Chapter 19
#19. Survival Report
Open Community has a lot in common with other online communities, but it also has many differences.
For starters, Open Community uses a complete real-name system. Every post must include the writer's real name and server tag.
Sometimes there are people with the same name on the same server, but each profile has its own unique tag, so they can still be told apart.
Thanks to that, the usual troublemakers don't really crop up. Of course, there are still the occasional lunatics who do crazy things under their real names.
And unlike other communities, some degree of cliquish behavior and calling people by their nicknames is allowed.
In the past, the Tower of Trials was a very dangerous place.
All of the challengers who were abducted and brought in by invitation had to fight with their lives on the line, and many lost their lives in the end.
These days, solid strategies have been established all the way up to the 100th Floor, and safe ranker buses have become more common, but that doesn't mean all danger has disappeared.
A strategy only means something if you fully learn and put it into practice, and ranker buses are the kind of thing that can end in a total wipe if someone slips up.
It's true that climbing the Tower of Trials is much safer than it used to be, but at its core it's still more dangerous than most extreme sports.
That's why socializing is allowed under the pretext that there should at least be someone around to pass on the news when someone dies.
Even if it is socializing, the Tower of Trials naturally cycles people out so well that it's not really a problem.
Except for rankers who deliberately linger inside the Tower, most challengers will eventually clear the 100th Floor and leave.
-Didn't this guy die on the 1st Floor? He's still alive?
The challengers on Open Community must have assumed I'd died when I vanished without a word after spamming pointless posts every day.
There were even quite a few people who thought I hadn't died fighting a boss, but had instead gone insane from being stuck on the 1st Floor and committed suicide.
It seems to be because my posts on the community stopped after the day I received news of my mother's death.
In fact, they weren't entirely wrong.
I died once then. And I was born again as a new person. At least, that's how I think of it.
“Jeez.”
I'd resolved to cut off community life entirely, but it seemed I'd caused quite a misunderstanding, so I might as well clear it up.
[Author : Seo Jinhyuk#2661]
[Title : Oh, Yeah, It's Big Bro]
I didn't die on the 1st Floor. I just quit the community and spent my time grinding, that's all.
A few days ago, I soloed the boss and made it up to the 2nd Floor.
After my mother passed away, I did a lot of thinking.
I don't know if I'll still be the only one on Server 2661, but I'm planning to push forward alone as far as I can.
So just tell me how to raise spirit affinity already. It's urgent.
- So you're on the 2nd Floor now? Can you even get spirit skills on the 2nd Floor?
- ㄴ yep, probably even the first-generation hunters got them.
- ㄴ This bastard is already hogging the Tower all by himself—he must've found some hidden trick or something.
- Wow, holy shit, you can clear the 1st Floor strictly solo? What level were you when you did it?
- ㄴ Level 39
- ㄴ Level 39? Holy shit, you crazy bastard lol
- ㄴ How the hell did you do it, you son of a bitch?
- ㄴ Level 39 from only killing goblins? Didn't you go insane?
- Are you still the only one on that server? Has nobody joined yet?
- ㄴ yep
- Damn, Jinhyuk, I'm really glad you pulled yourself together. I'm rooting for you.
Every time I refresh, another page of comments appears. The reaction is far more intense than I expected.
People were mostly asking how I managed to beat the 1st Floor boss alone and roughly what my current stats are.
Those kinds of questions were the most common, followed by comments cheering on my new beginning.
Not only the usual community ghosts who were always around, but even rankers who weren't very active on the community showed up to leave a word of support.
The flood of attention I'd never once received while active on Open Community made me feel good for a moment.
So how do you raise spirit affinity, you bastards?
**
I turned off the endlessly chiming comment alerts for a moment and closed the community window.
I had a feeling that if I kept staring at the comments like this, I'd waste the entire day.
I figured I'd check the remaining comments again after taking a full lap around the maze area.
I re-equipped the gear I'd taken off and headed for the maze entrance, cutting across the center of the village.
[Challenger, the Tower of Trials is calling you.]
After I passed through the entrance where the same message as on the 1st Floor popped up, a monster I'd never seen before soon greeted me.
-Grrrr……
It gave a low growl that was just like the wolves I'd seen in the field, and it didn't look much different from a wolf either.
Only the face was different.
The monster that appears in the 2nd Floor maze area is a kobold, a beast slightly bigger than a goblin with a dog's head.
The kobold that spotted me stuck out its drooling muzzle and started charging.
Its speed is nothing special. Compared to the wolves in the field, it's actually a little slower.
-Bam!
I swung my shield with all my strength and smashed it, sending the kobold flying to crash far away just like the goblins on the 1st Floor.
As a trash mob at the maze's entrance, it was definitely weak as hell. At this rate, it's no different from a goblin.
Kobolds are bigger, and their physical abilities are naturally better than goblins' too.
But my stats have increased so much that the physical difference between goblins and kobolds is basically meaningless.
What matters isn't how much stronger they are than goblins, but how strong they are compared to me.
“Hey, are you dead?”
I called out toward the kobold that had been flung far away and sprawled on the ground. It probably didn't understand me, but it sprang right back up.
The kobold that stood back up had eyes glowing ominously red.
The biggest characteristic of kobolds, the main monsters in the 2nd Floor maze area, is their berserk pattern that activates when their HP drops.
Kobolds normally fight with weapons, but when their HP falls this low, they lose their minds and start rampaging.
Instead of discarding their weapons, they attack by latching onto people with powerful teeth and claws, inflicting bleed damage.
-Grrr!
The kobold, now berserk, rushed at me at a noticeably faster speed than before. I casually stuck out my foot.
-Thwack!
A red effect flashed and a critical hit triggered from a single kick. The kobold died instantly.
Berserk mode or not, a trash mob is still a trash mob in the end. Even a pattern change isn't much of a threat to me now.
The EXP it gives would be tiny anyway because of the level penalty, so it's probably not worth bothering with on purpose.
“Then it's treasure hunting.”
I opened the map of the 2nd Floor maze area uploaded on Open Community and set out to search for treasure chests for the first time in a while.
**
With my Agility stat having gone up, my speed while searching for treasure chests was on a completely different level from before.
On top of that, the maze area itself wasn't that large compared to the 1st Floor, so there weren't many treasure chests to begin with.
Thanks to that, I traversed the entire 2nd Floor maze area in just a few hours and collected every treasure chest.
But I hadn't really gained much.
There was only one large chest, which was the most important one, and just three or four medium ones, plus about ten small chests.
[Kobold Fang Belt]
Defense + 15
Strength + 1
Weight : 3
Durability 200/200
Enhancement Attempts Remaining : 2
This was about the only item I managed to salvage. A cumbersome belt that raises Strength by 1.
My belt slot is empty, so it's an upgrade for now, but it's such a small one that I doubt I'll even feel it.
My level is also completely stagnant, and there aren't any special quests I can do inside the maze.
At this point, I guess I've already gotten everything there is to get from the 2nd Floor area while doing the Shepherd Girl quest.
No matter how many kobolds I kill, I don't think I'll get any more EXP out of it than I would from killing a few hundred wolves.
I could raise my one-handed sword proficiency or level through mindless grinding like I did on the 1st Floor, but there's no real reason to.
“Then I guess this is what's left.”
And so, just two days after entering the Tower of Trials' 2nd Floor, I found myself standing before the boss room door.
It might seem a bit hasty, but I'm confident.
I beat the Goblin Lord without much trouble, and I even finished off the field bosses Robo and Blanca in just a couple of hits.
Judging from challengers' clear records over the years, the difficulty of the 2nd Floor boss room doesn't seem all that impressive.
Among the clear records for the 2nd Floor boss, the smallest party to defeat it was a five-person group.
Their average level was around 25.
Compared to the 1st Floor boss room's minimum-party clear record, where seven level-18 challengers took it down, that's not much different.
By the time I took down the Goblin Lord, it was clear I was stronger than seven level-18 challengers.
Compared to five level-25 challengers, I'd probably be stronger now too.
I trust the effort I've built up until now.
-Creeeeak.
[On the night of the full moon, the one that suddenly appeared and seized the throne was never a kobold.]
I flung the door open without hesitation, and a shimmering notification window appeared.
[BOSS - Werewolf Lugaru]
Waiting for me inside the boss room was a huge bipedal wolf.