“Kuhaha! Just looking at this contract fills my belly—I’m stuffed!”

Commissioner Jung Woojin of the Superhuman Management Agency rubbed his belly contentedly as he gazed at the freshly signed contract he had just concluded with the US negotiation representative.

“I never expected the United States to agree to such a groundbreaking proposal.”

Han Donggeon said hesitantly.

He had to admit that the current situation was even more incredible than when they only had the Grace of Evasion.

Still, the terms of the contract they had signed with the United States were absolutely staggering.

The amount traded for two Tower 25 Affiliation Change Tickets was a whopping 300 billion won.

On top of that, two Skill Enhancement Tickets and a Source Stone were thrown into the deal.

When the US had first proposed 100 billion won per ticket, Han Donggeon had barely managed to suppress the cough that nearly burst from his throat.

He had assumed that was about the maximum they could expect.

But Jung Woojin had gone further, boldly demanding 300 billion won for two tickets.

At that point… he couldn’t hold back the *keulreok-keulreok* coughing fit that erupted.

But Jung Woojin had targeted the points that would make the other side sweat, striking with the precision of an acupuncturist hitting pressure points.

The Grace of Evasion and the Blessing of Growth.

Add to that the recent discussions about whether the Seoul Tower might reach the 70th floor.

In the end, the US negotiation representative had conceded to Jung Woojin’s arguments and signed the contract.

Impressive, this guy.

Under conditions where anyone else might have signed on the spot and moved on, his ability to precisely gauge the other party’s ceiling and negotiate accordingly was unmatched by any civil servant in all of South Korea.

Then again, that was precisely why the Korean Superhuman Management Agency had survived without collapsing through its darker days.

“This contract aside, the Shadow Cutter has been an enormous boon to Seoul’s superhumans as well.”

When Han Donggeon brought up the level 2 dagger he had obtained from Shin Jungho last time, Jung Woojin nodded in agreement.

“Isn’t it booked solid for a full two weeks?”

“Yes. We’re being flooded with requests to extend the reservation period to two months.”

The Shadow Cutter.

It was an extraordinary weapon capable of reducing the user’s presence by a full 90%.

With it, one could comfortably isolate monsters one-on-one, even in the slime section where monsters swarmed everywhere, or the griffin section where aggro was endlessly drawn.

Sure, the Grace of Evasion allowed you to escape at any time, but that was running away—not clearing the floor.

But if you could avoid swarm situations and methodically take down monsters one by one—

The difficulty of clearing dropped dramatically compared to before.

The Superhuman Management Agency had recognized this and set rental fees accordingly by the hour.

Level 1 superhumans couldn’t use it, so they were out of the picture.

Level 2 superhumans: 5 million won for 2 hours.

Level 3 superhumans: 10 million won for 3 hours.

Level 4 superhumans: 20 million won for 4 hours.

Since level 2 through 4 superhumans took turns renting it around the clock without rest, the daily rental revenue alone exceeded 60 million won.

After taxes and other deductions, the net profit amounted to 1.5 billion won per month.

They had agreed to give half of that to Shin Jungho.

Unlike with Tiamat’s Staff, this was an initiative the Agency had taken the lead on, so they had split it 50:50.

Fortunately, Shin Jungho had readily agreed as if it made no difference to him either way.

I honestly had no idea what this absolute godsend of a man had been doing with his life all this time.

“Is there anything we could personally do for the superhuman Shin Jungho?”

Out of sheer gratitude, he wanted to give the man something—anything extra—to show his appreciation.

But the things he actually wanted—Skill Enhancement Stones, Source Stones, and the like—weren’t items you could simply acquire by wanting them.

A superhuman needed to equip a variety of skills to develop their potential, and they had to diligently enhance those skills.

Only then could they climb to higher floors and look forward to greater rewards.

But selling the Skill Enhancement Tickets they had worked so hard to obtain?

That would be like slaughtering the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Furthermore, superhumans who obtained a Skill Enhancement Ticket early on but chose not to use it would never receive another one.

As if the Tower were telling those with no intention of challenging it that they had no business there.

So even if Skill Enhancement Tickets occasionally dropped, the volume that actually made it to market was inevitably minuscule.

Han Donggeon pondered for a moment before answering.

“There is one thing that comes to mind.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“A residence in an area with guaranteed public safety would be appropriate. One with an elevator, definitely.”

…It was a proposal heavily laden with Han Donggeon’s own ulterior motives.

* * *

Three Skill Enhancement Tickets obtained while climbing from the 41st to the 50th floor.

Plus two Skill Enhancement Tickets obtained from trading Tower Affiliation Change Tickets.

Add to that three Source Stones.

Was it really acceptable for one person to hold this many rewards?

Yeah, absolutely.

Why wouldn’t it be, when the protagonist holding them was none other than himself?

For starters, one Skill Enhancement Ticket and one Source Stone had already been used.

To enhance the Dimensional Room and add a new door, to be exact!

[Dimensional Room]

– Spatial Expansion: 1 Source Stone

– Currently Connected Doors: 2

– Add Door: 1 Source Stone

– Reset Door: 100 Magic Stones

– Multi-dimensional Training Ground: 5 uses per day. Can generate floors you have cleared in the Tower.

– Add Spring of Life: 2 Source Stones

– Influence Range: 10km (based on the first door; usable with doors closed)

– If the entrance is destroyed, items inside will be expelled into the surroundings. Communication connections are possible from within the Dimensional Room.

– Space can be partitioned.

– A dimensional rift can be opened. Objects that enter the rift are immediately discarded and can never be retrieved again.

…Was there any system message from the Tower longer than this one?

The remarkable thing was that the Dimensional Room could still be enhanced further.

What more could possibly be added? The anticipation was tantalizing.

Anyway.

The newly added door was connected to the Prestige War Cafe for now.

That place now literally served as a secret venue for dealing with the highest echelon, so security installations like CCTV cameras had been deliberately omitted.

So he had connected it as a test.

Resetting a door only cost 100 Magic Stones, after all.

In monetary terms, 100 million won.

…Since when did 100 million won stop feeling like real money?

Hmm!

And the new door addition only appeared after he had enhanced a skill.

In other words, it seemed that each time he enhanced a skill, he could add another door.

Of course, there was no guarantee it would always appear that regularly.

As for new facilities, something called the Spring of Life had made its appearance.

Adding it required a whopping two Source Stones.

The total Source Stones that had gone into the Dimensional Room so far was only three.

One for creating the Dimensional Room, one for adding the Multi-dimensional Training Ground, and one for adding a door.

Seeing him use Source Stones—of which fewer than ten existed worldwide—like running water, all by himself…

Of course it was fine!

He wasn’t just anyone—he was the one doing it!

Source Stones, which contained at least ten thousand times the mana of a standard Magic Stone.

Currently, the full output of that mana couldn’t be completely extracted, so they were treated merely as batteries that lasted ten thousand times longer than standard Magic Stones.

Yet between the Dimensional Room and the Meteor Summoning skill, he had quite a few things that demanded Source Stones.

Even if he collected every Source Stone that had appeared on Earth, he suspected it still wouldn’t be enough.

Still, two had dropped from Random Boxes while climbing from the 41st to the 50th floor, so surely one or two more would appear by the time he reached the 60th?

His remaining inventory stood at two Source Stones and four Skill Enhancement Tickets.

It might seem like a lot at first glance, but he had already climbed to the 51st floor.

Put differently, he had fewer than fifty chances left to open Random Boxes before reaching the 100th floor.

How many times would Skill Enhancement Tickets and Source Stones actually drop from those?

Moreover, since the Seoul Tower’s highest floor was 63, he effectively had only about ten chances remaining.

So it was crucial not to squander them, despite having what seemed like a decent supply, and to use them as prudently as possible.

On days he didn’t go to the cafe, Shin Jungho diligently ran the Arcane Forge in the Dimensional Room, just as Lea and Maya had requested.

The fascinating thing about the Arcane Forge was that the difficulty scaled exponentially with the equipment’s level.

What took a mere two hours for a level 2 weapon required double that—four full hours of concentrated effort—for a level 3 piece of armor.

The lines grew more intricate, and the number of paths requiring modification multiplied, leaving him with not a single dull moment as he worked the Arcane Forge.

The results were predominantly [Great Failure] or [Failure].

[Success] occasionally appeared, but having experienced the overwhelming catharsis of rolling [Transcendence] on the Shadow Cutter, a mere success left him feeling only 10% satisfied.

In other words, 90% disappointment.

Still, after repeatedly working on the same item, its characteristics gradually became clearer, and he started to get a feel for how the lines should be drawn.

To some, he might have looked like a complete shut-in.

He had, after all, gone into the Tower alone and cleared floors.

And when he could fire off meteors six times a day, wasn’t he entitled to a change of pace every now and then?

He had revisited them all—from the zombie section through the minotaur, slime, and griffin sections.

Unleashing a meteor shower with Copios Crumble was enough to clear most floors outright.

The slime and griffin sections, however, were a different story, with their sprawling monster populations.

Even after pouring down six meteor showers in the slime section, about a dozen monsters survived.

What could he do?

He’d just have to try again next time!

Come to think of it, he had never once fought a monster in direct combat.

A superhuman who had climbed all the way to the 51st floor!

Was this really acceptable?

He was starting to wish for at least some kind of attack skill.

Thus time passed, until exactly seven days after enhancing the Blessed Summoning Stone—

[Great Success!]

“Yes!”

A [Great Success] had finally rolled on a level 3 piece of armor.

[Barbarian Warrior’s Helmet]

– Level Requirement: 3

– Defense: Level 4

– Cry of Terror: Can be used every 30 minutes. Instills fear in monsters within a 10-meter radius, causing them to flee. Effect diminishes on higher floors.

– Description: A helmet symbolizing the valor of a barbarian warrior. Defense has been upgraded by one tier. The Cry of Terror can significantly enhance the wearer’s survivability.

The level requirement was 3, but the defense was one tier higher at level 4.

Granted, that only meant attacks targeting the helmet would be blocked with level 4 defense, not overall defense—but higher was never a bad thing.

And then there was the built-in skill called Cry of Terror.

If he ever found himself surrounded by monsters, he could use it to slip away.

…Which was exactly why he planned to hand this over to the Superhuman Management Agency as well.

The defense rating was tempting, but it only protected the head—and with Lea and Maya at his side, he had no need for defense in the first place.

No need to attack, no need to defend.

Was it really okay to climb the Tower like this?

…It was time to welcome back his attackers and defenders.

[Blessed Summoning Stone]

– Owner: Shin Jungho

– Summoned Beings: Lea, Maya, ( )

– Summon Count: Twice daily

– Summon Duration: 12 hours

The summon count hadn’t increased, but the summon duration had gone from 8 hours to 12.

With two summons per day, he could now maintain full 24-hour coverage.

And what’s more—

– Summoned Beings: Lea, Maya, ( )

He could now summon one more summoned being.

Whoa…

He already had a perfect balance of offense and defense—what would happen with one more joining the team?

Could they really clear every floor with Amazing Achievements using only the summoned beings, without ever needing to use Meteor Summoning?

First things first—summon Lea and Maya after a week apart!

“Lord! It is my greatest honor to behold you again, with all four limbs intact!”

…I keep telling you, Seoul isn’t that dangerous a neighborhood.

“Your Highness, I fear I neglected to inform you that apartment playgrounds, the fronts of PC cafes, and alleys where kickboards roam are exceedingly perilous. I pray you have not faced any life-threatening situations during my absence?”

…If I worried about every single one of those, I wouldn’t be able to leave the house.

Anyway, it had been a whole week—so why did it feel like he’d just seen them yesterday?

…That must mean time had flown by that fast, right?

The Arcane Forge could rival the four great time machine games without falling short.

“It’s good to see you both. So, any new memories, or anything different compared to before?”

“Compared to before, the Geas has loosened somewhat. But I can only describe the scenes in greater detail—there doesn’t appear to be any additional information I can offer you, Lord.”

“The same holds true for me, Your Highness. Whether a Limit Break is necessary, even the memories of the Tower that Dame Lea witnessed have yet to surface.”

Even when the original Summoning Stone had received its blessing, the Geas had only loosened slightly—no new memories of Lea’s had surfaced.

Ultimately, would he need to perform a Limit Break on her, just as with Lea, for her memories to expand further?

But that was a separate matter.

Now it was time to summon the new summoned being.

“What kind of summoned being would you two like to see?”

“I desire only one thing: a being who would lay down their very life to protect you, Lord.”

Hmm, I wonder…

Would such a being even exist who could handle meteors head-on?

“Since Your Highness and I are both mages, I would hope for someone in the mold of Dame Lea—a knight.”

Oh…!

That was a very good point!

Two mages and two knights.

That would make for a nicely balanced party, wouldn’t it?

Alright then, no need to overthink it—let’s summon right away!

This time, an emerald radiance erupted from the Summoning Stone.

But since he was in the Dimensional Room, there was absolutely nothing to worry about!

What followed was a dazzling feast of ethereal light, like an aurora—and then, the new summoned being finally appeared.

Green short hair that fell just above the shoulders.

She wore what looked like work clothes, and in one hand she held an enormous wrench that had to be over a meter long.

Her face bore a cheeky grin that positively radiated social butterfly energy.

A woman around the same age as the current Lea.

The impression she gave at first glance was—

A gearhead—no, a female gearhead?

The Summoning Stone had…

Suddenly switched genres to steampunk?