The inside of the tower was quite spacious. The first floor only had one room, with no dividers, and they could see the outer wall on the other side.
“There are no pillars,” Walwiss murmured.
“Is there a problem with that? It’s nice that it’s so easy to see.”
“You are so ignorant even after living so long. If you make the ceiling of such a spacious area without a single pillar, don’t you think there’s a high possibility that it will break down?” Walwiss said and looked up to the ceiling. “It doesn’t seem like the ceiling is made of light materials either. It’s clearly made of rock. I mean, even if they made it of thin layered wood, it would collapse right away at this width.”
Walwiss placed his hand on the outer wall of the tower. “As expected, mana is flowing in it.”
Like Walwiss, other people also placed their hands on . Then, their faces stiffened.
“Uh, hey! This is...” Leona stammered. It wasn’t so surprising that mana was flowing from the tower’s walls. In the first place, the lake’s currents were artificially made, and the giant island had been hidden by warped space. Yet, what was shocking was the unbelievable amount of mana flowing across the tower’s walls; it was beyond their imagination.
“It seems pretty much impossible to break,” Til said, thumping his fist against the wall. Faint mana circled around his fist, but the tower’s wall didn’t even budge.
“How did you manage to force this door open then, Sir Zich?” Lubella asked.
“That wasn’t so difficult. The door didn’t have mana flowing inside it.”
“Only the door didn’t? Then, what is the meaning of such an enormous amount of mana flowing from this tower?”
“It means that mana flow has another purpose than defending the tower.”
“Then, Sir Dwayne, what do you think is the reason for the great amount of mana?”
“I don’t know exactly either, but it’s true that it’s strengthening the tower. It also seems practically impossible to destroy this tower,” Walwiss said and stared at Zich. “No wonder you just entered the tower. I mean, aren’t you the type to destroy an entire tower and wipe away the enemies inside it?”
“That’s true,” Lubella agreed without hesitation.
“I’m sure the mana is not there only to strengthen the tower. The mana flow is very regular. I’m sure there’s another purpose for it.”
“Are the rapid currents and the space warping supported by the tower’s mana?”
“There’s a high possibility, but I’m sure that’s not the only thing.” Walwiss shook his head. “I can’t tell the exact details from here. There could be clues at the top of the tower. Or...”
He narrowed his eyes as he stared at Zich. “That wily guy could know something.”
“Is this true? Do you know something, Sir Zich?”
Everyone’s eyes shot toward Zich, and Zich shrugged his shoulders.
“You will know once you go up,” he said.
“You hear him? What a sneaky guy he is! If I didn’t know the things he had done until now, I would’ve thought he was a Demon Lord who came to destroy the world!” Walwiss shouted.
Although the other party members didn’t acknowledge Walwiss’ words, they didn’t disagree with him either. In fact, if one looked at only their facial expressions, it appeared that they agreed with Walwiss’ second point. Zich chuckled and pointed upward.
“Then, shall we make our way up? You, fiends of evil, follow the Demon Lord to destroy the world!”
“Damn it!” Walwiss grumbled at Zich’s brazen answer.
***
The stairs were connected to one side of the first floor, and Zich and his companions went up the stairs. The stairs stopped on the second floor. It seemed like the stairs weren’t all connected, and the stairs used for going up and down were separated. As proof of this, they saw a new set of stairs on the opposite side.
“They designed it so awkwardly,” Leona grumbled. Zich and his companions took the stairs and walked up to the second floor. The second floor was also one large room without any divisions.
“What a waste of space.” As someone who had managed the magical tower, he wasn’t satisfied with the composition of the tower. When Zich and his companions passed through the second floor and arrived at the third floor—Bam!
Til stepped forward and swung his sword. He felt a dull shock on his hands, and something bounced off his sword.
‘What is that?’ Til looked at the being that had attacked him. Its most noticeable features were its bright red eyes, sleek and metallic skin, and height one head taller than Til’s. It also carried a great sword that was as large as itself.
“A golem,” Walwiss said after reaching the third floor. “Ho! This is a really advanced golem.”
His eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“You can tell just by looking at it?” Leona looked at him suspiciously.
“Of course. It’s not like I used to be the master of Sunewick magical tower for show. It’s not difficult for me to tell how well-made a golem is by its appearance. Besides, to think that the Bellids had golems—I didn’t know they also had talents in this field.”
“This tower and the golems aren’t theirs. They all belong to some ancient civilization’s heritage.”
“Ancient civilization’s heritage!” Walwiss clapped his hands at Zich’s answer. “How interesting! If possible, could we take down those guys without damaging—”
“No.”
Walwiss glared at Leona, who had refused instantly, and said, “You didn’t even think about it.”
“I don’t want to think about it. I’m going to destroy it and crush its core.”
“I will only be able to research it if the golem has a core...!” Walwiss protested, but Leona didn’t even appear to be listening. Zich looked at her with curiosity.𝚏𝘳e𝒆𝙬e𝘣𝗻𝒐v𝒆l.𝑐𝑐𝙤𝒎
‘Is it because of what happened before?’ When they were dealing with Wips Midas before, Zich and his companions had gone into a ruin and encountered a similar golem like this one. Leona hadn’t been able to participate in the battle that time for the same reason that Walwiss was now invoking—to capture the golem fully intact without damaging the golem’s core.
Leona’s strategy when fighting the golems, which had a strong magic defense and no sense of self-protection, was obviously to aim for the golem’s core. An arrow was much less effective than other attacks if she decided to aim for other areas, and the same thing applied to magic attacks. However, the difference between the past situation and now was that Lyla had been the one to request Leona to keep the golems fully intact last time, while Walwiss was the one requesting it now. Zich recalled that Leona had looked extremely crest-fallen for being pushed back from the battle in the past.
“Anyway, I’m going to shoot the core no matter what!” Leona nocked the arrow onto the bow. Strong mana concentrated on the arrow, and the arrow quickly left her bow.
Crush! The golem’s body, which was made out of hard metals at least of the same quality as mithril, was pierced through much too easily.
“Aaaaack!” Walwiss clutched his head and screamed, but Leona paid no attention to him.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! In an instant, holes appeared in the golem’s body from the arrows that poured down like heavy rain. One of the arrows penetrated the center of the golem’s body.
Thud! The golem fell like a doll with its string cut. “The golem’s core is in the middle of its body!”
Walwiss couldn’t say anything in response to Leona’s bright tone, and furiously shook his fist.
* * *
They defeated a row of golems, but there wasn’t just one row of golems. Several more appeared and blocked Zich’s party. However, they were no match for Zich’s party since they had already found the location of the golems' weakness, their core.
Crunnch! Til’s heavy sword cut a golem’s upper body in half. With this, all the golems that appeared on the third floor disappeared.
“Ahhhhhh!” Walwiss groaned at the sight of the golems with broken cores. Unfortunately for Walwiss, no one empathized with his anguish.
“Come on, let’s go up!” Unlike Walwiss, Leona laughed and smiled brightly. Her smile was pure, devoid of any negative emotions, as if she had relieved all her past frustrations.
“Sir Zich, are these the results of the mana flowing inside the tower as you mentioned before?” Lubella asked.
“Yes, Saintess. However, this is just the beginning. As we go up, more powerful enemies will appear, and many traps will be lurking there.”
“They must have all been made by the tower’s mana, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Lubella looked at the stairs. “Such dangers are as expected. Let’s quickly get up there and trample the leader of the insects. The Bellid pope must be on the top floor, right?”
“Yes, that’s probably the case.”
“I really don’t like how people who should be trampled and crushed like bugs look down at the world from such a tall tower. Let’s quickly drop that bastard down to a level befitting of his place.”
Leona glanced at Walwiss and crept up to his side. She then whispered, “Don’t you think Lubella seems more aggressive than Zich?”
“Arghhhhh!” Walwiss answered with another groan.
* * *
Zich’s party continued to climb the tower. The level of enemies that stood in their way rose higher and higher. First, the golems were much tougher. Golems with multiple cores and ones with no cores appeared. Overall, the golems were much stronger too.
“Damn it! If I just had a little bit more time!” Walwiss gritted his teeth as he looked at the debris of the fragmented golems. However, no matter how great the curiosity of a mage was, Walwiss couldn’t prioritize fulfilling his curiosity when several countries or possibly the entire world was at risk. Walwiss shed heavy tears of blood inside his mind and climbed up to the next floor. Then Zich’s party encountered enemies other than golems for the first time.
“Zich, those guys!”
“Yeah, they’re the shadows we met before.” The shadows they had seen before at Violuwin’s ruins completely filled the floor.
“Have you seen them before?”
“Yes, in the past. They transform their arms into various weapons and use them to fight.”
“How can we defeat them?”
“We just need to beat them down.”
“That’s easy to understand.” Walwiss swung his staff.
Baaaam! No matter how big the tower was, it was still indoors, and Walwiss’ magic was extremely strong. In an instant, half of the floor was swept away by the flames. The shadows evaporated instantly. Surprisingly, there was not even a little soot on the tower's outer wall.
“It’s really hard.” Walwiss grumbled; he was fully aware of the immense mana protecting the tower, but his ego was still hurt that his magic could not even scratch it.
“Let’s go!” Zich took the lead and urged the party.
“Do we have to move so urgently? I wiped away at least half of them...” Walwiss’ words were cut off as he saw the shadows rising again from the empty floor.
“...Don’t you think it’s a good idea to follow Sir Zich’s words?” Lubella suggested.
“As expected of the Karuwiman Saintess. What excellent judgment. I was about to say the same thing.”
“Stop wasting time and run!” Leona shouted while shooting out arrows.
Til swung his giant sword and cut down the approaching shadows, and Leona knocked down the shadows from far away with an arrow. Walwiss and Lubella rushed to follow those two, and Zich prevented the shadows from chasing them at the rear. The shadows continued to flood into the room, but thanks to Walwiss’ attack reducing their numbers significantly, Zich’s party was able to go up to the next floor easily.
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