Why Did I Have to Enroll

Ban Yu-won looked down at the wooden box that had appeared in the center of the rest area with his companions and muttered with satisfaction.

"I guess we've got everything we could from this rest area, haven't we?"

"That's right. Although there are other possibilities like streams of alcohol or beds that relieve fatigue in a short time, the biggest rewards are still fruits and treasure chests."

At first glance, the shabby wooden box was rimmed with gold.

According to the textbook, there are grades for treasure chests that appear in rest areas. As the material of the box goes up from wood (木), copper (銅), silver (銀), to gold (金), the contents get better.

Of course, as the group was now seeing, the rim surrounding the treasure chest also affected the contents.

"Wood with a gold rim, so it feels like the highest of the lowest grade? I think this might be the best we can get from Room 10."

"Actually, it's pretty shameless to expect anything better than a copper box when we've only reached Room 10."

"Ugh."

Why does this guy always reveal his true feelings so honestly, Ban Yu-won was worried about Light's future.

Next to him, Dokgo Yeon made a "hmm" sound.

"Indeed, the rest area that appears every 10 rooms can be seen as a reward zone that settles our achievements from Room 1 to Room 9. After all, what we've experienced hasn't been ordinary, has it?"

"We've even been involved with constellations twice."

"There were more times when elite monsters appeared than when they didn't."

"A-and the trap area with Maze, too."

Listing it out like this, it felt like they had experienced a compressed version of what other students might go through in a year of exploration.

"It's not for nothing that they use 10 rooms as a measurement unit. It's natural to combine hardships and rewards. Of course, in our case... it was quite special."

"A challenging environment is better for tempering oneself. If it's coupled with a wonderful reward, I have no complaints."

It was clear from her gaze what Dokgo Yeon meant by a wonderful reward.

Rather than the treasure chest, wasn't she looking at the branches hanging over their heads with an expression that suggested she wanted to pick and eat another fruit right away?

Ban Yu-won gave a bitter smile and turned his gaze to the treasure chest in front of him.

"Well then, shall we open it?"

"Ban, can I do it?"

"No. Let's have Ban Yu-won open it."

At Dokgo Yeon's declaration, Light's resentful gaze turned towards her, but he resigned himself when he saw Luciel quietly come forward and grasp Ban Yu-won's arm.

"If you open it, it feels like we'll have bad luck."

"A-agreed."

"That's too much! What exactly have I done to deserve this?"

"Let me correct myself. You're just unlucky in general."

"......"

It was a bit unlucky that his tension went up as soon as he grabbed the holy sword again.

Ban Yu-won passed by Light, who was looking at him with desperate eyes, and put his hand on the wooden box.

At that moment, the concept of seal (封) that existed in the box dissipated, and the box opened by itself.

After quickly securing the concept of seal, which amounted to as much as 50, before it disappeared along with the contents, he checked inside.

There lay a pink magic wand that looked like something magical girls would wield in children's animations.

"......"

"Could it be a Magic Staff!"

Ban Yu-won felt devastated as soon as he saw it, but judging by Light's shocked reaction, it wasn't as worthless as Ban Yu-won had thought.

Moreover, even Luciel was wide-eyed, and Dokgo Yeon also had a surprised expression.

"It contains considerable energy. I can't believe such a wondrous item... an artifact actually existed."

"But none of us are mages."

"Maybe it can be used even if you're not a mage. Let's see..."

Light's hand stretched out from the side and touched the magic wand.

Immediately after, his shoulders slumped, apparently a dud.

"Aside from not having an aptitude for it, I can't even bring up the information window. It seems to be in an unidentified state."

"Oh my, it really is."

Information window, huh.

Ban Yu-won suddenly realized that these people had status windows!

'Who cares about status windows, I can just look at the concepts it holds and make a guess.'

To show that his ability wasn't inferior to the status window, he picked up the magic wand, and instantly, a parade of concepts filled his vision.

[Magic Power 150, Soul 200, Magic Language (魔法言語) 100, Elemental Magic (元素魔法) 50]

"Hmm... hmm?"

"Did you figure something out, Ban Yu-won?"

"I did figure it out, but I'm thinking about what it means. So..."

First, the magic power contained in the magic wand, no, the staff, is about 150.

It's impressive, but when considering that this is an artifact, it didn't seem to be an exceptionally high level.

Still, the fact that it had a soul of 200 was the first thing that shocked Ban Yu-won.

Next was the magic language at 100, and elemental magic at 50.

Conceptualized knowledge embedded with a deep soul.

What that meant was...

"This seems to be an educational tool for novice mages."

"An educational tool?"

"Yeah. It seems to have a consciousness embedded in it to teach knowledge to mages."

The moment Ban Yu-won said that.

As surely as anyone present could confirm, the staff wriggled.

"It's real?!"

"An artifact with consciousness..."

Everyone's gaze was fixed on Ban Yu-won at once.

They probably recalled the existence of Eve, who was probably sleeping in the inventory right now.

Of course, Ban Yu-won could have discussed several differences between Eve, who could be called his masterpiece, and this artifact, but he decided not to bother since it was obvious they wouldn't understand even if he explained.

Instead.

"Guys, can I have this? Of course, I'll pay for it."

He wasn't particularly coveting an artifact with consciousness.

Just the concept of 'magic language' contained in this artifact was very tempting.

With the work of analyzing the pattern of the student ID card still stagnant, if he could get this, many things would change in an instant!

"I'm fine with it. However, let's settle the payment after we leave the dungeon. We don't have enough time to research and handle it now."

"I... I'm okay with it too. Ban has been working hard for us all along anyway."

"Of course Ban should have it."

So Luciel's argument has been odd from the beginning!

Anyway, Ban Yu-won, who obtained the staff by unanimous decision, let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you. It had an ability that I think will be incredibly helpful to me."

"So you also have the ability to appraise items. Not surprising, though."

"If it's Dokgo Yeon, maybe, but if it's Ban..."

Although Ban Yu-won wanted to extract all the concepts from the staff right away, as Dokgo Yeon said, the current environment wasn't very good for acquiring and mastering new abilities.

Promising himself to do it later, he threw the staff into his inventory and stood up.

"Then shall we start the calculation right away?"

"Calculation? Of that artifact just now? Don't tell me you're going to pay in cash?"

"No, of course not."

He grinned and first took out a large bottle from his inventory.

Inside was peach jam.

Dokgo Yeon's eyes sparkled mercilessly at the sight of it.

"A different flavor of jam! You treacherous man, tempting me with sweetness. Even though I know the calculation doesn't add up, I have no choice but to give in...!"

"That's true, but I'm not just going to pay with jam."

As Ban Yu-won stretched out his hand, the fruits hanging from the branches above their heads all emitted golden strings of text.

"Ban Yu-won? Those will disappear the moment we try to take them outside."

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so let's see what happens."

As he did on Earth, he first divided the numerous fruits into two concepts: fruit stone and flesh.

The fruit stone became the concept of Core and increased the maximum amount of code core (the concept of Core was enormous, probably because the fruit itself was special), and the remaining flesh's text strings flowed into the jam bottle all at once, guided by Ban Yu-won.

Ban Yu-won's appearance of extracting golden threads from the fruits hanging all around looked like a spinner spinning thread, or like an orchestra conductor.

"Good heavens, this is..."

"Wow."

"It's beautiful..."

The fruits, stripped of their concepts, disappear one by one.

But with each fruit that disappeared, the light emitted by the jam bottle became even more dazzling.

Finally, when the bottle that had absorbed all the vitality of the fruits in this rest area swelled as if it was about to explode, Ban Yu-won sealed (封) it.

At that moment.

[You have crafted Elixir of Life 30. This elixir, created by condensing and sealing the endless vitality of Eden's fruits with remarkable skill, will greatly restore and enhance the life force and magical power of those who consume it, and bestow countless new possibilities. With prolonged use, its effects will become even more potent, but excessive consumption at once will result in divine punishment.]

"Success so far."

A smile played on Ban Yu-won's lips.

The group who had watched the manufacturing process were simply dumbfounded.

"This... we can't record this on video, right?"

"Of course not. I'd get caught."

Ban Yu-won chuckled in response to Light's foolish remark and put it into his inventory.

"Now that it's made, we should check if it'll remain intact outside. Of course, if you're all still not fully rested, we could stay here a bit longer..."

"Let's go right now. That's okay, right?"

When Dokgo Yeon insists with her cross-shaped eyes, most humans can't go against her will.

Light and Luciel nodded frantically, overwhelmed by her intensity, and Ban Yu-won opened the door in the middle of the rest area wall with a wry smile.

"Then let's go."

They left Eden, the rest area that had given them so much, without hesitation and headed towards Room 11.

As they felt the shift occurring, Dokgo Yeon shot a sharp glance at Ban Yu-won, who immediately checked his inventory and smiled with satisfaction.

"It's still intact. Success―."

"You did it, Ban Yu-won!"

Dokgo Yeon unconsciously cheered and hugged him tightly.

Though she quickly came to her senses and retreated even faster than she had approached.

As Ban Yu-won just blinked his eyes, Light turned to Dokgo Yeon with wide eyes and said,

"Dokgo Yeon, did you just hug Ban...?"

"Be quiet."

It seemed she wanted to pretend it never happened.

―Shaka, shaka

As everyone shared an unspoken understanding, the monsters of Room 11 finally appeared.

It was an animal-type monster with an insect's exoskeleton, one of the common monster species in the tower known as Armored Beasts (甲殼獸).

Common doesn't mean weak.

Rather, with countless abilities and specialties depending on the patterns of their exoskeletons and animal traits, they were creatures that couldn't be underestimated no matter when or where you encountered them.

They were truly monsters befitting the tower's notorious reputation, just like the tower spiders.

That was certainly the case, but...

"If we move our bodies quickly to digest the fruit, we might be able to eat the jam!"

With such trivial logic, Dokgo Yeon started moving busily, causing the monsters to vanish as if they were creatures from Room 1.

Ban Yu-won thought that Eden's fruit wouldn't be so simple, but for now, he decided to just stay still.

"Ah, then I'll..."

"Light, you put down that sword now."

"Ah, ahhhhh!"

"You didn't think you could sneak that by us, did you...?"

*

From Room 11 onwards, the rooms became relatively simpler, with the most common combination being monsters and traps, which are said to appear most frequently after Room 50.

Of course, the monsters were all of a difficulty level not suitable for the lower floors, but that wasn't surprising, so let's set that aside.

Ban Yu-won, lacking the means to control Luciel's rampage, actively moved his body as much as possible without relying on her power.

Light, without his sword, didn't move particularly well, so Ban Yu-won thought it would be a big burden, but Dokgo Yeon covered all those gaps completely.

Eventually, by the time the clock pointed to 11 PM, Ban Yu-won's group was able to conquer up to Room 14 of the tower.

"Why... why am I not hungry?"

Dokgo Yeon muttered in an almost despairing tone.

Surprisingly, the sense of fullness given by Eden's fruit had not faded even after more than ten hours.

"Anyway, I can't move anymore now."

"Damn, if only I had my sword..."

"Huff, huff..."

Meanwhile, the rest of the group, who had to match her breathless pace, were completely exhausted.

Ban Yu-won felt like he had truly challenged his limits,

Light was looking for his holy sword every three minutes,

And Luciel, even after taking breaks to calm down, still had black hair and was on the verge of going berserk at any moment.

If Dokgo Yeon had been alone, she would have run tirelessly until she got hungry, but seeing her exhausted party members, she had no choice but to give up.

The last monster of Room 14 (a steel tower spider) was tied up tightly with a rope that Ban Yu-won had brought separately and left to one side.

"The fact that we could fight non-stop for hours already means we're not normal."

"Come to think of it..."

They are not energizer bunnies.

Just being in an extreme environment consumes a tremendous amount of mental energy, and especially fighting against enemies that keep popping up in a confined space like the tower results in an indescribably high physical drain.

Yet, they fought monsters for hours almost without rest from Room 11 to Room 14, showing how incredibly powerful the effects of Eden's fruit were.

"I don't think we need... to eat. Let's wash up and rest. We've come quite far already. Let's explore Room 15 tomorrow."

"Everyone will be surprised when they see the video."

Of course they'll be surprised, Light. There won't be just one or two people who'll be shocked to see how pathetic you become without your sword.

Ban Yu-won desperately suppressed such words from coming out and took out various tools needed for washing from his inventory.

"Everyone, use these to wash up."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to focus a bit on Mysterious Qi. I'll wash up later since I'll get dirty again after training anyway."

"Hmm."

Dokgo Yeon wore a satisfied expression.

"It seems teaching you was worth it. Yes, the completion of Mysterious Qi depends on how much you push your qi, so go ahead and try your best. Beast, you come here."

"Kruk?!"

With those words, Dokgo Yeon dragged Luciel behind the makeshift tent that Ban Yu-won had set up.

Ban Yu-won, who had plopped down on the floor intending to focus on Mysterious Qi, said a word to Light, who was standing there not knowing what to do.

"What are you doing? Go in and wash up together."

"Go in together?! I-I'm a man!"

"Ah, right. Then just undress and wash here."

"How vulgar!"

I don't know which tune I'm supposed to dance to.

Ban Yu-won closed his eyes tightly and focused on Mysterious Qi, waiting for Act 3 to come as soon as possible.

"Ban, when I said vulgar just now, I didn't mean you were vulgar, but that no matter how much we're both men, we can't carelessly expose our naked bodies in front of others... Ban?"

"..."

"Are you asleep...? Sigh."

―Rustle

That night, Ban Yu-won had to practice Mysterious Qi all night without getting a wink of sleep.

It certainly wasn't because he fell into a state of denial after seeing Light's flat chest when he took off his clothes to wash, thinking Ban Yu-won was asleep.

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