Chapter 20
[User: Yumia. Floor of Traps (1/3). Rain of Arrows cleared! Mana and HP slightly restored! Reward granted!]
[Breakthrough time: 10.99 seconds. Recorded.]
[Claim your reward!]
Another silver chest appeared in front of me.
I was just about to touch the silver chest when…
[Hey, what are you doing!? You'll die if you keep that up!]
I heard Sera's worried voice.
Well, technically, she wasn't wrong.
If even one arrow had struck somewhere vital, I wouldn't have been able to guarantee my survival.
But that was only if the arrows had actually pierced my body.
“I'm not dead, am I?”
[Haaah… Just try dying on me.]
[W-what happened!? How did you get in there without a single injury…]
Woo Suhyeon seemed completely unaware of what had happened.
I had gone a little fast.
Woo Suhyeon probably thought I'd just run straight ahead while swinging my sword.
[That bastard deflected every arrow. With just one sword.]
[…What? That's possible…]
[Because of Dragon Eye. Its boost to dynamic vision makes it possible.]
[Who would actually try that just because it's possible?]
“Haha.”
[There's someone trying it right there.]
Sera sounded like she was at her wit's end, but I was having fun.
Adrian strengthening my Dragon Eye with his blood had been a huge factor.
I could enhance my dynamic vision with my own mana, too.
But using dragon mana made it feel as if the world had nearly stopped.
On top of that, I intercepted arrows with magic and reduced their number considerably.
So I was able to break through with relative ease.
[For now, the Observer drain is bigger than I expected, so I'll turn off chat mode for a bit.]
Even if Isera's mana pool could endure it, the trait itself was only Rare-grade, so maintaining it for long seemed difficult.
‘But do my traits not have cooldowns or anything?’
Thinking about it, even Blessing of Language, which I'd thought was trash, was permanently active.
…Surely they weren't all SSR-grade, were they?
They had made quite a fuss over me at the training camp.
But once they realized my traits didn't produce any spectacular effects, they lost interest.
They became interested again when they realized, suspiciously enough, that the name at the top never changed.
“Whatever. None of that matters.”
I rubbed my palms together and headed toward the treasure chest.
“Well, I wonder what came out this time.”
Opening this always gave me a thrill.
The silver chest clicked open as soon as I touched it.
[Status Enhancement Selection Ticket (Floor 2, R), Enhancement Glaze (R)]
Mm!
Not bad.
[Status Enhancement Selection Ticket (Floor 2, R)]
I'd heard it didn't come out often in other Towers, and when it did, it appeared in a rather crappy version.
This one always welcomed me like a hearty bowl of gukbap.
Then shall I use it…
[Choose a stat to enhance!]
[Durability] [Earth] [Strength] [Agility] [Mana]
…Didn't one of them get added?
What was Earth supposed to mean?
Was this also that thing from earlier about interference increasing?
Then just how broken was dragon mana?
“Seriously, what is this?”
I guessed [Earth] meant endurance…
I reflexively went to select [Mana], then hesitated.
Honestly, if I wanted to pursue a mage build, choosing mana was the right answer.
But…
“It'd be a shame to give up the sword, too.”
In the end, it was the swordsman who opened up the gaps for me to unleash magic.
It had been the same when I subjugated the werewolf.
If I had been alone, I would have mixed magic and sword strikes as much as possible while aiming for effective hits.
Even Basic Attack Magic required a fairly long casting time to fire at maximum power.
Would that get shorter when I advanced to Beginner Magic?
“It'd be a shame to waste all the work I put into reducing that, too.”
And then there was the blue light I'd seen surrounding the sword when I fought the werewolf.
Aura.
‘The attack power of the sword strikes themselves definitely increased.’
Its basic attacks were stronger than mine.
If I practiced that, it would probably help a lot.
Of course, I had no intention of attending a knight school, so I'd have to learn it by stealing the technique from someone else.
[But aren't there tons of ways to acquire mana?]
I heard Sera's voice.
“Hm?”
[Your mana increased quite a bit at magic school. Aren't there more events that can give you some…? Ah, time's up.]
Sera's voice cut off abruptly.
I probably wouldn't be able to use Observer again until its cooldown finished.
I wondered if I could have used it longer if we hadn't been talking.
Anyway, Sera's words swayed me.
Let's go with this.
[[Durability] has been enhanced.]
Why had I chosen durability?
Some people occasionally mistook me for someone who loved taking risks.
I wanted to make it clear that this was a massive misunderstanding.
I was the kind of person who put my survival chances first.
I only did things because they seemed doable.
Exactly.
Besides, higher durability meant I could go to more dangerous places, right?
“Hmm.”
I pulled at my skin.
I even bit it.
It was still firm and springy. If anything, it seemed a little tougher.
Then I punched the floor.
“Ow!”
But the effect of durability was immediate.
I could still feel pain, but it faded quickly, and my skin didn't even turn red.
The floor was made of rough stones that reminded me of the barnacle-covered rocks one usually found at the beach.
Yet I didn't even get scratched or bleed, let alone turn red.
“Wow. This is incredible.”
My skin also seemed to have improved somehow.
I took a sword out of my inventory and lightly touched the tip to my finger.
“Ow!”
A small drop of blood welled up on my fingertip.
“Seriously, why is this sword so sharp?”
How could they sell such a dangerous sword to a student!?
What a nasty old man.
I popped my fingertip into my mouth and entertained this ungrateful thought.
I could taste the sting of blood on the cut.
“Right. Let's do this.”
There were quite a few ways to increase mana.
But there were only limited ways to raise raw stats without using mana to enhance them.
The Status Enhancement Selection Tickets were even a specialty of this place.
Now, let's look at the other reward.
When I looked at the red potion, its description appeared.
[Enhancement Glaze (R)]
Enhances bladed weapons.
Entrusting it to a renowned blacksmith may produce an even greater effect!
“Oh?”
A weapon enhancement.
I didn't know any blacksmiths in modern times, though…
‘Maybe I'll give it to that old man.’
The nice old man who had gladly sold me five shields and one sword for six silver.
Since it was Rare-grade, it should be quite suitable for enhancing the sword I was currently using, Tier 2.
It would have been nice if I could see how Tier 2 ranked by the Tower's standards.
It would have been convenient if a rank appeared, but unfortunately, it didn't.
“Well, I guess I'll have to settle for seeing the glaze's rank.”
I headed straight for the next room.
[Entering Floor 2, the Floor of Traps—the second room.]
The inside was quite dark, but Dragon Eye also had night vision.
I could see through the darkness without much trouble, but…
All I could see was a narrow, elongated corridor.
What?
Do I just go?
I simply started walking without thinking.
Then.
Click.
—Fwoooosh!
“Hottttt!!!”
I reflexively dodged the flames, but the tip of my hair caught fire!
After somehow rubbing it out, I realized the concept of this room.
It was a floor trap!
I began running while watching my footing carefully.
Once I looked closely, I could distinguish them to some extent.
I just had to avoid the slightly raised sections and keep running.
“Wow… what would I have done without Dragon Eye?”
It's nowhere near worthy of being SSR.
Most SSR traits probably couldn't match Dragon Eye in terms of versatility.
[User: Yumia. Floor of Traps (2/3). Pressure Plate Room cleared! Mana and HP slightly restored! Reward granted!]
[Breakthrough time: 35.15 seconds. Recorded.]
“That's not great.”
I had spent twenty-five seconds running cautiously.
I would have to clear the next room a little faster.
First, let's look at the reward.
[Status Enhancement Selection Ticket (Floor 2, R), Perfume of Fate (R)]
Perfume of Fate?
That sounded like an incredible name!
I hurriedly checked the description.
[Perfume of Fate]
It smells very good.
“……….”
I put the perfume into my inventory.
Sigh.
Yeah, I figured it was strange not to get a dud until now.
I'd heard that down on Easy difficulty, useless items like rusty swords sometimes appeared.
This was still much better than that.
[Status Enhancement Selection Ticket]
I looked at the remaining reward.
But come to think of it…
Could I put this in my inventory, too?
The Status Enhancement Selection Ticket had been shaped like a white orb, after all.
I'd exchanged the previous one for mana because I needed it immediately, but there was no need to do that now.
The white orb slipped neatly into my inventory.
“It works.”
But there was no reason to save it for later.
The higher the floor, the greater the effect of the enhancement tickets.
There was no reason to save a mere Rare-grade ticket for later.
[[Agility] has increased!]
I was going to raise every basic stat at least once anyway.
I wanted to test my increased stats, but…
“Let's just clear it.”
I was starting to get hungry.
[Entering Floor 2, the Floor of Traps—the final room.]
I realized it the moment I entered the room.
This wasn't a matter of dealing with traps or anything. I just had to run.
—Grrrrrrrrrrrr…
Because a house-sized boulder was rolling toward me from behind, accompanied by a sound like a toilet flushing.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”
I just ran as fast as I could.
Thanks to my enhanced agility, my speed felt much greater than usual.
But I had no time to worry about that!
A boulder was rolling after me!!
Arrows flew toward me from ahead.
I knocked them aside with my sword and kept running!
A skeleton rattled as it tried to attack me.
“What are you supposed to be!?”
My wild swing separated its head from its body!
“Just run like hell!!!”
The traps activated randomly and targeted me, but…
—Clang!
This time, the shield I'd taken out of my inventory blocked the attack!
The shields I summoned at random and the durability I'd raised helped quite a bit.
“Casting Bullet, Casting Bullet, Casting Bulleeeet!!!”
On top of that, I indiscriminately fired Basic Attack Magic.
There seemed to be a lot of traps installed, but many of them were destroyed by my magic.
And so, that hellish stretch of time passed.
[User: Yumia. Floor of Traps (3/3). Rolling Boulder Room cleared! Mana and HP slightly restored! Reward granted!]
[Breakthrough time: 57.23 seconds. Recorded.]
“Gheeeek… huff. Huff…”
Steam was rising from my body.
My hair was burned in spots, and my throat stung as if I'd just come out of a gas chamber.
“Sss… I'm dying…”
Somehow, I'd made it within the speedrun time.
Maybe because I'd run like a madman.
When I looked back just before clearing the room, the boulder had still been a little way behind me.
I was drenched in sweat from sprinting at full speed for the first time in ages.
I had collapsed in the exit room, but I managed to regain consciousness.
“Right. The reward… I need to check the reward…”
[Check your reward!]
I opened the reward.
“Oh, this reward is pretty generous!”
As expected, financial therapy was the best healing.
[Status Enhancement Selection Ticket (SR, Floor 2), Enhancement Rune (R), Immunity to Hundred Poisons (R)]
Let's see.
I'd decide what to do with the SR-grade enhancement ticket later.
This wasn't something I wanted to use casually.
Its performance was nearly five times that of an R-grade enhancement ticket.
I could use the Rare-grade one from the third floor to raise my strength and endurance.
Next, I looked at the artifact.
[Enhancement Rune]
When used, it enhances an R-grade magic-type artifact.
“Oh-ho.”
A pretty good one had come out.
I carefully placed it in my inventory.
My wand was an R-grade artifact.
I thought I could enhance it with this.
And…
It was a Rare-grade trait, wasn't it?
The moment I turned my gaze toward it, a message appeared as if it had been waiting for me.
[Immunity to Hundred Poisons (R) has been added to your traits!]
[Immunity to Hundred Poisons (R)]
You are immune to weak poisons and microorganisms.
You have resistance to strong poisons.
If the conditions are met, it will be enhanced to [Immunity to Thousand Poisons (SR)]!
“A solidly useful one.”
It really was a solid, useful trait.
I liked the last line, too.
Traits with growth potential tended to be valued more highly even among Rare-grade traits.
Come to think of it, the stinging in my throat had disappeared at some point.
…Was that from poison, too?
Now.
The time had come.
I'd received all the rewards, and it was just about time to leave.
[Hell Difficulty Special: Speedrun!]
[Speedrun Rank:SSS! Speedrun reward granted! Choose your reward!]
Right.
This was it.
This was why I'd twisted my whole body and run like crazy.
With my eyes gleaming, I checked what had appeared this time.