Chapter 9

Skills were divided into two categories: Active and Passive. The Counter Weapon Shield, a skill activated when its user announced its name, used up mana and had a cooldown time. It fell under the category of an active skill. On the other hand, passive skills had no such restraints. For example, the Sword Mastery’s effects were applied every time a relevant weapon was used.

After much consideration, Yoon-seok decided on one.

「New Skill has been acquired.」

He picked Backstep, an active skill that he felt would be helpful to him right now. Though it was an active skill, Backstep had no mana consumption or a cooldown time involved with its use.

“Backstep!”

Soon as he shouted the command, Yoon-seok’s body moved one meter backward on its own.

「Under the state for counterattack」

A message screen flashed through his mind, reminding him of the counterattack feature.

“It feels wonderful!” he exclaimed.

Backstep was a skill used for retreat and counterattack. He thought he had spent his AP only for a skill that could be used for dodging, but its counterattack feature was its hidden value. If he added his other skills over the counterattack feature, the combination would be a deadly technique. So, Yoon-seok decided to train using the skill. It was something that would be helpful to him long-term.

‘For now, even though it can only give me one meter to work with, the distance will keep on increasing as I level up.’

The skill had a huge advantage in a one-on-one duel. Yoon-seok shifted his attention to his other skills, aiming to spend his time in the waiting room familiarizing himself with them.

“Multiply!”

When he shouted the command, a translucent film appeared on his blade. Yoon-seok felt the sensation that something inside his stomach was trying to get out of his body.

It was his mana.

“Weapon Enhancement!”

His sword suddenly glowed red. Again like the previous time, he felt that his mana was escaping from his body.

‘That’s weird. I didn’t feel it when I did it the first time in the previous waiting room...’

He decided not to think too deeply. It was a good thing, after all. However, if he knew how much mana was consumed every time he used the skills, he would fight more efficiently. Yoon-seok felt like he needed to learn more about mana, as he had two skills that required its use.

‘Seems like it takes about 10 minutes to recover,’ he realized after practicing for a while.

He decided that he’d have to be careful while using mana during a duel. Well, it was a problem that could be solved by either increasing his total mana or learning some mana recovery skills, but money was a problem for him in this dimension, just as it was on Earth.

*Mercenary Boots (Rank F+) – Leather boots sought-after by mercenaries. The sole is hard, and the front is lined with iron plates.

Price: 500AP

He used up his remaining AP to buy the F+ rank shoes. Yoon-seok wanted to buy chest armor, but he couldn’t afford even an F-ranked one with his 500 AP. Now, he finally had shoes, but he was left with 0 AP.

It was time to focus on the next step.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Yoon-seok continued to practice and moved his body to tackle those circumstances. He’d practice sticking out his shield or sometimes use the Backstep. Sometimes, he’d even roll on the floor.

Yoon-seok did his best as if he were engaged in a fierce battle with someone invisible. He imagined he was facing the Old Priest once more.

‘This is how he..no, the slash was more graceful.’

Shadow training. After fighting with the imaginary foe for a long while, Yoon-seok suddenly stopped with a thought.

‘I think I’ll improve more if I fight with him again..’

Then, the existence of the chat room came to his mind. Like him, the Old Priest, who was very talented, arrived at The Tower of Heaven not long ago. He should have been able to revive himself with a coin. If only Yoon-seok could speak with the man himself, he would solve what was wrong with his way of wielding the sword.

But..

‘I’m on the second floor, so I can’t talk to him...’

If the Old Priest won his next duel and entered the second floor, then they could freely converse with each other. However, it was unclear if Cheon-ho would help Yoon-seok.

‘Guess I have no choice but to do it on my own.’

Thinking so, Yoon-seok continued his training. When one looked at him from afar, he seemed like a madman, but..

His mind was growing clearer with every move.

‘I can’t exert much force, but I shouldn’t be too soft either. What matters is the proper harmony between the two...’

He wasn’t just plainly repeating the movements with his sword. Every time he moved, his control was getting better. There was no visible progress, but Yoon-seok knew his efforts wouldn’t betray him. As time went by, his moves were slower than before, but his stance was gradually improving.

At first, he only wanted to learn the sword to increase his chances of staying alive. But now, he found that wielding the sword made him genuinely happy. Whether it was to strive, compete, win, or to stay alive, outside this world, he had his neck cuffed with a leash by his owner Kang Hyung-woo.

He thought he would never let go.

Yoon-seok fell in love with his perseverance and self-development for the first time in his life. He was deeply lost on his own that it wasn’t until the last minute that he came back to his senses.

「Prepare. The duel will begin soon.」

A moment after, Yoon-seok, who was preparing and waiting for this moment, teleported. The venue was still that same arena.

What kind of opponent would he encounter this time?

「Countdown starts now」

During the three seconds, Yoon-seok focused on his enemy.

They were human, holding a shield and a staff in hand. The weapons were quite different from Yoon-seok, who chose a sword, but of course, their initial strategy seemed to be the same. It was their fighting ability that decided who would be the winner or the loser.

Yoon-seok composed a plan on how he would proceed in the duel. But..

START!

The moment their body’s restraint was lifted with the announcement, his opponent dropped his weapon.

“I surrender!”

“..?”

“I’m going back home. So kill me without pain.”

He was one of those hopeful suicides who fell into the Devil 666’s trap.

*

「Victory」

Yoon-seok stared at the firecrackers in the sky. Although his opponent surrendered and asked him to give a painless death, Yoon-seok didn’t let his guard down. He was on alert, suspecting that this might be some sort of a trick.

However, the opponent was sincere. The opponent closed his eyes until the moment the blade touched his neck and even sneaked a smile in at the moment the blade was cutting through. He seemed to be quite confident in his beliefs.

「4000AP has been rewarded.」

「Unique Skill is activated.」

「Acquired random skill from the opponent.」

「Obtained Unique Skills.」

「Teleporting to the waiting room on the second floor.」

「Prepare for the next battle.」

Yoon-seok, who had made quite a meticulous plan to defeat his enemy, returned to his original waiting room after just three minutes. He hurriedly opened the chat room.

-The 39th Master of Volcano: I lost, but now that I have given up, I feel comfortable.

-Duel_Coins: One more to go! Then, let’s go home!

-Chocobasac: I never thought 24 hours would feel this long.

He could feel the madness radiating from the chat room, but some seemed to have kept their sanity.

-Ethan Carlyle: Stupid fools, can’t you see it’s all his plan?

-James Dean: Why are you angry? Anyways, aren’t we the ones who are benefiting from this?

They could try, but it would be almost impossible to change the minds of the victims.

-Foreman Elysee: Come to think of it, is Devil 666 not online?

-Black-Cow: Oh, I think, perhaps, he returned after using up all his coins?

-Foreman Elysee: Huh? Didn’t you say you only have one coin? But how..

-Black-Cow: The other person killed himself first. Thanks to that, I’m here for another day.

‘Devil 666’, the one who ignited the rumor, no longer appeared in the chat room. This could either mean three possibilities. Either he was intentionally remaining silent, or perhaps, he surrendered and asked to be killed. Or, most likely, he was already on the third floor.

Yoon-seok left the chat room feeling disgusted. He felt like he just had a glimpse of what human nature truly was from this incident.

“Everyone’s crazy...”

It’s not that he didn’t understand what cornered them to come to such a conclusion. Still, he couldn’t believe what he just experienced. This was the second floor. Every challenger here had fought and won at least two battles. Assuming that they could have died several times on the way and used coins, the number of duels would increase even more.

He couldn’t believe that small stir caused by a single, unknown source had pushed them this far..

“Are they crazy? How can they be so sure they’ll return to their worlds if they lose their coins?”

They may be either right or wrong. But at this point, such suspicions were likely to arise. He shook his head.

‘You only get a chance to return if you win.’historical

Return tickets were being sold at 200k AP. He knew that buying the ticket was the only sure way out. If he failed, then he would see if Devil 666’s words were true or not.

‘Leave them be. I’ll just do what I have been doing.’

That is, prepare for the next duel by training himself. As he engraved such resolution in his heart, Yoon-seok clenched his fists tightly.