chapter 48
48 – Press This Button (4)
Being a spirit user is rare in itself.
Generally, in order to directly communicate with spirits that are not usually seen or felt, innate talent is important.
Throughout the tower, spirits reside, and whether one receives help or interference from them is a crucial factor in determining the difficulty of climbing.
Because of this, the Spirit School has established a small but highly advantageous position compared to other schools.
At the same time, they also faced a lot of envy and jealousy.
—–
The Seven Sages’ Ranking of Unlucky Schools in the Tower and Their Characteristics
1. Spirit School: They climb using spirit power, thinking that it’s their own ability due to their sense of being the chosen ones. They are unable to have normal conversations and their goal in life is to be acknowledged by spirits more than their own parents. They rarely leave their rooms and don’t even bathe.
2. Astrology School: They mutter words that nobody else understands all the time. If they happen to encounter someone in a drinking session, they look at them with pitiful eyes. If they don’t need a gift they received, they sell it secondhand on Libra.
3. Elemental School: Each attribute is different, but most of them are average. However, they have the loudest voices on the forum and there are a lot of extreme individuals, which is annoying.
4. Summoning School: They are debtors and even split the bill when buying drinks from vending machines. Sometimes when they trip in the hallway, coins spill out as if they’ve caught a demon.
5. Sacred School: A good-quality stethoscope.
6. Alchemy School: They are gentle and well-mannered in everything. Their dedication to research makes their pure side stand out unexpectedly. They have romantic goals such as creating the Philosopher’s Stone. They are good-looking.
Refutation against the Spirit School
[Recommended 234 / Not Recommended 5327]
— Next miner
— I can tell which school you’re from, lol
— But the Spirit School kids are pretty pathetic, lol
ㄴ Seriously, even if they have just one spirit badge, they boast about it like a medal.
ㄴ Aren’t they the ones with good-quality interpreters?
ㄴ Yeah, if you’re jealous, you should become a spirit user too~
– Where is the Haeju School?
– There is no such school in Matap.
—–
It’s disgusting how they always act like they’re better than others, with their high noses when it comes to borrowing the power of spirits, trying to establish a hierarchy among everyone, and so on.
Their reputation may be bad, but their skills themselves cannot be denied as reality.
Even Linji Stribling, one of the Seven Sages of the Spirit School, had such characteristics prominently displayed.
As the gallery was being devastated by the button created by Judak.
She laughed heartily as she observed the suffering of other Pataks in the spirit realm.
—–
– Genius Golden Haired Girl: Judak!! Delete this sh*tty button system right now!!
– Lightning Emperor of the Wall: It almost got in the way of my climb and almost killed me.
– Blessings to You: Oh, is this something the administrator gave you? I’m sorry, I ate it after taking a bite. ( ˃ ⌑ ˂ഃ )
– Trapped on the 44th floor: I have so many questions.
—–
“Ahahahaha, idiots. Who would trust Judak anyway?”
From the beginning, Linji didn’t agree with the rules.
As a popular Patak in the gallery, she couldn’t help but be affected by the buttons created by other users, but she was currently staying in the spirit realm.
In a state of being an ethereal body that didn’t require meals or sleep, she was immune to most attacks.
The only drawback was that the connection of the location note was unstable, so the chat was limited, maybe?
However, even that didn’t hinder her duties as a Patak.
– Wasp Squad Leader: Hey, why am I being suspended?
– Owl Owl Owl: Hoot
– Wasp Squad Leader: The honeybee larvae were the ones who started the fight first, so why am I the only one blocked for a week?
– Wasp Squad Leader: Can’t they be banned too?
– Owl Owl Owl: Hoo…
– Wasp Squad Leader: No, speak properly so that I can understand and accept it!
– Wasp Squad Leader: Are you making fun of me right now?
– Owl Owl Owl: Hoot
Back then, when I laughed at the blocked user while staying true to my role as a concept player.
Suddenly, I felt a strange movement of the spirits finding themselves.
The spirit symbols engraved on my collarbone and elbows sparkled like an alarm bell.
Breaking through the storm and coming outside, the lower-level spirits were flying in and urgently shouting.
They were the lower-level spirits who operated on the 20th floor.
“What’s going on?”
“Big trouble! Big trouble!”
“Disaster has come to the Realm! The one who has brought the blood of calamity has stepped in!”
“The terminals that the Sovereigns desired!”
“Little Queen! We need the Queen’s help!”
“Me? Ha! I don’t want to.”
The hierarchy in the spirit realm is clear.
As the ruler under six great lords, Linji held absolute superiority over all her subordinates.
Her name, as one of the Seven Sages of the current spiritual school, was “Petty Tyrant.”
She earned this nickname because of her ruthless personality, showing no mercy to anyone, even causing other direct descendants to shudder in fear.
“Did a problem arise in the trial? Tsk, I’ll send the kids later to check, so go back.”
“Petty Queen! Your subordinates are not enough!”
“Recently, the Queen’s subordinates serve even stranger beings than spirits!”
“They say she’s holding a solo concert in the Labyrinth! They call her the Silver Hair!”
“Enough, just leave! Why did you bother coming to me…?”
It was absurd for them to come all the way to the depths to meet her, but there was no reason for her to descend to the lower levels for them.
As she coldly rejected the spirits’ requests and was about to enter the storm again for further training.
A message came flying from Judak through the location note.
*
If I hadn’t turned on the mist in the Labyrinth in advance, we would have been thrilled to see each other’s faces.
I let out a sigh of relief when I suddenly saw a startled owl pop out.
It seems she was in the vicinity as she arrived at the location I mentioned right after sending the message.
Her head was bizarrely adorned with an owl mask, but beneath the flowing robe, a glimpse of bare skin could be seen.
Confirming the spirit markings on her arms, I covered the note and spoke.
“You came faster than I thought?”
“Hmph, of course. My manifestation is different from someone like Claudia, who ignorantly punches holes in the ceiling….”
“You mean an owl.”
“…Ow, owl.”
Everything’s fine, but this concept of hers often gets shattered.
Just as a crown carries weight, a mask carries weight too.
Anyway, since I’ve invited a spirit binder, I won’t be disregarded by the spirits this time.
In front of the stairs leading to the 20th floor, I explained to the owl why I called her.
“There are new functions added to the gallery this time, right? I tried to showcase my new magic in the corridor, but the spirits didn’t show any interest.”
“Ow…?”
“Did I bring something that doesn’t suit their taste, or have they become lazy? But with you, it’ll be different, right?”
“Lazy? Surely not….”
Once again, this guy with a shattered concept started babbling in human language on his own.
Since communication couldn’t be done with just “ow,” I decided to overlook it this time.
“You called me because you thought the corridor wasn’t functioning properly, right? The backbone of the gallery…? No, I clearly told you to operate the tower properly during the last grand palace. So, as expected…!”
“Stop saying weird things and let’s go. By the way, it’s not that I can’t enter, right?”
“What? Ugh, fine, let’s go.”
The reason I asked the owl for help was definitely not to have a casual chat.
It was because I thought she was still on the floor of training.
Unlike the grand palace, access to the spirit’s corridor was free, but it would be troublesome if the owl had already passed the trial.
After sighing in front of the flickering barrier, she easily entered inside.
And then, with a snicker, she stared at this side with a cheeky, squinted eye as if to boast about something.
“Hmph, well? What about you, Joo Dak-ee?”
“Me?”
“If you can’t do it, I can open it for you. In the first place, the area managed by the Elemental Sect inside the tower has never allowed demons or other trash to invade…”
“You talk more than I thought.”
“……!!”
The Elemental Sect is famous for its pride in its sect.
Among the elementalists I have seen, Bu-ung-i was the most extreme.
It was a reaction as if seeing a tool-using primitive for the first time, just because I climbed the stairs.
It wasn’t exactly pleasant, but since I was in a position to receive help, I decided not to show any signs of it.
“Th-these paintings hanging here are the ancestors of the Mayer family. Over six generations, they made contracts with the great beings of the elemental world.”
“I see.”
“The cleaning condition is also clean, and there are no problems with the facilities. Originally, every time you pass a painting, the lower-level elementals of that attribute should show interest in magic, but now due to a minor issue… Anyway, the management is going well!”
Suddenly, along with Bu-ung-i, who was boasting about the Mayer family, the origin of the Elemental Sect, we circled the corridor.
Thanks to that, I learned about the Seven Sages of the Elemental Sect, whom I wasn’t particularly interested in, and why they possessed the elemental texts of the six great beings.
“How is it? There’s no problem with the corridor! It’s actually functioning very faithfully as a trial to pass through the training floor!”
“So, where did all the elementals go?”
“What? Well… just wait a moment.”
The place, decorated like an art gallery hallway, may be a perfect dating course, but all I felt was pain in my legs, and I wanted to be judged quickly and get out.
However, the important elementals were nowhere to be seen.
When I expressed my dissatisfaction, the owl quickly disappeared down a fork in the road, only to reappear a moment later.
There was no noticeable change from before, but the spirit patterns on its arms and thighs were shimmering with a greener hue.
“Listen carefully. Spirits are extremely sensitive to hierarchies.”
“But why?”
“Those spirits that have contracted with me can tolerate being belittled by me, but it doesn’t mean the same for others.”
She swallowed her saliva and wrapped her fluttering robe around her neck.
And then she said that I must unconditionally follow everything she says from now on.
“I summoned the spirits that were originally in the corridor, so you must never treat them the same way as before in front of them.”
“The owl?”
“Yes, exactly! Absolutely not! Got it?”
Well, I can’t confidently say that I’m a gallery owner in front of others, so if they find out I’m a fraud, it would be quite embarrassing.
I nodded without much hesitation.
The owl placed a hand on its chest and took a few deep breaths, then gestured lightly in the direction of the fork it had just come out of.
“Queen! The little queen has granted our request!”
“She has subdued those stained with dragon’s blood!”
Then, some unfamiliar little beings revealed themselves one by one.
They stretched out their arms towards the gods, like children praying.
Some even came up to my feet and chewed on my shoes.
As someone who is not originally a spirit master, I shouldn’t be able to discern these subtle movements of the spirits with my own eyes.