Chapter 3

Chapter 3. Tower - Tutorial (2)

The Tower’s 3rd floor.

Thankfully, the sword my clone was holding did not disappear.

Thank goodness. I almost had to buy another one.

And since the clone had been absorbed into my main body and then newly created, the blood that had made my clothes feel so unpleasant was gone, leaving me clean again.

“Not bad. If taking a shower is annoying, I can just make a new clone.”

I was satisfied, except for the fact that the clone was created in combat uniform.

Once I was moved to the Tower’s 3rd floor, a message that had not appeared when I first made the clone floated up from the crystal.

[Hunt one Goblin.]

It seemed that when you climbed the Tower normally, you were immediately given a quest that allowed you to move to the next floor.

I did not see the Goblin yet, but when I took my hand off the crystal, the wall opened, and I saw one Goblin slowly walking toward me.

I had been ambushed on the 2nd floor, but that was probably because I had not gone up normally from the Tower’s 1st floor to the 2nd floor. Normally, it seemed you started in a safe position.

Unlike the Horned Rabbit, the green runt was holding a nicked hand axe, so I quickly purchased a shield from the shop window.

The Inventory was linked to my main body, but the shield weighed at least over 3 kilograms, so it could not be placed inside the Inventory.

Still, I had received 1 Shop Point as payment for hunting the Horned Rabbit, so it was not a major loss.

“No, I guess it is a major loss.”

One point meant one High-Grade Healing Potion.

If I sold it outside the Tower, it would be at least 50 million won, so this lousy wooden shield was worth 50 million won!

But that did not mean I could keep dying.

Even if it was only a clone, it was not as if there was no pain.

“Grrrk.”

The Goblin made a phlegmy, rattling sound and glared at me fiercely.

I fixed the shield to my left arm with the leather straps attached to it, held it out in front of me, and grew tense.

In the standoff between me and the Goblin, the Goblin charged first.

“Grrk!”

The Goblin, the size of an elementary schooler, swung its old hand axe with all its strength, and I thrust my shield into the obvious trajectory.

CRACK!

I had thought the axe would bounce off the shield, but the axe blade bit into the grain of the wood.

Still, perhaps because it was sturdy, the shield was not pierced or smashed apart.

Before the Goblin could pull the axe out, I twisted the shield and swung my sword.

The Goblin, which did not have much strength, could not let go of the axe, so its stance collapsed, and the swordsmanship I had gained from the ability stone drew a cleaner trajectory than I had expected as it cut into the Goblin’s neck.

Perhaps because my Strength was not very good, its head did not go flying, but the Goblin whose carotid artery had been cut collapsed while clutching its neck.

“Ugh.”

The only things I had killed in my life were mosquitoes or cockroaches, so killing something that sprayed blood like this felt strange.

Since it walked on two legs, I could not help feeling even stranger.

Still, unlike the rabbit, the Goblin’s blood had a bluish tint, so it was a relief that it felt less real.

Was I not grossed out by the rabbit?

I am not crazy enough to feel pity for a rabbit that killed me.

Animals that harm people deserve to die.

Anyway, judging from the fact that its blood was blue, did that mean copper flowed through its blood instead of iron?

Hemocyanin, not hemoglobin, had poor oxygen transport ability, so it was not suitable for vertebrates. How interesting.

Was this perhaps a Goblin that had lived in a cold place?

Unlike hemoglobin, hemocyanin maintained activity even in the cold, so if it was a species that had evolved by living in a frigid region, it might use copper instead of iron.

“No, I guess in a world where superpowers have become natural, it isn’t strange for monsters with blue blood to exist either.”

Come to think of it, the blood of monsters in pictures circulating on the internet had seemed colorful too.

Had that not been censorship changing the colors, but their actual colors?

Thinking that, I removed the magic stone from the Goblin’s chest.

This time, I had no good luck like an ability stone, but I obtained the axe the Goblin had been using.

Unlike a one-handed sword, the flaw was that it had no axe sheath, but it seemed useful for throwing.

I held the sword in my left hand and the axe in my right.

Then I placed my hand on the crystal and went up to the 4th floor.

---

The environment of the 4th floor was not very different from that of the 2nd and 3rd floors.

It had the atmosphere of ruins, and torches around the area lit up the interior.

[Hunt three Goblins.]

The quest to move on to the next floor appeared on the crystal.

It was just as Tower Returnees had said on the internet or on broadcasts.

They had said that the monsters that appeared differed from country to country, but generally, before the 10th floor, monsters with elementary-schooler-level physical ability appeared in most cases.
They had also said to be careful starting from the 4th floor because multiple monsters would appear.

Of course, they had commonly said that if you had a superpower, you could defeat them without much difficulty, but my superpower was not that kind of powerful superpower, so I was nervous.

Do not underestimate elementary-schooler-level ability.

Elementary schoolers had stamina that surpassed most lazy adult men.

As on the 3rd floor, the wall shook and an entrance formed, and three Goblins sprang out from inside.

Before the Goblins could react, I threw the hand axe immediately.

“First strike wins!”

The hand axe flew quickly and lodged in the stomach of the Goblin standing on the left.

“Skreeeeeeek!”

The Goblin struck by the axe screamed and collapsed.

It had sunk in deeply, but it did not seem deep enough to kill it at once.

“Ah, my mistake.”

I had originally aimed for the head of the one in the center, but the throw had gone far off course.

Fortunately, the Goblins had been standing side by side, so the one next to it had been hit. Otherwise, I might have ended up simply gifting my enemy a weapon.

The foolish Goblin struck by the axe made a stupid choice, perhaps because the wound hurt.

It pulled out the axe embedded in its stomach.

Well, if something hurt and felt foreign, I could understand the desire to remove the foreign object without thinking.

Because of my experience having a rabbit punch a hole in my chest with its horn, I ended up sympathizing with the Goblin.

Thanks to the Goblin’s foolish choice, the wound in its stomach opened, and blood gushed out.

“Ugh, that’s grotesque.”

After seeing the blood, the Goblins became thoroughly excited and charged at me with a hand axe and an old dagger.

I could not handle three-on-one, but I could somehow handle up to two-on-one.

CLANG!

I tried to switch the one-handed sword in my left hand to my right, but I accidentally dropped it on the ground.

I hurriedly bent down and grabbed the sword again.

At that moment, the Goblin with the axe tried to bring it down on my head.

I have to block it, no, dodge!

In my panic, I rolled to the side.

But this was the wrong choice.

There were two enemies.

The Goblin with the dagger aimed for my neck and brought down the dagger it held in a reverse grip.

“Uaaagh!”

I hurriedly raised my shield and blocked it.

The dagger carrying its body weight had enough force to punch a small hole in the wooden shield.

With my life in danger, I swung my sword with a trembling hand.

Even in the middle of that, perhaps because it was an ability, the trajectory of the sword was fairly clean.

The moment the one-handed sword tore a large cut through the stomach of the Goblin with the dagger, something warm flowed down from my head along with a heavy impact.

It was my blood.

The Goblin with the axe had struck my head from behind with its axe.

You green little piece of shit!

My consciousness returned to my main body.

---

I clutched my head because of the headache.

I knew it was phantom pain, but it took about 10 seconds to shake off the vivid impact.

“Whew.”

I was not getting used to pain at all, but I felt something strange about my second death.

“What is this? Why am I not afraid?”

It was strange.

I had not thought of it during my first death, but it was clearly strange.

I was not afraid.

The pain was frightening and scary, but there was somehow no fear of death itself.

It felt like watching the death of a character I controlled in a game.

Is that not only natural, since it is not me actually dying but only my clone dying?

There was no way. Ordinary people were the kind of beings whose legs trembled so much that they could not do anything just by standing on a bungee jumping platform.

Hadn’t I just gotten worked up during the fight, accidentally dropped my sword, and failed to use my shield properly?

If I continued using this ability, I would have gotten used to dying as a clone someday.

Bungee jumping was hard and difficult the first time or two, but once people got used to it, they could jump as much as they liked.

Humans were animals of adaptation, after all.

“Should I see this positively, or negatively?”

If I saw it positively, it could mean that the ability called [Multidimensional Avatar] had an unlisted mental protection function.

If I saw it negatively, could this perhaps be a penalty for death?

Fear of death was a survival instinct.

Having that instinct numbed was a serious drawback.

If my survival instinct was numbed, there was no guarantee that it would not affect other senses or emotions.

For now, I thought the former was more likely than the latter.

After all, I had only died twice, so it did not seem likely that a drawback would already become so prominent.

I turned on the Status Window and quietly checked my status.

[Status: Normal, Tense, Empty Stomach]

There was no abnormality displayed on the Status Window.

If I started doubting my ability, then I had no choice but to also doubt whether this Status Window itself could be fundamentally trusted.

For now, I took deep breaths and relaxed.

It was not easy, but once I felt I had calmed down to some extent, ‘Tense’ disappeared from the Status Window.

Once the tension faded, I looked back over my condition again.

“Does the fear of death only disappear while I’m in the clone state, or does it affect me myself?”

I concentrated and recalled my death, imagining that death was approaching me right now.

A chill ran through me, and the Status Window changed.

[Status: Normal, Fear, Empty Stomach]

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

Perhaps because it was a death I had actually experienced, the sensation was vivid, cold sweat ran over my entire body, and I trembled.

“I-it looks like f-fear itself hasn’t disappeared after all.”

Perhaps because I had concentrated too hard, the fear did not calm down easily.

But while concentrating, I felt as if there were some kind of protective shield inside my head.

It might have just been my imagination, but when I focused on that shield, the fear began to subside quickly.

[Status: Normal, Empty Stomach]

“It seems like there really is something inside my head.”

I was too suspicious a person to see this as purely positive.

Normally, if this kind of suspicion arose, leaving the Tower would be the normal thing to do.

But could I have a fascinating experience like this outside the Tower?

“No.”

Then wouldn’t enjoying the moment be the best choice?

Well, what was the worst that could happen? Dying?

I tried to step past death and make a new clone again to return to the 4th floor.

“Huh?”

The slot in the ability window had turned gray.

[Avatar Slot 1: Tower’s 4th floor / Time 00:12:30]

[Avatar Slot 1: Tower’s 4th floor / Time 00:12:31]

[Avatar Slot 1: Tower’s 4th floor / Time 00:12:32]

And time was flowing. It continued flowing like that, and after about 10 seconds, it stopped.

[Avatar Slot 1: Tower’s 4th floor / Time 00:12:40]

Once time stopped, the slot that had been tinged with gray regained its original blue color.

Instinctively, I realized that this was the penalty for the clone’s death.

When I died, it did not simply consume Avatar Points.

If I died, I could not immediately return to that clone’s body, and some time passed while it was dead.

During that interval, there was nothing I could do.

This penalty had probably existed during my first death too.

However, that time had been so short it was difficult for me to perceive.

From the second death onward, I had been unable to use the ability until I had spent several minutes organizing my thoughts.

The one fortunate point was that during the few minutes I had spent thinking, only about 10 seconds had passed for the clone.

“But if I keep dying, I won’t be able to climb the Tower.”

[Points required to recreate avatar: 2]

The Avatar Points required upon death had increased. Did it increase by 1 every time I died?

No, that was not it.

I could tell instinctively. This doubled each time.

It was nothing much right now, but the more I died, the more the required Avatar Points would increase exponentially.

To use an analogy, the points were like slipping a bribe to the dimension where the clone had been created.

It meant asking that dimension to look the other way about my death, just a little.

But in the end, death accumulated.

Infinite coins and infinite retries were impossible.