The Weight of Worth
The gate had opened not far from the guild house.
I reported it to the Association and entered after declaring my intent to clear it. The difficulty was Silver rank or below.
The moment I stepped inside, monsters greeted me with open arms, but I swept them aside without much trouble using the power of Polar Night.
“Hyung-nim.”
“Yes, Guild Master.”
“I’d like you to take Jiyoung and Ping Lei and clean up the surroundings.”
“Understood.”
Even though he wore a slightly uncomfortable expression, Youngsu-hyung didn’t ask any questions.
The situation was already strange enough—suddenly insisting on a sparring match inside a gate. He must have had plenty of things he wanted to ask, but I was grateful he let it slide without a word.
I stood facing Karla, keeping a distance of about fifty meters between us.
“This spar will be like real combat.”
“Real combat?”
“Even if an arm or leg gets severed, we won’t stop.”
In a training center, you couldn’t have a fight that felt truly real. Any impact strong enough to cause serious damage would be blocked by the internal barrier.
“So you’re saying it’s fine to aim for my life.”
“That’s right. Attack me with killing intent.”
Because I would do the same.
I left the rest unsaid and began cycling between Fior’s Blessing and Thunder God.
As I stacked one buff after another, Karla finally began to move.
The scenery around her started to warp and twist.
Space Compression
Accelerate
I didn’t even need to use the Thousand Eyes. The scythe’s trajectory was crystal clear.
The weapon vibrated with countless tremors. Because it carried an effect that restricted the movement of its target, dodging was impossible.
“Same pattern as always.”
An attack I could see coming but couldn’t avoid.
I pulled my blood-red left hand downward. Blood Intoxication—a skill that lured the opponent’s attacks.
The scythe’s trajectory twisted. At almost the exact same moment, I unleashed Flying Wings Great Peng Palm with my right hand.
CRAAAAAASH!
The force, amplified by spatial compression, was canceled out by the internal energy concentrated in my palm.
Even a palm technique infused with the principle of Flow couldn’t deflect this kind of attack.
I stepped forward.
The moment I closed the distance and entered Karla’s range, the space rippled again.
Since her preemptive strike failed, she was trying to create distance?
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Body of Darkness
Domination of Darkness
All 120 points of Polar Night manifested at once.
The surrounding space was dyed in darkness. A radius of thirty-six meters became my domain.
“That ability isn’t invincible either.”
Karla’s magical waves threaded through the gaps in space.
Having synchronized with Polar Night through the Body of Darkness, I could sense them with perfect clarity.
Shhhhhk!
Using the power of Polar Night, I severed the magical force interfering with space.
Karla’s blurred form returned to normal.
The instant I swung the dark blade infused with internal energy—
Slice—
The sword energy hovering over the Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword severed Karla’s right arm, the one holding the scythe.
A beat later, crimson droplets of blood spurted forth.
Karla bit down hard on her lip, then kicked the fallen scythe with her foot.
The weapon flew into the air.
The moment she tried to catch it with her left hand, Polar Night surged up from the ground and knocked the scythe away in the opposite direction.
A black spear hovered at her throat. The spiraling Polar Night stopped just an inch away.
“Catch.”
I tossed her a mid-grade potion from the Pocket of Desire.
Hssssss—!
The severed stump was disinfected and began to regenerate.
“Heal.”
The light shimmering in my palm settled over Karla’s regenerating right arm.
It was the healing skill I had obtained on the fifteenth floor of the Tower.
Karla stared at me with eyes full of suspicion.
“What? Something wrong?”
“Guild Master… you can use healing magic too?”
“I’m quite versatile.”
The wound had healed cleanly. Karla shook her right arm experimentally.
“Any problems?”
“No. Thank you.”
Thanking the person who just cut off your arm. She really wasn’t normal.
“After sparring with you, Guild Master, I realized where I was lacking.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why I should be thankful…”
“The spar has only just begun.”
The kind of fight you love so much.
From now on, you’ll get to enjoy it to your heart’s content.
It’s going to hurt quite a bit, though.
Karla, who understood my words a beat too late, gripped her scythe once more.
Claaaaang!
The scythe she held couldn’t withstand the opposing force and bounced away in the opposite direction.
The sensation in her palms had long since vanished from the continuous impacts.
Biting down hard on her lip, Karla manipulated space to retrieve the deflected scythe.
He’s too strong.
It had already been an hour since the sparring began inside the gate.
Not once had Karla managed to land a clean hit on Jinho.
It wasn’t simply a difference in raw specs.
Space Manipulation.
Karla’s ability was powerful enough to overturn the gap between their stats.
He’s reading all of my thoughts.
Where she was aiming. How much power was behind each strike. He countered with perfect precision and drove her back instead.
Did he have some kind of mind-reading skill?
No. That’s not the problem.
Karla grit her teeth.
It felt like she was sinking into a swamp. The more she struggled, the deeper she seemed to fall toward Jinho.
Slice!
“Ugh!”
A long gash was carved across her shoulder.
Even the armor she had commissioned from a famous American craftsman was powerless before Jinho’s fingernails.
The intense pain momentarily turned her vision pure white, but Karla ignored it and swung her scythe.
The tip of the blade caught Jinho’s forearm. She had endured the pain and swung with everything she had—
Metal Reflection Armor
Dark Fighting Spirit
She hadn’t won.
Karla poured even more power from Space Manipulation into her scythe.
A piercing ability that could penetrate any barrier.
Right before the ability activated, Jinho took one more step forward and fearlessly entered the scythe’s range.
Space Manipulation
He expanded the space between them, trying to push Jinho away, but it didn’t work as intended.
Is there a foreign substance interfering?
Polar Night.
The power of night granted to him by Nyx was obstructing her space manipulation.
Even Ellen, America’s top ranker, had never been able to interfere with her unique ability.
The moment she tried to manipulate space again—
Black Tortoise Crushing Rock
“Kyaaak!”
It felt like colliding head-on with a truck speeding down the highway.
Karla collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Her entire body ached.
Although she had healed the wounds with potions, the pain itself hadn’t disappeared.
Her arms and legs creaked. The breath that had risen all the way to her throat showed no sign of calming down.
But what hurt most of all was Karla’s pride, now thoroughly trampled.
“Are you okay?”
“Haa… haa…”
Leaning on her scythe, she forced herself to stand.
The red blood scattered across the ground had all flowed from her own wounds.
Even so—
“It’s not over yet.”
Karla refused to give up the challenge.
Even though the accumulated pain made it difficult to put strength into her limbs, even though her arms and legs trembled, she absolutely refused to stop.
“If you keep moving, it’ll become dangerous. Potions aren’t omnipotent, you know.”
“I can’t stop.”
“Why not?”
“Because then I lose my worth.”
—I’m sorry, sweetie.
—You’re useless.
—How unpleasant.
—Why don’t you ever show any expression?
Abandoned by the parents who gave birth to her.
Treated like a creepy child even at the orphanage.
She couldn’t feel joy or sorrow no matter what happened, as if her emotions had been suppressed.
While living at the orphanage, unable to properly interact with others, she received an invitation from the Tower.
—Space Manipulation? What a rare ability! What a player!
—Please leave this child to us.
Gold Moon.
One of America’s largest guilds had reached out to her.
—You can become the greatest player. Just trust me.
Ellen, a top-floor player, had said it with confidence.
Ah, I see.
If I want to be acknowledged, I have to become the best.
“So I can’t stop.”
If she didn’t want to be abandoned again, she had to become stronger.
If she couldn’t surpass Ping Lei, Enrique, and even Jiyoung…
Thud.
With that final thought, Karla collapsed to the ground.
Karla, who had been leaning on her scythe when she collapsed.
“This is serious!”
“Don’t worry. She’s just exhausted.”
I calmed the agitated Nyx and approached Karla.
It was impressive she hadn’t passed out until now.
Her arms and legs had been severed multiple times. Even though I healed her with potions, the pain didn’t vanish.
The bleeding couldn’t be ignored either.
Heal has been used.
After restoring Karla’s vitality, I finished clearing the rest of the gate and returned to reality.
On the way back to the guild house, everyone looked like they had many questions, but no one opened their mouths.
“Mmm…”
Karla let out a soft groan.
All the injuries she had suffered during the spar had been healed with potions, so outwardly she looked fine.
Aside from her torn armor and the bloodstains everywhere, that is.
You were quite harsh.
Nyx muttered in a scolding tone.
It couldn’t be helped.
The only way to uncover the darkness in Karla’s heart was to do it this way.
Needing recognition from others. Defining her life’s value that way was a sad thing, but it wasn’t something I could fix for her.
One must untie the knot they themselves tied.
The person who created the problem had to be the one to solve it.
“I’ll leave her to you for support.”
“Understood, Master.”
Jiyoung looked at me with complicated eyes.
Doubt and trust. I could feel the contrasting emotions swirling within her.
When we arrived at the building, Ellen was waiting in the lobby.
It seemed she had just returned from clearing a Tower floor.
Perfect timing.
The moment Ellen saw me, her eyebrows twitched.
“Mister Yu, what on earth…”
Karla’s face was deathly pale. Her tattered armor and the bloodstains all over her body made it easy to guess what had happened.
“I actually have something I need to tell you.”
Ellen, who had been looking back and forth between me and Karla, let out a long sigh.
“I understand.”
We headed up to the roof of the guild house.
The spring breeze had grown quite warm and brushed against our cheeks, but a cold atmosphere hung between the two of them.
“This was your handiwork, Mister Yu.”
“You noticed quickly.”
“There were traces of martial arts left on the destroyed armor.”
She had sharp eyes. As expected of the person called America’s number one ranker.
“And there isn’t a single gate that could inflict this much damage on Karla.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“Unless there’s a proper reason, I might get a little angry.”
Ellen smiled sweetly.
Whoa, she’s really pissed.
That refreshing smile that appeared when someone’s anger had reached its limit. I had seen it a few times before the regression as well.
“I did it to find out why Karla wanted to join our guild.”
“Is that so?”
The anger flickering in Ellen’s eyes subsided slightly.
I told her what I had heard from Karla at the end of the spar.
As the story continued, the color drained from Ellen’s face.
“It seems she believes that if she doesn’t become stronger, she’ll be abandoned.”
“Because of what I said back then…”
“Isn’t it better that you know now?”
A twisted knot only needs to be untied.
Before the regression, Ellen hadn’t realized how distorted Karla’s values were, and eventually their relationship had fallen apart.
Things would be different now.
Since I had informed her of the discord between them, wouldn’t their future change?
“I’ll go see Karla.”
Ellen hurriedly left her seat.
The next day.
She came to find me with reddened eyes.
“I owe you a great debt, Mister Yu.”
“Did the talk go well?”
“Of course. Thanks to you, I was able to truly understand what was in Karla’s heart.”
“I’m glad.”
That was enough.
I’ve repaid the debt from before the regression, Ellen.
“Will Karla remain in the Yeokcheon Guild?”
“For the time being. There are still many issues that need to be resolved.”
A single conversation wouldn’t be enough to change Karla’s values.
She would need time to slowly open up her heart.
“Personally, I’d like to repay this favor to you, Mister Yu.”
“Repay me?”
“Yes. So from now on…”
The words that followed from Ellen left me doubting my own ears.