Chương 28: Floor 4

The next few days consisted of mana potion brewing. I was trying to reclaim my lost riches after my garden reformation. On Saturday, Mouse and I hung out again but nothing of note happened. By Monday, I was back to a good amount of points—at least enough where I could start experimenting with new potions. I hadn't posted anything on Tawer since then. Though, I've gotten a ton of DM's and questions. Like joining a guild or party; Or registering with the tower association; Or why I'm solo.

None of which I planned to reply to. I really didn't have any thoughts about any of it. For the guild and party, I felt like I simply didn't need to at the moment. Later? Sure. But for these tutorial floors, it's better to build myself a foundation and gain experience. As for the tower association? They just sound like an annoying hassle. I can just guess they're going to try and control my potion brewing. Probably something like "We can't have you making dynokali potions" or something stupid.

There's simply no reason to register. I'm doing just fine without the government breathing down my neck. I guess those count as having thoughts about it…? Eh! Whatever, I'm cute so you'll let it slide. Today! I had a lot of plans! The most important one was clearing the 4th floor! All 10 of my floor 3 clears have been used up, so it's time to move up in the world. I planned on doing some quick research just before entering, since, let's be honest, these tutorial floors are nothing.

I bet it's going to be some simple goblins again. Next! After the floor, I'll be brewing a new potion! I've already decided what I want to make and have theorized the recipe, so all that's left is to actually brew it! After that, I'll troll the masses a bit more. Yes! My schedule is set! I already completed my daily routine earlier. So, I got dressed in my tower clearing outfit and sat on my couch.

"Let's see… Floor 4." And who could've thought? It was ridiculously easy. The only difference between the 4th floor and the 3rd is the amount of prep time you get—half. Honestly, preparing ahead on these tutorial floors is just a huge waste of time. The guides are always so needlessly long when it could just say '10 goblins with classes, half the starting time'. Instead, it goes in depth about the environment, possible clear methods, weaknesses, and so much other jargon.

Just throw a dynokali potion and be done with it! It always takes 30 minutes to an hour to read through.

"Haah…" I sighed, feeling as if I wasted my time. Honestly? Who even reads through the tutorial anyways? Aren't you supposed to just skip them? That's what I always do in games anyway. Learn by experience, that's the best teacher! I closed the blog and stretched.

"Let's just get this over with." I muttered, heading to my bathroom. … [Entering Floor 4] [We wish you luck.] The familiar sight of plains unfolded before me. The pleasant scent of vast greens hit me. I really do like the scent of nature. [Floor 4 Objective: Eliminate the group of goblins.] [0/10] [Goblins spawning in 2: 29] And there it was. The only thing different between this floor and the last. Thinking about it logically, this could be a serious challenge to someone without a short set-up time like me.

If someone had five minutes to set up traps and contingency plans suddenly had half the time? I could see them panicking and struggling to set up everything in time. Speaking of, I wonder how they actually do it—people with a Trapper class. Do they manually set up traps on every floor? Or do they have some sort of skill that automatically does it? I slapped my cheeks and shook my head. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Right…" No need to get cocky just because this is an easy floor. Quickly moving, I trapped the goblin's spawn location with a gluetrap potion and settled behind a rock. [1: 12] Would a trapper even like an 'Auto-Trap' skill? I mean, I wouldn't want an 'Auto-Brew' skill, that kind of takes the fun out of potion making. Well, maybe unless it's for simple potions? Hm… Actually, I take it back. I'd love an Auto-Brewing skill.

Not for actually making the potions themselves, but for brewing materials that go into the potion. Like, if I could have something that automatically creates akikali juice or dynomyl liquid? That'd be nice, those are kind of annoying to make. [0: 20] As the timer ticked down, I rid myself of distracting thoughts and stared at the goblin's spawning point. And as it hit 0, 10 hideous green beings stepped into existence. Just like the 3rd floor, they all had classes.

It had all the same types from the last floor, the only one missing was the old man goblin. Was he a rare spawn? Shortly after spawning in, one of the goblins spotted me and the usual happened. They stepped into the gluetrap, fell and got stuck. BOOM! [Floor Cleared!] [Time Taken: 0: 15] [You have set a record for your class!] [Rewards are calculating.] [Leaderboard has updated.] ~~~ [Floor 4 Leaderboard] [#1: Anonymous: 0: 03 (Swordsman)] [#2: Flame Queen: 0: 10 (Fire Witch)] [#3: Lightning Lord: 0: 12 (Mage)] [#4: Raccoon: 0: 15 (Alchemist)] [#5: Eel Love: 0: 18 (Mage)] [#6: TowerClimber: 0: 20 (Explorer)] [#7: Tsuki: 0: 21 (Archer)] [#8: Samurai: 0: 28 (Samurai)] [#9: Kim Jinhyuk: 0: 30 (Swordsman)] [#10: Cherry: 0: 35 (Mage)] ~~~"Hehe!" Even if it was a foregone conclusion, that didn't stop me from getting giddy and hopping around when I saw the notifications.

When I settled down, I had a brief thought.

"Who even is this Anon guy?" The person who has always been ranked first on the leaderboard. A swordsman who clears floors in literal seconds. Anonymous. They've been dominant since the first floor, and they've continued being dominant until the latest floor of the tower reached. Like me, the public has no idea who they are. But, unlike me, they have literal zero information about him other than they're a swordsman. They don't sell clear videos and have never posted anything on the exchange or on any sort of forum.

It really makes you curious. Though, the curiosity was brief. Not like I'll ever have anything to do with the guy anyway. As my thoughts came to an end, I received my reward. [Rewards have been calculated.] [You have gained 3 Gold Skill Tokens!] [Skill Tokens 8/10 (8 Gold)] [You have received 4, 000 points.]"Hehe… Hehe!" I broke into another excited hopping spree. At this rate, aren't I almost guaranteed to get a gold grade skill?

Even if I got one or two bronze grade skill tokens, the chances of a gold grade are astronomically higher, right? If I continue at this rate, after clearing the next floor I'll receive a new skill? I'm so excited! What kind of skill will it be? [57: 21] The timer snapped my mind back to reality.

"Right! Can't forget to collect materials." Deciding to daydream about it later, I quickly entered the forest—after giving Rocky a hug—and started material searching. … [Raccoon has officially cleared the 4th floor!] [Little Bomber does it again! A new world record?!] [Those dynokali potions are really just so OP] [Raccoon's Floor 4 Breakdown] [Do you think she's gonna post an announcement about it on Tawer?] [Well, it was a good run for Raccoon.] Author: xx It's been fun these last few months.

But today, Raccoon has finally cleared the 4th floor. As everyone knows, this'll likely be the last solo floor clear. We probably won't have any more production-classes on the solo leaderboard for a good while, but I've enjoyed the amount of memes, posts, and discussions we've had about it. So, what do you think comes next for her? Is she gonna join a guild? Hole up and brew potions? Publicly reveal her identity? Either way, she's already proven herself to be capable.

Even without the fame for being a production-class on the leaderboards, she's still desirable for her potions. → [I'm gonna miss seeing the Little Bomber memes ㅠㅠ] → I hope she joins a good guild. She's probably been preparing for it, this was probably why she suddenly created a Tawer account. She's getting ready to step into the limelight. ↳ [Oh!! Right! Isn't this actually likely? That arcade scandal was probably planned. Is this the foresight of an SSS-grade alchemist?] ↳ [I didn't think about this! It all makes so much more sense. I mean, why else would she suddenly reveal herself on some random guild's Alchemy Lab? She's been playing 4D chess!] ↳ [I think most of the smart people have already figured this out lol. My guild's analyst guessed this only a little after her Tawer account was made.] → [No!!! Raccoon will clear the 5th floor solo!!! I believe in her!!!]/ ↳ [Believers assemble!!!] ↳ [Cope lololol, she's done for.] ↳ [No! With the power of us believers we'll will it into existence!] ↳ [She don't know you lil bro] → [Honestly, I'm fine with anything as long as she continues to sell potions. Mana potions usually taste so bad and bitter, but her's taste delicious and sweet. I hope they become C grade by the time I reach the 30's in the tower.] … While I was searching the forest, I stumbled upon a pleasant surprise. [Giant Huffpall] Grade C The Giant Huffpall is a rare mushroom found in most temperate forests. This mushroom is formed when a colony of huffpalls undergo 'Fitting'.

Fitting is when the colony fights for resources; The winner absorbs all the other colony members evolving into a Giant Huffpall. The Giant Huffpall is useful in various poisonous potions. It can be used as an amplifier to amplify the effects of other poisons, or it can be used as an ingredient to an antidote to cure poisons. Alone, this mushroom is poisonous to eat but not to the touch.

When in proximity to other poisonous plants, the giant huffpall will try and absorb the poisonous properties of the plants, converting them to poison amplification properties. To store these, either plant them in soil isolated from other poisonous plants or refrigerate them. Be aware that when refrigerating the giant huffpall, it will continuously try to absorb properties from anything around it to survive. I find these once every few days, but every time, I get excited.

I hadn't looked into making poisons yet, but these would surely be an extremely beneficial ingredient for when I do. Speaking of which… These can be used to create antidotes… Could I add them to a healing potion to add a small poison removal property? I decided to store that thought away and think about it more later. Putting the material in my bag, I continued my search through the forest. Only a few minutes later did I find another pleasant surprise.

[Jango Mushroom] Grade C The Jango Mushroom is a rare mushroom that can sometimes be found in temperate forests. The Jango mushroom is an incredibly deadly and dangerous ingredient to work with as even ingesting the spores can paralyze your nervous system. But, when worked with properly, this ingredient can be used to create an incredibly deadly poison that can shut down an enemy within seconds. Due to the nature of the mushroom, it is recommended to block out any way the spores can reach you.

I had blocked my nose and mouth with mana as soon as soon as I approached this little guy. Despite its small and cute looks, this was one of the deadliest materials I've found in this forest. I must be lucky today as I rarely find both a jango shroom and a huffpall in such a short sequence. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep the jango shrooms as I had nowhere to store them. My garden was too small for both huffpalls and jangos, and it was idiotic to keep them in my fridge alongside food.

So, as usual when I find jango shrooms, I listed it on the exchange. Though, when I start creating poisons, this'll definitely be a primary ingredient I use. Maybe when dynokali potions stop working, I'll switch to jangokali potions…? Name pending. I do wonder what's faster in killing goblins though. Explosives or poisons?