Ascension Through Skills

Chapter 209: 51st Floor, The Forest Of Mystical Things (6)

“Flapping wings isn’t the way to fly.”

The wings were a kind of power source. By concentrating on the wings and gathering willpower, he could fly through the sky.

“It’s tricky.”

Taesan flew through the air by manipulating his wings. However, his movements were awkward. It was like a child riding a bicycle for the first time, seemingly about to fall at any moment.

[It's the power of fairies. It's different from magic or black magic. It's a power never meant for humans in the first place. So, it would be hard to adapt.]

Taesan exerted force on his wings.

Suddenly, his body accelerated forward. Taesan hastily planted his feet on the ground to avoid crashing into the wall due to the wings’ movement.

His body scraped against the ground as he made contact. Barely landing, Taesan laughed.

“Can’t use skills?”

He tried to activate landing, but it didn’t work, so he had to move his feet manually. This meant there was a possibility that attack nullification wouldn’t activate either.

“I need to adapt.”

Taesan continued to manipulate his wings.

After repeated practice, he realized that the wings were somewhat similar to a sports car.

If he moved slowly and carefully, control wasn’t difficult. However, attempting to accelerate beyond a certain speed suddenly made it hard to control.

The problem was the sudden change in speed.

[You have activated mental acceleration.]

He moved his wings again. The accelerated mind made the movement of objects appear slower.

The moment the wings tried to accelerate beyond a certain speed, Taesan concentrated his mind.

Boom!

The direction changed. He continued to concentrate his mind to attempt to control the direction.

He turned left before reaching the wall in front. Before hitting the wall to his left, he turned left again.

After a series of movements, Taesan found himself back at his starting point.

“Is this good enough?”

It wasn’t entirely satisfactory, but it seemed sufficient to pass the current quest.

Taesan spread his wings towards the endless abyss.

Whoosh!

His body soared through the sky.

It wasn’t a leap or an aerial jump. He was literally flying.

Flap!

He accelerated with his wings. The distant destination grew closer.

The moment the destination came into view, Taesan exerted strength into his wings.

Boom!

Suddenly, his body halted, and the air exploded around him.

[First quest passed.]

[Second quest.]

[Use the fairy's wings to cross the cliff and arrive at the next point.]

Another cliff unfolded before Taesan.

And on the cliff, a few walls were erected as if to challenge him.

The 51st floor’s hidden room. This place, created by a dragon harboring mysteries, grants visitors fairy’s wings.

And to obtain the fairy’s wings, one must complete a series of quests.

The one who cleared the most quests could obtain superior wings.

“Lee Taeyeon made it through the third stage.”

Judging it impossible to proceed further, she stopped there. The wings Lee Taeyeon obtained allowed unlimited flight distance and lasted for one hour.

It was quite an achievement for just the third stage.

Taesan kicked off the ground.

He spread his wings and flew across the abyss.

The moment he was about to collide with a wall blocking the way, he changed direction and passed by the wall. Then, another wall hidden behind it came into view.

Taesan quickly maneuvered his wings to descend below the wall.

Then he surged upwards. Taesan landed at the next destination.

“This isn’t so hard.”

[Second quest passed.]

[Third quest.]

[Use the fairy's wings to cross the abyss and arrive at the next point.]

Taesan gazed at the next abyss.

There was nothing there. It seemed as though he could simply fly across like the first abyss.

But that couldn’t be all there was to it. Taesan concentrated his mind and kicked off.

Thud.

He spread his wings and soared at high speed to the next point.

As he flew, something began to hurtle towards Taesan. He narrowly twisted his body.

“Arrows?”

They were incredibly fast, making them difficult for Taesan to dodge.

Whiz!

With the sound of the air splitting, several arrows shot at him simultaneously.

Taesan quickly changed direction. Then, arrows targeted the new direction Taesan had moved to. Dodging those, yet another volley of arrows was launched at him.

Taesan realized that the arrows were fired whenever he moved.

This meant he had to continuously change direction to dodge the arrows and reach his destination.

“This is tough.”

Taesan focused. His wings, like a supercar, accelerated beyond a certain speed, making them challenging to control.

Taesan planned to use that to his advantage.

Boom!

Instantly, his wings spread, and his body surged forward. As he accelerated, arrows were launched at him.

Taesan twisted his direction and shot upwards.

Just before reaching the ceiling, he dashed forward.

Whiz!

Taesan turned left like a jet, evading the incoming arrows.

He moved in a straight line, not a curve. It was a decision to not control the explosive acceleration but to change direction and move forward, and it worked well. The flying arrows missed Taesan and vanished into the distance.

Thud.

Taesan arrived at his destination.

[Third quest passed.]

[Fourth quest.]

[Use the fairy's wings to cross the abyss and arrive at the next point.]

Taesan looked towards the abyss on the other side.

Like the previous abysses, it appeared empty.

But anyone who had come this far would know better. Invisible dangers lurked.

Lee Taeyeon had given up here.

She nearly perished at the third abyss. Barely surviving, she concluded that proceeding further would be too risky.

He intended to find out whether that was true or not.

He flew towards the abyss. The moment he lifted off the ground, a massive sound echoed from behind.

It was the sound of something scraping and approaching.

Taesan clicked his tongue.

“Damn.”

Whoosh!

He accelerated. A chilling sensation rapidly followed from behind.

He glanced back briefly.

A massive wall was charging at him as if to crush him.

Crash!

And then, giant boulders began to curve through the air from the front, with arrows also interspersed, targeting Taesan.

“I made the right choice.”

If Lee Taeyeon had been greedy, she would have died here.

Taesan moved. Like in the third quest, he dodged the projectiles in straight movements, but as his movements were abruptly stopped, the wall was quickly closing in on him.

He needed to minimize the loss of movement.

Taesan accelerated after calculating the trajectory and the number of incoming projectiles.

He dashed forward, not to the left or right, but straight ahead.

Rumble!

He narrowly dodged the flying boulders. In cases where he couldn’t avoid them, he raised his arms to protect his body.

Crack!

[You have taken 2503 damage.]

The room sealed off skills, so attack nullification did not trigger.

He minimized the damage as he advanced and became even more adept at maneuvering the wings.

Boom!

He narrowly dodged the barrage of incoming boulders.

The chasing wall was almost clinging to his back.

He exerted force on his wings as if they would tear. Instantly, he accelerated to a speed that the projectiles couldn’t follow and landed at the destination.

“Sigh.”

[Fourth quest passed.]

[Fifth quest.]

[Use the fairy's wings to defeat the enemy above the abyss.]

Taesan shook his arms. He took some damage, but it wasn’t significant.

As described by the quest, a small dragon floating in the air was present in the next abyss.

Taesan immediately kicked off the ground.

The dragon charged at him with a shriek.

[Shaaaa!]

Crash!

The dragon wasn’t strong. It posed no threat to an ordinary adventurer on the 51st floor, let alone to the current Taesan.

The intent seemed to be to properly utilize the wings he had adapted to so far in order to defeat the enemy.

Taesan fully embraced that intent. Instead of defeating the dragon immediately, he focused on becoming more accustomed to the movements of his wings. As the battle progressed, Taesan’s movements grew smoother.

Crack.

Deciding there was nothing more to gain, Taesan defeated the dragon.

[Quest passed.]

[You have obtained the special activation skill [Perfect Fairy's Wings].]

Taesan landed and examined the skill.

[Special Activation Skill: Perfect Fairy's Wings]

[Mana Consumption: 50]

[Proficiency: 15%]

[Perfect Fairy's Wings. They can be used indefinitely by the user and have no distance limit. It seems that for now, they can only make linear movements.]

“Wow.”

A smile formed on Taesan’s lips.

He had hoped, but by clearing the 5th stage, he had indeed obtained wings with no limit in distance and duration.

The proficiency was high from the start, likely because it was honed while clearing quests.

As the proficiency increased, the movement of the wings would become freer, and eventually, as Lee Taeyeon did, he would be able to move freely.

Satisfied with his reward, Taesan stepped outside.

[You have activated Perfect Fairy's Wings.]

The wings unfurled.

Taesan crossed the forest directly. It was slightly slower than running, but the difference was negligible.

Now, there was only one thing left: finding the unicorn.

Taesan began to survey the entire forest.

As the gremlin had said, the unicorn did not easily reveal itself.

He had roamed the forest for nearly two days without being able to pinpoint its location. Since it was the final quest, Taesan judged it wouldn’t be easy and silently continued his search through the forest.

And after another day, he finally found the unicorn.

A small spring of blue light. There, a horse with a white horn was drinking water.

[The unicorn has appeared.]

The unicorn, which was drinking water for a moment, suddenly raised its head. And then it looked exactly at where Taesan was.

[Neigh!]

The unicorn shrieked and began to run away. Taesan frowned as the unicorn disappeared quickly.

“What’s going on?”

This was different from the story.

Not wanting to let it go easily, Taesan quickly started to chase after it.

[Neigh!]

The unicorn shrieked. White light from its horn spread through the forest, and at the same time, a rain of light began to fall from the sky.

Taesan activated a white rune shield to block it and followed.

“Running away?”

[Of course, it would run away. Did you think it would just get caught quietly?]

“That’s what I heard.”

Lee Taeyeon had said the unicorn was the easiest. It appeared in front of her on its own, not running away but lingering around, allowing her to catch it quickly.

However, the unicorn in front of Taesan seemed to have no intention of getting caught.

[Neigh!]

It seemed to mock Taesan for following it.

[Ah… that's because.]

The ghost spoke reluctantly.

[That's because it's a unicorn.]

Taesan chuckled.

“Is that so?”

[Unless it's that case, it'll be tough. It took me a whole week just to catch it.]

It seemed it wouldn’t be as easy to catch as he thought, but it didn’t matter.

[You have activated Mephisto's Black Lightning.]

Crack!

The lightning pierced through the unicorn. The unicorn’s body momentarily flinched.

[Neigh, Neigh!]

The unicorn screamed and shook its horn. The power emanating from the horn affected Taesan’s body.

[You have been affected by Slow. All actions are slowed.]

[You have activated the Adventurer's Will.]

He dispelled the abnormal state and charges towards the unicorn. The unicorn, terrified, increased its speed even more.

[You have activated Decarabia's Distorted Vegetation.]

Roar!

Roots rose and advanced. The unicorn began to get blocked by the path.

The unicorn charged with its horn to create a path while shrieking.

[Neigh!]

The cry spread throughout the forest. Soon, the trees rose and started to block Taesan’s path.

Taesan simply ran through.

[You have activated Forced Duel.]

Thud!

The trees blocking Taesan’s path bounced off upon collision.

[You have activated The Deer Walking on the Wind Path.]

[You have activated A Small Spark.]

The wind carried the flames, spreading them in all directions.

The forest burned, and the places where the unicorn could hide gradually disappeared. The unicorn neighed and kicked off the ground.

[Neigh!]

The unicorn, flying high into the sky, started to laugh towards the ground, knowing that the human, Taesan, couldn’t reach it.

[You have activated Perfect Fairy's Wings.]

Wings spread from Taesan’s back.

He rushed towards the sky. The unicorn, alarmed by the sight of the approaching Taesan, twisted its body. Taesan also maneuvered his wings to pursue the unicorn.

[You have activated Acceleration.]

The body accelerated again in the sky.

Although the unicorn increased its speed, it started to get closer. Realizing it couldn’t escape, the unicorn suddenly started to move freely in the sky. Since Taesan could only move in straight lines, he kept missing.

[Neigh!]

Then the unicorn mocked Taesan again. Taesan activated his skill expressionlessly.

[You have activated Particle Diffusion.]

[You have activated Frost Arrow.]

[You have activated Tracking.]

Numerous ice arrows and grains flew simultaneously towards the unicorn.

The mocking unicorn panicked and started to dodge. Having to dodge both Taesan and the pursuing attacks made its movements increasingly erratic.

And the unicorn ended up in the place Taesan wanted.

Taesan didn’t miss the moment.

[You have activated Random Blink.]

Taesan moved right above the unicorn.

While pursuing the unicorn through the air, he strategically cornered it, guiding the creature to a predetermined location.

Taesan seized the unicorn by the neck.

In a state of panic, the unicorn attempted to flee, but Taesan firmly planted his foot on it, preventing its escape.

Crash!

They plummeted to the ground, forming a crater upon impact.

Taesan delivered the final blow.

[You have triumphed over the unicorn.]

[Your level has increased.]

[Soul Ascension has been activated.]

[You have acquired the White Horn of the Unicorn.]

[Quest completed. Return to the gremlin, who will reward you and direct you to the 52nd floor.]