章 343: Balak (3)
The jungle on the 11th floor of the basement was a horrible place, reminiscent of the floods of the Red and Black Mountains.
Venomous scarabs, bone-sucking mosquitoes, vines armed with spikes like awls, berries as heavy as maces, narrow, deep cliffs cleverly covered in rotting leaves...
A normal person would not have been able to survive half a day in this forest, let alone make it through.
Moreover, it is now night, and the darkness has descended to an unbearable depth.
It was an ambitious time to be wandering around, even for the ship's owners, who were the original inhabitants of this jungle.
But.
Pasasak.
Vikir moved freely through the forest as if it were his own home.
He carried Cerberus' fur against the wind to keep other beasts at bay, found cliffs hidden by fallen leaves and scaled them, and cut open the air sacs of overgrown daylilies to release gas to scare away poisonous insects.
The spiderweb on his left hand, spun by the cub, bridged the gap between cliff and cliff so effortlessly that it would have taken hours to climb.
It was all done with such skill and familiarity, as if he'd been doing this for decades.
Naturally, Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca, who were following Vikir, couldn't help but be speechless.
"This is even more amazing than when we realized Vikir was actually Night Hound. How does he move so well?"
"I don't think even Basilios, the mercenary king of the North, could do this..."
"What, are you saying that Vikir is Night Hound? No, what does that mean?"
"When I saw him earlier, he was wearing the mask of Night Hound. I'll ask him what happened later."
Meanwhile, Vikir was having a flashback.
'It's like old times.'
Two memories come to mind.
The age of destruction, before the regression.
A harsh time when survival depended not just on swordsmanship, but on herbal gathering, scouting, searching, stealth, ambush, assassination, pharmacy, healing, cooking, and everything else.
Another memory was the two years he spent in the depth of the Red and Black Mountains.
…Spot!
Vikir sliced through the rotting log that stood in his way, halfway across the room.
The aura of the Graduator, vibrating and spinning at the tip of the sword at lightning speed, sliced through everything in an instant.
And Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca, seeing its power, must once again be horrified.
"Vi, Vikir. What level are you?"
"Oh my god, how many stats have you raised?"
"You've been strong since you were outside the tower?"
"...He's a guy with a lot of secrets."
And then.
…Stop!
Vikir, who had been walking ahead, stopped.
Looking at the footprints in the mud on the ground, Vikir checked the direction of the wind, then crouched low and circled behind a bush.
To hide his scent.
Beyond the thick darkness, he could see a faint beam of light.
A dozen or so people gathered around a small campfire.
Pow!
Tudor gritted his teeth.
"That's them, shipowners. The ones who stole our food."
The tower's challengers had been on this floor before Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca.
They were all middle-aged warriors with sturdy builds.
Their faces were smeared with mud and their bodies covered in animal skins and leaves.
Their bodies, covered with copper-colored muscles, were tattooed with intricate designs, but strangely, the colors were quite pale and blurry.
Beside him, Tudor whispered in a low voice.
"They laid something like dry gravel near the campground. If you step on it, it makes a loud noise and breaks."
"I know. Let's get closer while clearing away the scoundrels."
Vikir approached carefully, avoiding the dry gravel on the ground.
After a slow crawl that covered only a few meters in an hour, Vikir was able to close in on the food thieves.
…ppagag!
Vikir trampled all the trees and bushes and appeared right in front of the bonfire.
"Give me the food."
The raiders were startled by Vikir's appearance, who had approached this far without sound or sign, and grabbed the bows and arrows beside them.
Ping-!
The arrows flew.
Each of the raiders was sending arrows flying with an all-too-familiar motion, as if they were masters of the bow.
And as the arrows flew, Vikir was certain.
'Warriors of Balak.'
He had heard of their mysterious disappearance before entering the tower, from Cindy Wendy's report.
He was worried about their whereabouts, but he never thought they'd be trapped in the abyss of Amdusias.
'At least they're still alive.'
Vikir thought to himself that this was going to be surprisingly easy.
Next, Vikir removed the mask from his face, revealing the tattoo on his shoulder.
It was a tattoo of Balak's hunting grounds.
"Enough. It's me."
There was no way Balak, or any of the warriors of the native tribes of the Red and Black Mountains, would not recognize Vikir.
Vikir was the hero who had saved all their tribes from the dreaded plague of the Red Death, as well as a massive flood.
... However.
Things had taken an unexpected turn.
"...What is that guy?"
"Why does he have a tattoo of the hunting grounds?"
"Does anyone know him?"
"I don't know him. Beat him up!"
Balak's warriors didn't seem to recognize Vikir at all.
They were old enough to be Balak's warriors, judging by the tattoos on their shoulders, their archery, the black ash that painted their faces, and the language they spoke.
But somehow they didn't remember Vikir at all.
Pow!
Vikir was forced to take a few steps backwards to avoid a full-blown arrow.
'Warriors this old don't recognize me?'
Vikir sheathed his sword with some doubt.
"Can't you tell?"
A Baskerville-style swordplay unfolded.
It was something the warriors of Balak, who had spent their lives fighting against the Baskervilles, could not fail to recognize.
But.
"This guy uses a strange sword technique!"
"Hmph! A tooth-shaped slash?"
"I've never seen anything like that!"
"Do not engage, fight at a distance!"
Balak's warriors still didn't recognize Vikir.
They just stood there, strangely confused.
'I don't think my memory is failing me, but something is wrong.'
Vikir furrowed his brow.
Surely the people in front of him were Balak's warriors.
But for some reason, they were acting as if they had no memory of Vikir at all.
They showed no signs of having been affected by mind magic.
Vikir shrugged it off.
"If you've forgotten, I'll have to remind you, how I went from being a foreign slave to being your hunting ground."
At the same time, Vikir pulled out an item.
It was the one hidden piece that Vikir, who had so far claimed no need for items and accepted all of his rewards as candy, only wanted.
-<Scale of Forced Equality> / Scales / S
The values of other stats also change depending on the value of the highest stat you have.
The values of all stats will gradually and slowly increase in line with the value of the highest stat, and this change will continue until all stats are equal.
Vikir opens a status window with a golden scale in hand.
<Vikir>.
-LV: 1 (%)
-Title: "Gutter Rat Hunter", "Hell Dog", "Daylily Lumberjack", "Majin Executioner", "Black Sea King's Executioner", "Ryumajin's Favorite Enemy" (NEW)
-Stats
↳Strength: 798
↳Agility: 92
↳Stamina: 100
↳Physical Resistance: 1
↳Magic resistance: 1
↳Reflexes: 1
Vikir's three primary stats, Strength, Agility, and Stamina, were originally set at 300 each, for a total of 900.
But now, Vikir's three stats total 990.
Almost all of it was in Strength.
That was because Vikir had exchanged the stats he had gained on the previous floor, Lost Paradise, for candy, and then absorbed and redistributed them again.
<This is the largest candy store in the tower>.
<Challengers can exchange their items for candy here>
<Even candy that has already been eaten and become stats can be vomited out and turned into candy, especially for residents of this floor!>
<If you vomit out candy that was consumed before entering this floor, you will receive an additional 1 candy for every 10 candies you vomit out!>
Vikir wasn't planning on using the shop, but he turned his stats into candy and got an extra 1 candy for every 10.
And then he ate it all again.
'...I've just taken the bait in a trap laid by demons.'
I'm sure Amdusias and his minions would be wailing and gnashing their teeth if they found out.
Vikir was rewarded with the most red candy, the most common candy, based on probability.
Green candies for agility and blue candies for stamina were rare, but this was all the better for Vikir.
That's because Vikir was in possession of the aforementioned Scales of Forced Equality.
It's a temporary item that gradually raises all of your stats to match your highest stat, and it disappears when all of your stats are equalized.
'It was originally an item I obtained to increase the special 3 stats by at least 1, not the basic 3 stats....'
The rate at which stats are increased by these scales is extremely slow, so there's not much of a benefit to challengers anyway.
In order to utilize this item to its full potential, you'll need to spend a very long time in the tower, until all of your youth is gone.
By the time you get strong enough to do so, you'll be an old man, so what's the point?
... However.
"Good, because in this jungle time flows like water."
Vikir was getting older by the hour.
His hair was growing at a rapid rate, his bones and muscles thickening.
His voice grew thicker, and the lines on his face began to darken.
And naturally, Vikir's stats began to change accordingly.
-Ding!
[The item 'Scales of Forced Equality' is starting to forcefully balance stats!]
[The 'Strength' stat is out of balance with the other stats!]
[Other stats are being forced to adjust to the 'Strength' stat's value of '798'!]
[The 'Agility' stat will be increased by '1' from '92' to become '93'!]
[This change will continue until the 'Agility' stat reads '798'!]
[The 'Stamina' stat increases by '1' from '100' to become '101'!]
[This change will last until the value of your 'Stamina' stat reaches '798'!]
[The 'Physical Resistance' stat increases by '1' from '1' to become '2'!]
[This change will last until the value of your 'Physical Resistance' stat is '798'!]
[The 'Magic Resistance' stat is increased by '1' from '1' to become '2'!]
[This change will last until the 'Magic Resistance' stat reaches a value of '798'!]
[The 'Reflexes' stat is increased by '1' from '1' to become '2'!]
[This change lasts until the value of your 'Reflexes' stat reaches '798'!]
[The 'Agility' stat increases by '1', from '93', to become '94'...]
[The 'Stamina' stat increased by '1' from '101' to become '102'...]
[Physical resistance stat increased by '1' from '2' to become '3'...]
[Magic Resistance' stat increased by '1' from '2' to become...]
['Reflexes' stat increased by '1' from '2'...]
.
.
The highest stat, Strength, is now 798.
And all six of Vikir's blooming stats were increasing by 1 to match this 798 number.
<11th floor underground. 'River of Flow'>
A wave of time flowing like a river.
It was entirely on Vikir's side.
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