WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability
Chapter 96
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Nightmare Floor 7 (3)
Statue.
The moment I stepped into Stage 5, the first thing that caught my eye was a massive statue.
It felt like some giant warrior, and it was holding a bow.
The statue stood near the door to the next stage...
I turned my gaze.
Near the door I had just come through, there was something else.
"A bow...?"
A bow, and six arrows.
They were lying on the floor by themselves.
So this time it was a bow, not a sword.
There weren't any arrow slits in the cavern walls.
All I could see was the statue and the bow.
I walked closer and reached for the bow.
Sixth Sense gave no warning.
The instant I picked it up...
Pop.
A red line suddenly appeared across the middle of the cavern floor.
It looked like it split the cavern exactly in half.
"...?"
What was this?
A red line? Was it telling me not to cross?
The statue changed too.
Red dots appeared on several parts of its body.
Arms, legs, heart, head. Six red dots total.
[0/6]
And above the statue's head, the number '0/6' appeared.
I looked back and forth between the bow in my hand and the statue.
The statue had six red dots.
I had six arrows.
It wasn't hard to piece together what was going on from the clues I had...
"I have to hit those?"
No matter how you looked at it, this meant I had to shoot them with the bow.
Those red dots on the statue.
The red line on the floor probably meant I had to shoot without crossing it.
So in this stage, I was the one shooting arrows instead of dodging them.
Great, I understood it perfectly.
But there was one problem.
I couldn't shoot for shit.
I had run into a serious obstacle.
From the line to the statue was about 50 meters.
The red dots were only about the size of a human palm.
There was no way I could hit that.
Back on Floor 1, I'd practiced with a bow on and off for fun, so I wasn't completely hopeless.
But I definitely wasn't good enough to hit a target dozens of meters away.
"No, why archery...?"
I frowned and thought about what to do.
What if I used a magic skill instead of arrows and hit them...
Wouldn't work, right?
It was obvious the stage rule was to hit the red dots with the bow.
I didn't know what would happen if I broke the rule, but at the very least, it didn't look like I'd clear the stage that way.
...Let's try first.
I picked up the bow and arrows and moved up to the red line.
Standing right in front of it, I nocked one arrow.
I slowly drew the string and aimed at the red dot on the statue's chest.
Thwip!
The arrow shot out hard.
It missed without even hitting the statue.
The arrow that landed nearby disappeared.
[0/6]
The number above the statue's head stayed the same.
It would probably only go up if I landed a hit.
Since the arrow disappeared after I fired it, I probably had six chances total.
What would happen if I missed all of them?
Swallowing my anxiety, I tried again.
Thinking about the trajectory of that last miss, I tried to adjust by feel.
Thwip!
I aimed for the chest dot again.
I missed the statue entirely this time too.
"..."
After two shots, I realized something.
This... was never going to work, was it?
It was way harder than I expected. It didn't feel like I could land even one hit.
Resigned, I picked up the third arrow.
'Demon King.'
I called the Demon King.
'Do you know how to shoot a bow? Help me out a little.'
I thought maybe I could at least get some advice on angle.
He was the Demon King, so maybe he was good at this.
He didn't answer.
I pressed him harder.
'If I fail, you die with me. Are you really not going to help?'
Only then did he reply.
- I don't know how to shoot either.
'...'
- Do better. How can you not hit even that?
Seriously useless...
I sighed and drew the bowstring.
The third arrow missed the statue too.
Miss, miss, miss again.
The fifth arrow at least hit near the statue's foot and bounced off.
In the end, I couldn't hit a single red dot.
One arrow left.
"Fuck."
What happened if this one missed too?
Did I just fail outright?
Maybe the door wouldn't open and I'd be trapped here forever...
Since I was already screwed anyway, I decided to try something else.
Instead of an arrow, I fired a light bolt at one of the red dots.
Boom!
The number above the statue's head didn't change.
As expected, it didn't work.
I looked down at the red line at my feet.
Carefully, I stepped over it. Sixth Sense didn't react.
Nothing happened even when I crossed.
I walked up to the statue.
There was a red dot on its left leg.
I stood right in front of it, aimed the bow, and fired my last arrow.
Ting!
The arrow hit the red dot and bounced off.
I checked whether the number changed...
[0/6]
No change, of course.
I'd crossed the red line before shooting, so it probably didn't count.
'I'm fucked...'
I failed all six shots.
I tensed up, wondering what would happen now.
The red dots on the statue all disappeared.
At the same time, red dots appeared on both of my arms.
"...?"
What the hell was this?
Kugugugugu-
Then suddenly, with a heavy rumble, the statue started moving.
I flinched and stepped back.
The statue raised its bow, drew the string, and aimed at me.
Red energy gathered and took the shape of an arrow.
Kwaaang!
I threw myself to the side and dodged.
A giant arrow of light slammed into the ground.
Now the statue was attacking?
The statue drew on me again.
I counterattacked first.
I stopped time, concentrated, then fired a full-charge Destruction Beam.
With a huge hole blasted through its torso, the statue tilted and collapsed.
Was fighting the statue the penalty for missing the arrows?
I stared at the fallen statue, hoping that was it... huh?
Kugugugu-
I narrowed my eyes.
The statue got back up and started regenerating.
Fully restored, it drew the string again.
Before it could fire, I launched Flame Strike first.
Kwaaaaang!
Fireballs shattered the statue to pieces again...
But the wreckage floated into the air.
It pulled itself back together and restored completely.
After that, I destroyed it several more times.
The statue itself wasn't that strong, so knocking it down was easy.
But every time, it quickly restored and aimed its bow at me again.
I tried interrupting its regeneration. I even spammed magic until it was practically dust.
It still regenerated.
I stopped time.
It didn't have a core like the Floor 3 boss.
It didn't have a weak point like the Frozen Hydra either.
No matter how many times I dropped it, it just regenerated forever.
'How am I supposed to kill this?'
Then something suddenly caught my eye.
The red dots on my arms.
...Come to think of it, what were these?
Why had the red dots from the statue suddenly appeared on my body?
Wait.
I released time.
I rolled up my pants and checked my legs.
There were red dots there too.
I lifted my shirt and checked my chest. Same thing.
Both arms, both legs, heart, head.
The same spots marked on the statue were now marked on me.
I couldn't see it, but there was probably one on my head too.
An arrow flew in.
This time I didn't destroy the statue. I let it shoot.
I kept dodging the incoming arrows of light.
Watching closely, this thing kept targeting only my right arm.
More precisely, it was probably targeting the red dot on my right arm.
'Wait...'
A bad thought flashed through my head.
Then this... no way...
Since I failed to hit the statue's red dots... was the penalty that I had to get hit instead, one for each miss?
It made sense.
Then what do I do?
Do I just let it hit me? That thing?
'That's crazy...'
But I had no other option.
At this rate it'd loop forever. I had to find an exit somehow.
...Screw it, let's do it.
I stopped dodging and spread my right arm wide.
"Come."
The statue drew the string.
I activated Skin Hardening.
Then I used Aura Reinforcement too, protecting my right arm as much as possible.
Puhng!
It didn't matter.
The arrow of light punched straight through my right arm and blew it apart.
"Gaaah...!"
Blazing pain.
A scream burst out of me.
Still, I'd already experienced losing an arm once back in Floor 4 Hidden, so I pulled myself together immediately.
[0/5]
"...!"
I looked at the statue and saw the number had changed.
It dropped from 6 to 5.
Then this really was...
I stopped time. The pain stopped.
I caught my breath and sorted out my thoughts.
My right arm had taken the hit.
So now I had to take five more arrows...
'The head is the problem.'
Arms, legs, and heart were fine.
With Frozen Hydra Blood, anything below the head wouldn't kill me no matter how badly I got hurt.
But the head was different.
After taking one hit, it was obvious those arrows of light had too much power to defend against.
If my head got hit, it would explode. Instant death.
...Was there any way around that?
As I thought, one idea suddenly came to me.
'What if I only get clipped and then dodge?'
I didn't know how the hit check worked, but if it counted as a hit the moment the arrow touched the red dot...
Then it might be possible to take only a glancing hit and escape.
I just had to stop time at the right moment and Teleport, right?
It was worth trying.
I released time.
Drip, drip.
Blood poured from my severed right arm.
Maybe thanks to Frozen Hydra Blood's regen effect, the bleeding quickly started slowing.
I bit down hard and endured the pain while staring at the statue.
This time I spread my left arm wide.
I focused every nerve and waited for the arrow to fly.
Focus, focus...
It fired.
'Now!'
I stopped time.
The arrow froze just barely piercing the red dot on my left arm.
...First step worked.
I concentrated, and the moment I released time, I used Teleport.
[0/4]
I checked the number above the statue. It had dropped.
'It worked...!'
When I confirmed the trick worked, I cheered inwardly.
My left arm didn't explode like my right one. It was just a shallow gouge in the flesh.
Fuck, I should've done this from the start.
I lost my right arm for nothing.
Anyway, I could do the remaining four the same way.
I dodged arrows until Teleport came off cooldown, then moved to the next body part.
Right leg, left leg, heart. I cleared them all in order.
[0/1]
Only the head remained.
If I messed this up even a little, I was dead, so I had to be careful.
'Stopping early is fine.'
If I stopped time too early and missed the timing, I could just try again.
Stopping too late meant instant death. Don't get greedy.
'Now.'
The final arrow flew.
I stopped time.
The arrow had stopped right in front of my forehead.
...Did it touch? I think it did.
I Teleported the moment I released time.
Drip.
A sharp sting, then blood ran down my face.
Yeah, that definitely hit.
I wiped my forehead and shook off the blood.
It had cut deeper than I expected, so there was a lot of blood.
Still, as long as I wasn't dead, that was enough.
[0/0]
The number above the statue's head reached 0.
Kugugu...
The statue started collapsing on its own.
And this time, it didn't regenerate.
"Huu..."
I let out a breath and dropped to the floor.
This was rough. Seriously rough.
I checked my severed right arm.
'...Is it regenerating?'
Everything below the joint had been blown off.
The cut surface was bubbling, and it looked like new tissue was sprouting little by little. Pretty gross.
One effect of Frozen Hydra Blood was increased regeneration, but I didn't know if it could regrow severed body parts too.
If I used Rapid Regeneration, it'd recover immediately...
But I decided to wait and see. Good chance to confirm it.
Even if it took some time, if it could regenerate on its own, there was no need to burn Rapid Regeneration with its 24-hour cooldown.
It hurt like hell, but pain was something I could endure. Saving the skill was more important.
Kugugugugu-
I didn't move on and kept waiting.
After more time passed, a new arm really did grow out little by little.
Only after around 30 minutes did my right arm fully regenerate.
I moved it around. It was perfectly fine, like it had never been cut off.
"Good."
I learned something new about how strong Frozen Hydra Blood's regeneration effect was.
Maybe because my body spent so much energy regenerating, I got hungry.
I pulled food out of Subspace.
I ate a chocolate bar and drank some water. I also washed the blood off my body.
The view beyond the door was red.
A sharp contrast to the blue torches that had been burning in the caverns until now.
'A boss?'
That was exactly the vibe.
It felt like the final one at last... but why was I this uneasy, fuck.
Was it because I'd made it this far relatively smoothly?
Something felt off, like there was still one more hidden punch waiting.
With that nasty feeling lingering in the back of my head,
I stepped through the door.
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