WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 79: Episode 79

──────

To think Bellion would ask me for help.

Was the situation really that bad?

He'd picked the right person to ask. I always exceeded expectations, and this time would be no different.

"When do we leave?"

[Ah, not right away. It would be better to move with the other Death Priests.]

That made sense. Death Priests were already short on numbers.

At least that gave me some time to prepare.

"How does interdimensional travel work?"

[You pay gold to the Tower. The stronger the hunter and the higher their item level, the more it costs.]

So gold could be used for that too.

After roughly checking my budget, I found I had plenty to spare. My finances had been pretty good lately, thanks to royalties from the new technology.

"Then we can bring some serious weapons."

I thought of the weapons in the warehouse. There were basic facilities here too, but they couldn't compare to the workshop.

'What should I bring?'

The answer came quickly.

The weapons I'd wanted to take into the Tower but couldn't because of the point limit. This time, I could use them without holding back.

Still, the workload would be rough alone. I didn't know how much time we had left, so I needed to hurry.

I cautiously called out from the living room.

"Yuki?"

Crash!

A loud commotion came from the floor below. I'd told her not to eavesdrop when I was home...

Still, it did make it easy to call her.

"Bring your gear. Let's meet in the parking lot in ten minutes."

We drove to the workshop. Hunter Association staff who'd been called in during the middle of the night lugged over heavy weapons.

"Here's the M2A1 Browning Heavy Machine Gun you requested, modified with Ultra-Alloy. Be careful. It's heavy."

"Thanks."

Luckily, one that Brown had modified as a test when he visited Korea was still around.

I gave it a proper Enchantment. The gun was so large and heavy that it seemed to withstand Enchantments well.

"Penetration Enhancement Enchantment complete."

"What should I do next, Team Leader?"

"Please bring the multiple grenade launcher Juwon used, along with the ammunition bag."

"Yes!"

This time, we were going in with truly overwhelming firepower.

I had no intention of dragging the other team members into this. I wasn't going as a team member, but as a Death Priest.

Yuki was different. Even if I tried to leave her behind, she wouldn't stay behind, so I had no choice but to bring her.

After finishing the Enchantment, I examined the M2 Heavy Machine Gun.

Click!

A monstrous machine gun that spewed six hundred .50-caliber rounds per minute.

It couldn't even be used properly without mounting it. I thought a hunter's strength might make it manageable somehow, but the butterfly trigger was inconvenient. It was the kind of trigger you pressed, not pulled.

As I worked, I spoke with Bellion. It seemed he'd already sent out the summons.

"By the way, what technology are the Reapers after exactly?"

Since I was going to help, I had the right to know that much.

Bellion explained without hesitation.

[Among the Dwarf Iron Lords, there's one called Redhammer. He rules a small-to-medium-sized kingdom from a fortress on a mountain... It seems he possesses the alchemists' Doll Technology.]

"Doll Technology?"

The scene I'd witnessed on the eighth floor came to mind.

The alchemist doll that hadn't even known it was a doll.

Something that sophisticated could naturally use skills. And since they were mass-produced, they could be made however one wanted.

The Reapers definitely had a reason to want it.

'Wow, now that I hear it, that makes sense. Why hadn't I thought of that?'

Fortunately, the Death Priests and Hunter Lords had no intention of standing by and watching.

[We've spread the information among the other races too, so they'll send troops, even if only a few. Rather than hear about it from afar, they'll want to send their own subordinates.]

It was reassuring to hear there would be reinforcements.

I even brought Orca, who'd been sleeping at home.

"Orca, come with me. We need to take care of something."

"What? I-I'm on vacation right now..."

"Come on. How long are you planning to live off us for free?"

"... I've been with you for less than a week. Isn't this terrible hospitality for a guest?"

"You weren't treated that generously on the eleventh floor either. We bought you steak and gave you a house."

After Yuki said that, Orca reluctantly accepted.

Then the team members came too when they heard Orca was being mobilized.

"Wow, look at this. The Team Leader's trying to sneak off without us again."

"You should all just rest at home... If you get hurt for no reason, it'll affect the next raid."

"No. Don't try anything funny."

Kim Yuna immediately objected and gathered her equipment.

I warned them before it was too late.

"Even if we go to the Dwarves' country, we probably won't be treated very well. I'm a Death Priest..."

"So what's the plan, Team Leader?"

"We'll go help out a little, then come back in one piece."

Naturally, I had no intention of holding them off at the cost of my life.

The other reinforcements probably wouldn't work that hard either.

"We'll keep it low-key and focus on fire support. If the main gate is breached, we head home."

"Then we'd better bring plenty of ammo."

We could make ammunition with the Alchemist's Ammunition Box, but we wouldn't have time to load rounds into ammunition belts one by one.

Kim Yuna picked up her 6.8 mm rifle for the first time in a while.

"... I didn't really miss it."

"The MP7's light as hell, right?"

"Yeah."

A signal soon came from Bellion.

[Come to the Tower at the coordinates I'll give you. I've secured our safety.]

"We'll be right there."

Flash!

We told the staff guarding Gwanghwamun Tower that we were just entering the shop. There was no time to explain everything.

Soon, we arrived at a Tower in the middle of a dense forest. Our item levels were high, so it cost a fair amount of gold.

"W-we're here..."

"It's more ordinary than I expected. The scenery's pretty nice."

When we looked around, there were already plenty of Death Priests gathered there. There seemed to be around twenty of them.

They were startled when they saw us.

"What? You brought your team members too? The rookie's pretty motivated."

"Isn't that Orca? You brought Orca along too?"

"Looks like she's freeloading off the rookie."

"Wow... She's got some nerve."

Orca took most of the heat. She hid behind me and muttered.

"This is why I didn't want to come."

"Where's Bellion? If he issued a summons, shouldn't he come greet us?"

"I'm here."

A Dwarf Death Priest wearing priestly robes appeared in the distance.

Part of his face was horribly distorted. Had he been burned?

Still, he had the strong build befitting a hunter.

"Thank you all for answering the summons. We must prevent the alchemists' Doll Technology from falling into the Reapers' hands."

"Are you certain they're coming?"

"We've already sent an informant into their dimension. The attack will begin within the next twelve hours."

"Twelve hours!"

That was even more urgent than I'd expected.

Then the obvious issue came up.

"The Hunter Lords must have sent reinforcements by now too. Are you in contact with them?"

We didn't need to get along with them, but we at least needed to avoid being attacked the moment we arrived.

Just then, an Orc Death Priest stepped forward confidently.

"Is it finally my turn?"

"Goloks! That bastard came too?"

"Shameless bastard!"

The atmosphere turned strange.

I quickly moved beside Bellion and asked, "What's with them?"

"I told you there was a Death Priest who became a Hunter Lord. That's him."

"Ah."

I'd heard they'd decided to leave him alone for now because it hadn't even been a hundred years yet...

That aside, he didn't seem to have a very good reputation.

Goloks, the Death Priest Hunter Lord, acted as if nothing was wrong.

"I'll speak with the other Hunter Lords."

"You think you're the representative of the Death Priests?"

"Haha, why make such a fuss? I'm about the only one who can communicate with them, aren't I?"

No hunter argued further.

It seemed that was true.

"Then let's leave right away. We don't have time."

As Bellion urged everyone on, the other Death Priests murmured among themselves.

"What's with Bellion? He's unusually rushed this time."

"His home dimension is being attacked. It's understandable."

"I heard Dwarves are such a closed-off race that they hardly ever intervene in other countries' affairs."

Unfortunately, Gillius and the judge Death Priest I'd seen before weren't there. It didn't seem like the kind of event they'd skip, but they must have been busy.

We boarded the carriage Bellion had prepared.

Though it was called a carriage, the horse part was mechanical. It was basically a primitive car.

"This is interesting... The air's surprisingly clean."

"We'll be able to use the Tower over there when we return, right?"

The Hunter Lords' cities had naturally been built around Towers.

After riding in the carriage for several hours, we reached a sloping mountain path. It wasn't especially high, but it was excellent terrain for defense.

"Wow, that must be it."

A Dwarf city sat firmly on the mountainside.

A massive wall rose before us, imposing and intimidating.

"Watch what you say and do inside. We're not exactly welcome. We came as reinforcements, so I don't think they'll do anything extreme, but..."

Bellion spoke as he put on a mask. The burns disappeared, leaving the face of an unharmed, handsome Dwarf.

When Goloks, the Orc Death Priest Hunter Lord, went in first to speak with them, the gates opened a short time later.

Reinforcements had already arrived in the city. There were Dwarves, Orcs, Elves, and even Lizardmen.

"Good grief, even Death Priests came. An Iron Lord joining hands with Death Priests..."

"Are we going to die here?"

"That's probably why they sent us."

Among the Lizardmen, I spotted a familiar face.

Count Kwatum, whom I'd met on the eleventh floor.

Count Kwatum grinned at the sight of me. We used the confusion to speak briefly.

"It's been a while. You even talked Orca into coming? Not bad."

"... You're doing better than I expected."

"Doing better? I was demoted over what happened last time and sent here to die, wasn't I?"

As expected, the reinforcements weren't treated as elite troops.

It was practically exile. At this rate, we couldn't expect much combat strength from them.

As the wait dragged on, complaints started to rise among the reinforcements.

"Where the hell is the Iron Lord? Why hasn't he shown his face yet?"

"His Lordship is preparing for battle..."

"And what do you think we're doing? Do we look like we're here for a picnic?"

The complaints were understandable.

Hunters from every race had arrived, along with the Death Priests. The Iron Lord who'd called in the reinforcements should've been organizing them immediately...

Yet the Iron Lord hadn't appeared at all.

Bellion's face darkened when he heard the news.

"His kingdom is in danger, yet he's still being this foolish... Goloks, sort this out."

Goloks quickly began organizing the troops.

"We'll defend this sector. Let's not clash with each other for no reason. The Reapers will be here soon."

He was surprisingly capable for someone who'd been acting so smug.

Then again, he was a Hunter Lord, and the fact that he'd come in person was unusual. Every other lord had sent subordinates instead.

My team members and I began preparing too.

"Don't come any farther forward."

"Help me carry some materials. I'm building a machine-gun position."

"You brought a strange weapon."

As I worked, I spoke with the Death Priests.

"What exactly is this Iron Lord doing that he still hasn't come out?"

"There's nothing surprising about it. He's an average Hunter Lord."

"Really?"

"Even if they gain bodies that never age, they can still be driven from their positions by rebellions and assassinations. Once they become Hunter Lords, they all end up with souls inclined toward escape. The ones who don't never last long."

That made sense.

Heroes weren't symbols of dictatorship. If anything, they were the enemies of dictatorships.

The story of a hero becoming a dictator was so familiar that it wasn't even new.

In the first place, that bastard had been so passive that the Death Priests had been able to enter the city without much trouble.

I looked down at the city again, lined with distinctive Dwarf stone buildings.

Beyond the larger and smaller structures stood another small, sturdy wall: the Inner Citadel.

Its gates began to slowly close.

"Uh? Is that... supposed to happen?"

"What? The Iron Lord and the guards haven't even come out yet."

The other reinforcements and Dwarf soldiers stared at the Inner Citadel in shock.

Boom!

Once the gates closed, the last Dwarf to emerge from the Inner Citadel spoke with a trembling voice. He seemed to be something like the lord's chief secretary.

"Iron Lord Holos will strengthen the defenses of the Inner Citadel and protect the technology, so everyone else should focus on defending the Outer Ward..."

Before the Dwarf could finish speaking, the reinforcements erupted in angry shouts.

"What nonsense is that? The Iron Lord isn't coming to the front line? And he still calls himself a lord?"

Even from an ally's perspective, this was too much.

Goloks grinned as he tried to settle the situation, and Bellion muttered, "He got scared."

Death Priests proudly held the top spot among causes of Hunter Lord deaths...

It was only natural that Holos didn't want to come down here.

But there was no time to leisurely go protest.

"Enemy! It's the Reaper Legion!"

Teeeeeeng!

A heavy bell rang out, and Reapers surged up from the foot of the mountain at terrifying speed.

I rushed back to the machine-gun position and grabbed the handles.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried