Chapter 52

[Lee Ho-jae, Third Floor: … I wonder why there is no response . Hey you bastards . You are all going to die at this rate, don’t you get it?]

‘I bet they died like that .

Why won’t they listen?

Honestly, I knew those guys were going to die . ’

I brought out a chocolate bar from the inventory . I held it in my mouth and read the Community .

This posting was from eight years ago .

‘I feel like an archeologist who is excavating ancient ruins . ’

I started reading the Community just to pass the time .

The life in the waiting room at Hell Difficulty was too boring because I was always alone .

I felt I would rather be out in the stage . I wished the waiting would come to end sooner .

I learned I should work on passive skills or other skills . However, honestly, I didn’t want to do it .

Moreover, skill levels simply refused to rise .

It rose even slower in the waiting room .

Honestly, I didn’t want to work on passive skills grinding even if they increased faster than other skills .

I would have done it reluctantly if I was supposed to do it no matter what .

However, now that I gave up on increasing skill levels, I suddenly had nothing to do .

I realized why mister didn’t force me to do skill grinding .

He probably knew that there was nothing to do in the waiting room besides skill grinding .

I read all postings and comments on the Community .

I had read all new posts as they came up, so there was nothing left to do .

In the end, unable to beat the boredom, I looked for old posts .

I managed to get a rough idea about the history of the Korean server just from checking out old posts in the Community board .

Before I entered the Tutorial, I watched a documentary about it, so I had a rough idea about what the Tutorial was about . However, reading the past conversations by the actual past participants of the Tutorial was fun in a different way .

Like that, I found texts from the past and slowly worked my way back . Before long, I was able to find writings from the days when the Tutorial was first created .

As I thought, mister was active since the start of the Tutorial .

At first, people treated him as a liar . However, he soon became the strongest among the rankers, the people who represented the Tutorial .

Mister’s work continued even after that . Just reading about it was incredibly interesting .

Actually, I knew about him even before I entered the Tutorial .

It was not surprising because he was very famous .

He was the challenger at the highest floor in the Hell Difficulty . He was the only survivor in the Hell Difficulty in Korea .

As soon as his existence was made known, the media never stopped yapping about him .

The media found his childhood friends and interviewed them . The media also analyzed his school records .

The media pasted his professional gamer experiences on the front and again yapped away that the knowledge on the games he played might help clearing the Hell Difficulty .

As an actual challenger of the Hell Difficulty, I could say that they were not helping at all .

Documentary about him poured out in bucket loads . Also, there were all sorts of petty gossips about his personal life from the past .

However, I actually got to know about him before all those .

One time, my little sibling was watching television . I glanced at it, and I noticed a handsome face .

I asked who that was . My big brother said he was a professional gamer .

Back then, I thought he was pretty good looking for a professional gamer . I wondered why he was doing professional gaming instead of being an actor . I glanced over the face as I thought those .

He was a man I noticed a few times on the television like that . Now, that man was like my Daddy Long Legs . It felt strange just thinking about it .

He really was like Daddy Long Legs .

When I entered the Hell Difficulty by a mistake and was confused and scared, he gave me hope and faith .

The hope I had back then turned mostly into pain and screams now .

However, I was still carrying the hope for survival .

He became my support . He became my sponsor .

Without him, let alone getting all the way to this floor, I would have had difficulty just surviving in the First Floor .

My life in the Tutorial was harsh and painful . I was suffering a lot . Like in here continued like that . However, I was able to endure my life in here thanks to him .

I suddenly thought perhaps I want to be a similar existence to him .

He was my Daddy Long Leg . In that case, perhaps I was a prince riding on a white horse?

A prince who is going on a thousand mile journey through hardship and danger to save a princess trapped in a witch’s castle…

I thought that I switched the positions somehow .

Still, that made me laugh in some way . .

My eyes narrowed from smiling . A smile formed on my lips as well .

Nobody was watching, but I was embarrassed .

‘What am I thinking?

Well, actually…

Why not?

“Puhup . I think I must have gone insane . Aaaaaak . ”

I screamed by myself and rolled around on the bed .

[Park Jung-ah, 90th Floor: Are you all ready?]

I felt so light . I was flying . However, a heavy weight came crashing down on me .

[Lee Yeon-hye, Sixth Floor: Yes . What is it?]

[Park Jung-ah, 90th Floor: Big Bro told me to check up on you . He went up to the 61st Floor . ]

‘Now she called him Big Bro . Huh!

How ridiculous . ’

I looked all of the chats and posts in the Community from the start of the very first round but I have never saw any record of her ever calling him by that .

Not even once .

Usually, they called each other as commander, captain, or etc . Later, they addressed each other casually .

Sometimes, they went beyond and even cursed at each other .

‘So why is she doing that now?’

I could sense the weariness clearly .

At first, I wondered why she was so rude to me . I wondered if she was always like that to everyone .

However, I knew the reason very well .

Besides this, there was one other thing that felt off .

[Lee Yeon-hye, Sixth Floor: Why did he go to the 61st Foor?]

[Park Jung-ah, 90th Floor: He went there to earn points . He used quite a bit this time, so…]

‘It looks like he is not looking for a way to clear the floor . I guess I don’t need to talk to her for long then .

I just don’t like every word coming from her . ’

I haphazardly responded to her and ended the conversation .

[Park Jung-ah, 90th Floor: Did you memorize what you need to tell the manager?]

‘Hey, seriously…’

[Lee Yeon-hye, Sixth Floor: Yes . ]

‘I don’t want to talk to you any longer .

Now you are treating me like a kid .

What . Are you trying to tell me that a kid should not butt in? Is it something like that?’

[Round 95 is starting . ]

[Lee Yeon-hye, Sixth Floor: Well then, I’ll be heading to the stage now . ]

I gave a simple good bye and then stepped on to the portal .

Another message came from her . However, I ignored it and turned off the messenger .

It was the time for me to get rid of unncessary thoughts and focus on clearing the stage .

[Welcome to the Sixth Floor’s stage . ]

As soon as I entered the bonfire room, I opened the inventory and checked the items to use .

After that, I checked my skill list .

As the last thing, I verified the information about the stage and the strategy for clearing it .

Mister never told me every fine details about each trials . He didn’t this time as well .

Other than the information about growth, skill utilization and development, he was very stingy about information on the trials .

He only told me about the kind that would definitely get me killed if I walked past it without knowing about it .

For the First and the Second Floors, he told me everything in fine detail, all patterns and strategies . However, he said it was time for me to learn to gather information myself and utilize them on my own .

He was right .

Honestly, I wish he just told me everything . Still…

The core of the Sixth Stage’s trial was the 16 priests .

They pumped out skeleton soldiers as if they were making canned foods from a factory .

All skeleton soldiers appearing on the stage were going to be generated by the priests . I had to do something before they make too many of the skeleton soldiers for me to handle .

The description said I could just hold out until the holy knights came . However, that was a trap .

If I just held out and waited, I could never be able to handle the ever growing number of skeleton soldiers, which was growing like crazy .

I ran a simulation of my plan in my brain .

‘All right . Let’s try it . ’

[Would you like to challenge the trial?]

Through the portal next to the bonfire, I teleported to the Stage .

[The Sixth Floor’s trial is starting . ]

Explanation: It already has been over 50 years since the cursed priests of the Bahare Sect had been pursued by the Pantheon . As you already know, The Bahare Sect is an evil organization that seeks to reap more death by reviving the dead people and turning their souls into evil spirits .

Including Khezas, their leader, there are 16 priests . They managed to lose the Pantheon’s pursuit and successfully arrive at the heart of the white mountain range .

The place is also called the land of the god, a place where a god resided in the past .

The Bahare Sect priests are trying to cover the world in nightmare using the remains of holy artifacts .

Brave warriors, stop them until the holy knights of the Pantheon arrives . You are our only hope .

[Condition of success . ]

1 . Stop the death army from entering the white mountain range until the holy knights arrive .

2 . Destroy the death army and 16 priests .

I had seen the message many times already . I just turned it off and opened the inventory .

The most critical thing in this battle was the speed .

I brought out high level magic stone and concentrated mana potion .

I put some of the concentrated mana potion on my hand and drew a magic circle with my hand on the floor .

I placed the magic stone on the center of the magic circle and recited the activation word .

“Panto . ”

As soon as those words left my mouth, I directed my gaze away from the magic circle that was generating steady light . I charged forward .

Before long, the acceleration from the wind spirit’s blessing was activated .

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 .

‘I guess this place will do . ’

While I was running, I opened the inventory and brought out an alarm trap . I tossed it to the ground .

I really started to accelerate .

“Sylphleah . ”

This spirit magic had the low altitude flight ability . A shouted out the activation word, and my body floated up in the air .

I still had far to go .

Instead of losing the stamina from running, it was going to be more comfortable to use a bit of mana to get there .

Thanks to the magic’s effects, I was going to be able to maintain current speed . Also, the corridor was going to be a straight path for a while, so I had no need to worry about colliding with anything .

Even while I was carrying myself through the flight magic, occasionally, I brought out magic traps from the inventory and tossed them on the corridor .

Like that, I flew through the corridor for a while, and the straight path came to an end .

There were two pathways, left and right .

I canceled the flight magic . This time, I used the detection magic .

‘Good, the skeleton soldiers are not nearby yet . ’

I drew a magic circle in middle of the fork .

It was an explosive magic circle .

It was like an explosive mine .

‘Ordinary skeleton soldiers on the front probably won’t notice this explosive magic circle . They will just step on it and activate it . ’

Considering the huge number of skeleton soldiers, this was not going to do much damage to the overall force . However, I was going to be able to tell their location based on the explosion sound .

I completed the magic circle and entered the left pathway .

There were going to be 13 more forks ahead . I learned the pathways prior to this .

Left, left, left, right, left, right, left, left, left, right, left, right, right, right .

I went through a lot just to figure that out .

I walked quietly .

From the distance, I could hear the steps of the skeleton soldiers .

To confirm it again, I used the detection skill . As I thought, I could detect many skeleton soldiers .

“Amataru Deta Spilkeon . ”

I recited the spell, and the wind curtain spirit appeared .

It was a useful spirit that possessed both flight and invisibility abilities .

It looked like a curtain flapping in the air .

It was said that the spirit had the head somewhere in the body . However, no matter how I looked at it, I could not see anything that resembled a head .

“Let’s stick to the ceiling and move . ”

The wind spirit wrapped my body and rose up to the ceiling .

The corridor’s ceiling was very low . If I was to avoid colliding with the skeleton soldiers, I had to stick close to the ceiling and fly through .

I didn’t have to worry about being found out .

Considering the wind curtain spirit’s invisibility effect and my stealth skill’s level, there was no way I was going to be detected by the skeleton soldiers .

‘The skeleton commanders probably will look up the ceiling once in a while, but that would be it .

The seven death knights are the only ones that might be able to detect me . Also, as long as I follow the path I have, I won’t run into the death knights . ”

* * *

Like that, sticking close to the ceiling, I flew for a while . I was able to reach a gigantic cave .

In the cave, there were the 16 priests . They were making skeleton soldiers by several dozens at a time .

I hid behind a pillar and unsummoned the wind curtain spirit .

It would have been bad if it got hit blind by a magic and destroyed .

‘I don’t have very long for attacking those priests . They will stop the summoning and attack me as soon as they notice me . Even if I manage to stop their attacks, the death knights will be summoned to this place immediately afterwards . I cannot handle them all at once . ’

I had the edge on the pre-emptive strike . With that in mind, I had about six seconds . That was all .

‘I shouldn’t attack Khezas, their leader . That one turns into a bizarre looking squid when attacked . The magic attacks it shoots out in that form is incredibly deadly . Also, the production rate of the skeleton soldiers will increase significantly .

I need to keep it from using its power . Since the enemies’ boss is saving its strength at the moment, I should be courteous and let it be . ’

I quietly picked up the bow I had on my back . I placed an arrow on it and drew the string .

“Light . ”

The arrow was launched as I said the activation word . The arrow struck right on a priest’s neck and exploded immediately .

For now, one of them died at an instant .

The explosion caused a powerful flash of light .

‘I am not sure about skeleton soldiers that do not have eyes . However, the priests appear to be human . They probably have no choice but to close their eyes for a moment . ’

It would have been nice if they got blinded temporarily . However, these guys were not that shabby .

While the priests were stunned from the flash, I shot another arrow and killed another priest .

[Kuuuuaaaaa! Come! Knights of death!]

‘They are summoning the death knights sooner than I expected . ’

I dodged the fire magic attack that was coming at me while I placed another arrow on the bow .

[Maiden who are blessed by the spirits! Maiden who had been swindled by the false gods! You shall experience death!]

I shot the arrow as I activated the battle focus skill .

The world was slowing down . I calmly organized the situation .

The arrow was shot toward the third priest . Judging from the path, it was going to hit right on .

I killed total of three priests .

It was not bad .

As for my side…

I saw two fire magic attacks coming at me .

There was a death knight that came close to where I was .

The priests were reciting curse spells .

Considering their experience, I figured their spells were almost complete .

‘This is the limit . ’

“Phanto Raka!”

Immediately after I yelled out the activation words, I was standing at the entrance of the Sixth Floor’s Stage . To be precise, I was standing on top of the magic circle I drew there .

This time, I had some results .

I killed three priests . The ten other priests were all busy with casting attack and curse spells so they stopped the summoning magic .

It was going to take quite some time before they could restart the summoning magic for the skeleton soldiers .

“Huuuuaaaa . ”

I sounded like wind was coming out of me . I plummeted to the ground .

I used too many magic spells in a too short of a time frame .

Not to mention they were all pretty high level magic spells .

I was at my limits on mana, mental strength, and stamina . I was barely holding on .

There was only one course of action, to use potions to replenish my mana and stamina .

I brought out mana potion as I listened to the explosion sound of the explosive trap echoing from a far distance .