The instant I felt myself transported together with whoever had grabbed my shoulder—
FLASH.
As soon as the new surroundings appeared before my eyes, I pulled out my spear shaft and smashed it backward.
WHAM—!
“Whoa? Not bad.”
With a relaxed voice, the man shook out his hand and backed away several steps.
It was Kim Hyeon-sik.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What do you mean? I told you already. I got orders. I’m not exactly in a position where I can just give up.”
The item he casually tucked back inside his clothes looked like some kind of concealment Artifact.
Apparently, that was what had caused this whole mess.
The information my Trait had given me the instant he grabbed my shoulder also pointed that way.
[Name: Kim Hyeon-sik]
[Assassin Lv.15]
[Abilities 2/3]
-Covert Movement. Poison Sword.
[Summoner of Bartus]
[Trait: Agility Modifier]
So Summoners showed their Traits too. I had only learned that now.
‘He looked like a Warrior.’
Either way, I needed to keep in mind that his actual fighting style was completely different from what his visible equipment suggested.
“So you followed me in like this?”
“Wow. What’s all this? Did you butcher these yourself? Looks like you actually learned the trade properly. So this is where those items came from?”
A cave in Floor 4’s high-altitude region.
He looked at the traces of my butchering and started talking about something else entirely.
“Why don’t you just get lost? I’ve got no intention of doing a Quest with someone like you hanging around.”
“Hey, hey. You seriously think you have a choice right now? You’re a funny bastard.”
SHING.
He drew the sword at his waist and strode toward me.
“There’s nobody here to stop me now. I can drag you to Floor 5 by force. After that, you’ll just do what I tell you. Got it?”
He looked completely confident.
And why wouldn’t he? An adventurer who had obtained a Class was facing a Novice.
‘And he has two Abilities on top of that.’
Still, his carelessness was a weakness I could exploit.
THUD.
I reversed Volante Footwork and stamped down, creating an extreme sense of weight.
My vibrating spear carried all of that weight forward and shot into his chest like lightning.
“Hmph!”
CLANG—!
He swung his sword with a snort, but instead of knocking my spearhead aside, his blade was blasted away.
His eyes widened. I saw him twist his body, but we were already too close.
SQUELCH—!
SLASH.
My spearhead, aimed at his chest, punched through his armor and scraped across his side.
It was shallower than I expected.
“Shit!?”
The instant he cursed, I quickly backed away.
But his body closed the distance even faster.
His sword flashed toward my neck, and I barely knocked it aside with the spear shaft.
CLANG—!
“Ghk!?”
Maybe the recoil from the spear shaft’s vibration was stronger than he expected.
The instant he staggered, I whipped the shaft around and smashed it into his side.
WHAM.
Using the rebound, I thrust again.
This time, the spearhead sliced across his opposite side.
SLASH.
‘Shallow.’
I swallowed my frustration and took one step back.
By then, Kim Hyeon-sik had retreated several paces. His face had gone frighteningly stiff.
“Crazy... Fuck! Yeah. That spear. Hah. And you already spent all your Level-Up Points? Dumb bastard.”
What an unbelievably stupid conclusion.
“Well, fine. So you had a trick or two after all?”
His gaze swept over both wounded sides, then returned to me filled with killing intent.
“I was planning to drag you along in one piece, but you brought this on yourself, Cheol.”
The instant he shifted, his figure vanished.
For a moment, I completely lost track of him, but the spirits’ senses I had spread out when the fight began told me he had circled into the blind spot behind my left side.
FWOOM—!
CLANG—!
I spun around and raised the spear shaft, apparently blocking his sword strike.
But.
SLASH. SLASH.
In that brief instant, I felt a chill across my neck and side.
‘Ghk!’
FWOOOM—!
I reflexively swept the spear shaft in a wide arc.
By then, he was already standing far away again. For some reason, he did not approach. He only grinned.
“If I’d wanted to, you’d be dead already. You know that?”
The strike at my side had only pierced the armor, but a shallow cut had appeared on my neck.
I thought he was bluffing, but I could not stop a chill from running through my chest.
Then suddenly, my head spun.
“Ugh!?”
SSSSSS.
Immediately afterward, a refreshing sensation spread from my lower abdomen and wiped away the dizziness.
Kim Hyeon-sik’s smile deepened.
“You’re getting dizzy, right? Your stomach’s turning too. Your vision’s shaking.”
Hm?
“I’m pretty good with poison. If I don’t detoxify you now, you’re going to vomit and shit yourself before I drag you away like a pathetic wreck.”
TAP.
He closed the distance again like the wind.
In that brief moment, countless thoughts flashed through my mind.
The purification effect from my underwear was taking care of the poison.
But the sword strikes I had barely even seen earlier had given me a serious sense of danger.
And yet.
SLASH-SLASH-SLASH.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
I allowed several more shallow wounds, but strangely, this felt manageable.
‘I’m... getting used to it?’
He used short steps to move around me and slash from every direction.
His speed was incredibly fast, but how should I put it? There was no form to it.
To exaggerate a little, it was like an ordinary person wildly swinging a sword, only at ridiculous speed.
‘This isn’t even swordsmanship.’
He was definitely fast.
But his preparatory motions were far too easy to read, and he did not use even the most basic techniques to deceive his opponent.
With the spirits’ senses assisting me, it looked entirely possible to block him.
Still.
‘He really is fast.’
His footwork looked terrible too, yet his body moved so quickly that afterimages seemed to trail behind him.
“This bastard’s ignoring me now? You’re only making things harder for yourself, you know?”
FWOOM—!
Winning or losing aside, if someone with this kind of speed decided to run, I had absolutely no confidence I could catch him.
‘Let’s make this certain.’
CLANG-CLANG.
I knocked aside his sword several times, then deliberately allowed myself to be cut a few more times.
SLASH-SLASH.
Another shallow cut on my neck, one across my exposed side, and another that pierced my thigh armor and barely scored the flesh beneath.
I avoided anything potentially fatal and let only shallow wounds through.
He seemed to be aiming for exactly that in the first place, so it was not difficult.
Then.
“Ugh......”
I shook my head, blinked repeatedly, and staggered.
His smile widened.
“Now stop resisting. If you just listen to me, I’ll clear Floor 5 for you quickly and let you out. Ah, of course, you’ll have to tell me the secret behind these traces first.”
“What if... I won’t?”
“Then I cut off your arms and legs one at a time. Ah, maybe I should start with your fingers?”
He snickered and pointed his sword at my hand.
At that instant.
“Ugh......”
I tilted forward as though collapsing in pain and loosened my grip on the spear.
I had no confidence in my acting, but I could only hope his arrogance would blind him.
‘Just for a moment. I only need one moment.’
Then.
STEP.
He came one step closer.
My spearhead tilted inside the line of his sword, and for that brief instant, the angle of my supposedly falling body almost perfectly aligned with the spear.
GRAB.
My hand snapped around the shaft.
THUD.
I stepped deep into range, turning the movement into explosive forward force.
The spear trembled in my hands, then shot forward and pierced through his solar plexus.
SQUELCH—!
“Ghk!?”
Tsk.
‘Slightly off.’
Even then, he had instinctively twisted his body.
The spear had pierced the right side of his chest instead.
But that was enough.
“You bas... tard!”
Even with one lung pierced, he screamed and swung his sword wildly.
But he was noticeably slower than before.
SQUELCH.
I stepped backward, pulling my spear free as I avoided his blade.
Then I thrust again.
SQUELCH.
“Ghuuk!?”
SQUELCH. SQUELCH.
The Edelin Long Spear punched easily through his plate armor, inflicting one fatal wound after another.
Enough that no adventurer, no matter how incredible their vitality, could possibly survive.
“H-How......?”
“Skillfully.”
His eyes trembled at my halfhearted answer.
Then his knees hit the ground, and he toppled forward emptily.
THUD.
[Combat Ended]
[Experience acquired.]
Only after the System’s absurdly indifferent voice confirmed his death did my hand begin to tremble slightly.
‘I really... killed him.’
THUMP.
The moment I looked down at his corpse, my heart began pounding even faster than it had during the battle.
I had killed many things by now, but they had all been Labyrinth monsters or beasts.
I had not even killed Lee Jeong-ho.
And now, out of nowhere, I had killed a person.
Someone from the same homeland as me.
Of course there was going to be a psychological shock.
But after realizing that—
“You brought it on yourself. Fucking bastard.”
I spat out the curse.
And just like that, both my hand and my heart stopped trembling.
If he had won, I would either be dead or reduced to something worse than dead.
He had been the one to start the trouble.
He had threatened me first.
He had even used poison.
‘Without the purification effect, I would’ve been fucked.’
I had never imagined I would be forced to test an effect I had prepared for the Floor 5 Quest because of this bastard.
“You did the right thing. You did.”
I reassured myself and started to place my hand on the portal.
Then I realized I had forgotten something.
‘That bastard’s sword and shoes look like Artifacts. And even the regular armor is expensive.’
Only then did I calm down in the truest sense.
I immediately began stripping off his equipment.
“Heave-ho.”
I did not bother inspecting the ordinary armor and simply shoved all of it into my Spatial Pouch.
But when my hand touched a leather cloth large enough to cover an entire body inside his clothes, I stopped.
The texture and pattern of the leather looked familiar.
[Concealment Cloth (High-grade)]
-Surrounding Environment Assimilation.
The System description was extremely simple.
‘Additional Information Check.’
HUMMM.
-A Concealment Cloth made from Elite Thorn Vine Snake Hide.
-A High-grade item that perfectly imitates the colors and textures of its surroundings. Recently made.
The additional information from my Trait made me let out a hollow laugh.
“Hah. Fuck. Is this made from the material I sold? Seriously?”
Could this even be called fate?
I pocketed the Concealment Cloth in disbelief.
It was still an Artifact, after all.
Then came the sword.
[Burtal’s Assassin Sword (High-grade)]
-Attack Power +5
-Distance Illusion effect.
“Hmm.”
So that was why I had been cut even when I could clearly see the blade.
The sword suited his poison-based Ability well, but I was not particularly interested in it.
‘It’s too big to fit in the basket anyway. I’ll sell this. Later, after things calm down.......’
SLIDE.
His shoes, however, were different.
They were leather shoes, not integrated boots that covered the shins.
[Alderun’s Shoes (High-grade)]
-Movement Speed +10
-Presence Reduction.
“Oh?”
At this level, would it not be worth synthesizing them with my current boots?
The only thing that bothered me was—
‘Mine are boots. These are just shoes.’
If the synthesis followed the smaller shape and the shin portion of my boots disappeared, I would effectively lose one piece of armor.
But the concern lasted only a moment.
‘No. It usually follows the larger form. It should be fine.’
I stuffed my boots into the Goblin Basket and added his shoes.
Fortunately, the synthesis worked.
FLASH.
[Cheol-woo’s High-grade Boots (High-grade)]
-Automatic fitting.
-Self-repair.
-Foot Fatigue Recovery.
-Movement Speed +10
-Presence Reduction.
“Nice!”
The result was a pair of boots with so many options that it was difficult to call them merely High-grade.
The name bothered me a little.
But.
-Shoes synthesized by Go Cheol-woo through the Goblin Basket.
That additional information would only appear if someone used my Trait, so it did not matter.
‘I’m not planning to sell them anytime soon anyway.’
I had no intention of giving up the convenience functions of my current footwear, so unless something extraordinary happened, I would probably keep synthesizing new footwear into this pair.
Once I stripped away all his armor and Artifacts, only his underwear remained.
Unlike his blood-soaked upper clothes, the underwear was completely intact.
And it had the same familiar appearance I had seen countless times just yesterday.
‘Right. You’re from modern Earth too. Of course you couldn’t put up with that shit either.’
Even in this situation, a hollow laugh escaped me.
Aside from that, he had around 10 gold in cash and some miscellaneous items.
‘Let’s get rid of him. He’s distracting.’
I dragged the corpse outside and threw it down the cliff of the high-altitude region.
By the time I returned, I was no longer thinking about him.
“Floor 5. Floor 5.”
I said it aloud to steady my breathing.
‘I have to do well. Perfect Clear, no matter what.’
Because of the Perfect Clears, I knew performance on Floors 5 and 10 was not everything.
But I also understood very well that Floors 5 and 10 were special.
‘The Quest most likely to appear on Floor 5 is......’
I shook off the aftereffects of my unexpected fight with Kim Hyeon-sik, ran through the information I knew once more in my head, then placed my hand on the portal.
[Return]
[Floor 3]
[Floor 5]
‘Floor 5!’
FLASH.
The instant my vision turned completely white again, a voice unlike any System message I had heard before rang out.
[Perfect Clear records for all Floors 1~4 confirmed.]
[Floor 5 Quest difficulty will be adjusted.]
[Causality fluctuation. A bond (fate) has been established with the Transcendent most deeply connected to the adventurer.]
[Ascendant Bartus’s Lingering Regret takes effect.]
‘What?’