The Blood-Sucking Sword

If I have two status windows, can I hold two classes?

If so, there was no reason to agonize over whether to advance into a Dark-affinity class or a Holy one. I can just take both.

Jin-soo checked his status window. It really did split into two. The new one, though, was washed in a dull gray. The stats are identical. Every stat on the inactive window was locked at 322, the same as the active one. So the blessings apply to both.

He pulled up the details on Status Window Switch.

The skill level is 2? Every skill was supposed to start at level 1 the moment it was learned. And this one was already 2? Do the blessings affect skills as well?

He hadn't been able to check until now. None of his skills were ones he had learned himself, though the Recovery and Deterioration skills sealed in the Ring of Recovery and the Ring of Deterioration came close. Those were locked at 22, the same level as the rings. So the blessings don't touch items? Or does it simply not matter once something is already at 22? For the moment, all he could do was guess.

At least I can check the skill levels. Jin-soo learned the skill books he had taken from the Goblin Champion—Goblin's Calamity, Master of Dual Swordsmanship, and Master of Throwing—and looked at their levels.

All of them are level 2. That settled it. Any skill Jin-soo learned himself was locked at level 2, without exception. Good.

Judging by the pattern so far, no amount of real combat or training would push a skill past 2. But once the blessings grow, they'll jump all at once. If the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blessings raised skill levels as well, his growth would only accelerate.

Time to change class. With two status windows, there was nothing left to hesitate over.

As expected, the stats rose only to be devoured by the blessings the instant they appeared.

The class level is 2 as well. Every newly generated class skill was locked at 2. He was used to it by now.

Nobody around, though. Jin-soo scanned his surroundings. Figures. It's only Floor 2. They wouldn't have the spare hands to manage newcomers. More likely, the thought of folding fresh arrivals into a party had never even occurred to them. For the players on Floor 2, simply staying alive was already more than they could manage.

How many titles and hidden dungeons were there to claim on Floor 2, again? Dredging through the haze of old memories, he set off to hunt. He had barely started when a rustle broke the quiet—and he met players before he met a single monster. Nine of them.

"Here we go again."

"I told you they usually come this way."

"Must've just come up from Floor 1."

"Then why's that one alone?"

"Maybe that monster killed the rest of his party."

"Coward. Ran off by himself."

The nine closed in and ringed him.

Doesn't look like they were waiting out of the goodness of their hearts. A bitter smile tugged at Jin-soo's mouth. The Tower was never short of players who preyed on newcomers the moment they climbed. Still. I didn't expect them to show themselves on Floor 2. Higher up, maybe. Someone fresh off Floor 1 carried little more than a bit of food and a basic weapon.

"Drop the weapon and hand over everything you've got. Food first."

The one who looked like their leader leveled his weapon as he spoke. His build was much like the brute Jin-soo had killed on Floor 1—the same thug's clothes, the same tattooed bulk.

Floor 2 doesn't hand out food or basic weapons. Which was why no small number of players here were starving and short on arms. Not that there's no way to get food. Mimics lurked all over the floor. Kill one, and you walked away with food and weapons. And a mimic might as well have no combat power at all. The catch was that other monsters always swarmed wherever a mimic appeared. Rather than risk their lives fighting for supplies, these men had chosen to rob other players.

"Hey, he doesn't even have a food pack."

"So this is a bust?"

The leader's face twisted.

"Fuck it, then we just take the weapon!"

He thrust his spear toward Jin-soo.

"Drop the sword! Now!"

Jin-soo looked around, expression blank. I don't think a kill on Floor 2 grants a title the way it did on Floor 1. Even so, a second murder might still feed the blessings' growth.

"You ignoring me? Think this is funny? Die, you bastard!"

The leader drove his spear in. The stance was clumsy and the strike slow, but the killing intent was unmistakable. The spearhead flew straight for Jin-soo's heart. This one's killed before. Quite a few times, by the look of it. He might even have killed people before the Tower dragged him in. Figures. That's why he does this. And for some reason, the man's face was familiar. Did I meet him before the regression? Given the attitude, it hadn't been a pleasant acquaintance the first time around either.

Steel whispered free of the sheath. Jin-soo swung, light as a breath. The arms and torso of the man thrusting the spear split cleanly in two, and the bisected leader collapsed in a limp heap.

No title. No level-up. And yet the blessings that had already risen the moment he reached Floor 2 grew again. Because it was my second kill on Floor 2? He had wondered if it might happen. He hadn't expected them to grow in a single stroke.

"Eek! H-he killed Siung in one hit?"

"Run!"

The eight would-be robbers spun and fled at once. Scum like this aren't worth leaving alive. Let them go, and they would only rob someone else. There was also a slim chance they would nurse a grudge and come back for revenge.

Jin-soo launched himself after them, sword flashing. Steel bit, and flesh tore.

"Aaaagh!"

"S-spare me!"

In an instant all eight were cold corpses. Jin-soo silently gathered the food and weapons they had carried and dropped them into his treasure pouch.

He did not spare anyone who tried to kill him. That had been one of the convictions that kept him alive in the Tower before the regression, and it had not changed a whit since he returned.

With the robbers dealt with, he moved on to hunt.

"Krrrrk!"

The first monster he met was a goblin, just as on Floor 1. A little stronger than the ones below, at least. Even among goblins, those on Floor 2 outleveled their kin from the floor beneath. The blade fell, and the difference hardly mattered from where Jin-soo stood.

I'll reach Floor 3 as fast as I can. Floor 2 offered fewer titles and hidden dungeons than Floor 1, so clearing through within a day was entirely possible. He kept hunting, working toward both.

They snapped right back to where they had been, of course. Just as I thought. The risen skill levels had become nothing more than fodder for the blessings. There was no point regretting it. When the blessings grew, they would repay him with even higher skill levels. Looked at the right way, he had simply gained another foothold for their growth.

Terrain like this is a likely spot. Question is whether I can find it. Jin-soo moved briskly, searching for the hidden dungeon. Found it. A treasure chest sat waiting. The latch clicked, and the moment he opened it a burst of brilliant light swallowed him and dragged him into a dungeon.

Jackpot. Jin-soo's face lit up. Spatial skills were not easy to come by. Even an item like a treasure pouch is rare enough.

The pouch he had taken off a hobgoblin was treated as absurdly precious in the early floors. An Inventory skill, which didn't even need to be carried, was valued higher still. A pouch can be stolen or lost. An Inventory skill can't. Storing a weapon or a piece of armor and drawing it back out required no special motion, either. Will alone was enough. I could swap weapons mid-fight in an instant. That by itself would spike his combat power. Clothes, accessories, and armor equipped and unequipped on their own the moment they left the inventory. Lucky.

Hidden dungeons generally couldn't be cleared alone, which was why their rewards usually came in multiples. Like the ten Muscle-Reforging Pills that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dropped when I cleared the hobgoblin dungeon. On very rare occasions, though, a dungeon paid out only a single reward. And when it does, the quality is high. A lone prize caused problems. Parties fractured over who got to keep it. That didn't apply to Jin-soo. I'm alone anyway. And this was only the clear reward.

What he had to wipe out was a pack of mimics, creatures whose combat power might as well have been zero. When a mimic died it also dropped food and items at a set rate, which was why players called them walking treasure vaults. For an ordinary Floor 2 player, this is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing short of striking gold. Mimics were absurdly weak, but the monsters around them were strong. This Mimic Dungeon, however, held nothing but mimics. It was one of those exceedingly rare low-risk, high-return places where you could claim a massive reward without gambling your life. Not that Jin-soo would have minded high risk for high return.

"Kii! Kii!"

The chests clattered and lurched. Doing their best to act like monsters, the mimics flicked their tongues and gaped their mouths wide as they lunged. A crunch, a boom—and a heartbeat later they were shattered treasure chests, rolling across the floor.

Jin-soo learned the Inventory skill without hesitation. Level's locked at 2, of course. A level-2 inventory wasn't large—at best, the size of a grade-schooler's backpack. It could hold only six kinds of items, and no more than sixty kilograms. Set convenience and portability aside, and the treasure pouch crushed it in both quantity and weight.

Would've been nice if I could stash the pouch inside the inventory. Spatial skills and spatial items couldn't stack. Farming first.

He looked over what the mimics had spat out. Mostly food. Meat, salt, bread, water. With a treasure pouch, the more food the better. This one's a weapon cache. Most of it was level-1 basics, though weapons of level 3 to 5 turned up now and then. There's an elixir, too. The kind that raised stats when consumed.

A bust? Disappointment colored his face. He had hoped for another windfall on the scale of the Inventory skill book, and so far it was closer to a dud. Still nursing a faint hope, he kept searching.

Huh? A sword caught his eye—a blade red as blood, half-drawn from a scabbard black as pitch. Don't tell me that's—

Startled, he snatched it up. The balance was so fine it felt almost insulting to compare it with the level-1 longsword he had been holding a moment ago. Steel slid free, and the blood-red blade revealed itself entire. At the same moment a crimson heat-haze rose from the steel and coiled around his body.

A wave of emotion drowned in killing intent crashed through his mind. The surge was fierce enough that even a player on the upper floors, with a vastly superior Mental stat, would have struggled to endure it. It seized his thoughts and tried to claim his body.

And yet...

It didn't work on Jin-soo at all.