Chapter 70: Chapter 70 - The first floor (2)
Chapter 70 . The first floor (2)
When Bahal walked out of the cafe, a group of players who had been blocking the streets gathered around him .
Flame Beast . They were Red Dragon’s combat unit, also known as Bahal’s escort unit .
Bahal looked at the deserted streets with his brows furrowed .
“Were you blocking the streets again? I told you to not do anything stupid . ”
“As you know, sir, there are a lot of players after you in The Tower . There’s no harm in being careful . ”
Bahal shook his head at the leader’s words .
In fact, although they were called his escort unit, they were originally one of the special task forces fostered by the head of Red Dragon . The members of Flame Beast weren’t following Bahal out of loyalty . They were merely ordered to follow his command .
And that was the reason why they would follow him, but often disregarded his orders in detail . Especially with the unsettling atmosphere that was currently lingering all over The Tower, .
The power of a clan was measured using their Rankers as a standard, so they could not afford to lose a player such as him .
Bahal tried to explain that such a thing could never happen in a place like Outer District, but they did not listen .
Of course, the fact that they did not follow his orders did not make him feel bad .
Thanks to them being beside him, he could move around more freely without having to worry about being ambushed .
“But sir, how come the Hoarder didn’t come with you?”
“Well, he said he’ll consider our offer . ”
The leader frowned as if he was upset .
“He’s pretty bold for a novice . ”
It seemed like Yeon-woo’s decision had irritated him, someone with a deeply-rooted loyalty towards Red Dragon .
Bahal chuckled and waved his hand .
“Don’t take it so seriously . He’s just a novice overflowing with pride, you know? You and me, we all went through that after passing the tutorial . ”
“But still, how rude of him… . ”
“Simmer down . He’ll regret turning down our offer as he climbs up The Tower anyway . ”
The leader nodded and did not speak any further .
He also agreed that The Tower wasn’t a place that could be understood with just experiencing the tutorial .
“And our goal was to keep the other clans from approaching him in the first place . I mean, I came to see him in person, what kind of fool would dare to approach him now? Now he’s only got our clan to rely on . By the way,”
Bahal gently waved his hand as he changed the subject . A sharp look appeared on his previously soft demeanor .
“How did the investigation go? Did you find anything?”
The leader answered with a nod .
“It turned out just as you expected, sir . ”
“Is that so? Ha, haha! Leonte, he hasn’t changed a bit . He’s a very consistent friend . ”
In fact, the reason why Bahal had paid a visit to outside The Tower wasn’t simply to recruit Yeon-woo . That task could have been easily accomplished just by sending one of the Flame Beast members .
Instead, he personally took on this task in order to hide his true motive . To search for Leonte’s whereabouts .
Not long ago, a strange piece of information came across Red Dragon’s intelligence network .
It was about Leonte, who they knew was aiming to become Cheonghwado’s new Wushen, secretly plotting something in the tutorial floor .
Red Dragon had already known that Cheonghwado was behind Arangdan, but they hadn’t taken any measures regarding that matter .
If they were to expose this secret alone, it wouldn’t do much harm to Cheonghwado . To make it count, they had to find something more confidential and reveal it all at once .
And now, they got a new piece of information stating that Arangdan was actually Leonte’s private group . And that he was kidnapping players in the tutorial and crafting something using their lives as a material .
Therefore, Red Dragon concluded that the issue required a closer investigation, delegating full authority and responsibility over said investigation to Bahal .
He once was Leonte’s teammate in Arangdan, so Bahal knew him better than anyone else in the clan .
Thereon, Bahal began to track down Arangdan’s and Leonte’s traces along with his team, Flame Beast .
Their fund flow, deployment of resources, and the personal data of the players dispatched to the tutorial .
And not long after, they were able to come to a conclusion .
“They are trying to make a Magic Organ out of hundreds, maybe thousands of players… I thought that this kind of stories could only be found in myths or something . Never would I have imagined that someone would actually commit such an atrocity . ”
Bahal had not yet figured out exactly what Leonte was making . But he could infer what kind of function it might serve .
A Mana Organ(魔力器官), also known as a Mana Engine(機關) .
Every player in the world, in The Tower, has mana inside their bodies . And the vessel containing this mana is called the Mana Organ .
However, because the Mana Organ is part of the body, there’s a certain limit to the amount of mana that the vessel can hold .
Although it is said that the size of one’s vessel can increase once the player reaches a superhuman level such as that of a Ranker or a Lord, only a tiny minority has ever reached that point . And even for them, lack of mana was still a problem .
Many players sought ways to supply themselves with mana from outside sources .
The very first products that had resulted from their hard work were the items known as potions .
And once their experiment was proven successful, various kinds of items spread throughout The Tower .
Magic tools(魔道具), items embedded with various options, and Mana Source(魔力源), a storage for surplus mana . Players had even created skills known as ‘Energy Drain’ to take away mana from other players .
But as they say, avarice knows no bounds .
Players still craved ways to gain even more mana, to the point where they tried to create things that could give them an infinite supply of mana .
Bahal was sure that this was what Leonte had in mind .
The purer the mana, the better it is at producing energy .
The purest source of mana ever known in the history of The Tower was a human soul, and the easiest way to extract it was to just squeeze it out of its fleshly body .
In the past, there had been several attempts to make use of the mana extracted with this cruel method, but every single attempt had ended up in failure .
Because mana extracted from human souls was easily corrupted with the cursed spirits of the dead .
But being aware of such risks, Leonte had still tried to extract mana from the souls of living players .
He must have figured out a way to make use of that mana .
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A way to process the mana . A way to keep it from being corrupted .
‘Don’t tell me you were making ‘the stone’ . ’
There was a legend passed down since ancient times among alchemists .
That there’s a substance that is able to contain mana as densely as the magic organ of the masters of mana, the Dragon Race .
And they called it ‘the stone’ or ‘the heart’ .
‘Well, that’s still impossible . If it weren’t, it wouldn’t have been revealed to the world . ’
Though he knew such an item could not exist, he still had to obtain the procedure and the product .
‘It’ll be of great help to our clan, Red Dragon, and for me . ’
Bahal licked his lips in anticipation .
“So, have you figured out Leonte’s whereabouts?”
“We’ve already found him in the tutorial, and he’s currently moving in this direction . ”
“All right . Then we shall move towards them . As I said, our goal is to secure both the item and Leonte . However, if you think you can’t secure them both, you may kill Leonte . But you must bring the item by any means . ”
“Roger!”
“Okay, let’s go give them a warm welcome . ”
Finally, Bahal and Flame Beast jumped into action .
In order to hunt down Leonte .
But little did they know that the item they had to procure wasn’t in Leonte’s hands .
“Henova . ”
“What is it, kid?”
Yeon-woo then thought that Henova was still the same ol’ Henova .
Though he now knew Yeon-woo’s name, albeit a fake one, he still didn’t call him by his name .
But the difference was that he was now looking at Yeon-woo with a satisfied look .
He must have been happy to see a player armed with weapons and armor of his creation for the first time in a long time .
Yeon-woo smiled for a second and continued with a calm voice .
“I don’t know how long it will take before I can come back . ”
“Hmm . ”
Yeon-woo noticed Henova flinching for a split second, but he puffed out his stomach pretending nothing ever happened .
“Of course you would . After all, you’re a player trying to climb up The Tower . Why did you even bother telling me that?”
Yeon-woo was going to say something, but soon gave up and shook his head .
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“Nothing, just to let you know . . ”
Would Henova have any idea?
That this was a farewell forever .
‘It will do him no good if I get any closer to him . I can’t have him getting involved in this revenge . ’
He already knew why his brother had been so fond of him .
He had to end it here .
The path ahead of him was a very rough and quite perilous one . Not just he himself, but the people next to him were also destined to walk on a thorny path .
Yeon-woo couldn’t let that happen to Henova .
Just as he had said to Galliard,
‘This is my war . ’
He couldn’t leave it in the hands of others .
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me . ”
Henova brought his pipe to his mouth as he waved his hands without looking his way .
But Yeon-woo now knew that this was his way of saying ‘take care’ .
After bowing down one more time, Yeon-woo bent his steps towards The Tower .
Yeon-woo stood in front of the enormous iron gate .
The Tower, a mysterious place where the man who ascends to the top floor can become a god .
Though he had felt it many times before, The Tower was just too tall . It almost looked like a pillar supporting the sky from falling down .
Just as he was about to open the gate, he heard someone rushing towards him from behind .
“Stooop!”
A giant hand popped out from behind and grabbed Yeon-woo’s hand that was opening the iron gate .
*Huff* *Huff*
The owner of the hand panted heavily .
A frame taller than Yeon-woo by a head .
It was a Phante .
His face was burning red as if he had run a long way .
“You didn’t even listen when I begged you to go to The Tower! What made you change your mind all of a sudden? And why didn’t you tell us you were going in? You could have left us a message or something!”
Yeon-woo tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand .
“Why would I?”
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“Goddamn it! ”
Phante pounded on his chest with his big fists as if frustrated .
Yeon-woo narrowed his eyes .
“I don’t know what you think of me, but I don’t have time to play house with you two . Playtime is over . I’m busy with my own business . ”
Phante had a lot of things to say to Yeon-woo’s cold-hearted words, but he couldn’t open his mouth easily .
The two blazing eyes gleaming under his now black mask . That intense aura reminded him of Yeon-woo’s ferocious eyes he had faced back in the tutorial .
The image of a strong but self-righteous man .
It looked so similar to the eyes of his father, the Martial King, before a war .
‘What the hell are you going to do…’
While Phante stood speechless, Edora arrived .
She grinned as she swept up her sweat-soaked hair .
“Then you can go first, Oraboni . ”
Phante looked back at Edora in surprise . Yeon-woo also frowned at her remark because he couldn’t tell what she was thinking .
Then, her smile grew brighter as she spoke the next sentence .
“But we will follow behind you . It’s up to us to go wherever we want, so you won’t stop us from following after you, right Oraboni?”
Phante then burst into laughter thinking it was a great idea .
Yeon-woo glared at the siblings for a few seconds, but soon shook his head .
“Do whatever you want . But if you lag behind, I’m not going to help you . ”
“Kuhaha! Don’t even worry! I’ll probably be at the front destroying everything that stands in front of us . I’ve already been to the first floor, so if you have any questions, just ask me . ”
“Oh really? I remember someone who didn’t even understand the rules and made a whole mess on that floor . ”
“Shut up . I’ll do better the second time . ”
Leaving the quarrelling siblings behind,
*Creak*
Yeon-woo pushed the iron gate .
The entrance to the first floor of The Tower slowly opened .
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