Chapter 15: Nightmare Floor 2 (3)

The moment I passed through the doorway, a staircase stretched out before me.

There’s still more?

I raced up the stairs at full speed.

Behind me, the overflowing lava came gurgling up the staircase.

I was faster.

I climbed without any real danger of it catching up and burning me alive.

As I ran, I noticed that the staircase curved in a broad spiral.

Only then did I realize that I was inside an impossibly tall tower.

I kept climbing.

Tower, castle, whatever.

I couldn’t have cared less.

Shouldn’t this be ending soon?

I had already been running for quite a while.

About once every full circuit, I passed a window. Beyond it, night covered the world, and the moon hung in the sky.

...I kept climbing.

“Hah, hah.”

Something was wrong.

A creeping sense of unease began to settle over me.

The stairs simply would not end.

Was the tower really just that absurdly tall?

Exhaustion was beginning to catch up with me, so I slowed from my all-out sprint.

Rumble...

I had been far ahead of the lava for quite some time. There should have been a considerable distance between us.

Yet the moment I slowed down, the lava appeared behind me again.

What the fuck?

I settled into a pace just fast enough to remain ahead of it.

It felt as though my senses were being manipulated.

Something was wrong.

Definitely, unmistakably wrong.

Another window came into view.

As I ran past it, I punched the wall beside the frame. The bricks crumbled beneath my fist, leaving a clear mark.

I continued running.

Soon, another window appeared.

The broken section of wall...

It was there.

I was supposedly climbing upward, yet what I was seeing was physically impossible.

Only then did I become certain of what was happening.

I was running in circles.

Over and over, through the same section.

An infinite staircase?

A Möbius loop?

What even was this?

At this rate, I would accomplish nothing except exhausting myself.

I stopped time.

I needed to find a way out of this endlessly repeating space.

‘How?’

I thought for a long time, but no solution came to mind.

Behind me was lava.

Ahead of me were more stairs.

I looked up at the ceiling.

Completely sealed, naturally.

There was no hidden passage anywhere.

Could I be trapped in some kind of hallucination?

Perhaps this was a dreamlike space?

Maybe the world itself was not distorted.

Maybe I was.

That seemed plausible enough.

I released the time stop and began running again, slapping both cheeks hard.

I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again. Remembering something called an RC check that I had once heard about, I tried bending my fingers backward.

Nothing changed.

I completed another circuit and returned to the window beside the crumbled section of wall.

I stopped time again.

...What am I supposed to do?

I think I’m screwed.

What the hell can I possibly do about this?

Cold sweat ran down my skin.

This was a completely different kind of pressure from anything I had faced before.

If I could not escape, I would eventually collapse from exhaustion.

Then the lava would catch up and burn me alive.

Calm down.

Think.

Stay calm.

This kind of infinite-loop cliché appeared all the time in movies and comics, didn’t it?

How did the protagonists escape in those stories?

I had no idea.

I could not remember a single example.

I should have kept up with more entertainment...

‘There’s no ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) way this place was designed to kill me without offering any means of escape.’

There had to be a way out.

Surely the answer was not something ridiculous like running nonstop for ten hours.

Another exit...

Another way out...

That was when something at the edge of my vision caught my attention.

The window.

Wait.

‘...That leads outside, doesn’t it?’

Don’t tell me I’m supposed to climb out through the window.

It seemed far too simple.

Almost absurdly so.

But that was precisely what made it plausible.

I could not be certain that it was the correct answer, but I had no other options.

I released the time stop and vaulted onto the windowsill.

The lava surged closer, leaving no time for hesitation.

I hurriedly squeezed my body through the opening, planted both feet on the sill, and jumped.

I caught hold of the wall above the window and pulled myself upward with both arms.

An instant later, lava erupted from the window.

A blazing red waterfall poured down toward the dizzying depths below.

I paused to catch my breath and stared at the sight for a moment before climbing a little higher.

...Did it work?

Did I actually escape?

I turned my head and surveyed the surroundings.

The tower I was clinging to was, as expected, staggeringly tall and massive.

Far below, a forest stretched across the ground.

How could I describe it?

The entire atmosphere was eerie.

It reminded me of Count Dracula’s castle, standing alone in the middle of some remote forest.

I looked upward again.

Continuing to climb was the correct choice, right?

I began scaling the outer wall like a rock climber.

Its surface was rough and uneven, offering plenty of handholds.

With my current strength, the climb required almost no effort.

The higher I went, the closer the top of the tower visibly became.

Thankfully, it seemed that I had truly escaped the infinite loop.

“Phew.”

Was this finally the end?

Would something else appear the moment I reached the top?

At this point, I had decided to stop expecting anything.

I was gradually learning the correct mindset for dealing with Nightmare difficulty.

Eventually, I reached the top of the tower.

“Ngh.”

I dragged my exhausted body over the parapet.

The rooftop...

I was not sure whether “rooftop” was the right word, but whatever.

The space at the very top of the tower was fucking enormous.

Far away, at its dead center, a solitary structure rose from the floor with a door set into it.

I walked for some time before finally approaching it.

It was an enormous double gate, designed to swing open from both sides, much like the previous one.

For some reason, weapons were scattered all across the ground around it.

Swords, spears, maces...

Weapons, conveniently provided without warning.

That could only mean one thing.

A fight was coming.

I picked up a sword and approached the gate.

Remembering how casually touching the previous door had caused the lava to surge, I held back and studied it carefully instead.

Thud, thud, thud, thud...!

Wh-what?

I haven’t even touched it yet.

A sudden vibration began to rumble through the ground, growing louder and closer.

Something was approaching from the other side.

Sensing danger, I backed well away from the gate.

CRASH!

The doors shattered as something enormous burst through them.

In the dim moonlight, I saw the silhouette of a bull’s head.

A massive, muscular beast with the head of a bull.

“...Minotaur?”

I murmured the first word that came to mind.

So the finale was another boss fight?

Hissss...

Rough, steaming breaths blasted from its nostrils.

Without pausing for even a moment, the Minotaur charged directly at me.

Meet force with force.

I immediately unleashed Flame Strike.

The enhanced pair of fireballs shot side by side toward the monstrous bull.

KABOOM!

The explosion knocked the Minotaur backward.

It did not go flying, however.

That alone was astonishing.

It had taken a direct hit and still withstood an explosion like that?

MOOOOOOO...!

With flames enveloping its body, the Minotaur bellowed in agony.

Still, it was clearly in terrible condition.

Its chest had been torn open, exposing bone beneath the shredded flesh.

The creature thrashed in place, then fixed its gaze on me once more and charged.

Its attack was nothing more than a straightforward rush, so I threw myself sideways and avoided it.

Having missed its target, the creature staggered forward and collapsed.

Well, well.

It looked as though that single attack had already scrambled its brain.

The Minotaur continued making clumsy, drunken charges, as though it were completely hammered.

I dodged from side to side like a matador while waiting out the thirty-second cooldown.

Why would I risk fighting it at close range?

Once the skill is ready again, I’ll finish cooking you well-done.

I leaped high into the air to avoid its final charge.

With time frozen, I cast Flame Strike in midair.

The twin fireballs crashed down onto the Minotaur below.

I landed.

The Minotaur, its body torn apart by the blast, never moved again.

That one wasn’t worth a damn.

Was the boss fight really the easiest part?

Seriously?

Then again, under normal circumstances, it probably would not have died so easily.

The ability to instantly cast a powerful offensive spell in the middle of combat was undeniably broken.

Déjà vu.

Remembering the boss fight on Floor 1, I quickly scanned my surroundings.

There was nothing else in sight.

Yet the stage-clear message still had not appeared.

That bastard Nightmare difficulty could not be trusted until the very end.

There was no telling where the next ambush might come from.

I stopped time and repeatedly cast Flame Strike until my depleted Willpower had fully recovered.

Then I released it.

“...”

I’m not falling for it.

Come out already.

The message still hasn’t appeared.

RRRRMBLE...

A powerful vibration suddenly rose from beneath my feet.

If the tremor caused by the Minotaur’s entrance had been a one, this was a ten.

“Wha...”

Panic surged through me, and instinct took over.

I sprinted toward the parapet.

CRUMBLE!

A moment later, the floor began collapsing.

I barely managed to activate Leap in time and launch myself into the air.

The entire floor caved in at once.

Below me was a violently churning sea of lava.

“AAAHH...!”

I flailed my arms in the air as my momentum ran out and my body began to fall.

Then I stopped time.

The wall appeared to be just barely within Teleportation range.

I completed Mental Concentration, released the time stop, and teleported.

My hands caught the outer wall, and I clung to its surface.

Rumble...

I-I almost died...

Heat surged up from below.

I scrambled up the wall like a lizard.

The outer rim of the parapet had remained intact despite the collapse.

I pulled myself up over the edge.

Like the crater of a volcano, the lava filling the tower’s interior swallowed every last fragment of debris from the collapsed floor.

I could even see the Minotaur’s corpse below, burning as it slowly sank.

Poor thing.

Forget well-done.

It ended up completely charred.

I caught my breath while entertaining that pointless thought.

[You have successfully cleared Nightmare Floor 2.]

A message appeared before my eyes.

It was finally over.

A surprise event prepared for the very last second.

I had felt the same thing on Floor 1, but the malice behind the design was almost tangible.

Completely and utterly sick of it, I muttered,

“Brutal... Absolutely brutal...”

But so what?

I survived again.

Ha ha ha.

Relief, terror, and exhilaration churned together inside me.

For no reason at all, I burst into loud laughter.

It was a mocking laugh aimed at Nightmare difficulty, which had thrown every disaster imaginable at me and still failed to kill me.

With this, the world had bought itself another year.

I should thank Mr. Bilon Must as well.

The Leap skill he had gone out of his way to send me had been an enormous help.

[Absorbing the Power of the Floor.]

[Your level has increased.]

[Your level has increased.]

[Your level has increased.]

.

.

.

[Your level has increased.]

[You are the first to successfully clear Nightmare Floor 2.]

[Floor 2 Hidden Route has been unlocked.]

[Transferring to the Reward Room.]