Survive the labyrinth with EX-grade traits

[Isaac casts ‘Gust’.]

Thud!

“Get lost, you weaklings!”

[Isaac casts ‘Gale’.]

Whoosh!

“Ugh!”

“Argh!”

Thud, thud.

“Move out of the way, you idiots! Don’t just stand there!”

“Huh? There’s nothing─.”

Damn. With the same agility and a buff from the sylph, I couldn’t close the gap.

The difference is too big when one has a freely usable movement skill and the other doesn’t.

‘During our sparring match, he could barely use it after focusing and taking a stance. Did he practice separately after getting beaten up?’

Fortunately, he’s running ahead, clearing the path for us…

As he ran, he passed by other adventurer parties before they could react, and killed any monsters blocking the way, wasting his mana.

‘What should I do? Lightning Step? No, it’s not like he’s incapacitated like during the Gospel incident.’

Even if I use Lightning Step to move to him right now, no matter how hard I clench my teeth and endure, I’ll only be knocked down for a short time.

Isaac won’t miss this chance to kill me.

‘His mana is F+. Should I wait for his mana to deplete in this state?’

There are too many variables. What if he has a mana potion or recovery items?

“Huff. Huff.”

Whoosh.

In the end, I couldn’t rely on any variables or coincidences, and had to forge my own path.

Whoosh.

“Huff.”

As I ran towards him, I began to manipulate my mana.

I had to focus.

Similar to the Explosive Sword Art, which gathers mana in the arm and explodes, I gathered mana in my legs and feet and pushed off the ground.

‘If I don’t have a movement skill and the distance keeps increasing, I can just create one myself, can’t I?’

“Huff.”

‘Snap out of it! I obtained Hard Body by having my legs burned, and learned Explosive Sword Art when Evelyn directly manipulated my body. Are you going to try it on your own and risk your legs exploding?’

The hesitation, disguised as worry, was eating away at my mind.

Damn it. Really… I didn’t learn this separately, and it’s not even a trait, so what if I try to use it on my own and end up with a crippled leg?

“Damn it, how long are you going to keep chasing me? You’ll never catch up no matter how fast you run, you slowpoke!”

Damn.

Even after hearing such taunts, I’m still scared and hesitant. It’s better to die than to be a coward.

[Trait Hard Body – Derived technique added to Dragonia.]

“Agh!”

Whoosh!

As if my feet were being pierced by something sharp, I felt a stinging sensation.

With a loud boom, I pushed off the ground and rushed towards Isaac.

Whoosh!

“Got you.”

Thud!

“Argh!”

I thrust my sword into his shoulder and we tumbled to the ground together.

“Ugh. My shoulder, my shoulder, agh!”

Swoosh!

Isaac clutched his deeply impaled shoulder and curled up, screaming in pain.

I pulled out the embedded sword.

“Aah! Ugh… Why are you doing this to me? Why, why?”

Isaac screamed and sobbed, asking why.

“Will this help you remember?”

I grabbed his fallen hand.

And pulled him up.

Just like he did to me when we were teleported, I gripped it as tightly as I could.

“Do you remember this hand? Look at my face closely. Look at it as if you’re trying to memorize it!”

Isaac sobbed and stared at me with wide eyes.

And then…

“Huh?”

Isaac’s eyes widened to the point where they almost popped out.

Exaggerating a bit, they were almost popping out.

“Do you remember now? Do you know who I am?”

Isaac trembled and moved his lips a few times before finally opening his mouth.

“No, that time, that, that was… So…”

So?

“Damn it! So, you’re doing this because I didn’t let go of your hand then, right?”

Isaac, with bloodshot eyes, shouted with spittle flying.

“Hah! I never would have imagined it was you. Hey, to be honest, you’ve had it good since coming to this world.”

I never would have imagined you would say something like this.

“Did you undergo some kind of transformation? Your skin is so white, and your body has become like a statue.”

“Wow…”

“You have a cute girl with big tits who only has eyes for you, and a woman who knows nothing but you. You easily beat me in a sparring match because of your bullshit trait!”

“…”

“And you even became a disciple of the Blood Maiden or whatever. You must have received good weapons and equipment from her, right? What grudge do you have against me?”

I’m going crazy.

“I fell here with nothing, lived like a beggar, eating garbage, and finally got a job at an inn to earn money to enter the dungeon.”

Trembling.

“You ungrateful bastard, instead of being grateful, why are you so obsessed with taking everything from me?”

Slap!

I couldn’t stand listening to his disgusting words any longer and slapped him without thinking.

“Ugh.”

“Hey. It seems like you got everything for free, huh? You lived like a beggar? You worked at an inn and earned money?”

The memories of my journey to this place flooded my mind.

“I… When you were safely in the city, I was teleported to the third floor naked, fighting and killing goblins with my bare fists.”

The memory of my teleportation to the third floor.

“I met a person who burned my legs with fire, causing me to scream in agony. I even had to kill and get blood on my hands.”

I remembered stabbing Scarlet to death.

That’s not all.

“In front of the escape portal, I encountered a mutant and my body was scorched by lightning, writhing in pain and passing out.”

Squeak.

Unconsciously, I clenched my fist.

“After escaping, I repeated the cycle of being beaten, falling, and recovering with potions in the name of training.”

With gritted teeth, Isaac glared at me, and I continued.

“To begin with, on the day we were teleported together, I was on my way to receive a 2 billion won VIP bank account, you basement-dwelling hikikomori.”

“…”

“You thought you’d had it rough since coming to this world, and that you’d only have good fortune from now on, thanks to the traits you received from the gods, right?”

I looked him straight in the eye and spoke each word slowly.

“You’re just a pathetic man with a mediocre trait. Understand?”

Isaac lowered his head, motionless.

“…”

“What?”

“None of your business, you fucking bastard.”

What a consistent guy. Let’s just end this. It’s pointless to get worked up and look like a fool.

I roughly threw him aside and approached him, saying, “Yes. Let’s end this tiresome grudge that started over there.”

“Wait a minute.”

Isaac raised his head and tried to speak, but I ignored him.

I was about to cut his throat when…

Poke.

Isaac pulled a dagger from his waist with his intact arm and stabbed himself in the heart.

‘What’s going on? Why is he stabbing himself when he’s going to die anyway?’

Isaac laughed as he coughed up blood, looking at me.

“Haha, huh. It would be unfair if I’m the only one who dies. Let’s all go to hell together, you bastards.”

“You’re a persistent bastard, even in death.”

Crunch.

I infused my mana into my sword and cut off Isaac’s head.

“…”

I had killed another person, but unlike before, I felt very relieved this time.

Is forgiveness the best revenge? Is revenge meaningless?

Not at all.

Only now did I feel like I could finally let go of him and live my second life in this world.

“Oh.”

As I killed him, I saw a gray light in the center of his body.

It was clearly stated that the Authority trait was rare.

And then it happened.

Kukung…

“What, what’s going on?”

Something was happening.

.

–

–

“Hah, I never would have imagined it was you, Ahren.”

…

…

My life on Earth was undeniably that of a human waste.

After dropping out of college and completing my public service, I lived as a hikikomori until I was almost thirty, repeating a cycle of eating, gaming, and sleeping.

I reluctantly became independent, relying on my parents’ money for rent and living expenses, taking advantage of my status as the eldest son.

So… I thought I would be the protagonist in this new world.

Since I had been teleported here, I decided to live a decent life, unlike my life on Earth.

‘Hah, protagonist my ass.’

On the first day, the God of Wind, Nepher, told me that the gods were summoning humans who had cleared the gates in the game to send them to the dungeon, in order to put an end to the gods’ war.

Damn… Is that why?

There were no hidden pieces left in the city, as if the ones who had come before me had swept them all up.

The Legendary Sword, Night’s Veil, Saint’s Prayer, Burning Red Plum, Sky Stride, and more.

It was obvious that some of the well-known adventurers who had come to the dungeon city had taken them all.

One thing that puzzled me was that when I heard stories about the known adventurers, there was an Apostle who had been active for decades and was considered half-legendary.

I thought this game had only been out for less than ten years, but could it be that the flow of time between Earth and this world is different?

Anyway, I walked around the city looking for hidden pieces, or begged for information like a beggar.

I lived like a beggar, eating garbage, begging for food, and asking for leftovers from the inn. Fortunately, I was able to start working.

After that, I worked hard to earn money, bought low-grade equipment, and registered as an adventurer at the guild.

Damn… In the middle, I got into a fight with a talented guy who had a woman with him, and I got beaten up.

I tried to convince myself that I would soon surpass him, and prepared for my dungeon journey.

So I joined a party with the trait I received from the gods and my high agility, but the result was this.

And to think that Ahren was the guy I collided with back then?

If I were him, I would have been thrilled to start a new life in this world.

What was so hard for him that he spoke with a lowered voice?

“None of your business, you fucking bastard.”

‘Am I going to die at his hands? Is this how it ends?’

-The 30th floor is still an undiscovered layer, and currently, layer bosses have been discovered on the 5th, 10th, 15th, and so on, up to the 25th floor.

-The conditions for discovering these bosses have been found by adventurers, but they remain silent for their own reasons, so few people know the conditions for encountering them.

Suddenly, I remembered what Berkel said.

They only appear every five floors? That’s only half-true.

‘There was definitely a layer boss on the first floor, an exception to the rule, but no one knows about it yet?’

{When a playable character voluntarily chooses to die by stabbing their heart in the center of the first floor, the first layer boss appears.}

When I was a noob in the game, I couldn’t even reach the second floor for almost half a year, and kept dying with low-level NPCs.

One day, I was so angry that I…

This time, I was determined to play a weak character, so I rested in the central area of the first floor and committed suicide with the default dagger provided in the inventory.

As I was about to move on to the character creation screen, I noticed something strange in the system log before the game ended.

[The first layer boss appears.]

Knowing this, I tried to find a way to use it, so I created a few more characters and attempted suicide in the same way in the central area of the first floor.

I discovered that the name of the layer boss changed to ‘Ephusio of the Beginning’ each time, but it was useless since the game would end if the character died and only the companions remained.

‘At that time, it was impossible to use resurrection items to immediately revive the companions.’

‘I kept experimenting out of stubbornness, but I didn’t even know if I could catch the boss if I summoned it.’

In the end, I spent years honing my skills and climbing the floors, eventually forgetting about it.

That’s what happened.

There are other Transmigrator, but no one knows about the method I discovered?

Good. Great! I was the first to discover it, and I never managed to catch the layer boss. You catch it.

‘This is my last gift to you, bastard.’

Poke.

“Haha, huh. It would be unfair if I’m the only one who dies. Let’s all go to hell together, you bastards.”

…

…

Thud.

.

.

.

[Condition met]

[The terrain of the first floor changes.]

[The darkness temporarily disappears.]

Gruk…

[The first layer boss, ‘Ephusio of the Beginning’, appears.]