The strategy guide for Floor 10 assessed the tenth floor this way.
[......The greatest problem of Floor 10 is that the trait known as the 'dark zone' interferes with the senses, and the mana of darkness applies a debuff. For this reason a solo climb is effectively impossible. The boss monster of Floor 10, the lich, commands all manner of the dead, death knights, dullahans, skeletons and more, and countering this requires at least four conditions. The first is a holder of a support skill to resolve the debuff, the second a holder of a scouting skill to chart the maze-like interior of the tower, the third a holder of an area skill to sweep away numerous monsters, and last, the presence of a front-line tank able to withstand overwhelming numbers. Accordingly, this guide presents a party composition on clear standards, and it is the assessment of the experts that clearing it by any other means is effectively impossible.]
Four people at minimum.
A difficulty that required three even when overlapping skills were taken into account.
Even the maddened Bjorn Gustafsson had officially declared, with fury on his face, that a Floor 10 climb was impossible.
The chain of events.
One possibility flashed into people's minds.
-What happens if that monster succeeds at a solo climb of Floor 10?
This was not a simple matter.
Beyond the records, that result alone would earn an entirely different evaluation.
-If that happens, it would be right to see it not as the existence of a 'special strategy' but as the birth of a new monster that truly goes beyond common sense. Every country would probably hunt for him with fire in their eyes. You know it. Only 28 days are left on the twentieth floor's limit. The moment you secure someone capable of a Floor 10 climb, you can not only form a powerful roster for clearing the twentieth floor but also gain a considerable national advantage.
Attention converged.
Right after the ninth floor was cleared.
People thought he might climb again right away.
But ten minutes passed.
Thirty minutes passed.
One hour, two hours, three hours passed, and there was no news at all.
Since there had been a gap between the first climb and the second as well, people spent their time in a wait with no promised end.
And so, the next day.
-He didn't go and croak trying, did he?
-Or did he chicken out and run?
-If you ask me, this guy definitely GG'd on Floor 10 too.
With no records being broken, people began pouring out all kinds of speculative posts.
***
People's guesses were all untrue.
Kim Tae-seong had not failed a challenge, nor died while climbing, nor taken fright and fled.
Only.
'That's enough for today.'
He simply knew when to stop.
From the second floor to the ninth.
He had put Namgung Cheol forward and run straight through.
In that process, difficulty did not exist.
Namgung Cheol solved every trial of the tower with such overwhelming performance that Kim Tae-seong grew certain he was a monster possessed of a 'strength' not merely equal to S-Grade but above it. The Boundless Azure Firmament Sword Technique that represented the Namgung Clan in particular was an entirely different world. Kim Tae-seong had actually met holders of martial arts skills before, but the completeness and destructive power of these sword techniques were perfect beyond comparison with anything in this world.
Of course, due to the constraint of time, the summon time had effectively ended when he passed the seventh floor.
But wanting to clear through the ninth floor, he spent two days of cooldown and finished everything he had aimed for.
'The ninth floor and the tenth are entirely different in difficulty anyway. Taking the time to regroup before preparing for Floor 10 would be a good approach.'
Kim Tae-seong knew it too.
The Lion of Sweden.
That he had failed the Floor 10 climb.
The interesting fact was that, excluding Floor 10, he had succeeded on floors eleven through fifteen.
With word that from the sixteenth floor on it was still in progress, Floor 10 certainly boasted a difficulty in a class of its own.
Having sent Namgung Cheol back, Kim Tae-seong put his thoughts in order.
'With Namgung Cheol's skill, a solo climb isn't impossible even on Floor 10. The problem is that I can't just trust the summoning skill and sit there blinking. In case of an emergency, I need to be competitive enough myself.'
Nine climbs.
Kim Tae-seong had been a spectator.
In a hunter's life, where he had to consider the worst every time, he judged that someday there would come a moment when he had to step up himself.
The problem was that his current ability was of no help at all.
Kim Tae-seong checked the state of the skills he held.
[Search] lv3
[Bronze Skill]
-Can search the area ahead.
-Anything of a level beyond the skill's level is not caught by the search.
-Cooldown: 10 minutes
[Herbalism] lv3
[Bronze Skill]
-Can identify the types of medicinal herbs.
-Can combine herbs to create medicines of special performance.
-Cooldown: 10 minutes
[Throw] lv2
[Bronze Skill]
-Throws something.
-Cooldown: 5 minutes
[Iron Wall] lv2
[Bronze Skill]
-Temporarily raises defense.
-Cooldown 5 minutes
[Heavy Strike] lv2
[Bronze Skill]
-Delivers a powerful blow in an instant.
-Cooldown 5 minutes
Five skills.
The fruit of a full nine years.
In truth, anyone who looked at Kim Tae-seong's skills would sneer and ask what kind of omnivorous tech tree this was.
Skill Boxes were very rare.
So which skill to learn and reinforce was an element important enough that emphasizing it dozens of times would not be enough, and Kim Tae-seong's skills had no coherence to them at all.
Search was a scout's skill.
Herbalism was a support's skill.
Throw was a sub-dealer's skill.
Iron Wall was a tank's skill.
Heavy Strike was a dealer's skill.
And the reason he had invested so many levels into Search and Herbalism was that this was Kim Tae-seong's own way of surviving without a usable Unique Skill.
A five-man party naturally assigned a different role to each member, and at the cost of taking in Kim Tae-seong alone, several roles could be covered at once. An odd-jobs position, literally. He was clever and quick to read a situation, so those who formed parties with him were in fact reasonably satisfied.
Next, Kim Tae-seong checked his rewards.
There were no items worth using in particular.
However, nine special rewards.
Thanks to them he held eight Silver Boxes and one Gold Box.
'Honestly, when selling just one box would solve every practical problem, cashing them all in and graduating from this life would be one option. But that's too passive a judgment. In this harsh world where your life is threatened in the end, no matter how rich a tycoon is, when he runs into a monster he can't protect himself either. Now that I've confirmed my Unique Skill is a cheat, I need to be worthy of it too.'
It was a kind of investment.
A higher level.
If he pressed forward, he was certain he would gain more wealth and fame than selling a few Skill Boxes.
Therefore, he did not hesitate.
"Open Skill Box."
Nine boxes.
The first of them.
FWOOSH-
The Silver Box opened, and bright light filled his sight.
***
The rewards of a Skill Box were random.
But they were not simply random.
Through the bright light, three choices rose before his eyes.
[Silver Skill- Shockwave]
[Silver Skill- Wind Cutter]
[Silver Skill Reinforcement]
Three rewards.
That was the effect of a Skill Box.
A Skill Box granted two skill options and one skill reinforcement option, of which only one could be chosen.
Kim Tae-seong examined the skills.
Shockwave was, as the name said, a kind of psychokinesis that produced an impact.
It was a skill often used by close-range dealers as a trump card, while Wind Cutter was a spell of the 'mages', one of the powerful area spells.
In truth, both were a jackpot for Kim Tae-seong.
In a life without a single Silver skill, two Silver skills had appeared.
And yet.
"Silver Skill Reinforcement."
FWOOSH-
The third one.
He chose the skill reinforcement.
The reason was clear.
'Me getting a little stronger right now means nothing. To be of help in the climbs up to the nineteenth floor, I'd do better to build further on my current strength of being able to fill several positions.'
Leveling up each skill.
The condition for that was skill reinforcement.
At Bronze level 1, one Bronze skill reinforcement.
At Bronze level 2, two Bronze skill reinforcements were needed.
But in the case of a grade one step higher, a value of three times was applied.
One Silver skill reinforcement could stand in for the effect of three Bronze skill reinforcements.
In the case of a Unique Skill, at least a 'Gold-grade skill reinforcement' was required, so even reaching level 2 was extremely difficult in practice.
Kim Tae-seong opened the boxes one after another.
Seven Silver boxes.
Their rewards were these.
[Silver Skill Reinforcement] x3
[Silver Skill-Heal]
[Silver Skill-Haste]
[Silver Skill-Sharpness]
[Silver Skill-Cover]
It was effectively a tech tree entirely for support.
He spent four Silver skill reinforcements at once and took Search to Master level.
[Search]
[Master]
[Bronze Skill]
-Can search the area ahead.
-Anything of a level beyond the skill's level is not caught by the search.
-Cooldown: 10 minutes
Skill levels ran from 1 to 5.
The last was Master.
Kim Tae-seong knew it too.
That he had just done something insane.
There was no one in the world who would invest this much in the Bronze skill Search, but Kim Tae-seong had a clear standard of his own.
'Search has outstanding versatility. If I support the people of murim from the E-031 dimension in an auxiliary role, clearing up to the nineteenth floor alone isn't impossible. If I begrudge the early investment, I'll never amount to anything.'
He had specified his role.
For now, supporting the people of murim.
Personal strength could be seen to later.
And odd, miscellaneous roles were familiar to him to begin with.
Last.
Only the Gold Box remained.
He opened it at once.
The three choices that rose before his eyes required no particular deliberation.
[Gold Skill Reinforcement]
The other two Gold skills?
It would be a lie to say he did not want them.
But.
'If it can level up a Unique Skill that's a cheat, there's no better option than this.'
Kim Tae-seong was a man who clearly recognized what mattered.
***
The original plan was nine days later.
He had planned to challenge Floor 10 when Conscription's cooldown ended.
Of course, he intended to use Summon whenever the cooldown was up and hope for the jackpot of someone on Namgung Cheol's level being summoned.
One advantage was added to that plan.
And it was this.
[Summon] lv2
[Unique-Bound Skill]
-Summons two beings of the 'E-031' dimension at random.
-Cooldown: 6 hours
-Duration: 1 hour
-Special Effect: If the duration is exceeded, the summon may be maintained by applying 1 hour of cooldown per 10 minutes.
Summon had leveled up.
In truth he had agonized a great deal between Conscription and Summon, but the conclusion was Summon.
Conscription had a cooldown of a full week.
Rather than putting his weight into one single killing blow, he judged that for now he needed to reinforce a skill he could use often, like Summon.
The very next day.
Kim Tae-seong used the Summon skill every day.
He hoped for the miracle of Namgung Cheol and Namgung Su-ho being summoned at the same time, but the results were a sewer.
"Where is this......?"
"Oh my, Savior. So this is how we meet!"
Two ordinary people.
People who knew nothing of martial arts had been summoned.
He traded trivial talk with them, and only after another six hours had passed did he use Summon again.
"Namgung Mu-yeon, member of the Azure Sky Corps."
"I am a servant of the Namgung Clan, sir."
A dud this time as well.
A martial artist named Namgung Mu-yeon had appeared, but there was no chance whatsoever that a servant-and-martial-artist duo could conquer Floor 10.
Summon was certainly a skill that carried risk.
Around that time.
The international situation worsened sharply.
Day after day the media poured out their worries about the twentieth floor.
[According to the American supercomputer Miracle, the conclusion has been reached that clearing the twentieth floor is impossible with humanity's current strength. With the conquest of the tower proceeding sluggishly, there is talk going around that the nations are pushing the salvation of humanity onto one another. Twenty-five days remain. If we cannot clear the trial of the twentieth floor within twenty-five days, we may face the end of humanity.]
In such a situation.
-Fuck, looks like we're all f***ed.
-If Floor 20's difficulty is at this level, even if we somehow clear it, can we survive after that?
-Nope, the destruction of Earth is a matter of time.
-Looking for a woman to meet before humanity ends.
-Looking for a woman to meet before humanity ends22222.
-What happened to that guy who broke first place up to Floor 9? Still no news?
-The accepted theory is that the bastard croaked.
People all over the world fell into confusion.
Those who brought up 'Kim Tae-seong' in particular all but confirmed his death, with no news heard even after several days had passed.
The reality was different.
The fifth day after clearing Floor 9.
[The tower's gate has opened.]
[Enter Floor 10?]
"Yes."
He had moved the climb plan forward.
The reason was.
['Sama Pung' of the E-031 dimension has been summoned.]
['Paeng Dal' of the E-031 dimension has been summoned.]
Two names.
According to the faction chart he had put together, they belonged to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Of Sama Pung, the First Elder of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult in particular, Namgung Cheol had said this.
"He is a master who falls short of nothing even compared to me."
With the summon jackpot finally hitting, Kim Tae-seong had no more reason to drag things out.