Chapter 168: A Story Only I Don't Know 3
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Wed-Sun
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
Join the discord! Here
After entering the 30th floor through the gate and ignoring the Blind Serpents that returned in place of the vanished Giant Worm after the boss event, we swiftly moved to the 31st floor.
It looks like only the 35th floor has an anomaly, as the 31st was uneventful.
Purple poison pools were still bubbling, and in the marsh full of paralyzing mud, undead creatures lounged lazily, like hippos taking a mud bath.
"Looks like trolls appear on the 31st floor, too. Shall we handle them with arrows? ...But if we burst them now, I feel like poison will splash everywhere."
"They're just wriggling around, so there's no need to bother with them. It looks like the marsh is deeper than we thought. They can't seem to climb out."
As we passed a troll sinking into the mud marsh and headed towards the passage to the 32nd floor, nothing significant happened, and Han Se-ah's quest log remained unchanged.
"The main quest starts on the 35th floor, perhaps? My quest log hasn't updated yet. Though, I must say, it's a bit disorienting with everything suddenly changing.
I miss the times when we could just hack off the heads of boss monsters without a care."
[The safe zone on the 35th floor has suddenly gone silent.]
[Neither the adventurers heading to the 35th floor nor the communicators from the Magic Tower can be reached.]
[With the support of the temple knights, even a sanctuary has been established. Who could be behind this...?]
-Roland must find it convenient having a walking backpack tucked to his side
-Oh, come now, Se-ah, don't start whining. Have you forgotten your shining performance in the cave?
-Lol, strategy for the 30th-floor boss: Stand on a robot's shoulder with a flashlight.
-So, without any bombs, what can you even do?
-Just like how Seok-hyun stood up to the Horned Wolf, stuff your inventory with troll bombs and suicide bomb them.
Han Se-ah displayed the main scenario windows that popped up at Ellis's words.
It felt like a barrage of events hit us as soon as we reached the 31st floor.
The field itself, labeled a plague zone, had transformed, and monsters had turned into undead.
Named monsters, which should have been on the 40th floor, began to appear from the 31st, and the Goddess Faith declared an assault on the Tower.
On the 35th floor, what seemed to be an intermediate boss had sprung forth.
Moreover, from Han Se-ah's perspective, the simultaneous progression of Irene and Roland's character quests certainly added a lot to the plate.
Ignoring the slow-moving monsters as much as possible, we arrived at the safety zone on the 33rd floor.
No matter how much we ignored the monsters and moved on, it was impossible to shake them all off, so it was about time to take a break.
"Hello, brothers. Do you happen to know if there has been any contact with the 35th floor?"
"Unfortunately... we still haven't been able to establish contact, sister. Are you on your way to check on the 35th floor's situation?"
The temple knights, standing boldly in front of the safe zone as if to proclaim that the incident was confined to the 35th floor alone, seemed to have received the news as well; concern was evident in their voices.
They want to go up there to save their brothers and sisters right away, but their duty to protect the sanctuary is equally important, leaving them unable to act.
Perhaps that's why, after giving Irene a respectful nod, they turned to our group with an intense and pleading gaze.
"Considering the harshness of the journey ahead, rest is as important as battle itself. Please, take a good rest and lend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters. Ah, you'll find the safe zone if you keep to the right past the passage on the 35th floor."
"Of course, it's the least I can do, brother."
Inside the safe zone, there was a lack of notable activity.
A few adventurers had taken over several tents, comfortably sitting and tending to their weapons.
One was grimacing while rubbing a suit of armor, its surface rough and pitted from corrosion damage, or meticulously wiping down a spear shaft and sword bladefamiliar scenes all around.
Seeing their damaged equipment, it was unlikely they were high-level adventurers.
Since there was no need to interfere with each other, we took a few empty tents for ourselves and settled down in front of them.
Thanks to my undead keep-away skills and Irene's protective spells, our party's armor was neither corroded nor damaged.
Still, having walked a dirt path for so long, there was no avoiding dirtied boots and greaves.
"The terrain is polluted, and even the dry earth feels unpleasant."
"It's a good thing Hanna knows how to use Earth Control. Otherwise, instead of dusting off the dirt, we'd be washing and purifying poison soaked up to our ankles."
So there we were, collapsed in front of a tent, tending to our gear.
My armor was coated with holy power and needed only a little more than a wipe from the dirt on my boots, but the rest of the party didn't have that luxury, resulting in muddied lower legs.
Even when we avoided combat and raised the earth to create flat ground, battling undead that crawled up soaked in poison meant it was inevitable for the dirt floor to mix with the toxic liquid, turning into a muddy mess.
Despite the cramped conditions, we all huddled around Hanna, boots off, in a different environment than the dry caves wed encountered before.
It seems she intended to wash away the slightly toxic mud with water magic.
-I want to grow up to be a foot wiper.
-But can you wash leather boots with water?
-Well, they're magically crafted, so they must be waterproof, haha.
-Forbes' #1 stream for foot fetishers.
-It's not a pair of 5,000 won sneakers from some market, it's a pair of leather boots made by alchemy
...They're so consistent.
---
Raei Translations
---
After spending a day in the safe zone on the 33rd floor, we rose early in the morning to hit the road again.
Although we couldn't see the sun rise inside the tower, we were able to keep time precisely with the morning prayers of the priests and nuns, and Han Se-ah's login times.
From the 33rd to the 34th floor, and then from the 34th floor to the entrance of the 35th.
"Thanks to Hanna's magic, we got here quicker than I thought we would."
Right? Mana spikes are amazing every time I see them.
Grace murmured, standing at the place where we had recorded our last location with the lantern.
It had taken us less than two days to get back, since we weren't exploring new territory and could use the mini-map since we had been here before.
Perhaps sensing that praise for the genius mage Hanna was about to start again, Han Se-ah hurriedly approached and grabbed my forearm, nudging me toward the passageway.
Im not one to be pushed around by the grip of an intermediate mage, but I'll pretend I can't resist for now.
While it's amusing to see Han Se-ah teased, my curiosity about my system window malfunctioning and Han Se-ah's main scenario is greater.
"I'll enter first this time as well. But don't follow me immediately, we don't know what might have happened. Like last time with the troll, there could be issues at the entrance... Wait five minutes before following."
"Hmm, that sounds like a good plan. After that, Irene should go, followed by Grace, me, and lastly, Katie. If something happens on this side, Katie can handle it on her own. Is that okay with you, Katie?"
"Of course."
Watching Katie pound her breastplate with her fist, I took a step forward and headed for the passageway.
The main reason I wasn't worried was because of Han Se-ah's camera drone naturally sticking above my head.
Although we say five minutes, Han Se-ah, who can peek through the camera, can control the group's entry to the 35th floor with various excuses.
Since the camera isn't used like a map hack sent to a specific location, but rather attached above a person's head, it can't be used to scout out cave-like maze terrains.
However, in situations like these, being able to peek at the next floor has its pros and cons.
After one last look back at the group for confirmation, I raised my shield to my chest and entered the passageway.
---
Raei Translations
---
'...What is this?'
For a brief moment, it was as if someone forced me to blink, causing my vision to darken and then brighten.
What lay before me was, as expected, a contaminated marshland full of purple poison puddles and ashen trees.
I almost let my guard down at the sight.
If it werent for the strange vines wrapping around the ashen trees.
The ashen trees, desiccated and twisted like those of a forest ravaged by wildfire and marsh pollution, were entwined with vines that looked less like plants and more like the tendons or muscles of an animal.
They were a translucent off-white, sleek and seemingly dampan unnervingly unpleasant sight.
Eek, what is that? It looks like something from that zombie game I played last time. If we follow those vines, well find a massive lump of flesh that controls the zombies, right?
-If the camera drone could fight those tentacles, it would be a great appreciated, thanks BB Games.
-To be honest, they look like they could be boiled into a stew.
-Still, theyre better than the yellow pus piles of a troll, right?
-If you follow those vines, youll probably find a nest of flesh monsters or undead.
-So, todays side dish is tentacle stew?
Apart from the mysterious vines wrapping the trees, the surroundings of the passageway were intact.
There were no undead monsters buried in the paralyzing mud marsh in front of the passage, nor any creatures that had spotted me and were approaching from beyond the clear line of sight.
Thanks to that, as I spent the five minutes observing the unidentified vines, one by one my companions began to arrive through the passage.
Hmm, what is that?
Ugh, how disgusting Is that what caused trouble on the 35th floor?
As soon as the girls got over, they frowned at the sight of the vines strangling the trees.
It was hard not to notice the vines that tightly coiled around the towering trees, more so than the paralyzing marsh or the poison pits.
However, seeing that Han Se-ah hadnt opened her quest window yet, perhaps the quest hadnt been updated.
Lets head to the safe area first. According to the temple knight, we should go to the right If we go around this pit and head in that direction, that should do it.
That sounds good. Something bad might have happened to our brothers and sisters, or maybe something went wrong with the communication tools.
Even after the last of us, Katie, had joined at the front of the passage, nothing unusual happened.
I wondered if the fleshy tentacles would strike us like snakes
But maybe they were just ordinary vines after all.
With that thought, everyone silently followed Grace, who was looking at the vines but then turned to lead us to the safe zone.
---
This content is taken from freewebnove(l).com