BFBT 13

Chapter 13

Undermost

“Baek Gang-woo, is this really it? Are you sure about this?” Cha Yu-min asked, a look of deep concern crossing his face.

“Yes, I’m going to settle down in Korea from now on. The Tower… I’ve had enough.”

Despite his seemingly resolute words, his expression told a completely different story.

“Hey! Someone with your talent could easily become a top-tier ranker! Why are you suddenly quitting? Don’t tell me you don’t trust Oppa Yu-min?!” Shin Ji-won demanded, frustration bleeding into her voice.

Unlike top-tier rankers like Shin Ji-won and Cha Yu-min, Baek Gang-woo was still lingering on the upper edge of high rankers, meaning they hadn’t climbed the Tower together directly due to the vast gap in their floors.

However, by the nature of the Tower, challengers eventually caught up and reached the same floors. The quality and quantity of achievements gathered along the way might differ, but the cleared floors would eventually align.

Baek Gang-woo was one of Korea’s most vital military assets. He was talented enough to reach the 80th floor without a doubt, and Cha Yu-min and Shin Ji-won had fully intended to push him all the way there. Up until now, they had been doing just that.

“You’re a smart guy, so why are you acting like this? What could possibly be more important than the Tower right now? You graduated from Seoul National University’s law school and gave it all up to climb the Tower—shouldn’t you see it through to the end?”

“Stop it, Ji-won.”

“But still!”

“Gang-woo must have his reasons. Right?”

“I’m sorry. After everything you’ve done to help me…”

Cha Yu-min felt just as frustrated and regretful. Losing a promising prospect like Baek Gang-woo was a massive blow to their national strength.

Still, he himself was forced to sacrifice a year and remain in Korea. Perhaps this wasn’t entirely a bad thing. It meant gaining a top-tier asset for operations on Earth. Besides, he had a full year to persuade Gang-woo to return to the Tower.

The Dimension Gate would be closing soon.

The chaos on Earth had yet to subside. If anything, it had only intensified because of him. That chaos would likely die down to some extent once the Dimension Gate closed and challengers re-entered the Tower. But once the public discovered he hadn’t gone back in, another storm of controversy would undoubtedly erupt.

“Oppa, what are you thinking about?” Shin Ji-won asked, noticing Cha Yu-min’s hardened expression.

“It’s nothing. More importantly, what I told you before—you remember, right?”

“Yeah… I remember, but…”

“Keep it in mind. And absolutely do not challenge above the 80th floor. Make sure to tell the others who haven’t come out of the Tower yet, too.”

“Right, got it.”

All the changes were about to begin. Or rather, people were finally about to feel the winds of change that had started blowing a year ago.

The Dimension Gate closed, and the challenges of the Tower resumed.

While the people of Earth and the upper tiers remained caught in a crucible of chaos, the residents of the 1st-floor waiting room treated it as nothing more than a passing month. They went about their peaceful lives just as they always had.

Whoosh— Whoosh— Whoosh—

Three pillars of light descended into the center of the plaza.

“Hello everyone! I’m Toing, the manager of the 1st-floor waiting room! This is the lowest-tier city, Undermost!”

“Whoaaa—”

The newly arrived challengers gasped, turning their heads in every direction to sightsee.

It was exactly as Cha Yu-min had described. This was no longer just an empty, desolate plain.

Exchanging greetings, the three newcomers followed Toing’s guidance. Toing now functioned less like a 1st-floor manager and more like an official tour guide for Undermost.

Whenever new challengers arrived in Undermost, Toing would give them a tour before sending them up to the 1st floor.

“This here is the entrance to the 1st floor! Beyond this point is the famous spot of the 1st floor… or rather, the Necromancer-nim resides here!”

“Wait, really? The boss monster that Ranker Cha Yu-min lost to?”

“Yup! You know about it?”

Hearing even the waiting room manager speak so openly, the newcomers finally began to grasp the staggering reality of the situation.

“Can we go check it out?”

“Of course! You’ll have to go there every day anyway!”

Toing’s response left them puzzled.

“Why?”

“Because you gotta do point-farming!”

“Point-farming?”

“Yup! The currency here is points! So if you want to earn points, you gotta head up to the 1st floor and hunt monsters to farm them!”

Nodding in sudden understanding, they began to piece things together. So that’s how this city was built. It seemed Toing had set things up using items bought from the point shop. Whatever points they lacked could be earned by hunting on the 1st floor.

“Well then, if you head this way—”

“Ah, I saw pillars of light earlier. Are they newbies?”

“Hello, Kang-cheon!”

Kim Kang-cheon, who happened to be walking by, approached them with a friendly smile.

“Are you heading up to the 1st floor?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like me to guide you? Toing can’t go up there anyway.”

At Kang-cheon’s offer, they looked over at Toing, who nodded affirmatively and briefly introduced Kang-cheon. Reassured, the three stepped onto the portal leading to the 1st floor behind their guide.

Upon arriving on the 1st floor, a colossal entrance greeted them. A massive gate blocked the way back out of the cave, and Kang-cheon casually added that stepping outside through that exit meant certain death.

Following Kang-cheon, the three stepped deeper inside.

“Whoa… I heard it was just a shabby cave, but this is……”

“It feels like we walked into some kind of grand temple.”

The cave was no longer a cave.

Annoyed by its shabby exterior, Lee Shin had systematically remodeled it, enlisting Hwang Gang-woong to execute a massive overhaul spanning from the cave entrance all the way deep inside.

Thanks to that, the 1st floor now boasted an air of dignity rivaling the Temples of the Goddess of Light found on the upper floors.

Gazing at the intricate patterns carved into the stone walls and the heavy, solemn atmosphere permeating the space, the three walked behind Kang-cheon in a state of continuous awe.

They soon reached a junction where the path split into three directions, and Kang-cheon patiently explained each one.

“The leftmost path is called the Workshop. It’s where people go to farm points.”

“How do you farm points?”

“Nothing complicated. You just hunt monsters and collect points.”

They nodded in comprehension.

“The rightmost path is the Training Ground. Exactly as it sounds, it’s where people train.”

“Pardon? You train on the 1st floor?”

“Yes. May and Worri teach the training sessions. Most people receive instruction and train right here.”

“May and Worri? Those don’t sound like Korean names……”

“Ahahaha… You’ll understand once you see them.”

The unexpected reality of the 1st floor left the three slightly disoriented.

“The middle path leads to the Boss Room. But you must never go in there carelessly.”

Kang-cheon, who had been smiling and friendly the entire time, turned dead serious the moment he mentioned the Boss Room.

Struck by his shift in tone, the trio tensed up and looked toward the Boss Room entrance. At the end of a long, sweeping corridor stood a door—simple yet radiating overwhelming dignity.

“The Necromancer-nim absolutely detests anyone entering his room without permission. So always be sure to ask for permission before going.”

“Whose permission do we need to ask?”

“Worri’s.”

Who on earth is May, and who is this Worri? And on top of that, they had to ask the boss’s permission just to visit the Boss Room? What kind of floor was this, anyway?

Swallowing hard and twitching with disbelief, the three kept their mouths shut as they watched Kang-cheon’s solemn expression.

“Shall we take a look at the Workshop first?”

“Yes.”

The Workshop turned out to be straightforward. It was a large room where challengers hunted Lowest-grade Skeletons, Sewer Rats, and Dwarf Goblins to acquire points.

After watching a brief demonstration of monster hunting and stat increases, they headed toward the training ground on the far right. The interior was subdivided into multiple rooms, making the 1st floor far more complex than they had imagined.

“The Necromancer-nim designed this with President Hwang, pouring a lot of effort into it.”

President Hwang? Who’s that now?

“Let’s head this way first.”

They stopped in front of a room dead in the center. Inside sat May.

“What is that?”

Seeing her, the three drew in a sharp breath. The aura and appearance she exuded were on a completely different dimension from the skeletons in the Workshop.

Is she the 1st-floor boss?

Though they hadn’t fought her, every instinct screamed that they couldn’t win. No, they flat-out couldn’t win.

“May, we have newbies.”

“Is that so?”

“M-May?”

Didn’t he just say they get trained by someone named May—or was it Megi or whatever? Just feeling the malicious gleam in those hollow eyes made them feel like they might wet themselves. The thought of training under a monster like that sounded completely insane.

All three newcomers, who had been ordinary citizens just hours ago, shared the exact same thought.

“Well, did you come for some training or something?”

At May’s words, the three hurriedly looked at Kang-cheon, frantically signaling with their eyes for him to intervene.

“Ah… No, not really. Just showing them around for introductions.”

Slightly flustered, Kang-cheon offered an awkward smile.

“Really? I’ve got mountains of work anyway. I need to organize the research materials Master gave me, structure the theoretical magic lessons for these guys, and run the training sessions… Even though I don’t feel physical fatigue, mental exhaustion is real. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bring any more newbies my way.”

May’s harsh, gloomy voice sounded flat, but Kang-cheon could clearly sense the profound exhaustion radiating from her.

“Right… Keep at it.”

With a sympathetic look, Kang-cheon led them out of the room.

Next was the adjacent training hall—a space typically used by May and Worri to instruct others or for sparring matches.

The three stepped inside with tense, anxious expressions.

There, they saw a single skeleton lying flat on its back in a starfish position.

The skeleton rattled as it pushed itself up from the floor. Unlike the weaponless skeletons in the Workshop, this one carried a simple bone sword, yet it didn’t look particularly strong. Between its lethargic posture and the clattering, awkward nature of its movements, it seemed clumsy. At this level, they figured they could easily win.

“Can we try fighting it?”

“Hahaha, of course. But if it looks like you’re about to get hurt, I’ll step in and stop it. Besides, most residents of Undermost can easily beat the Easy difficulty here.”

Even though they had just arrived, hearing that most residents could easily handle it dealt a slight blow to their confidence.

“I’ll give it a try.”

“Me too.”

“Well, since you said you’d protect us……”

Deciding to give it a shot, the three determined their order. Seeing this, Kang-cheon stopped them with a word.

“Why don’t the three of you just rush it all at once?”

“Pardon?”

Kang-cheon merely offered a faint smile in response.

Deciding it was probably safer that way anyway since they were total newcomers, they nodded.

“If we get poked by that, it’s gonna hurt, right?”

Standing ready for battle, they psyched themselves out, imagining what it would feel like to be slashed by a sharp bone blade.

“You didn’t expect this to be a walk in the park, did you?” a woman with a fierce, determined gaze snapped at the two hesitant men, snapping them back to focus.

“Hah!”

She lunged at the skeleton first, blue energy gathering around her fist.

Heavy Strike.

Consolidating mana to deliver a heavy blow.

It was a simple yet effective attack—completely useless if it missed.

The skeleton easily sidestepped her punch, parried the subsequent attacks from the other two men with its sword, and swiftly struck each of their wrists with the flat of its blade—thwack! thwack! thwack!

“Agh!”

“Ugh!”

“Urrgh……”

Rubbing their throbbing wrists, all three immediately surrendered, the terrifying thought flashing through their minds: If that had been a blade, our wrists would have been chopped off.

Hearing that this level of skeleton wasn’t even considered difficult around here, their morale plummeted even further at Kang-cheon’s earlier remark.

“Hah… Is this really the Tower?”

“I can understand the Workshop being just for point-farming, but getting wrecked like this even in the training hall?”

“The other people here must have gotten strong purely because they kept training like this, right?”

Glancing back at the training hall one last time, they left the area and returned to the main plaza of Undermost.

Kang-cheon stayed behind in the training hall instead of leaving with them.

At that moment, the skeleton that had effortlessly defeated the three newcomers walked out from the corner of the hall.

“How long do I have to keep doing this?”

“Hmm… Until our senior here finishes what he’s doing and leaves the place, I suppose?”

“Does it really have to be this way? Training is supposed to be driven by one’s own willpower.”

The skeleton complained with a rattling grumble.

“Still, a bit of motivation helps. Besides, Worri, you’re the most free out of all of us.”

“I am not free. I constantly repeat my cultivation—”

“Is playing puzzle-with-bones considered cultivation?”

“It is not play! That is for achieving perfect skeletal composition—”

“Never mind that. Since you’re out here anyway, let’s go a round after a long time.”

At Kang-cheon’s proposal, Worri shifted his bones around and settled into a fighting stance.

“Very well. I shall show you why this is not play.”

“Coincidentally, I made sure my bones are just basic ones without any magic engravings, so the balance should be roughly even. I’m definitely winning this time.”

“Come at me, fledgling. I shall never bring shame upon Master’s face.”

“Shame? If you lose, your bones are going to ache from how hard I beat you, so you better fight like your life depends on it.”

“Ahem! Too much talk. Have at it!”

“Alright, here I comes—”

“Wait.”

Seeing Worri suddenly plant his sword into the ground, Kim Kang-cheon stopped with a puzzled look.

“Why?”

“……Can I go swap out my leg bones first?”

“……”

Worri was starting to grow increasingly worried, witnessing Kang-cheon’s rapidly improving skills lately.