The Fifth Floor of the Tower of Infinity
The fifth floor of the Tower of Infinity.
A great many players had stalled out here. The trouble was the difficulty of the floor's Trial of Ascent, and perhaps for that reason the ground before the fifth floor's stone statue was always packed shoulder to shoulder.
"Looking for one solid tank!"
"Need one fire mage with real firepower!"
"Recruiting a healer!"
Players shouted at the top of their lungs, hunting for party members. Late as the evening was, there was hardly room to set a foot down, and caught in the press of them, Yujun let his thoughts drift. He had cleared the third and fourth floors in short order and reached the fifth before a full day had passed.
Reminds me of War of the Gods. The fifth floor was definitely a boss raid.
A boss monster that players under level 100 could not easily bring down—and with no particular weak point, a hard thing to crack. Yujun glanced around.
I'll have to form a party myself.
The boss that appeared in the fifth-floor trial was certainly too much to take alone. Even for Yujun, that held true. Paranet's abilities had far exceeded his expectations, but that cowardly nature of his was the problem. One look at the fifth floor's boss and he would freeze in terror again, no question.
Especially since the fifth-floor boss is huge... No need to gamble with my life.
Joining a party was the better choice. The trouble was that he had no one he could trust to watch his back.
Which means I'll have to accept a certain amount of risk.
Plenty of people were recruiting, yet every one of them was looking for a mage or a healer. No one wanted a warrior with nothing but a sword. Tanks were in high demand, but even if Yujun could stand on the front line, he was no tank.
I can't take the tank role in a party of total strangers to begin with.
There was no telling when someone might stab him in the back. A tank's job—his life threatened from the front and the rear both—was one he would gladly decline.
Ah. Wait.
A good idea struck him. He could simply make Paranet play the tank.
He's undead, so it doesn't matter if he dies—and if I outfit him in level 100 armor... that is a tank.
Decision made, Yujun listened to the players shouting around him.
"Quit shoving!"
"You shoved first!"
"Tanks welcomed like royalty! Come and we'll treat you like nobility!"
"Please, a tank! We'll even supply the gear!"
Parties recruiting tanks stood out in particular. No one wanted the job, and the risk of death was high; tanks were precious by nature. Healers and mages had it easy by comparison.
Different from the game.
Back then, healers had been far rarer than tanks.
Good.
With Paranet on hand, a tank was already secured. Yujun looked over two parties. Both were recruiting tanks—one made up of two people, the other of three.
The party limit is four, so either works.
Summons did not count toward the party size, which was why they were considered exceptionally useful. Yujun approached the group of three first.
A slender man spoke before anyone else.
"A tank?"
"Something like one."
"Something like one? What does that mean?"
"See for yourself."
Yujun summoned Paranet. A magic circle bloomed directly before him, and blue light poured from it. A shape began to settle atop the circle, the blur resolving at last into Paranet himself. The three players startled at the undead—the skeleton—that had appeared out of nowhere.
"An undead?"
"That's huge for a skeleton."
"What is that skeleton? A summon?"
The petite woman asked, and Yujun nodded.
"A summon, yes."
"An undead as a summon?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Not that they don't exist... Undead summons are rare, so it's a little surprising."
Yujun smiled.
"He'll do well as a tank, won't he?"
"What's the summon's level?"
"Seventy."
He lied without so much as a flicker. In truth, Paranet was past level 100.
"What? Seventy? A summon that high?"
The woman's eyes went round. Then her gaze slid over to Paranet, standing there blankly.
"And what level are you?"
"Sixty-three."
Once a party was formed, levels could not be hidden. Unlike the lie about his summon, he answered honestly.
"...Your summon is a higher level than you?"
"It just turned out that way. I got lucky."
The players stared, dumbfounded. The man who seemed to be their leader wore a troubled look.
"Hmm..."
"What's there to think about? With a summon, that's five of us. We should take him, no question."
One of the party members pressed him. Even so, the leader's expression did not ease.
"But he's too slight to tank."
"Don't worry. My summon is undead. Ordinary attacks won't faze him, and he doesn't feel pain."
"Is that so? Hmm."
After a long hesitation, the party leader finally agreed.
"Come with us. If it looks bad, we can just run for the exit."
"Yes."
He had found a party. Yujun excused himself from the others and stepped away into the nearby grass.
"I am to serve as the tank, am I?"
Paranet spoke then, almost in a whisper.
"Yeah."
Paranet said nothing, his face tightening.
"What's with that face?"
"You mean I am to put my own body on the line?"
"That's right."
"As you know, I am rather... fearful..."
"I'll give you good items. Your level's high. Equip level 100 gear and on a floor this low, you're practically invincible."
"I-is that so!"
Tempted, Paranet's voice rose. Yujun drew the level 100 equipment from his inventory.
"You. What weapon do you handle best?"
"As you well know, the sword."
"You weren't that good with it."
"...Ahem. It remains the least inadequate of my options."
"Wait."
Of the weapons in his inventory, swords took up the most space, simply because he used them himself.
"A level 100 Legendary weapon and Heroic armor... This is already more than generous."
Yujun handed the items over with a solemn face. Paranet bowed his head in turn and whispered.
"You have my thanks."
They were, in truth, far too fine for a mere summon to wear. But items like these overflowed his inventory, and there was no reason at all to be stingy with them.
Once I hit level 100, I'll be using better than this.
With a series of sharp clicks, Paranet donned the high-level gear until he looked every bit the equal of a death knight.
"Oooh...! This is the true me!"
Paranet rejoiced aloud. Yujun returned to where the party waited.
"All ready?"
At the party leader's question, Yujun nodded.
"Let me introduce myself first. I'm Kim Hyunsoo. For now, I'm acting as party leader. I mainly use magic skills."
Kim Hyunsoo was the slender man. Judging by the long robe he wore and the gnarled wooden staff in his hand, he was a mage.
"I'm Ji Suyeon. I have two heal skills."
Ji Suyeon was the petite woman who had spoken with Yujun earlier.
"Park Hyunwoo. I use a bow."
Park Hyunwoo was an extremely taciturn man, so quiet he had not said a single word until now. He offered that one line and clamped his mouth shut again. Only then did Yujun speak.
"Shin Yujun. I use a sword."
"Huh? Weren't you ranged support?"
"Sorry? No."
"Then... you have a summon, and you use a sword too?"
"Yes."
"That's impressive."
War of the Gods had no formal way of sorting players into classes. One's role shifted according to the skills and items one possessed, so a case like Yujun's was not especially rare. Ji Suyeon nodded along.
"Introductions are done, and we all know each other's levels. Shall we head out?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. Party leader Kim Hyunsoo set his hand upon the fifth floor's stone statue, and one by one the party members' bodies vanished. Then it was Yujun's turn. There was a flash of light.
When he opened his eyes again, an entirely different scene lay before him.
The fifth floor's setting was starkly simple: a wide space enclosed by walls of deep gray. Not a speck of light leaked in from outside, yet the glowstones set into the ceiling kept the place from feeling dark. And there, at the center of the far side, waited a monster whose bulk looked well over five meters.
A troll.
In an ordinary game, a troll might have been nothing more than a common monster. In War of the Gods, it was different. To low-level users, a troll was closer to a natural disaster—a calamity.
A troll had several traits. Whether one cut it with a sword or blasted a limb away with magic, the wound regenerated in an instant. That was not all. The thing possessed tremendous strength and explosive agility as well. Its only weakness was fire, and even that it recovered from quickly through regeneration. Unless one could finish it in a single blow, flame was useless.
Finishing it with fire magic would be best, but...
He studied the troll closely.
Will it move according to the patterns from the game?
That was what Yujun wanted to know. If it had grown quicker than before and no longer followed those patterns, it would be that much harder to deal with.
"Ho... So a troll is my opponent. Not bad."
Paranet advanced on the troll, his face full of confidence. Yujun wondered if he had grown a little too sure of himself, but confidence was far better than fear. The party members watched his retreating back with faces full of doubt.
"Do you really think he can tank properly...?"
"The items he's wearing look pretty good, though."
"Oh? You're right. Yujun, you must be pretty well off?"
At Ji Suyeon's words, Yujun gave a slight nod.
"My older brother is a rather well-known man... I had his help."
"Really? Would I happen to know who?"
"I'm sorry. If my brother's identity got out, it would be rather..."
"Then it can't be helped."
Having fielded the lie with perfect composure, Yujun looked to Paranet. He was curious himself. Could Paranet actually perform against a troll? He would know soon enough.
"We should conserve mana as much as we can."
"Right. Let's take the fight slow."
A sound judgment. Pouring all their firepower into a troll over a short span would only exhaust them for nothing. Yujun knew that as well, so he left the opening probe to Paranet.
The troll's fist crashed into the floor. A thunderous boom rolled through the chamber, and the ground itself shuddered under that monstrous strength. Paranet, however, was unharmed. The attack had come in the space of a blink, and still he had managed to slip clear of it.
That survival instinct, and the evasion trait?
His movement was beyond anything he had shown before. The troll hammered the floor again and again, and Paranet wove through the chain of blows with ease. As if the fury were building in it, the fists began to swing far faster.
"Hahaha! What good is all that size if you cannot even hit me!"
Paranet went a step further and taunted the troll. The creature might not understand the words, but tone carried a meaning of its own. Whatever it had roughly grasped was enough: its angular face flushed a deep, furious red.
"Graaaaaah!"