Going past the bonfire room, I entered the stagewherelong message opened in front of my eyes as soon as I entered.

[The 13thFloors trial will start.]

Explanation:At the west of the Akan Continent, at a nameless volcanic island in middle of the ocean, there is a hidden temple of the monks who worship the G.o.d of Duel.

This temple is a secret place where monks trained to perfect their arts since ancient times.

Challenger, the one who belittles their life long dreams and talents and proclaims yourself as the true master of combat, achieve victory against the monks and prove your words.

[Clear condition]

Achieve victory from at least 15 rooms.

It looks like the 13thFloor is not that complicated.

The theme seemed to revolve around amain character of the story p.i.s.sing the h.e.l.l out of the monks and fighting the duels against the monks to prove his words.

The setting about the main character belittling the monks could be the result of the G.o.d of Duelsnegative impression about me.

It also means the challengers who had been receiving positive responses from the G.o.d of Duel would receive a largewelcome here.

I think thats very plausible.

This is the first time for the theme of the Stage to have a story related to a G.o.d from the Tutorial.

From this Stage, I think I might be able to get some information about the G.o.ds of the Tutorial.

In this Stage, I need to achieve victories from at least 15 rooms.

I wonder how many rooms there are in total.

Lets go find out.

I looked around dark stone room.

There was nothing.

It was a dark s.p.a.ce. There wasnt even a single candle light.

Silence.

It feels strange tonot even hear the slight whistle of wind.

My senses already had surpa.s.sed that of human being. Still, Idont hear anything.

Does this room have sound proofing?

Towardsthe front, I canonlysee a small wooden door.

Besides that door, there was nothing here; it was as if the room wasa prison cell.

The door had 0 written on it.

Does it mean it is the room number 0?

I opened the door and got out of the room number 0.

Like the stone room, a dark corridor continued.

I walked for about five minutes,until I reached awooden door at the end of the corridor.

The door had the number 1 written on it.

It is the room number 1.

The setups theme seemed to bethe stoneroom and corridor repeated withthe difficulty of the trial increasing with the number.

I opened the room number 1s door and entered it. A monk who was sitting in meditating position greeted me.

As if it was supposed to be obvious, the room was dark without a single candle light. However, the monk glaredinto my eyes.

[So, it is you, the arrogant one that the temple master spoke of.]

The monk got up as he said those words to me.

His hospitality to the guest is terrible.

I brought out a small lantern from the inventory and held it on my hand.

Although I had the effects from the night vision and eye light skills enabling me to maintain vision inside darkness, this was our first meeting. I found the lack of proper lighting to be unacceptable.

I slowly observed the monks appearance.

He was about two meters in height.

He was a hardened muscular man. Hedid not appear to be armed.

His clothesreminded meabout monks from Tibet.

He didnt have any armors either.

One thing unique about him was that his fangs were reaching below his chin.

He is not human.

He had protruding facial features and red skin.

He looked like a demon from j.a.paneselegends.

I dont knowwhothe arrogant oneis. Anyway, dont you need weapons or armors?

[As I thought, you are arrogant. Just what are you asking to a monk who is seeking the ultimate height in art of fighting. Relying on such petty tools will only get in the way of the training. They will not help in true growth.]

This onesure likes to spew out nonsense.

I can understand the idea of not using weapons for a while for the sake of development.

However, weapons and armors should never be regardedpetty tools.

Weapons were created and improved upon by humans to emerge victorious in wars and battles. They were the pinnacle of technology.

In this Tutorial, there were many things besides weaponsmade by humans. However, their purposes were all same.

Weapons were developed to attack and kill opponents.

How is anyone supposed to challenge the ultimate height in the art of fighting by excluding such weapons?

The ultimate height in the art of fighting; the meaning of the words is clear.

In the end, the only purpose of conflict is victory.

Achieving victory, one after the other The destiny of certain victory could be said as the ultimate goal of any art of fighting.

[Youare unenlightened. Victory is just one of the effects of the art.]

He is really stuck up. I dont think we can communicate.

Victory is everything.

Developing ones fightingability is just a methodtowardsvictory.

Do you not understand why the name of the G.o.d that the monks, the ones who wishes tocomplete their art of fightingworship,is called the G.o.d of Duel?

[ How unpleasant. I wont listen to your ridiculous words no more. Wield the weapon that you think is so great. I shall start the test.]

Why dont you justtell me the content of the test?

I put the lantern back inside the inventory as I spoke.

[You just need to either defeat or kill me and go to the next room.]

Thats simple.

I had a knife on my waist. I threw the knife toward the monks face.

Iquicklythrew it. Because the knife was thrown so suddenly, the monk was not able to respond properly.

He managed to quickly swing his arm and sweep away the knife. However, the timing was too late.

The center of his weight was moving toward his back.

His back was further behind his knees. His shoulder waseven further back.

As soon as I threw the knife, I charged forward and brought out the spear from the inventory.

Because of the spears length, the monk quickly came within the striking distance.

As soon as the monk came inside the striking distance, Isuccinctly stabbed him with the spear.

The spear tip precisely pierced the monks heart.

That was the end.

The monkbledfrom thehole in hischest andperished.

Monk, it looks like you wont be able to obtain things like the ultimate height in art of fighting.

I know this is the first room, but I am a little disappointed.

Hoping the second room would be able to satisfy me better, I opened the door and left the room number 1.

At the next room, and at the one after that, I was able to defeat monks with ease.

They were not able to catch up to my speed, so the results were obvious outcomes.

Finally, when I arrived at the fifth room, I was able to meet a monk that could somewhat catch up to my speed.

However, it was notenough to endanger my life.

Suuuguk

Bleeding ferociously from his neck, the monk quickly fell back.

Was the cut a little shallow?

No, it wasnt.

I thrusted my spearafter considering the monks movement.

Hm If I didnt make a mistake, then

Lets just go and check.

I approached the monk again and stabbed him.

This time, the tip of the spear definitely pierced the monks neck.

I tried pressing hard on the monks body that collapsed on the floor.

As I thought, the skin is tough.

Actually, I dont think calling it tough describes it well enough.

The skin is solid.

Theyrelike iron plates.

Not just the skin, but the muscles underneath the skin and the bones were not like organic bodies. They felt like sheets of iron.

It was not like his body was reallymade of metallic parts, rather his body was simply as hard as metals.

Even his intestines had a surprising st.u.r.diness.

It didnt seem like his body was made this way through training.

He was probably born with such a body.

This is intriguing.

I had been killing each of them with a single blow wrapped in mana by striking them at the critical points. Because of this, I had not noticed until now.

It is a great advantage to be born with such a st.u.r.dy body.

It can be overcome with skills, abilities and magic.

However, thats only when I am at agreater levelthan the opponent.

Against an opponent with similarlevelsin combat abilities, the one with superior basic stats will always win.

If two boxers of same skill levels fought, but one was a heavy weight and the other was a panther weight, it was obvious who would be the victor.

These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are born with such ridiculous bodies, yetthey are ignoring the effectiveness of weapons as they are talking about completing their art?

It was completely illogical.

[G.o.d of Duel is doing a fake cough.]

It looks like that G.o.d is agreeing to some extent.

I sat there and observed the monks corpse.

I dont know what the name of their kind is, but I should learn about their special characteristics.

As I pa.s.s each room,the monks skill level increase noticeably.

The minimum clear condition is achieving victory from 15 rooms.

Around 15throom, a monk who ismy equal incombat prowess might appear.

These are opponents I should be cautious against. I should collect moreinformationto ensure my victory.

I performedanautopsy in detail and observed to determine if they had critical points on locations different from humans body or it they had different joint structures.

[G.o.d of Duelfinds thisunpleasant.]

[G.o.d of Slowness issending wrathto someone.]

Even without the message telling me who it is, I think I know who the G.o.d of Slowness is angryat.

I dont care if you find it unpleasant or not. Just dont get in the way of someones work.

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30thFloor: Are you busy?]

[Lee Ho-jae, 13thFloor: I was until a moment ago.]

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30thFloor: When did you get to the 13thFloor? Do you have a moment to talk?]

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30thFloor: Yes. Whats up?]

Lately, Kim Min-hyukreally had no time, not eventocatch a breath. So, he didnt have the time to have a proper conversation.

The last time we had a long conversation was when we met during the day of the great harmony.

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30thFloor: I found out some rough details about the mystery event.]

Oh Already?

[Lee Ho-jae, 13thFloor: I also found out a little about the event.]

I was talking about the information I got from KiriKiri.

I gave him the clues, the foreigner and second.

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30thFloor: Why are the clues so short?You You got all other information first and usedyourleftover allowances to get them, didnt you?]

Tsk. This is why I hateb.a.s.t.a.r.ds who are quick to notice things.

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30thFloor: Still, they are new clues. Ill keep finding more about the event. Ah, I posted what I found about the event on the community, so check there.]

You already released it?

I think it might have been better if you released it after gathering more information.

I brought out a towel from the inventory and haphazardly wiped off the blood from my hands and arms. I left thefifth room.

I sat the corridor between the room number 5 and 6 and read the communityforum while quenching my hunger.

First, I brought out a wide heat stone and a mug.

I poured milk into the mug and spread chocolate powder inside.

When Iwas in elementary school, they gave us milk in whichIwouldput chocolate powder in it and drank it. I am not sure if it would taste similar.

I placed the mug on the heat stone and warmed up the milk.

Finally, I brought out a pack of dry bread cookies.

Until recently, I was fine with eating just meat jerkies. However, perhaps because of the memories from the 12thFloor, I want to eat something tasty.

Of course, it was not like I could recreate the delicious meals thatIdymade.

To make something like that, Ill need skills related to cookingin addition tothe ingredients.

Still, I dont want to keep on eating tastelessnutrientseither.

In the end, this was what I came up with.

I decided to cook as much as I can within the bounds of being able to cook successfully.

I am not sure if I could call what I am doing right now as cooking, but

I can at least pour the chocolate powder into milk and heat it on the heat stone.

Next time, when I summonIdy, I should really learn how to cook from her.

I sipped on the milk as I thought that.

It is not as sweet as I wanted it to be, but it is all right.

I tore opened thebag ofdried bread cookies and opened thecommunity.

[Notification.This is the information regarding the new comprehensive event, the compet.i.tion.]

It seemed the name of the event was compet.i.tion.

The notificationcontained all theinformation obtained by the Order,neatly organized.

It will be held before the Round Five ends.

All challengers can enter the compet.i.tion.

It is possible to not enter the event.

It is possible to forfeit during the event.

There is a prize for the winner of the compet.i.tion.

The reward is estimated to be some kind of a skill.

We have not yet obtained any information about the compet.i.tions rules.

The information were the ones that were obtained by the members of the Order by asking the Managers.

Because of the problem with the allowances in information, the information had constraints orweresummarized.

Still, they collected almost all of the information they needed.

They just need to find the rules about the compet.i.tion.

It should be possible to obtain information about the rules before this round ends.

There are quite a few members left who should be able to clear their stages before the round ends, so

The community was busy with people talking about the compet.i.tion.

Many were worried. However, because it was possible to not attend or forfeit, and because they believed the Order of Vigilance will handle things no matter what happens, there were quite anumberof positive responses.

The mood was similar to the responses before the very first day of the great harmony.

Everyone wasexcited like children on the eve of apicnic.

It was at that momentthat anewpiece ofinformation came up at the community.

It was not from a member of the Order. It was from some other challenger.

[Lee Chun-hye: Regarding the compet.i.tions rule, Ive heard that it will be in the format of individual or team battles. I just heard it from a Manager.]

The community lit up in flames again.

No, it was already up in flames, but now it was burning with even greater intensity.

Soon, peoples interest turned to the prize of the compet.i.tion beforethe topic shifted to peoples prediction on who would be the winner.

Of course, the name thatattracted the most attention from otherswas mine.

Other rankers of the Hard Difficulty were mentioned often as well.

Even though I was at the h.e.l.l Difficulty, since I was only at the 12thFloor, there were quite a lot of people who theorized that I would be weaker than the players at higherfloors of the Hard Difficulty.

There were people fighting over who was right. Watching them made my head complicated.

Seriously, why are they fighting like that? Some werepraising me, and some wereeven severely dissing me in the process.

In the end, these people have nothing to do with me, yet they are going at it.

Ugh.

Of course I will win the compet.i.tion.