He stepped out briefly.
Hit the Daiso, stopped by the Association shop, then headed back home.
In his right hand when he returned — a rabbit mask from Daiso. In his left — a stack of low-grade recovery potions from the Association shop.
“If I’m pretending to be the Tower Merchant, no one’s going to suspect me of stealing their contribution, right?”
Is there anyone who’d be happy about someone else ladling into their share of the contribution?
Obviously not.
So Woo-joo had decided to do it himself — pretend to be the Tower Merchant.
The perfect way to leech contribution as a “Hidden Party Member” without getting the evil eye from the floor’s owner!
That’s what the rabbit mask in his right hand was for.
And the low-grade recovery potions in his left hand——
“You don’t show up to someone’s place empty-handed. Even if you’re just stopping by.”
Unwritten law in Korea.
And the person he was about to meet — Seo I-an?
Complete stranger. First time meeting.
So how could he possibly show up empty-handed?
Especially when he hadn’t even been invited!
So Woo-joo had burned two months of living expenses — completely blowing past what he could reasonably afford — to buy the low-grade recovery potions the man had been desperately searching for.
He’d be lying if he said it didn’t hurt.
But this was a time for upfront investment. And early-stage investment costs were always the highest.
Besides, he was confident he’d make it back.
“Alright then. Time to actually go in.”
He pulled up the Tower Intrude screen.
And moved his finger to the top of the list.
To the line with Seo I-an’s name.
[Intrude?]
[YES / NO]
“Obviously yes.”
— Flash!
His entire field of vision went pitch black in an instant.
The trait Intrude.
He’d been pretty disappointed at first — it wasn’t a combat trait.
But not anymore.
No usage limit. Earns contribution (TC) alongside the floor owner. Repeat this infinitely — and just explode with growth.
Turns out it was the ultimate click-and-collect trait.
The moment that sank in, he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from lifting no matter how hard he tried.
Free exit on top of that.
If a monster pulled aggro on him, he could bail instantly. The mask gave him some anonymity. And the prevailing community consensus was that no one could touch a Tower Merchant — so there wasn’t much to worry about on the safety front either.
Whatever happened, he was safe.
— Ding!
[You have intruded upon Floor 40: Sheer Cliff!]
He opened his eyes. Not inside a novel — just Floor 40 of the Tower.
The rabbit mask narrowed his field of vision.
He turned his head in wide sweeps to take in the surroundings. All ash-grey.
At the edge of the ash-grey — a vast open sky, and clouds piling up white as wool.
At eye level, close enough that you’d think you could reach out and touch them.
Wait, it’s called Sheer Cliff?
No cliffs visible. Just blue sky and clouds bunched up like a flock of sheep.
And scattered across the ground below — something that looked like bare branches jutting up here and there.
Huh?
Then, delayed, the realization landed.
I’m on top of the cliff? This is the top?
Followed immediately by the next question.
Do I need to go down? But aren’t cliffs supposed to be things you climb up?
And finally, the conclusion.
Seo I-an. Find Seo I-an first!
This floor belonged to Seo I-an.
He had to find the man before he could help him. And only by helping him could he earn any contribution.
He looked around again.
No need for a thorough scan — just a flat expanse of stone in every direction.
Is he down below?
Woo-joo walked slowly toward the edge of the cliff and peered carefully over.
High enough that just looking down made his head swim.
“…Seo I-an doesn’t seem to be up here?”
No one in sight.
Just rock.
The dark brown specks visible far below were probably the dry trees he’d seen earlier, and that flash of light over there——
What was that?
He narrowed his eyes trying to get a better look, and the flash seemed to shrink — moving farther away.
Am I imagining things?
And as if to immediately confirm he wasn’t — a small thunk!, and then——
— AAAAAAAAAAUGH!! YOU PIECE OF SHIIIIIIIIT!!
— erupted from the flashing light, which was now even farther away than before, and echoed off the hollow stone mountain.
“…At minimum, Seo I-an is definitely somewhere on this floor. Confirmed.”
Looked like he was working his way up. Woo-joo decided to just wait.
In the meantime — what to do while he waited?
That thought lasted about two seconds.
An alert crashed through his idle thoughts and yanked his full attention.
[Skill Bloom!]
[Skill ‘Gather’ obtained!]
[Skill ‘Synthesize’ obtained!]
Right.
He’d heard about this.
When you first Awaken, your trait appears.
Then, after you confirm your trait and enter a Tower, you find out what skills you can use.
“But what kind of skill names are these……”
What you’d call thoroughly underwhelming names.
He’d been worried about having a non-combat trait, and now the skills were looking like this too?
Wasn’t that a bit much?
How was he supposed to climb Towers with these?
Setting aside the various doubts for a moment, he put his finger on the skill names.
Maybe the descriptions would tell a different story.
[Gather] — F Rank
Gatherable locations become visible to you!
You can sort and select gathered items!
Read it carefully. Still looked useless.
And Synthesize?
[Synthesize] — F Rank
You are given a Crafting Codex!
You can craft items using materials!
Same difference.
Ah…. They said early skills bloom in line with your trait….
An internal sigh escaped.
Non-combat trait — so non-combat skills had bloomed. Made sense.
……At least maybe Gather is a little combat-adjacent?
Maybe attack something with a gathered root?
He was getting desperate enough for that kind of dumb thought.
People do tend to see what they want to see.
And then, out of nowhere — a thought that actually made him go oh.
…Trait is ‘Intrude.’ Skills are ‘Gather’ and ‘Synthesize.’ You can buy skills and stats with TC — so is the play to accumulate capital fast, then use that capital to build myself up independently?
Even he had to admit that was pretty smart, thinking out loud.
And it wasn’t wrong.
There’s a saying, incidentally, that your trait and your early skills reflect something deep in your core self.
Someone with a fiery personality gets Flame. A cold, calculating type gets Frost. A naturally steadfast person gets Body Enhancement.
But his……
Am I just a money-obsessed freak?
The conclusion left a faint bitter taste.
But a saying was just a saying.
He shook his head to clear it and started scanning the surroundings again.
“Hang on…. Now that I’m looking — isn’t that a little weird?”
A faint glimmer of light he hadn’t really noticed before.
He’d assumed earlier it was just light reflecting off something, but moving closer he could see it properly now.
The “gatherable locations” that the skill Gather had mentioned — they apparently looked exactly like this. A soft glow spreading around the spot.
“Gather——!”
Too embarrassed to shout it, he said it in a slightly-too-loud, very deliberate voice.
Nothing much happened.
One small thing: the word “Gather” on his skill window lit up.
“Come on, Tower. Making me do everything manually is a bit rich.”
He knew, of course — long-time lurker of the Awakened Community that he was — that using skills required the Awakened to personally control their mana or aura.
But if the trait was click-and-collect, couldn’t the skills be a little click-and-collect too?
Just a small wish.
— Tap tap tap.
“Fine, fine. I’ll let it slide since it’s at least easy.”
Doing it manually?
Turned out to be not that hard.
Honestly — it was so easy he could barely call it “gathering” at all.
Just sort of brushed the glowing patch aside with his hand, and that was it.
Hidden beneath the glow — something like a plant root revealed itself.
He picked it up.
— Ding.
[Mandrake Flower]
[Grade] 4-Star (★)
A Mandrake Flower that grows only in extreme environments.
Can be processed into various useful items.
Oh? 4-Star?
The corners of his mouth rose on their own.
An unexpected windfall.
Current Korean floor record: Floor 41.
And he was on Floor 40, the floor right below.
Definitely a high floor — and it was delivering high-grade materials to match.
For reference, items obtainable in Towers were known to range from 1-Star to 5-Star grade.
The highest, 5-Star, existed only in China and the United States as of now.
The academic consensus was that floors in the teens yielded 1-Star, floors in the twenties yielded 2-Star, and so on in that pattern.
If I sell this to the Association, I’m actually going to make decent money.
There was a recurring post on the Awakened Community — showed up morning, noon, and night without fail.
Association-affiliated Enchanters desperately seeking 2-Star or higher materials!
And what he had in his hand right now?
Not some measly 2-Star. A full 4-Star.
He could already feel his pockets getting heavier. His mood followed suit.
But.
“The Synthesize skill said it gives a Crafting Codex…. Can I actually make something with this?”
He tried pulling it up. And then —
[Crafting Codex]
You can view synthesis recipes for material items stored in your inventory.
A brief description appeared, followed by what looked like an enormous holographic book floating in front of him.
It was tabbed out like something plastered with color-coded sticky notes.
The thick indices read: Elixirs, Weapons, Accessories, Miscellaneous. The smaller indices were subdivided alphabetically.
Good for finding things later.
Flip, flip.
But there’s nothing in here?
Brief satisfaction. Then immediate frustration.
He’d gone through every tab — nothing there.
Just blank pages. A diary in disguise, apparently.
Oh! Do I need to put something in my inventory first?
He transferred the 4-Star flower into his inventory.
The index tab under Elixirs lit up.
He opened it.
[Name] Elixir of Boss Damage +20% (5 min)
[Materials] 4-Star Mandrake Flower × 5 + 4-Star Red Iron Ore × 15
Seemed like the Codex was something he had to fill in himself.
A “crafting” codex, literally — something he had to make.
In small text at the bottom right, a note on usage: gather the required materials, place them on the page, and synthesis proceeds automatically.
Well, I’ll have to try making one.
It needed a lot of 4-Star materials, so the final product was probably worth the cost.
The thought of selling the raw materials?
Melted away like snow in spring sunshine, without a trace.
Crafting raw materials into finished goods before selling — that was obviously going to fetch a higher price. Value added. Simple economics.
“But the materials…. Do I really need this many?”
He scanned the surroundings.
Plenty of glowing patches still visible in every direction — at least he wasn’t going to run short on materials.
He was on Floor 40 anyway.
With no combat trait and no combat skills, there was no way he was going to fight monsters for contribution.
Might as well make use of the skills he had. Letting them rot seemed like a waste.
So he kept gathering.
But——
— Clang!
[Gathering Failed!]
“AAAAAAAAAAAH——”
Skill: Gather.
F Rank living up to its name — failure messages included.
At a much higher rate than he’d expected.
“HOW does a person succeed once out of ten tries?! What is this?!”
Low-rank gathering was like chopping down a tree.
The kind of enormous old tree you’d need ten swings to fell.
“Why is it like this?”
He couldn’t understand it.
He pulled up the skill window again.
Maybe he’d missed something.
That instinct turned out to be right.
[You are in a Tower beyond your current level!]
[Gathering success rate is significantly reduced!]
Ugh! Now the supplementary warning showed up!
Now he fully understood why Awakened in the community were always grinding their teeth about how unfriendly the system was.
That said — if you start something, you see it through.
He just barely managed to collect all the materials, and then deliberately didn’t check the Synthesize skill window before starting the synthesis.
Come on——!!
— Clang!
[Synthesis Failed!]
“UGHHH!! I was counting on beginner’s luck!!”
Both hands flew up reflexively and clutched his head.
Obviously — same problem. He was trying to synthesize materials far above his current level, so the success rate had been “significantly reduced.”
“Ha……haha.”
The frustration cooled instantly, curdling into hollow resignation.
If he’d just sold the raw materials, he’d at least have the money. He’d gotten greedy and lost everything in one shot.
— Trembling.
He looked at his fingertips — shaking slightly from all the repeated gathering.
Scraped against the stone ground somewhere along the way, a little raw, a faint reddish tinge.
He hadn’t felt it until he looked. But now that he’d seen it, an unpleasant stinging sensation started radiating from his fingertips.
“I even hurt myself. I need to at least walk out of here having made back more than the cost of those potions, don’t I?”
He deliberately squeezed his hand into a fist to steady the trembling.
At this point, come what may — the Boss Damage elixir. The so-called “boss damage potion.”
He was going to get at least one completed in his hands.
Only then would he feel any kind of satisfaction.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
Floor 40 of the Tower.
“For the love of——! This godforsaken Floor 40——!”
There was a person scaling the cliff face, grinding out curses with every breath.
He was wrapped head to toe in gleaming silver armor, two massive longswords strapped in an X across his back.
“Would it have killed them to put in a NORMAL PATH?! WHAT IS THIS——”
At last, Seo I-an reached the top of the cliff and kicked a jutting rock to pieces as he let the frustration rip.
On the way up today, Seo I-an had grabbed a handhold that crumbled, and nearly fallen to his death exactly five times.
Four of those times, the skill Break Fall had absorbed the impact — turning what would have been broken bones into minor injuries.
A low-grade recovery potion to patch himself up, then back up the cliff.
And then the fifth fall.
Break Fall again, minor injuries only — but.
— Thwack!
A crisp sound rang out down at the base of the cliff.
Seo I-an, still in full armor, had smacked himself in the forehead on reflex — force of habit when he couldn’t keep his frustration in check.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I already used up ALL the recovery potions?!”
Low-grade recovery potions were currently the single most widely circulated Tower-derived item on the market.
Headaches, toothaches, stomachaches, scrapes, bruises — as long as it wasn’t internal organ damage or severe trauma, it fixed you up on the spot, which had earned it the nickname “premium Tylenol” or “luxury Geoverin.”
Price: exactly one million won per bottle.
Not exactly cheap by civilian standards, but among Awakened — where monthly income routinely cleared nine figures — it was essentially the equivalent of keeping aspirin in the medicine cabinet.
Most Awakened kept a stockpile of at least ten bottles at any given time.
Two ways to get them: buy from an Association-affiliated Enchanter, or purchase from the “Tower Merchant” that appears after clearing a floor.
Outside the Tower, or after clearing. Those were the options.
Which meant that Seo I-an needed them right now, and no amount of money could get him any.
“I KNOW I had a hundred! Filled a full inventory slot! I brought a full stack!”
He’d dropped a hundred million won at the Association buying those recovery potions in one go.
And he’d burned through all of them already.
Which was also proof of just how long Seo I-an had been at this.
No pockets in armor.
Seo I-an pulled his phone from his inventory, took a breather, and posted his grievances to the Awakened Community.
He was something of a recognized name there — and the responses flooded in almost immediately.
Mostly along the lines of “nice, get what you deserve” and “come back tomorrow and try again lol.”
“Jackasses……!”
Spite-fueled, Seo I-an dragged his exhausted body back to the cliff and started climbing again.
And that effort had brought him to where he was now.
A sprained ankle. An arm that stung with every movement. And he’d made it to the top of Floor 40’s cliff anyway.
“But this is where it actually gets hard……”
The eyes visible through Seo I-an’s visor sharpened into a cold gleam.
From here: kill 50 wyverns.
Then defeat the boss mob that appeared afterward: the Great-Horned Wyvern.
That was the Floor 40 quest.
Clear it, or no Floor 41.
— Shiing.
With a clean, ringing tone, both swords slid free of the sheaths crossed on his back.
That sound seemed to serve as a trigger. Part of the clear sky began darkening, shadows pooling and spreading overhead.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
“Huh. Something’s starting.”
Shadow falling over him out of nowhere.
Time to start moving — find Seo I-an, the floor’s owner.
He casually turned his head, and there, in the distance — noticeably closer than before — a glinting figure came into view.
“Good timing.”
A grin spread across his face before he even noticed it.
In his right hand — a newly crowned greatest achievement of his life.
The Boss Damage +20% elixir, glowing a deep, luminous red.