Now that I had decided to attempt the Trial, I first had to figure out what to do with this egg.
‘I can’t fight while holding this in one hand.’
The easiest solution was to put it in my Inventory… but of course, the System was not going to make things that easy.
[This item cannot be stored in the Inventory.]
“Yeah, I had a feeling.”
This was supposed to be a mission to protect the egg.
There was no way this vicious bastard of a Tower would let me tuck the egg safely away in my Inventory and worry only about myself.
“I knew this would happen, so I came up with a fallback in advance.”
I immediately turned my gaze toward the cart in front of me that had held the spoils.
A pile of odds and ends that did not even qualify as items and had therefore been excluded from Auto-Storage.
‘Like this, it just looks like useless garbage… Ah, this’ll do.’
I found something inside that was perfect for my current needs.
It was a raw hide that appeared to have come from a four-legged animal.
“A dog… a wolf, something like that.”
It had not even been tanned, and the animal’s fur, chunks of flesh, and blood still clung to it, giving off a horrific stench.
It was quite literally bad enough to make me think, ‘Ah, so this is why it didn’t even qualify as an item.’
“But it’s unbelievably tough.”
This was good enough.
I wrapped the hide around my front like a baby sling.
I carefully placed the egg inside, then grabbed a handful of the dry straw covering the bottom of the cart and stuffed it in to fill the empty space.
‘That takes care of the cushioning.’
Finally, I crossed and tied the hide’s four legs, completing a sturdy sling.
It looked somewhat ridiculous, its fur and straw were flying everywhere, and the smell was atrocious, but this was no time to quibble over such trivial things.
The green dwarfs were already right in front of me by the time I finished.
“Ha, I have to charge into that? There are a sickening number of them.”
What could I do? I had made my choice.
I placed the egg inside the sling, secured it firmly, and prepared for battle.
“Hold on tight. It’s going to get a little rough.”
Now it was time to face the green wave.
***
20 minutes? 30 minutes? I had no idea how much time had passed.
I had lost myself in a trance, cutting down the endless flood of enemies for a long while.
With my sense of time blurred, the only clue that let me estimate its passage was Nocturne’s blade, glowing red-hot and sending up a shimmering heat haze.
‘It’s hot. No, it’s scorching.’
I could feel waves of scorching heat just from holding it.
“SKRRAAAK!”
Without even giving me a moment to catch my breath, twoGoblins charged with shrieks.
“You bastards…!”
SLICE!
The ink-black blade traced an arc with the movement of my arm.
TheGoblin grunts caught in that line split in two like sheets of paper.
SIZZLE─.
The gamy stench of undercookedGoblin flesh brushed past my nose.
“Haaah, huff….”
I was gasping for breath.
I had expected this to be difficult, but the sheer force of numbers exceeded even my expectations.
No matter how many I killed, there was no end to them.
All the while, the egg cradled against my chest was unbelievably distracting.
My fatigue doubled from worrying that it might break.
The one blessing in this misfortune was that there had been no ranged attacks because of the egg.
I could clearly feel it as I fought.
They wanted this egg too.
In other words, their goal was not my life. I was effectively holding the egg hostage.
“What could possibly be inside this thing to make them act like this?”
I was curious too.
It was just that, right now, I was a little more curious about whether I would make it out of here alive.
‘There are too many. Far too many.’
I felt as though I had cut down more than a hundred after all that suffering, yet I had not even covered half the distance to my destination.
Meanwhile, my stamina was gradually reaching its limit.
Thanks to ‘The Beginning of Training,’ I had trimmed away the excess and employed swordsmanship optimized to the best of my ability, yet this was still how badly I was struggling.
‘I’m almost out of potions, and this is impossible. If I keep fighting a war of attrition like this, I’ll obviously collapse from exhaustion before I ever reach the canyon.’
A momentary lull came after I cut down another group of enemies.
All manner of thoughts flashed through my mind.
‘Should I give up? I’m really going to die at this rate.’
No. I can’t do that unless a blade is literally at my throat.
If only because it would waste everything I’ve done so far.
If I’d rather die than give up, yet hate dying even more, I have to come up with a decisive move.
‘In that case….’
My only choice was to overturn the board.
The missions presented by the Tower were merely the minimum requirements for success.
There had to be another path.
That had been true when I was first abducted by the Tower, and it had also been true during the 2nd Floor Trial.
There was always a variable capable of overturning the board beyond the orthodox method presented by the System.
‘There’s definitely something this time too. No, there has to be. I just haven’t found it yet.’
The Tower’s ecosystem—its missions, rewards, monsters, and everything else—took the form of a game, but it was ultimately reality.
Since dying in the Tower meant actually dying, no one could deny that the Tower was reality.
‘And precisely because this is reality, there can’t be only one solution.’
As my thoughts opened up, so did my field of vision.
Rather than remaining preoccupied solely with the enemies pressing blades to my throat, I took in the flow of this enormous board.
I soon found a suspicious bastard.
Far away, a decidedly unusual-looking bastard stood atop a hill.
“…!”
It was a bright-redGoblin mounted on a wolf.
Unlike the other green dwarfs that commonly came to mind when one thought ofGoblins, it had carrot-red skin and such a massive build that I could have mistaken it for an Orc rather than aGoblin.
Its presence among theGoblin grunts stood out like a crane among chickens.
‘That’s the boss. If there’s another variable here, it has to be that thing.’
My survival instincts and intuition were screaming.
They told me that cutting off that thing’s head would end all of this.
‘But I can’t be certain.’
The canyon still looked impossibly far away to my left.
On the opposite side, the redGoblin stood atop the hill.
It was time to decide.
Would I continue forcing my way left, or go right and shatter the board entirely?
‘What should I do? A difficult path guaranteed by the Tower, or a gamble based entirely on my gut….’
A chuckle escaped me at how ridiculous I looked.
“Heh.”
I could not believe I was agonizing over such a stupid dilemma while my life hung by a thread.
‘Obviously, I should choose the former. That’s the normal choice.’
Trying to take down a boss the Tower had not even mentioned?
No one would have any reason to do that unless they were insane.
But what was I supposed to do?
Anyone who risked their life climbing the Tower was a crazy bastard.
And even among those crazy bastards, I was not the mild kind of crazy.
“…Fine. From now on, I’m doing this my way.”
Having made up my mind, I turned away from the Safe Zone I had believed to be my only escape route until now.
Only then did the path I had traveled come clearly into view.
The path I had taken and would now take again.
Across the sand-colored wasteland, the red road soaked inGoblin blood looked just like a red carpet.
As though telling me to follow it.
“I can’t turn down a welcome like this. Haa!”
I kicked off the ground and raced down that path.
A red warning window immediately appeared before my eyes.
[Caution: You are heading down the wrong route.]
“I know.”
[Warning: No mission objective exists along the current route.]
This time, it was not a caution but a warning.
“I’ll handle it.”
When I continued to ignore the System’s guidance, a more forceful warning soon followed.
[Warning: You are deviating from the designated route and heading into an unknown route. This may result in fatal consequences, and all responsibility for those consequences rests with the Awakened.]
It was a long red message.
Now that I had already made up my mind, it was nothing but an obstruction.
“Quiet! You’re distracting me!”
The System sent no further warnings.
As if it had given up trying to persuade me.
With the nuisance gone, I increased my speed another notch.
“SKRRAK?”
“SKREE! KRR, KRRUK!”
TheGoblins exchanged a few words among themselves, seemingly flustered by my sudden move.
They soon realized something was wrong and scrambled to block my path.
However, most of their forces were concentrated toward the canyon.
They had not expected a battle to occur on this side, so the defensive line here was inevitably thin.
They had never been a match for me in the first place.
They had only managed to hold out through sheer numbers.
‘But what if they’re short on numbers?’
That meant one thing.
‘Easy.’
It felt like I had been climbing stairs with a heavy load, only to throw it aside and start descending.
Retracing my path was almost absurdly easy.
“SKRREEEE!”
OneGoblin still charged at me without knowing its place.
“Not a chance!”
I added the speed of its charge to the speed of my own sprint and drove the tip of my sword straight into its skull.
CRUNCH!
The blade shattered its skull and pulped its brain.
When I pulled out my sword, something whitish came trailing out along Nocturne’s black blade, but the sight no longer even disgusted me.
All I could think about was ending this interminable battle.
Starting with that one, everyGoblin that blocked my path fell in a single blow the moment my blade touched it.
I no longer needed swordsmanship to clear a path.
Simply swinging Nocturne, heated scarlet as though it had just been pulled from a forge, was enough.
All it left behind were corpses and cross-sections charred black.
Until now, every time I caught my breath, I had glanced toward the canyon, estimated the remaining distance, and rationed my strength accordingly.
Ah, I’ve made it this far, so I can use this much.
I’ve come this far, so I can use this much.
But from my current position, the distance to my new target would take 3 minutes at most.
‘There’s no reason to conserve my stamina. I’ll pour everything out and end this within 3 minutes.’
When I unleashed all the strength I had conserved until now and cut loose, the dwarfs were swept away like autumn leaves in the wind.
I felt like a predator in the middle of a flock of sheep.
As I ran rampant, I sensed something thundering after me from behind.
It had to be theGoblins stationed along the road to the canyon, now racing after me in a panic.
‘Try to keep up. As if you can.’
But there was no chance of that distance closing.
The only distance closing here was the one between theGoblin leader and me.
‘Almost in range…!’
My target was now close enough to reach at any moment.
GRRRR!
Wolf riders blocked the way ahead.
They could not allow me to keep advancing toward their leader.
BARK! BARK!
A wolf sprayed saliva as it thrust its fangs at me.
Almost simultaneously, its rider’s studded iron club came at me with enough force to smash my skull.
But.
‘This much…!’
This was not enough to stop me.
THUD!
I kicked hard off the ground with my right foot, sprang sharply back and to the left, and slashed horizontally.
The wolf’s jaws snapped shut on empty air with a ‘CHOMP,’ and I sliced straight across its neck.
SLICE!
The wolf crumpled in a fountain of blood without even managing a single yelp.
“Kek?!”
Unhorsed — unwolfed, rather — theGoblin was too dazed to even collect itself. It was a bonus.
I stomped on the headless wolf’s shadow.
‘Bite!’
The head of my shadow opened its mouth at an angle that should have been impossible, then tore a chunk from the wolf’s shadow with a CRUNCH.
[‘Bite’ used on the target’s shadow. Representative Skill ‘Leap (E+)’ temporarily Imprinted.]
‘Just what I needed!’
Since this was a mount’s Representative Skill, I had hoped it would yield something useful, and I had obtained precisely what I needed.
Now there was no reason to deal with all the remaining wolf riders.
I was already right on top of my target.
I adjusted my grip on the blazing-red Nocturne with both hands and leaped.
‘Leap!’
The instant I kicked hard off the ground with both feet, my field of vision flipped.
WHOOSH!
Carrying the full speed of my sprint, I soared at least three meters into the air.
The wolves and their riders stared blankly up at me like dogs that had lost the chicken they were chasing.
At the apex, my gaze met that of theGoblin leader who had been my target from the start.
“…!”
Its yellow eyes were stained with shock.
It seemed to realize my intention only then, and I saw it belatedly reach for its weapon, but….
‘Too late.’
I was already directly above its head.
The acceleration of gravity was added to Flash, unleashed with every last drop of my Mana.
FWOOSH!
“…!”
In that instant, crimson flames spread across the descending blade.
As though my fervent wish, with everything staked on this single blow, had somehow reached Nocturne.
The sword strike bearing all of my power converged upon a single point.
‘Burn.’
SHWOOOSH─!
A crimson trajectory stretched from the sky to the ground.
The flames plunged down.