Dwarf 3. The Grind of Stats Is Insanely Hard
Raising your stats was harder than I could have ever imagined. It was as if every race had its limits carved in stone, so the weaker ones usually just crawled along with pitifully low numbers. Training? That barely moved the needle. To raise a stat to Lv. 1, you had to break past your own ceiling. The System only rewarded a single level after you danced on the edge of death. In that sense, I was lucky.
“Lucky indeed.”
Strictly speaking, it was a calculated outcome. Still, a little luck had followed me. If that bastard God hadn’t permitted the condition, I never would have been able to steal it. Even the voyeuristic God must have decided this price was fair compensation for the show.
“So your Strength is Level 2 right now?” Yoo Dahui asked from beside me, completely casual. She knew asking about someone’s stats was rude as hell. What a weird woman.
“Yeah. Level 2.”
It was actually Level 3, but there was no reason to tell her that. Even if I planned to climb the Tower with her, keeping my own secrets was smarter.
Not a bad start at all.
I had obtained Shinsung and raised my Strength by one level. I didn’t know how long this duel luck would last, but at least the fifth round was flowing smoother than the previous regressions.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck…!”
Anchovy slammed his fist into the ground. He couldn’t control his rage. His hand was already slick with blood. Bloodshot eyes locked onto me.
“Give them back. Give me back my strength…!”
His face was just as ruined as his knuckles. Tears and snot streamed down freely. He probably couldn’t bear to look at the stat that now read Strength Lv.0.
“Why should I?”
“You son of a bitch…”
Anchovy threw a full tantrum, drawing every nearby player’s gaze at once.
“Then come at me. If you win, I’ll return the stats. But if I win… you already know what happens, right?”
There was nothing left to squeeze from Anchovy. So I pointed at Pig instead.
Duel requested against Player ‘Lee Hyeong-u.’
Player ‘Kim Jinwu’ demands ‘Strength Lv.1’ as reward.
The moment the duel request and reward message appeared, a faint crackle of sparks popped in the air.
Conditions have been revised.
Player ‘Kim Jinwu’ now demands ‘500 Coins’ as reward.
Tsk. The God watching over the Tower of Struggle didn’t want any more chaos. Five hundred coins wasn’t worth the hassle. I canceled the duel request.
Yoo Dahui slid up beside me, almost shyly.
“That electric crackle thing earlier—what was it?”
She mimed the sparks with her fingers. It was so ridiculous I couldn’t even speak for a second.
“…It was because of the winner’s reward condition.”
“Why?”
“I wanted the Strength level, but it changed to 500 coins. Not entirely sure why.”
She asked without the slightest hesitation, like she wanted to wring me dry to the marrow. Because she was so close, her own unique scent drifted over me. It had only been a little over a day since I’d taken her virginity. So why the hell was I already this worked up?
“Thanks to you, I learned something useful, human.”
“Even insects are too desperate to eat each other.”
The surrounding players began drifting away one by one. The weakest humans’ little drama was over, so there was no reason to linger.
“Want to drink more?”
“I’m not that drunk yet…”
Her eyes held a faint trace of regret. It was the exact look people got in the second round, right before the last train left—debating whether to go home or push for round three. Yoo Dahui’s alcohol tolerance had long surpassed mortal limits. Calling it transcendent wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
“…Shall we keep drinking?”
I became her drinking partner for the night.
And so the next day arrived.
The Korean Party gathered at the north gate.
“Why aren’t Current and Hyeong-u here yet?”
The appointed time had come, but neither Anchovy nor Pig had shown up. The leader searched for them anxiously, but there was no way they were coming.
“Isn’t that him over there?”
The woman in the suit pointed. A player with a massive frame was huffing and puffing as he ran toward us.
Contrary to my expectations, Pig had shown up at the north gate—late, but present.
“Hyeong-u. Why are you late?”
“…Sorry.”
He only glanced nervously at me and Yoo Dahui. The guy had quite the thick face.
“Huu… Do you know why Current isn’t coming?”
“Well…”
The leader asked while barely holding back his anger. It was because of me that he couldn’t come, but Pig couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“I’m not really sure…”
“Aish.”
The Korean Party members frowned at the sight of Pig mumbling and hesitating.
“We’ve been waiting thirty minutes like this.”
“Everyone else has already gone out…”
While other players were already outside, simply waiting here was stressful as hell. In the Tower of Struggle, time was coins. They were itching to get out and start smashing deadmen. On top of that, never having met a dark elf before had them in a state of Courage 500 Times.
“Can’t we just go?”
The woman with glasses spoke up. It was a suggestion to abandon Anchovy. The leader pretended to think it over, then nodded.
“Let’s go. Waiting any longer is just wasting time.”
The Korean Party stepped outside the north gate. Everyone was swollen with anticipation. How many coins would they earn this time? Yesterday’s hunt had netted them 1,000 coins. They were certain today would be even better.
“What’s wrong? You don’t look so good.”
“…I drank too much yesterday.”
Yoo Dahui asked about my condition while looking perfectly fine. I prided myself on being able to hold my liquor, but the gap between us was overwhelming.
“Then you should’ve drunk less.”
Yoo Dahui smiled brightly and patted my back.
“……”
We had dropped formal speech yesterday. Yoo Dahui suggested it first. The time spent together up to the fourth round seemed to have worked pretty well. Although I had gone solo a few times in between.
Grrrrr—!
“They’re here! Prepare for battle!”
At the leader’s shout, the Korean Party began swinging their weapons. The deadmen were still weak, and we earned coins at a leisurely pace. There were players ahead of us, but the Korean Party didn’t have the mental bandwidth to care. Just picking up coins here was enough for them.
That smell…?
Around the time we’d gathered 300 coins, a terrible stench drifted from somewhere nearby.
Clang—!
The sound of metal clashing against metal. A sound that made your skin crawl.
“Players… There are players nearby.”
The leader began scanning the surroundings warily. Among the Korean Party, he was the relatively quick one.
Clang—!
“Troll! How dare you do this to my friend…! Don’t even dream of leaving here alive!”
“Kukuku. You’re holding out longer than I expected. Good. More! More! Hold out even longer!”
We crept closer without fear. Hiding our bodies in the bushes, we discovered two players locked in fierce combat.
That guy is…!
One was a dwarf. A short, thick-bodied race famous for blacksmithing, with a long, lush beard. The one pressing the dwarf was the same troll that had planted an axe in the back of Yoo Dahui’s head.
Two dead dwarves already lay around the troll.
“Ugh…”
The Korean Party fell into panic. They had no immunity to scenes of blood spraying and corpses rolling across the ground.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. I saw stuff like this all the time in the military.”
I had only seen animal corpses before entering the novel. In the roughly one month since, I had grown used to human ones.
“Really…?”
Yoo Dahui gave me an ambiguous look before turning away. The other members were coughing, retching—complete chaos.
Run? Fuck that nonsense.
“Kuhuhu, battle calls me!”
The troll had noticed us. We’d already been spotted.
“It’s been a while since I’ve tasted human…”
“Ah, aah…”
And the troll wasn’t alone. Besides the one dueling the dwarf, two more stood in front of us, grinning. Their sharp teeth glinted viciously.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Like I said, overconfidence was the problem. They should have survived at least three days under normal circumstances. Whether because of the regressor or not, it looked like they would be wiped out before even reaching that mark.
“Where are you going!”
“Ruuuuun!”
The Korean Party members couldn’t endure the panic and started fleeing. The two trolls swung their weapons with revolting grins. These two weren’t using axes but clubs—blunt weapons.
Thud—!
“Keuk!”
The leader who took the hit rolled across the dirt. He choked and wheezed, unable to stand. A human body was pathetically weak before overwhelming strength. Most green skins had clear limits, so the balancing effect didn’t help them much. That was why beating green skins in the early stages was nearly impossible.
Could I win with only Strength Lv.3…?
That was when the dwarf shouted.
“Human! Don’t run away! Fight with us! If we combine our strength, we can win…!”
Ah. So there was that guy.