The Altar of the War God
The world before my eyes had turned pitch black.
It felt as if I had plunged into the sea, or perhaps experienced weightlessness—my body floated upward, drifting through empty space.
Tower of Babel — 0th Floor
You have entered the Tutorial Stage.
Mission — Survival
Rainbow Island is a mysterious realm where various natural environments coexist.
Players who set foot in the Tower for the first time must adapt to each environment and learn how to survive.
The achievements you accomplish here will greatly aid your climb up the Tower of Babel.
▶ Objective: Survive for 14 days.
▶ The trials on the 0th floor cannot be challenged more than once.
▶ Death is considered a failure, and player privileges will be revoked.
‘So this is the tutorial stage.’
A place I could never return to twice.
The reality of having regressed finally sank in.
Rainbow Island is divided into seven regions.
Players may choose their starting location.
High-risk areas cannot be selected.
Plains: Risk — Low
Forest: Risk — Low
Wasteland: Risk — Medium
Mountains: Risk — Medium
In my previous life, I had chosen the plains.
‘Because that was the standard strategy.’
Ten years had passed since the Tower of Babel appeared on Earth.
Over ten million players had already cleared the tutorial.
— Head south from the plains and you can obtain the Patience skill.
— Climb halfway up Emirate Mountain and you’ll find a red rock. Behind it lies a cave containing Mighty Moss, an ingredient for high-grade potions.
— In the forest region…
The tutorial stage already had established optimal strategies.
‘Last time, I followed those strategies too.’
Starting in the plains, forming parties with others who entered the Tower at the same time, hunting monsters together.
Back then, I thought that was the right way.
It was a huge mistake.
Rainbow Island still hid countless undiscovered secrets.
Especially for someone like me, who possessed the Devour ability, it was nothing short of a hidden treasure trove.
‘Essences that can only be obtained in the tutorial.’
Ant Lion.
Nessie.
Blood Mountain Army.
All rare species that only inhabited Rainbow Island.
Besides them, the tutorial was filled with items and titles obtainable nowhere else.
‘This time, I’ll take everything.’
Without hesitation, I pressed the Wasteland region.
You have selected the Wasteland as your starting location.
We wish you good fortune, Player.
Along with the system voice, my senses gradually faded.
A dry, barren plain.
A wind devoid of moisture brushed against my cheek.
Your current location is the Wasteland.
Wasteland — Stamina consumption increased by 10%.
Whoosh—! A tumbleweed rolled across the ground in a perfect sphere.
It felt like a scene from a western.
Just as I remembered.
A faint smile crept across my lips.
The landscape matched my memories almost perfectly.
Flash! Flash!
Blue lights erupted across the wasteland.
New players who had just set foot in the Tower were entering Rainbow Island.
Interesting.
Quite a few challengers had chosen the wasteland as their starting point.
Either they were the daring type, or they possessed decent abilities and were confident.
‘But they still won’t know about the hidden elements.’
I followed the swaying tumbleweeds, walking slowly.
Explorer Laurent.
A peculiar man who had uncovered all sorts of hidden elements within the Tower of Babel.
He was also the one who discovered the hidden space on Rainbow Island—the Forgotten Ruins.
The year 2025… five years from now.
‘Sorry, but I’ll be using that information first.’
Information supremacy was a regressor’s privilege.
If not now, when would I ever enjoy the advantage of coming from the distant future?
I might not remember surging stock lists, but when it came to internal information about the Tower of Babel, I was more knowledgeable than anyone.
I strolled across the dry plain with measured steps.
The dust in the air made breathing difficult in the wasteland.
Unless in combat, preserving stamina was essential.
Roll, roll— more tumbleweeds joined the formation one by one.
After walking through the wasteland for some time—
“Kiiiiii.”
A low breathing sound tickled my ears.
Scattered across the wasteland were funnel-shaped (▽) depressions in the ground.
Ant Lion habitats—monsters that lured prey into holes and devoured them.
“Grrrl?”
An Iron Armadillo, an animal native to the wasteland, had noticed me.
Hostility gleamed in its eyes.
The creature bared its teeth and growled from beyond the sand pit.
“Don’t. You’ll die if you come at me.”
“Grrrl!”
The Iron Armadillo curled into a ball and launched itself toward me.
After bouncing off the ground several times to gain speed, it threw itself into the pit.
Whoosh—the once-still sand pit began spinning at a ferocious speed.
Unable to escape the swirling floor, the Iron Armadillo was sucked into the hole.
“I told you. You’ll die on the way.”
I shrugged.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t specified the subject.
Killing the Iron Armadillo wasn’t my job.
“Kiiiiii!”
The owner of the sand pit, the Ant Lion, revealed its massive pincer jaws.
Crunch! Even the Iron Armadillo’s sturdy shell was useless against those vicious jaws.
In an instant, the creature was reduced to finely minced meat.
“Still as brutal as ever.”
My physical specs were comparable to a level 20 player.
Exactly the level of someone who had just cleared the tutorial normally.
The problem was that those specs would never let me beat an Ant Lion in a fight.
‘It’s not a monster meant to be hunted.’
In the early days of conquering the Tower of Babel, many players had fallen into Ant Lion traps and been eliminated.
Even now, it was a monster one should never engage with in the tutorial stage.
The saving grace was that as long as you didn’t step into the trap, you wouldn’t be attacked.
I moved while avoiding the Ant Lion pits.
“This should be it.”
I stopped in front of a massive sand pit.
Hundreds of tumbleweeds gathered in one place were being swept into the spinning sand vortex and sucked inside.
The same shape as an Ant Lion trap.
However—
Laurent had observed something different about the vortex.
<“The tumbleweeds weren’t being torn apart or bounced away. They were simply disappearing somewhere.”
Ant Lions didn’t eat tumbleweeds.
The fact that even large tumbleweeds entered the pit without being sucked in was proof.
Yet the center of the wasteland winds supposedly swallowed them whole.
‘It’s true.’
I nodded, recalling Laurent’s knowledge.
Descending into that pit would lead to a hidden location on Rainbow Island—the Forgotten Temple.
The image of the Iron Armadillo being torn apart flashed through my mind.
But I felt no fear.
In my previous life, I had witnessed far worse scenes countless times.
There were moments when my own appearance had been even more wretched.
So there was no reason to hesitate…
“Not for me.”
Muttering as if to reassure myself, I stepped into the sand pit.
You have stepped into an Ant Lion trap.
Friction coefficient reduced by 80%.
My feet sank deep.
No wonder the Iron Armadillo couldn’t escape.
An effect enhanced by Skill.
Of course, if I wanted, I could use something like the Super Strength skill to break free from the sand pit.
‘For now, I have to endure.’
I ignored the constant warnings blaring from my instincts.
The moment I reached the center of the sand pit—
Instead of an Ant Lion’s pincer, something hard met my foot.
Digging through the sand with both hands, I uncovered a metal door.
I pulled hard on the ring.
In that instant, a brilliant light struck my retinas.
You have discovered the Altar of the War God.
Your current location is the Altar of the War God.
You are the first to discover the Altar of the War God in the Tutorial Stage. Strength and Agility increased by 2.
As expected, it was a hidden space.
Just discovering it raised my stats by 4.
‘So far, everything matches what I knew.’
I looked around.
A square room, roughly a hundred pyeong in size.
The only notable feature was a single gladius thrust upside down into the floor.
The name “War God,” and the gladius.
Even without Laurent’s information, I could guess who the temple’s master was.
“Ares.”
The legitimate son of the God King Zeus.
The god who presided over war.
Though high-ranking among the Olympian gods, he wasn’t particularly well-regarded by modern people.
‘He inherited too many of Zeus’s bad traits.’
A womanizer, or a thug.
Ares had a strong image as an immature brat who relied solely on his own power.
When I actually met him, that assessment was about half right.
In exchange, he was also extremely vain, and if you flattered him properly, he had a foolish tendency to shower you with rewards.
I placed my hand on the gladius.
Altar of the War God
An altar dedicated to Ares, the divine being who presides over war.
Ares values blood, violence, and struggle above all. If you satisfy Ares, you will receive an appropriate reward.
Will you accept Ares’ trial?
“Of course.”
A hidden divine altar in the tutorial stage.
Overcoming the trial would grant an enormous reward.
Even if I failed, since this was the tutorial stage, I wouldn’t die.
Not that failure was even a possibility.
Hidden Quest — Ares’ Trial
📍 Objective: Defeat the weakened Dragon-Tooth Soldier.
A knight clad in golden full plate armor.
Only his eyes were visible, glowing with crimson light.
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier, forged from a dragon’s fang, gripped the gladius that symbolized the War God.
Goosebumps covered my forearms.
A sharp aura radiated from the Dragon-Tooth Soldier’s entire body.
<“A weakened Dragon-Tooth Soldier is comparable to a level 50 challenger. I swung my sword to my limit and barely earned recognition.”
Well, I didn’t know about the specs, but that aura seemed no less intense than the original.
Perhaps because the gladius was so large, the Dragon-Tooth Soldier held it with both hands.
At that size, it was more accurate to call it a two-handed sword.
「So you are the challenger?」
“That’s right.”
「I hope your skills are worthy of offering glory to the War God.」
“We’ll see about that.”
I slowly circled the Dragon-Tooth Soldier.
Full plate armor.
At a glance, there were no gaps to exploit.
If there was no opening to slip through—
Then I would create one myself.
「Are you looking for an opening?」
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier turned its body as if sensing a ghost.
Reacting to my killing intent, it swung the gladius vertically with both hands.
A blade raining down toward my crown.
“No. I’m not looking for one. I’m making one.”
I had already known the Dragon-Tooth Soldier would react to killing intent and attack.
The range of the gladius.
Its speed proportional to its stat values.
I had calculated its reaction speed as well before moving.
I slammed on the brakes just before entering the vertical slash’s range.
Clang! The gladius struck the floor.
I charged again toward the now-wide-open chest of the Dragon-Tooth Soldier.
「Challenger, I can defeat someone like you even without a weapon.」
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier dropped the gladius and lowered its shoulders slightly.
It seemed to believe it could ram me, trusting in the defense of its full plate.
That was a mistake.
Super Strength activated.
Deals damage equal to the user’s Strength stat + 300%.
A skill obtained by devouring the essence of the baby giant Utu-ri.
With four times the amplified power, I struck the joint where the shoulder met the shoulder blade.
Boom— the connection point crumpled under the tremendous force.
Unable to fully dissipate the power amplified by Super Strength, the Dragon-Tooth Soldier was sent flying ten meters backward.
「What in the world was that power just now……」
“Why? Something not working right?”
The essence of the baby giant Utu-ri.
Its effect was certain.
Though my arms trembled from the aftereffects of squeezing out such immense strength at once—
It was more than enough to defeat a weakened Dragon-Tooth Soldier.
「Impressive, Challenger.」
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier swung its gladius repeatedly.
A sharp aura.
A single mistake would lead straight to a fatal wound.
Without wearing any armor, every moment was dangerous.
Well—
Compared to my previous life, this fight was child’s play.
If I had mastered martial arts, I could have pushed the Dragon-Tooth Soldier back far more effectively.
At this point, I had to rely on my experiences from before the regression to lead the battle.
While dodging the raining slashes, I landed two more strikes with Super Strength.
「Coincidence? Or……」
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier nodded as if confused.
Its offensive slowed.
“Come at me. I need to show Ares a fight that satisfies him.”
I curled my lips into a smirk.