Chapter 74

Tutorial 13th Floor (2)

Going past the bonfire room, I entered the stage where long message opened in front of my eyes as soon as I entered .

[The 13th Floor’s trial will start . ]

Explanation: At the west of the Akan Continent, at a nameless volcanic island in middle of the ocean, there is a hidden temple of the monks who worship the God of Duel .

This temple is a secret place where monks trained to perfect their arts since ancient times .

Challenger, the one who belittles their life long dreams and talents and proclaims yourself as the true master of combat, achieve victory against the monks and prove your words .

[Clear condition]

Achieve victory from at least 15 rooms .

It looks like the 13th Floor is not that complicated .

The theme seemed to revolve around a main character of the story pissing the hell out of the monks and fighting the duels against the monks to prove his words .

The setting about the main character belittling the monks could be the result of the God of Duel’s negative impression about me .

It also means the challengers who had been receiving positive responses from the God of Duel would receive a large welcome here .

I think that’s very plausible .

This is the first time for the theme of the Stage to have a story related to a god from the Tutorial .

From this Stage, I think I might be able to get some information about the gods of the Tutorial .

In this Stage, I need to achieve victories from at least 15 rooms .

I wonder how many rooms there are in total .

Let’s go find out .

I looked around dark stone room .

There was nothing .

It was a dark space . There wasn’t even a single candle light .

Silence .

It feels strange to not even hear the slight whistle of wind .

My senses already had surpassed that of human being . Still, I don’t hear anything .

Does this room have sound proofing?

Towards the front, I can only see a small wooden door .

Besides that door, there was nothing here; it was as if the room was a prison cell .

The door had ‘0’ written on it .

Does it mean it is the room number 0?

I opened the door and got out of the room number 0 .

Like the stone room, a dark corridor continued .

I walked for about five minutes, until I reached a wooden door at the end of the corridor .

The door had the number ‘1’ written on it .

It is the room number 1 .

The setup’s theme seemed to be the stone room and corridor repeated with the difficulty of the trial increasing with the number .

I opened the room number 1’s door and entered it . A monk who was sitting in meditating position greeted me .

As if it was supposed to be obvious, the room was dark without a single candle light . However, the monk glared into my eyes .

[So, it is you, the arrogant one that the temple master spoke of . ]

The monk got up as he said those words to me .

His hospitality to the guest is terrible .

I brought out a small lantern from the inventory and held it on my hand .

Although I had the effects from the night vision and eye light skills enabling me to maintain vision inside darkness, this was our first meeting . I found the lack of proper lighting to be unacceptable .

I slowly observed the monk’s appearance .

He was about two meters in height .

He was a hardened muscular man . He did not appear to be armed .

His clothes reminded me about monks from Tibet .

He didn’t have any armors either .

One thing unique about him was that his fangs were reaching below his chin .

He is not human .

He had protruding facial features and red skin .

He looked like a demon from Japanese legends .

“I don’t know who the arrogant one is . Anyway, don’t you need weapons or armors?”

[As I thought, you are arrogant . Just what are you asking to a monk who is seeking the ultimate height in art of fighting . Relying on such petty tools will only get in the way of the training . They will not help in true growth . ]

This one sure likes to spew out nonsense .

I can understand the idea of not using weapons for a while for the sake of development .

However, weapons and armors should never be regarded petty tools .

Weapons were created and improved upon by humans to emerge victorious in wars and battles . They were the pinnacle of technology .

In this Tutorial, there were many things besides weapons made by humans . However, their purposes were all same .

Weapons were developed to attack and kill opponents .

How is anyone supposed to challenge the ultimate height in the art of fighting by excluding such weapons?

The ultimate height in the art of fighting; the meaning of the words is clear .

In the end, the only purpose of conflict is victory .

Achieving victory, one after the other… The destiny of certain victory could be said as the ultimate goal of any art of fighting .

[You are unenlightened . Victory is just one of the effects of the art . ]

He is really stuck up . I don’t think we can communicate .

Victory is everything .

Developing one’s fighting ability is just a method towardsvictory .

Do you not understand why the name of the god that the monks, the ones who wishes to complete their art of fighting worship, is called the God of Duel?

[… How unpleasant . I won’t listen to your ridiculous words no more . Wield the weapon that you think is so great . I shall start the test . ]

“Why don’t you just tell me the content of the test?”

I put the lantern back inside the inventory as I spoke .

[You just need to either defeat or kill me and go to the next room . ]

That’s simple .

I had a knife on my waist . I threw the knife toward the monk’s face .

I quickly threw it . Because the knife was thrown so suddenly, the monk was not able to respond properly .

He managed to quickly swing his arm and sweep away the knife . However, the timing was too late .

The center of his weight was moving toward his back .

His back was further behind his knees . His shoulder was even further back .

As soon as I threw the knife, I charged forward and brought out the spear from the inventory .

Because of the spear’s length, the monk quickly came within the striking distance .

As soon as the monk came inside the striking distance, I succinctly stabbed him with the spear .

The spear tip precisely pierced the monk’s heart .

That was the end .

The monk bled from the hole in his chest and perished .

Monk, it looks like you won’t be able to obtain things like the ultimate height in art of fighting .

I know this is the first room, but I am a little disappointed .

Hoping the second room would be able to satisfy me better, I opened the door and left the room number 1 .

* * *

At the next room, and at the one after that, I was able to defeat monks with ease .

They were not able to catch up to my speed, so the results were obvious outcomes .

Finally, when I arrived at the fifth room, I was able to meet a monk that could somewhat catch up to my speed .

However, it was not enough to endanger my life .

Suuuguk…

Bleeding ferociously from his neck, the monk quickly fell back .

Was the cut a little shallow?

No, it wasn’t .

I thrusted my spear after considering the monk’s movement .

Hm… If I didn’t make a mistake, then…

Let’s just go and check .

I approached the monk again and stabbed him .

This time, the tip of the spear definitely pierced the monk’s neck .

I tried pressing hard on the monk’s body that collapsed on the floor .

As I thought, the skin is tough .

Actually, I don’t think calling it tough describes it well enough .

The skin is solid .

They’re like iron plates .

Not just the skin, but the muscles underneath the skin and the bones were not like organic bodies . They felt like sheets of iron .

It was not like his body was really made of metallic parts, rather his body was simply as hard as metals .

Even his intestines had a surprising sturdiness .

It didn’t seem like his body was made this way through training .

He was probably born with such a body .

This is intriguing .

I had been killing each of them with a single blow wrapped in mana by striking them at the critical points . Because of this, I had not noticed until now .

It is a great advantage to be born with such a sturdy body .

It can be overcome with skills, abilities and magic .

However, that’s only when I am at a greater level than the opponent .

Against an opponent with similar levels in combat abilities, the one with superior basic stats will always win .

If two boxers of same skill levels fought, but one was a heavy weight and the other was a panther weight, it was obvious who would be the victor .

These bastards are born with such ridiculous bodies, yet they are ignoring the effectiveness of weapons as they are talking about completing their art?

It was completely illogical .

[God of Duel is doing a fake cough . ]

It looks like that god is agreeing to some extent .

I sat there and observed the monk’s corpse .

I don’t know what the name of their kind is, but I should learn about their special characteristics .

As I pass each room, the monks’ skill level increase noticeably .

The minimum clear condition is achieving victory from 15 rooms .

Around 15th room, a monk who is my equal in combat prowess might appear .

These are opponents I should be cautious against . I should collect more information to ensure my victory .

I performed an autopsy in detail and observed to determine if they had critical points on locations different from human’s body or it they had different joint structures .

[God of Duel finds this unpleasant . ]

[God of Slowness is sending wrath to someone . ]

Even without the message telling me who it is, I think I know who the God of Slowness is angry at .

I don’t care if you find it unpleasant or not . Just don’t get in the way of someone’s work .

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: Are you busy?]

[Lee Ho-jae, 13th Floor: I was until a moment ago . ]

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: When did you get to the 13th Floor? Do you have a moment to talk?]

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: Yes . What’s up?]

Lately, Kim Min-hyuk really had no time, not even to catch a breath . So, he didn’t have the time to have a proper conversation .

The last time we had a long conversation was when we met during the day of the great harmony .

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: I found out some rough details about the mystery event . ]

Oh… Already?

[Lee Ho-jae, 13th Floor: I also found out a little about the event . ]

I was talking about the information I got from Kiri Kiri .

I gave him the clues, the foreigner and second .

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: Why are the clues so short? You… You got all other information first and used your leftover allowances to get them, didn’t you?]

Tsk . This is why I hate bastards who are quick to notice things .

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: Still, they are new clues . I’ll keep finding more about the event . Ah, I posted what I found about the event on the community, so check there . ]

You already released it?

I think it might have been better if you released it after gathering more information .

I brought out a towel from the inventory and haphazardly wiped off the blood from my hands and arms . I left the fifth room .

I sat the corridor between the room number 5 and 6 and read the community forum while quenching my hunger .

First, I brought out a wide heat stone and a mug .

I poured milk into the mug and spread chocolate powder inside .

When I was in elementary school, they gave us milk in which Iwould put chocolate powder in it and drank it . I am not sure if it would taste similar .

I placed the mug on the heat stone and warmed up the milk .

Finally, I brought out a pack of dry bread cookies .

Until recently, I was fine with eating just meat jerkies . However, perhaps because of the memories from the 12th Floor, I want to eat something tasty .

Of course, it was not like I could recreate the delicious meals that Idy made .

To make something like that, I’ll need skills related to cooking in addition to the ingredients .

Still, I don’t want to keep on eating tasteless nutrients either .

In the end, this was what I came up with .

I decided to cook as much as I can within the bounds of being able to cook successfully .

I am not sure if I could call what I am doing right now as cooking, but…

I can at least pour the chocolate powder into milk and heat it on the heat stone .

Next time, when I summon Idy, I should really learn how to cook from her .

I sipped on the milk as I thought that .

It is not as sweet as I wanted it to be, but it is all right .

I tore opened the bag of dried bread cookies and opened thecommunity .

[Notification . This is the information regarding the new comprehensive event, the ‘competition . ’]

It seemed the name of the event was competition .

The notification contained all the information obtained by the Order, neatly organized .

It will be held before the Round Five ends .

All challengers can enter the competition .

It is possible to not enter the event .

It is possible to forfeit during the event .

There is a prize for the winner of the competition .

The reward is estimated to be some kind of a skill .

We have not yet obtained any information about the competition’s rules .

The information were the ones that were obtained by the members of the Order by asking the Managers .

Because of the problem with the allowances in information, the information had constraints or were summarized .

Still, they collected almost all of the information they needed .

They just need to find the rules about the competition .

It should be possible to obtain information about the rules before this round ends .

There are quite a few members left who should be able to clear their stages before the round ends, so…

The community was busy with people talking about the competition .

Many were worried . However, because it was possible to not attend or forfeit, and because they believed the Order of Vigilance will handle things no matter what happens, there were quite a number of positive responses .

The mood was similar to the responses before the very first day of the great harmony .

Everyone was excited like children on the eve of a picnic .

It was at that moment that a new piece of information came up at the community .

It was not from a member of the Order . It was from some other challenger .

[Lee Chun-hye: Regarding the competition’s rule, I’ve heard that it will be in the format of individual or team battles . I just heard it from a Manager . ]

The community lit up in flames again .

No, it was already up in flames, but now it was burning with even greater intensity .

Soon, people’s interest turned to the prize of the competition before the topic shifted to people’s prediction on who would be the winner .

Of course, the name that attracted the most attention from otherswas mine .

Other rankers of the Hard Difficulty were mentioned often as well .

Even though I was at the Hell Difficulty, since I was only at the 12th Floor, there were quite a lot of people who theorized that I would be weaker than the players at higher floors of the Hard Difficulty .

There were people fighting over who was right . Watching them made my head complicated .

Seriously, why are they fighting like that? Some were praising me, and some were even severely dissing me in the process .

In the end, these people have nothing to do with me, yet they are going at it .

Ugh .

Of course I will win the competition .