WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈
Chapter 59
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Three hours.
Long in some ways, short in others.
But it was definitely too short for Alchemy.
[Alchemy skill transcended, All-Creation Cauldron skill activated]
As I stirred the cauldron, I combined nearby materials and shop items to make adhesive.
Making something like this was nothing to me now.
"Hajun, get a read on the terrain and find a sniping position! Yuki, go buy some Incendiary Grenades."
"Okay!"
While coating bullets with Soul Crystals, I tested the finished adhesive.
I wondered if it could withstand high temperatures...
Of course it couldn't.
The moment the temperature rose, it melted away.
Still, I added more materials to make it last as long as possible.
"I bought the Incendiary Grenades!"
"Put them there. Yuna, Juwon! Are you digging the traps?"
"Yeah. We're getting them ready."
We'd be using the upper level as our base, so we decided to prepare traps to block entry points like the stairs.
I spread the finished adhesive over the casings of the Incendiary Grenades.
The Incendiary Grenades hadn't worked properly during the seventh-floor boss fight...
So I was modifying them to stick directly to the boss.
"Done."
"B-but how are we supposed to throw these? It'll be bad if they stick to our hands."
"I'll make a case to cover the adhesive. Before throwing one, untie this knot, take off the case, and throw it."
"Ah. You had it all planned out."
I based it on the No. 74 sticky anti-tank grenade the British improvised during World War II.
The original had been a crude piece of junk because it used a nitroglycerin mixture...
But this used proper thermite grenades, so it was far better.
I secured the cases with knots and made several Adhesive Incendiary Grenades.
The Gatekeeper boss adapted to the immediately preceding attack.
That meant we needed a variety of attacks...
Fire attacks were probably the easiest option.
We had plenty of explosives, including grenades, but they ultimately scattered metal fragments.
There was a chance they'd be treated similarly to firearm attacks.
On top of that, we had Soul Crystal-coated bullets with anti-spirit attack power.
With three types of attacks, we could cycle through them.
We didn't have many Soul Crystal bullets, so I gave almost all of them to Sang Hajun.
"Hajun and I will handle the attacks. Juwon's Ghost Bullets should work too, so support us."
"Got it."
"Boss, the traps are ready! We dug all the pits. What should we do now?"
"Fill them with flammable material and explosives. Do we have any traps that can deal impact damage?"
"We can make those. There's plenty of rubble here!"
By the time we had made as many different weapons as possible, our preparation time was already over.
[Kirs, Dimensional Gatekeeper appears!]
Flaaash!
A massive armored knight emerged from behind the lower-level door.
It carried a huge war hammer. One hit from that thing looked like it would shatter every bone in my body.
The problem was that it wasn't alone.
Flaaash!
Around ten Skeleton Soldiers, along with Skeleton Mages and Gargoyles, came out with it.
"What? It comes with mobs too?"
"Yuna and Juwon, handle the mobs!"
The Gatekeeper rested its hammer on its shoulder and spoke.
"You've finished your preparations, I assume. The test begins."
"Kraaah!"
The moment it finished speaking, the Skeleton Soldiers charged.
The Skeleton Mages even launched ranged attacks.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Han Juwon and Kim Yuna opened fire without hesitation.
Kim Yuna was positioned near a broken pillar and the upper-level railing...
But that left her exposed to the mages. It was dangerous.
I repeatedly used Smoke Screen on the mages.
Ting, tiiing!
They didn't even have eyeballs in their sockets, but thankfully, it worked.
Bang!
The next moment, Sang Hajun's bullet struck the boss.
McMillan TAC-338.
A sniper rifle chambered in .338 caliber, just as its name suggested.
It was looted after the sniper doll was defeated during the eighth-floor boss fight.
It was a simple weapon with only minimal attachments, but that was probably what Hajun liked about it.
The boss kept walking after taking a .338 Lapua Magnum armor-piercing round.
It hadn't been completely ineffective. Its gray armor had caved in.
'They said it had overwhelming durability...'
Not defense. Durability.
That meant it still took damage when hit.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Han Juwon's Ghost Bullets, which had been sweeping away the charging mobs, poured into the Gatekeeper.
The bastard apparently had no intention of taking them quietly. It swung its hammer wide and smashed the floor apart.
Then it dragged the hammer across the ground, sending fragments flying.
"Gah!"
How strong was it?
Han Juwon had built a barricade, so the fragments did not cause any injuries...
But the dust ruined everyone's view.
[Complete Senses skill transcended, Four Seasons activated]
Using the skill, I saw it move to the side.
For a moment, I considered rushing in and stabbing it with the Instant-Death Dagger...
But Four Seasons showed no opening at all.
If I approached carelessly, the only future I could see was getting beaten to death.
Boom!
It smashed the side of one of the remaining intact pillars, making it collapse across the upper-level railing.
It was going to cross that unstable path in such heavy armor?
Unfortunately, it looked like it could.
Bang!
Yuki's clone, hidden in the shadows, fired a sawed-off shotgun.
The firearm had already been restored to its original configuration, so it was a double-barrel again.
Every pellet bounced harmlessly off its armor.
The Paralysis Enchantment took effect.
But it was too heavy and powerful for the effect to matter much.
Should we use an Adhesive Incendiary Grenade?
It wouldn't let itself get hit in its current state.
It was deceptively fast.
Boom!
It sent Yuki's clone flying with its hammer, then climbed onto the fallen pillar.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Kim Yuna, who had been positioned near the railing from the start, provided timely support.
With her Shatter Enchantment submachine gun, she concentrated fire on the point where the pillar was lodged.
If this had been an intact building, it wouldn't have worked no matter what.
It was only possible because the place was already half-collapsed.
Crash!
When the pillar fell, the Gatekeeper had no choice but to walk up the stairs.
It took the side of the staircase Han Juwon could not cover.
"Stop it!"
If it reached the upper level, the area we occupied would become far too small.
A new group of mobs had already appeared in the meantime.
They'd keep replenishing as long as the Gatekeeper remained standing.
Ting!
I helped clear the mobs by throwing grenades at the mages.
The Gatekeeper arrived at the pit trap we had prepared.
We'd covered it with thin wood, so it would fall through as soon as it stepped on it.
The pit wasn't very deep, but it was filled with flammable material.
"Hmph!"
The Gatekeeper easily noticed it and jumped over...
But another trap had been set beyond it.
I never expected it to fall for such a shoddy pit trap in the first place.
Kim Yuna and Han Juwon, who had worked so hard digging it, would get mad if they heard that.
What we needed was the relief and carelessness that came from jumping over the trap.
Bang!
When I fired my gun, a huge boulder fell from the upper-level hall.
It was large enough that even the Gatekeeper couldn't come out unscathed.
Craaaash!
It casually split the boulder apart with a swing of its hammer.
Monstrous strength.
"Take this!"
Yuki immediately used her clone to throw a broad, heavy net over it.
A custom-made one I had crafted.
The net was coated in adhesive, so it wouldn't be easy to remove.
Yuki couldn't get free because of the adhesive either.
But that was only her clone.
'Got it!'
It couldn't dodge now.
Click!
I removed the cover from an Incendiary Grenade, pulled the pin, and quickly threw it.
It was a thermite grenade that could reach 2,000 degrees Celsius.
Try surviving that.
Whoosh!
The grenade burned fiercely in an instant, and the net was engulfed in flames as well.
"Ugh! Not bad."
The next moment...
Its armor turned almost black.
Four Seasons revealed what it was.
I'd seen that material several times at the workshop.
'Tungsten.'
Its armor had changed into Tungsten.
A material that could withstand as much as 3,400 degrees Celsius.
It could easily withstand a 2,200-degree thermite grenade.
Tungsten was incredibly difficult to process, yet it changed its armor material just like that.
That was cheating.
Still, Tungsten wasn't invincible.
It was extremely hard, but brittle.
Once it took an impact beyond a certain point, it would break instead of absorbing it.
"Now! Fire!"
Rat-a-tat-tat!
I fired like crazy, MCX in my right hand and a lever-action rifle in my left.
Bang!
Sang Hajun did the same.
He kept feeding it bullets as if he intended to empty the whole magazine.
Its armor had become so heavy that it could barely move.
Even so, it didn't change the material again.
It seemed to have judged the high heat of the thermite grenade as far more threatening than bullets.
And it was right.
Even when chunks of armor broke away with every shot Sang Hajun fired...
It was still holding on.
Then I realized why.
'My shots are barely doing anything?'
Were 6.8mm rounds and .44 Magnum not enough?
"... Ah!"
I made a mistake.
I hadn't considered how high temperatures would alter Tungsten.
Tungsten was brittle at normal temperatures.
But Tungsten exposed to the extreme heat of an Incendiary Grenade gained much greater ductility, allowing it to absorb the impact of bullets properly.
Even then, it couldn't handle .338 Lapua Magnum armor-piercing rounds.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
I concentrated my fire on the parts of its armor farthest from the grenade.
Only then did the armor begin to break apart properly.
Even so, the thermite grenade wasn't ineffective.
Tungsten was so heavy that it still couldn't move properly.
It was helpless against the combined assault of bullets and flames.
"Yuki, grenade!"
"Okay!"
The moment Yuki removed the cover from a new Adhesive Incendiary Grenade and threw it...
It moved like lightning.
Its armor was so damaged that it was almost light on its feet.
The net had nearly burned away as well.
"Hup!"
Crash!
The war hammer struck Yuki, but she switched places with her clone in time.
I put the Marlin 1894 into my Subspace Backpack and replaced the MCX magazine.
Click!
It had finally reached the upper level.
The Incendiary Grenade had long since burned out, and it wouldn't fall for another Adhesive Incendiary Grenade.
But it wasn't in good shape either.
I aimed directly at its battered body.
Dark energy streamed out through the broken armor.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The moment I began firing, it leaped.
It was trying to smash me flat.
I fired back without backing down.
This would hurt more than it expected.
I had loaded the only magazine of Soul Crystal-coated bullets.
Crash!
Its armor shattered again.
Even so, it continued moving quickly and violently.
"A mixed attack? Hunters these days use strange weapons."
As expected, it seemed to treat Soul Crystal coating and physical attacks as separate types.
Yuki, who had approached from the side, fired custom Dragon's Breath rounds from her SPAS shotgun.
The original rounds had novelty-level firepower, so I had used Alchemy to greatly improve them.
Bang!
"Ugh!"
They were still only shotgun-shell-sized rounds, so they weren't anything extraordinary.
But they should be enough to change its adaptive defense type, which adapted to the immediately preceding attack.
It seemed it couldn't choose the type itself.
It didn't stop, even while taking a storm of bullets.
It kept advancing even with .338 Lapua Magnum rounds lodged in its back.
After emptying my magazine, I drew the Instant-Death Dagger.
Its gaze fixed on my dagger.
"Death Priest?"
I let go of the empty MCX and activated Accelerated Physical Technique.
Then I rushed forward as if I were about to stab it.
It immediately tried to block with the long handle of its war hammer, but I had never intended to stab it.
Instead, I used every Transcendence skill I had to grab the hammer's handle.
It had been watching the dagger, so I caught it far too easily.
"Ugh!"
Screeeech...
Even at death's door, it was still a boss. It withstood even Inhuman Strength without much trouble.
I used Gale Boots and kicked it in the torso.
Boom!
The boots' acceleration seemed to apply to the force of the kick as well. It let go of the hammer and was sent flying.
I nearly screamed as I had to bear the hammer's full weight.
"Ugh..."
How did it even swing something like this around?
Still, I put all my strength into swinging it in front of me.
Crunch!
With one blow, the helmet portion of its armor was completely crushed.
The mobs, having lost their master, shrieked and vanished.
"Kieeeek...!"
"Hah... hah..."
"We got it, right?"
"We won."
Ssssh...
The Gatekeeper's limp armor disappeared...
Then it reappeared in perfect condition in the lower-level lobby.
Thankfully, it wasn't holding a weapon.
The somewhat obligatory fighting spirit I had sensed from it was gone as well.
"Gah! That bastard revived!"
"Calm down. You have passed the test."
"Test?"
It called itself a Gatekeeper, but it was an examiner?
If we had to take a test like this twice, we'd really die.
"As a hunter team that has passed the test, you may make an important decision."
"... What?"
"Choose. Will you keep your dimension closed, or proceed to the eleventh floor, where hunters from other dimensions await?"
What was this?
Passing the tenth floor didn't automatically open it?
I asked as the group's representative.
"What happens if we choose closure? Does it really close forever?"
"If you choose closure, you may continue using the Tower up to the tenth floor... But nothing in this world lasts forever. If another team reaches the tenth floor, passes the test, and makes a different choice, the path will open again."
What? So it wasn't permanent.
The Tower's appearance had brought many changes to the world...
My teammates and I had definitely been among those who benefited.
If it wouldn't remain closed forever, wouldn't it be better to get burned sooner rather than later?
In the end, we proceeded as planned.
"... Open the door."
"Very well. You who have passed the test will receive a special gift."
"A gift?"
"Stand before me one at a time. Based on your performance in this test, you will be given a skill worthy of it."
What?
If that was a thing, it should've told us sooner.
With pounding hearts, we lined up in an orderly row.
Footnotes:
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