After slaying two cobalts, I took down three more.
Still, no level up occurred.
“King of the Cobalts.”
According to the seniors from Elysian Gallery, this was the only cobalt race monster that could genuinely pose a threat to me.
Is the brute inside this dungeon, or not? If he is, I want to meet him.
Has being on this Pandemonium difficulty tower for close to a month driven me mad?
Excluding Laura from the ninth floor, none of the others felt particularly impressive in terms of combat sense. Of them all, the Chinese woman Sun Haoran was the only one who didn’t hesitate in her actions.
The reason I can move more nimbly than the rest is due to the superiority of the dragonslayer sword itself and the sparring golem mk.2. The orc war chief that chased me and the orc shaman that gave me a hard time also contributed significantly.
It’s been 6 hours and 32 minutes since we entered the dungeon.
The reason I know the time so precisely is because the current time is clearly displayed in the top right corner of my vision.
Current time: 6:41 PM.
All seven of us, including myself, were squatting down to rest.
Because I insisted on staying at the very back for the entire 6 hours, only two out of the entire party, excluding residents of the upper floors, view me as being truly strong—Miwaki and the Chinese woman next to her, Zi Shuan.
At first, I couldn’t understand why people who showed absolutely no tension could so casually sprawl out and rest.
A square golden border encircled the group.
‘Safe Zone,’ as they called it.
Miwaki scratched her head and explained that it was one of the occasionally perfect Safe Zones found in Easy difficulty towers.
During the exchange program, all I could feel was a sense of alienation. Could those who climb the Pandemonium tower ever encounter such a Safe Zone?
04 : 23 : 54
Above the Safe Zone, a countdown displayed the time left.
04 : 23 : 53
The time dwindled, starting at five hours. It now meant that after 4 hours and 23 minutes, the Safe Zone we were using would disappear.
Although the leaderless group seemed to be led by the German woman, Laura, it was actually Bai Jin Young who took the lead in communication.
“Though it’s still early, wouldn’t it be better to sleep now for four hours and then finish the dungeon right after?”
Laura nodded.
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
Everyone agreed with Bai Jin Young’s suggestion. Miwaki approached me, who had been sitting quietly.
“Do you not have a sleeping bag?”
“Yes.”
“There’s nothing like that in the third floor rest area, is there?”
Miwaki handed me a sleeping bag.
“Use it!”
Though I was thankful to receive it…
“Then doesn’t Miwaki have none?”
Miwaki shook her head.
“No, I do! I have this bad habit of not throwing away items once they’re in my inventory… Ah, don’t worry! It’s a new sleeping bag! I’ll use the old one.”
Well then, this is actually good. If I tell Miwaki to use the new one, and I use the old one instead, I might seem even more insane.
“Thank you.”
Quietly, I accepted and unfolded the sleeping bag.
“What difficulty level are you on, Miwaki?”
Miwaki responded immediately.
“Easy difficulty.”
I looked at the person sitting next to Miwaki.
“How about you, Zi Shuan?”
Zi Shuan spoke lowly.
“Easy. You noticed, huh? We’re in a party together.”
It’s impossible not to notice when two people are clearly looking out for each other.
Zi Shuan nodded towards another Chinese man, Sun Haoran.
“Sun Haoran, that person is Normal difficulty.”
Bai Jin Young was Normal difficulty as well. Now, the only person whose difficulty level I didn’t know was Laura. I approached her.
Laura, noticing my approach, looked past me and above my head before speaking.
“What do you want? Floor three.”
“What difficulty level are you?”
Laura gave a hollow laugh, clearly finding it strange that I was asking her directly.
“Go ahead, guess my difficulty level.”
She seemed more combat-skilled than Bai Jin Young or Sun Haoran, who were Normal difficulty. Still, she didn’t seem to reach the level I imagined Hard difficulty climbers would.
“Hard?”
“Yes.”
Laura clicked her tongue.
“d*mn Hard.”
Looks like it’s pretty tough on her. I have no intention of offering platitudes; my own life seems far more intense.
I couldn’t resist asking.
“Which monsters will appear on Hard difficulty, eighth floor?”
Laura suddenly shivered and then slowly spoke.
“The Orc Champion.”
Oh ho…
“Did you k*ll him?”
Laura frowned when I asked that. She didn’t just frown; she looked like an angry little imp.
“k*ll? How could I k*ll that? I just ran when I could and wasted time.”
That was disappointing.
“What about before the Orc Champion? Which Orc race monsters did you face?”
Laura didn’t seem to mind answering all these questions about her.
“Floor five, the Orc War Captain.”
They say the Pioneer from Elysian Gallery appeared on the fifth floor too. Cases like the Light Sword or Archmage appearing on lower floors seem fairly rare.
“Did you k*ll the War Captain?”
Laura slowly shook her head.
“He was another we had to defend against until the knights came. I just focused on enduring.”
If I were full of myself, I might have answered with “Of course the War Captain was killed by me.”
Judging by how Laura casually talked about just enduring, it seemed like other Hard difficulty players in her circle probably thought the same way and made similar decisions.
“One person in the group I was with did suggest killing him, but naturally, his suggestion was ignored.”
It seems the suggestion that was ignored was actually correct.
Ultimately, when a strong monster is defeated after a tough fight, the potential for growth opens up. That’s the direction this tower pointed to, something I learned even as early as the second floor.
“Typically, how many people try an assault together?”
Laura answered with a disinterested tone.
“Floor five and above, of course usually more than six people.”
Even when the target is more than six people, without the intention of actually trying to k*ll them, the norm prevails.
I’ve heard that as the number of party members increases, the difficulty rises correspondingly, but this still felt too cautious by my standards.
If she hasn’t even killed the Captain, my interest in this Hard difficulty climber waned. I got up and returned to the sleeping bag I had received from Miwaki.
Everyone else appeared to be physically and mentally exhausted, and they all soundly fell asleep in their sleeping bags. Seeing everyone so peacefully sleeping, it seemed they had all had at least some experience with Safe Zones before.
A line from the appendix of the dragonslayer sword’s manual came to mind.
– It’s important to practice sleeping so that you can wake up at any moment.
– Through training, almost nothing is impossible.
It sounded odd at first, but now it makes sense. You train to be able to wake up at any moment.
Is now a good time to try that kind of training? Thinking so, I closed my eyes.
…
Nope, it won’t work like this. Later, I’ll have to ask for a detailed explanation. Practically speaking, I was meditating.
Still, there was some need to sort out my thoughts.
Since joining this exchange program, there’s been this lingering question in my mind.
Thanks to having some time available, I was able to fully draw a conclusion regarding that.
*
From the sleeping bag beside me, Miwaki’s head slowly rose up.
“Ah, good morning.”
Miwaki, smoothing her tousled hair, spoke softly.
“Yes.”
Even though I didn’t sleep at all, I didn’t want to make things awkward.
We ate dried meat and nuts.
Food I had purchased with coins. After this exchange program ends, we’ll have to return to the floor rest area and eat a proper meal.
00 : 25 : 34
There was still 25 minutes left in the safe area. All seven of us, including myself, had finished our preparations to depart.
Although it wasn’t a long sleep, everyone seemed in a better condition than before.
The group moved forward.
Just like yesterday, Jake and Sun Haoran led in the front, followed by Laura and Bai Jin Young.
Miwaki and Zi Shuan were ahead of me, like yesterday.
Just like yesterday, there were no significant changes. They were not particularly strong, but nor did they have glaring weaknesses.
Cobalts fell smoothly.
The only hitch was, after killing four more cobalts, I was still stuck at level 12.
An area blocked by three walls, resembling the end of a maze, halted our group.
“Huh?”
Jake’s voice echoed as he bent down and picked up a map.
The map depicted the dungeon layout.
It wasn’t a map of the entire dungeon structure, but just the location of the boss room and the room behind it, clearly marked.
Jake’s voice carried a tone of wonder.
“There’s a hidden boss room ahead. Should we enter it?”
Momentary silence followed.
The German woman, Laura, strode over to Jake and snatched the map roughly.
“The difficulty level matters.”
Laura checked the number of stars written below the hidden boss room.
【★★★★★】
“Tch.”
Laura clicked her tongue after seeing the difficulty.
“…I’ll clear up to the regular boss room and then retreat from this exchange program.”
I knew from the seniors of Elysian Gallery about the hidden boss room in the exchange dungeon. It was different from the regular boss room, giving advance notice of difficulty and letting players choose whether to challenge.
Five stars mean an extremely low chance of clearing it on this level 10 exchange dungeon.
Bai Jin Young approached Laura.
“Um, may I see it?”
The others gathered to look at the map. Bai Jin Young scratched her head.
“Hmm… Five stars is really tough.”
I thought I should, if possible, even by myself, challenge the hidden boss room.
Anyway, we currently faced the regular boss room first.
“Let’s check our gear and proceed.”
In response to Laura’s command, everyone checked their equipment.
Kukuguguug-!
And Jake pushed the boss room door open.
[BOSS MONSTER]
[Kobold Champion]
Indeed, this was by far the largest of the reptilian creatures I had slain so far.
