WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 6

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'Well, I'm screwed.'

At some point, my left arm stopped moving.

Even if I could move it, it felt like I shouldn't. It hurt like hell whenever I touched it.

Using my healthy right arm, I thoroughly looted the entire Mining Village.

Complete Senses let me roughly tell where the loot was, which saved time.

Luckily, I secured a decent amount of food.

If I rationed it, I could survive alone for two weeks.

'I wish I'd found a bigger backpack.'

I'd grown quite a bit stronger since entering the tower, so a backpack this size felt light.

It was probably because Physical Technique and my other skills had gone up.

There wasn't enough room in my backpack, so I stuffed supplies into every pocket of my Cold-Weather Clothes.

I found several military rations too, but they were bulkier than expected, so I couldn't carry many...

Still, I made sure to take one.

I needed something that resembled a proper meal every now and then.

There was loot besides food.

It might have been a lousy area, but after looting the entire village, I did find a few useful things.

A Gas Mask.

Since I'd picked it up in the village, it was obviously an item made in the tower.

I grabbed some clean cloth as well, then quickly left the village.

This wasn't somewhere I could stay for long.

The village was the biggest landmark on the sixth-floor surface.

Thanks to that, I could now roughly guess where the Descent Exit was.

But I didn't head straight for the exit.

I moved to an uninhabited area on the outskirts like before, then picked up my entrenching shovel again.

"Urgh..."

No matter how light snow was, digging with one arm was hell.

Without Sleight of Hand, I probably couldn't have dug a hole at all.

Unlike in the game, even ordinary skills were powerful enough that I could feel the difference whenever they went up by one level.

[Sleight of Hand skill level has increased to 5.]

[Regeneration skill level has increased to 2.]

After barely finishing the snow trench and closing the roof, I spread Snowfield Troll Hide across the floor.

With trembling hands, I took out the heart and activated it.

Fwoosh!

The cold on the sixth-floor surface couldn't be driven away just by starting a fire.

The debuff here was Soul Freeze.

In the game, it reduced your maximum health.

To overcome Soul Freeze, you needed to use a Thermal Kit or an [Ever-Burning Heart], as I was doing now.

Or you could enter the far more dangerous underground area.

Thankfully, the heart's performance was no joke.

It didn't need fuel, and it was hot enough to cook with.

Killing the Hellhound Handler had been worth the trouble.

The Snowfield Troll Hide made my shelter much cozier.

That monster had ruined my arm, but its fur was definitely worth praising.

I boiled water, cooked, and fell asleep as if I were dead as soon as I finished eating.

[Regeneration skill level has increased to 3.]

How many hours had I slept?

I woke to the skill-level notification and cooked again.

My left arm was still in bad shape.

I planned to focus on recovering until I could at least move it despite the pain.

Looking at the heart giving off heat, something suddenly occurred to me...

Couldn't I have just melted the snow with the heart instead of struggling to dig?

Still, Sleight of Hand had gone up because of it, so it didn't matter.

And maybe fluffy snow walls were better than a solid block of ice.

"Urgh..."

My arm did seem to be getting better slowly.

When I lay down again, I felt the intense cold all over again.

Not because of the snow or wind.

'I'm lonely as hell.'

I thought I was used to being alone.

Apparently, I wasn't.

So this was what it felt like to be left alone in the world.

I was so lonely that I even thought about the owner of the place where I worked part-time and the regular customers.

Come to think of it, maybe I'd started streaming because I was lonely.

Being hurt filled my head with all kinds of stupid thoughts.

Like an animal hibernating, I closed my eyes again.

[Regeneration skill level has increased to 4.]

My arm healed faster and faster.

By the time I woke up for the third time, most of the swelling had gone down, and I could move it a little.

I still had plenty of food, so I decided to run an experiment while I was at it.

I heated a piece of metal in the fire and made several small wounds on my extremities.

Normally, that would be a great way to get an infection, but I had some disinfectant and used it too.

"Tch."

Thanks to Regeneration, the wounds healed quickly.

Would this make Regeneration level up faster?

The result, after waiting another two days, was negative.

[Regeneration skill level has increased to 5.]

'Doesn't seem any faster.'

Even considering that the experience requirement had increased, the effect was almost nonexistent.

Then again, if raising skill levels were that easy, information about upper skills would have been released long ago.

I was finally starting to understand how skill levels increased.

The reason my Stealth and Detection levels had risen abnormally fast was that I'd not only hogged the experience meant for five people, but also been in situations where Stealth and Detection were genuinely necessary.

'Looks like there's no easy way to raise them.'

Maybe I could raise Regeneration rapidly if I made bigger wounds...

But doing that would interfere with my escape.

It wasn't like I had that much food to spare.

[Regeneration skill level has increased to 6.]

In the end, after a whole week, I declared myself fully recovered.

It was time to leave the sixth floor.

Using my healed arm, I draped the Snowfield Troll Hide over my cloak.

With the white hide over me, I wouldn't be easy to spot even if the blizzard stopped.

'Ah... I want a bath.'

I hadn't properly washed in over ten days, so I desperately wanted one.

I needed to wash properly, if only because of the smell.

All I could do was heat water with the heart, wet a cloth, and wipe myself down.

I considered digging a hole in the ground and making a bathhouse, but it would obviously turn into a mud bath.

'There was a bathtub in the Mining Village.'

I'd left it behind because it had been too big to carry with one arm, yet I was thinking about it now.

I shook off the stray thoughts, packed up my shelter, and headed for the Descent Exit.

The nearest exit was a half-collapsed tunnel.

Its broad approach made it a poor place for an ambush.

Besides, blizzards constantly swept across the sixth-floor surface.

Not many idiots would wait in ambush somewhere like this.

But there were always exceptions.

'What's with that person?'

Complete Senses picked up a hunter.

Luckily, the blizzard kept them from noticing me.

Not even a team, just a single hunter.

They were an Eastern Bloc hunter with poor equipment.

'Did they get separated from their team?'

A scenario naturally came to mind.

They had probably been forcibly separated from their teammates.

That wasn't uncommon when exploring the maze-like underground area of the sixth floor.

Still, they had luckily escaped to the surface and reached the Descent Exit...

But they couldn't bring themself to escape the fifth floor alone.

To secure extra supplies, they had to attack hunters passing through here.

If things went wrong, they could always slip through the Descent Exit.

It was low risk, high return.

They probably planned to stay in ambush only until they had used every Thermal Kit they had.

'The Thermal Kits would just be baggage on the lower floors anyway. The Interfloor Merchant wouldn't pay much for them, either.'

It didn't seem like I needed to fight, so I decided to wait for now.

I crawled closer through the snow as slowly as a turtle.

With the blizzard raging, I wouldn't be spotted.

But... something was strange.

I took my time moving closer, but even after several hours, they didn't enter the exit.

'Get in already!'

I could no longer ignore the Soul Freeze building up in my body.

The Snowfield Troll Hide was the only reason I could endure it.

Did they have a huge supply of Thermal Kits?

No.

They were hiding there, shivering.

The Thermal Kit's effect had run out long ago.

They were deeper inside the tunnel, so they were better off than I was...

But after waiting this long, they had to be in terrible pain.

'... They can't leave.'

From the look of it, they'd run out of some essential supply, whether it was food or something else.

They didn't have any loot worth selling to the Interfloor Merchant either.

Selling their gun or armor to the Interfloor Merchant?

That was practically suicide.

I was the crazy one for trying to escape the sixth floor with a pistol and a dagger.

It was driving me insane too.

'Please, go.'

No matter how many times I begged internally, they didn't budge.

To make matters worse, the blizzard was slowly weakening.

This was dangerous.

If the blizzard stopped completely, I wouldn't even be able to approach.

As my body, and even my soul, kept freezing, my head grew so hot it ached.

No matter how I thought about it, the blizzard would stop before they froze to death.

If another team approached right now, I was dead.

The effect of Stealth dropped sharply when its user moved.

Passing them by was impossible too.

'I have no choice.'

If I hesitated any longer, I would lose my chance to move.

I'd kill them, then pass through the Descent Exit.

Once I made up my mind, I focused every sense on them.

Their equipment wasn't great, but it was still leagues beyond mine.

The rifle in particular had been customized with expensive parts.

They could kill me with the pull of a trigger.

Most of their armor seemed broken, but it would probably block any number of rounds from my pathetic pistol.

The dagger I had was clearly an overpowered weapon, but I still had to get close and stab them myself.

That was why I'd paid the Interfloor Merchant so much money for a pistol.

'This thing works properly, right?'

I looked down at the pistol in my right hand, uncertain.

If the bullets didn't fire because it was frozen, I'd be seriously pissed.

Hoo.

I silently let out a deep breath, then held the dagger in my left hand.

I had to move before the blizzard stopped completely.

Luckily, there were plenty of obstacles and junk along the line of attack, limiting their view.

They were watching a wide area alone, so the barrel of their gun wasn't pointed at me.

If they spotted me, they would shoot without hesitation.

I couldn't hesitate either.

After going over the plan one last time, I took a can of fish from my backpack.

It was the horrible canned fish.

I'd carried it so it wouldn't leave a trail behind, but I never thought I'd use it here.

'Go!'

Spurring myself on, I threw the can hard into the depths of the tunnel.

Clang!

The distinct crumpling sound of a can echoed out.

It was faint, but they didn't miss it.

"Gasp! W-who..."

The moment the gun barrel turned completely away, I rose.

Whoosh!

At full speed, I closed the distance in an instant.

They spotted me too late, leaned out slightly, and swung their gun toward me.

Pfft! Pfft!

I fired the pistol wildly as I ran.

I aimed for their arm.

It wasn't protected by armor.

I emptied the pistol's only magazine at them without holding back.

"Aaargh!"

Luckily, one shot seemed to hit.

The gun barrel aimed at me wavered.

I threw my whole body at them.

All I had to do now was stab them with the dagger.

Then, they raised their one relatively healthy arm.

Blue electricity flashed from their fingertips.

'A Basic Skill!'

The dagger moved faster than thought.

Stab!

The moment it hit, the light went out in their eyes.

"Gasp! Haaah... Hah!"

[Physical Technique skill level has increased to 4.]

Breathing frantically, I quickly collected their equipment.

The feeling of stripping a fresh corpse...

"Ugh..."

I didn't apologize to the dead.

If I did, I wouldn't be able to endure it.

Dragging the backpack and luggage behind me, I staggered into the tunnel.

A steep stone staircase appeared in the darkness.

Footnotes:

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