Why Did I Have to Enroll - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Lesson 6. For the goodness of the teachers is as high as the sky is – 3

―Clatter, clatter

“Oh, my.”

Ban Yu-won could swear it was the first time he had heard Dok Go-yeon’s voice sound tired. Indeed, even a human made of iron like her would be exhausted, shooting that strong wind repeatedly at the spiders that constantly flocked to them.

“It really is endless.”

“Dok Go-yeon, don’t rest!”

Light, who stood opposite her and swung his sword at the swarm, shouted anxiously at the sound of her languid voice. Dok Go-yeon responded with a snort.

“Just do well yourself. You’ve been throwing energy however you please since earlier…and Beast, can you stand it?”

“Krr…”

Ruchel, in charge of the rear with Light, answered with a growl. More than 70% of her hair was already dyed black. It wasn’t clear what would happen, but it wouldn’t be very pleasant when it was all dyed black.

“She’s completely out.”

“Haah.”

Ban Yu-won sighed in agreement with Dok Go-yeon. He had given up prematurely from confronting the swarm of spiders, instead focusing on assisting Dok Go-yeon with Eve so that she felt as little burden as possible.

“Damn it. There must be a limit.”

“Krr?!”

“No, I didn’t mean you, Ruchel, but the Tower.”

Ruchel had already lost her human voice, but she seemed to still understand what they were saying. It was clear with the way she glared at Ban Yu-won, who had unintentionally gone along with Dok Go-yeon, with tears in her eyes. She was still very cute, but it was also a bit scary to watch the spiders disintegrate under her angry strikes.

[Mind Brazier 71 ― Anger 22, Madness 38, Pity 6, Delight 5]

Ban Yu-won frowned, examining all the negative and intense emotions that filled her internal code.

‘Right now, I can’t even touch it. Thanks to the realization I got in Room 3, I could touch the outside concept, but I can’t touch that.’

Even though she was busy stopping the spiders, he was worried about Ruchel’s gradual changes, so he tried a few times. However, he couldn’t touch her Mind Brazier with his powers, and every time he tried, it only startled Ruchel and stimulated her wild nature.

‘Damn it. There must be a way.’

Of course, he couldn’t afford to search for a new method now.

Dok Go-yeon was stepping back with an annoyed expression.

“Ban Yu-won, I need to breathe.”

“Okay, step away!”

Immediately after Dok Go-yeon unilaterally declared her intent, Ban Yu-won pulled out a small grenade from his inventory. Pulling out the safety pin, he threw it forward in the swarming masses.

―Clink, Clink, Clink…

It was one of the trump card consumables that he took from Earth. It contained the concept of a grenade and Magic, alongside Ban Yu-won’s secret to making firearms usable even in the Tower, Spirit. With this, he could not only block disturbances from the Tower’s magic waves but also detonate the grenades any time he wanted!

“Eve, block it!”

“Shrrr!”

Eve transformed into a giant iron shield around Ban Yu-won and Dok Go-yeon. The grenade was obscured by the wave of black legs skittering across the floor.

‘This is the third. There’s still a lot left, but I hope it ends at this point.’

The price of the special hand grenade that he painstakingly crafted was unimaginable, and considering the concept of Magic and Spirit that could be used, it was really bad to use such a weapon in the long run. But for now, Ban Yu-won’s life is at risk.

―Bang!

―Kyeeehhh!

The grenade exploded, killing dozens of spiders in an instant. It was a pleasing sight, but seeing the vacancy immediately filled by a swarm of newly hatched spiders took away his smile.

[Stealing 5.4 Life, 7.6 Physique, 4 Devil, and 7 Carapace from multiple Tower Spiders. Carapace is a concept that humans cannot possess.]

A string of gold characters rose from their dissipating corpses. It wasn’t a figure that could be ignored, but it was disappointing to think that this was obtained by killing a dozen Tower Spiders. It meant that after stealing so many concepts from them, the depth was now starting to diminish. Just in the case of Life, it was already just half.

[Life: 182

Physique: 138.5

Magic Power: 156.4

Soul: 372]

He mentally sighed, calling out and checking the four key elements of his body’s code.

‘Compared to before this damned raid started, I’ve grown a lot. The problem is that I still cannot defeat that swarm head-on at this level.’

This was too annoying. He entered the Tower and grew fast enough to exceed the average level of the other students, but despite this, he couldn’t play an active part in the current situation! Even the concepts that could be extracted from the Tower Spider began to decrease, so Ban Yu-won couldn’t help but grow a little nervous.

“Good job, Ban Yu-won. Thanks to you, I enjoyed a little break.”

Dok Go-yeon, who had recovered her stamina and perhaps sensed his nervousness, stepped forward with a more relaxed complexion. But Ban Yu-won stopped her, took out the sports drink, and handed it over.

“Take a little break and drink this. You must make sure you recover.”

“But it can’t be made easily, can it? If our community had one of those….”

“Just rest.”

“What?”

When Ban Yu-won spoke firmly and turned around, Dok Go-yeon laughed. But she quietly agreed to rest and drink as he told her while Ban Yu-won threw another Magic Bomb over Eve’s barrier and summoned Lilith.

“When they get caught up in the explosion, we will cut down as many as possible and fall back. Got it?”

Vroom-

Lilith answered with confidence. A magnificent explosion occurred beyond the shield, and golden character strings were pulled into Ban Yu-won, strengthening him again.

“Here we go!”

Eve, reading Ban Yu-won’s mind, momentarily lowered the shield, opening up a space for Lilith and Ban Yu-won to pass. Ban Yu-won, holding the Beheader’s Long Sword, rushed in, aiming for the spiders scattered by the explosion’s force.

“-Hup!”

He couldn’t tease Light since he, too, made a loud sound at the decisive moment. It was only for a brief moment while the spiders were disoriented, so he didn’t need to worry about making noise.

‘Cut as many at once…!’

Relying on Lilith’s speed, he laid down and swung his sword as far out as possible. He hoped that the power of Snapping contained in the sword would cut everything that fell in its path.

―Swoosh

The moment his strong will dominated the sword, the Beheader’s Long Sword emitted a faint red light. Ban Yu-won felt something being sucked into the sword from his body, and when he saw the energy forming around his sword, he noticed it was blood.

‘This…?!’

―Kueeeeeek!

―Keeheet!

At that moment, the red sword stretched and split the monsters caught in its wake. While Ban Yu-won was still stunned, Lilith made a quick U-turn and returned to the safety of Eve’s shield.

Ban Yu-won felt his head throbbing as he saw the notifications in front of him.

[The depth of the Blood Poison of the Beheader’s Long Sword was increased to 15.]

[You understood and acquired the concept of Cutting at least slightly. Depth of Cutting has increased to 2.]

Did it mean that the Blood Poison didn’t spill poison into the blood but consumed his own blood to create poison? No, no. Perhaps the poison of Blood Poison did not mean venom but was poison in the sense of harm and kill. It was too much to consider that reddish strike as poison otherwise, so this interpretation felt justified.

‘I am still far.’

Come to think of it, Blood Poison hadn’t been particularly active since he killed the Goblin Warrior. Maybe it was because of his wrong understanding of the concept. Perhaps there was an attack that consumed Ban Yu-won’s blood even then, but without realizing it, he was letting this treasure rot!

Thanks to the late realization of this concept, he realized what it meant to cut an enemy.

‘I’m exhausted from having my blood drawn, though.’

He always felt like this after donating blood, but he didn’t even have a Choco Pie to enjoy. While Ban Yu-won was breathing hard and feeling the injustice of it all, Dok Go-yeon passed by him as he sat down and threw an empty bottle over.

“That was a good sight, and I enjoyed this drink.”

“Did you drink all of this?!”

“It tastes unique but not bad. No, what wasn’t bad was the sight you just showed me….”

Dok Go-yeon glanced at the longsword in his hand for a moment, then rolled her shoulders and turned her gaze forward. It was only then that Ban Yu-won noticed something unusual was happening.

After the grenade and Ban Yu-won’s attack, it would be natural for the spiders to rush in, enraged, but instead, they were slowly retreating. It meant something was coming, probably something strong.

“So, from now on, I’m just paying it back.”

“You…?”

Ban Yu-won was surprised when he saw the short black sword in her hand. Had she ever used a sword? If it were her, she would be able to deal with anything that appeared in front of her bare hands. He would be really impressed if she held up the sword just to show off.

“I just don’t want to get my hands dirty, so don’t be mistaken.”

“Oh, okay.”

Ban Yu-won soon calmed down at Dok Go-yeon’s cold tone, but he kept his eyes wide open and watched her movements. Although he had already gained the Cutting concept, he knew it was far from the true meaning. If he gained anything from her movements, it would be a great help in handling his sword in the future.

-Boom, boom

It wasn’t the creepy clicks of the Tower Spiders that followed but the sound of something heavy stepping closer. Ban Yu-won could see the room was expanding in real-time.

“Elite Stage.”

Ban Yu-won murmured, recalling what he had read in the textbook.

“It said it’s a room that pressures Climbers, changing to match the characteristics of the Elite Monsters that appear. It was supposed to appear after at least…Room 50.”

“You’ve been telling us that all day. My ears are going to sting.”

“It said that the Tower will reward us if we defeat him.”

“It’s the first time I’ve heard of that, though.”

Of course, he didn’t know what would happen since they were now caught in an Irregular, but Ban Yu-won hoped the rewards would get better, not worse.

‘Besides, the appearance of an Elite means that this damn battle is over now…!’

However, perhaps the problem was that Ban Yu-won was too relieved by such thoughts.

“Ban!”

“What, Light?”

“How many Elites do the Elite Stage usually come with?!”

“Damn, I don’t know about that.”

Ban Yu-won, understanding the situation with Light’s comment, glanced back and let out a sad sigh.

—Booom

—Bang, bang!

Suddenly, white dust settled across the room. No, it wasn’t dust; it was spider webs. The room was completely taken over by the appearance of the Elite Monsters, the three giant spiders that now loomed over them.

“Ban Yu-won, look at me.”

“Yeah, I’m looking…”

-Swoosh

…And now there were two left.