WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 66: Episode 66

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Orca's cabin was built to be highly defensible.

All sorts of obstacles and barricades.

It really felt like a hunter's work.

'Looks like it's been empty for a while. Did they go traveling?'

After quickly surveying the interior, which still held faint traces of life, I took up a defensive position.

Even though they were a hunter team from the fourteenth floor, I had no intention of going down without a fight.

I'd show them what humanity's obsession with finding ways to kill people with a single click of a finger could do.

Whoosh!

Soon after, the Lizardman hunter team came up the underground stairs.

Was that Count Kwatum?

Count Kwatum was definitely a Lizardman with an air of nobility. Their white skin made them stand out at once.

Even without judging by Lizardman standards, they were fairly handsome.

Compared to the other Lizardmen nearby, the difference was obvious.

If they had reached the fourteenth floor, they probably hadn't stagnated yet.

"Hm? This place is..."

"Those crazy bastards. They went into Orca's house?"

"What should we do?"

The other Lizardmen whispered among themselves before asking the count.

Orca really was a famous figure on the eleventh floor.

Not only did they all recognize the place immediately, they were clearly wary of it. If Orca had been easy prey, they wouldn't have survived this long.

"... There's no need to do something as stupid as fighting Orca in the forest. We'll withdraw for now."

They were backing off right away because it seemed even a little dangerous.

Cowards.

Still, when they actually withdrew, a sense of self-loathing washed over me.

We had to run from people like them because we couldn't beat them.

Besides... the fact that they gave up so easily wasn't a good sign either.

We might have fled from wild dogs straight into a tiger's den.

The team members, who hadn't fully grasped the situation yet, spoke in a rush.

"They left? Where are we?"

"I think this is a hunter named Orca's home."

"What? This was a hunter's house?"

I wanted to leave immediately.

A deranged hunter who had reached the fifteenth floor probably wouldn't be forgiving toward trespassers.

But the Lizardmen might be lying in wait nearby.

"It looks like they'll go raid the temple if we wait a little..."

"The exit is far from here, right?"

"Yes, we still have a ways to go."

We already had enough loot, so there was nothing to regret about escaping right away.

As I agonized over it, I sensed a presence in the forest behind the cabin.

'The owner?'

Should we leave now?

The other party didn't give us much time to decide.

Thud!

Heavy footsteps.

They sounded more like an animal's than a hunter's.

I immediately complained to Kaellis.

'... Wasn't Orca an elf?'

Kaellis had said Orca was an acquaintance, so I'd naturally assumed they were an elf.

It wasn't like Kaellis seemed sociable enough to get along with hunters from other races.

[Orca was originally a druid, so they have the ability to transform.]

'Could you tell me that first next time?'

Having noticed our presence, Orca prowled around the backyard.

There was no point in running now.

We'd only look like easier prey to chase.

I slowly walked into the forest behind the cabin and looked at Orca.

"..."

Orca had transformed into a massive bear.

One look was enough to tell that it wasn't an ordinary monster.

[That's a Stonehide Bear. Your race's weapons won't work very well against it.]

Even though I thought I couldn't show the slightest sign of hostility, my survival instincts activated the Four Seasons skill on their own.

My senses expanded in an instant, and I read my opponent's condition.

'Hm? Something's strange...'

The bear seemed oddly unsteady.

I wondered if it had been poisoned, but...

Could a hunter who had reached the fifteenth floor really be affected by poison?

Elves should know plenty about plants, including antidotal herbs.

"Grrr..."

There wasn't even a shred of reason in that growl.

The bear lunged at me.

Whoosh!

'Ghk!'

I instinctively used Gale Boots to evade.

Since this was the eleventh floor, they recharged quickly.

It would've been dangerous on a lower floor.

Even though I had been on guard, I nearly missed the timing.

The others couldn't shoot the bear for fear of hitting me.

"C-captain!"

"Don't shoot! Everyone, fall back!"

Whoosh!

The bear changed direction with shocking agility and swung a forepaw.

I accelerated and dodged again.

There was no opening to counterattack with my dagger.

On top of that, something had felt off ever since earlier.

This thing swayed a little even when it attacked.

Looking closer, the bear's eyes looked completely crazed.

'Could it be...?'

I'd definitely seen symptoms like this somewhere before.

My left hand quickly searched through my Subspace Pouch.

That was where I kept emergency medicine.

Swish.

I threw a potion bottle into the mouth of the charging beast.

Crunch!

The bear, as large as a house, casually chewed and swallowed it.

The sound of glass breaking between its teeth was horrifying.

"W-what did you feed it?"

"A Potion of Spirit Life."

It was a potion made from Spirit-Nourishing Grass, which purified mental corruption.

I'd brought one just in case.

Since I had the Undying Blood skill, mental attacks were far more threatening to me.

I made it myself, so the effects should be pretty good...

A bear wouldn't need a larger dose, would it?

Fortunately, the bear's body jerked hard, and its eyes returned to normal.

"Guhk...!"

The bear rolled across the ground once, then gradually shrank and transformed into an elf.

Kaellis exclaimed from inside me.

[Was it Soul Erosion?!]

'Something similar, probably.'

I had noticed it as soon as we were summoned into the Underground Labyrinth.

The eleventh floor also had a field effect similar to the ninth floor's.

Of course, compared to the Soul Erosion on the ninth floor, this was only a mild version.

It wouldn't have much effect unless someone stayed in the Underground Labyrinth for a long time.

But Orca had remained on the eleventh floor for too long.

Orca's cabin also happened to be right in front of the Underground Labyrinth stairs.

After being poisoned by the malignant energy leaking from there for decades, the symptoms must have finally appeared.

The team members listened to my explanation and spoke as if they couldn't believe it.

"That energy accumulated in Orca's body for decades... But couldn't one piece of Spirit-Nourishing Grass solve it?"

"Spirit-Nourishing Grass doesn't grow on the eleventh floor."

"Oh, really?"

Spirit-Nourishing Grass was basically like a weed, so it grew well in the wild.

Still, it needed at least the right conditions to survive.

"The Spirit-Nourishing Grass colony we found on the ninth floor was exposed to sunlight. The sunlight here is too weak."

"Ah, I see. The eleventh floor only gets sunlight near the temple, and even then, only briefly."

Thanks to that, the forest was so gloomy that it made you wonder how the trees grew without getting any proper sunlight.

The symptoms had appeared so slowly that Orca probably never realized it was Soul Erosion in the first place.

Orca probably thought they had gone mad from living alone for too long.

"Wow, that's really scary when you put it that way."

When Yuki said that, everyone agreed.

"Mental illness is scary..."

"... Why are you all looking at me while saying that?"

"Ghk."

By then, Orca had finally regained their senses and stood up.

We could've killed Orca like this, but I didn't particularly want to.

Maybe it was because Orca was a druid, but they weren't wearing any decent equipment.

Most of it probably couldn't be used while transformed anyway.

The person who appeared was a tall elf woman.

For someone living in the forest, she had a fairly solid build.

She wore clothes made from natural materials like leather and vines, but her hair was so long that her face was barely visible.

"Orca was a woman?"

"Who are you people? What have you done, breaking in here...?"

"Uh... hello."

When I awkwardly greeted her, a fierce glint shone from between her tangled hair.

"That technique you used... it belongs to Kaellis. What is your relationship with him?"

'What?'

She'd only caught a glimpse of it once earlier... and she hadn't even been in her right mind at the time.

She recognized it right away?

As expected of a veteran hunter, her eye for detail was no joke.

A lack of observation in the Tower meant death.

"... I met him as the Island Keeper on the ninth floor. Kaellis asked me to pass along his regards."

"I see. As the Island Keeper..."

Orca's expression softened slightly as she pointed toward the cabin.

"Come inside for now. I'll treat you as guests."

The inside of the cabin was very neat.

It felt like it had only the bare minimum of furniture and belongings.

Naturally, most of it was handmade.

Sang Hajun looked quite impressed.

"Is this what minimalism is? I want my house to be like this too."

"Sit if you can."

Orca sat down as she spoke.

She was boiling tea in a kettle.

"Whew, it's pretty cozy when you look at it like this."

"Living in the Tower long-term... that's amazing."

The team finally relaxed.

Orca seemed like an incredibly powerful hunter, so the Lizardmen from earlier probably wouldn't dare attack carelessly.

She had already figured out what had happened to her.

"To think I'd end up suffering from Soul Erosion now... The incubation period was so long that I noticed too late. If there had been even wild Spirit-Nourishing Grass, I would've instinctively picked and eaten it."

"You've managed to live in a place like this remarkably well."

"There's no problem aside from hunters occasionally being a nuisance. Still, how should I repay you...?"

I hadn't expected her to bring it up first.

Maybe she was the kind of person who couldn't live with owing someone.

I'd heard hunters were quite strict about repaying kindness and enmity.

It was probably because their profession was so extreme.

"As you can see, I'm not particularly well-off. I only keep the bare minimum of hunter equipment that I use myself."

"Even after living on the eleventh floor for decades?"

Maybe Kim Yuna's remark hurt her pride a little.

Orca defended herself vigorously.

"Destroying nature through greed is not the way of a druid."

"... Well, I could tell just from the interior."

"Besides, if someone living alone in the forest has treasures, they only become a target for other hunters."

That was true.

I decided not to get greedy for no reason.

Orca was still a powerful hunter.

There was no need to make her dislike us.

"It's enough that you drove away the Lizardmen."

"Those ones from earlier?"

"If they attack us again later, could you help us? At least until we leave?"

When Yuki asked, Orca shook her head.

"I don't want to become enemies with the Lizardmen for no reason. Still, if they attack near my house, I'll help you."

"... We'll run here if it comes to that."

It was still good to have a base.

We maintained our equipment and had a proper meal.

It was only our first day, so we still had plenty of food.

Orca eyed our supplies.

"Mmm..."

"Would you like some?"

"I'd be grateful if you gave me some."

I'd experienced it on the ninth floor too, but wild food wasn't all that great.

As we ate together, the atmosphere relaxed a little.

"I actually raise a rabbit..."

"Those creatures are difficult to toilet train. Your race is surprisingly similar to elves."

We spent the night in the cabin.

Perhaps Orca had needed someone to talk to as well, because the conversation progressed fairly quickly.

"But why don't you leave here, Orca?"

"... I thought there was no longer a place for me in the world outside the Tower."

She told us more readily than expected.

"I couldn't stop the times from changing, nor could I adapt to the changed times."

"Is that why you stopped climbing the Tower?"

"Most of the companions I climbed the Tower with either retired or became high-ranking nobles and bowed out. Quite a few were assassinated after clashing with existing powers."

"..."

'After the Tower opened, powerful hunters became kings and lords...' was probably an overly simplified summary.

If we looked into it properly, there would be a bloody history behind it.

"So you went into seclusion."

"That too... but I also had some debt."

"... What?"

The team members, who had been patting their full stomachs after breakfast, froze completely.

An unexpected confession, out of nowhere?

"Credit transactions are more dangerous than you think. I borrowed some gold, but it snowballed in only about ten years..."

Compound interest was fatal to elves with a loose sense of time.

I suddenly saw her a little differently.

She went from a proud hunter who had turned her back on the world to an ordinary debtor.

"What did you get into debt for?"

"I just placed money on the results of hunters' expeditions. Then it kept growing bit by bit..."

Gambling?

That was the worst.

Didn't she say druids didn't indulge their greed?

Maybe she had learned her lesson after getting burned once.

She added something, perhaps to restore her honor.

"The decisive reason was the Death Priest War."

What?

The Death Priests had fought a war too?

There was nowhere those people didn't get involved.

She could tell the answer from my face alone.

"It seems you know nothing about it. Your race hasn't been in the Tower long, has it?"

"We're the advance party of our race. What was the Death Priest War?"

"Some time ago, a Hunter Lord of one race declared eternal rule and gathered an alliance to oppose the Death Priests. The Death Priests were nearly the only threat to the Hunter Lords."

That certainly sounded plausible.

"Just as other races were sending positive responses... the war ended in a single day."

"In one day?"

"The Death Priests issued a summons. It was the quietest and swiftest war across all dimensions. When dawn came, nothing in the royal palace was alive. They say they killed not only the servants, but even the dogs they kept."

"..."

That was pretty barbaric.

So not all Death Priests were good people?

"What does that have to do with living in seclusion?"

"The lords, who felt threatened by the Death Priest War, tried to force me into their ranks. They used my small debt as an excuse... The Hunter Lords were behind the debt collectors, so there was really no way out."

The Death Priests had won the war...

But the lords' hostility seemed to have grown even worse.

No wonder it had felt strange that she chose the eleventh floor.

Had she come here to avoid the elf lords?

Otherwise, she would have settled somewhere below the tenth floor, where life was easier and safer.

Orca hesitated for a moment before speaking to me.

"How did the conversation get so far off track? Anyway, it's not like I have nothing to give you in return. I don't have any valuable items, but I do have information."

"Information?"

I listened closely.

Orca had experience tackling the fifteenth floor.

For us, she was the best teacher we could ask for.

"It looks like you roughly understand the eleventh floor's gimmick... but there's still a hidden gimmick that even I don't fully understand."

"Huh... where is it?"

A hidden gimmick in the Tower meant an exceptional reward.

"Decades ago, while wandering through the Underground Labyrinth, I discovered a hidden area. By chance, I saw a hunter going in and out of it."

"Then... you never went in yourself?"

"That's right. Curiosity isn't good for a long life. If you get the chance later, it wouldn't be bad to check it out once."

I listened to her description of the place as closely as possible.

Footnotes:

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