Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 88
Chapter 88: 6F Hidden (2)
TL: DDTL
First, I stopped time.
– Things are progressing quite smoothly, just as thou said. Heh heh heh. Why dost thou not strip already?
The Demon King’s mocking voice drifted into my head.
I ignored it and sank into agonized thought.
‘Tch…’
I was pretty damn flustered.
Beyond flustered. My head is spinning.
I looked at the princess frozen in front of me.
Three eyes, gray skin, abnormally elongated limbs, a body type completely different from a human’s…
‘Oh, hell no.’
The alien princess was apparently some kind of deranged pervert.
How does she even get the urge when our bodies are this different?
Ah… seriously, isn’t this kind of messed up?
It’d be off-putting with a regular person, let alone an alien.
Ethically and physiologically, no way.
Even for the sake of clearing the floor, I have to wonder if this is really the right call.
And shit, something feels off…
The Tower’s always been a piece of work, but this is how the route plays out?
Is this really the clear route?
It nagged at me. Something felt strangely out of place.
My instinct… or maybe not. Maybe I just want to dodge reality.
Anyway, no matter how many times I turned it over in my head, it was a hard no.
– Why? Got cold feet? Want me to do it for thee?
‘Shut it.’
For now, let me try persuading her some other way.
I finished thinking and released time.
“Why are you dawdling? If it’s my guard that concerns you, pay him no mind.”
I said to the princess.
“Princess, I’m sorry, but I cannot.”
“…You cannot?”
She rose and shot me an icy look.
“Are you mocking me?”
“No. I am already a married man, and I cannot betray my wife.”
Her expression said, And what does that have to do with me?
…There was no way that would work, right?
I was a slave; she was royalty.
She was probably thinking that this slave bastard was putting on some pathetic show of defiance.
“…The truth is!”
I could see her face souring in real time, so I scrambled into Plan B.
“That part of me does not function.”
“…What?”
“It shames me to admit it, but it is the truth. Princess, you have offered me a glorious opportunity, and even if I wished to accept, I cannot…”
In my head, the Demon King was laughing himself sick.
…What else was I supposed to do? Aliens were a genuine no for me!
“If there is anything else, I would gladly…”
“Ha.”
The princess let out a short laugh.
“Enough. The mood is ruined.”
Oh? Thank god.
“Get him out of my sight. The lowly slave dares to humiliate me.”
Not thank god.
The princess was seriously pissed.
Shing.
The guard knight who had been standing motionless to the side drew his sword.
Shit… figures it’d come to this?
I stopped time.
Now what.
– Kill them all, what else?
The Demon King said it again, never tiring of the suggestion.
But persuading the princess had gone sideways… and there really didn’t seem to be any options left.
Other than just making a clean mess of things.
Sixth Sense told me the guard was weaker than me.
And the princess was naturally weaker than him.
So first, take down the guard, subdue the princess, take her hostage…
Then make a scene and demand all the slaves be freed?
Maybe this was actually the right answer.
‘Okay.’
Let’s give it a shot.
I gathered my thoughts and entered Mental Concentration.
Then I teleported behind the guard.
Stopped time again, Mental Concentration again.
Schwick!
I activated Sword of Light and took the guard’s head off before he could react.
“Eeeek…!”
The princess’s scream rang out.
I was about to grab her as a hostage when…
[Failed to clear Floor 6 Hidden, Nightmare difficulty. (1/3)]
[Exiting the Tower.]
The message floated up in front of me.
I was kicked out of the Tower on the spot.
“…Oh, come on.”
Why now?
Did killing the knight count as failure?
Guess making a scene wasn’t the answer after all.
“See? Told you.”
I addressed the Demon King and got nothing but a sneer in return.
Either way, I had one chance left.
I folded my arms and thought.
‘…Do I actually have to just go along with what the princess said?’
Is that really the answer?
Something feels off, hmm…
Let me think this through.
First, the clear condition was almost certainly to keep both tribes alive.
If I was wrong about even that, I wasn’t clearing this on my final attempt anyway.
So I had to take that as a given.
Was there any path besides the princess route?
“…”
Come to think of it, the prince had been mulling over what to do before he handed the choice to the princess.
Whether to spare the slaves or not, the decision rested with the prince to begin with.
So all I needed was for the prince to make a firm decision himself, right there. Wasn’t that enough?
In other words, I just had to steer the prince into making it go that way.
Asking for a different reward in place of citizenship had worked once…
If I could just talk a little smoother, it didn’t seem like an impossible plan.
[Enter Floor 6, Nightmare difficulty?]
I had to try.
I entered for my last attempt.
[…Match over! An overwhelming victory for Number 199!]
Going through the same routine.
The finals ended with my victory, and the prince stepped forward.
“I, Patoum, Third Prince of the Kalundi Empire, commend your victory. Number 199, what is your name?”
“Tu-ro.”
He went on about rewards and so forth.
“As champion, is there anything you wish to say?”
I gave the same answer as before.
“Could I receive a different reward in place of citizenship?”
“A different reward? What is it you desire?”
“I ask that mercy be granted so the people on the opposing side may also live. That is the reward I wish, in place of citizenship.”
“…You wish for the survival of the opposing tribe as well?”
The prince stroked his chin, looking conflicted as before.
“Compared to citizenship, it is a trifling reward. Yet it goes against the fundamental premise of these games, that only one tribe survives… Hmm.”
This was the moment.
Before the prince could turn to the princess for her opinion, I spoke again.
“In that case, what if I fight one more match, Prince?”
“…?”
“This opponent was too weak. The crowd seems disappointed that the finals ended so feebly. I will fight again, against a stronger opponent.”
Oooooooh…!
At my words, the stands erupted into stirring cheers.
The prince raised a hand and silence returned.
“You wish to fight again, against a stronger opponent?”
“Yes.”
“Amusing. But where would such an opponent be found? You two were the ones who defeated all the other slaves and reached these finals.”
I let my gaze sweep across the stands and answered.
“It need not be a human.”
“…?”
“I will fight a warrior of the Kalundi. I would have the prince choose my opponent.”
The whole arena fell silent.
The atmosphere had turned slightly strange.
“Kahahahahaha…!”
Shattering the quiet, the prince burst into thunderous laughter.
“You just said you would fight a Kalundi warrior? You, a human slave?”
He looked like he was dying from amusement.
Well, the setting of this world had the Kalundi dominating everything through overwhelming power…
On average, the Kalundi were naturally going to be vastly stronger than humans.
So when a human like me declared I’d take on a Kalundi, this reaction was inevitable.
But I had my own reasons to be confident.
‘If the princess’s guard was around that level…’
I doubted they’d send out anyone vastly stronger than that.
The prince stopped laughing and gave a nod.
“Insolent, but a fine spirit. Are you truly confident?”
“I will give my all.”
“Very well. As you wish, the match shall be held again.”
Cheers exploded from the stands.
The prince said something to the attendant beside him, and the man hurried off.
Whoosh!
After a brief wait, a new portal appeared in the arena.
Knights came through, retrieved the man from the opposing side, and went back through the portal.
One knight remained.
His presence was distinctly different from the others’.
“He is your opponent. An elite knight of the Imperial Direct Strike Force.”
The prince said.
“If you should win, Tu-ro, not only will all the slaves be spared, but you shall be granted citizenship as well. To defeat an elite Kalundi knight is to earn that right.”
The prince looked down at me with cold eyes.
“But if you lose, all the slaves shall die. That is the price for daring to flaunt your pride before me, Patoum. Prove your confidence.”
Clank. Clank.
The opposing knight began stripping off his armor.
Then he stood unarmored like me, holding only a single sword.
…A fair fight, then?
Yet his eyes were dripping with contempt as he looked me over.
Before the match began, I spoke to the prince.
“There is something I wish to ask the prince.”
“What is it?”
“Am I permitted to use any ability beyond swordsmanship?”
The prince smirked and answered.
“Use whatever means you have. Give your full strength.”
“Then I have one more question.”
“What is it?”
“Is it permitted to kill my opponent?”
At that, the opposing knight scoffed and glared at me.
The prince sounded incredulous too.
“If you can manage it, by all means.”
The destroyed Nexus on the opposing side regenerated, signaling the match was about to begin.
The announcer’s voice boomed across the arena.
[…And now, the final showdown begins! Slave warrior Number 199, Tu-ro! His opponent is Sir Kadatop, elite knight of the Imperial Direct Strike Force! The rules remain the same: the first to destroy the opponent’s Nexus wins!]
Waaaaaaah!
The cheers thundered through the stands.
“Sir Kadatop, don’t end it too quickly!”
“Show that insolent slave the gap between your stations!”
No one in the crowd seemed to think I had a chance.
The knight named Kadatop casually leveled his sword at me.
“Go on, struggle to your heart’s content.”
The Demon King spoke up.
– Canst thou win? Hand over thy body, and I shall grind him to dust.
Sixth Sense told me.
He was definitely a strong one.
Probably slightly stronger than me…
Well, one clean hit from Destruction Ray and it’d be over.
But I couldn’t just fire it blindly.
Just like the workshop master’s guard had dodged my Destruction Ray midair back in the Floor 4 Hidden…
This guy might dodge too. He felt strong enough for it.
But he knew nothing about my abilities.
Which meant I had a plan to land Destruction Ray cleanly, with no chance of evasion.
I extended my sword and beckoned him forward.
“I’ll yield the first move.”
The knight’s face twisted at my provocation.
“How dare a slave…”
He strode toward me.
Once the distance closed enough, he kicked off the ground and lunged. Incredible speed.
‘…Diul!’
I instantly deployed Pitch-Black Fog.
Whoooosh!
Pitch darkness swallowed me and the knight.
“…!”
Mid-charge, the knight lost all his senses and toppled to the ground.
I stopped time.
Then I cast Destruction Ray on Full Charging.
The ray struck the knight head-on.
Done. The knight was vaporized on the spot.
This was the Unblockable that even an opponent stronger than me couldn’t dodge. Worked like a charm.
– Tch, what bizarre little tricks thou pullest.
The Demon King clicked his tongue in disappointment.
The fog lifted.
The cheering in the stands gradually died away.
Because the knight was gone, leaving only me standing alone.
I trudged over to the opposing Nexus and started hammering on it, with no one left to defend it.
Soon the Nexus shattered.
The match was over.
“…”
The arena was silent.
Only then did the announcer’s bewildered voice come through.
[…Number 199 has destroyed the opponent’s Nexus. Uh, what just happened? Where did Sir Kadatop go?]
I looked up at the prince, who was staring down at me with shocked eyes.
“The victory is mine, Prince.”
“…What became of your opponent?”
“He’s dead.”
The stands erupted in murmurs.
After a moment of silence, the prince let out a wry laugh and began to clap.
“…Splendid. The victory is yours, Tu-ro.”
“As promised, all the slaves shall live, and I shall grant you 2nd Class Citizenship.”
As the prince applauded, applause cascaded down from the stands as well.
[Floor 6 Hidden, Nightmare difficulty, cleared successfully.]
The message appeared.
Phew. Cleared, then.
I glanced reflexively toward the princess…
She was licking her lips, looking down at me.
‘That crazy…’
Let’s never meet again.
[Absorbing the floor’s power completely.]
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
[Moving to the Reward Room.]
****
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They’re probably gonna meet again, his luck is abysmal.