Chapter 22
#22. Non-Player Character
After killing the last Kobold Rider, I sat down on the floor and sorted through the results.
[Clear Reward: You have acquired ‘Experience’ and ‘Gold’.]
[You can activate the Tower of Trials 3rd Floor transfer gate.]
[First Clear Reward: You have acquired ‘Wolf-Hunting Sword’.]
[Highest Contribution Reward: You have acquired ‘Werewolf Pelt’ and ‘Experience’.]
[Last Hit Reward: You have acquired ‘Passive Skill - Bleed Resistance’.]
For now, that was about all I got from the boss clear rewards: a new weapon and a pelt I wasn't quite sure what to make of.
The weapon given as the 1st Floor clear reward was an axe that didn't suit me, but this time, I was given a proper sword.
[Wolf-Hunting Sword]
Attack Power +65 (Slash)
Critical Damage : x 2.3
Durability 180/180
Unique Passive Effect: Beast Hunt
Killing a beast-type monster charges a [Hunt] stack.
Each charged [Hunt] stack increases Attack Power by 1, up to a maximum of 50 stacks.
Stack Duration : 1,800 seconds
Enhancement Attempts Available: 6
Looking at the options, this wasn't merely a proper sword. It was a Unique-grade weapon with a unique option.
Its base Attack Power greatly surpassed that of the [Kingdom Knight's Straight Sword], while its Critical Damage and Durability were remarkably high despite not having been enhanced.
Six enhancement attempts wasn't a particularly large number, but the base specs were so high that it was more than enough.
On top of that, the passive effect was incredible. My Attack Power would increase automatically just by killing beast-type monsters.
Even without any enhancements, maxing out the stacks would bring its Attack Power to 115. That surpassed the [Graksar's Bone Axe].
The duration was 1,800 seconds, or thirty minutes. I didn't know exactly how the stack duration worked, but that was more than sufficient.
Once I finished enhancing it in the village, it could immediately take the place of my main weapon.
[Werewolf Pelt]
Defense +15
Strength +5
Weight : 2
Durability 200/200
Enhancement Attempts Available: 5
The pelt I'd thought might be a miscellaneous item was actually armor classified as a cloak.
Its Defense wasn't anything special, but the +5 Strength attached as a base option was extremely appealing.
Since my cloak slot was empty too, this looked like it would be a significant stat upgrade.
But my Strength alone seemed to be getting too high compared to my other stats. At this rate, was I going to turn into the Hulk later?
“Hmm.”
Wondering if an achievement might unlock like last time, I equipped the [Werewolf Pelt] and [Wolf-Hunting Sword] together.
The Wolf-Hunting Sword was a straight sword with a dull, dark color that made it look rusty.
Its length and weight were just right for swinging, but it had no crossguard above the hilt; a dirty scrap of cloth was wrapped around the hilt instead.
It wasn't a very practical design, but its specs were so good that I supposed I'd just have to use it as it was.
The pelt cloak looked exactly like it had been made by peeling the hide off a werewolf.
I wondered if it might flap around and get in the way during combat, but it didn't seem likely.
Unfortunately, equipping both items together showed no sign of unlocking an achievement.
But that was fine. Intentional or not, I'd gained so much during the boss fight.
[All-Out Effort Lv.1}
[Instinct Lv. 1]
[Bleed Resistance Lv.1]
[Stun Resistance Lv.1]
[Combat Healing Lv.1]
That made five newly acquired skills, including the [Bleed Resistance] I'd obtained just moments ago.
Besides that, the levels of [Indomitable], [Combat Endurance], and [Combat Awakening] had also risen noticeably.
I didn't particularly care about [Instinct] or [All-Out Effort], whose effects I couldn't determine, or the Resistance skills, whose descriptions I didn't need to read.
Combat Healing, a skill only Tower of Trials rankers were supposed to have—I couldn't believe I'd obtained it.
The effect of Combat Healing was exactly what its name suggested: a regeneration effect that automatically healed the body during combat.
Even rankers with the skill only said, ‘I just happened to get it,’ and claimed not to know the exact conditions for learning it.
Maybe it was a skill you could learn after reaching a near-death state and barely recovering.
Since it was a skill possessed by many first-generation hunters who had challenged the tower with their lives on the line, that seemed entirely possible.
“Status window.”
Seo Jin-hyeok Lv.45 (Warrior)
HP : 670/670
MP : 345/345
Strength : 69 (55+14)
Agility : 49 (45+4)
Endurance : 51 (45+6)
Intelligence : 47 (45+2)
My level had gone up by one, and thanks to the items' stat bonuses, the total of my stats was extremely high.
This was the growth I'd achieved in the two days since coming up to the 2nd Floor. But for some reason, I wasn't as happy about it as I had been before.
I knew why.
I'd nearly died twice in those two days. My specs were sufficient, but I hadn't gotten results to match them.
In my fight with the werewolf, I landed only four or five genuinely effective hits.
The initial shield throw, two skill attacks, a shoulder attack aimed at an opening, and four consecutive dagger strikes into its back.
Finally, there was the fifth: with death right before me, I tore the werewolf's jaw off with every last ounce of strength.
I had won despite dealing only that much damage. I had enough attack power that I should have won overwhelmingly.
But because I'd been too careless, relying only on the difference in our specs, and because I'd gotten too excited after landing successful attacks, I nearly died instead of winning overwhelmingly.
It was a problem of skill unrelated to specs.
Maybe the direction of my growth was wrong.
**
Naturally, the people who had challenged the Tower of Trials under circumstances most similar to mine would have been the first-generation hunters.
And among those first-generation hunters, the early rankers who had stood out the most shared one thing in common.
Specifically, most of them had been involved in sports even before entering the tower.
Some had simply worked out a lot, some had learned martial arts as a hobby, and some had been professional athletes. The type didn't matter.
Whatever they had done outside, once they entered the Tower of Trials, they were all nothing more than Level 1 challengers.
By the time their levels reached double digits, the difference in basic physical ability caused by their lifestyle habits should have been negligible.
Yet they clearly distinguished themselves from other challengers and took the lead in climbing the tower.
It wasn't a matter of physical ability. Concentration, thinking, creativity, judgment, mind control, routines, and so on.
The various nonphysical abilities they had gained through their experience with sports had acted as another kind of power that couldn't be expressed through stats and skills.
But I had never developed any of that. I'd stupidly raised nothing but my stats and level.
If I'd been a challenger in another tower, there probably wouldn't have been any problem with this approach. In fact, many challengers grew this way.
But I'm a solo player.
I couldn't use the same methods or strategies as other challengers. Countless variables would continue to interfere with me.
I needed the same abilities as the first-generation hunters who had challenged the tower while contending with every possible variable and a lack of information.
The fundamental ‘skill’ to respond flexibly to all kinds of situations.
Before entering the Tower of Trials, I had been a fucking NEET bastard who sat holed up in his room, clicking away at a keyboard.
My concentration, thinking, judgment, creativity, and all the rest had long since melted away in waves of cheap dopamine that was easy to obtain.
Trying to develop those things now wouldn't be easy. I'd probably have to pour in an enormous amount of time and effort.
But I was confident.
It wasn't much different from holing up on the 1st Floor and grinding levels to defeat the Goblin Lord.
The only difference was that there were no intuitively displayed numbers.
My goal hadn't changed. I would clear this damn tower no matter what, get back outside, and apologize to Mom.
As long as I didn't lose sight of where I was headed and kept walking steadily, even at a slow pace, I would reach it someday.
“Good.”
Once I'd sorted out my thoughts, the excitement and elation I'd forgotten began surging up again.
I knew this wasn't the time to rush, but my body was itching to move on to the next floor.
[Do you want to activate the floor transfer gate?]
I stood before the floor transfer gate leading to the 3rd Floor.
“Ah, right.”
Come to think of it, the shepherd girl had said she would repay me properly at least once more.
I'd forgotten how to interact with people, so being around her was uncomfortable, but watching her bicker with the black dog was entertaining.
No matter what I said, she always reacted well, and her attitude and voice were invariably bright. There was no better person for my social rehabilitation.
I didn't really think she'd give me another reward, but once I went up to the 3rd Floor, it would be difficult to come back down, so... I should at least say hello before I left.
“Cancel.”
[Would you like to cancel activating the floor transfer gate? Activation authorization will remain valid for 48 hours.]
I left the transfer gate alone for the moment, exited the boss room, and retraced my steps through the labyrinth.
**
I knew where the shepherd girl was. NPCs generally appeared in set locations.
Of course, Nora was quite different from ordinary NPCs and seemed remarkably human, so I wasn't sure what would happen.
Fortunately, Nora was in the same place as the shepherd NPCs on the other servers.
“Hello, the weather is really nice today, isn't it?”
Nora greeted me with a smile as I approached. But her voice no longer had the vitality it had before.
“Hello, the weather is really nice today, isn't it?”
Her expression and voice were mechanical, no different from those of other NPCs.
“Hello, the weather is really nice today, isn't it?”
Nora, the shepherd girl I'd met again, had become an ordinary NPC who repeated the exact same line.
If a neighbor I knew suddenly turned into a robot, was this what it would feel like? Goosebumps rose all over my body.
Unable to bear looking at her like that, I headed toward the next floor as if fleeing.