Chapter 2 – The Slow Snail (2)
“—!”
“Yeah, I can feel it. I hear your voices!”
I had no idea that the experience of becoming a new being and awakening to a new world would be so grand.
I was intoxicated by it, elated. Manipulating the earth to defeat the slimes was merely a trivial task compared to this great discovery.
‘Is the earth spirit my limit for now?’
For now, the only power I could borrow and utilize directly was that of the earth. But there was no need to worry.
The more accustomed I became to this power, the stronger and larger the bond between me and the nature spirits would grow. Before long, I would be able to communicate with all the spirits I was aware of.
If that happened, the goal of saving my own life and the world would not be in vain.
‘Hmm, it seems like it won’t happen in just a day or two.’
After that, I aimed to acquire as much as I could from this tutorial. Just mastering the use of the earth’s power through the spirits would be enough strength for me to ascend the tower.
But time was an issue. Practicing for a day or two wouldn’t allow me to naturally handle and grow the newly acquired power.
I needed to quickly get out of the tutorial so that I wouldn’t starve like others.
“Uh, good…”
Being a special elf helped in this situation. By burying my feet in the ground and soaking in the warm sunlight, I could absorb energy as if I had become a tree. At times like this, it felt like I was floating in warm water.
Of course, my digestive system was functioning perfectly, but I was able to survive in this tutorial.
The tutorial was a relatively safe and stable place compared to the actual tower, as well as a special space that provided unlimited experience points by offering enemies. Most people, lacking the necessary skills, would find it impossible, but if I could endure and grow my abilities here, I could ascend the tower with better results and consequently gain more rewards.
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. That was the law of the world even in this tower.
‘I probably won’t take long.’
Although it was always daytime here, seemingly time did not pass, I gauged the date based on my bodily rhythm.
As I repeated my training, the bond and power I shared with the spirits increased rapidly to the point where even the enemies in the tutorial could not dare to approach me.
One hundred days; that was exactly the time I had predicted. I decided that it was time to complete the tutorial and move on to the next floor.
“Quite a lot.”
Slimes crowded around me. They couldn’t resist my provocation and gathered as if challenging me. I intentionally stirred them up to gather so many.
It was to confirm the results of my training.
“Split apart.”
Pointing my finger, I manipulated the power of the earth. The earth spirit that had grown alongside me moved the ground according to my intent.
The area of earth I pointed to quaked as if an earthquake had occurred and began to crack open.
A deep fissure capable of swallowing a car formed, and the dozens of slimes that had been sluggishly approaching began to fall into it in unison.
As I withdrew my finger, the cracked ground sealed itself again. Before the slimes could escape, they were buried alive and crushed.
‘Now is the time.’
“—!”
As I clenched my fist in joy at the sight, the spirit that popped out of the ground also jumped in delight alongside me.
In my eyes, there was a spirit of the earth, about the size of my fist, dancing with its short limbs waving and its protruding belly shaking, a sight that others could not see.
It looked like a dirt doll without any facial features, but to my eyes, that spirit was undeniably cute.
“Let’s go. It’s finally time to ascend the tower.”
I decided to leave the tutorial alongside the earth spirit, heading for the first floor.
It was exactly one hundred days by my calculations. Completely cut off from the outside world during that time, I had no idea what was happening outside. Above all, I had never heard of anyone spending one hundred days in the tutorial.
Of course, I didn’t particularly doubt it.
No matter how unpredictable the world was these days, it was hard to imagine anything would happen in just one hundred days. Most likely, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
‘I’m not scared anymore.’
Instead, I was full of worries about the daunting tower climb ahead.
At this very moment, others would be diligently ascending the tower, and those outside would be hoping that we could eliminate the monsters so that the enemies wouldn’t come into reality.
Now that I was ready, I willingly intended to contribute my body to that resistance. I had already given up everything for that intention.
I would reveal my name and identity to people… when I no longer felt ashamed. For that reason alone, I had to gain fame and accomplishments.
“Ugh…”
Without hesitation, I pushed my body through the door I had been avoiding until now. A strange sensation wrapped around me like when I first arrived here, soon transporting me to a new space.
[End of the Trial Tower]
[Impurity detected, forcibly ejecting to the outside]
“?!”
However, the phrase that appeared right afterward was something I could never have imagined.
*
“Cough, cough…”
I was violently thrown out as if I were trash by a powerful force. It was an unstoppable strength. Hitting the ground hard, I gasped and coughed.
I felt the cold touch of the ground, but it would take me some time to get back on my feet.
“—?”
“I’m okay. But where is this place?”
I reassured the earth spirit in front of me, who seemed at a loss. I stood up and looked around. A cold wind wrapped around my body.
This place was outdoors. It was strange. The second floor of the tower I knew was not outdoors.
It should have been a dark and damp cave-like dungeon, yet here I was, in the middle of a forest beneath a gloomy sky.
The forest had an unsettling feeling about it.
Upon closer inspection, I found that the place I had bounced out into was a massive open area the size of a playground, devoid of trees or grass, with only traces that seemed to indicate something had been there, exposed.
“How did this happen?”
I couldn’t help but panic. It was completely different from the information I knew about the tower. Moreover, what was the message I saw just before I bounced out of here?
“Let’s climb!”
I used the power of the spirit to pull the ground I was standing on upwards in one motion.
In an instant, my body began soaring several meters into the air. As I exerted all the strength I could muster to raise the ground in a cone shape, higher than my own height and the surrounding trees.
“What is this?”
Standing on a tiny slab of earth barely the size of my foot, I looked around in confusion and muttered.
An endless expanse of overlapping mountains… or rather not. I could see something far away. My enhanced elven vision revealed that what looked like a dot was actually a castle made of piled stones.
It was bizarre. Absolutely perplexing. If this were the space of the tower, I could honestly accept anything happening here, but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t part of the tower.
“–, –!”
And that was not all. I heard the earth spirit calling me and, as if surfing, I slid down the pillar I had raised.
The reason the earth spirit had called me was due to something that had been buried underground, now exposed.
“What is this?”
The ground split open on its own and spat it out to me. I felt confused as I held it in my hands and let out a hollow laugh.
It was a crumpled and distorted piece of something, but fundamentally, it was clearly a white metal plate covered in paint.
A familiar combination of numbers and letters. It was definitely a license plate.
Why was this buried so deep in the ground, and why was an item that shouldn’t belong in the tower’s world here?
‘Here, could it be that this is truly outside the tower?’
I couldn’t help but think that way.
I had just climbed to the second floor, so I had no idea why I had come outside, but it was the tower, so just like how I had transformed into this elven girl, I could accept anything happening within the tower.
However, even so, the scenery around me was hard to explain. Unless someone had dumped me in some extreme wilderness on Earth, this couldn’t possibly be anywhere in my homeland, South Korea.
“—!”
“What’s coming? Is it a person?”
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, there was no time to ponder.
A faint vibration echoed through the ground that contacted my bare white feet. Sensing it through the spirit’s power, I looked toward the direction of the nearby vibrations that were approaching.
Indeed, I could see something that resembled a human shape gradually coming closer. But when I got a closer look at their appearance…
I doubted my eyes, wondering if I had seen them incorrectly.
