With the rescue operation for Liu Huiying behind him, a sense of peaceful normalcy had finally returned.

Disposing of both Guo Tao, a Shanghai superhuman, and Jin Taiyang, who had transferred his affiliation to the Seoul Tower, simultaneously served as a warning.

Someone had eliminated both men without anyone finding out.

So let this be a lesson—no more reckless schemes.

In a way, it might have been cleaner to eliminate the administrator who had ordered the mission as well.

But that would have created an endless cycle.

Go after the administrator, only to find out he was just following orders?

Then track down his superior, only to discover he was also following commands?

Keep following that chain all the way up, and eventually you’d reach the President of China himself.

And if you took him out too, riding the momentum?

That wouldn’t be the end of it—another head would simply take his place, starting the whole cycle anew.

Besides.

The Seoul superhuman kidnapping incident and the Liu Huiying rescue operation hadn’t actually caused him any harm.

The information extracted from interrogating Jin Taiyang revealed nothing more than the fact that he had received orders to kill Liu Xiaolong and Seoul’s rankers.

And he wasn’t so overflowing with righteous indignation as to scream, “How dare they threaten our great Seoul superhumans! This is unforgivable!” over something like that.

So going forward, the best outcome would be for everyone to go their separate ways without further friction.

Less to worry about meant more peace of mind for him.

Once you started overturning things, you’d have to keep watching your back and dealing with them constantly—how exhausting would that be?

So he decided to close both cases then and there.

But that decision applied only to himself.

The Korean Superhuman Management Agency, unaware of the full story, was thoroughly bewildered by the whole affair.

A superhuman’s name had appeared on the deceased list, yet no one knew how he had actually died.

Not even a body had been found.

In most cases like this, the only explanation was death within the Tower.

When someone died inside the Tower, it swallowed them whole, leaving no remains to recover.

And so Jin Taiyang’s death was officially recorded as a Tower fatality.

Dead inside the Seoul Tower, which had the Grace of Evasion?

No one would believe such a story, but there was no other explanation to offer.

“Boss! So when are we heading into the Tower? I want to see your amazing skills in action already!”

With daily life back on track, the next order of business was climbing the Tower.

The Seoul Tower’s top floor was 63.

He was now attempting the 51st floor.

At first, he’d wondered when he’d ever reach those lofty heights, but before he knew it, he’d climbed close enough to reach out and touch them.

└ I finally reached floor 51! Just 10 more floors and I’m a ranker, right?

└ Yeah, just grind for about a year and you’ll get there.

└ And all those rankers are already in the 70s, right? lol

└ Still, with the Grace of Evasion and the Blessing of Growth, if you push hard, maybe one floor every 10 days is possible?

└ Honestly, gear and skills matter more than anything. Look at Lee Seoah. She swapped one weapon and look how she’s flying now lol

└ That’s the right answer. Still, higher floors mean better odds for good items and skills, so you have to push higher.

The average time to break through the 50th floor range was about a year.

But since the Tower required only one clear per month, that pace would never catch up to the superhumans challenging the top floor.

At the same time, having struggled to reach the 50th floor, he couldn’t afford to risk his life by pushing recklessly.

So once superhumans reached the 50th floor, the gap in climbing speed widened dramatically depending on their skill.

As a result, fewer than ten rankers remained to challenge the top floor.

Ultimately.

To catch up with the top floor, you had to stake your life and charge upward with everything you had.

Succeed, and one more ranker would be born.

Fail, and you’d claim a spot on the deceased list.

At least the Seoul Tower, thanks to the Grace of Evasion, was in a far better position than other towers.

But the Grace of Evasion had barely a month left, so a significant number of superhumans would be scrambling to reach the top floor before it expired.

If, as people were saying, at least ten or more new rankers emerged from this opportunity, that would be reassuring indeed.

Anyway!

He still had four Skill Enhancement Tickets remaining.

There were seven skills he could enhance in total.

Of those, only two would be helpful for future battles.

Quest Insight and Telepathy.

Since he couldn’t enhance Meteor Summoning anyway, there was no reason to hold back—he decided to enhance both skills immediately.

That would make climbing the Tower considerably easier.

[Quest Insight]

– Reveals hidden quest content.

– Clairvoyant Map is now rendered in three dimensions.

– Detects runes that appear only on the first clear.

Hmm…!

Was this good?

For starters, the map shifting from flat to three-dimensional was promising.

And runes that only appeared on the first clear?

That was entirely new information—he had no idea what it meant.

“Runes? Those are top-grade alchemy materials!”

“Really? What can you make with them?”

“Depends on the rune! A Rune of Stamina can be used to brew an elixir that permanently increases stamina, and a Lightning Rune can be used to craft potions that boost lightning resistance or lightning magic attack power, depending on how you apply it!”

That sounded quite enticing.

“So you’re saying it permanently enhances stats?”

“Yeah, yeah! That’s why they’re top-grade materials!”

Not a temporary boost, but a permanent stat increase.

This wasn’t just enticing—this was incredible!

He wanted to find out immediately and was about to head into the Tower right then.

But there was one major constraint.

“But to make those, I need the Water of Life.”

…The Spring of Life was the prerequisite.

He currently had one Source Stone.

Should he have saved his Source Stones if he’d known this would happen?

No—this, too, would resolve itself naturally as he continued climbing the Tower.

Would not even one Source Stone drop from a random box on the way up to the 60th floor?

Shin Jungho examined the details of his enhanced Telepathy as well, eager to finish his preparations quickly.

[Telepathy]

– Recipients: Lea, Maya, Unassigned, Unassigned, Unassigned

– Enables two-way communication with recipients.

Oh!

The number of recipients had increased from two to five.

And communication had shifted from one-way to two-way.

It had been somewhat frustrating before, but now he’d be able to grasp combat situations and his summoned beings’ status much more reliably.

“Alright, then let’s get moving!”

He’d finished enhancing his skills—was he really going to sit around without testing them?

“I am always ready to stand by your side, my Lord!”

“Your Highness need only wish for it. I would pluck the stars from the heavens for you.”

“Huh? Am I supposed to say something cool too? Let’s go already, Boss! I’ll show you exactly what a Tactician can do!”

How strange.

They’d grown to three lines, yet somehow he felt disappointed they hadn’t reached four.

…Was this how brainwashing worked?

Anyway, time to go!

Seupapapat!

[You have entered the 51st floor of Tower 25.]

= Objective: Slay 100 Blood Wolves.

= Time Limit: 5:00:00

# Monsters Remaining: Blood Wolf (100)

# First Clear Reward: 51 Magic Stones

# Amazing Achievement Condition: First attempt, clear within 25 minutes

# Amazing Achievement Reward: 1 Random Box

# Additional Reward: 5 Return Tickets

# Sealed Rune: Rune of Stamina

Winning Return Tickets wasn’t all that exciting anymore.

Maybe if he diligently hoarded them, they’d come in handy later?

And there was a new entry about runes.

The Rune of Stamina!

That meant he just needed to find it—but where would he discover it?

Naturally, checking the map would settle the matter.

Now he had a 3D map that showed not just flat terrain but elevation as well!

A veritable spatial revolution!

The 50th floor range was where wolves appeared, and the natural environment resembled the forest of the 10th floor minotaur zone.

But back then, at least the forest had been clean.

The 50th floor forest was a space designed with considerable malice toward superhumans.

In some areas, trees grew so densely packed that there was no room to swing a weapon.

In others, vine-like growths tangled together to block the path entirely.

Being the Intermediate Zone, it seemed the message was that monsters weren’t the only thing you had to contend with.

Of course, a superhuman like Lee Seoah with sufficient ability could simply blast through trees and vines blocking her way.

And he, too, had four such people at his disposal.

Examining the 3D map, the wolves were gathered in loose packs of six or seven.

Another terror of the Intermediate Zone was the monsters’ intelligence.

Where before they had simply charged at superhumans.

From the 50th floor onward, they displayed considerably more intelligent behavior.

They would circle around a superhuman to enclose them, attacking only from the blind spots at the rear and flanks.

Or several would swarm simultaneously to prevent any reaction.

These wolf monsters in particular excelled at pack hunting, so given time, you’d inevitably find yourself surrounded by dozens of wolves.

Therefore, rather than fleeing, the orthodox strategy was to quickly eliminate each pack while the wolf groups were still small.

…Except, of course, none of that applied to him.

Shin Jungho examined the lights displayed on the 3D map.

Red dots represented monsters.

They were divided into roughly thirteen packs.

Even the nearest pack was more than a five-minute sprint away.

Because of that, sending Lea and Maya separately to clear within 25 minutes wasn’t an option.

Next, the white dots were his summoned beings.

Three white dots surrounded a single green dot as if protecting it.

The only other thing visible was…

A single blue dot on the left.

That was likely the sealed rune.

It was the only one with absolutely no movement.

“Let’s all head over together!”

Lea ran like a gale.

Maya flew with High-Speed Flight.

He wore the Leather Sandals of Fair Wind and used Footsteps of Fair Wind.

“Uwaah! Why is everyone so fast?!”

Only Clara, who lacked any proper movement skill, fell further behind as time passed.

Wasn’t she supposed to be a Tactician? Did she have nothing special?

Still, at some point, her following speed did noticeably increase.

Even so, it was less than half of theirs, so the distance between them inevitably widened.

Hmm… should he just leave Clara behind and only bring Lea and Maya into the Tower?

After running for a while, they reached the location where the blue dot had appeared.

The surroundings weren’t particularly different from the forest they’d seen so far.

But the blue dot pointed to a rock right in front of them—specifically, one covered in tree vines.

“Could you clear the area around it?”

“Understood.”

“As you wish.”

Seugeok! Seugeok! Seugeok!

Lea slashed away every tree and vine around the rock.

Hwiiiiiiing!

Maya summoned a gale, and the elegant form of a pure white rock was fully revealed.

These two definitely had a knack for manual labor too.

Shin Jungho approached the rock and placed his hand on it.

Dozens of blue strands of light then spread out from the rock, drawing geometric patterns around it.

Before sinking back down.

Shin Jungho immediately understood what this was.

It was similar to operating the Arcane Forge.

However, while the Arcane Forge required drawing lines one at a time, this demanded controlling dozens of lines simultaneously.

…How was he supposed to do this?

Fortunately, there was virtually no cooldown after a failure.

Shin Jungho placed his hand on the rock again and traced the lines.

Syasyasyak!

Puk!

Lasted 3 seconds before failing.

Syasyak!

Puk!

This time, 2 seconds.

Syak!

Puk!

1 second…

Sya!

Puk!

0.5?

Puk!

Pukpukpukpukpukpukpukpuk!

Shin Jungho pulled his hand off the rock and clenched all ten fingers, venting his frustration.

If Lea and Maya hadn’t been beside him, he would have roared aloud.

No!

Why was this so impossibly hard!

How was anyone supposed to solve this!

At that moment, Lea drew her sword and stepped forward.

“My Lord, the rune appears to be inside the rock. Allow me to try extracting it.”

Right.

If the claw machine was broken, you could always smash the glass and grab the stuffed animal, couldn’t you?

Half his reason already gone, Shin Jungho had all but abandoned rational thought.

“Haah!”

Lea’s pure white Sword Aura sliced toward the white rock.

Kakang!

But contrary to the expectation that the rock would split cleanly, something like a barrier expanded and completely blocked the external attack.

Huh… they made the claw machine out of titanium?