Ascension Through Skills
chapter-186

Taesan designated a vital point as he rushed toward the knight. Then, the knight tried to defend that vital point as a priority.

Seeing this, Taesan rolled his foot. His willpower surged powerfully toward the knight.

The knight flinched momentarily.

He sensed that Taesan was targeting the weak spot on his neck.

Therefore, he moved to protect his neck, inadvertently exposing the vital point Taesan had designated.

Taesan seized the opportunity.

Crack.

“Thirty-three.”

He muttered as he retrieved his sword.

He tuned his willpower with a conceptual skill. This wasn’t about physical limitations. It was about projecting his will to attack the knight’s neck.

Since nothing directly influenced it, there was no issue in meeting the acquisition conditions for Sure Hit.

Taesan designated the vital point, manifested his will to restrict the knight’s movements, and then attacked.

This sequence of actions was repeated. The observing ghost let out a hollow laugh.

[That's rather tricky.]

Like the skills Taesan had acquired so far, the condition itself was clearly challenging.

First, a forced duel.

Against numerous enemies, conduct a duel assuming only one opponent and win.

Taesan quickly acquired it through paralyzing arrows to suppress many. However, that was only possible on the lower floors.

The deeper you went, the less frequent it became for numerous monsters to appear all at once.

Even if they did appear, their numbers were countless, or they perfectly assisted each other, making it nearly impossible to isolate just one.

In levels below a certain threshold, monsters also resisted states like paralysis, making them hard to incapacitate. Therefore, beyond the early stages, acquisition was virtually impossible.

And the same went for Attack Nullification. You had to allow an attack without losing health, and even had to wear no armor at all, making it very tricky.

It was a skill that couldn’t be learned without the shield stat, and even with one, it could only be acquired by minimizing damage as much as possible.

Of course, now that the shield stat was higher, acquiring it might be easier.

But the Labyrinth didn’t easily grant skills. The ghost thought that no matter how high the shield stat was, there would definitely be additional restrictions.

And then, Addition.

A skill that doubled the final damage.

A skill with an unbelievable effect, its value increasing the deeper one ventured into the Labyrinth.

A crazy skill that required one to double damage without using any skills except perseverance.

Nobody else but Taesan would have attempted such an experiment, including the ghost.

To obtain an overwhelming skill, one had to meet conditions that seemed impossible, that nobody else would dare attempt.

The ghost remembered.

‘…The administrator had said.’

Skills were not pre-made but were created and given when specific conditions were met and deemed appropriate.

‘The important thing is the idea and imagination.’

It must have been the Labyrinth’s mage who devised such a system.

The one who went directly to the gods to trade with them.

The one who borrowed their power to create such a vast space.

The ghost slowly began to understand what the mage had intended by setting such conditions for skill acquisition.

Kaang!

“Eighty-seven.”

Taesan muttered,

“Almost there.”

Just thirteen more focused attacks, and it would be a success.

The knight stood still for a moment, as if in thought.

Then, he charged at Taesan again.

Taesan activated the vital point designation. The knight protected the designated vital part with his body, and Taesan, as before, aimed at the neck with his will.

A chilling sensation, a whisper of death, flowed down the knight’s back.

But the knight did not change his stance.

Kwoong!

Taesan frowned. The knight swung his sword at Taesan without protecting his exposed neck.

Stepping back to dodge the attack, Taesan moved his will again.

But once more, the knight charged relentlessly, showing no intent to protect his neck.

Taesan realized the knight no longer intended to guard his neck. His only aim was to block the targeted area and attack.

Concluding he couldn’t dodge all the swinging attacks, Taesan moved his sword.

Kaang!

The swords collided.

It was back to square one. The ghost chuckled.

[Is this another insane repetition like Addition?]

In some ways, it was worse. Addition required repeating the same attack, but this required utmost attention to both attack and evasion.

“It doesn’t matter.”

How long it took was not important to Taesan.

What mattered was that it could be obtained.

Taesan designated the vital point and charged again. The knight, who had parried Taesan’s attack before, charged again, blatantly exposing his weakness.

Taesan watched the charging knight, read the trajectory of the swinging sword, and twisted his body.

Sweeak!

The knight’s sword harshly cut through the air.

But Taesan, without stepping back, dodged all attacks with just a twist of his body.

The knight’s movements became increasingly faster. Accordingly, the well-guarded vital part was exposed.

The moment he saw it, Taesan charged like an arrow.

The knight hurriedly attempted to defend, but Taesan’s sword, like a serpent, bent and struck the vital point.

“This makes the first.”

Taesan muttered.

The knight changed his approach in response to Taesan’s attack. He stopped guarding his neck and only defended the vital parts.

Therefore, Taesan also changed his method.

His stats were overwhelmingly higher compared to the knight’s.

Moreover, perhaps due to increased proficiency with conceptual skills, he could faintly read the knight’s will, making it not difficult to dodge attacks.

So, he focused solely on evasion until the vital spot was exposed.

Soon, the knight, exhausted from Taesan’s evasion, inadvertently exposed his vital spot.

Kaang!

“This makes thirty-three.”

Taesan muttered.

When he had succeeded about fifty times,

The knight changed his movement once again.

Swallowed by a deep abyss, the knight possessed a unique swordsmanship. He pressed on Taesan with disciplined but aggressive movements.

But suddenly, he abandoned his swordsmanship and began to push forward recklessly with his body.

Taesan quickly tried to evade the knight’s attacks, but the distance was too close. Eventually, Taesan had to allow the knight’s charge.

Sigh.

It was back to square one.

The ghost shook his head in disbelief.

[But I felt the same during Addition. If it were me, I'd have gone insane.]

After spending hours and getting close to ninety successes, just when he thought he was almost there, the knight changing his approach meant starting all over again…

He had to repeat this over and over again. It was a task that seemed to require an infinite amount of time.

“Really? I think this is better than Addition.”

[Why? It seems the same to me.]

“At least this one guarantees I can get it.”

[...Ah.]

The ghost realized what Taesan meant.

Addition could only be obtained by blocking out variables. But variables were exactly that because Taesan couldn’t control them.

The only thing Taesan could do when acquiring Addition was to keep swinging his sword. That was all. His proactive actions were severely limited.

Literally, if luck wasn’t on his side, Addition was a skill that could take a lifetime to obtain.

In contrast, Sure Hit allowed Taesan to manage the variables. The monster only countered Taesan’s attacks with one or two different approaches.

Then the story becomes simple.

As long as he understood and countered every move the opponent made, success was just a matter of time.

[Well, that's something.]

The ghost chuckled.

Taesan kept moving.

Around fifty times in, the knight changed his pattern once more.

Unable to immediately respond, Taesan had to start over from the beginning again.

But Taesan’s expression remained unchanged.

Gradually, the knight’s patterns started to repeat, following a predictable rhythm.

Realizing the opponent had exhausted his repertoire, Taesan seized the opportunity.

Crack.

“One.”

The knight altered his count, attempting to overwhelm Taesan by switching patterns.

However, Taesan had encountered all these maneuvers at least once before.

With nothing new to challenge him, responding became effortless.

And so, he advanced steadily.

Crack.

Taesan’s sword struck a critical point, causing the knight’s body to convulse violently.

“This makes a hundred.”

[You have exclusively targeted the opponent's vital points. The special activation skill [Sure Hit] has been acquired.]

He had finally acquired the skill, impressing even the ghost.

[I felt this during Addition too, but your prowess is truly extraordinary. I wonder if there's anyone else who could succeed knowing the method?]

“Probably not.”

In his previous life, he had shared the method with many, but only Lee Taeyeon had managed to succeed.

With Sure Hit now in his possession, there was no longer any reason to engage with the knight.

He advanced on the faltering knight.

Dodging the knight’s sword and driving his own into the knight’s neck.

Crack.

The knight collapsed.

[You have defeated the knight submerged in the deep abyss.] [Your level has increased.] [You have obtained the Rune of Lightning.] [You have obtained ???]

“Phew.”

Taking a deep breath, Taesan reflected on the effort. Although familiar, striking vital points over a hundred times and aligning his will with a conceptual skill had been demanding.

But ultimately, he had prevailed.

[Special Activation Skill: Sure Hit] [Mana Consumption: 5] [Proficiency: 1%] [The next attack on the opponent will undoubtedly hit. This attack cannot be dodged.]

True to its name, it was a skill that ensured an undodgeable attack against the opponent. The only options for the opponent were to nullify the attack, block it, or suffer the hit.

[This is really... fascinating. Do they actually give out such skills?]

The Sure Hit skill, which forced a specific counter from the opponent, could be likened to skills such as Attack Nullification or Forced Duel.

And Taesan possessed the Ability Sword.

Given the precondition of clashing swords, it was a skill that could be endlessly utilized, and pairing it with that could maximize efficiency.

However, Taesan was not yet satisfied.

There were still many skills to be acquired. He intended to obtain every single one as soon as the conditions were met.

All the skills from his past life.

And the stats and additional skills from Solo Mode.

How strong he could become by combining all of these was beyond even his own imagination.

Taesan first checked the reward for clearing the 38th floor.

[Lightning Rune] [Infuses the equipment with the energy of lightning.]

It was uncertain when he would change his weapon. Since the ghost mentioned that he could later obtain the weapon he used, Taesan applied the rune to his arrows.

Fizz.

The arrow shimmered with a blue light.

[Self-aware Lightning Arrow: Lightning Rune] [An arrow that moves on its own to protect its master. It possesses self-awareness and cannot move beyond a certain range.] [Current Master: Kang Taesan] [User's rank is insufficient. Attack Power: 1] [Infused with the Lightning Rune. Attack Power +30] [Applies an electrified status effect to the hit enemy.]

An additional 30 attack power was added. Along with a minor but nice effect of applying a status effect judgment with each attack, similar to a lightning strike hitting an old tree.

Taesan took out the arrows.

Two arrows were flickering with lightning.

“Not bad.”

The change was not unwelcome. However, he was curious about how to increase the attack power, given the only explanation was the insufficient rank.

[??? was used.] [Obtained the Dagger of Magic Dispelling.] [Dagger of Magic Dispelling] [A dagger infused with dispelling magic. It can unlock magical seals but cannot unlock seals of magic greater than the dispelling rank infused in the dagger.]

A dagger capable of unlocking magical seals, an equipment that could prove handy if kept.

Taesan pocketed the dagger and descended to the 40th floor.

[40th Floor Quest Start.] [Defeat the boss of the 40th floor and pass through.] [Reward: Necklace of the Majestic One] [Secret Reward: ???]

Finally, it was the 40th floor.

The end of the knight-occupied 30s series was in sight.

It was the moment Taesan was about to move towards the floor.

A girl appeared as the darkness parted.

“What’s the matter this time?”

Taesan asked, undisturbed by the sudden appearance of the demon god.

He had a guess. There weren’t many reasons she would appear before him like this.

The Guides of Sin.

They had made their move.