I'm the Only Wizard Climbing the Tower - Chapter 39

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 39: 039

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After finishing the call, I headed to Hyeji's home with my sister.

Hyeji lived in a fancy apartment building somewhere in Yongsan.

It was a tall, luxurious building with more than fifty floors.

She said she lived on the fifty-second floor.

‘How did she even fly all the way up there?’

Wasn't the fifty-second floor too high even for flying bugs?

Yet that rainbow-colored, translucent girl had apparently flown all the way up, smashed through the window, and reached Hyeji.

She was practically a drone.

The fifty-second floor had to be around 150 to 170 meters up.

To think she could fly that high...

Anyway, we hurried to Hyeji's home.

When we arrived, this was what we saw.

"Jiye! Jiho! Come in!"

"Iing! Iing! Iiiing!"

"I'm not crazy, right? You can see this too, can't you?"

Maybe she had been attacked in her sleep.

Hyeji stood there in pajamas, her hair a complete mess.

"Iiiing! Iiiiiing!!!"

The rainbow-colored translucent girl was yanking hard on her hair.

Oh dear.

The guys from the Baldness Gallery would weep if they saw this.

I could only hope Hyeji didn't have baldness in her genes.

I glanced around the house.

‘Yep. It's a complete mess.’

The shattered window.

Glass scattered everywhere.

Various belongings tossed all over the place.

It looked like Hyeji had been startled when that rainbow-colored translucent girl... Ah, that description was way too long.

I'd just call her a fairy from now on.

Anyway, when the fairy or whatever she was had smashed through the window and invaded, Hyeji must have panicked and thrown whatever she could grab.

Hyeji looked at me in confusion.

"Jiho! That thing came out of the crystal ball?"

"Yes."

"...Wasn't it just an ordinary crystal ball? You said it looked like a decoration."

"That's what I thought too, but maybe it was some kind of egg. An egg with a fairy inside."

"What in the world is going on...?"

Hyeji muttered with an uneasy expression.

She clearly couldn't believe this situation.

Honestly, neither could I.

Who would have expected a fairy to suddenly pop out of that thing?

My sister, who had been watching, spoke up.

"Wow... So that's the girl that came out of the crystal ball? That's amazing. She's really pretty and mysterious."

My sister seemed fascinated by the fairy, or at least the creature we assumed was a fairy.

Well, how could she not be?

She was a small, adorable translucent girl who gave off a soft rainbow glow.

Her appearance carried a dreamy, mysterious feeling.

But...

"Iing! Iingiiing!!!"

Why was she such a brat despite looking like a fairy?

She kept pulling Hyeji's hair while buzzing nonstop beside her ears.

Finally, Hyeji screamed.

"Enough with this contract nonsense already!"

"Iingiiing!"

"My ears hurt! Stop! I said I'll think about it!"

Hyeji shuddered, and I was confused.

There had been one unexpected keyword.

"A contract?"

"Yes. She keeps asking me to make a contract with her."

"...You can understand her? All I hear is iing-ing."

"Ah. For some reason, I can roughly understand what she's saying. You can't, Jiho?"

"No. It just sounds like she's saying iing."

She could understand the meaning?

Was it some kind of language that only chosen people could understand?

Hyeji continued.

"She says she wants to make a contract with me..."

"What kind of contract exactly?"

"She says it's something called Soul Binding. We'd become companions bound by fate, fight together, grow together, something like that..."

"Oh?"

Going by that description, it sounded exactly like a spirit contract from a fantasy novel.

Curious, I asked more questions.

"A contract... Is there any price or risk? What exactly happens if you make one?"

"She says there isn't a price... and no particular risk either. We just have to bind our souls together..."

"Then aren't those amazing terms? Why not make the contract? Just looking at how fast she moves, she'd be incredibly useful even as a scout."

"But isn't it suspicious? What contract in the world has terms this good? It could be a scam. And I don't even know what binding our souls means..."

"Well, that's true."

Was this the caution of a former finance worker?

She was extremely careful around the word "contract."

I'd heard that people who worked with money and people who dealt with laws were especially strict about contracts.

It couldn't be easy to accept some mysterious contract without hesitation.

But I knew.

‘No matter how I look at it, she should make that contract.’

It was genre logic.

If you happened to meet a spirit or fairy by chance, then formed a contract with it...

Even if it started out weak, wasn't it a summoner story cliché to later live an easy life with a few clicks of summoning magic?

And no matter how I looked at it, that fairy was a hidden piece.

She had appeared on the twelfth floor, of all places.

The floor immediately before the Easy-rank filter on Floor 13.

The effective limit of what Easy-rank climbers could reach.

I felt like I could see the Tower's intentions.

‘The Tower must be trying to pick out promising Tower climbers from Easy-rank backgrounds who have hit the limits of their origins, then let them keep climbing.’

That was why she was a hidden piece.

A kind of hidden class granted to ordinary Easy-rank Hunters who fulfilled some condition.

Maybe they had cleared the floor with fewer than a certain number of people.

Maybe they had cleared it within a time limit.

Or maybe they had completely destroyed the fortress on Floor 12...

Some Unique-grade artifacts were said to have been acquired by meeting hidden conditions like that.

It wouldn't be strange if special classes or lucky encounters also existed as hidden pieces.

Anyway...

"It's just a feeling, but I think you should make the contract. No matter how I look at it, this is a lucky encounter."

"But..."

"If you're that worried, should I make a contract with her instead?"

My eyes gleamed.

A fairy!

In English, a fairy!

If I made a contract with her, I'd have a real fairy pet!

Not a limited-time Magnet Pet like Hyeji's.

A pet that would stay with me for life!

‘A wizard should have at least one or two fantasy fairy pets. Of course!’

If I made a contract with that fairy, I'd take another step beyond being a noble, great Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter.

I'd become a noble, great, and compassionate Extreme Lunatic Hell Summoner Wizard Hunter!

How could I not be excited?

But at my words...

"Iing?! Iing iing iing!!! Iingiiing!!!"

The fairy freaked out and fled in a blur.

She let go of Hyeji's hair, which she had been relentlessly tugging on, then darted into a corner of the living room to hide.

I was dumbfounded.

"What? Does she hate the idea of making a contract with me that much?"

Hyeji answered my mutter.

"...She says your soul is too big, Jiho. It's dangerous."

"My soul is big? What does that mean?"

"She says that if she formed a Soul Binding with you, her soul would be diluted and disappear... She'd become nothing but a puppet. Apparently, Soul Binding has to be done between people with similar levels of soul, or there'll be problems."

"Well, that's something."

What was that supposed to mean?

We couldn't form a contract because our souls were different sizes?

Was there some kind of osmosis going on?

More importantly, what did it mean that my soul was big?

Did souls have sizes?

"Anyway, that's what she says. So she says it absolutely can't be you, Jiho."

"..."

I smacked my lips.

What a shame...

I thought I might finally get myself a fairy pet.

Well, if that was the case, there was nothing I could do.

"I guess Hyeji really should make the contract."

"But..."

"Don't worry so much. And honestly, you're tempted too, aren't you?"

"..."

"You keep saying you're worried, but I can tell you're secretly looking forward to it."

She couldn't escape the sharp observational skills of the Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter.

Hyeji claimed she was worried, but behind that concern, I could plainly see her excitement and curiosity.

Of course she would be.

Wasn't Hyeji originally a romance fantasy reader?

"Romance fantasy fact. The female lead doesn't do anything, but fairies, spirits, and everyone else pop up to help her. It's an absurdly easy ride."

"It's not necessarily because I read romance fantasy..."

"But a real fairy appeared in front of you, right? You're excited, right? Then you feel a little guilty about readily accepting a lucky encounter that you got because of me. So you're pretending to hesitate on purpose, right?"

"Ah... Well..."

"Come on, what do you take me for? Do I look like some petty guy who'd begrudge you a lucky encounter?"

I chuckled.

Na Hyeji, my EX-grade porter.

It had been less than two weeks since we met.

Still, we had spent every day together, going through our share of life-threatening situations... maybe?

We hadn't known each other long, but I had already become familiar with her personality, manner of speaking, and expressions.

And from what I could tell, anticipation and curiosity outweighed her vague fear of the contract.

She was only watching my reaction because she wondered whether it was all right for her to claim such a major lucky encounter while leaving me behind.

She really worried about the strangest things.

Did the kind and compassionate Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter before her look like someone who would be stingy over one lucky encounter?

"Even as you say that... you're clenching your fists really tightly."

"I'm just doing grip exercises. They say grip strength is important for your health, you know?"

"I think you're clenching your teeth too..."

"Jaw exercises. My jaw's felt weak when I chew meat lately."

"..."

To be honest.

It was a shame!

It was a hidden piece.

And it was a fairy!

How was I supposed to resist a fairy?

I had the chance to command a fairy, one of fantasy's mysterious beings, as I pleased.

Of course I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

Still, judging by the fairy's reaction and Hyeji's explanation, having a fairy pet myself seemed difficult in many ways.

Passing the opportunity to Hyeji, whom I could at least rely on, seemed like the best option.

Of course, I didn't intend to hand it over for nothing.

"If it really weighs on your mind, then you can make one promise to me too."

"A promise? What kind?"

"Our porter contract was originally until Floor 20, right?"

Hyeji nodded.

There was originally a contract between us.

A porter-bus contract.

I'd carry her all the way to Floor 20, where she could immigrate to the United States, and in exchange, Hyeji would faithfully work as my porter without receiving a single cent.

I spoke quietly.

"How about we extend it?"

"Extend it how...?"

"No matter what floor we're on, you stay my exclusive porter as long as South Korea doesn't fall. Ah, but after Floor 20, I'll pay you a reasonable daily wage."

She had probably planned to quit being a porter the moment we reached Floor 20.

Wasn't she someone who had quit Hunter work because she hated seeing blood, then focused on her main job?

But now she had me as a reliable bus driver.

And she would soon become a Fairy Mage too.

There was a good chance she was starting to think Hunter work might not be so bad after all.

"You only wanted to immigrate because you were being forced into it, weren't you, Hyeji? If South Korea doesn't collapse, you'd want to keep living here too. Honestly, where else is as convenient to live in as our country?"

"..."

"I'm going to save South Korea anyway, so keep working as my porter. Besides, once you have a special class, it won't be easy to form a party with just anyone."

There was a reason I hid the fact that I was a wizard.

The Chinese and Russians.

If they learned there was a Hunter with the special ability of magic, it was obvious they would try to kidnap me.

Hyeji would be in the same position.

If she became a Fairy Mage and her name became known, China and Russia would surely rush to send special forces and elite Hunter units to kidnap, imprison, and squeeze Points out of her.

She would need to reach at least Floor 41, the highest floors, before she could be safe from the threat of foreign kidnapping.

In that sense, Hyeji and I had a relationship where we could fully trust each other.

We shared the secret that we each had special abilities.

We had also built trust by working well together.

It wouldn't be bad to keep going like this.

"So don't reach Floor 20, leave South Korea, and ditch me. How about you keep climbing with me? A Wizard and Fairy Mage party! Wow, that's awesome. The two of us might be troublemakers, but we're the strongest! Doesn't that sound incredible?"

"Ahaha."

Hyeji laughed quietly.

What? Why was she laughing?

Did my Jujutsu Kaisen joke land?

"I'm just grateful. Then... can I make a contract with that fairy? This lucky encounter came because of you, Jiho."

"Yes, make it. It seems like a lucky encounter I can't claim anyway. If you're really grateful, keep working as my porter too."

"Let's do that, then."

She held out her hand.

What was she doing?

"Let's shake hands, Jiho. We're renewing our contract, aren't we? It means we'll keep taking good care of each other."

"You've got some spirit, Hyeji."

I took her hand and shook it.