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Chapter: 09
The Tower – Residential Floor 10 (4)
I was dumbfounded by what the old librarian said, but I couldn’t be rude to someone who had helped me, so I swallowed my true thoughts.
“Well, you’re still young, so it must feel overwhelming. Just think of it as advice from a senior who walked the path of magic before you.”
“Understood. The next thing I’m curious about is…”
“Is there anything else you’re curious about?”
At the old librarian’s question, I asked about something that had been bothering me.
“When I see credits being sold in the shop, it seems like climbers have a system where they can earn money easily, but the prices are abnormally high.”
“Ah, yes. It is certainly abnormal. The Tower’s economic system follows capitalism on a microscopic level, but on a macroscopic level, it is closer to communism.”
Communism means a distribution-based economy?
No, not just distribution. He must mean a strongly controlled economy.
“The problem with communism is that it failed to account for human greed. The desire to become wealthier than others, and the lowly greed of rulers who want to enjoy wealth and luxury even by exploiting their people. The Tower solved those two issues, and the current system is the result.”
“Solved them? Is something like that even possible?”
“First, the rulers. There are no rulers in the Tower. Since rulers do not exist, the vile greed of rulers cannot exist either.”
“Wasn’t the Tower like a nation? Then how can there be no rulers?”
The old librarian smiled at my question.
“You may learn this information if you reach the upper floors of the Tower and are lucky, but since this information is not restricted, I will answer you. The Tower is something like a nation, but it is not a nation.”
The old librarian’s words made me feel like I understood something.
“And the desire to become wealthy begins with ‘knowledge.’ To give an example considering your origins… it is like Master Wonhyo’s water from the skull.”
“You mean because they do not know about a richer way of life, they never develop a desire for wealth.”
Indeed, while walking around the city and observing the general lifestyle, some public facilities were as good as modern city facilities, but overall it felt like the era had not advanced beyond the Renaissance.
The only ways to hear news from outside the city were letters or newspapers, and the environment of other cities was probably not much different from this one.
“So climbers talking about their own worlds doesn’t have much meaning. Information that has not been experienced firsthand will inevitably be distorted by the person receiving it.”
The restaurant owner was fascinated by airplanes too, but the airplane he imagined in his mind would not be the same as the airplane I knew.
So the fact that all my electronic devices, including my smartphone, stopped working after entering the 10th floor of the Tower was also the Tower’s intention.
It was trying to prevent people from realizing the outside world through videos or photos.
“The natives of the Tower do not have a large gap between rich and poor, and a strong welfare system supports their lives whether they realize it or not.”
“It sounds like a utopia.”
“But utopia and dystopia are two sides of the same coin. A small amount of information can turn a utopia into a dystopia. The water inside a skull may be life-saving water that protects one’s life, but the skull containing that water feels horrifying.”
“So the Tower is basically a giant cage.”
The natives had no awareness that they were being oppressed, yet they were experiencing stronger oppression than anyone else.
“A complete Truman Show… no, maybe Animal Farm.”
Or perhaps it was 1984.
The old librarian gave a bitter smile at my evaluation.
“An Animal Farm where everyone is equal, or a wilderness where inequality and discrimination are severe. I do not know which is better. To be honest, I think I simply do not care. Why? Because it is not my problem.”
It is not my problem.
That might be a fundamental part of human nature.
Isn’t the majority of people uninterested in the misfortunes happening outside their awareness?
But is it right for me to teach those living peacefully about a misfortune they do not know about, and make them unhappy?
If my irresponsible words cause turmoil in their lives, would their lives actually become better?
Wouldn’t I only be taking apart their happiness and displaying their misery without having any way to solve it?
Thinking about it, there was once a statistic showing that a poor country had the highest happiness index in the world.
But that miracle happened because they were so poor that communication technologies like the internet could not reach them, so they did not know about better lives than their own.
As communication technology became cheaper, the internet entered poorer countries as well, and the happiness index of those countries dropped sharply after they encountered the outside world.
“Well, do not feel pity for their lives. Entering the Tower’s fence was their choice—or more accurately, the choice of their ancestors.”
“You mean a lion born in a zoo might not actually be happy if it returns to the wild. But is it really okay for you to tell me all of this?”
I sensed that the old librarian had been answering while including answers to my previous questions.
At my question, he shrugged as if he did not understand what I meant.
“I only answered because you asked questions that I was allowed to answer.”
“Understood. But if what you explained is true, why are credits sold so cheaply in the Tower shop?”
Even if prices were controlled by the Tower, there was no reason for climbers to become wealthy.
Of course, it was not exactly something I, who benefited from it, had the right to say.
“The Tower wants climbers to climb the Tower. If they are too consumed by daily life and cannot rise upward, then there would be no meaning in the Tower inviting climbers.”
“But wouldn’t giving everything away like this make them become complacent?”
“If someone could become complacent with just that much, then they would have become complacent for some reason anyway.”
Well, that was true.
“Why does the Tower want climbers to climb the Tower?”
“Because that is the meaning of the Tower’s existence.”
The old librarian seemed unable to explain further and urged me to ask another question.
I had gotten roughly enough hints about the things I was curious about.
After thinking for a moment about what else to ask, I remembered what I originally wanted to ask the librarian.
“It seems abilities have something called rarity. Is it simply determined by how rare they are? Looking at the bookshelf, there was only Rarity 1, and there were no volumes from Rarity 2 onward.”
The old librarian answered casually.
“From Rarity 2 onward, go to the library on the 20th floor. The knowledge permitted on the 10th floor is limited.”
“I see.”
When I accepted his answer, the old librarian smiled and continued.
“And rarity. Rarity is not determined only by how uncommon an ability is. It is determined by including the ability’s growth speed and the difficulty of learning and mastering it.”
The old librarian created a small ball of light with his fingertip.
“Is that a mass of energy condensed with magic power?”
I could instinctively tell that the light ball was made from the same power I had felt inside my body.
The old librarian nodded with satisfaction.
“That is correct. Try copying it once.”
I raised my finger and tried to imitate the flow of magic power moving through the old librarian’s hand.
Since this was the first time I had ever sensed magic power, it was awkward and difficult.
“Ah, I did it.”
However, after struggling for a few minutes, I succeeded in creating a small sphere just like the old librarian.
“Check your status window.”
Following his words, I checked my ability window.
“Huh?!”
Next to my ability, the words “Magic Bullet Lv1” were written.
“It is the most basic magic spell, the Magic Bullet. The status window only tells you your status. Abilities can be learned and mastered even without an ability stone. Magic Bullet is a simple spell that anyone can learn as long as their talent for magic is not completely hopeless.”
The old librarian fired a Magic Bullet at an empty wall, and I tried firing one as well.
The old librarian’s Magic Bullet hit the wall and disappeared, but mine only flew about one meter before vanishing in midair.
“An ability of Rarity 1 is ultimately about this level.”
The old librarian drew a line in the air and created a graph.
“The vertical axis represents strength, or level.”
He explained that level was roughly a value showing what floors an ability could be effective on.
“The horizontal axis represents the time required to train the ability. Rarity 1 abilities usually look like this.”
The graph rose sharply at first like a logarithmic function, then gradually slowed down until the growth became a straight horizontal line.
“It is easy to learn and grow at first, but the limits become obvious later. On the other hand, Rarity 5 and Rarity 9 abilities have growth curves like this.”
The Rarity 5 ability formed a straight diagonal line like a linear function, while the Rarity 9 ability, as people often say about exponential growth, had a curve like a quadratic function, growing slowly at first but becoming steeper later.
“Among the abilities obtained in the Tower, are there abilities with low rarity?”
The old librarian chuckled at my question.
“Of course there are. No, there are many. Most people probably receive Rarity 1 abilities. About nine out of ten people will have Rarity 1 abilities.”
“Then do people who receive low-rarity abilities have obvious limits?”
The old librarian shook his head.
“No. The Tower is fair. Didn’t the Tower give you new abilities or strengthen your existing abilities when you reached the 10th floor? If it was a summoning ability, your summoning slots increased. If it was a martial arts ability, you would have received new martial arts techniques that complemented your existing skills, such as cultivation methods or footwork.”
That was true. My “Multidimensional Avatar” had also gained another slot.
“Then wouldn’t someone who receives a high-rarity ability actually be at a disadvantage? If early growth is like this, wouldn’t everyone fall behind before reaching a certain point?”
“That is why ability stones exist in the Tower. There are also places where you can learn magic or martial arts inside the Tower. Just like you learned Magic Bullet a moment ago, you can learn low-rarity abilities there.”
After saying that, the old librarian showed me the location of a branch of the Mage Tower in this city.
The Mage Tower branch was not in the guidebook. Was this hidden information?
“In the beginning, climb the Tower using easy, low-rarity abilities. Later, climb higher using high-rarity abilities. Take this.”
The old librarian threw me a red magic stone.
“It is an ability stone. You may eat it, or simply think of it as absorbing it.”
“Is it really okay to just give something like this away?”
“Think of it as a reward for discovering me. You may not realize it, but finding me is that significant.”
“Then I will accept it gratefully.”
Following the generous old man’s words, I absorbed the ability stone without hesitation. Then, next to “Magic Bullet Lv1,” the words “Spirit Arts Lv1” appeared.
When I pressed Spirit Arts, it had a single slot like Multidimensional Avatar.
When I summoned a fire spirit, a fire spirit about the size of a finger joint appeared, filling the slot.
[Spirit Arts]
[Slot 1: Fire Spirit Lv1]
“Summoning-type abilities are usually Rarity 5 or higher, but Spirit Arts is a Rarity 7 ability. It is highly dependent on talent, but if you think about the distant future, it is an excellent ability. Work hard and raise your spirits.”
“Thank you.”
The old librarian said that abilities obtained through ability stones were only supplementary, so the Tower would not reward me with anything extra just because they grew stronger.
“Then it seems you have no more questions, so let us part ways.”
The old librarian slowly wrapped around himself, as if pulling space itself.
I asked him one final question.
“What is your name?”
The old librarian smiled and answered my final question.
“Come find me again when you reach the upper floors. I will tell you my name then.”
With those words, the old librarian completely disappeared.
(Continued in the next chapter)
