I got into school for nothing - Chapter 71
I got into school for nothing (71)
Lesson 15. Haven't you learned to be careful with contracts? - 5
As there was nothing to gain in Room 10, the party rested for a very short while, having only light snacks (the Elixir of Life jam was saved in case they got hurt in the Tower) before immediately moving on to Room 11.
From Room 11 onward, the room's scale expanded and the monsters' difficulty increased, so while Eve and Lilyth couldn't clear them on their own, the unique utility of the two familiars assisting them allowed the party to conquer the Tower at a much faster pace than before.
"If things go well, we'll reach Room 20 today."
"Naturally. As long as Light doesn't have another fit."
"I'm fine, I told you! Look! I'm wielding my spear properly!"
It wasn't solely thanks to Eve and Lilyth.
During their previous exploration, Rucell was plagued by her Heart Furnace, and Light by the Holy Sword's impulses, turning everything into a mess, but now, both were in peak condition.
As they sped forward relentlessly, they suddenly came to their senses.
"Oh, it's already Room 17."
"We've broken our previous record with this. Not that it's a particularly grand achievement."
"Yuwon and I have gone as far as Room 19."
"Beast, if you want to get Lost, don't beat around the bush... Hmm?"
There was another reason for their rapid exploration speed.
Unlike before, when an elite monster appeared roughly every other room, no special monsters had appeared from Room 1 to Room 16. Perhaps this was also related to their climbing record.
Fortunately, that record was immediately broken upon entering Room 17.
—Click, clack, click, clack
—Thump, thud, THUMP!
Mixed with the encroaching tide of Tower Spiders, which filled the surrounding walls, pillars, and floor as if with black ink, making unpleasant sounds, was a series of footsteps that vibrated the entire room.
Amidst the eerie mana that filled the area, Light gripped his spear shaft tightly and muttered.
"It's an elite."
—THUMP!
The room instantly expanded.
A house-sized spider descended from the wall, landing directly in front of the party, blocking their path.
Squish, the spiders on the floor were crushed, making an unpleasant sound.
"Another Tower Spider, another version. What, is it an Eevee or something? Why are there so many evolution types?"
"This one looks a bit unusual. On its carapace... what in the world is it carrying?"
Dokgo Yeon and the others didn't recognize it, but Ban Yuwon knew instantly.
What the Tower Spider carried on its carapace was a cannon.
"This son of a bitch is using modern weaponry that even climbers aren't allowed to bring into the Tower!"
—Creak, screech
"Hmm? I feel its energy gathering into that cylinder. ......Could there be something inside? Is it going to fire?"
"Precisely. We don't know what's going to come out, so everyone gather around me for now."
It had already been proven through several practical engagements—that any weapon or projectile, regardless of type, once fired, would immediately lose its power and have its concepts stripped away, disappearing under the influence of Ban Yuwon's Authority.
In other words, Ban Yuwon possessed a bullet nullification barrier.
Even considering this alone, it was an Authority powerful enough to be called exceptional!
—BANG!
The moment the party swiftly gathered near Ban Yuwon, the elite Tower Spider fired a projectile without any preparatory movements.
As Manjeokan grew, his dynamic vision also improved, allowing him to precisely track the projectile flying towards them.
It was a watermelon-sized projectile made of pure white threads.
‘Now that I think about it...’
Ban Yuwon extended his hand, manifesting his Authority, and thought as he dismantled and absorbed all of the projectile's concepts.
‘Even if I can absorb the concepts of objects, it'd be useless if I got hit before I could even see it. It's only an issue if I'm caught by surprise, though.’
As the projectile was dismantled, the concepts absorbed by him were three: 'Thread', 'Mana', and 'Adhesion'.
The one to watch out for was probably the last one: 'Adhesion'.
"Its adhesive power is excellent. Be careful not to get stuck, Light."
"Why are you singling me out with that warning?"
He probably remembered the humiliation he'd suffered because of it in the past.
Light, needlessly annoyed, gripped his spear and charged at the giant spider, and the creature shrieked, rapidly firing projectiles at him.
"As if I'd get hit by something I've already seen!"
Light kicked off the ground, accelerating, and easily dodged the projectiles, then swung his spear widely, severing the monster's front leg in a single blow!
Crunch—BANG!
He then struck the creature's head with his mana-infused spear shaft, shattering its carapace, and just as he twisted the spearhead to pierce it through.
"Dodge!"
"Tch!"
—CRACKLE-CRUMBLE-BANG!
Several projectiles flew in quick succession, turning the spot where Light had been into a dense spiderweb.
Not only had the creature's front leg, which had been miserably severed and spewing murky blood, transformed into a new cannon, but the cannon on its carapace had also split into four!
"Ban!"
"Got it!"
He had already been feeling intrigued by the concept of 'Adhesion'.
Ban Yuwon immediately absorbed the concept of the spiderweb scattered across the floor, then rushed towards the spider.
"Eve, Lilyth! You two handle the projectiles."
"Ssssht!"
—BA-POW!
—Screech!
The division of labor was extremely efficient.
Every time the wretched spider was attacked, it transformed a part of its body into a cannon, firing a continuous volley of horrifying adhesive projectiles, but......
Lilyth, swiftly dashing across the ground (the room's expansion due to the elite's appearance allowed her to race freely), and Eve, freely soaring through the air, cleanly absorbed all of them.
"Time to finish it!"
"—Hup!"
In the meantime, Ban Yuwon and Light utterly pulverized the spider.
There was no need for Rucell or Dokgo Yeon to even step forward.
[Life 1, Physique 0.5, Demonic Beast 1, Artillery 13, Carapace 7, Transformation 5]
"......Hmph."
To think that even the concepts extracted from the elite in Room 15 only boosted Ban Yuwon's Life by a mere 1.
No, perhaps it should be expressed as 'it increased by as much as 1'.
Ban Yuwon, inversely realizing how much he had grown over the past two weeks, was organizing the concepts when he saw something fall from beneath the vanishing elite's corpse.
"An Artifact?!"
Light, surprisingly the most sensitive to physical goods among the party, cheered and ran over.
However, after inspecting the spoils, a bizarre groan escaped his lips.
"Ugh, this is gross... Ban, come here and take this."
"Lately, I sometimes feel like you're my younger sibling."
"Quite often, I feel like you guys are just rookies."
"Include me in that too...!"
Ban Yuwon ignored the two (Dokgo Yeon was teasing Rucell, saying, "Then let's just call you a pet.") and took the spoils from Light's hand.
Indeed, as soon as he received the cylinder-like object, he understood why Light had recoiled in disgust.
It wasn't a processed artifact, but the cannon that had been attached to the elite Tower Spider itself.
"It's not just a leftover body part. All the components that could be called a cannon have been synthesized. Look, it seems like a large cylinder on the outside, but it has seven muzzles."
"D-don't push it closer!"
How cute.
As Light scurried away to hide behind Dokgo Yeon, Rucell glared at Ban Yuwon again.
"Yuwon, that's mean."
"It's not even that gross. There's hardly any trace of the spider left."
Ban Yuwon shrugged, tapping the sturdy carapace exterior, then proceeded to inspect the inside of the gun barrel.
It wasn't merely several gun barrels joined together.
An extremely precise synthesis had taken place, and it seemed capable of firing seven projectiles simultaneously without issue, if only it could be loaded.
Ban Yuwon, who had been wondering if it was an artifact, soon realized the answer.
‘Indeed, this used 'Adhesion'. To think it could attach things so seamlessly.’
He had wondered why concepts like 'Cannon' and 'Adhesion' didn't appear after the creature died, but it turned out they were all concentrated within this cannon barrel.
Perhaps such special byproducts, imbued with the monster's characteristics, were meant to become artifact materials.
No, if that's the case, wouldn't it be fine for Ban Yuwon to create an artifact directly using this?
"Whatever it is, why don't you do it later, Ban Yuwon? The path ahead is blocked, and no shift is occurring."
"Well, I'm an expert at solving such problems."
Ban Yuwon first tucked the spoils—the multi-barreled cannon—into his embrace and turned around.
Scanning his surroundings, he quickly found a hint to proceed to the next room.
Scattered and embedded in various parts of the wall were fragments of a colossal concept (likely a concept that induces changes in the Tower).
Upon closer inspection, they were shimmering gem fragments.
"I found that too. But I can't extract them. And I'm hesitant to just break them."
"You don't extract or break them. You connect them as they are."
"Connect them?"
"With spiderwebs."
Seeing the multi-barreled cannon that came from the elite, he was sure: the adhesive properties of its spiderwebs weren't just about stickiness; they possessed the ability to completely join objects together—to put it rather hastily, to fuse them.
Therefore, the orthodox method for clearing this room was probably to move around, fighting the elite, luring it to shoot spiderweb projectiles at the walls, and then using those webs to connect the fragments embedded in the walls.
This would unite all the scattered fragments, making the concept whole.
"How... how is such an idea possible?"
"Yuwon is a genius."
Dokgo Yeon, unable to comprehend why Rucell looked so proud, wore a perplexed expression.
Ban Yuwon was now accustomed to such sights.
"In games, you'd be surprised how often things like this appear. Connecting dispersed power sources with wires or something... At least with this, you just need to combine them without any specific connection rules, so that's a relief."
Wouldn't clearing this room be impossible now that the elite, who would fire adhesive projectiles, was dead?
Of course not; the Tower never completely blocks a climber's path.
It was set up to trigger a shift even if the fragments were all destroyed.
However, just as they had experienced a multi-shift by finding a shortcut in Room 6 previously, clearing it through the orthodox method would likely yield significant additional rewards.
"And remarkably, I can clear it using a method that surpasses the orthodox."
"Ban Yuwon, you know what? You're really annoying right now."
"So cool...!"
"Rucell, it's because you're spoiling him that Ban is getting weirder and weirder."
From the start, Ban Yuwon, who could conceptualize and absorb concepts from all objects, had no need to specifically borrow the power of the 'Adhesion' concept.
As Ban Yuwon extended his hand, strings of concepts simultaneously emerged from the sparkling gem fragments embedded in the wall.
"Ah."
"The gems are breaking..."
"Empty gems like these aren't important."
Soon, all the concepts gathered above his palm, emitting a dazzling light and becoming one.
Within it, Ban Yuwon could read the concepts of 'Myriad Changes', 'Origin', 'Concealment', and 'Passageway'.
However, these were intricately intertwined by the Tower's rules, which Ban Yuwon couldn't yet replicate, making it seem impossible to separate or process parts of them.
"Now, if I inject this entirely into the wall."
The moment the concept extending from his hand touched the wall, light radiated outward from it in waves, expanding and creating a hole large enough for a person to enter.
He was certain that crossing this wouldn't just end with a simple shift.
Could it possibly be a shortcut directly to Room 20?
"How about it?"
Ban Yuwon looked back at his party, and they were all showing the expected reactions.
Marveling with their mouths agape—that was the proper attitude for an audience.
"...Whether it's a trap or a labyrinth, Ban just takes care of everything, so now I can't even tell if we're climbing the same Tower as other students."
"Calm down, Light. The real Tower hasn't even begun yet. According to the lectures, the room sizes become uncontrollably vast once you pass Room 100."
"Didn't we agree not to use phrases like 'once we pass those few rooms~~'?"
However, for the revival of the Rebellion channel, larger room scales might be better.
To be fair, there wasn't much worth salvaging from today's footage.
"The progress is too easy and monotonous, what should I do? Would it have been better if we'd gotten caught in a labyrinth or a trap just once...?"
"What you just showed was interesting enough."
Dokgo Yeon replied, dumbfounded by Ban Yuwon's carefree remark.
But what was truly interesting was about to begin.
—My heavens, an individual surpassed the Tower's design? In mere Room 17!
—I knew it, damn it! Though I didn't expect you to pull off something this grand...!
—Oh child, the endless vitality surging within you has borne fruit so early!
"......Hm?"
Just as the party was about to step into the luminous opening.
—The Tower stopped, and the voices of the Constellations began to be heard.
Quite a lot of them, too.
—The Tower has stopped. Because of what happened right here, right now!
—To think we would meet again so soon. My beloved child! May this meeting be blessed in the name of the Observer of All Things!
—Oh, I shall designate this place a temporary Sanctuary. Stars, please approach with caution and care.
The surroundings were dyed pure white, and luminous orbs appeared from all directions, enveloping the party.
A phenomenon said to occur when a large number of Constellations gathered in one place—Sanctification.
A place where humans could choose Constellations, rather than Constellations choosing humans.
It was a moment when a miracle, rare even in history, unfolded.
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