WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability
Chapter 60
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Sub-Tower (6)
[You have successfully cleared Floor 1.]
[Move to Floor 2 when you are ready.]
Based on Floor 1, if I had to guess what enemies would show up next...
each one probably had some kind of special ability.
"Good."
Let's see it.
I sharpened my senses and moved up.
[You have entered Floor 2.]
Even when the monsters changed on higher floors, the early floors of the other sub-towers were all the same.
Goblin, orc, lizardman, werewolf...
Floor 2 of the fifth sub-tower was the same too.
The enemy on Floor 2 was an orc.
This one wasn't green-skinned, though. It had a gray tone.
It also felt a little bigger than the orcs in the other sub-towers.
It held an axe, and it was wearing armor over its whole body.
Gwoooar-!
The orc roared the moment I entered.
A ripple spread through the air, like someone had touched the surface of water.
"...?!"
What was that?
My body locked up and wouldn't move.
The orc charged straight at me while I was frozen.
I stopped time.
I got it. This orc's ability was paralysis through its roar?
It wasn't a dangerous situation.
My sixth sense told me it was just a trash mob.
Like the Stealth Goblin, it was only a bit stronger than a normal orc.
Even if I took the hit as I was, it wouldn't do any damage.
'I can still concentrate.'
Only my body was frozen. I could still use skills.
After finishing concentration, I released time and cast Flame Strike.
Kwaaaang!
The fireballs that rose into the air flew forward and blew the orc apart.
[You have successfully cleared Floor 2.]
Easy clear.
A little later, the paralysis wore off.
I opened and closed my fist and confirmed there was nothing wrong with my body.
'Is it going to keep being like this?'
As expected, monsters with special abilities would probably keep appearing.
It was only manageable because this was still a low floor and the monsters were weak, but on higher floors it could get truly dangerous.
Let's keep going.
[You have entered Floor 3.]
I stopped time the instant I entered.
The enemy in front of me was a lizardman.
I started concentrating.
I had no idea what weird ability it might use, so from now on I was going full power from the start.
I fired a full-charge Destruction Beam at the lizardman.
Whatever ability it might have had, it was erased before it could do anything.
[You have successfully cleared Floor 3.]
I waited out Destruction Beam's cooldown and entered right away.
[You have entered Floor 4.]
The monster was a werewolf.
Again, I stopped time first, concentrated, then fired Destruction Beam.
[You have successfully cleared Floor 4.]
Up to Floor 4, it was smooth.
From Floor 5 onward, the monsters would probably change.
After waiting out Destruction Beam's cooldown and recovering Willpower, I moved to Floor 5.
[You have entered Floor 5.]
I stopped time.
What I saw was... darkness.
Total pitch-black darkness.
Hm, what was this?
No way my eyes were malfunctioning, right?
Kagak...
When I released time, I heard metallic scraping sounds from several directions.
'Diul.'
I summoned Diul and used darkvision.
Thankfully, my eyes weren't the problem.
I could see three monsters cutting through the darkness and approaching me.
How do I put it... eight-foot ghosts?
Long-limbed creatures like poles, each holding a scythe.
The metallic noise was from those scythes scraping the floor.
Fwoosh!
I cast Flame Strike immediately.
The fireballs split into three directions and blew up the creatures.
[You have successfully cleared Floor 5.]
On Floor 5, was the gimmick the pitch-black environment itself rather than the monsters' abilities?
No problem at all for me, since I had Diul.
[You have entered Floor 6.]
Before I knew it, Floor 6.
What I saw on entry was mirrors.
"...?"
Five mirrors hung on the walls, surrounding me on all sides.
What was this... were the mirrors the monster?
I finished concentrating and released time.
First, I fired Flame Strike at the mirror in front of me. Then...
Thung!
The fireball bounced off the mirror and came right back at me.
What the hell?
Kwaaaang!
The fireball hit the exact spot where I'd just been standing.
I threw myself to the side to dodge it and stared at the mirror in disbelief.
'Attack reflection?'
Then suddenly, the frames of the mirrors turned red.
And something appeared in one mirror.
Kyaak-!
A shape like a demon's face.
When it shrieked, a heat-haze-like shockwave shot out of the mirror.
I dove aside again and dodged.
The shockwave struck the floor and exploded.
Kyaak! Kyaak! Kyaak! Kyaak! Kyaak!
Demon-face shapes appeared in the other mirrors one after another and screamed.
Then more shockwaves flew in the same way.
I moved around and dodged all of them with room to spare. It wasn't hard to evade.
The five mirror frames returned to normal.
Then the demon shapes stopped appearing and the attacks stopped too.
I attacked the mirrors again.
This time, Light Bullet instead of Flame Strike.
With a clear ringing sound, the Light Bullet bounced right back at me again.
I slipped aside and frowned.
"Hmm..."
Attack reflection, huh. A very mirror-like ability.
Wow, good thing.
If I'd fired Destruction Beam right away on entry, I would've been screwed.
I stopped time and calmly thought about a way to clear it.
What if I didn't fire magic and just hit them directly? Would they break?
I released time, rushed one mirror, and smashed it with my fist.
Thung!
The rebound force hit my fist and threw me back.
So it reflected physical attacks too. Not that.
Right then, the mirror frames turned red again.
Kyaak-!
The demon shapes appeared again and started firing shockwaves.
I stopped time.
'Do I have to attack that thing?'
Maybe the right answer was attacking when that thing appeared.
It appeared briefly in the mirror and vanished, but there was enough time to attack.
After concentrating, I fired Light Bullet at the demon shape.
Pung!
This time, the attack wasn't reflected.
The demon shape scattered like black smoke.
That seemed to be the correct answer.
Then a demon shape appeared in another mirror.
Pung pung pung pung!
Like whack-a-mole, I fired Light Bullets at the remaining four mirrors and took out all the demon shapes.
[You have successfully cleared Floor 6.]
Success.
Before moving to Floor 7, I thought for a moment.
'The gimmicks are starting to mix now...'
In other words, the clear methods were getting messier.
Still, up to now, it felt manageable enough.
In the end, the core structure was still the same. Defeat the enemy, and the floor was cleared.
Compared to Nightmare, which did not even give me that much.
All right... let's keep going.
[You have entered Floor 7.]
The enemy on Floor 7 was... just a monster.
Why just a monster? Because it looked like some creature that didn't match any specific word.
It had a build similar to an orc, a lumpy body that reminded me of soboro bread, and it held a mace.
I concentrated with time stopped.
Since the previous floor had something like reflection, I tried Flame Strike first instead of Destruction Beam.
Kwaaaang!
A huge explosion.
After the flames faded, the monster was fine.
Like when Skin Hardening was active, except in a different color, red scales were covering its whole body.
I was a little shocked when I saw that.
...No damage at all?
Grrr-
With a low growl, the monster charged at me.
I stopped time again and concentrated.
It didn't seem to have attack reflection, so this time I used Destruction Beam.
The pitch-black beam covered the monster.
But...
"...!"
This time I couldn't help being genuinely surprised.
The monster didn't get erased even after taking a direct hit from Destruction Beam.
Not just not erased, it was perfectly fine.
The monster got knocked all the way to the wall, stood back up, and charged me again.
I dodged the mace swing and counterattacked.
Bang!
After taking my punch, the monster flew back into the wall.
Again, no damage. It got up just fine.
It felt like those red scales covering its body were absorbing the impact.
'Invincible...'
No way, was this some invincibility ability? One where no attack worked?
Still, the monster's physical stats were much lower than mine. At most around the level 40s.
Kaoooo-!
I summoned Pli too, then the two of us started beating it down.
We hit it, kept hitting it endlessly, it bounced around like a ball and slammed into walls, and Pli even crunched down on it.
It was one-sided and not one-sided at the same time.
No matter how much Pli and I hit it, the monster took zero damage.
The monster wasn't threatening to me either, but I couldn't kill it either.
"Hoo."
I rolled my wrists.
How was I supposed to kill that thing?
Pli was stomping it and pinning it so it couldn't move.
Those red scales were clearly absorbing all damage.
Since it stayed fine no matter how long we beat it, they didn't seem consumable.
I had beaten every part of its body carefully. There weren't any uncovered spots either.
...No, wait.
There was one place I hadn't checked.
I walked over to the monster.
"Keep it pinned tight, Pli."
I stepped on the struggling monster's forehead, grabbed its jaws with both hands, and forced them open.
Looking closely...
"...No scales?"
The inside of its mouth wasn't covered in scales. Bingo.
Crunch!
I shoved my hand into the monster's mouth and stopped time.
After concentrating, I fired Destruction Beam right there.
This time, the monster's head was erased.
[You have successfully cleared Floor 7.]
Success.
I waited out Destruction Beam's cooldown and refilled Willpower.
[You have entered Floor 8.]
"...!"
I stopped time.
What was it this time...
I was underwater the moment I entered.
I released time, held my breath, and looked around.
There were no visible monsters at all.
The location was the same as previous floors, but the entire space was filled with water.
I swam upward first.
The water went all the way to the ceiling, not even a tiny air pocket.
On the other hand, the bottom had sand laid out like a recreated seabed.
I stopped time again.
Hm... this one was pretty unsettling.
Instantly underwater, no monsters.
I didn't have gills, so I was under a time limit.
Breaking the wall and escaping was impossible too.
From the previous fights, I already knew the walls in this clear stage were made of indestructible material.
I needed to save breath, so I stopped time again.
...Let's think.
The clear structure itself probably hadn't changed. If I defeated the enemy,
that meant there was an enemy somewhere here right now too... hiding very well.
I couldn't sense enemy presence or killing intent through Sixth Sense.
That meant it had no intention of attacking me right away. Why?
Because it knew I couldn't hold out anyway if it just waited?
...I didn't know if it would work, but I thought of one method worth trying.
I released time.
I relaxed my body and slowly sank toward the bottom.
When I reached the sand floor, I stayed there without moving at all.
"..."
A moment later.
I narrowed my eyes at the faint killing intent I felt.
The sand in front of me slowly lifted, and its color changed.
It was a giant lobster.
'Wow...'
I didn't notice something that huge?
That camouflage was insane. Even an octopus couldn't match that.
The lobster approached me, killing intent rising, while I played dead.
I casually got up and stretched a hand toward it.
You should've been more careful, you dumb crustacean.
I fired a full-charge Destruction Beam.
Being underwater didn't reduce Destruction Beam's destructive power one bit.
A clean hole got blown straight through the lobster.
[You have successfully cleared Floor 8.]
I was a little scared I might drown, but anyway, Floor 8 was a success too.
[Would you like to move to Floor 9?]
Now there were only two floors left.
I moved to Floor 9 immediately.
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