Rank-Up (1)
“I've placed the materials you requested right here.”
“My thanks.”
Shin Myeong-jun, the man with the face of a bloated toad, accepted the USB drive the Ascender Center employee handed over.
“Everyone from Zones S through B who awakened in the last month. You've included all of them, I trust?”
“Yes, of course. Every single one, without a soul missing.”
The Center employee currently in Shin Myeong-jun's pocket was committing a serious crime — the unlawful disclosure of private records.
“Good. You've been working hard, as always.”
“Heh heh. Hardly worth mentioning, sir. Whatever heights I've reached here, I owe entirely to your patronage.”
At the employee's words, Shin Myeong-jun smirked and took a sip of the coffee set before him.
He wasn't wrong.
After all, Shin Myeong-jun had poured a staggering amount of effort into raising the man to his current position.
I even had him check Zone B, just to be thorough. If anyone filed an awakening report recently, they'd be on this list.
All of this — every piece of it — was for Unknown.
It was all for the sake of finding that man.
Even if Unknown had skipped the awakening report and was already operating as an Ascender in secret, it didn't matter.
Sooner or later, he would have to register.
“I'll have the weekly updated files prepared and delivered promptly as well.”
Good. Very good.
It felt as though Unknown's true identity was finally slipping within his grasp.
For the sake of our grand design... I do hope you come quietly when the time comes.
As Shin Myeong-jun smiled to himself, picturing Unknown's face—
Ellaon had been watching every moment of it.
“What? You're telling me he's been trading the personal records of recently awakened Ascenders?”
“Indeed.”
“Don't tell me...”
Somehow, I had a feeling that toad-faced man was looking for me.
“It is no mere feeling — it is certain. The man was hunting for Unknown. And the trouble is, he is a dangerous one.”
Because the files were being handed over so brazenly illegally, I'd watched the man a little more closely.
And then his true identity came to light.
“He belongs to a villain syndicate known as Tiamut.”
“T-Tiamut?”
Seriously?! Why would that pack of raving terrorists be after me?
If my identity gets exposed, I'm dead meat, aren't I?
Even with a prestigious clan standing as my shield, becoming the target of people like that meant living under a permanent cloud of unease.
And I had no one. No family, no allies — just me, alone.
I could hardly bear to imagine what would happen if they learned who I was.
Wow. Honestly, thank god I found out now.
What if I'd gone on without knowing any of this?
I supposed I could count myself lucky that I hadn't done anything big enough to risk exposing my identity so far.
I need to be even more careful from here on out.
I'd have to run dungeons with extra caution too.
“Your identity shall remain safe for the time being. The men have convinced themselves that Unknown hails from Zones S through B.”
That was another small mercy.
For now, I was outside their field of vision entirely.
But I can't just sit back and relax.
If they failed to find a trace in S through B, they might sweep the lower zones next.
“The moment you set foot upon the 2nd floor, we must secure the Sage's Robe above all else.”
“The Sage's Robe?”
“Aye. The Sage's Robe possesses many abilities devoted to safeguarding its bearer. Once you have it in hand, you shall be shielded from a great many dangers.”
Oh, is that right?
Then I needed to get my hands on the Sage's Robe, and fast.
No time to be sitting around like this.
I'd been thinking of resting a bit today.
But where was there room to rest at my level?
I decided to push through a few more dungeons while I still could.
A Level 9 dungeon.
This one was a village of hobgoblins.
Dense thickets and towering trees pressed in from all sides, and somewhere in the darkness, the presence of living things stirred.
“Kreek, kreerook!”
“Kiiiiek!”
Three hobgoblins.
The instant they spotted me, they began hurling stones.
Whooooosh!
Whoooooosh!
KRAK! KRR-KRAK!
“...Wow.”
The destructive power was on an entirely different level from the pebbles ordinary goblins threw.
Thwip, thwip—!
Shrieeeeek!
And it wasn't just stones — poison needles and venom sacs came flying at me as well.
I really do need armor.
Until now I'd only ever fought enemies at close range, and taking proper ranged attacks for the first time made the absence of armor painfully obvious.
Not that I need it quite yet.
A mere two steps back was all it took to slip out of their attack range.
Fortunately, their range wasn't particularly generous.
And my magic, on the other hand?
“Water Bomb.”
KWAANG!! FSSSHSHSHSHSHK!!
It reached them with plenty to spare.
Their attacks couldn't touch me, while mine struck home.
Wasn't that the very essence of a one-sided exchange?
Mwahahaha.
Anyway, one Water Bomb later, all three hobgoblins had been effortlessly swept aside, and following the path deeper into the forest brought me to a vast goblin settlement.
“Kiiiiek!”
“Kreerurook!”
“Kiik, kiiiiek!”
“Garruk!”
Dozens upon dozens of hobgoblins roaring at me in unison — the sight was pure nightmare fuel.
Shrieeeeek!
Hssssss—
Shrieeeeeek!
Countless ranged attacks came pouring down like a torrential squall.
PABABABAT!
Stones, arrows, poison needles — a storm of deadly projectiles hammered into the ground where I'd been standing a heartbeat before.
That was a little too close.
I judged that dragging this out would do me no good whatsoever.
I raised my hand at once.
Vuuuuuum!
A golden aura coiled around my body.
And in the next instant, emerald lightning burst forth.
KWARURURURUNG!
Psusususus—!
A single Thunderbolt, and nearly two-thirds of the hobgoblins were annihilated.
As expected. Thunderbolt.
It never let me down.
“K-Kreerook.”
“K-Kieeeek!”
The few lucky survivors who'd been far away from the blast lost their will to fight at the sight of it.
I cleaned up the rest with Mana Bolt and Water Bomb — and then the center of the village began to heave.
*Combat power has surged dramatically due to an unidentified entity.
Oh. Was this the effect of Sage's Sight leveling up its proficiency just a few days ago?
Now it even displayed brief descriptions.
Still...
Even for a hobgoblin, why is it so massive?
However I looked at it, that size was abnormal.
That wasn't an orc. A hobgoblin with that kind of frame? It had crossed a line.
It had probably grown to that size because of the unidentified entity, whatever it was.
But hey, so what.
Snorting, I stretched my hand out toward the charging boss.
“Thunderbolt.”
KRAJIKIKIKIKIKIKIZZT—!
Emerald lightning swallowed my entire field of vision.
And then—
KUUUUUUNG!
I watched the creature topple over backward, charred jet-black from head to toe.
“Done.”
A situation no different from any of the dungeons I'd cleared so far.
I figured the exit portal would appear next, and all that remained was walking out — but then—
“Huh?”
“Hooh.”
A Gem Card Box?
I'd only ever heard about it in stories.
Every once in a great while, when you killed a boss monster or an elite monster, a reward would appear.
“Man. So this is what it looks like in the flesh.”
I stood before the gem box, scattering a brilliant radiance in every direction.
It looked something like a small treasure chest.
[Would you like to open the ?]
“Yeah.”
The moment I spoke, the lid of the Gem Card Box swung back—
FAAAAAASH!!
—and in a wash of rainbow light, hundreds of cards rose floating into the air.
“Whoa.”
What a breathtakingly beautiful sight.
[Please select one Gem Card.]
From the Gem Cards, you could draw almost anything that existed in the Sky Tower — skills, gold coins, items, and more.
However, pulling high-grade rewards was far from easy.
The overwhelming majority were Normal grade.
Someone had actually tracked their pulls every time they got a , and according to their records—
Over 90% came out Normal grade, right?
Even Rare, the tier directly above Normal, had odds of less than 10%.
Which is why some people say:
There's no difference between this and scratching a lottery ticket.
The uncomfortable truth that most pulls were bound to be duds.
But I'm different, you see.
“Do you not possess an ability that lets you sidestep the duds entirely?”
I grinned at Ellaon's words.
That's right.
I had a skill that let me select a high grade with certainty in situations exactly like this one.
Sage's Sight — activate!
Sssssut!
A cool, refreshing sensation washed over both my eyes.
Sage's Sight had activated.
And then—
Among the hundreds of cards spread out before me, a tiny handful of them began to change color.
“Haaah...”
A long sigh escaped my lips.
“Could I have been a legendary figure in a past life or something?”
“Thou art spouting nonsense.”
“Heheheh. Sure. For all we know, my past-life poop came out golden.”
Madness laced my laughter.
What's so funny, you ask?
How could I not be laughing?
I had just succeeded in drawing a Legendary-grade piece of equipment from a .
Heheh.
I pulled the 'mask' I'd just acquired out of my inventory.
A pure-white Hahoe mask, designed to cover everything but the lower half of the face when worn.
At a glance, it might pass for the most ordinary mask in the world — but—
Check information.
◈ Vitality +2
◈ Mana +1
◈ Presence Reduction +30
◈ Immunity to Insight skills
◈ Mana Recovery +10%
◈ Magic Resistance +30%
◈ Stealth (5-Star ★★★★★) built in — undetectable by 5-Star or lower detection skills.
An item that raised three separate stats at once!
It had even raised Mana — the stat I needed most desperately — by a full point.
Thanks to it, my total Mana stat had finally hit 10.
The moment my Mana crossed into double digits, the growth rate became dramatically steeper than it had been in the single digits.
I had finally, at long last, acquired mana worthy of a 1-Star Ascender.
And that wasn't all.
Mana recovery and magic resistance too.
It filled in my lacking mana and took the burden of defense off my shoulders entirely.
It almost felt less like equipment and more like something made just for me.
No wonder I can't stop laughing.
Best of all, though, were the presence reduction and the Stealth skill among the mask's options.
That Tiamut bunch had been tracking my identity, and it had been gnawing at me nonstop — but those two options meant far less worry about being exposed.
I've hit Level 10, too.
Tomorrow would be one day short of exactly two weeks since I started.
If I passed the Ascension Exam tomorrow?
I'd be stepping onto the 2nd floor with an unprecedented record — not a one-month clear, but a two-week clear.
“Hmm.”
But there was one thing bothering me.
If it were merely a matter of passing the exam, there'd be no problem at all.
But if I'm climbing up anyway, shouldn't I break the top record while I'm at it?
The fastest record for the Ascension Exam to the 2nd floor had been set by James, and to this day not a single soul had even dared dream of surpassing it.
Then again, he was a monster among monsters.
People called all the Seven Ascenders monsters, but James was the only one who had grown from the very beginning with the full backing of a national government.
America — the most powerful nation on Earth.
Backed by that influence and capital, the American government had pushed James at the state level, and with mountains of Legendary-grade equipment draped over him, he'd posted a staggering time on the Ascension Exam.
The gap compared to the Hall of Fame records from the God Tree — where equipment restrictions applied — was colossal.
And James himself is known to be a freak of raw talent.
Surpassing a record like that.
Could I actually do it?
Probably, but overwhelmingly so? That, I couldn't say.
A question mark hung in the air.
The 1st-floor Ascension Exam content just happens to be a bad matchup for me.
The 1st floor's exam was a boss-annihilation type.
A Level 10 hidden boss would appear — a wood-element monster called the Corrupted Ent of Despair.
Which meant—
My strongest skills, Thunderbolt and Water Bomb, would suffer from elemental disadvantage, and their power would plummet.
Should I just give it a shot anyway?
While I was agonizing over the question, Ellaon spoke up out of nowhere.
“How about thou attempt to advance the Sage's Tome today?”
Huh? Advance the Sage's Tome?
“Aye. Once it reaches 2-Star grade, thou shalt be able to reinforce one of its elemental attributes. Strengthen the lightning element, and even shouldst thou be pressed by an unfavorable matchup, thou shalt wield destruction far beyond what came before.”
Oh, I see.
Then what was there to hesitate about?
“Deal.”
Let's do it.
That advancement thing.