Chapter 36: Over-Rewarded (1)

Chapter 36: Over-Rewarded (1)

The scenery shifted as I moved to the reward room.

…A marvelous conquest?

I didn’t know such a thing even existed. I looked around, still feeling a bit dazed. They said the quality of rewards would be adjusted upward…

“…Uh?”

When I saw the Skill Stone, I couldn’t help but be shocked. It wasn’t green—meaning it wasn’t a Rare or Rare+ rank. The Skill Stone was emitting a purple light, like an amethyst. I had never seen that color before. In other words, it was a rank of Skill Stone making its first appearance.

I picked it up.

“Oh…?”

Epic rank…? And not just standard, but Epic+? Up until now, no skill higher than Rare+ had ever appeared in the world, so no one knew what the next rank was. It seemed the rank following Rare had finally emerged. It even skipped regular Epic and went straight to Epic+.

This reward jumped two full tiers beyond any previous compensation.

“Haha, wow, man…”

I couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy. Destruction Line? Just looking at the name, I couldn’t tell if it was Physical or Magic. Before reading the skill description, I offered a brief prayer.

Please let it be Magic.

“…Yes!”

First of all, it’s Magic! I read the rest of the description. “Condenses the power of destruction and fires it in a Straight line…”

Hmm… I see. So it’s like a destruction beam? A laser attack? One thing that stood out was that the concentration time wasn’t fixed. It ranged from 30 to 300 seconds, and the power increased with the duration.

It feels like a charging skill.

Another striking detail was the massive willpower consumption. A full thousand. That was ten times more than Flame Strike. The cooldown was also quite long at three minutes. Is this what an Epic-rank spell is like?

Since I didn’t need to worry about skill costs, I was actually looking forward to it. It made me wonder just how powerful a spell must be to require this much willpower.

Surely it’s not stronger than that cannon, right?

The cannon’s willpower consumption was 600. Since this skill consumed even more, the thought naturally occurred to me… but no matter how superior an Epic rank is to a Rare, it probably wouldn’t reach that level. That would be game-breaking. The cannon was, after all, a special item usable only on that specific stage, which is why it was so overpowered.

If we’re talking willpower ratios, that cannon—which was likely at least a thousand times stronger than Flame Strike—only consumed six times the willpower of Flame Strike. Still, I expected this Destruction Line skill to be significantly stronger than Flame Strike or Blade Whirlwind.

I considered testing the skill immediately, but… Not here. If it’s too strong, would the reward room collapse? Nah, I’m getting ahead of myself again. Let’s not get too hyped; what if it’s weaker than I think?

I decided to test the Destruction Line skill when I re-entered for a repeat run later. I checked the other reward.

“…Hmm.”

I had a feeling one of the Holy Artifacts would be given as a reward. To think I actually got stuck with this one.

♫~ ♩♪~

When I used the music box, the same clear melody I heard earlier began to play. It certainly did make me feel peaceful. Fine, it’s nice… but where am I supposed to use this? I would have preferred the artifact that deployed a barrier.

However, since I had obtained an Epic+ skill, I could overlook this with a generous heart. Well, listening to it does make me feel relaxed~.

My level had jumped another 5 points, and I was suddenly nearing Level 50. My body had become far too strong. If I ran too hard, my shoes would be ruined—which is why I’d been going barefoot every time I entered the Tower since the 2nd Floor. Will I have to give up on shoes forever? I hoped a sturdy shoe-type item would drop eventually.

I toyed with the Fligas necklace around my neck. By the way, this guy… I wondered if it was finally time to try taming Fligas before challenging the 4th Floor. If possible, it was obviously better to try before the 4th Floor, as it could be a huge help for the conquest. I’ll have to test the power of my new skill first before deciding.

“Good, very good.”

This 3rd Floor Hidden run was a massive harvest. A marvelous conquest. I never imagined such a thing existed. But normally, it would have been impossible. The condition for a marvelous conquest on the 3rd Floor Hidden was ultimately the total annihilation of the Undead army. Are you kidding me? How is anyone supposed to do that? Even a Level 100 would grow exhausted before killing them all.

This kind of “cheat” clear was likely only possible this once. Unless another custom-made broken item like that cannon appears for me again.

Having finished organizing my rewards, I exited the Tower. As soon as I returned to my room, the door burst open, making me flinch.

“Oppa, help me with my assignment… why are you so startled?”
“…I really told you to knock before coming in.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Take a look at this report I wrote.”

My sister strode in and shoved a piece of paper at me as if I owed her. Why hasn’t she changed at all, even at twenty years old? I skimmed through the mediocre assignment report she’d written. What is this disaster of a report?

“Didn’t I tell you to distinguish between subheadings and numbers when you write a table of contents?” 

“Huh? Oh, right.” 

“And stop ending sentences with ‘~yo.’ It’s a mess of formal and informal endings. And what is with the flow starting from the introduction?” 

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” 

“How can you jump straight to the main point from here? Shouldn’t there be something else you need to say? Can you try thinking for a second?” 

“Ugh, just tell me.”

My sister grimaced as she sat through the advice that would serve as her “blood and flesh,” then snatched the report back to leave. She didn’t even say thank you, so out of spite, I ruffled her hair into a complete mess.

“Ah, you crazy jerk! Stop it!” 

“Stawp iit~ Get out.”

I kicked her out of the room. I could hear her complaining to Mom outside, but would Mom really be on your side? I just heard her getting scolded again for talking back to her brother, followed by the sound of her bedroom door slamming shut as she grumbled.

“Ngh…”

I stretched and left the room myself. While I was getting water from the fridge, my mother asked, “Did you just get back from the Tower?” 

“…Yes.” 

“I see. Don’t push yourself too hard; take it slow. Like I always say, be careful, okay?” 

“Yes, don’t worry.”

I went back to my room. Although I had permission from my parents, I still felt a bit self-conscious about entering the Tower. Even if they knew in their heads that repeating Easy 1st Floor wasn’t dangerous at all, they were still bound to worry.

I wish there were some Goblins in reality. Then I could show them firsthand how I can pop a Goblin’s head with just a flick of my finger… but maybe that’s a bit too disrespectful? After resting for a bit in my room, I immediately re-entered the Tower. I had to at least test the performance of the new skill.

Groaaaaan—

The Undead swarmed. I picked up my Mace and kicked off the ground with force. I began to face the Undead using only my physical strength, without using magic.

Thud! Smash! Crack!

I ran around, shattering the heads of the Undead. Back when I was Level 30, I needed magic to feel comfortable, but now I was practically flying through them. As time passed, the Undead grew more numerous, and self-destructing types and beast types began to emerge. I only sniped the bomb Undead with Bullets and continued to fight without magic.

With the Bolster effect active, it was still manageable. I advanced, essentially pulverizing the Undead. A thought crossed my mind—should I let a self-destructing Undead hit me to test the Rapid Regeneration skill? But dying like that would be the stupidest death ever, so I decided against it.

I fought for ten minutes, intentionally waiting for the sun to set. As the sun went down, the Undead legion swarmed the horizon in thick rows. Only then did I move to the underground passage. After collecting all the gems and activating the Sun symbol, I returned to the surface.

I watched the Undead melting in the sunlight for a moment. Soon, countless Undead began to gather and clump into one spot.

“Alright… come on out.”

The fully-buffed mass boss that had given me so much trouble. I had intentionally waited for all the Undead to emerge just to make this guy appear. Since I’d reached Level 45 and obtained a crazy high-tier skill, I obviously had to face this guy again.

The one who put up a good fight against Fligas, who was recommended for Level 50. This guy was at least a Level 50 boss. I still didn’t know if I could win, but if it looked like I couldn’t, I could just leave.

Gwwuuuuuuuu—

A low-frequency cry rang against my eardrums. I tapped my ears and waited for the mass to roll in.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Without fail, it rolled toward me at incredible speed. This time, I dodged by jumping aside without using the Leap skill. Hmm, this is actually dodgeable now. Whether it changed direction to roll consecutively or jumped up to drop like a meteor, I dodged every single move. Of course, while I could dodge, I wasn’t at the level where I could physically confront and attack that mindless size directly yet.

That’s enough for a warm-up.

Having finished the physical test, I decided to taste the main course.

The mass was about to roll toward me again. I stopped time and began mental concentration. Naturally, I filled the full 300 seconds. I wondered just how strong it would be. Since it was Epic+ rank, it should at least land a significant hit.

After completing 300 seconds of concentration, I released time and cast the full-charge Destruction Line at the mass. Instantly, a pitch-black sphere shimmered in the air with an eerie sound, like a black hole. And immediately following that, a massive, jet-black beam that nearly obscured my entire vision shot forward.

“…!”

There was no sound, which felt strangely alien. When the beam thinned and vanished, revealing the view ahead, I was horrified. A huge hole had been punched right through the center of the mass’s body, like a donut.

Wooooo…

It pierced the core… though “pierced” wasn’t quite the right word. The mass, having its entire core vaporized, couldn’t regenerate and simply melted away into a pile of rubble.

I stood there with my mouth open before uttering a single comment.

“Wow.”

…I expected it to be strong, but I didn’t think it would be a one-shot kill.