Why Did I Have to Enroll

The purpose of the academy is to make students climb the tower.

There were lectures that new students had to take solely to prepare for climbing the tower, and there was a textbook prepared for that purpose.

Everything from trap sections to mazes to types of monsters was all covered in this textbook.

"Hm?"

"This is..."

However, the space they encountered upon entering Room 9 was unlike anything that had ever appeared in the textbook.

Unlike the corridor-like form the rooms had taken until now, this place felt like a massive temple, with several stone pillars irregularly jutting up from the floor, reaching as if to pierce the ceiling, giving a very imposing impression.

"There are no monsters and the ceiling is high... It's similar to a rest area."

Light, who had regained his vitality since grasping the sword of light again, like Kenshin who had stabbed Anbakgong, muttered while raising his head to look at the ceiling.

"No, it's different. There was no mention of pillars like these in the rest area. The number is also clearly still at 9."

"I think the room numbers no longer have any meaning in our exploration..."

"Enemy, here."

Luciel said in a strong tone, pulling Ban Yu-won behind her.

But as Ban Yu-won turned his gaze, being led by her, he suddenly shouted convulsively.

"Dokgo Yeon, dodge!"

—Kwaaang!

A massive bullet with a diameter of 1 meter, fired from between the pillars, engulfed Dokgo Yeon!

Ban Yu-won simultaneously rolled on the ground, catching sight of the disintegrating cannon, and narrowed his eyes.

The cannon was big, but it was hard to believe it had fired a bullet of that size.

It was likely a type of magic device that enlarged the projectile after firing, in other words, a ma-tool.

"...Ban Yu-won."

Was Ban Yu-won's warning not too late, or was it unnecessary to begin with?

Dokgo Yeon's voice, not a breath out of place, came flying from beyond the firmly held, stationary bullet.

"Didn't you say that no one but you could use machines inside the tower?"

"That's why it broke after being used once."

Ban Yu-won retorted grumpily, but inwardly felt relieved.

If he had been hit by such a ridiculously large bullet, he would have been pulverized without leaving a trace, but she seemed to be fine, fortunately.

If that was also thanks to Mysterious Body Technique, he firmly resolved to diligently practice Mysterious Body Technique from now on, whether sleeping or awake, as he raised one hand.

"Light, over there."

"It was there!"

Ban Yu-won, who had pinpointed the 'Irregular's' position at the moment of firing, gestured to indicate its location instead of Dokgo Yeon, whose movement was delayed by catching the metal chunk.

"...Tch!"

"Did it disappear?"

"Light, go straight in the 3 o'clock direction!"

The thing that had been hiding between several pillars rising from the floor towards the sky tried to quickly conceal itself after realizing its attack had failed, but it was too brazen to believe it could hide again after already being spotted by Ban Yu-won.

"Turn. 5 o'clock direction!"

"Got it!"

Even if that thing had any kind of 'stealth' ability!

"Haaaaaap!"

"Kuk?!"

Light, gripping the sword of light tightly, charged at a speed that could truly be called the speed of light.

A swift and gallant movement, different from when he didn't have the sword!

Then what was Ban Yu-won doing? Knowing he would be no match for the Irregular, he was staying put— or not.

"Dokgo Yeon, give that to me!"

"This? Alright!"

Dokgo Yeon threw the metal chunk to Ban Yu-won without hesitation.

Ban Yu-won snorted as he reached out towards it.

'Your acting skills in pretending to be amazed at blocking that are excellent, but I can see right through it.'

The bullet that the Irregular had fired at Dokgo Yeon wasn't just about blocking it.

The real deal was the explosive magic power imbued within it.

What it had fired wasn't an ordinary Bullet (弾丸) but a bomb (爆弾).

[Absorbing Magic Bomb 30!]

The bullet cutting heavily through the air, the intense magic wave trying to ignite within it.

He extracted a deep-level concept from within it in one breath, without discrimination.

"What?!"

It was quite amusing to see the Irregular's dumbfounded expression as it watched the bomb flying from Dokgo Yeon to Ban Yu-won.

Perhaps thinking it would explode in mid-air, it hastily initiated evasive maneuvers.

The way it was pushed back several dozen meters in an instant was clearly handling a special concept like the 'wave (波)' that Ban Yu-won dealt with, in other words, a skill.

Light, catching up to it, shouted with an expression full of anger.

"Where do you think you're running!"

"You bastards who are about to die... Huh?"

The bullet, no, that's not right.

The bomb imbued with magic power vanished in mid-air without exploding.

Ban Yu-won confirmed the terribly aggressive deep-level character string wrapping around his hand and smirked, mocking it.

"The bomb doesn't seem to be working properly, looks like you brought a defective product from somewhere."

"That's impossible...!"

The bomb vanishing just like that must have been quite shocking, as the Irregular shouted in anger, seemingly forgetting it was the enemy.

Forgetting there was a swordsman with a sword of light right in front of it.

"Ha!"

"Kuk...!"

The moment light flashed, blood spurted into the air.

The Irregular retreated, clutching its shoulder with a muffled groan.

At that moment, the air around it rippled as if something was about to burst out, but by then, Dokgo Yeon's hands were already free.

"What...?!"

As she snapped her fingers, the cracks all exploded and disappeared at once.

Dokgo Yeon, who had effortlessly neutralized the enemy's trump card, nodded and said, "Hmm."

"You can even handle spatial powers? Interesting. When you break down each principle, it's truly a remarkable possibility, but why is the power itself so small... Perhaps this is the true nature of the authority that those so-called Constellations bestow?"

"But isn't that a person? Why is a person popping out instead of a monster?"

"Just what the hell are you guys!"

It shouted, filled with rage.

I'm not sure who's saying what they want to say right now.

But before Ban Yu-won could say anything, it glared and shouted.

"It was a bomb designed to explode even in the tower! And mere freshmen like you...!"

"A bomb? Ah."

Realizing that Ban Yu-won had detected and prevented it beforehand, Dokgo Yeon turned to him with a slight smile.

Of course, even if the bomb had exploded as it was, she had means to protect herself, but the other companions might not have.

If that had happened, it would have been entirely her mistake, so it could be said that Ban Yu-won had helped her.

But apart from that, as she suddenly realized that the opponent had almost humiliated her, her gaze towards the Irregular grew even colder.

"I suppose I'll have to cut off its legs at least."

"No, we have to kill it!"

It was Luciel's voice.

Ban Yu-won suddenly noticed that Luciel had separated from him and was running towards the Irregular.

Perhaps she had been sticking close to him until now to protect him from the Irregular's threat.

If so, why did she suddenly start moving now?

"Right now!"

With a shout, Luciel kicked off the ground.

Her beautiful pink hair, fluttering gracefully in the air, began to turn black all at once.

Ban Yu-won could see the concept of 'Madness' suddenly overflowing from within her body.

"Luciel?! What's suddenly wrong with you!"

"Get out of the way!"

"Wait, Luciel...!"

Light was just bewildered by Luciel's clearly abnormal appearance.

If he had trusted Luciel's judgment, he would have immediately turned around and chopped off the Irregular's head with his sword blade, but unfortunately, Light lacked that level of perception!

"Grrrrrr!"

Just as Luciel was about to pass by Light and scratch off the thing's head with her nails.

A transparent barrier appeared in mid-air, lightly deflecting her.

"Kuk... Kuaaaaa?!"

At the same time, the Irregular began to scream, clutching its head and rolling on the ground.

More importantly, it was the strange magic power that began to swell up inside the creature's body.

—Thud

A violent vibration occurred.

Ban Yu-won realized that it originated from the stone pillar that had sprung up in the corner.

—You have failed, foolish one.

Ban Yu-won sensed an overwhelming intent flowing from the stone pillar.

He had felt such a presence once before.

It was a Constellation.

"No! I can do more! I can do more!"

—Sacrifice yourself to earn your comrades' 'share'.

"I'm telling you I can do it! I can kill them! I can survive and contribute!"

The Irregular seemed to be hearing that intent directly, as it knelt on the spot, covering its ears and shouting as if screaming.

But the Constellation did not believe the human's claim.

—For Exodus, sacrifice yourself.

"Nooooooo!"

There was no time to hesitate.

Ban Yu-won, cursing, threw the concept of 30 he had been holding in his hand.

"Everyone, fall back!"

Golden strings of characters extended from his hand, wrapping around the Irregular's entire body like chains.

The trigger to activate it was his magic power injected into the concept.

The moment the Mysterious qi generated by the Mysterious Body Technique he had learned from Dokgo Yeon burst into black flames, the strings of characters enveloping the creature glowed and grandly swelled!

—What...?!

The Constellation's voice of astonishment could be heard.

Ban Yu-won saw it clearly.

The moment the concept of the magic bomb ignited due to the Mysterious qi, the abnormally swelling magic power inside the creature's body was also sucked into it!

Perhaps it was because the magic power swelling up inside the creature had similar explosive properties to the magic bomb.

'I learned something good.'

To be able to absorb a similar type of concept emitted by the opponent with the concept he had emitted.

Of course, the applications might be limited, but as he collected various concepts, wouldn't such fortunate occurrences happen again?

Ban Yu-won thought this as he prostrated himself on the spot.

The explosion occurred.

"Eek!"

"Kuk...!"

"Oh my!"

Although they hadn't paid much attention to Luciel's warning, Dokgo Yeon and Light seemed to have promptly followed Ban Yu-won's warning, as they all retreated as far as possible to avoid the explosion.

Of course, since it was an attack using the concept itself rather than a concept contained in matter, the range of the explosion was quite small, but...

Nevertheless, it was more than enough firepower to dispose of the Irregular, even to the point of excess.

"There's a hole."

"Ban Yu-won, you..."

The group muttered in astonishment as they confirmed the deeply carved traces left as if bombardment had been poured only on the spot where the Irregular had been.

"I just used the enemy's attack."

As Ban Yu-won got up from his seat and spoke with a sigh, neither Luciel nor Dokgo Yeon could continue their words.

The ability he had just shown felt different from what he had displayed against the Giant Glitch in Room 5, but they couldn't express exactly what it was.

"Ban, are you okay? You just..."

Meanwhile, Light seemed to be worried about him in a different sense.

Tightly gripping his glowing holy sword, his expression, as if suppressing something, made one wonder if he might have some trauma related to killing.

"We killed someone who was trying to kill us. It's no big deal."

So Ban Yu-won responded as nonchalantly as possible.

It was partly to calm Light down, but it was also a kind of self-hypnosis.

"Besides, this is the Tower. He might not even be dead."

—He's dead.

The voice of the Constellation interjected again.

—He is certainly dead. Because he was killed in battle with a climber inside the Tower.

Well, in fact, he had roughly expected that he would be dead.

He had a hunch that getting involved with these so-called Constellations would never end well, no matter what.

Ban Yu-won didn't bother to respond to the Constellation's voice and gestured to his party members.

Dokgo Yeon, Light, and even Luciel, who was barely holding onto her sanity, approached and huddled together around him.

—You sacrificed a precious member yet gained nothing. You should have been suspicious when the Tower allowed it.

"Does it taste good when you keep cutting off the beginning and end like that? Try speaking straight for once, buddy."

After confirming that everyone was in perfect condition, Ban Yu-won finally responded to the Constellation's voice.

But that voice merely snorted at Ban Yu-won's words.

—I have only one thing to tell you.

Kugugugugu.

Perhaps as a price for performing the miracle of exploding a person, even though it ended in failure.

The giant pillars that had been sprouting up here and there began to sink one after another.

At the same time, the presence of the Constellation began to fade away.

—We are Exodus. Your adversaries.

Eventually, all the pillars sank, and Room 9 regained its peace.

Ban Yu-won sighed as he confirmed that the presence of the Constellation had completely disappeared.

"What kind of Constellation has no middle ground?"

"Forget middle ground, everything that's appeared so far has been nothing but enemies."

"Exodus... Damn, what's going on here."

As Dokgo Yeon chuckled while echoing Ban Yu-won's words, Light suddenly burst out with a curse.

Light explained to Ban Yu-won, who was looking at him with a puzzled expression, in a tone as if he was chewing his words.

"Exodus is the most famous group of dimensional pirates across all dimensions. And now a Constellation sponsoring those guys is after our lives!"

At the moment when Light, who was strangely knowledgeable about dimensional matters, made his point.

Dokgo Yeon, as if finally understanding, hit his palm with his fist and said,

"Dimensional pirates, huh. Then I guess that guy from earlier is likely to be the intruder they mentioned last week."

"Maybe even an intruder from before that."

"The fact that he already gained the qualification of a climber but still attacked us... It means becoming a climber wasn't his only goal."

If they went outside and caught Professor Yumina, they might be able to hear more details.

Honestly, he didn't want to get any more involved in this matter, but... Perhaps by the time he was having these thoughts, it was already too late to quietly slip away?

Ban Yu-won heaved a resigned sigh and decided to let himself be sucked into the whirlpool of fate that was trying to swallow him.

"Did they say the Tower allowed it? Why is it being so harsh only to us... Huh?"

That's when it happened.

Light, who had been grumbling beside him, suddenly closed his mouth.

The strange silence was the same for Dokgo Yeon and Luciel.

Ban Yu-won asked in confusion.

"What's going on, why are you all suddenly like this?"

"Well..."

Dokgo Yeon spoke with an expression that couldn't decide whether to be happy or angry.

"My level went up."

"Mine too..."

"Actually, mine went up too..."

Level.

Their levels went up?!

"This is the first time our levels have gone up since enrollment. Maybe it's a reward from the Tower for withstanding the Constellation's attack?"

"If that's the case... It's a bit frustrating, but it seems pretty decent."

"My abilities, they've increased a lot..."

The faces of those who had been complaining about getting involved in tiresome affairs because of the Constellations now showed undisguisable joy.

It was similar to how a new employee who had been grumbling every day about overtime would look when receiving financial therapy from seeing their bank account filled with not just overtime pay but bonuses as well!

'Come to think of it, these guys had status windows. Until now, their levels were just too high to increase!'

Watching the three show a Udyr-level change in attitude, Ban Yu-won felt his head spinning.

...Wait a minute.

'Then what about me?'

Just because he didn't have a status window, surely he wasn't being skipped for the reward?

Just as Ban Yu-won raised his head, unable to contain his bewilderment and anger.

His eyes caught sight of golden threads fluttering down from the sky.

No.

It was an absurd amount of language concepts!

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