Youngwoo researches his abilities a bit (raid still doesn't go well for him)

Youngwoo was laying on his bed, unsure what to do. His hunt for the day was finished (he prefered to finish before 15:00), and after checking his pockets he only found 25 silver coins. Even though it was a small amount, he smiled lightly.

'It's a shame this ability didn't bring the other sword back. Well, it rewinds time, doesn't it? It only transports me in time, it seems.' He took out his sword.

The calm, silver blade, about 1 metre long, and weighted no more than 0.5 kg. Its material, despite the color, was called Magic Gold. While as ore and heated material it was as soft as gold, if one were to infuse it with magic (which a ton of people did), it changed its color and hardened to the point where it was comparable to steel, and sometimes even harder. Though Magic Gold was the material's name widely used in trading in Tower, and even called so by NPCs on different floors, Youngwoo had his own name for it.

'Thaumium...' He smiled lightly at a faint memory of a video game where he could create such material. Although it didn't have the same color, whenever he struck the blade with his nail he could feel reverberation of energy coursing through it. He sincerely wanted for his sword to have purple color, but even the best blacksmiths at the time could only do a few basic colors. Now, if he wanted to, he could've gotten it relatively easily. But that was a story for another day.

19:22

Youngwoo looked at the clock on his phone. He really needed to bide around his time, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to do anything at all. Hell, he didn't even eat a dinner since he came back. Was he being nervous about the raid? No, of course not. He had a S-rank passive, he couldn't get nervous (at least most of the time), so why didn't he want to eat?

'...Wait...' A thought erected in his mind. '...what if this passive also negates the feeling of hunger? But, is that really considered stress? Hell, that's not good.'

But, when he thought about it, about whenever he watched relays from Magician Guild, wasn't Dragon Witch's behavior a little weird? To dispel his doubts, he fired up a relay from a random press conference with Magician Guild. It was from when the first raid of banshee on floor 20 failed. He watched Dragon Witch with meticulous attention. After she finished speaking and Morpheus picked up where she left off, the camera shifted, but Hilda was still in view.

Then, she suddenly looked down, as if at her leg, for a moment. She reached with her hand and brought up her phone for a brief moment. After putting it down, she took a small bag of beef jerky and started slowly munching on them while going away.

What was the meaning of this? Youngwoo wasn't sure. With a gut feeling, he searched up 'Dragon Witch's eating habit' in Google. And suddenly, he was greeted with a weird video.

Dragon Witch eating food for 7 minutes straight (with sound)

It was a weird title (just why would anyone be interested in that?), but he decided to at least view the beginning of it. As the Youtube loaded his desired content, he immediately saw Hilda holding a small sandwich for a second or two. Suddenly, she dug into it, and a 'Yoshi Mlem' sound played in perfect timing. Suddenly, the compilation started going wild, showing her munching on something with the same sound effect.

Youngwoo started laughing. This was unexpected, so much so that he started rolling on the ground for a short while, before he calmed down. And the video soon changed the sound effect to some anime girl's 'Nom' sound. Still chuckling, he paused the video. This wasn't what he was looking for, but at least the title didn't lie. And then, he decided to see what people wrote about it. And immediately, the top comment said something that piqued his interest.

Isn't her eating habit a little weird?

I mean seriously, has anyone else noticed that she eats at set intervals EXACTLY? If you don't believe me, check the records. Every time the clock goes 12:30, 15:00, 19:00, and some other hours, she can be seen eating not even 5 minutes later. Is this some weird habit she brought from her home or what? Is she a robot?

Youngwoo couldn't help but chuckle a little at the last bit. But, this seemed to be the confirmation he was looking for. His expression stiffened a little.

'To not even feel hunger... goddammit that ability is situational as hell. It's a real handicap when you think about it, unless you spend your entire life on battlefield. What else does it block?' He started pondering.

This ability seemed like it would be a double-edged sword. Sure, it would calm him in the midst of battle, but wasn't he laughing just now? Would it seriously block his emotions as well? He really had to test it someday. Youngwoo looked at the clock. 20:20. He sighed with a bit of irritation and went to prepare himself something to eat.

Next day, 6:20

He woke up, hearing his alarm blare. He stretched lightly, quickly getting out of bed and going about his morning routine. He fired up his computer (again, with slow startup) and fried the remaining bacon, making sure he would keep an eye on it this time. Still, as he started searching 'Tower's Daily' website, he felt some reverberation from his stomach. While he didn't feel the feeling of hunger, his body still did. With relief, he stood up and finished taking care of the bacon. Then, while eating, he started browsing he news. Sure enough, at the same time as yesterday, a post of identical contents was posted. He nodded lightly to himself as he finished up and went out.

The plan went smoothly: he acted angry in front of the guards in front of the Gate, got hit and debuffed (this time he was poisoned, and was dripping blood from his nose all the way to the cafe). When he reached the place he'd meet with Abigail, he swiped away most of the blood and bought himself a coffee.

Conversation with Abigail went smoothly. He didn't lie to her about his abilities (since he had a S-rank among them now), and he saw the girl's eyes light up momentarily. He didn't disclose his rank this time (neither false nor true), but he hinted that he might be in the higher half. Overall, it didn't go much different from the first time.

11:52

He met Grendel again, answered her questions (this time he didn't even lie, just refused to tell her his rank), and went on to wait patiently (she still believed he was better off as guard for healers). But, there was some feeling in his guts. Didn't Grendel look at him a bit differently from the first time? Not just differently because his skills were different, but different in sense of understanding him a bit? The name still rang in his head, but he honestly forgot to even look it up. But now, he had a few minutes.

He fired up browser on his phone and quickly started searching. And then, the first search result showed him who she was.

Melinda Grendel is a Truthsayer belonging to Magician Guild. She is known to be about 700th in the overall rankings, but is still a very valuable asset to the guild because of her A-rank lie detection ability (...)

Youngwoo didn't even finish the article. This was... frankly, not very surprising. For a brief moment, he felt confused, but he understood the intention immediately.

'So that's what she meant that I was too good to be true...' He thought for a moment, but his attention was suddenly brought to Morpheus, who commanded everyone to transmit to floor 20.

15:25

The phase 2 of banshee started. Everyone watched with shock as Dragon Witch's zombie started charging at them with magic. But not Youngwoo. He simply rose his sword, intending on parrying the strike. Using his authority as S-rank ability wielder (which he had time to explain to others) and a veteran of the Tower (which he didn't even need to explain), he commanded other guards to spread out with healers to prevent Ice Dragon Tail Swipe from striking too many people. As expected, it was the next attack that came, and as he thought, it was aimed at Abigail and himself. Standing valiantly in one spot, he slashed at the icicle that went straight for girl's stomach. With a weird calm, he calculated where he needed to move his sword, and managed to deflect the projectile rather easily, even though sheer **** made his hand feel stiff for a moment.

As the fight went on for a bit longer, undead witch was brought on defensive by 4 guard/healer teams. Youngwoo still protected Abigail, who was focused on healing the majority of the guild. Using the momentary leeway that presented itself, he checked time on his phone. 15:42. Now was the time.

"Miss Abigail." He said.

"?" She looked at him, and then back at the battlefield. "Mister Youngwoo, we are in middle of battle."

"I know, but... I had a thought just now."

"A thought?"

"Don't you get a feeling of déjà vu?"

"Déjà vu? How so?"

"I just feel like I've seen a battle like this... maybe in my previous life?" He said; of course, he was prepared for this conversation. He had enough time before sleep to prepare a bit.

"Previous life? Mister Youngwoo, I understand that you believe in reincarnation or the such, but why bring it up all of the sudden?"

"I don't know... don't you feel like you've seen this battle already?"

"No...? How could I have seen this battle already when it's happening in front of my eyes?" She pulled the bowstring and shot an arrow forward, barely hitting an undead in front ranks. "It's not a recording, is it?"

"...yes, I must've thought wrong. I'm very sorry."

"Don't be." She cast a large-scale heal. "Just don't let your thoughts disrupt your interest in the battle."

"Yes, I understand." He bowed lightly. 'So, she doesn't remember...' He was sure of it. 'But, this raid is still going to fail.' He thought as he remembered how he first died. Dragon Witch's zombie used an ice wave (which was called Ice Dragon Breath), and sliced his head clean off. He was sure it'd be able to kill at least 20 people if it was used properly. But this time, the zombie didn't use it even when it was later than before. He didn't know if others were fully aware of that skill, and he decided not to call it out. This might only bring problems.

The fight kept going on for a few more minutes. It seemed almost as if Hunters could win. But then, banshee started ravaging the ranks alongside the undead, albeit attacking much slower and weaker than before. Phase 3 begun in earnest.

'Better to go off easily.' He thought. He didn't want to watch everyone suffer. It didn't cause any distorted feelings to him, unlike the first time, but he still found it to be a repelling sight. With little thought, he gripped his sword tightly and charged at the Dragon Witch's zombie.

Was it waiting for this moment? As he took a few steps forward, the super undead cast Earth Dragon Ascension to repel everyone circling it, and then shot forward to meet him head on.

Before they met, Youngwoo's torso was already cut deeply by an ice wave. But, with his eyes slowly bluring, he noticed something weird from the Dragon Witch's zombie. In its blank eyes, he could see a tiny bit of a spark. What did it mean? As he was brought into darkness, he understood.

Zombies had some degree of intelligence to allow them to operate. Dragon Witch was transformed into a high-tier one, allowing her to access at least some of her intellect she had when she was alive. So, she had enough intelligence to use her skills immediately after being killed (or at least very quickly). She could recognize threats easily. She didn't use her A-rank skill because she was wary of him. Youngwoo intimidated her.

Most people were aware that monsters could 'feel' rank of whoever they were facing, and many suspected that this also applied to skills Hunters possessed. So, Dragon Witch's zombie reaction could be justified in a way. Was it because he possessed a S-rank skill? Or was it because of SSS-rank one? Or was it because he didn't fail to protect Abigail while avoiding injuring himself altogether? It was probably all of them.

[You have died.]

[You have been killed by Dragon Witch (zombie)]
[You cannot choose any more skills from this enemy now.]

[Displaying trauma...]

And then, another one appeared that made Youngwoo's heart sink momentarily.

[Due to effects of skill 'Calm Mind (passive)', strain on your mentality has been strengthened.]