Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: I'll Become a Parrying Master! (2)
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What did auto-activation even mean?
I didn't think the Wiki was going to do anything weird to me, but just reading the description didn't make it clear.
"Ahem."
I stared at the Wiki for a moment before putting my phone away.
I cleared my throat and gripped my sword tightly, assuming the stance I'd been practicing nonstop for the past week.
"Parrying!"
The effect was negligible!
I'd shouted the skill name with all my effort, but nothing happened.
I wondered if the Wiki would move my body for me, but that didn't seem to be the case.
'Do I have to swing it while shouting?'
Thinking that might make a difference, I glared fiercely and swung my sword.
"Parry─!!"
......Nope, that wasn't it either.
What was the command? How was I supposed to do it?
The Wiki only said "auto-activation," with no other details.
'Is it the stance?'
Maybe it wasn't a defensive posture waiting for an attack, but an aggressive one aiming for a counter.
Whoosh─!
"Parrying!!"
Whoosh!
"Skill activation!"
Swoooosh─!!
"Wiki, do it!!!"
Three strikes and misses.
I'd thought it would activate like in a game since it was a skill book, but no such luck.
Swinging around alone probably wasn't enough to trigger Parrying. That was the best guess I had right now.
Parrying was something you couldn't do solo anyway.
'This is embarrassing as hell.'
I knew no one was around, but I still felt ashamed.
Here I was, a grown man swinging a wooden sword and yelling. My face burned.
"Let's just get going...."
The Wiki had gone out of its way to notify me, so there had to be a use for it.
At this point, I fully trusted it would help me somehow.
I wasn't expecting to use Parrying right away anyway.
Wild boars like that showed up every ten floors, so I planned to take it easy until then.
Step.
'Nothing's coming out.'
I approached the door, but nothing appeared.
The Wiki was silent, and there were no numbers or commands written nearby like on the first floor.
'Door won't open either.'
I pulled the handle, but of course, it didn't budge.
With no gimmicks or instructions, I scanned the surroundings, wondering what to do.
Plop.
"?"
I blankly looked up at the ceiling after a stone fragment fell on my head.
Drip, plop....
Dust and dirt rained down from above.
Small stone fragments fell around me.
Rumble─!!
"......!!"
Then the entire tower shook with a deafening, inexplicable roar.
"What the fu──"
Instinct told me the ceiling was collapsing, so I threw myself backward.
Boom─!!
A stone wall had appeared where I'd been standing moments ago.
It must have fallen from above—an impossibly thick stone wall now blocked the door.
Drip....
"......No way?"
Another stone fragment fell on me as I lay sprawled—and
Rumble─!!
"Fuck this shiiiit!!!"
The roar came again, and I bolted backward like a madman.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Boom!!
"Open the door!! Open it!!"
I yelled as stone walls kept crashing down.
I made it back to the entrance, but the door wouldn't open. My eyes twitched as the walls closed in.
"Where's the strategy, Wiki!!"
Five... no, four more walls, and I'd be pork cutlet.
I'd end up as tenderized pork, trapped here forever. Delicious Han Seol cutlet.
Thud!!
'Damn, damn, damn....'
What should I do?
How do I block those falling stone walls?
Parrying? Parry that?
With my scrawny arms and wooden shield against those stone walls?
Boom!
The Wiki was still silent.
The walls kept multiplying, drawing closer.
'Think... think...!!'
The Wiki that even handled empty praises in the Luck Tower—why no alert now?
What was the point of this obvious screwjob?
Thud!!
Drip, plop....
"Ah...."
One space left above me.
Stone fragments fell on my head. I gripped my sword tightly and glared upward.
"Uwaaaaaah!!!"
No thoughts, nothing.
All I could do was scream and embrace my end.
All I could do was—
"Wikiiiiii!!!"
I had to believe there was a reason the Wiki was staying quiet, like a fanatic.
Clang!
"......"
I squeezed my eyes shut at the last second, but nothing happened.
The sound wasn't right for a stone wall crashing down.
I was alive...... probably.
The walls had come down everywhere except exactly one space above my head—and that spot was fine.
I'd worried when fragments fell here too, but...
'A pickaxe...?'
Ridiculously, what fell wasn't a wall—it was a pickaxe.
Swish.
I cautiously picked it up, and text appeared before my eyes.
It explained how to clear the 11th floor, why the stone walls fell, and why they gave me this pickaxe.
The "door" didn't mean the entrance behind me—it meant the one where the first wall fell.
'In other words─'
I had to smash through dozens of meters of stone wall with this pickaxe.
Just like floors 1 through 9 in the Tower of Trials were simple grindfests, this was telling me to put in the work.
"Haha."
If that's how it was, they could've just started with the walls up.
I nearly died walking right up to the door.
Rage and frustration made my clenched fist tremble.
Part of me wanted to smash the walls with everything I had, but I decided to forgive it this once.
It'd just hurt me more.
'So... smash through brute force?'
It looked sharp. Honestly, it seemed dozens of times more intimidating than my wooden sword.
Probably weighed incomparably more too.
I couldn't even imagine how long it'd take to break through that thickness.
Ten swings... no, five, and I'd hit my stamina limit for sure.
"Nah, pass~."
I had no idea how much the others—our gallery seniors—suffered, but I wasn't doing the same.
Ding─!
Time to cheese it with the Wiki.
I checked the Wiki's strategy and looked at the stone wall.
Red dots appeared all over it, like laser points.
Swish.
I set down my wooden sword and shield for now and picked up the pickaxe.
I'd come here to test Parrying, but this wasn't bad.
I had to reach the 100th floor anyway. Cheesing it was the best option.
I'd spam Parrying against bosses later.
Clang─!! Clang─!!
I swung the pickaxe—still heavy even with both hands—and struck the red dots.
Crack... crunch...
After a few misses, a perfect hit cracked the entire massive wall.
One, two, three.
After hitting about five dots—
Rumble─!!
I smirked as the foremost wall crumbled down.
'Easy.'
Sigh, why did everyone struggle with something this simple?
『Tower of Trials』
-14-
I blazed through floors 11 to 14 following the Wiki at super speed.
It was still just simple grinding, but the Wiki slashed the time to ridiculous levels.
By the communal timer, it took about 30 minutes to reach the 15th floor.
'Honestly, with better specs, I could've done it in under 10.'
Still, climbing steadily like this might make me more human someday.
Living in a place like this would bulk me up whether I liked it or not.
Flick─!
As I entered the 15th floor and looked around, bright lights illuminated the entire tower.
"Whoa...."
I couldn't help but gasp at the flood of information.
It was nice that it wasn't dark, but what blew my mind was the absurdity.
The center... not sure if you could even call it a tower anymore.
Anyway, there was a straight path about five people wide in the center.
Endless chasms flanked both sides.
"......And arrows come flying from there, right?"
With chasms on the sides, mysterious devices riddled with holes lined the far walls on both ends.
Like traps from treasure-hunting movies or comics.
I didn't know if arrows, bullets, or some monstrosity would shoot out, but it was clearly for killing intruders.
And right now, the only intruder was me.
'......About 100 meters to the opposite door?'
I wasn't good at judging distances.
It looked insanely far but sneakily close—probably around 100 meters.
Vreeeeee....
Standing at the door in a daze, I heard machinery whirring to life.
I didn't know if it was engines or what, but the eerie noise pounding my chest was plenty unsettling. In a bad way.
The grating sound soon faded—but
Swoosh─!!
It was replaced by the whistle of arrows slicing through the air, signaling the start.
"Haa...."
Too fast to track with the eye.
One came from the right, and by the time I noticed, it was already embedded on the left.
Not just from one side—they alternated angles and timings from both, filling the 100-meter stretch.
'......How the hell did others pass this?'
This was just the 1st run's 15th floor. It got harder with each regression, they said.
Was I really the only powerless normie?
Ding─!
"......"
I swallowed hard at the saving grace and checked my phone.
I prayed this strategy was easier than the others, squinting as I peeked.
'Take your time analyzing, please give me a cheese strat──'
I was praying hard when.
Ding─!
The Wiki finished analyzing in seconds and popped up the strategy.
"......"
How could there be such a perfect strategy? (Limited) clearly meant me.
It had calculated my exact stride, timing, and distance flawlessly.
It was so perfect my head throbbed.
Swoosh!!
Told to cross that arrow hell trusting one app, I squeezed my eyes shut.
I missed the simple grinding already.
Suffering for hours without the Wiki would've been a million times better.
'This'll drive me insane.'
There were brief pauses in the devices here and there.
I wasn't sure about patterns, but positioning right might let me stop and go.
"Hoo...."
Running wouldn't work.
It specified seven steps based on my stride.
I had to slowly walk through the arrow rain to that distant door, pausing three seconds to admire the view.
Whoosh!
Standing at the left end per the Wiki, the arrows sounded even more brutal.
Not arrows—cannon fire. One hit, and I'd fly off sideways, not just bleed.
'......Why not base it on the center?'
Mouth dry knowing one misstep meant the abyss.
Grip...
"Let's go, Han Seol─!!"
I clutched my wooden sword and bellowed loud enough to shake the tower.
Straight ahead was the only way. I'd known this was coming; everyone had to pass eventually.
Plop.
'Now...!'
The first right device stopped—I stepped forward.
Not too fast, not too slow.
Recalling my normal pace, I stared ahead, ignoring the sides.
'Look back and you're dead.'
Counting steps inwardly, I swallowed hard.
Distract once, and die. Trust the Wiki only. Doubt for a second, and it's over.
'One second, two, three.'
I didn't know how I was surviving, but I was making it through somehow.
The arrows hadn't touched me—like I wasn't being fooled.
'H-halfway...!'
Six steps, seven.
Breath ragged. Just walking normally, but my legs shook.
Cold sweat poured from my sword-gripping hand.
Whoosh!!
"......!"
I didn't stop even as an arrow grazed right in front of my eyes.
I nearly flinched when something brushed my nape—arrow tip? Feather? Whatever, I almost died.
More walking, more pauses feeling like three hours instead of seconds. Through hellish time, the end neared.
One more cycle blind, and I'd make it.
'I'm alive....'
Was it that thought?
Or my tension releasing from my legs?
"Eup...!!"
My left toe caught my right heel.
As my body tipped slowly, I whipped my head around— an arrow flew straight for my forehead.
'Ah....'
Losing balance, horrific arrow at light speed.
Pathetic death after coming so far? I laughed foolishly when—
Flick.
A red flash gleamed from the arrowhead aimed at my brow.
The instant my gaze, every nerve, locked on the arrow—
"!!"
Instinctively—no, reflexively—I twisted my body and swung my wooden sword.