Why Did I Have to Enroll - Chapter 20

Lesson 5. The Tower is one-way – 3

A hallway with plenty of space even when four people entered abreast. The wall was lined with torches at regular intervals, but as they approached, they didn’t exude any heat. The Tower was a space that turned fantasy into reality, and Ban Yu-won realized that now he was inside.

‘But the funny thing is there is a clear concept of Fire in that torch.’

He considered taking it out, but it was impossible because Ban Yu-won didn’t have ownership of this torch. However, in the dungeon he entered, it was possible to extract the concept from the obvious trap even though it wasn’t his, so what could be the difference? Perhaps realizing this would help him to embody his abilities more deeply…

“Ban?”

“Oh, sorry. I spaced out for a second.”

Leaving his thoughts at Light’s call, he saw Dok Go-yeon giving him a fierce scowl.

“We’re in hostile territory. I won’t forgive even you if you lose it.”

“They said that the battle doesn’t start until the Shift happens, that is, until we get into Room 1. Don’t be too harsh on Ban.”

“Hmph.”

After entering the Tower, Dok Go-yeon was acting a bit more sensitive. It was Ban Yu-won’s fault, so he apologized to both of them, and the four of them grouped together and decided to explore the Tower in earnest. But when the atmosphere subsided and they started walking, Dok Go-yeon suddenly asked him.

“So, what did you check on the torch?”

“You knew and yet scolded me? You really…it’s a secret.”

“Weren’t you trying to see if you could extract that flame?”

This woman was too sharp, but Ban Yu-won pretended to be calm and nodded.

“Something like that.”

“But it didn’t work. If it were possible, we would have been able to freely utilize the topography of the Tower….”

“Stop thinking one step further than me about my abilities. It’s scary, and this isn’t the only thing I can do, so just wait and watch.”

“Ugh.”

At that moment, Ruchel let out a weak groan and grabbed Ban Yu-won’s arm. At the same time, Ban Yu-won watched as the concept of the Tower filling the air was transformed into something else.

“…Shift.”

“We’re now in Room 1.”

Light checked the number 1 flashing on the student ID hanging around his neck, bit his lip, drew the Sword of Light, and hefted it.

“Light, I’ll trust you, okay?”

“Just trust me.”

“We’ll see.”

The sword made of golden light was an artifact of a high level that the current Ban Yu-won couldn’t even imagine. Light’s behavior and personality changed from the moment he grabbed that sword was unsettling, but looking at the depths of the concepts overflowing from the sword, those worries seemed unfounded this time around.

“Ruchel, don’t hide and come out too.”

“Ah, uh, but….”

“If needed, I will kill them for you.”

Ban Yu-won didn’t understand half of the conversation between Dok Go-yeon and Ruchel. However, after hearing those words and seeing that Ruchel’s posture had straightened out, there seemed to be a connection between the two. They did share a room, so there was nothing strange about their relationship progressing.

If so, Ban Yu-won and Light, who shared the same room, must also understand each other in some ways…there seemed to be a high probability that it was one-sided.

“Up.”

Ruchel muttered as huge drops of water fell from the ceiling where there were nothing moments before. As Eve hurriedly transformed into a shield to block it, Light leaped forward and swung his sword. The water evaporated and disappeared with a pop.

“Cloth Eater. It’s a monster notorious for disarming explorers by devouring their equipment.”

It was a monster he had seen in a textbook that analyzed the various monsters appearing in the Tower. There was a high probability their equipment would become unusable if they weren’t scraped off in time. If unlucky, there were cases where they could end up naked. If it had happened without them noticing, it would be a disaster.

That’s why Ban Yu-won wasn’t disappointed. Not…disappointed…!

“Room 1, a Cloth Eater…fortunately, I think it will be advantageous for us. We’re all people with sharp senses.”

“I can’t guarantee that nothing else will appear. Everyone, keep an eye out.”

If there was one other characteristic difference between the dungeon and the Tower, the monsters randomly jumped out from the walls. The party set the areas each would be in charge of, up, down, left, and right, and went out of the room, diligently popping the Cloth Eaters. Compared to their stealth and speed, they lacked endurance, so there was no need to waste power.

“Hyahh!”

“Quiet. Are you going to be that loud every time you swing your sword?”

“Hap! Ugh…! And you, you are too quiet!”

“Hmph.”

Light fired off light from his sword, and Dok Go-yeon seemed to just snap her fingers, and water droplets in the distance burst by themselves.

“Hyaaaah!”

-Bang!

Surprisingly, on the other hand, Ruchel was an Infighter type, unimaginable given her slender body, but she smashed the enemies with her bare hands! Whenever a drop of water flew in her direction, she ran in at a startling speed and left no trace.

[You absorbed 0.8 Life, 1.3 Devil, and 1.1 Melting from many Cloth Eater corpses.]

‘No, she does leave some traces.’

Ban Yu-won smiled as he saw the chunk of code.

In fact, before he entered the Tower, he had two concerns. One was whether he could extract the codes from the monsters in the Tower just like the monsters from the dungeon, and the other was whether he would be able to extract the code from monsters his comrades had killed. In terms of the results, both were affirmative. Thanks to his increased ability, the codes could be released and absorbed without even approaching the corpses.

‘Of course, there are significant differences. The absorption of Life is significantly lower compared to when Eve or I directly kill them.’

However, he could absorb all other concepts and wouldn’t whine since he didn’t feel right stealing from his companion’s kills in the first place. He couldn’t tell them right now but considering that his ability would further strengthen his colleagues in the future, this was acceptable.

“Hmm…?”

At that moment, Dok Go-yeon, handling everything with a snap of her fingers, suddenly looked back at Ban Yu-won. He flinched, wondering if she had noticed that he was absorbing the codes, but she pointed to Eve.

“Is that what it looks like in battle?”

“Huh? Oh, well, yes.”

Claaank!

Eve had now turned into a bundle of chains and was floating in the air, shooting out whenever it saw Cloth Eaters. He gave Eve the whole 10 remaining Sharpness from what he had given Lilith yesterday, and since the act of shooting chains also fell into the category of Wild Shooting, it was brutally effective.

“It’s pretty good. It’s also fast….”

Even as she said so, her eyes clearly suspected it shouldn’t be that much. Ban Yu-won shrugged, stabbing the Cloth Eater that just rose by his feet.

“There are stronger ones, but they can be noisy.”

“Louder than them?”

At that, Dok Go-yeon snorted and pointed at Light and Ruchel, who were running wild ahead.

“Ha! Hyaah! Die!”

“Hahhhhh!”

Unlike Ban Yu-won, who knew that it was better not to make excess noise during a dungeon exploration, and Dok Go-yeon, who was naturally quiet, Light and Ruchel practically shouted their presence every moment. You know, the sounds that come out whenever we hit basic attack commands in a game? It was just like that.

“Light seems to have a lot of combat experience, so why….”

“Not all combat experiences are directly related to these special environments.”

After the battle, Ban Yu-Won let out a small sigh, deciding to tell them himself. But putting aside Light, Ruchel was…for some reason, it felt like she was driven by instinct, so he felt that she wasn’t going to get any better in the future.

After they advanced a bit while fighting like that, the Cloth Eaters started to decrease.

“Do you think the Room will be changing soon?”

“No. I feel a strong energy gathering, and a monster with a different level is about to appear.”

“It sounds like an elite monster will appear, but from Room 1….”

Elite Monster. Like a dungeon Boss Monster, it was a Tower monster with strong abilities. Unlike normal monsters that disappeared, leaving nothing behind when they died (that’s why Ban Yu-won could absorb the codes without hesitation), these guys often left something behind, so Elite Monsters were one of the ways that students could earn money in the Tower. The problem was that in most situations, encountering an Elite Monster meant getting kicked out of the Tower.

“…!”

As soon as he heard Dok Go-yeon’s warning, Ban Yu-won looked around. A stream of golden strings shone brightly on one side of the wall and gathered together!

It was closest to Ruchel.

“Ruchel!”

“!”

Ruchel also seemed to have noticed it. She swung one hand, sweeping away the Cloth Eaters around her, and then dashed straight toward the thing that had just sprung from the wall.

“Kyaaaaah!”

Was it the sound of the monster? Ban Yu-won, who tilted his head, soon realized it was Ruchel’s voice.

Baaang!

-Gaaaaaah

Ruchel pounded hard against the wall. Something huge and amorphous that was welling from within the wall was smashed and destroyed without even being able to escape. Small, black glass crystals fell between them, probably Magic Cores.

Ban Yu-Won hurriedly extracted the codes from the scattered monster’s corpse and looked at Ruchel.

“Pant, pant, pant…whew.”

After killing the monster, Ruchel was bent over and panting, but after her breathing calmed down, she picked up the Magic Core and returned to her party. Light looked at her with astonishment, and Dok Go-yeon, with a gaze that understood everything, nodded, but Ban Yu-won focused on her body. Precisely, her bangs.

‘I thought she had highlighted them, but no.’

The overall color of her hair was pink, and only a part of her bangs was dyed black, but now that part dyed in black was slightly stretched out. Moreover, a part of her body code that he hadn’t seen was clearly visible.

[Mental Brazier]

It combined the concepts of Mind and Fire. To interpret it, it could be said that she gained strength by burning her emotions like fuel.

‘What the hell? She’s a normal Berserker.’

Ban Yu-won, reaching that conclusion, smiled when he suddenly felt Ruchel pulling at his sleeve.

“W-Was that s-scary?”

“What?”

“That, just now….”

She must have misunderstood the reason Ban Yu-won was staring at her. He shook his head, denying her concerns.

“Not at all. It was rather reliable.”

“Still, if I…get worse.”

“I said it was okay.”

Perhaps Dok Go-yeon didn’t like the way Ruchel hesitated and pulled at Ban Yu-won’s sleeves as she spoke in a cold tone and slapped away her hand.

“If you lose your mind completely, I will kill you.”

“You can’t, Dok Go-yeon. If even one person dies, our exploration will have to start over from Room 1.”

“If you think you’ll keep going on like this, there is no choice but to climb with only us three. No, climbing only with Ban Yu-won wouldn’t be bad.”

“Uhh, uuuh.”

Indeed, Dok Go-yeon was Dok Go-yeon. Connection, my ass, she was only thinking about taking others out mercilessly!

Ban Yu-won smiled bitterly as he looked at Ruchel, who trembled even more at Dok Go-yeon’s cold attitude and gently grabbed her hand.

“I’ll think about it one more time.”

“Yes…?”

“Because I know why you are being more timid than necessary. We just need to find a solution.”

“Ah! T-Thank you…!”

Ruchel was so moved that she grabbed his hand and trembled. Seeing her like that, Ban Yu-won thought she was really like a puppy.

Meanwhile, Dok Go-yeon still wore a sulky expression.

“Were you just an ordinary man? Drooling over others’ appearances….”

“Such a misunderstanding. There’s just no need to help you.”

“Heh, there’s no point in changing your stance like that.”

Although Dok Go-yeon coldly kicked away his blatant flattery, Ban Yu-won, the owner of Complete Sight, was able to reaffirm the truth (at least to the extent that he experienced) from her subtle changes in expression that she appreciated the praise.

Ban Yu-won wasn’t particularly attracted to Ruchel’s beauty, and he did that just to make her feel better. To reiterate, the reason he held Ruchel’s hand wasn’t that he wanted to have close contact with a pretty girl.

[Mental Brazier 5 ― Anger 2, Maniac 3]

He was just analyzing her codes and thinking about how to get rid of the side effects of her ability.