NOVEL NEXT Chapter 33 - Fortress of Golems (3)
ㄴ HeavenlyDemon) You’re trading with this master as well?
I could guess why HeavenlyDemon senior left a comment with an anxious tone.
Trading with Priestess senior, who offered to give me talismans to block lightning, was something I absolutely had to do to prepare for the upcoming fight with the “Son of Lightning,” the boss monster likely waiting for me.
The trade with HeavenlyDemon senior seemed less certain.
But I was more drawn to HeavenlyDemon senior’s martial arts technique than Priestess senior’s talisman, which likely couldn’t be used permanently.
ㄴ oo*) HeavenlyDemon senior too ㄱㄱ
Of course, I had no intention of showing my excitement in the comments.
I needed to hide it completely. Frozen.
ㄴ IceQueen) Frozen!
…Looking at the comments, maybe my mind has been a bit contaminated. By the frozen-speech.
ㄴ Priestess) This girl would be satisfied with anything the climber lord wishes to give her. This girl is more than filled just by seeing climber lord use the talisman.
ㄴ HeavenlyDemon) Hmm, I’ve been wanting a proper pasta for a while.
I had plenty of food to give.
[User ‘HeavenlyDemon’ has requested ‘Inter-dimensional Trade’.]
[Do you accept?]
I pressed the circular blue button attached to the text.
[You have accepted the trade request.]
Then, a separate chat system that could only be used during inter-dimensional trades appeared.
[HeavenlyDemon: What I’m giving you is a manual on fist techniques. Like LightSword’s Dragon Slaying Sword, it also includes some footwork.]
[HeavenlyDemon: When you read it, it will likely be thoroughly auto-translated. For the more difficult techniques, I’ve drawn detailed illustrations of the movements, so someone like you, who clearly has some talent in martial arts, should be able to use it well.]
[HeavenlyDemon: Later, when you climb to the 30th floor and can enter the Climber Gallery, you can then reveal that you are a disciple of HeavenlyDemon Baek Un-hwi.]
[oo*: …Uh, I’ll think about that later.]
Hmm.
If I say I’m HeavenlyDemon’s disciple, wouldn’t everyone find that suspicious?
[HeavenlyDemon: Fine. Anyway, after you properly read the martial arts manual and master the fist techniques, you’ll be proud to call yourself this master’s disciple even if I don’t want you to.]
His self-awareness is considerable.
Judging by the reactions of those who occasionally flock to HeavenlyDemon, he does seem genuinely strong.
Unfortunately, he had zero gravitas.
[HeavenlyDemon: And. What food do you have?]
[oo*: You have to choose one from these four: pork cutlet, sandwich, jeyuk deopbap, or cream bacon pasta.]
[HeavenlyDemon: Hmm…! Pasta is somewhat better. But it lacks fundamentals. Don’t you have something like aglio e olio?]
[oo*: I don’t.]
[HeavenlyDemon: Tsk, I guess I’ll have to walk the evil path. Send me the cream bacon pasta.]
If cream bacon pasta is the evil path, is aglio e olio the righteous path…?
[oo*: Got it. But since when did you become such a pasta connoisseur?]
[HeavenlyDemon: After the 30th floor, enjoying fine cuisine became my only pleasure after clearing dungeons.]
I see.
I took out the cream bacon pasta from my inventory and held it in my hand.
Still in its container.
“Designate.”
The cream bacon pasta disappeared with a poof right before my eyes.
[Trade completed.]
Riiip!
What emerged from the torn space was a book.
I picked up the thick book.
The book, which appeared to be a martial arts manual, had the following title:
Flowing Flame Space-Breaking Formula (Yuryeon Pagong Gyeol).
I opened the manual and skimmed through it briefly.
As HeavenlyDemon had said, there were even helpful illustrations for the more complex techniques.
It would be unrealistic time-wise to fully master the manual and use it right now.
The person who would give me something I could use immediately was…
[User ‘Priestess’ has requested ‘Inter-dimensional Trade’.]
There it is.
I naturally pressed the accept trade request button.
[Priestess: Hawawawawa, you can use the talisman, the Holy Binding Talisman (Gyeolseong-bu), about 100 times with the spiritual power this girl has infused into it.]
Holy Binding Talisman.
[oo*: 100 times?]
[Priestess: That’s an estimate considering battle situations. Based on 20 minutes.]
[oo*: That’s not a small amount.]
A duration of 20 minutes might seem extremely short at first glance, but it wasn’t.
Battles don’t last longer than 10 minutes anyway. Most of them.
Reflecting on the battles I’ve fought so far, the outcomes were always instantaneous.
Real combat isn’t sparring to improve each other’s skills; it’s to take each other’s lives.
[Priestess: Hawawa, this girl would like to make something permanent, but that would obviously be ruled impossible by the inter-dimensional trade system.]
[Priestess: It only reached 100 uses because the talisman’s usage range was completely focused on defense.]
[Priestess: We’ll have to see later, but it seems that the inter-dimensional trade system is also connected to the Tower. It looks like it won’t let climber lord ascend the Tower too easily.]
Damn it.
[oo*: After 100 uses, can I recharge the talisman with my own power?]
[Priestess: Since the talisman’s power source comes from spiritual power, you would need to consume a large amount of mana to recharge it. Right now, climber lord is likely overwhelmed just using your own skills, but by the time the 100 uses are up, you’ll probably have the capacity to spare mana for the talisman as well.]
[oo*: Thanks for thinking I’ll still be alive by then.]
[Priestess: Hawawa, of course! It would be so boring if climber lord disappeared!]
[oo*: What would Priestess like to receive?]
[Priestess: Hmm! This girl doesn’t really have much greed for food.]
“Anything” turns into this again.
Then Priestess senior gets the jeyuk deopbap.
[oo*: I’ll give you something suitable. But how do I use the talisman?]
[Priestess: It will activate when climber lord infuses mana into the talisman.]
What?
So I do need my own mana.
[oo*: How much mana?]
[Priestess: Just a tiny bit is enough. You can channel it in five directions, to the five cardinal points. The attribute it can block is determined by where you channel it.]
[Priestess: Infuse mana and throw it in the direction needed for defense! Hawawa! Wheeee!]
Priestess senior was very excited while explaining.
I could vaguely guess what she meant.
“Designate.”
Our trade items were designated.
Riiip!
Space tore again, and a single piece of paper fell.
I caught the falling talisman.
Perhaps because it was an item from outside the Tower, not from within it.
No item description window appeared.
Just like when I received two items from LightSword senior.
With this, two trading opportunities flew away at once.
The talisman called the Holy Binding Talisman had four directions drawn on it.
At the end of each extended direction was a circle.
East, west, south, north.
East had blue.
West had red.
South had gray.
North had black.
And in the center was a black circle.
Since chatting with traders becomes impossible immediately after completing a trade, I had no choice but to take out my terminal.
Title: I’ll Have to Read the Martial Arts Manual When I Get to the 5th Floor Waiting Room. Priestess, Does This Block Lightning in the East or South? Seems Like Attribute-based Defense.
Author: oo*
Since I don’t know when variables might occur, I should clear this quickly and get out.
ㄴ HeavenlyDemon) Speed read it.
ㄴ oo*) I’ll read the first few pages and fight for now.
ㄴ What speed reading ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s not like studying. You need to use it in actual combat, what are you saying? You need to read it thoroughly.
ㄴ Priestess) Gray blocks lightning. Blue is water. Red is fire. Black is curses. In places like the Beast Forest, channeling a little mana into black will completely block mental attacks!
ㄴ Look at how she’s excitedly explaining everything because someone’s using her item.
ㄴ She’d be like that for your items too.
ㄴ You’re being sarcastic because you know that will never happen.
ㄴ ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
ㄴ HeavenlyDemon) With your talent, you should be able to quickly master techniques like the Flowing Scale Wave Formation or Flash of Dark Rock.
ㄴ Look at him force-feeding.
ㄴ I’mFamous) HeavenlyDemon seems to hold the climber’s talent in high regard.
ㄴ ArchMage) It is high.
ㄴ Pioneer) If the Son of Lightning is the boss… he won’t just be good at using lightning. Be careful of close-range attacks too.
ㄴ oo*) Golems were using swords too.
ㄴ SpearKing) Lightning golems almost all used tridents. There was no sense of martial arts in their spear techniques, but their destructive power easily exceeded the 4th rank.
ㄴ DragonKing) Beltwi- Lightning strikes when the Son of Lightning’s eyes turn black.
ㄴ Pioneer) There are also golems with twelve arms each, wielding all kinds of weapons.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ We called them octopus golems.
ㄴ SewerSwordSaint) I’m craving octopus.
ㄴ I’mAnElf) Keep such thoughts to yourself, beast.
ㄴ SewerSwordSaint) Hehe, got a rise out of you.
ㄴ LightSword) Go forth.
ㄴ oo*) ㅇㅇ Will return alive.
I closed the gallery and put away my terminal.
I briefly considered using Priestess senior’s talisman, the Holy Binding Talisman, once before entering the gap, but the 100-use limit was concerning.
I’ll just use it in actual combat.
As HeavenlyDemon senior requested, I skimmed through the Flowing Scale Wave Formation and Flash of Dark Rock techniques at the beginning of the “Flowing Flame Space-Breaking Formula,” and more or less understood them.
Rumble!!
Blue-white lightning surged up from the gap once more.
It wasn’t just a single bolt of lightning.
“I don’t even need to go down?”
Rumble─!
A massive golem raised its brutish arms over the gap, then revealed itself completely.
Crackle… Crackle-!
[BOSS MONSTER]
The navy blue golem extended countless lightning shimmers matching its own color.
[Son of Lightning]
The boss monster of the 4th floor stage had personally made an appearance.
Both of the golem’s eyes turned black.
Lightning tore through the air and shot toward me.
I infused a tiny bit of mana into the Holy Binding Talisman in my left hand.
Zzzzzap!!
The lightning concentrated on the talisman that fearlessly moved in front of me.
To the left, which I judged to be the golem’s blind spot, so it wouldn’t reach where I was.
Its eyes turned black again.
Lightning that struck with acrobatic precision toward the direction I was approaching. The talisman chased the lightning fiercely and deflected it all.
Crackle!
I threw my body through the remnants of the electricity.
I tracked the trajectory of the incoming trident thrust with my eyes until the end.
And avoided it by the thinnest margin.
[Skill ‘Trajectory Insight’ level has increased. Lv.3]
Rumble!!
Lightning engulfed my field of vision.
The lightning was once again magnetically drawn to the Holy Binding Talisman, then pitifully lost its form.
I’ll end this.
At that moment, the golem’s enormous body, which didn’t seem like it would move easily, instantly shifted to the left.
While discharging electricity.
Swoosh!
The golem’s fist reached right in front of my face.
The second technique of the Flowing Flame Space-Breaking Formula that I had just read stirred in my mind.
Flowing Scale Wave Formation (Yurin Pagyeol).
A technique combining footwork and fist techniques.
That movement, emphasizing flexibility, allowed me to avoid the massive fist.
The space-breaking sound burst through the air.
A ringing echoed in my ears.
I concentrated pure white sword energy on the sword of destruction.
Clang!
Hjartagnyr.
I directly struck the center of the golem’s body with the Dragon Slaying Sword’s second technique, a stab, but it only penetrated the surface.
Not enough.
To break through that shell and destroy the mana core.
LightSword) Sword energy moves according to your will.
I thought of the wave.
The technique that the 4th-rank swordsman Rainer had used.
That sensation of alienation that had overwhelmed me, nearly killing me.
Releasing concentrated sword energy all at once.
That is my will.
Dragon Slaying Sword 6th technique.
Sword Energy Explosion.
Vortex Flow.
Boom─!
White light exploded.
Rectangular stone fragments scattered everywhere. Hundreds of stone pieces.
I could see the mana core emitting a red light.
Crash.
Stomping my foot down hard.
Once more, Hjartagnyr.
[Boss Monster ‘Son of Lightning’ has been defeated.]