1st Floor: Myriad Arsenal (1)
[Title : I have a question. Is it impossible to obtain a skill this way?]
[I spent all day roasting myself in the lava on the 1st Floor to obtain the Burn Resistance skill.
But I did not obtain anything. Is there some kind of restriction?]
[Kang Mansik (12th Floor) : Ah......]
[Olga Fedorova (22nd Floor) : How many times has someone asked this now?]
[Park Jun (16th Floor) : Exactly forty-three times since the Tower opened, I think? Bastards like this do tend to get insanely strong.]
[Olivia Turner (31st Floor) : To answer your question, skills in the Tower cannot be acquired that way.]
***
Three days remained until the floor was unlocked.
During that time, Kang Junhyeok watched the news.
[The conflict between the Azure Guild and the Baekdusan Guild has come to an end. The Azure Guild emerged victorious. The Ansan district is now Azure Guild territory.]
“They’re right in the thick of it.”
The Azure Guild and the Baekdusan Guild.
The two guilds competing for supremacy over Korea had fought truly fierce battles. Half of Korea had been swept up in their conflict. Kang Junhyeok himself had been considerably affected by the two guilds' dispute in the past.
At the time, he had thought it a major, meaningful struggle. Looking back now, it was ridiculous. It felt like watching children fight over territory.
‘They must have noticed by now.’
He was not the only survivor of the 0th Floor Quest.
Eighty out of one hundred people had survived.
Considering the survival rate of the 0th Floor had always hovered around 50%, it was a strange occurrence. People would seek out the survivors to gather information.
And most of those survivors would visit one of three guilds: the Azure Guild, the Baekdusan Guild, or the Freedom Guild.
Kang Junhyeok would be mentioned in the process. There was no way he could remain unknown. His name had been openly stamped beside MVP.
When that happened, the guilds would learn what he had done on the 0th Floor.
“Things are going to get noisy.”
It would not be long before they came to find him.
What he needed to do before then was simple.
Become stronger.
RIIING.
The alarm he had set went off. It meant the three days had passed. Kang Junhyeok smiled.
“Then shall we go?”
Without the slightest hesitation, Kang Junhyeok opened the system.
[Will you challenge the Tower?]
[Floor to challenge : 1st Floor.]
“Yes.”
[1st Floor Quest started.]
[Prove yourself.]
The world turned upside down. Kang Junhyeok's body left Earth and crossed into a separate realm.
At the end of it, Kang Junhyeok arrived.
Inside a cavern filled with heat, where lava bubbled.
[1st Floor Quest.]
[Reach the exit using the stepping stones.]
“It’s been a while.”
Kang Junhyeok gazed fondly at the scene spread before him.
The interior of a gigantic cavern.
A vast swamp of lava lay within it.
Circular stepping stones made of rock continued across it at intervals.
The quest on the 1st Floor was extremely simple. One had to cross to the exit by stepping on the platforms in the lava swamp.
“Hup.”
Kang Junhyeok kicked off the ground without delay and launched himself onto a platform. As he crossed the lava swamp, intense heat rushed over him.
The gaps between the platforms were fairly wide. A slight mistake in controlling one's strength could leave one short of the next platform and plunging into the lava. More importantly, the platforms were unstable and swayed like a suspension bridge. It was simple, but far from easy.
But it posed no difficulty to the current Kang Junhyeok.
His stats were 14 Strength and 14 Speed.
Those were not the stats of an ordinary 1st Floor player. His movements had become visibly different. With the experience from his previous life as well, crossing the platforms was as easy as a stroll for Kang Junhyeok.
TAP. TAP.
Kang Junhyeok crossed the platforms in an instant and reached the exit.
One more step and he would clear the 1st Floor. It was the fastest time on record.
But Kang Junhyeok did not leave.
He stood before the exit with his arms crossed as if he had something to consider.
‘Now, then.’
His goal was not merely to clear the 1st Floor.
He wanted more.
***
Climbing the Tower.
It was not particularly difficult.
Of course, one had to risk one's life. But with sufficient resolve and preparation, and if one properly understood the quest's objective, the Tower was not difficult to clear up to a certain floor.
The 1st Floor was a perfect example. The gaps between the platforms were wide and the footing unstable, but that was all. No arrows flew at challengers, nor did the platforms fall away.
Even if one made a mistake and fell into the lava, the damage was minor. There were repeated opportunities to try again.
The other floors were not much different. Up to a certain point, they were designed so that anyone could clear them.
And for that very reason, the most important thing when climbing the Tower was not whether one cleared a floor.
It was how one cleared it.
‘Completion Rate.’
The Tower had something called a Completion Rate.
Beyond merely clearing a floor. How perfectly had one reached the goal?
It was a percentage calculated from every aspect of the clear. That was the Completion Rate.
What rewards could one receive upon reaching a Completion Rate of 100%?
The great divine sword into which all the gods defeated by the current ruler had poured their power. The Holy Sword.
The evil grimoire penned by the Demon King, containing every dark spell in the world and said to grant one power equal to the Demon King if mastered. The Lemegeton.
The Great Restoration Pill, Empty Azure Stone Milk, and Ten-Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root, each capable of granting inner power that could reach the heavens if perfectly refined.
Unique items so miraculous that even cowardly, foolish people had survived until the very end with their aid.
Those were the rewards Kang Junhyeok had obtained while reaching 100% Completion Rates.
‘On the floor where I obtained the Great Restoration Pill, the other players barely received a single dose of ordinary medicine.’
Kang Junhyeok's goal was simple.
A Perfect Clear on every floor.
To conquer the Tower completely.
At the end of that path, he would obtain what he had failed to acquire in his previous life and reach even greater heights.
***
Considered rationally, it was a nearly impossible goal.
Only around twenty floors had received a Perfect Clear in his previous life. Kang Junhyeok had cleared roughly ten of them.
He would have to uncover the remaining eighty floors through his own ability, without any meaningful information.
But he had no intention of giving up. He had returned with that resolve in the first place.
And so he would begin with the 1st Floor.
No one had ever achieved a Perfect Clear on the 1st Floor. With no information available, he had to figure it out for himself. Kang Junhyeok calmly studied the floor's structure.
The 1st Floor consisted of crossing the lava swamp by stepping on platforms and reaching the exit.
He could see nothing else. No matter how closely he looked, there seemed to be no path other than leaving through the exit.
But he knew.
If he took the exit that way, his Completion Rate would be a mere 0.1%.
Where was the remaining 99.9%?
To find out, Kang Junhyeok repeatedly crossed back and forth across the 1st Floor. For over an hour, he examined every platform, searched the entrance, and checked the exit.
But he found nothing.
It truly looked as though nothing else was there. Kang Junhyeok frowned.
‘Did they hide it so no one could find it?’
No. That could not be it. The Tower was honest. As the 0th Floor demonstrated, if a method existed, the Tower always provided a clue. Kang Junhyeok refused to give up and continued searching.
At last, Kang Junhyeok discovered something. He narrowed his eyes to focus his vision.
“What is that?”
The cavern wall.
There was a small hole in it. It was so small one could miss it without looking closely, barely large enough for a person to enter while crouching.
That was it. Kang Junhyeok's instincts told him so.
But there was an enormous problem.
‘Do they expect me to walk there?’
The small hole in the wall lay beyond the lava swamp. Even the nearest platform was roughly one hundred meters away.
He would have to cross one hundred meters of lava using nothing but his body.
“That’s insane.”
Kang Junhyeok let out a hollow laugh.
A player's body was protected by the system.
Even when attacked, one lost only Health and suffered no physical injury.
Kang Junhyeok knew that, in theory, walking through a lava swamp was not impossible.
But that was only in theory.
Avoiding injury did not mean avoiding pain. The agony of one's flesh burning and melting was transmitted without any reduction.
More importantly, he had no idea what lay inside that small hole. It could easily have been nothing more than a flaw in the cavern wall. It was sheer insanity.
But Kang Junhyeok knew.
That such an insane act was precisely where a greater reward than any other awaited.
“I’m about to do something I never even did in my previous life.”
Kang Junhyeok murmured and stepped forward. He did not hesitate. The place he stepped into was the lava swamp itself.
SPLASH!
His body sank into the lava. It submerged him up to the waist. At the same moment, horrific pain crashed over him.
The sensation of his flesh burning and melting. The system's protection prevented physical damage, but it did not reduce the pain at all.
Had they not said burns caused the most intense pain a human could experience?
Kang Junhyeok could tell that was true. He wanted to crawl onto a platform immediately and escape the horrific pain.
His instincts screamed madly that this was insane, that he had to turn back right now, that leaving through the exit would make all this horrific pain disappear.
GRIND.
‘Shut up.’
He suppressed his instincts through sheer will.
Gritting his teeth, he took one step, then another, through the lava swamp. With each one, he endured horrific pain. The hole was only one hundred meters away, yet it felt like an eternal distance.
Slowly but surely, he advanced.
At the end of it.
GRAB.
He reached the hole in the wall. Gripping its edge, Kang Junhyeok pulled himself inside. His body emerged from the lava swamp.
And at the same time.
A system window appeared, confirming that his choice had been correct.
[Passive Skill : Pain Resistance acquired.]
[Passive Skill : Pain Resistance Proficiency increased from F to E.]
[Passive Skill : Pain Resistance Proficiency increased from E to D.]
[Passive Skill : Fire Resistance acquired.]
[Passive Skill : Fire Resistance Proficiency increased from F to E.]
[Passive Skill : Fire Resistance Proficiency increased from E to D.]
[Passive Skill : Fire Resistance Proficiency increased from D to C.]
***
“......Phew.”
Kang Junhyeok finally exhaled. Perhaps because he had obtained Pain Resistance, the horrific pain had subsided considerably.
Of course, he still felt pain on the level of an ordinary burn. But compared to the agony from moments ago, it was light enough to scoff at.
After catching his breath, Kang Junhyeok opened the Skill Window.
[Passive Skill : Pain Resistance]
[Grade : Lowest]
[Proficiency : D]
[Resistance to pain. Pain is reduced. Mild pain is conveyed as sensation alone.]
Pain Resistance. It was an excellent skill that reduced most forms of pain.
To test its effect, Kang Junhyeok lightly struck the ground with the tip of his finger.
Ordinarily, it should have sent through him pain like the prick of a needle. Now it merely felt as though someone had lightly touched him.
“Good.”
Kang Junhyeok smiled in satisfaction and checked the next skill.
Pain Resistance was certainly a good skill, but it paled considerably beside the other skill he had obtained.
[Passive Skill : Fire Resistance]
[Grade : Lowest]
[Proficiency : C]
[Resistance to fire. You no longer take damage from most flames or heat.]
A simple description.
But its meaning was extremely powerful. It reduced not only damage from fire, but even damage from heat.
Among the many enemies he would face in the future, he could now defeat those who wielded heat without difficulty.
Most importantly, its Proficiency was already C.
The effectiveness of a skill varied tremendously with its Proficiency.
At C, he could take a fireball on his bare body without suffering any damage.
Considering Kang Junhyeok had only reached this Proficiency after the 30th Floor in his previous life, his current progress was astonishing.
“I already have three skills?”
Dagger Arts, Pain Resistance, and Fire Resistance.
Kang Junhyeok could not hold back his laughter. It was an astonishing number.
Skills were extraordinarily difficult to obtain in the Tower.
Purpose and necessity. Only by satisfying both conditions and executing them perfectly could one finally obtain a skill. Some people reached the 10th Floor without acquiring a single one.
And that fact was extremely good news for the current Kang Junhyeok.
The fact that he overcame those conditions and obtained Pain Resistance and Fire Resistance proved that this was the correct destination.
‘Then.’
What awaited him here?
Kang Junhyeok entered the hole with anticipation on his face.
The hole led into a small cavern. An old treasure chest stood at its exact center.
The remaining 99.9% of the 1st Floor lay inside that treasure chest.
Kang Junhyeok opened it excitedly. The moment he looked inside, his expression changed.
“Gloves?”
Inside the treasure chest was a pair of ash-gray gloves.
Thin ash-gray gloves covered in dust and looking extremely old. Kang Junhyeok lifted them.
[Myriad Arsenal]
[Slot : Weapon]
[Grade : Unique]
[Attack + ?]
[Can store 10,000 weapons.]
[Only one who possesses the qualifications can wield it.]
Kang Junhyeok's eyes widened as he read the description.
“Unique?”
The Unique Grade. Singular and one of a kind.
Items of this grade had only a single copy in the Tower. Once someone claimed an item, no one else could ever obtain that same item.
The Holy Sword and the Lemegeton that he had obtained in his previous life were items of the Unique Grade.
That meant the gloves he had discovered were equipment of the same grade.
“Wait.”
Something like this had been on the 1st Floor? Kang Junhyeok could not hide his astonishment. Before it could fade, the item began to activate.
HUMMM.
A strange wave reverberated. The equipment that had lain dormant began to awaken at someone's touch. The dust covering the gloves slowly scattered.
[......What is this?]
Then the startled voice of a man rang out.