LOST had exploded into a full-blown festival since Floor 10 of the Tower of Trials opened. On top of the boosted EXP and drop rates, the entire world was also basking in Bella’s Blessing, a buff that raised even base stats. It was no wonder everyone was hyped out of their minds.

Events had always been the saving grace for bored gamers, and nothing beat the sweet bonuses that came with them. In that sense, the Tower of Trials event was ultimately one of the most rewarding and well-executed updates the game had ever seen. In the middle of all the fuss stood Do-Jin, milking the whole thing for everything it was worth.

He sat on a rock mid-hunt to take a breather, then pulled up his Status Window out of pure muscle memory. The moment he saw his level and the thick stack of stats he had built up, the exhaustion in his limbs vanished without a trace.

[Do-Jin]

Level: 81

Class: Grimoire of Truth

Strength: 37

Agility: 41

Stamina: 202

Intelligence: 402

Skills (1): [Show]

Traits (3): [Show]

He had gained a massive chunk of experience clearing all ten floors of the Tower, and with the EXP buff still in effect, he had been grinding mobs nonstop. Looking at the window filled Do-Jin with a quiet sense of satisfaction.

I was a complete fucking disaster in my past life... he thought in hindsight.

His Status Window would have looked strange to anyone else. Level 81, yet only a single skill, and even his so-called abundance of traits came out to just three. On the surface, it looked like nothing special.

In reality, his one and only Grimoire of Truth was a god-tier, all-in-one ability that basically acted as a magical supercomputer. It stored and executed every spell imaginable, essentially making Do-Jin a one-man army.

All of his traits were top-tier. The cluster of mana-related abilities he used to have, like Mana Affinity and Mana Heart, had merged into something called Mana Delay. It basically turned his entire body into a vessel of pure mana, amplifying every aspect of mana usage across the board.

Then there was Silent Night, which had originally only affected one eye, but now it was active in both. This Magic Eye, a gift from a particular elder who ran things up in that drifting northern region, wasn’t exactly subtle magic.

And finally, there was Enhanced Regeneration, which had since evolved into Enhanced Vitality. Do-Jin was already hilariously tanky for a mage, but this new trait made him even harder to kill, like a cockroach dipped in steel. Unlike the old version, which only affected recovery speed, this upgrade also increased his HP pool and boosted regeneration.

For a mage, the most important things were mana, health, and special abilities, and his trait setup hit all three efficiently. With his solid raw stats as the cherry on top, his Status Window looked like a work of art. All the bits and pieces he’d pulled together from different systems had grown bloated with potential, but the traits were what turned that bloat into raw power.

Stacking all these buffs together really sends the synergy through the roof, Do-Jin thought, still admiring the window.

A single gear might generate one unit of force, but link two together, and they could produce three. Add a third, and the output could spike to five or even ten. Do-Jin couldn’t help but put that theory to the test.

[Fireball]

Any monster that showed up in his sights got blasted down with a single shot, no questions asked.

“Bet I won’t be getting this kinda output from Tier 2 spells once the event ends. That’d suck...” Do-Jin blew on his fingertip like a gunslinger from an old Western.

The spell didn’t just deserve the theatrics. It demanded it. The power was so overwhelming, it was addictive. Just as he was soaking it in alone, a voice rang out from not too far away.

“Did you hear that? Something sounded like it blew up over here.”

Clanking metal footsteps followed, mixed in with a few lighter ones, steadily closing in. It sounded like a party out on a hunt.

Do-Jin let out a slow breath and pushed himself off the rock. “Is it too much to ask for some peace and quiet around here?”

In high-level zones like this, there were just too many LOST players to expect privacy. Even somewhat efficient hunting grounds were bound to have a crowd, much less ones with easily farmable mobs and EXP. That was why Do-Jin had been forced into a game of hide-and-seek, constantly ducking away anytime he heard voices or footsteps getting too close.

No wonder celebrities go insane, he thought in annoyance.

It wasn’t like running into other players was a big problem, but he’d gotten so famous in such a short time that every run-in turned into a circus.

“Wait... aren’t you that guy?”

“Oh my god. Oh my god. It’s really him, the mage!”

“Can I get your autograph? Actually, forget that. Let me stand next to you for a screenshot!”

“Thanks to you, this EXP boost is insane! I’ll always be rooting for you!”

“Are you soloing? If you don’t mind, wanna join our party?”

Scenes like these had become the norm for Do-Jin. It would be so much easier once the other mage players leveled up enough to match him. Then maybe, he could finally blend in and just play the game.

This must be the peak player count from the Tower of Trials opening up. Once it cools down, things’ll go back to normal.

If not, he’d consider wearing a mask everywhere. Without saying a word, Do-Jin turned and quietly walked off in the opposite direction of the approaching voices.

***

As LOST’s first event finally came to an end, Do-Jin’s level had climbed smoothly to eighty-five.

However, every last buff had vanished along with the tower, and without those stat boosts, Do-Jin couldn’t one-shot anything with Tier 2 spells anymore. Now he had to cast Tier 3 magic, and while the difference was small on paper, the longer cast time slowed down his hunting speed.

The bonus EXP boost was gone too, so each monster was coughing up less experience. Add in a few other annoyances, and the amount of EXP and loot he was farming per hour became frustratingly inefficient compared to before.

I’ve squeezed all I can out of regular grinding. It’s time to switch things up and hit some instance dungeons, he decided.

Grinding the same way over and over was not only time-consuming, but boring to boot. Do-Jin scouted a few instance dungeons he could solo efficiently and jumped straight into farming runs.

“This is what I live for!”

His instance dungeon clears were so fast, monsters barely had time to spawn before his magic blew the whole room apart. Before the system message announcing the arrival of the first named monster could even finish loading, Do-Jin’s spells slammed into the place like an explosion. From the monster’s perspective, a player had simply shown up and stunned it instantly, causing it to flop onto the ground like a sack of meat. Then, it died before it had a chance to blink.

Technically, dungeon monsters could put up a fight. If they could get one solid hit in, or if they could just manage to push forward and grab the momentum, maybe there would be a glimmer of hope. However, Do-Jin never gave them that chance. He hit too fast, too hard, and without letting up. The Lightning Goblins’ nest got raided, the Burning Slime habitat went up in flames, and the cozy cave where a giant centipede had been living peacefully with its babies got wiped clean.

“If I optimize this build a little more, I could probably get through the whole thing with just a mana potion...”

Do-Jin had his class down to a science. He memorized the layout of every room, knew exactly how many steps to take, which spell to cast, and where to aim. If the monsters had any self-awareness at all, they probably would’ve screamed every time he re-entered, “Please, for the love of god, go ruin someone else’s life!”

“Hell yeah. Even without a hidden dungeon or first-clear bonuses, grinding like this still pays off. And to get an S-rank item before even hitting my hundredth run is some luck.”

Even after that score, Do-Jin kept grinding those poor dungeons into the dirt, running the same routes, wrecking the same bosses, all over again. It didn’t stop until he finally hit the level he had been aiming for.

“Man, instance dungeons really are the best. Shaving down clear times like it’s a speedrun never gets old.”

The bonus of not running into other players was nice, too. Whether the dungeon monsters appreciated that part was none of his concern.

“Alright, it’s time to move.”

Do-Jin had been sprinting toward that goal level with everything he had, but there was still no time for rest. He had only leveled up to this point because there was something he had to do. He’d only take a break after the job was done.

***

In the southern part of the Central Continent, there was an enormous forest called the Sea of Trees. This woodland was even larger than the Empire’s entire territory. Right at its edge, where the southern woods met the imperial border, sat a place called the Forest That Sings of Eternity, more commonly referred to by players as the Green Labyrinth. The nickname came from one of its defining traits. Once someone entered the labyrinth, there was no way to make it out the other side.

It was a strange, open-field dungeon. Despite how massive the area was, the number of monsters inside was ridiculously low, making it hard to even find one. To make matters worse, even if someone went out of their way to track them down and kill them, the rewards were mediocre at best. It was no wonder that people always dismissed this dungeon as second-rate content.

I’ve been all over the damn map, but even I never bothered coming here before. That pretty much says it all.

If fate or whatever hadn’t told him to get his ass here, he probably would’ve skipped this place in this life as well. Do-Jin stepped into the forest with that thought lingering in the back of his mind. At a certain point, the air changed, and he felt himself pass through some sort of invisible boundary. After a subtle shift in atmosphere, a system message popped up, signaling he had entered the dungeon.

I mean, I’m here because I was told to come... but shit, where the hell do I even start? How the fuck am I supposed to find a boss monster in this mess?

Do-Jin looked out over the forest, where tall, ancient trees stood so thickly packed they blocked out the sky. It was overwhelming. The quest guide said to find Tegran Begrif, but that was easier said than done. Just thinking about tracking down a boss monster in this massive, suffocating forest was already exhausting.

But still, I came all this way. I might as well see it through. Do-Jin shook his head and pushed away the creeping thoughts of giving up.

There was no shortcut here. It was a labyrinth in every sense of the word. All he could do was walk, step by step, combing the place until he found something. The trick would be whether or not his wandering path happened to intersect with wherever that boss monster was roaming. If he got lucky, he might run into it sooner rather than later. If not, he could be stuck here forever, wandering around like an idiot.

If I’m really unlucky, I’ll run into that damn Watcher instead of the boss.

There was another pain in the ass he needed to keep an eye out for: the so-called Watcher of the Forest. It was a mysterious monster that didn’t even attack players. Instead, if it caught a player, it would boot them out of the dungeon. It didn’t matter how strong the player was. That thing was so much stronger that it had no business being here, yet all it did was knock them out cold and dump their body neatly at the entrance.

If he ended up deep in the forest after hours of searching, only to get caught and tossed like trash, the time loss would be a total nightmare. Therefore, Do-Jin did the only thing he could and prayed. He prayed that just this once, the RNG gods wouldn’t fuck him over. He prayed that he would get lucky enough to find the boss monster without any bullshit getting in his way.