intrusion (2)

Tsssssk….!

Streaks of lightning sparked from the sword as it flowed through the wolf's corpse.

'I guess it's not a C-rank for nothing.'

This was what it meant by applying an electrocution effect on attacks.

Just like the name suggested, lightning flowed out from the blade, killing the crazy wolf immediately.

'It'll be more useful than I expected.'

It was enough to completely take care of all the nearby monsters.

After a bit of experimentation, I should be able to incorporate it into my combos.

The 5th trial was looking good already.

'And…'

That wasn't the only thing I gained.

「 Skill Hunter's Daggermanship (E)'s proficiency reached 100%. 」

「 Skill Hunter's Daggermanship (E)'s ranked up. 」

「 Skill Accelerated Regeneration (E+) 's proficiency reached 100%. 」

「 Skill Accelerated Regeneration (E+) 's ranked up. 」

A couple of messages popped up after getting rid of about ten wolves.

"I can't complain about the rewards."

Progress that had been stagnating flooded in all at once and ranked up two of my skills.

It helped that I'd purposely been taking my time with the hunt to increase my proficiency.

I avoided killing them in one hit and instead took some non-threatening injuries to get some extra training in.

Even then, this growth speed was unheard of.

「 Skill – Hunter's Daggermanship (E+) 」

「 Proficiency – 0% 」

「 Explanation – A technique made by hunters for effective hunting. 」

「 Effect – When using a dagger, the weapon's cutting force is increased by two times. 」

「 Skill – Accelerated Regeneration (D) 」

「 Proficiency – 0% 」

「 Effect – Able to recover quickly from non-life-threatening injuries. 」

The only difference from the system's side was the cutting force but…

In practice, these skills became exponentially more useful.

"The daggermanship is already at E+…"

I could feel myself getting closer to hitting the limit.

All skills have a rank where growth completely stops.

The case wasn't any different with Hunter's Daggermanship.

'From what I hear, this skill stops ranking up after hitting D.'

After one more rank-up, I'd be hitting a wall.

I didn't know any information on accelerated regeneration but—

"I'll need to get a new blade-related weapons skill first."

Weapons skills in general could be used to increase proficiencies of higher-tier weapons skills of the same family.

Once I found a better daggermanship skill, I shouldn't have any problems.

And I knew exactly how I'd get one.

'I'll just have to absorb it from the correct enemies.'

Since I could never unlock abilities just by training, my only choice was to use my innate ability.

The only problem was finding an enemy with the correct skill, plus the probability of acquiring it.

Whatever, it wasn't something I needed to think about right now.

'I just have to hope for a solution on the higher floors.'

「 You have absorbed the soul of the crazy wolf. 」

「 You have absorbed the soul of the crazy wolf. 」

「 You have absorbed the soul of the crazy wolf. 」

…

…

「 Proficiency increased by 16% 」

'The necromancy proficiency is quite high too.'

I wouldn't be surprised if it ranked up in this trial.

I was absorbing more and more souls on every floor of the trial.

And my stats and proficiency had followed suit.

So…

"I'll have to kill every last one of them."

It was time to clear out this cave before heading to the boss.

***

Step, step.

"…"

I noticed that something was strange as I was walking through the wet cave.

The tower called this place a 'Wolf Den.'

So why was it that I was seeing monsters less and less as I got farther in?

It was to the point of it feeling much easier than the 4th trial.

'The tower definitely isn't giving me a freebie.'

Not the tower that I'd experienced so far.

Why?

Before I could reason an answer, an object at my feet interrupted my train of thought.

Tap.

"What the hell is this…"

The object was nothing other than a wolf corpse.

'Was it a fight for territory or something?'

Beasts fought each other all the time, so it was understandable.

In situations like these, most hunters would wait until the last second to reap the benefits of all the kills.

It was a situation I could understand.

The problem was that this was happening in the tower and not a dungeon.

Why would they lower the difficulty at this point when it would make sense for them to raise it?

"I got a bad feeling about this."

Just to make sure, I stopped for a second to more closely examine the corpses.

And—

"Sword marks?"

I could see a clean cut right through the wolf's torso.

'Someone stabbed it in the heart to kill it in one shot.'

Clean and precise swordsmanship— it was clearly done by another entity.

'This changes everything.'

There was someone else in this cave other than me.

It shouldn't be possible, but it was the only explanation.

'Low-tier monsters like goblins wouldn't be able to make this clean of a cut…'

Whatever did this was a human or a monster with near-human intelligence.

'There wasn't an announcement about anything special happening on the 5th trial, nor did anyone mention that it was a group trial.'

Then the possibility that this was another challenger was low.

Of course, I didn't blindly believe the tower's guidance, but it just seemed unlikely.

The only possibility left was a monster who could wield weapons as well as humans could.

"…If something like that exists, I'll be in trouble.'

Just the couple of monsters that popped into my head sent shivers down my spine.

'I'll keep my guard up.'

Something like that could kill me in an instant.

Tensing every muscle in my body, I stepped farther into the cave's depths.

One step, two steps, three…

Corpses seemed to pile up higher and higher as I make my way forward.

'How many did it kill…'

The bigger beasts had more cuts on their corpses, and the cave walls were increasingly marked by the remnants of his bladework.

The problem was that these marks weren't rough at all… they were smooth.

That meant the walls weren't just scratched with the sword, but a casualty that came with this wolf massacre.

"Eye of Truth."

「 Remnants of Aura 」

「 Grade: D- 」

「 Marks left by a highly proficient aura user. 」

This time, rather than the wall, the Eye of Truth revealed some information about the marks.

"Maybe because I was more focused on the marks and not the wall…"

What was more interesting was this thing called aura.

'Aura.'

Was it a skill?

I wasn't sure, but this made one thing clear.

Whoever was ahead of me was skilled enough to easily slice through stone.

It wasn't something within my reach, even with all my new skills and stats.

Well, I could emulate it to a point but not replicate it.

'I knew the tower wouldn't make this easy for me.'

Things were starting to make a little more sense now.

This was what I was talking about.

I welcomed the challenge.

More risk meant more reward after all.

This would be a nice way to get stronger before the competitive trial on the 6th floor.

And it wasn't like I could do anything about it at this point.

Might as well try to stay positive.

I tightened the grip of my left hand and marched forward.

I was prepared to react to anything that came my way using my shield.

'If I block it with a shield and activate the skill, I should be able to deal with most attacks.'

It was then—

Kraaaaaw…!

My entire body shivered as a beastly scream pierced straight through my heart.

'What the…'

Then a message popped up in front of me.

「 The trial target, werewolf, has died. 」

"What?"

I couldn't even begin to comprehend the message in front of me.

'What? The objective of this trial just suddenly dropped dead?'

I stared blankly and as if the tower wanted to reply, another message showed up.

「 Determining the cause…. 」

「 The challenger does not die because they did not satisfy the failure requirements. 」

「 The time left will not decrease until the proper cause is determined. 」

To my relief, this didn't count as a failure.

Yet seeing that message just made me more nervous.

That meant even the tower didn't know what exactly killed that werewolf…

At least I knew that something completely unexpected happened here.

'Fuck.'

A primal instinct deep inside of me was urging me to take flight.

It didn't know from what, but it knew I was in danger.

As I froze in place, the system sent another message.

「 Interpretation complete. 」

「 We have found evidence of intrusion in challenger Han Sungyeun's trial. 」

Intrusion— as in, someone broke in without permission.

'Wait, is that even possible?'

I knew for a fact that there wasn't a way to get into any trials that weren't yours.

What could they have possibly done to have this happen?

In my confusion, the tower provided an answer.

「 Recalibrating the trial objective. 」

To exactly what I needed to do.

「 A feature not yet available in the Earth dimension, 'Intrusion' has occurred. 」

「 Please eliminate the invading challenger from another dimension. 」

Just the fact that there was a solution was a huge weight off my chest.

No matter what happened, an 'enemy' still existed, and I'd be able to continue after killing them.

The only thing that bothered me was the way they said, 'another dimension.'

'Like it's saying that there are more worlds similar to our Earth…'

A series of rough breaths echoed from the dark end of the tunnel.

Clack, clack.

I'd never heard a more terrifying noise as my body froze in fear.

Like a prey standing in front of its predator, I couldn't even breathe.

"…"

As I stood there, wary of what was beyond the tunnel, a figure began to form.

The revealed figure looked like a knight straight out of the medieval era.

Covered from head to toe in black armor, with a bloodied sword to complete the outfit.

He didn't fit into the surroundings, almost as he was photoshopped in.

"…Hm, I thought you would have died off already. I guess you're still this trial's owner huh?"

It wasn't important that I somehow understood a language I had never heard before.

Every alarm in my body was ringing before I could even think about anything.

"I didn't know your primitive kind would still be alive. This is gonna be fun."

Now this, I didn't expect.

____