Chapter 75: Nightmare 6th Floor (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 75: Nightmare 6th Floor (1)
If the theme of the 4th Floor was defense, the 6th Floor added offense into the mix.
Units would clash along advance routes, and the first side to push into the enemy's base and destroy it would win. It was a game genre most people had encountered at least once.
League of Hero.
Though not as popular as it once was, it was a famous game that was still practically a national pastime back home.
The 6th Floor was easy to understand if you thought of it as that game’s single-lane map. There were lanes, monsters spawning from a base that advanced along those lanes, and turrets placed at intervals. You won by pushing into the enemy base and destroying their core.
Of course, the main difference was that this wasn't a 5v5 team match, but a solo challenge where I was on my own.
Also, League of Hero had two types of maps: one with three lanes, and one with a single lane.
I just had to think of the 6th Floor as the single-lane version.
[You have entered the 6th Floor of Nightmare Difficulty.]
[Absorbing the power of the 5th Floor hierarchy.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
.
.
.
The moment I entered, a series of messages popped up. Having cleared the 5th Floor, I was receiving my level rewards, just as expected.
[Level: 70]
I immediately stopped time.
As always, I started by assessing the information before me.
The sky was filled with dark clouds, threatening a thunderstorm at any moment. Spread out before my eyes was a massive overpass.
That bridge was the lane.
And in the far, far distance, on the other side of the bridge… was the enemy base.
With my enhanced eyesight, I could clearly make out the enemy base and even its core.
The bridge was supposed to be about 500 meters long, wasn't it? Judging by the distance, it seemed Nightmare Difficulty was about the same length as the others.
I released the time stop and looked around.
My current location was our base. I could see a massive red gem hovering slightly in the center.
It was our core.
Just like in a game, a health bar was displayed above it.
“…?”
That was all fine.
…But this is weird.
Why are there three bridges?
Looking around, I saw it wasn't just the bridge in front of me. Two more bridges extended from the base, forming a triangular shape.
Meaning, there were three lanes.
Ah, I get it now.
Enemies are coming from all three directions, huh?
"Son of a bitch."
I wasn't even surprised. Unlike the other difficulties that only had one lane, it seemed Nightmare had three.
Right, right… this is what Nightmare Difficulty is all about.
So I had to cover all three lanes by myself? And destroy three enemy cores, too.
‘This won’t be easy.’
Whatever. I’d just have to clear it, same as always.
I got ready. Monsters were said to spawn exactly 30 seconds after entry, so it would start soon. I briefly checked my body, which felt stronger after reaching Level 70, then picked up a mace from a weapon rack on one side of the base.
[The match is starting!]
[Destroy all of the opponent's cores!]
A moment later, messages appeared before my eyes.
Flash.
At the same time, three blue portals formed near our core. One Goblin was summoned from each portal. As soon as they appeared, the Goblins started advancing toward their respective lanes.
The numbers 1, 2, and 3 were helpfully marked on the ground at the entrance to each lane.
For now, I moved to Lane 1.
I passed a pair of giant blue stone statues towering at the entrance of the bridge and followed the Goblin.
Woooooosh—
Looking over the edge of the bridge, I saw a bottomless abyss. A cold chill rose from below. It felt like a massive, fidget-spinner-shaped field was floating in the sky.
I shifted my gaze back to the Goblin.
Kerek— Kerek—
The Goblin completely ignored my presence, chittering as it walked on. I recalled that I couldn't give orders to allied units; their programming was simply to follow the lane and fight the enemy.
There was a 1st Turret and a 2nd Turret. The pair of giant stone statues I had just passed at the entrance was the 2nd Turret, and the single giant stone statue near the middle of the bridge was the 1st Turret. The number and placement were the same for the opponent.
So, to summarize: I just had to destroy the opponent's 1st Turret, destroy their 2nd Turret, push into their base, and destroy the core. Simple enough. Since you could only destroy the core after destroying all the turrets, changing the order was impossible.
And since there were three lanes, I would have to repeat this process three times.
Of course, this being Nightmare Difficulty, there was no telling what other cute little gimmicks might be hidden.
For reference, while one monster spawned on our side, three spawned on the opponent's. Since the opponent didn't have a player like me, it was only natural for them to have more monsters.
The difference between the difficulties lay in the monsters themselves. Easy Difficulty had Goblins slightly stronger than the ones on the 1st Floor. Normal had Orcs. Hard supposedly spawned Orcs much stronger than those on Normal.
So why did a Goblin spawn for me on Nightmare Difficulty?
There was no need to question it.
Because the opponent's monsters weren't Goblins.
"Ha."
Reaching the middle of the bridge, I let out a hollow laugh as I saw the opponent's monsters.
They were green-skinned giants, vastly larger than Goblins. They looked like they could crumple a Goblin with one hand.
They couldn't be Orcs… Ogres, perhaps? From memory, they looked slightly different from the Troll I had seen in the Branch Tower.
Anyway, that wasn't the important part.
The important part was that our side had one Goblin, and their side had three Ogres. A batshit insane imbalance.
On top of having to deal with three lanes, the monsters were this lopsided. It was absurdly unreasonable, but I decided to look on the bright side.
Still, I guess I should be grateful that ten of them didn't pop out at once. How generous!
Guoooh—!
The Ogres charged toward us. Our Goblin also lunged forward, like an ant charging at an elephant.
Before the Goblin could get brutally murdered, I stepped forward. I leaped up lightly and smashed the head of the leading Ogre in a single blow.
Kaaaa-boom!
I incinerated the remaining two with Flame Strike.
Fortunately, the Ogres weren't that strong—roughly Level 20 or so. Their corpses quickly vanished.
I looked at the opponent's 1st Turret. It was a giant red stone statue, identical in shape to ours, differing only in color. With all the enemies dead, the Goblin continued advancing toward it.
Flash!
A laser fired from the turret, instantly erasing the Goblin.
I stopped time.
‘Let's see.’
Time to sort this out.
Even with Goblins versus Ogres, the difference in unit combat power wasn't an issue since I was here. The problem was the three lanes. While I was pushing one, the other two would be under constant attack. Against three Ogres, our Goblin was practically nonexistent.
A solution quickly came to mind.
I released time and hurriedly ran back to the base.
"Phli."
I summoned Phli and sent it to Lane 2. Phli alone could easily handle three Ogres that were Level 20 at best.
That took care of Lane 2.
I sprinted to Lane 3. There, I found one Ogre repeatedly smashing against our 1st Turret. Just then, a laser from the turret blew the Ogre away.
The turret's laser had a 10-second cooldown, if I remembered correctly. Its attack seemed to instakill even an Ogre, but since the Ogres came in groups of three, the turrets in the unattended lanes were bound to take damage little by little.
Monsters spawned every 30 seconds. Soon enough, the next wave of three Ogres appeared.
Fwooooosh!
I laid down the Scorching Zone right in the middle of Lane 3's bridge. The Ogres that stepped into it burst into flames. Thanks to the bracelet from the Zone 3 boss and my flame magic passive, the power of Scorching Zone had increased significantly. Even though it was a damage-over-time skill, the Ogres dropped like flies.
[Skill: Scorching Zone (Rare+)]
Creates a Scorching Zone with a 5-meter radius within a 10-meter distance. Opponents entering the area suffer continuous burn damage.
Requires 50 seconds of Mental Focus to cast.
Category: Magic-Type
Willpower Consumption: 30 per second
Cooldown: 1 minute
The best part about Scorching Zone was that the 10-meter range limit only applied to its initial casting. Once active, I could maintain it no matter how far away I moved.
In short, I could leave the Scorching Zone here in Lane 3 and position myself in Lane 1. Of course, the Scorching Zone would also kill our own Goblins, but since they weren't going to destroy the turrets on their own anyway, it didn't matter.
Lane 2 with Phli, and Lane 3 with Scorching Zone.
And just like that, the problem of the empty lanes was solved. With the other two lanes set to auto-farm, all I had to do was push Lane 1.
I returned to Lane 1.
The turret's laser attack range was about 10 meters. The attack priority was on units before Climbers, so the standard strategy would be to let the Goblins tank while I attacked the turret.
But I didn't need to do that. I could just attack from outside the turret's range with my magic skills.
I stopped time and used Mental Focus for 300 seconds. Turrets were said to have considerable defense, so destroying them usually took quite some time.
I wondered if Destruction Ray would work on them…
[You have destroyed Lane 1's 1st Turret!]
It worked.
The moment I fired a fully charged Destruction Ray, a gaping hole was blown straight through the turret, and it collapsed with a single message.
As expected of Destruction Ray… its power was immense.
Since my Willpower ran out quickly, I stopped time again to recover it. With Scorching Zone also active in Lane 3, the Willpower consumption was substantial. If my Willpower completely ran out, Scorching Zone would deactivate, so I had to recover it in a timely manner.
After fully replenishing my Willpower, I advanced to the 2nd Turret. The 2nd Turrets stood side by side like gatekeepers at the bridge's entrance.
Since Destruction Ray was on cooldown, I fired Flame Strike and other skills.
Kaaaa-boom!
I couldn't destroy them in one hit like with Destruction Ray, but seeing debris fall off, it was clear the damage was landing. I took care of the spawning Ogres while continuously bombarding the turrets.
Soon, the left turret crumbled, leaving only the right one.
‘This is easier than I thought…’
At this rate, I could smoothly destroy the core and finish Lane 1. Then I could just push Lanes 2 and 3 using the exact same method.
But… a smooth run on Nightmare Difficulty? That didn't make any sense.
Of course, springing three lanes on me was a classic Nightmare Difficulty move, but it felt too simple for this to be the end of it. It can't be this easy, can it?
[You have destroyed Lane 1's 2nd Turret!]
Soon, the right turret also collapsed, and the 2nd Turrets were completely destroyed.
I stepped off the bridge and entered the opponent's base.
Now, all that was left was the core—the red-glowing gem situated right in the center. Unlike the monsters or turrets, a health bar was displayed above it.
Since Destruction Ray's cooldown was over, I immediately fired a fully charged blast at the core.
Unlike the turrets, the core wasn't destroyed by a single hit from Destruction Ray. Its health barely decreased at all, dropping by just 1 percent.
So the core couldn't be destroyed in one hit after all.
I had already expected this, so I wasn't panicked. It was said that in all other difficulties, it was impossible to destroy the core in one go. The maximum damage it could take was fixed at 1% of its health per second.
In short, destroying it would unconditionally require a minimum of 100 seconds.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I started smashing the core with my mace.
The Ogres that spawned from the red portals near the core aggroed onto me and attacked. I dealt with them using Flame Strike while continuing to attack the core.
Since I was perfectly defending the other lanes, the time it took wasn't an issue. I could just deal with the Ogres here while whittling down the core.
Like that, I continued shaving off the core's health, 1 percent every second.
Crack!
After 100 seconds had passed, a crack formed on the massive core, and it began to collapse.
[You have destroyed Lane 1's Core!]
The message popped up.
But…
"…Huh?"
My eyes widened.
The shattered fragments of the core suddenly floated into the air, merged, and regenerated, restoring it to its original state in an instant.
[Incorrect order!]
[Destroy all of the opponent's cores in the designated order!]
[A penalty is imposed!]
[The number of opponent monsters summoned is doubled!]
[The opponent's monsters gain Tier 1 Resistance!]
Ah…
There was a specific order?
‘Of course there is.’
It had begun.
The classic Nightmare Difficulty bullshit—if you don't know the mechanic, you're screwed.