WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 15

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Nightmare Floor 2 (3)

The moment I passed through the door, stairs stretched out in front of me.

There was more?

I sprinted up them at full speed.

The overflowing lava sloshed up the stairs too.

I was faster.

I kept climbing without getting caught and burned alive.

After running for a while, I realized the staircase wound upward in a huge spiral.

Only then did it hit me that I was inside a gigantic tower.

I kept climbing.

Tower, castle, whatever this was, I did not care.

A window appeared every full turn or so, and outside it was night with the moon high in the sky.

...I kept climbing.

"Huff, huff."

Something felt wrong.

A strange feeling started creeping in.

Was this tower just insanely tall?

I had been sprinting flat out, but exhaustion was catching up to me, so I slowed down.

Rumble-

I had run far ahead of the lava, so I should have had room to breathe, but the second I slowed down, the lava peeked into view right behind me.

What the fuck is this?

I ran while keeping just enough speed not to get caught.

It felt like my senses were being toyed with.

This was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.

A window appeared again.

As I passed it, I smashed the wall next to the window with my fist. Bricks shattered and left a mark.

I kept running, and another window appeared.

The broken mark... was there.

I was climbing up, yet this made no physical sense.

Only then was I sure about what was happening.

I was going in circles in the same place.

An infinite staircase? A Mobius strip? What is this?

At this rate I would only burn through stamina.

First, I stopped time.

I had to find a way out of this endlessly repeating space.

How?

I thought for a long time, but nothing useful came to mind.

The ceiling was blocked, obviously, when I looked up.

There was no other path either.

Was I hallucinating?

Was this some dreamlike space?

Maybe the world was not strange. Maybe I was the strange one. It sounded plausible.

I resumed time and kept running while slapping my cheeks hard.

I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them again, then remembered something called an RC check and even bent my fingers.

Nothing changed.

After another loop, I came back to the window with the broken mark.

I stopped time.

...What do I do?

I am screwed. What am I even supposed to do here?

Cold sweat trickled down my back.

This pressure was completely different from every obstacle I had faced so far.

If I could not get out, I would keep running until I collapsed, then the lava would catch me and burn me to death.

Calm down and think, calm down.

These infinite-loop cliches showed up in movies and comics all the time, right?

How did the protagonists escape in those?

No idea. I could not remember.

I should have spent more time on culture and entertainment...

No way this is telling me to just die here.

There had to be a way out.

It could not seriously be something like, run nonstop for 10 hours and clear it.

Another way out... another way?

Then something suddenly came into view, a window.

Wait.

...That is outside, is it not?

Was I supposed to go out through the window?

The method looked almost stupidly simple, but that was exactly why it felt possible.

I could not be sure it was the answer, but I had nothing else.

I resumed time and hopped onto the windowsill.

Lava surged in, leaving no time to hesitate.

I urgently slipped my body outside, stepped on the sill, and jumped.

I grabbed the wall above the window and pulled myself up with my arms.

Right after that, lava burst out through the window.

A waterfall of blazing red fire poured down into the abyss below.

I caught my breath and looked down at it, then climbed a little higher.

...Did I do it? Did I make it?

I turned my head and looked around again.

As expected, the tower I was clinging to was absurdly tall and massive.

And on the ground below, there was a forest.

The whole place felt eerie.

Like Count Dracula's castle standing alone in the middle of a dark forest.

I looked up again.

For now, I should keep climbing, right?

I started climbing the wall like I was scaling a cliff.

The surface was rough, so there were plenty of handholds.

With my current strength, this was barely any effort.

As I climbed, I could clearly see the top of the tower getting closer.

Thankfully, it seemed I had escaped that infinite-space trap.

"Phew."

What was waiting up there this time?

I decided not to expect anything anymore.

I was finally learning the right mindset for dealing with this difficulty.

I reached the top of the tower.

"Ugh."

Dragging my tired body, I climbed over the parapet wall.

A rooftop... I was not sure if I could call it that, but anyway.

The space at the top of the tower was insanely vast.

Far away at the exact center, a lone structure jutted up, with a door on it.

I walked for a long time and approached the door.

Just like before, it was a huge double door that opened to both sides.

For some reason, weapons were scattered all over the ground nearby. Swords, spears, maces...

So now it was handing me weapons again, out of nowhere.

That could only mean I was about to fight an enemy.

I picked up a sword and moved closer to the door.

I remembered how touching the door wrong last time made the lava go insane, so I only examined it carefully for a moment.

Thud thud thud thud...!

W-what?

I had not touched anything yet.

A vibration suddenly rang out and grew closer.

Something was coming up.

Feeling a bad omen, I quickly backed away from the door.

Kwaang!

The door shattered and something huge burst out.

In the moonlight, its dim silhouette had a bull's head.

A bull-headed, huge, muscular monster.

"...Minotaur?"

I muttered the word that came to mind immediately.

Was the final part another boss fight?

Hissss-

A rough snort sounded.

The Minotaur charged at me without hesitation.

Attack for attack.

I fired Flame Strike immediately too.

The fireballs, now turned into a 1+1 combo after enhancement, shot side by side toward the beast.

Kwaaaang!

The Minotaur was knocked backward by the explosion. It did not fly away.

That alone shocked me.

It took the blast head-on and endured that power?

Moooooo-!

The Minotaur roared in pain as flames clung to its body.

It was not unharmed.

The front of its body had caved in enough that I could see bone.

It hopped in place for a moment, then locked onto me again and charged.

It was only a straight-line rush, so I threw myself sideways and dodged.

It lost its target, staggered, and fell. Oh?

Looks like one hit had already scrambled it badly.

The Minotaur kept charging like a drunk beast.

Like a matador, I dodged back and forth and waited 30 seconds.

Why fight up close and take unnecessary risks?

Once the skill came off cooldown, I would finish cooking it well-done.

I leaped high and avoided its last charge.

In midair, I stopped time and cast Flame Strike.

The fireballs slammed into the Minotaur below.

By the time I landed, the Minotaur's torn body could not move anymore.

That was nothing special.

Was this really the easiest boss fight so far?

Then again, under normal conditions, maybe beating it this easily would have been impossible.

Being able to cast powerful attack magic instantly even in combat was definitely a broken advantage.

Deja vu.

I remembered the Floor 1 boss fight and quickly scanned the area.

I saw nothing else.

But the clear message still had not appeared.

I might get ambushed from somewhere again.

I stopped time, chained Flame Strike casts, refilled my completely drained Willpower, then resumed time.

"..."

I am not falling for it. Come out already.

The message still has not popped up.

Rrrrrumble-

A vibration suddenly came from under my feet.

If the vibration when the Minotaur appeared was a 1, this was a 10.

"What the..."

I panicked, then instinctively ran for the parapet.

Krrrrrrr!

A few seconds later, the floor started collapsing in chunks.

I barely used Leap and jumped.

The floor caved in all at once.

Below was boiling lava.

"Uaaah...!"

Flailing in midair, I started to fall as my strength gave out, then I stopped time.

Teleport range could barely reach the wall.

After finishing concentration, I resumed time and teleported. I latched onto the wall.

Rumble-

I almost died...

With heat rising from below, I scrambled up the wall like a lizard.

Only the outer rim of the battlements had not collapsed and still held shape.

I climbed back onto the parapet.

Like a volcanic crater, lava had filled the entire inside of the tower and swallowed every piece of collapsed floor.

I could see the Minotaur's corpse burning and sinking in there too.

Poor guy. Not well-done, just fully charred meat now.

I caught my breath while thinking that pointless thought.

[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 2.]

A message appeared before my eyes.

They really prepared one last surprise event at the very end.

I felt this back on Floor 1 too, but this almost felt malicious.

Completely fed up, I muttered,

"Brutal, just brutal..."

So what now?

I survived again, did I not? Hahaha.

Relief, fear, thrill, all mixed together, and I burst into loud laughter for no reason.

It was a sneer aimed at this difficulty that had thrown every kind of bullshit at me and still failed to kill me.

Because of this, the world had gained another year of life.

I should thank Billon Must too.

The Leap skill he worked to send me had helped a lot.

[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 2.]

[Floor 2 Hidden Route has been unlocked.]

[Moving to the Reward Room.]

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