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Volume 1 Chapter 12-5: GO TO Tower

At the neck area I could see a 3 meter tall barrier wall. At the center of it was a gate that was left open, but on either side of it were soldiers managing the people who entered and exited.

Though I said they were managing it, it wasn’t something strict like body checks and such, instead it was more in case of emergency to protect the town if anything bad happened with the Tower. That being the case, we were easily able to pass after Sistina said we were entering the Tower.

Those who were leaving the area after returning from the Tower went pretty much unchecked.

「So we’re finally here.」

Before our eyes was an old-looking three story Tower. The first floor had a large entrance that looked as if it had been gouged out of the facade with numerous explorers entering and exiting.

It was likely that it was the entrance hall that everyone was supposed to enter like Sistina told me.

The hall would contain many doors leading to different levels and monsters would not appear inside the hall. I knew there was no need to be nervous, but I couldn’t help feel my heart beat faster at the thought of entering such a mysterious place.

The first floor didn’t have any windows or such, but there were strange patterns engraved on the walls. The second and third floor had things that looked like windows set into them, but strangely enough you couldn’t see inside no matter how hard you strained your eyes.

「Alright, let’s set off.」

We stepped inside the entrance.

Inside I saw more people than I had imagined and the entire area was filled with a bustling atmosphere. Around half the people were explorers with weapons and armor taking a break, coming up with taxes, and looking for temporary party members.

The other half looked to be people selling things. There were people selling medicine, recovery magic services, buying and selling magic stones, and selling weapons and armor.

I suddenly had the thought to use 『Simple Appraisal』 on the people here. I had been wondering if the party we’d seen in Mikrea had rare jobs or something like that. For now I’d forget about the names and just focus on the job area of their status.

『Job: Swordsman』『Job: Priest』『Job: Hunter』『Job: Farmer』『Job: Merchant』『Job: Wind Magician』『Job: Sniper』 etc…

I see, so these kinds of things are jobs here. So that means the group we’d seen were quite unique. Also, I forgot to mention, but I saw demi-humans as well. The descriptions that I saw were 『Dog-head Race』 『Fox Race』『Snake Person Race』 and so on. Mostly the race name showed their special characteristics.

「Welcome to Reitoku Tower. Is this the first time you’ve come here? If you have not bought a party ring yet, might I offer our services?」

Maybe because we had frozen up amongst the sea of moving people, but a man carrying a large attache case figured out that we were new and approached us.

His body was wrapped in well tailored clothes with an inoffensive mustache and beard. He was a fairly good looking middle aged man.

『Wilmark Base Karma: 7 Age: 34 Job: Peddler』

His karma was in the single digits so he didn’t seem to be an evil person, so it was probably worth at least hearing him out about this ‘party ring’.

I glanced at Sistina for a moment and she nodded to confirm that Party Ring was an item that existed in her records. I nodded back to her and decided to hear this uncle out.

「Certainly we do not have a party ring yet, but since we are going to enter the Tower we might need one. We’re willing to hear you out.」
「I’m very grateful for that. I am the peddler Wilmark Base. You may call me Will. So first of all allow me to explain what a party ring is. If you already know then I can omit the explanation, what would you like?」

Will asked and Sistina said, 「Since we’re already here you might as well explain it.」 and Will said 「Certainly」 before bowing and opening his briefcase.

「This is the item known as a party ring.」

The item he took out of his case was a silver bracelet with many carvings and small black stones inlaid into it. The case seemed to be divided into different levels. The top had two rings, the one below had three rings, and the bottom one had four.

「Please take a look. Each of these rings have black stones that attract each other.」

As Will said I could see the set of 2 bracelets were stuck to each other with the black stones touching.

「This is made by taking one master (solid) magic stone and splitting it into two parts before setting it into different bracelets. If a master (solid) magic stone is split, it has the property of attracting the pieces that made up the original stone. It is utilizing this property that makes the party rings work.」
「What use does it have?」
「There are two major benefits. First, if all the party members are wearing party rings made from the same master magic stone then even if you get separated you will know the general location of your party members using it.」

So if you moved in the direction that the bracelet was pulling you then you could find each other. Certainly that was convenient. If I got separated from Hotaru-san and Sistina and couldn’t reunite with them I think I’d probably cry.

「The other benefit is that you can share Tower levels.」
「What do you mean?」
「For example, this Tower is a 『Choice Type』. If you’ve never come to this Tower before you will have to climb starting from the first floor and continue upwards. After all, you can’t enter floors without first having reached them normally.」

I looked at the long wall with countless doors lined up side by side. There wasn’t enough room on the first floor, so it continued up onto a second floor.

Each of these doors was numbered using the numbers of this world. These were probably which level the door would take you to.

「That’s where this party ring comes in. If someone in the party wearing the ring has been to a higher level, then everyone in the party is able to follow them into that level. It is said that the reason for this is because the Tower recognizes the split master magic stone as one thing rather than several.」

It didn’t really have any meaning for us since we were starting from the first floor, but I’m sure it was useful for groups who added a new party member and didn’t want to redo the entire climb from the first floor.

「Using this you can immediately enter a higher level and avoid wasting time in the lower levels by becoming a temporary party with others and having them bring you to the floor you want. There are quite a few people who earn money through bringing people up to higher floors.」

It was effective since you didn’t necessarily have to fight, you only needed to have gone to the higher floors at least once. You could then be hired to bring a party up and then immediately leave. There were surely people who wanted to skip the lower floors and would pay money to take a shortcut upwards. It looked to be in high demand.