WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability
Chapter 35
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Floor 3 Hidden (3)
One of the three holy knights was a corrupt one.
I still couldn't be sure.
But if that was true, who was it?
'It doesn't seem like Dellent.'
He was the one who activated the relic.
If Dellent were the traitor, would he really have had a reason to activate the relic right there?
Of course, they would suspect me, not the holy knights, so he could have activated it to get rid of me.
But that was still shaky.
They all knew I was pretty strong, so would they really pick a fight anyway?
And I was doing most of the work avoiding traps inside the temple. If they wanted to use me, they'd use me, not kill me.
Most importantly, I attacked Dellent and failed the clear.
If there was a traitor in the group, then finding or dealing with that bastard was probably tied to the clear condition somehow.
So if Dellent was the traitor, would attacking the traitor make me fail the clear? Probably not.
That made the other two the prime suspects: Slaban and Philip.
And I couldn't just assume it was one of them. It could be both.
'What should I do?'
Up to this point, this was the rough picture.
Did I need to actively do something to expose the traitor?
I ran through all kinds of methods in my head.
In the end, I decided to keep watching for now.
Nothing was certain yet.
I still had one more chance after this attempt anyway, so moving too early was probably a bad idea.
'If there is a traitor, what's the objective?'
From what Dellent had said, there was a high chance it was connected to that heretical cult, Nokteun, and the archdemon.
Maybe, by some trick or another, that traitor bastard was trying to summon the archdemon again in this temple, and my role was to stop it.
That was my guess so far.
For now, I would stay alert, especially around those two.
If either of them tried anything, I needed to be ready to shut it down immediately.
"I'll take point. I have a good eye for traps."
"Oh, are you saying that because you're a mage, you can detect magical traps too?"
"Something like that."
I roughly remembered the path we'd taken earlier to the room with the relic.
"The left side looks dangerous. Let's go right."
So this time we took a different route.
I did consider rushing to the room with the circlet relic first and secretly pocketing it...
But earlier they'd recognized it as a relic instantly from its holy aura, so if I hid it, I'd probably get caught. So for now, I took a different route.
After passing several traps, we arrived in another room.
A gargoyle statue stood in the center, and this time it was holding something in its hand.
"Sir Dellent! Look over there!"
"This holy aura... a relic!"
The three of them were deeply moved as they collected it.
I casually asked, "Is this a relic too?"
"This is the Heavenly Music Box. It must be one of the relics our Order lost long ago!"
"Oh... what does it do?"
"Look, if you infuse it with holy power like this..."
♩~ ♪~
A melody began to flow from the music box.
"It plays a beautiful melody that calms body and mind. Truly beautiful!"
"Ohhh, it feels as if I can hear a revelation from the Dawn God!"
Anyway, good thing it wasn't some kind of detection effect.
After collecting the relic, we moved again.
After that, we passed more traps and found several more relics.
"Ohhh, this is the Dawnlight Ring!"
"What ability does it have?"
"If you infuse it with holy power, it can deploy a sturdy barrier."
A bracelet that could deploy a barrier, a ring that boosted healing power, and earrings that increased mental strength.
Were they going to give one of these relics as a reward when the clear ended?
I just hoped it wasn't the music box.
"There's a staircase here."
After wandering around more, we found stairs.
It was a spiral staircase, and when I looked up, it stretched up endlessly.
"High. It may lead to the summit."
"Then should we go up?"
Come to think of it, I had seen something unusual at the top of the pyramid earlier too.
After climbing for a long time, it really did lead to the summit.
Rumble-
The sky looked even darker than before, packed with storm clouds.
After being stuck in cramped interior spaces, stepping outside gave me a slight sense of release.
The structure itself was so huge that even the top of the pyramid was as wide as a sports field.
And the first thing that caught my eye was the structure I'd been curious about from below.
"That is... a cannon?"
Slaban muttered as he looked up at the giant structure.
A tower stood in the middle of the summit like a lighthouse.
At the top, one massive barrel protruded. Just like he said, a cannon barrel.
While the three of them wandered around inspecting the area with interest only in relics, I climbed the ladder to the top of the tower.
"Oh."
The cannon looked exactly like something out of "magi-engineering."
A huge gem, like a giant magic stone, was embedded in the middle of the barrel.
It even had a control lever to adjust the barrel's direction...
"...?"
The moment I grabbed the lever, information appeared.
[Special Item: Ultra-Annihilation Compressed Mana Cannon]
A decisive weapon that is essentially the culmination of ancient Rune Mage Empire magi-engineering. Its power is tremendous, so use with caution.
Willpower Cost: 600
Cooldown: None
"...An item panel popped up?"
Could I use this?
Ultra-Annihilation Compressed Mana Cannon. Even the name was over the top.
This was the first time a usable item had appeared like this during a clear.
But if this existed... didn't that mean there was something I had to use it on?
"...Look over here!"
At that moment, it got noisy below.
I came back down from the tower and approached the three of them.
They were all staring at one object with grim expressions.
It was a golden grail, half corroded black.
"Is that the Grail of Dawn by any chance?"
I asked because this was the relic they had said was especially important.
Dellent nodded and said in a voice thick with restrained anger.
"...It seems Katerun tried to summon the archdemon using this Grail of Dawn itself as the medium. The Grail of Dawn has been corrupted."
The atmosphere was so heavy that I found myself staring at the grail with the same seriousness.
I didn't know all the details, but even to me, the aura coming from it felt ominous.
Slaban said, "It seems the grail's power and the archdemon's power are barely in balance. If that internal balance collapses even a little... we do not know what will happen."
Philip spoke urgently too.
"R-right. We must hurry and bring the grail back to the Order! If it's the Saintess, she will surely be able to purify it."
Dellent and Slaban nodded in agreement.
"Let's head back down first."
More than finding additional relics, the grail clearly took priority for the three of them.
Since the building was pyramid-shaped, we didn't have to struggle back through the path we'd come from and just climbed down the outer wall.
After reaching the ground, they started talking again.
"So then what should we do about the investigation? There may be more relics..."
"What issue is more urgent than the Grail of Dawn right now?"
"I am worried that Nokteun heretics might discover this place."
Then Philip spoke.
"Wouldn't one person be enough to return? Sir Dellent, I will take the relics and return first."
"Can you do that?"
"Yes. You two continue the investigation here. The grail is important, but aren't the other possible relics important too? And as you said, other people will discover this place soon."
Dellent nodded.
"Then I leave it to you, Sir Philip."
Philip received the relics, including the grail, and nodded with a determined expression.
"I will risk my life to deliver the grail to the Saintess as quickly as possible. I pray both of you return safely as well. Sir Kim Seo-hyeon, thank you as well."
I nodded before I even realized it.
The three of us, including me, escorted Philip outside the temple.
Of course, we still had to break through traps and deal with various hardships.
But something felt deeply off.
I stared at Philip's back as he walked ahead.
Traitor. Yeah, traitor.
Who held the Grail of Dawn, which looked like the key object in this clear, right now?
Philip did.
And now he was trying to leave alone.
'What if Philip is the traitor?'
Then this clear would fail right here.
The traitor would be running off with the most important item.
So what should I do?
If an outsider like me accused Philip of being a traitor, those two obviously wouldn't listen.
The fact that they handed over all the relics and sent him alone already proved how deep their trust was.
So should I just let him go, see if the clear fails, and use that as confirmation?
If it failed, that would mean Philip was the traitor, and I could use the final attempt accordingly.
But... did I really need to do that?
I was almost sure already. That bastard was the traitor.
I made my decision and called out to Philip.
"Sir Philip, could you show me the grail again for a moment?"
"...Pardon?"
"Something has been bothering me. There may be some kind of magic on the grail."
Dellent looked startled.
"Magic? What do you mean?"
"I'm not certain, so I just want to check one more time."
As a half-baked mage who had filtered out every trap in the temple, I had enough credibility.
Dellent and Slaban looked at Philip.
For a split second, I saw the skin around Philip's eyes twist, almost too subtle to notice.
Philip instantly hid that reaction and handed me the grail.
"Here it is."
I pretended to inspect the grail.
'If I'm wrong, I'm really sorry.'
Bang!
I swung my mace without warning and smashed Philip in the head.
"...!"
Dellent and Slaban recoiled in shock and attacked me.
...Yeah, I was right.
I dodged and pulled back while shouting, "Look! Over there!"
Dellent and Slaban hesitated, turned toward Philip, and froze in horror.
Where Philip's head had burst, disgusting tentacle-like things were writhing.
"...Heretic! Nokteun!"
"Get back!"
What the hell is that? That's disgusting.
It still looked alive, so I fired Flame Strike.
KWA-A-A-ANG!
As the smoke cleared, a massive form emerged.
Philip was gone, and in his place a grotesque flesh mass was swelling and bulging.
"H...ow did you... know?"
A voice came from Philip, like vocal cords strangled by flesh.
Dellent shouted in fury.
"Philip! You were Nokteun's infiltrator!"
"But it is already too late. The ritual has... already begun..."
Philip laughed ominously, then screamed.
"Great Baluk! I offer everything to youuu!"
Red energy burst from Philip's flesh mass.
Even from a distance, that red energy started getting sucked into the grail in my hand.
"...!"
My Sixth Sense rang the alarm.
I immediately threw the grail away.
Philip's flesh mass shriveled like a deflating balloon.
Soon, after absorbing all the red energy, the grail began to take on a shape.
"B-Baluk... Baluk is being resurrected...!"
Slaban said, his voice shaking uncontrollably.
I blasted it again with Flame Strike and light bolts as soon as cooldowns were up.
KWA-A-A-A-ANG!
The grail that was gradually forming a body took no damage at all.
Ah... is this bad?
Do I need to retry? No, should I summon Pligas again...
Then something flashed through my head.
'...The cannon!'
That terrifyingly named Ultra-Annihilation Compressed Mana Cannon!
I immediately turned and sprinted toward the pyramid, shouting to the two of them.
"Come this way!"
I ran up the pyramid's outer wall toward the summit, even using Leap.
I reached the top, climbed the tower, and grabbed the cannon's control lever.
[Special Item: Ultra-Annihilation Compressed Mana Cannon]
A decisive weapon that is essentially the culmination of ancient Rune Mage Empire magi-engineering. Its power is tremendous, so use with caution.
Willpower Cost: 600
Cooldown: None
Special item. Why did this thing even exist?
Wasn't it set up so I could kill that bastard?
The Willpower cost was a massive 600.
The description itself said the power was tremendous, so it was worth expecting.
The cannon was huge, but with my raw strength I could rotate the barrel without much trouble.
When I looked down toward the grail, it had almost fully formed a demonic body.
I aimed the cannon at it.
"Move aside! I'm firing this!"
At my shout, the two men, who had climbed about halfway up the pyramid, scrambled to the side.
Zzzzzzt!
The moment I used the item, a tearing roar split the air, sparks burst from the barrel, and a blinding flash began condensing.
All right, gooo...!
The condensed flash, only about the size of a bowling ball, launched toward the reviving Baluk.
It was only bowling-ball sized, but the power was...
...KWA-A-A-A-A-A-ANG!!!
A blue mushroom cloud rose with an explosion that shook heaven and earth.
The shockwave surged all the way to where I stood, and for a moment I almost got thrown off balance.
I regained my footing and stared blankly at the scene.
What is this... a nuke?
The power was way beyond what I expected.
Of course it was nothing compared to a real nuke, but it looked like at least 0.1 nuclear.
Rrrrrrrumble-
It took a long time for the mushroom cloud to clear.
I saw Dellent and Slaban, covered in dust, finally climbing up to the summit.
"S-Sir Kim Seo-hyeon...! What in the world did you do?!"
At those two staring at me in shock, I just gave a thumbs-up.
"This thing hits like crazy."
At this level, even an archdemon shouldn't walk away intact, right?
'Did that finish it?'
Right, this was a resurrection spell.
But no death flag got triggered.
When the cloud cleared, there was no trace of an actual demon form.
Maybe I dealt with it easily because it hadn't fully resurrected yet.
Shiver!
A chill ran down my spine as Sixth Sense warned me.
I looked around.
Far away, on every horizon.
A black wave was rushing in from the horizons.
'Undead?'
Tens of thousands... hundreds of thousands? Maybe millions.
An undead legion so vast that counting was meaningless.
Just like the base clear, this again.
I climbed down from the tower.
The two of them had also spotted the undead legion and were staring blankly at the horizon.
"The undead are flooding in."
"...It seems Baluk revived briefly, and they are being drawn by that power."
Is that what this was?
The undead were closing in from all directions, encircling us, so there was no real escape route.
'And no clear message popped up...'
It seemed I'd taken the wrong route.
Should I have killed Baluk faster?
Or handled Philip earlier so he couldn't do anything at all.
Anyway, now I had all the key information, so I could do it right on the next try.
But then a thought suddenly came up.
'Do I really have to retry?'
I looked up at the Ultra-Annihilation Compressed Mana Cannon and spoke to the two men.
"Sir Dellent, Sir Slaban. Do you like miracles?"
"...What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"I'll show you one. A miracle."
I climbed back up the tower and grabbed the cannon's control lever again.
[Special Item: Ultra-Annihilation Compressed Mana Cannon]
A decisive weapon that is essentially the culmination of ancient Rune Mage Empire magi-engineering. Its power is tremendous, so use with caution.
Willpower Cost: 600
Cooldown: None
One unusual thing about this item was that it had no cooldown.
Of course, the Willpower cost was huge, so normally the Tower probably intended this as a one-time-use item just for killing Baluk.
But not for me.
Because I could infinitely refill Willpower.
This obviously wasn't the normal clear route.
...What would happen if I wiped out all those undead?
I wanted to know too.
So I was about to test it myself.
* * *
Dellent and Slaban had prepared themselves for death before the incoming army of death. But then...
"I'll show you one. A miracle."
Kim Seo-hyeon suddenly said something incomprehensible and climbed back up the tower.
Was he trying to use the cannon again?
They had seen the terrifying power with their own eyes, but there was no way anyone could keep using a monstrous weapon like that. He couldn't possibly have enough magic left.
And yet...
...KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!!
The cannon fired again, landing toward the west and causing another massive explosion in the far distance.
Kim Seo-hyeon adjusted the direction slightly and fired toward the northwest this time.
The cannon rotated 360 degrees, firing nonstop every second.
Each shot came with thunder, and each shot brought catastrophe into the undead ranks.
The number that had seemed large enough to cover the land was visibly dropping in huge chunks.
"T-this is...!"
Neither Dellent nor Slaban could believe what was unfolding before their eyes.
* * *
This wasn't a battle against undead. It was a battle against mental endurance.
1% per minute. Since my Willpower was 1,000, it took 60 minutes to refill 600 Willpower.
In my subjective time, I fired one cannon shot every hour.
In real time, though, I was ruthlessly shelling in a full circle from 1 o'clock to 12 o'clock every few seconds.
After maybe thirty shots, I got so bored I considered quitting.
But I kept going because I didn't want to waste everything I'd done so far.
More than anything, I wanted to break out of the prescribed route at least once. Maybe I just wanted to mess with the Tower.
Not that I even knew whether the Tower was an intelligent being with emotions.
Had I fired close to a hundred shots by then?
Finally, the undead all got erased.
"Hah..."
I released time and looked over the ruins I'd created.
What had been a flat plain was now completely scorched, like the surface of the moon.
All right, in the end I did it.
No more undead were coming now.
So what would the clear do now?
"..."
No message appeared.
I didn't know why, but it felt like the Tower had gone silent.
Why? You never imagined something like this either?
Then a message appeared.
[Astonishing clear.]
"...Huh?"
A message I'd never seen before.
[You have succeeded in clearing the hidden route on Nightmare difficulty Floor 3.]
[You completely absorb the power of the floor.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[The reward tier has been significantly increased.]
[Moving to the Reward Room.]
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