Chapter 1 (Part-II): The Returnee
['Tower Of Trials']
Suddenly A strange message appeared in front of me as if to save me from my death as a godsent reward.
[You've Been Chosen As A Challenger Of The Tower Of Trials]
[All Suitable Candidates For The 'Tower Of Trials' From This Dimension Have Been Chosen]
"Challenger? What's that?"
Pondered Seungeun as the messages continued popping up in his consciousness as he was in a state of shock.
[Please Select Your Level of Difficulty:
{Easy} {Medium} {Hard} {Hell}]
"A-am I being given choices to select from?"
Seungeun was in a dilemma to decide which difficulty he should choose, he had always wanted enough strength to protect himself and all dear to him.
He didn't want anyone to be able to influence his life just because they were a little stronger than them. The choice was simple, he went with—
"{Hell}!"
"If I'm being given a second chance to redeem myself, I'll definitely go with the highest difficulty!"
Without any hesitation, he directly chose {Hell} in an instant and was suddenly transported to an Old Castle.
[ERROR! ERROR!]
"Huh? Wh-What's going on?"
[SYSTEM HAS DETECTED THAT THE HOST IS NEAR DEATH]
[HIDDEN CONDITION ACTIVATED]
"H-Hidden Condition?"
Seungeun seemed terrified as chills ran down his spine. What could be this hidden condition that the system spoke of? Was he really safe?
[Adjusting The Trial Stage and Rewards… ]
[Trial Has Been Adjusted To Suit The Host's Requirements]
[Trial Floor 1: Hell Difficulty]
[Task: Defeat or Survive against the Shadow Golem for 10 minutes]
[Time Limit: 20 Min]
[Reward: Stone of Regression (EX)]
[Failure Penalty: Death]
"Wh-What the hell is a [Stone of Regression]??"
Seungeun was confused, in his entire lifetime, he had never heard of an 'EX' Grade item, neither had he heard of an item with an ability to cause regression.
"Aren't there item's only upto S-Rank???"
It was true, the current hunter world had only ever seen items, skills, or innate abilities from F-Rank to S-Rank. An item of EX Grade was simply unheard of and non existential.
[All stats, skills, and innate abilities have been reset to initial stage]
[The following challenger's stats are already equal to the initial stage]
[Halting the reset process]
[Starting the tutorial trial]
[The Trial of the 'Tower is now starting, we wish the challenger a satisfactory end to their wishes]
A message about a 'Tutorial Trial' came out of nowhere.
As soon as I saw that message, I felt all my excitement escape from my body.
"What's going on? What is this?"
Starting with the most basic questions about my current state of affairs.
"Tower of Trials? Is this a sign of the second coming of the Great Disaster?"
I even stipulated what the current situation could be about.
The influx of thoughts ricocheted around my throbbing head.
But even that was temporary.
[Providing a weapon]
Clack.
Following the message about a weapon, a dagger suddenly fell before me.
One with a sharpened edge, unlike the wooden ones I used to use back when I was trying..
The dagger spanned about 30 inches.
"What is…?"
I quickly looked around and analyzed my surroundings.
The place I was standing at was no longer a dark abyss but rather a real desert.
No, could you even call this a desert?
The place was covered in marble and an occasional row of armors.
Although it seemed normal at first glance, the boundary where the sky met the horizon said otherwise.
It was vast and spacious, but clearly synthetic.
If this was a "Sanctuary", I would have needed to pass through a gate, so that isn't a possibility.
As I was about to fall into a state of confusion—
[Shadow Golem is appearing]
Kooom…!
"What the…?!"
The floor quaked as a shadowy figure started to make an appearance from the nearby shadows as the sun was high at noon.
Then, it soon started to take the shape of a golem made of shadows.
The towering golem must have been at least 20 feet tall.
My heart stopped when the golem laid its blood-dripping scarlet eyes upon me.
At the same time, another holographic message appeared.
[Survive the sand golem]
[Time left – 9min 59sec]
"Grrrr…"
A trial telling me to survive.
And all the unanswered questions in my head.
Everything seemed to connect as soon as I came face to face with the shadow golem.
I couldn't feign ignorance even if I tried.
"Damn it!"
I quickly picked up the dagger from the floor and ran as fast as I could.
A battle?
It's Impossible considering our size difference.
Even a graze from this shadow golem is enough to kill a grown man in an instant.
A low-tier normal human like me wouldn't fare much better.
That's reality.
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
"Kraaaaa…!"
Every hair on my back stood on end as its roar vibrated through my body.
I wanted to run faster but I couldn't.
Stomp! Stomp!
My feet got buried under cracks every time I took a step forward.
"Fuck fuck FUCK!"
The cracks on the old castle was holding me captive.
At the same time, the stomping sound was approaching faster than my legs could move.
Even if I did manage to run, the only thing waiting for me was a wall that reached up to the sky.
I'd either be killed by being caught up to or by reaching the corner of this castle.
There might not even be an escape from this place.
My only hope was the time limit that I could glance at from the corner of my eyes—
[Time left – 9min 30sec]
It's not possible to keep running for 9 more minutes with my current stamina.
I may have stood a chance if I had slightly higher stats but…
"I can't keep running until the timer runs out either…! "
I should have known what they wanted as soon as they provided a dagger.
Die running or turn around and fight.
I kept peeking back to the golem as I ran.
"Fuck, how am I supposed to beat that?"
But I didn't have another choice.
There's no way this dagger would do anything to the golem.
But…
"I had to fight."
If running away wasn't the answer, there had to be another way.
I drew on all possible knowledge I had on golems.
One thing I gained from the last decade of training is an abundance of theory matched by even the most experienced of hunters.
There had to be at least one method that would apply to this situation.
Monsters like golems stop moving when you break their cores.
And low-tier monsters like shadow golems don't even hide their cores within their bodies.
They are evaluated to be E-rank monsters because they keep their core on the outer layer of their body.
I could see a dark core bulging from its body.
But I didn't have the confidence to be able to get that close to it.
Even if I was able to get close, it was obvious what level of damage this dagger would do to that core.
No, I didn't know if this dagger would even be able to leave a crack on it.
Even so.
"I had to go…!"
Looking back, it seemed that the golem was about 50ft away from me.
Would I be able to run at the golem and dodge its attacks?
No, I couldn't think like that.
Contemplating more wouldn't alleviate this situation.
"I have to dodge it!"
Whoosh!
I ran towards the golem after I made my decision.
50 feet… 40 feet… 30 feet… 20 feet…
The closer I got, the more strongly I could feel the physical difference between us.
The gigantic E-rank beast made my heart shrink with a glance.
I felt like throwing up, but I kept running.
The only other monster I had ever faced was a small Hound in the hunter exam.
I had no choice but to succeed now.
I kept my eyes on the golem as I approached the base of its foot.
Voom...!
The liquid type 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!
Shadow particles 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 dagger 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 dagger 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 dark energy decaying my skin and penetrating to my muscles.
Please… Please break this time!
At the moment when the dagger hit the core—
CRACK!
[Shadow golem's core has been destroyed]
The system message blocked my view as the light in the golem's scarlet blooded eyes dimmed.
As they dimmed, the golem's body crumbled back into a broken pieces of shadow.
Shwaa….!
[Time left – 5min 49sec]
[Tutorial trial over]
______
Chapter End