The forest hit them like a wall.
One second, fluorescent lights and tile floors. The next, pine trees so thick the canopy swallowed the sky. The air changed. Wet earth, crushed leaves, and underneath it all, something animal. Something watching.
Jaehyuk breathed it in. Floor 1. He'd forgotten how clean it smelled compared to the upper floors, where the air tasted like metal and regret.
Somin stumbled into his back.
"Sorry. Sorry. The teleportation thing is, uh... my stomach doesn't love it."
"Breathe through your nose."
"Right. Okay. Breathing." She straightened up and looked around. "Wow. This is... actually pretty? I expected more, I don't know, death."
"Give it a minute."
Around them, other climbers materialized in flashes of white light. Groups of four, five, six. Most immediately started arguing about which direction to go. A few took off running, probably following some guide they'd memorized.
Jaehyuk didn't move.
He was counting. Two hundred climbers had entered the staging area. The Tower split them into smaller instances for Floor 1. Twenty to thirty per instance. He counted heads. Twenty-six.
Shin Mira was not in his instance.
Good. He didn't need that complication yet.
"So what's the plan?" Somin asked. She'd pulled out a small staff from her inventory. Standard healer issue. It looked like a stick with delusions of grandeur. "The guide I watched said the alpha wolf spawns in the center of the forest. Most parties head straight there."
"We're not going to the center."
"We're... not?"
"The wolf has a den. Northwest, about eight hundred meters. It goes there first before moving to the center clearing. If we intercept it at the den, we fight it alone. No other parties. No kill-stealing."
She blinked. "That wasn't in any guide."
"It wouldn't be."
He started walking northwest. After a beat, Somin followed.
The forest floor was soft. Moss and dead leaves. His body was weak, embarrassingly so. In his first life at this point, he hadn't noticed because he didn't have a frame of reference. Now he could feel every missing stat point. His lungs worked harder than they should. His legs burned after five minutes of walking.
But his mind was a weapon the Tower couldn't reset.
"Can I ask you something?" Somin said from behind him.
"You will anyway."
"Fair. How do you know about the wolf's den? For real. Not the YouTube answer."
He didn't respond for ten steps.
"I've been here before," he said.
It wasn't technically a lie.
"Like... in a dream? Or..."
"Something like that."
She went quiet. That was new. He glanced back. She was chewing her lip, thinking. More perceptive than he'd given her credit for.
The trees thickened. The undergrowth changed. Jaehyuk recognized the shift. The ferns here grew in a spiral pattern that pointed toward the den. A detail nobody documented because nobody came this way.
He held up a fist. Stop.
Somin stopped.
Ahead, between two moss-covered rocks, the ground dipped into a shallow depression. Bones littered the edges. Deer. Smaller wolves. Things the alpha had dragged back.
The den was empty.
"It's not here," Somin whispered.
"It will be. Sit down. We wait."
"We wait? For the giant wolf? On purpose?"
"It returns to the den forty seconds after the floor instance activates. We have..." He checked his internal clock. They'd been walking for roughly seven minutes. "About thirty seconds."
Somin sat down so fast she nearly dropped her staff.
Twenty seconds.
Jaehyuk positioned himself between the den entrance and Somin. No weapon. He hadn't picked one up in the staging area. Didn't need one for this.
"You don't have a weapon," Somin said, her voice climbing.
"I know."
"That seems like a problem."
"Not for the wolf."
Ten seconds.
The forest went quiet. Not gradually. All at once. The birds stopped. The insects stopped. Even the wind pulled back like it didn't want to be involved.
Somin's breathing got loud in the silence.
Five seconds.
The bushes to their left exploded.
The alpha wolf was exactly as he remembered. Shoulder height to a grown man. Grey-black fur matted with old blood. Eyes that glowed a faint amber, not from magic but from the Tower's touch. It was faster than anything on Floor 1 had a right to be.
It landed in the clearing and locked eyes with Jaehyuk.
In his first life, this moment had terrified him. He'd frozen. His party leader had shoved him aside and engaged while Jaehyuk stood there shaking.
Now he stepped forward.
The wolf circled left.
Somin made a noise behind him. He didn't look back.
The wolf feinted right. A lunge that pulled short, testing. Most climbers reacted to the feint. Dodged. Lost their footing. The wolf punished hesitation.
Jaehyuk didn't move.
The wolf's eyes narrowed. Something flickered behind that amber glow. Confusion, maybe. It wasn't used to prey that stood still.
It lunged.
Real this time. Full commitment. Jaws wide, trajectory aimed at the throat. Textbook. The same attack pattern it would use for the next forty floors of its existence before the Tower retired it.
Jaehyuk sidestepped. Not far. Six inches. The wolf's jaw snapped shut on air where his neck had been. Its momentum carried it past him, and for exactly half a second, its throat was exposed.
He drove his elbow into it.
Every point of his 10 Strength behind a strike aimed at a spot he'd studied for seven years. Not enough to kill. Not with these stats. But enough to stagger.
The wolf hit the ground. Rolled. Got up snarling.
"Heal," he said.
"You're not hurt!"
"Not me. Watch."
The wolf lunged again. Same pattern. Left circle, right feint, commit. Jaehyuk sidestepped. Same window. This time he struck the same spot on the throat.
The wolf yelped.
Again. And again. The wolf kept attacking because that was all it knew. And Jaehyuk kept hitting the same spot because that was all he needed.
On the fifth strike, something cracked. The wolf staggered sideways, wheezing. Its amber eyes dimmed.
Jaehyuk's arms were shaking. His knuckles were raw and bloody. Ten Strength wasn't meant for this. His bones ached with every impact. Without higher stats, he was essentially punching a wall of muscle and fur with his bare hands.
But the wolf was slower now. Hurt.
"Heal me," he said. His right hand was swelling. Probably a fracture.
Warm light washed over his hand. The pain dulled. The swelling retreated. E-rank healing wasn't flashy, but it was functional.
"You're insane," Somin whispered. "You're actually insane."
"Probably."
The wolf made one more lunge. Slower. Desperate.
Jaehyuk sidestepped, planted his foot, and drove his fist into the cracked spot on its throat with everything he had left.
The wolf collapsed.
A chime rang through the clearing. Blue light erupted from the wolf's body.
[Floor 1 Boss Defeated — Alpha Wolf]
[Calculating Rewards...]
Jaehyuk stood over the dissolving corpse, breathing hard. His hands were a mess. Blood and torn skin. Somin was already healing him again, muttering about how fists weren't weapons and he was going to get himself killed.
He wasn't listening.
He was watching the loot window.
The blue light condensed into three orbs floating above the wolf's remains. One white. One green. One...
Black. With a faint purple edge.
His chest tightened.
[Skill Orb: Shadow Step (F-Rank) — Acquired]
Three percent drop rate. He'd gotten it on the first try.
"Oh," Somin said, looking at the orbs. "Shadow Step? I've heard that one's... um. Not great."
Jaehyuk absorbed the orb. The skill settled into his status window like it belonged there.
"It's perfect," he said.
And he meant it in a way she wouldn't understand for a very long time.
The floor clear notification appeared.
[Floor 1 Cleared — Time: 8 minutes 14 seconds]
[Rank: A]
[Note: First clear of this instance. Bonus Shards awarded.]
Somin's jaw dropped. "A-rank? On Floor 1? With no weapon? What..."
The exit portal materialized. Blue light, stone arch, the hum that lived in your teeth.
Jaehyuk started toward it.
Then stopped.
His Perception was 13. Higher than baseline. He didn't know why, same as the Willpower. But right now, it was telling him something.
Someone was watching them from the tree line.
Not a climber from their instance. The trees on that side of the clearing were outside the den approach. Nobody should be there. Nobody could be there, unless they'd known exactly where Jaehyuk was going.
A grey coat. A flash of it between the pines.
Then gone.
"Jaehyuk?" Somin said. "You okay? You're doing the staring thing again."
He looked at the trees for three more seconds. Nothing.
"Yeah," he said. "Let's go."
They stepped through the portal.
And in his status window, underneath Shadow Step, a new line appeared that hadn't been there before. Small text. Almost hidden. The kind of thing you'd miss if you weren't looking.
[Title Acquired: ???]
[Condition: Locked. Unlock requirements unknown.]
Jaehyuk stared at it.
The Tower didn't give titles on Floor 1. Not to anyone. Not ever.
Something was very, very wrong.