The North and South Towers were designated as the Towers of the Sacred Beasts and Demonic Beasts, while the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest Towers were distinguished as the Four Elements Towers.
Given the scale of the towers, no member objected to this distinction.
Furthermore, with Golem Unit 1 completed, the time required for setting up summoning circles was eliminated, allowing for even more possibilities.
However, since only one unit currently exists, there’s a risk of being unable to handle the workload if too many tasks are added. For now, with temporal leeway, the plan was to increase the number of familiars in the Four Elements Towers.
First, the untouched Northwest Tower has begun management under Haku’s supervision. Similar to the other three Four Elements Towers, each floor is a territory exclusively for Mini Dragons. However, like the other towers, it’s impossible to completely suppress naturally occurring monsters. This seems to be an unavoidable outcome, as the other three towers are experiencing the same result. The main familiars in the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest Towers consist of Spirit Bodies, Slimes, Mini Dragons, and Goblin Imps, respectively. Only one floor was used for Kousuke’s experiments before the remaining parts were left to individual management. Not long ago, Peach reported that the Northeast Tower had reached Tower LV4. Reaching Tower LV4 enabled the summoning of Intermediate Monsters at the summoning circles. It was understood that replacing all summoning circles with those for Intermediate Monsters could lead to the subjugation of existing familiars, so the change was being made gradually.
“Mr. Kousuke, the Southeast Tower has reached LV4,” Floria announced.
“Oh, really? What about Intermediate Monsters?”
“We can summon them now. Like Peach, we plan to replace them gradually.”
With an entire floor dedicated solely to Slimes, management is quite demanding. Setting up summoning circles for food alone is a significant undertaking. The creation of golems was intended for this purpose, but they are still not capable of handling fine requests like switching summoning circles. As a side note, Kouhi and Mitsuki aim to create golems capable of fulfilling such demands.
“I see. I imagine it’s quite tough, but once you can replace all the summoning circles, you should be able to turn a profit.”
“I agree.”
The same was true for Amamiya Tower; once summoning circles for Intermediate Monsters could be set up, it became consistently profitable. However, Amamiya Tower was already profitable even without that due to the World Tree and the Vermilia Jewel.
“Speaking of which, I thought unique items would appear in the other towers besides this one, but they haven’t, have they?”
“Unique items?”
“Like the World Tree and the Vermilia Jewel we have here.”
Silvia tilted her head slightly in thought. “None have appeared. Come to think of it, were they unique items?”
“That’s right. But I don’t understand how the floor exchange worked. The generation of Divine Power is functioning properly, and they haven’t malfunctioned like Holy Stones. It’s even more confusing.”
The descriptions of the installations at Amamiya Tower clearly state that the World Tree and Vermilia Castle are “exclusive to this tower.” However, even after exchanging floors with the North and South Towers, they continue to generate Divine Power and function as they did at Amamiya Tower.
“That’s true, isn’t it?”
“Well, setting aside Vermilia Castle, it’s hard to imagine the World Tree ceasing to function.”
The World Tree ceasing to function would mean Esena has stopped working, which is a meaningless concept. Since Esena is working energetically even after the floor exchange, it was judged that there was no particular problem.
As Silvia and I were talking, Floria joined the conversation.
“Kousuke, the Southwest Tower has reached LV4!”
“…They caught up?”
Upon Floria’s report, Silvia’s expression became slightly dejected. The Southwest Tower was the last to be conquered, so its management began later. Despite this, being caught up in Tower LV indicated a difference in how easily the familiars could be raised. Floria’s main summons at the Southwest Tower are Goblin Imps, while Silvia summons Slimes, known as the weakest monsters. The ease of raising them is vastly different.
“Don’t worry too much about it. Besides, watching the Slimes grow is actually kind of fun.” Kousuke offered his support.
“In other floors, you’re summoning other familiars, aren’t you? I don’t think you need to worry too much.” As Floria said, other familiars besides Slimes were summoned on different floors of the Southeast Tower. However, fitting for a “Water” Tower, these were water-based monsters that could not operate away from water and thus couldn’t increase in number significantly.
“I predict that once they start defeating Intermediate Monsters and evolving, Slimes will become quite useful too?” This also included Kousuke’s personal hope. He was fond of stories where the weakest evolve to become the strongest. Even so, Silvia, unaware of this, looked somewhat skeptical.
“It would be great if they grew after all our struggles, right? …Right?” Kousuke hastily added words that weren’t quite supportive. Seeing this, Silvia let out a sigh.
“Well, it’s fine. They do seem to evolve easily… although they’re also easily defeated.” As Silvia stated, the Slimes summoned at the Southeast Tower had already undergone several evolutions. However, being defeated even after evolution is perhaps fitting for Slimes. With the ability to summon Intermediate Monsters, significant evolution, including combat power, is highly anticipated.
“R-right. So? How about the Goblins?”
“Aside from the Goblin Imps, I haven’t seen any other evolutions. However, among the Goblins themselves, some have emerged who create tools.”
“What…?! Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. Besides, why are you so surprised? Ordinary Goblins also do that.” At Floria’s words, Kousuke recalled the classic fantasy Goblins. Indeed, in stories, dexterous Goblins appeared and made weapons, but he hadn’t expected summoned monsters to apply.
“Tool creation, huh… Well, we have the Iggrid Race, but do we have Dwarves?” Kousuke inquired about something he hadn’t confirmed before. It wasn’t that he had avoided it, but he had never needed particularly strong weapons, so there was no need to ask. Silvia and Floria exchanged glances. Seeing their reaction, Kousuke had a hunch.
“Is there perhaps some kind of problem?”
“No… it’s not a problem, per se, but I didn’t expect Dwarves to come to the tower.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Prompted by Kousuke, Floria began to explain the current situation of the Dwarves.
The Dwarves existing in this world were exactly as Kousuke had imagined. Naturally, they were dexterous and unparalleled in crafting weapons and armor. However, they had perfectly integrated into human society utilizing their skills, becoming the second-largest race after Humans. Due to a long history of harmonious cohabitation, those who would choose to relocate to the towers were rare.
“I see. Well, I don’t particularly need strong weapons, and if I did, I could just buy them, so I don’t need them at the moment.” Unless he intended to mass-produce weapons, Kousuke saw no reason to go out of his way to invite Dwarves to the tower.
And so, this is the standing of Dwarves in this world. It feels like a flag, but there are currently no plans to invite Dwarves to the towers.
