WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability
Chapter 31
──────
Nightmare Floor 3 (3)
"...!"
The sudden eye-searing flash forced me to shut both eyes.
Gwoooaaah...
When I opened them again a moment later, the Undead around me were writhing as they melted away.
At the same time, my stealth dropped.
Only then could the Undead finally recognize me, and a few rushed at me.
They were already on the verge of death, so they were not much of a threat. I cracked their heads with the mace.
"Haa."
Soon, all the Undead surrounding me melted away.
The intense light pouring out from the sun emblem faded shortly after.
But no clear success message appeared.
Yeah, I figured.
On both Floor 1 and Floor 2, a boss monster had shown up at the end.
There was a high chance Floor 3 would be the same.
I stood still and thought.
"Do I need to go back up?"
Other than the central cavern and the three branching paths, there was no space left underground.
Did that not mean the only option was going back to the surface?
But the Undead up there should still be fine...
There was no other path, so I walked into the passage leading up.
The entrance pit where I had first dropped in.
"Huh?"
When I got there, bright sunlight was pouring down from above.
What, had the sun risen?
Looks like activating the emblem made the sun rise outside too.
I bit down on the mace handle and climbed the wall.
Then I peeked my head out of the pit.
Under a clear sky and bright sunlight, countless Undead on the surface were writhing as they melted. The whole scene was bizarre.
"Wow..."
I watched for a moment, then snapped myself back to focus.
It felt like everything should be over, but I still had not cleared it... so what was left?
It had to be the boss.
I climbed all the way up and scanned the area like a meerkat.
Nothing stood out.
Then it happened.
Gwoooaaah-
The Undead melting in the sunlight suddenly started rushing toward one side in a mass.
A huge number were already dead, but there had been so many to begin with that even the survivors were still an enormous crowd.
"Ugh...!"
I jumped back into the pit to avoid getting swept up.
The ground shook. A few fell into the pit, so I smashed their heads.
After a while, the vibration died down.
I climbed up again and looked outside.
And then...
"...Ah."
The sight in front of me left me speechless.
Countless Undead had gathered to one side.
They squirmed, compressed, and merged into the shape of a giant sphere.
It was a massive lump of flesh.
Hands jutted out from the flesh in spikes, wriggling like feelers.
It was so huge that more than disgust, what I felt first was sheer pressure.
Aaaaah-
A deep, almost subsonic groan leaked out of it.
It made my eardrums ring in a strange way.
I frowned and covered my ears on instinct.
That thing... was the boss? That?
Fuck, it looked way too strong.
"...!"
The lump suddenly shuddered.
For a split second, it looked like it was starting an engine.
Then it accelerated at terrifying speed and rolled straight toward me.
It was insanely fast. Fast enough to make my skin crawl.
I even used Leap and threw myself sideways in a panic.
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!
"Kh...!"
The trailing shockwave threw off my balance.
I rolled across the ground, landed, stopped time, and focused.
Flame Strike, Fairy Light Bolt.
I launched both in quick succession.
Three fireballs and five light bolts flew toward the lump.
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWANG!
They hit dead on.
But compared to the size of that thing, even Flame Strike's blast looked small, and the light bolts were basically firecrackers.
Gwoooaaah-!
Still, it must have taken damage, because it screamed as if in pain.
'Did that thing swallow a train horn...!'
Again, that nasty low-frequency sound.
I kept frowning, then stared wide-eyed at the lump.
The cratered area from my spells squirmed, then filled back in.
It had regenerated in an instant.
No, hey... that was cheating.
Before I could even dwell on it, it changed again.
This time, holes opened all over its body and spat something out all at once.
Puhwaaaak!
Countless streams of purple liquid rained down through the air.
I dodged in a hurry.
The ground where the poison landed melted.
"Shi...!"
What the hell was this now...?!
I barely got out of that biochemical bombardment and turned back toward the lump.
It was already rolling at me again, without giving me a second to breathe.
I used Leap again and threw myself aside!
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!
Everything in its path was completely devastated.
I rolled on the ground and scrambled back up.
It was... gone? Huh?
'Where did it go?'
A shadow suddenly fell over me, so I looked up.
It was dropping from the sky onto my head like a meteor.
"...!"
You cra... zy...
I was too late to dodge, so I stopped time.
KOOONG!
I teleported the maximum distance away and rolled hard to escape.
"Haa, haa..."
Even with that huge body, it bounced like a basketball and sprang back into the air.
It dropped toward me again.
I barely threw myself aside with Leap as soon as the cooldown came up.
Flame Strike came off cooldown too, so I fired at the lump again.
KWAAAANG!
But again, the lump only let out a short scream, then regenerated fast.
Wait.
This was not right.
I could feel something was very wrong.
There was no way this was an enemy I could defeat.
It did not even seem to take real damage from the sun, so stalling would not solve it either...
"Hah."
It rolled in again immediately.
I dodged with Leap.
The pit.
I had to get back into the pit.
The overwhelming power gap shattered my will to fight, and I switched to pure survival.
But I did not even get that chance.
The rolling lump suddenly slammed on the brakes, then pulled off a sharp turn and rolled right back at me.
Fuck.
Leap and Teleport were both on cooldown, so I had to dodge with just my body.
But it was too huge, and without Leap I could not fully get out of range.
KWAANG!
In that instant, I saw death.
Even though it only grazed me, my body flew like I had been hit by a 100-ton truck.
I was launched into the air, then slammed into the ground.
After rolling for a long time, I hit a boulder and finally stopped.
"Hrrk..."
I looked down at my body through insane pain.
My right arm was twisted, and my right ribs were caved in.
It hurt so badly I stopped time.
The dizzying pain vanished like it had been washed away.
'...I'm screwed.'
That was my first thought.
Why had a monster that absurd appeared as the boss?
I felt like I finally understood that too.
That lump had been born from all the remaining Undead on the field merging together.
Meaning there should not have been that many Undead left on the field in the first place.
At first I kept holding out, and then once it became full night, a ridiculous number of Undead poured out.
That was where it had already gone wrong.
Before that many Undead gathered on the surface, I should have gone underground early and activated the sun emblem.
Then a much smaller number of Undead would have merged, and a boss at a manageable level probably would have appeared instead of that thing.
It was absurd.
In a situation with zero information, how was I supposed to find the underground route and go down right away?
But when had this insane difficulty ever not forced unfair bullshit like that?
I had made the wrong first move.
That was the only reason for the situation I was in now.
The moment I released time, the lump would roll back in.
With this body, I could not dodge.
Teleport was still on cooldown, and even if I dodged one more time, it would be pointless anyway.
...I was as good as dead already.
Facing death for the second time after what happened underground, I felt calmer than before.
'No way.'
My attacks did not work, I could not dodge, so what was I supposed to do?
...Ah.
There was still one thing left.
[Item: Pligas's Blood Necklace]
A necklace mixed with 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)
A necklace that summoned a familiar.
But this was basically self-destruction.
I had not tamed it yet, so it was not on my side.
So what. I was about to die anyway.
This was no time to weigh options.
I braced myself and released time.
"...Ghk!"
Crushing pain slammed through my whole body again.
Blood burst out of my mouth with a violent surge of nausea.
The pain was so bad it felt unfair.
Why the hell was I in this state?
[Would you like to use 'Item: Pligas's Blood Necklace'?]
The message floated in front of me.
Fuck, come out.
I threw my last gamble.
Ssssss.
Dark crimson smoke rose from the necklace around my neck.
Then it gathered right in front of me and started taking form.
It was a giant four-legged beast.
A deep black body, crimson energy rippling around it, and jagged fur like blades.
"Diul... ah..."
Before it fully manifested, I desperately called for Diul.
As if sighing, Diul squeezed out its last bit of strength and cast stealth on me.
KAAOOO-!
A roar so loud it felt like my eardrums would burst. My whole body tingled.
Now fully manifested, Pligas looked around as if searching for the bastard who summoned it.
But I was already in stealth.
Luckily, the trick worked, and it seemed unable to find me even though I was right in front of it.
KUGUGUGUGU-
Then the lump rolled this way.
Pligas turned toward it and roared once more.
When Pligas kicked off the ground, a shockwave exploded.
Shooting out like a shell at terrifying speed, Pligas leaped over the lump just before impact and took a massive bite.
The lump screamed and rolled past me, staggering.
"...!"
Pligas charged it again right away.
I used Teleport and got as far from the two monsters as I could.
'This is actually working...'
This was exactly why I had used it.
At least I had succeeded in making them fight each other.
The fight between Pligas and the lump was a full kaiju war.
Pligas was huge too, but only about one-third the size of the lump.
Still, it never gave the lump a chance to roll, clinging to it and biting like mad, like a tiger hunting an elephant.
The recommended level was 50+, and Pligas really was powerful.
Woooooo!
As the lump screamed in pain from being chewed apart, it sprayed poison again.
Pligas got soaked in it, and its body started melting as it staggered.
Then the lump tried rolling with Pligas hanging onto it.
Pligas got crushed against the ground several times before finally being thrown off.
Krrrroooaaah-!
Even so, Pligas stayed ferocious.
It charged, bit the lump, got thrown off, then charged and bit again, over and over.
After a long brutal clash, it looked like the fight was finally ending.
Both monsters were wrecked, but the one that ran out first was Pligas.
I watched the staggering Pligas scatter like dust.
[Master-servant contract has been nullified due to insufficient kill contribution.]
A message appeared in front of me.
Nullified... so this happened if I did not defeat it myself?
Still, it was not counted as a failure, and the necklace was not destroyed.
More importantly, that did not matter right now.
Woooooo...!
The lump looked like a nearly eaten apple, totally mangled.
In the exposed center inside its body, there was one part where Undead were packed together unusually tight, like a wick.
It looked like its core. At least, that was how it looked to me.
The lump started squirming from the inside again, trying to regenerate.
"Graaah...!"
Shaking, I forced myself up with a scream.
This was the last chance, and the only chance.
After fully recovering my Willpower, I fired Flame Strike and light bolts all at once into the lump's core.
KWAAAAANG!
My upper body was completely wrecked, but my legs were still intact.
I ran toward the lump.
Moving was so painful it felt like I would collapse at any second.
But if I stopped, only death remained, so I clung to consciousness.
As the flames cleared, I saw half the wailing core had been blown away, but it still had shape left.
This was the final finishing blow.
I used Leap toward the lump, then teleported inside its body.
With the tattered core right in front of me, I used Blade Gale.
KWAAAAAA!
The core was shredded to pieces.
Along with chunks of corpse flesh falling down, my body also dropped.
[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 3.]
[Absorbing the power of the floor.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
.
.
.
As the messages kept appearing before my eyes, I smiled and closed my eyes.
That was brutal. Seriously.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
