The Late Cook Ascends the Tower - The Late Cook Ascends the Tower chapter 20

20 – Episode 20. I can’t stand farming

That’s Tilda.

I met the other sly-looking guy at a bar, but I don’t know his name.

But what are you two doing here?

If you look at the structure of the room, the boss room has 8 doors, but where did my mid-boss go?

And where did the strange birds come from?

Is the formula that the boss room appears after the trap passage broken?

The hole in the reward room, the lack of a boss, and so on. Something seems to work out, but it’s strangely twisted.

‘Perhaps… This may also be a reflection of reality.’

For now, I need to observe the situation.

My door is locked in the dark, so you won’t see it from the other side.

“Caw! How about it!”

The two were engaged in a battle against the Goejo.

Tilda is running frantically around the monster…

‘But what is that bastard doing standing still?’

The man was digging his fingernails on his leg.

And then, occasionally, he added a choo-im-sae.

“Ugh, is that how the monster will die? Attack, b*tch. Kids these days have no guts. Guts.”

Then Tilda glared at the man to death, then turned her eyes back to the rook.

“aaah!!”

The basic attack of a rogue bird is [Glide Bombardment], Which gives 4 consecutive hits while flying.

Start downhill with claws erect.

Goddess has weak physical strength and attack power, but is basically fast, making it difficult to deal with.

If there was a single shot card with high attack power or a high defense card, I would catch it while standing still.

With just the basic cards, I was a tricky enemy, even losing 20 stamina.

Tilda stood still and waited for him,

Rapid acceleration right before its attack hits. In an instant, he caught up with the goose.

2 Consecutive dashes.

That kind of hit-and-away was Tilda’s only way to survive.

My deck only has 1 attack and 1 defense, and only 4 dashes.

And then… Ugh.

Even though I grabbed the back, I just blew away the chance to attack.

Still, it’s amazing to see you use cards.

‘At that time, I couldn’t even memorize a deck.’

When she first met Tilda, she taught her how to use her card.

At that time, Tilda couldn’t even roll her cards in her head, so she kept looking at the ground or the sky.

Now her eyes were staring straight at the rook.

Even so, the cards are written at the correct timing.

‘How much did you practice alone?’

Seeing as he can’t attack and just spins around, it doesn’t look like he’s gotten a single attack card yet.

I could feel how hard she was rolling her cards in her town, in the smooth deck rotation.

Tilda dodges the attack skillfully, and turns the deck to find a dash.

She tried to strike occasionally when the timing was right, but most of her fists cut through the air.

Unfortunately, time is on the side of the rogue.

Tilda’s blood spurts every time during penalty time.

“Keuugh…”

“You’re a motherf*cker. It’s getting annoying, but if you can’t deal with it within two minutes… You just die.”

Her face is already scarred from the scratches from her claws and feathers, and a larger scar is visible on her left arm.

That wound was not something a rogue bird could inflict.

You must have dealt with other monsters before coming here.

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You still haven’t drawn a single attack card?

That didn’t make sense.

This is the middle of the dungeon.

Even I, the picky one, picked up this gritted asshole [Multi-Attack], And there’s no way there’s a madman who throws away all the card rewards on a life-threatening climb.

So… Maybe something like this.

Looking at the situation and the attitude of the two, I can understand.

Maybe Tilda lost to him, maybe he already signed the contract.

So you must be looking at me with such a sad look.

“Kyaa!!”

This is the 5th time Tilda has been attacked by a rogue bird without defense.

Sorry, but that’s it.

You must be completely out of stamina now.

It’s a bit unfair to be hurt by a climber…

If you have a deck that can’t handle even a rogue, you’ll die on the next floor even if someone helps you here.

It is an unavoidable reality.

I expected it from the first time we met.

Even that man has a yellow dog tag, and dealing with him with a simple sense of justice is a burden.

Even with my basic deck.

Then…

There won’t be any mid-bosses in this room, I’ll have to find out how to break the dog hole.

“Sir baaal!!!!”

But at that moment.

That was the moment I was about to turn my head.

Tilda screamed and charged at the man.

How does such a sound come out of such a small body?

I used a dash with my limping leg, quickly closed the distance and punched the man.

I wonder if the reason I cycled through the deck so hard was for this raid in the first place.

It was a good attempt, but it ended there.

Tilda’s fist hit the man’s cheek, and that’s it.

It doesn’t make sense if you can’t play defense cards at that distance.

I wish it had been a quiet surprise attack.

The man then raised his weapon in contempt.

“I’m very f*cking. Damn it.”

It was a forearm-length club. Is it blackjack?

f*ck!

The man hit Tilda on the head with it, and Tilda collapsed on the spot.

The man hurriedly slain the weak bird and went back to Tilda.

Then grabbing her fallen chin.

Pair!

Pair!

I slapped her on the cheek a few times and then said to her who came to her senses.

“Thanks to that, hunting was easy, and it was dangerous, but I’ll be thankful for the potion. Oh right, if you get to town alive, buy a bunch of potions. I’ll go get it.”

I hate to hear the sound of giggling.

**

The room where the monster and the man disappeared…

It’s just quiet.

In the middle of the room lies Tilda, and the corpse of a rogue bird.

But why did I come in?

I can hear Tilda’s voice at my feet.

Not a scream or a sound of pain, but a sound of grinding teeth.

Once he found me, he said in a crawling voice.

“Salv… Try…”

Ah, I want that too.

But what next? Even if I moved them to the village, they would either die climbing or spend the rest of their lives isolated in the village.

I wonder if that has any meaning.

Even now, it would have been cursed, not cursed.

I grabbed the dog tag from Tilda’s neck.

[HP : 6/100]

[Returner: 27/100]

He was on the verge of dying, and the returning soldiers had accumulated quite a bit after hitting the first floor.

And when I looked down the information window, there were items that I hadn’t seen before.

[Party Contractor: Flick]

The man’s name is Flick.

As expected, Tilda seemed to have signed a party contract with him.

Perhaps he seduced you into climbing together.

On the condition of sharing card rewards and items.

That’s why Tilda’s card list looks like this.

[Tendon rupture*2][Exhaustion*1][Dizziness*1]

Tilda’s deck didn’t have a single new card, instead it was full of status ailments.

Now the question is resolved.

The reason why a fainted monkey or a rogue bird with its wings cut off was incapacitated.

Unlike the game here, if certain conditions are met, abnormal status cards are forced into the deck, right?

So Tilda, who suffered a tendon, couldn’t walk even though she had her stamina.

I can’t even come to my senses.

Looks up at me with trembling eyes.

“That… Man… Man…”

“What?”

“First… Murder… Murder…”

“That guy you first met? Oh, are you with him?”

Looking at his mouth not opening, he must be right.

He probably entered the dungeon alone and was caught by him.

That guy must be an accomplice.

By the way… Then how come I wasn’t targeted?

If it were me, I would have hidden and waited in front of the secret door.

In their eyes, aren’t me and Tilda a set?

“They didn’t ask about the secret door?”

No reply came back.

I’m not shaking my head.

Ah, no way.

“Didn’t you blow? Why? I never said it was a secret.”

You can just blow the secret door.

Are you going through a tough road when you first met?

But instead of answering, Tilda said something different.

“Save me… give me…”

“Even if I save you, you have no future. If you’re weak like you, instead of climbing the tower, you’ll starve and die in despair for the rest of your life in that filthy town. You don’t even age in this world.”

I knew this would happen in a few days.

There will be no such thing as a simple end while the screen goes black like in a game.

Pain is transmitted from her miserable face.

The painful future that lies ahead.

That’s stupid.

I wish I hadn’t trusted people in the first place.

You should have doubted, used, and abandoned it if you were at a disadvantage.

If you trust people so blindly. That life is ruined uncontrollably.

You can take on other people’s debts, and when you feel betrayed in a difficult situation, your heart is torn to pieces.

Everyone will abandon you when things get tough.

I can’t even take care of myself.

So that’s how it goes.

Like me.

“f*ck… f*ck… I’m going to be strong… Everything, next time… So…”

A weak topic.

Still next?

It would be easier to end it like this.

I don’t know either.

“Then hold on tight and hold on. Because you won’t die anyway.”

He has some stamina and no blood loss, so he won’t die suddenly.

Tilda was incredibly light.

I picked her up, put her on her shoulders, and walked her room a step back.

Toward the gnome’s shelter I entered.

Since this room is in the direction I came from, I may be the only one who has returned soldiers.

It doesn’t matter what it is.

Then he threw Tilda on the floor and said,

“See the dog hole? There are plants and a treasure chest in it.”

I am strangely annoyed…

I don’t know how I feel right now.

No, honestly, I feel really bad.

What happened to me in real life was that I was betrayed, abandoned, and left alone, and then the difficulty of my life increased by about 200 times.

Even so, I shut myself in the corner of the room and just played games.

That’s why I think I’m angry.

It’s like you’re cursing at me, begging for your life for what’s next.

I’m an asshole.

[Did you see him attacking with the determination to rummage?]

[You should have begged before hiding.]

Even though he’s not me and I’m not him.

I was stabbed for no reason.

Is this what it means for a thief to numb his feet?

I don’t know. Let’s just pretend that the asshole has numb my feet.

I said to her looking up at me without saying a word from her.

“The rules are the same as last time. Go inside and pull out the plant and the crate opening. Instead, I will save you. Is this an equivalent exchange?”

Then Tilda bit her lip.

I soon started crawling into the dog hole.

The hole looks small to you too, but it’s none of my business.

Would you wait in front when you come out?

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I’ll let you live however you want.

In the meantime, I have work to do.

I went back to the boss room and opened the door where he disappeared.

You haven’t gone far, have you?

There is a monster corpse and him standing in the room, and now he looks back at me and smiles.

Then he spoke in a polite, mean voice.

“What is it? Gold rolls in by the sack? Why are you here? I’m still very anxious that my brother is looking for you. Oh, is that b*tch revenge? I am very tearful.”

What do you mean by that?

That’s not what I do.

I was racking my brain a lot when I saw there was no boss in the boss room.

This is my conclusion.

Maybe the tower treats even the players as monsters?

The mid-bosses [Mist Killer] And [Corrupted Satyr] Were humanoid.

Perhaps Flick is also a mid-boss to me.

So this is a simple experiment, or farming.

It’s not like pathetic revenge.

“Revenge sucks. I don’t know that, b*tch.”

Ah, but this experiment isn’t just about finding out if that bastard is a boss or not.

At this point, you should also look into it.

I heard that the contract termination condition is death.

Because I wonder if it really is.