I'll play with you, little boy," said the man.
"What should we do?" Yihwa asked, turning to the floating upside down flame spirit which was now the size of a fist and had a humanoid shadow in it.
"That man is Urek Mazino, Irregular, rank number four in the Tower. We don't stand a chance against him," I said through the spirit, its voice deep but billowy and soft.
"Hah! Somebody did their homework," said Mazino.
"R-rank f-four, Irregular?" Prince asked, face now turning white. "Why is someone like that here?"
"So, boy, if you really want to try this little 'exam' still, then let's play a game," said Mazino. "It won't be fun to just fight. See, the flower you're looking for is up there, and we'll fall on it when the Zygaena flips its body in a few minutes. If you get that flower before I get you, I'll give you the flower. But if I catch you then I'll take your life. Got it?"
Viole nodded.
"This is insane!" Yihwa cried.
Horyang started moving away and dragged Prince with him "Ms. Yihwa, we should leave them. This battle is beyond us."
"I…"
"We should retreat, Yihwa, you can't hope to do anything here," I said.
She clenched her fist. "Damn it, no! I'm sorry…I can't stand this. How can I ever catch up with you guys if I just run away when it's too hard?! I'm going to fight too! So please fight with me!"
"Fine then, I'll help you," I said.
Horyang looked between her and the spirit, but said nothing further, then turned and left.
"Ms. Yihwa, are you sure? We'll probably die," said Viole.
"I decided to be your teammate instead of just leaving this team…I'm not about to leave now!"
Viole looked at her intensely. "…thank you."
"Y-you don't have to thank me so seriously like that…this is just what any proper teammate should do!" Yihwa said.
"You babies are cute, having such a sentimental moment over there. Why don't we talk a bit while we wait for the fight to start?" Mazino asked. "You, FUG member, I know a bit about you guys. Your goal's to take over Zahard's throne, right? I don't know what you've got against him, but his position must seem awfully tempting for those of you who've always been in the Tower. That's why you try so hard to get that position. But I'm not interested in that. What's the fun of being king of the Tower? That's boring! I will leave the Tower."
He raised one hand in a grand gesture. The Zygaena began to rumble as he spoke, signaling that the Zygaena was about to flip. "There's a huge world out there…an endless sky…countless stars that illuminate the night. A place a million times greater and freer than the Tower! Doesn't the thought that such a place exists, makes what you guys want seem so trivial?"
"I don't know. I don't need…stars, a crown, or the sky. But if someone is trying to hurt those precious to me, I'll fight," Viole said simply, before shooting off with a trail of Shinsoo.
"I'll cover you, Viole!" Yihwa shouted and burst into flame and shooting after him.
"You got guts…I'll count to ten before I leave. It's only polite to let you all gather," said Mazino, watching them go, having noticed the rest of the team gathering on the other side of the Zygaena after Horyang told Prince to send the message.
At the count of ten, the Zygaena flipped fully.
Viole and Yihwa fell faster, Horyang and Prince burst out from a hole near the other side flying with Horyang's Devil wing, while Wangnan and Akraptor came out of a different hole floating with Akraptor's umbrella.
"Let's start the game babes!!" Mazino shouted before a great light lit up the field of Shinheuh corpses where they were at before, which now became the ceiling.
He fell like a meteor towards the Regulars.
"Triple Field!" Prince attempted to freeze him in his Lighthouse Cube technique.
Horyang was on Mazino in a moment with an Ignited punch.
"You should bring an Opera to stop me more than a millisecond," Mazino said before kicking Horyang away, after the Lighthouse Cubes had zero effect on him.
Before Wangnan and Akraptor had a chance to launch their own attacks, Yihwa had finished building up her flame.
"Eat this you shirtless pervert!!" Yihwa shouted before a pillar of red energy shot out from her hands and turned into a sea of flames towards Mazino. She turned towards the other direction. "Viole, go get the flower, I'll hold him back!!"
"Crazy flame thrower, are you trying to kill us all?!" Wangnan shouted as the flames covered everything in sight.
However, something made a whistling cry and the flames seemed to curve away from her teammates.
Yihwa was concentrating hard trying not to hit them and I assisted the best I could through the spirit which was connected to her flame.
"Nice move girl, but it's not enough!" Mazino burst out of the flames without a scratch towards Yihwa.
Viole saw this while moving towards the flower and turned his head back.
"Ignore me, just get the flower Viole!!" Yihwa shouted while flinging more flames at Mazino.
After a brief hesitation, Viole turned again and rushed for the flower.
Mazino laughed while blowing through the flames. "Not running away? If you can look like that staring death in the face, then I'll show you the legendary power! Supreme King's Scorching Fist of Death!"
Mazino's fist glowed with a powerful golden light and then moved towards Yihwa again.
Viole turned again and shouted while rushing back to intercept, "No!! Miss Yihwa!"
I retreated the Crest Spirit back into her body to focus on defense and called the Beastiont-pet out to suicide into the attack.
Viole returned abandoning the flower, and then Mazino's fist collided with the pet, destroying it instantly, but buying a split second in which Viole's wave attack intercepted, and Viole grabbed onto Yihwa and turned around to shield her with his body.
"Viole…!"
A massive explosion ensued.
O O O
[Interlude]
When the dust settled, both Yihwa and Viole were lying unconscious on the ground, the latter in a bloody heap as he took the brunt of the damage.
The rest of the team was shaking as Urek Mazino grabbed the scared stiff Zygaena baby that Miseng had been chasing out of a hole near the bottom.
"Huh? There was a second one? Well, I guess it's a good thing. Hey babes, take that other one. Now that this little guy has been born I don't need that flower anymore. So I'll just give it to you," said Mazino.
"W-Why…?!"
"Tell those two when they wake up…this is the reward for their courage. To protect their teammate while facing the strongest man," said Mazino while walking away.
O O O
[Kaleidus]
I watched as the team returned to the Regular's residential area on their ship and settled on the landing pad.
With my anti-scrying magic stealth bubble and a Shinsoo camouflage screen, I stood at the edge of a low rooftop beside Hwa Ryun, both of us wearing brown cloaks and oval mirror masks.
"Now's your chance. He's distracted and entered your field without noticing it," Hwa Ryun said.
The test supervisor quickly told the Regulars that they'd passed and separated without any further instructions.
As he moved away from them and had his back turned, I moved.
"Shoot to kill, Derf," I said, before throwing him into the air while speeding towards the test supervisor myself.
"Agh! What?!"
The Regulars looked back to see that the test administrator had been stabbed through the chest diagonally face down into the ground by an extremely long black blade glowing with a yellow aura with branching segments that pinned each of his limbs as well. The handle of the blade floated in the air without anybody wielding it.
The Zygaena's flower the test supervisor was holding had dropped and was immediately seized with Shinsoo manipulation into my waiting hand.
"W-who…would…?!" He tried to create some Shinsoo technique in his hand but nothing happened. "Why can't I…?"
I landed beside him and stepped on the back of his head, forcing him against the ground.
The full power of the water spirits bore down on this area, having seized control of all the raw Shinsoo around here.
He hadn't noticed that it was all already under my control and walked right into the ambush that Hwa Ryun directed.
Ha Jinsung was also hiding nearby behind a pole, but he didn't make any moves, just watching me take down the Ranker alone. He was backup in case something went wrong, else I never would have risked this madness attacking a Ranker even with Hwa Ryun's guidance.
The Regulars had turned back around to watch what was unfolding with shock.
"Test supervisor Noma. You have broken the rules of the Tower," I said in a distorted voice. "You tried to kill Regulars by sending them to an area where Rankers had been dying, hoping that they too would die as collateral damage. How do you plead?"
"I'm a test supervisor, I can design the test however I want! Who are you?!"
"Is that all you have to say?" I asked.
Derflinger grew barbs and dug into him from every segment that was currently piercing him. With his Level Ten Sword Aura, he was capable of hurting Rankers who didn't have a really strong physical constitution or internal Shinsoo techniques, when they weren't capable of using Shinsoo to defend themselves with barriers, like right now.
Without any Shinsoo, he couldn't even make a single Baang.
Actually, he could probably still use Shinsoo if he wasn't too panicked to figure it out.
This wasn't even the only type of Shinsoo suppression ability that existed in the Tower.
The truth was that although the water spirits could dominate all of the raw Shinsoo in the air within a given space, we couldn't control his personal Shinsoo, anything that he'd already prepared or originated from inside his body. For example, the FUG trademark Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique, or Quant's fire kick from way back, or even just a Baang he'd already made..
He could also just generate more Shinsoo out of nowhere, thanks to his Ranker contract with the Administrators, and then disrupt my control field with some simple techniques, adding any sort of non-physical flow to it.
There were some abilities that could suck all the Shinsoo from a Wave Controller and stop them from forming Baangs or even internal Shinsoo Reinforcement, but our control only applied to the raw Shinsoo in the air.
Which is why I didn't personally have great confidence in this operation, but Hwa Ryun assured me the circumstances were such that it had a high chance of success.
And then…
"Arrgh!! Stop, stop! I was just carrying out orders! There was an FUG Slayer candidate in that test!"
He was too unnerved by everything that had happened, the death of his comrades at Urek Mazino's hands, and now his sudden apparent inability to use any Shinsoo around him, that he couldn't react effectively.
And by subduing him like this, using pain as a threat, he would be afraid to even try anything else, not knowing how much more powerful than him I actually was, or wasn't.
At least, that was what Hwa Ryun had predicted would happen, and it seemed to be playing out nicely.
I idly noticed behind me Horyang whispering. "So it was true." He was carrying an unconscious Yihwa slung over his back, while Wangnan and Akraptor carried Viole on a stretcher.
"Orders? From who?" I asked.
"It was a request from the Zahard Empire, and even the Yeon family's own Floor Ruler agreed! We already lost so many Rankers, but the Army would send us reinforcements, and then we could deal with both problems at the same time!"
"There was a daughter of the Yeon family main house in that test as well, are you saying she was an acceptable sacrifice?"
"Why would a true honored daughter of the Yeon be on a team with an FUG? We all thought it was a fake! By the time she showed up, it was already too late to change the plan! The Zahard Army Rankers were already here!"
"Where are they now?"
"Dead, Urek Mazino obliterated them! There's not even a body left!"
"Pathetic. Fortunately, your plot failed. If Yeon Yihwa had died, I would kill you without a second thought. But for now, you are still needed alive, to report back on the Regulars passing the test. As for this Zygaena's flower, I'll be taking it off your incompetent hands."
"But what about the FUG? How can a daughter of the Yeon stay on a team with him?!"
"That's none of your business. She's a Regular climbing the Tower, she can go with whomever she wants without interference from Rankers during a test! These are the rules. Whichever fool in the Zahard Empire ordered this, and that foolish Ruler should remember…that even they are not above the absolute rules of the Tower, set by the true Administrators! Those who dare to defy them will pay the consequences!"
"I understand, s-sir!"
I stepped away from him and Derf's handle came to my other hand before fully retracting.
I began to prepare another spell.
"Don't ever forget…your eternal youth, your power, your right to use Shinsoo itself…everything you have earned was permitted by the authority of the Administrators, and it can be taken away just as easily!" I spoke in a more powerful, magically charged voice that echoed all around us.
And there was the purpose of this operation–to send a warning so that Zahard's forces would be more cautious of attempting to exploit loopholes to interfere with Viole's tests as a Regular, in a way that didn't implicate FUG involvement. A third party, perhaps even with the backing of the Administrators themselves.
It was a give and take relationship with FUG after all, so as long as the risk wasn't excessive, I did not mind doing things like this for them occasionally, especially for my allies within the organization.
Ha Jin Sung had been enraged after hearing about the incident with Urek Mazino from me, and proposed the general idea. And Hwa Ryun convinced me that it was viable rather than a way for the man to get out of having to teach me by getting rid of me. I took the Zygaena flower as a bonus.
Hopefully, this display would further convince Jinsung of my value. Accepting me as a student was one thing, but how much he wanted to actually teach me was up to him, after all.
Then I disappeared, reappearing in the Ring of Deterrence.
The Builder did not bother greeting me, perhaps realizing that I was only here as a temporary hideaway place, or he was busy. Who knows what he did when I wasn't around.
I'd broken out the first part of the planeshifting spell that opened the path to the Root and the Ring of Deterrence, so that I could use it as a faster escape method instead of the ten seconds needed to prepare the random shift spell.
Now I could get here in just two seconds, including the preparation time. If I prepared a charged spell in advance, the trigger time would take less than a second.
Nobody except the Guardians and Hwa Ryun knew where I disappeared to, so it was the perfect way to escape without a trace. Most would assume I teleported, while others might think I moved too fast to be tracked at all.
The drawback with this method of escape was that I couldn't actually return to the material world the same way. Only a plane native could return via the same path that was opened, turning away from the Root and back to the World where they belonged. For me, the plane would instead block the path back and hope I stayed out.
So I'd need to spend a unit of grain to take control of another unformed creation bubble to merge myself back in, with the Builder's assistance to get me back to my last location, or appearing in one of my physical Waypoints with a magic circle.
Or, I could wait until one of my summoners called for me using their own magic circle and ritual.
Time was strange in the Ring of Deterrence, and it was hard to track except the progress of my grain collection spell.
I wandered around a bit but there was nothing interesting to see. It was impossible to escape the top of the Tower physically, which merely grew as far as I moved.
From a few conversations with the Builder every time I'd traveled between planes, I had learned that this "top" of the Tower wasn't the true top. There was, in fact, a physical top of the Tower as well, in the Outside world of this plane. But this was the "hidden" top of the Tower, that people could only discover through some secret knowledge. The path to the physical top or this hidden top or an unspecified "somewhere else" would open from the gate of the last Floor of the Tower, depending on how one accessed it and what they wanted.
It was almost like the Holy Grail of Fate. The physical Grail was a wish-granting device, but those who knew how could also use it to open a path to the Root instead.. A coincidentally similar motif.
There was no way to go to the Outside world from here either—although the Ring of Deterrence was normally supposed to be the same for the whole plane, the Builder had somehow altered the structure of it so that this place was separated from the rest of it and locked to the Tower. To get to that Outside world, one would need to go there via one of the Tower's physical exits, implying that there was more than one.
Getting bored, I went back to sit down at the Tower's edge, just thinking about things.
Over the years, I had traveled back and forth from Worm several times, doing some tests with the grain gathering and time effect, as well as making sure to be there for the Behemoth fight. There was a period of time when I'd decided to not collect any grain at all—to test my theory about the time passing being proportional to the amount of time I spent actively collecting grain here. I spent a whole year like that so I could extend my time in the Tower, yet still make it back for Behemoth in case I was wrong.
I had been proven right though, even at the cost of losing some of the grain because the plane reabsorbed it when there were was too much excess that I hadn't collected. Well I say reabsorbed, but most likely the Builder just took it before it actually got reabsorbed.
After Behemoth though, I was no longer really concerned about being back there for the next Endbringer fight. I didn't even really want to be there actually, because I was afraid that a new Endbringer might appear with the power to travel across dimensions and really screw me over since the Simurgh hadn't finished us off. Because Khonsu got teleportation after humanity got Scion on their side, right? So why wouldn't it just also get dimension/portal powers too now that they had CRUCIBLE on humanity's side?
There was no way to know if the Endbringers had left Cauldron alone with their dimensional powers simply because Eidolon was a part of Cauldron, or if it was because Cauldron was just ineffective at using their portals. Either way, we couldn't expect the same treatment for CRUCIBLE. We had managed to create more chaos in the world with the Behemoth battle due to the destruction of the Indian subcontinent, but it was hard to discern if at some point the Endbringers would decide that CRUCIBLE was no longer a net positive for their plans and needed to be wiped out.
The benefit of grabbing more Endbringer flesh was just not really worth it, because more of it didn't really even help me that much. If Derflinger got too much mass, he wouldn't even be able to control it properly. More mass didn't actually increase his mana capacity either above about 100k MP. Any more was simply beyond his ability to retain or control and unstable. So now he could store up two max level Slash Beams, with slightly superior efficiency and power for the same levels above 6 (he still had trouble with those levels, making the output actually somewhat variable and inefficient considering the amount of mana being channeled). But he couldn't do anything stronger, regardless.
To advance further, we needed improvements in quality rather than more quantity.
But by my estimate, the next Endbringer attack probably still hadn't hit yet. It'd been 6 years since the Floor of Tests, and probably something like nine weeks since the Behemoth battle at the end of July 2011.
And after spending some grain for my trips, losing some due to non-collection, I'd still stockpiled 33 units, so I was good for a while, unless I ran into situations where I needed to use multiple units at once, like the Builder warned me off.
"We've come a long way, haven't we Derf?"
"We sure have, Partner. It would be nice if we had more action in between all the waiting though," said Derf.
"I almost can't believe how strong we became. It's kinda funny, looking back…I was worried we might not be able to keep up with everyone else growing in the Tower. But we outgrew everyone else instead."
"You mean those water spirits outgrew everyone else and we leeched off of them," said Derf. "If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be nearly as good as we are with Shinsoo, and we couldn't do half the things we can today. This Compression thing is just awesome."
"Too bad it won't be like that on other planes. They'll probably give us the cold shoulder a lot more once there's no Shinsoo around."
"Eh, we'll figure out other ways to fight. Besides, we can still use some of that stuff on our own with just a small bit of Shinsoo. I only wish there was more action in between the waiting here."
"Be careful what you wish for, it might just happen," I said.
Finally, I heard the voice of a summoner. But it was neither Androssi or Yihwa.
"Adventurer from the stars. The Crimson Witch of Fate summons you. Let my voice Guide you and open the door. Come to me to continue this unfinished story."
I smiled and answered the call. Although…something seemed different about this spell. That incantation didn't feel like what a proper invitation should be, but it was still working.
I reappeared inside the magic circle that Hwa Ryun had drawn in a dimly lit room, then held the flower forward.
"By your summons, I have come," I said. "Bearing a gift for you, my dear witch."
She took the flower.
"Thank you. But it wasn't a quest so there's no reward," she said.
"Your smile is reward enough," I said.
She smiled. "Okay then. But you still needed my help to get it. Weren't you supposed to do it on your own?"
"I couldn't have done it without you. I thought a lot about it, but I didn't have any good ideas. It was far too risky to do it any other way."
"So just let me Guide you," she said.
"You already know the truth about me. Will you make a contract with me now?"
She shook her head. "Sorry, I can't. I'm a Guide. Guides don't fight fate, nor can we."
The same words she said to me all those years ago were repeated.
"I don't understand it. Is it some kind of rule that you're bound by? But you were able to summon me," I said.
"It's not the same Spell. I didn't invite a being from beyond the threshold, that the world denies, for my own wish. I summoned the Adventurer who already began a story in this world. If you were not chosen by the Tower, or if you didn't already have a contractor nearby that wants you to return, then it wouldn't have worked."
"I see. So that's why you insisted I should get other contractors," I said.
She nodded.
"If you give me a gift, then I can accept it. If you listen for my voice, I can open the door. If you let me Guide you, I can tell you the paths I see. But I can't command you to change my fate. Only you can do that…only if you want to."
"Do you want me to?"
"I can't answer that. But this isn't a quest, so there's no reward."
I smirked. "Except for a smile?"
"I can always give you a smile, but whether it's real or not depends on you," she said, smiling again, before turning to leave. "Play your games with the others all you want but don't expect me to give what you hoard only for yourself."
I tilted my head thinking through the meaning of her words as she walked up the stairs.
"I think she's seen through you, Partner," Derf whispered loudly so that both of us could hear, but Hwa Ryun didn't look back.
"I expected nothing less from her. Well, I don't know if it's possible for me to give her that, so it's fair. But as long as she's on my side, that's fine with me," I said, before following up the stairs.
O O O
The test for Viole's team had started. The Ranker test administrator brought them to the outskirts of the Inner Tower in the ocean spot where the Zygaena Shinheuh was expected to appear, and then instructed them to find the Zygaena's flower inside the giant Zygaena's body.
It had been a month since the 20th Floor test, so the Crest Spirit had further developed and stabilized, which meant that I could now use it to communicate with Yihwa at any time, and get a detailed read on her surroundings just like a normal familiar.
Of course, I wasn't going to look over her shoulder constantly, but this was my new "job" with FUG for the next little while.
Yihwa rushed after Viole who had run ahead.
When they arrived, there was a tense standoff between with Horyang and Prince against a man in the shadows in the distance surrounded by dead Zygaena parasitic Shinheuh. Their other teammates had entered from a different spot and were presumably looking around for the Zygaena's flower now.
Supposedly, this test was being given to them because their rival team had given up so they couldn't administer the normal test. But actually…
"Viole, I think we should give up on this exam," said Horyang. "It seems that the test supervisor was setting you up because you're a Slayer nominee. You must have felt it too, he's beyond our ability to deal with. As long as he has the flower, there's no way we can win. Let's give up."
"I can't give up. Please get out of harm's way. I will take the exam," said Viole.
"What? Stop, Viole! We can try again next time!" Horyang shouted.
"Are you out of your mind, Viole?" Yihwa asked.
"You won't give up, huh? Even though you know you'll die?" The shadowy man asked.
"There are things that I fear more than death," Viole said, raising his hand and empowering it with Shinsoo.
"What's wrong with him?!" Prince asked.
"Damn it…it's because of his friends. Every time he fails an exam, one of his friends will die," said Yihwa. "You guys were away when the FUG people came over and explained it."
"Are you kidding? Why didn't anybody tell us sooner?" Prince asked with disbelief.
The shadowy man stood up and came into the light, revealing silver hair underneath a baseball cap, going shirtless with his jacket wrapped around his waist.
He raised his hand and Viole's hair was brushed aside by the wind.
"Your hair is unkempt, but your eyes aren't bad. Alright, I'll play with you, little boy," said the man.
"What should we do?" Yihwa asked, turning to the floating upside down flame spirit which was now the size of a fist and had a humanoid shadow in it.
"That man is Urek Mazino, Irregular, rank number four in the Tower. We don't stand a chance against him," I said through the spirit, its voice deep but billowy and soft.
"Hah! Somebody did their homework," said Mazino.
"R-rank f-four, Irregular?" Prince asked, face now turning white. "Why is someone like that here?"
"So, boy, if you really want to try this little 'exam' still, then let's play a game," said Mazino. "It won't be fun to just fight. See, the flower you're looking for is up there, and we'll fall on it when the Zygaena flips its body in a few minutes. If you get that flower before I get you, I'll give you the flower. But if I catch you then I'll take your life. Got it?"
Viole nodded.
"This is insane!" Yihwa cried.
Horyang started moving away and dragged Prince with him "Ms. Yihwa, we should leave them. This battle is beyond us."
"I…"
"We should retreat, Yihwa, you can't hope to do anything here," I said.
She clenched her fist. "Damn it, no! I'm sorry…I can't stand this. How can I ever catch up with you guys if I just run away when it's too hard?! I'm going to fight too! So please fight with me!"
"Fine then, I'll help you," I said.
Horyang looked between her and the spirit, but said nothing further, then turned and left.
"Ms. Yihwa, are you sure? We'll probably die," said Viole.
"I decided to be your teammate instead of just leaving this team…I'm not about to leave now!"
Viole looked at her intensely. "…thank you."
"Y-you don't have to thank me so seriously like that…this is just what any proper teammate should do!" Yihwa said.
"You babies are cute, having such a sentimental moment over there. Why don't we talk a bit while we wait for the fight to start?" Mazino asked. "You, FUG member, I know a bit about you guys. Your goal's to take over Zahard's throne, right? I don't know what you've got against him, but his position must seem awfully tempting for those of you who've always been in the Tower. That's why you try so hard to get that position. But I'm not interested in that. What's the fun of being king of the Tower? That's boring! I will leave the Tower."
He raised one hand in a grand gesture. The Zygaena began to rumble as he spoke, signaling that the Zygaena was about to flip. "There's a huge world out there…an endless sky…countless stars that illuminate the night. A place a million times greater and freer than the Tower! Doesn't the thought that such a place exists, makes what you guys want seem so trivial?"
"I don't know. I don't need…stars, a crown, or the sky. But if someone is trying to hurt those precious to me, I'll fight," Viole said simply, before shooting off with a trail of Shinsoo.
"I'll cover you, Viole!" Yihwa shouted and burst into flame and shooting after him.
"You got guts…I'll count to ten before I leave. It's only polite to let you all gather," said Mazino, watching them go, having noticed the rest of the team gathering on the other side of the Zygaena after Horyang told Prince to send the message.
At the count of ten, the Zygaena flipped fully.
Viole and Yihwa fell faster, Horyang and Prince burst out from a hole near the other side flying with Horyang's Devil wing, while Wangnan and Akraptor came out of a different hole floating with Akraptor's umbrella.
"Let's start the game babes!!" Mazino shouted before a great light lit up the field of Shinheuh corpses where they were at before, which now became the ceiling.
He fell like a meteor towards the Regulars.
"Triple Field!" Prince attempted to freeze him in his Lighthouse Cube technique.
Horyang was on Mazino in a moment with an Ignited punch.
"You should bring an Opera to stop me more than a millisecond," Mazino said before kicking Horyang away, after the Lighthouse Cubes had zero effect on him.
Before Wangnan and Akraptor had a chance to launch their own attacks, Yihwa had finished building up her flame.
"Eat this you shirtless pervert!!" Yihwa shouted before a pillar of red energy shot out from her hands and turned into a sea of flames towards Mazino. She turned towards the other direction. "Viole, go get the flower, I'll hold him back!!"
"Crazy flame thrower, are you trying to kill us all?!" Wangnan shouted as the flames covered everything in sight.
However, something made a whistling cry and the flames seemed to curve away from her teammates.
Yihwa was concentrating hard trying not to hit them and I assisted the best I could through the spirit which was connected to her flame.
"Nice move girl, but it's not enough!" Mazino burst out of the flames without a scratch towards Yihwa.
Viole saw this while moving towards the flower and turned his head back.
"Ignore me, just get the flower Viole!!" Yihwa shouted while flinging more flames at Mazino.
After a brief hesitation, Viole turned again and rushed for the flower.
Mazino laughed while blowing through the flames. "Not running away? If you can look like that staring death in the face, then I'll show you the legendary power! Supreme King's Scorching Fist of Death!"
Mazino's fist glowed with a powerful golden light and then moved towards Yihwa again.
Viole turned again and shouted while rushing back to intercept, "No!! Miss Yihwa!"
I retreated the Crest Spirit back into her body to focus on defense and called the Beastiont-pet out to suicide into the attack.
Viole returned abandoning the flower, and then Mazino's fist collided with the pet, destroying it instantly, but buying a split second in which Viole's wave attack intercepted, and Viole grabbed onto Yihwa and turned around to shield her with his body.
"Viole…!"
A massive explosion ensued.
O O O
[Interlude]
When the dust settled, both Yihwa and Viole were lying unconscious on the ground, the latter in a bloody heap as he took the brunt of the damage.
The rest of the team was shaking as Urek Mazino grabbed the scared stiff Zygaena baby that Miseng had been chasing out of a hole near the bottom.
"Huh? There was a second one? Well, I guess it's a good thing. Hey babes, take that other one. Now that this little guy has been born I don't need that flower anymore. So I'll just give it to you," said Mazino.
"W-Why…?!"
"Tell those two when they wake up…this is the reward for their courage. To protect their teammate while facing the strongest man," said Mazino while walking away.
O O O
[Kaleidus]
I watched as the team returned to the Regular's residential area on their ship and settled on the landing pad.
With my anti-scrying magic stealth bubble and a Shinsoo camouflage screen, I stood at the edge of a low rooftop beside Hwa Ryun, both of us wearing brown cloaks and oval mirror masks.
"Now's your chance. He's distracted and entered your field without noticing it," Hwa Ryun said.
The test supervisor quickly told the Regulars that they'd passed and separated without any further instructions.
As he moved away from them and had his back turned, I moved.
"Shoot to kill, Derf," I said, before throwing him into the air while speeding towards the test supervisor myself.
"Agh! What?!"
The Regulars looked back to see that the test administrator had been stabbed through the chest diagonally face down into the ground by an extremely long black blade glowing with a yellow aura with branching segments that pinned each of his limbs as well. The handle of the blade floated in the air without anybody wielding it.
The Zygaena's flower the test supervisor was holding had dropped and was immediately seized with Shinsoo manipulation into my waiting hand.
"W-who…would…?!" He tried to create some Shinsoo technique in his hand but nothing happened. "Why can't I…?"
I landed beside him and stepped on the back of his head, forcing him against the ground.
The full power of the water spirits bore down on this area, having seized control of all the raw Shinsoo around here.
He hadn't noticed that it was all already under my control and walked right into the ambush that Hwa Ryun directed.
Ha Jinsung was also hiding nearby behind a pole, but he didn't make any moves, just watching me take down the Ranker alone. He was backup in case something went wrong, else I never would have risked this madness attacking a Ranker even with Hwa Ryun's guidance.
The Regulars had turned back around to watch what was unfolding with shock.
"Test supervisor Noma. You have broken the rules of the Tower," I said in a distorted voice. "You tried to kill Regulars by sending them to an area where Rankers had been dying, hoping that they too would die as collateral damage. How do you plead?"
"I'm a test supervisor, I can design the test however I want! Who are you?!"
"Is that all you have to say?" I asked.
Derflinger grew barbs and dug into him from every segment that was currently piercing him. With his Level Ten Sword Aura, he was capable of hurting Rankers who didn't have a really strong physical constitution or internal Shinsoo techniques, when they weren't capable of using Shinsoo to defend themselves with barriers, like right now.
Without any Shinsoo, he couldn't even make a single Baang.
Actually, he could probably still use Shinsoo if he wasn't too panicked to figure it out.
This wasn't even the only type of Shinsoo suppression ability that existed in the Tower.
The truth was that although the water spirits could dominate all of the raw Shinsoo in the air within a given space, we couldn't control his personal Shinsoo, anything that he'd already prepared or originated from inside his body. For example, the FUG trademark Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique, or Quant's fire kick from way back, or even just a Baang he'd already made..
He could also just generate more Shinsoo out of nowhere, thanks to his Ranker contract with the Administrators, and then disrupt my control field with some simple techniques, adding any sort of non-physical flow to it.
There were some abilities that could suck all the Shinsoo from a Wave Controller and stop them from forming Baangs or even internal Shinsoo Reinforcement, but our control only applied to the raw Shinsoo in the air.
Which is why I didn't personally have great confidence in this operation, but Hwa Ryun assured me the circumstances were such that it had a high chance of success.
And then…
"Arrgh!! Stop, stop! I was just carrying out orders! There was an FUG Slayer candidate in that test!"
He was too unnerved by everything that had happened, the death of his comrades at Urek Mazino's hands, and now his sudden apparent inability to use any Shinsoo around him, that he couldn't react effectively.
And by subduing him like this, using pain as a threat, he would be afraid to even try anything else, not knowing how much more powerful than him I actually was, or wasn't.
At least, that was what Hwa Ryun had predicted would happen, and it seemed to be playing out nicely.
I idly noticed behind me Horyang whispering. "So it was true." He was carrying an unconscious Yihwa slung over his back, while Wangnan and Akraptor carried Viole on a stretcher.
"Orders? From who?" I asked.
"It was a request from the Zahard Empire, and even the Yeon family's own Floor Ruler agreed! We already lost so many Rankers, but the Army would send us reinforcements, and then we could deal with both problems at the same time!"
"There was a daughter of the Yeon family main house in that test as well, are you saying she was an acceptable sacrifice?"
"Why would a true honored daughter of the Yeon be on a team with an FUG? We all thought it was a fake! By the time she showed up, it was already too late to change the plan! The Zahard Army Rankers were already here!"
"Where are they now?"
"Dead, Urek Mazino obliterated them! There's not even a body left!"
"Pathetic. Fortunately, your plot failed. If Yeon Yihwa had died, I would kill you without a second thought. But for now, you are still needed alive, to report back on the Regulars passing the test. As for this Zygaena's flower, I'll be taking it off your incompetent hands."
"But what about the FUG? How can a daughter of the Yeon stay on a team with him?!"
"That's none of your business. She's a Regular climbing the Tower, she can go with whomever she wants without interference from Rankers during a test! These are the rules. Whichever fool in the Zahard Empire ordered this, and that foolish Ruler should remember…that even they are not above the absolute rules of the Tower, set by the true Administrators! Those who dare to defy them will pay the consequences!"
"I understand, s-sir!"
I stepped away from him and Derf's handle came to my other hand before fully retracting.
I began to prepare another spell.
"Don't ever forget…your eternal youth, your power, your right to use Shinsoo itself…everything you have earned was permitted by the authority of the Administrators, and it can be taken away just as easily!" I spoke in a more powerful, magically charged voice that echoed all around us.
And there was the purpose of this operation–to send a warning so that Zahard's forces would be more cautious of attempting to exploit loopholes to interfere with Viole's tests as a Regular, in a way that didn't implicate FUG involvement. A third party, perhaps even with the backing of the Administrators themselves.
It was a give and take relationship with FUG after all, so as long as the risk wasn't excessive, I did not mind doing things like this for them occasionally, especially for my allies within the organization.
Ha Jin Sung had been enraged after hearing about the incident with Urek Mazino from me, and proposed the general idea. And Hwa Ryun convinced me that it was viable rather than a way for the man to get out of having to teach me by getting rid of me. I took the Zygaena flower as a bonus.
Hopefully, this display would further convince Jinsung of my value. Accepting me as a student was one thing, but how much he wanted to actually teach me was up to him, after all.
Then I disappeared, reappearing in the Ring of Deterrence.
The Builder did not bother greeting me, perhaps realizing that I was only here as a temporary hideaway place, or he was busy. Who knows what he did when I wasn't around.
I'd broken out the first part of the planeshifting spell that opened the path to the Root and the Ring of Deterrence, so that I could use it as a faster escape method instead of the ten seconds needed to prepare the random shift spell.
Now I could get here in just two seconds, including the preparation time. If I prepared a charged spell in advance, the trigger time would take less than a second.
Nobody except the Guardians and Hwa Ryun knew where I disappeared to, so it was the perfect way to escape without a trace. Most would assume I teleported, while others might think I moved too fast to be tracked at all.
The drawback with this method of escape was that I couldn't actually return to the material world the same way. Only a plane native could return via the same path that was opened, turning away from the Root and back to the World where they belonged. For me, the plane would instead block the path back and hope I stayed out.
So I'd need to spend a unit of grain to take control of another unformed creation bubble to merge myself back in, with the Builder's assistance to get me back to my last location, or appearing in one of my physical Waypoints with a magic circle.
Or, I could wait until one of my summoners called for me using their own magic circle and ritual.
Time was strange in the Ring of Deterrence, and it was hard to track except the progress of my grain collection spell.
I wandered around a bit but there was nothing interesting to see. It was impossible to escape the top of the Tower physically, which merely grew as far as I moved.
From a few conversations with the Builder every time I'd traveled between planes, I had learned that this "top" of the Tower wasn't the true top. There was, in fact, a physical top of the Tower as well, in the Outside world of this plane. But this was the "hidden" top of the Tower, that people could only discover through some secret knowledge. The path to the physical top or this hidden top or an unspecified "somewhere else" would open from the gate of the last Floor of the Tower, depending on how one accessed it and what they wanted.
It was almost like the Holy Grail of Fate. The physical Grail was a wish-granting device, but those who knew how could also use it to open a path to the Root instead.. A coincidentally similar motif.
There was no way to go to the Outside world from here either—although the Ring of Deterrence was normally supposed to be the same for the whole plane, the Builder had somehow altered the structure of it so that this place was separated from the rest of it and locked to the Tower. To get to that Outside world, one would need to go there via one of the Tower's physical exits, implying that there was more than one.
Getting bored, I went back to sit down at the Tower's edge, just thinking about things.
Over the years, I had traveled back and forth from Worm several times, doing some tests with the grain gathering and time effect, as well as making sure to be there for the Behemoth fight. There was a period of time when I'd decided to not collect any grain at all—to test my theory about the time passing being proportional to the amount of time I spent actively collecting grain here. I spent a whole year like that so I could extend my time in the Tower, yet still make it back for Behemoth in case I was wrong.
I had been proven right though, even at the cost of losing some of the grain because the plane reabsorbed it when there were was too much excess that I hadn't collected. Well I say reabsorbed, but most likely the Builder just took it before it actually got reabsorbed.
After Behemoth though, I was no longer really concerned about being back there for the next Endbringer fight. I didn't even really want to be there actually, because I was afraid that a new Endbringer might appear with the power to travel across dimensions and really screw me over since the Simurgh hadn't finished us off. Because Khonsu got teleportation after humanity got Scion on their side, right? So why wouldn't it just also get dimension/portal powers too now that they had CRUCIBLE on humanity's side?
There was no way to know if the Endbringers had left Cauldron alone with their dimensional powers simply because Eidolon was a part of Cauldron, or if it was because Cauldron was just ineffective at using their portals. Either way, we couldn't expect the same treatment for CRUCIBLE. We had managed to create more chaos in the world with the Behemoth battle due to the destruction of the Indian subcontinent, but it was hard to discern if at some point the Endbringers would decide that CRUCIBLE was no longer a net positive for their plans and needed to be wiped out.
The benefit of grabbing more Endbringer flesh was just not really worth it, because more of it didn't really even help me that much. If Derflinger got too much mass, he wouldn't even be able to control it properly. More mass didn't actually increase his mana capacity either above about 100k MP. Any more was simply beyond his ability to retain or control and unstable. So now he could store up two max level Slash Beams, with slightly superior efficiency and power for the same levels above 6 (he still had trouble with those levels, making the output actually somewhat variable and inefficient considering the amount of mana being channeled). But he couldn't do anything stronger, regardless.
To advance further, we needed improvements in quality rather than more quantity.
But by my estimate, the next Endbringer attack probably still hadn't hit yet. It'd been 6 years since the Floor of Tests, and probably something like nine weeks since the Behemoth battle at the end of July 2011.
And after spending some grain for my trips, losing some due to non-collection, I'd still stockpiled 33 units, so I was good for a while, unless I ran into situations where I needed to use multiple units at once, like the Builder warned me off.
"We've come a long way, haven't we Derf?"
"We sure have, Partner. It would be nice if we had more action in between all the waiting though," said Derf.
"I almost can't believe how strong we became. It's kinda funny, looking back…I was worried we might not be able to keep up with everyone else growing in the Tower. But we outgrew everyone else instead."
"You mean those water spirits outgrew everyone else and we leeched off of them," said Derf. "If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be nearly as good as we are with Shinsoo, and we couldn't do half the things we can today. This Compression thing is just awesome."
"Too bad it won't be like that on other planes. They'll probably give us the cold shoulder a lot more once there's no Shinsoo around."
"Eh, we'll figure out other ways to fight. Besides, we can still use some of that stuff on our own with just a small bit of Shinsoo. I only wish there was more action in between the waiting here."
"Be careful what you wish for, it might just happen," I said.
Finally, I heard the voice of a summoner. But it was neither Androssi or Yihwa.
"Adventurer from the stars. The Crimson Witch of Fate summons you. Let my voice Guide you and open the door. Come to me to continue this unfinished story."
I smiled and answered the call. Although…something seemed different about this spell. That incantation didn't feel like what a proper invitation should be, but it was still working.
I reappeared inside the magic circle that Hwa Ryun had drawn in a dimly lit room, then held the flower forward.
"By your summons, I have come," I said. "Bearing a gift for you, my dear witch."
She took the flower.
"Thank you. But it wasn't a quest so there's no reward," she said.
"Your smile is reward enough," I said.
She smiled. "Okay then. But you still needed my help to get it. Weren't you supposed to do it on your own?"
"I couldn't have done it without you. I thought a lot about it, but I didn't have any good ideas. It was far too risky to do it any other way."
"So just let me Guide you," she said.
"You already know the truth about me. Will you make a contract with me now?"
She shook her head. "Sorry, I can't. I'm a Guide. Guides don't fight fate, nor can we."
The same words she said to me all those years ago were repeated.
"I don't understand it. Is it some kind of rule that you're bound by? But you were able to summon me," I said.
"It's not the same Spell. I didn't invite a being from beyond the threshold, that the world denies, for my own wish. I summoned the Adventurer who already began a story in this world. If you were not chosen by the Tower, or if you didn't already have a contractor nearby that wants you to return, then it wouldn't have worked."
"I see. So that's why you insisted I should get other contractors," I said.
She nodded.
"If you give me a gift, then I can accept it. If you listen for my voice, I can open the door. If you let me Guide you, I can tell you the paths I see. But I can't command you to change my fate. Only you can do that…only if you want to."
"Do you want me to?"
"I can't answer that. But this isn't a quest, so there's no reward."
I smirked. "Except for a smile?"
"I can always give you a smile, but whether it's real or not depends on you," she said, smiling again, before turning to leave. "Play your games with the others all you want but don't expect me to give what you hoard only for yourself."
I tilted my head thinking through the meaning of her words as she walked up the stairs.
"I think she's seen through you, Partner," Derf whispered loudly so that both of us could hear, but Hwa Ryun didn't look back.
"I expected nothing less from her. Well, I don't know if it's possible for me to give her that, so it's fair. But as long as she's on my side, that's fine with me," I said, before following up the stairs.
O O O
67 – Sweet and Sour
67 – Sweet and Sour
When we went back to Viole's house, it was already the next day and Jinsung was sitting beside Viole's bed with a frown.
"I didn't expect making friends would put him in danger," he said as we entered. "This plan doesn't seem to be working well. I told that Wangnan kid to remove Viole from the team so I could make a new one for him. I'm not sure if even your Yeon should stay with him…she was the one that Viole tried to protect, right?"
"Even if you make a new team, he's just as likely to do the same thing. He just can't help but make friends and desperately hold onto them," I said. "At least these teammates won't take advantage of his foolishness."
"He's right," said Hwa Ryun. "But you already knew that, didn't you? It just happened sooner than you expected."
"Yeah…this idiot was just that type…" Jinsung sighed and ran a hand up into his hair.
"Don't forget, he also survived because of that same foolishness…by winning Urek Mazino's respect," said Hwa Ryun.
I walked up to the bed and placed a hand over Viole's chest, analyzing his body for its injuries.
There seemed to be a great deal of residue from Urek Mazino's Shinsoo, and his "devil" was also dormant, seemingly exhausted. Although most of his body had physically healed, his Shinsoo was weak.
I used a basic healing spell on him to cure what was not yet healed. However, as soon as I did so, the magic fizzled out, and instead, Viole's body began healing faster on its own.
"…actual magic resistance? This isn't just Shinsoo resistance," I said. "But then, why is he healing on his own now?"
"His body absorbed your spell," Hwa Ryun said.
"Just like that? So he can use it too now?"
"He probably can't yet. Your spells need your special type of magic energy, which he can't generate. His body is just subconsciously using what it absorbed from you," said Hwa Ryun.
"Still…how unfair. If he ever learns how to refine mana like I do…"
"Then he'll be able to do it. But it's not that simple," said Hwa Ryun. "Only gods and demons can manipulate what you call mana directly, and usually they burn souls to generate it. If you don't teach that to anyone, it's almost impossible to learn naturally in the Tower."
"But not impossible?" I asked.
"There are a few people who might be able to figure it out," said Hwa Ryun. "Enryu. Macseth. Maybe Gustang too."
"Thanks for this, kid. I thought you were a fake doctor but you actually know some useful stuff huh…" Jinsung said.
"No problem, that's what I'm here for," I said.
After that, I went to check on Yihwa as well, but I already knew she was fine. Her flame protected her so she didn't take too much damage. At this point Viole's body was much less durable, easily susceptible to physical attacks, or any attacks that managed to get through his miraculous Shinsoo resistance.
O O O
[Interlude]
Yihwa sat up on the bed when Axion in his Dr. Dua persona entered her room.
"How are you feeling? Congratulations on another passed test, by the way," he said.
"Thanks…I feel a little weak, but I'm fine. What about Viole?" said Yihwa, now leaning against the headrest.
"He'll be fine too, I checked on him already."
"That's good…um…by the way…the team told me…"
The team, minus Viole, was gathered in her room when she awoke, and explained what happened.
"…right after we got back to the main test center area, the supervisor was suddenly attacked and taken out in one hit by a Compression weapon," said Wangnan. "The guy who attacked him just came out of nowhere, but he didn't attack us. He completely ignored us."
"But we couldn't do anything either," said Akraptor. "That guy somehow stopped everyone from using Shinsoo, even the Ranker. A Ranker helpless like that…that's not something you see everyday."
"It felt as though all of the Shinsoo in the area had turned hostile," Horyang added. "I've never felt anything like it. Like a terrible monster was pressing down on us from all sides."
"Everyone was too scared to move or ask any questions, so we just watched him step on the supervisor's face and start to say a bunch of things…he said the supervisor broke the rules of the Tower and deliberately sent us to die, in order to kill the FUG. The supervisor just brazenly admitted to it as if he did nothing wrong, until the guy started torturing him, then he said that it was an order from the Zahard Empire," said Wangnan with a deep scowl. "And that the Yeon Family's Ruler on this Floor agreed to it as well, even though they knew you were on the team."
Yihwa's mouth fell open. "So they didn't care if I died too?"
"They thought you were a fake," Prince said. "Cause a true daughter of the Yeon wouldn't be on a team with an FUG."
"That's…! I was just…!"
"It's okay, flame thrower, you don't need to give us any excuses, we're all in the same boat here," said Wangnan. "Viole's not the bad guy people think he is."
"And that person sounded really angry on your behalf. He said he would've killed that Ranker if you died. But you didn't, so he let the supervisor live to report that we passed the test. And then he said that you could climb with whoever you wanted as a Regular, without interference from Rankers," said Goseng while changing the wet towel on her forehead.
"You have any idea who that was? Maybe a Ranker from the Yeon Family? But it seemed like he didn't want to be known. All he wore was a cloak that had no symbols," said Wangnan. "It would make sense if he's not happy about the rest of the Family's attitude though."
"I don't know…I can't think of anyone that would do that for me," said Yihwa.
"And there's another thing." said Prince. "Not only did somebody record and upload that scene to the public Lighthouse networks, at the same time, somebody else uploaded all this information about Zygaena flower and babies. Apparently the babies need the flower's nutrients to survive when they're young, but the Yeon Family just kills them to keep the flower rare. This might be why that Mazino dude was after the Zygaena baby. To save it and bring it somewhere else where it could grow."
Prince showed her a screen with his Cube.
"Oh stop that, she doesn't need to read all about that now, we've explained the important parts, so we should let lady Yeon rest," said Goseng, pushing the Cube away. "Come on, everyone, let's go."
Goseng ushered everyone out, but Horyang stayed behind. "I'll watch over her for a bit, you should get some rest too, Goseng," he said to her.
After Goseng left, Yihwa sat silently on the bed looking down.
"Who's looking after Viole?" She asked.
"His teacher. He appeared suddenly after the supervisor ran off and that cloaked person left. Mr. Ha came back with us and has been with Viole ever since, not letting anyone else enter the room," said Horyang.
"I see…but Viole's okay?"
"He was hurt badly. There seems to be a limit to his mysterious ability to recover. But Mr. Ha said he would be fine. There's something I wanted to ask you though."
"Me?"
"It's about that thing you were talking to during the test. At first, when I saw it during the test on the 20th Floor, I wondered if it was similar to the devil inside me…or whatever Viole has in him. But you were able to talk to it, and it seemed intelligent," said Horyang.
"Oh, that…"
"You're not a Living Ignition Weapon, right? You didn't know about them when you asked me about it before."
"I'm not. That thing is…I'm not sure how to describe it. It's a sort of spirit given to me by someone else, to help me control my flame, because I'm so bad at it. He called it a living fragment of his will."
"So it has a mind of its own? Or were you communicating with the person who gave it to you?"
"It kind of has a mind of its own…but during the test I was communicating with the one who gave it to me."
"I thought so. That's the person who attacked the Ranker supervisor, isn't it?"
"What?" Yihwa asked with shock. "You think it was him? But…was he that strong?"
"That's the most obvious conclusion, isn't it? How else would somebody who cares for you have found out about the test and reacted so quickly?"
"That's…I knew he defeated a Ranker once before but he said they weren't fighting him seriously…I guess I'll ask him later," said Yihwa. "He'll probably visit soon anyways, if that FUG is also here. It's Dr. Dua, one of the three that came by the other day."
"I see. Wangnan and Akraptor told me about him. He is also one of Viole's old teammates, right? But that means he's a Regular like we are. For a Regular to possess such power…well, I suppose I should be glad that we have people like him and Viole's teacher on our side. Especially if we have to face the true darkness of the Tower."
"The true darkness of the Tower…" Yihwa whispered, remembering all the things that Axion had told her about the Empire and the Great Families. "Even my own family…"
"…was that you?" Yihwa asked.
"Yes, it was. I had some help and backup from Hwa Ryun and Mr. Ha Jinsung though," said Axion. He chuckled lightly as Yihwa's mouth was agape with shocked awe. "It's not what it seemed like though. I can't really defeat a Ranker in a fair fight, much less completely suppress them like I did with that test supervisor, but I have some unusual tricks that if they don't know how to deal with then I can take them by surprise. After that spar with Mr. Ha, he pointed out some things for me, and then Hwa Ryun used her Guide abilities to find the path with the best conditions for victory. So I can't take all the credit for it. It was only with their help and because that supervisor was too distracted by the encounter with Urek Mazino earlier that it worked."
"…still…that's amazing…" Yihwa said. "But why did you do it? It couldn't be just because of me? If it's like you said, wasn't it really risky?"
"Not really, Mr. Ha was also there, just in case. As for the why, you were definitely one reason. But you're right, that wasn't all. When I told them what happened during the test, the other two wanted to send a message. To make sure they don't try that again with FUG's Slayer candidate, and leave the tests alone. We couldn't make it an issue between Zahard Empire and FUG, so instead a person who seems to have a mysterious authority over Shinsoo appeared, to warn about the rules of the Tower."
"So, that was actually your power? Why didn't you use it during the spar?"
Axion made a gesture, altering the Shinsoo flows around them for privacy before answering this question.
"That ability only works on Shinsoo while it resembles water, so it's very easy to disrup. It would have been useless against a physical fighter like Mr. Ha that doesn't need Shinsoo to fight, and it doesn't work on something like your flames either. That's why I couldn't just suppress your flames when we were experimenting before. That Ranker was just mentally exhausted and conveniently gave up before figuring out how to get out of it."
"Oh…"
"So it's just a gimmick, but as long as people don't know how it works and its weaknesses, it can be quite useful. If we ever get into a bad spot, don't overestimate me, haha. The line between victory and defeat can be just a hair's breadth. I'm not truly as strong as I appear sometimes, I'm simply good at pretending otherwise."
"I understand. Then, thanks for telling me," said Yihwa. "And for going to bat for me."
Axion nodded, then released the privacy barrier.
"How are you feeling…not physically, but about everything that happened?" He asked.
Yihwa thought for a moment before answering.
"I don't know…this test…it was much worse than what that other supervisor did on the last Floor. At least he never tried to kill anyone. Even now, although the Ruler my family appointed was forced to resign, the family as a whole seems more concerned with getting the Zygaena baby back, putting a bounty on it. Nobody even thought to apologize to me…Ms. Ryua was the only one to send me a message…and she told me everyone is actually suspicious that I've betrayed the family siding with an FUG, so I should find a new team. I can't believe…no, I already suspected, with what you told me before…it's just…" She said, trailing off.
"…this is just how the Tower is. And why there are those that are desperate to change it."
Axion placed his hand over hers and squeezed it. "But you don't need to worry about that for a while. Just get some rest. If you need me, I'll be around for a while."
She nodded, and was soon left to her own thoughts.
O O O
While Wangnan was out with the guys to buy groceries, he raised the issue of removing Viole from the team. But he was shot down by the rest after a heated argument, and they all decided that they would stay on the team with Viole.
When he returned, he informed Jinsung of their choice, that they would find their own path, and offered for him to join them for dinner, which the old master merely sighed at.
Then, still sitting on the water tanker at the top of the house alone, Jinsung said, "Come out, Karaka."
"It's been a while, master," the person named Karaka slunk out of the shadow of the nearby building. He wore a dark robe coat over tight martial arts robes underneath, with a red and black pattern on its edges. His head was fully encased in a round and skeletal grey armor, leaving only yellow eyes visible. It made him look a bit like a mummy.
"Taking care of a kid isn't easier," said Jinsung.
"You should have just left it to me," said Karaka.
"I can't let a kid take care of a kid. Anyways, let's move somewhere else. The Administrator is watching us," said Jinsung. The skies above rumbled and the clouds shifted as if there was an enormous hidden eye there.
After they moved to another spot underneath a tunnel formed of post and lintel frames.
Jinsung congratulated Karaka on climbing the Rankings, while Karaka humbly said it was too early because he wanted to reach higher.
Then he asked why Jinsung hesitated to have blood on his hands.
"…why don't you kill those beside Viole right now, and make him a team with people we can trust to watch him?"
"I told you to leave Viole to me, don't you trust me, Karaka?"
"…I'm just worried that the believers are doubting you. Rumors are spreading among the Elders…that your affection for the Slayer candidate might ruin things."
"Those senile jerks…how dare they doubt me? I betrayed my family for FUG…since that day…I've spent so many dark nights waiting for the right time to come. As if I would ruin it for something like affection. Viole having more friends just means that we have more hostages."
"…"
"And besides, I already arranged for someone I can trust to watch him," said Jinsung.
"That quack researcher from the 20th Floor…who is not even on his team…?" Karaka asked. "You think he's enough to watch the boy?"
"Oh but he is on Viole's team…or at least his puppet is," said Jinsung. "Don't underestimate him. He's much more than he appears."
Karaka asked. "Pri Dua Liti…he suddenly appeared two years ago, setting up an illegal lab with FUG's help. I asked Augusgus, but he only said that it was recommended by the Guide and the Deep Sea Fish to cooperate, but he knew nothing about the man himself…other than his work in creating some weak enhancement drugs for Regulars. Who is he?"
"Well, I don't know about all that. But he's my new student," said Jinsung.
Karaka gave him a doubtful look. "You only teach Slayers. Are you saying that you're nominating him to be a Slayer too?"
"Not yet. Since Viole is going off on his own now, it might get boring, so I decided to teach another promising student. Maybe it'll pay off later."
"Not…yet? Master…perhaps at your age you no longer feel the same urgency to act…but it will not look that way to the others. For you to spend your time teaching someone who is not a Slayer candidate…it might seem as if you now have priorities other than our goal."
"We can't always take the frontal approach. Technique and finesse allow us to handle more complex challenges. Haven't I taught you that long ago?"
"Perhaps as his senior, I should evaluate if your new student is truly 'promising'," said Karaka.
"Don't be reckless, Karaka. My student may still be a Regular and not even a Slayer candidate yet…but I accepted him as my student for a reason. Yesterday, I saw with my own eyes a Ranker at his mercy, defeated in a single strike."
"That's preposterous. No Regular can defeat a Ranker, no matter how talented. Even Adori Zahard was A-Rank and almost a Ranker, before she performed the feat," said Karaka.
Ha Jinsung smiled. "And yet he is the one that made the Zahard Empire to back off from trying to kill our Slayer candidate's team, forcing them acknowledge that the tests must be administered fairly, and the Yeon family to remove their appointed Ruler on this Floor out of disgrace for a new one."
"…that was him?" Karaka was taken aback. "It was a mere Regular, not a messenger sent by the Administrator?"
"Is that what people are saying? Well, that might not be inaccurate, either. Who knows what the Administrator is thinking? Everything that happens on this Floor happens with his permission."
"But how could he have such power over Shinsoo? Does he have something similar to that man on the 43rd Floor? Or the thing we extracted? Was that the true nature of his research?"
Jinsung shrugged. "That's not even the most interesting part about him. Anyways, my decision has already been made, and I've got my plans. I'm going to teach him for a while, and we've got a bunch more hostages, with Dua Liti's agent watching Viole. Relay what I've told you to the Slayers and Elders."
"…Yes sir. I'll return for now then," said Karaka, bowing.
"Ok, why don't you dine with me? It's been a while," said Jinsung. "The Guide told me there's an extraordinary restaurant nearby."
"I'm sorry master. You know I don't take off my mask…in front of someone I can't trust," said Karaka. "See you next time, master."
His former student walked away, leaving Jinsung to sigh, before putting the 'cigarette' in his mouth, that Wangnan bought for him. The lollipop tasted sour. "I shouldn't have refused Wangnan…" He said to himself, thinking about the Regular's offer earlier for him to join them at dinner where they'd be having sweet and sour pork.
Eventually Jinsung went on his own over to the restaurant Hwa Ryun had told him about.
"Oh, you kids were still here…?" He said, approaching the table where Hwa Ryun and Axion sat. He looked at their plates which were already mostly finished. "Am I interrupting your date?"
"Not at all. We reserved a seat for you, teacher," said Axion.
"Don't mind me then," said Jinsung, sitting down beside Hwa Ryun, facing Axion.
"How did your talk go with your old student?" asked Hwa Ryun.
"Well…since you guys were expecting me to join you, you must have some guesses," said Jinsung.
"Not well, then?"
"The damn kid basically said he didn't trust me anymore! Can you believe it?" Jinsung said while taking a bite.
"We'll have to be careful," said Hwa Ryun.
"You don't think he'd actually try anything?" Jinsung asked in between swallowing. "He's gotten arrogant."
"If not him, then someone else who doesn't think Viole deserves our support," said Hwa Ryun.
"I told him bout you too, kid," said Jinsung with his mouth full, pointing a fork at Axion. "Had to, since there'd be questions, bout why I'm teaching somebody else all of a sudden. I told him you were the one who took down that supervisor yesterday. That should be enough to keep him off your back and mine, A Regular that can defeat a Ranker is no joke. Even the Elders shouldn't have any objections this way. But Karaka might still try to test you eventually."
"I understand, whatever you feel is best, teacher," said Axion.
"Unlike the rumors from the Floor of Tests which we never confirmed, they will treat this case seriously, because Mr. Jinsung is the one saying it. They will become interested in you now, but since it's your disguise, they still won't know your true identity. And they can't do anything while you're with Mr. Jinsung," said Hwa Ryun.
Axion nodded. "That's fine then. And I don't mind that much anymore even if they came after me, they won't find me easily unless I want them to."
O O O
Back at Viole's house, Viole was still out cold, but the rest of the team finished a rowdy and cheerful dinner together.
Late in the evening, after both Yihwa and Miseng had gone to sleep, the team sat around the living room resting.
Akraptor spoke to Wangnan. "You said you want to help Viole, but do you have any idea how?"
"I heard about the situation," said Goseng. "But what can we do? We're too weak compared to FUG. We might just be a burden…"
"There has to be a way…" said Wangnan. "I don't know yet, but there must be one. If we have the guts to do it."
Akraptor noticed Horyang's shoulder devil light turning into a brain.
"You're thinking really hard, teddy bear. You got an idea?"
The living ignition weapon looked up, surprised. "No. I was just thinking about what lady Yeon told me."
"Huh? What'd she say? By the way…you never told us how you met the flame thrower," said Wangnan.
"It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you some other day. As for what she said, I asked her about the 'power' she used during the test. Did you guys see it? That spirit which floats around her shoulder," said Horyang.
"Yeah I remember that," said Prince. "What about it? Isn't that just a Yeon family ability? It kinda looks like a flame."
"No, it's something that Dr. Dua gave her to help her control her flames. With it, she can communicate with him, even during a test," said Horyang.
"So that's why we didn't all get barbequed this time?" Wangnan asked.
"But there's more to it, right?" Akraptor asked.
"Not that thing specifically…but the fact that Dua knew what was happening in the test. And then he attacked the supervisor. Earlier today, after Dua came over to check up on her and Viole, they talked, and lady Yeon confirmed to me that it was him," said Horyang.
Wangnan and Akraptor looked far more shocked than the others. They looked at each other for a moment.
"It's just like I said…aren't we too weak compared to FUG?" Goseng asked. "Even that gentle-looking doctor was somebody so strong. They can even retaliate against the test supervisors."
"There's something you guys should know…" said Wangnan. "Maybe that's how we can do it…"
"What?" Goseng asked.
"This is a big secret. So make sure you guys don't say anything about it if we meet other FUGs. That Dr. Dua isn't a real FUG member. He's a double agent," said Wangnan.
"Huh? A double agent? Like a spy?" Prince asked.
"He seems to be one of Viole's old teammates. But we don't know for sure if he's just a spy or if FUG already knows and is holding Viole and the rest of their friends hostage against him too," said Akraptor.
"Whaaat? That's crazy," said Prince.
"And don't say anything in front of Viole either," said Akraptor. "He doesn't know about Dua."
"Wait, why can't we tell Viole?" Goseng asked. "Don't we want him to meet his friends?"
"Because Viole's an Irregular that the Zahard Empire tried to kill on the 2nd Floor, and they think he's dead. If he blows his own cover and it gets out that he's still alive and getting stronger…they'll try to kill him again," said Akraptor.
"But they're also trying to kill him for being a Slayer candidate," said Goseng.
"Yes but he has FUG to protect him for now—as long as he acts like a proper Slayer candidate and doesn't meet his old friends," said Akraptor.
"Damn, so he's screwed if he meets his friends too? How exactly do we help him then?" Prince asked.
"Dua said that Viole should become strong enough to survive without FUG first, but if Dua himself is already that strong…"
"He might be the key," said Wangnan. "But how is that even possible? Isn't it he also a Regular that entered the Tower at the same time as Viole?"
"Lady Yeon did say that he's not as strong as he appeared to be. There was some sort of trickery involved during the attack and he had the Guide's help…he can't defeat a Ranker on his own in a straight fight," said Horyang.
Akraptor nodded. "That would explain it. He still isn't strong enough on his own, so he's working with FUG as the lesser evil."
"I've got it. This is what we'll do. Akraptor, you go talk to Dua tomorrow. I'll talk to that Guide…I don't fully understand it yet…but I think they're both on Viole's side. They must have told us about Viole's secrets for a reason…there must be something they want us to do. And if that's the case, there might just be a chance," said Wangnan.
O O O
The next day, Wangnan met Hwa Ryun in the living room, while Akraptor met Dr. Dua in the kitchen.
"…I heard you're a Guide," said Wangnan, sitting across the coffee table.
"What about it? Have you got anywhere you wanna go?" Hwa Ryun asked.
"Show me the way to get to Viole's friends."
"…why should I? I'm an FUG member. A Guide only shows the path to those who can take it," said Hwa Ryun.
"You told me Viole's secrets because I can take that path, right? Then I'll take it," said Wangnan.
"Is it out of sympathy? Or is it to achieve your goals…prince of the red-light district?"
Wangnan didn't answer. Hwa Ryun held up the lollipop he bought. "Well, it doesn't matter to me. I'll tell you…"
Meanwhile, with Akraptor…
"…we've all decided, we want to help Viole," said Akraptor. "You must also have a plan right? How do we get Viole back to where he belongs?"
"Our old team split up a couple of years ago. The circumstances are complicated, but the important part is…everyone is going to meet up on the 30th Floor," said Dr. Dua. "That's because…"
"…the Workshop has a branch on every Floor but there are only seven main branches. One of them is on the 30th Floor. Every five years, an event is hosted there called the Workshop Battle, for E-Rank Regulars to compete to win great prizes from the Workshop…" said both Hwa Ryun and Dr. Dua.
"…but FUG has also been working with the Workshop to research the ultimate weapon and how to merge it with a living person…" said Dr. Dua.
"…but you only have two years until the next Workshop Battle…" said Hwa Ryun. "It might be difficult for this team full of defects…"
"…if we can find out where they're hiding the weapon and get the data, then we can give it to Viole…"
"…if you can get there in two years, and join the battle, you can meet Viole's friends," said Hwa Ryun.
"…and with that power, he might become strong enough to forge a new path," said Dua.
"…it's in our interest for Viole to climb fast, so if you're willing to do it, then I'll Guide the way," said Hwa Ryun. "And Dr. Dua will help you recover faster after every test, so there will be no excuse for slacking."
O O O
Wangnan, Akraptor, and the whole team got together after, reporting the results of their discussions.
"So they're basically telling us to do the same thing. We need to head for the Workshop on the 30th Floor," said Wangnan. "Both his friends and the weapon will be there."
"Nine floors in two years," said Akraptor. "That's going to be tough. Are you guys up for it?"
"Of course! I'll definitely get stronger, so you can rely on me!" Yihwa exclaimed.
"No way we're relying on you, I'll become stronger so everyone can rely on me!" Prince said.
"No, I'll become stronger than either of you!" said Wangnan.
"Don't overestimate yourself," said Akraptor. "There's no way you can do it."
"What? You're supposed to be encouraging me!"
"You're the leader, you're supposed to encourage everyone else, while we use you as our punching bag to feel better about ourselves," said Akraptor.
"Ugh! Why me?" Wangnan cried crocodile tears.
"Hah! Face reality, you monkey!" Yihwa said. "Just be glad that Viole isn't the only strong person on this team."
"Aren't you the one overestimating yourself? You can't even do your share of the cooking!" Wangnan said.
"Settle down," said Horyang. "Even if we climb that fast, there's still the Workshop Battle itself…and getting to the weapon. If the researchers are who I think they are…that will be the hardest part."
"Hm? You know something about it?" Akraptor asked.
"The Acorn Workshop. It's where the 'Devil' in my right arm was implanted into me. Where they research Living Ignition Weapons," said Horyang. "That ultimate weapon must be the true reason for all the experiments they did."
"I'm sensing a story here…" said Wangnan.
"Lady Yeon, when we first met, Dr. Dua was also the one who sent you to me to ask about Living Ignition Weapons, wasn't he?" Horyang asked Yihwa. "It makes sense now. He must have found out about the experiments after infiltrating FUG."
She nodded. "Yeah…that must be it."
"What are you guys talking about?" Wangnan asked. "Come on, fill the rest of us in!"
And so Horyang told them about his history with the Workshop, and the first time he met Yihwa.
"That's terrible…" said Goseng. "How could there be such horrible people?"
"That's all the more reason we have to help Viole get away from these people," said Yihwa.
"But for now, all we can do is get stronger and focus on the next test," said Wangnan. "Two years…we can definitely make it if we work hard."
O O O
A/N: This is kind of an arc epilogue chapter, just showing how MC is making subtle changes, how it's perceived, but also stay under the radar of more dangerous entities. There's going to be at least one more smaller arc in ToG, then we might do a short break to another plane, but probably come back for the big events at the end of ToG's season 2, since that's got a lot of interesting stuff with higher stakes.
When we went back to Viole's house, it was already the next day and Jinsung was sitting beside Viole's bed with a frown.
"I didn't expect making friends would put him in danger," he said as we entered. "This plan doesn't seem to be working well. I told that Wangnan kid to remove Viole from the team so I could make a new one for him. I'm not sure if even your Yeon should stay with him…she was the one that Viole tried to protect, right?"
"Even if you make a new team, he's just as likely to do the same thing. He just can't help but make friends and desperately hold onto them," I said. "At least these teammates won't take advantage of his foolishness."
"He's right," said Hwa Ryun. "But you already knew that, didn't you? It just happened sooner than you expected."
"Yeah…this idiot was just that type…" Jinsung sighed and ran a hand up into his hair.
"Don't forget, he also survived because of that same foolishness…by winning Urek Mazino's respect," said Hwa Ryun.
I walked up to the bed and placed a hand over Viole's chest, analyzing his body for its injuries.
There seemed to be a great deal of residue from Urek Mazino's Shinsoo, and his "devil" was also dormant, seemingly exhausted. Although most of his body had physically healed, his Shinsoo was weak.
I used a basic healing spell on him to cure what was not yet healed. However, as soon as I did so, the magic fizzled out, and instead, Viole's body began healing faster on its own.
"…actual magic resistance? This isn't just Shinsoo resistance," I said. "But then, why is he healing on his own now?"
"His body absorbed your spell," Hwa Ryun said.
"Just like that? So he can use it too now?"
"He probably can't yet. Your spells need your special type of magic energy, which he can't generate. His body is just subconsciously using what it absorbed from you," said Hwa Ryun.
"Still…how unfair. If he ever learns how to refine mana like I do…"
"Then he'll be able to do it. But it's not that simple," said Hwa Ryun. "Only gods and demons can manipulate what you call mana directly, and usually they burn souls to generate it. If you don't teach that to anyone, it's almost impossible to learn naturally in the Tower."
"But not impossible?" I asked.
"There are a few people who might be able to figure it out," said Hwa Ryun. "Enryu. Macseth. Maybe Gustang too."
"Thanks for this, kid. I thought you were a fake doctor but you actually know some useful stuff huh…" Jinsung said.
"No problem, that's what I'm here for," I said.
After that, I went to check on Yihwa as well, but I already knew she was fine. Her flame protected her so she didn't take too much damage. At this point Viole's body was much less durable, easily susceptible to physical attacks, or any attacks that managed to get through his miraculous Shinsoo resistance.
O O O
[Interlude]
Yihwa sat up on the bed when Axion in his Dr. Dua persona entered her room.
"How are you feeling? Congratulations on another passed test, by the way," he said.
"Thanks…I feel a little weak, but I'm fine. What about Viole?" said Yihwa, now leaning against the headrest.
"He'll be fine too, I checked on him already."
"That's good…um…by the way…the team told me…"
The team, minus Viole, was gathered in her room when she awoke, and explained what happened.
"…right after we got back to the main test center area, the supervisor was suddenly attacked and taken out in one hit by a Compression weapon," said Wangnan. "The guy who attacked him just came out of nowhere, but he didn't attack us. He completely ignored us."
"But we couldn't do anything either," said Akraptor. "That guy somehow stopped everyone from using Shinsoo, even the Ranker. A Ranker helpless like that…that's not something you see everyday."
"It felt as though all of the Shinsoo in the area had turned hostile," Horyang added. "I've never felt anything like it. Like a terrible monster was pressing down on us from all sides."
"Everyone was too scared to move or ask any questions, so we just watched him step on the supervisor's face and start to say a bunch of things…he said the supervisor broke the rules of the Tower and deliberately sent us to die, in order to kill the FUG. The supervisor just brazenly admitted to it as if he did nothing wrong, until the guy started torturing him, then he said that it was an order from the Zahard Empire," said Wangnan with a deep scowl. "And that the Yeon Family's Ruler on this Floor agreed to it as well, even though they knew you were on the team."
Yihwa's mouth fell open. "So they didn't care if I died too?"
"They thought you were a fake," Prince said. "Cause a true daughter of the Yeon wouldn't be on a team with an FUG."
"That's…! I was just…!"
"It's okay, flame thrower, you don't need to give us any excuses, we're all in the same boat here," said Wangnan. "Viole's not the bad guy people think he is."
"And that person sounded really angry on your behalf. He said he would've killed that Ranker if you died. But you didn't, so he let the supervisor live to report that we passed the test. And then he said that you could climb with whoever you wanted as a Regular, without interference from Rankers," said Goseng while changing the wet towel on her forehead.
"You have any idea who that was? Maybe a Ranker from the Yeon Family? But it seemed like he didn't want to be known. All he wore was a cloak that had no symbols," said Wangnan. "It would make sense if he's not happy about the rest of the Family's attitude though."
"I don't know…I can't think of anyone that would do that for me," said Yihwa.
"And there's another thing." said Prince. "Not only did somebody record and upload that scene to the public Lighthouse networks, at the same time, somebody else uploaded all this information about Zygaena flower and babies. Apparently the babies need the flower's nutrients to survive when they're young, but the Yeon Family just kills them to keep the flower rare. This might be why that Mazino dude was after the Zygaena baby. To save it and bring it somewhere else where it could grow."
Prince showed her a screen with his Cube.
"Oh stop that, she doesn't need to read all about that now, we've explained the important parts, so we should let lady Yeon rest," said Goseng, pushing the Cube away. "Come on, everyone, let's go."
Goseng ushered everyone out, but Horyang stayed behind. "I'll watch over her for a bit, you should get some rest too, Goseng," he said to her.
After Goseng left, Yihwa sat silently on the bed looking down.
"Who's looking after Viole?" She asked.
"His teacher. He appeared suddenly after the supervisor ran off and that cloaked person left. Mr. Ha came back with us and has been with Viole ever since, not letting anyone else enter the room," said Horyang.
"I see…but Viole's okay?"
"He was hurt badly. There seems to be a limit to his mysterious ability to recover. But Mr. Ha said he would be fine. There's something I wanted to ask you though."
"Me?"
"It's about that thing you were talking to during the test. At first, when I saw it during the test on the 20th Floor, I wondered if it was similar to the devil inside me…or whatever Viole has in him. But you were able to talk to it, and it seemed intelligent," said Horyang.
"Oh, that…"
"You're not a Living Ignition Weapon, right? You didn't know about them when you asked me about it before."
"I'm not. That thing is…I'm not sure how to describe it. It's a sort of spirit given to me by someone else, to help me control my flame, because I'm so bad at it. He called it a living fragment of his will."
"So it has a mind of its own? Or were you communicating with the person who gave it to you?"
"It kind of has a mind of its own…but during the test I was communicating with the one who gave it to me."
"I thought so. That's the person who attacked the Ranker supervisor, isn't it?"
"What?" Yihwa asked with shock. "You think it was him? But…was he that strong?"
"That's the most obvious conclusion, isn't it? How else would somebody who cares for you have found out about the test and reacted so quickly?"
"That's…I knew he defeated a Ranker once before but he said they weren't fighting him seriously…I guess I'll ask him later," said Yihwa. "He'll probably visit soon anyways, if that FUG is also here. It's Dr. Dua, one of the three that came by the other day."
"I see. Wangnan and Akraptor told me about him. He is also one of Viole's old teammates, right? But that means he's a Regular like we are. For a Regular to possess such power…well, I suppose I should be glad that we have people like him and Viole's teacher on our side. Especially if we have to face the true darkness of the Tower."
"The true darkness of the Tower…" Yihwa whispered, remembering all the things that Axion had told her about the Empire and the Great Families. "Even my own family…"
"…was that you?" Yihwa asked.
"Yes, it was. I had some help and backup from Hwa Ryun and Mr. Ha Jinsung though," said Axion. He chuckled lightly as Yihwa's mouth was agape with shocked awe. "It's not what it seemed like though. I can't really defeat a Ranker in a fair fight, much less completely suppress them like I did with that test supervisor, but I have some unusual tricks that if they don't know how to deal with then I can take them by surprise. After that spar with Mr. Ha, he pointed out some things for me, and then Hwa Ryun used her Guide abilities to find the path with the best conditions for victory. So I can't take all the credit for it. It was only with their help and because that supervisor was too distracted by the encounter with Urek Mazino earlier that it worked."
"…still…that's amazing…" Yihwa said. "But why did you do it? It couldn't be just because of me? If it's like you said, wasn't it really risky?"
"Not really, Mr. Ha was also there, just in case. As for the why, you were definitely one reason. But you're right, that wasn't all. When I told them what happened during the test, the other two wanted to send a message. To make sure they don't try that again with FUG's Slayer candidate, and leave the tests alone. We couldn't make it an issue between Zahard Empire and FUG, so instead a person who seems to have a mysterious authority over Shinsoo appeared, to warn about the rules of the Tower."
"So, that was actually your power? Why didn't you use it during the spar?"
Axion made a gesture, altering the Shinsoo flows around them for privacy before answering this question.
"That ability only works on Shinsoo while it resembles water, so it's very easy to disrup. It would have been useless against a physical fighter like Mr. Ha that doesn't need Shinsoo to fight, and it doesn't work on something like your flames either. That's why I couldn't just suppress your flames when we were experimenting before. That Ranker was just mentally exhausted and conveniently gave up before figuring out how to get out of it."
"Oh…"
"So it's just a gimmick, but as long as people don't know how it works and its weaknesses, it can be quite useful. If we ever get into a bad spot, don't overestimate me, haha. The line between victory and defeat can be just a hair's breadth. I'm not truly as strong as I appear sometimes, I'm simply good at pretending otherwise."
"I understand. Then, thanks for telling me," said Yihwa. "And for going to bat for me."
Axion nodded, then released the privacy barrier.
"How are you feeling…not physically, but about everything that happened?" He asked.
Yihwa thought for a moment before answering.
"I don't know…this test…it was much worse than what that other supervisor did on the last Floor. At least he never tried to kill anyone. Even now, although the Ruler my family appointed was forced to resign, the family as a whole seems more concerned with getting the Zygaena baby back, putting a bounty on it. Nobody even thought to apologize to me…Ms. Ryua was the only one to send me a message…and she told me everyone is actually suspicious that I've betrayed the family siding with an FUG, so I should find a new team. I can't believe…no, I already suspected, with what you told me before…it's just…" She said, trailing off.
"…this is just how the Tower is. And why there are those that are desperate to change it."
Axion placed his hand over hers and squeezed it. "But you don't need to worry about that for a while. Just get some rest. If you need me, I'll be around for a while."
She nodded, and was soon left to her own thoughts.
O O O
While Wangnan was out with the guys to buy groceries, he raised the issue of removing Viole from the team. But he was shot down by the rest after a heated argument, and they all decided that they would stay on the team with Viole.
When he returned, he informed Jinsung of their choice, that they would find their own path, and offered for him to join them for dinner, which the old master merely sighed at.
Then, still sitting on the water tanker at the top of the house alone, Jinsung said, "Come out, Karaka."
"It's been a while, master," the person named Karaka slunk out of the shadow of the nearby building. He wore a dark robe coat over tight martial arts robes underneath, with a red and black pattern on its edges. His head was fully encased in a round and skeletal grey armor, leaving only yellow eyes visible. It made him look a bit like a mummy.
"Taking care of a kid isn't easier," said Jinsung.
"You should have just left it to me," said Karaka.
"I can't let a kid take care of a kid. Anyways, let's move somewhere else. The Administrator is watching us," said Jinsung. The skies above rumbled and the clouds shifted as if there was an enormous hidden eye there.
After they moved to another spot underneath a tunnel formed of post and lintel frames.
Jinsung congratulated Karaka on climbing the Rankings, while Karaka humbly said it was too early because he wanted to reach higher.
Then he asked why Jinsung hesitated to have blood on his hands.
"…why don't you kill those beside Viole right now, and make him a team with people we can trust to watch him?"
"I told you to leave Viole to me, don't you trust me, Karaka?"
"…I'm just worried that the believers are doubting you. Rumors are spreading among the Elders…that your affection for the Slayer candidate might ruin things."
"Those senile jerks…how dare they doubt me? I betrayed my family for FUG…since that day…I've spent so many dark nights waiting for the right time to come. As if I would ruin it for something like affection. Viole having more friends just means that we have more hostages."
"…"
"And besides, I already arranged for someone I can trust to watch him," said Jinsung.
"That quack researcher from the 20th Floor…who is not even on his team…?" Karaka asked. "You think he's enough to watch the boy?"
"Oh but he is on Viole's team…or at least his puppet is," said Jinsung. "Don't underestimate him. He's much more than he appears."
Karaka asked. "Pri Dua Liti…he suddenly appeared two years ago, setting up an illegal lab with FUG's help. I asked Augusgus, but he only said that it was recommended by the Guide and the Deep Sea Fish to cooperate, but he knew nothing about the man himself…other than his work in creating some weak enhancement drugs for Regulars. Who is he?"
"Well, I don't know about all that. But he's my new student," said Jinsung.
Karaka gave him a doubtful look. "You only teach Slayers. Are you saying that you're nominating him to be a Slayer too?"
"Not yet. Since Viole is going off on his own now, it might get boring, so I decided to teach another promising student. Maybe it'll pay off later."
"Not…yet? Master…perhaps at your age you no longer feel the same urgency to act…but it will not look that way to the others. For you to spend your time teaching someone who is not a Slayer candidate…it might seem as if you now have priorities other than our goal."
"We can't always take the frontal approach. Technique and finesse allow us to handle more complex challenges. Haven't I taught you that long ago?"
"Perhaps as his senior, I should evaluate if your new student is truly 'promising'," said Karaka.
"Don't be reckless, Karaka. My student may still be a Regular and not even a Slayer candidate yet…but I accepted him as my student for a reason. Yesterday, I saw with my own eyes a Ranker at his mercy, defeated in a single strike."
"That's preposterous. No Regular can defeat a Ranker, no matter how talented. Even Adori Zahard was A-Rank and almost a Ranker, before she performed the feat," said Karaka.
Ha Jinsung smiled. "And yet he is the one that made the Zahard Empire to back off from trying to kill our Slayer candidate's team, forcing them acknowledge that the tests must be administered fairly, and the Yeon family to remove their appointed Ruler on this Floor out of disgrace for a new one."
"…that was him?" Karaka was taken aback. "It was a mere Regular, not a messenger sent by the Administrator?"
"Is that what people are saying? Well, that might not be inaccurate, either. Who knows what the Administrator is thinking? Everything that happens on this Floor happens with his permission."
"But how could he have such power over Shinsoo? Does he have something similar to that man on the 43rd Floor? Or the thing we extracted? Was that the true nature of his research?"
Jinsung shrugged. "That's not even the most interesting part about him. Anyways, my decision has already been made, and I've got my plans. I'm going to teach him for a while, and we've got a bunch more hostages, with Dua Liti's agent watching Viole. Relay what I've told you to the Slayers and Elders."
"…Yes sir. I'll return for now then," said Karaka, bowing.
"Ok, why don't you dine with me? It's been a while," said Jinsung. "The Guide told me there's an extraordinary restaurant nearby."
"I'm sorry master. You know I don't take off my mask…in front of someone I can't trust," said Karaka. "See you next time, master."
His former student walked away, leaving Jinsung to sigh, before putting the 'cigarette' in his mouth, that Wangnan bought for him. The lollipop tasted sour. "I shouldn't have refused Wangnan…" He said to himself, thinking about the Regular's offer earlier for him to join them at dinner where they'd be having sweet and sour pork.
Eventually Jinsung went on his own over to the restaurant Hwa Ryun had told him about.
"Oh, you kids were still here…?" He said, approaching the table where Hwa Ryun and Axion sat. He looked at their plates which were already mostly finished. "Am I interrupting your date?"
"Not at all. We reserved a seat for you, teacher," said Axion.
"Don't mind me then," said Jinsung, sitting down beside Hwa Ryun, facing Axion.
"How did your talk go with your old student?" asked Hwa Ryun.
"Well…since you guys were expecting me to join you, you must have some guesses," said Jinsung.
"Not well, then?"
"The damn kid basically said he didn't trust me anymore! Can you believe it?" Jinsung said while taking a bite.
"We'll have to be careful," said Hwa Ryun.
"You don't think he'd actually try anything?" Jinsung asked in between swallowing. "He's gotten arrogant."
"If not him, then someone else who doesn't think Viole deserves our support," said Hwa Ryun.
"I told him bout you too, kid," said Jinsung with his mouth full, pointing a fork at Axion. "Had to, since there'd be questions, bout why I'm teaching somebody else all of a sudden. I told him you were the one who took down that supervisor yesterday. That should be enough to keep him off your back and mine, A Regular that can defeat a Ranker is no joke. Even the Elders shouldn't have any objections this way. But Karaka might still try to test you eventually."
"I understand, whatever you feel is best, teacher," said Axion.
"Unlike the rumors from the Floor of Tests which we never confirmed, they will treat this case seriously, because Mr. Jinsung is the one saying it. They will become interested in you now, but since it's your disguise, they still won't know your true identity. And they can't do anything while you're with Mr. Jinsung," said Hwa Ryun.
Axion nodded. "That's fine then. And I don't mind that much anymore even if they came after me, they won't find me easily unless I want them to."
O O O
Back at Viole's house, Viole was still out cold, but the rest of the team finished a rowdy and cheerful dinner together.
Late in the evening, after both Yihwa and Miseng had gone to sleep, the team sat around the living room resting.
Akraptor spoke to Wangnan. "You said you want to help Viole, but do you have any idea how?"
"I heard about the situation," said Goseng. "But what can we do? We're too weak compared to FUG. We might just be a burden…"
"There has to be a way…" said Wangnan. "I don't know yet, but there must be one. If we have the guts to do it."
Akraptor noticed Horyang's shoulder devil light turning into a brain.
"You're thinking really hard, teddy bear. You got an idea?"
The living ignition weapon looked up, surprised. "No. I was just thinking about what lady Yeon told me."
"Huh? What'd she say? By the way…you never told us how you met the flame thrower," said Wangnan.
"It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you some other day. As for what she said, I asked her about the 'power' she used during the test. Did you guys see it? That spirit which floats around her shoulder," said Horyang.
"Yeah I remember that," said Prince. "What about it? Isn't that just a Yeon family ability? It kinda looks like a flame."
"No, it's something that Dr. Dua gave her to help her control her flames. With it, she can communicate with him, even during a test," said Horyang.
"So that's why we didn't all get barbequed this time?" Wangnan asked.
"But there's more to it, right?" Akraptor asked.
"Not that thing specifically…but the fact that Dua knew what was happening in the test. And then he attacked the supervisor. Earlier today, after Dua came over to check up on her and Viole, they talked, and lady Yeon confirmed to me that it was him," said Horyang.
Wangnan and Akraptor looked far more shocked than the others. They looked at each other for a moment.
"It's just like I said…aren't we too weak compared to FUG?" Goseng asked. "Even that gentle-looking doctor was somebody so strong. They can even retaliate against the test supervisors."
"There's something you guys should know…" said Wangnan. "Maybe that's how we can do it…"
"What?" Goseng asked.
"This is a big secret. So make sure you guys don't say anything about it if we meet other FUGs. That Dr. Dua isn't a real FUG member. He's a double agent," said Wangnan.
"Huh? A double agent? Like a spy?" Prince asked.
"He seems to be one of Viole's old teammates. But we don't know for sure if he's just a spy or if FUG already knows and is holding Viole and the rest of their friends hostage against him too," said Akraptor.
"Whaaat? That's crazy," said Prince.
"And don't say anything in front of Viole either," said Akraptor. "He doesn't know about Dua."
"Wait, why can't we tell Viole?" Goseng asked. "Don't we want him to meet his friends?"
"Because Viole's an Irregular that the Zahard Empire tried to kill on the 2nd Floor, and they think he's dead. If he blows his own cover and it gets out that he's still alive and getting stronger…they'll try to kill him again," said Akraptor.
"But they're also trying to kill him for being a Slayer candidate," said Goseng.
"Yes but he has FUG to protect him for now—as long as he acts like a proper Slayer candidate and doesn't meet his old friends," said Akraptor.
"Damn, so he's screwed if he meets his friends too? How exactly do we help him then?" Prince asked.
"Dua said that Viole should become strong enough to survive without FUG first, but if Dua himself is already that strong…"
"He might be the key," said Wangnan. "But how is that even possible? Isn't it he also a Regular that entered the Tower at the same time as Viole?"
"Lady Yeon did say that he's not as strong as he appeared to be. There was some sort of trickery involved during the attack and he had the Guide's help…he can't defeat a Ranker on his own in a straight fight," said Horyang.
Akraptor nodded. "That would explain it. He still isn't strong enough on his own, so he's working with FUG as the lesser evil."
"I've got it. This is what we'll do. Akraptor, you go talk to Dua tomorrow. I'll talk to that Guide…I don't fully understand it yet…but I think they're both on Viole's side. They must have told us about Viole's secrets for a reason…there must be something they want us to do. And if that's the case, there might just be a chance," said Wangnan.
O O O
The next day, Wangnan met Hwa Ryun in the living room, while Akraptor met Dr. Dua in the kitchen.
"…I heard you're a Guide," said Wangnan, sitting across the coffee table.
"What about it? Have you got anywhere you wanna go?" Hwa Ryun asked.
"Show me the way to get to Viole's friends."
"…why should I? I'm an FUG member. A Guide only shows the path to those who can take it," said Hwa Ryun.
"You told me Viole's secrets because I can take that path, right? Then I'll take it," said Wangnan.
"Is it out of sympathy? Or is it to achieve your goals…prince of the red-light district?"
Wangnan didn't answer. Hwa Ryun held up the lollipop he bought. "Well, it doesn't matter to me. I'll tell you…"
Meanwhile, with Akraptor…
"…we've all decided, we want to help Viole," said Akraptor. "You must also have a plan right? How do we get Viole back to where he belongs?"
"Our old team split up a couple of years ago. The circumstances are complicated, but the important part is…everyone is going to meet up on the 30th Floor," said Dr. Dua. "That's because…"
"…the Workshop has a branch on every Floor but there are only seven main branches. One of them is on the 30th Floor. Every five years, an event is hosted there called the Workshop Battle, for E-Rank Regulars to compete to win great prizes from the Workshop…" said both Hwa Ryun and Dr. Dua.
"…but FUG has also been working with the Workshop to research the ultimate weapon and how to merge it with a living person…" said Dr. Dua.
"…but you only have two years until the next Workshop Battle…" said Hwa Ryun. "It might be difficult for this team full of defects…"
"…if we can find out where they're hiding the weapon and get the data, then we can give it to Viole…"
"…if you can get there in two years, and join the battle, you can meet Viole's friends," said Hwa Ryun.
"…and with that power, he might become strong enough to forge a new path," said Dua.
"…it's in our interest for Viole to climb fast, so if you're willing to do it, then I'll Guide the way," said Hwa Ryun. "And Dr. Dua will help you recover faster after every test, so there will be no excuse for slacking."
O O O
Wangnan, Akraptor, and the whole team got together after, reporting the results of their discussions.
"So they're basically telling us to do the same thing. We need to head for the Workshop on the 30th Floor," said Wangnan. "Both his friends and the weapon will be there."
"Nine floors in two years," said Akraptor. "That's going to be tough. Are you guys up for it?"
"Of course! I'll definitely get stronger, so you can rely on me!" Yihwa exclaimed.
"No way we're relying on you, I'll become stronger so everyone can rely on me!" Prince said.
"No, I'll become stronger than either of you!" said Wangnan.
"Don't overestimate yourself," said Akraptor. "There's no way you can do it."
"What? You're supposed to be encouraging me!"
"You're the leader, you're supposed to encourage everyone else, while we use you as our punching bag to feel better about ourselves," said Akraptor.
"Ugh! Why me?" Wangnan cried crocodile tears.
"Hah! Face reality, you monkey!" Yihwa said. "Just be glad that Viole isn't the only strong person on this team."
"Aren't you the one overestimating yourself? You can't even do your share of the cooking!" Wangnan said.
"Settle down," said Horyang. "Even if we climb that fast, there's still the Workshop Battle itself…and getting to the weapon. If the researchers are who I think they are…that will be the hardest part."
"Hm? You know something about it?" Akraptor asked.
"The Acorn Workshop. It's where the 'Devil' in my right arm was implanted into me. Where they research Living Ignition Weapons," said Horyang. "That ultimate weapon must be the true reason for all the experiments they did."
"I'm sensing a story here…" said Wangnan.
"Lady Yeon, when we first met, Dr. Dua was also the one who sent you to me to ask about Living Ignition Weapons, wasn't he?" Horyang asked Yihwa. "It makes sense now. He must have found out about the experiments after infiltrating FUG."
She nodded. "Yeah…that must be it."
"What are you guys talking about?" Wangnan asked. "Come on, fill the rest of us in!"
And so Horyang told them about his history with the Workshop, and the first time he met Yihwa.
"That's terrible…" said Goseng. "How could there be such horrible people?"
"That's all the more reason we have to help Viole get away from these people," said Yihwa.
"But for now, all we can do is get stronger and focus on the next test," said Wangnan. "Two years…we can definitely make it if we work hard."
O O O
A/N: This is kind of an arc epilogue chapter, just showing how MC is making subtle changes, how it's perceived, but also stay under the radar of more dangerous entities. There's going to be at least one more smaller arc in ToG, then we might do a short break to another plane, but probably come back for the big events at the end of ToG's season 2, since that's got a lot of interesting stuff with higher stakes.
This story really loses alot when I refuse to watch the source material for the world he is in. Can't hardly tell what if anything is changed. I think it's well written the way it is though. If you go through explaining canon all the time it will be a clumsy read instead of smooth flowing.
- Location
- England
Just finished binging this, I came in with extremely low expectations and was pleasantly surprised by the quality on offer. There are a number of stumbles in the story, the most obvious being the weak opening chapter, and the loss of Agate, but the Main Character is more than strong enough to carry the weak points. He's such an odd mix of amoral bastard and genuinely helpful that I've never quite seen before.
I especially want to compliment on on your handling of Hwa Ryun. Now, I have zero context for Tower of God since I haven't heard of it before this, but the they bounce off of each-other in such an enjoyable way to witness. It's almost like he's genuinely flirting with her, not only to get her on side but to mean it on some level. And the way she's capable of handling him, being very firm that she knows he's a narcissistic bastard, and if he ever wants their "game" to go anywhere he needs to actually risk his heart a little to her. She's not going to reciprocate any advances unless he's willing to genuinely try, and how he's actually reflecting on that and questioning if he can really do that? It's good shit.
The story does seem to have gotten a bit bogged down in Tower of God, but since I don't know the original everything is completely fresh to me, so I'm enjoying the hell out of it anyway. I can't really agree with the above comment about things that do/do not change, but that's only because I lack the original context entirely.
Closing thoughts: I'm sorry Amy, but I ship your emotional dependency with Hwa. And hooo boy Yihwa is gonna have her soul shatter if she ever uncovers exactly what the good doctor was doing before she met him, literal Orochimaru & Anko moment, she even has the soul/spirit implanted into her via mark.
I especially want to compliment on on your handling of Hwa Ryun. Now, I have zero context for Tower of God since I haven't heard of it before this, but the they bounce off of each-other in such an enjoyable way to witness. It's almost like he's genuinely flirting with her, not only to get her on side but to mean it on some level. And the way she's capable of handling him, being very firm that she knows he's a narcissistic bastard, and if he ever wants their "game" to go anywhere he needs to actually risk his heart a little to her. She's not going to reciprocate any advances unless he's willing to genuinely try, and how he's actually reflecting on that and questioning if he can really do that? It's good shit.
The story does seem to have gotten a bit bogged down in Tower of God, but since I don't know the original everything is completely fresh to me, so I'm enjoying the hell out of it anyway. I can't really agree with the above comment about things that do/do not change, but that's only because I lack the original context entirely.
Closing thoughts: I'm sorry Amy, but I ship your emotional dependency with Hwa. And hooo boy Yihwa is gonna have her soul shatter if she ever uncovers exactly what the good doctor was doing before she met him, literal Orochimaru & Anko moment, she even has the soul/spirit implanted into her via mark.
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Appreciate the detailed feedback! I'm glad you like the interactions with Hwa Ryun. She is a particularly difficult character to write and I want to stay true to her canonical portrayal.
I've always thought the opening chapter was weak, even after it was rewritten, but it's too late change now. In retrospect, starting in media res at the Panacea scene would probably have been more exciting, but I was less experienced then.
About the crest spirit, I can't deny that Orochimaru was one of the inspirations for it and I'm glad it comes across that way.
Also, quick update for everyone else, the next chapter was delayed from the usual biweekly schedule as I'm rewriting the next arc. It will come soon, and I'm excited about the new direction I'm taking with it. I hope it will be as fun for all of you as it is for me writing it. The story will return to more of having his own story with the canon in the background.
I am not sure why you wouldn't agree?
Knowing that these characters had entire plot arcs destined for them, and how the main character is manipulating them to use that to his advantage, is a whole entire layer of enjoyment that we are both missing out on. He could be subtlety doing a dozen different things that fly completely over our heads that we could laugh or cry about. We could be speculating about the foreshadowing of his evil master plan, instead of not noticing if anything in a chapter was that foreshadowing. Already things are massively derailed, but we don't know enough to absorb it.
But I had also urged not to Stop in the middle of the actually good story telling to go back and explain who all these people and factions even are, or even the consequences and intention of all his meddling. As one of the people who would allegedly benefit the most from having more of that sort of knowledge I am one of those that can most say it is better not to have it in the way of the story being told.
Knowing that these characters had entire plot arcs destined for them, and how the main character is manipulating them to use that to his advantage, is a whole entire layer of enjoyment that we are both missing out on. He could be subtlety doing a dozen different things that fly completely over our heads that we could laugh or cry about. We could be speculating about the foreshadowing of his evil master plan, instead of not noticing if anything in a chapter was that foreshadowing. Already things are massively derailed, but we don't know enough to absorb it.
But I had also urged not to Stop in the middle of the actually good story telling to go back and explain who all these people and factions even are, or even the consequences and intention of all his meddling. As one of the people who would allegedly benefit the most from having more of that sort of knowledge I am one of those that can most say it is better not to have it in the way of the story being told.
68 – Shinsoo Flow
68 – Shinsoo Flow
"Start vibrating the Shinsoo while it's in your body, let it build up along a path, hold it at the edge, then push it out all at once!" Ha Jinsung instructed.
I followed the instructions and attempted to attack the golem, releasing…nothing visible.
"No, focus on the Shinsoo, not your arm's physical movement!"
…
"Feel the Shinsoo as I push it into you," said Ha Jinsung, palm against my chest.
I coughed out blood as his Shinsoo vibrated through my whole body.
…
"You do realize that unlike Viole, I don't learn from attacks hitting me, right?" I asked while stuck in an uncomfortable mid-motion pose, fallen on the ground.
"Hah! I'm not expecting you to. The point of this exercise is for you to understand your own flow better, since you're not making any progress with even the basics of Reverse Flow. Just stay there until you can break out of it on your own, without any cheating. It'll wear off in a few hours if you can't even do that," said Ha Jinsung.
…
"This stupid student dares to slack off after all I did for him?! Where the hell is he?" Ha Jinsung's voice could be heard in the distance.
"What do you mean slacking off, I'm right here!" I shouted. "It's just not working!"
Jinsung appeared around the corner of the cave wall.
"What the…why are you…? Oh shit, have you been stuck here since I hit you three days ago? I must have overestimated your resistance and overpowered it. Sorry, kid!"
…
"Let's try this another way. Why do you think Floral Butterfly and Fast Skip are both Reverse Flow techniques? What's the relation between them?"
"Because…they both try to reverse the flow of Shinsoo in the opponent?"
"But what does that actually mean? What even is 'flow'? If they both reverse the flow, why does one technique paralyze, and the other destroy?"
"I don't know," I said, but I was certainly curious to find out. Understanding the secrets of Shinsoo was a key reason to study under a master like Ha Jinsung, after all. "I can see why Lighthouse Flow Control and Fast Skip are both Reverse Flow because they use Shinsoo control to interfere with the Shinsoo inside of an opponent and around them, but I don't know how that relates to the vibrations used in Floral Butterfly Piercing."
"It's because everything in the Tower has flow, and it isn't a singular property of a whole being, or a physical current like running water. It exists in the smallest speck of dust and in every one of our cells, in souls, and it can even exist when there is no Shinsoo. Smaller flows aggregate to form bigger ones, and all flows resist other flows or form part of more complex systems. Different flows exhibit different attributes or properties, which then affect whatever thing is expressing that flow. Rather than thinking of your body having Shinsoo with flow, you should think of it as having a flow which can be expressed physically from your body."
"Then, the reason the two techniques do different things, is because they are targeting different flows within the same body? Or different components?"
"Yes. The Floral Butterfly Piercing technique is aimed at piercing through an opponent's Shinsoo Resistance and other defenses. It specializes in disruption at the point of contact. Fast Skip is to stop the opponent's entire Shinsoo flow at range. The principle of reverse-flow control, is therefore not about reversing any direction, but about reversing the normal order of control: reading and then attacking the flow of Shinsoo in order to influence the physical, rather than using the physical to influence the flow, which is the true essence of the target. Now that you know this, try to get a feel for the flow of different things, both living and nonliving. I will help by stopping parts of my own flow so that you can try to distinguish between different aspects of my body."
…
I meditated with the water spirits while attempting to comprehend the ideas Ha Jinsung taught, while Ha Jinsung played around with Derflinger channeling far more Shinsoo at a high level than the sword spirit ever had the opportunity to experience before.
Focus on individual flows. Separate the parts from the whole. Smaller.
Vibrate, build up, push.
I had always known that Shinsoo was a miraculous substance, but the explanation from Ha Jinsung made that even clearer.
If 'flow' was something fundamental to the nature of a thing, to its essence and the way it interacted with the world, wasn't it something deeply related to Mystery of magic, as a sort of mystic building block to construct reality as we knew it?
The terminology was a bit awkward, but for flow to exist even in the total absence of Shinsoo meant that it wasn't truly a property of Shinsoo, but rather something that Shinsoo allowed its users to comprehend and access.
The most important thing I could learn about Shinsoo wasn't in the specific techniques, most of which I might not be able to use outside of the Tower in other planes.
It was all the truths that it revealed about reality itself! Because only by grasping these truths could I leverage them to use universal principles across the planes, integrating different abilities and theories, thereby finding methods that could be adapted to local laws and concepts, wielding great power even when the planes sought to deny me.
…
I examined the arranged objects on my table carefully once more, with both Structural Analysis and Shinsoo senses.
'Wait…this sensation…are these also vibrations? Why would a normal toaster have Shinsoo vibrations?'
I checked the other objects one by one, and found that among the ones I brought from outside the Tower more recently, I either couldn't feel it, or it was too minuscule to detect.
But the objects which were produced in the Tower, yet not based on Shinsoo technology and didn't use Shinsoo in any way, still contained this sensation. They were otherwise identical to mundane appliances from Worm.
I had tried to figure out the reason such mundane tech malfunctioned only when brought from other planes over the years, but had no luck uncovering the reason. All I'd been able to do was use mana Reinforcement to temporarily prolong their durability, but advanced electronics would inevitably break down for no discernible reason after being in the Tower for too long, faster if I actively used them.
This was the first time I'd uncovered a clue.
…
"At least you're starting to feel something. Learning the technique itself will take years, we're going to do some other basic Shinsoo exercises in the meantime. You can never go wrong by improving the basics," said Ha Jinsung, taking up a stance and ordering me to do the same.
…
"Maybe I've been thinking about this the wrong way. Why does Mana Reinforcement prevent or delay the breakdown of extraplanar tech, instead of making it worse, if the problem was similar to Rejection? Now that I know the local tech somehow has Shinsoo flows in them, it must be something to do with Shinsoo, or the lack of flow," I said aloud.
I tried to Reinforce both the local tech and the extraplanar tech, and observe the differences.
"Wait, that's it! The flow gets stronger when I Reinforce it, just like it does when I Reinforce my body. Although nothing seems to be happening with the extraplanar tech, couldn't it just be that I'm not sensitive enough to detect the difference? The same way I couldn't feel this flow before."
"That's a good point. By the way, I think this 'flow' is actually the same thing as Shinsoo resistance. Or it gives Shinsoo resistance," said Derflinger. "The thing that one guy said about swords in the Tower way back was true, you know. The more we've gone up, the more I can feel pressure against my surface, especially on the flat side, which awkwardly alters the trajectory of my blade, since it's uneven compared to the edge. But when that master used Ignition with me and channeled Shinsoo, it was as if there was no pressure at all."
"That makes sense. Aside from the Arie swords, all other higher level swords I know about seem to be Ignition Weapons. Then, according to this theory, the problem with the extraplanar tech must be a total lack of Shinsoo resistance. Is it even possible for inanimate objects to develop it? Or maybe it just takes too long compared to how fast they break down!"
…
Fake out. Move inside guard. Strike. Retract while Shinsoo is pushed out.
"Too slow! Time a small Shinsoo burst from your feet to launch yourself forward in the middle instead of being so obvious!" Ha Jinsung shouted, smacking my arm away, causing it to burst with blood and pain, then getting inside my guard with the same palm technique I had tried. "And you can dodge back the same way, you fool, don't just stand there looking stupid!"
His palm hit me, then blood and innards blew out of my body like a fountain.
At some point Ha Jinsung had figured out how to transmit damage around the Endbringer internal armor I had, and simply cause other parts to explode.
Not that he needed to go around to hurt me.
…
"What are you trying to make now?" Derflinger asked, floating around me as I added reagents to the 'cell culture' I was growing, and taking notes on the process.
Having no permanent base to make a proper Workshop, I had ultimately set up shop inside my own Lighthouse.
"I'm trying to upgrade my clone familiar idea into something more powerful, actually deserving the name of clone. The old Beastiont version with Androssi can barely use any magic or Shinsoo, same with the corpse puppets. What it needs is a proper power core of its own, like how the Symbiotic Spirit Crest draws from an independent host, except it shouldn't be another person that can interfere with my will. It shouldn't even have residues," I explained.
"Weren't you concerned before about a clone having too much independence and becoming a risk, especially if it somehow became its own soul? What changed?" Derf asked.
"That's still a problem, I'm not trying to make an actual full clone. Like I said, the issue is having a power core to increase its range and combat strength. Even if a clone got its own soul somehow, it won't necessarily have access to magic, not having circuits. I don't have the means of creating a homunculi after all," I said.
"Then how are you going to make a power core? That doesn't feel like something that would hold much mana," said Derf, observing the mass of cells and reagents in the tank. "Even if you're using the Endbringer flesh, that stuff doesn't hold much mana naturally without a spirit bound to it, and the spirit you gave that girl doesn't really qualify."
"Of course, the spiritual weight is too low on its own without a host. However, I have an idea to convince the water spirits to split off a large enough concentration of spirits to make it work," I said.
"Oh, what's that?"
"Before, when I tried to ask them directly, they sent a tiny cluster from the stone's main group, barely enough to survive on their own, and aren't even really compatible with a different vessel. But I realized that I have more pull with the new peripheral spirits that occupy parts of my body now."
After years of growth, the water stone had started to periodically incubate some new subordinate lesser spirits that left the stone itself to cohabit my body directly. It was partly through observing this process that I created the Crest Spirit which I implanted in Yihwa in the first place.
"Basically, I'm going to incubate a power core as an organ inside my body to trick them into thinking it's just another part of me," I said, "then I'll have to sacrifice maybe a year's worth of the new peripheral spirits I have most control of to achieve the necessary density."
"Ohoho, what? Say that again? Incubate it inside your body? So you're going to impregnate yourself? Hahahaha!"
"Very funny. No, it's just going to be the same thing I originally did with the water stone, creating an extra organ for it, and slowly guide the peripheral spirits into it. Now, if this is going to work properly, you also need to do some work."
"Me? What?"
"If the power core works well, the upgraded clone familiar will be more like an avatar that can use almost all of my abilities, even if at a degraded level. To make it as realistic and difficult to detect as possible as my body double, it should also be capable of using you. But if I'm operating it remotely, I don't want you to be at risk of being stolen if the clone is defeated, so you also need some sort of body double you can control to replicate your powers."
"And what do you want me to do about that? That's definitely not one of my abilities," said Derf.
"Just try and find a way to create a new ability," I said.
"You're asking too much, Partner, if I could create a new ability with a snap of a finger don't you think I would've done it a long time ago? I'd have way more abilities than I do now," said Derf.
"Yes, but you managed to learn Shinsoo control, right? Don't just assume it isn't possible. I don't think it's a huge stretch either, this ability should just be an extension of things you can already do. You can transfer your spirit into any inanimate object, and you can take control of a user. Why can't you also just transfer a part of your spirit, then control that remotely like a familiar?"
"I'm not a mage, duh."
"But you are a high level spirit capable of using some manner of magic. It stands to reason that you could possibly copy the water spirits' way of creating weak new spiritual offshoots like I did with the will imprint and Crest Spirit. Then turn it into a familiar of sorts. Or, maybe I could handle the familiar spell and serve as a bridge between you. The point is, we can try it."
"Hmmm…sounds like an awful lot of work…I think I need some extra motivation for this."
"Like what?"
"Let's see, if I have to stay back from the fighting and only use a weak body double, you should at least make the experience pleasant for me, don't you think?"
"Sure. In what way?"
"Hehe. From now on, I want to be wielded by a pretty girl, one who can handle me more tenderly and move with graceful elegance."
"…"
"Don't give me that look. I am completely, one hundred percent serious about this. My creator and first wielder was a girl, you know? After that, they were almost always men, and even if there were a few odd girls, none could ever match her grace, beauty, and power. If I could feel the glory of those days again, maybe I might remember something useful, hmm? If I were in her hands, this kind of spirit magic would be a piece of cake."
I sighed, knowing what Derflinger was talking about. There was some logic to it, though who could say if he was just using it as an excuse?
Actually, I had considered the idea before. In fact, I had no choice but to contemplate it, because of something I had learned about the Kaleidostick after Agate merged back into my main consciousness. It was just that the benefit was marginal yet after I looked into it, I realized it would be somewhat difficult and time consuming to accomplish.
"How exactly do you expect this to be fulfilled?" I asked.
"Hah, I know you can do it, don't hold back on me. Just use your shapeshifting ability."
"That would be a big and complicated modification, that comes with other issues, and according to what you've said, there's no guarantee that you'll actually remember anything useful."
"Oh come on, you can't tell me you've never thought about trying it yourself. Aren't you curious? Here I am giving you a convenient, pragmatic, reason to experiment, and you won't take it?"
"You know my 'shapeshifting' ability with either the Armoriont or Bionanite Swarm isn't that powerful. The mental control interface isn't precise enough to make genetic modifications like this without additional equipment, and even then there could be problems after the editing. It's not magic-based, and things that work off science don't tend to work that easily."
"Couldn't you just ask that girl with the powers for help? I thought she could change living things however she wanted."
"I could, but given her…issues, it's even more dangerous if Amelia is operating, so I won't," I said. "I don't even want to give her the idea, and you'd better not talk about it in front of her."
"I'm sensing a story there…"
"Another time. Best I can do for now is start the experiment with modifying clones, if you aren't satisfied with an undead puppet. Can't make any promises on the timeline."
"Hmm. I don't think that will work, but I won't turn it down. I have a feeling I'll only remember more good stuff if it's you wielding me directly yourself," said Derflinger. "They just don't feel right."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do. The first avatar is reserved though and it needs to retain the Axion body model to serve its purpose. That means…no, actually, it would be better to just make it modular. The power core ought to be plug-and-play into any compatible vessel, so that I could switch it out or retrieve it in case of destruction…"
"Hehehe…" Derflinger chuckled, pleased with himself while I began making notes of new plans.
O O O
"That's it! Shinsoo resistance was really the problem, and this is the solution!" I exclaimed, beholding the results of my experiments.
After using mana reinforcement on a laser gun, then flowing Shinsoo into it carefully as controlled exposure, I had found a way to give it just the barest of Shinsoo resistance, when it obtained a noticeable 'flow'.
And now, after numerous guns had been experimented upon, malfunctioned and broken down, I finally 'enchanted' a gun that was usable normally.
Of course, the gun itself was barely useful to me anymore, but the proof of concept was the key.
I would no longer need to fear advanced technology breaking down after being brought into the Tower, if I could imbue them with a bit of Shinsoo resistance.
It wasn't just advanced technology either. Even cells newly grown and lacking time to acclimatize to the Shinsoo environment suffered more problems the higher we went, similar to how I had problems before the water spirits helped me on the first floor.
All of the Beastionts had issues with this severely limiting their effectiveness in combat, especially with larger biomasses. I had only 'solved' it with Axie because I'd put a mass of water spirits into it. It was a similar story with the planned Spirit Cluster Core which would give my freshly grown clone Shinsoo resistance immediately.
But now…a lot of new tactical options just opened up to me.
O O O
One year later…
The golem's chest cracked and crumbled slightly as Ha Jinsung clapped. I panted heavily, still holding my hand out in a martial stance, having finally learned the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique to a beginner level. For now the effect of it was pretty similar to Reinforcement Break, but its true value lay in what could be possible at higher levels of mastery, and its ability to pierce resistance, whereas Reinforcement Break was easily blocked by any sort of magic resistance or Shinsoo resistance.
"Good work. You've gotten it down much faster than I expected, I guess it's time to get the real training started," said Ha Jinsung.
"Thank you, master. Actually, there's something I wanted to discuss with you," I said, after bowing to him in gratitude.
A few moments later after I explained my plans…
"What, seriously? I don't think you'll get much benefit if you only leave a weak clone with me," said Jinsung.
"I apologize, I would also like to continue this training properly, but it's essential that I go up now. I have something I need to do there that simply can't wait," I said.
"What's the rush though? The Hell Train goes back around every year, you can just take it with Viole, since he'll probably be going in a couple of years himself," said Jinsung.
That was precisely why I needed to go now. It wasn't that I wanted to avoid Viole, but that I wanted to do this before extremely dangerous entities got involved when the plot picked up. Multiple Rankers and Ranker-level combatants would be getting on the Train at that time, so this was the best time to achieve critical objectives without attracting attention.
"There's a special training opportunity that I'm looking for on the Hell Train. I lack talent, so everything takes longer for me. If I wait and get on the train at the same time as Viole, then I'll end up falling far behind. Those who lack talent must make up for it by spending greater time and effort," I said.
"Well, I'm not sure what opportunity you're talking about but…you seem to be assuming that training with me won't be better," said Ha Jinsung.
"Haha, that's not it, it's just that, the skill I can learn on the Hell Train is unique and I really want it," I said. "But as you can see, with my terrible talent I might not even be able to master it in one run through the Hell Train."
"Honestly your talent isn't terrible, I've seen plenty worse, there's no point in comparing to Viole. But it looks like you've made up your mind already, so who am I to say no, it's your choice, anyways, go get your unique skill then," said Jinsung.
"Thank you for understanding, master."
Having learned the minimum necessary for my plans, I set off on my own journey.
O O O
Ship Leesoo's team, including Androssi, had just completed the 30th Floor test, attaining the qualifications to become D-Rank Regulars, if they ascended to the 31st Floor.
This naturally included my Axie familiar that participated with them as Androssi's pet, which meant I also had the qualifications to continue up now.
Ship and Khun had agreed to meet up on the 30th Floor during the Workshop Battle, so Ship intended to wait another year for them to catch up.
However, I had other plans.
While training with Ha Jinsung was immensely helpful, for technical martial arts, Shinsoo manipulation/theory, and direct combat experience using any of my skills against a powerful opponent who had been in countless scenarios over thousands of years, I had one overarching reason to request training from him.
I needed to take a journey on my own, without a summoner, which meant that I needed to rely on Shinsoo while minimizing my use of high level magic, even for battles against potentially very strong opponents.
I didn't plan to take Androssi with me, because this trip was meant to be a secret, though I doubted that she would've been a good companion, even if I wanted to take her.
Despite the supposed "incredible" speed with which we had gone up the early floors, from the perspective of outside observers, the truth was that it had been quite leisurely from my own point of view.
Androssi herself only trained a couple of hours a day at the most, and spent the rest lazing around in luxury comforts or dragging me to faux-dating outings. Having lived for hundreds of years, and being a Tower resident, whose lifespan was practically limitless, her sense of urgency was non-existent. If I tried to pair with her again for this phase of my plans, I sensed that it would soon turn into an exercise in frustration for us both, without other team members to distract her.
And now that I had everything prepared, I could finally continue climbing on my own.
I returned to the apartment I had rented on this Floor near them, and took stock of my belongings.
I usually kept everything important on my person, either in my Arms Inventory, Manbarondenna, or sometimes my Lighthouse. The apartment was just a place where I could check over everything privately.
Manbarondenna, the Compression storage suitcase I got from Khun back on the second floor, continued to be an incredibly useful item.
Inside Manbarondenna were four Canjon-class corpse puppets of the same type I used to infiltrate the 20th Floor test, some basic Armoriont clone familiars, work-in-progress Avatar Bodies, and a fully armed and supplied AAPV.
I should explain the last two.
The Avatar Body was the intended vessel for a second Spirit Cluster Core. Still primarily composed of Armoriont biology, but specially prepared to later receive a Spirit Cluster Core. That was the result of the experiments I did over the course of the year using the peripheral water spirits and my own mana and will.
It was not capable of much autonomy and, unlike the Symbiotic Spirit Crest, wasn't designed to grow its spiritual strength by imprinting on the host. The tiny water spirit cluster might grow, but I guessed it'd be uselessly slow compared to the water stone.
The main differentiator as an "Avatar" was that the spirit cluster allowed it to manipulate Shinsoo at much higher level, so I could use it to exhibit almost the full breadth of my powers, albeit degraded.
Compared to the Canjon-class puppets, whether using a corpse or an Armoriont clone, which lacked significant Shinsoo control skill and could not operate without a nearby mana source, the strategic value was much higher.
So I was incubating a second Spirit Cluster Core, which would probably take another half a year to complete before I could insert it into an Avatar Body.
Of the two Bodies being prepared, one was using the normal Axion model, and the other was the new female model for Derf's request.
The creation of a Spirit Cluster Core was somewhat costly so I did not intend to make too many, since keeping the peripheral spirits within my body had its own benefits. But the body vessels themselves were easier, so I would prepare different ones to be kept in reserve.
As for the AAPV, although Shinsoo Inventory items only worked one-way (that is, they could bring items out of the Tower, but stopped working once opened/Decompressed on another plane and couldn't carry anything for the return trip), this didn't stop me from simply planeshifting with an AAPV and then placing it inside Manbarondenna after arriving in the Tower.
The only issue was that, being the most advanced tech I had, it was at risk of potential catastrophic nuclear meltdown if it started malfunctioning like all the other tech, at least until I figured out the issue with Shinsoo resistance and solved it recently.
With this, I was ready to go.
I left the room and went to the admin center to end my rental contract, then went to a taxi station to hire a Seal taxi (a type of seal-like large Shinheuh) through the fields of clouds that made up most of this Floor, to the Middle Area.
From there, I continued by myself on a Light Cube for a while, until I determined that nobody was around.
Then, I took out the AAPV from Manbarondenna and got inside, and plotted a path for one of the space lanes that went to the next Floor up.
Every Floor was connected to the adjacent floors through many different paths throughout the Middle Area, so there were plenty of ways to get around other than getting teleported by the Test Centers in the Inner Tower or the Administrators.
In general, if a Regular needed to travel between floors for any reason other than passing a test, they would need to take the Middle Area paths.
Some paths were regulated by the Zahard Empire so that only authorized vehicles were permitted to enter. This was the case for most of the major warp gates for commercial traffic.
Other paths were only accessible or navigable to Guides, going through very complicated rough terrain with powerful Shinheuh or strange places like the floating stairs hidden in the dark spaces.
But there were also unregulated natural space routes. Unlike the Zahard Empire warp gates, these did not immediately send the traveling vehicles to the other end of the gate on the new Floor, but instead involved physically passing through an area that was similar to outer space.
These areas were rarely used or visited, so most commercially available vehicles for purchase or charter in the Tower were not designed for this type of travel, which involved going through vacuum areas.
These spaces still had Shinsoo, but it was simply in an unbreathable non-particle form that mimicked the properties of outer space.
As each Floor was continent sized, these areas were correspondingly huge and it would be easy to get lost in with few landmarks, if you were doing anything other than traveling directly to the next Floor via the main connecting lanes.
Ultimately, I chose this method of travel because it was the most efficient for me. As long as I stuck to the main lanes, the AAPV could cross the Floors relatively quickly, as it could travel through both atmosphere and space at high speeds over extended periods.
By doing this, I avoided the travel controls of Zahard Empire, didn't have to deal with scheduling or paying for commercial voyages, and simply rushed up the Floors in a near straight line.
Of course, when using such methods of travel through the Middle Area, a Regular would be unable to go to Floors they were unauthorized for, and would be stopped by the Administrators or teleported back.
Even as an Irregular, although I was less restricted and could go to higher floors if I wanted to, I wouldn't be allowed to skip tests or enter the Inner Tower Regular areas of Floors above my qualifications.
Because my first destination, the Hell Train, was considered a Regular testing zone, even though it was outside of the Inner Tower, the same rule applied. I wouldn't be able to get on without passing the previous Floors' tests first.
So, after a few days of travel with only Derflinger and Offensive Bias for company, I arrived on the 31st Floor.
O O O
A/N: The length of this arc will end up quite a bit longer than I mentioned in a comment before. Update delay was because I rewrote it all in a new direction, MC going off on a separate adventure in the Tower. Should be back to biweekly updates now.
Also thanks to Nidhogg and inphernalmenace, my long-time beta readers who did a lot of work during my revisions.
"Start vibrating the Shinsoo while it's in your body, let it build up along a path, hold it at the edge, then push it out all at once!" Ha Jinsung instructed.
I followed the instructions and attempted to attack the golem, releasing…nothing visible.
"No, focus on the Shinsoo, not your arm's physical movement!"
…
"Feel the Shinsoo as I push it into you," said Ha Jinsung, palm against my chest.
I coughed out blood as his Shinsoo vibrated through my whole body.
…
"You do realize that unlike Viole, I don't learn from attacks hitting me, right?" I asked while stuck in an uncomfortable mid-motion pose, fallen on the ground.
"Hah! I'm not expecting you to. The point of this exercise is for you to understand your own flow better, since you're not making any progress with even the basics of Reverse Flow. Just stay there until you can break out of it on your own, without any cheating. It'll wear off in a few hours if you can't even do that," said Ha Jinsung.
…
"This stupid student dares to slack off after all I did for him?! Where the hell is he?" Ha Jinsung's voice could be heard in the distance.
"What do you mean slacking off, I'm right here!" I shouted. "It's just not working!"
Jinsung appeared around the corner of the cave wall.
"What the…why are you…? Oh shit, have you been stuck here since I hit you three days ago? I must have overestimated your resistance and overpowered it. Sorry, kid!"
…
"Let's try this another way. Why do you think Floral Butterfly and Fast Skip are both Reverse Flow techniques? What's the relation between them?"
"Because…they both try to reverse the flow of Shinsoo in the opponent?"
"But what does that actually mean? What even is 'flow'? If they both reverse the flow, why does one technique paralyze, and the other destroy?"
"I don't know," I said, but I was certainly curious to find out. Understanding the secrets of Shinsoo was a key reason to study under a master like Ha Jinsung, after all. "I can see why Lighthouse Flow Control and Fast Skip are both Reverse Flow because they use Shinsoo control to interfere with the Shinsoo inside of an opponent and around them, but I don't know how that relates to the vibrations used in Floral Butterfly Piercing."
"It's because everything in the Tower has flow, and it isn't a singular property of a whole being, or a physical current like running water. It exists in the smallest speck of dust and in every one of our cells, in souls, and it can even exist when there is no Shinsoo. Smaller flows aggregate to form bigger ones, and all flows resist other flows or form part of more complex systems. Different flows exhibit different attributes or properties, which then affect whatever thing is expressing that flow. Rather than thinking of your body having Shinsoo with flow, you should think of it as having a flow which can be expressed physically from your body."
"Then, the reason the two techniques do different things, is because they are targeting different flows within the same body? Or different components?"
"Yes. The Floral Butterfly Piercing technique is aimed at piercing through an opponent's Shinsoo Resistance and other defenses. It specializes in disruption at the point of contact. Fast Skip is to stop the opponent's entire Shinsoo flow at range. The principle of reverse-flow control, is therefore not about reversing any direction, but about reversing the normal order of control: reading and then attacking the flow of Shinsoo in order to influence the physical, rather than using the physical to influence the flow, which is the true essence of the target. Now that you know this, try to get a feel for the flow of different things, both living and nonliving. I will help by stopping parts of my own flow so that you can try to distinguish between different aspects of my body."
…
I meditated with the water spirits while attempting to comprehend the ideas Ha Jinsung taught, while Ha Jinsung played around with Derflinger channeling far more Shinsoo at a high level than the sword spirit ever had the opportunity to experience before.
Focus on individual flows. Separate the parts from the whole. Smaller.
Vibrate, build up, push.
I had always known that Shinsoo was a miraculous substance, but the explanation from Ha Jinsung made that even clearer.
If 'flow' was something fundamental to the nature of a thing, to its essence and the way it interacted with the world, wasn't it something deeply related to Mystery of magic, as a sort of mystic building block to construct reality as we knew it?
The terminology was a bit awkward, but for flow to exist even in the total absence of Shinsoo meant that it wasn't truly a property of Shinsoo, but rather something that Shinsoo allowed its users to comprehend and access.
The most important thing I could learn about Shinsoo wasn't in the specific techniques, most of which I might not be able to use outside of the Tower in other planes.
It was all the truths that it revealed about reality itself! Because only by grasping these truths could I leverage them to use universal principles across the planes, integrating different abilities and theories, thereby finding methods that could be adapted to local laws and concepts, wielding great power even when the planes sought to deny me.
…
I examined the arranged objects on my table carefully once more, with both Structural Analysis and Shinsoo senses.
'Wait…this sensation…are these also vibrations? Why would a normal toaster have Shinsoo vibrations?'
I checked the other objects one by one, and found that among the ones I brought from outside the Tower more recently, I either couldn't feel it, or it was too minuscule to detect.
But the objects which were produced in the Tower, yet not based on Shinsoo technology and didn't use Shinsoo in any way, still contained this sensation. They were otherwise identical to mundane appliances from Worm.
I had tried to figure out the reason such mundane tech malfunctioned only when brought from other planes over the years, but had no luck uncovering the reason. All I'd been able to do was use mana Reinforcement to temporarily prolong their durability, but advanced electronics would inevitably break down for no discernible reason after being in the Tower for too long, faster if I actively used them.
This was the first time I'd uncovered a clue.
…
"At least you're starting to feel something. Learning the technique itself will take years, we're going to do some other basic Shinsoo exercises in the meantime. You can never go wrong by improving the basics," said Ha Jinsung, taking up a stance and ordering me to do the same.
…
"Maybe I've been thinking about this the wrong way. Why does Mana Reinforcement prevent or delay the breakdown of extraplanar tech, instead of making it worse, if the problem was similar to Rejection? Now that I know the local tech somehow has Shinsoo flows in them, it must be something to do with Shinsoo, or the lack of flow," I said aloud.
I tried to Reinforce both the local tech and the extraplanar tech, and observe the differences.
"Wait, that's it! The flow gets stronger when I Reinforce it, just like it does when I Reinforce my body. Although nothing seems to be happening with the extraplanar tech, couldn't it just be that I'm not sensitive enough to detect the difference? The same way I couldn't feel this flow before."
"That's a good point. By the way, I think this 'flow' is actually the same thing as Shinsoo resistance. Or it gives Shinsoo resistance," said Derflinger. "The thing that one guy said about swords in the Tower way back was true, you know. The more we've gone up, the more I can feel pressure against my surface, especially on the flat side, which awkwardly alters the trajectory of my blade, since it's uneven compared to the edge. But when that master used Ignition with me and channeled Shinsoo, it was as if there was no pressure at all."
"That makes sense. Aside from the Arie swords, all other higher level swords I know about seem to be Ignition Weapons. Then, according to this theory, the problem with the extraplanar tech must be a total lack of Shinsoo resistance. Is it even possible for inanimate objects to develop it? Or maybe it just takes too long compared to how fast they break down!"
…
Fake out. Move inside guard. Strike. Retract while Shinsoo is pushed out.
"Too slow! Time a small Shinsoo burst from your feet to launch yourself forward in the middle instead of being so obvious!" Ha Jinsung shouted, smacking my arm away, causing it to burst with blood and pain, then getting inside my guard with the same palm technique I had tried. "And you can dodge back the same way, you fool, don't just stand there looking stupid!"
His palm hit me, then blood and innards blew out of my body like a fountain.
At some point Ha Jinsung had figured out how to transmit damage around the Endbringer internal armor I had, and simply cause other parts to explode.
Not that he needed to go around to hurt me.
…
"What are you trying to make now?" Derflinger asked, floating around me as I added reagents to the 'cell culture' I was growing, and taking notes on the process.
Having no permanent base to make a proper Workshop, I had ultimately set up shop inside my own Lighthouse.
"I'm trying to upgrade my clone familiar idea into something more powerful, actually deserving the name of clone. The old Beastiont version with Androssi can barely use any magic or Shinsoo, same with the corpse puppets. What it needs is a proper power core of its own, like how the Symbiotic Spirit Crest draws from an independent host, except it shouldn't be another person that can interfere with my will. It shouldn't even have residues," I explained.
"Weren't you concerned before about a clone having too much independence and becoming a risk, especially if it somehow became its own soul? What changed?" Derf asked.
"That's still a problem, I'm not trying to make an actual full clone. Like I said, the issue is having a power core to increase its range and combat strength. Even if a clone got its own soul somehow, it won't necessarily have access to magic, not having circuits. I don't have the means of creating a homunculi after all," I said.
"Then how are you going to make a power core? That doesn't feel like something that would hold much mana," said Derf, observing the mass of cells and reagents in the tank. "Even if you're using the Endbringer flesh, that stuff doesn't hold much mana naturally without a spirit bound to it, and the spirit you gave that girl doesn't really qualify."
"Of course, the spiritual weight is too low on its own without a host. However, I have an idea to convince the water spirits to split off a large enough concentration of spirits to make it work," I said.
"Oh, what's that?"
"Before, when I tried to ask them directly, they sent a tiny cluster from the stone's main group, barely enough to survive on their own, and aren't even really compatible with a different vessel. But I realized that I have more pull with the new peripheral spirits that occupy parts of my body now."
After years of growth, the water stone had started to periodically incubate some new subordinate lesser spirits that left the stone itself to cohabit my body directly. It was partly through observing this process that I created the Crest Spirit which I implanted in Yihwa in the first place.
"Basically, I'm going to incubate a power core as an organ inside my body to trick them into thinking it's just another part of me," I said, "then I'll have to sacrifice maybe a year's worth of the new peripheral spirits I have most control of to achieve the necessary density."
"Ohoho, what? Say that again? Incubate it inside your body? So you're going to impregnate yourself? Hahahaha!"
"Very funny. No, it's just going to be the same thing I originally did with the water stone, creating an extra organ for it, and slowly guide the peripheral spirits into it. Now, if this is going to work properly, you also need to do some work."
"Me? What?"
"If the power core works well, the upgraded clone familiar will be more like an avatar that can use almost all of my abilities, even if at a degraded level. To make it as realistic and difficult to detect as possible as my body double, it should also be capable of using you. But if I'm operating it remotely, I don't want you to be at risk of being stolen if the clone is defeated, so you also need some sort of body double you can control to replicate your powers."
"And what do you want me to do about that? That's definitely not one of my abilities," said Derf.
"Just try and find a way to create a new ability," I said.
"You're asking too much, Partner, if I could create a new ability with a snap of a finger don't you think I would've done it a long time ago? I'd have way more abilities than I do now," said Derf.
"Yes, but you managed to learn Shinsoo control, right? Don't just assume it isn't possible. I don't think it's a huge stretch either, this ability should just be an extension of things you can already do. You can transfer your spirit into any inanimate object, and you can take control of a user. Why can't you also just transfer a part of your spirit, then control that remotely like a familiar?"
"I'm not a mage, duh."
"But you are a high level spirit capable of using some manner of magic. It stands to reason that you could possibly copy the water spirits' way of creating weak new spiritual offshoots like I did with the will imprint and Crest Spirit. Then turn it into a familiar of sorts. Or, maybe I could handle the familiar spell and serve as a bridge between you. The point is, we can try it."
"Hmmm…sounds like an awful lot of work…I think I need some extra motivation for this."
"Like what?"
"Let's see, if I have to stay back from the fighting and only use a weak body double, you should at least make the experience pleasant for me, don't you think?"
"Sure. In what way?"
"Hehe. From now on, I want to be wielded by a pretty girl, one who can handle me more tenderly and move with graceful elegance."
"…"
"Don't give me that look. I am completely, one hundred percent serious about this. My creator and first wielder was a girl, you know? After that, they were almost always men, and even if there were a few odd girls, none could ever match her grace, beauty, and power. If I could feel the glory of those days again, maybe I might remember something useful, hmm? If I were in her hands, this kind of spirit magic would be a piece of cake."
I sighed, knowing what Derflinger was talking about. There was some logic to it, though who could say if he was just using it as an excuse?
Actually, I had considered the idea before. In fact, I had no choice but to contemplate it, because of something I had learned about the Kaleidostick after Agate merged back into my main consciousness. It was just that the benefit was marginal yet after I looked into it, I realized it would be somewhat difficult and time consuming to accomplish.
"How exactly do you expect this to be fulfilled?" I asked.
"Hah, I know you can do it, don't hold back on me. Just use your shapeshifting ability."
"That would be a big and complicated modification, that comes with other issues, and according to what you've said, there's no guarantee that you'll actually remember anything useful."
"Oh come on, you can't tell me you've never thought about trying it yourself. Aren't you curious? Here I am giving you a convenient, pragmatic, reason to experiment, and you won't take it?"
"You know my 'shapeshifting' ability with either the Armoriont or Bionanite Swarm isn't that powerful. The mental control interface isn't precise enough to make genetic modifications like this without additional equipment, and even then there could be problems after the editing. It's not magic-based, and things that work off science don't tend to work that easily."
"Couldn't you just ask that girl with the powers for help? I thought she could change living things however she wanted."
"I could, but given her…issues, it's even more dangerous if Amelia is operating, so I won't," I said. "I don't even want to give her the idea, and you'd better not talk about it in front of her."
"I'm sensing a story there…"
"Another time. Best I can do for now is start the experiment with modifying clones, if you aren't satisfied with an undead puppet. Can't make any promises on the timeline."
"Hmm. I don't think that will work, but I won't turn it down. I have a feeling I'll only remember more good stuff if it's you wielding me directly yourself," said Derflinger. "They just don't feel right."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do. The first avatar is reserved though and it needs to retain the Axion body model to serve its purpose. That means…no, actually, it would be better to just make it modular. The power core ought to be plug-and-play into any compatible vessel, so that I could switch it out or retrieve it in case of destruction…"
"Hehehe…" Derflinger chuckled, pleased with himself while I began making notes of new plans.
O O O
"That's it! Shinsoo resistance was really the problem, and this is the solution!" I exclaimed, beholding the results of my experiments.
After using mana reinforcement on a laser gun, then flowing Shinsoo into it carefully as controlled exposure, I had found a way to give it just the barest of Shinsoo resistance, when it obtained a noticeable 'flow'.
And now, after numerous guns had been experimented upon, malfunctioned and broken down, I finally 'enchanted' a gun that was usable normally.
Of course, the gun itself was barely useful to me anymore, but the proof of concept was the key.
I would no longer need to fear advanced technology breaking down after being brought into the Tower, if I could imbue them with a bit of Shinsoo resistance.
It wasn't just advanced technology either. Even cells newly grown and lacking time to acclimatize to the Shinsoo environment suffered more problems the higher we went, similar to how I had problems before the water spirits helped me on the first floor.
All of the Beastionts had issues with this severely limiting their effectiveness in combat, especially with larger biomasses. I had only 'solved' it with Axie because I'd put a mass of water spirits into it. It was a similar story with the planned Spirit Cluster Core which would give my freshly grown clone Shinsoo resistance immediately.
But now…a lot of new tactical options just opened up to me.
O O O
One year later…
The golem's chest cracked and crumbled slightly as Ha Jinsung clapped. I panted heavily, still holding my hand out in a martial stance, having finally learned the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique to a beginner level. For now the effect of it was pretty similar to Reinforcement Break, but its true value lay in what could be possible at higher levels of mastery, and its ability to pierce resistance, whereas Reinforcement Break was easily blocked by any sort of magic resistance or Shinsoo resistance.
"Good work. You've gotten it down much faster than I expected, I guess it's time to get the real training started," said Ha Jinsung.
"Thank you, master. Actually, there's something I wanted to discuss with you," I said, after bowing to him in gratitude.
A few moments later after I explained my plans…
"What, seriously? I don't think you'll get much benefit if you only leave a weak clone with me," said Jinsung.
"I apologize, I would also like to continue this training properly, but it's essential that I go up now. I have something I need to do there that simply can't wait," I said.
"What's the rush though? The Hell Train goes back around every year, you can just take it with Viole, since he'll probably be going in a couple of years himself," said Jinsung.
That was precisely why I needed to go now. It wasn't that I wanted to avoid Viole, but that I wanted to do this before extremely dangerous entities got involved when the plot picked up. Multiple Rankers and Ranker-level combatants would be getting on the Train at that time, so this was the best time to achieve critical objectives without attracting attention.
"There's a special training opportunity that I'm looking for on the Hell Train. I lack talent, so everything takes longer for me. If I wait and get on the train at the same time as Viole, then I'll end up falling far behind. Those who lack talent must make up for it by spending greater time and effort," I said.
"Well, I'm not sure what opportunity you're talking about but…you seem to be assuming that training with me won't be better," said Ha Jinsung.
"Haha, that's not it, it's just that, the skill I can learn on the Hell Train is unique and I really want it," I said. "But as you can see, with my terrible talent I might not even be able to master it in one run through the Hell Train."
"Honestly your talent isn't terrible, I've seen plenty worse, there's no point in comparing to Viole. But it looks like you've made up your mind already, so who am I to say no, it's your choice, anyways, go get your unique skill then," said Jinsung.
"Thank you for understanding, master."
Having learned the minimum necessary for my plans, I set off on my own journey.
O O O
Ship Leesoo's team, including Androssi, had just completed the 30th Floor test, attaining the qualifications to become D-Rank Regulars, if they ascended to the 31st Floor.
This naturally included my Axie familiar that participated with them as Androssi's pet, which meant I also had the qualifications to continue up now.
Ship and Khun had agreed to meet up on the 30th Floor during the Workshop Battle, so Ship intended to wait another year for them to catch up.
However, I had other plans.
While training with Ha Jinsung was immensely helpful, for technical martial arts, Shinsoo manipulation/theory, and direct combat experience using any of my skills against a powerful opponent who had been in countless scenarios over thousands of years, I had one overarching reason to request training from him.
I needed to take a journey on my own, without a summoner, which meant that I needed to rely on Shinsoo while minimizing my use of high level magic, even for battles against potentially very strong opponents.
I didn't plan to take Androssi with me, because this trip was meant to be a secret, though I doubted that she would've been a good companion, even if I wanted to take her.
Despite the supposed "incredible" speed with which we had gone up the early floors, from the perspective of outside observers, the truth was that it had been quite leisurely from my own point of view.
Androssi herself only trained a couple of hours a day at the most, and spent the rest lazing around in luxury comforts or dragging me to faux-dating outings. Having lived for hundreds of years, and being a Tower resident, whose lifespan was practically limitless, her sense of urgency was non-existent. If I tried to pair with her again for this phase of my plans, I sensed that it would soon turn into an exercise in frustration for us both, without other team members to distract her.
And now that I had everything prepared, I could finally continue climbing on my own.
I returned to the apartment I had rented on this Floor near them, and took stock of my belongings.
I usually kept everything important on my person, either in my Arms Inventory, Manbarondenna, or sometimes my Lighthouse. The apartment was just a place where I could check over everything privately.
Manbarondenna, the Compression storage suitcase I got from Khun back on the second floor, continued to be an incredibly useful item.
Inside Manbarondenna were four Canjon-class corpse puppets of the same type I used to infiltrate the 20th Floor test, some basic Armoriont clone familiars, work-in-progress Avatar Bodies, and a fully armed and supplied AAPV.
I should explain the last two.
The Avatar Body was the intended vessel for a second Spirit Cluster Core. Still primarily composed of Armoriont biology, but specially prepared to later receive a Spirit Cluster Core. That was the result of the experiments I did over the course of the year using the peripheral water spirits and my own mana and will.
It was not capable of much autonomy and, unlike the Symbiotic Spirit Crest, wasn't designed to grow its spiritual strength by imprinting on the host. The tiny water spirit cluster might grow, but I guessed it'd be uselessly slow compared to the water stone.
The main differentiator as an "Avatar" was that the spirit cluster allowed it to manipulate Shinsoo at much higher level, so I could use it to exhibit almost the full breadth of my powers, albeit degraded.
Compared to the Canjon-class puppets, whether using a corpse or an Armoriont clone, which lacked significant Shinsoo control skill and could not operate without a nearby mana source, the strategic value was much higher.
So I was incubating a second Spirit Cluster Core, which would probably take another half a year to complete before I could insert it into an Avatar Body.
Of the two Bodies being prepared, one was using the normal Axion model, and the other was the new female model for Derf's request.
The creation of a Spirit Cluster Core was somewhat costly so I did not intend to make too many, since keeping the peripheral spirits within my body had its own benefits. But the body vessels themselves were easier, so I would prepare different ones to be kept in reserve.
As for the AAPV, although Shinsoo Inventory items only worked one-way (that is, they could bring items out of the Tower, but stopped working once opened/Decompressed on another plane and couldn't carry anything for the return trip), this didn't stop me from simply planeshifting with an AAPV and then placing it inside Manbarondenna after arriving in the Tower.
The only issue was that, being the most advanced tech I had, it was at risk of potential catastrophic nuclear meltdown if it started malfunctioning like all the other tech, at least until I figured out the issue with Shinsoo resistance and solved it recently.
With this, I was ready to go.
I left the room and went to the admin center to end my rental contract, then went to a taxi station to hire a Seal taxi (a type of seal-like large Shinheuh) through the fields of clouds that made up most of this Floor, to the Middle Area.
From there, I continued by myself on a Light Cube for a while, until I determined that nobody was around.
Then, I took out the AAPV from Manbarondenna and got inside, and plotted a path for one of the space lanes that went to the next Floor up.
Every Floor was connected to the adjacent floors through many different paths throughout the Middle Area, so there were plenty of ways to get around other than getting teleported by the Test Centers in the Inner Tower or the Administrators.
In general, if a Regular needed to travel between floors for any reason other than passing a test, they would need to take the Middle Area paths.
Some paths were regulated by the Zahard Empire so that only authorized vehicles were permitted to enter. This was the case for most of the major warp gates for commercial traffic.
Other paths were only accessible or navigable to Guides, going through very complicated rough terrain with powerful Shinheuh or strange places like the floating stairs hidden in the dark spaces.
But there were also unregulated natural space routes. Unlike the Zahard Empire warp gates, these did not immediately send the traveling vehicles to the other end of the gate on the new Floor, but instead involved physically passing through an area that was similar to outer space.
These areas were rarely used or visited, so most commercially available vehicles for purchase or charter in the Tower were not designed for this type of travel, which involved going through vacuum areas.
These spaces still had Shinsoo, but it was simply in an unbreathable non-particle form that mimicked the properties of outer space.
As each Floor was continent sized, these areas were correspondingly huge and it would be easy to get lost in with few landmarks, if you were doing anything other than traveling directly to the next Floor via the main connecting lanes.
Ultimately, I chose this method of travel because it was the most efficient for me. As long as I stuck to the main lanes, the AAPV could cross the Floors relatively quickly, as it could travel through both atmosphere and space at high speeds over extended periods.
By doing this, I avoided the travel controls of Zahard Empire, didn't have to deal with scheduling or paying for commercial voyages, and simply rushed up the Floors in a near straight line.
Of course, when using such methods of travel through the Middle Area, a Regular would be unable to go to Floors they were unauthorized for, and would be stopped by the Administrators or teleported back.
Even as an Irregular, although I was less restricted and could go to higher floors if I wanted to, I wouldn't be allowed to skip tests or enter the Inner Tower Regular areas of Floors above my qualifications.
Because my first destination, the Hell Train, was considered a Regular testing zone, even though it was outside of the Inner Tower, the same rule applied. I wouldn't be able to get on without passing the previous Floors' tests first.
So, after a few days of travel with only Derflinger and Offensive Bias for company, I arrived on the 31st Floor.
O O O
A/N: The length of this arc will end up quite a bit longer than I mentioned in a comment before. Update delay was because I rewrote it all in a new direction, MC going off on a separate adventure in the Tower. Should be back to biweekly updates now.
Also thanks to Nidhogg and inphernalmenace, my long-time beta readers who did a lot of work during my revisions.
It is strange that Axion is so calm about the spirits that live in his body, given his little control over them. Who knows, maybe one day they will decide to devour him from the inside or cause unwanted mutations.
I also suddenly realized that Axion reminds me of a kinder version of Fang Yuan.
I also suddenly realized that Axion reminds me of a kinder version of Fang Yuan.
69 – Solo Leveling
69 – Solo Leveling
From the 30th Floor onwards, every time a Regular failed a test, they would have to wait a whole year before attempting it again.
But tests were scheduled regularly as long as there were enough teams and Regulars to participate, so a strong enough Regular or team could simply keep going after passing, with no cooldown.
In theory, this meant that it was viable to go up about one Floor every couple of months if you never failed and rushed to the next Floor as fast as possible without any breaks, to immediately schedule for the earliest opportunity.
Despite the change from E-Rank to the D-Rank Floors, the tests didn't change all that much, there were just stronger opponents.
Canonically, I knew that the main cast teams easily went through the next five floors in a year, and I needed to do the same. The Hell Train cycled back to the starting station every year, so if I made it there later this year, I'd be able to catch the run during the year before the canon groups got on.
Even if I was going solo, I thought it would be no trouble to repeat the feat which was easy for the main cast teams.
My true combat strength, based on Ha Jinsung and Hwa Ryun's objective assessment during the first spar, was already greater than an entire team of E-Rank Regulars, and that was without factoring in Derf's higher level auras/beams.
Not only had I improved since, I'd kept the full power of the water spirits under wraps, only using a small portion of their abilities.
That was why I considered an alternate course, where I could train more seriously with the water spirits, and not have to worry about hiding them.
Taking the test directly from the Administrator.
…
To my surprise, after I met the Floor Administrator, I'd learned many new details about the tests I hadn't known before.
Apparently most of the Floor tests were scaled to the Floor and not to me, which was my main concern with them after the 2nd Floor's test where I was forced to fight a Ranker risking my life.
"The 1st and 2nd Floors are special, duh. That's where you get judged worthy of climbing the Tower or not. If every Floor Test was scaled to you, then what's the point of having different Floor numbers and having to pass an earlier Floor before the next one? They'd all just be the same!" The Administrator had explained.
And there was no chance of rewards if the Irregular took the "normal" test, or negotiated any of the test conditions/rules, like Baam did.
Instead, to be eligible for rewards, one must take a higher difficulty Challenge test, and then it was randomly awarded based on a number of factors including performance, luck, and fighting style.
After passing certain groups of Floors, there would come opportunities to do a special Challenge test, called a Seeker Challenge. It just meant that the taker could request a more targeted reward in advance, and while a reward would be guaranteed after passing the test, a perfect fit for the request was not.
"Don't ask for something stupid like finding true love, I'm not a genie. You want to make a wish like that, try going to the top of the Tower. Otherwise, asking for something too specific or powerful will probably get a bad or funny version of it instead, or something entirely unrelated, at least until you get to much higher Floors."
The essential rule was that the reward from any test had to match the Floor's level, or the level of the Floor group in the case of the Seeker Test.
The more ways that a request could be fulfilled, the more likely that the reward would be a proper match. Naming a broad category of items would have no issues, but trying to name a personal weapon somebody else owned was useless.
But if it was a really bad reward, there was still a choice whether to accept it or not. There wouldn't be anything like a cursed contract.
"I think I'll just do a Seeker test right away, since I'm qualified for it," I said, pacing by myself after taking some time to think about it before contacting the Administrator again.
"Why not save it for a higher Floor?" Derf asked. "You'd have more experience with it then, and the reward might be better."
"Because the difficulty goes up too, and I should have the largest raw power advantage on this Floor. The reward quality is capped anyways, and on this set of Floors it's probably to D-Rank, which means it won't be anything amazing regardless."
"You think the difficulty could rise that much in a few Floors? Even a few could make a big experience difference," said Derf. "Not for us, maybe, but definitely for the water spirits since they haven't seen much live combat. And wasn't that the point of this whole Irregular test thing?"
"Well, the uncertainty is more reason to take it now. If I can't take the Challenge tests after passing the Floor any other way, that means I can only do them up to the 35th Floor where we're gonna board the Hell Train. That's still the priority here, any rewards on the way up are just a bonus. I need to make it to the Hell Train in less than a year, so if these tests are too hard then they're not even worth doing," I said.
"Oh right, because they also have a cooldown, even if it's just one month, compared to one year for the Regular tests," said Derf.
"Yes, exactly, if I fail any tests it gets riskier. Better to go all out on the easiest floor, and get the reward early if it works out, or if not just forget it and try an easier test, the normal Irregular test or even the Regulars' test."
…
I contacted the Administrator again and was teleported in front of it as I declared my intention and then described my desired reward.
"The Shinsoo flows that strengthen the body over time through training can be lost if body parts are severely damaged or altered. Normally it requires retraining over a long period, which means that the body is weaker during that time. I'm looking for any method or skill, but not a contracted ability, that allows me to retain or quickly recover to a similar level of strength and speed before and after a major replacement of most of my body's cells, organs, and muscular structure, or simply isn't affected by such physical replacement at all, assuming my body is still roughly humanoid."
"OK then, I'll prepare the test," said the Administrator.
O O O
"The test area will be this cave system, which contains many tunnels and underwater paths. Once you enter, you can't exit without forfeiting. There's several groups of Shinheuh, most of which will be hostile and territorial. At the center of it, underground, is a sealed chamber. To access the chamber, you can't break through by force. Don't bother trying. You'll need the 'key', which is hidden somewhere else in the cave system, and you might need to fight your way past other things that also want the key for other reasons. Your job is to find the key, open the chamber, grab the special plant inside, and return to the exit with the plant. This Seedhunter Fish will help you find the key, so you'd better protect it. You also lose points if you don't return with it at the end, or if you put it inside a storage item of any kind."
"So the pass condition is just to return to the exit with the plant, right?" I asked as the Seedhunter Fish was sent towards me. It was the size of a mature salmon, with flowery designs on its scales and a fin that was lined with what looked like plant seeds.
"Yes. There might be other ways to do it if you lose the Seedhunter Fish, but it's all up to you. Contact me with the Pocket if you have other questions, but I won't answer anything that you need to figure out yourself."
Once the Administrator disappeared, the Seedhunter Fish started moving towards the cave entrance on its own.
I followed it into the passage, which was big enough to fit a few trucks stacked together.
"So what's the plan, Partner?" Derflinger asked, popping up into normal size.
"I'll map out the area first and take a look at the chamber remotely. We'll just follow the Seedhunter Fish for now while scouting ahead for trouble. You guard me while I operate the Lighthouse," I instructed, before taking out a Canjon-class puppet from Manbarondenna.
"Got it," Derflinger said, quickly picking up on what I meant, positioning himself into the puppet's hand.
Although it would be too costly for him to take control of it outright, even with the lowest level of User Boost which cost 10MP/sec, this way, I could operate the puppet with minimal attention while doing other things, and Derflinger would take full control in the event of an actual threat.
Next, I materialized one of my Arms Inventories, the one where I kept Bowls, and then released three large Rhyme dragon type Beastionts, which had been recently trained to quickly gain some Shinsoo resistance using my new method to handle these higher floors.These weren't sapient like actual Rhyme dragons, but were intelligent enough to follow more complicated commands without my directly controlling them as familiars, even if I didn't invest any will imprint or water spirits into them like Axie.
"Protect that Seedhunter Fish," I commanded them.
I had more Beastionts and Shinheuh, but there was no need to make the space difficult to maneuver in with too many combatants.
Like this, I rapidly deployed Lighthouse Cubes to scout the areas ahead.
It wasn't long before we started encountering enemies.
The first was some kind of huge starfish that was able to propel itself a high speed into the air with Shinsoo blasts then spin like ninja throwing stars.
Its edges were lined with armor that made it sharp enough to embed themselves into the cave walls.
The Beastionts easily intercepted the first few and tore them apart with claws and fangs.
But after a while, we had to pass through an area full of them, at which point the Beastionts were forced to shield the Seedhunter with their bodies with dozens of the shuriken starfish flying around, and Derflinger entered the fray.
I also helped out with a Lighthouse barrier to push forward at the front. Each starfish packed a serious punch and would probably severely injure a typical new D-Rank Regular if not take them out of the fight in one bad hit. But I was sure that Team Ship could also handle this without much trouble with good tactics.
It was all going smoothly for me and I had located the central chamber less than ten minutes into the test.
Until suddenly a bipedal mammalian creature with armored plates on its limbs and chest appeared, almost like a kobold, and it was literally holding the starfish like shuriken with a fighting stance.
"Rahh!!!" It cried before expertly launching the shuriken, and then the starfish blasted themselves mid-air to achieve an even higher speed.
Derflinger parried one of them, sending it crashing into a wall, while the other tore a large wound into one of the Beastionts that shielded the Seedhunter with its body.
The armored kobold grunted and gestured with its hands into a series of hand signs, causing a pulse of Shinsoo to emit from his body.
There didn't seem to be anything dangerous about the Shinsoo pulse, but then numerous fallen and mangled starfish started regenerating at high speed.
"Shit!" I cursed, realizing the mass of flying stars could overwhelm our defenses coming from all angles and inside of our formation rather than just the front.
It would not be difficult to fight through this, except for the fact that we needed to protect the weak Seedhunter Fish, and I had limited defensive techniques for this purpose.
As such, I immediately Burstshifted to the Seedhunter and grabbed it, then had the water spirits create a spherical Shinsoo shield bubble around me.
The onslaught of starfish that blasted off every surface after tore apart the Beastionts and heavily injured the Canjon puppet even as Derflinger skillfully avoided or parried most of them.
The Shinsoo cannon I took from Lo Po Bia Ren appeared and fired a beam that blasted the ninja kobold apart.
I took no half measures in case that thing tried a repeat performance to stun lock our group and bring reinforcements while I was forced to defend the Seedhunter Fish.
The beam I'd fired from the cannon wasn't from a basic Baang I created myself, but one which I had the water spirits prepare in advance, stored in the Shinsoo item.
This was one of the special features of advanced Wave Controller equipment, to store extra powerful charges to be fired later.
Had I asked the water spirits to do it in real time, it might have been slightly lagged as I hadn't fought that much with their help before, and the ninja kobold might have avoided it.
Once the kobold was dead, I released another group of Beastionts to destroy the starfishes, and I retreated with the Seedhunter fish back a bit where it was safe.
The heavily wounded Beastionts also regenerated by consuming a portion of the starfish, while I collected some of them plus the kobold into other storage capsule Bowls that didn't contain any other Shinheuh.
Once that was done, I reorganized our formation and prepared to advance with the Seedhunter at the center.
Three Beastionts in front, three behind in case anything came around from another route. Derflinger and me next to the Seedhunter. My Light Cubes at the head for the barrier and a couple to scout.
"Derf, there's a big room ahead with a bunch of those kobold things and even more starfish. The Seedhunter seems to be going in a path into it. I say we clear it out directly instead of waiting for the Seedhunter to get there."
"Sounds good to me."
I left the Seedhunter guarded tightly by the Beastionts, then deployed the AAPV with Offensive Bias in charge of defense.
Although putting the Seedhunter inside the AAPV was most secure, it might lose points for being inside storage, so the best I could do was have Offensive Bias control drone teams and monitor for enemies, communicating via my Lighthouse with audio through a Cube I left behind, since the AAPV comms tech didn't work effectively in this environment.
Then I went into the large room directly holding Derf, fully Reinforced myself, then Ignited with Derf.
The enemies weren't very durable so I judged that we might not need to rely on higher level magics to damage them.
Derf's Shinsoo based attacks were now comparable to Level 3 beam/aura, which was capable of destroying heavy armor and plate, but half the strength of the L4 which was comparable to shaped anti-tank blasts. Of course, this was just looking at general physical damage without accounting for Shinsoo resistance, where this was far inferior to the magic beams versus high resistance opponents like the White Steel Eel or the Zahard princesses.
Fortunately, the ambient Shinsoo in this area did not suggest that these Shinheuh would have significant resistance, just normal levels for the Floor for most Regulars, which barely registered as defense against actual attacks, only enough to survive without discomfort in the atmosphere.
It was primarily a speed contest here, and in a fight where I had no need to worry about guarding something vulnerable, and could focus on pure offense…
Only a few minutes later, hundreds of starfishes and a dozen ninja kobolds lay dead, cut down by a blitz of Burstshift combined with my maximum personal Reinforcement.
As the Burstshift's maximum velocity was about 220 m/s, it was only around the same as the max speed I could get by applying Derf's level 10 Boost stacked on all physical buffs given improvements in my base and Reinforcement skills over the years, but cost negligible amounts of MP in comparison due to the split second uses.
After that, the next few hours went by without anything very exciting. We continued to follow the Seedhunter and defeated a variety of other less interesting Shinheuh that were more common around the Tower with no great special abilities.
Meanwhile, I had examined the central chamber's entrance, and it seemed as though the 'key' was something round that had to be placed into an indent of the door where an altar of sorts sat along with a cup-like protrusion.
At some point, it seemed like the Seedhunter was retreading prior ground, and I began to analyze the paths we had taken more closely.
"The target might be moving," I said, operating my Lighthouse screen with Offensive Bias' visor now on my face, so that he could also see out of the front-facing camera.
"I believe the most likely location is at G7," said Offensive Bias, referring to the grid we had used to demark the areas on the map. "But it could be actively trying to evade us. Shall I try to corner them?"
"No, your drones are too weak and it's inconvenient to repair them here. I'll send my Light Cubes instead, you just tell me which paths would be optimal," I said.
Ten minutes later, we caught it. It was a bipedal salamander-like creature with pale skin.
I rushed over immediately, once again, leaving the Seedhunter to be protected.
It destroyed my Cube just as I arrived, then tried to slink away into the shadows, but I was faster and had Derflinger swinging towards it already.
It turned to face me just as I was swinging and roared, a blast of Shinsoo emerging from its mouth and blowing me away.
The blast wasn't very strong, so I quickly recovered and rushed back, already noticing that it had an odd round seed-like object embedded into its chest, with tendrils digging its skin as if the seed had taken root in its body.
Yet when I attacked again, my next several charges were again repelled, either with Shinsoo or physical blows that countered Derflinger and left the creature undamaged.
With a mana signal, Derflinger went to level 4 Aura. Yet the creature, intelligent enough to recognize the more powerful attack, didn't even let the sword land, instead parrying with a hand that was engulfed into Shinsoo, pushing the whole weapon away before it could make contact.
I fell back and observed it for a bit, considering whether to simply brute force through with an even stronger attack.
But at that point, the salamander slapped its hands together, then released a pulse of Shinsoo.
"That seems familiar, it feels like the pulse those kobold things used to revive the starfish?" Derflinger remarked.
As soon as he said that, the shuriken fish flooded in from the surrounding tunnels and crevices, and even some kobolds came with it.
"Is this the boss of these guys? Weird that it's an entirely different creature," I said.
The salamander blasted another Shinsoo wave at me, then fled while its minions distracted me.
I barely missed it before I got swarmed by the starfish. After slaughtering my way through, I chased the salamander, but it had apparently grown wings out of its back and was skillfully navigating the tunnels while also grabbing starfishes on the way and throwing them at me.
"Damn, you're not getting away!"
Finally, I decided to just get the water spirits to help.
Liquid Shinsoo rapidly condensed and formed a raging torrent dragging the salamander towards me. It swam hard against the tide, but I also charged at max Burstshift speed and channeled even more powerful Shinsoo into Derflinger with the water spirits' help.
A few seconds later, I'd cut it into pieces and carved the seed out of its skin.
The salamander actually regenerated at high speed to my surprise, but I already had the seed in hand so I simply unleashed a powerful Baang, obliterating it without worry for collateral damage.
The seed itself seemed alive and tried to use some tendrils to attack me, but without its host it didn't seem capable of doing much, so I just cut off its tendrils until it quieted down.
O O O
Once I checked with the Seedhunter Fish that the seed was the target it was seeking, I went to the chamber and placed the seed onto the cup.
The 'keyhole' area lit up and the seed was seemingly absorbed into it. The altar and cup receded entirely, then the chamber opened up.
Inside was a cylindrical tank in the center, along with a raised platform with a screen panel and control buttons on it.
I looked at the panel to see that it had some information displayed in an unrecognizable language. After I brought out my Pocket, the translation was displayed on the Pocket's holoscreen.
It took a few minutes of reading and playing with the controls to understand what this chamber was about.
The seed which I had inserted outside the chamber was called a "Blood Fusing Beast Seed", by whomever created this place, and the tank in front of me was doing a special alchemical incubation using the seed as an ingredient.
The seed itself was some sort of parasitic plant that attached itself to Shinheuh or people and provided the host with extra Shinsoo through [Blood Fusion] and granted the ability to use a weak form of [Transformation]. It would absorb the hosts' Shinsoo over time, then move on to new hosts, while allowing new hosts to use Transformation to use a part of the skills and manifested body parts of previous hosts.
It was not clear where this seed originally came from or why it evolved this way, but the people who discovered it and created this secret chamber thought it might help them obtain the higher grade Transformation ability that belonged to the beast fusion tribes of the Lo Po Bia family, for themselves.
With that ambition in mind, they developed a method to forcibly grow the Blood Fusing Beast Seed into an edible flower.
Although they were not able to replicate the true power of Transformation, the flower could be made into a drug that could assist the consumer in learning some related but much more limited skills.
It seemed that to complete the test, I would have to wait until the plant grew in the tank.
O O O
"Congratulations, you passed," said the Administrator after teleporting me to them immediately after I exited the tunnels.
The flower simultaneously disappeared from my hands in a flash of light.
"Now, your rewards. You did pretty well, and since I'm feeling nice, I'll even let you have a choice. You wanted some way to preserve or recover your body's Shinsoo flow enhancements from training."
Three balls of light appeared in front of me.
The first ball of light faded to reveal the syringe floating.
"First is this Blood Power Syringe. If you take blood from yourself until the syringe is filled, you'll be temporarily weakened for a few days, but later you can inject yourself with it to immediately restore all the power in your body from the time you first drew the blood. Works even if your body's changed, but it'll only restore whatever parts are roughly similar to your old body, like having the same number of limbs. You can also use it on somebody else, or inject a different person's power, but the efficiency goes down if the donor and the recipient are too different in power or incompatible, it can even fail lethally if the donor is too powerful."
The second ball of light revealed a paper book.
"Next is a D-Rank Shinsoo external martial art skill manual. It doesn't actually preserve your body's internal flows. But if you master it, that won't matter because the power of this martial art is only dependent on your control of Shinsoo and it doesn't need any internal flows. All you have to do is absorb more Shinsoo to get back to the same power, no matter how your body changes. If you get good enough you can even use it to fight with a phantom limb made of Shinsoo."
The last ball revealed a pill.
"Your last option is this Blood Fusion Flower Pill. A better version of what those people tried to make out of the seed you had to find in the test. I specially refined it for your request. You won't get any Transformation skill out of it, but it'll let you create a Blood Fusion Pattern. When you take it, the remnant Shinsoo inside will try to reform the Beast Seed, but since there's no seed core, you can take it over and mix it with your own Shinsoo to make a special Shinsoo pattern akin to an extra organ. It will give you the ability to create your own Blood Fusion, out of your own Shinsoo flows. In other words, it will absorb, store, and record a part of your internal Shinsoo so that you can restore your Shinsoo flows or ability later. Unlike the Syringe, this only works with your own Shinsoo, but there is no chance of incompatibility problems no matter what happens to your body. It also takes longer to store your Shinsoo, but you don't get weakened as much while you're doing it."
"How much longer?"
"Syringe can work pretty much instantly, depending on how much blood you draw and how much you're willing to weaken yourself. You'll have to master the pill's Shinsoo first, and then after you make the pattern, how quickly you can store your Shinsoo flows depends on your mastery and how much Shinsoo you can put into the effort. I would guess it might take you a few months."
I carefully considered the options before me.
"When you say Shinsoo flows or ability, do you mean that with the pill, I could even restore special abilities and Shinsoo Quality, not just physical enhancements?"
"Yes. That's how it works for the Syringe too. That's what Blood Fusion means—fusing an ability into your blood."
"What does that mean exactly? It's not just physical blood, is it? Because if I lose all my blood, then does it still work?"
"Well, if you still survive or recover from that, then yes it will work. As for what blood means here, it's the essence of you that makes your Shinsoo distinctly your own, your blood is the main medium for it. Some people call it Shinsoo true essence instead, or the Shinsoo spirit."
"How does it relate to the soul?"
"If you want to know more, you should ask for it as your next Seeker Challenge or find out from somewhere else. I won't say anymore," said the Administrator. "And don't take too long. You have five minutes to make your choice."
Damn, I couldn't just exploit this for free knowledge huh?
"What do you think, Derf?" I asked for a second opinion while running through the pros and cons of each in my head.
"I dunno…they all sound pretty good," said Derf. "But if the first one can transfer other people's powers to you, isn't that the most valuable?"
"On the surface, yes, but remember these rewards are probably capped to D-Rank power, so I suspect it simply won't work well on the people or powers I actually want to get, or it might only give me a weak version of what it absorbs, even if it doesn't cause serious side effects. The risk seems high."
"That's true. It's a double-edged sword then. Other two are a toss up. The skill would be cool if I could also use it. The pill seems to be the best match for what you wanted though."
A few moments later, I made my decision.
The skill had the obvious drawback that it relied on a Shinsoo environment. It would be difficult to use outside of the Tower and didn't really complement my existing abilities.
But in the end, the best choice was the one the Administrator specially made for me.
It might take time to master and didn't seem powerful at first glance, but it might solve a major weakness for me. Since internal Shinsoo continued to work on other planes, this should allow me to recover in the event of grave wounds outside of the Tower, without having to come back to the Tower for retraining and absorbing Shinsoo.
And there might be ways to make it more useful, after I studied it further.
"I'll take the pill."
"Okay, take it," said the Administrator as he disappeared the other two choices.
I grabbed the Blood Fusion Flower Pill and was instantly teleported back to where I'd initially set up camp on the 31st Floor Middle Area.
O O O
From the 30th Floor onwards, every time a Regular failed a test, they would have to wait a whole year before attempting it again.
But tests were scheduled regularly as long as there were enough teams and Regulars to participate, so a strong enough Regular or team could simply keep going after passing, with no cooldown.
In theory, this meant that it was viable to go up about one Floor every couple of months if you never failed and rushed to the next Floor as fast as possible without any breaks, to immediately schedule for the earliest opportunity.
Despite the change from E-Rank to the D-Rank Floors, the tests didn't change all that much, there were just stronger opponents.
Canonically, I knew that the main cast teams easily went through the next five floors in a year, and I needed to do the same. The Hell Train cycled back to the starting station every year, so if I made it there later this year, I'd be able to catch the run during the year before the canon groups got on.
Even if I was going solo, I thought it would be no trouble to repeat the feat which was easy for the main cast teams.
My true combat strength, based on Ha Jinsung and Hwa Ryun's objective assessment during the first spar, was already greater than an entire team of E-Rank Regulars, and that was without factoring in Derf's higher level auras/beams.
Not only had I improved since, I'd kept the full power of the water spirits under wraps, only using a small portion of their abilities.
That was why I considered an alternate course, where I could train more seriously with the water spirits, and not have to worry about hiding them.
Taking the test directly from the Administrator.
…
To my surprise, after I met the Floor Administrator, I'd learned many new details about the tests I hadn't known before.
Apparently most of the Floor tests were scaled to the Floor and not to me, which was my main concern with them after the 2nd Floor's test where I was forced to fight a Ranker risking my life.
"The 1st and 2nd Floors are special, duh. That's where you get judged worthy of climbing the Tower or not. If every Floor Test was scaled to you, then what's the point of having different Floor numbers and having to pass an earlier Floor before the next one? They'd all just be the same!" The Administrator had explained.
And there was no chance of rewards if the Irregular took the "normal" test, or negotiated any of the test conditions/rules, like Baam did.
Instead, to be eligible for rewards, one must take a higher difficulty Challenge test, and then it was randomly awarded based on a number of factors including performance, luck, and fighting style.
After passing certain groups of Floors, there would come opportunities to do a special Challenge test, called a Seeker Challenge. It just meant that the taker could request a more targeted reward in advance, and while a reward would be guaranteed after passing the test, a perfect fit for the request was not.
"Don't ask for something stupid like finding true love, I'm not a genie. You want to make a wish like that, try going to the top of the Tower. Otherwise, asking for something too specific or powerful will probably get a bad or funny version of it instead, or something entirely unrelated, at least until you get to much higher Floors."
The essential rule was that the reward from any test had to match the Floor's level, or the level of the Floor group in the case of the Seeker Test.
The more ways that a request could be fulfilled, the more likely that the reward would be a proper match. Naming a broad category of items would have no issues, but trying to name a personal weapon somebody else owned was useless.
But if it was a really bad reward, there was still a choice whether to accept it or not. There wouldn't be anything like a cursed contract.
"I think I'll just do a Seeker test right away, since I'm qualified for it," I said, pacing by myself after taking some time to think about it before contacting the Administrator again.
"Why not save it for a higher Floor?" Derf asked. "You'd have more experience with it then, and the reward might be better."
"Because the difficulty goes up too, and I should have the largest raw power advantage on this Floor. The reward quality is capped anyways, and on this set of Floors it's probably to D-Rank, which means it won't be anything amazing regardless."
"You think the difficulty could rise that much in a few Floors? Even a few could make a big experience difference," said Derf. "Not for us, maybe, but definitely for the water spirits since they haven't seen much live combat. And wasn't that the point of this whole Irregular test thing?"
"Well, the uncertainty is more reason to take it now. If I can't take the Challenge tests after passing the Floor any other way, that means I can only do them up to the 35th Floor where we're gonna board the Hell Train. That's still the priority here, any rewards on the way up are just a bonus. I need to make it to the Hell Train in less than a year, so if these tests are too hard then they're not even worth doing," I said.
"Oh right, because they also have a cooldown, even if it's just one month, compared to one year for the Regular tests," said Derf.
"Yes, exactly, if I fail any tests it gets riskier. Better to go all out on the easiest floor, and get the reward early if it works out, or if not just forget it and try an easier test, the normal Irregular test or even the Regulars' test."
…
I contacted the Administrator again and was teleported in front of it as I declared my intention and then described my desired reward.
"The Shinsoo flows that strengthen the body over time through training can be lost if body parts are severely damaged or altered. Normally it requires retraining over a long period, which means that the body is weaker during that time. I'm looking for any method or skill, but not a contracted ability, that allows me to retain or quickly recover to a similar level of strength and speed before and after a major replacement of most of my body's cells, organs, and muscular structure, or simply isn't affected by such physical replacement at all, assuming my body is still roughly humanoid."
"OK then, I'll prepare the test," said the Administrator.
O O O
"The test area will be this cave system, which contains many tunnels and underwater paths. Once you enter, you can't exit without forfeiting. There's several groups of Shinheuh, most of which will be hostile and territorial. At the center of it, underground, is a sealed chamber. To access the chamber, you can't break through by force. Don't bother trying. You'll need the 'key', which is hidden somewhere else in the cave system, and you might need to fight your way past other things that also want the key for other reasons. Your job is to find the key, open the chamber, grab the special plant inside, and return to the exit with the plant. This Seedhunter Fish will help you find the key, so you'd better protect it. You also lose points if you don't return with it at the end, or if you put it inside a storage item of any kind."
"So the pass condition is just to return to the exit with the plant, right?" I asked as the Seedhunter Fish was sent towards me. It was the size of a mature salmon, with flowery designs on its scales and a fin that was lined with what looked like plant seeds.
"Yes. There might be other ways to do it if you lose the Seedhunter Fish, but it's all up to you. Contact me with the Pocket if you have other questions, but I won't answer anything that you need to figure out yourself."
Once the Administrator disappeared, the Seedhunter Fish started moving towards the cave entrance on its own.
I followed it into the passage, which was big enough to fit a few trucks stacked together.
"So what's the plan, Partner?" Derflinger asked, popping up into normal size.
"I'll map out the area first and take a look at the chamber remotely. We'll just follow the Seedhunter Fish for now while scouting ahead for trouble. You guard me while I operate the Lighthouse," I instructed, before taking out a Canjon-class puppet from Manbarondenna.
"Got it," Derflinger said, quickly picking up on what I meant, positioning himself into the puppet's hand.
Although it would be too costly for him to take control of it outright, even with the lowest level of User Boost which cost 10MP/sec, this way, I could operate the puppet with minimal attention while doing other things, and Derflinger would take full control in the event of an actual threat.
Next, I materialized one of my Arms Inventories, the one where I kept Bowls, and then released three large Rhyme dragon type Beastionts, which had been recently trained to quickly gain some Shinsoo resistance using my new method to handle these higher floors.These weren't sapient like actual Rhyme dragons, but were intelligent enough to follow more complicated commands without my directly controlling them as familiars, even if I didn't invest any will imprint or water spirits into them like Axie.
"Protect that Seedhunter Fish," I commanded them.
I had more Beastionts and Shinheuh, but there was no need to make the space difficult to maneuver in with too many combatants.
Like this, I rapidly deployed Lighthouse Cubes to scout the areas ahead.
It wasn't long before we started encountering enemies.
The first was some kind of huge starfish that was able to propel itself a high speed into the air with Shinsoo blasts then spin like ninja throwing stars.
Its edges were lined with armor that made it sharp enough to embed themselves into the cave walls.
The Beastionts easily intercepted the first few and tore them apart with claws and fangs.
But after a while, we had to pass through an area full of them, at which point the Beastionts were forced to shield the Seedhunter with their bodies with dozens of the shuriken starfish flying around, and Derflinger entered the fray.
I also helped out with a Lighthouse barrier to push forward at the front. Each starfish packed a serious punch and would probably severely injure a typical new D-Rank Regular if not take them out of the fight in one bad hit. But I was sure that Team Ship could also handle this without much trouble with good tactics.
It was all going smoothly for me and I had located the central chamber less than ten minutes into the test.
Until suddenly a bipedal mammalian creature with armored plates on its limbs and chest appeared, almost like a kobold, and it was literally holding the starfish like shuriken with a fighting stance.
"Rahh!!!" It cried before expertly launching the shuriken, and then the starfish blasted themselves mid-air to achieve an even higher speed.
Derflinger parried one of them, sending it crashing into a wall, while the other tore a large wound into one of the Beastionts that shielded the Seedhunter with its body.
The armored kobold grunted and gestured with its hands into a series of hand signs, causing a pulse of Shinsoo to emit from his body.
There didn't seem to be anything dangerous about the Shinsoo pulse, but then numerous fallen and mangled starfish started regenerating at high speed.
"Shit!" I cursed, realizing the mass of flying stars could overwhelm our defenses coming from all angles and inside of our formation rather than just the front.
It would not be difficult to fight through this, except for the fact that we needed to protect the weak Seedhunter Fish, and I had limited defensive techniques for this purpose.
As such, I immediately Burstshifted to the Seedhunter and grabbed it, then had the water spirits create a spherical Shinsoo shield bubble around me.
The onslaught of starfish that blasted off every surface after tore apart the Beastionts and heavily injured the Canjon puppet even as Derflinger skillfully avoided or parried most of them.
The Shinsoo cannon I took from Lo Po Bia Ren appeared and fired a beam that blasted the ninja kobold apart.
I took no half measures in case that thing tried a repeat performance to stun lock our group and bring reinforcements while I was forced to defend the Seedhunter Fish.
The beam I'd fired from the cannon wasn't from a basic Baang I created myself, but one which I had the water spirits prepare in advance, stored in the Shinsoo item.
This was one of the special features of advanced Wave Controller equipment, to store extra powerful charges to be fired later.
Had I asked the water spirits to do it in real time, it might have been slightly lagged as I hadn't fought that much with their help before, and the ninja kobold might have avoided it.
Once the kobold was dead, I released another group of Beastionts to destroy the starfishes, and I retreated with the Seedhunter fish back a bit where it was safe.
The heavily wounded Beastionts also regenerated by consuming a portion of the starfish, while I collected some of them plus the kobold into other storage capsule Bowls that didn't contain any other Shinheuh.
Once that was done, I reorganized our formation and prepared to advance with the Seedhunter at the center.
Three Beastionts in front, three behind in case anything came around from another route. Derflinger and me next to the Seedhunter. My Light Cubes at the head for the barrier and a couple to scout.
"Derf, there's a big room ahead with a bunch of those kobold things and even more starfish. The Seedhunter seems to be going in a path into it. I say we clear it out directly instead of waiting for the Seedhunter to get there."
"Sounds good to me."
I left the Seedhunter guarded tightly by the Beastionts, then deployed the AAPV with Offensive Bias in charge of defense.
Although putting the Seedhunter inside the AAPV was most secure, it might lose points for being inside storage, so the best I could do was have Offensive Bias control drone teams and monitor for enemies, communicating via my Lighthouse with audio through a Cube I left behind, since the AAPV comms tech didn't work effectively in this environment.
Then I went into the large room directly holding Derf, fully Reinforced myself, then Ignited with Derf.
The enemies weren't very durable so I judged that we might not need to rely on higher level magics to damage them.
Derf's Shinsoo based attacks were now comparable to Level 3 beam/aura, which was capable of destroying heavy armor and plate, but half the strength of the L4 which was comparable to shaped anti-tank blasts. Of course, this was just looking at general physical damage without accounting for Shinsoo resistance, where this was far inferior to the magic beams versus high resistance opponents like the White Steel Eel or the Zahard princesses.
Fortunately, the ambient Shinsoo in this area did not suggest that these Shinheuh would have significant resistance, just normal levels for the Floor for most Regulars, which barely registered as defense against actual attacks, only enough to survive without discomfort in the atmosphere.
It was primarily a speed contest here, and in a fight where I had no need to worry about guarding something vulnerable, and could focus on pure offense…
Only a few minutes later, hundreds of starfishes and a dozen ninja kobolds lay dead, cut down by a blitz of Burstshift combined with my maximum personal Reinforcement.
As the Burstshift's maximum velocity was about 220 m/s, it was only around the same as the max speed I could get by applying Derf's level 10 Boost stacked on all physical buffs given improvements in my base and Reinforcement skills over the years, but cost negligible amounts of MP in comparison due to the split second uses.
After that, the next few hours went by without anything very exciting. We continued to follow the Seedhunter and defeated a variety of other less interesting Shinheuh that were more common around the Tower with no great special abilities.
Meanwhile, I had examined the central chamber's entrance, and it seemed as though the 'key' was something round that had to be placed into an indent of the door where an altar of sorts sat along with a cup-like protrusion.
At some point, it seemed like the Seedhunter was retreading prior ground, and I began to analyze the paths we had taken more closely.
"The target might be moving," I said, operating my Lighthouse screen with Offensive Bias' visor now on my face, so that he could also see out of the front-facing camera.
"I believe the most likely location is at G7," said Offensive Bias, referring to the grid we had used to demark the areas on the map. "But it could be actively trying to evade us. Shall I try to corner them?"
"No, your drones are too weak and it's inconvenient to repair them here. I'll send my Light Cubes instead, you just tell me which paths would be optimal," I said.
Ten minutes later, we caught it. It was a bipedal salamander-like creature with pale skin.
I rushed over immediately, once again, leaving the Seedhunter to be protected.
It destroyed my Cube just as I arrived, then tried to slink away into the shadows, but I was faster and had Derflinger swinging towards it already.
It turned to face me just as I was swinging and roared, a blast of Shinsoo emerging from its mouth and blowing me away.
The blast wasn't very strong, so I quickly recovered and rushed back, already noticing that it had an odd round seed-like object embedded into its chest, with tendrils digging its skin as if the seed had taken root in its body.
Yet when I attacked again, my next several charges were again repelled, either with Shinsoo or physical blows that countered Derflinger and left the creature undamaged.
With a mana signal, Derflinger went to level 4 Aura. Yet the creature, intelligent enough to recognize the more powerful attack, didn't even let the sword land, instead parrying with a hand that was engulfed into Shinsoo, pushing the whole weapon away before it could make contact.
I fell back and observed it for a bit, considering whether to simply brute force through with an even stronger attack.
But at that point, the salamander slapped its hands together, then released a pulse of Shinsoo.
"That seems familiar, it feels like the pulse those kobold things used to revive the starfish?" Derflinger remarked.
As soon as he said that, the shuriken fish flooded in from the surrounding tunnels and crevices, and even some kobolds came with it.
"Is this the boss of these guys? Weird that it's an entirely different creature," I said.
The salamander blasted another Shinsoo wave at me, then fled while its minions distracted me.
I barely missed it before I got swarmed by the starfish. After slaughtering my way through, I chased the salamander, but it had apparently grown wings out of its back and was skillfully navigating the tunnels while also grabbing starfishes on the way and throwing them at me.
"Damn, you're not getting away!"
Finally, I decided to just get the water spirits to help.
Liquid Shinsoo rapidly condensed and formed a raging torrent dragging the salamander towards me. It swam hard against the tide, but I also charged at max Burstshift speed and channeled even more powerful Shinsoo into Derflinger with the water spirits' help.
A few seconds later, I'd cut it into pieces and carved the seed out of its skin.
The salamander actually regenerated at high speed to my surprise, but I already had the seed in hand so I simply unleashed a powerful Baang, obliterating it without worry for collateral damage.
The seed itself seemed alive and tried to use some tendrils to attack me, but without its host it didn't seem capable of doing much, so I just cut off its tendrils until it quieted down.
O O O
Once I checked with the Seedhunter Fish that the seed was the target it was seeking, I went to the chamber and placed the seed onto the cup.
The 'keyhole' area lit up and the seed was seemingly absorbed into it. The altar and cup receded entirely, then the chamber opened up.
Inside was a cylindrical tank in the center, along with a raised platform with a screen panel and control buttons on it.
I looked at the panel to see that it had some information displayed in an unrecognizable language. After I brought out my Pocket, the translation was displayed on the Pocket's holoscreen.
It took a few minutes of reading and playing with the controls to understand what this chamber was about.
The seed which I had inserted outside the chamber was called a "Blood Fusing Beast Seed", by whomever created this place, and the tank in front of me was doing a special alchemical incubation using the seed as an ingredient.
The seed itself was some sort of parasitic plant that attached itself to Shinheuh or people and provided the host with extra Shinsoo through [Blood Fusion] and granted the ability to use a weak form of [Transformation]. It would absorb the hosts' Shinsoo over time, then move on to new hosts, while allowing new hosts to use Transformation to use a part of the skills and manifested body parts of previous hosts.
It was not clear where this seed originally came from or why it evolved this way, but the people who discovered it and created this secret chamber thought it might help them obtain the higher grade Transformation ability that belonged to the beast fusion tribes of the Lo Po Bia family, for themselves.
With that ambition in mind, they developed a method to forcibly grow the Blood Fusing Beast Seed into an edible flower.
Although they were not able to replicate the true power of Transformation, the flower could be made into a drug that could assist the consumer in learning some related but much more limited skills.
It seemed that to complete the test, I would have to wait until the plant grew in the tank.
O O O
"Congratulations, you passed," said the Administrator after teleporting me to them immediately after I exited the tunnels.
The flower simultaneously disappeared from my hands in a flash of light.
"Now, your rewards. You did pretty well, and since I'm feeling nice, I'll even let you have a choice. You wanted some way to preserve or recover your body's Shinsoo flow enhancements from training."
Three balls of light appeared in front of me.
The first ball of light faded to reveal the syringe floating.
"First is this Blood Power Syringe. If you take blood from yourself until the syringe is filled, you'll be temporarily weakened for a few days, but later you can inject yourself with it to immediately restore all the power in your body from the time you first drew the blood. Works even if your body's changed, but it'll only restore whatever parts are roughly similar to your old body, like having the same number of limbs. You can also use it on somebody else, or inject a different person's power, but the efficiency goes down if the donor and the recipient are too different in power or incompatible, it can even fail lethally if the donor is too powerful."
The second ball of light revealed a paper book.
"Next is a D-Rank Shinsoo external martial art skill manual. It doesn't actually preserve your body's internal flows. But if you master it, that won't matter because the power of this martial art is only dependent on your control of Shinsoo and it doesn't need any internal flows. All you have to do is absorb more Shinsoo to get back to the same power, no matter how your body changes. If you get good enough you can even use it to fight with a phantom limb made of Shinsoo."
The last ball revealed a pill.
"Your last option is this Blood Fusion Flower Pill. A better version of what those people tried to make out of the seed you had to find in the test. I specially refined it for your request. You won't get any Transformation skill out of it, but it'll let you create a Blood Fusion Pattern. When you take it, the remnant Shinsoo inside will try to reform the Beast Seed, but since there's no seed core, you can take it over and mix it with your own Shinsoo to make a special Shinsoo pattern akin to an extra organ. It will give you the ability to create your own Blood Fusion, out of your own Shinsoo flows. In other words, it will absorb, store, and record a part of your internal Shinsoo so that you can restore your Shinsoo flows or ability later. Unlike the Syringe, this only works with your own Shinsoo, but there is no chance of incompatibility problems no matter what happens to your body. It also takes longer to store your Shinsoo, but you don't get weakened as much while you're doing it."
"How much longer?"
"Syringe can work pretty much instantly, depending on how much blood you draw and how much you're willing to weaken yourself. You'll have to master the pill's Shinsoo first, and then after you make the pattern, how quickly you can store your Shinsoo flows depends on your mastery and how much Shinsoo you can put into the effort. I would guess it might take you a few months."
I carefully considered the options before me.
"When you say Shinsoo flows or ability, do you mean that with the pill, I could even restore special abilities and Shinsoo Quality, not just physical enhancements?"
"Yes. That's how it works for the Syringe too. That's what Blood Fusion means—fusing an ability into your blood."
"What does that mean exactly? It's not just physical blood, is it? Because if I lose all my blood, then does it still work?"
"Well, if you still survive or recover from that, then yes it will work. As for what blood means here, it's the essence of you that makes your Shinsoo distinctly your own, your blood is the main medium for it. Some people call it Shinsoo true essence instead, or the Shinsoo spirit."
"How does it relate to the soul?"
"If you want to know more, you should ask for it as your next Seeker Challenge or find out from somewhere else. I won't say anymore," said the Administrator. "And don't take too long. You have five minutes to make your choice."
Damn, I couldn't just exploit this for free knowledge huh?
"What do you think, Derf?" I asked for a second opinion while running through the pros and cons of each in my head.
"I dunno…they all sound pretty good," said Derf. "But if the first one can transfer other people's powers to you, isn't that the most valuable?"
"On the surface, yes, but remember these rewards are probably capped to D-Rank power, so I suspect it simply won't work well on the people or powers I actually want to get, or it might only give me a weak version of what it absorbs, even if it doesn't cause serious side effects. The risk seems high."
"That's true. It's a double-edged sword then. Other two are a toss up. The skill would be cool if I could also use it. The pill seems to be the best match for what you wanted though."
A few moments later, I made my decision.
The skill had the obvious drawback that it relied on a Shinsoo environment. It would be difficult to use outside of the Tower and didn't really complement my existing abilities.
But in the end, the best choice was the one the Administrator specially made for me.
It might take time to master and didn't seem powerful at first glance, but it might solve a major weakness for me. Since internal Shinsoo continued to work on other planes, this should allow me to recover in the event of grave wounds outside of the Tower, without having to come back to the Tower for retraining and absorbing Shinsoo.
And there might be ways to make it more useful, after I studied it further.
"I'll take the pill."
"Okay, take it," said the Administrator as he disappeared the other two choices.
I grabbed the Blood Fusion Flower Pill and was instantly teleported back to where I'd initially set up camp on the 31st Floor Middle Area.
O O O
70 – Call me Sasha
70 – Call me Sasha
I screamed as the acid spray ate through the skin on my sword arm, leaving it momentarily useless while I escaped with Burstshift, forced to drop Derflinger.
The enemy giant horned lizard sprayed down Derflinger as well from a different hole in its chest, practically gluing Derf to the ground as he was unable to manipulate enough Shinsoo on his own to break out of it.
I materialized my Arms Inventory and quickly unleashed the White Steel Eel to keep fighting while I retreated behind a rocky outcropping and concentrated on getting rid of the acid and healing my arm. Unable to use the water stone's advanced regeneration spell here, the task was much slower with my own Restoration spell and the Armoriont.
…
Fully synced with the water stone, I dodged the rain of giant exploding boulders and blasted through what I couldn't dodge with Derflinger's Shinsoo waves, a rapidly rotating sphere of liquid Shinsoo protecting me from the onslaught of debris and explosions.
…
Dozens of Baangs were fired at the winged snakefish while it nimbly dodged in the air.
The White Steel Eel, Derflinger controlling a basic Armoriont clone, and Beastionts in large animal forms fought off numerous drones surrounding me.
A giant timer counted down the minutes before a new wave of battle drone reinforcements would arrive to impede my assault.
However, it never arrived, as I'd finally hit the target on the snakefish.
…
Liquid Shinsoo swirled around me into a raging torrent.
Sovereign of the Deep: Great Vortex.
A cyclone of Shinsoo tore apart the area, ripping apart the mounted Shinsoo turrets that littered chamber.
The main guardian golem stood its ground and unleashed a huge beam of Shinsoo at me.
I retaliated with a slash from Derflinger, an enormous quantity of Shinsoo having been channeled into him by the water spirits, and released a mighty attack equal to a L6 Slash Beam.
The two attacks collided with a momentary struggle, but Derflinger's beam overpowered the golem's and then went on to destroy it.
O O O
35F, 10 months after the 31F test
I rode one of the many commercial trains for Regulars that went to Train City, which held the starting station for the Hell Train on the 35th Floor.
The window showed the passing scenery of this area, full of mountains and lakes.
It also lightly reflected my face, or rather, the face of my new Avatar Body.
A young woman with platinum blonde hair that went past the shoulders, striking green eyes, a flawless fair face, and pointed ears, under a cloak hood.
Model SASHA Version Alpha 1.
After half a year, the second Spirit Cluster Core had been completed, and then I fully grew a genetically modified female clone, to both get started on Derf's request and to go through the next phase of my plans with a new identity.
The external appearance was additionally modified to match Derf's creator as much as possible from his memories.
I had to retrieve some additional lab equipment from Worm and had a number of failed productions before a live one stayed viable to adulthood. This was still far from perfect, and had many minor issues, but it was good enough to fulfill the requirements of the Avatar Body and have better compatibility with the Bionanite Swarm and Armoriont, as well as my personal magecraft, unlike the Canjon-class puppets.
Because of its body mass ratio, it had worse physical stats compared to the Axion/Dua model I left to continue the disguise with Team Sweet & Sour. However, it had an unexpected advantage.
The Omni-Flight spell and its derivative Burstshift, seemed to cost a bit less mana, and had a higher max velocity when used through this body.
It was still worse than using it through my main body, but the difference from the other Avatar Body seemed to suggest that its compatibility for the spell was higher. Possibly because of the spell's origins as based on magical girl concepts.
Derflinger had insisted on moving to a necklace instead of a bracelet, while my main body stayed inside a Compressed Lighthouse Cube floating beside the Avatar.
I could've stayed in Manbarondenna, which the Avatar strapped around its waist, to be even less conspicuous, but that had the downside of being unable to get out without somebody opening it from the outside, and being sealed off from physical Shinsoo flows to the outside.
Being hidden inside my own Lighthouse meant that I could support the Avatar directly with my Shinsoo and Lighthouse skills if necessary, simply by Decompressing the Cube to a larger size.
There was no need to rely on the Spirit Cluster Core since I wasn't operating remotely, after all.
"Hand over your ticket if you don't want to die!"
"What makes you think I have one?"
I turned to see a Regular standing over and threatening another one sitting a few seats in front of me.
"Don't bother hiding it, I know you have it. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," said Regular number one, pointing a needle at number two.
Several other train riders stood up and surrounded him with hostile expressions.
"What, you have a whole team here?" Regular number one laughed, seemingly unbothered.
"It's foolish to move around alone when you're headed to Train City," said Regular number two calmly.
"Who said I was alone? Negotiations have broken down!" Number one shouted, more Regulars standing up from the other seats at his signal.
Soon the train cabin devolved into chaos as the two sides began fighting.
Other Regulars who were taking the train started screaming and running away.
"Is that the same kind of ticket we need to board the Hell Train?" Derflinger asked.
"I would assume so," I said, still seated.
"Is it just me, or do these guys seem kinda weak?" said Derf, floating up to get a better view.
"They are weak. They might be D-Rank, but they're just the average, mediocre ones," I said. "But, hm…it's interesting."
"A..ah…a-are you s-strong Miss? P-please help me get out of here…!" The Regular seated to my right asked with a shaking voice, wild eyes, and hands over her head, trying to keep as low as possible under the seat backrests and practically snuggling up to me.
"Oh…sorry, but no," I said with a small laugh. "I'm staying here."
She looked crestfallen and whimpered, turning away.
After a while, the fighting died down, and several bodies were strewn across the cabin.
The defending side had won handily, with Regular number two panting heavily but otherwise unwounded. His team members started checking the compartment while Regular number two adjusted his dress shirt and tie.
"Hey boss, there's still a couple of outsiders here. They seem suspicious. What should we do?" Said one guy pointing towards us after noticing we were still in our seats.
"Hmm? Let me see them."
"P-please I'm just a passenger caught up in this, I don't want any trouble!" The woman beside me pleaded.
"Get up and keep your hands where we can see them," Goon A ordered us. "The boss will decide."
I stood up to comply. We were surrounded in the cabin center for scrutiny, and one of them pulled my hood off.
Their entire group was men apparently, and the instant my hood came off, their expressions changed.
"Damn, what a face!"
"So that's what she was hiding under the hood?"
"Look at those ears, what race is that?"
"Let's take her with us, boss!"
The boss held up a hand for silence, staring at me contemplatively and then the other woman.
"You weren't with the group that attacked us? Why didn't you run away? Sticking around like this makes it seem like you were waiting to ambush us at the end," he said suspiciously.
"No no, I have nothing to do with them! Please believe me, I didn't attack anyone!" The woman said frantically. "I was just too scared to leave!"
I shrugged. "I had an interesting idea, so I decided to watch."
"An interesting idea?" The boss raised his eyebrows.
"Yes," I smiled. "It's your lucky day. I thought to myself, if whoever won the fight had a good showing and wasn't too stupid, I might let them become my subordinates for a while. I'm in need of some meat shields that can think for themselves to deal with any trash that tries to bother me, and you lot seem qualified for the job."
They all looked stunned, a few angry, at my words.
However, I was disappointed to see that there didn't seem to be the stereotypical guy that would retort that I was talking nonsense while surrounded.
"Boss, something feels off here. She's too crazy. Could she be another member of the Ten Families?" A guy whispered loudly into the boss' ear.
"Who are you? Why should we become your 'meat shields' and what will you do if we refuse?" The boss asked.
"Good questions. Call me Sasha, and my background's not important. I'm just a Regular like you, headed for the Hell Train. But I have powers beyond your imagination and I am generous to my subordinates. Those who prove their worth serving me shall receive great benefits. If you refuse, then I won't force you. You will be free to go unharmed after you give me your ticket."
"So you were after the ticket too, after all," said the boss, scoffing.
I gave him an amused smile. "If you serve me then you can keep it. I won't steal from my subordinates. I don't need your specific ticket, after all, and everyone that wants to follow me onto the Train next month will need tickets of their own anyways."
The boss seemed taken aback for a moment.
Then another one of them asked. "What sort of uh, benefits, are we talking about here?"
"Shut up, get your mind out of the gutter!"
"What, it's a serious question, get your mind out of the gutter! Who says I was asking about that?"
"Shut up, both of you," said the boss, and they quieted down with apologies. "There aren't many Regulars who can board the Train with a whole team. We've tried to collect more tickets in the past, but there just aren't enough to go around and all of the holders are strong. The D-Rank section covers up to the 44th Floor. The ones who can gather multiple tickets are all veterans, elite D-Rankers. But you're not a veteran yourself, are you? However strong you are, don't think you might be underestimating the competition? How do we know you are as good as you think you are?"
I smiled wider. "It seems my intuition about you was good. From this exchange, you've already noticed some important things and are seeking more information to rationally make a favorable deal. You know that your own team is not strong enough, but you don't want to leave your teammates behind just yet. You've accurately assessed your own strength compared to your competition. A more brutish sort might have suggested that I defeat them first to prove my strength. What you're asking now isn't just where my confidence comes from, but rather, do I have the means to face the best of the best, and will your team meet disaster if you follow me?"
He furrowed his brows and looked at me with wariness. "Yes. You give off a strange feeling…my instincts tell me you are someone I can't take lightly. But even if you were all that you said you were and strong enough to be fearless in this situation, it doesn't mean that we would be better off with you. I want to get on the Hell Train with my team, but if we're not ready we can always keep training, keep climbing, and come back another year. But you seem like the type that'd walk straight into a fire, one that you might survive, but maybe the rest of us won't."
"Well said. So how about this? I will show you a small sample of my abilities. Pick one of your team members, preferably one of the physically weaker ones. I will grant him a temporary power boost. Then have him face one of your stronger members. I assume you already know their strengths, then you will see for yourself the difference."
The group looked between each other and the boss, who asked if any of them wanted to volunteer for it.
After a few moments, they picked the lankiest member of their group, apparently their scout.
I touched a hand to his chest, then used Structural Grasp to get as much of a read on his body as possible. After ten seconds of analysis, I applied Reinforcement.
Both of these spells were basic enough that I could do them without any consequences, and I had done quite a bit of experimentation on them back during my stint as Dr. Dua.
The drugs and mystic codes I'd developed to cast them didn't work nearly as well as the spell directly cast by me.
One of the big problems with magecraft Reinforcement was that it required a fair bit of customization to the thing being Reinforced, and so without a Structural Grasp, trying to do a common template Reinforcement was just really limiting.
Comparatively, Restoration—the healing spell—was much easier since it relied on the body's own memory of its form and its own processes.
Another issue with Reinforcement was that the difficulty of it rose with the recipient's complexity, pre-existing power level, and Shinsoo resistance or flows.
This meant that, aside from myself and my own creations with the best compatibility and understanding, the enhancements I could give to other people were much more impactful on those who were weaker.
In other words, it was efficient and easier for me to raise up lower level mooks to a decent strength than to enhance the already strong guys, whom I'd have to take much more time to study individually or even experiment with through multiple sessions, and the results still wouldn't feel quite as impressive.
This was quickly demonstrated when the recipient faced off against one of the team's Fisherman, and started fighting him almost evenly, much to his own and the group's surprise, before overwhelming the Fisherman with a kick that sent him flying.
"Damn. That's a hell of a boost," said the boss. "This is only temporary? How long?"
"A few hours, more than enough for a battle. To those who serve me well, I can give permanent enhancements that they can activate on their own," I said.
"C-can I serve you too, Miss Sasha?!" The woman beside me looked on with awe.
"This offer is only to these men, I'm afraid. I haven't seen any of your skills yet and you don't seem to have the right temperament to be one of my guards. But if you really want, I'll let you be my maid."
I didn't really need one, but that was the type of thing you'd expect a haughty, powerful lady in this type of encounter to do right?
"That's fine! I'll do it! My name is—"
"I don't care. I'm just going to call you Maid now. Now what about you guys? Will you serve me?" I turned to ask the leader of the men.
He looked around at his team and seemed to reach a silent consensus, then bowed forwards with a fist over his chest. "Yes. Team Darul is at your service, lady Sasha."
O O O
One of the uses of having some subordinates was so I could divert attention to the Dua Avatar whenever I needed to.
It was still very difficult to directly control more than one complex familiar at a time, and that also applied to the Avatar Bodies and all of my other Armoriont-clones or Canjon-class puppets, which was why I didn't simply bring out a whole squadron of them all in battle.
Even large numbers of Shinheuh were difficult to control because I didn't personally use the Shinsoo Anima methods, but instead relied on my familiar spell after the water spirits did the initial taming. While the water spirits could flow-train Shinheuh to control them via Shinsoo, it was a different matter for me who had no genuine talent as an Anima, and I couldn't effectively coordinate them indirectly through the water spirits either.
The Beastionts were the easiest to direct, since they could be mostly autonomous and had animal intelligence of their own with programmed loyalty to follow basic tactical orders.
But now, some important things had been happening with the canon groups, and I had to respond to some of it.
These events would lead to a gathering of many characters with different interests at the Workshop Battle in a couple of months, where I intended to achieve several major objectives using the Axion avatar.
Number one, to serve as an attention-grabbing decoy so that anyone keeping tabs on me wouldn't link me to Sasha's activities on the Hell Train.
Two, to seize the opportunity created by the chaos of the factional schemes unfolding at the Workshop Battle, and break into the Living Ignition Weapon labs which were located there. These labs held valuable research data and raw Ignition Liquid that I was very interested in, both for Derflinger and for my own experiments.
Three, to fulfill a favor for Ha Jinsung and Hwa Ryun, who remained vital allies for me in the Tower, whose "side" in FUG I needed to win at the Workshop Battle to keep canon events on track to maintain the later political balance of the Tower and my own security.
Let's rewind a bit to understand the reason for this favor, the sequence of events that led to it, and the major parties involved.
The first spark was when Rachel had laid a trap for Khun and the new team he'd assembled.
To recap, Khun was one of the first teammates of Baam on the 2nd Floor. He and Ship Leesoo had uncovered Rachel's fake crippling, and acted like nothing was wrong until the 25th Floor, where Khun separated from the main team led by Ship in order to create a new team for the purpose of isolating her and getting revenge for what he believed was the crime of killing Baam.
Although I wasn't aware of the specifics, Khun had brought together some impressive characters. But unfortunately for him his recruits included a couple of FUG double agents loyal to Rachel.
What followed was Cassano, the Devil of the Left Arm, and Horyang's "brother" from the Living Ignition Weapon experiments, luring Khun to an ambush set by other FUG collaborators. Khun split his team in the process, while Rachel and her loyalists used the chance to attack the remaining members and then escape.
I only knew the early parts of this from metaknowledge, as neither Rachel nor Khun informed anybody that I was in regular contact with, on the Dua side or Axie.
Where I was alerted to it happening was when Team Sweet and Sour had chased Horyang, and then Viole, to the same location, a place known as Arlene's Hand, in pursuit of Cassano.
At which point, the battle turned more chaotic, and the major results were that Viole had been blackmailed onto a new FUG team for the Workshop Battle, he then forcibly recruited two members of Khun's team to protect them, and finally Khun himself was buried under an explosion and seemingly dying in public news.
Team S&S arrived on the scene to save Khun afterward, then Ha Jinsung and Hwa Ryun got involved to find out who was pulling the strings.
And they discovered that it was a coalition of factions which had formed an anti-Viole bloc, who supposedly wanted to keep a tighter leash on Viole because his self-picked team was too trash.
In reality, they wanted to melt down his body entirely and use him as a component in an Ignition Weapon so that somebody else could use his power as an Irregular.
Scary stuff, which is why I had been careful since entering the Tower to secure allies that could suppress the intel that I was an Irregular and fight back against these guys, why I had to side with the pro-Viole people.
The anti-Viole coalition offered a bet to Ha Jinsung, pitting Team Sweet and Sour against the team which Viole had been blackmailed into joining. Whoever won the Workshop Battle would become Viole's team thereafter.
This was a bet which Ha Jinsung had no choice but to accept because too many of the FUG Elders supported this as a seemingly fair way to resolve both factions' concerns.
He then asked me to help. Except, since the other faction had gotten wind of his new powerful student, I was barred from participating. So I'd have to help indirectly…fortunately, my multiple identities and skills in body puppetry were well suited to this kind of subterfuge.
O O O
"Derf, it's time. Have you gotten the hang of it?" I asked, still concealed in my Lighthouse, and another Derflinger in my hands.
The one outside with Sasha's necklace was actually a fake he'd been practicing remotely controlling.
"Yeah, yeah, it still feels pretty strange, but I've got it," said Derf.
For now, he hadn't remembered anything new, but he'd agreed to try my suggestion of piggybacking off my familiar spell.
It was extremely clunky and he couldn't transfer any mana through this connection from his real body, but he could at least talk and show a minimal amount of his abilities through the other sword.
A similar-looking idol sword would be specially prepared with a ritual simultaneously performed by my main body and an Avatar, using my blood as a common medium. Then I would bring Derf into my familiar bond with the Avatar Body, and then he would use that to control the other idol sword as his own familiar.
The resulting cloned sword had to build up mana of its own and could barely handle 1000 MP worth of spell absorption. Which was not bad at all for a magus, but once absorbed by Derflinger that was only equivalent to a bit more than a single 800 MP Level 4 Sword Beam.
The more complicated User Boost was impossible for now, the best he could do was just to control the wielder's body with zero enhancement, and even that would be very draining compared to his MP pool, and not something that could be kept up for prolonged periods on just the Spirit Cluster Core's MP generation alone either.
Compression could be an imbued effect, so Derf could just trigger it rather than using the skill manually. Of course, it was too difficult with Endbringer crystal or the supersized Decompression, so the fake swords were just made of nanocellulose crystal.
But it was a start. I could teach a 6000-year-old dog new tricks after all.
While Sasha continued traveling to Train City secured by Team Darul, a tiger cat Beastiont pet on her lap, with a snakeform Beastiont wrapped stealthily around her body inside her cloak, we delved into matters with Dua.
O O O
I screamed as the acid spray ate through the skin on my sword arm, leaving it momentarily useless while I escaped with Burstshift, forced to drop Derflinger.
The enemy giant horned lizard sprayed down Derflinger as well from a different hole in its chest, practically gluing Derf to the ground as he was unable to manipulate enough Shinsoo on his own to break out of it.
I materialized my Arms Inventory and quickly unleashed the White Steel Eel to keep fighting while I retreated behind a rocky outcropping and concentrated on getting rid of the acid and healing my arm. Unable to use the water stone's advanced regeneration spell here, the task was much slower with my own Restoration spell and the Armoriont.
…
Fully synced with the water stone, I dodged the rain of giant exploding boulders and blasted through what I couldn't dodge with Derflinger's Shinsoo waves, a rapidly rotating sphere of liquid Shinsoo protecting me from the onslaught of debris and explosions.
…
Dozens of Baangs were fired at the winged snakefish while it nimbly dodged in the air.
The White Steel Eel, Derflinger controlling a basic Armoriont clone, and Beastionts in large animal forms fought off numerous drones surrounding me.
A giant timer counted down the minutes before a new wave of battle drone reinforcements would arrive to impede my assault.
However, it never arrived, as I'd finally hit the target on the snakefish.
…
Liquid Shinsoo swirled around me into a raging torrent.
Sovereign of the Deep: Great Vortex.
A cyclone of Shinsoo tore apart the area, ripping apart the mounted Shinsoo turrets that littered chamber.
The main guardian golem stood its ground and unleashed a huge beam of Shinsoo at me.
I retaliated with a slash from Derflinger, an enormous quantity of Shinsoo having been channeled into him by the water spirits, and released a mighty attack equal to a L6 Slash Beam.
The two attacks collided with a momentary struggle, but Derflinger's beam overpowered the golem's and then went on to destroy it.
O O O
35F, 10 months after the 31F test
I rode one of the many commercial trains for Regulars that went to Train City, which held the starting station for the Hell Train on the 35th Floor.
The window showed the passing scenery of this area, full of mountains and lakes.
It also lightly reflected my face, or rather, the face of my new Avatar Body.
A young woman with platinum blonde hair that went past the shoulders, striking green eyes, a flawless fair face, and pointed ears, under a cloak hood.
Model SASHA Version Alpha 1.
After half a year, the second Spirit Cluster Core had been completed, and then I fully grew a genetically modified female clone, to both get started on Derf's request and to go through the next phase of my plans with a new identity.
The external appearance was additionally modified to match Derf's creator as much as possible from his memories.
I had to retrieve some additional lab equipment from Worm and had a number of failed productions before a live one stayed viable to adulthood. This was still far from perfect, and had many minor issues, but it was good enough to fulfill the requirements of the Avatar Body and have better compatibility with the Bionanite Swarm and Armoriont, as well as my personal magecraft, unlike the Canjon-class puppets.
Because of its body mass ratio, it had worse physical stats compared to the Axion/Dua model I left to continue the disguise with Team Sweet & Sour. However, it had an unexpected advantage.
The Omni-Flight spell and its derivative Burstshift, seemed to cost a bit less mana, and had a higher max velocity when used through this body.
It was still worse than using it through my main body, but the difference from the other Avatar Body seemed to suggest that its compatibility for the spell was higher. Possibly because of the spell's origins as based on magical girl concepts.
Derflinger had insisted on moving to a necklace instead of a bracelet, while my main body stayed inside a Compressed Lighthouse Cube floating beside the Avatar.
I could've stayed in Manbarondenna, which the Avatar strapped around its waist, to be even less conspicuous, but that had the downside of being unable to get out without somebody opening it from the outside, and being sealed off from physical Shinsoo flows to the outside.
Being hidden inside my own Lighthouse meant that I could support the Avatar directly with my Shinsoo and Lighthouse skills if necessary, simply by Decompressing the Cube to a larger size.
There was no need to rely on the Spirit Cluster Core since I wasn't operating remotely, after all.
"Hand over your ticket if you don't want to die!"
"What makes you think I have one?"
I turned to see a Regular standing over and threatening another one sitting a few seats in front of me.
"Don't bother hiding it, I know you have it. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," said Regular number one, pointing a needle at number two.
Several other train riders stood up and surrounded him with hostile expressions.
"What, you have a whole team here?" Regular number one laughed, seemingly unbothered.
"It's foolish to move around alone when you're headed to Train City," said Regular number two calmly.
"Who said I was alone? Negotiations have broken down!" Number one shouted, more Regulars standing up from the other seats at his signal.
Soon the train cabin devolved into chaos as the two sides began fighting.
Other Regulars who were taking the train started screaming and running away.
"Is that the same kind of ticket we need to board the Hell Train?" Derflinger asked.
"I would assume so," I said, still seated.
"Is it just me, or do these guys seem kinda weak?" said Derf, floating up to get a better view.
"They are weak. They might be D-Rank, but they're just the average, mediocre ones," I said. "But, hm…it's interesting."
"A..ah…a-are you s-strong Miss? P-please help me get out of here…!" The Regular seated to my right asked with a shaking voice, wild eyes, and hands over her head, trying to keep as low as possible under the seat backrests and practically snuggling up to me.
"Oh…sorry, but no," I said with a small laugh. "I'm staying here."
She looked crestfallen and whimpered, turning away.
After a while, the fighting died down, and several bodies were strewn across the cabin.
The defending side had won handily, with Regular number two panting heavily but otherwise unwounded. His team members started checking the compartment while Regular number two adjusted his dress shirt and tie.
"Hey boss, there's still a couple of outsiders here. They seem suspicious. What should we do?" Said one guy pointing towards us after noticing we were still in our seats.
"Hmm? Let me see them."
"P-please I'm just a passenger caught up in this, I don't want any trouble!" The woman beside me pleaded.
"Get up and keep your hands where we can see them," Goon A ordered us. "The boss will decide."
I stood up to comply. We were surrounded in the cabin center for scrutiny, and one of them pulled my hood off.
Their entire group was men apparently, and the instant my hood came off, their expressions changed.
"Damn, what a face!"
"So that's what she was hiding under the hood?"
"Look at those ears, what race is that?"
"Let's take her with us, boss!"
The boss held up a hand for silence, staring at me contemplatively and then the other woman.
"You weren't with the group that attacked us? Why didn't you run away? Sticking around like this makes it seem like you were waiting to ambush us at the end," he said suspiciously.
"No no, I have nothing to do with them! Please believe me, I didn't attack anyone!" The woman said frantically. "I was just too scared to leave!"
I shrugged. "I had an interesting idea, so I decided to watch."
"An interesting idea?" The boss raised his eyebrows.
"Yes," I smiled. "It's your lucky day. I thought to myself, if whoever won the fight had a good showing and wasn't too stupid, I might let them become my subordinates for a while. I'm in need of some meat shields that can think for themselves to deal with any trash that tries to bother me, and you lot seem qualified for the job."
They all looked stunned, a few angry, at my words.
However, I was disappointed to see that there didn't seem to be the stereotypical guy that would retort that I was talking nonsense while surrounded.
"Boss, something feels off here. She's too crazy. Could she be another member of the Ten Families?" A guy whispered loudly into the boss' ear.
"Who are you? Why should we become your 'meat shields' and what will you do if we refuse?" The boss asked.
"Good questions. Call me Sasha, and my background's not important. I'm just a Regular like you, headed for the Hell Train. But I have powers beyond your imagination and I am generous to my subordinates. Those who prove their worth serving me shall receive great benefits. If you refuse, then I won't force you. You will be free to go unharmed after you give me your ticket."
"So you were after the ticket too, after all," said the boss, scoffing.
I gave him an amused smile. "If you serve me then you can keep it. I won't steal from my subordinates. I don't need your specific ticket, after all, and everyone that wants to follow me onto the Train next month will need tickets of their own anyways."
The boss seemed taken aback for a moment.
Then another one of them asked. "What sort of uh, benefits, are we talking about here?"
"Shut up, get your mind out of the gutter!"
"What, it's a serious question, get your mind out of the gutter! Who says I was asking about that?"
"Shut up, both of you," said the boss, and they quieted down with apologies. "There aren't many Regulars who can board the Train with a whole team. We've tried to collect more tickets in the past, but there just aren't enough to go around and all of the holders are strong. The D-Rank section covers up to the 44th Floor. The ones who can gather multiple tickets are all veterans, elite D-Rankers. But you're not a veteran yourself, are you? However strong you are, don't think you might be underestimating the competition? How do we know you are as good as you think you are?"
I smiled wider. "It seems my intuition about you was good. From this exchange, you've already noticed some important things and are seeking more information to rationally make a favorable deal. You know that your own team is not strong enough, but you don't want to leave your teammates behind just yet. You've accurately assessed your own strength compared to your competition. A more brutish sort might have suggested that I defeat them first to prove my strength. What you're asking now isn't just where my confidence comes from, but rather, do I have the means to face the best of the best, and will your team meet disaster if you follow me?"
He furrowed his brows and looked at me with wariness. "Yes. You give off a strange feeling…my instincts tell me you are someone I can't take lightly. But even if you were all that you said you were and strong enough to be fearless in this situation, it doesn't mean that we would be better off with you. I want to get on the Hell Train with my team, but if we're not ready we can always keep training, keep climbing, and come back another year. But you seem like the type that'd walk straight into a fire, one that you might survive, but maybe the rest of us won't."
"Well said. So how about this? I will show you a small sample of my abilities. Pick one of your team members, preferably one of the physically weaker ones. I will grant him a temporary power boost. Then have him face one of your stronger members. I assume you already know their strengths, then you will see for yourself the difference."
The group looked between each other and the boss, who asked if any of them wanted to volunteer for it.
After a few moments, they picked the lankiest member of their group, apparently their scout.
I touched a hand to his chest, then used Structural Grasp to get as much of a read on his body as possible. After ten seconds of analysis, I applied Reinforcement.
Both of these spells were basic enough that I could do them without any consequences, and I had done quite a bit of experimentation on them back during my stint as Dr. Dua.
The drugs and mystic codes I'd developed to cast them didn't work nearly as well as the spell directly cast by me.
One of the big problems with magecraft Reinforcement was that it required a fair bit of customization to the thing being Reinforced, and so without a Structural Grasp, trying to do a common template Reinforcement was just really limiting.
Comparatively, Restoration—the healing spell—was much easier since it relied on the body's own memory of its form and its own processes.
Another issue with Reinforcement was that the difficulty of it rose with the recipient's complexity, pre-existing power level, and Shinsoo resistance or flows.
This meant that, aside from myself and my own creations with the best compatibility and understanding, the enhancements I could give to other people were much more impactful on those who were weaker.
In other words, it was efficient and easier for me to raise up lower level mooks to a decent strength than to enhance the already strong guys, whom I'd have to take much more time to study individually or even experiment with through multiple sessions, and the results still wouldn't feel quite as impressive.
This was quickly demonstrated when the recipient faced off against one of the team's Fisherman, and started fighting him almost evenly, much to his own and the group's surprise, before overwhelming the Fisherman with a kick that sent him flying.
"Damn. That's a hell of a boost," said the boss. "This is only temporary? How long?"
"A few hours, more than enough for a battle. To those who serve me well, I can give permanent enhancements that they can activate on their own," I said.
"C-can I serve you too, Miss Sasha?!" The woman beside me looked on with awe.
"This offer is only to these men, I'm afraid. I haven't seen any of your skills yet and you don't seem to have the right temperament to be one of my guards. But if you really want, I'll let you be my maid."
I didn't really need one, but that was the type of thing you'd expect a haughty, powerful lady in this type of encounter to do right?
"That's fine! I'll do it! My name is—"
"I don't care. I'm just going to call you Maid now. Now what about you guys? Will you serve me?" I turned to ask the leader of the men.
He looked around at his team and seemed to reach a silent consensus, then bowed forwards with a fist over his chest. "Yes. Team Darul is at your service, lady Sasha."
O O O
One of the uses of having some subordinates was so I could divert attention to the Dua Avatar whenever I needed to.
It was still very difficult to directly control more than one complex familiar at a time, and that also applied to the Avatar Bodies and all of my other Armoriont-clones or Canjon-class puppets, which was why I didn't simply bring out a whole squadron of them all in battle.
Even large numbers of Shinheuh were difficult to control because I didn't personally use the Shinsoo Anima methods, but instead relied on my familiar spell after the water spirits did the initial taming. While the water spirits could flow-train Shinheuh to control them via Shinsoo, it was a different matter for me who had no genuine talent as an Anima, and I couldn't effectively coordinate them indirectly through the water spirits either.
The Beastionts were the easiest to direct, since they could be mostly autonomous and had animal intelligence of their own with programmed loyalty to follow basic tactical orders.
But now, some important things had been happening with the canon groups, and I had to respond to some of it.
These events would lead to a gathering of many characters with different interests at the Workshop Battle in a couple of months, where I intended to achieve several major objectives using the Axion avatar.
Number one, to serve as an attention-grabbing decoy so that anyone keeping tabs on me wouldn't link me to Sasha's activities on the Hell Train.
Two, to seize the opportunity created by the chaos of the factional schemes unfolding at the Workshop Battle, and break into the Living Ignition Weapon labs which were located there. These labs held valuable research data and raw Ignition Liquid that I was very interested in, both for Derflinger and for my own experiments.
Three, to fulfill a favor for Ha Jinsung and Hwa Ryun, who remained vital allies for me in the Tower, whose "side" in FUG I needed to win at the Workshop Battle to keep canon events on track to maintain the later political balance of the Tower and my own security.
Let's rewind a bit to understand the reason for this favor, the sequence of events that led to it, and the major parties involved.
The first spark was when Rachel had laid a trap for Khun and the new team he'd assembled.
To recap, Khun was one of the first teammates of Baam on the 2nd Floor. He and Ship Leesoo had uncovered Rachel's fake crippling, and acted like nothing was wrong until the 25th Floor, where Khun separated from the main team led by Ship in order to create a new team for the purpose of isolating her and getting revenge for what he believed was the crime of killing Baam.
Although I wasn't aware of the specifics, Khun had brought together some impressive characters. But unfortunately for him his recruits included a couple of FUG double agents loyal to Rachel.
What followed was Cassano, the Devil of the Left Arm, and Horyang's "brother" from the Living Ignition Weapon experiments, luring Khun to an ambush set by other FUG collaborators. Khun split his team in the process, while Rachel and her loyalists used the chance to attack the remaining members and then escape.
I only knew the early parts of this from metaknowledge, as neither Rachel nor Khun informed anybody that I was in regular contact with, on the Dua side or Axie.
Where I was alerted to it happening was when Team Sweet and Sour had chased Horyang, and then Viole, to the same location, a place known as Arlene's Hand, in pursuit of Cassano.
At which point, the battle turned more chaotic, and the major results were that Viole had been blackmailed onto a new FUG team for the Workshop Battle, he then forcibly recruited two members of Khun's team to protect them, and finally Khun himself was buried under an explosion and seemingly dying in public news.
Team S&S arrived on the scene to save Khun afterward, then Ha Jinsung and Hwa Ryun got involved to find out who was pulling the strings.
And they discovered that it was a coalition of factions which had formed an anti-Viole bloc, who supposedly wanted to keep a tighter leash on Viole because his self-picked team was too trash.
In reality, they wanted to melt down his body entirely and use him as a component in an Ignition Weapon so that somebody else could use his power as an Irregular.
Scary stuff, which is why I had been careful since entering the Tower to secure allies that could suppress the intel that I was an Irregular and fight back against these guys, why I had to side with the pro-Viole people.
The anti-Viole coalition offered a bet to Ha Jinsung, pitting Team Sweet and Sour against the team which Viole had been blackmailed into joining. Whoever won the Workshop Battle would become Viole's team thereafter.
This was a bet which Ha Jinsung had no choice but to accept because too many of the FUG Elders supported this as a seemingly fair way to resolve both factions' concerns.
He then asked me to help. Except, since the other faction had gotten wind of his new powerful student, I was barred from participating. So I'd have to help indirectly…fortunately, my multiple identities and skills in body puppetry were well suited to this kind of subterfuge.
O O O
"Derf, it's time. Have you gotten the hang of it?" I asked, still concealed in my Lighthouse, and another Derflinger in my hands.
The one outside with Sasha's necklace was actually a fake he'd been practicing remotely controlling.
"Yeah, yeah, it still feels pretty strange, but I've got it," said Derf.
For now, he hadn't remembered anything new, but he'd agreed to try my suggestion of piggybacking off my familiar spell.
It was extremely clunky and he couldn't transfer any mana through this connection from his real body, but he could at least talk and show a minimal amount of his abilities through the other sword.
A similar-looking idol sword would be specially prepared with a ritual simultaneously performed by my main body and an Avatar, using my blood as a common medium. Then I would bring Derf into my familiar bond with the Avatar Body, and then he would use that to control the other idol sword as his own familiar.
The resulting cloned sword had to build up mana of its own and could barely handle 1000 MP worth of spell absorption. Which was not bad at all for a magus, but once absorbed by Derflinger that was only equivalent to a bit more than a single 800 MP Level 4 Sword Beam.
The more complicated User Boost was impossible for now, the best he could do was just to control the wielder's body with zero enhancement, and even that would be very draining compared to his MP pool, and not something that could be kept up for prolonged periods on just the Spirit Cluster Core's MP generation alone either.
Compression could be an imbued effect, so Derf could just trigger it rather than using the skill manually. Of course, it was too difficult with Endbringer crystal or the supersized Decompression, so the fake swords were just made of nanocellulose crystal.
But it was a start. I could teach a 6000-year-old dog new tricks after all.
While Sasha continued traveling to Train City secured by Team Darul, a tiger cat Beastiont pet on her lap, with a snakeform Beastiont wrapped stealthily around her body inside her cloak, we delved into matters with Dua.
O O O
71 – New Teams
71 – New Teams
28F, Khun's private residence
In the Dua avatar, I travelled with Hwa Ryun to meet Team S&S and Khun. After Khun woke up and recovered, he led Team S&S to his own team's residence to check what happened, discovering the death of one teammate and the crippling of the other, while Rachel and the two FUG infiltrators were missing.
First, we greeted Wangnan, Yihwa, and co.
Then, Hwa Ryun went up to the roof to find and persuade Khun to lead Team S&S in the bet against Team FUG during the Workshop Battle.
I went to check on Khun's two teammates.
I walked with Yihwa and Wangnan to the first room, and on the bed unconscious lay Dan, the speedster Scout who was the last to join Khun's team.
Upon my entry, Yihwa explained that she'd been using the Yeon acupuncture on him for the past few days, though the tools had been put away.
"The doctor Khun hired said he won't be able to walk for a month," said Yihwa. "And even after, his legs won't be as good as before. I heard he was famed as one of the fastest Regulars in the E-Rank. It must be hard for Khun to see his teammates like this."
I examined his body and injuries myself. His legs would make a full recovery on their own, but he'd have to retrain them to get back to their former power.
It was exactly the issue which had been the focus of my 31st Floor Seeker Challenge.
"It's not that bad. He's alive, and not crippled. After getting enough rest, it should heal on its own, and then he'll be able to train himself back to full strength eventually if he has the will for it," I said, after retracting my hand from his leg. "I'm going to have a look at the one that died. Where is he?"
"Still in his room, he hasn't been moved yet. It's right down the hall," said Wangnan.
Next I went to see the humanoid chicken, Gyetang. One of Rachel's people, the quack doctor on their team, had poisoned him to make it look like he had bird flu, which was one of the reasons Khun had to split his team, leaving behind some to take care of Gyetang and Rachel, who had still been faking being crippled.
After lifting the sheet that covered his body, a Structural Grasp showed that much of his body had already entered the post-death changes, like rigor mortis, decay, necrosis, etc.
If I'd had the water stone with me, it would still be possible to fully heal the body back to a living vegetable and remove all signs of death in a matter of minutes.
As it stood, the water stone was with my main body so I had to test out my own skills.
My Restoration spell was not nearly good enough for this, but turning a dead corpse into a familiar was a basic skill of Fate magi. There were certain advantages of using a corpse, like remnant spiritual energy and the thoughts of the deceased being present, though in most cases they would use an animal body instead, and combine it with the spiritual energy of deceased humans.
To create a high quality Canjon-class puppet fit for combat would mean many days of work and reagents invested, even if it was my main body handling the spellcraft.
A fresher corpse would also be better for the resulting quality, especially to preserve the spiritual residue and Shinsoo flows.
On the other hand, a corpse which had been decayed for a while, like this one, had less resistance to my mana.
I restored the bare minimum of the major muscle groups, got rid of some of the more disgusting smells, just enough to move around a bit. Then continued to inject mana until I could make it respond to my control.
A temporary familiar that would last no more than ten minutes under control, slow to respond, imprecise, and exacerbated by the direct connection coming from the Dua avatar, as it was simply too far to connect via a direct route to my main body with this basic magecraft.
Still, I was pleased that it worked as the corpse slowly stood up and took a step. Good enough as a demonstration, and a little prank.
There was a small commotion, and my Reinforced ears overheard Khun rushing into Dan's room because he'd woken up.The guy started retelling his sob story to Khun, about why he stopped climbing the Tower after all his teammates died and he cowardly ran away alone.
He asked Khun to join the Workshop Battle because Rachel left him alive on purpose, to see what he would do with his crippled legs.
I shook my head listening to it, his legs weren't crippled as I'd assessed earlier and they would heal just like Rachel's did, so it was really just some drama to make Rachel look like a sadistic villain and stir up audience hate.
I thought it was a perfectly reasonable way to disable an enemy whose main strength was in their legs, without killing them, since Rachel didn't quite have the heart to do that yet. He had even provoked her with insults at the time when Rachel had offered for him to join her, so it was well deserved.
In canon, the guy did heal pretty fast, participated in the Workshop Battle, and was completely normal again in a year.
That was why I didn't bother to heal him after my diagnosis. The drama lord could just suffer through the punishment Rachel gave him, unless there was something in it for me.
But from that sob story, Khun found his resolve, and ran over to where Team S&S was gathered with Hwa Ryun.
"Hwa Ryun!! I'll accept your offer!"
Then he made a speech introducing himself, asking them to make a team with him.
"Frankly speaking, the chance that we'll win is…" Wangnan started saying.
"100%. I can't lose to a lame Slayer candidate or Zahard's googly eyes," said Khun. "I'll make the perfect strategy. I'll do anything nasty and dirty to win. In the end, they'll all kneel before me, begging me for mercy. Well, even though I said that, don't feel pressured. I'm just saying we should try it right? We're just meeting our friend."
He seemed to impress the team a bit, and then Wangnan shook hands with him, agreeing to make a team.
Just then, I entered the room, having snuck over to the door while Khun was talking.
Team S&S members all looked at me. Khun noticed this, and began turning around.
"Nice speech Khun. I'm glad to see you haven't lost any of your confidence," I said with a smirk and crossed arms, leaning against the wall beside the door.
"You…do I know you…?" Khun said confusedly. "That arrogant posture and tone…it's reminding me of someone but…"
"Long time no see, kid," Derflinger answered after Decompressing and floating in the air beside me. "It's me, the old voice in your head. You're going crazy again. It's probably the explosion knocking something loose up there, you gotta get that checked out."
Khun's face finally changed.
"You…! The talking sword! It can't be…Axion?!" Khun asked in a shout.
I laughed, then slicked back my hair and took off my glasses, changing my eyes, hair color, and face at the same time.
"T-the Crystal Knight?" Wangnan exclaimed.
"What the hell are you doing here?! What's with that disguise? Are you part of FUG now too?" Khun asked. "I knew there was something fishy about you!"
Behind Khun, the team was whispering and asking Yihwa if she knew all along that Dr. Dua was Axion, and she could only nod helplessly.
"I am working with some people in FUG, like Hwa Ryun, though I wouldn't call myself a member," I said. "I had nothing to do with the Arlene's Hand operation, if that's what you were wondering."
The team was shocked again when Khun stormed up to me angrily and grabbed my cuff. "What about on the test floor, huh?! You were Rachel's teammate weren't you? Did you know all along that she betrayed Baam?!"
"I did," I said.
"Then Androssi, too?! You damn traitors! I should tell Leesoo right now!!" His Lighthouse Cubes lit up around us suddenly, and I felt a strange Shinsoo flow coming from him. It almost reminded me of Yihwa's fire, but felt cold. Was that his Shinsoo Quality already developing?
"You could, but are you sure Rachel betrayed Baam?" I asked. With the Avatar Body, I couldn't match his Cubes, so I instead just made the circuit lines of Reinforcement show up visibly on my face. This wouldn't happen anymore with my refined control unless I Reinforced the outer skin too, but I had done it enough for the aesthetics while climbing with Androssi that it was thought to be 'Axion serious mode' to those who paid attention to us on the public networks.
"What? Of course she did, she tried to kill him!"
"The RED from the Zahard Empire is the one who actually tried to kill Baam, but Androssi and I defeated him, so he could only send the Bull. Rachel pushed Baam into the wineglass, and Zahard Empire thinks he's dead," I said. "But he survived, didn't he? Hwa Ryun went to save him and bring him to FUG for training."
"That's…that's bullshit! Are you trying to say that Rachel was just helping to fake his death?!" Khun asked.
"I can't speak on Rachel's behalf or why she did it, but that was why I agreed to the plan. Hwa Ryun was my Guide, so I just followed the path she laid out. Baam already exposed the fact that he was an Irregular in front of everybody, so there was no other choice. What would you have expected me to do? I didn't know the Tower's politics, so I just relied on Hwa Ryun who did."
He let go of me roughly while pointing to Hwa Ryun. "Then tell me how she was already your Guide back then, unless you were already a part of FUG from the beginning?!"
"No, that was Headon's arrangement, and it was personal, nothing to do with FUG."
"Headon? And why would he do that?"
"I don't know his motives, but think about this for a moment. Remember what Lero Ro told us? Baam made a deal with the Guardian, not the Ranker test administrators—if he died, the rest of us would pass. But he didn't actually die, and the Guardian in charge of the test certainly knew that even if the Rankers couldn't find him, so why were we still allowed to pass?"
There was a moment of silence while Khun processed the words.
"…you're saying the Guardian planned it that way. Together with Headon. Because everything that happens on a Floor is by the Guardians' permission."
"Yes. So if you want somebody to blame, blame that evil rabbit. He's the one who orchestrated everything. He tricked Baam into going up the Tower, made a deal with Rachel, and then tasked me to help her. The Guardians' test, the Rankers' interference, FUG, all of it was orchestrated by Headon and the Guardian of the 2nd Floor."
"It was all one big test…all three of you were Irregulars…" said Khun.
"As for Androssi, she wasn't part of it, but I told her about it after. She's definitely not to blame for any of it, so if you accuse her in front of the team, all you'll accomplish is hurt everyone for no reason, since she'll be too proud to admit that she was ever depressed like everyone else because she actually thought he died."
Khun clenched his fists so hard that he bled.
"…I can't…I can't just accept this…for the last eight years, I've been thinking about what happened back then everyday…about how I would get revenge for Baam…and now you're telling me…it was all pointless?! That it was necessary?! And what about Gyetang? Or Dan's legs? Rachel, that bitch killed Gyetang and crippled Dan, after pretending that she couldn't use her own legs for years, taking advantage of everyone's guilt about Baam's death! There's no way I can believe that she did any of it for anyone but herself!"
"I'm not telling you to forgive her. I don't know what motivates her either. I'm just saying that if you keep lashing out at everyone because you want somebody to blame, you might regret it later. At least right now, Hwa Ryun and I are not your enemies, we're here to help."
"Damn it…damn it all!" Khun was just shaking now, head down.
Wangnan put a shoulder on Khun. "Listen, Khun, I have no idea what the hell you guys are talking about…but Axion's been helping us, helping Viole—or Baam—for the last two years as Dr. Dua. Hwa Ryun too. We were all suspicious of FUG at first, just like we were suspicious of Viole himself, but it turned out they aren't bad people. And we're going to have a hard enough time with the Workshop Battle as it is, So maybe…we should just work together to get Viole back?"
"And Mr. Dan isn't crippled, Khun! Dr. Dua looked at him earlier and said he would make a full recovery," said Yihwa. "We're all on the same side and just making the best of things!"
"They are right, Mr. Khun. Turning down Axion's help would be very unwise for the wager," said Hwa Ryun.
After a while, Khun huffed. "Fine. You're right. I'm not done with either of you," he said, glaring at both me and Hwa Ryun, who merely smiled. "But I can work with you for Baam's sake. So you're going to join this team?"
"Not exactly. We don't want the other faction to know I'm helping, so I can only do it indirectly. Officially, I'll be with Leesoo's team as Axion. Unofficially though…" I gestured to the door.
Suddenly a humanoid chicken came through with stiff movements and a fixed smile.
Khun's eyes bugged out. "Gyetang?! You're alive?"
"No, unfortunately not, I'm just reanimating his corpse," I said. "Well, technically, some of the cells are alive again, but the soul isn't there."
Everyone in the room looked freaked out, except Yihwa who already knew I could do such things, and Hwa Ryun, who looked curiously at the walking corpse.
"What…the fuck?!" Khun shouted. "What are you doing with that? We should let him rest in peace!"
"Because I can restore his body to a technically alive state, Gyetang can be qualified to enter the Workshop Battle with you guys like this, and they won't be able to easily tell that it's me. I'll need to spend some time modifying and healing his body to a fighting shape, then I'll be able to channel some of my powers through this body," I said.
"Didn't you say you would do anything nasty and dirty to win? This way, we can surprise them. If he participates as either Axion or Dua in this team, the other FUG team will definitely get additional assistance from their side," said Hwa Ryun.
"Grrr…I don't like this, but fine. I should disguise myself as well, it'll be easier to move if everyone still thinks I'm dead," said Khun.
Then his expression turned sharp. "But there's another important question. Who's going to be the leader?"
"Uh…" Wangnan said hesitantly. "I don't mind if one of you take the lead."
But Khun and I weren't looking at him. We were looking at each other.
It was suddenly a tense atmosphere again as Team Sweet and Sour looked back and forth between Khun and me.
Then I laughed lightly. "Why so tense? It's not a big deal, right? You can be the leader, just like old times, Khun. I also can't be a Lightbearer using Gyetang's body, and I'll be too busy to coordinate."
"Alright," said Khun. "By the way, they called you Doctor Dua…are you supposed to be some kind of healer now too, you can work on living people, not just the dead?"
"I am," I said, nodding.
Khun looked at Gyetang again, and back to me. "You said you'd bring Gyetang back into fighting shape. Isn't there anything you can do for Dan?"
"As Yihwa said, I already looked at him. He'll recover fine on his own, and then he just needs to train again to build back the power in his legs," I said. "It might take a few years but there's nothing holding him back except his own motivation."
"I heard earlier. But what I mean is, he wants to participate in the Workshop Battle. Is there not a way to speed up Dan's recovery, get some of his strength back before the Battle?" Khun asked. "If you can do it for a dead body…"
"It's a little different for Gyetang because I'm going to be modifying the body. But I'll have another look at Dan and see what I can do," I said.
"Please. It would mean a lot to him, and to me."
Well, well, if doing it might buy some goodwill and a future favor, then helping Dan wasn't out of the question.
…
I made a show of using a Cube to scan Dan's legs this time, instead of just Structural Grasp.
It wasn't really necessary, but it wasn't entirely superfluous either, because this time the issue was the matter of Shinsoo flows, which the Lighthouse was better suited to analyzing.
It was just that I didn't have any way of fixing his Shinsoo flows, so nothing would come of it.
Although I had absorbed and mastered the Shinsoo pattern from Blood Fusion Flower Pill already, that only worked to restore my own personal Shinsoo flows, and I couldn't even transfer the flows to anybody outside of my main body, not even my avatars.
But I gave the issue a little more thought, as a learning exercise, while glancing at the data displayed on my Lighthouse screen.
"The injury inflicted was both widespread and targeted, at the most important tendons. There was nothing special about the weapon or attack used, which is why this has a good chance of healing normally and making a full recovery with the proper rest and therapies, of which the Yeon acupuncture is very suitable," I said, stating my diagnosis aloud. "The issue with injuries like these for Regulars, is that the 'power' that was built up from hard training doesn't recover on its own. The good news is that the destruction here was limited, so the Shinsoo flows that comprise that power are not all gone, they've merely been disrupted and damaged."
"So then…" Khun started, face hopeful.
"I don't have any way to directly restore that power. However, what I can do is speed up the healing of the physical damage so that he can begin training sooner, and that will naturally restore those flows. It will certainly go faster than training from scratch, but it's hard to say how much can be achieved in two months. I'll get him back on his feet by tomorrow, and then if Yihwa applies the Yeon acupuncture three times a week, that would be ideal. He'll have to keep to very light exercise for the first week, and I'll need to do a few follow up treatments, but it should at least allow a month of more intensive training before the Workshop Battle."
"Tomorrow? Seriously? That expensive professional I hired said it would be a month before he could walk," said Khun, incredulous.
"Don't doubt Dr. Dua, he's way better than any normal doctor," said Yihwa.
Actually, I could've healed him even faster, practically on the spot. Healing some tendons and muscle on a body that was still fully alive and had its own healing factor was far simpler than restoring Gyetang, but I didn't need to reveal the extent of my capabilities here. Plus, it would give me an excuse to spend more time adding some other surprises.
"Of course, with my special techniques he'll recover in no time. It's just too bad I can't do any more," I said.
"That's already much better than I ever hoped…thank you Dr. Dua," said Dan.
"I'm not in disguise right now, you guys can just call me Axion."
"Well then, thank you, Dr. Axion," said Khun.
O O O
The next day, I finished the first part of my treatment plan for Dan, and was back on the roof with Khun.
"Thanks for helping Dan, seriously. And I'm sorry about yesterday."
"You haven't changed a bit, Khun. But that's fine," I said.
"Neither have you, you damn jack of all trades. Why are you so good at everything? Did you manage to become an actual Wave Controller too?"
"A bit. I became a better Anima than a Wave Controller though," I said.
"You're too hardworking. Don't you know geniuses are supposed to be lazy?"
"No way, maybe it's just you, Khun," I said.
"Hey, I work plenty hard. I was talking about Laure," said Khun. "But I'm flattered that you think I'm a genius."
"Oh, right. I almost forgot about that sleep obsessed guy. Androssi never mentions him. But Viole's going to give him a run for his money if they meet in the Workshop Battle. He's been working really hard too."
"I still can't believe it. I just can't put that innocent face together with the cruel and powerful Slayer candidate. He was the weakest of us, and now…how strong has he become? Is he stronger than you now?"
"I don't know. On the face of it, I think I'm still stronger. But you know Baam's crazy talent. If we actually fought, he'd probably learn all my moves really quick. In terms of our record, I've got three Ranker fights to his two, but he also fought Urek Mazino, who's way stronger than any Ranker. Have you fought any Rankers yet, Khun?"
"What? I'm not insane! Did you and Androssi just go around picking fights with every test admin? And what's this about Urek Mazino? When did that happen?"
Behind us, spying on us with their heads around the door to the roof, the rest of the team whispered.
"They really are old friends, huh?" Wangnan observed.
"Their argument was so scary yesterday…I thought they were going to fight," said Goseng.
"It's true what they say about friends bickering…" said Akraptor.
"I wish I had friends like that…" said Yihwa.
"What? Aren't we your friends?" asked Prince.
"Who's friends with you idiots!"
"Hi guys, I'm alive again," said Gyetang, coming between them with a crazed smile and a glowing yellow aura, controlled by Derflinger. "Nice to meet you, Khun's new team."
"Waaah!" Team Sweet and Sour scrambled away.
Dan laughed from behind Gyetang, walking again. "Come on, give them some privacy, let them catch up on their own."
O O O
35F Train City, Station B
The private train we were on came slowly to a stop, and the loudspeakers blasted. "Welcome to Train City, Regulars! If you are coming here for the first time, please visit the Central Station for more information about the special D-Rank Train, the Hell Train Express, that will be arriving in two months. If you're looking for the Regular Floor Test, then please visit the Test Administration Area. At Train City, there are many smaller trains to get anywhere you want to go, feel free to take a complementary map on your way out! Good luck and safe travels!"
I stepped out onto the arrival platform after Team Darul filed out.
"Where shall we go now, lady Sasha?" Darul asked.
"First, we need a temporary base of operations. We'll head towards Central and set up there since that's where most of the ticketers should be going. Have your guys scout around for information on potential targets," I said.
"Understood. The guys that attacked us earlier seemed to have found out about my ticket from this app called Emily," Darul said. "I'm not sure how it's getting this information, but we might be able to use it. It's some sort of chat app."
"Yes, I know about it. Emily can find other ticketers for us. Feel free to use it, but be careful, anything you tell Emily could also be shared with her other chat partners," I said.
Emily, the Living Ignition Weapon that had been melted back down and had no body, powering a network of devices offering chat services to lonely people, while simultaneously running an information network.
The device had become quite popular and widely distributed all over the Tower by a merchant group FUG dealt with, but the users were most concentrated around the late E-Rank and early D-Rank Floors.
It was also the centerpiece of Rachel's future plans. After convincing Emily to help her and FUG to let her have Emily, she had mentioned it to me briefly the last time she called my Pocket and suggested that I buy one of the devices to try it out.
She hadn't informed me of most of her plans yet, so I was just drawing on canon knowledge. She simply called to say that she had escaped Khun's team and was gathering new teammates, asking how far I'd climbed and if I'd be interested in joining her.
I congratulated her on getting away from Khun, and told her I could join her a bit later above the 30th Floor, but was currently occupied, without any specifics.
Indeed, I expected to join her by the time the canonical Hell Train events started, but that was still a year off.
For now, some of our plans would intersect at the Workshop Battle, but there was no need to directly coordinate yet.
O O O
28F, Khun's private residence
In the Dua avatar, I travelled with Hwa Ryun to meet Team S&S and Khun. After Khun woke up and recovered, he led Team S&S to his own team's residence to check what happened, discovering the death of one teammate and the crippling of the other, while Rachel and the two FUG infiltrators were missing.
First, we greeted Wangnan, Yihwa, and co.
Then, Hwa Ryun went up to the roof to find and persuade Khun to lead Team S&S in the bet against Team FUG during the Workshop Battle.
I went to check on Khun's two teammates.
I walked with Yihwa and Wangnan to the first room, and on the bed unconscious lay Dan, the speedster Scout who was the last to join Khun's team.
Upon my entry, Yihwa explained that she'd been using the Yeon acupuncture on him for the past few days, though the tools had been put away.
"The doctor Khun hired said he won't be able to walk for a month," said Yihwa. "And even after, his legs won't be as good as before. I heard he was famed as one of the fastest Regulars in the E-Rank. It must be hard for Khun to see his teammates like this."
I examined his body and injuries myself. His legs would make a full recovery on their own, but he'd have to retrain them to get back to their former power.
It was exactly the issue which had been the focus of my 31st Floor Seeker Challenge.
"It's not that bad. He's alive, and not crippled. After getting enough rest, it should heal on its own, and then he'll be able to train himself back to full strength eventually if he has the will for it," I said, after retracting my hand from his leg. "I'm going to have a look at the one that died. Where is he?"
"Still in his room, he hasn't been moved yet. It's right down the hall," said Wangnan.
Next I went to see the humanoid chicken, Gyetang. One of Rachel's people, the quack doctor on their team, had poisoned him to make it look like he had bird flu, which was one of the reasons Khun had to split his team, leaving behind some to take care of Gyetang and Rachel, who had still been faking being crippled.
After lifting the sheet that covered his body, a Structural Grasp showed that much of his body had already entered the post-death changes, like rigor mortis, decay, necrosis, etc.
If I'd had the water stone with me, it would still be possible to fully heal the body back to a living vegetable and remove all signs of death in a matter of minutes.
As it stood, the water stone was with my main body so I had to test out my own skills.
My Restoration spell was not nearly good enough for this, but turning a dead corpse into a familiar was a basic skill of Fate magi. There were certain advantages of using a corpse, like remnant spiritual energy and the thoughts of the deceased being present, though in most cases they would use an animal body instead, and combine it with the spiritual energy of deceased humans.
To create a high quality Canjon-class puppet fit for combat would mean many days of work and reagents invested, even if it was my main body handling the spellcraft.
A fresher corpse would also be better for the resulting quality, especially to preserve the spiritual residue and Shinsoo flows.
On the other hand, a corpse which had been decayed for a while, like this one, had less resistance to my mana.
I restored the bare minimum of the major muscle groups, got rid of some of the more disgusting smells, just enough to move around a bit. Then continued to inject mana until I could make it respond to my control.
A temporary familiar that would last no more than ten minutes under control, slow to respond, imprecise, and exacerbated by the direct connection coming from the Dua avatar, as it was simply too far to connect via a direct route to my main body with this basic magecraft.
Still, I was pleased that it worked as the corpse slowly stood up and took a step. Good enough as a demonstration, and a little prank.
There was a small commotion, and my Reinforced ears overheard Khun rushing into Dan's room because he'd woken up.The guy started retelling his sob story to Khun, about why he stopped climbing the Tower after all his teammates died and he cowardly ran away alone.
He asked Khun to join the Workshop Battle because Rachel left him alive on purpose, to see what he would do with his crippled legs.
I shook my head listening to it, his legs weren't crippled as I'd assessed earlier and they would heal just like Rachel's did, so it was really just some drama to make Rachel look like a sadistic villain and stir up audience hate.
I thought it was a perfectly reasonable way to disable an enemy whose main strength was in their legs, without killing them, since Rachel didn't quite have the heart to do that yet. He had even provoked her with insults at the time when Rachel had offered for him to join her, so it was well deserved.
In canon, the guy did heal pretty fast, participated in the Workshop Battle, and was completely normal again in a year.
That was why I didn't bother to heal him after my diagnosis. The drama lord could just suffer through the punishment Rachel gave him, unless there was something in it for me.
But from that sob story, Khun found his resolve, and ran over to where Team S&S was gathered with Hwa Ryun.
"Hwa Ryun!! I'll accept your offer!"
Then he made a speech introducing himself, asking them to make a team with him.
"Frankly speaking, the chance that we'll win is…" Wangnan started saying.
"100%. I can't lose to a lame Slayer candidate or Zahard's googly eyes," said Khun. "I'll make the perfect strategy. I'll do anything nasty and dirty to win. In the end, they'll all kneel before me, begging me for mercy. Well, even though I said that, don't feel pressured. I'm just saying we should try it right? We're just meeting our friend."
He seemed to impress the team a bit, and then Wangnan shook hands with him, agreeing to make a team.
Just then, I entered the room, having snuck over to the door while Khun was talking.
Team S&S members all looked at me. Khun noticed this, and began turning around.
"Nice speech Khun. I'm glad to see you haven't lost any of your confidence," I said with a smirk and crossed arms, leaning against the wall beside the door.
"You…do I know you…?" Khun said confusedly. "That arrogant posture and tone…it's reminding me of someone but…"
"Long time no see, kid," Derflinger answered after Decompressing and floating in the air beside me. "It's me, the old voice in your head. You're going crazy again. It's probably the explosion knocking something loose up there, you gotta get that checked out."
Khun's face finally changed.
"You…! The talking sword! It can't be…Axion?!" Khun asked in a shout.
I laughed, then slicked back my hair and took off my glasses, changing my eyes, hair color, and face at the same time.
"T-the Crystal Knight?" Wangnan exclaimed.
"What the hell are you doing here?! What's with that disguise? Are you part of FUG now too?" Khun asked. "I knew there was something fishy about you!"
Behind Khun, the team was whispering and asking Yihwa if she knew all along that Dr. Dua was Axion, and she could only nod helplessly.
"I am working with some people in FUG, like Hwa Ryun, though I wouldn't call myself a member," I said. "I had nothing to do with the Arlene's Hand operation, if that's what you were wondering."
The team was shocked again when Khun stormed up to me angrily and grabbed my cuff. "What about on the test floor, huh?! You were Rachel's teammate weren't you? Did you know all along that she betrayed Baam?!"
"I did," I said.
"Then Androssi, too?! You damn traitors! I should tell Leesoo right now!!" His Lighthouse Cubes lit up around us suddenly, and I felt a strange Shinsoo flow coming from him. It almost reminded me of Yihwa's fire, but felt cold. Was that his Shinsoo Quality already developing?
"You could, but are you sure Rachel betrayed Baam?" I asked. With the Avatar Body, I couldn't match his Cubes, so I instead just made the circuit lines of Reinforcement show up visibly on my face. This wouldn't happen anymore with my refined control unless I Reinforced the outer skin too, but I had done it enough for the aesthetics while climbing with Androssi that it was thought to be 'Axion serious mode' to those who paid attention to us on the public networks.
"What? Of course she did, she tried to kill him!"
"The RED from the Zahard Empire is the one who actually tried to kill Baam, but Androssi and I defeated him, so he could only send the Bull. Rachel pushed Baam into the wineglass, and Zahard Empire thinks he's dead," I said. "But he survived, didn't he? Hwa Ryun went to save him and bring him to FUG for training."
"That's…that's bullshit! Are you trying to say that Rachel was just helping to fake his death?!" Khun asked.
"I can't speak on Rachel's behalf or why she did it, but that was why I agreed to the plan. Hwa Ryun was my Guide, so I just followed the path she laid out. Baam already exposed the fact that he was an Irregular in front of everybody, so there was no other choice. What would you have expected me to do? I didn't know the Tower's politics, so I just relied on Hwa Ryun who did."
He let go of me roughly while pointing to Hwa Ryun. "Then tell me how she was already your Guide back then, unless you were already a part of FUG from the beginning?!"
"No, that was Headon's arrangement, and it was personal, nothing to do with FUG."
"Headon? And why would he do that?"
"I don't know his motives, but think about this for a moment. Remember what Lero Ro told us? Baam made a deal with the Guardian, not the Ranker test administrators—if he died, the rest of us would pass. But he didn't actually die, and the Guardian in charge of the test certainly knew that even if the Rankers couldn't find him, so why were we still allowed to pass?"
There was a moment of silence while Khun processed the words.
"…you're saying the Guardian planned it that way. Together with Headon. Because everything that happens on a Floor is by the Guardians' permission."
"Yes. So if you want somebody to blame, blame that evil rabbit. He's the one who orchestrated everything. He tricked Baam into going up the Tower, made a deal with Rachel, and then tasked me to help her. The Guardians' test, the Rankers' interference, FUG, all of it was orchestrated by Headon and the Guardian of the 2nd Floor."
"It was all one big test…all three of you were Irregulars…" said Khun.
"As for Androssi, she wasn't part of it, but I told her about it after. She's definitely not to blame for any of it, so if you accuse her in front of the team, all you'll accomplish is hurt everyone for no reason, since she'll be too proud to admit that she was ever depressed like everyone else because she actually thought he died."
Khun clenched his fists so hard that he bled.
"…I can't…I can't just accept this…for the last eight years, I've been thinking about what happened back then everyday…about how I would get revenge for Baam…and now you're telling me…it was all pointless?! That it was necessary?! And what about Gyetang? Or Dan's legs? Rachel, that bitch killed Gyetang and crippled Dan, after pretending that she couldn't use her own legs for years, taking advantage of everyone's guilt about Baam's death! There's no way I can believe that she did any of it for anyone but herself!"
"I'm not telling you to forgive her. I don't know what motivates her either. I'm just saying that if you keep lashing out at everyone because you want somebody to blame, you might regret it later. At least right now, Hwa Ryun and I are not your enemies, we're here to help."
"Damn it…damn it all!" Khun was just shaking now, head down.
Wangnan put a shoulder on Khun. "Listen, Khun, I have no idea what the hell you guys are talking about…but Axion's been helping us, helping Viole—or Baam—for the last two years as Dr. Dua. Hwa Ryun too. We were all suspicious of FUG at first, just like we were suspicious of Viole himself, but it turned out they aren't bad people. And we're going to have a hard enough time with the Workshop Battle as it is, So maybe…we should just work together to get Viole back?"
"And Mr. Dan isn't crippled, Khun! Dr. Dua looked at him earlier and said he would make a full recovery," said Yihwa. "We're all on the same side and just making the best of things!"
"They are right, Mr. Khun. Turning down Axion's help would be very unwise for the wager," said Hwa Ryun.
After a while, Khun huffed. "Fine. You're right. I'm not done with either of you," he said, glaring at both me and Hwa Ryun, who merely smiled. "But I can work with you for Baam's sake. So you're going to join this team?"
"Not exactly. We don't want the other faction to know I'm helping, so I can only do it indirectly. Officially, I'll be with Leesoo's team as Axion. Unofficially though…" I gestured to the door.
Suddenly a humanoid chicken came through with stiff movements and a fixed smile.
Khun's eyes bugged out. "Gyetang?! You're alive?"
"No, unfortunately not, I'm just reanimating his corpse," I said. "Well, technically, some of the cells are alive again, but the soul isn't there."
Everyone in the room looked freaked out, except Yihwa who already knew I could do such things, and Hwa Ryun, who looked curiously at the walking corpse.
"What…the fuck?!" Khun shouted. "What are you doing with that? We should let him rest in peace!"
"Because I can restore his body to a technically alive state, Gyetang can be qualified to enter the Workshop Battle with you guys like this, and they won't be able to easily tell that it's me. I'll need to spend some time modifying and healing his body to a fighting shape, then I'll be able to channel some of my powers through this body," I said.
"Didn't you say you would do anything nasty and dirty to win? This way, we can surprise them. If he participates as either Axion or Dua in this team, the other FUG team will definitely get additional assistance from their side," said Hwa Ryun.
"Grrr…I don't like this, but fine. I should disguise myself as well, it'll be easier to move if everyone still thinks I'm dead," said Khun.
Then his expression turned sharp. "But there's another important question. Who's going to be the leader?"
"Uh…" Wangnan said hesitantly. "I don't mind if one of you take the lead."
But Khun and I weren't looking at him. We were looking at each other.
It was suddenly a tense atmosphere again as Team Sweet and Sour looked back and forth between Khun and me.
Then I laughed lightly. "Why so tense? It's not a big deal, right? You can be the leader, just like old times, Khun. I also can't be a Lightbearer using Gyetang's body, and I'll be too busy to coordinate."
"Alright," said Khun. "By the way, they called you Doctor Dua…are you supposed to be some kind of healer now too, you can work on living people, not just the dead?"
"I am," I said, nodding.
Khun looked at Gyetang again, and back to me. "You said you'd bring Gyetang back into fighting shape. Isn't there anything you can do for Dan?"
"As Yihwa said, I already looked at him. He'll recover fine on his own, and then he just needs to train again to build back the power in his legs," I said. "It might take a few years but there's nothing holding him back except his own motivation."
"I heard earlier. But what I mean is, he wants to participate in the Workshop Battle. Is there not a way to speed up Dan's recovery, get some of his strength back before the Battle?" Khun asked. "If you can do it for a dead body…"
"It's a little different for Gyetang because I'm going to be modifying the body. But I'll have another look at Dan and see what I can do," I said.
"Please. It would mean a lot to him, and to me."
Well, well, if doing it might buy some goodwill and a future favor, then helping Dan wasn't out of the question.
…
I made a show of using a Cube to scan Dan's legs this time, instead of just Structural Grasp.
It wasn't really necessary, but it wasn't entirely superfluous either, because this time the issue was the matter of Shinsoo flows, which the Lighthouse was better suited to analyzing.
It was just that I didn't have any way of fixing his Shinsoo flows, so nothing would come of it.
Although I had absorbed and mastered the Shinsoo pattern from Blood Fusion Flower Pill already, that only worked to restore my own personal Shinsoo flows, and I couldn't even transfer the flows to anybody outside of my main body, not even my avatars.
But I gave the issue a little more thought, as a learning exercise, while glancing at the data displayed on my Lighthouse screen.
"The injury inflicted was both widespread and targeted, at the most important tendons. There was nothing special about the weapon or attack used, which is why this has a good chance of healing normally and making a full recovery with the proper rest and therapies, of which the Yeon acupuncture is very suitable," I said, stating my diagnosis aloud. "The issue with injuries like these for Regulars, is that the 'power' that was built up from hard training doesn't recover on its own. The good news is that the destruction here was limited, so the Shinsoo flows that comprise that power are not all gone, they've merely been disrupted and damaged."
"So then…" Khun started, face hopeful.
"I don't have any way to directly restore that power. However, what I can do is speed up the healing of the physical damage so that he can begin training sooner, and that will naturally restore those flows. It will certainly go faster than training from scratch, but it's hard to say how much can be achieved in two months. I'll get him back on his feet by tomorrow, and then if Yihwa applies the Yeon acupuncture three times a week, that would be ideal. He'll have to keep to very light exercise for the first week, and I'll need to do a few follow up treatments, but it should at least allow a month of more intensive training before the Workshop Battle."
"Tomorrow? Seriously? That expensive professional I hired said it would be a month before he could walk," said Khun, incredulous.
"Don't doubt Dr. Dua, he's way better than any normal doctor," said Yihwa.
Actually, I could've healed him even faster, practically on the spot. Healing some tendons and muscle on a body that was still fully alive and had its own healing factor was far simpler than restoring Gyetang, but I didn't need to reveal the extent of my capabilities here. Plus, it would give me an excuse to spend more time adding some other surprises.
"Of course, with my special techniques he'll recover in no time. It's just too bad I can't do any more," I said.
"That's already much better than I ever hoped…thank you Dr. Dua," said Dan.
"I'm not in disguise right now, you guys can just call me Axion."
"Well then, thank you, Dr. Axion," said Khun.
O O O
The next day, I finished the first part of my treatment plan for Dan, and was back on the roof with Khun.
"Thanks for helping Dan, seriously. And I'm sorry about yesterday."
"You haven't changed a bit, Khun. But that's fine," I said.
"Neither have you, you damn jack of all trades. Why are you so good at everything? Did you manage to become an actual Wave Controller too?"
"A bit. I became a better Anima than a Wave Controller though," I said.
"You're too hardworking. Don't you know geniuses are supposed to be lazy?"
"No way, maybe it's just you, Khun," I said.
"Hey, I work plenty hard. I was talking about Laure," said Khun. "But I'm flattered that you think I'm a genius."
"Oh, right. I almost forgot about that sleep obsessed guy. Androssi never mentions him. But Viole's going to give him a run for his money if they meet in the Workshop Battle. He's been working really hard too."
"I still can't believe it. I just can't put that innocent face together with the cruel and powerful Slayer candidate. He was the weakest of us, and now…how strong has he become? Is he stronger than you now?"
"I don't know. On the face of it, I think I'm still stronger. But you know Baam's crazy talent. If we actually fought, he'd probably learn all my moves really quick. In terms of our record, I've got three Ranker fights to his two, but he also fought Urek Mazino, who's way stronger than any Ranker. Have you fought any Rankers yet, Khun?"
"What? I'm not insane! Did you and Androssi just go around picking fights with every test admin? And what's this about Urek Mazino? When did that happen?"
Behind us, spying on us with their heads around the door to the roof, the rest of the team whispered.
"They really are old friends, huh?" Wangnan observed.
"Their argument was so scary yesterday…I thought they were going to fight," said Goseng.
"It's true what they say about friends bickering…" said Akraptor.
"I wish I had friends like that…" said Yihwa.
"What? Aren't we your friends?" asked Prince.
"Who's friends with you idiots!"
"Hi guys, I'm alive again," said Gyetang, coming between them with a crazed smile and a glowing yellow aura, controlled by Derflinger. "Nice to meet you, Khun's new team."
"Waaah!" Team Sweet and Sour scrambled away.
Dan laughed from behind Gyetang, walking again. "Come on, give them some privacy, let them catch up on their own."
O O O
35F Train City, Station B
The private train we were on came slowly to a stop, and the loudspeakers blasted. "Welcome to Train City, Regulars! If you are coming here for the first time, please visit the Central Station for more information about the special D-Rank Train, the Hell Train Express, that will be arriving in two months. If you're looking for the Regular Floor Test, then please visit the Test Administration Area. At Train City, there are many smaller trains to get anywhere you want to go, feel free to take a complementary map on your way out! Good luck and safe travels!"
I stepped out onto the arrival platform after Team Darul filed out.
"Where shall we go now, lady Sasha?" Darul asked.
"First, we need a temporary base of operations. We'll head towards Central and set up there since that's where most of the ticketers should be going. Have your guys scout around for information on potential targets," I said.
"Understood. The guys that attacked us earlier seemed to have found out about my ticket from this app called Emily," Darul said. "I'm not sure how it's getting this information, but we might be able to use it. It's some sort of chat app."
"Yes, I know about it. Emily can find other ticketers for us. Feel free to use it, but be careful, anything you tell Emily could also be shared with her other chat partners," I said.
Emily, the Living Ignition Weapon that had been melted back down and had no body, powering a network of devices offering chat services to lonely people, while simultaneously running an information network.
The device had become quite popular and widely distributed all over the Tower by a merchant group FUG dealt with, but the users were most concentrated around the late E-Rank and early D-Rank Floors.
It was also the centerpiece of Rachel's future plans. After convincing Emily to help her and FUG to let her have Emily, she had mentioned it to me briefly the last time she called my Pocket and suggested that I buy one of the devices to try it out.
She hadn't informed me of most of her plans yet, so I was just drawing on canon knowledge. She simply called to say that she had escaped Khun's team and was gathering new teammates, asking how far I'd climbed and if I'd be interested in joining her.
I congratulated her on getting away from Khun, and told her I could join her a bit later above the 30th Floor, but was currently occupied, without any specifics.
Indeed, I expected to join her by the time the canonical Hell Train events started, but that was still a year off.
For now, some of our plans would intersect at the Workshop Battle, but there was no need to directly coordinate yet.
O O O