Chapter 74
[Don’t overdo it. If you recklessly go a step further than the limits of your abilities, you may end up seeing your own blood.]
[Yes, I understand. Mister. How far did you go?]
Kiri Kiri threw tantrum in tears for a great long while. In the end, she fell on the floor on her stomach and cried her eyes out. I calmed her down and got her to sit in front of me.
There was a candy stick in Kiri Kiri’s mouth.
Although it is called a candy stick, I guess it could be also considered as a calming medicine.
Ah, of course, this was long after the cake had disappeared into my stomach.
To tease Kiri Kiri some more, I was planning on leaving one bite worth of it still, but I ended up eating the whole thing because it was so tasty.
Perhaps it was because I had been only eating tasteless meat jerkies and dirt-water like monster meats recently. The cake was so delicious, so I ate it all.
This fact was important, so that’s why I’m stating it twice.
"Are you going to do that again, or are you going to stop doing that?"
"I won’t do it again, Hiiiiing."
I thought this was enough. I decided to forgive Kiri Kiri.
Despite her appearance, Kiri Kiri was the h.e.l.l Difficulty’s Manager.
Although… in comparison to the Managers of other difficulties, she was different in many ways.
I opened the store window and purchased jawbreaker candy set.
You must work harder and more diligently from now on.
You must not omit information for your entertainment.
I made her promise on those two things and handed the candy set package to her.
Actually, Kiri Kiri had been carrying out her task diligently as well as she could.
The whole thing about fun or whatnot was probably just to tease me.
Kiri Kiri was always lighthearted in spirit. However, when it came to conversations about information, she maintained very serious att.i.tude.
"Heeeeng. Last time, Hooouuujaee told me I should be weary of an old man who gives me candy."
… This rascal?
"I am not an old man, so it’s all right."
"Heeeeng."
By threatening her on possibly taking the candy away from her, I managed to make her clearly recognize the irrefutable truth of the universe regarding the fact that I was not an old man.
"Magic?"
"Yes. I felt something when I was at the 12th Floor."
Monsters shot fires, created walls of ice and generated bone spikes in mid-air.
The monsters each had a skill. I could call their skills as magic.
That’s true, right?
Of course, Kiri Kiri did not answer.
The monsters did not understand the fundamentals of the magic that they possessed.
Perhaps that was the reason. There were extreme few that knew how to utilize the magic properly.
Only the monsters like the orangutan monsters were able to utilize their abilities in various applications.
Other monsters just used their skills and only understood the effects that they could observe.
It was like us. It was like how we, the players inside the Tutorial, learned Skills and used them.
"I cannot tell you things like the activating mechanism behind Skills."
"Is that also expensive?"
"Besides the expense, the information about magic has too many things jumbled up in convoluted way. There are far too many different subjects I need to touch on just to explain one thing. I can tell you if you pay a very high price for it, but it will not be efficient."
I thought she would simply say that it is a precious information, but…
Um…
"Anyway, that’s why I felt the need to learn a bit more about magic."
"You won’t be able to learn Skills related to magic theories yet."
"Instead of those, if you have things like books related to magic, I was thinking about studying myself by purchasing the books."
Kiri Kiri thought about it hard for a moment and said,
"It will be really hard to study them. Still, you can purchase the books for now."
Is that so…
In the store window, I never could find any books related to magic.
I was not the only one.
No player in the Tutorial ever found anything remotely similar to an educational magic textbook in the store window.
Could it be that such could be purchased only through the Managers?
It seems magic textbooks are treated as being on the same level as combat items.
With Kiri Kiri’s help, I purchased two magic textbooks.
One book was about basic magic theory. The other one was about area effective enclosure and skill sealing.
I became interested in the enclosure and sealing because of the skill sealing that the leader of the orangutans used.
The ability to seal a skill…
There was no need to explain the critical importance of the main Skill used in the combat and how much impact it has in a fight.
At the 12th Floor’s Stage, all monsters each had a Skill, yet that monster could seal a Skill in the opponent.
Considering the size of the orangutans’ group, their intelligence, and the sealing skill demonstrated by their leader, the orangutan group was virtually the ruling cla.s.s of the jungle.
Actually, fighting the orangutans were more difficult than the bogus dragons.
"These will be difficult for you. You might be able to perform enclosure magic somehow through a medium. However, sealing magic will be really difficult."
"How difficult?"
"To begin with, it is not something an ordinary human being can master. Also, sealing magic is not something a human being can use."
It cannot be used by a human…
"A human being using one’s own power to use sealing magic is virtually unheard of. No, it was never done before? When it is used, it is done by borrowing G.o.d’s power."
"Borrowing G.o.d’s power? That’s possible?"
"When you become a G.o.d’s apostle and obtain skills related to sealing, then you
Um… power skills from G.o.ds…
It seems like sealing magic is a high difficulty magic, beyond what I initially thought.
Still, I decided to have the books ready for now.
I had points to spare. Also, it may not help me now, but it might help me later as I continue my study.
"Still, you have the knowledge before the time of babel, so you will be able to read the texts at least. I am not sure if you will be able to comprehend it though."
Is it that hard?
Kiri Kiri had been maintaining her negative stance on magic study. I was feeling a little rebellious toward her opinion.
Actually, when it comes to studying, I have confidence in myself.
"Heeeng. Magic theory is not just some study."
I’ll know when I try.
Let’s get to the next topic.
"I’ve heard something was going to be held soon? Can I get some information on that?"
Recently, the Order of Vigilance obtained information that an event was going to be held inside the Tutorial.
They also learned that this was not going to be another day of the great harmony.
"Aaaang. To tell you information about that…"
"I don’t have enough allowances left?"
Kiri Kiri nodded. She then said to wait for a bit.
She crunched down on the ground and thought hard about something as she fiddled with her fingers.
"Actually, I am not supposed to tell you this, but I’ll tell you because you bought me delicious cakes so far. You need to work harder from now."
Having heard what she said about working harder, I realized what Kiri Kiri was saying.
Before, as I bought her a cake, I had told her that she needed to work harder.
It seemed Kiri Kiri was mimicking what I did back then.
"All right. I’ll buy you cake more diligently."
Kiri Kiri quickly covered her mouth with both of her hands and acted casually. However, I could hear loud noise of her breathing through the nose, which reflected just how excited she was.
"Heeehing. Listen carefully because this is short. Foreigner, second."
Foreigner, second.
What could they mean?
I was thinking it was going to be something similar to the day of the great harmony, but foreigner?
For now, let’s just inform Kim Min-hyuk later.
Once we gather up all information that were obtained so far, we will be able to get the big picture.
Finally, I purchased a suitable spear, several emergency foods and a huge quant.i.ty of toilet papers.
Toilet papers were, just like potions, treated as combat items, so they could not be purchased from the waiting room.
"Hee hang. I can even sell toilet papers. Hoooouuuwjae, you are toilet paper rich."
Watching me purchasing a huge amount of toilet papers, Kiri Kiri made fun of me.
More the better, you rascal.
Do you have any idea how desperate one gets without toilet papers?
Having finished purchasing items, I got on the portal that lead to the 13th Floor’s waiting room.
"Have a safe trip! Buy me a cake next time!"
As always, she mentioned cake as she saw me off. I waved hand toward Kiri Kiri and activated the portal.
[Round 15, Day 18, 23:50]
Kim Min-huk is… probably sleeping right now.
Looks like I’ll have to tell him about the clues I got from Kiri Kiri tomorrow.
I opened the inventory and checked the magic textbooks.
Let’s read these first.
I brought out the book that she said was about the basic magic theories.
The cover doesn’t have anything written on the cover.
Let’s read it anyway for now.
Like that, I opened its first page. I could not help but to panic.
The book only had one sentence written on it.
‘To bring change to infinite time after death and finite time during life, what is the most important material that must be prepared? Find the answer.’
There was just that one sentence on the first page.
The rest was all blanks.
It appeared the book had over 200 pages, but there is just one sentence written on it…
What the h.e.l.l.
On top of that, the sentence was a subjective question.
The most important material to bring change to time?
How would I know that?
For now, I decided to think hard about the answer to the question.
It said I should try to find the answer, so let’s try finding it.
It could be that the empty s.p.a.ce on the book will fill when I find the answer.
It is a magic textbook after all.
It was going to be boring to just think about it, so I decided to also test the newly acquired Fire Element Resistance Skill while at it.
I got out of the 13th Floor’s waiting room and moved to the bonfire room.
I placed by hands on top of the bonfire and started thinking hard about the question. It was at that moment. A message came.
[Lee Hyung-jin, Fourth Floor: Big bro! I cleared the Third Stage!]
It was from Lee Hyung-jin.
He was hung up at the Third Floor, unable to try entering the boss room.
Honestly, regarding the Third Floor’s boss room, the traps underneath the cloud bridge to be precise, even I didn’t know much about them, so the situation was that I could not help him.
It seemed he somehow overcame them on his own.
[Lee Hyung-jin, Fourth Floor: The traps were like having all traps from first, second and third floors combined. There were no patterns. The arrows had poisons applied to them. The temperature got hot and cold repeatedly. Also, there were quite a few tricks mixed in too.]
[Lee Ho-jae, 13th Floor: You got through them still. Well done. Congratulations. You have accomplished something really amazing, kid.]
I was always worried about him because of the Third Floor’s boss room.
Unlike other people, I obtained the Blink Skill, which was a power skill from the G.o.ds, earlier in the floors. Because of Blink, I was able to go through the Third Floor’s boss room with relative ease.
Because of how I got through the room, I didn’t know exactly what kind of dangers were there underneath the cloud bridge.
I was worried that, other than myself, all challengers of the h.e.l.l Difficulty will not be able to go past the Third Floor.
However, Lee Hyung-jin cleared the Third Floor’s boss room and obtained information about underneath the cloud bridge. This was a monumental accomplishment.
It was also great that Lee Hyung-jin successfully got past the Third Floor alive.
[Lee Ho-jae, 13th Floor: Organize the information about the Third Floor’s boss room later and put it up on the community. As for conquest walkthrough, let’s try making one together later.]
[Lee Hyung-jin, Fourth Floor: Yes, Big Bro. I’ll get it organized around tomorrow noon and post it.]
[Lee Hyung-jin, Fourth Floor: Big Bro, how is it like at the Fourth Floor?]
You will have a bit of trouble through the Fourth Floor too.
Lee Hyung-jin’s combat style was closer to a.s.sa.s.sin or thief.
In boss rooms, he could apply his style to his advantage using his ability to make decisions. However, inside Stages, he will have to kill goblins in combat somehow.
Especially the goblin instructors are… Um.
I think they will be pretty tough.
I explained things about the Fourth Floor to Lee Hyung-jin and got up.
I put the magic textbook back in the inventory.
Let’s study about the magic during the three-day waiting period when the round ends.
Perhaps it was because I just got the news from Lee Hyung-jin. I was a little excited.
I want to move.
I also want to challenge the 13th Floor soon and clear it.
Although I just cleared the 12th Floor, I cannot be satisfied with this.
I brought out weapons and armors from the inventory and wore them. I went straight to the 13th Floor’s stage.
I was already burned at the 12th Floor once.
I wore the weapons and armors and carried the dimensional s.p.a.ce bag on my back, which contained essential items. Like that, I entered the Stage.
Going past the bonfire room, I arrived at the 13th Floor Stage. It was a dark stone walled room.
[The 13th Floor’s trial will start.]