I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents

The effect looked extremely useful as well.

Next, I checked the 1st Place Reward for ranking highest on the 3rd Floor.

[True Qi Pill]

The pill was a small, navy-blue sphere.

Exactly the kind of simple, traditional design I had imagined for an elixir.

And this time, the 1st Place Reward wasn’t just one item.

[Mirror of Transition]

I grabbed the shield in my right hand.

The moment I channeled mana into it—

Shhhhh!

The shield expanded.

From a compact one-handed shield, it grew to the size of a tower shield—

The kind used by frontline defense soldiers.

This could be very useful in battle if used at the right moment.

I took a picture of the True Qi Pill with my terminal.

Then, I posted on <Transcendent Gallery>.

Title: True Qi Pill, this is an elixir, right? Do I just eat it?

Author: ??*

Comments:

? Yeah, just eat it and circulate your mana a bit.

? Damn, this guy is taking something I didn’t get until the 60th floor.

? ??) Should I save it for later?*

? Nah. Judging by your luck, you’ll probably keep getting elixirs exactly when you need them.

? Sword of Light: No, take it now. The previous comment is probably right.

"Alright, I’ll take it now."

I was about to pull the True Qi Pill from my inventory—

But then, something caught my eye.

A new post from Ice Queen.

Someone who had never written in the gallery before.

Title: Frozen! I was thinking after seeing the climber’s score...

Author: Ice Queen

Now that I think about it... maybe those people were Pandemonium climbers.

I don’t remember seeing a player who pulled two consecutive four-digit scores before the 4th Floor,

but I do remember seeing some after the 5th Floor... Frozen.

Comments:

? Gutter Swordsman: Yeah, I think I remember that too. But those were way back—like, super early on.

? How early?

? Gutter Swordsman: By Floor 20, the leaderboard was mostly filled with people I already knew. So this means before Floor 20.

? Pioneer: I was holding back on saying this because I didn’t want to kill the mood. But yeah... it’s better to talk about it now.

? Pioneer: Honestly, Climber probably has enough talent to survive, so...

? Pioneer: When I was living on the Hard Mode 16th Floor, I joined an exchange event and met another player.

? Pioneer: They were way stronger than me, so I still remember them.

? Pioneer: At the end of the exchange, we got close, and they told me something—

? Pioneer: They were from Pandemonium Mode. And at the time, they were on the 13th Floor.

? Pioneer: I told them I wanted to be summoned together with them in the next exchange, and they added me as a friend.

? Pioneer: Then I just kept climbing in my own tower, thinking we’d meet again.

? Pioneer: Friend requests don’t let you message people, so I had no way of knowing their situation.

? Pioneer: But the day before the next exchange...

? Pioneer: Their name turned gray.

Gray?

? They died.

? Admin: ...Tsk.

? Spear King: Damn.

? So if we estimate where that Pandemonium player died, there’s a danger zone somewhere between Floors 14 to 18.

? Archmage: Realistically speaking, it’s probably Floor 14 and beyond. It’s Pandemonium Mode, after all.

? Yeah. That makes sense.

? As expected, Archmage dropping facts.

? ??) Well, I almost just died anyway.*

That Sword Aura Explosion—

It was a razor-thin difference between survival and death.

If my luck had been slightly worse, I’d be dead right now.

? Room Conspiracy Theorist: No wonder no climbers from the past ever posted in Climber Gallery.

? Room Conspiracy Theorist: That means no one has ever made it to Floor 30. They all died before that.

? Room Conspiracy Theorist: —This world is one giant locked-room mystery.

? ??) Do you remember that person’s name?*

? Pioneer: Yeah. Just because they died, they didn’t disappear from my friend list. I saw their name even after reaching Floor 100.

? Pioneer: His name was Ban.

? Pioneer: Anyway, sorry for telling you all this so late. I should’ve mentioned it earlier.

I wasn’t sure.

Would knowing this earlier have changed anything?

Even right now, I was constantly aware that a single misstep on the 4th Floor could get me killed.

If anything—

Now, I knew that from Floor 13 onward, the odds of death would be even higher.

I would keep that fact engraved in my mind.

? Sword of Light: Just get stronger before the 13th floor. That’s all there is to it.

? Archmage: Ugh. This got depressing real fast. Don’t die, Climber.

? LMAO this guy was all cold and distant until now. Why are you acting human all of a sudden?

? Archmage: It’d be boring without the Climber, that’s why.

? Dragon King: Beltui~ That’s right! It would be boring without youuuu~

? ??) Well, I’m gonna keep climbing anyway.

? Ice Queen: Frozen! Fighting!

? Shrine Maiden: Hawawa, I will inscribe a fortune talisman for you.

? Beast King: Live!!!!! Climber!!!!! Friend of the Beastfolk!!!!!

"Great. Another noisy one."

? Absolute Monarch: Post a video of you using sword aura sometime. I want to see what color it is.

? Red aura users are statistically more aggressive, according to a study.

? Absolute Monarch: ? What kind of baseless, worthless study is that?

? Oh, damn. You use red aura, don’t you?

? Caught red-handed LOL

? Beast King: LMAO, guilty conscience activated.

? Scientific credibility skyrocketing.

? ??) The Fourth-Rank I fought used red sword aura too.

? LOL we have enough examples now to prove the theory.

? Sword of Light: Hmmm. My sword aura is a deep blue, with shimmering waves of light.

? Bro trying to avoid suspicion LOL.

? Gutter Swordsman: Mine’s golden.

? Heavenly Demon: Mine is purple.

? Spear King: Mine’s green.

? Seeing these world-class powerhouses playing rainbow games with their aura colors is giving me a crisis.

? Bruh, if even these guys got this strong...

? Maybe it’s because they’re like this.

? Absolute Monarch: None of you are taking this seriously at all.

? Old man’s out here being the only strict one LOL.

? The research on red aura users keeps expanding.

? Stop bullying Grandpa, this is elder abuse.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

After that, Absolute Monarch didn’t post again for a while.

I closed Transcendent Gallery.

"A danger zone, huh."

I couldn’t help but think about it.

After all, my life was on the line.

But to be honest—

Everything had been dangerous since Floor 1.

And Floor 4 would be no different.

There was only one solution.

Get as strong as possible.

I swallowed the True Qi Pill.

[Digesting True Qi Pill within the body.]

[‘Strength’ permanently increases by 15.]

[‘Agility’ permanently increases by 15.]

[‘Endurance’ permanently increases by 15.]

[‘Mana’ permanently increases by 15.]

"Oh."

I would have been happy with just a single level’s worth of stat increase.

But this?

It was equivalent to three entire levels.

I had been a little frustrated that my growth on the 3rd Floor felt slower than on the 2nd Floor.

That frustration?

Completely gone.

Yeah, this is definitely an elixir.

I opened my status window.

<Player Status>

I grabbed the lightest weapon I had—Bloodstained Dagger.

Shhhhhh...!

I released sword aura along the blade.

Then, I snapped a picture of the pure white glow with my terminal.

Title: It’s white.

Author: ??*

? Damn, that’s beautiful.

? Pure white aura is extremely rare.

? Sword of Light: Oho.

? Gutter Swordsman: Pretty.

? Bro, you didn’t say a single word when Beast King got banned for flooding the gallery with selfies. But now, you see white sword aura, and suddenly you’re out here calling it pretty?

? This is why he’s strong.

? Bro, ? N?v?l?g?t ? (Official version) snap out of it!!!

? Dragon King: Beltui~ It’s soooo prettyyyyy~

? Spear King: Yeah, it’s nice.

? Ice Queen: Frozen! White! A sense of kinship! Frozen! Icy! Haha!

? ??) Gonna train for the rest of the day. I’ll enter the 4th-floor stage tomorrow morning.

? Sword of Light: What kind of training?

? ??) Anything I can do with aura?

? Heavenly Demon: In martial arts terms, it’s called Guardian Aura.

? Heavenly Demon: In another world, they call it Custos.

? Heavenly Demon: It’s a technique that wraps your body in aura for defense. Like having an extra life.

? ??) Sounds useful.

"Alright."

First, Guardian Aura.

If I wanted to survive, I had to master everything I could.