The Zone 3 boss plumted to the ground, headless.
Watching the spectacle from the opposite side of the Security Corps, the Black Star Society climbers were just as shaken.
The ones who had been at the scene when Wang Kai died, in particular, suddenly understood.
Ah. Wang Kai really did have no choice but to die.
What human could possibly withstand sothing that one-shot a Zone 3 boss?
‘This makes no sense…’
Li Zeyan, the Hard difficulty Floor 14 climber who now stood as the Black Star Society’s public face.
Li Zeyan swallowed dryly.
He had heard countless accounts of how Wang Kai died, but even after witnessing it with his own eyes just now, he couldn’t comprehend how a skill that broken could exist.
Did Nightmare climbers receive rewards on a completely different level from the other difficulties?
And it was clearly a Magic Type skill from the look of it, yet the user showed no sign of ntal Concentration whatsoever…
Clap, clap, clap…
The silence broke under the sound of applause.
Ye Tianwei, who had been watching from the front, had suddenly begun clapping quietly.
Li Zeyan and the rest of the Black Star Society climbers exchanged glances and joined in.
With his back still turned, Ye Tianwei wore a flushed smile as he spoke.
“What a rare sight that was. Let’s head back.”
*
The ssage announcing the first-clear reward popped up.
The boss’s corpse soon scattered, drifting away like ash.
Unlike regular monsters, Zone Bosses didn’t leave any harvestable byproducts, was that how it went?
Well, not that I would have bothered collecting them even if they did.
“So easy.”
The boss fight had ended a lot more anticlimactically than I’d expected.
[1:51]
I checked the tir on the Warp Device.
No need to cancel the activation.
Now that the boss was down, I could just warp straight to Zone 0.
I glanced around at both sides.
The Security Corps and the Black Star Society were both watching from a distance.
The combined weight of all those stares felt suffocating, so I activated Concealnt.
[0:01]
The Warp Device’s tir ran out.
I warped to Zone 0.
I went straight to the portal to check my rewards and stepped into the Reward Room.
The rewards I’d received for taking down the boss were the first-clear reward, given only to one person, and the standard reward, given to each individual. The ssage had said as much.
The one I was excited about was the first-clear reward.
Now then… let’s see what the Zone 3 boss reward turned out to be.
“…A bracelet?”
It was a bracelet, for one.
I picked up the bracelet, made of what looked like red scale-like material.
[Fla Scale Bracelet]
A bracelet imbued with the power of the Red Wyvern. Increases the power of fire-type skills by 70%.
A simple, clear description.
And the effect was simply, clearly amazing.
Whoa… A 70% damage boost?
Given that my main skill was Fla Strike, the effect was incredibly good.
Plus there was Scorching Zone too.
‘It just so happens to land perfectly on fire attribute.’
I an, what would I have done if it’d co out as so electric-attribute power boost when I don’t even have a single electric skill?
Thank goodness Zone 3 was based on a lava the.
Rather than bothering to put it in Subspace, I slipped the bracelet on next to Diul’s bracelet on the sa wrist.
I’d head back out and try the effect right away.
And then… the standard reward, next.
Going by the color, it was a rare-grade skill stone.
Hoping it would be a Magic Type skill, I checked the skill information.
[Skill: Fire-Type Low-Tier Mastery (Rare )]
Organizes and enhances fire-type magic. Fire-type magic power increases by 10%, willpower cost decreases by 10%, cooldown decreases by 10%. If a higher-tier mastery skill exists, the effects do not stack and only the higher-tier skill’s effects apply.
Classification: Magic Type (Passive)
Willpower Cost: None
Cooldown: None
“Oh…?”
Huh?
Sothing I never could have imagined had popped up.
A Passive Magic Type.
Then again, if Physical Type had passives, there was no rule saying Magic Type couldn’t.
But I had never even heard of a Magic Type passive until now… Was it sothing special because it was a boss reward?
‘And the effect is pretty… good?’
Skill power increase, willpower cost reduction, cooldown reduction.
A full triple-set effect!
Willpower didn’t really matter to , but the power and cooldown reductions were really nice. Especially the cooldown.
Sure, it was only 10%, not a huge number… but skills could be enhanced, right?
And thankfully this one was also fire-type.
I hadn’t expected much from the standard reward, but what ca out was better than I’d hoped.
[‘Skill: Fire-Type Low-Tier Mastery (Rare )’ has been acquired.]
Anyway, would the power-increase effects on the bracelet and skill stack multiplicatively? I hoped so.
Done checking my rewards, I returned to Floor 5.
With the Zone 3 boss down, Zone 4 should have opened too…
[Zone 1 (39.1%)]
[Zone 2 (20.5%)]
[Zone 3 (0%)]
[Zone 4 (0%)]
I checked the Boss Gauges, and a Zone 4 entry had appeared.
I decided to head straight to Zone 4 to test how much my fire skills had been boosted.
I hopped on Plli and rode all the way up to the entrance of Zone 4.
Whoooosh!
The mont I crossed the boundary, the air shifted from blistering heat to bitter cold.
A frozen land where icy gusts howled and slashed through the air.
The clothes I was wearing were on the thin side, but at my level, things like heat and cold barely registered.
“Where you at, monsters.”
Once inside Zone 4, I crunched along through the piled snow as I wandered around.
Found one soon enough.
A furry beast that brought the word “yeti” to mind.
The yeti spotted too and lunged at like a lion that had just found a slab of at.
I extended my hand.
Whoosh!
When I cast Fla Strike, fireballs blossod in midair.
‘Oh.’
The fireballs were noticeably larger than before.
Five massive fireballs shot toward the yeti.
Boooom!
A massive explosion.
The yeti was blown apart on the spot, consud in the swirling flas.
Judging by the destructive force of the blast, it looked nearly twice as strong as before. The effect was definitely noticeable.
“Nice.”
I went back to roaming around in search of another monster.
This ti I found so kind of, what, spirit? A floating mass of ice that gave off that sort of vibe.
That one’s… a monster too, right?
I wasn’t quite sure, so I stood still and watched it for a mont.
Then a blue glow flickered around the ice spirit.
Sixth Sense gave a faint warning.
Crrrash!
Suddenly, sharp icicles burst up out of the ground, surging toward where I was standing.
I leaped back to dodge the ice.
This thing’s got a pretty flashy move on it, huh?
Anyway, definitely a monster.
I imdiately fired off a Fla Strike and blew the ice spirit apart.
I kept exploring Zone 4 and ran into all sorts of other monsters.
Wolf-type monsters, white as snow.
Unlike the other monsters, these moved in fairly large packs.
They seed to have marked as prey, prowling in a circle around , so this ti I tried out Scorching Zone.
A few wolves caught in the area went up in flas in an instant. Scorching Zone clearly felt much stronger too.
They must have had so intelligence, because once a few of them died, the rest imdiately turned tail and bolted.
Bzzzzzz!
Then I ran into a giant hornet, its entire body coated in sothing like ice crystals.
It ca at roaring like a helicopter.
The stinger especially gave off a dangerous feel, so it probably had venom.
I didn’t give it the chance to close the distance, and fired a Fla Strike, but…
The hornet was surprisingly fast. It dodged a few of the fireballs with aerial evasion maneuvers.
Couldn’t dodge the rest, though, and ended up blown to bits all the sa.
Yetis, ice spirits, wolves, giant hornets…
That was about the lineup of Zone 4 monsters.
Just as I’d expected, they all looked to be around level 40.
Levels aside… the overall hunting difficulty of these monsters felt noticeably trickier than Zone 3.
It wasn’t a problem for , of course, but other climbers who carelessly stepped into Zone 4 looked like they’d get pretty badly mauled.
‘Better post info on this too.’
For the public’s safety, I decided to compile information on the Zone 4 monsters and post it to the Communication Channel.
I checked the Zone 4 gauge.
[Zone 4 (0.1%)]
The monster density felt even lower than Zone 3.
I wanted to take a crack at the Zone 4 boss too before challenging Floor 6, but…
‘Could I pull it off?’
The Zone 4 boss had to be at least level 80 or so.
Could I one-shot it with Destruction Ray… probably no chance against the Zone 4 boss, no matter how I sliced it, right?
I was currently level 60.
Trying to one-click freebie a boss that was a minimum of 20 levels above would be pretty shaless of .
Before any of that, would I even be able to fill the gauge in ti before challenging Floor 6?
That was sothing I’d just have to find out.
Anyway, that was about it for the first scouting trip.
Ti to head back.
*
From around when the Zone 3 boss appeared, the rumor had already spread far and wide that Person123 was going to take it on.
[Toy: Is it really true Person123 is gonna fight it solo?]
[Poison Bottle: Heard the Security Corps offered to help and got turned down]
[Spaghetti: ugh why solo it instead of just teaming up w/ everyone else;]
[Clock: Maybe doesn’t wanna show themselves to more people]
[France: I know they’re strong but I’m so worried… it’s still a boss tho]
People were anxious, naturally.
Everyone now knew that Person123 was strong enough to one-shot Wang Kai, a level 60 climber, but a boss was a different story, wasn’t it?
As if mocking those very anxieties, however,
[Fried Chicken: Zone 3 boss is dead!! ssage just popped up]
[Doctor: Wait what happened? Person123 is okay right?]
[Olcar: Heard from a Security Corps guy that they one-shot the boss…?]
[Lighter: Boss was apparently so kind of dragon. Even spat fire breath]
[Beer: I’m a Black Star Society mber who saw it firsthand, they really did one-shot it. Sa black beam that killed Wang Kai blew the boss’s head off in one hit, just watching it was unreal]
[Geuboog: LOLOLOL how strong even ARE you, Person123!]
[Pill: But that’s gotta be a magic-type skill no matter how you look at it? How is Person123 using it mid-combat?]
[Latilta: Maybe it’s an item effect, not a skill. Either way, that’s so absurd OP technique]
The rumor that Person123 had one-shot the Zone 3 boss too spread like wildfire, and people were astonished and finally able to breathe a sigh of relief at the sa ti.
The governnts of various countries, who had been watching the situation with the sa nail-biting tension, also let out a breath.
Person123’s life was the world’s life.
If they took even the smallest action that put themselves at risk, for the nations of the world, it was a threat on par with soone hovering a finger over the nuclear button.
In any case, Person123 was even more absurdly strong than people had imagined, and the Zone 3 boss fight ended without a single fatality.
After that, Person123 even posted information on the Zone 4 monsters as a bonus.
[Bluebird: Damn, posting Zone 4 info already]
[Yulu: Person123… how altruistic do you need to beeeee!]
[FightingWarrior: Always grateful. Used to bow in all four cardinal directions every day since I didn’t know which way you were, but now I’ve started bowing toward Korea.]
For the highest-floor climbers who would be the first to set foot in Zone 4, the information was worth its weight in gold.
Monster byproducts were a resource just as important as Magic Stones. Especially when it ca to new monsters whose materials and composition were still unknown.
On Floor 5, hunting in Zone 4 began to ramp up bit by bit, and the world outside the Tower kept on bustling along as it always did.
*
[Nightmare]
Population: 279,561
Ti Limit: 64 days, 2 hours, 33 minutes, 10 seconds
Floors Reached: Floor 5
Ti flowed by quickly.
The Nightmare difficulty’s Ti Limit was drawing closer and closer.
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