WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 31: Advance

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The Lizardman whose neck I'd repeatedly stabbed with critical hits didn't last long before collapsing.

I'd only learned this fairly recently, but strong monsters' corpses didn't disappear right away after death.

So even after poking its neck full of holes like this, I couldn't rule out the possibility that it was still alive.

Ah, but this one was definitely dead.

A Lizardman once played dead and ambushed me, so I'd made a habit of always finishing them off.

I'd done it so often by now that, at least with Lizardmen, I could roughly tell whether they were dead without stabbing them again.

[Quest Completed: In Search of the Ruins' Treasure - Expedition Leader Windsor]

The quest was complete, and I'd received the field boss clear message and all the rewards.

The system interface wasn't going to lie to me, so there was no need to check whether it was really dead.

[You have obtained Quest Reward: 'Experience Points' and 'Gold'.]

[You have obtained Objective Completion Reward: 'Lightning Charge Lv.1'.]

[You are the new Ruler of Lightning.]

The field boss rewards weren't anything special, and aside from the skill, the quest rewards weren't all that impressive either.

I did get a new piece of equipment, but even at its maximum enhancement level, it wasn't much different from my current best gear.

Besides, all the armor and weapons I had equipped were junk items with high Durability.

I had good accessories with special options, but I wasn't especially attached to items anymore.

I might've been tempted by something Unique grade or higher, but my current specs were already more than enough.

Other than items, the only real gain was probably the newly completed achievement.

[Achievement Completed: Ruler of Lightning]

[You have obtained Achievement Reward: 'Intelligence +5'.]

Intelligence, the lowest of my four stats, had gone up by five all at once.

It wasn't that important since I wasn't a Mage class, but more was never a bad thing.

Even for a Warrior class, the total MP consumed when using skills was affected by Intelligence.

Anyway, the biggest gain this time was probably the skill called [Lightning Charge].

If it was a Charge skill, it had to be that, right? Giving a weapon an elemental effect.

I pulled the dagger out of the Lizardman's corpse and tried using the skill.

[Lightning Charge]

Blue sparks briefly flickered over the dagger, then quickly faded.

What was that? Had it actually worked?

My MP had gone down in the Status Window, so it seemed to be active, but the effect was way more underwhelming than I'd expected.

Was it because it was only Level 1? Was electricity flowing through the dagger right now even though it wasn't visible?

Hmm. If there'd been some weak mob nearby, I could've dragged it over and stabbed it a few times.

Guess I'd have to test it on something else.

I hadn't done this in a while, ever since my Poison Resistance skill stopped growing.

-Stab!

I sank down and started stabbing my own thigh with the dagger.

* * *

I poured a potion over my wounded thigh to heal it, then stored the dagger in my inventory.

“This is fucking garbage.”

After spending about an hour testing it on my own body, I came to the conclusion that this skill was complete trash.

First, its basic function was a toggle-type buff skill that could be maintained until my MP ran out.

While active, it made electricity flow through one equipped weapon.

But the electricity was pathetically weak. Fine, it didn't have a paralysis effect, but it didn't deal any additional damage at all.

Even at Level 1, I hadn't expected it to feel like nothing more than the static shock you got from taking off a thick sweater.

What was worse, it burned through MP like crazy. Even though I'd kept turning it off and on, more than half my MP was gone.

The efficiency was so bad that using it on and off for an hour at my level had cut my MP pool in half.

An average third-floor Challenger probably couldn't maintain it for long. And mana potions were expensive even among consumables.

It would've been fine if I could at least use it to build elemental resistance, even with its lousy power, but it was so weak that it didn't seem to grant any resistance skills either.

To put it in one word, it was a complete white elephant.

It wasn't good for anything right now, but it was one of the few active skills I had. I'd have to keep using it and level it up.

“Are all Charge skills like this?”

After confirming my thigh had healed, I stood up and muttered to myself. It had been a while since I'd checked the community.

I needed to find out whether it was a skill worth developing and whether an ordinary Warrior like me could make use of it.

If it didn't suit the Warrior class, I'd just toss it aside. It wasn't like I could change classes now.

-Welcome to the Tower of Trials Open Community!

For some reason, the community I'd opened to search for information was on fire.

[Official) Fourth Festival Event Confirmed]

* * *

Posts always came in quickly in the Open Community, but today was on an entirely different level.

[Holy shit, the Festival's really happening]

[Fuck yeah, the fourth Festival is gonna be insane]

[Did they announce the exact Festival period?]

[So is Meteorstone coming back?? Is the price dropping?]

[Are the Festival dungeons gonna be the same as before?]

[All dungeon info was shared during the second Festival]

It felt like a game community after a major update announcement. The common keyword was Festival.

I already knew the Tower of Trials had an event called the Festival.

The Festival was a shared cross-server event held roughly every three years, and one of the few chances for Challengers from different Towers to meet.

Challengers could move to a shared field, cooperate to clear dungeons and earn rewards, and farm Festival-exclusive equipment.

Back when I was stuck on the first floor, I'd placed a lot of hope in this Festival, thinking it could be my chance to escape.

Then I found out the minimum requirement to participate was clearing the first floor, and it messed with my head pretty badly.

I entered the Tower of Trials in the tenth year after the world changed, and it'd been about a year and a half since then.

So it was about time.

[But is Jinhyeok coming to the Festival?]

One post caught my eye as I refreshed the endlessly updating page.

Why the hell were these assholes so interested in me?

When I opened the post, it was filled with comments from Challengers who shared the same curiosity.

Huh. They were treating me like some legendary Pokemon.

It was a good opportunity to grow, so of course I was going to participate. Still, I'd need to be careful not to draw unnecessary attention.

A lot of Challengers viewed me favorably, but there were definitely others who didn't.

It was true that I was overwhelmingly stronger than Challengers on the same floor, but compared to high-floor Challengers or Rankers, I was probably still lacking.

If some crazy bastard with high specs took a dislike to me and picked a fight, I had no way to deal with them since I didn't belong to a guild or group.

No, I did have one way.

I smirked and closed the noisy community window.

If I was worried about some high-spec crazy bastard picking a fight, all I had to do was become strong enough to handle anyone who came at me.

My secluded training to improve my skills was over. From now on, I'd just push through the floors and raise my specs.

“Shall we go?”

What I had to do hadn't changed at all. I would keep moving forward without stopping.

Until I reached the top of this Tower.

* * *

The moment I stepped into the boss room, several lines of messages appeared.

[The genius scholar Karamanta, who had learned the languages of other races, asked his Lizardman friend.]

[Why is the leader of a warrior race a shaman who oversees rituals?]

[The Lizardman answered that Karamanta did not know what terrifying sorcery they could wield.]

Beyond the messages, a Shaman Lizardman stood trembling behind an elaborate ritual altar, chanting a spell.

[BOSS - High Shaman Alcheman]

According to the latest strategy guide, which had only been worked out fairly recently, attacking that bastard as soon as I entered could stop the spell it was chanting.

Apparently, that reduced the number of Ancient Lizardman Warriors it summoned, lowering the floor's difficulty by a level through a special gimmick.

And with my Throwing skill, I could easily land an attack and stop its spell in one shot.

But I stood still and waited for the spell to be completed.

-Kerrrk! Kerrrk!

Before long, the staff in the Lizardman shaman's hand began to glow.

As a strange purple light swirled, the bone fragments laid out on the altar rose on their own and began growing flesh.

[BOSS - Gatoonak, Greatest Axeman]

[BOSS - Ropegotan, Most Veteran Spearman]

[BOSS - Harprak, Sharpest Archer]

[BOSS - Itel, Sturdiest Shieldbearer]

Lizardman heroes, each stronger than a High-Rank Warrior and bearing purple stripes on their shoulders, gathered in one place.

Having summoned every great hero carved into the tribe's history, the shaman wore a triumphant expression.

Its eyes were full of certainty that it could never lose with them by its side.

“Finished?”

But the confidence in my eyes was several times clearer than its own.

[Congratulations. You are the first to clear Floor 3 of the Tower of Trials.]

Footnotes:

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