A Wimp's Strategy Guide to Conquer the Tower

It was the day his Random Summon cooldown ended.

Juhyeok had been on the move since morning.

He’d gone to the bathhouse.

He’d scrubbed himself down with care.

Trimming his nails was a given.

He even changed into brand-new underwear.

Dirty things—far, far away.

After completely emptying himself in the bathroom, he refused to eat anything at all.

‘Nam Gaeun said she’s clearing Floor 63 today, right?’

He hoped it went well.

It would.

Nam Gaeun would clear Floor 63,

and he would meet a good summoned entity—someone new.

With about an hour left until the cooldown, he refreshed the bowl of purified water in the living room and sat properly, hands folded, praying with a solemn heart.

Purified water, sure—it came from his water purifier, but still. It was purified, wasn’t it?

Cossack and Meatshield joined him.

They prayed to the bowl on Juhyeok’s left and right.

Since the summon duration was over seven hours, it was fine to have them out in advance.

And with Meatshield’s accumulated five-star ratings, his duration had even increased by an extra hour recently.

“Don’t worry too much, sir. It’ll be a good pull. No way some guy like ‘Meatshield’ shows up again, right?”

“I like Meatshield, though.”

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong with Meatshield? How many floors did we get S++ clears on thanks to him?”

Meatshield grinned.

“Meatshield... got recognized.”

“...D-Don’t grin, you bastard!”

“Assassin... jealous.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I got recognized way before you did!”

Honestly, he was praying for LSSR—Legend Special Super Rare—but he knew that was greed.

A realistic goal was SR.

If he pushed his luck a little further, SSR like Cossack—Special Super Rare.

And even SSR would be amazing.

You only had to look at Cossack to know.

The pride was unreal.

He said “SSR” so often it was practically a verbal tic.

“The summoned entity’s class matters too... If possible, I’d like someone connected to holy power.”

“I agree. Floor 61 is still a long way off, but pulling one early isn’t bad. A healer is mandatory in a party, isn’t it?”

A healer.

Now that he thought about it, he really did need one.

The party’s noble class, universally acknowledged.

Meatshield as the tank, Cossack as the damage dealer—and if they added a healer?

“Right. If it’s a healer, they could use healing skills on Meatshield too, since he fights monsters bare-handed.”

“Huh? Why waste precious heals on Meatshield? That guy’s natural recovery is insane. Leave him alone and he heals on his own.”

“A warrior does not fear wounds.”

Well... he wasn’t wrong.

Meatshield had regeneration that was practically troll-tier.

“Or on Cossack?”

“I don’t need it either. I just wrap bandages. Cossack is shut-up-and-bandage. I always carry ribbons and bandages too. Want me to show you?”

“...No. I believe you.”

Then why was he insisting a healer was essential?

“We only need a dedicated healer for Summoner Bong. Even if holy power is overflowing, you must not waste heals elsewhere.”

“....”

“And whenever you’re bored, call them and ask for healing. Your health in the real world is far more important than safety inside the Tower. Heh.”

If someone drew a diagram of Cossack’s brain, at least ninety-nine percent of it would be “Summoner Bong’s survival.” At this point, it was genuine madness.

“Ah. Time’s up.”

“Th-This is the tense moment.”

Finally. The moment of Random Summon.

Juhyeok took a deep breath.

Cleared his throat,

closed his eyes,

and enunciated carefully.

“Random Summon!”

Whooooaaa—!

A mass of light gathered.

And again, Cossack—

“Dum-dum-dum-dum—”

“Don’t do that.”

“Yes, sir!”

A human outline appeared.

Please. Even if it wasn’t a healer—

Just don’t be below SR.

‘...Tch. Even if it’s Rare, so what?’

If he got too greedy, even what should work wouldn’t.

He could always use a Summoned-Entity Rank-Up Rune later.

Pop-pop!

The light finished forming into a person.

And then—

“Thank you for summoning me.”

Uh...

“This humble maiden, Gyeon Dallae, though lacking, swears to pour all of her strength into serving Master Bong.”

Juhyeok blurted out without thinking.

“She’s a woman.”

“She’s a woman, sir.”

“What do we do?”

“What do we do, sir?”

“W-Well... I don’t know.”

A woman stood in the living room.

Her clothing felt strangely familiar.

A typical East Asian—no, Korean—style.

More precisely, she looked like a woman painted in an old Korean portrait.

A white ceremonial robe. A ribbon-tied hairstyle. But she also looked young.

By modern standards, she was a mid-to-late teen—somewhere around high school age.

She was carrying items, too.

A blue-tinged blade in one hand, a cluster of bells in the other, and on her chest, a metal mirror.

‘...The blade is probably a weapon, but what are the bells and the mirror?’

In that moment, the girl snapped her gaze to Cossack and spoke sharply.

“What is that look? You dare rake over the body of a respectable young woman with such sticky eyes? Perhaps a beating will bring you to your senses.”

“Huh? I wasn’t looking. M-My eyes just happened to—”

“Silence! What lies are these!”

“N-No—”

“I will warn you in advance. If you harbor impure thoughts after seeing my beauty, you will not escape heavenly punishment.”

“...”

Honestly, he didn’t think she was beautiful enough for that level of confidence.

Then Gyeon Dallae turned her eyes to Juhyeok.

‘Oh, no.’

In truth, Juhyeok had been scanning her from head to toe this whole time, too.

Was she going to scold him the same way?

“You may look as much as you wish, Master Bong. Sit comfortably and admire.”

“...”

She wasn’t normal.

What was her rank?

‘...SSR.’

Thank god. It looked like he’d pulled well.

Even SR would’ve been a blessing, but SSR was the best.

Either way, he’d called a new summoned entity with Random Summon.

A small, slender, bold little girl.

And her rank was high.

SSR—on the same level as Cossack.

Even now, she was kneeling straight in the living room, somehow dominating the space.

Where did that kind of presence come from?

Maybe it really was because her rank was high.

But Cossack was SSR too, and he acted like the complete opposite.

There was something else—something beyond rank.

What did the Catalog say?

Type: Shamaness.

Did leaving out purified water and chanting “please, please” actually influence Random Summon?

No way.

But that description...

Strict. Solemn. Dead serious.

It was the full set.

And once he saw the background, it made sense.

Her life flashed through his mind as if he’d watched it.

Gyeon Dallae, talented in talismans, rituals, and incantations.

Entering the Imperial Shrine, taking the greatest shaman of her era as her teacher, rising to become the chief shamaness.

Then her sibling was killed by their uncle.

She swore vengeance.

And her uncle wasn’t someone easy to kill.

Preparing for her revenge, he filled the palace with warding ritual arrays and talismans to block killing curses, and even set up people meant to take the curse in his place.

But Gyeon Dallae was the Heavenly Empire’s greatest chief shamaness.

In the end, she sent the killing curse anyway—and succeeded.

Yet to send a killing curse for personal vengeance was to defy the will of heaven.

So the curse she sent returned to her as well, in full.

Ah.

Even this thin little girl had been through a lot.

At a glance she almost seemed cute, and her strict, dead-serious attitude was—honestly—a little funny,

but still.

‘The Heavenly Empire?’

Their royal family name was Gyeon...

Even the clothes fit.

“Um, I have something to ask.”

“I am honored. Master Bong, please do not hesitate—ask anything.”

“The name of the one who founded the Heavenly Empire?”

“Grand Emperor Gyeon Hwon. He defeated the treacherous Wang clan and Kim clan, expanded the realm even into the lands of old Goryeo, and changed the nation’s name from Later Baekje to the Heavenly Empire—a truly great man.”

“...Huh?”

Gyeon Hwon?

“The Gyeon Hwon who founded Later Baekje?”

“That is correct.”

So...

‘Parallel universe.’

No doubt.

She wasn’t from the same world.

Cossack was the same—he’d said he’d operated with a previous summoner in a place similar to modern Earth.

In Gyeon Dallae’s world, it seemed Later Baekje unified the Later Three Kingdoms instead of Goryeo.

When he probed gently, history before the Later Three Kingdoms sounded similar to the one he knew.

The branch point was there.

‘No wonder her presence is insane. She’s basically royalty.’

While he was marveling—

Grrrkk.

His stomach growled.

He’d skipped eating to focus on praying for a successful Random Summon.

Should he order delivery? But he needed a big portion, and that would take time.

“Since we’re all here... want ramen?”

“Good. Mild flavor would be even better.”

“Meatshield eats ramen too.”

“And you, Gyeon Dallae?”

“To be picky about food violates propriety.”

A regular pot wouldn’t cut it.

Where was that big stockpot...

The steamer pot he used to boil bossam—yeah, that would work.

He pulled it out, filled it with water, and was about to ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ set it on the induction stove when—

“That’s enough, you wretches!!!”

Gyeon Dallae’s voice exploded.

Cossack and Meatshield flinched.

“You dare, as summoned entities, behave so arrogantly. You should be struck senseless—how can you allow Master Bong to prepare food with his own hands? Will you not rise at once?”

Cossack and Meatshield hesitated, half-rising, half-frozen.

“I’m SSR,” Cossack muttered.

“And what of it?”

“Between SSRs, maybe drop the—”

“Ha!”

Gyeon Dallae looked at him like he was ridiculous.

“Now I see—you are a creature who does not know his place. Does your being SSR become a reason for Master Bong to cook? Insolent. Must I make you into a eunuch before you understand?”

She lifted the bells slightly.

At the same time, an icy pressure settled over the room.

It wasn’t normal.

Cossack sprang to his feet.

“And you!”

Meatshield also rose, that huge body moving fast.

Cossack rushed to Juhyeok, urgent.

“I’ll cook the ramen, sir. P-Please hand it over.”

“O-Okay, yes. Go ahead.”

How did that tiny body produce that kind of authority?

And what was wrong with those two?

They couldn’t even move properly. Not even a little.

If you looked at them like this...

Were Cossack and Meatshield weak men too?

Juhyeok wasn’t much different.

He sat stiffly on the sofa, wearing an awkward expression, watching Gyeon Dallae’s mood like his life depended on it.

“Master Bong.”

“Yes?”

“How many hardships you must have endured. Set your worries aside now. I will educate these underlings properly.”

He hadn’t really endured anything, but—

Cossack started boiling fifteen ramen packs in the steamer pot, flustered and frantic.

A little later—

“...That’s basically the Han River.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve committed a sin worthy of death. I failed the water ratio.”

A pot full of thin, watery broth.

You couldn’t even see the noodles.

And Cossack wasn’t watching Juhyeok’s reaction—he was watching Gyeon Dallae’s.

‘She completely took the initiative.’

It couldn’t be helped.

They’d eat it this time, and next time he’d either teach them properly or just cook it himself.

Meatshield must’ve been starving.

He grabbed his chopsticks and was about to scoop up ramen when—

“You wretch!!!”

Good lord.

His heart nearly dropped out.

What now?

“How dare you lift your spoon before Master Bong? Shameless creature—truly no different from a beast, just as you look. Disgraceful. Disgraceful, I say.”

Meatshield jolted, quickly set the chopsticks down, and bowed his head low.

The table atmosphere turned icy.

At this rate, he wouldn’t even know whether the ramen was going down his throat or his nose.

This would never end.

“...I don’t care about formality, but when we eat, we should enjoy it. Who cares who starts first?”

“Ah!”

Gyeon Dallae’s face reddened slightly.

“This humble maiden—ignorant of her place—has run wild. I have committed a sin worthy of death against Master Bong.”

“It’s not that serious.”

“However! The underlings’ sins are clear. Please cut off the heads of this maiden and these two together.”

“...”

This was driving him insane.

Fine. Just eat.

Juhyeok scooped ramen first with a ladle.

And put it in his mouth.

Only then did Cossack and Meatshield start eating too.

They were so hungry they began slurping without thinking—slurp, slurp—

“That’s enough, you wretches!!!”

He was going to lose it.

All three froze mid-bite.

“You have both crossed the line of table manners. What kind of safety is this, making noise while eating noodles?”

I did it too, though.

“Seeing your conduct, I can only imagine how Master Bong has worried himself sick all this time. Noodles are to be placed in the mouth and cut with the teeth. Slurping—how vulgar. You are no different from Japanese louts.”

Ah.

Mountain after mountain.

And he couldn’t even argue.

Meatshield, sure—but Cossack should at least resist, shouldn’t he?

He couldn’t even beat a girl who looked this frail?

Even though they were the same SSR.

So the two of them really were weak men, huh.

‘I’m already exhausted.’

Are all summoned entities like this?

Why is there not a single normal person?

After they finished eating, Meatshield and Cossack cleaned the table themselves and even did the dishes.

So... what now?

“Um...”

“Speak, Master Bong.”

“Do you want to go into the Tower with me?”

“This humble maiden will serve with all her loyalty. Give the order.”

Since a new person had joined, he should at least see what she could do.

How did a shamaness fight?

As the Catalog said, did she send killing curses at monsters?