Ascension Through Skills

While touring the city, Taesan asked,

“Who made this?”

It looked too well-established to have been made by adventurers, no matter how he looked at it. The ghost replied,

[Not us. It was here before I arrived, and before Ainzhar. It existed even before that spirit arrived.]

“So then…”

[It was made by the magician. The reason why is not hard to understand.]

As Taesan was conversing, a figure approached him.

“Are you a new adventurer?”

A man wearing shabby armor approached him, his face filled with annoyance.

The man extended his hand towards Taesan.

“It’s annoying, but… work has to be done. My name is Darien.”

Taesan shook his hand and looked at him.

When he had met NPCs before, a system window announcing them would appear.

But no system window appeared for Darien.

That meant one thing.

Darien, noticing Taesan’s gaze, shrugged his shoulders.

“As you guessed, I’m not one bound by the labyrinth. I’m an adventurer like you.”

[You're still here?]

The ghost said, noticing Darien. Darien’s face brightened upon seeing the ghost.

“The hero? If you’re here, does that mean you’re dead?”

[That's why I'm here. Are you picking a fight?]

“No, no.”

Darien suppressed his laughter, his face looking delighted at the prospect of the hero dying and appearing before him as a ghost.

“Let’s get the tour over with quickly so I can rest. Follow me.”

Darien walked down the road. Taesan looked around again.

The scenery didn’t seem at all like a labyrinth. Numerous buildings. And roads that were damaged but still paved.

And beyond the village, a vast space was visible.

This place felt more like a world of its own than a labyrinth.

“As you can roughly see, this place is different from before. Whether you move forward or end up stuck here like us.”

“Us?”

“Everyone here was an adventurer. Or rather, used to be.”

As he said, Taesan saw many people, but not a single system window appeared for any of them.

“It seems like you’ve lived quite a long time.”

The age of the buildings and the layout of the village indicated that they had been here for a long time.

Darien smirked bitterly.

“This is that kind of place. A gathering place for those who have given up.”

Darien moved on.

“There are broadly three types of adventurers in the labyrinth. One is the adventurers who die descending the labyrinth. They are the most common and numerous.”

The difficulty of the labyrinth was notoriously high. Even the most talented individuals could die from a moment of carelessness.

For example, out of the hundreds of thousands from Earth who chose Solo Mode, only Lee Taeyeon survived, which said a lot.

There must have been talented and exceptional ones among them who did not survive.

“And then there’s the adventurer who descends to the end of the labyrinth. I’m not sure if such a person actually exists. Even the hero ended up dying.”

[If I hadn't been stabbed in the back, maybe it could have been possible, but dead is dead.]

That part made him a bit curious.

Aside from Lee Taeyeon, was there someone who had cleared the labyrinth?

“Is there actually someone who cleared it?”

“I don’t know. I’ve heard rumors that such a person exists, but I’ve never actually seen them. Even the leaders of the guides can’t go down there, so how could we possibly know?”

Darien replied nonchalantly.

“The last one is us. Those whose spirits are broken.”

Those who gave up on tackling the increasing difficulty as they descended and settled in the labyrinth.

Similar to NPCs, but unlike them, they were not bound by any contract.

The 51st floor was a gathering place for such individuals.

‘It’s just as Lee Taeyeon said.’

Long before, even before the Guides of Sin settled here, there were those who lived on the 51st floor.

They were like those whose time had stopped.

And the Guides of Sin, the Demon God said, were waiting on the 51st floor.

Taesan extended his senses while listening to Darien’s guidance.

“This is a residential area. If you save up money diligently, you can live here.”

Numerous detached houses were in sight, forming the shape of homes yet appearing on the verge of collapsing. People from a dying Earth lived in better homes than these.

“This is a tavern. If you want to eat, come here.”

Inside the tavern, a woman drinking glanced at Taesan and Darien and said,

“Are you a new adventurer?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re a new resident. You’ll end up stuck here anyway. Nice to meet you.”

“That won’t happen to me.”

“No. It will.”

The woman scoffed at Taesan.

“We all confidently ventured beyond, just like you, but ended up stuck here. You’ll be the same.”

Darien remained silent, as if he found her words to be true.

From this series of conversations, Taesan could tell.

His values and theirs were fundamentally different.

This conversation would definitely not progress any further.

Leaving the woman behind, Darien continued to guide him through the village.

“This is the church. Those who want to pray come here.”

The exterior of the church was also crumbling, revealing the inside.

“There’s no one praying.”

“They sleep to meet God.”

Taesan chuckled.

‘It’s just as the story goes.’

Lee Taeyeon had said the 51st floor was a place for those with broken spirits. That’s why she believed she could rest here.

But the moment she truly understood the 51st floor, she realized that was a vain dream.

This place was the labyrinth.

The labyrinth gave nothing to those who do not brave its depths.

And these were the people with broken spirits who did not brave it.

Such people building a village, gathering food, and having enough materials to repair buildings was unlikely.

The goods themselves could probably be obtained from shop owners.

But gathering the money for it was the problem.

If they combined their strength to kill monsters, they could supply themselves with gold, but the amount would not be substantial. After all, they were those whose spirits had been broken. They wouldn’t want to risk their lives fighting.

Therefore, the 51st floor was always short on food, and the buildings were crumbling.

And those whose spirits were broken always envied those who moved forward.

“Total shut-ins.”

“You too, if you stay here for hundreds of years, you’ll end up just like that.”

“Maybe.”

Even Lee Taeyeon seemed like she would go crazy if she stayed here too long, so she quickly left.

“What do you guys do here?”

“Nothing.”

Darien answered indifferently.

“We do nothing. Only I sometimes act as a guide upon the request of the labyrinth’s manager, but even that’s becoming too bothersome. It’s killing me.”

Those who despaired at the difficulty of the labyrinth. Those who gave up and sat down.

They were completely consumed by a sense of powerlessness.

‘It’s even worse than the Guides.’

No, perhaps these were what the Guides would become in the future.

Those who lost their way.

That was the adventurers of the 51st floor.

“It’s really bothersome… but I still have to complete the guide I took on.”

Darien pointed with his finger toward the end of the village.

There, an impenetrable forest lay ahead.

“You want to go down here, right?”

Taesan nodded.

“It might not seem possible, but I’ll tell you anyway. Somewhere at the end of that plain, there’s a unicorn with a blue horn. If you kill it and bring back its horn, you can leave the 51st floor.”

Lee Taeyeon had said that the 51st floor was very unique, that it was completely different from anything seen before.

Just as she said, it was very peculiar. Finding a unicorn in a wide plain instead of the usual labyrinth form as the way to clear the floor.

“Just in case, but hero. You can’t tell anyone the location.”

[I know. I don't plan to tell anyone about the path itself. The strategy for the labyrinth is to rely solely on one's own strength, without anyone's help. ...Well, that's already been broken.]

Lee Taeyeon thought Taesan was in Easy Mode and spilled all the information about Solo Mode. That information was now in Taesan’s head.

“Just so you know, you can enter any house to sleep. If you want to eat, go up to the labyrinth and somehow scrounge up something. It might be blocked due to penalties, but if you struggle, you can get a small amount of gold. That’s enough to buy from the shop owner.”

It was as if he was saying Taesan was bound to fail and return here. Taesan shook his head.

“I don’t plan to come back.”

“No, you will.”

Darien twisted his lips.

“I was like you too. I descended the labyrinth faster than anyone. I was full of confidence that I could go all the way to the end, that I could clear it. But I ended up stuck here. Not just me, everyone here felt that way.”

Darien pointed past the forest.

“Those who can get past there are either supported by the Guides or are beings different from the rest, like dragons. Yeah, like that demon that passed before. Otherwise, no one can get past.”

Darien spoke as if his view was the absolute truth.

“The hero beside you is the same. He descended the labyrinth but ultimately didn’t clear it and died.”

[Well... that's true, so I won't say anything, but it's pretty shameful for you to mention that.]

Darien ignored as if he didn’t hear and continued.

“So, you’ll be the same. Come back and try to adapt here.”

“Sorry, but I’m different from you guys.”

Taesan shook his head.

“I can’t just lie down at the bottom and scrape the bottom. I’d rather die trying to descend.”

“…You.”

Darien’s face twisted momentarily. He retorted with a face hurt in pride.

“Yeah. Let’s see you prove it.”

“That’s the plan.”

Taesan entered the forest.

The sight was filled with an incredibly colorful palette.

The moment he stepped into the forest, he realized the air was different.

“Poison?”

Taesan momentarily held his breath, quickly assessing the texture and properties of the air.

“Not poison… hallucinogens?”

[Judging hallucinogens...] [Judgment successful!]

The judgment came as soon as he thought about it. Although successful, the judgment continued to come in periodically.

Taesan surveyed the forest.

It was incredibly colorful.

Orange, green, red, purple - all these colors mixed together to disorient the mind.

[You should be careful. The creatures that come out here are quite mischievous.]

Taesan slowly moved forward.

And then he realized.

“The forest is moving.”

Taesan turned around. The trees and bushes of the forest were stealthily moving, blocking the path he had come through.

When Taesan looked at them, they hesitated for a moment and then continued moving, finishing their task.

With a wry smile, Taesan walked forward.

A bit further, Taesan saw a corpse in his field of vision.

It was a completely rotten skeleton. He assumed it was the body of an adventurer who had gone ahead, but Taesan clicked his tongue.

“Whoever it was, they had bad taste.”

[Did you see through it?]

“As if a freshly rotting corpse would appear right in front of me just now. And in this labyrinth? Impossible.”

He hadn’t found a single corpse while descending the labyrinth. It meant there was an entity, perhaps the manager, who took care of the bodies.

Therefore, the skeleton must have been deliberately placed there by someone.

Click, clack.

No sooner had he realized this than the skeleton rose up. Taesan punched towards the skeleton rushing at him with its arms flailing wildly.

Crack.

The skeleton crumbled and did not move again.

Simultaneously, he could hear giggling laughter.

The laughter came from all around.

It was a high-pitched laughter, like that of a child, but it was thick with murderous intent.

Feeling a momentary murderous intent, Taesan stamped his foot.

Keeng.

White light pierced the tree and the spot where Taesan had been. Taesan quickly ran towards the source of the light, but found nothing there.

[You dodged it.] [You dodged it.]

A voice, filled with light laughter, echoed.

[Will you dodge this too?]

Keeng.

Lights flew in succession: two from the left, one from the right, and two from the front.

Taesan drew his sword.

[You activated Flow.]

Keeng.

The light collided with the sword and was deflected. Then, twisting his body, he dodged the lights that the sword hadn’t intercepted.

Koogooogooong.

The light pierced through the trees.

Taesan concentrated his mind.

But he felt nothing.

Surprise tinged the voice of the fairy.

[You dodged that too.]

“This is fun,”

Taesan murmured.

The light just now would have been life-threatening for a regular adventurer on the 51st floor.

Lee Taeyeon had said that from the 51st floor onwards, the difficulty spikes dramatically, incomparable to anything before.

A place where mystical beings lived and sought to kill outsiders.

This was the starting point of a new layer.