Volume 1 - Chapter 1 – The old man remembered (2/2)
After that, I threw away my dream of becoming the strongest. Time passed and I became an exclusive adventurer in a secluded village, challenging intermediate dungeons for my retirement savings while looking after the novice adventurers there.
However, just as I was about to enter retirement, one of my former disciples, Ain, asked me to challenge the Tower of Trials together with him, reminding me of my party mate, Leonard. The flames that were extinguished when I ran from the Tower, started burning once more. The passion that was distinguished, the urge to become stronger and the drive to move forward. The waves of emotions became stronger and stronger.
[Whats this? You left your talented disciples behind. The disciples who respected and believed in you because you were afraid of challenging the Tower. Why would you behave like this now? After all these years? No, you knew the answer from the start. You knew it all along.] (Youya)
As I reprimanded himself, I knew the answer in his heart was always there. I always wanted to become stronger. I always wanted to be the strongest, even with the setback of having a bad status, I wished to become stronger. It was the reason why I continued training everyday. It was impossible to maintain a person’s techniques and experience without practicing everyday. It was also the reason why I did not sell my powerful magic items despite being worth a fortune. It was a necessity for me to challenge a dungeon with these items. Realizing my own weakness, I thought I gave up on my dreams, but deep down I never did.
When I heard rumors about my first disciple, Leonard attempting to challenge the Tower of Trials with a new party, my feelings weren’t pride of having a disciple who cleared the tower, nor was it the relief of knowing my disciple survived the tower, but regret that I could not be there to challenge the trial with him.
I have always felt frustrated at my status, thinking that if only I did not have such a weak status, at the very least I wished to go back to level 1. I thought that if it meant getting a better status, I would not mind restarting over. In fact I would welcome it. However it was impossible. The only other way he could compensate for his weak status was with extremely powerful magic items.
At that moment, waves of emotions begun taking over my body. My hands felt hot and my head felt heavy. Unable to control the emotions, I stumbled and pushed my hands against the wall.
Suddenly, several sentences appeared into Yuuya’s mind
A person who has reached level 50 can have their level reset in a hidden room of a dungeon
When their level is reset, their stat parameters will rise and they will obtain skill points.
Although the way to reset a person’s level is limited, there are ways to raise a person’s status to its maximum potential
Based on research, the best way to increase a person’s stats would be a Magic Warrior
Magic Custom can create cheats and other magical numbers
Using magical equipment allows a person to exploit a bug in the status system
Do not challenge the Tower of Trials. The Tower is adjusted based on the assumption that the challengers are made of parties with the highest status.
[HAHAHHAA. That sounds ridiculous.](Yuuya)
[That is basically all I ever wanted isn’t it? Despite finishing with this shitty status. I can just reset my level to increase my status!? And add the skill points I gain to become even stronger??? That sounds so ridiculous.] (Yuuya)
I felt bitter. Ever since I considered the possibility that my stat increments could be fixed instead of random, I gave up. It was impossible to become the strongest. If someone was blessed with the best status in the world, obtained the strength that I took decades to obtain. The strength to compensate for my lack of status. That person would truly become the strongest.
Suddenly, the image of a hidden room in a dungeon appeared in my mind. It was like a dream come true, like a delusion. A passion that could not be thrown away, after many years, was showing me visions. Is it was possible to have something this convenient?
However, even so.
[There is no reason for me not to go. I should go even if theirs only a 0.001% chance.] (Yuuya)
I am definitely crazy. My brain is telling me that it is impossible for such a thing to exist but my heart and body are telling me otherwise. I am definitely bad at giving up. If I had truly given up adventuring then I would had stopped my daily training to maintain my body. I knew that it was futile to try and improve my status and merely accepted my bad luck as my fate.
Still remembering the actions, Youya prepared himself for traveling and left the city, heading towards the dungeon containing the hidden room, convinced that he would be able to start over.
Still remembering the image of the dungeon, I prepared myself to travel and left the city, heading towards the dungeon and trying to convince myself that I would get a second chance.