Leveling with the Gods

After passing out on the ground, quite a bit of time passed before YuWon managed to wake up. He wondered how many hours had gone by. His body was still a mess. Seeing how he had just managed to gain consciousness with none of his burns having healed yet, YuWon assumed not too many hours had passed.

YuWon’s whole body ached from the burns. And that wasn’t the last of it.

‘The icy aura is still the same.’ 

The burns weren’t his biggest problem. It was the icy aura that remained inside him after handling the 「Arctic Steel Sword」 and four 「Ice Crystals.」

YuWon’s lips were cracked dry, yet his insides felt frozen over. Simply put, his body was a wreck. 

‘I almost died.’ 

That was the first thought YuWon had after waking up. He really had approached the brink of death.

‘It could have gone real bad if I had been even a little slower.’

After getting up, YuWon saw that he was surrounded by Skull remains and Suruhtra’s corpse. YuWon’s guess was that he must have tumbled off of Suruhtra’s head after losing consciousness. 

And with that, YuWon had obtained [Cinder Eyes,] the thing he really needed to obtain in the Tutorial. It was the halfway point to obtaining the [Golden Cinder Eyes.] However, the Tutorial had yet to end.

‘How is this not the end?’

YuWon couldn’t help but laugh to himself. 

“This really is a turbulent journey, you bastards,” he mumbled while remembering his comrades that decided to send him back to the past. 

This was just the 3rd Tutorial. He still had a long ways to go. 

Step—

YuWon climbed up Suruhtra’s corpse. With the fires extinguished, Suruhtra’s body looked quite unimpressive. It looked like the corpse of a normal giant. However, this was no normal corpse. 

‘Every single by-product of a Demon’s corpse is an item.’

Demons were beings of high prestige that one could normally only see on the upper floors of the Tower. And even then, Suruhtra was quite special for having been born as Surtr’s child, even if it was only a low-class Demon.

Riiip, crack—

YuWon rummaged through Suruhtra’s corpse. He tore out a rib before digging into its chest until he found an empty space. Well, almost empty.

‘There it is.’ 

He found a bright red orb. It was located around Suruhtra’s heart, but it was more like a gem than a heart. This orb was both Suruhtra’s heart and the source of its powers. 

Grasp—

YuWon pulled out Suruhtra’s heart and firmly held it in his hand, feeling the intense heat.

[Giant’s Heart]

ᗌ Classification : Elixir.

ᗌ The heart of the Demon-Giant Suruhtra. Born in the fire nation, Suruhtra exuded the strength of a Giant and a fiery aura with this heart. 

ᗌ It holds a great amount of mana.

ᗌ It holds the power of a Giant.

The red gem was an ‘elixir’ by the name of 「Giant’s Heart.」

‘I want to take it right now…’

YuWon inspected the status of his body.

‘But that might be difficult.’

「Giant’s Heart」 was a pretty dangerous elixir. Not only did it hold a great amount of mana, it was an elixir that changed the musculoskeletal structure of the person that consumed it. It required a great amount of stamina to intake so much power. 

Right now, YuWon’s body was a wreck after the fight with Suruhtra. On top of that, the icy aura from the 「Arctic Steel Sword」 and 「Ice Crystals」 was still inside him, so there was a great chance that the icy aura would dilute the fiery aura. 

“▷ Are you finished?”

YuWon turned around to see the source of the voice behind him. He replied after putting the 「Giant’s Heart」 in his inventory, “I’m about halfway done.”

The Administrator massaged his forehead. He knew what was coming.

“Time for me to get my reward.”

* * *

“▷ I already heard an earful from the other guys because of you, and now you…”

The Administrator shook his head and let out a deep sigh. He must have had a pretty big headache.

“▷ The balance of this Tutorial is completely fucked.”

Yet even while voicing his frustrations, the Administrator couldn’t do a thing to YuWon. Administrators were beings that had to precisely follow the rules of the Tower. As long as YuWon continued to act within the rules of the Tower, his insane rampage would continue.

“▷ Well, you are first going to go to the final area. The 4th Tutorial is currently in progress, and it’s almost over.”

“It’s almost over?”

YuWon realized that he must have actually been passed out for a while. The 4th Tutorial’s theme was a defense that lasted a whole day. He had assumed that he wouldn’t be able to join the 4th Tutorial midway, but things were progressing much faster than he had anticipated.

“How much time is left?”

“▷ There’s four hours remaining. You can just relax and wait until then.”

“Four hours, you say…”

The 5th Tutorial was the final trial required to enter the Tower. Because of that, it had the highest difficulty, as well as the longest duration.

Four hours. 

YuWon nodded his head.

“Okay, that’ll be enough.”

“▷ I would hope so.”

“Has the reward been decided yet? It seems like it took you quite a bit of time.”

“▷ It took a long time to decide what to give you because I had to consult the other guys this time.” 

The “other guys” that the Administrator was referring to were probably the Administrators of other floors. That meant that this was a decision so hard, a single Administrator couldn’t decide by himself.

This was honestly not a surprise. Even though it was weakened from the intervention of the Tower, a ‘newbie’ that has yet to even complete the Tutorial defeated Suruhtra. In the first place, Suruhtra was meant to bring Annihilation to the Tutorial area. It was not intended to be defeated at all. 

[You have obtained 10000 points.]

[You have obtained the skill Heaven-Slaying Star.]

[All your stats increased by 3.]

YuWon was pleasantly surprised. He hadn’t anticipated that he’d be given a skill. 

‘Heaven-Slaying Star?’

A star that slays the heavens. It was truly a grandiose name. Though, maybe the grandiose name was warranted considering YuWon had defeated the Giant Suruhtra, the Annihilation of the Tutorial. 

However, a skill by the name of [Heaven-Slaying Star] didn’t exist within YuWon’s memories.

‘A skill I’ve never heard of…’

YuWon thought that he knew most of the high-rank skills. 

‘Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.’

The Tower never betrays one’s efforts and hard work. When one perfectly passes a difficult trial, the Tower will always present them a suitable reward. That was a fundamental truth of this world that YuWon knew, and he knew this truth would remain true far into the future. 

‘I bet it’s something pretty good.’

YuWon quickly checked his new skill.

[Heaven-Slaying Star]

ᗌ Rank : A+

ᗌ Completion rate: 0.00%

ᗌ You possess the fate and talent to slay the heavens. From here on, your fate and worth will change depending on what the life you kill is worth. 

ᗌ Your stats increase depending on the number of opponents killed, as well as who your opponents were.

ᗌ All stats increased by 3.

An A plus-rank skill. At half a rank higher than [Cinder Eyes,] it was definitely a skill that should have been impossible to obtain in the Tutorial, and it was a testament to how difficult a trial it was to defeat Suruhtra and prevent the Annihilation. 

YuWon found the rank satisfactory, but the effect was a bit underwhelming. Still, an increase for all stats was definitely a plus. 

‘This is definitely better than any mediocre skill.’

It wasn’t necessarily a good thing for a skill to be high-rank. Depending on one’s combat style, a lower-rank skill might be more efficient than a high-rank skill. Meanwhile, a skill that raised one’s stats was useful to just about everyone. 

But the increase in stats wasn’t the only thing that caught YuWon’s attention. 

‘Completion rate…’

YuWon looked closely at the ‘completion rate’ that was in place of ‘proficiency.’

‘Does this mean it’s not a complete skill yet?’

Though rare, there were growth-type items in this world that grew stronger with the user over time. However, YuWon had never heard of a growth-type skill that had a completion rate instead of proficiency. 

‘Whatever the case is, there’s probably no better skill to compensate for my lack of stats.’

YuWon paid no mind to the 10,000 points he was rewarded. 

The skill started off by increasing every stat by three. This included Arcane Power for a whopping total of 15 stat points. This was a far greater change than just leveling up five times. Leveling up became increasingly difficult with higher levels, yet stats gained from the [Heaven-Slaying Star] were not connected to levels at all. So in total, it wasn’t a bad reward.

“▷ Do you require anything else?”

YuWon nodded at the Administrator’s question. 

“Please give me one Lesser Scarlet Medicine Ball.’”

“▷ You’re not even batting an eye while buying such an expensive item.” 

The Administrator grumbled while handing a bright red medicine ball to YuWon. 

[You have spent 10000 points.]

[You have obtained a 「Lesser Scarlet Medicine Ball.」]

YuWon took it from him. The 「Great Scarlet Medicine Ball」 was a far more effective item, but that wasn’t something he could purchase right now, as it cost hundreds of thousands of points to buy it from the Shop.

He had no choice but to be satisfied with his current purchase. 

“▷ Anything else?”

“That’s it for me.”

“▷ Then wait here for a bit. Take that and get some good rest.”

And with those words, the Administrator vanished. 

There were four hours remaining. Within that time, he had to heal from his burns and injuries while preparing for the 5th Tutorial.

Crunch—

YuWon put the medicine ball in his mouth and started chewing. It tasted like it was made with every single bitter plant in the world.

‘I lost too much time from fainting. I also need to consume Suruhtra’s heart…’

Gulp—

YuWon swallowed the 「Lesser Scarlet Medicine Ball」 and sat down on the ground. He could feel a refreshing energy circulate within his body. He closed his eyes and let his heart absorb the energy of the medicine ball. 

[Your Arcane Power increased by 1.]

[Your Constitution increased by 1.]

[Your injuries and stamina start to recover quickly.]

The 「Lesser Scarlet Medicine Ball」 was a valuable elixir in any world outside the Tower. As an item that increased your Arcane Power and Constitution, it gave you a significant amount of stats the first time you consumed it. 

‘Two stats. Is that the limit?’

It would be a different story with a 「Great Scarlet Medicine Ball,」 but it was useless to want more stats from the 「Lesser Scarlet Medicine Ball.」 Had YuWon taken it while he was a lower level, he might have been able to get one or two more stats from it. 

But YuWon didn’t waste too much time wondering about what-ifs. There were plenty of ways to gather more points in the future, and gaining two stats at his level was still pretty good. Besides, the primary reason he took the medicine ball was to quickly recover from the injuries that Suruhtra inflicted on him. 

Taking the 「Lesser Scarlet Medicine Ball」 to recover from injuries was normally only something that high rankers could do as a display of extreme wealth, but…

‘I have no choice right now.’

Time passed quickly.

Was it because he took the medicine ball? YuWon’s wreck of a body started healing rapidly. 

Time continued to flow. 

YuWon had closed his eyes waiting for the 4th Tutorial to end. He opened his eyes, instinctively feeling the will of the Tower calling for him.

‘It’s starting.’

YuWon got up from his spot, and at that moment… 

Woom, wooom—

The air around him started to vibrate. His body floated up, and his vision started to blur. Like paint being mixed together, the sky and the ground blended into black. YuWon floated high up in the air, as if he was being separated from the world, and his sights changed.

Disconnecting from this world and connecting to a different world. 

The world that had condensed together and turned black suddenly separated, and another world made of completely different colors appeared. 

The air that had turned hot from the battle with Suruhtra turned cool. The sky was clear, and there was the scent of salty ocean. And in front of YuWon, a great forest could be seen spanning the horizon.

A lot of people started appearing around YuWon.

“Where is this?”

“Is this the 5th Tutorial?”

“There’s a lot of people here.”

“How big is this place?”

There were approximately a little over a hundred people. 

Some people were on alert, thinking that there were too many people. That was because up until now, some of the missions required people to attack each other. 

However, these people had no idea how different the final Tutorial would be compared to any of the other Tutorials they had faced before. They would come to learn how small the world they had been living in was.

‘This is the first place where Tutorial participants from various worlds will gather for the first time.’

This was the starting point where people from an infinite number of worlds gathered for the massive world that was the Tower. And the Tutorial called this place…

[THE FINAL TUTORIAL WILL NOW BEGIN.]

… The “Collective World.”