Tower of Despair, Floor 2 (3)
Privilege Ability, ‘Regression’, has activated.
This is your twelfth regression.
The first thing he did upon coming back to life was open his status window.
Name:Hyun Si-woon
Age:20
Weapons:Sword, Spear, Shield, Bow, Blunt Weapon, Staff
Floor:1
Class:None
Skill:Fire Bolt
Just as I thought!
Fire Bolt was still there. It matched what he had expected. Not only the stats, but the skill itself remained even after regression—that fact was now solidly proven. With this, things would get truly easy.
Hyun Si-woon set out at once. Following the same path as before, he made for the Stone Gate of the Dead and thrust his staff into the white stone door.
Rumble!
When the door opened, another medium waited inside.
The moment he touched it, holy light enveloped him completely.
Healing Light
Once per minute, generate sacred light to restore wounds on a designated target.
A good skill. It wouldn’t reverse critical injuries, but cuts and fractures would heal quickly. And if he used it later against undead-type enemies, it would deal a faint holy-attribute damage as well.
The moment he stepped back out through the white stone gate—
Rumble! Crash!
Both stone gates collapsed. Learn one, and the other vanished on its own like this.
Hmm. If things go this way…
If Hyun Si-woon cleared the second floor right away in this life, Baek Do-hee would be left in an awkward position. She would end up holding a staff without ever learning a skill.
What should he do? Die and yield it to her?
The thought alone sent a chill down his spine.
What am I even thinking right now?
He carefully reexamined himself. He had already died multiple times and was casually accepting that he would die again. Death itself had already become familiar. He could feel himself growing duller by the day.
This won’t do.
Death was never something light. A life was precious precisely because a person only got one. He needed to set a standard. Otherwise he would keep treating himself carelessly.
He turned and left the area at once. Meeting them now would only drag him into unnecessary trouble.
From now on, I won’t even consider regression unless it’s absolutely necessary.
He made the vow to himself. Struggle and live as hard as possible. Keep the option of dying to solve a problem in reserve until the very last moment. It was easiest if he treated every decision as if he only had one life.
The same went for Baek Do-hee. Was her skill worth handing over his life?
Absolutely not.
She was a stranger. A little favorability might have stacked up, but that was nowhere near enough to die for.
Let’s just go claim the bases.
Splash, splash.
He walked the swamp again. Setting a standard made his movements distinctly more careful. The longer he walked, the heavier his body became. A stamina problem.
“Hah.”
Stats of six really were garbage. He had skimmed the forum posts before coming in; a healthy woman’s average was five. An average man’s was seven, and someone who exercised a bit sat at eight. Elite athletes went over ten, and the occasional monster cleared twelve.
First priority: clear the second floor.
Anyone who had cleared the second floor at this point was already recognized; joining a group would be easy. From there he could push his physical abilities as high as possible.
Splash, splash!
His pace was slow, but his movements were clean. Traps were everywhere, yet he never triggered a single one. He found the paths with ease, weaving through them.
—Gwooooar!
The occasional trees possessed by wraiths—
Thrust!
Pierce the core in the center and they stopped moving. He used the staff as well.
Fwoosh!
Every minute, he fired a Fire Bolt. He would have liked to wield sword and staff at the same time, but that wasn’t possible yet. It didn’t matter. He practiced weapon swaps regularly, so he could switch quickly enough. He would have to train that outside too.
After about ten minutes of travel, one of the bases came into view. Hyun Si-woon climbed onto it, raised his sword in one hand, and brought it down on the blue sealing stone.
Clang!
It shattered, scattering light.
Base Seal Release Complete
Currently Released Bases: 3/6
“Tch.”
Hyun Si-woon gave a bitter smile. Two bases had already been claimed.
Yu Jae-jun’s crew, huh.
There was no way they had taken two in only ten minutes. Most likely they had already secured two bases by the time they ran into him at the Stone Gate of the Dead. Yu Jae-jun complaining about getting lost had probably been because they stopped at the bases first instead of heading straight for the gate.
So the hidden route had already been out of reach for them anyway.
Hyun Si-woon started walking again. Reading the patterns on the ground, he found the path cleanly.
Base Seal Release Complete
Currently Released Bases: 4/6
He shattered another sealing stone.
He ran into Yu Jae-jun’s party again at the final base.
“You there—halt!”
Yu Jae-jun leveled his spear and shouted; the rest of the party raised their weapons as well.
“That’s the guy, isn’t it? The one who’s been taking the other bases. I told you there had to be another team.”
“But why’s he alone?”
“Who knows. Maybe the rest of them died?”
It was almost identical to their meeting in the previous life. They jabbered among themselves, then Yu Jae-jun stepped forward and looked him over from head to toe.
“Who are you?”
Even the words were the same.
“Our party’s already running this place… so other teams can show up too, huh?”
“Looks that way.”
Hyun Si-woon answered. Originally the man had looked older, so he had used polite speech without thinking—but looking back, it had left a bad taste. If someone used informal speech without permission the first time they met, you gave it right back.
“Where’s your team?”
Surprisingly, Yu Jae-jun didn’t seem to care about the tone.
“……All dead? No—before that.”
He growled.
“Was it you who collapsed the Stone Gate of the Dead?”
“I’m holding a sword, not a staff.”
He lifted the blade and gave it a little shake.
“Then one of your dead teammates got it.”
“…….”
They were already assuming he had a team. Time to clear up the misunderstanding.
“I came in alone.”
The party members began murmuring among themselves.
What followed was similar. Whether to take Hyun Si-woon into the team or not. It was almost funny. The situation was clearly different from before, yet the conversation flowed in almost the same direction.
“We should kick him out, obviously. Never mind how scrawny he looks—he’s brazenly lying about coming alone. Nothing good comes from taking him on.”
Choi Geon-woo was strongly against it; Baek Do-hee pushed back.
“You’re going to abandon someone who’s alone? That’s basically the same as killing him.”
“Nah. He’s made it this far by himself, hasn’t he? He’ll figure out how to survive on his own.”
“Our goal’s the same anyway, right? Clear the second floor. Even if we don’t make him a full member, fighting together will help. Looking at how he took bases, he seems pretty knowledgeable.”
The pattern matched as well. Yu Jae-jun called a vote; it came out 2–2. And then Kang Si-a, just like last time—
“That guy doesn’t look weak. I’m for it.”
Exactly the same.
“Hah.”
Yu Jae-jun let out a sigh.
“Two to three. Fine. A promise is a promise.”
He shook his head as if the result displeased him, then looked straight at Hyun Si-woon.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Consider yourself lucky.”
“…….”
“Sheathe that sword and come over to our side. I’m giving you a chance to join us.”
Who was the lucky one here was debatable, but the man was in a position to think that way. For now Hyun Si-woon decided to play along and walked over slowly.
Still…
He couldn’t break that sealing stone yet. The moment he did, the Wraith Knight would wake. Before that, he needed to clear one more hidden route.
Ah, right.
Yu Jae-jun was the famous streamer Raven, and Baek Yeon-ho was a top-tier domestic pro gamer. Both of them were experienced with the Tower of Despair. The fact that they still hadn’t broken the last sealing stone meant they already knew the information. It had even been posted in the community guides once.
The method was simple.
Currently Released Bases: 5/6
In this state, if you set a weapon on the pattern atop the base without breaking the sealing stone, a basement appeared. Defeat the Wraith Weapon Merchant that came out and you received one rare weapon. The type was random—one of six.
Not bad.
Rare weapons usually started appearing from the fifth floor onward. Getting one from the second floor made climbing far easier. Most veterans probably knew this route.
But…
Hyun Si-woon knew one more thing. He was probably the only one who did.
A limited weapon.
Deep inside that basement waited a weapon that appeared only once across the entire server.
Back in the days of the Tower of Despair, it had looked like a plain starter sword—couldn’t even equip it—so he had stashed it thinking it might be material for the higher floors later. How he learned about it was almost funny; even in the game it had been ridiculously hard to obtain. Honestly, he still wasn’t sure whether he could get it now or not. His heart was already pounding.
Still…
He had to get it. Once you cleared the second floor, you could never return. That was why, back when he was EndSeeker, he had remade characters dozens of times just for this.
“Hey.”
Choi Geon-woo came up beside him and snarled.
“We’re about to do the hidden route work. You try any funny business and I’ll kill you on the spot.”
A 120-kilogram tattooed brick wall of a man was threatening him. In the old days it would have been terrifying. Now?
Death itself barely registered anymore.
The one who performed the ritual was their leader, Yu Jae-jun. He set his spear on the pattern; light slowly began to fill the design.
“Pretty cool, right?”
Choi Geon-woo snickered.
“Count yourself lucky. You only get to see this kind of thing because you met us.”
Lucky, my ass. They weren’t even going to share the reward. Unfortunately, only one person could benefit from this route. Only one rare weapon dropped.
After about thirty seconds, the rising light completely filled the pattern.
At the same time—
Rumble!
The ground shook and the stone slab split open. Beneath it, a basement shrouded in black fog revealed itself.
“Baek Yeon-ho.”
“Yes.”
“Take point.”
“Got it.”
Baek Yeon-ho obeyed without complaint. He was the shield-bearing tanker; standing at the front was correct.
“Hey.”
This time Yu Jae-jun looked at Hyun Si-woon.
“Yeah?”
“You wait right here. We’ll be back up soon.”
“…….”
As expected. They weren’t bringing him into the team for real. It didn’t matter. Hyun Si-woon had never cared about the rare weapon in the first place.
“The rest of you follow him in. I’ll take the rear.”
Baek Do-hee went in after Baek Yeon-ho, then Choi Geon-woo, then Kang Si-a.
And last of all—
“Stay put and wait. If you wander off alone and get yourself killed, that’s not on us.”
Smirk.
He flashed a nasty grin and slipped down after them. Hyun Si-woon had already known the man was that kind of character, but watching it over and over still made irritation climb.
Whatever.
If that rare item was what ordinary veterans got, a true rotten veteran went for the limited weapon.
About three minutes after Yu Jae-jun disappeared, Hyun Si-woon quietly started down the basement stairs himself.
The stairs were relatively wide and long. The space was dark. Because of that, the side gap was easy to miss…
Was it here?
Sssss…
Hyun Si-woon dragged his left hand along the wall as he descended. Then—
Here.
A gap appeared, and below it a sheer drop. Like a bottomless abyss, the end was nowhere in sight.
“Hah.”
This gap. Every veteran knew it. There wasn’t a single hardcore player who hadn’t fallen to their death here while poking around the map.
He drew his staff.
“Fire Bolt.”
Fwoooosh!
He hurled a fire arrow into the abyss. For an instant the dark space flashed white. And there, in one corner of the bottomless pit, a mysterious pattern etched into a narrow ledge became faintly visible. It was so fine that without focusing the eyes it would have been invisible.
“Haa…”
Thump-thump-thump!
His heart rate spiked. The pattern was roughly twelve meters down. He had to land on it exactly. Miss, and he would be sucked into the abyss and die from the fall.
I succeed on the first try. No other option.
Hyun Si-woon drew a deep breath. His hands trembled slightly. It wasn’t simple nervousness. A thrilling sensation flooded his entire body.
The moment of the challenge.
Let’s go.
Whoosh!
One step.
He threw his body into the deep darkness.