Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 143

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 143: Zone 10 Boss (5)

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I watched the Hero's life for a long time.

I didn't interfere with her dream until the very end.

I just wanted to leave it alone. Was it because the despair that had flowed into me through the Hero's memories was so overwhelming? Or because I saw too much of my 10th-floor self in her?

Either way, it wasn't a boring time for me.

Compared to having to recharge the warp device every ten minutes in the desert on the 8th floor, it was more than bearable.

The bigger problem was stopping the Demon King from throwing a fit every so often.

"Thank you for waiting so long."

At last, the Hero's long dream seemed to have come to an end.

The Hero, who had grown a little older, returned to her original appearance.

"Dammit, looks like you've finally come to your senses."

The Demon King grumbled.

The Hero approached me.

"I remember everything. Just as you said, my world was destroyed by the Tower."

"Yes, I saw it all in your memories."

I watched her expression as I spoke.

"And right now, you're a boss monster. Outside..."

"What in the world is this place?"

"It's the effect of an item called Pankera's Crown. It creates a Mindscape and can pull in anyone you are physically touching."

The Hero nodded as though she roughly understood.

"I see. Even after death, the Tower had been toying with me like a clown."

"..."

After laughing hollowly for a moment, the Hero asked, "What should I do, Lord Kim Seo-hyeon?"

I explained my current situation to her in detail.

The contract with the Tower.

If I failed to fulfill it, my future Nightmare climbs would be blocked forever. And I had to defeat her to fulfill the contract and bring it to an end.

After hearing everything, the Hero asked, "So all you need to do is return to reality and kill me?"

"...That's right."

"Then do so, Lord Kim Seo-hyeon. I would be glad if I could help you."

She spoke calmly.

"If anything, I want to ask you. Please end this cursed life already. I couldn't protect anything, yet thanks to you, I was even allowed to dream a dream far beyond what I deserved... I have no regrets."

I thought for a moment.

Then I made her an offer.

"Hero, could you teach me swordsmanship?"

"...Swordsmanship?"

"Yes. It would help me a lot."

Before returning to reality and killing her, I figured I should get whatever I could from her first.

As for the Demon King's magic, I couldn't learn it in the first place. I'd asked him to teach me before and gotten scolded, and he said my soul constitution wasn't suited for it...

More precisely, the Demon King seemed to use magic by converting my willpower into mana, but I couldn't handle mana itself.

Martial arts were different, though.

I only had to learn how to use my body.

Until now, I'd only raised my combat proficiency by fighting recklessly on my own. I'd never properly learned swordsmanship or unarmed combat.

"If it will help you, I would be glad to."

The Hero accepted my offer without hesitation.

"But it feels like a long time has passed. Is reality outside all right?"

"It's fine. Time in reality has stopped."

I didn't bother explaining my ability, but perhaps she assumed it was just the item's effect, since she didn't ask any more questions.

"For fuck's sake, how much longer are you planning to stay here?"

The Demon King was about to throw another fit, so I calmed him down.

"We need to do what needs to be done, Demon King. It'd be a waste to leave just like this."

I left the Demon King alone to play by himself, making ice kingdoms or whatever.

That was how I began receiving the Hero's instruction.

Her swordsmanship lessons began with the most basic things.

"When holding a sword, your fingers must be positioned like this so no strength is wasted."

How to grip a sword, the posture for swinging it, the placement of my feet, shifting my center of gravity...

After learning the basics, I immediately began sparring with her, our blades clashing.

This was a world where death, injuries, and the limits of stamina didn't exist.

We could fight as though it were a real battle, even to the death, and it didn't matter.

She matched her physical abilities to mine as we sparred...

Of course, I was no match for her at all.

She lightly deflected and avoided the sword swings I put everything into.

Our strength and speed were clearly the same, yet before I even knew what had happened, her sword sent my head flying.

Slash!

...Her teaching style was fairly strict. She showed little mercy.

Every time we sparred, my head and limbs flew through the air in spectacular fashion.

Of course, it didn't matter since I didn't die.

"Hero, how talented am I?"

"Average."

"...Is your standard especially high?"

"It is not. That was by ordinary standards."

She's honest.

But that was fine. I had unlimited time.

There was no reason to worry about talent. I just had to keep going as far as I could.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

We continued sparring.

At first, I could feel myself improving little by little, but eventually I hit a plateau.

That wasn't unusual.

Growth followed steps rather than a smooth slope.

And there was no way I'd get discouraged just because my progress had slowed.

If my mind had been that weak, I would've died on the 1st floor, and Earth would have been destroyed long ago.

I threw myself at the immovable wall that was the Hero again and again.

"Your center was too far to the left just now, so you couldn't respond."

"Extending my left foot was a simple feint. Watch the movement of the shoulders first."

"If you want to redirect a blade while keeping swords locked together, blindly using strength won't work. You have to use the weight of your opponent's sword."

Every time I died, she hammered a new piece of knowledge into me.

Feeling it for myself and making it part of my body, though, was an entirely different matter.

I figured that if I kept at it long enough, it would happen someday. So I died again and again.

It was probably after I'd died several thousand times.

There were moments like that. Things you wondered whether you could really learn through practice suddenly became possible.

As though a blocked meridian had opened, I exchanged more than ten blows with the Hero for the first time.

Slash!

And, as expected, her sword still sent my head flying...

But it was the first time I felt my skills take a great leap forward.

Not just a single step, but enough that it could be called reaching an entirely new level.

"...Excellent."

The Hero smiled for the first time.

How much time had passed by then?

I didn't know.

Having grown even more interested and motivated, I continued sparring, forgetting the passage of time.

But motivation wasn't infinite.

I hit another plateau. This one lasted much longer.

I grew tired of swinging a sword, and the thought that this was enough kept coming to me. I wanted to leave.

From that point on, all I needed was patience.

The moment I left, it was over. There would never be another chance to learn like this.

Until my pure swordsmanship was at least comparable to the Hero's... I wouldn't stop.

Of course, I didn't spend every moment sparring without rest.

Sometimes, I played around by controlling the Mindscape. Other times, I talked with the Hero about this and that.

My ability to manipulate the Mindscape had improved greatly as well.

"This is Earth, the world where I live."

I showed her the scenery of a city on Earth.

By then, Seri and I had started speaking casually. Given how much time had passed, we'd grown that close.

"It's a wonderful world. So dazzling."

Seri asked, "Seo-hyeon, you said you've cleared through Floor 10 on Nightmare difficulty, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm no more than a failure myself, so I don't have any advice to give you... But I hope you won't walk the same path I did."

Right. I had to keep trying.

That was why I was spending so much time here.

Whoooosh!

The scenery of Earth twisted, and the surroundings changed into a snowy field.

"That guy."

I looked up at the Demon King, who was flying around above us and going wild.

It was time to swing my sword again.

We continued our endless sparring.

Sometimes we changed the terrain around us into rough ground, sometimes we used weapons other than swords, and sometimes we fought barehanded. I didn't insist on using only a sword.

I agonized, sought out methods, and constantly thought about how to improve...

After long hardship, moments of realization came several times.

Each time, my skills improved greatly. The gap between Seri and me also gradually became clearer.

Once I reached a certain level, Seri stopped going easy on me and always faced me at full strength.

We clashed swords too many times to count, and I died too many times to count.

Just how much time had passed?

If someone asked whether it was worth investing this much time into improving pure martial skill instead of obtaining some Legendary-grade skill, maybe the answer would be no...

But I hadn't lost anything anyway.

No time had passed in reality.

And by then, I could vaguely feel it.

It seemed like there wasn't much left.

Finally, I...

"Ah."

I suddenly came to my senses.

The result of a fierce sword fight that had gone on for over a hundred exchanges.

As always, Seri's sword was pointed at my neck.

But my sword was pointed at hers as well.

Seri smiled and lowered her sword.

"...There's nothing more you can gain from me. It's over."

I knew it myself.

It wasn't as though my swordsmanship had reached a peak where there was nowhere left to improve...

But from here on, I could continue training through my own efforts.

It was time to say goodbye.

I'd achieved the goal I'd set, and I couldn't stay in this world forever.

"Is it finally over?"

The Demon King had appeared at some point and looked at me with an indifferent expression, as though telling me to leave already.

I looked at Seri for a moment before speaking.

"Demon King, would it be impossible? For Seri to attach herself to my soul and coexist with me, like you do..."

"Don't do that, Seo-hyeon."

Seri spoke before the Demon King could say anything.

"No, but..."

"You said it would only end if you killed me. If you do something like that, there's no telling how the Tower will react."

Seri was right.

The contract with the Tower required me to 'defeat' all the zone bosses within the set time.

If I kept her soul alive and intact, there was no way to know how it would be judged.

"And... I want to rest now."

I sighed and nodded.

"All right, then..."

Seri looked at the Demon King.

"More importantly, Seo-hyeon."

"...?"

"I know why you're tied to that person, but don't trust him too much. He's a being who has accumulated a burden of slaughter too vast to measure."

As a Hero, Seri truly hated the Demon King.

During the vast amount of time we spent here, she had never once initiated a conversation with him.

Just as she'd said, the reason seemed to be that the Demon King was a terrible evildoer...

The Demon King only snorted as though it were ridiculous.

I simply nodded.

Then I gave Seri my final farewell.

"Thank you. Really, for everything."

It had been hard, tedious, and painful, but it had also been rewarding and enjoyable.

I carefully chose my words.

Then I held out my hand and said one last thing.

"I'll do my best."

To defeat the Tower.

Not only to prevent the destruction of my world, but for the peace of the worlds that had been destroyed by the Tower, like Seri's.

That was everything I meant.

Seri smiled and shook my hand.

"Goodbye, Seo-hyeon."

It was time to leave the Mindscape.

Seri said, "The moment we return to reality, cut off my head. My mind might fall under the Tower's influence again in reality."

It was a reasonable concern.

The reason Seri had regained her memories and sanity in the Mindscape might have been because I had stopped time outside, temporarily freeing her from the Tower's influence.

So I had to kill Seri as soon as we went outside.

Even then, there was no telling what would happen. I had to try and see.

After taking a deep breath...

I finally left the Mindscape.

'...!'

I was reaching toward Seri's face.

Time in reality was still frozen at that exact moment.

I resumed time.

I regained my balance and steadied myself.

Immediately, I summoned a sword of light and raised it with my only arm.

But...

I hesitated for a moment.