Chapter 128:
Dungeon Eater
I looked over to the other worker, her green hair bounced in front of her face as heavy panting left her mouth. She adjusted her glasses and shot me a curious look.
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
“No, it's just that in your file it said that you were a physical type fighter but you’re actually quite lean. Sort of like a mage’s build.” She replied.
She wasn’t wrong, I was rather skinny. Still, didn't she just insult me?
I rub the back of my head and force a smile. “Uhm…is that going to be a problem?” I asked.
She waved her hands nervously in front of her.
“Definitely not! I was just making sure we would be fine since I'm a mage type myself!”
“We?” I replied.
Kana leaned in and with a culpable grin then cupped her fingers to whisper into my ear.
“Uhm actually Rei, I kind of forgot to tell you this before but you're not going in alone. My colleague is going to act as a spectator in the Tower since she's an impartial party. Also…she's already received her Gift from the Tower.”
I turned back to Kana with an annoyed expression and sighed.
“You're waiting until now to tell me this?”
She must have overheard us because a second later, the worker stepped between us and scolded Kana.
“What! You didn't tell him that? That was the only thing you needed to tell him!” She adjusted her glasses and let out a disappointed sigh. “No problem…I won't be entering combat so you won't need to worry about me. I'm just spectating the journey to assess your abilities.”
“Understood, Ms.Supporter.”
“You can drop the formalities while inside the Tower, it will just slow us down. You can call me Mei for now.”
She adjusted the buttons on her uniform and unclipped them with ease, undressing herself without concern. My face turned a shade redder as the worker stripped down but I quickly realised that wasn't the case when a thin material-robe came into sight.
The long ends and baggy nature of the outfit dropped to her ankles the moment she removed her blazer and skirt. Suddenly the plain-looking office worker had transformed into a mage, fully equipped and ready to enter the Tower.
She pulled out a small artefact and waved her hand over the clothing she had brought and it suddenly disappeared into the object, as if swallowed by it.
“Woah–was that some kind of magic?!” My eyes jolted open in amazement.
“It's spatial magic. One of the perks of using artefacts.” She said with a pleased grin. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yep, I'm all geared up and my weapons are fixed up as well.”
Kana gave me a wave goodbye and stood at the entrance gate until we disappeared behind the doors.
She looked excited, her smile wouldn't calm down even when I gave her my last wave goodbye. I suppose it must have been exciting for her too. I was her client, so my achievements were hers too in a sense.
All that was left was to make that a reality.
***
We didn't run into any problems climbing the Floors, I had already reached the fifth. It’s around there where things started heating up for me.
Fighting in a group provided many benefits but the main one was dividing up the workload of monsters. Having to face those kinds of numbers on my own was something else.
The rank-up ceremony was a quest, after I completed it, it would be marked as such and I would pass my test, receiving my silver rank shortly after. The quest was pretty simple for the most part, a simple monster-hunting quest.
Surprisingly, the monster they chose for me to hunt was a Basilisk on the sixth floor. I was tasked with finding it and killing it, on my own no less. Normally climbing to such a low floor would be no problem but I would be doing all the fighting myself, which made things a little difficult.
Even so, I think I handled it pretty well.
“This is…how is this possible?” Mei asked.
I ran past the Goblin and leapt into the air above it. Just as my body aligned over it, I crossed out my arms and sent a powerful slash across the dome of its head.
A spray of blood was released and its corpse fell to the ground seconds later. The other goblins turned in fear, their yellow fangs shuttered from the sight. I could see it in their beady little eyes, they were thinking of fleeing.
I cast out my hand to the horde in front of me and let out a triumphant grin. “Zephyr Blast.”
With that, a wave of wind burst out from my hand in the form of a blade. The blade of wind lopped off their heads and cleared the green horde of small creatures in an instant.
{100 Exp gained}
{80 Exp gained}
{150 Exp gained}
{150 Exp gained}
Mei looked impressed. Her eyes nearly doubled in size and she had to check her glasses constantly after every action I took. I knew first-hand what the difference was in my skill, I bet it must have looked strange to a spectator though.
I imagine she was in awe that a rust rank was capable of such feats.
I kept my hand raised towards the dead field of monsters and called out my skill, “Devour!”
Black mist ate up all the fallen goblins and pulled them into my palm where they disappeared. A moment later the string of messages appeared right on schedule.
{Level Up}
{User has unlocked new skill}
{Skill: Greedy Eye has been unlocked} - {User gains the perception of wealth and fortunes more easily than before}
“Oh-ho, something amazing came out of it!” I exclaimed.
“Mister Alos…” Mei chimed in.
I turned my head and she was standing there, wide-eyed with her mouth hanging open.
“H-how did you do that–was that really a skill?!” She asked while adjusting her glasses.
Is she referring to the Arsenal skill? I guess it would seem a bit odd to someone seeing it for the first time. Since my unique skill is public now, I don’t have to hide it anymore.
“Yeah, that was part of my skill. It makes clean-up a lot easier.” I replied.
“Clean-up…no matter how I see it, that’s an amazing skill of its own. Not to mention your ability to use the skills of monsters…”
She began mumbling to herself, so deep in thought that I felt as though I had vanished from the conversation entirely.
At least my Rank-up ceremony was going off without a hitch. We were making excellent time on reaching the upper floors, barely half the day had passed since entering the Tower and we were already near the floor's boss room. Since the boss had already been defeated that morning, we only needed to pass through the doors.
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Author Notes:
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