I Became the 1st Floor Boss of the Tower

“Okay, I think this is good enough for the bone-strengthening process. Now… I want to have another mana circle on the skull. But wait… it might explode due to an overload…” Lee Shin muttered while designing his agent.

[A challenger has appeared.]

While Lee Shin was focused on adding the mana circle, he heard the system message and looked up at the clock on the wall. It was time for Kim Kang-Chun and his group to give him the Soul Beads.

Time had gone by so fast, as Lee Shin was immersed in mana research these days. He slowly got up and moved from the lab to the boss’ room. After a few minutes, Kim Kang-Chun, Park Hye-Won, and Ji Eun-Ju came into the boss’ room.

“Did you guys bring me the Soul Beads?” Lee Shin asked.

“Yes, they’re here,” Kim Kang-Chun replied and handed over two, palm-sized beads to Lee Shin.

The two large, transparent beads had white smoke moving inside them. Apart from that, there was nothing unique about these beads. However, Lee Shin knew exactly what these beads were for.

“Thank you,” Lee Shin replied, as he put the Soul Beads aside.

The challengers on the first floor were stuck in the waiting area, unable to climb the tower. On the other hand, they were being taught by Lee Shin. They used their points to buy the items from the point store that Lee Shin had asked for, and in exchange, they were trained by Lee Shin.

Today was the day for Park Hye-Won and Ji Eun-Ju to learn magic in exchange for the Soul Beads.

“Oh, by the way, there will be a new group of challengers coming in soon. Apparently, they are members of the task force that’s created and supported by the association and the government to target this tower,” a challenger from the group notified him.

“Time has gone by so fast…” Lee Shin mumbled.

“Sorry?” a challenger asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Lee Shin replied.

Lee Shin was aware of the task force that the association and the government of Korea assembled. He had seen them in his past life. This team was composed of highly-skilled people, so as to support the understaffed teams on the upper floors. However, they disappeared when they could not achieve as much as expected.

Among them, the team leader, Park Joo-Hyuk, was quite outstanding. The other team members were not bad, but the tower was not such an easy place. No matter how skillful they were outside the tower, that was not always the case inside.

Lee Shin smiled at the thought of meeting Park Joo-Hyuk. Hye-Won and Eun-Ju were wrapped in fear, thinking Lee Shin was planning to make them suffer.

“Hey, Kang-Chun, you can get going. And, you two, shall we get started?” Lee Shin asked.

Kim Kang-Chun looked at the two and went back with a sad face.

***

The Soul Bead was an item that could capture and absorb a soul that was floating around. And interestingly, there were so many outstanding souls that amazed Lee Shin on the first floor. He could sense their power in the atmosphere.

He was surprised to see such exceptional souls on the first floor, which was considered a tutorial stage with a cursed necromancer as the boss. However, Lee Shin could roughly guess the reason after figuring Gene Ebrium out a bit more.

‘Maybe, the first floor was used as a prison for heroes who had protested against gods.’ Lee Shin was not too sure, but he thought that seemed reasonable.

He had gone through countless deaths and could recall all of them clearly. And as a result, death was very familiar to him. Lee Shin could understand the sensation the souls were experiencing.

[The one who knows death]

How did you understand death so well? It seems like you have been through countless deaths.

# You can see through death.

# You can see the dead.

Lee Shin obtained this title after he gained the Immortal Sphere and suffered thousands of deaths. From that point, he could see many souls around him.

“Why are you following me around?” Lee Shin muttered, but there was no response.

“Hey there! Yes you, the blond knight with an arm off,” Lee Shin called out to the blond man in front whom he could clearly see.

It appeared as if that handsome knight had been at war, because his armor was all messed up and he was also missing an arm. Also, there was no expression on his face. The soul of the knight was wandering around in the air expressionlessly, but unlike other souls, he kept hovering around Lee Shin.

Lee Shin tried to get his attention. All the other spirits were floating aimlessly doing nothing, as if they had lost their sanity.

‘Is this soul also the same…?’ He stared at the knight.

Then, his eyes met with the knight’s.

- … Did you… call me…? No, that can’t be true…

“Yes, that’s right. I called you,” Lee Shin replied.

- … Now I’m starting to hear hallucinations.

“It’s not,” said Lee Shin.

- Really…? Can you really see me?

“Yes, I can,” Lee Shin replied.

The knight shoved his face in front of Lee Shin’s nose and stared at Lee Shin with his eyes wide open. When the knight realized that Lee Shin was staring right into his eyes, he began to shed bloody red tears.

- My death… Set me free!

“Ughhh-” Lee Shin tried to cover his ears, but it did not help.

That strange high-pitched voice pierced his ears and resonated in his head.

“Do you want to be released from death?” Lee Shin asked, gritting his teeth and enduring the pain.

- Death! It’s unfair!

The handsome knight had disappeared. Instead, he turned into an evil spirit which gave Lee Shin goosebumps.

Swoosh-

Suddenly, in Lee Shin’s field of vision was a flash, and the background changed as if he had traveled back in time. In the new scene, that handsome man was standing ready for battle, neatly dressed in his armor.

‘Is this his past?’ Lee Shin wondered.

# You can see through death.

‘Is this what they meant by seeing through death?’ Lee Shin did not know what conditions triggered his ability. However, this was the first time that this skill had been activated.

The background changed once again. This time, the knight was standing in front of a beautiful woman. Lee Shin could not hear all the details of the conversation, but it seemed like the two were in a special relationship.

The scene changed once more. This time, the knight displayed his courage and impressive might on the battlefield. His attacks upon thousands of enemies brought him enormous prestige. With his outstanding performance, the war seemed manageable.

At that time, to fulfill an order from a superior, the knight had formed a separate squad to attack the enemy’s rearguard. His strategy was successful and victory was just around the corner.

‘No way…’ Lee Shin realized that his skill was showing how one came to the end of their life, rather than its trajectory.

Those scenes had no reason to be shown if they were not related to one’s death. And as Lee Shin had expected, suddenly, something unfortunate happened to the knight. The woman he saw earlier was captured by the knight’s enemies.

The knight lost his temper, ran out to save his woman and ignored all the other knights who tried to stop him. His comrades had no other choice but to launch an attack to save him. However, the knight was only focused on his woman. He did not care about other knights.

The knight had lost his prestige. The sight of his enemies drawing a sword at his woman was sufficient to stop his fierce attack. He could survive for a while with the sacrifice of his fellow knights, but they died one after another.

Eventually, the wounded knight knelt in front of the woman, surrounded by his enemies. The woman laughed at him and cut off his right arm. She then threw him on the ground and left him. Due to the knight’s folly, the outcome reversed in an instant. The knight who had lost everything died alone on the cold ground.

After showing the knight’s tragic death, the background disappeared and Lee Shin was back to the usual surroundings on the first floor. Lee Shin did not feel sorry for this knight. He just had a smirk on his face.

“That was pathetic,” Lee Shin muttered.

- Pathetic…? What the hell are you saying?

“You made your team sacrifice themselves just for a woman?” Lee Shin said in an amused tone.

- This is not fa–

“Just shut up! I shouldn’t bring back a jerk like you no matter how skilled you are,” Lee Shin shouted.

- What did you say…? Bring back…? How?? How are you going to do that?

“I said, I’m not going to,” Lee Shin replied in a firm voice.

- No, please. Please help me. Before someone else comes!

“No way. I’m sure you will be bewitched by another woman and abandon your team,” Lee Shin explained.

- No! Never! Please trust me.

The screechy, malicious knight from before was no more; only a desperate and subservient one stands in front of Lee Shin. There was only a desperate and subservient knight in front of Lee Shin.

Lee Shin looked around. There were not many souls that were in sight. Even the ones passing nearby did not seem to care, as if they could not hear the noise.

“Alright, then. Do you want to sign a contract with me?” Lee Shin asked.

- Of course! I’ll do anything you want if you bring me back to life.

The knight had been tricked. Lee Shin tried hard not to smirk and showed a friendly smile instead.

***

“Warrie! May!” Lee Shin called out two names.

Two Skeleton guys stood in front of Lee Shin. Lee Shin had created a Skeleton Warrior and Skeleton Mage after receiving two Soul Beads from Kim Kang-Chun and his team. Warrie was the knight who got betrayed by his woman and May was a mage who died after several failures in mana research. Both had become Lee Shin’s skeletons after signing a contract.

Lee Shin had made Warrie just the way the knight wanted, similar to how his body looked when he was alive. Lee Shin had imprinted mana on Warrie’s bones and put extra emphasis on the arms to make them as strong as he could.

May did not have a strong bone structure. However, his stats were generally higher than that of Warrie, because several mana circles were added onto his bone structure which drove his mana circuit more actively than Warrie’s.

[Warrie]

# STR: 27(+13)

# AGI: 21(+10)

# INT: 10(+7)

[May]

# STR: 7(+15)

# AGI: 10(+14)

# INT: 38(+20)

It took Lee Shin several months to make these Undeads. He paid more attention to imprinting the mana circuit on May, who was going to help Lee Shin a lot more in his research.

Lee Shin was confident that the challengers on the first floor would not be able to defeat either of these guys. The Skeletons’ souls were contracted to Lee Shin, and though they wouldn’t consume his mana while being summoned, they couldn’t be healed using his mana if they were destroyed.

There were several pros and cons to connecting the Skeletons’ souls to Lee Shin, but since there was no one to threaten these two, Lee Shin thought it would be better for them to maintain their current states.

“Hey May, did you organize all the documents that I asked for?” Lee Shin asked.

“Yes, sir. I’ve created a special pile for the results of Gene Ebrium’s mana research,” May replied.

“Sounds great! How about you, Warrie? How are your arms?” Lee Shin asked.

“The bone itself is not bad, but the mana power connection is not as good as before. It’s hard for me to make the most of the bone’s function while making the mana flow smoothly,” Warrie replied.

“Oh really… Hmm… I’ll take a look into that. You guys are good to go,” said Lee Shin.

As soon as Warrie and May had left the room, Lee Shin looked at the clock on the wall. It was time for Park Joo-Hyuk to come up.

‘Shall we get ready?’ Lee Shin smirked.

***

“Hey, boss, based on the information that we’ve gathered, the boss on the first floor is too strong for people to climb the tower.”

“I agree with that.”

“Yeah, me too.”

The members of the task force had gathered outside of the waiting area in the village. They were having a serious conversation, and Park Joo-Hyuk nodded stiffly as he listened to their reports. He originally thought the scuffle that took place when he first came to the tower had caused antipathy and that people were lying. However, he soon realized that was not the case.

Eventually, the members of the task force collected information by maintaining a fairly good relationship with other challengers. And they came to the conclusion that there had been a change in the first-floor boss’ difficulty level.

“I think it’s time for us to challenge the boss,” one of the members of the task force said in a determined voice.

If the challengers were right, they would fail the challenge and return to this place again. If they were lying, they would move up to the next floor. However, everyone was already aware that the latter was impossible.

Fortunately, they knew the first-floor boss did not kill people. Even if they went for the challenge, the challengers did not have to risk dying, because they heard that the boss returned the challengers without doing more harm.

Late that night, Park Joo-Hyuk and other members of the task force headed to the portal located in the Central Square.

“Huh? Are you guys going up to the first floor?” Toeing looked at them and asked.

“Yes,” they replied, and entered the portal.

As the team entered a large cave, deep inside, they found low-class Skeletons, Gutter Rats, and Dwarf Goblins, which they had heard about from Earth. These were easy to defeat as they had expected.

With the system messages that announced the challengers’ increasing stats, they headed to the boss’ room. The anxiety they had when they first entered this place had gradually faded.

The members of the task force were not planning to be careless in their encounter with the boss, but their confidence level increased a little when they defeated the monsters.

There was nothing special about the entrance to the boss’ room. When they opened the door, the boss was slouching in his chair. His eyes were unfocused, his body had no strength, and he looked very pale. He appeared very much different from what the team had heard from other challengers.

‘Huh? What’s going on?’