Chapter 133
Moonlit Night Orc: Clear the 1st Floor with a Clear Time exceeding 12 Hours
It’s said that the moon harbors a magic that drives people mad.
And I’ve heard that certain races are so sensitive to moonlight that on full moon nights, they lose their minds and wander the forests… dancing in the webbed moonlight, lost in themselves.
===============================================================
Before entering.
Envers recalled the Orc on the 1st Floor. It was taller and more muscular than the average Orc, but still a manageable opponent.
Above all… it was slow.
The massive axe swung from its large frame certainly posed a threat, but the movements leading to its attacks were exceedingly sluggish.
In other words, there was a high latency in its actions!
If he could see the wind-up for its swing, dodging was easy. Even without martial arts training, Envers felt confident he could break through. So what if it grew stronger under the moonlight…?
How much could it possibly get stronger?
Therefore, Envers thought the real challenge on the 1st Floor was simply waiting until nightfall. He even brought magazines and novels to pass the time.
But a pair of eyes was watching him.
“………………”
“Ahem, cough… There’s a reason for this. I’m not trying to stall on purpose…”
Luna glared at Envers like she was going to kill him. She had a remarkable ability to hurl insults without saying a word.
Envers hastily fled to the 1st Floor of the Tower.
===============================================================
A vast circular space reminiscent of an arena. A faint drumbeat echoed.
Thump. Thump.
As the wind blew, flags fluttered, and pale shadows of people flickered on the surrounding walls, pretending to cheer without making a sound.
In the middle stood a warrior. Green skin and protruding tusks reflected a wildness, and the chains that bound its ankles hinted at its unfortunate situation.
Whether in the forest or in the arena, a warrior had but one mission: to battle.
※ SYSTEM_INFO ———–
[Gladiator Slave Orc]
Health: Low
Mana: Not used
Strength: 3 / 10 (Mid-level among students)
Agility: 1 / 10 (Lower tier among students)
Intelligence: 1 / 10 (Lower tier among students)
※ —————————
The muscular Orc was huffing and puffing, gripping its enormous axe.
Envers carefully stepped back, avoiding eye contact with the Orc.
Huff— Hooof—
“………………”
The Orc remained unmoving.
This was an exploit discovered by ordinary students through their strategies. The Orc wouldn’t attack those who were retreating.
High-level teams could dash in and decapitate the Orc right away, but those with lower specs couldn’t, so they discovered this tactic after some trial and error.
Since then, the foundational tactic had become “everyone retreats after entering to draw aggro -> then firepower is unleashed to deal heavy damage and then the fight begins.”
Envers opened a magazine after distancing himself.
He briefly considered training martial arts, but if the Orc perceived that as an “attack” and charged at him, he would have to play tag for 12 hours.
So he peacefully indulged in cultural leisure instead.
After waiting for 12 hours // that translates to about 1.2 hours in real time outside the Tower.
The sky inside the Tower gradually changed with the passage of time. The sun, which had been high in the sky, dipped below the horizon, and the moon rose, painting the night blue.
The Orc’s skin began to darken gradually.
Envers drew his sword, aiming at the ground, and boldly shouted.
“Come, Orc, face me!”
“GRAAAAAAAAAH!!!”
※ SYSTEM_LOG ———–
[Gladiator Slave Orc => Moonlit Night Half-Orc]
The latent werewolf blood awakens!
Status change for the Orc: Agility 1 => 4 (Upper-mid tier among students)
※ ————————–
“Wait, why is it so fast…”
Before he could finish, the Orc, now four times faster, ripped him apart in under five minutes.
===============================================================
Envers was shredded by the axe rain pouring down at 2 strikes per second, ejecting him from the Tower. He tumbled and rolled on the ground, his eyes wide open as he shouted.
“I was caught off guard! Again!”
“………………”
Luna was about to question him on what took him an hour when Envers was one step ahead. He jumped and re-entered the Tower.
Another hour later.
“Again!”
“………………??”
An hour later.
“Again!”
“………………!!!”
An hour later──.
“Dec–”
Bang!!
Luna smacked Envers on the back of the head with her mace. Finally, the rampaging Envers came to a halt.
She couldn’t let him find any gaps, lest he try to sneak back into the Tower again. So she plopped her petite bottom down, sitting on Envers’s back.
Then she gave his neck a few light taps with her palm, meaning he would be in trouble if he didn’t hurry up. Envers wore an awkward expression.
“…I’m sorry. I got too carried away.”
“What’s the deal?”
“But this is a trial set upon me. I can’t pass it on to an outsider…”
The mace lightly touched Envers’s head and fell. It meant he would be in trouble if he didn’t hurry.
If his head got smashed here, there would be no trial, so Envers obediently confessed about his journey to the hidden boss of the Tower of Trials.
“………………”
This was a most interesting story.
Why had Luna Steery been cutting down the clear times in the Tower of Trials? Because she enjoyed it. She derived immense joy from exploring through repeated challenges.
The feeling that she could move forward thrilled her.
She also enjoyed the thrill of teetering on the edge of life and death. Real battles were much scarier, making them impossible to enjoy, but in the Tower of Trials, death didn’t exist, did it?
So she savored each moment.
Analyzing every pattern at every level, she perfected her breakthroughs. However, her solo runs on the 4th Floor against the Whip Witch were getting stale…
She couldn’t resist new content.
“Let’s do this together.”
“…Together, you say?”
“This isn’t a request.”
“?”
Luna grabbed Envers by the neck and dragged him along into the Tower of Trials, forcibly adding him as a party member.
===============================================================
Although they frequently met in front of the Tower of Trials, it was their first time entering together. They had no idea how each of them climbed the Tower or what they were fighting for.
And so it was… that Envers witnessed Luna’s fighting style for the first time.
A storm of metal crashed around them. The heavy metal shards could easily tear apart a fragile human body, swinging at almost dizzying speeds.
Yet she moved through the chaos.
“Uuuaaaaah──!!”
“Easy.”
Luna moved with minimal motions. One step, then another. That alone rendered the Orc’s attacks completely ineffective. Not a single scrap of her attire was torn.
“The pattern…”
“GROOOOOAAR──!!”
“Is the same.”
“UUUUUU──!!”
Luna took it a step further, turning her back on the Orc to face Envers directly while evading the attacks. Sometimes she threw up peace signs with both hands or winked at him.
As if she knew exactly what attack would come next.
And indeed, she was spot on. She had it all figured out.
To Envers, witnessing that talent felt almost… transcendent, to the point that tears almost escaped his eyes from how impressive it was. And he was excited.
What kind of attack would she show him based on that flawless evasion…!!
“……………..”
“……………..??”
“I can’t… attack. Attack speed is too fast. This is tough. I need a new tactic… Ah.”
“Wait.”
Thud thud thud.
Having exhausted her dodging ability, Luna was instantly diced and ejected from the Tower.
“…I’ll be back! Don’t think this is the end──”
“Uuaaah──!!”
Envers followed, noting that he had lasted a whole 10 minutes – a minor victory, if anything.
Outside the Tower.
The two of them stood facing each other, utterly baffled by what just happened, and without any indication of who would speak first, they both opened their mouths.
“How about learning how to attack?”
“You should learn. Dodging.”
“I think it’d be faster for you to learn martial arts than for me to perfect that technique.”
“Just memorize it. If you’re not an idiot, you can manage.”
Luna was excellent at reading patterns but had disastrous hardware performance, unable to clear. Meanwhile, Envers had better hardware than Luna but couldn’t grasp the pattern analysis.
After about 30 minutes of bickering, they concluded they would work to complement each other’s weaknesses.
===============================================================
Envers swung his sword from high to low. A simple movement, yet executed properly. His firm physical balance showcased his hard work.
“This is a slash.”
“………………”
Luna swung her sword. Curiously, the blade didn’t cut straight but instead drew zig-zags, which looked very dodgy to Envers.
“That’s closer to clubbing than slashing.”
“Shut up.”
“Someone capable of such fancy moves, why is your attack so messy?”
“………………”
Luna’s eyes flickered with irritation. Envers quickly averted his gaze, recognizing the implication that if she could do better, she would’ve shattered the Orc’s skull by now.
Envers pondered over what he remembered. But he knew nothing about Luna Steery. He had never taken an interest in her.
Before the Tower of Trials appeared, Luna had been an inconspicuous student, always hanging at the bottom tier, and still was.
She had never belonged to any faction or was particularly sociable, so she didn’t attract much attention.
He could only vaguely recall catching glimpses of her purple hair during lectures.
Envers had focused solely on climbing, and never looked down.
He believed that nothing could be gained from someone weaker than himself.
That’s why he was so astonished. Protecting herself from the Orc’s savage attacks looked phenomenal. Some might argue that anyone could do that with limitless opportunities, but…
It’s not as easy as it sounds. Who can handle infinity?
To Envers, Luna was a physical disaster. She was quick-witted, but her motor skills were practically non-existent.
Then comes the question.
“How did you get past the 4th Floor?”
“Follow me.”
Luna demonstrated her strategy for the 1st Floor.
===============================================================
Starting from the lower right diagonal.
If you stand here, the axe will definitely come at a diagonal. You need to bend and take one step forward. That way, the axe will get embedded into the ground. Straighten your back.
Put your foot on the axe’s handle. I apply all my weight here, but honestly, I’m not sure how much force that is.
Then the Orc will try to pull the axe from the ground.
At this point, if you press down on the end of the handle, the strength the Orc uses to yank the axe free will fling the blade straight into its face. Then, poof! Split in half and dead.
That’s the basic strategy.
I can’t show you the time-cutting trick because it’s somewhat reliant on luck. It took me a solid 3 days.
The Rampaging Orc has the same patterns, but with faster attack speeds. So I think a different method might be needed. I’ll let you know what attacks come under what circumstances, along with how to counter them.
This is Pattern A-1.
At this distance, it’s one of the available attacks. You can identify it by listening closely to the roar. It’s going to swing the axe down, and there are three ways to dodge…
===============================================================
Studying (工夫).
The two accumulated knowledge. Practicing patterns with the normal Orc and planning how to react when the attacks quadrupled in speed.
They couldn’t match brute strength against the Rampaging Orc. They couldn’t keep up with its speed.
Then, what they needed was a phantasm.
“Sometimes your movements are dumb. Your brain gets tangled.”
Luna created a few feint movements, taking advantage of the fact that the Orc gets confused by specific motions.
At a glance, these seemed flashy and unnecessary, yet they were deceptively enchanting skirmishes that misled and confused. It worked on normal Orcs and even the Rampaging Orc, with which she had tested her method after waiting 12 hours.
Although that trial failed due to skill issues…!
Hope appeared. She was confident that, with a bit more mastery over the patterns, she could take down the Rampaging Orc.
Looking at Luna, Envers suddenly recalled a phrase his master had taught him. Great Master (大倧師).
If she had been born with her robust physique and skillful body movements, perhaps she could have become an extraordinary master of martial arts.
While they engaged in this cycle of challenge, failure, and growth,
A few days ago, Selvier, who had been practicing her magic in the Tower of Trials, could no longer tolerate it and approached them.
“Hey, you two can enjoy each other’s company, but… could you think of the waiting person?”
“What do you mean?!”
“………………”
Envers jumped in surprise, and Luna gripped her mace tighter.
But Selvier’s misconceptions had a reason. The two were entering the Tower together and were taking over an hour just on the 1st Floor!
In terms of time inside the Tower, it had easily exceeded 10 hours. Naturally, such thoughts would arise. From Selvier’s perspective, this was undoubtedly a romance.
Two people entering a confined space and spending over 10 hours together… it left a lot to the imagination!
“Totally false.”
Luna used a combination of concise statements and hand signals to explain the situation. It was the first time Envers had seen her speak at length.
After listening attentively, Selvier thought for a moment and then said,
“Well then, why not half-kill the Orc beforehand and finish it off right at noon…?”
“………………”
“………………!!”
The sorceress’s advice proved effective.
1st Floor cleared of the Tower of Trials──!!
