Chapter 23

[Tower Master Strategy Guide (Incomplete)]

[Since there are many people trying to catch Rulers lately thanks to one streamer, I’m sharing information I know about the Tower Master. (Warning: informal speech style. Also, I haven’t cleared it either. This is barely worthy of being called a strategy guide – more like an info dump.) The setting is the Magic Tower’s top floor, the 8th floor where the Tower Master’s office is located, with the sky spread across the ceiling.

As far as I can confirm, the Tower Master is divided into two phases.

Phase 1 uses regular magic.

Fireballs, ice arrows, forest bindings, earth barriers, teleportation, etc.

If you like hack-and-slash and have experienced lots of magic while doing quests on previous floors or in the city center, you can dodge them at a somewhat difficult level.

Why is it somewhat difficult? Because the Tower Master’s magic has larger scale or much faster casting speed, and attacks relentlessly without pause.

By the way, he occasionally uses multi-casting too.

I recommend bringing utility skills and high-defense equipment.

Anyway, if you’re confident enough in your control to enjoy hack-and-slash, you should be able to get past Phase 1.

But Phase 2 is where the problem starts.

Once you take a hit, Phase 2 begins, and from here the Tower Master puts up a barrier.

Damn.

Regular attacks don’t work.

I used a high-damage bomb and it could penetrate the barrier and deal a tiny bit of damage.

But then he immediately puts the barrier back up.

Then couldn’t you just stock up on tons of bombs?

That’s true, but the problem is you can’t survive long enough to whittle down all that HP.

From Phase 2 onward, the Tower Master fires lightning.

This is really damn fast.

(Video)

As you can see, dodging it is really hard.

And it’s indiscriminate rapid fire.

How much mana does he have?

I even tried calling a friend to act as a lightning rod nearby, but there’s no competing with infinite mana.

(By the way, don’t play with friends. They adjust the balance by making magic twice as strong.) I’m going to look for other special items now. Since the game is so vast anyway, there must be multiple ways to clear it.

There might be a Phase 3.

It’s only been a day, so I’ll research various things going forward.]

* * *

“I see.”

Seo-jun opened his inventory with an awkward expression.

All he had was a rusty guard’s sword and basic hood.

And about 40 machetes collected while clearing out gangs.

It was a bit pathetic.

-LOL you didn’t prepare anything

-Even if you could handle the lightning somehow, there’s no way to break through the barrier

-Just go with assassination now

-Infiltration is actually most fun on the 8th floor anyway. It’s full of all kinds of traps the Tower Master personally installed.

“Well, there must be a way. Looking at the mission description, it seems like assassination would count as success too. But I have some conscience, so I won’t do that.”

<Clear against the Tower Master without using Weakness Detection.>

The mission definitely didn’t say not to assassinate.

Of course, if Seo-jun chose assassination here, the viewers would obviously riot.

“But I really don’t understand magic weak points either. Hmm, this might be the first time I actually die. Looking at the barrier, it’s just circular – I doubt it has weak points.”

Seo-jun played the video from the strategy post.

It definitely wasn’t as fast as real lightning, but it was fast enough that the distinction was meaningless to humans.

-Honestly, you couldn’t cut that even with Weakness Detection. Too fast

-Mission failure incoming.

-Safe assets.

As soon as Seo-jun finished speaking, notification sounds rang out.

And Seo-jun grinned.

[+5,000 won added to prize]

[+7,000 won added to prize]

[+3,000 won added to prize]

.

.

.

After the first notification, prize money kept rising in a chain reaction.

Travel’s mission system allowed anyone to freely add prize money once a streamer accepted a mission and it appeared on the broadcast screen.

Viewers who thought the mission failure probability had increased due to Seo-jun’s statement were putting up money.

Since they’d get it back if he failed – so-called safe assets.

[Clear against the Tower Master without using Weakness Detection — Mission Reward: 1,230,000 won]

-LOL

-Don’t fall for it, everyone!

-Look, the streamer acting weak is obviously calculated. See how he played the video again to get more prize money. He’s probably already figured out what to do.

-I smell the familiar scent of capitalism.

-Tsk, this is why sharp kids are…

As Seo-jun smiled, viewers began catching on.

“No way. How would I know what to do? I’m not a game developer or anything.”

-Gasp.

-Could it be??

-I’m getting a realistic godly feeling.

-No wonder he was so confident when he reported himself

Seo-jun closed the chat window and opened the door to the 8th floor.

“I said no… Sigh, whatever. Let’s go in now.”

-HAHAHA

* * *

“Hmm? Who might you be?”

A young man sat with his hands clasped on his desk.

He had neatly slicked-back white hair, a sharp uniform, and white gloves – an orderly style.

Tower Master Duke.

His office interior was surrounded by tall bookshelves packed with books, and the ceiling was open as if you could see the sky.

Behind the Tower Master was a corridor where strange mechanical devices and magical formulas could be glimpsed.

“Nameless.”

Seo-jun answered the Tower Master’s question.

“Nameless, you say. Why did you come here? No, how did you get here?”

“Well…”

Whoosh!

Seo-jun stopped mid-answer and drew his sword to slice through magic that suddenly flew at him.

“You do have skill, I see. How unfortunate. This could have ended easily.”

With just one gesture, the Tower Master generated three more fireballs and sent them at Seo-jun while slowly rising from his seat.

Seo-jun also eliminated the fireballs by moving only his arms without shifting his body at all.

Step.

Then he took one step forward.

“My, how rude. Don’t you think so?”

“Are you talking to me?”

With another gesture, over ten ice arrows appeared.

His other hand remained behind his back, which was annoying.

“Who else would I be talking to? Something like that.”

Seo-jun approached the Tower Master while dodging arrows.

Step.

“Is that so? Then how did you get here?”

Rustle rustle rustle.

Rumble rumble crash.

Vines trying to bind him came first, followed by sharp rocks rising to crush him while bound, approaching in sequence.

Seo-jun broke through the vines, stabbed his sword into the rocks to dispel the magic, and took another step closer.

Step.

“I just walked here. All the doors were unlocked.”

-So cool

-Facts

-Ah lol should have managed the doors properly lol

-Easy so far

“Hmm… I wonder if you can dodge this too?”

Another wave of magic crashed over him.

But no matter how much faster and more powerful it became, it was fundamentally still the same magic.

“Yeah. I could dodge it with my eyes closed.”

Step.

-Facts 22222

-The streamer’s wit lol

-Thinking about how he was scamming viewers earlier, his personality was never going to be good lol

“We’ve gotten quite close, haven’t we?”

Unlike before, Seo-jun suddenly closed the distance and slashed his sword from left to right.

Slash!

The Tower Master quickly teleported backward, but a thin line was drawn across his neck and blood spurted out.

He’d been slightly too slow.

However, the Tower Master showed no sign of surprise. Rather, he wore the same calm expression Seo-jun always had.

“Hmm. Good. I’ll face you with full power.”

The Tower Master removed his white gloves and brought his hands together.

Blue sparks began crackling around the Tower Master.

-Phase 2

-Get away for now

-Run!

Crackle!

The Tower Master extended his hand toward Seo-jun.

The air burst and thunder roared.

CRACK!

Bright blue lightning like something from a Tesla coil instantly grazed past Seo-jun and struck the floor.

The magic lingered in the air briefly before disappearing, leaving behind a floor that was blackened and gouged.

‘Huh.’

It was much faster than even the swift swords of absolute masters he’d experienced in his past life, “How am I supposed to handle this?”

Seo-jun broke out in a cold sweat.

100,000 km per second.

Even if you slowed that down 10,000 times from the original speed, it would still be 10 km per second.

Good thing he watched the video beforehand.

-How did you dodge that lol

-At this level, aren’t you really pro-grade? Why are you even streaming?

-The streamer is crazy about broadcasting lol

Dodging by sight was impossible.

Instead, he could dodge by watching the Tower Master and predicting the timing.

Crackle crackle!

Sparks flew from the Tower Master’s hand as electricity gathered again.

Seo-jun kept his eyes fixed on the Tower Master’s hand.

CRACK!

Lightning struck the floor once more.

The magic grazed past Seo-jun’s right shoulder.

Seo-jun thought the most important thing in battle was observation.

Crackle!

Electricity gathering in the Tower Master’s hand.

CRACK!

Lightning magic striking down again.

Crackle!

This time Seo-jun threw his body to the left to dodge.

CRACK!

Unlike a bullet that fires the moment you pull the trigger, magic had a slight delay before activation, and Seo-jun used that lag time to dodge while continuing to observe.

After making a mess of the office several times through combat and weak points, Seo-jun was able to notice a few things.

First, the Tower Master.

‘For some reason I don’t understand, he doesn’t seem to want me getting close to that back area.’

When he moved right, the Tower Master fired magic even further right to guide Seo-jun back to his original position.

‘Same when I go left.’

Even when he dodged lightning by a hair’s breadth in a straight line to close distance, the Tower Master didn’t retreat but rather used shields to defend his position and push Seo-jun back.

Since Seo-jun had no way to break the shield, he had no choice but to fall back again.

In this case, well, it was obvious.

‘He must be protecting something important back there.’

Seo-jun looked at the wall behind the Tower Master. There, a ring-shaped object about the size of a soccer ball was floating inside a glass tube.

‘I’d like to mess with that.’

Seo-jun pulled out a machete from his inventory and threw it.

But it was blocked by the Tower Master’s shield, which was nearly 3 meters wide.

-Nope, not happening.

-Lmao how long are you going to keep dodging?

-There’s no answer, right? Should we retry?

-Let’s go get some bombs at least.

‘As expected.’

He knew this would happen.

Crackle.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

The Tower Master shouted and extended his hand.

He seemed excited.

CRACK!

Seo-jun tilted his head to the side to dodge the lightning while thinking.

‘That’s the second mystery.’

Seo-jun captured the blue lightning that lingered in the air for about 1 second in his eyes.

Beautiful.

From a distance it was just a single bolt of lightning, but up close he could see multiple thin blue light strands bundling together and splitting apart to form one shape.

‘Why did they specifically make a mission saying not to use Weakness Detection?’

Lightning was absolutely impossible to cut or dispel anyway.

Even if Seo-jun brought his past life’s body and enlightenment, this would be impossible.

‘Just something a regular person said?’

But spending 1 million won for that?

Even aside from the amount, Seo-jun had a gut feeling that whoever posted the mission was related to the development of this game.

And that intuition grew stronger the more he looked at the lingering lightning.

There’s something there.

Seo-jun steeled himself and entrusted his body to instinct.

CRACK!

The air burst and a fantastic strand created by blue electricity passed instantly before Seo-jun’s eyes.

Multiple lightning branches clumped together and scattered like broken glass.

Small intersecting crossroads of branches. That center point.

In a split second, Seo-jun followed his intuition and thrust his sword into that spot.