ntal Concentration was possible even while ti was stopped.
Willpower recovered even while ti was stopped.
Conclusion.
I could use skills with virtually no restrictions!
For Magic Type skills, the cast ti was essentially erased.
All I had to do was stop ti and perform the ntal Concentration.
Running out of Willpower was never going to be an issue either.
If it ran dry, I could just stop ti and wait for it to recover.
The only real limitation was a skill’s cooldown.
‘Wait, don’t tell … even the cooldown?’
No, that couldn’t be right.
The cooldown tir would need real ti to pass.
Still, on the off chance, I decided to check.
I waited a full hundred minutes with ti frozen.
[Willpower: 100/100]
After topping off my Willpower, I released the ti stop.
I glanced around.
Now that the Goblin Knight was dead, the Crossbow Goblin should be popping out any mont.
“…?”
What’s that?
A small boulder tucked in the corner of the cavern was shifting.
Then a Crossbow Goblin crawled out of a passage that had been hidden behind it.
Last ti, I’d wondered where the hell it had suddenly appeared from. So that’s how it made its entrance?
My eyes t the Crossbow Goblin’s.
It frantically tried to level its crossbow at , so I stopped ti.
Alright, here’s a present for you too.
I finished the ntal Concentration, released ti, and fired off a fireball the instant it resud.
The Crossbow Goblin exploded spectacularly with the blast.
[Fla Strike (0:27)]
The ssage appeared the mont I thought about checking the skill cooldown.
I stopped ti right there.
[Fla Strike (0:27)]
The number hadn’t decreased.
So the cooldown wasn’t affected after all.
Honestly, it would’ve been absurd if even that worked.
Then again, the ntal Concentration and Willpower recovery alone were already absurd enough.
I take back what I said about Magic Type being garbage.
With things working like this, Magic Type skills were a perfect fit for .
No, perfect didn’t even begin to cover it.
It was a flat-out broken synergy.
The weaknesses of Magic Type skills were the ntal Concentration requirent and the massive Willpower drain… and both of those weaknesses had just been wiped clean.
In ga terms, it was like having infinite mana and instant casting on every skill.
Fla Strike had a thirty-second cooldown, which ant from now on, I could unleash a skill of this caliber every thirty seconds with zero constraints.
‘My mind’s going to get a little tired, though.’
I gathered my thoughts.
Co to think of it, the clear ssage hadn’t appeared.
I hadn’t entered Repeat Clearing for Magic Stones; I’d co back to check the Hidden Route.
Since it wasn’t ending, there must be sothing more here.
[Would you like to exit the Tower?]
The ssage popped up the mont I thought about leaving.
Alright, I can leave whenever I want.
Let look around a bit more first.
The boss room was a dead-end cavern.
Going back through the passage I’d co from would only take to where I started.
There really wasn’t any extra space to speak of…
“…”
The passage the Crossbow Goblin had crawled out of ca into view.
Could it be that?
I moved closer.
The blast from my skill had exposed the entrance more than before.
I got down on my stomach, stuck my head inside, and peered in.
A tunnel sloped downward like a rabbit hole.
An underground passage?
After a mont’s hesitation, I decided to go in.
I had a gut feeling this was it.
There was no reason to expect any real danger.
I could bail out at any ti, after all.
“Hup.”
I squeezed my body into the tunnel.
It was just barely wide enough for one person to crawl through.
I inched my way down the gently sloping decline on my hands and knees.
It was pitch black ahead; I couldn’t see a thing.
With nothing to see, my ears sharpened instead.
I was getting a little spooked.
Surely an arrow wasn’t going to co flying at my face out of nowhere.
‘Should’ve gone in backward…’
Fortunately, the tunnel ended quickly.
A wide, brightly lit space appeared ahead.
I erged from the tunnel and straightened up, then flinched.
It was another cavern, its opposite wall riddled with holes just like the one I’d crawled through.
Soone was sitting in the center of the cavern.
For a second, I thought it was a goblin, but it wasn’t. It was a person.
A… person?
I tensed up.
The figure hadn’t moved an inch.
“…Hello?”
I called out cautiously.
No response.
I edged closer for a better look.
The figure wore robes that brought to mind a wizard.
When I caught a glimpse of the face beneath the hood, I recoiled.
Its skin looked as though it had rotted and was sloughing off, a grotesque, nightmarish visage.
The old man with the lting face sat cross-legged, eyes closed.
I studied him in silence.
So… what am I supposed to do here?
A goblin I could handle. But a person showing up like this? I had no idea what the ga wanted from .
‘Do I just wait until he opens his eyes?’
Could this old man actually be an enemy?
Getting any closer felt like a bad idea.
That was when the old man opened his eyes.
His gaze turned toward .
A voice like tal scraping against tal seeped out.
“I wondered what all the commotion was up there… Child, what purpose brings you here?”
I was at a loss for words.
Purpose? Hell if I know…
“You don’t seem to be imperial soldiers, and a lone adventurer at that? You’ve hastened your own demise. Since you’ve already crawled in like a rat, I might as well use you as a test subject.”
“Excuse ?”
Test subject?
I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying, but one thing was crystal clear.
My life was in danger.
The instant I determined he was hostile, I backed away and began casting.
I stopped ti, completed the ntal Concentration, and hurled a fireball straight at the old man.
BOOM!
Crimson flas engulfed him.
Did that finish him?
The smoke cleared and the old man’s form was revealed.
Impossibly, he was unscathed.
A translucent barrier was deployed around him.
What is that? A barrier?
“…A mage? How?”
For so reason, the old man sounded just as startled, muttering under his breath.
My one and only skill, my strongest weapon, had just been blocked. I was still trying to figure out my next move when the old man suddenly bellowed.
“Co out, all of you! Kill him!”
…All of you?
Monts later, footsteps ca rushing in.
Goblins poured out of the tunnels lining the cavern walls in droves.
What the hell is this now?
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
SKREEEE-!
Dozens of goblins charging from every direction.
[Fla Strike (0:01)]
I confird the cooldown had cycled and imdiately stopped ti.
No, a few I could handle, but several dozen was a completely different story.
If I got sward and caught a stray blade while fighting in the thick of them, I wasn’t going to walk away unscathed.
There was no reason to take a dangerous fight.
‘You little bastards are going to make wait a hundred minutes.’
Once again embracing the virtue of patience, I waited for my Willpower to refill.
[Willpower: 100/100]
After a long wait, it was back to full.
I completed the ntal Concentration, released ti, and imdiately launched a fireball.
Right at the densest cluster of goblins.
KA-BOOOM!
Chunks of flesh scattered through the air.
The goblins caught in the direct hit vanished without a trace, and the ones nearby were sent flying in every direction.
A pungent, acrid stench stabbed at my nostrils.
Looked like about two-thirds of them had been wiped out in a single blast.
I moved to clean up the stragglers.
Darting around, I slashed through them one by one, snick snick.
It was over fast.
After finishing off every last goblin, I turned my attention back to the old man.
“…”
Uh, excuse … what are you doing?
That was what I wanted to ask.
In the middle of all that chaos, the old man was still sitting in the sa spot, eyes closed as if ditating.
His barrier was still up around him, so there wasn’t much I could do.
Should I go up and whack it with my sword?
Either way, it seed like I needed to kill this mage to end this…
That was when the old man’s eyes snapped open.
At the sa instant, a dark energy blanketed the cavern.
I stumbled backward in surprise and nearly fell.
The floor had suddenly turned into a viscous swamp and was sucking my feet down.
‘Wh-what the?’
As I floundered in panic, the old man cackled and shouted.
“You insolent little whelp! Didn’t your master teach you how mages duel? Standing there like a fool while I completed my spell!”
Tentacle-like things rose from the blackened swamp that the floor had beco.
With my feet trapped, I couldn’t move.
Struggling only made the mire swallow my legs deeper.
The tentacles squird toward .
The sight sent a chill crawling down my spine.
Hold on, ti out. Ti out.
[Would you like to exit the Tower?]
Ergency evacuation.
‘Exit exit exit!’
I scread it in my head, and the scene before my eyes shifted.
My room.
I stood there, gasping for breath.
“Haah…”
Nearly died there.
[You have failed the Nightmare difficulty 1F Hidden Route clear. (2/3)]
[Three failures will permanently seal the Hidden Route.]
ssages floated before my eyes.
So that old man was the hidden boss after all.
“That insane old geezer.”
A barrier, controlling goblins, the floor turning into a swamp out of nowhere.
He was using all kinds of bizarre abilities.
Given how he’d been going on about test subjects, he was so kind of dark mage, wasn’t he?
The Hidden Route was on a completely different level from the normal clear.
‘Three failures and it’s sealed…’
It seed like I only got three total attempts.
The one silver lining was that I could get out alive.
…I’d have to try again.
With two chances left, I needed to find a way to bring down the mage within that window.
“How do I beat him?”
I sat on the edge of my bed, arms crossed.
My skill was useless against the barrier.
If the barrier could block a fiery explosion, there was no way smacking it with a sword would do the trick.
First, I needed to deal with the barrier sohow before I could even touch the old man.
With the tools I had, it seed impossible.
“Seo-hyeon, are you up? Co eat breakfast.”
I’d been lost in thought until morning ca.
Even sitting at the table eating, my mind was elsewhere.
“Stop picking out the carrots. Eat them all.”
“I am eating them.”
“Carrots are so good for your eyes. Seo-a, you have bad eyesight like your mom, so you need to take care of them.”
My sister grumbled as she poked through the braised short ribs.
No matter how many tis she was told not to be a picky eater, it went in one ear and out the other.
Ugh, that little cow.
In that instant, sothing clicked.
‘Didn’t your master teach you how mages duel? Standing there like a fool while I completed my spell!’
Co to think of it, the old man had said that.
Completing his spell?
Did he need to go through the sa ntal Concentration I did before casting?
‘He was sitting there ditating, or whatever, the entire ti before he used that bizarre magic.’
That might have been his ntal Concentration.
Then what about the barrier?
The barrier had to be magic too, but he’d deployed it the instant I attacked.
‘…Ah.’
Wait.
When I first encountered him, the old man had his eyes closed then as well.
What if he’d been performing the ntal Concentration needed to cast the barrier that whole ti?
And by the ti he started talking to , the preparation was already complete.
The old man had said it himself.
Why was I just standing there like a fool while he completed his spell?
In other words, when fighting a mage, don’t give them ti to finish casting.
…I might have just thought of sothing worth trying.
*
I waited for the mont everyone in the family had gone out, then entered the Tower again.
After breezing through the goblins, I went back down into the underground passage.
I crawled as fast as I possibly could.
When I erged from the tunnel, the mage was sitting there with his eyes closed, just like before.
The instant I laid eyes on him, I stopped ti.
I completed the ntal Concentration and fired off my skill without a word.
KA-BOOOM!
The explosion tore through the cavern.
Where the old man had been sitting, only a heap of charred ash remained.
Did that finish him?
A ssage appeared before my eyes.
[You have successfully cleared the Nightmare difficulty 1F Hidden Route.]
It did.
I let out a dry laugh and muttered.
“I can’t believe that actually worked.”
So he really had been preparing his barrier.
Strike first, win always. That was the answer.
Now that I knew, it was almost absurdly simple.
[Fully absorbing the Power of the Floor.]
[Your Level has increased.]
[Your Level has increased.]
[Your Level has increased.]
[Your Level has increased.]
[Your Level has increased.]
[Moving to the Reward Room.]
The scenery changed.
[Difficulty: Nightmare]
[Floor: 2F]
[Level: 15]
[Willpower: 200/200]
[Skill: Fla Strike (Rare)]
My Level jumped up a lot again.
I clenched and unclenched my fist, feeling the power surging through my body.
Alright, let’s see.
What’s the Hidden Route reward?
There were several items scattered around.
I spotted a book and picked it up first to examine it.
It was a worn, old to with geotric patterns on its cover.
[Item: Malphadus’s Spellbook]
A grimoire left behind by the mage Malphadus. Upon use, you may select and acquire one of the following skills.
[Skill: Lower Mind Control (Rare )]
[Skill: Teleportation (Rare )]
[Skill: Corrupted Fla (Rare )]
[Skill: Shadow Swamp (Rare )]
[Skill: Life Drain (Rare )]
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