Chapter 1: Summoning the Holy Sword Requires Caution (1)

“Deploy him!”

“Are, are you sure? He’ll, he’ll die!”

“Shut up and hurry! Do you want us all to die too?!”

At the same time, someone pushed Choi Junseok’s back forward.

With that, Choi Junseok realized.

Ah.

‘They meant me when they said deploy?’

Toward that hidden stage.

They’re trying to sacrifice one F-rank porter.

His luck was utterly rotten.

How could the timing match so perfectly?

A floor with no time limit for clearing.

A hidden portal completely blocking the path to the escape stone.

The portal won’t close until someone enters.

No one can leave until that portal disappears.

And I’ve been chosen as the sacrifice.

“Intern Choi Junseok! Jump in right now! Execute!”

It was the voice of Yoo Junghyun, team leader of Field Team 4 at Poongshin F&D Guild.

“Th… that’s right, Intern Choi… Your awakened skill is the most useless, right? Huh?”

“Fuck, are you telling me to die right now?”

“What? F-fuck? You said fuck? You bastard with no father, you think that hole is a mouth!”

At the same time, a dagger blackened with monster blood slowly approached me.

“Choi… Intern Choi… So-someone has to sacrifice themselves. We’ll… get caught soon.

It was the serrated dagger of Kim Minjae, an E-rank player and fellow porter.

‘Minjae…’

We were friends who endured the porter’s hardships together, the only comrade I thought I had.

Until just before, we were carving out the lower jaws of monsters together.

His dagger, which we used to stuff magic stones into one bag, was now aimed at my back.

The tip of the dagger trembling violently.

I wondered if he could even stab anyone like this.

“Choi Junseok! Get in there! Hurry!”

“If you die from excessive bleeding… You’ll die by my hand first! Got it?!”

“Fuck, then why not throw in Assistant Manager Park who’s dying anyway?”

“What, you bastard?! That hole is a mouth! You think you’re on the same level as him? Huh?!”

Assistant Manager Park, clutching his left side pierced by a monster’s tentacle, shouting in anger.

Urging voices and a comrade pointing a knife at my back.

Anyone would think we climbed to the 70th floor or something.

But it’s just the 14th floor.

‘If anyone hears, they might think it’s nothing, but…’

In fact, for most E-rank to D-rank players, challenging the 15th floor is a lifelong goal.

The problem is that this ‘hidden room,’ completely different from the intended strategy, is blocking the path and forcing someone’s sacrifice.

There’s no way Poongshin F&D would give a precious return scroll for conquering the 14th floor.

A single return scroll costs hundreds of millions.

An essential item for conquering and surviving the upper floors of the Magic Tower.

It’s not something that comes out often in the Magic Tower.

“That’s right! Junseok! You’ve been up to the 34th floor! A veteran should sacrifice!”

‘Veteran my ass. What, earlier you called me incompetent?’

It was all because I awakened the skill ‘Inventory Master’ as a porter and followed along.

‘An ability optimized for low-floor farming.’

‘The weakest awakener in history.’

‘The worst utility-type awakener.’

That was the evaluation from surrounding colleagues about Choi Junseok himself.

“Why of all places…”

The hidden stage, also called the tower’s error.

A perfect random occurrence with no rules revealed.

Normally, ordinary players would avoid it for safety, that’s the standard strategy method.

However, the problem is that it’s blocking the only passage to the escape route.

Impossible to bypass.

It’s the 14th floor’s hidden stage, but what comes out from beyond could be 97th floor difficulty or 1st floor difficulty, no one knows.

Until you enter.

The deep passage leading to the only escape route.

Monsters were approaching from the rear moment by moment.

The team members’ wrist devices were blaring warnings of unidentified lifeforms.

“Yeah. I’m going. Go. You fucking bastards. Let’s see how you live without me.”

I never really thought of them as comrades anyway.

However, Minjae, the only one I thought of as a comrade.

Minjae withdrew his trembling hand holding the dagger.

Tears streamed down from Minjae’s eyes.

‘Why are you crying now, making me weak-hearted’

I blankly patted the cheek of Minjae shedding tears.

“Hey! Kim Minjae! Hey! Snap out of it, you bastard. Don’t cry. You’re next after me. Snap out of it. Pray that I survive.

Got it?”

I set down the backpack I was carrying.

When Choi Junseok reached out into the air.

His backpack, which had been inventorized, appeared and fell to the ground.

With a thud!, the lower jaw of a giant centipede pierced through the bag and protruded onto the floor.

“Minjae.”

“Minjae. Hey! Kim Minjae!”

“……Huh? Huh? Hu..!”

“Tell my mother I said hi.”

“O-of, of, of course.”

“My mom. She doesn’t know I’m a porter. I told her I’m a C-rank player. She thinks I’m a fighter. Anyway…

Fuck. She thinks that.”

“She has magic stone infection symptoms on her right arm. Lately, painkillers aren’t working… So… Ah fuck.

She thinks that. I don’t know.”

Hoo…….

I walked into the dark red portal signifying the hidden room.

All I had was a serrated dagger for dismantling monster corpses.

As soon as I crossed the portal, the scenery changed.

It felt like entering the insides of a monster.

Warm and disgusting stench heavily lingered everywhere.

The swamp-like stench climbed up my ankles and wrapped around.

All around was a bloodbath again.

Whether it was human blood or monster corpses, indistinguishable.

In the darkness.

One red dot was detected on the wrist’s biometric radar.

Moreover, that dot was getting bigger.

Something huge was lying ahead.

‘I’ve never seen a reaction like this.’

At least in the 34 floors I followed as a porter, there was nothing like that.

Ah… I’m gonna die.

If I go like this, I’ll die.

I was scared.

But I didn’t stop my steps.

No.

Rather, I ran forward.

To end this damn shitty F-rank life.

Beep−!

Beep–!

Beep—-!

Beepbeepbeepbeep!

Beeeeeeeeep!!!!!

The meter measuring the monster’s energy, mana, was blaring as if it would burst.

Crack!

Smoke rose from the cracked and burst screen of the device.

I felt sorry for my sick mother and high school sister.

But it was true that I also felt a sense of liberation.

This ends it all.

Then, laughter and tears burst out at the same time.

The red dot grew larger, enveloping the wrist’s biometric radar.

An unprecedented vibration rang in the wrist.

A signal that something enormous was beyond there.

It was a screen I’d never seen, but Choi Junseok ran forward, looking only ahead.

“Come on! You fucking shitty bastard.

And at that moment.

· of…?”

What awaited Choi Junseok was not the boss monster of the hidden room.

It was a leather bag.

•Bag?”

An old bag, as if it belonged to a medieval knight.

Without hesitation, I immediately activated the skill.

“[Appraisal].”

Then a status window popped up.

Ding!

Name: God of War’s Bag

Grade: Unmeasurable

Item Level: LV.997

Item Info: Viewing is impossible due to insufficient skill level.

Level 997?

A number I’ve never heard of.

“God of War’s… bag? Wait… if it’s a bag.”

…

As expected, another status window appeared in front of Choi Junseok.

<Warning!>

Acquisition and equipping are impossible due to the disparity in rank with the item.

“Can’t equip because of the rank difference with the item…?”

I’ve seen unequippable notices due to level difference.

But this was the first time Choi Junseok saw one about rank difference.

Moreover, as he took one step closer.

Kuuuung!

A strong pressure spread, shooting out a gale.

As if something alive was pulsating.

Gulp.

Choi Junseok, regaining balance, swallowed dryly.

As he slowly reached out his hand.

A sharp stinging pain felt as if lightning struck his fingertip.

Ding!

<Warning!>

Forcibly approaching an item with a significant level difference may result in death.

‘Death?’

Such a notification had never appeared.

What kind of warning about death for approaching a mere item?

However, Choi Junseok had a way.

“Skill activation. [Inventory Master].”

The reason he could climb to the 34th floor as a porter.

Skill: ‘Inventory Master.’

Category: Non-combat

Grade: F-rank

Description:

-All bags can be equipped, and upon equipping, they can be inventorized.

-Space utilization is optimized.

-Items in inventory can be summoned from a distance.

-Inventory use and item summoning possible even outside the Magic Tower.

The awakened skill name ‘Inventory Master’ that people around mocked.

A skill truly optimized for carrying bags.

An ability like opening a game inventory.

Days of despair upon hearing it’s a skill that thief guilds would like.

As Choi Junseok’s skill activated, blue light burst from his hand.

At the same time, the same light enveloped the old bag called the God of War’s Bag.

‘If this is treated as a bag too…’

The first line of the opened F-rank ability.

‘All bags can be equipped, and…’

As expected.

Ding!

[You have acquired ‘Sword God’s Leather Bag’.]

It is an item that soul-binds upon equipping.

Do you wish to equip?

(Y/N)

The answer was obviously…

“I will equip.”

At the same time, intense light burst from the inventory, engulfing Choi Junseok.

And at that moment.

[The item’s soul-binding effect activates.]

To humanity, the Magic Tower was a disaster on the level of a natural calamity, and at the same time, a blessing.

Oil?

Natural gas?

?

Nuclear power

Because there was magic stone that devoured everything.

The Republic of Korea also became a Magic Tower possessing nation.

Grinding people, well, Korea is world-class in that, isn’t it.

They fervently mined magic stones by grinding players.

It wasn’t hard for related industries to flourish at once.

In that way, the Magic Tower created about ten huge sinkholes over roughly 12 years.

Fortunately, no Magic Tower rose in the capital area, maintaining a strange peace.

The bizarre peace was broken three years ago.

The first Magic Tower in the capital area rose in Incheon.

297 days from the Incheon Magic Tower creation day.

Three days before collapse.

History was made as the third in the world and first in Korea to clear the 100th floor.

At the center of that great record was the Sword God, Yoo Junhyuk.

He vanished from Korea simultaneously with clearing the tower.

Guardian of Incheon.

Sword God.

Idol of all close-combat players.

An unrivaled player contending for 1st or 2nd in the world.

Walking national power.

……

The one called that was in Choi Junseok’s room.

Precisely, in the form of a sword inside the inventory.

Because the bag was humming and speaking.

Honestly, a bag claiming to be Sword God Yoo Junhyuk was enough to drive one mad.

“Is that really you?”

“Yes.”

• Am I crazy?”

The Sword God continued speaking without caring about Choi Junseok’s confusion.

“Yeah, how could a mortal fathom a genius’s intent.”

Words that make no sense logically.

However, Yoo Junhyuk’s words were excessively nonchalant.

As if it were truly the fact.

“There are realms in sword-body unity.”

It was literal.

Sword God Yoo Junhyuk claimed he broke through the realm of sword-body unity to clear the 100th floor.

So he said.

The result was becoming one with his sword Excalibur.

“You should have had a path before the realm.”

What to do if you really become one with the sword.

Though no top ranker is normal.

Choi Junseok frowned at the heard answer.

“That is romance.”

‘Ah. This person. Definitely not normal.’

It was certain.

“Tsk. It’s natural that a mortal can’t understand.”

Choi Junseok didn’t particularly want to understand.

“The pinnacle of the sword. That is becoming one with the sword. How could a porter fathom a swordsman’s romance.”

Thus, F-rank player Choi Junseok had no choice but to acknowledge.

He picked up the Sword God’s sword.

The entire inventory that the sword was in.

At the same time, Choi Junseok also regressed to the day he awakened about half a year ago.

He witnessed a status window appearing above his head.

Ding!

Congratulations! You have been selected as a player!

Name: Choi Junseok

Affiliation: Korea

Level: LV. 1

Trait Skills: [Appraisal] [Magic Stone Detection]

General Skills: Magic Tower Entry (Once per day)

Do you wish to view awakened skills?

(Y/N)

Since he regressed anyway, Choi Junseok prayed for an SSS-rank skill and shouted.

“View!”

However, as always.

Skill: Inventory Master ‘(NEW)’

Category: Non-combat ‘(NEW)’

Grade: F-rank ‘(NEW)’

Description:

-All bags can be equipped, and upon equipping, they become inventorized. ‘(NEW)’

-Space utilization is optimized. ‘(NEW)’

-Items in inventory can be summoned from a distance. ‘(NEW)’

It was the same as before regression.

“Ha….”

As soon as the sigh came out.

A notification that didn’t exist before regression additionally activated.

Ding!

[‘You have acquired Sword God’s Leather Bag.]

[‘Sword God’s Leather Bag’ soul-binds.]

The leather bag in Choi Junseok’s room disappeared as if dissolving.

However, there was clearly something felt inside.

Choi Junseok reached into the inventory felt within himself.

The image in his mind was like that.

There was no actual object to touch.

‘Perhaps soul-binding means this?’ 

As soon as he sensed the internal inventory.

Several items in the inventory were visible.

Most were silhouettes.

– Summonable Items –

1. Promised King’s Sword Excalibur (Transcendent)

2. Perfect Healing Potion x 13 (Unique)

3. War God Lionheart King’s Gauntlet (Mythic)

4. Unviewable (Legendary)

5. Unviewable (Mythic)

6. Unviewable (Legendary)

It was a phenomenon that sometimes occurred with items in inventory if the level difference was vast.

They could be analyzed when appraiser or appraisal grade rose.

Now, combined with that, it felt as if Yoo Junhyuk was rejecting.

‘Anyway, summonable items

Excalibur’

Transcendent?

What is transcendent grade?

Clearly something above divine.

As if reading Choi Junseok’s thoughts, he answered.

“Forget it. You can’t use it anyway. If you try to take it out, you’ll die from the aftermath.”

It was too straightforward for a mere warning, and the previous warning window was chilling.

“Equip level is 999. Same for others. Items no one can use. For now, perhaps even I can’t.”

‘A sword that even the Sword God can’t use?’

However, Choi Junseok had a flash of thought.

If there is one person who can use that sword.

It might just be himself.

‘My awakened skill Inventory Master’s last ability.’

Items in inventory can be summoned from a distance.

“Is there a law saying I have to equip it?”

Just throw it.