🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter: 08
The Tower – Residential Floors 10th Floor (3)
The library was the largest building in the center of the city.
The library, which looked like an ancient palace, had an old-fashioned elegance that made it seem like a cultural heritage site itself.
When I tried to enter the library, a notice appeared, and something invisible reflected light, revealing the outline of a barrier.
[The entrance fee is 100 credits.]
When I took out 100 credits from my pocket, the credits disappeared, and the floating message and the barrier in the air vanished as well.
“100 credits just for this? That’s expensive. Or is it actually cheap?”
It was probably enchanted with some kind of magic. Still, it felt fascinating.
When I entered the library, an enormous number of books came into view.
There were quite a few people who seemed to be customers, and every single one of them either had a sword hanging from their waist or carried something like a magic staff on their back.
The appearances of the natives and climbers were not very different, but after walking around the city, I was able to tell the difference between natives and climbers.
It was whether or not they carried weapons.
Natives rarely had any reason to leave the city, so aside from the guards protecting the city gates surrounding the city or standing watch on the walls, they did not carry weapons.
On the other hand, climbers had to carry weapons because they needed to leave the city at any time to hunt monsters and gather shop points or climb to higher floors.
I didn’t know what happened on higher floors, but with the inventory of someone around the 10th floor, I had no choice but to carry weapons because of the weight limit.
If I had been an outgoing person, I might have tried talking to them, but that wasn’t really my personality, so I looked through the books instead.
The types of books were diverse: novels, humanities, magic, martial arts, geography, history, philosophy, and more.
Since I had learned the Blue Wood Sword, I took out a swordsmanship book from the martial arts section, but rather than a martial arts manual, it was mostly books about the mindset required to swing a sword, the definition of a sword, and things that weren’t very useful.
The magic section was the next thing that caught my interest, but instead of books on how to learn magic, they were mostly about what magic was and what types of magic existed.
Since magic was unfamiliar to me, it was somewhat interesting, but it wasn’t very helpful.
Well, perhaps it would have been strange if a place anyone could enter contained a way to learn meaningful abilities.
Thinking that, I wandered between the bookshelves and found a book titled <Abilities Obtainable in the Tower, Rarity 1, ‘Ga’ Volume 1>.
Next to Volume 1 of ‘Ga’ were up to Volume 4, and beside those were follow-up volumes like ‘Gya,’ ‘Geo,’ ‘Gyeo,’ ‘Go,’ and ‘Gyo,’ filling several bookshelves.
The preface of the ‘Ga’ section explained that abilities had rarity levels, and according to the classification of the book, the closer the rarity was to 1, the more common the ability was, while abilities closer to 10 were rarer.
I wondered if the ability called ‘Multidimensional Avatar’ was listed here, so I took out Volume 1 of the ‘Da’ section to check.
Since it started with ‘Da,’ I only had to look at the table of contents from the first page, but perhaps it wasn’t a rarity 1 ability because I couldn’t find the keyword ‘multidimensional.’
Well, just looking at the name, it obviously wasn’t a rarity 1 ability.
Thinking that, I looked for books on ‘Rarity 2,’ but I couldn’t find any books about ‘Rarity 2.’
I decided to ask a librarian if I found one later, and continued by taking out Volume 1 of the ‘Cheo’ section and checking the table of contents for ‘Blue Wood Sword.’
“Cheo, Cheok, Cheon, Cheol, Cheom, Cheop… Not in Volume 1. Volume 2: Cheot, Cheong. Page 160 onward… Blue Wood, Blue Wood… Here it is.”
<Blue Wood Sword (淸木劍). Rarity 1.
A basic sword technique taught to children of the Cheon Clan. It is a flowing sword technique that contains the energy of wood, one of the Five Elements, creating trajectories like willow leaves scattering in the wind. To use it properly, one must learn the Clear Wood Technique or another cultivation method containing the energy of wood among the Five Elements.>
“Clear Wood Technique?”
The name was similar, so I found it immediately.
<Clear Wood Technique (淸木功). Rarity 1.
A basic cultivation method taught to children of the Cheon Clan. It is a technique that stores the energy of wood, one of the Five Elements, in the dantian. By refining and storing energy that is hard like a tree and soft like the wind, it suits martial arts that emphasize gentleness. The Cheon Clan teaches it together with the Blue Wood Sword and Clear Wood Steps.>
“Clear Wood Steps? No, more importantly, cultivation energy? Is this really a martial arts novel?”
After searching, I found that Clear Wood Steps was a footwork technique.
But I obtained the Blue Wood Sword through an ability stone. Where do I get the other Clear Wood Technique and Clear Wood Steps?
Are they telling me to obtain them with my own ability?
Tower, you’re more unfriendly than I thought.
There was no more useful information to find in the library.
Agent K had recommended visiting the library to search for information when stuck while climbing the tower, not to go to the library before even climbing.
Well, my purpose was to learn about my ability, so at least I achieved the minimum goal.
Still, I wanted to see the ‘Ability Rarity 2’ book once.
Thinking that, I looked around and discovered an old man wearing librarian clothes reading a book in a corner of the library.
“Excuse me.”
When I approached the old librarian and spoke to him, he looked at me with surprised eyes.
“…Were you talking to me just now?”
At the librarian’s question, I looked around.
It was a hidden corner between bookshelves, and there was no one else.
“Yes, there’s no one around except you, sir.”
At my answer, the old librarian stared at me in admiration.
“Hmm, it has been a very long time since I’ve seen someone with such little talent.”
“…Isn’t that rude to say to someone you just met?”
I was only going to ask where the Rarity 2 book was, but instead I got insulted like this.
It was ridiculous.
Perhaps my expression showed clearly, because the old librarian apologized.
“Hahaha, my apologies. I was fascinated that you discovered me, so I ended up looking at you closely and seeing your talent as well.”
Isn’t that even more rude?
“Fascinated that I discovered you? Were you hiding your appearance with magic?”
Considering the magic at the entrance of the library, it wasn’t impossible.
“That’s right. In the long history of the Tower, you are only the third person to discover me. You should be proud enough.”
From the librarian’s words, I felt that he was an existence far beyond comparison with me.
“Are you someone who handles ‘Tower affairs’?”
The old librarian seemed to understand what I meant and nodded.
“Something similar. I am not a native. You have no talent for the Tower, but you have talent for magic.”
Are Tower talent and magic talent separate things?
“Good. Since you are the first person in a very long time to discover me, ask me whatever you are curious about. As a reward, I will answer what I can.”
“Uh, then…”
I thought for a moment before asking the fundamental question behind all my doubts.
“What is the purpose of the Tower’s existence?”
“Hah! That’s a question trying to get something for free. The answer is something you’ll learn as you climb the Tower.”
It wasn’t a proper answer, but the librarian seemed to like me even more.
“Then what are natives?”
“The same as my previous answer.”
“What do people like you do?”
At my question, the old librarian frowned.
But it didn’t feel like he was offended by my question. It seemed like he was thinking carefully.
“…I cannot answer that now. It will be difficult with your talent, but reach the upper floors and come find me. Then I will be able to answer you.”
Hearing that, I realized the old librarian was something like my clones.
Then was the old woman who increased my inventory also a similar existence to him?
The old librarian seemed to realize I had understood something and looked at me with an interested smile.
“Continue asking questions.”
“What is the Tower talent you mentioned earlier?”
“The talent for slaughter. You’ll know the details as you climb the Tower… No, for you, I think you’ll learn soon enough. Do you have shop points?”
At the librarian’s question, I shook my head.
“No. I used them all to expand my inventory.”
“I see. Then take this.”
The old librarian threw me a small magic stone.
“Convert this into shop points and buy ‘Mana Growth Potion 1’ from the shop.”
Following the old librarian’s words, I converted the magic stone into 1 point and bought the potion.
There were five types of potions in total, each named after a different stat.
As soon as I bought ‘Mana Growth Potion 1,’ the price changed to 10 points.
Looking at the item description, it said that ‘Potion 1’ would increase a stat by 1 when that stat was below 10, and would have no effect once it reached 10 or higher.
“Drink it.”
I immediately opened the potion bottle and drank it all at once.
“Oh, green grape flavor.”
Before I could fully process the sweet taste, I felt something inside me wriggling and flowing.
“Don’t lose that feeling. And look at my hand.”
Following the librarian’s words, I focused on the sensation flowing through my body while looking at his hand.
There was nothing on it.
No, that wasn’t true. There was something.
Something similar to what was flowing through my body.
“Six?”
At my muttering, the old librarian grinned.
“Then what is this?”
His hand had not changed at all, but something had.
“Seven? Nine, six, two, one, uh… C?”
A transparent number faintly appeared at his fingertips and continued changing.
“That’s correct. Check your status window. Your mana should be around 3 or 4, shouldn’t it?”
[Name: Han Jiwoo / Age: 21]
[Strength: 9 / Agility: 11 / Stamina: 9 / Intelligence: 15 / Mana: 4]
[Status: Normal]
[Abilities: Multidimensional Avatar Lv 10, Blue Wood Sword Lv 15]
It was true. My mana, which had been 1, had risen to 4.
The potion’s effect was supposed to increase mana by 1, though?
When I was surprised, the old librarian laughed and explained.
“The status window only displays your condition. The reason the potion increased your mana by 1 is because the potion contained enough mana to certainly raise it by 1. Normally, when someone like you has almost no mana, they cannot even sense the mana inside their body. But you sensed it, and I only helped you absorb a little more of the mana contained in the potion.”
“Those numbers?”
“That was to help you clearly feel it when your mana detection ability was at its highest, and I only trapped the mana so it wouldn’t escape from your body. You probably didn’t even feel my help.”
At the librarian’s answer, I bowed my head and thanked him.
In a way, this was a stroke of luck.
“Thank you.”
The old librarian waved his hand.
“It was nothing. Although I said I helped you, it was only like holding the hand of a child learning to walk so they could stand up. It was such a simple thing that calling it help is embarrassing. In the end, taking the first steps was the child’s effort, and absorbing the mana was only your own talent.”
“You mean the magic talent separate from Tower talent.”
“That’s right.”
Still, it was a relief to know I had some kind of talent.
“As you will learn from the community, climbers’ bodies do not age. And time also flows differently from your world. Try growing through the method of a mage, spending a long time rather than using the Tower’s method. I think that would be better for you.”
No way! The community post saying aging stops was actually true?
“How long would that method take?”
“Hmm… About a thousand years, perhaps?”
…A thousand years? Could that really be called talent?
“A thousand years is shorter than you think. At least if you try to grow through the Tower’s method, even ten thousand years would not be enough. Compared to ten thousand years, a thousand years is short.”
(To be continued)
