Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: The Shop on the 4th Floor
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It really was a shop.
This must be the core gimmick of the 4th floor.
The difficulty increases, huh.
Does that mean more gimmicks get added, or additional monsters spawn?
I looked back at the shopkeeper.
He was an ordinary middle-aged man.
He looked just like a real person, but he had to be an NPC created by the system.
Could I coax out more clues by talking to him like I would with a village NPC?
I tried conversing with the shopkeeper.
"How do I make a purchase?"
The shopkeeper pointed toward a door off to the side with his finger.
Guess conversation really isn't an option.
Oh Heon passed through an open section of the shop and opened its door.
Despite its size, the shop didn't have many items.
There seemed to be only about a hundred on display.
I examined the nearest item.
A purple apple?
An increase in soul rank. I had no idea what that actually did, but just from the name, it sounded like a powerful effect.
The problem was the price. 100,000 gold?
I checked the other items to see if they were all like that.
Most in the shop cost tens of thousands of gold, with some exceeding a million.
Prices way beyond what I could afford.
Oh Heon immediately opened his inventory to check his current gold.
Current gold held: 97,675
Oh Heon widened his eyes slightly as he thought.
I've earned more than I expected.
If I had just a bit more, I could've bought that fruit from earlier.
Is it thanks to the 45,000 gold I made since entering the tower?
I began examining the shop's items more closely, analyzing their effects from every angle.
Among the ones I checked, there were some truly unique items.
But they were either too expensive or came with massive risks upon use.
I stopped looking at items I had no intention of buying and started searching for those under 100,000 gold.
About twenty items were within my reach.
Among those I could afford, the top priorities narrowed down to four.
The gold cost seemed reasonable compared to their effects.
Especially the pills—they were so cheap compared to other items that it was worth grabbing at least one of each.
However, with my current funds, I could only buy one between the Guardian's Demonic Sword and the Regeneration syringe.
Buying the sword would leave no room for the other pills—only the sword itself.
Oh Heon leaned against a display shelf and began pondering.
The Guardian's Demonic Sword had an incredible ability.
Recovering defense was basically mana recovery for me.
And it wasn't just recovery—it was absorption.
That meant it reduced the opponent's defense as well.
But not being able to buy the pills was a huge issue.
If this were outside, a temporary, single-stat pill wouldn't seem that important, especially since it wasn't permanent.
But right now, with the goal of climbing as high as possible in the tower, it equated to a full level's worth of power.
This tiny difference could mean life or death—passing or failing the tower.
Climbing just one more floor would yield rewards that made this dilemma irrelevant.
And the Secret Appraisal—whatever it was, at 4,000 gold, it was cheap enough to snag one.
Oh Heon's thoughts spiraled endlessly until an idea flashed through his mind.
'This is a shop, right? What if...?'
Oh Heon approached the shopkeeper, who stood blankly in the corner.
"Can I sell the items I currently have?"
The shopkeeper wordlessly pointed in one direction with his finger.
There was a very small notice posted there.
The shop's cluttered design and flashy items had kept it completely out of sight until now.
Oh Heon leaned in close to read the tiny text.
This didn't mean I couldn't sell—it just limited sales to tower drops, but sales were possible.
I pulled out three sellable items.
The highly useful ring from the 2nd floor, the core from the 1st floor that restored mana and temporarily boosted mana, and the belt from the 3rd floor that increased recovery and regeneration.
I had no intention of selling the ring, so I debated between the core and the belt.
But then I realized a major problem.
'I don't even know how much they'll offer—do I really want to risk selling?'
In that moment, I thought I'd wasted my time and leaned toward just buying the sword.
As I headed toward its display, I paused to think a bit more.
'Can they appraise items too? It's a shop, so probably.'
I asked the shopkeeper if appraisals were possible.
He patted his chest, gesturing as if to say, "Leave it to me."
Soon, his hands began glowing with golden light.
He picked up each item I'd placed down and started appraising them one by one.
His formerly mild-mannered, ordinary face now showed the keen eye of a seasoned expert.
He pulled paper from his pocket and wrote down the sale prices right there.
I took the paper and checked the amounts.
Core: 40,000 gold. Belt: 20,000 gold.
The results were unexpected.
Items from higher floors weren't necessarily worth more.
Just to be safe, I asked him to appraise the ring I had no plans to sell.
The shopkeeper appraised it as if it were natural.
Sale price: 15,000 gold.
The low amount actually put my mind at ease.
If it had been high, I'd have wasted more time comparing it to other shop items.
Now factoring in sales, I began seriously deliberating my final choices.
Quite some time passed.
Oh Heon approached the shopkeeper with resolve.
In the end, he sold only one item.
The Skeleton Necromancer's core. Just that.
There were options like selling neither, selling both, and more.
My final decision was to sell only the core.
The main reason was clear.
The core's mana recovery was less than I'd thought.
In fact, during his deliberations, he'd tested the core.
'Should I try using the core once?'
This was a risky move.
What if using it fully restored his mana?
That would mean throwing away a game-changer for mid-battle when his demi-god power hit bottom.
But before using it recklessly...
Oh Heon thought deeper about the core.
It wasn't just any core—it was the Skeleton Necromancer's core.
Having fought it on the 1st floor, he recalled the necromancer's level.
Its stats hadn't exceeded 20—it wasn't a powerful monster.
So, wouldn't its mana recovery naturally be low?
Was his guess right?
No one knew the exact relation between items and their dropping monsters.
But Oh Heon hadn't given up; he was piecing together the clues.
Ultimately, he took the risky path.
To confirm, he activated Domain, held the core, and hoped his choice was correct.
'How much will it restore? I hope I don't regret this.'
When Oh Heon used the core,
it began rapidly filling his mana.
The result?
Half of the demi-god power consumed by Domain.
No, not even half.
The core's value plummeted in that instant.
Observing it closely after use, even the mana it recovered on its own regenerated agonizingly slowly.
At this rate, using it as a backup for skill training back in his original dimension wouldn't help much once his level rose.
The core had another effect, too.
Temporary +1 mana stat.
But I figured that wouldn't help much in the tower either.
Temporary meant useless from the next floor on.
That was why he sold the core—but there were reasons not to sell the belt.
The belt had regeneration, which could substitute for the syringe granting Regeneration skill.
All recovery increases might still restore mana, too.
In the end, Oh Heon bought five items total, concluding his long deliberation.
Guardian's Demonic Sword, three Advanced Stat Increase Pills, one Secret Appraisal Pill.
This was the shopping list after exhaustive thought.
Having pondered so long, I felt mentally drained.
'...Finally done...'
Item selection was the most mentally taxing part of climbing the tower.
Is this what the 4th floor's difficulty increase meant?
Oh Heon's fantasies were quickly overshadowed by seriousness.
Now it was time to prepare for battle.
I hadn't worried about the 4th floor's difficulty hike from the start.
After overwhelmingly clearing the 3rd, I was confident I could handle any increase on the 4th.
I hadn't even needed my trump cards so far.
Plus, the stat pills I'd just bought were a new ace up my sleeve.
Not long after I made my purchases,
the entire shop began shaking with a massive tremor.
Items tumbled from shelves, cracks spiderwebbed across walls and ceiling.
I hurriedly exited the shop.
The shop dismantled itself, smoothly sinking into the floor.
Like a sandcastle, it crumbled into a pile of debris in seconds.
What remained in its place?
The shopkeeper. The ordinary-looking man.
But his current expression was anything but human.
Not the friendly gaze from when I shopped.
Standing motionless, the shopkeeper began changing bit by bit.
His face twisted further, his skin losing vitality, turning a corpse-like pale blue.
'Not human after all. A monster.'
The blue fiend.
That was the shopkeeper's true form.
A hideous creature mimicking a human.
Now I knew why he couldn't speak.
Soon, I regarded him fully as a monster.
I waited to see what the 4th floor's difficulty increase entailed.
As if meeting my expectations, the fiend began moving strangely.
He raised one hand, palm upward.
A pattern etched into his palm.
With an alarm-like chime, five coins materialized from the pattern in his palm.
The fiend clenched his fist, rattling the coins playfully.
Then, with a satisfied grin, he popped them into his mouth one by one.
Gulp.
Immediately, his muscles twitched and swelled.
The changes happened over a very short time, but I caught that there were five distinct ones.
When the twitching stopped, he'd grown to nearly 3 meters tall.
Seeing the fiend so drastically altered from before, Oh Heon began feeling a twinge of tension.
Oh Heon gathered his demi-god power, bracing for a sudden attack.
The fiend's red eyes pierced into me for several seconds.
In an instant, its massive body launched like a cannonball.
I channeled demi-god power into the demonic sword, readying my defense.
The fiend seemed to aim a fist at my torso.
As it drew closer,
its fist shifted form,
targeting my face with a feint instead.
I urgently raised my sword to block.
Clang—!!
Whether because I blocked with my sword or its power was just that immense, I didn't know.
My feet carved deep gouges into the marble floor, sliding back at least five meters.
My arms went numb.
'First time...?'
This was the first time I'd been pushed back by an attack since arriving in the Transcendence World.
Oh Heon calmly eyed the fiend and reset his stance.
For Oh Heon, true combat hadn't happened yet.
All foes had died without being proper opponents.
Monster or human alike.
But now, he realized that illusion had shattered.
This fiend could genuinely threaten him.
'Over 30...?'
My current stats ranged from 34 to 32.
To even challenge me, it needed at least 30.
That strike wasn't quite 30.
But it hadn't felt like full power either.
So this thing was a real enemy—one that could wound me, maybe even kill me.
I treated this as my first true battle and activated Domain.
I coldly signaled the start of my first real fight.
"Domain."
The familiar sensation washed over me.
Assimilation with space. Mastery of senses.
And the Guardian's Demonic Sword already absorbed defense,
a power blending defense and mana—perfectly suited to demi-god power.
Unlike my previous swords, channeling demi-god power into it was far easier to control.
With its white-and-blue hues now laced with my golden demi-god power, it truly looked like a demonic sword.
Using Domain's power as propulsion, I charged the fiend first this time.
Pop.
The fiend didn't flee—it charged back.
Its fist form shifted again.
Its nails rapidly extended, growing to dagger-like length and sharpness.
My demonic sword clashed with the fiend's claws.
Cling!
The sharp blade and blue claws collided, sparking fiercely.
As a result, the fiend—lacking strength—had to pull its arm back.
I seized the opening, twisting the blade toward its exposed neck.
The fiend hurriedly raised its other hand to block.
I twisted the blade once more, slicing its wrist instead of the claws.
Blue blood sprayed from its arm as the hand fell away.
"Kraaaagh!!"
The fiend screamed in agony.
But it raged harder, unleashing a frenzy with its remaining arm.
The attacks were blisteringly fast—hard to dodge.
Did it have a berserk pattern?
Dangerous.
No need to hold back anymore.
I resolved to go all out.
Mobilizing full demi-god power and Domain strength, I reinforced my entire body.
I closed in at insane speed.
Startled by the velocity, the fiend tried swatting my sword with its claws, but I poured nearly all my fully-powered demi-god power into the blade.
The demonic sword unleashed the condensed force completely.
Swish!
The fiend's claws sheared cleanly off.
I pressed forward, slashing vertically downward.
The fiend couldn't react to the follow-up.
Its body split perfectly in half, collapsing to either side.
Blue blood poured out like a waterfall in all directions.
I concluded my first real battle.
This fiend was unlike any foe I'd faced before.
Not just raw power and speed—it read the flow of battle and used feints, showing real intelligence.
It felt like fighting a true monster for the first time.
I replayed the fight in my head, calming my lingering excitement.
I picked up the dropped item and moved to the familiar interlayer.
Upon arriving, I first checked the item and title.
Hm.
The 4th floor's title and item exceeded expectations, but neither directly aided combat right now.
I'd reached level 28. Good news.
Steady leveling was my greatest asset.
I stowed the item in my inventory and prepared for the 5th floor.
I needed to drink a mana potion and wait for full recovery.
The 4th floor's difficulty already featured 30-stat monsters.
The 5th was the mid-boss.
Still, the difficulty spike probably wouldn't be drastic.
The 4th was special—difficulty scaled with purchases. I'd chosen max.
The 5th should be similar or just a bit higher.
Once mana was full,
I steeled myself and selected the 5th floor challenge.
The passage was far more dilapidated and ominous than before.
Like entering an ancient tomb.
But it felt the most like a proper dungeon so far.
The massive stone door resembled the 1st floor's.
Opening it revealed an overwhelmingly vast space.
Pitch-black darkness cloaked the surroundings, with enormous pillars stretching skyward.
Like a temple.
Circles adorned the floor.
And at the deepest part of the space,
a monstrous figure sat on what looked like a throne.
A crowned giant.
Larger than the 3rd floor orcs, who now seemed like children.
Not quite 10 meters, but close.
I circulated demi-god power and approached slowly.
No need for full power from the start. I had to test its strength first.
And I couldn't waste power recklessly.
Still, I didn't underestimate it.
The giant watched me approach without stirring.
Like gazing at an insignificant insect, it stared with arrogant eyes.
I immediately charged the haughty giant.
The moment I thrust my demonic sword at its heart—
the giant's arm moved.
From its seated position on the throne.
Its massive hand casually blocked my lightning-fast strike.
With one hand.