Floor 14, the Waiting Room (2)

Why, I wondered. Was it because of the handling warning?

I checked the elixir's description once more.

The handling warning caught my eye. Improper consumption may result in death by freezing, huh. Probably because of the line about the Ice Insect Queen's concentrated venom.

But back on Floor 13, Ha Heijeong had told me not to worry much about the poison. That it wouldn't do me much harm.

Even the queen's venom is no exception.

I had breathed in the poison fumes of dozens, hundreds of insects as if they were nothing. Having actually faced the queen herself, I was fairly sure her venom wouldn't have much of an effect on me. In truth, when I'd looked at the elixir, I hadn't felt the slightest ominous premonition.

My Ice Resistance and Poison Resistance skill levels were 3 and 10, respectively. I hadn't known before, but I knew for certain now — these were extraordinarily high values compared to other climbers.

Granted, judging by skill level alone... other climbers probably had skills at level 3 or 10 too.

But in the specific domains of poison resistance and ice resistance, I was different. Aside from Floor 13, there hadn't been a single floor in the Tower where you could gain resistance to poison or ice.

Well, unless you counted taking your allies' skills on their behalf or something like that...

So my instincts hadn't been wrong after all. This elixir couldn't harm me.

Then why was Heijeong trying to stop me?

Hmm. I didn't quite see what that had to do with anything, but it was a fair point. The floor had been structured so that if you didn't know everything from the start, clearing it would have been impossible.

Insect queens positioned at both ends of the forest. And even if you did know about them, the mission couldn't be cleared without finding the key.

She was right. Compared to the other floors, the rewards for 13 really were mediocre.

After going through all that trouble to clear the mission, all we got was two spirit pills... Well, we did earn additional achievement points, but I'd still felt something was missing.

Interaction?

Oh. So that's what "improper consumption may result in death by freezing" meant. The handling warning was never meant for me. It was meant for the other climbers.

Anyone without sufficient Poison Resistance or Ice Resistance would surely freeze to death swallowing that elixir. And the Flame Insect Queen's elixir existed to neutralize it. In the process, a synergistic effect emerged.

Talking about elixirs and poison brought one of my lingering questions from Floor 13 back to mind. If deliberately inhaling poison fumes to raise a skill level was possible, then couldn't self-harm be used to raise a wound-healing skill too?

Of course, I doubted it would work... but there was no harm in asking.

So it really was impossible. I'd expected as much.

Still, the fact that it had come up on the community surprised me a little.

Hm, no, wait. Maybe it wasn't that surprising. With how many climbers there were out there, someone was bound to have had the idea. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And if it had actually worked, it would have been all over the community ages ago.

Before I'd even finished sending the message, a red spirit pill materialized on the desk with a soft pop. It was a delivery system that let climbers send items to one another after paying a small fee.

Hm. Even the description was nearly identical to the Ice Insect Queen's. And reading it over, it certainly did seem better to take it together with the ice elixir.

I gave the little creature latched onto my side a light tap.

"Moongchi. The blue spirit pill."

He seemed a bit more used to it now, because the ice elixir popped out with a light bounce. Holding the flame elixir in one hand and the ice elixir in the other, I found myself deep in thought.

Hm. It wasn't as if either would do me any real harm, but... which should I eat first?

Ice first, probably. Being frozen and then thawed seemed safer than being burned and then frozen over.

Just as I was raising the ice elixir to my mouth, a message flew in from Heijeong.

The moment I sent my reply, I swallowed the ice elixir. And then the flame elixir.

One, two, three...

Precisely three seconds later, the reaction began.

My insides were freezing cold and burning hot at the same time. I lay quietly down on the floor and closed my eyes.

A fair amount of time had passed since I took the elixirs.

I exchanged quick greetings with my party members, who had made it through Floor 13 safely, and talked with Heijeong about Floor 14. I also paid 2,000 achievement points for combat training.

The difficulty could be adjusted between lower, standard, and upper. I fought twice — once on standard, once on upper.

Because I hadn't used my Shadow Veil the moment the opponent was summoned, I also learned the identity of my nameless adversary.

A Lizardman Guardian.

It was a humanoid resembling a dinosaur. Having seen the scales and the tail back on Floor 11, it all made sense now.

The standard difficulty was unremarkable, but satisfying enough.

Perhaps because I'd faced one before, the standard difficulty felt easier than expected. The upper difficulty — a battle without using Lightning Flash — was the perfect opponent for me to experiment freely with my axe technique, probing and testing as I fought.

Of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course, I obviously hadn't been the only one doing combat training. Dobby had been in the Waiting Room with me all along, which was what made the training possible in the first place.

There was no need for me to fight a 2-on-1, so I had Dobby train separately.

Not bad.

Dobby had held his own reasonably well up through the goblin and the orc warrior. He'd eaten the Body Reinforcement Leap, and I'd taught him, so it was only natural.

Well, in the end I had to help him against the goblin paladin, though.

He still had a long way to go. Dobby might be a priest, but if he was going to move alongside me, he needed to pull his own weight as a warrior too. If I trained him systematically from now on, wouldn't the day come when I wouldn't have to worry?

Hm, yeah. Dobby would improve bit by bit.

Come to think of it, if I had spare points, it might not be a bad idea to buy him plate armor like the goblin paladin had.

Wait — that was a problem for later.

I turned my gaze to Dobby.

"Dobby, are you all ready?"

"Kkiik! Ready!"

Let's see. Leather armor, belt, sword, mace.

Hm. Something seems to be missing?

"The gloves! Where'd you stash the gloves I just bought you?"

"Kkiik! Uncomfortable! On the desk!"

I'd gone and bought him decent gloves since he'd decided to use a sword... and seeing him take them off because they were uncomfortable stung a little.

"Hey, we don't have much time left — how can you leave them on the desk? Put them on, quick."

"Kkiik! Okay!"

Dobby turned away with a sulky look. I hadn't snapped at him for nothing, though. He'd be wearing those things from now on, so getting used to the discomfort was necessary.

Besides, there wasn't much time left before Floor 14.

About ten minutes left.

Unlike usual, the party chat had gone quiet... or so I thought. It hadn't. Messages came flying in almost the instant the thought crossed my mind.

Wow. What the—?

I was genuinely impressed. He'd guessed right a few times before, but... the insight that came from the old man's decades of wuxia novel reading was not something you saw every day.

The first thing I could tell as my vision brightened was that it was the middle of the night. The one mercy was that the moon was unnaturally, brilliantly bright. Radiant moonlight lit up the plain where we stood.

And before the plain, a great river flowed, gleaming bright under the moonlight. A river stretching several kilometers across.

Beyond it, enemies numbering well over several hundred thousand were advancing.

"Kieeeek—!"

And filling the sky beyond the river — dragon-like creatures in their multitudes.

Black Wyverns.

That was what the notification window had said.

Then, from behind us, a cry rang out that shook the entire plain.

"The reinforcements sent by God have arrived! In five hours, the 588th Bombing Brigade! The Night Witches will arrive! Hold out until then! All forces — battle stations!"