Chapter 188 - 188 The Augury Tower (15)

Words : 1272 Updated : Sep 29th, 2025

188: The Augury Tower (15) 188: The Augury Tower (15) Needless to say, I had more important things to worry about than the morals of killing a legless old giant, and if it was a debate on morals we were getting into, then I had already resigned my right to participate a long time ago. Regardless, all that mattered was that the Floor was cleared, and with much less effort than I expected, too. ‘I guess taking this guy out would be a lot harder for anyone without a strong ranged attack, huh...’ It felt a little overpowered, and a bit of an exploit, but to be fair, I imagined a lot of the other Floors to be unreasonably difficult for a typical lone ranger, so maybe it wasn’t too bad. Although, I also knew it was possible to challenge Floors as a group, so maybe a lot of these would be made easier by that method... ‘As expected, multiplayer is the real cheese. Summons are always broken.’ Shaking my head, I moved my attention elsewhere, deciding to check out the rewards instead. [Obtained Lesser Health Potion (x1)] “Oh, great, another scam.” Depositing the potion into Storage as usual, I thought these “rewards” were more akin to a participation trophy than anything, and it was almost getting out of hand. ‘Whatever... At least I’ll never have to buy one of these again...’ Each Lesser Health Potion received was an entire fifty World Stability saved, so although it wasn’t a lot individually, they quickly added up. Even just considering the Floors I had cleared so far, I received three hundred World Stability worth of Lesser Health Potions, and even one Standard Health Potion from the Fifth Floor. “It’s nothing like a Contract, but the rewards’ll probably get better over time.” Leaving it at that, I dismissed the White Death and decided to advance to the next Floor. I didn’t want to waste time going home after every Floor cleared, especially when my condition was fine and there was nothing wrong with my equipment. ‘Nice and quick this time. Let’s keep this pace up.’ Nodding to myself, I proceeded, transporting to the Eighth Floor. [Floor 8] The first thing to enter my sight was the ground beneath my feet―a simple stone brick platform, the sort of which I had seen many times before. Raising my head, I thought it felt quite windy wherever I was, and I soon realised why. “Oh, wow.” At the edge of this stone platform, which could only have been fifty or so square feet large, there was... nothing. Or well, there was technically ‘something’, but that ‘something’ was, rather, the sky. Peering over the edge just slightly, it was clear to me that there was no land to be found anywhere in the downwards direction, just a dark, endless abyss with naught but glittering stars and a moon. “...This isn’t good.” Taking a calm breath, I crouched at the centre of the platform. I wasn’t necessarily afraid of heights, but I couldn’t lie that I was a tad adverse to them whenever falling was out of my control. And this... definitely seemed out of my control. Glancing up, I read the notification that appeared. [Objective: Wait until friends arrive] “...Friends. Right.” The first thought I had was to return to Earth and come back later, but since there was no indication of how long I had to wait for these so-called “friends” to get here, it was safer to just sit tight and do as I was told. At least waiting whilst doing nothing strenuous was easy, but I still had no idea what even the “friends” that would arrive were. That is, I didn’t know what to look out for. “...Well, I’m sure it’ll be obvious.” There was nothing else here but endless empty sky, so I think it would be pretty hard to be caught by surprise. And so, I waited. “...” And waited. “...” And waited some more. “...” It was fresh dawn when I entered the Eighth Floor, and I waited until the sun was high in the sky, right above my head. I waited until the sun was setting, until it was dusk and until it dipped into the distant sky below, still present but not illuminating my sky for whatever reason and replaced on the opposite side by the silver moon. In fact, I was able to watch the moon down below during the day, as the night sky was down there at that time. Now that the sun had set, though, the day-time sky and the night-time sky seemed to switch places alongside their respective celestial bodies, leaving me with an exceptionally odd experience of watching both day and night flow simultaneously in real time. The moon up above, the sun down below, the night sky above, the day sky below. Soon enough, the sun rose again, and the two skies began to gradually switch places for a second time. As I observed this spectacle with wonder, a collection of fluffy white clouds passed by, the most action I had seen since entering the Floor. ‘Oh...! Are these the “friends” it mentioned...?’ That was my first thought, and the suspicion only grew when the thick clouds stopped by my stone platform, as if waiting for me to hop on. And I was surely about to, if it wasn’t for my instincts screaming otherwise. Pausing and stopping myself, I frowned and pondered why it felt so wrong, and I soon realised. ‘...The Objective isn’t complete.’ The moment I recognised that, as if they noticed that I found out, the clouds resumed their movement, floating away like nothing happened. Smirking behind my mask at the discernment, I felt my heart pulse loudly at the sinisterness of the situation that almost occurred. “Cheeky bastards... Trying to catch me off-guard...” Wondering what would have happened if I chose to ride the eerie clouds, I decided it was too uncomfortable to think about and continued waiting. Until the sun rose high into the sky, and until the sun set. Until the sun dawned and a group of clouds arrived, and until they left. Until the cycle repeated yet another time, even. I had enough food in Storage to last me days if not weeks. I had my smartphone to keep me occupied, as well as the Librarian and even the Holy Sword’s spirit to serve as conversation partners. There was no reason why I would not be able to clear the Objective. And when the sun dawned for a fifth time, I half-expected the clouds to come visit me again, perhaps try to trick me for a fourth time, but I was wrong. Instead, what paid me a visit was a small horde of bat-like creatures, entirely black and more than twice or thrice the size of my entire body. As those creepy, frankly scary-looking things landed, perched just on the edge of my platform, I saw it. [Floor Cleared] “Oh, wait, really?” Surprisingly, there was no second Objective, and instead, the Floor was cleared just like that. [Obtained Lesser Health Potion (x1)] ‘Well that was easy, wasn’t it?’ I didn’t even care that the reward was the same. In fact, this was one of the only times where I felt it was valid. Reinvigorated, and with a fresh smile on my face, I transported right to the next Floor. [Floor 9] “Huh– woaaaaahh...?!” [Objective: Survive the fall] I quickly regretted it.

Chapter 188 - 188 The Augury Tower (15)

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