Chapter 10
I was surprised after reading the item description.
A Rare+ skill?
On top of that, it wasn’t just a skill stone.
It was giving me a choice between five different skills.
Just like the name “grimoire” suggested, they were all magic-type skills.
I read through each skill description one by one.
\[Skill: Lesser Mind Control (Rare+)\]\
Controls the minds of low-grade creatures. Up to ten individuals can be controlled at once. Requires 3 minutes of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 200\
Cooldown: 1 hour
Lesser Mind Control.
Apparently, it allowed me to control low-grade creatures.
Was this the magic that old wizard had used to control the goblins?
\[Skill: Teleportation (Rare+)\]\
Teleports you within a 10-meter range. Requires 30 seconds of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 150\
Cooldown: 1 minute
This one was Teleportation.
As the name suggested, it was simply the ability to teleport.
\[Skill: Flame of Decay (Rare+)\]\
Sprays flames of decay that rot living beings. Requires 20 seconds of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 20 per second\
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Flame of Decay, huh.
It seemed like an offensive skill similar to Flame Strike.
\[Skill: Shadow Swamp (Rare+)\]\
Creates a shadow swamp over an area, binding and attacking enemies. Requires 3 minutes of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 200\
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Wait, this one too?
The description sounded similar to the ability that old wizard had used.
Was it some kind of AoE skill?
\[Skill: Life Drain (Rare+)\]\
Drains the life force of nearby living beings. Requires 1 minute of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 10 per second\
Cooldown: 1 minute
And finally, Life Drain.
It was an ability that drained life force.
The exact effect wasn’t explained in detail.
What good did draining life force do? Would it heal my injuries?
“Hmm…”
So I had to choose one of these.
There was no need to consider the Mental Focus time or the Willpower cost.
The only things that mattered to me were the skill’s effect and its cooldown.
Lesser Mind Control and Life Drain.
I immediately eliminated those two.
Lesser Mind Control’s cooldown was too long to begin with. One hour? Seriously?
On top of that, the wording “low-grade creatures” was vague.
If it could only control monsters around the level of goblins, then there was no real reason to covet it.
Life Drain was out for a similar reason.
I couldn’t tell exactly what benefit I would get from draining life force.
‘It probably restores stamina or heals injuries, though.’
Since the Willpower cost was 10 per second, it seemed like a skill that remained active once cast.
Could I use it during combat? Could I move while using it?
It also had the condition that the target had to be nearby.
Overall, it was uncertain and ambiguous.
That left three skills.
This was where the real dilemma began.
Because all three of them seemed to have their own strengths.
\[Skill: Flame of Decay (Rare+)\]\
Sprays flames of decay that rot living beings. Requires 20 seconds of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 20 per second\
Cooldown: 30 seconds
This one also consumed Willpower per second, like Life Drain.
But didn’t that mean I could keep using it as long as my Willpower didn’t run out?
On top of that, since the description said it “sprays” flames, I could roughly imagine what kind of attack it was.
Maybe something like a flamethrower.
‘Infinite flamethrower does sound pretty tempting.’
For me, someone who basically didn’t have to worry about running out of Willpower, it seemed pretty damn good.
The only thing bothering me was that I already had an offensive skill.
\[Skill: Shadow Swamp (Rare+)\]\
Creates a shadow swamp over an area, binding and attacking enemies. Requires 3 minutes of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 200\
Cooldown: 10 minutes
I had already seen this one with my own eyes.
It was probably the same magic that old wizard had used.
Being able to instant-cast an AoE skill like this?
Ah, this one seemed really good too.
The cooldown was a little long, though.
\[Skill: Teleportation (Rare+)\]\
Teleports you within a 10-meter range. Requires 30 seconds of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 150\
Cooldown: 1 minute
And finally, Teleportation.
This one was… just good.
Of course, if you looked at it normally, it was complete trash.
Taking 30 seconds to teleport a measly 10 meters? What the hell kind of magic was that?
‘I could crawl 10 meters in less than 30 seconds.’
But for me, Mental Focus time meant nothing.
In other words, I could freely use Teleportation as an instant-cast skill even during combat.
Especially in situations like when I got hit by that arrow before, where I stopped time but still couldn’t dodge the incoming attack.
With Teleportation, I would be able to avoid it.
It meant I would gain a very useful evasive skill.
After thinking it over, I made my decision.
\[You have acquired “Skill: Teleportation (Rare+)”.\]
Once I chose the skill, the grimoire crumbled away and disappeared.
All of them looked good, but Teleportation was definitely the better choice.
There was one more important reason.
Regardless of difficulty, the Tower’s floors shared a certain theme when they were the same floor.
Nightmare Floor 1 had been absurdly harder than the other difficulties, but in the end, it was still a floor where you had to fight goblins.
And the theme of Floor 2 was a jump map.
Apparently, lava rose from below while you had to climb upward by stepping on platforms.
So when considering Floor 2, choosing Teleportation was the right call.
After all, I had to pick whatever would help me the most with the next floor right now.
I tried using Teleportation right away.
Pop.
After 30 seconds of Mental Focus, my body teleported.
“Oh.”
I turned around and checked the distance I had moved. It was pretty fascinating.
After experiencing teleportation for the first time in my life, I checked the other rewards.
\[Rare Skill Enhancement Stone\]\
Can enhance one Rare-grade skill.
A skill enhancement stone came out.
I heard these were even rarer than skill stones.
The only Rare-grade skill I currently had was Flame Strike.
Should I use it on Flame Strike right away?
I used it without much hesitation.
‘Hoarding it would just turn it into crap.’
Unless I entered Floor 2, I wouldn’t be getting any other skills as rewards anyway.
And if I did enter Floor 2, there was no reason to get cocky and go in without using this first.
\[Would you like to use “Rare Skill Enhancement Stone”?\
Available Skill: Flame Strike\]
\[You have used “Rare Skill Enhancement Stone” on “Skill: Flame Strike (Rare)”.\]
\[“Skill: Flame Strike (Rare)” has been enhanced. The number of fireballs has increased.\]
\[Skill: Flame Strike (Rare) (+1)\]\
Fires two condensed flames that cause explosions. Requires 20 seconds of Mental Focus to cast.\
Type: Magic\
Willpower Cost: 100\
Cooldown: 30 seconds
A +1 mark appeared next to the skill name.
The number of fireballs had increased, so did that mean I could fire two now?
I considered testing Flame Strike on some empty space, but then stopped.
Using Teleportation once had drained my Willpower completely.
I couldn’t be bothered to wait, so I’d check it later.
The final reward to check was… a magic stone.
\[Top-grade Magic Stone\]\
A magic stone of top-grade quality.
It seemed a little bigger than the last reward.
‘Not like it’s useful to me anyway.’
To sell magic stones, you had to register as a Climber and obtain selling rights. As for me, I was an illegal, unregistered Climber who had never reported myself, so it wasn’t like I could sell this anywhere.
Well, it wasn’t as if I had ever been hoping to make money from this anyway.
The only reason I was entering and leaving a Tower I never wanted anything to do with was for world peace.
Man… What a tear-jerking spirit of self-sacrifice.
If I die like this, I wonder if someone will at least build me a statue.
‘But this is making me weirdly uneasy.’
Weren’t the rewards a little too generous?
Even considering the first-clear bonus and the hidden route.
Just from Floor 1 alone, I had already received one Rare skill, one Rare+ skill, and one +1 enhancement for a Rare skill.
On top of that, my level was already 15.
…What kind of god-awful trial was waiting on Floor 2 for the Tower to hand out this much?
That felt ominous.
“Can’t someone else clear Floor 2 for me…?”
I really hoped someone other than me would clear Floor 2 before the time limit.
Of course, before that, even a single person had to clear Floor 1 first.
I wondered how that Nightmare clearing project in America was going.
The self-sacrificing spirit I had been monologuing about just now had already vanished without a trace.
Actually, it had never existed from the start.
I seriously didn’t want to do this either.
I already did Floor 1, okay?
Please, someone else take over from Floor 2 onward.
If they did, I had full confidence I would cheer them on harder than anyone.
\[Would you like to exit the Tower?\]
I left the Tower.
I was hungry.
I should eat some rice with the leftover galbi-jjim from breakfast.
---
After clearing the hidden route on Floor 1, time passed quickly.
Whenever I had time, I occasionally entered Floor 1 and did repeat clears.
Maybe because I had already cleared the hidden route, even when I went down through the underground passage, the old wizard was no longer there.
I didn’t need magic stones, but the reason I kept doing repeat clears was, well, to maintain my senses.
In any case, I couldn’t just sit around without preparing for Floor 2.
\[Rhino: Thank you as always. Have a good day.\]
I also exchanged whispers with Mr. Rhino from time to time.
He still regularly asked me for advice.
All I did was explain what I had experienced in as much detail as possible, so I wasn’t sure it could really be called advice, but if even that helped them, then that was fortunate.
While talking with Mr. Rhino, I also added more details to my information post.
For example, whether the three goblins appeared at fixed intervals or only after all three had been defeated; exactly how much time passed before the stone gate closed; exactly when the crossbow goblin appeared; and so on.
Even small details like that could end up being important.
Mr. Rhino had only been the first. After him, many others also sent me whispers asking for advice about Nightmare Floor 1.
Among them, there was even someone from our country’s Special Climber Bureau.
I didn’t know the details, but I guessed Korea was doing its best in its own way too.
Regardless of country or nationality, if anyone asked me for advice about Floor 1, I helped them as much as I could. I ignored everything else, though.
Please, anyone would be fine.
I just wanted someone to succeed and give me hope.
Had that wish finally reached someone?
\[Nightmare (2)\]
“…Huh!”
One day, I entered the communication window and was startled when I saw the changed number.
It had been about three months since I cleared Floor 1.
Finally, a new Nightmare Floor 1 clearer had appeared.