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[Boss Room]
[Shadow Spider Queen]
A spider as big as a house came down upside down.
The silhouette was supported by glowing blue spiderwebs.
The dark night and the boss’s eight eyes met.
At that moment, both the spider and the human moved at the same time.
《Fire Spear》
Dojin cast a spell.
Sssssss.
The spider chose to hide.
It uses the spider web attached like a tail to leap upwards and hide its body.
It seemed as if he was firmly convinced that darkness would cover him.
But Dojin’s eyes clearly saw the figure of a thing crawling on a net made of spider webs that looked like a ceiling.
And there are not just one, but eight silhouettes.
‘This was unexpected for me too. I thought it was a boss that would run up to the ceiling and keep recovering and coming back, but it was a boss that was divided into 8 parts from the beginning.’
At the current point when the Tower of Challenge first appeared, the user level had to be under 80.
I wasn’t at the level where I could have the exploration skills to pierce through the darkness and find hidden enemies.
That’s why no one knew that the boss ‘Shadow Spider Queen’ was split into eight entities.
This applies not only to Dojin’s first life before he returned, but also to his second life, the present life.
‘Your Majesty, thank you very much.’
However, Dojin had a “dark night” that could no longer be deceptive in overcoming the darkness.
For the Shadow Spider Queen, whose main tactics are stealth using dark environments and deception using powder, this is the perfect natural enemy.
‘Then I’ll start by hitting that kid who’s drooling on my head.’
Dojin’s hand rose upward.
The completed flame spear was fired at the master’s command.
Phew.
One of Shadow Spider’s clones, who was waiting to attack with the firm belief in his steadfast ally, the darkness, was hit directly by the “Flame Lance”.
The bastard fell to the floor with a cry of panic.
No, not only did it fall, the powder spider was also struggling in a groggy state.
Even though the wizard was a powerful cannon class with each and every blow, it was nearly impossible for a boss monster to become groggy like this with just one magic hit.
‘This time the calculations were spot on.’
The reason this was possible was because we understood the characteristics and weaknesses of the boss monster.
It was thanks to Dojin’s thorough calculations that he mobilized all means and methods to most painfully hit that weakness.
‘If words like stealth or surprise attack are included, HP will be lowered and attack power will be higher.’
In other words, this boss monster’s HP is low compared to its level.
‘It’s said that what should have been one was split into eight parts.’
This means that the vitality is also divided. Here, the boss’ HP is divided once again.
‘And I came in alone.’
It’s solo mode… Oh, my blood is decreasing again.
‘It pretends to have a long life and resilience by using hit-and-run tactics where multiple particles take turns to taunt the enemy.’
That’s a lie and a fraud.
In reality, it is nothing more than a water body with extremely low HP and defense stats compared to other boss monsters.
‘It was worth it to dope while pretending to live a limited life.’
3 minutes of giving up everything and going all-in on just magical attack power.
The potions and scrolls used for one doping cost millions of won.
The amount of money spent to find the doping combination that would secure the highest magic power within the body’s endurance limit is multiples of that amount.
What I did while challenging that guy was also his wanted list.
“…it was a painful expense.”
It’s all your fault, you little spider. I’m not asking for money though.
‘You just stay still. I’ll take care of the debt.’
There’s no need to estimate the remaining time. Just keep shooting magic as long as you have breath left.
Phew.
Taking advantage of the gap in the powders’ confusion, Dojin’s magic struck the one that had fallen to the ground again.
The writhing creature convulsed, screaming with its entire body.
Still, the bastard’s body was rising upward.
‘You still don’t know you’ve been caught? It looks like the rest of you plan to stay hidden until the end.’
It wasn’t the case that a guy who couldn’t even breathe properly went up there himself.
Two of the remaining particles are working hard to pull up what has fallen to the floor.
“Even if we do that, all we’ll be able to find is a corpse.”
《Fire Spear》
Oh my.
The spear of flame flew through the darkness and eventually passed through the spider’s plump belly.
The shard’s body, which had lost its magical resistance due to death, began to catch fire and crackle.
“Are you finally getting a grasp of the situation?”
Dojin smirked as he saw several pairs of hostile spider eyes gathering towards him.
Now it seems they’ve realized that there’s no use pretending to be just one.
But it’s too late.
——————
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“Will it be sooner that I run out of mana and fall down? Or that you will be turned to charcoal?”
Aren’t you curious?
The moment when small whispers are scattered in the darkness.
Dojin’s magic circuit complained of overload.
The magic circuit screamed at its master that it would burst if it continued like this, but Dojin ignored it.
Dojin who fires magic without thinking about the consequences.
The Queen’s particles rushed towards Dojin like crazy, but not a single one could reach him.
Dojin’s magic, which increased its power by risking his life, was such that each and every blow had the power of a fatal blow.
Kiiik!
Phew!
Kkeeeeek!
The same sound was repeated.
When the sound disappears and all that remains is darkness.
“…I’m going to die.”
Dojin, who was dying on his knees, groaned.
My stomach is churning as I’ve scraped away at the point where I barely have any mana left.
The limitation was that I was able to remain conscious due to the awakening effect that came with doping.
The magic circuit has already been broken and is no longer able to function.
In an attempt to stabilize the mana circuit that was in disarray due to overload, I habitually tried to take out a cigarette and bite it, but I couldn’t take it out because the number of consumables was exceeded.
‘It’s been a while. I’ve shot until it was this bad.’
This happened often in my past life.
Back then, if you used some magic, things would end up like this.
“… Anyway, I’m glad it ended.”
Dojin was dying, but the bosses were all dead. All eight of them.
[You have cleared the 8th floor of the Tower of Challenge.]
[First clear of the Challenge Floor at the Tower of Challenges!]
[Compensation settlement process begins.]
The moment my consciousness began to blur, system messages began to pop up.
Dojin smiled faintly when he saw that.
Then his body transformed into light and dispersed.
Since I cleared the 8th floor, I was warped towards the entrance to the next floor.
* * *
“…Jina.”
Dojin, who had been dazed for a moment, came to his senses when he heard someone calling him.
“…uh?”
Then, he saw the face of his manager, Cheon Ji-hyeon, looking at him with concern.
“… Are you okay? You look incredibly tired. You’re staring blankly, which is unusual for you.”
“I’m tired… that’s true. It’s not because I’m tired. I have something to think about.”
Dojin gave a vague answer and started eating the salad he was eating again.
And then he asks:
“But what did you just say?”
“Are you sure you’re okay? If you can’t hear a single word I say… It’s not like you have narcolepsy, is it?”
“I said no.”
Dojin smiles and shakes his head.
Cheon Ji-hyeon glared at him with suspicious eyes, then sighed and said.
“This video is amazing.”
“Views?”
“Everything. It’s just so amazing.”
Unlike Cheon Ji-hyeon, who was talking excitedly, Do-jin nodded as if it was natural and picked a cherry tomato and put it in his mouth.
“… It seems like you take it for granted?”
“Well, I woke up in first place after going through all the hardships.”
It was only natural that he would receive a heated response, as he single-handedly cleared the 8th floor while the other top-tier raid teams, including the Spear Guild, which is comprised mainly of American nationals, were having a blast heading there.
“What did they say at work?”
When Dojin asked, Cheon Jihyun answered as if she had been waiting for it.
“It’s chaos. It’s not just chaos, is it? The company is turned upside down. The broadcasting station and everywhere else are all demanding your hand over, chaos. And now it seems like the game guild is sending something.”
“But it’s quiet?”
“It’s all the director’s orders, you know. The director ordered us to never interfere with your game.”
I see. Dojin nodded absentmindedly, still mechanically chewing the salad.
Cheon Ji-hyeon said with a truly worried expression on her face, as if her soul had been taken from her.
“… Dojin, games are good, but work is important too, but health is really the most important thing, right? You really don’t look that good right now. I think it would be good for you to rest for a few days. Since you beat it this time, you’re currently in first place. So, shouldn’t you rest for a while?”
“It’s not that I’m really sick or tired. I just have something to think about, so don’t worry.”
Yeah, I have something to think about. The 8th floor reward is a bit weirdly twisted.
Humming to himself, Dojin recalled the message he had seen.
[You have a chance to ‘upgrade rewards’ as a reward for first clearing the challenge floor.]
[When using the reward upgrade chance, the 8th floor clear reward will be replaced with the ‘9th floor clear reward upgrade’.]
The reward for the 8th floor, which is the starting point of the Challenge Floor of the Tower of Challenges, is a random box containing an S-grade item.
This was also said by Spear, who was the first to clear the 8th floor before returning, and this fact was proven when numerous users who cleared the 8th floor later received the same reward.
However, I had not heard about the reward upgrade system given when you first clear the challenge floor.
Then there is only one answer. Spear, who was the first to clear the 8th floor of the Tower of Challenge in the first round, simply chose to safely receive the reward.
‘After all that trouble with the spiders on the 8th floor, I guess he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to clear the 9th floor. And since there were only 5 of us, unlike me, it would’ve been hard to unify our opinions.’
As it turned out, that choice was a very good one.
Following Spear, many parties and users cleared the 8th floor, but no party or solo user cleared the 9th floor.
‘What should I do?’
9th floor, can you break it?
The information is there.
There was no team that cleared the 9th floor, but I’ve seen a lot of videos of people trying to conquer it.
We also devised countermeasures based on the information we had.
‘Should I roll the 8th floor reward to the 9th floor, betting on the chance of breaking it, or should I just safely receive the 8th floor reward and then challenge the 9th floor?’
As I was eating mechanically, the salad bowl was soon empty.
Dojin, who had been tapping the empty bowl with his fork, soon made a decision.
‘I’m curious, so I can’t do it. I’ll just try it and see.’
If you do it wrong, you’ll lose your S-class item, but that’s something you can handle…
However, if you clear the 9th floor without receiving the reward upgrade, you will never know what you could have received.
Then, aside from the regret, I also didn’t like the fact that I didn’t know what I had lost.
“Just wake up.”
Dojin gets up muttering.
“… Dojin?”
Cheon Ji-hyeon called him, but Do-jin had already entered the room where the capsule was installed.
“… 119 won’t work. Should I have a private ambulance on standby?”
Cheon Ji-hyeon, who was genuinely worried about Do-jin’s condition, held onto her smartphone and thought about it for a while.
