"The difference in strength by 1 is quite significant."

It’s not just about increasing attack power by 1; it also affects athletic ability.

Of course, there are individual differences.

Someone who has never exercised in their life versus a fighter who has trained consistently in martial arts. Even if both have the same strength of 10, the output is different.

But what if the player who belongs to the first group raises their strength to 11?

Even a 1-point difference can affect the outcome of a fight.

It’s for reasons like this that the survival rate of low-ranking martial artists, or those from lower classes, tends to be unexpectedly high.

But the Survival Instinct skill raises all stats by 50.

It’s an absurd skill that turns the impossible into the possible.

“Hoo.”

I successfully defended the pirate ship.

I was sweating, trying not to let it get destroyed.

‘My stats have increased quite a bit.’

I had no qualms about killing them.

Since I recognized them as bad guys, I didn’t feel guilty at all.

‘Maybe actively seeking out these types of people isn’t such a bad idea?’

Garbage that bullies others for fun.

I didn’t see any reason to spare them.

Killing a few of them would likely help with Earthling ascension, too.

But I wasn’t about to risk my life for the sake of justice.

I’d only take actions within my reach, to a manageable level.

I retrieved the pirate hat.

It had been worn by a hybrid.

After checking its information, it seemed there was no difference from the one I had gotten a week ago.

It was still a C-rank ship at its limit.

‘Both are in pretty bad shape.’

I put it into my inventory.

Then, I took out my pirate hat.

I had washed it thoroughly with water for a week to clean off the grime.

I put it on and registered the pirate ship.

[White Bone Pirate Crew Ship (blue)] [C]

Category: Vehicle

Stats▼

【Durability: 432/450】

Options▼

【Acceleration Lv.6】

【Wind Adaptation Lv.4】

【Evasion Maneuver Lv.3】

The performance was definitely good.

It was incomparable to a raft.

I didn’t really know how to operate it, but just being on the ship gave me a sense of peace.

It felt like I had bought my own home.

I sent a signal to Hikari.

It meant I needed to be moved.

Hikari quickly came over.

Her ability to turn into light was incredibly useful in reconnaissance.

I stored the pirate ship in my inventory.

Hikari only needed to move my body.

Flying in the sky was the best feeling.

The only downside was the constant anxiety that I might fall.

Once we returned to the island, Yuki asked with a face full of excitement.

"Can we go now?"

She had been eager to move to the next island, saying there was someone she had to meet.

Unfortunately, I had to burst her bubble.

"But I don’t know how to operate the ship."

We arrived on the sandy beach, and I took out the ship again.

I docked it and checked the interior.

“Shouldn’t there be an engine?”

I had heard that the hybrid of the Ujok (牛族) used magic stones for engines.

But this pirate ship didn’t seem to have one.

“…I killed them all for nothing.”

The crew who should have been left alive to operate the ship.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do.”

We either had to learn ourselves or wait for someone else.

We headed to the 3rd island.

Since we couldn’t operate the pirate ship, we used the raft that Yuki had made.

Now it wasn’t just a raft, but a proper ship, though in my eyes, it still looked like a raft.

‘After seeing the pirate ship, calling this a ship feels a bit awkward.’

We landed on the 3rd island and first checked what we could obtain here.

The reconnaissance was Hikari’s job.

“There’s a dungeon. It’s not like the temple on the 2nd island, but more like a village.”

“A village?”

“It’s not a big one.”

A small village, maybe with ten households.

It barely even counted as a village.

“It feels like they set up a village like a temple.”

Inside the village, there were people.

People with their faces entirely painted black.

They were not human.

Kwaang!

I fired the cannonball at them.

Unlike the knights, who managed to take the hit, these guys collapsed lifeless after being hit by the cannonball.

[You have killed an unnamed village resident 1.]

The message confirmed it.

These people weren’t human and should be treated as monsters to be defeated.

“They didn’t appear.”

I killed them all.

The difficulty wasn’t very high.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get anything out of it.

It made me realize just how lucky I was to have obtained both the coordinates and the history before.

"Any other resources?"

“Nothing special. Only wood...”

"Then wood must be a resource."

I tried chopping down a tree.

【99】

“……”

It was the same system as the magic stones.

It wasn’t ordinary wood.

It was exceptionally strong.

It even had a buff that increased the durability of the ships I made.

“I guess we’ll need to make regular trips to chop more down.”

“Eh?”

I spent the whole day collecting wood from the 3rd island.

[Soul System has successfully found potential in your soul.]

[You can learn ‘Lumberjack (F)’ skill.]

I discovered another skill.

This time, it was Lumberjack.

But I couldn’t learn it.

My skill slots were full.

‘I need to find artifacts too.’

What if I find a good skill?

If I had to delete mining to make room, I’d feel too regretful to choose.

“Why are you so fast?”

Hikari muttered in amazement.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead and checked my status.

[Mining] [Lv.7] [C]

[When mining ores, efficiency increases by 145%.]

The skill had grown massively.

It wasn’t human-level anymore.

I casually responded.

“Maybe there’s some dwarf blood running through my veins.”

I had borrowed the ability from the Illusionary Tome.

Just in case.

【Race – Dwarf】

But something felt off after I changed my race.

The growth rate of mining sped up exponentially.

It wasn’t marked anywhere, but maybe it was just a feeling.

‘So this is how I can apply this.’

When Hikari swung the pickaxe, the durability of the magic stone decreased by 1.

When I swung it, the durability decreased by exactly 2.

Sometimes it dropped more than 3, or sometimes two chunks would fall at once.

“Can’t you do it all by yourself? I won’t be much help anyway.”

Was she thinking of slacking off?

I shot her a fierce look.

“......”

Hikari pouted and swung the pickaxe.

Clang!

Another week passed.

We regularly visited the 1st island.

It wasn’t so much about gathering wood; it was more about finding players.

The so-called player gacha.

“…Why did you kill them this time?”

Finding players who would cooperate wasn’t easy.

Their abilities were secondary; their personalities were the real issue.

The 3rd floor of the Tower of Struggle.

Having passed through the 1st and 2nd floors, everyone had mostly adapted.

They knew that as long as they could handle it, they could act however they wanted.

Those who had lived violently outside the tower naturally resorted to bad deeds.

“That person entered the house.”

Would a man with a thick beard have any reason to enter a house where two strange women live?

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no good reason.

And the result was this.

The man ended up as a cold corpse.

“You and I are treated the same, aren’t we?”

“We were able to bring out their guard, so it wasn’t all bad.”

She seemed like a clumsy girl at first glance, but she was far from that.

Yuki and Hikari were soldiers from the public security.

They were girls who were so familiar with blood that they had no qualms about killing.

‘They said they were soldiers, so it makes sense.’

They must be confident in their combat skills.

“This could end up with us being trapped here for a year.”

“So what? Should I just let him slip his hand on my thigh when he comes into the house?”

“......”

Hikari boldly said that she killed him because he deserved it.

I nodded in agreement.

“Someone like that should be killed.”

“Right? You would have killed him too, wouldn’t you, Ryuin Oppa?”

We had been living together in this small space for almost half a month.

We had gotten close enough to understand each other's personalities.

‘Yuki is incredibly eager to climb. I don’t know why, but she won’t tell me.’

I didn’t ask any further because she seemed reluctant to talk about it.

It was probably a personal reason.

‘Hikari is a chick who just listens to Yuki.’

They had been working together since they were very young, even before they were summoned to the Tower of Struggle.

‘About 10 years?’

I wasn’t one to judge other dimensions, but it didn’t seem like a good world.

‘From what I gathered...’

They used minors as special forces hunting monsters in their dimension.

From my perspective, it’s hard to call that normal.

“Just wait, he’ll come back up soon.”

We all just did our jobs.

"This ship is pretty good, right?"

Yuki proudly showed off the raft she had made.

Compared to the pirate ship, it was definitely lacking, but for something she made by herself, it wasn’t bad at all.

"It feels like a submarine."

"...That’s true."

She claimed it looked like a submarine, despite it resembling a torpedo more than anything.

I wondered whether it actually functioned, but I didn’t show any doubt.

I couldn’t dampen her enthusiasm.

I assigned Hikari to the magic stone and let her mine automatically.

Efficiency was lower, but the harvest was still pretty good.

“Phew.”

Hikari wiped her sweat.

As the days went by, her clothing got lighter, and now she was wearing something that made me wonder, ‘Isn’t that underwear?’

"Don't you mind seeing me like this?"

"You’ve done it a few times now."

"......"

I had seen worse, with the sports team seniors and even the girls from the neighboring school.

‘Well, maybe not quite to this extent…’

I had become desensitized.

At this point, I could just ignore it without even thinking.

Ignoring Hikari's sulking gaze, I kept mining until sunset.

"Hikari, let’s go to the 1st island."

Then, we waited for players on the 1st island.

They usually showed up around this time, so lighting a campfire and waiting for players had become my daily routine.

"I hope a fisherman shows up."

"Do you think a fisherman could pilot that ship? Even if they’ve lived on the sea, it seems hard to handle such a ship."

"But they’d still probably be better than us."

"That’s true."

Crackle-crackle.

I could hear the sound of footsteps.

"They’re here."

I rushed toward the direction of the sound.

"Is this the 3rd floor?"

There was an elderly man, hunched over, standing in front of us.