Ascension Through Skills

Choi Baram led the way. While the rest of the people took a break inside city hall, Kim Hwiyeon, Geum Junggeun, and Kang Taesan toured the building under Choi Baram’s guidance.

Not long after they began inspecting city hall, Taesan’s group noticed something.

“Almost no buildings are intact.”

Most of the structures, city hall included…

Lay in ruins.

“Monsters destroyed half; people destroyed the other half.”

“People?”

Choi Baram chuckled.

“Even in a crumbling world, the struggle for power persists.”

Kim Hwiyeon shut her mouth. On reflection, they had faced a similar situation.

The one who had first stirred up trouble was the Easy Mode player, Choi Junghyuk.

He had incited rivalry between players by leading the Easy and Normal Modes.

Had Taesan not intervened early on, the conflict might have led to numerous deaths.

Then there was Seo Jangsan from Hard Mode, who had declared that Easy Mode players should serve as shields for those in Hard Mode.

Taesan had also dealt with him, but had he not, the resentment in Easy Mode could have boiled over into a riot one day.

Without Taesan, their circumstances would have been no different from those in Seoul.

“Didn’t you have any such issues?”

“We had…”

“Well, with the strongest human around, who would be foolish enough to rebel?”

Choi Baram spoke as though he had anticipated the response. The man Taesan knew wasn’t a weak-hearted philanthropist but a ruthless individual who did what had to be done and severed what had to be severed.

Such a person would never just stand by and watch conflicts unfold.

“I’m envious. If we had someone like that, perhaps fewer lives would have been lost.”

Choi Baram’s words carried a touch of sorrow.

He showed them everything up to the perimeter of city hall and then inquired,

“Is there anything else you’d like to know?”

“How many survivors are here?”

At first glance, it appeared that far fewer people were in Seoul than those who had come from Yongin. Choi Baram replied calmly,

“Perhaps around twenty thousand survived?”

About fifty thousand had survived from Yongin.

Kim Hwiyeon closed her mouth at the number, which was less than half of what they had.

“Please. Help us. Really.”

Choi Baram’s face, though chuckling, was filled with desperation.

After the tour ended, everyone dispersed. The reaction of the people from Gyeonggi-do who saw Seoul was not much different from theirs.

“I’m hungry…”

The people of Seoul were starving.

Seeing this, people used portable cultivators to quickly produce food. The Seoulites who received the food hurriedly filled their stomachs.

“Wow!”

“This is the portable cultivator! The rumors were true!”

Although they didn’t know the exact numbers, those from Yongin could tell that the survivors in Seoul were significantly fewer than them.

They also heard that most people died either fighting each other or were unable to fend off the invading monsters.

Without Taesan, they realized they would have been no different from these people.

At that moment, Taesan was looking over the horizon from the half-destroyed city hall rooftop.

“A lot died here.”

Twenty thousand starving people from Seoul and a handful of survivors from Gyeonggi-do.

Even if they joined forces, they were far from enough to fend off the monsters.

Literally fighting for their lives, only about ten thousand had managed to survive and return to the labyrinth in their previous life.

This time, they wouldn’t just leave things as they were.

To prevent a repeat, there was a problem that needed to be solved.

The next day, people from Uijeongbu also arrived.

Their number was much smaller than Seoul’s, only fifteen thousand.

As they arrived, a quest window appeared.

[Special Quest Start.] [Stop the First Wave. The wave will start in two days.] [Condition: Deal with the monsters trying to enter the safe zone.] [Reward: Vehicle provision upon return to the labyrinth.]

People who saw the quest window despaired. Some even went crazy at the thought of having to fend off monsters again to survive.

However, most people from Yongin calmly prepared to face the monsters.

“Taesan is with us.”

“As long as we trust and follow Taesan, we can survive.”

With Taesan as their pillar of strength…

They were not easily shaken. However, Choi Baram, who was inspecting the safe zone, did not look relieved.

“It’s too… wide.”

This quest was about preventing monsters from entering the safe zone.

In other words, they had to patrol the entire safe zone to keep the monsters out.

Naturally, a smaller safe zone would be more advantageous for defense, but the designated safe zone this time was excessively large.

The safe zone stretched about 1 km in all directions from Seoul City Hall. Considering the strength of the monsters, even eighty-five thousand people surrounding it couldn’t guarantee its safety.

“This is troublesome.”

Choi Baram scratched his head.

He wasn’t the only one thinking this. Kim Hwiyeon, realizing the size of the safe zone, also struggled with the arrangement of personnel.

If Taesan hadn’t stopped the five monsters during the previous return, they all would have been annihilated.

Realistically, they heavily depended on Taesan.

But even for Taesan, this vast area would surely be challenging. He was as strong as a monster but still alone. There were limits to what he could defend.

Taesan was aware of this fact.

The system was trying to kill him. It wouldn’t issue an ordinary quest. Clearly, it aimed to wear him down and prevent him from using his full strength.

So, he called Lee Taeyeon and Kang Junhyeok again.

“Is something wrong?”

Lee Taeyeon cautiously asked Taesan, sensing a different atmosphere. Taesan shook his head.

“It’s not that. Time is running out. You both know what this quest entails, right?”

The two fell silent.

The area was too wide for Taesan to handle alone.

This meant they had to become as strong as possible to assist Taesan.

But they still hadn’t learned the Ability Sword. To be precise, they couldn’t even sense it.

“It’s too difficult,”

Kang Junhyeok grumbled.

“I tried practicing alone, but I just can’t get the hang of it. How am I supposed to do it…”

Kang Junhyeok didn’t sit idly by. Apart from sparring with Taesan, he continuously practiced swordsmanship, trying to learn the Ability Sword.

But he didn’t get even a hint of it.

He began to doubt whether it was really a technique that could be learned.

But Taesan thought differently.

He believed that Lee Taeyeon and Kang Junhyeok were capable of learning it.

After a moment of contemplation, he asked,

“How did you learn Flow and Strong Blow?”

“I’m not sure about that either…”

“Just by fighting monsters, I got it.”

Both made ambiguous faces as they spoke. With that response, Taesan was convinced.

Taesan raised his sword.

“This time, both of you, come at me together.”

“What?”

Up to now, Taesan had been dueling with Lee Taeyeon, and when she became tired, he would duel with Kang Junhyeok in a repeating cycle.

But this time, he planned to duel with both at the same time.

“And the style of the duel will change, too.”

Taesan removed some of his equipment and switched to a weapon with lower attack power.

“This should be enough to not kill you quickly.”

[Kang Taesan challenged Lee Taeyeon and Kang Junhyeok to a duel.]

“Huh?”

Lee Taeyeon hesitated.

So far, the duels had been equal and non-lethal.

But this time, both conditions were absent.

“Mr. Taesan?”

“I’ve been thinking, and there aren’t many reasons why you couldn’t learn the skills.”

One reason might be a genuine lack of talent.

Or the method itself could be flawed.

To Taesan, it wasn’t the former.

Therefore, it had to be the method.

“You said you learned Flow and Strong Blow unconsciously.”

Everyone had learned them in extreme situations where they fought monsters, risking their lives.

It wasn’t unusual. Taesan himself had obtained some good skills by fighting for his life. People tend to bring out everything in extreme situations.

“So, I’ll try something similar.”

“Um, Taesan…”

It was when Lee Taeyeon tried to say something.

A killing intent enveloped her. Her face turned pale. She quickly raised her sword.

“Try to dodge it. Otherwise, you’ll die.”

Taesan stomped his foot. Lee Taeyeon sensed it as Taesan rushed at her with killing intent.

If she didn’t block, she would die.

But even if she did block, she would die.

She swiftly moved her sword. Seeing the trajectory of Taesan’s incoming sword, she twisted the blade to deflect it as much as possible. The movement was much cleaner than anything she had done before.

‘But that’s still not enough.’

The swords clashed, and Lee Taeyeon was thrown back.

“Kyaa!”

“You too.”

Taesan rushed at Kang Jun-hyeok. Dazed, Kang Jun-hyeok hastily reacted.

But Taesan easily dodged his movement and stabbed with his sword.

“Ugh!”

[Kang Jun-hyeok took 123 damage.]

It was serious.

Taesan was seriously trying to kill them.

Kang Jun-hyeok gritted his teeth and created distance. Lee Taeyeon, too, gripped her sword with a pale face.

Taesan, satisfied with their noticeably different reactions, lunged forward.

First was Lee Taeyeon. As Taesan approached her, she moved her body with a short shout, then swung her sword to block his attack.

Taesan skillfully turned his body, dodged, and struck at her nape.

“Ugh!”

The harsh recoil almost slammed her body to the ground. However, using her feet to brace against the earth, she barely managed to stay upright and used the recoil to swing her sword.

Taesan raised the corners of his mouth and lifted his sword. With the clash, Lee Taeyeon’s arm was flung back.

“Ah…”

Taesan kicked her away and immediately turned to deflect Kang Jun-hyeok’s incoming sword.

Lee Taeyeon, having been kicked, quickly charged in again.

Together, they combined their strength to attack Taesan, who defended against all their assaults, wounding them in the process.

Crack.

Taesan tripped Lee Taeyeon and engaged in a sword clash with Kang Jun-hyeok, sending him flying roughly.

Kang Jun-hyeok scrambled to his feet, his heart racing.

His health had already fallen below half.

“Hyung. Wait a minute…”

Taesan interrupted him with a swing of his sword, leaving Kang Jun-hyeok no choice but to block it in haste.

‘What the hell!’

Kang Jun-hyeok swore to himself.

No response seemed possible. Every sword clash sent him reeling, and even light blows caused triple-digit damage.

Taesan murmured as he brandished his sword.

“Do you two really think you can conquer the Labyrinth?”

The Labyrinth was a nonsensical place where monsters grew stronger much quicker than the adventurers as one descended.

This wasn’t noticeable to Taesan, who had become exceedingly strong, but from the 30th floor down, every monster demanded a fight for one’s life.

Even if they were not as formidable as Taesan, life-threatening foes could appear at any turn within the Labyrinth.

Lee Taeyeon had conquered the Labyrinth in her past life, but that was due to tremendous luck. She admitted as much, doubting her ability to succeed again if she attempted.

Both had grown considerably stronger than before, but to Taesan’s mind, it was still grossly insufficient. With their present skills, their chance of conquering the Labyrinth depended more on fortune than on prowess.

At this stage, even a minor unpredictability could spell grave danger for Lee Taeyeon and Kang Jun-hyeok.

To diminish this uncertainty, they had to grow much stronger.

“If you can’t even master this much, you might as well die here.”

With those words, Taesan launched another fierce assault on them.