Chapter 176: The Tower I Climbed Alone

After the Tower appeared, the Monster Wave began.

Thanks to Korea, the Monster Wave had stopped, but it was only a temporary pause, just as the System message had explained.

It was clear that before long, a new Monster Wave would begin.

That’s why countries, including Korea, started searching for ways to deal with this.

Even so, there weren’t many things they could do.

Among them, the method most countries tried was: “First, investigate the Tower.”

“Yes, understood!”

Investigating the Tower.

The Tower that had suddenly soared up in the heart of the capital.

By investigating the Tower, maybe they could find a way to bring it down.

If not that, perhaps they could seal the Tower forever so that no more Monster Waves would happen.

With such hopes, each country began to form their own Tower investigation squads.

Hunters.

Especially, squads made up of the strongest Rankers set out for the Tower.

“We can’t find it.”

“What do you mean? It’s right there in front of us.”

“We thought so too and went searching, but no matter how far we walk, the distance to the Tower never shrinks. Sometimes, if you let your guard down, the Tower even appears on the opposite side.”

“What is this…”

“It’s like a rainbow. It looks like you could grab it if you just go a little further, but you can never reach it.”

No one could reach the Tower.

To anyone’s eyes, the Tower was only visible as a mirage far away.

No matter how hard they tried to move toward it, they could never reach it.

Douglas even tried flying towards the Tower at his incredible speed, and hundreds of people tried to surround it and close in.

They tried all sorts of ways to reach the Tower, but the result was always the same.

In the end, the plan to reach the Tower and investigate it directly turned out to be a waste of effort.

So, only one method remained.

[Would you like to enter the Tower?]

As soon as the Monster Wave stopped, all Awakened Ones in the world gained a ‘qualification.’

That was, the right to enter the Tower.

By using this System, it became easy to enter the Tower that was otherwise impossible to approach, like a mirage.

No one knew what would happen inside the Tower, so they had to be extremely cautious, but at this point, the only thing they could trust was the System.

If all floors of the Tower were conquered, the Monster Wave would stop.

Believing only in those words, the Hunters began to enter the Tower.

However—

“This is insane! It’s too hard!”

“You’re a Ranker, and it’s that tough for you?”

“I can’t do this alone! Let me team up with other Rankers! If we don’t enter with the maximum full party the Tower allows, there’s no way to clear it!”

A Ranker who had just come out after clearing the first floor ran out in shock.

The Tower was structured so that, by default, you could not exit until you finished a trial.

Once you reached the next floor, you couldn’t get out until that floor’s trial was cleared.

But the trials were far too dangerous.

Endlessly dividing Slimes.

A Goblin ambush in a pitch-dark floor with not a single light.

Ratmen who attacked in foul, cramped sewers, spreading poison and disease, hiding between narrow pipes.

And above all, on reaching the fifth floor, the appearance of hundreds of Orc Legions.

“They’re just Slimes and Goblins—aren’t those the weakest Monsters?”

No.

The Monsters that appeared in the Tower were different.

Slimes clung to swords and couldn’t be attacked effectively; Goblins knew how to use the darkness.

Ratmen made clever use of poison and the sewers, and the Orc Legions regrouped and organized under proper command.

Even for Rankers, these trials were not easy to clear.

“So… you’re saying that five Rankers couldn’t even get past the twentieth floor?”

“I’m sorry. This is our limit.”

Many countries gave up on clearing the Tower.

In the end, it was up to the so-called Hunter powerhouses to take on this task.

But even the Hunter powerhouses were not having an easy time with the Tower.

Even those countries could not help but be astonished by the Tower’s difficulty.

Even the United States was struggling to clear the Tower.

In the midst of all this—

“Chairman.”

“What is it?”

“A message from the Vulcanus Hunter.”

“Oh, a reply at last?”

A message had arrived for the President of Korea’s Hunter Association.

The Vulcanus Hunter.

If one had to name the key player who made it possible for Korea to stop the Monster Wave this time, it would be Vulcanus.

If the situation had been better, the whole world would have praised Vulcanus, and even in Korea, rewards and celebrations would have followed.

But with the Tower and Monster Wave, everything had turned for the worse, and they hadn’t even been able to properly thank Vulcanus.

And now, Vulcanus had sent word.

The President of the Hunter Association checked the message and nodded, standing up from his seat.

“We’re heading to the Vulcanus Guild right now.”

“Right now? But we still have a mountain of tasks here at the Association…”

“This is even more important.”

The Hunter Association President—

No, along with the President, Rankers and key figures of Korea all began to gather at the Vulcanus Guild.

People began to gather at the Vulcanus Guild.

The first to arrive were—

“Looks like we’re the first ones here!”

“So it seems.”

“Sit here with me.”

“Yes.”

***

It was the President of the Hunter Association and Han Yu-ra, Korea’s strongest Hunter and the Sword Saint.

Neither were ordinary people, but no one would have expected these two to arrive first.

Perhaps it showed just how much they valued Vulcanus.

Actually, it was only natural.

The Sword Saint had commanded the Hunters at the frontlines during the Monster Wave, so she knew better than anyone the importance of Vulcanus’s contribution.

Having received this report, the Association President also understood Vulcanus’s importance clearly.

That’s why the two of them came immediately as soon as they were invited.

Next to arrive was—

“Well, I didn’t expect anyone to get here before me. To think the Hunter Association would be the first to arrive.”

“Cheon Seung-heon, you’re here.”

“It’s been a while.”

It was Cheon Seung-heon, the leader of the Changcheon Guild and Korea’s top archer.

He too had come much earlier than the appointed time, hoping to catch Vulcanus’s eye—or at the very least, to be noticed by Korea’s key figures who would gather here.

It seemed he hadn’t expected anyone else to arrive before him.

After that, more of Korea’s key people kept arriving.

Lee Ga-eul, leader of the Mir Guild.

And then, the Rankers belonging to Vulcanus Guild arrived: Berserker and Shadow King, and Spirit Emperor.

But it wasn’t only Rankers who gathered.

“Looks like the government’s sent someone too.”

“Well, if the Monster Wave continues, not just our country, but the whole world could be wiped out.”

The government had dispatched a key figure as well.

And besides them, everyone called an influential figure in the Hunter world had gathered.

With so many renowned people together, there was an inevitable buzz among the crowd.

“Sword Saint, Cheon Seung-heon, Cheongryong, Berserker, Shadow King… It’s like all the Rankers are here.”

“This is like the Avengers. When else would you ever see these people gathered, except for a crisis like the Monster Wave?”

“That’s what it means to be Vulcanus right now.”

“Well, Vulcanus did take down the Dokkaebi King, after all.”

“But where is Vulcanus? Are we really being kept waiting?”

“Wait a little. Honestly, we just arrived early, it’s not late. Besides, look—the clock’s just about to hit the hour.”

As the second hand struck the hour.

“Ah, he’s here.”

Vulcanus entered.

There was no applause.

No one was in the mood to clap.

After all, with the world on the brink of destruction, who could clap so easily?

In the heavy silence, Vulcanus took his seat and finally opened his mouth.

“I’ll get straight to the point.”

Vulcanus, too, skipped any words of thanks or introduction, jumping right into the main topic.

Everyone gathered here was Korea’s core talent.

Though they seemed composed, they had all carved out precious time to be here.

To save these golden moments, there was no need for a meaningless preamble.

Vulcanus took a brief breath, then spoke, “I have been climbing the Tower since before it appeared.”

***

I decided to tell the truth.

Now that the Tower had appeared, what reason was there to hide anything?

Previously, telling anyone about the Tower would’ve brought no help, and would only have caused chaos, so I had no reason to speak up.

But now, it was different.

It was time to truly borrow people’s strength.

That’s why I was going to tell them everything honestly.

If I kept hiding things, people would only find it harder to help me.

“…What did you just say?”

Naturally, the reaction wasn’t good.

Their faces seemed to say: What is this Blacksmith even talking about?

It was quite an awkward moment, but I didn’t stop. 

I pressed on, “It’s just as I said. I knew of the Tower’s existence before it appeared, and I began climbing it to weaken the Tower before it descended.”

I continued to talk about everything I knew regarding the Tower.

Anything too difficult to explain, I just glossed over as ‘due to my Awakened abilities.’

There was no need to mention that I’d been reluctant to enter the Tower because I was just a Blacksmith.

The longer I spoke, the more the people here split into two groups.

One group thought: ‘Vulcanus was climbing the Tower?’

‘So, even the Monster Wave was weakened because Vulcanus had already climbed and weakened the Tower?’

‘No way.’

‘Vulcanus, just who is he…’

These were the people who believed my words.

Mostly my own guild members, but surprisingly, some people from the Hunter Association, like the President or the Sword Saint, nodded too.

The other group thought: ‘What nonsense is this?’

‘How could he have known about the Tower’s existence?’

‘A Blacksmith climbed the Tower? Even the trials we know so far are hard for Rankers to clear. Be serious.’

‘He got a little fame in the Monster Wave and now he’s a compulsive liar?’

These were the ones who didn’t believe me at all.

Honestly, it was only natural that most people were in this group.

Even I understood how hard it was to accept.

No matter how active I’d been, I was still a Blacksmith.

Compared to the Rankers here, my level was low.

For someone like me to claim to have climbed the Tower—it was natural that people couldn’t believe it.

“If what you’re saying is true, how far did you get in the Tower?”

“I cleared up to the sixty-second floor.”

“Ha! That’s ridiculous.”

The laughter was almost incredulous. 

“Sure, you did well in the Monster Wave, but what kind of nonsense is this?”

“At least make your lies believable.”

Some people couldn’t listen anymore and started getting up.

At that moment.

The Association President, who had been nodding at my words, stood up but he wasn’t leaving.

The Chairman’s gaze was fixed straight at me as he asked, “Do you have any proof we can trust?”

‘Proof.’

Yes, I’d been waiting for this question.

“What floor is Korea currently on?”

“We’re on the twenty-second floor.”

Twenty-second floor.

I’d heard that since the Tower appeared, its difficulty had increased a lot.

If a party of Rankers had already reached the twenty-second floor, that was pretty fast progress.

At the President’s answer, I nodded and spoke, “Twenty-second floor. That’s the ‘Ant Maze.'”

“…!”

The President nodded, and everyone else was taken aback.

The Tower had just appeared, and Korea’s pace of conquest was fast.

With that, there was no way Vulcanus could have known the name of the most recently cleared trial.

Yet Vulcanus had suddenly said it.

Still, just as the doubters were about to react—

Vulcanus continued.

“The trial on the twenty-first floor was the Trial of the Moth’s Mist. And since you’ve cleared the twenty-second floor, the next, the twenty-third, should be the Jungle of Webs. The twenty-fourth floor is the Mantis Thicket, the twenty-fifth is… ‘Thousand-Year Centipede.’ That’s the trial where you have to defeat a centipede that’s lived for a thousand years.”

Without pause, I rattled off details about the upcoming trials.

The people couldn’t help but be shocked.

The fact that I’d known the twenty-first floor was impressive.

But from the twenty-third floor on, no one here had any idea, so there was no way to check if I was telling the truth.

Just then, the President called somewhere, then hung up and nodded.

“I asked a group that’s been climbing the Tower even faster than us. Everything he said is correct.”

“No way.”

“It’s real?”

“Vulcanus was really climbing the Tower ahead of us?”

“A Blacksmith, how…”

With this, the truth of my words was proven.