Chapter 31 - Intrusion (4) (2/2)

‘If he wasn’t lying, he did say something about his skills being restricted.’

Well, that didn’t matter anymore.

Whatever it was, I won my fight fair and square, and he was the one laying on the floor right now.

“H-how does a mere 5th-floor challenger have so many skills…!”

Maybe all of his stats reset on the first floor as well.

“I should have won…! How did a fucking primitive…!”

“Maybe you were just weak. And stupid enough to blindly rely on that aura skill.”

“No fucking way… a 5th floor… against me…!”

“It’s about time we end this.”

I was also feeling a little tingly from the splash effect of the electricity but…

‘Not enough to paralyze me.’

I decided to end this while I still had the chance.

‘I want to keep asking him questions but that could be dangerous.’

I stood above his head, ready to strike my blade down.

“W-wait, I can answer any questio—”

“No thanks, I don’t care.”

I stabbed the blade into his head while his mouth was still open.

Clean and swift.

After shoving my sword through a space between his helmet and jiggling it around, he finally stopped moving.

I felt like I was becoming more and more desensitized to killing someone but…

‘It’s not bad.’

Feeling guilty every time I had to kill someone would pose its own threats.

「 Congratulations. You have overcome the Tower of Trials floor 5. 」

The popup message confirmed my kill.

And—

Sssst…

The knight’s body completely disintegrated and poured out from the armor.

The otherworldly knight had died and couldn’t harm me anymore.

A wave of relief flushed over me after confirming my safety.

The necromancy mark wasn’t there, but that didn’t disappoint me.

My survival was enough of a reward right now.

“God damn, that was close.”

If I hadn’t purchased the thunder blade before…

The process wouldn’t have been as easy as it was.

I would’ve needed to use everything in my arsenal and would’ve spent some more time rolling in the dirt.

Good thing I also increased my stats right then.

“…”

Of course, this didn’t get rid of all the entangled thoughts in my head.

Everything, from other dimensions to intrusions, was fleeting around my head.

It was difficult to grasp these things because I didn’t even realize they had existed until now.

But I gave up and put on a smile.

“Yeah, it would be weirder if the place was more normal.”

It would be arrogant of me to assume that I’d be able to understand what this tower was doing.

‘Maybe I’ve been too satisfied recently.’

As dangerous as that was, I still learned a lot from that.

Especially that no matter how strong I got, my life would always be in danger.

‘I thought I was already being careful in my own right, but I better step it up.’

Eh, I guess I got a little nugget of wisdom, if you could call it that.

‘…I have something to ask once I get to the 8th floor.’

Like what the hell other dimensions were and some more details on the whole intrusion thing.

The tower is a black box system and the only way to navigate it is through the questions they allow us.

Now is not the time to use them yet.

It wouldn’t be too late to scope out the situation until the 8th floor before choosing to ask a question.

Still deep in thought, I noticed something strange out of the corner of my eye.

“ …?”

Where were the reward messages that should be filling my view?

“What the—”

I scrunched my face in confusion at a message I’d never seen before.

「 The difficulty of the trial is not proportional to the reward. 」

「 Recalibrating the rewards. 」

“What are they saying…”

They were going to change my reward after I went through this whole ordeal?

I could smell the corruption from here.

There would be nothing worse than the quality of the rewards going down.

「 Recalibrated. 」

「 Awarding the rewards. 」

Couldn’t they just give me what they promi…

「 As a reward, you have received the skill ‘Triple Laceration (A-).’ 」

「 As a reward, you have received ‘7,500 points.’ 」

「 As a bonus reward, you have received 3,500 points.’ 」

「 Please move to the waiting area. 」

「 Moving to the waiting room. 」

I froze in place after reading the messages in front of me.

“Uh, umm.”

The reward was exchanged from a C- item to an A- skill.

Comparing them was an insult to the skill.

“…”

My anger melted away as I saw 11,000 points and an A- rank skill.

“…This is more like the tower of trials.”

This was what I wanted to see.

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MC: May I speak to the manag-

Manager: Yes?

MC: I just wanted to comment on the wonderful work you were doing

Sucks that he didn’t get to suck him

____