I Revived Him, But...
The pet dog he had loved and raised was dead.
And in that very same moment, he awakened as a Climber.
Goldie — a golden retriever, innocent and sweet and fond of everyone he met.
After Dohyeon's parents passed away, Goldie had been the only family he had left. He couldn't speak for how anyone else might see it, but that was what Goldie meant to Cha Dohyeon.
And now Goldie's body was still warm. Still warm — and yet he had already crossed the rainbow bridge. Dohyeon couldn't believe it.
The animal hospital had warned them that the end was near. Goldie himself had seemed to ready himself for it, and Dohyeon had understood it rationally, too. He had steeled his heart for it. It hadn't helped one bit.
He had gone to the trouble of loading Goldie's limp, heavy body into a carrier and taking him to see the cherry blossoms — one last memory with Goldie, that was why. He wanted to believe that while he trudged along drenched in sweat, hauling the carrier, Goldie had been happy — drinking in the new scents, gazing up at the blossoms.
On the table, the sweet-and-spicy fried chicken Goldie had always coveted was going cold. He had ordered it because he'd wanted to feed Goldie one last time before the end.
"Goldie... Thank you. I love you. Be happy. I was happy too, because I had you..."
Tears welled up beneath Cha Dohyeon's eyes, brimmed over, and came pouring out in a rush.
Family who had been at his side since childhood, for all those long years. Goldie had been his adorable baby, his little brother, his friend — and once in a while, something like an older brother.
The last family Dohyeon had in this world was gone.
After losing his parents, his heart had tossed like a wrecked ship on the waves — and Goldie had been its anchor. Only now, having lost Goldie too, did Dohyeon truly grasp his position for what it was: he had become the shipwreck itself.
Dohyeon stroked the fur of Goldie's body, and Goldie seemed to grow colder by the minute.
"Like somebody once said... when my time comes, I hope you'll come out to meet me..."
Cha Dohyeon was still wrestling down the hot tears and the tearing ache in his chest when he heard an unfamiliar notification chime.
Ding!
Something floated up before Dohyeon's blurred, tear-fogged eyes.
You have awakened as a Climber.
From this moment on, you may view your status window and enter the nearby Tower.
Before the dumbfounded Dohyeon — his brain had simply stopped turning — a status window popped up of its own accord.
(New) Jade Bone Crafting: You can refine ordinary bones into jade bone. While bones are being refined into jade bone, the soul within them becomes immune to destruction, corruption, and external interference. Once the transformation into complete jade bone is finished, the soul resides within it permanently.
It was all so abrupt that even his falling tears had stopped.
One particular line leaped out at Dohyeon.
While bones are being refined into jade bone, the soul within them becomes immune to destruction, corruption, and external interference.
"So Goldie's soul... can't be destroyed, or corrupted, or interfered with...?"
That was the effect attached to his skill, Jade Bone Crafting.
Which meant, by implication, that the soul of any bone that did not undergo Jade Bone Crafting would be subject to destruction, corruption, and outside interference.
Cha Dohyeon used the skill without even knowing how much mana he had. He wanted Goldie's soul to stay whole so badly that it never even occurred to him that his own greed might bind that soul to the bones forever.
"Jade Bone Crafting!"
Hands spread wide over Goldie, Dohyeon shouted the skill. The brand-new Level 0 Climber burned through every last drop of his mana in an instant and passed out.
Thud.
Cha Dohyeon, out cold, crumpled to the floor beside the neatly separated pile of Goldie's bones.
"Jade Bone Crafting!"
Dohyeon had been casting the skill for ten days straight now, without missing a single one.
Ever since he'd passed out cold on the floor of his room, he had learned never to drain his mana to the very last drop. After that, he always kept a little in reserve to keep his daily life running.
In the everyday he'd clawed back, he buried his grief over losing Goldie deep in his chest, saw to the flesh and fur that had crumbled away from the bones, and nursed a fresh hope of being with Goldie again.
Judging by the evidence, Dohyeon had awakened into the class classified as a necromancer. And the skill description for Jade Bone Crafting made one thing clear: he could meet Goldie again.
"Whew..."
Feeling his mana draining away in a steady stream, Dohyeon stopped casting and wiped his forehead. No sweat had actually broken out, but it felt like it should have. Pushing his mana to the limit left him utterly wrung out.
At some point, Goldie's white bones had begun transforming into jade bone — translucent as jade and beautiful in color. An emerald radiance was pushing through from deep within, glimpsed through the half-transparent surface. Darken the room, and you could see that Goldie's bones truly did glow.
"Looks just about finished now..."
He had never heard of a skill called Jade Bone Crafting, never seen one, and this was his first time using it — but the bearer's own instinct told him that Goldie's jade bone would be complete before long.
Rrrring— rrrring—
Just then, Dohyeon's smartphone rang.
Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo
"Why is he calling again... I told him clearly I was quitting."
Dohyeon rubbed at the smartphone screen with a disgruntled look.
"Yes. Dohyeon speaking."
"Hey, you little punk! Who the hell quits by firing off a single text?! Is that how I taught you?! And why weren't you answering your phone?! Did something happen? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I almost filed a missing-persons report on you, man! Get over here right now! The company's falling apart without you!"
A helpless little snort of laughter escaped Cha Dohyeon.
"What kind of company collapses without me? Look at your revenue and your headcount. Anyway, please go ahead and process my resignation."
At the calm voice coming through from the other side of the smartphone, Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo fell silent for a moment.
"...Are you okay? What's going on?"
Dohyeon answered as if it were nothing.
"Goldie did cross the rainbow bridge. Ah — no, I suppose he hasn't really gone yet."
Seonwoo, likewise silent for a beat, spoke in a low, heavy voice.
"...I see. I figured it was coming, but... Did you take care of the arrangements?"
"I'm still in the middle of it. I think it's just about done now."
It seemed Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo had pictured Goldie's corpse rotting away in Dohyeon's studio apartment, because he couldn't readily find the words to go on.
Dohyeon, too, belatedly realized how strange it must sound to anyone listening, and added an explanation.
"Ah — don't get the wrong idea. I awakened as a necromancer. I'm bringing Goldie back to life right now."
This time, Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo reacted instantly.
"What?! Of all times, of all classes, you awaken as a necromancer! How is fate this...! No, wait. Congratulations, Dohyeon! I know exactly what Goldie means to you, so I've been worried sick — this is really wonderful news!"
Dohyeon smiled at the warmth in Seonwoo's heart.
"Haha. Thank you. I've been pouring out every last drop of mana for ten days straight... Now that I think about it, I probably could have explained all this to you, sir. I just wasn't in any state to."
"Does that matter? I can breathe easy now. I don't know what kind of ability takes ten days of preparation, but anyway — if you can't find a decent company to handle your byproducts while you climb, call me right away. I'll take care of you at VIP commission rates."
"Haha. Is that allowed? Wouldn't that count as a breach of trust too?"
"Hey. Did you sleep through your job training? How is that a breach of trust? It's a modest little promotion for winning over clients, that's all. We court other Climbers the same way besides you. There's nothing to worry about."
The company Cha Dohyeon had worked for was a Tower byproduct processor just now leaping from a small business into a mid-sized one. Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo's thoughtfulness warmed Dohyeon's heart.
"Anyway, once things wrap up on my end, I'll give you a call. Dinner's on me. Please take good care of the resignation paperwork."
"Right. I'll wrap up everything at the office myself. Nobody at our company thinks badly of a man quitting to become a Climber. Take your time, prepare thoroughly, and go for it. You know how many Climbers get hurt or die for nothing in the early floors, right? I'm rooting for you."
"Yes. Thank you. I'll hang up now."
Click.
Call ended, Dohyeon stared at the darkened screen, a quiet smile resting on his lips.
Ten frantic days spent crafting Goldie's jade bone had cut him off from the outside world entirely, so for a while he had forgotten — but there were people besides Goldie with whom he shared his heart. He had thought of himself as duckweed adrift on the endless sea, a shipwreck wandering the boundless deep with no shore in sight. But that wasn't so.
Dohyeon gathered his resolve.
"First, I bring Goldie back. Then I take on the Tower...!"
It was only after Goldie's jade bone was complete that his grand climbing plans hit a snag.
"Finally...!"
It was the moment when half a month of effort — begun the instant Goldie crossed the rainbow bridge — bore fruit.
Onto Goldie's neatly ordered pile of bones, Dohyeon cast his skill, Jade Bone Crafting, and at long last, Goldie's jade bone was complete.
In Goldie's once-hollow eye sockets, flames of soul settled into place like a pair of eyes. Onto the translucent skull shedding its emerald radiance, an emerald soul likewise came to rest.
The color of that soul defied any easy description, stirring some strange, ineffable feeling in him.
"Goldie! Can you hear me? Can you move?"
Heart swelling, Dohyeon spoke to him.
Goldie, too, burned the flames of his soul as though trying to say something...
But he couldn't move at all.
"What?! Jade Bone Crafting clearly succeeded! Then why can't Goldie move?!"
Dohyeon tried arranging Goldie's bones like pieces of a puzzle.
But the clean, smooth bones generated no force of attraction whatsoever, lying sprawled apart every which way.
Goldie was bones now, nothing more — so something would have to take the place of muscle and ligament and tendon...
"No way...?"
Seized by an ominous premonition, Dohyeon read the skill description one more time.
Jade Bone Crafting: You can refine ordinary bones into jade bone. While bones are being refined into jade bone, the soul within them becomes immune to destruction, corruption, and external interference. Once the transformation into complete jade bone is finished, the soul resides within it permanently.
Nowhere in the skill description did it say that a completed jade bone would come back to life and function as a summon.
"What the..."
Ordinary Climbers... no, every single Climber gains, at Level 0, at the very least a skill that lets them climb. For a mage, the ever-common Fireball. For a warrior, Swordsmanship or Smite. For a necromancer, Raise Skeleton and its kin are the standard.
"Don't tell me I'm one of those rare crafting-type Climbers? No. There's no way."
Dohyeon gathered his reeling wits and tried to think with cold clarity.
"If I were a crafting type, then Jade Bone Crafting wouldn't have an effect that lets a soul reside in it."
A soul dwelling within an item was what you would call an Ego Weapon — and no Level 0 Climber would be handed a skill that advanced.
"Which means I'm a combat class... and I have to punch my way through the tutorial with nothing but my bare body...?"
Dohyeon's cold, level-headed judgment led him to a single conclusion: with no attack skill and no defensive skill, he would have to climb the tutorial floors with his bare body.
Every Climber gains a new skill in five-level increments. He had gained his at Level 0 — so if he climbed to Floor 5, the last of the tutorial floors, and reached Level 5, he could gain a new skill.
By his estimate, the day Goldie would truly come back to life and move again would be the day he reached Level 5.
His despair — hands pressed against the floor — lasted only a moment.
Goldie couldn't move freely. But Goldie's soul was watching him.
Face set with resolve, Dohyeon picked up his smartphone.
Rrrring— rrrring—
Connecting...
Click.
"Hey, Dohyeon. What's up?"
"Sir. You know that benefit for new Climbers — the starter equipment rental? I'd like to use it now."
"So you're finally starting your climb, huh. Text me your home address. I'll have it shipped out right away."
"Yes. Thank you."
Click.
Tap-tap-tapping at his smartphone, Dohyeon sent off his home address, then lifted Goldie's skull and cradled it against his chest.
Nestled in his arms, Goldie's eyes drifted slightly upward, as though gazing up at him.
Dohyeon stroked Goldie's smooth head. There was none of the fluffy fur or warm heat of life, but the feel of it was pleasant enough all the same.
"Don't you worry, Goldie. Your big brother's going to set you free soon. Just trust me!"
The flame of Goldie's soul blazed up high, once, as if in answer.
At the sight, Dohyeon broke into a hearty laugh.
"Haha! Fifteen days since I've really seen you — it's so good to see you again. You must have been going stir-crazy in there too, huh?"
While he waited for the starter equipment from his old company to arrive, Dohyeon pored over his strategy for clearing Floor 1 down to the finest detail.