A New Floor
After firmly strapping on his gear, he looked around at his friends.
Then he pressed the Enter button.
[Entering somewhere between Floors 40 and 51.]
As expected, there was no information about this on the Tower website.
In the first place, hardly anyone used Compression Tickets—and even if they did, nobody in their right mind combined ten at once.
'A new floor, huh… this is interesting.'
Clutching at straws, he'd posted a question online.
As expected, the replies were nothing but "Did you dream this?" and "At least try to talk sense," so he got absolutely nothing out of it.
[Play time will not be recorded. Upon clearing, an SSS+ rank is guaranteed with 100% probability.]
Even the rules were different—it was a bizarre floor all around.
He surveyed the space.
They were inside a vast old castle.
Cobwebs and dust filled the halls, as if the place had been abandoned for ages.
"Commander, looks like we should start by cleaning up?"
"No. We're not here to live."
Just as he was about to look around some more, Seira walked over to a wall and brushed the dust away.
Various drawings emerged beneath it.
They looked as though they'd been scratched into the stone with something sharp.
"Have you seen these before?"
Seira nodded quietly.
"His name was Revad. He liked to draw. Leaving graffiti on walls like this was his hobby."
She spoke in a low voice, slowly walking through the castle.
"It was shortly after we formed the Black Knight Order. We stayed here back then."
She moved to a patch of floor still scorched black.
Crushed metal cups and spoons were scattered around, as if people had once sat here together around a campfire.
"Back then, the entire order had fewer than ten members. It was closer to a small adventuring party than a knight order."
A place where Seira and her knights had really lived.
This wasn't the first time the Tower of Despair had produced somewhere like this.
On the eleventh floor, where orc shamans and warriors appeared—
it was inside one of those huts that he'd first found traces of Kancho the yordle ranger.
After that, he'd occasionally seen fragments of the yordle forest as well.
After a while, having finished searching the castle, Seira shook her head.
"This place cannot exist."
"What do you mean?"
"Before we left, during our final battle, this place was destroyed. Completely—reduced to rubble beyond any hope of restoration. There's no way these drawings should still be here. Unless time itself has been rewound."
Jinhyuk murmured thoughtfully.
"Or it plucked out the exact moment between when the drawings were made and when everything collapsed."
Seira tilted her head, puzzled, and he went on.
"It was like that around the tenth-floor range too. When I saw traces of the yordle forest on Floor 11, I thought maybe the Tower of Myth was the distant past and the Tower of Despair was the future. But that wasn't it either. There were things in the Tower of Myth's yordle forest that didn't exist in the Tower of Despair."
That was how he'd come to his own conclusion.
That at some point, the Tower of Despair branched off from the Tower of Myth and followed a different future.
You could think of it as something like a Marvel-style What If.
"Then… is this place an illusion?"
"I don't think so. They're both real, and they both exist in the present. The only difference is that the Tower of Despair peels places off and brings them here. If you insist on asking which is the original, I guess the Tower of Myth would be it."
Just talking about it made his head start to hurt.
Through his encounter with Elia, he'd realized that the Tower of Myth and the real world might be connected.
Meanwhile, the Tower of Despair was in the process of crossing over into reality.
At this rate, it felt like the three worlds might someday all get mixed together.
"Ugh…"
He shook his head hard, pushing the tangled thoughts away.
There was nothing he could be certain of yet.
He'd think about it again once he had more evidence.
"Whoa! There's a ton of them!"
Momo was peering outside through a narrow gap.
"What's there a ton of?!"
Kancho shoved her aside and stood on tiptoe.
Then he turned back with stiff, awkward movements.
"Commander? They're pretty far away, but something's swarming out there."
Jinhyuk crouched low and brought his eyes to the gap.
"Holy… what is that?"
Something pitch black filled the horizon.
It was too far away to sense properly, but just by looking, it had to be in the thousands.
"Let's go higher. We'll get a better view."
He followed Seira up a narrow staircase.
A bleak wind began to blow.
When they reached the top, a familiar face came into view.
"Cony?"
The raccoon guide who'd appeared in the tenth-floor range.
At some point, Cony had developed a chronic case of terminal laziness, and today he was once again sprawled flat on the ground.
"Long time no see, Cony."
Cony turned his head their way and frowned.
"Ugh. So it is you people."
"Hey, to the commander, watch your mouth! Get up before I beat you!"
Perhaps sensing he'd only get more annoyed if he stayed there, Cony let out a big sigh and stood, trudging over to Jinhyuk.
"I was wondering who could've made a new floor appear… You used Compression Tickets, didn't you?"
"That's right. Ten floors at once."
"Wow."
Cony clicked his tongue.
He'd seen people combine two or three before, but ten? Even with his calm personality, this guy had always had a reckless streak.
Glancing nervously at Kancho, Cony edged a little farther away before speaking again.
"You were pretty reckless this time. Do you see that army?"
He pointed past the horizon.
That black mass was on a scale completely different from anything they'd fought before.
"That army is called the Nether Knight Order. They're nothing like the mindless orcs and ogres you've been facing. These are on a whole other level. Especially the knights called Calistas who command each unit—they're truly monstrous. They swing hundred-kilogram greatswords as if they weighed nothing and butcher everything in their path."
Calista. A familiar name.
Back on the fortieth floor, Cheon Seyoon had strongly warned him never to use Compression Tickets—and Calista had been the main reason.
'She said they were ridiculously strong.'
If even Cony was saying this, they really must be something special.
And there was one in every unit? That was… unsettling, to say the least.
Ding!
[The summoning ritual of the Nether Knight Order has begun! Time remaining until summoning: 40 minutes.]
"Hey, raccoon! What is this?! It says something's gonna be summoned!"
"Oh, that?"
As if he'd just remembered, Cony snapped his fingers.
"The Nether Knight Order is summoning the Nether Dragon. Once the three crystals scattered in different directions are fully charged, the dragon will appear!"
Smack!
Kancho whacked Cony on the back of the head.
"How can you say that so cheerfully?! You should've told us that first!"
For once, Kancho was absolutely right.
Jinhyuk looked where Cony had pointed.
In each direction, a purple crystal the size of a one-story building was glowing brilliantly.
"I'll take this side."
Cracking his knuckles, Dark bolted from the tower.
Seira headed in the opposite direction.
"Leave the last one to you, Master."
She met Jinhyuk's eyes.
Once, he'd been so weak she'd had to keep him wrapped in cotton wool—but not anymore.
"Leave it to me."
When he gave her a thumbs-up, Seira smiled and leapt powerfully into the air as well.
"Let's go."
"All ready!"
"Let's move, Master."
They jumped down from the tower.
It was high enough that he activated Hermes' Shoes to lighten himself on the way down.
'When do we sprint…?'
Fighting wasn't the only problem—they still had to reach that crystal in the distance.
Judging by the booming noises, Dark and Seira had already started fighting.
Just as he resigned himself to running full speed—
Elia equipped the Star Gauntlet.
"Facing a knight order, you should at least have a proper mount, shouldn't you?"
She raised her hand, and a formation circle appeared beneath it.
From within, a four-legged creature emerged.
"Ugh."
"Uuuuugh."
Jinhyuk and Kancho both recoiled in horror.
Its legs were all different shapes and colors.
Worse still, its body was shaped like a bird's—grotesque beyond words.
"I combined the body of a Sky Griffin with the legs of a Centaurus, a Nether Horse, and a Gargoyle!"
"But Centaurus already had four legs! Why'd you stitch other ones on too?!"
"Because it looks better? It's an aesthetic beyond the comprehension of a raccoon with a tiny brain."
Jinhyuk stepped closer and looked at its wings.
"Can it fly?"
"Nope. They're just for style."
"I told you she's just an old hag obsessed with looks."
"Well, try riding it first before you complain."
Time was ticking.
Jinhyuk nodded and climbed on.
"What's its name?"
"Name? Hmm… let's call it… Centagriffin, I guess?"
"That's complete nonsense, you old hag!"
Jinhyuk drew in a deep breath.
Then, with a face full of solemn resolve, he shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Let's go! Centagriffin!"
Unlike a dumbfounded Kancho, Centagriffin seemed to recognize its name just fine.
Kiiiiiiieeek—!!!
Its shrill cry echoed across the battlefield.
At the same time, Centagriffin began pounding the ground.
'Holy—'
Was this what it felt like to have your eyebrows blown back by the wind?
Centagriffin charged through the forest at terrifying speed.
There was only one problem.
Crack! Crunch! Kraaack!
Apparently confident in its own toughness, it paid no attention at all to obstacles.
[Quickshield – Physical has been activated!]
[Quickshield – Physical has been activated!]
Branches flew straight into his face, triggering Quickshield nonstop.
Thank God he had enough mana—otherwise, he'd have been eliminated before the real battle even began.
Kancho and Elia clung tightly behind him, trying not to get hit.
Whooosh!
Not long after, the forest opened onto a wide plain.
The soldiers of the Nether Knight Order came into view at last.
"Krrrk?!"
They noticed him too.
A volley of arrows blackened the sky, blotting out the sun.
Just as he was about to draw his sword, Elia tapped his shoulder.
"It's fine. My Gritaken isn't only good for running."
She even seemed to have forgotten the name she'd just given it, but still—
Centagriffin spread its wings wide.
A massive gust of wind burst forth, blasting the incoming arrows away.
As soon as the barrage stopped, Kancho climbed onto Jinhyuk's shoulder.
[Weapon Collecting]
GanjangmakyaPillar of the Ice Spirit SlitcheSalamanca
With Salamanca's fire-damage amplification, Kancho's explosion would be even deadlier.
He was already looking forward to seeing how strong it had become.
"How dare you shoot arrows at the commander?!"
With a voice that was small but thunderous, Kancho aimed his minigun.
Hundreds of explosive clay rounds sprayed into the sky—
Snap.
Kancho snapped his fingers.
KABABABABABABOOM!!!
Across the plain, enormous blossoms of explosion burst into bloom.
"Haaa…"
Jinhyuk drew in a steady breath, gripping Salamanca and Ganjangmakya.
The battle had begun.
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T/N:
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