Upgrading the Akasha System
“Ugh, I’m dying.”
Seong Yujin opened his eyes.
He had lain down in bed that morning, yet not a single ray of light came through the window.
Meaning the sun had already set.
Yujin forced his still-creaking body upright and sat on the edge of the mattress.
“Looks like I’ll need another day of this.”
One day of rest clearly wasn’t going to be enough for a full recovery.
He never imagined he’d end up wasting time like this.
Compared to the first timeline it was still unimaginably fast, but even so, Yujin had no intention of slacking off.
Clearing the Tower as quickly as possible was his goal.
To have time slip away so unexpectedly left him with nothing but a hollow laugh.
“Well… it was still worth it.”
“Kkyaaaang—!”
Chunbae, clinging to his arm, let out a answering cry.
“You think so too, huh?”
Yujin stroked the little bear’s head, then shoved his hand straight into its mouth.
I’ve done this a few times now. I’m starting to get used to it.
Most of the squeamishness had faded.
If Chunbae had retched even once it never would have improved, but that hadn’t happened, had it?
As long as it doesn’t hurt, who cares.
It was useful—that much was fact—so he figured he could just look at the whole thing with half-lidded eyes and leave it at that.
Yujin glanced once at Chunbae’s wide-open mouth, then finally pulled his hand free.
“Heh.”
A purple jewel the size of a fingernail.
An Enhancement Stone.
“I wonder if the only way to say I used this well is to actually use it…”
First up, Fire Dragon Blade [E].
“That’s pearls before swine.”
It would be no different from dumping three hundred million won of tuning into a ten-million-won compact car.
In other words, pure insanity.
Maybe some oil-rich Middle Eastern billionaire with money rotting in every pocket would consider it, but—
Not me.
Enhancing Fire Dragon Blade [E] would only turn it into Fire Dragon Blade [D].
Better to just haul it over and sell it to that crazy woman in the Alchemist Guild.
At the very least he’d walk away with around ten thousand Coins.
And if I meet the conditions I can enhance things separately anyway.
So Fire Dragon Blade [E] was a hard pass.
“Hmm… Grace [C] is a little iffy too.”
Enhancing it would make it a full B-grade item.
Naturally the amount of mana it granted him would jump accordingly.
But was it worth burning an Enhancement Stone on?
“Not even close.”
Something the Tower itself treated like a lottery ticket was too precious to slap onto a mere C-grade item.
Then what about skills?
Yujin currently had three.
Instant [E], obtained on the Tutorial Floor.
Power Strike [E], the first skill he gained upon reaching the first floor.
And Moon Step [D], the reward for hunting the Earth Dragon.
The latter two were just like Fire Dragon Blade [E]—not even worth fretting over.
The problem was Instant [E]…
“This one actually has enhancement value.”
If it had already been around C-grade instead of E, he would have chosen Instant [E] without a second thought.
The advantages that skill brought were that massive.
But right now it just wasn’t enough.
“…Pass.”
Better to look at traits instead.
“No—honestly, there was never any other choice.”
King of All Weapons [S].
God-Infused Body [S].
He deliberately left True Consistency [E] off the list.
It was already more than sufficient as it was, and he doubted enhancement would yield any meaningful improvement.
The remaining two, however, were full S-grade traits.
Things first-timeline Yujin had never even glimpsed—monstrous powers of that caliber.
He hadn’t even known S-grades actually existed.
He’d heard rumors a few times, but always dismissed them as baseless gossip.
“If I’m enhancing, it’s one of these two.”
What would happen if he enhanced an S-grade?
“Would it become EX-grade?”
Like Hourglass of Chronos [EX]?
Or would it just stack another S on top?
He had no idea.
It was territory he had never experienced.
But one thing was certain: whichever he chose would become far stronger than it was now.
If Hourglass of Chronos [EX] or Flashback [S] had been active, I would have picked those…
Unfortunately that didn’t seem possible.
So he had to choose one of the two.
“Uuuuugh.”
A headache rolled in.
Decision paralysis he didn’t even know he had kept tormenting him without end.
King of All Weapons [S] let him wield every weapon with mastery.
It had already drawn out Black Wing’s latent potential all the way from C-grade to A-grade.
And if he enhanced it?
Couldn’t it break the limit?
Past Black Wing [A], all the way to Black Wing [S].
Or even beyond.
If that happened, King of All Weapons [S] would be broken among broken.
How many items had he never been able to use properly simply because he lacked the skill?
If he could push them to the extreme—no, past the extreme?
Yujin would become vastly stronger than he had been in the first timeline.
His heart pounded.
Just thinking about it was enough to make him excited.
Even if he only obtained a few of the items already floating through his mind, reaching the hundredth floor would become far easier.
And yet.
Yujin still couldn’t pick King of All Weapons [S].
God-Infused Body [S].
He knew exactly how sweet that trait’s benefits were.
Accelerated thought and True Consistency [E].
God-Infused Body [S] synergized with both of them almost too perfectly.
There was a reason Yujin praised True Consistency [E] as divine and God-Infused Body [S] as invincible.
The synergy between his own unique abilities and those two traits was so good it defied imagination.
Which was exactly why the decision paralysis hit so hard.
“Ah, fuck it. I don’t know.”
Yujin raked his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes.
Just pick one at random.
Whichever he chose would be an enormous help in the end.
So he might as well leave it to luck and stab a finger at something.
His “luck” had been absurd lately—maybe this method would turn out better than deliberate choice.
Eyes still shut, he opened the Akasha System status window and resolved to jab one of the two with a finger.
To keep himself from selecting something completely wrong, he didn’t even display anything else.
Only one of the two.
Yujin took a deep breath, finished steeling himself, activated the Enhancement Stone, and stretched out his finger.
Ting—.
A faint sensation of contact.
Meaning he had touched the status window.
He swallowed dryly and slowly opened his eyes.
So which one is it?
Half worry, half anticipation—Yujin fully opened his eyes and tilted his head.
“Huh?”
Contrary to every expectation, his finger was pointing at a spot completely divorced from either trait.
“What the hell?”
Something had definitely touched his fingertip.
That meant the Enhancement Stone had selected a target.
Yet his finger was indicating empty space, nowhere near the two S-grade traits.
Unable to make sense of the situation, he blinked a few times—and suddenly a brilliant light burst forth.
“Wh-what?!”
Startled, Yujin threw himself backward and widened his eyes.
At the same moment, text appeared.
You have selected a target for enhancement.
Target: 【Akasha System】
Estimated enhancement time: 32 hours
Commencing enhancement.
His jaw refused to close.
He told it to enhance a trait and it was enhancing the Akasha System?
Was that even possible in the first place?
No one had ever even considered it—and therefore no one had ever tried.
“Sh… shit?”
The only words Yujin could force out were curses.
He had hoped for a lottery ticket and instead hit the Super Ball jackpot.
One that had rolled over for about two months.
“They’re dead?”
Lee Sia froze in place, face blank with shock.
Park Ji-hoo was the same.
These were people who had still been alive just yesterday.
Even if they had fled screaming for their lives—
Up until then they had been breathing, screaming, talking, hunting together.
And now they were dead?
The terror of the Tower suddenly took one long stride closer.
I-it’s fine. I already went through this in the Tutorial.
Dozens had died there alone.
Sia had watched those deaths up close.
So she told herself she would be okay.
But…
She wasn’t.
The death of a complete stranger and the death of someone you had exchanged even a single word with carried completely different weight.
Even a simple death from old age left a heavy feeling in the chest—yet these people had been murdered.
By monsters that called themselves monsters.
By the monster that called itself the Tower of Light.
For no reason at all, simply because their luck had been bad.
They had ended their lives in this unfamiliar, alien world.
They won’t even see their families. Their friends. No one will grieve for their deaths.
Because no one would ever know they had died here.
That realization made the fear swell dozens of times over.
She wanted to run.
She wanted out of this goddamn Tower.
Whether it was Seong Yujin, a monster, or an Administrator—
Fuck, anything at all.
She wanted to escape right this second and return to the real world where her actual life was waiting.
“Nuna.”
But that was impossible.
There was only one way to completely leave the Tower.
Climb to the top floor, defeat the final boss, and clear it perfectly.
Nothing else existed.
That fact settled over her like endless despair.
“Nuna!”
Park Ji-hoo’s shout pulled her back.
The fear and darkness that had been devouring her mind cleared all at once.
“Are you okay?”
A worried face.
It was hard to believe this was the same boy who fought monsters with such ferocious strength—his expression was that pure and simple.
Even a kid like this is hanging on.
Sia bit her lip.
Blood welled up over the finely split skin.
The metallic taste.
Exactly the same taste she had gotten her fill of yesterday fighting Red Goblins.
Her spinning mind settled. Stability returned.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Sia forced a smile and ruffled Park Ji-hoo’s hair.
Right. Even a boy who wasn’t twenty yet was fighting with everything he had just to stay alive.
Then she could do it too.
Thankfully she had run into that madman Seong Yujin and was leveling up at a speed no other player could even compare to.
If she just kept following him, someday—
Really someday—she would reach the top of the Tower.
She had spent her whole life living passively, without any clear goal, drifting hazily through the days.
But in this moment,
Lee Sia planted one single goal deep in her chest.
I’m going to clear the Tower.
And then she would return to the family waiting for her.
Alive. Without fail.
“Let’s head back.”
At her words Park Ji-hoo hesitated a moment, then nodded.
He seemed worried about the half-catatonic man.
Sia felt the same.
“Mister, come with us.”
She couldn’t offer any real help, but she could at least make sure he got one warm meal.
Of course, that would require Seong Yujin’s permission first.
Lee Sia and Park Ji-hoo supported the half-broken man and began walking back toward the Starlight Wanderer.