Kim Hyunsoo and Ji Suyeon Were Shocked...

Kim Hyunsoo and Ji Suyeon couldn't hide their shock.

"Wait—is that even possible? Dodging a troll's fist when it's flying straight at your face? And not just once?"

"I know. Even if his stats are specialized in Agility, it doesn't make sense... It's almost as if he's reading the troll's attacks before they come."

"......"

It wasn't only the two of them. Yujun himself was impressed by how nimbly Paranet moved.

Giving him those items was worth it.

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

He hadn't expected a performance on this level.

And even if a troll's punch lands, it shouldn't rattle him much.

Heroic-grade armor locked behind a level 100 requirement. That wasn't decoration. It ought to take a troll's blows without trouble.

Paranet's level is higher than the troll's to begin with.

The summon was reading every attack cleanly and slipping past it, while the troll only grew more exhausted as the fight dragged on. Paranet, meanwhile, was undead. Stretch this into a long battle, and it was obvious who held the advantage.

The problem was that Paranet wasn't landing any serious wounds either—but Yujun had never expected that. Finishing the troll was the job of Kim Hyunsoo and the rest of the party.

Well. He's fighting well.

A pointless swell of pride rose in him. That was when Ji Suyeon spoke.

"What should we do? Attack?"

"Let's keep watching. The more exhausted the troll gets, the better it is for us."

"Mm. That does sound better."

Trolls were dull-witted, but they weren't complete fools. At some point the brute realized that if it kept wrestling Paranet, it would wear itself out and drop. So it stopped swinging its fists and changed targets—straight for Yujun and the party watching from behind.

The troll charged, shaking the ground beneath it.

"Ready!"

Kim Hyunsoo, the fire mage, moved first, raising a crimson curtain—Fire Wall—across the path of the charge.

Fwoosh—!

A pillar of searing flame shot high into the air. The troll was already too close to think of dodging. It smashed straight through.

Whoosh!

Did it not even feel the heat? The tough brute came leaping in with terrifying momentum.

"A-are you insane?!"

"We expected this much. Hyunwoo, aim for the eyes."

At Kim Hyunsoo's words, Park Hyunwoo nodded. The eyes were one of the few places where a troll's regeneration ran weak.

Triple Shot. A skill that sent three arrows flying in succession. All three traveled the exact same path and buried themselves in the troll's right eye.

Thwack!

"Graaaah!"

A wound to the eye was more than it could endure. The troll shrieked, and while it writhed, Yujun and the party put distance between themselves and the beast at speed. Kim Hyunsoo began another cast. This time a massive ball of fire flew at the troll.

Fwoosh! Boom!

Flame exploded across its face, swallowing its features in an instant. True to a level 80 fire mage, Kim Hyunsoo's magical firepower was formidable. In the midst of it, Paranet hammered the troll's ankle with his sword again and again, and red blood kept bursting from the joint.

Harried from every side, the troll twisted violently. Arms and legs swept in every direction, and Paranet fell back for a moment.

Boom!

The troll was on its feet at once, charging toward the party again. They answered the same ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way as before. Park Hyunwoo's arrow flew once more, aimed at the eye.

Shwick—!

This time only a single arrow went out. The troll hastily raised a palm and blocked it.

Boom, boom, boom!

Bomber Shot. An explosive skill that detonated the instant it made contact.

Park Hyunwoo, was it? He's carrying a good skill.

Even Yujun, who didn't use a bow, coveted Bomber Shot. Park Hyunwoo also knew exactly when to loose.

Keep this up, and he might make ranker someday.

Caught in the blast, the troll couldn't move for a while. Bomber Shot was that powerful, though the heavy mana cost was its drawback.

"Now! Concentrate your fire!"

At Kim Hyunsoo's call, every party member unleashed a skill. Yujun had none of his own, so he simply closed in. He could see Paranet still working the ankle for all he was worth. Face to face with that enormous bulk, Yujun felt his thoughts go briefly white.

Disgustingly huge.

Up close, the pressure was no joke. Even so, fear never rose. The S-rank trait Equanimity, no doubt. He understood it now: for surviving in the Tower of Infinity, nothing beat Equanimity.

The finishing blow has to be mine.

If they failed to end it here, they would have to start over from the beginning. They needed a reliable damage dealer, and Kim Hyunsoo and Park Hyunwoo's skills didn't look like enough. He could finish the troll himself.

Yujun drew two slow breaths and climbed onto the creature. Two leaps carried him to the crown of its head, and he drove his sword down with everything he had.

Crunch!

The blade punched easily through the troll's thick hide.

"Ghk...!"

The scream cut off. The focus left its eyes, and in the same instant that massive frame collapsed.

Thud—!

When the heavy body hit the ground, the earth shook once, hard.

Yujun landed cleanly and let out a breath of relief. They had taken the troll down without a scratch. He had aimed for the crown—the weak point—while its mind was addled, and killed it in a single blow.

For a mere fifth-floor trial, that's a lot of experience. Boss raids really are the way to level.

Having cleared the fifth-floor trial, the party warped to the sixth floor.

"Whoa... Yujun, what on earth are you?"

Ji Suyeon practically gushed. The other party members were staring at him with the same awe.

"What do you mean, what am I?"

"Your summon fought the boss by itself, and... you killed the troll in one strike."

"It was only possible because the troll had already taken heavy damage."

"Oh, come on... You know perfectly well how a troll's regeneration works. The wounds from our attacks were probably almost healed by then, weren't they?"

She was right. The troll had been staggering, but even as Yujun climbed it, the wounds had been closing at a rapid pace. He couldn't say that outright, though.

No need to talk myself up.

He had no intention of hiding ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his strength. He also had no intention of advertising it. For now, he simply had better items than other users. Getting cocky wouldn't do him any good.

"Anyway, I was shocked. The whole point of the fifth-floor trial is wearing the troll out... and your summon did that alone."

"Ahem."

Paranet, listening off to the side, wiped his nose with a finger. It looked like the gesture of someone embarrassed.

"Would it be all right if I added you on messenger?"

"I'd like to as well, if you don't mind."

Not only Ji Suyeon, but Kim Hyunsoo too, asked to be added.

So this is that old meme—the endless requests to shake your hand.

Living through something that had once been an internet joke felt a little strange.

No reason to refuse.

Yujun added Kim Hyunsoo and Ji Suyeon to his messenger list. That was when it happened. Another hologram window appeared before his eyes.

He looked up and found Park Hyunwoo watching him with a blank face. Yujun let out a short laugh and sent him the code as well. Ji Suyeon, who had drifted up beside him, spoke.

"Want to stick together? Party hunting and all that."

"Sorry. I don't think I can right now. I've got something I need to do."

"Ah... really? Then please contact me when you're taking a Trial of Ascent later."

"I will."

From the sixth floor on, he meant to climb alone if he could, but for the moment he agreed. The party returned to the residential zone to rest.

Climb fast.

He hadn't even exerted himself much, and he had no intention of lingering on these lower floors. On the tenth floor there was a hidden dungeon only he knew about, tucked into a place that was, by any normal measure, hard to find.

I'd better hope it hasn't been cleared yet.

The reward waiting there was something even Yujun absolutely could not afford to miss.

It was pretty difficult.

Even back when he was past level 150, he had struggled to clear that dungeon. But the Yujun of now had inherited, intact, the inventory of a character raised all the way to max level. It would be different this time.

He set his hand on the statue at once, and the sixth-floor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠trial began.

The sixth floor, the seventh, the eighth. In less than half a day, Yujun cleared all three trials and reached the ninth floor. Alone. An exceptional pace. It must have been recognized as an achievement, because a title came as the reward.

Its effect was as follows.

"Just as I thought."

This, too, was a title his No-Pay Casual Gamer character had carried, and it was more than serviceable.

What level am I at now, again.

Level 81. He had climbed a long way.

Clear every trial alone, and you eat all the experience yourself.

That was why he meant to take the clearing trials solo whenever he could. And then there was Slash (B). It had come from a skill book rewarded for clearing the eighth-floor trial—an active skill that greatly increased the power of his sword swings. The mana cost wasn't particularly high, which made it extremely useful. A smile touched Yujun's lips.

"But, Master, why are you not proceeding to the tenth floor?"

Paranet asked. Yujun grinned.

"I'm going to wring everything I can out of the ninth floor before I leave."

His reason for not challenging the trial to the tenth floor was simple. There was something on the ninth floor he absolutely had to confirm.

The ninth floor. Back when he played War of the Gods, he had discovered the Ancient Ruins here. He was far from the only one—plenty of users had visited them. And yet...

They were turned away. Told they hadn't met the prerequisite conditions.

Users had guessed the Ancient Ruins might be some kind of event dungeon. Right up until the day the server shut down, that mystery was never solved. The purpose of the ruins standing in the middle of the forest—large enough that something clearly ought to be there—was something nobody knew.

So what information did he alone possess? The Intermediate Tutorial. The only clue to it had belonged solely to the one person who cleared the Hell Difficulty Tutorial. That was why he had come to suspect the Ancient Ruins might be the place where the Intermediate Tutorial could be received.

No harm in checking.

Remembering the enormous rewards from the first tutorial, he couldn't even begin to guess what the Intermediate Tutorial might pay out. Yujun cut across the forest, heading for the Ancient Ruins.