Book 5: Volume 1 Chapter 15, First Victory

Translator: Kazumi

Editor: Silavin

 

The moment the results of the fifth battle were announced, smiles spread across the faces of everyone gathered in the Amamiya Tower’s Control Room.

 

They had not expected to lose, but sometimes one never knew what would happen in a battle until it was over. In the end, Kousuke won by a landslide, rendering their worries unfounded.

 

After checking the situation around them, Kousuke turned to Kouhi with his next instruction.

 

“Kouhi, I’m sorry to ask, but please tell everyone to check each floor for damage.”

 

He could have sent Nana, though she could not speak. She would understand the situation well enough, and Shrein could accompany her to provide verbal reports.

 

“I understand.”

 

Kouhi immediately left the Control Room at Kousuke’s order. The moment she departed, the elated expressions around him tightened with renewed focus.

 

The Conquest Battle was still ongoing.

 

Since Sarita Tower had once again resorted to manual negotiations, this battle would continue for at least three more rounds. Judging by the current match, Kousuke did not think he would lose, but he could not afford to let his guard down. His opponent had been easily defeated, yet that did not mean they had exhausted all their options. By the end of the battle, they had even stopped summoning, a sign they might still have resources in reserve.

 

It was reasonable to assume they retained the power to place additional summoning circles.

 

With their victory in the fifth match, they had gained back the first floor of Amamiya Tower that their opponent had taken in the fourth match, as well as the entire floor their opponent had offered up for the Conquest Battle. In other words, they had reclaimed what they had lost in the previous four battles and gained their opponent’s floor all at once.

 

Considering the size difference, it did not seem worth it for their opponent, but those were the rules of Conquest Battles. Even if their floors were smaller than those of Amamiya Tower, there was no mechanism to offer up floors of equivalent size. One floor was still one floor of that Tower, regardless of scale.

 

More concerning than the victory itself was what happened as a result of seizing their opponent’s floors.

 

“Oh? New summoning circles are being added?”

 

Checking the system on the control panel, Kousuke noticed that the number of monster summoning circles had increased. It had been quite a while since Amamiya Tower had seen such an increase, as the Tower’s Level had already plateaued.

 

“But it seems you can’t use them yet?” Peach observed, checking the same display beside him and tilting her head.

 

“Hmm. I think they’re locked until the Conquest Battle ends.”

 

“That’s probably because you can’t know if you’ll actually keep the opponent’s floor until the Conquest Battle is fully done.” Mia added, looking at the same screen and nodding at the grayed-out text.

 

“Yeah, I think so as well.”

 

“But… if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to have them appear only after the Conquest Battle ends?” Peach wondered.

 

“That’s true, but I don’t think that’s possible from the System’s perspective.”

 

Peach tilted her head again at Kousuke’s words. “What do you mean?”

 

“You see, in terms of the Tower’s System, new items, including floors, are registered immediately. But since the Conquest Battle is still ongoing, perhaps the System has no choice but to disable summoning temporarily. Well, this is all just my own speculation.”

 

Kousuke’s explanation left Peach with a conflicted expression, as if she was partially convinced but not entirely satisfied.

 

“Hmm. I still think they could have simply not displayed them in the first place…”

 

“That’s true, but maybe there’s another reason we don’t understand. Anyway, we’ll have to assume that’s how it works for now.”

 

“I guess you’re right.”

 

Even having maxed out the Tower’s Level did not mean Kousuke understood every detail of its underlying System. In that sense, there were still many mysteries surrounding the Tower. He didn’t intend to delve too deeply into them, though. Some mysteries were better left unsolved.

 

Nana and the others returned while Kousuke was dealing with post-battle cleanup. Their companions who had participated in the battle had already used portals to return to their original floors. He gathered Nana, Sol, the Golden Fox, and the Silver Fox together to hear the damage report Kouhi had requested.

 

“Thank you for taking the time to come. Now, I’d like you to tell me about your respective situations…”

 

At Kousuke’s words, each of them began reporting on the damage they’d suffered.

 

In the end, they had not emerged completely unscathed. The goblins led by Sol had suffered the most casualties. There was a clear reason for this: their warband centered around unevolved goblins. On the other hand, there were almost no casualties among the evolved monsters.

 

“I see. Seeing Kousuke’s expression darken slightly after hearing the report, Sol hurriedly waved her hand.

 

“Don’t worry about the casualties. They went into battle knowing what could happen.”

 

Sol had always considered casualties inevitable in warfare, but seeing Kousuke’s reaction, she felt compelled to ease his mind. More than anything, Kousuke needed to understand that even goblins mourned the loss of their own kind.

 

Sol’s group were not the only ones who had fought. Foxes and wolves had participated as well. However, their forces suffered fewer casualties than the goblins, likely due in large part to the fact that they consisted entirely of evolved species.

 

As for the wolves that had invaded the opponent’s floors, only ten had fallen. This surprised Kousuke as well. It would not have been strange if the casualties had been far greater.

 

Nana approached him, wagging her tail as if asking for praise, and Kousuke petted her with all his might. She seemed to know exactly what would make him happy.

 

Kousuke did not notice the envious glances from the golden and silver foxes watching Nana receive such affection though.

 

After Sol and the others departed, the group had a late dinner and discussed their future plans with the others.

 

“Father, are you going to keep pushing for victory from now on?” Mia asked, looking at Kousuke expectantly.

 

Kousuke nodded with a wry smile. “There’s no reason to lose at this point. Even if we wanted to stop, there would only be three more battles at most.”

 

If they wanted to end the battle, they could do so immediately if their opponent offered a compromise. However, since taking the opponent’s floor would increase the number of summonable monsters, Kousuke wanted to claim as many new floors as possible.

 

Of course, if the opponent brought out a floor with monsters similar to ones they already possessed, the variety would not increase, but since they could not choose which floor to fight on, there was nothing to be done about that.

 

“The problem is what to do with the floors we’ve taken.” Kousuke mused.

 

Gaining new monster summoning circles was valuable, but they also needed to manage the floors they acquired. Of course, there would be no problem leaving them as they were, but it seemed wasteful not to utilize floors they had worked so hard to obtain.

 

However, since they were not currently using all the floors in Amamiya Tower, they would need to determine the best use for the newly seized ones.

 

“In that case, I’d like to manage them.” Mia offered eagerly.

 

“Well…” Kousuke began, then shook his head as Mia looked at him hopefully. “No, I actually just thought of something I’d like you to do instead, Mia. I think you’ll be quite busy with this soon enough.”

 

“Something you’d like me to do?” Mia tilted her head.

 

Kousuke nodded. “Yeah, we’ll talk about it another time. For now, let’s focus on finishing this Conquest Battle first.”

 

“I understand.” Mia’s face showed clear curiosity, but she nodded obediently.