Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty - Chapter 56

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 56

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After we finished hunting, we grabbed the loot and hurried back to Korea.

It wasn't like we'd committed a crime.

The reason we used an unofficial route was simple.

They wouldn't have let us leave otherwise.

"Even summoned bosses drop loot..."

Once I finally made it back to Korea, I tried on the loot I'd checked on the boat.

[Monster’s Gauntlet: Increases Strength when equipped. Projects an intense presence that can drive away weaker enemies.]

That was a completely unexpected effect.

Honestly, I liked it.

Since Tower monsters were armed with firearms, being outnumbered was always a pain.

But if I only had to spend a little magic power to make them run away on their own?

It also increased Strength.

That effect came by default, with no magic power cost at all.

Maybe it was because it came from a sixteenth-floor-level boss, but it was good enough to use right away.

"It turned out really versatile."

After a marathon thirty-second discussion, we decided I'd use it.

Everyone on our team was straightforward, so thirty seconds really was a long discussion.

Because I'd kept my smartphone off even after training last time, I ended up staying with Yuki for a few days.

I put the gauntlet in the armory, then headed to the rabbit room.

The little guys were squirming around and playing happily together.

"Guys, time to eat."

"Team Leader, isn't there an automatic feeder here too?"

"Yeah. It makes things really convenient."

There were toys and exercise equipment for the rabbits, of course, along with an automatic cleaner.

I hadn't known it, but this apartment even had a pet doctor on staff.

"Ah, right. Heentteok, come here."

I picked up Heentteok, the rabbit already acting like the leader, and placed it in front of the water bowl.

Heentteok waited quietly with its ears perked up.

Glug, glug.

After emptying the bowl, I poured in a little Heavenly Elixir.

Heentteok immediately began gulping it down.

It still had an uncanny ability to recognize what was good for its body.

Yuki looked slightly flustered.

"Isn't that Heavenly Elixir?"

"That's right."

For the record, Heentteok hadn't had any health or parasite tests.

It came from a deserted island, so there was a one hundred percent chance something was wrong with it.

I decided to handle everything at once with Heavenly Elixir.

"Would you like some too, Yuki?"

"Ah, is that okay?"

"It's good for you, so having some now and then should be fine."

Since I'd already opened it, Yuki and I split what was left.

"Squeee..."

Feeling better, Heentteok began training the other rabbits that hadn't been using the bathroom properly.

Rabbits could normally be potty trained, but...

I knew that was nearly impossible when they lived in groups.

It was a form of territorial marking.

"Screech!"

Still, it seemed they gradually learned after getting hit by the leader rabbit's dropkicks.

The wall-mounted TV was reporting that China had successfully subjugated the monster.

A Chinese Association representative was boasting proudly.

[This incident has clearly demonstrated China's military capabilities...]

"How shameless."

Yuki said that, but they couldn't really help it.

They couldn't exactly announce, 'The boss monster died, but we didn't kill it. We completely failed the security operation, so we don't even know who killed it. Oh, and the loot was stolen...'

If they did, more than a few heads would roll.

I felt a little bad for them in the first place, since the monster had crossed over from a neighboring country.

Monsters didn't care about national borders.

Still, it was fortunate that China didn't seem interested in making an issue of it.

I loafed around in the rabbit room, reading comments on the broadcast, then went to the Hunter Association with Yuki.

"What are you doing today?"

"I'm going to train for a bit, then enchant my gun."

"So you've finally decided?"

"Yeah."

I'd already chosen the Enchantment I wanted to put on the Nightfall Custom.

Normally, a penetration-enhancement Enchantment would be useful, but...

How much could a handgun round's penetration really improve?

So I chose a Silence Enchantment instead.

"There were a lot of interesting Enchantment effects. I decided to raise the sound-reduction effect as high as possible."

The gun already came with a suppressor...

With a Silence Enchantment on top of that, it would practically become a silent weapon.

Someone probably wouldn't notice even if I fired right beside them.

"Also, if you're hit by a gun with a Silence Enchantment, you can't speak."

"So Silence applies to the target too."

That was a small benefit.

Then Kaellis spoke up inside me.

[Suppressing sound alone won't be very effective against hunters.]

'What? Why?'

Hunters should be especially sensitive to sound.

Even if they were far away, they could hear it with sense-enhancement skills and come running.

But Kaellis had his own reasoning.

[The weapons you use are good, but they're far too loud and smell terrible. Any hunter worth their salt would recognize them.]

'Ah...'

The acrid smell of gunpowder unique to firearms.

It was impossible to hide when firing in bursts.

I really needed to watch out for smell too.

[Try applying even a weak Concealment Enchantment. It should at least block the smell.]

'Thanks.'

This guy was a hero-class hunter, so he was useful after all.

I was about to ask more, but the Association employees in the lobby looked troubled.

"Hello. Is something wrong?"

"Ah, Hunter Kang Hyun. It's nothing."

When the employee tried to hide it, Yuki stepped forward.

"The team leader is asking. Are you hiding something?"

"No! We just didn't want to make you worry."

The employee reluctantly explained.

"A major law related to hunters was proposed, but... it seems likely that it won't pass."

"What kind of law?"

"It's about handling gold and loot. We wanted to let the Hunter Association and hunters use them more freely, but..."

Ah, I could see why they wouldn't want to pass that.

The government would want to use gold too.

Just then, Go Jiho arrived for work, glanced through the documents, and spoke.

"What's this? Who proposed it?"

"Pardon? Well, naturally, the higher-ups..."

"If you write it like this, even something that could pass won't. I'll adjust it, so submit it again later."

"Former Team Leader Go Jiho, you know about laws too?"

Yuki asked in surprise, and Go Jiho replied.

"Not really. But I know how to get what I want."

"Then we'll go train."

"Oh, good luck. Don't push yourselves too hard."

Yuki and I headed down to the training area.

When I tried to continue the rubber-bullet training from last time, Yuki didn't look too pleased.

"Do you really have to do that?"

"I've succeeded a few times now, so don't worry. I'll wear protective gear too. Should I ask someone else?"

"Ah, no. I'd rather do it myself."

Yuki wasn't especially good at shooting...

But that was by Alpha Team standards.

She had been a promising prospect in the Japanese Hunter Association, so objectively, she was far better than average.

Bang!

"Urgh."

The moment the first shot came flying in, I realized something was wrong.

Yuki wasn't aiming at the center of my body.

It would've been easier if she aimed for vital points like my head or heart...

But because she was worried about hurting me, she kept firing at my limbs instead.

Since they were farther from my center, they were harder to deflect.

Maybe that was for the best.

In a real fight, bullets wouldn't fly where I wanted them to.

"Hup!"

Ting!

As I entered an accelerated state, I started succeeding from time to time.

My success rate was improving, but there was no dramatic progress.

It still felt like I was stuck in place.

Unable to watch any longer, Kaellis offered some advice.

[That's not how you use a sword. Keep your center stable and move efficiently.]

Ah, right.

He'd told me that last time, but I'd forgotten because I was focused on the incoming bullets.

If my posture broke down, I wouldn't be able to deflect the second shot.

Come to think of it, even when Kaellis had deflected automatic rifle fire, his center had barely moved.

Ting, tiiing!

"Ah, Team Leader! Your success rate suddenly went way up!"

As I continued training, I asked,

'Could you tell me anything about the tenth floor too?'

[The tenth floor? You're still planning to keep challenging the Tower? How long are you going to continue?]

'At least until I break through to the seventeenth floor you reached.'

I teased him a little, and he snorted.

[I never properly cleared the seventeenth floor.]

'What? Then what about the description of Kaellis's Soul Crystal?'

[I was running from the sixteenth floor and somehow ended up reaching the seventeenth. Then I died there alone and miserably.]

What the hell? The seventeenth floor was tougher than I thought.

Kaellis belatedly defended himself.

[When I fought you, I was in a soul state, so I couldn't even use Basic Skills.]

'Ah...'

Right. He didn't seem to have any Basic Skills.

His acceleration could be done through his Physical Technique enhancement trait alone.

'So, what's on the tenth floor?'

[The tenth floor is... a kind of testing ground. Once you reach the eleventh floor, Dimensional Matching with other dimensions begins. Before that, it tests whether you are qualified one last time.]

So Dimensional Matching across multiple dimensions really did exist.

[Starting from the eleventh floor, all hunters from dimensions that passed the test can enter without separate conditions. You are going there to open the way.]

'Why go through all that? Couldn't Dimensional Matching start from the beginning?'

Kaellis gave a short laugh at my question.

[That would be a waste of resources. Other dimensional races began entering the eleventh floor and making progress decades, or even centuries, ago. Do you think you could compete if you were suddenly dropped into a place like that?]

I got it.

If a race wasn't even good enough to pass the test, they wouldn't include them from the beginning.

They would just become punching bags for the existing races.

I wanted to ask more, but Kaellis already seemed tired.

'What a frail bastard.'

[Ask the merchants about the rest. They'll answer some of it.]

'Really? Sleep well.'

After training, I stopped by the Gwanghwamun Tower shop to buy materials for Enchanting.

Surprisingly, the Goblins answered my questions properly.

"If we pass the tenth floor and the eleventh floor opens, will there be any downsides?"

"Of course. Your dimension will be exposed to other races."

"Hmm..."

Was humanity really ready to meet races from other dimensions?

Of course, there weren't only downsides.

"However, if you clear the tenth floor, we will also be able to handle goods from other dimensions."

"What?"

"The Dimensional Lockdown on this dimension will be lifted. We will be able to import goods from other dimensions."

The Enchantment materials I was planning to buy were extremely expensive, even though they were just materials.

They cost 3,000 gold.

But if the dimensional market opened, their price would drop to as low as 500 gold.

"Is that because the supply will increase so much?"

"That is correct."

Then Yuki asked worriedly from beside me.

"What happens to the tenth floor and below? Will those all switch to Dimensional Matching too?"

"No. The tenth floor and below will remain under internal matching. Only human hunters will encounter one another."

"... Then clearing the tenth floor won't be a huge problem for now."

If things went wrong, we could simply avoid going up to the eleventh floor.

We were under the protection of the Dimensional Lockdown now...

But it didn't seem like it would last forever.

Besides, there already seemed to be some holes in it.

I thought of the Death Priest Dagger tucked inside my clothes.

'Since Kaellis knew about the Death Priest, that means the Death Priest is a faction from another dimension.'

Yet the Death Priest had already entered Earth's dimension before the Dimensional Lockdown was lifted.

That meant the lockdown wasn't complete.

Though the Death Priest might just be an especially strange group.

"Wrap up all the materials."

"Thank you for your patronage."

After moving to the workshop, I began Enchanting carefully.

I'd already finished practicing.

First, I applied the Silence Enchantment to the Nightfall Custom.

I learned the result right away.

Pfft!

"Sound suppression rate: 97 percent. It's almost completely silent."

Enchantments really were great.

I added a Concealment Enchantment on top of it.

Normally, you couldn't apply more than one Enchantment.

They repelled each other and shattered.

But the Concealment Enchantment worked extremely well with Silence...

And I was only going to apply it very, very lightly.

Clang!

I finely ground Gargoyle gemstones and Soul Crystal powder, then enchanted the slide, frame, and suppressor.

"Finished!"

"Soul Crystals can be used for things like this too."

It was a good thing I'd kept a few just in case.

When I walked out with the completed weapon on me, Go Jiho was there.

I asked him about the law from earlier.

"Did the proposal go well?"

"It wasn't that hard. It'll pass."

"What did you do? Did you change the bill itself?"

"No. I just changed the title a little. Made it sound more moderate and less threatening."

"What?"

"Most lawmakers don't properly read the content of proposed bills anyway."

Would that really work?

Go Jiho saw my expression and explained.

"Before a proposed law goes to the National Assembly's plenary session, it has to pass a review. More than sixty percent get cut there because too many laws are proposed."

"How many new laws are there?"

"More than ten go up for every review. They say they spend around thirteen minutes on each bill during review, but... realistically, they can't read everything."

If the average was thirteen minutes, that meant the bills that looked less important got glanced over and tossed aside in one or two minutes.

"Will it pass?"

"I slipped it in with other hunter-related bills, so it will."

So he'd hidden it among bills that were more likely to pass normally.

"That's a camouflage tactic."

"Exactly."

I decided to think positively.

If the bill didn't pass, that meant South Korea's legislative system was working properly.

If it did pass, there was no downside at all.

It was a law hunters needed.

Go Jiho was impressed by what I said.

"Kang Hyun really has a healthy mindset. The others should learn from you."

A little later, we heard that the bill had passed.

I sat in the Association lobby, eating snacks and admiring him.

"Jiho, you could be a politician."

"Isn't that an insult?"

"Ah... I take it back."

Around then, Kaellis, who seemed to have finally regained a little strength, woke up inside me.

It was kind of funny for a ghost to talk about strength.

Sounding guilty and gloomy, he spoke.

[Hehe. Do not resent me. I was a hunter known as a hero of the Elf Race. Everything I lied about last time was for my people.]

'... What?'

What was this nonsense out of nowhere while I was eating snacks?

It was so random that I couldn't understand it at all.

When I looked confused, he seemed flustered too.

[Hm? Surely... you haven't enchanted it yet?]

'No, I did.'

[I see. You don't even realize you were deceived. What a foolish creature.]

He sighed and genuinely pitied me.

Deceived?

Had he lied to me?

No.

I'd already cross-checked the information about the tenth floor and beyond with the Goblin Merchants.

There had been no need for him to lie when the Goblin Merchants existed.

As I froze, he kept rambling.

[Ignorance always comes with expensive tuition. You didn't know that artifacts cannot receive additional Enchantments... Think of it as a valuable lesson.]

Ah... he was talking about Enchanting.

But the Nightfall Custom's Enchantments had turned out fine.

Come to think of it, he'd called firearms artifacts when he saw them last time.

Did the Elf Race not have ordinary equipment this powerful?

If firearms had been artifacts, the gun itself would have been destroyed when I tried to apply another Enchantment.

Artifacts were essentially items that had already been enchanted.

So Kaellis thought my Enchanting had failed...

That a valuable artifact had been destroyed.

Instead of giving him a long explanation, I took out the completed Nightfall Custom and showed it to him.

The team members were slightly startled when I suddenly pulled out a handgun.

"What? Are you just looking it over?"

"You startled us, Team Leader."