Chapter 9: The Tower’s Master (1)

Chapter 9 – The Tower’s Master (1)

Kim Tae-woon gave me a sideways glance as I closed my hands around the hilt.

“Now that we’re here, let me ask you one more question… Where did you learn to wield a sword?”

Kim Tae-woon had said that it’d been one year since he’d Awakened. Usually, after someone Awakens, they’d be independently trained within a guild. There were differences between guilds, of course, but I’d heard that the average training period was usually between 6 months to a year.

Like the name implies, the Awakened were people who had been living ordinary lives until they were suddenly able to access their status window and gain the right to enter dungeons and become Hunters.

Let’s be realistic. 

If, on a random day, you were suddenly told to kill a person, would you be able to do it?

With the exception of psychopaths or maniacs who fantasize about murder, most people given a knife would hesitate if they had to kill an animal, what more a human being.

In this aspect, the people in this world were no different.

After completing formal training, you could start officially engaging in Hunter activities. But being able to work as a Hunter and being able to help in a dungeon where you had to risk your life were two very different things.

Reality isn’t a game.

That’s what it means to risk your life.

The four other members of my party followed textbook formation during the ‘Goblin Village’ raid. This meant that they had received sufficient preliminary knowledge and education from their guilds even before completing their education from the Association.

Because they’d practiced individually hundreds of times, there was no way that they wouldn’t mesh well together. 

Kim Tae-woon was the same way. 

During the several months since he’d entered his guild, he had definitely been trained in swordsmanship. If you observed his movements, you could clearly tell that he had been more rigorously trained than the others. 

Wary of the approaching goblins, I gave a lukewarm response.

“Well, I don’t know. I guess you could call it a survival skill? Anyways, is that really what you want to ask about at the end?”

“I’m asking because we’re at the end.”

“To be clear, I have no intention of dying.”

“Me too.”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to stay alive.”

The goblins rushed forward. With one hand, I delicately blocked a goblin’s sword. After slightly twisting my body, I jumped to the side.

A goblin that was swinging his axe tried to attack my back, but he lost his balance and ended up attacking the goblin in front of him.

The axe-wielding goblin ignored the goblin holding the sword and smirked cruelly. It looked like the axe goblin was the superior one.

‘A real piece of shit, huh.’

After narrowly escaping the gods, I’d ended up falling into this dimension that’s similar to but different from the reality that I remembered. I’d wanted to adapt a little, but this time I’d fallen into an error-ridden Tower of Trials.

‘Now, what should I do about this?’

Giving up on the offensive, I decided to focus only on dodging attacks. I did my best to avoid their blows, but my body couldn’t keep up, and my wounds were increasing little by little.

Suddenly, the goblins started to retreat. Looking at the goblin troops, I quickly sprang backwards and retreated as well.

Dozens of arrows shot out and started to fall above our heads. The tips of the arrows flying towards us glistened.

‘Poison arrows.’

Luckily, my body and my line of sight were two separate things. I gave up on flicking away the arrows with my sword, and the only thing left to do was to run away as far as I could.

“Khhk–!”

Kim Tae-woon, who’d stood firm and tried to block the arrows, fell to his knees. A couple of gobins started running towards him.

I tried to go to help him, but the situation was equally as bad on my end. 

Kim Tae-woon specialized in body strengthening skills, so he used the rest of his magic to block the goblins’ attack.

A goblin with a comparatively slight build snuck up to Kim Tae-woon and stabbed him in the side with a dagger.

When he pulled the dagger out, an incredible amount of blood began to flow out of his side. Not stopping here, the goblin thrust the dagger into Kim Tae-woon again.

As soon as I saw the huge axe rise behind him, I quickly closed my eyes at the same time that I avoided an attack from another goblin.

“H…Hel…p………”

The sight of him trying to somehow stay alive, with his sword tied to his hand by fabric ripped from his clothes, was extremely pitiful. The goblins continued to hack away at his corpse long after he had died.

Kim Tae-woon and I had stayed alive the longest, and at the same time, we’d been the ones to kill the most goblins. There was no way those goblins with eyes clouded by revenge would’ve given him an elegant death. However, I didn’t have time to feel pity, so I continued to swing my sword around. My entire body was screaming out in pain.

Even though I knew it was hopeless, I kept moving without stopping. It had been a while since I’d had this kind of fight. 

More than being afraid, it was enough to make me start laughing.

One corpse, two corpses, the bodies around me started to pile up. The goblins circled me, watching me vigilantly. My surroundings were striped with blood and bits of flesh. Whether that blood was from humans or monsters, there was no way to differentiate.

A goblin threw a crudely severed arm in front of me. It was the arm of the dead Kim Tae-woon.

I guess that meant it was my turn to die, huh.

No? Well then, never mind.

The goblins started to surround me. Near the back, I saw a goblin pull a bowstring back.

I’d been lucky so far to avoid all the poison arrows, but there was no guarantee that I’d be able to do it again.

The goblin that had thrown the severed arm at me started to rush towards me first. As if the sword in my hands was a spear, I threw it straight at the goblin.

The sword I threw hit the goblin’s eye exactly.

The goblin let out a scream, not having expected that I would throw my sword.

Seeing that my weapon had now left my hands, the other goblins also started to attack. They must’ve thought that it was a frantic, last-ditch effort.

“Fuck, this is insane!”

I couldn’t use that sword anymore. In the first place, it wasn’t a very good sword, and it was on the verge of breaking anyway.

Ignoring the goblins, I recklessly started running past them.

My other party members were all dead. There was no point in even trying to find their bodies to confirm it.

‘I’ll run to the door!’

I didn’t even know if it was a door. Even so, I was certain that it was at least the entrance to the tower.

There was a reason why I was desperately running towards the tower. It was because of the words that I’d seen when the goblins had first started to appear.

‘The tower’s owner? Is that me?’

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At the time, I was too distracted to think about what that meant, but as the situation grew more tense, my head started to spin.

I’m sure it’s obvious, but I had never owned something like a tower.

So where did this mysterious tower and this unknown space come from?

If the question was “Choose the outlier between these four people that entered the dungeon”…

‘Anyone could tell you that it’s me!! I just wanted to escape from those damn gods! What the hell is this!’

Biting back the bitter laments of my misfortune, I managed to just barely dodge the goblins’ attacks and reach the door.

I put my hand on the door and infused it with magical power, the same way that I had when the goblins first appeared. Parts of the enormous door started to shine and light up. 

[The ‘Tower of Trials’ has recognized its owner.]

[The dimension has been left neglected for too long and must be restored.]

At the sudden light, the goblins had backed away. Meanwhile, notification windows started to pop-up nonstop.

Among the frantic notifications, the most eye-catching pop-up was none other than the skill called [Advent].

‘What is this “Advent”?’

Who exactly would you be able to call down from the heavens?

I wish I knew what exactly would happen, but no other methods were coming to me at the moment. It was much better to die trying it out than to just die like this.

[Calling ???]

[This body has recognized the master of this soul.]

[You are * * * * *]

“Huh? What?”

I couldn’t believe my eyes as the text passed by.

I glanced up at the never-ending tower. At the same time, dozens of arrows started to rain down over my head.

“What is this?!”

First, I had to try and avoid them.

[You are now in the ‘Advent’ state.]

[You will temporarily be able to use the power of a god.]

[The connection is unstable.]

[Power will be limited.]

The second the arrows came down on me, I jumped up high and avoided them. I got rid of the status windows blocking my view.

‘No way… I can’t believe I’m having my old godly self descend into… myself.’

My soul had once risen beyond the level of the gods. But since I wasn’t in the same body I had ascended in, I wasn’t able to use the full extent of my godly powers… for now.

The dust cleared, and one goblin raised his head towards where I’d jumped, as if he’d found me. I could see confusion appear on the faces of the goblins.

After landing on one foot, I picked up a sword that had fallen to the ground. My body’s condition felt so good now that it was scary. I felt good, but that didn’t mean that the state of my body was normal.

I could check out what was going on with that tower behind me later.

“First, I should do something about this.”

My mind became clear, and my field of vision increased.

As I got into position, the goblins snorted as if this was absurd.

* * *

I slit the throat of the last goblin and threw the sword on the ground.

I couldn’t go any further and collapsed onto the ground. It was really touch-and-go for a minute there. I laid down at the entrance among the piled-up goblin corpses and looked up at the sky.

The tower rose endlessly into the dark sky. Staring into the dark sky, I suddenly remembered the dream that I had before I’d even entered the dungeon. But before I could think further…

I fainted.

I didn’t even know how it was possible to lose consciousness in this situation, but I definitely felt that I’d overdone it.

The sky was so endlessly black.

After I regained consciousness and woke up, I couldn’t find a sign that any time had passed. It was like I’d been thrown into the middle of space.

I was glad that I hadn’t died, but just because I had survived didn’t mean that any of this was over.

The large door was still shining bright.

As soon as I placed my hand on the door, I saw words appearing in front of my eyes.

“Since when?”

I shook my head with my arms crossed. I swear, I’d never owned anything like a tower.

I did have the vague feeling that I’d forgotten something, but that was it. I couldn’t remember it, so how could I figure out what I’d forgotten?

I felt that I needed to find out a little more about this tower.

At that moment, another notification rang out.

“What is it now?”

[Please secure more Merit Points until the day of the decisive battle.]

[The ‘dimension ruler’ will be the master of all gods.]

[Location: Dimension R-1354]

Once I pressed the (View) button, I could see a part of the dimension as if watching CCTV Cameras.

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I could see familiar signboards written in Korean along with the inside of a pub in the downtown area. In the middle of the crowded pub, someone was drinking alcohol with a group. 

Between the many drunk faces, I could see Choi Soo-hyun. I didn’t know what was going on, but it looked like a group dinner for the team.

“What’s that bastard doing over there?”

It was so ridiculous that I ended up mumbling it out loud.

—-

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