I begin breathing.
Inhale deeply, exhale lightly.
"Huuu."
Next to the bed in my room rests a brazier filled with firewood. Heat shimmers gently from within. Self-harm—I've lost count of how many times I've done this. Shoving a wad of cloth into my mouth, I thrust my hand into the brazier.
"...!"
A stream of curses automatically repeats in my mind.
Ten seconds. Count ten seconds.
It's gone beyond pain now; sensation is starting to disappear. Instead of the agony of burning flesh, a strange, foreign feeling flows up from my fingertips.
[Hero 'Han (★)' has acquired the 'Fire Resistance' skill!]
Finally.
I immediately pull my hand out. Raw, blistered burn marks meet my eyes. Turning my head away, I wait until the numbness recedes and feeling returns.
Time for the final test: comparing before and after acquiring Fire Resistance.
This time, I could endure for over 30 seconds. Grabbing the nearby water bucket, I immediately doused the flames. I didn't even want to look at it. Just as the fire completely died down, a new message popped up.
[Hero 'Aaron (★)' has acquired the 'Fire Resistance' skill!]
'He succeeded.' Aaron is patient. I expected as much.
But the remaining member is a different problem. Shortly after, Jenna came to my room, her eyes wet.
"I can't do it. Asking me to put my hand in fire..."
"Another option is to ask Iolka to burn you just enough not to kill you," I suggested, half-sarcastically.
"We don't have to do this, right? If I'd known this would happen, we should have picked that man!" she argued.
"...I'll help you."
I relit the fire in the brazier.
Jenna approached me, whimpering. I sat her on my lap and covered her eyes. To prevent her from biting her tongue in pain, I stuffed a wad of cloth into her mouth. Before her mouth was gagged, Jenna whispered softly, "Why me?"
Why me.
Dragged here without reason, forced to fight. Maybe those synthesized immediately upon arrival, without understanding anything, are happier than us. At least they don't feel pain.
Jenna passed out several times before finally acquiring the Fire Resistance skill.
The next day.
Edith's party entered the 9th floor.
Rumble rumble rumble.
The entire Waiting Room slowly trembled. It was a heavier vibration than when facilities were built—the shaking that occurs when ascending floors.
Not long after, Party 2 emerged. Edith's complexion wasn't good. Dika and Asher looked gaunt and staggered. I chuckled.
"Lost a limb or two?"
The two didn't answer, just dry-heaved. Roderick supported them and led them towards the dormitory.
"So, what was the mission?" I asked Edith.
"Subjugating a goblin settlement. About 50 of them."
"Anything else?"
"Asher and Dika..."
"Not that. Was there anything unusual about the place? Tell me everything strange you noticed."
Edith narrowed her eyes before answering. "The ground was muddy. Like after heavy rain."
"Muddy ground. Is that all?"
"I'm not sure about anything else."
"Got it."
Edith headed into the dormitory, looking exhausted. The battle must have been fierce; they seemed too drained even to train.
No sooner had Party 2 cleared out than Isele called out the next group.
[Han, Jenna, Aaron, Iolka!]
"I'm already here," I pointed out.
[Oh, right?]
Party 1 gathered. We entered the dimensional rift.
'Doesn't she intend to fill the fifth slot?'
The 10th floor was imminent, yet I couldn't figure out Amkena's plan. If she was going to fill the slot, she should have done it earlier. Bringing in a rookie from the Training Ground now seemed unlikely to work; there wouldn't be enough time to get them up to speed.
As the mirror on the left began to envelop the room, I spoke.
"Iolka!"
"What is it?"
"You heard what I said last time, right? Only use the first tier until I say otherwise."
"But..."
"No buts. Did you understand or not?"
"Y-Yes, I understand!"
"Good."
Through discussions with Iolka, I'd gotten a general understanding of how her magic worked. She currently belonged to what she called the 3rd Tier of Fire Magic.
1st Tier: The Ignition stage, summoning flames.
2nd Tier: The Incineration stage, making the flames explode.
3rd Tier: The Sublimation stage, making the explosion rotate with an updraft.
Mana consumption increased drastically with each tier, she'd explained.
[Floor 4.]
[Mission Type - Subjugation]
[Objective - Annihilate all enemies!]
[Goblin Lv.4 x 3]
[Harpy Lv.6 x 2]
A familiar forest we'd visited many times.
"Positions."
At my command, the party dispersed. Me in front, Aaron left, Jenna right, Iolka center—a triangular formation emphasizing protection of the central figure.
The goblins and harpies eyed us warily. They seemed to instinctively sense the vast difference in power and were already starting to back away slowly.
I stood still, sword and shield lowered, just watching.
"Kiaaa!"
Finally unable to restrain themselves, the two harpies charged at me. As I deflected their talons with my shield, I glanced back. Iolka was casting. Flames rose from her feet, reaching the top of her head.
'Now.'
[Incinerate!]
I casually sidestepped. A wave of fire surged forward, instantly engulfing the two harpies.
Jenna's follow-up arrows took down the remaining two goblins.
'Can't even use this for practice.'
[Stage Clear!]
['Iolka (★★★)' leveled up!]
[Reward – 2,000G, Iron Ore (C) x 1]
[MVP - 'Iolka (★★★)']
That battle brought Iolka to Level 4, the maximum level attainable on the 4th floor.
'My level 10, Jenna 8, Aaron 6, Iolka 4. Descending by 2 each time.'
We'd raised levels as much as possible.
The same applied to Edith's Party 2. Especially Edith—unlike when she first lost to Jenna and me, she was rapidly catching up. She had already raised her Low-Grade Dagger Mastery to Level 4, and in dagger sparring against Jenna, she could now win 6 or 7 times out of 10.
The 10th floor was steadily approaching.
I significantly increased the training intensity. From dawn till late night. No exceptions. Reduced rest time. All waking hours outside of eating and sleeping were dedicated to training.
"Shoot."
The usual arrow-blocking practice.
At first, I used a shield. At some point, I ditched the shield and started adding more challenging conditions.
"..."
Lately, I hardly sparred. My focus was almost entirely on arrow defense training. If I had concentrated on weapon techniques, I could have raised Low-Grade Sword and Shield Mastery to Level 6 much earlier. But I didn't. Awakening a new skill boosted overall combat power more than just leveling up a Tier 1 skill.
There was a skill I needed to acquire this time. No, a skill I'd been trying to obtain for a while.
Above and below. Two arrows shot from different directions simultaneously.
The moment they were fired, I could instinctively sense their trajectory. My sword naturally rotated to deflect them.
['Han (★)' has acquired the 'Projectile Defense' skill!]
['Han (★)'s 'Low-Grade Sword and Shield Mastery' has increased to Lv.6!]
'Projectile Defense.' A skill providing a significant bonus to defending against projectile weapons like arrows. It's a difficult skill to acquire, but I'd been consistently training for it and already had a good feel for it. If anything, this awakening felt overdue. Furthermore, since Projectile Defense is a type of weapon skill, it also raised my Low-Grade Sword and Shield Mastery simultaneously. Adding a few more skills like this would allow me to evolve Low-Grade Weapon Mastery to Intermediate.
"Oppa, you really get more amazing every day," Jenna muttered, sounding exasperated.
"Don't need compliments. Did you learn Switching?"
"Hmm, you mean this?"
Jenna shot an arrow at a wooden dummy 10m away and simultaneously slashed a nearby scarecrow with her dagger. The transition between weapons was fluid, seamless.
Checking her status window confirmed that the 'Switching' skill was properly acquired. It was one of the most useful skills for rogues, who value adaptability.
Even so, her learning speed was abnormally fast. This girl, despite being born a 1-star, possessed enormous potential. If I had been dragged here without any knowledge of Pick Me Up, I would have fallen far behind Jenna. An average 1-star would be around Aaron's level—Low-Grade Spearmanship at Level 3, but nothing more.
Aaron hadn't been coming to the training ground much lately. He was likely holed up in his room, practicing the Pain Tolerance I mentioned.
Iolka was training her magic in her dedicated training area within the Hall of Magic. My request was for her to reduce mana consumption by lowering firepower—using rapid-fire smaller spells is easier to manage than single large bursts.
Edith's Party 2 occupied the left side of the Training Ground, practicing formations. Combat seems similar everywhere; their setup resembled the front-mid-rear style. Under the guidance of the experienced Edith and Roderick, Asher and Dika dripped sweat.
And then there were those training awkwardly in a corner, belonging to neither group. Their stances were poor, their strength meager. They were 1-stars who hadn't been here long. Despite leveling up a few times on lower floors, their skill levels remained low.
'Does she intend to include those guys?' There were exactly two of them, coincidentally. Amkena showed no signs of summoning new heroes. Likely because she spent all her gems building the Hall of Magic. It seemed Amkena was also starting serious preparations for the 10th floor ascent.
With the Equipment Workshop operational, the party's gear had improved overall. Flimsy E-rank leather armor was enhanced to D-rank, reinforced with iron plates. Aaron and I also received daggers as secondary weapons.
And the two from the Training Ground joined mine and Edith's parties, respectively.
The 1-star who joined our party was named Shurnn. I tried including him in formation practice, but he often couldn't keep up. He also failed to acquire the Fire Resistance skill I required. If we had more time, I might have forced him to learn it, but judging by Amkena's actions, the 10th floor departure was imminent. It was better to use that time training the core four.
Ideally, I wanted to achieve a class promotion before we left. Just in time, the weekend arrived when all daily dungeons were open, so I visited the mine, but the rare monster never appeared.
That night, Aaron also acquired Pain Tolerance.
Preparations were complete.
Sitting at the desk in my room, analyzing the dungeons from Floor 6 to 9, the fluttering sound of wings tickled my ear.
It was Isele.
"What brings you here? Coming to find me?"
[Hey! Just checking if preparations are going well. So how is it, Loki? Finished predicting the mission? Can you cut through it like slicing tangled threads?]
"If I could do that, I'd be a god."
[You are a god!]
"If I were, I'd have cleared the 100th floor ages ago, idiot."
Master of Masters.
It's true that I was a top-tier player in Pick Me Up. But despite that, despite having that nickname, I never fully cleared Pick Me Up. Over two years, I only managed to reach the 88th floor. Unpredictable random patterns and devilishly designed traps wiped out dozens of my parties.
Masters in Pick Me Up grow through defeat. I was no different.
Amkena, however, doesn't know defeat yet. In her current state, the moment she learns defeat will likely be the moment of my death. The more I think about it, the more maddening it is—having to succeed in every single mission up to the 100th floor without a single failure.
'...'
Anxiety is a luxury I can't afford.
Just because the probability is low doesn't mean I intend to give up.
I banish the stray thoughts. Calm my mind.
My prediction: the 10th floor ascent is tomorrow.
Directly tomorrow.
The second boss stage I'll face since arriving here.