Chapter 5
#5. Dopamine Deficit
As usual, I woke up in the afternoon, stretched, finished breakfast, and immediately headed out to hunt.
[Challenger, the Tower of Trials is calling you.]
I ignored the message that always popped up when I entered the labyrinth and headed straight onward, following the map compiled in the open community.
Thanks to yesterday's hunt, I'd reached level 18 and swapped my gear once, so the goblins were nothing but fodder to me now.
Not only ordinary goblins, but even stronger monsters like goblin squad leaders were all one-shot kills.
Only elite monsters like goblin centurions could withstand my attacks for up to two hits.
Of course, the goblin centurion's attacks couldn't even leave a scratch on me.
As I kept leveling up by cutting down monsters with such overwhelming power, I suddenly noticed something strange.
Seo Jin-hyeok Lv.20 (Jobless)
HP : 320/320
MP : 220/220
Strength : 28 (20+8)
Agility : 22 (20+2)
Endurance : 26 (20+6)
Intelligence : 22 (20+2)
This was my current spec. Not long after I started hunting, I'd already reached level 20.
But even after hitting level 20 and hunting quite a lot of goblins, my level didn't seem like it was going to go up.
What's going on? Don't tell me you can't level past 20 on the first floor or something?
I immediately opened the open community and started searching for information related to levels. The answer came quickly.
[Level Gap Experience Halving Multiplier Table (Research in Progress)]
“Ah, fuck.”
What I'd suspected was right. On the first floor, it was almost impossible to raise my level any higher than this.
There was a system where, if the level gap between me and a monster got too large, the amount of experience I earned was cut in half.
Of course, it only gets halved, not cut off entirely, so if I just killed an absurd number of monsters, I'd eventually level up.
But the efficiency would be terrible.
It's only been a few days, and my growth has already hit a wall. Nothing ever goes the way I expect.
Of course, this happened because my growth speed was absurdly fast, so I can't really complain.
And actually, if you think about it, my growth hasn't really been blocked.
The challengers who entered around the same time as me are probably only around level 10 at best. But with item bonuses included, I'm effectively almost level 30.
Besides, leveling up isn't the only way to grow stronger. As long as your stats go up, whether through gear or anything else, that still counts as growth.
And since I had the entire tower to myself, I could get much stronger than I am now just by focusing on treasure chest farming.
Then from here on out... it's just treasure chest farming, and nothing else.
I opened the open community again and spread out the map listing all the treasure chest locations.
I'd already picked up quite a few treasure chests so far, but there was still a significant amount of treasure left in the labyrinth area.
There were definitely treasure chests discovered by the first-generation hunters that weren't recorded here. Add those in, and there was still plenty left to get.
From now on, let's focus on quests and chest farming instead of hunting.
**
The results of spending the whole day focusing on treasure chest farming were pretty satisfying.
I got 11 small chests that dropped gold and materials, and 6 medium chests that dropped large amounts of gold and items.
And I got 2 large chests today too, and as expected of large chests, the rewards were very satisfying.
[Royal Knight's Straight Sword]
Attack Power + 52 (Slash)
Critical Damage : x 1.5
Durability 250/250
Enhancement Attempts : 7
A rare weapon came out that was far superior to my main weapon, the [Steel Straight Sword].
It had two more enhancement attempts than my current weapon, and its base attack power was far superior too.
The critical damage multiplier was a little lower, but with more enhancement attempts, I could just give it the [Sharp] enhancement.
After searching the open community, it turned out that, aside from unique weapons, this was the best straight sword you could get on the first floor.
My level had stalled at 20, but if you count the increase in my specs, it was effectively as good as going up 5 more levels.
That said, the stats shown in my status window didn't change right away, so the sense of satisfaction was a little less, but this was still more than enough of an excellent result.
[Author : Seo Jin-hyeok#2661]
[Title : Guys, I'm a newbie, is this any good?]
(Photo)
I opened a treasure chest and this dropped on the first try. Is it usable?
- No, it's complete trash, just sell it to the shop.
- You got that on Floor 1?? What server are you on that there are still chests left on Floor 1?
- Damn, that 2661 bastard's showing off is on another level lol
- For real?
- If it's the Royal Knight's Straight Sword, it's the best straight sword you can get on Floor 1~ Since it's a +2 attack top roll, with just a little enhancement, you could use it up to Floor 4.
- No, that bastard isn't asking because he doesn't know.
I shamelessly flexed in the open community again and, leaving behind the flood of handshake requests, grabbed a room for the night.
Since my leveling had also stalled, you'd think another challenger could come in now, but the number in the Tower of Trials #2661 chat channel still hadn't changed from 1/1.
I spent the night browsing the community until dawn as usual, then fell asleep.
**
The next day, I went to the blacksmith as soon as I woke up and had my weapon enhanced again.
This time too I put in the maximum materials, but maybe my luck was bad, because it failed once and stopped at +6.
Still, it was much better than the +5 Steel Straight Sword I'd been using, so I decided not to complain.
Anyway, even with the Steel Straight Sword, goblins were already almost all one-shot kills, so there was no urgent need to raise my attack power right away.
After the enhancement was done, I wolfed down the inn's set breakfast and headed straight for the labyrinth.
Medium treasure chests have a limited number of spawns, and once someone loots a large chest, it never respawns again.
Because of that, the number of treasure chests I can get has no choice but to decrease as the days go by.
Today I went pretty deep into the labyrinth, but in the end I couldn't find a single large chest.
In the end, I had to wrap up the day without any growth besides weapon enhancement.
[Tower of Trials#2661 (1/1)]
And the next day, no new challenger had come in yet either. I ate breakfast the same way and headed to the labyrinth.
While searching for treasure chests, I ended up in a place where goblins spawned in large numbers, and after a few swings, I leveled up.
It was my first level-up in two whole days. That brought me to level 21, but the stat increase was, of course, pathetically small.
And I got one more large chest, and the item inside was a [Mithril Wand]. It's a weapon used by mage classes.
It had absurd performance for something that came out on the first floor, but unless I changed into a mage, it was completely useless to me.
If there had been anyone else in the tower, I could have put it up for auction and sold it, but for me now it was just a sturdy iron rod.
And the next day after that, I devoted myself to treasure chest farming again, but the results were bad.
I didn't get a large chest this time either, and while a few equipment items came out of the medium chests, they were all things I was already wearing at max enhancement.
I got annoyed that the chests were so hard to find, so I took it out on the monsters too, but my level still didn't go up.
[Tower of Trials#2661 (1/1)]
New challengers still aren't coming in. It's already been days, and I'm still alone.
And the next day, the day after that, and the day after that again, there still weren't any major gains. I did make a lot of gold and enhancement materials, but that was all.
A few days later, I hit level 22. It was the result of the daily quests I'd been repeating day after day.
And then, when two weeks had passed since I entered the Tower of Trials.
“Damn it, I can't keep this up.”
My growth had completely stalled.
**
If you read novels or manga, there's always at least one scene like that.
The protagonist got absurdly strong by doing special training every day like this, but they never actually show how he did it.
Even though doing something every single day without a break is insanely hard, they just brush over the process like it's nothing.
I want to ask them. How did they endure doing such boring crap every day and still get stronger?
Seo Jin-hyeok Lv.22 (Jobless)
HP : 340/340
MP : 230/230
Strength : 30 (22+8)
Agility : 24 (22+2)
Endurance : 28 (22+6)
Intelligence : 24 (22+2)
It's been several days since I hit level 22, and there's still no sign of my level going up.
Even though I'd picked through almost every treasure chest in the labyrinth, all I was getting were duplicates.
Hunting and farming had both turned into repetitive work with no visible payoff. Now the only way left to get dramatically stronger was class advancement.
But I can't do that yet. If I advance to a normal class now, I'd lose out later when I try to advance into a unique or epic class on the upper floors.
Of course, there's no guarantee I'll ever find one of those hidden pieces, but still, it'd be a shame to do it now.
And even if I got stronger through advancement, then what? In the end, my growth would still be blocked until I reached the second floor.
Then there were only two choices left. Either keep grinding pointlessly and somehow force my way up in levels.
Or clear the boss monster by myself and head up to the second floor.
“Found it.”
My choice was obviously the latter, and so I stood before the tightly shut boss room on the first floor.
To put it bluntly, it was a spectacularly stupid choice.