Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty - Chapter 88

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Episode 88

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The judgment criteria for the transcended skill Reversion were fairly ambiguous.

First of all, it was absolutely impossible to use it on living creatures.

Apparently, most mana-bearing creatures instinctively used mana to protect themselves.

Innate mana resistance.

Breaking through that was extremely difficult.

Hunters' equipment and loot also carried their owners' mana resistance.

Still, it was much weaker than the resistance of living creatures.

The Reversion I used wore down the target's mana resistance.

That was why I could use it on another hunter's equipment.

Just like I had done to Count Kwatum's teammate last time.

Back then, the target resisted, so I failed to revert it completely...

But my skill level had risen quite a bit since then.

It was worth a try.

Ssssss...

Reversion's mana wrapped around the door and slowly began breaking down the thick iron gate.

It was still far too slow.

At this rate, would I even make a hole large enough for someone to pass through if I worked at it all day?

'The mana feels especially tough.'

Maybe because the door had been designed to reject all intruders, it wasn't easy.

Then the reverted power was drawn into me, and things changed.

Apparently, it was being treated as highly valuable loot, because power surged through me.

On top of that, I naturally understood the properties of the loot's mana.

'This is...'

Ssss.

Reversion's mana mutated, and the process became noticeably faster.

"Hey, it's speeding up more and more?"

"Is it working?"

In just three minutes, I made a hole large enough for someone to pass through.

But it still wasn't enough.

Ssssss.

Reversion filled me with energy.

In the end, I didn't enter until I'd devoured the entire door.

"It worked... That thing can be restored, right?"

"Looks like we won't need keys anymore."

Beyond the door was a vast underground lake.

There wasn't just a lake, either. Small caves and passageways were scattered everywhere.

With spore dust in the air and mist rising from the lake itself, visibility was terrible.

Not a good environment for us.

Still, I could sense high-grade loot all around us from the entrance.

It looked like the mushrooms we'd seen above came in all kinds of varieties here too.

"Let's move. Don't go toward the lake for now."

"Why not?"

"The Firefighters from earlier are gathered there. At least seven of them."

"Ah, now my legs are shaking. I wish I hadn't heard that."

We started by exploring the nearest cave.

Before long, we found some pretty good loot.

[Restorative Spore Mushroom: Heals physical and mental abnormalities and temporarily slows aging. However, it must be consumed continuously.]

"Ooh, this is..."

"An Elixir of Immortality. The stuff Hunter Lords are said to take."

I never expected it to appear as early as the 12th floor.

Its effects didn't seem to last very long, though.

Alchemy could probably extend the duration, but even then, one mushroom would only last a month or two.

You'd have to consume it fairly often to properly enjoy its anti-aging effects.

"One or two of these won't be nearly enough. Hunters also have a re-entry waiting period..."

"It'd sell for a fortune at the Dimensional Shop, right?"

Probably.

Hunter Lords would buy them up like mad.

Wouldn't they even accept them in place of taxes?

"I've seen the finished product, but I didn't know this was what it was made from. They must buy up everything they find, because I hardly ever saw them in stores."

Kim Yuna looked startled when I said that.

"What? How could you not be interested in immortality? You should've looked into this before anything else."

"I've got more than one project on my hands right now..."

Until the day before entering the Tower, I'd been working on a doll prototype.

Han Juwon snickered at that.

"Don't you know our team leader is the backbone of Korea's industry? Nothing runs without him."

"... Aren't you full of yourself? Can I eat one of these?"

"Don't eat it raw. It'll be more effective if we make it into a potion."

"But making a potion will take time. I'll age even more by then."

"... I'll make it quickly, so please be patient."

She wasn't even thirty yet. Was she already afraid of aging?

Maybe that was inevitable for a woman.

Then again, maybe not.

Han Juwon whispered something similar to me.

"Team Leader, if there are any mushrooms left later, could I have some too..."

"Of course."

We collected every mushroom we came across.

They reproduced through spores anyway, so wiping them out completely would be harder.

"Just find them. I'll harvest them myself. These things should be connected to the Mycelial Network too."

"Over here, Team Leader. Hurry!"

Kim Yuna was incredibly motivated.

Then, as if she'd suddenly remembered something, she spoke quietly.

"There are all kinds of mushrooms here. Isn't there one that can stop Yuki from doing weird things?"

Sang Hajun answered right away.

"There's a poisonous mushroom over there."

"Would a poisonous mushroom really stop her?"

That joke was a little too much.

It wasn't like I didn't understand why everyone thought that way about Yuki, though.

Even so, I seriously searched for a mushroom that could actually do that.

"Area clear. Let's move before it's too late."

"Yes, Team Leader."

The team followed along, joking around.

Finding valuable loot had brightened everyone's mood.

They were hunters by nature. It couldn't be helped.

Still, we couldn't get too excited.

This underground lake was likely far more dangerous than the other areas.

Sure enough, I sensed enemies near the end of the next area.

They weren't monsters. They were hunters.

"... Undead?"

"Undead came all the way down here? Weren't those guys just picking up junk loot in the corners?"

"Maybe they aren't cheap undead."

Apparently, undead hunters were extremely polarized.

There were low-grade undead like the ones we'd faced before...

Then there were high-grade undead that possessed proper self-awareness.

If they'd broken through the door and made it this far down, they had to be the latter.

The undead race itself had a considerable advantage on the 12th floor.

Because of their racial traits, spores barely affected them.

"We should avoid getting involved with them."

We held our breath and waited for them to leave.

Sang Hajun glared at Kim Yuna, who had been talking carelessly earlier.

"So who's the one picking up junk loot now?"

"Th-That's not because of me."

"Hajun, stay alert."

I began collecting the smaller mushrooms first.

It looked like there had been a battle with monsters here, but the undead had almost completely crushed them.

Then I spotted some bluish loot in the corner.

'Hm? That's...'

Frozen Mana Crystals.

Rare loot from the 6th floor and a core ingredient for making the Basic Skill Enhancement Elixir.

It wasn't particularly strange for them to appear here, given the low temperature...

But why had they left them behind?

Could they really have missed them?

'Works for me.'

Without a second thought, I quickly grabbed them.

Rare items with absurd value for their weight.

And there wasn't just one. There were several.

'What is this? It doesn't look like they were in a hurry.'

Did they have so many S-rank hunters in their home dimension that they hadn't bothered picking them up?

Or...

No way.

They were races that had entered the Tower at least decades before us.

That couldn't be it.

I shook off the thought and checked our route.

Sang Hajun seemed to have reached the same conclusion, because the brow above his good eye furrowed.

"This is bad. Our routes are going to overlap with the undead team."

"What? Why?"

Other than the path we'd come from, there were about three routes.

One was where the undead team had just left.

Another was the passage on the right, which led toward the center of the lake.

We'd decided to avoid that one, leaving only one route.

But the undead team had come from that remaining direction.

There were only so many areas where it was safe to farm, so running into other hunters was only natural.

'For our routes to overlap this perfectly...'

At this rate, we'd be stuck taking whatever they left behind.

It was time for me to make a decision as team leader.

"Let's think long-term. Find a hiding place and wait for a while."

Loot inside the Tower regenerated automatically.

And it regenerated pretty quickly.

In an important area like this, it probably wouldn't even take a day.

The mushrooms grew at an abnormal rate.

I decided there was no need to clash with them, so we put some distance between us.

Before we could even find a hiding place, though, they started approaching us.

Sang Hajun spotted them and warned us.

"Hey, the undead..."

"Did they notice us?"

"No. I think they're just heading out."

Were they leaving after collecting all the loot?

Then we might not have to fight them after all.

Attacking the undead was an option, but...

I didn't feel like it.

We knew too little about this area to strike first.

Step.

They headed back in the direction they'd originally come from.

Was there a Direct Exit on the 12th floor too?

Direct Exits were usually located in difficult places.

Still, this place seemed like it could have one.

You normally needed a key to reach it, after all.

Step.

One undead had especially heavy footsteps.

At a glance, it was obvious that one of them was on a completely different level.

A Death Knight.

It wore thick black armor and gave off a blue ghostly aura.

It must have been a hunter of considerable skill in life.

[Hm?]

Kaellis spoke from inside me as if he recognized it.

'Do you know him?'

[I can't tell from this distance. But don't get close. If it's him, we'll be in serious trouble.]

The moment he finally reached what looked like the Direct Exit...

Step.

He stopped and turned toward me.

"You have nowhere left to retreat to. At least show me your face."

"..."

Had he pretended not to notice us to take the advantageous position?

As expected, it was impossible to stay hidden when all five of us were together.

Maybe because he was undead, an instinctive urge to kill surged through me, but my survival instincts suppressed it.

I made a suggestion to the Death Knight.

"Why don't you just keep going?"

"You're a species I've never seen before. Let's talk for a while. There aren't many people in my kingdom worth talking to."

He didn't stutter or anything.

That meant he was an unimaginably high-grade undead.

How powerful a soul did it take to create an undead like that?

Hunter Lord level?

Kaellis sighed inwardly.

[Coward King Modus. A living legend.]

'... Coward King?'

Hunter Lords tended to be fiercely self-preserving, and only people like that survived...

But Modus, the Lizardman Hunter Lord, was supposedly especially bad even among them.

[He was the worst kind of incompetent ruler. But he only truly became a legend after his death.]

'Why did a Hunter Lord become undead? Was it just because he didn't want to die?'

[Because he'd had a Necromancer lover his entire life. His country fell because he lavished all sorts of things on her.]

'Wow...'

A Necromancer girlfriend?

That was a move I never would've expected.

Maybe I just didn't have much talent for living a long life.

[In the end, Modus took thirty years to get revenge on the Hunter Lord who stole his position. He's still active even now.]

It was a story that could almost be called cool.

But one thing bothered me.

Why would someone who had ruined his own country out of cowardice and dated a Necromancer willingly enter the 12th floor?

"... Don't tell me you're here for Restorative Spore Mushrooms? Your Necromancer lover isn't immortal, is she?"

Modus flinched.

Beyond the spore mist, I sensed what seemed like a faint chuckle.

"Has my Fame reached even a new species? How admirable that you recognized me. I should reward you."

Shing.

He drew his sword and swung it lightly.

Blue Sword Energy came flying toward us.

Slash!

"Gah!"

I hurriedly took cover, but the entire piece of cover was cut apart.

A swordsman using a technique like that.

No wonder he was called the Coward King.

'Kaellis, what was that technique?'

[It's Flying Sword Energy. Just like the name says, it sends Sword Energy flying. Most swordsmen only learn enough for harassment, but for Modus, that's his main technique.]

The reason was obvious.

He probably thought it was safer.

Still, since he used a sword, his close combat ability was probably excellent too.

I fired back with the Hand Cannon in irritation, but he swung his sword as if he'd been waiting for it.

The .50-caliber bullet was completely erased by the Sword Energy.

As expected, even a powerful attack wouldn't work if I fired it openly.

At least not against hunters.

"I heard new species use interesting weapons. It was true."

"I've got more!"

While the team gradually spread out, I dodged his Sword Energy and pulled out the Death Priest Dagger.

Then his expression... no, the glow in his eyes changed.

"Hm? A Death Priest?"