The first clear was smashed with an S+++ rating.
As expected, it was Instructor Bae.
Rssal's magic gun ultimate: the near-light-speed round.
Just one shot.
With a single near-light-speed round—no guidance system at all—he precisely hit the massive Colossus Condor and blew it apart.
Of course, there were a few conditions that made it possible.
A gigantic body that was practically a target, slow movement, and no proper defensive measures—just relying on ice hawks for both offense and defense.
It was easy to hit.
And once it hit, that was the end.
In short, the near-light-speed round was a skill optimized specifically for the 84th-floor Colossus Condor.
It was sealed now.
To see it again, they'd have to wait 48 hours.
The price was also absurd.
One kilogram of top-grade mana cost 2.2 billion.
One shot meant 2.2 billion gone.
Well, whatever.
Even decent missiles cost about that much these days.
For now, they were repeating the same Tower No. 1 run.
[Entering the 84th floor of the Black Tower of the Republic of Korea (NO.1).]
They needed to give Rajiks a chance—
a chance to make up for his failure.
He'd nearly gotten himself killed after charging out by scent alone, and Blood Wolf had actually died—
though they'd revived him with the Wheel of Resurrection.
"While we deal with the Colossus Condor, Gao Bang, Kosak, Bardin, Jephet, and Diamat—please protect Mr. Rajiks and Blood Wolf."
The close-combat SSRs were assigned solely to Rajiks's escort.
They had nothing else to do here.
The combat team consisted of four Rssals:
Instructor Bae, Mad Demon, Mackenzie, and Gyeon Dallae.
"Just buy time until Mr. Rajiks finishes his work."
They didn't even need to kill it.
This was a repeat run.
"Instructor Veronica Caliber! Commencing the lure operation!"
The aerial battleship-class giant monster, Colossus Condor,
and the ice hawks circling around it.
The only ammunition currently available was small-caliber rounds.
Because of the near-light-speed ultimate, the large rounds that strained the magic gun were sealed for 48 hours.
Even with small rounds only, the power wasn't the same as before.
These were small rounds fully imbued with upper-grade mana.
Haa… what a waste of upper-grade mana.
But what choice did they have?
They just had to hope Rajiks brought back even greater gains.
Boom, boom—dudududung!
Cha-clang! Clang-cha-ja-jang!
The sound of drums and gongs echoed across the battlefield as Gyeon Dallae's buffs spread to the blood-summoned allies.
"Selector to full-auto! Open fire!"
Pa-juk, pa-ju-juk, pa-ju-ju-juk!
Small-caliber magic rounds tore into the Colossus Condor's subordinate ice hawks.
At the same time—
Swoong!
Mackenzie's barrier shielded Juhyeok and Gyeon Dallae.
Mad Demon's crescent-moon blade aura shattered the falling ice hawks.
Mackenzie's flame magic painted the sky.
Their attention was pulled to one side.
That was enough.
"Hooeek!"
Rajiks climbed onto Blood Wolf's back and pointed with his golden pickaxe.
Whirr!Tadadadat!
Blood Wolf burst forward at incredible speed.
The bodyguards ran with them.
A faint scent of mana tickled Rajiks's blunt nose,
mixed in with the raging blizzard.
Ho-e.
Rajiks zigzagged repeatedly, chasing the scent.
His companions followed close beside him, guarding him.
"Rajiks, laborer—are you sure we're going the right way?"
"Huek!"
"Got it. I'll shut up."
They ran for a long time.
They'd come quite far.
The path was anything but easy—
feet sinking deep into snow, the blizzard howling.
Spapapap!
Kosak used Shadow Steps.
Diamat flew with his wings, and Jephet transformed into a bat.
The giant Gao Bang's stride was so long that simply walking let him keep up without any trouble.
The only problem was Bardin, the heavy-armored holy knight with no real mobility skills.
"Aura, Bardin!"
"Light!!!"
No problem.
Gao Bang could just carry him.
Whirr!
Bardin—the holy knight, living holy sword—jumped and latched onto Gao Bang's hand.
Whiiit! Whiiiiiit!
The blizzard grew fiercer and fiercer.
But Rajiks was in a state of extreme focus.
A determination to absolutely pull off something big.
And then—
"Hooe."
At Rajiks's gesture, Blood Wolf stopped running.
Before them stood a massive ice wall.
"Eh? Is this a dead end?"
"A cliff."
"…Don't tell me we have to climb it?"
An ice wall of overwhelming height, stretching endlessly to either side.
Plop!
Rajiks slid down from Blood Wolf's back.
Rrrroll.
He rolled closer to the wall.
Sniff sniff sniff sniff.
He took a deep sniff.
Rrrroll.
Rolled again, sniffing.
Rrroll rrroll.
Rolling along the ice wall—
"Hooe?"
Rajiks stopped, bent one knee, stretched his short arm upward, and shouted.
"Hooeek!!! Here…!"
The blood-summoned allies rushed over.
"Is he telling us to break it here?"
"Ho-e, yes."
"Feels like there's something behind it."
"Got it. We'll break it fast."
Giant Gao Bang raised Bardin, the living holy sword.
"Light!!!"
Whirr!
Kraaak!
"Light!!!"
Crack! Crack! Krrrsh! Crack-crack! Krrrsh!
Chunks of ice shattered away.
Rajiks lifted his pickaxe too.
Crack! Crack-crack-crack-crack!
Ziiing!
Aura Master Kosak sliced the ice wall with blade aura.
Shrrrk! Shrrrk!
Fallen ice piled up quickly.
Then—
Bang!
A small hole opened in the ice wall.
"Whoa!"
"Oh!"
"So this was it."
Rajiks grinned broadly, swinging his pickaxe faster and faster.
Finally—
Crack!Thud!
The entrance to a cave was revealed,
along with an overwhelming, dizzyingly dense scent of mana.
"A cave. Caves always hide treasure. That's a cliché."
After widening the entrance a bit more,
Rajiks and the others went inside.
What would they find?
The answer came immediately.
Normally, caves are dark—
because no light gets in.
But the cave within the 84th-floor ice wall was different.
It was dazzlingly bright,
as if lighting had been installed from the start.
The source of the light?
An enormous quantity of mana crystals embedded throughout the walls.
"…Wow."
"My god."
"Oh my."
"The light… hmm."
"Ho-eng!"
"Woof woof!"
These weren't ordinary mana crystals.
Every single one was upper-grade,
dense and concentrated with mana.
No wonder he'd come running.
Who could stay still after smelling something like this?
"Rajiks, laborer!"
"Ho-eng?"
"This is too much! If we hit the jackpot on every floor, what are the rest of us supposed to live on?"
Kosak shouted indignantly at Rajiks.
"I mean, huh? I swat away parasites clinging to Vice-Chief Bong, huh? I eliminate risks in advance, huh? I act as the vanguard of unification as head of the People's Armed Forces, huh? I've done everything!"
"Ho-e?"
"And yet what do I earn? I get knocked out cold by one Ultra Counter Strong Punch from our laborer here."
It was a rant that doubled as praise.
Gao Bang and Bardin joined in.
"As expected of the cosmic head-laborer. This warrior will always respect you."
"Hooe-ee."
"I can't help but envy you, Sir Rajiks. I'm just an LED bulb lighting fires."
"Ho-et!"
Jephet and Diamat too.
"I envy you, senior."
"Ho-e!"
"Mm, Mr. Laborer, share just one achievement with me. Let's live together. I'll give you sweet dreams."
"Hoo-eng?"
Everyone was jealous.
Rajiks smiled in satisfaction.
Shall we get started?
The scent was pouring out from deep within the cave.
It was quite large.
Even a rough estimate put the upper-grade mana deposits at tens of thousands of tons at minimum.
Was it just Tower No. 1?
If Tower No. 2 was included too, they wouldn't need to worry about upper-grade mana anymore.
And—
Ho-hehehehehehe.
Something else caught his eye.
Something truly potent.
Crack!
Rajiks's golden pickaxe struck the cave wall.
Clink.
An upper-grade mana crystal came loose at the tip.
From here on, it was harvest time.
The objective of the 84th-floor repeat run:
buy as much time as possible for Rajiks's exploration.
It wasn't difficult.
That damned aerial battleship bird never came down to the ground anyway.
They only had to deal with the ice hawks dive-bombing them.
Sure, there were absurdly many of them—
kill them and more just kept coming.
Had about three hours passed?
Seriously, where were all these ice hawks coming from?
"Ugh, I'm exhausted."
Of course, he wasn't actually doing anything.
All he had to do was sit warmly inside Mackenzie's barrier, basking in the heat of the fire heater Mackenzie had set up.
The problem was the boredom.
Rajiks had gone off to carry out his mission by scent, with no idea when he'd be back.
While waiting, a thought crossed his mind.
Since we're here… should we try killing that thing?
Come to think of it, it's not like we absolutely need Instructor Bae's near-light-speed round.
"Mage Mackenzie."
"Yes, Summoner."
"Is it possible to summon a meteor? If you can drop one, I'd like to try."
"Of course it is."
Huh?
It is?
Mackenzie answered Juhyeok's question with a proud smile.
"Let me explain first."
Pabat!
An image appeared above Mackenzie's head—space, a galaxy.
"This isn't real outer space. It's a conceptual universe, a virtual cosmos created within my consciousness."
Oooooh!
Recreating the universe in one's mind…
A 9-circle mage really was on another level.
"Step one is creating a meteor within that conceptual universe. It takes about an hour. Others usually need over two hours, but I'm rather talented."
"Oh, I can tell just by looking. Hahahaha."
"Hahaha. Anyway, step one is the most important. You can't move on to step two without it."
He even explained it kindly.
"Step two is summoning the meteor from the conceptual universe into the real sky. This consumes an enormous amount of mana."
"Can you do that under the Tower's sky?"
"Of course. However, it won't appear instantly—you must continuously supply mana until it gains sufficient physical form."
"How long does that take?"
"Step two also takes about an hour."
One hour for step one, one hour for step two.
Just those two steps already totaled two hours.
"Tch. That takes longer than I expected. With a nuke, you just plant it and press a button."
Juhyeok's tone dropped slightly, and Mackenzie panicked.
"Uh, well, at least it's radiation-free—an eco-friendly meteor."
"Nukes have already gone off inside the Tower. If you think about it, they're eco-friendly too."
"…But meteors can be summoned endlessly as long as you have mana."
"Nukes don't really have a hard production limit either, and there are already tons of them on Earth."
Mackenzie grew awkward.
"Anyway, what's next?"
"Step three is setting the coordinates and driving it down. That part is quick, but… the problem is safety."
Safety.
Right.
When a meteor falls, does it only kill monsters?
Everything dies.
"Barriers won't be enough. Unless you dig deep underground into a bunker—though even then, it'd still be dangerous."
Meteor summoning magic wasn't very practical.
It took too much time, and safety was an issue.
Juhyeok looked slightly disappointed.
Meh. Meteor summoning isn't that amazing.
A nuke would honestly be better—
though restrictions made it unusable.
Meanwhile, Mackenzie's mouth went dry.
His meteor pitch had failed.
It hadn't impressed the Summoner at all.
He could tell just by that disappointed expression.
What do I do? This is bad.
Random summoning was approaching.
There'd be one more blood-summoned ally soon, and in their current state, that was risky.
Especially since Instructor Bae had broken through to the Rssal rank—there was no longer a strong reason to keep Mackenzie around.
Honestly, the growth was absurd.
A near-light-speed round?
One shot to blow up an 84th-floor giant monster?
An instant-kill, one-hit finisher.
Something Mackenzie couldn't even imitate.
Why was he called along for repeat runs?
Just to stall for time.
They didn't even need a mage.
The old Mad Demon and the fairy were enough.
Bracelet enchantments?
He had disciples now.
Their skill had improved so much that defect rates were nearly zero.
I might lose my position.
Bringing in disciples had been a mistake.
He'd taught them for convenience, but it ended up biting him back.
The enchantment business itself was also in trouble.
Recently, the Summoner's gaze toward him hadn't been favorable.
The ambitious weight-loss bracelet enchantment business—
people had been happy at first, but now it was the opposite.
The Summoner's complaint:
he was too busy working all the time because of it.
Am I going to get kicked out again like before?
Sure, he could wait on the 17th floor of the White Tower.
He wouldn't return to the world of souls.
But this was a matter of pride.
Unemployed, reduced to a shut-in old man, forgotten in the Summoner's memory.
He needed a solution.
He had to firmly establish his necessity in the Summoner's mind.
Damn it! Isn't there some other business the Summoner would like?
Long-range combat? He lost to Instructor Bae.
Money-making? Rajiks completely dominated that.
Enchantments were about to become a liability.
Then—
Boom boom boom boom!
Signal flares exploded in the distant sky.
It meant the work was finished.
Time to go home.
First, recall the blood-summoned allies scattered far away.
Rajiks, Blood Wolf, Gao Bang, Kosak, Bardin, Jephet, Diamat—
mass recall canceled.
Then—
"Let's go too."
"Instructor Veronica Caliber, retreat preparations complete!"
"Understood."
"Heh heh, this was work too—tiring. Let's grab a drink after."
They moved to the safe zone.
"Mission abandoned."
[You have declared mission abandonment.]
[Mission failed.]
[Exiting the Black Tower of the Republic of Korea (NO.1).]
Spot!
White Tower, 17th floor.
Time to settle the results of the 84th-floor run.
Commissioner Jeon Gwang-il and CEO Jeong Dong-hun were already there.
"Congratulations, Player Bong. We saw the world announcement."
"Me too. Congratulations."
"Thank you."
Jeon Gwang-il asked curiously,
"But the 84th floor is…?"
"It's a giant flying monster called the Frozen Colossus Condor. I'll record a video and show you later."
"Gasp! F-flying?"
"That's right, a flying monster. We just wrestled with it for three hours—I thought we'd die."
"T-that hard? Even for you, Player Bong?"
"Oh! That was the repeat run. The first clear took less than three minutes."
"…What?"
What did he just say?
Three minutes?
"We were looking for something during the repeat run… let's check it together."
"Ah… yes, yes."
Juhyeok smiled warmly at Rajiks.
"Rajiks, was there any achievement?"
"Hob!"
"Oh! What is it?"
Rajiks showed them through action.
Sssht, sssssht, sssshht.
Upper-grade mana crystals began piling up on the 17th-floor ground.
"Woooah!"
"What is that?!"
A vein.
He'd definitely found a mana vein.
Otherwise, there was no way he could've mined this much.
At this rate, we'll hit 1,000 tons in no time.
But then Kosak spoke with a scoff.
"Summoner Bong, you're surprised by just this? You've gotten soft. Tsk. What foods are good for the liver?"
What?
There's more?
Kosak grinned slyly.
"Cosmic laborer."
"Hoeng?"
"Show him. Be ready to wipe his drool—he might start slobbering."
"Hoet!"
Gulp.
Just in case, Juhyeok swallowed his saliva once.
Sssht!
Rajiks took something out.
"Uh…"
It looked like mana crystals again.
The quantity wasn't large—about enough to fill a plastic grocery bag.
But that color…
Don't tell me—
"U-ultra… mana?"
Supreme-grade mana crystals.
"That's right. Naturally formed supreme mana. Not cultivated. Rare stuff."
Holy crap.
So supreme mana could exist naturally?
Gulp!
He swallowed his drool again and examined a chunk—
it was definitely supreme mana.
Even if the quantity was small, it easily exceeded 30 kg.
No worries about replenishing Instructor Bae's near-light-speed rounds now.
Permanent residency permits, too.
Mari wouldn't even need to do refinement work.
This was insane.
Now he understood why the cosmic laborer had bolted the moment he caught the scent.
So that "something intense" was the smell of supreme mana.
How could anyone resist that?
He hugged Rajiks tightly.
"Aww! Our cosmic laborer!"
"Hoeng-eeng."
Two badges—no, three at least—would be deserved.
He reached into his inventory to pull out a platinum badge, but—
No.
If he put it on now, Rajiks might break through ranks and be sent to the top of the landmark.
That would take at least a week.
How could he go a whole week without seeing Rajiks's face?
Let's take it slow. Slowly.
Do more 84th-floor repeat runs together, clear the 85th floor too.
Is Tower No. 1 the only tower? They still had Tower No. 2 to conquer.
And then, a week later, with the random summoning—
welcome the new blood-summoned ally,
and then send Rajiks off for his breakthrough.