Chapter 27: The Fourth Floor
After hearing the information from the manager, Lee Shin looked at the Enchanted Silver Tree Wand that he had acquired from the third floor. Lee Shin could store a total of 300,000 mana power inside. And he had to fill that entire amount of mana power up on his own. Lee Shin spent a long time in the waiting area on the fourth floor to accomplish that.
"Contracting with a low-rank spirit..." Lee Shin muttered.
Honestly, there was a spirit that Lee Shin had wanted, but it was questionable whether he could summon it. He was deeply concerned about the spirit because it had not been easy for him to find the one he wanted. After completing all the preparations, Lee Shin went back to the manager.
"Send me to the fourth floor," Lee Shin asked the manager.
"Grooka! I'll let you go," the manager replied.
As soon as the wand of the giant troll hit the ground, Lee Shin disappeared. The troll looked at the space into which Lee Shin vanished and smirked.
"This world will be noisy for a while,” the troll muttered.
* * *
The sky was the red of a sunset, and the land was very dry. It seemed as if not even a single drop of rain had fallen in recent years.
'Nothing much has changed,’?Lee Shin thought.
At that moment, as dark blood gathered in the air, the space opened, and a cute bat popped out of it. The bat then sat on Lee Shin's shoulder. It was Lilian.
"This world is completely ruined,” Lilian muttered.
"Well yeah, because this place is abandoned,” Lee Shin explained.
"Wait really? This place is abandoned?" Lilian asked.
Lee Shin did not give an answer to Lillian's question, because she would soon find out herself.
At the end of the barren land, thin trees and dark grass came together, forming a forest.
‘The Dark Forest,’ Lee Shin thought.
[Save the Dark Frost Troll Tribe]
[The Dark Frost Trolls have been plagued, and they are waiting for someone to save them, even if it is death.]
[Kill the Dark Frost Troll (0/100)]
When Lee Shin's feet touched the place called the "Dark Forest," the red sky turned black, as if the world was in darkness.
Eughhh—
Keughhhaaa—
A strange voice echoed throughout the dark forest. Lee Shin could not determine whether it was a cry of a troll or a scream in pain. There were dark reddish berries hanging between the branches of the blackened tree.
"What kind of fruit is this?" Lilian flapped her wings and picked the fruit from the tree and tried to eat it out of curiosity.
"Don't eat that. That fruit would have been affected by the plague," Lee Shin explained.
"The plague? I don’t think it will have an effect—" Lilian got interrupted.
"No, don’t." Lee Shin stopped her.
If Lilian could still use all of her original strength, it would have been fine. However, she had been sleeping for a long time, and her strength had weakened a lot. Moreover, after being made subordinate to Lee Shin, a limitation on her power had been imposed.
If this plague were just an ordinary one, it would not have mattered how weakened Lilian was. However, the plague contained in this fruit was not an ordinary one.
“Keughhh—” a troll cried out.
He had a thin body, and his eyes seemed to have lost their sparkle and wit. He was larger in size compared to Lee Shin, but the sense of dignity he exuded was completely different from the troll Lee Shin had seen in the waiting area earlier.
The next moment, three Dark Frost Trolls appeared in front of Lee Shin and rushed towards him, releasing a cold breath. No matter how frail the troll was, a troll was a troll.
In fact, they were Dark Frost Trolls.
The troll’s sharp nails almost reached him and it looked as if he was trying to rip Lee Shin's skin off. However, Lee Shin, who nimbly avoided his attack, grabbed the troll's wrist.
"Keughhhaaa!” Lee Shin did not put much force, but the troll still struggled in pain.
Crunch—
Lee Shin clenched his teeth and let go of the troll’s wrist.
How could they be the Dark Frost Trolls? They were always filled with pride and dignity!
[Kill the Dark Frost Troll (0/100)]
The system was telling Lee Shin to kill these Dark Frost Trolls. It was telling him that killing them would be saving them.
"How can death mean salvation? Since when was it the same thing?” Lee Shin wondered.
Lee Shin suppressed the rising disgust and went further into the Dark Forest. As he went deeper and deeper in, he saw a tombstone made by the trolls. On that large stone, there were some unknown characters and a picture.
‘A hero…’ Lee Shin thought.
He was quite certain that the engraving on the tombstone was saying that a hero was asleep there. Lee Shin smiled bitterly and left the Dark Forest.
* * *
Kim Kang-Chun, Park Hye-Won, Ji Eun-Ju, and Park Joo-Hyuk were gathered in the waiting area on the sixth floor. They had cleared the fifth floor and were now in a serious conversation.
"Why isn't he coming out?"
"It's already been a week."
"Ji-Hoon oppa!"
At that moment, Ji-Hoon was transported to the waiting area on the sixth floor.
When people saw him arrive, they rushed to greet him. His clothes were tattered, and he looked pale. Ji-Hoon collapsed as if he was about to die.
"Ha... I almost died," Ji-Hoon sighed.
"Stop overreacting dude," Park Hye-Won replied.
At Park Hye-Won's words, Kang Ji-Hoon shouted that it was true, but not many people believed him. He had a tendency to exaggerate a lot, so the four of them were often misled by his behavior. As a result, now they could tell whether he was being serious or not by looking at his reaction.
"I’m being serious! I almost died!" Kang Ji-Hoon shouted.
"We know. You did Extreme Level too, right?”
"Yeah, but after going into this level, I can understand why this is called Extreme. To be honest, I don't know if I will be able to go for the Extreme Level next time, on the fifteenth floor,” Kang Ji-Hoon muttered.
At Kang Ji-Hoon’s words, the rest also nodded in agreement.
They were only on the fifth floor. Considering the amount of time they had spent on the first floor, they should not have already reached a bottleneck. Despite how much they had trained on the first floor, the Extreme Level on the fifth floor raised people’s awareness; they thought this level of difficulty could potentially kill them.
When they encountered the Lizardman Berserker on the second floor, the sense of crisis was not this extreme. However, all five of them felt that they could really die on the fifth floor.
"Eun-Ju said that she entered the Hard Level.”
"What? Really?"
"Yeah..." Eun-Ju could not look them in the eye.
Ji Eun-Ju looked depressed because she was feeling anxious that she was already starting to fall behind among the five people who were called the first five members.
Of course, she was not bold enough to take risks and follow them. However, it was not easy for her to get rid of that nervousness. She was worried that she would soon be separated from them.
Ji Eun-Ju looked up. Everyone had a similar expression on their faces. So far, they were all surviving well, but they all felt nervous thinking about when or how they would fail. It was not just Ji Eun-Ju. It was only then she felt a little relieved.
"But what about Baek Hyun?" Kang Ji-Hoon asked.
When Kang Ji-Hoon asked, the other four people looked worried.
"I don't know. We haven't heard anything from him yet."
"Huh? But, I thought he went in first, no? If it's Baek Hyun, even coming out first wouldn’t have been a surprise.”
"I was the first to arrive, but I didn’t see Baek Hyun then. Plus, the ranking did not get updated,” Park Joo-Hyuk replied.
At Park Joo-Hyuk's words, Kang Ji-Hoon looked serious, all of a sudden.
"No way..."
"Well, he could just be taking a long time. Let's not worry too much about it. There is no way something is going to happen to him on the fifth floor.”
"Of course! There's no way something is going to happen with his talents and skills!"
Hye-Won and Eun-Ju spoke with a more carefree tone, as if they were trying to get rid of the anxiety in their hearts. The four people who had cleared the Extreme Level thought that no matter how difficult this level was, things could not have gone awry for Baek Hyun, considering his skills.
However, those who knew Baek Hyun's personality too well, could not easily erase their anxiety, because there was another possibility that could be holding him back.
‘The Hell Level…’
Momentarily, the four recalled Baek Hyun's expression when he was looking at Lee Shin's score.
‘No way…’
* * *
As Lee Shin left the Dark Forest, the barren land appeared again and the red sky greeted Lee Shin. He walked endlessly on this piece of land where he could see nothing else. A while later, another old altar came into view.
[You have found the altar of the God of Blessings.]
Lee Shin ignored the message and walked to the altar. There were fifty bottles of small elixirs there.
[Pitying the Dark Frost Troll tribe that was infected with the unknown plague, the God of Blessings asked his apostles to take fifty elixirs, which could help them recover, and built an altar there.]
[Save the Dark Frost Troll tribe by using the elixirs from the God of Blessings.]
It was the second method of clearing the fourth floor. It was the hidden altar of the God of Blessings and his elixirs.
Searching for the faraway altar of the God of Blessings was not a secret method to clear this stage; many had already cleared the fourth floor using this method.
In the early days of climbing the tower, the challengers often considered the God of Blessings to be a good God judging from his appearance.
"This is disgusting," Lee Shin muttered.
If the God of Blessings felt sorry for the Dark Frost Trolls, why did he bring only fifty? The first condition to clear the fourth floor was to kill a hundred Dark Frost Trolls to save them, but there were only fifty elixirs from the God of Blessings.
Why were there only fifty instead of a hundred? Did the God not care that only fifty could recover while the other fifty continued to suffer?
Lee Shin brought out his Enchanted Silver Tree Wand and held it in front of the center of the altar.
"Are you going to break this altar?" Lilian asked.
"Yes," Lee Shin replied.
"Hahaha! I really want to see the face of the owner of this altar," Lilian laughed as she perched on Lee Shin’s shoulder as if she was having fun.
While Lilian was laughing, Lee Shin focused on his mana manipulation. At the end of his silver wand, Lee Shin’s mana began to swirl as they were gathered.
Wooong— Woong—
A threatening wave of mana was about to pour out.
Then suddenly, a system message popped up.
[The God of Blessings has requested to have a conversation.]
Lee Shin did not bother at all, as if he had expected it.
Paaang—!
As the wave of strong mana flew toward the altar, the entire space vibrated.
"Keugh!"
Lee Shin groaned at the rebound of the wave, but no damage was done to him. Lee Shin, who took a few steps back, frowned as he looked at the altar. There was no damage done to the altar either.
"This is how much of a shield they have placed on such a remote, shabby altar…?" Lee Shin could not believe that.
- Watch out for the altar, and don't believe it.
Lee Shin laughed as he recalled the manager’s advice.
It was ridiculous. There was no one in charge of the altar, and it was just an altar that had been quickly built after the apostles brought the elixirs.
There would have been more than one altar like this.
The destruction of several altars like this would not cause any disturbance to the gods whose classes were as high as that of the God of Blessings, since they were not placed at an important location.
[The God of Blessings tries to intervene.]
[The God of Blessings warns you not to cross the line.]
The voices of the gods were being forcibly transmitted to Lee Shin through the system. Even though Lee Shin did not even accept the request to have a conservation, having the message conveyed like this meant that the God had wanted to forcefully express his intentions even if it consumed a lot of power.
That was how urgent the situation was. Lee Shin could not believe that God was being led by the nose with the actions of a challenger on the fourth floor. Back when Lee Shin was climbing the tower for the first time, he could never imagine this.
Lee Shin simply thought the gods were almighty and out of reach.
However, thinking back now, Lee Shin believed the gods were really insignificant.
"What are you going to do if I cross the line?” Lee Shin lifted his wand once again.
The attack he made a while ago was just a test round. The altar was still fine, but he could clearly feel a wave of instability from the shield.
[God of Blessings says that he will give you a reward if you stop now.]
Lee Shin ignored the words and gathered his mana power again. This time, the wave of mana power was completely different from before. Gin’s unique ability, the [Black Mana], began to swirl around Lee Shin.
[God of Blessings is...]
[God of Blessings…]
[God of...]
Seeing a series of messages appear, Lee Shin could feel the sense of urgency in God of Blessings. Why was he so impatient? Lee Shin intuitively felt that there was a bigger secret hidden here as he saw the reaction of God of Blessings.
- Break down the altar, then the secret will be revealed.
Lee Shin obtained this information by paying 50,000 points. And this information was extremely valuable at this moment.
"Fuck you,” Lee Shin muttered.
Lee Shin had shown outstanding talent in the field of mana. Now his mana aggregated to one place and began to sway just like the heat haze. It was the fourth level, the best wave mana. Wave mana was the best option to break these shields. Because he had the Enchanted Silver Tree Wand, Lee Shin could use this mana without hesitation.
[Shock Wave]
Blue waves poured out from the tip of the wand and hit the shield of the altar.
Khwaaahhh!!
The whole space vibrated with the piercing sound of the sonic wave. And the intangible membrane that protected the altar broke apart and the altar collapsed.
[The altar of the God of Blessings has collapsed!]
[The invisible shield placed on the Dark Forest that was formed due to the altar has now disappeared.]
[The hero of the Dark Frost Troll tribe has woken up!]
[...]
Lee Shin smiled at the system messages that appeared one after another.
[The God of Blessings is furious!]
[The God of Blessings is...]
[...]
Ignoring the messages from the God of Blessings, Lee Shin looked up at the sky. The red sky seemed to represent the emotional state of the God of Blessings.
[Hidden Stage...]
Lee Shin smiled once again after seeing the contents of the hidden stage that emerged suddenly. Was that the secret? Since he was getting all the attention from different gods, maybe Lee Shin’s actions were being seen by most of the gods. And how would those other gods react to this now?
"This is fun," Lee Shin muttered.
Leaving the collapsed altar behind, Lee Shin took another step forward into the Dark Forest.
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