For three months, the large-scale command headquarters, base camp, and support base established around the tower had kept their positions without missing a single day.
That day as well, a dedicated staff member guarding the front of the gate detected a shimmer around the tower and immediately grabbed his radio.
"There's a change in the tower! U-uh... a team is coming out!"
At his single report, the support base burst into commotion.
There was only one phenomenon this could mean. It was the signal that the Admittees raiding the tower were withdrawing.
Swooooosh───
As the exit effect faded, the sight of the sixteen S-rank Admittees standing there... was the very image of homeless vagrants.
"You've all worked hard!"
"Waaaah!"
So what if their appearances were miserable?
Toward the heroes who had returned after fighting desperate battles against unknown threats, the countless staff members of the support base erupted into cheers and applause.
And the waiting medical team rushed up to conduct quick, simple examinations, while the maintenance teams took the equipment of the withdrawing Admittees, meticulously inspecting the condition of their weapons and armor for any parts needing repairs.
The commander of the headquarters came to the sixteen Admittees, who had sat down briefly in the rest area prepared with warm drinks and food, and asked if they needed anything.
The first thing Joshua, who was leading the team, requested was Suho.
"Please contact Admittee Jeong Suho and inform him that we have come out."
"We contacted him first thing upon hearing the news that you had withdrawn."
"Oh, thank you. Then we will rest here briefly until Suho arrives."
"Understood! Please rest comfortably!"
* * *
Not even thirty minutes had passed since they had been sprawled out in the lounge, picking at snacks with exhausted bodies, when the outside became noisy.
"It's noisy outside... did he already...?"
"Huuurk!!"
"Wh-what is this!? What on earth is this?"
"Wh-where is such strong Ether coming from!?"
"A Tower Break? No way?!"
The sixteen sprawled-out S-rank Admittees hurriedly got to their feet.
Throwing aside their drinks and snacks, they burst out of the lounge door to encounter a sight that could make one faint.
Wasn't a massive griffin hovering above the base camp, flapping its wings?
"Th-that, battle formation! Large species, flying species formation!"
Joshua screamed the moment he saw the griffin.
"Aagh! My weapon! Damn it! The maintenance team took my weapon!"
While the shield warrior Gang Hojin was cursing,
"I-I'll draw the aggro for now!"
Han Taeung of the Steel Grizzly transformed into his bear form for tanking, a step ahead.
Ava Mitchell, the Living Armor summoner, also called forth a Living Armor for tanking.
What was summoned was a Living Armor of a pitiful size, incomparable to what could be summoned inside the tower.
However,
Kirurururuk-!
The massive griffin didn't look like it had any intention of fighting at all.
It slowly landed, then crouched its body as if bowing and pressed flat against the ground.
Only then did he come into everyone's sight. A man riding on the griffin's nape.
"Wahahaha! Surprise! Nice to see you all!!"
It was Jeong Suho.
He hopped and jumped, stepping on Wingky's shoulder and various parts of its wings before leaping down and lightly touching the ground.
"You're all healthy, right!? Let me see! Wow! You all look completely like beggars! Hahaha!"
Suho ran around shaking hands with this person and that person.
The S-ranks, who had been standing there in a daze, finally relaxed their combat readiness.
Among those nodding to Suho and talking with him, the large bear standing at the very front opened its mouth with a stupid face.
"Y-y-you don't mean... Wingky...?"
* * *
The sixteen-member S-rank raid team, out of the tower for the first time in a while, hadn't expected there would be so many surprises.
While moving on the prepared bus, Taeung asked what had happened from start to finish.
"No, Suho-nim... how on earth did you get Wingky outside..."
"Haha, a lot happened. Well, skipping the trivial details and getting straight to the conclusion, I've officially been guaranteed the right to raise Wingky in the Republic of Korea! I also made sure everyone knows this guy belongs to Taeung-nim, so now you can even ride Wingky around Seoul!"
"H-how could such a thing..."
"It's because Taeung-nim took such good care of Wingky with love. He's so docile, it wasn't very difficult at all."
Taeung's wide eyes, which had barely stopped widening in surprise, trembled as if he were about to cry and grew hazy. Suho could understand how many days Taeung must have spent worrying about Wingky.
The Berserker Ragnar Bjornson asked Suho, who was chatting away excitedly.
"By the way, where are we going now? The hotel I checked into for my long-term visit to Korea isn't in this direction."
"Right. The hotel I stayed at isn't in this direction either."
Healer Layla Karim chimed in.
Suho rubbed under his nose and spoke proudly.
"For now, we're heading to my house. I've prepared a surprise party for all of you who've worked so hard. Prepare to be surprised!"
Diego Hernandez, the greatsword swordsman who was basically taciturn by nature, frowned slightly.
"If it's a surprise like your griffin earlier, I shall politely decline a second time."
"Haha, it's not like that."
Suho simply smiled brightly.
As the bus approached Elysium Heights, the Admittees stuck to the windows muttered as they saw the massive structure.
"Whatever it is, that's one incredible building."
"Huh... was there such a big building on the outskirts of Songpa-gu...?"
"Strange..."
The Korean-born Gang Hojin, Seo Yunjae, and Park Seoyeon merely looked up at Elysium Heights and tilted their heads.
The vehicle finally arrived in front of the fourth-floor welcome lobby,
and what greeted the Admittees beginning to disembark was,
"Karim!"
"Emilia!"
"Zhang Wei!"
"Oh my..."
"Eh? Mom?"
"Wait... how are you here, dear...?"
their respective families.
Some ran to embrace each other, pressing their foreheads together, while couples or husbands and wives shared deep kisses without regard for others around them.
Children who had missed their fathers or mothers who had left to raid the tower also ran and clung to them.
All the S-rank Admittees had emotional reunions with their respective families after three months, but the overseas Admittees who had come on an expedition were undeniably more moved than the domestic S-ranks.
To those climbing the dangerous tower in a foreign and distant land, the bosom of their homeland and family was what they longed for more than anything.
Layla Karim from Egypt and Emilia Rossi from Italy were so moved that they finally shed tears.
When the greetings had died down somewhat, Suho looked around at everyone and spoke.
"Today, wash up, eat with your families, and rest well. There are various cultural facilities inside the building that you can use freely, and please request anything you want to eat at the restaurant floor. After resting like that, how about the raid team members gathering around tomorrow's lunch?"
"Great!"
"Thank you so much... I don't know what to say..."
"Thank you. See you at lunch tomorrow!"
Everyone agreed, and they each entered the rooms assigned by Suho according to their family size.
No matter which room they were assigned, it would be incomparable to any hotel.
* * *
"OAE? The Ashen Oath Enforcement Squad came?"
Hearing the story from the past, Danbi, Taeung, and Joshua sprang to their feet upon hearing of the OAE's intrusion.
"H-how did you get out safely...? Even with Sanare... it would've been impossible..."
"It's not Sanare's responsibility. Even if some other clan had been protecting me, they wouldn't have been able to handle it."
Everyone apart from those three also trembled at the mere thought, revealing tense expressions as if the very idea was horrifying.
"Edge... did Ryuuji Takeda come too?"
Haruto of Japanese origin asked.
"He came. Ethereal Blade? He was the one using that strange sword..."
"...Suho-nim, you are probably the first person to survive an encounter with Edge..."
"Oh... he must be an amazing person then."
At those words, Danbi answered in a somber voice.
"He's amazing. Because when it comes to the sword, he's the best in the world. There's no one among swordsmen who can stand against him one-on-one."
"But he was nothing special once I took his sword..."
"...You mean you took Takeda's Ether Core Hilt...?"
The gathered S-rank Admittees couldn't tell where the truth ended and the jokes began in Suho's words.
"So, what happened? They never miss their targets... especially Steelshade, how did you shake off that crazy bastard?"
The martial artist Thunder Fist Zhang Wei asked with shining eyes.
"Shake them off? ...I buried every last one of them."
Suho opened his left palm and clenched his right fist, miming packing something down with a pounding motion.
Only the four in Suho's party understood that he meant he had dropped a massive object to bury them all.
The rest merely blinked their eyes as if trying to gauge the truth.
"Well, you'll know when you check the news later, so I don't think I need to explain further. Anyway, the OAE has been scattered to the four winds now. Most of them from Number 1 to 100 are dead."
"......"
"......"
Even the taciturn Diego Hernandez opened his mouth with a blank face, as if he might drool.
"By the way, how were things for you all? Was the tower raid difficult? How many floors did you clear up to?"
"Floor 65."
Suho's eyes widened at Joshua's immediate answer.
"Wow! Floor 65 in just three months? That's an incredible achievement...! As expected!"
"It was largely thanks to the potions you gave us."
"That's right. Having so many potions made us feel so secure."
"The Etherium played a big role too..."
Rather, each of them praised Suho's contributions.
Premium course meals for all seventeen people, including Suho, began to come out, and everyone started chatting as they ate.
Stories about Wingky, the completion of Elysium Heights, and even the details of the OAE story...
Suho spoke of many things that had happened, but deliberately avoided talking about his EX-rank Awakening.
And he also heard about the incidents and various anecdotes that had occurred in the tower.
"Wow..., there's romance in tower raiding. So that's how you all got so close."
"Well, I suppose it's because we were stuck together for so long."
"Ah, by the way, did you use those notebooks I gave you before entering?"
Small booklets where they gave each other scores regarding raid contribution.
"Haha, we've been diligently writing in those."
Some smiled bashfully at each other as if they had secrets between them.
They had become much closer than before entering, and seeing how they cared for and trusted each other, Suho naturally smiled.
As the meal ended and dessert was being served, Park Seoyeon, the Korean S-rank Healer and Time Healer, spoke words that came out of nowhere, as if she could no longer just read the room, or as if she couldn't hold back any longer.
It was also because she had drunk too much wine during the meal.
"Um, Suho-nim!"
"Yes, speak Seoyeon-nim."
"Um, is there... an empty spot in that solar system?"
"Excuse me...?"
"Ah, no, I... I was wondering if I could be accepted too."
"Accepted... what on earth..."
Suho looked at Danbi with an expression demanding explanation, but Danbi deliberately avoided his gaze.
"No, just! Please tell me straight. I'm asking if you can accept me too."
"No, that's not up to me to accept or not. If I were to accept someone, it would only be as a TDM employee, but we can't accept an S-rank Awakener as a TDM employee... or, ah, are you talking about moving into Elysium Heights here?"
"No, not that. I want to join that group."
"Group? Ah, our five?"
Thomas and Taeung giggled at Park Seoyeon's slurring pronunciation.
"Yes! That group. What do you call that gathering? The Super S-rank Five?"
"Eh...? There's no name for it. It's not really a gathering. We just happened to become close and hang out together."
"Liar. You don't give top-grade potions separately to just people you hang out with, or entrust them with your protection... it's not that kind of level, is it!?"
Park Seoyeon was truly quite drunk, and her voice was gradually rising.
"It really is because we're close. We're friends, friends."
"Then be friends with me too!"
"Sure, then let's be friends with you too, Seoyeon-nim. There, we're friends starting today."
As Sooho briefly wondered whether he should offer her a potion to help her come to her senses quickly, Park Seoyeon, still wearing a stiff expression, stared fixedly at him as if dissatisfied with his answer.
“No, no. I hate just being friends. Just friends have no responsibilities or obligations! Let me join the bodyguard team too.”
Sooho was dumbfounded.
What on earth did they talk about inside the Tower…
Besides, a healer saying she’ll be a bodyguard…
Moreover, though he hadn’t told his companions, Sooho, who had now ascended to EX-rank, no longer needed bodyguards.
“I’m sorry… but I don’t need bodyguards anymore. I have enough as it is.”
“Tch… you’re not letting me in. Hnng…”
Suddenly, Park Seoyeon collapsed onto the table and began to cry, and Sooho turned sheet-white.
“Uh… uhh… what the hell…”
“Aish, what’s really wrong with this girl. Hey, Seoyeon.”
Danbi shook Seoyeon and began to comfort her, and here and there, people burst into laughter at the untimely commotion.
In the midst of that, Laila Karim of Egypt, one of the other S-rank Healers known as the Miracle of the Desert, spoke gravely.
“Lord Jeong Sooho, how about creating a clan?”
At the unexpected proposal, Sooho’s mouth fell agape.
“Huh? Whaaaat? M-me, create a clan?”
“Isn’t that right? There are many S-ranks who want to stick close to you, yet you have no force of your own to decide whom to accept or reject. So you simply need to become the clan leader.”
Karim’s eyes gleamed. She was serious.
At a possibility he had never once considered, Sooho couldn’t find the words to reply and simply stared blankly.
“Hmm… surprisingly… that’s not bad?”
Thomas also lent weight to Karim’s opinion.
“I’m reserving the first membership spot.”
Taeung jumped at it immediately.
“Shut up! Who are you to be number one?”
He got smacked on the back by Danbi.
“It’s not a bad idea.”
Even Joshua, whom he trusted, nodded at Karim’s opinion.
Whether she hadn’t completely lost consciousness or not, Park Seoyeon, who had been shedding tears and snot, suddenly raised her head and her hand.
“Me too! I’ll join too. I’ll bring all my clan members with me!”
Not to be outdone, Danbi shrugged her shoulders and spoke up.
“Isn’t that obvious? I’ve already brought everyone from Sanarae in.”
“Ahem… our clan will consider it as well.”
Even Ragnar Bjornsson.
What kind of crazy talk is this from everyone…?
Sooho, unable to keep up with the dizzyingly fast conversation, barely collected himself and poured cold water on it.
“Wait, just wait a minute!”
Looking around at everyone staring intently at him, Sooho declared clearly and firmly.
“No, why are you all suddenly like this. Did you plan this? I have no intention whatsoever of founding a clan. TDM and new city development alone are busy and headache-inducing enough. What clan are you even talking about.”
At Sooho’s words, Eva Mitchell, the Living Armor Summoner known as the Call of the Wasteland, who had been listening to everything in silence, spoke in a calm voice.
“Sooho-nim, I believe this is worth considering. Higher towers will continue to appear in the future. Towers in the 80th-floor range and 90th-floor range may continue to emerge. It won’t be easy to recruit S-ranks from overseas and form a team each time. And it won’t be easy to build teamwork each time either. Therefore, I believe it would be efficient and rational to bind at least twenty or more S-ranks into a single clan, or raid team, based on the 100th-floor tower that S-ranks can climb to the highest. So I cast one vote in favor.”
“That really is true. Please think about it seriously.”
Emilia Rossi, the Silver Hand, drove the point home by supporting those words.
From Eva Mitchell’s words, Sooho felt as if he had been struck in the head.
Because it was an all too pertinent point.
She was right.
How tiresome would it be to recruit team members every time a higher tower appeared in the future?
It would undoubtedly be inefficient, and selecting the right people while considering ability, personality, and teamwork would not be easy.
Moreover, even if there was someone he liked, what if that person was already tied to raiding another tower? Then he couldn’t call them even if he wanted to.
As Sooho, strangely persuaded, was unable to give a proper answer, all the remaining people who hadn’t said a word expressed their agreement and approval, backing him into a corner.
The more he thought it over, the more he realized there was nothing bad about it. He had nothing to lose either.
“…Hmm…”
Sooho, crossing his arms and agonizing repeatedly, finally opened his mouth.
“Fine… I’ll consider this positively. However, if we’re climbing the tower in the future, I’m coming with you.”
Sooho, now EX-rank and possessing an immortal body, could now climb the tower freely to his heart’s content.
But at those words, everyone shouted in unison.
““No!!””
As if they had planned this too, no one approved.