Chapter 178: Zombies Fall

The discussion ended successfully.

There was a mountain of work ahead, but the first priority was, of course, conquering the Tower. 

If it were just me, it would be one thing, but now I had party members who would climb the Tower with me. 

I needed to help the Sword Saint, the Heavenly Bow, Cheongryong, and the Shadow King adjust to the Tower.

“I will send the party invite.”

“Yes.”

The party system was a new feature that appeared along with the Tower.

Much like a game, it was a function that allowed for the formation of a party under the system’s management.

It was said that only by forming a party through this function could people enter the Tower together. 

I had only heard rumors about it, so I was a bit nervous since it was my first time actually forming one.

[Awakened ‘Han Yu-ra’ has joined the Vulcanus party.]

[Awakened ‘Lee Ga-eul’ has joined the Vulcanus party.]

The party system wasn’t that difficult.

As just explained, it was no different from a game.

Since everyone was already gathered for the party invites, I decided to move immediately.

“Let’s head straight into the 63rd floor.”

I decided to enter the 63rd floor right away.

However, the Sword Saint stepped forward with a worried look and spoke, “Will it be alright? According to what you said earlier, the difficulty must be much higher than when you conquered it, Vulcanus.”

She was right, the Tower’s difficulty had increased since the time I tackled it.

That was likely why the world’s progress was still stuck in the 20s.

Thinking back to my days, even if the trials were difficult, a group of five rankers should have been enough to clear them.

That was why I could be confident.

“It’s fine.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I’ve already been there.”

“……Pardon?”

To check the increased difficulty, I had visited the 63rd floor in advance.

It was challenging, but honestly, it was at a level I could have managed somehow even without party hunting. 

My strength—having leveled up through monster waves and increased my number of soldiers—had become just as powerful as the increased difficulty.

“But, how…?”

“To put it simply, I have something like the ‘Authority to Exit.’ Unlike all of you, it’s the authority to leave the Tower at any time, even in the middle of a trial.”

“Such a thing exists?”

It was one of the abilities I received from the Gatekeepers.

It was possible thanks to the Authority to Exit.

Regardless, even taking them along, the 63rd floor wouldn’t be an issue.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

My party members, Korea’s core rankers nodded simultaneously.

I nodded back.

[Entering the Tower.]

I used the system to enter the Tower.

Even though I was currently inhabiting the body of Guild Master 1, I entered the Tower normally and as I entered, my real body was also transported into the Tower.

Naturally, the possession was undone, and my soul returned to my original body.

Since all my party members were rankers, those who noticed my true identity turned their heads toward me.

It was a burdensome situation, but…

“Clank.”

‘……It should be fine.’

I had prepared a set of full plate armor in advance for this moment.

It was full plate armor crafted with exaggerated proportions to hide my build.

Though my face was entirely covered by the helm, it was custom armor made specifically for my size, so I didn’t feel any discomfort.

“So we finally get to see Vulcanus’s true form.”

“Wow, isn’t it stuffy being wrapped up like that? I knew you were our guild leader, but I didn’t expect this much!”

“I understand. It wouldn’t be easy to reveal yourself while holding the profession of a blacksmith.”

“…Though with those soldiers guarding you, I don’t think we could easily mess with you anyway.”

Sure enough.

As the party members were tossing comments my way, I changed the subject to redirect their attention.

“First of all, the monsters that appear in the trials of the 60s are undead.”

“I suspected as much. Our association hasn’t reached these floors yet so we weren’t sure, but we predicted the themes change every ten floors.”

“Yes. And the monsters appearing this time are Zombies.”

“Zombiess? You mean the monsters that show up in Rank 7 gates are appearing here?”

“Don’t let your guard down, or you’ll pay for it.”

“True, this is a trial on the 63rd floor, after all…”

“Then, let’s begin immediately.”

[Starting the trial on the 63rd floor.]

The trial of the 63rd floor began.

The monsters that appeared were exactly as I had confirmed earlier.

[63rd Floor: Zombies Fall]

“Zombies Fall?” The Sword Saint tilted her head.

I was confused at first too.

Zombies Fall.

Zombies weren’t flying monsters, so I wondered what “falling” meant but the trial name was honest.

“Kyakakakak!”

“It’s Zombiess!”

Zombies began to drop.

I immediately pulled out a torch.

The light blooming from the ‘Everlasting Flame,’ the torch I primarily used, spread out and illuminated the ceiling.

It was a wide, cave-like space, and on that ceiling…

“My god…”

Zombies were hanging densely.

It wasn’t bats, but swarms of Zombies hanging there.

The sight alone was enough to make one’s skin crawl.

However, no one here faltered or hesitated at the sight of the Zombies.

“Commence battle.”

“Clank.”

Without needing explicit orders, my soldiers moved in perfect unison to attack the Zombies.

My soldiers had already faced Zombies once before, so they were even more decisive.

The Sword Saint was the same.

“Slash!”

The Sword Saint displayed her signature drawing technique, bisecting the Zombies’ bodies before they even hit the ground.

“Thud, thud, thud!”

The Heavenly Bow didn’t just shoot the falling Zombies with his exceptional rapid-fire skills; he began to shoot down the Zombies in threatening positions still hanging from the ceiling.

– Whoosh!

Cheongryong stirred the wind around us, blowing away the Zombies that were falling toward our position.

Finally, the Shadow King, who had claimed to be my direct guard, was nowhere to be seen.

Like a true assassin, she seemed to have hidden himself as soon as the battle started.

Well, in truth, someone like the Shadow King wasn’t suited for this kind of many-to-one combat.

Still, with this many Zombies, there would surely be particularly strong mutant individuals, so the Shadow King would likely take care of those.

Besides, the reason I brought the Shadow King was to deal with boss monsters, so she wasn’t critically important right now.

“Kyakakak!”

Zombies fell without pause.

As the battle began, I could clearly feel that the difficulty had risen.

Even the zombies on the 62nd floor were annoying but could be taken down in a single blow.

However, except for Combat 1, who used Durandal, the others were finding it difficult to kill a Zombie in one hit.

That meant the Zombies’ skin had become that much tougher and harder and their speed?

For animated corpses, they were incredibly fast.

If I were alone, my defensive line would have been forced into a circle to protect me, wasting my combat power, but…

“Slash!”

‘As expected, I made the right choice bringing them.’

My party members were powerful and why wouldn’t they be? 

They were the representative rankers of Korea.

Furthermore, they all possessed L-rank weapons that I had personally crafted for them.

The L-rank equipment my soldiers used was strong, but the L-rank weapons wielded by rankers were on another level.

They were taking down those tough Zombies in a single strike.

No, they were cutting down several zombies at once.

In the midst of that, the most prominent one was, of course…

“Sharpness.”

The person I had wanted in my party the most.

The Cheongryong, Lee Ga-eul.

As he cast his magic, the wind he stirred wrapped sharply around the Sword Saint’s blade as well as the weapons used by my soldiers.

Sharpness—a support spell that made weapons even sharper through the power of wind.

That magic was applied to everyone here and also to all of my soldiers.

Because of that, my soldiers, who until a moment ago had struggled to cut down Zombies in one hit except for Combat 1 were now cutting through the Zombies with ease….

“Slash!”

It was thanks to the increased cutting power provided by Cheongryong’s magic.

Was that all?

“Tail Wind.”

A refreshing tailwind began to blow.

Tail Wind—Cheongryong’s unique support magic and a higher-tier version of ‘Haste.’

With that effect, the movement speed, attack speed, and casting speed of all my soldiers increased.

Cheongryong continued to bestow buffs with various other spells.

‘Just as I thought.’

This was the reason I wanted to bring Cheongryong.

Cheongryong’s abilities shine even brighter in large-scale battles rather than small skirmishes.

Since only five people could enter the Tower, Cheongryong’s abilities usually didn’t get to reach their full potential.

But with my soldiers, Cheongryong’s power could be fully unleashed.

“I was actually thinking of leaving the Sword Saint’s party soon because it’s not easy to utilize my magic in a five-person party. Thanks to you, Vulcanus, I can use my power to my heart’s content.”

Cheongryong seemed to like the situation as well.

After all, if I knew Cheongryong’s strengths, he surely knew them best himself.

In the Sword Saint’s five-person party, it must have been very awkward to utilize his abilities.

Furthermore, Cheongryong went beyond just supporting us.

“Head Wind.”

He created a headwind to slow the Zombies’ movements.

“Swamp.”

He conjured moisture beneath the Zombies to make it difficult for them to lift their feet.

Cheongryong was truly at his most powerful when leading a large number of allies against a large number of enemies.

Once things reached this point, not only the rankers in my party but also my soldiers began to slaughter the Zombies at an incredible pace.

The difficulty had clearly increased.

Yet, fighting with the five of us gathered like this, it felt even easier than the trials I had conquered before the Tower’s descent.

As we were steadily thinning out the Zombies.

In the distance…

“Kyakakakakak!”

A mutant Zombie revealed itself.

Dripping with corpse poison from claws as long as forearms, the mutant Zombies appeared.

It was larger than the other Zombies, yet it was a monster that was even faster.

The Sword Saint tensed up and gripped her weapon tightly.

She had recognized at a glance that this was no ordinary opponent.

The moment the mutant Zombies let out another screech and tried to charge this way…

“klichak”

“Shadow King?”

The Shadow King, who had disappeared as soon as the battle began, revealed herself for the first time.

The Shadow King’s attack struck the mutant Zombies’s head exactly twice.

“Kyakaaa…”

“Thump.”

The mutant zombie’s body turned black as it collapsed.

A mutant zombie next to it tried to attack the Shadow King, but her body had already vanished.

As the mutant zombie looked around in confusion…

“Over here.”

“Stab!”

Having climbed onto the shoulders of the second mutant zombie before anyone realized, the Shadow King struck twice with her daggers again.

Instant death.

It was a perfect Two-Strike Kill.

Thanks to the Shadow King’s surprise attack, the mutant Zombies, who were the greatest threat, were eliminated, and the remaining Zombies were quickly cleaned up by the rankers’ skills and my soldiers’ numbers.

[Your level has increased.]

[You have overcome the 63rd floor trial ‘Zombies Fall.’]

[Clear Evaluation Grade: SSS]

[You are awarded ‘Zombies’s Corpse Poison’ as a reward.]

[The 63rd floor trial has been conquered, weakening the Tower.]

“An SSS-grade evaluation…”

The Sword Saint was shocked by the clear evaluation that popped up.

It seemed she had never received such a grade with her original party.

Regardless, through this battle, I was able to be certain.

‘Yes, this was the right answer.’

There was no need for me to push myself to climb the Tower alone.

I am a blacksmith.

I belonged to a profession that showed its greatest strength when supporting someone else rather than stepping out directly.

So, from now on, instead of thinking about how to command the soldiers…

‘Whose equipment should I make first?’

Worrying about things like that would be of much greater help.