WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 76: Episode 76

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The fierce wind made my body creak.

I thought I'd recovered enough to trade blows with the boss, but I was wrong. My senses must've only gone numb because it was an emergency.

"Whew..."

Still, there was work to do.

We searched through the loot. A chest unique to Mini Dungeons was waiting for us.

"What do you think we'll get this time?"

"Maybe something similar to a Stabilizing Stone?"

"That'd be a shame... It doesn't seem very versatile."

Click!

Once the chest confirmed all five of us, it opened to reveal a large chunk of wood.

"... What's this supposed to be?"

"My Appraisal skill can't identify it."

Tap.

[Wish Tree Fragment: A material with exceptional durability and mana responsiveness. Excellent for making bows or staffs.]

"It's a crafting material."

Since each team could only obtain it once, it would probably sell for whatever price someone was willing to pay.

We took the dragon's corpse as loot as well, then left through the portal.

The wishes bound to the dead Wish Tree saw us off.

Flash!

[Collapsing Spiral Tower escape complete]

[Trait, One at the Summit acquired. Balance and terrain correction at high or unstable locations...]

[Transcendence skill level has increased to 9.]

Transcendence was finally level 9.

Would something happen once it hit max level?

Oh, right. Transcendence wasn't an Upper Skill, was it?

Did Basic Skills have Upper Skills too?

"Alpha Team, returning!"

As soon as I washed up, I was dragged to the hospital.

"No, really... I'm all better. Do I really need to be examined?"

Han Juwon snapped at me.

"Are you really in a position to say that after getting one arm cut off and growing it back? Your body's still shaking."

"Um..."

"Please make sure he gets a private room."

Yuki repeatedly stressed it to the staff.

Thanks to that, I got a private room.

First came a long series of tests, then the admission process, and finally the room.

When the doctors heard that my arm had been severed and regenerated, their expressions were something to see. Doctors from different departments gathered together, seriously discussing it among themselves.

"Did the muscle mass decrease when it regenerated?"

"What about infection or inflammation..."

I was finally freed from them and entered my room, where a wide assortment of medicine was waiting for me.

The nurse kindly explained each one.

"This is an antibiotic, and this is a painkiller..."

"Ah, please leave out the painkillers."

"... Excuse me? Do you have an allergy you didn't mention?"

"No. I usually recover faster if I'm in pain."

The Pain Seal's effect applied to Regeneration too.

"Oh, I see. I'll speak to the doctors."

The nurse smiled and nodded at my words, then shouted the moment she left the room.

"Call psychiatry too! It's urgent!!"

Thanks to the medical staff's professionalism, my body rapidly improved.

Thankfully, life in the hospital was comfortable.

The Hunter Association offered to assign me a caregiver, but that was out of the question with Yuki around.

"Benefactor, would you like some apple?"

"I can't eat any more..."

"You should still eat some. I've wanted to do this for you for a long time."

"Okay..."

The hospital food was terrible, but I didn't have any dietary restrictions.

I fed apples to Heentteok, whom Yuki had secretly brought in.

My condition improved quickly.

My newly grown right arm moved perfectly well too.

'I really have stopped being human...'

The hospital visits looked like they would go on forever, so Yuki cut them off at an appropriate point.

Go Jiho and Hunter Association officials were one thing, but even politicians were trying to visit.

One Hunter even checked in remotely.

[You brat, I heard you killed a Reaper?]

"Ah, Bellion?"

[Good work. Reapers are tough for newcomers to handle.]

"... Right? I wasn't just unusually weak for a Death Priest, was I?"

Hearing Bellion confirm it put my mind at ease.

"Then how many of them can you handle?"

[It depends on the situation, but I can kill about three at once.]

"Oh... It's impressive they've managed to keep their numbers up this long."

[They use the Soul Crystals of veteran Hunters to increase their kind, don't they? That's why their forces are replenished so quickly.]

Now that I thought about it, that made sense.

They really were troublesome bastards.

The next morning, I was about to tell Go Jiho, who had come to visit me, about the Collapsing Spiral Tower when I suddenly felt something strange.

"So, the boss was..."

'... Huh?'

No sound came out.

Yuki tried to speak for me, but her throat seemed to be blocked as well.

Go Jiho looked completely flustered.

"What? What's wrong with you two all of a sudden?"

"Uh, I... Oh, it's coming out now?"

"Could it be that we can't share the information?"

Then Kaellis's soul, which was inside me, spoke.

[It is the Tower’s Curse.]

"Tower’s Curse?"

[Beginning with content at twelfth-floor difficulty or higher, sharing information is restricted. If strategies were shared, clearing the upper floors would become too easy... You have to discover them yourselves.]

Was that why this guy hadn't properly taught us the strategies?

"Is there any way around it?"

[Some information may leak out by chance... But it is difficult to do so deliberately.]

"I see."

Just then, Go Jiho's phone rang loudly.

It seemed to be a special ringtone.

Brrring!

"Hello... What did you say?"

"What's wrong?"

"Kang Hyun. Apparently, a Hunter named Orca, the one you told us about before, came to the Korean Hunter Association."

"What?"

I was discharged immediately and went to meet Orca.

The final test results showed nothing wrong. I was declared fully recovered.

Orca was waiting for us in the Hunter Association lobby, looking exactly as I remembered.

Seeing her distinctive nature-inspired outfit outside the Tower was something else.

"... Hello."

She stood up and greeted us awkwardly.

It was an unusually timid look for her.

Why had someone who hadn't left the Tower for so long come out now?

I was glad to see her here, but I had too many questions.

The first question out of my mouth was, naturally, about us.

"How did you know to come here?"

"Hm? I just crossed dimensions and asked who the most famous Hunter was. You guys are really famous, you know?"

Maybe that wasn't a question I should ask after we'd even released collaboration merchandise.

Still, there was plenty more to ask.

"Why did you leave the Tower?"

"Ah... It's a little embarrassing to say it out loud."

After we moved somewhere private, Orca spoke.

"You probably thought of me as a noble and great senior Hunter who turned her back on the world..."

"No. We just see you as a debtor and gambling addict, so feel free to tell us."

"Oh, is that so?"

Orca pouted.

Sorry, but I wasn't good at saying things I didn't mean.

Still, she seemed more comfortable speaking now.

"You know how Reapers descended to the eleventh floor and caused chaos? They've been after my soul for a long time."

"Ah, that makes sense."

Orca was a remarkably powerful Hunter.

If a Hunter like her stayed in one place, the Reapers couldn't help but crave her soul. She might have almost no assets, but the Reapers wanted souls themselves.

"I managed to deal with three, but five was too much. So I gave up and ran."

"Oh, you've fought three of them?"

"Not just anywhere... A forest is a Druid's territory."

Count Kwatum the Lizardman had said something similar.

Count Kwatum said they didn't want to fight Orca in a forest.

"So I escaped in a hurry."

The Reapers were really making life miserable for a lot of Hunters.

"Didn't you enter through a tower of the Elf Race? It's impressive you weren't caught."

"Not every tower of the Elf Race is managed... I entered through a remote frontier tower from the start. Things had developed a lot in the meantime."

Naturally, she couldn't return to Elf society because of her debts.

So Orca had begun exploring other dimensions.

"As you know, Hunters naturally accumulate debts of gratitude and grudges. The people I had the best relationship with were you guys, whom I met recently."

We had only joined the Tower not long ago, so there hadn't been time for grudges to pile up.

"Then why did it take so long? The Reapers attacked a while ago."

Had I been hospitalized for about a week?

That meant Orca had spent that much time hanging around.

"Ah, of course I explored your society while hiding my identity. I needed to know whether this was a place an Elf could live."

"So, what's your conclusion?"

As a Korean, I was curious too.

"Hm... I think it's pretty good. That's why I came looking for you."

Orca's goal was obvious.

She planned to join us, whose Hunter know-how was still lacking, and secure her safety.

I asked to make sure.

"You have no intention of returning to active duty, right?"

"None at all. Finding team members now would be a hassle too. If I was going to do it, I would've done it long ago."

She immediately began her presentation.

"I'm a Druid, so I can raise all kinds of rare animals and magical plants."

Oh, that was tempting.

It would be a great help to my Alchemy. We had almost no expertise in that area.

Even if she wasn't active anymore, she was still a high-level Hunter, so she would be helpful in an emergency.

"I like it."

"Hm, I'll bring it up with the higher-ups right away."

Go Jiho left the room to make a call.

"Is there anything else you need? Other than a place to live and clothes."

"Hm? Do I need to change clothes too?"

"Of course."

"... Understood. I shall follow this place's customs."

"Did you choose Korea because of us?"

"That too, but I liked it here for several reasons. There are many mountains, and the policies toward Hunters are reasonable."

Yuki eagerly nodded beside me.

"You can tell Korea, our benefactor's country, is the greatest nation just by reading Bernard Werber's books."

"Gasp...!"

Maybe because the judge was so biased, I suddenly felt like I shouldn't get too drunk on national pride.

We discussed various conditions.

"You aren't picky about food, right? Would you prefer a forest for your residence?"

"Ah, I don't mind living in the city. I'm only taking refuge for a year or two anyway."

"Then we'll arrange a place in the city. It'll be safer because there are more Hunters. By the way, where did you come from?"

"A tower in the far north, in the place you call Russia."

Orca spoke a little more seriously.

"You seem to have a large population. It would be best to manage your remote towers properly."

"What? Why?"

There were quite a few towers on Earth.

Some countries had already fallen because they couldn't stop the monsters, so not every tower was properly managed.

"Towers are structures almost essential for using shops and traveling between dimensions. If they aren't properly managed, other Hunters may occupy them without permission. People who committed crimes in their home dimension before crossing over, for example..."

I see.

It was incredibly convincing coming from a Hunter who had crossed dimensions because of gambling debts in her home dimension.

Towers helped with interdimensional travel too.

Korea's Gwanghwamun Tower was tightly guarded, so there was nothing to worry about there.

I didn't know about other countries.

There wasn't necessarily only one tower in each country. There could be cases where someone seized a tower in a country that had already fallen.

"That is a little worrying."

Go Jiho returned then.

"Kang Hyun, the relevant paperwork is finished."

"Thank you. Oh, right. Please apply to ban Orca from Gangwon Land and casinos."

"What?"

Orca looked like she was about to jump out of her seat the moment I finished speaking.

"W-wait. We should think more carefully before taking measures like that..."

"What is there to think about?"

Judging by her reaction, she had definitely checked them out beforehand.

She was an addict, so we had to look after her.

"We should head to the workshop now. A week's worth of work has piled up..."

There was also a mountain of loot, so there were plenty of things to try.

But Orca followed right behind us.

"I heard you killed a Reaper? What about the Soul Crystal? Did you kill it with a dagger?"

"No. I got the Soul Crystal."

"Then what are you going to use it for?"

"I'm still thinking about it. Wouldn't it be better to give a skill a trait?"

"Well... I suppose so. A Reaper's soul is quite high-quality. I'll come with you."

"Uh, why?"

"I want to see if there's anything I can help with."

Yuki and I could roughly tell what she was thinking from her reaction.

Equipment crafting and Enchanting were, in a way, gambling too. She wanted to watch from the side, at least.

For Hunters, this probably felt more real than gambling with money.

"This person's seriously ill, isn't she?"

"You should still bring her, Benefactor. We can also have her inspect the facility we set up for Alchemical plants last time."

"Let's do that. Ah, first, please take care of this one."

I placed Heentteok in Orca's hands.

Its ears trembled as it settled on her palm.

Footnotes:

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