Ascension Through Skills

“Something… hard to put into words… something’s different.”

She mumbled with a vague expression.

Lee Taeyeon was someone who conquered Solo Mode. Her observational and judgment skills couldn’t be poor. She asked with sharp eyes.

“Taesan. Show me your status window.”

“Sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

Lee Taeyeon was puzzled. There was no reason for Taesan to not show his status window.

“There’s a good reason for it.”

But for Taesan, whose stats themselves had changed, it was impossible to show.

“It’s not important, is it? It won’t harm anything, so don’t worry.”

Lee Taeyeon quietly looked at Taesan upon his response. Her eyes shimmered with various lights.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright then. That settles it.”

Lee Taeyeon didn’t probe further. It was as if she had guessed something.

“Let’s get to the main point.”

She said with a calm face.

“The next Wave is about to start.”

Taesan nodded.

The Wave when the monsters launched a total attack. Every time they returned to Earth, a Wave occurred.

Humanity lost Seoul in the first Wave after the last return.

Half of the Hard Mode players died in the second Wave.

In the third Wave, humanity could only defend a small city.

It was now the fourth Wave. And this time, humanity was annihilated.

Taesan recalled the words he had said at that time.

“How many are there?”

“Two S-grades. Dozens of A-grades. Hundreds of B-grades. And the Apostle.”

Lee Taeyeon spoke calmly.

Certainly, these were monsters worth saying it was over for. In his past life, everyone died without winning against the Apostle.

Defeat was essentially certain.

But Taesan had no intention of letting defeat happen.

“I’ll take on the two S-grades. Just handle the Apostle for a bit. I’ll quickly finish and come to help.”

Lee Taeyeon’s eyes wavered.

“What are you talking about? Not one but two S-grades. Even for you…”

“There’s no one else anyway, right?”

Lee Taeyeon closed her mouth at Taesan’s words.

Taesan was right. Two S-grades and the Apostle. Only Taesan and herself could face these monsters. So, they had to decide whether to take on the Apostle or the two S-grades.

She was summoned by Taesan for this very reason, yet Lee Taeyeon couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

“Surprisingly, you accepted it readily.”

Taesan had always been one to complain and express dissatisfaction with every decision. Though he never outright refused, she had expected him to voice his complaints this time as well.

“It’s pointless to complain at this point.”

Taesan shrugged his shoulders, prompting a puzzled look from Lee Taeyeon.

“You’ve definitely changed.”

“Yeah?”

Taesan smiled and took a seat.

“Then, let’s take this opportunity to catch up for a bit.”

“…A story?”

“Just casual talk. About Solo Mode that you’ve mastered, for example.”

In a previous life, Lee Taeyeon had shared details about Solo Mode with him—what each floor contained and the items she had acquired.

At that time, Taesan was in Easy Mode, so he had listened to most of the stories with forced interest.

But now, he was in Solo Mode himself. He intended to revisit the conversation to organize the information.

Lee Taeyeon’s eyes lit up with a smile.

“You were complaining you didn’t want to listen, what changed your mind?”

“Now that it’s all coming to an end, I might as well listen to something like this.”

“Good. I’ve been frustrated not having anyone else to talk to about this.”

She began to share about Solo Mode, detailing one thing after another. Perhaps because it was a rare conversation, her expression was exceptionally bright.

“And then, the 45th floor. The secret room there is a bit special.”

“Special?”

“Yeah. There’s something you can’t obtain by normal means. So, from there, I…”

Taesan carefully stored her rambling words in the back of his mind.

“And in Solo Mode, from a certain floor onwards, the difficulty suddenly increased significantly. Was it the same for you?”

“In Easy too. Starting from the 51st floor, the difficulty spiked at every key floor.”

“Right. But in Solo Mode, it was much worse.”

Lee Taeyeon shivered.

“I almost died. Plus, the 51st floor was quite unique. Risking my life to get past it. Ah, but that was good. There was a hidden room on the 51st floor, quite unique, where I got something pretty decent.”

What could be obtained in the future and what lies ahead.

He stored every bit of it in his mind.

The casual conversation continued. Lee Taeyeon smiled as if she found it miraculous.

“We seem to understand each other well. It was never like this before. Strange.”

Taesan, too, had entered Solo Mode like her, but she did not know. Taesan simply smiled.

They talked for a while.

And then it was over.

“It’s about time…”

Lee Taeyeon clenched her fist. Her body was trembling slightly.

Taesan looked at her and then opened his mouth.

Why didn’t you go back to the past?

Why did you die holding onto that?

He wanted to ask, but Taesan shook his head.

“Let’s survive and see.”

It was not the time to ask. Everything had to end before asking.

“Yeah.”

Lee Taeyeon smiled faintly.

“Really.”

Junggeun looked over the barrier with a restless face.

“I knew this day would come, but this feels really awful.”

Destruction was essentially certain. Inside the city, all kinds of shouts and screams were echoing.

He saw Lee Changchun.

His face was pale, but he was holding his weapon with a firm expression.

“You look surprisingly fine. It wouldn’t be strange if you were a corpse by now. Sigh. I have to accept it too. Considering everyone’s dying, I’ve lived quite long. This is a good death. A good death.”

“What good is there in dying?”

He waited, holding back the words he had swallowed then.

And then the monsters’ cries were heard.

It was the beginning of the Wave.

“Damn it. This is crazy. What did you say we have to face again?”

“Two S-grades.”

“…See you in the afterlife. Looks like you’ll be going first. Wait for me.”

“Don’t worry.”

Taesan waved his hand and tensed his feet.

“I’m not planning to go.”

Whoosh!

His body accelerated.

Unlike in his previous life, without Great Leap and Complete Reconnaissance, he couldn’t pinpoint their locations. But it didn’t matter. He still remembered exactly where the monsters were located.

Finally, he encountered the monsters.

[Monster 5 has appeared.] [Monster 7 has appeared.]

“Hello.”

A monster resembling a house-sized jellyfish and another floating in the air, waving its tentacles like an octopus, were seen.

“This is strange. Really.”

He encountered the monsters he had once fought for his life against.

The monsters turned their gaze towards Taesan.

[Monster 5 is hostile towards you.] [Monster 7 is hostile towards you.] [You have encountered terrible things.] [Judgement begins.] [Mental Madness Judgement in progress…] [Confusion Judgement in progress…] [Fear Judgement in progress…] [Instant Death Judgement in progress…] [. . .] [All judgements successful!] [You have activated reconnaissance.] [Monster 7] [Health: 325,842/325,842] [Monster 5] [Health: 105,212/105,212]

Taesan’s eyes darkened.

The monsters were much weaker than in his previous life.

The reason was not hard to guess. The God of Despair had been taken aback when imposing an enhanced trial on him. It was as if there were things entirely beyond its expectation.

Perhaps the High God had interfered in Taesan’s despair.

The monsters were beings born from the power of high gods. There was a high possibility that they were not fully manifested with the power of the God of Despair.

“Good.”

Taesan’s lips curled up. The strength of the monsters now was as weakened as Taesan. This made it clear. The differences between his past life and the current one.

The monster’s tentacles moved. Taesan stamped his foot as a green light was shot.

Kuuguuguugung…

The light melted the horizon.

Taesan assessed the situation with cold precision.

‘I can dodge it.’

Even without Physical Time Acceleration, he effortlessly evaded the monster’s attack.

Taesan charged at the monster, its tentacles moving as green beams fired towards him.

Seeing the incoming lights, Taesan stamped his foot.

Kiiiing!

The lights barely missed Taesan as they whizzed by.

In his previous life, dodging the lights by merely seeing them was impossible. He had to evade in advance, guided by premonition.

Now, however, he could move upon seeing the lights being fired and still dodge them, thanks to his increased stats.

Thud.

Taesan arrived right in front of the monster.

He hadn’t even used First Attack Nullification.

Kuuuung!

In front of Taesan, Defense Type Monster 7 shielded its body. Taesan raised his sword towards Monster 5.

[You have initiated a Forced Duel. For 12 seconds, no one except Monster 5 can inflict damage on you.]

Ignoring the Defense Type monster, he attacked the Attack Type monster first.

In his previous life, he lacked even the mana to use Forced Duel and had to eliminate one immediately upon its first use.

But not now. He could use Forced Duel dozens of times without any mana issues, so there was no need to prioritize the Defense Type.

Kiiiing!

He dodged the beams and thrust his sword.

[Monster 5 takes 3043 damage.]

No Multiplication. No Copying. No Designated Skill Reset.

But he had increased base attack power. Chipping away tens of thousands of health wasn’t difficult.

[You have activated the White Rune Shield.]

Small rune shields floated around Taesan. Tentacle beams hit the shields and were blocked. They shattered soon but gave Taesan enough time to dodge.

Taesan couldn’t help but laugh.

He knew a lot had changed, but facing the monsters he had encountered in his previous life made it even clearer.

In his previous life, the fight involved approaching with First Attack Nullification, activating Multiplication and Copying, and winning by knocking down the enemy in a single hit.

If he failed to knock them down, it became an endlessly disadvantageous tightrope fight.

In contrast, it was now much more stable.

With increased stats, he easily dodged the enemy’s attacks, slowly but surely whittling them down.

[You have activated Frost Arrows.]

The arrows pierced through the monster.

He used skills freely without worrying about mana.

Kiiing!

Ignoring the beams with First Attack Nullification, he continuously thrust his sword. Then, all the Attack Nullifications were used up.

[You take 18,543 damage.]

A damage of over ten thousand.

But Endurance did not activate. Taesan’s health was over twenty thousand. He still had thousands of health left.

Taesan quickly repelled the monster and drank a health potion. He recovered all his health and charged again.

He wasn’t as strong as he was then.

The him from his past life was probably still stronger than he was now.

But he had gained strengths in entirely different directions.

And if he managed to gain the strengths of his past life here, he would truly become perfect.

Taesan aggressively pressed the monster.