Witch Win on the 25th Floor

A few days passed since then.

Even the players who had been frustrated since the logout-impossible situation were adapting to the circumstances.

Hunger urged them to live, preventing them from simply despairing on the streets.

Each time Americano passed through the village, she could see that the number of despairing players was decreasing.

Americano was carrying out a Quest from the Hero Guild.

The work itself was easy.

She only chose simple, straightforward combat Quests, and she adapted day by day, always fighting similar enemies.

Goblins and Orcs.

And rabbit monsters and various rodent monsters.

As monsters living near the beginner village, they could be hunted without difficulty even at level 20.

‘In game videos, they sometimes encountered boss monsters unexpectedly in the field.’

Was it a boss that came out hunting?

Anyway, Gospel… the area where the beginner village was located was densely mountainous.

It was a terrain where Orcs could easily engage in banditry, and recently, Orcs had been frequently attacking merchants.

The number of Quests asking to reduce the number of Orcs increased accordingly.

Americano was in the mountains.

“Orc!!”

She [Slashed] an Orc.

[Slash]

[Thrust]

[Thrust]

[Slash]

[Thrust]

The Orc, with a sword stuck in its neck, showed the spirit of grabbing the sword like an Orc would.

She pushed the sword stuck in the Orc’s neck, cutting off its neck along with its fingers.

She shook off the blood.

She turned her head to look for other Orcs.

The Orcs were all [Orc Warriors].

There were no [Orc Elite Warriors].

Judging from the Orcs’ reaction, they seemed to be refugees from the village she had annihilated.

Most of the [Orc Elite Warriors] seemed to have been dealt with at that time, so it was understandable that there weren’t any.

[Slash]

[Slash]

[Slash]

[Thrust]

She thrust her sword into a vital spot.

Just as she was getting bored.

“Ooooooooah!!!!!!”

One [Orc Warrior] went into a rage and charged at Americano with eyes flipped over.

But the [Execution Sword] plunged down onto the Orc’s head.

She killed the last remaining Orc.

“Hoo…”

Her breath escaped faintly.

[Sub Quest]

[Eliminate Orcs in the Western Gurumi Mountain (30/30)]

The system counted for her.

Americano returned to the Hero Guild and settled the Quest rewards.

Before she knew it, her Hero Rank had risen to C.

The higher the rank, the higher-ranked Quests she could receive.

“Good work.”

She waved to the female employee Casey and returned to her lodgings.

She had finished another day’s work.

These days, she was repeating the cycle of receiving, completing, receiving, and completing Quests.

Fighting is fun.

That was the charm of the game.

But the thought of having to earn money to make a living drastically reduced the enjoyment.

Earning money with pain.

She couldn’t stand it if it wasn’t fun.

Of course, she had enough money saved up to live comfortably.

Clearing a floor gave her that much money.

She was saving up money without spending much, as she was still in the beginner village to invest in equipment or Skill books.

As long as she had enough money, Sub Quests were a form of play, not a way to earn money.

“In the first place, this game doesn’t give you experience even if you clear Quests.”

At least it helped raise Skill levels.

Using Skills in actual combat raised them accordingly.

[Slash Lv.4]

[Thrust Lv.4]

The power of each Skill increased.

Before going to sleep, Americano brought up her information window.

<Information>

[Name] [CoffeeAddict]

[Gender] [Female]

[Alignment] [Neutral/Chaotic]

[Class] [Swordsman]

[Difficulty] [Grandmaster]

Well, this hasn’t changed.

She tried pressing the gender box, but there was no response.

<Stats>

[Level] [25]

[Strength] [18] [Stamina] [100]

[Sense] [19] [Spirit] [41]

[Magical Power] [30] [Mana] [7]

[Luck] [11]

[Unallocated Points] [5]

[Strength] remained the same, and [Sense] increased a little.

She learned the [Mana Cultivation Method], and the [Mana] stat was added.

<Geass>

[Outsider]

[Berserk]

[Nine Yin Severed Meridians]

[Beauty’s Early Demise]

[Talent’s Early Demise]

No change.

<Skills>

[Ready Posture Lv.5]

• [Body Enhancement Lv.4]

• [Equipment Enhancement Lv.4]

• [Slash Enhancement Lv.4]

[Northern Empire Swordsmanship Lv.2]

• [Form 1 Lv.1]

• [Form 2 Lv.1]

• [Form 3 Lv.1]

• [Form 4 Lv.1]

• [Secret Technique Execution Sword Lv.2]

[Basic Swordsmanship Lv.2]

• [Slash Lv.4]

• [Thrust Lv.4]

• [Block Lv.1]

[Leap Lv.2]

[Mana Cultivation Method Lv.2]

• [Mana Hole Lv.1]

Various things had increased.

The Skills she used frequently had increased, and [Ready Posture], which she kept on at all times, was at a whopping 5.

Since the maximum Skill level was 10, she had raised it a lot.

“Can I clear the 25th floor?”

It was almost time.

[Level] [20(-5)]

The level that was under Death Penalty,

Ting.

[Level] [25]

Was restored.

Seeing that, Americano was able to relax and fall asleep.

The next day.

She entered the Trial Square.

Americano’s appearance always attracted people’s attention.

“Look at her chest.”

“No, look at her face too.”

“Wow…”

She received all the attention.

But the attention was only enjoyable until the first day.

Every day.

Every day.

As an [Outsider] who valued personal time, it made her head throb.

‘Got something to see? What are you looking at? Lower your eyes!’

The words swirled in her mouth.

She had to suppress her [Berserk], so she had to escape this place quickly.

As if chased away by the gazes, she entered the Tower.

1st floor.

2nd floor.

3rd floor.

…

…

24th floor.

Traces of the battle with the Mountain King Ogre remained in the room.

Traces also remained intact in the rooms she had passed through.

“It’s becoming a chore to climb up now.”

With a Constitution of 100, she wasn’t tired by that alone.

She looked up at the stairs to the 25th floor.

The 25th floor was the Witch’s Workshop.

It was a stage where the magic installed in the workshop rained down like a bullet hell game.

To defeat the magic and reach the Witch, she had to dodge or deflect the magic…

“Haa…”

She wondered how she had fought when she came up here before.

Because at that time, her concentration and everything else had peaked, and she honestly didn’t have the confidence to do the same thing again.

Chris, the human knight on the 21st floor.

Basilisk on the 22nd floor.

Orc Elite Troop on the 23rd floor.

Mountain King Ogre on the 24th floor.

And the 25th floor.

The experience of deflecting all of the Witch’s bullet hell made her doubt if it was really her when she thought about it now.

‘How did I fight back then?’

She felt doubtful about herself, but,

‘Well, I’ll figure it out as I go.’

She stepped onto the stairs.

[25th Floor]

“Oh my.”

The Witch greeted her.

“You’re back again?”

The Witch recognized Americano.

She had suspected it when she saw the aftermath of the battle on the 25th floor in her soul state after dying.

She had suspected that it would continue as is without being reset.

It wasn’t very good.

It meant that the Witch was also experiencing and adapting to Americano.

The Witch’s back lit up with magical light.

“It seems like we’ll be seeing each other often in the future?”

“….”

She adjusted her grip on her sword,

And kicked off the floor.

As the Witch spread her arms as if scattering magic, magic circles spread out, and a wide stage entered the middle of the narrow library room.

Everything widened as if the space was expanding.

The light of magic.

Americano avoided the light.

The light chased after her in succession.

The magical light that stabbed into the floor became thorns and remained on the floor.

That magic would later become the cornerstone that would attack from all directions in 360 degrees, but,

Whether to remove it,

Or to catch up with the Witch before the magic formed.

That timing calculation was still difficult.

Already 1 second had passed.

It was too late to turn back.

Her feet, which had jumped up with [Leap], stepped on the floor and flew again with [Leap].

The level of [Leap] was 1 during her first challenge.

Now it was level 2, and the Leap distance had increased.

She quickly approached the Witch.

But,

“Oh my.”

As the Witch swung her staff, a whirlwind blew.

Her body, which was floating slightly in the air with [Leap], was hit by the wind, and her feet touched the floor.

In that brief moment, magic plunged down.

Fire? Water? Earth? Wind?

The magic the Witch used was light.

No, should she call it light?

A laser plunged down.

Bang!!!!

Backstep.

But the spot where she took a backstep shone particularly brightly, covering her vision in white.

The light from the ceiling illuminating the 25th floor. It gathered on her and became one in a narrow range.

She recalled the memory of burning ants to death with a magnifying glass.

Chi-i-i-i.

It burned the floor.

A magic she hadn’t used before.

Americano briefly [Leaped] to avoid the bright spot burning the floor.

Dodge.

Dodge.

Dodge.

Evasion.

The bright spot chased after her.

“You know what?”

At that moment, as she dodged the bright spot and jumped towards the Witch.

The Witch’s magic activated.

“Burning to death is the most painful.”

Light erupted from the end of the staff.

The thorns of light that had been scattered at the beginning were drawn to the light of the staff and swelled. The thorns of light became a hemisphere and gradually expanded.

From the bright spot that was burning the floor white, bubbles of light in the shape of hemispheres swelled up.

The ever-growing light sphere swallowed even the shadows.

It created a world of light inside the light sphere.

She was swept away.

There was something wrong with her eardrums.

It was difficult to maintain balance.

She couldn’t hear anything.

A long ringing continued.

The start was different from her first attempt at climbing, as well as her response.

It felt like facing a completely new monster.

The difference lay in the effort to understand and analyze the opponent and the preparation stage before engaging in battle.

If Americano had tried to purely develop her abilities and clear it with her physical skills,

The Witch had analyzed Americano and applied her patterns to the workshop.

She even took into account that the Hero couldn’t die and mixed in the intention to kill her in the most painful way possible to prevent her from even dreaming of re-challenging.

The reason why burning to death is the most painful is because you don’t die for quite a while even while your whole body is on fire and your skin and internal organs are burning.

Dying while feeling the pain of your body burning away is burning at the stake.

Puhuhu.

The Witch laughed.

“You have a constitution where your body gets colder the more Magical Power you use, right? You don’t think it’s over with just this, do you? There’s one more heating left!”

The Witch pointed to a certain spot with her staff.

Gathering the white light that covered the entire 25th floor and wrapping it in a hemispherical barrier.

The climber’s figure was not visible, but in the Witch’s narrowly opened eyes, she could see a faint shadow flickering in the light.

Flames.

An object that has reached a certain temperature ignites flames.

The climber was burning.

The flickering inside the light barrier.

The Witch cackled at the flickering.

“Deflect it if you can! It’s a miscalculation if you thought it would be the same as before~!”

The Witch raised her staff.

“You thought it was over?”

Magical Power shone on the staff.

“There’s one more left!!!”

The light inside the barrier shone even more strongly.

The heat contained in the light flowed out of the barrier, and heat haze rose.

As she poured in a significant amount of her remaining Magical Power, the barrier emitted light as if it would burst.

“Hoo!”

The Witch wiped the sweat from the back of her hand.

Hot!

But she didn’t lose her smile.

The flickering decreased.

Soon it disappeared.

There was nothing left to burn.

Her chest tightened.

“Hehe! I knew you couldn’t beat me.”

The Witch laughed cheerfully, mixing in her heavy breathing.

Just as the light was gradually fading.

A cool breeze blew.