It seemed that Hong’s parents had gained something from the Inner World as well.
Not some grand enlightenment, but at least they had been given an opportunity to grow.
Saying they wanted to take their time and reflect on it thoroughly, the two thanked me.
Time passed quickly again, and before we knew it, it was our last day at the Ruby Magic Tower.
As usual, we were fully immersed in sparring.
While I busily moved my feet, Hong Yeon-hwa waved her wand like a skilled conductor.
Whooooooosh—!
Boom! Booom! Boooooom!
Pillars of fire erupted without pause, and explosions rang out one after another.
Hong Yeon-hwa waved her wand again.
The flames that had been spread across a wide area gathered together into several huge fireballs, like clumps of rice balls being formed.
Then they flew toward me.
Boom! Booom! Boooooom!
The place where I had been standing moments ago turned into a sea of fire.
Hong Yeon-hwa waved her staff for the third time.
Whooooooosh!
The sea of fire instantly converged into a single point and transformed into a blazing egg.
From within it, a phoenix the size of a chick was born.
Fwooooooosh!
By the time the sparring had reached that point, every flame vanished as if washed away in an instant.
Naturally, Hong Yeon-hwa had reabsorbed them all.
Even though she had stopped midway, her face was glowing with excitement.
“It’s done…!”
“The quest?”
“Mhmm!”
She then shared the notification message with me.
[Side Quest: Stage 25 Hardship] (Completed)
[You have learned ‘Pyro-Fusion (F)’.]
Pyro-Fusion.
It gathers and combines the lingering embers left behind by fire magic and uses them to empower the next fire spell.
It’s basically a recycling spell.
Though “recycling” hardly did its performance justice.
It excelled at controlling the battlefield and allowed spell combinations to flow naturally from one into another.
The accelerated casting speed was an added bonus.
I nodded and said,
“You actually managed to finish it before the semester starts.”
“Yeah. Thanks for helping me.”
“All I really did was run around and dodge.”
I had basically served as a moving target dummy.
I hadn’t been involved in turning her insights into something concrete or in researching the magic itself.
But Hong Yeon-hwa shook her head.
“You gave me the Invitation and the Hardship. And you kept helping me the whole time…”
“You’re not wrong. Anyway, good work. Let’s take a break now.”
“Mhmm…!”
After that, we spent our time leisurely wandering around various parts of the Magic Tower.
In the evening, the whole family gathered for another meal together.
And when night came, Hong Yeon-hwa showed up at my room as usual.
Ever since boldly declaring it to her sister, she no longer bothered sneaking around.
She wriggled her way under the blanket and claimed the spot beside me.
“…….”
As always, Hong Yeon-hwa looked comfortable, but today she seemed a little down as well.
So I asked,
“Something wrong?”
“It feels like… time went by too fast.”
“Don’t want to go back to school?”
“It’s not that…”
Hong Yeon-hwa trailed off.
Apparently, she was too embarrassed to say the rest out loud.
So I decided to say it for her.
“You wish it could stay just the two of us a little longer?”
“……”
Hong Yeon-hwa pulled the blanket over her face.
Then, from beneath it, she timidly nodded.
I grinned mischievously and asked another question.
“Then should we skip school and run away somewhere far away?”
“Far away…?”
“We could hide deep in the mountains somewhere and live there.”
“…….!”
For a moment, Hong Yeon-hwa’s eyes widened with interest.
But soon, a faint smile appeared on her face.
“I’d like to… but I don’t think I can.”
“Why not?”
“Because everyone is fighting. Mom, Dad, Unnie, the people at the Magic Tower… I can’t be the only one who runs away.”
“So you’re saying you’ll fulfill your duty.”
“Mhmm. I want to become stronger… so I can protect them.”
The people precious to her and, beyond that, world peace itself.
A satisfied smile spread across my face.
“That’s the answer I wanted to hear. I would’ve been disappointed if you’d accepted right away.”
“But still…”
Hong Yeon-hwa glanced at me before continuing.
“What about after it’s all over…?”
“Then let’s travel as much as we want. Maybe we’ll even go on a trip around the world. What do you think?”
“I’d love that…!”
We smiled at each other.
Keeping that small promise in our hearts.
***
The next day.
As we prepared to leave the Ruby Magic Tower, Hong Yeon-hwa’s family came to see us off.
Hong Yeom-baek shouted in his booming voice.
“Daughter! Come give your dad a hug before you go!”
“Ugh, keep it down! And a hug? What am I, a little kid?”
“You’re a kid in your father’s eyes! I won’t get to see you until summer break, will I? I need to hug you now—!”
“I said no!”
Though Hong Yeon-hwa recoiled in horror and tried to run away, she ultimately gave in and shared a hug with Hong Yeom-baek.
Mother Hong watched the scene with a warm smile before turning her gaze toward me.
“There’s no need for a long speech. If it’s you, I’m sure you’ll continue to do well, just as you always have.”
“Thank you for your trust.”
“I’ll be looking forward to good news.”
After that came the usual farewells.
I’ll visit often. I’ll call through the crystal orb. Things along those lines.
Meanwhile Hong Yeon-hwa had escaped from her father’s embrace.
At last, she stood face-to-face with her sister.
“…….”
“…….”
For a while, neither of them said anything.
They fought whenever they got the chance, but now that it was time to part ways, their feelings seemed more complicated than either wanted to admit.
Hong Ye-hwa opened her mouth, seemingly about to deliver her usual lecture, but changed her mind and closed it again.
Then she let out a small sigh and said,
“Take care of yourself over there.”
“You too, Unnie.”
“And call once in a while.”
“I will.”
Hong Ye-hwa slowly waved her hand.
It was her way of saying there was nothing more to say and that they should get going.
I bowed to the Hong family one last time before starting to walk away, while Hong Yeon-hwa followed beside me, repeatedly waving over her shoulder.
After leaving the Ruby Magic Tower and traveling for a while, we arrived at the station.
We boarded the train and wandered down the corridor before quickly finding an empty compartment and stepping inside.
“…….”
Hong Yeon-hwa waited while carefully watching my reaction.
The moment I took one of the seats, she ignored the seat across from me and deliberately sat beside me instead.
What is so special about that damn Kim Ho pillow?
She was determined to make the most of it until the very end.
There was probably a bit of compensation psychology involved too, considering that Blink Dang Gyu-young had stolen her spot on the train ride at the end of summer break.
It was understandable enough, but for some reason I felt the urge to tease her.
So I stared at Hong Yeon-hwa with a completely expressionless face.
“…….”
“…….?”
“.…….”
“…???”
Hong Yeon-hwa’s eyes darted around nervously.
Shrinking into herself, she pointed toward the seat across from me.
“Um… should I sit there?”
“No, I was joking.”
“Stop teasing me…”
“I can’t help it. Your reactions are entertaining.”
Although she looked slightly sulky, Hong Yeon-hwa leaned closer and rested her head on my shoulder.
In that position, we gazed out the train window.
Winter was already coming to an end.
***
Kanooooooom—!
Kim Gap-doo remained in the same stance for quite a while even after throwing the Fist Force.
Only then did he withdraw his fist and look around the area.
It resembled a martial arts training hall.
Rock fragments and debris littered the surroundings.
Among some of the rubble, glimpses of Buddha’s face could still be seen, as they had originally been stone statues.
The moment Kim Gap-doo stepped into this place, they had begun moving as if alive and launched a coordinated assault against him.
Not only did they wield martial arts of a fairly high level, but despite being mere statues, they could even use internal energy.
As a result, a fierce battle had broken out, but in the end, he had succeeded in smashing every last one of them.
Clunk.
A mechanism activated, and a staircase appeared.
Following it would likely lead him to the next floor.
However, Kim Gap-doo did not immediately move forward. Instead, he stood still for a moment, lost in thought.
How had he ended up here in the first place?
Shortly before graduation, he had received a note from Kim Ho.
“Thank you for everything. I have something to give you, Senior.”
“What is it?”
“A guidebook.”
“Not for the underground floors, I assume.”
“As you guessed. It’s outside Dungeon Island.”
The locations and acquisition methods of hidden pieces exclusive to martial artists.
Following the guidebook’s instructions, Kim Gap-doo obtained them one by one.
Elixirs, martial arts manuals, trait scrolls, equipment materials…
And the final destination he reached was a cave hidden deep within a remote wilderness.
It was concealed so well that even with the guidebook in hand, he had spent quite some time searching for it.
And finding it had only been the beginning.
The cave stretched endlessly downward. Its interior was filled with strange formations and mechanical devices.
Yet Kim Gap-doo dealt with each obstacle meticulously and continued onward, and the moment he activated the final mechanism—
Rumble…
The entire area shook as though an earthquake had struck, and then a huge tower rose from the ground.
Who had built something like this in the middle of a cave, by what means, and for what purpose?
And how had Kim Ho known about it and guided him here?
There were countless questions, but at the moment, only one thing mattered.
I have to climb the tower.
After all, this was likely the final hidden piece left for him.
And so Kim Gap-doo’s ascent began.
The floor I just cleared was the second.
In other words, he was still practically at the very beginning.
Judging from his estimate before entering, the tower seemed to have well over ten floors.
For something like that, the difficulty is quite high.
Even clearing the first and second floors had been far from easy.
And quite a bit of time seems to have passed as well.
He raised a hand and touched his face. Before he knew it, his hair and beard had grown thick and unruly.
If his classmates saw him now, they would probably joke, “The toad has evolved into a bearded toad!”
Still, it’s more than worth the investment.
His strength must have risen sharply in proportion to the hardships he had endured.
Kim Gap-doo could feel it instinctively.
By the time he cleared the third and fourth floors, he would likely be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with powerhouses like Oh Se-hoon and Song Cheon-gi.
And if I go even further and reach the top…
He could not even begin to imagine how much stronger he might become.
Of course, it would not be as easy as it sounded.
Judging by the rate at which the difficulty increased, each floor would undoubtedly demand even greater struggles than the last.
There was no guarantee that the difficulty would even rise at a steady pace.
In other words, it was impossible to know whether conquering the tower would take months or years.
As this thought crossed his mind, Kim Gap-doo’s gaze shifted elsewhere.
What lay there was—
The staircase leading down.
The tower was not designed so that opening an upper floor sealed off the lower ones.
Even when he had first entered the tower, the exit had remained wide open.
Which means I can come and go whenever I want.
If things became too difficult, he could leave for a while, rest, regroup, and then return.
Having graduated from Dragon Slayer Academy as a club president with respectable grades, there was no shortage of organizations eager to recruit him.
Joining one of them and taking on various requests would not be a bad option either.
However, Kim Gap-doo shook his head.
That’s weak thinking.
Once a person chooses the easy path, doing so a second or third time becomes effortless.
Not only was there no telling when he would return here, but even if he did, after struggling through a few more floors, he would probably find himself wanting to leave again.
If he kept hesitating like that, how long would it take him to reach the top?
If I’m going to do this, now is the only time.
Once again, he steeled his resolve.
He would not leave the tower until he had conquered every floor.
Kim Gap-doo clenched both fists.
Then with firm powerful strides, he began climbing the stairs.
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