WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 48

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Nightmare Floor 4 (4)

What the hell kind of hybrid was that?

There was no way I didn’t know what those five colors meant.

The boss had all the abilities of every golem that had appeared so far.

- As for ‘Titan,’ the finest masterpiece of our workshop, it possesses 99% physical damage immunity, 99% magic damage immunity, complete immunity to damage below a certain threshold, one resurrection, and lastly, it cannot be impededdd... Staff are once again advised to proceed with cautionnn...

What was this, a home shopping ad?

After that absurdly kind announcement, I opened the shop window.

[Special Draw! (5,000P)]

Begins the Special Draw. This is a random draw. (All probabilities are equal.)

- Skill Effect 300% Scroll

- Ability Nullification Parts

- Great Incineration Switch

[Ability Nullification Parts]

Nullifies all abilities of one golem unit. Can be used by making the parts touch the golem.

The moment I saw the boss, this was the first thing that came to mind.

Ability Nullification. This thing had clearly been made for that bastard.

Points Held: 21,500P

With my current points, I could try the draw four times.

If all probabilities were equal, the chance of landing Ability Nullification was one-third.

I stopped time for a moment and did the math.

'The chance of missing all four is...'

16 out of 81.

Not even 20%.

Which meant my chance of pulling nullification was over 80%.

High, yeah, it was high...

But if I failed to pull Ability Nullification, I had absolutely no way to kill that boss.

99% physical immunity and 99% magic immunity basically meant 99% immunity to all damage.

On top of that, it ignored all damage below a certain threshold and even revived once.

It was just invincible. There was no way to kill it.

'80%...'

When my life was on the line, that number didn’t feel high anymore.

Still, this was ridiculous.

So the final step came down purely to luck?

'...Surely it’ll show up at least once.'

If it didn’t, then this Tower was straight-up rigged.

[‘Special Draw! (5,000P)’ has been purchased.]

I released time and spun the draw immediately.

Ddiriririr-

A roulette wheel started spinning in front of me.

The effect was pointlessly long.

The boss kept moving, but instead of giving me the result right away, the roulette just kept spinning.

I tried stopping time once. Of course, the roulette froze too.

I cursed the Tower in my head and released time again.

Every tiny detail was malicious...

[‘Skill Effect 300% Scroll’ won!]

“...!”

That was the result after wasting a full ten seconds.

A scroll dropped out of thin air.

It’s fine. I still had three tries left.

[‘Special Draw! (5,000P)’ has been purchased.]

Ddiriririr-

[‘Skill Effect 300% Scroll’ won!]

Another scroll dropped out of thin air.

...It’s fine.

I still had two tries left, two whole tries.

[‘Special Draw! (5,000P)’ has been purchased.]

Ddiriririr-

[‘Great Incineration Switch’ won!]

“You fu...”

I almost let loose a full string of curses.

A red button switch dropped out of thin air.

I stopped time for a moment.

No, seriously, what the hell... stop screwing around.

My head started spinning, and I could barely calm myself down.

“Huuuu...”

Now I only had one chance left.

Everything rested on a one-third probability. My life, and the fate of the world.

'Let's go.'

I steadied myself and released time.

[‘Special Draw! (5,000P)’ has been purchased.]

Ddiriririr-

The roulette spun.

'Please.'

Please, no, please.

You’re saying it won’t hit once in four tries?

If this misses too, that makes no sense.

I stared at the spinning roulette with desperate eyes.

And then...

[‘Skill Effect 300% Scroll’ won!]

“...”

I stopped time on the spot.

My thoughts froze too.

No matter how long I stared at the result window, nothing changed.

...No.

No, seriously.

Could this really happen?

It was 80%. A full 80%.

How could it miss...?

I couldn’t accept this reality at all.

'This is rigged.'

It was obviously rigged.

Yeah? Tower, you rigged this, you son of a bitch.

I felt like I was going insane. Bitter rage kept surging up.

Soon, despair and emptiness took over my mind.

...I failed.

The clear had failed. The outcome had already been decided.

There was no way to kill that boss without Ability Nullification.

I failed to get past a mere 20% chance, and it ended like this.

Because luck failed me by that much, I died and the world ended.

Not because of a penalty, but in some absurd way like this.

“Fuck...”

In frozen time, I just stood there in a daze.

If it had been a 20% chance to fail, maybe I could accept it, but this was... ha...

After standing there blankly for a long time, I thought:

'...Another way?'

None.

How was I supposed to kill that invincible boss?

Even so, I couldn’t give up, and I forced myself to keep thinking.

Then the items I had just drawn came to mind.

[Skill Effect 300% Scroll]

Select one skill of any type and increase its effect by 300%. Can be used by tearing the scroll. (Stacking possible)

[Great Incineration Switch]

Press the button to execute great incineration. Powerful flames will eliminate all golems. Of course, you too!

Three Skill Effect 300% Scrolls.

And one Great Incineration Switch.

All of them looked useless.

What was I supposed to do with tripled skill effects? The boss was a 99%-immunity monster.

...Huh? Wait.

What if I used all three 300% effects on Destruction Beam?

If stacking worked, that became 27 times damage.

And I’d already boosted magic damage by 50%. No, if I spent my remaining points for 20% more, that made 70%. Total: 45.9 times.

Even if the boss reduced 99% of damage... it would still take 45.9% of the original damage!

If it was Destruction Beam, maybe that much could kill the boss.

I got that far, then fell into despair again.

Fuck, so what if I killed it...?

That bastard revived once.

By the time Destruction Beam came off cooldown again, the boss would already be long past the exit. And since it could not be impeded, I couldn’t even slow it down.

Or maybe, wait...?

[‘Slow (50P)’ has been purchased.]

[‘Stop (100P)’ has been purchased.]

I released time and bought Slow and Stop once each with my remaining points.

I hadn’t personally confirmed whether Slow and Stop failed against something that could not be impeded, so I clung to a tiny bit of hope...

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The boss kept moving perfectly fine, without even a slight hesitation. Fuck.

Kwoooom!

I fired Flame Strike like I was venting rage.

Pli clung to the boss and bit down on its head over and over, but it didn’t even leave a scratch.

I stopped time again.

[Great Incineration Switch]

Press the button to execute great incineration. Powerful flames will eliminate all golems. Of course, you too!

The other item from the draw.

...Would this kill the boss too?

It said it eliminated all golems, so maybe it would treat the boss as killable regardless of abilities.

But even if it worked, so what? I died too.

“...”

Then suddenly.

A ridiculous thought flashed through my mind.

[Skill: Rapid Regeneration (Rare+)]

Consumes all currently remaining Willpower, and instantly amplifies your body’s regenerative ability beyond its limits in proportion to the amount consumed.

Classification: Physical-Type

Willpower Cost: All currently remaining Willpower

Cooldown: 24 hours

Rapid Regeneration.

The skill I got as a Floor 3 reward.

I didn’t know exactly what happened during great incineration...

But either way, it meant both me and the golems got burned to nothing by flames, right?

If I dumped all three 300% scrolls into Rapid Regeneration, that made its effect 27 times.

I had never used Rapid Regeneration even once. I didn’t know how strong it really was.

Still, it was Rare+, and a recovery skill that consumed all my Willpower.

Its effect had to be strong.

And I was about to blow that up by 27 times.

At that level... maybe I could survive great incineration without instantly dying...?

If that boss died to great incineration, and if killing the boss counted as clearing.

And if I could stay alive even a little longer than the boss, without dying first...

After thinking that far, I let out a dry laugh in my head.

'Crazy bastard.'

Was this right? Was this even possible?

But whether it was possible or not wasn’t the point.

I had no other method. This was the only idea I had.

Even if it was a thread-thin chance... I had no choice but to try it.

It was so insane that I spent a long time searching for any other option.

The conclusion was still none.

...Yeah, let’s do it.

Nothing would be solved by staying in stopped time forever.

I released time.

I immediately picked up the scrolls on the floor and tore them.

[‘Skill Effect 300%’ scroll has been used on ‘Rapid Regeneration (Rare+)’.]

[‘Skill Effect 300%’ scroll has been used on ‘Rapid Regeneration (Rare+)’.]

[‘Skill Effect 300%’ scroll has been used on ‘Rapid Regeneration (Rare+)’.]

The boss had reached the middle of Course 2.

I looked at it and rolled the switch in my hand.

“...”

They said burning pain was the worst pain there was.

It was probably gonna hurt like hell, right...?

I placed my slightly trembling thumb on the button.

I was about to press it, then exhaled and called out Diul.

“Diul, do you have anything...? Some ability for dealing with that boss?”

I felt Diul looking at me with a bit of pity.

Yeah... fine, if there’s nothing, forget it.

I sent Diul back, then put my finger on the button again.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

I stared straight at the boss walking toward me.

A crazed laugh slipped out of me.

Screw it.

If I failed to endure and died, at least it’d be one hell of a death.

“...Let’s both die and see.”

I pressed the button.

Wiiiiiiing.

A mechanical sound rang out, and the ceiling opened.

A dense mass of complex machinery emerged, filling the entire ceiling.

One thing was obvious: countless fireball-like nozzles were aiming downward.

As if warning me I was one step from death, my sixth sense convulsed and screamed alarms.

The instant I felt that, I used my 27x-boosted Rapid Regeneration.

I immediately stopped time, refilled my Willpower to full, and activated Skin Hardening too.

‘Pli!’

On top of that, I had Pli wrap around my body, and I used the ice dagger I’d been saving on myself.

At the same time, my vision turned blood-red.

Kwoooooooom!

Pli wrapped around me, and the ice both vaporized in an instant.

There was nothing but fire.

“Aaaa...!”

Pain pain pain pain pain pain.

I flailed in indescribable, terrifying pain, then stopped time again.

The moment I escaped the pain, I could barely think straight.

...I couldn’t believe it.

That this level of pain even existed in the world.

Compared to that, broken bones and arrows in the gut were nothing.

I stayed in shock for a long time, then forced myself to focus again.

One shot... let’s do it in one shot.

Stopping time only meant getting beaten slowly.

I released time again.

“...!”

Pain sizzled through my brain.

Inside that dizzying consciousness, where I kept turning to ash and regrowing flesh in an instant, I saw the boss golem too.

The already-melted boss was reviving once.

But I was regenerating, while that was all it got.

It couldn’t endure even for a moment, and soon melted again.

Had the pain fried my brain?

I laughed when I saw the message appear in front of me.

I...

won...

[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 4.]

[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 4.]

[Floor 4 Hidden Route has been unlocked.]

[Moving to the Reward Room.]

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