Chapter 36: Overcompensation (1)

The scenery shifted, and I found myself inside the Reward Room.

‘...Magnificent Clear?’

That was actually a thing?

Still somewhat dazed, I looked around.

The message had said that my reward tier would be adjusted upward, but...

“...Huh?”

The moment I saw the Skill Stone, I froze in shock.

It wasn’t green, which meant it wasn’t Rare or Rare+ grade.

Instead, the Skill Stone radiated a deep violet glow, like an amethyst.

I had never seen that color before.

In other words, this was a Skill Stone of an entirely new grade.

I picked it up.

[Skill Stone: Destruction Ray (Epic+)]

[Upon use, you may acquire ‘Skill: Destruction Ray (Epic+)’.]

“Oh...?”

Epic grade?

Seriously?

And not merely Epic, but Epic+?

Until now, no skill above Rare+ had ever appeared in the world, so no one had known what came after Rare.

It seemed the next grade had finally revealed itself.

And this one had skipped straight past Epic to Epic+.

A reward two full tiers above anything I had ever received.

“Ha... well, damn.”

It was impossible not to feel a little giddy.

Destruction Ray.

Judging by the name alone, I couldn’t tell whether it was Physical Type or Magic Type.

Before checking the description, I offered a brief prayer.

Please be Magic Type.

[Skill: Destruction Ray (Epic+)]

[Concentrates destructive force and releases it in a straight line. Casting requires 30 to 300 seconds of Mental Concentration. Skill power increases in proportion to the duration of Mental Concentration.]

[Classification: Magic Type]

[Willpower Cost: 1,000]

[Cooldown: 3 min]

“...Yes!”

It was Magic Type!

I carefully read through the description again.

“Concentrates destructive force and releases it in a straight line...”

Hmm.

Ah, I see.

So it was some kind of destructive beam?

A laser attack?

The first thing that stood out was that the Mental Concentration time wasn’t fixed.

Thirty seconds to three hundred seconds.

And the longer I concentrated, the stronger the skill became.

‘So it’s basically a charging skill.’

The other thing that stood out was the utterly ridiculous Willpower cost.

A full thousand.

Ten times the cost of Flame Strike.

The cooldown was also three minutes, which was fairly long.

Was this simply the standard for an Epic-grade spell?

Since skill costs were irrelevant to me, the numbers only made me more excited.

Just how powerful did a spell have to be to consume that much Willpower?

‘There’s no way it’s stronger than that cannon, though... right?’

The cannon had cost 600 Willpower per shot.

Since this skill consumed even more, the comparison naturally came to mind, but...

No.

Even if Epic was one tier above Rare, there was no way it could be that powerful.

That would completely destroy any semblance of balance.

The cannon had been a special item exclusive to the stage, which was why it had been so absurdly overpowered.

If I compared them purely by Willpower cost, the cannon had possessed at least a thousand times the firepower of Flame Strike while consuming only six times as much Willpower.

Still, Destruction Ray was bound to be far stronger than Flame Strike or Blade Storm.

I was looking forward to trying it.

[‘Skill: Destruction Ray (Epic+)’ has been acquired.]

After acquiring the skill, I considered testing it immediately.

But...

‘Probably not a good idea in here.’

What if it turned out to be powerful enough to collapse the Reward Room?

No.

That was ridiculous.

I was getting ahead of myself again.

Better not to raise my expectations too high.

What if the skill turned out weaker than I imagined?

I decided to test Destruction Ray later during a Repeat Clearing run.

Then I checked the other reward.

[Item: Celestial Music Box]

[A lost Holy Relic of the Paeli Order. When activated, it produces a melody that soothes the mind and body. Consumes 1 Willpower per second while active.]

“...Hmm.”

I had suspected that one of the Holy Relics might appear as a reward, but...

This was really the one I got?

♫ ♩♪

When I activated the music box, the same clear melody I had heard earlier began to play.

There was definitely something calming about it.

That was nice and all...

But what was I supposed to use this for?

I would have preferred the relic that created a barrier.

Still, since I had received an Epic+ skill, I could afford to be generous about this one.

Well, at least it was pleasant to listen to.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: 4F]

[Level: 45]

[Willpower: 1,250]

[Skills: Destruction Ray (Epic+), Teleportation (Rare+), Sixth Sense (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+), Flame Strike (Rare) (+2), Blade Storm (Rare), Exaltation (Rare), Fairy Light Bullet (Normal+) (+1), Minor Poison Resistance (Normal+), Leap (Normal) (+1), Swing (Normal), Thrust (Normal)]

My level had risen by another five, bringing me close to level 50 before I even realized it.

By now, my body had become far too strong.

If I ran even slightly too hard, my shoes would tear apart. Ever since clearing the second floor, I had been entering the Tower barefoot...

Was I going to have to give up footwear forever?

I really hoped some kind of durable shoe-type item would drop eventually.

I fiddled with Plligas’s Necklace around my neck.

‘Speaking of which, there’s this too...’

Wasn’t it about time I tried binding Plligas as a Familiar before challenging the fourth floor?

If possible, it would obviously be better to attempt it beforehand.

Plligas could become an enormous asset during the clear.

I would test my new skill first, then make a decision.

“Alright. Very nice.”

The third-floor Hidden stage had been an absolute windfall.

A Magnificent Clear.

Who would have thought something like that even existed?

Under normal circumstances, however, it would never have been possible.

The condition for achieving a Magnificent Clear on the third-floor Hidden stage had essentially been the complete annihilation of the Undead army.

Was that supposed to be a joke?

How was anyone expected to accomplish that?

Even someone at level 100 would collapse from exhaustion before killing them all.

A cheat-like clear of that kind was probably a one-time occurrence.

Unless another absurdly overpowered item, perfectly tailored to my ability like that cannon, happened to appear.

[Would you like to exit the Tower?]

Having finished sorting through my rewards, I left the Tower.

The moment I returned to my room, the door flew open, making me flinch.

“Oppa, I need help with my assign— Why are you so startled?”

“...I told you to knock before coming in.”

“Yeah, okay. Look over my report.”

She marched straight into the room and thrust a sheet of paper toward me as though she were dropping off laundry at a dry cleaner.

How the hell had she managed to live for twenty years without changing in the slightest?

I skimmed through my sister’s pathetic excuse for an assignment.

What was this disaster supposed to be?

“Didn’t I tell you to distinguish the subheadings from the numbered sections when writing the table of contents?”

“Hm? Oh, right.”

“And stop ending your sentences in casual speech. You’re mixing formal and informal styles all over the place. And what is this structure in the introduction?”

“What? What’s wrong with it?”

“How do you jump straight from this into the main body? Don’t you think something else should come first? Try thinking about it for a second.”

“Ugh, come on. Just tell me.”

My sister scrunched up her face and reluctantly absorbed every piece of constructive criticism.

Then she snatched the report back and turned to leave.

Annoyed that she hadn’t even bothered to thank me, I reached out and ruffled her hair.

“You psycho! Stop it!”

“Blehh~ Get out.”

I shooed her from the room.

From the hallway, I heard her complaining to Mom, but as though Mom would ever take her side.

She got scolded again for talking back to her older brother, and a moment later, I heard her grumbling as she slammed her own door shut.

“Nngh...”

I stretched and left my room as well.

I took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and was drinking when Mom asked,

“Did you enter the Tower?”

“...Yes.”

“Alright. Don’t push yourself too hard. Take it easy. I say this every time, but please be careful, okay?”

“I will. Don’t worry.”

I returned to my room.

I had received my parents’ permission, but entering the Tower still felt like something I had to handle carefully.

Even though they understood rationally that repeatedly clearing Easy 1F posed virtually no danger, they still couldn’t help worrying.

‘Aren’t there any Goblins in the real world?’

If there were, I could show them firsthand that a single flick to the forehead was enough to make a Goblin’s head explode...

Would that be a little too unfilial?

After returning to my room, I rested briefly before entering the Tower again.

At the very least, I needed to test the performance of my new skill.

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 3.]

Grooooan...

Undead began swarming toward me.

I gripped my mace and kicked hard against the ground.

Without using any magic, I began fighting the Undead with nothing but my physical abilities.

Crash!

Crack!

Crunch!

I darted between them, smashing skull after skull.

Back when I was level 30, I had still needed magic to fight comfortably.

Now, I could move through them almost effortlessly.

As time passed, the Undead grew more numerous, and suicide Undead and beast-type Undead began appearing as well.

I picked off the explosive ones with Fairy Light Bullets and continued fighting the rest without magic.

The effect of Exaltation had activated too, yet the battle remained manageable.

I carved my way forward, reducing the Undead to mangled heaps.

Should I let one of the suicide Undead hit me and test Rapid Regeneration while I was at it?

The thought crossed my mind, but...

If I died because of something that stupid, it would be the most idiotic death imaginable.

So I abandoned the idea.

I fought for ten minutes, deliberately waiting for the sun to set.

Once darkness fell, the Undead army began marching in, densely packed across the horizon.

Only then did I head into the underground passage.

After collecting all the gemstones and activating the sun emblem, I returned to the surface.

I watched for a while as the Undead melted beneath the sunlight.

Before long, the countless Undead began converging on a single point and merging together.

“Alright... Come on out.”

The fully empowered Amalgamation boss.

The same creature that had given me so much trouble before.

I had deliberately allowed every last Undead to emerge just so I could summon it.

After all, I had reached level 45 and acquired an absurdly powerful high-tier skill.

Naturally, I had to demand a rematch.

This was the creature that had managed to put up a decent fight against Plligas, with a recommended level of 50 or above.

That meant the boss itself was at least equivalent to level 50.

I still wasn’t certain I could defeat it, but if things looked hopeless, I could simply leave.

Grooooooo...

A low-frequency wail reverberated through the air, rattling my eardrums.

I tapped my ears a few times and waited for the Amalgamation to come rolling toward me.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

Right on cue, it came barreling forward at tremendous speed.

This time, I dodged to the side without using Leap.

Hmm.

It was actually manageable now.

Even when it abruptly changed direction and charged again, or launched itself into the air and crashed down like a meteor, I evaded every attack.

Of course, being able to dodge was one thing.

Given its monstrous size, I still wasn’t at the point where I could fight it head-on using only my body.

‘That’s enough of a warm-up.’

Having finished testing my physical abilities, I decided it was time for the main course.

[Skill: Destruction Ray (Epic+)]

[Concentrates destructive force and releases it in a straight line. Casting requires 30 to 300 seconds of Mental Concentration. Skill power increases in proportion to the duration of Mental Concentration.]

[Classification: Magic Type]

[Willpower Cost: 1,000]

[Cooldown: 3 min]

The Amalgamation was preparing to roll toward me again.

I stopped time and began Mental Concentration.

Naturally, I charged it for the full three hundred seconds.

Just how powerful would it be?

At Epic+ grade, it should at least inflict meaningful damage.

Once the full three hundred seconds of Mental Concentration were complete, I released the time-stop and cast the fully charged Destruction Ray at the Amalgamation.

At that instant, a pitch-black sphere resembling a black hole shimmered into existence in midair, accompanied by an eerie vibration.

Then, in the very next moment—

A colossal jet-black beam erupted forward, so enormous that it swallowed my entire field of vision.

“...!”

There was no explosion.

No roar.

Only a profoundly unnatural silence.

When the beam narrowed and vanished, revealing the scene ahead once more, I stood frozen in disbelief.

A massive hole had been blasted clean through the center of the Amalgamation’s body, leaving it shaped like a grotesque donut.

Wooooo...

Its core had been pierced—

No.

Calling it pierced didn’t come close.

The core had been erased completely.

Unable to regenerate, the Amalgamation simply melted and collapsed.

I stood there with my mouth hanging open for several seconds before finally managing a single word.

“Wow.”

...I had expected it to be powerful.

But I had never imagined it would kill the boss in one shot.