Chapter 31: Intrusion (4)

Just as I was about to take another step, he opened his mouth.

“…I underestimated you. I didn’t realize the owner of this trial was a high ranker.”

I didn’t expect his sudden approval, but I didn’t pay much attention.

“I’ll admit it. You’re better than all the other primitives.”

The only thing on my mind was how to take down the enemy in front of me.

「 Time left – 00:00:21 」

The buff from the assassin’s cloak was about to run out.

I had to end this now.

I gripped the sword in my hand and lunged forward.

Instead of blocking the attack, he opted to swing his sword at me.

Seeing that, I folded my torso into my legs to dodge the attack.

Whoo-phew-! Kang…!

It was a one-sided exchange, but the result was disappointing.

The black armor blocked my sword and rendered my attack useless.

“Did you think you could even scratch my armor with that flimsy sword?”

As the embodiment of agility, it wasn’t too hard to dodge all of his attacks.

The only problem was…

‘Even if my attacks hit, it won’t get through his armor.’

That was the biggest problem.

The enemy had a skill that could split my shield, but I didn’t have anything like that.

“…”

Now was not the time to sound weak.

「 Time left – 00:00:16 」

I was about to lose the upper hand.

But it wasn’t like I had nothing.

‘I didn’t waste all my points on this weapon for a reason.’

There was no time to hesitate since I had no other options.

As I was about to pour all my mana into my feet—

“Insolent.”

The black knight’s sword was encased with a red aura.

Phuaa…!

The violently dancing aura was even more dangerous than before.

“I’m going to split you in two.”

Chills spread down my neck before I remembered that I had to keep moving.

‘Fuck.’

Just as he said, his sword could slice through me like a hot knife through butter.

I was risking my life to just land a meaningless blow, while a single attack from him could mean the end of me.

The black knight also seemed to acknowledge this as he charged in without hesitation.

‘He was talking about underestimating me before but it’s probably a load of bullshit.;

He wouldn’t be charging at me like this if he believed I could get through his armor.

That’s why it was more important than ever to fight.

Whoosh! Kang! Crack! Voosh!

With every swing he made, the walls split and the floors echoed.

Thanks to the energy around his sword, even just a scrape of his sword was enough to engrave the walls.

‘Is this the aura that the Eye of Truth was talking about?’

I had no idea who allowed this, but he was slicing through the hardened cave walls like tofu.

I could emulate it if I’d wanted to, but it wouldn’t be as smooth as this.

“Hahaha, run as much as you’d like! You won’t last long like this!”

A monster among monsters.

My body seemed to move faster knowing that one wrong move could lead to my doom.

The ease at which he seemed to move suggested that he had no problems with keeping this up for the near future.

Clang! Chang! Kaang!

No matter how hard I swung, the armor didn’t even scratch, and the knight became more and more haughty.

He stopped hesitating and staying wary of my attacks, instead opting to use flashier and bigger skills with a lot of blind spots.

And that was my only path to victory.

One, two, three, four…

I landed an increasing number of blows on his armor, and by the time that number hit double digits—

Vuaaaa…!

A blinding ball of light condensed at the edge of the blade and exploded.

It wasn’t just light but an explosive ball of electricity.

“What the f—!”

The knight finally realized and tried retreating but…

「 Thunder Blade 」

「 Attacking with this weapon has a 10% chance to inflict an ‘electrocute’ effect. 」

It didn’t matter since it was already too late to step back.

I was a little nervous because it wasn’t activating as soon as I had expected, but the explosion of lightning assured me—

Kraaaang!

That I’d be the victor of this battle.

***

“G-ghaaaa….!”

I clicked my tongue as the knight laid on the ground, twitching.

Whatever dimension he came from, he wasn’t immune to electricity.

‘It would have been a pain in the ass if he had any resistance to it.’

I bet my life on that, and I won.

“Tsk, I was so close to dying.”

I swung like crazy and only got the effect to activate once.

‘I wasn’t that lucky to begin with, but this is a little ridiculous.’

Maybe the 10% wasn’t that accurate.

Seeing how little it activated when I fought the wolves, it wasn’t completely out of the picture.

“Y-you basta… A mere p-primitive…”

I heard a small mumbling from the floor.

The paralysis must’ve been wearing off because he was desperately trying to grasp the floor.

‘He wouldn’t have gone down this easily if he had something like sustain battle.’

The only skill he really had was that aura.

Maybe he wasn’t even that strong of an opponent if you thought about it that way.

‘If he wasn’t lying, he did say something about his skills being restricted.’

Well, that didn’t matter anymore.

Whatever it was, I won my fight fair and square, and he was the one laying on the floor right now.

“H-how does a mere 5th-floor challenger have so many skills…!”

Maybe all of his stats reset on the first floor as well.

“I should have won…! How did a fucking primitive…!”

“Maybe you were just weak. And stupid enough to blindly rely on that aura skill.”

“No fucking way… a 5th floor… against me…!”

“It’s about time we end this.”

I was also feeling a little tingly from the splash effect of the electricity but…

‘Not enough to paralyze me.’

I decided to end this while I still had the chance.

‘I want to keep asking him questions but that could be dangerous.’

I stood above his head, ready to strike my blade down.

“W-wait, I can answer any questio—”

“No thanks, I don’t care.”

I stabbed the blade into his head while his mouth was still open.

Clean and swift.

After shoving my sword through a space between his helmet and jiggling it around, he finally stopped moving.

I felt like I was becoming more and more desensitized to killing someone but…

‘It’s not bad.’

Feeling guilty every time I had to kill someone would pose its own threats.

「 Congratulations. You have overcome the Tower of Trials floor 5. 」

The popup message confirmed my kill.

And—

Sssst…

The knight’s body completely disintegrated and poured out from the armor.

The otherworldly knight had died and couldn’t harm me anymore.

A wave of relief flushed over me after confirming my safety.

The necromancy mark wasn’t there, but that didn’t disappoint me.

My survival was enough of a reward right now.

“God damn, that was close.”

If I hadn’t purchased the thunder blade before…

The process wouldn’t have been as easy as it was.

I would’ve needed to use everything in my arsenal and would’ve spent some more time rolling in the dirt.

Good thing I also increased my stats right then.

“…”

Of course, this didn’t get rid of all the entangled thoughts in my head.

Everything, from other dimensions to intrusions, was fleeting around my head.

It was difficult to grasp these things because I didn’t even realize they had existed until now.

But I gave up and put on a smile.

“Yeah, it would be weirder if the place was more normal.”

It would be arrogant of me to assume that I’d be able to understand what this tower was doing.

‘Maybe I’ve been too satisfied recently.’

As dangerous as that was, I still learned a lot from that.

Especially that no matter how strong I got, my life would always be in danger.

‘I thought I was already being careful in my own right, but I better step it up.’

Eh, I guess I got a little nugget of wisdom, if you could call it that.

‘…I have something to ask once I get to the 8th floor.’

Like what the hell other dimensions were and some more details on the whole intrusion thing.

The tower is a black box system and the only way to navigate it is through the questions they allow us.

Now is not the time to use them yet.

It wouldn’t be too late to scope out the situation until the 8th floor before choosing to ask a question.

Still deep in thought, I noticed something strange out of the corner of my eye.

“ …?”

Where were the reward messages that should be filling my view?

“What the—”

I scrunched my face in confusion at a message I’d never seen before.

「 The difficulty of the trial is not proportional to the reward. 」

「 Recalibrating the rewards. 」

“What are they saying…”

They were going to change my reward after I went through this whole ordeal?

I could smell the corruption from here.

There would be nothing worse than the quality of the rewards going down.

「 Recalibrated. 」

「 Awarding the rewards. 」

Couldn’t they just give me what they promi…

「 As a reward, you have received the skill ‘Triple Laceration (A-).’ 」

「 As a reward, you have received ‘7,500 points.’ 」

「 As a bonus reward, you have received 3,500 points.’ 」

「 Please move to the waiting area. 」

「 Moving to the waiting room. 」

I froze in place after reading the messages in front of me.

“Uh, umm.”

The reward was exchanged from a C- item to an A- skill.

Comparing them was an insult to the skill.

“…”

My anger melted away as I saw 11,000 points and an A- rank skill.

“…This is more like the tower of trials.”

This was what I wanted to see.

____

MC: May I speak to the manag-

Manager: Yes?

MC: I just wanted to comment on the wonderful work you were doing

Sucks that he didn’t get to suck him 

____