No Way I'm the Villain!
The Shelter. A space officially listed as the eleventh floor of the tower, a resting place for explorers who had finally stepped into the “lower levels.”
When you first entered, it was nothing more than a thirty-pyeong studio exactly ten meters wide and ten meters long, painted a blinding, featureless white.
Unlike the lower floors that still had neutral cities, the lower levels forced you to roam across entire dimensional fields to complete missions. There were no proper bases down here, so this white box was the next best thing.
It was disgustingly large for one person, yet because everything had to be done inside it, the space never felt spacious at all. Sleeping, eating, and even sword training—all of it happened here.
Thank goodness I was a swordswoman. If I’d been a mage, I would have spent most of my time accidentally burning the place down while spamming fireballs in such a cramped room.
So receiving a studio larger than the officetel I used to live in wasn’t really a perk. It was simply the tower’s necessary welfare policy.
Would you like to purchase ‘Ivory Paint’?
Having my own space was nice, but an entirely pure-white room was a one-way ticket to losing my mind. A short stay might be tolerable, but I would be stuck here for months. That sounded like pure torture.
Whether or not Immovable Mind made me immune to mental illness, I simply hated the color.
Applying ‘Ivory Paint.’
Phew. Now I could actually live here.
Besides that—although I planned to leave this shelter as quickly as possible—I still needed basic living facilities as a human being. So I kept shopping. A bathroom, a simple kitchen for cooking, and a bed to sleep in. Since I would be outside most of the time anyway, I only bought what I absolutely needed.
The one bit of luxury I allowed myself was an ultra-majesty-grade bed that went far beyond king size. It was sinfully soft.
“Hmm. This should be enough.”
If I needed anything else later, I could always buy it then.
I nodded, then threw myself onto the ultra-majesty bed. The plushness that wrapped around my entire body mixed with the powerful bounce that launched me back up the moment I landed.
…The perfect combination of the two created a truly devastating mattress.
I floated in that heavenly sensation for a while before finally pulling myself together and opening my character information.
“Progress really is fast, huh.”
The titles, traits, and skill were overwhelming, but the base stats that had already climbed into the thirties were even more impressive. Most people only reached this level of specs after reaching the mid-tier floors around the thirtieth.
“Well, it’ll get harder to raise them from now on.”
Just like levels, stats became exponentially more difficult to increase the higher they climbed. I had already killed a troll from the mid-tier, so ordinary monsters could no longer help me grow. In a normal game this would have been a choking point, but I possessed the cheat trait Heavenly Slaughter Star.
Combat power suddenly doubles the moment I enter battle? As long as meteors weren’t raining from the sky or legendary ninjas weren’t popping out, I wouldn’t have to worry about physical stats for a while.
Which meant the next thing I needed to focus on wasn’t the body.
Mana.
One of the restrictions that was lifted once I left the lowest floors and reached level two. It was also the most important factor in character growth.
The difference in combat power depending on the amount of accumulated mana—internal energy—and how you used it was enormous. On the lower floors the usage level wasn’t high and I was overwhelmingly strong anyway, so it hadn’t shown, but the higher I climbed, the more weirdos appeared.
There had even been a lunatic who learned a dragon’s breathing method after who-knows-how-much grinding. Dragon’s breath, Heavenly Demon Divine Art, Sword Master’s insights… I was a little tempted, but learning such monstrous breathing techniques on the lower floors was impossible, and they were far too expensive anyway.
What I needed right now was a reasonably practical yet future-oriented breathing method. A means to accumulate mana.
The message saying I had awakened mana had appeared, but the amount was so tiny it didn’t even show in my status window. To make it usable I needed a breathing technique of my own.
Calculating all hunting experience and achievements for player Undertaker.
The Tower is shocked by the great explorer’s continuous string of great achievements!
Achievement Shop has been unlocked!
Reaching level two had also unlocked the shop function that let me trade achievement points for items, traits, or skills. Every piece of furniture and facility in the shelter had been bought through it.
I had only cleared the lowest floors, yet between all the achievements and killing that troll, I had accumulated quite a few points. Shopping that would have been absolutely impossible for a rookie who had just entered the lower levels was now within my reach.
Still, I didn’t have enough to buy everything I wanted, so I had to focus on one thing. And the most urgent was, of course, mana training and a breathing method.
No need for sword techniques or elixirs to raise stats just yet.
I opened the list with the firm intention of spending every last point on a good breathing method.
Western and fantasy-sounding ones appeared first—Heart Method of Agnes, Leone Royal Heart Method, Soul of the Phoenix, Leonhardt Breathing Technique…
Then came the eastern Murim-style ones—Childhood Cultivation, Blood Demon Asura Art, Great Absorption Technique, Profound Righteous Sect Internal Energy Heart Method, Cold Ice True Energy, Great Void Spirit Heart Method…
“Nothing really catches my eye.”
There were all sorts of breathing methods from both east and west, but every single one felt either lacking or half-baked. The Soul of the Phoenix offered explosive firepower for an instant but had terrible sustained power. The Murim heart methods had excellent continuity and pure energy accumulation, yet they took far too long to reach full mastery.
As a former Korean, I wanted a breathing method that delivered quick results and still had long-term potential. I checked a few others whose names intrigued me, but they all came with nasty side effects—becoming impotent, turning into an emotionless ice human, that sort of thing.
Hmm. Isn’t there something with a cool name and amazing performance?
I wasn’t asking for an absolute divine art, just a decent breathing method I could use right now that—
Asura Divine Art.
“Oh. Found it.”
It was the only technique in the entire purchasable list that carried the character for “divine.” The name passed inspection, and a quick look at the performance showed it granted near-perfect destructive growth and combat ability.
Wait, why was something this good being sold for cheap?
The only side effect was a risk that the user’s mind might go a little crazy.
Doesn’t matter, does it?
I already had Heavenly Slaughter Star, and I also had Blood Seed as a skill. The three-piece set would be perfect. With Immovable Mind and a mental stat that had risen with my level, I should be able to handle it wisely.
If it ever got dangerous, I could just buy holy water from the shop and chug it.
Would you like to learn ‘Asura Divine Art’? Y/N
“Yes. I choose you.”
I pressed the button and waited, wiggling my hips in excitement. Soon a riot of colors surged up inside my head.
…This isn’t going to make my head explode, right?
The anxiety made me tense up for a brief moment, but the colorful sensation quickly subsided and transformed into something else. It felt like needles stabbing into my brain.
“Aaaagh!”
A scream burst out from the intense pain. I clutched my throbbing skull and desperately engraved the divine art’s formulas that were rising one after another.
Damn it, they really didn’t have to reflect reality this much.
Before I could even appreciate the coolness of Asura, it felt like my skull was going to split open and kill me.
I endured the pain for what felt like an eternity.
Asura Divine Art learned.
Meridians and dantian have been created.
“…I really thought I was going to die.”
Fortunately my head did not explode. I had successfully learned the divine art and formed my dantian. The amount of internal energy inside was still tiny—barely enough to call it first stage—but it was undeniably real internal energy.
I let out a sigh of relief and checked my newly updated character information.
“Hmm.”
I had worried it might have been a reckless choice while my head was splitting, but seeing the divine art settled so firmly in my status window made my chest swell with pride.
Who am I? The proud owner of Asura Divine Art at first star, that’s who.
The internal energy in my dantian was embarrassingly small to even call it first stage, but the injected knowledge gave me a deep understanding of the art. Because it was a genuine divine technique, it wasn’t just a breathing method for gathering qi while sitting still. It also involved moving the entire body.
I couldn’t convert it into exact numbers, but simply learning it seemed to have made me tremendously stronger.
My chest swelled again. A fierce competitive spirit burned hot inside me.
Heavenly Slaughter Star and Blood Seed resonate with each other.
Blood Seed and Asura Divine Art greet each other warmly.
Asura Divine Art and Heavenly Slaughter Star welcome each other passionately.
Since I was in a good mood for the first time in a while, maybe I should go test its performance.
A hidden corner of an underground passage.
“Ooooh, great god!”
Countless believers bowed their heads beneath an altar decorated with various foods and someone’s remains. The high priest cried out the god’s name.
“The ignorant masses persecute your servants! Judge the heretics who believe in false idols and save these poor lambs! O god!!”
They probably hadn’t expected much. The ritual wasn’t any grander than usual, and the quality of the offerings couldn’t be guaranteed. Most of it was just for show, so everyone assumed the service would end without incident like always.
“───O god!!!”
But the moment the high priest’s shout rang out, CRACKLE! Lightning struck the altar.
Everyone in the hall, including the priest who had just been calling for the god, widened their eyes in shock. Thunder had roared underground. On top of that, pitch-black fog thickly covered the altar as if something was being summoned.
“…Cough! Cough! My lungs feel completely wrecked.”
The black fog soon cleared, revealing a woman of breathtaking beauty. Her speech carried the crude tone of a lower-class citizen, yet her face and figure could easily rival a noble lady on the verge of coming of age.
The high priest felt a sudden surge of lust, but the instant he saw the crimson glow in her eyes, every carnal desire in his body was extinguished. Only the joy of fanaticism remained.
“Behold! The god has answered our call and delivered this apostle to the earth!”
“Ooooh, apostle of justice!”
“Save us from the pit of evil!”
“Aaaah, Lady Apostle!”
The once-restrained chapel instantly turned into a frenzy of madness.
“……?”
Liz, whose red eyes—a side effect of the Asura Divine Art—glowed in the pitch darkness, frowned, completely unable to understand the current situation. She checked the system message.
Floor 12 – Temple of the Evil God
📍 A branching quest has been assigned.
📍 Evil Path: As the apostle of the evil god, massacre every elite soldier and civilian of the kingdom.
📍 Good Path: Suppress the remnants of the evil god and protect the kingdom’s peace.
“Oh.”
Thanks to learning the divine art, it looked like she had really become an apostle of the (evil) god.