Hard Run 1
What is the problem?
Why the hell can I not use it?
Is there another requirement besides what they explained?
What exactly is the usage requirement I failed to fulfill?
How am I supposed to fulfill it?
They should at least tell me that much.
Hard Run 2
The bastards that only fought hand-to-hand before are using Magic now.
Ha.
So they are no longer simple, stupid clay dolls.
Now they are magical clay dolls.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 42
They gained some additional abilities, but since it was still just Magic, it did not feel particularly threatening.
What I learned before fighting the floor 100 boss is actually helping.
It is still harder, though.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 133
The insects on floor 11.
Now they use Magic on top of poison.
Is Magic Attack just standard from now on?
Hard Run 134
As expected, the spiders and rats use Magic too.
Do I now have to watch those Cerberus bastards breathe poison, lava, and fire while casting Magic on top of it?
. . . . . .
Hard Run 278
These fucking bastards…….
They are breathing poison, lava, and fire while using Magic Attacks too.
Haah…….
. . . . . .
Hard Run 345
The floor 30 Boss Room originally contained only the boss, but now it has an entire Guard Unit as well.
Maybe because of the guards, the boss also gained patterns that strengthen or support the others.
And apparently making everything more powerful is just a basic feature now.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 503
In this mode, the woman was tucked away in a corner of floor 31.
She was in a place I might never have found if I had not been checking every room on every floor, which made me wonder whether being so thorough had been a mistake.
But she looks even worse than usual.
Does she somehow remember what happened before?
Hard Run 504
She clearly has no memories of before.
Then I do not understand why she is in worse condition.
If anything, should she not be better off because she did not make it as deep into the dungeon?
Hard Run 505
Come to think of it, floors 31 through 40 are packed with creatures that use Mental Attacks, and every one of them looks like a ghost.
If she has been stuck on this floor for a long time, I suppose it makes sense that she is in bad shape.
Hard Run 506
That still does not mean she is allowed to latch onto me again.
Hard Run 507
This is the first time I have died with my eyes open.
What happened?
Hard Run 508
Just in case, I kept the Status Window open and checked it constantly.
At some point, a Status Effect called ‘Nightmare’ appeared.
Is this an evolved version of whatever put me to sleep in Normal Mode?
But I cannot fall asleep without a [Campfire], and even when I do sleep, I cannot dream, so can a Nightmare even affect me?
Still, if that woman gets afflicted with it, this could be dangerous.
Hard Run 509
Apparently, I did not die from the ‘Nightmare’ itself.
It seems the woman and I were afflicted at the same time, and she was controlled into killing me.
What am I supposed to do about that?
Hard Run 510
For now, the woman will wait in an empty room while I clear the floor.
It would be best if she simply stopped following me altogether.
But telling her not to follow me probably will not accomplish anything.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 745
I should have expected the woman to become a problem.
But her circumstances were different between Easy Mode and Normal Mode, so I assumed things would change again this time.
Even the floor where she appears changed again, so why does the floor 40 boss still look exactly the same as it did in Normal Mode?
. . . . . .
Hard Run 747
Where the hell did that woman's conscience go?
Leaving aside whether that is even the proper attitude for asking someone for a favor, I hate the way she assumes I will naturally do whatever she asks.
She wants me to stop the boss from taking her brother's appearance.
I do not even decide what the boss looks like. That is completely beyond my control, yet she is somehow absolutely certain I can do something about it.
How much does she think she knows about me?
And everything she offers in return is completely useless to me. I do not even know whether she is truly capable of giving me any of it.
Then again, that King bastard was the same. His words sounded impressive, but he never actually showed me anything, so I still have no idea whether he could really grant everything he promised.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 821
The Golem Knights never started using Magic, but Golem Mages were added among them instead.
It became harder, but in a completely different way, so it feels strange.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 823
Are Easy, Normal, and Hard Mode supposed to be Parallel Worlds?
That would at least explain why the monsters have different abilities in each mode.
No.
Something still feels wrong.
If they are Parallel Worlds, they should be completely separate worlds.
Then how does the King remember everything?
. . . . . .
Hard Run 998
Do the woman and the old shopkeeper truly remember nothing?
No matter how much I probe them, they genuinely seem to have no memories, which only makes this more confusing.
Is it really like I thought, and each mode is a Parallel World?
Then how does the King remember?
Does he share memories between Parallel Worlds?
Hard Run 999
Floor 50.
As expected, the inscription changed again.
Like before, it is probably another strategy guide, but simply reading it tells me nothing.
What use is knowing that it contains the strategy if I still cannot understand it?
Hard Run 1000
The arrogant shall be shackled by their pride,
The greedy shall be beguiled by their greed,
The impatient shall be blinded by their emotions,
The slothful shall lose what they need to the passage of time,
Those who regret shall burden their memories with what they do not need,
And the foolish shall meet their end through their inadequacy.
The words on the stone monument still made no sense from reading alone.
If I organize only what I learned through experience…….
Being ‘shackled’ means [Cannot Move].
Being ‘beguiled’ is an Illusion Pattern that makes several copies of the boss appear.
Being ‘blinded’ means Blindness.
‘Losing what is needed’ means the boss's Skill Cooldowns decrease.
‘Accumulating what is unnecessary’ means my own Skill Cooldowns increase.
I still have not seen what ‘meeting the end through inadequacy’ means.
But considering I have already seen the other patterns at least twice without triggering that one, it is probably a Skill that activates when my Health reaches rock bottom.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 1104
Fuck, was the last one an Instant-Death Attack?
Another Instant-Death Attack?
Can this bastard not function without one?
This is genuinely fucking awful.
And then there will probably be another Instant-Death Attack on floor 51.
Ha.
Why the hell do Instant-Death Attacks even exist?
. . . . . .
Hard Run 1404
The Skeleton Minions were strengthened about as much as I expected, but the Lich King…….
……Let us not even talk about that.
I expected it to have the same appearance as in Normal Mode, like the ghost boss did, but it looks different again.
Judging from the crown, it might be copying that Former Emperor the Doppelgänger imitated on floor 70 during Normal Mode.
Or maybe it is wearing a crown because I kept calling it the Lich King in my head.
Hard Run 1405
I remembered the telepathy from last time and tried talking to it just in case, but it completely ignored me.
So this is one-way communication too.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 1491
I finally cleared floor 60.
As expected, it left a message through Telepathy at the very end, but the content was ominous.
‘The King will not forgive you.’
I do not understand what he supposedly refuses to forgive, but at the very least, I have a strong feeling the floor 100 strategy will be completely different from before.
Hard Run 1492
Surely there is not another mode after Hard Mode, right?
. . . . . .
Hard Run 1873
Thanks to that woman losing her mind to Mental Attacks, I only just made it back to floor 70.
The skeleton bastard took the appearance of the Former Emperor, so this one should have a different appearance again.
I have absolutely no idea what it will look like.
Hard Run 1874
Why is the Doppelgänger already wearing my appearance?
In Normal Mode, it did not copy me until floor 97.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 1877
It seems to copy whatever equipment I am wearing before I open the door.
On top of that, it copies every action and Skill I use, making it feel as though I am attacking myself.
I arbitrarily started calling it a Doppelgänger, but now that it actually behaves like one, I feel as though I somehow spoke it into existence.
Fortunately, it cannot copy attacks made with items, so I should be able to clear it by focusing on items.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 2113
Since I am clearing it mainly with items like potions and throwing weapons, it does not feel entirely like fighting a mirror.
Still, I cannot get used to it.
I will probably clear it eventually.
What worries me is how much worse it will be on floor 97 if floor 70 is already this difficult.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 2345
No matter how much I think about it, I still do not understand why those ogre-or-whatever bastards appear after the Doppelgängers.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 2497
I thought it was strange that Chimeras suddenly appeared from floor 81 and were then followed by Cyborgs, but after thinking about it, maybe it is not completely nonsensical.
A Cyborg may be mechanical, but ultimately it is a combination of a machine and a human.
A Chimera is also a monster created by combining things that might be animals or monsters, so perhaps that is supposed to be the similarity.
Still, I feel like there is a pretty enormous difference between a Chimera and a Cyborg.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 2776
That thing genuinely looks as though it wandered in from the wrong genre.
But now it uses Magic too, so perhaps it did find the right genre after all……
No, its other attacks still seem like they belong to the wrong genre, which only makes things more confusing.
……Are even those attacks actually fantasy pretending to be science fiction?
Hard Run 2777
Looking at the woman's face now, something about it feels strangely unpleasant.
She has not become uglier than when I first met her.
It is more her eyes and expressions……
Maybe it is because she looks like someone who has gone insane.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 3079
Seriously, please stop chatting in front of me.
I do not care about your shared past.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 3117
They built tombs for living people in advance because they believed it would grant them long lives.
Apparently, they even believed that the larger the tomb, the longer the person would live.
Of course, there was also the hope that they could live just as comfortably after death as they had while alive……
What kind of bizarre culture is that?
If someone can afford to pour money into an enormous tomb they are not even going to use yet, then their life is probably already comfortable enough that wealthy people capable of building larger tombs would naturally live longer.
It was not because the tomb itself was large.
The woman did not seem particularly surprised.
Either she already knew about the custom, or the Empire had practiced something similar.
This place is seriously strange……
. . . . . .
Hard Run 3145
Somehow, I ended up learning the exact relationship between the woman and the Cyborg.
At first, when the Cyborg angrily spoke about what had happened, I thought it sounded like guilt by association.
Then the woman opened her mouth, and that thought disappeared immediately.
She may not have personally given the orders or carried out the acts, but in the end, she was no different from the people who did.
When she insisted she had done absolutely nothing wrong and tried to get me to agree with her, I ignored her.
They hastened their own destruction with their own hands, yet the person involved understands it least of all.
Then again, if she possessed enough sense to recognize that, she would probably have realized it long ago.
Instead, all she does is blame other people.
. . . . . .
Hard Run 3476
Floor 91 is different this time.
The boss was not simply strengthened.
Before, if I approached, it only struck downward.
Now it swings its arms in different directions, and it even uses feints when casting Magic Attacks.
Surely the floors below will not be like this too?
. . . . . .
Hard Run 3797
If you are going to make it this much harder, at least change the rewards too.
Why am I getting floor 10 rewards again?
Ah, seriously.
Hard Run 3798
I hoped I was wrong.
I cannot believe the thing I feared actually happened.
On top of using Magic Attacks, it can Teleport now.
Haah……
. . . . . .
Hard Run 4726
At this point, I do not even know what this game's identity is anymore.
Can I still call that thing a Cyborg?
No, it definitely looks like one……
How far does it intend to evolve?
. . . . . .
Hard Run 5419
I made another deal with him.
Of course, before speaking with him, I knocked the woman unconscious so she could not interfere.
First, I asked about the door.
He said this tomb had been built on the spot where the door originally existed.
Could that have something to do with why the [Final Door] was inside the floor 100 Boss Room?
Then I asked how to use the door.
As expected, he demanded the woman in exchange.
The method he told me last time had not worked, and the fact that he killed the woman immediately after I handed her over still bothered me, so I refused.
When I told him that honestly, he laughed and said that from his perspective, I was equally difficult to trust because I had somehow entered this tomb without anyone noticing.
He kindly gave me a long explanation for why.
Unfortunately, it was filled with the sort of complicated terminology people who already understand something love to use, so there was only one part I actually understood.
There is Magic cast over the entire dungeon that makes Spatial Movement into the dungeon impossible.
And yet I suddenly appeared inside as though I had Teleported.
Then what the hell does that make me, when I was dragged here against my will?