Chapter 15
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Not Dying - 2
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Adventurers call the 1st floor the tutorial zone for good reason.
It's the first step in tower climbing, but more than that, unique phenomena exist only on the 1st floor.
The most representative one is immortality.
Adventurers conquering the 1st floor do not die.
Aging-related cases couldn't be confirmed within the tower, but everything else has been verified multiple times through other means.
One might call it the tower's consideration for beginners.
Whether stabbed through the body, skin melted by acid, or organs ruined by poison, everything is restored to an "intact" state according to the tower's standards.
It's a measure close to preventing those with zero combat experience from dying pointlessly right from the start.
Among the monsters on the 1st floor, none are strong enough to push beginner adventurers to death, but the tower's dangers aren't limited to monsters alone.
Goal: Assist Guard Delion in suppressing the rampage (0/1)
🎁 Reward: 600 EXP
"In front of the clinic, right?"
"Yes."
"And we still don't know why?"
"We're looking into it. Suppressing her comes first."
Even while running at quite a fast pace, Delion was keeping up without any strain.
The fact that his breathing only grew a bit ragged was impressive in itself.
"Over there."
"Yeah, just looking at him standing there tells me the situation."
The situation seemed pretty serious, with adventurers surrounding the area in droves.
Among them were even some well-known rankers.
To roughly describe the scene: in the midst of the encircling adventurers, the first thing that catches the eye is a female adventurer whose eyes have gone properly mad.
She stood in front of the clinic door, gripping her sword menacingly, waiting for someone.
There was one other adventurer inside the building.
The excited voice coming from beyond the door made it clear.
"C-calm down. This won't solve any─."
"Shut up and come out!"
"Do something about this bitch! She stabs anyone who tries to leave!"
Even those renowned rankers could only try to verbally calm the rampaging beginner.
In terms of skill gap alone, suppressing her wouldn't take 10 seconds, but they absolutely couldn't approach.
The phenomenon applied on the 1st floor isn't just immortality.
Pain is also dulled.
The pain of slashing someone, and the pain of being slashed—both are dulled.
Not to the extent of being drugged, but it's like living with some sense of reality stripped away.
For those who've lived in a relatively safe world, overcoming their instincts regarding combat with just the resolve to enter the tower isn't easy.
When they see a beast, fleeing comes before charging.
Even a single stab to the abdomen makes normal thinking impossible.
In other words, the 1st floor's protective measures are to prevent panic among beginners.
The pain-dulling effect helps us adapt to the tower more easily.
The problem is when it backfires, like now.
"You fucking─."
- Puuk!
She'd just died once more.
Since a head penetration is an instant-death ruling, she revives immediately at the clinic.
How many times had this repeated so far?
Thanks to the dulled pain.
Without these protective measures, if beginners faced death multiple times—especially by another adventurer's sword—it would be hard to maintain sanity.
"Get lost! What did I do so wrong?!"
Her voice, still unbroken in spirit, echoed out.
"Don't interfere! I said don't come closer!"
The stabber's pain was dulled the same way.
I don't know what grudge existed between them, but for a beginner close to a normal person, repeatedly killing another human isn't easy.
A few beginner adventurers had approached the woman with a handful of courage, but they only retreated at her indiscriminate swings.
"Amelia."
"Perfect timing. I was thinking of going to find you myself."
"A guard came looking for me."
The famous rankers couldn't lay a hand on her precisely because it was the 1st floor.
To prevent so-called "bullying," adventurers who have conquered the 1st floor cannot attack those still conquering it.
In a situation like this, even rankers had no choice but to stand back and watch.
Only another beginner—someone also conquering the 1st floor—could intervene.
Now, the beginners were scared and keeping their distance, just spectating.
No one wanted to deal with the crazy woman who stabbed every time she respawned in front of the clinic.
So, I was the perfect one for the job.
"Calm down first."
"Didn't you hear me say don't interfere?!"
- Whoosh!
The beginner's sword sliced through empty air.
She must be too agitated to see straight.
I lightly struck her open left leg.
"Guh─."
"Drop the weapon too."
- Thwack!
Taking advantage of her collapsing stance, I struck down her right hand gripping the sword.
Her strength gave out, and the sword fell limply to the ground.
"Kyaak─!"
I pinned one of her arms behind her back and shoved her against the wall.
Damn protective measures—incidents that could be wrapped up this simply were turning into a hassle.
"Kk, what... strength..."
I hadn't conquered the 1st floor, but I had more than enough power to suppress a beginner.
"Don't waste your strength needlessly."
"Th-that bastard stabbed me first..."
"Then you should've asked the guild for help. Does blindly retaliating and escalating things fix it?"
Overwhelming power gap calms people down more than warm words.
Listening to the pinned adventurer's explanation, I could understand the motive.
"Stabbing someone over one slime?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying! That fucker cut off my leg just to steal my monster!"
On the first day, with all beginner adventurers doing the extermination quest, there weren't enough slimes for the required numbers.
Competition intensified, leading some to use violent means to get ahead.
Still, it was hard to comprehend.
If you're murdering over snagging slimes first, your tower-climbing life ahead won't be clean.
Just looking at now, she'd suffered extreme retaliation.
Her thinking was too short-sighted.
"Even so, this was too much."
"......"
"How long have you been in the tower? You can one-shot kill already—you've got talent."
This was sincere.
Figuring out how to kill a person in one stroke within days meant sharp senses.
No matter how important theoretical swordsmanship is, the top priority in the tower is killing enemies.
If she hadn't caused this mess, catching a guild's eye would've been a matter of time. What a shame.
"Have you ever seen such a crazy bitch?"
Thinking her fully suppressed, the man who'd been holed up in the clinic crawled out.
"You should watch your mouth too."
"You saw her rampage, right? She's lost her mind. Hold her tight so she doesn't get away."
Sorry, but it's hard to see clear victim and perpetrator here.
A proper investigation is needed.
What followed wasn't my jurisdiction, and I had no responsibility for it.
"Delion."
"Yes."
"I'll handle this one, you take that one."
"Understood."
Delion grabbed the arm of the man who'd been stuck in the clinic.
"W-wait. Why grab me?"
"We can sort right and wrong later. It's not too late."
"Fuck, let go?"
The 1st floor guards couldn't even be called strong in jest.
He'd had to ask for my help because he couldn't suppress a beginner adventurer. No further explanation needed.
Stamina and combat power were separate issues.
If that man thrashed around wildly, Delion's strength wouldn't fully restrain him.
I added one more word for safe transport.
"Be quiet while I'm asking nicely. Before I break your legs and drag you."
"......"
Both beginners looked dissatisfied, but we'd built up stress too.
Having our precious time wasted on this childish reason.
"It's fine. Earthbound Spirit was needed for this, so don't worry and go."
Ellie said that, but her shadowed expression didn't look fine no matter how I saw it.
"Earthbound Spirit, thank you so much. We'll handle it from here."
Goal: Assist Guard Delion in suppressing the rampage (1/1)
🎁 Reward: 600 EXP
Whether the male adventurer truly struck first.
Why the female adventurer decided on repeated retaliation.
How the two would be dealt with afterward.
None of it was my concern.
"Koon, is it okay for you to be here?"
"We've blocked it off with barriers. No adventurers were planning to enter the forest today anyway. There was always at least one, but that one went off on a date."
"......"
"Sorry. It was a joke."
Date, my ass.
She'd said we'd spend the whole day together, but in the end, we'd accomplished nothing proper.
"Rumors must have spread already?"
"Anyone seeing you walk like that would think the same, no? It's the first time Earthbound Spirit's dressed up."
"Hearing that from you sobers me right up. Gotta be more careful from now on."
"What do you mean by that?"
Getting fashion advice from a guy buried in thick steel lumps—humiliating.
"Anyway, shouldn't we head there now? She's waiting."
"You're right. Better not keep her waiting longer."
I headed to the bench where we'd sat together.
I could leave the aftermath to the reliable pair of guards.
With wrists bound and weapons confiscated, the two adventurers wouldn't rampage further.
"Koon! Grab that guy!"
"They were quiet just a moment ago—what now?"
"How should I know?!"
The adventurer used her own nails as weapons, throttling the throat of the man she'd killed dozens of times.
"Die! Die already!"
"Guuk─, cough, kuhuk."
The process was long and messy, but the man would wake up fine at the clinic even after dying.
Knowing that full well, the woman thrashed to kill him one more time.
As if possessed, as if it were the most natural thing.
The guards finally pried the two apart and decided to bind both their hands.