I'm the Only Wizard Climbing the Tower - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

TL: DDTL

-Vwooooommmm!

The Staff let out an intense resonant hum.

Brilliant light burst forth. The pitch-dark underground space lit up all at once.

I couldn’t help but panic.

‘Wh-what? What on earth is happening?!’

The old, shabby Staff held in my hand.

I’d only grabbed it by chance.

So what’s with this sudden turn of events?

I can’t even tell where this situation is going.

And then, suddenly.

‘Ah.’

I felt a strange sensation.

‘The Staff and I are connected.’

Right. Connected.

It was a sensation that could only be described that way.

Something inside me.

A piece of something I might call my ‘soul’ seeped into the Staff.

It felt as if the Staff and I were merging into one.

Right after, a certainty welled up.

‘The blue dots.’

The special particles invisible to everyone else, that only I could see.

Those clusters of light with their beautiful, dreamlike presence.

But things I could only ever look at.

‘Now I can control them.’

I could now move the blue dots at will.

As if possessed, I gripped the Staff tight.

-Vwoooooommmmm!

Brilliant light bursting out once more.

A harsh resonance shook the underground space.

The blue dots gathered at the Staff’s tip, condensing.

And right at that moment.

-Kyeeeek!

A Goblin’s shriek rang in my ears.

I turned my gaze to look beyond the barrier.

-Keeek! Kek…!

-Kruk… Kruk…

The Goblins who’d been sneering and jeering at me just moments ago.

Their attitude had completely changed.

The Goblin Warrior, its face frozen with terror, inched backward.

The Goblin Shaman, its face full of shock, trembled, the hand gripping its staff shaking violently.

Like prey before a predator, they were unmistakably afraid of me.

But what was even stranger.

‘Those things. Did they always look so pathetic?’

The Goblin Warrior.

And the Goblin Shaman.

They felt like nothing special at all.

It was strange.

Just moments ago, I’d felt such extreme terror that I could hardly even look at them.

Now they seemed as laughable as bugs on the roadside.

A dry laugh escaped me.

‘Have I lost my mind? Those monsters look laughable to me?’

One thing was certain: some extraordinary change had taken place.

The Goblins in front of me had felt it, and so had I; that must be why things were playing out like this.

But there’s a problem.

‘I don’t know how to use this Staff.’

The Staff now in my hand.

It was clearly no ordinary object.

But I don’t know how to use it.

How the hell am I supposed to use this thing?

A quick glance.

I flicked my eyes over to check the time remaining.

[Time remaining until Safe Zone deactivation – 01:11]

Only a single minute left already.

Soon the Safe Zone would deactivate, and the real battle would begin.

I needed to figure out how to use this Staff before then…

‘Seriously, how do I use this thing?’

All I knew was that with this Staff, I could move the ‘blue dots’ at will.

I had no idea how to use it to take those things down.

I’m not even asking for a friendly lesson in how it works.

If only there were at least something to go off of…

‘…Wait a second.’

I turned my gaze back to the Goblins.

The Goblin Shaman, watching me with a stiff expression.

-Fwoosh!

A Fireball still hovered above the Goblin Shaman’s staff.

The Shamanic magic it had readied from the moment it first faced me was still being maintained.

And as I stared at that Fireball.

I saw it.

‘The array of blue dots the Goblin Shaman made.’

The Fireball the Goblin Shaman had created.

Behind it, the array of blue dots came clearly into my view.

I ventured a guess.

‘If I draw the same thing, can I use Shamanic magic too? That looks like it’s made of blue dots as well.’

Let’s just try it.

I quickly began tracing the array of blue dots beyond the Fireball.

Copying it wasn’t all that hard.

‘One circle, a diamond inside it, then another circle…’

An array of simple structure, straight lines and circles repeating.

The ‘blue dots’ gathered on the Staff arranged themselves neatly wherever I intended.

It was easier and simpler than I’d expected.

If I had to compare, it felt like plotting pixels one by one in MS Paint.

And so I copied the array of blue dots visible beyond the Fireball exactly.

-Fwoosh!

A Fireball rose above my Staff.

I’d succeeded in perfectly replicating the Shamanic magic behind the Goblin Shaman’s Fireball.

Fascinating.

So this is Shamanic magic?

I lifted my head and studied the Goblin Shaman again.

-…Kerruk?! Keruk! Kerrrrrruk!!!

Maybe it had figured out that I’d copied its Shamanic magic.

Its stiff expression had given way, and it was screeching something at me.

But it still wasn’t enough.

‘It feels kind of crude.’

Copying the Goblin’s Shamanic magic.

It was certainly interesting, fascinating even.

On the other hand, it also felt somehow unsatisfying.

I can do better than this. Do I really need to use it as-is? That sort of feeling.

I began tweaking the composition of the completed array, bit by bit.

‘Tighter, more precise spacing between the particles. Larger overall size.’

As I tuned the array.

The Fireball hovering above the Staff transformed.

-Fwoooooosh!

It grew larger, and the energy it held grew stronger.

If the Goblin’s Fireball had been merely the size of a fist.

The Fireball I’d just made was now a full human head in size.

-Keruk…?!

The Goblin Shaman let out something like a cry of pure shock.

Apparently it was stunned to see me wielding Shamanic magic plainly more powerful than its own.

Honestly, even I hadn’t known this would actually work.

I’d just tried it because it felt doable, and it had actually succeeded.

Of course, I’m not done yet.

‘I bet I can make several at once. Let’s try it.’

Pouring out the blue particles gathered on the Staff.

I drew multiple arrays simultaneously.

This, too, took no time at all.

-Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!…

Four more Fireballs formed and began circling above my Staff.

A total of five Fireballs had been created.

-Keruk…

-…

At the sight of the five Fireballs, the Goblins’ faces darkened with despair.

A look past despair now, bordering on resignation.

I checked the time remaining.

[Time remaining until Safe Zone deactivation – 00:10]

“Phew… Looks like I’ve figured out how to use the Staff, more or less.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

I’d been scared witless not knowing how to use the Staff.

Thankfully, copying the Goblin Shaman’s Shamanic magic had let me work it out somehow.

‘Come to think of it. In a way, I owe my life to that Goblin Shaman.’

I stared at the Goblin Shaman, dumbfounded.

When the Goblin Shaman first appeared, I’d been sure I would die here, no way out.

In the end, it was thanks to that thing that I’d learned how to use the Staff and earned a chance to survive.

If this had been an ordinary Hard Difficulty without a Shaman, I wouldn’t have had even a sliver of hope.

As ever, every cloud has a silver lining.

In any case, I was ready to fight.

I raised the Staff in my grip and aimed it at the Goblins beyond the barrier.

-Keruk-!

-Kerrrr!

Maybe they were cowed by the five Fireballs I’d created.

They turned tail outright and started running.

…Do Tutorial monsters even run away? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that.

[Time remaining until Safe Zone deactivation – 00:03]

-Kerrrruk! Keruk!

-Keeeek!

The Goblin Warrior and Shaman fled fast, disappearing into the darkness.

They were gone from my sight.

But for some reason.

I could tell exactly where they were beyond that darkness.

A sixth sense, maybe?

It was like grasping this entire space not through sight or hearing, but with the mind’s eye, or some sense belonging to the soul.

I could see them clearly in the dark.

[Time remaining until Safe Zone deactivation – 00:00]

[The Safe Zone is deactivating.]

[Survive.]

The Safe Zone deactivated.

The translucent barrier, melting away.

The pile of weapons at my feet vanished in an instant as well.

And I extended the Staff.

‘Like this; if I nudge part of the array, I think it’ll fire.’

Relying on rough instinct, I tried to launch the Shamanic magic I’d prepared.

Thankfully, my instinct wasn’t wrong.

-Whoooooosh!

The moment I touched part of the array, a Fireball shot out as if it had been waiting for exactly that.

A red trail cutting through the thick darkness.

The faintly visible back of the Goblin Shaman’s head.

The Fireball I’d fired slammed into the back of its skull.

-Kaboooooom⸻!

An explosion erupted.

The firepower felt several times stronger than the grenades I’d thrown back in my army days.

A mist of blood, spraying outward.

Brain matter and chunks of flesh, scattering in every direction.

-Splat!

-Squelch!

-Patter.

A few bits of Goblin remains flew all the way to my feet and rolled across the ground.

The coppery stench of blood brushed my nose.

‘…I think I’m gonna puke.’

It was quite the gruesome sight.

Monster or not, it had been caught in an explosion and reduced to countless scraps of meat.

But I felt no pity.

If I hadn’t gotten my hands on the Staff, the one dying like that would have been me, not it.

Forcing down the rising urge to vomit.

I calmly searched for my next target.

-Krrruk! Kruk…!

The Goblin Warrior, stopped dead mid-flight.

Maybe it had realized that running was pointless anyway.

It caught its breath for a moment where it stood, then drew its longsword and charged straight at me.

It had chosen one last desperate struggle over flight.

I aimed the Staff.

‘Fire.’

I launched the second Fireball.

Whooosh!

A red trail piercing the air.

Perhaps sensing its own death, it contorted its face and gritted its teeth.

The Fireball struck it square in the chest.

-Kabooooooom⸻!

The second explosion.

It hadn’t been far away, so the scorching heat reached all the way to where I stood.

Once more, a mist of blood sprayed out and chunks of meat scattered.

Squelch. Squelch. Patter.

Blood and bits of flesh soaked my body.

It was revolting.

-Ding!

Amid the pattering drops of blood.

A clear notification chime striking my ears.

[Congratulations.]

[You have survived the Trial and proven your qualification.]

[You are now recorded as an official Climber of the Tower.]

[Baek Ji-ho (South Korea : Floor 1)]

[You have slain Goblin Warrior (10).]

[You have slain Goblin Shaman (100).]

[Points are being settled.]

[Returning.]

Flash.

A bright halo of light enveloped me.

* * *

When I opened my eyes again, I was somewhere familiar.

My room in our rented Semi-basement.

The bed with its squeaky springs, the musty-smelling sheets, the worn-out computer and desk, the creaky wardrobe.

My humble nest, reeking of poverty.

“…Was it a dream?”

The scene was so cozy and familiar that for a moment I thought I’d dreamed it all.

A dream of being chosen as a Climber and dragged into the Tutorial, meeting a Goblin Warrior and a Shaman, and killing them with something that might’ve been magic or might’ve been Shamanic magic.

But it was absolutely no dream.

After all.

‘The smell of blood.’

The Staff in my right hand.

The blood soaking my whole body.

They were telling me, in no uncertain terms, that it had been reality, not a dream.

Flump.

My legs gave out and I sank to the floor.

“Fuuuck…”

A curse loaded with all kinds of emotions.

Relief at having made it out alive.

Mental shock.

Disgust at the blood and its stench.

The surreality of having gone through a Difficulty no one else had ever experienced.

And questions about my own ability.

“…First, a shower.”

I want to collapse and sleep right this second, but I’m not about to dirty my bed with blood.

I staggered to my feet, made my way to the bathroom, and showered.

-Sssshhhhh.

I rinsed away the blood clinging to my body, and checked myself all over in the mirror for any injuries.

Thankfully, there were none.

Then again, all I did was lob Fireballs from a distance; no way I’d get hurt doing that.

“Hurk! Bleugh!”

At one point mid-shower I ended up clutching the toilet and throwing up.

Watching the blood run off me as I washed brought the Goblin explosion show right back, and I just couldn’t hold the retching down.

I think this is going to leave a trauma.

Anyway, after all that washing, puking, and general chaos, I finally lay down in bed.

“Oh. Right. I should let Noona know I Cleared the Tutorial.”

I sent a quick text.

[Yours truly has returned. Survived none other than Extreme Lunatic Hell Difficulty. Way too tired, off to sleep now]

Safe-return text sent, I slowly closed my eyes.

I didn’t last even ten seconds before falling dead asleep.

It was the day I became a Hunter.