Chapter 124 Unique Power (2)

Transcendence could overcome the limitations of the system. Retrogression reversed the flow of time, and Salvation was reaching into the realm of God. These were powers that anyone could see as beyond standard, but that wasn’t the end.

-Inheritance – Three appointed skills of a foe will be fully inherited. The other party’s consent is not required, and the power is permanently lost when used.

– Extermination – Declare a certain range of territory. Those defined as evil suffer proportional damage to magic stat and will perish if they stay in the range for more than 5 minutes.

Compared to the previous three, these felt less surreal, but they were still far from common. Unlike {Predation}, Inheritance could be used even if the target wasn’t a challenger. In the case of Extermination, although there were prerequisites, its effects were more than satisfactory.

“I can’t believe there would be five Only powers. As expected from you.”

When he thought it was a shame that he could only choose 1 out of the 5, he heard a murmur from the man behind him.

“Only Power?”

“Oh, did I not explain it? Let’s move on to the next list. Then you’ll find out naturally.”

He now noticed a mark at the bottom of the list. Yoon-seok moved on to the next as advised. The list of abilities floating before him changed.

「Two powers can be chosen.」

‘So this is how it works….’

Yoon-seok evaluated it carefully and confirmed each power one by one.

-Learning – Knowledge that has reached a certain level or higher will be registered as a general skill. You can use it up to 3 times.

The first thing that caught his eye was Learning. It appeared to have the effect of converting techniques such as Heavenly Reign, Traverse, and his gray sword energy into a skill. He was curious about the characteristics after raising the assigned rank, but he couldn’t waste this opportunity because of his curiosity.

-Sell Skills – Sell skills you own and get 100% AP back.

This was a power that had good synergy with b Predation}. Maybe that would be the case before he got Skill Synthesis, but now there wasn’t much merit for it.

‘Is it because I saw the ones in front first…?’

Yoon-seok smacked his lips without realizing it. Next was Star Guardian that could only be used during combat with invaders. Then Sword’s Judgment grew his strength when confronting evil, and Mind Reading, where he could accurately read the minds of those with weaker magic than him. Each of the ten powers seemed decent, but he couldn’t see what he wanted.

「Four powers can be chosen.」

「Eight powers can be chosen.」

He checked all the powers first. It gradually grew farther and farther from what Yoon-seok had expected as he went along the list, but thanks to this, he had a general idea. If Elle’s prophecy were a power on page 1, Lady’s Commandment, Evolution, Skill Synthesis, and Heart of Liberty would be on page 2. Powers like Enhanced Speed could be sufficiently replaced with the general skills belonging on pages 3 and 4.

「One power can be chosen.」

Yoon-seok was back on the first list. Quality was better than quantity.

‘Am I back to square one?’

Like this, he circled back to the first crossroads. Somehow, he felt like his head was hurting more than before. Well, it wasn’t anything new. Yoon-seok reduced the number of options one by one like usual. Rather than just comparing the advantages, he pointed out the shortcomings one by one and eliminated them.

The first to go was Extermination.

‘Honestly, this won’t be much of use.’

The advantages of Exterminate were extremely simple: he could kill an enemy that couldn’t otherwise be killed. However, the prerequisite was too extreme. The enemy must be evil, and they must be tied within the range for 5 minutes. Even if he chose this power, he wondered if there would be a day when he would use it meaningfully, even once.

‘It won’t be any different with Inheritance.’

Inheritance was a power that was similar to b Predation}. The only difference was the number of obtained skills, and there was no need to win a duel first. Perhaps if he used this and obtained 3 skills from Cheon-ma, who reached the 20th floor, he could grow tremendously. However, the fact that he had to give up his power for 3 skills remained unchanged.

‘Then is it Salvation now…?’

Unlike when considering the previous two, Yoon-seok’s brow furrowed. No other powers could surpass this. Resurrecting the dead? Wasn’t this the realm of God? However, Yoon-seok was not deceived by its phrasing and looked at the essence. What mattered wasn’t how great, or rare this ability was but how helpful it proved to be.

Yoon-seok didn’t have any friends; he only had the family that he considered as precious. In that case, if he chose this power because he was afraid of one thing happening, he thought he would leave a greater regret someday.

‘Let’s take it out.’

He already made up his mind, so there was nothing to hesitate about. Yoon-seok immediately removed Salvation from the options. Then, there were two things left: Transcendence and Retrogression.

‘This is hard…’

It wasn’t easy for Yoon-seok. It was clear that Transcendence would be of great help to the journey ahead, but Retrogression was no less attractive. Whatever choice he made in the future, whatever the ending was, he could turn everything into nothing and restart again.

‘…But let’s take out Retrogression.’

The reason was simple. If he chose this power, he would have to climb the Tower without using it. When the moment came that this power was needed, it would be after a disastrous ending. If so, it would be better to go all-out from the beginning, so that it wouldn’t happen in the first place.

「Transcendence is engraved in your soul.」

Brilliant light poured out of the four statues and swirled around Yoon-seok’s body.

“Did you make this choice due to the fear of failure? It’s contradictory but indeed human. I respect your choice.”

He wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or not. The way he spoke like an AI was annoying, but he wasn’t in the right mind to answer. Yoon-seok grabbed his heart and asked urgently.

“Is it… is it supposed to hurt this much?”

Yoon-seok knelt. The pain when Middle Qigong opened? It was nothing compared to this. If this was an empty waiting room, he might’ve already rolled around the floor and screamed. But as if he was already expecting it, the man responded calmly.

“Well, wouldn’t it be weird to be okay when the avatar’s information is synchronized with the real body? Well, there’s nothing to feel unfair about, but just think that your power is that special.”

“Avatar…?”

Yoon-seok instinctively looked down at his body. His skin was melting down like snow, and new flesh was sprouting from within. Does that mean this was the real body?

“Wait, what do you mean synchronized…?”

In the midst of this, Yoon-seok barely came to his senses and blurted it out.

“Hoho. Didn’t I only allow you to ask one question? I’ll let you off quickly, so be in pain without worrying.”

Tak.

The man looked down from above and flicked his finger. All Yoon-seok saw while his vision darkened was the satisfied smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

「Moving to the waiting room on the 15th floor.」

“…”

How much time had passed? Yoon-seok, who struggled to sit up and check the time, smiled grimly. He thought the day would have passed while he suffered in endless pain.

“It’s only been 10 minutes…?”

He felt ashamed because he wondered if his mental state was that weak, but nothing had changed. Yoon-seok walked tirelessly like a zombie to the tablet and opened the challenger information page. The content hadn’t changed just because he gained a new power.

‘It said effort and talent…’

When he was looking at the description of Transcendence, there was a part he questioned. How come there was talent included other than just effort? It was a reasonable question. There was nothing to call talent with techniques close to skills from a game. So, first of all, he decided to check the Effort that had been pointed out.

‘Force Shield.’

At the same time as he recited the command, he was surrounded by a translucent shield.

「Force Shield’s proficiency increases by 0.00001%.」

A new phrase popped up in front of his eyes.

‘As expected, just like what I predicted.’

He made a rough guess. If he used the skill repeatedly, his proficiency would accumulate, and the rank would increase if he filled it up.

‘Then, what about stats?’

and gradually explored the power he gained. For stats, the proficiency increased when he did the right exercise. Well, it was enough to call the efficiency vicious.

‘I think it’s better to just give up on improving my stats with effort alone.….’

Contrary to his expectations, the upward trend was minimal, but the fact that there was still a way to promote systematic growth without consuming AP remained unchanged. Rather than being disappointed, Yoon-seok turned his attention to the other parts he had yet to discover.

What did talent mean in Transcendence? To find out, Yoon-seok opened the tablet and purchased a Rank F skill.

「A new skill has been acquired.」

It was a technique called Triple Cut. The selling price was 500 AP, and it was a very simple skill to cut from the top, middle, and bottom in a zigzag form. He tried it out right away, and the skill level increased.

「Proficiency of Triple Cut increases by 0.1%.」

Perhaps because of the low rank, unlike Force Shield, the skill increase was also fast. Of course, it wasn’t meaningless. However, he wasn’t done learning about power. Yoon-seok continued to use Triple Cut as soon as the 3-second waiting time was up.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Was it because Yoon-seok’s skills were too advanced? Even with that simple movement, a tremendous wind pressure exploded out. However, to Yoon-seok’s perspective, it seemed trivial. The trajectory, movement, and purpose of the sword looked childish.

‘Still, that’s why it’s ranked F…’

Watching his body move stiffly, he felt suffocated and frustrated. However, he endured it and repeated the skill again and again. He thought there would be a difference if the skill level increased, yet no difference occurred.

He was just able to find himself unconsciously finding and correcting one mistake after another.

‘It’d be nice if it weren’t divided into upper, middle, lower parts, but a quick blow…’

「Proficiency of Triple Cut increases by 98.2%.」

「Rank of Triple Cut has been increased.」

‘I shouldn’t only focus on the strongness, but maybe also on gentleness and speediness.’

「Proficiency of Triple Cut increases by 100%.」

「Rank of Triple Cut has been increased.」

‘Why do I have to move my body like this?’

「Proficiency of Triple Cut increases by 100%.」

「Characteristics of Triple Cut (E) can be chosen.」

How many more times did he swing it? He didn’t know, but when Yoon-seok came to his senses, many phrases were flooding in front of him.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The sound of slicing through the air with Triple Cut was different.

‘So this is how.’

Now Yoon-seok knew what talent meant.