Ascension Through Skills-Chapter 477: 90th Floor. The Wizard (3)

The wizard quietly observed Taesan.

Taesan was profoundly peculiar.

It wouldn’t have been strange if he had already reached transcendence in his previous life. In fact, he should have.

But he remained in the position of an ordinary mortal.

And in this life, when he reached transcendence, not once did he falter. The moment he obtained the corresponding strength, he transcended immediately.

It was as if he had been qualified from the very beginning.

‘To be honest, I don’t understand him.’

Taesan was twisted.

But the wizard couldn’t discern what exactly was twisted, where it had gone awry, or where Taesan was meant to reach.

No one could know.

Except Taesan himself.

To become a transcendent, the most important thing was what one built up on their own.

But that wasn’t all. It was merely one of the conditions to becoming a transcendent. There were countless other qualifications and conditions to fulfill.

One of those was self-awareness.

Knowing oneself. Understanding what one had achieved. Contemplating what one truly was.

One had to know themselves.

The wizard intended to give him that opportunity.

‘I’m relieved that he realized it quickly.’

Self-reflection couldn’t be achieved with someone’s help or through hints. Even when pushed into extreme conditions or backed into a corner, it wouldn’t necessarily lead to the desired outcome.

One had to confront the wall themselves and seek the answers.

“Find the answers within you.”

The wizard murmured softly.

***

Continuing by the old methods was proving to be difficult. If so, it was time to consider a new approach and forge a new path.

But, as expected, the solution didn’t come easily.

So, Taesan began to think carefully, step by step.

‘A transcendent.’

Not the state of transcendence achieved through divinity, but a higher realm where one commands their own domain and governs laws.

That level of existence was monstrous—possessing power that surpassed comprehension and could influence the entire universe.

Then, how could one ascend to that level?

The conditions to reach transcendence. Taesan recalled something he had heard before:

‘Starting as a mortal, it’s what you build up from there.’

This was of utmost importance. It was a truth he had heard countless times.

However, it wasn’t all there was to it. Even those who reached the realm of immortality built their powers based on what they had constructed as mortals.

‘Is it a matter of what you build?’

What had one built?

What had they dedicated their life and soul to?

Such subtle differences might separate one realm from another, but it didn’t seem to be the entirety of it.

There was something more. Something that lay between immortality and transcendence.

But what that was, even Taesan didn’t know.

After pondering for a long time, Taesan shook his head. If it were something that could be realized through solitary thought, the Green Witch wouldn’t have bothered to form a contract with him in the first place.

Shifting his focus, Taesan turned his thoughts inward, away from grand concepts, toward himself.

‘They said I should have reached transcendence in my past life.’

Be it immortality or transcendence, he should have attained it. Countless transcendent beings had told him this.

Yet, in his past life, Taesan had remained mortal.

He was undeniably peculiar, twisted in some way.

So, where did that distortion originate?

Thinking back, it truly was strange.

Why could he wield the black energy, something not permitted to exist in this world?

Why could he, unlike anyone else, fuse divinity and black energy to create the power known as the Boundary Line?

Why was he capable of stealing and consuming the powers of Old Gods and transcendent beings?

All of it was bizarre and defied understanding.

The Archdemon had once told him: “You are a mixed one.”

When Taesan couldn’t comprehend those words, the demon offered him a hint: to reflect on his own journey.

‘...My journey.’

Where had he started? What had he achieved? How had he arrived here?

Taesan delved into his memories.

It wouldn’t have been on Earth. There, he had been nothing more than an ordinary human. The journey the Archdemon referred to must have started when he first entered the labyrinth in his past life.

He still remembered it vividly: a collapsing world, monsters tearing through the skies, and the appearance of a choice window before them.

At that moment, Taesan had instinctively chosen Easy Mode.

When the labyrinth began, everyone had been confused and panicked. However, as they gradually understood the situation, they began descending through the labyrinth.

Those who had chosen Easy Mode initially sighed in relief.

The community was flooded with horror stories from those in Normal, Hard, and Alone Modes.

Believing they had made the right choice, those in Easy Mode reassured themselves that they would survive.

‘That assumption was wrong.’

They realized the truth upon their first return to Earth.

They had made the worst possible choice. At the very least, they should have chosen Normal Mode.

Taesan had realized it then, too.

If things continued as they were, he wouldn’t survive.

Only inevitable death awaited him.

From that point on, he had changed.

He sought strength to survive. Yet, no matter how strong he became, there was a limit to how much strength he could gain in Easy Mode.

When others realized this and despaired, giving up, Taesan alone refused to quit.

He searched for any means to grow stronger.

That was when he discovered skills.

‘I went through so much back then.’

It had been grueling. At the time, no one knew the conditions for obtaining skills. Taesan had spent an unimaginable amount of effort just to figure them out.

When he first acquired a main skill, it was after accumulating hundreds of useless ones.

Countless times, he fulfilled seemingly impossible conditions only to gain worthless skills, or worse, gain nothing at all.

There were moments when his resolve nearly broke. People around him advised him to take it easy, to slow down.

But Taesan didn’t stop.

He pushed forward relentlessly, exploring every possibility to acquire skills.

As a result, he eventually obtained abilities like Temporal Freeze and Multiplication.

‘But in the end, there was a wall.’

He was an Easy Mode player. No matter how strong he became, his basic stats were limited. That was why he couldn’t defeat an apostle.

It was then, using the Fragment left behind by Lee Taeyeon, that he had returned.

And now, here he stood.

After overcoming countless obstacles, growing in strength, he had reached the realm of transcendence.

This was what he had built.

Taesan grimaced.

‘But it’s not enough.’

It was a monumental achievement, something worthy of being called a great feat. He had transcended mortality, and it wasn’t surprising to others that he had done so.

Yet, it didn’t explain his ability to wield the Boundary Line or handle the rise in spiritual rank. At least, that was how Taesan judged it.

The time he spent in Easy Mode likely wasn’t the issue.

Then, where was the problem?

What had twisted him?

He continued to think.

‘...I’m getting a sense of it.’

But the answer wasn’t clear. It felt like he was standing one step away, blocked by an invisible barrier.

‘Now that I think about it...’

A thought crossed Taesan’s mind—Haphran.

He stood and spoke.

“I’ll step out for a moment.”

“Take your time. There’s no rush.”

The wizard bid him farewell with a leisurely nod.

Taesan ascended through the labyrinth to find Haphran.

“You’re back again. Do you have another request?”

“I do, but first, I have something to ask.”

Taesan began.

“You’ve seen my mental image, haven’t you?”

Haphran had connected their mental images before. Taesan had seen Haphran hammering alone in a world of flames.

Haphran must have seen something in Taesan, too. If anyone might know something, it was him.

At Taesan’s question, Haphran hesitated before nodding.

“I did. Why do you ask?”

“Can you tell me what you saw?”

“I can, but... it won’t help much. Mental images don’t hold real meaning until the person understands them themselves. Words from someone else are just words.”

Haphran frowned and continued.

“Besides, it could cause problems. Your mind might become fixed on what I say.”

“Is that dangerous?”

“That’s the nature of mental images,” Haphran explained.

“The moment someone else describes it to you, it imprints on your mind, whether you like it or not. It could shake the foundation of what you’ve built.”

“I’m not worried about that.”

Taesan replied with confidence. He was no longer someone who could be swayed by another’s words.

“I couldn’t see it clearly. I want an outside perspective.”

“If you insist...”

Haphran stroked his chin thoughtfully before speaking.

“To be honest, I couldn’t grasp everything. Even when our mental images were connected, you were far beyond my level. I could only perceive fragments.”

“I know that.”

At the time, Taesan had been an immortal. A lesser being couldn’t fully understand or absorb the essence of a higher one.

“What I saw... it was strange.”

“Strange?”

“Mental images reflect a person’s core essence, usually in a straightforward way. But yours... yours was different. It was mixed.”

“Do you mean the black energy?”

That part didn’t surprise him.

He had acquired the black energy, and it had become an integral part of him. His rise in spiritual rank involved devouring and stealing others’ powers. He expected there would be some distortion.

But this felt like more.

“I don’t know. But something was off,” Haphran said with uncertainty.

“It wasn’t just that the power you acquired became part of your mental image. Everything seemed jumbled, making it impossible to discern its essence.”

Taesan froze at those words.

“Everything?”

“Yes.”

Haphran nodded.

“It was as if it had always been that way, mixed from the very beginning.”

“...I see.”

The black energy was something he had acquired later. At most, it should have mixed partially.

But if it had been twisted from the start, if everything had always been intertwined...

‘Does that mean I was connected to them from the beginning?’

The distortion hadn’t started later.

It had been there from the very beginning.

That was his essence, his origin.

As he realized this truth, something within Taesan shifted. It was as if an invisible wall had crumbled, revealing something he had been unable to see or feel before.

“This...”

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The unseen, the unfelt, the unrecognized now etched itself into his being.

“...Something has changed,” Haphran remarked, slightly taken aback.

“It seems this helped?”

“More than enough.”

Taesan suppressed the new energy swirling within him. He hadn’t fully grasped it yet; much remained unknown.

But what he had uncovered was already a significant breakthrough.

“That’s good to hear. Oh, by the way...”

Haphran gave him a puzzled look.

“When I saw your mental image, I glimpsed something deep within you.”

“Something?”

“I’m not sure what it was. But there’s something inside you. It didn’t feel like it was part of your mental image. It was... strange.”

Haphran shook his head.

“Maybe I imagined it. It appeared for only a moment before disappearing. But it felt unsettling.”

“...I see.”

Something within him.

Taesan pondered this for a moment before nodding.

“Thank you.”

“Is that all?”

Taesan shook his head. Something within him had changed. Now, he could attempt what had been impossible before.

Opening his inventory, he took out a set of materials.

Haphran’s face twisted as he saw them.

“...That’s...”

“I want to make something with this. Will you help me?”