Tower of Trials

Trial Tower.

The main quest of this game.

The hero’s mission is to climb to the top of the Trial Tower and save the world.

Rumor has it that it has 100 floors, but there is no official information on how many floors it actually has.

The entrance to the Tower was a huge gate that even a giant could pass through, and darkness that didn’t allow one to see inside filled the entrance.

Americano stood at the entrance to the Trial Tower and looked around the Trial Square.

The Trial Square was an empty space where heroes were forming parties or waiting for party members.

‘But I’m not going to party up.’

The stubbornness to pursue solo play from the start excluded the option of forming a party with someone else.

[Outsider] Difficult to communicate.

[Hot-tempered] Lack of patience.

[Frail] Lacking stamina.

[Beautiful but ill-fated] Too much interference.

[Talented but ill-fated] Increased difficulty.

There were too many errors to play in a party.

Trial Tower.

The highest floor that has been conquered is the 81st floor.

19 floors remain until the rumored 100th floor.

At that rate in a year,

‘I’ll clear it all in the second year, right?’

Americano was determined.

“If I’m going to do it, it’s better to clear it first, right?”

They say you should set big goals.

Americano entered the Trial Tower.

[1st Floor]

An information window popped up.

It told her current floor.

As she passed through the darkness and into the light, a round arena-like stage greeted her.

In front of her, three goblins were holding clubs, ready to receive a new challenger.

“….”

Americano silently drew her sword.

When she drew her sword, she couldn’t see below.

‘Should I have made them a little smaller?’

No, I might have regretted it if I had.

There’s a saying that too much is as bad as too little, but it’ll be okay once I get used to it. When playing a customizable game, I always felt regretful if I made my chest smaller, didn’t I?

‘Even if it was a monitor game.’

The interest and curiosity about becoming a woman herself welled up anew, but for now, she decided to finish the first quest first.

[Main Quest]

[Conquer the 1st floor of the Trial Tower.]

It was exceedingly simple.

Americano used a skill.

[Enhancement]

She fended off the club with the [Enhancement]-ed sword.

The tougher sword easily cut through the club and pushed it away.

But the hand feel was quite burdensome.

She fended it off, but only the tip of the club was slightly cut.

The remaining part of the club, after being cut, was swung at Americano.

“Hoo…”

Come to think of it, she was prone to fatigue due to [Frail].

She came in without resting her tired body from swinging the sword in the training ground.

She thought she was okay, but perhaps the accumulated fatigue had built up, and as soon as she tried to move a little vigorously, she felt breathless.

“Did I choose Frail for nothing?”

But there weren’t many Gias that gave 10 points, and Frail was the only one worth choosing.

From 15 points onwards, there were conditions, and at 20 points, there were physical defects.

Other 10-point Gias included insomnia, drug addiction, and claustrophobia, which started with debuffs from the beginning.

On the other hand, [Frail] only reduced stamina and doubled the debuff effect. It didn’t start with a headache-inducing debuff from the beginning.

‘If it weren’t for those, I would have taken out Outsider or Hot-tempered and replaced them with something else.’

Anyway, she chose [Frail], and she couldn’t swap it out now.

Americano took a step back.

The three goblins rushed at her.

10 points of frail stamina.

But Americano had an [Enhancement]-ed sword and the talent to wield it.

“Gobuuul..!”

At that moment when they were raising their clubs.

Americano thrust her sword.

The sword pierced the goblin’s forehead.

“Goblin?!”

“Gooooobuuul!!!”

Taking advantage of the goblins’ confusion, she aimed the tip of her sword at another one.

Goblins also had reflexes. Goblins who had lived in the wild had perhaps sharper reflexes than humans.

But 10 points of frail stamina.

The slow sword movement was a beat late in positioning itself compared to the goblin’s defense.

The thrusting sword cut the wrist of Goblin 2.

“Goblin?!?!?”

“…Hoo.”

Just goblins.

She felt a little prideful that she had to struggle against goblins.

But the goblins that had rushed before her eyes like reality were small in stature, only reaching her waist, but they had the eyes of predators.

Goblins, I’m sure they were the epitome of cowardice, but is it different in Full Dive?

“….”

Americano maintained Magical Power in her sword and stepped lightly.

Moving her body lightly,

She swung her sword.

She minimized her [Frail] stamina and killed the goblins one by one.

[1st Floor Goblin Brothers – Clear]

[Rank] [SSS]

[First Clear Reward] [Demon King Stone]

[Solo Reward] [Wish Stone]

[Reward] [500 Gold]

“Cleared.”

The goblins turned to dust and disappeared.

Americano’s legs were shaking.

She collapsed to the floor.

Her stamina was depleted.

What did I even do to run out of stamina?

The stamina was too different from her real body.

All she did was lightly dodge the goblins’ slow attacks and thrust her sword into the gaps that even a slow stab could penetrate.

‘The sword was heavy, though.’

But that was it.

In terms of her real body, it was as hard as carrying 40 kilograms of rice and sprinting.

Even if she could handle her virtual body like her real body, there was a big difference in basic performance.

Americano was [Frail].

“Let’s rest for now.”

Rest and then go up.

She called up the status window.

<Information>

[Name] [CoffeeAddict]

[Gender] [Female]

[Alignment] [Neutral/Chaotic]

[Class] [Swordsman]

[Difficulty] [Grand Master]

<Stats>

[Level] [2]

[Strength] [10] [Stamina] [10]

[Sense] [10] [Spirit] [10]

[Magical Power] [10] [Luck] [10]

[Unallocated Points] [3]

Her level went up.

Charm.

Talent.

Where did they go?

She had no intention of putting points into those two, but those two disappeared from the stat window.

‘Come to think of it, I didn’t see the Charm and Talent stats in the game videos either, did I?’

It was a part that she didn’t pay much attention to, so her memory was hazy.

“I’ll find out later.”

It’ll be on the strategy site.

Americano was going to invest the added points in [Stamina], but she changed her mind.

You can ‘train’ in this game.

She took a push-up position.

Her chest touched the floor before her arms were even half bent.

“Ugh…”

She couldn’t even lift her body up and collapsed.

So she just held her arms slightly bent.

You can accumulate stats by training.

Full Dive reflects reality as much as possible, so it was possible to accumulate points through training in addition to the points gained from leveling up.

[Stamina] [+1]

Like this.

Fatigue had accumulated to the limit, but Americano stubbornly persevered.

[Stamina] [+1]

How long had she been doing it?

Her arms suddenly folded.

[Stamina] [12]

“Just one more.”

Americano, whose arms were trembling to take the push-up position again, started running on the 1st floor of the Tower.

She quickly ran out of breath, but she didn’t stop.

She was gasping for breath as if she was going to throw up, but

“Ugh.”

It’s virtual reality anyway.

Even if she treated her body roughly as if she was going to break it, there was no need to worry about aftereffects.

Even if it was painful and hurtful, it would all be rewarded.

What about the pain?

If you take away the fear of aftereffects, you can endure it as much as you want.

Whenever she thought that she was in a game where she didn’t have to worry about physical defects, Americano chuckled and regained her fatigued spirit.

[Stamina] [13]

It went up faster than she thought.

It was because it was the beginning.

In the beginning, it’s easy to raise anything.

<Stats>

[Level] [2]

[Strength] [11] [Stamina] [13]

[Sense] [10] [Spirit] [12]

[Magical Power] [10] [Luck] [10]

[Unallocated Points] [3]

Other stats also went up.

It was unexpected that [Spirit] went up.

You have to train with specific conditions for each stat to accumulate stats.

[Stamina] goes up when you push your stamina to the limit of fatigue, and

[Strength] goes up when you do training related to weight, as far as I remember.

What was [Spirit]?

I don’t remember the other stats very well either.

It’s because she thought she could find out later and just glanced at them lightly.

‘It’s not urgent right now anyway.’

Right now, she was only focused on conquering the Tower.

[2nd Floor]

After resting, she immediately went up to the 2nd floor.

The 1st floor was guarded by 3 goblins.

The 2nd floor was guarded by only one goblin.

Instead, the goblin’s equipment had changed.

A steel sword and even armor.

Didn’t it skip a bit too much?

Brief information was floating above the goblin’s head.

[2nd Floor Goblin Warrior]

Come to think of it, the monsters that appear on each floor are also random.

That red text.

It implied that the opponent was dangerous for Americano to face in terms of specs.

The goblins on the 1st floor were orange. Since there were 3 of them, if you think based on that, the goblin warrior didn’t seem like a very difficult opponent. Caution is essential, but you can’t move forward if you only think it’s difficult.

Since it’s a real battle where you don’t die even if you die, you can just try again even if you fail.

How many floors can I climb?

I want to go up to at least the 10th floor, but

“I’ll go as far as my stamina allows.”

Trial Square.

Rose was waiting for Americano to come out.

But the prey didn’t come out easily.

I definitely saw her go in, so why isn’t she coming out?

“Could she have noticed?”

“Come on, sis. That chest can’t be hidden just by changing clothes, can it?”

Americano had a transcendent chest that was not only beautiful but also felt powerful. No matter what disguise she came out in, she would stand out.

“But it’s strange that she hasn’t come out by this time. Let’s say she passed the 1st floor, isn’t she climbing higher than the 2nd floor?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Everyone knows that Americano is a hero who just graduated from the training center.

In order for a hero to become stronger, it is important to accumulate skill proficiency, but the most important thing is to climb the Tower and accumulate the realm of existence.

The goal of the Tower is to climb to the top and kill the existence of the end, but

The lower floors before reaching the top were sacred grounds built by God himself exercising power.

It was the most special place in this world where you can accumulate the power of existence, which does not die even if you die and can accumulate as you climb the Tower.

The level of that existence is called ‘level’, and the rookie hero who has just graduated is only level 1 at most.

Of course, breaking through the 1st floor is simple.

Cowardly goblins.

Stupid slimes.

Weak ants.

You can pass without any problems even if you are careless.

It just didn’t seem like that slender woman could swing a sword and safely break through the 1st floor. Can that slender arm even swing a sword properly? The thin forearms like a magician’s arm symbolized Americano’s weakness.

A beautiful flower that seemed like it would fall down immediately.

Even if this was a misunderstanding, Rose honestly didn’t care.

“Let’s say she fights better than she looks and climbed the Tower as you said. So what? At best, the 5th floor will be the end.”

Monsters start appearing in groups from the 5th floor of the Tower.

Several goblins appear.

Several slimes appear.

That level.

But if you get surrounded, you can be defeated.

For a novice hero who has no practical experience and has never faced a large number of enemies, the 5th floor was undoubtedly the first difficult section.

No matter how well Americano fights, the 5th floor will be the limit, so

Rose prepared a guest who was three times stronger, level 15, as a man to attack her.

The man’s subordinate returned.

“Where’s the guest?”

“I calmed him down. I explained how pretty she is, so he said he’d put up with it.”

“Tsk. Pervert. I wouldn’t ask a guy like that if he didn’t have a lot of money.”

The subordinates thought to themselves, ‘You’re the one who called him, sis,’ and passed it over silently.

5 hours had passed since Americano entered the Tower.

Clang!

Americano deflected the Orc warrior’s sword to the side and turned to the Orc warrior’s back.

She wrapped Magical Power around her feet and tripped the Orc warrior’s legs, then pressed down on the Orc warrior’s back with her weight.

She was overwhelmingly behind in terms of size, so there was almost no meaning in pressing down.

“Orc-eut!!”

Just as the Orc warrior was trying to get up and shake her off, she inserted a dagger through the gap in his helmet and killed the Orc warrior.

Even a trained warrior had parts that could not be trained.

That place is called a vital point.

With Americano’s strength, which could not deeply cut the Orc’s trained muscles even with an [Enhancement]-ed sword, there was nowhere to aim except for the vital points.

The heart area. The place commonly called the solar plexus was the most representative vital point.

But it was very risky because it was inside the Orc warrior’s arms.

If she approached carelessly, she would be the one to be defeated. If she swung her sword, she would be grabbed by the Orc warrior and her whole body would be broken.

Americano, who was already [Frail].

Every time she climbed a floor and leveled up, she increased her [Strength] and [Stamina] through training, but her stamina was at rock bottom compared to the same level of stats.

She was tired, so her overall movements were bad.

She rested, but where would the accumulated fatigue go?

Dodging was okay, but

Penetrating was very risky.

Besides, everyone knows that the solar plexus is a vital point.

There was no way the Orc ‘warrior’ wouldn’t know that.

It was possible to defend by concentrating Magical Power.

Even trained muscles blocked the sword strikes that way.

If he knew how to inject Magical Power into his leather cuirass like he injected Magical Power into his axe, it would be a moth flying into the fire, regardless of the risk.

‘Besides, it was strange from the start that he deliberately left his arms open.’

That’s why she aimed for the area that looked the most defensively solid.

Only the helmet that protected the head was made of steel.

That must mean he wasn’t confident in protecting his head.

Even if he didn’t wear a helmet, if he strengthened his skull with Magical Power, her sword would be blocked because it was [Frail].

Even though it was a momentary judgment,

That’s why she aimed under the chin.

Soft muscles were located there.

Whether it was because even a trained warrior didn’t train his tongue muscles, he couldn’t block the [Enhancement]-ed dagger and was penetrated not only by the skull but also by the helmet where the Magical Power had been released.

[20th Floor Orc Elite Warrior – Clear]

[First Clear Reward] [Demon King Stone×20,]

[Solo Reward] [Wish Stone×20]

[Reward] [10,000 Gold]

The Orc warrior turns to dust and disappears. Her severed left hand and minor injuries from the Orc warrior were also cleanly washed away.

Every time she cleared a floor, she recovered all injuries, including physical defects.

Only fatigue remained, weighing heavily on her body.

“Hoo…”

Americano could sense it after defeating the Orc warrior.

Ah, I’m going to die on the next floor.

She said she would do it until she died, but time had passed quite a bit as she barely crawled up with her [Frail] stamina.

‘I fought well enough for this much.’

It’s been a while since I haven’t died, and there’s no need to end it with a death penalty.

After resting for a while,

She left the Tower.

While stretching as she came out of the Trial Tower, she heard a scream, “Kyaaaa!!!”