WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 99

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Agreement

"Phew..."

Hearing the news that Floor 7 had been cleared, Billon sat in his office chair and let out a sigh.

Mr. Kim had done it again.

At this point, it was hard to imagine him failing a clear.

Billon felt relieved, but also ashamed.

He had said he would do his best from his own position too...

The experiment they had run on Mars not long ago.

The Tower's power still reached Mars without issue, and the faint hope he had clung to collapsed.

No matter how far they got from Earth, was it impossible to escape the Tower's grip?

Did humanity's future really have to be placed entirely on one man, Mr. Kim?

He wanted to help carry even a little of that heavy burden on the man's shoulders, but Billon once again felt his own limits deep in his bones.

People called him a genius, but when it came to helping the superhuman called Person123, he was still only an ordinary man.

"Are you all right, sir?"

Ellen, his secretary standing beside him, asked as Billon scrubbed his face with both hands.

Billon let out another deep sigh and said,

"Still, we have to keep going, right?"

"Yes?"

"I mean figuring out how to screw that damned Tower over. Escaping Earth, whatever it takes."

He had no intention of giving up, of course.

Failure and despair did not consume him. They always became the force that pushed him to try again.

For humanity, and for Mr. Kim, who was fighting alone in isolation.

He had no choice but to keep struggling without stopping.

* * *

[Chicken Sandwich: You worked hard, Mr. Kim. I am truly glad you returned safely from Floor 7 too. Humanity can live another year again. You really are an incredible person...]

I checked Billon's message and sent a reply.

On days I cleared Nightmare, whispers flooded in from all kinds of people.

Of course, Billon was the only one I replied to.

"Grrr..."

I closed the communication window, stretched, and yawned.

So I had already made it to Floor 8.

When I thought back to Floor 1, when the world had been racing toward destruction with only hours left...

It almost felt like a miracle that I had dragged myself this far.

Anyway, we lived another year.

I had rested for a day, so it was time to start grinding again.

I entered Floor 6 to test the new skill I had just obtained.

If possible, I wanted to test its power on a boss.

[Only the last core remains!]

[The boss is summoned!]

After wiping out all the cores, I summoned the boss, the Colossal Ogre.

Grrrraaaah-!

[Skill: Hellfire Eruption (Epic)]

Erupts a powerful hellfire in pillar form within 20 meters. Casting requires 30 to 150 seconds of mental concentration. The longer the concentration time, the greater the skill's power and range.

Classification: Magic-Type

Willpower Cost: 700

Cooldown: 2 minutes

I targeted the boss and cast a full-charge Hellfire Eruption.

A red circle like a magic formation appeared beneath its feet, then...

Fwaaaaash!

A blindingly crimson flame shot up like lava.

"Whoa...!"

The heat blasted all the way to where I was standing.

When the flames disappeared, so did the boss.

Not even ash remained. It had simply been erased.

Its destructive power was insane, even if the boss was not that high level.

'Damn.'

It was a chargeable Epic-grade skill, and with the bracelet plus the Flame Refinement effect, the damage was boosted by 80%...

Maybe this level of power was only natural.

After using it, the strike range looked pretty wide too. Around a 2-meter radius?

I was 100% satisfied with the new skill's specs.

"Demon King-nim."

I called him.

- What.

"I think we need to have a serious talk."

I could feel him reacting like I had suddenly started spouting nonsense.

The power he showed when he took over my body on Floor 7 had gone far beyond what I imagined.

I needed to understand it in more detail.

"Demon King-nim, when you take over my body, you can use powers besides my skills."

- So?

"You spread freezing energy and fired ice blades. Those were all magic too, right? Then how are you using magic without any cool... without any cooldowns?"

That was what shocked me most.

He answered like I was pathetic.

- Are you under the delusion that your skills are magic?

"...Aren't they?"

- Those are just shells that mimic the form of magic. They are not your innate power, and the Tower imposed restrictions on them, which is why they have things like cooldowns.

I asked again.

"So your magic isn't a skill given by the Tower. It's real magic?"

- Correct.

"And that's why you can use it freely without cooldowns?"

- Do you need a waiting time every time you move your arms and legs?

So in other words...

The magic the Demon King used was not a power from the Tower. It was his own original power.

That was why he could use it freely without cooldown limits.

- If mana were infinite, yes.

"You mean Willpower, right?"

He had used my Willpower to cast magic.

And for me, Willpower was practically infinite.

The biggest weaknesses of magic-type skills were mental concentration and huge Willpower cost.

I had solved those two weaknesses with my time-stop cheat and kept using magic-type skills.

Only one thing remained untouchable: cooldowns.

But the Demon King could use magic without cooldowns.

My one and only weakness was being perfectly covered.

Of course, considering how my body had frozen, it wasn't something I could use infinitely...

- You rotten bastard, who said I would keep helping you?

The Demon King sounded dumbfounded.

He said that, but he had still helped because Floor 7 was dangerous.

I asked him,

"By the way, why do you keep wanting to take my body?"

Was he planning world conquest with my body or something?

- What if I am?

"Then obviously no."

- I gave up, you damn bastard. You could hold the entire world in your hands. Why do you keep refusing?

He sounded sick of me.

To be fair, when he first entered me, he was always yelling for me to kill everyone and rule the world.

He had gotten quieter these days.

I said,

"Then how about this? If you keep a few conditions, I can hand over my body for a few hours a day."

- ...Conditions? What?

He sounded surprised at the words hand over my body.

If I got into danger again later, he would have no choice but to help anyway.

Still, I had cleared Floor 7 safely thanks to him.

He had helped me a lot, and honestly, it felt wrong to just take that and pretend nothing happened...

And if I wanted his help going forward too, it was better to keep things amicable.

"First, from now on, actively cooperate when I clear Nightmare. Unless you want us both dead, you have no choice but to help anyway."

That was not all.

"And I'll only hand over my body inside the Tower, not outside. Most importantly, you absolutely cannot hurt other people, and if I ask for my body back, you have to return it immediately."

If he followed that much, lending him my body was possible.

Even if he had other thoughts, I could just stop time, so I had at least a minimum safety net.

"If you keep those conditions, I'll hand over my body for two hours a day."

He answered, dissatisfied.

- Are you joking? Then there's nothing I can do.

"Without these conditions, who knows what kind of mess you'd make. I was offering because you looked frustrated, so I thought I'd at least let you move around sometimes. If you hate it, forget it."

- What are you talking about? I never said I hated it.

He said it in a hurry.

Okay, then deal.

"I look forward to working with you."

- Hand it over now.

"Sure. Wait a second."

Since I was handing it over anyway, there was something I wanted to test.

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 6.]

After explaining to the Demon King, I re-entered Floor 6.

I lowered the third and final core's HP to 1%, then handed him my body.

"Tch, what a hassle..."

Kwang!

He grumbled and leaped into the air.

Maybe it was flight magic. He could move freely through the air.

He rose high enough to see the whole arena at a glance.

What I was trying to do now was simple.

I wanted to test how much of the Demon King's power my body could endure.

Like I saw on Floor 7, his power was not something I could use forever.

If used continuously, my body froze and collapsed. He said my body couldn't withstand the power.

If so, I needed exact numbers for how long it could last.

Only then could I use his power strategically in future Nightmare clears.

'Please go at maximum output.'

He started casting as I asked.

Kwaaaaaaaah-!

A deep blue chill surged around us, like on Floor 7.

[Willpower: 0/5,000]

My Willpower bottomed out instantly.

I stopped time right away and recovered it.

He kept using power, and I recovered whenever Willpower dropped.

After repeating that several times, frost slowly formed on my body and I began to freeze.

Then after more than ten cycles.

Crack!

Cracks started appearing across my body.

So the load started around this point.

A little over one minute had passed.

Back then I had spammed magic for 150 seconds and my body got split in half...

Even with a generous estimate, lasting more than 3 minutes seemed impossible.

Would the time I could endure increase as my level rose?

"Ugh..."

The chill was vicious beyond belief.

I could barely move my body.

I immediately tried Rapid Regeneration.

Fwaaaa-

But my frozen body did not thaw at all. It stayed as it was.

The Demon King sneered and said,

- My chill cannot be healed with such a pathetic regeneration ability.

Hmm, so it didn't work.

Then once I reached this state, I couldn't recover by myself.

Not unless I recovered through floor-clear restoration.

Kwaaang!

I fired Flame Strike and burned down the core's remaining 1% HP.

I had set this up in advance exactly for this, so I could clear right away.

[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 6.]

After finishing the repeat clear, I moved to the Reward Room.

Only then did my body recover.

As I moved my thawed body, I thought,

'I have to use it carefully.'

If I spammed it near the end of a clear, like on Floor 7, that was one thing.

If I started spamming the Demon King's power from the middle and my body began freezing, I'd be screwed.

Still, even taking that into account...

Unlimited magic spam for a few minutes was basically a broken cheat ability.

It felt like I had gained a reliable trump card.

If I had the Demon King's help too, I was excited to see how much easier future Nightmare clears would get.

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