Chapter 111
Clang—!
A blade aimed at YuWon’s back flew through the air and was deflected.
At that moment, he felt a sharp premonition that something was above him.
[Sensory Field is active.]
Vwoong—
He felt the signs of it in his surroundings through his skin. But even then, it felt as small and sneaky as a little rat.
Fwip—
YuWon tilted his body.
A blade cut through empty air.
At that moment…
[Your arm has been imbued with the power of a Giant.]
Flex—
YuWon empowered his left arm and punched up.
Bang—!
Crumble—
The sound of fragmenting bones could be heard, and the assassin that had appeared above his head was flung far away and into a wall.
Boom—!
Flop—
The skeleton assassin crumbled to dust, but it seemed to have particularly sturdy armor as YuWon’s fists throbbed in pain.
YuWon spoke to Susanoo, who was observing him from somewhere.
“…You also planned shitty tests like this well.”
Sweat formed on YuWon’s forehead.
His surroundings were particularly dark so he couldn’t see well, but more importantly, his eyes were sunken, and his focus was waning.
Exhausted, tired, and above all, his need for sleep was overpowering.
The 99th floor. He had finally arrived here after climbing nonstop for three months.
The contents of the floor’s test were simple.
[Survive for 10 days.]
Ten days was a decently long time.
Since the 40th floor, each test became pretty hard, so they would take multiple days at a time, but none of them had taken ten days.
Although the time taken was a bit of a waste, it was good because of its simplicity.
However, the problem was these guys.
Swoosh—
Smack—!
A blade flew at him from the front.
Thanks to [Sensory Field,] they weren’t difficult to dodge, but the difficulty came from their unrelenting attacks, which didn’t allow YuWon to rest for even a moment.
‘They stab with their swords without revealing their presence. And…’
YuWon’s gaze shifted downwards.
Crunch—
“Wooooo—!”
A gigantic mouth opened up from the ground.
Slash—!
Pshk—
It collapsed after its head was cut off. It was an unknown undead monster whose head was twice as big as its body.
‘These monsters are mixed in in between the undead assassins.’
The monsters attacked continuously.
If it was like any other dungeon, he could’ve taken at least a few minutes of sleep, but that wasn’t the case here. If he let down his guard for even a moment, the monsters that were hiding their presence would appear in an instant.
Throughout the ten days, YuWon was always in a state of alertness, constantly without rest, as he prepared for the next strike.
“Let’s finish this quickly and get some sleep.”
YuWon looked up. He saw an Undead on the tall ceiling, hiding its presence in the darkness, and it was staring at him.
His sight with [Cinder Eyes] was bright even in any darkness. Additionally, the awareness granted by [Sensory Field] allowed him to detect even the tiniest of muscle movements, no matter how hard they tried to hide their presence.
But even then, even if it was YuWon, sustaining both of these skills for ten days straight was difficult.
But it didn’t matter as this would all end soon.
[Remaining Time: 001 : 07 : 24]
Only a little over an hour left.
When he thought back to the 240 hours he had to survive over the last ten days, the end was really within grasp now. He couldn’t afford to lose concentration after coming all this way.
Maybe the others knew his time was soon coming, so all the entities that were scattered around gathered together.
“I’m only popular in situations like this.” YuWon let out a deep sigh and talked to the dozens of assassins on the ceiling, “What are you doing?”
Clang—
Clack—
The assassins pulled out their metal weapons from in between their clothes and bones.
“Aren’t you gonna kill me?”
As soon as those words left his mouth…
Clatter—
The assassins fell down on YuWon like rain.
Fwoosh—
[Cinder Eyes reads the path.]
* * *
Translator – Jreaming
Proofreader – BringTheRayn
* * *
[Your level has increased.]
[Your Strength has increased by 1.]
[Your Constitution has increased by 1.]
[Your Perception has increased by 1.]
He felt like he heard a pretty nice message, and maybe because of the increase in level and Constitution, he thought his body felt a little lighter as well.
[You have cleared the test of the 99th floor.]
However, as soon as the test ended, YuWon collapsed on the ground and fell asleep. Not being able to sleep for ten days was no different from torture.
For one entire day, YuWon was in a deep sleep.
The floor’s test had already been cleared, so there were no assassins left to kill him.
After waking up from sleeping without worry, the first thing YuWon did was look around.
‘The door is…’
He found a heavily locked door that led to the next floor.
‘That way.’
YuWon let out a yawn and stood up. He knew he had slept for a long time.
Susanoo was nowhere to be seen. Since the top floor was coming up soon, YuWon expected Susanoo to be making a lot of noise talking, but that guy didn’t reveal himself.
‘My level increased.’
His level which hadn’t increased much after hitting level 90 finally went up after climbing these floors.
YuWon checked his status.
[Name: Kim YuWon]
[Level: 96]
[Strength: 99]
[Dexterity: 93]
[Constitution: 98]
[Perception: 99]
[Arcane Power: 102]
His levels had gone up quite a bit. His Arcane Power stat had increased by two, and other than Dexterity, the other stats were getting pretty close to 100. It was especially nice to see both Strength and Perception increase with the level-up just then.
‘I need to work on them one by one.’
It was a little unfortunate. However, with these stats and levels, he had practically completed his first goal of entering Susanoo’s dungeon.
Levels and stats and even items you could only get inside a dungeon…
He had spent a long time there due to its difficulty, but the things he obtained were sufficient.
“The problem now is…”
YuWon looked towards the door that had opened up at some point.
“I’m a little afraid to continue.”
After passing the 90th floor, the tests became exponentially harder. Other Rankers like Arthur appeared as Undeads, and the tests required all types of weird methods.
This dungeon was probably crafted by Susanoo with immense care because YuWon was able to find many of his legacies hidden in multiple places deep in the dungeon.
‘I have enough health.’
He hadn’t taken any major damage. Although he had some small injuries, thanks to the total darkness of the 99th floor, his health had recovered quite fast. His lack of sleep had recovered enough from this as well.
“Fuu—”
He took a deep breath and relaxed his mind.
He had been running for a while.
A nervousness that he didn’t normally feel tightly gripped his heart. It wasn’t because of the unknown ahead of him but because he knew what was waiting for him.
He took the steps up to the next floor.
His heart grew heavier.
“Hihihi—”
“Hih, hihihi—”
The first thing he heard was laughter.
Maybe he had gotten used to the spirits a little, but YuWon felt the essence of the dead that shouldn’t have had any energy nor physical strength.
Laughter. It was the universal reaction of the oldest spirits who went insane over time.
‘Chilling.’
After coming to the top of the staircase, a door could be seen.
The laughter came from beyond that door.
Truly a mountain of spirits were waiting for him.
Clack—
Creak—
The door which had been locked for a long time was opened.
As soon as the door opened, the expected message was heard.
[You have entered the final floor.]
[Upon completion, you will be able to obtain Susanoo’s Legacy.]
Until now, YuWon had obtained a lot of Susanoo’s legacies by completing his dungeon. Including the 「Elemental Worshiper’s Garment」 and Arthur’s 「Excalibur,」 YuWon had thought that they were all legacies of Susanoo that he had obtained by going through his dungeon. However, that didn’t seem to be the case.
‘All the things I’ve obtained until now were items used by the Undeads controlled by Susanoo.’
This was YuWon’s own misunderstanding. Among the items YuWon had obtained, none of them were items Susanoo had used while he was alive.
Although 「Excalibur」 was an incredible item, compared to 「Edge of Nightfall」 which Yuwon was using right now, it was a little lacking. If you were to compare it to Susanoo’s sword as well, it would be a little embarrassing.
Step—
His footsteps could be heard more clearly than when he was on the narrow staircase.
The spirits spread around the area all silently observed YuWon.
YuWon looked around the interior of the 100th floor. He felt it was similar to the floor where he met Arthur.
The test area was also the same—an open floor with nothing on it.
One thing that was different was that unlike the 10-meter-tall ceiling of the other floors, this floor’s ceiling was so high it couldn’t be seen.
Creak—
It was a space where sound echoed quite loudly.
YuWon heard something move and turned his head. Although it looked small enough to be mistaken for a dot, the sound could be heard clearly.
Chill—
His entire body got goosebumps.
He felt that his entire surroundings would be coated in ice in an instant. The cries of the dead, the chill, everything felt as sharp as blades.
Step—
As he continued moving slowly, he freed himself from the nervousness he felt from standing still.
As he approached the dot, he could finally see its form.
Kik—
The dot-like entity was in fact an Undead sitting in a giant chair.
The chair was unnecessarily huge. It was a simple chair with no patterns, but it was so big that even a giant could sit in it.
And the one sitting on it looked to be a Death Knight just like Arthur.
A skeleton knight wearing a purplish light suit of armor.
It wriggled a little and started to move.
Clack—
It felt very similar to the situation with Arthur. However, unlike that time, YuWon didn’t move hastily.
A thin blade could be seen grasped in the Death Knight’s hand.
Clack—
The Death Knight lifted its head. The black voids in the place of its eyes acknowledged YuWon’s presence. It definitely didn’t have any eyes, but YuWon felt as if their gazes had met.
‘Should I move first?’
He slowly brought out his mana and raised his guard accordingly.
He couldn’t make a decision.
Then…
“It’s that guy.”
A familiar voice was heard.
It was Arthur’s voice, which was using 「Kyneē」 as a medium and spoke directly into his mind.
“I know it as well.”
The spirits gathered around the Death Knight. At the edge of his blade, tens of thousands of spirits covered it and disappeared.
Clack—
Just as the Death Knight was going to stretch its legs and stand up…
[Holy Fire]
Fwoosh—
Bang—!
YuWon pulled out his sword, and a purple fire erupted from it.
He exploded the mana he was slowly gathering all at once through his sword strike.
Fwooosh—
Crack, crackle—
A thick flame burned the chair, and for a moment, the flames obstructed his vision.
“Did you kill it?”
“Please don’t ask that.”
It was an unlucky phrase. Whenever someone said this, it felt like the opponent would never die, and even if they did die, they would come back to life.
He didn’t even think for a second that the test would be complete with a single attack.
A small injury, or maybe an entire leg and an arm if he was lucky was what he was hoping for.
However…
Crackle, crackle—
The Death Knight simply walked out of the flames.
Flesh had appeared on half of its boney face at some point.
The skeleton spoke. “After getting hit, it’s hotter than I expected? Looks like it isn’t just some normal fire.”
It was a tone that YuWon knew well. He had thought ‘what if,’ but now that ‘if’ had become reality.
The worst enemy he could think of had appeared in front of him.
[Defeat the ‘Death Knight — Susanoo’.]