First Move (2)
$165,000.
An amount of money I couldn't even imagine as a trainee.
No matter what I went through in the trials, I was only human.
My poker face broke for an instant and the corners of my mouth slid up.
A thousand ideas popped into my head with all the things I could do with this money but—
'…What's the use. It'll all disappear soon.'
I calmed myself down and organized my thoughts.
There were a bunch of things I needed to test out with the tower, and it wasn't good to obsess over money.
"I've confirmed the deposit."
Not a single tremble in my voice.
"I'll go ahead and take care of these."
She retrieved the items from the table.
It was painful to say goodbye, but they wouldn't be of much use on the higher floors.
"We hope you will continue to choose us for future business."
"Okay, bye then."
I took off and started looking at some of the other shows.
There was something I was curious about.
The Tower of Trials let me bring out the items that I bought there.
Then I wondered if the opposite would be true for items I'd bought here.
It was just a theory, but it could be the case.
'It could be a two-way system.'
The question was if that only worked with items bought in the tower.
And that's what I was trying to answer right now.
"Gotta spend money if you made money."
***
「 Krocken Magic Tower's Repair Box 」
「 Grade: D+ 」
「 Created by what was once known as the Fools Tower, Krocken Magic Tower. 」
「 Upon placing an item below C-grade, the box restores it to its original form. 」
「 Only one item can be placed in the box, and the item must fit in it. 」
「 Can only repair one item. 」
「 Cleansing Stone 」
「 Grade: E- 」
「 Upon inserting mana into the stone, it cleanses the user's body and equipment. 」
「 The cooldown on the item is 3 hours. 」
After coming back to my apartment…
I stared at the two items I purchased from the market.
'Krocken Magic Tower's Repair Box' and the 'Cleansing Stone.'
They weren't too shabby for $97,000.
Krocken Magic Tower's Repair Box was a D+ item.
And the Cleansing Stone would be useful in the tower, despite the low grade.
I could only tell how terrible I smelt after washing up.
Staying clean would be worth the money.
"But I lost 100k after two items…"
It was insane but the only logical choice.
They were the only items that could help me in the tower.
'More accurately, they were the only ones that I could use and also afford.'
I needed to leave a bit just in case.
It's not like I'd never come back to Earth.
'And I still need to hunt at least twice a year if I want to keep my license.'
A-rank hunters could become honorary hunters, but the same was not true for the others.
Unless you were a special case, like a hunter association affiliated hunter, you'd be forced to retire from inactivity.
A hunter's main job was to take care of monsters and clear gates after all.
No activity meant no benefits.
'Of course, that won't be my main reason for coming back…'
I'd focus on the tower for now.
If I wanted to get to the 8th floor, I'd need to clear three more trials.
I didn't even have an option of returning permanently until I reached that point.
The only thing left to do was bring back these items.
I guess I'd find out once it was time.
Nothing I could do about this now.
Maybe I'd spend some time researching.
A decent amount of time passed, so maybe someone posted something about the tower.
Click, click.
"What the hell is this?"
「 Any of y'all come from the tower of trials? 」
I stopped scrolling at the new post on the hunter forums.
Who's this crazy bastard?
'Like the guy who leaked information about the 4th trial and this guy…'
Some of these guys have a screw loose.
I didn't know why these guys were just talking about the tower out in the open but…
I was curious.
Click.
「 Author – Ex D rank hunter 」
「 Fuck, I contemplated for a while and finally bought the return stone. Can anyone share some information with me? Please, I'm desperate. 」
I knew that this guy was telling the truth as soon as I saw the post.
A challenger who knew about the return stone.
I didn't know what difficulty they were in, but it was interesting.
'I wonder what they were thinking when they posted this.'
Interested, I scrolled down further.
「 4th and 5th floors were manageable, but it's killing me that the 6th trial is another trial of competition. 」
「 I used up all my questions, so I can't get any more information. I'm going to die. 」
「 I'm even more fucked because I'm on the hard difficulty. 」
The hard difficulty.
It was the same as mine.
'Is it already time for the 6th trial…'
The 5th trial must have been really short if they're already on the 6th one.
Putting my intrigue aside, I kept scrolling.
Drr.
「 The fucking admins barely tell you anything even if you ask a question. 」
「 And 'that bastard' told everyone about the 4th and 6th trial and now everyone in the community is staying quiet. 」
「 Are all of us low rankers just supposed to die off? 」
「 People like us have to stick together if we want to stay alive. 」
「 Post a comment if you have any intentions of sharing anything. 」
"Hm."
I think I'd figured the situation out.
'The same thing that happened before the 4th trial is happening again now.'
And the 'bastard' he's talking about is probably the same exact person as before.
Surprisingly, this was way more information than I anticipated.
Of course, I wasn't going to reply to it.
'I don't have anything to share, nor do I have any intentions of sharing anything.'
I was considered a high ranker, seeing that I was 16th after the 4th trial.
I also hadn't used any of my questions, so I had a lot saved up.
Plus, I didn't want to expose any unwanted information about me.
It was then—
「 DancingWithGoblins – What are you even talking about? You got something wrong with your head? 」
The new listing started gathering some attention.
「 ModernOrc – I mean I guess there are a bunch of hunters who retired from going crazy. 」
「 SalaryLupin – I'm also a D-rank hunter. Am I gonna go crazy also? 」
「 HonestGamerHunter – Stop sprouting your bullshit about this tower and go play some games. 」
No one seems to believe him.
'I mean, who'd even leave a legit reply to somethi…'
「 HurricaneSwag – Same, fuck. Can we talk one on one? I'm also in the hard difficulty. 」
「 SelfHealThief – Same. I got some info. Can we get together? Also hard difficulty. 」
"…I guess there are."
You could tell that these people were at their wit's end.
I was surprised to find that even the lower-ranked challengers bought a return stone.
'If they were that desperate, they should have just stayed and kept training.'
I didn't understand why they would waste 500 points like this.
Although I probably shouldn't assume their situations.
'Anyways, it looks like more and more people are starting to return.'
I'm assuming that this was because they were finishing up the 5th trial now.
"Good thing I came before everyone else."
I was satisfied with my choices and kept searching online.
「 Yall know anything called the tower of trials? 」
「 If you're a civilian make sure you don't get swept away by the 'Tower of Trials.' 」
「 Looking for people to team up in the tower of trials 」
There were even posts warning normal people about not accepting the tower's invitation.
'It's about time since there are probably easy difficulty challengers.'
Simultaneously, the tower seemed to garner a lot of attention.
「 What's this tower and why is this the only thing people are talking about? 」
「 I heard there's this dungeon called the tower of trials that's even taking civilians, is that true? 」
「 Is this just a big prank? What's the tower of trials? 」
I could tell that it was reaching the mainstream audiences at this point.
'I don't know how this will affect anything but…'
I knew one thing.
I had to climb up higher.
'So the 6th trial is another competitive trial and the 5th is probably an individual…'
I'd probably have to kill more challengers.
That fact didn't really come as a shock.
'If I have to fight, I'll fight.'
Actually, I was more curious to see the rewards I'd get afterward.
I didn't know if it was because I'd already killed someone or if I'd become too accustomed to the tower.
A part of my brain felt missing now, but it wasn't all bad.
I'd stay like this at least until the 8th floor.
"The 8th floor…"
Once all the features of the tower were unlocked, I planned to use all of my questions.
So until then…
All I had to do was keep going.
____