Magic Tower bathroom.
This was a space Jin-woo had remodeled from an empty room.
He had connected it so that water from the purification device came out into the bathroom.
SHAAAA—!
After finishing maintenance on the purification device, Jin-woo washed himself for the first time in a very long while.
“I’m alive.”
Water flowed over his skin.
Today, he was still human.
Normally, it would have been an action he could not even dare attempt.
But thanks to working on the purification device, its energy efficiency had improved noticeably.
As a result, he could use water a little more freely today.
‘Sometimes… a luxury like this is fine, isn’t it?’
“This is nice.”
Jin-woo washed his hair.
The dust that had built up between his strands of hair while mining slowly washed away with the lukewarm water.
‘It’d be so much better if I had even one bar of soap….’
Jin-woo soon shook his head.
“That’s impossible right now.”
Cleanliness was not a luxury, but a matter of survival.
If he remained unable to wash for too long, there was no telling what illness he might catch.
‘Before Regression too… I suffered quite a bit because of this problem.’
He remembered when he had just entered the Tower.
He could not obtain water, so even washing properly had been impossible.
He always felt unpleasant, and his body smelled.
Because of that, people were reluctant to even stay close to him.
‘Who’d want to stay near someone when they stink just by coming close?’
For lack of a single basin of water, disease grew.
That was when he learned it.
Without water, people lost their humanity first.
‘I barely survived back then.’
Just thinking of that day still made his body feel itchy.
Maintaining cleanliness.
To survive in the Tower, it was not a choice but a necessity.
[Improved cleanliness is directly linked to increased survival probability.]
Lumina’s voice suddenly rang out.
As always, it was the same report, without a single trace of emotion.
[If hygiene management is insufficient, probability of infection and disease increases by 34%.]
[By long-term survival standards, cleanliness maintenance is not recommended but required.]
“…I know.”
Jin-woo muttered with a small laugh.
Lumina always spoke like this.
With numbers and probabilities, using survival alone as the standard.
But for Jin-woo, merely ‘surviving’ was not enough.
“If I at least had Lethe herb, I could try making soap….”
Lethe herb was the core ingredient for soap.
If he had just that, he could somehow make soap.
Of course, obtaining it would not be easy.
“Ugh… before that, I need to make hot water come out.”
That was not all.
If he could gather the materials, he wanted to make a bathtub too.
Soaking his body in hot water.
There would be no luxury in the Tower greater than that.
“Now, next.”
Jin-woo smiled as he swept back his wet hair.
Hot water.
A bathtub.
For now, they were still closer to luxuries.
Still, he had a goal.
Someday, a day would come when he could rest properly even in this Tower.
Thinking of that day, Jin-woo returned to reality.
‘Next is… a hot-water circuit.’
Next was a hot-water circuit.
And, for the first time, “a Tower where he could rest.”
***
《DAY -12 ended.》
《Survival EXP accumulates.》
The twelfth day since Regression.
Jin-woo’s day had become a ‘survival routine.’
CLANG!
CLANG!
He ate a simple meal, went down to the mine, and mined Mana Stones.
The Mana Stones he mined were loaded onto the cart and placed into the Main Room fuel tank.
[Energy Charge]
[Remaining Energy: 89%]
Then—
Ding!
《Magic Tower Stability: 38%》
《Unstable maintenance in progress》
“Good.”
Jin-woo nodded shortly.
Mana Stones were piling up.
Only little by little, but that ‘increase’ became his support.
‘Daily average, thirty-five.’
The numbers were organized in his head.
Twenty for charging.
Even running the purification device and the Forge, it could still hold for now.
‘I could mine more.’
But Jin-woo shook his head on his own.
“I can’t just mine Mana Stones.”
Survival did not run on a single thing.
Water, energy, equipment.
All three had to hold at the same time.
Jin-woo moved toward the Transmutation Core device.
If he put in Mana Stones, one-level-higher Mana Stone powder came out.
After confirming that, what came next was naturally decided.
“Lumina. Let’s try iron this time.”
[Command confirmed.]
[Transmutation Core Magic Engineering device activated.]
Jin-woo took out iron.
It was what he had obtained by melting down rusty pickaxes and filtering out as many impurities as possible.
The iron he could obtain in this Tower effectively all came from this source.
‘Iron really is lacking.’
He had used up all the rusty pickaxes.
Now, his only remaining option was to bring some from outside, but that was far too dangerous.
“Taking it from Goblins… would cost me more than I’d gain.”
Iron was essential for survival.
It was needed to repair facilities and to make equipment.
Right now, it was not a material that was ‘nice to have,’ but one he would die without.
After hesitating for a moment, Jin-woo pushed the iron ingot into the Transmutation Core device.
Vwooom—
[Refinement success rate: 90%]
[Energy rearrangement beginning.]
The core hummed lowly.
Light flowing along the circuits wrapped around the iron ingot, and faint trembling continued inside.
A moment later—
[Refinement complete.]
[Material loss rate: 17%.]
The outlet opened, and an iron ingot dropped out.
Its shape was not greatly different.
But the moment he held it, the sensation was different.
It felt heavy.
It no longer felt like a ‘lump of iron,’ but the ‘skeleton of a tool.’
The firmness from the removed impurities remained at his fingertips.
“Lumina?”
[Analysis complete.]
[Refined iron.]
[Iron content increased by 45%.]
[Grade: E.]
Jin-woo quietly nodded.
“…This is different.”
Without thinking, he washed the iron dust from his hands with water.
He scooped a little water from the water container beside the workbench and rinsed his hands.
In the past, he could not have imagined doing that.
Using water just to wash off a bit of iron dust was something the old Jin-woo would have classified as a ‘luxury.’
‘This much… is leeway.’
He gripped the refined iron again.
His hands did not lie.
Even though it was the same size, the center of gravity felt lower.
The sensation that the metal existed as ‘density’ reached his fingertips.
“With this….”
Jin-woo naturally thought of the pickaxe he was using now.
A tool he had made in haste by melting down a rusty pickaxe and reshaping it.
‘It was something I made in a hurry.’
The temperature, the timing, the thickness.
Everything was clumsy.
‘I’m on the Magic Engineering side.’
Before Regression, Jin-woo had picked up ‘techniques’ in order to live.
Blacksmithing was one of them.
But in front of skills—the limit was clear.
‘The difference in skills.’
Hunters made equipment with skills.
Not through hammering—results came first.
Jin-woo had watched that from the side, imitated it, and built up his senses through failure.
Those senses were enough to survive, but not enough to make “good equipment.”
“It was a hack job.”
He let out a faint laugh.
But now was different.
‘This can be used.’
Jin-woo held the refined iron and stopped in front of the Transmutation Core.
“Lumina. How many impurities are left in this refined iron?”
[Impurity reduction confirmed.]
[Compared to existing iron: 52% → 30%]
“…It definitely went down.”
‘Even just changing the blade would make a noticeable difference.’
Jin-woo calculated again.
In the past, he had saved water first, then energy, then equipment.
But now, the order had changed.
‘Now… I can start with the equipment.’
He did not need to remake the entire pickaxe.
The part that wore down was always the same.
The blade.
The core that directly received impact.
Refined iron.
The Transmutation Core.
And the pickaxe.
Jin-woo did not think any further.
[Emergency Forge Activation.]
[Energy Priority Reallocation.]
VWOOOM—!
The furnace hummed lowly and spat out flames.
Without hesitation, Jin-woo placed the refined iron into the furnace.
The metal heated red, and soon, heavy molten iron flowed down.
He caught it with tongs and placed it on the anvil.
BANG!
BANG!
Heat it in fire, cool it, strike it again.
Every time the hammer came down, the metal slowly took shape.
A pickaxe was a tool.
Instead of beauty, he engraved ‘lifespan’ into it.
After sharpening the blade for the last time, Jin-woo lifted the completed pickaxe.
“…This is usable.”
[Refined Iron Pickaxe]
Grade: D+
Mining Efficiency: D+
Mining Speed: D+
Durability: 35
D+.
It was D-grade, but even within that Grade, a clear line had been drawn.
It felt different from the moment he held it.
The center of gravity was stable, and the blade tip was solid.
Jin-woo gripped the pickaxe again.
It required less strength.
Even with the same movement, the burden was lower.
That meant—
he could mine longer and mine more.
Jin-woo’s gaze naturally turned toward the mine.
‘The profit changes.’
It was not simply faster.
He could mine more in the same time, and it would wear down less.
That meant—
the entire day would change.
Jin-woo gripped the pickaxe once more.
‘This isn’t just usable.’
It was a completely different tool.
“How does it look to you?”
[Analysis beginning.]
A brief silence.
Once the calculation ended, the result appeared.
[Performance comparison against existing Iron Pickaxe]
[Mining Efficiency: +18%]
[Durability: +27%]
[Blade wear speed reduction: 31%]
Jin-woo’s eyes widened slightly.
“…This is different.”
[Material density increase confirmed due to refined iron use.]
[Impact dispersion structure stabilized.]
[Maintenance cost expected to decrease during long-term use.]
Jin-woo lightly flicked the pickaxe blade with his finger.
A short, clear metallic sound rang out.
“It wears down less and breaks more. That’s it, right?”
[Summary: affirmative.]
[By current environment standards, judged to be the optimal choice.]
That one sentence was enough.
“And it isn’t over yet.”
Jin-woo called up the Enhancement function.
《Target: Equipment.》
《Enhancement applicable.》
A moment later—
《Refined Iron Pickaxe +1》
《Effect: Mining Efficiency Enhancement.》
“Hm?”
Jin-woo narrowed his brow.
‘Originally, it was Mining Speed Enhancement.’
The Enhancement he had received as a Regression Perk.
The information was limited.
Even before Regression, there had been no Hunter with this kind of Enhancement skill.
‘Only up to +1. Limited to Equipment.’
Everything else was ‘speculation.’
‘It’s the same pickaxe, so why did it change?’
Was it the ‘Grade’? The ‘material’? Or… the ‘refinement stage’?
Jin-woo rubbed his chin, then shook his head.
It was not a problem he could reach a conclusion on right away.
‘It might be random.’
To survive in the Tower, one did not close off possibilities.
For now, he would accumulate them.
“Nothing comes easy.”
Jin-woo gave a faint laugh and picked up the pickaxe.
Then he headed to the mine.
If he had made new equipment, testing it was the natural next step.
“Let’s try it.”