Chapter 5
The Tower is indifferent, as always.
To throw goblins, of all things, at newbies who’ve just finished the tutorial?
In the grand scheme of things, goblins weren’t exactly the strongest monsters.
If you really had to rank them, they were just a bit tougher than your average low-level monster.
But the problem was that the monsters appearing to those who had just started climbing the Tower weren’t the weakest ones, and these goblins knew how to use tools. That was the issue.
Clang! Clang, clang!
“He, help!”
Surrounded by three goblins, a man blocking their attacks with a shield shouted to his party members.
Like a true newbie, his Strength and Stamina Stats were low. The man’s shield shook violently every time a wooden club slammed against it.
And with three clubs coming at him, it seemed too much for the newbie to handle.
“Help me!”
Receiving no response, he looked at his party members.
And Shield Man realized something.
That he was the one doing the best right now.
“Ugh, uaaaaah!”
A man flailing his sword around with his eyes closed.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
A woman screaming as she was chased by goblins.
And finally, a man quietly hiding, swallowing hard.
It was a complete and utter mess.
“Damn it!”
No one was in a position to help Shield Man.
It was a situation he had to somehow resolve on his own.
He must have figured he had to do something before his Stamina ran out.
He tried to move his shield amidst the goblins’ barrage of attacks.
Shield Man twitched his shield whenever there was a slight opening, but in the end, he bit his lip, too afraid to try anything.
‘What are you going to do now?’
Clang! Clang, clang!
Suddenly, everything went silent.
The corners of his lips twitched, gradually turning downwards.
‘Surely a grown man isn’t going to cry.’
As if on cue, Shield Man’s lips drooped, and he started to sob.
“Let’s run! Run! Let’s run away!!”
Shield Man must have been the leader.
In the end, Shield Man shouted the order to retreat in a loud voice, and the first to move was the man who had been hiding, waiting for an opportunity.
“He said run! Let’s retreat!”
The man who had been lurking, waiting for a chance, seized the moment and ran out, yelling at his party members.
“Help me! Don’t go alone, help me!”
The man, sprinting towards the entrance, didn’t seem to want to stop.
He had chosen survival over his team.
It was definitely close enough for them to hear, but the man didn’t stop at all and disappeared into the distance.
“What a total disaster.”
Even considering they were a team of newbies, these guys were just too much.
It almost made him think there was no need to bother waiting for the Regression Mode cooldown.
Why had he even bothered timing his Regression Mode?
It was all because he didn’t trust human greed.
‘That time comes to mind.’
In his past life, a Hidden Room had opened right before his eyes once.
It was more joyous than winning the lottery, but the problem was that dozens of people were with Hyuk-min in the place where the Hidden Room opened.
Human greed knew no bounds.
At that moment, dozens of people all started rushing towards the Hidden Room.
They didn’t care that Hyuk-min had already entered the Hidden Room.
They threw punches and swung swords to be the first to get in.
And using Skills, a massive brawl broke out, and the place was stained with the blood of countless people.
The situation back then was horrific, even thinking about it now.
‘Does it even matter with these guys?’
Ding.
[Regression Mode is ready for use.]
Just in time, the Regression Mode’s cooldown was over.
Why bother waiting?
Standing right in the middle of the crossroads, Hyuk-min shouted in a loud voice.
“Everyone! Get out!”
His voice was so loud that everyone fighting, including the goblins, turned to look at Hyuk-min.
He raised his voice even louder.
“Get out, I said! Can’t you see I’m drawing aggro here?!”
Shriek!
The goblins that had been chasing the women turned and headed towards Hyuk-min.
The woman stopped and stared at Hyuk-min, as the goblins no longer followed her.
He gestured for her to leave with a nod, then bent down and picked up a stone from the ground.
And then.
Thwack! Crack!
He accurately hit one of the goblins still pounding on the shield right in the head.
Keck! Shriek!
The goblin, stunned by the strong impact that bent his head backwards, rubbed his forehead and bared his teeth in anger.
Shrieek!
The stone seemed to have worked as a great aggro tool.
All the goblins at the crossroads, including the last one that had been attacking the man wielding the sword, started charging towards Hyuk-min without exception.
He looked at Shield Man and said.
“Get out now. Or you won’t be able to.”
Then, manipulating the 12 Mana he had, he muttered quietly.
“Regression Mode.”
The paused cooldown started again.
As soon as the duration window appeared, Hyuk-min’s foot spun exactly one revolution!
With a strong gust of wind, the Status Window changed.
Exactly as it was in his past life.
The monster from Hyuk-min’s past life burst out from the dust cloud.
= = =
A hand shot out from the dust cloud, grabbing the head of a goblin that had paused in the wind.
Boom!
With just the strength of his grip, the goblin’s head exploded without even a scream.
Whoosh.
A gust of wind blew.
It was the gale created by the Hyuk-min from his past life appearing from the dust cloud and swinging his foot.
Thump!
With a single kick, a goblin was scattered into blue chunks of flesh.
Starting with that, Hyuk-min’s body moved at an incredible speed, extinguishing the lives of the goblins with every gesture and kick.
And after a brief moment, barely enough for three blinks of an eye.
Thud, thud, thud.
The goblins had turned into such unrecognizable piles of blue meat that their corpses couldn’t even be found.
“So, two minutes and more left. Is it proportional to the amount of Mana?”
It felt like only 2 seconds had passed, but there were 2 minutes and 10 seconds remaining.
This led him to reasonably suspect that for every 1 point of Mana increased, the Regression Mode’s duration would also increase by 1 second.
From the moment Regression Mode started, every second was precious.
While checking his Status Window and Skill duration, Hyuk-min’s steps headed towards the location of the Hidden Room.
Click.
Pressing a small button hidden between the rocks, the Hidden Room revealed its true form.
“It really was here.”
Whoosh.
He stood before the wide, white space that appeared between the narrow gaps in the rocks, accompanied by a bright light.
Instead of going straight in, he turned around and looked back.
Shield Man and his party members, whom he had told to run away, were still standing there.
He made eye contact with Shield Man.
‘Tch.’
This perfectly proved that human greed knew no bounds.
Gulp.
They had clearly just witnessed him tearing apart and exploding the goblins that they had struggled against.
The difference in power was obvious, and they must have felt viscerally that they were no match for him.
And yet, Shield Man’s eyes were fixed on the bright Hidden Room, consumed by greed.
His twitching hands and restless eyes seemed to be fighting each other, his reason telling him to run while his instinct urged him to rush in.
Even if an opportunity to change their lives had presented itself, to show such eyes in this situation.
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
If he hadn’t used Regression Mode and had just opened the Hidden Room.
‘Would these guys have just stood there and watched?’
He shook his head.
‘No way.’
He had to show these beast-like guys something definitive.
He picked up a stone from the ground.
Then, he threw it with all his might towards Shield Man.
Bang!!!
The tremendous destructive power, enough to create a strong wind, passed right next to Shield Man’s head and caused a huge explosion against the wall.
The strong impact, which caused dust to fall, made all the men and women cower and freeze.
Only then did they seem to realize their place, and Hyuk-min spoke coldly to Shield Man, who was now showing a terrified but satisfied look.
“Aren’t you going to scram?”
= = =
Imagine a lottery ticket worth 1st prize falling in front of you, and more than 10 people around you knowing that it’s a winning ticket.
Would all those people just stand still?
Of course, some people would.
But one thing is clear.
8 or 9 out of 10 would rush to grab the ticket.
“You really have to threaten them to get them to listen.”
They had completely forgotten that he had helped them and were now eyeing the prize.
While going through Dungeons and climbing the Tower, it wasn’t just once or twice that he felt how evil people could be.
This was the reason why he had told them to enter the Hidden Room alone, and why he had waited for the Regression Mode’s cooldown.
Leaving the fleeing newbies behind, he entered the Hidden Room.
“Now I can finally relax.”
Who knows?
“What if Regression Mode ends when I go outside the Hidden Room?”
Even if they were newbies, he didn’t want to leave any room for uncertainty, hence his forceful attitude.
Anyway!
Only then did he approach the chest in the center of the Hidden Room with a relaxed mind.
“I finally found it. All-Master’s Undying Warrior.”
In his past life, there was an American named Nicholas, who was ranked 2nd in the world.
Nicholas, who had the nickname All-Master, was someone who had mastered everything to sweep away all the Hidden Achievements and Titles as he traveled around the world.
He was a monster among monsters who played in the top ranks of the world, but in another sense, he was also a psycho obsessed with strength, willing to do anything.
He didn’t know how many floors of the Tower he had climbed, but the fact that he had found a Hidden Achievement on the 6th floor, despite being ranked 2nd in the world, showed that he wasn’t normal.
“Well, even though he got the Hidden Achievement, he couldn’t beat Jeonshin in the end.”
What he was about to obtain now was the main force of All-Master Nicholas in the future!
Crack!
He shattered the lock with just the strength of his grip.
And when he opened the chest, there was a small box cutter and an old book inside.
[Immortal Demon Art.]
[Immortal Demon Sword.]
The moment Hyuk-min became the owner of the Hidden Achievement that had raised All-Master to 2nd place in the world.
= = =
As soon as he came out of the Hidden Room, he left the 6th floor clear behind and walked out of the Tower.
As soon as he saw the bright world, he immediately turned around and re-entered the dark entrance of the Tower.
[You have entered the Tower.]
[The highest floor is ‘6th floor’. Which floor would you like to move to?]
Right now, the outside world was a jungle full of dangers.
Unfortunately, Hyuk-min, whose Regression Mode had ended, didn’t have the strength to protect these items in that jungle.
Only this place, where he could be alone, was the only way to protect the items in Hyuk-min’s hands.
“Now, shall we check them out in peace?”
An old book and a small box cutter.
He checked the descriptions of the two items he had brought from the Hidden Room.
———-
[SSS-Rank] Immortal Demon Art.
-If you seek death, you shall live, and if you seek life, you shall die.
-Upon successful Class registration, all lifesteal damage is increased by 30%.
-When using the Skill, all lifesteal damage increases up to 50% in exchange for consuming blood every second.
[E-Rank] Immortal Demon Sword.
-Could you even kill someone with this? A worthless box cutter with meaningless effects.
-Cutting Power: 3
-All damage lifesteal 10%
-Experience: 0 / 100
———-
He couldn’t help but laugh.
Without hesitation, he put the old book into his Status Window.
[Would you like to learn ‘Immortal Demon Art’?]
[If you learn ‘Immortal Demon Art’, your Class will be changed to ‘Immortal Warrior’.]
[ Yes / No ]
When he pressed the Yes button, the Immortal Demon Art disappeared and changed his Status Window.
The word ‘Immortal Warrior’, which had been proudly occupying the previously empty Class slot, and the SSS-Rank Skill Immortal Demon Art was added to the Skill slot, which had only contained Regression Mode.
But the real gem wasn’t the Immortal Demon Art Class and Skill.
“The most important thing is this.”
Hyuk-min smiled contentedly as he looked at the small box cutter in his hand.
It was just a common E-Rank weapon.
The effects were good for an E-Rank weapon, but that was it.
It was trash among trash with a Cutting Power of only 3.
If others saw it, they would say, “What’s so good about this?”
“That’s what people who don’t know about this weapon say.”
In fact, there was one special thing about this weapon.
The Experience slot, located at the very bottom of the weapon’s description, where it shouldn’t be.
This was the reason why Hyuk-min had tried so hard to get this weapon.
“Who would believe it?”
That this small box cutter was one of only 10 weapons in the world.
When he pressed the Experience slot in the description, additional information was revealed.
[Growth-Type Weapon]
-Evolve to the next weapon when experience is filled.
This was why Hyuk-min had desperately tried to enter the Hidden Room.
What was the weapon that the All-Master had in the past?
The Immortal Demon Sword that he carried was nothing like this small box cutter.
It was as huge as his large frame, as red as blood, and an incredible weapon that conveyed an unknown sense of intimidation to the opponent just by looking at it.
An amazing weapon that could be called a legendary artifact.
That was what had just come into Hyuk-min’s hands.
“Alright.”
How could he not be happy?
Click.
He raised the box cutter’s lever and pulled out the blade.
A pathetic blade that might not even be able to kill a monster popped out.
Nevertheless, Hyuk-min held the Immortal Demon Sword and confidently stared at the phrase that appeared in the System.
[Which floor would you like to move to?]
“Alright, let’s restart.”
The plan that Hyuk-min had set was not yet over.
“6th floor.”
[You have selected the 6th floor.]
[Moving.]
Looking at the changed scenery with the torch that flared up, he smiled quietly.
“Let’s just run Regression Mode 3 times~”