NABC Chapter 30: 4th Floor
Chapter 30: 4th Floor
I checked the rewards I had received for clearing the 3rd Floor.
[Phaethon’s Obsidian Armor]
Type: ArmorDefense: +90Effect: Focused Defense – When hit, defense is concentrated on the area of impact, reducing damage efficiently.Usable Level: 20+Description: An ancient masterpiece by the renowned craftsman Phaethon. Reacts to the user’s internal mana circulation. The Focused Defense function activates when mana is properly utilized.Grade: B+I desperately needed new armor, so this was a perfect reward.
The effect looked extremely useful as well.
Next, I checked the 1st Place Reward for ranking highest on the 3rd Floor.
[True Qi Pill]
Type: ElixirEffect: Upon consumption, all stats, including mana, will increase significantly. This increase is permanent.Usable Level: 20+Grade: B+"True Qi Pill... kinda sounds like a person’s name."
The pill was a small, navy-blue sphere.
Exactly the kind of simple, traditional design I had imagined for an elixir.
And this time, the 1st Place Reward wasn’t just one item.
[Mirror of Transition]
Type: ShieldDefense: +120Effect: By injecting a small amount of mana, the shield’s size can be adjusted.Description: A shield crafted by the legendary artisan Viola. Its defense stat is only fully effective when blocking attacks directly.Usable Level: 20+Grade: B+"Mirror of Transition."
I grabbed the shield in my right hand.
The moment I channeled mana into it—
Shhhhh!
The shield expanded.
From a compact one-handed shield, it grew to the size of a tower shield—
The kind used by frontline defense soldiers.
This could be very useful in battle if used at the right moment.
I took a picture of the True Qi Pill with my terminal.
Then, I posted on
Title: True Qi Pill, this is an elixir, right? Do I just eat it?
Author: ᄋᄋ*
Looks like I can just swallow it down.Attachment: 234729384723.jpg
Comments:
ᄂ Yeah, just eat it and circulate your mana a bit.
ᄂ Damn, this guy is taking something I didn’t get until the 60th floor.
ᄂ ᄋᄋ) Should I save it for later?*
ᄂ Nah. Judging by your luck, you’ll probably keep getting elixirs exactly when you need them.
ᄂ Sword of Light: No, take it now. The previous comment is probably right.
"Alright, I’ll take it now."
I was about to pull the True Qi Pill from my inventory—
But then, something caught my eye.
A new post from Ice Queen.
Someone who had never written in the gallery before.
Title: Frozen! I was thinking after seeing the climber’s score...
Author: Ice Queen
Back in my generation, there were a few people with insanely high scores in the early floors.
Now that I think about it... maybe those people were Pandemonium climbers.
I don’t remember seeing a player who pulled two consecutive four-digit scores before the 4th Floor,
but I do remember seeing some after the 5th Floor... Frozen.
Comments:
ᄂ Gutter Swordsman: Yeah, I think I remember that too. But those were way back—like, super early on.
ᄂ How early?
ᄂ Gutter Swordsman: By Floor 20, the leaderboard was mostly filled with people I already knew. So this means before Floor 20.
ᄂ Pioneer: I was holding back on saying this because I didn’t want to kill the mood. But yeah... it’s better to talk about it now.
ᄂ Pioneer: Honestly, Climber probably has enough talent to survive, so...
ᄂ Pioneer: When I was living on the Hard Mode 16th Floor, I joined an exchange event and met another player.
ᄂ Pioneer: They were way stronger than me, so I still remember them.
ᄂ Pioneer: At the end of the exchange, we got close, and they told me something—
ᄂ Pioneer: They were from Pandemonium Mode. And at the time, they were on the 13th Floor.
ᄂ Pioneer: I told them I wanted to be summoned together with them in the next exchange, and they added me as a friend.
ᄂ Pioneer: Then I just kept climbing in my own tower, thinking we’d meet again.
ᄂ Pioneer: Friend requests don’t let you message people, so I had no way of knowing their situation.
ᄂ Pioneer: But the day before the next exchange...
ᄂ Pioneer: Their name turned gray.
Gray?
ᄂ They died.
ᄂ Admin: ...Tsk.
ᄂ Spear King: Damn.
ᄂ So if we estimate where that Pandemonium player died, there’s a danger zone somewhere between Floors 14 to 18.
ᄂ Archmage: Realistically speaking, it’s probably Floor 14 and beyond. It’s Pandemonium Mode, after all.
ᄂ Yeah. That makes sense.
ᄂ As expected, Archmage dropping facts.
ᄂ ᄋᄋ) Well, I almost just died anyway.*
That Sword Aura Explosion—
It was a razor-thin difference between survival and death.
If my luck had been slightly worse, I’d be dead right now.
ᄂ Room Conspiracy Theorist: No wonder no climbers from the past ever posted in Climber Gallery.
ᄂ Room Conspiracy Theorist: That means no one has ever made it to Floor 30. They all died before that.
ᄂ Room Conspiracy Theorist: —This world is one giant locked-room mystery.
ᄂ ᄋᄋ) Do you remember that person’s name?*
ᄂ Pioneer: Yeah. Just because they died, they didn’t disappear from my friend list. I saw their name even after reaching Floor 100.
ᄂ Pioneer: His name was Ban.
ᄂ Pioneer: Anyway, sorry for telling you all this so late. I should’ve mentioned it earlier.
I wasn’t sure.
Would knowing this earlier have changed anything?
Even right now, I was constantly aware that a single misstep on the 4th Floor could get me killed.
If anything—
Now, I knew that from Floor 13 onward, the odds of death would be even higher.
I would keep that fact engraved in my mind.
ᄂ Sword of Light: Just get stronger before the 13th floor. That’s all there is to it.
ᄂ Archmage: Ugh. This got depressing real fast. Don’t die, Climber.
ᄂ LMAO this guy was all cold and distant until now. Why are you acting human all of a sudden?
ᄂ Archmage: It’d be boring without the Climber, that’s why.
ᄂ Dragon King: Beltui~ That’s right! It would be boring without youuuu~
ᄂ ᄋᄋ) Well, I’m gonna keep climbing anyway.
ᄂ Ice Queen: Frozen! Fighting!
ᄂ Shrine Maiden: Hawawa, I will inscribe a fortune talisman for you.
ᄂ Beast King: Live!!!!! Climber!!!!! Friend of the Beastfolk!!!!!
"Great. Another noisy one."
ᄂ Absolute Monarch: Post a video of you using sword aura sometime. I want to see what color it is.
ᄂ Red aura users are statistically more aggressive, according to a study.
ᄂ Absolute Monarch: ? What kind of baseless, worthless study is that?
ᄂ Oh, damn. You use red aura, don’t you?
ᄂ Caught red-handed LOL
ᄂ Beast King: LMAO, guilty conscience activated.
ᄂ Scientific credibility skyrocketing.
ᄂ ᄋᄋ) The Fourth-Rank I fought used red sword aura too.
ᄂ LOL we have enough examples now to prove the theory.
ᄂ Sword of Light: Hmmm. My sword aura is a deep blue, with shimmering waves of light.
ᄂ Bro trying to avoid suspicion LOL.
ᄂ Gutter Swordsman: Mine’s golden.
ᄂ Heavenly Demon: Mine is purple.
ᄂ Spear King: Mine’s green.
ᄂ Seeing these world-class powerhouses playing rainbow games with their aura colors is giving me a crisis.
ᄂ Bruh, if even these guys got this strong...
ᄂ Maybe it’s because they’re like this.
ᄂ Absolute Monarch: None of you are taking this seriously at all.
ᄂ Old man’s out here being the only strict one LOL.
ᄂ The research on red aura users keeps expanding.
ᄂ Stop bullying Grandpa, this is elder abuse.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
After that, Absolute Monarch didn’t post again for a while.
I closed Transcendent Gallery.
"A danger zone, huh."
I couldn’t help but think about it.
After all, my life was on the line.
But to be honest—
Everything had been dangerous since Floor 1.
And Floor 4 would be no different.
There was only one solution.
Get as strong as possible.
I swallowed the True Qi Pill.
[Digesting True Qi Pill within the body.]
[‘Strength’ permanently increases by 15.]
[‘Agility’ permanently increases by 15.]
[‘Endurance’ permanently increases by 15.]
[‘Mana’ permanently increases by 15.]
"Oh."
I would have been happy with just a single level’s worth of stat increase.
But this?
It was equivalent to three entire levels.
I had been a little frustrated that my growth on the 3rd Floor felt slower than on the 2nd Floor.
That frustration?
Completely gone.
Yeah, this is definitely an elixir.
I opened my status window.
Name: Han YuseongRace: HumanLevel: 21[Stats]Strength: 137Agility: 132Endurance: 135Mana: 101[Skills]Pain Suppression (Lv.6)Composure (Lv.6)Concealment (Lv.4)Crisis Detection (Lv.3)Expanded Vision (Lv.3)Focused Enhancement (Lv.4)Warrior’s Movement (Lv.5)Mana Body Reinforcement (Lv.5)Doombringer (Lv.2)Mental Barrier (Lv.3)Trajectory Insight (Lv.2)Aura color, huh?
I grabbed the lightest weapon I had—Bloodstained Dagger.
Shhhhhh...!
I released sword aura along the blade.
Then, I snapped a picture of the pure white glow with my terminal.
Title: It’s white.
Author: ᄋᄋ*
Seems way too noticeable, but aura is always like that, right?Attachment: 2834902384.jpgComments:
ᄂ Damn, that’s beautiful.
ᄂ Pure white aura is extremely rare.
ᄂ Sword of Light: Oho.
ᄂ Gutter Swordsman: Pretty.
ᄂ Bro, you didn’t say a single word when Beast King got banned for flooding the gallery with selfies. But now, you see white sword aura, and suddenly you’re out here calling it pretty?
ᄂ This is why he’s strong.
ᄂ Bro, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) snap out of it!!!
ᄂ Dragon King: Beltui~ It’s soooo prettyyyyy~
ᄂ Spear King: Yeah, it’s nice.
ᄂ Ice Queen: Frozen! White! A sense of kinship! Frozen! Icy! Haha!
ᄂ ᄋᄋ) Gonna train for the rest of the day. I’ll enter the 4th-floor stage tomorrow morning.
ᄂ Sword of Light: What kind of training?
ᄂ ᄋᄋ) Anything I can do with aura?
ᄂ Heavenly Demon: In martial arts terms, it’s called Guardian Aura.
ᄂ Heavenly Demon: In another world, they call it Custos.
ᄂ Heavenly Demon: It’s a technique that wraps your body in aura for defense. Like having an extra life.
ᄂ ᄋᄋ) Sounds useful.
"Alright."
First, Guardian Aura.
If I wanted to survive, I had to master everything I could.