Survival Rate: 20%
I quickly checked the adventurer's breathing.
Hoo... hoo...
He was still breathing.
He wasn't dead.
Just as I was confirming the faint breath at his lips, a voice reached me.
"Water..."
"Jesus—!"
The sudden whisper right by my ear nearly made me jump out of my skin.
The adventurer's eyes were cracked open, just barely.
Seeing that, I hurriedly pulled a water pouch from my inventory and carefully dribbled water into his mouth.
"Cough— hack!"
He choked on the sudden rush of liquid, but his expression already looked far better than before.
His lips moved again.
"If you... have any food... just a little..."
I handed him some of my stored jerky. I wasn't sure a man on the brink of death could even chew the stuff, but he tore into it with surprising gusto.
His body was in better shape than I'd expected.
A bow and arrows lay scattered on the ground where he'd been. An archer, then.
Once he'd finished eating, a look of relief settled over his face.
"Did you come alone?"
"No. I came with my party."
"Then why are you here by yourself...?"
His eyes drifted toward the path leading to the fifth floor. He was silent for about ten seconds before he finally spoke.
"The truth is... I arrived here three days ago."
"Isn't that the boss room?"
"It is! Guys, I found it! It's the boss room!!"
That was how they arrived at the entrance of what everyone called the fifth floor — the boss room.
A swordsman, a spearman, an archer, a mage. A well-balanced party, and they stood there debating whether to go in.
"Isn't this a little dangerous? Our average level is still only eight."
"Come on! Look at our party composition. We can clear this no problem!"
But I'd heard the stories back in town. A boss that had claimed the lives of countless adventurers. I was worried.
"I don't think we're ready. Let's turn back."
"You coward! Trying to back out now? You're not even the frontliner!"
That was our spearman.
"What did you say? What does being a frontliner have to do with anything?"
"Stop it... guys..."
The spearman looked at me and sneered.
"I'm sick of dragging a chicken around. We're going in!"
The others just glanced around, reading the room.
Then the spearman raised his voice.
"What, are the rest of you chickens too? There's a boss room right in front of us! Do you have any idea how expensive boss-room gear is?!"
"How expensive?"
One of the others asked.
"If a cloak drops, it's five gold!!"
"What?! Five gold?!"
"Yeah!! We already know what monsters spawn in there, and we're a full party — what's there to be scared of?!"
At that, a few of them got to their feet and followed the spearman.
"You're seriously going? Have you all lost your minds?"
"I've got a kid. I need the money."
"I need money for my mother's medicine. You two stay here."
And just like that, five of them pushed open the massive doors and went inside.
One minute. Two minutes. Time crawled by.
Around the five-minute mark, one of the remaining party members — who'd been fidgeting the whole time — spoke up.
"Did they already clear it and head up? They're not coming out."
"Or they're dead..."
At that, the warrior stood.
"I can't take it. I'm going in."
"Hey—!"
"Me too... If we go in now, they'll still cut us in on the loot."
The others rose and started toward the boss room.
But he couldn't bring himself to stand.
That was how he'd ended up trapped alone on the fourth floor, swarming with goblins, unable to escape for three full days.
"You saved my life by coming here. If it weren't for you, I would have starved to death."
"For now, get up. Let's head down the Tower together."
A flash of terror crossed his face at those words, but he steeled himself and rose to his feet.
And so I fought my way down through the goblins alongside that adventurer, and we left the Tower together.
"I've brought back a missing adventurer."
The adventurer began explaining everything to the receptionist. She listened through to the end, then nodded.
"So that's what happened."
"Yes. Is there any way to find out what became of my party?"
"If they went up to the sixth floor, it'll be hard to know. For the fifth floor, I can put in a request if you'd like."
I collected my reward and left the Adventurers' Guild.
Did they die?
An ugly thought flickered through my mind, but I pushed it aside.
I headed for the Medici Merchant Guild.
The grand guild building, the horses, the laborers — it had been a while since I'd seen any of it.
Right out front, the man I'd come looking for was stroking a horse's back.
"Aiham!"
At my call, Aiham turned around. Still the same solid, reliable guy.
"Giseok! What brings you here?"
He greeted me warmly. We were friends now, after all.
"Yeah, I've got something I need to talk to you about."
"That so? Come on in, Giseok."
Aiham led me inside the building. Then old Lu came out, spotted me, and offered a greeting.
"Good day, Master Giseok. What brings you here today?"
"Butler Lu, I came to talk with Aiham."
"In that case, please wait in the drawing room. I'll bring tea."
"Thank you, Butler!"
A single rose was tucked into Lu's breast pocket today, just as always. He really must love roses.
With that thought, I headed to the drawing room.
Aiham and I sat over tea and talked. I told him I was looking for someone to party up with for about a week of training hunts, and asked if he had the time.
Aiham's eyes went wide.
"You're already level ten?"
"Yeah, well... it just kind of happened."
"That's way too fast. Still, I'll need to ask Master Simon first."
"When's Simon getting back?"
"Around sundown. He's coming in from another town today."
So I sat with Aiham, chatting about nothing in particular while we waited for Simon.
Time passed, and then the door opened. Simon and Aera walked in.
The look on Aera's face when she saw me was half delighted, half put-out.
"Master Giseok! Why has it been so long?"
"Haha, it really has been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that."
"It has! Far too long. Of course, I haven't been able to visit you either..."
Well, it wasn't like I was the only one at fault. Aera, as the successor to a major merchant guild, was extremely busy.
"It's been a while, Master Giseok."
Simon removed his hat as he greeted me. The more I looked at him, the more impressive a middle-aged man he was. That mustache was sharp... he looked every bit the nobleman.
"Have you been well? Settling into the city all right?"
"Hahaha, I'm a pro at it by now. Actually, there's something I wanted to ask you, Master Simon."
"What is it?"
"I'd like to enter the Tower with Aiham for about a week. Would that be all right?"
Simon glanced at Aiham, who nodded.
"Of course that's fine. You've come all this way — stay for a meal and spend the night."
"Thank you. Haha."
Landing a reliable party member like Aiham was a real stroke of luck.
That night, for the first time in a long while, I shared a meal with Simon, Aera, and Aiham, and stayed the night.
We made our preparations to leave for the Tower.
"Aiham, you ready?"
"Obviously. Let's bag fifty of them today."
And with that, we set off.
Aiham and I carefully worked on syncing our rhythm.
Fifteen goblins up ahead. A shaman and an archer mixed in among them.
"Giseok, I'll take the front. Watch for openings and clean them up."
He strode forward and drew the massive greatsword from his back. Then he muttered under his breath.
Iron Skin
His body took on a steely gray sheen as he charged straight into the goblins.
Arrows and blades rained down on him. He tanked them all, buying time. His skill was especially effective against arrows — they simply couldn't pierce him, rendering the archers all but useless.
And while every goblin's attention was locked on Aiham, I masked my presence, activated Acceleration, and swept through the ranged goblins in a blur.
"Ghk—!"
Goblins crumpled one after another. The frontline fighters couldn't hold against Aiham's terrifying greatsword either — shoulders cleaved clean through, bodies carved apart.
Fifteen goblins, wiped out in moments.
"Whew. Partying with you is a whole different level of security, Aiham!"
"Right? But seriously, how did you get this strong? You're about on my level."
"Come on, no way. Look at those muscles of yours... I've still got a long way to go."
Aiham shrugged at that.
"Well, sure, my raw power is ridiculous — but your speed is something else entirely. That's not a speed a level ten should be able to pull off."
"Yeah? Hehe."
Trading compliments like that, we kept hunting goblins.
The fourth floor of the Tower was overwhelming alone, but with Aiham it was a different story.
On the first day we cleared fifty-eight goblins and headed back down.
"Good work today, Aiham."
"You too. Come on, spill the secret. How'd you get strong so fast?"
"What secret? You're strong yourself. How are you so strong?"
"Hehe, I've got a master teaching me."
Aiham got bashful and admitted someone had been training him regularly. But no matter how many times I asked, he wouldn't say who.
Two days, three days... all the way through the seventh.
We spent the full week party hunting, stacking experience the whole time.
When we came down from the Tower on the last day, I was LV. 11.
"Thanks for the week, Aiham."
"I should be thanking you. Beating up nothing but bandits every day was getting old — this was a real break."
"Let's party up again sometime!"
We parted ways with a promise to do it again, each heading off on our own path.
The next day, I came to the fourth floor alone.
Yesterday I'd put another point into Agility. I'd considered Strength, but for now Agility — with its strong synergy with my skills — felt like the better investment.
That call paid off. The goblins couldn't keep up with my speed at all. Even when they loosed arrows, my agile movements made them easy to dodge.
The stat allocation had been a success.
I'd only gone from ten to eleven, but a full week of party hunting with Aiham had drilled the art of fighting goblins into me. Even large packs no longer posed much of a problem.
Every mana stone I collected went straight into Acceleration.
Skill reinforcement was harder than expected, though. The thing was a bottomless mana-stone hog.
Still, it made sense. Paralysis Poison wasn't a power you were supposed to get at my level either. That kind of advantage was bound to come with a steep cost.
Before I knew it, I'd arrived at the safe zone leading to the fifth floor.
Nobody here today.
I walked slowly along the path — the same corridor that adventurer had been staring toward. About two minutes down it—
"Wh-what is this?!"
A massive blue door stood before me.
The door to the boss room.
A conversation I'd had with Aiham came flooding back.
A few days earlier, at a tavern, I'd asked Aiham about it.
"Have you ever gone in? The fifth floor."
Aiham swallowed the chunk of meat he'd been chewing and answered.
"No. Don't go in there."
"Why not?"
"Boss rooms are dangerous."
"Isn't the whole Tower dangerous?"
I knocked back my drink. We were already on our third round.
Aiham leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and said,
"What do you think your odds of surviving in there would be?"
"At what level?"
"Level ten."
I thought it over carefully. Level ten was about where we were...
"Fifty-fifty?"
"Hahaha!"
Aiham slammed the table and roared with laughter. Once it subsided, he leaned in close.
"Twenty percent."
"What?"
"One in five."
I laughed it off.
"You're messing with me, right? If it's one in five, who'd even try?"
"That's why people go in parties."
Right. If the odds were low solo, a party would raise them. You could clear it that way, couldn't you?
"So just go in as a group and clear it, then?"
"You can. But there's a catch."
"A catch?"
"The rewards are different from solo. The monsters are different too. And..."
Aiham paused, drawing it out.
"And?"
"You can't go."
"Can't go where?"
Aiham raised his index finger and pointed straight up.
"Why? If you clear it, you're done, right? Why can't you go higher?"
"How should I know? That's just how the Tower decided it."
That was the truth of it.
Parties that challenged the boss room were after the loot. But even that loot was different. If your goal was to climb the Tower, you had to challenge it alone.
Which was why the vast majority of adventurers stopped their climb at the fourth floor.
I ran my hand over the blue door.
Would it be reckless for me to try going higher too?
A one-in-five chance. Taking that on seemed like pure insanity.
But heroes were born in every age — and heroes came from the people who dared to try.
Still, I was a practical man.
What am I even thinking, going up there... Staying alive comes first.
I was about to turn back when a voice rang out inside my head.
Climb.
"What the hell was that?!"
A sudden pain lanced through my skull.
Climb.
My hand moved on its own.
"S-stop!"
But my hand was already pushing the door open.
A black gate yawned before me. My feet carried me toward it, step by step.
"N-no—!!"
Fwoom—
A moment later, I was standing inside an enormous cavern.
Far darker than the fourth floor had been. My eyes couldn't adjust to the sudden blackness.
"Where... is this?"
I started walking carefully forward when—
Clatter—
Something shifted under my foot. It was too dark to make out, so I bent down for a closer look.
My eyes gradually adapted to the gloom.
And there, where my gaze fell, adventurers' equipment lay scattered across the ground.