I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents

However, there were many comments asking how many orcs I killed to get a score of 1532 points.
How many did I kill? I counted up to about 30, but after that, I couldn’t keep track.

I didn’t feel the need to count the numbers specifically.
What’s certain is that I killed more than the number I counted, so I probably killed around 70 or 80.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) It’s not exact, but close to 80?
ㄴ lololololololololol Pandemonium, damn
ㄴ Even on Easy or Normal, there are only about 15 orcs on the 2nd floor, wtf
ㄴ I only had 5 appear.

ㄴ Pioneer) What lololololol Even on Hard, 40 is the maximum. 80 is crazy.
ㄴ Priestess) Certainly, with that number of orcs plus killing the Orc Army Commander and the Shaman, it makes sense to get that score.
ㄴ DragonKing) Beltu-i is impressed. Seeing the Climber Gallery guys talking about our climber, dopamine is gushing out.

The reaction of the Climber Gallery, huh.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) What’s the main reaction?
ㄴ You’re getting intense scrutiny from the start.
ㄴ Congratulations. You’ve started receiving a lot of attention despite it being just the 2nd floor.
ㄴ Your life has bloomed now ㅇㅇ

ㄴ LightSword) Still, there won’t be many people expecting it to be Pandemonium. They’ll just have doubts.
ㄴ ArchMage) Anyway, you’re alone here during your climb, so it doesn’t matter much. You just need to be careful during the exchange meeting. The biggest variable for you right now is the exchange meeting.

That exchange meeting, which could be the biggest variable, was coming soon.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) Anything to be particularly careful about at the exchange meeting?
ㄴ You… do you still trust… people?
ㄴ Be careful of people~ Be careful of both men and women~~

ㄴ SewerSwordSaint) You shouldn’t readily trust people just because you were lonely.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) Thanks to you guys, I’m not lonely.

I am lonely, but.
I wasn’t lonely. It sounds like nonsense, but that was my current feeling.
The big loneliness was somewhat resolved just by doing this Transcendent Gallery like now.

ㄴ DragonKing) Huhuk… Did Beltu-i just get flirted with by a human?
ㄴ Look at this climber bastard… charming people

ㄴ Priestess) This girl will send you a blessing talisman so you won’t be lonely. So when the inter-dimensional trade cooldown is over, trade with this girl.

ㄴ HeavenlyDemon) This one has lined up first.
ㄴ Priestess) Line…? There’s no such thing. The choice is up to Sir Climber.

ㄴ HeavenlyDemon) Gal! Gal! Gal!
ㄴ Heavenly Demon Lord, please for fuck’s sake maintain your dignity…

The courtship for the next inter-dimensional trade was more than I expected.

ㄴ SpearKing) Didn’t you say you acquired a short spear? I’ll properly teach you spear techniques
ㄴ AbsoluteMonarch) I can teach spear techniques too.
ㄴ You old men are creepy, so stop it ㅇㅇ

It was a bit creepy.

ㄴ ArchMage) As I said before, you’re alone because you’re in Pandemonium, but those in other difficulties can make ‘friends’. And it’s possible to be summoned together at the exchange meeting. So you can’t rule out the possibility that everyone except you might be friends.

Everyone was unanimously saying not to trust people.

ㄴ Well, even so, it’s just people within the first 10 floors gathering, so nothing big will happen. They’re still newbies, so they won’t try to gang up on one person
ㄴ Pioneer) That’s true. It’s still too low of a floor for there to be such sharp people.

The majority opinion was that nothing much would happen.
Be careful of people.
That was advice that didn’t mean much to me. I didn’t intend to trust anyone in the first place.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) It’s not like players can see each other’s levels when they meet, right?
ㄴ Levels aren’t visible, but you can see which floor they’re residing on. If someone meets you now, it would show you as a 3rd floor resident.

3rd floor resident.
So that means they’ll know I’m someone who cleared the 2nd floor.

I closed the gallery for now.

A moment later, a notification window appeared.

[Additional reward is given for 1st place in 2nd floor stage score. Check your ‘Inventory’.]

Oh.
It seems I got an additional reward on top of the original 2nd floor clear reward for getting 1st place.

“Inventory.”

When I opened the inventory, I could see two new items in two slots that were previously empty.

First, I clicked on the item on the right.

It was a dagger emitting a red light.
Pandemonium 2nd floor stage clear reward item.

[Dagger of Blood]
Category – Weapon (Dagger)
Attack Power: +40
Effect: 30% chance to inflict ‘Bleeding’ status on the target when dealing damage
Usable level: 10 or higher
Grade: B

Then I clicked on the item on the left.

A black bracelet.
This was the item acquired as a reward for 1st place on the 2nd floor.

[Bracelet of Anti-Evil]
Category – Accessory
Effect: Maximizes curse resistance against low and medium-grade curse attacks
Usable level: 10 or higher
Grade: B+

It was a bracelet with effects that looked good at a glance.

I took photos of both items with the terminal and uploaded them.

Title: Two items I got this time.
Author: ㅇㅇ*
-These are the items I got this time. How are they?
Attachment: 788239429.jpg

ㄴ How are they, you bastard, they’re impossible
ㄴ For real lololololol How can someone in the 3rd floor waiting room have the Dagger of Blood and Anti-Evil???
ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) When do these usually appear?

ㄴ Pioneer) On Hard, around the 15th floor. That’s for the Dagger of Blood, and Anti-Evil should appear around the 20th floor.
ㄴ That’s for Hard, and even that’s early. On Normal and Easy, the Dagger of Blood appears on the 18th floor ㅇㅇ Anti-Evil should appear after the 25th floor.
ㄴ But did you pass level 10?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) 12.

ㄴ You’re leveling up damn fast.
ㄴ 12 on the 2nd floor lolololololol
ㄴ AbsoluteMonarch) That level of progress was rare but possible even on Hard. What’s important is how much the stat values have increased.
ㄴ ArchMage) That’s right ㅇㅇ

Stat values.
I opened the status window to recheck my current stats.

Strength: 71
Agility: 65
Vitality: 68
Mana: 44

Skills: Pain Suppression Lv.4 Composure Lv.4 Cover Lv.2 Crisis Detection Lv.3
Visual Field Expansion Lv.2 Concentration Enhancement Lv.3 Fighter’s Movement Lv.3
Mana Body Enhancement Lv.2 Doombringer Lv.1

My level had increased more than I thought.
I reopened the Transcendent Gallery and posted.

Title: My current stats.
Author: ㅇㅇ*

-Strength 71 Agility 65 Vitality 68 Mana 44

As soon as I posted, comments quickly appeared.

ㄴ ??
ㄴ Crazy
ㄴ Isn’t the average starting stat for 21st century Earthlings around 10 ~ 13?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) That’s right, I was like that at level 1 too.
ㄴ But you increased this much on the 2nd floor???

ㄴ ArchMage) Pandemonium, is this the level…
ㄴ ClosedRoomTheory) I’ve wasted my life! – This world is made up of closed rooms
ㄴ It’s not life, you demon

ㄴ LightSword) With this level, we can worry a bit less.
ㄴ It’s not just less worry, it’s evaporated. Anyway, you’ll only meet other 21st century Earthlings at the exchange meeting.
ㄴ We should worry about the people who’ll meet this bastard lololololol
ㄴ AbsoluteMonarch) Seeing you grow so well makes me proud
ㄴ You old man didn’t do anything.

Judging by the reactions, it seemed certain that I had abnormally high stats for my floor level.
After reading a few more comments, I closed the gallery.

Let’s see, what’s in the shop?

[3rd Floor Coin Shop]

Food 2. Drinks 3. Potions

1 and 2 were no different from the 2nd floor, but 3, the Potions section, had appeared.

That’s a major upgrade.

Low-grade Health Recovery Potion – 5 coins

Low-grade Mana Recovery Potion – 6 coins

Low-grade Poison Attribute Recovery Potion – 8 coins

Pain Suppression Doping Agent – 15 coins

The potions weren’t exactly cheap either.

But I received 600 coins as a reward for clearing the 2nd floor.
Current remaining coins: 726 in total.
I had some leeway.
I went ahead and bought some.

15 each of Health and Mana potions.
5 Poison Attribute Recovery potions just in case.
3 of the most expensive Pain Suppression Doping Agents.

According to the Transcendent Gallery seniors, I’d receive more coins after safely completing the exchange meeting anyway.

I didn’t need to worry about what to do during the 2 days left until the exchange meeting.
If I take out the Dragon Slaying Sword manual from the inventory and read it, two days will pass quickly.

I ruminated on dealing with the Orc Army Commander and Orc Shaman.
Killing the Shaman was entirely due to my own ability.
But killing the Commander involved an element of luck. If I hadn’t acquired Doombringer, I would have died right there.

Perhaps thanks to the quite long battle I fought on the 2nd floor stage.
It seemed like my combat sense was finally settling in to some extent.
Which direction to slash with the sword. How to twist my body for more efficient results.

I established my own combat style while recalling the battles I had experienced so far.
Of course, the root and foundation of that combat style had to be in the ‘Dragon Slaying Sword’ that LightSword had given me.

I practiced swordsmanship in my own way. I also trained in the body techniques written in the middle part of the Dragon Slaying Sword manual.
There might come a time when it’s awkward to draw a sword.

I needed to be prepared for all situations.
In that sense, the Dagger of Blood I obtained this time was meaningful in many ways.

After repeating eating and training, eating and training, two days passed quickly.
The time had come.

Current time, February 25th 12:00

[The Tower Exchange Meeting begins.]

[Tower Exchange Meeting Server#1298]
[Tower Exchange Meeting Theme: Dungeon]
[Number of participants: 7]

[Entering.]

Hwaaak-

My vision was filled with light.

[Language auto-translation system activates.]
[Communicate with the gathered participants and clear the dungeon.]

A man with the number <7> above his head approached me.

“Haha, nice to meet you. You must be flustered being summoned to the exchange meeting so soon after entering the tower. I’m Sun Haoran.”

Chinese, 7th floor.

I could understand why Sun Haoran’s reaction was natural.
Everyone matched with me was on the 6th floor or higher.

“Yes, nice to meet you.”

In contrast, the number above my head was, of course, 3.
I must look like a complete newbie residing in the 3rd floor waiting room after clearing the 2nd floor stage.