Chapter 2 - Tower of Trials (2/2)
The rough sediment arm ripped through the air and accelerated towards me.
An attack strong enough to immediately rip me to shreds.
I stared straight at it and jumped in its way.
When the colossal arm reached the front of my face, I slid right below it and just barely managed to dodge it.
Bang!
Sand blasted everywhere as it followed the thundering boom of the impact.
Due to its massive size, there were huge delays between each of its moves.
By the time I realized this, I was already running.
My body knew even before my head.
I had to thrust this sword into the golem’s core if I wanted to live.
I nimbly approached the core as the golem still struggled to recover its stance from the last attack.
Clang~!
The tip of the sword rang as it made contact with the golem’s core.
Of course.
A golem’s core wouldn’t be broken with an impact like that.
Crack…!
The core was left with a slight fracture…
Whoosh!
“Graaaaaaa~!”
And the golem was on its way to throw a second attack.
When my eyes caught that, I threw my body with no time to react.
Shaaaa!
Then—
Whoosh……!
The follow-up blow just barely missed the top of my head.
Pure luck.
There was nothing else that could describe this.
I didn’t stop despite the sand scraping all of the skin off my leg.
Please… Please break this time!
At the moment when the sword hit the core—
CRACK!
「 Sand golem’s core has been destroyed. 」
The system message blocked my view as the light in the golem’s scarlet eyes dimmed.
As they dimmed, the golem’s body crumbled back into a pile of sand.
Shwaa….!
「 Time left – 7min 8sec 」
「 Tutorial trial over. 」
I collapsed as soon as I saw the message.
“Gasp, gasp….!”
My legs burned as the sand crawled into my scraped skin and my hands couldn’t stop shaking.
My lungs felt like they were about to rip open and my leg continued to bleed.
But for some reason, I felt a rush of adrenaline I had never felt before.
The feeling of victory that I hadn’t experienced in 7 years.
I was only able to figure out what really happened after I caught my breath.
“……I killed a sand golem? Me?”
Someone who couldn’t even hope to kill an F rank monster…
Managed to kill an E-rank monster when his life was at risk.
But I became depressed again after looking back at what had happened.
‘…I barely managed to survive.’
If this was a different E-rank monster, I would have died within 3 minutes.
Sand golems are slow and have a clear weakness.
If this was a slightly stronger player, this would have been an easy tutorial.
It didn’t matter.
“I survived.”
That was reality.
When I was finally about to feel a wave of relief—
「 Congratulations. You have overcome the Tower of Trials floor 1. 」
“…?”
The message continued after the congratulations.
「 As a reward, you have received ‘Unlock innate ability.’ 」
「 As a reward, you have received ‘1000 points.’ 」
「 As a bonus reward, you have received the skill ‘Accelerated Regeneration(E+)’ 」
「 As a bonus reward, you have received ‘500 points.’ 」
“…”
I finally remembered the message I saw when I first entered this field.
‘It did say that…’
「 Trial success reward – Unlocking innate ability 」
I wasn’t able to process it properly at the time, but there was definitely a reward.
And…
“An innate ability…”
It was something I couldn’t even imagine unlocking over the last 7 years, let alone an additional reward of a skill.
‘I couldn’t even increase my stat after training for 7 years…’
I was more dumbfounded now than when I first entered the tower.
The next couple of messages seemed to confirm what had just happened.
「 Innate ability unlocked. 」
「 Innate ability ‘Necromancy(F)’ has been imprinted on the player. 」
I won against a monster for the first time in my life and was able to see progress that had been halted for 7 years.
There were feelings I couldn’t even begin to describe with words, but that didn’t last long.
Almost as if it didn’t want to give me time to wonder—
「 Please move to the waiting area. 」
Voom!
A blue portal appeared where the body of the golem once stood.
I guess I was supposed to go to the ‘waiting room’ using that.
That alone explained a lot.
“This is really a tutorial…?”
Dungeons resolve after it has been completed but that didn’t seem to be the case for the ‘Tower of Trials.’
I couldn’t deny my reality any longer.
What I had just experienced was a tutorial. Preparation for what’s to come in this tower.
Meaning, I will need to go through trials like this again and again with no end in sight.
“……”
I had no idea what to think of this, but that also didn’t last too long.
Gasping for air, I got up with a groan.
‘Damnit, it hurts like hell.’
There was not a single unscathed part on my body.
I must have rolled in the sand too much trying to dodge the sand golem.
Well, I shouldn’t complain considering that I was still alive.
As I was about to pass by the sand pile that used to be the golem—
What…?
“What is this?”
A scene overwhelming enough to make me forget my pain for a moment.
The pile of sand that used to be the golem emitted a black fog.
I was hesitant at this unreal phenomenon, but for some reason, I reached out my hand.
Then…
「 Activating innate ability ‘Necromancy(F)’ 」
「 Would you like to absorb the spirit of the sand golem? 」
「 Y/N 」
“…?”
Yet again, a message I’d never seen before appeared in front of me.
____