The Tower's Trial: Floors 12 and 13

"The bonus stats... I'll put every last one into strength!"

As for defense... if I keep working at it, it should naturally increase, while I already have far more divine power than I need. Of course, divine power will become very important later on, but for now, it isn't very useful.

You might ask why I don't learn magic and spam it?

You can't learn ordinary attack magic with divine power.

It's the same as a mana user suddenly being unable to use the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

Unless it's used through an item or equipment skill, I can't use it even if I learn it.

Of course, there are attack skills that use divine power, like Holy Arrow, but they won't have any power unless I invest in their growth, and it would be a waste of money to learn skills I'll stop using later anyway.

Therefore, I'll invest all 21 bonus stats into strength.

Strength: 93.6 → 135.6

My strength had finally increased enough for me to pass as an Awakened.

- Her strength is monstrous.

- Cheat...

- It's amazing that this feels normal. Isn't this a realm some people can't even dream of reaching? lol

- I can't even find the words. Her strength is over 100...? On Floor 11?

"I'll clear Floor 12 in ten seconds... Please wait just a moment!"

- It can be done in ten seconds?

- That's the place where people can get trapped for years if it takes too long...?

- No way she's going to do that...?

[The trial is beginning. The recommended number of participants is 4]

"Start it with just me."

The trial on Floor 12 is simple. I just have to break through the labyrinth.

[The trial is beginning]

Along with a sensation of floating, my body is transported into a dark labyrinth.

And at the same time the trial begins,

"Full-Charge Overspeaaaar!!!!"

I slam a skill into the wall to my right from the starting point.

Dojester... No, it's a special skill contained in the Diana spear.

<Full-Charge Overspear>

Stop moving and gather strength for 5 seconds, then make one thrust with up to twice your strength.

Cooldown: 1 hour.

I tense my thighs, point my spear at the wall to the right, and charge forward. Gathering all the strength in my body, I drive the spear into the wall.

Bang!!

With a tremendous boom, the wall shatters, and through the drifting dust, I see the final boss, an enraged Minotaur, charging toward me.

- ???

- Wait, she really broke through the wall?

- Wow... Even knowing about this, I couldn't do it...

- How high is this chick's strength?

Kwooooooooh!!!!

It is an elite Minotaur, one and a half times as large as the one Yoon Seong-gi and I fought on Floor 8, armed with armor and a massive ax.

I lightly dodge its ax, slip inside its reach, and thrust my spear, piercing straight through the Minotaur's chest in one blow.

The terrifying boss monster that would probably have taken one of the four party members along to the afterlife if they had struggled through the labyrinth to the destination collapses in utter futility.

[You have cleared the trial. Clear time: 16 seconds. The reward increases for solo play]

Floor 12 is a place where the reward grade is divided according to time.

That is why, even if the labyrinth's layout changes slightly, its difficulty, starting point, and destination do not change.

And the destination is always found by breaking through the wall to the right of the starting point and proceeding forward.

You might think of this as cheating, but it is practically the Tower saying, 'If you have enough strength to break through this wall, you don't need to struggle through this place the normal way.'

"I'll just collect this reward and go home for a little while."

- Uh... This one is difficult, isn't it?

- Where's Lee Do-hee, who got trapped in the labyrinth?

- Is she seriously using some kind of hack?

- 19 seconds is an S-rank reward, so does adding solo play make it SS-rank too?

- I want to climb like that too...

[Please select an SS-rank reward]

"Jackpot..."

Well, there ought to be trials you can breeze through like this once in a while, right?

Starting from Floor 12, except on special floors, rewards no longer have a particular theme. They are simply random rewards that make you think, 'They give out something like this too?'

Traits, skills, secret manuals, equipment, elixirs, and all sorts of strange things can appear without discrimination.

Of course, something completely incompatible won't appear.

A martial-art trait like the Heavenly Martial Physique, which is useless to a mana user, won't appear. Very occasionally, something strange does show up, but in those cases it appears in a form that can be traded, such as a skill book, secret manual, or weapon. In other words, the Tower guarantees at least a minimal safety measure.

"All right!! Let's see!!!"

Three cards float in the sky. The moment I receive a reward is always the most exciting.

- Honestly, it's about time she had bad luck.

- Please let it be breast milk.

- Press it already.

- ?

- Press it, you bitch!

- Show us!

When I wait a moment in midair, the viewers grow impatient.

"Yes! I'm pressing it!!"

Tap-tap-tap!

I flip all three over at once.

'I wonder...?'

[Ding~]

[SS-Rank Rapid-Fire Archer]

Your proficiency with bows increases significantly, and, in particular, your reloading motions become much faster.

"Uh... This one isn't very good."

The next card.

[Additional Bonus Stats: 5]

"This is... insurance. Not bad. It would be nice if options like this came up one at a time, too."

This was an option known as insurance.

When the other options are meaningless or outright garbage, this is better than the alternatives. That is why bonus stats and skill enhancement tickets are usually called insurance rewards.

And the last card is...

[SS-Rank Nutrient-Rich Breast Milk]

You develop a constitution that produces a large amount of breast milk.

A child raised on the breast milk of a woman with this trait grows up very healthy and strong.

"......Huh!"

'What is this...?'

It is so absurd that I let out a hollow laugh and read it once more. No matter how I looked at it, it was a perverted trait.

- LOL

- Huh? It's really breast milk!!!!

- Aren't we used to things like this by now?

- The Tower administrators definitely enjoy sexually harassing her.

- Do-hee, is it just me, or does that look pretty good to you?

- You should make money selling breast milk, Do-hee.

- Does this give her a lewdness bonus too?

- Seriously, she'd make a fortune selling breast milk, wouldn't she? Parents would pay a lot for it.

"Uh... But that one is a little... I mean, even though I, um, have had sex, I'm not pregnant, so producing breast milk seems kind of strange, doesn't it? Option 1 might be useful later, but if I pick every option just because I don't know what it does, I'll end up with nothing useful. I'll take the bonus stats."

The SS-rank clear reward gave me 5 bonus stats, and the additional selection reward gave me another 5.

Bonus Stats: 10

"I'll put these into strength too."

Strength: 135.6 → 155.6

I dump all my stats into strength and briefly leave the Tower.

The outfit was rather embarrassing, but it was still better than being naked, and by now I was used to this kind of attention.

Before reporters could swarm me, I hurry home and turn on my computer.

"Phew... I'll do a little shopping!"

First, I withdraw the money I received in donations from Pantheon TV and check my balance.

[Tower Bank Balance: 1,154,454,500 won]

'1.1 billion? That's not actually all that much.'

No matter how much money I earned while being sexually harassed, there was a limit to how much I could earn.

Humans are creatures of adaptation, so although people donated a lot at first because watching me get raped gave them a dopamine rush, the more they watch, the more accustomed they become and the more bored they get.

Of course, it was still a little early to say they were bored, but the growth rate was definitely slowing compared to before.

Still, I was grateful for this much.

"Thank you, everyone. I'll spend all of this money right now!"

- You're going to spend it all?

- She's reinvesting all of that? LOL

- I told you she's a Tower addict, for real.

- It's honestly amazing that she even reveals her bank balance so openly.

- Do-hee, aren't you going to pay off your debt?

"The debt... I'll pay it back later, when I have a little more breathing room!"

I logged into Hunter Market for the first time in a while.

Beside it, I opened the <Growth Research Board> on my fan café and compared prices.

"Thank you so much to whoever uploaded this. Um... You're Dottameok, right? I'll put it to good use."

- She says she'll put Dottameok to good use....

- Change your username already LOL

- Your dream is to eat her~

- But why are you suddenly shopping?

"For now, I can still brute-force my way through. But starting from Floor 15, it might be a little difficult alone. I'll buy things now, then come back and reorganize before I pass Floor 15!"

At Floor 15, an additional item slot opens, as it does every five floors.

Not only that, but many elixirs will become impossible to take because of stat restrictions if I don't consume them now. I need to take them as soon as possible whenever I have the money.

After about an hour of shopping, I headed back to the Tower without announcing it beforehand.

I grabbed a quick meal of gimbap sold inside the Tower and challenged Floor 13 right away.

"Here I go."

Whoosh!

[The trial on Floor 13 is beginning]

Once again, I was alone.

A sensation of floating washed over me, and I became aware of something new.

What I saw before me was a dense forest.

Faint beams of light filtered through as leaves scattered in the wind.

And...

A shuriken flying straight at me from directly in front!

Whoosh!

I tilted my head to the side to dodge it and rapidly swept my spear through the air.

Splat!!

Something seemed to be sliced apart in midair, and blood sprayed in every direction.

"What a goddamn way to start."

With a dull thud, three people dressed in black fell from the sky as corpses.

The theme of the Floor 13 trial was escape.

I had to flee from the constantly pursuing squad of assassins until I reached the destination to clear the mission.

"But there's no need for that, is there? I'll just kill them all and come back!!"

I could see assassins moving from tree to tree and taking up positions throughout the dense forest.

Black masks and black clothing.

Their metal weapons reflected the faint light filtering through the leaves.

The vanguard had died so pointlessly that the remaining assassins didn't charge in. Instead, they circled around me, looking for an opening.

"Ha, they're just gnats."

I didn't have the patience to wait for them.

Bang!

I kicked off the ground hard and leaped.

I spotted an assassin darting about on the trees and thrust my spear into his heart.

And at that moment,

I sensed killing intent from every direction.

As if they had been waiting for precisely this moment, the assassins sprang out all at once and launched every kind of hidden weapon they had—throwing stars, shuriken, daggers, poisoned needles, and more.

'You're the ones who fell into the trap.'

I kicked away the assassin with the spear lodged in his chest, used the recoil to change direction in midair, and instead charged straight at them.

I narrowed the angle, knocking away or dodging the incoming weapons as much as possible while closing the distance between us.

Normally, once a person is airborne, it is difficult to change their direction or posture.

But I was a little different.

I swung my spear freely in midair without hesitation, and every flash of it sent an assassin collapsing like a leaf in the autumn wind, accompanied by a short death cry.

I used the falling corpses and the assassins lunging at me as footholds, moving smoothly through the air like a circus performer.

Just as when I fought the deputy warden at the Floor 11 detention center, three-dimensional combat in midair, where I forcibly created places to step, was my specialty.

One assassin per thrust of my spear.

They couldn't even retreat in midair,

and they were hunted down by me.

Thud...!

After a brief aerial battle lasting about ten seconds, I landed safely on the ground.

And at the same time,

Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!

the assassins' corpses and severed chunks of flesh rained down in every direction along with splashes of blood.

'Now... I feel like I'm gradually returning to form...'

My body, which had felt so stifled all this time, finally felt like it was functioning properly again.

Still, perhaps I had pushed myself a little too hard, because I tightly clenched my slightly trembling hand.

I recalled the omnipotent feeling I had once had, when it seemed like I could do anything.

Although I had been ambushed at a moment of carelessness in my previous life, in this life I'd become strong enough to repel every ambush, no matter when it came.

"Phew... This isn't the end, is it? I don't know what kind of assassin group they are, but I'll destroy them all and come back."

The hidden ending of Floor 13.

The trial ends if I find the assassin group that tried to kill me and kill every last one of them.

The true ending requires uncovering why I am being pursued and clearing my name, but that takes far too long because it requires brains, deduction, eloquence, and the ability to incite others more than raw strength.

I'll cleanly take the hidden ending and leave.

Seeing that the assassins possess neither special martial arts nor supernatural abilities, the basic trial difficulty is B-rank.

If I collect both the solo-play reward and the true-ending reward, I can still reach an S-rank reward.

Fwoooosh!!

I saw a red signal flare rising nearby.

It was probably a signal that the vanguard had failed.

"Oh, I can just go over there."

I dashed off as if I had found my prey.