Floor 2, Orc Great Warrior Karakshi (2)

Ha Heijeong's second run. Floor 1.

Ha Heijeong's face screwed up tight.

To think the tutorial would change this much just because she hadn't chosen the status window.

It had been a difficulty beyond imagining in her first life. Back then, the tutorial had truly been a tutorial. It did vary with the equipment you picked, sure, but in the first timeline the overwhelming majority of people made it through. She remembered that Stage 5 of the tutorial for those who chose melee weapons had been nothing more than a horde of goblin warriors.

Now, though, a goblin paladin in gleaming plate armor was waiting right from the Stage 1 boss room. Flanking it stood goblin warriors and even goblin assassins.

Ten of them, in all.

...This is impossible.

She was already in no condition to fight, worn down by traps and ambushes. She had clearly noticed the arrow that came flying at her and the goblin flicking a dagger out of the darkness — noticed them, and the body she'd regained through regression, an ordinary civilian's body, simply hadn't kept up. Even when her mind registered the threat and ordered her limbs to move, her reactions lagged a beat behind, every single time.

And the moment she stepped into the boss room, Ha Heijeong knew.

There was no clearing this.

Regressed as she was, her class was still mage. Breaking through Floor 1 had already burned through most of her mana, and the arrows lodged in her thigh and side were problems of their own.

If only that goblin paladin weren't here, I might manage something......

Plate armor and healing spells. Paladin versus mage was a hopeless matchup to begin with — and she'd have to fight through all the other goblins on top of it.

I could probably kill the others one way or another, but......

The future painted itself in Ha Heijeong's mind, and it was unmistakable: she would never bring down the goblin paladin. None of the spells she had mana left to cast looked capable of punching through that armor. And even if she cracked the plate, healing magic would simply mend it. She would be the one to drop first.

So that's why there were none.

Only now did she understand why, in her first life, not a single person had refused the status window. The Tower's system pressured you into taking it from the very start. And even if you resisted out of sheer contrariness, a tutorial tuned to this insane difficulty stood in your way, ready to break you.

Am I going to die like this?

Judged coldly, there was no possibility of her clearing the boss room. On the faintest off chance, she called up her status window.

"Status window."

The notification bloomed before her eyes. That time limit the waiting room had imposed — it had been the system's ruse all along, a pressure tactic to make her choose the status window.

Relief washed over her. But it wasn't the simple relief of having survived.

In her first life, and again after her regression, her hope had rested on Kwon Suhyeok and no one else. Even if she somehow cleared her own warped tutorial, the Tower of Trials was never going to fall to anyone but Kwon Suhyeok.

So Ha Heijeong took comfort in one thing alone: that she would survive, and be there to help him.

...Suhyeok will be all right, won't he?

Please. Come up alive.

Feeling the familiar weightless lurch as her vision bleached white, Ha Heijeong wished for it with everything she had.

About twenty minutes had passed since we'd taken the left fork at Dobby's insistence.

Nothing had appeared. Not even a trap.

Come to think of it, the Tower of Trials seemed to demand an awful lot of pointless walking — Floor 1 had been the same. The time limits themselves ran eighteen hours, ten hours. Maybe the point was to grind you down, letting accumulated fatigue wear at you the moment you took even the smallest injury?

Hm. Odds were good that was exactly it.

There was still no trace of anything alive. Instead, the path had begun to roughen underfoot — an uphill climb that steepened with every stretch, and Dobby's breathing grew a little heavier along with it.

A strong feeling settled over me that we'd picked the wrong way.

"I don't think this is the right path."

"Kkiik! Goblin! Trust Goblin!"

Dobby answered my question with all the confidence in the world, but he didn't look the least bit trustworthy.

So I shouldn't have put faith in Dobby's word after all. A twinge of regret crept in. No — none of that. Don't blame Dobby. I was the one who made the call. This is exactly why a man has to live on his own terms: follow someone else's choice and you end up fishing for excuses. From here on, I'd do exactly what I felt like doing.

Ahead of us, the slope was visibly climbing even steeper.

...Should I turn back, even now? Go back down and take the right fork instead.

Click—

Just then, I felt a trap engage beneath my foot. Expecting arrows to come screaming out, I tensed my whole body in an instant, ready to bolt in any direction.

But no sound of arrows firing came.

What? Had the trap broken down from old age?

Rrrumble—

Instead of arrows, a deep tremor rolled down from somewhere far up the slope. A vibration I could feel plainly through my soles — and it was creeping closer, little by little.

"Kkiiiiik!"

Dobby's terrified shriek. In the same instant, without either of us bothering to decide who led, Dobby and I spun and started running back the way we'd come.

This was bad. Really bad.

I'd seen it in the movies. That sound was unmistakably a gigantic stone ball rolling our way. So the uphill road hadn't been built that way for nothing after all.

Damn it — should've turned around ages ago. Belated regret came knocking.

"Kkieek! Kkieek!"

The physical gulf between Dobby and me was enormous, and within moments he'd been pushed in behind me. His breathing was ragged, the gap widening. We had to retrace the entire path we'd spent twenty minutes ambling up. Could Dobby outrun a trap descending at him?

Hm. Almost certainly not.

The real problem was that I had no idea how fast the boulder was. Could I outrun it even with Dobby in tow?

Damn it. No way to know.

I eased my speed and bent my knees.

"Dobby! Hop on!"

"K-Kkiik!"

He came pelting up and leapt onto my back. The instant his weight settled against my shoulder blades, I kicked off the ground.

This was a servant I'd gone to real lengths to save. I wasn't about to let him die something so pointless. We'd grown attached in the short time we'd had, too. If it truly came down to it and I couldn't dodge... later... I could always abandon Dobby. Later. Think about that later.

For now — run.

Rrrumble—

The vibration was creeping closer. If I turned my head now, would I see the ball at the far edge of my vision? No idea. There was no room to turn it — turning would shave off even a sliver of speed. And looking at the thing wouldn't change anything anyway. What was certain was that the tremor kept drawing nearer. Which meant the boulder was faster than I was.

Even so, it was a godsend that my body had strengthened getting through Floor 1. Even hauling Dobby, I was running at a tremendous clip. In truth his weight troubled me far less than I'd feared. The one inconvenience was that carrying him kept me from swinging both arms freely — and because of that, I couldn't push my speed all the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way to its limit.

Mid-stride, Dobby suddenly shouted.

"K-Kkiik! I-I see it!"

Damn — what he 'sees' is the boulder rolling us down, isn't it? I drove my thighs, already wrung for everything they had, to their absolute limit.

Rrrumble—

This wasn't going to work. It would catch us. I gave my hips a sharp twist and swung Dobby, clamped tight against my back, up into the air.

"Kkiiik!?"

I had no intention of dropping him. My left hand snatched him roughly around the waist. With my other arm free now, I could churn my arms a good deal more freely than before.

"Kkieeeek!"

And each time the whimpering Dobby rocked back and forth in my grip, speed built of its own accord with every swing.

Rrrumble—

When the rumbling under the earth drew closer still, a fork began ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to appear at the far edge of my vision. I barely smothered the joy bursting up from my chest and drove my legs even harder. My breath had climbed to the root of my throat, a copper tang rising in my mouth; the muscles of my thighs quivered like they'd tear at any second.

Just a little more. Almost there.

But for all my desperation, the sound at my back only drew nearer.

"K-Kkiik! B-Behind...!"

RRRRUMBLE—

A roar that now seemed to come from right at my heels.

At the end of the fork I'd finally reached, I planted my left foot in a short, hard push — then slammed my right down into the ground and cut hard toward the opposite fork. The momentum wrenched at my bending knee with a load it was never built to take. My knee felt like it was screaming. But it had to bear this weight.

Hold. Come on, hold.

My trembling thighs and calves carried the weight by a thread. Straightening knee and waist, I flung my body into the other fork.

Rrrumble— KRAKOOM!

A heartbeat later, the colossal ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠boulder thundered past and barreled away, racing madly toward the very spot where Dobby and I had first been summoned to Floor 2.

"Hahk! Hahk!"

I felt the tension snap all at once and lay back against the ground. My chest heaved up and sank, over and over. Both legs had swollen fit to burst, yet wouldn't take any strength at all — trembling, flaccid, out of my control.

"Kkiik! Human! A-amazing!"

"Hahk! Hahk!"

"Kkiik! Human! You okay?!"

Dobby shook my shoulder beside me.

...Exhausted. Stop it.

I was too busy breathing to open my mouth. I managed to raise my right arm and wave him off, go on, get away. Mercifully, Dobby lifted his hands from my shoulder and stepped back a pace.

Dobby fidgeted, mumbling to himself.

"Kkiik! Heal Wounds!"

Heal Wounds? Would this even count as a wound?

Contrary to my doubts, a faint glow settled over my body, then faded away. My breathing was still labored, but the bone-deep weariness in my legs seemed to loosen its grip. Slowly, my muscles steadied. Well — I supposed muscles strained to the point of tearing counted as wounds too, if you looked at it that way. Back in the Floor 1 boss room, too, the healing spell had eased places that weren't even injured.

"Haah. Thanks."

"Kkiik! Goblin! Even more thankful!"

When I managed the words through breath that had eased a little, Dobby shook his head. He was looking at me with eyes brimming over with awe. I nodded. Right — of course I should be the one thanking him. This made the second time I'd saved Dobby's life. And I'd pulled his worshipped god out of the fire besides.

"Phew. Let's get moving."

The healing spell had put my body back in order. My breathing was a touch ragged, but a short walk would set that right. Six hours fewer than Floor 1. I'd have to keep a brisk pace.

I started toward the right fork without much thought, and Dobby yanked at my collar.

What now? Want to rest some more? I did all the running, you know.

When I turned to him with a puzzled look, Dobby pointed down the left path with his finger.

"Kkiik! Left! We go!"

"Hey — you just saw that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠boulder come rolling out of there, didn't you?"

"Kkiik! Left! We go!"

Dobby had my collar in a death grip and wasn't letting go. His eyes were dead certain. Had a god taken up residence in him or something?

The trap came down from the left. So obviously, the right path is...?

Wait. Hold on.

Dobby had been the hidden piece on Floor 1. There could be one on Floor 2 as well. What getting through Floor 1 had taught me above all was how genuinely unfriendly this tower was. Even in Dobby's case, it never so much as hinted at a hidden mission until I'd shattered his necklace in the boss room.

Had it stationed that trap to slaughter climbers — or to cow them out of even daring to go that way — and stashed its hidden piece behind it? I couldn't say for sure. Fifty-fifty. I'd only just barely survived it a moment ago. Climb any higher than before and step on the same trap, and I would genuinely die.

But in exchange, there might be a hidden piece waiting.

Floor 1 had given me Dobby. What would Floor 2 hold?

While I deliberated, Dobby tugged my collar again.

"Kkiik! Left!"

"Fine, fine. We'll go left."

Right. Dobby was a goblin saint. He must have sensed something to be that sure of himself.

Let's trust him one more time.

About nine hours remaining. We climbed back up the very path we'd fled down in terror only minutes before.

It had been a little while since we passed the spot where I'd triggered the trap. No giant rolling boulder this time. Instead, traps much like Floor 1's made themselves known again and again — volleys of arrows loosed all at once, short spears flying where arrows would have been, floor tiles that dropped away without warning. The unfamiliar ones flustered me briefly, but they posed no real problem. I could slip most of them, and whenever one did draw blood, Dobby would murmur his healing spell.

And at the end of that long climb, what appeared was—

a dead end. A round pit had been dug into the ground at the path's end, exactly as if the giant boulder had launched itself from this very spot.

A sigh escaped me before I could stop it.

"Haah......"

But I didn't want to take it out on Dobby. The decision had been mine in the end.

"Let's head back down. I won't say a word about it."

I called to Dobby, but he must have read my sigh as irritation — he didn't so much as glance my way, just kept rooting earnestly around inside the pit. Hm. He really didn't have to go that far. He seemed to be minding my mood. Had I been too hard on him lately?

Guilt pricked at me anew. Reflect, Kwon Suhyeok. Dobby is a good goblin.

"Dobby, it's fine, really. Let's hurry and g—huh?"

The moment Dobby pressed his palm against some spot within the pit, the sealed wall slid soundlessly aside.

Huh. Uh... Dobby's the best?