The stench of rot from the fourth wave still hung heavy in the humid air of Level 1. Zanis, the man who had traded his stethoscope for the path of a Warrior, was a portrait of absolute exhaustion. His white doctor's coat was now a roadmap of crimson stains and jagged tears. His legs, once steady during surgery, were vibrating with a tremors of overexerted muscles.
He slumped onto the cracked, sun-baked earth, tilting his head back to inhale the thick, oxygen-poor air in deep, desperate gulps.
Lee stood over him, the Sun King's Gauntlet humming with residual heat. He looked down at the doctor, his Absolute Eye flickering with the red data streams of the system.
"What are you doing?" Lee asked, his voice cold and devoid of the panic that consumed the other survivors. "The waves don't wait for you to catch your breath."
"Lee, place your hand on his head," Hanabi's voice echoed in his mind, sharp and commanding. "Now. Transfer your mana to him. His circuit is collapsing because he chose a class that contradicts his soul's origin."
Lee hesitated. Mana was a precious resource in this hellscape. "Why should I give him my mana? I'm the one who has to carry this group."
"Do it," Hanabi insisted. "This is a unique opportunity. He is a 'Reverse-Class' player. Tell him that from now until Level 20, he is to ignore every other stat. He must pour every single point into Health (HP)."
Lee frowned but followed the instruction. As his palm made contact with Zanis's forehead, a surge of golden, incandescent mana flowed from Lee into the doctor. Zanis gasped, his eyes flying open as the cooling sensation of Lee's high-tier energy mended his frayed nerves.
"Increase your health," Lee said, repeating Hanabi's words. "Nothing else. Only HP until you hit Level 20."
Zanis stared up at Lee, his chest still heaving. "Why? I'm a Warrior now, but I have no mana to fuel my skills. I can barely stand. Without mana, I'm just a meat shield."
"Tell him he'll know why later," Hanabi whispered.
"You'll know why in time," Lee said aloud. "In this region, I've farmed more than anyone. If you want to survive the 100 waves, do as I say. Opportunities in the Tower are meant to be explored, not questioned."
Zanis looked at his shaking hands, then back at the man who possessed the title of a God. He gave a sharp, singular nod. "Fine. If the 'farmer' says I'm a tank, I'll be a tank."
While the other survivors huddled in the center of the zone, weeping or praying to gods that had clearly abandoned them, Lee walked toward the edge of the thorny forest. He found what he was looking for: a Solid-Stemmed Ironwood Tree, a rare spawn in Level 1 known for having the density of reinforced steel.
Lee raised his bare left hand. He didn't use the gauntlet. He didn't use a system skill. He began to punch.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Harder, Lee," Hanabi urged. "Don't use the system's help. Feel the impact. You are seeking the Proficiency of the Origin. Most players rely on the skills the Fairy gave them, but true power comes from the techniques the system hasn't named yet."
Lee's knuckles split. Blood coated the bark. But with every strike, his Absolute Eye tracked a hidden progress bar that no one else could see.
[Hidden Technique Progress: 12%... 15%... 22%...]
For thirty minutes, the forest echoed with the rhythmic sound of bone hitting wood. Lee was training his body to act as a conduit for his Willpower, independent of mana. He was unlocking the Fist of Beginning, a technique of the Unmaker that prioritized pure, unadulterated impact.
Suddenly, the sickly yellow sky turned a bruised purple.
[Warning: Wave 5 is commencing.] [Enemy Type: Stone Golems - The Sentinels of Crushing.]
From the earth itself, massive piles of boulders began to knit together. Five, ten, twenty Stone Golems rose, each standing eight feet tall. Their bodies were composed of jagged granite, and their "eyes" were mere slits of dull grey light.
The survivors screamed. Swords chipped against the golems' hides; arrows bounced off like toothpicks. The defense of the golems was absolute for Level 1 players.
"We can't kill them!" a woman shrieked as a golem's fist turned a nearby survivor into a crimson smear. "They're made of mountain!"
Lee stepped out of the forest, his knuckles dripping blood, but his eyes burning with blue fire.
"They aren't mountains," Lee said, his voice cutting through the hysteria. "They're machines."
Using the Absolute Eye, the world turned into a wireframe. Inside the chest of every golem, Lee saw it: a glowing, pulsing sapphire—the Vitality Core.
"Aim for the center of the chest!" Lee roared. "Destroy the core, and the body falls!"
The survivors looked at him in disbelief. They were too busy running to listen to "theories." But Zanis, now fueled by Lee's mana and his own redirected stats, didn't hesitate.
Zanis lunged forward, his shuriken glinting. He threw it with a Warrior's strength, but a Healer's precision. By sheer luck—or perhaps the Tower's hidden favor—the shuriken jammed into a crack in a golem's chest and exploded.
The sapphire core shattered. The massive golem instantly turned back into a pile of lifeless rocks, the blast wave damaging two other golems nearby.
"It worked!" Zanis yelled, his voice filled with a manic hope.
Lee moved like a blur. He didn't throw weapons; he used the Sun King's Gauntlet to punch directly into the stone. Every strike was a calculated execution. He was hunting, not just surviving. Golems fell, and the wolves that prowled between them were vaporized by his sheer momentum.
But the Tower was not finished.
As the number of golems dwindled, the remaining three stopped attacking. They moved toward each other, their rocky limbs liquefying and merging.
[Warning: Boss Anomaly Triggered!] [Evolution: Dreadstone Fusion Golem (Level 15)]
The three Level 10 golems merged into a fifteen-foot-tall monstrosity. Its skin was no longer granite, but a dark, obsidian-like ore. It roared, a sound like grinding tectonic plates.
"Lee!" Zanis shouted. "The other golems are still spawning! I'll hold the small ones! You take the big one!"
"You can't hold them alone, Zanis!" Lee called back, dodging a massive obsidian fist that cratered the earth.
"I'm a Warrior with the health of an ox, remember?" Zanis grinned, though blood was starting to leak from his ears due to the pressure. "Finish it! I'll buy you the time!"
For an hour, the battle raged. Lee landed blow after blow on the Fusion Golem, but something was wrong. His Destruction God title, while powerful, was interacting strangely with the environment.
Every time Lee drew blood or inflicted heavy damage, a golden mist erupted from his gauntlet—The Fall King's Blood.
[Effect Triggered: Fall King's Blood] [The Boss's vitality is being forcibly sustained by your aura!]
The Fusion Golem was regenerating. Its obsidian hide mended as fast as Lee could shatter it.
Lee looked toward Zanis. The sight was horrific. Zanis was a storm of blood. He had lost a leg to a crushing blow, and his shoulder was hanging by a thread of muscle. Yet, he refused to fall. He was using his massive HP pool to soak up damage that would have killed ten men.
"Zanis!" Lee rushed toward him, but the Fusion Golem intercepted him.
Zanis coughed up a glob of dark blood, looking at Lee with a crazed, terminal focus. "I can hold it… for ten seconds, Lee… that's all I've got left… finish it!"
Zanis activated his Warrior skill, Taunt of the Martyr, drawing the Fusion Golem's absolute aggro. The monster turned its back on Lee, raising its massive fist to end the doctor.
Lee stood still. The world slowed down. His Hidden Technique Progress reached 99%.
"Now, Lee!" Hanabi screamed. "Release the Beginning!"
Lee lunged. He didn't aim for the chest. He aimed for the space behind the core.
"Fist of Beginning!"
His gauntlet didn't glow. It didn't make a sound. It was a silent, vacuum-inducing strike. The impact didn't just break the stone; it unmade the structure of the golem. The obsidian hide disintegrated into fine dust. The core didn't shatter; it vanished into pure energy.
[Boss Monster Defeated!] [Level Up: 11... 12... 15!] [Technique Learned: Fist of Beginning (Rank: Unique)]
The Fusion Golem collapsed. Zanis fell with it, his body hitting the ground like a broken doll.
Lee rushed to him, his Absolute Eye scanning Zanis's vitals. He was at 1% HP. Any other player would be dead, but because Zanis had invested everything into health, that 1% was still a sliver of life.
The camp was in ruins, but 80% of the survivors were still standing, staring at the dust of the golems.
Zanis looked up at Lee, his vision swimming. "Can I… surely use it now? The skill I got for hitting Level 15?"
A new window appeared before Zanis.
[Unique Warrior/Doctor Hybrid Skill Unlocked: Life-Eater Absorption] Description: Allows the user to absorb the blood and mana of any living or fallen being to replenish their own vitality and energy.
Zanis reached out a trembling hand toward a fallen golem shard that still held a trace of mana. As he touched it, the grey energy flowed into his wounds. His leg began to knit back together with sickening cracks.
Hanabi smiled, visible only to Lee. "I told you. A doctor who knows how to destroy life is the most terrifying warrior of all. Now, Zanis can farm mana from the very enemies he kills."
Lee looked at the horizon. Wave 6 was coming. They were stronger, but the Tower was only just beginning to show its true teeth.
"Rest for five minutes, Zanis," Lee said, his eyes turning back to the thorny forest. "Next time, we don't just survive. We conquer."