Chapter 514
Muscle rupture, huh. The body is supported by the system. Muscles absolutely shouldn’t rupture just from running fast.
This skill can exceed the system’s limits.
After a moment’s thought, Taesan activated the skill again.
[You have activated Forced Attainment.]
What he wanted was to fly.
But nothing happened. A quiet silence lingered, as if it were impossible.
“Things like this are impossible.”
Impossible things cannot be achieved. There was no way for Taesan to fly right now. That seemed to be why the skill’s effect wasn’t activating.
Taesan drank a potion and tried activating it again.
[You have activated Forced Attainment.]
What he wanted was for his left and right arms to move in completely different ways.
As soon as the skill activated, both arms moved freely. As if a completely different person were moving them, the movements, speed, and even the patterns of the two arms were completely different.
The skill’s activation ended. And Taesan was in the same state as usual. There was no particular burden.
“There’s no penalty for something like this.”
Moving both arms completely differently was something he could do normally with a little concentration. Achieving such a goal didn’t seem to have any particular penalty.
If so.
[You have activated Forced Attainment.]
This time, what he wanted was to accelerate his mind twofold.
As soon as the skill activated, the world slowed down in an instant.
The rapidly rotating mind made time seem slow. After a while, the skill’s activation ended.
Drip.
At the same time, he got a nosebleed. His head throbbed, and a deep fatigue washed over him. Taesan quickly drank a potion.
“So, it’s like this.”
Impossible goals, like flying, cannot be achieved at all. But it is possible to forcibly draw out and achieve things with the body or mind.
The problem was that Forced Attainment was not protected by the system.
The speed Taesan had just achieved was a speed he could somehow achieve by using Super Acceleration and Body Time Acceleration. If he had moved from wall to wall like that, there would have been nothing wrong with Taesan’s body.
The effects drawn out by skills do not cause significant abnormalities in the body and mind. If that weren’t the case, Taesan would have burned out from not being able to withstand Acceleration even before obtaining Multiplication.
But Forced Attainment was different.
It allowed him to draw out effects beyond what he could do, but the burden was borne directly by the body and mind, not by stamina.
The penalty is significant.
But.
“It’s worth it.”
Forced Attainment had no particular limitations. Most goals could be achieved if he could bear the penalty.
In short, Forced Attainment was a skill beyond the system’s limitations.
If so, it could be used sufficiently even on powers that did not originate from the Labyrinth.
Not just the consumption of the body or mind. Beyond magic or skills, could he handle even the boundaries with Forced Attainment?
The exact usage would have to be determined back in the original world, but if Taesan’s calculations were correct, this skill was also main-level. Perhaps even more than that.
Forced Attainment, like Multiplication, was a skill he had obtained through his effort and power, so he could take it back with him.
“Not bad.”
Multiplication and Forced Attainment. He had obtained two for now. That alone was satisfying enough.
[Are you going to get another skill now?]
Bardray asked in an excited tone. It was now Taesan’s turn to obtain the Designated Skill Reset he had mentioned.
But Taesan’s expression was ambiguous.
“I don’t know if it’ll be possible.”
[Huh? Why?]
“Let’s go for now.”
Designated Skill Reset could be obtained on the 76th floor. Taesan began to ascend the floors, and as always, monsters blocked his path.
[Urrrr!]
Taesan raised his sword towards the charging Monster Black Bear.
[You have activated Addition.]
[You have activated Multiplication.]
[9,784 damage to the Monster Black Bear.]
Crack.
The black bear was trampled without even screaming. Taesan passed by without paying any attention.
[Geez…]
Bardray muttered sullenly.
[He’s pulling out nearly ten thousand damage so easily.]
Ten thousand damage was by no means something to be taken lightly. Taesan had only achieved that level of attack power around the 79th floor even in Solo Mode.
To pull out such damage with an attack power as pathetic as 49. It was hard to even guess how much damage he would deal if he returned to the original Timeline like this.
But that was a story for later.
He needed to focus on Designated Skill Reset first. Taesan arrived on the 76th floor.
Kuuuuuung!
It was a volcano.
Magma soaked the earth, and Volcanic Bombs flew. The heat scorched the skin.
This was the 76th floor.
The volcanic zone.
The quest was to reach the next floor by breaking through the surging earth and volcanic eruptions.
And it was also the floor where he could obtain Designated Skill Reset.
Taesan surveyed the environment. The volcano was erupting, burning everything and destroying the terrain.
Taesan, having grasped the situation, clicked his tongue softly.
‘It’s not going to work.’
The biggest feature of the 76th floor was that it was a changing floor. Sometimes the volcano would be calm, and sometimes it would erupt like crazy.
He had obtained Designated Skill Reset in the latter case.
When he couldn’t set foot on the ground, when volcanic ash obscured his vision, and when Volcanic Bombs rained down like rain.
Designated Skill Reset could only be obtained when those conditions were met.
But that wasn’t the environment right now. The ground was shaking, but he could stand normally, and Volcanic Bombs were falling very slowly. It was a level that even a normal Easy Mode player could break through with a little risk.
Of course, it wasn’t impossible to obtain.
He just had to wait.
If he waited a few years, the state of the 76th floor would change, creating a situation where he could obtain Designated Skill Reset.
But there was a problem.
Taesan couldn’t stay here that long.
A huge will to exclude Taesan was slowly approaching.
This place is not allowed for you.
Return to your world.
It was such an intense will and power.
It hadn’t been that strong until now, but perhaps because he had brought something from the original world when he obtained Multiplication, the hostility towards him felt intense. According to Taesan’s calculations, he couldn’t stay for more than a week no matter how hard he tried.
“I won’t be able to get another skill.”
There was no skill that he could obtain in a week.
But he didn’t regret it. He had fully expected the possibility of only obtaining Multiplication and leaving. The value of Designated Skill Reset was not small, but Multiplication was much more important than that.
He had also obtained the unexpected skill, Forced Attainment, so he had obtained more than he had expected.
“Then shall we finish up?”
Taesan clenched his fist. Footsteps were heard. Grandpa Deok-su, who had come up the stairs, was happy to see Taesan.
“Oh, Taesan. I see you again. What are you doing here?”
“What about you, Grandpa?”
“Well, you know. I was just trying to get some gold because I ran out. Are you trying to get another skill?”
“No. I already got it.”
“…You got it, huh. Geez.”
Grandpa Deok-su stroked his chin as if he was impressed.
“You’re amazing as always. What are you planning to do now?”
“I’m going to clean up a bit.”
“Clean up?”
It was the moment Grandpa Deok-su asked, puzzled.
At that moment, the atmosphere changed.
The power that had been dormant within Taesan, the class he possessed, everything about him was unleashed.
“Ah?”
Grandpa Deok-su’s pupils widened.
His presence spread throughout the Labyrinth. Players who were working hard to obtain skills shuddered.
And at the same time, the will of the world grew stronger.
The will that had been slowly pushing him out now changed to outright hostility. It suppressed him with a strong force, as if telling him to get out of here immediately.
“Just bear with me for a bit.”
Taesan said leisurely.
Gray ash flowed out. It scattered and shattered the will of the world that was pressing down on him.
“I’ll just do what I need to do and go back.”
“T-Taesan?”
Grandpa Deok-su stepped back, flustered.
Taesan had suddenly changed.
He had reached something he couldn’t understand. Grandpa Deok-su stared blankly at him.
That sense of oppression and presence was like that of a god.
“Ah…”
Grandpa Deok-su knelt down. He, who had lived his whole life as an atheist both on Earth and in the Labyrinth, unconsciously clasped his hands together.
“I hope we can meet again someday.”
Taesan placed his hand on the wall of the Labyrinth.
He gathered the boundaries as they were and burst them.
Kwaaaaaang!
The wall of the Labyrinth collapsed, revealing the space beyond.
It was an empty space, just dyed black and white.
An infinitely spread empty expanse.
Taesan threw himself into it.
* * *
Darkness buried Taesan. Taesan waved his hand. The boundary exploded, blowing away the darkness that had dyed everything.
And what was visible were very alien things.
The remnants of the Labyrinth, broken, twisted, and collapsed.
This was the power left over from creating the Labyrinth. Abandoned garbage.
Taesan, staring silently at the remnants, easily realized.
Those things seemed like they belonged to this world, but they didn’t.
They belonged to the Ancient God.
They were imitating the laws and materials of the Labyrinth, pretending to be like this world. It was cleverly woven, making it difficult to notice, but Taesan could see it at a glance now.
And ridiculously, Taesan didn’t feel that foreignness was so far away. Rather, it felt familiar.
Kiiiiing!
As he quietly watched the remnants, a roar echoed. The alien space began to grab Taesan.
“Get lost.”
Kuuuuuung!
Taesan shook his arm. With a shattering sound, the shackles of space were broken.
Kigigigigigik.
Something alien appeared. It was the administrator who managed the bugs in Easy Mode.
There was no emotion in the gaze looking at Taesan.
Like a machine, only the duty to exclude foreign substances was visible.
Hostility gathered. Pitch-blackness, the power of the Ancient God, filled the alien thing.
And it was swung as it was. Taesan lightly raised his sword.
Kuuuuuung!
Gray and black collided. Taesan charged.
Kwaaaaaang!
The alien thing was instantly smashed and broken. The opponent was not weak. It surpassed the level of an Apostle.
But that was all.
Unless it was an Ancient God, nothing could stop Taesan now.
“I don’t care about administrators who have no intelligence and only perform their assigned roles.”
Kwaddeudeuk.
He pierced the core and contemplated its power. As a result, he could tell.
“Is it a copy of Balbamaba?”
The principle of how the power circulated. And the way the power worked was similar to Balbamaba’s in some ways.
But it was just an imitation. It had no proper intelligence and no way to deal with variables. Perhaps that was why it prevented the use of bugs rather than fixing them. The concept of fixing bugs itself did not exist for this. It was like a broken machine.
“Hmm.”
Kwaddeudeuk.
The distorted thing shattered. Taesan looked at it with sunken eyes.
“Who is your master?”
It imitated the Labyrinth quite well. Even Bardray mistook it for a normal Labyrinth. If Taesan hadn’t met several Ancient Gods, he would have thought it was a normal Labyrinth of this world.
And as far as Taesan knew, there was only one Ancient God capable of that.
“Is your master the Usurper?”
Taesan muttered quietly.