Chapter 60: Sub-Tower (6)

[Floor 1 cleared successfully.]

[Move to Floor 2 when ready.]

Judging by what I had seen on the first floor, it was not difficult to guess what kind of enemies awaited me above.

Each one would probably possess some sort of special ability.

“All right.”

Let’s see what this tower has in store.

I sharpened my senses and advanced to the next floor.

[Entered Floor 2.]

In the other Sub-Towers, the monsters changed on the upper floors, but the opening sequence was always the same.

Goblin, orc, lizardman, werewolf...

The second floor of the fifth Sub-Tower was no exception.

An orc stood waiting for me.

However, its skin was not green, but gray.

It also seemed slightly larger than the orcs I had encountered in the other Sub-Towers.

It carried an axe and wore heavy armor from head to toe.

“Gworaaaarr!”

The instant I entered, the orc let out a deafening roar.

A ripple spread through the air, like a stone disturbing the surface of a pond.

“...?!”

What the hell?

My entire body locked in place.

I could not move.

The orc charged while I stood there, completely paralyzed.

I stopped time.

So that’s its ability.

Its roar paralyzes whoever hears it.

The situation was not particularly dangerous.

My Sixth Sense told me this was still nothing more than an ordinary mob.

Like the concealed Goblin on the first floor, the orc was only marginally stronger than its normal counterpart.

Even if I took its axe head-on in my current state, it would not inflict any meaningful damage.

Mental Concentration still works.

And although I could not move my body, I could still activate skills.

I finished concentrating, resumed time, and cast Flame Strike.

Kaboom!

The fireballs that had formed in the air shot forward and tore the orc apart.

[Floor 2 cleared successfully.]

An easy victory.

A short while later, the paralysis faded.

I clenched and opened my fists several times, making sure there was nothing physically wrong with me.

Is every floor going to be like this?

Just as I had suspected, the monsters appearing from this point onward would each possess some kind of special ability.

It was not a problem while the enemies on the lower floors remained weak.

But the higher I climbed, the more dangerous those abilities were likely to become.

Next was Floor 3.

Let’s keep moving.

[Entered Floor 3.]

The moment I arrived, I stopped time.

The enemy standing before me was a lizardman.

I immediately began Mental Concentration.

There was no telling what kind of strange ability it might possess.

From this floor onward, I would go all out from the very beginning.

No exceptions.

Once the skill was fully charged, I fired Destruction Ray directly at the lizardman.

Whatever ability it possessed, it vanished along with the rest of its body before it ever had the chance to use it.

[Floor 3 cleared successfully.]

Next, Floor 4.

I waited for Destruction Ray’s cooldown to end, then entered without delay.

[Entered Floor 4.]

The monster on this floor was a werewolf.

I followed the same routine.

Stop time.

Mental Concentration.

Destruction Ray.

[Floor 4 cleared successfully.]

Everything had gone smoothly through the fourth floor.

The monsters would probably begin changing from the fifth floor onward.

I waited out Destruction Ray’s cooldown, replenished my Willpower, and moved on.

[Entered Floor 5.]

I stopped time.

What greeted me was darkness.

Absolute, impenetrable darkness in every direction.

Hmm.

What is this?

There isn’t anything wrong with my eyes, is there?

Skritch...

The moment I allowed time to move again, the sound of metal scraping against stone reached me from several directions.

Diul.

I summoned Diul and activated Dark Vision.

Thankfully, there was nothing wrong with my eyesight.

Once the darkness receded, I saw three monsters approaching.

How should I describe them?

Eight-foot ghouls, perhaps.

They were unnaturally tall and thin, with long, spindly limbs and scythes clutched in their hands.

The metallic scraping came from the blades dragging across the floor.

Whoosh!

I immediately cast Flame Strike.

The fireballs split in three directions and blasted the creatures apart.

[Floor 5 cleared successfully.]

So the fifth floor’s special feature had not been an ability possessed by the monsters.

It had been the pitch-black environment itself.

Not that darkness posed any real problem while I had Diul.

[Entered Floor 6.]

Already on Floor 6.

The first thing I saw upon entering was a collection of mirrors.

“...?”

Five mirrors hung from the surrounding walls, encircling me from every direction.

What is this?

Are the mirrors themselves the monsters?

I completed Mental Concentration and resumed time.

As a test, I launched Flame Strike at the mirror directly in front of me.

Tung!

The fireball bounced off its surface and came flying straight back.

What the hell?

Kaboom!

The fireball exploded where I had been standing only a moment earlier.

I threw myself aside and stared at the mirror in disbelief.

Attack reflection?

At that moment, the frames of all five mirrors began glowing red.

Something appeared inside one of them.

“Kyaak!”

A face resembling that of a demon.

As it shrieked, a shimmering shockwave erupted from the mirror.

I dove aside once again.

The blast struck the ground and exploded.

“Kyaak! Kyaak! Kyaak! Kyaak! Kyaak!”

Demonic faces appeared one after another in the remaining mirrors.

Each one screamed and fired another shockwave toward me.

I slipped between the attacks, avoiding every one of them with ease.

Dodging was not difficult.

After a few moments, the red glow around the five mirrors faded.

The demonic faces disappeared, and the assault ceased.

I tried attacking the mirrors again.

This time, I used Light Bullet instead of Flame Strike.

With a clear ringing sound, the projectile bounced back toward me just as the fireball had.

I stepped calmly aside and frowned.

“Hmm...”

So they really did reflect attacks.

Exactly like ordinary mirrors, only far more dangerous.

Still, thank God I had tested them first.

If I had fired Destruction Ray the moment I entered, I would have been in serious trouble.

I stopped time and considered the problem carefully.

What if magic was the issue?

Could I simply smash the mirrors with my bare hands?

I resumed time, lunged toward the nearest mirror, and drove my fist into it.

Tung!

The force of the blow rebounded through my arm, throwing my entire body backward.

Physical attacks were reflected as well.

That was not the answer.

At that moment, the mirror frames turned red again.

“Kyaak!”

The demonic figures reappeared and began launching their shockwaves.

I stopped time.

Wait.

Am I supposed to attack those things instead?

Perhaps the creatures inside the mirrors were the real targets.

They appeared only briefly before vanishing, but that was more than enough time for me to strike.

I completed Mental Concentration and fired a Light Bullet at one of the demonic faces.

Pop!

This time, the attack was not reflected.

The creature scattered into black smoke.

That was definitely the solution.

“Kyaak!”

Another demon appeared in a different mirror.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

I destroyed the remaining four figures with Light Bullets, blasting them one after another like targets in a game of whack-a-mole.

[Floor 6 cleared successfully.]

Cleared.

Before advancing to Floor 7, I paused to organize my thoughts.

The gimmicks are becoming more complicated.

Put another way, the conditions for clearing each floor were growing less straightforward.

Still, everything remained manageable for now.

The basic structure had not changed.

Defeat the enemy, and the floor was cleared.

Compared to Nightmare difficulty, where even that simple rule could not be trusted, this was nothing.

All right.

Let’s continue.

I moved on to the seventh floor.

[Entered Floor 7.]

The enemy waiting there was...

A monster.

I could not describe it any more precisely because nothing I knew resembled it.

It was roughly the size of an orc, with a swollen, lumpy body that reminded me of a streusel bun.

A mace rested in one of its hands.

Keeping time frozen, I began Mental Concentration.

After encountering reflection on the previous floor, I decided to test the creature with Flame Strike rather than risk using Destruction Ray immediately.

Kaboom!

A massive explosion engulfed the monster.

When the flames cleared, it was completely unharmed.

Red scales now covered its entire body, reminiscent of Skin Hardening, though the appearance was different.

The sight caught me off guard.

No damage at all?

“Grrooohh...”

The creature released a low growl and charged.

I stopped time again and began Mental Concentration.

It did not appear to possess an attack-reflection ability.

This time, I fired Destruction Ray.

The jet-black beam swallowed the creature whole.

But...

“...!”

This time, I was genuinely shocked.

Even after taking Destruction Ray head-on, the monster had not been annihilated.

It had not been injured at all.

The blast hurled it into the wall, but it immediately pushed itself upright and charged me again.

I avoided the mace it swung and countered with a punch.

Kwang!

The impact sent the monster flying back into the wall.

Again, it suffered no damage.

It simply rose and resumed its attack.

The red scales covering its body appeared to be absorbing every impact.

Invincibility...

Could it possess some kind of absolute defensive ability?

Was nothing capable of harming it?

Fortunately, its physical abilities were far below mine.

At most, it seemed comparable to a climber somewhere in the lower level-forties.

“Khaaaooooh!”

I summoned Plli, and the two of us began beating the monster mercilessly.

We struck it again and again.

It bounced across the floor like a ball, slammed into walls, and disappeared beneath Plli’s jaws.

It was a one-sided battle that somehow was not one-sided at all.

No matter how many times Plli and I attacked, the monster took no damage.

It could not threaten me.

But I could not kill it either.

“Phew.”

I rolled my wrists.

How am I supposed to finish this thing?

Plli had pinned the monster beneath its body, preventing it from moving.

Those red scales were undoubtedly absorbing the damage.

The fact that they remained effective after such a prolonged beating suggested that the protection was not a finite resource.

I had thoroughly battered every part of its body.

There was not a single exposed patch of skin anywhere.

Wait.

There was one place I had not checked.

I walked over to the struggling monster.

“Hold it down tightly, Plli.”

I planted my foot against its forehead and used both hands to pry open its mouth.

Then I peered inside.

“...No scales?”

The inside of its mouth was unprotected.

There it is.

Kwak!

I forced my hand into the creature’s mouth and stopped time.

Mental Concentration.

Then Destruction Ray, fired directly from within.

This time, the monster’s head vanished completely.

[Floor 7 cleared successfully.]

Cleared.

I waited for Destruction Ray’s cooldown to reset and restored my Willpower.

Then I proceeded directly to the next floor.

[Entered Floor 8.]

“...!”

I stopped time.

What is it now?

The moment I entered, I found myself underwater.

I resumed time, held my breath, and looked around.

There were no monsters in sight.

The room itself was identical to those on the previous floors, except that it was completely filled with water.

I began by swimming upward.

The water reached all the way to the ceiling.

There was not even a thin pocket of air.

Sand covered the floor, apparently meant to imitate the bottom of the sea.

I stopped time again.

Hmm.

This is a little disorienting.

I had been dropped underwater without warning, and there were no enemies anywhere in sight.

And since I did not have gills, I was operating under a time limit as well.

Breaking through the walls was not an option.

I already knew from earlier battles that the walls surrounding these stages were made from an indestructible material.

I stopped time once more to conserve my breath.

Let’s think.

The tower’s basic rule should not have changed.

Defeat the enemy, and the floor ends.

That meant there had to be an enemy somewhere in the room.

It was simply hiding extremely well.

My Sixth Sense was not detecting any hostility or killing intent.

Which meant the creature had no intention of attacking me yet.

Why?

Because it knows I will run out of air if it simply waits?

I had one idea worth trying, even if there was no guarantee it would work.

I resumed time.

Allowing my body to go limp, I slowly sank toward the bottom.

When I reached the sandy floor, I lay there without moving.

“...”

A short while later, I sensed the faintest trace of killing intent.

I opened my eyes by the smallest amount.

The sand before me began to rise.

Its color shifted.

A giant lobster emerged from beneath it.

Wow.

How had I failed to notice something that large?

Its camouflage was incredible.

Not even an octopus could have blended in so perfectly.

As its killing intent intensified, the lobster crept closer to where I lay pretending to be dead.

I casually rose and extended one hand toward it.

You should have been more careful, you stupid crustacean.

I fired a fully charged Destruction Ray.

Being underwater did nothing to diminish the skill’s destructive power.

The beam punched a perfectly clean hole through the lobster’s body.

[Floor 8 cleared successfully.]

I had been just a little worried about drowning, but the eighth floor was cleared successfully as well.

[Move to Floor 9?]

Only two floors remained.

I proceeded directly to Floor 9.