The Late Cook Ascends the Tower - The Late Cook Ascends the Tower chapter 19

19 – Episode 19. Shortcut

It’s quiet.

I can’t hear a single footstep, let alone a voice.

After carefully opening the door, a familiar place appeared.

Torches hanging on the walls, a bonfire in the middle of the room.

When I went across the room, there were three corpses lying on the exit side.

This is another starting point.

‘But this time he isn’t there.’

Did I worry for nothing?

Even if I’m not that big man, if I’m stuck on the first floor and can’t do anything, I’d have bad thoughts.

After seeing some horojap hoarding money in the village, that’s right! Then, holding a small contract, I waited at the exit.

After that, it would be the standard if it was the standard to get rid of the horny bastard, force a contract, and pamper them to their heart’s content.

But strangely enough, everyone I met in the village wished me well and said goodbye. I also waved my hand.

I get the nasty feeling that maybe I’m the baddest guy in town…

Let’s not let go of tension.

Because crazy people always exist.

This is the end of the section where monsters are fixed.

From now on, whenever you open a door, you will move forward one by one to a random area of the labyrinth.

There will be traps, monsters are random, and maybe you’ll meet a player.

If you keep going, you will come to a safe zone where all the roads intersect, but I don’t think this expedition will be long enough to reach the safe zone.

When you return, it’s best to get the item you want while keeping the number of returnees below 20.

As much as I know, I come up with a lot of things I want to do…

Let’s go carefully.

I prepared my mind and opened the door.

I don’t care what comes out. It must be a scene I know.

Kee-ik-!

But…

When I opened the door, an unimaginable scene unfolded before my eyes.

I didn’t expect a situation like this.

I hear the sound of the door being opened, and countless faces turn to me at the same time.

“Huh? You… Right? That at the tavern…!”

“Yes! That brother!”

“Oh, you meet all the climbers in one day. Today’s exploration is going to go well.”

“Aww, this lady. It sounds ominous again.”

I was a player.

That’s 4 people.

All of them are people I met in the village, but that man in particular was one of the people who bought my meat yesterday.

If you look at the party atmosphere, it’s a one-love mountaineering event.

First of all, you can say hello, but if you are wrong, you can slaughter all of them.

“What are you all doing here? What about monsters?”

“Ah… This is a room without monsters, so I’m waiting for the rotation time now. This room is replaced with another every hour.”

Oh, the crossroads room?

As the uncle said, this was a room where six routes changed sequentially.

In the game, the room used to change every minute. An hour here is a pain in the ass.

“What room are you waiting for?”

I went forward and saw an incredibly long aisle in front of the people.

At that moment, the man grabbed me by the shoulder and said.

It looked as if I had jumped off a cliff.

“Uh huh, this is a trap room. If you go in now, you die. See the body over there?”

The aisle was quite long, but it was packed with torches so you could see everywhere.

The clean road stretches straight, so if you look at it without thinking, it’s just a walking trail.

The scene of corpses scattered all over the aisle is truly gruesome.

It was also a terrible figure with dozens of arrows stuck all over its body.

It’s a corpse that wasn’t on the game screen.

An elderly woman in the group pointed to the corpse and said.

“You see the victims? Arrows constantly fly into this room, so you can never get through it. That friend is also a newcomer who came last week, but he went in without knowing and ended up like that. Are you new to that too?”

“Yes, it is.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Don’t be in a hurry, go as slowly as possible. Everyone in a hurry… That’s why.”

Thank you for being kind, but more than thankful, I feel sorry for you.

If you slowly accumulate curses and damage like that, you can reach the second floor safely, but one day you will 100% die.

Will these people realize someday when they gain more experience?

That the corpse lying there was closer to clearing than they were.

I don’t think so.

Because common sense in this sh*t game can only be learned after repeating death thousands of times.

And the strategy for this room is also the same.

You have to mess with it dozens of times to find out.

“I will go first. Have a safe climb, and see you again in the village if you have a chance later.”

“Wow! Are you crazy!? Are you sure you will die? From what I’ve seen, there are more than twenty arrow traps…!”

I thought so too at first.

How many traps are there in that rubbish aisle?

No matter how careful you are, you can’t help but step on the trap, and it’s over, right? And arrows keep flying without a chance to breathe.

That’s the front, the ceiling, the floor, the walls, whatever.

However, this route was completed just one day after the launch.

It’s a simple strategy that you can understand if you die a lot.

I used to avoid this passage at first, but after learning how to attack myself, I began to actively use it.

Furthermore, this route is like pine nuts, but it has its merits.

First of all, the first merit is that the aisle is long.

It was possible to enter the depths of the dungeon as much as 5 rooms at once, and since the entire passageway was recognized as one area, 10,000 returned soldiers accumulated even if it went backwards.

If you’re moving with the goal of returning like this time, there’s no better route than this.

And most importantly…

The fact that there is always a reward room at the end of this passage!

The type of room or reward was random, but there was always a reward room.

And after the reward room, a random mid-boss appears.

I tried it about 50 times and it matched 100%, so it must be the same here.

The deck is still a mess, but it’s a mid-boss. You can look at the atmosphere roughly, and then jump out if it looks tough.

Opening a treasure chest in exchange for 1 return soldier is a very profitable business.

I started to cycle through the deck quietly in my head.

Turn until the hand is composed of the desired cards.

Two [Dash] Cards… One [Defense] Card, and two [Attack] Cards for the rest.

That’s right.

And I went straight into the aisle.

“Wow!!!”

“Ah, ah! What are you doing! Stop! Stop!”

“Didn’t you just hear!? You die…! Yumma! Don’t go!”

For now, just run.

Clap-!

When I step on the floor, I hear a strange sound.

Arrows are flying from the front.

From noble mtl dot com

The arrow is pointed precisely at my forehead.

I can’t avoid it with my movement speed, but it’s possible with dash.

[Dash/Skill Card: Run 3m at high speed. Spinning reduces the sprint distance. ★]

Keep your back down.

The scenery in front of you now passes behind your back like a racing game.

I hear the wind bursting overhead.

Ping-!

Clap-!

And the platform moves again. Unpleasant machine noise.

Ping-! Ping-! Ping-! Ping-!

Dash again to dodge the 4 arrows rising from the floor.

The direction is unconditionally forward.

The next arrow will fly from the ceiling or the wall.

Because it is triggered sequentially.

Ting…!

I felt something like a thread break at my ankle.

I can see the light reflecting off the metal from the wall side.

This time, there is no need to accelerate or stop, just walk and defend the card.

Ting-!

[All accumulated shields are destroyed.]

The arrow hit my neck exactly, but it fell off without any damage.

This consumes all 3 cost.

From now on, this is the key point.

To end a turn with armor accumulated in advance before being hit by an arrow, and to turn a new turn by passing 3 seconds while being hit by an arrow.

If only I could pull this off without a hitch…

[The turn end time is over.]

[Recovers all costs.]

And if at least one defense card comes out in the next hand…!

Whoosh!

Ting-!

[All accumulated shields are destroyed.]

The last arrow can easily be thrown away with a shield, and you can break through 4 traps.

『Cronos’ Labyrinth/Enter the abandoned gnome’s shelter.』

I didn’t even get a card this time, and I reached the end of the aisle with my body intact.

There are hundreds of triggers in the passage, but in fact they are all fake.

A trick to trick the player’s senses.

It’s just that after a certain amount of time, the traps around you are activated, so the more time you spend thinking about avoiding the traps, the more arrows you’ll be exposed to.

Look at the floor, dodge the arrows, and if you fail to circulate your hand in a hurry, you will become a beehive…

The standard strategy is to forcefully break through as quickly as possible.

I turned around and heard four voices echoing wildly from the end of the aisle.

It sounds like he’s screaming something, but I can’t hear him very well.

Are you tired of watching the deceased play? I hope you don’t follow me though.

I’ve mastered the game, but they have to practice risking their lives.

In other words, it means that I will eat it all by myself. hehehehe

After exiting the passage, the surrounding atmosphere changed.

There is a lot of green moss on the dull gray bricks, and you can feel the dampness.

The tip of my nose smells of rain-soaked grass.

This was one of the treasure rooms, the [Abandoned Gnomes’ Shelter].

There are no traps, no monsters, just look around the floor and you’ll find a box popping out!

There are even a lot of weeds in this room that can be removed, but if you’re lucky, some kind of vegetable might come out, so it was like a first prize to me.

Depending on the ingredients that come out of this, it might be the end of this expedition.

But…

‘Why is there no grass?’

Originally, there should have been traces of gnomes, just like the name of the shelter for abandoned gnomes, but nothing was visible around it.

Where does the dirt floor go? On the mossy stone floor, there are no fields.

No small miniature cabins.

After searching all over the room, I finally found it.

“No matter how much it is a resting place for gnomes… It seems like a reflection of reality…”

It was a dog hole.

A small dog hole in a corner of the wall.

I lowered my head and looked inside the hole, and saw grass growing randomly on the dirt floor.

And the familiar cabin… And even a small treasure chest among the grass!

I’m standing right in front of you like this…

What kind of situation is this?

“aaa…!”

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get through the dog hole.

It’s so small that it’s hard to take out even one shoulder, of course.

If it’s an obstacle like this, you’ll have to have [Blink] Or… [Ectoplasm] To pass through.

Is that possible on the first floor?

I decided to close my eyes for a moment and think about it. What am I missing?

No matter how pine nuts TOE is, it is not a game that is forced in this way.

There must be a breaking law…

It was then.

“…”

“…!”

A sound is heard.

It’s small, but the sound of someone screaming, the sound of metal clashing.

Followed by a subtle scream.

‘That’s… the boss room? Who’s fighting the boss first?’

I opened the door to the middle boss room to take advantage of the noise.

The boss monster was nowhere to be seen. Why?

Inside is a rogue bird and two climbers.

It was a face they both knew.

I saw one while working at a bar.

The other…

It’s hard to forget that hair color.