Dragon Tooth Soldiers

The next morning, Jin-soo and Shin Sua claimed every achievement to be had on Floor 50 of the Tower and cleared every hidden dungeon.

"Rest up today."

"Okay."

Shin Sua answered him with a stiff ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠face. Word of Floor 51 had already spread widely across Floor 50.

Thanks to the NPCs.

Floor 50 was a place where one could linger for a full five years. It was also the first floor where NPCs appeared in numbers and an auction house opened its doors. Minor missions—newbie orientations and the like—were plentiful, so points came easily.

Floor 50 is where you build a proper party, earn a class, and outfit yourself.

NPCs could never lie to a Player about the Tower. The same held for Floor 51. They might refuse to speak of it at all, but a falsehood was beyond them.

Remain on Floor 50 for years, and acquaintances among the NPCs and other Players were inevitable.

A kind of hint.

Anyone meaning to challenge Floor 51 gathered every scrap they could from NPCs and fellow Players. There was no safe zone on Floor 51. There were no NPCs either. Mimics appeared far less often. Food had to be stockpiled in bulk. A party absolutely needed at least one healer who had learned Sanctuary. Only after hearing it all and preparing for every contingency did they go to face the gatekeeper.

Most of them only challenge it once the five years are up and they have no choice left.

A few, though, went to the gatekeeper before those five years were spent, just as Jin-soo meant to. Some had decided that staying any longer on Floor 50 would gain them nothing. Others simply wanted the Tower conquered as fast as it could be managed.

The next morning, stomachs comfortably full, Jin-soo and Shin Sua went straight for the clear of Floor 50.

Jin-soo and Shin Sua selected Yes.

In that instant a blaze of light wrapped their bodies.

They arrived in a circular arena built like a Roman colosseum. At its center stood an enormous golem of stone—the gatekeeper of Floor 50, the Stone Golem.

Jin-soo drew the Blood-Sucking Sword and a shining longsword and charged, both blades already swinging. The Blood-Sucking Sword sheared through the Stone Golem's torso. As the body split and the core showed itself, the gleaming longsword punched clean through it. The core burst, and in the same breath the colossal body collapsed back into ordinary rock, rubble tumbling across the floor.

Stingier rewards than I expected.

He was a little disappointed, but Jin-soo let it go.

The Floor 50 gatekeeper was never that strong a monster to begin with.

A well-built party fighting at full strength could take the Stone Golem down without much trouble. That was why Jin-soo had not even called his Shadow Summons. There had been no need.

That, of course, was only by his measure.

So long as its core remained intact, the Stone Golem regenerated without end, and in that sense it was every bit as troublesome as an undead monster with an undying nature. Parties that failed to find the core and destroy it often fought on until stamina and mana ran dry, and then they were wiped out.

Had the gatekeeper stood on Floor 50 itself, retreat would have been possible. It existed in a separate space, so retreat was impossible, and defeat was death.

That's another reason Players balk at the climb to Floor 51.

The system message rose before them.

I don't think I ever saw this before the regression.

It had probably appeared because he had killed the thing so quickly this time.

"Take this."

Jin-soo passed the Stone Golem Summon skill book ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to Shin Sua. Unlike Dragon Tooth Soldiers, it was not a mage-only skill. Mages and healers could both use it.

The Mage of the Ice Dragon already has Dragon Tooth Soldiers.

And since Shin Sua was a healer, a single guard at her side would be reassuring enough.

The Stone Golem's combat power isn't much, but its toughness is.

Think of it as a moving stone shield with auto-recovery built in, and it was useful in its own way.

"Th-thank you."

Shin Sua ducked her head. She had done nothing at all when the gatekeeper fell, so no item reward had come to her.

What she had received were two thoroughly humiliating titles.

They raised her stats a little, as titles went. Even so, the names were so degrading that she would rather have deleted them from her status window for good.

"I'm thinking of going straight to Floor 51. That's fine, right?"

At his words Shin Sua flushed and nodded. She had not taken a single step, nor cast a single skill. There was no reason it would not be fine.

He really didn't have to ask.

The question only made the shame burn hotter.

"Then let's go."

"Okay."

Jin-soo and Shin Sua selected Yes.

Light flared around them, and they ascended to Floor 51.

"From here on, it's the same as before Floor 50."

Ten days to remain, and a boss monster to kill rather than a gatekeeper.

"Let's move."

Floor 51 was swamp.

"This doesn't seem like a very good terrain."

Shin Sua grimaced and forced her feet forward. Every step sank her to the thighs.

"Yeah."

Jin-soo agreed. With his strength and stamina, the worst of it was irritation. Shin Sua was another matter. Move for long in this, and her pace would slow and her stamina would fail.

Worse, the swamp was deepening. At this rate it would not stop at the thighs. It would climb past the waist and swallow a person whole.

I remember. Before the regression, hunting for the shallow stretches ate an absurd amount of time.

Finding anywhere fit to sleep had been its own misery. And the monsters of this place were the real problem.

Lizardmen.

Built for life in the mire, they hid their bodies in the swamp and struck from ambush.

"Try the Stone Golem Summon skill."

"Got it."

At his word, Shin Sua cast it.

Light burst, and a massive Stone Golem took shape within it.

"Up on its shoulders."

A swamp that reached a person's waist barely covered the giant's calves. Jin-soo and Shin Sua climbed onto its shoulders.

Everything has a use after all.

A smile touched his mouth. He could have summoned Shadow Summons and ridden those instead, but there was a problem.

They're hardly larger than a person.

He would have had to ride piggyback, and in a swamp deep enough to swallow a head they would have been no help at all. A Stone Golem the size of one of the giant-kin was another matter. Its shoulder made an easy seat, and however deep the mire grew, the water would reach no higher than its waist.

Better to switch status windows.

In terrain like this, the Blood Demon Swordsman's combat power fell off sharply.

I could spend mana and walk the swamp as if it were flat ground.

The cost would be brutal. Vision would narrow, movement would suffer a few constraints, and his efficiency in a fight would collapse compared to open ground.

Before the regression...

A river of lava would have constrained him no more than this swamp.

A speck of mana—the kind that recovered on its own just from breathing—and I could have walked swamp or lava field as if it were solid earth.

If the land itself had annoyed him, he could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have erased the swamp or the lava outright. Not now.

I'm too weak.

Still, there was hope. The self who stood here now was overwhelmingly stronger than the self who had reached Floor 51 before the regression.

Good thing I didn't summon the Shadow Summons.

He had been saving them for the twenty-four-hour cooldown, and it had turned out for the best. Jin-soo swapped his status window from the dark-affinity class, Blood Demon Swordsman, to the holy-affinity class, Mage of the Ice Dragon.

Let's try the Dragon Tooth Soldier summon as well.

He drew out twelve White Drake teeth and cast the skill.

Mana poured out of him in a long drain, and the White Drake teeth swelled with a creak of growing bone. They rose into Dragon Tooth Soldiers more than ten feet tall, clad in pure-white armor and armed with swords, spears, and shields.

"Whoa!"

Shin Sua's mouth fell open. Then she looked at Jin-soo with undisguised envy.

What she had summoned was one crudely shaped Stone Golem. What he had summoned looked less like soldiers than knights, and there were twelve of them. Envy was only natural.

Jin-soo, for his part, looked thoroughly unimpressed.

Set beside the Dragon Tooth Soldiers he remembered, these were far below standard.

Well. They aren't true-dragon teeth.

However special the achievements piled upon that White Drake, the teeth were still a lesser dragon's, and a limit came with that. The skill level being a mere 2 was another.

Still, they'll do for now.

He had not measured their strength precisely, but they were born of the teeth of a White Drake past level 500, one that had accumulated extraordinary achievements. A level 2 skill or not, they ought to pull their weight at least through Floor 100.

Raise the skill level steadily, and they'll serve comfortably into the middle floors.

Unlike Shadow Summon, the skill had no reuse cooldown. Its performance fell short of that skill, but Dragon Tooth Soldier was useful in its own right.

If I'm going to keep using it, I'll have to lift the neutral-skill restriction first.

Once he could lock twenty-two neutral skills at level 122, the efficiency of his key neutral skills—Dragon Tooth Soldiers, Shadow Summon, Inventory, and the rest—would rise sharply.

The mana cost of summoning them is steep.

Mana recovered on its own with time, though, so the return was excellent.

A small tremor ran through the Stone Golem beneath them. In the same instant a heavy blow landed, and the Dragon Tooth Soldiers staggered.

"They're here."

The lizardmen had begun the attack with their bodies hidden in the swamp. The Dragon Tooth Soldiers struck back at once. Feeling neither pain nor fear, they took the blows in silence and answered them, and lizardman blood soaked into the mire.

Usable. As expected.

Attack power and attack speed were a little lacking. But these had been born from White Drake teeth, so their durability alone was tremendous, and they were every bit as hard as that implied.

Nothing beats the quality of the materials.

Material had overcome the low skill level.

"Proclamation of Frost."

Jin-soo cast the skill. Pure-white mist swallowed their surroundings, and the swamp began to freeze.