Hyun-woo opened his eyes lying under a tree. Surrounding him all around were trees towering over the ground. It was almost impossible to see the sky above the canopy of the trees.
Right after the tutorial, they were teleported to the 1st floor, however, neither of them got a moment to take a proper look at what was around them then.
"Welcome back, Your Highness". Jin-soo stood up while wiping the grass and dirt off his legs.
"Where are we? What happened?"
Realizing he felt no pain, he pressed his hands over his body, only to find no wounds. No blood. They hadn't been healed, there was just no trace of them.
It looked like what had happened was all a dream. But there was no way it could've been.
Something had healed all the injuries Hyun-woo got during the trial.
"It's been an hour since you collapsed all of a sudden."
"I blacked out…?"
Since such a trial was never mentioned in TTC (The Tower of Chaos), Hyun-woo didn't know about the relation of time between this world and where he was transported to.
"It didn't feel like an hour in there," he murmured, resting his chin on his hand, voice low enough that Jin-soo barely caught it.
Facing Jin-soo, "I got teleported to a different realm of some sort for a trial after choosing a class."
"A trial? What do you mean a trial? I didn't get one." "It must've had way better rewards if there was a trial for it." "This is cheating. You're like the favourite child of this tower. I bet you got a mythical class or something."
"It really wasn't fun, and definitely not something mythical."
Status Window. Nothing showed up in front of Hyun-woo. Status Window. No response again. Hyun-woo just wanted to check if he really didn't have a status window anymore.
There was only stern silence in place of somewhere a chime would usually ring.
The system no longer acknowledged him as one who had a Status Window. But he could see the System screen with the information about the objectives the same as before.
He could no longer use any of the skills he had obtained but his stats remained the same. Now, he had to find a new way to get stronger and survive.
Hyun-woo didn't know it yet but losing his class wasn't a curse. It was only the beginning of the journey of someone who would reach far beyond the tower's design.
"Alright. Let's get a move on", said Hyun-woo. It's gonna be a pain in the ass not being able to use those skills.
"Hey, speaking of which, what class did you choose?"
Jin-soo held up his index and middle finger, "Well, it was between Cleric and Arcane Mage and I went with Arcane Mage."
[System Message]
Class Acquired: Arcane Mage
A wielder of pure magical energy, able to shape raw mana into offensive and defensive forms.
Active Skills:
Magic Bolt (Lvl.1) - Launches a focused burst of mana energy.
Arcane Shield (Lvl.1) - Forms a temporary barrier to deflect or absorb attacks.
Arcane Nova (Lvl.1) - Condenses pure mana into an unstable singularity before detonating it in a massive explosion. (Takes time to prepare)
Passive Skills:
Magic Sense - Allows detections of surrounding mana fluctuations and energy signatures.
"Really? I thought you would've gone with Cleric. It kinda suits you, you know", in a whimsical and sarcastic manner, unable to hold his chuckle, replied Hyun-woo.
"Yeah. Yeah. Very funny," Jin-soo glanced at him. "You really aren't getting any funnier, you know." "Honestly, with how strong my class is, I could maybe even beat you."
"Keep dreaming. I'd be able to beat you without using my right hand."
[System Message]
Welcome to the 1st Floor
Objective: Obtain 1000 Points.
Time Remaining: 14 Days
[System Message]
You can gain points by killing monsters or each other.
Stronger monsters offer more points.
Top 10 players will receive extra rewards.
Okay, here we go. Hyun-woo drew a long, slow breath. This is gonna be chaos now. I hope I don't need to fight other people in this round.
"It took a while for the objective to show up." "Hey Hyun-woo, what are we gonna do?"
"Let's just move from here for now, and be careful there are some dangerous monsters all over the place."
While Hyun-woo could no longer use skills obtained from the system, he had gotten used to them and was able to somewhat imitate them. His natural instinct and perception had also become way better.
"You never said wh–", a sharp, thorny poisonous vine camouflaged within the lush, overgrown grass sliced through the air and accelerated towards Jin-soo.
Jin-soo sidestepped out the way, "Woah! What the hell. That's rude, at least give me a warning."
Drawing his katana, Hyun-woo severed the vine without much effort. "This is annoying to deal with." "Get accustomed to using your skills."
The pair darted towards where the vine attacked from, with Hyun-woo leading from the front. All the while, Hyun-woo cutting the vines and dodging them, and Jin-soo using his skills Magic Bolt and Arcane Shield.
"It's the one to your left", Jin-soo revealed.
At first glance, it appears as just a normal tree but after someone notices it, it transforms into a monster with a ghoulish, evil grin. It reveals flappy long branches and attacks with hard, droopy and poisonous vines over long distances.
Hyun-woo evaded the vines skillfully and just as he reached the monster, it spewed out a lethal poison from its mouth as a last ditch attempt.
"Jin-soo, do it now."
An arcane shield materialized in front of Hyun-woo to fend the poison off.
In the end, at point blank range, it was easy for him to split the monster into two smooth parts.