Baiting the Chimera
It took me roughly two minutes to make it back to the village.
“Huff! Huff!”
The moment I arrived, I collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air. Diana and Lee Suyoung rushed over in alarm as I suddenly fell.
“Are you okay?!”
“Are you hurt…!”
I raised a hand to reassure them that I was fine. My breathing was ragged from running at full speed. If this had been the trained body of my reincarnation avatar, no matter how hard I ran, I wouldn’t have been left so winded that I couldn’t even speak. But this body was just too pathetic.
“I’m glad you returned safely. Please use this to wipe your sweat.”
William handed me a handkerchief as I poured out sweat like a fountain. I wiped myself down while catching my breath.
“I was startled when I suddenly heard the monster’s roar and saw smoke rising.”
“Ah. Cough! Cough!”
I tried to speak before my breathing had properly settled and ended up choking. I sat up and coughed for a while before finally calming down enough to speak.
“I spotted the Chimera from a distance. It was twice as big as what was written in the description.”
The climbers’ expressions grew grave at my words. A monster’s size was a crucial factor in hunting, especially for still-weak climbers like us.
“So, to test how sensitive it was, I hid my presence and approached.”
“Were you discovered while approaching?”
“No. It didn’t notice me at all.”
“Then…?”
I took out some water from my inventory, gulped it down, and answered.
“Pwah! Since it didn’t notice me even when I got close, I decided to test whether an attack would work.”
Bogard looked at me incredulously.
“So you attacked it? Are you out of your mind?”
“Even if the attack didn’t work, approaching stealthily would be pointless if I couldn’t damage it. At the very least, I had to confirm whether it took any damage.”
Bogard seemed to accept my reasoning after thinking about it, but William furrowed his brow.
“That was far too dangerous.”
“It’s not my fault. The Chimera tempted me. Who told it to stand there so defenselessly, practically begging to be attacked?”
Bogard burst into hearty laughter at my response.
“Bwahahahaha! This guy’s a total lunatic, isn’t he?”
He seemed to be using a Southern American accent, as it came across that way to my ears. Does the translation system even handle dialects the same way?
“So, did you manage to wound it?”
I nodded at Bogard’s question and pointed to the center of my forehead with my finger.
“I completely shattered what looked like a jewel embedded in the goat head’s forehead. After that, the goat head drooped as if dead, and the lion head went into a frenzy. That’s when I detonated a smoke screen with a foul odor and bolted immediately.”
Everyone was astonished by my answer.
“Then one of its weaknesses has already been dealt with. It’s also been proven that attacks work on it.”
“However, because one head was destroyed, it’s now in a frenzied state. It won’t be able to chase us right away because of the smoke smell, but we need to deal with it within a few hours. Otherwise, it might come all the way to the village.”
The villagers who had been eavesdropping from nearby turned pale, and the black climber in heavy armor frowned and rebuked me.
“Isn’t that too irresponsible? You can just run away to the 10th floor, but what are the people here supposed to do?”
His anger was justified.
“I have no intention of going to the 10th floor.”
“…What?”
No one seemed to understand what I meant.
“Even if all of you give up, I have no intention of abandoning the 17th floor. Even if everyone here quits, I’ll clear the quest alone. I can clear it even if I’m the only one left.”
Of course, in that case, Lee Suyoung would have to retry the 17th floor by herself. If some party members gave up while others cleared it, those who cleared it couldn’t retry that floor. Therefore, they couldn’t do the quest together until the ones who gave up cleared the floor. Usually, people got tired of waiting and the party broke up.
When I showed such confidence, everyone was surprised and stirred. Since I had already taken out one weakness and was showing strong confidence, the atmosphere shifted toward attempting the raid. They might even be thinking the Chimera wasn’t that big of a deal.
William didn’t miss the shift in mood and spoke up.
“Since time is short, let’s decide immediately. If you want to continue with the 17th floor raid, stay here. If not, please return to the 10th floor.”
At William’s words, the group split into those who seemed to have already made up their minds and stayed quiet, and those who were gauging the others’ reactions.
“Those who will participate in the raid, let’s move over there for the strategy meeting.”
When no one moved, William helped me to my feet and led us away from the spot entirely. Six of us, including myself, Lee Suyoung, and Diana, who had already decided, followed behind William, while the remaining three hesitated before trailing after us.
Once everyone had followed, William smiled faintly, spread a map on the ground, and placed a fist-sized stone on it.
“Let’s say this is the Chimera. And these are us.”
He placed ten small pebbles in a row around the Chimera. When did he prepare all this?
William roughly outlined the plan and incorporated the other climbers’ opinions. Naturally, my input—since I had directly scouted the Chimera—was heavily reflected.
The Chimera had been rampaging to kill me for a while but seemed to have tired itself out, becoming a bit calmer for the moment. However, seeing how its fur was all puffed up, it was still extremely enraged and on high alert.
In that state, a surprise attack like when I took out the goat head probably wouldn’t work. It didn’t even look like it would be easy to get close.
I checked the Chimera through my telescope and handed it to William. He looked through it and exclaimed in admiration.
“Can you buy this telescope at the Tower’s shop? It’s the first time I’ve seen one this small yet so effective.”
“Ah… I bought it outside the Tower. It’s closed down now, so you probably can’t get one.”
It wasn’t a lie. It was true that I bought it outside the Tower, true that the company had gone under after churning out outdated models that consumers rejected, dumping them before going bankrupt, and true that William wouldn’t be able to obtain one. By 50th-century standards it was outdated, but the technology inside wasn’t bad. It just got trashed for advertising “cutting-edge technology” that was actually a thousand years old and earned the nickname “40th-century telescope.” That’s why I had picked it up dirt cheap as part of a clearance sale in the children’s toy section rather than optics. Siwoo had nagged me to buy something decent if I was going to get one, but I was satisfied. I’d bought two at a leisurely pace and got four more as freebies.
“That’s a shame. It’s a performance I’d like to get one of if I ever leave the Tower.”
William returned the telescope to me and asked.
“Attacking the Chimera—was that intentional? If you wanted to analyze whether attacks worked, you didn’t need to target the weak point. You could have aimed for another area. That way, it wouldn’t have raised its guard so strongly.”
William scanned the climbers dispersing to their positions as per the plan.
“Of course, you also thought the Chimera was manageable, but weren’t you deliberately targeting its weakness to create a hunting atmosphere for the villagers?”
I didn’t deny his question.
Seeing that I didn’t deny it, William smiled.
“As I’ve climbed the Tower, one question has come to mind. If we give up, would the Tower really send another group of climbers?”
I had wondered the same thing. If the Tower granted a wish to send climbers but they failed to fulfill it, would it send new ones?
“How many worlds are connected to the Tower? Is the Tower truly omnipotent enough to grant every wish? If we abandon them, won’t they simply be left abandoned forever?”
The Tower probably didn’t grant every wish. Otherwise, sending climbers wouldn’t be treated like a legend. How many people even prayed to the Tower for wishes? It had already given them a chance once by sending climbers, and they failed. Would giving them another chance be fair? Giving another chance also meant climbers wouldn’t be available for other places that needed them.
“And even if the Tower sends climbers again, there’s no guarantee they won’t give up either. So you deliberately attacked the weak point, didn’t you?”
I shrugged at William’s question.
“It’s not entirely that. I chose to do it because I’m confident I can handle it alone if necessary.”
I was confident I could clear the 17th floor by myself. If I was prepared to die once or twice, I could definitely defeat a big lumbering monster like that.
“The formation seems to be ready. I’ll head out.”
I hid my presence and approached the Chimera. Right now, the Chimera was desperate to kill me. Although I had escaped after deploying the smoke screen, it would definitely recognize me as the one who killed the goat head the moment it saw me. In the current situation, there was no better bait than me to draw the Chimera’s actions.
“Grrrrraaaawr!”
The moment the Chimera’s lion head spotted me, it let out a furious roar and charged at me. To provoke it once more, I threw my hand axe aiming for the center of the lion head’s forehead. The lion head flinched and swatted away my hand axe with its front paw. A small wound appeared on its front leg from the axe, but the Chimera instead glared at me even more fiercely for the insignificant damage and continued its charge. Even though I hadn’t thrown it with full power, the fact that it caused a wound suggested that the jewel on its forehead was much harder than its hide.
I informed William of this through the community chat while turning to run away. As I deliberately showed my back and fled, the Chimera chased after me vigorously, whether due to its predatory instincts or its burning desire to kill me.
Its running speed was faster than I thought. Was it using magic power to enhance its muscle strength? Still, it was definitely slower than me using light footwork.
Maintaining an appropriate distance, I passed the predetermined point we had discussed. The druid climber used tree roots and stems to grab the Chimera’s ankle.
“Kyaa?!”
The Chimera lost its balance from the sudden restraint while running at full speed and fell spectacularly. However, the trees that the druid had controlled were uprooted and dragged along with the Chimera.
“Miss Camilla! Keep it restrained like that! Front line, forward!”
At William’s shout, the druid climber used the dragged trees and surrounding ones to bind the Chimera as much as possible. The heavily armored climber and Diana stood at the front to block the Chimera’s attacks.
From behind the Chimera, the werewolf Bogard and the metallic climber dealt with the snake tail, preventing it from supporting the lion head.
The tamer who had tamed me and two wolves assisted Diana and the heavily armored climber respectively while attacking the Chimera.
Even while minding the two in the front line, the Chimera attacked mercilessly to kill me. While the lion head was focused on me and using its front legs to deal with the other climbers, Lee Suyoung and William attacked the lion head’s forehead from range.
(Continued in the next chapter)