Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Tower of Trials (3)
As far as Rudian knew, according to the setting, the original name of the Tower of Trials was 'Leviathan's Tomb'.
However, the reason this place was called a tower rather than a tomb was because this structure built with Leviathan's power itself had the appearance of a 'tower'.
The total number of floors was 66.
At least it was fortunate that there wasn't one more '6' added to the end, wasn't it?
'At least there was some minimal conscience.'
Even Rudian would have seriously considered whether to take on the challenge, regardless of difficulty, if the number of floors reached 666.
-This is a place where space-time is almost frozen. Indeed, was this the Master's purpose?
Adi immediately recognized the nature of the power enveloping this entire tower.
And at the same time, he realized what Rudian's purpose was.
"That's right. This place is currently one of the best training locations for me. Though there's the problem that I really have to risk my life."
In the original work, this was also the place where Abel broke through all 66 floors and achieved both 8th Class and Sword Master simultaneously.
Rudian looked at the entrance of the tower and said.
"The time ratio here is 1 year per day. But you absolutely cannot leave until you break through all 66 floors."
That's why readers of used to call this place the 'Room of Spirit and Time' rather than Abel's designated Tower of Trials.
-There's an unpleasant curse cast on it.
"For me now, it's a blessing. I can revive countless times."
All beings who reach this place are basically subject to the blessing of revival.
To be precise, if you die while breaking through the tower, after some time passes, you revive at the entrance of each floor set as a safe zone.
Moreover, there's no limit to the number of revivals.
-It's an interesting rule. Though that doesn't make the unpleasantness go away!
"There's not no penalty at all. Rather, revival itself is a trap laid by Leviathan."
This Tower of Trials first of all has an incredibly high difficulty.
To the extent that it's virtually impossible for humans to clear.
The protagonist Abel also couldn't break through the 66th floor with simple achievement alone.
It was only possible to clear because he had the strongest holy sword Grandia and the Seven-Colored World.
-What happens if you challenge endlessly but still fail?
"You get eaten by this tower."
This tower endlessly revives challengers, but that only applies when the challenger maintains the will to challenge.
The moment their heart breaks and the challenger surrenders, this tower recognizes the former challenger as food and devours them.
The binding force increases with each revival, and eventually they can't escape and become Leviathan's nourishment.
-If that's the rule, then it's fortunate. No matter how much this place is enemy territory, it's enough to protect the Master.
"Ah, that's what I want to talk about..."
Rudian stopped Adi's words.
"Even if I give up here, don't protect me."
-...What do you mean by that?
Instantly, Adi's tone became drastically stiff.
-Protecting the Master is my duty! And giving up?
"Ah, don't misunderstand. It's entirely a matter of mindset."
Real combat where you can revive infinitely.
If such a thing existed, Elvin also acknowledged that while the efficiency would drop, it would certainly be an effective method.
But Rudian had Adi, an absolute cheat key that could protect his body from most supernatural abilities.
As long as Adi was there, even with preparation, holes would inevitably appear in his mindset, and this would create small but tremendous differences in real combat that crosses life and death.
-But!
"Ah, that doesn't mean I won't receive your help at all."
Rudian had no intention of becoming a true warrior who relied on nothing.
He was just taking what was necessary for maximum growth in the current situation.
"I can't clear this place with my power alone even if I die and come back to life. When I reach the limit of my growth, I'll actively utilize you and Diablo to clear this place."
-I understand...
Though it was with reluctant acceptance, Adi still accepted Rudian's proposal.
"Phew, shall we go?"
Rudian steeled his resolve and opened the door of the massive tower.
The interior was cleaner than expected.
It wasn't particularly old, and gave the feeling that it was usually well-maintained.
But separate from such feelings, about twenty goblins were welcoming Rudian who had passed through the entrance.
-Intruder! KREURUK!
-Kill him!
Seeing the goblins greeting the enemy with basic weapons like clubs and daggers, he couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh.
"Right, certainly in a fantasy world, you start with goblins."
It was a surprising fact, but this was the first time Rudian had directly seen goblins.
The Iskar County where Rudian lived was mainly plains without many forests, and being an intense border region, there wasn't much room for monsters to appear.
The fact that Rudian himself, who lacked power, was extremely afraid of monsters was also one of the reasons...
Now there was nothing to fear.
"Well, I don't intend to become a goblin slayer, but..."
Since this was a commemorative first monster hunt, he was willing to become a goblin massacrer just this once.
-Human! Die!
About twenty goblins weren't particularly difficult opponents for the current Rudian.
It was enough to dive between the goblins rushing in disorderly and calmly swing his sword at each one.
KUEEEEEEK!
Like that, in less than 5 minutes, with the last one crying out a pitiful scream, Rudian had annihilated the goblins.
Watching the goblins scatter as dust without remaining as corpses according to the tower's law, Rudian let out a sigh mixed with self-reproach.
'As expected, there are many things to fix.'
Only after the battle ended did he notice the small stream of blood flowing from his forearm.
'No matter how much I lack real combat experience compared to practitioners of the same level...'
Allowing attacks from goblins with his current skill was humiliating.
'Senior Elvin would never have allowed such a trivial blow even once.'
Responding to variables that could pop up anytime, anywhere was also not a problem that could be solved with talent alone.
'It was fortunate that the opponents were goblins.'
Even then, if he had been careless and taken a direct hit to the back of his head, he might have died pointlessly.
'If medium-sized monsters come out in these numbers, I might die once then.'
He had received theoretical training on many-versus-one combat methods from the professors of the Knight Department.
Naturally, theory couldn't be immediately applied in real combat, and he had a premonition that it would only become possible after experiencing hardship at least several times.
'For now, shall I continue going up?'
Rudian boldly threw himself toward the portal to the next floor that was emitting light and welcoming him.
***
After that, Rudian continued to climb the tower.
Honestly, up to the 9th floor wasn't that difficult.
On the 2nd floor were kobolds, on the 3rd floor were knolls, on the 4th floor were orcs, and as he went higher, classic monsters like trolls, cyclops, ogres, and minotaurs appeared to block Rudian's path.
When five ogres rushed out simultaneously, he thought he might die for the first time, but thanks to his senses sharpened by battles on lower floors, he somehow managed to handle them without dying.
The point when Rudian, who had been making rapid progress like this, first died was when he reached the 10th floor of the tower.
'...Ah, shit.'
CLANG!
With a vigorous sound, a person's head flew up into the air.
As expected from the curse that came out, the owner of that head was Rudian.
Through his blurring vision, Rudian desperately engraved the opponent's information.
-Name: Dullahan
An undead knight without a head, created in a different direction from Death Knights.
But what finally entered Rudian's eyes wasn't the bastard's name or anything.
-Total Combat Power: 5,820
'What the hell, such a monster already popped out?'
The gatekeeper of the 9th floor was a giant basilisk who’s combat power in the late 2000s.
He had fought a fierce battle to handle that bastard too, but as soon as he passed one floor, the gatekeeper's combat power doubled?
'Haha, this is fucked...'
Rudian laughed helplessly and closed his eyes.
At the same time, the head that had flown up into the air collided with the ground and the fuse was cut.
THUD!
***
"UAAAAAAAK!"
About an hour later in perceived time.
Rudian got up from his spot with a scream, clutching his neck.
No matter how much you can revive, the moment of death is something you can never get used to.
Cold sweat was streaming down his entire body.
-Are you alright, Master?
Adi circled around Rudian with a worried voice.
"I'm not... Alright, damn it."
He felt like he understood why people with trauma or PTSD become so irritable.
His hand kept moving to scratch even though his neck wasn't itchy.
His breathing became rough for no reason, and unreasonable anger welled up.
Only after spending nearly an hour calming his mind could he barely control his mental state.
"Phew, damn it."
Total Combat power 5,820.
Not quite Sword Master level, but certainly a number that could be called a practitioner among practitioners who had definitively broken through the highest Expert class.
If he used Diablo, he could easily break that bastard, but that would be meaningless.
Looking at the still-closed door to the 11th floor, Rudian calmly reviewed the battle.
'Why did I lose?'
If he simply concluded that he lost due to combat power difference, he could never expect improvement in skill.
He had to be able to grasp and derive the cause, process, and improvement points to move forward.
'Honestly, I wasn't significantly behind in strength and speed.'
He had exchanged roughly 50 moves before his head fell off.
Still, that meant he was at a level where he could engage in some offense and defense with the opponent.
'And I was actually overwhelmed in magic.'
No matter how much the opponent was a Dullahan, the magic Rudian possessed was sufficiently superior even compared to knights one class higher.
It was natural since he had accepted magic to the limit his body could handle with Adi and Diablo's power.
'But I still lost.'
There didn't seem to be much difference in ability stats, but a significant difference appeared in overall skill.
What was the problem?
Momentum?
Proficiency?
Technique?
After pondering for a while, Rudian reached a conclusion.
"No, it's flow."
To be precise, the ability to set up the board.
That Dullahan very coldly grasped Rudian's strengths and weaknesses and thoroughly laid out the board for victory, drawing Rudian in.
Every attack, every movement had meaning for that bastard.
"Number games always happen in duels. But I've never thoroughly set up the board like that bastard..."
Up to the 10th floor, the opponents were monsters that charged relying only on strength, so he could climb relatively easily.
But when he faced a swordsman who genuinely focused on technique, he was blocked by a wall as if it were a lie.
Experience points.
The fact that such results came out when there wasn't much difference in ability stats meant that there was a big difference in invisible experience.
'For a monster, it was an incredible master.'
Originally, thoroughly setting up a board like go is something that's only possible when you reach at least the realm of Sword Master.
But Dullahan's combat power was far below 10,000, which is the rough standard for Sword Master, yet showed swordsmanship beyond imagination.
'Right, this is what training should be.'
After that, Rudian challenged the Dullahan countless times, knocking on the door to the 11th floor.
"Come at me, you bastard!"
"......"
Dullahan silently accepted Rudian's challenges.
CLANG!
But even after dying ten times while doing all sorts of crazy things, he couldn't land an effective hit on the Dullahan.
CRACK!
"Huk, hueok!"
Each time he experienced death, Rudian's breathing and movements visibly became disturbed.
Having his heart pierced, limbs flying off, and his head split in various ways horizontally and vertically weren't experiences you could encounter often, so it was natural.
-...Are you alright, Master?
"I'm not... Alright."
SHUDDER! SHUDDER!
His mind crumbled each time deaths accumulated.
Just before, both arms had flown off and his head had been completely pierced through before he died.
At least this time his head was pierced right away, so the pain from his arms flying off wasn't felt for very long.
Still, death was always painful, scary, and frightening each time he experienced it.
Rudian trembled while avoiding looking at the still-closed door to the 11th floor.
'I want to use Diablo.'
If he used Diablo, he could eliminate Dullahan and everything else in one shot, regardless of experience points.
Not just that bastard, but he could smoothly climb to the 66th floor.
But...
SLAP!
"Huk! Huk!"
But Rudian slapped his own cheek hard and pulled himself together.
'I have to keep my initial vow. I can't compromise.'
The moment he broke his promise to himself and compromised, any power he gained in the future would be completely meaningless.
His body and mind would be comfortable, but if his spirit wasn't trained, he would make fatal mistakes at crucial moments.
For Kim Seong-jun, who had gained power while relying on knowledge from reading the original work, to truly survive in this hellish world, this was something he absolutely had to overcome.
Regardless of where his current level was, this was a rite of passage he had to go through at least once somehow.
"Keup!"
The eleventh challenge.
Rudian forgot his pain and desperately charged at the Dullahan.
The number of moves he lasted in this challenge was a total of 200.
The more they crossed swords, the sharper his momentum was refined, and his fighting spirit was precisely trained.
'Still, I lasted a long time!'
One arm holding Diablo had been gone for a while already.
His head would probably fly off soon, but lasting over 200 moves was a first.
Actually, including Alec Hyuma and Elvin, all the 'knights' Rudian had fought so far had engaged in number games at an instinctive level.
But that bastard thoroughly calculated movements from start to finish.
As if waging war rather than combat.
In this eleventh battle, Rudian realized this fact.
"......"
Just when he thought his head would fly off soon, for some reason the Dullahan bastard was standing still without finishing him off.
"......?"
"......"
What?
Instead of swinging his sword as usual, for some reason the bastard was quietly staring directly at Rudian.
Of course, since the bastard had no head, staring directly was just a feeling.
A brief silence passed, and some voice flowed out from the helmet held in the bastard's left arm.
-Your qualities are useful.
"......?"
It spoke?
Though it had sent out spirit speech like Adi or Diablo, the fact that an opponent was attempting normal conversation rather than physical dialogue for the first time came as a fresh shock.
The bastard continued speaking.
-But at this rate, you won't be able to surpass me even if you fight 100 battles, not just 10.
"...What?"
Rudian looked at Dullahan, forgetting even the pain from his severed right arm.
Actually, in the original work, the description of the 10th floor level wasn't dealt with in detail, so he didn't know what would come out at this point.
But definitely, if such a special bastard had appeared, there would certainly have been some episode or description in the original .
The fact that there wasn't meant that the current situation inside this tower was flowing in a completely separate development from the 'original work'.
-Huhu, such audacity to use this great sacred ground merely for training.
"......"
Rudian broke out in cold sweat when his purpose was immediately seen through.
-But I like it. A warrior should have at least that much resolve.
"Who are you?"
The bastard was something different to dismiss as a simple nameless Dullahan.
Dullahan gripped his sword in reverse and revealed his name to Rudian.
-My name is Kimaris. A knight of the demon world and the right hand of the great lord Leviathan. Welcome to this sacred ground, challenger.