Overgeared

Chapter 1867

The inside of the Tower That Grows Stronger As One Climbs It was very spacious. It was different from when looking at it from the outside.

‘Every time I see this, I think it is a good thing that I have Eat Spicy Jokbal.’

A player with the ability to create an instance dungeon—Eat Spicy Jokbal was the only one.

The dungeons he built were always useful. In particular, the tower he made this time was special. In just a few days, the tower had risen to 227 floors. If it continued to rise like this, wouldn’t it really reach Asgard?

Lauel’s seemingly far-fetched conjecture started to be credible. However, it would probably take at least 1,000 floors to be seen properly.

‘1,000 floors...’

It felt so far away, but also surprisingly close. It took Kraugel just a week to reach the 227th floor. Additionally, the pace of his climb increased every day. It was thanks to the rewards obtained every time a new floor was conquered. This meant that the climber’s growth rate might be faster than the speed at which the boss monster that appeared in 10 floor increments became stronger.

‘Let’s only struggle up to the 50th floor.’

Baal—Grid felt hopeless about having to fight that damn cockroach again, but he breathed in deeply and soothed his mind. Then he took a lunch box out of his inventory. It was the lunch box that Irene made when she woke up at dawn. She even baked the bread herself.

Last night—she hadn’t forgotten Grid’s words that he should finish his rest and resume his activities.

‘Meat, garlic, meat, meat...’

Was garlic the only vegetable...? Why? He wasn’t complaining about the side dishes. He was just puzzled. It was very different from the diet organized by Irene, who often tried to feed Lord vegetables at family meals.

Grid was cocking his head when he found a note from Irene and opened it.

-You have been amazing every night lately. I prepared a lunch box with the hope that my dear husband will maintain your vitality even when you return from a great cause. Please enjoy it and have strength.

“......”

He thought he would have to work hard tonight as well... Grid read Irene’s inner thoughts and was motivated. It had only been a day or two since he became a beast every night. Every time he turned into a beast, he would think, ‘Is this really okay?’ He felt uneasy about it.

Grid had four people to love. Irene might not know it, but every time she fainted, Grid alternately visited Mercedes, Basara, and Marie Rose. He tried his best with the thought that it wasn’t right to leave his wives alone when he had broken the limit using the wish stone acquired from killing Baal. It was worthwhile, but...

Grid slowly chewed every piece of meat and garlic carefully packed in the lunch box while glaring at the entrance of the 10th floor, which lurked beyond the 9th floor. It shouldn’t take half a day this time...

Grid completely changed his mindset and ignited his fighting spirit.

‘Six hours. Kill him in six hours.’

After the success of the hell expedition, Grid had grown exponentially stronger. It wasn’t just because of additional factors such as the stats redistribution, Baal’s power, and Amoract’s power. It was simply because his specs itself had gone up significantly. After surpassing level 1,000, he secured a large number of stat points and even enjoyed the awakening effect.

On the other hand, Baal would be exactly as Grid remembered. Infinite resurrection was impossible. Baal was no longer an object of fear. Of course, Baal would have a passive ability to overcome death, but there would always be a limit to the number of times.

“Let’s go.”

[Thanks to the effect of the ‘Empress’ Lunch Box,’ all stats are increased by 30% for 30 minutes.]

The food buff effect was also more than expected. As expected, the power of love was a great thing...

Grid realized it and entered the 10th floor where Baal welcomed him as before. Of course, he didn’t say anything. This was just his appearance. He might look like Baal and use the same abilities, but he couldn’t think.

[’Demon Sword Remnants’ has reacted.]

If Grid encountered an enemy, the first one to move was no longer Grid. It was the dark demon sword. The three meter long sword, which subtly emitted a blood red glow from the cracks carved everywhere, reacted and acted before Grid.

The tower shook in the aftermath of the collision between demon sword and demon sword. It was a shaking that only Grid felt.

In any case, it was an instance dungeon. Grid moved without hesitation. He didn’t care at all about the tower collapsing and invested all his stats in intelligence to cast magic. He reached Baal one step ahead of the magic bombardment he fired earlier and swung Defying the Natural Order. Naturally, he changed his stats to be invested into strength.

“”...Kuock...!””

Baal couldn’t even utter a proper scream.

He trembled in pain in the aftermath of being cut by Grid, who had dug into his right side that was defenseless after he blocked the demon sword that suddenly flew in. Then Baal was swept away by the magic bombardment that rained down shortly afterwards. He didn’t even have a chance to fight back.

“Um...?”

Stagger.

Baal started to receive the attack of the God Hands in addition to the demon sword and he resisted with precarious movements. His whole body was covered with wounds, so he had a lot of restrictions in his movements. Grid observed his wounds recovering in real time and questioned it. ‘The ability to recover quickly is the same as the real one, so why is he so weak?’

Was it because the boss that appeared every ten floors was weaker than the original? If he knew this would happen, he wouldn’t have run away on the first day and would’ve just beaten Baal up...

Grid clicked his tongue and twisted his upper body to the side. His eyes were fixed on Baal, who was heading toward him after breaking through the encirclement of the God Hands. Baal’s demon sword passed by the tip of Grid’s nose and the afterglow of Defying the Natural Order shone on it.

Pagma’s Sword Dance obtained after completing the class quest—one of them, Splendor, was activated. Splendor was the only one of Pagma’s Sword Dance’s that had a different style. It wasn’t a dance move. Instead, magic power was given to the sword and spread a brilliant splendor. In a sacrificial sense, it meant wanting the attention of the gods. In practical terms, it increased the power of the sword.

It was a buff skill.

Pagma's Successor—a trash class with poor buff skills. It was designed so that he could only pretend to be a person after he completed the class quest...

[The weapon’s attack power will increase by three times for 15 seconds. Within the duration of the buff, the power of the first sword dance is increased by 800%, the power of the second sword dance is increased by 1,200%, the power of the third sword dance is increased by 2,000%, and the power of the fourth sword dance is increased by 3,500%.]

Grid turned back his torso that had been twisted and his sword descended. It was another sword dance that he got after completing the class quest, Chop. It was similar to Pinnacle, but it was different. Pinnacle was a sword dance that was unconditionally a downward swing, while Chop could be used in all types of forms, like a basic hit. It could be used when cutting down, cutting up, or cutting diagonally.

The attack coefficient was low, but the utility was endless. In most situations, it was good to use it as a leading move of a linked sword dance.

Baal’s back was cut and his posture broke. Then he was hit by Grid’s six fusion sword dance. action

Fusion. In other words, thanks to becoming one, it fully received the buff effect of Splendor.

Several notification windows popped up.

[Baal has overcome death.]

[Baal has overcome death.]

[Baal has overcome...]

……

…

‘As expected, he isn’t someone who dies easily.’

He noticed from this moment that the super-fast recovery ability was the same as the real thing. The 10th floor Baal might be weaker than the real thing, but he wouldn’t die easily. In the worst case, he might have to fight for half a day...

Grid frowned and immediately linked a new six fusion sword dance. It was possible thanks to the Chop sword dance. Chop really got rid of the delay caused by the motion right after the fusion sword dance ended. It was an extreme use of the advantages of Chop, which could be activated in most situations. Thanks to this, Baal was unable to resist the six fusion sword dance that was linked without a time difference and allowed it to hit him again. The sword dance also carried the buff effect of Splendor this time.

Once the third six fusion sword dance was linked in the same way, Baal failed to resist again. As a result, he died.

“...Huh?”

He already died?

‘Even if this is the 10th floor, isn’t it too fragile compared to the real thing?’

It hurt so much that he gave up on the first day... Grid was once again filled with regret. Then dozens of cards popped up in front of his eyes. It was all the back of the cards.

Every 10 floors, he could reveal up to 20 cards. Every time he revealed them, the rewards would appear and he could choose seven of them. The ratings ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5. The higher, the better.

‘Please let it be 5. A tier 5 reward.’

Grid prayed and opened a card.

[Tier 2 Soul Enhancement Stone]

[You can get 100 stat points when you take it.

It applies only in the tower.]

“...Very good.”

It was positive that it wasn’t tier 1. It meant he wasn’t completely out of luck. As expected, it was thanks to his high luck stat.

Grid took it positively and opened the remaining 19 cards at once. The result was one tier 4 card and 18 tier 2-3 cards. Furthermore, there were no rewards that could be taken out. They were buff rewards that only applied inside the tower.

“Don’t go overboard.”

Grid was able to endure the urge to swear severely. The fact that not a single tier 1 card was displayed meant that the effect of the luck stat was working properly. It was just that his innate bad luck was so strong that a tier 5 card didn’t pop up...

“...Thinking like this makes me even angrier?”

If he had gone through this just a few weeks ago, he wouldn’t have calmed down so easily. But the current Grid easily calmed down. Based on the fact that Baal’s level was lower than expected, he decided that it wasn’t a big deal.

‘After all, I still get rewards every time I climb a floor.’

Above all, his soaring anger easily subsided when he thought of the faces of his loved ones.

‘I need to hurry if I want to go home early.’

Grid burned with the desire to be with his beautiful wives. The power of beauty. No, the power of love was such a great thing. Those who hadn’t experienced it wouldn’t know. For example, Vantner had no experience.

“Is he crazy?”

Thanks to the rewards from the tower, Vantner had access to higher level hunting grounds. He had been trying to go forward, only for his progress to be blocked again. Therefore, he went back to the tower, only to be shocked. It was due to the status of the rankings.

Grid, who had just entered the tower this morning, was already ranked 10th.

“A bug? How did he climb 180 floors in half a day?”

The level of the boss monster that appeared in the tower was ‘the same as the real thing.’ Additionally, they got stronger as the floors got higher, so they eventually transcended the real thing. Of course, the climber also got stronger due to the steady stream of buffs, but it was barely able to balance out unless the climber was lucky enough to get a tier 5 buff. This meant that the climbing speed didn’t increase significantly.

Grid’s climbing speed was clearly abnormal. It was all the more so considering that it took him over a day to defeat Baal not long ago.

Eat Spicy Jokbal explained it to Vantner, who was feeling great confusion. “It seems that he only chose the buffs that only applied in the tower as the reward for each climb.”

“What? Then isn’t there nothing left?”

“You know that there has been too much attention on him. It must’ve been an inevitable choice to save face.”

“Ah, really... Grid has it tough in many ways. No... Isn’t this still too fast...?”

“...It is because he is ridiculously strong.”

Eat Spicy Jokbal trembled with fear. Grid’s strength as he killed Baal within 10 minutes every time he encountered Baal every ten floors was beyond common sense. He had become exponentially stronger compared to the time when he went on the hell expedition not long ago. It seemed that the reward for raiding Baal alone was greater than imagined.

“This damn thing.”

In the midst of the solemn atmosphere, Peak Sword rushed in. He checked the ranking of Grid, who had been chasing him from the bottom, with a disbelieving face and hurriedly entered the tower.

‘Of course, I knew he would catch up eventually. But it is ridiculous to catch up in one day. I can’t accept it.’

I also have to save some face...

I’ll also choose buffs that only applied in the tower as the rewards...

Peak Sword noticed the secret to Grid’s high-speed climb and was prepared, but it was useless. Just because he only wanted buffs didn’t mean he only received buffs. It was only possible with bad luck.

Grid ended up encountering it thanks to his bad luck. As a result, it could be said that he was lucky.

His achievement of reaching the top of the list in just one day after he started the climb made people cheer again.