After that, the Tower climbing continued smoothly.
[You are starting the Trial of the 42nd Floor.]
[42nd Floor: Zombie Mushroom]
The Zombie Mushroom of the 42nd Floor’s Trial was a Monster that reminded me of cordyceps.
It was a mushroom that parasitized Monsters, controlling the host like a zombie, moving them, and using spores to inflict all sorts of debuffs or cause infections.
“Ssssk-“
“If I’m just careful myself, there’s nothing to worry about.”
It didn’t work on my assistants, since they were non-living beings.
As long as I wore my mask properly, there was no way I’d get hurt.
However, wiping the spores off my assistants’ bodies after each battle turned out to be more troublesome than expected.
[You are starting the Trial of the 43rd Floor.]
[43rd Floor: Poison Fog]
The 43rd Floor’s Trial was filled with poisonous plants.
Normally, it would have been a very difficult place to clear, but just like with the spores, the poison didn’t affect my assistants.
As long as I was careful not to get poisoned myself, I could clear it quickly.
Next, after clearing the 44th Floor, I reached the 45th Floor, which had a Boss-level Trial.
[You are starting the Trial of the 45th Floor.]
[45th Floor: Parasite of Roots]
“Grkkk-“
“Whoa, what’s this now?”
Since it was a plant-type Monster, I had only imagined something like a flower or tree Monster.
But a Monster with a form I’d never imagined appeared.
I thought ‘parasite’ meant some kind of long worm.
But what appeared was a lizard-shaped Monster, its body formed by thick roots wrapped around a huge tree.
That Monster came charging, its mouth—made of roots—wide open.
It was quite a sight to behold.
“Thud!”
First, the Vanguard Team blocked the parasite’s charge.
The parasite’s rush was fierce, but our Vanguard Team had grown a lot.
Not only had their items and equipment levels improved, but their actual skills had increased too.
Just look at them now.
They’re not just blocking with brute force, but anchoring their shields to the ground, angling their bodies to deflect the impact, aren’t they?
Next up was the Attack Team.
“Slash!”
Combat 1, charging at the front, swung and cut through one of the roots that made up the parasite’s body.
The following attacks from the rest of the combat team were also quite effective.
Among them, the most effective attack was, of course the largest member of the Attack Team, recently given a new L-Rank Axe.
Combat 21.
Modeled after the Minotaur, its speed was a bit slow, but its power was unrivaled.
Even though Combat 1 only managed to sever one root, Combat 21’s axe cut through two roots and still had strength left to chop halfway through another.
On top of that— The Lumberjack Team’s performance was just as impressive.
They’d always been swinging axes and chopping wood in the mines, so fighting plant-type Monsters was their area of expertise.
While the parasite was about to go berserk from the relentless attacks—
The parts of the parasite’s body touching the ground began to freeze.
That was Combat 4’s magic.
Not an offensive spell, but simply meant to bind the parasite in place.
In that time, two of my assistants, finished with their magic, each unleashed Flame Magic and Earth Magic.
A fusion spell like the one used by Combat 4 and Combat 20.
The earth split open as if a mouth was yawning, lava boiling up inside.
“Boom!”
An explosion.
A shockwave like a volcanic eruption.
The parasite was extremely weak to fire, so the attack was devastating.
The combat team finished off the critically wounded parasite.
[Level Up.]
[Level Up.]
[You have overcome the 45th Floor Trial: ‘Thick Root of the Parasite.’]
[Clear Evaluation Rank: SSS]
[You are awarded ‘Vital Fluid Crystal of the Parasite’ as a reward.]
[The 45th Floor Trial has been cleared. The Tower is weakened.]
The 45th Floor Trial was over.
It looked easy, but it wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
It was only thanks to my dozens of assistants attacking together; honestly, even a top-ranked Korean player would have struggled to clear it.
Honestly, the Tower’s trials themselves were almost all too brutal for a single person to handle.
If I were an Awakened One with some other SSS-grade combat ability, would I have been able to climb the Tower this easily?
Probably not.
The Tower itself insisted on solo climbing, but the Trials were built so that soloing was almost impossible.
“Thick root? What should I make out of this?”
SS-grade material: Thick Root of the Parasite.
After reading up on it, it seemed that the ‘root’ mentioned here wasn’t just any ordinary root.
It seemed like a universal material that would be good for making armor, staves, or accessories.
As I was contemplating what to make with it—
[The Tower’s Manager is intervening with the climber, Jeong Seo Jun.]
“Huh?”
A sudden System message popped up.
The Tower’s Manager.
Was it Riohr?
It wasn’t an EXP quest or anything, so I didn’t know why there would be an intervention all of a sudden.
But before I could even think—
[The Tower’s Manager is descending to the 45th Floor.]
With the System message, a brilliant light flared in front of me.
And a moment later, “Hello! Climber!”
“Um, so… Riohr-nim?”
“You heard? I’m honored you know my name, Climber! Yes, that’s me! The Tower’s Manager—Riohr!”
The actual Tower’s Manager appeared.
Riohr, the Tower’s Manager.
When I heard about him from the two statues, I’d wondered what the Manager might look like.
Even the two statues, the Gatekeepers, weren’t exactly human-looking.
In that sense, Riohr’s appearance, standing before me—
‘A squirrel?’
Yeah.
He looked just like a squirrel.
A bit shorter than me, with a rodent’s distinctive protruding snout.
His whole body was covered in short, soft, light brown fur, with black stripes running down his back.
Especially that long, fluffy-looking tail—I almost wanted to reach out and pet it.
I’d seen all kinds of non-human Monsters like lizardmen, kobolds, gnolls, but a squirrel-person was the first.
“Ah, I’m sorry!”
Wait, I thought I’d just imagined it.
But I ended up actually touching it without realizing.
That glorious tail.
Its softness was even greater than I’d expected, and I was just as surprised at myself for unconsciously reaching out to touch it.
I worried the Manager might dislike it, but fortunately, he didn’t seem offended.
“It’s fine, Climber! My tail is my pride! I’m honored that you think so highly of it!”
He actually seemed to enjoy it.
Still, it wouldn’t be polite to meet someone for the first time and have a conversation while petting their tail, so I decided to hold back out of courtesy.
Now, to the main point.
“But why did you come to see me, Manager?”
Riohr, the Tower’s Manager.
I didn’t know the details, but from what the statues told me, even the Manager didn’t usually intervene directly in climbers’ attempts.
In the old days, there were many climbers in and out of the Tower, so there were things to manage, like assigning the order, but now the title of Manager was mostly in name only, with hardly anything to actually manage.
So why did the Manager suddenly come to me?
Now that I looked, his appearance was rather odd.
‘Why is he so dirty?’
I’d imagined the Tower’s Manager would look clean-cut, like a company employee.
But Riohr looked like he’d just come from a construction site, covered in dust.
If it weren’t for the System message, I wouldn’t have believed he was the Manager.
Noticing my gaze, Riohr hastily waved his hands in protest.
“Ah, ah, no! I’m not usually like this! I’m normally very clean, but I just came from working on something!”
“Ah, okay.”
He really wasn’t, huh.
“That’s actually why I came here. I tried to handle it myself, but it’s just not possible.”
“Handle what?”
This must be the main point.
Riohr took a deep sigh and spoke, “Do you know what a Manager’s role is?”
“No, not really.”
“It’s nothing special. Watching over the Tower, fixing up the Trials once they’re cleared, or managing the order if there are too many climbers. Just basic stuff.”
“But didn’t you increase my EXP last time?”
“That’s right! That was the maximum EXP I could allocate with my manager authority. It’s one of the few powers I have.”
“Hmm, thank you.”
“It’s not that.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re the final climber, so I wish I could do something better for you. More importantly, the problem is this—”
A hologram-like screen popped up in front of Riohr.
That must be another one of the Manager’s privileges.
What showed up on the screen was a crack.
“A crack?”
“Yes, a crack.”
It was a pretty big split; even at a glance, I could tell it wasn’t good.
But the cracked wall looked oddly familiar.
That looks just like…
“The Tower?”
“Yep!”
It was the same material as the Tower I’d seen at the entrance.
Aged, rusty, cracked exterior but the cracks now shown on the screen looked way worse than the ones at the entrance.
“There’s a crack that big in the Tower?”
“There’s not just one or two. In fact, it wouldn’t be strange if it collapsed at any moment. It’s barely holding together.”
I’d known the Tower was unstable.
But seeing such large cracks, I could feel the seriousness of the situation.
If it were just the outer walls, that’d be one thing, but according to Riohr, there were even cracks that big in the Tower’s main pillars.
And that’s just counting the most serious ones; there were so many small cracks and crumbling spots, it was impossible to keep track.
“I tried to do something about it, but honestly, the manager doesn’t have any authority for Tower repairs. Actually, there was never anyone assigned to Tower maintenance.”
“So now…”
“I couldn’t complain if it collapsed today.”
“If the Tower collapses, does that mean it’ll appear on Earth?”
“That’s not all. If the Tower collapses abnormally, it’ll pour out way more Monsters than needed.”
Hearing that, the future I saw through the White Feather Immortal’s Prophecy flashed through my mind.
Maybe that future was actually the Tower’s Descent, caused by its collapse?
The monsters pouring out as if to conquer Earth were definitely not a normal ‘Monster Wave.’
‘This is bad.’
My plan had been to weaken the Monster Wave as much as possible by climbing the Tower.
In fact, every time I climbed, I’d been getting messages that the Tower was weakening.
But at this rate?
All my efforts would mean nothing, and a massive swarm of Monsters would flood out.
Maybe the future shown by the White Feather Immortal’s Prophecy, even knowing I’d climb the Tower, was not the future I’d hoped for?
If so, this was serious.
“Is there any way I can help?”
Right now, I thought all I could do was climb the Tower as fast as possible.
But maybe, at this point, that wasn’t enough?
And Riohr wouldn’t have come directly if there was nothing I could do.
If climbing the Tower was the answer, I was already doing my best.
Fortunately, my guess was right, and Riohr nodding vigorously asked, “Climber! Since you’re a Blacksmith, could you possibly repair the Tower for us?”
“…Me?”