[You have entered the 30th floor.]
[Time limit: 3 hours 30 minutes.]
[30th floor clear condition: Offer a sacrifice to summon the Giant Griffin and defeat it.]
The 30th floor had a kind of two-phase structure.
Beyond the dark forest, a massive portal-like device was visible.
After defeating the mid-boss and regular monsters to meet the portal entry conditions, light would fill the portal and it would open.
It was a simple structure.
And the simpler the clear conditions of the Magic Tower were, the more difficult they usually turned out to be.
Once you passed through the opened portal, a giant griffin and an escape stone would be waiting for the players.
In truth, although it looked to Lee Jiyu as if Choi Junseok hadn’t prepared any particular strategy, he actually had experience clearing up to the mid-30s.
Instead of sleeping, he had climbed the tower while calculating the timing to summon the holy sword with Lee Nayeon and Song Hana, unexpected variables, and even the expected clear time.
As always, the moment Choi Junseok entered the 30th floor, he telepathically conveyed the strategy to his two summoned beings.
We break through to the boss room at the fastest speed possible.
The moment we enter the boss room, I’ll summon the holy sword right away.
Without even a starting signal, Choi Junseok summoned Lee Nayeon’s sword Caliburn and spun it forward at high speed into the forest ahead.
FWOOOOOSH!!
A gigantic wave of energy surged as if trying to push Choi Junseok backward, cutting straight through the forest.
KUGUGUGUGUGUNG… CRACKCRACKCRACK!
An absurd preemptive strike that simply mowed down every tree in a straight line toward the giant portal.
From within the forest, a horde of basilisks began to reveal themselves.
Huge lizards, each easily over three meters long.
They had manes like lions and skin thicker than steel.
They were like tanks that possessed immunity to both ordinary magical and physical attacks at the same time.
If bitten by their sharp fangs, the victim would immediately be afflicted with disease and petrification status effects.
Depending on the individual, even prolonged eye contact could trigger petrification—a truly troublesome enemy.
When facing just one or two, you could still divert their gaze toward the legs or torso, but when surrounded by many, fighting without ever meeting even a single pair of eyes was practically impossible.
That was why the previous fastest clear record for the 30th floor was only 19 minutes 22 seconds.
Yet Choi Junseok had no intention of exceeding 10 minutes.
He immediately dashed down the cleared path, unsummoned Lee Nayeon, then resummoned her right beside Caliburn that was now embedded in the ground.
The moment Lee Nayeon, sword in hand, raised her head in the forest.
Dozens of basilisks approached, flicking their tongues with HISS— sounds.
The instant she raised her sword, THUM… a faint blue wave of energy spread through the forest. Blue aura wrapped around Lee Nayeon’s body, and her afterimages scattered.
PSHUK!
The place Lee Nayeon reappeared was directly on top of a basilisk’s head.
She cleanly thrust her sword once between its skull and spine.
The moment she did, sharp stone-dust breath poured from the mouths of the other basilisks toward her.
Even though the sharp rain of stones struck directly, the breath didn’t even graze Lee Nayeon’s afterimage.
Like sliding between the basilisks, she massacred over a dozen of them in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, Song Hana and Choi Junseok, who were sprinting straight toward the portal, continued launching long-range attacks in every direction. They were literally attacking indiscriminately left and right.
At Choi Junseok’s hand gesture, dozens of ripples appeared in midair, and all sorts of junk—spears, stones, sharp pieces of iron—ruthlessly rained down in every direction.
SHWASHWASHWASHWASHWAK!
Crushing trees, slicing them, felling them—drawing aggro with the intent of leaving not a single basilisk far away alive.
Song Hana was the same.
Rather than aiming to kill, she repeatedly pulled and released bowstrings made of mana, extending her skills as far as possible to lure out the basilisks.
TWUNG! TWUNG! TWUNG!
Each heavy arrow pierced through two trees at once, steadily gathering the basilisks moment by moment.
Following Lee Nayeon’s swordplay that cut down every visible basilisk with a single stroke, Choi Junseok could see his experience bar rising constantly.
Name: Choi Junseok
Affiliation: Korea
Level: LV. 98 (66.71%)
Trait Skills: [Appraisal] [Magic Stone Detection] [Summoned Being Summon]
General Skills: Magic Tower Entry (1 time per day), Summoned Being Summon, Blink
Skill: Inventory Master
(…………omitted)
Even though he was monopolizing all the experience, once he reached the late 90s, the leveling speed had noticeably slowed.
He couldn’t help but be newly amazed at how Yoo Junhyuk had been using a level 997 holy sword.
Yoo Junhyuk, who had already been high-level to begin with, had fused with a mythic-grade holy sword to become a level 999 holy sword.
Even after monopolizing all the experience and rewards from the 30th floors—which was just a little less than one-third of the tower—he still hadn’t reached level 100, making him realize once again just how absurd that number was.
Choi Junseok planned to break through level 100 today.
“They’re all gathered!”
At Song Hana’s confirmation, Choi Junseok also focused on killing basilisks.
Though they were F-rank, level was king; even against level 70+ basilisks, he could more than handle a single one.
“Summon!”
He poured concentrated fire on a basilisk leisurely crawling toward them on all fours.
Yellow ripples continuously formed around one basilisk.
SHWASHWASHWASHWAK!
Countless sharp pieces of junk rained down on the basilisk, grinding it into nothing without leaving a trace.
Choi Junseok and Song Hana sniped the leisurely approaching ones from afar.
Lee Nayeon sliced through every basilisk that was relatively close.
As always, he checked the remaining time through the constantly decreasing time limit.
[Time limit: 3 hours 24 minutes 12 seconds]
It’s already taken over five minutes just to break through.
Choi Junseok bit his lip at the speed that was slower than expected.
He knew it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Yet he could clearly feel that they had now entered the middle floors.
Even this speed was still unprecedented and revolutionary.
Normally, the standard route for the 30th floor was to lure out and clean up basilisks one by one.
That was partly because players prioritized safety above all, but also simply because they didn’t have the leisure to fight basilisk packs head-on.
The deeper you went into the forest, the more obstructed the players’ vision became, and if even one undetected basilisk appeared behind the rear guard, it could lead to a catastrophic party wipe.
PSSSHIIIK!
A basilisk spewed poisonous fog, but Lee Nayeon dodged it as if mocking the attempt.
Song Hana blew a strong wave of mana forward, pushing the poisonous fog on Choi Junseok’s running path completely to the sides.
The portal grew closer at the speed Choi Junseok was running.
Only after slaughtering exactly 55 basilisks did a strong light finally flash from the huge circular portal in front of them.
It looked like a spiraling portal that you absolutely should not enter.
Yet Choi Junseok fearlessly threw himself inside.
Song Hana and Lee Nayeon, following right behind, slipped whoosh whoosh into the portal and vanished.
Only 6 minutes.
For some parties, that was not even enough time to encounter a single basilisk.
Entering the boss room, Choi Junseok’s vision caught sight of the gigantic griffin far away.
A massive eagle’s head. Dragon wings, basilisk torso, hippopotamus rear, chicken feet.
A tail with a snake’s head and body—truly a chimera monster made by mixing everything together.
The real biggest problem wasn’t the threatening effects it was armed with.
It was its size and height—easily over eight meters.
The chicken comb, known as its weak point, meant you had to jump eight meters into the air just to graze it with a sword.
Attacking its head with magic or ranged attacks was also difficult.
Thanks to the dragon tribe’s additional effect of dominating magic, whenever magic tried to rise above its shoulders, strong winds would twist the trajectory or halve the spell’s effect.
Considering that even one of its legs was taller than an average adult male, jumping up for close-range attacks was equally impractical—so most raid parties would give up targeting the head or comb altogether.
Was the rear weak then?
Not at all.
The rear was guarded by a snake head that inflicted petrification gaze and deadly poison, and above all, the buttocks were tough and elastic, reflecting physical and magical damage outright—an area with complete damage immunity.
In other words, this monster had only combined the advantages of everything while viciously hiding all disadvantages, making it an extremely troublesome opponent.
However, for Choi Junseok, it was not a problem at all.
He instantly used Blink forward, closing the distance to the boss monster in a flash.
With a flash sound, Choi Junseok’s position turned into white light and reached the optimal distance from the griffin.
The moment the griffin’s enormous eyes detected him and turned.
Choi Junseok simultaneously summoned the holy sword and various weapons while thanking his two summoned beings for their hard work.
Dozens of yellow ripples formed, surrounding the griffin from all sides.
All sorts of junk poured down toward the griffin from every direction.
CLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG!!
A relentless barrage like a storm raging.
Yet not a single piece pierced the griffin’s body.
That was fine.
It was merely a distraction anyway.
While the griffin grew accustomed to the attack that was no different from a pathetic sandstorm.
A gigantic ripple suddenly appeared in its blind spot.
The moment the tip of the holy sword tore through the air and revealed itself, the dragon wings spread wide as if it had finally sensed the massive something hidden within the sandstorm—too late.
KWAAAAAANNNGGGG—!!
The holy sword had already mercilessly slammed down onto the creature.
Because the holy sword pierced through but got stuck instead of fully penetrating, it only shook the ground and caused a strong shockwave.
The terrain did not collapse.
[Congratulations!]
[You have cleared the 30th floor.]
[Clear time: 7 minutes 9 seconds.]
[Would you like to register anonymously in the Hall of Fame? (Y/N)]
[The additional effect of ‘Fairy’s Harvest (Toothless)’ has activated.]
[Mid-floor clear rewards will be distributed.]
[You have obtained an enormous amount of experience.]
Oh…… experience.
His level instantly broke through 100 and rose to 102.
At the same time, as expected, the fastest clear record for the 30th floor in the Suseo Magic Tower’s Hall of Fame was updated and engraved.
[30th floor fastest clear record holder: Anonymous (F-rank) – 7 minutes 9 seconds.]
In the time it took dozens of people in a party to kill a single basilisk, he had killed the boss monster.
When asked if he would return, Choi Junseok glanced for a moment at the basilisk corpses.
The one whose body had disintegrated the instant the holy sword struck.
Previously, the ground had collapsed so he couldn’t even think about doing anything with the corpse.
Looking down at the massive corpse with sinister eyes, Choi Junseok nodded.
“Summon Kamdori!”
At those words, Song Hana, who had been watching from behind, turned deathly pale.