1 – Number 1

Americano, having received the recommendation letter, also took care of the cuirasses she had requested last time.

They might be useless in the Tower, but they would still be useful in the field. Even if she acquired a Master-grade equipment set, she didn’t intend to wear it all the time.

The equipment in this game was designed to break easily compared to other games.

The supply of equipment was considered part of the content.

Also, Master-grade equipment would be too conspicuous, and wearing such expensive gear would only make her a target for PK.

“…Huh?”

Would that be better?

Conversely, there was a possibility that no one would dare to attack her because her equipment was too good.

Anyway, after finishing her business at the armor shop, she visited the Magic Shop this time.

Mew greeted her happily.

“Americano! Welcome!!”

Mew was always high-spirited.

She told Mew the purpose of her visit to the Magic Shop today.

To enchant all the Steel Cuirasses.

Pet items to equip Cappuccino with.

These were the two things.

“You mean equipment for the frog?”

Come to think of it, Mew didn’t know that Win’s Ego resided in the [Soulstone of the Witch Win].

“Yes, that’s…”

‘Stop.’

Cappuccino stopped her.

She didn’t talk about Win.

“…Cappuccino was originally a monster that used magic. So, I wanted to equip him with equipment that would help with magic if there was any.”

“He uses magic?”

“Yes. He’s very versatile.”

Americano reached into her chest and took out the frog, placing it on the table.

“Oh my, you keep him in a place like that?”

“He seems to like it there.”

“That little guy knows what’s good.”

Ah, speaking of chest, I just remembered.

“And do you have any magical tools to make breasts smaller?”

“Pardon?”

“They get in the way whenever I move. I want to reduce them, is there any way?”

When she reduced her breasts.

She liked that feeling.

Her breasts were excessively large, and she liked the size when they were reduced.

It wasn’t like they were someone else’s breasts, so what good was it if her own breasts were big?

Mew couldn’t close her mouth, her face shocked.

“You’re going to reduce that which has swelled up with the dreams of men and women of all ages? No way! I’m absolutely against that!”

“…It hinders combat.”

“Even so, you’ll definitely regret it later. Think about the person you’ll date in the future. Men are all crazy about breasts! Please imagine your boyfriend hugging Americano’s breasts and being happy.”

I don’t need any more.

It was something she didn’t even want to imagine.

Just as Americano opened her mouth as if to object, Mew preempted her.

“The reason you want to reduce your breasts is because they get in the way when you fight, right? I have a way! Don’t reduce them, make them lighter!”

“Lighter?”

“Yes! It’s called a Bust Enhancement Pill, and it’s a medicine that makes breasts as light as air!”

“It won’t inflate them like balloons, will it?”

“Unfortunately, the medicine that makes breasts bigger is called a Breast Enlargement Pill, but it’s not easy to develop.”

“There’s medicine to make them bigger, but there’s medicine to make them smaller?”

“Isn’t it strange? The world is so unfair. Haha. Anyway, the witches in my family don’t deceive customers with their products.”

Anyway, it was all useless talk.

“Well, if you can at least reduce the weight. Do you have it?”

“I prepared it just in case.”

“….”

She received the medicine from Mew.

Paid the price.

And took the medicine.

As soon as she took it, [Divulging Secrets of Heaven] occurred.

[Consuming Bust Enhancement Pill.]

[Breasts become lighter.]

Her breasts gradually became lighter.

Oh, this is good?

Seeing Americano’s face brighten, Mew casually said.

“Shall I teach you how to make it?”

“…Is there a duration?”

“Of course, there is. There’s no eternal magic in the world. It’s simple, but I can’t just teach it to you for free. I’ll teach you if you do me a favor.”

Pretending to think about it, she searched the [Community], but there was no information about ‘Bust Enhancement Pill’.

“What’s the favor?”

“Can I hug you? I want to hug you every time I see you! Can I?”

“….”

Americano shrugged and spread her arms.

Mew happily ran over.

And buried her face in her chest.

“Hehe. Happiness is overflowing.”

“….”

Americano felt strange.

Cappuccino stared blankly.

‘Are you happy that a woman is hugging you?’

That guy.

But she couldn’t deny it.

He was still a man.

Perhaps because she looked like a woman, she didn’t dislike the plausibility of easily getting involved with women.

Anyway, back to the main topic.

She applied all the same enchantments to the Steel Cuirass as she had to the Mithril Cuirass.

…That’s what she was going to do.

“You can only apply one enchantment to steel. If you used high-quality steel, you could apply up to two, but this one only takes two. It doesn’t seem like Mudborn has improved his skills?”

She used the steel from the [Ultra Iron Golem].

It seemed she had used high-quality steel.

“The Mithril Cuirass you brought last time wasn’t of good quality. It’s Mithril, but it only takes three enchantments. Good quality ones can take up to five.”

Mew chattered about enchantments.

Listening to the explanation, she applied the enchantments.

The enchantments that had been applied to the Mithril Cuirass were three.

[Harness].

[Heater].

[Charm].

Come to think of it, she had never used [Charm].

“You didn’t have a chance to experience it because it was immediately destroyed by Witch Win. If you had gone to the hunting grounds with Charm on, the monsters would have found you on their own. Monsters have a good sense of smell.”

Thinking about it that way, the orcs had also found Americano strangely well.

They wouldn’t have been able to distinguish her face, so it must have been the smell.

“Then I’ll remove Charm and apply the others.”

The [Harness] and [Heater] enchantments were applied to all the Steel Cuirasses.

While she was applying them, there was an enchantment catalog, so she opened it and read it. It listed the types of enchantments that could be applied in this shop.

Enchantments like [Rush] or [Protect].

There were a few she liked.

The enchanting was finished.

“It’s done.”

“Yes, thank you for your hard work.”

She paid the price.

“What was next?”

“Pet House. Do you sell anything better than the one you gave me last time?”

“Yes! But it’s not here. If I place an order with the main store, it will be delivered in a day.”

Mew smiled contentedly.

“You liked the Pet House I gave you?”

“Yes.”

The [Pet House] lowered the probability of being dropped from the Inventory, and the high-performance [Pet House] eliminated the possibility of being dropped altogether.

Above all, the [Pet House] was designed not to attract the attacks and attention of monsters even if it was dropped.

Mew had explained it that way.

‘Overprotective.’

Cappuccino glared at Americano.

Not at all.

In the first place, if she needed to summon Cappuccino to win, she should at least have some chance of winning without summoning Cappuccino.

But this time it was different.

As if sensing that thought, Cappuccino said.

‘You haven’t even used me much, where do you get that confidence from?’

Don’t you know?

It’s a hunch.

That’s what overprotection is, but what can I do?

Cappuccino’s master was Americano.

It was her choice how to treat her pet.

“Is it possible to know what kind of things you have?”

“I’m not a pet expert, so I don’t know the details. But as far as I know, you’ll only be putting the frog in there, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I recommend the Ultra-Small Pet House.”

“Ultra-Small?”

“It’s a Pet House smaller than a fist, and it’s easy to put pets in and take them out. It’s especially popular with Summoned Heroes.”

Somehow, she had a Pikachu-like premonition of what kind of [Pet House] it would be.

“Oh, and Pet Houses are quite expensive. Did you have a budget in mind when you came?”

She had about 100 million Gold to spare.

But 100 million was a bit much.

A full set of Master-grade equipment.

She didn’t know if she could buy two sets for that price.

“Ten million Gold.”

“T-Ten million. With that kind of budget, you can get almost any Pet House. Can you tell me the size and functions you want? I’ll specially find one that’s tailored for Americano.”

“….”

What is there?

First of all, it had to be sturdy.

First of all, it had to be undetectable.

First of all, it had to allow magic to be used inside.

These three things were a must.

‘I’m telling you, it’s overprotective.’

Cappuccino grumbled discontentedly.

Americano’s index finger touched Cappuccino, flipping his body over.

‘Ribbit.’

Unfortunately, there was no [Pet House] that met the above three conditions. She could have a custom-made one, but it would cost over 10 million.

She offered to pay more and requested it to be made.

Mew accepted the request.

She was confident that she could handle it.

“By the way.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Can I hug you one more time?”

“….”

She answered by spreading her arms instead of speaking.

Mew crushed Americano’s chest with her own, making wa-wa-wa- sounds.

[Chief Ogre].

To catch that guy, it was important to build up Skill proficiency, but she also needed good gear.

She wanted to win without gear, but it seemed this was her limit.

There were three main factors that affected combat power.

Level, Skill, and Equipment.

If she could raise these three things, a basic improvement in combat power was guaranteed.

Of course, all three were just tools, so her own skill in handling them was also important, but there was a limit that could be reached with skill alone.

When damage doesn’t land at all.

Or when they’re flying in the sky and you can’t hit them.

Roughly those kinds of cases.

Americano felt a wall from [Chief Ogre].

She felt pathetic for saying this after only fighting him once, but Americano knew herself well.

Challenge him two, three, five, ten times to figure out [Chief Ogre]’s patterns?

She could be sure.

If she challenged him ten times, her motivation would die.

She definitely wouldn’t be able to think about climbing for days.

If she went past ten times to twenty or thirty times, she might turn away from climbing altogether.

The possibility was high.

Americano knew.

What kind of person she was.

She hated repetition.

She hated repetition.

So, each attempt was important.

She had to extract the maximum effect in the next battle with the intuition, experience, and analysis gained from one battle.

But,

‘With the weapons I have now, I don’t see any chance of beating that Ogre.’

He was purely strong.

Purely powerful.

The impression was strong that he was in an area that she couldn’t win in all specs.

Level? He was blocking her, so impossible.

Skill? Would raising a level or two change anything?

Equipment? …

Equipment was the easiest.

Currently, Americano’s equipment level had remained almost the same since the beginning.

She needed equipment.

‘But what about Awakened Ability?’

A question that resonated in her mind for a moment.

It was the same as with the [Giant Water Slime].

She used it because she didn’t think her sword would work.

[Chief Ogre] also wouldn’t be able to use her skills, so she would use her Awakened Ability.

‘…Is that right?’

[Giant Water Slime] was a monster that inherently didn’t work well with swords, while [Chief Ogre] worked with swords, but didn’t work due to specs.

The two were clearly different.

She felt that using her Awakened Ability on [Giant Water Slime] was no problem at all,

But using it on [Chief Ogre] felt like something else.

Complete defeat.

Defeat.

Look at her using cheats because she can’t win.

That feeling.

‘I feel like I’m constantly looking for loopholes.’

If she used her Awakened Ability, there would be a chance.

The Awakened Ability of electricity was fast and strong.

But,

‘If I rely on Awakened Ability from the 32nd floor, what will I do next?’

Use Awakened Ability to win on the 33rd, 34th, and 35th floors too?

Awakened Ability was too convenient.

Because it was powerful, she would become dependent on it.

In front of Awakened Ability, what meaning would swordsmanship have?

If she just shot Awakened Ability, swordsmanship would be useless.

‘But what would be fun about that?’

It was boring just imagining it.

Convenient and fun were different.

Above all, this was a game.

Awakened Ability was a cheat key.

Not everyone wants to play the game using cheat keys.

That’s not all.

Let’s say she climbs the Tower using Awakened Ability.

But what if she meets a strong enemy that she can’t beat even with Awakened Ability?

What will she do then?

Then it’s really over, isn’t it?

To prevent that from happening, she had to train her Awakened Ability as well, but she couldn’t invest only in Awakened Ability.

Awakened Ability may seem good right now, but she had to keep this in mind.

This was a game.

The game difficulty was designed without considering Awakened Ability.

In other words, swordsmanship also had potential no less than Awakened Ability.

Even if it was weak right now, what about later?

She uses Awakened Ability to win from [32nd floor].

Abilities other than Awakened Ability stagnate at [32nd floor].

Later, she wants to improve that skill and starts wielding her sword again. But if the floor is [40th floor], can she use the enemy of [40th floor] as a swordsmanship training partner?

She couldn’t.

The Tower of Trials sequentially releases strong enemies for each floor.

Strong enemies that are hard to meet in the field and can be escaped even if they are met.

The Tower of Trials was a kind of training ground that God had given to Heroes so that they could gain experience by sequentially facing those strong enemies.

But she fills that gap with Awakened Ability?

Reliance on Awakened Ability was tantamount to castrating the growth potential of swordsmanship.

Why would the Tower of Trials be a trial?

It was a training ground prepared by God.

It should be used for sword training.

She shouldn’t easily win by using Awakened Ability.

Level, Skill, Equipment, Skill. At least if she used these four things to the limit and still couldn’t win, she could lament her talent and consider using Awakened Ability.

[Chief Ogre] still had the means of upgrading his equipment.

If that didn’t work either, then she should consider Awakened Ability.

It wasn’t that she wouldn’t use Awakened Ability at all, it was just that she wouldn’t rely on it. In the first place, if she didn’t want to use it, she wouldn’t have used it as an escape in times of crisis.

The most ideal picture that Americano was drawing was facing a strong enemy that was difficult to defeat even by combining Awakened Ability and swordsmanship.

Starting Challenger Mode and being like this from [32nd floor].

Soon, she could expect a battle that combined swordsmanship with Awakened Ability.

The reason she didn’t use Awakened Ability was because that ability was too convenient.

If it was an opponent that she couldn’t guarantee victory even with Awakened Ability, there was no reason not to use it.

That’s right.

Overcoming difficulties is a trial.

Awakened Ability was a convenient path, but the fact that it was a cheat key didn’t change.

It was an ability that shouldn’t have existed in the game in the first place.

In the first place, she should have won without using it against [Giant Water Slime] either.

They must have released it because there was a way to win.

At that time, she was so excited about using Awakened Ability that she couldn’t think deeply.

The self in her heart asks.

‘So you’re not going to use it?’

I won’t use it.

There’s still a way.

It’s not completely blocked.

So, abandon the idea of using Awakened Ability haphazardly.

That’s making the game boring.

“Haa…”

The urge to want convenience disturbed her mind.

That’s how strong [Chief Ogre] was.

What she needed now was peace of mind.

Americano.

Her heart was filled with frustration from meeting a wall for the first time in a long time, tormenting herself.

That’s because she was being compared.

‘I’m blocked from the 32nd floor.’

She was already blocked.

The strategy site clearly said that she could easily clear up to at least the 45th floor by the 50th floor.

She knew that the standard was party climbing and low difficulty. But even so, she compared herself to others with solo climbing and high difficulty.

She pretended not to realize it on purpose because that’s how she could get motivated.

Was it because of Challenger Mode?

Let’s not use that as an excuse.

She shook her head and corrected herself.

“Haa…”

The inferiority complex from her Unawakened Hunter days was consuming her.

Other Hunters would think, ‘What kind of dog-like inferiority complex is that?’

But it was the self-hypnosis that allowed her to achieve results comparable to a C-grade Hunter in an Unawakened state. It was like a reaction to that self-hypnosis.

Isn’t it funny that you’re sticking to the sword when there’s an easy way to get stronger? The self-hypnosis that she should get stronger was mocking her.

But this was a game.

What’s wrong with getting stronger like a game in a game?

Self-hypnosis.

It was a kind of brainwashing.

Brainwashing is controlling and inducing a way of thinking by giving biased information.

Until now, she had climbed the Tower smoothly without any problems, but as soon as she was blocked, she demanded easy and sure means of Enhancement, just like she had in reality.

She invested almost all of the income she earned from Hunter activities into equipment to get stronger, and it was so extreme that she was on the verge of bankruptcy.

If she wasn’t extreme, an Unawakened Hunter couldn’t become as strong as a Hunter. So, if an Unawakened was to be recognized as a Hunter, that’s really all she could do at the time.

But that was a story from reality.

This was a game.

She held her head.

‘Headache.’

I’m tired.

If she compared it to a game, would it be lag?

Her head throbbed.

Different opinions in her head roared that their words were right.

But it’s okay.

It was all resolved soon.

Because she had looked at the ranking chart.

“….”

She was at the guild.

To see the rankings.

[30th Floor].

<30th Floor Solo Ranking>

[1st Place Anonymous – High Knight Evga (SSS)]

Self-suggestion?

Brainwashing?

What are those?

The psychological burden they had placed on her melted away.

She had officially taken 1st place on the 30th floor.

1st place.

She was in 1st place.

She hadn’t misread it.

‘I took 1st place?!’

A thrilling sensation like an electric current ran down her spine.

Americano’s heart pounded.

‘I’m in 1st place!!!!!!!!!!!’

You’re all dead!!!

I’ll kill that [Chief Ogre] right away!!!

‘I’m number one!!!!!!’

Just then, someone nearby spoke up.

“Aish, they didn’t upload the video this time.”

“It looks like they uploaded the 31st floor one, though?”

“But why not the 30th floor?”

“Yeah, I wanted to see their PvP skills, but why didn’t they upload it when the article came out?”

“The opponent was human, after all. They probably won in a dirty way.”

Giggles from behind.

There was no strategy video for the [30th Floor].

She had made it private because she felt she had revealed too many elements of her identity.

But the page was still created, so she could check the comments.