WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 35: 035
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Flash!
The bright glow faded.
I slowly looked around.
Countless trees, bright sunlight, and a cool breeze.
Unlike the open grasslands on the previous floors, this place was a dense forest.
‘It reminds me of Cheorwon in Gangwon Province.’
The trees were so thick that it was difficult to see far ahead.
As I looked around...
“So we've finally reached Floor 14. A search map...”
Na Hyeji muttered.
She continued.
“Even if there isn't an official strategy for this floor, we'll somehow manage as long as you're here, Jiho... Still, it feels overwhelming. How are we even supposed to clear this?”
She was right.
This was a floor with no standard strategy.
Tower of Trials Floor 14, the “Find the Escape Portal” map.
Commonly known as a search map.
The clear condition for Floor 14 was to find the Escape Portal somewhere in a randomly generated map and leave through it.
It was a map where you had to wander through a dense forest with no end in sight.
That was why Hunters had wildly different opinions about Floor 14.
[Floor 14 is a total freebie lol]
[I found the Escape Portal and got out in three days.]
[I wandered around for about two days and found the Escape Portal... It wasn't too bad?]
[I cleared Floor 14 without even running into a single Orc haha]
[You're lucky.]
Some people found the Escape Portal relatively easily and cleared the floor.
[Our team got lost and wandered around for an entire week.]
[Holy shit, we got a horrible map. The starting point and Escape Portal were on opposite ends, so it took almost two weeks.]
[It's hard to tell where you are because of all the trees.]
[The worst thing about Floor 14 is that the map gets randomly generated again if you take the Return Portal, so you have to start all over.]
[After wandering for a week, I got sick of fucking Orc jerky and cheese, so I eventually took the Return Portal and left...]
[This climb is completely luck-based, fuck.]
Others took several weeks.
If you were lucky, you could quickly find the Escape Portal and clear it.
If you were unlucky, you had to wander for weeks while being harassed by Orcs.
It was literally a luck-based map.
That was the true nature of Floor 14.
“We have no idea where the Escape Portal might be in such a huge forest.”
Hyeji let out a deep, frustrated sigh.
Of course she did.
We had to wander through these thick mountains and forests until our feet blistered, looking for an Escape Portal that might not appear anytime soon.
It was only natural for it to feel overwhelming.
But I felt differently.
‘A completely random map, where we need to search for the Escape Portal with our own two feet... It feels like an adventure.’
Rather than feeling overwhelmed, I was excited.
The Tower floors until now had been too predictable.
There had been completed maps, and my combat power had been overwhelmingly strong.
The process and result were obvious.
Floor 14 was different.
A randomly generated map.
A completely unknown world where I had no idea what might be waiting anywhere...
I felt like an adventurer!
“Come on, Hyeji! Let's go! We're exploring an unknown world!”
“Why are you so excited, Jiho?”
“Isn't it fun? It feels like we're exploring. And I'll get to kill lots of Orcs soon too.”
“...”
“Aren't you excited, Hyeji? I feel good whenever I enter the Tower. I can fire magic as much as I want, and killing monsters lets me blow off all my stress. Seriously, if I could, I'd come to the Tower several times a day.”
“...”
Na Hyeji looked at me strangely.
It was the kind of look someone gave a crazy bastard.
Quite disrespectful for someone to direct at the grand and noble Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter.
I had been thinking of buying her a meal later, but now I decided not to.
Anyway, the real raid began.
I took the lead.
Na Hyeji followed behind me.
After pushing through the forest for some time...
“Orcs! There are Orcs ahead!”
Halfway up a mountain, we came across a small group of Orcs.
A small hunting party made up of ten regular Orcs and one Orc Warrior.
I dealt with them immediately.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
A rapid barrage of Air Bullets brought them all down in just three seconds.
Well, not all of them were dead.
“Kwaaaaaah!”
I deliberately shot one Orc in the legs and kept it alive.
Hyeji asked in confusion.
“Jiho, why didn't you kill that one?”
“I'm going to use it to find the Orc Village.”
“You're going to find the Orc Village? Why?”
“To kill all the Orcs still in it.”
“...”
Why not? If there was an Orc Village nearby, it would be nice to wipe it clean on the way.
I had to earn lots of Points and save the Republic of Korea.
While I was at it, I could blast Fireballs everywhere, blow up huts, and grind up Orcs.
Anyway.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
I fired Air Bullets through both shoulders and one shin of the Orc I had spared.
“Uoooooogh!!!”
The Orc writhed in pain as its shoulders and leg were pierced.
“Go on. Run away.”
“Uooooh...!”
I deliberately let it go.
The green brute staggered away with difficulty, blood dripping from its wounds.
If I followed it, it would lead me to the Orc Village.
I nodded as I watched the fleeing Orc's back.
“Now that guy will guide us to his village.”
“Jiho, you're truly vicious. How did you even think of that...?”
“You see scenes like this in movies all the time. They let someone escape on purpose so they can find their base. Anyway, let's go!”
We chased after the Orc.
We kept some distance and relied on my spiritual senses to track it.
It never noticed that we were following it.
As a result...
“There's an Orc Village over there.”
We found a village with just under a hundred Orcs living in it.
A target for destruction!
“Safe demolition! Magic demolition!”
I immediately arranged Blue Motes and formed Fireballs.
Then I started firing them wildly.
Whoosh!
A mass of red trails cut across the air.
They slammed into every hut in the Orc Village.
Then...
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions erupted one after another.
The huts blew apart.
Orcs caught in the explosions were torn to pieces.
Green limbs flew high into the sky, blood sprayed everywhere, and chunks of flesh scattered in every direction.
It was a sight I had seen so often that it now felt almost familiar.
“Uwooooh!”
“Kraaaah!”
Their screams and shouts were buried beneath the explosions.
Once I felt that things had been cleaned up enough, I slowly walked into the village.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
I aimed my staff and fired one Air Bullet into the forehead of each surviving Orc.
Those who had barely survived, as well as those trying to flee in a panic, collapsed in heaps.
Then silence fell.
“One Orc Village down!”
It had taken just over three minutes to completely wipe out a village of around a hundred Orcs.
It really was too easy.
I estimated the amount of Blue Motes I had left.
‘My mana pool can currently make about 300 Fireballs. I used the equivalent of 30 Fireballs to wipe out that Orc Village... Does that mean I can destroy up to ten villages like this?’
Still, I needed to leave some mana in reserve in case something happened...
Destroying around six Orc Villages should be enough.
I made my decision.
“All right, Hyeji! Today's goal is to destroy six Orc Villages! Let's work hard!”
“Haaah...”
“Hurry up and collect the loot, then let's find our next prey.”
The search continued.
Whenever we spotted a group of Orcs...
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
I killed all but one with Air Bullets.
Then I grabbed an Orc roughly and interrogated it.
“Tell me where your secret base is!”
“Kuwooooh!!!”
“The secret base is in the northern mountains? Liar! Tell me where the real secret base is! If you don't tell me properly, I'll pierce your left shoulder this time!”
“Kraaaah!!!”
“Jiho, this is the first time I've felt sorry for an Orc.”
I injured the captured Orc just enough, then released it.
In other words, I put holes through both its shoulders and made one ventilation hole in its shin.
I followed the Orc as it staggered away, located its village, then tapped Fireball.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Another Orc Village was destroyed in an instant.
Then Na Hyeji, my EX-class porter, went into action and collected the loot.
After that, we moved on to find our next prey.
That was how we dealt with the Orc Villages one by one.
It was fun.
‘It's not as exhilarating as wiping out thousands at once like on Floor 9... but going around destroying villages one by one has its own charm.’
How should I put it?
It felt like I was truly hunting, like a real Hunter.
Right.
I couldn't just sit in one spot and effortlessly reap rewards every day.
There needed to be floors like this sometimes.
I actively went out myself, searched and annihilated them one by one.
It was a different kind of fun.
Maybe it felt more rewarding than usual.
The hunting instinct of humanity's ancestors must have awakened within me.
I continued the raid.
We encountered Orcs on the road, let one escape to discover the village location, destroyed the village we found, collected the loot...
After running around like that for a while, we found it by chance.
“Jiho? Isn't that the Escape Portal...?”
“Oh?”
An Escape Portal stood in an isolated part of the forest.
It had happened to enter our field of vision.
‘We're lucky.’
I never thought we'd find the Escape Portal in just one day.
If we had been unlucky, I had been prepared to stay in the Tower for more than three days.
Thanks to this, it looked like we wouldn't need to camp inside the Tower.
‘No, come to think of it, we did cover a lot of ground.’
Other Hunters moved as carefully as possible to avoid being noticed by Orcs.
We moved quickly, tearing apart and destroying every enemy we saw.
That was why we could travel so far in only half a day and find the Escape Portal.
Anyway.
We had killed enough Orcs.
We had found the Escape Portal.
“Should we head home now?”
“Whew... Yes. Let's go quickly.”
“Hyeji, your stamina is really weak. You can't get this exhausted just from hiking up a mountain.”
“No, it was seriously exhausting... Don't talk to me... I don't even have the energy to speak...”
Together with the utterly exhausted Hyeji, I threw myself into the Escape Portal.
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 14)]
[You have completed Tower Floor 14.]
[You have defeated 421 Orcs (10).]
[You have defeated 43 Orc Warriors (100).]
[Points are being calculated.]
[Tower Floor 15 has been unlocked.]
[Returning.]
We destroyed six Orc Villages.
We killed 464 Orcs.
It was a smooth raid.
* * *
After returning to reality, I immediately checked my status window.
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 15)]
[13,880 Points]
The number 13,880 appeared.
Of that, 5,370 Points had been earned on the previous floor...
‘So I earned 8,510 Points today.’
I nodded in satisfaction.
The Middle Floors really were different.
Every time I climbed one floor, my earnings increased by thousands of Points.
Of course, Points weren't the only thing that had increased.
I glanced toward one side of the living room.
“Haa...”
“Good work, Hyeji.”
“Ugh...”
“Should I get you some water? You really worked hard today.”
“It's fine... I... just want to go home and sleep...”
Na Hyeji sat slumped on the living-room floor, completely drained.
Of course she was exhausted.
No matter how spacious the Spatial Bag was, the amount of loot she had collected was beyond imagination.
‘About 1.7 tons.’
Na Hyeji had collected an enormous amount of loot totaling 1.7 tons!
She was truly worthy of being my porter.
Giving her a ten-ton Spatial Bag and evolving her into a special-EX porter had paid off.
I was proud of her growth.
I rubbed beneath my nose.
‘Hyeji is definitely becoming more useful. It feels like only yesterday that she was dead weight... Now she can collect loot by the ton without trouble.’
Well done, Na Hyeji!
Maybe she had grown used to corpses, because she no longer gagged and stumbled around like she used to.
Thanks to increasing her stats while climbing to Floor 14, she could search through piles of heavy debris quite well.
And on top of that, she worked for free...!
I really picked a great porter.
Let's keep this up!
Anyway.
It was time to record today's results.
Click!
I took a picture of the ramen boxes packed full of loot.
Then I quickly wrote a post.
[Post Title: Newbie Hunter... Cleared Floor 14]
[Author: Blue Dot]
(A picture of ramen boxes filled with loot, nearly covering one side of the living room.)
Newbie Hunter... cleared Floor 14 today.
Just like I'd heard, it was a random map that looked like a mountain deep in a very dense forest.
It reminded me of my military days, so it was kind of nice.
I did my military service in Cheorwon, and the terrain was pretty similar lol.
Anyway, I went to Floor 14.
At first, it felt a little overwhelming.
How was I supposed to find the Escape Portal in such a dense forest...?
I had no idea where to go.
So I just wandered around.
Then some Orcs showed up.
I wanted to kill as many Orcs as possible.
So I killed all but one on purpose, followed the one that ran away, found its village, and killed them all.
Maybe Orcs are stupid, but they didn't realize I was following them.
Thanks to that, I was able to wipe out six Orc Villages haha.
Then I happened to find the Escape Portal and cleared the floor.
Anyway, today's earnings!
421 Orc axes. 43 Orc Warrior armors.
8,510 Points!
Total... 254.4 million won!
Wow! My daily earnings finally passed 200 million won!
My earnings keep increasing.
At this rate, I'll be on the world's rich list before long...
Bill Gates, Elon Mengsk, make way!
World's richest ranking, just wait for me!
└200 million?
└Looooooooool
└What kind of fucking absurd nonsense is daily earnings of 200 million?
└Are you a High Floor Hunter?
└Didn't we tell you to manage your concept inflation? It's so unrealistic that nobody believes you anymore... At least before, there were a few people who weren't sure lol.
└More importantly, what kind of move is letting one Orc go on purpose, following it, and massacring its village?
└For real lol. Just reading the description makes you sound like a psycho serial killer who relentlessly chases monsters down and kills every last one.
└└Blue Dot: You have to kill all monsters.
└└Did your family get killed by monsters or something? Why do you write like you hold some kind of grudge lol.
└└Blue Dot: No, I just enjoy killing monsters.
└└?
└Info) Elon Mengsk has around 1.8 quadrillion won, so even if you earn 200 million every day, you'll never catch him in your lifetime. More precisely, you'd need to earn 200 million every day for 9,000,000 days, or 24,000 years, just to match current Elon Mengsk.
└└Blue Dot: No, my income is growing exponentially, so I'll be able to catch up someday.
└└Sure, dream big...
└└Blue Dot: Right, a man needs ambition! You can't call yourself a real man unless you've been the world's richest at least once!
└└Isn't that delusion, not ambition?
...
“Elon Mengsk. I knew he was rich, but he's even richer than I thought...”
I swallowed hard.
My daily earnings had finally passed 200 million won, so I thought I would soon become the world's richest person.
But the number one spot in global wealth was far higher than I had imagined.
1.8 quadrillion won?
Wasn't that on the scale of a national budget?
How could an individual own that much wealth...?
Still, I wasn't intimidated.
As the grand and noble Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter, I had no doubt that I would someday earn that much money.
‘Wait for me, Elon Mengsk!’
Someday, I would take the title of the richest person in the world.
He should warm that throne with his ass while he still could.
It wouldn't be long before I took it from him.
Just as I made that vow and closed Hunter Gallery...
“Aren't you sick of Hunter Gallery yet?”
Hyeji suddenly appeared beside me, looking at my smartphone.
Why was someone who said she was going home still here?
“Hyeji, you haven't gone home yet?”
“No. I was too tired to move right away. But can I go to your room and look at the crystal ball?”
“...Do whatever you want.”
I casually brushed off Hyeji, who was strangely obsessed with the crystal ball.
Then I thought about tomorrow's climb.
My expression naturally turned serious.
‘Tomorrow is Floor 15. The floor where Orc Shamans appear.’
Orc Shamans.
They were true martial artists.
Unlike ordinary Orcs, third-rate fools who had only learned external martial arts, they were true martial artists who could even wield inner energy!
Like me and my seniors, they were genuine masters who had reached the first-rate realm or higher.
My heart started pounding at the thought of fighting a life-and-death duel with them.
‘Wait for me, Orc Shaman. I'm coming soon.’
I would win our life-and-death duel tomorrow.
I would take the secret martial arts of your sect.
Then I would raise the prestige of our Goblin Sect!
“Masters in the heavens! Seniors! Please watch over me! This unworthy junior, Baek Jiho, will surely win tomorrow's life-and-death duel against the Orc Shaman!”
I felt as though I could faintly see the kind faces of my masters and seniors.
Tomorrow.
A battle with the pride of two sects on the line would unfold.
It was Floor 15, the floor of the Orc Shaman.
Footnotes:
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