Chapter 175: Nightmare Floor 16

I entered Floor 14 to test the new skill I had obtained.

[Skill: Blood Frenzy (Epic+)]

Drives the body to its absolute limit, doubling Physical Ability for 30 minutes and greatly increasing regeneration. While the skill remains active, stamina consumption increases drastically.

Classification: Physical

Willpower Cost: 500

Cooldown: 24 hours

Blood Frenzy.

A Physical-type buff skill that amplified Physical Ability and regeneration.

The effect was simple, but the sheer stat amplification was tremendous, befitting an Epic+ skill.

A full twofold increase.

Of course, unlike Enhancement, it wasn’t passive and had the restriction of lasting only 30 minutes.

There was also the penalty of drastically increased stamina consumption while it remained active.

FSSSSSH-

When I activated the skill, a crimson haze rose from my entire body.

It felt as though power were boiling up inside me, ready to explode.

I looked at the swarm of ants surging toward me.

I really cut loose against them.

BOOOOOOM!

I was currently Level 187 after clearing Floor 15.

With my Physical Ability doubled on top of that, the resulting power was simply overwhelming.

The ant monsters had already been little more than trash mobs before, but now they were swept away as if I were literally dealing with ordinary ants.

Since the power of Physical-type skills scaled with my Physical Ability, I tried using Decisive Strike as well, and I could clearly feel how much stronger it had become.

'I really do get tired quickly.'

After rampaging around for about ten minutes, my stamina was already beginning to run low.

At this rate, I would probably be completely exhausted by the time the full 30-minute duration ended.

I used Life Devour.

Absorbing the life force of the dead ants quickly restored my stamina to full.

If there were plenty of enemies around, I could use it together with Life Devour to offset the penalty.

Though it was the kind of skill I would only use when fighting an enemy far stronger than me, so situations like that probably wouldn’t come up very often.

After finishing the skill test, I left Floor 14.

The Demon King’s voice rang out.

- Art thou going to challenge it now?

“I should.”

Several days had passed since I cleared Floor 15.

[This floor cannot be cleared repeatedly.]

Incidentally, Floor 15 couldn’t even be entered again because repeated clears were impossible.

Though it wasn’t exactly a floor where repeated clears would have served any purpose anyway...

In any case, it was about time to challenge Floor 16.

When I went out to the living room, my younger sister was watching television.

- ...For several days, countless people have continued visiting the place where Kanyuk appeared to pay their respects. Public opinion overwhelmingly supports erecting a statue of Hero Kanyuk, who sacrificed himself for Earth, at the site...

I watched the news for a moment too.

After I revealed everything that had happened during the Floor 15 clear, the world mourned Kanyuk’s death.

I didn’t know what good it would do...

But I hoped that even this could somehow bring him some comfort.

My younger sister kept glancing at me before asking with concern.

“Oppa... are you okay?”

I answered calmly.

“I’m fine.”

In the end, all I could do was keep climbing the Tower.

For Kanyuk, who was dead, and for his world.

My shoulders felt far heavier now, but I still had to do it.

If anything, my determination to see this through somehow had become stronger than ever before.

The very next morning.

I prepared to enter Floor 16.

- Come to think of it, the Tower has been quiet again lately.

I responded to the Demon King.

“What are you talking about? That shit on Floor 15 was only a few days ago.”

- Not that. We mean its proposals to thee.

“Ah.”

Now that he mentioned it, things had been somewhat quiet lately.

The proposal during the Joint Battle on Floor 10 had been the last one.

Even though I had reached Floor 16, the Tower still hadn’t made me another offer.

Was it because it figured I wouldn’t accept anyway?

Or was it waiting to create another situation like Floor 4 or the Joint Battle, where I wouldn’t be able to refuse...

Even when the Tower was quiet, it only made me uneasy.

Because it gave me the feeling that it might be preparing something enormous again.

Once I finished all my preparations, I went out to the living room.

With my family seeing me off, I entered Floor 16.

'Let’s go.'

It didn’t matter what kind of bullshit the Tower tried to pull.

I had no choice but to keep moving forward anyway.

[Would you like to enter Nightmare Difficulty Floor 16?]

My vision changed.

***

The theme of Floor 16 was the frozen wasteland.

The clear condition was to travel through frozen land and extreme cold while fighting monsters until reaching the designated destination.

Of course, Nightmare could be completely different...

[You have entered Nightmare Difficulty Floor 16.]

BUBBLE-

I hadn’t expected to be underwater the moment I entered.

I took out the Sea Dragon’s Orb and breathed.

...Was this the ocean?

The deep sea?

Judging from the pressure crushing down on my body, I seemed to be extremely deep underwater.

Everything around me was pitch-black, so I secured my vision using Diul’s Night Vision.

As soon as I did, I saw enormous shapes swimming toward me.

Fish-type monsters.

There were all kinds, from ones resembling cutlassfish to anglerfish with glowing lures.

I cast Elemental Arrow Barrage.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Arrows imbued with the wind element shot out in every direction like torpedoes and blew apart the deep-sea fish.

The monsters were just trash mobs anyway.

I slowly looked around.

Something immediately caught my eye.

There was something farther down on the seabed.

'A shipwreck?'

I immediately descended toward it.

BUBBLE-BUBBLE-BUBBLE-

I could see air bubbles rising from holes in the seabed.

I guess those were there so Climbers could breathe normally.

At that moment, sand on the seabed beside me burst upward and an enormous claw shot out.

I had already sensed it with Sixth Sense, so I swung the Sword of Heaven’s Gatekeeper and cut the claw off.

A crustacean monster resembling a lobster.

With one claw severed, it completely emerged from the sand and charged at me in a frenzy.

I casually cut it in half, then turned my attention toward the wreck lying on the seabed.

An enormous ship covered in something like moss.

I went inside and looked around.

After searching through the collapsed and shattered interior...

I soon found a treasure chest.

It was locked.

Naturally, it must have had an indestructible designation, because even when I struck it with my sword, it didn’t take so much as a scratch.

Was I supposed to find a key and open it like on Floor 11?

I went back outside and began searching through the sea for the key.

I wandered around for quite a while, killing the deep-sea fish that continuously attacked me as I searched...

I couldn’t find it.

Where the hell was it?

The more time passed, the more deep-sea fish gathered.

And the air bubbles coming from the seabed gradually began to decrease as well.

I also went upward to see what was on the surface.

'It’s blocked.'

But everything above was sealed off by ice.

Even Heavenly Aura Blade did nothing to it, so the ice seemed to have an indestructible designation as well.

'Is this a time attack?'

Apparently, if you failed to find the key within the time limit, you would eventually drown.

Of course, that didn’t apply to me because I had the Sea Dragon’s Orb.

I went back down and continued searching for the key.

I searched inside the ship.

Around the ship.

Everywhere in the surrounding area.

But even after more than half a day had passed, I still couldn’t find the key.

The air bubbles on the seabed had stopped appearing a long time ago.

Any other Nightmare Climber would already have died from being unable to breathe.

'Hmm...'

They hid it this thoroughly?

I felt a slight sense of incongruity.

Find a hidden key and open a treasure chest.

Simply hiding the key somewhere extremely difficult to find...

That somehow didn’t feel very Nightmare-like.

I went upward again.

While surveying the sea from a wider angle...

OOOOOOOOO-

A strange sound came from somewhere.

It sounded almost like the cry of a whale.

I moved toward the sound.

And soon, I found something noticeable.

THOOOOM-

There was a whale with an enormous bump on its head, like a bowhead whale.

It was ramming into the ice sealing off the surface and breaking it apart.

The ice that hadn’t budged even when I struck it with Heavenly Aura Blade was gradually shattering beneath the whale’s massive forehead.

What the hell was that?

Wasn’t the ice indestructible?

'...Ah!'

A realization suddenly hit me.

Was the treasure chest a fake?

The real objective was to use that whale to escape to the surface.

Make the treasure chest look like the clear condition, then have the Climber search for a key that didn’t even exist until they drowned.

Now that was certainly Nightmare-like.

I quietly watched and waited for the whale to break the ice.

But then the whale stopped breaking it and swam away somewhere else.

...What?

Why did it give up?

I hurried after the whale.

But when I approached, it attacked me just like the other deep-sea fish.

OOOOOOOO!

Killing it would have been easy, but I couldn’t do that, so I dodged.

The current churned violently.

Apparently recognizing me completely as an enemy, the whale repeatedly turned and charged at me.

Wait...

Can I lure it?

I led the whale chasing me back toward the place where it had been breaking the ice.

THOOOOM!

I dodged at the last moment before impact, and the whale slammed headfirst into the ice.

CRACK-

The ice fractured, and the cracks spread even farther.

'...This’ll work!'

That had to be it.

I kept lingering around the ice, then dodging whenever the whale charged at me.

After repeating that more than ten times...

BOOOOOOM!

The ice finally shattered.

Grateful to the whale, I escaped through the hole.

When I reached the surface, the land above was a frozen wasteland like the Arctic.

Only now did it seem like I had reached the same starting area as the other difficulties.

I looked around.

FLASH-

At that moment, I saw a pillar of light descending far in the distance.

Was I supposed to go there?

Using Air Walk, I immediately began moving toward the pillar of light.

Yeti-like monsters roamed the surface, and I could see them chasing after me as I raced through the sky.

They could chase as hard as they wanted.

I ignored them and kept going.

The pillar of light quickly drew near.

But then...

“...?”

The sky suddenly began turning white.

Sixth Sense screamed a warning like crazy.

Without another thought, I activated Armor of Karma.

At that moment, the entire world was engulfed in a pure-white blizzard.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

Just like when the Demon King wiped out the army of a million monkeys on Floor 9.

I could see the yetis on the ground turning into particles of ice and scattering away.

...The blizzard’s power was absurd.

If I had taken it head-on, even I wouldn’t have come out unscathed.

'I was supposed to hide underwater.'

Was it a mechanism that activated when you got close enough to the pillar of light?

If so, I wasn’t supposed to travel here across the surface.

I was supposed to reach this place underwater.

Then I should have used the whale to break through the ice and come out onto the surface afterward.

If the hole in the ice were far away, there would be no way to retreat back underwater either.

Yeah.

That was vicious enough to be Nightmare.

But what could they do?

I had simply brute-forced my way through with raw stats.

The blizzard soon subsided.

I deactivated Armor of Karma and continued toward the pillar of light.

A blue pillar of light about five meters in radius.

Was it some kind of portal?

Sixth Sense wasn’t warning me.

I entered the center where the light descended.

Then...

RUMMMMMBLE-

This time, the ground began to shake.

I stepped upward into the air using Air Walk.

The ice sheet split apart, and unimaginably huge tentacles burst out.

Octopus legs.

'...A kraken?' 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

A boss fight.

I activated Weakness Insight.

None of the tentacles above the surface were marked as weak points.

When I used Decisive Strike and blew several of them off at once...

The severed tentacles regenerated at an absurd speed in an instant.

So attacking the tentacles was useless.

Only the tentacles had emerged above the surface.

It looked like I would have to target the main body hiding underwater.

All eight tentacles came crashing toward me at once.

I spun my body and used Leap in midair.

Dodging the barrage of attacks, I shot down into the sea.

RUMMMMMBLE!

As soon as I entered the water, deep-sea fish surged toward me.

I eliminated them with Elemental Arrow Barrage while diving even deeper.

Following the extended tentacles, I soon reached their source.

I could see the head and body of a kraken as enormous as the antlion boss from Floor 8.

Weakness Insight marked three weak points on it.

Come to think of it, didn’t octopuses have three hearts?

I cast Destruction Ray and immediately pierced one of the three.

OOOOOOOOOOO-

The kraken boss roared with a low-frequency sound that shook my eardrums.

This time, the currents around me began swirling.

Could it use something like magic too?

It wasn’t a problem.

Using the Sea Dragon’s Orb, I shrugged off the current attack and approached the boss.

Instead of swinging my sword, I thrust it forward and fired Decisive Strike in the shape of an enormous spike.

The Heavenly Aura Blade tore through the water and pierced another heart.

One heart remained.

I moved even closer so I could destroy it directly with my sword.

As I weaved around the tentacles blocking my path and approached within striking distance...

FWOOOOOSH!

This time, pitch-black ink poured from the boss’s mouth.

'Poison?'

I inhaled a little.

It was poison.

Of course, my body was practically immune to all poisons.

No matter how desperately the boss struggled, none of its attacks could do anything to me.

I completely ignored the ink and closed the remaining distance.

I stabbed the last remaining heart with the Sword of Heaven’s Gatekeeper wrapped in Heavenly Aura Blade.

No.

Its body was so enormous that I practically burrowed inside and tore it apart from within.

When I split apart the boss’s final heart, which had been buried deep inside its thick flesh...

[You have successfully cleared Nightmare Difficulty Floor 16.]

A message appeared.

[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 Difficulty Floor 16.]

[Moving to the Reward Room.]