[First Discovery Bonus] [Intelligence has permanently increased by 1. Mana has permanently increased by 2.] Both were good stats.
When Intelligence increased, Mana consumption would decrease, allowing more Skills to be used. The increase in the amount of Mana went without saying.
[This is a resting place in the Labyrinth. Your enemies cannot enter this place of their own will. The tranquility of this place will make you indolent.]
In most places within the Labyrinth, Monsters would appear. The exceptions were places like the Shop and the fountain. It was a kind of Safe Zone.
Taesan scooped up the fountain water with his hands. The cold liquid went down his throat refreshingly.
[You have entered an Optimal Condition.]
The little fatigue that remained vanished completely. It felt as if he had slept as soundly as he could have wished. Taesan sat down beside the fountain.
The floor wasn't hard stone but a warm, sandy surface, making him want to lie down right then and there. The fountain brought him to an Optimal Condition, but it couldn't do anything about the mental fatigue that slowly accumulated. A little rest was also essential.
‘Has it been about a day already?’
Checking his hunger status, it seemed to be about that time. It was now time for something to be posted on the community forums.
“community forums.”
[Kang Jun-hyeok [Alone]: Guys, is it really okay to enter this Labyrinth?]
[Na Jae-yeon [Alone]: Seeing as how the people who went in aren't responding, I guess not. This is driving me crazy.]
[Yoo Yeong-seok [Easy]: Is there anyone who wants to clear the First Floor together?]
[Kang Dong-jun [Normal]: Seeking information. Does anyone know what the first Monster is?]
[Lee Sang [Alone]: I’m going crazy. For real.]
As expected, most of the posts were from Alone Players. Players in other modes could meet each other, so they resolved things through direct conversation rather than the community forums. But Alone Mode Players could not meet one another.
For them, there was no means of conversation other than the community forums. While scrolling through the community forums, Taesan let out a chuckle.
[Lee Tae-yeon [Alone]: You guys ■mrir how do you really do this -rnTTr] The strongest Player who survived and cleared the Labyrinth.
Lee Tae-yeon.
Always so confident, she seemed much more confused now compared to the future.
‘Or maybe not.’
Her last Status Window had said she was in a state of fear. She might have just been hiding her true self, a coward until the very end. Taesan stared at the community forums for a moment.
It had only been a day since the Labyrinth opened. Naturally, many Alone Players were still alive. One couldn't die of starvation here.
As far as Taesan knew, the real entry began a month later. Alone Mode also offered rewards proportional to its difficulty. Lee Tae-yeon had said that she missed out on countless rewards.
She said she cleared the Boss using an unconventional method and didn't receive what she should have. But she was still called the strongest Player. In other words, there was a high possibility that nurturing the Alone Mode would be helpful to him.
“Hmm.”
In the Labyrinth, every card you hold is precious. It probably wouldn't be much different even after getting out.
“It wouldn’t be bad.”
Taesan started writing a post for the community forums. First, some simple advice. Starting with not picking a fight with the Gatekeeper, he told them about the kinds of items the Shopkeeper sells.
Taesan had won against the Big Rat, but others would likely find it impossible. He wrote that they should run away immediately upon encounter and return to the shop. Then, after hearing the location of the fountain, they should run without delay.
Without following this basic route, survival was next to impossible. After that, he wrote down what they should do.
[Kang Taesan [Alone]: Basic guide for Alone Mode, First Floor.]
He didn't know if others would believe him. It would be very difficult to enter the Labyrinth trusting a post from a complete stranger. Even if they believed it, it was uncertain how effective it would be.
After all, out of ten thousand, only Lee Tae-yeon had survived. Without much expectation, he just threw out some bait and closed the community forums.
“Shall we get started?”
Taesan stood up and stretched his body. As long as one didn't leave the First Floor, this place could be used indefinitely. The reason Lee Tae-yeon was able to survive was that she went in and out of this place, finally managing to kill a Big Rat after a week.
In other words, the normal flow for Alone Mode was to encounter the Big Rat, return to the shop to hear the location of the Fountain of Life, and then run straight here to secure a Safe Zone.
‘What kind of placement is this?’
He had felt it was strange ever since he heard it from Lee Tae-yeon. If they were going to make it like this, it would have been better to place the Fountain of Life at the start. After all, without this place, survival itself was impossible.
But the creator of the Labyrinth had deliberately placed it far away, causing most to die on their way. It was hard to understand if it was merciful or cruel. In any case, what mattered was this place.
Here, there was no limit to recovery. He could prepare many things before leaving the First Floor. The one reason he had survived with his meager stats was this.
Skills.
Taesan believed that here, Skills held more value than Stats.
Growl.
Just then, his stomach rumbled. Come to think of it, he hadn't eaten anything for a whole day. You wouldn't die from starvation, but all your stats would drop and it would inflict considerable pain, so it was better to deal with it quickly.
Taesan intended to solve it as well. In a slightly different way than others might think. Taesan opened his Inventory and took out the meat.
[Big Rat's Meat] [Quality: 86%] [It's the meat of a Big Rat. You can eat it, if you want to.]
Although it was a rodent, its size yielded a considerable amount of meat. Taesan took out his Rusted Sword.
Slice.
He cut off a piece of meat, making it easy to eat, and held it up. After inspecting the meat for a moment, Taesan muttered with a sour face.
“Is this really edible?”
Easy Mode had plenty of food. He had never eaten Big Rat's Meat before. The meat was closer to black than red.
The muscles were also grotesquely swollen, so it wasn't an appetizing piece of meat.
“Considering the goal, this might be better.”
Taesan put the meat into his mouth. He winced at the tough meat, which had no sweetness at all. But he didn't spit it out, chewing and swallowing it down.
[You have eaten uncooked raw meat.]
[Status abnormality Judgment in progress...]
[...]
[Judgment Failed!]
[You have contracted food poisoning!]
Status abnormality: food poisoning. Health decreases for two days. The rate of decrease is extremely fast, and if you don't drink a disease-curing potion or chug Health potions, you will die.
It was a nightmare status abnormality for Beginners, and those who experienced it once would make sure to cook their food from then on. But Taesan was deliberately eating raw meat, aiming for just that. Taesan scooped up fountain water and drank.
[You have entered an Optimal Condition.]
And he ate raw meat again.
[You have eaten uncooked raw meat.]
[Status abnormality Judgment in progress...]
[...]
[Judgment Succeeded!]
[Nothing happened.]
One more.
[You have eaten uncooked raw meat.]
[Status abnormality Judgment in progress...]
[...]
[Judgment Failed!]
[You have contracted food poisoning!]
He drank the fountain water.
[You have entered an Optimal Condition.]
He ate the meat.
[You have eaten uncooked raw meat.]
[Status abnormality Judgment in progress...]
If he didn't get food poisoning, he ate another piece of meat. If he got food poisoning, he drank the fountain water and then ate meat again. He repeated these two actions endlessly.
Just as his stomach was starting to feel full, another System Window popped up.
[You have contracted countless diseases and developed a resistance. You have acquired the Special Passive Skill [Disease Resistance].]
Taesan grinned.
“Bingo.”
The Labyrinth doesn't provide food. The shop does sell emergency rations, but they are very expensive, and in Hard and Alone Modes, the quantity is small. It's not enough to clear the Labyrinth.
Eventually, one has no choice but to grill or steam the creatures within the Labyrinth to eat, but in a limited space, situations arise where one must eat them raw. Getting food poisoning in such a situation was a really big problem. Lee Tae-yeon had also been on the verge of death once.
But with Disease Resistance, the story changes.
[Special Passive Skill: Disease Resistance] [Proficiency: 1%] [Resistance to various diseases. At the current stage, you are less likely to contract diseases from eating.]
It reduced the food poisoning Judgment to below 10%, which was a great help in crisis situations. By increasing the Proficiency, it was fair to say one would become virtually immune to food poisoning. Normally, it was a Skill one would barely acquire after suffering from various diseases, but Taesan, who knew the information, could obtain it very easily.
Then, for the next Skill. Taesan stepped into the fountain. It was just the right depth, reaching up to his waist.
“I don’t like this.”
With a frown still on his face, Taesan submerged his head under the water.
Bubble, bubble.
Being underwater, his breathing was naturally cut off. Instead of getting out, Taesan closed his eyes and held his breath.
Bubble, bubble.
The air bubbles gradually decreased. Finally, the air he held was completely gone. His air-deprived body yearned to breathe.
The agony spread. But he endured.
[You are in a state where you cannot breathe.]
It's agonizing.
Someone once said that drowning was the most painful way to die. Whether it was true or not, it meant that it was that painful. His body, craving for breath, ordered him to get out of the water quickly.
But he doesn't get out. He endures underwater with an unwavering face. He forcefully closes his airway that tries to open to drink water, and waits.
His mind gradually begins to grow hazy. His strength fades. Consciousness slips away, and his life flashes before his eyes.
Death is at his doorstep. At that moment, a System Window appears.
[You did not breathe until the brink of death. You have acquired the Special Active Skill [No Breath].]
[You have perceived death. You have acquired the Special Passive Skill [Line of Death].]
Done.
Taesan raises his body. Water splashes violently.
“Gasp, gasp.”
He calms his frantically beating heart and catches his breath. It only settled down after a few minutes.
“This is really not something one should do.”
He complains, brushing back his wet hair. It was basically self-inflicted water torture. Even for Taesan, who was accustomed to pain, it was a sufficiently agonizing experience.
But he had no choice. No Breath could only be obtained while in the water.
[Special Active Skill: No Breath] [Mana Cost: 1] [Proficiency: 1%] [Allows you to hold your breath for a long time. Right now, it's only about twice as long as usual.]
No Breath, an active Skill that increases the amount of breath one can hold. It wasn't a well-known Skill. It could only be obtained in water, and only just before death.
Most who had acquired it ended up as fish food, so information about the Skill only became known after Taesan obtained it. And even after it became known, no one acquired it. One had to be in the water until the very brink of death.
Humans who could endure the pain of holding their breath and the fear of dying were extremely rare. As most who survived the Labyrinth were close to cowards, they wouldn't try to learn it that way. For that reason, the only one who had acquired it besides Taesan was Jung-geun.
It was a largely useless Skill in Easy or Normal Mode, but the story was different starting from Hard and Alone Mode. Since floors where the air itself was poison appeared frequently, No Breath was a great help. The Line of Death, which was obtained at the same time, was also not a bad Skill.
A Skill that notifies you when you are in danger of dying from a place or an attack. Thanks to it, he had escaped from danger quite a few times.
[Special Passive Skill: Line of Death] [Proficiency: 54%] [Allows you to sense when you are about to die. It activates in most crisis situations.]
Taesan was surprised when he saw the Proficiency.
“Why is it already at 54 percent?”
Raising Proficiency by even 1% was quite difficult. In the case of high-level Skills, there wasn't a single Player who had surpassed 50% by the time they left the Labyrinth. But it was already 54%.
The same as the Proficiency he had obtained in the future.
“Does this mean things like this are inherited?”
It seemed that powers engraved on the mind, not the body, were carried over to some extent. But to simply think that, Composure and Insight were at their basic Proficiency.
“I don't know.”
Taesan neatly organized his thoughts. In the Labyrinth, incomprehensible things happen frequently. If you try to give meaning to all of them, you won't last.
It was a good thing for him, so he should be satisfied with that. Taesan checked the number of Skills he now possessed.
Swordsmanship. Shieldsmanship. Vision Expansion.
Insight. Composure.
Soul Rank Ascension. Line of Death.
No Breath. Disease Resistance.
Nine of them. He had obtained, from the First Floor, the number of skills an Easy Player would normally get by the time they cleared the game. In the past, Taesan himself had only reached this number around the 20th Floor.
Considering that most of those were useless Skills, the value was even higher. But Taesan had no intention of stopping here. There were still more Skills to acquire.