Why Did I Have to Enroll

"Let's climb the tower together."

Friday morning, during meal time.

Ayre approached where the Rebellion members were eating (today's menu was a fusion pasta dish with kimchi-like pickled vegetables and ham stir-fried with noodles, topped with cheese) and said.

Ban Yu-won glanced around at the surprised students who heard this, sighed, and replied.

"There's no point in talking to us about this."

"You're lacking in mages. If I join, it would make a perfect composition."

"Ban is an excellent mage."

Light seemed somewhat wary of Ayre, even though they should be treating her well.

Or perhaps this was his way of trying to help her detach herself emotionally from him? Ban Yu-won had such a thought as he wrapped noodles around his chopsticks.

"You seem to know Ban quite well."

"I've watched all of Rebellion's videos. I'm a subscriber too."

So she was one of our viewers.

Ban Yu-won's favorability toward her increased by 1.

"With me added, it would be perfect. If you just nod your heads, I can convince Professor Yumina."

Well, certainly.

Since she wasn't asking to transfer to Class 11 but just to form a team to climb the tower with them, there wasn't really any reason for Yumina to refuse.

In fact, seniors in their second year and above, having experienced death in the tower multiple times and realizing the importance of teamwork, sometimes formed teams with students from other classes to climb the tower.

Perhaps knowing this, Light couldn't say anything more to her and turned to look at Ban Yu-won.

"Ban, I..."

"Ban Yu-won, I'll follow your decision."

"Me too."

Before Light could finish speaking, Dokgo Yeon and Luciel immediately left the decision to Ban Yu-won.

At this point, Light's opinion would have no impact on the decision!

"Aren't you guys sucking up to Ban too much?"

"I simply trust him."

"Me too."

"—No, this won't work."

Whether in response to their trust or not, Ban Yu-won came to a clear conclusion.

Ayre's expression suggested she had somewhat expected this, but she still asked.

"Why?"

"Climbing with you wouldn't help us grow. You're too strong."

"But you're all plenty..."

"Wait a moment."

Ban Yu-won dipped his hand in a water glass and drew two characters on the table.

The characters for 'block' and 'sound', forming 'soundproof' (防音).

When he infused Mysterious Qi into the completed word, a soundproof barrier formed around the table, preventing their conversation from leaking outside.

Actually, this was a spell he'd wanted to try for a while.

"I'm going to talk about something sensitive."

Ban Yu-won responded with a bitter smile to his companions who looked at him with startled expressions, and continued.

"Our current members... yes, except for Dokgo Yeon, our members are in a transitional period."

"Transitional period."

"Yes. Everyone has their own reasons, but simply put, we're all in the process of finding our way forward."

Ban Yu-won was a novice who had just awakened to his abilities.

Though he had built up power surpassing most first-year students in less than a month, while his power was immense, there was no way he could claim to handle it with precision.

Luciel was a girl who was mentally overwhelmed enough to unhesitatingly serve a boy she had met less than a month ago as her master.

Having barely escaped from the curse of the mind path that had bound her for many years, she was gradually learning to handle it.

She had also just recently resumed accumulating her wild nature, which had been forbidden until now.

This could be seen as the height of instability.

Light? Light goes without saying.

This guy would be an excellent burden no matter who you paired him with right now.

"Hey!"

Ban Yu-won continued speaking while gently pushing aside Light, who was shouting.

"For us right now, climbing the tower isn't just about conquering it, it's also about finding the path that suits us best. Dokgo Yeon is thankfully helping us with that."

"Then I'll help you too."

"Sorry. One teacher is enough."

Ban Yu-won rejected her firmly but briefly.

Ayre seemed to realize that what she had just said was nothing more than an empty echo, and her expression stiffened slightly.

Then she asked in a deflated voice.

"Can we be friends?"

"Of course. Keep appearing as a guest in our videos too. Professor Yumina will like that."

"...Okay."

She nodded slightly as if that was enough, then left.

Ban Yu-won let out a sigh and erased the characters on the table, dissolving the soundproof barrier.

Dokgo Yeon spoke with sparkling eyes.

"I saw you in a new light, Ban Yu-won."

"Cut the bullshit. The answer was obvious from the start. How could we accept her right now?"

It would become Ayre's one-man show, no, with Dokgo Yeon added, a two-man show.

And Ayre herself must have known this too.

It's just that she was so confident in Team Rebellion's potential that she acted hastily - that's how it could be interpreted.

Plus one more thing, if Ban Yu-won were to state his theory...

'Could it be that she wanted to say she wanted to be friends from the start?'

But because that was difficult, perhaps she had circled around with talk about entering Class 11 and climbing the tower together?

'Starting as friends, it's a major strategy. Given who we're dealing with, it'll probably fail though...'

Ban Yu-won only thought this to himself as he stole glances at Light's face, who was fuming because he thought Ban had insulted him.

Light, who somehow picked up on the meaningful nature of that gaze, spoke with trembling eyes.

"W-what is it? Ban, lately you keep looking at me with those strange eyes. D-don't tell me you like..."

"That's absolutely not it, so don't worry. Or maybe you should worry?"

"What?!"

Light shouted in shock.

This guy really is the most fun to tease.

Ban Yu-won ignored the exasperated looks from Luciel and Dokgo Yeon as he stood up.

"Well then, let's get going. We need to enter the tower."

*

Since all four of them had cleanly lost in their previous climb, this challenge started again from Room 1. For some reason, everyone looked at Ban Yu-won, but he didn't disappoint their expectations and stepped forward.

"We probably won't have to fight until Rooms 5 or 6."

"Ban Yu-won, you can handle up to Room 15 by yourself, can't you?"

"No, not me - my kids can."

"Shh."

Eve, released from Ban Yu-won's arm, soared into the sky. Not only that, but when he took Lilith out from his inventory, Luciel was the first to tilt her head in confusion.

"Yu-won, has the bike... gotten bigger?"

"Just a little. It's because it's alive now."

The fact that a bike made of metal was alive wasn't even surprising anymore. After all, wasn't Ban Yu-won the one who transformed an ordinary bat into a returned artifact!

As the group silently observed Lilith, it seemed to get embarrassed and honked its horn "Paang!" before starting to run ahead.

"Looks like Room 1."

"Well then, shall we follow along slowly?"

When Ban Yu-won first entered the tower before, where did he hit his limit? Was it Room 4? It was probably around there.

But for the ones before his eyes, concepts like limits were completely irrelevant.

"How many hours has it been?"

"About three hours."

"Right now we're at... Room 9."

"That's incredibly fast."

What allows students to keep challenging the tower without giving up, even though their records reset every time they lose?

It's because even though the tower has an ever-changing internal structure, there are inherent elements of the tower that cannot be changed, and climbers who repeatedly challenge it learn these and can tackle the tower more efficiently.

It's similar to a roguelike game where you get faster as you play more and become familiar with the overall structure.

Of course, Eve and Lilith's conquest speed was fast even taking all of that into account.

"These guys don't have the concept of stamina. They absorb and recover magic power as soon as they use it, so it never runs out."

"That means you can do the same with magic power too, right?"

"That's why I rarely mention being low on magic power."

And...

Ban Yu-won smiled as he watched Eve and Lilith face off against Room 9's monster, the Trap Reaper - a creature wearing a straw hat with hook claws attached to both hands.

It was a nasty monster that would spread invisible traps everywhere, trigger them on the spot to stop its opponent's movement, and then inflict damage by slashing wildly with its claws, but it was actually the perfect match-up for Ban Yu-won, who could read and absorb the concept of traps.

Of course, this was also true for his 'vassals' who could fully utilize his powers through resonance―.

―Kiiihaaa!

―Buaaaang!

"Shhh, sisisit!"

No matter how many Trap Reapers rushed in at once, they were no match for Eve and Lilith.

Above all, these two had greatly increased their power by clearing out all the monsters from Rooms 1 to 8 and absorbing quite a few concepts.

"Eve might reach Life 250 by this weekend."

Lilith would be lower, around 220 perhaps.

Considering that Erecto, who was a member of the Special Class when they first enrolled, had a Life of 250, it goes without saying how ridiculous these numbers were.

―Kihik!

―Kihiii?

The Trap Reapers, who had their very souls stripped clean by Eve and Lilith's prowess as they absorbed every trap the moment it was spread and reduced their companions with perfect coordinated attacks as if reading each other's minds, turned their heads to look for easier prey.

But as luck would have it, the target they focused on was none other than Ban Yu-won.

"...I guess I still look the weakest."

"You actually do."

"I-I'll protect you!"

"No, don't. It'll just be pathetic."

Ban Yu-won pouted his lips as he stepped forward, even deliberately exposing himself to make it easier for them to target and slash at him.

But the moment the Trap Reaper rushed in and cut through his body, amazingly, his figure became semi-transparent and distorted in mid-air!

"Where are you aiming? That's just my afterimage."

―Kihit?!

"And this is an afterimage too."

―Buung!

―Kiiiiii!

As the Trap Reaper kept striking Ban Yu-won's afterimages but couldn't find his real body and was panicking, Lilith quickly chased after it and killed it by piercing through with its front fender.

"Satisfied, Ban Yu-won?"

"Yeah."

"Why does this man sometimes act so incredibly childish?"

Dokgo Yeon sighed, but Ban Yu-won couldn't contain his genuine satisfaction.

It wasn't just because he got to say one of the lines from 'Top 20 Killer Lines I Want to Say.'

What he just used was the Shadow Step technique, and illusion magic that temporarily creates duplicates to deceive the enemy's senses.

While Shadow Step was naturally a concept he possessed, illusion magic wasn't - it was Eve's ability.

Should we say this is natural?

The concept of 'resonance' given to Eve not only shares a part of Ban Yu-won's authority but also allows Ban Yu-won to use the abilities that it possesses!

"I wondered what you were trying to show."

"Then Ban, that means the stronger your artifacts... no, vassals with resonance become, the stronger you become too, right?"

"That's exactly it. You could call it mutual benefit."

That's not all.

The more vassals he has with resonance, the more diverse his abilities become, allowing him to flexibly handle all kinds of situations.

Not to mention the countless advantages of having more vassals who can coordinate almost at the level of reading thoughts due to resonance.

"Shshhhh!"

―Paang!

Eve and Lilith, having completely eliminated the Trap Reapers, returned to Ban Yu-won's side.

Between the two of them, they had harvested traps with a depth exceeding 150.

It might be worth trying to create a proper permanent trap by pouring all of this in.

"Alright, let's head to Room 10 now."

"It's almost embarrassing to rest. If there's nothing special, let's move straight to Room 11. We should start moving now too."

"Ban, haven't we killed all the monsters? Is there perhaps a maze hidden here too?"

It seemed unreal that this was Room 9 since they cleared it so easily, but originally, Ban Yu-won's party's exploration was hell-level difficulty incomparable to other students!

It wasn't the kind of easy level where you could just slip away after killing all the monsters.

"This entire Room 9 is a trap. I'm guessing if we hadn't dealt with the Trap Reapers within a certain time limit, it would have activated and caused all of us to lose."

"...Any ordinary party would have just ended here."

"No, if you weren't here, Ban Yu-won..."

"We might have been done for after killing all the monsters and fumbling around for a while before triggering the trap. Though you, Dokgo Yeon, might have been able to destroy the trap with brute force."

However, since the trap set in this room was a complex one mixing ground erosion and lava eruption, at least one person would have been lost.

As Ban Yu-won gave this terrifying explanation, he reached out and touched one spot on the wall, and a small protruding golden string of text became entangled with his finger.

As he carefully pulled it out, a trap with a depth of 50 began to emerge.

Combined with what was recovered from the Trap Reapers, it cleanly reached a depth of 200.

Ban Yu-won would remember this place as a treasure trove.

―Child, stop your steps and wait a moment.

―Can you hear my voice? I have something I must discuss with you, the genius creator.

...No, is it a trap until the very end?

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