The pressure of battle spirit projected onto every point the giant bird glared at.
However, Min-hyuk, who had already experienced this once through the boar, emitted his own battle spirit in the same manner to neutralize it.
Simultaneously, he drew his mana to its limit and watched the giant bird descending at a fierce speed.
It clearly seemed to be descending at an incredible pace, but strangely, to Min-hyuk, it felt as though it was flying toward him in slow motion.
‘I’ll lose if we collide head-on.’
Every instinctual line told him to dodge to the side.
The mana remaining in his body, his stamina reaching its limit, and the wounds sustained all over his body.
Various misfortunes were telling him it was impossible to hunt the boss head-on.
Therefore, he did not go against it.
The moment the giant beak lunged, he stepped aside and swung his greatsword.
“…Crazy!”
Min-hyuk frowned as he watched the giant bird twist its body just as its beak touched the ground.
Perhaps because it had broken the sound barrier, a secondary roar followed by a shockwave arrived late, but he protected his ears with mana and immediately regained his stance.
On the other hand, the giant bird had a long bloodline drawn across its body, even though it had hurriedly twisted away from the unexpected strike.
However, regardless of the wound, it began to flap its massive wings again as if trying to take flight once more.
‘If it flies up, it’s over!’
Thinking that instinctively, he dashed forward quickly.
Then, the giant bird checked Min-hyuk with its massive talons.
Perhaps thinking that alone was insufficient to stop him, the giant bird even released its battle spirit, but Min-hyuk also poured out all his strength, thinking this was his last chance.
“Hup!”
He emitted his battle spirit forward as he lunged toward the giant bird trying to take flight again.
Boom!
A thunderous sound echoed as the two forces collided.
Perhaps because the opponent’s power was much stronger, Min-hyuk’s battle spirit was pushed back in an instant, but it didn’t matter.
He squeezed through the cracks created during the collision and swung his greatsword.
“Skreeee!”
The giant bird managed to twist its body, but it couldn’t avoid the attack entirely, suffering a wound on its right wing.
Despite that, it flapped its wings frantically, trying to take to the air by any means necessary.
Min-hyuk rushed in, risking danger to stop the bird.
Clang! Screeeech!
The sound of metal clashing rang out from the greatsword he swung with all his might.
The bird had wrapped its body in mana to endure the hit somehow.
However, Min-hyuk hadn’t been playing around while climbing to the 4th floor; he succeeded in forcibly splitting it by pouring as much mana as possible into the greatsword.
Squelch!
One of the giant legs was severed by Min-hyuk’s sword.
A horrific scream erupted as if the pain was severe, but he eventually succeeded in driving the greatsword into the torso, following the clear line that had become visible.
“It’s not over yet!”
When he couldn’t pull the greatsword out because he had forced mana around it, he pulled out a bone knife and carved into the other leg.
When even the bone knife got stuck halfway, he pulled out a knife suited for skinning and ripped into the torso.
“Skree! Skreeee!”
The giant bird struggled desperately while letting out horrific shrieks.
As if it could survive once it took flight, it exerted all its effort to shake Min-hyuk off.
He grabbed the firmly embedded greatsword and tried to hold on.
The injuries weren’t severe, but Min-hyuk was just as exhausted.
He had used up all the campfires and poison.
His stamina and mana were on the verge of hitting bottom.
As if he had no energy for a second round, he summoned a knife with the hand not holding the greatsword and drove it into the giant bird’s body.
He managed to tear the thick skin even a little with one hand to make it bleed, but the giant bird stubbornly began to rise into the sky little by little.
It even started pushing the greatsword out with its mana.
“This is insane…”
Min-hyuk eventually fell, holding the greatsword that had been spat out.
At that moment, thinking he couldn’t let it go like this, he instinctively grabbed the greatsword with both hands and swung it.
As if releasing battle spirit from his entire body, he poured in every last ounce of his strength.
Mana exploded along the radius of the swinging greatsword, which had turned a bluish hue.
Like a slash from a martial arts movie, the extended mana tore apart one of the massive wings.
“Skreeeeeeee!”
Following the giant bird that began to crash instead of flying with a horrific scream, Min-hyuk lunged the moment he landed on the ground and delivered the final blow.
Was it because of the shock of losing its wing?
Min-hyuk drove the greatsword into the neck of the giant bird, which failed to respond properly.
Thud!
The moment it was buried deep into the throat, he struck down with all his might.
[You have succeeded in a Perfect Clear!]
Min-hyuk, who checked the system window amidst the fountain of blood spraying from the giant bird’s neck, lay down on the spot as if he could finally breathe.
“I’m gonna die.”
He lay there for a long while as if this had been a truly difficult fight.
Then, he recovered his stamina by chewing on some forced-grilled rabbit meat.
It wasn’t as delicious as freshly roasted meat, nor was the effect as good, but once his stamina was somewhat recovered, he gathered only the useful byproducts and exited the tower.
At that moment, a global announcement was posted just like when he conquered the 3rd floor.
[A challenger has achieved a Perfect Clear of the 4th floor for the first time in Korea!]
[A challenger has achieved a Perfect Clear of the 4th floor for the first time in the world!]
[A challenger has achieved a Perfect Clear of the 4th floor for the first time!]
Min-hyuk succeeded in a Perfect Clear of the 4th floor following the 3rd.
This time, the reaction was just as intense as when the Perfect Clear appeared on the 3rd floor.
—This is seriously amazing. Honestly, I didn’t think he could do the 4th floor.
—Wow.
I wonder if he can do Perfect Clears all the way to the 9th floor?
ㄴ If he passes the 5th floor, it might be possible…
ㄴ Honestly, I’m curious how he got a Perfect Clear on the 4th floor.
ㄴ Right.
Wasn’t the general consensus that it was absolutely impossible?
ㄴ Yeah.
Scholars had concluded that a Perfect Clear was impossible unless the Hunter was beyond the 10th floor.
—Even SS-ranks gave up on trying at level 9… The difficulty is insane.
ㄴ Honestly, I think one could try if they were at least level 10…
ㄴ True.
In all honesty, it’s an impossible realm for a single-digit level.
Everyone congratulated him on the 4th-floor Perfect Clear, but they were also curious about how it was possible.
This was because, from level 10, hunters began to awaken proper skills or evolve existing ones to a usable state, and because of this, many hunters passed the early 10th floors relatively easily.
This was also why many cleared floors 1 through 9 quickly with only the minimum requirements.
It was a method of catching the one or two monsters thrown at them to adapt or survive and then quickly moving on.
That was how difficult it was to break through the floors below 9 without proper skills.
Additionally, breaking through solo carried a high risk.
Once past the 10th floor, the risk significantly decreased because multiple people could climb together, so everyone was anxious to get to the 10th floor as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, the 5th floor was crawling with wild beasts.
While the 4th floor was tricky because of the flying aspect, it didn’t feel overwhelming except for the giant bird, but the 5th floor was entirely composed of difficult enemies, save for the few that lunged at the very beginning.
Perhaps for that reason, while there was some information up to the 4th floor, information from the 5th floor onward was extremely limited.
“Whew… the 5th floor looks like there’s no answer…”
Min-hyuk, who had left the tower, took a nap and woke up to dig through information, but most of it just said that wild beasts appeared.
There were at least some who had tried the 3rd floor, and the 4th floor didn’t have much to call ‘information’ since the flocks of birds crowded in on their own, but the 5th floor was truly dangerous, so there was almost no information.
‘This is the limit.’
If he didn’t go in properly prepared, the Perfect Clear would fail.
He had done four floors in a row; would it end at just the 5th floor?
It was such a waste.
‘The rewards after a Perfect Clear are too great.’
The power of the battle spirit he currently used had grown to a point incomparable to the 3rd floor.
Was that all?
His mana and physical abilities were also growing much faster than other hunters.
This meant that the gap between those who climbed with Perfect Clears and those who didn’t would widen drastically over time.
“…Should I ask for help?”
He briefly considered asking the Hunter Bureau for help but soon shook his head.
The risk of revealing his identity with his skills not yet fully matured was too high.
Above all, the information he found after the Perfect Clear bothered him.
「Rewards decrease if you use weapons purchased from other floors. Keep this in mind if you are aiming for a high clear grade.」
「The drop in rewards becomes larger every 10 floors.」
「The reason SS-ranks and S-ranks have many Perfect Clears might be because they don’t use weapons from other floors…」
Looking at such analytical posts, it was highly likely that the decisive reason Min-hyuk could achieve Perfect Clears was that he didn’t use equipment above the corresponding floor.
If that was the case, he didn’t necessarily need help from the Hunter Bureau or giant guilds.
“Is this the only way?”
Muttering that, Min-hyuk immediately opened the system window and entered the strategy board.
There, he wrote a post for the first time.
It wasn’t a strategy for the 4th floor, nor was it a result of a special experiment.
The post Min-hyuk was going to write was a request for help.
「I am the challenger who achieved the 4th-floor Perfect Clear. I am requesting help from all of you.」
After writing the title, he immediately wrote down the content.
Since people might think it was an impersonator, he first wrote about the 4th floor.
—Flocks of birds rushed in repeatedly, and to overcome this, I utilized campfires and the poisons from the 1st floor shown in strategy videos.—
In this way, he first wrote an informational post about the 4th-floor strategy.
Afterward, he also explained the limits he felt.
The limit of not being able to respond efficiently to a number of enemies greater than the 3rd floor and aerial attacks.
—At least the 4th floor was at a similar level to the 3rd except for the flying, but the 5th floor is composed entirely of wild beasts, so the difficulty itself is high. Therefore, I am requesting help. Even trivial information about the 5th floor is fine.—
Min-hyuk requested detailed information about the 5th floor.
In exchange, he said he would release the strategies for the 4th and 5th floors for free.
He mentioned that they could post the information for a fee if they wanted.
To Min-hyuk right now, time and information were more important than money.
—As a final piece of information, the condition for a Perfect Clear seems to be when a challenger of that level clears it with items from that floor or below. Just as I used poison and campfires for the 4th-floor strategy, I hope you all aim for Perfect Clears using weapons obtained through various experiments on floors 1 through 3…—
Min-hyuk, who was about to finish the post, hesitated for a moment and added a note at the end.
—*If you list items from the 4th floor and below, I am willing to actively purchase them. Please list many of them!—
Min-hyuk, who added the text to increase his chances even a little, posted the message with a trembling heart.
Immediately after, he began repeated runs starting from the 1st floor.
He didn’t have time to leisurely film strategy videos.
The videos could wait until after he was prepared to conquer the next floor.
While Min-hyuk entered his preparations for the 5th floor, the strategy board went into an uproar.
—Is this for real?
ㄴ Seeing as it contains the 4th-floor strategy info, it seems legit.
ㄴ Then he really asked us for help?
ㄴ Right! When I clicked that nickname, Nameless’s strategy videos popped up. It’s him!
ㄴ Ugh! A request for help from the Great Nameless!
ㄴ Everyone, calm down! From now on, only those with information about the 5th floor comment here. Do your praising for Nameless on other boards.
—Stop-Stanning Blockade Line begins here.
Was it because it was confirmed that Min-hyuk’s post was real?
Word spread quickly, and hunters with high-grade skills began to gather on Min-hyuk’s post one by one.