White Tower, 1st Floor.
Everyone was exhausted.
Not only Mackenzie, who had performed the meteor summoning, but all of the summoned beings who had fought so fiercely.
The only ones still relatively fine were—
"Get some proper rest."
"Ho-e!"
…
Juhyeok and Rajiks.
Well, they hadn't really done much.
Now all that remained was to wait and confirm the power of the meteor that had fallen outside.
He was looking forward to it.
They said it was hundreds of times more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
I'll take the elevator after seeing that.
Honestly, they had stayed here long enough.
There was too much to do back on Earth.
They still needed to finish the firetruck strategy on Tower No. 2, Floor 86, and gather as much upper-grade and top-grade magic stones as possible.
Especially top-grade magic stones.
With the elevator in operation, there was now another major use for them.
Artificial top-grade stones could be made by Mari, but that took enormous effort and time.
Mining natural top-grade stones was far faster.
At present, natural top-grade stones were being mined in small quantities from the ice-wall mines on Floor 84.
But once the Korean Black Tower No. 1 and No. 2 veins were exhausted, where would they mine next?
In the end, they would have to use other nations' towers.
For that to happen, foreign Black Towers would need paths opened up to Floor 84.
Excluding Korea, the fastest progress right now was the United States.
They were challenging Floor 81, so reaching Floor 84 wouldn't take long.
For that, completing El's giant-monster-grade magic guns was urgent.
First, they had to begin renting out magic guns so foreign players could clear up to Floor 84.
Then, using multinational tower access tickets, they could mine top-grade and upper-grade stones from foreign Floor 84 veins.
After all, even if others knew about those veins, they had no way to mine them.
Only Juhyeok's party could pin down Colossus Condors in one place and go mine safely.
I need to finish it quickly and start magic gun rentals.
According to El, it was almost complete.
The Behemoth-response magic guns and ammunition could already be rented out.
As he was thinking through the schedule—
Dding!
A system message?
[Ach◆e◆ement: De◆ea◆ed the Sa◆ed D◆m◆c Dr◆gon Ka◆at◆s… zzzt!]
[◆◆ Re◆ard Gi◆en to Pl◆y◆r… zzzt! zzzt!]
[… ◆◆◆ Pla◆er … zzzt!]
[zzzt! ◆i◆le A◆qu◆red.]
"What… is this?"
Dding!
[An unknown system error has occurred.]
[Message transmission has been temporarily suspended for error correction.]
"…It's making a mess all on its own."
He couldn't tell what the error message meant.
The text was too fragmented to infer anything.
Maybe he'd find out once it was fixed.
More importantly—had everyone recovered?
Mackenzie was still collapsed in the central plaza, breathing raggedly.
The summoned beings too.
It must've been really hard.
Of course it was.
Creating and dropping a meteor wasn't easy.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have insisted on the meteor."
"N-no. It was something that absolutely had to be done."
After catching his breath, Mackenzie continued:
"How could we stand by while those filthy things roamed the world freely?
Even if my heart circles shatter to pieces, I don't care.
Just give the order whenever you wish."
Then Kosak chimed in.
"Impressive. This Number Two Kosak acknowledges you this time, old mage.
I'll bump you up to Rank 6. That's above average, yeah? Be happy."
Clap clap clap clap.
Applause followed.
But Mackenzie's expression wasn't great.
Apparently, being called sixth place rubbed him the wrong way.
"…Shouldn't I be at least third?"
"Wake up. Think you can handle Captain Veronica?"
"…Tch."
Juhyeok sighed.
To him, it was a meaningless competition.
What kind of pointless ranking war was this?
Either way, they were all beneath Rajiks.
Let them argue.
Juhyeok checked his inventory—the inheritance from Max.
Tickets, runes, upper-grade stones, potions, and more.
Among them, the most important item—
The Trait Enhancement Rune.
What was the point of saving it?
He swallowed it immediately.
Gulp.
His status window updated.
Satisfying.
At this rate, twenty simultaneous summons might someday be possible.
And there was one more thing.
The weapon Juhyeok inherited from Max, the Hammer Master.
Effects: Indestructible, increased attack and defense in one-vs-many combat, wide-area seismic shockwaves upon ground strikes, gigantification, increased critical strike chance.
Limitation: When gigantification is activated, the hammer's weight increases drastically with its size.
Feature: The larger the hammer becomes, the greater its destructive power.
The owner was obvious.
From the moment he heard "gigantification hammer," someone came to mind.
Who else but Go-bang?
Earlier, how pitiful had it been?
A man fighting while holding another man.
For both Go-bang and Bardin.
Juhyeok took out the hammer.
A massive sledgehammer forged from a single piece of metal—handle, shaft, and head all one.
Even before gigantification, it was absurdly heavy.
Thud.
He set it on the ground.
"Go-bang."
"You called, Summoner?"
"Use this hammer."
"…This?"
"Yes. It's a gift."
Go-bang stared at it, entranced, then slowly stepped forward and picked it up.
"The warrior has received a weapon from the summoner."
Whoooosh!
Go-bang gigantified.
At the same time, the hammer gigantified as well.
"The warrior will give his life for the summoner."
Ahhh.
What a sight.
A giant barbarian warrior and a giant hammer—perfect match.
"So you won't hold Bardin anymore, right? You've got a weapon now."
Twitch.
Bardin reacted immediately, disappointment flashing across his face.
Go-bang looked at him quietly, then spoke.
"…A warrior has two hands."
So?
"A hammer can be wielded with one hand.
The other hand can hold another weapon."
…What?
Dual-wielding?
One hand with the hammer, the other with Bardin?
Bardin smiled faintly.
This is insane.
Is he a pervert, or just an extreme efficiency maniac?
Both, probably.
Should he confiscate the hammer?
No, that wouldn't work.
"Bardin."
"Your command, my lord."
"Prepare for rank advancement as soon as we return."
"…What?"
"You're going to RSR."
"Ah… u-uh… yes."
Once Bardin became an RSR Holy Knight, he'd take on a different role—
not a human holy sword.
But Juhyeok had a bad feeling.
He could already picture it:
Go-bang, wielding a gigantification hammer in one hand and an RSR human holy sword glowing with radiance in the other, mowing down monsters.
"…No. This is bad."
He shook his head hard.
Don't imagine it.
If you do, it'll come true.
Shall we head back now?
But before that—
"I'll step outside for a bit to check the aftermath."
"Hmm. I'm curious too, but wait a little longer until the summon cooldown ends."
"Okay!"
After some time—
"Exit White Tower, 1st Floor."
Spot!
Juhyeok stepped outside.
The moment he did, he felt something cold on his head.
"…Hm?"
Drip. Drip. Dripdripdrip.
Rain was falling.
"…It's raining?"
But it wasn't ordinary rain.
It was dark gray mud-rain, likely fallout from the meteor.
Ziiing!
He raised an energy barrier and slowly looked around.
"…What?"
Was this really the same place?
He was standing in a massive crater.
The towering skyscraper was completely gone.
"…It wiped everything out?"
With one meteor?
This is insane.
It took time, but once it fell, the meteor annihilated everything.
He summoned the others so they could see.
Spot. Spot. Spot.
"Ho…"
"This is…"
"Huh? Wasn't this where we were earlier?"
"A massive crater."
"A meteor impact site."
"Let's go up and look."
They used Shadow Steps upward.
Pat pat pat pat!
The sight that greeted them—
"…Holy shit."
Juhyeok was stunned.
Just a few hours ago, this place still had the shape of a city.
Now there was nothing.
All the ground and aerial monsters were gone.
Completely erased.
And scattered everywhere—giant craters from meteor fragments.
"Oho! Old mage, I see you in a new light. Meteor summoning is incredible.
Promoted to Rank 5."
"Hmph. That ranking nonsense aside—mage, I admit it.
I underestimated you."
"The maiden agrees. Truly a terrifying spell."
"Captain Veronica Caliber acknowledges it—meteor summoning rivals nuclear weapons."
"Ho-e!"
Mackenzie beamed.
A wide smile he couldn't hide.
Juhyeok smiled too.
In his previous life, Mackenzie had been a tower master—an extraordinary figure.
Yet here he'd been treated like a joke, a fame-hungry mage.
How bitter that must have felt.
This one strike redeemed everything.
Now that we've confirmed it, let's head back.
The rain kept falling.
The ground turned muddy.
The ash-rain gradually turned into normal rainfall.
Then—
"…Hm?"
Something caught Juhyeok's eye.
"…This is…"
The ground.
As rain washed away the mud, countless stones were revealed.
But they weren't ordinary stones.
They shimmered.
They glowed with their own light.
"…Magic stones?"
The summoned beings reacted as well.
"Nuclear—!"
"Oh!"
"Wow!"
"Don't tell me…?!"
The entire ground was glittering.
As far as the eye could see, it was magic stones.
Upper-grade magic stones were mixed in generously here and there as well.
"…Why are there magic stones here?"
Mackenzie, looking as though he had realized something, practically popped a lightbulb over his head.
"Magic stones are, by nature, condensed energy. When magical beasts or monsters die, the mana they possessed often condenses into crystalline form like this."
Ah!
"These magic stones were likely left behind when the monsters were annihilated by the shockwave of the meteor summoning."
So that was it.
Inside the Tower, monsters dropped rewards through the system.
Outside the Tower, when monsters were killed, their mana directly condensed into physical crystals.
How much is there, though?
If Rajiks vacuumed it all up with his dimensional-cleaner ability—
"…Huh?"
Where did our dimensional farmhand go again?
"Rajiks! Where did you—ah."
A familiar cliché.
It wasn't even the first or second time.
When Rajiks disappeared, it meant only one thing.
He was digging.
Or scouting.
And when he dug, good things always came out.
So—
Clack clack clack clack clack!
The sound of a pickaxe rang out from the first crater.
Thankfully, he hadn't gone far.
"What are you doing there?"
"Ho-eek!"
Clack clack clack clack clack!
Rajiks was digging like a man possessed.
"Hoo-eeeh! Hoo-eek!"
Madness gleamed in his eyes as the platinum pickaxe struck the earth again and again.
He had definitely found something.
His gaze was far from normal.
Finally, he stopped digging, reached into the ground, and lifted something up with both hands—
a massive crystal nearly half his body size.
"Ho-rat!!!"
What in the world…?
A magic stone?
Upper-grade? No—top-grade?
No.
Unlike magic stones, which usually lacked a fixed shape, this one had a clear, structured form.
A three-dimensional rhombus.
A perfect octahedron.
"H-hhhk!"
Mackenzie's eyes went wide.
His hands trembled as he pointed at the crystal in Rajiks's grasp.
"D-dragon heart?"
What?
Come on.
Is this a joke? A prank?
But Mackenzie's expression was dead serious.
"…Really?"
"A real dragon heart?"
Nod nod.
"…Wha—"
This was insane.
"No, why is that here?"
"Ho-rat!"
"Good grief, now we're mining dragon hearts straight out of the ground."
"Ho-rat!"
"That's Rajiks being Rajiks."
"Ho-rat!"
"Hurry and store it, Rajiks—Ultra Unlimited God-God Dimensional Farmhand."
"Ho-rat!"
Unbelievable.
Was a dragon heart really something you could just dig up if you tried hard enough?
The group returned to White Tower, 1st Floor, carrying an utterly unexpected treasure.
They had no way of knowing exactly why the dragon heart had been buried there.
But the most plausible explanation was—
"A dragon that emerged from the Black Tower must have been roaming this ruined world and coincidentally stopped by that city."
That made sense.
With the boundary between the Tower and reality gone, monsters could roam freely outside.
No one knew which floor it had come from, but it was almost certainly higher than the 86th.
"And coincidentally, that moment lined up exactly with when the meteor summoning spell was completed."
"Ah."
"And by the time the meteor approached the ground, it was already too late."
"Oh!"
"In the end, the dragon was coincidentally struck by my meteor, annihilated, and left behind its heart."
"I see!"
Juhyeok nodded along with Mackenzie's reasoning.
It actually sounded plausible.
But Kosak didn't look convinced.
He sneered.
"So you're sayin' the dragon just happened to be at the right time and right place to get smashed by a meteor and die?"
"That's right."
"You seriously think that makes sense?"
"U-uh… it's not impossible…"
"Oh, come on! So as long as you say 'coincidence,' anything goes? Where's the narrative logic?"
He had a point.
"Even fantasy novels get roasted if they're written like that.
'Author convenience,' 'forced plot,' 'this is garbage,'
'I'm dropping this—go do manual labor instead,'
comments would flood in."
Juhyeok nodded at Kosak's argument too.
"Coincidence" wasn't a magic word that excused everything.
"Then why do you think the dragon heart was there?"
"Simple. Our dimensional farmhand dug it up. Give Rajiks three badges."
Crunch.
Mackenzie ground his teeth as he glared at Kosak.
Blatantly trying to steal his credit and hand it to the Number One Dimensional Farmhand.
"Yes, Rajiks found it. But why was the dragon heart there?
It's not like it forms naturally like ore."
"…."
Kosak had no answer.
"Don't underestimate coincidence.
Historically, many major events began with coincidence."
Juhyeok nodded again.
Both arguments made sense.
At that moment—
Dding!
A message appeared.
[The error has been corrected.]
[Player awakening confirmed.]
[A new nationality has been registered. The player's Black Tower affiliation is Germany.]
So that error earlier was because awakening and nationality hadn't been registered yet.
Which made sense—
Juhyeok wasn't originally from this world.
Then—
[Achievements will be retroactively applied.]
[Achievement: You have defeated the adult dragon Karatos for the first time.]
"…What?!"
[Achievement rewards granted.]
[You have obtained the title: Dragon Slayer.]
[Your attack and defense are increased against all types of dragons. This effect also applies to summoned beings.]
So that was it.
Mackenzie had been right.
The dragon heart really had dropped from a slain dragon.
And how did it die?
Obviously—from the meteor.
Juhyeok grabbed Mackenzie in a tight hug.
"You're incredible, Archmage of the 9th Circle! You even killed a dragon with a meteor!"
Mackenzie beamed.
Imaginary spotlights shone down.
Fireworks exploded in the background.
Meanwhile, Kosak's expression completely collapsed.
He couldn't deny it anymore.
Mackenzie's achievement was undeniable.
Even if he'd been sidelined before, a 9th Circle Archmage was still a 9th Circle Archmage.
Class really was eternal.
And with that, the White Tower 1st Floor schedule was complete.
Time to go home.
The dragon heart needed to be appraised by a professional.
Earth No. 675.
A world where the boundary between the Tower and reality had collapsed.
Because of that, the administrators of this dimension could observe everything happening in the real world.
[Who is that?]
[Looks like a summoner…]
[Then why is there a summoner here?]
[How would I know?]
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