Chapter 136…
After the commotion finally died down, an odd silence settled over the living room.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that everyone was too busy staring at a single spot to notice anything else.
They were all looking at Tia, sitting in the palm of my hand.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The students couldn’t take their eyes off her.
It was only natural.
Magic beasts with human-like forms were extremely rare.
And one this small and adorable—like a fairy—was rarer still.
Whether she noticed their gazes or not, Tia swung her legs on my palm and hummed cheerfully.
“Wow… she really looks just like a person.”
“Professor, can I touch her?”
“Me too! I want to touch her!”
The students began approaching one by one.
Tia lifted her head and looked at them with her large, sparkling eyes.
“Hi! I’m Tia!”
“Whoa, she talks so well!”
“She’s so cute…”
The female students squealed.
The male students, too, watched her with fascination.
And among them, the most excited person was someone unexpected.
“E-Excuse me! If it’s not too rude, may I ask you a few questions?!”
Yoon Sion.
His usual quiet and reserved demeanor was nowhere to be seen as he approached Tia with shining eyes.
His thirst for knowledge about magic beasts had exploded.
“What rank are you? How many latent abilities do you have? What skills can you use?”
“Sion acting like that….”
“Heh, I’ve never seen him like this before.”
The other students stared in amazement.
But Yoon Sion didn’t care.
Or rather, he couldn’t—his entire focus was on Tia.
Tia, far from being flustered by the barrage of questions, looked delighted.
“Sure! I’m S-rank, and I have four latent abilities! I can only use two for now, though!”
“S-rank?!”
“Four latent abilities?!”
The students gasped.
Yoon Sion’s eyes shone even brighter.
“Then what’s your race? You said you were a dragon earlier, but what kind of dragon exactly—”
“Hmm, that one’s a secret! But I’ll tell you this—my mom is the ruler of the Primordial Sea!”
“I see….”
Though clearly disappointed, Yoon Sion didn’t press further. Instead, he diligently organized the information in his head.
Knowing his personality, he would probably scour the library for related materials later.
“Then what skills can you use? I saw you sprinkling water earlier—”
“That’s Embrace of the Sea! It makes everyone healthier! And there’s another one!”
Tia puffed out her chest proudly.
“There’s also Abyss! It drops enemies into the depths of the primordial sea!”
“Dropping them into the deep sea… is that a mental attack?”
“Mm, kind of—but a little different! Sorry, I can’t show you. That one’s only for bad guys!”
As I listened to them, I checked Tia’s status window again, focusing especially on her latent abilities.
[Dual Form]
— Rank: A+
— Info: Like her mother, the Daughter of the Abyss can transform between a humanoid form and a magic-beast form. Available skills differ depending on her form.
[Primordial Sea]
— Rank: SS
— Info: An “invisible sea” constantly surrounds the Daughter of the Abyss.
All skills are activated based on the Primordial Sea.
Allies “submerged” in the Primordial Sea receive buffs, while enemies receive debuffs.
So these are the two currently unlocked latent abilities…
Each one was extraordinary.
Dual Form implied she had more skills beyond the two she currently possessed, while Primordial Sea was essentially a persistent area-effect skill.
In short, she’s a support-type magic beast.
That worked out perfectly.
Just as Kim Pyeong-on had worried earlier, I currently had an empty slot for a support-type beast.
And once Tia grew a bit more, I might even be able to borrow her wings through a Manifestation skill—something to look forward to.
While I was examining her status window, another conversation was unfolding nearby.
“See?! I told you she was a pretty dragon!”
“…You were just lucky. And she’s not a dragon—she’s the Daughter of the Abyss.”
“She is a dragon! She transformed earlier! Anyway, you’re wrong!”
Rebecca and Kim Pyeong-on were bickering.
Seo Gyeo-ul watched them with a quiet smile.
“Still, Rebecca was the closest. She is cute, after all.”
“Right? Way better than a cocoon!”
“Cocoon? Hey, by your logic, the cocoon isn’t me—”
Kim Pyeong-on tried to retort, but Rebecca cut him off instantly.
“Cocoon. Stupid cocoon.”
“You little—!”
Seo Gyeo-ul stepped in, smiling, to calm them down.
“All right, all right. Stop it. Tia’s watching.”
Tia flitted around among the students, enjoying the attention.
She didn’t shy away from their reaching hands and answered their questions enthusiastically.
When one student timidly touched her hair, Tia simply sat on their shoulder and told them to touch it properly.
“Wow, your hair is so soft!”
“Right? I brush it every day!”
“You brush it? How?”
“That’s a secret too!”
The students burst into laughter.
Tia laughed with them, hopping from one shoulder to another.
Like a fish in water.
She was clearly an extrovert.
She’d been comfortable with me from the moment she woke up, and she showed no hesitation even with complete strangers.
It was a pleasant sight—but also made me think she wouldn’t be easy to raise.
From experience, quiet types like Runir or Solbanir were much easier to handle.
Well, look at it positively. For someone called the Daughter of the Abyss, being this bright from birth is remarkable.
The name conjured a gloomy image, but she was the exact opposite.
Bright and lively—like sunlight.
Just then—
“All right, it’s about time we head back.”
Jegal Sang’s calm voice echoed through the living room.
Nam Woojin stood behind him.
Both were already wearing their coats.
“If we leave now, we’ll make it to the academy on time.”
At his announcement, the students drooped.
They’d enjoyed both playing with Tia and their time here.
“Already?”
“Can’t we stay a little longer?”
“That’s a shame…”
But a promise was a promise.
The academy had its schedule, and parents would be worried.
Accepting that it couldn’t be delayed, the students reluctantly began packing.
Tia fluttered around them, speaking cheerfully.
“Let’s meet again! We have to meet again!”
“Really? Promise!”
“Yeah! Promise!”
Tia stuck out her pinky.
A few girls laughed and linked fingers with her.
Meanwhile, Nam Woojin approached me.
“Hyung, I’m annoyed you went up the Tower without me, but….”
He crossed his arms, glaring briefly before sighing.
“I’m only agreeing because you asked. I’ll take care of the students, so don’t worry. I’ll help Eunmok-hyung too.”
“Thanks, Woojin.”
“But we’re meeting on the 50th floor. You know I already cleared up to there.”
The night before, I’d pulled him aside and asked him to watch over the students until they settled in.
As a member of the Goblin Guild who had already cleared the 50th floor, he had more than enough leeway.
I pulled out my phone and opened my banking app.
Then I checked the remaining request fee after sending some to my mother.
There was still quite a lot left.
Once I enter the Tower, money from Earth won’t matter anyway.
Without hesitation, I transferred the entire amount to Nam Woojin.
Ding—
His phone chimed.
He checked the screen, eyes widening.
“Hyung… why…?”
Even for someone in a guild, it wasn’t a small amount.
He’d barely spent any money except on skill books, letting everything pile up in his account.
“Buy decent weapons for the students when they start needing them. I sent plenty, so it should be enough.”
“……”
Nam Woojin fell silent.
His eyes looked slightly red, but he bowed his head before I could be sure.
“Hyung….”
“Don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying!”
He snapped his head up.
His eyes were fine, but his ears were bright red—clearly emotional.
Maybe it finally hit him that I was leaving. It hadn’t been long, but he’d grown attached.
“Then I can expect a proper gift later too, right? For running errands for you?”
“Of course.”
I ruffled his hair.
He grinned and nodded.
“Got it. I’ll take good care of the students. You be careful too.”
“Yeah.”
The students approached me one by one to say goodbye.
“Professor.”
Hong Garam took something out of his pocket.
A small necklace with a silver chain and a shield-shaped pendant.
“I know worrying about you is unnecessary, but… I wanted you to stay healthy wherever you go.”
A disposable protective item.
Not terribly expensive, but still costly for a student.
“Thank you, Garam.”
“It’ll block danger once when you’re in trouble. Please keep it with you.”
“I will.”
Next came Yoon Sion and Park Jun.
“We’ll never forget what you taught us!”
“So please always carry the ‘gift’ we gave you yesterday, wherever you go, and don’t forget us!”
“All right. I’ll keep it with me.”
The rest of the students followed, each saying goodbye in their own way.
Handshakes, hugs, or simple bows.
Farewells that reflected their personalities.
When it was over, Jegal Sang stepped forward.
“Then, benefactor, we’ll be going now.”
“Travel safely.”
“I wish you safety as well.”
Jegal Sang bowed politely.
With that, he and Nam Woojin led the students out of the headquarters.
The bus doors closed, and the wheels rolled away.
Some students leaned out the windows, waving.
“……”
After seeing them off, we returned to the living room.
A different kind of silence lingered.
Loneliness hung in the air, but it was time to steady ourselves and move forward.
I turned to my companions.
“All right. Let’s seriously discuss climbing the Tower.”
“Wait.”
Rebecca raised her hand.
“First, cleanup.”
“……”
Only then did we look around the room.
Traces of last night’s party were everywhere.
Plates, cups, food scraps, decorations…
And even the remnants of the morning’s water splash.
The floor was still damp, puddles scattered about.
It looked like a typhoon had passed through.
“…Yeah. Let’s clean up first.”
I let out a sigh.
An hour later.
Once things were mostly tidied up, we gathered around the kitchen table.
The bitterness of Rebecca’s Americano cleared my head.
Kim Pyeong-on still looked sulky over being called a “cocoon,” but the coffee seemed to lift his mood a little.
I looked around at them and got to the point.
“I’ve already cleared up to the 120th floor, so if you party with me and enter, we’ll start from there.”
“The Tower will probably designate Siu as the party leader, so that makes sense.”
Seo Gyeo-ul nodded.
The Tower always chose the strongest player in the party as leader, regardless of level.
That was why I’d been the traitors’ leader before my regression.
“Right. And that’s where the problem lies.”
I set my cup down.
“There’s a 20-floor gap.”
“Then, hyung—”
Kim Pyeong-on stiffened, sensing bad news.
“Yeah. The Tower really hates people ‘riding the bus’—in other words, exploiting shortcuts.”
If we went up like this, my stats would drop by 20%.
The leader’s stats decreased in proportion to the floor gap.
“But I don’t need to worry about that thanks to an item I have.”
I recalled Talent That Found the Light.
At this point, I’d absorbed so many others’ talents that I had to constantly keep my madness in check.
My stats far exceeded my level.
So even a 20% reduction wasn’t a big issue.
“The real problem is that skills and talents will be sealed at random.”
“According to the number of party members whose floors differ from the leader’s, right?”
Seo Gyeo-ul pinpointed it precisely.
“Yes. And the issue is that I’ll have to climb in that weakened state to the place I mentioned earlier…”
At that moment, Rebecca—who had been silent—picked up my words.
“The 120th floor. Where the labyrinth is.”
Exactly.
I was heading back to the labyrinth I’d been so eager to avoid.
