Chapter 381: 381

Side Story: Chapter 1 – Iddy (1)

Tutorial 6th floor

[Round 11, Day 4. 6:22]

[The 6th floor gate begins.]

Description: It has already been 50 years since the cursed priests of the Bahar Church were marked by the continent and pursued to gain merit. As you know, the Bahar Church is a society that seeks to resurrect the dead, turn their souls into demons, and harvest more lives.

Their leader, Quezas, and 16 priests succeeded in escaping the pursuit of the Knights Order and reached the heart of the White Mountains.

The heart of the White Mountain range is also called the New Heaven and Earth, the place where the gods came in the past.

The cursed social priests are trying to cover the continent with nightmares using the fragments of divinity remaining in New Heaven and Earth.

Warriors, you are the only ones who can stop them until the Knights arrive here.

[Success conditions]

Stop the Death Army from advancing outside the White Mountains until the arrival of the Knights Order.

Destroy the Death Army and defeat 16 priests.

[Current party member (1/5)]

Lee Ho-jae

“Have a great death!”

Shouted the skeleton knight.

It had a daunting appearance, unlike skeleton soldiers, befitting the grand dialogue.

A larger body, somehow glossy skeleton bones, and a large, heavy sword.

At first, I was excited and thought that he was the final boss on the 6th floor.

It had high intelligence and I could even have a conversation with it, so it was not unreasonable for me to be mistaken.

[Kim Min-hyuk, 14th floor: Hey, are you listening to me?]

[Lee Ho-jae, 6th floor: Uh-huh.]

“Uwooo!”

The skeleton knight shouted and swung his heavy sword.

I answered Kim Min-hyuk’s message roughly, and deflected the skeleton knight’s sword with a shield.

Perhaps because the large sword was too heavy for a skeleton knight without muscles to swing, the skeleton knight was swayed by the weight of the sword.

With my shield at the forefront, I bashed into the skull knight.

The skeleton knight fell back and rolled around.

The sound of bone bumping against the stone floor sounded ugly.

It was unbelievable that just a few months ago, everytime a skeleton knight attacked me, I was brought to the edge of the underworld.

[Lee Ho-jae, 6th floor: What’s going on?]

[Kim Min-hyuk, 14th floor: The next day of dialogue agreement (*) has been announced.]

Is it another day of dialogue agreement?

It is the second day of conversation since being trapped on the 6th floor.

It is already the third day of the dialogue agreement.

[Lee Ho-jae, 6th floor: It will be noisy again.]

I sent a message again, kicking the leg joints of the skeleton knight trying to raise its body.

The skeleton knight once again rolled on the floor.

[Kim Min-hyuk, 14th floor: It’s already raging. It’s been a few days since the dialogue agreement day was announced. Soon, information will begin to circulate to the community.]

Kim Min-hyuk regularly informed me of important information that had not spread to the community.

Since I was trapped on the 6th floor for 8 months, I couldn’t gain any information except from Kim Min-hyuk and the community.

I ended the conversation after hearing some more news from Kim Min-hyuk.

“Kaaak! Come to me! Power of death!”

The skeleton knight who was being beaten by me shouted wildly.

Then the heavy sword that the skeleton knight was holding began to turn dark.

It looked pretty grand, but in fact it was just a signal to call the skeleton soldiers.

“Warrior! Death be upon you! I, Asde, the death knight will give you rest…!”

Kuak!

I rushed to the shouting skeleton knight and swung my shield toward its head.

Although it was a soft wooden shield, it became a more powerful weapon than a decent blunt weapon when it was infused with magical power.

When its head, its only weakness, was smashed, the skeleton knight became powder and began to disappear.

I picked up the heavy sword dropped by the skeleton knight.

I needed this.

[Kyaaaak~!]

I heard the sound of skeleton soldiers running after being called.

Two crossroads were seen behind the remains of the skeleton knight.

That crossroad was a problem.

The primary goal of the sixth floor is defense.

Until the arrival of the Knights, it is to stop the skeleton soldiers from exiting this cave.

However, no matter how much I waited and waited, the Knights did not come.

It was 26 days.

That was my record for how long I endured against the skeleton soldiers.

From then on, I couldn’t really stop the skeleton soldiers.

As if being pushed by a wave, I was pushed by the quantity and weight of the skeleton soldiers and was sent to the exit.

I had to revise the plan.

Instead of waiting for the Knights, I decided to first target the final goal of the mission, the 16 Priests.

It was the crossroads that became a problem here.

When you enter one of the forked roads, skeleton soldiers protruding from the other road will run to the exit.

I couldn’t go to the heart of the cave, blocking both paths, unless I was using an alter ego to block both paths.

And the solution I found was this skeleton knight’s sword.

When a skeleton knight is rushing to the defensive, he calls the skeleton soldiers around him.

The effect remains on the sword even after the skeleton knight dies.

In other words, as long as you are holding the skeleton knight’s heavy sword, all skeleton soldiers in the vicinity will run towards you, not the exit.

[Ahhhhhh!]

[Kyaaaa-!]

The voices of the skeleton soldiers are now close enough to be heard clearly.

The sharp footsteps knocking on the stone floor resonate like a quick drum.

Because of the reverberation of the floor, the hard cave floor rocked like I was on a bed.

Now, here comes the next problem.

There is the skeleton knight’s heavy sword with a wide-area aggro effect, so the problem of the skeleton soldiers ignoring me and running to the exit disappeared.

However, a new issue has arisen that requires me to face the skeleton soldiers flocking from all directions.

Suddenly, the appearance of skeleton soldiers running toward me came into view.

I have seen the skeleton soldiers many, many, many, many times, but every time I see them, I get sick.

“How many days will it take this time?”

At first, I was really excited about this fight, but now I’m really tired of it.

The battle that continued without a break was really hard work.

“Ahhhhhh!”

“Keaaahhh!”

Skeleton soldiers who had come around the corner rushed in screaming.

Hundreds and thousands of skeletons screamed at once.

In order not to be overwhelmed, I also responded to them.

“Aaaaahhh! Don’t open your mouths because they smell rotten! You sons of bitches!”

[Soul Cry]

Not long ago, the skeleton soldiers in the line became stiff for an instant as they shouted along with their new soul cry skill.

I didn’t miss that gap and jumped towards the skeleton soldiers.

A heavy sword struck, and the remains of the smashed bones scattered frantically.

[The God of Adventure is watching you.]

* * *

[Round 11th, Day 19. 2:02.]

I’m dying

Really.

After fighting for more than 15 days, I was able to reach the end of the stage on the 6th floor.

The final goal of the 6th floor stage is the 16 priests, right in front of the common where they live. Now, a little further, I could face them.

The result was just around the corner, but I had to stop.

My feet couldn’t step forward.

I forced my creaky legs to move. Leaning against the wall, I took the jerky out of my inventory and put it in my mouth.

It wasn’t the usual jerky.

Like the Senzu Beans in Dragon Ball, it was a jerky that made the body full and healthy even if you ate a little bit.

It was very expensive, but it was worth it.

When I chewed the salty jerky, saliva gathered in my mouth little by little.

As soon as I felt the moisture in my mouth, which had been as dry as a rice field cracked by drought, I spit out in surprise.

I spit out the jerky along with it.

I smelled rotten corpses in my mouth.

It was a natural result.

I’ve been fighting skeletons without time to rinse my mouth, let alone wash my body.

There must have been a lot of dirt in my mouth.

In fact, the saliva I spit out was black like filthy water.

I rinsed my mouth with water, took out a new jerky and put it in my mouth.

Fortunately, there was no sign of skeleton soldiers approaching.

Perhaps the priests have noticed my approach.

Rather than sending out the skeleton soldiers, it was clear that they were gathering them.

It was the limit.

It is not the first time I have been here.

But it was like this every time I came.

I had to push myself to the limit every time.

I put the back of my head on the wall.

The cold wall touched my feverish head.

I just closed my eyes.

I couldn’t afford to sit or lie down.

I was worried that if I fell down like this, I would not be able to get up again.

‘You went too far. You always do.’

In the midst of becoming dazed, a quiet voice passed by my ears.

That is what I heard one day.

Who said it?

I didn’t remember.

‘I’d rather just rest. Give up. Please stop.’

It was when I was nine years old.

I pushed my friend off the stairs.

It’s questionable if I can call the child I pushed off the stairs a friend, but let’s just skip past it.

In elementary school, everyone in the same class was a friend.

I didn’t feel particularly guilty after pushing my friend off the stairs.

It wasn’t because I was a psychopath.

It’s a problem I’m unsure about now, but I certainly wasn’t back then.

It was an unavoidable fight against a friend who had been picking on a group of children.

I didn’t even push hard.

When the uproar broke out, I thought the teacher would notice that there was discord in the class, and it would work out.

It was a shallow thought.

My friend wasn’t badly hurt.

His knee was a little injured.

Of course, I was called to the teacher’s office, and they called my house.

I thought I was a victim but I became a perpetrator.

I had to kneel and pray with my sister who came to elementary school in a school uniform.

It was 5 o’clock when I left school like that.

That was the case for a second grader in elementary school.

It was awkward to leave the quiet school gate while looking at the sunset sky.

It was like seeing a friend’s smile reflected through the window of the car passing by us.

My sister, who I thought would punish me by picking up a tree branch that fell on the way home, only walked without saying anything.

When we were almost home, my sister said,

“Why didn’t you break his knee?”

That wasn’t supposed to be said.

It wasn’t an educational and emotionally desirable thing for an older sister to say to her nine-year-old brother.

But it was warm to me.

It was such great comfort that there was one person who sided with me regardless of right or wrong.

The next day, I broke my friend’s leg, and my sister had to be called back to school.

Since then, nothing like my sister getting called to school happened again.

My sister said it one time.

She said she regretted saying that to me at that time.

I did not regret it.

I opened my eyes.

[Round 11, Day 19. 2:36.]

I just opened and closed my eyes for a while, but a fairly long time had passed.

In the distance a little farther away, I heard the rattling sound of skeleton soldiers.

I quietly listened to the sound and tried to guess the number of skeleton soldiers.

I was now on the verge of getting the number of skeleton soldiers just by hearing the sound of the snapping of their bones.

During only 15 minutes of rest, the number of skeleton soldiers increased considerably.

Now it was time to move again.

The more you delay, the more dangerous it will be.

Slowly I took my back off the wall.

I felt a heavy tiredness in my back where I had no place to lean on.

(*) Editor Note: The dialogue agreement refers to the challengers meeting and making agreements during a large summoning by the managers.

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