Chapter 77

[20th Room]

“How far could I go?”

[Probably up to about the 25th Room . ]

25th Room?

I was overestimating a higher number .

I got pretty used to the space already . I also have learned a lot in the process too .

[The height you will face from the 26th Room and beyond will be different . ]

“Are you talking about the environmental challenges or the power of the monks?”

[The latter . If you do overcome the 26th Room, then you probably will be able to get to the 29th Room . ]

“What’s the problem with the 30th Room now?”

[Environmental challenge . ]

Ugh .

What a filthily hellish difficulty .

I’m getting frustrated all of sudden .

This Hell Difficulty does not know the meaning of enough .

I complained by myself and got up, followed by the monk .

[Are you going to go now?]

“I should . I have a long way to go . ”

[First, I must say that the canned soup that you made was very delicious . ]

That’s good .

I was slightly concerned that it would not suit his tastes .

[Also, I want to say that I enjoyed talking to you . I will look forward to the day when we will meet again . ]

We won’t ever meet again .

I already beat the 15th Room and cleared the Stage .

Even if this round ends, I’ll be moved to the 14th Floor’s waiting room because the clear condition was still met .

I won’t have the chance to challenge the 13th Floor again .

Also, even if I could challenge the stage again and meet this monk again, he wouldn’t remember me .

When the round resets, it will be as if he never met me .

“Well then, I’ll get going . ”

For some reason, I had a sudden loathing to say goodbye and leave .

Did we get close already?

It was worrying .

For some reason, I was anxious . So, I hastily got out of the room and closed the door without even looking back .

[Will you continue?]

Of course .

The monk said the 25th Room or the 30th Room would be my limit . However, I do not agree with his words .

You never know until you try .

It’s not like I got this far because I was overflowing with confidence for victory .

* * *

[24th Room]

[Challenger, you were still not used to the reach of the spear . Abandoning the spear’s advantage and throwing your body to force damage on both sides is not quite a good method . Also, you have the habit of putting your left foot first when you are making that choice . ]

I was about to leave the 24th Room when the monk advised me with his back turned .

That was valuable advice .

They were so important that I felt awkward about just leaving without a word .

For a moment, I contemplated a suitable reply . However, I dismissed the thought .

“Thank you . ”

[Uuhurhurhurhur . There’s no need . ]

[Would you like to continue?]

Of course .

There’s no need to ask anymore .

Regardless of my chances, I intend to go all the way to the 33rd Room .

As I walked toward the 25th Room through the corridor, I organized my thoughts .

Numerous problems still bothered me .

They were important problems . Adding onto their importance, depending on how I resolve them, many things could change .

However, this is not the time for me to hold such troubling thoughts in my head .

All monks I have met so far said that the 25th Room will be tough .

I need to focus on fighting the monk at the 25th Room .

I eradicated the distracting thoughts and focused my senses to prepare myself .

When I became certain that my senses focused and ready, I opened the 25th Room’s wooden door and entered .

[Welcome, Challenger . ]

I entered the room, and the monk greeted me . I looked at the monk thoroughly .

Appearance-wise, he didn’t look very different from the monks earlier .

“Shall we start now?”

[Now? Um . I guess that would be fine . Challenger, it seems you are pretty used to this space . ]

“It’s been the same since the 20th Room, so it is about time I got used to it . ”

[Uuhurhur . Usually, getting used to it so fast is not possible . Also, there were dense ones who needed to get adapt to the room’s environment again after walking through the corridor which does not have the darkness . ]

“How dense does one have to be to do that? Do people like that need to adapt again each time after entering the room?”

[That’s right . Actually, most challengers are like that . ]

Other challengers…

He is probably not talking about the Tutorial Hell Difficulty’s 13th Stage . He is most likely talking about the temple at the west of the continent that worships the God of Duel .

I suddenly feel curious about this place’s story .

What kind of history and memory do these people have? Why do the challengers come? What do they gain?

I was about to open my mouth to satiate my curiosity . However, I changed my mind .

I closed my mouth again and asked myself .

Am I really that curious about them?

What happened to the promise I made to myself to I will focus on the duel against the monk earlier?

Could it be that I am not actually curious about their story, but…

I just want to have a conversation with that monk?

[Um? Are you all right? Challenger, you don’t look so good . ]

It felt like my sanity was crashing down .

I had been thinking that my behaviors lately were strange . I have been acting like that because I was too lonely .

So, I was feeling joy from the act of having a conversation with someone .

Out the blue, I was facing my fragility . It concerned me .

I had been aware that I was not that healthy mentally .

I was also well aware that I was suffering from loneliness .

I knew I like Kiri Kiri, Kim Min-huk, Park Jong-shik and others who are willing to have a conversation with me and smile because of that reason .

However, I didn’t think I would take interest in the enemies and find joy from feeling connections because of my loneliness .

I didn’t think I would show myself so thoughtlessly unguarded toward the enemies .

I wonder how many times I would have died so far if the monks were not so friendly toward me .

As I thought about this, I remembered the incidents of near death . I should have died in those moments .

I felt like I just wanted to scream .

[Challenger, are you all right? Take a seat and calm your breathing . ]

Instead of doing as the monk said, I brought out my backsword .

I won’t be able to subdue this chaos in my mind when I have that monk in front of me, I thought .

“… No . I’ll finish this duel and then either talk or organize my thoughts . ”

[Uuhurhur . It looks like you are confident about winning . Well then, go ahead . ]

[God of Adventure is cheering for you . ]

[God of Slowness is watching you . ]

The reactions from the God of Adventure and God of Slowness came as always .

I knew they would show up .

There was a time when I thought the two gods wanted the same things from me .

However, now, I am aware that they each want the opposite things from me .

The choice I’ll make in the future… I wonder what kind of choices I would make and which god I would please with my choices .

At the moment, I am not sure .

For now, I should focus on the task at hand . I’ll think about that later .

[Soul Steal]

* * *

Pang!

This is insane .

I think I finally understand why the monks I met in the past all said the 25th Room will be hard, repeating the same line over and over .

The monk was calm and had his hands flat together . He then moved the hand and punched the empty air with his knuckles .

After that…

Kwang!

The shockwave of mana erupted out .

I quickly threw my body to the side to dodge the shockwave .

What is this, a palm blast?

Was that a palm blast?

The shockwave collided with the wall with a loud noise .

Pieces of rubbles from the wall poured down .

I even thought that perhaps the wall might collapse and cause the entire room to cave in .

It was incredibly powerful . Getting hit by it directly once probably will send me to my grave .

I think I might die instantly if I get hit the wrong way .

The monk was discharging shockwaves by the bucketload .

Using the Blink to dodge the shockwave is a waste .

I’ll just get exposed to another shot afterwards .

I should use the Blink for attacks and dodge the shockwaves with by moving .

I moved after I saw that the monk was taking a stance again to launch a shockwave .

Let’s make this a battle of speed .

Pang!

I threw my body to the side and dodged the incoming palm blast .

Like that, I hastened my speed and ran around the monk in a circle .

With vision being useless, the monk and I had to rely on the detection through the mana in this space .

Let’s see if the monk’s detection skill can follow my speed .

As my speed increased, the Wind Spirit’s Blessing Skill’s acceleration effect was applied .

Now, it became harder for me to run around in circle inside this small room because of my increased velocity .

Pang!

Again, the palm blast was launched .

It seemed that he shot it while predicting my trajectory . However, the shockwave only passed by my back .

I squatted then jumped up .

I landed on the wall perpendicularly, my feet on the wall .

With the momentum I had with my speed earlier, I can stay on the wall in this stance for a moment .

I focused on my leg and back .

I need to squeeze out all of my mana and muscular strength .

Like a spring expanding after compression, I kicked the wall and launched myself toward the monk like an arrow .

The monk was not able to follow my speed completely . However, he did respond by raising his arms to guard against the direction I was flying towards him .

Kwuang!

The backsword I swung and the monk’s arm collided .

It was a collision of mana, generating a shockwave .

My body was being pushed back by the shockwave .

Damn it .

As soon as I landed, I raised the backsword again and aimed it at the monk .

I knew that the monks did not attack in a situation like this .

However, that did not mean I could just take it easy and remain defenseless either .

I have to always stay focused and stay sharp .

I had survived that way, and I could survive this only if I did .

Again, I ran around the monk in circle and threw my body towards a wall .

I kicked the wall and charged at the monk just like the last time .

The monk tried to stop my attack using the same stance .

Perhaps because this was the second time I tried this, it seemed the monk’s stance looked a little more stable .

[Battle Focus]

Because I had to raise mana as a replacement for my vision, I cannot maintain the Battle Focus for long .

I have to make this attack count .

I was inside a world that was so slow that it felt like the time actually stopped . I was flying toward the monk very gradually, slowly at a snail's pace .

Meanwhile, I could check my stance .

I was flying though the air like an arrow .

It was obvious that my sword swing stance was ruined .

Maintaining the Battle Focus, I made a miniscule adjustment to my stance before I collided with the monk .

At the moment the sword and the monk’s arm collided, I focused on the moment when the shockwave was generated .

It was about grasping a split-second moment .

Using the Battle Focus, I forcibly raised my focus to the extreme . With this, it is possible to grasp that single moment .

Kwuaang!

With the sword and the monk’s arm as the center, I saw that the shockwave was being generated . I immediately used the skill .

[Blink]

I used it twice in a row and got to the monk’s back .

Blink Skill was not just a quick movement skill .

One special attribute of this skill was that all momentum was extinguished once the movement was complete .

Therefore, the shock from the collision became nullified with the Blink’s special attribute, and I was currently holding the position behind the monk . I can attack the monk’s back without any hindrance .

On the other hand, the monk is getting the shock from the collision up front .

I thrust the sword into the monk as deeply as possible, and the strike tore the monk’s back skin .

I was intending to pierce through the monk if possible . However, all it did was tear his skin .

Because of the shock from the front and his attempt to quickly turn his body to dodge the stabbing attack from the back, the monk lost balance .

He was in middle of the collision, yet he turned his body after detecting my movement to the back and the attack .

Just what kind of a fiend is he?

The monk stumped on the floor hard, generated loud noise, and flew away before stopping only after running into a wall .

Surprisingly, the monk got up as if that was nothing .

He was bleeding on his back from the tears in his skin, but other than that, he was the same as he was when I first met him when entered the 25th Room .

It seemed the monk was examining his body . He was standing still for a moment . The monk said,

[Is it poison?]

“That’s right . It’s poison . If you leave it be, you could die in five minutes . Ah, I guess it may not be fatal if it is you . Still, you won’t be able to continue fighting regardless . ”

[Uuhurhurhur . It is interesting . This is my first time experiencing a duel like this . I will lose if I don’t defeat you within the time limit . However, if I rush around without making any progress, the poison will spread faster . ]

“That’s right . ”

[Uuhurhurhur . This is quite enjoyable . ]

“All other monks said the same . ”

The monk was laughing about it once again . Watching the monk, I reminisced .

The monk who I met at the 20th Room said the monk at the 25th Room will be a great challenge . He also said that the 30th Room will be the next challenge if I got past the 25th Room .

If I can hold out just for five minutes, it looks like I won’t have problems until the 29th Room at least .

[Well then! Since we don’t have time, let’s get started right away! Looks like I should be the one to attack now, uuhurhurhur!]

While laughing with deafeningly loud voice that filled the room, the monk was charging at me . Reactively, I corrected my stance .