Forged by Fire
Whoosh.
Everything that filled his vision was red.
Heat like the inside of a blast furnace wrapped his entire body. Drawing a breath felt as if his organs would cook through on the spot.
And yet, put another way, that was all it was.
-52 HP
-64 HP
-47 HP
Damage alerts popped up in a dizzying cascade, once every second. The reason Do-yun's body still hadn't turned to ash was simple.
First Aid (F)
First Aid (F)
He was recovering more vitality than the fire could strip away. Even with the roaring flames blurring his vision, the system notifications still burned clear and sharp.
As he kept casting First Aid without pause, Do-yun thought, This fire won't last forever either.
It was a race between which would give out first — the flames, or his mana. And in a war of attrition like that, Do-yun had no intention of losing.
Same F-rank skill means my side always has the edge!
His prediction proved right. After about twenty seconds the blaze began to die down, and Do-yun felt his sight return.
Crack. Spark.
The elevator was a wreck of melted metal and broken panels, sparks leaping from every surface. The only thing still intact inside it was Do-yun himself.
"Hoo."
He exhaled a scorching breath and twisted a crooked smile — and that was when an unexpected windfall appeared before his eyes.
You have survived the melting flames!
A clear mark of the sun is etched into flesh tempered in fire.
Understanding of Sun Swordsmanship (SS) has increased by 5%.
Without the absurd recovery of First Aid, that hellish environment would have killed him outright. The system had read it as an ordeal overcome.
Never thought I could raise swordsmanship understanding this way too.
A flicker of surprise crossed Do-yun's face as he tightened his grip on the sword hilt. Nearly twenty hours of swinging a blade had been matched by twenty seconds of standing in fire.
Not sure if I should be happy or sad about that.
Wearing a bitter smile, he skimmed the effects of his new skill — then, sensing a gaze, lifted his head.
The crack in the ceiling where the flamethrower had poked through. Between its edges, a lens now gleamed red.
"The hell are you staring at, you bastard."
Cursing, Do-yun swung his sword with everything he had. The lens, sensing danger, tried to jerk back — but his blade punched through the ceiling first.
Bash (F)
The Bash-powered swing roared and shattered the lens to pieces. The aftershock tore the elevator ceiling clean away.
Through the falling wreckage, Do-yun finally saw the face of the invader who had attacked him.
"Incomprehensible. Probability of organic survival: under 2.7 percent."
A mechanical armor built on a steel frame. A weaponized body that spat clipped, synthetic speech.
Destroyer.
The cyborg with that grandiose name blinked its remaining eye at Do-yun.
"Should've cranked the heat higher. Felt like a sauna, you tin can."
Instead of answering the question, Do-yun only grinned savagely and leveled his sword.
A cool breath of air kissed his skin. Even while locking onto Destroyer, he swept his surroundings for Lily.
I need her to get the seventh floor's hidden piece.
Going alone, he'd most likely walk into an empty room. Like that old man who had known something about the sixth floor, Lily seemed to carry background knowledge of the seventh — and he needed her help.
She can't be dead… right?
There was no body in the elevator. Had the heat been so fierce that even a corpse had burned to ash?
Still uneasy, he scanned the area — and then spotted blonde hair drifting in the open air. A dry laugh escaped him.
"Well, damn."
She was hanging from the elevator floor by her fingertips, looking his way. The second the flamethrower had appeared, she must have thrown herself outside.
Cuts people off dirty fast, doesn't she.
Being abandoned might have stung, but admiration for her reaction speed came first. Maybe you needed judgment that sharp to climb the tower all the way to the top.
"Damage rate: 17.3 percent. Raising organic threat rating to Grade 3."
Destroyer was just as quick to recalculate. Watching Do-yun with those lifeless robotic eyes, it finished its assessment and raised its weapon.
Destroyer uses Transformation (F)
Radial Flame Cannon (F) → Concentrated Flame Cannon (F)
The flamethrower mounted on its right arm clanked and shifted form. What emerged looked closer to a cannon — firepower focused into a single point instead of spraying across a wide area.
BOOM.
A fireball blasted from the glowing muzzle. Even so, Do-yun simply stood where he was. There was no need to dodge or block.
Fire only makes me stronger.
That was the new ability he had just earned.
Absorbing flame to enhance stats for a limited time.
Attack Power +24
Strength +13
Agility +16
The fire that should have swallowed him whole instead wrapped his body like armor the moment it touched him. Opening and closing his fist, tasting the surge in his stats, Do-yun smiled wide.
"Not bad."
In the next instant his body vanished. He had simply moved fast — but Destroyer's sensors could not tell the difference.
CRASH!
By the time it registered the threat, Do-yun's sword was already buried in its frame.
"Danger. Raising organic threat rating to Grade 1…"
"And what are you going to do once you raise it?"
Before the mechanical voice could finish, Do-yun's merciless strikes rained down.
Attack Power and Attack Speed doubled.
The first blow sparked against Destroyer's shoulder plating and opened a crack. The second drove into that fracture and severed precision circuitry. Third, fourth, fifth — every swing of Do-yun's sword came faster and harder.
He held off on Bash for fear of dropping the elevator, but even without it he was more than enough for Destroyer.
Crunch.
Steel plate buckled. Screws and parts went flying. In that one-sided exchange, Destroyer's body was turning into scrap metal by the second.
"Damage rate: 84.6 percent. Engaging emergency protocol."
And the moment Do-yun lifted his sword high for the finishing blow, a mechanical voice spilled from the wreckage that barely still resembled a body.
Destroyer uses One-Time Limit Break (S)
Concentrated Flame Cannon (F) → Astral Photon Cannon (SS)
A chill raced down Do-yun's spine. He dropped low at once.
KA-BOOM!
A terrifying wave of force sheared over his head.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Looking back, Do-yun was at a loss for words. A hole ran in a straight line through the Magic Tower's walls — and at its far end, a faint scrap of blue sky showed through. A single shot had punched clean through the tower.
As he swallowed hard, an interview he had once seen replayed in his mind.
— How did I make it to the eighty-ninth floor?
— I'd love to say it was because I was exceptional… but my conscience won't let me.
— Honestly, it was probably pure luck that I got my hands on an SS-rank skill.
The returnee who had climbed higher than anyone else in the world — to the eighty-ninth floor. The man famous as the sole holder of an SS-rank skill. His Meteor Strike had hit with force on par with a nuclear blast. Footage of him driving a meteor into a magic dragon's skull on his first day back on Earth still held the top view count.
And an attack of that grade is coming out here?
This was the seventh floor. The seventh.
Do-yun had Sun Swordsmanship, an SS-rank skill of his own — but with only ten percent understanding, it was still at a beginner's level. Destroyer was different. The raw torrent of energy pouring from its fingertips said everything. One look at the hole in the wall was enough: that weapon was in another dimension of power.
Same situation as Grham, maybe.
Grham, reclaiming a fragment of the power he had wielded at his peak. Destroyer, reconstructing a weapon from its prime.
A sudden spike of crisis made Do-yun swallow again.
I can't get careless.
No matter how overwhelming his specs were compared to other challengers, one mistake could flip the board.
"Priority target set. Eliminate special-grade threat."
Destroyer's eerily red eye locked onto Do-yun. Energy so dense it made the air tremble began to gather in its right hand.
"This is honestly ridiculous."
It wasn't that he had no chance at all. Same as with Grham, Destroyer was clearly overreaching — parts grinding, machinery choking under overload. At best, it had one more shot left in it.
The problem was that dodging that one shot was next to impossible.
Every tiny shift of Do-yun's body made Destroyer's cannon adjust by a hair.
Zeroed in with the first shot.
Tanking it was off the table this time. Power enough to pierce the Magic Tower. Even a graze would empty his HP.
Hummm.
The fully charged weapon blazed bright. Inescapable death took aim at Do-yun.
He only adjusted his grip on the sword, calm as ever.
"If I hadn't met Grham, I'd be in real trouble."
Muttering low, he crouched — and activated a skill he had never shown before.
Shadow Leap (F)
Where there is light, there is shadow. The brilliantly glowing weapon had, ironically, created the perfect conditions for his skill.
Whisper-soft, Do-yun's body melted into black shadow and reappeared at Destroyer's feet.
Scorching Sword (C)
While maintained: +2000% fixed damage
Bash (F)
Next attack: +1,517% impact
Wringing out the last of his mana, Do-yun swung. Crimson mana racing along the blade rode the shockwave of Bash and blasted forward.
Whoosh—!
The same combo that had half-destroyed Grham's shadow delivered another satisfying result.
You have defeated a challenger participating in the Repechage.
A bonus has been granted.
Some of Destroyer's skills will be inherited.