Shio-ram has a slightly different educational program each year.
First years focus on enhancing their innate abilities.
If there are students who don’t know the basics or haven’t found their aptitude, they cram in various foundational knowledge during the freedom semester for a few months.
Only after completing the entrance exam and midterm assessment do students get the right to choose their classes—this is essentially the real freedom semester.
For a year, they stuff their brains with knowledge, refrain from outside activities, and hone their innate foundational abilities in a safe cradle.
Just one year.
The students of Shio-ram can grow in a way that is on an entirely different level from the outside world.
There are many reasons for this, but at its core is the Tower of Growth.
The blessing of growth.
The powers of the tower bestowed by Neriel Claidya, the tower’s master.
“Wasn’t the basic multiplier five times?”
Just based on the basic multiplier, it’s five times.
What others would suffer through for five years outside can be achieved in just one year.
Moreover, they regularly enter the Tower of Growth and receive world-class education simultaneously.
It’s literally a space for growth.
Day 5 in the tower.
Aside from getting caught up in fights breaking out all around, it was uneventful since day 4.
Before my skills could shine, the second and first students teamed up to protect each other, making it tough to get into any dangerous situations.
To put it bluntly, I got hit by the bus.
The kind of rigorous trials felt more on days 1 and 2, and after riding on my connections to avoid elimination, I am now comfortably training and reaping rewards.
On top of that, I even obtained the egg of the wish, which I had long given up on.
It’s so sweet I think my teeth might rot. I mean, this is how connections work, right? But oh well. Shio-ram itself encourages forming connections.
In the time left, I trained.
When I was being chased around, I was too flustered to notice, but now that I’m comparatively calm, I could feel my body changing in real time.
I was dumbfounded. I could feel my growth the more I moved my body, and the more mana I used, the more my core and circuits grew.
“Ahh…”
Just then, I heard a groaning sound nearby.
It was Hong Yeon-hwa. She was sitting on a stump, sweating a river. At her strange dying sound, Baek Ahrin looked puzzled and asked.
“What’s wrong since earlier?”
“My body doesn’t feel too good. Must be the Gop-hwa. Did I overdo it?”
Amid Hong Yeon-hwa’s grumbling, I briefly stopped training and focused on her mana.
I examined the immense amount of mana that Hong Yeon-hwa was harnessing more closely.
Before long, I sensed the difference.
Her mana, which seemed ready to burn everything, felt somehow imperfectly tangled.
“Ah… I really cranked up the output too much during the boss fight. I told you not to use your expansion abilities.”
“I had no choice but to bloom for a one-shot kill. What do you think would happen if I missed?”
“Ugh, so? Do you want me to help?”
Baek Ahrin raised one hand. A cold energy flickered from her palm—it was the emergence of Chang-hae.
Most Gop-hwa users struggle with chronic output burdens.
It’s a burden rather than a lack of output. Gop-hwa boasts the best output among unique abilities but often harms the user.
One way to alleviate that burden is to get help from Chang-hae.
With healing properties like water energy and cold energy, Chang-hae is an antidote for the burden of Gop-hwa.
At Baek Ahrin’s question, Hong Yeon-hwa pondered while sweating and then shook her head.
“It’s fine. I’ll handle it. I need to get used to dealing with this kind of thing on my own inside the tower.”
“That’s true. It’s best to adjust as much as possible alone, but…”
As someone with a historically high output among her clan, Hong Yeon-hwa has a heavier burden.
She might have suppressed it with her innate control until now, but this time she’s feeling the pressure after going wild.
‘Will it be like that again this time?’
But if things proceed similarly to the original story, this is growing pains.
The output from the fire was squeezed out using mana, and due to the blessing of growth, it’s stimulating an evolution in her Gop-hwa.
This was something that happened frequently in the original story.
After the first tower entrance, Hong Yeon-hwa’s Gop-hwa always went through some transformation.
Gop-hwa is such a special unique ability that every time it changes, the user faces something like an inner test. A few top-tier unique abilities, including Chang-hae and Taesan, also undergo this.
According to Hong Yeon-hwa from the original story, in her case, it’s a trial of overcoming the various guilt she’s accumulated throughout her life and turning it into fuel for firewood.
Anyway, Hong Yeon-hwa will easily overcome her trial and evolve her unique ability.
‘…Gop-hwa.’
While I was contemplating this, the keyword Gop-hwa caught my attention. I absentmindedly rubbed my right arm. It felt strange even though it was wrapped in an armrest.
On the day of the freshman welcome party, I recognized Hong Yeon-hwa not by her voice but by sensing her mana.
Even though it was coiled within her body, it radiated an overwhelming heat that made me think of the word ‘Gop-hwa.’
That’s how I could distinguish it. Gop-hwa users contain fire within them. Even if I wanted to look away, I couldn’t help but notice.
My right arm? My mana felt like just clear spring water. There was nothing fiery about it.
Even so, I used Gop-hwa. It was strange.
Recently, I’ve been feeling this inexplicable sensation more frequently.
Could it be that I’m also experiencing the trials of Gop-hwa?
Lost in thought, I rummaged through the memories of the original story. There was only one reference case.
‘Third playthrough.’
Third playthrough character, Sang-jong.
If the character from the second playthrough was a warrior who trained in the orthodox way using knowledge from previous playthroughs, then the third playthrough actively exploited various shortcuts to become a great army character.
With all the hidden pieces and unexpected luck gained through the first two playthroughs, this character possessed Gop-hwa, Chang-hae, and Taesan, albeit halved.
Just like how Chang-hae reduces the burden of Gop-hwa, I wondered if the synergy of the three unique abilities could lessen each other’s burdens.
In reality, it somewhat went that way. Each complemented the other to lessen flaws, leading to an increase in output.
The third playthrough was a clumsy early phase overall, but in terms of output, it could rival later phases.
The problem was that it ended in self-destruction due to the inability to manage that output.
During character creation, I chose the unique ability “Vessel” to increase the limits, but my body itself was weak and easily collapsed.
The third playthrough didn’t have an event like Gop-hwa’s trial.
Of course, being only a half case and a trivial point of reference, who knows what the reality is like?
This matter was something I first heard from Hong Yeon-hwa.
Just in case, she suggested we go back to the main house and have it checked.
Since I didn’t get it, I agreed.
To be honest, I felt a bit anxious. From the Gop-hwa clan’s perspective, an outsider suddenly showing up with their unique ability must seem unsettling.
As I revealed that unease, Hong Yeon-hwa reassured me that it was safe and that there would definitely be no problems, to which I nodded.
Now that I think about it, didn’t the professors supervise the tower trials in the original story? Could it be that they caught me using Gop-hwa…
“I probably got caught…”
The top student and the second student must have seen the scene where we defeated the boss.
Still, given how sensitive this issue is, I silently wished that it would be kept a secret.
There’s no way the professors would go around blabbing about how that kid used Gop-hwa, right?
I set my worries aside and resumed my training.
I spent some time like that.
Hong Yeon-hwa was managing her Gop-hwa, while Elia and Baek Ahrin were doing their individual training.
It was a rather relaxed atmosphere.
How much time passed?
– Crash!
Suddenly, a sound of something breaking reached my ears. I turned my head towards the source of the noise.
Time slowed down. It felt like everything was moving at a snail’s pace, and my actions felt unbearably slow.
I instinctively realized it. It was time to leave.
‘I’m going out now.’
At the same time, my consciousness faded. It felt like my awareness was being forcibly sucked into darkness.
It felt long yet short. The life inside the tower and this very moment I was sensing felt paradoxical.
– Ding!
My consciousness turned to darkness.
*
– Ding!
[Passing through the trial of growth (1st floor).]
[The number of eliminated students is 18.]
[The score obtained is 750 points.]
[Survived until day 5, reflecting the complete score.]
[Player (?) is exiting the Tower of Growth.]
[“Blessing of Growth (Entrance) is being withdrawn.”]
*
– Hooong…
The wind brushed my cheeks. My hair swayed gently. It felt different from the wind I felt just before.
The air touching my skin felt different too. Unlike the moistness I was accustomed to, it was relatively dry.
My hazy consciousness returned. The vibrations flowed through my legs, which stood on the ground.
‘……’
As I blankly exhaled, I clenched one of my fists.
– Crackle…
The power grasped in my palm felt strange. It was several times lighter than compared to before entering the tower.
As I burst out, all negativity—wounds, fatigue, and such—vanished, leaving only positive changes behind.
While I checked my awkward body, I caught the bustling presence of the released students in my ears.
“Ah, we’re out.”
“Damn, it was real hell getting killed on the first day.”
“Hong Yeon-hwa! Why did you kill me too—!”
Various emotions like despair, satisfaction, and anger swirled in the plaza.
Those who dropped out relatively early looked gloomy, while those who survived until the end were in a brighter mood.
Having exited the tower.
As soon as I realized that, the suppressed spatial perception exploded into clarity.
With the pressure gone, I felt buoyant and vigorously expanded my territory.
The unstable internal map regained its colors. It was mere spatial information, but the shapes and colors became clear.
‘……’
Still, from the perspective of a visitor who struggled within the tower, it felt bitter and unsatisfactory.
When first activated, I almost killed my owner, and at crucial moments, I was useless…
The radius expanded to 100m, 200m, 300m… slowly unfolding.
400m, 500m, 600m… it grew larger in between. It had been suppressed, but I guess it kept growing steadily all this time.
700m… 800m…
‘Oh?’
It kept expanding. Like a spring that had been compressed to its limits, the amount of information surged exponentially.
It passed 1km but didn’t stop.
Not only that.
Instead of just increasing the range, the density of information increased too. The quality of the observed information improved significantly.
The Tower of Growth was swallowed by the field. The observed data rushed into my brain.
Axes of space, walls, elasticity, the principles of confinement and silence, internal expansion laws, and external defensive layers…
The inscriptions engraved throughout the ground. Modified spells and newly manifesting spells, total mana supplied and its circulatory rate…
Human beings, garments, skin, muscles, bones, blood, nerves, circuits, cores, hearts, mana, and internal organs…
Space was perceptible.
– Crack!
My head throbbed. My brain flickered brightly. The speed of my thoughts gradually slowed down as I couldn’t handle the volume of information.
This familiar sensation. A hazy yet vividly intense memory.
It felt like the moment when I almost got killed on the first day was creeping up on me.
Blood turned cold.
‘Oh.’
What the hell is this guy’s problem?
I gritted my teeth and adjusted the spatial perception.
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