Volume 1

## Plot

### **Pocket Watch**

Cha Yeon-woo had returned back to Korea from Africa where he served as a Sergeant in a Special Forces Unit. The reason behind his return was the "Obituary" of the death of his younger twin brother, Cha Jeong-woo that he received. Thus, he held a funeral for his brother. Later, while going through the articles of his deceased brother, he noticed a pocket watch that he himself had gifted to his brother. Despite being rusty and broken, it suddenly started working as Yeon-Woo touched it.

Through the pocket watch, a hologram of his brother appeared and flooded inside his brain. It contained his brother's memories as a diary. Yeon-Woo learned that a few years ago his brother was transported to a brand new world which contained the Tower of the Sun God - Obelisk. There, his brother learned that he could obtain an elixer to cure his ailing mother if he reached the top of the tower.

His brother began climbing the tower with people that he met and created a clan called Arthia. Due to their extreme climbing speed, the contemporary clans, who wanted to maintain the status quo, began harassing them. However, Arthia fought back. Eventually, many of the big clans waged war against them but they defeated the alliance and became the most famous clan in the Tower. Arthia became one of the ten largest clans in the Tower and Jeong-woo became the ninth strongest person in the Tower while the people he began climbing with all became high rankers.

A few years later, Arthia became the fifth strongest clan. However, soon after, traitors began emerging within the clan and the members began to lose trust in each other. A few months later, Jeong-woo finally managed to get his hands on the elixer, however, he was alone and on the run from the alliance of the remaining top eight clans, except One-Horned Tribe. Everyone that he trusted had betrayed him. He died after being stabbed in the heart with swords tipped with Divine Iron by his former lover, Viera Dune, his former companions, Leonte and Bahal, the leader of Red Dragon, Summer Queen, and Gluttonous Emperor, a maniac that wished to eat Jeong-woo's dragon flesh.

### **Tutorial**

Yeon-woo obtained his brother's Dragon Body, a legacy he inherited from Ancient Dragon Kalatus on the 11th floor, which allowed him to obtain a transform into a dragon and display its awesome might. However, it required Yeon-woo to grow his Vessel - his body and soul - before he could obtain the entire legacy. At the moment, he was only able to complete 5% of the succession process. Then, he resigned from the military and went to the place connecting to the Tower according to his brother's memories. He wore a mask on his face to avoid anyone from connecting him to Jeong-woo, his identical twin brother, to catch his brother's murderers unaware and avenge him.

At the start of the Tutorial, Yeon-woo met Yvlke, one of the 12 Zodiacs and the manager of the Tower's Tutorial. Yvlke informed him that it had been a week since the month-long tutorial began which would lead him to be at a disadvantage and suggested that Yeon-woo wait until the next tutorial. However, Yeon-woo decided to proceed with this tutorial since he was confident he could pass through the seven sections within three weeks with the help of the knowledge he gained from his brother's memories.

#### Section A

The first section required the user to pass through a corridor filled with arrow traps which they had to either avoid or block. For different actions, the user was rewarded differently. For example, if he blocked a group of arrows with a weapon, his Strength rose by one, if he blocked a group of arrows with his body, his Health rose by one, and if he dodged a group of arrows, his Dexterity rose by one. Soon, however, Yeon-woo realized that among the group of arrows there was one arrow that had a colored arrowhead. The colors ranged from red, blue and yellow. After some experimentation, Yeon-woo concluded that blocking a red arrow with a weapon raised his Strength by three, blocking a yellow arrow with his body raised his Health by three, and dodging a blue arrow raised his Dexterity by three.

Through his superhuman perseverance, after 34 hours, Yeon-woo finally managed to reach the safe zone where the player's wounds were completely healed. Exhausted, he fell asleep. As he woke up, he found himself face-to-face with a strange man who he realized was the Mysterious Merchant, the Tower's shop system. He used all 55 his stat points to exchange for 10 Section A Reset Tickets that would allow him to redo Section A. Through the use of the reset tickets, he did Section A, again and again, each time increasing his clear speed and the amount of stat points earned. By his tenth attempt, he only required 4 hours to finish the section and earned over 200 stat points in total. He also greatly increased the mastery of his two skills: **Sense Strengthening** and **Draconic Eyes**. Finally, he moved on the boss room.

The boss room required him to first go through traps and then defeat 88 copper scarecrows to move to Section B. Initially, he had some trouble defeating the solid scarecrow but with some advice from Yul and the use of his **Draconic Eyes**, Yeon-woo easily managed to locate its core and destroy it. Yeon-woo offered to take Yul, who had been abandoned by his teammates, to the safe zone of Section B in exchange for Yul teaching him how to feel and see mana. The latter instantly agreed and taught Yeon-woo a lot about mana while moving towards the exit.

#### Section B Safe Zone

Yeon-woo finally reached Section B and became the center of attention since the people residing in the safe zone were able to guess that he solo-cleared Section A. However, he didn't care about them since he realized that they were all dropouts - people that gave up after barely clearing Section A. He then parted way with Yul who seemed reluctant but didn't stop him. Just as Yeon-woo left, Yul's former teammates that abandoned him, approached him. He reproached them and told them to get lost. They apologized and wanted him to keep what they did to him a secret. Yul was so miffed that he didn't give them any response. Vexed, Kaen, the leader of Yul's former team, decided to kill Yul so that he doesn't spill the beans about their dirty deeds. He was willing to do this because he and his team were on track to being recruited by Arangdan - a subsidiary of Cheonghwado - one of the nine top clans in the Tower. However, Arangdan was very particular about its recruits and only wanted people with a spotless record. Just as Kaen was about to draw his sword, Yeon-woo appeared and cut off his right arm.

Yeon-woo inwardly cursed himself for getting involved in someone else's business, however, he couldn't stop himself once he saw the image of Yul being betrayed by his teammates. Yul's face kept overlapping with his brother's who had been similarily backstabbed by his teammates. Thus, he decided to protect Yul. He snapped Kaen's spine, crippling him and then proceeded to attack the remaining enemies and also crippled the three of them. Yul heartily thanked Yeon-woo, who adviced the former to visit Freesia Garden, a place where he could grow his gift of being able to see mana to become an Enchanter.

Right after Yeon-woo left, two men among the dropouts became highly interested in the battle prowess he displayed. They didn't seem to care that Yeon-woo had earned the ire of Arangdan by crippling its recruits and, instead, wanted to recruit him to join them. Thus, they followed him.

### Section B

Meanwhile, Yeon-woo had arrived at the entryway to Section B. The entryway had four different colored gates: White, Blue, Red and Black, from left to right. Yeon-woo recalled that Jeong-woo chose the blue door and regretted it since he missed a great weapon that could only be found behind the black door. Thus, Yeon-woo chose the black door. The first trial within Section B was the Pond of Heavyweight Water. Yeon-woo avoided it and found the hidden switch which opened the secret dungeon, Room of Frost and Flame, which hid the Temple of the Vampire Lord where Bathory's Vampiric Dagger was located. Within the dungeon, he entered the Cave of White Moss where he encountered the beast known as Red O-Gong. After a fierce struggle that left his body in tatters, he prevailed. During the battle, he obtained two skills: **Physical Resistance** and **Combat Will**. Due to having lost a lot of blood in the battle, he was on the verge of losing consciousness. Still, he somehow forced himself to move and put some white moss in his mouth which immediately melted and flowed down his throat. Then, he chomped onto the heart of the deceased Red O-Gong. The water property of the white moss combined with the fire property within the Red O-Gong's heart and created a piece of "Flame Heart and Frost Crest," causing Yeon-woo's physique to strengthen.

Yeon-woo then continued forward while killing monsters and consuming their hearts along with white moss. By the time he reached the colony of Blue Army Ants, his "Flame Heart and Frost Crest" was 16.2% completed. Even though Yeon-woo had killed over a hundred monsters on his journey, thus far, they had been killed in groups of less than five. However, he knew that once he attacked one ant, the remaining hundreds of ants would immediately learn of his presence and attack him together. Even he could not defeat hundreds of monsters simultaneously. Thus, he devised a method to slaughter all the ants without directly engaging them in combat. He grounded the remains of monsters with fire property into powder which he then scattered all over the closed cave and set the powder on fire. This resulted in a massive explosion which injured almost 400 Blue Army Ants such that 217 ants were blasted to bits, 89 ants were burned, and 92 ants were suffocated to death. He then rushed into the ant tunnel to locate the Temple of The Vampire Lord when his path was blocked by the severely injured Blue Army Ant Queen. Through the simultaneous use of his **Combat Will** and **Sense Strengthening**, Yeon-woo managed to locate the temple and rushed inside it while evading the Ant Queen.

Inside the temple, he saw a statue that stood right in the middle of an altar, glowing with a crimson aura. The statue depicted a woman with snake-shaped hair and long sharp fangs. Her lifelike eyes gave off the illusion of her coming alive. The woman was none other than Erzsebet Bathory, the Vampire Lord, and in her hand was a dagger. The dagger was about 30 centimeters long, and had a handle with a reddish tint and an azure blade uniquely shaped like a lightning bolt. The dagger was none other than Bathory's Vampiric Dagger. After Yeon-woo picked up the dagger, it attempted to corrupt him through his right hand, however, thanks to Jeong-woo's memories, he knew how to control it and return the dagger back into being a skill. He raised the dagger and stabbed the back of his left hand. Suddenly, the black energy that attempted to corrupt him began to withdraw. Then, it poured down and congealed on the back of his left hand and his palm. It turned into a skill that Yeon-woo absorbed.

Yeon-woo then exited the temple and rushed towards the screeching Ant Queen. He jumped on top of her head and used his newly obtained skill **Bathory's Vampiric Dagger** which chomped down onto its head and absorbed all its vitality. Yeon-woo gained a few stat points and his "Flame Heart and Frost Crest" more than doubled, reaching 35.9%. He then feasted on the stat of the remaining 311 ants and killed all of them before leaving the collapsing ant tunnel. Soon, he managed to complete his "Flame Heart and Frost Crest" after he killed his 1,000th monster, a Brown-scaled Salamander. This caused him to obtain the trait, **Reinforced Physique**, which greatly improved his Vessel and resumed the halted succession process from 5% to 21.3%, thus, evolving his **Incomplete Dragon Body** to **Immature Dragon Body**.

Meanwhile, the two "dropouts" had been following behind Yeon-woo and were surprised to see traces of him deliberately fighting the strong monsters inside the dungeon. What left them even more surprised was the fact that Yeon-woo seemed to be getting stronger as he went deeper into the dungeon since there were fewer signs of struggle compared to the battlefield where Yeon-woo fought the Red-O-Gong, despite the fact that monsters deeper into the dungeon tended to be stronger. However, what left them utterly shellshocked were the dried up carcasses of the Blue Army Ants, a phenomenon that could only be caused by the use of an energy drain skill, something few high-rankers possessed. Finally, they managed to catch up to Yeon-woo but he sensed them before they could sense him. He believed they must be experts of Arangdan since they were able to reach quite close to him without him noticing. Thus, he threw his dagger towards the weaker looking individual who was surprised to suddenly see a dagger flying at him. His companion blocked it and yelled at Yeon-woo. Yeon-woo argued back that anyone would be suspicious if someone tracked them like so. The two realized their mistake and apologized. Then, Kahn, the third on the ranking, outright invited Yeon-woo to join his team. Doyle, 11th on the ranking, turned his embarrassed face away while Yeon-woo wondered "who is this moron?"

After learning of their identities as top rankers in the tutorial, Yeon-woo was a little suspicious that they imposters since he presumed that top rankers should be in Section E or Section F. However, thanks to his **Draconic Eyes** indicating that they were telling the truth, he believed them. When asked about their purpose in following him, Doyle stated that they wished to team up with him to obtain an artifact from Section E, but they required at least three or four members in their team. They stated that people in Section E and Section F usually have teammates which made it hard to recruit anyone since their plans could be leaked. Thus, they came to Section B to find a capable player to team up with. Yeon-woo realized that they must be looking for Lizardmen King Hargan's crown. However, Yeon-woo wasn't interested in it since the crown only had an option that increased Dignity and Leadership which was useless for a one-man-army like himself. Still, he agreed to team up with them if they let him take everything else in Hargan's lair except for the crown. Kahn and Doyle acquiesced.

The three then exited the dungeon and planned to cross the Pond of Heavyweight Water. Kahn was shocked to see Yeon-woo easily swimming through the pond filled with extremely dense water, but he managed to do the same without much trouble. Doyle, on the other hand, walked across a bridge made of flies that continue to extend as he moved across the pond. Yeon-woo determined that he must be an Insect Tamer capable of entomopathy. Meanwhile, Bild, the leader of Arangdan, was notified that Yeon-woo was in Section B so he planned to lead a few members to teach him a lesson for harming Arangdan's recruits. However, he was also notified that Kahn and Doyle had most likely teamed up with Yeon-woo, despite knowing that Arangdan was looking for him.

### Section C

Yeon-woo cleared Section C easily, as he literally 'swept' past the monsters that stood in his way. Unlike previous sections that consisted of a straight path, Section C was a labyrinth formed by dozens of complex caves connected like a cobweb with a single exit. At the end of the maze, a den of a Hobgoblin and hordes of Goblins was located. The monsters regarded players in Section C as intruders who were invading their den, so they continuously sent scouts to prevent players from advancing. Thus, the player had to advance by either avoiding the scouts or exterminating them. If they were caught, they might have to face the whole tribe of Goblins. No matter how skilled players were, they couldn't match such an overwhelming number of monsters. In brief, the goal in Section C was finding a way out of the maze while playing hide-and-seek with Goblins, and that was how most players cleared Section C. Yeon-woo, however, ignored all of the rules. He pushed forward as if he didn't care about whoever came to fight him. Naturally, his method caused a huge disturbance throughout the whole den. Hearing the news of this massacre, Goblins swarmed at Yeon-woo, but he achieved victory by simply clashing head-on with them. And soon after that, he also took the Hobgoblin's life.

### Section D

Yeon-woo similarily crossed Section D. Even the Trolls, said to be one of the hardest monsters to beat even with a party of five or more players, were slain with a single strike. Yeon-woo then proceeded to calmly dissect the carcasses of the Trolls without showing any sign of fatigue. He stated that their blood is an important ingredient for brewing health potions, while their tendons and leather are also great materials for other items.

### Section E -> Outer Area

The tutorial could be roughly categorized into two areas: the Inner Area and Outer Area. The Inner Area referred to the first areas ranging from Section A to Section D, which were designed to help new players realize their level of skill and to train in what they lacked. The Outer Area referred to the later areas ranging from Section E to Section G, which tested the skills that players had trained in the Inner Area and had them attest to their qualifications.

The challenge of Section E was similar to a deathmatch. Each player was given one Token and they had to collect at least 99 Tokens to enter Section F. The number of Tokens above 99 were converted into Karma. There were Tokens hidden all over the section, but it was much easier to rob someone else of what they had collected than to collect it by oneself. As a result, Section E was home to the infamous Scavengers that captured players alive and used them to farm Tokens. In the past, Jeong-woo and Arthia had destroyed them but it was quite likely that the Scavengers had rebuilt themselves since Arthia's demise.

Section E had a much larger and wider area than all four of the preceding sections combined. Thanks to this, each area had its own geographic feature within a different environment, forming a unique ecosystem. Small hills were spread out to the south, a vast forest covered the northern region, and at the end of the forest lay a muddy swamp. Black rocky mountains were lined up behind a barren desert along the east side, and a river flowed through a prairie that stretched westward. Each of these areas was inhabited by a wide variety of monsters. Small monsters such as Goblins and Kobolds formed villages around the forest, while larger monsters such as Trolls and Ogres live deep in the forest. Settlements of Lizardmen, Sandworms, and Orcs were each located in the northern swamp, eastern desert, and western prairie, respectively. Naturally, Lizardmen King Hargan's Lair was located in the northern swamps.

The three set off towards the northern swamps. Along the way, Yeon-woo found five tokens. After reaching close to the lair, the three decided to stop and rest so that they would be in top condition the next morning when they would attack the lair. Yeon-woo took first watch and walked around while reminiscing about his time in Africa and missing his brother after seeing the camaraderie between Kahn and Doyle. Suddenly, Kahn woke up and swung his sword towards a bush near him, killing a hidden assailant. Then, Doyle woke up and used his entomopathy to cover a few assailants with man-eating bugs that swiftly chewed off their skin. A few assailants attacked Yeon-woo only be instantly killed. Soon, the assailants numbering over a dozen were all killed. They dropped 81 token in total which was given to Yeon-woo as down payment. Doyle and Kahn also revealed that they were going to clear Hargan's Lair unaware that Yeon-woo was already aware. They also planned that Kahn would be the vanguard and attract the aggro of Hargan and his subordinate lizardmen while Yeon-woo and Doyle would enter the lair. Inside, Yeon-woo would attract the Lizardmen Queen Taragan's aggro while Doyle would steal the crown from her head and then three will retreat.

The next morning, the three reached Hargan's Lair and noticed fresh tracks. Doyle anxiously wondered if Hargan's Lair had already been cleared, however, Yeon-woo replied that they were not human tracks. He also stated that alongside the tracks there were tracks of something being dragged. Yeon-woo guessed that they were most likely humans captured by the lizardmen. Kahn became annoyed but didn't rush in despite his indignation. Doyle, on the other hand, seemed to be extremely spiteful of the lizardmen. Yeon-woo guessed that it was due to his lacking experience. Still, the three proceeded further and finally encountered Hargan whose monstrous aura caused Kahn, Doyle and even Yeon-woo to shiver. However, thanks to his years of experience on the battlefield, Yeon-woo was able to shake off the fear. Hargan noticed this and realized that Yeon-woo had to be dealt with immediately. So, it rushed towards him, not caring about the lizardmen it mowed down along the way. Just as Hargan got close to Yeon-woo, Kahn intercepted it. Hargan raged at Kahn but he managed to hold it off. It seemed that Kahn had previously fought against it since he was familiar with its attack patterns. In addition, he seemed to have increased his stat points since their last battle. Now Hargan's full attention was on Kahn but Kahn kept narrowly dodging its attacks and lured it towards the pack of lizardmen. Every time Hargan launched an attack, three to four Lizardmen ended up being sliced by its scimitar. In the meantime, Yeon-woo and Doyle were able to get inside the lair by taking advantage of the confusion.

Soon after, they were able to reach the deepest area of the lair, Taragan's room where they witnessed dozens of humans tied up in chains and locked up in cages like livestock. Yeon-woo realized it was a human farm to store humans as food for the lizardmen and their hatchlings. After an short burst of anger, Yeon-woo calmly analyzed the farm and realized the way lizardmen treated humans was not much worse than the way humans treated pigs and cows. The people were yelling for help, but if looked at from another angle, they were just like cows tearing up before being dragged into a slaughterhouse. Doyle, however, was not so mature. He barked at Yeon-woo for being cold and emotionless despite seeing the prisoner's plight. Yeon-woo countered with the fact that every moment they wasted here led Kahn closer to death. After a moment of struggle, Doyle apologized for being inconsiderate of both Yeon-woo and Kahn. Yeon-woo planned to move on when he was suddenly struck by an idea to use the lizardmen babies against Taragan.

The two entered Taragan's room when Yeon-woo quickly threw the explosive powder he made from monster remains towards her which Doyle then ignited using his flamebugs. As a result, she was severely injured, however, she couldn't rest as Yeon-woo and Doyle had went towards her hatchling's room. As she entered the room, she saw the deceased guards and her hatchlings captured by Yeon-woo and Doyle. Yeon-woo even killed one hatchling before picking up the remaining three and retreating. He then threw one of the hatchlings towards the ground where he had installed a booby trap. Restless, Taragan rushed into the trap to save her hatchling, causing a massive explosion that could not be compared to the previous one. The explosion triggered two others trap producing an immense chain explosion. The ground was quaking, the trees were burning. The whole room was engulfed by a deluge of fire. Taragan was suffering excruciating pain inside the blazing inferno. If she were in her normal state she would have noticed and avoided the booby trap, however, she couldn't react normally due to her children being in peril.

Yeon-woo then stabbed and killed the injured Taragan. The lizardmen realized that their queen had died and their morale plummeted. Suddenly, Hargan rushed into the room, followed by an exhausted Kahn. The three decided to simultaneously attack the mourning Hargan, however, just as they got close to it, Yeon-woo remembered that Hargan possessed a powerful crowd control skill known as **Heat Wave**. This skill was the reason why Hargan, who had lower stats than Taragan, could be the leader. Yeon-woo yelled at Kahn and Doyle to hide. The two did so as they also had a bad feeling about Hargan. Suddenly, a tidal wave of swelteringly hot air burst out from Hargan. The air was hot enough that it would leave the average player with severe burns. Luckily, the three had been prepared and managed to find sturdy rocks to hide behind. As the hot air subsided, they witnessed the shocking sight of Hargan chomping down on Taragan which caused it to mutate and absorb Taragan's stats.