Chapter 117
Park Siwoo had entered a dungeon and hadn’t come out for three days?
It felt like my head went cold.
Park Siwoo was the main playable character.
And, by setting, the most important figure.
In other words, if something went wrong with Park Siwoo, it would be a total disaster.
But that guy hadn’t made contact for three days?
No—did he even go into the dungeon alone in the first place?
What about Helena and Dan Chun-woo?
I was sure I told him countless times never to enter a dungeon alone.
Lia continued her explanation.
[Well… I organized the information The Groom told me to pass along and handed it over to Yoo Iseo. But I failed to bring Helena and Dan Chun-woo into the student council. To be exact, it’s on hold.]
“What do you mean?”
[The Academy announced a one-month closure. During that time, Helena and Dan Chun-woo returned to their families. Because of that, we haven’t been able to contact them at all.]
At her words, I covered my eyes with my hand.
Hoo…
A sigh escaped me.
Why did they suddenly go back home?
Weren’t these guys basically runaway delinquents?
Dan Chun-woo was currently expelled from his family.
Even in the game, he only returned to his family in his second year.
Helena wasn’t any different.
She had conflicts with her father.
Her enrollment in the Academy had been half an act of running away, so I thought she’d never return to her family.
But what kind of bolt-from-the-blue was this?
I shook my head and took a deep breath.
Still, not everything I’d heard so far was bad news.
I had already expected the Academy to close temporarily for reorganization.
I just hadn’t considered the possibility that Dan Chun-woo and Helena would return home.
If I thought about it more coldly, it actually benefited me.
If they had returned to their families, it meant they now had the best teachers possible by their side without me needing to guide them.
There was no need to even mention Dan Chun-woo’s grandfather, the Swordmaster.
And Helena’s father, Oliver Raiders, was also one of the top-tier Heroes in the world.
The real problem was Park Siwoo, who had been left alone at the Academy.
“So Park Siwoo went into the dungeon alone? I clearly told him never to do that.”
[I know! At first, Yoo Iseo, Da-hee, and Park Siwoo formed a party and went in together. They even had pretty good results.]
“Then why did he suddenly stop contacting you?”
[That idiot went into the dungeon on his own without telling us!]
You stupid bastard!
Did he even understand what a dungeon was before going in alone?
Even the fragments in the Academy were difficult for me to handle alone.
And yet Park Siwoo, who was far weaker than me, went in by himself?
Why would he make that kind of decision?
Sure, he could be a bit dumb, but he wasn’t so foolish that he couldn’t distinguish right from wrong.
“Did you find out which fragment he entered?”
[Yeah, I checked through the CCTV.]
Information came first.
I wanted to go save him immediately, but fragments were separate dimensions where the laws of reality didn’t apply.
Even if I went, there might be nothing I could do.
“What’s the state of the fragment? Did you try entering it?”
[Well…]
Lia trailed off.
Her trembling voice clearly revealed her anxiety.
[The fragment won’t open.]
“Hoo……”
Hearing her answer, I let out a sigh.
Her voice turned tearful.
[Hic… S-sorry. But you didn’t contact me for a whole month… I’ve been really struggling too…]
“Why are you crying?”
[I-it’s because you were mad at me!]
Her sudden outburst of tears caught me off guard.
Well… she must have gone through a lot too.
Whenever my life was in danger, Lia also received warning signals.
And over the past month, I had died hundreds—no, thousands—of times.
I calmed her down first.
“I’m not mad. If anything, I’m relieved.”
[R-really?]
“Yeah.”
Fragments, once they accepted challengers, wouldn’t allow others to enter.
If the fragment opened again after accepting challengers, it meant all previous challengers had died.
In other words, if Park Siwoo entered three days ago and the fragment still hadn’t opened, it meant he was still alive.
If anything, I would’ve been in despair if I heard it had opened.
[I see? That’s a relief.]
“You used to reside inside a fragment yourself, and you didn’t know that?”
[Nope.]
“So where’s the dungeon he entered?”
Normally, clearing a fragment didn’t take more than a day in real time.
If too much time passed without clearing it, you’d be ejected due to failure.
But Park Siwoo hadn’t come out for three days.
That meant the fragment he entered wasn’t a typical dungeon.
There was usually only one type of fragment that took this long.
A farming dungeon.
Sure enough, Lia’s next words confirmed it.
[The fragment Park Siwoo entered is Mana Training Room No. 13 in the Hall of Truth.]
As expected.
Mana Training Room No. 13 was a famous spot even in the game.
A farming fragment for weapon proficiency and skill points.
A hidden dungeon that could only be entered once per character.
But the reason it became famous among players was something else.
The Hall of Fame system.
That fragment had a ranking system, allowing competition with other players.
I had once briefly held the number one spot myself.
And if you ranked first in the Hall of Fame, you could obtain a special skill.
That skill was extremely useful—and essential for clearing the game—so it was something you absolutely had to obtain eventually.
But the Hall of Fame was a system that only worked in an online environment.
Now that I had been transported into the game, I wasn’t sure if it still functioned properly.
Anyway, just knowing that Park Siwoo was safe was enough.
Farming dungeons were trial-type fragments where it was extremely difficult to die.
Since I couldn’t go help him now, he had essentially chosen the best possible option.
If anything, he had found his own path to grow as strong as the others.
But then, a question suddenly came to mind.
The dungeon I told Lia about didn’t include this fragment.
Then how did Park Siwoo even find out about it?
---
Leaning against the dungeon wall, Park Siwoo caught his breath.
His body was covered in countless wounds.
They were injuries he had sustained while defeating the Orc Warlord in the previous trial.
Despite how severe they were, Park Siwoo closed his eyes and regulated his stamina as if he were used to the pain.
Soon, a blue light enveloped his body, and his wounds began to heal.
Whenever he cleared a trial, his stamina and all injuries were restored like this.
At that moment, a message appeared before his eyes.
【You have cleared Floor 49.】
【Would you like to challenge the next floor?】
【yes / no】
It was a message he had grown accustomed to.
‘How long have I been here?’
Since sunlight didn’t reach the dungeon, it was hard to tell the passage of time.
‘It feels like it’s already been months since I met Instructor.’
The one who told Park Siwoo about this Trial Tower dungeon was the School Nurse.
After the Hell Manifestation at the Academy, his mental state had been extremely fragile.
The Academy had been filled with grotesque creatures and Demons.
Countless casualties had occurred.
And among them… were his friends.
But there had been no time to grieve.
Berid, who had turned the Academy into hell, went berserk and transformed into a grotesque monster.
And the friend he trusted most had become the infamous Demon, the Devil Knight.
Unbelievable events kept happening, and in the midst of it all, he could do nothing but stand there and watch helplessly.
After everything ended, he asked the instructors and adults—along with Dan Chun-woo and Helena—what had actually happened.
‘You don’t need to know.’
‘This is a matter between the Academy and Pandemonium. It’s better for you to stay out of it.’
‘This is all for your sake.’
Then, the School Nurse—no, Instructor Chun Ga-eun—approached him.
She said:
‘You don’t have the right to know.’
‘The right?’
‘Power. Those without power cannot approach the truth. It’s unfair, but that’s how this world works.’
‘……’
To the discouraged Park Siwoo, Chun Ga-eun continued:
‘You may not be able to obtain the truth, but you can obtain the qualification. Want to try?’
And she told him about the Trial Tower.
Park Siwoo felt something deeply resonate within her words.
If he couldn’t obtain the truth, then at least…
He would obtain the qualification to approach it.
And the right to hear the truth about his friend.
Waiting for an opportunity, Park Siwoo secretly entered the dungeon as the Academy’s restoration neared completion.
Having finished resting, Park Siwoo stood up.
He had already experienced his limits on the 49th floor.
Even so, he pressed “yes” on the message window before him.
It didn’t matter if he faced his limits.
Each time he surpassed them, he could feel himself growing stronger.
And in life-threatening battles, he could cast aside all the worries in his mind.
He couldn’t stop yet.
He had to become stronger.
His vision darkened, and a new scene unfolded.
A space resembling a circular colosseum.
Standing there, Park Siwoo waited for his opponent.
Soon, a magic circle appeared before him, and his opponent emerged.
Park Siwoo’s eyes widened upon seeing it.
Pitch-black armor and a longsword in hand.
At that familiar sight, confusion crossed his face.
“……Seongwoo?”
No—the being before him couldn’t possibly be his friend.
The killing intent emanating from it was real.
No matter that Seongwoo had become a Demon, he had never shown hostility toward him like that.
That was precisely why he was doing all this—to meet Seongwoo.
To personally ask whether the time they spent together and the conversations they shared were real or fake.
So that Devil Knight before him was nothing more than a fake created by the Trial Tower.
At that moment, a blue message appeared before his eyes.
【Face your fear.】
The trial began the instant the message disappeared.
Boom!
With a violent explosion, Park Siwoo’s body was sent flying into the wall.
It was a movement too fast to follow with the eyes.
“Ugh……”
Groaning, Park Siwoo stood up, brushing off the dirt from his body.
If he hadn’t blocked the attack with his spear, his body would have been split in two.
The being before him resembled Yoo Sung-woo as he had last seen him.
But it likely didn’t reach the level of the real Yoo Sung-woo.
‘I’ve experienced this level of strength when fighting the Orc Warlord.’
And through countless trials, he himself had grown stronger.
Gripping his spear, Park Siwoo took his stance and glared at the fake before him.
A brilliant light burst forth from his spear.
Park Siwoo had never received formal training.
Unlike Dan Chun-woo or Helena, he had never learned any secret martial arts from a prestigious family.
Because his family was ordinary.
A father who worked as an office employee, and a kind mother.
He had never been dissatisfied with that life.
But the world saw it differently.
A promising rookie, yet a tragic genius lacking background.
People said that if he had been born into a better family, received early training, and consumed rare elixirs, he would have become one of the greatest Heroes in history.
Until now, he had ignored those words.
He firmly believed that with enough effort, he could crush all such evaluations.
But after the Hell Manifestation incident, his thoughts had changed slightly.
If only he had a proper master.
If only he had even a decent martial art.
Wouldn’t he have been able to reduce the number of casualties, even if just a little?
That sense of deficiency was the biggest reason Park Siwoo came to the Trial Tower.
Perhaps it was because of that longing.
His accumulated real combat experience and the unique power known as the Power of the Star—
Combined with the exceptional talent of Park Siwoo as a playable character, a new system was being formed.
And it was taking the shape of the very martial art he had long desired.
In ancient times, those who created their own martial systems were called Grandmasters.
Park Siwoo’s talent had begun to bloom brilliantly.
Soon, his spear shot forward toward the fake Yoo Sung-woo.