Chapter 4: Easiest at Low Levels (2)
In the Golden Lion Guild, one of the three most famous guilds in Daegu[1].
"What is it?"
"A package has arrived for you."
"From a fan?"
The secretary smiled awkwardly and remained silent when questioned by Baek Min-Hyuk, the founder of the Golden Lion Guild and one of South Korea's top-class Hunters.
As a Hunter, Baek Min-Hyuk had many fans.
He had awakened the ability known as Beastfolk Transformation and went on to destroy numerous Gates while leading the Golden Lion Guild. He rose to great fame by blocking the rampage of a Gate that had burst open in Daegu.
"That's..." the secretary hesitated.
"Why do you keep pausing like that?" Baek Min-Hyuk demanded an answer impatiently.
"Well..." the secretary continued to draw out her answer.
Baek Min-Hyuk raised a brow. "Is it something dangerous?"
"Not at all," the secretary firmly denied. "But it's a bit..."
"How tiresome." Baek Min-Hyuk snorted.
Feeling frustrated by the secretary's continued hesitation, Baek Min-Hyuk stood up and took the box she had been holding.
"Who on earth sent this..." he trailed off while carelessly examining the postage sticker attached to the box. "Hm?"
The secretary explained, "The label says that it was sent by a member of the Golden Lion Guild, but the delivery address wasn't made out to the Golden Lion Guild, and was instead delivered to your personal residence, Guildmaster. But upon checking with said member, he claimed he had never sent the package to you. In fact, when we checked the tracking number, we discovered that the package was sent from Seoul."
"Alright, you can leave now." Baek Min-Hyuk quickly dismissed her.
"Yes sir." She slightly bowed her head in response and quickly left the Guildmaster's office, almost as if she were running away.
Baek Min-Hyuk stared blankly at the package, looking like his soul had left his body. After he made sure that the door was closed, he checked the shipping label once more.
Name: Baek Su-Wang
Baek Min-Hyuk stared at the name in silence.
Before he had changed his name to Baek Min-Hyuk, his original name was Baek Su-Wang.
The "Su" (守) of Protection.
The "Wang" (汪) of Broad.
His grandfather had chosen this name for him with the intention that he would become someone who could protect many people.
Baek Min-Hyuk stuttered, "H-h-h-how d-d-did a-a-anyone m-m-manage to find out about t-t-this?"
It was a good name, one that held a very noble meaning.
However, it was far too old-fashioned, so he officially changed his name to Baek Min-Hyuk as soon as he had turned twenty.
In fact, when he had decided to name his guild based on his awakened ability—to transform into a Golden Lion Beastfolk—Baek Min-Hyuk had praised his past twenty-year-old self for having had the good sense to change his name[2].
After staring blankly at the shipping label for only a few moments, Baek Min-Hyuk, or rather, Baek Su-Wang, quickly sprang into action as his hand ripped off the delivery label.
Inside the package was a letter.
South Chungcheong Province, Gongju City, XXX XXX XXX.
This is the address of a B-Class Gate.
This Gate gives a reward that can strengthen your Beastfolk Transformation ability.
You can do it, Su-Wang! Fighting![3]
"Hm?" Baek Su-Wang felt on edge because the package had arrived with his original name written on it, one that no one else in this day and age used.
Was it sent by someone from his family? A relative? Or maybe an old friend?
If he ever found out, he swore to himself that he would teach them a lesson.
However, the contents of the package were unexpectedly astonishing.
"A Gate that can strengthen my Beastfolk Transformation ability?" Baek Su-Wang muttered in a low voice as his eyes lowered to check what was written further down the page.
Terrain: Forest
Monster Type: Berserk Beastfolk
Special Reward (Condition 1): Destroy the Black Gem located within the forest before subduing the Beastfolk
Special Reward (Condition 2): Clear the dungeon solo
Special Reward: Strengthen the Beastfolk Transformation ability
Conditional Reward: Artifact
The terrain, the types of monsters, and even the special rewards and conditions for obtaining them had all been written down.
Baek Su-Wang, who had been staring blankly at the letter, narrowed his eyes as if glaring at the anonymous sender.
"Is this a trap?" he muttered questioningly.
Did Baek Su-Wang have such enemies?
None that he could think of.
Some guilds held a rivalry toward him, but they weren't on such bad terms as to threaten each other's lives.
In that case, could this have been arranged by a group of Awakened criminals?
That also seemed unlikely. If they had sent it, it would never have been a letter like this, one with "trap" written all over it.
Baek Su-Wang silently stared at the letter with his lips pressed together for a few more moments. Then, he turned around and returned to his seat before calling his secretary using the phone on his desk.
Knock, knock, knock.
"May I come in?" The female secretary who had previously brought him the package called out.
"Come in."
As she entered, Baek Su-Wang immediately asked her, "Did you arrange my lunch appointment with the Daegu Branch Manager of the Hunters Association? Is that tomorrow?"
***
Schiiiick!
Kim Ki-Rok swung his longsword through a Chimera Doppelganger's neck. Instead of taking a moment to get his footing, he let go of the longsword and took advantage of the sudden loss of weight to nimbly throw himself to one side.
Swiiiish!
The crossbow bolt narrowly missed piercing his side and bounced off the wall behind him.
Having dodged the bolt, Kim Ki-Rok rolled across the floor, threw a dagger that struck down the advancing Doppelganger, and sprang to his feet.
Kim Ki-Rok tried to recall. "Since nothing has changed this time around, will he be meeting the Daegu Branch Manager tomorrow?"
In the beginning, Baek Su-Wang, or rather Baek Min-Hyuk, hadn't been the one to destroy the Red Moon Gate. It had been members of a large guild operating in Gongju City for quite some time, and they had barely managed to destroy the A-Class Gate even though they were all B-Class Hunters.
However, the Hologram that appeared in front of them wasn't quite what was expected.
[There are no Awakened satisfying the condition: possess a Beastfolk ability.]
Instead, they had received a B-Class mana stone.
Naturally, this reward was worth far less than an ability enhancement, so it was inevitable that everyone would be disappointed. With this knowledge, Kim Ki-Rok, while just starting work as a Hunter, secretly approached Baek Min-Hyuk in the following Attempts and prompted him to destroy the Red Moon Gate.
As a result, the A-Class Hunter Baek Min-Hyuk managed to strengthen his ability and become an S-Class Hunter right after clearing the Gate.
Tap tap.
Kim Ki-Rok lightly kicked off the ground and flew backward while reaching into his subspace pocket.
His hand came back out holding a crossbow with an already nocked bolt.
Kim Ki-Rok aimed the crossbow at one of the Chimera Doppelgangers in the distance and pulled the trigger.
Swiiiiiish! Thud!
With a new hole pierced through its head, the Chimera Doppelganger toppled backward and disintegrated, sinking into the ground and leaving behind a pile of black sand.
"Pheeew!" Kim Ki-Rok let out a deep breath.
With this, the sixth floor was cleared.
"Now there's only the last floor left," Kim Ki-Rok said to himself.
In the past, many Hunters had climbed Arcane's Tower in order to destroy the Gate, but seven out of every ten Hunters had died while fighting the Gate Boss on the seventh floor.
Was it because there were too many Doppelgangers?
No.
The Gate Boss was the last Doppelganger in the tower, a Rare Chimera Doppelganger.
Unlike the other Doppelgangers, this one didn't just copy its opponent's stats. It changed into a form that was fifty percent stronger than its opponent.
In addition to that, unlike other ordinary Chimera Doppelgangers, it was able to copy its target's memories at a much higher rate, so it could copy more than 70% of a Hunter's weapon proficiency and could even access memories of all the battles that they had fought.
Since that was the case, wouldn't it be fine if someone just took a companion with them up to the seventh floor of Arcane's Tower?
The simple answer to that was no.
If there were two Hunters to arrive on the seventh floor, the number of Rare Chimera Doppelgangers would just increase to two.
The more Hunters who climbed up to the top of the tower, the more monsters they would have to fight.
But what was the reason behind all of this?
"Why would a training tower like this cross over into our dimension? Tch!" Kim Ki-Rok clicked his tongue in disgust as he stepped into the hall on the seventh floor, pulling out a worn dagger and a battered longsword.
The black shadow that appeared following the explosion of blue light transformed into a reflection of Kim Ki-Rok.
This place, Arcane's Tower, was actually a training ground created by the Archwizard Arcane. That was why Kim Ki-Rok hadn't gained any levels even though he had defeated a total of sixty-three Doppelgangers during his climb up from the first floor to the sixth floor.
The lack of experience was because the Doppelgangers that had appeared on each floor were not natural-born monsters, but were instead artificial monsters created by human hands: "Chimeras."
As expected, the Rare Chimera Doppelganger transformed such that its physical stats and abilities were enhanced by 1.5 times that of Kim Ki-Rok's.
But Kim Ki-Rok just snickered, "Hehehe."
Despite all that, he was still a Level 1 Hunter, and all his additional stats remained at "1."
As for his ability?
Even a Rare Doppelganger couldn't copy Time Rabbit's Luggage, which was classified as an S-Class skill. As such, the only ability that it could copy was his E-Class skill, Record.
"Even if your mana does increase by 1.5 times..." Kim Ki-Rok crouched slightly.
Whooosh!
The longsword swung by the Chimera sliced through the air above his head, brushing past his hair.
In the same instant he had avoided that attack, Kim Ki-Rok also bent forward at the waist and flipped the dagger he was holding in his right hand from a reverse grip into a forward grip, impaling the left side of his foe's chest.
Even if the Gate Boss had 1.5 times the strength, it was only a little stronger than a Level 1 Hunter.
Shuuuk.
"The same goes for your mana," Kim Ki-Rok muttered.
His total mana pool was about the size of a grain of rice, so even if it had increased by 1.5 times, it would be equivalent to a slightly larger grain of rice.
"Well, even so, it's still a Gate boss. The memories that he copied from me may have also affected it to a certain extent," Kim Ki-Rok admitted.
That had indeed played a part in his defeat of the Rare Chimera Doppelganger.
Kim Ki-Rok was currently living his 77th Attempt at life. Even if it was just limited to his combat experience, the amount of memories that the Rare Chimera Doppelganger had copied from Kim Ki-Rok was enormous. Because it was overwhelmed with a huge influx of memories, Kim Ki-Rok had been able to kill it in less than five minutes.
But why was it so overwhelmed when all of the memories it had copied were limited to Kim Ki-Rok's combat experience?
Kim Ki-Rok was someone who had stubbornly walked the path of a Hunter even though he knew it wasn't a suitable path for him to take. During those times he had given up on an Attempt and dedicated himself to training instead, he had purchased various weapons and undergone harsh training to find one that best suited him.
He had trained with a truly vast array of weapons, including swords, blades, spears, glaives, clubs, bows, gauntlets, and all sorts of blunt weapons.
So it was only natural for the Rare Chimera Doppelganger to have been overwhelmed.
After all, when it had been trying to use a longsword, it drew upon Kim Ki-Rok's memories of his swordsmanship, but various other fighting styles such as daggers, spears, and boxing techniques were also flooding into its head.
If its level had been higher, then it might have been a different story. However, the Rare Doppelganger was only at Level "1.5."
Hisss!
As the black shadow sank into the ground and vanished completely, a burst of light erupted and a Hologram suddenly appeared in its place.
[You have defeated the Boss of Arcane's Tower, the Rare Chimera Doppelganger. The Gate will be destroyed once you have escaped.]
The message that was informing Kim Ki-Rok of the tower's destruction continued.
[You have ascended Arcane's Tower on your own. Additional rewards will be given.]
[You have skipped past each of the (trapped) floor rewards. Additional rewards will be given.]
Not all Gates were like this, but a fair percentage of Gates provided rewards when they were destroyed.
Was it because the monsters left drops like they did in video games?
No, that wasn't the case.
In order to protect itself and the humans living on the surface, Earth, which had created the various systems, gave rewards to those who destroyed the Gates.
[The Awakened who destroyed Arcane's Tower, Kim Ki-Rok, will receive a reward along with the additional rewards. You can choose from the following—]
Kim Ki-Rok interrupted the message. "The second one, a skill."
For the Awakened who managed to clear Arcane's Tower on their own while ignoring the rewards offered after beating each floor, they could choose one of two rewards: an artifact or a skill.
[You have chosen a skill as your additional reward. You will awaken the skill, Mirror.]
"Check skill, Mirror," Kim Ki-Rok ordered.
[Mirror (D)]
Description: Harnesses the Chimera Doppelganger’s innate ability
Effect: Copy 80% of the target's stats
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 24 hours
Mirror was a skill that allowed its user to copy a target's additional stats.
"Now then, let's empty the treasure chests as we head back down." Kim Ki-Rok reminded himself.
There was a treasure chest that appeared on every floor once it was cleared as a reward for defeating all the enemies.
This wasn't anything strange.
They appeared like this because Arcane's Tower was originally built as a training ground, and the chests were meant to reward those who were climbing the tower to train.
If that was the case, why had Kim Ki-Rok raced up the tower without checking the treasure chests even though he had defeated all of the Chimera Doppelgangers on each floor?
The reason for that was simple.
The Gate would only be destroyed once all of the Awakened who had entered the Gate escaped safely, so there was plenty of time for him to go back for the treasure chests after defeating the Gate Boss.
"Let's see now..." Kim Ki-Rok muttered as he took out his wristwatch from his subspace pocket and checked the time. "Tsk!"
382 Awakened had died trying to clear Arcane's Tower.
Kim Ki-Rok, who had entered before anyone else could on his 77th Attempt, took only three hours to clear it.
"I feel like I could have shortened the record by a bit more," Kim Ki-Rok muttered regretfully.
1. One of South Korea's metropolitan cities, located in the southeast. ☜
2. To clarify, Baek Min-Hyuk's old name, Su-Wang, also sounds like the words Beast King. So if he hadn't changed his name, he would be the Beast King of the Golden Lion Guild, which sounds very chuuni (meaning, someone with middle-school syndrome). ☜
3. In Korean, people say "fighting"—pronounced the way it is in English—as a way to cheer someone on or encourage them. It's like saying "You can do it!" or "Good luck!" ☜
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