WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 35

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Honestly, I wasn't in great shape.

Staying in peak condition inside the Tower would be stranger.

Still, I was practically at my worst.

After fighting the Guard Doll unit that had ambushed us earlier, I tried to rest as much as possible while making the Heavenly Elixir in the Potion Warehouse...

But I kept using Transcendence skills for Appraisal, so it hadn't really been rest.

Even if the backlash was nearly nonexistent, they were still Transcendence skills.

And now I had to fight a boss-class monster.

Should I have forgotten about the Goblin Merchants' quest and proceeded more carefully?

It was too late to complain.

I used Gale Boots to dodge the Mirror Knight's sword strike.

Whoosh!

It moved unfairly fast...

But it still couldn't keep up with Gale Boots.

I threw myself backward, raised my gun, and fired.

[Complete Senses skill transcended. Four Seasons skill activated.]

Bang!

Thanks to the Transcendence skill, my aim was precise.

The Mirror Knight blocked my shot with its shield held out in front.

It was basically using a mirror with a handle attached as a shield.

The next moment, I saw a future where I got hit by my own bullet.

Thanks to Four Seasons, my intuition had developed into precognition.

'What? It doesn't have a gun. Ah, it reflected the bullet!'

The instant I hit the ground, I quickly rolled to the side.

The bullet passed through the spot where I had been.

The knight's mirror shield could reflect bullets.

'This is insane.'

A reflection monster right off the bat.

This difficulty was literally murderous.

If I'd fired a rifle on full auto, there was no way I could've dodged them all.

The inconvenience of a lever-action rifle had saved my life.

As I rolled to my feet, Yuki fired at its back.

"Get back!"

Ratatatat!

The MP7 rounds aimed at its back struck with sharp cracking sounds.

The 4.6mm bullets were far stronger than their size suggested, thanks to the Shatter Enchantment.

Kiiing...

The knight's fine silver armor shattered in an instant.

The inside was empty, yet it was still moving just fine.

That explained why it had been so strangely fast.

'It couldn't respond to shots from behind. It can only use its reflection ability through the shield.'

"Watch out for the shield!"

"Okay!"

Bang, bang!

Yuki emptied her magazine in an instant, then pulled out her sawed-off shotgun and hit it with two rounds.

She had boldly advanced all the way into effective range.

Screeeech...!

A powerful current spread through the armor, paralyzing it for a moment.

It was the Paralysis-Round Enchantment on the shotgun.

So it worked on nonliving things too.

Click, bang!

After recovering my stance, I reloaded and blew its head off.

It collapsed on the spot.

"Huff... That was dangerous."

"Are you okay, Benefactor?"

Maybe it died right away because we'd used enchanted firearms.

Wasn't that a little weak for an eighth-floor boss?

Of course, if you rushed in without knowing about its reflection ability, it would be perfect for getting yourself killed.

Just as I was about to collect the loot, though, its corpse began scattering like smoke.

"Huh?"

No loot at all after killing a boss?

That wasn't a good sign.

Don't tell me... I hadn't killed it completely?

The moment I thought that, the knight appeared once more in one of the mirrors around the room.

"What?"

Click, bang!

I reloaded quickly and shot the mirror, but it emerged first.

Yuki, who had been changing magazines, recoiled in shock.

"Did it resurrect?"

An immortal gimmick boss with a reflection ability.

Either one alone would be enough to make people cry, but it had both.

Did it have no sense of fairness at all?

I probably had to kill it once, then break the mirror before it came back out.

My body felt heavy after I released my Transcendence skill, but I raised my gun again.

The Mirror Knight targeted Yuki instead of me.

"Ah!"

Yuki, who had just changed the magazine in her submachine gun, created a clone and sent it into the corner.

She was about to fire, but she flinched when she saw the mirror shield, apparently remembering my warning.

The Mirror Knight charged at Yuki with its shield in front.

If she fired, it would reflect the shots. If she didn't, it would overwhelm her with its size.

Right before it collided with her, Yuki switched places with her clone.

Whoosh!

That Clone Technique really was broken.

But Yuki's stamina had to be nearing its limit.

I wasn't any better.

My hand trembled as I aimed from exhaustion, and my vision kept flickering on its own.

Bang!

I took advantage of the moment the knight stopped and shot its leg.

Crash!

The armor around its leg blew away, but it charged at Yuki again.

It had lost some momentum compared to before.

Yuki was still in front of it, so she couldn't fire.

If she did, the bullets would be reflected.

Click, bang!

I blew off the arm holding its shield instead.

It kept attacking, swinging its sword.

It seemed the severed parts could still move to some extent.

Was there a ghost inside that armor or something?

In the end, I destroyed both its legs, then put another round through its head to finish it.

After reloading, I aimed at the mirrors.

Click!

The knight's armor scattered like smoke again...

And its figure appeared in one of the mirrors.

Bang! Click.

This time, I destroyed it before it could emerge.

It appeared again in another mirror.

Bang!

After smashing the third mirror...

The damn knight finally disappeared for good.

Two mirrors remained.

They still only reflected tranquil landscapes.

According to the Goblin Merchants, it seemed we could enter through those mirrors.

'Like mini-dungeons?'

Tower Escape had them sometimes.

A type of hidden floor.

In a normal game, they'd be opportunities to level up or get good loot...

But Tower Escape's mini-dungeons were difficult.

They'd be hard to clear without thorough preparation.

Yuki, who had finally caught her breath, walked over to me.

"Is it not coming out anymore?"

"That's right."

It looked like the knight came out of three of the five mirrors...

And we were supposed to choose one of the other two to enter.

After hesitating for a moment, I smashed the remaining two mirrors as well.

Crash!

For one thing, the knight might crawl out of a mirror again later.

Besides, we weren't going into the mirrors right now anyway.

Breaking more mirrors gave us more Mirror Shards.

The Goblin Merchants said they'd buy them at a high price, so it was worth looking forward to.

"Let's collect the shards first."

Once we gathered them, they weighed around ten kilograms.

The mirrors were so thick that collecting every piece would probably weigh over a hundred kilograms...

But I picked out only the shards that held magic power.

They were Alchemy ingredients, so this had to be right.

"Haa... Shall we eat something?"

"Yes!"

Our stamina had already hit rock bottom.

This room seemed safe, so it should be fine.

It wasn't somewhere Guard Dolls could enter easily.

There were so many mirror stands and sheets of cloth that we could hide if necessary.

Yuki squeezed out the last of her strength to create clones and placed one at each entrance as a lookout.

We ate a simple meal, then took turns getting a little sleep.

My body was exhausted, but having the Heavenly Elixir made me feel secure.

Seeing Yuki dozing pitifully across from me left me dumbfounded.

Why was this person following me around and suffering like this?

She was probably regretting it deep down by now, wasn't she?

I held out until my limit, then woke her.

"It's my turn now."

"Benefactor, it's already two hours past our promised time."

"You were sleeping so well that I felt bad waking you."

"What are you saying... Hurry and get some sleep."

I fell asleep right away and woke up later.

I'd slept crouched on the cold floor...

But it was deep, dreamless sleep.

I thought people with insomnia should try entering the Tower once.

"Ugh..."

The moment I opened my eyes, a groan slipped out.

No matter how deeply I slept, there was no way fatigue could properly fade in an environment like this.

The anxiety of never knowing when an enemy might attack had me mentally on edge.

My whole body ached from sore muscles.

Come to think of it, my backpack had gotten pretty full too.

That made it incredibly heavy.

There was still some empty space left...

But worrying about that was a great way to die.

"Let's get out of here. How's the original escape route?"

"Not good. I'm watching it with a clone, but guards keep passing through."

They were properly angry because I'd started that fire.

A fire that big couldn't have started naturally...

They wouldn't stop until they caught us.

"Do we have to use the door toward the Central Zone after all?"

I didn't want to approach it...

But I had my reasons.

I unfolded the map I'd drawn on a piece of leather.

I'd counted my steps and drawn it myself, so it should be fairly accurate.

"See this? This is the Room of Mirrors where we are."

"Ah, then the Central Zone is right next to us. It's huge."

A massive rectangle occupied the place where the Central Zone should be.

It was probably as large as several other sections combined.

The edges of the map were already filled with hallways and rooms.

I drew a circle over an area I hadn't mapped yet.

"Let's look for an exit this way."

Every exit on the eighth floor was a Direct Exit.

The word "every" could reasonably be interpreted as meaning at least two.

The Goblin Merchants had implied something similar.

'Are there separate conditions for using the exits?'

'Some exits have conditions, but you can assume most do not.'

Most meant there were probably quite a few exits.

Even so, we'd only found one exit so far...

But we were probably just unlucky.

The outer areas were pretty large too.

"Then let's go."

"Ah. Is it okay not to send a clone ahead?"

"It's fine. Stay close to me this time."

"Huh?"

[Shadow Walking skill transcended. Firmament Veil skill activated.]

The Central Zone was obviously dangerous, so I used it without holding back.

Since it was just the two of us for once, Stealth was perfect.

Creeeak...

When the door opened, the other side was a place no less extraordinary than the Room of Mirrors.

The wallpaper was brilliant and brightly colored.

Murals and sculptures covered the ceiling, walls, and pillars.

Rather than the Central Zone, it felt more like a temple area.

The lower area, however, was quite messy.

Apparently, the owner wasn't very neat, because all kinds of junk lay scattered around.

I was about to hide behind a shelf and slip past when I spotted something expensive-looking.

'Oh, this is...'

Jewelry and mechanical components that looked like they could sell for two thousand gold each.

They had to be Tower-made items.

This wasn't the Central Zone. It was a treasure vault.

Unlike before, there were even finished potions.

'Wow, there's even a Vitality Potion.'

Would it make fatigue less noticeable?

I looked more closely, then scooped up everything I could.

Unlike the Potion Warehouse full of traps, this place didn't have any scale mechanisms.

It had to be a space the eighth floor's alchemist used in daily life.

I could sense a particularly powerful presence in the center of the room...

It was definitely the alchemist's.

"Why won't this work? Are you defying me?!"

An irritated voice drifted faintly from far away.

It sounded like someone was conducting some kind of experiment.

We ended up taking only the nearby loot and slipping out along the edge.

There was so much loot that I'd nearly filled my Subspace Backpack to capacity.

'This is insane... Why is there so much high-grade loot that was hard to find even on the sixth and seventh floors?'

Enchanted firearms, the Potion Warehouse, and the Central Zone.

Once a strategy was established, there'd be no need to go to the lower floors.

The loot variety was absurdly good.

'Wow, a Frozen Mana Crystal! A Starlight Crystal!'

After making sure to take the Alchemy ingredients too, we left the Central Zone.

The area ahead was completely unexplored.

From here on, I wouldn't hold back.

[Complete Senses skill transcended. Four Seasons skill activated.]

[Regeneration skill transcended. Undying Blood skill activated.]

Three Transcendence skills active at once.

It felt like my heart might burst at any moment.

I was only enduring because Complete Senses was level 9.

I could feel the backlash weakening every time a skill level rose.

I felt Yuki's worried gaze.

"This way!"

There was even a Kitchen Zone next to the Central Zone.

It looked like expensive food ingredients with magical effects were stored there...

I'd have to visit it another time.

"Huff, huff..."

"B-Benefactor!"

"It's okay. There's a staircase ahead, around that corner, leading down... Watch out for Gargoyles."

After running hard, we finally found an exit.

I immediately released my Transcendence skills.

"Gasp, gasp..."

I hadn't rested properly for more than twenty-four hours, so both my body and mind had reached their limit.

A little nap in the Room of Mirrors hadn't reset anything.

Then...

With the exit right in front of us, Yuki handed me her backpack.

Her Subspace Backpack was fairly large too, so my whole body swayed under the weight.

"Benefactor, take this!"

"Ugh?! Yuki, what is this all of a sudden?"

"Even if I take it with me, the Japanese Association will confiscate it anyway. You're the leader of Alpha Team, so you'll be much better off than me."

"N-no. Even so..."

Ever since meeting her, I'd quietly made sure to consider loot distribution.

And now she was handing all of it over to me.

It seemed Yuki had intended to do this from the beginning.

We ended up having an unexpected counseling session in front of the exit.

"The Japanese government goes that far?"

"Gold supplies have been bad lately, so everyone's getting desperate. They practically force hunters to sell their artifacts, or arbitrarily raise gold tax rates."

They were completely insane.

As Team Leader Go Jiho had said, being a hunter was no different from farming.

You reap only as much as you previously sow...

But this was like cutting open the goose that laid golden eggs.

Japan was an island nation, but it had a lot of land, so it probably needed far more gold every month than Korea.

"So... if you intend to keep working in Korea, Benefactor, could I become a naturalized Korean citizen too?"

"What? Really?"

Yuki was an A-rank hunter... No, she'd now been promoted one rank to S-rank hunter.

She was also one of only two people, alongside me, with experience clearing the eighth floor.

That alone would earn her incredible treatment in Japan, yet she still wanted to become a naturalized Korean citizen?

Still, I understood in a way.

The treatment she received was only as a hunter.

To maintain her social and economic standing, she'd have to keep entering the Tower...

And seeing the Association being run so stupidly, she couldn't help thinking about naturalization.

After thinking for a moment, I gave her a few pieces of loot that could be converted into money.

"People will get suspicious if you go back empty-handed. Take at least this much."

"Ah... Thank you, Benefactor."

"If you're really thinking of becoming a naturalized Korean citizen, I'll give it serious consideration too."

Honestly.

It would be a waste to let her go like this.

She had taken a Basic Skill Enhancement Pill...

And if you thought about it, that had been a joint effort.

I had a share in it too.

Besides, if I left her in Japan, I had no idea what they might do to her.

She seemed mentally unstable.

"Let's talk again by message once we're back."

"Ah, okay! I'll send you a KakaoTalk message, Benefactor!"

... KakaoTalk?

Didn't Japanese people usually use LINE?

More importantly, why did she talk as if she naturally had my contact information?

"Ah, and go easy on the malicious comments online..."

Yuki acted as if she hadn't heard anything, grabbed my hand, and entered the exit.

Carrying two backpacks, I barely made it through the exit.

[Escape Complete]

[Transcendence skill level has increased to 5.]

[Shadow Walking skill level has increased to 6.]

[Regeneration skill level has increased to 9.]

[Physical Technique skill level has increased to 7.]

[Complete Senses skill level has increased to 10.]

[Additional effect for reaching level 10 in an Upper Skill: Complete Senses is permanently activated at minimum output.]

Footnotes:

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