Chapter 129 Rank S (3)

All the preparations that could be done in the waiting room were over. Before he left, he decided to check the achievements he recently completed.

「List of Achievements」

Devil (Remove the devil from the 14th-floor mission) 500LP.

Expert (Avoid 10,000 attacks in a row) 350LP.

Submerged Dragon (Self-evaluation SS grade achieved by evaluation adjustment) 500LP

His LP, which had fallen to 850, was restored to 2,200 after accomplishing those three achievements.

“…”

Yoon-seok’s eyes stopped as he read through them. The Achievement Submerged Dragon, for reference, was the achievement fulfilled when the duel with the beast-man assassin ended. To be honest, he didn’t understand.

‘I’m in SS grade now?’

He learned from a while ago that there was a self-evaluation. At the last auction, he heard that Cheon-ma received the SSS grade and the King of Steel received a SS grade. At that time, he thought he had a long way to go. Since then, he didn’t complete any achievements related to self-evaluation, so his interest naturally shifted away from the topic.

But he still wondered about it sometimes. If the evaluation was still being evaluated in real-time, wouldn’t it have risen much more since then?

‘Does it mean that I’m only at this level by the Tower’s judgment?’

His prediction was only half right. Although he was still being evaluated, it wasn’t until he reached the 17th floor that he was on the same level as the King of Steel. Yoon-seok wasn’t dull enough to not notice what this fact meant.

‘There’s still a lot more monsters left on top for me to surpass and overcome….’

It was reasonable doubt. The world was wide, with four dimensions gathered here. But self-evaluation SS grade meant he was one level from SSS grade where Cheon-ma was. The corners of his lips lifted slightly.

‘This is fun.’

The fierce and urgent battle he went through every floor in the early days was like an illusion, and he had no proper opponents since he crossed the 10th floor. He often overflowed with anger, but he also thought it was sometimes boring. But he realized again that he just didn’t get to meet the right opponent.

Was that why? Indeed, after a long time, he felt motivated.

‘Let’s go up.’

Nothing changed; he would ascend even higher with his efforts. But, if he started to feel that the process would be more enjoyable, was it a sign that something was broken in him as a human? Well, maybe, but it wasn’t important. He had a feeling those he would meet in the future would be similar to him.

「Get ready. The duel will begin soon.」

The intense heat blaring down from the sky. However, his body had transformed to the point where he couldn’t feel the heat or burning pain in his eyes.

「Countdown is starting.」

Yoon-seok’s eyes were directed toward his foe for the three given seconds out of habit.

「3.」

The duel opponent on the 17th floor was also a recreated challenger. He heard it from Sword Demon that this was the case until the 19th floor, so there weren’t any doubts. Because…

「2.」

This opponent was one of the six major forces in the Union Square and the head of the January Clan, where all members were from Moorim. It was the Sword Demon, Jeong Dae-woon, himself.

「1.」

He thought it was an incredible coincidence. Well, the number of challenges would continue to decrease as he ascended, so it was a higher probability than winning the lottery.

「START!」

The moment the duel started, the Sword Demon Jeong Dae-woon’s eyes flashed, and his body disappeared. The movement was so fast that even Yoon-seok couldn’t keep track. Yet, he did not falter and immediately spread Skywrath Energy out wide to check their location.

‘Back.’

There wasn’t even a shifting sound. When Yoon-seok slightly twisted his neck to the side, a black blade swung in that direction.

Clank.

Yoon-seok put his hand on his sword, but did he feel something instinctively? Subsequently, Sword Demon, who was about to make another attack, widened the distance.

“A black energy. In many ways, you must be an ominous man.”

Yoon-seok smiled. Although he said that, he was smiling as if he was having fun.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had an interesting opponent.”

Yoon-seok drew his swords and fixed his gaze on Sword Demon.

“…”

There was no need to fight. If he revealed the Heavenly Sword, he would immediately kneel in a prone position, as he did in the square before. After that, if he told him that he was now a recreated being, he would soon understand and do what Yoon-seok wanted. He had the means to understand the current situation. And yet.

That wasn’t fun.

Whoooosh!

Yoon-seok instilled Skywrath Energy into his blade. Thanks to the newly obtained b Dark Knight}, the sword energy turned black like ink. Honestly, he didn’t like the color, but he couldn’t deny that he was stronger than before.

Tadak.

Yoon-seok kicked off the ground. Not holding back for the sake of training, but with all his might.

Boooooom-!

Yoon-seok shot forward as fast as a jet. For ordinary people, they couldn’t even chase his afterimage, but the Sword Demon wasn’t an ordinary person.

Shift.

His eyes followed the path along with Yoon-seok’s sword. He was watching him without missing anything, and he could avoid it. But his choice was to gently lift his sword to face Yoon-seok head-on.

“…”

Come to think of it, he was curious. The Sword Demon Jeong Dae-woon, 6th-generation chief of the January Clan…what were his real skills to be acknowledged by Cheon-ma? Sadly, he couldn’t properly check because he suddenly accepted him as the Co-Sect Leader. However, Yoon-seok still remembered clearly.

He had only suffered minor injuries after receiving the red tsunami with his bare body. Of course, at that time, Yoon-seok had just arrived on the 12th floor, and he didn’t have Divine Ultimatum. Well, this was still on the 17th floor, so his foe wouldn’t be as strong as then.

Whikkkkkkk. Whik!

Right before their swords collided, as their sword energies met and coiled around each other, they very softly clashed.

‘It’s flowing?’

A momentary collision. With that alone, Yoon-seok read the intention of his sword and instilled more energy into his own.

Whoooooosh!

Softness overcomes hardness, but that was also when the level was right. The output of one’s sword energy was based on the magic stat, so Yoon-seok was confident. No one on the same floor could surpass him in terms of magic.

“…!”

The Sword Demon’s expression changed. However, Yoon-seok could feel his anguish by looking at his energy, not his expression. He tried to push the flow to the side, but it wouldn’t budge.

At first, he didn’t believe it. For Strength to beat Gentleness, he must have at least a few strategies. But he couldn’t even slightly turn it? Him, the Sword Demon Jeong Dae-woon?

“Mountain Moving Strength!”

He shouted as he pushed, and Yoon-seok’s sword was slowly shoved to the side. Mountain Moving Strength was a skill sold in the store with the effect of temporarily increasing strength. He didn’t know what characteristics would appear as the rank increased, but the main function wouldn’t have changed much.

‘Since I pushed with magic, he’s going to make up with strength?’

It was simple but effective. Yoon-seok’s sword was slowly pushed to the side.

Slash!

An inch. No more or less, it passed by Sword Demon’s cheeks at an interval of just an inch. As he looked at the outer wall dug out like soft tofu, Sword Demon’s eyes turned to question marks, but he focused on the immediate situation.

It was a wise choice.

“Sword of Destruction.”

A dark red line was drawn over his blade-like blood. Unique Skill or a power? It was a command he never heard of, so it was probably one of the two. One thing for sure was that he was going to take this seriously.

Whikkk!

Yoon-seok felt it intuitively. If he fell for that attack, he wouldn’t be able to just ignore it. That wasn’t the end, however.

“Hell Gateway.”

As the sun turned dark, the blue sky turned red.

Drip. Drip. Drippppp.

A black liquid dripped from the sky.

「All healing effects are lost.」

「If injured by the Evil Saint, one random ability will drop by one level.」

「Body adapts to the new environment.」

「All geographic penalties are reduced by 50%.」

Yoon-seok tilted his head. Evil Saint? The penalty was terrifying, but what did it mean? He would find out soon.

Jingle!

A bell rang out. At the same time, a ghostly blade appeared from thin air, aimed at Yoon-seok.

‘If I get hit by that, will my stats decrease?’

If so, it was a fairly good ability. But, all he had to do was not to be hit.

Slash!

Yoon-seok instinctively cut down the evil spirit. Then…

“Cooooooooo……!”

The entire arena began to shake. What was that? If he killed that Evil Saint, would the field-effect be released?

‘That’s too boring…’

While Yoon-seok was thinking about how he should rate this skill, Jeong Dae-woon trembled.

‘He slashed the Evil Saint…?’

That was a spiritual being of the Hell Gateway, a Unique Power of his contracted admin. Even if the spectral blade hit, only the stats were affected, not the body. Conversely, physical attacks couldn’t hit the spirit; that was the scariest part about Hell Gateway.

But what was this? He never heard the Evil Saint scream before.

‘Come to think of it; it happened before…’

The Sword Demon recalled how Yoon-seok broke the outer wall of the arena. The arena, protected by the system, shouldn’t break under any circumstances.

‘He must have an ability related to this.’

It wasn’t strange to have such a thing as the Tower was filled with all sorts of extraordinary beings. Besides, now wasn’t the time to be lost in thought.

“Cooooooooooo……!”

If this continued, the Evil Saint would die. The man he encountered now was the strongest enemy he had ever met. Perhaps he would have to risk his life to cross the line, but he wasn’t afraid. Even if the Grim Reaper approached and cut off his head, he would smile and continue to fight.

He didn’t gain the nickname Sword Demon on a fluke.

“Demonic Body.”

A red-green haze began to spread from Sword Demon’s body. Yoon-seok focused on the spirit, belatedly noticed, and shifted his attention.

“10 minutes. I’ll kill you in 10 minutes.”

That ferocious momentum was quite unusual to Yoon-seok. But he smiled.

“…”

It was because he just came up with an amazing way to utilize the Evil Saint.