Ascension Through Skills
chapter-3

Taesan looked at the monsters.

Monster 7, as large as a house, resembled a jellyfish.

And Monster 5, hovering in mid-air, was shaking its tentacles like an octopus.

“I just hope they aren’t defense types.”

Attack type, defense type, long-range type, close-range type, brainwashing type, etc. Monsters came in various types.

The monsters’ information was concealed, making it impossible to determine their capabilities. People had to learn about them through combat, a result that inevitably resulted in many casualties.

Of course, this was not a concern for Taesan.

[You have activated Complete Reconnaissance.] [Monster 7] [Defense Type] [Health: 148,551,233/148,551,233]

Taesan’s face twisted.

“140 million? They’re really messing around.”

What was that supposed to be? Even if all of humanity attacked it together, wouldn’t it be impossible to deplete that amount of HP?

Suppressing his anger, Taesan checked the other one.

[Monster 5] [Long-range Attack Type] [Health: 1,255,212/1,255,212]

“This one seems somewhat manageable.”

Still, it had 1.25 million health. Compared to a regular monster, the task remained insurmountable.

“Ah…”

Taesan let out a deep, long sigh.

If only Lee Taeyeon had been here, it would have been easier.

Having cleared Solo Mode, she possessed top-notch stats and legendary equipment.

A defense-type monster can’t damage Lee Taeyeon, so she would quickly take care of the long-range attack type first and either completely ignore the defense type or slowly wear it down.

Take care of the attack type first, then handle the defense type later. It was an incredibly tactical approach. Other players would likely follow the same strategy.

Unfortunately, Taesan was an anomaly as a player.

His stats were at the level of an Easy Mode player. His equipment remains the same as when he left the labyrinth because players can’t trade equipment.

His only hope was in his skills.

“Phew.”

Taesan gathered his strength.

His skill, Unstoppable Force, provided immunity to all status ailments for five minutes. It would be easier to deal with them within this time period.

Thump.

Taesan stomped on the ground.

[You have activated Physical Time Acceleration.]

Taesan’s body became faster. This acceleration gave him a speed that was incomparable to his usual pace.

Vrooom.

Monster 5 moved its tentacles toward the moving Taesan. The tentacles aimed at Taesan, and a green light began condensing at their tips.

Zzzzzing!

Beams of light shot out from the tip of the tentacles. It obliterated anything in its way as it struck Taesan at the speed of light.

[Your First Attack Immunity has been activated.] [You received 0 damage.]

As he dismissed the system window, Taesan thought.

‘So, it fires in the direction its tentacles are pointing. There’s no delay. It’s impossible to dodge by sight. The only possibility is prediction.’

He quickly discerned this. The slower he was at figuring out his opponent, the less likely he was to survive.

Taesan quickly made a decision.

‘In that case.’

Taesan changed his direction. Instead of running head-on, he moved sideways to confuse the monster’s focus.

The tentacles moved, and a green light condensed at their tips again as Taesan swiftly threw his body.

Zzzzzing!

That light of destruction obliterated everything in its path. Its destructive power reached up to several kilometers and could erase Hard Mode players in one hit.

Taesan managed to avoid them.

‘I can’t avoid it.’

The density of light coming from the tentacles was high. If he got close, he would inevitably get hit at least once.

There were a few possible solutions.

The first one was to purposefully dodge. He could use a few skills to avoid everything completely and gradually get closer.

A standard approach, but simultaneously, an impossible one for Taesan.

Skills were consumable. His frail mana pool was slowly but surely being drained. He had to resolve this as quickly as possible.

“Tsk.”

As always, he’d have to gamble. Taesan hunkered down, ready to unleash his stored power.

[You have activated Supersonic Speed.]

The air exploded as Taesan’s body darted forward.

Supersonic Speed. A movement skill that allowed him to easily surpass the speed of sound. It allowed Taesan to quickly close the gap on an opponent, and he used it frequently.

But its downside was clear. During the dash, evasion was impossible. Monster 5’s tentacles aimed at him once more.

Zzzzzing!

A green beam filled Taesan’s vision. Taesan kicked the ground, accelerating even more.

[Your Second Attack Immunity has been activated.] [You received 0 damage.]

Vrooom.

Monster 5 was taken aback. It had no face per se, but Taesan could sense it.

‘The attack nullification is over now.’

Unfortunately, he couldn’t create any more nullification skills. But thanks to that, he had gotten close. Taesan gripped his sword.

Just as he was about to attack Monster 5, Monster 7 made an appearance with its bulky body.

Grrrr!

Monster 7 took a protective stance and surrounded Taesan. When a ranged attacker was in danger, a defender protected it. They must have been deployed together for that purpose.

However, Taesan smiled.

“Gotcha.”

[You have activated Forced Duel. For one minute, no one except Monster 7 can inflict damage on you.]

A golden barrier enveloped both Monster 7 and Taesan. Monster 5 fired a beam, but the barrier didn’t even react.

To Taesan, there was no big difference between a defender and an attacker. Holding out was a Hard Mode player’s strategy. With his weak stats and equipment, even if he was hit by a defender, he was done.

So, he’d rather take out the annoyingly tanky defender first.

Taesan gripped his sword.

[You have activated Addition. Your current attack power doubles.] [You have activated Multiplication. Your current attack power squares.] [You have activated Absolute Judgment. Ignore the opponent's defense skills.]

Addition, which doubled his attack power.

Multiplication, which squared his attack power.

It was a truly overwhelming skill.

But it was insufficient.

His basic stats were too low, so even after addition and multiplication, it only amounted to 9,604 damage. It was not enough to penetrate a monster with hundreds of millions of HP.

So, one more time.

[You have activated Designated Skill Reset. This skill cannot be activated again for one month.] [You have reset Multiplication.] [You have activated Multiplication. Your current attack power squares.]

The square of 9,604.

But it was still insufficient.

He still couldn’t reach hundreds of millions.

So, to the limit.

Taesan gritted his teeth. Mana was completely drained from his entire body.

[You have activated Duplication. The next attack is applied twice.] [You attack.] [Monster 7 takes 92,236,816 damage.] [Monster 7 takes 92,236,816 damage.] [Monster 7 has fallen.]

It vanished without a trace. Taesan barely managed to keep his body upright as he staggered. Monster 5 pointed at him with its tentacle.

Kreeee.

The beam swallowed Taesan.

[You take 22,543 damage.] [Your Endure skill has been activated. The attack that would have led to death has been nullified. All damage becomes 0 for 5 seconds.]

Unlike Attack Nullification, he only had one instance of Endure. Taesan quickly rushed towards Monster 5. The tentacle moved, but it was easier to dodge at this close range.

From now on, it was no longer difficult. It was a simple repetition of dodging and striking.

However, Taesan’s expression was not good.

[Mana 21/820]

His weak mana pool was at its limit. He could no longer use Multiplication.

He had to shave off 1,250,000 HP purely with his attack.

Taesan swung his sword.

[Monster 5 takes 48 damage.]

Simply put, he needed to strike it 25,000 times.

“I think I’m going crazy.”

The long battle began with only the use of minimum defense penetration skills.

[Monster 5 takes 54 damage.]

The sun and moon revealed themselves to the world, then disappeared repeatedly. At some point, Taesan lost his sense of time.

“Damn it.”

Suddenly coming to his senses, Taesan looked at his opponent’s health.

[Health: 655,212/1,255,212]

“Halfway.”

Some would say that there’s only half left, but to Taesan, that was nonsense. This was already excruciating enough. The fact that he had to repeat this much again made him feel nauseous.

“Ugh.”

But after sighing, Taesan moved.

He dodged the beam and swung his raised sword.

[Monster 5 takes 50 damage.]

Time passed.

Again, the sun and moon repeatedly showed themselves. Players were resistant to physical needs, but at this rate, even Taesan was gradually getting hungry. The lack of sleep made the tip of his sword waver.

But his mind remained unchanged.

Time continued to flow. At some point, it wasn’t the mind controlling the body, but the body controlling the mind.

And then, it ended.

[You have entered a state of Mindless Absorption. Body and mind become one.] [A miraculous power is imprinted on your soul. You have gained the soul skill [Soul Ascension].] [Because you are outside the labyrinth, you could not acquire the skill. [Soul Ascension] has been sealed.]

“So noisy.”

He turned off the system window, not understanding why it had appeared.

Taesan barely managed to hold himself upright with his shaky legs. When he looked around, it was a valley. Everything was destroyed, and the city had completely disappeared, replaced by a valley.

Taesan spat.

“Die.”

[Monster 5 takes 48 damage.] [Monster 5 has fallen.] [All the gods of every dimension cannot hide their astonishment at your achievement.]

The cost of chipping away at a total of 1.25 million health points purely with time was substantial. He found it even hard to stand up.

Barely managing to move his quivering lips, Taesan muttered,

“……Status window.”

[Kang Taesan] [Level: 57] [HP: 1/1021] [Mana: 2/820] [Strength: 105] [Intelligence: 100] [Agility: 98] [Attack + 49] [Defense + 58] [The subject is in a state of near-death.]

It was a pitiful status window.

It felt like he had been fighting for well over a month.

“Damn stat deficiency.”

Things would have been easier had he at least been at the level of a Normal player.

But he won.

He had defeated two S-rank entities, something that even someone of Lee Taeyeon’s strength could not guarantee doing.

He moved his trembling legs. Without mana for a big leap, he had no choice but to walk back.

Fortunately, his mana and health recovered to some extent during his walk. When his mana slowly recovered to around 20, the city started to come into his view.

There were no monsters in sight.

But Taesan’s face was contorted.

[You have activated Full Reconnaissance.]

All information around him was visible in the form of a map. Blue dots represented humans, and red dots were monsters.

There were no blue dots.

The only thing visible was a massive red dot inside the city.

“Damn things.”

Swearing, Taesan headed towards the city. As he got closer, bodies started to appear.

They were faces he recognized. They were the ones who had wasted time with him in mundane conversation not long ago.

All of them were dead.

“You all bragged about being some of the rare hardcore players in the world, so why am I, with this messed-up difficulty, the only one alive? Why is it that everyone’s dead when I come back victorious?”

He vented his complaints. With a truly irritated face, he entered the city.

Inside the city, there were even more bodies. Among them was also the body of Junggeun. His face was peaceful.

“Guess he went as he said he would.”

Next to him was also the body of Lee Changchun.

Judging by his not-so-dark expression, it seemed that, in the end, he had come to accept his fate.

Taesan passed by the bodies. At the end of the path of bodies, there was one body laid out.

“Lee Taeyeon.”

The only person in the world who had cleared the Solo difficulty. The person that was regarded as the strongest in the world.

She had died a brutal death.

And the monster that killed her was here.

A terrifying sound. Something was crawling towards him. An indistinguishable monster that stood next to Lee Taeyeon’s body was looking at him.

Something beyond an S-rank. The people had named this monster the ‘Death God.’

[!#$!#’s gaze.] [You instantly die.]

An absolute gaze without judgment. It was an irresistible death sentence even for Hard Mode players. The only known person to have withstood it was Lee Taeyeon.

Taesan grimly waved his hand.

“Dispel.”

[Resistance Successful.]

The sound returned.

Taesan drew his sword. He struck down at the monster with irritation.

The most formidable monster that even Lee Taeyeon couldn’t defeat.

[You have activated Essential Strike.] [$#!!!# damage.]

The monster squirmed in pain. Taesan roughly flicked his hand.

“Come on, punk.”