Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Mafia Game
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“Regin.”
Morning in the forest.
Regin and Mannan began pressing forward without stopping.
To reach the 3rd, 4th, and even 5th Floors, they had to find the portal.
Regin quickened his pace, showing no signs of resting until they located it.
“Regin.”
It was while they had been repeating battles and movement for quite some time.
“……Regin!!”
“Huh?”
“What’re you thinking so hard about…… Why do you look so serious all of a sudden?”
When Mannan called out to him, suggesting they take a break, Regin finally realized he had been mindlessly pushing through the 2nd Floor.
“Let’s rest for a bit.”
They quickly lit a fire and tidied up the surroundings to make a temporary camp.
Even as he did so, Regin couldn’t shake the thoughts he’d been mulling over nonstop.
Why is it different from the game?
……Why on earth was there no escape portal on the 1st Floor?
‘I’ve run through DAT hundreds of times, and there was never a single playthrough without a portal on the 1st Floor.’
The memory was still vivid.
His playthroughs riding that escape portal from the 1st Floor portal spot.
‘It was a feature I used a ton. If I came in underprepared, or if I figured I’d farmed enough on the 1st Floor, I’d always head back to the kingdom.’
Was it just a convenient system for players?
A system that doesn’t exist here?
‘I need to revise the plan.’
Regin’s mind raced.
In fact, ever since he realized he was inside DAT, he’d been trying to figure out if there were any differences between the game and this world.
If it was exactly the same as the game, then all the strategies he’d used before would still hold.
That would make preparing for what lay ahead so much easier.
But now, he’d discovered a major difference inside the tower that he hadn’t been able to find before.
‘It’s not a big deal to tweak the existing plan. Instead of returning to the kingdom, we just push to the 5th Floor.’
Still, Regin couldn’t dismiss this incident as a mere hiccup.
……There could be other changes too.
It wasn’t just a hunch anymore—it was a certainty.
‘Come to think of it…… there was that talk.’
A post from the community flashed through his mind.
[Title—But the NPCs do seem kinda pitiful.]
[Do they not get to escape the tower like we do? Every time I hear about kids dying from failed explorations, it brings tears. A bunch from the party I was in yesterday all croaked. Tsk.]
Looking back now, the NPCs died way too easily.
High-floor explorers aside, low-floor ones had death reports popping up all the time.
It made more sense if there was no escape portal.
If things went wrong, the only option was to climb higher.
‘……A world gone mad for tower conquest. Or rather, a world where you have to go mad just to survive?’
His thoughts deepened.
Parts he’d overlooked because he was used to the game system now hit differently.
A single image formed in his head.
Something like the mural he’d seen in DAT once.
‘A burning ladder. And people desperately climbing it to survive.’
It might be the most accurate depiction of this world’s lore.
Taxes, competition, honor—all reasons to shove people into the tower.
But the moment you entered, you had to look up and charge ahead.
“……Hey. You sure you’re okay? Maybe rest a bit longer. You don’t look good.”
“…….”
How could he look good?
The difficulty was several times higher than he’d thought.
“For now, pushing straight up seems better than resting.”
“Really? That’s unexpected. I figured we’d hole up here for three days.”
“I’d love to if we had the luxury, but…… we didn’t exactly spend little time on the 1st Floor.”
“True that.”
“We need to hit the 5th Floor before we can regroup and explore properly.”
“Alright, speeding up puts my mind at ease. From what I heard from folks, Baron on the 4th Floor gets tougher the later you…….”
“Arrive.”
This wasn’t just local talk—players agreed too.
Floors 1 through 3 were solidly low-level zones.
But the 4th Floor was different.
It was where tons of adventurers died before reaching the 5th, the dreaded newbie shredder in DAT.
“The Forest of Night grows harder the longer you delay.”
And they’d unintentionally spent far too much time on the 1st Floor.
“No more time to waste.”
* * *
Getting to the 4th Floor fast was priority one.
Considering the gap with other adventurers, they were barely hanging on even now.
After a short rest, the two set off again.
『Grrrrowl!』
『Awoooo!』
Monsters appeared that they hadn’t seen on the 1st Floor, like Gray Mane Wolves.
Sizzle—!!
Boom—!!
Regin handled the left with a scroll.
“Thunder Bolt!”
Splash—!!
Mannan took the right with elemental magic, and the path soon cleared.
“Regin! Found it!”
“Great, let’s go.”
Keee—!!
Just two days after reaching the 2nd Floor, they found the portal right away.
3rd Floor, Forest of Noon.
The sense of accomplishment from ascending faded quickly as they hustled to find the next path.
Honestly, rushing through like this was disorienting.
Especially for a mana-heavy mage with low stamina.
“Huff…… huff…… I don’t think I’ve run this long since Master’s training…….”
“Same here.”
‘When was it? Right, no real physical grind since the army.’
It was honestly as tough as military life, if not worse.
Mana drain didn’t help.
They’d burned a lot in the hidden stage, so fatigue had piled up.
“Regin, let’s set up properly and rest this time…… I’m at my limit. Limit.”
Mannan shook his head and plopped down.
The heart of the 3rd Floor. By Regin’s estimate, about four hours from the portal.
“Got it. Rest time.”
“……Phew, thought I was gonna die for real.”
Regin tidied the area and started setting up camp.
Yeah, resting right now was perfect.
……No rest once they hit the 4th Floor.
Crackle. Crackle.
He used magic to light the fire.
The two sat by their makeshift camp, staring blankly at the flames.
Mannan broke the silence.
“But honestly, I’m jealous of you.”
“Huh?”
“Damn. I nearly passed out from dizziness earlier. Low stamina, low mana, you know.”
“…….”
“Now I get why elemental casters suck at long expeditions. Run out of mana, get dizzy as hell.”
Swish—
Mannan’s gaze turned to Regin.
“But you? Way less mana drain. ‘Cause you’re a spellcrafter.”
“……Huh?”
“Damn. If I’d known we’d fight this much, I’d have thought twice about elemental caster.”
Hold up.
Regin stared at Mannan like he was spouting nonsense.
……An elemental caster saying they’re jealous of him?
‘DAT community pick for 2nd easiest and strongest class?’
Elemental casters were even called story bulldozers.
They breezed through the early game fast and easy.
Meanwhile, spellcrafters got trashed as the worst class in DAT.
“Mannan.”
Regin took a deep breath and spoke slowly.
“Yeah……?”
“Making or using spell scrolls? Tearing scrolls? All costs mana.”
“I know, but what I mean is…….”
“And that’s if you’re lucky. Even as we level, our mana pool? Doesn’t grow much.”
“……Really?”
“We’re not like elemental casters, syncing with elemental mana to boost internal mana reserves.”
“…….”
The purity of mana they used was different from the start.
Regin hammered the point home.
“Even guys with big mana pools…… We can’t cast without scrolls, need materials to craft more, so much hassle…….”
Regin, who’d once beaten endgame boss Chrome as a spellcrafter.
His voice grew louder.
He knew this class’s flaws better than anyone, so he could rip into it best.
The rock bottom of this class?
‘I’ve been there countless times and despaired, you punk.’
“Plus regen’s so slow, we chug the most mana pots of any class…….”
“W-Wait, stop! I get it!”
“Nah. Haven’t even started.”
“……I misspoke. Sorry. My bad!”
“Told you, haven’t started.”
A genius talker.
A tenacity genius who’d convinced foes with 4,000-character comments.
The content was solid, but really, they gave up because……
“……S-Stop!”
“So when I read in books versus actually trying…….”
“……Please.”
The 4,000-character wall kept coming nonstop.
Irrefutable points, but way longer than expected.
Mannan finally surrendered, hands up.
“I admit it! ……I’ve got it easy!!”
“That’s right.”
Regin nodded, satisfied.
‘Gotta rein in the elemental whiners every once in a while.’
Even with their perks, community opinion was that elemental casters whined too much.
Hence the nickname: Elemental Whiners.
If this were a keyboard war, Mannan would be sobbing by now.
Realizing how blessed his class was……!
“But.”
“……What?”
“No, not arguing! Got it! I picked a blessed class!”
“…….”
“What I wanna know is…… You know all that, so why pick spellcrafter?”
“Huh?”
“You even visited the Spellcrafters’ Association ahead of time, knew the downsides…… So why choose it?”
Regin pondered.
Lots of reasons.
The hands-on fun, crafting your own scrolls.
But no smooth ride.
DPS aside—high burst in short windows—it sucked in nearly every category.
He’d wanted to quit this trash boss-killer class plenty.
But snapping out of it, he’d always end up spellcrafting.
So why?
“Potential.”
“Huh?”
“If you do it right…… Just a little better.”
Regin smiled unwittingly as he continued.
“It felt like you could do anything with it.”
One thing different from other classes.
Pure potential.
Dying in-game over and over, Regin always thought the same.
……If done right, it could clear faster than any class.
Just once.
One more time.
……If not this, then one more!
Deleting dead characters, he’d think next.
Remaking, gritting teeth that this time would be different.
‘And I did it.’
Clinging to that hope of “just tweak it a bit,” Regin built the character that finished the story.
“Romantic.”
“Huh?”
“Sounds romantic, man. Makes sense—Master started magic the same way.”
Romantic?
Regin mulled over Mannan’s tossed-out word.
“Without that, it’s a corpse.”
Regin, who’d found DAT’s top DPS at romance’s end.
He grinned contentedly.
Fiddling with his bracelet, he thought.
This time, he could become an even more perfect spellcrafter.
‘……Yeah.’
A momentary despair over no 1st Floor escape.
But he had inventory.
Experience clearing near-identical DAT.
Recalling that, Regin swiftly revised his plans.
‘I can punch through the 4th Floor solid.’
Mind clear, his eyes gleamed with resolve.
How to tackle it. How to advance.
How to best use his cards.
He’d focus on that.
‘The biggest threat on the 4th Floor is…….’
Then Mannan piped up.
“Hey, shouldn’t we worry about something?”
“Like what?”
“Y’know, the 4th Floor…… High difficulty aside.”
Mannan grimaced like he hated even thinking it, then continued.
“Rumor has it, most raiders there.”
Regin nodded.
Raiders.
The top danger on the 4th Floor.
One of his攻略 posts surfaced in his mind.
【Title: Stop Getting Ambushed and Wiping, Newbies—READ THIS.】
A post born from frustration at newbies dropping like flies.
Pinned in community notices for a while, it saved tons of characters.
【In encounter events, don’t drop your guard. Game’s sneaky with raiders. Watch 4th Floor especially. It’s……】
Regin, who’d reread it multiple times after writing, spat out the rest.
“A place crawling with backstabbers striking from shadows, where witnesses vanish easy. Perfect for raiders…… And we’ve gotta break through it.”