Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Combination Potential
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...Unlike their antics in the gallery, these messages carried a tremendous sense of politeness and dignity.
They're at least pretending to be refined, huh.
If they're going to act all dignified, couldn't they show even a fraction of that majesty in the gallery?
"Potential."
Whatever. That's not the important part right now.
The tower gives rewards for clearing floors.
Usually, low difficulties offer rewards that are there but barely meaningful.
The higher the difficulty, the more massive the rewards.
That's why climbers' power gaps widen based on their difficulty choices.
"Hell difficulty, so the rewards should be pretty good, right?"
With a bit of anticipation, she turned her gaze to the Constellation Gallery.
Whether they were thinking the same thing, everyone was buzzing about potentials.
The gallery, which had been somewhat quiet, had come alive thanks to her, and new constellations were popping up one by one.
Title: What's going on?
Author: Not Picky Eater I was sleeping soundly when the commotion woke me up. The gallery is in an uproar.
"...".
Feels like I've caught the eye of some seriously dangerous constellation?
Feeling a slight chill, she shifted her gaze to another post.
Title: The most important potential gacha.
Author: Hobby Magic User If you've entered Hell difficulty, there must be a reason. Having outstanding potential. Potential awakening is a privilege granted only to Hell difficulty climbers and a powerful weapon that must be utilized to the max until tower completion. Depending on the potential, it's almost cheat-level. It's that overpowered and your lifeline going forward. Personally, I'd love if it was something magic-related.
From what she could see, this potential thing was even more important than expected.
Probably a source of powerful strength unavailable to climbers on other difficulties.
She'd initially thought it was just a nice reward, but it was far weightier than that.
Tensing up, she watched as her potential awakened.
"...This?"
Is it good?
She couldn't gauge how good.
If anything, since constellations shower all sorts of stuff, she could probably combine useless things into something useful?
But the gallery's reaction was on another level.
Title: ????? Is that really the potential?
Author: Chaos Incarnate of the 999th Life Insane. Insane. Transcending ranks with combination? For example, three top A-grade could reach S-grade, right?
In any case, the Constellation Gallery was in near-frenzy.
The population was small, so refresh was slow, but posts kept pouring in.
Some were so full of insider jargon she couldn't even read them.
...So it is good, right?
Seeing posts mentioning tower completion possibilities lifted her mood a bit.
Until now, she'd been almost resigned. Having lived once already, she figured her second life could be short without regrets, but inevitable death wasn't pleasant.
Now a path forward appeared, naturally boosting her spirits.
Right on cue, another alert appeared.
"Ah, so that's the gallery."
Until now, she'd oddly been able to lurk the constellations' gallery, but now the standard climbers' one opened.
This was the famous community for notable climbers even in the real world.
Title: Holy shit, is this for real?
Author: Yoo Seung-gil #Normal 25F Trying to conquer 26F, there's just this insanely tough wall standing there. No matter how much I hack and stab, no end in sight ;;; Measured it precisely: I've dug as deep as my height, do I have to keep going?
Title: That's nothing... lol
Author: Hard is Child Abuse #Hard 18F Bro who cleared Hard 25F said the walls come alive and move. Dig through holes and you get shredded between them for real. To conquer, either grind the whole wall or have endurance to survive the gaps. Anyway, Normal nobles are just fat...
"So this is the vibe."
Besides that, there were jokes, info shares, strategies, socializing— all sorts of topics.
They were all trapped in the tower together, so common ground existed. Plus, with no internet, this was basically the only entertainment.
It felt familiar.
She'd frequented galleries in her past life too.
No chance in this second one, though.
"Shall I say hi?"
Felt like she'd be active here long-term.
Similar plight, and no chance to meet fellow climbers otherwise—especially not with her harsher Hell difficulty.
Might meet later Hell climbers, but dying on floor 1 wouldn't be weird.
She hit compose for a polite greeting.
Then paused. Did she really need to?
"Won't ever see their faces anyway."
Her reborn family was quite wealthy.
Thus, somewhat strict upbringing to mold her into a proper young lady.
Appearance was convincing enough.
She muttered while stroking her smooth, ebony-like long hair.
"No need for that here."
Time to unleash her dormant original personality.
Greetings should always be light and crisp.
A few taps, and it was done.
"Photo function too. Gotta make it real with a proof shot."
Uploaded with a goblin corpse pic.
Title: It's me, you bastards
Author: TOPKING #Hell 1F Woke up in some grass field outta nowhere. Figured it's the tower, so I climbed. These goblin shits in front with blades, back ones shooting arrows trying to kill me. (Goblin corpse photo) Killed 'em all and conquered 1F. What now?
The gallery exploded.
Hell climbers held special significance, it seemed.
But the misunderstandings started right away.
"Human weapon? Makes the listener sad."
Title: What do you take me for?
Author: TOPKING #Hell 1F I'm super frail and pitiful, don't treat me like a monster. Bro's hurt. So what do I do now? Got dragged into the tower without warning, know nothing.
"How would I receive that stuff."
Obviously, tower entry started at adulthood, so even earliest basic education was high school.
No way a 14-year-old like her got it.
Following their advice, she checked the gallery posts.
Sure enough, a strategy tab with detailed notes per floor.
Basically, tower floors had consistent themes across difficulties.
Like goblins on 1F for Easy, Hard, etc.
Just vastly different difficulties.
She read the strategies as suggested but realized they were just references.
Easy/Normal had fixed paths, but Hard+ had variables.
Even 1F: other Hell climbers had no archers, but double the numbers.
2F similar.
Hard spiked sharply, same as Hell.
3F, 4F, 5F... Reading one by one, she broke cold sweat at 10F—Hell's limit, no records or traces.
With 200 Hell climbers, 10F was an impenetrable unknown wall.
"...Yeah, it's really tough."
Even if constellations saw potential, it was just potential, she felt.