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Ascension Through Skills
Type
Web Novel (KR)
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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 157 votes)
5    52% (82 votes)
4    17% (26 votes)
3    13% (21 votes)
2    10% (15 votes)
1    8% (13 votes)
Language
Support Book (#ad)
Author(s)
One entry per line
Artist(s)
One entry per line
N/A
Year
Example: 2012
2020
Status in COO
Status in Country of Origin. One entry per line
622 Chapters (Completed):
- Main story: 582 Chapters / 24 Volumes (Completed)
- Extra: 40 Chapters (Completed)
Licensed
No
Completely Translated
No
Original Publisher
One entry per line
English Publisher
One entry per line
N/A
Release Frequency
Every 1.1 Day(s)
Activity Stats
[Graph]
Weekly Rank: #19
Monthly Rank: #40
All Time Rank: #524
Reading List
[Graph]
On 4013 Reading Lists
Monthly Rank: #41
All Time Rank: #2184

Description

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The labyrinth that swallowed humanity. Four choices were given to them.

Easy Mode, where anyone can survive. Normal Mode, where only those who fight survive. Hard Mode, where only 1% can survive. And the Solo Mode, where only one person survived.

The strongest returnee of humanity, Kang Taesan, was an Easy Mode player.

He heard countless times,

“What if you had chosen the Hard Mode, or even the Normal Mode?”

Regretting his cowardly choice while dying amidst destruction, he gets another chance to choose.

“This time, I won’t make the wrong choice.”

The strongest Easy Mode player has returned.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Leveling Up With Skills
Level Up with Skills
Skill Master Levels Up
스킬빨로 레벨업
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
The Tutorial Is Too Hard (3)
Second Life Ranker (1)
Level -99 Archmage (1)
Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant (1)
Sorcerer: My Class Panel Has No Limits (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Novels I've Read :)
  2. Hunter/Awakener/Gate/Tower - Not Read Pt. 4
  3. Novels
  4. Faves
  5. VR/System

Latest Release

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123…37
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21 Reviews sorted by


Mov
New Mov
May 20, 2025
Status: --
There are a parts I don't like.. The general Korean outlook on human life in general but that's not just an issue reflected in this story.. But be that as it may.. Other things like the outlook and generalisation of other countries and getting some things wrong fundamentally.. Is it better to avoid topics you're not inford on?.. Anyways apart from that the effort into this series is worth the read hence my 5 star.

But I do feel like reading too many Korean novels would bend a person's mind and... more>> not for the better. <<less
0 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
cosmicfury
cosmicfury rated it
January 2, 2022
Status: c24
The Story may look Boring at start where the MC blames himself for Choosing Easy mode Many Times. But the Setting and logic of the story is preetty solid . The Fight and action scenes are also well written . The protagonist may Look mechanical, but I feel he is more logical and decisive than any other protagonists I have seen so far.

No Romance if you are busy surviving. Even emotions are logical and reasonable.

If I am Asked to play a game with my life on the line I will... more>> also choose easy mode because it guarantees my survival the most, while maximizing the skills like the MC does also maximizes survival but is difficult for us as the process is pretty brutal and slow like eating (bad) food raw and drink healing water to increase (various) resistance (by 1%).

The story Development gets you hooked slowly <<less
15 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
pomoli
pomoli rated it
December 2, 2023
Status: c114
This is pretty good, I recommend it to people into interesting "tower" like solo progression with an OP MC.

Pro

  • MC is calm and collected, but not a psychopath.
  • Kinda intriguing lore wise.
  • The powers, skills and how they evolve are interesting to follow.
Con

  • No romance. Not a big deal in this case but I wish it had at least a little.
13 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
frostcrystal
frostcrystal rated it
March 19, 2023
Status: c39
The fun part about stories like this where we all already know the ending, is usually how well the story is written. Humor, character development, chemistry, real world considerations, family, or anything like that might have been this story's saving grace, but as it is, it's very flat. To put it another way, it's just the shell of a tower conquering Korean fantasy. I barely know more about the MC now than when I started. I did enjoy the addition of the NPCs, and the somewhat interesting lore. Also, I'm... more>> a bit of a sucker for this genre so I did finish all the translated chapters. For these reasons, I'm giving it a 3. <<less
6 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
QuodArbor
QuodArbor rated it
March 1, 2022
Status: v1c39
Well I read a bit more than just two chapters and I agree with must of the Reviews till now. (Both sides have some good points.)

I think that the short sentence Problem is due to the translator because it gets better over time. An Editor would definitly help.

I agree with Arakuei and hope the MC stays solo it would ruin that logical part from him that in my eyes is the most important Part of the story.
6 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Overclock
Overclock rated it
November 10, 2021
Status: c80
Opinion Early on ch 1-40

Can't say much, but hope it does get better. Has a interesting idea of a talented player who chose the lowest difficulty getting a chance to redo at the highest difficulty, but personally I feel so far it's been ha handled badly.

1. MC was in easy mode, but he got so many rewards from exploring he became a god among his fellow players, likely stronger than even their sole Alone Mode player or her near equal. Also the author pretty much said he's the super special... more>> snowflake that is talented beyond all his peers and even if other players tried to explore more in the Tutorial they wouldn't possibly be as strong as him. Just making a talented player get a second chance to not chose easy mode would have been better, but he has to be extra special and not tr*sh like he was raised to think like he was.

Edit: It's great. Currently my second favorite active KR novel. Not annoyed by how strong the MC is either. His ghost companion isn't annoying at all and is kind of a friend and teacher to the MC you wish will never leave. My only complaint is I wish the author said his talent was an eye for details and the willingness to endure, rather than a special god mortal the author makes it seem like he is. <<less
6 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Infermite
Infermite rated it
July 28, 2024
Status: c219
This is a good old return to a classic style of Korean novels. Maybe I'm just taken by the traditional writing style and the focus on growth that has been seemingly lost recently, but I find this novel very easy to get through and enjoyable throughout.

I am probably biased because I started reading Korean novels when 'Everyone Else is a Returnee' and its buddies were popular, but this scratches an itch which the newer style of character focused plot-driven novels can't provide. Its a guy who fights monsters, gets stronger... more>> with a litRPG system, and is a badass.

It still has an interesting plot and various mysteries to uncover (which technically sets it above from the Toika fast food) but it is fundamentally a very 2016-esque novel for me. I would have liked the translation to be a bit faster, but its well done so I will count my blessings. <<less
5 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Menarin
Menarin rated it
November 4, 2023
Status: c98
Beginning is a bit wild. You start in the perspective of the failed run. Here we see and get a glimpse of how strong the MC was despite being from the easy mode.

Later on we get to see the challenge of solo mode and how much further the MC can go without being limited by low stats.

Overall a decent read. Very succinct and straightforward. Its a 1 man path to being the very best.

... more>> Unfortunately it loses points for being a bit boring at times. Grind, level, acquire skill, repeat.

A bit more interaction with others throughout to break up the monotony a bit would have been ideal. But what do I expect from a guy in solo mode? Lol. <<less
5 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Juslin
Juslin rated it
August 25, 2023
Status: c57
The novel isn't groundbreaking or anything, but it scratches my itch for regression + dungeon crawling + skill farming MC fairly well. The novel has a fairly similar premise to The Tutorial is Too Hard, but the actual story content is drastically different (especially considering the MC of this novel is a regressor).
4 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
XXXXX
XXXXX rated it
August 13, 2023
Status: c49
not anything super special but decently interesting, ok to pass time I guess 3-3.5 stars so far

my biggest problem (just a small logic plothole, but I'm autistic like that)

... more>>
Spoiler

"Players cannot trade items"

yet MC travels back in the past by picking up an item from the corpse of another Player...

no matter what when fighting monsters people would definitely die, so why doesn't MC pick up equipment of "hard" lvl players instead of his own "easy" lvl

that would definitely have solved some of his stat problems... well I just consider it as his "regression cheat" instead of seeing it as a "system item"

[collapse]
<<less
4 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
wuxia952
wuxia952 rated it
June 18, 2024
Status: --
It's pretty standard fare. Good enough to read for a while but it becomes an exercise in counting (level n+1, stat+10, etc).

Eventually the formula becomes overly repetitive (found a new God, they have a special challenge just for the MC because he's so awesome and never seen before in history) and the overarching story proceeds too slowly to hold my interest.
3 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Pixeldrum
Pixeldrum rated it
April 25, 2025
Status: c50
Before I even talk about the novel itself, I want to take a step back and ask: why did level and skill systems even manifest in RPG type games to begin with? In classic dungeon crawler games like Dungeon Master - 1987, it's very text heavy with some visuals to enhance the experience. However, things such as attacks, skills, and combat are all done in text and turn based combat for the most part. The hard to animate and program actions were all abstracted away conveniently in discretized--numerical-- values of... more>> experience points, levels, stats, and more. These numerical values represent some sort of progress for the player to keep track of, increase the power levels of monsters and allies arbitrarily, and overall is a numerical representation of someone's abilities and attacks. It's only when you get to actual action RPGs and action-type video games, think of games such as Legend of Zelda where despite there still being numerical values representing statistics such as HP, Mana, and more, a lot of the action is instead translated to actual visual and programmable actions which makes the experience more immersive.

So you can basically say I disagree with the concept of this novel alltogether. I don't even mind litRPG type games where stats are represented numerically, such as the Reincarnator by ALLA, but it's only a means to the end. Ultimately, while there are abilities and numerical stats, the process of killing monsters, going against opponents, and overcoming obstacles are still highly descriptive and feel realistic rather than just turn based combat where people are throwing their stats, abilities, and HP at each other to whittle each other down to 0 HP.

This novel just feels like a dungeon crawler game from the 1980s come to a novel form. What's the point? The abilities and levels are only there because it's hard to describe. In a novel, describing these fights are only a natural. It's not really fun to read someone spamming their 500 abilities in a random dungeon that's ploppped into the story. At some point you just have to stop. Why the hell do I care about random proficiencies in the 35 different skills Kang Taesan just randomly learns? Even in novels like kumo desu ga nani ka, where there's a laundry list of skills, fights in that novel are still more about actual fights rather than just spamming abilities until your enemy dies.

That's kind of the other issue; the worldbuilding is just terrible. It's actually better in this case, to hide the way the dungeon was formed. It creates a form of mystery. To just expose it like "A wizard made it for fun!" doesn't really contribute anything to the story. Gods interfering constantly, displaying human and even just s*upidity in trials not even to kill our MC, Kang Taesan, but just for entertainment in a supposed death trap dungeon just seems so game-like and boring.

I just can't wrap my head around the fact that skills are a way to discretize and visualize to a viewer, reader, of player of some medium because it can't be expressed so easily and it's easy to assign mana, hp, and stat values as well in the same token. In a novel specifically about someone trying to conquer a hell-level dungeon going against mobs, abstracting away all that action into skills just feels like the author gave up on trying to write. <<less
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RedsBlue
RedsBlue rated it
April 4, 2024
Status: c160
1-60c

It's very rare you get a book with so much theroy crafting in it. It's thoughtful as hell but the deeper I get into the more it moves beyond the edgelord moments of the first chapter. Which turn me off and almost made me stop reading. I thought it was going to be another Solo --blah blah blah. Where the person turns into an insta god in under 30 chapters. With a harem for little care of the rpg and story part. I had a really good book awhile ago... more>> barbian something that was SOOOOoooo good. Someone who understoood about playing at a high level/fantasy understanding. But it started flicking into a harem where people just hang off him and he walked away from the nice story moments. I just stop when I saw the writing on the wall. It was going to be a will they won't they harem or all the chicks were gonna die off to avoid the harem but still let the author rotate random chicks. Sometimes I wish that authors just realize folks can be friends. It's allowed and we can move forward with the story. But it turns into these idol hanging off the guy stuff. And I can see that happening maybe with this book. It's tiring and could be a cultural different moment. Anyways I enjoy the hell out of this book. I wish it had a tiny more fantasy. I could live without the gods thing and if it was god I'd wish for a more urban fantasy histoical approach but I get it. Overall best thing I've read out of the novel update world in MONTHs. I'd been depress not being able to find new titles so this brings my hope back and I'm full thankful.

one big con though.

I wish he lost his memories and got to pick hardmode. I'd love for him to discover all the things with either shards of his memory or much smaller hints. Because sometimes it comes to him way to easy even though the things he's doing is outrages.

update. - lol. I'm at 122 and he's regressor jesus-sim mode. I'm not sure why word count and what not gets these doods to this point so early but I'm not mad at the book over all.

so new con. - Jesus-nim mode a little too fast. Emotionally sort of dead sometimes. Which is weird to watch. It's so bad you kinda don't feel like he's fighting for his life. OR fighting for "connect" to him to stay alive. It gets creepy. He's just sorta fighting to see some new skills. Which isn't awful but it's kind of dead sometimes.

Without the grounded emotional beats it feels like reading a bullet point adventure. Which doesn't mean much I think omniscient reader does a much better job with this. Even though there's not tons of romance it actually does something better and gives you "connect" beats. Emotional investment beats and you really feel like the reader cares about this guy as the only one who kept reading. Like deep down he cares about him like a younger brother would care about an older one. It's a very powerful emotional beat even as older brother nim rejects the hell out of the reader and is so distrustful. I feel like there could have been a lot of moments where we saw real investment emotionally from the MC nothing over the top but a little less I'm a cool guy distant edge lord... and it could have served the story better. Right now I honestly don't care about the earth because author didn't work to invest me into caring. I don't care about the people except for the one chick from the start. But as we get almost NO information about her 100 plus chapters in I move further away from caring about the one really interesting whole character.

Great f'n concept. OUT OF THE PART great world building... just really bad writing. You have these huge moments that become bullet points. In the hands of a talent editor combine with an average writer could have been better. or a stronger writer period. But my god the world building and concept carries the HELL out of this book. Action scenes are ok.

So after 100 page update -- it's a 4ish - Would never reread this ever again. [unless it had some strong content edits for emotional beats. Slowed down in certain places.]

update 185 c - I'm really taking back by this piece of work. I get where they are going now. I'm not mad at it. It's enjoyable for the most part but also so far back at time it's like reading bullet points. I think this would make a better manhaw then it does a piece of writing work. Better anime as well because so many name skills that it's sometimes nothing but a wall of alerts. Hmm. Not mad at it though. <<less
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MarketResearchReading114
MarketResearchReading114
October 2, 2023
Status: c79
The novel is in an interesting place. The tower arc feels like it will definitely finish, its just a matter of how well that's constructed. I believe there's a lot to like in its potential, but maybe its execution is a little off.

The novel focuses on the priority of obtaining skills, and its even in the title, but at a certain point, it feels like the priority shifts a little.

At this point in the novel, it feels like there is going to become a point of crisis or should be... more>> at least, and the stakes need to feel even more tangible.

I think this comes into play with his allies and how they handle the threat he is currently facing, and I think, we're going to see an interesting portion play out here shortly.

That being said, the story moves pretty even keel through and the stakes feel a little unreal currently, because we feel the protagonist really cannot fail at this point, he's just had success after success, and while we have grim reminders that its not enough, it still doesn't really hit home, because it feels like the destination for those threats to land, is too far off.

I think I will rate this later if I do so. I think the foundation is well laid, and it might not be excellent yet, but it has the potential to become so. <<less
2 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Fan2zz
Fan2zz rated it
September 7, 2023
Status: c80
Just get through the first few chapters before the regression and the story will get much better. The MC is s*upidly talented and gets a lot i, but he does work hard so as he gets stronger it doesn't feel undeserved.
2 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Justmepassingby
Justmepassingby rated it
September 5, 2024
Status: c174
First things first: No romance. And please give some love to the manhwa!! It deserves more hype!! There's official trans somewhere, you can look it up. Name is: Skill Master Levels Up. Trust me, this is sooo good. Unlike other tower climbing novels with leveling systems, the Labyrinth isn't bias when it comes to giving skills. If you have the will and hard work, you can earn many skills. Wield a sword, a spear, run everyday or something, and you could earn a related skill base on that. Seriously, it... more>> depends on you.

That's why it's no wonder MC was so OP even tho he was on easy mode previously. He doesn't see things in just one angle. From what was shown, he repeatedly experimented on things and skills. Like, maybe that one skill could earn me another one, that's kind of like his thought process. He can't use half of the skills he has back then tho because of the mode he chose but now he's on Solo Mode. I really like him. He's also not selfish. He saw what would happen if you don't get strong enough so he's grinding very hard, every spot of the floor he'll wipe it clean, whether of monsters or rewards. He's also giving tutorials on other players, tho there's not much he can do if they want to do it or not. Some methods to acquire skills required you to be on the brink of death🤣 that's why its understandable people would hesitate to try it. He's got some friends tho, kinda, from the same mode who really admires him.

This is his journey to becoming OP, so we're following just him. We can see him chat with other players from time to time (also the return to earth) but its just mostly him and the npcs. Its still entertaining tho, as I like stories like this. That's it for my review. I'll update later. <<less
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
LunarCleric
LunarCleric rated it
August 1, 2024
Status: c252
This novel is just incredibly solid. It doesn’t do anything outstandingly unique but is well written, well paced, and even well translated. The type of novel that even if it’s not causing me to grip my seat in anticipation, one I still will always open the latest chapter of to enjoy
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
RockLeMillion
RockLeMillion rated it
January 6, 2024
Status: Completed
This novel starts off very strong among novels of similar style (primarily "This Tutorial Is Too Hard"), but runs into similar difficulties later on as far as interest garnered through the power system. The premise is fulfilled incredibly well early in the novel. As the summary says the main character is the strongest in his first life despite intense limitations in artifacts and stats. He is strong because of his skills. In the beginning of the story the author does an amazing job capitalizing on the viewers hype over his... more>> previously held skills and the mystery of what he will have to do to get them in his next life. IMO this is the best part of the novel and most of my enjoyment came from the unique gaining of skills and effort put by the main character during these sections.

Spoiler

This remains the case until reasonably far into the novel where the author for the most part stops utilizing this setup and instead focuses more on the conflicts facing the MC and what he can now gain in his second life to go further. While well written throughout once the main character gets 3/4 through the labyrinth I lost a lot of excitement because it felt like the author didn't fulfill the expectation I had of the main character regaining ALL of his skills. Around floor 75 the main character basically stops getting skills he held previously. This irks me because there were many floors that passed by off-screen where the author could have had him gain his previous skills, but he just skilled over many floors. I wish he paced out the novel more and padded it by showing more floors and having the main character reclaim all of his previous skills and even test to find new skills in the harder and more specialized alone mode labyrinth. So much hype was lost by just having floors pass between chapters.

[collapse]

Outside of the hype generated by the increasing numbers there are many fun characters both inside of the labyrinth and outside. As usual the main character is a standout.
Spoiler

The only issue I have with him is the resentment he had in the introduction immediately disipates when he gets his second chance.

[collapse]
<<less
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
cfilorvyls
cfilorvyls rated it
September 16, 2023
Status: c622
So far this novel pretty much reads like a sub-par imitation of Tutorial is Too Hard. Supposedly the only reason MC became OP is because of his skills, but the reasoning about how he got so many skills compared to everyone else is kinda bullshit. Also the main reason he got so OP is also due to some bs skill he got for no reason. The world building and characters are fine, it's certainly not a bad story. The writing and translation is also decent. But compared to TTiTH it... more>> just falls way short (and seriously they're both so similar it's almost funny)

EDIT: Couple years later and I got impatient and just read the MTL (which is honestly impressively good these days thanks to all that AI and stuffs). Long story short, I still think it's a 4 star story, maybe even slightly lower. MC never really developed a personality, in fact by the last leg I'd argue MC got less of a personality than at the beginning. You could argue it kinda makes sense due to plot reasons

Spoiler

MC ended up being an immortal, and then sometimes later also became a full-fledged God. There was a scene where they returned to earth to do another defense quest, except this time they got a helper from what is basically a group of arrogant space police. When others asked MC what to do about them (by this point MC was already a god), he just said "whatever, it's for you mortals to figure out". Like wtf where did that come from? You're the same age as these other humans. Also the author never really went into the psychological aspect of becoming an immortal or god before AT ALL. So this personality change literally comes out of nowhere

[collapse]

Anyway the story kinda progress about the same way up until the end. Kill slightly stronger enemy, get better stats/skills/status thanks to his unique skill yadda yadda. The ending is not that bad though. It's not really that satisfying of an ending, but questions got answered and most of the plot threads have been resolved. <<less
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AraF45
AraF45 rated it
April 27, 2025
Status: c406
The story and the characters are good. The characters the novel focus on are deep even though it's just a few of them out of many. The world building is good and the other worlds that are visited are interesting.

But it is a battle and ascension story so it does take a while to build into the characters, if you don't keep reading you won't get to the character enrichment.

It's a fun, good paced story.
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Kittybob
Kittybob rated it
March 30, 2025
Status: c390
Edit: despite allat this is still consistently hype as hell, I'm bumping this up to 4.5 because I somehow forgot I actually have fun reading this.

Probably the most 'pure' iteration of tower dungeon type novels I've read-- this novel is first and foremost about it's main character constantly progressing and gaining power. I think the development of power in the earlier segments were much more meaningful because MC was actually using every part of his toolkit to eke out seemingly impossible challenges, but as the story progresses the stakes get... more>> more and more meaningless. Also, if you are looking for a nuanced and complex main character, this is not it. He is very detached from the other characters, acting more like a shepherd to his sheep than a leader to his people-- this doesn't mean he doesn't care about others, just that he doesn't care to make connections. The novel doesn't really frame this in an edgy way or anything, just that relationships are simply not the focus. So long as the MC keeps the human race alive, his goal is achieved.

Anyways, it's pretty great for what it's trying to do, just don't go looking for deeper complexity or you'll be disappointed. I found it entertaining, and I've had this on my reading rotation for a while, so I'd call this a solid 4/5. <<less
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