Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 96

Chapter 96: Nightmare, 7th Floor (3)

TL: DDTL

Statue.

The moment I stepped into Stage 5, what jumped right out at me was a massive Statue.

It had the feel of some kind of giant warrior, a bow gripped in its hand.

The Statue stood close to the door leading to the next stage…

I turned my gaze.

I noticed something sitting near the door I’d just come through, too.

‘A bow…?’

A bow, and six arrows.

Just lying there on the floor.

A bow this time, not a sword.

More than that, the atmosphere felt different from the previous stages.

Because there wasn’t a single arrow hole bored into the Cavern walls all around.

All I could see was the Statue and the bow.

After finishing my observation, I released time.

I walked over and reached out for the bow.

No warning from Sixth Sense.

The instant I picked up the bow…

Snap.

A red line suddenly appeared down the middle of the Cavern floor.

The red line looked like it split the Cavern in two, right down the middle.

“…?”

What now.

A red line? Meaning, don’t cross it?

There were changes on the Statue, too.

Red dots had appeared on various parts of it.

Arms, legs, the heart, the head. Six red dots in total.

[0/6]

And above the Statue’s head, the number ‘0/6’ had appeared.

I looked back and forth between the bow in my hand and the Statue.

Six red dots on the Statue.

Six arrows provided.

Interpreting the situation from the given information wasn’t all that difficult, but…

‘Shoot them?’

Anyone could see this was telling me to fire the bow and land a hit, right?

On those red dots marked on the Statue.

And the red line on the floor probably meant I had to shoot from behind it, without crossing.

This stage put me on the shooting side this time, not the dodging side.

Alright, got it perfectly.

But here’s the problem.

I can’t shoot a bow.

I’d run into a serious obstacle.

The distance from the line to the Statue was roughly fifty meters.

The red dots were maybe the size of a person’s palm at most.

No way I could land a hit.

I’d messed around with archery a bit on Floor 1 here and there, half for fun, so it wasn’t like I couldn’t shoot at all.

But hitting a target tens of meters away? Absolutely not, no way I was that skilled.

‘Seriously, archery? Come on…’

Brow scrunched up, I agonized over what to do.

What if I used a magic skill instead of an arrow to hit them…

Wouldn’t work, right?

Using the bow to hit the red dots was clearly the rule of this stage.

I couldn’t know what would happen if I broke the rule, but at the very least, I doubted the stage would clear.

…I’ll just try it.

I gathered up the bow and arrows and walked over to the red line.

Standing right at the line, I nocked one arrow.

Slowly drew the bowstring, took aim at the red dot on the Statue’s chest.

Twang!

The arrow flew off with good momentum.

And missed the Statue entirely.

The arrow that landed on the floor nearby vanished on the spot.

[0/6]

The number above the Statue’s head stayed the same.

Looked like the count would only go up if I actually landed a hit.

The fact that the fired arrow had disappeared meant my chances were probably capped at six, one per arrow.

What would happen if I didn’t hit a single one?

Swallowing the unease, I took my second shot.

I tried my best to get a feel for it, thinking about the trajectory of the one that had just missed.

Twang!

Aimed for the chest dot again.

And once again, didn’t even hit the Statue.

“…”

Two attempts in, it hit me.

This… isn’t going to work at all?

Way harder than I’d thought. Didn’t feel like I could land a single shot.

With a sinking heart, I picked up the third arrow.

‘Demon King.’

I called out to him.

‘You know how to shoot a bow? Give me a hand here.’

Figured I’d at least try to get some pointers on the angle.

He was a Demon King, after all, surely he had some skill?

The Demon King didn’t answer.

I pressed harder.

‘If I fail, you die with me, right? You’re really not going to help?’

Only then did the Demon King respond.

– We know not how to shoot either.

‘…’

– Come, put some effort in. How can you fail to land even one?

This guy’s honestly useless…

I let out a sigh and drew the bowstring.

The third arrow also missed the Statue.

Miss, miss, miss again.

The fifth arrow at least struck the Statue at the foot and ricocheted off.

But in the end, I couldn’t land a hit on a single red dot.

One arrow left.

“Fuck.”

What was going to happen if I really missed them all?

Just an outright failure?

Or maybe the door wouldn’t open and I’d be stuck here forever…

Figuring I was screwed anyway, I decided to try something different.

Instead of an arrow, I fired off Light Bullet and nailed a red dot.

Pop!

[0/6]

The number above the Statue’s head didn’t change.

Didn’t work, as expected.

I looked down at the red line at my feet.

Carefully, I tried sticking my foot past the line. Sixth Sense didn’t react.

Nothing in particular happened when I crossed the line.

I walked closer to the Statue.

The red dot on its left leg.

I stood right in front of it and took aim with the bow. Then loosed my final arrow.

Ping!

The arrow struck the red dot and bounced off.

I checked to see if the number had changed…

[0/6]

No change, as expected.

Probably didn’t count because I’d crossed the red line to shoot.

‘Screwed…’

Missed all six shots.

As I tensed up, wondering what was about to happen.

The Statue’s red dots all vanished.

And at the same moment, red dots appeared on both of my arms.

“…?”

The hell.

Rrrrrumble…

Right then, with a sudden roar, the Statue began to move.

I flinched and stepped back.

The Statue raised its bow, drew the string, and aimed at me.

Then red energy gathered and condensed into the shape of an arrow.

KABOOM!

I threw myself sideways to dodge.

A massive Light Arrow slammed into the ground.

So now the Statue’s attacking?

The Statue drew its bowstring toward me again.

For now, I retaliated too.

I stopped time, performed Mental Concentration, then fired a Full Charging Destruction Ray.

The Statue, a gaping hole blown through the middle of its torso, listed and crumpled.

‘…That it?’

Was fighting the Statue actually the penalty for missing the arrows?

I stared at the fallen Statue, hoping that was it… huh?

Rrrrrumble…

My brow furrowed.

Because the Statue had gotten back up and started to regenerate.

Fully restored to its original condition, it drew its bowstring again.

Before the arrow could fly, I beat it to the punch with Flame Strike.

KAAABOOOOM!

The fireballs shattered the Statue to pieces all over again.

But the pulverized debris rose into the air.

Coalesced together, and was restored to perfect condition once more.

After that, I destroyed the Statue several more times.

The Statue’s actual combat power wasn’t particularly strong, so taking it down was easy.

Every time, the Statue just promptly restored itself and aimed its bow at me again.

I tried interfering with the Statue’s regeneration, and I tried spamming magic skills to grind it down to nothing but dust.

But the Statue regenerated regardless.

I stopped time.

It didn’t have a core like the Floor 3 boss.

No weak point like the Frozen Hydra either.

No matter how many times I dropped it, it just regenerated infinitely.

‘How am I supposed to kill it?’

That was when something caught my eye.

The red dots marked on both of my arms.

…Come to think of it, what was this?

Why had the red dots that were on the Statue suddenly transferred onto my body?

‘…’

No way?

I released time.

Rolled up my pants and checked my legs.

There were red dots on my legs, too.

Lifted my shirt and checked my chest. A red dot, just as I’d thought.

Both arms, both legs, heart, head.

The red dots had been transferred onto my body in the exact same spots they’d been on the Statue.

I couldn’t see it, but there was probably one on my head as well.

An arrow came flying.

This time, instead of destroying the Statue, I let it keep firing.

I kept dodging the incoming Light Arrows.

Watching carefully, the thing was firing every single arrow specifically at my right arm.

To be more precise, at the red dot on my right arm.

‘Wait a second…’

An ominous suspicion flashed through my mind.

Don’t tell me.

It doesn’t end until I get hit?

Because I failed to hit the Statue’s red dots… the penalty is having to get hit by arrows the same number of times in return?

That tracked.

So what do I do then.

Just stand there and take it? Take that thing?

‘Brutal…’

But there wasn’t any other way.

At this rate, it’s just going to loop forever. I need to find some kind of way out.

…Screw it, let’s try.

I stopped dodging and threw my right arm out wide.

“Bring it.”

The Statue drew its bowstring.

I activated Skin Hardening.

Then layered Aura Blade on top of that to protect my right arm as much as possible.

BOOM!

For all the effort, it didn’t matter.

The Light Arrow tore clean through my right arm and blew it apart.

“Aaaagh…!”

At the searing, blinding pain.

A scream ripped out of me on its own.

But I’d already lost an arm once during the Floor 4 Hidden, so I pulled myself together right away.

[0/5]

“…!”

I looked at the Statue and saw the number had changed.

Dropped from 6 to 5.

So that meant this really was…

‘I really do have to take all of these to end it.’

I stopped time. The pain ceased.

Catching my breath, I sorted out my thoughts.

Right arm, hit.

That meant I still had five more arrows to take…

‘The head is the problem.’

Arms, legs, heart, those were fine.

With the Frozen Hydra blood effect, anything below the head wouldn’t kill me no matter how badly it got hit.

But the head was a problem.

After taking one hit, I knew the Light Arrow’s power was simply impossible to defend against.

If one hit my head, my skull would burst into pieces. That meant instant death.

…Wasn’t there some kind of way?

As I racked my brain, an idea suddenly came to me.

‘What if I only grazed it and then dodged?’

I didn’t know exactly how the hit detection worked, but if a hit counted the moment the arrow touched the red dot…

Then taking just a graze and then dodging didn’t seem impossible.

Just time it right, stop time, then Teleport, easy?

It was worth trying.

I released time.

Drip, drip.

Blood started pouring out from the severed end of my right arm.

Maybe thanks to the regenerative effect of Frozen Hydra blood, the bleeding stopped pretty quickly.

Biting down hard on my lip to endure the pain, I stared at the Statue.

The Statue was about to fire its next arrow.

This time, I threw out my left arm wide.

Every nerve focused, I waited for the arrow to come.

Focus, focus…

The arrow loosed.

‘Now!’

I stopped time.

The arrow halted, just barely piercing the red dot on my left arm.

…Success, for now.

I performed Mental Concentration, and the instant I released time, I used Teleportation.

[0/4]

I checked the Statue’s number, and it had dropped.

‘Yes…!’

Confirming that the workaround had worked, I cheered internally.

Unlike the right arm, my left arm didn’t explode; it ended with just a chunk of flesh gouged out.

Damn, should’ve done this from the start.

Lost my right arm for nothing.

Anyway, the same went for the remaining four shots.

I dodged arrows until Teleportation’s cooldown was up, then moved on to the next body part.

Right leg, left leg, heart, I cleared them all in that order.

[0/1]

The last one left, the head.

One wrong move and I was a goner, so I had to be careful.

‘Stopping early is fine.’

If I stopped time too early and missed the timing, I could just try again.

But stopping too late meant instant death. Don’t push it.

‘Now.’

The final arrow flew in.

I stopped time.

The arrow halted just in front of my forehead.

…Did it touch? I think it touched.

The moment I released time, I Teleported.

Trickle.

A sharp pain came with the blood streaming down my face.

Yep, definitely a hit.

I wiped my forehead and shook off the blood.

Must have cut deeper than I’d thought, since I was bleeding a lot.

Either way, as long as I wasn’t dead, it was fine.

[0/0]

The number above the Statue’s head hit zero.

Rrrrumble…

The Statue began to collapse on its own.

And it didn’t regenerate anymore.

“Whew…”

I let out a breath and slumped to the ground.

Exhausting. Just exhausting.

I checked my severed right arm.

‘…Is it regenerating?’

My arm was gone from below the joint.

The severed end was bubbling and frothing, and it did look like a new one was slowly growing in, bit by bit. Kind of gross.

The Frozen Hydra’s effects included boosted regeneration, but I didn’t know if it would regrow a fully severed body part.

Using Rapid Regeneration would heal it instantly, but…

I decided to wait it out. Might as well find out while I had the chance.

Even if it took some time, if it would just regenerate on its own, there was no reason to burn Rapid Regeneration with its 24-hour cooldown.

Hurt like hell, but pain was something I could just power through. Conserving the skill was more important.

Rrrrrumble…

The door to the next stage opened.

I didn’t cross through, and kept waiting.

As more time passed, a new arm really did slowly grow in.

It took about thirty minutes before the right arm was fully regenerated.

I tried moving the arm. Worked perfectly, as if it had never been cut off in the first place.

“Good.”

I’d gained some new knowledge about just how much regenerative power the Frozen Hydra’s blood held.

Maybe because regeneration burned a lot of energy, I was hungry.

I pulled food out of Subspace.

Unwrapped a chocolate bar, ate it, and rehydrated. Washed off my blood-soaked body a little too.

After finishing my rest and resupply, I walked up to the door.

The scene beyond the door was red.

A stark contrast to every Cavern up to now, which had burned with blue torchlight.

‘The boss?’

The atmosphere had that exact vibe.

I figured this was finally the last one… but why was I so uneasy, dammit.

Was it because I’d gotten this far relatively smoothly?

Feeling that nagging sense that some kind of sucker punch was still waiting for me.

I stepped through the door.

****

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