Ascension Through Skills

[Lee Taeyeon [Solo]: Uh……] [Kang Junhyeok [Solo]: This…… I really don't know…… is it correct?] [Kang Taesan [Solo]: I'm saying it because it's correct.] [Lee Taeyeon [Solo]: Hmm. I don't know. I thought every time the skill acquisition conditions were mentioned, it seemed crazy, but this seems to go beyond that.]

The shop owner, watching Taesan, gave him a puzzled look.

“I’m surprised, though. I thought you’d save up more money and buy it.”

“I need to prepare a bit.”

If Taesan recalled correctly, his strength for the second return should be sufficient. He could handle it alone without any injuries and come back.

But that was not possible.

So he had to be prepared.

Taesan went downstairs, touching the whip that wrapped around his arm.

‘It was around here.’

There was something he wanted to get before leaving.

Upon entering the 25th floor, a black spirit appeared.

[A Dark Spirit has appeared.]

“What is this now?”

The spherical spirit charged at Taesan. The whip, wrapping around his arm, stood up abruptly and lashed at the spirit.

Taesan was intrigued by the armguard attacking on its own.

“This is good?”

For other players, it might be a disadvantage. Only 25 damage lashing out on its own. But, for Taesan, who had the Airak Martial Technique, it was very good. He had obtained a means of attacking automatically with an attack power of 175.

It needed various tests, but it was definitely a good weapon for him.

The spirit struck by the whip flew away.

Splash!

But no damage window popped up. Instead, the spirit’s body split apart.

“Huh?”

Taesan’s pupils dilated.

The spirit split and became two entities.

[A Dark Spirit has appeared.] [Dark Spirit 2 has appeared.]

“Split?”

[A Dark Spirit. It's a spirit without a fixed form or mass.]

The ghost explained impassively.

[It doesn't take damage from the first attack and splits. And once it splits, there's a cooldown. You have to defeat it within that time. Typically, it's an annoying enemy, but it's nothing to you, right?]

If it split into two, and if not defeated within a certain time, it split again. It was a troublesome monster, but with Taesan’s current stats, it could be handled without any problem.

However, Taesan smiled.

“Bingo.”

Lee Taeyeon told him many things, and among them was about the splitting spirit.

He shrugged off most of what she said, but he remembered that information well.

The reason was one. A particular skill was much easier to obtain with it.

“One week. Is it possible?”

Taesan murmured and waited quietly.

He evaded. He avoided the attacks of the spirits without retaliating.

“How long is the cooldown?”

[Uh…… 3 minutes?]

“Worth the wait.”

Taesan blocked, dodged, and waited. After 3 minutes, he swung his sword.

Splash.

Two spirits separated. Four spirits now occupied the room.

He once again dodged the simultaneous attacks of the charging spirits.

And 3 minutes passed. Taesan swung his arm. Along with a sharp cracking sound, the whip struck the spirits.

Eight spirits filled the room.

He repeated the process. He dodged, and when the cooldown was over, he struck. Sixteen appeared. There were too many to dodge, so he used forced combat to buy time.

[That's a lot.]

“Should be enough around now.”

Thus, over a hundred spirits filled the room, closely packed, making it hard to find space to move.

[Why are you doing this?]

The ghost looked bewildered.

[You're doing this to create a skill, aren't you?]

“You know well.”

[Well, it's about time you created one.]

Having seen it multiple times, it seemed routine. The ghost asked with curiosity.

[But, what skill are you trying to create by doing this?]

The ghost had watched the process of acquiring forced duel and attack nullification in real time. Even such a ghost found the preparation process hard to understand.

“It exists.”

Taesan gripped a sword with both hands. He mumbled as he took a proper stance.

“The timing is right.”

[Timing?]

“Those who invade the earth are the gods of the past. Did they not notice my existence?”

The ghost replied after a moment of silence.

[That…… is very unlikely.]

“Yes. They probably know about me.”

The gods of the labyrinth, Lucifer and Maria, knew of Taesan’s past, that he had traveled back in time.

Transcendents meant that they were unaffected by the flow of time. And that applied to the old gods as well.

Even though he was defeated by the current gods, a mere human was a being who couldn’t resist. It was evident from the strength of the monsters that appeared on the doomed earth.

Would such beings not notice the distortion of time that he had gone back to the past?

The possibility was low. In fact, Lucifer also said it. It would be hard. To come back alive.

So, he had to become stronger.

He needed enough power to break the interference of the old gods who would be waiting to kill him.

“This skill should make it possible.”

[What skill is it? Don't make me curious, just tell me.]

The ghost asked impatiently. Taesan answered while blocking the spirit’s attack.

“Addition.”

[Addition?]

“A skill that doubles the attack power.”

[What? Is it an enhanced version of Increase? Good skill, isn't it?]

The ghost asked with an interested voice.

[So, what's the condition?]

The ghost thought that “Addition” naturally had conditions, such as it could only add basic attack power or it couldn’t be influenced by other skills. Considering its power, it was a natural penalty, and even considering that, it was still a good skill.

Taesan responded.

“None.”

[What?]

The ghost hesitated.

[There are no conditions?]

“It literally doubles. The damage inflicted always doubles.”

[……Unconditionally?]

“Unconditionally.”

[What kind of madness.]

The ghost was shocked, and rightly so.

[What is that skill?]

“Add” was a skill that added half of the basic attack power; it increased the attack power displayed on the stats screen by half.

It didn’t apply to all kinds of attack power buffs, strong blows, critical attacks, etc.

But even such a skill, “Increase,” was a good attack power increase skill favored by Hard Mode players.

However, “Addition” was double the damage inflicted.

Critical attacks, strong blows, continuous attacks, and numerous other attack power buff skills and conditions were also affected.

It doubled them all. A significant difference existed between “Increase” and “Addition,” and it was embarrassing to compare them.

[There are so many who beg for 'Add', but unconditionally doubling? What kind of skill is that?］

The ghost spoke with an astounded tone.

[Simply looking at the numbers, it means you are twice as strong as before, right?］

“That’s right.”

[Oh.]

The ghost was horrified. All the skills until now were one thing, but “Addition” exceeded them. It was a skill one would scoff at and think of as nonsense if someone spoke of it.

And naturally, a question arose.

[……How do you learn such a skill?]

Skills had acquisition conditions. The most common condition was producing an effect similar to the skill’s effect.

[Don't tell me you have to produce damage double the attack power? Isn't that impossible without using critical attacks or strong blows?]

“It can’t be that easy, right? If you use an attack power increase skill, you can’t learn ‘Addition’.”

If that was possible, everyone would be learning “Addition.” But no one except Lee Taeyeon and him had learned “Addition.”

[Then how do you learn it?]

“Perseverance Skill.”

[Huh?]

“Don’t you remember the skill I learned with Reconnaissance?”

[……Ah. The skill that improves efficiency through repetitive actions?]

The ghost remembered it belatedly. Even then, he only focused on Reconnaissance and didn’t value Perseverance much.

[You can get 'Addition' with that? I don't understand.]

“You’ll understand when you see.”

Taesan swung his sword. The spirit in front was halved.

[243 damage to Dark Spirit 102.]

Given it’s a dividing monster, its health itself seemed considerably low. When one spirit died, another thrust its torso forward.

Taesan didn’t dodge. He didn’t back off or change his stance.

He steadied his breath, used the muscles throughout his body, and slashed the sword in the same stance as before.

[243 damage to Dark Spirit 102.]

The spirits rushed in. Taesan, in the same manner, didn’t change his stance and only slashed down his sword.

[245 damage to Dark Spirit 95.] [247 damage to Dark Spirit 53.] [Huh?]

The ghost realized.

[The damage... It's increasing bit by bit?]

The effect of perseverance was simple. Efficiency increased with repetitive actions.

Here, efficiency also included damage.

[From what I think, you have to extract double damage like this, right?]

Instead of answering, Taesan swung his sword.

[249 damage to Dark Spirit 12.]

The ghost was convinced.

[That's right.]

Taesan continued to swing his sword. Each time, the damage increased slightly.

A skill that could be obtained only if one had perseverance and hundreds of enemies were provided.

That was ‘Addition.’

The conditions themselves were not that hard. Perseverance could be learned without any special restrictions by performing mind-numbing repetitive actions, and in the numerous layers of the labyrinth, there were bound to be hundreds of enemies at least once.

However, ‘Addition’ was a skill that was difficult to learn even if the conditions were met.

A spirit rushed toward Taesan. Taesan slashed his sword down as he had been doing.

And before Taesan could regain his posture, another spirit rushed in.

Taesan lifted his sword and slashed down again. There was a difference in speed from before. It was subtle but definite.

[243 damage to Dark Spirit 44.]

The damage had returned to what it was when he first attacked.

Taesan calmly attacked the spirits again, increasing their number to over a hundred, and again took his stance and slashed his sword down.

[244 damage to Dark Spirit 86.]

He started again from the beginning.

On the second attempt, on the twenty-fourth attack, his left foot moved a distance hard to discern with the naked eye when two spirits suddenly interfered, and the damage returned to the initial value. He started again.

On the third attempt, on the thirty-fifth attack, a spirit rushed in even after being attacked. A little more strength went into his fingertips. The damage was reset.

The fourth attempt began.

The ghost realized.

[So, even a tiny deviation isn't allowed.]

The subtle movement of the muscles in the arm, the distance between the feet, the speed of moving the sword.

The direction of the sword, the direction of the gaze, the location of the contact point, and the stopping position of the sword after completing a series of processes.

Everything had to match perfectly for perseverance to activate, even the breathing after completing a series of processes.

Taesan’s damage was around 240. To obtain ‘Addition,’ he had to reach 480.

[This is madness.]

The ghost, who had also performed the same action perfectly several times for the training of swordsmanship, knew its difficulty.

It wasn’t simple repetition. It was a perfect match. Lifting the hand, moving the sword, every motion where the sword ends. He had to devote all his energy to each one of them.

It was an indescribable agony. At least for the ghost, it was more comfortable to fight against a formidable enemy where victory could not be guaranteed.

Moreover, for Taesan, there was the mark of struggle, where stats increased with every enemy defeated.

Stats directly affected movement, meaning that the power and speed of each attack had to be reset.

In the meantime, the fourth attempt also failed. Because at the fortieth slash, a spirit broke through his defense and interfered.

“Really? I think it’s doable.”

Taesan spoke calmly, lifting his sword again and taking a stance.

There was no threat of death. All he had to do was repeat.

Considering all kinds of variables, it would take immeasurable time, but he would definitely obtain it someday. That was enough.

Taesan swung his sword.

Time passed.

Several hours, then a day passed. One day turned into two, and two days turned into four.

Taesan simply continued repeating during that time.

Whooosh.

How many times has it been? He lost count. At least ten thousand times, surely.

[Crazy man.]

The ghost muttered, bored. There were several attempts in dozens of tries where he almost achieved it. Just three more times, and it would have doubled, but that was ruined by a very subtle variable.

Although it was enough to burst out in anger, Taesan only lifted his sword again expressionlessly.

It felt like watching an emotionless machine.

[Don't you get angry?]

“I do get angry. My emotions do waver. But I’m used to it.”

He had put in countless efforts to acquire skills. More than half of them were fruitless, and many times, he invested several months, but it was all in vain.

The effort of a few days was nothing.

‘Rather, it’s a gain.’

If he could obtain ‘Addition’ just by suffering for a week, what else could be called a gain if this wasn’t? That was what Taesan thought.

Taesan continued to swing his sword. The ghost, either bored at some point or not wanting to interfere, didn’t say anything and just waited.

And then six days passed.

[485 damage to Dark Spirit.] [You have drawn out nearly double the damage without any special means. Activated Special Skill [Addition] acquired.]

Taesan’s sword stopped.

6 days of repetition, 132 hours of labor, 1,012 failures, and he was able to acquire ‘Addition.’