The Lich King's Gambit
The 30th floor was where the undead army made its appearance.
In the beginning, skeletons and zombies would spawn.
From the mid-stages, wraiths and undead beasts were added to the mix.
Toward the end, even Death Knights would show up.
Finally, on the 39th floor, the Lich King would appear, commanding them all.
Just as the shamans on the 10th and 20th floors did nothing but cast a curse before vanishing, the Lich King on the 30th floor was supposed to do the same.
His actual battle encounter, like the shamans before him, was meant for the 39th floor.
But as for me...
On the 10th floor,
And on the 20th floor,
I had killed those shamans who were supposed to just cast their curses and disappear.
Why?
Just because.
How?
By doing it well.
If I play my cards right with the Lich King, too...
Maybe I could kill him right here on the 30th floor and snag a special reward.
It wasn't entirely out of the question, especially since I already had the Undead Slayer achievement.
Besides, I've already got a mental defense item.
I fiddled with the earring on my ear.
Thanks to my meditation, its side effects were gone, and it was an item that could even restore my health and mana in a pinch.
On top of that, I had the crescent sword I had "borrowed" from Nairin.
Confidence surged within me.
Well, shall we head in?
"Enter Babel Tower."
Whooooosh...
A chilling wind brushed against my cheek.
A white haze, indistinguishable from snow or dust, swirled sharply in all directions.
"..."
Before my eyes lay only darkness.
I couldn't see a thing.
However, I quickly realized that this was an illusion.
...It's a graveyard.
Indeed.
This place was a cemetery.
Stretching endlessly across the dark earth were countless tombstones, their names worn away by time.
Once the Lich King cast his spell, skeletons and zombies would burst forth from beneath those graves.
I stared past the graveyard.
Into the darkness where, despite seeing nothing, I could feel an eerie gaze fixed upon me.
*Whoosh!*
Two blue flames flared up in the dark.
*Kekeke...*
A gloomy laughter echoed through the air.
...It's the Lich King.
The two fireballs stared at me.
Then, a skeletal hand emerged from the darkness.
Its frost-covered fingertip pointed directly at me.
"At last..."
*Clack. Clack.*
A voice rasped, accompanied by the rattling of bones.
"At last, you have appeared..."
Huh?
Was this a scripted line too?
Wasn't the Lich King supposed to wake the skeleton and zombie army, cast his curse, and immediately vanish?
What did he mean, "At last, you have appeared"?
"Kihahahahaha!"
A skin-crawling laughter echoed from all sides.
"Finally..."
"Finally!"
Skeletal fingers flailed wildly in the air, accompanied by words that sounded like a mix of a scream and an exclamation of awe.
The ground seemed to shake along with their movements.
"Welcome!"
"O Star of Death!"
A skeleton slowly emerged from the darkness.
No, it looked like a skeleton, but it wasn't quite one.
It was just that its skin was completely shriveled and clung to its bones.
Perhaps calling it a living corpse was more accurate.
In some places, even the skin had rotted away, leaving only bare bone.
Like the hands, the neck, and the knees.
That was the Lich King, the immortal entity.
From what I knew, the Lich King was not supposed to fully reveal himself here.
*Creak, creak...*
Just like he was doing right now.
...Something is wrong.
Even someone as thick-skinned as me could tell.
Something highly unusual was happening.
It had been an agonizingly long time.
He had comprehended all the truths of the world, and by doing so, he had become an existence that defied them. Yet, he was trapped in this "Tower," forced to play out a farce worse than a child's game.
But the Lich King could not escape the Tower.
The same went for beings far greater than him.
To continue this play with no end in sight—that was the destiny of those imprisoned within the Tower.
Should he be grateful that his sanity remained intact?
Just as he had in life, the Lich King continued his research to escape the Tower.
Perhaps even more passionately than when he had sought immortality.
Yet, no magical formula, tool, or power was of any use.
There was absolutely no way to escape the Tower!
Either kill those who climbed the Tower endlessly, or be killed by them.
Only that cycle repeated infinitely.
Within that loop, the Lich King realized a truth.
It was a truth only someone who had indulged in death to an unimaginable degree could grasp.
True Death.
If he could obtain that power, he could kill the one who imprisoned him and escape the Tower.
Then, he would reign as the Lich King once more.
However, obtaining the power of "True Death" was no easy task.
The "Star of Death" had vanished the moment the Tower appeared.
Only by finding the whereabouts of that star could he grasp the power of True Death.
The only problem was that he could not search for it while trapped in the Tower.
He had to wait for the Star of Death to arrive here on its own.
Perhaps for a duration bordering eternity!
After repeating the cycle of destruction and regeneration hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of times, his very existence had worn down. He had reached the point where he was about to forget the concepts of "True Death" and the "Star of Death" entirely.
At that very moment.
A human appeared with a tiny flash of light.
The Lich King doubted his own eyes.
A red light burned so brightly it was blinding!
An aura of death that overflowed even more than his own, despite his thousands of years of accumulated power!
The Star of Death!
He had finally found it.
If he peeled away that shell and took the power of death...
He would finally be able to escape this Tower!
*Creak, creak, creak!*
The Lich King tore through the restrictions binding him and stepped out of the darkness.
His flesh tore away and his bones were exposed, but that meant nothing to him.
"Rise, you who have rejected death!"
Rotting hands burst through the soil.
Corpses poked their heads out from between collapsed tombstones.
Half-decayed zombies, and—
*Crack!*
Skeletons that were already nothing but bone.
*Creak...!*
The minions of death flailed as they stood up, awaiting the Lich King's command.
"Kill him."
"Whoa!"
On the 30th floor, skeletons and zombies were supposed to appear.
No, only skeletons and zombies were supposed to appear.
But what was this in front of my eyes?
Dozens of skeletons and zombies.
And behind them, emerging from the shadows...
*Screeech...!*
Specters, and—
*Growl...*
Undead beasts, and—
*Clop, clop, clop.*
Death Knights.
And not just one or two.
Combined, they easily numbered over a hundred.
One hundred and fifty? No, two hundred?
What on earth is this...
What kind of situation was this?!
I looked around in panic, but unfortunately, this was reality.
Just in case, I should return—
"Damn it!"
I couldn't return.
What the hell was going on?
"You."
"Will."
"Die."
"Here."
"Today."
The Lich King's chilling voice echoed across the entire map.
And then—
*Whooooosh!*
A purple magic power swirled violently, visible to the naked eye!
It's a curse...!
The Lich King's curse.
But it was different from what I had expected.
Even at a glance, it wasn't the curse he usually cast.
*Whisper, whisper...*
*Rustle, rustle...*
The faint whispers tickling my ears were drowned out by the sound of a quiet forest wind blowing from my earring.
*Whoosh!*
Thanks to avoiding fear, confusion, and madness, I was able to quickly draw the crescent sword.
*Swish!*
*Flash!*
And then, countless red dots bloomed before my eyes.
These were the weaknesses revealed by my Execution Eye.
*Whoosh!*
I swiftly threw the crescent sword.
*Spin!*
The spinning crescent sword flew straight ahead and—
*Crack!*
Struck the head of the skeleton running at the very front.
*Shatter!*
It blew the skull clean off.
And so, Killing Time began.
Killing Time
In an instant, everything slowed down.
*Slooooow...*
The curse, and—
"Di..."
Even the Lich King.
Why can't I return?
It didn't matter.
If I killed them all, I'd figure out what was going on.
*Thwack!*
I severed a skeleton's head and pulled my sword from the ground.
*Squish!*
I stabbed the eye socket of a zombie right next to it.
*Thrust!*
I shoved my blade down the throat of an undead beast that was just opening its maw.
*Crack.*
Hearing the skull fracture, I—
*Slam!*
Drove my dagger, Dan, into the crack like a stake.
*Slash!*
I swung the crescent sword again, slicing the ankles of the horse carrying a Death Knight.
*Tick!*
All of this happened in less than a single second.
*Whoosh!*
From then on, everything was easy.
Thanks to my Execution Eye, all I had to do was plunge Dan into the clearly visible weaknesses.
Moreover, the Undead Slayer achievement increased my critical hit rate by 50%.
It felt like every single strike was a critical hit.
*Screeech!*
*Groan!*
After shaving down their health with critical damage, I—
*Dash!*
*Slashhhhh!*
Unleashed a Death Slash with the crescent sword.
*...!*
*...!!!*
Any bastards with less than 30% health died instantly on their own.
Death Slash
Which triggered Killing Time all over again.
*Tick...*
The glowing red weaknesses,
*Tock...*
I stabbed them one by one as they appeared.
*Tick...*
Shaving their health and finishing them off with Death Slash!
*Tock...*
The undead collapsed in heaps.
They fell like autumn leaves in the wind.
It was a completely different feeling from fighting the orcs and trolls in the 20s.
Why did I find this place so boring, though?
Maybe because they were just bone fragments and rotting flesh.
There was no satisfying feedback when stabbing or cutting them.
Anyway.
As I repeated the process in a trance—
*Clatter!*
First, the zombies and skeletons were completely wiped out.
The undead beasts and Death Knights remained, but they were manageable.
The real problem now was...
*Whooooosh...*
The Lich King's "curse," which was already nearing completion.
The item Nairin gave me could only block mental status ailments like fear, confusion, and madness.
I had no idea how it would fare against anything beyond that.
Strands of the curse were already snaking toward me.
In that case...
*Slide!*
Before the curse could hit me, I would kill everything here, including the Lich King.
Then the curse wouldn't matter anyway.
I smoothly and quickly pulled the crescent sword out of the undead beast's heart.
And then, dodging the shimmering curse as it crept closer, I began to carve up the remaining monsters.
*Slash!*
I decapitated a Death Knight.
*Shred!*
I unleashed a Death Slash at a pack of undead beasts.
After swinging my sword like a madman while drenched in rotten blood, before I knew it...
*Whooooosh...*
Only the Lich King remained.
Even though my speed was increased by 1000%,
*Tick...*
The Lich King's burning eyes slowly tracked my movements.
*Tock...*
The remaining time on Killing Time was exactly one second.
That was more than enough.
With the crescent sword in one hand and Dan in the other, I lunged toward the Lich King.