The next morning.
Ever since awakening, there was something I had to do every time I woke up.
Shake off the drowsiness and enter the Tower.
There was no need to even read the System messages anymore.
"I'm counting on you."
Those few words were enough.
Fire climbed above me and stretched out his hand.
The 4th Floor darkened.
A moment later, an enormous meteor swallowed the entire floor.
[Fire(EX)'s possessed skill, 'Meteor(EX),' activates.]
KABOOOOOOOOOM!!
Then all I had to do was head toward the destination.
[You have cleared the 4th Floor of the Trial Tower!]
[Monster: 3,000/3,000]
[Destination: 1/1]
[You have annihilated every trap on the 4th Floor of the Trial Tower!]
[You have defeated every monster on the 4th Floor of the Trial Tower!]
[A new record has been achieved!]
[The Trial Tower 4th Floor World Ranking has been updated to Rank 1!]
[Clear Time: 12 seconds]
[You have succeeded in overwhelmingly clearing the 4th Floor of the Trial Tower!]
[Stealth Goblin's Cloak × 235 has been awarded!]
[Stealth Goblin's Quiet Boots × 124 has been awarded!]
[Stealth Goblin's Worn Dagger × 198 has been awarded!]
[Stealth Goblin's Poison Needle × 209 has been awarded!]
[Lowest-Rank Mana Stone(F) × 156 acquired!]
[Low-Rank Mana Stone(E) × 103 acquired!]
[Lower-Intermediate-Rank Mana Stone(D) × 23 acquired!]
[Intermediate-Rank Mana Stone(C) × 3 acquired!]
[Upper-Intermediate-Rank Mana Stone(B) × 1 acquired!]
"Now that's a satisfying way to start the morning."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says he's finished his work, so you should give him a Mana Stone immediately!]
"Here! Have a B-Rank one."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) shouts, 'Amazing!' as he snatches the Mana Stone!]
Despite how much he had eaten yesterday, he apparently still felt hungry.
The moment he snatched it away, he began devouring it at an incredible pace.
I started preparing breakfast for myself as well.
"We had Korean food for dinner yesterday, so let's have Western food today."
Steak and asparagus.
Was meat first thing in the morning too excessive?
Not at all.
"You need meat in the morning if you want energy."
I poured olive oil into a pan and placed a T-bone steak seasoned with salt and pepper on it.
SIZZLE!
The rich aroma spread throughout the studio apartment.
Fire immediately reacted to the smell of meat.
I had expected that, so I had already prepared three extra steaks.
After evenly searing every side of the T-bone steaks, I added garlic.
Once the meat was almost done, I added butter to finish them.
Then I grilled the asparagus in the remaining oil.
As for the taste—
"Ahhh."
It was incredible.
T-bone steak in a tiny studio apartment.
Was there anyone living alone who was happier than me?
Perhaps because there were so many Mana Stones available, Fire only took two steaks.
It looked like I could enjoy breakfast at a leisurely pace today.
While slowly chewing the tender steak, I logged into the Awakened Community.
The Awakened Community.
As the name implied, it was a community exclusively for Awakened people, accessible only after proving one's awakened status.
It contained all kinds of information, which made it popular among Awakened people across the world.
There was plenty of casual chatter too, but every popular post seemed to be discussing the same subject.
The overwhelmingly dominant new Rank 1.
Namely—
"That's me?"
At this point, it would have been stranger if I had not become famous.
I had achieved results so overwhelming that no one else had ever come close.
Of course people would be interested.
One post in particular caught my attention.
It claimed my records were nothing but inflated achievements against trivial low-floor content and asked why everyone was making such a fuss.
I casually ignored it.
I had my own work to do.
Besides, no one even knew who I was.
There was nothing for me to worry about.
From among the countless categories, I selected the materials section.
Then I searched for Burning Stonewood and Blazing Cotton.
A flood of posts appeared, and among them I found a useful Korean-language information post.
<Summary of Material Farming Areas in South Korea> (Recommendations: 7,664,780)
Burning Stonewood (Gwanaksan Gates, Gwanaksan vicinity) — 250,000 won each
Blazing Cotton (Gwanaksan Gates, Gwanaksan vicinity) — 500,000 won each
…….
…….
Material farming is difficult, so buying them is recommended whenever possible.
Many people need these materials to strengthen their Traits, so large quantities are also available in Namdaemun.
However, market prices rise every day, so keep that in mind.
"Another mountain."
At least I now knew where to go.
I could simply head there, but the final line bothered me.
'Buying them is recommended.'
I would not know how difficult farming was until I tried it myself.
Still, the post had an enormous number of recommendations, so there had to be some truth to it.
I checked the current market prices.
The Awakened Community displayed daily material prices as well.
That meant I did not need to go all the way to Namdaemun just to check.
The moment I saw the current prices, I froze.
[Burning Stonewood: 960,000 won]
[Blazing Cotton: 1,420,000 won]
"I need forty pieces of Stonewood and five pieces of Cotton right now, so..."
-That would be 38.4 million won and 7.1 million won respectively, for a total of 45.5 million won, Human.
"……."
Money really was the root of all evil.
I had no choice but to gather them myself.
"How the hell did the prices multiply this much? This information post is only a year old."
Grumbling, I looked up how to farm the materials.
The method itself was not complicated.
A sturdy, durable axe and protective equipment capable of withstanding intense heat.
Those two things were absolutely essential.
Burning Stonewood was extremely hard, and both materials emitted fierce heat.
Everything else was optional.
"Spirit-Blessed Body should be enough to withstand the heat, right?"
-It is possible. With that skill, the heat will pose no problem.
"Do I need to get an axe? Fire, can you control Meteor the way you made Hellfire smaller before?"
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) thinks for a moment, then nods and shouts, 'Of course!']
That settled it.
I could save the cost of both an axe and protective equipment.
Fire said he could protect my clothes as well.
He might normally be a mischievous little troublemaker, but he really was the King of Fire Spirits.
And thanks to the Spirit Shelter, even the Mana-intensive Meteor would not be a problem.
"Then I can head straight to Gwanaksan."
My preparations were complete.
But when it came to preparation, more was always better.
"I should get another skill before I go. Here, a Spirit Stone."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) charges toward the Spirit Stone he has been waiting exactly 24 hours and 7 seconds to eat!]
"You actually counted every second?"
Once he finished eating it, System messages appeared.
[Lowest-Rank Fire Spirit Stone(C-) consumed!]
[Hunger fills 1.2 times faster than usual!]
[Hunger depletion is reduced by 1.3 times compared to normal!]
[Duration: 24 hours!]
[Hunger has reached 32,000!]
[Fire(EX)'s Level increases by 1!]
❰Fire(EX) Lv. 7❱
❰Possessed Skills: Hellfire(EX), Meteor(EX)❱
❰Hunger: (0/64,000)❱
……A new skill will be unlocked upon reaching Lv. 10
……Lee Chanyoung will unlock a new skill upon reaching 64,000 Hunger
I had thought I would not reach the requirement until tomorrow at the earliest.
It was all thanks to the Spirit Stone buff and the Hunger it restored.
I only had one Spirit Stone left.
I should obtain a few more today or tomorrow.
'With Spirit Stone Detection, there's no need to stockpile too many at once. More importantly, what's the new skill?'
[Successfully reached 32,000 Hunger.]
[Skill, 'Earth Spirit's Protection(C+),' acquired!]
<Earth Spirit's Protection(C+)>
Description: The earth, acting under the command of an Earth Spirit, will protect you at all times and retaliate against attacks.
I already had more offensive power than I knew what to do with.
Defense, however, had been lacking.
Yesterday's Gate had made that painfully clear.
"Now I can go without worrying."
My meal ended just as I obtained the skill.
I hurriedly got dressed.
Gwanaksan was apparently a popular spot because fire-related materials appeared there.
There were many Awakened but comparatively few Gates.
Even though plenty of materials appeared, they would quickly disappear when so many Awakened were competing for them.
On top of that, I could currently enter only F-Rank Gates.
For something like this, speed was everything.
I even took a taxi today and hurried over.
"Made it!"
It was 8:30 a.m.
There were fewer people at Gwanaksan than I had expected.
It was not empty, but the place felt much less crowded than I had imagined.
It should not be difficult to gather everything I needed.
'I just start from the entrance and keep searching as I work my way up, right?'
Perhaps because I had eaten steak for breakfast, I felt full of energy.
As I prepared to enter, several people nearby stared at me as though I were insane.
"Is that guy completely crazy? He's going into Gwanaksan without wearing any equipment at all?"
"Doesn't he know Gwanaksan has become a fire terrain? Shouldn't someone stop him before he goes in?"
"Leave him alone. Why bother? He'll come running back on his own once it gets too hot."
Even with Veil of Darkness active, my conspicuous lack of equipment still drew attention.
Their concern was unnecessary.
Spirit-Blessed Body protected me from the heat.
And once Fire stepped in to protect my clothes and shoes as well—
[Fire(EX)'s Blessing permeates your entire body!]
[Fire(EX) perfectly protects you from the heat.]
I could not even feel that it was hot.
My breathing and movements felt no different from usual.
If anything, I strangely felt better than normal.
Fire in particular was having the time of his life, like a fish finally returned to water.
-Waaah! Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) repeatedly shouts that Gwanaksan is an incredible place!]
[Fire(EX) says he's extremely, extremely happy!]
[Fire(EX) asks whether he can run around and play here!]
I only managed to calm him down after promising that I would let him play once we finished gathering the materials.
I even had to give him a higher-ranked Mana Stone.
It did not take long to find Burning Stonewood near the entrance.
It was only about the size of a sapling, but the heat radiating from it was no joke.
I did not need to harvest it myself.
Fire came out and extended his hand.
A tiny patch of outer space appeared right beside the tree trunk.
A miniature meteor shot out of it and cleanly severed the trunk.
[Fire(EX)'s possessed skill, 'Meteor(EX),' activates.]
CRACK!
-Waaah?
[Fire(EX) asks whether this is what you wanted.]
"Yeah. Perfect. Keep doing it like that."
Blazing Cotton was even easier.
I simply plucked it by hand and placed it into my Inventory.
It worked just like gathering things inside a Gate.
Finding the materials was equally simple.
Nature's Eyes automatically revealed all their locations.
Fire helped too.
All I had to do was walk over, pick everything up, and store it in my Inventory.
'This is going to be much faster than I expected.'
I had apparently worried too much.
There was nothing left near the entrance, and I had just reached the middle of the mountain when—
"There it is. Looks like there are more farther up—?!"
"KIEEEEK!"
A monster's shriek came from directly behind me.
Whether something emerged from the ground or fell from the sky, I had Nature's Eyes and Spirit-Blessed Body.
There was no way I should have failed to react.
I did not have time to dwell on it.
I was about to turn around when one of my skills reacted first.
The ground surged upward.
CRUNCH!
It crushed the monster to death on the spot.
[Earth Spirit's Protection(C+) has protected you from a monster's attack.]
That startled me.
Come to think of it, I had briefly forgotten while focusing on gathering materials.
'Monsters appear here too.'
As the surrounding area of Gwanaksan had transformed into a fire terrain, monsters now spawned randomly throughout the mountain.
Fire Slimes.
The monsters themselves were not particularly strong.
The only attack they knew was a body slam.
Still, getting rammed on a mountain like this could be dangerous.
Fortunately, I had Earth Spirit's Protection.
Maybe I should stay near the outskirts instead of going deeper.
Monsters rarely appeared there.
That thought lasted only a moment.
My gaze fell on the dead Fire Slime.
Its corpse vanished, leaving behind a murky blue stone.
I recognized it immediately.
'An F-Rank Mana Stone?!'
There was no reason to stay on the outskirts.
Earth Spirit's Protection would kill the monsters for me anyway.
That meant I could kill two birds with one stone.
Why would I pass up an opportunity like that?
I had originally planned to finish quickly and head to a Gate afterward.
But—
'That changes everything.'
I headed deeper into Gwanaksan.
At the entrance to Gwanaksan—
A group of veterans were preparing to enter while wearing protective equipment.
Everything was the same as usual.
They repeatedly checked their protective gear for problems and constantly monitored their physical condition.
Safety checks were essential when dealing with dangerous work like this.
The only slight change came just as they were about to enter.
"Hey, Mr. Kim! Did you hear about the crazy bastard who went in about thirty minutes ago?"
"Crazy bastard? What's that supposed to mean?"
"For some reason I can't remember his face, but this lunatic went in wearing nothing but ordinary clothes. He still hasn't come back. Think we're going to have to retrieve a corpse?"
"Retrieve what corpse? The Fire Slimes will probably burn it to ashes before that."
They paid it little attention.
It was not as though crazy people like that were rare.
He was merely a minor disturbance.
A nuisance muddying otherwise calm waters.
He seemed to possess some special Trait or skill that granted fire resistance, but—
'He'll come running back soon enough once the temperature gets too high. There's a reason even Awakened like us wear protective equipment.'
With those thoughts, they entered Gwanaksan.
Then they could only doubt their own eyes.
The materials regenerated little by little every day.
There should have been scattered materials visible here and there.
But there was nothing.
Even after searching for hours.
Even after venturing deep into the mountain.
All they found were traces where someone had cut down or plucked everything before them.
Faced with a situation none of them had ever experienced, the entire group froze in place.