Floor 1, Waiting Room (2)

A stark white room where nothing existed. And there I stood, my mind entirely clear. The faint haze of alcohol, remarkably, had vanished without a trace.

A cold, anything-but-friendly voice announced itself alongside a semi-transparent notification window. When did—? While my attention had been fixed on the message, the previously empty room had filled with all manner of weapons. Longswords, daggers, bows, crossbows, maces, staffs, ornaments etched with strange patterns...

As if anticipating the confusion people would feel before so many choices, the messages came pouring out one after another.

A firm, dry voice. Heejung had apparently lamented more than once that I should have carried a weapon instead of a staff—so there was no undoing this decision, just as the message said. If Heejung's right, then I should go with something like a sword or a spear...

And yet an old wooden staff crowned with an amber jewel caught my eye. Beneath the jewel, three wooden branches joined together in a graceful curve.

Hm. I couldn't help but picture myself wielding that staff, casting spells with flair. The amber jewel glowing, hellfire raining down upon my enemies' heads... Face it, a man's gotta be a mage—

But Heejung's furious outburst still rang in my ears.

A mage with no talent for magic. No matter how I imagined it, smashing someone's head in with that amber staff was not a cool look. It left a bitter taste of regret, sure, but... Yeah. Heejung's right. I'll go with a weapon.

Afraid my resolve might waver again, I quickly turned my gaze to the other weapons. Alright, what should I pick? The moment I looked up, countless weapons greeted me. Heejung hadn't steered me toward anything specific. Come on, at least give me a hint. I'm indecisive enough as it is.

But judging by how bitterly she'd moaned, if only he'd taken a weapon, there was no doubt I'd had real talent for close combat. Sword, axe, spear—those were the three examples she'd given. There were maces and flails on offer too, but I decided to stick to her three.

Whew. Honestly speaking, before making my choice: picking a melee weapon scared me a little. Neither the Tower's messages nor Heejung had explained the details, but climbing the tower obviously meant combat. Wielding a melee weapon meant facing unknown enemies at arm's length. As a modern-day man, fear was the natural response. Maybe I should just take a bow? A bow's a weapon too...

No. Heejung said sword, axe, or spear. I forced down the cowardice welling up inside me and recalled her words. Either way, if I couldn't clear all 100 floors, I died just the same. Steel yourself.

187 centimeters, 81 kilograms—a physique that lost to no one. I'd worked out hard at the gym, and right after coming of age I'd even boxed for two years as a hobby. I was confident in my athleticism. Objectively speaking, I have no reason to be this scared. Sure, I'd be fighting for my life, but of the million people who'd entered the Tower of Trials, surely my physical conditioning put me in the top five percent?

Besides, I'd supposedly been the final climber and the strongest battle mage. I had talent. Thinking it through rationally, the fear began to recede. I turned my eyes back to the weapons. Sword, axe, spear. It was time to choose.

Like most modern people, I knew next to nothing about these weapons. Still, compared to axes or spears, the sword felt the most familiar. In every movie I'd seen, everyone carried a sword. A sword, then. I'll go with the sword. After only brief deliberation, I settled on it. There was no point agonizing over something I barely understood—the outcome wouldn't change. Sword it is. But which one?

Naturally, the swords in the room came in many varieties as well: longswords, daggers, thin slender blades, broad-tipped blades. I had no idea how to use a sword, and since I didn't know proper technique, the most ordinary blade would serve best. So I simply picked up a plain-looking one—exactly the image that came to mind when you said the word sword. A little over a meter long; I couldn't say its exact weight, but it wasn't particularly heavy.

True to its name, the description in the notification window was every bit as shabby as the sword itself. Reading it left me strangely deflated. I considered swapping it for another, but a quick ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠look around showed the rest were in even worse shape. On second glance, this one was practically a fairy among them—the best sword on offer.

The semi-transparent window refreshed. "Yes." The moment I answered, every weapon in the room vanished without a trace. Just as they had appeared, they were gone—startling, incomprehensible magic. The longing for the mage's path boiled up inside me again, but I had already chosen the sword. There was no taking it back, and I shouldn't want to.

The message refreshed, and the deadpan voice spoke as though this were the most natural procedure in the world. Following Heejung's advice, I said nothing. After about ten seconds of silence, the message ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠updated again.

Hm. It read like a message warning that something truly catastrophic would happen if I refused. If it weren't for Heejung, would I have opened the status window right then and there? She'd said that even if I climbed to the 100th floor with it, it would all come to nothing. She'd called it, unequivocally, a slave contract.

Frankly, I couldn't quite grasp why the status window amounted to a slave contract. Maybe it was one of those things—no freedom without a price.

Could I really make it through without one? They said you could raise your stats through the status window—so did that mean I simply couldn't raise mine at all?

No. Don't waver. Heejung had regressed. She must have some method, some plan—that's why she'd told me not to open the status window. I trusted her to lead the way from here.

I stood there blankly, watching the seconds drain away inside the translucent message. The less time remained, the more anxious I grew, and the tension began to swell.

With twenty seconds left, a cold dread seized me. Surely not opening the status window wouldn't kill me outright? It had said there'd be restrictions on skills too!

Chanting Heejung's warning over and over, I barely wrestled the fear down.

"Huh?" An idiotic sound escaped my lips before I could stop it. The guide voice that had appeared alongside the message was not the dry, rigid tone from before. It was warm. Beautiful. And the moment I registered that voice, I felt myself floating once more, swallowed by a brilliant white light.

The voice that came with the message was flat and flavorless. The warm voice from moments ago had already vanished. That discrepancy nagged at me a little, but I kept my focus fixed ahead. From here on out, it begins.

No further explanation followed. Annihilate all enemies? With no indication of the enemies' scale or even their nature, the unhelpful briefing made me frown.

What lay before me was a long passage, something like a cavern. Five meters across, with a ceiling about four meters high—fairly spacious. Torches hung at intervals along the walls, but their flames were weak and the distance between them considerable. They were fixed firmly in place; carrying one along seemed impossible. With such long gaps between torches, whole stretches lay in complete darkness.

Darkness exactly where enemies might be lurking, I thought. Would've been nice if I could at least see better. A dead-end wall closed off the way behind me. Nowhere to run. Gravel crunched and shifted beneath my feet.

I gripped the hilt of the shabby longsword firmly in both hands, resting the pommel in front of my right shoulder so I could swing at a moment's notice. Settling my trembling heart, I drew a long, deep breath. Calm down. Stay calm. Perhaps it was the deep breath, but I felt some of the tension loosen—and I took one step forward.