Chapter 275: Seventy-Second Floor, The Forgotten God (6)

[Complete Tunyak’s additional request. Time remaining: 20 hours 57 minutes.]

The battle had erupted without warning and ended just as quickly. In fact, chasing the fleeing hunters took me longer than it took to subdue Sogorong.

I gazed around the battlefield. We had just finished getting everything under control.

Sogorong was still pinned to the ground, his face buried in the dirt beneath a corporeal shadow, while the other hunters were tied up with ropes I had stored in my mimic.

Honestly, I had been worried that their mechanical limbs could snap the ropes, but apparently I was mistaken. Moreover, pulling out said limbs didn’t cause blood to pour out like I imagined.

Tunyak had carefully removed their prosthetic arms with practiced efficiency. There was some bleeding, sure—but just a little. It hadn’t even been particularly gruesome. Only a bit of skin peeled away around the shoulder joints where the limbs connected.

If anything, they felt like high-grade prosthetics, superior versions of the artificial limbs I had seen back on Earth.

I had assumed they were fully integrated with blood vessels and nerves, but now I wasn’t so sure.

“

Gaaah!

”

Sogorong’s mechanical eye functioned similarly. Tunyak reached in, gave it a slight twist, and it popped out with a soft

shoop

.

Right after, he kicked Sogorong square in the jaw. From how short Sogorong’s scream had been, he had probably blacked out instantly. Unlike before, not a single drop of blood trickled from the socket.

How does it even work?

Something had flashed every time he fired his revolver, and he had clearly been purposeful with the red laser beam, able to both aim and fire at will.

Yet the way it popped out like a cheap toy appeared surreal.

For a moment, I wondered if it contained divine energy, but quickly dismissed the idea.

More likely, it runs off mana rather than a god’s power.

His arm and eye had probably both been connected directly to his internal mana flow.

Looking back, I should have grabbed the other mechanical appendages I had seen earlier.

Tunyak studied the eye for a moment before tossing it over to me. I had already asked if I could keep it, so I took this as him agreeing. From his point of view, they were objects that needed to be destroyed, so there was no reason to object.

As I caught it, he remarked, “That one feels off.”

“What does?” I asked automatically, but I already had a feeling what he meant.

The eye emitted the same energy I had sensed in the device that had been implanted into the divine beast. It was faint and was mostly obscured by the machinery.

Without a shred of doubt, I knew that the energy came from a god, but not a friendly one—one that opposed the Master of the Five Carriage Wheels.

It had been too subtle to notice from afar, but now that I was holding the eye in my hand, it was unmistakable.

“It matches the energy coming from the device.”

“Right? His arm and revolver give off the same kind of vibe.” Tunyak shook the freshly detached mechanical arm.

“

Huh

, is that so?”

That made things a little more complicated. If Sogorong was using artifacts imbued with divine power, there was a good chance he was an apostle.

If he was, though, he had been a ridiculously weak one.

Maybe...

No matter how I looked at it, he didn’t feel like an apostle. More likely, he had come across the relics by chance, or maybe an actual apostle had given them to him.

Tunyak continued while frowning slightly, “You sure we shouldn’t just destroy it? I don’t like the feel of it.”

“

Hmm.

”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to give it up since it was capable of shooting laser beams. There were all kinds of ways I could put it to use.

If it really were infused with the divine power of an antagonistic god, then Tunyak was right. We couldn’t keep it around. With something like this, they could track our position or even sabotage us later.

Who knows what kind of danger this could put us in?

I had planned to destroy the equipment anyway, but I still couldn’t help feeling a pang of regret.

As I stared at the eye in my hand, clinging to that sliver of reluctance, a system window popped up.

[Sogorong’s Mechanical Eye]

- Infused with Endless Furnace’s divine power.

- Part of the Sogorong’s Mechanical Set. When equipped alongside Sogorong’s Mechanical Arm and any revolver, mana will connect the items.

- When wielded alongside the other set items, rapid-fire is enabled if locked onto a target.

- Capable of firing a beam of mana once per day.

- Agility +3, Mana +5

Just as I had expected, the revolver, mechanical arm, and the eye formed a set, connected by mana. Seeing its stats spelled out in the system only made the thought of losing it sting even more.

Still, I couldn’t exactly use it. Replacing my own eye or arm with machinery would do me more harm than good.

Wait a second.

A thought flickered in the back of my mind.

Endless Furnace?

That name rang a bell. Unlike Master of the Five Carriage Wheels, whose identity I still hadn’t fully pinned down, this one came to me immediately.

It was one of the gods worshipped by humans on the thirtieth floor—the ones I had liberated some airships from. They had stood in direct opposition to Drifting Sky Sea, the deity the elves followed.

The situation back then had felt similar to this. Though I hadn’t seen any mechanical arms or eyes, I remembered it as a kind of steampunk world.

At the time, neither Endless Furnace nor Drifting Sky Sea seemed particularly invested in interfering with the world.

Seems like things are different here.

Not only was Endless Furnace granting artifacts imbued with divine power to humans, but his power had even corrupted a divine beast.

Of course, there was no way for me to understand the true intent of the gods. I just couldn’t shake the dissonance between what I had seen previously and what I was seeing now.

As I fell deeper into thought, Tunyak glanced at me, looking slightly concerned. “Hey. Something wrong?”

His voice brought me back to the present.

“No, it’s nothing.”

Knowing the identity of the god supporting our enemies didn’t really change anything.

The mechanical eye still rested in my hand. Its stored mana had faded, and the dull pupil stared blankly into nothing.

I clicked my tongue.

Tch. Disappointing, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Alright, let’s destr—”

“Wait!” Tunyak abruptly cut me off, then closed his eyes.

The sight was oddly familiar. It reminded me of those rare moments when Doppy would commune with Fenrike.

After a pause, Tunyak opened his eyes again and extended a hand. “Give me the eye.”

“

Huh?

”

“Quick, just give it to me.”

I wasn’t sure what he was up to, but the atmosphere had shifted. I tossed the mechanical eye to him without protest. He caught it smoothly, closed his eyes once more, and began muttering under his breath.

“―――――――!”

An unrecognizable incantation followed, and a strange crimson glow descended around him. No, around the eye and the arm, to be exact.

Then, the divine energy I had felt earlier slowly began to fade. In its place, I sensed the familiar, grounded presence of Master of the Five Carriage Wheels’s power settling in.

It was a surreal sight. Even Doppy stayed quiet, captivated by what was unfolding.

Before long, Tunyak opened his eyes again. “There. All done. You can take it now.”

“What did you just do?”

“Purified it. With the goddess’s power.”

He tossed the eye and arm back to me. The moment I caught them, I opened the system window to check their details.

[Blessed Mechanical Eye]

- Infused with Master of the Five Carriage Wheels’s power.

- Part of the Blessed Mechanical Set. When equipped alongside the Blessed Mechanical Arm and any revolver, mana will connect the items.

- When wielded alongside the other set items, rapid-fire is enabled if locked onto a target.

- Can be remotely controlled through mana.

- Capable of firing beams of mana, limited only by the wielder’s mana reserves.

- Agility +4, Mana +6

Its appearance hadn’t changed much, but its specs had.

Both the boost to Agility and Mana had increased by one, and it could now be remotely controlled with mana. The mana beam, previously restricted, was now infinitely reusable, at least as much as one’s mana would allow.

Still, I wasn’t quite sure what remote control meant in this context.

Can I use it like a floating surveillance drone?

Well, that could wait—interrogation came first.

Even so, this wasn’t a bad outcome. Compared to some of the other floors where I had helped a deity, it had felt like I hadn’t earned much on this floor. With this in hand, however, I couldn’t really complain.

Though, unlike the eye, I wasn’t sure I would get much use out of the arm.

Maybe I should find a climber who has lost an arm and gift it to them?

That fleeting idea passed through my mind, and then something else occurred to me.

Wait a second. I can use this with Master of Shadows!

My collection of bullets was limited, but between what I had collected before and what I had just gained, I had nearly two hundred rounds. That would be more than enough for emergencies.

If I shaped a humanoid form using Master of Shadows and equipped it with the mechanical arm and eye, it would be practically a shadow soldier.

On top of that, I was only on the seventy-second floor. The seventy-third seemed connected to this one, so if I could stock up on bullets there, this idea could really work.

I had been avoiding using Master of Shadows too much, since I wanted to improve my own skills.

Well, this would be a good contingency plan. Besides, it wasn’t like the mechanical eye and arm would get any stronger just sitting around, so why not make use of them?

No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like a solid strategy.

Smiling to myself, I turned to Tunyak. “Thanks. I’ll make good use of it.”

“What do you mean, ‘thanks’? You saved the goddess. I’m the one who should be apologizing for not giving you more.”

“Nah. This is more than enough. Anyway, I should probably get started on the interrogation.”

Tunyak shook his head. “No.”

“

Huh?

What do you mean?”

“You’re leaving soon, aren’t you?”

“What? Leaving? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know either. Just repeating what the goddess said.”

Right on cue, a system message appeared before me.

[Congratulations. Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has conquered the seventy-second floor of the Tower of Ordeal: The Forgotten God. Achievement points will be calculated.]

What?

Confusion hit me hard, and I muttered a surprised exclamation under my breath. The seventy-first and seventy-second floors had been directly connected, so I had assumed the next floor would be the same.

So why am I being sent back to the waiting room now?

I looked at Tunyak, baffled, but he just stared back with the same uncertain expression.

Another message appeared, but I ignored it.

No way. Is this really the end?

Come to think of it, I had rescued the Master of the Five Carriage Wheels, and Tunyak had become an apostle. There really wasn’t any reason for me to stay here. What business remained was the goddess’s and Tunyak’s to handle.

Tunyak looked at me again and softly commented, “Well, it’s kind of a shame you’re going so suddenly. Let’s meet again sometime. I still have to clean up the rest of the stragglers.”

As he finished speaking, a white expanse covered my vision.

***

[30 minutes 21 seconds until the rest period ends. Please take a rest.]

I had returned to the waiting room, but my mind was still stuck on Tunyak’s last words. From the way he had asked to meet again, I was almost certain the next floor would be connected to Master of the Five Carriage Wheels as well.

Still, why did the tower pull me back into the waiting room? Hmm.

After a bit of thought, I started to get a rough idea. It wasn’t that I had been excluded from the interrogation process, but more likely, Endless Furnace’s stronghold was simply too far away.

Something similar had happened on a previous floor. After helping out Comet in the desert and returning to the waiting room, the tower sent me directly to the Kokkari Swamp to meet up with him again instead of having me travel between the desert and the swamp.

While I was piecing things together, a message came in from Ha Hee-Jeong.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Seventy-fourth Floor): You finally made it. I knew your last two floors were connected, but you sure took your time.

It had been a few days since we had last spoken, so it was nice to hear from her. More than anything, though, I had a question I needed to ask.

Endless Furnace had shown up again. Since Ha Hee-Jeong had encountered things like this before, maybe she would know something I didn’t.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Seventy-third Floor): Yeah. Hey, so remember that god, Endless Furnace, from before? They showed up again. Is it normal for gods to reappear like this? Seems weird. Have you seen anything like that?

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Seventy-fourth Floor): You mean the one from the man-eating elves floor?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Seventy-third Floor): Yeah, that one. Also, this god seems to be at odds with Master of the Five Carriage Wheels. Do you know anything about it? I swear I’ve heard the name somewhere, but I just can’t place it.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Seventy-fourth Floor): Wait. Master of the Five Carriage Wheels?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Seventy-third Floor): Yeah, why? Do you know her?

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Seventy-fourth Floor): Dude. That’s my sponsor!