Only My Skill Tooltip Is Strange

53 – 3rd Floor, Labor.

I arrived at the empty temple and looked around.

Collapsed pillars, broken statues.

It felt like a ruin.

In the center of the temple stood a knight.

‘Since he’s guarding a temple that serves a god, can I call him a paladin?’

A paladin in full plate mail.

Even just standing there, he seemed to exude an overwhelming presence.

It wasn’t that his energy was actually fluctuating.

But my instincts were warning me.

That nothing good would come from getting closer.

To put it another way, it made my nerves stand on end.

‘…A similar feeling to when I first saw Joo Sohee.’

The paladin didn’t move or leave his post.

Seeing his firm stance, it didn’t seem like he would suddenly charge.

‘Well. Even if he did charge, that’s all there is to it.’

I was confident I could escape safely.

My strength and stamina might be lacking compared to other Earthlings, but my agility far surpassed the average of 3rd-floor players.

That paladin is also a trial that 3rd-floor players must face.

It wouldn’t be set at an impossible level.

‘The Blanco team also spoke as if it was a given that they would succeed in conquering the dungeon.’

Whether it’s long or short, I’ll find out when I face it.

I activated my skill while keeping a reasonable distance.

[Frozen Prison]

An ice wall rose up, trapping the paladin.

The paladin tried to react but was caught.

It wasn’t faster than I thought.

Bang! Bang-!

Noise was heard from inside the ice wall.

The paladin drew his sword and began to strike the wall with all his might.

‘Do you think it will break?’

Its durability is a whopping 10,000.

This is a figure that can only be approached by hitting the Hatchling Breath twice.

It was not a level that a mere paladin of the dungeon could reach.

‘…It seems to have quite high vitality.’

Considering the damage of Frozen Prison, it’s amazing that it endured that.

It is worthy of a monster guarding the dungeon.

‘Considering that several players on the 3rd floor are attacking together… Even if I don’t know about other abilities, vitality must be high.’

I used other skills in succession.

As soon as I released Frozen Prison, I used Poison Sting and Bomb.

Phew!

Boom-!

The paladin hit by the skills collapsed immediately.

Even if it endured Frozen Prison, the other two skills seemed too much.

[You have defeated an unknown paladin.]

I approached the paladin to see if there was anything.

Coordinates, the Pirate King’s Chronicle, it would be good to get them if possible.

[The way to 3-1,852]

There was a map.

It was coordinates.

‘How many islands are there?’

It wasn’t easy to meet a familiar face on the 3rd floor.

And the chronicle.

[The Pirate King’s Chronicle #2.]

A torn piece of the book was included as a bonus.

“How lucky.”

Or maybe I just need to catch the holy knight once?

Whatever.

The important thing is that I got it.

I skimmed through the chronicles of the Pirate King.

It was in a language I had never seen before, but I understood it.

“…It’s a diary?”

The chronicles of the Pirate King were one person’s diary.

The earlier parts were missing, but I could roughly infer the flow.

‘Left my hometown and headed to the sea. But it was too hard, so I tried to go back home. Landed on a visible shore and wandered aimlessly. Then, in a village…’

Dolph, who called himself the Pirate King.

He flirted with a girl he liked in the first village he arrived at.

A holy knight on a pilgrimage saw the scene, and Dolph, who had nothing, was scolded and ran away.

[(Omitted) That b*stard. I’ll get revenge someday. Damn it.]

“……”

Dolph claimed that the girl also showed interest, but the actual situation seemed very different.

Seeing that the holy knight intervened, it must have been.

I put the coordinates and the chronicles in my inventory.

I don’t care what kind of life the Pirate King, who must have been the master of this floor, lived and died.

What matters to me is how to get to the next floor.

‘Check the location of Island No. 3.’

I scanned the horizon while circling the island.

Just like on Island No. 1, I wondered if it would be visible to the naked eye.

‘Is it over there?’

The distance between Island No. 1 and Island No. 2.

Island No. 3 was slightly farther away.

The size of the island had definitely increased.

Island No. 1 can no longer be compared.

I want to cross over immediately.

But I couldn’t set sail easily.

The distance between the islands had grown, and so had my reluctance.

‘It’s impossible with the Ice Spirit’s raft.’

Giving up was quick.

It’s a life-threatening gamble, so why bother? The moment I thought that, it was over.

The destination floated away.

But it was okay.

Island 2 had resources worth securing, just like Island 1.

There was much to do.

* * *

Yuki, who stayed on Island 1, set up a base camp where Island 2 was visible.

There was a commotion on Island 2, but Yuki just watched blankly.

“Wow….”

A ridiculously large ship left the island.

It was shocking compared to the raft that the Error Man had taken.

‘On the third floor, you must build a ship.’

Who were the departing ones, and where did they come from?

Yuki didn’t care.

It was a meaningless question to her.

The only thought in Yuki’s mind was to climb the tower.

Yuki cut down trees.

By freezing and breaking the roots, she could easily topple them.

‘If I use the trees here as a framework, I can get the Soul System’s correction, right?’

Just like the Error Man did.

Yuki made and reinforced a raft.

She created ice and added it as walls.

But her ice was so weak that it was somewhat impractical to use as the ship’s walls.

‘…In this case, Hikari is useless too. Should I have just followed?’

She was starting to slightly regret not going with the Error Man.

The regret amplified as Hikari came up late.

Four days later.

“Chief.”

“…You made it up safely, Hikari.”

“It was really tough.”

A woman who was clearly a psychic at a glance.

Hikari, with her golden bob, trotted over to greet Yuki.

She had finally made it to the third floor.

Yuki glanced at Hikari, whom he hadn’t seen in four days, and let out a sigh.

“Why did it take so long?”

“Huh? I came up right away.”

“……”

That could be possible.

Both Yuki and Hikari had been summoned to the tutorial, though at different times.

It wasn’t strange that time flowed differently on each floor.

Yuki had stayed here and waited purely for practical reasons.

He thought he could use Hikari for about a week.

“Chief. No way.”

Hikari looked around in horror.

An endless expanse of nothingness.

She would lose her mind if she stayed here for even a week.

“How long have you been here?”

“Four days.”

“…Huh? Only four days? Oh, come on.”

I thought you had been here for a year or something.

Seeing Hikari grumble with that nuance, Yuki chuckled.

“I wouldn’t wait for more than a year.”

“Right?”

Yuki had a purpose.

A purpose that had arisen after being summoned to the Tower of Struggle.

No matter how precious Hikari was as a subordinate, or how reliable a comrade who had been with him through thick and thin, Yuki would not give up on the new dream he had embraced.

Hikari understood Yuki’s heart.

‘The hope that his deceased mother might be summoned to the Tower of Struggle and be alive…’

He had come to know that slim possibility.

But how could he give that up?

“What should I do?”

“First, we need to cross over to that island. And then…”

He explained, albeit roughly, the structure of the third floor.

Yuki asked,

“Can you make it across?”

“It’s impossible.”

Hikari shook his head.

From his expression, it seemed truly impossible.

“Is it blocked by a wall again?”

“Yes.”

Hikari was a superhuman who could manipulate light.

He could even convert himself into photons.

In the previous floor, he had attempted to escape the area.

There was nowhere he couldn’t go at the speed of light.

But he had failed.

He was blocked by a ‘wall’ that even light couldn’t penetrate.

“So we have to cross the sea no matter what.”

Yuki quickly gave up.

He had somewhat expected it.

So, during the four days he waited for Hikari, he diligently made a raft.

“Is this it?”

“Yes. We’ll ride it tomorrow morning.”

Perhaps because he had invested quite some time?

The result was surprisingly decent.

In terms of having roughly the shape of a boat, he wanted to give it high marks.

“Why? Is it not good?”

“…No. It’s fine.”

With such a triumphant expression, I couldn’t say anything like “What is this?”

I had that much sense.

Morning.

The two of them set out to sea on a boat.

“…Wow, that’s too much.”

Hikari boarded the boat in the form of a mass of light.

It seemed like a blatant declaration that he wouldn’t row, so Yuki let out a hollow laugh.

“We need to reduce the weight.”

Hikari said confidently.

There was no room to argue with that assertion.

Yuki gritted his teeth and rowed.

He wasn’t particularly strong, so even crossing one island wasn’t easy.

‘How did Oruin manage it?’

He was an Earthling, but still a man, it seemed.

“Huff. Huff.”

They finally reached the second island.

Yuki, panting heavily, shoved the raft into the inventory.

“Wow. It seems bigger than the island we were on.”

“……”

Hikari leisurely looked around the island.

‘Couldn’t you help a bit?’

Yuki ground his teeth, but couldn’t say anything.

It was more efficient for one to suffer alone than for both to be in pain.

“I’ll take a look around.”

“…Okay.”

While Yuki exhaled, Hikari looked around the island.

It took less than two seconds.

“There’s someone here.”

“Handsome man?”

“No. A very dirty man. He looks like a martial artist.”

“……”

That can’t be right.

“Let’s go check it out.”

“Okay.”

Hikari took the lead.

And then Hikari met a man who looked like a martial artist.

“Oryuin.”

Looking at his face, it was indeed Oryuin.

His beard was unshaven and a bit messy, but his features were unmistakably Oryuin.

“You crossed over?”

Clang-!

“……”

Oryuin glanced at Yuki and then focused on his task.

He struck the pile of stones with a crudely made pickaxe.

Clang-!

“What are you doing…?”

“This?”

Oryuin wiped his sweat and said.

“Mining magic stones?”

Actually, that’s not it.

[Mining][Lv.4][F]

[When mining ores, efficiency increases by 『13%』.]