Chapter 31
#31. Advance
The Lizardman, its neck stabbed through over and over by critical hits, couldn't hold out for long and collapsed.
Something I learned relatively recently is that strong monsters don't have their corpses disappear for a while even after they die.
Because of that, even if I've punched holes all through its neck like this, I can't completely rule out the possibility that it's actually still alive.
Ah, of course, this one is definitely dead.
A certain Lizardman once pretended to be dead and ambushed me, so I got into the habit of always finishing it off to make sure.
And I've done it so many times now that, at least with Lizardmen, I can roughly tell whether they're dead or not without even poking them.
[Quest Complete: Find the Treasure of the Ruins - Expedition Leader Windsor]
In the first place, the quest was already complete, and the field boss clear message and rewards had all come through.
The system interface has no reason to lie, so there was no need to check whether it was dead or not.
[Quest Reward: You have obtained 'EXP' and 'Gold'.]
[Objective Completion Reward: You have obtained 'Lightning Charge Lv.1'.]
[You are the new Ruler of Lightning.]
The field boss rewards weren't much, and the quest rewards weren't all that impressive either, except for one skill.
I did get a new equipment item, but even at max enhancement it wasn't much different from my best existing gear.
To begin with, the armor and weapons I'm wearing now are all just junk-tier gear with high durability.
I do have some good accessories with special options equipped, but I don't really obsess over items anymore.
If it were something Unique-grade or higher, I might be tempted, but my current build is already more than overpowered enough.
As for gains outside of items, maybe just the reward for a newly earned achievement.
[Achievement Unlocked: Ruler of Lightning]
[Achievement Reward: You have obtained 'Intelligence +5'.]
Intelligence, which had been the lowest of my four stats, went up by 5 at once.
I'm not a Mage class, so Intelligence isn't that important, but there's nothing bad about it increasing.
Even as a Warrior class, the total MP consumed when using skills is affected by Intelligence.
Anyway, the biggest haul this time is probably the skill called [Lightning Charge].
If it's a charge skill, then it's probably the usual thing: giving a weapon an elemental effect.
I pulled the dagger I'd stuck into the Lizardman's corpse and tried using the skill.
[Lightning Charge]
For a moment, blue sparks seemed to flash over the dagger, then quickly died down.
What, did it even activate?
Judging by the MP dropping in the status window, it did seem to be working, but the effect was way too underwhelming.
Is it because it's only level 1? Is electricity flowing through the dagger right now, even if it's not visible on the outside?
Hmm, if there were some trash mobs around, I'd have grabbed one and given it a quick stab.
Looks like I'll have to test this somewhere else after all.
I haven't done this in a while since the growth of my Poison Resistance skill stalled.
-Puk!
And so I sat down and started stabbing my own thigh with the dagger.
**
I poured a potion over the wounded thigh to heal it, then put the dagger back in my inventory.
“This is fucking trash.”
After spending about an hour steadily testing it on my own body, I came to the conclusion that this skill was complete trash.
At the very least, its basic spec was a toggle-type buff skill that could be maintained until MP ran dry.
As a sustained effect, it could make one equipped weapon conduct electricity.
But the power of that electricity was utterly pathetic. Setting aside the lack of a paralysis effect, it didn't deal any extra damage at all.
Even for a level 1 skill, I didn't expect it to feel like nothing more than the static shock you get when taking off a thick sweater.
And on top of that, it was lousy on fuel efficiency too. Even though I kept turning it off and on in between, it burned through more than half my MP.
At my level, for my MP pool to be cut in half after using it on and off for about an hour—now that's terrible efficiency.
An average third-floor challenger probably couldn't keep it up for long at all. Besides, mana potions are expensive even among consumables.
Even if its power is lousy, it'd be fine if I could use it to build elemental resistance, but it's so weak that it doesn't seem to be generating a resistance skill either.
In a word, it's a total albatross.
It's useless to me for now, but since it's one of the few active skills I have, I still need to keep using it and leveling it up.
“Are all charge skills like this?”
After confirming that my thigh had healed completely, I stood up and muttered to myself. I should check the community for the first time in a while.
Whether it's worth developing, whether it's something a regular Warrior like me can actually make use of.
If it doesn't suit the Warrior class, then I'll just throw it away. It's not like I can change classes now.
-Welcome to the Tower of Trials Open Community!
The community I'd opened to look up information was, for some reason, burning with excitement.
[Official) 4th Festival Event Confirmed]
**
The post refresh rate on the Open Community was already fast, but today it was on a completely different level.
[Holy shit, the Festival's actually happening]
[Fuck, the 4th Festival is fucking awesome]
[Has the Festival period been announced yet?]
[So is Meteor Stone getting a rerun?? Will the price drop?]
[Will the festival dungeons be the same as before?]
[We shared all the dungeon info during the 2nd Festival]
It feels a lot like a game community when a big update notice drops. The common keyword is Festival.
I knew there was an event called the Festival in the Tower of Trials.
The Festival is a server-wide event held roughly every three years, one of the few chances for challengers from different towers to meet.
It's a system where challengers move to a shared field, team up to clear dungeons, earn rewards, and farm Festival-exclusive gear.
When I was stuck on the first floor, I thought this Festival would be my chance to escape, so I had high hopes for it.
Not long after, I found out the minimum requirement to participate was clearing the first floor, and that shook me quite a bit.
The year I entered the Tower of Trials was ten years after the Great Cataclysm, and about a year and a half had passed since I got in.
Then I guess it's about time.
[But is Jinhyeok coming to the Festival?]
While refreshing the endlessly updating page, one post caught my eye.
Why the hell are these bastards so interested in me?
When I opened the post, it was lined with comments from challengers who shared the same interest.
Well, damn. This is like being treated as some legendary Pokémon.
Since it's a good opportunity to grow, of course I'll participate, but I'll need to be careful not to draw unnecessary attention.
A lot of challengers look favorably on me, but there are definitely bound to be some who don't.
I'm definitely overwhelmingly stronger than challengers on the same floors, but compared to high-floor challengers or rankers, I'm still lacking by a lot.
If some high-spec lunatic takes a dislike to me and picks a fight, I won't have any way to deal with it since I don't belong to any guild or group.
Actually, there is one.
I snickered and closed the noisy community window.
If I'm worried about some high-spec lunatic picking a fight, wouldn't it be enough for me to become strong enough to handle anyone who comes at me?
Closed-door training aimed at improving my skill was over. From here on, all I had to do was keep pushing up the floors, advancing and raising my specs.
“Let's go.”
What I had to do hadn't changed one bit. Keep moving forward without stopping, endlessly.
Until I reached the summit of this tower.
**
As soon as I stepped into the boss room, a series of messages popped up.
[Karamanta, a genius scholar who learned the languages of other races, asked the Lizardman who had become his friend.]
[Why is the leader of the warrior tribe a shaman who presides over rituals?]
[The Lizardman replied that you don't know what terrible sorcery they can wield.]
Beyond that, the shaman Lizardman, standing before an elaborate ritual altar, was trembling as it chanted an incantation.
[BOSS - Alkeman, High Shaman]
According to the latest strategy, which was put together fairly recently, if you attack that guy as soon as you enter, you can interrupt the spell he's chanting.
If you do that, the number of ancient Lizardman warriors summoned goes down, which apparently is a special gimmick that lowers the floor's difficulty.
And with my throwing skill, I'd be able to land the attack in one shot and stop the spell.
But I stood still and waited for the spell to be completed.
-Ker-ruk! Ker-ruk!
And before long, the staff in the Lizardman shaman's hand began to glow.
As a mysterious violet light surged, the bone fragments laid out on the altar stood up on their own and began to gain flesh.
[BOSS - Gatunak, Greatest Axe-Wielder]
[BOSS - Lopegotan, Most Seasoned Spear-Wielder]
[BOSS - Haprak, Sharpest Archer]
[BOSS - Itel, Sturdiest Shield-Bearer]
The Lizardman heroes who surpassed upper-tier warriors, each wearing a purple stripe on their shoulders, gathered in one place.
And the shaman who had called forth every great hero etched into the tribe's history wore a smug expression.
An expression of unwavering certainty that, with these warriors at his side, he would never lose.
“All done?”
But the conviction in my eyes as I looked back at him was several times clearer than his.
[Congratulations. You have cleared the 3rd floor of the Tower of Trials for the first time.]