The battlefield had gone silent.
At least for me.
All around, the 10th floor of the Tower was still roaring with life—wolves howling, hunters shouting, blades clashing—but in my world, only one sound existed.
The heavy thud of the guild master's corpse hitting the ground.
Blood seeped out beneath him, pooling like an accusation. His eyes were wide open, still frozen in disbelief.
I had killed him.
Me, the useless dog.
I stared down at my trembling hands, at the faint glow of Sword Aura flickering on the blade. My lips curled into a smile I couldn't control.
It was real.
[You have acquired the skill of your killer: Sword Aura (C-rank).]
[You have acquired the title: SSS-Class Regression Necromancer.]
The notifications burned in my vision. My chest heaved with every breath.
So it wasn't a dream. It wasn't a hallucination born of dying.
I had actually regressed.
And killed him in return.
"W-what the hell was that?!"
One of the hunters shouted behind me. I turned slowly, my grin widening as I met their stunned eyes.
They were pale, shocked, whispering to each other. None of them understood what they'd just seen.
The guild master—the man they all feared, the one who had led them for years—had been cut down by me, the weakest of them all.
"Seo-jin… what did you do?" one stammered.
I tilted my head. "I killed him. Isn't it obvious?"
Their jaws dropped.
"You…?!"
"Impossible. He was C-rank! You're—you're nothing!"
Their disbelief made me laugh. It spilled out of me, sharp and unhinged, until some of them flinched.
"Nothing, huh?" I muttered. I raised my blade, letting them see the silver glow dancing across the edge. "Does this look like nothing?"
The glow of Sword Aura shimmered in their eyes. I saw the fear bloom there.
For once, it wasn't me trembling.
But the wolves didn't care.
Their howls pierced the air as another wave surged toward us, black bodies lunging with snapping jaws. The hunters scrambled, snapping out of their shock.
"Damn it, focus!" one shouted. "Form up!"
They rushed to meet the beasts head-on, but their formation was broken, shaken by the death of their leader.
I stood still. Watching.
I should've been terrified. I should've run. But instead…
My heart raced with something else.
Anticipation.
The regression. The skill steal. The kill.
It wasn't just real. It was exhilarating.
I raised my sword as a wolf lunged at me. My body moved almost on instinct, silver energy coating the blade. The strike tore the beast apart in one clean cut. Blood sprayed across my face.
I blinked at the corpse. My chest heaved. Then I laughed again.
This power… was mine.
Hours ago, I had been nothing. Now, I was holding the guild master's strength in my hands.
And if I died again—would I get more?
The thought hit me like lightning. My grin widened.
Yes. That was the answer.
I had to test it.
To see just how far this cursed blessing would go.
But not here. Not yet.
I licked the blood off my lips, eyes darting across the battlefield. The other hunters were too busy fighting for their lives to pay me much attention. The guild master's corpse still lay behind me, slowly cooling.
No one questioned it further. They didn't want to.
Because deep down, they knew.
I wasn't the same man who'd entered the Tower with them.
Han Seo-jin was dead.
The battle dragged on. The wolves fell, one after another. With the guild master gone, the survivors fought like cornered rats, desperate to clear the floor or die trying.
I stayed at the edge, swinging my blade only when needed. Testing the flow of Sword Aura. Learning its weight.
Each cut, each strike felt easier than the last. My hands remembered the motions my body had never known before, like I'd stolen not just his skill—but his instincts too.
When the last wolf fell, silence blanketed the field.
The hunters collapsed to the floor, gasping, bloody, broken.
And I stood there, grinning like a madman.
"Seo-jin…"
One of them staggered toward me. A man named Jang-ho, second in command. His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot.
"You… you killed him, didn't you?" His voice was a whisper, trembling with fear and fury. "You killed the guild master."
I tilted my head. "He killed me first."
His jaw dropped. "What nonsense—"
I stepped closer, my grin widening. "What would you call it then? He stabbed me through the gut. I died."
"You—You're insane."
"Maybe," I chuckled. "But tell me… which of us is still standing?"
He flinched back. His hand hovered near his weapon, but he didn't draw. Not with the glow of Sword Aura dancing in my hands.
The others watched in silence, their fear palpable.
Good. Let them fear me.
For the first time in my life, I wasn't the weak one.
When we left the 10th floor, the system messages greeted us.
[10th Floor Cleared.]
[Rewards distributed.]
The hunters muttered, collecting their prizes. Rare items, experience points, gold.
I didn't care.
The only reward I needed was already in my veins: the knowledge that death itself was mine to command.
That night, while the others slept at the base camp, I lay awake, staring at the glowing notifications hovering above me.
[Unique Skill: Regression.]
[Condition: Activates upon death.]
[Effect: Return to the moment of death. Steal a skill from your killer.]
My heart pounded as I read it again and again.
It was absurd. Ridiculous. A broken ability unlike anything I'd ever heard of.
Infinite lives. Infinite skill steals.
A power fit for gods.
And it was mine.
I laughed softly, the sound echoing in the darkness.
But there was one thing left to prove.
Was it truly infinite? Or did it have limits?
There was only one way to know.
I stood at the cliff's edge the next morning, overlooking the abyss that marked the boundary of the 10th floor. The others were still resting, too exhausted to care where I went.
The wind howled. My heart pounded.
I spread my arms wide.
"This is insane," I muttered. My grin split wider. "Perfect."
And I stepped forward.
The ground vanished beneath me. The world rushed past as I plummeted into the darkness.
My body broke on the rocks below. Pain exploded through me. My skull shattered. My vision turned red, then black.
[You have died.][Regression activated.]
The world twisted, shattered—then snapped back.
I gasped. My body jerked upright.
I was back. Standing at the cliff's edge once more.
My body whole. My heart racing.
And in my notifications—
[You have acquired the skill of your killer: Impact Resistance (E-rank).]
I stared. Then laughed.
So it worked. Even suicide counted.
Every death, no matter how stupid or self-inflicted, would feed me.
"Oh… oh, this is beautiful," I whispered, trembling. My laughter echoed, manic and wild.
Infinite deaths. Infinite power.
If dying was the only way to win—then I would die more than anyone else.
And by the time the Tower realized what I was… it would already be too late.