Kousuke and his party departed from the management layer to conquer the remaining towers on the Central Continent. They quickly reached the entrance of the first tower using the teleportation function.
This teleportation allowed them to travel to any location on the Central Continent freely, making it a highly effective tool. Their first target was a tower located northeast of Amamiya Tower.
Their plan was to conquer the towers in a clockwise direction, starting from this one.
Moreover, Floria was included in the party not only to keep her away from Amamiya Tower but also for another reason. It seemed that the events of the past were still affecting Floria, making her seem hesitant around Kousuke, Kouhi, and Mitsuki. Kousuke hoped that by separating her from the others, this issue could be resolved.
From Kousuke’s perspective, he no longer cared about what happened in the past, and he assumed Kouhi and Mitsuki felt the same. Compared to before, Floria no longer looked down on people. Perhaps this feeling was only due to the fact that only regular members were present in the management layer. Kousuke chose her as a party member, hoping she could relax and overcome her stiffness.
And so, Kousuke and his party stood before the gate of the first tower. There was no point in staring endlessly, so they entered quickly.
“…Huh?”
Upon entering, Kousuke exclaimed in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” Mitsuki, noticing Kousuke’s unusual behavior, asked.
“Well, it’s like a normal dungeon, isn’t it?” Unlike Amamiya Tower, this place was a spacious hall surrounded by ordinary earthen walls. Although there was a ceiling, the source of the light was unknown, which was a fantastical mystery, but otherwise, it was a completely normal dungeon.
Of course, Amamiya Tower also had dungeon floors, so this kind of situation was anticipated. However, the impression of Amamiya Tower was so strong that Kousuke felt rather anticlimactic.
“Um… What is Kousuke talking about?”
“Ah, he’s probably confused because his image of Amamiya Tower is so strong.”
“That’s true… um, is this image of Floria’s tower correct?”
“I don’t quite understand what you mean… From what I know, it’s normal to have small rooms and corridors.” Floria continued, recalling the towers on the continent she came from. “Rather, I thought Amamiya Tower was unusual for being a normal space instead of a tower?”
“…Is that so…” For Kousuke, since Amamiya Tower was the first tower he encountered, he had assumed that type of structure was the norm in this world. He had once again revealed his own lack of common sense in an unexpected way.
“Oh well. Let’s get a grip and start conquering it.” With Kousuke’s words, the conquest of the Northeast Tower finally began.
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The Northeast Tower was a wizardry-type dungeon from beginning to end. Of course, there were monsters, as well as traps and treasure chests. Naturally, the two top-tier members easily dealt with them. Floria watched with a daze, muttering about why she was brought along. Before arriving at this tower, Floria had been training to ride a Hiryu, but it was of no use in this tower. They ended up conquering it on foot, and the floors were not as difficult as those in Amamiya Tower. This was because each floor was narrower. However, “narrow” was relative compared to Amamiya Tower. Since they couldn’t use the Hiryu for transportation, even though the floors were narrower than Amamiya Tower, it still took a considerable amount of time to conquer each one. However, they were able to advance at a pace of two to three floors per day. This was an incredibly fast pace by normal standards, but this was a party with two cheat players. They quickly searched for the teleportation gates using magic, advanced straight towards them, and repeated this process to conquer the tower swiftly. The question was how many floors the Northeast Tower had, but they proceeded with the unfounded assumption that it wouldn’t be as many as Amamiya Tower. In the end, as expected, it didn’t have a hundred floors, ending at the 30th Floor.
Beyond the gate on the 30th floor, a scene that was, in a sense, familiar unfolded. In the room, along with the holy trinity of magic, holy power, and divine power crystals, a tower operation control panel was installed. Confirming this, they understood that the Northeast Tower consisted of 30 floors. Kousuke quickly approached the control panel and performed the registration, just as he had done in Amamiya Tower. The registration itself did not take as long as it did in Amamiya Tower. The reason for this became clear during the registration process. Since they had already registered in Amamiya Tower, the work required for new registration as an existing ruler was reduced. Instead, they were asked to confirm whether to link the Northeast Tower with Amamiya Tower. They immediately decided to link them and completed the settings. By the way, there was a setting to decide the tower’s name at the end, which Kousuke quickly named “Northeast Tower” for simplicity. The reason was simple: they knew the name could be changed at any time. In Amamiya Tower, there was no need to change it, so they didn’t, but they had tried it once and confirmed it was possible, so they quickly reverted it. Knowing this, they simply named it Northeast for clarity. …One of the reasons was also that they were too bothered to think of a name on the spot. After completing the registration and naming it, Kousuke left the management of the place to Kouhi and Floria, and together with Mitsuki, he teleported to the Lily Shrine of Amamiya Tower and immediately headed to the management layer.
The members in the management layer were surprised to see Kousuke after such a long time, but they were also happy. Upon returning to the management layer, Kousuke immediately checked if the teleportation gates between the management layers of Amamiya Tower and the Northeast Tower could be linked. In conclusion, teleportation was possible. By the time the association between Amamiya Tower and the Northeast Tower was completed, the teleportation gates between them had apparently become mobile. They didn’t need to go through the Lily Shrine. Kousuke felt dejected, realizing he should have checked earlier, but it was too late.
“So? Did you finish conquering it?”
“Yeah, we finished. Although it had fewer floors, the conquest took a bit of effort.”
“Huh? Were the enemies that appeared strong?” It was hard to imagine that Kouhi and Mitsuki together would struggle with monster subjugation. That was why Colette asked the question, but Kousuke shook his head.
“No. It was like the 51st floor equivalent continued endlessly, which made the conquest take time. Also, the rooms were smaller and more numerous compared to ours. So, even though the floors themselves were narrow, it ended up taking more time.” Kousuke, who was still lacking in common sense, was oblivious to the fact that conquering a tower in such a short period was itself outside the realm of common sense. The other members noticed this but chose to ignore it, or rather, they had already given up, as pointing it out every time would leave them short of people to tease. It was also a fact that through such repetitions, Kousuke had unknowingly become an Avatar, but the members were unaware of this. And so, they quickly conquered the first tower… The number of days taken for the conquest was deliberately not specified. By the way, they did not use the method of breaking through earthen walls. They tried it once, but there is a hidden episode where the ceiling collapsed and they almost got buried alive.
2014/6/21 – Typo correction
