The period when the sky opened and monsters, beings completely impervious to human weapons, suddenly appeared is called the ‘First Wave’.

During the First Wave, monsters appeared globally in numbers proportional to the population. Tall towers that seemed to touch the sky also emerged in each country, one per nation, and gates, which were entrances to dungeons where monsters could be encountered regularly, also appeared.

Among these, the ‘Tower of the Sage’ was particularly systematically structured, unlike other gates that appeared simultaneously.

It was like a tower commonly found in MMORPG games. With each floor climbed, the difficulty of conquest steadily increased, and new monsters appeared in stages. Moreover, the phases of the monsters gradually increased. Of course, the rewards increased as well.

Even the order of monsters on each floor of the tower almost matched the order of new monsters appearing during the Wave. As the stages of the Sage’s Tower were cleared, the buffs that all hunters belonging to that country could receive changed.

Thus, naturally, people came to believe that the Sage’s Tower held the fundamental key to the Wave.

However, even though more than 20 years had passed since the First Wave, the number of people who seriously attempted or actually conquered the tower was not large.

In the case of dungeons, one could choose a difficulty level suitable for oneself, and many went for personal wealth or ability enhancement.

The tower was the opposite. Only righteous hunters with a sense of justice who prioritized the greater good over personal gain challenged it.

This is because in the tower, one often had to face strong monsters with unknown strategies, risking one’s life.

Among the hunters who climbed the tower despite such risks, the top-class team was the party led by Seo Suji, hunter name Daphne.

Team Daphne was an elite party consisting of four top-tier hunters ranking within the top 10 in Korea: Daphne (Seo Suji), Elaine (Han Suho), Peace (Kim Ihyuk), and Saint (Park Seyoung).

They had reached the highest floor, the 80th, surpassing any other country.

And now.

A giant fire-attribute monster with a body reaching 10m was spraying lava-like substance all over its body, suddenly roaring and threatening Team Daphne.

“Uwooooooh!”

“Peace, dodge!”

“…Phew, that was close. This one changes with each phase too? But honestly, isn’t it a bit much to add structures as well? Have some conscience!”

“We expected this! Stop the idle chatter and focus on destroying the structures first!”

“Saint, Team Leader. Get out of the way!”

“Alright, Elaine. Peace and Saint too! Right now! We’ve entered phase 2, everyone drink potions and fall back!”

The fact that the four members with impeccable teamwork started grumbling was a sign that they had encountered a crisis that was pushing them to their limits.

Seo Suji took a big step back and gulped down the potion as if pouring it. During battle, even recovery time was precious.

After drinking three bottles in succession, she suddenly glared at the empty potion bottles. Clearly, her maximum HP, which was SSS-grade and unique in the world, was relatively high, but strangely, it seemed like her HP wasn’t increasing no matter how much she drank.

‘What’s this, am I under some recovery debuff?’

But there was clearly no abnormal status.

“Uwooooooh!”

The monster, unable to bear even a moment’s delay, roared and twisted its entire body. As fireballs started falling from its massive body, Daphne shot down each fireball one by one and turned her gaze around.

It wasn’t just her who was in an abnormal state. All three of her companions showed signs of difficulty in recovering their health.

“Everyone has recovered now, right?”

“I’m in the process.”

“I don’t see any change either.”

“Aack, Team Leader! I’m dying!”

Daphne narrowed her eyes.

A chill ran down her spine.

Something was going wrong.

There’s no phenomenon without a reason. Every event has a valid cause.

If all four of them were not under any abnormal status but weren’t recovering properly, there was only one reason left.

‘Something’s wrong with the potions.’

Suji doesn’t doubt her judgment.

That’s what she had to do as a team leader.

She instantly opened her inventory and threw all remaining potions towards Peace.

Since they were automatically sorted by performance, what remained would be low-grade. However, for now, she could only hope it was better than nothing.

“Elaine. Cover us. Saint, take care of Peace. Everyone focus on dodging! We’re all in a state where we’ll meet at the gates of the underworld if we take even one hit.”

Although they were all AAA-grade or higher hunters, the opponent and their condition were too bad. With their current health, they truly couldn’t guarantee survival if even one attack grazed them.

At Suji’s command, the four team members instantly moved to their respective positions.

Suji gritted her teeth.

Somehow, they had to defeat that monster without dragging it out. She hated the thought of seeing someone die before her eyes again.

They had to fight for another 20 minutes without the help of potions.

Every minute, every second was a blood-draining battle.

Thud.

As the monster’s heavy body finally collapsed slowly, Suji, uncharacteristically, breathed heavily.

Rewards

190 Time Crystals

280 Destruction Crystals

80 Enhancement Fragments

3 Silent Enhancement Fragments

8 Demon Beast Bones

2 Demon Beast Wings

2 Eyeball Demon Beast Eyes

Wingless Falling Greatsword (Tier 8)

Weapon-specific Enhancement Stones (Low-grade 120)

Weapon-specific Enhancement Stones (High-grade 2)

Armor-specific Enhancement Stones (Mid-grade 88)

1 Lucky Ring (Rare)

15,000G

5 Normal Random Boxes

1 Rare Random Box] [The gate to the 81st floor, 1st section has opened.]

Only when the completion message appeared before her eyes did Suji slam her sword into the ground with a thud.

And Elaine, Saint, and Peace, who had been conquering the tower, either sat down or lay flat on the ground.

Everyone’s health gauge was left with just a fingernail’s worth.

Suji looked at everyone’s condition and belatedly realized that her shoulders were too tense.

It was understandable.

One mistake could have really cost someone’s life.

It wasn’t easy to concentrate thoroughly for a long time of 20 minutes, not just a few seconds. Concentrating in tension made her eyeballs ache as if blood vessels had burst in her eyes.

“Is everyone alright?”

Her voice seemed to tremble from how much she had worried.

“I saw the entrance to the afterlife, but I haven’t gone in yet.”

“Team Leader, you should sit down too. You look exhausted.”

“No, but what on earth happened here… Why are these potions such trash? I really thought something else had gone wrong.”

Suji nodded after confirming the responses of the three. Without thinking of sitting down or receiving the conquest completion rewards, she absentmindedly reached out her hand.

“Can you give me any remaining potions?”

“Ah, here they are.”

Elaine handed over the potions, and Suji picked them up and stared at them intently.

It was true that they had used potions like water due to the numerous injuries sustained while conquering the 80th floor. However, Suji had a skill called that recovered a certain percentage of health with each attack, so she used fewer potions. Considering the amount of potions Saint usually prepared, there was no reason to run short.

“But why are we short on potions…?”

The team members also looked at each other while lying down.

“Why did the items turn out like this, Saint?”

Saint, who was in charge of item supply, barely raised her upper body.

“I don’t know either. I definitely bought them from a reliable merchant…”

“Still, they could cheat. That’s how people’s hearts are.”

Saint’s eyes widened at Elaine’s retort.

People at the forefront of tower conquest are given separate titles and badges, and they are so respected that even in dungeons, hunters make way for them. And yet, they were cheated?

“…No way.”

Peace, the oldest in the group and the most experienced in dealing with people, approached Saint. As he mainly handled heavy weapons, he had a sturdy, muscular build, and with his shortly trimmed hairstyle, he was a very masculine hunter.

He listened carefully to Saint’s story and clicked his tongue.

“No, it’s true. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“…Are they crazy? They benefit too when we conquer the tower.”

Elaine shook her head.

“You think those bastards would think that rationally? Looking at how they cheated even knowing there’s an SSS-grade hunter involved, they must have been confident they wouldn’t get caught. They probably switched out a few with low-grade ones since we buy them in hundreds. You know, those with similar names that are easy to confuse.”

“…I’m speechless.”

That was indeed correct.

Distribution often took place through official auction houses. And if you cheated in such places, it would be difficult to ever set foot in a trading place again.

Despite this, doing such a thing meant they intended to cut off their tail and swallow a large sum of money at once.

They probably thought that since the items were sorted from best to worst, mixing in a few low-grade ones wouldn’t matter as they wouldn’t be used.

Still, it was strange.

It was the first time Saint had made such a mistake.

“If you look closely, the appearance is different. Was there a reason to trust and buy without checking?”

At Suji’s question, Saint hesitated for a long time before averting her eyes and answering softly.

“Well, I knew that person…”

“You knew them…? Who was it?”

Saint looked at the other three, who seemed ready to grab the culprit by the collar right away, and after hesitating for a while, she opened her mouth.

“It was… Zero. I traded with Zero.”

Suddenly, it felt like her mind had cleared. It was as if she had been hit very hard on the head.

Zero was Suji’s mother, hunter name Penaeus, from her sponsoring organization. Zero’s mother was someone Penaeus had personally rescued from the tower.

How could Zero, of all people, cheat Daphne’s team?

She was so shocked that she couldn’t speak.