Chapter 29
#29. Closed-Door Training
I'm about as famous on the Open Community as most rankers are.
Because I'm the only Solo Player in the world, and because I used to be a no-life loser who spammed the Open Community with garbage posts like a maniac.
On top of that, my unusual circumstances have been known outside the Tower of Trials for one reason or another, so there's no way I could stay unknown.
If you live in Korea and keep up with Hunter or Tower of Trials news, you probably know who I am.
But fame and the amount of attention you get on the community don't always line up.
Community ghosts don't actually pay much attention to top rankers—those people everyone knows by name.
Those fossilized old monsters are so strong they’ll never die alone out in the world, so no news is good news.
Above all, if they're in the same tower, hearing about rankers or even seeing them in person isn't that hard.
But if I step away from the community even a little, all news about me gets cut off completely, and to make matters worse, I'm in a dangerous environment to begin with.
So they seem even more interested in me, but honestly, it's just annoying.
I mean, I'm finally off the community and focusing on living a diligent life—why the hell are they freaking out?
I blocked every private message that had been pestering me, but now the block list is full, so I can't even do that anymore.
-Ding ding ding ding ding!
“Ugh, fuck.”
If I leave them alone, they spam me to death until normal life becomes impossible.
[Author : Seo Jin-hyeok#2661]
[Title : I'm Not Dead Yet, You Bastards]
Stop sending messages, fuckers.
With no choice, I wrote a post on the community to let everyone know I was alive. Comments piled in at an insane speed.
Stuff like, Why’d you go dark? If you’re alive, at least make a post saying so.
That makes it sound heartwarming, but almost none of them were free of the word “fuck.”
The Open Community isn't a place with a real-name-only policy or where only people of a certain bent or age gather, so the atmosphere rarely feels uniform.
Yet I don't know why every post or comment about me has this kind of vibe. It feels less like the Open Community and more like I'm browsing a DC Inside gallery.
As I sighed and casually replied to the comments, the area near my left temple started itching lightly, so I reached out a hand.
-Thunk.
I snatched an arrow that had been shot at my head. Turning to look, I saw a mid-tier Lizardman warrior holding a longbow.
What, they already tracked me down?
I tossed the arrow I'd caught to the ground and, after pushing the Open Community window aside, approached the Lizardman. There were two stripes.
A nobody like that charging me so boldly—battle races really are different.
The archer Lizardman quickly drew his secondary weapon, a dagger, and rushed at me.
A lizard-man two meters tall and built like a tank charging at me with a dagger is always an imposing sight.
But I'd seen it so many times by now that I could react with complete indifference.
-Thwack!
I smashed a low kick into him to break his balance, snatched the dagger from his hand, and stabbed him in the neck with it.
The dagger sank squarely into a vital spot, triggering a red critical effect, and the Lizardman's breath cut off in an instant.
It had already been several months since I began voluntary closed-door training on the third floor.
Now I could take down a mid-tier Lizardman barehanded while replying to comments on the community.
**
The training method of forcing myself into extreme situations was definitely effective.
How many times had I almost died by now? Once it got to the point where I couldn't count on both hands anymore, I just stopped counting.
I kept repeating those insane, gambling-like acts, but I always came out ahead and walked away with huge winnings.
Seo Jin-hyeok Lv.50 (Warrior)
HP : 780/780
MP : 400/400
Strength : 80 (66+14)
Agility : 66 (62+4)
Endurance : 71 (65+6)
Intelligence : 57 (55+2)
My level was still 50, unchanged from several months ago. Since the required EXP kept increasing and the level gap was so huge, it hadn't gone up at all.
But as you can see, my stats had risen enormously across the board. That was thanks to a few achievements and the stats I'd raised through sheer effort.
I only learned this relatively recently, but stats could actually be raised through ordinary exercise.
No matter how much you exercised in the outside world, once you entered the Tower of Trials, everyone started with all stats at 1.
But the abilities you improved by training yourself inside the tower were reflected directly in your stats.
If someone who'd been a pretty weak beanpole before entering the tower got personal training and worked up to a 500 total on the big three lifts, their Strength stat would rise accordingly.
But because a one- or two-point difference in Strength is much bigger than you'd think, raising stats through exercise alone is very difficult.
And raising them that way doesn't even give you any special bonus effects or anything.
But by fighting Lizardmen barehanded with my life on the line and diligently sticking to my routine, I was able to raise my stats quite a bit.
My displayed level was 50, but in terms of actual stats I was above level 60.
Add in the skills I'd gained and the various improvements in my actual ability, and the gap in combat power between me and challengers of the same level would be considerable.
Looks like it's about time to clear the third floor and move on.
**
I already knew where the boss room was, but there was somewhere else I needed to go first.
The very ruins where I’d been stabbed in the back by the expedition NPCs—the place where lightning slumbered.
I had already finished the ruin exploration up to the final stage, and all that was left was to take down the ruin's boss monster I'd been saving for last.
The ruin's boss was technically a field boss, but it was probably the strongest monster in the entire third-floor area, boss room included.
That's because the third-floor boss fight is, unlike floors 1 and 2, a group battle against multiple Lizardmen.
The concept is that the Lizardman shaman selects the tribe's greatest heroes from the past and resurrects them with sorcery to fight you.
By contrast, the ruin's boss is expected to be a single entity. Since it was handling the boss role solo, naturally it would be the strongest.
I put on leather armor with all its enhancement dumped into [Endurance], and at my waist I strapped a dagger and a hand axe as secondary weapons, alongside my main sword.
For little weapons like these, it's easier to keep them drawn and ready than to leave them in the inventory.
I tore off and ate just enough white roll to settle my stomach, finished my preparations, and headed for the ruins.
-Rumble!
The wall sealing off the ruins' final section opened, revealing a huge cavern beyond the stone gate.
Like any other boss room, it was an extremely quiet space. And beyond it, crouched at the center of the cavern, was a Lizardman.
It was the white-bodied Lizardman I'd seen in the mural, but the 'weapon that wields lightning' depicted there was nowhere to be seen.
The boss battle message that popped up before my eyes told me why.
[The greatest weapon is neither sword, bow, nor spear, but the martial training a warrior has accumulated over a lifetime.]
[For that reason, the Lizardmen regarded the greatest warrior as a weapon in his own right.]
[The warrior born with the power to control lightning, the one who inspired fear in every Lizardman—that warrior must be the 'weapon that wields lightning'.]
What had been sealed in the ruins wasn't some treasure or anything. A notification window flashed, saying the ruin exploration quest had been completed.
[BOSS - Kiennul, Ruler of Lightning]
As the Lizardman picked up a spear and rose to its feet, sparks crackled in its eyes.
**
The first thing I thought when I saw the white Lizardman was the expedition member who had cracked me on the back of the head.
Those idiots who said they had to assassinate me because I might steal the treasure.
What treasure? There wasn't any treasure in the first place—just a single extremely dangerous-looking Lizardman.
Even if they'd somehow managed to take me out and make it here, they'd have just ended up getting killed by that pale lizard and that would have been the end of it.
They're NPCs anyway, so it's pointless to nitpick this, but it's still hilarious.
-Grrr……
The Lizardman watched me, letting out a low growl. There were no stripes marked on its shoulders.
But it definitely had the skill of at least an upper-tier warrior. You could tell roughly from the way it held its spear and watched me warily.
Even discounting its power to wield electricity, it would still be among the stronger ones.
Let's test the waters first.
I took two stones out of my inventory and hid them behind my shield. Then I carefully timed it and hurled them with all my might.
It could probably swing its spear to knock away one stone, but it wouldn't be able to block the second that easily.
[Throwing Technique Lv. 6]
It's my deadly curveball after throwing rocks so much I even learned the Throwing Technique skill and pushed it to level 6.
The stones flew in sharply curving trajectories, but the Lizardman ignored them and started charging straight at me.
And then, the moment the stones and the Lizardman finally got close, there was a crackling sound and a flash of light.
-Bzzzzzt!
The lightning that erupted around the Lizardman's body intercepted both stones and shattered them to pieces.
What the hell, an electric barrier?
If I got any closer, I'd end up fried to a crisp.
I'm a warrior, for fuck's sake.