Chapter 206: The Last Repair

Countless gears filled the vast white walls.

Some were as large as a soccer field, while others were no bigger than my thumbnail.

The most fascinating part was that every single one of those gears was interlocked and rotating properly.

Of course…

‘… It’s old.’

The gears looked incredibly worn and rusted.

It was hard to find a gear that wasn’t cracked, and some even had missing teeth, causing them to spin in vain.

The gear chain was designed to function even if one or two gears spun fruitlessly, but if that number increased, the whole system would be rendered useless.

Above all…

“Clatter, clatter — clatter.”

The largest, most prominent gear was acting strange.

It stuttered as if it were lagging, and it was clear that this gear — which appeared to be the core axis — was causing a malfunction in all the others.

As I watched the precarious rotation of the gears…

“Thank you, climber.”

A voice suddenly came from behind me.

Startled, I turned around to see a woman in a flowing, pure white dress.

However, something was off.

She was standing right in front of me, yet it was difficult to clearly perceive her form.

To be precise, it was as if she were shrouded in a thick fog.

The only things I could discern were her long black hair and her white dress.

“Who are you?” I asked.

To my question, she replied, “I am the Tower.”

“Pardon?”

“I am literally the Tower. The one you have conquered. The Tower that appeared in your world.”

It was an unexpected answer.

The Tower?

What on earth did that mean?

However, she didn’t seem inclined to take back her words.

“And, what do you mean by ‘thank you’? Shouldn’t it be ‘congratulations’?”

I asked about the point that confused me first.

The very first thing she said to me was “Thank you.”

In a typical situation, it would be more appropriate to offer congratulations rather than gratitude.

Why was she thanking me?

Her answer came quickly, “That is because, thanks to you clearing out the Tower’s capacity, the final dimension can now be protected.”

“The Tower’s capacity?”

“The endless malice that filled the Tower. I am referring to what you call ‘Monsters.'”

It was truly shocking.

I had cleared the Tower’s capacity?

And that meant the dimension could be protected?

Wait, wasn’t the Tower itself the evil that was destroying the world?

As I stood there bewildered, the woman who claimed to be the Tower continued her explanation.

“The Tower was… a sort of ‘Dam’ meant to protect the world from the malice that fills it.”

“No, that can’t be. The Tower was destroying the world, wasn’t it? Countless dimensions have been destroyed because of the Tower until now. I heard our dimension was the last one.”

“That is true. However, that was not what the Tower intended.”

“Then what?”

“As I said, the Tower was blocking the malice. But if the malice isn’t cleared out, it will eventually burst. To prevent that, we have received the help of people.”

“Is that the Trials? And the help you mentioned… is ‘climbing’?”

“Correct. To facilitate this, we distributed ‘abilities’ extracted from that malice to the people. At first, it worked well. The Tower blocked the malice, and the climbers cleared it out efficiently.”

The history of the Tower, heard so suddenly, was even more startling than the information I had received from the two statues.

In fact, I had heard that even the two statues, the Gatekeepers, hadn’t been there since the Tower’s beginning.

Those statues didn’t even know when the Tower was first created.

What I was hearing now was information that even they were unaware of.

“However, as time passed, the malice accumulating in the Tower only increased. Conversely, there was a limit to the capacity you climbers could clear out.”

“…”

“Eventually, the malice filling the Tower warped the gears of the system.”

“…The Monster Wave.”

“Yes. In the end, the malice that filled the Tower was released all at once, destroying the world.”

The Tower had burst because it could no longer withstand the rising malice.

Hearing this, a thought occurred to me.

‘Then why is the Tower even necessary?’

If what this woman said was true, isn’t the Tower useless?

No, wouldn’t it actually be more dangerous?

“Isn’t the world destroyed because the malice is released in an explosive burst all at once? Wouldn’t it be better if it were released slowly?”

If it had been allowed to leak out little by little, they might have been able to stop it somehow.

But because the Tower held it back and then let it explode, the world ended.

That was my thought.

The woman immediately shook her head.

“Malice is not like that. Within the Tower, it manifests as what you call Monsters, but if it weren’t for that, the malice would have rotted the world like a disease, destroying it even faster and more painfully than if the Tower didn’t exist.”

“What exactly is this malice?”

“It is an encompassing term for the wicked gazes looking down upon the world, the evil desires rising from within, and the distortions of time and space that emerge over time.”

The more I heard, the less I understood.

Well, I understood the gist of it, but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with that information.

However, a troubling assumption came to mind as I listened.

“So, you’re saying the world is safe now because the Tower’s capacity has been emptied?”

“That is correct.”

“Then, what happens when the malice fills up again over time?”

“The same thing will repeat.”

“…”

“How long do we have?”

“I cannot predict that, but the intervals will grow shorter as time passes. After all, the gears have already begun to break.”

My ominous prediction was right on the mark.

The world’s destruction had been averted for now, but it wouldn’t stay that way.

Eventually, it was only a matter of time.

The world would, in the end, perish.

“Dammit, is this right? If this is the system, wasn’t it poorly made from the start?”

Collecting malice and having to clear it out regularly…

Wasn’t that far too inconvenient?

Furthermore, considering the dimensions that had perished so far, the difficulty of clearing the Tower seemed incredibly high.

Isn’t that why all those previous worlds were destroyed?

But she shook her head again, denying my words.

“Originally, the gears were supposed to rotate to purify and release the malice little by little. The malice in the Tower was never meant to be this strong.”

“What? Then why did it turn out like this?”

“As you can see…”

She pointed toward the gears on the white wall.

The numerous gears were clanking as they turned.

Worn, rusted, cracked, and missing teeth, they were failing to function properly.

Pointing at them, she continued.

“The Tower’s system is finite. As time passed and it absorbed the malice of monsters, it became far too old and rusted. Because of that, the malice could no longer be purified and began to accumulate.”

Nothing in the world lasts forever.

The Tower was no exception.

It was built to protect the world from malice, but as time passed, it became old and rusted, losing its ability to function.

The moment I realized that…

Something flashed in my mind.

“Then, what if I fix that?”

I am a blacksmith.

Fixing the Tower suited me much better than conquering it.

It wasn’t a completely baseless idea.

Though it was quite a long time ago, hadn’t I already repaired the Tower’s pillar at the Administrator’s request?

Whether it’s the Tower’s pillars or its gears, they are all just structures of the Tower.

There was no reason a blacksmith like me couldn’t repair them.

“The Tower is not a construction that a mere human can repair.”

“Well, you won’t know that until I try, right?”

“I know you repaired the Tower’s pillar. But the pillars and the gears are completely different — “

“So, I’m saying let’s give it a shot. Honestly, you probably didn’t think I’d be able to fix the pillars either, did you?”

At my repeated questions, she gave a small nod.

“Are you truly capable of this?”

“I don’t know. As I said, I won’t know until I try, right?”

“I understand.”

“Oh, by the way, do you have any materials?”

“Materials…”

She contemplated for a moment and then waved her hand.

“Rumble.”

Pure white ores appeared beside her.

Just by looking at them, I could tell they were made of the same material as this space.

“I do not know if the Creator of the Tower anticipated this moment, but they left behind a vast amount of materials.”

“Good, that’s enough.”

Standing before the giant gears, I…

[Activating Repair Skill]

With a familiarity that had become second nature, I swung my hammer down.

“Clang!”

I began to repair the gears.

With an abundance of materials, all I had to do was swing my hammer.

As expected, the woman who introduced herself as the Tower hadn’t shaken her head for no reason; the points that appeared for the repair were incredibly hard.

Not a single point I had encountered in Hephaestus’s Forge was as hard as these.

Still, whatever.

I was already used to this.

No matter how hard it was, if I just kept striking…

No matter how much time passed, if I continued to hammer with a steady rhythm and consistent force…

“Crack.”

The points would eventually break and so, I kept swinging my hammer.

Forgetting the flow of time, I continued to hammer away.

Eventually, a spark that flew out from a broken point gathered together.

-Flare.

“Master!”

“Blaze!”

An ember flickered to life on my shoulder.

It was Blaze, who hadn’t shown its face since we left Hephaestus’s Forge.

To think Blaze would appear now.

As Blaze breathed out flames…

“Klang!”

The repairs became even easier and I continued to fix the gears.

After swinging my hammer without rest..

[Repair complete.]

I was finally able to fix the first gear but I didn’t stop my hammering.

This was only the beginning.

They say the start is always the hardest, and after fixing the first gear, the next one felt even easier.

“Klang, klang, klang!”

There were more than hundreds of gears installed on the wall right in front of me.

Yet, I felt no sense of hopelessness or frustration.

Rather, it was secretly pleasant to see so many places that needed my hammering.

As I continued to swing my hammer…

“[Repair complete.]”

I began to repair the Tower.

***

After the Tower disappeared…

The world was busy for a while.

People rebuilt collapsed areas and mourned the dead.

Though they had avoided destruction because the Tower vanished, they had to endure a great sense of loss, as more than half of civilization had been destroyed.

During all of that…

[The Hero of the Tower Climb, Vulcanus. Where has he disappeared to?]

[Waiting for Vulcanus.]

[Sword Saint: “The ones who should be respected and thanked are not us, but Vulcanus.”]

[The first building erected on the site where the Tower stood: a statue of Vulcanus.]

[If it weren’t for Vulcanus…]

The world waited for Vulcanus.

While everyone who had climbed the Tower with Vulcanus had returned and was receiving public attention, only Vulcanus had yet to appear.

People speculated with various perspectives.

Among them, the most plausible theory was…

“He may be the hero, but perhaps he still feels threatened by showing his face?”

“No way. He’s the hero who saved the world. Who would dare threaten Master Vulcanus?”

“Most people, including myself, respect and are grateful to him, but the world isn’t always that beautiful. Didn’t crimes take advantage of the chaos of the apocalypse just a short while ago?”

“But according to what’s known, Master Vulcanus’s combat power is…”

“I know. He was a powerful Hunter who commanded many soldiers. But he himself was simply a production-type Hunter.”

“I see.”

That was the consensus.

No matter how much power Vulcanus had wielded, he was, in the end, a blacksmith.

His general physical abilities were bound to be lower than those of combat-type Hunters.

Thus, the speculation was that he couldn’t reveal himself even in this situation.

Occasionally, there were theories that Vulcanus was in contact with the Vulcanus Guild under a different name, but…

“Master Vulcanus…”

It wasn’t true.

Nam Bora had not heard any news from Vulcanus either.

Since the Tower vanished, she hadn’t heard his voice even once.

She was simply running the Vulcanus Guild in his absence, preparing for whenever he might return.

So, many people waited for Vulcanus.

However, Vulcanus never showed himself.

As time passed, the name Vulcanus slowly began to be forgotten.

And then…

“Do you not find it regrettable?”

“Find what?”

“If you had gone down to the world, you would have been receiving all that respect and gratitude yourself.”

“Ugh, what respect and gratitude? That kind of thing is the most exhausting part. One way or another, I’m most comfortable being alone in my own room.”

I was quietly looking down at that scene.

From the farthest place in the world…

Or perhaps, the closest.

In a place most closely connected to the world, yet most detached from it.

I was quietly watching the world connected to the Tower.

Behind me…

“Click.”

“Click, click — “

The gears, perfectly repaired by my hands, were turning as smoothly as if they had been freshly oiled.

Yes.

I decided to stay here.

I had repaired all the structures, including the gears and the pillars of the Tower, but over time, these structures would grow old and rust again.

If that happened, the same disaster would surely repeat.

To prevent that, I decided to remain.

‘It’s spinning well.’

A sense of pride filled me as I watched the gears.

Looking down at the ground produced the same feeling.

Nam Bora, who was diligently running the Vulcanus Guild; the Sword Saint, who still mentioned my name; and Team Leader 1 Park Sang-hyun, who was rising rapidly after reaching the Ranker level.

All of it felt so heartwarming.

As she watched me, she asked, “Will you truly be all right?”

Her question was filled with concern.

She was asking if I, born as a mere human and not a god, would really be okay just looking down at the world while repairing the Tower from its summit.

From a normal human’s perspective, this was no different from living in a prison.

However, it was different for me.

A prison?

I could eat whatever I wanted, lie down and rest as much as I pleased, and I could manage the Tower and watch reality, which was more fun than any game.

In a sense, this place was to me…

“What do you take me for? I’m a shut-in expert.”

The ultimate sanctuary.

–The End–