Black mist spread outward.
"Whoa…"
Maybe it was because the central processing unit in her head hadn't registered any sense of inertia at all.
She felt absolutely nothing—no sensation of having moved.
It was like the spot she'd been looking at had simply zoomed in.
That was exactly what a short-range teleport felt like.
She turned around.
"Looks like about ten meters…"
Not that short, either.
"And I can use this every thirty seconds."
No matter how fast a ranged monster's attack speed was, closing the distance wouldn't be a problem anymore. Each floor of the tower had a fixed size, after all.
"Nothing's blocked it yet, but…"
She checked the time.
There was still a little time left on the Golden Carriage's stay.
Remaining gold: 4,097.
"Let's spend it all."
She opened the Gallery and consulted on where to put the rest of the money.
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: You've been skipping the Black Magic curriculum entirely so you can't learn any Magic Shield-type spells—I think patching up your durability is the right call for now?
ㄴ Anon (431F): Finally…?
ㄴ Anon (56F) (OP): Understood.
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Start by re-buying the Adventurer's Ring. It's a supply-grade item so you'll keep needing it…
……
..
.
After reading SSS-Rank Gear Chaser's advice, she scraped together every last gold coin and bought the items he'd pointed out.
[Necklace of Vitality (Rare)] – 2,950 G
[Adventurer's Ring (Common)] – 720 G
After purchasing both items.
"He said the silver necklace was for enhancement…"
She fed the necklace to the black horse,
"…"
and fed the enhancement stone and earring to the skeleton horse.
Crunch— crunch.
The sound of tempering rang out a few times.
She put the earring back on.
Her body immediately felt a layer more solid, filled in.
VIT +7 DEF +6 MDEF +1
Next, she switched the Golden Carriage to PX mode, bought food, and spent every last coin.
[Payment Complete]
[Balance: 0 G]
And then—
Prrrr!
Neeeeigh!!!
"What the—"
Without warning, the black horse reared up on its hind legs, let out a long wail, and turned red.
Then its body began to melt.
Gradually it took on a new shape—it had become a black furnace.
Clatter—! Rattle—!
The skeleton horse, too, had its bones come apart and clump back together, reshaping itself into a bone anvil.
Rumble—!
The black furnace and the bone anvil naturally attached themselves to the side of the Golden Carriage like a matching set, then burst with a halo of light and vanished into the air.
"…Ru, Ro. So that's why they had those names—one's an anvil, one's a furnace…"
She let her gaze linger for a moment on the empty air where the horses had been.
"Thanks for waking me up, Ro. If it hadn't been for you, I might've died to that hero."
"Ru, thanks for enhancing the earring."
"See you in a month. I'll make sure I'm still alive by then."
She adjusted the knot on her ribbon and tightened her grip on the scythe.
She walked on.
*
[Floor Ascent Beginning.]
The staircase opened, and with each floor she climbed, a blue iridescence shimmered through the earring.
Magic power rose, strength rose with it, and promotion-reward gold flowed in.
And then she arrived at floor 58.
[Defender: Blood Harpy (58F)]
A bird that prowled the sky of a vast cavern.
Skreeee—!
It let out a shriek that threatened to split her eardrums and beat its wings.
Dozens of blood-red feathers that had been hovering in the air transformed into bullets and came pouring down.
Fwing!
The sound of air being torn apart came from every direction.
Current Sense stat: 72.
Her eyes read the trajectories of the falling feathers.
In the old days she would've rolled across the floor to dodge, but there was no need for that now.
"Black Shift."
Black mist rose from the ribbon.
The moment the mist wrapped around her entire body, her vision inverted.
Exactly 10 meters.
With her Sense stat, the adjustment was easy.
She passed straight through the rain of falling feathers—
Shhhk—!
Behind the Blood Harpy hovering in midair.
She had skipped through space and reappeared, swinging the Death Scythe in a wide arc loaded with centrifugal force.
Kreeee—!
The blood-red wings were severed whole, and fresh blood scattered through the air.
[Floor-58 Blood Harpy Defeated]
[Promotion Reward: 5,700 G Acquired!]
"Hah…"
She exhaled as she landed on the floor.
She still wasn't used to the feel of it.
When she'd practiced with it, it had just been exciting—but in actual combat there was a faint dizziness to it.
"Well, I'll get used to it."
She cleared floor 59, then arrived at the next floor in succession.
[Defender: Gargoyle Sniper (60F)]
She had reached floor 60.
At the far end of the floor—roughly the size of a soccer field—a stone statue was loading an enormous crossbow.
She always arrived at a new upper floor with the scythe pressed to her own throat. To activate Death's Edge Invincibility.
And first thing, she always ran laterally. To evade ranged attacks.
That routine paid off now.
Whooom—!
At the tip of the gargoyle's crossbow, a massive red effect was compressing.
The arrow left the string.
Shweeeeee—!
An arrow flying as if it were warping space itself. It seemed to carry magical power.
The momentum was tremendous—but.
Whip!
She used her running momentum to roll and dodge it.
Her frilled skirt fluttered through the air.
The moment she landed, the next round began loading immediately.
The reload was faster than expected.
Whooom—!
She couldn't dodge again. The distance had closed, shortening the path.
"Normally…"
This would've been the moment she had no choice but to use Death's Edge Invincibility and retreat to the Death God Realm.
But right now she had a Unique item worth 120,000 gold.
Whoosh—
The black mist from the ribbon scattered once more.
The instant the giant crossbow's bolt was about to reach her forehead—
Boom—!
The spot where she'd been standing exploded, but she was no longer there.
Right in front of the Gargoyle Sniper's nose.
She materialized from the black mist.
Before it could even register surprise, she hooked the scythe blade against its neck.
"Come here."
She braced one foot against the crossbow's body.
With both the scythe and her body locked in place like that—
she yanked the scythe toward herself.
Clang—!
Sparks flew.
The hard stone statue's neck shattered messily.
[Floor-60 Gargoyle Sniper Defeated]
[Promotion Reward: 5,900 G Acquired!]
The earring glowed blue.
[Magitech Cerulean Earring (+2 / Charge: 35%)]
"Phew…"
Watching the stone gargoyle crumble into cubes and scatter, she planted the scythe on the floor and took a moment to catch her breath.
She allocated her stats and checked her status.
[STATUS]
Race: Death God (死神)
Floor: 60
Level: 60
Condition: Normal
STR: 37 (▲1)
AGI: 23
VIT: 16
INT: 79 (▲4)
SEN: 74 (▲4)
MAG: 192 (▲8)
LUK: 11
DEF: 13
MDEF: 14
Remaining Stat Points: 0
Trait: Unawakened
Skills: None
Weapon: Death Scythe
Equipped: [Ring of Arcane Might], [Adventurer's Ring], [Magitech Cerulean Earring (+2 / Charge: 35%)], [Twin-Tail Black Ribbon]
Only climbed 4 floors and magic power went up by 8.
The word "Normal" written in the condition field was a little irritating.
She might keel over without any warning again and sleep for days.
'Absolutely not letting that disaster happen again.'
The Fatigue Recovery Potions she had left were down to exactly one full bottle.
'Ugh… if it hadn't been for that damn sloth bastard.'
The memory of that infuriating face surfaced and annoyed her all over again.
She'd thrown a potion at that thing's face and wasted 80% of a precious medicine.
But if she hadn't done that, she would've burned through this last Fatigue Recovery Potion too, or had to use Death's Edge Invincibility.
'For now, resting here is the right call.'
Fatigue Recovery Potions were essential items for her high-speed climb.
This Golden Carriage had given her three, but the next lineup was random—she had no idea what the stock would look like. She had to conserve when she could.
She plopped down on the marble floor and opened the Gallery, both to rest and to browse.
Then she started writing a long post summarizing her climb so far.
Title: [Info] Full Breakdown of Floor 1–60 Monster Gimmicks and Item Usage.
Author: Anon (60F)
The items SSS-Rank Gear Chaser recommended were great.
Below is a list of monster names and appearances up to floor 60, plus my actual-use impressions of the items I picked up from the Golden Carriage.
Heads up, writing in shorthand.
Floor 2: Black Slime.
Basically harmless creature. Super moist to the touch.
…
..
.
Floor 40: Shaman Sleep.
Tries to inflict a sleep effect but can be forcibly dispelled with a Fatigue Recovery Potion.
How I dealt with it…
..
.
.
Floor 60: Gargoyle Sniper.
Long-range sniper mob.
Short-range teleport is goated. Without it I would've had to slit my own throat and use Death's Edge Invincibility.
……
……
She posted the entry and refreshed after some time had passed.
[Comments]
Anon (612F): Wow! Finally a write-up!
Fenrir: Wait, you casually climbed 4 floors when…?
ㄴ Anon (431F): For real, I was reading along without checking the OP's floor tag and then there's a guide for floor 60 and I'm just standing there with a question mark lol
Anon (608F): Look at that number going up again lmao
Anon (684F): Writing a solo guide for 60 uncharted floors is actually legendary lmaooo
Anon (312F): Floor 60 in 4 days, holy shit
Anon (612F): Excluding sleep time that's basically one day lmaooo
Anon (418F): Just from the climbing speed I assumed you were just button-mashing your way up, but it was actually way harder than I thought;;
ㄴ Anon (154F): To someone doing 1 floor per 10 years, this is criminal.
"Was it… hard?"
Hard or not hard—honestly it leaned toward the latter, but it wasn't like there had been zero risk.
She had been put in a situation where she had to fight something to the death 59 times, after all.
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: lmaooooooooooooooooooo
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Like, if someone had told me a week ago that someone climbed to floor 60 in 4 years I would've insta-blocked them… but not 4 years, 4 DAYS to floor 60? That's actually insane.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Okay, I can't help it.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: I normally only come to the Gallery on Golden Carriage days to do gear reviews, but I'm going to be a regular now just to watch this newbie climb.
ㄴ Anon (431F): Didn't you just want an excuse to take a break?
ㄴ Anon (351F): For real lol, looks like he's just happy he finally has a reason not to train lmaooo
Either way, it seemed like he genuinely liked her write-up.
ㄴ Anon (60F) (OP): Thank you for the kind words.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: It's not just me. There are plenty of regulars in this Gallery who are going to lose their minds watching you play.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: The vanguard types don't do the Gallery. Anyone with real passion for clearing is just grinding in their own floor.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Real talk—the people who hang out in this Gallery every day posting garbage are just the ones who've hit a wall and have nothing else to do.
ㄴ Anon (473F): Ah, sir, please—! Ah—! Oof—!
ㄴ Makanong: That's a bit harsh…
'Only people with nothing to do browse the Gallery.'
It was a harsh, mocking thing to say, but… it wasn't entirely wrong.
To escape this tower, you had to reach floor 1000.
In other words, getting stronger was the only goal—and since the only way to do that without climbing floors was to train, if you had any intention of doing floor ascents, the right move was to close the Gallery and train.
And since that training consumed years by each person's own method, serious practitioners rarely showed up in the Gallery.
So naturally, only the so-called "stuck" ones were left in this Gallery.
Anyone who'd hit a wall in their training might find that a little unfair to hear, but what could you do.
⟨Menu⟩
[ [Apply for Floor Ascent] ]
The chance to challenge was open twenty-four hours a day.
But…
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser was mistaken about something.
She wasn't doing a high-speed climb because she was some alpha chad—she was speeding because she was a desperate wretch.
Her going up wasn't so much a "charge" as it was a "retreat."
Even if she didn't press the floor ascent button on that hologram menu—
she was in a situation where a hero could come and kill her just by sitting still.
So she wasn't exceptional. She was just thrashing around trying to survive.
But SSS-Rank Gear Chaser, who seemed to be under the impression that she was some kind of Lu Bu incarnate—
was trying to introduce her to other Lu Bus.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: The Backrooms-origin anomalies with their completely warped sense of time, the ones using dragon-based magic, and especially the old geezers who came from xianxia dimensions and just meditate for decades at a time—those guys genuinely never look at the Gallery.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: But I'll go ahead and ping all of them. When they see you, their eyes are going to pop out of their heads.
"……"
She pressed a hand to her forehead.
Having more outstanding mentors was obviously a good thing in the long run—but right now it wasn't exactly welcome news.
"More mother-in-laws showing up now? I'm still fine on my own…"