Growth (4)

「 Congratulations. You have overcome the Tower of Trials floor 3. 」

「 As a reward, you have received 'Elixir of Steel.' 」

「 As a reward, you have received '3,000 points.' 」

「 As a bonus reward, you have received the skill 'Hunter's Daggermanship (E)' 」

「 As a bonus reward, you have received '1,000 points.' 」

「 Please move to the waiting area. 」

The familiar messages appeared as the doppelganger's body disintegrated.

I let out a sigh of relief as my legs gave out and I fell to the floor.

Plop.

"Ahhhhhhh…"

My stamina drained by the accelerated regeneration.

The mana was needed to activate the cloak skill.

And the recoil from the tackle.

I was physically, mentally, and spiritually drained.

If anything had gone wrong, I could have been the one laying there.

I thought I had gotten a lot stronger but…

This difficulty wasn't balanced at all.

'I would have died if my innate ability wasn't battle-oriented.'

Same with everyone else.

They probably only lasted as long as they did because they used to be hunters.

'Most normal people probably died off…'

I would be in their shoes too if I hadn't trained in different martial disciplines for the last 7 years.

But why…?

"…"

Rather than fear of increasing difficulty, a different emotion was starting to emerge.

The feeling of victory.

The same feeling that overwhelmed me on the 1st and 2nd floor.

Deciding to fight and then winning.

The feeling was enough to make you forget about the close encounters with death.

The feeling was more prominent than ever after clearing the 3rd floor.

I tried to suppress the feelings for a while but…

Badum. Badum.

The fact that I fought and achieved something…

Was that something that could make my heart beat this fast?

'No way.'

This wasn't something that a normal person would feel.

How could you be excited after you've almost died?

This was different from being relieved that you survived.

But…

Just knowing that fact didn't make me any more normal.

Maybe it's because the last 7 years of my life have been so stagnant.

Or was I this crazy from the start?

Either way…

This tower isn't good news for me.

It tests me to my limit and provides a fair reward.

Unlike real life where my hard work amounted to nothing.

"Maybe that's also just an excuse."

No matter the reason, it was clear that I was abnormal.

But that was also one of the reasons that I survived.

I couldn't deny that.

Those who were able to adapt survived and those who couldn't… died.

'That's why the community members go down every floor.'

From that perspective, that wasn't too bad.

I'd completely adapted to this new way of life.

But I heard hunters in my situation were in the most danger.

It's easier to get addicted to the thrill of battle and go mad.

I heard this was more severe for people with growth-type innate abilities.

Then was it wrong to feel these feelings?

"…"

I didn't know.

It was probably a good thing for now but…

Everything would change on the 5th floor.

There was a possibility of going back to Earth after that.

But for now.

"Let's just focus on staying alive."

That was more than enough to keep me busy for now.

I lifted myself up and walked toward the doppelganger.

I stuck my hands into the black mist.

「 You have absorbed the soul of the doppelganger. 」

「 Number of souls in possession – 1/5 」

「 Proficiency increased by 35% 」

My surprise at the proficiency increase didn't last too long.

「 Innate ability 'Necromancy's' proficiency reached 100%. 」

「 Innate ability 'Necromancy's' ranked up. 」

"…?"

I really didn't expect that to happen.

***

'It's going to rank up this suddenly?'

All I could do was stare blankly.

I didn't understand why the proficiency increased by so much and the skill ranked up.

But…

I had a feeling why.

'Maybe there's a hidden bonus depending on the soul that I absorb.'

Like maybe the proficiency increases more if it's stronger than me.

I'd heard some skills that worked like that.

The system was concise and didn't always explain everything.

Of course, this wasn't a bad thing for me…

"…I guess I just got lucky this time."

That was the only possible explanation.

It seemed like my innate ability had pretty high potential.

This skill was probably one of the higher-tier growth skills.

'I get stronger the more enemies I fight and the proficiency explodes depending on some conditions.'

A dry laugh escaped my mouth as I opened my status window.

「 Innate ability – 'Necromancy (E) 」

「 Proficiency – 0% 」

「 Basic effect – Able to absorb the souls of the dead and control them at will. 」

「 Extra effect(1) – Able to permanently increase stats depending on the nature and rank of the soul. 」

「 Extra effect(2) – Able to store souls for later use. Soul storage capacity depends on the ability's rank. 」

「 Extra effect(3) – Able to acquire one skill bound to a soul at a certain percentage upon absorbing that soul. 」

I couldn't hold back a smirk after looking at the added effect.

"They say it's high risk, high return…"

And it was true.

Killing the doppelganger was definitely a risk worth this reward.

'I've never heard of a skill that lets you take a skill from a monster.'

Another sign that this was a top-tier innate ability.

'I understand being able to absorb stats but skills? That's too much.'

No one's ever heard of something like that.

There were also no prerequisites to absorbing skills.

'It's like, if the tower was high risk, high return…'

Necromancy was low risk, high return.

There wasn't much to worry about, but the rewards were comparable to those of the tower.

Even if there were some unseen conditions, this was still a winning deal for me.

"I never thought I'd end up with an innate ability like this."

I was different from the past where I couldn't get any of my stats to increase.

All I had to do was fight strong enemies.

'Well, they don't necessarily have to be strong.'

I could just massacre a bunch of weaker enemies to get stronger too.

"No wonder why everyone said that your innate ability was the most important."

If you ended up with a good one, the value couldn't be measured in money.

I somehow ended up in that group.

'Couldn't this have happened a little sooner?'

It was making me go through literal hell before giving me this overpowered ability.

No use lamenting the past now.

I was a little salty but moved my attention to the other rewards.

「 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 1.5 times. 」

I would have preferred a rarer dagger skill but I shouldn't be too greedy.

Hunter's Daggermanship.

I knew it pretty well.

There was a time when I would have killed for this skill.

'My untalented ass wasn't able to get it anyway.'

I did end up being able to learn how to use the weapons though.

It was one of the skills that were relatively easy to learn and one of the most effective.

'I mean the effect is nice and I wanted a weapon skill but… why this one?'

I thought the Tower of Trials would give a different variety of weapon skills.

But come to think of it, it made sense thinking about the comments I saw in the community.

"They said the way you cleared the trial was important to the bonus rewards."

This was a reflection of how I fought during the trial.

'I did use the dagger during the whole trial.'

I guess it made sense that this was the skill that I got.

I also checked the new item in my inventory.

「 Elixir of Steel 」

「 Grade: C 」

「 An elixir that an alchemist poured their soul into. ]

「 Creates a special stat 'Tenacity.' If the stat already exists, increase it by 5. 」

「 The stat increase only applies when the stat is below 40. 」

The creation of a new stat caught my eye.

It made sense why the grade of this item was so high.

'This would be traded at an incredibly high rate outside.'

It was crazy that something like this was in my hands right now.

Even if this was selling for a historically high rate, I couldn't even sell it now and had no intentions of doing so.

That's how important the creation of a new stat was.

'It's time to go back now.'

I didn't want to stay in this bleak and muddy cave for too long.

'I want to absorb the soul and rest already.'

The regeneration skill wasn't enough to bring me to full health.

「 Select a soul to absorb from the souls in captivity. 」

「 Number of souls in possession – 1/15 」

「 Doppelganger 」

The interface expanded and gave me more choices.

"Some things changed after the skill ranked up."

I pressed on the text that said doppelganger and tried to absorb it.

Then.

「 Absorbing the doppelganger's soul. 」

「 Able to acquire the following soul's skill at a certain percentage. 」

The message now said that it was in the process of absorbing instead of showing the increased stats.

"A certain percentage."

The probability likely wasn't very high because there was no risk involved.

'There's no way I'd hit the jackpot on the first try…'

I should keep my expectations low so I don't get disappointed.

Then—

「 Absorbed the doppelganger's soul. 」

「 Acquiring one of the doppelganger's skills. 」

Jackpot.

____