Chapter 30
The claim was that, in order to climb this Tower all the way to the top, one had to master every field.
The logic was that this Tower contained one thousand different monsters, making versatility sufficient to ignore every matchup absolutely necessary.
In the end, I decided to follow his words.
I decided to accept the teachings of Taehuh Immortal Cultivator.
But that didn't mean I was going to enroll in every subject from now on.
I might have to do that someday, but at least for now, I wouldn't.
For now, I'd run on two tracks.
Physical and magic.
I would hone the combat styles pursued by [Death Sentence - Slash (斬)] and [Death Sentence - See (視)].
At the same time, I would use the Blood Knight to climb the Tower and level up.
I had to accelerate my growth with the stat points I gained that way.
“All right. Let's decide on a distribution policy first.”
There were stats I would exclude from the distribution.
Luck came first.
The Luck stat had a reputation for being practically useless in this Tower. They said it helped when enhancing items, but its efficiency was extremely low. It was supposedly related to skill success rates, but it seemed little research had been done on it.
Then there were Defense and Magic Defense.
I'd often heard that Defense could later be covered with techniques like Magic Shield. More importantly, I had the Four Extremes Realm, an invincibility skill.
My defensive strategy was to raise Agility and Senses to evade enemy attacks, then use my invincibility skill to ignore unavoidable critical hits.
So I wouldn't put points into them.
If there was no chance of getting hit, Defense would be a useless stat.
Then what about Vitality?
I'd suspected that I needed Vitality because of the Demon King's Tower's ‘Fatigue’ penalty.
But based on the gallery users' testimony and my experience raising Vitality by using the ‘Silver Necklace of Vitality’ as enhancement material, I concluded that Fatigue could be dealt with through sleep and fatigue recovery potions and had nothing to do with the Vitality stat.
It wasn't a stat I had absolutely no need for, but I heard it could be supplemented with items, and likewise, magic could make up for it.
If so, the answer was clear.
“There are exactly five stats I need to raise right now.”
Strength, Agility, Senses, Intelligence, and Magic Power.
I decided to flatten these five stats until they were all even.
My Magic Power was overwhelmingly high at 200, including the earring's buff, while my Intelligence and Senses were also fairly high.
By contrast, my Strength was 49 with the Arcane Strength Ring's bonus, and my Agility was relatively low at 23.
Therefore.
“Strength 1, Agility 27.”
I poured the 28 remaining stat points I'd saved up from those 11 level-ups into them.
Pop, pop, pop-!
[Strength stat increased by 1.]
[Agility stat increased by 27.]
Strength and Agility were now both exactly 50.
“Whoa…”
The moment my Agility rose, my body became incredibly light.
It felt as though my body might float up into the sky.
I tried moving immediately.
Whoosh-!
“This is fucking amazing.”
I felt as though I was running almost twice as fast.
As expected, the Strength-Agility-Senses trio made an incredible difference.
After nodding in satisfaction, I took a selfie.
It was time to announce my plans for the future.
______
Title: Starting the Five-Stat Flattening
Author: ㅇㅇ(61F)
{Selfie of a silver-haired, blue-eyed girl}
[Status]
Race: Reaper (死神)
Floor: 61
Level: 72
Condition: Normal
Strength: 50 (▲1)
Agility: 50 (▲27)
Vitality: 16
Intelligence: 79
Senses: 74
Magic Power: 200
Luck: 11
Defense: 13
Magic Defense: 14
Remaining Stat Points: 0
Trait: Unawakened
Unique Skills: [Death Sentence - Slash (斬)], [Death Sentence - See (視)]
Weapon: Death Scythe
Equipped Items: [Arcane Strength Ring], [Adventurer's Ring], [Magitech Azure Earring (+2 / Charge: 44%)], [Twin-Tail Black Ribbon]
Strength, Agility, Senses, Intelligence, and Magic Power.
My goal is to bring these five stats up evenly. I used my remaining stat points to make Strength and Agility both 50 for now.
Since my Magic Power is already 200, I'll learn black magic and kill mobs with spells for the time being.
I'll use the points I gain from leveling up to bring the five stats into balance, and after that, I'll raise them all at a 1:1:1:1:1 ratio!
Master, don't worry. I'm going to learn black magic first!
_______
It happened the moment I pressed the Register button.
The gallery heated up like crazy.
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ(341F) : LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
ㅇㅇ(262F) : Is this actually okay?????????????????????????
ㅇㅇ(643F) : Nureong-nureong~ Nureong-nureong~ Nureong-nureong~ Nureong-nureong~
ㅇㅇ(465F) : A fucking legend LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
ㅇㅇ(465F) : Holy fucking shit, this is seriously fucked… What the hell is that…
ㅇㅇ(224F) : Gweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!
ㅇㅇ(358F) : Terrible build, gg.
ㅇㅇ(189F) : Lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try, lemme try
ㅇㅇ(431F) : What is this…
ㅇㅇ(247F) : You really went and did it LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
______
It was truly an unprecedented reaction.
ㅇㅇ(354F) : Taehuh Immortal Cultivator <what the hell are we supposed to do about this guy? LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Fenrir : GG, I'm leaving the gallery. I got baited by that psychopath, and now Newbie's fucked. Shit.
They might really have been right—that I had ruined my build.
But I couldn't blame Taehuh Immortal Cultivator.
I had come up with the idea first, and I was the one who carried it out.
“I've already done it, so what can I do?”
All I could do was grin as I watched their reactions.
So I even teased them a little.
ㅇㅇ(61F)(Author) : They don't sell something like a stat reset ticket at the Golden Carriage, do they?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(435F) : ?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(279F) : You fucking bastard.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(143F): LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
“Hehe.”
As I skimmed through the comments, I found a reply from a registered user who seemed to be on a completely different wavelength.
ㄴ SSS-Grade Item User : Yeah, they don't sell it lol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(463F) : Why is this guy so calm?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(645F) : I guess it's because he's a fellow psychopath…
ㄴ SSS-Grade Item User : I'm thrilled that I get to watch Newbie use all kinds of items, though?
I would definitely be using items based on physical stats from now on.
I planned to leave reviews of various items as I went through promotion matches, so it seemed he was looking forward to that.
Come to think of it, the other registered users hadn't said much either.
Maybe it was because they had been beaten with a club by the registered user from the vanguard.
Or perhaps, like SSS-Grade Item User, they were secretly happy that I could now learn their techniques.
But there was one thing I knew for certain.
ㄴ Captain Death Note : …Choosing to learn black magic first was the right choice…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(246F) : This guy seems to have gone a little soft LOLLLLLL
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(487F) : It's because everything he's spent his whole life learning was denied LOL
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : Isn't that bullshit? How can someone who isn't even a Reaper learn Death Sentence?
Our master seemed to have suffered severe internal damage and gone menhera.
It was the first time he'd ever looked pitiful.
“What if I'd said I wasn't going to learn black magic…?”
Anyway.
‘Black magic derived from instant-death skills.’
Since I had decided to make use of my 200 Magic Power, I first had to learn the black magic Master had been talking about all this time.
And before that.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : You have a Stage 4 instant-death skill but haven't learned a single derivative technique, so Circles are your top priority…
It seemed I needed to acquire a Circle.
“First, meditation.”
I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes.
.
The speed at which I sank into meditation was astonishing.
Perhaps because my Intelligence was much higher than when I'd meditated for the first time, the moment I closed my eyes, my consciousness sank into my inner world.
…
..
.
Soon, a barren wasteland unfolded before me.
Just like last time, black rings lay scattered across the ground.
“The faster I choose one, the more safe time I can save.”
I had about ten hours of vacation time left.
I had to find a big one in that time.
I crossed the plain.
…
..
.
“Black Shift.”
I kept using the Ribbon's skill every 30 seconds as I moved, but even after quite a bit more time had passed than last time, I still couldn't see a large Circle.
I saw several moderately large ones, though.
This was a Circle I would have to carry in my body(?) for the rest of my life(?), so I couldn't just choose one that was merely decent.
I searched the plain at length.
“Isn't there a nice, sturdy one around here…?”
It was then, while I was engrossed in the search.
“…!”
My vision suddenly became clear.
It happened as I narrowed my eyes and concentrated.
A distant undulation appeared drawn toward me, as though it were right in front of my face.
I didn't know why, but it would be an enormous help in finding a Circle right away.
“Good. If I can stay like this…”
…
..
.
“There!”
I found it.
It wasn't larger than the First Circle, but it was overwhelmingly bigger than the others.
Statistically, it felt as though finding anything larger than this would consume all my remaining vacation time.
I picked up the Circle.
Bzzzzzzzt!
Aaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
…As expected, I heard someone's scream again, but
I had no choice but to ignore it and let it enter my danjeon.
Whiiiiiiir-
Flash!
I returned to reality and opened my eyes.
“Whew!”
I turned on the holographic panel to check the time.
Exactly two hours.
It had taken one hour to acquire the First Circle.
But since I had remained there longer than before, I could consider the absolute time required to acquire a Circle to have decreased.
It was a moment when all the Intelligence stat points I'd kept raising finally paid off.
“At this rate, even a Third Circle should come soon.”
But I decided not to try right away.
Because…
“Hmm…”
“Ack…”
“Eek…”
My brain was on the verge of breaking.
I still hadn't adapted.
There was a world of difference between having one Circle rotating and having two.
It felt extremely alien and unpleasant.
When I focused my consciousness on my danjeon, the two rings were running wild.
Whyyyyy—!
Woooooong—!!
They were interlocked, but that was all.
Their rotations weren't regular, and their rhythms were out of sync.
It was as if the two of them were fighting over territory.
It seemed to be because one of them had suddenly been added.
“Phew…”
I took a deep breath and tried to control their rotation.
.
After several minutes of fine-tuning, I managed to calm my body a little.
I uploaded a report to the gallery.
______
Title: Second Circle Acquired, Done
Author: ㅇㅇ(61F)
It wasn't the sea this time either; I acquired it in the barren wasteland, just like last time.
I heard a scream again this time, so I think I'll have to keep taking other people's Circles to acquire one…
…
..
.
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ(543F) : Where's the Black Sea…
ㅇㅇ(468F) : More Circle victims are going to keep appearing LOL
ㅇㅇ(646F) : Seriously, what a fucking cheat;;;; Two hours…
ㅇㅇ(404F) : Wait, does this mean you'll learn the Third Circle in three hours? LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
ㅇㅇ(322F) : Seems like you learned some kind of Magic Eye spell along the way.
ㅇㅇ(124F) : But is your body okay? Going from a Double Circle must be absolute hell.
______
The reactions marveling at the fact that I hadn't seen the sea again and at how quickly I'd acquired it continued.
Then Floor 710 left a comment asking about my condition.
ㅇㅇ(710F) : How's the overload?
By overload, he seemed to mean the dizzy, nauseated sensation I'd felt a moment ago.
“Phew…”
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(61F)(Author) : I did feel a little seasick and dizzy.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : No headache or anything?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(61F)(Author) : No. Nothing hurts.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : …Is the second Circle normally this easy???
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(124F) : ? I thought my head was going to split when I went from the First Circle to the Second; it lasted almost two months;;;;
From what I heard, the side effects of acquiring my Circle seemed relatively minor.
And as I wrote that post, my breathing had already completely stabilized.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(61F)(Author) : Yeah. I think I'm much better now than I was earlier.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(124F) : What the fuck are you talking about.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : ???? You already feel fine right after acquiring another Circle???
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(61F)(Author) : Yeah. I think the rotations are synchronized now.
I seemed to be lucky.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : It takes months of struggling just to make two Circles overlap, but this guy… It looks like you've already reached the settling-in stage.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : LOL, maybe you can even get the Third Circle today?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : And the fact that you got a Magic Eye is fucking absurd too. Learning the Second Circle's instant-death derivative black magic should be easier now.
Magic Eye?
It seemed I'd naturally acquired something like that.
What did he mean by saying it would be easier to learn black magic?