A morning comes, and so do plans

7:00

Alarm blared on Youngwoo's phone, forcing him to wake up. With irritation, he silenced the device and threw it across the room. Hell, why couldn't he sleep a little longer? He felt like he hadn't slept at all.

Well, at least that was what he felt until he felt Calm Mind triggering. Suddenly, his thoughts became clear, and even his irritation and weariness disappeared. Looking around his room, he recalled what had happened the day before.

After getting washed up (in a common bathroom to which he had to walk a fair bit) and eating something (purely out of habit), he sat down at his bed and took out a large notepad. With a pen in his hand, he decided to scribe everything he had to do and what he knew.

Well, there wasn't much to begin with. Find his way to floor 13 and find some kind of mysterious amethyst that everyone would covet. To be completely frank, he did think he already knew what he was supposed to look for. And he even knew who originally found it.

It was dubbed Amethyst of Infinity. It was found by Reaper's Guild viceguildmaster at the time, Shadow. However, what surprised him, was that the quest clearly stated floor 13, whereas Shadow found it on floor 19. Was this what it meant that it was split into 7? Was there one of them on each floor? He wasn't sure. Anyway, back to what he remembered.

Unable to find a use for it, she put it on an auction and sold it to someone for HUGE amount of gold. He didn't remember properly, was it 10 000? Or 100 000? Well, for him either option was too large to imagine. But, with that information, he knew who he'd have to stick around to get to it. Still, there was the matter of either winning with her in contest of skill or stealing the amethyst before she got her hands on it. She might've been a Hunter who was climbing the Tower like everyone else, but she was one of those few people who didn't hesitate to harm, or even kill.

With that down, he had to remind himself what upper floors were about. He himself never went past floor 5 (except the occasion when he participated in banshee raid), but people in internet were kind enough to share their experiences. He wasn't exactly sure, but it seemed that there was a hamlet that gave Hunters quests to help it expand its influence and size. In later floors there was a quest to defend the floor from demons, prepare a wedding, and finally on floor 20 banshee had attacked and destroyed the hamlet altogether. At least, that was what he remembered. But he just had to get to floor 13 for now. The rest of the floors could wait.

On average, it took roughly 1 month to finish a floor. By finishing a floor, the Tower meant clearing enough quests to progress the story of one floor to another. Typically, this required efforts of hundreds of Hunters. But, there were exceptions.

In late 2041, there was an incident where a ranker known as Sun solo'd entire floor 16 by breaking enough rules to alter the story. He was one of the last rankers to not belong to any guild, and he unfortunately met his end facing the banshee. Then again, when Youngwoo thought about it, floor 20 seemed ridiculously difficult.

It wasn't just his opinion, it was clear facts. An undead capable of summoning more undead, some of which kept at least some intellect? No, this was too much. 500 people should be easily enough to bring down a boss on its own. Even if there was a thousand undead summoned, Hunters would still win (albeit with some hefty losses). This boss didn't make sense. Then again, this wasn't a problem yet. For now, focus on floor 13.

Get to floor 13, grab the Amethyst of Infinity, proceed to do something so that he could create a new skill for Tower. Youngwoo, unlike the day before, felt exhilarated when he thought about his long, difficult training paying off. It wasn't just because he could finally utilize it properly. He was excited because he understood that making different sword dances skills meant that they could exert at least some effects.

With enough a plan on a piece of paper, he decided it was time to set up his life a bit. He first had to do what Hilda did, and made a number of alarms on his phone to announce to him whenever it was time to eat. He set them in regular, 3 hours intervals (safe for night hours), and soon started getting prepared.

There was little reason for him to go out. Floors above 10 were locked for now, and even if he hunted monsters on lower floors, he'd not gain anything. But what he wanted was to simply take a walk. Ensuring he fastened his longsword tightly, he took off. Having little destination for his journey, he decided to take his steps into the park he saved Hilda in.

Finding his way around many paths, he soon stood in front of a large lake. Its surface was somewhat icy, but he knew it was a fluke; the moment he'd take a step, entire surface would crack. It was very, very thin.

He sat on a bench just few metres away from water and stared into the distance. Hell, it was years since he last sat down so calm in a place like this. No negative thought disrupted his mind for a long, long time, as he simply took in sights of snow-less winter in the park.

Meanwhile

Hilda sat in her bed, laptop on her lap as she was messaging her guild. Purpose of it was simple: she wanted to find out who Youngwoo Lee was. Well, emphasis on wanted to. She searched for at least an hour, and even asked for help from the guild, but her searches ended in vain. There was absolutely nothing. Nada. Nieko. Nic. ничего. It was like the man appeared out of thin air. Of course, there was an explanation.

System of Hunters signing their abilities into a centralized system wasn't in place since the beginning. In fact, as Tower landed in 2031, a proper system was only estabilished in late 2035. Any Hunter after that was registered, but there was a difficulty with Hunters before that. 99% of the time, they were uncontrollable, and didn't want to comply to be signed. Over years, some people broke out of that belief and eventually signed, but as of 2040 it was only about 30%. (In Youngwoo's memories of the future, due to a few scandals, many Hunters were **** to sign in 2042, and this percentage grew to nearly 95%, but that was another story)

So, she came to one of two possible conclusions. First one was, Youngwoo Lee bribed the guards into letting him not sign. This was difficult to do (since what could he bring if they could only buy stuff that was in the Tower?), but not impossible. However, when she thought about it, it didn't seem to be it. That man seemed quite a bit surprised, or perhaps even intimidated, by the apartment she lived in. It was likely he was too poor to afford a bribe in the first place.

The other solution was just as simple: Youngwoo had spent long time in the Tower. He must've been here at least longer than the system, so that meant that at bare minimum he'd been here for 4 years and a few months. However, judging by his proficiency with sword, it was likely he'd been here for at least 6 years. Or, who knew, he might've been here for even longer.

However, that didn't help her one bit. Because of how exhausted she was the night before, she just barely could recall his face. And this trope was dying off quickly, too. She needed to find him, soon.

Ieva came to her room, not even knocking on the door.

"Not cool." Said Hilda.

"What? It's not like you knock when you come to my room, either."

"I'm the older one here, I decide when I knock. What do you want?"

"Did you find that guy?"

"No. There's no info on him. He's probably older than the signing system."

"..." Ieva's complexion darkened. She clenched her fists.

"Don't look so down. I'll find him."

"You don't even remember his face." She riposted. "Ah, fuck. Half a year of work, just gone in an instant. Fucking amazing."

"Keep your tongue tied." Replied Hilda. "It's only been a few hours. We need that battery off our tail for a few days at least."

"Ya, and he might be dead! I don't want to lose my battery because of your poor decision making."

Hilda rolled her eyes, not even wanting to comment.

"I'm going out." She stated, and then got out of bed. She'd washed herself earlier already, and after eating something (thanks to an alarm) she took her steps outside.

Ieva sat down on couch and fired up the TV. She just needed to calm down. Heavens, why couldn't she have a skill like Hilda? Sure, it had handicaps, but she'd prefer she had it. After all, it was her who needed steady hands, not Hilda. Goodness, the Tower was so unfair. Well, at least she was all alone now. She could blow off some steam without interruptions.

10:42

Youngwoo took a stance again. After sitting on the bench for nearly an hour he got bored, and then decided to practice his sword dances. He linked Flower with Pinnacle, then Wave with Revolve. Sweat started appearing on his body, as he strained his muscles more and more to finish next mock attacks. He tended to do this for at least an hour daily for the past 8 years. In fact, there were often occasions when he practiced for even 2 or 3 hours straight. However, he usually did it on different floors. He did practice in Safe Zone in the beginning, but after he started receiving weird looks from onlookers, he opted to practice on 2nd and 3rd floors. But this didn't apply on New Year's Eve. 90% of people were drunk on celebrating new year, and the remaining ones didn't want to go out, because why would they? And thanks to that, Youngwoo could practice without onlookers.

His training had been going on for nearly 2 hours by now, however, he didn't intend to stop yet. He swung his sword and moved his feet, bent his hips and arced his back as he did more and more attacks. And finally...

"Transcended Linked Kill Flower Dragon Pinnacle Wave!" He finished a complicated series of stabs and cuts by turning around and striking at a tree. It was the highest amount of sword dances he could successfully connect. In any case, if those were actual skills with effects, this attack would be absolutely devastating. But without it? His strike made a deep cut in the bark while he felt next to no resistance, but that was it. That's why he couldn't wait until he could go and finish his quest. Youngwoo looked at his sword with a small smirk.

Indeed, this was a very nice sword. It might've been old by now (well, not really anymore), but it did the job very nicely. There was a saying that blades tempered with magic never degraded. Well, it was obviously false statement, but it was true that such weapons degraded slower.

"Splendor! Pinnacle! Revolve! Linked Kill! Transcended Wave! Dragon Chop!" He continued striking the air, completing various footworks and linking sword dances in succession.

And after a few minutes more, he decided to take a break. He sat on the ground, his sword on his knees, and he started breathing calmer and calmer by minute. He noticed a notification saying that TM is happy seeing him unleash more and more sword techniques, even if they can't watch them fully. Well, Youngwoo didn't care. He wanted to bide around his time until 11th floor would be unlocked. After about 10 minutes of rest, he got up.

'Let's continue.'

He took a few careful steps, signalling beginning of his stride.

"Pagma's Sword Dance, Kill!" He lunged forward and pierced an imaginary enemy in front of him. "Link!" He turned around and took a few steps, after which he slashed as fast as he could. He continued to train in such fashion for some more time, until he heard someone's voice.

"Your style bears signs of years of training, Youngwoo." Hilda said, leaning against a tree not far from him.

What was she doing here? What did she want? Youngwoo wanted to curse, feeling an awkward feeling wash over him. This was the second time already she'd seen the swordsmanship he used, and to be honest, he wasn't happy about it. Not one bit.