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On the 21st floor of the Tower of Trials, a woman stood amidst scattered metal scraps.
“Haah— Haah—”
The woman looked, to put it bluntly, ghastly. Her blue waterfall-like hair was tangled with clumps of blood. Her eyes, once filled with sparks, were stained with exhaustion.
But still, she was very beautiful.
“No matter how many times I look at you, I still can’t get used to those looks,” Theta muttered, shaking his head.
Iceline’s eyebrows twitched.
“Are you trying to make a move right now?”
“But I’m being sincere.”
“All the men I’ve met have been like that. They all say stuff like, ‘But I’m being sincere’ or ‘I’m in awe’... I’m used to being approached with all sorts of rhetoric.”
Theta burst into laughter at Iceline’s cold attitude.
“If you don't like it, then why don't you keep wearing that amazing artifact?”
“You didn't believe me when I told you that I'm the daughter of the extinct Rebrecca family.”
“Well…” Theta trailed off with a sly smile.
At that strange smile, Iceline's beautiful brows furrowed once more.
“No way, you knew?”
“Well, who would risk their life to tell a lie like that?”
“Then…”
“I noticed the subtle change in your mana, but I didn’t know what it was. I couldn’t imagine that an artifact could change your appearance like that…”
Theta wiped the joviality off of his face.
“But in all seriousness… If we escape here safely, do you intend to patent that artifact you called Layphon?”
“Patent?” Iceline tilted her head in confusion.
Theta nodded in reply.
“Patent the artifact in your name, and the Magic Tower will take charge of sales. Of course, they’ll take a certain fee from you, but—”
“How much of a cut are we talking about?”
“Very low. About ten percent of the sales revenue?”
Theta's only eye sparkled when Iceline seemed receptive to the idea.
“You won’t take a loss. If I take over the sales… then, when someone else might sell ten, I’ll sell one hundred. On top of that, I’ll make sure there’s a bigger profit margin.”
“....”
“My friends in the Magic Tower have a nickname for me: the ‘Con Man of the Magic Tower.’”
Iceline seemed to forget their situation for a long moment while she deeply pondered Theta’s proposition.
Money. Money was good. The more, the better. The more products she sold, the more money she’d have.
As the scale of her operation grew larger, her dream could become a reality, as a bonus.
A quick look at bit.ly/3iBfjkV will leave you more fulfilled.
Buying a huge tract of land in the southern part of the continent and rebuilding her fallen family. Buying a whole remote island in the lower part of the kingdom of Foldran with warm sunlight and a pleasant sea breeze, and a great view of the beautifully glistening blue ocean. She’d build a house that was just the right size—not too big, not too small—where she could feel the pleasant breeze of a forest.
For a moment, she forgot about survival and revenge and just thought about a future where she could enjoy the sweet taste of life.
But she couldn’t live alone on that remote island. She needed one more person.
Alone… with him…
“Ahh!” Iceline squealed. Her face slowly flushed red as she muttered to herself. “I have another reason to escape now.”
“Huh?” Theta was confused.
Iceline’s face hardened as she looked at Theta gazing at her blankly.
“In order to do that, aren’t there a few conditions that we have to meet first?”
“....”
“Especially since right now, the present Magic Tower and you aren’t…”
Theta interrupted before she could continue.
“It’s just temporary. I will kill Evergrant con Aswald with my own hands.”
The atmosphere cooled instantly. Theta suddenly seemed like a feral beast to Iceline.
She quickly changed the topic.
“By the way, what are these things on the 21st floor?”
“Don’t you know these? They’re called Golems.”
“Golems?”
Iceline, startled, quickly examined the debris surrounding them.
Golems were an ancient, long-lost legacy. Not even the barest traces of them could be found in the modern day. They ranged in size from as small as two meters to as large as ten meters, and their abilities were also diverse. Most important of all, they couldn’t be easily defeated even with magic and swordsmanship, and as long as their nuclei weren’t destroyed, they could move even without their limbs.
“But they don't look like golems now.”
“Are you trying to say that they’re easy to destroy?”
“Like you said.”
Theta casually shrugged.
“I don’t think that’s something you should be saying when you’re about to die from overusing Class 5 magic.”
“But based on records, the golems—”
“They’re something that only high-rank mages, at least Class 7, could create,” Theta responded. “But even the production method has been lost.”
After listening to Theta’s explanation, Iceline asked with a stiff expression.
“What is this place?”
“....”
“I know that it was used as a base for the Magic Tower back then. I know that it’s now used for training mages.”
“....”
“But you can’t find any records earlier than that anywhere on the continent, right? You seem to know something—”
A surprising answer came out of Theta’s mouth.
“This place was built by dragons.”
“...?”
Iceline stared at Theta with a dumbfounded expression for a moment, unable to understand his words.
“To be precise, dwarves were ordered to make this by the dragons.”
Astonishment leaked into Iceline’s eyes.
“Dragons? Are we thinking about the same dragons?”
“Although it has been completely abandoned by them now, this place has a very old history.”
“Is that why you said you couldn’t control this place after you activated it, even though you’re the keeper?”
Theta nodded, affirming Iceline’s conclusion.
“Well, yes… But with my authority as the keeper, we came comfortably to the 15th floor where the control room is located, right?”
“But after that, it was so hard that I thought I would die!” Iceline screamed as the memories came back to her. “Not just the golems, hundreds of monsters I don’t even recognize came at me like they wanted to eat me. The walls moved by themselves, and arrows poured down from above! That wasn’t all! The one downstairs is definitely—”
Iceline looked down as trembles assaulted her body.
“That’s why I told you beforehand… the Tower of Trials has fifty floors, and on every floor, you’ll experience something different.”
“I didn’t know it would be something like this.”
“I don’t know how safe it is right now. Some people lost their minds on these floors. No matter how powerful you are, the Tower will test your limits.”
“I have a question: what’s the highest floor in the Tower that someone could reach?”
Theta rested his chin in his hands thoughtfully for a moment.
“I’m not sure about the others, but my best record here is the 37th floor. Master Ian could go up to the 41st floor. Then, above him—”
“Oh, my? The strongest mage in the Continent could only do 41 floors? Then—”
“Well, he’s not the strongest mage now.” Theta smiled bitterly. “Floors one through ten are the lower floors, but the most important thing is that there are no easy floors. If we had followed the standard route and did one floor a day, it would have taken us well over ten days.”
A low thud caused by an impact on the floor below startled Iceline.
“Are they that close to us now?”
“Oh no…”
“The two of us are exhausted, and the two Seven Mages are in 100% condition. I hate to admit it, but if they catch up to us right now…” Theta shook his head. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen then. “Do we still have a backup?”
Iceline seemed uncertain.
“Maybe now…”
“So… Now that we’re a little closer, can you tell me the identity of your backup?” Theta asked.
“You know him. The Young Superhuman of Avalon who became a Master with you.”
“...!”
A face vaguely came to mind. When Theta figured it out, he couldn’t be more shocked.
“Joshua Sanders?” Theta blurted with palpable surprise. “Were you close with him?”
“I’m not exactly sure if he’ll come—”
“Right,” Theta cut her off. “If he brings troops, he could easily turn the situation our way…”
He nodded; his expression had become much brighter. Having faced him in person, Theta knew what kind of person Joshua was.
“He’ll probably come alone.”
“What?”
“He’s that kind of person. He tries to handle pretty much everything by himself.”
Theta’s positivity deflated after realizing how likely it was that Iceline was right.
“So… you’re saying that a single person is going to fight against thousands of mages from the Magic Tower, within a week?”
“....”
Iceline’s mouth remained firmly shut. Theta could only take her silence as a “yes.”
“This is…”
Theta was dejected.
Earlier, Iceline had no doubts that Joshua and his inhuman, god-like strength could save them from this predicament. But after experiencing the 20th floor, doubts started forming.
“Now… we have to find a way out on our own,” Theta bemoaned.
They didn’t know that what they thought was a crisis biting at their heels was actually a miracle.
***
On the 17th floor of the Tower of Trials, where Iceline and Theta had first fallen, the two members of the Seven Mages raised their voices at the hundred mages accompanying them.
“They’re just Lizardmen! Clean them up quickly and move on to the next floor!”
“Mages with depleted mana go to the rear! Second-line mages support them!”
“They are weak against fire magic, so mages specializing in fire go forward once recovered!”
The mages moved in perfect harmony according to their superiors’ orders.
“KWAAAAK!”
The screams of the monsters filled the interior of the room, accompanied by the acrid smell of something burning. Zephyros, the seat of Red Flames, watched the scene with a satisfied smile.
“It’s going smoothly.”
“Only because we have enough people,” said Scorpino, the seat of the Void.
“If I knew there was no limit on the number of wizards that I could bring, I would’ve brought more of them.”
“This is enough to catch two rats.”
“That’s true.” Zephyros nodded in agreement.
“Do you think it’s true that Thetapirion has reached Class 7? Because, if so…” Scorpino asked.
“He suffered a great loss by the Circle and was injured. He’s missing an eye, so the two of us should be enough.”
“That’s good, then.”
Zephyros looked at the few remaining monsters and took a step forward.
“Is this the end of the hypocrisy? Our dreams will soon come true.”
“Mr. Evergrant won’t be satisfied with the Magic Empire. Yes, he is working with Avalon for now, but after that?” Scorpino smiled grimly before continuing. “Only for us wizards—”
“ARGGGH!”
“...!”
Scorpino’s monologue came to an abrupt halt when he heard a roar coming from the rear, not the front. All the wizards, including the two of the Seven, stopped what they were doing at the same time and turned their heads.
“You’ve wasted more time than you thought.”
The mages had the privilege of witnessing the new record time for climbing the Tower of Trails.
The man with a red spear coming at them had taken only half a day to reach the 17th floor where it had taken them an entire week to get there.
“I’ll clean up now.”
The man hefted his spear and flashed them a smile.
His arrival was nothing short of a miracle to Theta and Iceline.
Joshua was here.