Chapter 26: Luck Is a Skill Too
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 26: Luck Is a Skill Too
Swords clashed. Sparks flew as they collided in an instant.
The knight, realizing he was outmatched in technique, tried to push through with brute force. But Lee Do-hee refused to meet his strength head-on, continuously deflecting his blade.
The one who strikes and the one who parries.
It was a dance of two opposing forces. Their swordsmanship was so fast and brilliant that an ordinary person couldn't even follow it, with several exchanges happening every second. A single lapse in concentration meant death.
The tense battle continued.
When the knight took a step forward, Lee Do-hee willingly gave one back.
But before he knew it, she had ghosted back another step.
‘Her swordsmanship is otherworldly.’
The knight thought.
From a woman who looked to have lived no more than twenty years, he saw the image of a sword demon who had spent a lifetime on the battlefield.
It was the knight who first broke the rhythm of their tense standoff.
The problem was his aura.
Aura is not infinite. As a miraculous power, it wasn't something one used lightly, except for a decisive, short battle.
‘I have to end this before it runs out.’
There would be only one chance.
A single move, possible only because he held the initiative.
The ultimate technique that had earned him the position of Knight Commander.
The knight saw his chance.
The moment both of Lee Do-hee's feet touched the ground!
He exploded all his remaining mana, shrouding his entire body. His technique, which looked like a storm of mana, was a secret art that forcibly enhanced all his physical abilities and reaction speed.
He felt as if the entire world had slowed down, except for him.
The time he could maintain this with his mana was only three seconds.
“Dieeee!!!”
- CRASH!!
Tearing through the air, he charged in a straight line.
He swung his sword with several times the speed and power as before.
‘Wait, she’s reacting to this?’
In a world where only he had grown faster.
He could see her eyes tracking his sword.
‘Impossible…’
- Clang!
Sword met sword, and his ultimate attack was smoothly deflected.
He had definitely gotten stronger and faster, yet she fought as if she were facing the same opponent as before.
‘Again…!’
- Clang!
Her sword coiled around his like a snake, deflecting it once more as if to prove the first time was no accident.
‘She won't deflect this last one!!’
An unavoidable, straight vertical slash.
He had to finish her with this one move.
- CLANG!!!
Immense power clashed, sending sparks flying, but she deflected it at an angle, as if she knew the exact point of impact even before he swung.
An unpleasant feeling, as if his sword's path was being guided by her swordsmanship.
For a moment, he felt like he had run into an insurmountable wall.
- KRAAANG!!
The smoothly deflected sword struck the innocent ground, and his slowed world returned to reality.
And then, a cold sensation on his neck.
- Swish!!
His vision spun, and he looked at her.
‘What a beautiful sword…’
That was his final thought.
*
“Phew… that was a close call.”
I was a little flustered when that last attack came. I had to force the parry at the end, and now my hand is trembling slightly.
But it was all the same in the end.
If my speed in my past life was 100, that guy went from… maybe a 10 to a 20?
My body may be slow, but it wasn't something I couldn't block if I anticipated it.
Especially that last attack. Its path was too obvious. If he hadn't been so confident in his speed and power, if he'd used more varied attacks, or even abandoned his sword for hand-to-hand combat or wrestling, he might have beaten me.
In the end, his pride as a knight and his lifelong habit of swinging a sword were his downfall.
Anyway,
It's over now.
“Waaaaaaah!!!”
“The whore defeated the enemy commander!!!”
“Waaaaaaah!!!!”
As I listened to the cheers of the vanguard soldiers around me, the voice of the Tower finally rang out.
[You have cleared the 4th Floor of the Tower's Trial. You will receive the True Ending reward.]
‘As expected.’
[Please select your S-rank reward.]
Yep. This must have been an A-rank Ordeal.
This reward's theme is attributes.
It's simple.
You choose whether to use ordinary, non-attribute blue mana; red mana advantageous for fire magic; or black magic, white magic, or even divine power. It's a choice between things like that.
Of course, if you want to be a jack-of-all-trades without leaning to one side, you can just pick the non-attribute option and take the bonus to your total mana.
And what I'm going to choose is...
‘Not yet.’
Right, it's not time to choose my reward yet.
The reward appears when you clear a floor. But clearing it doesn't forcibly send you to the waiting room. Whether you go to the waiting room to receive the reward is your choice.
And during that time, it's also your choice whether to proceed to the next floor or not.
The time given this time is one hour.
I don't know if they give you this time to pack up anything you need or to say a quick goodbye to your comrades, but today, I was truly grateful for it.
“Hey, you. Can I borrow your spear?”
I borrow a spear from a man in the vanguard, one holding a massive two-meter-long spear.
“Huh…?”
“Here, hold this instead.”
“Oh…? Is this a sign that you've chosen me…?”
I don't know what he's misunderstanding, but his face turns red.
“Th-the whore chose me!!! Kuhahahaha!!!”
“Tch… I'm so jealous. If I had my way, I'd… ugh…”
“Dammit. I'm gonna go find another bitch.”
If I were some weakling whore, I'd obviously be getting gangbanged to infinity by these guys right now, but after seeing me fight, none of them dared to approach me recklessly.
But these guys aren't what's important.
The main army was finally arriving, late.
I could see the Bald Commander I saw earlier, slowly approaching on horseback. He had a look full of questions, probably surprised that the vanguard took the castle all by themselves.
This place is a kind of virtual world, anyway.
That's not to say the people here are like emotionless NPCs in a game, but it's a world that resets infinitely regardless.
So, wouldn't it be unfair to just leave things as they are?
The distance to the Bald Commander was about 500 meters.
I gather all the strength in my body and take a spear-throwing stance.
The power of my past—
I can't replicate it, but I can at least mimic the stance.
[SS-rank Karios Deirn's Secret Spear Arts Manual]
The final, ultimate technique from it.
The skill's name: Meteor Spear Fall.
A simple technique of throwing a spear from mid-air.
Although it's not on my status window, so I can't use mana to enhance it, I can at least throw it with a physically similar form.
- Tatatat!!
“Whoa…? Where are you going!”
I run out onto the parapet.
I plant my feet on the fortress wall and leap high into the sky.
I'm not the type to let a debt go unpaid. Honestly, I don't know if this will work, but I'll give it a shot.
“You bastard!! Dieeee!!!”
Revenge for trifling with my pussy!!
I bend the muscles of my body to their limit, then snap them straight like a bow, throwing the spear.
- SWOOOOSH!!!
The spear, launched like a cannonball in an instant, flies straight toward the Bald Commander who humiliated me.
“Hm?”
The moment he registers the spear,
- THWUMP!!!
My spear pierces straight through the center of his chest.
“Keoheok!!”
‘Fucking bastard, serves you right!!’
It felt like a weight had been lifted from my heart. His chest was blown wide open, and it was so damn satisfying.
He looks up at the spear and at me, still in the air, with a look of disbelief.
Then he falls from his horse and dies.
- Thud!!
And at the same time as he falls,
“Kuek!”
I fall too.
“Ha!! Time to go.”
Just as I was about to move to the waiting room.
[You have achieved the Hidden Ending. The reward will be upgraded.]
“Huh…? What?”
[An SS-rank reward will be given. Please select your reward.]
"Whaaaat....????"
What is happening? SS-rank??
“Hello? I mean, this is great, but… is there no explanation?”
There's an old saying. The Tower is unkind.
No, but still, you should at least give a minimal explanation!!
Why on earth is killing that guy a Hidden Ending?
“Shit, let's get out of here first. To the waiting room!”
- Swoosh!
First, I escape the pursuing soldiers and move to the waiting room.
“Phew… Alright everyone, I'm opening the chat now.”
I've finally arrived in my own little white waiting room, where I can communicate in peace.
- Do-hi~
- Kya, now this is Lee Do-hee.
- SS-rank for real?
- Back-to-back SS-ranks, holy shit lololol
- What's with the hidden ending?
- Stop cheating, you bitchaaaaa
- So why was it a hidden ending?
“I don't know either. I just killed him because I was pissed off, why is that a Hidden Ending?”
- So is this official now?
- Seriously, did no one know this until now?
- It's not that they didn't know, it's that they couldn't do it lololol
- The commanders are fucking strong, for one.
- Was this information ever out there?
This is information I didn't know in my past life either.
Of course, not all ordeals share the exact same content, so there's no way to know if killing the commander in other ordeals will trigger a hidden ending. We'll need more test cases.
But it's a newly discovered possibility for a Hidden Ending.
There have been almost no floors where both a True Ending and a Hidden Ending have been discovered.
“For now, we'll have to wait and see. It could just be because that guy was a bad person, and we don't know what will happen in other ordeals. But attacking the commander will obviously get you killed, so none of you should try to copy this recklessly, okay?”
He was skilled enough that I couldn't guarantee a win in a head-on fight. It was only possible because I ambushed him from a distance while he was defenseless.
- True lol
- 'You can't do it'
- How are you supposed to copy that?
- If you kill him at the start, you're obviously screwed, and killing him at the end... that's hard too.
- But how the hell did she do that last spear throw?
- Seriously, what was that throw? Looked like she was firing a K-9 self-propelled howitzer lolol
- Anyway, that was sick.
“Ahem, shall we look at the reward first?”
Even I can't explain that spear throw.
In any case, I look once more at the brilliant SS-rank reward.
“Kya~ Isn't this why we climb the Tower?”
This time, it's not cards, but clumps of different colored mana floating in front of me.
- It's mana attributes.
- This is important, yeah, yeah.
- Shit, how much of a boost will an SS-rank give?
- Lee Do-hee's cheating again.
“Kekekek, what do you mean, cheating? This is all thanks to you guys~! It's because you all donated so much! And because you all cheered for me so much that this was possible!!”
I'm in a good mood right now.
I got my satisfying revenge, and I even received an SS-rank reward. It's enough to make my womb tremble and bokyung-bokyung.
‘Is bokyung-bokyung the right word?’
Anyway, that area is trembling. This ecstatic feeling, like I'm about to cum right now.
That's why I'm feeling generous enough to give the viewers some credit.
"And luck is a skill too! Hehehe..."
- Fucking bitch is flexing!
- Hah, this is so unfair, I should've killed the commander on the 4th floor too!!
- Besides you, almost no one else can do it anyway.
- Fk
- Kraaaaaak!!
[Ask has donated 50,000 won]
Yeah~ when you were getting forcibly fucked, the viewers were sexually harassing you like crazy~
“Ahem, let's not ruin the mood.”
‘That guy…’
I don't particularly want to know the 'red pill' about my viewers. That's why I never watch my VODs.
- Ahem
- Hey hey hey
- I'm in sage mode now, you know?
- Ah lolol
- Ahem!
- That bastard did it too;;
“Uh... let's just look at the rewards!”
I ignore that guy and start by looking at the first option, the non-attribute one.
[SS-rank Non-Attribute Mana]
Maintains your existing mana.
Mana Amount +100%
“Kya~ This is really good too. 100%... that's insane, really.”
- That's seriously broken, so broken.
- Must feel like you're living in your own world, fk.
- No way, that much mana;;
- Unbelievable.
But this isn't a very good choice. I already have a lot of mana-related traits that multiply it by 778%, so choosing this would only make it 878%.
And I've already decided what I'm going to pick.
“Okay, it's one of two... shall we look at this one first?”
A white mana that emits a sacred light. It's mixed with a little bit of gold.
Yes, this is none other than
[SS-rank Divine Power of the Goddess Hestia]
The efficiency of all healing spells increases by 100%.
This is good too, but not what I'm going to use.
[SS-rank Divine Power of the Goddess Elios]
The efficiency of all buff skills increases by 100%.
“Kya~ Everyone, this is the one.”
This is exactly what I was planning to choose.
If you choose the Priest class, the types of divine power you can select increase, and among them is one that strengthens buffs.
This one has a mix of white and pale pink, which feels like it suits me somehow.
"Now, if I choose this and look at another skill?"
<Haste Lv.1>
Consumes 5 Mana. Increases Agility by 2 for 1 hour.
The buff's efficiency has doubled.
And that's not all.
As I learn new buff skills and raise their levels, I'll grow at an incredible rate.
'Good. I'm catching up.'
To the path I walked in the past.
Stat-wise, I haven't caught up yet, but it'll be soon.
Getting strong quickly isn't what's important. The number of floors in the Tower where you can get rewards is fixed.
That's why it's important to get stronger reliably and more efficiently.
"Next floor. I'm going right away."
I don't stop.
*
And not long after, a post appeared on Lee Do-hee's fan cafe...
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[Title]: I think this is the reason for the Hidden Ending?