WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 19: Checking In Alive

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The Open Community had a lot in common with other online communities, but it had plenty of differences too.

For one thing, the Open Community had a strict real-name system. Every post displayed the author's real name and server tag.

Sometimes people with the same name were on the same server, but each profile had a unique tag, so they could still be told apart.

Thanks to that, you didn't get many of the usual trolls. Sure, there were still people who did crazy shit with their real names on display now and then.

Unlike other communities, socializing and mentioning other users by name were allowed to a certain extent.

Back in the day, the Tower of Trials had been an incredibly dangerous place.

Every Challenger dragged in by an invitation had to fight for their life, and many had died in the process.

Now, proven strategies had been established all the way up to the 100th floor, and safe Ranker carry runs had become common. That didn't mean every danger had vanished, though.

A strategy only mattered if you fully understood and followed it, and even a Ranker carry run could end in a complete party wipe if something went wrong.

Things had definitely become much safer than before, but climbing the Tower of Trials was still more dangerous than most extreme sports.

That was why socializing was allowed, under the excuse that everyone should at least have someone who could pass along news of their death.

Besides, even if people did socialize, it wasn't much of a problem. Because of the nature of the Tower of Trials, its population turned over quickly.

Other than Rankers who deliberately stayed inside the Tower, most Challengers would eventually clear the 100th floor and leave.

- Didn't this guy die on the first floor? He's still alive?

It seemed the Challengers in the Open Community had naturally assumed I was dead after I, the guy who posted nonsense every day, disappeared without a word.

A surprising number of people didn't think I'd died challenging the boss. They thought I'd gone crazy from being trapped on the first floor and killed myself.

Probably because my posts had stopped right after the day I received news of my mother's death.

Honestly, they weren't completely wrong.

I had died once back then. Then I was reborn as someone new.

At least, that's how I saw it.

"Seriously."

I'd sworn off wasting time on communities entirely, but it looked like people had gotten the wrong idea. Maybe I should clear things up, at least.

[Author: Seo Jinhyeok#2661]

[Title: Yeah, it's me, your big bro.]

Didn't die on the first floor. Just quit the community to grind, yeah.

Soloed the boss a few days ago and made it to the second floor.

I've thought a lot since my mother passed away.

I don't know if I'll keep being alone on Server 2661, but I'm planning to push through solo for as long as I can.

So tell me how to raise Spirit Affinity, assholes. It's urgent.

- So you're on the second floor now? You can get Spirit Skills on the second floor?

- ↳ Yeah. The first-generation Hunters probably got them too.

- ↳ This bastard's hogging the whole Tower to himself. Must've found something hidden or whatever.

- Holy shit, you can clear the first floor completely solo? What level were you?

- ↳ Level 39.

- ↳ Level 39? You fucking psycho, hahaha.

- ↳ How the fuck did you do it, you bitch?

- ↳ Level 39 just from killing Goblins? Didn't you lose your mind?

- Are you still alone on that server? Nobody else came in?

- ↳ Yeah.

- Fuck, Jinhyeok, I'm really glad you got your head straight. I'm rooting for you.

Every time I refreshed, the comments grew by another page. The reaction was far more intense than I'd expected.

The most common questions were how I'd managed to kill the first-floor boss alone and roughly how strong I was now.

The next most common were messages cheering on my fresh start.

It wasn't just the community ghosts who were always around. Even Rankers who barely used the community showed up to leave a few words of encouragement.

For a moment, all the attention I'd never received while using the Open Community made me feel good.

So how the hell was I supposed to raise Spirit Affinity, you bastards?

* * *

I temporarily muted the comment notifications that kept going off and closed the community window.

If I kept staring at the comments like this, I felt like I'd waste the whole day.

I'd check the rest after making one full lap around the Labyrinth Area.

I put my equipment back on, crossed the center of the village, and headed for the Labyrinth entrance.

[Challenger, the Tower of Trials calls to you.]

Once I passed through the entrance, where the same message from the first floor appeared, a monster I'd never seen before came to greet me.

-Grrrrr...

Its low growl sounded exactly like the wolves I'd seen in the field, and it didn't look all that different from one either.

Other than its face.

The monsters that appeared in the second-floor Labyrinth Area were Kobolds, creatures slightly larger than Goblins with dog heads.

The Kobold spotted me, thrust out its drooling dog head, and charged.

Its speed was nothing special. Compared to the wolves in the field, it was actually a little slower.

-Bang!

I swung my shield with all my strength, sending the Kobold flying into the distance, where it collapsed just like the Goblins on the first floor.

It was clearly weak as hell, fitting for a trash mob near the Labyrinth entrance. There was barely any difference between it and a Goblin.

Kobolds were bigger, and their raw physical abilities should naturally be better than Goblins'.

Still, my stats had increased so much that the difference in physical ability between Goblins and Kobolds barely mattered.

What mattered wasn't how much stronger they were than Goblins. It was how strong they were compared to me.

"Hey, are you dead?"

I asked the Kobold sprawled out in the distance. It probably didn't understand me, but it sprang back up.

Its eyes glowed with a vicious red light.

The biggest trait of Kobolds, the main monsters of the second-floor Labyrinth Area, was their Berserk pattern, which activated when their HP dropped.

Kobolds usually fought with weapons, but once their HP fell far enough, they lost their minds and began rampaging.

They threw away their weapons, then latched onto people with their powerful fangs and claws to inflict bleeding damage.

-Grrr!

The Kobold, now in a Berserk state, rushed at me noticeably faster than before. I casually kicked out.

-Crack!

A red effect burst from a single kick as a critical hit landed. The Kobold died instantly.

Berserk or not, a trash mob was still a trash mob. A change in pattern wasn't much of a threat to me now.

The experience it gave would be tiny anyway because of the level penalty, so there didn't seem to be any reason to fight them on purpose.

"Then treasure it is."

I opened the second-floor Labyrinth Area map uploaded to the Open Community and set out to hunt treasure chests for the first time in a while.

* * *

With my higher Agility stat, I could search for treasure chests far faster than before.

The Labyrinth Area itself wasn't very large compared to the first floor, so there weren't that many treasure chests either.

Thanks to that, I completely explored the entire second-floor Labyrinth Area and collected every treasure chest within just a few hours.

Still, I hadn't gotten much.

There was only one large chest, the most important kind, three or four medium chests at most, and only around ten small chests.

[Kobold Tooth Belt]

Defense +15

Strength +1

Weight: 3

Durability 200/200

Enhancement Attempts Remaining: 2

This was about the only worthwhile item I'd found. A bulky belt that gave me one point of Strength.

My belt slot was empty, so it was still an increase in stats, but it was such a minor boost that I probably wouldn't notice it.

My level hadn't budged either, and there weren't any special quests to do in the Labyrinth.

At this point, I could safely say I'd gotten everything available on the second floor while doing the Shepherd Girl's quest.

No matter how many trash Kobolds I killed, I didn't think I'd get more experience than I had from killing hundreds of wolves.

I could grind one-handed sword proficiency or levels like an idiot, like I had on the first floor, but there was no reason to do that.

"Then this is all that's left."

Just two days after entering the second floor of the Tower of Trials, I stood before the boss room door.

It might've seemed like a hasty decision, but I was confident.

I'd beaten the Goblin Lord without much trouble, and I'd finished off the field boss, Lobo and Blanca, in just a couple of hits.

Judging from the clear records of past Challengers, the difficulty of the second-floor boss room wasn't that extraordinary.

The smallest group to clear the second-floor boss had been a party of five.

That party's average level had been around 25.

Compared to the record for the smallest group to clear the first-floor boss room, seven party members at level 18, there wasn't much difference.

The moment I defeated the Goblin Lord, it became clear that I was stronger than seven level 18 Challengers.

Even compared to five level 25 Challengers, I was probably stronger now.

I trusted in all the effort I'd put in so far.

-Creak.

[On a night with a full moon, the thing that suddenly appeared and usurped the throne was never a Kobold.]

Without hesitation, I threw open the door, and a notification window flashed into view.

[BOSS - Werewolf Lugalu]

Waiting for me inside the boss room was a massive bipedal wolf.

Footnotes:

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