WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 148: Nightmare on the 11th Floor (2)

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"Kehk-"

The moment I pulled out the key, the white bat coughed up blood and died.

At the same time, all the other bats dropped to the ground with soft thuds.

The bat corpses scattered and vanished.

So killing the white bat took care of all of them.

I dusted off my hands and approached the treasure chest with the key.

Obviously, opening this wouldn't clear the floor...

Was it a trap?

Or maybe it contained what I needed to open the stone door in the original room.

Click.

I stayed alert as I inserted the key into the keyhole and turned it.

Sixth Sense gave a faint warning.

I immediately stepped back.

Crunch!

The chest opened its mouth and snapped at empty air.

Rows of sharp teeth lined the chest...

A Mimic?

So it really had been a trap.

I swung the Sword of Heaven's Gatekeeper, wreathed in aura.

I intended to split it in half with one blow...

But my sword stopped. The impact felt strange.

The Mimic, which was nothing more than a chest, hadn't been cut apart.

'What the hell?'

For a moment, I was dumbfounded.

Did its indestructible status still apply even after it became a monster?

The Mimic opened its mouth again.

Highly acidic green liquid sprayed in every direction and melted the floor. I retreated to avoid it.

When I activated Weak Point Insight and examined the Mimic...

'It was inside.'

Red haze filled the inside of the chest, not the outside.

I rushed at the Mimic and stabbed my sword into its interior.

"Screeech-"

Only then did the Mimic stop moving with a weak shriek, pierced by my sword.

I pulled out my sword and looked inside the dead Mimic.

There was nothing in the chest but a pool of acid.

Was it a dud?

It was apparently just a trap meant to screw me over without giving me anything.

I went farther down the passage.

Before long, I reached a dead end with nowhere else to go.

I left the passage and returned to the original room.

I looked over the remaining four passages.

'Is there one chest in each passage?'

Judging by the size of the stone door's keyhole, I needed a much larger key than the one I'd used to open the chest.

Going by my gut...

There was probably a treasure chest in every passage, and one of them likely contained the stone door's key.

Either way, I just had to check the rest of the passages.

Keeping myself on guard, I entered the second passage from the right.

The crystals in this passage's walls were purple.

'What is that smell?'

An incredibly pungent odor wafted from deeper inside.

At the end of the passage, what came into view was...

A lake.

It was an absurdly vast body of water, large enough to be called a lake.

But the surface bubbled, and steam rose from several spots.

It wasn't ordinary water.

What was this... a lake of poison?

I frowned and looked around.

A treasure chest sat on the ground before the lake.

It looked no different from the one in the previous passage.

There was something beside the chest too.

It looked like a potion from a game, a flask filled with purple liquid.

I approached and inspected it.

[Special Item: Suspicious Toxic Resistance Potion]

Upon consumption, Toxic Resistance greatly increases for 30 minutes. After the duration ends, physical abilities decrease by 30%.

This was... an item?

A special item that could be used while clearing the floor.

Something similar had appeared during the hidden stage on the third floor.

I looked back and forth between the potion and the lake.

The lake was full of deadly poison, and it gave me a potion for Toxic Resistance...

I had a feeling I knew where I was supposed to find the key.

'Is it in the lake?'

It was obviously telling me to drink the potion and search the lake.

The duration was only 30 minutes, though, and after it ended, I'd get a debuff that reduced my physical abilities.

It would probably remain active for the rest of my attempt at the eleventh floor.

Hmm...

But did I really need to drink it?

I already had Toxic Resistance from the Zone 7 boss item.

I approached the lake and lightly touched the surface.

Sixth Sense gave a warning.

But it was incredibly faint.

Sizzle.

All I felt was the unpleasant sensation of sandpaper scraping my skin. My hand was fine.

This level of poison seemed manageable.

'I can just go in.'

Yeah, I'm not drinking it.

There was no reason to accept the potion's debuff when I could endure it without drinking it.

I set down my bag, took off all my clothes, and folded them.

Then I stepped into the lake of poison.

"Ugh."

It was nice and warm.

I floated on the lake for a moment before submerging myself completely.

[Item: Sea Dragon's Ruyi Pearl]

This is a Ruyi Pearl containing the Sea Dragon's power. Upon use, it consumes willpower to control water currents. While in contact with the item, physical abilities increase underwater, and you can breathe underwater.

The Sea Dragon's Ruyi Pearl, the Zone 8 boss item.

I brought it in because I wondered whether it would work in poison too.

It worked just fine.

Even after diving beneath the lake, I could breathe without issue.

My eyes stung, so it was hard to keep them open, but I could endure it.

There was one problem, though...

Sizzle!

I felt an empty sensation above my head.

I urgently felt around my head.

Th-this was insane.

My hair was melting away.

I became bald in an instant.

'Aah...'

I learned something new against my will.

Toxic Resistance didn't apply to hair... confirmed.

It was fine. My hair would grow back in the reward room after I cleared the floor anyway.

Holding back tears, I began searching for the key.

Since it was a key, it was probably sitting at the bottom of the lake.

The Sea Dragon's Ruyi Pearl greatly enhanced my physical abilities.

On top of that, I could control the water currents with willpower.

Whooosh!

I controlled the current in the direction I was heading and swam through the lake at incredible speed.

Still... normally, it only gave you 30 minutes to find a key in this huge lake? Where was its conscience?

The water was also ridiculously deep.

Of course, I could search at my leisure without any time limit. Gear really was the best.

Rather than descending all the way to the bottom, I moved around at a suitable depth and searched the lakebed.

The surface was already dark, and the depths below were pitch-black without a trace of light.

But with Diul, darkness wasn't a problem at all.

Using dark vision and the eyesight of a superhuman well over level 120, I thoroughly scanned the bottom of the deep lake.

After quite some time...

'Found it.'

I discovered a key hidden between some rocks.

Nightmare's disgusting habit of hiding things this thoroughly wasn't surprising anymore.

I took the key and came out of the lake.

Steam rose from all over my body with a sizzle. I'd have to get dressed later.

Still naked, I immediately opened the treasure chest.

Would this one be a Mimic or not...?

Crunch!

It was another Mimic.

I avoided its attempt to bite off my hand, then immediately pierced its palate with the Sword of Heaven's Gatekeeper, wreathed in aura.

After easily killing the Mimic, I looked inside the chest.

As expected, there was nothing.

"Tch."

I absentmindedly rubbed my now-smooth scalp.

The second chest, which I'd opened after sacrificing my hair, was a dud too.

I got dressed and returned to the original room.

It did seem like there was one treasure chest in each passage...

Without wasting time, I immediately entered the third passage.

The crystals on the third passage's walls were red.

As I followed the blood-colored passage deeper inside...

"...?"

An altar?

A tall platform with a distinctly religious atmosphere appeared.

In the middle of the platform was a huge structure shaped like a rice bowl?

And a treasure chest sat right beside it.

After looking around, I climbed the steps to the top of the platform.

The chest was here... so where was I supposed to find the key this time?

I stared at the bowl.

The only noticeable thing in this space was the bowl, which was as large as my body.

The huge silver bowl was set with droplet-shaped red gems as decorations...

"..."

A blood-colored space, an altar.

And gems that looked like drops of blood.

Maybe it was the atmosphere, but a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

'No way.'

It seemed impossible, but in Nightmare, the things that seemed impossible were usually true.

I lightly cut the tip of my finger with my sword.

Then I let one drop of blood fall into the bowl.

At that moment...

Flash-

The blood-droplet gems embedded in the bowl gave off a faint glow.

My expression stiffened.

...No, wait.

Was this telling me to fill the entire bowl with blood? My blood?

"Don't fucking mess with me."

The bowl was nearly as large as my body.

Judging by its volume, it probably held at least several hundred liters.

The human body had roughly five liters of blood.

Even if I drained every drop of blood in my body... it was nowhere near enough!

Would another liquid work?

I tried it.

I brought over water and poured it into the bowl instead of blood.

Whoosh!

Flames erupted violently inside the bowl and instantly evaporated the water.

So that didn't work...

Did it seriously want me to fill the whole thing with blood? That was complete bullshit.

'...I'll skip this for now.'

After thinking it over, I decided to inspect the remaining passages first.

I returned to the original room and entered the fourth passage.

The fourth passage had green crystals on its walls.

What appeared in a wide cavern was a massive hourglass hanging from the ceiling.

Beneath it was a cube-shaped rock.

'This...'

The sight felt strangely familiar.

The space had a similar atmosphere to when I solved the cube on the third floor.

I approached the rock.

Interlocked metal rings sat on top of it.

It was a puzzle.

One of those puzzles commonly called cast puzzles, where you separate intertwined metal pieces by hand.

"Another puzzle?"

What I had to do was obvious.

I had to solve it within the time limit.

The third floor and the eighth floor... when I thought about it, this damn Tower really liked puzzles.

Without touching it, I carefully examined the puzzle.

Three rounded rings, somewhat shaped like musical clefs, were twisted together...

Naturally, I had no idea how to solve it just by looking at it.

But once I touched it, the timer would begin, right?

I looked up at the hourglass on the ceiling.

Considering how ridiculously stingy the time limit had been for the third-floor cube, this would probably be just as bad, if not worse.

I hadn't managed to solve the third-floor puzzle within the time limit either...

"Okay."

Let's see what you've got.

You're trying to screw me over like this again?

Then I'll use cheats this time too.

I observed the puzzle for a long time, memorizing exactly how the rings were intertwined.

Then I used Pankera's Crown and entered the Mindscape.

All right, time outside was stopped.

I recreated the puzzle exactly as I remembered it in the Mindscape.

I began fiddling with it and trying to solve it.

Like this... no, what if I did this...?

It wasn't easy to solve.

But that didn't matter. I had unlimited time.

As I worked at it, the Demon King, who was watching beside me, mocked me.

"Why can't you solve something that simple?"

"Then you try it, Demon King."

"Fine. Give me one."

The Demon King and I sat side by side, groaning as we worked on the puzzle.

Had about half a day passed, at least by how it felt?

"...I solved it!"

"You did?"

At last, I solved the puzzle. Before the Demon King, too.

Fuck, the Tower really made it ridiculously hard.

I solved the puzzle repeatedly until I had the method completely memorized, then returned to reality.

Looking at the intertwined puzzle again, I ran through the method in my head to see if it would work here too.

'It should work.'

Should I try it?

I picked up the puzzle.

Clunk!

At the same time, the hourglass overhead flipped with a loud rumble.

This Tower really had no conscience.

The sand in the hourglass fell at an absurd speed.

But I was much faster than that.

In under ten seconds, I successfully separated the puzzle. Then I fitted each of the separated rings into the grooves in the rock.

The hourglass above stopped.

Crack!

The rock split in half.

There was a key inside.

Done. The fourth passage was easy too.

I took the key and opened the treasure chest.

'Did I get it?'

Was this finally the winner?

Crunch!

No.

Clicking my tongue, I stabbed the Mimic that bared its teeth and killed it.

The fourth one was a dud too...

Now only the third passage I had skipped and the fifth passage remained.

I returned to the original room and entered the fifth passage.

The fifth passage's walls were made of white crystals.

With the Sword of Heaven's Gatekeeper resting on my shoulder, I strode forward.

The deeper I went, the lower the ceiling became.

It was nearly three meters high by the time the passage ended and opened into a cavern.

A treasure chest sat in the center of the cavern.

I approached it and looked around...

"...What the hell?"

I soon witnessed a bizarre sight.

The cavern walls began to rise and twist.

Then pure-white knights started emerging one after another from every direction.

They even poured in from the passage I had entered through, blocking the way out.

What should I call those things? Crystal golems? Golem knights?

Either way, they were monsters I had to defeat.

There were a lot of them, though.

And the space was cramped as hell.

They all carried swords or spears, and red aura even covered their weapons.

Was this a pure test of combat ability?

- Are you going to switch?

The Demon King asked, and I answered.

"Not a chance."

Of course, using the Demon King's power to freeze them all would be easy.

But there was no reason to waste his power on something like this.

I could handle it.

Even without magic skills.

Rumble!

The cavern shook as knights charged from all directions.

I kicked off the ground and swung the Sword of Heaven's Gatekeeper, wreathed in aura.

The knights in my path were sliced apart like pudding without the slightest resistance.

I spun to avoid the spears and swords flying at my back, then swept away the knights behind me as well.

But the severed knights regenerated their bodies in an instant.

I activated Weak Point Insight.

A red dot appeared on each knight's body, though the locations were all different.

Slash!

When I accurately cut through the weak points of several knights, they finally collapsed without regenerating. Then they scattered into dust.

I got it. These bastards...

They had a gimmick where each of their weak point cores was in a different location.

I began fighting in earnest.

The knights were quite fast and strong.

They were probably around levels 80 or 90.

My physical abilities were far superior, but they attacked with dangerous weapons.

Sixth Sense warned me. Even if I activated Skin Hardening, those red auras would cut through my body if they hit me.

The solution was simple.

Then I just wouldn't get hit.

I moved through the knights, constantly swinging my sword.

Then I kicked up another sword, caught it, and gripped it in my free hand.

The Sword of Heaven's Gatekeeper's Heavenly Aura was powerful enough to turn everything in its path into pudding.

That meant clashing swords with the knights wasn't even possible. If I swung, they were simply cut apart.

I focused on attacking with the Sword of Heaven's Gatekeeper and used the other sword for defense.

Dodging, blocking, knocking aside, twisting, deflecting...

Without stopping, I spun around and wildly cut through the knights' weak points with both hands.

As the Enhancement skill raised my physical abilities, I grew increasingly fired up.

The cavern was suffocatingly narrow, and the ceiling was so low that I couldn't even jump upward.

Still, I opened up paths, made the most of the space, and didn't allow a single attack to hit me.

I must have rampaged like that for a full ten minutes.

The endlessly spawning knights finally began to thin out.

When I pierced the dot on the last knight's heart...

Clang!

A key fell where the knight had scattered away.

I picked it up and caught my breath.

"Demon King."

- ...?

"From now on, call me Swordmaster Kim Seo-hyeon."

- Bullshit.

Even without skills, my own raw abilities had improved a great deal.

In the past, a fight like this would have been impossible.

After taking a moment to praise myself, I approached the chest.

'Give me something already.'

Hoping this one would finally be the winner...

I opened the chest with the key.

For fuck's sake.

Stab!

The moment it opened, I stabbed the Mimic that lunged at me with its teeth and killed it.

The fifth passage was a dud too.

Only the third passage I had skipped remained.

"Goddammit..."

With a grave expression, I looked outside the passage.

That was seriously ridiculous.

Did I really have to do it? That?

Footnotes:

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