WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 46

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A workshop owned by the Hunter Association.

A fairly large machine ran with a heavy hum.

Woooooong...

It was a ring-shaped structure about the size of a small room.

Yet compared to the magic power it gave off, the device itself was absurdly compact.

Researchers and technicians in white coats, along with Go Jiho, greeted us.

"Is this the prototype?"

"That's right. It was made relatively simply, but... its output is beyond expectations."

One of the researchers spoke while furiously writing calculations on a whiteboard.

"If we connect it to a power conversion device... even this prototype could generate as much electricity as a small power plant. Permanently, too! And so far, there doesn't seem to be any pollution."

That single machine was a power plant.

It seemed far more space-efficient than solar power.

"How does it work?"

"Put simply, it punches a tiny hole in a dimension and allows magic power from another dimension to flow in continuously."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"It can't be. If the hole got any bigger, it'd become a Gate. With our current technology, we couldn't make it any larger even if we wanted to."

The smart people must've handled everything properly.

I ordered a cauldron for Alchemy.

"Uh, what are you doing, Hunter?"

"Now that the facilities are ready, I thought I'd give it another try."

It was an environment rich in magic power, so it was worth trying.

Once a suitable cauldron was delivered, I got to work immediately.

I heated water with the Ever-Burning Heart and added the basic ingredients for Recovery Potions one by one.

Then I simmered it for a while until it was complete.

[Recovery Potion (Mid-Grade)]

[Alchemy skill level has increased to 1.]

"Wait, what?"

There was an Alchemy skill?

Then shouldn't it have leveled up back on the eighth floor?

"Did that alchemist tamper with the cauldron or something..."

I'd used someone else's cauldron, so it was possible.

To begin with, I'd never even heard of skill levels increasing outside the Tower.

Then I realized why.

"Ah, it's because this place is rich in magic power."

I used all my spare ingredients to mass-produce various potions.

[Alchemy skill transcended. All-Creation Cauldron skill activated.]

The Transcendence version was even better than I expected.

The sturdy but ordinary cauldron instantly transformed into a full-fledged alchemical cauldron.

It was tailored perfectly to whatever I wanted to make.

Yuki clapped beside me.

"It changed shape!"

[Mana Potion (Mid-Grade)]

[Alchemy skill level has increased to 3.]

It had shot all the way up to level 3 in an instant.

Then I used the ingredients I'd been saving to make a Basic Skill Enhancement Pill.

I'd gotten another key ingredient after killing the Doll Alchemist.

[Basic Skill Enhancement Pill (S-rank)]

[Alchemy skill level has increased to 4.]

It was climbing fast.

Maybe the alchemist had tampered with the cauldron and stolen my experience...

But it couldn't steal the memories of all the trial and error I'd gone through.

"I should give this to Hajun."

"Let's go eat. By the way, did an additional option appear?"

Go Jiho asked as he invited us to dinner.

The final stage of potion Alchemy involved simmering, so time passed quickly.

"An additional option?"

"You said you met the requirements to enter the ninth floor."

The ninth floor.

Honestly, it was fair to say we'd almost fully cleared the eighth floor.

We'd killed the Doll Alchemist.

The only thing that still tempted me was the Mini Dungeon that gave Skill Cards.

Of course, earning massive amounts of gold was nice...

But other hunter teams would start joining in before long.

That meant more risk.

Over dinner, I spoke honestly.

"I want to go to the ninth floor. But we don't have enough information."

Being a hunter was a pretty good job if you could make easy money at the right time.

Our team was especially good at gathering information.

It would be better to enter the ninth floor before any competing hunter teams did.

Still... we knew far too little.

As the team leader, I made a strict distinction between taking on a challenge and committing suicide.

We got quite a bit of information about the eighth floor from the Goblin Merchants.

The merchants wanted something from the eighth floor.

This time, though, there was no separate quest.

"The ninth floor has stricter entry restrictions."

"What? You tested it?"

"Yeah. We can't enter again for a month anyway."

The ninth floor's entry weight limit was 5 kilograms.

It also looked like we couldn't bring a Subspace Pouch.

"What if we use the stairs on the eighth floor to go up to the ninth? Would the weight limit still apply?"

"It probably would. Otherwise, there'd be no point in putting a separate restriction on the ninth floor."

They'd probably store any remaining loot in the Interfloor Zone or something.

"It feels like everything changes completely starting from the eighth floor."

"You think so too?"

Anyone could enter floors one through seven, and it was possible to clear them with enough gear.

But starting from the eighth floor, there were serious weight restrictions.

The Tower probably wanted hunters to solve things with their own abilities.

That wasn't all.

Thinking about it, starting from the eighth floor, hunters had been given ways to permanently strengthen themselves.

The Basic Skill Enhancement Pill might've been a hidden element...

But Mini Dungeons had begun giving out Skill Cards, an entirely new type of item.

Lightweight, high-performance artifacts also dropped more often.

"Do floors one through seven feel like a tutorial?"

"That's what it feels like."

Floors one through seven were for learning the Tower's basic rules and doing basic farming.

Then the Tower opened the eighth floor as soon as the first EX-rank hunter appeared.

Starting from the eighth floor, gear alone wasn't enough.

It required considerable exploration ability and skills.

"At this rate, won't the tenth floor make us clear it naked..."

"Five kilograms is basically naked already. Clothes and boots alone weigh 3 kilograms."

The format would probably change again from the tenth floor onward.

Either way, the immediate issue was the ninth floor.

The other teams probably hadn't even met the entry requirements, so there was no way to get information.

"Should I just run a Mini Dungeon instead..."

"Being too impatient can ruin things. We still have over three weeks left."

"That's true, but farming in Mini Dungeons isn't reliable."

The mirrors leading to Mini Dungeons were important loot from the eighth floor.

If another hunter team reached the Room of Mirrors first, all the mirrors might already be broken.

That was why I hesitated to clear the eighth floor again.

But an opportunity came sooner than expected.

A little later, Sang Hajun started seeing strange things after taking the Basic Skill Enhancement Pill.

"Hajun, are you okay? It's an S-rank exploration-type Basic Skill now..."

"Honestly, even at C-rank, I could see much better than with my own eyes."

An exploration-type A-rank Basic Skill.

There was no need to explain its performance.

It had been a skill made solely for seeing from the start...

So it simply let him see everything.

It seemed to have gained the ability to see through objects at A-rank.

Though it couldn't see through anything too thick.

I wondered what S-rank would be like.

"Hm? This is... ugh."

Hajun covered his eyes and groaned, as though he could see something.

I instinctively pulled out a Heavenly Elixir, but he waved it away.

"I'm fine. It doesn't hurt. I'm seeing something strange."

"Something strange?"

"It looks like an uninhabited island or a tropical island... I can't make out the details."

We learned soon afterward that it was a view of the ninth floor.

"That's amazing. You can see distant places and even other points in time?"

Come to think of it, Four Seasons, the Transcendence version of Complete Senses, also allowed limited precognition.

An S-rank Basic Skill could probably do even more.

"Yeah. It feels like I can see something if I focus on what I want to see, but... if it's too far away or too distant in time, it's so vague that it's hard to make out."

Naturally, I asked him for information about the ninth floor.

Sang Hajun readily agreed.

"It's especially hard to see inside the Tower... but I'll try."

"Thank you. Don't push yourself. Take it slow."

"It's funny hearing that from the team leader who has the hardest time taking things slow out of anyone I know."

Wait, was I impatient?

When it came to clearing the Tower, I might be.

After hearing that advice, I was about to spend some more time hanging out with the team...

Then the Hunter Association contacted me with something unexpected.

Go Jiho called me personally.

[Hyun, the Ultra-Alloy new-material factory has already begun test operations. It's still small, though. But someone from the United States wants to meet you in person... as soon as tomorrow.]

"The United States? Who is it? Someone from HTT?"

[No. He's a businessman. Queenbell Hartman, the biggest supporter of the American Hunter Association.]

Was he the old man Chad from HTT had told me about?

The one who sponsored hunters while deliberately going around in a wheelchair...

I didn't have a good feeling about this.

"Why does he want to meet me?"

[I think it's because of the Dimensional Energy Reactor Technology and the Ultra-Alloy new-material technology our country possesses.]

The Korean Hunter Association was officially managing them for now...

But if I wanted, I could hand them over to another country whenever I pleased.

Did he think persuading me would be easier than persuading the Korean government and the Association?

Sorry, but I had no intention of doing that.

I'd already entrusted them to the Association.

Besides, I was going on a picnic with my team tomorrow.

"I don't really want to meet him. Please handle it on the Association's side."

[Then we'll deal with it ourselves.]

"Okay. Thanks."

Life really did bring all kinds of strange things.

A businessman I'd only seen in internet memes wanted to meet me.

Still, I hoped he'd stay someone I only saw in internet memes.

Around noon the next day, Yuki, Kim Yuna, and I arrived at a park.

I hadn't known Seoul had such a nice park.

I never noticed when I was busy working every day.

"It looks like the ninth floor has a survival concept."

"Really?"

"Hajun got lucky and saw a message panel. There doesn't seem to be a separate exit. I think you can escape by surviving for a certain amount of time or fulfilling a condition."

"Hmm, you said it looked like an island? What kind of survival are we supposed to do with only 5 kilograms... If you go in without me again this time, you're really going to get it."

At that moment, Yuki, who had even packed lunch herself, spoke beside us.

"Seoul's parks are nice too. Maybe because it's morning, but it's so quiet... I'm happy I can take a walk with you, Team Leader. We came here to have fun, so you shouldn't talk about work too much."

I flinched instinctively.

"... You're not mad at me, are you?"

"You've been like this ever since you came back from the Mini Dungeon... I don't get mad over things like that!"

"All right. If you're upset, say it. And don't lie to the team leader. You remember, right?"

"Of course I remember."

"So things are under control somehow... Ever since Yuki joined the team, the hateful comments have dropped a lot too."

"Ah, no! That's..."

Yuki panicked at Kim Yuna's words, but since we'd just said she couldn't lie, she didn't say anything else.

As we strolled leisurely along the path, something caught my attention.

An old man in a wheelchair.

He looked surprisingly healthy for an old man.

"He's a foreigner."

"There are lots of foreigners in Seoul these days."

The fact that he was in a wheelchair bothered me.

It couldn't be, right?

But I definitely recognized his face.

"You go on ahead for a moment."

The man pushing the wheelchair silently nodded and stepped back.

Queenbell Hartman.

Had he come to find me personally because I refused to meet him?

How did he even know my schedule?

Honestly, I wasn't pleased.

The old man looked at me and spoke.

"We haven't met before. I'm Queenbell Hartman. Don't worry about security. I found you through a bit of cheating."

"... Cheating?"

"I look after S-rank hunters with future sight skills."

Was it a skill similar to Sang Hajun's?

As I watched him warily...

Yuki finally noticed that there was no one else nearby.

"Team Leader. The park is empty. It's a national park on a holiday... how is that possible?"

"Don't tell me... you bought the whole park? Even so, it's a government-owned facility, isn't it?"

Kim Yuna spoke in disbelief.

He bought an entire park just to talk to me?

He really was someone frequently mentioned as the richest person in the world.

As we stared in shock, the old man across from us looked genuinely flustered.

"W-What are you talking about? Why would I buy a park?"

"Then how did you get everyone to leave?"

As soon as I asked, he answered.

"I just put a few free food trucks at the entrance."

There was such a cost-effective method?

It was definitely much cheaper than buying a park.

Queenbell Hartman tried to continue.

"Ahem. I came to find you because I wanted to see the world's greatest hunter for myself, but..."

I was already running off on instinct.

Food trucks, and they were free.

"Yuki, Yuna. Hurry! There are free food trucks!"

"Ah, okay! Let's go together, Team Leader!"

Kim Yuna hesitated for a moment before following us.

"... Yuki, didn't you say you made sandwiches? But you're going to the food trucks too?"

"I made a little less on purpose, so it's fine. I was planning to have snacks anyway. If I'm with the team leader, I wouldn't even mind waiting in line for over an hour."

"Wow, you sounded completely crazy just now."

"..."

Hartman stared blankly for a moment, then worked his wheelchair hard as he chased after us.

Footnotes:

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