Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 56

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 56: Sub-Tower (2)

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The scenery changed.

I looked around.

According to my GPS device, I was in the grasslands east of Ulaanbaatar.

Ah... I was off by more than I thought.

It looked like I had to go about 100 kilometers farther west to enter the sub-tower's range.

I stopped time and recharged the warp device.

Then I warped again toward Ulaanbaatar.

[Would you like to enter the second sub-tower?]

Only then did a message pop up, probably because I had finally entered the sub-tower's range.

Alright, let's go.

"Enter."

I went in immediately, without wasting time.

The scenery changed again.

[You have entered the second sub-tower Floor 1.]

Out of habit, I stopped time and checked my surroundings first.

A fairly wide, moderately dark space.

On the ground in front of me were weapons, swords, spears, maces, and more.

And on the opposite side was... one goblin.

It held a sword and shield.

'...?'

I couldn't see any other monsters.

'Is it a trap?'

I released time for now.

Kiiieee-

The goblin noticed me, let out a nasty cry, and came at me.

It had been a while since I'd entered Floor 1... how long had it been since I'd seen a goblin?

I couldn't let my guard down, so I fired a light bolt from a distance.

It could've been a trap that exploded on contact, like the self-destruct undead on Floor 3.

Boom!

The light bolt streaked through the air and blew the goblin's head apart.

The headless goblin dropped dead.

I tilted my head.

[You have successfully cleared Floor 1.]

[Move to Floor 2 when you are ready.]

"...Hmm."

Was I overthinking this?

Then again, this wasn't a Nightmare difficulty clear.

I knew that, but I kept getting suspicious out of habit.

Well, it was still only Floor 1.

[Would you like to move to Floor 2?]

The message appeared as soon as I thought about moving up.

I continued right away.

The scenery was exactly the same as before.

A wide, moderately dark space. Weapons on the ground.

The only difference was that the enemy in front of me had changed from a goblin to something else.

'...An orc?'

I'd never seen one before, but it looked like an orc at a glance.

Same green skin as a goblin, but bigger. About as big as the knight goblin from Floor 1.

It carried a mace.

Snort-

The orc blew out a rough breath and strode toward me.

I fired another light bolt.

Three light bolts burst the orc's head open.

[You have successfully cleared Floor 2.]

[Move to Floor 3 when you are ready.]

Yeah... I got it now.

Looks like I really had overthought it.

Gimmicks? Traps? Didn't seem like there were any.

You just beat the enemy in front of you and clear the floor.

Of course, the enemies would get stronger as the floors went up, but up to this point...

"Easy."

After doing nothing but Nightmare clears, a normal clear like this felt a little strange.

I moved straight to Floor 3.

[You have entered Floor 3.]

The Floor 3 enemy was a lizardman.

A human-sized bipedal lizard holding a spear.

Boooom!

[You have entered Floor 4.]

The Floor 4 enemy was a werewolf.

It was bulkier than the lizardman.

Grrr-!

The werewolf charged the instant I entered, and I smashed its head in with a punch.

[You have entered Floor 5.]

By Floor 5, a familiar monster showed up.

Minotaur. The boss from our Nightmare Floor 2.

Moooo-!

It charged with a booming roar, and I greeted it with my fist.

Baaang!

The minotaur, its head shattered, flew into the wall and slammed into it.

'If Floor 5 is around minotaur level...'

Say a minotaur was roughly around level 20.

Then the final Floor 10 boss would be around level 40 or 50, maybe?

With that rough guess, I moved to Floor 6.

[You have entered Floor 6.]

The Floor 6 monster was... what was that?

Troll? Ogre?

Anyway, it had green skin, but it was far larger than goblins or orcs.

Grruuuh-

I started with a light bolt.

I fired it at its head, and when it exploded on impact, the troll let out a cry of pain.

Its head didn't burst.

Instead, the wounded area bubbled and started regenerating.

Ah, so it was a troll rather than an ogre.

I followed up with Flame Barrage.

Kwooooom!

Five fireballs flew out and blew the troll to pieces.

Its body turned to ash beyond recognition and couldn't regenerate anymore.

[You have entered Floor 7.]

The Floor 7 enemy wasn't just one monster.

Flapflapflapflap!

Dozens... hundreds of giant bats flew toward me with glowing red eyes.

With those protruding fangs, they looked like vampire bats.

I spread Searing Zone.

Fwoooosh!

The bats that entered the zone burned up like moths diving into a campfire.

It took only moments for all of them to burn away.

"Nice."

I let out a small exclamation, getting my first real rush from Searing Zone.

When dealing with enemies that were only strong in numbers, there was nothing better than this skill.

[You have entered Floor 8.]

'Huh?'

The field changed.

The space was the same, but the water rose to chest height.

The monster that appeared was... a mermaid?

No, maybe a snake.

Either way, some creepy human-faced fish-snake thing swam below the surface, slicing through the water.

Saaaa-

It suddenly raised its head and opened its mouth at me.

A flash of light gathered around its mouth.

It looked like it was about to use a skill, so I fired first.

Sorry you were busy charging, but mine was instant-cast.

Kwooooom!

Flame Barrage tore the human-faced fish-snake apart.

[You have entered Floor 9.]

Floor 9 had a slightly different setup.

I stood in the middle, and three black-robed figures surrounded me from three directions.

Each one held something like a crystal orb.

'Human?'

Didn't look like it. Their visible skin was too pale, and their nails were long like witches'.

Monster or human, either way they were enemies.

Whoooosh-

As they muttered something, their crystal orbs started glowing.

That was an obvious attack signal, so again, I gave them no opening and cast Flame Barrage.

I split the five fireballs into one, one, and three, and sent one set at each target.

Kwooooom!

The one hit by three exploded.

But the two hit by one each were fine.

Something like a barrier had spread around them.

'They tanked it?'

I had no intention of giving them time to do anything.

The moment my attack got blocked, I went all-out.

I fired Destruction Beam at one, dumped every remaining magic skill as instant-casts at the other, and summoned Pli.

'Break it.'

The one hit by Destruction Beam was erased, and the other's barrier cracked.

Pli charged in, smashed it to pieces, and chewed the figure apart.

[You have successfully cleared Floor 9.]

Now only the final Floor 10 remained.

After fully restoring my Willpower and waiting out my cooldowns,

I entered the final floor.

[You have entered Floor 10.]

I looked at the enemy standing in front of me.

A black knight, about my size, wearing pitch-black armor.

For a moment, I thought of the black knight I met in Floor 2 Hidden...

But of course, it wasn't anywhere near that level.

My Sixth Sense told me.

It wasn't stronger than me, but it was still pretty strong.

I fired Flame Barrage right away.

Five fireballs flew at the black knight.

Kwooooom!

The black knight dodged every fireball with nimble movement, then charged at me.

Pli moved first and body-checked the charging black knight away.

Kaaaooo-!

I watched the black knight start fighting Pli.

About as strong as a Stage 5 Fallen?

It felt like mid-level-50s strength.

They fought evenly for a short while, then the black knight stabbed its sword into Pli's neck.

That was when I cut in and ambushed it.

I punched the black knight and launched it away, then reached out toward it as it flew.

A full-charge Destruction Beam hit it directly.

The black knight vanished without a trace.

[You have successfully cleared Floor 10.]

The message appeared.

I laughed, feeling oddly empty.

The Floor 10 boss itself had been fairly strong, but... I guess this was the level of a sub-tower in the end.

A fair, straightforward victory over an enemy, with no schemes or dirty tricks running rampant.

Ah, I wish every climb could be like this.

[The second sub-tower has been cleared to the final floor.]

[You have succeeded in the first clear of the second sub-tower.]

[You have acquired ownership of the second sub-tower.]

More messages appeared right after.

Ownership of the sub-tower? What was that?

[If you acquire sub-tower ownership, you can activate/deactivate that sub-tower's mana vein.]

I tilted my head.

So... the person who cleared the sub-tower could turn its mana vein on and off however they wanted?

'Instead of this, give me a skill stone.'

Still, I did get a first-clear reward.

Not very useful, though.

What a joke.

So China had been hiding even this and trying to squeeze Mongolia for more.

It was basically the same as giving the clearer ownership of that mana vein, and even that wasn't enough for them.

"Okay."

You guys do nothing.

I'll clear the rest of the sub-towers myself.

* * *

"...That is as far as our government can go. Further compromise is no longer possible."

At the interpreter's words, Mongolian Prime Minister Oorgil couldn't keep his expression under control.

The Chinese ambassador's attitude was blatant arrogance, idly picking at their nails while the interpreter spoke, as if this was merely a notice they were expected to accept.

A sub-tower had appeared in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

In a situation where Chinese help was absolutely necessary, China had brought completely absurd demands.

Sale of shares in major Mongolian mines including Tavan Tolgoi, guaranteed mining monopolies, infrastructure operating rights, export priority, post-clear shares in the mana vein, and even the sensitive Inner Mongolia issue...

They were seriously pushing terms that would never have made it onto the table under normal circumstances.

"Please make your decision now, Prime Minister."

"You think we can accept demands this ridiculous?"

A faint sneer rose at the edge of the Chinese ambassador's mouth.

"It seems you will have to, no?"

"..."

"Our Climber will risk their life to clear the sub-tower, Your Excellency. The world's best Climber at that. I hope you recognize that China is taking that level of risk as well.

And if the sub-tower is cleared and a mana vein forms, would that not be a major benefit for Mongolia too? Rather than seeing this as unreasonable, I suggest you calculate carefully."

The Chinese ambassador said,

"There is not much time left. Surely you cannot allow Ulaanbaatar to become a land of death."

Mongolia was the side in a hurry. With less than a week left on the sub-tower's timer, they were desperately short on time, and the negotiation was bound to be lopsided.

If they refused and China truly pulled out, Ulaanbaatar would become a land of death. That was not a metaphor.

People would no longer be able to set foot there, and every piece of infrastructure concentrated in the capital, servers, communications, energy, administrative networks, all of it would be gone.

And what about the countless evacuees still fleeing the capital... anyone who failed to get out of range would die from the Tower's Curse and become Fallen.

It would paralyze the whole country. Mongolia's national power would be set back by at least a century.

China was facing global criticism and outrage too, but in the end every other country was only a bystander. Had anyone stepped up to resolve this for them?

Oorgil suppressed his anger and judged rationally. A prime minister had to.

"...Give me one more day. I will decide by then..."

Right then, the prime minister's secretary burst into the meeting room in a panic.

Then the secretary leaned in and whispered in Oorgil's ear.

"What..."

The Chinese ambassador frowned at the rude interruption.

As he listened, Oorgil shouted in shock.

"...Is that true?!"

"Yes, the message just appeared."

A Chinese aide rushed in right after and whispered to the ambassador.

"What...?!"

Both the prime minister and ambassador stared at each other in stunned silence.