The First Floor

Let me sort out the situation.

I awakened. Got fired from my part-time job. Some bizarre skill appeared that made finding new work impossible. If I wanted to eat and survive, I had no choice but to climb the Tower.

How?

I had no idea!

"But there are people who can tell me."

The Hunter Gallery I'd been visiting every single day.

Originally I'd used it just to kill time posting nonsense, but today I could finally put it to its proper use.

A place where hunters shared information and networked with one another.

Even if famous rankers weren't around, there were plenty of middling hunters who could offer advice on the Tower's first floor.

I opened the gallery, ready to squeeze every scrap of information out of them.

And one post immediately caught my eye.

Someone was looking for my prayer posts. Was it already that time?

A little pride stirred in me at the thought that something I'd done without much thought had actually drawn attention.

In a way, she was my fan — so I decided to leave a comment.

I really did awaken. The problem was that the only ability I got was turning into a girl.

Whether she believed me or not was her business. I hadn't lied.

Honestly, I didn't expect her to believe me — but whatever.

"Which god, you ask…?"

My prayers had just been the usual please, anyone, grant my wish — there hadn't been a particular target.

Everyone knew awakenings were granted by the Tower, not by gods.

But reading the description of the Saintess class and its skills, it seemed at least in my case that some nameless god had been the one to awaken me.

I didn't even know the god's name myself.

So I just wrote down the first name that popped into my head without thinking.

Lumen.

It meant "light" in Latin.

Ding!

"Pardon?"

I jumped at the system window that suddenly appeared.

What was this supposed to mean? I'd named the god myself?

"Status window."

Fwaaat—

It was real. The class name had changed from Saintess to Saintess of Lumen.

Status windows could just rewrite themselves like that?

And this was a god we were talking about. A Saintess could just casually decide the name?

"Ugh, I simply cannot keep up with this."

I had no idea.

For now, I'd just finish the conversation I was having.

Prayer was free, after all.

Whether it actually got answered was a completely separate matter.

What was this? Up until the middle of the conversation, I'd assumed Devout Believer was just messing with me.

Pray to a god and awaken? If that worked, the entire world would already be full of awakened people.

Thinking I'd gotten her hopes up and wasted her time made me feel a little guilty.

"Oh no, what should I do."

Should I leave a comment telling her to stop? That would only disappoint her more.

Maybe it was better if she just prayed alone and found some comfort in it?

That was when it happened.

Ding—!

"Pardon? What on earth just happened…?"

Proselytization.

My skill had activated.

Someone named Yoo Seon-ah had joined our Lumen ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Denomination — but who was that?

The only Yoo Seon-ah I knew was the top priest in the country, an A-class hunter. Obviously this wasn't her — just someone with the same name, right?

So who was this fake Yoo Seon-ah?

The only people who knew about Lumen were me and Devout Believer, so naturally Devout Believer was the only candidate.

Devout Believer's real name was Yoo Seon-ah. Sharing a name with a celebrity must have been a bit of a hassle.

"Welcome to the denomination, but…"

So.

What was the actual benefit of gaining a believer?

"There must be some kind of perk, right?"

Tap tap.

I poked around the status window expecting something to pop up, but nothing changed at all.

A Saintess's skills were surprisingly unhelpful.

There was zero information on Yoo Seon-ah, and I had no idea ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what any of this was even for.

Was I supposed to just give up with nothing to show for it?

Ding!

Another system message that appeared out of nowhere.

My eyes went wide at the word Faith.

I was certain the Miracle skill required Faith to use.

"Shall I check again."

An S-rank skill, no less.

The description was simple, but those were always the ones that hit absurdly hard.

Borrowing the power of God — just hearing it sounded incredible!

At last, a light had appeared at the end of a pitch-black tunnel.

"I think I finally understand."

The mechanism of the Saintess class.

First, use Proselytization to gather believers. Then collect Faith from those believers and use it to fight.

Proselytization didn't even require someone to formally join a religion — it activated the moment they sincerely believed in Lumen in their heart.

I still didn't know exactly how Faith was obtained, but maybe it accumulated whenever a believer offered a prayer to Lumen?

It was a slightly complicated structure, and it took me a while to figure out.

"I wonder how powerful Miracle actually is."

Just testing it felt like a waste.

Faith looked like a limited resource.

Even if I got more from a believer, once I spent it on a Miracle, it was gone.

If I had plenty of believers supplying Faith it might be different, but right now the Lumen Denomination had only one: Yoo Seon-ah.

I had no idea how much more Faith she would bring in going forward. If I wasted it on some experiment, I might never get another chance to enter the Tower.

"I'll have to use it inside the Tower."

All right. Decision made.

No more stalling — time to throw myself at it head-on.

Train like it's the real thing.

Which meant, of course, that I would train in the real thing.

I headed straight for the Tower.

Incheon Outskirts.

The Tower rose tall and imposing just ahead.

"Haa… I've actually come all the way here…"

To the eyes of a complete beginner who'd only awakened today, the Tower looked like some monster with its jaws wide open.

No — if that Tower ever collapsed, the entire nation would go down with it. It didn't just look like a monster. It might simply be one.

"I'm a hunter now too. I mustn't be afraid."

I was a Saintess, for goodness' sake!

A golden child with a rare class.

There was no reason to be scared of a mere first floor.

As long as I could make a living, that was enough. According to the Hunter Gallery, every dog and their mother had cleared Easy difficulty — it should be a breeze.

"On Easy, even if you die, you don't truly die — you just revive outside. Even someone as weak as me should be able to clear the first floor if I try a few times."

A rare-class golden child with such a small mindset?

Nonsense.

When lives were on the line, there was no way I was going to take risks just to look cool.

Play it safe. Play it safe.

Even a stone bridge should be thoroughly pounded before you cross it.

"I've read the first-floor guides on the Hunter Gallery so many times…! I could recite them by heart at this point."

On Easy difficulty of the first floor, three goblins appeared.

If they ganged up on you, it became hard to handle.

The strategy was to pick them off one by one before they could group up.

I already had a full mental map of how to move in order to lure the goblins out one at a time.

"I'll enter now."

Woom—

The moment I stepped through the Tower entrance, my vision went dark for a moment.

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a space with nothing in it — only shifting colors of light.

"Easy."

I chose Easy without a second of hesitation.

The Saintess's easy-mode Tower-climbing life starts now.

Woohoo~

"Excuse me…?"

What? Extreme, all of a sudden?

What even is that?

The Tower had arbitrarily adjusted the difficulty on its own, and I was left completely dumbfounded.

"Wait just a moment…! I chose Easy! I entered the wrong one!!"

I screamed in protest, but it didn't make the slightest difference.

The Tower gave no answer at all as it dumped me straight into Extreme.

Without even a second to prepare myself, the enemy appeared.

As if to prove this really was Extreme, the enemy was no ordinary goblin.

—Grrrng!

One enormous goblin.

A tacky-looking crown sat on its head.

A Goblin King.

"Ah……"

Goblins were supposed to be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠small, scrawny monsters — but the creature in front of me casually demolished that entire assumption.

A monster of that size could have been an orc, or even an ogre, and I would have believed it.

The green-skinned beast's eyes blazed a bloody red, and just looking at it made my legs go weak.

—Grrrr…

The Goblin King's low growl reached my ears, and tears welled up at the corners of my eyes.

I was terrified.

Terrified out of my mind.

It wanted me to fight that thing?

That made no sense. Where did my Easy mode go, and why was I supposed to fight this? There was no way I could win.

Even if you failed to clear a floor of the Tower, as long as you made it back to the entrance it counted as a failure and you could leave.

Run. That was the plan — I spun around, ready to bolt, and that was when it happened.

—KRAAAAAAAAH—!

Whoosh!

The Goblin King jumped. No — it flew.

With a single leap, the goblin was soaring right over my head.

The unbelievable sight nearly made me lose my mind.

My hands and feet trembled violently as pure, overwhelming terror crashed over me.

Ssssss—

Terror froze every thought in my head, and I even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lost the last shred of a young girl's dignity.

But I was about to die — did that even matter?

Half out of my mind, I screamed like a lunatic.

"Miracle! Miracle! Miraaaacle!"

The goblin was right in front of my face!

Lord Lumen! What are you doing!

Your Saintess is dyinggg!

If there's a god, do something right now!

Ah, I'm going to die. I'm going to diiiiie.

Flash!

—Kweeeeh…

"…Huh?"

Strange.

I had done nothing but lose my mind in terror.

And yet, somehow, the Goblin King was dead.