Chapter 24

Three doors appeared again.

Kim Jun looked at Ariadne's Thread.

The thread pointed to the middle door without the slightest hesitation.

Searing heat wrapped around his face. It felt like he had stepped into the inside of a volcano, a space surrounded on all sides by molten rock.

"How dare you set foot in my territory!"

The lava rippled.

A mage in a red robe slowly rose from within it.

Flames were roaring at the tip of his staff.

"Fireball!"

A massive sphere of fire shot straight toward Kim Jun.

He didn’t even dodge. He simply stood there and took the blast head-on.

BOOM!

With a thunderous detonation, flames swallowed him whole.

"Kahahaha! How’s that! The power of my flames!"

The lava mage laughed, certain of victory.

But then—

"Is that all?"

Kim Jun’s voice came from within the fire.

The smoke parted, and he stood there completely unharmed. Not a single thread of his clothes had burned.

"W-what?!"

"Try making it hotter. That was lukewarm."

Kim Jun spoke with maddening calm. Fire and darkness flowed through his body.

The flame attribute attack of a mere level 16 mage was nothing more than the kind of warmth you’d get in a bathhouse to him.

Kim Jun walked forward at an unhurried pace. Even when the lava at his feet brushed against him, he didn’t react.

"N-no way! Hellfire!"

The mage hurled an even stronger spell in desperation.

Whoooooosh—!

But Kim Jun simply walked out through the flames.

"What about my fire?"

Black flames rose from Kim Jun’s body.

They were on an entirely different level from the mage’s red fire — black fire that looked capable of burning everything to ash.

Fwooooosh—!

"!!"

Sensing danger by instinct, the mage jerked both hands forward.

"Fire Wall!"

A thick barrier of red flame formed in front of him. It was his highest-grade defensive spell.

But then—

Crackle.

The moment the black flames touched it, something strange happened.

One by one, the red flames making up the barrier began to turn black.

"N-no way... Fire is eating fire?!"

The mage stared in shock.

He had spent his whole life handling flame, but it was the first time he had ever seen one fire use another as fuel and grow stronger.

"What are you talking about? It’s just a different level."

"Aaaaaaaah!"

After that, it was the same story over and over.

On the 25th floor, he faced a steel knight clad in full plate armor.

The opponent was fairly threatening, even using a skill called Vital Point Slash, but that was still far from enough for Kim Jun.

Crack!

He smashed the armor to pieces in a single blow and cleared the floor.

On the 36th floor, a dark assassin proved trickier, relying on stealth and poison attacks.

But that was still a level Kim Jun could handle easily with his Sense skill. He waited for the instant the assassin sprang from the shadows, then finished it off with his greatsword.

On the 49th floor, a dragon appeared.

"Grrrr... How dare you enter the realm of dragons!"

Its breath attacks and enormous claws packed real force, and it looked impressive enough.

But then—

"Huh? Wait, this presence is..."

The dragon suddenly froze.

It had sensed the peculiar aura radiating from Kim Jun’s body.

"Dragon, Dragon Hunter?! S-sorry! Please, go on ahead!"

The dragon flattened itself against the floor in terror.

Kim Jun passed it by with a look of utter disbelief.

On the 64th floor, a shaman held out for a while with darkness magic and curse attacks.

But all of it was meaningless before Kim Jun’s overwhelming power.

And then, at last—

"Oh..."

This one was truly a sight to behold. A guardian in the form of an angel with white wings was holding a golden sword.

A divine presence unlike anything he had faced until now radiated from it.

"Challenge me, and accept death gracefully!"

The guardian spread its wings and declared with solemn authority.

But at that very moment—

"Huh? T-this evil presence is..."

The guardian looked more closely at Kim Jun, and all at once, its body began to tremble.

"T-the Celestial Butcher?! The demon who wiped out Heaven in a single day!"

But unlike the dragon—

"Finally... I’ve finally found you!"

The guardian’s eyes began to turn red.

"Lavia, Ophanim, Ophirion... you bastard, you slaughtered all my comrades!"

"Woooooo!"

The guardian’s wings doubled in size, and sacred light exploded from its entire body.

Lightning snapped from the golden sword.

"This is revenge! You’ll die here!"

"So you’re different, huh?"

For the first time, Kim Jun showed a genuinely interested expression.

The dragon saw the title and tucked its tail between its legs immediately, but this one got angry instead.

He hadn’t expected reactions to vary so much even when the title was the same.

The dragon had been ruled by its instinct for survival, but the angel seemed to put loyalty and vengeance first.

"Heavenly Judgment!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Countless spears of light rained down from the sky.

This time, it was an attack he really did have to avoid.

Kim Jun shifted his body left and right, slipping past the descending lances of light.

Oh, that’s pretty fast.

This boss was definitely different from the ones before it. The guardian’s attacks, empowered by rage, were genuinely threatening.

"Holy Combo!"

The guardian teleported in front of Kim Jun and slashed at him with the golden sword in a rapid barrage.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Fine. Then I’ll get a little serious too."

Kim Jun drew his greatsword.

"This is my final strike!"

The guardian poured every last ounce of its holy power into the golden sword. It shone as brilliantly as the sun itself.

"Judgment!"

A massive blade of sacred energy hurtled toward Kim Jun.

But he only lifted his greatsword with calm ease.

"Dragon-"

Wooooooooong—

An immense surge of power began gathering at the tip of Kim Jun’s blade.

Red flames and black darkness intertwined, and a dark crimson dragon writhed above the sword edge.

"-Slash."

Slash.

"This is...!"

The guardian was stunned.

The power surging from Kim Jun’s sword was overwhelming its own sacred force.

Whoooooosh—!

Kim Jun swung his greatsword in a wide arc.

In an instant, a colossal dragon formed of dark crimson flames burst from the blade.

The dragon’s shape was vivid and distinct, with black fire pouring from its eyes and red flames blasting from its maw.

BOOOOOOM!

The dark crimson dragon swallowed the guardian’s sacred blade in a single bite, then charged straight toward the guardian itself.

Thud.

When the smoke cleared, the guardian had vanished without a trace.

But this time, a different alert appeared.

"Oh?"

Kim Jun’s eyes flashed.

The first thing that caught his eye was the title.

Master of Perfect Squares.

It was an extreme trait that raised both mana consumption and damage output by the square.

For example, if Dragon Slash dealt 1,000 damage for 100 mana, then with the title activated it would deal one million damage for 10,000 mana.

The stronger the skill, the more absurd the damage I can squeeze out of it.

But the problem was mana.

Kim Jun’s current maximum mana was 30,000.

If he activated the title and used Dragon Slash — the skill with the lowest mana cost among his options — just three times, he would be completely drained.

So this really is a title for last resorts. But if I combine it with berserk mode...

His thoughts raced through the calculations.

If he pushed berserk mode to its limit and entered the final form of a half-human, half-demon, half-dragon, then Infinite Mana would activate.

Infinite ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Mana was a passive that increased mana recovery by 100 percent.

In other words, when combined with this title, he could theoretically keep pouring out squared damage forever.

"...But."

Kim Jun shook his head as he thought of Lee Seoyeon’s face.

She said she wouldn’t let me off if I used berserk mode one more time.

That warning hadn’t been a joke. He knew that very well.

Besides, in a maxed-out berserk ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠state, his sanity would be eaten away too, and he wasn’t exactly eager to go that far.

"Let’s get to the 100th floor first."

He gathered his thoughts and looked ahead.

Three doors.

"They said all of them are set, right?"

Kim Jun pushed open the nearest door.

Creaaak—

Kim Jun looked around in surprise.

A vast golden palace. Pillars stretching all the way to the ceiling. Complex magic circles carved into the floor. And in the center...

"Wow."

There sat a massive golden treasure chest, shining so brightly it hurt to look at it.

"One million coins?!"

The first thing that caught Kim Jun’s eye was the coin reward.

One million? Even if I cleared every floor from the 1st to the 30th of the Tower of Trials, I probably still wouldn’t have saved up this much.

Normally, a floor would give around 1,000 to 3,000 coins on average.

Even if you climbed all the way to the 30th floor while killing every boss, you’d only end up with roughly 200,000 coins.

One million coins was a sum so vast it was almost impossible to imagine.

And when he looked at the remaining items...

"Ah, these aren’t really for me."

Kim Jun made a complicated face.

Book of Incomplete Class Change was certainly a game-changing item, but for Kim Jun, who already had a hidden class, it was unnecessary.

Expert’s Equipment Selection Scroll was the same. With every piece of his gear already at S-rank or higher, it wasn’t very useful to him.

Well, I still have a helmet left, at least.

But then a bright smile surfaced on his face.

The items might not suit him, but they were treasures that could dramatically increase his companions’ strength.

"In the end, the only things I’ll use myself are the Phoenix Feather and the one million coins."

Kim Jun nodded in satisfaction.

Even the chance for his comrades to grow stronger made all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this effort worthwhile.

Not that it had been much effort.

Besides, with one million coins, he wouldn’t have to worry about money for quite a while.

"Not bad at all."

25