WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 63: Escape (2)

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After finishing his practice, Gerik returned straight to the dimensional gate.

His supplies were simple: food and water for several days, along with two carefully made torches. The lighter his load was while climbing the cliff, the better, so he discarded the rest without hesitation.

"Phew..."

After catching his breath, Gerik pulled the key from his pocket and held it against the dimensional gate. Just like before, strange waves radiated from the key before merging with the gate and creating a portal.

Familiar darkness stretched beyond the door.

Gerik stared at it for a moment, then lightly slapped his cheeks. Afterward, he pushed his supplies through one by one and carefully stepped through himself.

Hum...!!

After taking a few steps, he heard a faint sound behind him. When he turned around, the dimensional gate had quietly faded away as though it had never been there.

Gerik stared between the key and the empty air for a moment.

Then he clenched the key tightly in his hand before tucking it deep into his breast pocket.

'Let's go.'

With his supplies on his back, Gerik started retracing the path he had taken. Finding his way back was not difficult. The structure had been almost one-way to begin with, and his enhanced intelligence and perception recalled the route as clearly as if he had seen it yesterday.

"Water...!!"

After walking for about half a day, Gerik found the underground water that had saved his life. He made his first camp there, boiled water in his helmet, and filled his stomach with the fruit he had gathered.

'I should save the nuts.'

He ate the berries that spoiled quickly first and kept the nuts as emergency rations. After filling his stomach, he left the remains of the campfire behind and headed toward the place where he had fallen.

It was a path he had struggled through on the way in, his steps heavy as lead. But with his body fully recovered and his skills at his disposal, Gerik reached the fall site in less than three days.

He did not even need to confirm that he had returned to the starting point.

The shattered wall where he had desperately unleashed Slash after Slash. Stone fragments and fine dust scattered everywhere because of it. The traces of that fierce battle remained intact.

The sight vividly brought back the sensations from that day. The feeling of his body slicing through empty air in the darkness, the wind rushing past him, even the sensation of the cliff face brushing by.

'Having a better memory isn't entirely a good thing.'

Gerik let out a short sigh and raised his torch toward the cliff.

All he could see was endless darkness. The cliff's unseen end made him feel stifled, knowing he had to climb it from here.

'This is where the real problem begins.'

The Wild Blessing he had gained did increase his stamina and strength. Compared to before, he could clearly feel that his physical abilities had improved.

But he had only become somewhat stronger than an ordinary person. He had not become superhuman.

He definitely could not climb a hundred-meter cliff without resting.

The greater problem was the limit of Telekinesis itself. Even when he was exhausted, Charge could be used again after a short rest.

Telekinesis was different.

After using it at maximum output ten times, he would need to wait at least an hour for it to recover.

Even if he climbed in five-meter bursts at maximum output, ten uses would only get him fifty meters. Half the expected height of the cliff.

'There has to be somewhere I can rest halfway up.'

Gerik raised his torch and scanned the wall. Fortunately, he spotted quite a few large and small outcroppings. Some were outlines he had passed during his fall, while there were even more than he remembered.

'If I can use those, it's possible...!!'

The problem was the distance between the outcroppings. If he was unlucky, he might run out of Telekinesis with nowhere to hold onto.

The terrible image naturally formed in Gerik's mind, filling him with fear.

'Wait... Wasn't the middle of the cliff made of sandstone?'

As he thought, an idea crossed his mind. Gerik drew his longsword from his waist and held it up to the torchlight.

The blade was chipped in several places from the impact of the fall, and even the hilt had bent from the damage.

Yet Grimdal's carefully treasured Red Iron had miraculously allowed the sword to withstand all that impact.

'If I use Slash to make cracks in the sandstone, couldn't I create a temporary foothold?'

Sandstone was relatively soft for rock. It would put less strain on the sword.

Still, it was a method he did not want to use unless it was a last resort. Every use of Slash would place considerable strain on the sword, and the blade, already damaged everywhere, might break if he was unlucky.

'I should pray I won't need it.'

Gerik sheathed his sword. Then he firmly secured the pack woven from his padded under-armor and fastened the torch to it, freeing both hands while keeping his view clear.

Following the route he had planned in his head, his first target was a rocky spur jutting out about five meters above him.

Gerik projected Telekinesis toward it.

The power of Telekinesis firmly seized the rocky spur. The moment he felt the connection, Gerik immediately used Charge.

Bang...!!

Power burst from his lower body, launching him explosively toward the rocky spur. Once he arrived, Gerik used the grip strength enhanced by the Wild Blessing to hold on tightly.

'It works...!!'

The Gerik of the past could never have controlled Charge this precisely, but now that he had gained enough proficiency, a five-meter leap was not even difficult.

Hanging from the rocky spur, Gerik steadied his breathing and checked his next target. In the meantime, Telekinesis's ten-second cooldown passed.

Telekinesis, Charge, hang.

Then Telekinesis, Charge, hang again.

As he repeated the same motions, Gerik rapidly climbed thirty meters.

'Found a place to rest...!!'

A massive outcropping large enough for a person to sit on came into view as Gerik climbed steadily. He quickly moved over and sat on it.

"Phew... That saved me."

He spoke to himself with exaggerated relief, but Gerik still had enough Telekinesis left for another two or three uses. Still, there was no telling when he would find another proper place to rest.

Gerik ate the food and drank the water he had prepared, resting long enough to recover his Telekinesis and grip strength. Perhaps thanks to the health enhanced by the Wild Blessing, even his arms, which had been overworked from hanging, recovered faster than expected.

As he rested, he held up his torch and examined the way above, planning his next route. Several outcroppings looked easy to grab, and Gerik committed them firmly to memory with his enhanced ability to memorize.

When he had rested enough, he climbed the cliff again using the same method.

After repeating that around six times, another place to rest came into view.

"Ugh... There's nothing to grab onto..."

The problem was the stretch between where he was hanging and the resting place. That part of the cliff was smooth, without a single outcropping.

'I can force myself to hang onto a smooth surface with Telekinesis, but...'

The problem was that the moment Telekinesis ended, there would be nothing supporting his hands and feet. The instant it cut off, he would fall for certain.

Feeling the strain building in his arms and legs, Gerik desperately searched for a solution.

Eventually, he reached a conclusion.

'...I have no choice but to try.'

Still hanging from the cliff, Gerik drew his longsword.

'Please hold together...!'

Praying again and again that it would not break, he unleashed Slash toward the farthest point he could reach.

Shhk!

As the longsword imbued with the power of Slash left a silver flash in the air, the sandstone wall broke apart as if torn open with a sharp crack.

'It worked...!!'

The feeling through his fingertips told him that he could still use the sword.

But he had no time to feel relieved. Supporting himself with one hand while swinging his sword with the other wore down his body more than he had imagined.

His arm trembled, and he could not swing the sword at the angle he wanted. Even so, Gerik gritted his teeth and unleashed several more Slashes, successfully creating handholds and footholds.

'Telekinesis...!! Charge...!!'

Using the footholds to gain momentum, Gerik slowly but surely advanced toward the resting place.

'One mistake and I die...!'

The final stretch.

The resting place was about ten meters away. Gerik steadied his trembling arms, took a deep breath, put strength into his legs, and used Charge with all his might.

Bang!!!

Because he was so tense that he used too much force, Gerik shot farther than he had estimated and nearly passed the outcropping entirely.

'Telekinesis...!!'

Just as he passed slightly beyond the outcropping, Gerik desperately projected Telekinesis and caught its edge.

"Ghk...!!"

When the Telekinesis from his right hand forcibly seized the outcropping, the recoil from Charge sent a powerful shock through his arm. Losing consciousness from the pain would mean the end, so Gerik desperately endured it and controlled the situation.

"Haa... Haa..."

After barely reaching the resting place, Gerik lay down and let out a sigh of relief.

"Shit... I really almost died."

He lay there for a long time, rubbing his throbbing right arm. Then he slowly got up and began looking around.

"Huh... Is that...?"

Something gleamed as it reflected the torchlight. Looking closer, Gerik recognized it as the longsword he had embedded in the wall during his fall.

'I really made a mess of things.'

He must have desperately stabbed the sword into the wall countless times, because the rock around it had been completely destroyed. The marks were even more horribly cracked and shattered than the fall site, clearly showing just how desperate Gerik had been.

'It's really a miracle that I'm alive.'

As he looked at the terrifying sight, Gerik unconsciously ran a hand over his chest in relief.

After resting, he began climbing the cliff again. Repeating the now-familiar motions, he steadily gained altitude.

Just as his Telekinesis was about to run out, Gerik ran into a critical problem.

"Damn it..."

Unlike before, no matter how much he looked around, he could not find an outcropping where he could sit or hang from to rest.

'...Should I carve out a resting place?'

It was not impossible. If he carved into the wall with Slash like before, he could probably make space to lie down.

The problem was his arms.

After Gerik had climbed nearly eighty meters, his grip strength had weakened considerably. His arms had trembled just from making a few footholds earlier. To carve out a resting place large enough for a person to lie down, he would have to hang there for several times longer.

'It wasn't easy even when I was in good condition...'

Just as the hopelessness made him feel suffocated, a thought suddenly crossed Gerik's mind.

'Wait... Aren't I almost there?'

Even when he raised his head, the darkness above remained pitch-black, and he could not see his destination.

But based on everything so far, Gerik felt that there was not much distance left.

'Maybe the torch just doesn't light far enough.'

With that thought, Gerik used his nearly burned-out torch to light a new one. Then he grabbed the old torch, which was almost extinguished, and threw it upward with all his strength.

Whoosh!!

The torch soared through the darkness, illuminating the surroundings. Before long, Gerik saw the end of the cliff about thirty meters above him.

The very place where he had fallen.

'There it is!!'

He could not climb it with his remaining Telekinesis, but if he rested once, it was a distance he could manage.

'Do I carve out a resting place? Or should I gamble?'

For a very brief moment, Gerik desperately weighed his choices before feeling the scales tip to one side.

'Better to gamble than fall while carving out a resting place.'

After deciding, Gerik gathered his remaining Telekinesis without hesitation. Once enough power had gathered at his fingertips, he projected it, pulled himself toward it, and used Charge.

Bang!!

He shot upward about twenty meters with all his strength. As he fell about five meters, he squeezed out the last of his recovered Telekinesis and stuck to the wall.

"Urgh...!!"

A heavy pain rushed through his right arm from the recoil. But the situation was too serious for him to pay attention to that kind of pain, so Gerik ignored it. Using Telekinesis as a lever, he used Charge again.

Bang!!

Explosive momentum launched his body upward.

Not long after Gerik shot through the air like a rocket, the ruins where he had fallen finally came into view.

'What now?'

The problem was his trajectory.

To avoid crashing into the cliff, he had been shooting upward in a straight line. At this rate, he would pass the entrance to the ruins and fall through the air again.

'I have to change direction...!!'

In that brief moment, Gerik desperately racked his brain. Then an idea came to him.

Whether it worked or not did not matter.

If he did not try, he would die anyway.

'Slash!!'

As Gerik reached the highest point, he quickly drew the longsword strapped to his back. Then he spun his body and unleashed a powerful Slash behind him, toward the cliff.

Shhk! Shhk!!

As he frantically unleashed Slash after Slash, the recoil gradually tilted Gerik's body toward the ruins as he fell.

Crash!!

"Aagh!!"

Gerik fell from a height of eight meters and rolled across the floor of the ruins. The powerful impact of slamming into the stone ground mercilessly battered his entire body.

He had landed with most of the force hitting his right arm, and terrible pain rushed through it. Yet as he gritted his teeth to endure the pain, relief and accomplishment paradoxically filled his face.

"I... did it...!!"

Gerik had done it.

Without anyone's help, he had escaped that hellish pit entirely through his own strength.

"Haa... Haa..."

After lying there and catching his rough breath for a long time, Gerik slowly rose.

His right arm had swollen red from the unnatural landing.

'I think it's broken.'

Sensing that the condition was serious, Gerik brought Skyler's Quintet, which was on his finger, to his swollen right arm and used Healing Spell.

Hum...!!

As a soft green light seeped into his arm, the twisted joint returned to its proper place, the swelling disappeared, and the pain faded.

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