“Wouldn’t family and close friends worry if someone suddenly disappeared without a word?”
Why did he have to be the one to explain this basic fact?
Being in the position of having to lay out something this obvious with his own mouth — it felt like being blindsided by something he had no defense for.
“I don’t have friends I keep in contact with? And my family is the type that just lets me do my thing and assumes I’ll handle whatever comes up — they probably don’t even know I’m trapped in a Tower right now.”
She shrugged.
Oh, how proud she is of that.
Was this the damage wrought by a hands-off upbringing.
“Want me to give it back once it’s fully charged then?”
“No. Give it at 5%.”
“……Fine.”
Suddenly another one of those moments where Seo I-an decided to be contrary for reasons that escaped him.
She was difficult to figure out. Of all the Awakened he’d met, by far the least predictable.
“Anyway — what do you have to sell me?”
He’d been about to bring it up himself.
“Low-grade recovery potions and boss damage elixirs.”
The recovery potions were something he habitually packed whenever going in. The boss damage elixirs had been freshly made while walking — he’d spotted gatherable spots along the way and hammered them out as he went.
“Just give me everything.”
Give me everything was one of Seo I-an’s verbal habits. He’d never once met her without hearing it, which was enough to confirm it as a pattern.
Anyway.
He emptied his inventory — every recovery potion, both boss damage elixirs — and handed them all over.
Then added:
“So that finishes up the advance payment, right? You know that, yes?”
If he was being honest — precisely calculated, there was actually a small amount remaining, but he’d folded it into the delivery surcharge.
Days of unusual weather — rain, snow — always carried a higher delivery fee.
And days with unusual system events — days like today, when a 24-Hour Rule could suddenly appear — were the same.
Not that he’d have thought twice about entering even if he’d known.
Losing a powerhouse team member with his eyes wide open — that would have been too much to bear.
“Oh? I used up the advance already?”
“Yes.”
“Hm, fine.”
Seo I-an surprisingly made no comment. Instead——
— Thud.
“I just said the advance covered everything? Including this?”
A massive bundle landed at his feet.
About three times the size of the bundle she’d originally thrown as the advance payment — and through the gap of the drawstring, the luminous blue glow was unmistakably TC.
“That’s why.”
“That’s why what?”
“I’m putting in more advance.”
A sharp, predatory arc to the corners of her mouth.
Was she saying she wanted him to come to her location first in the future, advance payment in hand?
Wait. That would mean he might end up intruding into somewhere this terrible again.
And Seo I-an was telling him — emboldened by having the rabbit in her corner, she’d set foot in awful Towers like this one with even less hesitation?
The worry expanded at an alarming rate, cycling faster and faster.
But……
If I use this for EXP potions, I could reach Level 80 faster.
Greed slipped through the gap between the worries, looking perfectly cheerful.
He added in a somewhat roundabout tone:
“I’ll take EXP potions as well as TC. Limited time offer.”
There was no such limitation, actually.
But the phrase limited time had a way of making people feel a sense of urgency, nudging them toward a more positive response.
He made the remark and looked steadily at Seo I-an.
Background: at the Association, when he’d met Park Si-woo.
Park Si-woo had walked him to the rear exit — and at that point he’d asked whether he could get EXP potions.
He’d assumed the answer would be easy, but Park Si-woo had hesitated unexpectedly.
There’s a standing order from a prior customer…… I can sell one today. Anything beyond that would need a pre-order placed in advance.
One? What was one going to do?
And he was a quintessential homebody.
The thought of leaving the house was something he resisted as strongly as possible.
Going all the way to the Association — not around the corner, a real trip — just for one EXP potion? Technically possible, but absolutely not something he wanted to do.
Which was why he’d dug for more information.
Who was the prior customer, how many had they ordered that there was only one left in stock, and if he did place an advance order, how long would it take.
Park Si-woo had answered all of it honestly.
The prior customer was Seo I-an. She’d ordered a hundred in one go, leaving exactly one in stock. Custom orders took about a month on average.
Can’t I get them from a different Enchanter?
If the quality wasn’t lower or something, there was no reason to insist on Park Si-woo specifically.
Other Enchanters will have Awakened Seo I-an’s pre-orders on them too, most likely.
Why does she need that many?
Drinking EXP potions like water?
A hundred from Park Si-woo alone felt like a lot, but she’d probably put in the same order with other Enchanters too?
She’s greedy, the way she looks. That’d be why.
Pardon?
They were supposed to be fairly close friends — and he was just casually talking about her like this?
And she’ll go through all of it, trust me.
He’d added that with eyes that genuinely trusted her.
It’s 30 minutes per potion. Does she really spend that long in Towers?
That’s part of it — and also, Seo I-an’s hobby is raising newbies. If you went to her directly and asked her to sell some, you’d probably get a better price than buying through me.
He’d smiled.
Woo-joo had smiled back.
He’d mentioned this before — the hobby is raising newbies part had been a little surprising, but maybe Seo I-an was someone whose manner was rough but whose actual heart was decent?
Anyway — back to the present.
Seo I-an had noticed him zoning out and tilted her head.
“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever sold you EXP potions before? Why, do you need some?”
“The wider the product range, the better.”
“I won’t sell.”
A flat refusal.
Was it because he’d asked for them instead of TC?
“Then I’ll buy them.”
“Still not selling.”
“Why? You must have plenty.”
She must have plenty.
Source: Park Si-woo.
“Do you know Kim Woo-joo?”
He’d said she probably had a lot — and out of nowhere she asked if he knew Kim Woo-joo.
“Why do you ask?”
Why is the subject suddenly me? Talking behind my back?
But Seo I-an was the type to say things to someone’s face, not behind their back.
And he couldn’t think of anything he’d done to deserve negative words from her.
They’d met once in the Special Floor, that was it.
Oh — and once more at the Association.
Walked together for five minutes, maybe?
That was the sum of it.
“Are you close with them?”
What a remarkably odd question.
If someone asked whether he was close with himself — what was the correct answer?
……Close was probably the more accurate direction.
But an NPC being particularly friendly with one specific Awakened might raise some eyebrows.
“……I’m equally friendly with all Awakened.”
He offered a suitably noncommittal answer.
“Either way — I can’t sell. I need to give them to that person.”
……Hm? She needed to give them to him?
When had they become close enough for that sort of thing? They’d only exchanged numbers less than a week ago. And during that time, the number had been unreachable.
His mind went briefly white.
He’d lost the thread of the conversation.
“……Does that Awakened actually ask for them?”
“Not asking — but they’ll need them.”
Right. They would.
But wasn’t this a bit sudden?
They’d only met twice in person, and the conversations they’d had barely amounted to anything.
And for someone she barely knew, she was holding back a sale specifically to give them away?
Oh. She was going to trade them for the special enhancement stone.
He should have seen it coming when she’d trailed him out of the Association.
But she’d already sold it to Park Si-woo.
Had she not heard yet?
“How much would you sell for?”
Let’s try steering from trade to sale.
He lobbed the question at her casually, thinking that——
“I’m not selling. I’m going to give them.”
“For free?”
Completely unpredictable.
The special enhancement stone wasn’t the goal?
“Well. There is a condition. I’m going to ask them to join the guild I’m building.”
So something else was the goal.
But that wasn’t even the main issue right now.
Guild?
Awakened-nim, you’re supposed to be joining my Special Strategy Team.
You can’t be out here building your own thing.
And of all people — this outside-the-system, full-combat-mode person was saying the word guild.
Several surprising and hard-to-believe things were happening in rapid succession.
“Guild?”
“Yeah.”
“What made you think of that?”
“It seems to be popular overseas lately.”
It did look that way.
Before he’d come in here — when he’d had the overseas Tower Intrude screen open, seen her name with that impossibly long elapsed time, and come straight here instead of going to the American Tower he’d been about to enter.
The American Tower had been Floor 53, a 5 at the front — a floor he’d never seen that high before.
It wasn’t a solo run.
There had been four names listed next to the floor number.
A full five-person party, most likely.
But.
“Does Awakened Seo I-an follow trends?”
From what he’d seen, Seo I-an didn’t strike him as the trend-following type.
He thought back to the tracksuit she’d been wearing at the Association.
The red horn-rimmed glasses that, even with her looks, were technically just a bit dated.
A person who dressed like that suddenly bringing up trends felt a little incongruous.
“When something’s useful? Yeah. Like wireless earbuds. It’s not following every trend blindly — more like adopting things when they serve a purpose.”
“Ah…… but why specifically Kim Woo-joo-nim?”
He knew this wasn’t the question he should be asking right now.
The more important question was why she felt she needed a guild, and whether she’d consider something else — for example, a TF team.
But when the subject of conversation was him, the dynamic changed.
“Why Kim Woo-joo? Because I like them.”
“In what way?”
“……You’re asking a lot of questions today. Unusual.”
The eyes visible through the visor narrowed.
Of course the questions multiplied when the subject was him.
But he couldn’t say that, so——
“That person doesn’t seem very interested in guilds.”
Forget guilds — Special Strategy Team. Specifically, ours.
And deflect.
“Maybe not. But they’ll end up joining one anyway, I’d think. Seems like above Floor 50 you can’t clear without a party. Or am I wrong? That’s probably why America and China have been going guild-crazy lately.”
How would I know?
He honestly didn’t.
He’d looked at the overseas Tower top-ranking lists before.
America and China — Floor 50 and above, first place was always a single name.
Which meant that person had cleared those floors alone.
In a party clear, no ranking record was generated. Only a first-time solo clear earned a spot in the rankings.
But……
If Floor 50 and above required a party to clear, and only the top contributor’s name showed up in the ranking——
The Tower had a habit of blindsiding people with the unexpected.
The Hidden Dungeon he’d just walked into was proof enough of that.
I’ll have to ask Ragcho.
In times like these, his Ragcho-GPT was the most direct route to an answer.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
What was the question again.
Right — whether Floor 50 and above couldn’t be cleared without a party.
Obviously he didn’t know the answer.
“System restrictions prevent me from saying.”
Cheat code deployed.
“But — isn’t the level and floor gap between you and Kim Woo-joo-nim a bit wide?”
Subject changed.
“You’re right. The gap is quite wide.”
“Then why……”
“That’s why I grab them by the collar and drag them up with me.”
At least consult the person in question first.
Seo I-an clenched her fist and her eyes went sharp.
Maybe the food was kicking in — who would look at this and believe she’d spent days without sleep or a proper meal.
“Seo I-an-nim.”
“What.”
“Where did the other sword go?”
The question he’d been quietly sitting with finally came out.
The gleaming silver armor. The twin swords strapped in an X across her back. Part of what defined Seo I-an as a person.
But today the X was a slash.
“It broke, damn it——!”
Whether he’d accidentally hit a trigger or not — she clenched her fist and drove it downward, and started shaking.
“Does that mean you can’t clear this dungeon?”
Well, surely not.
But surely not was the exact phrase used to describe things that did end up happening.
Her tightly gripped fists. His pupils, now trembling just the same.