CLANG—!
CLANG—!
《Tool Sense assists you.》
The difference was obvious from the very first strike.
The recoil that traveled into his wrist the moment it touched the stone was different.
It did not feel as if the force bounced away. It felt as if the force sank straight in.
‘The force isn’t leaking away.’
Even though he had not put in more strength, the blade bit into the bedrock.
If it had been before, he would have had to strike that spot two or three more times.
CLANG—!
A piece broke off.
The fragments fell smaller and more regularly.
The unnecessary recoil had lessened, too.
Jin-woo looked down at the pickaxe for a moment.
The edge was still intact.
That last blow should have worn down that part, but there was almost no change.
‘I’m using less strength, and it’s sinking in deeper.’
This was not his imagination.
‘And….’
Jin-woo lifted the pickaxe again.
“Is this what efficiency means?”
He could now distinguish the Enhancement effects, too.
The “Speed Enhancement” he had first obtained worked by increasing the number of times he could swing.
It made him swing faster.
Back then, he had run out of breath.
His arms moved first, and his heart raced to keep up.
His speed had increased, but the fatigue stayed the same.
This was different.
CLANG—!
The same strength, the same angle.
And yet the amount chipped away in a single strike had increased.
‘I’m hitting less, but I’m getting more.’
Speed Enhancement urged his arms on.
Efficiency Enhancement made the stone collapse faster.
CLANG—!
The force did not scatter.
The recoil that had bounced away was reduced, and the transfer was direct.
Jin-woo’s breathing did not waver, either.
‘It’s the same amount of time… but what’s left over is different.’
It was no longer a fight to endure.
It had become work he could keep rolling forward.
That difference was huge.
“…So this is Enhancement.”
Jin-woo set the pickaxe down for a moment and looked at the Mana Stones he had just mined.
The number had increased too, but this was more important.
‘At this pace… I can keep going for a long time.’
Surviving in the Tower was not about momentary explosive power.
Making things a little less difficult, and leaving a little more behind.
That was true survival.
“What do you think?”
[Work efficiency increased.]
[Long-term work efficiency greatly increased.]
Lumina’s report followed briefly.
With this pickaxe, mining even more Mana Stones became possible.
And that, in turn, would return to him as a margin in water and energy.
Jin-woo closed his eyes for a moment without setting the pickaxe down.
The standard was numbers.
“Lumina. Can you do a comparative measurement?”
[Possible.]
[Mining test under identical conditions recommended.]
Jin-woo nodded at once.
Experiments were best when they were simple.
He had to reduce the variables.
He chose one section of the mine wall that looked relatively solid.
The same position.
The same angle.
The same breathing.
Then he lifted the pickaxe.
“Baseline without Enhancement first.”
Jin-woo took out the “Rusted Iron Pickaxe” he had kept for comparison.
There was only one reason he had not thrown it away yet.
‘A control group.’
CLANG—!
The impact struck his wrist.
The recoil was heavy, and the crack went shallow.
One more time.
CLANG—!
Two times.
Three times.
Four times.
Only then did the bedrock begin to break little by little.
Jin-woo caught his breath and roughly scanned the fragment size and the way they fell with his eyes.
‘The fragments are large and uneven.’
Rough.
It led to fatigue.
This time, Jin-woo picked up the new pickaxe.
Refined iron.
D+.
And +1.
CLANG—!
The depth it bit in was different from the very first strike.
The recoil decreased, and the force did not “bounce.”
One more time.
CLANG—!
Two times.
The bedrock split apart in a chunk with a ‘CRACK.’
The fragments scattered smaller and more regularly.
Jin-woo raised his eyebrows faintly.
“Speed Enhancement… was a method that ground my body down.”
This one was different.
“Efficiency” finished the work on the tool’s side, not the body’s.
Even with the same motion, the result changed.
[Measurement result estimate.]
[Mining output over identical time: approximately 1.22x.]
[Fatigue accumulation: reduced to approximately 0.83x.]
Jin-woo laughed briefly.
The conclusion was clear.
“Life… really is all about gear.”
He spat it out like self-mockery, but in truth, it was close to sincerity.
Surviving in the Tower was not possible through willpower or grit alone.
When the tool changed, the difficulty of life itself changed.
And right now, Jin-woo had begun to grasp a way to “lower” that difficulty.
That was when it happened.
Jin-woo’s ears tingled faintly.
For one very short instant, a resonance of a completely different kind from the “mechanical noise” he had been hearing inside the Magic Tower brushed past him.
“…Just now.”
He stopped the pickaxe and slowly turned his head.
The far side of the mine passage.
In the darkness, dust scattered “once.”
Wind… did not enter this mine.
[Caution.]
[External vibration detected.]
[Mine wall resonance value rising. Collapse risk increasing.]
Lumina’s report followed.
Jin-woo wiped the expression from his face.
The moment he felt things were “not bad,” the Tower always sent a signal like this.
Jin-woo gripped the pickaxe tightly again.
His condition was not bad.
But—
The Tower always broke the moment he started thinking, ‘This isn’t bad.’
***
《DAY -15 ended.》
《Survival EXP accumulates.》
It had already been fifteen days since the Regression.
Jin-woo had not rested for even a single day.
He filled his hunger with compressed nutrition blocks, stopped by the purification device, and went down to the mine.
CLANG-!
CLANG-!
Thirty-five Mana Stones again today.
Thanks to the Refined Iron Pickaxe, there were no moments where his breath seized in his throat like before.
The fatigue had decreased.
Instead, his work speed had clearly increased.
“We have enough Mana Stones.”
[Activate the Transmutation Core device?]
Lumina asked.
This, too, was part of his daily routine.
The Transmutation Core device could be used once a day.
And it could only refine a small amount of 500 g.
“Yeah. I have to keep stockpiling high-quality Mana Stone powder.”
Mana Stone powder went into all sorts of things.
Circuits, magic circles, device reinforcement.
Potions and medicine, too.
‘It has a lot of uses.’
That was why he needed to collect it whenever he had the chance.
[Transmutation Core Magic Engineering device activated.]
[Refinement complete.]
[Material loss rate: 15%.]
“Good. I need to keep saving this too.”
Jin-woo put the Mana Stone powder into a container.
Now, what remained was repairing the Magic Tower.
Since it would become his survival base from now on, he was clearing and organizing the passage areas.
And if there was anything broken, he was fixing it.
“Where is it today?”
[A-1 side.]
[Repair Rate: 45%.]
Names like A-1 were ones he had assigned arbitrarily.
He had to divide the areas up so it would be convenient to check them later.
“Let’s go.”
Jin-woo moved toward A-1.
A passage connected to the Main Room.
Jin-woo stopped for a moment in front of the passage.
The wall had not collapsed, but there were cracks here and there, and the floor had sunk slightly as well.
There was no major problem with passing through, but leaving it as it was bothered him more than a little.
“It’s not major damage.”
It was exactly at the level of “repair.”
Jin-woo set down the pickaxe and took out his hand tools.
He worked on the floor first.
After he removed the lifted stonework and filled the cracks, the faint shaking he had felt beneath his feet disappeared.
Next was the wall.
Jin-woo knocked on the wall, then noticed that the sound resonated differently at a certain point.
“The inside is hollow here.”
He carefully tore away part of the outer wall.
Inside, an old magic circuit was exposed.
It had not been severed, but the magic circuit was tangled, and the flow was not steady either.
Jin-woo examined the circuit for a moment.
He had no memories of directly working on the Magic Tower before the Regression, but his sense for handling Mana Stones remained intact.
“The flow is leaking a little.”
He organized the circuit.
He untangled the unnecessarily twisted parts and aligned the worn contact points again.
When he used only a very small amount of Mana Stone powder to fill the gaps, the circuit gave off a stable light.
At that moment.
[A-1 passage area, magic circuit stabilization confirmed.]
[Magic Tower Energy Efficiency increased.]
[Energy loss rate slightly decreased.]
It was Lumina’s report.
“It raises efficiency too.”
Jin-woo covered the wall back up and smoothed out the surface.
There was no visible change.
But the air flowing along the passage felt much smoother than before.
Then-
Ding!
《Magic Tower Stability: 38%》
《Maintaining》
The Magic Tower Stability appeared.
He had repaired the Magic Tower, but it was not enough to raise its Stability.
“This much is fine.”
It was not as if he had fixed anything major.
He had merely organized, refined, and corrected the flow.
This Magic Tower would become the survival base that was his everything from now on.
A single minor repair might someday draw the line between life and death.
He checked the next area and quietly moved on.
***
Jin-woo spent a long time organizing the passage.
In the process, he naturally got a feel for the Magic Tower.
Then he found a barrier wall.
It had been lowered.
“Lumina. Can’t this barrier wall move?”
[Impossible.]
[Entry-authorized Grade: Temporary Administrator (B)]
Lumina’s brief answer came back.
Jin-woo’s current Grade was C.
That meant he had to be at least B to move this barrier wall and go beyond it.
“I’m going to have to raise my Grade just so I stop feeling so pathetic.”
[Grade increase recommended.]
[Grade increase directly linked to increased survival.]
“I know that, okay?”
His Grade had to rise before the number of things he could do in the Magic Tower increased.
The problem was that he still could not grasp the standard for that “increase.”
D to C.
He had gone up one stage, but the effect he felt was not large.
His work had become a little easier, and a few functions had stabilized.
‘So… what changed?’
Jin-woo looked at the door beside the barrier wall.
“Then what about this door?”
[Checking….]
[Entry possible.]
[Temporary Administrator (C) Authority satisfied.]
A short silence.
Jin-woo’s eyebrows rose faintly.
“…So if I’m C-grade, this opens.”
He examined the pattern above the door.
It was Arcanist’s language.
[Translation: Alchemy Room]
“Alchemy Room?”
[Affirmative.]
[Primary facility where the Arcanist used alchemy.]
In that instant, Jin-woo’s gaze changed slightly.
The Arcanist.
That name belonged to the kind of level that “made one’s breathing grow cautious on its own.”
If this was an alchemy facility used by them, there was no way it was a simple workspace.
“……I see. C is for ‘work facilities,’ and B is for ‘sealed zones.’”
After murmuring briefly, Jin-woo spoke.
“Open it.”
[Opening.]
RUMBLE—
The door slowly opened with a heavy vibration.
In that instant, along with the smell of aged herbs, completely different air flowed out.
“…An alchemy facility.”
Jin-woo stopped speaking for a moment.
The air was different.
This was not a simple workshop.
‘The moment I touch it, it’s over.’
His instinct sent the warning first.