Malea May Brington.
She was a 19 years old female student who was currently in her 14th year of studying in Cheongyeon Private Magic High School. Her talent for magic was mediocre at best, but thanks to her lively personality and glamorous appearance, she was quite well known around the school. However, that wasn’t the only thing which made Malea famous. She also had a high level of leadership. Her sense of responsibility and her leading personality had led her to assume the position of student president of the entire school despite her low grades.
She was always a daring and courageous leader who could solve practically any problem that came to her with her wits.
– Nice to meet you, everyone! I’m the fairy of the tutorial! Let’s start the tutorial, shall we?
If she wasn’t kidnapped into this hellish place called ‘tutorial’, she might have believed that for the rest of her life.
At that time, Malea and 11 other students from Cheongyeon Private Magic High School were somehow chosen to become the challenger of the tutorial tower. Amidst the confusion her schoolmates found themselves in, Malea proudly said, ‘Trust me, guys. I’ll take care of it.’ and took the mantle of leader of the group into her shoulder. Naturally, there were students who were more senior than her and those who were more junior than her in the groups. However, as it didn’t mean much in the tower, she threw away those titles, and asked them to refer to each other using the terms ‘classmate’.
Malea believed that if the twelve aspiring magicians worked together, they would somehow get through any difficulties even in this unknown place.
However, she couldn’t be any more wrong.
“Just who are you to try to lead us!?”
“I only became the leader because there’s a need for someone to take the lead…”
One of the prideful female students with a dirty personality soon coveted Malea’s place.
“Why would you want that item?”
“Because this item gives a boost to command stats. Didn’t I already give you the equipment with high attack and defence stats?”
For everything Malea had, her classmate began to be jealous.
“I don’t want to! Why should I take that role?!”
“But someone has to stay there and put up a shield while I sneak into the enemy camp and steal things!”
“In the meantime, what if the monster turns around and kills me? No one can protect me! It’s dangerous!”
“Just what….”
As a child, she had always thought she was excellent at leadership. No, actually, her leadership was indeed very good because she even acquired the skill [Great Leader (S)] from the tower. Her exceptional judgment was also high enough to the extent she was recognized by many as a ‘ranker’.
But dealing with her classmate had proven to be much more difficult than anything else she had encountered in her whole life. The childrens who came from a world teeming with peace were very sensitive due to the constant dangerous situation they find themselves in, and it was almost impossible to appease them all.
They didn’t want to lose anything, they were selfish, and always kept their distance from each other. They would immediately explode when they received insufficient compensation or took on a more dangerous task than others.
Malea had to do all the difficult tasks by herself. But yet, the reward she got from it still had to be distributed to everyone. But even after all of that, they still find something to complain about, such as, “Why should I get something worse than him?” or “Why did I have to go to a more dangerous area than him!”
And, exactly one day and three hours ago…
Her last classmate had died.
In the 10th floor of the Tutorial Tower, which was called by many challengers as ‘Challenger’s Tomb’ because of the fact that 90% of all the challengers give up and reside there, Malea erected her eleventh tombstone.
Underneath the pouring rain, Malea blankly gazed at the new tombstone where her last friend slept forever. It had been over a year since she arrived in the Tutorial Tower. In the meantime, she was able to climb to the 10th floor thanks to the help of her friends who had died before her. However, she was still far from the finish line, the real challenge was just about to begin.
Will she be able to climb the tower that she could not climb even with the help of her friends on her own? No matter what it takes, she promised herself she would make it through. If she didn’t climb, she would be trapped in this hellish 10th floor forever. And she didn’t want that.
The 10th floor of the Tutorial Tower was a place with no law and no guilt. Robbery, murder, rape, blackmailing, and kidnapping were common occurrence here. Malea, who belonged to the low-class, would probably won’t last long… and would soon become a cold corpse on the side of the road.
Malea opened her diary. Since she started the tutorial, she wrote about everything that happened every day in her diary. It was some kind of record which held everything she had been through.
Drip, water droplets stained the diary.
What should I write?
[Today, my last friend died.]
What should I write?
[But I’m not sad.]
She wrote a lie. For a moment her hand stopped. Would it be better to leave a hopeful message saying [Nevertheless, I will go on]? Or should I act like I was completely fine, just in case someone else sees it?
But, does that even mean anything? If someone like her died, she was certain her diary would become nothing but trash. Malea’s negative thoughts kept shrouding her head like a dark cloud above. It would surely drive her mad sometime soon, but now… right now, Malea could still endure it.
When she returned to the city, Malea put her hood on and hid her face. Her pretty face was still the same as what she had back in school. But in this gutter, such a pretty face without any power would only turn her into a target of many people. She will be treated like an overnight doll by the challengers of the tutorial, without any regards of what kind of life she had been living.
“Hey, did you hear the news?”
“Are you talking about the news of challenger ‘Yoo Seodam’ who went up to the 60th floor even though he went solo?”
“After ‘Wigen’ and his party, I think he’s the first challenger to reach the 60th floor. And for me, he’s more amazing than Wigen since he did it alone.”
“Didn’t he get there only half a year after entering the tower? Meanwhile, there’s so many people who were trembling on the 29th floor for half a year.”
Malea listened to the conversation around her. One of the main reasons why the lower floors of the tower had become a lawless zone was because of the challengers with high-level equipment and many skills who come down to the lower floors after going up to the upper floors. With their overwhelming strength, they often intimidated challengers from the lower floors, which created a serious gap between the strong and the weak. They even made a caste system with that.
In fact, the ruler of the 10th floor was Dahalante of the ‘Wings of Heaven’ Guild who had climbed to the 56th floor.
While the members of Wings of Heaven Guild keeps progressing through the dungeons they monopolized, and with the help of items they got from their guildmate who had climbed into the higher floor, those who did not have it become more and more depressed as they felt their dreams of rising to higher floor drifting further and further.
“Hey, bow down! Bow down!”
“They are members of the Wings of Heaven Guild…!”
Through the dark and dreary streets, Malea could see the challengers bow their heads down when men in disproportionately glamorous silver and gold armor appeared. Malea herself was also included in those challengers who bowed their heads down.
“Challengers of the 10th floor, I will make an announcement. A while ago, we, the Wings of Heaven Guild discovered an unknown dungeon. It is located on the 10th floor of the northern part of ‘Rayuka’s Habitat’. And we are going to share this dungeon with you guys! We are looking forward to your participation!”
“A dungeon?”
“Are there still dungeons left on the 10th floor?”
“Oh, I can’t believe it…”
The crowd around Malea becomes rowdy by the sudden revelation.
The level of one’s strength in the tower was determined by two things. The first one is skills. The number of skill slots every challenger possesses will increase every time they climb through 10 floors. So, it was only natural that the higher the challengers climb, the more powerful they are.
Second is the equipment.
An equipment item levelled up by 1 every 10 floors. It was one of the most absolute reasons why the gap between the challengers exists. Because with a level 1 weapon, no matter how powerful the attack is, it would never pierce through a level 2 armor.
The problem is, such equipment items could only be found as a drop item in the ‘dungeon’. And since most of the dungeons that currently exist on the 10th floor have all been occupied, it was good to say that there was almost no way for new challengers to obtain equipment. In other words, there was no opportunity for a new challenger to challenge the 11th floor.
All other ‘fixed dungeons’ were monopolized by the Wings of Heaven Guild. In other words, there’s no way to get equipment other than to become their slaves.
Malea didn’t want to do it even if she died. Afterall, she was well aware how women were treated here; and it was very easy to predict how terrifying it would be to enter the Wings of Heaven Guild.
Currently, most of the equipment Malea had was only level 0 equipment she had obtained from the 9th floor and lower. And although her staff was a level 1 weapon, it did not even have a great effect except for raising her command stats, so, the truth is, she had already half abandoned the idea of climbing through the 11th floor.
But what if she participated in the expedition led by the Wings of Heaven Guild? If she could get at least one equipment item which was unconditionally distributed to all dungeon challengers…
‘But, something is strange.’ Malea murmured. It was common sense that Wings of Heaven Guild was selfish. However, such a selfish bunch suddenly let other challengers who were not part of their guild to the dungeon they discovered? Clearly something is up.
But, even knowing that.
“I’ll go too.”
“Hey stupid bastard. It must be a trap…”
“I can’t help it! Are you going to live on the 10th floor for the rest of your life? As long as you go up to the 11th floor, you could raid a dungeon again, so you can go up. If I get one piece of equipment here, I can climb the tower again!”
The challengers who had no choice but to reside on the 10th floor eventually let themselves be deceived by those words.
…Malea as well.
* * *
-Oh, there are quite a lot of new faces gathered in this dungeon! I was getting tired of seeing only the face I know every day!
The next day. Around forty members of the Wings of Heaven Guild and about 100 general challengers were gathered at the entrance of the dungeon. Above them, a translucent fairy with a strange shape which looks like a combination of a deer and a rabbit was jumping in the air and making quite a commotion.
Those so-called ‘tutorial fairy’ were the only creatures in the entire tower which knew the secret of this tower. From what Malea had heard, some challengers were lucky enough to turn their lives around and were said to be living in the upper floor currently after getting a single line of information from the fairy. They were like a goose that lays golden eggs, but no one could talk to them easily because they often pop the heads of humans.
Malea was certain the fairy was aware about the ‘secret’ of the dungeon she would soon enter. And as she didn’t want to miss it, Malea carefully listened to the fairy. At least they didn’t lie when it’s about the tower’s challenge.
-Now, the rules of this dungeon are simple! It is ‘Choose, the door of truth!’ There are many doors in the dungeon, but there is only one real door! You must try to find the door which would lead you to the truth! What if you choose a door which wouldn’t lead you to the truth? Unfortunately, you have no choice but to die!
“What, what…?”
“Wait a minute!!”
Only then did the challengers realize the reason why the Wings of Heaven Guild allowed them to enter this dungeon.
Malea thought there must be a right way to find the ‘door of truth’ in the dungeon. However, it seems like the Wings of Heaven Guild couldn’t find a way to do it, and couldn’t help but to think of another way, that is, to throw the challengers into a random door and see whether the door is the correct one or not.
As the atmosphere of the challengers became chaotic, the members of the Wings of Heaven Guild drew their swords. Most of them were level 3 swords or even higher, which means, their users were challengers who had climbed over 30 floors. It was completely impossible for all the challengers gathered here to face them.
“Y’all have come all the way here, you can’t just return empty-handed, can you?”
“These bastards who deserve to be punished….”
“Well, think about it. If you’re lucky enough to find the real door, you’ll be given a piece of equipment or something.”
Malea looked at the members of Wings of Heaven Guild who just talked. They really had no feelings for the other challengers as they said those words without the slightest change on their facial expressions. They truly treat the other challengers as a disposable tool.
Malea bit her lips tightly. It’s impossible to run away from this location since challengers above the 30th floor were blocking the way from all sides. In the end, she had no choice but to enter the dungeon…
‘Will the Goddess of Luck be on my side?’
Cold sweat dripped down her cheeks as she clenched her fist tight and looked at the floating fairy. She was well aware since yesterday that things would turn out into something like this. So, she had no regrets whatsoever. However, the fear of knowing she could be dead soon was something she couldn’t avoid.
However, at that moment, someone tapped on Malea’s shoulder.
“…?”
When she turned around slowly, she saw someone wrapped in a robe all over their body just like her. The person was a little bit smaller than herself, and when she threw them a look of ‘why did you call me?’, the person lowered her hood.
Then, a long black hair resembling the night and blue eyes resembling the deep sea appeared from beyond the hood. Malea couldn’t help but get mesmerized as she was such a beautiful girl. For a moment, that person’s beauty even made her forget all the hard times she suffered through in the tower.
Then, she asked quietly with an innocent smile plastered on her face towards Malea. “Don’t you remember me? I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t remember you.”
“Hmm… is that so? It seems this is our first meeting. Though, for me it’s already the third time.”
“Yes?” Malea said with a surprised tone. What a waste, her face is really pretty, but it seems her head was a bit… As Malea was having such a thought, the girl reached out her hand towards her.
“My name is Aracelli. Please take care of me, Malea.”
‘How did she know my name?’ Malea was surprised once again. After all, her face was still hidden under the robe. Although such a question arose in her mind, Malea soon accepted the handshake of a girl named Aracelli.
Anyway, it seems like both of them wouldn’t be knowing each other for long, so she thought she would enjoy it while it lasted.