Chapter 73: Trial of the 10th floor (4)
By natural law, the world revolves around those who own things.
Whether money, talent, or anything else, those who didn’t own things couldn't beat those who owned things.
Just like me, who couldn’t walk the path as a hunter due to a lack of skill aptitude.
However, after I started climbing the Tower of Trials, I was able to have what I couldn’t have.
The rewards I got from overwhelming, insane trials of life and death gave me a lot of things.
Thanks to that, I was able to acquire strength I never had before.
Well, I couldn’t really feel it because I had suffered hardships by meeting challengers from another world before I even got to feel the power I had in my hands…
But not anymore.
「The Vampire Count’s Old Tailcoat 」「 Grade: A- 」
「A special tailcoat worn by one of the vampires of Callian when he was young.」
「When the user is attacked, the user can arbitrarily consume their stamina or blood to create a bloody barrier. 」
「The level of the shield is determined according to the amount of stamina and blood consumed at this time.」
Looking at the red tailcoat I got from Kim Seungjun, I slightly raised the corners of my lips.
To think that I could get an item with an astounding A-rank without paying any price.
No, It’s probably not that I didn’t pay for it at all.
If I had lost the battle just now, it would’ve been me who was putting out all the items by now, not Kim Seungjun.
‘So it’s the law of high-risk, high-return, huh…’
As much as I took the risk of death, there were quite a few things I could gain this time.
「Amplifying Tome 」
「 Grade: C+ 」
「A tome dedicated to amplifying mana that one of Ares’ court mages used when they were young.」
「Mana concentration and mana properties are strengthened when the user casts magic with the book in their hand. 」
「However, if the user drops the tome from the hand while in use, all of their stats will decrease by 1. 」
As well as that chaotic magic tome that Kim Seungjun used while holding in his hand during the fight.
「Necklace of Thunder God Worshiper 」
「 Grade: A 」
「A necklace that can change the user’s magical properties into the thunder attribute when worn for a long time.」
「It can change up to three people’s magical properties, and this effect only applies to those who don’t have any magical properties at all. 」
He even had a precious necklace that could change your magical attribute, which made me wonder how he got it.
「Heavenly Blood Demonic Sword 」
「 Grade: B+ 」
「Reaction speed +7%」
「Attack speed +10% 」
「A fine sword that was once one of the treasures that have been passed down from the Blood Demonic Cult of Murim.」
「When used by someone with a swordsmanship skill, blood ki flows around the blade, and the flow of magical power through the blood sword becomes smoother. 」
I was also able to obtain a sword that he didn’t use during the battle, as though it was acquired by killing someone else.
Other than that, I was able to get different items, but there were no items that caught my attention except for these three.
The rest of the items were good enough to be disposed of somewhere if I returned to reality soon.
I tried breaking his recovered hand bones and restoring them repeatedly in case there were any items Kim Seungjun was hiding, but…
Crash! Crash! Crash!
“Fuuuuuuckkk….! You, son of a bitch! This is all! Everything! I gave you everything that I got…!!”
「 Activating the skill ‘ Eye of Truth.’ 」
Everything that this person says is true.
He seemed to be hiding no items at all.
Only then did I remove my feet that were on Kim Seungjun’s body and put the acquired items into the inventory.
Of course, I didn’t store the [Necklace of Thunder God worshiper] in the inventory and wore it right away.
「Currently, Player Han Sungyeun doesn’t have a unique mana property.」
「The mana property begins to develop under the effect of the Necklace of Thunder God Worshiper (A).」
It was because I thought that it wasn’t so bad to get a property for someone like me who didn’t have a mana property at all.
When I asked Kim Seungjun, I was able to find out that he only used it once, and It still had about two uses left.
“Please, stop it already… I-I’ll do anything if you spare me, so…”
In the process, his bones were broken and regenerated several times, and Kim Seungjun turned into a gruesome sight, but…
I didn’t feel any sense of pity or anything because of that sight.
He made his bed, it was time for him to lie in it.
He was just paying the price for his own evil deeds.
As I looked at his not-even-pitiful figure, I soon smashed the potion in my hand.
Crack!
Seeing the glass shards smashed on my hands and the potion inside dripping onto the floor, Kim Seungjun’s eyes widened and he gnashed his teeth.
“Fuck…!! I gave you all the items in my inventory as you wanted, but what…!!”
Kim Seungjun’s face terribly distorted as he finally realized that he had been deceived, but…
“Why would I keep a promise… that I don’t even have to keep.”
I answered with an unmoved voice even after hearing his cry and approached Kim Seungjun.
Kim Seungjun was frightened and tried to run away from the place somehow, but he couldn’t.
As I didn’t even use 30% of the Rapid Regeneration potion, Kim Seungjun was barely surviving.
“Fuck, Fuck, Fuck…!! Please, somebody help m…!”
Kim Seungjun somehow crawled with both arms and asked help from Kim Seunghoon and Oh Choonsuk, but…
Crash!
I immediately stomped on Kim Seungjun’s head as hard as I could and cut his voice off cleanly.
“…”
After a neat finale with no feelings of guilt, regrets or anything left—
「 You have absorbed the soul of the player 'Kim Seungjun'. 」
「 Proficiency increased by 12.7% 」
Again, only the message of Necromancy that informed me I had absorbed the soul floated up.
***
Reaper Scans
***
When I absorbed the soul of Kim Seungjun after he died, a new message appeared in front of me.
「10 minutes left until the start of the trial.」
「All challengers, please prepare for the upcoming trial of the 10th floor.」
It was none other than the waiting time for the trial of the 10th floor ending soon.
Well, it took quite a while to kill Kim Seungjun, but I gained a lot of worth from that.
As I was feeling satisfied with it, Kim Senghoon and Oh Choonsuk approached me.
“Looks like you have completely finished him.”
Kim Seunghoon spoke to me with a calm attitude, and I responded to it without any emotions.
“It’s because I don’t tend to leave the source of possible troubles.”
“Is that so… Well, that’s not a bad choice either.”
As Kim Seunghoon nodded while saying that out of the blue, he thrust his finger towards the air.
I was nervous for a while, wondering if it was to activate some kind of skill, but…
「 Challenger Kim Seunghoon has sent you a friend request. 」
The tension dissipated immediately with the friend request message that arrived suddenly.
“You may contact me in the future if you have any questions or concerns.”
Before I could even be bewildered by his voice that seemed satisfied, Kim Seunghoon immediately turned his back and walked away from me with those words.
‘…What was that?’
While I was feeling a profound sense of wonder about what in the world was going on—
「 Challenger Oh Choonsuk has sent you a friend request. 」
Then, the friend request of Oh Choonsuk, who was next to him, also arrived.
When I looked at Oh Choonsuk, soon he opened his mouth embarrassedly.
“Haha… I might be a little bit shameless, but I want to contact you in the future.”
It seemed that the fact that he didn't help me in the fight with Kim Seungjun made him feel quite uncomfortable.
But even if I was in place of Oh Choonsuk, I wouldn’t have risked helping others.
And it looked like he was going to kill Kim Seungjun no matter what. Then if he really thought that I was in danger, he would’ve intervened.
“Not even close. Well, you can always contact me if you want to.”
There was nothing wrong with having a means of contact with the top challengers.
「 You’ve accepted the friend request from challenger Kim Seunghoon. 」
「 You’ve accepted the friend request from challenger Oh Choonsuk. 」
I accepted the two friend request immediately. Only then did Oh Choonsuk smile.
“Ah, Thank you. I was wondering what I should do if you don’t accept it… Thank goodness.”
Oh Choonsuk said so, and then he glanced at me and continued.
“You must’ve chosen the conqueror when choosing the radiance on the 8th floor.”
I couldn’t help but widen my eyes in response.
“…!?”
When I looked at Oh Choonsuk as though surprised, he scratched his head, embarrassed.
“When I saw you using the skill a while ago, it looked like you summoned something like a shield made out of mana…. But it’s unlikely that melee-type hunters would learn such a thing. It seems like a skill with a fairly high rank, but it’s difficult for melee-type hunters to acquire such skills. Well, not only that, but there are other reasons as well.”
“What would that other reason be…”
“Radiance— I also chose the conqueror, you see. So I was sure. Well, I couldn’t combine skills with such a high rank like you did, Han Sungyeun-ssi. It looks like you acquired your skills by integrating all the useless skills you’ve acquired so far, but honestly, I feel envious.”
“What do you…”
If he had chosen the radiance of a conqueror, Oh Choonsuk would’ve been able to combine skills like I did…
Just as I was starting to think so, Oh Choonsuk opened his mouth again as if he was going to explain it.
“Originally, skills were easy to acquire when you have the aptitude you know… Each skill requires different aptitudes, and there are also aptitude levels that make it almost impossible to get one.”
I couldn’t deny that what he was saying was true until the towers appeared.
Because I couldn’t also get any skills due to that damn aptitude back then.
“Of course, things changed a bit after the tower appeared, but the points acquired through clearing the trials weren’t enough to use to get the skills that can be used for skill combination, and even skill combination seemed to have to be done with similar skills. Otherwise, it’ll result in some strange skills.”
That was true too.
I wanted to know what would happen when different types of skills were combined, so I realized it after I combined Heat Resistance with the skill called Ranger’s Knowledge.
It was then that I clearly realized that combining useless skills didn’t produce better results than before.
“But it seems that you made a lot of gains from the skill combination, Han Sungyeun-ssi. Well, I haven’t tried many things yet since I don’t have many skills, so I was wondering if there’s another way to use the skill combination.”
Then I realized just how big the difference in conqueror radiance was depending on a person.
Due to my innate ability, Necromancy, I was able to absorb the stats as well as the skills.
In other words, I had a perfect innate ability for using the conqueror radiance’s innate power, [Skill Combination].
On the other hand, Oh Choonsuk, didn’t have an easy way to acquire the skills, so it was difficult to use the innate power in many ways.
And because of that, he guessed that the skill I was using was obtained through the power of the radiance, and then questioned me.
However…
‘There’s no such thing as a hidden function in the power of radiance.’
There was no hidden function in skill combination, only a slight rule on combining the skills.
Other than that, most of them were practically meaningless, so I thought about it for a while, but…
“No, I was just lucky to have it by combining the skills so… instead, I think I’ll be able to tell you what I learned while combining the skills.”
Soon, I taught him the basic laws of Skill Combination while hiding my innate ability.
Like how the activation method was determined when combining skills and how the core content of the skill changed.
Well, actually, these were all parts you could get a sense of when you did quite a bit of combining, but even that seemed to be quite helpful for Oh Choonsuk.
“Oh… so those kinds of things existed too huh, there were quite a few features that I didn’t even know.”
Oh Choonsuk lightly admired and tried to open his mouth as if he had more to ask, but…
「 Time over. 」
From the moment he saw the message that popped up, he couldn’t.
「 The trial of the 10th floor will begin. 」
「 The remaining time will begin to decrease, and monsters will appear. 」
The trial of the 10th floor began without even having time to talk.
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