Chapter 273: Tower Invasion Card.

Without wasting any time, Kael dug into his Inventory and pulled out the card.

It was small, roughly the size of a credit card, but the resemblance ended there. The card appeared to be made from an extremely hard metallic material, far denser than ordinary metal. Kael ran his fingers across its surface and got the distinct feeling that even if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to bend or shrink it.

Its surface was silver, with the word ADMIN stamped across both sides in thick golden lettering.

But what caught Kael’s attention wasn’t the lettering.

It was the intricate network of runes carved across the surface.

The patterns were so complex that even with the arcane knowledge he had recently acquired, Kael couldn’t make sense of them. The runes seemed to interlock with one another in a way that made it difficult to determine where one structure ended and another began.

Kael didn’t bother trying to decipher them.

That wasn’t why he had taken the card out in the first place.

He focused on it instead.

The moment he did, a familiar system screen appeared before him.

---

[Tower Invasion Card (Admin)]

Gives administrator-level access to any floor in the Tower.

Function:

— Can be used to attack any Tower floor, or search for a specific person and attack their Floor without any consequences for the user. The user can also set the trial rules when attacking.

— When used on the user’s own floor, the trial rules and rewards can be rewritten as desired.

Note: Once used, it does not matter how the card is used. All rule changes are limited to Admin-level authority and cannot exceed that.

---

Kael stared at the screen.

For several seconds, he didn’t say anything.

Then his expression slowly changed.

"Crazy."

He still didn’t completely understand what administrator-level access to the Tower actually meant, but he didn’t need to.

The function alone was enough to show him just how absurd this card was.

He could rewrite the rules of a trial.

And the rewards.

That alone was ridiculous.

When the monk had invaded his floor, the rules had been straightforward. The invasion had turned into a fight for survival, with the last person standing becoming the winner.

But Kael could apparently decide how his own trial worked.

If he wanted to create a completely different type of trial, he could.

A challenge based on strength.

A challenge based on speed.

A survival trial.

A puzzle.

Anything that fell within the authority of the card could potentially be rewritten to his advantage.

And that wasn’t even the most ridiculous part.

If Kael used the card to attack another Tower floor, he wouldn’t suffer the same consequences as a normal invader.

There would be no punishment simply for initiating the invasion.

Kael’s eyes narrowed slightly.

That was powerful.

But he had no intention of wasting the card on something as pointless as invading another person’s floor.

From his own experience with invasion trials, he already had a rough idea of how the rewards worked.

The rewards seemed to come from the person who lost the trial.

Which meant that if Kael invaded the floor of some unfortunate person who had nothing valuable, he could end up gaining practically nothing.

He would have wasted an incredibly rare card for a reward that wasn’t worth the trouble.

That would be stupid, and Kael wasn’t stupid. He needed treasures, a lot of them, and he’d need even more in the future.

So rather than using the card to invade someone else’s Tower, he’d use it on himself.

Of course, that would have to wait until he reached the higher floors.

The rewards on the lower floors simply weren’t valuable enough.

Even though Kael was climbing the Tower on Hell Difficulty, he was still relatively low on the Tower’s hierarchy. The higher floors were where the truly valuable rewards would begin appearing.

If he waited until then, he could use the Administrator Card to modify the trial and its rewards into something far more useful.

Kael’s expression brightened slightly at the thought.

The possibilities were tempting.

Very tempting.

But he quickly pulled himself out of it.

If he kept thinking about it, he would probably start planning things that he couldn’t even do yet.

"Later."

Kael returned the Administrator Card to his Inventory.

His attention shifted toward the next item.

The Fragment of Ghorrath.

He took it out.

The moment it appeared in his hand, Kael immediately noticed it looked almost identical to the fragment he had obtained from Silen’s floor.

A dark purple orb rested in his palm, with wisps of shadow drifting around its surface. The shadows trembled rhythmically, almost like the fragment possessed a faint heartbeat.

However, now that Kael was looking at it more carefully, he noticed one difference.

This fragment was darker.

Much darker.

Kael wasn’t particularly interested in guessing why.

What mattered to him was what he would obtain after absorbing it.

Still, he wasn’t reckless enough to simply absorb an unknown fragment without caution.

And just as he had done before absorbing Silen’s own fragment, Kael activated his Eye of Judgement and examined it carefully, making sure it wasn’t carrying anything harmful that could affect him after absorption, something dangerous or unforeseen.

Once he confirmed that there was nothing immediately dangerous, Kael relaxed.

That was enough.

A system notification appeared before him.

---

[Do you wish to absorb the Fragment of Ghorrath?]

[Warning: Absorption may cause minor discomfort.]

[Yes] / [No]

---

Kael selected Yes.

The dark purple fragment trembled gently in his hand.

Then it began to dissolve.

The solid orb broke apart into wisps of dark violet smoke, the mist curling upward as though guided by an invisible force. It gathered in front of Kael’s face, slowly becoming denser until the entire fragment had transformed into a swirling mass of violet darkness.

Then it surged forward.

The mist slipped directly into Kael’s forehead.

There wasn’t even a trace left behind.

# #

Please join the Discord server, I have to keep adding extra text to each Chapter just to pass on a message. It’d be much easier to just make an announcement there instead.