Chapter 6

　　"This is what you meant, isn’t it?" I asked, holding up the diary.

　　"Yes, Tower Master," Ea replied before vanishing, presumably to leave me to my reading.

　　Alone now, I sat at the desk and opened the grimy, hand-stained notebook.

　　[Imperial Calendar 191. 10. 09.

　　My name is Anton Aximus, the man who will become the next Tower Master. This text is a record of my heroic ascent to power and will surely serve as an excellent guide for the Tower Masters who follow in my footsteps.]

　　It was written in another strange language, but with my Sage’s Eye, I read it without difficulty. I turned the page.

　　[Imperial Calendar 191. 10. 10.

　　The blasted Tower Master’s trial has begun. My master, ever the traditionalist, placed a massive seal on the tower before taking his leave. Now I have to undo the seals on every floor using only my own power. Why are these old-timers so obsessed with such pointless rituals? They claim it’s all part of becoming a true Tower Master, but that’s just a load of crap. Why the hell do they make us do this?!]

　　A generational conflict, maybe? It seemed people were the same no matter where you went. More importantly, this Anton’s situation mirrored my own: a Magic Tower with all functions suspended except for the first and ninth floors. My curiosity piqued, I turned to the next page.

　　[My so-called colleagues are all thrilled about their "long vacation," already planning to slack off for months. Just you wait, you bastards! You think your jobs will still be here after I take control? It’s time for a great purge! Mwahahaha!]

　　Okay…

　　One thing was certain: my predecessor was far from normal. The rest of the diary was mostly a tirade against his colleagues, who annoyed him, who he couldn’t stand. I skipped over the pages that seemed to be nothing but profanity and continued.

　　[…And so I went up to the second floor for the first trial. There was a pathetic restriction that I had to clear it using only the three basic magics. The old fogeys who rely on high-level spells might have struggled, but I, the youngest Tower Master candidate in history, passed without even needing a second try.]

　　A trial?

　　Now that was interesting. It seemed I had to pass these trials to break the seals on the upper floors. I scanned the rest of the pages, but there were no specific details about the trial itself. For all his talk in the introduction about this being a guide for his successors, it was mostly just a self-aggrandizing account of what an outstanding and brilliant mage he was.

　　It was like watching that old painter on TV, the one with the afro, who’d flick his brush around without explaining a thing and say, "See? Isn’t that easy?" It just left me feeling frustrated.

　　It didn’t seem like it would be much help, so I closed the half-read diary and pieced together what I knew. This Magic Tower was a cradle of magic from a place called the Erendel Continent—the Silicon Valley of magitech, so to speak. And it had a tradition: when a new Tower Master was chosen, the current one would place a massive seal on the tower, embedding a trial within each floor’s seal. The successor had to overcome these trials alone. Only after unsealing all nine floors would they be recognized as the true Tower Master by the entire continent.

　　Okay, that’s starting to make sense.

　　"So, Ea," I called out into the empty air. "Does that mean I have to overcome these trials, just like the Tower Masters before me?"

　　Ea appeared in a shimmer of light, her silver hair fluttering. "I believe the current situation is of a slightly different nature. This massive sealing was not a simple ritual. It was an ‘Emergency Seal’ that automatically manifests in a crisis to protect the Magic Tower’s technology and knowledge."

　　"So the tower sealed itself to survive?"

　　"Affirmative. That is an accurate way to describe it."

　　Why an otherworldly structure had been transported to Earth and why I was chosen as its master remained mysteries, but my path forward was clear.

　　Get stronger. Challenge the trials. Open every floor of the Magic Tower.

　　The potion brewing on the first floor alone was enough to shatter the existing paradigm for hunters. The other floors were surely filled with technologies that could revolutionize the world.

　　Good, good.

　　My motivation was set. My chance had finally arrived. I could just hole up in this tower and enjoy my new power in secret, but where was the fun in that? I was going to make the world revolve around me. I would deliver a stunning blow to the hunter community that had written me off and stand at the very top.

　　And as for the trial… the diary mentioned a "retry." That meant I could probably challenge it multiple times. The second-floor trial only allowed the three basic magics: Gauntlet, Shield, and Mana Arrow.

　　I’ve pretty much mastered those three, and even if I learn stronger spells, I won’t be able to use them in there…

　　No time like the present. I decided to take on the "Opening the Second Floor" challenge right away.

* * *

　　The first floor of the Magic Tower was immense. From the outside, I’d seen that the structure tapered as it rose, its circumference shrinking with each level. This made the first floor the most expansive space in the tower. With its countless rooms and staircases, I even got lost for a time. And while the tower’s interface simply labeled it the "1st Floor," the Potion Brewing Bureau actually spanned an area equivalent to about three stories. It was better to think of them as sectors rather than floors.

　　Eventually, I reached the staircase at the highest point of the first floor, which led to the second.

　　Whooosh!

　　But instead of a door, a pitch-black portal, like a miniature black hole, swirled at the top of the stairs.

　　[The magic of the trial is encroaching upon this space.]

　　[You must pass the trial to proceed to the next floor.]

　　[Do you wish to challenge the trial?]

　　This was what I had come for, so I answered without hesitation.

　　"I accept."

　　Swoooosh!

　　The moment I spoke, my body was violently sucked into the black void.

* * *

　　The dizziness subsided, and I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar space. It was clearly still inside the tower—I could see walls and a ceiling—but the floor was dirt, covered in patches of grass. Tall, skeletal trees dotted the landscape. The ground itself was a series of large, uneven hills. It looked like a nightmarish version of a children’s storybook landscape.

　　[You have arrived at the 2nd Floor Trial.]

　　[Verifying trial participant’s data.]

　　[Calibrating participant’s mana to suit this trial.]

　　[The rules of this trial will now apply. All magic other than the three basic spells is sealed.]

　　[Proceed to the destination cube.]

　　It was just as Anton’s notebook had described. Before moving, I quickly tested the Gauntlet, Shield, and Mana Arrow magic circles. They formed perfectly. But there was one startling difference: casting the spells put absolutely no strain on my body. I could feel mana leaving me, but it was replenished almost instantly.

　　In this state, I could probably cast spells indefinitely.

　　Is this what it means to calibrate my mana for the trial?

　　Whatever the reason, it was a welcome advantage. Steeling myself, I started down a narrow dirt path. For now, nothing happened.

　　It said to proceed to the destination cube. Where could that be?

　　"Muahaha!"

　　"Kekekekek!"

　　A chilling cackle echoed through the air. I spun around, but saw nothing. The laughter ceased. I had barely taken a few more steps when it started again. This time, I was ready. I whipped my head around and pinpointed the source.

　　Strange creatures were peeking out from behind the trees, snickering. They were small, about the size of a seven-year-old child. Their bodies were voids of pitch-black, with only their two glowing red eyes standing out. I had memorized the data on every basic monster at the academy, but I’d never seen anything like these.

　　"Keke! Kikiki!"

　　Three of the small imps scuttled toward me. Long, sharp claws extended from what I assumed were their hands, making their hostile intentions perfectly clear.

　　Stay calm.

　　An unknown monster wasn’t a problem. I closed my eyes, focused, and extended my right arm.

　　An arrow of pure mana shot from the magic circle that materialized before my palm.

　　Thwack!

　　It struck one of the imps squarely in the head. The creature writhed in agony before collapsing.

　　Easier than I thought.

　　"Kikik!"

　　"Kekeke!"

　　The moment that thought crossed my mind, red eyes began to appear from every direction—from behind the trees, over the hills. There were fifty, then a hundred. Soon, their numbers swelled into the thousands.

　　"Of course," I muttered. This was a trial for a Tower Master candidate; it was never going to be that simple.

　　The situation was dire, but I took a split second to analyze it. Unlike a dungeon, this trial was man-made. It had a purpose, a design. Considering that, these things probably weren’t meant to be fought. How could I possibly defeat thousands of monsters with just Gauntlet and Mana Arrow?

　　Running was the only logical choice.

　　My decision made, I broke into a dead sprint.

　　"Kekeke!"

　　The imps surged behind me like a tsunami. It wasn’t a horde of monsters; it was a roiling, pitch-black wave threatening to drown the entire landscape. The sight of the hill turning black in an instant was horrifying.

　　"Dammit!"

　　A few of the faster imps were already nipping at my heels. Without breaking stride, I thrust my arm back and fired a blind barrage of Mana Arrows. A few of them fell, but my concentration was so frayed that one out of every three spells failed. Casting while moving was still a new skill. To make matters worse, I was already gasping for breath.

　　This is insane! Where the hell is this cube?

　　I desperately scanned my surroundings. The ceiling and walls were now also coated in a layer of black as the imps crawled over them, defying gravity. The whole world was being consumed. I wondered if this was what the hero of an apocalypse movie felt like—the agony of watching your chances of survival plummet with no way to stop it.

　　I forced myself to think.

　　Their movement is fixed, flowing in one direction. If the entire area is being consumed at this speed, the last place to be swallowed will be…

　　There! Off the main path, a short distance away, was a teleportation magic circle.

　　I stopped casting and poured every ounce of my energy into a final sprint. The imps’ claws tore at my back and legs, but I ignored the pain.

　　Several of them were now clinging to me, their claws shredding my thighs, but I couldn’t stop. I covered the last hundred meters in a blur, stretching my leg out like a sprinter at the finish line until my foot touched the edge of the magic circle. My balance gave out, and I crashed to the ground as the black wave of imps finally swallowed me whole.

　　[1st Stage Clear. Teleporting to the cube.]

　　Swish!

　　My body dissolved into light, reappearing in the next location. Thankfully, the imps vanished with the change in scenery.

　　"…Hah… hah!"

　　I didn’t have the energy to survey my new surroundings. I just lay face down on the floor, gasping for air.

　　That was no joke, right from the start.

　　Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I pushed myself up. I was trapped inside a cube-shaped space formed by a translucent blue barrier. I went over and slammed my fist against it, but it was solid. A few hundred meters away, a massive wall surrounded the area on all sides. It wasn’t a solid wall, but a honeycomb of interlocking tiles.

　　[Survive for 20 minutes in the cube.]

　　[To forfeit the trial, step on the exit magic circle.]

　　At one end of the cube, a magic circle glowed with a soft blue light. I committed its location to memory.

　　[The trial will now begin.]

* * *