Chapter 14
The black mist spread.
“Whoa...”
Could it be because the central organ in my head felt no inertia at all?
I didn't feel as though I had moved at all.
It simply felt as though the place I was looking at had zoomed in.
That was exactly what short-range teleportation felt like.
I turned around.
“It seems like it was about ten meters...”
It wasn't that short, either.
“Can I use this every thirty seconds?”
Now, no matter how fast a ranged monster's attack speed was, I shouldn't have any trouble closing the distance. The size of a single tower floor was fixed, after all.
“Not that I've been blocked yet...”
I checked the time.
There was still a little time left before the Golden Carriage's stay ended.
I had 4,097 gold left.
“Let's spend it all.”
I opened the gallery to ask where to spend the remaining money.
SSS-Rank Gearhead : You're skipping black magic progression itself right now, so you can't learn Magic Shield-type spells. It seems right to shore up your durability first?
ㄴㅇㅇ(431F) : Only now...?
ㄴㅇㅇ(56F)(Author) : Understood.
SSS-Rank Gearhead : Let's repurchase the Adventurer's Ring first. It's a basic item, so you'll keep...
……
..
.
After reading SSS-Rank Gearhead's advice, I scraped together every last bit of my remaining gold and bought the items he pointed out.
[Silver Necklace of Vitality (Rare)] - 2,950 G
[Adventurer's Ring (Common)] - 720 G
After paying for the two items.
“The silver necklace was for enhancement, right...?”
I fed the necklace to the black horse,
“...”
Then I fed the enhancement stones and earrings to the skeleton horse.
Crunch- Crunch-.
Several sounds of forging rang out.
I put the earrings back on.
Then I felt my body become filled out and sturdier.
Vitality + 7 Defense + 6 Magic Defense + 1
After that, I switched the Golden Carriage to PX mode, bought food, and spent the rest of my money.
[Payment complete]
[Gold on hand: 0 G]
Then.
Purururu!
Hee-hing!!!
“What...?”
Suddenly, the black horse raised its forelegs and let out a long neigh, then turned red.
Then its body soon began to melt.
It gradually began taking shape, becoming a black furnace.
Clatter-! Clatter-!
The skeleton horse's bones likewise came apart and rearranged themselves into a bone anvil.
Rumble-!
The black furnace and bone anvil naturally attached themselves beside the Golden Carriage like a matching set, then vanished into thin air amid a burst of light.
“...Lu, Lo. So that's why you were named after an anvil and a furnace...”
I gazed for a moment at the empty space where the horses had disappeared.
“Thank you for waking me up, Lo. If it weren't for you, I might have died to the hero.”
“And thank you for enhancing the earrings, Lu.”
“See you in a month. I'll definitely still be alive by then.”
I adjusted the knot of the ribbon and tightened my grip on the scythe.
I started walking.
*
[The promotion match begins.]
As the stairs opened and I climbed floor after floor, a blue iridescence shimmered around the earrings.
My Magic Power rose, my Strength rose along with it, and promotion-reward gold came in.
And then I reached Floor 58.
[Defender: Blood Harpy (58F)]
It was a bird circling the sky of a vast cavern.
Screeeeeech-!
It flapped its wings while letting out a shriek sharp enough to burst my eardrums.
Dozens of blood-red feathers suspended in the air transformed into bullets and rained down.
Piiing!
The sound of projectiles ripping through the wind came from every direction.
My current Senses stat was 72.
My eyes read the trajectories of the falling feathers.
In the past, I would have rolled across the floor to dodge them, but I had no need to do that now.
“Black Shift.”
Black mist rose from the ribbon.
The moment the mist coiled around my entire body, my field of vision inverted.
Exactly 10M.
Thanks to my Senses stat, adjusting the distance was easy.
I passed straight through the rain of feathers that had been pouring down—
Slaaash-!
Behind the back of the Blood Harpy hovering in midair.
I appeared after skipping through space and swung the Death Scythe in a wide arc, putting my centrifugal force behind it.
Kieeeek-!
The blood-red wing was severed clean off, scattering fresh blood through the air.
[Successfully defeated the Blood Harpy of Floor 58]
[You have received 5,700G as a promotion reward!]
“Haa....”
I exhaled as I landed on the floor.
I still wasn't used to how it felt to use the skill.
When I tried it during practice, it had only been exciting, but in actual combat, it made me feel a little dizzy.
“Well, I'll get used to it.”
And after smashing through Floor 59,
I reached the next floor in succession.
[Defender: Gargoyle Sniper (60F)]
I had arrived at Floor 60.
At the far end of a floor roughly the size of a soccer field, a stone statue was loading a massive crossbow.
Whenever I first arrive on an upper floor, I always put the scythe to my neck. It's to activate Suicide Pre-Input.
And first, I run sideways to see what happens. It's to evade ranged attacks.
That routine paid off.
Vrrrmmm-!
A massive red effect was being compressed at the end of the gargoyle's crossbow.
Soon, the arrow left the string.
Sweeaaak-!
The arrow came flying as though warping space itself. It seemed to be imbued with Magic Power.
It had tremendous momentum, but.
Whip!
I used the inertia of my run to roll my body aside and dodge it.
My frilled skirt fluttered through the air.
The moment I landed, it immediately began loading its next shot.
The loading was faster than I had expected.
Vrrrmmm-!
This time, I couldn't dodge it. The distance had narrowed, shortening its trajectory.
“Normally...”
This was the moment when I would have been forced to use Suicide Pre-Input and go to the Reaper realm.
But I now had a 120,000-gold unique item.
Whoom-
The ribbon's black mist scattered once again.
At the instant just before the massive crossbow's arrow touched the center of my brow.
Kwaaang-!
The spot where I had been standing exploded, but I was no longer there.
Right in front of the Gargoyle Sniper's nose.
I appeared amid black mist.
Before it had time to react, I hooked the scythe's blade around the back of its neck.
“Come here.”
Then I braced one foot against the body of the crossbow.
With both the scythe and my body held firmly in place...
I pulled the scythe toward myself.
Kkkaaang-!
Sparks flew.
The stone statue's sturdy neck broke apart messily.
[Successfully defeated the Gargoyle Sniper of Floor 60]
[You have received 5,900G as a promotion reward!]
The earrings glowed blue.
[Magitech Azure Earrings (+2 / Charge: 35%)]
“Phew....”
Watching the stone gargoyle dissolve into cubes and scatter, I rested the scythe against the floor and caught my breath.
I allocated my stat points and checked my status.
[Status]
Race: Reaper (死神)
Floors: 60
Level: 60
Condition: Normal
Strength: 37 (▲1)
Agility: 23
Vitality: 16
Intelligence: 79 (▲4)
Senses: 74 (▲4)
Magic Power: 192 (▲8)
Luck: 11
Defense: 13
Magic Defense: 14
Remaining Stat Points: 0
Trait: Unawakened
Skills: None
Weapon: Death Scythe
Equipped Items: [Ring of Arcane Might], [Adventurer's Ring], [Magitech Azure Earrings (+2 / Charge: 35%)], [Twin-Tail Black Ribbon]
I had only climbed four floors, yet my Magic Power had risen by 8.
Seeing ‘Normal’ written in the Condition field rubbed me the wrong way.
I could still collapse without warning and sleep for several days.
‘I'll never let an accident like last time happen again.’
I had only one full Fatigue Recovery Potion left now.
‘Damn it... If only that fucking tree sloth hadn't been there.’
Remembering that irritating face made me angry.
I had wasted 80% of a precious potion throwing it at that bastard's face.
But if I hadn't done that, I would have had to waste even this last Fatigue Recovery Potion or use Suicide Pre-Input.
‘For now, I should rest here.’
Fatigue Recovery Potions were essential to my rapid climb.
Three had appeared in this Golden Carriage, but the next lineup would be random, so I had no idea how many there would be.
I had to conserve them while I could.
I plopped down on the marble floor and opened the gallery while taking a break.
Then I began writing a long post summarizing my climb so far.
Title: [Information] Comprehensive Summary of Monster Gimmicks and Item Usage from Floors 1–60.
Author: ㅇㅇ(60F)
The items SSS-Rank Gearhead recommended were really good.
Below are the names and appearances of the monsters I encountered up to Floor 60, along with firsthand reviews of the items I bought from the Golden Carriage.
Warning: terse, fragmentary style.
Floor 2: Black Slime.
An almost harmless creature. Extremely moist to the touch.
…
..
.
Floor 40: Shaman Sleep.
Applies a sleep effect, but it can be forcibly dispelled with a Fatigue Recovery Potion.
As for how I dealt with it...
..
.
.
Floor 60 Gargoyle Sniper.
A ranged sniping monster.
Short-range teleportation is godlike. Without it, I nearly cut my throat and used Suicide Pre-Input.
……
……
After registering the post and waiting a while, I refreshed the page.
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ(612F) : Wow! A review at last!
Fenrir : What was that about casually climbing four more floors...?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : For real. I read all the way through without noticing the author's floor display, then got hit with a question mark when I saw a guide all the way to Floor 60 lol
ㅇㅇ(608F) The number went up again, I see lol
ㅇㅇ(684F) : Writing a guide to sixty unexplored floors all by yourself is seriously legendary lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㅇㅇ(312F) : Floor 60 in four days ㄷㄷ
ㅇㅇ(612F) : So excluding sleep, it was basically just one day lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㅇㅇ(418F) : Looking only at how fast they were climbing, I thought they had just clicked and smacked their way up, but it was way more fucking intense than I expected;;
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(154F) : Caught one of those fuckers who takes ten years to clear a floor.
“Was it hard...?”
If I had to argue whether it was hard or not, it was more the latter, but that didn't mean there were no dangerous factors at all.
For one thing, I was placed in a situation where I had to fight an opponent to the death fifty-nine times.
SSS-Rank Gearhead : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gearhead : If someone had said a week ago that they had reached Floor 60 in four years, they would've been instantly blocked... But not four years—sixty floors in four days is seriously crazy.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gearhead : Ah, this won't do.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gearhead : I normally only come to the gallery to review gear on Golden Carriage days, but from now on, I'll be camped here to watch you climb, newbie.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : Didn't you just want an excuse to rest?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(351F) : For real lol. He just seems happy to have an excuse not to train lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Either way, he seemed to like my review post.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(60F)(Author) : Thank you for taking it so positively.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gearhead : It's not just me. There are plenty of verified users in this gallery who'll be horrified and thrilled when they see you play.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gearhead : The vanguard doesn't use the gallery. Anyone passionate about strategy guides just trains on their own floor.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gearhead : To put it bluntly, the people who camp out in this gallery every day posting shitposts are just stagnant people with nothing to do.
ㄴㅇㅇ(473F) : Ah, bro! Hnng! Ah! Hnn!
ㄴMacanon : That's a little harsh...
‘Only people with nothing to do use the gallery.’
It was a harsh, mocking statement, but... it didn't seem entirely false.
To escape this tower, you had to advance all the way to Floor 1000.
In other words, becoming stronger was the only goal. And since the only way to do that without climbing floors was training, anyone planning to do promotion matches would be better off turning off the gallery and training.
And since that kind of training consumed years at a time by whatever method one used, the logic was that anyone who trained seriously wouldn't show up in the gallery very often.
That was why only so-called ‘Egen’ people naturally remained in this gallery.
It might feel unfair to someone who had reached the limits of their training, but what could you do?
<Menu>
[ [Apply for Promotion Match] ]
The opportunity to challenge was open for twenty-four hours.
But...
There was one thing SSS-Rank Gearhead misunderstood.
I'm not rapid-climbing because I'm some kind of tough guy. I'm speeding because I'm a pathetic guy.
My going upward was closer to ‘running away’ than ‘charging forward.’
Even if I didn't press Apply for Promotion Match!
I was in a situation where the hero could come and kill me even if I just sat still.
So I wasn't extraordinary. I was merely struggling to survive.
But SSS-Rank Gearhead, who seemed to mistake me for some kind of Lu Bu-type madman...
was trying to introduce me to other Lu Bu-types.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gearhead : There are weirdos from the Backrooms whose sense of time is completely fucked, people who use dragon-based magic, and especially old geezers from xianxia dimensions who spend decades in closed-door cultivation, so they really never look at the gallery, you know?
ㄴ SSS-Rank Gearhead : But I'll send alerts to all of them for now. They'll absolutely lose their minds when they see you.
“……”
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
Having more outstanding teachers would obviously be a good thing in the long run, but I wasn't exactly thrilled about it right now.
“More mother-in-laws are going to show up here? I'm still doing fine...”