Conquering the Tower Even Regressors Couldn't-Chapter 130: Thirty-Fourth Floor, Sewer Cleanup (1)

[Welcome to the thirty-fourth floor of the Tower of Ordeal: Sewer Cleanup.]

[The asteroid Aisengard, a center for hedonistic activities, is plagued by monstrous creatures inhabiting its sewers.]

[As a result, cleaners have been hired to exterminate the beasts dwelling underground. Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok is one of the sewer cleaners.]

[Eliminate one hundred monsters. 0/100. Time remaining: 7 hours 59 minutes.]

Before my surroundings fully came into view, a revolting stench stung my nose, leaving me momentarily stunned. The stench was indescribable, far beyond anything words could convey.

Although Ha Hee-Jeong had warned me about it, reality proved to be far worse than I could have ever imagined. Immediately, I felt overwhelmed as my gag reflex went off instinctually.

“Ugh—”

I rushed to hold my breath, stifling the saliva flooding my mouth, but...

“Bleh!”

Doppy wasn’t as fortunate. It bent over and retched helplessly.

I quickly reached into the mimic and pulled out two portable oxygen globes. They were small, bubble-like containers, no larger than a fist that would expand around the wearer’s entire body, creating a thin film of purified air for them to breathe.

“Here, Doppy. Keuk.”

“Kriee!”

Even as I handed it the oxygen globe, the stench forced another gag out of me as it clawed its way into my throat and nostrils with every inhale. Desperately, I shoved the globe onto my head and activated it.

“Haaa...”

My breathing instantly stabilized. Almost as if I had stepped into a verdant forest, fresh, crisp air flooded my lungs. The contrast between the fresh air and the nausea-inducing filth around me was surreal, even strangely euphoric.

However, as I moved slightly to test my stability, I smelled a faint odor clinging to me.

“Ugh..."

Even in that short span, the stench had somehow seeped into my skin or clothes. Thankfully, it wasn’t as overwhelming as before.

Well, it should fade soon.

I shook out my limbs and hair reflexively. Then, my gaze shifted to the translucent notification hovering nearby.

Sewer Cleanup...

The trial was similar to what Ha Hee-Jeong had described, although instead of a pleasure-driven planetary body, she had chased a fugitive underneath an imperial capital.

With how many times I had been assigned a different trial from other climbers, this didn’t surprise me anymore.

Maybe the trial will be tougher since I am the only one in my party.

Eliminating one hundred monsters within eight hours wouldn’t be easy. That translated to roughly twelve or thirteen per hour, one every five minutes. Given that this was the thirty-fourth floor as well, the monsters wouldn’t be easy to find or slay.

This will be tight.

I gazed at the approximately three-meter-wide path ahead of me. On either side of it, massive streams of filthy water flowed thickly along the gutters. Pipes along the walls continuously spewed waste, splattering the already grimy walkway.

Looks like I will have to pick up the pace to hit my quota.

“Doppy.”

“Kriee?”

“Draw your weapon. Let’s go.”

Taking a step forward, I felt the sludge beneath the protective oxygen bubble squelch with each step.

***

[Eliminate one hundred monsters. 0/100. Time remaining: 7 hours 48 minutes.]

Despite trudging through the sewer for ten minutes, I hadn’t crossed paths with a single monster. Going off my earlier calculations, I should have already taken down at least two by now.

As unease began to creep into my mind, a splash shattered the silence. From the murky depths, a hulking rat burst onto the pathway.

Finally!

Instead of readying myself for combat, I just felt relieved.

The colossal rat blocked the entire passage.

[Ryoktrikya]

Standing roughly two meters tall, its sheer bulk was overwhelming, and I estimated it to be over five times my mass.

To be honest, it looked more like a grotesque creature than a rodent. However, since it bore enough resemblance to a rat, and its name was a mouthful, I decided to stick with calling it a rat.

“Squeak, squeak!”

Its glowing red eyes scanned the surroundings before predatorily locking onto me.

Emitting a low squeal, it bared its upper teeth, revealing jagged, disgustingly oversized, and terrifyingly sharp incisors.

Shaking weirdly yet deliberately, the rat coiled its body and prepared to charge.

A quick glance to either side confirmed my fear there was nowhere to dodge. The sewer’s low ceiling prevented me from leaping out of the way, and I wouldn’t be able to sidestep the rat on this narrow pathway.

Retreating wasn’t viable either, not with Doppy directly behind me. There was technically one more option, but I didn’t even want to consider diving into the filthy wastewater.

I will have to engage it head-on and finish this quickly.

Grabbing my axe, I readied myself for its strike. However, the oppressive aura radiating from it gave me pause. My immediate assumption had been that it was merely an oversized rat, but I now realized otherwise. It felt similar in strength to the airship captain from the thirty-first floor.

How is that even possible?

I pushed the thought aside as I didn’t have the time to waste on unnecessary questions. Eliminating the rat needed to be my priority.

The rat charged as I kicked off the ground, and the distance between us vanished almost instantly. To my surprise, its speed rivaled my own, although I wasn’t fully exerting myself.

Gripping my axe with both hands, I swung it behind my head before bracing my shoulders and cleaving it down mightily toward the rat’s skull.

“Skreee!”

The beast wasn’t about to let itself be dispatched so easily, however. In a blink, it lifted its head, maw gaping wide.

What is it trying to do? Tear its own jaw apart?

Crack!

I was very wrong. It snapped its mouth shut at the perfect moment, clamping its massive incisors down onto the axe blade. Though the impact shattered some of its teeth, the sheer force of its bite was staggering.

Caught off guard, I found myself face-to-face with its matted, sewage-drenched fur. Even though my oxygen globe was still completely intact, I almost swore I smelled its sharp, suffocating, and rancid stench seeping through.

Damn it.

Its overwhelming mass had tipped the scales, knocking me off balance.

To make matters worse, the rat wasn’t only holding the axe. It also stomped its forelegs furiously, as if trying to overpower me entirely.

I planted my feet, struggling to regain my balance and control, but the slick floor made it impossible.

“Ugh!”

For a moment, I nearly lost my footing. Thankfully I found a way to stabilize myself by relaxing my legs while engaging my core muscles.

At that moment, I heard Doppy’s panicked shriek from directly behind me. “Keek!”

If I backed up any further, Doppy would be dragged into this mess. Using Master of Shadows felt excessive for something as trivial as a rat, but at this point, I had no other choice.

Summoning arms made of shadow, I drew the dagger and relentlessly plunged it into the rat’s skull over and over without abandon.

“Skrieeee! Squeak!”

Its cries echoed briefly before it finally fell silent. The rat’s massive body went limp, and my axe finally came loose as its jaws slackened.

“You’ve got to be kidding me...” I trailed off incredulously.

How can a rat, even though it was larger, match Captain Kershakins’s[1] strength?

Even after the first collision, its sheer strength had matched mine. Even though I knew my opponents would grow stronger as we ascended the tower, a common mob being this strong didn’t make any sense.

This is just ridiculous.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I remembered that my trial wasn’t the one Ha Hee-Jeong had described.

The hedonistic asteroid.

I wasn’t dealing with just a city, but a small planet. While other climbers only needed to chase a fugitive around, I potentially needed to navigate an entire asteroid, slaying monsters. Even the scale felt overwhelmingly different.

Ordinary creatures wouldn’t be able to traverse between planets.

Individuals who frequented such a place had to be exceptional, existing beyond conventional limits. Perhaps they were powerful entities like the Overseer or a lower-level divine being. Regardless, they obviously considered this planet to be their playground.

Hold on... wouldn’t gods have handled something like this effortlessly?

I remembered hearing that Blue Dawn Breeze could revive the dead. If that were true, they wouldn’t have any trouble managing these pests.

The question gnawed at me briefly, but then it clicked—the visitors didn’t have to be gods for it to make sense. They could be subordinates to powerful beings and still be more powerful than the average climber.

After all, I wouldn’t waste my time cleaning up someone else’s mess at an amusement park either.

Finally, it all made sense.

For lower-tier lifeforms to survive in the presence of such powerful beings, even if they were as mundane as rats, they had to have a certain degree of strength.

So here I am, a janitor cleaning the sewers of a hedonistic asteroid...

I wasn’t disrespecting the profession, but receiving this trial felt like an insult. As if being a pawn in the gods’ games wasn’t bad enough, I was now scrubbing the sewers of one of their potential playgrounds.

Complaints aside, it wasn’t like I could refuse. I was in no position to reject the trial, no matter how humiliating it felt. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

If I ever want to escape this role, I need to conquer the tower. As soon as possible.

Time was slipping away, and if I wanted to succeed, I needed to focus.

Let’s get this over with.

***

[Eliminate one hundred monsters. 4/100. Time remaining: 7 hours 23 minutes.]

I had managed to take down three more monsters—two massive rats and a weasel-like creature.

As long as I stayed alert, the fights weren’t overly difficult. Yet, the growing pressure in my chest refused to subside.

The math wasn’t working out in my favor. I needed to kill at least twelve monsters every hour to stay on track. That meant I needed to find and kill another eight within the next twenty-three minutes.

The monsters occasionally surfaced from the sewage, but normally they remained elusive and difficult to track.

Wait. Haven’t all of them emerged from the sewage so far?

I mentally kicked myself for not having realized it sooner. There had been a simple solution right in front of me this whole time.

I wasn’t supposed to be searching for monsters on the pathways—I needed to search within the sewage. Instead of avoiding the filth, I needed to dive into it.

Something had felt off from the beginning. The monsters were far too elusive, their presence almost nonexistent.

It dawned on me that they had to be lurking beneath the vast expanse of sewage, choosing to remain hidden.

Ha. Hunting enemies underwater? That is one of my specialties.

“Kriee! Su-Yeok! Why stop?” Doppy’s voice broke my train of thought, wondering why I had halted mid-step.

I turned, a grin spreading across my face. “Because we’ve been complete fools. Let’s finish this and get out of this disgusting place.”

“Kriee?” Doppy tilted its head in confusion, brimming with curiosity.

I didn’t bother explaining. Instead, I stretched my arms out toward the sewage flanking the path.

Lightning began to ripple along my arms, crackling with raw energy. Utilizing a quarter of my mana, I released a surge of electricity into the murky water on both sides.

The sewage erupted in violent, frothy bubbles, surging with electricity as the lightning coursed through it. Simultaneously, mana fed back into my gauntlets and replenished my energy reserves.

I glanced at the notification window.

[Eliminate one hundred monsters. 27/100. Time remaining: 7 hours 22 minutes.]

“Oh.”

A smirk tugged at my lips.

Yes, this is it.

A wave of satisfaction washed over me. With a single burst of lightning, I had taken out twenty-three monsters.

Following that, the plan was simple. I would walk for about five minutes, repeat the process, and the trial would be done in no time. If all went smoothly, I could wrap this up and return to the waiting room within the next twenty minutes.

Corpses began to surface in the sewage. Alongside the familiar rats and weasels were grotesque, alien-looking creatures, their distorted features both strange and unsettling.

For a brief moment, I marveled at their disgusting appearances, but the novelty quickly passed. All I wanted to do now was escape this wretched place as quickly as possible.

***

[Eliminate one hundred monsters. 62/100. Time remaining: 7 hours 11 minutes.]

“Kriee! Su-Yeok! Look over there!”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Kriee! Something odd here!”

Doppy had noticed something unusual after another two rounds of lightning. Following its gaze, I spotted an irregular ripple in the sewage.

Am I imagining things?

Just to confirm, I aimed a quick jolt of electricity at the spot, scattering the water. Although faint, the unmistakable outline of a jagged tunnel became visible.

The passage didn’t align with the sewer’s natural flow, and it was far too crude to be part of its original design. It looked more like a burrow, roughly hewn and uneven, as though something had carved it out hastily.

As always, Doppy proved to be a reliable hidden-mission detector.

“Do you think we should go in?”

“Kriee! No! Just noticed when walking!”

Doppy shook its head, dismissing that its instincts had been what warned it.

Hmm... That changes things.

If this wasn’t a product of Doppy’s uncanny intuition but merely chance, I wasn’t as confident to pursue it.

Still, doesn’t this reek of a hidden mission?

I focused inward, trying to activate Sixth Sense somehow, but received no response—no pull, no signal.

What now?

It could simply be another drainage tunnel or monster’s den. I briefly considered different worst-case scenarios, and all I could come up with was that it would be annoying to be unnecessarily submerged in filth.

Of course, my oxygen globe’s protective shield would keep me clean for the most part. However, if I were ambushed in the dark tunnel, the tank could rupture and leave me drenched in sewage.

Not that getting dirty really matters. It’s gross, but it’s nothing a good rinse won’t fix. Still...

I couldn’t afford to waste time on wild goose chases. The passage could lead nowhere, or worse, be crawling with monsters. The murky water severely limited visibility and the tunnel was narrow, barely wide enough to fit a single creature.

Even with how precise Lightning Essence was, I had no way of knowing how deep the tunnel extended. If the monsters surrounded us, Doppy could become hurt.

I stood still, deep in thought, weighing my options. Since I had already eliminated sixty-two monsters, time was on my side.

Shall I take the plunge and explore the passage, or stay on course? What is the right move?

1. The airship captain from the thirty-first floor ☜