WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

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Chapter 21: Hysterical Strength

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One moment of bad judgment can lead to death.

It was something Challengers focused on clearing the Tower of Trials, aiming to become high-ranking Hunters, often said.

Yet those very Challengers rarely died from a single mistake.

Because they played in parties, after all.

With reliable companions there to make up for their mistakes, one or two slipups weren't a big deal.

But since I was being forced to solo, one mistake really could put my life in danger.

There were limits to how unfair this could be. This wasn't just solo play. It was a one-coin run.

-Crunch.

The wolf's jaws, buried deep in my left shoulder and reaching all the way to my chest, easily shattered my armor.

No matter how it walked on two legs, a Werewolf was still a wolf. Of course its teeth were much stronger than its claws.

Bones near my collarbone cracked and splintered. A red effect burst out in crackling sparks.

The Werewolf's bite had landed a critical hit.

“Uh, hngh.”

Where had things gone wrong? What did I mess up?

Was it trying to block the Werewolf's claws after forgetting I'd thrown my shield?

Was it getting cocky because the situation resembled the first-floor boss fight, thinking I could win?

Was it deciding the Kobold Rider didn't matter?

Or was it failing to expect the Werewolf to enter its Berserk pattern this quickly?

It had to be the last one. I should've realized when my attacks were working better than expected.

I hadn't thought I could deal enough damage to trigger Berserk with nothing more than repeated dagger strikes.

If I'd fought defensively once and gotten a feel for it, I wouldn't have made this mistake.

No, if I looked at it that way, I'd made the wrong call from the start.

I got myself into this mess by rushing to clear the second floor. Fuck, I should've stayed here for a few more days, you fucking idiot.

-Crunch, crack!

The Werewolf's teeth dug deeper and deeper. The terrifying force of its bite crushed my bones as blood spurted out.

I never knew the sensation of blood draining from my veins could feel so clear.

Then my senses slowly shifted. Pain pushed past its limit made me forget the hurt and focus on something else instead.

-Thump, thump, thump.

My heart raced. This was the first time I'd ever felt my heartbeat so clearly.

The overwhelming reality that death was closing in.

Ah, if I was going to die like this, why had I struggled so hard?

It would've been better to rot quietly in my room, screwing around on community sites.

I knew how pathetic that was, but wasn't it still a better death than getting chewed to pieces by some fucking dog?

What had I been working so hard for? It wasn't like I had a reason to in the first place.

After Mom died, I thought about a lot of things. After all that thinking, I came to the conclusion that I had to clear this Tower.

Why?

Mom was already dead. She must've died believing I'd be trapped in this Tower for the rest of my life.

Even if I cleared the Tower and got out now, that wouldn't change.

I'd spent so long shut away in my room that I'd lost contact with my old friends ages ago.

Even if I got out now, there'd be nobody waiting to welcome me. So why had I wanted to clear the Tower?

Ah, I remembered.

I wanted to become someone respectable, burn incense at Mom's grave, pour her a drink, and apologize.

I didn't know if an afterlife really existed, but if it did, I obviously wouldn't be able to see Mom there anyway.

Where else would an unfilial loser like me go but hell? If I went to hell, I wouldn't be able to apologize to Mom.

So.

I.

Couldn't die in a place like this.

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!”

-Crack!

With a scream, I grabbed the Werewolf by the jaws as it bit into my shoulder.

I seized its blood-dripping upper and lower teeth and put every ounce of strength I had into forcing its jaws open.

Its bite was strong enough to destroy both my bones and armor in one go. My half-dead strength couldn't compete with it.

But that didn't mean I could just lie down and die. I had to get out of this Tower, become a proper Hunter, and see Mom.

“Nngh... aaah!”

-Creak!

I kept forcing strength into my ruined shoulder, ignoring my screaming body. The teeth lodged in me slowly began to pull free.

-Rattle, rattle!

The embedded teeth came loose one by one, blood pouring from where they had been. My head grew dizzy, and my vision darkened.

Good. I could squeeze out even the strength I'd use to see and tear this bastard's jaw apart.

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Battle Awakening Lv.3.]

My vision blurred, but strength kept building in my hands. Was this the kind of hysterical strength people got right before death?

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Battle Awakening Lv.4.]

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Battle Persistence Lv.5.]

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Indomitable Lv.2.]

I didn't need to think about how it worked. All I had to do was draw out every bit of strength welling up inside me and use it.

As I felt the teeth that had been grinding my bones move farther away, as I felt the Werewolf's jaws slowly opening.

Sensation gradually returned to my body, and my darkened vision slowly brightened again.

-Grrk, grrrrrk...!

My vision had brightened, but I still couldn't see much. Blood splattered over my eyes was physically blocking my sight.

Through that blood-red haze, I barely saw the Werewolf's eyes right in front of me.

“Kgh... heh... hehehe...!”

Its pupils were trembling. Or maybe my vision was shaking. Probably the former.

What, surprised because you thought you'd won and then you hadn't? Did you think you were the only one with something like Berserk?

During my fights with wolves, I'd realized something after gaining passive skills. The Tower of Trials recognized changes in a Challenger and granted skills.

If that was the case, it wouldn't be strange for me to gain a skill like Berserk right now. Blue windows kept appearing, didn't they?

[... ... ... acquired... ...]

I couldn't properly see what I'd acquired because of the blood, but I was definitely acquiring something.

Maybe it was the effect of those skills. The strength in my hands prying open the Werewolf's jaws kept growing.

-Creak, crack!

Every trace of the death closing in on me had vanished. All that remained was the joy of growing stronger.

-Crack, crack!

With my ever-strengthening grip, I kept pulling apart the Werewolf's now fully opened jaws.

My brain, soaked in the dopamine of growth, formed words on its own and spat them out through my mouth.

“D-die, you fucking mutt!”

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Hysterical Strength Lv.1.]

-Crack!

My bare hands ripped the Werewolf's jawbone apart.

* * *

The Werewolf collapsed with a red effect indicating a critical hit.

Half its muzzle had been torn off, so it couldn't even make a proper sound as it writhed on the ground. It was a beautiful sight.

The problem was that the ground beneath the Werewolf was completely red.

“Ha, fuck.”

Was that really all my blood? Could a human body even hold that much blood?

They said you wouldn't suffer a fatal injury until your HP reached zero. Maybe that was what they meant.

I'd clearly lost enough blood to die, yet I was somehow alive. Though that was a little different from not suffering a fatal injury.

Still, I was really only alive. My life was hanging on, but I couldn't move even one finger.

Fuck, I probably needed to finish that thing off.

“Po, potion...!”

I opened my inventory, but I couldn't move my body, so there was no way to take out a potion.

Damn it, I could move my arms fine until just now... Had I really used up every last bit of strength I had?

Was there any way? A way to drink a potion without moving a single hand... Ah, there was one.

-Smash!

Using the Drop option, which I could operate without my hands, I summoned a potion in midair and dropped it.

The falling bottle shattered into pieces, scattering its contents across the floor. The spilled potion landed close enough for me to reach it by falling forward.

That wasn't a figure of speech. It really was close enough for my nose to touch if I fell forward. I dropped it at exactly that distance.

“Hup...!”

With the last of my strength, I leaned forward. My barely standing body toppled straight toward the ground.

-Thud!

Fuck, my nose wasn't broken, right? Glass shards stabbed into my face, so I guessed I'd landed in the right spot.

-Lick.

Still sprawled there like an idiot, I licked up the potion scattered across the floor.

Since I could still swear, I could at least move my tongue.

It was an ugly sight. No, it was fucking pathetic, but I managed to drink the potion somehow.

HP: 4/660

My HP, which had been right on the verge of death, slowly recovered, and a little strength returned to my body.

I slowly pushed myself up, then took out another potion with my hand and drank it properly this time.

After recovering a little more, I took a straight sword from my inventory and finished off the writhing Werewolf.

-Stab!

[Congratulations. You are the first to clear Floor 2 of the Tower of Trials.]

Clear messages and reward details streamed down.

I skimmed through them, then remembered something I'd forgotten and quickly ducked my head.

-Whoosh!

The lone remaining Kobold Rider's Halberd swept over my head. Fuck, that was actually still here.

Once you killed the boss, shouldn't the regular mobs have the decency to disappear on their own? What kind of fuck-

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Intuition Lv.1.]

-ing great system is this. I knew I could count on you, damn it.

Footnotes:

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