Proof of Courage (3)

The trial of the 4th floor turned out to be refreshingly simple.

The space was modest—barely seven hundred square feet. At its center ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sat a spring just large enough to accommodate two or three grown men, ringed by boulders, trees, and a low wooden fence. It might as well have been a hot spring resort.

Just like they said.

Someone had once told me that the 4th-floor Proof of Courage was nothing more than a matter of lounging in a half-body bath while it ran its course. I found myself in partial agreement as I lowered my body into the Spring of Courage.

Warmth spread through me from the inside out. Even with my equipment on, it felt as though I had slipped into the bath bare-skinned. The soothing heat was almost enough to summon drowsiness, and little by little, my mind began to drift into haze.

That was the moment.

Gwoooooooo!

The world before my eyes warped, and illusions began to take shape.

The first was the thing that had wounded me most deeply in recent memory.

"Oppa, let's break up."

"...What?"

"I'm sorry. There's someone else I like."

The scene of Lee Yeonhee bidding me farewell. It felt as though I had been hurled back to that exact moment in time, to that very second. A suffocating shock crashed over me.

But.

"Yeah. Good for you. Now get lost."

"Wh-what?"

My mind snapped into clarity almost before I knew it. This time, it was I who declared that she should get lost. Yeonhee's face crumpled in flustered disbelief. Well, well—it had been an illusion, but what a satisfying one.

Just as a cool relief spread through my chest, Yeonhee's face twisted into something like a vengeful spirit's.

Off you go.

I waved my hand at her face.

Poof!

She dissolved into smoke and vanished. The moment she disappeared, the clear water of the spring began to bleed a deep, vivid red.

And with that, the next illusion rose—this time, a memory from my childhood.

"My son... you've been through so much, haven't you?"

That beloved voice. That beloved face. Even knowing it was an illusion, emotion surged up my throat like a tide.

Mo...ther.

A face I'd believed I would never see again. And yet here it was, before my eyes.

"Come here. It's been so long—let me hold my boy."

As if entranced, I stepped toward my mother.

"My, look how big you've grown. I'd have to crane my neck just to see your face now."

'...'

I fell silently into her arms. Warmth wrapped around me, cozy and safe. Yes—this was my mother's embrace as I remembered it. It was so achingly warm, so desperately missed, that I half wanted to simply fall asleep right there.

"Mom. I'm sorry. And I love you. I'll come see you soon."

Come to think of it, it had been far too long since I'd last visited her columbarium. My mother, who had raised me through sheer hardship while shouldering the void my father left behind. She'd gone to heaven before I ever had the chance to repay her—a regret that still burned, a longing that still ached.

Had my heart reached her?

My mother said nothing more, only wore that gentle, forgiving smile.

"Your mother loves you very much too, my son."

With those words, her illusion slowly guttered out like a candle flame.

"Haaah."

I exhaled the breath I'd been holding in one long sigh.

This Proof of Courage—I'd underestimated it, but it was nastier than it looked. Digging into the rawest wounds of your heart and gouging them wide open, of all things.

If my Spirit stat had been low, I would have fallen asleep in that illusionary embrace right then and there, never to wake in this trial again.

And yet...

Should I call it gratitude, that I got to see my mother's face again, even like this? When she told me she loved me at the end, I'd nearly burst into tears before I could stop myself.

"Alright! Next one, come on out!"

To steady my splintering heart, I deliberately raised my voice and slapped the surface of the spring with my palm.

Splash!

Water droplets leapt into the air, and the next illusion materialized.

My childhood trauma. As a boy, I'd been teased and called a girl for being pretty—and now the illusion had gone and actually changed my sex to female. I nearly convinced myself I had genuinely become a woman. But when I refused to waver at the grotesque spectacle, the next illusion arrived.

This one was of my father. The sight of his back as he walked away—the back I'd witnessed as a child when he vanished after speaking of climbing the Tower. Even so, my emotions wavered far less than they had with my mother.

The illusions that followed were the same. They grew more lifelike with each passing vision, but I crossed them without much trouble.

And as each illusion passed, the spring's water shifted in turn—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo. Instinctively, I understood: it was cycling through the colors of the rainbow.

The last transformation was violet.

And with it came a pressure unlike anything before, clamping down on my mind like a vise. A weight so crushing that breathing itself became labor.

Within that pressure, I saw my future. The grotesque entities encountered on the Tower's upper floors. Falling into the despair of the Abyss as I fought against them. Myself, being devoured piece by piece into ruin.

Breathing grew harder and harder. It got to the point where I genuinely wondered if I might suffocate to death right here.

This is... my limit.

I knew it instinctively. In moments, my consciousness would give out and I'd collapse.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The earlier illusions had already drained my Spirit considerably, and now this final one was grinding what remained into the dirt.

But my limit doesn't end here.

I realized it was time to play the cards I had been holding back, saving, hoarding.

'Spirit Amplification!'

Spirit surged upward by +100 for ten seconds, and the crushing pressure that had been on the verge of shattering my mind suddenly became far more bearable.

But only briefly.

Exactly three seconds later, the violet deepened into something darker still. The illusions intensified in tandem, gnawing at my mind like starving beasts. Even after using Spirit Amplification, I still couldn't see the end.

Honestly, my Spirit stat was Tower-class—an entire tier beyond anyone at my level. Stack Spirit Amplification on top of that, and I'd assumed I could witness the ending of the Proof of Courage that no one had ever seen. Typical of the Sky Tower. It was not to be taken lightly.

Well, in that case, upgrading the Sage's Tome to 4-Star was a godsend.

The corner of my mouth curled upward. And I activated the skill I'd newly acquired from the Sage's Tome—Energy Amplification.

Flash!

A cool, sky-blue radiance bloomed from around my solar plexus; my health drained away as my mana surged in its place.

More! Keep going!

Energy Amplification. Energy Amplification. Energy Amplification!

I chained Energy Amplification over and over until my health hit rock bottom.

And the result—

An option embedded within the Sage's Robe awakened.

Kwaaaaaaaah!

The instant Spirit climbed by another 50, an invisible aura of momentum erupted from my body. The illusions that had been dismantling my mind before my very eyes melted away like snow in springtime.

And in that instant—

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

As if burning its final flame, the Spring of Courage erupted with a violet radiance so deep it was nearly black.

Skreeeeeeee—

Skreeeak! Kik-kik-kik!

Uuuuurgh... kiiiik... kraaaaaak!

Gruaaaaark! Grrrrr... kiiiik!

At the same time, wailing shrieks that seemed to belong to no living thing poured in from every direction. Creatures of such nightmarish grotesquerie—horrific enough to induce retching at a single glance—swarmed the space around me.

Even knowing they were illusions, sweat drenched my forehead in a cold rush.

'Energy Amplification!'

Another attempt. And with it, my health plummeted below one percent. A dizzy vertigo washed over me, spinning the world—yet my mind had never been sharper.

Thanks to Dragon's Vitality, even the health that had plunged so violently began refilling at a insane pace. Virtually every amplification buff I could muster had now fired.

And so, my Spirit—

'Ah.'

The sweat on my forehead stopped flowing. The creatures that had once curled my heart into a fist no longer looked quite so monstrous.

But.

That didn't mean they had vanished from before my eyes entirely.

'Unbelievable. Seriously. Even at these numbers, it won't break?'

Spirit stat: 400. A soaring figure no 4th-floor Ascender could ever hope to possess—and even that wasn't enough to shatter the trial. Which meant that, from the start, the Spring of Courage had probably never been designed to be broken at all.

But I still have one last move.

The instant before the short Spirit buffs expired—with less than two seconds remaining—I unleashed yet another of the skills I had gained.

'Light of Knowledge, activate.'

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

A skill that raised my Spirit stat by 100 for a full thirty seconds. Which brought my Spirit to—500. A number that no ordinary Ascender could ever, under any circumstance, be permitted to reach.

FLASH!!!

The Spring of Courage flooded with golden light, and the monstrous beings that had surrounded me evaporated all at once.

'Ah.'

And in that same moment, I understood. I had reached the very farthest edge of the Spring of Courage.

And that I had gone and caused another colossal incident.

João Fernandes. A Seven Sage out of Brazil—the King of South America. Wielding a bow, a weapon few favored, he had brought the lawless continent to its knees, ultimately rising all the way to a seat among the Seven Sages. A rags-to-riches legend, and naturally, a man whose pride in his own abilities brooked no challenge.

Me. Bested by some wet-behind-the-ears brat.

Crunch.

João's molars ground together.

When Tiamut had first come asking for his cooperation in capturing the Hahoe Mask alive, he'd intended nothing more than to casually stretch his legs. But what was this? He'd already been humiliated by the man twice. No matter how heavily the lower floors restricted the powerful, this defied all common sense.

He had to repay this disgrace. Absolutely.

"Lord João. Li Shang has moved. It appears his target is Unknown as well."

And then came word that Li Shang, too, was on the move—hunting the same prey.

That sinister bastard dares eye my kill?

Unknown was not something he could ever yield to another.

"I will be the one to take him. Without fail."

His pride was on the line now.

The 4th floor. That was where he would settle it.

"The analysis on him is airtight."

A style that swept enemies away by leading with overwhelming firepower. Which meant there was a surefire way to counter him.

'Eclipse—the unit I raised for the sole purpose of countering mages.'

Eclipse. A unit trained specifically to hunt the great mage Arjun, and so by design it specialized in combat against spellcasters. Built from the ground up to take down a battle mage of Arjun's devastating output, its magic resistance was bound to be extraordinary.

No repeat of last time.

A spell that punched through solid structures and detonated beyond them. He'd never heard of such magic, never seen it. After running the battle replay again and again, he had concluded it must be Mythic-grade.

But it failed to break the shield.

Impressive magic, granted. And besides—this was the 4th floor now. At best, that spell had been 3-Star tier; it wouldn't land this time either.

There are no variables.

If—if, in the impossible event that one existed—

It would be if the man had become a dragon. Dragon magic inherently carries the authority to pierce magic resistance, after all.

But the odds of that were zero. The man was Earth-born; no matter how high he flew or how low he crawled, not a single drop of dragon's blood could run in his veins.

A low, thunderous bass voice. A being wreathed head to toe in brilliant white radiance, bearing dragon scales and the wings of an angel, a demon, and a dragon alike.

The 4th Floor Administrator who had appeared before me was a Heavenly Dragon, his form little different from the 3rd Floor's.

The Administrator paused mid-sentence, his eyes suddenly flashing sharp.

From the Administrator's words, it struck me that Farel must be the 3rd Floor Administrator's name.

"Kim Hajun, sir."

"Yes, sir. That's correct."

Moonlight?

What on earth was that?

I blinked at the unfamiliar word—but within moments, I understood exactly what that moonlight meant.

And with the message, a selection of Moonlight-Infused Equipment materialized before my eyes.

"Ah!"

A gasp of awe tore out of me the moment I laid eyes on them. Because the mana radiating from each and every piece was anything but ordinary.

This feels just like...

It reminded me of how I'd felt holding Lumina's molar in my hand. Which meant—

Equipment that massively boosts the mana stat, as a baseline.

A mana stat of 100. A fierce intuition seized me: perhaps, in this very moment, I could finally reach it.