Rajiks was not someone you could look down on just because he was a laborer.
As an Sssal-ranked being, he possessed a decent amount of mana, and the muscles and core strength forged through daily labor were nothing to scoff at either.
And did he really have no skills?
Was mining not a skill?
It was a technique for splitting rocks, after all.
At this moment, to Rajiks, Apophis's head was nothing more than a rich vein packed full of high-grade magic stones.
Krak! Krak! Krak!
The long pole pickaxe came crashing down again and again.
"Hooou!!!"
Fear was already far behind him.
He wasn't alone.
Gobang, his entire body tightly wrapped by the serpent's coils, was dragging Apophis's aggro outward with a taunting roar.
Gyeondallae's binding talismans and wall-sealing talismans, the Berserk Demon and Kosak relentlessly targeting vital points, Bardin, Senior Officer Bae harassing it with suppressive fire, Diamant and Jepet launching mental attacks, Blood Wolf clinging onto its tail—
His comrades were with him.
The Summoner was right there beside him too.
The accumulated damage had already exceeded half.
[Rajiks has dealt at least 10% of Apophis's total HP 6%/10%]
Clang!
Rajiks threw the long pole pickaxe to the ground.
The feel was wrong.
You should always use a familiar tool.
He pulled out a dazzling golden pickaxe from his subspace backpack.
This was it.
An item that maximized mining efficiency.
Was there really a need to keep attacking from afar?
From here on out—it was close combat.
He rolled forward.
Wadadadad!
He climbed onto Gobang's head.
"Hoooouuu! The skull—!"
Krak! Krak! Krak! Krak!
He hacked directly at Apophis's head.
Every time he swung, Rajiks's hips wiggled with the motion.
"Oh my, what a deadly rear view."
"Our Rajiks, cosmic farmhand Rajiks—truly magnificent."
"You really could learn martial arts. Your bone structure isn't great, but your fighting spirit is."
"I respect you, Quartermaster. That's pickaxe work forged by years of experience!"
"Ahhh, a man's powerful pickaxe swings shake a woman's heart."
"Isn't the tender love between a farmhand and his mistress already a classic? From today on, put meat dishes on Rajiks's meals."
Juhyeok checked the mission progress.
At last—
[Rajiks has dealt at least 10% of Apophis's total HP 10%/10%]
Hidden mission complete.
What remained?
"Let's finish this quickly. Time for the final blow."
Bzzzing!
The Berserk Demon's probing sword aura.
Bzzing, bzzing.
Aura blades ignited on Kosak's twin daggers.
Click!
Senior Officer Bae loaded a heavy shell.
Clank—Bardin raised his radiant flail.
But at that moment—
"Hoee? … Stop."
Rajiks shouted as he halted mid-swing.
"Why?"
"Hoee… the hide."
"What hide?"
"If we hit the body, it'll get damaged."
"Hoee… skin it alive."
Impressive.
He was thinking even about that.
He intended to fully skin Apophis, whose hide he hadn't been able to finish before.
A laborer through and through.
"Tch, it looks like it even has self-regenerating hide."
"Just listen to Rajiks."
"Yes, sir!"
Apophis was already on the brink of death.
Completely incapable of resisting.
Rajiks had already pulled out his golden flaying knife.
He sliced here, cut there—
"Hoeng."
"I get it. Laborer, trust me. I'll skin it perfectly this time."
The Berserk Demon, Kosak, Jepet, and Senior Officer Bae firmly pinned Apophis's head.
Blood Wolf, Bardin, and Diamant grabbed the tail and pulled hard, like stretching dough.
Giant-sized Gobang gripped the slightly peeled hide with both hands and moved toward the tail.
"Grrrnn!"
RIIIIIP!
The hide began to peel off in one enormous sheet.
"Hooou!"
Apophis's hide.
A serpent, just like a basilisk—also a reptile.
Not bad.
Judging by its color, it was more beautiful and higher quality than basilisk hide.
And the sheer size was enormous.
It looked like it could be used for many things.
Come to think of it, it had been a while since he'd supplied basilisk or wyvern hides.
Nearly two months, maybe.
Should I have skinned Behemoth too?
It didn't look great, but processed properly, it could probably be sold.
And the 80th floors were the giant-monster zone.
Even larger creatures with even more beautiful hides might appear.
"I should make time to visit the company later."
Rajiks Goods.
It was his own company, yet he'd never visited it even once.
RIIIIIP!
Apophis continued thrashing as its hide was stripped away, until—
[ Giant Serpent Apophis 1/1 ]
[ 82nd Floor Mission Cleared. ]
Clear achieved.
Even so, the skinning continued.
RIIIIIP!
[Reward: High-Grade Magic Stones 10t / Catalog Expansion Ticket / Random Rune]
Three rewards dropped at once.
[Additional item acquisition applied. Target: High-Grade Magic Stone reward.]
[90t of High-Grade Magic Stones have been added to your inventory.]
"…Wow."
Ninefold increase—90 tons in one go.
His inventory was nearly full.
He hurriedly took them out and placed them on the ground.
Shhk, shhk, shhk.
Rajiks transferred them into his subspace bag.
And the hidden mission?
That had rewards too.
[82nd Floor Hidden Mission: Summoned Being Rajiks's Revenge Against Giant Serpent Apophis (Completed)]
[Reward: High-Grade Magic Stones 10t / Random Rune]
And again—
[Additional item acquisition applied. Target: High-Grade Magic Stone reward.]
[80t of High-Grade Magic Stones have been added to your inventory.]
This time, eightfold.
"Aaah…"
It was overwhelming.
Had he ever received rewards like this while climbing up to the 82nd floor?
Base reward: 20 tons of high-grade magic stones.
Additional acquisition: 170 tons.
Total: 190 tons.
Plus one catalog expansion ticket and two unidentified random runes.
They didn't even say what the random runes were.
Do I have to check them myself?
The skinning had just finished.
Everything was quickly packed into the subspace backpack.
And finally—
[World Announcement: Black Tower NO.1 (Korea) 82nd Floor cleared with Rank S+++]
[S+++ Clear Reward: 2 Platinum Badges awarded.]
Badges too.
An unbelievable jackpot.
If the random runes turned out well, it would be the perfect finale.
Please—just let one of them be a trait enhancement rune.
After returning home, Juhyeok and the party first dismissed all summons.
Then Juhyeok entered the 17th floor of the White Tower.
They'd pulled off something huge.
There was no way they could just go about things as usual.
"Hoeeeh? T-too high!"
Rajiks was already being tossed into the air by the summoned beings.
"Hoee? Hoee? Hooehee!"
A fluffy bundle of fur flew high into the air and came crashing back down.
Everyone congratulated Rajiks—
for overcoming his trauma.
Mari the stay-at-home alchemist joined in too.
With a chrrr sound, she sent a homunculus to sneak into the tossing group.
Leaving Rajiks be for now,
it was time to settle accounts.
First, deal with what was urgent.
Juhyeok took out the catalog expansion ticket from his inventory.
Effect: Tear to use and add 5 slots to the catalog list on the status window.
Five slots per ticket.
Riiip!
He used it immediately.
[The catalog list has been expanded.]
Next—privileges.
He previously had 128 accumulated badges.
Clearing Tower No.1 and No.2 added four more, for a total of 132.
Seventeen physical badges as well.
So what about privileges?
[Privilege granted for accumulating 130 Platinum Badges.]
[Privilege: Catalog Expansion Ticket added to inventory.]
So the probability adjustment really was fixed.
They didn't even need to give this, yet it appeared again.
He'd long since given up expecting much from privileges anyway.
Riiip!
He tore this one too, adding another five slots.
Ten more random summons total.
Now for the highlight.
Two random runes.
What had entered his inventory?
He took one out.
Thump thump.
Heart pounding, he checked the information.
"…Ah."
A rune that allowed an Sssal summoned being to break through to Rrssal.
Slightly disappointing—but still…
It's fine. This is a good one.
It really was.
And there were no conditions attached regarding who could use this rune.
Which meant anyone at Sssal rank could break through.
Who's currently Sssal?
Rajiks, Senior Officer Bae, Bardin, Jepet, and Diamant.
Diamant was excluded.
Why?
Because he was a converted defector.
His promotions required separate runes, so his breakthroughs would likely need separate ones as well.
That leaves four.
Rajiks had already received 18 badges.
This time, badges were guaranteed again, so he would definitely surpass 20.
In other words, he would soon reach 25.
He didn't need a breakthrough rune at all.
Breakthrough runes were basically for dumping badges all at once to save time.
So then—
Senior Officer Bae should get it.
Not immediately, though.
After Rajiks advances to LSSR and accumulates more badges.
It'll be her turn to be promoted too.
If she breaks through then, what would her rank be?
Warrant officer, maybe?
Anyway, on to the next random rune.
Please!
He had come this far purely on luck.
If so, it had to explode now.
That was only natural.
Let's go!
Time to ride the luck coin.
So—what is it?
Juhyeok said nothing.
He just checked the information—
then checked it again.
He rubbed his eyes to see if he was dreaming, even pinched his own thigh.
Hoo…
After taking a deep breath, he walked over to the summoned beings who were still tossing Rajiks in the air.
"Could you stop for a moment?"
Only then did Rajiks's feet finally touch the ground.
"Hoehoe, hoeee…"
He staggered like a drunk and collapsed onto the floor.
"Stop with Rajiks—now toss me."
What?
The summoned beings tilted their heads in confusion.
They could always do it if the Summoner wished, but this wasn't really his personality…
Juhyeok slowly raised the hand holding the Rune of Trait Enhancement.
He stepped closer and turned in a slow circle so everyone could see clearly.
"Huh?!"
Kosak noticed first.
"Th-th-trait enhancement rune!"
"Oh my?"
"Wow!"
"Hoe?"
"As expected!"
"Summoner! Congratulations!"
"Once again, the heavens have aided you."
Grab!
Gobang scooped Juhyeok up and hurled him skyward.
…
"Waaah!"
The tossing began.
Chrrr—
Mari's homunculus wrapped around his body.
It was warm.
"Strike up the music! Ehe-ra-diya!"
Best feeling ever.
Random summoning can wait until later, right?
After enjoying themselves to the fullest,
and since the 82nd floor had been cleared, Juhyeok sent the related data to Director Jeong Gwang-il.
The Behemoth footage from the 81st floor had already been released.
Players' reactions after seeing it:
Overwhelmed by its sheer size.
A skyscraper lying on its side, walking around on four legs.
You want us to clear that?
Does that make sense?
The undead zone had been relatively easy.
The good days were over.
The 70s had been a cakewalk.
—
L I watched the Behemoth video. LOL, how are you supposed to kill that?
L You'd be dead just by getting stepped on.
L Can't you hit and run?
L How do you even deal damage? Can you even drain its HP?
L That's Behemoth—what about the 80s?
The 80s weren't easy either.
The Nightmare Knight of Dread.
Its identity had been revealed beforehand.
—
L As expected, only the top player can handle this.
L Yeah, he goes ahead first, gathers intel, sets up countermeasures.
L Why not just have the top player clear every tower in the world?
L How?
L Like he took the North Korean tower—tell him to take ours too.
L You think that'll work? Countries have pride.
Then another video was released.
The 82nd-floor monster—Giant Serpent Apophis.
—
L Apophis looks tougher than Behemoth. At least Behemoth is slow.
L Is it a venomous snake?
L At that size, does venom even matter? It'll just swallow players whole.
L You'd get stuck between its teeth first.
L Just looking at it tells you—81+ giant monster zone is impossible.
L But it was cleared. By the top player.
L Yeah, because it's him.
—
L You'd need at least 15 players to kill that. Solo is impossible. Need a raid group.
L I think even 30 wouldn't be enough.
L Raid group? You can't even form one in the first place.
L I'm just saying it'd be nice. Solo play is insane.
L Seriously—won't there be an item that allows raid formation?
—
L We need to seriously think about this.
L About what?
L Handing the tower over to the top player.
L Agreed. I think giving up a tower is acceptable.
L Yeah, players would just change status-window affiliation.
—
L But why would the top player take other countries' towers? What's the point?
L North Korea at least had justification—it used to be one country.
L What if we offer one trillion dollars per tower?
L What about handing over the entire land the tower stands on?
L …Actually, that might be feasible.
Among players and ordinary people alike, whispers began spreading everywhere.
Top Player.
Please take it by force.
Like you did in North Korea.
Before our tower collapses.
Even in the Prison of Infinity—the world of souls—announcements rang out from time to time.
Like this.
[Notice: Earth Black Tower NO.975 has exceeded its collapse threshold. The boundary between the world and the tower is beginning to dissolve.]
An announcement declaring the beginning of ruin.
[Notice: Earth NO.442 has entered the apocalypse phase. Recovery is impossible.]
An announcement that destruction had begun in earnest.
[Notice: Earth NO.183—All life has been extinguished.]
An announcement of extinction.
That was why no announcement was ever welcome.
But then—
[Notice: Earth NO.1001 Black Tower administrators have been replaced. Simultaneously, illegal probability manipulation has been normalized.]
Earth NO.1001?
That was the Summoner's world.
The world of the miracle summoner who detonated nukes inside the Black Tower and was climbing through the 82nd floors.
The player so overwhelmingly strong that the administrators had been forced to intervene illegally.
If the administrators had been replaced and the catalog expansion ticket probabilities normalized—
『Hooray!』
『Heh heh, live long enough and you even see administrators get replaced.』
『Those bastards—replacement isn't enough. Their souls should be erased.』
『Didn't you say we just need to "heave-ho"?』
『Heave!』
『Heeeave-ho!』
Then, suddenly—
One soul spoke.
『Then random summoning is coming soon.』
And—
『Ah!』
[Hmm.]
The noisy infinite space slowly fell into silence.
『The chance has come. This time, let's all do our best to get selected in random summoning. Okay? Come on—heave!!!』
But—
『Huh? What's wrong with everyone? I said heave!』
Silence.
『Heave!!!』
『…Heave?』
No one responded.
『What's wrong? Why's no one saying anything? Are you all praying or something?』
That was exactly it.
Everyone was praying.
That they would be chosen in the upcoming random summoning.
『From here on out, it's every soul for themselves… damn it.』
Once summoned, they'd immediately move into the White Tower's 17th floor.
For them, random summoning was no different from liberation of the soul.
READ MORE CHAPTERS HERE-https://shinchangreat.sellfy.store/