The Return Of The Genius Ranker Of All Times [EN]: Chapter 103

Part 437

Part 103.

[You have exited the hidden dwelling, ‘Black Shrine of the Forest.’]

[You have acquired a clue to the Great Sage Rasha.]

-Oi oi, Master! I knew you could do it!

-Liza liza! Liza!

As soon as the messages confirmed his return to the 14th floor, Jihad and Eliza began to celebrate.

It wasn’t just Jihad and Eliza.

-Hmm! This humble sword believed that its lord would succeed.

-What’s with the black lightning? If you had something like that, you should have used it sooner! My heart was pounding just watching.

-Liza liza!

-Inducing the opponent’s carelessness to land a critical blow… It’s a basic strategy used when facing a disadvantageous enemy, but it’s very difficult to succeed. It must have all been due to the lord’s advanced psychological warfare.

Starting with Charlie joining in and clapping, even Ast joined in.

“Well, I knew that guy would do it.”

-Huh? No? I kept hearing you muttering next to Ahjussi, ‘That guy always makes a mess and ends up dying like this. Oh, that idiot……’

“……Don’t you often get told you lack tact?”

-Hmm, that friend has that side to him. Please understand, Master’s companion.

-No, Charlie, you shouldn’t be like that. You’re always doing that to me…….

-Hmm? I don’t know what you’re talking about.

-Wow, wow…… I can’t live with this injustice.

Watching Jihad, who was about to die from injustice, and the group bursting into laughter, Do-hyun smirked.

They never got tired of it, always putting on little skits whenever they had the chance.

“Sigh, but it’s a shame. I almost had him, but it ended at the last moment.”

-Liza liza.

Do-hyun nodded at Ast’s sudden words.

It was something he was inwardly regretting.

‘To think the time would run out there.’

How could he not be disappointed when he missed something he had almost caught?

He had already considered the time it would take to cast the 2nd Form, Break (破) [a powerful skill or technique]…….

Even though he had activated it in advance, thinking about that, it felt even more regrettable because it was late by a hair’s breadth.

But this also meant that the enemy was that strong.

His basic stats were inferior, his compatibility was poor, and especially the presence or absence of a signature trait was more significant than he thought.

If Raon hadn’t been careless, or if he had been just a little more skilled, it would have been difficult to have an equal fight.

Fighting him made it even clearer.

‘The existing top-tier users must have become unbelievably strong.’

Thinking that, he suddenly wondered about Ahjussi’s current position.

Ahjussi was undeniably a strongman who maintained his 5th place ranking in Demonic Era until the end.

In God of Creation, there were those like Raihas and Raon, who didn’t exist in Demonic Era, but how would Ahjussi compare to them?

‘I haven’t seen him fight properly since we reunited.’

When climbing the tower, he only supported to help him.

During Demise, due to Ahjussi’s lack of control, he dropped out before he could properly use his strength.

Even when he clashed with Raon, he couldn’t participate, so there was no chance to confirm.

Would Ahjussi be inferior to them, or superior?

‘Well, now that we’re doing the main quest together, there will be a chance to see.’

Right now, those things weren’t important.

[‘A torn piece of the Great Sage Rasha’s clothing’ guides you to the path left by the Great Sage.]

The clue to the Great Sage Rasha that he had finally snatched from him.

The faint light emanating from it stretched out like a thread, heading towards one place.

That place was none other than the stairs leading to the 15th floor.

‘As expected of the last floor, they’re all gathered in one place.’

Now, just one more step.

He could get everything he was looking for by going up just one more floor. Perhaps it was because he was staring so intently at the stairs.

“Judging by your reaction, the Great Sage is on the 15th floor.”

“That’s right.”

-Are we going up right away?

-Liza liza!

-I’m always ready, Master.

-Me too, me too. I’ll use some of my strength this time.

In response to the guardians’ confident attitude and burning fighting spirit, Ast, who had been listening quietly, threw cold water on them.

“I don’t think there’s any need for that.”

-Liza?

-Huh? Why?

“There won’t be any fighting on the 15th floor.”

-?

-……Liza?

“Huh?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?”

At the completely unexpected bombshell, not only the guardians but even Do-hyun was stunned.

Ast tilted his head and added.

“The 15th floor doesn’t have a separate mission. It’s just a floor to prove the player’s qualifications. It applies individually to each player, so there’s no competition.”

“……Qualifications? So, do we take some kind of test?”

“People with ambiguous scores are given additional opportunities to prove their qualifications, but you don’t need to do that. You cleared everything with overwhelming scores.”

“Ah…….”

Was it just his imagination that he felt drained?

As he clicked his tongue, Ast grinned and continued.

“Well, there will be something fun.”

“Of course, it will be fun. There are more than a few things to gain there.”

“Not that, you idiot. You still have the brush, right?”

“Brush?”

Do-hyun tilted his head for a moment, then exclaimed and nodded.

The brush he had found with the Eye of Truth before entering Raon’s dwelling came to mind.

Do-hyun immediately approached the corner of the wall and picked up the brush.

[Player ‘Kaiser’ has acquired the Tower’s hidden item, ‘Spirit Ink.’]

[You have met the conditions.]

[Something special may happen when you reach the final floor.]

“Oh?”

As he let out a small exclamation at the message that looked unusual at first glance, Ast grinned and added.

“Keep it safe. It will be a very meaningful experience.”

“What is it?”

“It’s no fun if I tell you. Experience it yourself.”

“……Here we go again.”

Whether Do-hyun frowned or not, Ast pretended to zip his lips and kept his mouth shut.

Do-hyun sighed softly at that.

Seeing that playful smile and expectant eyes, he was sure he wouldn’t tell him no matter what.

‘His bad taste is still the same.’

What’s the harm in telling him in advance since he’ll find out anyway?

Do-hyun clicked his tongue and took a step.

“Okay, let’s see. How much fun can it be?”

It was to experience it himself, as Ahjussi had said.

As Do-hyun began to step onto the stairs, the group, including Ahjussi, followed, and after about 30 steps.

[You have reached the final door of the 15th floor.]

[Would you like to enter the final floor of the Tower of Disaster?]

A message popped up with a cheerful notification, and

“Yes.”

-Of course.

-Liza!

With a willing answer without hesitation, the view in front of him flashed and flickered.

He had finally entered the long-awaited 15th floor.

* * *

[You have entered the 15th floor.]

[There are two players confirmed to have entered the final floor.]

[The concept of the final floor is ‘Qualification.’]

[Verify your qualifications.]

“……What.”

Do-hyun muttered without realizing it.

That’s because it was a very ordinary floor with nothing at all.

It was a view of the inside of the tower without any special features, similar to the scenery when 10,000 users gathered before the concept started on the 1st floor.

At that time, there was a feeling of being overwhelmed by the huge size, as if three stadiums were combined.

This wasn’t even a tenth of that.

The only difference from that place was…….

“That’s…… a monument?”

That a monument was placed exactly in the center of this stage.

The monument was quite large.

……No, scratch that it was quite large.

-Wow, it’s big.

-Hmm…… Twice my height…… No, it looks a little bigger than that.

-If it’s my height, it’s four times as big?

-Liza liza! Liza!

-Huh? Eliza, how many times is it? Uh…… Is there any point in counting? It looks like it’s over a hundred times at least.

-Liza!?

When he got closer, it was huge.

But what stood out more than the size was the design of the monument.

The exterior looked like ancient fantasy language was written on it, and the small traces of a long time felt unusual.

Ast smiled with satisfaction at the surprised reactions of Do-hyun and the guardians.

“Isn’t it amazing?”

“……It is, but what does this have to do with the meaningful experience Ahjussi was talking about? It’s amazing right now, but it doesn’t seem particularly meaningful.”

“Why isn’t it meaningful? Look closely at what’s written on the monument.”

“? What’s written?”

Even though he was puzzled, Do-hyun’s eyes widened at some point as he carefully checked the inscriptions on the monument.

What was written on the monument wasn’t like an ancient language.

It was just Korean written in a unique font that felt like an ancient language.

-Annihilation

-Slayer

-Arthur

-Black Nightmare

…….

-Owner of the Armory

There, the names of the players, or epithets [descriptive titles] symbolizing the players, were written.

And there were many welcome names among them.

From Ahjussi and Sword Saint, Empress and colleagues to the top 10 guild masters and users who were quite well-known.

But what caught Do-hyun’s attention the most was the name written at the very end.

-Kaiser

His nickname was written at the very bottom of the monument.

“It’s engraved with the names of users who reached the final floor with only one challenge. It’s a memorial for all users to see.”

“It’s like when you clear the last stage in an arcade and the credits come up.”

“Well, it’s kind of like that. The only difference is that it only writes down one coin [attempt].”

“I think there are a lot of people who cleared it with one coin.”

Even if he estimated, the unit seemed to exceed ten thousand…….

‘……Isn’t it?’

Considering the number of users, there must have been a lot of challengers, but if it was ten thousand out of them, it seemed small.

But as he listened to the explanation quietly, the message window that he had seen on the 10th floor that he was engraved on the tower suddenly came to mind.

Wondering if that was it, Ast shook his head.

“I was going to talk about that anyway, so it’s good you asked. That’s literally engraved on the tower itself. The tower remembered your name and mine.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Of course, there’s a difference. There were names that stood out when you looked at the names on the monument, right?”

“Come to think of it…….”

It was too accurate to dismiss as a coincidence, he had seen the names of his colleagues and the top 10 guild masters.

Wondering what the difference was, Do-hyun looked at the monument again and exclaimed.

Among the many names, some names were emitting a faint light.

A light so faint that it was hard to see if you didn’t look closely.

But in more than 10,000 similar phrases, that small difference alone was captivating.

The number was about 40…… no, maybe 50.

“It’s increased a bit in the meantime. When I first came, there were only about 30 people.”

“Isn’t the information a little spread out?”

“Well, that could be the case, but with this rate of increase, it should be seen as other people telling their acquaintances, just like I told you.”

He understood the difference, but he was still wondering.

What does it matter if it’s more noticeable?

“That’s right. To be honest, everyone had a lot of complaints at first. What’s the point of being more noticeable? It’s just a way to show off that I’m this class. Well, in the case of guild masters, it wasn’t bad because they proved their position.”

“……Then Ahjussi wasn’t engraved? Ahjussi was also engraved with me this time.”

“I engraved it a long time ago, you idiot. Maybe it popped up like that because you’re in a party with me…… I was expecting it, so I looked, but it doesn’t seem to have changed much. Anyway, the important thing is.”

Ahjussi shrugged and continued.

“The fact that this engraving wasn’t just for showing off.”

“Then?”

“Do you remember the condition to get the signature trait I told you about?”

“Of course, it’s about getting overwhelming scores and getting hidden pieces…… um?”

At this point, Do-hyun could also notice.

The hidden piece would be this Spirit Ink brush, so of course, it would be related to overwhelming scores.

“The higher the quality of the signature trait you get with overwhelming scores, the more suitable abilities are given to the user. And…….”

“…….”

“Being engraved on the tower is the end of overwhelming scores.”

Ast smiled and pointed to the many names written on the monument one by one.

“Haven’t you ever thought about it? Empress, Sword Saint, Slayer, Black Nightmare…… Why are there guys who are engraved with epithets instead of nicknames like Annihilation or you? Why are most of the names of the top-ranked players written in the graduation quest ranking epithets?”

“…….”

There’s no way he wouldn’t have.

Because those were the parts he had always been curious about.

Even when his name was engraved on the tower, Do-hyun was engraved as ‘Kaiser,’ while Ahjussi was engraved as ‘Owner of the Armory.’

“A player’s epithet is not just a simple epithet. NPCs judge based on the epithet of the apostle, so it’s a core title that penetrates the user.”

The stage where you can get such an epithet first is right after leaving Elanis.

The moment you enter the next new continent, it is determined through the system.

“Of course, that’s in the case of a certain method, and there are cases where you get an epithet faster through certain events or quests. The Tower of Disaster is one of them. In some ways, it’s the fastest way to get an epithet.”

Ast said, pointing to the Spirit Ink that Do-hyun was holding.

“That brush will determine your epithet.”

“Hoo?”

And the moment Ast’s next words continued.

Do-hyun could understand why Ahjussi said it would be a special experience just before climbing the 15th floor.

The epithet obtained from the Tower of Disaster is more special than anything else.

Is it because it’s the first epithet you can get?

It wasn’t because of such a monumental reason. The reason was none other than…….

“Signature traits are given as abilities related to the epithet determined through the brush.”

Ast looked at Do-hyun, who was silently looking at the Spirit Ink, with expectant eyes.

“Of course, even if you’re engraved on the tower, it’s ultimately determined by the most suitable epithet and trait for that user. In my case, Smash must have been the perfect fit.”

“…….”

“So, I’m curious. What will your epithet be determined as?”