Ch.237Surveillance Tower Attack Operation

The conquest of the northwest watchtower was much easier than expected, but it also required a considerable amount of time.

The structure of the watchtower was remarkably simple.

Climbing the stairs installed along the wall led to a spacious room that occupied an entire floor, and on one side of the room’s floor was a summoning magic circle that continuously called forth monsters.

After annihilating the monsters that appeared from the summoning magic circle, the circle would disappear and stairs to the next floor would appear.

It was a continuous process of moving upward while defeating monsters.

Fortunately, most of the monsters appearing from the magic circle were variants of Lesser Demons, which could be taken down without much difficulty as long as we were careful with the ones that used magic.

Since we had three adventurers who used double-barrel shotguns, we could quickly sweep away enemies with area attacks if we positioned ourselves well.

However, it was impossible to continue winning decisively without suffering any wounds in the ongoing battles, and above all—

“Hey, how many floors have we climbed so far?”

“We’ve already cleared six rooms with magic circles. Something feels off about this.”

“Does this… even have an end?”

“…”

Above all, the fact that we should have already climbed higher than the top of the watchtower yet still couldn’t see an end was making everyone anxious.

“Mina, I was wondering…”

“No, no. I was suspicious too, so I checked. We’re not going in circles, and I confirmed that we’re steadily gaining altitude.”

“Phew… that’s a relief at least.”

The memory of being badly tricked by the “endless staircase” in the Disease Demon’s dungeon was about to resurface, but the sharp-witted Mina had already considered that possibility and verified otherwise.

“The seventh door has appeared.”

“I hope this is finally the last floor.”

“If we reach the tenth floor and still see no end in sight, let’s consider a temporary retreat. We need to check if the other towers are like this too.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

We had defeated over 150 monsters while climbing through six floors.

Wondering if this watchtower might be an even more terrifying monster den than the Dungeon Overflow, we opened the door to the seventh room.

~~~ Southeast Tower, Sixth Room ~~~

While Will’s group and the shotgun trio were busy conquering the northwest tower, the same thing was happening in the other three towers.

It was a repetitive process of climbing stairs, arriving at a spacious room, and fighting dozens of monsters.

But just because the situations were identical doesn’t mean the results would be the same.

*Crack!*

“ARGHH!!”

“Ben?!”

The ten adventurers who entered the southeast tower were all veterans familiar with monster battles, but unfortunately, none of them could use healing magic.

Of course, they were aware of this weakness and carried recovery potions, but potions are consumable items.

Unlike healing magic, one must be more cautious about timing their use, and psychologically, it’s hard not to feel increasingly anxious as the number of remaining potions dwindles.

This often leads to situations like now, where delaying treatment for minor wounds results in more serious injuries.

“My right arm is broken! I can’t fight!”

“Get him to the back and have someone guard him! Form a defensive line near the entrance!”

The adventurer profession inevitably comes with minor injuries, but among them, fractures from impact weapons are particularly concerning.

Fractures cannot be instantly healed with magic, and even with potions or professional healers, they require significant time and resources to recover.

That’s why even today, prominent magical scholars at the New Continent Development Project’s Academy are pouring their efforts into developing healing magic that can completely cure serious injuries like fractures or physical defects…

But this was irrelevant to the southeast tower conquest team, which consisted entirely of ten gunners.

“Damn it, how are we supposed to conquer this tower? How many more floors do we have to climb?”

“If you have time to complain, hurry up and reload! Once we start getting pushed back, it’s over!”

Despite hurling complaints and curses at the endlessly appearing monsters, the adventurers assigned to the southeast watchtower managed to conquer the sixth room without suffering any more casualties or stragglers.

“Phew… we somehow made it through the crisis.”

“The problem was when our formation briefly broke. If we respond calmly, we can definitely fight.”

“Except for the person with the broken arm.”

With someone’s pointed remark, all nine pairs of eyes turned toward the injured person enduring pain by the entrance.

They couldn’t continue climbing the tower with someone who could barely take care of themselves, let alone fight.

“We have no choice. Ben, you should go back to the plaza and rest.”

“Wait, are you thinking of letting him go down alone? There might be monsters roaming inside the castle.”

“That’s true.”

Without being able to guarantee safety inside the castle, at least one person needed to escort the injured.

This meant that the number of people conquering the southeast tower would be reduced from ten to eight.

A 20% reduction in total fighting power.

For those who needed to face multiple enemies in consecutive battles, this was a painful loss.

“We should retreat instead of climbing further. It’s embarrassing not to complete our assigned area, but we can’t trade lives for it.”

“I agree. Let’s ask for help from other parties that have completed their conquests.”

After coolly analyzing the current situation, the leaders of the two parties decided to retreat.

They might be ridiculed by other adventurers who completed their conquests, but it’s better to be briefly mocked than to be annihilated attempting a reckless climb.

In the end, their choice was correct.

And somewhere, there are always people who make incorrect choices.

~~~ Inside the Castle Gate Plaza ~~~

Contrary to our initial plan to climb only up to the 10th floor and then retreat, we ended up having a decisive battle with a monster called a “Griffin” on the 8th floor, which was open on all sides like a rooftop.

The Griffin, with an eagle’s head and a lion’s body, pressured us with sharp feathers and heavy charging attacks, but after being hit by countless magic bullets from three shotguns, its wings became tattered and it crashed in the center of the tower.

It was immediately pierced through the heart by a Lightning Bolt and had its neck severed by Seti’s spear, ending its life.

When the Griffin fell, the scenery changed from an open rooftop to an indoor space, and a translucent green pillar rose from the center of the room, beginning to emit a faint light.

We instinctively realized that this green pillar was a device that activated one of the magic circles at the inner castle gate. After the shotgun trio collected the Griffin’s magic stone and our party took its hide, we left the watchtower.

When we returned to the plaza inside the castle gate after conquering the northwest watchtower, the adventurers who had gone to conquer the southeast watchtower were resting while tending to their comrade with a fracture.

About 30 minutes later, the adventurers who had been assigned to the southwest watchtower arrived, and after another 20 minutes, those who had been assigned to the northeast watchtower gathered in the plaza.

However, the number of adventurers who reassembled was only 32.

“Four dead and two injured to the point of being unable to fight…”

“All the deaths occurred in the southwest tower. What happened there?”

“They died fighting the boss monster guarding the 10th floor, a Salamander.”

“Wait, the 10th floor? The northeast tower’s top floor was the 9th.”

“Ours was the 8th. Do the floors divide according to the number of people who entered the tower?”

The northwest tower had eight people in total—us and the shotgun trio.

The northeast had 5+4 party members for a total of 9, and the southwest had 6+4 party members for a total of 10.

The fact that all three towers had floors equal to the number of people who entered is too precise to be a coincidence.

“If that’s true, then the southeast tower should end at the 9th floor. We climbed to the 6th floor, but with no mages and a fracture patient, we had no choice but to give up.”

“We should have done the same! Damn it… if only I hadn’t insisted on climbing one more floor…!”

“It’s not your fault. As the party leader, I made the decision.”

Coincidentally, all four who died in the southwest party were from the same group, and it seems only the party leader and an injured mage barely managed to survive.

“I regret what happened to your comrades, but we can’t dawdle here forever. You all, do you think you can try the southeast tower again?”

“Everyone except the injured can still fight reasonably well. But as I mentioned earlier, both parties consist only of gunners… if possible, we’d like a mage to join us.”

“Hmm…”

The adventurers gathered in the plaza hesitated, looking at each other.

This wasn’t due to a lack of courage to challenge the watchtower again, but because of the risk of sending a mage—a party’s main combat power—to accompany another party alone.

And this was something the adventurers who retreated from the southeast tower understood well.

“…We have no choice. Our entire party will withdraw from the watchtower conquest. We’d like a five-person party with a mage to take our place.”

“A five-person party with a mage…”

Upon hearing those words, all the adventurers’ gazes turned toward us.

There was also a staff wizard in the five-person party that had entered the northeast tower, but it was natural that our group, with two mages and close combat support, appeared much more balanced.

“If everyone’s expecting this much from us, we have no choice but to accept. Everyone, still up for it?”

Jessica’s confirmation was met with nods from me, Seti, Mina, and Phillis.

It seems the boss monster of the southeast watchtower will be ours to claim.