Ascension Through Skills

Chapter 5

TL: handCream

PR: Kasaix

Tae-san dodged.

‘I think I’ll be able to do it if I intentionally avoid it.’ 

But it was a difficult method. What if he tried it with minimal damage? But the answer was glaring at him. 

‘I can’t afford any more damage.’

The probability of him getting hit by the tentacles was high. If he got any closer, there was a chance of getting hit at least once.

There were several solutions. 

The first one was to retreat and then attack. If he used a few skills, he would be able to avoid them all. Later silently and slowly approaching the monster. He was guaranteed to reach them someday.

It was a standard method but at the same time, it was impossible for Tae-san.

Using skills was exhausting. His mana would be slowly consumed. He had to sort this out as quickly as possible.． 

“Activate”

In the end, he would have to gamble as always. Tae-san shrugged and released the energy he had gathered.

[Skill: Super Acceleration] 

Air blasted, Tae-san was running at full speed. 

Super-Acceleration, a running skill that easily surpasses the speed of sound. He reached the monster immediately.

However, there was a glaring drawback. While sprinting he wouldn’t be able to avoid any incoming attack. Monster 5’s tentacles headed towards him.

 Khinkkkkgg! 

The green beam blinded Tae-san’s view. Tae-san kicked his feet and accelerated even further. 

[Second attack has been nullified.]

[0 damage done]

[Dropping]

Monster 5 was bewildered. It had no face, but Tae-san could tell.

‘The nullification of the attack is over.’

Unfortunately, he couldn’t use any more neutralization skills, but thanks to that, he was closer. Tae-san grabbed his sword. 

The moment he tried to attack Monster 5, Monster 7 appeared with a solid body. 

Whoo~ 

Monster 7 took its position surrounding Tae-san. If the long-range attacks didn’t work, the defensive type would come in to play. That was the combination. 

However, Tae-san laughed. 

“I got this.” 

[You have activated a forced duel. Except for Monster 7 no other party can attack you for 1 minute.] 

A golden barrier surrounded Monster 7 and Tae-san. Monster 5 attacked with a beam but the barrier didn’t budge.

 For Tae-san it didn’t matter if the attack was offensive or defensive. But the story was different with the Hard or Solo player setting. But right now with his poor stats and equipment, he had only one shot and it didn’t matter if the attack was a defensive type.

Tae-san grabbed his sword. 

[You’ve activated Addition. Current attacking power is increased twofold.] 

[You’ve activated Amplification. Current attack power amplified by 2 times.] 

[You’ve activated Absolute Judgment. Ignoring the opponent’s defence.]

Doubling and then quadrupling the attacking power.

It was truly an overwhelming skill. 

Still it wasn’t enough. 

His low basic stats were multiplied to 9,604. This could not penetrate billions of monsters. 

So, he had to activate it again. 

[You activated Skill Reset. This skill can’t be activated again for a month.]

[You’ve initialized Amplification] 

[Activating Amplification. Your current attack power has been amplified by 2 times.] 

The square of 9,604. It wasn’t enough, there was still a shortage.

His stats didn’t even reach a million. So, this must be his limit.

 Tae-san clenched his teeth. Mana flowing out of his body.

[Activating Duplicate. The following attack is applied twice] 

[Attack] 

[92,236,816 damage was dealt to Monster 7] 

[92,236,816 damage was dealt to Monster 7] 

[Monster 7 has fallen]

The monster disappeared without a trace. Tae-san barely managed to get a hold of his trembling body. Monster 5 pointed its tentacles at him. 

Khinngg!

A beam swallowed Tae-san. 

[22,543 damage was dealt to you] 

[Endurance activated. The attack leading to death has been nullified. All damage recieved will be 0 for 5 seconds] 

Unlike attack nullification, he had to withstand this attack. Tae-san rushed forward to Monster 5. Its tentacles moved, but they were rather easy to avoid at such a close distance.

Right now, it wasn’t difficult. It was just a simple repetition of dodging and attacking. 

However, Tae-san’s expression was not good. 

[Mana 21/82] 

If he ran out of mana. He wouldn’t be able to activate amplification. 

He had to cut through 1.25 million health with basic attacks. Tae-san swung his sword.

[48 damage was dealt to Monster 5]

To simply put, he would have to hit it 25,000 times. 

“I think soon I’ll go crazy.”

A long battle began, using only the minimal defense penetration skills.

* * * 

[54 damage was dealt to Monster 5] 

The sun and moon appeared and disappeared repeatedly. Tae-san lost his concept of time at some point.

 “Fuck”

Suddenly, Tae-san came back to his senses and looked at his opponent’s health.

[Health: 655,212/ 1,255,212] 

“Half.” 

Some might say only half was left, but from Tae-san’s point of view, it was a mess. He had already suffered enough. The fact that he still had to do this over and over again made him sick.

“Sigh.”

However, he just sighed and kept moving. He swung his sword avoiding the beam. 

[50 damage was dealt to Monster 5] 

Time passed by. 

The sun and moon appeared and disappeared repeatedly. Players tended to get stronger with desire but they would also slowly get hungry. And Tae-san’s tip of the sword shaked due to his lack of sleep.

 But his spirit remained the same.

Time passed by. 

And at some point, his mind didn’t move his body, but his body reached the stage where it moved his mind.

And then it ended. 

[You are in a state of concentration. Your body and mind are harmonizing.] 

[Miracle-like power is imprinted on the soul. You’ve acquired the skill, ‘Soul Raiser’.]

[You cannot acquire the skill because you are out of the labyrinth. [Soul Raiser] has been sealed.] 

“Noisy.”

Turning off the unknown system window. 

Tae-san barely caught hold of his trembling legs. And when he looked around, it was quite a spectacle. Everything was dug up and collapsed and while the city had already disappeared from his view, a valley came into his sight.

 Tae-san spat.

 “I’m gonna die.” 

[48 damage was dealt to Monster 5] 

[Monster 5 has fallen] 

[Gods of all dimensions are amazed by your feat] 

The price of slashing 1.25 million health slowly but steadily was commendable. It was hard to even stand up. Tae-san barely managed to mumble out the words through his wheezing mouth.

“…Status window.” 

[Kang Tae-san] 

[Level: 57]

[Health: 1/1021] 

[Mana: 2/820]

[Strenth: 105] 

[Intelligence: 100]

[Agility: 98]

[Attacl + 49] 

[Defense + 581]

[The target is dying] 

It was a miserable status window. 

It felt like he’d had been fighting for over a month.

“Lack of fucking stats.” 

At least being a normal player would have been more comfortable.

 But still, he had won.

 Lee Tae Yeon-jo defeated the two S-class monsters, something he couldn’t ever imagine.

He moved with his wobbly legs. He didn’t have the mana to use for the skill Big Leap, so he had no choice but to walk back.

Fortunately, he recovered some of his mana and stamina while walking. By the time his mana was around 20, the city began to appear in his sight.

 He couldn’t see the monster.

However, Tae-san observed. 

[You’ve activated a complete scan] 

The information around him was shown in the form of a map. Blue dots were humans whereas Red dots were monsters.

He couldn’t see any blue dots. 

All he saw was a huge red dot inside the city.

“Shit.” 

Tae-san couldn’t help but swear while he headed towards the city. As he got closer, he saw bodies piled together.

 They were familiar faces. Not long ago, they were still talking with him.

Now, they were all dead.

“You’re the one who praised yourself for being the only Solo level player in the world, but why am I the only one left alive? Why am I the one alive after winning?” 

As he complained. He entered the city with an annoyed face. 

There were even more corpses in the city. Among them, there was also a mid-level player’s corpse. Tae-san remained calm. 

“Looks like you’ve gone too.”

It was Lee Chang-chun’s body.

Seeing that his expression wasn’t too dark, it seemed like he had accepted his end at the very end.

Tae-san passed through multiple corpses. And at the end of the path, there was a single body. 

“Lee Tae-yeon.”

The only person in the world that has cleared the Solo Level. The strongest human being in the world.

 She died horribly.

And in front of her body stood the monster that killed her.

Screech!

Something terrible was crawling in. An unknown monster was looking at Lee Tae-yeon’s body from the side.

Something beyond S-class. People named that monster the Apostle.

 [!#$!#’s absolute gaze] 

[You’ll die instantly] 

Absolute gaze. Instant death declared that even players that cleared hard difficulty could not resist. It was known that Lee Tae-yeon was the only one who has survived.

Tae-san carelessly waved his hands.

 “Get rid of it.”

[Resistance is successful] 

Kuruk! 

Tae-san picked up his sword and nervously hit the monster. 

The monster that even Lee Tae-yeon couldn’t defeat.

[You’ve activated Core Strike] 

[$##! damage …] 

Urgh! 

Tae-san trembled in pain and swung his hands. This monster was too wild for him to handle.

“Bring it on!”