Chapter 5

Chapter 5. Tower - Tutorial (4)

The 8th floor was a wide chamber like the 2nd or 3rd floor, but there were no monsters.

Instead, there was a grooved stone monument, and square bricks were placed in front of it.

[Complete the picture by fitting the puzzle.]

“...No, seriously, what kind of console game is this?”

It was better than nothing but nonstop fighting, but I had no idea what the Tower was even supposed to be.

If something like this existed in the tutorial, then there would probably be times when I had to solve puzzles while climbing.

Come to think of it, I had once seen an interview saying that there were various ruins and dungeons inside the Tower, and that people sometimes had to solve puzzles to get through treasure rooms or trap rooms.

Was it something like figuring out the password to a door lock?

Since this was the tutorial, there was no real meaning to it right now, and it openly gave me hints. But once I climbed higher, I felt like smashing the door open and going in would be faster and more convenient than solving puzzles like this.

“Done.”

When I filled the empty space with the bricks and the bricks moved along the grooves, the picture engraved on the bricks was completed.

It was not that difficult a puzzle, but I thought people who were bad at this kind of thing would spend hours on it.

After completing the puzzle, I rested for a moment, then went up.

---

The 9th floor, the final floor of the tutorial.

When I arrived on the 9th floor, a wide chamber appeared, just like the 3rd floor.

Tower Returnees commonly said that floors ending in 9 were especially difficult.

There was also a theory that something changed in grade every 10 floors, and that floors ending in 9, like the 9th, 19th, and 29th floors, were difficult because they were transitional stages before crossing that grade.

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

[Hunt the Hobgoblin.]

A Hobgoblin, unlike the Goblins that were like elementary schoolers, was a mutant variant with a height approaching 2 meters.

No, perhaps Goblins had been created as mutations of Hobgoblins instead.

Evolution was the result of biological mutation and environmental selection, and the direction of mutation was not something a living creature could control as it pleased.

Naturally, they said Hobgoblins had greater strength and stamina to match that physique.

Even if I knew the information, how often would an ordinary citizen like me ever meet a monster?

Of course, after Gates appeared, even the military did training for hunting monsters.

But how much could the military have changed when it was the kind of place that made you carry a rifle, shout “Bang, bang!” with your mouth, roam around the individual combat training grounds, and call that engagement training?

At most, a small number of units borrowed KCTC’s MILES gear and training grounds for token training, or they set up monster boards instead of human targets at the shooting range and practiced shooting at them. That was all.

As before, the wall opened, and the Hobgoblin came out.

The green-skinned monster, a whole head taller than me, was holding a machete in its hand.

“Grrrk!”

The excited Hobgoblin charged at me without thinking.

I pulled a hand axe from my cargo pocket and threw it at the Hobgoblin.

CLANG!

The Hobgoblin skillfully knocked the hand axe aside.

An ordinary Goblin had staggered slightly from the recoil when it knocked one aside, but the Hobgoblin showed none of that.

The Hobgoblin brought its machete down hard at me, and I raised my shield to block it.

“Ugh, my arm.”

More shocking than the impact transmitted through the shield was the fact that the machete had pierced a small hole through it.

Ah, so there was a thin iron plate inside the shield.

Once a hole was pierced through the shield, I could see its structure.

It was made by placing wooden boards on both sides of a thin iron plate, then fixing them in place with an iron rim.

No wonder it had been a little heavy.

Because I had blocked hand axes and arrows with the shield, the outer wood was probably riddled with holes, and its durability had been worn down considerably.

I could still use it a few more times. The moment I thought that, the Hobgoblin launched a fierce attack, and I raised the shield again.

Because of that, part of the shield split, and some of the outer wood fell away.

Before the shield could break further, I blocked the Hobgoblin’s machete with my sword.

CLANG!

When the one-handed sword and the machete collided, I instinctively relaxed my arm a little and held the sword at an angle.

Shrrrrk!

“Huh?”

“Grrk?”

When I naturally guided the Hobgoblin’s machete aside, both the Hobgoblin and I were startled.

Realizing my chance, I swung my sword at the neck of the Hobgoblin whose stance had collapsed.

However, the Hobgoblin pulled its body back and dodged the sword, and my blade cut into the Hobgoblin’s left forearm instead.

“Close!”

I could have finished it with that attack just now.

That deflection had been the true way to use Bluewood Sword.

To begin with, Bluewood Sword was a sword art that fought using only the sword, without a shield, so I could not properly unfold it while holding a shield.

But throwing away the shield required courage.

The fear of death was gone, but that did not mean the fear of pain was gone too.

Once the Hobgoblin’s forearm was cut fairly deeply, it grew even more frenzied and charged at me.

I blocked its first attack with the shield, and even the wood on the inner side of the iron plate cracked.

Bloodshot eyes, a snout dripping saliva as if it had rabies, and clearly stronger power.

I could tell instinctively.

The Hobgoblin had used some kind of ability.

“Grrrrrrk!”

The Hobgoblin shouted in a phlegmy voice and swung its blade at me like mad.

THWACK! THWACK! CLANG!

As the shield became more and more ragged, I responded with my sword too.

Still, the sword was made of iron rather than wood, so it was fairly sturdy.

In the end, when the shield completely reached the end of its usefulness, I faced the Hobgoblin entirely with my sword.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG—!

As I swung the sword and fought, a strange feeling came over me.

I had never learned the sword even once, yet somehow, I was deflecting and blocking the machete.

It was because the sword strikes of the Hobgoblin, which had half lost its reason, were sloppy, but I had not known I had this much talent for fighting.

No, I had never even fought the local school bullies in my entire life, so there was no way this was talent.

If I were truly some gifted freak, I would have taken the Hobgoblin’s head long ago.

Then was it the power of Bluewood Sword, the ability I had gained from the ability stone?

Indeed, even small abilities that looked useless were said to be worth at least hundreds of millions. I supposed it was worth that price.

After deflecting the machete, I swung my sword at the Hobgoblin’s abdomen.

However, perhaps because the Hobgoblin had only half lost its reason and not completely lost it, it took a half step back, and my sword only carved a large wound into the Hobgoblin’s thigh.

“Grrk!”

CLANG—!

“Ghhk!”

The enraged Hobgoblin brought its machete down with all its might, and I blocked it with the half-broken shield.

It was clearly injured, bleeding heavily from its forearm and thigh, yet strangely, the Hobgoblin’s strength had grown even stronger.

Because of that, the shield completely split in two and shattered, and it felt like the bones in my left arm had broken as well.

The impact on my left arm was strong, but strangely, the pain was faint.

Thanks to my excitement from fighting, it seemed my adrenaline had surged, numbing the pain and activating my sympathetic nervous system.

I swung my sword at the Hobgoblin, which had staggered backward for a moment after striking down with excessive force.

“Hss!”

I cut into its chest, but I could not sever its ribs, so the damage was less than I had expected.

The Hobgoblin staggered from the enormous blood loss and swung its machete to kill me.

I threw my body and dodged the Hobgoblin’s attack.

“Ugh!”

When I rolled across the ground, intense pain surged from my broken left arm.

No matter how much adrenaline numbed pain, it could not block the agony caused by such violent movement.

After rolling across the ground, I moved behind the Hobgoblin, quickly turned my body, and cut its Achilles tendon.

“Grrk!”

When the Hobgoblin staggered and tried to turn around, I took one step back, put the sword in my mouth, pulled a hand axe from my cargo pocket, and threw it.

I had aimed for the heart, but because of the pain and the shaking caused by stepping back, it embedded itself in the Hobgoblin’s lower back.

It was fortunate I was close. If I had not been, it would have flown somewhere completely different.

I should avoid throwing things from a distance whenever possible.

I gripped the sword I had been holding in my mouth with my right hand again and charged.

Even after being struck by the axe, the Hobgoblin swung its machete at me from an awkward posture.

Because its posture was awkward, deflecting the machete was easy.

Shrrrrk!

After deflecting the machete, I thrust my sword straight forward and drove it into the center of its chest.

With a hole in its heart, the Hobgoblin collapsed while vomiting blood, as if its lungs or stomach had been cut as well.

“Aaaagh! Fuck! It hurts like hell!”

To deal with the pain, I opened the ability window and selected Absorb.

Thankfully, perhaps because some time had passed, the Absorb cooldown had ended, so absorption was possible.

If it had not been, I would have had to either keep waiting with a broken arm or buy and use an expensive High-Grade Healing Potion from the shop.

When I created a clone again, not only my injuries but also the Hobgoblin’s blood and the dirt that had made my body filthy were gone, leaving me clean.

Through absorbing the clone this time, I gained Avatar Points, and [Multidimensional Avatar] reached level 10.

At the same time, notification windows appeared.

[Multidimensional Avatar has reached level 10. New functions have been activated.]

[‘Third-Person Avatar’ has been activated.]

[‘Reincarnation’ has been activated.]

Since Bluewood Sword had reached level 15, Multidimensional Avatar’s level had risen by the amount of growth.

But to think Bluewood Sword had become level 15, yet Multidimensional Avatar had only risen by 3 levels.

Well, since it was an ability that created a clone and let me use it like an actual body, perhaps that was only natural.

Thinking about it now, the shield had actually interfered with my swordsmanship growth.

Rather, my movements felt more natural without the shield.

I threw away the ragged shield and looted the magic stone and weapon.

“Huh! Is this another ability stone?”

There was another green magic stone beside the Hobgoblin’s magic stone.

What was this? I heard ability stones were extremely rare.

I considered absorbing it right away, then held back for a moment.

I had to consider the possibility that I might not be able to earn immediate living expenses with these pieces of metal.

When I obtained an ability stone from the Horned Rabbit, I had been weak enough to die even to a Horned Rabbit, so I had thought I needed even one more ability. But now, I was already at the 10th floor.

Once I reached the 10th floor, I needed to think about properly equipping myself too.

I had used the one-handed sword well, but it was already chipped all over, and the blade had bent slightly from the Hobgoblin’s strange monstrous strength.

“Hmm, still, if the ability is good, I should use it.”

I opened the shop window and exchanged all my magic stones for Shop Points.

I had collected 22 magic stones.

In other words, I had hunted 22 monsters.

Whether it was a Horned Rabbit or a Hobgoblin, the points gained from hunting were all 1 point, and the shop exchanged each magic stone for 1 point, regardless of what monster it came from.

“I don’t know about Goblins, but shouldn’t a Hobgoblin be worth more?”

I complained as I checked my remaining 50 points after subtracting the 4 points I had spent buying swords and shields twice.

Then, to prepare for anything that might happen, I left 10 points behind and used the rest to buy ‘High-Grade Healing Potions.’

The 40 bottles of High-Grade Healing Potions would become my emergency fund.

If the ability stone did not sell or if I ended up using it myself, I would sell these to cover my living expenses.

For now, from what I had heard, the current shop window was apparently selling at tutorial discount prices.

Even if I had been deceived, there was no problem because I could sell them outside the Tower.

Rather, if the rumors were right, I might end up regretting not using the 10 points I had saved.

If the purchase price became 10 points, that would be a tenfold loss.

I placed my hand on the crystal and headed to the next floor.

[You have reached the 10th floor. Multidimensional Avatar ‘Slot 2’ has been activated.]