142. Tower of Trials, Floor 40 (2)
Slash, shhk!
HunGyo and Aso swung their swords, cutting down their opponents.
Fwoooosh!
Explosive Dragon turned them into nicely roasted direct-fire grilled beef.
[You conquer the Berserker’s Grave.]
[Congratulations!]
[You conquer Floor 38 of the Tower of Trials!]
The average time per floor was one hour.
Baek Jinwoo, who had finished up to Floor 38 in a mere 8 hours, stepped outside the Tower.
“Huaa.”
After breathing nothing but the stuffy air and stench of cattle inside the labyrinth, inhaling the fresh air outside felt unbelievably good.
“So refreshing. So refreshing.”
“Huff, you cleared it again?”
The resident staff member on standby came running over like an arrow.
Even if they wanted to rest, they could not.
They could not leave their posts, either.
Who knew when Baek Jinwoo might clear a floor and come back out? How could they possibly step away?
‘This used to be an insanely cushy job.’
Still, it was not bad.
How often did one get the chance to witness in real time Baek Jinwoo catching up to Rachel?
“Yes, I cleared it.”
“That is truly amazing.”
“I’m going to do a little maintenance.”
“Of course! You can do it over here.”
At Baek Jinwoo’s words, the headquarters employee nearly bent his head at a right angle.
Then he hurried off somewhere and soon came running back carrying an armful of things.
“Here! Ice water and a meal! Headquarters specifically sent this down and told us to make sure you eat while you work! Ah, and this too!”
Swish.
Smiling, the staff member pulled out a giant cream bun.
“They said you like this.”
Lamba, who had been resummoned at some point, grinned from ear to ear.
Unable to speak in front of others, she fluttered around before grabbing the bread and chomping into it.
“Oh wow, thank you.”
Baek Jinwoo smiled brightly as he thanked him.
A meal from headquarters.
Taking a quick look, he saw a beef rice bowl topped with a neatly placed egg.
‘I’m sick of beef.’
Still, he had to eat.
Eating was strength.
Yoo Jia had probably pulled some strings.
She must have said that once Baek Jinwoo started something, he would see it through to the end, so whenever he came out for a moment, they had to make sure he ate something before sending him back in.
“Hehe.”
Just thinking about Yoo Jia made him smile again.
It had not been this kind of feeling before, but he truly felt here how important bonds were.
It had started as mere chance, but now he could keenly feel just how deeply she had entered his life.
He finished the meal lightly.
Gulp, gulp!
He even emptied the water.
“Then I’ll go back up.”
Sleep?
At this point, he was going to have to sleep in there anyway.
“This time it’s Floor 39, right?”
“Yes.”
Floor 39 was different from the labyrinths so far.
The moment it judged that they had intruded into the king’s domain, every Minotaur in the labyrinth would come charging in from all over.
“This one might take a while. So if anyone comes looking for me, tell them not to worry.”
“Huh? If it takes a while, then how long...?”
“About a week, I think?”
If he just smashed everything in the central area, it would end quickly, but Baek Jinwoo had no intention of doing that.
He was going to wipe out every last cow in the labyrinth.
If he left them alone, they would keep coming anyway, so why bother ending it quickly?
Building Devour stacks!
That was all he needed to think about now.
* * *
—Aaaaargh! Why are there so many cows?!
—…This will make good live combat training.
—Gwo...?
Floor 39 had a notorious reputation even in the past.
Rachel had gotten through it easily because she had an S-grade summon, but without that, it might have been dangerous.
“All right, let’s get started!”
Clap clap!
After clapping his hands, Baek Jinwoo looked toward the corner of the square-shaped space.
“First, run over there!”
Even while his summons ran, Baek Jinwoo remained relaxed.
With the barrier in place, it did not really matter anyway.
“We’ll set up our formation there.”
If they stupidly stayed in the center, no matter how strong they were physically, they would inevitably get overwhelmed.
If they were surrounded from all sides, they would not even be able to secure time to rest.
The moment they got completely encircled, they would be wiped out.
‘A spot where two sides out of four are blocked.’
That was that corner.
“Now it’s going to be a long battle. I’m going to split you into teams so you can fight while resting as much as possible.”
First, he placed Jaggeo and Dampir in the center, then positioned HunGyo to the left and Aso to the right.
“Gale Slayer, rest for now, then switch places with Aso or HunGyo. The three of you will rotate shifts.”
—Krk.
“Explosive Dragon, conserve your stacks and only land the finishing blows. Once you’ve built up enough stacks, sweep them all away at once.”
—Yes, Jinwoo.
“Jaggeo and Dampir, you can just sit there.... That counts as resting, right?”
—Gwo......
Jaggeo nodded.
Golem-types did not feel pain. He just had to sit there and tank.
Dampir only needed to keep healing.
—Wait!
Lamba shouted.
—What about me?
“Hm?”
—I don’t have any rest time!
“......You.”
Baek Jinwoo scratched his head.
“Let’s just say you suffer for about a day. Only until the stacks stop mattering.”
—There’s no such thing as thattttttt!
It was despairing, but there was no helping it. That was the meaning of Lamba’s existence.
“I won’t just be resting either.”
Baek Jinwoo sat down cross-legged.
Clear Heaven Heart Technique.
From now on, he planned to watch their hunt while training his breathing technique.
* * *
Explosive Dragon’s firepower grew stronger the more time passed.
Day 5 after entering the dungeon.
At first, the stream of fire created through Transformation of the Explosive Dragon Sorcery could only land finishing blows, but now it was one-shotting enemies even when they were not already incapacitated.
Flare, fwoooosh!
Because of that, HunGyo, Aso, and Gale Slayer gradually had more and more time to rest.
A fire show unfolded in the center of the labyrinth.
Around five streams of flame roamed here and there, perfectly incinerating the Minotaurs pouring out of the holes.
—Jinwoo! We have nothing left to do now. How long are those cow-headed bastards going to keep pouring out?
“The longer they keep coming, the better.”
In this world, the hardest thing of all was repetitive grinding.
This was far better than wandering around ordinary dungeons every time to build stacks. Here, he could sit back, rest comfortably, and build them.
“Explosive Dragon, are you holding up?”
There was only one regrettable part. Explosive Dragon could not rest.
—Yes, Jinwoo. I’m perfectly fine.
Of course, summons did not have a concept of sleep.
Still, mental fatigue could exist.
In the end, this too was repetitive work.
—If anything, it’s fascinating. The more I deal with them, the stronger my firepower gets.... It feels strangely satisfying.
In truth, it was not the hunting itself that Explosive Dragon liked.
What she liked was being here with Baek Jinwoo and the other summons again.
“There’s not much left now anyway.”
The interval between Minotaurs emerging from the holes in the labyrinth was slowing down.
That meant their numbers were starting to run short.
Once all the Minotaurs were dead, the king of this place would probably appear automatically.
The Floor 40 boss.
Cronotaur (S-grade).
For nothing more than a cow-headed monster, it handled the unfamiliar power of “time”, so caution was necessary.
‘Well.’
Below Floor 70, bosses were all more or less the same anyway.
He would finish it quickly and hurry home.
Hehe.
* * *
At that same time.
A state of emergency had broken out in England.
“She still hasn’t come out yet?”
Olivia bit her nails with an anxious expression.
It had already been two weeks since Rachel entered Floor 51 of the Tower of Trials.
Usually, even if you stretched the estimated Tower clear time to the absolute maximum, it was one week.
If someone took longer than that and still did not come out?
They were declared dead.
That was because not a single player had ever lasted longer than that.
“I know.”
“There’s still no news at all.”
“What happened?”
“If the Guild Master really died or something...”
As someone muttered in an uneasy voice,
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
Olivia snapped irritably. Even as she lashed out, she kept repeating it to herself.
‘Rachel failing to clear just Floor 51? That makes no sense.’
Rachel was by no means weak.
She had no less than three S-grade summons, and she had said she knew every strategy all the way up to Floor 60.
There was just one thing bothering Olivia....
A feeling.
Rachel’s emotions had been extremely unstable when she entered.
“Haa...”
She had even contacted the other members of the Five Emperors privately.
They all gave the same answer.
- Rachel? She’s not a woman who’d fail to break through Floor 51.
- Floor 51 is easy. Floor 60 would be another story.
- Hahahahat! Are you so free of worries that you’re worrying about Rachel?
- I’m not sure. Two weeks is definitely strange. Why not ask that Baek Jinwoo instead?
Not a single helpful answer among them.
‘Do I have no choice?’
Even now, whenever she looked in that direction, the words <Yeah~ go back> still came to mind... but if she was going to ask anyone for help, only God Ji-nu was left.
“Guys, I’m going to step out for a bit.”
In the end, Olivia headed out of England once again.
To the land where God Ji-nu was.
South Korea.
To visit that place again.
* * *
The Floor 40 boss.
The half-man, half-bull king and ruler of the labyrinth.
Cronotaur (S-grade) raised its massive axe and roared.
—Uwooooooooooo!
The earth shook from that cry.
—How dare you.
If you entered the labyrinth, you should have quietly become fodder. How dare you intrude all the way into the center!
Kugagagaga!
Welcoming Baek Jinwoo, who had accepted entry to Floor 40, Cronotaur violently tore through the labyrinth.
—Minotaur brothers, all of you, rise!
The king commanded.
—Rise and tear the heads off those insolent intruders!
Now then.
At this point, the Minotaur warriors that filled the labyrinth should have risen all at once.
Their eyes should have flickered with flames as they formed ranks and packed the center of the labyrinth.
That was how it should have been.
But.
The labyrinth was empty.
No one responded to his words.
—No way.
He was dumbfounded.
If they were not appearing, that meant the intruder had killed them all before even touching the central zone....
Did that make any sense?
—Stop playing around and come out! Brothers!
No matter how furiously he shouted, only silent echoes came back to him.
KWAANG!
Even when he brought his gigantic axe crashing down with all his might, nothing changed.
—....Impossible.
There was no way this could be true.
There were 40,000 warriors in the labyrinth alone.
Even he would not dare face a force of that size.
And yet.
All those corpses were piled up around the central area....
Every single one of them had been burned.
There was no doubt about it. The intruder had set up camp and killed them all.
—Puhahahahat!
That was when it happened.
A tiny fairy flapped its wings and laughed mockingly.
—Look at that cow-head freaking out! This is too funny, Jinwoo! Guys! Hurry up and kill that thing already!
—Y-you, you, you...!
Cronotaur could not endure it.
Not only had they killed his brothers, but they were also mocking him right in front of his face in such a relaxed tone?
This called for absolute discipline.
Time ability.
Once Cronotaur’s HP fell below half, he could activate an ability that temporarily reduced the opponent’s flow of time to nearly zero.
Because of that, the opponent would stop moving as though trapped inside time itself.
That moment would feel like eternity, leaving them standing helplessly before him.
In truth, that technique was practically the entire reason Floor 40 had such a hellish reputation.
—I’ll kill you!
He raised his axe boldly, but there was only one thing standing before him.
Explosive Dragon.
Explosive Dragon Art, Secret technique - Ruination
And this was a true Ancient Explosive Dragon!
The crimson dragon that emerged from Explosive Dragon’s hand looked down on Cronotaur with a savage glare.
Then.
Craaack!
It opened its mouth.
—W-what...?
The stacks accumulated over a week through True Devour, along with the Explosive Dragon Wave stored through Link, all erupted at once.
And in the form of the final breath!
Kugagagagagagagaga!
An explosion that split heaven and earth swallowed the entire labyrinth.
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