25 – Replay on the 25th Floor

Witch’s strategy is stalling for time.

Endurance.

Evasion.

Time attack.

The climber’s victory is determined when the defense’s Magical Power runs out.

Because the magic has a long preparation phase, the pattern is that the witch runs away once the defense has exhausted all its prepared magic.

Therefore, when encountering a Grand Witch, Witch, or Little Witch, the focus is on avoiding the bullet hell and exhausting all their Magical Power.

Above all, catching a witch is difficult.

It’s hard to catch them from the start since they fly around in the sky, and witches are covered in all sorts of evasive maneuvers for self-defense.

The difficulty increases in proportion to the floor, but even climbers on the 80th floor haven’t been able to catch a witch.

But someone appeared who not only encountered a witch, but even killed her, on the 25th floor, a low floor where only Minor Witches should appear, achieving that first accomplishment.

Rumors about the video spread quickly,

And the video’s views soared.

Replay video.

[Floor 25]

[Witch Win]

Black letters.

Anonymous has reached the 25th floor.

It seems this isn’t their first encounter with the witch.

Anonymous starts running as soon as they reach the 25th floor, and the witch starts scattering magic in the form of light thorns, starting a bullet hell game.

But,

• The witch is a newbie.

• I thought it would be something special since they killed a witch for the first time, but it turns out a novice witch just met the wrong opponent.

• No. It’s Witch Win.

• Who’s Win?

• If the opponent is rushing at you like they’re desperate, you’ll just get through.

• You have to predict the shot! How can you not hit that!

• Seriously, don’t you guys know who Win is?!

The witch scattered light thorns on the floor.

The thorns flew straight at the climber.

They failed to hit the moving climber and instead struck the ground in succession behind them.

The commenters couldn’t hide their disappointment, wondering what she was doing, but,

Someone recognized it.

• That looks like an area-of-effect spell?

• Area-of-effect?

• An area Skill. Look at that. It’s still there behind him. It’ll be dangerous later if you leave it there.

• Using an area Skill from the start? But isn’t the consumption high, so they usually don’t use it often?

• It’s weird because she’s using it;;

Anything made of magic disappears once it fulfills its role.

If it hasn’t disappeared, it means it still has a role to play.

As much as it consumes a lot of resources, the light thorns had a low attack density to be called a bullet hell.

Even if it’s a preparation for an area Skill,

• It’s meaningless if you break through.

• Scatter bullets, damn it!

If the bullet hell is weak, you can break through it in an instant.

Anonymous quickly flew right up to the witch’s face.

But Anonymous’s charge was stopped by the gale the witch unleashed.

As if predicting that Anonymous would charge in like a bison, a laser struck Anonymous, who had stopped.

• Laser?

• Light beam?

• Why is she using that?

A type of light magic.

But light magic was a minor type of attack magic.

The laser was an attack of light magic that was almost impossible to block, but because it shines, it emits light during the power-gathering phase.

If you know the direction of the light, it can be predicted, so anyone can avoid it if they know the trick.

Above all, it consumes a lot of Magical Power.

Due to the nature of the magic, it takes time to use, and it can’t be used for surprise attacks because it shines, and it consumes a lot of Magical Power, so it had a triple whammy of unpopular elements.

From the witch’s point of view, who had to utilize limited Magical Power and magic, light magic was an X.

But the witch in the video only insisted on light magic.

• I think the witch is a newbie? She just used it because it looked good?

• No. Don’t you guys know Witch Win?

• No.

• Who is she?

• Why is she only using light magic?

• The laser is cool, though.

• She’s a direct descendant of the Grand Witch. If you know a little about witches, you know she’s a famous witch.

• Yeah, search for genius witch. It all comes up.

• She’s the youngest witch who’s been mentioned as a candidate for the next Grand Witch.

Witch Win was a celebrity that anyone who was interested in witches would know.

• I didn’t know that people who appear in the field also appear in the Tower.

• Almost all the monsters that appear in the Tower exist in the field.

• Then isn’t it dangerous to kill a witch?

• They say that dying inside the Tower doesn’t mean you really die.

• Witch Win. No wonder her name is one syllable. Some of the Minor Witches in the Magic Shop also have one-syllable names, so are they from the same lineage?

• Yeah.

The comment section was flooded with opinions wondering about Witch Win.

The strategy itself was ordinary and even seemed unskilled, flowing in a different direction from the witch strategy videos they knew.

The first pattern of witch strategies is a flashy bullet hell show that pours out a massive amount of 1-circle magic, so artistic that it could be called art.

Compared to other strategy videos where the Hail of bullets sweeps away the climber,

• It’s boring.

The light thorns are extremely bland.

I know Witch Win is a genius and amazing, but,

• She was a mess-gaki without any practical experience lol. Is that all she’s been showing off with?

But soon that opinion is overturned.

Anonymous dodges the laser,

And the ground they dodged and stepped on shone brightly.

An intense spotlight fell on Anonymous.

The brightening light shone dazzlingly, and all the light from the ceiling gathered on Anonymous.

Smoke.

• Look at it burning;;

Like lighting a fire with a magnifying glass,

When the light from the ceiling became a single point, the floor that received the light rippled.

It melted the floor.

• What the hell.

• Why is it melting;;

Anonymous ran away, avoiding the bright spot.

The laser chased Anonymous,

And the light thorns were also fired.

At that time, when the bright spot was also chasing Anonymous.

“[You know what?]”

The witch said, mixing in mockery.

“[Dying by burning is the most painful.]”

Light poured out from the end of the raised staff.

Then, the traces of light magic scattered on the 25th floor began to link together all at once.

The lights swelled up.

The light expands.

The rapidly expanding light gathered together to form a hemispherical dome.

The screen was covered in white, covering even the screen the viewers were watching.

• It’s a real area Skill.

• From the start?

• I guess this isn’t her first time.

• When those witch bitches can’t hit you with bullets, they use area Skills.

Light filled the 25th floor.

Nothing could be seen.

When the commenters whined that they couldn’t see,

• You can see if you adjust the contrast in the video processing options in the settings.

A kind viewer explained.

“….”

Skilla lowered the brightness and contrast in the settings window and looked inside the light.

Then it shone even brighter.

• Ah, my eyes!

• It’s dazzling!

• What is that witch doing now?

• You can’t kill with eye strain!

Whoosh.

Anonymous’s body caught fire.

• ?!

• Is she going to burn them to death!

• No, the internal space is so hot that it’s catching fire!

• How are you supposed to avoid that?

• Light magic area Skill is amazing;;

• Are other witches going to copy this after seeing this?

Existing area Skills could at least be dodged or blocked.

But light can’t be cut, deflected, or avoided.

Thinking about it, the reason Win chose light magic was probably because Anonymous had dodged and deflected all the other bullets except for light.

Light cannot be deflected.

It doesn’t bounce back even if you block it once.

There is no physical impact, but you continuously receive damage like poison damage.

That’s what a light area Skill is.

• No, I asked, and it’s a combination of general magic that was improvised, so it hasn’t been developed. Even if it is developed, it takes a lot of Magical Power, so you can’t use it again once you use it.

• It looks like it’ll end in one shot…

• No, look at the time left.

• In the first place, they must have cleared it to have uploaded it.

• How can you endure that?

Then, flash!

The light burst even more.

• Wow, damn.

• Is she increasing the output even more here?

• Ah, damn it. My eyes.

Viewers watching the video could adjust the settings to look inside the light space.

They watched the changes happening inside the internal space in real time.

Just looking at the floor melting and becoming liquid, you could guess that the light space was thousands of degrees Celsius.

Thousands…

Is that even possible?

‘It’s melting stone.’

• How many degrees is lava?

• It depends on the composition, but roughly 1000 degrees.

The stone was boiling.

• The boiling point for silicon is about 3000 degrees. Imagine the rest for yourselves.

The floor bubbled and boiled.

The commenters were shocked.

The comment section was quickly updated, and the comments quickly disappeared into the ceiling.

In the world of light where the heat haze distorted the world, there was a silhouette burning.

The blacked-out figure in the video captivated the viewers like a black hole.

They can’t endure it.

They’re enduring it somehow.

It hurts so much, why are they enduring it?

Everyone says.

But unbelievably, this video was a clear video.

Looking at the time log, it’s almost time for the witch to be defeated.

Anonymous’s weapon was iron.

Heat that melts and burns even iron.

They also lost their weapon.

Anonymous, who is enduring inside a space that melts even metal, slowly moved their body to get into position.

• What are they doing?

• I don’t know.

The fire is gradually decreasing.

The surrounding floor is also becoming calmer.

• What’s going on?

• I don’t know;;

When the flames were all gone.

The witch falls into a delusion.

Perhaps because she doesn’t have much Magical Power left, the witch is only careless and releases the magic.

At that moment,

• It’s freezing…

• Why is it freezing?

Chill swept through.

Seeing the water vapor being sprayed on the floor like dry ice, it became easy to understand how Anonymous endured the heat.

If it’s hot, you just have to cool it down.

But how?

• Awakened Ability?

• Still, is that output even possible?

• Maybe not in reality.

• Even in reality, I think they’d be lacking in Magical Power…

Before the answer to the question came out, Anonymous disappeared from the screen that was watching them.

• Huh?

• Ah?

• Eh?

• Where did they go?

The screen belatedly turned back to the witch.

The witch had already been pierced by Anonymous’s arm.

She was impaled on the wall.

Everyone in the comments lost their words.

The match was decided.

In terms of time, the witch cannot escape from Anonymous.

• Yes, that was a common 25th floor battle scene.

• Is that the average for the 25th floor;;

• There’s no way.

The 25th floor’s number one strategy video ends with the witch dying while her body is freezing, and a comment asks at the end.

• Anonymous also seems to have frozen to death, right?

The video turned black.

Exiting the replay video.

Skilla, who had watched the replay video, was enveloped in an indescribable feeling.

“There’s someone like this.”

They didn’t mind their own death and poured everything into crushing the enemy.

The ability to make that possible was also an ability, but the pain felt in the process was not something anyone could endure.

Skilla had also experienced it while wandering around the field.

Falling into a goblin’s trap and being skewered on the bars in a pit, or being captured alive by an orc and burned at the stake.

Experiences that made her shudder just thinking about them.

It was impossible not to think of those experiences when watching the video.

She had never experienced freezing to death, but it must have been terrible.

At least, the experience of her fingertips going numb and her body becoming sluggish on a cold winter day made her empathize with Anonymous’s senses.

It must have been several times that experience.

‘They endured that and cleared it.’

When she first saw the video of them catching the Mountain King, Skilla was happy that there was a Hero who pushed themselves as hard as she did.

She even felt a sense of rivalry with Anonymous, who had broken through the wall unlike herself.

But when she went back up the Tower strategy floors and watched the strategy videos, she felt a wall.

Mountain King Ogre.

Orc Elite Troop.

Basilisk.

When she found out that they had broken through the Basilisk head-on, she even felt respect.

Death was assumed from the beginning, and Anonymous’s appearance, pouring all their energy into winning under that premise, made her unknowingly admire them.

But when you engage in battle, there are times when you get excited and lose your mind.

At that time, you don’t know what’s reckless and what’s brave, and you act recklessly.

As the saying goes, you might gain a temporary enlightenment and explode your potential, achieving that much success.

So,

‘Honestly, I thought they were only up to the 24th floor…’

After watching this witch strategy video, she was convinced that Anonymous had something to burn themselves with.

Otherwise, how could a person continue to challenge themselves, enduring the pain?

On the 24th floor.

On the 23rd floor.

On the 22nd floor.

On the 21st floor.

Anonymous’s appearance, suffering and overcoming, could not be completely hidden even with the silhouette.

If it hurts, you start to hate it.

If you hate it, you become lazy.

They say that Summoned Heroes feel less pain, but that didn’t matter.

What does a person who has already proven their effort, tenacity, and courage need?

Above all, wasn’t it posted on the community bulletin board that the better you are at handling your Awakened Ability, the higher your Synchronization Rate soars?

Then, in terms of senses, they were not much different from Native Heroes.

Thinking about it that way, her feelings for Anonymous swelled up even more.

It was said that momentary emotions become trivial for someone with a great cause.

‘Anonymous must be like that too.’

They must have a goal.

Skilla stood in front of the monument, unable to close her mouth, staring at the 1st place on the ranking table until people left.

After looking back at the videos of the 1st place, she spat out a bitter feeling.

Haa…

“I was lazy.”

She thought she was growing diligently.

There is an end to a person’s potential.

Levels increase that limit.

The gap between solo climbing and party climbing is widening because you don’t grow to that limit every time you level up.

Therefore, a Hero must train themselves when they level up to build skills commensurate with their level.

That’s what she believed.

Just because you train your body doesn’t mean your skills improve, right?

Skills don’t correspond to all techniques, right?

Skills are just auxiliary functions after all,

A Hero must build their skills.

“….”

So Skilla had been displeased with the Heroes’ behavior of simply leveling up and trying to get stronger.

But now she realized that she was only slightly better than them,

‘In the end, it was just comparing heights among dwarfs.’

And realized.

“Haa…”

Level 30.

It was hard to raise, but,

It was easy to raise.

She thought she had done her best, but there was someone above her.

Skilla recalled Anonymous’s 22nd floor Basilisk strategy and reaffirmed her determination.

‘I will kill the Basilisk.’

Not a strategy.

I will kill it.

That’s what she decided.

Anonymous also defeated the Basilisk with a Sword Aura that barely scratched its scales. How could she, who knows how to produce a stronger power than that, not defeat it more easily than Anonymous?

If she can’t kill it even though it’s easier, she won’t deserve to call herself a Hero.

“Hoo…”

Her chest was boiling.

Her chest was as excited as a volcano, just like when she first left home to become a Hero.

At that time,

Inside the temple.

Fountain of Resurrection.

Splash.

Americano woke up in the tub.

She went up to the 26th floor for reconnaissance purposes, and,

[Level] [18(-8)]

[*Death Penalty level 2 applied.]

Died.

The boss of the 26th floor was a giant spider.