I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 429

The item that came out of the chest was a magic rifle that looked similar to an assault rifle from Earth.

[Venom Fang (SSR)]

Magic Rifle, Venom Fang.

If translated, it would be something like ‘Poison Fang.’ It literally means a poisonous tooth.

It’s a rare magic rifle that basically enchants bullets with poison, but what’s even more unique is its magazine capacity.

It holds a whopping 60 rounds.

Considering that most of the magic rifles Damian has used so far have had a magazine capacity of around ten rounds, this is truly an insane amount.

‘Of course, the damage is relatively low.’

Poison enchantment and 60 rounds. As you can probably guess, yes. It’s not a weapon primarily meant for dealing damage.

The purpose of this magic rifle is to inflict poison status on enemies by pouring out an overwhelming number of rounds with a high rate of fire.

Magic rifles themselves are a unique weapon category, but this one is exceptionally bizarre.

Well, even so, it’s still a magic rifle. Even if the damage is low, its lethality is sufficient.

Considering that most of Damian’s magic rifles are for long-range sniping or close-range suppression, this magic rifle with excellent mid-range suppression will be a very good choice.

“Whoa…”

Damian, who received the magic rifle, gaped.

“I was thinking it would be nice to have a magic rifle of this type… Thank you, Your Highness! I’ll use it well!”

“Hehe. Yes, yes. Use it well.”

…I handed over the equipment as if I knew everything, but I was the most surprised.

‘No, an SSR [Super Super Rare] complete item right from the start…?’

This magic tower is a very generous dungeon with 11 guaranteed reward chests.

Even so, what items come out of the chests is random.

It’s a place where the rewards are very good compared to other dungeons, but I didn’t expect it to throw an SSR-grade complete item, a magic rifle no less, right from the start.

Looking at the other heroes after handing the magic rifle to Damian, their eyes were burning with greed… Oh dear.

Evangeline jumped up and shouted.

“Senior! Are you distributing items to the people who contributed the most to clearing the trials?!”

“Huh?! Ah, no, it’s not necessarily like that. I’m just looking at the equipment that came out and giving it to the people who need it first…”

“But you’re still considering the contribution, right?!”

“Y-yes. I guess I’ll consider it a little…”

“Alright!”

Evangeline rolled up her sleeves and shouted.

“The new armor is mine!”

Ah, you still had lingering feelings about the armor, huh…

The other heroes also seemed to be overflowing with desire for new equipment.

They all shouted enthusiastically and ran out of the first dungeon room… No, you still have to go with me anyway.

When we came out of the first dungeon room and returned to the lobby, the magic lamp above the first passage had changed from red to green.

It seems the color changes when you clear it.

“Okay, like this… Let’s clear them all one by one!”

“Wooo-!”

Perhaps it was because they witnessed Damian getting good equipment as a reward, but everyone’s motivation noticeably increased.

Since I knew what all the trials (puzzles) were, I formed new teams each time and entered the dungeon rooms.

The second trial, finding the maze.

It was a puzzle to escape from a complex maze, with subtle flows of magic provided as hints. But the problem is that there are traps mixed in with these magic flows.

The key is to find the real magic flow that leads to the exit.

Naturally, the mages were mobilized for this trial. Junior and the young mages put their heads together, discussing and struggling as they made their way through the maze.

Junior seemed to know the answers right away for the most part, but he let them struggle a bit, perhaps for the sake of the development of his junior mages.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. It might be faster to clear it right away, but…”

“There’s no need to apologize at all. We have to help the juniors grow too.”

So, it took a little time, but they cleared it safely.

The third trial. Connecting the light beams.

It was a puzzle to manipulate the mirrors installed in the room to make the light emitted from the entrance reach the finish line.

The people who were put in were all working together to adjust the direction of the light beam when suddenly, a rumbling sound was heard, and the trial was cleared.

I was wondering what was going on… and saw Lucas holding up his weapon [Bestowed Sword] in front of the finish line.

“…I thought that if I shot the light at the finish line, it would work, so I created light with my sword, and…”

“It worked? Like that?!”

It was absurd, but as long as you passed the trial ‘in any way,’ it was considered cleared.

From here, the strategy started to get a bit strange.

Most of the puzzles were the kind that you had to solve with a mage’s sense, eye for detail, or intuition regarding subtle movements of magic.

“Uryaahhhhh-!”

…My heroes started to break through with force.

The fourth trial. A puzzle to manipulate a complex magic device to make a giant clock point to a specific time.

Evangeline ignored the device and forcibly turned the hour, minute, and second hands with her strength to set the time.

Kugugung!

Cleared.

I was so shocked that my mouth dropped open.

“No, shouldn’t you not let it be cleared like this?!”

“Mwahahaha! This trial is quite flexible!”

In the end, even the other martial-type heroes rushed in and started solving the puzzles as they pleased.

No matter how I looked at it, the creator’s intention was much more delicate and complex… But when they tried to solve it in a simple and brute-force way, it wasn’t like it wouldn’t work.

The fifth trial, a puzzle where you had to freeze the falling stone walls with an ice magic device at the right time and then advance.

“Dragon Punch!”

“Bandit King Kick-!”

Dusk Bringer and Quillan smashed the falling stone walls with their fists and feet…

Stone fragments scattering in all directions hit my head and fell off. What is this?

Seeing that, Evangeline nodded happily.

“If your body is weak, your head suffers! As expected, if you have absolute power, you don’t need to use your head!”

“W-why… Why is the magic tower succumbing to physical force…?”

The sixth trial. A trial to avoid the various traps on the floor with levitation magic.

When Verdandi threw a blink dagger and teleported, it was cleared just like that…

The gimmicks that required some brainpower were collapsing in front of our heroes, who had maxed out their strength and agility stats.

I was worried that the magic tower’s defense system might activate if we cleared it in a strange way, but as long as we met the clearing conditions, the magic tower didn’t intervene. What is this, a god game with full freedom!

In that way, all the heroes rushed to break through the trials, and they completed all 10 trials in rapid succession.

[Area 8: Magic Tower]

– Clear Progress: Normal Room 10/10 Boss Room 0/1

– Acquired Treasure Chests: 10/11

We cleared everything except the boss room.

It’s good that it’s going smoothly, but I also wonder if this is okay… Hmm…

Anyway, we finished looting a whopping 10 treasure chests, and many high-grade items came out.

Lucas got a new helmet, and Junior got a magic scroll package.

Quillan got a headband, Verdandi got new boots, and Dusk Bringer got a crimson dress.

In fact, Dusk Bringer is a dragonkin who doesn’t really need equipment, but as soon as that dress with magic options came out, she took it. The reason is…

“Because it pleases me!”

…She’s been through a lot, so I decided to give it to her willingly.

Hugging the dress, Dusk Bringer smiled brightly, revealing her sharp teeth.

I don’t think it fits the Archduke’s small stature… Should I get a tailor for her?

Anyway, while everyone was getting their equipment one by one.

“Why!”

…The armor that Evangeline had been waiting for didn’t come out.

“Why! Where did my armor go!”

Everyone got one item each, but Evangeline was still empty-handed. It was because no equipment that she could use came out.

I smiled and said to Evangeline, who was holding her head and wailing.

“It’ll come out of the boss room chest.”

“…Huh?”

“Your armor. It’ll come out of the last chest.”

Yes.

I haven’t said it until now… but the equipment that is guaranteed to be looted from the magic tower boss room chest is armor for Evangeline.

Evangeline, whose eyes widened, looked around fiercely.

“Boss room! How do we get to the boss room?!”

Now that all ten magic lamps in the passages connected to the lobby had turned green.

There was no separate path to the boss room. So everyone was wondering.

Because we have to go to the boss room and clear the boss to clear the dungeon.

But this magic tower is a little different.

“Look, it’s coming.”

When I looked up and spoke, everyone looked up with me.

There, a round magic elevator… was slowly descending while floating in the air.

Clank!

Cheeeeee…

A magical light flashed from the elevator that had slowly landed on the floor.

I put my leg on the elevator first, turned around, and gestured.

“There won’t be any combat, so only those who want to follow, follow, and the rest, rest!”

The heroes had a brief meeting, and only the party leaders followed me, while the rest decided to stay in the lobby.

After confirming that everyone who was going to follow had boarded the elevator, I pressed the elevator switch.

Then, the magic elevator began to rise into the air again.

“If we had fought the defense system without clearing the previous trials… combat would have occurred in the boss room as well.”

I explained briefly while going up to the boss room.

“But we… it’s a bit strange, but anyway, we cleared the trials. So, no combat will occur in the boss room.”

Instead, a special event will occur, and the boss monster will be converted into an interactable NPC [Non-Player Character]. What I was aiming for was this special reward… an interactable NPC.

In this way, the magic tower is a unique dungeon in many ways.

“…The Holy Grail.”

Verdandi asked cautiously.

“Is it up there?”

I nodded silently.

Verdandi, who swallowed hard, clenched her fist tightly.

Kugugung…!

The elevator stopped.

We, who had risen from the first floor of the magic tower to the top floor in one go, carefully stepped onto the top floor.

The structure of the top floor was simple. This place where the elevator goes, a short passage, and a glass door at the end of the passage were all there was.

And as if sensing our arrival.

Clank-

The glass door opened automatically.

A lingering scent of dense magic, enough to take one’s breath away, spread out from the opened gap. All the heroes, who had been chattering in a relaxed atmosphere, immediately hardened their faces.

“Then shall we go? Evangeline’s new armor, Verdandi’s Holy Grail, and…”

I took the lead and walked towards the open door.

“…To meet the owner of this magic tower.”

Even though I knew there wouldn’t be any combat.

Pure and overwhelming magic was flowing out from inside, making me so nervous that my stomach was tingling.

Thud. Thud.

And when we stepped inside, what unfolded inside the glass door was… an unexpected sight.

Trees.

The top floor of the magic tower was covered with the trunks of all kinds of trees. The complexly intertwined vegetation was all of different species.

The heroes looked around, bewildered.

“Is this… a greenhouse?”

“There are facilities to grow all kinds of plants.”

“Why are they growing trees in a magic tower…?”

It was then.

《Welcome. Those who have passed my trials.》

A female voice mixed with mechanical sounds echoed.

《It’s been hundreds of years. Since a guest has come here.》

Everyone was surprised and raised their weapons towards that direction. Except for me, who had been waiting for her appearance.

From among the lush bushes… she slowly appeared.

《Let me introduce myself. I am the guardian of this magic tower, and the last survivor.》

Surprise flashed across everyone’s faces.

That’s because what appeared before our eyes… was not a living being.

Click. Click.

What appeared, dragging wheels, was a machine made with magical engineering.

From the heavy machine’s entire body, regular operating sounds like a computer running could be heard.

At the very top of that machine, on a rectangular magic panel like a computer monitor, her face was displayed as a magical image.

A skeleton.

A skull’s face with flames flickering in its eye sockets.

In the screen, she introduced herself calmly.

《A mage from the Lake Kingdom who ended up in this state after pursuing the end of magic.》

A cyber-lich who had digitized herself.

《…I am called Baekya.》

The 3rd ranked Nightmare Legion Commander. Baekya’s true form.