Chapter 135
“T-this is what it felt like. Modifying a contract.”
Austin stared wide-eyed at the small girl-shaped figure floating around him.
Undine, a lower water spirit.
With Austin’s current mana, he normally couldn’t maintain Undine for even a minute.
No, he could barely handle the mana cost of the initial summoning itself.
But now that he had slightly modified the contract’s contents, Austin was summoning and maintaining Undine with just level 1 mana.
To Austin, who was marveling in disbelief, Circe added a few explanations.
“That’s right, the contracts provided by the Tower’s system are universal contracts. They only guarantee minimum performance regardless of each spiritualist’s individual talent, nature, origin, temperament, situation, or the grade and attributes of the contracted spirit.”
This was similar to low-spec computers installed on spacecraft.
To ensure stability in extreme environments, computational ability and various performance aspects are sacrificed.
This was to provide system corrections to all Climbers, so while focusing on expandability and convenience, efficiency was greatly reduced.
Because of this, the system’s efficiency varied dramatically depending on the individual Climber’s will and ability.
After hearing that explanation, Austin tilted his head.
“But why didn’t Master Narcissus teach me about this?”
If such a good method existed, it would have been nice to learn it earlier.
Why was he only learning this now through someone other than his master?
“That’s because it’s inefficient.”
“Pardon…?”
To Austin, who was tilting his head, Circe answered matter-of-factly.
“It’s inefficient compared to the effort put in.”
For ordinary people, it’s much more efficient to raise levels and stats rather than spending time improving such system inefficiencies.
“T-that means, perhaps I lack talent…”
Austin trembled as if shocked.
To think he lacked talent when he had successfully contracted with all four major spirits.
Seo-jin said,
“That’s probably not the reason.”
There was no particular relationship between high or low spirit affinity and the insight needed to analyze contract contents and modify their structure to suit oneself.
The latter was an area that required analytical and synthesis talents like Seo-jin’s.
However, high spirit affinity had great advantages in improving that efficiency.
If one could identify problems, the bond with spirits would be of great help in solving those problems.
So Narcissus wouldn’t have judged Austin as lacking talent and not taught him for that reason.
“Just… your master probably isn’t interested in such trivial things.”
Someone who lives for their own arrogance wouldn’t bother to teach their disciple with such detailed care.
Whenever they met, he probably just chattered about who he met and what conversations he had with which women.
“Ah… that’s also true.”
Austin immediately understood what he meant. These master and disciple were particularly similar in that regard.
Seo-jin chuckled and said,
“Well, that’s half a joke.”
Due to the nature of spiritualists, it’s much more efficient to work toward contracting with higher spirits rather than spending time improving mana efficiency and delicate manipulation.
Considering that point, there was a high probability he didn’t mention it.
Seo-jin turned his head and asked Zieg, who was sitting cross-legged.
“How about you, Zieg?”
“I think I understand a little too.”
Siegfried regulated his breathing and slowly opened his previously closed eyes.
Shaaa-.
At the same time, the divine power that had been faintly leaking from his entire body was completely gathered and absorbed into his upper energy center.
‘Zieg had no particular problems with contracts for borrowing divine power.’
The meticulous Gabriel had probably personally reviewed that contract and made personal adjustments for Zieg.
However, there had been leakage in the process of applying and using that divine power.
Paladins, like warriors, were a profession that fought using their bodies.
‘Just as warriors need to handle their energy delicately, paladins also require precision in distributing divine power.’
Gabriel couldn’t have taught such combat aspects with care.
Therefore, Seo-jin proposed more efficient ways to utilize divine power based on his experience gained while accumulating Reverse Heaven’s mana and his experience learned while training the Primordial Unity Technique.
“Ultimately, what’s important is repetitive mastery. You need to achieve the same results even without the system’s corrections.”
“Yes!”
The two sat cross-legged for a while, steadily building their foundations.
When Circe thought it was the right time, she commanded them.
“Now, get up. If you’ve learned it, you need to use it in practice. Go catch monsters and raise your levels.”
“Yes!”
After sending Zieg and Austin into the forest, Circe turned her gaze to Seo-jin.
“Then… now it’s my disciple’s turn? Don’t you have anything else you’re curious about? Your master will personally teach you.”
Seo-jin shrugged his shoulders.
“What more could I possibly have to learn?”
Of course, there were countless things to learn from Circe – doll crafting, astronomy, alchemy, divination, and so on.
But these were things that wouldn’t be much help in combat, like liberal arts subjects.
There was nothing worth learning right now.
At Seo-jin’s arrogant response, Circe rolled up her sleeves.
Swish-.
“Oh? You’re quite confident. Then would it be alright if this master teaches you a lesson?”
The Circe on the 3rd floor couldn’t handle Seo-jin’s unconscious body alone and had to have Baduki do it.
But this 29th floor body was specialized for combat, possessing considerable destructive power incomparable to the 3rd floor body.
Enough to ‘educate’ a thoughtless disciple.
‘It’s quite cute how he talks back without yielding a single word to his heaven-like master…’
It seemed necessary to establish the hierarchy once.
His pride had gotten too high lately.
At Circe’s words about personally teaching him a lesson, Seo-jin readily nodded.
“I won’t decline. However, please consider my current level.”
“Of course. Then this master will teach you about manners.”
***
“My, you’re quite fast.”
Hyeon-wol, shading her eyes with her hand while looking down at the forest.
Paba-bab-.
In Hyeon-wol’s pupils were reflected two thieves racing swiftly through the forest below.
Nam-gung Cheon and Francesca, who had completely adapted to their current levels and were now even competing against each other.
The dazed appearance they had shown after becoming level 1 was nowhere to be seen.
With just a few pieces of advice from Hyeon-wol, the two had quickly grasped the principles and adapted them to their bodies.
They were currently competing in lightness skills, making a bet on who would first reach and return from the rocky hill beyond.
“Who do you think will win?”
Se-yeon, who had Hyeon-wol on her shoulders, asked.
“Well. Francesca is faster in terms of pure speed, but Nam-gung Cheon has the advantage in ability to respond to variables.”
Kkaang- kkang-.
The two streaks of light racing through the forest weren’t simply moving forward, but were also clashing with each other once in a while, testing their strength.
Even while doing so, they would slash monsters that appeared ahead and lightly avoid obstacles.
Their movements looked like two dragons intertwined in battle.
‘No, dragons are too much – snakes would be more appropriate.’
Dragons were too excessive for those two fools.
After watching their competition for a while, Hyeon-wol looked at Se-yeon and asked,
“How much have you recovered your level?”
“A little over level 100.”
“Hmm, at that pace you’ll regain your original level by the time we reach the mountain peak.”
If they focused only on climbing the mountain, they could reach the summit tonight.
But what was important wasn’t reaching the mountain peak quickly, but catching as many monsters as possible to recover levels and skills.
This connected to the principle of Tower climbing.
What’s important isn’t climbing the Tower quickly.
What you gain and what you realize in that process is what’s truly important.
This test could truly be called a miniature version of the Tower.
That meant.
‘New dangers are approaching.’
What blocks Tower climbing isn’t just the Tower’s height and monsters.
What’s truly dangerous are humans.
‘According to what he said, there should be others besides us who entered this testing ground.’
They needed to recover their abilities as much as possible before they moved.
That was the true purpose of this training camp.
In life-and-death battles with persistent assassins, everyone would grow one step further.
***
“Nyahaha!”
Francesca laughing heartily while looking at the sky, and Nam-gung Cheon lying face down on the ground in frustration.
It had been a close competition, but ultimately Francesca had reached the finish line first by a narrow margin.
“From now on, address me as ‘older sister,’ you brat.”
Kwak-.
Francesca stepped firmly on Nam-gung Cheon’s back while rejoicing.
Nam-gung Cheon shouted indignantly,
“Invalid, invalid! Let’s go again!”
“Nope~ not doing it~ you totally suck~”
While Nam-gung Cheon had the advantage in martial prowess, Francesca was at the pinnacle when it came to lightness skills.
This result was only natural.
“Alright, that’s enough, let’s move again.”
After finishing their bet, Nam-gung Cheon’s team began climbing the mountain again.
Kieek-!
Krara-!
Nam-gung Cheon’s team smoothly defeated monsters as they advanced.
Their reset levels gradually rose, and their deactivated skills were reactivated one by one.
But at this point, it didn’t have much meaning.
[Lunatic Crow]
[Azure Sky Boundless Sword Technique 7th Form. Sword Thunder Ten Thousand Heavens]
They had now reached a level where they could freely draw out the techniques carved into their bodies without the system’s corrections.
“Oops!“
“Hey, where are you swinging that?”
“……”
Actually, it was somewhat lacking to say they had completely mastered it, but they were adapting at a remarkably fast pace.
Se-yeon, who hadn’t been constrained by skills originally, was naturally doing well, and So-yul also had an excited expression as if she had gained some realization by retracing her magic spells one by one from the beginning.
‘At this level.’
She wasn’t sure about defeating that guy individually, but there was possibility in team combat.
Hyeon-wol said,
“Let’s stop here for today.”
It was already time for the sun to set.
At this pace, they would all regain their original levels and reach the summit by tomorrow.
It would be better to rest well and prepare for the approaching decisive battle.
A flat camping ground halfway up the mountain.
So-yul encouraged her teammates while organizing the situation.
“Alright everyone, set up your tents over there and prepare to sleep well. I’ve installed alarm magic nearby so don’t worry about night watch…”
That’s when it happened.
Beep-!
The alarm magic So-yul had set up lit up red.
“Is it a monster?”
So-yul tilted her head for a moment.
Beep-!
Right after the first alarm sounded, the second alarm immediately followed.
The interval between the two alarm spells was at least 100 meters. Covering that distance in an instant meant it wasn’t an ordinary monster.
The enemy was probably something equivalent to a Climber.
“Is there some problem?”
At Nam-gung Cheon’s question, So-yul answered in confusion,
“S-something’s coming. Prepare for battle.”
As far as So-yul knew, there was no one in Seo-jin’s team with such fast speed.
Not only Zieg, who wore heavy armor, but Nam-gung Rin and Austin weren’t professions that used their bodies in the first place.
While Seo-jin was somewhat agile, that was agility in combat situations – his movement speed itself wasn’t exceptional.
Beep-!
Meanwhile, the being that had instantly broken through even the third alarm revealed itself.
Swish-.
A black shadow that suddenly appeared from the darkness.
“!”
Unlike his flustered teammates, he leisurely looked around at the gathered Nam-gung Cheon team and soon let out a sigh.
“Oh my, I seem to have gotten the wrong target.”
His original purpose was to eliminate Nova.
He had rushed over in one breath because he felt a powerful mana reaction nearby and thought it was him, but unfortunately he seemed to have been mistaken.
“However.”
Sling-.
“It doesn’t really matter.”
He was planning to kill them all anyway.
