The Goblin Shaman had three patterns.
The Berserk Hex, which robbed its targets of their reason and strengthened their bodies.
The Paralysis Hex, which made an opponent’s body stiffen.
And the Protection Hex, which enveloped its entire body.
“Most players focus on breaking this barrier when they face a shaman.”
They think the rest of the goblins are just small fry anyway, and believe that the battle will be over once they bring down the shaman.
The problem was….
The powerful shockwave that burst out the moment the barrier broke.
That wave pushed back players on all sides, and in that split second, the shaman activated the Berserk Hex.
What’s more, it could even be stacked.
Goblins that had been mere small fry transformed, one by one, into monsters rivaling orcs.
And what came next was obvious.
Most parties were wiped out in an instant.
“But that only happens to people who don’t know better.”
I was a regressor.
I had killed dozens of goblin shamans, if not more.
Binding its hexes, then slaughtering every spearman and shieldbearer first.
Only then would the variables in this battle disappear.
<Krarararara!!>
“Barking so noisily.”
SHLICK—
The one remaining ordinary monster.
I pulled my spear out of its torso.
[You have leveled up.]
60 spearmen, 40 shieldbearers.
Now all that remained was a single shaman, trapped inside the barrier it had made itself.
“The haul’s better than I thought. Plenty of mana stones dropped, and I gained plenty of levels too. Elites really are a honey pot.”
[Status Window]
Seo Kang-yul. Lv.15
Unique Ability: Curse of Repose
Skills: Mana, Lesser Regeneration
Strength: 16
Agility: 7
Vitality: 20
Mana: 20
Free Stats: 25
“4 into Strength, 8 into Agility, and all the rest into Mana.”
[Strength: 16 → 20]
[Agility: 7 → 15]
[Mana: 20 → 33]
Step— Step—
Having finished distributing my stats, I slowly approached the goblin shaman that had been left all alone.
Its kin had been sliced to pieces until just a moment ago.
Its rage over that must have reached its peak.
<Krara!!>
“I’ve tested the weapon plenty. Now, shall I give that a try?”
Upward slashes, horizontal slashes, and so on.
Basic movements like these aren’t registered as skills.
However, when a technique reaches a certain level.
The System can recognize it as the player’s own and register it as a skill.
“Sssp—”
I inhaled deeply.
The mana surging up from within my heart spread through my entire body along my blood vessels.
As though I were circulating fire instead of blood, my whole body grew hot.
Stomp—
I stepped my left foot half a step forward.
As my center of gravity shifted forward, my right leg kicked hard off the ground, creating explosive propulsion.
My waist and shoulders rotated at the same time, and the muscles in my arm drew taut like a bowstring.
In that moment.
Mana condensed in my arm and weapon.
The pressure bore down heavily, as if it would tear my flesh and crush my bones.
It felt as though my lungs were contracting and my breath was being suppressed.
But this was only the beginning.
“Haaaaa—!”
Hurling my body forward, I released the mana explosively.
With a subtle twist of my wrist, the spear’s tip shot forward in a thrust.
Its trajectory tore through the air with a roar.
KWAAAAAAAK——!
<Kerrrrrk!>
CRACKLE—!!
The moment the barrier broke, the light twisted and a shockwave burst out.
As soon as the blue fragments scattered, it spewed out hexes like mad.
<Keraaaaack!!!>
Red patterns flashing in the air.
It spammed the Berserk Hex, stacking it again and again.
Then its body swelled up to nearly 5m in an instant.
Its flesh stretched taut, its muscles bulged, and its leather armor tore helplessly apart.
“It’s not over yet!”
Keeping my left foot planted, I twisted my shoulder, elbow, and wrist hard all at once, adding rotational force.
The spearhead drove forward like a giant spiral, tearing through everything ahead.
I poured every last bit of my remaining mana from my heart to the tip of the spear.
KABOOOOOOM——!!!
With an explosion that tore through the air, the spear’s tip pierced its chest.
In an instant, a huge void formed in the center of the giant goblin shaman’s torso.
Dark red blood and fragments scattered out behind it, and it staggered while still standing.
Shaaa—
Dust shot up, and wind swept in like an aftershock.
Breath burst from my throat.
Pain and pressure transmitted throughout my entire body.
As if my body had completely exceeded the limit it could handle just a moment ago.
Its gaze slowly went blank.
Its giant body held on for a moment, still standing tall, and then.
THOOOM—
It toppled backward and collapsed.
“Khuk!”
A hot metallic taste spread throughout my mouth.
With a cough that shook my throat, bright red blood splattered on the ground.
My whole body was heavy.
The moment I had twisted my body at the end to add rotational force.
My shoulder joint had dislocated with a sound like something snapping.
“Guess it was still too much for me. But this much….”
Swish—
I shifted my gaze to where it had fallen.
After the spear had passed, the wave of compressed mana had shot straight out behind it.
The earth behind it was deeply gouged, and radial cracks spread in all directions.
“A pretty satisfying result.”
Transix’s weight slipped away from my fingertips.
The spearhead crumbled like faint mist and was absorbed into my right hand, which bore the black pattern.
The mark glowed red briefly, then hid its light again.
DING—
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have achieved the conditions.]
[An Original Skill is being created.]
“I’ve made a few for the sword before, but this is my first time with a spear.”
My chest thumped.
A new window was drawn before my eyes, like a single sentence.
A strike of my very own, newly perfected based on all my experience so far.
[Please register a name.]
An attack that broke through the opponent’s guard with the first strike, then added rotation to the second strike to grind everything ahead to pieces.
“Pulverize.”
[Seo Kang-yul’s Original Skill ‘Pulverize’ has been created.]
[Pulverize]
-Grade: Original
-Advances with the lower body firmly planted, destroying the opponent’s defense with the first strike.
-Then forcefully rotates the shoulder·elbow·wrist to load explosive rotational force into the spear’s tip, grinding the target to pieces.
“My first Original Skill has always been for the sword, but this life, it’s a spear. Feels fresh.”
DING—
[You have defeated the Guardian Goblin Shaman.]
[The standard reward was not granted.]
[The rewards will be combined and granted.]
[C-rank Active Skill ‘Hex of Rage’ has been granted.]
“Huh? A hex? And isn’t this an inferior version of the hex the goblin shaman uses?”
C-rank was a rank you could only get in dribs and drabs from the Tower’s 10th floor onward, at the earliest.
What’s more, the Hex of Rage could cover my currently lacking physical abilities.
“Never thought it’d give me a hex as a reward.”
***
[Notice: A Guardian has appeared on the 2nd floor.]
“What? A Guardian?”
“Some dumb bastard must’ve gotten greedy.”
“Greedy how? The conditions for a Guardian spawning still haven’t been clearly revealed.”
“You even went to Player School, and you don’t know that?”
It hadn’t been clearly revealed.
After all, no one had ever survived in a place where a Guardian had been created.
But one thing could be inferred from the victims.
“Overwhelming skill. The Tower cleans up monsters that don’t belong on that floor.”
“The last time a Guardian showed up was already three years ago. A player who had climbed up to the 10th floor was grinding exp on the 2nd.”
“So what happened?”
“What do you think happened? He croaked, obviously!”
“He was an elite raised by a famous guild, but he got greedy for nothing and died.”
“What good is talent? You just croak like that—bam! This is why Korea doesn’t have any world rankers.”
“Aw, come on, they might still be the first in the world to kill a Guardian.”
“Pwahahaha! I don’t know who it is, but if that bastard makes it out alive, I’ll take off my pants, do a handstand, and walk a lap around the lobby.”
“Ugh! What kind of pledge is that? What are you going to do if they actually come out?”
“That’s how impossible it is. Nobody in the whole world has ever pulled it off.”
Realistically, it was impossible.
I had seen notices of Guardians appearing several times in the past.
But I had never once seen a message saying one had been dealt with.
“What a shame. Just summoning a Guardian means they have overwhelming skill, and they go and die on a mere 2nd floor.”
Murmuring could be heard from all around as well.
All of Korea’s players had probably received the same notice.
“Hey, Mr. Kim! If you’re all set, let’s get going.”
“Very well.”
DING—
[Notice: The Guardian of the 2nd floor has been eliminated.]
[Notice: A Guardian has been killed for the first time in the world on the 2nd floor of the Korea Tower.]
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
“Whoa! It’s dead! The Guardian’s been killed!”
“Insane, what the hell is—”
Something unbelievable had happened.
Notices had come down only twice before this.
Both times had been at the end of a Tower season.
“What kind of person could it be? If a Guardian showed up on the 2nd floor, it means they’re not a ranker yet….”
An absurd, insane monster had been born.
At the same time, word spread nationwide.
“Well, well. The Player Association’s going to be pretty busy from here on. The rankers and guilds will go nuts trying to find the star of that notice.”
“Huh? But it was only the 2nd floor? If they’d killed a higher-floor Guardian, maybe.”
That was the talk of someone who knew nothing.
Five years ago, an experiment targeting Guardians had been carried out in China.
Dozens of rankers had been deployed for it alone.
But none of them made it back alive.
Why, a ranker in the late 30s floors had even died to a mere 4th-floor Guardian.
“A monster has appeared in Korea.”
“Huh? Come to think of it, didn’t someone make a pledge earlier?”
“Right. Huh? It’s that guy!”
***
-Breaking news. In the Tower lobby, a man has taken off his pants and done a handstand—
“What’s that now? Did he lose it while climbing?”
I had no idea what was going on, but since it had nothing to do with me, I turned off the TV.
“A notice pops up just for killing one Guardian. It didn’t pop up back when I killed a dragon for the first time. You bastard of a System.”
The whole world was in an uproar.
All kinds of news was being broadcast on TV, and large guilds, the Association, and so on.
Countless organizations were desperately searching for someone.
“Of course, there’s no need to reveal myself yet. They’d just pester me for nothing.”
The most desperate was probably the Association.
The agency that controlled Korea’s players knew nothing about this incident, so it would be scrambling very busily.
“This isn’t the time to focus on stuff like that. I’ve only just cleared the 2nd floor.”
The 1st floor, Chaos Difficulty.
The 2nd floor, a Guardian kill.
Because of these, I had achieved growth on a different level from other players.
But I couldn’t keep doing things this way from here on.
‘If it had been something other than a goblin shaman, whether I could’ve killed it is anyone’s guess.’
The goblin shaman was on the weak side for a Guardian.
It was a monster that could be dealt with easily, as long as you knew how to handle it in the first place.
“Of course, the 2nd floor is goblin territory, so I naturally predicted that thing would show up, but for other floors, you never know.”
With my fingertips, I tidied up the maps and notes scattered across the desk.
The things I absolutely had to obtain going forward, and the floors where they could be found.
I had jotted down every bit of information in dense detail.
‘On the 3rd floor, avoid the traps and reach the destination within the time limit. Nothing to worry about there….’
I had already figured out all the patterns, and unlike combat, traps had no variables.
I had been in and out of there hundreds of times, so I could get through with my eyes closed.
“As I remember it, the 4th floor was a Joint Mission. That’s a bit of a variable.”
The 4th-floor Joint Mission.
A mission carried out by three players as a team, safely transporting cargo to a destination.
“Wonder who I’ll end up with this time….”
The memories came vividly to mind.
The Joint Mission.
The Tower always grouped a strong, a middle, and a weak player into one team, supposedly to keep things balanced.
And by that standard, I was always the strong one.
‘The mission’s difficulty changes depending on how strong I’ve become.’
Over my repeated regressions, I had carried out this mission with different faces every time.
In some runs, I got quick-witted comrades who worked well with me, and we finished smoothly,
but in other runs, with bad luck, I ended up on a team with an actual criminal.
And the previous run.
Of all things, I got stuck with a lunatic.
That bastard showed his true colors the moment the mission began.
“That was truly ridiculous back then.”
While we were dividing roles at the entrance, that bastard suddenly drew a knife and went for my side.
Naturally, I dodged it easily and twisted his neck.
The sight of his blood splattering and spreading across the carriage cover is still vivid before my eyes.
‘Joint Missions are always a pain in the ass.’
Murder for rewards isn’t uncommon in this Tower.
And it’s only right to answer murder with murder.
In the Tower, at least.
“Hope I get someone a little less exhausting this time….”