Episode 2: Promise
“Do you have any traits or skills?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
She answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I had a slight hope, but as expected…
“Could you… tell me what you have?”
She looked hesitant for a moment but eventually nodded.
“The angel told me not to tell anyone… but since it’s you, I’ll make an exception.”
Then, the words that flowed from her mouth—
“My traits are: Heavenly Martial Body, Path of Magic, Talent of a High Priest, Blessing of the Spirit King, Soul of a Druid, Tae—”
“Wait… wait, stop for a second.”
“Why?”
I was curious how far it would go, but it was like she turned into a rapper, listing off her traits endlessly.
And every single one of them was extraordinary.
“You still have more traits, and you also have skills, right?”
“Yup.”
‘…Isn’t this way too unfair?’
Some people get nothing—just a blank “None”—while others are drowning in so many abilities they can’t even list them all. It makes you curse the heavens for creating such an unjust system.
Even though I knew it wasn’t her fault, a creeping sense of jealousy started to bubble up inside me.
“Hey. I don’t have a single one.”
“Huh…?”
A surprised expression.
I didn’t mean it as a jab, but my pathetic jealousy just added salt to the wound.
“My traits, my skills—it all just says ‘None.’”
Still, I held back those emotions. I wasn’t so low that I’d vent my feelings on a friend who did nothing wrong.
“S-sorry. I thought everyone had them…”
She apologized with a flustered look. Even though she did nothing wrong, she had to apologize just because I was being pathetic.
“Why are you apologizing? You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“…Okay.”
In the slightly awkward atmosphere, we resumed our skill training.
They say effort never betrays, but the world didn’t seem to work that way.
I swung my fists endlessly until nightfall.
But I still couldn’t learn even the Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat.
Meanwhile, in just ten minutes, she learned a skill and leveled it up to 5 in a matter of hours.
Days passed like that.
She went beyond basic skills, learning Intermediate Hand-to-Hand Combat, swordsmanship, magic, divine spells, and even summoning spirits.
Meanwhile, I still couldn’t even grasp Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat.
Then, one day, two weeks later—
Finally, I could mimic the movements shown in the hologram, albeit awkwardly.
[Skill Acquired: Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat (Lv1)]
“…Finally.”
But just then, I saw Yoo Soeun fighting a troll in front of me.
Blue skin, nearly 3 meters tall. Massive tusks and powerful muscles.
She fought the monster using a combination of swordplay and magic.
She would slice its regenerating body with her sword, then scorch it with fire magic—perfectly suppressing it.
After several strikes, the troll’s limbs were severed, and finally, its head flew off.
And here I was, having just barely learned Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat.
She already looked like a fully fledged warrior.
Watching her, I finally realized something.
We hadn’t even started from the same line.
But emotions I didn’t want to admit started boiling inside me.
‘…I can do it too.’
While I was punching at a hologram, she was cutting down trolls with sword and magic.
As she finished the battle and healed her wounds with holy magic, I silently summoned a tutorial monster.
“Tutorial monster. Goblin.”
The weakest of all summonable monsters.
1.3 meters tall. Physical strength on par with an adult man.
A creature everyone considered a mere stepping stone.
‘I should at least be able to beat this thing easily.’
But… it was tough.
I was struggling to deal with just a single goblin.
The very same goblin that Yoo Soeun effortlessly took down with a few punches on the second day had now become a terrifying monster applying immense pressure on me.
‘I can’t find an opening…!’
The goblin closed the distance to overcome its short reach and swung its claws. As I tried to dodge, I lost my footing and fell to the ground.
At that moment, the goblin leaped on top of me.
“Guh…!”
It raised its sharp claws, aiming to pierce my skull.
‘I’m… I’m going to die…!’
Crack! Slash!
In that instant, the goblin’s neck was severed in two.
Its blood spurted out, splashing all over my face. But I didn’t even care about the disgusting stench of its blood.
“Yeomyeong! Are you okay?!”
Yoo Soeun threw her sword aside and rushed to me. She flung the goblin’s corpse away with one hand and began pouring holy energy into my body, checking me over.
Seeing her like that, my pathetic self-hatred reached its peak.
“Hey. Yoo Soeun.”
“Huh…?”
Her expression changed as soon as she heard my tone.
“When did I ever ask you to help me?”
“I… I was just worried you might get hurt…”
“It’s fine if I get hurt! It’s fine even if I die! We revive here anyway! I could’ve handled it myself—why do you keep making me feel so miserable?!”
“…I’m sorry… I was wrong.”
Seeing her apologize, on the verge of tears, the emotion that welled up in me was… disgust.
Not disgust toward her—disgust toward myself.
“Ha… am I seriously this pathetic?”
Why… why am I like this?
Why am I such a miserable, wretched person?
Why do I hurt and envy the one friend who truly worries about me?
I would’ve been better off never being born than living like this.
I felt ashamed.
I was so disgusted with myself, I wanted to puke. I hadn’t even tried my best, yet I blamed my lack of traits, skills, talent—anything but myself.
“I’m the one who should be sorry.”
She looked at me in confusion.
“I got emotional all of a sudden… Just give me a moment alone.”
“…Okay.”
After she left, I clenched my fists once more.
“Tutorial monster. Goblin.”
This time, I won’t run.
Let’s do this.
Let’s throw everything away and train to death, so I can become someone I won’t be ashamed of.
From that day on, I cut my sleep down to two hours.
All the rest of my time went into training.
At first, I couldn’t even handle a single goblin.
I died countless times. Again and again. But through those deaths, I learned.
Where to strike to take it down fastest. When to dodge for maximum effect. How to read the enemy’s movements.
With death as my foundation, I began to grow.
Two more weeks passed.
*
On the day marking my one-month stay in the tutorial, I was fighting another goblin.
The goblin was still a formidable foe. It had the strength of a grown man, claws that could tear through my body in an instant, and a level of cunning and agility beyond a human’s.
Despite being the weakest monster, it was never one I could take lightly. Even now, I couldn’t dodge its claws completely.
But this time, my fist reached its face first. I crushed the goblin’s skull with my own punch.
Its disgusting blood drenched me, but I didn’t care in the slightest.
“I did it..! I won..!”
With my own strength, my own effort, my own struggle—I achieved my first true victory with my own hands.
I finally won. I could do it. If I tried, I was someone who could succeed. As long as I didn’t give up, I would get there eventually. I finally felt like I was at the starting line.
I was gasping for air, but my heart was pounding. I could move forward now.
Just as the euphoria of victory filled me, a flash of light enveloped me and transported me back to the field where the tutorial began. Everyone looked confused, and then the angels arrived.
“It’s time to enter the tower.”
The angels had come to gather us.
“Soon, the gate to the tower will open. If you wish to enter, please proceed inside. For your information, there are rewards based on record rankings, so we recommend entering quickly.”
At those words, the people around me hurried toward the entrance.
‘Rewards based on record…’
The earlier you enter, the more likely you are to set a new record. It was definitely advantageous to go in as soon as possible.
But I had already made my decision.
‘I’m staying in the tutorial.’
I gave up entering the tower. I still needed to grow.
“Should I stay too? There’s no rush to go in…”
Yoo Soeun looked slightly hesitant.
“I told you yesterday. I’m staying because I’m still lacking.”
I looked her in the eyes and said firmly,
“You have no reason to stay. Why waste time here?”
She was worried about me. But that worry only made me feel more pathetic.
“…Still.”
“Soeun.”
I looked straight at her.
“I don’t want to be a burden to you.”
In that moment, her expression wavered.
“If I ever thought that someone as insignificant as me was holding you back… I’d feel so disgusted with myself I might throw up.”
If I blocked her path, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.
“…You know it too. That I’m pathetic.”
She couldn’t say anything in response.
“…No.”
She tried desperately to deny it, but I cut her off with a bitter smile.
“No? What part isn’t true? The only thing I’ve achieved in a month is level 5 in a Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat. You saw it too. The others. They’re easily taking down orcs.”
Everyone else had grown.
“And me? I still have to risk my life just to fight a goblin? A month from now, I’ll probably be weaker than the new people coming in today.”
Even if I trained like hell, all I could do was barely reach their starting point.
She couldn’t deny that either.
Because what had taken me a month to achieve, she had done in just a few hours.
“…Soeun.”
She looked at me silently.
“Do you know what’s really the hardest part for me?”
I bit my lip.
“…It’s this—what I’m doing to you right now.”
Yelling at you, lashing out, acting like a loser—toward the one person who genuinely cares about me.
I hated myself for it.
And the more I hated myself, the more I felt like I was losing my mind.
“I feel so disgusted doing this to you… I can’t take it anymore.”
I closed my eyes, then opened them again.
“…So please.”
I forced a smile.
“If you really care about me, just go. Make a place for yourself there…”
I tried to lift the corners of my mouth.
“And when I make it up there later, you can help me out. Right?”
I wanted to smile as brightly as I could.
But the corners of my mouth trembled slightly.
Yoo Soeun looked at me silently.
And then, with effort, she finally opened her mouth.
“…Okay. I’ll go first. Let’s meet again later.”
It wouldn’t take too long.
“Time flows slower here, so we’ll see each other soon.”
She tried to lift the corners of her mouth too—but I saw her fingertips trembling faintly.
‘…So that’s how I looked to her.’
I realized what kind of image of me she had been seeing all this time.
She looked straight into my eyes. And with a difficult smile, she said,
“Yeah. We’ll meet soon.”
That smile held so much inside it. I had a lot I wanted to say too, but I settled on just one thing.
“I’ll come find you soon.”
When I become someone I’m not ashamed of.
When I can face you and truly apologize.
I promise.
And so, we parted with a smile.
Though our smiles weren’t genuine, we could fully understand each other’s hearts.
Then, in the place where the others had disappeared, new tower entrants began to be summoned from Earth.
I didn’t pay them any attention.
“Estelle.”
“…Did you call for me?”
An angel appeared before me.
“Move me to a new location.”
“…Understood.”
It was time to start training again.
‘Because I have a promise to keep.’
Rather than worrying about others, I needed to change myself first.
I was slow.
That’s why I had to work harder than anyone else.
Without stopping,
Little by little,
Forward.
*
One year had passed.
I had cut down even more on sleep, devoting all my time to training.
“Status window.”
____
Name: Han Yeomyeong
Title: None
Age: 24
Constellation: None
[Stats]
Strength: 7 / Stamina: 9 / Willpower: 20 / Agility: 7 / Intelligence: 3 / Mana: 3
[Traits]
None
[Skills]
Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat (Lv1), Basic Weapon Mastery (Lv5), Triple Essence Cultivation (Lv4), Basic Comprehensive Resistance (Lv2), Martial Arts (Details), Magic (Details), Divine Arts (Details)
____
At least, it looked better than my status window from a year ago.
After mastering all kinds of weapons, my skills had been integrated into Basic Weapon Mastery. And after acquiring all types of resistance skills, they were merged into Basic Comprehensive Resistance.
‘Even so, I’m still weaker than the Yoo Soeun from a year ago.’
And not just a little weaker. Even if there were a hundred of me, I probably still wouldn’t be able to defeat her.
If I had to compare, I might just barely be able to take on the weakest person who had entered the tower a year ago…
“Haha.”
I let out a hollow laugh. It was ridiculous. After grinding away for an entire year, I was still at the bottom.
But I didn’t stop. It was too late to be discouraged now.
I used to struggle even with goblins, but now I could take down orcs. Unrelenting effort can change a person.
“At least I think I’m growing faster now…”
It wasn’t just physical speed—it felt like my rate of growth itself had increased. As my accumulated efforts piled up in my body, it felt like my very being was snowballing, growing in size.
It wasn’t just a rise in strength. It felt as if my soul, or something indescribably fundamental, was changing.
‘…Come to think of it, maybe it started back then.’
I remembered that day.
The day my inferiority complex and self-hatred exploded. The day I parted ways with Soeun in the worst way possible. That was the moment I realized something.
That I had been relying on her far more than I thought. Her mere presence gave me comfort. I believed—naively—that if anything went wrong, she’d be there to fix it.
That first night alone after Soeun left. The space around me felt much bigger. The casual conversations we used to have were gone, and the silence hit me harder than ever.
There was no one left to listen to me. I was truly alone now. I had to overcome everything by myself. That emptiness weighed heavily on me.
Only after she left did I become truly alone. And only after becoming truly alone could I pour every ounce of myself into my training.
‘After my parents died, she was pretty much the only connection I had…’
I lost my parents in high school. She stayed by my side so I wouldn’t fall apart. Maybe that’s why she acted like an older sister, trying to become the family I had lost.
“…I need to apologize when I see her again.”
The day I can stand tall and be proud of who I am.
I vowed to meet her again and offer a sincere apology.
‘When we meet again, I won’t be pathetic anymore.’
I’ll be someone who can apologize without shame.
I’ll make sure that the last version of me you saw was my lowest point.
A silent vow echoed within me.