The 73rd-floor clear alarm went up, along with the experience gain messages for me and my friends.
I rubbed my hands together for a moment.
[Successfully acquired the Complete Operation Order!]
[Acquired SSS+ Rank!]
[Acquired a large amount of Achievement Gauge!]
[The Achievement Gauge is full!]
The achievement roulette began to spin.
Jinhyeok and Kanmo duo entered prayer mode with their eyes squeezed shut.
Even Seira, who had been standing there blankly, quietly clasped her hands together.
Since everyone else was doing it, she figured she'd follow along.
Ding!
I opened my eyes at the cheerful notification.
A single pitch-black ticket floating in the air.
It was a visual I'd never seen before.
"I don't know what it is, but it looks like a dud. Even if you gave it to me, I wouldn't take it."
"No, it's not!!"
Mohwang shouted loudly, his Golden Eyes gleaming.
"This is something really good!"
Filled with anticipation, I examined the ticket.
[Unique Floor 'Saintra's Last Siege' Creation Ticket]
Creates a unique floor that does not exist.
When used, floors 74 through 80 are merged.
Requires as many Section Enhancement Tickets as the number of merged floors.
Saintra is a nation destroyed by Mortarion, the Necromancer of the Century from ages past.
A fate of annihilation that cannot be stopped by any means.
This is an act of overturning a predetermined fate. The worst possible difficulty for that section will be applied.
Clear is nearly impossible.
The acquired Operation Order remains valid.
I stroked my chin.
A new floor creation ticket? This was a first for me.
But something was a bit odd.
Aside from the ticket consumption, how was this different from using Enhancement Tickets on each floor like we were doing now?
Given the atmosphere, and the fact that the Operation Order was still valid, it seemed like we'd be fighting a defensive battle against the Undead Legion on an enhanced 80th floor, right?
The name sounded grandiose, but it didn't seem particularly practical... Ding!
[When the unique floor is created, Mortarion, the Necromancer of the Century, awakens!]
[The Undead Legion is strengthened, and Mortarion equips Awakening Equipment that did not exist before!]
I take back what I said about it not being practical.
No wonder Teacher Daemomo said it was good.
I didn't know what it was, but Awakening Equipment was definitely significant.
[This is a floor that did not exist before. Clearing it will bring change to the Tower of Despair.]
[Once the floor is created, re-entry is possible until the siege begins. The tower will not reset upon exiting.]
[This floor cannot be retried. If the clear fails, the ticket disappears along with the floor.]
"What's that black ticket! Momo, tell me too!"
"It's a really hard floor. But you get good items."
"Then why aren't you creating it already!"
"I need more Enhancement Tickets."
I had 5 Enhancement Tickets from Jin Yunho.
I used them from floors 71 to 73, so I had 2 left.
I needed 7 to use the Creation Ticket, so I had to find 5 more.
'Goddess, wherever you are. Please forgive me for being shameless again today.'
Since I said I'd try to get more, I'd better make a careful call.
To the Player Hunter Bureau.
"Momo, bring out the table."
"Are we eating here?"
"No, I want to look at the Operation Order."
Momo gave a thumbs up and summoned the Infinite Storage.
She only opened the door after confirming Elia was far away.
Even as I walked in, she didn't let her guard down.
"Here's the royal feast table!"
"Nice. Let's take a look."
I spread the Operation Order wide open.
"Hmm!"
"Ughhh!"
"Hmm, I guess."
Jinhyeok and Kanmo duo, who had been stroking their chins, shrugged their shoulders.
No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't figure it out.
"Oh! Sir Roberto!"
Just then, Roberto, the paladin of Saintra, was walking by.
I gave him my spot so he could see better.
Roberto's complexion darkened shortly after he started examining it.
Soon, he turned pale.
"This... is Death Fog."
Pointing at the purple area on the map, Roberto continued his explanation.
"It's one of the powers of Mortarion, the Necromancer of the Century. It's the force that wiped out most of our knight order in the last battle. A death mist that corrodes everything it touches—leather, rock, steel, it doesn't matter. Any living being that inhales it will begin the process of becoming undead."
Jinhyeok swallowed dryly.
Just hearing about it was a terrifying curse.
The fortunate thing was that the amount of Death Fog marked on the Operation Order wasn't that large.
If we could just deal with that part... Ding!
[Information on Death Fog acquired!]
[You can now view the Operation Order in the 'Saintra's Last Siege' version. Proceed?]
I nodded.
I liked how quick and responsive it was today.
I waited for the Operation Order to update.
'Huh.'
My mouth fell open.
I think I might have to cancel that thought.
The part I said was fortunate.
The range of the Death Fog marked on the Operation Order had become absurdly wide.
It was enough to cover the entire capital city of Saintra and then some.
At this rate, we'd all melt before we even got a proper fight going.
'So this is why they said it was an impossible difficulty.'
I still didn't think we would lose the battle.
In the end, Mortarion would die, and we would be the ones standing at the end.
The problem was the Holy Kingdom of Saintra.
Since the floor itself was called the Last Siege, there was a high chance that successfully defending the city would be the clear condition.
Even if we killed Mortarion, if Saintra melted away, it would be a clear failure.
"Master? What's that at your waist?"
Elia approached and leaned toward the vial.
I had been so focused on the Creation Ticket and Operation Order that I had forgotten about it for a moment.
"It was next to the Operation Order, so Momo picked it up too!"
"As expected, our chubby one is greedy. But this looks dangerous, doesn't it?"
Elia took the vial and shook it back and forth.
Watching her, Roberto cautiously stepped backward.
"B-be careful! That's Death Fog!!"
"Oh, shit."
"It's dangerous!"
"Throw it away right now, you hag!"
The Kanmo duo freaked out and moved away, but Elia didn't.
"Oh?"
Her eyes sparkled with interest.
As expected of the Star Alchemist, possessing the unique trait of Primordial Curiosity.
"Elia. Can you analyze that and find a countermeasure?"
"Heheh! Who do you think I am?"
"A hag who doesn't know whether she'll kick the bucket today or tomorrow, right?"
Slap!
Elia smoothly swung her hand and sent Kancho flying.
She continued as if nothing had happened.
"I'm the Alchemist of the Century, you know? I'll analyze it in no time, so just wait a bit."
"Where are you going, aaaaah!!"
Screech-thump!
Kancho charged fiercely, but he was too late.
Elia had already slipped into the Star Workshop.
He banged on the door, but the locked door showed no sign of opening.
"Kancho. Come here. Let's eat some strawberries."
"Okay. I'll execute that hag later!"
"Momo wants strawberries too!"
"Konu, have one. They're really fresh."
"I'll eat well."
We sat around the table and munched on strawberries.
They were in season, so the sweetness was insane.
Around the time we were finishing off the container.
Creak.
Elia poked her head through the slightly open door.
"Hey, Satan! Let's put our fight on hold for a bit, okay?"
"I won't hit you, so come out and give the briefing!"
Kancho told her to feel safe and give the briefing, and Elia cleared her throat.
All eyes turned to her.
"How is it? Is there a countermeasure?"
"Of course. Once it's in my hands, it's as good as done, right?"
"Ooooh!"
"But there's one problem. For the only countermeasure."
Elia drew a circle with her finger.
"We might need a lot of this?"
"How much?"
"Enough to buy enough gold to fill from here all the way to theeeeeere?"
Jinhyeok and his friends, who had been following her finger with their eyes, stopped moving.
Then they drew countless question marks.
Huh? Gold?
* * *
[Exiting the 73rd floor of the Tower of Despair!]
I left the tower and walked to a corner of the fields.
My friends materialized one by one.
Jinhyeok, letting out a groan, spoke up.
"So gold is the only thing, right? The material that Death Fog can't pass through."
Elia nodded.
"It doesn't just not pass through. It even absorbs and neutralizes the Death Fog. You could call it the natural enemy of Death Fog."
"If we had enough time, could we absorb all the Death Fog with just a small amount of gold?"
"No. Unfortunately, there's a limit to how much it can absorb. That's why we need gold proportional to the amount of Death Fog. And considering the toxicity of the mist."
Elia pointed at Jinhyeok, Seira, Dark, and Renya.
"Except for these naturally tough ones, even we wouldn't be safe from the Death Fog. The moment it touches you, your flesh will rot, and you'll turn into an undead in no time."
"Why does it have to be me?"
"Because you're the most insignificant and pathetic?"
"Prepare to get swatted with an electric fly swatter at home."
Kancho and Elia growled at each other.
Meanwhile, Momo, stroking her chubby chin, snapped her fingers.
"Hmm! Momo totally gets it!"
Her eyes sparkled.
What kind of solution had our great Teacher Daemomo come up with?
She rummaged through her bag, pulled out a gas burner, and lit it.
Momo looked at Jinhyeok and pointed at the burner.
"We need to burn that Creation Ticket right now! That thing is a demon!"
Cold sweat ran down the back of my neck.
That was a massive shift in attitude.
It seemed that, as a greedy collector, she couldn't tolerate spending that much gold just to clear a floor.
"Master! Hurry! We'll all go bankrupt!"
"Momo. You know what?"
"What!"
"The option of not doing it is gone?"
She made a sad face.
She must have seriously considered burning it.
If it weren't for the message that popped up before I left the tower.
After reaching level 100, my Collector rank became Rare, and I acquired the unique skill, Card Finder.
A skill that could detect and track traces of Hero Cards, but I had never activated it, so I had forgotten about it.
But its trait reacted to 'Saintra's Last Siege.'
Whatever it was, it meant there was a trace of a new friend there.
"Then what do we do! Where are we supposed to get that much gold!"
"Actually, I have an idea."
Starting with Mohwang, all eyes turned to Jinhyeok.
Jinhyeok pulled out his phone.
And opened a website.
A place where, thanks to the recent Lakshasha's Fortress, an astronomical amount of money had piled up—a place where you could literally make a fortune in a short amount of time.
The gambling site, Crown Jackpot.
"What's this!"
"A place where you can make big money with just one click."
"As expected of the general! You already had a plan!"
"Of course."
I gave a thumbs up and smiled.
It wasn't a lie.
I really did have a plan.
Exactly three minutes ago, to be precise.
The plan was simple.
Hit the jackpot and use that money to buy the gold we needed.
That was it.
"Hmm! Then shall we go?"
I took a confident step forward.
I'm going to hit it now.
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T/N:
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