Leveling Up With Skills - Chapter 215: Floor 51, Alchemy (2)
**Gremlin.** An NPC who lives in solitude, filled with hatred for his own kind.
No one acknowledges him. No one treats him as a sentient being.
He is slowly withering away.
The mystical beings who inhabit this place see him as inferior and ugly, refusing to regard him as an equal.
Adventurers passing by think of him merely as a tool for quests.
Thus, the Gremlin was driven to the brink.
To steal what the fairies and other mystical beings possessed and become like them—that was madness itself and showed just how desperate the Gremlin had become.
“He must have known they wouldn’t truly accept him, even if he changed to look like them. The Gremlin isn’t that foolish.”
*[Then why did he undertake such a quest…?]*
The ghost stopped speaking.
*[No way…]*
“He must have decided that he’d rather die as a fairy than live as a Gremlin.”
The Gremlin had been pushed to the point where even that seemed preferable.
*[…I see. That’s why I didn’t notice.]*
“You couldn’t have imagined making such a choice.”
The ghost had risked his life to descend the Labyrinth. He had a resolute determination to save his world.
For someone like him, whose purpose was to seek others’ recognition, it would have been incomprehensible.
*[How did you…]*
Understand this?
The ghost was about to ask but then realized.
*[There’s no need to ask, is there?]*
“There are things only a coward can understand.”
**Lee Taeyeon.** A coward herself, she had grasped the Gremlin’s heart—what he desired and what lay at the end of his wish.
She had said the Gremlin was similar to her.
Before, she couldn’t understand what that meant, but now she could.
Even after clearing Solo Mode, Lee Taeyeon saw herself as weak and undeserving, plagued by feelings of inadequacy.
The Gremlin possessed intelligence unfitting for his race, and the disparity and reactions from those around him drove him mad.
In a way, they were similar. That was why she had wanted to help the Gremlin.
But she couldn’t. The Gremlin refused her help, and she was also mentally overwhelmed.
Preoccupied with her own issues, she had planned to return to talk to the Gremlin when she had the time.
By the time she climbed back up from the depths, the Gremlin was already dead.
‘It’s only self-satisfaction, but…’
The Gremlin was not Lee Taeyeon. Although they were similar, they were different beings. Even if she had saved the Gremlin, it wouldn’t have affected her in any way.
Yet, Kang Taesan wanted to save the Gremlin for Lee Taeyeon.
**Tap.**
He spread his wings.
Enhancing his senses, he read everything around him.
At the end of this heightened perception, he detected the Gremlin.
He was in the realm of the fairies.
Kang Taesan sprinted towards the location. Before long, he could see the Gremlin.
Kang Taesan frowned.
‘A fairy?’
There was a single fairy, covered in wounds. But the aura emanating from it was unmistakably that of the Gremlin. The ghost gasped.
*[A mutation of the flesh? He accomplished something difficult even with magic, through alchemy?]*
How he had done it was unclear, but this fairy was undoubtedly the Gremlin.
The Gremlin shouted.
“Look! Just as you said, I have become like you! Accept me!”
As he cried out, the fairies were attacking him.
A beam of light pierced through the Gremlin’s leg. He fell to the ground, groaning in pain.
*[The ugly one dares mimic us.]*
*[We were joking.]*
*[He truly believed it.]*
*[He’s become one of us. How repulsive.]*
The fairies giggled and brandished their light. The wounds on the Gremlin’s body increased steadily.
The Gremlin sat down on the ground, just laughing.
“Of course. Of course, you wouldn’t accept me.”
As his laughter persisted, the fairies’ giggles gradually died down.
*[This is boring.]*
*[Let’s kill him.]*
The lights converged. The Gremlin, sensing death, closed his eyes. At that moment, Kang Taesan moved.
*[You have activated Acceleration.]*
**Crack.**
He pierced the chest of the foremost fairy. The fairy spewed blood as it was flung away.
“You!”
*[A terrifying human!]*
The Gremlin’s pupils dilated. Kang Taesan swung his sword at the incoming straight beams of light.
**Zing!**
The light collided with his sword and scattered in all directions.
The fairies raised their voices.
*[He’s the one who killed us!]*
*[A dangerous one!]*
Kang Taesan raised a finger. A spiritual attack began to manifest from within him.
*[You have activated Follower of the Wolf.]*
A translucent wolf appeared.
Kang Taesan commanded.
“Bite.”
**Howl!**
The wolf howled and charged at the fairies. The fairies screamed and sent beams of light towards the wolf.
**Howl!**
The wolf let out a haunting cry. The lights distorted and grazed past the wolf. The wolf devoured the fleeing fairies.
*[Run away!]*
*[Run away!]*
The fairies quickly scattered.
Kang Taesan kicked off the ground.
He chased the fairies into the forest. The Gremlin watched his back in a daze.
Soon after, Kang Taesan returned, his body covered in fairy blood.
“Are fairies naturally generated?”
*[This is a peculiar floor. Even if you kill all of them, they’ll all reappear soon after. They respawn much faster than on other floors.]*
**Growl.**
Kang Taesan petted the wolf rubbing its head against him. The fairies had been devoured without putting up any resistance. It had performed better than expected.
After dismissing the wolf, Kang Taesan looked at the Gremlin.
The Gremlin sat on the ground, staring up at him blankly.
“You are… ugh!”
The Gremlin’s body twisted.
His wings fell off, and his frame began to grow.
In just a few seconds, the Gremlin reverted to his original form.
“The duration is over.”
*[It’s because he had become an entirely different being. He couldn’t have lasted long. Still, it’s remarkable. To achieve a real transformation, not an illusion, through alchemy…]*
The ghost’s voice was filled with unconcealable admiration.
The blood-soaked Gremlin looked up at him blankly.
“Why did you…”
He couldn’t finish his sentence. The Gremlin’s body collapsed. Kang Taesan caught him as he fell.
“He’s on the verge of death.”
*[If you don’t treat him quickly, he’ll really die.]*
Kang Taesan took out fairy dust from his inventory and sprinkled it on the Gremlin. The Gremlin’s wounds began to heal rapidly.
With the Gremlin healing, Kang Taesan carried him back to his house.
About two hours later, the Gremlin opened his eyes.
Realizing he was awake, he seemed bewildered.
“I’m alive?”
“Did you think I’d just leave you to die?”
The Gremlin quickly turned his head. Kang Taesan was sitting on a chair beside him.
Only then did the Gremlin realize that Kang Taesan had helped him when he was about to die.
Confused, the Gremlin asked.
“Did you ask me to do that quest knowing you’d die?”
The Gremlin silently stared at his own hands.
His hideous claws.
Realizing he had returned to his original form, the Gremlin let out a hollow laugh.
“It’s over.”
“Why did you do it?”
Kang Taesan asked. Perhaps having given up on everything, the Gremlin began to speak honestly.
“…No one would accept me.”
The Gremlin lowered his head gloomily.
“Even my own kind scorn and reject me. Humans are no different. Because I’m a Gremlin, they treat me like a circus clown. I thought this place—the Labyrinth that draws in everything—might be different… but it wasn’t.”
The Gremlin laughed. His hollow laughter echoed through the forest.
“You saw it too, didn’t you? The fairies mock me. The sea serpent despises me as something lowly. Even the adventurers passing by don’t see me as an individual. They don’t see me as a unique existence but just a tool that gives them quests. The hero behind you was the same.”
*[That’s… I have no defense.]*
The ghost fell silent. The Gremlin chuckled.
“What worth does a life that’s not recognized by anyone have?”
*[Is that why you became a fairy?]*
“They said so themselves. That if I looked like them, they’d accept me.”
*[Did you really believe that?]*
“Of course not. I didn’t believe the words of such beings. Why did I do it, then… I have no excuse.”
The Gremlin smiled bitterly.
“I just thought, what if? I was desperate to grasp at straws.”
“Were you that desperate?”
“Because no one wanted me. I was nothing more than a tool.”
The ghost, who had been listening quietly, spoke.
*[It’s true, I didn’t see you as an individual. I just saw you as a part of a quest. And it wasn’t just me; all the others before me must have thought the same.]*
“Yeah, that’s what you all did. You didn’t see anything in me.”
The Gremlin’s face grew even more somber.
The ghost spoke again.
*[But it seems this guy is different.]*
At the ghost’s words, the Gremlin fell silent.
*[If you’re right, then you’re just a tool for quests. Once the quest is over, there’s no reason to deal with you anymore. But this guy came to save you even after everything was finished, didn’t he?]*
Kang Taesan had already received the quest reward and learned the way to reach the 52nd floor. He had no further reason to engage with the Gremlin.
Yet, he was still here.
The Gremlin looked at his body. It was smooth, with not a single wound remaining.
“Fairy dust…”
The Gremlin realized that Kang Taesan had used the quest reward on him.
Kang Taesan spoke.
“I don’t hold any special feelings for you.”
The ones who mattered to Kang Taesan were Lee Taeyeon, Kang Jun-hyuk, Geum Jung-geun, and Kim Hwi-yeon—the people he had lived with. Having witnessed so much death, he didn’t place much value on most people.
“But I also don’t see you as just a tool. If I did, I wouldn’t have bothered saving you in the first place.”
He regarded him as a living being.
Hearing this, the Gremlin felt deeply confused. Kang Taesan continued speaking.
“Can’t believe it?”
A wounded beast often fears humans. Lee Taeyeon had said similar words to the Gremlin, but he hadn’t trusted her and had kept his distance.
However, Kang Taesan was different from Lee Taeyeon. Even after the quest ended, he had saved the dying Gremlin, used the fairy dust on him, and even brought him back to his home.
That’s why the Gremlin felt so bewildered.
His whole life, he had longed to be acknowledged by someone. He wanted to be recognized as a living being, not just a tool.
He had lived, quite literally, only for that purpose.
“Even though I did nothing? You’re willing to accept me?”
Suddenly, the being before him was saying that he acknowledged him. He had only given Kang Taesan a quest and hadn’t done anything to earn this.
Kang Taesan replied nonchalantly.
“Of course, there are those who don’t deserve to be treated well, even among humans.”
Easy Mode. Choi Joong-hyuk. Like him, who had been a blight on the world, there are beings whose very existence is harmful.
“But you’re not one of them. I don’t care what your race is. And you have your own abilities. I think you’re a being worthy of respect.”
“Ah…”
The Gremlin finally realized that Kang Taesan had accepted him.
He let out a dry chuckle.
“…To think I went through all that trouble, lived such a miserable life… for something as insignificant as this.”
“So, does it feel empty?”
“No.”
The Gremlin shook his head. He chuckled softly.
“It’s absurd. Nothing has changed, yet it feels like the world has shifted.”
There was someone who acknowledged him.
There was someone who accepted him as an individual.
This fact, so basic and obvious to others, felt incredibly new to the Gremlin.
The Gremlin smiled.
“What’s your name?”
“Kang Taesan.”
The Gremlin hadn’t asked for his name before. He hadn’t seen Kang Taesan as a living being either, only as a tool for his own purposes.
“I was the same.”
He spoke with a smile.
“My name isn’t Gremlin. It’s Barija. The name I gave myself when I abandoned my kind and came into the forest. But no one ever called me by that name.”
Barija’s eyes trembled with unease.
“Could you… call me by my name?”
“It’s not difficult. Barija.”
Kang Taesan said. At his words, Barija smiled brightly.
“Then, don’t die and stay safe. I’ll come by from time to time.”
“Ah, you’re leaving?”
“I have my own goals to achieve.”
Barija had longed for recognition from someone.
But Kang Taesan’s goal was to conquer the Labyrinth. He couldn’t remain tied down here.
Knowing this, Barija didn’t try to stop him, but his expression was filled with reluctance.
After thinking for a moment, Barija spoke as if he had just remembered something.
“You saved my life. And the Labyrinth has rules about giving something in return. You… learned alchemy but don’t know how to use it properly, do you?”
Kang Taesan nodded. Barija clapped his hands, as if pleased.
“Then this is perfect. As a reward for saving my life, I’ll teach you alchemy—the proper way to use it. Alchemy has the power to rival even the magic created by the great gods. I’ll show you how to wield that power correctly.”