Chapter 32

032. Occupation (1)

"You have entered the waiting room on the 6th floor."

"All status abnormalities and injuries are perfectly restored."

"The recovery effect is constantly applied in the waiting room."

"Han Sungyun's information is recorded on the settlement board."

Immediately after the settlement of all rewards was completed, a portal appeared, and as I stepped into it, the waiting room on the 6th floor appeared.

It was as bleak as before, but it felt comfortable because I had gotten used to it.

"Hmm, what should I do first..."

Sitting on the floor of the stone room, I pondered what to prioritize.

I could check the rewards, but I decided to put out the urgent fire first.

"This is the right thing to do for now."

It was time to repair the 'Secret Hunter's Shield' that was destroyed by the Black Knight in the 5th floor trial.

"Well, it's a bit of a waste since there's a limit on the number of uses, but I bought it for this."

Judging that it was better not to be frugal, I quickly placed the remains of the shield in a box.

Since it was a small shield that could be attached to the wrist, it fit perfectly in the box.

There was no need to think further, so I immediately infused the box with mana to activate its special effect.

"Using the restoration box of the Croken Tower."

"Remaining usable times – 1/1."

At the same time, the ashen star engraved on the box glowed faintly.

It seemed to be telling me to open the box now that the repair was complete.

"It doesn't look like anything has changed on the outside."

Half-doubting, I opened the restoration box of the Croken Tower.

Inside, I could see the 'Secret Hunter's Shield' perfectly restored.

I was amazed at how clean and flawless it was, without even a small scratch.

"Wow..."

Indeed, it was quite useful.

The money I spent on this item didn't feel wasted at all.

If I could restore the 'Secret Hunter's Shield,' the high price was worth it.

Besides, the restoration box of the Croken Tower was a better item than the 'Secret Hunter's Shield.'

"If I sell it on Earth, I could probably get two more restoration boxes."

I gained a lot more than I spent.

So there was no reason to feel regretful, and I didn't want to feel regretful.

If I could restore and sell items like this and bring back even better items...

"That wouldn't be bad."

Next, I infused the Stone of Cleanliness with mana to clean myself up.

Whoosh...

The refreshing wind wrapped around my body, and the bloodstains and foul smell from the Crazy Wolf's blood disappeared.

I had been a bit hesitant about buying it for convenience...

But after using it, I didn't feel the money was wasted at all.

"After all, I need to have at least the minimum convenience."

If I spent money on convenience only when it was necessary, it wouldn't be a problem.

Now, I needed to check the rewards from the 5th floor trial...

"The only thing I received as a reward is this."

"Skill – Three Strikes (A-)"

"Proficiency – 0%"

"Basic Effect – Enhances three attacks made with bladed weapons using mana."

"Detailed Effect – When the skill is used, the cutting power of bladed weapons increases by 1.5/2.0/2.5 times with each attack."

"A skill related to cutting power..."

It was a skill that enhanced bladed weapons, similar to the Aura skill used by the Black Knight.

"Maybe it's better because it's A- grade."

The interface was better than that of a regular skill, explaining the detailed effects.

This skill was good, but the more important thing was the 'Proficiency 0%'.

Unlike skills like the Eye of Truth, which had stopped growing, this one could still grow.

"I was worried that my dagger skill would stagnate..."

Perhaps the Three Strikes skill could make up for that deficiency.

Of course, it would only be a temporary solution.

"Once I reach the 8th floor, I can buy skills from the shop, so there should be a way to get them."

Well, there was no need to worry too much about it.

Having reached this conclusion, I checked my status window.

"Han Sungyun"

"Strength – 54" "Stamina – 51"

"Agility – 54" "Mana – 43"

"Endurance – 43"

"Unique Trait – Necromancy (E)"

"Skill – View Details"

"Hmm, there's no significant change here."

The numbers had changed a bit, but not by a large margin.

Of course, it wasn't meaningless, but there was nothing immediately noticeable, so I opened the settlement board next.

"5th Floor Trial Settlement Board"

-1st, Kim Seunghoon (SS-)

-2nd, Sword Mastery Max (S+)

-3rd, Hunter (S)

-4th, Hyesun (S-)

-5th, Oh Chunseok (A+)

-6th, HyeDyGongDyu (B)

...

...

As I scrolled through the endless rankings, I suddenly paused.

"..."

-3rd, Hunter (S)

I saw my nickname clearly engraved in the top tier, where I had never been before.

"..."

My eyes widened as the trial settlement information appeared.

-3rd, Hunter (S)

-5th Floor Trial Breakthrough Time (2:21:31)

-5th Floor Trial Breakthrough Process (SS)

-5th Floor Trial Breakthrough Result (S-)

-5th Floor Trial Overall Settlement (S)

I wondered if I had seen it correctly, but it was the same.

Even if I blinked, the trial settlement information remained the same.

"S grade..."

Should I be moved, or was it unexpected?

"I couldn't even get an S grade in the overall settlement of the 4th floor trial, no matter what I did."

Whatever criteria the trial tower used to evaluate the results, it had determined that my result in this trial was S- grade.

This meant I had performed well in the trial, but what was even more surprising was the settlement ranking.

"3rd place, that's a bit strange."

In the 4th floor trial settlement, higher grades were assigned to lower ranks.

This meant that the 5th floor trial had evaluated the challengers more strictly.

Indeed, the challenger with the nickname HyeDyGongDyu, who was ranked 6th, had an S grade but was placed in the top tier.

"Below that, there are quite a few minor grades listed."

B-, C+, C, C-...

The grades were generally low, and similar grades were clustered together as you went down the list.

So, it seemed that quite a few people who were newly designated as 'Pioneers' were in the top 50...

"But among those originally designated as Pioneers, there must be some who have fallen behind."

For some reason, all the challengers in the 5th floor trial were evaluated lower than before.

So, for those who were lingering at the 50th place, this must have been a double misfortune.

Of course,

"3rd place, it doesn't really matter to me."

Still, it was quite an unusual method.

To suddenly raise the evaluation criteria in the 5th floor trial and adjust the balance...

"Maybe it means the benefits of being a Pioneer are significant."

I didn't know why they were making it easier for Pioneers to be caught up.

I didn't know what benefits were given, whether they were skills or items.

However,

"Since it's a benefit given by the trial tower, it can't be taken lightly."

That much was clear enough for me to assert.

So, there was no need to worry, and it was time to think about other things.

"The Black Knight, he definitely said he came from another dimension."

I had put it aside temporarily due to urgent issues, but this was also a significant matter.

The knight from another world and his hostile actions were clear.

"If this happens again, I can't guarantee what will happen."

This time, I didn't die because I didn't meet the failure conditions of the trial.

But what if it happened again?

If the trial's goal was taken away and the failure conditions were forcibly met...

"I'll definitely die."

There couldn't be a worse outcome.

"I was planning to save my question points as much as possible until the 8th floor."

I couldn't compromise on this issue.

"If it's a matter of life and death, delaying it would only make it worse."

"Please write your question."

"The written question will be sent to the administrator for a response."

"Current question points – 5."

With a firm resolve, my thoughts quickly turned into action.

I executed the command for the question points and typed on the holographic keyboard.

"During the 5th floor trial, I encountered a challenger who claimed to come from another dimension."

"The challenger from another world took the trial's goal and tried to kill me."

"What is a layer intrusion, and what kind of being is a challenger from another dimension?"

"Also, if this happens again, under what conditions will it occur, and how can I detect the signs?"

The administrators had said they didn't provide a lot of information in one question.

Considering this, I wrote as detailed a question as possible.

"This should be enough."

I carefully read the question and then clicked the "Send" button at the bottom.

"The question has been sent."

And at that moment, another message appeared.

"The response has arrived."

"Already?"

I was a bit surprised, but I couldn't just stand there.

After all, these were beings outside of common sense who were responding to my questions.

I clicked the envelope icon next to the message indicating that the response had arrived.

But something was off.

"Currently, the upper concept cannot be understood in this layer."

"Only part of the response can be viewed."

"Question points are not consumed."

'Upper concept.'

Was it because of the layer intrusion or because I asked about another dimension?

The trial tower had stated in advance that it would only answer part of the question.

Honestly, I thought they would answer anything, but it seemed there was a layer restriction.

'At least the good thing is that the question points were not consumed.'

If the question points had been consumed, I would have been furious...

But the system said it would provide some information even though the question points were not consumed.

So, instead of getting frustrated that I didn't get a proper answer, I focused on the message that appeared.

"Layer intrusion is a system that allows a challenger to intrude on the trial of another challenger who is within about 10 layers of the current layer."

"However, it cannot interfere with individual trials such as special trials or integrated trials."

"This system expands from the 8th layer and is currently not available."

It was a more detailed explanation than what I had heard from the Black Knight.

"..."

Thanks to this, I could immediately understand what 'layer intrusion' was.

It's a ladder-kicking system.

"Probably to exclude challengers who haven't reached the 8th layer."

They don't know much about layer intrusion and can't use the expanded system.

If they can intrude on the trials of such people...

They can kick the ladder out from under them.

Even the fact that they can attack people on lower layers is threatening.

I don't know what benefits they can gain, but layer intrusion can be used that way.

It can be even more extreme depending on how it's used.

"Of course, I don't know the details of the benefits of layer intrusion, so I can't speculate further."

As I thought this and scrolled down, an alarm sounded.

Beep!

"Currently, this information is not accessible in this layer."

The message appeared, and the text of the message that had been displayed disappeared.

"Of course, they won't give more information."

Not consuming question points means they're giving less information.

"Challengers from other dimensions mostly antagonize challengers from their own dimension."

Of course, some information appeared after that, but it wasn't very helpful.

"Question points are not omnipotent."

In reality, I only learned a little about layer intrusion.

I couldn't understand the rest of the concepts.

It seemed to be saying that if I wanted to know something, I needed to have the qualifications to know it.

"If I want to know something, I have to go higher..."

Ultimately, I couldn't know anything right away.

I had no choice but to stop the information command and execute the community command.

"You have entered the community."

I thought there might be someone who had experienced a similar situation in here.

But as soon as I saw the community, that thought disappeared.

-HuntingAddict: Selling a mental resistance skill. It's very helpful for those who are not familiar with killing or looting.

-OrangeMushroom: Informing 5th floor newcomers about the 6th floor trial. If you give me 1,000 points, I'll tell you the details of the trial.

-IiIiIIiIiI: Selling various achievement methods. They are related to 'killing,' 'looting,' and 'betrayal,' which can be done with a mental resistance skill, and the rewards are quite substantial.

The community, which I hadn't opened in a long time, had become a chaotic place.