My Way Skillbook – Episode 20
Episode 20
Using the newly created [Flame Resistance] skill, we broke through to the 20th floor in one go. For some reason, I felt Hyeri’s gaze fixed on the back of my head the entire time we fought, but since I was in a state of [Invisibility], it must have been my imagination.
"Alright, what kind of guys come out from the 21st floor?"
The man asked Hyeri.
"From the 21st to the 30th floor, monsters that use ice-attribute magic come out."
Hyeri said so while looking at me.
"Do you happen to have a skill that can block ice-attribute magic too?"
I hesitated to answer. Right now, I don’t have a skill to block ice magic. But if I had to guess, once I endure a monster’s magic once, I should be able to make that kind of skill too. After all, I had obtained both [Flame] and [Lightning] by getting hit by monster techniques.
‘But how do I explain this?’
Aside from Hyeongcheol, who had hidden Jinhee when fighting Jang Soyu’s gang, I hadn’t told anyone that I could create skills yet. It wasn’t that I was particularly hiding it. There just hadn’t been a reason to talk about it. But that wasn’t the case now. If I wanted to keep acting together with these people going forward, I needed to let them know about my skill.
"Um… there’s something I haven’t told you until now."
I began to tell them about my Unique Skill. The truth is, my Unique Skill is called [Edit]. That I can create skills using limited Words. And that all the skills I had shown until now were ones I had made myself. I wondered if they would believe this story, but surprisingly, the two accepted it easily.
"No wonder it felt oddly late when you pulled out the [Lightning Resistance] skill while fighting the Centaur. So you made it after getting hit once?"
I nodded. It was exactly as the man said.
"That’s amazing. To think you can create whatever skill you want."
"I wish I had that kind of power too……."
Hyeri and Seono spoke in turn. Especially since Seono, like me from the past, only possessed a single non-combat skill, I could fully understand his feelings.
"So, in order to block ice magic, I need to get hit by magic once on the 21st floor first."
We established a plan. The best course of action was to leave just one monster behind to obtain the Word and deal with the rest.
I asked Hyeri to cast a skill on me that would speed up my MP recovery. After Hyeri cast the skill on me and about ten minutes passed, my mana was completely full.
"I’ll call you when it’s finished, so come up then."
"Got it."
The man answered.
"Don’t overdo it. If it gets dangerous at all, call for us right away."
Hyeri had a worried expression. I replied that I understood and then used [Invisibility].
***
[A powerful chill stiffens your body!]
[You have acquired a new Word:
[You have acquired 30 EXP.]
‘Uwah, cold.’
I swung my arm, which was turning stiff as white frost formed on it, with all my might.
"Kyaack!"
The last remaining dwarf wearing a blue cape collapsed, spraying blood. Around the collapsed dwarf lay several other dwarves I had taken down while in a state of [Invisibility]. I had deliberately left just one alive in order to obtain the Word.
‘Should I call everyone up now?’
I headed toward the stairs.
"Are we even needed here?"
The man who had come upstairs looked at the monster corpses strewn across the floor and spoke in a joking manner.
"Please don’t say such awful things."
My MP had dropped to 2pt from the battle just now. Maybe if it were just one floor, but there was absolutely no way I could climb this tower alone. Hyeri cast a support skill on me once again that increased my MP recovery speed. While my mana was recovering, I created a new skill. The Words I used were the newly obtained
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Created Skill: [Ice Resistance] (Normal)
Tool Used: Bare Body
MP Cost: 7pt
Description: The target affected by this skill receives halved damage from ice-attribute attacks for 10 minutes. They also become immune to the ‘Status Ailment: Slow’ effect caused by ice.
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"Ooh, so this is how you make them."
I turned my head at the voice from behind me to find the man standing there.
"Mind if I take a look at that book?"
"Ah, other people can’t hold this book."
I placed the book against the man’s hand. The book passed right through his hand as if it were a ghost.
"Feels like it’s completely for your exclusive use."
"I suppose that’s nice because you don’t have to worry about anyone stealing it."
Hyeri said with a smile. With a way to counter ice magic now available, we climbed the tower with unstoppable momentum. From the 31st floor, the monsters used lightning magic, so there was no need to newly obtain Words. In less than an hour, we had climbed to the 40th floor.
"How about we rest a bit? I’m running out of mana now too," Hyeri said. Without her skill that increased our MP recovery rate, both the man and I would be in trouble, so we all decided to rest together.
What remained now was conquering up to the 50th floor, defeating the boss, and obtaining the materials requested by the laboratory. I couldn’t tell exactly since there was no scale, but it seemed we had gathered over 20kg of the sand the Guild Master had mentioned. If it turned out to be insufficient, we could just enter the dungeon again and gather more by running through the lower floors.
"By the way, Hyeri, your MP stat must be pretty high," I said to Hyeri. "You’ve used support skills quite a few times, but this is the first time we’ve properly rested."
"That’s because after I use support skills, I don’t have to use skills for a while. During that time, I can recover some mana. And also……."
Hyeri took out the staff she kept tucked at her waist and showed it to me.
"This staff has the power to reduce the MP consumed when using skills."
‘Something like that exists!?’
I asked Hyeri to let me see the staff. The moment I held it in my hand, a gray window floated before my eyes.
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[Staff of Concentration]
A staff that strengthens concentration and reduces MP consumption by 30%.
- No usage restrictions
Creator: Jin O-yun
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30% was tremendous. With this alone, the maximum number of times I could use [Invisibility] or [Flame Spear] increased by one. As I was reading the description, my eyes went to the contents at the end.
"Jin O-yun?"
"He’s an artisan at our guild’s workshop."
"The guild made this?"
"Yes."
"……Do you happen to know what this is made of?"
Hyeri shook her head.
"I received it from the Guild Master when I joined the guild, so I don’t know what materials it’s made from."
I resolved to ask the Guild Master about the staff without fail once we returned.
We rested leisurely while eating the lunch boxes we had packed.
"From the 41st floor on, the monsters that have appeared so far come out in rotation each floor. If I remember correctly, the order is Magic Missile, Flame, Ice, Lightning."
"Then let’s do this."
I proposed the plan that had come to mind. I cast all the resistance skills—Flame, Ice, and Lightning—on the man, and while invisible, I ambush the monsters whose attention is drawn to him. This way, there’s no need to cast support skills on me, so we can save mana.
"We’ll need to deal with them and get upstairs as quickly as possible before the support skills’ duration runs out," the man said.
"Then let’s postpone collecting materials and focus on climbing."
I agreed with Hyeri’s opinion. I borrowed Hyeri’s staff and cast three-attribute resistance skills on the man. The mana that had originally drained by 7pt each time now drained by roughly 5pt each time. Thanks to that, I had enough mana left to use both [Invisibility] and [Flame Spear]—while holding the staff.
[You have acquired a new Word:
[You have acquired 15 EXP.]
A voice sounded because I had used skills continuously.
After preparing everything, the man and I told Hyeri and Seono to follow slowly while collecting materials, then ran up the stairs.
The plan worked perfectly. The monsters that used Magic Missile weren’t a problem from the start. The monsters that used attribute magic focused on the man as expected, and I circled behind them to launch surprise attacks. At the same time, the man also took down monsters. While climbing over 40 floors, the man’s and my teamwork gradually improved until it was almost perfect, and finally we set a record of just 8 minutes to climb 10 floors.
***
Having finally climbed to the 49th floor, we took a brief rest with the 50th floor—where the boss would be—before us.
"Phew. Hyeri, what kind of guy is the boss here?"
The man asked, pulling away the potion bottle he had held to his mouth. It was a potion that increased MP recovery speed.
"About that… I don’t really know either."
At Hyeri’s words, both the man and I were bewildered.
"What do you mean? Didn’t you come here with guild people before? You knew everything that would appear until now," the man asked with wide eyes.
"The last time I came up, I only made it to this 49th floor."
In other words, Hyeri was saying that the 50th floor with the boss was too dangerous, so the B-rank Hunters had been told to wait below.
"Besides, my HP and MP weren’t in good shape then, so I stayed here as the others told me to."
"I see. Then what should we do?"
The man glanced at the stairs leading up.
"How about we leave the dungeon first and contact a guild member who knows the boss here?"
Communication with the outside was cut off inside the dungeon, so we had to leave to make contact.
"But then we’d have to climb this tower again. We’ve already gathered all the sand," I said, pointing at Seono’s bag. Only reporting back remained for the Guild Master’s personal quest.
"And we don’t have much time left. It’s almost 5 o’clock. Considering the time it takes to return to the guild, going out and starting over would be difficult," Hyeri said.
"Well, it’d be a real shame to give up here. We just need to take down the boss and get the materials, then we’re done."
"Then let’s at least give it a shot. If it really doesn’t work, we can just retreat."
The two agreed to my proposal, and we stepped onto the stairs leading to the 50th floor.
And not long after, we had to run back down the stairs as if our lives depended on it.
"Kyakyakyak!"
From behind, the pealing laughter of a dwarf could be heard.
We fled until the 38th floor before confirming that the pursuit had stopped and collapsed to sit.
"Haa, haa, huff……. What the hell kind of guy is that?!"
The man caught his breath and shouted.
"Our attacks don’t even work?!"