WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Episode 65

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The proper time to enter an eleventh-floor Sub-Temple was at exactly the right moment.

But that didn't mean when the temple opened.

The best time was long after it opened, just before loot appeared on the altar.

"Don't you want to secure a spot first?"

"It only matters if we get out alive with the loot."

When Crows and hyenas kept flocking in, the last group to arrive had the advantage.

The earlier teams would have spent a lot of energy fighting.

Of course, we hadn't occupied the building without thinking it through.

If the last group to arrive always won, there'd be no game to speak of.

Sometimes, the first team there could sweep up everything and leave.

"When does that happen?"

"When the first team is overwhelmingly strong."

For a team that had already fought once, we'd suffered barely any attrition.

In my opinion, the first ones to attack mattered most.

They were likely the strongest and most confident.

"How long until the loot appears?"

"They say it'll appear once the light shining on the temple completely fades. It could be thirty minutes or an hour. Nobody knows."

Apparently, it usually didn't take two hours.

Still, that was a long time.

I couldn't waste it.

I diligently set up traps and obstacles. Using Reconstruction, I turned the chairs scattered throughout the temple into obstacles and placed them outside.

They were wooden, but that was better than nothing.

I could feel eyes on us from afar.

I warned them.

"If you cross this line, we'll attack!"

It wasn't like elementary school kids drawing lines between their desks.

I'd have liked to make it more substantial, but I had no choice.

All I could do was make the most of what we had.

Yuki, who was inside, had prepared snacks and drinks.

"Team Leader, have some snacks."

"Ah, thanks."

I'd been thirsty in the basement earlier.

But it hadn't exactly been an environment where I could eat or drink anything.

I felt like I'd catch some disease.

Unfortunately, the other hunters had no intention of quietly watching us claim the loot.

The Warrior Temple wasn't very popular, but Sub-Temples served as footholds for conquering the Great Temple.

Without occupying at least one, nobody could even get near the Great Temple in the very center.

"Team Leader, movement northeast!"

At Sang Hajun's shout, I rushed outside.

A group of Dwarf hunters emerged from the forest.

They probably intended to drive us out quickly and fortify this place.

"Stop! Don't come any closer!"

"Hmph, newcomers like you dare..."

"Run while you still can!"

So even the hunter world had territorial behavior.

I should stamp out this bad culture quickly, shouldn't I?

One Dwarf strode forward at the front of the formation.

The armor was clearly on another level.

The aura leaking from it was so strong that the nearby scenery seemed slightly distorted.

The Dwarves in the back were more lightly equipped, but they still wore solid armor.

"Team Leader?"

"They don't seem to have firearms. Let them come closer."

I didn't want to reveal our hand already...

After giving it some thought, I decided to use Smoke Screen.

It was a skill that could easily work in the attacker's favor.

So I'd throw it as far beyond them as possible.

"Hup!"

Apparently, hand-thrown grenades didn't even travel fifty meters.

Fortunately, I had strength beyond human limits.

[Physical Technique skill transcended, Inhuman Strength skill activated]

I gave up on accuracy to some extent and hurled a whole bunch as far as I could.

Since it was a skill, they flew much farther than ordinary smoke grenades.

Pshhh...

Smoke spread behind the Dwarves.

"What was that? They use strange weapons."

"It's fine. We're direct subordinates of the Iron Lord!"

The Iron Lord was basically the king of the Dwarves.

Even if they were direct subordinates, only the one at the front probably was.

And even that one was likely at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Otherwise, why would they be wandering around the eleventh floor?

"Open fire."

Once Sang Hajun confirmed they had reached the obstacles, he immediately fired.

Baaang!

A .338 Lapua Magnum round slammed into a Dwarf's shield.

Tiiing!

It ricocheted with a sharp metallic clang.

As expected, it was difficult to punch through high-quality Enchanted armor from the front.

Should I bring a .50-caliber weapon next time?

It probably wouldn't make much difference.

"Y-you insolent bastards..."

The startled Dwarves lined up and hid behind the one at the front.

Their small stature made that possible.

A grenade would clean them up nicely here, but they were still too far away.

"Juwon!"

"Got it. I didn't think we'd be using this already."

Han Juwon pulled out their secret weapon.

It was a multi-shot grenade launcher they had brought after optimizing their points this time.

It used 40mm grenades and could fire them much farther and more accurately than throwing them by hand.

For the record, it wasn't Enchanted.

Even so, it consumed enough points that we could only bring one.

"Hajun, distance?"

"About 250 meters from the entrance!"

Thunk!

The heavy launch sound answered for them.

Boom!

The Dwarves were startled as a grenade suddenly hit them.

Two who had been relatively close were caught in the explosion and collapsed.

"Aaargh!?"

"How does a newly arrived race have such powerful artifacts..."

The surviving Dwarves hurriedly tried to retreat.

But retreat was supposedly the hardest operation in the world.

After taking a hard hit and being driven back, it was only natural that they lost control.

Bang, baaang!

The fleeing Dwarves fell one after another under continued gunfire.

Only the leader at the front remained.

True to a direct subordinate of the Iron Lord, they were also the fastest to run away.

'The Smoke Screen won't last much longer.'

I didn't bother chasing the one that got away.

Instead, I quickly collected the loot.

Crack!

Using Reconstruction, I stripped off their equipment and took their backpacks too.

It was still much better than the Undead Hunters' loot earlier.

By the time I hurried back into the temple, the smoke had been swept away by the wind.

The hunters watching from afar quietly expressed their admiration.

"A hunter team was routed in an instant?"

"They even stripped all the loot off them already. They're pretty skilled."

"They're a newly arrived race, so they must've cleared up to the tenth floor before coming here. We shouldn't provoke them for no reason."

That was exactly the reaction I wanted.

As humanity's vanguard, we were taking on this challenge...

If we were underestimated, the later groups might end up paying in blood for it.

Creak...

Back inside the temple at last, I examined the loot.

The weapons stood out the most...

The Dwarves' weapons lived up to their reputation.

They all used weapons unusually large for their stature.

Most were polearms.

"Why are they so big?"

"Because their opponents won't be that small. They also need to overcome the Dwarves' naturally short reach as much as possible."

There was no way we could use them.

But if we stored them as they were, they would take up far too much space.

Holding back tears, I activated Reconstruction.

Using it like this would erase all the Enchantments on the equipment, but that couldn't be helped.

Besides, their Enchantments didn't seem that much better than mine anyway.

Crack!

All the Dwarf-made weapons turned into large ingots.

The material itself was extremely high quality.

It was probably a grade above the Ultra-Alloy we used.

"All done."

"I'll carry them! Ugh, they're heavy..."

"They're literally chunks of metal."

There was no time to leisurely inspect the loot.

As I picked at some snacks again, another hunter team stepped forward.

This time, they were Lizardmen.

"C-Commander! Are we really going?"

"They must've already used their artifacts on those Dwarves. Attacking now is better!"

Their voices were clearly picked up by the glass marbles Sang Hajun had set up before they arrived.

It seemed everyone thought our guns were artifacts...

That actually made them less afraid.

It was common knowledge that powerful artifacts required time to recharge.

"Those idiots... They really aren't scared."

"Because the earlier fight was obscured by Smoke Screen."

They hadn't seen things properly, so they couldn't judge the situation.

I decided to show them.

This group had spread out from the start, and two of them were nowhere to be seen.

Shhhk!

The figures approaching from a distance vanished from the world.

"Camouflage skill!"

Baaang!

Sang Hajun dropped one with his sniper rifle.

Since Detection was an S-rank skill focused entirely on searching, it naturally detected even invisibility.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

I detected the other one with Complete Senses and fired, but the target quickly twisted away and fled.

It wasn't easy to catch someone determined to escape.

'They make decisions fast.'

Would the two who had split off earlier be the same?

I felt a presence approaching through the underground passage and turned around.

Looking at my teammates, I mouthed the words.

'Someone scream...'

"Aaaah!!"

When Yuki let out a fake scream, the impatient Lizardmen immediately began their attack.

Click, boom!

The wire trap activated at once.

The moment they kicked open the door, they were showered with fragments.

"Ugh..."

That made two more.

The eleventh floor might be full of every race's riffraff, but this was too easy, wasn't it?

Han Juwon shredded one stubbornly approaching Lizardman with their machine gun.

"Are we... pretty strong?"

The Tower got harder as time passed, so of course we were.

Still, I didn't like saying that out loud.

"You saying that makes me feel uneasy."

"Ah, sorry..."

"But this time, we showed them the guns. They got too close too fast for us to spread Smoke Screen, right?"

"That's part of it, but they'll find out eventually anyway."

Surprisingly, we weren't that concerned about other races learning about firearms.

There were obvious limits to what they could do with them anyway.

The inside quickly became quiet, but the hunters outside seemed to think differently.

"N-now! Let's go too!"

"If we're too late, they'll take everything!"

"No. It looks like everyone will go eventually, so let's watch the situation a little longer..."

This was driving me crazy.

We had hidden our information so well that they thought it was worth trying.

Boom!

Only after we repelled two more attacks did they finally quiet down a little.

We had plenty of loot, but we'd used up a lot too.

"Team Leader, I need some 4.6mm rounds..."

"Take them!"

We were replenishing ammunition with the Alchemist's Ammunition Box and loading magazines when the sunlight shining down on the temple finally stopped.

At the same time, an unfamiliar figure appeared on the altar.

Flaaash!

"Huh?"

"Who dares trample the Warrior God's Temple with filthy feet!"

A fully armored Giant of Light sprang out.

It was a mid-boss that sometimes appeared alongside high-grade loot.

That was another reason the Warrior God's Temple was especially unpopular.

As a servant of the Warrior God, its combat strength was considerable.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

"Graaah!"

Yet the mid-boss couldn't properly respond to our concentrated fire and fell.

Our firepower wasn't even comparable to the seventh-floor boss fight.

"W-what? Is it dead?"

"I secured the loot!"

The loot was a small star-shaped talisman.

The moment I picked it up, I knew we had hit the jackpot.

These talisman-type items had somewhat weak effects, but they only needed to be carried, not actively used.

They really were talismans.

Demand was high and supply was incredibly low, making them among the most valuable items obtainable on the eleventh floor.

That didn't make them all-purpose, though.

If two talismans had poor compatibility, they interfered with each other and their effects were canceled out.

Of course, that was only a drawback if you had more than one talisman.

"It's over, right?"

"Yes, there's nothing more to see here..."

Just as I was seriously considering whether we should try conquering the Great Temple, Sang Hajun frantically gestured out the window.

The hunters still watching us were making a commotion.

"Look! It's Count Kwatum! They must've come down from the fourteenth floor!"

"Why is a Lizardman noble here? Their expedition must've gone seriously wrong."

"Be careful! That bastard has a terrible temper! If you catch their attention, you might die."

The fourteenth floor?

I hadn't expected a hunter from the upper floors to appear this quickly.

Kaellis, sleeping inside me, shouted more urgently than ever before.

[Run!]

'What? Don't you think we can take them?'

[No chance. It's a fully equipped hunter team from the fourteenth floor. If you fight them, you will die.]

Then again, Kaellis was effectively a hunter from the sixteenth floor.

But the fight against us had been five against one.

He hadn't even had proper equipment or skills.

It wasn't a fair comparison.

We had already killed Lizardmen, so there was very little chance they would let us go.

Why would they, when they had such a good excuse?

A hunter from the fourteenth floor had come down to the eleventh just to slaughter weaker people one-sidedly.

I should rise that high someday and oppress others too.

"Everyone, fall back underground!"

My teammates followed my order without complaint.

But the presence of the Lizardman team behind us refused to fall away.

We had planted explosives in the temple's underground passage, but they didn't come that way.

I had planned to collapse the passage and block the route if necessary, but it didn't work.

'Since two Lizardmen attacked us earlier, there must be a nearby underground passage.'

We hurried onward, but they steadily pursued us.

They knew the paths extremely well, making them hard to shake off.

'They know we got loot from the temple, so they're following us.'

There was a risk of ambushes in the Underground Labyrinth.

Would it be better to lose them in the forest instead?

If things went wrong, we could escape like this.

My Subspace Backpack was almost full from the victims' loot anyway.

'Kaellis, where are the closest stairs?'

[Go up the stairs on the left. You'll come out into a forest.]

Since Kaellis was finished if I died, he was being very cooperative.

We quickly crossed the Underground Labyrinth and reached the edge of the forest.

But there was a cabin that hadn't been in the information we'd gathered.

It had a yard and a fence, and it felt strangely lived-in.

'It wasn't in the information we got, so it must not be a major structure?'

The moment Kaellis saw it, he exclaimed in amazement.

[This is crazy. I can't believe that bastard Orca is still alive!]

'... Orca?'

When I looked confused, he explained quickly.

[Orca is a hunter who lived on the eleventh floor without leaving the Tower. In their prime, they had experience tackling even the fifteenth floor!]

'What? Why wouldn't a hunter that strong leave the Tower?'

[Nobody knows. Whales can stay underwater for a long time, right? Orca's stays in the Tower kept getting longer and longer... Then one day, they stopped escaping altogether.]

Ah, so the nickname came from being famous for long-term stays in the Tower.

'You know Orca, right? Do you think we'll be welcomed?'

[We weren't that close, so don't expect much. There were rumors that Orca attacked anyone who got near without warning. They're probably still the same.]

Danger in front of us, danger behind us.

Still... this side was probably less dangerous.

At least Orca was alone.

If we fought the Lizardmen like this, we would definitely lose. But if Orca joined in, it would become a three-way fight.

If I used all my skills, I could probably get out when it mattered.

Besides, I couldn't sense any presence inside Orca's house.

Orca might have gone out for a while.

"... Everyone, get inside!"

We hurried over the fence and took up positions inside.

Footnotes:

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