[Lee Taeyeon [Solo]]: Uh…

[Kang Jun-hyuk [Solo]]: I’m not sure about this… Is this correct?

[Kang Taesan [Solo]]: I’m telling you because it’s correct.

[Lee Taeyeon [Solo]]: Hmm. I don’t know. Every time we talk about conditions for acquiring skills, I think it’s crazy, but this seems too much.

The shopkeeper watching them sent a puzzled look.

“Anyway, it’s unexpected. I thought you would save up more money before buying.”

“I need to prepare.”

If he recalled his second return, going now would be sufficient. He could handle it alone without any injuries.

But that wouldn’t be the case.

So, he had to prepare.

Taesan wrapped the whip around his arm and descended the floors.

‘It should be around here.’

He wanted to acquire something before leaving.

Upon entering the 25th floor, a black spirit appeared.

[The Desolate Spirit has appeared.]

“What’s this now?”

The sphere-like spirit charged at Taesan. The whip wrapped around his arm struck down at the spirit.

Taesan was intrigued by the self-acting wrist guard.

“This is good.”

For other players, it might be a drawback. A mere 25 damage acting on its own. But for Taesan, who possessed the Eye-rock Martial Techniques, it was a great boon—an automatically moving tool with an attack power of 175.

He’d have to test various things, but it was certainly a good weapon for him.

The spirit, struck by the whip, flew back.

Squish.

However, no damage window appeared. Instead, the body of the spirit split.

“Huh?”

Taesan’s eyes widened.

The spirit split into two.

[The Desolate Spirit has appeared.]

[Desolate Spirit 2 has appeared.]

“Division?”

[Desolate Spirit. A spirit undefined in form and without mass.]

The spirit calmly explained.

[It doesn’t take damage from the first attack and divides. Once it divides, there’s a cooldown. You have to defeat it during that time. Normally, it’s a nuisance, but it’s nothing for you, right?]

If not captured within a certain time, it would divide again. Clearly, it was a troublesome monster, but with Taesan’s current stats, it was no problem.

Yet, Taesan smiled.

“Bingo.”

Lee Taeyeon had told him a lot, including about the dividing spirit.

He’d mostly ignored most of what she said, but he remembered this information well.

One reason: It would make it much easier to acquire.

“A week. Is it possible?”

Taesan muttered to himself and simply waited, dodging the spirits’ attacks without countering.

“How long is the cooldown?”

[Uhh… 3 minutes?]

“That’s worth waiting.”

Taesan waited while blocking and dodging. After 3 minutes, he swung his sword.

Squish.

The two spirits split. Four spirits appeared in the room.

He dodged the spirits’ simultaneous attacks again.

And 3 minutes passed. Taesan waved his arm. The whip cracked sharply, pounding the spirits.

Eight spirits filled the room.

He repeated the process. Dodging and when the cooldown ended, he struck. Sixteen appeared. Too many to dodge, so he used a forced duel to buy time.

[There’s a lot of them.]

“I guess this should be enough.”

Eventually, over a hundred spirits filled the room, tightly packed with no room to move.

[What are you doing this for?]

The spirit was puzzled.

[You’re doing this to create a skill, right?]

“You know well.”

[I guess it’s about time to make one.]

The spirit sounded nonchalant, having seen it several times before, and curiously asked.

[So, what skill are you trying to create?]

The spirit had watched the process of acquiring forced duel and attack nullification skills in real-time. Even for the spirit, the preparation process was hard to understand.

“Add-On.”

[Add-On?]

“Double the attack power.”

[What? Is it an enhanced version of Add? Sounds like a good skill.]

The spirit asked in an interested voice.

[So, what’s the condition?]

The spirit thought that Add-On would naturally add basic attack power or be unaffected by other skills. Considering the strength, a natural penalty was expected, yet it was still a good skill.

Taesan replied.

“There isn’t one.”

[What?]

The spirit paused.

[No conditions?]

“Exactly double. The damage always doubles.”

[…Always?]

“Always.”

[That’s insane.]

The spirit was astonished. It was a statement worthy of astonishment.

[What kind of skill is that?]

Add provided half of the basic attack power, adding half the displayed attack power in the stats window.

It didn’t apply to attack buffs, critical hits, or vital hits.

But even though it was such a skill, Add was a favorite among Hard Mode players, a good attack power increase skill.

However, Add-On doubled the inflicted damage.

Vital hits, strong strikes, consecutive attacks, and numerous other attack power buff skills and conditions.

It doubled them all. The difference between Add and Add-On was embarrassingly large.

[People struggle without even Add, and you say it always doubles? What kind of skill is that?]

The spirit spoke in an astonished tone.

[Just looking at the numbers, it sounds twice as strong as before, right?]

“That’s right.”

[Huh.]

The spirit was astounded. Like the skills before, Add-On went even further. It was a skill that, if someone else had mentioned, they would have been laughed at for talking nonsense.

And naturally, a question arose.

[…How do you learn such a skill?]

There were conditions for acquiring skills. The most common condition was to emulate the effects of the skill.

[Don’t tell me you have to create damage that’s twice the attack power? Isn’t that impossible even with vital hits or strong strikes?]

“It’s not that simple. If you use an attack power increase skill, Add-On won’t be learned.”

If that were possible, every Tom, Dick, and Harry would be learning Add-On. But no one except Lee Taeyeon had learned it.

[Then how do you learn it?]

“Perseverance skill.”

[Huh?]

“Remember the skill we learned with Scouting?”

[…Ah. The skill that increases efficiency through repetitive action?]

The spirit recalled belatedly. At the time, it had only been interested in Scouting, not placing much value on Perseverance.

[That’s how you get Add-On? I don’t understand.]

“You’ll see.”

Taesan swung his sword. The spirit in front of him was cut in half.

[Desolate Spirit 102 took 243 damage.]

Because it was a dividing monster, its health was quite low. When one spirit died, another thrust its torso forward.

Taesan did not dodge. He didn’t move his feet back or change his posture.

He steadied his breath and used all his muscles to strike the same upright position as before.

[Desolate Spirit 100 took 244 damage.]

The spirits attacked. Taesan kept his posture unchanged and just swung his sword down.

[Dark Spirit 95 took 245 damage.]

[Desolate Spirit 53 took 247 damage.]

[Huh?]

The spirit realized.

[The damage is… rising slightly?]

The effect of Perseverance is simple. Efficiency increases with repetitive action.

Here, efficiency included damage as well.

[I think you have to pull out twice the damage this way, right?]

Instead of answering, Taesan swung his sword again.

[Dark Spirit 12 took 249 damage.]

The spirit was convinced.

[Right.]

Taesan continued to swing his sword. With each swing, the damage slightly increased.

Perseverance required, and hundreds of enemies had to be present to obtain the skill.

That was Add-On.

The condition itself wasn’t that hard. Perseverance involved mind-numbing repetitive actions but could be learned without special constraints, and in the labyrinth’s many floors, hundreds of enemies were a common occurrence.

But even with the right conditions, Add-On was a hard skill to learn.

The spirit lunged at Taesan. Like before, he just swung his sword down.

And before Taesan could reset his posture, another spirit charged.

Taesan raised his sword and swung it down again. There was a difference in speed from before, slight but distinct.

[Desolate Spirit 44 took 243 damage.]

The damage returned to what it had been at the first attack.

Taesan calmly attacked the spirits again, building up their numbers. Over a hundred spirits were created, and he reset his posture and swung his sword down again.

[Dark Spirit 86 took 244 damage.]

He started over.

The second attempt, during the twenty-fourth attack, two spirits suddenly squeezed in, moving his left foot a distance hard to discern with the eye. The damage returned to the initial amount. He started again.

The third attempt, during the thirty-fifth attack, a spirit charged even after being hit. A bit more strength entered his fingertips. The damage was reset.

The fourth attempt began.

The spirit realized.

[Even the smallest error isn’t allowed.]

The slight movement of muscles in the arm, the distance between feet, the speed of moving the sword.

The direction of the sword, the direction of the gaze, the point of impact, the position where the sword stops and is held.

Breathing collected after the series of actions—all these processes had to perfectly match for Perseverance to activate.

Taesan’s damage was around 240. To achieve Add-On, he had to reach 480.

[This is insane.]

The spirit knew the difficulty of training swordsmanship by repeating the same motion perfectly several times.

It wasn’t just repetition. It was perfect alignment. Raising the hand, moving the sword, where the tip of the sword stops. Full effort was required in every single action.

It was an indescribable agony. At least for the spirit, fighting a formidable enemy with no assurance of victory was more comforting.

Meanwhile, Taesan had the central struggle of increasing stats with each enemy defeated.

Stats directly affected movement, meaning the force and speed applied with each attack had to be recalibrated.

Amidst this, the fourth attempt also failed. A spirit broke through the defense and squeezed in at the fortieth attack.

“Really? I think it’s manageable.”

Taesan calmly said as he raised his sword and took his stance again.

There was no threat of death. Just repeat.

With all the variables, it would take an indeterminate amount of time, but eventually, he would definitely obtain it. That was enough.

Taesan swung his sword.

Time passed.

Hours turned into a day, a day into two, two days into a week.

During that time, Taesan just continued to repeat.

Whoosh.

How many times had it been? He had lost count. At least ten thousand, no doubt.

[Insane.]

The spirit muttered, nauseated. There had been attempts nearly achieving it during the dozens of tries. Just three more swings and it would have doubled, but it was ruined by a very slight variable.

Enough to burst with rage, but Taesan simply raised his sword again, expressionless.

It was like watching an emotionless machine.

[Aren’t you angry?]

“I am angry. I get emotional. But I’m used to it.”

He had put in countless efforts to acquire skills. More than half had not shown results, and he had invested months only to find them utterly useless.

A week’s effort was nothing.

‘Rather, it’s a gain.’

If enduring a week could earn Add-On, what else could be considered a gain? That’s what Taesan thought.

Taesan kept swinging his sword. The spirit, either sickened by now or not wanting to interrupt, said nothing and waited.

And six days passed.

[Dark Spirit took 485 damage.]

[You have pulled nearly double the damage without any special means. Special Activation Skill [Add-On] acquired.]

Taesan’s sword stopped.

Six days of repetition, 132 hours of labor, 1,012 failures, and finally, he had obtained Add-On.