The Hidden Piece (Part 2)
The moment the words flashed before my eyes, everything went black.
Return by Death has been triggered.
├─ Lv.3→Lv.4 ✓
├─ Lv.1→Lv.2 ✓
Welcome, players.
Return by Death activated, and I was summoned back to the Colosseum plaza once again. It was my first time experiencing death, so the shock hit pretty hard. Especially that final scene I witnessed. It was fucking awful. I felt completely powerless. At my current level, I couldn’t even stand against a second-rate warrior. I must have gotten cocky after winning against those trolls. Just like those Korean party assholes. Acting like I was hot shit.
The troll fight had a dwarf helping out, though.
The axe troll had the dwarf’s support, and the club troll had the Korean party wearing it down first. Plus it was two-on-one followed by one-on-one. All I had to focus on was the enemy right in front of me. But this fight was different. It was a formation I’d never experienced before. I couldn’t afford to focus on just one opponent. The second I locked eyes on one, the other would come slashing at my back. Just like how a troll’s regeneration couldn’t endure a long battle, my Tough Skin couldn’t withstand their coordinated assault.
My opponents were stronger than I expected. Second-rate warriors, huh.
My skills were pathetic compared to those second-rate warriors who danced on the edge of life and death every day. Like how a school bully could never beat a real gangster. When stats were similar, the one lacking real combat experience always lost.
That elf was ridiculously weak too.
Even if she was an elf princess from a fantasy world, there was no way some extra character whose name I didn’t even know could be strong. She was already a weak elf princess, and she got hit with the balancing penalty on top of that. There was no way I could win while protecting her and that tactician.
Losing was the natural outcome.
Anyway. It became a good opportunity to get my head straight. Just thinking about Yoo Dahui going through something like that gave me chills. I had to get stronger somehow. As fast as possible.
By the way, what the hell was that monolith…?
I didn’t remember reading about any monolith like that in the novel. It was a hidden piece I didn’t know about. That final scene I saw, the black energy pouring out of the monolith, was definitely not normal. Obviously I had to go get it.
First things first. Let’s meet up with Yoo Dahui.
Return by Death had triggered. The eighth round had just begun. Which meant Yoo Dahui had died. I had no idea how long she lasted after I died on the first day. If she survived for a while, she probably gained some meaningful results.
Defeat the Field Boss.
Any means and methods are permitted.
I could see Yoo Dahui in the distance. Our eyes met instantly. She was smiling, so it looked like things hadn’t gone too badly. Thanks to her Blessing of Suicide, she could die comfortably whenever she needed to anyway. She had probably accomplished everything she wanted before regressing.
Yoo Dahui strode straight toward me.
“Excuse me. You’re Korean, right?”
It wasn’t the woman in the suit. It was Yoo Dahui calling out to me. Her approach was exactly the same as the Korean party’s. Did she think this method had less impact on relationships?
“Yeah.”
“Me too. My name is Yoo Dahui. I’m twenty-two.”
The more regressions she went through, the more Yoo Dahui skipped the middle steps. She was getting bolder. It felt like she had fewer reservations. Because she didn’t hesitate, things progressed much faster.
“I’m Kim Jinwoo. I’m twenty-two too.”
She started speaking casually to me right from the beginning. Yoo Dahui dropped the formal speech with me and walked out of the Colosseum plaza. I casually followed behind her as she took the lead.
As I trailed after Yoo Dahui, I naturally spotted Kang Hana. Yoo Dahui was planning to recruit her into the party. To make things run smoothly, we needed trustworthy allies. In that regard, Kang Hana was the perfect companion—strong and devoted.
“Huuu, slurp.”
Kang Hana was staring blankly at a restaurant, drooling. She didn’t actually go inside, though. She just kept hesitating.
“Ahem! Um…! All Mighty! I’m a huge fan!”
“Y-yes? Ah, haha! Thank you!”
Kang Hana looked visibly flustered as she waved her arms around at Yoo Dahui, who had declared herself a fan.
“This is just… I’m hungry…!”
“I understand. That can happen.”
She had probably been agonizing over going in alone the whole time. That was just the kind of woman Kang Hana was.
“You said you’re my fan, right?”
“Yes.”
“Th-then let me buy you a meal!”
“No way. It’s fine. You only have 1,000 coins anyway. Let’s just eat together.”
Kang Hana saw her chance and tried to drag us into the restaurant. She was using us as the perfect excuse. Did her brain only work this well at times like this? Yoo Dahui half-heartedly refused but followed her inside anyway. How could anyone mooch off someone who only had 1,000 coins? Compared to the bus we were about to ride, we were the ones who should be paying.
“Come on, I can treat you.”
“It’s really okay. This isn’t South Korea. It’s the Tower of Struggle, right? We all only have 1,000 coins.”
Kang Hana, who was called by her hero name All Mighty, hid her timid nature and acted a bit more energetic. Her speech was exaggerated, like she was forcing herself to sound upbeat. That impression was very strong.
“You don’t have to do that. Just treat me normally. Speak casually too. I’m twenty-two, you know.”
“Ah… Should I…?”
“Drop the honorifics.”
“Got it. I will.”
Yoo Dahui handled it perfectly. It was like she had been through this exact situation before. In the previous round, she must have ditched me and traveled with Kang Hana.
“Haa, that was delicious!”
“Unnie, should we get going now?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
After switching to casual speech with Kang Hana, we found lodging. It was the familiar inn called the Rest Area. After that, things moved like lightning. We regressors didn’t hesitate. We cut out all the wasted time in between.
After booking rooms at the Rest Area inn, we spent the entire day hunting. We slaughtered Deadmen like crazy. Little by little we moved on to the strengthened Deadmen as well. The next day, and the day after that, we spent every waking hour killing monsters and earning coins.
She got insanely strong, huh?
It looked like Yoo Dahui had made the most of the previous round. The power behind her sword and shield was completely different from before.
“Careful!”
Occasionally, a thread-like gleam of light would form and vanish on Yoo Dahui’s blade. It was still very faint, but she had learned how to move mana. In this aspect, she was clearly ahead of me. I couldn’t use mana at all yet.
She didn’t seem to be struggling even against ghouls. Well, one-on-one was still impossible. Still, it was tremendous growth.
What the hell did she do before coming back?
If I fought her one-on-one while wearing the mask, I felt like I would lose. No, I would definitely lose. In stats, skills, blessings—there wasn’t a single thing where I had the advantage.
Even after accepting Kang Hana into the party, Yoo Dahui was deliberately delaying the tutorial clear. She knew exactly where the field boss was and what kind of monster it was. This meant she planned to stay longer on the 0th floor before ascending.
For what?
Whatever the reason.
There’s no time.
Before Yoo Dahui decided to head up to the 1st floor, I needed to get even a little stronger. Alright. Let’s check out that purple monolith. I was going to gamble on this hidden piece that I’d never read about in the novel.
That night, I gathered my gear, slipped out of the Rest Area inn without Yoo Dahui noticing, and ran toward the southern gate. The moonlight and streetlamps lit up the Beginner Village, but the moment I stepped outside, I had to push through pure darkness.
That’s why I brought this.
I pulled out the flashlight I had prepared in my inventory. After passing through the southern gate, I moved according to my memories. Since I hadn’t taken a complicated route, it wasn’t too difficult.
Found it.
The monolith glowing with purple light. Ugly characters were carved into it like worm shit. I couldn’t decipher them with my knowledge. From here on, I had no choice but to make educated guesses.
Why did the black energy start spreading at that exact moment? And after the black energy had spread quite a bit, I remembered feeling like I was falling somewhere.
“Hmm…”
Nothing had happened when I first discovered it. The monolith only started emitting black energy after I fought those second-rate warriors.
Do I need to fight here?
The elf tactician had definitely said this monolith contained the power to drive away monsters. If that was the case, then the only possibility was player-versus-player combat. PK. It meant I had to lure a player all the way here.
“Is that it…?”
I approached the monolith and examined the carved characters closely. When the elf tactician was there, I had only glanced over them, but now that he was gone, I had to figure it out myself. The more I looked, the more those worm-crawling letters started to make some sense. It was similar to how I could suddenly understand other races’ languages. But fully understanding them was impossible. Only one sentence stood out clearly, as if saying this was the limit of my ability.
Sprinkle blood on the monolith?
That was definitely what I understood. It told me to sprinkle blood on the monolith. There were many more sentences before and after, but my brain couldn’t make any sense of them. I immediately sliced my finger and let drops of blood fall onto the monolith. I waited in anticipation for something to happen.
Oooong—.
The monolith that received my blood began to slowly emit black energy. The same scene I had witnessed before dying was playing out again.
Rumble—.
“Whoa…! Ugh…!”
The ground split open. My body was sucked down into the sticky earth as if I had fallen into a swamp. The black energy wrapped around me and the ground like it was devouring us both and then vanished.
“Where the hell am I…?”
When I opened my eyes again, I was inside a strange temple. At the center of the temple, someone wearing a black robe sat upon a throne made of bones.
— A human, is it… Lately players have been visiting quite frequently. But you are weaker than the human bastards who came recently… Oh ho!
Red eyes flashed brightly.
— You possess holy power. And spirit power as well… Hehehe. Fine, I’ve decided. I shall spare you, boy. However, you must form a contract with me and spread the name of the great dark sorcerer Pluto throughout this Tower of Struggle.
├─ Lv.1→Lv.2 ✓
“Gah, graaaaahhhhh!”
Knowledge about Black Magic was forcibly crammed into my head. The excruciating pain continued, and I lost consciousness.
Jinwoo… Jinwoo…! Wake up… Jinwoo!
“Huk!”
“Jinwoo! Are you okay?”
“This place… What the…”
It was the Rest Area inn.