Chapter 9: Shop (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 9: Shop (2)
Skills in the Tower were divided into two main categories.
The first were passive skills, such as Dagger Technique. The second were active skills.
Passive skills could be acquired naturally through a player's actions while climbing the Tower. Active skills, however, were different. They could not be obtained through effort alone; they were only available through extremely limited methods.
One of those methods was purchasing them with Gold at the Shop.
As Kang Jun-hyeok spoke, Pixie muttered in wonder.
[You know the system incredibly well... Can someone really become this proficient just by gathering information beforehand?]
Pixie looked at the Master of All Weapons with a puzzled expression.
[Did you teach him...?]
[Do I look like such a kind soul to you?]
[I guess not... So he figured it out himself.]
Pixie was amazed, but she didn't dwell on it further. She had already been shocked enough by the fact that he possessed 2,500 Gold. However, she eventually shook her head.
[I’m sorry, but it’s impossible for you to buy an active skill...]
Active skills were special. Because of their nature, they required significant conditions for purchase, unlike standard equipment.
[Clearing the 25th Floor or higher. Or possessing a stat with a value over 40. Or possessing 10 or more passive skills. Those are the basic requirements to buy an active skill... No matter how impressive you are, you can't meet them.]
"I know."
Naturally, Kang Jun-hyeok was well aware of that.
"But I'm sure those aren't the only conditions for purchasing an active skill."
[...Huh?]
In that moment, Pixie realized what he meant. Jun-hyeok continued.
"Possessing a Feat Stat. Doesn't that also satisfy the requirement?"
[...That's right. Since you obtained the Master of All Weapons, you must have a Feat Stat.]
Pixie let out a hollow laugh. Even though she had long since given up on everything, she couldn't help but ask.
[This is insane... What are you? Have you climbed the Tower before or something...?]
Jun-hyeok responded with a silent smile. Pixie didn't seem to expect a serious answer, as she simply snapped her fingers.
[...Feat Stat possession confirmed. Active skill purchase unlocked. At your current level, you can buy one Lowest-Grade Active Skill. The price is 1,000 Gold...]
1,000 Gold.
A single skill was worth as much as ten pieces of equipment. However, active skills were worth every bit of that price. Though the cost left a bitter taste in his mouth, Jun-hyeok nodded.
"I'll buy it."
[Here. Take it...]
A box materialized in the air before Jun-hyeok.
[You have obtained a Lowest-Grade Active Skill Box.]
[I wonder what's inside... Test your luck...]
'This is the biggest problem.'
Active skills weren't something you could select and buy. They were strictly random. There was no way to know what skill would emerge, which was the greatest drawback of purchasing them from the Shop. In his past life, he had once seen someone spend tens of thousands of Gold just to get the specific skill they wanted.
There was a high possibility of getting a skill he couldn't even use properly. If that happened, 1,000 Gold would go down the drain. Even Jun-hyeok couldn't help but feel tense.
"Phew."
Taking a short breath, Jun-hyeok opened the box immediately.
[You have obtained the Active Skill: Stealth.]
"Oh."
Jun-hyeok let out a small exclamation despite himself.
Stealth. Even though it was a lowest-grade skill, it was one of the few "jackpots" that remained useful until the very late stages of the Tower.
Seeing his reaction, Pixie looked at him with cold eyes.
[I'm leaving now... You're done, right?]
"That's all. Thanks."
[...Hmm.]
Pixie looked at Jun-hyeok with a strange gaze. His reaction just now was that of someone who fully understood the value of the Stealth skill.
Obtaining the Master of All Weapons. 2,500 Gold. And his anomalous reactions.
'He really is a fascinating guy...'
But that was as far as her interest went. She was a being who had already finished her journey and given up on everything. This story had nothing to do with her. Pixie gave her farewell.
[Goodbye... I hope we don't have to see each other again... though I doubt you'll die anytime soon.]
The space that looked like the universe folded in on itself, and Pixie vanished. Jun-hyeok examined the skill with a pleased expression.
[Active Skill: Stealth]
• Rank: Lowest-Grade
• Proficiency: F
• Cooldown: 10 minutes
• Effect: Erases all sounds made by the user for 3 seconds.
The effect of the Stealth skill was simple. Literally, it erased every sound resulting from his actions. While Stealth was active, even if he thrashed through bushes or screamed at the top of his lungs, no sound would echo. It was an incredibly useful skill with long-term utility.
And above all, the most important thing:
'The timing of acquiring this skill is incredibly early.'
Lowest-grade skills weren't particularly meaningful to average players. The basic requirement to obtain an active skill was clearing the 25th Floor. By that point, players usually had enough Gold saved up to buy low-rank skills instead. There was no reason to go out of their way to buy a lowest-grade one.
Furthermore, most lowest-grade skills had low versatility. The prevailing opinion was that they were mostly "duds" that couldn't be used in general situations. Stealth was the rare exception.
However, there had been one man.
A man who took a great interest in the lowest-grade active skills that others ignored. He had invested every bit of Gold he gathered into buying them. As a result, he had purchased every single lowest-grade active skill available in the Shop—a miraculous feat.
Naturally, because he invested all his Gold there, he couldn't buy higher-ranked skills. Everyone looked at him and thought he was wasting his potential, believing he wouldn't survive long. The common consensus was that while there were many such skills and their proficiency rose quickly, there was still a fundamental difference in quality compared to high-rank skills.
But he had survived. Until the very, very end—until the brink of destruction.
"The power of low-rank skills you kept talking about... I'll try using it myself this time," Jun-hyeok muttered softly.
Finally, he checked his stats.
[Kang Jun-hyeok]
• Level: 8
• Health: 260
• Strength: 20
• Speed: 21
• Feat: 11
• Attack Power: +?
• Defense: +8
"Good."
Jun-hyeok smiled. Even the Master of All Weapons muttered in an incredulous tone.
[These are not the stats of someone who just cleared the 1st Floor.]
Based on stats alone, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he was a 10th-floor player. All preparations were complete. There were three days left until the next Tower climb. Jun-hyeok lay down on his bed with a satisfied expression.
* * *
At that same time.
Baekdusan, the leader of the Baekdusan Guild, was looking at the data his secretary had handed him. He stared at the sentences written on the paper without moving a muscle. The silence was stifling, but the secretary waited quietly. He had reacted the same way when he first received the report.
After a long time, Baekdusan finally spoke.
"Do you think this... makes any sense?"
"No, sir," the secretary answered immediately. "It's impossible. It doesn't make sense. If someone had told me this, I would have thought they were delusional."
"But it's not like over twenty people can all be delusional at once."
"...That is the problem."
Baekdusan rested his chin on his hand and continued to stare at the documents. The title of the report was simple: [Clearing the 0th Floor Quest. And Kang Jun-hyeok.]
Out of the 80 people who survived the 0th Floor Quest with Kang Jun-hyeok, 20 had come to the Baekdusan Guild. This data was compiled based on their testimonies.
"Hah. Unbelievable." Baekdusan shook his head. The more he looked at it, the more he felt like he was losing his mind. "The Mantises. They were actually killable?"
"...So it seems."
The monsters of the 0th Floor. The three Mantises. They were beings one couldn't resist—like the bosses in games that you were scripted to lose to at the start. All you could do was run. Everyone believed that.
But according to the data, that wasn't the case. The Mantises could be killed. And quite easily, at that.
"Thinking about it coldly... it's not impossible." Baekdusan's eyes grew sharp.
The houses they thought were useless. The weapons inside them. The Mantises' attack speed. The quest description. Combining all of that, it certainly seemed possible to kill the Mantises.
However, that was a deduction only someone like Baekdusan, who had already cleared the 0th Floor, could make. Even he would have scoffed at the idea as nonsense if he hadn't seen this data.
And a player who had just entered the 0th Floor figured that out? And killed three Mantises by himself?
"So an MVP could actually appear on the 0th Floor."
"I didn't know either."
"And the Administrator actually showed interest in someone? She usually just looks at us like bugs and disappears."
"It was the same for me."
All the common sense they knew had been shattered. Baekdusan shook the papers and asked, "The 1st Floor Perfect Clear announcement that appeared a few hours ago... do you think it's related to this guy?"
At the same time Kang Jun-hyeok cleared the 1st Floor, a Perfect Clear announcement had appeared across the entire universe. They had seen Perfect Clear announcements a few times before, but never for the 1st Floor.
The secretary spoke softly. "The probability is high. The timeline matches perfectly."
"The MVP of the 0th Floor. The Perfect Clear of the 1st Floor. And such a guy is in Korea. His name is Kang Jun-hyeok."
The documents Baekdusan was looking at included a composite sketch of Kang Jun-hyeok, reconstructed based on the testimonies of the survivors.
"Notify all branches to pull our people back. We can even afford to yield in our skirmishes with the Verdant Guild for a while. No, wait. Those guys will probably be moving exactly like us anyway."
Trivial fights weren't important. The most important thing right now was finding this person named Kang Jun-hyeok and bringing him to their side.
Baekdusan commanded, "This is an order from the Guild Leader. Above all else, bring me information on this Kang Jun-hyeok."
The secretary nodded. The situation was no different for the Verdant Guild. The two guilds that ruled Korea began to move to find Kang Jun-hyeok.
* * *
[Hey.]
The Master of All Weapons spoke to Jun-hyeok, who was lying on his bed blankly watching TV. Jun-hyeok replied, "What?"
[Instead of staying cooped up in this room for three days, why don't you go outside?]
"Where is this coming from all of a sudden?"
[I'm asking if you're bored. A body rusts if it doesn't move for a day, and it regresses after two. Why not move around?]
"I'm not particularly bored."
He had once spent over 100 days doing nothing but meditating on a specific floor. There was no reason to be bored just because he was stuck at home for three days.
The Master of All Weapons fell silent. [Fine.]
Jun-hyeok chuckled. "Are you bored?"
[As if this Great One would be bored. It is simply that I must spend a long time with you from now on. I merely thought it would be good to see the world you live in with my own eyes.]
"So you are bored. You're the guy who was supposed to sleep on the 1st Floor until the universe ended, yet you're bored after just three days?"
[I was in a state of suspended animation, so the flow of time was meaningless.]
"Then why don't you watch TV?"
[I have no interest in those paper-thin plays. I want to see the world directly with my own eyes.]
'Does a gauntlet even have eyes?'
With that thought, Jun-hyeok replied, "Just bear with it for a bit. I don't plan on going out for the time being."
By now, information about him had likely reached each guild. They would be doing everything in their power to find him.
'It's a problem for now.'
At this point, the top players were in the mid-30s floors. The leaders of the Baekdusan and Verdant guilds had likely reached the mid-20s. He still lacked the power to confront them.
'Not yet.'
He needed to stay hidden for a while. The Master of All Weapons grumbled at Jun-hyeok's answer but didn't argue further. Ultimately, Jun-hyeok was its master.
A few hours later, exactly three days had passed since he cleared the 1st Floor. Jun-hyeok did not hesitate.
[Will you challenge the Tower?]
[Floor to challenge: 2nd Floor.]
[2nd Floor Quest beginning.]
[Prove yourself.]
Then, the world flipped. Jun-hyeok's body left Earth and crossed into a separate realm. At the end of that transition, Jun-hyeok arrived.
Lush green vegetation. An infinitely vast sky. And behind him, a fence on the verge of collapse.
The sound of clanking metal echoed around him. It was the sound of steel. Tense breathing disturbed the air, and he saw pale faces. He was currently standing among a crowd of people.
"You lot! Pull yourselves together! We have to protect the village!"
A man in slightly better clothing roared at them, pointing forward roughly with his sword.
"There! The monsters trying to trample our village are coming! Everyone, take up your weapons! Prepare for battle!"
"Kyarrrk!"
"Kyaaa!"
From the direction the man pointed, dozens of monsters were rushing toward them. Green-skinned monsters the size of children. They were Goblins.
'Just as I remember.'
Though it was called a Tower, it wasn't necessarily a confined space. The quests for each floor were truly diverse. And the 2nd Floor Quest was simple.
[2nd Floor Quest.]
[Save the village from the Goblins.]