Chapter 37: 37

[The 20th floor’s level 10 trial starts now . ]

What appeared in front of Su-hyeun was a massive castle wall and numerous soldiers spread out below it . The soldiers, standing close together like ants, looked down from the top of the wall . Just by looking at them, Su-hyeun knew what he had to do .

But it was strange . No matter how he saw it, there was no one but himself around . Unlike the thousands of soldiers below, he was alone .

[The trial starts now . ]

[Recently, thousands of soldiers and mercenaries are guarding the impenetrable fortress, the kingdom Gran Dalum . It is your responsibility to use all methods to take down the fort . ]

[Take down the castle . There is no limit to what methods can be used . You may recruit allies within the arena . ]

[But please remember: you are not their enemy . ]

[You have a month to complete this . ]

[You will fail this trial if you die or exceed the given time limit . ]

[Please take down the fort . ]

[Dig up the castle’s secrets . ]

[The rewards will differ according to the results of the trial . ]

The mission’s contents were quite lengthy . Through the contents, Su-hyeun was able to infer some facts .

Firstly, the aim to “dig up the castle’s secrets” was clearly written, which meant solely taking down the castle was not the only objective .

Furthermore, he was told that the soldiers and mercenaries were not Su-hyeun’s enemies . Looking at this, he could understand the gatekeeper’s hint .

But why? Why would the citizens’ lives dictate the rewards?

The Tower’s system did not deem humans’ lives to be that important . There were usually missions to kill, but missions to save were rare . To Su-hyeun’s knowledge, there wasn’t any mission that stops one from killing the enemy just to let them realize how precious life was .

Su-hyeun looked up at the castle and scratched his head .

“This is difficult . ”

One could have come up with many assumptions based on their own thoughts . But Su-hyeun could never find out anything by just standing there .

Su-hyeun closed his eyes and amplified the radius of his magic as far as possible . The magic was spread over the soldiers and mercenaries . With that, Su-hyeun was able to clearly feel each and everyone’s feelings .

Most of the mercenaries were around the standards of a C-rank awakener . The other soldiers were quite well-trained as well .

It was by no means easy to take down the steep walls and thick iron gates that were guarded by thousands of soldiers . Furthermore, according to the gatekeeper’s words, Su-hyeun could not even kill them .

The trial’s difficulty suddenly skyrocketed exponentially .

How should he clear the trial? Others would definitely have this thought on their minds if it was them, as missions of that standard should never have appeared on 20th-floor trials .

Of course, that would be the case for other awakeners . It might be an impossible trial for other awakeners who ascended the Tower in the usual way up to the 20th floor, but it wasn’t the case for Su-hyeun .

The time coincided nicely . Su-hyeun had aimed to clear this floor within a month as well . He thought he knew why he was given a time frame of a month .

Amongst the mission’s contents, the hint said, “You can form allies . ”

Perhaps during that month in that world, Su-hyeun might have to go through a complicated process such as meeting someone from that castle and having a hostile relationship with them .

But…

“With a time limit of one month…”

Trudge—

Su-hyeun started walking towards the castle’s wall .

“It’s too long . ”

That process should be omitted . It was too troublesome, and it didn’t match his personality . Moreover, he didn’t feel the need to go through with it . It was something that he had to face head-on now .

Su-hyeun felt that it would be sufficient for him to do it on his own .

The gigantic castle, which was a few hundred meters tall, could be seen from farther away .

Su-hyeun approached it slowly without hurry, with the thought that he had ample time . Every time the distance between him and the castle narrowed, he could sense something from within the castle .

Another reason why Su-hyeun ambled towards the castle was to observe the reactions of those guarding it .

“Stop!”

As the distance narrowed to a certain length, mutters could be heard from the top of the castle .

Su-hyeun was unsure if magical effects were used, but the voice was different . A small amount of magic could be felt, as well .

Su-hyeun stopped in his tracks and looked upwards . Soon, he could hear the voice again .

“You can’t come any nearer . Turn around!”

It was a pressurizing voice .

Su-hyeun looked at the owner of the voice distinctly . Although the distance was far, he concentrated magic on his eyes and allowed him to see the other party distinctively .

“Sorry, but can’t I stay over for a few days?”

“No! This place isn’t for ordinary people… . ”

The man who was responding to Su-hyeun stopped talking when he realized that something was amiss . How could such a small voice be heard that clearly when there was a considerable distance between them? It was impossible unless he had pretty good magic control .

“You . What are you?”

“I’m just a passer-by… I wanted to borrow your castle for a while . ” Su-hyeun started walking once more . “So, all of you please come out of the castle . ”

“This crazy man!”

A commotion arose at the top of the castle .

It seemed that they had now recognized Su-hyeun as their enemy .

They shouldn’t have felt threatened when only one person was walking towards their castle, but after they realized how good Su-hyeun’s magic control was, they seemed to become defensive .

Of course, Su-hyeun would not feel scared with just that .

“Now, let’s…”

As soon as Su-hyeun realized the other party was prepared to fight, he took out the sword, Gram, which was hung by his hip .

“It finally commenced . ”

Clink—

With Su-hyeun’s magic, Gram produced a low sound .

Numerous arrows shot out from within the castle, with the arrowheads aimed towards Su-hyeun . Su-hyeun then stepped forward, giving strength to his step .

Spat—

A big leap brought Su-hyeun’s body up into the air . With another big leap, Su-hyeun flew even further up tens of meters instantaneously .

“Shoot!”

The man who seemed like a commander did not fluster and gave out his order . Someone with skills similar to Su-hyeun’s probably existed amongst them as well .

Slick, slick—

Phewwwww—

Hundreds and thousands of arrows were shot over Su-hyeun’s head .

The mercenaries’ archery skills were quite excellent . Even with a long distance between them, the arrows were aimed quite accurately at Su-hyeun .

Burning—

Flame shot out from the sword that Su-hyeun was brandishing, making the arrows from over his head pour down . At the same time, Su-hyeun vanished from that position .

Su-hyeun’s clone attracted everyone’s attention in an instant when it arrived near the gate . Only a minority could capture such instantaneous movements without missing .

“Over there!”

But even that wasn’t good enough because Su-hyeun had already arrived in front of the gates .

“I’ll break it in one go . ”

Woong—

Su-hyeun injected magic into Gram .

With the highest strength and length, as well as an unbelievable sharpness, Gram was a sword optimized for cutting things .

No matter how sturdy or impenetrable the gate was, Gram could still cut through it .

Grip—

Su-hyeun grasped Gram with all his might .

The gate’s thickness exceeded the sword’s length by multiple folds . But even so, Su-hyeun never thought that he would not be able to cut through the gate .

A tremendous amount of magic enveloped Gram and increased its length .

The sharpness of Gram’s blade was due to the rotating friction by the extremely fine magic . Su-hyeun increased the maximum range of that rotation and forced it to increase its speed as well . Gram’s range and power had doubled .

Although quite a substantial amount of magic had been used…

“Good . ”

It should be enough .

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Su-hyeun brandished his sword as he approached closer to the gate .

The sword didn’t seem like it had cut through anything . The gate made of sturdy iron had been cut like soft tofu .

Clash, clash—

The slashed gate fell to the ground . It was destroyed to the extent that it was beyond restoration .

“T-the gate is broken!” Someone called out from the top of the castle .

Su-hyeun muttered as he drew in deep breaths after having used up such a tremendous amount of magic in a short time .

“It’s not broken, but…”

As if they were instructed to meet Su-hyeun, numerous soldiers appeared from behind the gate .

“It’s been cut . ”

Su-hyeun was now certain after having used it .

Gram was the best sword .

Act 8

At Su-hyeun’s request, Lee Ju-ho went to the nearest Awakener’s Authorities at City Hall . Several of the nation’s awakeners were waiting in the building . Additionally, politicians who were managing the awakeners had their offices in the higher levels .

Lee Ju-ho presented his awakener’s registration card and headed up to the higher level floors of the building . A few awakeners who recognized him greeted him .

“Oh, isn’t this Lee Ju-ho? What brings you here?”

Along the corridor, Lee Ju-ho bumped into one of the high ranking members of the authorities who also the nation’s A-rank awakener, Kim Do-ui . As they were quite acquainted after having met a couple of times before, Lee Ju-ho greeted him and said, “I have something to attend to . Is Director Lee in?”

“Yes, he should be in . I don’t think he has any appointments today . ”

“Is that so? That’s great . ”

“You needed to see the Director? Shall we go together?”

“There’s really no need…”

“I actually have something to tell him about the green level dungeon attack that happened recently . Let’s go together . ”

Lee Ju-ho finally nodded and agreed after agonizing for a while how Kim Do-ui joining him would work out . He thought Kim Do-ui might be able to assist in persuading the Director .

“If so, let’s go then . ”

Lee Ju-ho and Kim Do-ui headed towards the Director’s room .

The Director who oversaw the Awakeners Accreditation Authority and managed the nation’s awakeners was an old man well over his 60s .

He had a face filled with dark pigmentation and droopy eyes, with an unreadable expression . Formerly a presidential candidate, he was the highest-ranking council member managing the authorities and all the nation’s awakeners .

“Director, you have guests . ”

Kim Do-ui, who had been serving the Director for a long time, treated him quite comfortably . The Director quickly glanced at Lee Ju-ho and returned to reviewing his documents, and asked, “What is it?”

Lee Ju-ho didn’t seem to be of any importance to him . Lee Ju-ho, who had known well of the Director’s personality, spoke without getting flustered .

“I have a favor to ask . ”

“A favor?”

“Yes . It is related to the safety of the citizens . ”

The citizens’ safety . It was a problem that the Director of the Awakener’s Authority had to deal with in the highest priority . It was a subject important enough to draw the Director’s attention .

“The citizens’ safety…”

The Director’s attention returned to Lee Ju-ho once again .

“Come, let’s hear about it . ”

Done .

As he met the fastidious Director, he let out some bait that could possibly provide him more time to talk .

Lee Ju-ho felt relieved and started to relay Su-hyeun’s words .

“Now that I’ve met the Director, firstly…”