WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 20

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Floor 2 Hidden (4)

"Oh..."

I looked over the accessories.

I actually got all three.

If I had picked just one, maybe only the one I chose would have appeared in the Reward Room too.

So hidden rewards might depend on how you handle things. Good thing I shut my eyes and went for it.

I picked up the necklace.

It was a silver chain with a small ruby-like gem in the center.

Only then did the item info appear.

[Item: Pligas's Blood Necklace]

This necklace contains the blood of Pligas, a predator of the Demon Realm. If you summon Pligas into this world and defeat it, you can form a master-servant contract. If you fail, the necklace will be destroyed. (Level 50 or higher recommended)

[Would you like to use 'Item: Pligas's Blood Necklace'?]

It was similar to what Haylin had explained.

So I had to summon it, fight it, and beat it to make it my Familiar.

"Recommended level 50...?"

Since the prompt appeared, summoning it itself seemed possible.

But if it recommended level 50, that obviously meant the thing was around that strong.

Right now, after clearing the hidden route and gaining 5 more levels, I was level 30.

If I fought it now, I would probably die.

What kind of reward is this, giving me something I cannot even dream of using right now?

I put that one aside for now.

[Item: Bandiul's Bracelet]

A bracelet inhabited by Bandiul, a dark spirit. As your affinity with Bandiul rises, you can draw out more abilities.

This one was probably usable right away.

No special prompt appeared, so I put it on.

"...!"

A black aura slowly seeped out from the bracelet.

It gathered in midair in front of me and formed a tiny sphere.

So this was the dark spirit?

I carefully reached a hand toward it.

My fingers passed right through like smoke. I could not touch it at all.

"...Hi?"

I greeted it first, just in case.

If affinity mattered, did that not mean I should get close to it?

The round dark spirit zipped around my head like it was inspecting me, then floated back in front of me.

What was this? This feeling was strange.

It felt like something connected, and I could faintly sense the spirit's mood.

It felt like it was saying, you're not bad.

"That is a relief. Then you will let me use your ability too, right?"

Haylin said it had the power to see through darkness.

She probably meant darkvision.

The Reward Room was not dark, so I could not test that ability right away.

"Do you have any other abilities? Can you use anything at all, just once?"

I said that while poking at the untouchable spirit.

I could feel it grumbling like I was annoying it, so I stopped.

It was kind of cute too.

"Okay, sorry. Let us get along from now on."

The dark spirit, Bandiul, slid back into the bracelet.

If darkvision was its only ability, it did not seem that useful yet...

Maybe I should think of it as a growth-type one.

If higher affinity could draw out more abilities, it was worth looking forward to.

Last, the ring.

[Item: Ring of House Dapriya]

A ring engraved with the crest of House Dapriya. It is proof that you have earned their favor.

That was all it said.

Did this really have no effect at all?

I turned the ring over in my hand.

"Why did something like this even show up?"

Still, it was listed as an item, so maybe it had a purpose somewhere.

Haylin did say that if I came to House Dapriya, she would grant me one favor.

Not like I would ever meet her again anyway... hmm.

After checking all the items, I looked at the remaining pure reward, the Skill Stone.

[Skill Stone: Sixth Sense (Rare+)]

Use to learn 'Skill: Sixth Sense (Rare+)'.

[Skill: Sixth Sense (Rare+)]

Your sixth sense develops, allowing you to detect danger more easily.

Classification: Physical-Type (Passive)

Willpower Cost: None

Cooldown: None

Another passive skill.

The grade was Rare+, not just Rare, fitting for this reward, but... man, still a little disappointing.

"Why do I never get magic-type skills?"

On this whole Floor 2 run, not one magic-type skill dropped.

I knew magic-type skills were rarer than physical-type skills, but still.

Maybe I should just accept that getting all magic-type skills on Floor 1 was pure luck.

I read the Sixth Sense description again.

You can detect danger better. It was vague.

I would probably have to be in an actual dangerous situation to confirm exactly how it worked.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: Floor 3]

[Level: 30]

[Willpower: 600]

[Skills: Teleport (Rare+), Sixth Sense (Rare+), Flame Strike (Rare) (+1), Exaltation (Rare), Leap (Common)]

Haylin's three-piece accessory set, and the Sixth Sense skill.

I did get a lot, but... somehow it still felt a little empty.

One I could not use yet, one was growth-type, one was basically a token, and even the skill was passive, so it naturally felt that way for now.

Right, I almost forgot one more thing.

There was also that useless Top-Grade Mana Stone.

I tossed the new Mana Stone onto the giant pile stacked in one corner of the Reward Room.

Whatever, think positive. Long term, this might actually be better.

If the necklace said level 50 recommended, that meant I could eventually tame something that strong as a Familiar.

If I cleared Floor 3 Hidden too, I would be level 45, so maybe I could challenge it then.

"Floor 3..."

Come to think of it, I was already treating entering Floor 3 like it was a given.

Probably because Floor 2 made one thing crystal clear.

Hoping someone else would clear this insane difficulty for me was pointless.

...Yeah, I should stop expecting that now.

It was about time I made up my mind for real.

* * *

I rested for a day, then went right back in to repeatedly clear Floor 2.

Now that I had cleared the hidden route too, I had to organize Floor 2 info and post it.

What I needed to confirm was the exact positions and count of phantom platforms.

This time, instead of only the fourth one, I would test them one by one and check if there were others.

I moved to the third platform with Leap and Teleport.

Then, facing the fourth phantom platform, I rubbed my chin.

The mechanism was clearly this, right? When the phantom disappeared, the hidden platform appeared.

If so, maybe I did not need to step on it directly. Maybe just hitting it from a distance would work too.

I fired Flame Strike at the phantom platform.

The fireball passed straight through it and flew onward.

The phantom platform vanished, and the hidden one beside it appeared.

"It works."

With this method, you did not need a skill that let you move through midair.

Though you still needed some kind of ranged attack.

I jumped toward the platform.

"Urk."

I tried to make it without Teleport, but failed.

I used Teleport and got onto the platform.

Even trying it again, this was not easy.

Maybe training here by jumping around and sharpening my body sense would be worth it. I should think about that.

Five, six, seven... all normal platforms, no trap.

Then the eighth platform, the last one before the large floor.

"...?"

Right before the eighth platform, I felt something odd.

How to put it? A slight discomfort.

And the source of that discomfort was clearly the eighth platform.

I realized why soon after.

Wait, no way...

Was this the effect of Sixth Sense?

It said it let me detect danger better.

I already knew the fourth platform was dangerous, but I did not know anything about the eighth yet.

But if I felt this now, then that one was probably a phantom platform too.

I fired Flame Strike.

Just like before, it vanished like an illusion, and the hidden platform appeared.

So this was how the skill activated.

This was pretty good, actually.

Of course, Sixth Sense did not tell me exactly what kind of danger it was.

I only guessed it was a phantom platform because I already had that possibility in mind. With no prior info, I would have only felt a vague sense that the eighth platform was dangerous.

Still, even that was extremely useful.

The biggest burden in clearing the Tower was lack of information.

Total unknowns, where you had no idea what kind of danger was lurking.

Latecomers had it easier, but the first clearer always had to carry that risk.

With a skill like this, that risk could shrink a lot.

Nice. Yeah, very nice.

Satisfied after confirming my new skill's effect, I crossed to the large floor.

In the first platform zone, I confirmed again that the fourth and eighth were phantoms, then checked the remaining traps too.

The glowing platform was still in the same place, even on my third visit, and so was the rising floor trap.

After confirming everything, I entered several more times to see if trap positions ever changed. They did not.

If there were person-to-person differences, there was nothing I could do about that. I would just add a warning about it.

But when I had talked with Rhino about Floor 1, even tiny details matched across people, so Floor 2 was probably the same.

"Time to post."

It took quite a while, but I finally finished organizing the information.

Back in my room, I lay on my bed and started writing in the Communication Window.

* * *

Several days passed after Nightmare difficulty Floor 2 was cleared.

Everyone's attention was fixed on one thing: who had done it.

The Nightmare Communication Window had stayed silent, and there was no news through the media either. Only the U.S. made an official statement first, saying it was not them.

[Baekseok: This must hurt for the U.S. If they had challenged a little later, they would not have lost someone for nothing]

[Pumpkin: Why is there still no post in the Nightmare Communication Window]

[Hashbrown: Who do you think cleared it? If the U.S. says no, I think China]

[Rurip: Whoever it is, I just hope they keep climbing smoothly from now on]

[Freemin: Am I the only one who thinks Person123 cleared it again?]

[Hanwol: I think that side is unlikely this time. Consensus says he is an unregistered Climber]

From Floor 2 onward, being able to receive outside support was huge.

Most people thought some other clearer with state-level backing had cleared Floor 2, not Person123, the first Nightmare clearer known as an unregistered Climber. It was a reasonable thought.

Sure, being the first clearer meant first-clear rewards, but even with that, could it compare to a nation dumping Skill Stones, enhancement stones, and items on one challenger?

[Mateus: It has to be China, right? They are probably investing in their Nightmare clearer as hard as the U.S.]

[Fossil: Yeah, China is likely]

[Rusawaktok: I heard something, it was Russia]

Speculation kept flooding in, then one post popped into the Nightmare Communication Window.

[Person123: Here is the Floor 2 clear information.]

Just like a year ago, it began with a concise sentence.

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