1st Floor Gatekeeper (3)
[You have been revived.]
“......Nnngh-aaagh!”
After rolling on the floor from pain no human mind could endure, I clenched my teeth hard and got up.
The pain had already passed.
My body had been fully restored, back to how it was a few minutes earlier.
Pain like this is nothing but phantom pain. Right now, right now...... this isn't the time for this.
[Challenge Attempts 8/10]
Let's think.
I think slipping past the boss was an excellent attempt. But the thing possessed 'leg strength beyond common sense.'
I have to admit it.
That thing also has the technique to use its leg strength at 200%.
[Time remaining until challenge 08:43]
Letting out ragged breaths, I was grateful that quite a lot of time still remained. Was it because this was the second time, that I'd gotten used to this kind of pain?
Even so, I couldn't let this pain go to waste.
I closed my eyes. At times like this, I 'remember' the optimal skill.
Exactly how much mana did 'that skill,' the one that reduced pain and raised defense, consume?
I had all of it memorized.
If I had 100 mana, I'd set aside exactly 3 of it. It wasn't as if I used mana fluidly. No one among Earthlings could do that.
All I did was concentrate intensely to create a 'spoon in my mind' and scoop out exactly three spoonfuls of mana.
And when I consumed it.......
[You recall the skill 'Pain Endurance.']
Done. Success.
In this way, I could 'recall how a skill I'd possessed in a previous tower worked and how much mana it consumed,' and acquire it in the next difficulty's tower.
The method that let me, who'd had jack shit, survive up to the Tier 4 Tower's 100th floor.
A method used by me, and me alone.
Of course, it was a skill that only slightly increased physical defense, so having it didn't mean I could withstand that thing's absurd physical force.
The thing's headbutt.......
Right. It was similar to an 8-ton truck charging at full speed. If it hit you, a human would be smashed to pieces, without even a corpse left to find.
But, well.
Better than nothing!
[Time remaining until challenge 00:49]
Let's figure out how to make good use of the third challenge attempt.
Right now, there was only one thing I urgently needed.
'How do I properly dodge its attack, even just once?'
I wasn't exactly great physically, but I had thorough analytical skills. I was used to analyzing enemies overwhelmingly stronger than me, finding their weaknesses, and dealing with them.
I'm not all that smart, but if anything, you could call me the 'brain-game' type.
A method came to mind immediately.
“......I'll charge first.”
It sounded crazy, but this seemed to be the answer.
So far, the thing had charged at me first and gained absurd acceleration in the process.
The acceleration packed onto that bulk looked like an unavoidable move that could never be dodged in this narrow passage.
Normally, after being rammed to death twice by such an insane bulk, you'd get scared and go defensive. Then what? You'd get hit by a truck and die all 10 times.
Instead, let's close in. As long as the thing didn't gain acceleration, there'd be at least some chance to dodge its attacks.
[Entering the Round 3 stage.]
The instant I entered the passage, I charged at the thing. It reacted belatedly, but it moved slower than before. It seemed that the thing, which had charged as soon as it first spotted me, waited leisurely when I was the one charging first.
The memory of being killed twice in horrific ways by the thing kept trying to slow me down as I ran at it, but I forced myself to run and run.
If I slowed down even a little here, the thing might gain that monstrous acceleration and come ram me again.
Whoosh! A damp wind grazed my cheek.
The moment I reached the thing up close, I ducked my head right away. Unlike before, the club swung aiming for my head. If I dodged like this, the thing would most likely throw a kick. Knowing that, the instant the club passed over my head, I shot up into the air at the last possible moment.
Whooooosh-!
The Gatekeeper clumsily threw a soccer kick from the same posture it had swung its club in. But the kick split nothing but air.
I dodged it! I finally dodged that asshole's attack! Without the acceleration its leg strength gave it, the Gatekeeper's attacks were slower and sloppier than I'd thought. My turn to attack had all but arrived.
Whoosh! But I didn't choose to attack. I chose defense. Because the thing had flailed its arm wide.
If I got hit by that, my torso would burst just like that.
'I'll die.'
I had figured out the pattern, but my body was slow.
A split second.
As if time had stopped, my concentration accelerated to an extreme.
'I remember.'
The skill that had always saved me whenever I was in a desperate crisis.
With what 'motion' did that skill activate?
With 'how much mana' did that skill activate?
Luckily, I didn't need to calculate the mana amount right now.
I knew that the skill would activate by 'consuming all' of the rat-tail-sized, truly smaller-than-a-millet-grain amount of mana I had.
......I remember it!
[You recall the skill 'Emergency Evasion.']
Swish! Watching the club flying straight for my face.
[Skill 'Emergency Evasion' activated.]
When I activated the skill, my body turned 'semi-transparent' for about 0.16 seconds, passed through the thing's club, and advanced about 1m forward!
'Success.'
The opportunity had finally come.
With all my strength, I gripped my sword and rammed it into the thing!
RRRIP!
'Damn it, it's tough!'
My sword, thrust with everything I had, tore off the skin on the thing's chest, but it wasn't a fatal wound.
But for the first time, I'd landed an attack.
Good. If I figure out its attack patterns like this and fight slowly with hit-and-run tactics so it can't use its leg-strength advantage.......
But.
The thing smiled.
Crack, crackle!
Pink fibers covered the torn muscles of its upper body, red and blue veins branched out across them, and skin filled in over the top.
Regeneration.
The thing even had regenerative ability.
“......This is seriously driving me nuts.”
The corners of my mouth went up before I knew it.
This shouldn't be happening.
This was a situation where I could really die.
Even with sweat beading all over the hand gripping my weapon, and cold sweat running down my cheek.
Ba-thump-!
THUD, THOOOM, THUD!
My heartbeat pounded in time with the Gatekeeper's footsteps.
I might die.
And yet.
'This is fun.'
Laughter leaked from my lips.
Even with despair approaching, my heart was going wild, not with fear, but with excitement.
That's right, in front of death.
I felt alive.
***
[You have been revived.]
3 challenges, 3 deaths.
But...... not bad.
It's fine. If anything, you could say it was going pretty well.
The fact that the thing had not only leg strength but regenerative ability as well was certainly new information that would plunge a challenger into despair, but not me.
I had absolutely no intention of failing.
I didn't want to.
What if I failed?
I'd just croak, what else? But there was something scarier than dying.
I wanted to prove myself to the assholes in the Tower Community who treated me like a fucking idiot.
Besides, after loudly bragging that I'd do it, I was terrified of having myself croak without even passing the 1st floor broadcast live to the Celestials! My pride wouldn't allow it.
“Regenerative ability. Seriously, every dog and cow carries it around these days.......”
I said that, but a 'healing factor' was a pretty rare ability. Only a tiny handful even among Tier 4 Tower graduates had one, and there weren't many monsters with regenerative ability either.
Trolls, for example.
Trolls were called trash mobs that dragons chewed in place of gum, but in the Ascension Tower, they appeared as the final boss of a certain stage in the Tier 2 Tower.
That was how overwhelming the destructive power and performance of regenerative ability were.
Ogres? Those guys were no match for trolls. Regenerative ability was that fucking broken.
That kind of rapid regeneration, on a mere level 45?
It was strange. Something was strange.
There's no regeneration without a price.
It had to consume some resource. Usually, that was mana. Trolls were a little different, but.......
I doubted that brainless brute had enough mana to use rapid regeneration. Even if it had changed jobs into the Mage class, at around level 45, it would only have enough mana to blow up a single car with a Fireball.
At a glance, it looked like it was wrapped up in cheat abilities, but there was an opening. There was a weakness. Even cheat skills come with a price.
Fortunately.
I had a lot of knowledge.
'Stamina.'
A certain rapid regenerator had consumed stamina as the price of restoring their body. The more wounds they took, the faster they tired, so they actually ended up losing to someone without regenerative ability.
'Muscle.'
A certain regenerator consumed muscle. The more they regenerated, the weaker their strength got, a sight so pitiful that I thought it would be better not to have the ability at all.
Then.
What had the thing paid as the price for its regeneration? Not mana. Muscle?
Remember. The thing's movements right after it used regeneration. What had changed? What had it tried to hide?
No. The thing had never tried to hide anything.
Had the thing gotten tired?
It hadn't.
Did the thing have a lot of mana?
It couldn't.
Then, there was only one thing.
'It's muscle.'
I narrowed my eyes.
'The more wounds it takes, the weaker its prized leg strength gets.'
That regenerative ability activated forcibly. Once the fight was over, it could restore its muscles all it wanted, but its leg strength weakening continuously in the middle of a fight was inevitable.
Now that I knew that, I'd fight dirty too. I had no intention whatsoever of fighting fair and square against a brainless brute with a monstrous physique.
Because my strength wasn't my physique, but my cheap tricks.
[You recall the skill 'Weakness Detection.']
......Good. Not bad. I knew I'd get this skill if I approached things this way.
Weakness Detection let you find the spots that cut better, even when cutting the same flesh. For me right now, it was like sweet rain in a drought.
[Entering the Round 4 stage.]
[The Girl Riding the Crescent Moon Swing quietly cheers you on.]
If you're going to cheer, do it loudly.
What's with quietly?
[The Girl Riding the Crescent Moon Swing loudly cheers you on.......]
Shut up.
***
Starting the challenge, I twirled my sword and ran forward.
The moment I got close to the thing's range.
I hurled my sword outright.
-......!
The thing naturally knocked the sword away with its club, but I immediately took out the crossbow.
Rolling on the floor, I fired the crossbow like a rapid-fire cannon. Actually, this thing was more of what you'd call an arbalest than a crossbow, though.
Pew-pew-pew!
Several arrows stuck into the thing's forearm. The Gatekeeper, enraged, raised its arm, trying to yank out the arrows and toss them away.
Of course it did. Regenerative ability at that level didn't extend to 'automatically expelling foreign objects in order to regenerate.'
I went for that opening. The moment the thing tried to pull out the arrows with the hand that wasn't holding the club, I swung the halberd wide and aimed for its legs.
To be more precise, for the very precious part of its crotch!
[Weakness Detection]
CRUNCH-!
Success! The thing's face twisted in pain, and it snorted.
The 'precious part' of the crotch was a type of complex organ, so it could regenerate, but it took a very long time and required a great deal of resources.
In other words, the thing's leg muscle had begun draining away in real time.
Not at a speed visible to the naked eye, but...... the thing was slowly, surely.
Weakening.
“That's why you should've worn steel undies like the Hulk.”
-KWOOOAAAH!!
But the thing was still fast and strong. Far more than me.
And there was one important problem.
I had prepared means to counter all of its abilities, but.
I still hadn't found a way to figure out 'how' to kill it.
'Now, what should I do?'
How could I pierce that thick hide, ignore its regenerative ability, and kill it instantly with a single blow?
......That, too.
Was a very familiar, utterly trivial worry for me.