Special Training (2)

The Awakened can enter the Black Tower anytime they wish. The method is simple. Just dig through the modest interface window and press the [Enter Black Tower] button. That’s it.

I stood at the tower’s entrance. All around me stretched nothing but empty void. The silence was so thick that even breathing felt like it produced no air. Yet even with my eyes closed, one thing stood out with perfect clarity.

The door to the Black Tower.

The one I had only ever heard about in rumors. Standing before it finally made me realize I had truly become an Awakened. The moment I stepped through, the first-floor trial would begin.

But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I turned my back on the tower’s entrance.

A twelve-year-old girl. A middle-schooler. And he wanted someone like me to enter the tower? This was basically child abuse. Especially since the child in question was blind. Well, I could see now, but my vision was so overwhelmingly sharp that it might as well have been a visual impairment.

Achilles responded with a snort instead of words.

What kind of nonsense was this? And from a dog, no less.

Although I could no longer see with my eyes, my body had grown far more sensitive. It allowed me to perceive the world through touch and sound rather than sight. That was how I could sense Achilles slowly circling around me, trotting in lazy loops.

What exactly was this guy planning to do by following me all the way to the tower? He was shedding everywhere.

I frowned. He thought being young was a good thing? Hearing a straight-up lolicon declaration to my face wasn’t exactly pleasant.

Achilles seemed to have reached his own conclusion and muttered seriously to himself. Apparently my opinion didn’t matter at all.

His voice brimmed with pride.

It was an utterly astonishing story. The only reason I believed him was because my eyes could see the truth. Anyone else would have written him off as crazy. Right now, South Korea was tackling the 40s. Even our country—considered to possess the strongest hunter force in the world—had yet to reach the 50th floor and beyond. And he claimed to have climbed all the way to the 99th?

Amnesia, huh. If I kept holding onto Asadia for too long, would I end up the same way? I had thought I’d obtained a useful sniper rifle, but seeing this example right in front of me made me realize I needed to be careful.

I waved my hands in protest, but instead of listening, Achilles simply snorted again.

At the same time, I felt his fur brush against my leg. Achilles slowly moved his massive body, gently herding me toward the door.

There was no way a twelve-year-old girl could resist the strength of a large Labrador Retriever. Ignoring my desperate attempts to stop, Achilles kept pushing from behind. In the end, screaming all the way, my body was sucked into the tower’s door.

I had somehow ended up on the first floor. Regretting it now was pointless. If I died here or ran away from the tower, the monsters inside would pour out through a gate somewhere on Earth. That was the last thing I wanted to imagine. A complete disaster.

That left me with only one choice.

But I couldn’t muster the courage to fight.

My scream echoed through the empty space. I had never seen one, but I knew they were horribly disgusting. A rotting stench mixed with a sickening, sticky sound filled the air.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rotting stench and the unpleasant sticky sounds grew clearer. The noises around me became sharper by the second.

Ssssssssh.Squirm. Squirm.

The disgusting, sticky sound of something crawling across mucus slowly drew closer. I instinctively curled into a ball. I had to kill two of these things? Me, who couldn’t even see, against monster maggots like that?

The sound of tentacles whipping through the air grew nearer. My feet were already glued to the ground, unable to move.

I was trembling.

Achilles let out a quiet sigh.

His voice was firm, yet carried a faint trace of confidence. It was as if he could sense things I could not see.

The moment he finished speaking, the air changed. Suddenly the space felt filled with something. A shift was occurring within this void.

I still didn’t understand. What the hell was he talking about?

This crazy bastard!

His explanation was simple, but putting it into practice was anything but. I closed my eyes, tried to steady my breathing and focus my mind as he instructed, but my head was a complete mess.

If you don’t like it, then die. What kind of Spartan training was this?! So this was what he meant by harsh training!

I trembled as I swallowed a string of curses.

But the tentacles were getting closer. I could even feel the wind they stirred against my body now. I couldn’t hold on any longer. Overcome by terror, I reflexively opened my eyes.

And I saw it.

The maggot’s form. Its bloated, pus-filled body leaking mucus. The writhing tentacles and the swarms of tiny insects boiling within every crevice. Strange patterns were etched across its skin, shifting faintly with every breath.

My heart felt like it would explode. I never wanted to see a maggot in this much detail!!

As I turned my gaze away, I saw something else. Something different from the maggot. It was a blue trajectory of light drifting through the void, filling the entire space. Vast and profound enough to overflow the chamber. The light was not merely brilliant. Within it echoed the roars of war, the resonance of blades and spear tips clashing. It was Achilles’ will.

I muttered without realizing it. But simply seeing it didn’t mean I could use it right away. Will was a completely different dimension of sense that couldn’t be learned just by looking.

At that moment, a status window appeared in the corner of my vision. It was slightly different from the ones I had grown used to. A new stat had been added.

There used to be only five stats: Strength, Vitality, Agility, Intelligence, and Luck. But because I had just become aware of something called “will” for the first time, a new stat had appeared. And along with it came the approaching tentacles of the maggot!

I allocated all ten points into Will. The situation was too urgent to hold back. Instantly, my mind buzzed. A shiver ran through me. Everything seemed to stop. In the silence, even the maggot’s sticky movements, Achilles’ firm voice, and my own ragged breathing faded away.

Time slowed as if sinking into a deep, dark sea. I stood alone within that darkness. One by one, my senses vanished from my mind. The world I had known until now, the reality before my eyes, shattered like a broken frame. The boundaries between smell, sound, touch, and emotion disappeared. I no longer knew where I ended and the space began.

Strangely, there was no fear. Only stillness.

If the mind had a shape, perhaps this was what it looked like. I felt as though I had become part of the tower, breathing within it. My consciousness seemed to spread across the world itself.

The presence of the moving maggot. The angle and speed of its tentacles slicing through the air. Even the faint sway of dog fur trembling in the tower’s atmosphere—all of it entered my mind. For the first time, I realized how narrow the world I had lived in truly was. The world perceived only through the five senses was merely a tiny fragment. Beyond it stretched a vast realm I had never even imagined.

The enormity of the world and the expansion of my inner self overlapped, sending shivers across my entire body. The world was no longer vague to me. I had become part of this space, and everything within me pulsed outward like a heartbeat.

My will sent a warning. The tentacles were moving. Two massive maggots were closing in, threatening my survival. Without hesitation, I instinctively rolled my body.

Swoosh—!

A tentacle barely missed where I had been. At the same time, I drew my sniper rifle.

Asadia was already fully prepared. The maggots were huge, but they were still just maggots. At that sluggish speed, they could never catch me. There was only one rule a sniper had to follow: stay at a distance where the enemy cannot attack, then simply pull the trigger.

I aimed the rifle. At this moment, my eyes were closed. But that was no problem at all. My will had replaced every sense, and I had already mapped the maggots’ movements inside my head. The muzzle was pointed at my enemies.

Bang!

The first shot. The maggot’s body shook violently. The sound of bursting mucus echoed.

Bang!

The second shot. A tentacle was torn away. The massive monster collapsed to the ground with a wet thud.

The system message announced the end of the first-floor trial. I let out a long sigh and lowered my rifle. Will was incredibly convenient. To think I could sense the world without using my eyes. This would definitely reduce the strain on my vision. If a sixth sense existed, this must be what it felt like.

At that moment, Achilles quietly approached my side. He remained silent for a long time, simply watching me. Then, finally, a heavy voice broke the silence.

His voice was filled with shock and amazement. I shrugged.

Achilles stared blankly for a moment, then took a step closer.

I answered, puzzled.

Achilles seemed so stunned he couldn’t speak.

He stopped speaking and stared at me intently.

Even after hearing all that, it didn’t feel particularly impressive to me.

Now that I thought about it, the system message I saw when I first awakened had been extremely simple.

Just those three lines. All I could check were my name, level, and unique skill.

But the status window I saw with my own eyes?

It was incomparably more detailed and specific. It could even read my thoughts. It seemed that gaining bonus stats upon leveling up, and allocating those points, was something only I could do.