Chapter 164: Great Tree Labyrinth (3) ————-«
Youve entered the world of Iron Blood.
The cemeteries of white swords greeted me after opening my eyes.
I couldnt help but feel sentimental while staring at the snowfield covered with swords.
Nothing changed here after all these times.
It felt as if I hadnt come here for eons but nothing had changed since then.
It was as if this place was beyond the realm of time.
What a perfect place for a resting place.
Of course, I did not come here to rest so I shook off those feelings to continue onwards.
and.
Youre here, Han Sungyeun.
After crossing the snow covered field and into the cabin, a beautiful lady with a cold expression appeared.
After glancing at her, I took a seat on the couch to exchange half hearted pleasantries.
Its been a while, Iron-blooded Monarch.
At that, the monarch let out a bitter smile.
I dont believe that it has been that long.
I havent seen you face to face since the 12th floor. Im currently on the 18th floor.
Its because you cleared the floors way too fast.
It wasnt that fast. The trials were way too difficult so I had to spend more than I wanted to in them.
Your useless humbleness is the same as ever. Actually, I suppose you actually mean it youve grown this much and yet you havent changed.
The Iron-blooded Monarch spoke with a sigh.
I never expected your divinity to be established before reaching the 20th floor.
Well, I never expected it either. To think that Id establish my own state of divinity.. I got lucky.
This amount of growth has never been seen before in the history of the tower, luck my ass.
Even so, Im still weaker than the administrators that have pseudo-divinity.
Establishment of divinity was definitely a step forward.
But I still felt that the quality and quantity of divine powers were lacking compared to the pseudo-divinity of the administrators.
By a large amount.
And even without divinity, the skills of administrators who climbed up until the 40th floor were incomparable.
Thats what it meant to have climbed past the 40th floor, and that was the importance of being selected by the tower.
It was not luck that the administrators got immortality.
Therefore, I acknowledged the lack of my power honestly.
But the Iron-blooded Monarch turned her head.
If you compared yourself to others who reached the same floor as you, youd be incomparable to them.
However, I do not compete with those who are on the same floor as me.
At that, the Iron-blooded Monarch spoke with a grim expression.
..you mean the divine entities that exist outside of the tower.
Yes. Although I am not sure if theyre opposing the birth of a new divine entity, or if they just hate the tower, but at the very least, theres not that many divine entities that look at me with friendliness.
I supposed that I cant deny that.
There was also that one time that the god of battle descended during a trial.
Of course, there were few divine entities that took on a neutral stance like the god of proof and god of dark.
I assume that there are more gods than them, so there was a high probability that theres more out there with hostility towards me.
So I plan on receiving everything that I can.
Therefore..
Why dont we get to the main topic?
It was time to discuss about this new event that the tower prepared for.
I will be using every question rights that I have, so please tell me everything you know of the Great Tree Labyrinth.
- -
I visited the administrator territory to gain intel in the first place.
So I chose to forgo the unnecessary talks to get to the point.
At that, the Iron-blooded Monarch stared at me briefly, then started to explain all the information she had.
The Great Tree Labyrinth is composed of a total of ten different floors in a tower architecture.
The monarch explained that this labyrinth of 10 different floors resembled the tower.
At that, I assumed that this challenge would be formatted similar to trials, but it was proven false.
You can select the difficulty level like the tower, and you get rewarded appropriately to the difficulty youve selected.
The Great Tree Labyrinth was the same as the tower.
Choosing your difficulty, and you get rewarded according to it.
The Great Tree Labyrinth was an event that replicated the basic system of the tower.
The only difference was.
The levels of difficulty ranges from easy, normal, hard, and lunatic.
That it had one more level than the tower and only a total of 10 floors existed.
After listening to the explanation, I interrupted her with a question.
Whats the lunatic difficulty?
Lunatic.
A difficulty nonexistent in the towers system.
I was curious to see what the difference was compared to the hard difficulty.
The highest difficulty, lunatic is incomparable to the other three difficulties. Its contents are catastrophic.
I questioned her for further explanation.
.do the level of enemies increase?
I suppose, that too, but the true hardship does not come from that.
The Iron-blooded Monarch played with her long silver hair while hesitating to speak.
And.
When you choose the Lunatic difficulty, all your abilities disappear.
I couldnt help but frown at that.
.all abilities disappear? What does that mean?
It was ridiculous.
A penalty that gets rid of every ability you have.
It meant that youd have to throw away everything that youve accumulated and earned up until now.
But.
Of course, its not a permanent ability loss, but only temporary within the Great Tree Labyrinth.
The Iron-blooded Monarch reassured me that it was only a temporary penalty during the event.
But losing all abilities was a huge penalty.
To ameliorate, each time you descend a floor, you can sync back a part of your ability.
Specifically, how much can you sync back up?
One skill per floor. However, you can not sync your stats.
.
That meant that you could only recover a maximum of 10 skills.
I cant rely on it much.
It would prove to be an impossible feat to get back my man skills nor my supportive skills.
Itd be better to recover the main skills first instead of looking to get skills that synergize the best.
Excellent. Yes, it is as youve said. Its the most efficient method to recover your main skills.
Would it be possible to acquire skills within the labyrinth?
I suppose it is.. But your records of skill acquisition will disappear after the event.
So to sum it all, its best to acquire the necessary skills but dont invest too much in it.
I laughed at the pure absurdity of it all.
What kind of difficulty is this..?
Not even the hard difficulty trials pulled a bullshit of a move like this to reset all your abilities.
No wonder it was labeled as the lunatic difficulty..
I couldnt help but feel flabbergasted by the evil exuding from the difficulty.
I sighed at that, but immediately changed my attitude.
But with great restrictions comes a greater reward.
The tower always rewards appropriately.
These vicious penalties meant that the rewards would be just as amazing.
Correct, as the tower stated that a [Very Important Bonus] will be given, each floor has astonishing rewards.
Even the Iron-blooded Monarch confirmed that.
Of course, a thousand words could never fully explain it, so take a look at it yourself.
She stopped playing with her hair and snapped her fingers.
Snap-!
And.
Opening the rewards of the Great Tree Labyrinth.
I doubted my eyes seeing the listed rewards.
Easy Difficulty Reward Leaf of World Tree(S+) A leaf harvested from the World Tree, it contains the power of life.
The leaf, most likely an ingredient for crafting a high quality equipment, had a rank of S+.
Normal Difficulty Reward Dagger of a Nameless God(SS-) Every type of divine power can be seen and cut.
Then a purple dagger, a SS- ranked relic, that could see and cut divine power emerged.
Hard Difficulty Reward Book of Power(SS+) you can choose a target and duplicate a maximum of three powers into the book.
Then at the hard difficulty, a cheat-like item that could copy the opponents power appeared.
Lunatic Difficulty Reward Access Denied Access Denied.
Perhaps I did not have enough authorization, so I couldnt open the rewards of the lunatic difficulty.
But seeing the rewards of the three precious difficulties, I knew that the lunatic difficulty rewards would be substantial.
.
I understood what the tower meant by being able to acquire a [Very Important Bonus] at this event.
No wonder the tower said that. Just these listed rewards are insane already.
After analyzing all the rewards, I closed the window.
Youve used up all your question rights. Even if you have further questions, I can no longer answer you.
Is that so? Well, it doesnt matter anymore. Most of my questions got answered.
I see.
Its been a while since weve had this enjoyable chat.
Ive analyzed most information about the Great Tree Labyrinth.
Ill take my leave now.
I attempted to leave since I got everything I could, but.
Youre leaving already?
I tilted my head at her disappointed tone of voice.
hmm?
I dont believe I did anything to disappoint her yet.
It was difficult to know why the monarch was acting so disappointed.
Yes, well. Other challengers must be getting ready so I cant fall behind, can I?
I answered while scratching my head.
Then why dont you come to my admin territory later? I heard that you visited White Crane Sword Saint frequently to learn martial arts from them
My instincts told me to use my brain to come up with an appropriate answer to that disappointed tone of voice.
And
Ill make sure to visit more often. I have lots of questions for you after all.
I let out the reply that I racked my brains to get.
I see. Things you wish to ask me. Ill be looking forward to those.
The Iron-blooded Monarch mulled over those words and spoke.
If you visit me later, Ill teach you a few techniques that you could use.
Techniques?
Yes, techniques from my dimension that no longer exists. It will be of use to you.
Thank you.
The sudden offer was unexpected, but one thing was for sure.
She liked my answer.
Hence the reason for the offer.
I dont know what kind of technique it is, seeing her boast about it, it must be useful.
I complimented myself for coming up with a good answer and got ready to leave.
Moving to the 18th floor waiting room momentarily.
Once the transfer notification emerged, the Iron-blooded monarch spoke as if to say goodbye.
Until you reach the 20th floor, I will be waiting here.
And.
I will await the days that you will fulfill your earnest desires.
With that, she laughed brightly and my vision blurred.
- -
Youve entered the 18th floor waiting room.
I stood still while mulling over the final words of the administrator as soon as I returned to the waiting room.
Await the days that I will fulfill my earnest desires, huh.
She was convinced that Id reach the 20th floor soon.
And reminded me of that contract that said that shed fulfill a desire of mine.
To be honest, I kind of forgot about it until now. But now that I was reminded of it, I knew what to do.
Ill fulfill my desire right after clearing the 20th floor.
Iron-blooded Monarch and White Crane Sword Saint were both expecting to fulfill my earnest desires.
And I had no plans of letting them down.
After all, they saw my potential and supported me wholeheartedly up until now.
But.
Before that, Ill have to take care of the labyrinth event first.
Fulfilling that earnest desire was reserved for the future.
After shaking off my thoughts, I purchased the Return Stone.
Youve purchased Return Stone(D+).
It was more expensive since it allowed me to remain on Earth for a month.
But at this point, I didnt have to worry about spending points.
I have plenty of points now.
I held the crimson return stone in my hand and sent my strong will to return into the item.
And.
Challenger Han Sungyeun, confirming intention to return.
Consuming the Return Stone to return to Earth.
The familiar studio appeared after a blink of an eye..
.
Habitually, I analyzed all the items after returning.
Good, I have them all.
I brought every single item that I could use frequently.
Then, I immediately turned on my phone to search about the Great Tree Labyrinth.
Since the tower stated that every official tower dimension will get the labyrinth, Earth would get one too.
Then information would spread about it.
So I planned to briefly research its location.
And this proved to be an excellent decision.
[The identity of large trees appearing in every world The hunters association states that, we will ensure to do our best regarding the situation.]
[Appearance of the world tree at Seoul? The identity of the Great Tree Labyrinth according to the challengers.]
[Is the Great Tree Labyrinth a dungeon? Debates about its possibility causing a dungeon break are causing.]
Theres more information than I thought.
After briefly reading through all the articles, I got why the information spread so much.
How could they not research this new large tree that appeared at every corner of the world?
However, most articles had no solid information.
So I decided that it wasnt worth my time to read through every article and instead turned on my messaging app.
Entering the labyrinth wont be difficult, whats left now is to form a team.
So I attempted to contact Lee Hayeon whos basically my manager now to figure out ways to form a team.
However.
[Lee Hayeon : Sungyeun-ssi, we have a rather bothersome situation at hand.]
While I was typing out my message, Lee Hayeon texted me first.
[Lee Hayeon : every top challenger from all over the country is sending you countless requests to form a team with you to challenge the labyrinth]
My eyes glinted at the message that followed.
[Lee Hayeon : theres a possibility that your address got leaked so please be careful. Make sure to stay low once you return to Earth.]
After all.
[Lee Hayeon : Selecting challengers can come after that.]
According to her, I am currently a highly desired candidate for a teammate, and also.
Everyone is heading my way?
People all over the world are coming here in search of me.
That meant.
How convenient
That I didnt have to waste time to make arrangements to meet other challengers, but I could just choose anyone that fit my standards.
It seems that Id be able to enter the Great Tree Labyrinth faster than I thought.
I smiled brightly.
[To be continued.]
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