WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 116

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Nightmare Floor 8 (4)

Just moving forward wasn't going to get me anywhere.

I searched desperately for other options.

I went back down into the Sandworm pits and dug through the underground.

A faint, desperate hope that some other gimmick might be hidden down there — something that could actually get me to the oasis.

But all that was down there were endless tunnels like an ant colony, and nothing came of it.

I pored over the skeleton's notebook and compass until my eyes ached.

Hoping for some hidden clue I might have missed. There was nothing like that to be found.

What if I went in the opposite direction from the oasis, or off to the side?

The displayed distance only grew larger.

I tried using the Demon King's flight ability to climb higher and higher into the sky.

Thud!

At a certain point my body slammed into an invisible barrier and couldn't rise any further.

Like a game that had walled off everything beyond the map's edge.

The Tower seemed to be laughing at me. Stop wasting time on pointless nonsense and just cover the required distance — that's the only way through.

I stopped time and thought for a long while.

No answer came.

I ran across the desert again.

Even knowing the result was already decided no matter what I did.

Still, the only thing I could do was keep moving toward an oasis I couldn't reach.

Maybe something would change once I passed a certain distance? Maybe?

I clung to even that threadbare hope.

I ran and ran.

I warped and warped again.

Maxing out the warp distance every ten minutes pushed my willpower to its limit.

I did it anyway.

When running drove my stamina to the edge, I summoned Pli and rode, recovering as I went.

Every time my reserves came back, I used the Demon King's flight too.

A desperate scramble to move just a little faster.

The desert sun was brutally hot, and when it set and night came, a cold like a snowfield took its place. The temperature swings were insane.

With ice magic and fire magic, I could at least endure both extremes.

For food, I rationed the biscuits and energy bars I had stored in Subspace.

When those were almost gone, I started hunting Sandworms and cooking them.

Disgusting taste, and eating them left my tongue numb.

Fortunately the toxin wasn't severe enough to actually impair my movement.

The exhausting march went on.

Moving, moving, moving...

"..."

[16,254,931/134,217,728 km]

I stopped and stared at the remaining distance.

It was staggering.

I collapsed onto the sand and lay there on my back.

[Nightmare]
Participants: 476,805
Time Remaining: 7 days 6 hours 28 minutes 5 seconds
Highest Floor Reached: Floor 8

Nearly thirteen days had passed since I entered Floor 8.

The time left on the Nightmare limit was down to one week.

I had covered more than ten million kilometers.

And nothing had changed.

Something different after a certain distance? Yeah, right.

It had never been anything more than wishful thinking with nothing behind it.

This was done.

I had known from the start it was hopeless.

Still — it really was hopeless. This.

"Demon King-nim."
- What.
"Has this ever happened to you? A run falling apart because you ran out of time?"

The Demon King answered.

- Never. I didn't climb the Tower waiting a year between attempts like you do.

I suppose not.

Was that the root of my defeat?

If I had had enough time left, I could have cleared Floor 8 too.

...I really couldn't have imagined anything like this.

Every floor before this had taken a few hours at most.

I had never even considered that a run could take more than a day, let alone twenty.

I had been completely blindsided.

And so, the world stood on the edge of destruction.

What must things be like out there right now?

The Nightmare participant count would still be the same, so they would know I was still attempting it.

But not having cleared it by now — they had to be in quite a bit of chaos.

My family would have read the will by now too.

I squeezed my eyes shut once and opened them again.

This isn't the time to be worrying about what's happening outside.

If things stayed like this, it really was over.

The world would end.

I opened my palm and looked at it.

Whatever the Sage had given me, identity still unknown.

The thing I would need most.

Now was that time.

Right now was exactly when I needed something, desperately.

"If I can't clear this, it's all over..."

But no matter how hard I stared at my palm, or shook it, or struck it —

Nothing changed.

Crack!

I even summoned a sword of light and jabbed it into my palm.

Blood just poured out freely.

I stopped after a moment. The wound healed quickly thanks to the Frozen Hydra's ability.

...Damn it. What useless garbage.

I should have picked the Book of Omniscience instead of this trash.

- It does seem like the end of the road.

The Demon King said it plainly. A faint note of regret, but otherwise calm.

"Easy for you to say. We share the same fate."
- Then what do you want me to do? Accept what must be accepted. This is your defeat.
"..."
- It was always too much to hope for, I suppose. Beating this monster... for a lowly creature, you've come quite far.

I lay still, staring up at the sky.

"...There's still one thing left."
- Hm?

I pulled an item from Subspace.

[Special Item: Scale of Life]
Sacrifices the user's remaining lifespan to gain an equivalent reward. You may offer a minimum of 1% and a maximum of 99% of your current remaining lifespan. Once used, the Scale breaks, and the user's remaining lifespan is displayed.

I held the Scale and read through the description quietly.

- Hah. You had an item like this?

The Scale of Life.

A reward I had earned clearing a sub-tower a long time ago, never once used.

It had been in the back of my mind from the beginning.

But since it spent lifespan, this was the last resort.

I thought for a moment about spending the remaining seven days searching for another option, then made my decision.

'...Use it.'

Right. Use it.

I had already tried everything, hadn't I?

There was no other way.

I was also worried about what would happen to the outside world if the time limit ran down to nothing.

What remained was deciding how much lifespan to offer.

Anywhere from 1% to 99%.

More offered meant a better reward.

...What if I offered some awkward middle amount and only got a middling reward in return?

That would be completely hopeless.

Even offering the maximum, my expectation that it would actually resolve this situation was low.

The only option was to go all in, grasping at any straw I could find.

[Would you like to use 'Special Item: Scale of Life'?]

[Please decide how much lifespan to offer.]

...If I offered 99%, how much longer would I have to live?

I'd be lucky to get a year.

Well, that was only worth worrying about if I actually cleared Floor 8.

Hoping to gain something — anything — that could break through this impossible situation...

"99%. Maximum."

I spoke the amount I would offer.

[Offering 99% of your lifespan to the Scale of Life.]

With the message, a red energy like life force itself flowed out from my body.

"...!"

The red energy gathered into a sphere and settled onto one pan of the Scale.

The Scale tilted heavily.

Slowly...

Then black energy began to flow from the Scale.

It gathered before my eyes and took the shape of something like a human figure.

A death god.

I stared at it blankly, and a voice came from it.

- Wish for something. I shall grant you a reward as close as possible to your desire, equal to the lifespan you have offered.

...Wish for something?

I thought about what I wanted, as the death god said.

There was only one thing.

An ability to close a distance of more than one hundred million kilometers in an instant.

Anything would do. A super-long-range teleport far beyond what my warp could manage.

Slowly...

The death god opened its hand.

The black energy gathered and rose onto the opposite pan of the Scale.

The pan that had tilted down from my offered lifespan rose back up.

The Scale balanced.

The death god dissolved like smoke.

The black energy faded.

I looked at what remained on the Scale.

"..."

An orange skill stone.

I had seen one before at the masked auction.

A Legendary-grade skill stone.

Crack.

The Scale split in two.

[Broken Scale of Life]

Reading the item description, the remaining lifespan was displayed.

"...Hah."

This much left.

I picked up the skill stone, wound tight with anticipation.

Whatever came out of it...

[Skill: Radiant Incarnation (Legendary+)]
Borrows the power of sacred radiance to transform your body into light. While the skill is active, you take no damage whatsoever, and omnidirectional movement at the speed of light becomes possible. Casting requires 1 hour of mental concentration. The skill can be maintained for a maximum of 10 minutes.
Type: Magic
Willpower Cost: 5,000 per second
Cooldown: 72 hours

"..."

Legendary+ grade.

Reading the skill description, my eyes went wide.

...A magic-type skill that could move at the speed of light.

Something I never could have imagined had come out.

'Hold on.'

[16,254,931/134,217,728 km]

Let me do the math.

Current remaining distance was roughly 120 million kilometers.

The speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second.

400 seconds. Less than 7 minutes to cover the distance.

The willpower consumption was staggering, but that wasn't a problem.

The skill could be maintained for up to 10 minutes, so... it was possible.

I could reach the oasis.

"...Demon King-nim."

A hollow laugh escaped me.

"I think I've cleared it."

The price paid was far too steep.

But either way, this meant I could clear Floor 8.

- The reward is certainly fitting.
"That it is."

I looked toward the oasis and used the skill stone.

['Skill: Radiant Incarnation (Legendary+)' has been learned.]

Time to finish this.

Figuring out what came next after clearing the floor was a problem I could hardly see my way through, but...

First I had to get out. Back outside.

I stopped time and began concentrating.

After an hour of long, sustained focus...

I used the skill.

Whoooosh!

My entire body blazed with blinding golden light.

No — I had become light itself.

I moved toward the oasis immediately.

My body launched at the speed of light.

"...!"

The scenery around me distorted strangely.

Moving at the speed of light seemed to synchronize even the pace of thought to match. Time felt like it was flowing slowly.

So I never lost control of my own speed.

I stopped time as needed, recovering willpower the instant it dropped.

[32,384,923/134,217,728 km]

The distance that had seemed impossibly vast shrank at a pace that felt unreal.

The oasis that had never drawn closer no matter how far I ran — like a mirage — was visibly closing in now.

[53,149,112/134,217,728 km]

[79,042,368/134,217,728 km]

[104,592,139/134,217,728 km]

.
.
.

[134,217,728/134,217,728 km]

I deactivated the skill.

I looked at the lake in front of me.

The water's surface caught the sunlight and shimmered gold.

"...Phew."

The oasis.

I had arrived.

Looking at the messages appearing before me, I raised my head and let out a long, slow breath.

[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 8.]

[Absorbing the power of the floor.]

[Your level has increased.]

[Your level has increased.]

[Your level has increased.]

.
.
.

[Your level has increased.]

[You are the first to successfully clear Nightmare difficulty Floor 8.]

[Moving to the Reward Room.]

.
.
.

[Special Item: Broken Scale of Life]
Sacrifices the user's remaining lifespan to gain an equivalent reward. You may offer a minimum of 1% and a maximum of 99% of your current remaining lifespan. Once used, the Scale breaks, and the user's remaining lifespan is displayed. (This item has already been used.)

Remaining Lifespan: 305 days 23 hours 16 minutes 45 seconds

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