Chapter 2
It worked.
Forced Awakening.
Even without entering the Tower, killing a monster like this could trigger Awakening.
[How to Awaken Without an Invitation]
-Hunt a monster that escaped from the Tower. It doesn't matter how you do it. As long as you kill it, you'll awaken. But remember: you must kill a monster with 100% of its health entirely on your own.
Back when Seong-un was still in elementary school, shortly after the Tower appeared, a tip had been posted on an online community.
It explained how an ordinary person could Awaken without receiving an invitation.
└Wait... how is an ordinary person supposed to hunt a monster?
└Damn, you'd die from one hit. I watched a goblin smash a utility pole with one swing of its hammer. I immediately realized getting close would be suicide.
└If you're reading this and thinking, "Maybe I could handle a goblin," give up right now... They're not something an ordinary person can hunt.
└Just shoot it with a gun.
└You lunatic. You think people in our country casually walk around carrying guns?
└LOL. From what I've seen overseas, even firearms don't work that well. Unless you're using awakened power, you're basically screwed...
The method had been discovered long ago.
But there weren't many people capable of actually doing it.
Before receiving his invitation in his previous life, Seong-un had never once confronted a monster.
Whenever he stood in front of those grotesque creatures, fear of death swallowed his entire body.
He would freeze as though something inside him had broken.
All desire to fight vanished.
He could only desperately pray for an Awakened to appear and kill them.
But this life was different.
Stab!
"Kerrrk!"
After completing his Awakening, Seong-un circulated the mana he had obtained through the System and mercilessly finished off another goblin.
The terrified woman seemed to have escaped, since she was nowhere to be seen.
That allowed Seong-un to hunt goblins by himself until he arrived in front of a five-story building.
Originally, the building had housed an internet café, billiards hall, and board-game café.
Now, fragments from the Tower had transformed it into a small Tower.
This is the place.
Back then, news of the hidden opportunity discovered in this small Tower had covered every media outlet.
He felt somewhat guilty taking something that originally belonged to someone else.
But he needed it to climb the Tower.
Even if it was selfish, there was no helping it.
I have to become incomparably stronger than I was before regression.
The Transcendent Giant Soldiers residing on the 80th Floor.
If he wanted to defeat them and climb beyond that point, he needed strength.
[Instant Towers can be entered without an invitation.]
[Scanning entrant's body.]
Vwoom...
[Awakened individual confirmed. Entry permitted.]
[Would you like to enter the Instant Tower?]
Enter.
The moment Seong-un expressed his intention, the first-floor doors opened wide.
He entered the building.
As soon as he stepped inside, the doors shut behind him.
"Kerrrk."
The monsters occupying this small Tower were goblins.
The ones wandering around outside were merely the lowest members of the group.
Goblin Warriors capable of using weapons like swords and bows had turned the Tower into a base and were using it to stop intruders.
Not that it mattered.
In his previous life, they had been exterminated in less than two days.
Two days had actually been rather impressive for creatures like these.
In this life, they wouldn't even survive three hours.
Slash!
Seong-un's dagger cut through a goblin's throat.
"Kerk!"
As he cut down several goblins in succession, Goblin Swordsmen carrying crude blades appeared.
They approached Seong-un while hiding behind rough, uneven shields.
But such tactics were useless against him.
Seong-un grabbed the top edge of the shield in front of him and yanked it forward.
The Goblin Swordsman's center of gravity suddenly shifted.
It lost its footing and stumbled forward.
Seong-un spun the dagger into a reverse grip and drove it into the back of the goblin's neck.
Stab!
"Kerk!"
"Thanks for the shield."
The goblin's grip went limp.
Seong-un seized the shield and threw it at the others.
The goblins instinctively raised their own shields to block it.
Using that opening, Seong-un charged in and killed them one by one by piercing their throats.
The first floor was cleared in an instant.
When Seong-un reached the second floor, a rain of arrows flew toward him.
Fwish!
But none of them reached him.
They struck the shield instead.
He had already expected the arrows and entered the second floor while hiding behind the shield.
Seong-un charged forward with the shield raised.
Once he closed the distance and the Goblin Archers entered his attack range, they met their deaths one after another.
"Phew."
Third floor.
Fourth floor.
After killing every goblin on the way up, Seong-un stopped briefly to catch his breath.
"This body really is a little weak."
[User Information]
-Name: Yoo Seong-un
-Level: 1
[Detailed Stats]
-Strength: 5
-Agility: 5
-Stamina: 5
-Sense: 5
-Mana: 5
He was Level 1.
Other than his basic stats, he had absolutely nothing.
He was completely empty.
That was why even killing mere goblins was enough to drain his stamina.
"Still, I can't give up."
Only the fifth floor remained.
The boss monster commanding all the goblins was hiding there.
If he killed it, the hidden opportunity in this Tower would belong to him.
Seong-un flicked the green blood off his dagger and climbed the stairs to the fifth floor.
"Kerrrk! Human."
Several Goblin Swordsmen and the boss, a Goblin Shaman, glared at him with murderous eyes.
[Lv. 5 Goblin Shaman]
There it is.
But Seong-un wasn't looking at the Goblin Shaman.
His gaze went to the treasure chest behind it.
The opportunity he was after was sleeping inside that chest.
Fwoosh!
"Die!"
The Goblin Shaman swung its staff.
A fireball the size of Seong-un's head appeared above him and shot downward.
Seong-un pulled his left foot back, avoided the fireball to the side, and immediately rushed forward.
"Kerrrk!"
As the distance between him and the Goblin Shaman shrank, the waiting Goblin Warriors raised their shields to stop him.
Seong-un easily slipped past them.
In an instant, he reached the shaman.
"Kerk! Die!"
The Goblin Shaman pointed its staff toward Seong-un.
A bolt of energy shot out.
Crackle!
Slash.
Seong-un lowered himself as much as possible, avoiding the bolt.
At the same time, he swung his dagger and cut the shaman's wrist.
He still lacked enough strength to sever the hand completely.
So instead, he targeted the tendon and sliced through it.
The Goblin Shaman dropped its staff.
"Kek! Damn it!"
The shaman desperately tried to retrieve the staff.
But it was already too late.
Stab!
Seong-un's dagger pierced its throat.
The Goblin Shaman's eyes rolled back.
Its body trembled violently before eventually going limp.
[You have defeated the Tower Master, 'Goblin Shaman.']
[250 EXP has been awarded.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Additional resources cannot be obtained.]
[A Transcendent acknowledges the Player. The qualified Player has been judged worthy of climbing the Tower. An invitation will now be issued.]
It worked.
With this, Seong-un had succeeded in entering the Tower five years earlier than before.
[Clear evaluation is being calculated.]
[Clear Score: S+]
Every Tower calculated a clear evaluation like this.
Even if someone successfully cleared a Tower, a low score meant they wouldn't receive additional rewards.
But if the Tower was cleared perfectly, bonus rewards would be given.
I didn't properly earn those rewards in the beginning last time.
Knowing the information and actually being skilled enough to earn a high score were two different things.
Because of that, Seong-un had received ordinary evaluations in the early stages of his previous life and rarely obtained additional rewards.
Only after building up enough experience had he begun earning them regularly.
But this life was different.
He wouldn't lose bonus rewards because of a lack of skill anymore.
[You have received '1 Gold' as an additional reward based on your clear evaluation.]
Still, bonus rewards from small Towers like this were nothing impressive.
If small Towers had offered good rewards, people would've rushed into them the moment they appeared.
In reality, the rewards were so insignificant that people often delayed clearing them.
"Kek!"
Seong-un killed all the remaining goblins before finally approaching the treasure chest.
So this is where it was kept.
Click.
With a trembling heart, he slowly opened the chest.
There were various items inside.
But the one Seong-un wanted was an old book lying in one corner.
"Found it."
A deep smile appeared on his face.
[Gregorian's Book of Awakening Sight]
-Type: Skill Book
-Rank: SS
-The only record left behind by 'Gregorian' during his lifetime.
-The person who opens this book can temporarily perceive the gaps in the world and the flow of mana that Gregorian once witnessed.
-Upon using the Skill Book, you will acquire [Super Sense].
He had no idea why mere goblins possessed such a treasure.
But this book contained an SS-rank skill.
At this point in time, SS-rank has only appeared eight times.
And one of those incredibly rare SS-rank items had been hidden inside a tiny Tower like this.
No wonder its discovery had caused such a commotion.
Because it had been found in South Korea among all the countries in the world, climbers had temporarily shifted their attention toward small Towers.
As a result, the number of monsters roaming city streets had sharply decreased for a while.
If I remember correctly, it was originally discovered by someone performing official duties.
A climber belonging to the Association.
Among the Association's countless departments, there was one focused solely on clearing small Towers.
Its members were promised massive salaries.
In exchange, every item acquired inside those Towers belonged to the Association.
Starting from SS-rank, once a certain amount of time passed after acquisition, all climbers received a notification.
That meant the original finder had been unable to keep it and the skill book had been transferred to the Association.
Every skill is growth-type.
Just because a skill was SS-rank didn't mean it immediately displayed SS-rank power.
It started at a low rank and grew together with its user.
Its strength also depended on the user's own ability.
If this skill book had been used early and allowed to grow all the way to SS-rank, it could have changed history.
"So I'll use it."
[Using Gregorian's Book of Awakening Sight.]
The old book began shining brightly.
Then it vanished.
[You have acquired Super Sense.]
Seong-un's heart pounded.
He had obtained an SS-rank potential skill immediately after regression.
[Super Sense]
-Type: Passive
-Rank: E
-Maximum Growth Rank: SS
-Allows the user to subtly detect nearby presences, mana flow, and danger signals.
His senses sharpened.
Sounds he hadn't been able to hear before were suddenly clear.
Since every goblin had already been killed, there were no danger signals.
But Super Sense would become an enormous advantage while climbing the Tower.
After safely obtaining the hidden opportunity, Seong-un returned home and rested.
[72 hours remain until Tower entry.]
Receiving an invitation didn't mean he could enter immediately.
At least twenty-four hours had to pass before entry became possible.
[Need a Tutorial Mode guide]
-I got an invitation, and I think I'm getting dragged in tomorrow. Someone give me info about Tutorial Mode.
└Idiot. Information is everywhere. Go figure it out yourself.
└Seriously, trying to get everything handed to you for free is disgusting LOL.
└Does Tutorial Mode even matter whether you do well or badly?
└Don't worry. Even if you die in the Tutorial, you revive.
Tutorial Mode.
The one place where climbers were free from death.
Climbers called the Tutorial the 0th Floor.
It isn't just about killing monsters. It's where you learn the basic rules of the Tower.
In his previous life, Seong-un had finished Tutorial Mode with a respectable B-rank evaluation.
If he hadn't read a strategy guide personally written by someone who achieved S-rank, he probably would've struggled to even get a C.
But this life was different.
Five years from now, one climber would complete the Tutorial with the insane evaluation of SSS-rank.
The entire world had erupted into chaos afterward.
And not simply because she achieved SSS.
It was because of the additional reward that came with it.
She received an S+ rank title.
The owner of that title was Rosalein, who later became known as the Extreme Demon.
It was widely known that the title had played a major role in laying the foundation for her early growth.
Of course, Seong-un had no intention of stealing Rosalein's title.
The reward wasn't limited to the first person who achieved the record.
Anyone who met the requirement could receive it.
"What I'm aiming for is even higher."
People currently believed SSS was the highest possible evaluation.
But in reality, there was one grade above it.
EX.
That was the clear evaluation Seong-un intended to obtain.
