Chapter 17
#17. Another Addiction
The Tower of Trials has a system very similar to an RPG game.
And one element you can’t leave out of any RPG is magic; the Tower of Trials has magic too.
Right now, there’s a wand for casting magic stored in my inventory. Useless, though.
But magic doesn’t truly come into play until the 3rd Floor and above.
Below that, you can’t even meet a magic-using monster, let alone change class into a mage or learn magic skills.
And yet some 2nd Floor field boss suddenly used elemental attacks—where the hell did it sell its conscience?
“Fuck!”
With Robo’s flaming charge and Blanca pinning my feet, I couldn’t dodge or defend.
I tried twisting my body as much as I could to avoid it, but in the end it sank its teeth deep into my shoulder.
-Fwoosh!
Thanks to my high defense, the teeth themselves didn’t bite in very deeply, but the problem was the flames clinging to them.
“Aagh, shit, fuck…!”
The savory smell of meat grilling rose from my shoulder, and an utterly unfamiliar burning pain surged through me.
I remembered a post I’d seen on the community before, ‘Let’s Rank the Pain.jpg’.
I think unexpected childbirth pain was ranked third, and limb-severing pain was second.
And I remember burning pain taking first place. Feeling it now, that seems about right.
Shit, this fucking hurts.
But it only hurts; this won’t kill me. And I’m not going to just sit here and get roasted.
-Clench!
As if it meant to rip my entire shoulder off, Robo kept its teeth sunk in and shook its head back and forth.
I grabbed Robo’s face with one hand and forced my legs to hold steady, resisting the shaking of my body.
Then I stowed the shield, frozen stiff by Blanca’s teeth, into my inventory and grabbed Robo’s face with my other hand as well.
“Aaaaaaah!!”
Then, with all my strength, I lifted Robo’s entire body right off the ground.
Robo, still biting into my shoulder, trembled in surprise. You little bastard, you didn’t think I could do this, did you?
“This is the power of a Strength stat of 62, you mangy mutt!”
-Thud!
I hurled Robo’s lifted body upside down onto the ground. Robo sprang up and righted itself.
And I was faster to draw a new weapon from my inventory and thrust it out than Robo was to regain its footing.
-Shk!
The deep thrust triggered a critical hit and burst out a red effect. It went in perfectly.
I wanted to finish it right there, but Blanca, with blue eyes gleaming from my left, lunged at me again.
I threw out my left arm to block, then remembered I’d already put the shield away in my inventory.
“Agh, fuck!”
I ended up sticking out nothing but my arm like an idiot. The chill flowing from Blanca’s teeth froze my left arm solid.
Maybe it was a sign of frostbite, because red spots were spreading even to areas that hadn’t been bitten directly. And fuck, my sense of touch feels strange.
In an instant, the feeling in my left arm went numb. It felt like my arm was slowly disappearing in real time.
“Ugh, you son of a—!”
I tried shaking my arm to peel Blanca off, but the arm that was freezing over wouldn’t listen properly.
If burns are agony, then frostbite is terrifying. From the spot where Blanca’s teeth had sunk in, a crackling, creaking sound began to rise.
Was it freezing deep down to the bone? If I tore Blanca off like this, my left arm might come off with it too.
I don’t want to become a one-armed cripple in a place like this.
But fuck, if I just stood here and did nothing, I’d get chewed to death anyway. Fuck that.
-Crunch!
I forcibly yanked my frozen arm, dragging Blanca along with it, then jammed my sword straight into its throat.
This time too, a red effect signifying a critical hit flashed. Its attack power was shamelessly high, but its defense seemed weak.
I twisted the straight sword I’d driven in with a flick of my wrist. Blanca still wouldn’t let go of my left arm even as the inside of its throat was being gouged out.
So even if it dies here, you’re still going to tear my arm off first? You filthy bastard, you goddamn wolf!
[Passive Skill: Frost Resistance Level 1 has been acquired.]
“Huh?”
The moment I saw the blue notification window appear before my eyes, the anxiety and pain rushing over me vanished cleanly.
A Frost Resistance skill—its name is so straightforward I can roughly guess its effect.
The corners of my mouth lifted on their own. Before I knew it, I was grinning without even realizing it.
“Yeah, you bastard, let’s see who wins.”
Even I thought I was a complete lunatic, but at this point, that didn’t matter.
**
Blanca’s life didn’t last long after the sword was driven into its throat.
Robo lunged at me in fury the moment Blanca died, but it wasn’t much of a threat.
I dragged my battered body forward and beat Robo to death, and soon a notification window appeared announcing the field boss clear.
[Clear Reward: You have obtained ‘Wolf King’s Fang’ and ‘EXP.’]
[Highest Contribution Reward: You have obtained ‘Frost-Infused Fang.’]
[Last Hit Reward: You have obtained ‘Passive Skill - Fire Resistance.’]
Maybe because it was a field boss, there was no separate first-clear reward, but I did gain a new passive skill.
I’d cursed at it for using elemental attacks when it was just a 2nd Floor field boss, but seeing the skill it rewarded me with made sense of it.
Resistance passives are usually learned late and are fairly hard to obtain, so people usually secure them through item options instead.
I never expected to get two of them this early. That’s incredible luck.
“No, maybe it isn’t luck?”
I looked down at my left arm, which had been turned into a bloody mess.
Even after pouring a ton of potions on it, this wound showed no sign of healing quickly. That’s why elemental attacks are such a pain.
Without the proper resistance, they deal far more damage than ordinary wounds, and unless you have a specialized potion, they heal unbelievably slowly.
HP : 213/660
My HP really was still in this state. The Indomitable skill I’d only just gotten was already kicking in.
Judging by their overall specs, they were worse than the Goblin Lord, and yet I’d nearly died.
The reason was simple.
The boss was a pair-type, and its stat spread was extremely lopsided.
Those two variables were far too lethal against me, a solo player.
To put it bluntly, if even one level-15 warrior had just tanked for a little while, I could’ve won with almost no injuries.
And I’d reacted far too sensitively to the unfamiliar pains of burns and frostbite.
If I’d fought while staying calm instead of flailing around and cursing, maybe the result would’ve been better.
This isn’t something I can just brush off as luck or misfortune.
I won because of the effort I’d built up, and I got hurt because that effort still wasn’t enough.
I won’t forget what happened today. I’ll keep it in mind as a lesson.
**
After waiting for my arm to heal, I sorted through the loot piled up in my inventory and returned to the safe zone.
The shepherd girl was already asleep in front of the campfire, breathing soft little puffs.
I wonder if it’s okay to sleep that close to the fire. She won’t end up breathing in smoke and dying for no reason, will she?
“Well, not my problem.”
The shepherd dog called Flanders was sprawled out asleep beside the girl, so there probably wasn’t any problem.
If anything seems dangerous, that smart dog will handle it somehow.
Anyway, I’d been planning to head straight to the village now that the wolves were all dead, but... maybe I should rest first.
I’d been deliberately avoiding rest, but honestly, my condition is terrible right now. I’d been fighting nonstop for ages.
I took a White Roll out of my inventory and chewed on it.
Sleeping now felt a little awkward, so I figured I’d fill my stomach while browsing the community.
Of course, I wasn’t planning to mess around on the community like I used to by posting nonsense; this was for information gathering.
[Is the 22nd Floor always this boring?]
[Who the hell put a +9 hwando up in the auction house?]
[Looking for bow recommendations for the 30s Floors]
[The boss gimmick is just fucking obnoxious]
[Is the 66th Floor boss difficulty for real?]
I dragged the list downward and scrolled through older and older posts. Going back through time endlessly, I pulled up the posts from the earliest challengers.
The countless stories of the first-generation hunters who risked their lives challenging the Tower back then are still preserved here exactly as they were.
Reading posts that mention the names of famous people now called S-rank hunters or first-generation hunters makes all kinds of thoughts come to mind.
Even those we thought of as heroes who had fallen from the sky weren’t much different from anyone else when they first entered the Tower of Trials.
Some stood out from the start after obtaining unique or epic classes, and some clearly had an exceptional mindset at a glance, but...
Looking at it this way, most of them were just ordinary people.
“……”
Of course, none of them had wanted to become low-rank hunters and coast through life.
My chest tingled again. Energy started welling up in my tired body on its own.
Even if it’s for information gathering, I really don’t feel like just staring at the community.
“What should I do?”
So I left the community open and suddenly started doing bodyweight exercises.