The raid commences (and it doesn't go well for Youngwoo)

11:21

Youngwoo was sitting on a bench together with a few other people, just about 50 metres between them and the Gate outfitted with a large, electronic clock (installed by some architects some months after coming to the Tower). The slick arc made of gold, shining, indestructible metal was shining, and so were many armors and accessories worn by literally hundreds of people. People of different races, birth places, nationalities, united by the Tower to climb it. Most of them belonged to one of 4 major guilds.

Most prominent group was Knight Guild. Outfitted with shiny armor, about 150 people stood like soldiers awaiting their general to give an order. Their commander, a middle-aged man known as Mach Spear, was a powerful person ranked as number 1 in overall rankings. His armor, quite unlike his underlings, was actually devoid of shininess, and instead reminded of a sturdy leather armor that's seen a fair share of battles already. With a spear in his hand, he was talking to platoon of soldiers, giving them their final orders before the raid begun.

Second group that stood out was the Merchant's Guild. They had only about 100 people joining the raid, but it didn't mean they were weaker than Knight Guild's party. Nearly all of their equipment was top notch, created by most skilled craftsmen around or bought from people lucky enough to find such items in their hunts. This didn't mean they haven't experienced hunting, of course. Their commander, a rather younger boy, about 17 on eye, was doing last checkups on guild's status. One could misunderstand for the boy to simply be playing pretend, and for the actual commander to be somewhere around, but they'd be mistaken. The boy's identity was Michel Collen, also called Merchant King. After entering the Tower at age of 11, he was granted an SS-rank skill that allowed him to freely exchange resources between the Tower and outside world (though he still couldn't leave himself). This made him a very important person in this place, and using his wits and intellect he formed a guild revolving around money and transfers of resources. His guild held firm hand on entire Tower's economy, and was it not for other guilds keeping them in check, they easily could establish a centralized system where they could use people as they saw fit.

Thirdly there was the Reaper Guild. They were ranked 3rd in guild rankings, and revolved mostly around being as swift and silent as possible. Still, they had nearly 100 people coming to the raid. Their commander, hidden by a cloak (undoubtedly a very rare or maybe even a unique item) was speaking in a voice that only entered ears of their guild. People had long since figured that this was a woman, but even then, nobody knew how she looked, and hence was her name on the rankings Shadow. Some even speculated that she was actually shorter than 190 cm that she looked like. Nobody knew her skill set, either, but it was widely speculated that she was one of 3 people in the Tower to have 2 S-rank skills.

And lastly there was the Magician Guild. Only 44 people, including vicemaster Morpheus (his actual name was not known to public) and Abigail. Looks of the magicians were tense as they looked at a large clock above the Gate; they looked still shaken by the losses of yesterday. Of course, this was understandable. Entire Magician Guild went into boss fight, and less than 10% of them managed to return. And now, they were supposed to challenge the boss again? Youngwoo thought they were ridiculous.

'This is as good as suicide. They won't be able to fight properly.' That was conclusion that was obvious. If they wanted to stand a fighting chance, they should have calmed their spirits first. But, he didn't care much. After all, he wasn't here to judge. 'Since they will want everyone to enlist before entering, there's no way that I can just enter quietly. And I can't run, either, otherwise my chances with Abigail are lost...'

He pondered on his situation. He always could use an excuse that he felt threatened by his rank still being 'only' D, but what kind of excuse was that? Around the 4 guilds, there was about 50-60 extra people, likely coming here for spoils of war on their own accord. Since nobody was stopping them, Youngwoo quickly concluded that the guilds were **** enough to not reject any help from outside. This only made the situation look shadier. Just why would they go to such extent? His thinking was abruptly halted when he heard Abigail's voice:

"Mister Youngwoo! Glad to see you came around!" She nodded lightly to him as she came to a halt. "There's somebody I believe you should meet." Abigail approached him. She was wearing robes similar to most other magicians, but he also noticed that she had a bow and quiver equipped. She stepped aside, showing a small woman standing behind her.

She was at most 1,6 metres tall, in her thirties. Her dark skin glistened a little as she took a deep breath, giving herself a breather. Her D-cups breasts were swaying back and forth lightly; she clearly wasn't used to exercise. Her nice, toned buttocks were mostly hidden under a large, purple robe that ended just above her ankles. She looked at Youngwoo with her golden eyes and swayed back her raven-black hair, hanging just to her chin.

"This is mister Youngwoo Lee I spoke about, miss Grendel." Said the green-eyed healer. "I believe he will be of much help."

The woman took a long look at him. There was something weird about the way she looked at him.

"Hello." She said quickly.

"Hello, miss Grendel." He replied and quickly got up; for some reason, the name run in his head. Has he heard of it somewhere already? Was she someone important?

"How long have you been in the Tower, if I may?"

"Uh, a little over 8 years by now."

"Hmm, I see. And I heard you posses 5 skills?"

"That's correct." He nodded lightly, keeping his composure.

"Hmm, alright then. D-rank, right?"

"Yes...?"

"Sorry, just got a lot on my head. Everything is all blurry since yesterday. I simply want this raid to be over already. But, I do have one extra question though."

"Yes?"

"Would you be able to harm a person?"

"...I'm not sure. Probably only if I really had to. I don't like fighting with people."

Dark-skinned woman nodded lightly in understanding. There was something... off about her, but Youngwoo couldn't pinpoint it. Why was her name somewhat familiar to him? He couldn't tell.

"Very well, then. How do you prefer fighting against monsters?"

"I like to evade as much as possible."

"Any particular reason for that?"

"...why do you want to know?"

"Well, if it's an effect of one of your skills, it'd be better if you tell us how it happens. Maybe we should have you guard our healers instead of fighting."

"Ah, I see." 'Thank you, Grendel. This way you'll give me what I want.' "Well, one of my skills has a nasty side effect. I can tank a little and resist environment to a good degree, but I get debuffed for about 10 minutes every time I get hit."

"What kind of debuff is it?"

"It's random. Sometimes I get poisoned, other paralyzed, and so on and so forth."

"Hmm... Alright then. I believe you'd do best if you were protecting our healers. This way they can heal you if you'll need it."

"I understand." He nodded lightly. 'Whew. That wasn't too difficult.'

"Now, please gather with our group at 11:50." Grendel started walking away immediately; clearly, she had some important things to do at the moment.

"Thank you, miss Grendel. I won't be late." He replied, bowing his head. Then, seeing as his sitting spot was already taken, he decided to simply stand idly by, awaiting the time.

Youngwoo saw that Grendel and Abigail were speaking some time after that. The girl was sometimes stealing glances at him, and he pretended not to notice. 'Oho. Take a good, long look, miss Abigail. The hero has arrived.' He smiled a little mischievously at the thought. He didn't intend for anything bad to happen during the raid, he sincerely hoped nobody got injured, but he couldn't help himself. He could already see himself appear as a hero to the group of healers. He was certain that'd score quite a few points for his relation with Abigail. 'Ah, look at pathetic me. Thinking about such a girl like I had a chance.' He frowned at the thought. After doing a little research, he found out that Abigail was 19 this year. He also found out that public opinion thought her ability is only B-rank, which explained why there were no fanfares when she came to the Tower. After finding out that, he decided to stop looking for information; he didn't want to feel like a creep.

11:56

Youngwoo was standing with what remained of Magician Guild. Along with him, 4 additional people joined the expedition to protect the healers. He saw that they were in the very least C-ranks, wearing decent equipment and weapons. Youngwoo glanced at the healers. There were 7 of them in total, including Abigail. From what he could tell, 4 of them were E or F-rank, and the other 2 were at least D-rank. Still, he didn't feel nervous; Abigail could be alone, but he was sure her heal would be effective.

12:00

"Alright, everyone! Let's go!" Shouted Morpheus, raising his battle staff high up.

In response, hundreds of people raised their weapons and other equipment as well, showing their preparedness. With that, he shouted towards the Gate:

"Transmit, floor 20!"

And others, including Youngwoo, followed suit. In less than 20 seconds, everyone was transported to the desired floor. It was time for boss hunt.

What immediately caught Youngwoo's attention was the huge plains that they were in. The terrain was rather flat, and short grass was evergreen. The afternoon sun was starting to set in the distance. The next thing that the man noticed was that the terrain all around was surrounded by a fence in a circular fashion, about 2 kilometres wide, and the group appeared just next to what seemed like a gateway. The fence was about 7 metres tall, made with dark metal, presumably colored iron or some such.

Suddenly, him and everyone else received a notification from the Tower.

[The seal on floor 20 has not been lifted yet. It is a boss floor.]
[Transmit is blocked for 4 hours or until the boss is defeated.]

'So floor 20 boss has an arena to fight in?' He thought as he looked around. Most of the people quickly started preparing for a fight. This was behavior of veterans who had fought against hundreds of enemies. Warriors unsheathed their swords, mages prepared their spells, rogues started scouting the terrain, silent like wind. And then, a person appeared in far distance.

It was a tall woman, about 2,3 metres tall, wearing what seemed like a night dress. There were steel cuffs around her legs and wrists, some lengths of chains hanging freely and making clinging noises as she turned to see the group. Long, white hair was laying partially on the ground behind her as she started walking towards the group. Her skin was unnaturally pale, even paler than that of an albino. In fact, nobody could see any color on her skin, not even red of blood beneath her skin. What was red, on the other hand, was her eyes. Filled with murderous intent, it seemed like the woman could simply take a step and be right in front of the group if she wanted to. This was the appearance of a banshee.

The distance was about 500 metres. The boss started swinging the chains on her wrists in circular motion, quickly creating 2 rotor blades that she used to block magician's spells. And then, she dashed forward to meet the knights. The fight begun in earnest.

15:22

It took the group almost 3,5 hours to seriously injure the boss. During the process, nearly 400 people got some kind of injuries. Some were struck by the chains and had their bones broken, others got slashed by boss's fingernails (which, surprisingly enough, she could extend and hide as she pleased). Still, most of the people were healed by the healers immediately. Youngwoo could notice how despite being a newbie in the art, Abigail was healing not only multiple people at once, but she did it with nearly double the speed of other healers.

'That's the gap between normal and elite levels.' He thought as he just barely parried a chain strike aimed at one of the healers. It seemed that the boss was recognizing the main problem of the fight: the source of people not even dying when it struck will enough might to completely upturn some terrain.

As the chain flung back and hit his shoulder powerfully, he suddenly felt nauseous.

[You are inflicted with 'Nauseous' status for 9 minutes.]

'Annoying.' He got up shakily. He poked the healer next to him, a young man with a B-rank spells. Taking his hint, the man started healing him quickly; all the healers were told to prioritize their guards even over other guild members. Without guards, healers would fall quickly, and the rest would follow suit.

But, suddenly, the banshee jumped a fair distance away. It seemed impossible to traverse a distance of nearly 100 metres in a single jump, but the boss did it effortlessly. Then, it lowered its hands, letting the heavy chains on the ground for a moment. It was preparing something.

"Time for phase 2!" Shouted Morpheus. "You know the drill!"

"Phase 2?" Youngwoo asked the healer who just healed him.

"Have you not been lectured about Iron Maiden?" The man asked, to which F-ranker shook his head. "Iron Maiden summons zombies and skeletons. But please don't be shaken. They will look familiar, but they're just copying appearance. It'd take at least a week to copy skills."

"Of whom?"

"Those who died to her." The man replied with grim expression.

The banshee suddenly let a terrifying scream, so high pitched and loud that she could damage eardrums of anyone around. And just after that, the ground in random spots started moving. In a few seconds, nearly 1000 undead creatures arose and started growling at the humans who dared come into the floor and injure the banshee. About half of them were zombies with appearances very close to humans. In fact, was it not for blank eyes, drooling saliva and some injuries on their bodies, as well as somewhat torn clothes, one could say they were humans.

The boss rose her finger and pointed at the group. Youngwoo realized at the moment; the creature was not pointing at the group in altogether. Banshee's finger was pointed directly at Abigail. Hundreds of creatures answered by letting out angry growls, after which they started charging forward. And, among all of them there was one that stood out.

A zombie of a young woman, who seemed to be in her twenties by the time she died. She wore a long, dark robe, which was torn and only reached to her ankles. Her skin pale like that of dead (since she was dead obviously), and her wavy hair were of dark red color. Her left shoulder was completely dislocated, but she held a large staff in that hand nonetheless. But, that wasn't what made her stand out. It was what happened the moment all of them started charging.

A sigil of magic appeared behind her. In an instant, the earth behind the zombie shifted and shot out like a spring, giving it a ton of speed. Youngwoo saw this skill many times in recordings, but never used in such a way. 'That's Earth Dragon Ascension! Wait, but... that means!'

He positioned himself in front of Abigail. He was totally scared of the charging undead, but he had an obligation to protect the healer. He was proud of his honor in promises and wouldn't dream of breaking one. Besides, he knew she'd heal him afterwards. He got used to pain anyway.

The undead creature soared just above the ranks, and was hit once by someone's mace. The staff that was aiming for Abigail's head shifted its trajectory alongside the entire body, and Youngwoo shifted his body accordingly, sending his longsword in an arc to parry the strike. And as the staff was blocked and the zombie started tumbling on the ground behind the group, he finished his thought.

'THAT'S DRAGON WITCH! WE'RE FUCKED!' He thought with equal amounts of pain and fear. The 2nd ranked person in the entire Tower was now standing as their opponent. Sure enough, that healer earlier said zombies only copied appearance of those who died. But then, how come Dragon Witch's zombie could use her magic? Youngwoo had no time to ponder.

The fight begun in earnest. The banshee didn't get involved in the fight directly anymore, instead opting to pick up some rocks from the ground and throwing them at her opponents. But that wasn't a problem. Some assassins from Reaper Guild were already approaching it quietly.

"What was that?! How could she understand Dragon Witch already?!" Shouted one of the healers. This was the worst situation. In the entire Tower, there were only 2 people who had a chance against Dragon Witch at her prime (which happened to be yesterday). Those were the Mach Spear, who excelled in melee combat (which was magician's weakness) and Morpheus, who was known to understand her skill set entirely. And now, both of them were quite busy with the front line.

But, scared or not, Youngwoo had no intention of stepping down. Whether or not this zombie could really utilize Dragon's Witch skills, there was at least 1 handicap that he was fully aware of. Skills had some cooldowns assigned by the Tower. And he intended to use that.

"Hey!" He turned to one of the guards. "Flank her from left! I'll go from right!" He shouted in commanding voice. He could see uncertainty in everyone's eyes, but quickly took his steps forward.

Youngwoo was a melee fighter. He used a longsword mostly due to its reach, but he was also versed in hand-to-hand combat (he might've not fought in the wars between Koreas in the 30's of XXI century, but he wanted to prepare nonetheless). Still, he knew he had a chance against Dragon Witch's zombie. She might've been high in the ranking due to power of her skills and her ability to utilize cooldowns to her advantage (or to simply minimize the disadvantage), but zombies had little intelligence. Besides, one of its most powerful skills was on cooldown now. It was rumored about 10 minutes had to pass before it could be used again.

But, surprisingly, neither of the two things seemed to apply to this one. Noticing what they wanted to do, the zombie immediately used Earth Dragon's Ascension again, and was soon standing on a pillar of earth, about 15 metres tall. Then, it rose its hand and pointed it at Abigail. A large sigil appeared above it, and a weird projection of something's tail appeared. The tail swung in a wide arc, and dozens of icy shards, sharp as a razor and as large as a hand hailed down. This attack had a very fitting name: Ice Dragon's Tail Swipe (who knew why Tower named things the way it did?)

Seeing as his plan was foiled, Youngwoo opted to retreat. He positioned himself alongside 3 other guards, but they couldn't do much to stop the hail; the power was simply too much. Guard on his left, a young man, died in a single hit from an icicle. Shocked Youngwoo couldn't believe.

'One hit? That guy was D-rank! Is this the power of S-rank?! Or... did her skill evolve to SS-rank?!' With every moment, Youngwoo's thoughts reached a more despairing point. 'We're dead.'

The others seemed to have similar thoughts. Looking back at the battleground, Youngwoo saw that the people's expedition was failing. Hunters were falling left and right, assassins that tried to kill the banshee were cornered and fighting for their lives as well. Just why did it have to go this way?

He gritted his teeth. Why must've he been so blinded by his greed? Why did he accept Abigail's offer? He wanted to blame her as he watched Dragon Witch deal with a few guards easily. But, he couldn't. He knew that it was all his fault. He couldn't help but admire the young girl, who despite the clear disadvantage didn't stop her heals. Whenever she had to wait for the cooldown to reset, she took a bow and shot a few arrows here and there. Even though everyone already knew the outcome of this fight, they still fought. It was only him that stopped in place.

Was it perhaps prescribed to be like this? Was the floor 20 boss actually unconquerable? He wanted to think that, but couldn't. After all, why would there be more than 20 floors then? Was that all a fluke? This was hard to imagine for him. There had to be some kind of explanation.

'Even though I won't get to see it.' He smiled bitterly as he fixed his grip on his sword. The 'super undead' was now only fighting just 2 people, as others had died. He had maybe 15 seconds. And he knew he was done for, but he wanted to go with clear conscience. He turned to Abigail.

"Miss Abigail." He said. "I have to avow something."

"?" She looked at him for a short moment, but soon resumed what she was doing. "Please be fast. We're in middle of battle."

"I'm not D-rank, nor do I have 5 skills." He bowed deeply in an act of humility.

"I know." The answer surprised him.

"Y-You know?"

"Of course. This seemed too good to be true, mister Youngwoo. But I understand." She nodded as she said calmly.

"Thank you, miss Abigail." He straightened up. He had maybe 10 seconds. "If you survive this, please don't remember me as a liar. I intended for good to happen."

"Don't feel bad about that." She spoke in the same, serene voice, as if she didn't realize she was in middle of battlefield. "I understand."

Did she really? Youngwoo highly doubted that she spoke it because she did. He sincerely felt that she simply said something to soothe his nerves, but he didn't care much.

"Thank you, it means a lot. Then I'm going."

"Huh?" Abigail turned to him, only to see him charging at the zombie who dealt with all other guards. But, she failed to squeeze a word more. That was because, the moment Youngwoo swung his sword, brilliant white light enveloped the entire battlefield for a second before disappearing. Everyone froze on spot. Hunters turned in the direction of Youngwoo instinctively, and even banshee and undead's advance stopped. It was, in a way, an incredible sight.

A small, white card appeared out of thin air just above Youngwoo. It had a beautiful, mosaic-like pattern on its up side, and a description on the other. It kind of looked like a tarot card without an image. Everyone knew what it was: a skill card. What nobody knew however, was its ranking.

Cards with skills granted to the Hunters, be it when they first entry or when they prove themselves, had colors according to their tier. F-ranks had black cards, E-ranks gray ones, D - brown, - C - bronze, B - silver and A had platinum color. Then there was S with a gold color and, although only witnessed once, SS rank had same gold color, but it shone brilliantly. And now, there was a white card?

Monsters and humans alike froze to witness the spectacle of Youngwoo grabbing the card. It was as if there was an invisible **** keeping everyone from moving until everything settled down in this sudden matter. And suddenly, after reading the description, he yelled:

"What is this bullshit?!!!!" His voice, filled with anger beyond mortal comprehension, snapped everyone out of their momentary stasis. Realizing nothing good happened to him, people started fighting with undead once again.

Youngwoo was so angry at what his new skill did that he didn't even care for Dragon Witch's zombie, who quickly charged a magic strike. The moment it fired, he came to his senses, but it was too late. A wave of ice tore his head off his body.

And then, he saw a new notification.

[You have died.]

[You have been killed by Dragon Witch (zombie)]
[There are 8 skills possible for selection.]

And the world went completely dark.