Chapter 8: Growth (1)

「 Congratulations. You have overcome the Tower of Trials floor 2 」

「 As a reward, you have received the item ‘Assassin’s Cloak(D).’ 」

「 As a reward, you have received the item ‘Obsidian Dagger(E+).’ 」

「 As a reward, you have received ‘2000 points.’ 」

「 As a bonus reward, you have received the skill ‘Pain Tolerance (D)’ 」

「 As a bonus reward, you have received ‘1000 points.’ 」

「 Please move to the waiting area. 」

My head was spinning.

I felt messages pop up, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

Accelerated regeneration wasn’t even working because the wounds were too severe.

I waved my hand to push the messages aside.

I could always look at the messages in the waiting area.

But not those.

The burning remnants of the orc corpses.

All of my attention was focused on the black fog emitting from their burning bodies.

I’d be losing out if I didn’t absorb all of them.

But I was at a point where it wouldn’t be unexpected for me to just pass out.

I had to take some emergency measures.

I slowly reached into my inventory to take out a potion.

「 Regeneration Potion 」

An item that heals small injuries when sprayed.

I took off the top and poured the potion onto my head.

Splash!

“Ahhhhggggh!”

The droplets of the potion dripping down my body left a trail of pain as they fell to the floor.

I assumed it was effective because I was slowly gaining my senses back.

All I need is to be able to move.

I’ll get out of the forest as soon as I absorb the spirits.

“Agggggghhhh……”

I dragged my body like a zombie to the fog.

I had to do this before I passed out….

「 You have absorbed the soul of the orc. 」

「 You have absorbed the soul of the orc. 」

「 You have absorbed the soul of the orc. 」

.

.

.

「 Number of souls in possession – 5/5 」

「 Proficiency increased by 42% 」

I turned around as soon as I finished absorbing them.

I could wait to convert them later.

Voom!

I collapsed into the blue portal that appeared where the chief once stood.

「 Moving to the waiting room. 」

I lost consciousness as a wave of relief flowed through my body.

***

“……”

I woke up on the waiting room floor.

I was still a bit dizzy when I woke up but I wasn’t mentally or physically tired.

I got up and examined my body.

All the injuries and burns I got fighting the orcs had disappeared.

But…

“I can’t use this shield anymore.”

The shield I was holding was nothing more than a piece of junk now.

It was broken and cracked beyond repair.

There was no way it could block anything in this state.

“Was the impact of the last attack too much…?”

The shield may have been able to block the guard orcs’ attacks, but it didn’t stand a chance against the chief’s magic.

‘At least it saved my life.’

It did its job before breaking down.

If I had taken that fireball directly, I might not be here right now.

I returned what was left of the shield to the inventory and opened my mouth.

“Trial.”

「 Floor 3 trial starting in – 23hrs 21min 」

‘Was I passed out for about an hour?’

Not as long as I thought.

I had pushed myself beyond my physical and mental limits, so it wasn’t that surprising.

“At least the waiting room is pretty effective.”

Even though my body’s still feeling hot from the phantom pains…

I got off pretty easy if you think about it.

If it was any more serious, I would have died without even absorbing the souls.

‘Ah, I did absorb those souls.’

「 Number of souls in possession – 5/5 」

“Wow, I didn’t miss a single soul.”

I thought I would have missed at least one or two of them…

I guess I should give myself a little more credit.

After checking out the souls, I caught up on all the other messages I missed.

All the messages about the heat and pain resistance, as well as all the reward messages.

I couldn’t help but smirk looking at the list of rewards.

I also had an insane amount of points.

“Inventory.”

An item I’d never seen was taking up the very first slot.

「 Assassin’s Cloak 」

「 Grade: D 」

「 Conceals all types of presence by -10% 」

「 A cloak specially designed for the assassination guild. 」

「 While agility is below 50, it increases by +5 」

「 While inserting mana, the user can increase their movement speed by 15% for 1 minute. 」

「 The active ability can be used again after a 24-hour cooldown. 」

“…”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Even at a glance, I could tell that it was overpowered.

“These rewards are insane….”

It gave me the assassination reward even though I didn’t assassinate the chief.

The default bonus was already amazing with the movement speed and presence erasure bonus.

That’s already good enough, but the active ability?

「 While inserting mana, the user can increase their movement speed by 15% for 1 minute. 」

“This is the craziest bonus.”

Even if the cooldown is a little long.

That wasn’t all though.

「 Obsidian Dagger 」

「 Grade: E+ 」

「 Reaction speed +5% 」

「 Attack speed +10% 」

「 A dagger emitting dark mana, forged from black steel. 」

「 It is approximately 60cm long and does not dull easily. 」

It’s not as good as the cloak, but it’s still something.

It says it’s a dagger, but it’s long enough to be a one-handed sword.

No complaints there though.

It’s the perfect weapon to be used in a variety of ways.

I swung the blade a couple of times as practice.

It was reminiscent of the night sky.

Whoosh!

“ … “

I could hear the sharpness of the blade.

Incomparable to the sword that I had received from the tutorial.

The decision was an easy one.

It was time to replace the tutorial sword.

The tutorial sword didn’t have a grade attached when I first got it, but the E+ Obsidian Dagger was clearly the higher-ranked weapon.

The sword was also pretty rusted and dulled from all the blood.

I’ll just keep it in the inventory for now.

‘That should be it for all the equipment…’

It’s time to check the skills now.

「 Skill – Heat Resistance (F) 」

「 Proficiency – 5% 」

「 Effect – All damage taken from flame attacks are reduced by 7% 」

A heat resistance skill that I got from an achievement.

「 Skill – Pain Resistance (D) 」

「 Proficiency – 4% 」

「 Effect – Upon a strong enough impact, temporarily reduces all pain felt by 15% 」

And the pain resistance I got as a bonus reward.

They weren’t bad but a little disappointing.

“I would have preferred a weapon or offensive skill but…”

I’m using the little weapons knowledge I can scrape together, but there’s a big difference between a weapons skill and whatever I’m doing.

It’s a bit underwhelming for something I risked my life for.

‘At least I got the cloak and the dagger.’

Resistance skills aren’t very cost efficient in the beginning.

People say that they’re basically useless until you raise the rank to D+.

Of course, it might be different from person to person.

‘They don’t rank up easily unless I hurt myself, so it’s not very compatible with me.’

I can only train it in a life-threatening situation.

The only thing usable was the ‘Pain Resistance.’

Maybe it’s because it was a bonus reward, but it’s a D-rank skill.

After a while, I started wondering.

“Did the others also pass?”

There were hunters in the mix so I shouldn’t be too worried…

I had had a thought in the midst of the 2nd trial.

The goal of my trial was assassination.

The trial would be cleared after killing the old orc chief.

I might have thought it was easy if I didn’t think about it too hard.

But—

‘The seemingly feeble chief turned out to be a magician.’

What if I had entered his room without knowing?

Magicians generally fortify their workshops.

Assuming that his room was his workshop, he definitely had some sort of anti-intruder measures.

That would have definitely ended badly for me.

‘It would have been more dangerous if I attacked in the middle of the night.’

The orc hunters would have piled on and made the trial impossible.

I only survived because I didn’t attempt an assassination, but there was no guarantee that the others followed suit.

I opened up the community to see how it went for others.

「 You have entered the community. 」

「 Difficulty – Hard 」

「 Floor 3 Community (1977/2531) 」

Kim Seunghoon: Fuck, did they even make these possible?

Hyun Sukjin: …Did everyone really die? Seriously?

Im Jinwook: Nah, there’s a bunch of people still on the 2nd floor.

Kim SeungHoon: What the fuck? Why was there a C-rank Monster on the second floor!

Kang Sunwoo: I barely survived using my innate ability. God damnnn. Good thing my arm grew back.

Kim Sihoon: The total number of people almost halved. A good chunk of us died.

As predicted, the number of people in the community had halved.

But the most important part came after.

Hyun Sukjin: Wait yall had C-rank monsters? I only saw tons of goblins.

Kim Seunghoon: I had a lich summon a crazy amount of skeletons. What goblins?

Kim Sihoon: Huh? I just had to survive for 3 days from this orc tribe.

Kang Sunwoo: I had to fight a bunch of orcs 1 on 1 in some colosseum.

Lee Hayeon: Did everyone face a different trial?

I guess everyone went through their own individual trials.

But they all seemed to think it was unreasonably difficult.

Well, I wasn’t surprised to find any of these out.

Kim Seunghoon: What was so great about me that they wanted me here…

Kang Sunwoo: I like how fast we’re growing lol, but I was stronger irl though.

Hyun Sukjin: idk man. I was a normal dude before this. I just wanna get back.

Kim Seunghoon: It’s gonna take sooo long for me to get back where I was before.

Lee Changsuk: Sigh, is there even going to be a way for us to get back to Earth?

Everyone in the community spiraled into discussing how to get back to earth.

Of course, there’s a way to find out.

‘You just have to ask the administrator.’

I just didn’t want to waste a question.

But these people didn’t seem to care anymore.

Kang Sunwoo: Isn’t it about time we use our questions?

Kim Seunghoon: I think so. We should ask about returning to Earth and getting our powers back.

Hyun Sukjin: Let’s all share all the information we find here. I’ll ask about returning to Earth.

Kang Sunjin: Good idea. I’ll ask about restoring our powers.

Lee Changsuk: I’ll ask about how the rewards are calculated within trials.

I thought about joining in but I decided against it.

‘I’ll just stay put.’

Most people seemed to agree with me and took more of a bystander approach.

It’s a smart decision.

You have more to lose from stepping up than gaining anything valuable.

Hyun Sukjin: …the administrator answered.

Lee Changsuk: Really? What happened?

Kim Seunghoon: Do we have to climb to the top of this tower?

Kang Sunwoo: Sir, please. Share the news with us, good sir.

The community was flooded with messages.

Hyun Sukjin: There’s a way to go back.

And—

Hyun Sukjin: Here’s how.

A method to return to Earth started to appear in the community.

____