"Ooh."

A look of delight appeared on Taesan's face. The reward for the First Floor was a Random Stat Increase Potion. In Easy Mode, that was a reward you could barely get after passing the 10th Floor.

'As expected, it's on a different Dimension.' The System Window did not stop.

[You are the first to set foot in the Labyrinth. Whether it is courage or recklessness is unknown, but those who know the dangers of the Dark Abyss will send you their praises.]

Another advantage of Alone Mode. It was solo play. You couldn't meet other Alone Mode Players.

This meant you could receive every single first-time reward. Considering how great that benefit was, it was quite an excellent advantage.

[You have received the title [Pioneer].]

Taesan quickly checked its effect.

"Check Title."

[Title: Pioneer] [NPCs will feel favorable towards you.]

Taesan's face grew cold. Because Lee Tae-yeon had said that the NPCs of the Labyrinth were hostile to Players. She said there were even those who always hated her and sometimes tried to kill her.

Her thought was that favorability was meaningless. She had also received the Pioneer title but had judged it to be just a given achievement. All checks were complete.

All that was left was to break through the Labyrinth. He walked down the brick passageway. As Taesan walked through the passage, he once again recalled Lee Tae-yeon's words.

It's impossible to break through a place with 100 floors starting with nothing. Naturally, the Labyrinth also provided the minimum preparations for it. One of those was the shopkeeper.

[Taesan. There was a shopkeeper in Easy Mode too, right?]

[Of course. Is there any mode without one?]

[What kind of merchant was he?]

[What do you mean? He was just a simple merchant.]

A shopkeeper who appeared at the entrance of every floor, selling only a fixed set of items. He didn't sell anything particularly great. He was treated as someone you just buy potions from and then forget.

[But not in Alone Mode. He sold so many things. Look at this.]

She showed him a piece of equipment.

[Are you showing off?]

A dark-ink colored wrist guard. It reduced all incoming damage by 50%, one of the strongest items she possessed.

[I bought this from the shop.]

[... He sells something like that?]

[There were many other things besides this, but I didn't have enough gold to buy them. You could probably become stronger than me just by buying everything from his shop.]

She had said so with conviction, and Taesan had listened with an annoyed expression. After all, he was an Easy Mode Player. 'But not anymore.'

He could go to the shop she mentioned. Finally, the end of the passage came into view. Taesan threw the door open.

"What. You're here already?"

There was a dwarf in the room. A typically dwarven, annoyed face with a long white beard. At least, he didn't look like a Monster.

[You have encountered the lost king.]

Taesan stared blankly at the dwarf. That was the Alone Mode shopkeeper Lee Tae-yeon had talked so much about.

"Hello?"

The dwarf let out a hollow laugh.

"You've got a strong mind, kid."

The dwarf also knew what world Taesan came from and what the process of coming here was like. The dwarf opened his mouth.

"What's your name?"

"It's Taesan. And who might you be?"

"The shopkeeper."

"But there are no goods?"

In the room, about the size of a studio apartment, only the dwarf was present. The dwarf snorted.

"Kid. If I were to lay out all my goods, the entire First Floor wouldn't be enough."

The dwarf took out a pipe and lit it.

"And I have no intention of showing my children to you."

"Pardon'?"

A shopkeeper who doesn't sell his wares. Taesan let out a dry laugh.

"Then why are you here?"

"You think I want to be here? Because of those madmen, I had to abandon my kingdom, and now I'm suffering in this crazy place."

The dwarf puffed irritably at his pipe.

"Anyway, I don't want to show my children to whelps who don't know their place, you see?"

"I see."

He wasn't flustered because it was just as Lee Tae-yeon had said.

[But that crazy shopkeeper had such a foul personality, you know? He didn't sell me anything at first, so I almost died, I tell you! After that, he was always snappy and looked down on me. Ah, so infuriating.]

Truly annoyed, she had shivered. According to her, that dwarf only opened his shop after you cleared a certain condition.

"Still, if you can show me what kind of person you are, the story changes."

The dwarf raised his pipe. At the end of it was another passage.

"Go, and come back alive. Then I'll show you my children."

Survival.

That was the dwarf's condition. And it was also a direct statement showing the difficulty of the Labyrinth. Taesan asked calmly.

"Is that all?"

The dwarf was instead flustered by his extremely composed demeanor.

"That's it?"

"Then what else should I do? Will you show them to me if I clear the Labyrinth?"

"... No, that's not it."

The dwarf tilted his head with a curious look.

"This one's a strange fellow."

"I can go now, right?"

"Yeah, do as you please."

Taesan strode toward the passage. The dwarf watched his back as if looking at something bizarre.

"What's with that guy?"

He looked as if he couldn't feel Fear at all. The dwarf put the pipe back in his mouth.

"Doesn't matter, since he won't be coming back anyway."

The Labyrinth's difficulty wasn't designed with solo play in mind. Even if he did return, he would come back terrified. With a face stained by Fear.

Someone like that has no value. He could just toss him a few useless items. Whatever the case, it was an easy matter for the dwarf.

He smoked his pipe again with an indifferent expression. Taesan passed through the passage and arrived in another room. 'A passage, and then a room.

The structure of the First Floor is the same as in Easy Mode.' Having grasped the layout, he examined the room. The Labyrinth, made of mossy bricks, looked safe and without any threats on the surface.

'There's no way.' Taesan gripped his sword. A cry could be heard.

This was Alone Mode. He'd been told that the monsters appearing from the very beginning were on the level of a Boss from other modes.

"Squeak. Squeak."

Soon, a large rat reveals its form.

[A Big Rat has appeared.]

"A Big Met?"

Taesan let out a hollow laugh. He knew that Monster. Its Defense Power was negligible, but it moved at a speed that was difficult to follow with the naked eye.

That Monster, which had caused countless Players to burst with indignation, served as the 5th Floor Boss in Easy Mode. And here, something like that was a common mob on the First Floor. The gap between the two modes was once again engraved in his mind.

'What should I do?'

First, analysis.

He had faced this creature decades ago, so his memory was faint. Taesan observed the Big Rat.

"It's ridiculously big, as expected."

It was the size of a cat. Like the world's largest rodent said to live in some tropical region. It resembled a capybara.

But it wasn't as cute as a capybara. Black, coarse fur. And its grotesquely protruding fangs were impressive.

"Squeak!"

The Big Rat, which had been observing Taesan for a moment, charged. The Big Rat was fast. In the blink of an eye, it was at his ankle.

A sharp pain was felt in his ankle.

[You have taken 10 damage.]

Taesan quickly struck with his sword. But the sword futilely hit only the floor.

"Squeak. Squeak."

The Big Rat had already fled far away. Taesan let out a dry laugh.

"Fast as ever."

It was difficult to even follow with his eyes. A movement several times faster than a cat. Its fleeing speed was much faster than the speed he could move his arm.

That speed, which even left afterimages, was a speed you couldn't react to unless you raised your Stats. Having cleared Easy Mode, he had of course caught a Big Rat before. But the situation then and now was very different.

In Easy Mode, Players could meet each other. Boss Monsters were naturally hunted by gathering in numbers and using the advantage of quantity. 'We used to corner it and wear it out.'

And there was also a difference in Stats. No matter if it was Easy Mode, by the time one cleared the 5th Floor, they would have easily surpassed human reaction speed, so they could react to the Big Rat's speed. But now, he was alone and his Stats were at their base level.

Overcoming it was virtually impossible. Lee Tae-yeon had run away from that thing. She returned to the shop in a near-death state, received the dwarf's scornful gaze, and heard his advice.

And that was a very correct judgment. Among the Alone Players who had broken through the First Floor, none had picked a fight with the Big Rat. That meant all such people had died.

"I think I get the gist of it."

But Taesan gripped his sword with a delighted face. He had heard plenty about the difficulty of Alone Mode. If he hadn't been confident, he wouldn't have entered in the first place.

The principle of the Labyrinth's rewards is simple. If you achieve what others could not. If you accomplish a feat that anyone would acknowledge, you are given a corresponding reward.

Taesan's goal was to become stronger than anyone else here. There was no reason to run from the Big Rat. And it wasn't as if it couldn't be caught.

He calms his heart. He does not waver. He had seen countless people die in a panic despite being fully capable of clearing it.

Composure was of the utmost value in the Labyrinth.

[Your mind sinks into a deep calm.]

Within his tranquil mind, Taesan quietly recalled information about the Big Rat. Size of a cat. Not that big.

Its jumping power isn't very high. Not enough to bite a person's nape. Then there is only one place it will come.

"Squeak!"

[You have taken 9 damage.]

The Big Rat bit his ankle. Taesan swiftly struck with his sword, but once again, it only cut through the air. Taesan frowned and focused once more.

The Big Rat, watching him, charged again. Taesan brought his sword down. It was twice as fast as before.

Klang!

But the sword still only struck the ground.

[You have taken 8 damage.]

'I had a feeling, but as expected, it's no good.' Even knowing it's coming and focusing all my nerves, there's a gap of more than 0.3 seconds. Reacting after seeing it is impossible.

The Big Rat charges once again. This time, Taesan didn't even swing his sword.

[10 damage.]

His Health is chipped away little by little. But Taesan's face is unwavering.

"Status Window."

[Kang Taesan] [Level: 1] [Health: 63/100] [Mana: 10/10] [Strength: 10] [Intelligence: 10] [Agility: 10] [Attack Power +1] [Defense Power +2] [Subject is in optimal condition.]

He had plenty of Health. There were no signs of other monsters interfering either. The damage dealt at one time is 8 to 10. Then it's very simple.

I just need to succeed within 6 tries. 'Plenty of room.' It was infinitely more merciful than before, when a single hit meant death.

In the meantime, the Big Rat continued to attack his ankle. Damage came in once again. 'As expected, it only aims for the ankle.'

Due to the fundamental difference in size, the Big Rat can't aim for anywhere else. But the problem is that he can't react. It was fast enough to leave afterimages, a problem that was impossible for human reflexes to begin with.

'I'll give up on that.' Having come to a clean conclusion, Taesan's eyes calmed. His unwavering, tranquil eyes turned toward the Big Rat.

The Big Rat momentarily flinched and trembled. The Big Rat's instincts warned it of danger. It felt a conviction that this creature, which had been foolishly taking hits until now, would produce a different result.

"Squeak!"

But the Big Rat's shallow intellect denied its instincts. This creature is weak. It cannot react to my movements.

The moment the Big Rat was about to kick off the ground to bite.

Klang.

The sword struck the ground.

"Squeak!"

The momentarily surprised Big Rat stops its charge. Did it see that I was about to charge? No, that's not it.

It can't react to my movements. The Big Rat, having reached a conclusion, charged again, but it was the same this time.

Klang!

"Screech!"

The moment the Big Rat tenses its body, the sword strikes the ground. The Big Rat is momentarily overwhelmed and stops moving.

"Screech, squeak."

The Big Rat fails to grasp the situation. To its tiny brain, it looked as if Taesan was suddenly reacting to its movements.

[The Big Rat is agitated. The Big Rat's movements slow down.]

Taesan smiled faintly.

"This works."