Assassin

The mana gains from Treant fruit seemed to have a limit.

At some point, even after eating the fruit and meditating, my mana pool wouldn't increase anymore.

Still, by keeping up the intake until now, it had grown to more than twice my original mana pool.

At this rate, I probably wouldn't have mana shortages for a while.

But it was also true that there was nothing left to gain by staying on the 16th floor.

[You have entered the 17th floor (EXTREME).]

Today, I decided to climb to a new floor.

I was close to leveling up now, after all.

The humid jungle air greeted me once more.

"Desertification."

This time, I controlled my power.

Just enough to get only the exact amount of sand I needed.

Then I pulled a mini clone out from inside my robe.

After observing the AI-equipped clone for several days, I came up with a hypothesis.

The older the sand clone, the higher its learning efficiency.

Even if I broke a clone apart with sand and remade it, everything it had learned until then didn't reset to zero.

Still, the one that kept its body longer seemed to get smarter.

To prove that hypothesis, I had kept one clone intact without breaking it apart ever since a few days ago.

Thanks to that, I had to live without the tip of my pinky finger.

"Go, Chohogi!"

I still hadn't given it a name.

If I got attached to it, I'd probably feel sad when I broke it back into sand later.

The mini clone, Chohogi, leaped down from my shoulder.

The sand around it, created by desertification, clung to Chohogi's body and began to increase its size.

In an instant, Chohogi grew to my size.

I then started creating clones one by one.

These guys were clones meant to be compared against Chohogi.

Using the robe's effect, I gave them artificial mana cores.

I handed them spears made of sand instead of toothpicks.

The spears were flimsy, but they were training tools anyway. If they broke, I could just make them again.

"If I make a lot of money later, should I give each of them an item?"

Then I might end up with my own invincible sand legion.

A one-man legion—just thinking about it was cool.

"...I don't even have any gear. What am I talking about?"

I quickly shook my head.

For that, I'd need a lot of money. A lot.

I couldn't even buy my own gear right now.

A sand legion was a dream far too far off.

"All right, let's see what you can do on your own."

I gave the clones the order to hunt and stepped back.

The clones scattered in all directions and started rummaging through the grass.

Soon, a few lizardmen appeared.

A battle that would be over in an instant if I just fired a few sand bullets.

But I didn't do that.

"They need to gain experience."

I've been training them with a phone that has a harmful-content filtering app installed, but videos are still just videos.

They needed real combat.

The same cruel, grueling real combat I had gone through.

The clones rushed at the lizardmen, swinging their spears.

Still clumsy, but their movements were clearly better than before.

At least they weren't tripping over their feet while running anymore, which was a relief.

I took a seat a good distance away.

And closed my eyes, starting meditation.

I left the clones' battle to them and focused on drawing in the surrounding mana.

Stay calm. I had to make the most of the dense mana concentration inside the tower.

I sank deeper and deeper into a state of concentration.

That's when it happened.

Even with my eyes closed, Insight Eye was still working.

In fact, with my normal vision blocked, my other senses became even sharper.

It felt like turning on a thermal imaging camera.

And something caught my sharpened Insight Eye.

Something faintly slicing through the air.

"Huh? What's this?"

It was approaching me at tremendous speed.

I opened my eyes.

Nothing was visible to normal sight.

But I could feel its presence clearly.

I realized it instinctively: an invisible enemy.

"What the—!"

I immediately stopped meditating and fired several sand bullets into the air.

Pshoo!

The invisible enemy lightly dodged my attack.

Looks like its agility stat was pretty high.

The bullets sliced through the air without hitting anything.

I wasn't flustered.

Because I'd expected this might happen and had prepared a countermeasure in advance.

"Cheonma Overlord Step."

It's common knowledge that "Cheonma" is short for "genius mage."

Without hesitation, I stomped the ground hard.

At my will, the sandy ground around me surged violently once like a wave.

Where the wave of sand swept past, I could see the invisible enemy's movement falter for an instant.

"Got you, you little punk."

I didn't miss the opening.

I scattered dozens of sand bullets tightly in all directions.

A barrage of bullets spreading out like a net.

No matter how agile it was, there was no way it could dodge this.

"Cheonma Death Beam."

Papapapak!

Sure enough, I heard the sound of several bullets piercing something.

With a short cry, the invisibility was dispelled and the enemy's form was finally revealed.

"A person...?"

No, not human.

Pitch-black skin, sharply slanted eyes, long pointed ears.

The form of an assassin wearing black light armor and holding sharp daggers in both hands.

On closer inspection, it was an elf.

Black skin meant a dark elf.

"Nobody said something like this would appear."

I'd never seen a monster like this in the gallery or in any walkthrough.

"This is really annoying...."

There was no telling how many more of these guys might be hiding.

I immediately recalled all the scattered sand clones.

Chohogi climbed back onto my shoulder in its shrunken form.

Without hesitation, I started running across the tower.

To be precise, it wasn't running.

The sand beneath my feet moved on its own, carrying me at high speed.

The scenery around me flashed past rapidly as if I were using a leap technique.

I charged forward, desertifying everything around me.

At the same time, I floated dozens of sand bullets around my body and stayed on guard.

I moved forward, shooting down every monster I saw.

How long had I run?

Soon, a familiar clear notification appeared before my eyes.

[Congratulations on clearing the 17th floor (EXTREME) of the Tower.]

At the same time, three skill books appeared before me.

"Nice, I'm finally leveling up."

Full of anticipation, I checked the color of the skill books.

Will I finally get a rainbow this time?

But the skill books were all one color.

Silver. Silver. Silver. Triple.

"Ah...."

For a moment, I let out a sigh of disappointment.

Other people would practically worship them, but I'm different.

I didn't care whether three silvers or ten silvers dropped.

I'd rather have bronze, bronze, gold—that's the better deal.

I had bonuses, after all.

[The First Clear Bonus is applied!]

[The Rank 1 Bonus is applied!]

The expected system message.

The silver skill books began to shine.

Silver turned to gold, then to platinum.

"Ah, platinum is a little awkward for bragging purposes..."

People say platinum is a jackpot, but I can't agree.

It isn't rainbow, and platinum is awkward to show off in the gallery.

Better yet, brown, brown, brown. Triple bronze would be easier to post in the gallery....

"Let's think positively. Positively."

Right. If it's platinum, the effect is definitely good.

How much sweet profit had I already milked from the Insight Eye skill?

I casually picked the platinum skill book.

Let's see. What skill is it?

[Active: Sand Barrier]

[Creates a barrier of sand that protects the user.]

"Hmm... A defensive skill? Not bad."

Maybe because I'd just almost gotten jumped by that assassin?

It was a simple skill, but I was satisfied.

***

Once I got home, I went straight to the computer.

I immediately told the mage gallery about what had happened today.

[Title: Is it for real that an assassin appears on the 17th floor?]

Author: ㅇㅇ(P33.333)

Just met a dark elf

I never heard anything about one of these showing up, so what the hell?

He used invisibility and ambushed me, and I almost died for real.

ㄴ p깟쮸 : That's a monster from the 30th floor, lol. Why is it appearing there, though?

ㄴ Magic Is Firepower : Maybe because it's EXTREME difficulty? You okay?

ㄴ Refrigerator : Right. Dark elves are notorious healer-and-mage killers. Surprised you survived.

"Well, come to think of it, if they use stealth and stab for assassination, most mages would die."

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(P33.333) : I noticed because even with stealth on, the flow of mana was still blurry. If my eyes hadn't been good, I would've died.

ㄴ Refrigerator : But he wasn't supposed to show up there, so seriously, what is this?

ㄴ p깟쮸 : Maybe the tower is targeting newbies, lol.

ㄴ Refrigerator : Weirdly enough, that actually sounds plausible.

Everyone posted comments worrying about me.

Then suggestions started coming up that I should try party play.

ㄴ Dung Beetle : Maybe it's time you actually tried finding a party.

ㄴ Refrigerator : Yeah. If you just find one healer who can't climb the tower alone and stick with them, it'll be way more stable.

ㄴ Magic Is Firepower : Though healers are all cowards, so they're hard to find because they usually don't want to climb the tower.

Listening to their reactions, I became curious about party play myself.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(A55.555): But I'm on EXTREME. How does the difficulty get adjusted if I party up?

Dung Beetle answered my question.

ㄴ Dung Beetle: It'll be set to the party's average difficulty. For example, if you party with someone on Hard, it'll come out a little harder than just Hard.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(A55.555): Then wouldn't the rewards get lower too?

ㄴ Refrigerator : Rewards depend on individual contribution. Naturally, you'll get more since you're the one putting out more damage. Of course, the rewards would be smaller than if you ran EXTREME solo.

ㄴ Refrigerator : Usually the standard is to pair a Hard difficulty dealer with an Easy support.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(A55.555) : If I pair with a Hard support or healer, wouldn't the rewards be better?

ㄴ Magic Is Firepower : Theoretically, yes.... but it's difficult.

ㄴ Refrigerator : Support-type awakeners have a hard enough time climbing even the 1st floor. There are basically no supports who picked Hard.

ㄴ Dung Beetle : Well, I've heard there are some A-rank supports in China.

ㄴ Refrigerator : As for China, well.... if they die because they can't get past the lower floors, they just think it's fine to replace them with new people.

As I talked with them, a question suddenly occurred to me.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(A55.555): Then wouldn't it be enough to climb with only Easy-difficulty people? That's the safest, isn't it?

ㄴ Dung Beetle: Easy gets left behind once the tower's power inflation passes a certain point.

ㄴ Refrigerator : The UK tried making a team that only climbed on Easy, got stuck immediately around the 20th floor, and now they can't climb the tower on their own anymore.

ㄴ p깟쮸 : They tried to cheese the tower and got burned for it instead, lol. I hear they're now hiring hunters from abroad every month and paying a ton of money.

ㄴ Magic Is Firepower: Anyway, that's why if you want to climb the tower safely, you need to balance Hard and Easy by mixing them appropriately.

I thought about their explanation for a moment, then shook my head.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(A55.555): Even so, I'm just going to solo.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(A55.555): I am a little scared that an assassin, a mage killer, showed up, but I just got a defensive skill too.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(A55.555): And I told you, didn't I? The higher the difficulty, the better the payoff. I don't think I'll get stuck here.

ㄴ p깟쮸 : As expected of our newbie.

ㄴ Magic Is Firepower : Yeah, yeah. Just grow up healthy....

***

The next day, I entered the tower again.

Before heading into the 18th floor, I wanted to finish my anti-assassin preparations.

So I chose the 17th floor.

Not long after, something caught my mana vision.

A dark elf in stealth, aiming a bow at me from far away.

Whoosh—!

With a sharp ripping sound, an arrow was fired.

A sneak attack from out of sight.

But I wasn't flustered.

"Sand Barrier."

A massive wall of sand rose up in front of me.

The arrow was blocked with ease.

But there was a problem with the skill.

"...This is way too big."

In front of me, a barrier as tall as a one-story building had risen.

At this rate, it wasn't a defensive skill—it was a construction skill.

"...Maybe later I should make a sandcastle and post a picture of it."

Come to think of it, I'd tried to do it at the beach last time but couldn't.

I should go sometime. The beach....

"No, this is no time to be thinking about that."

I slapped my cheek with a loud smack.

Right now, I should first think about how to modify this skill.

A good idea soon came to mind.

I snapped my fingers.