Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

"Uh… Uh…"

I took a momentary pause to catch my breath . Despite my improved stats and abilities, this journey proved to be strenuous and time consuming .

I had left the waiting room at 4 O’clock and had ran for 15 hours non-stop .

Effortlessly making my way through the ridiculous arrow traps that were planted along the way .

I just needed a little more time . No more, no less, just 3 more hours, it would have changed and made things easier . However, it looked like Tutorial had deemed I wasn’t to be given such a luxury .

A few days ago, new information had spread in the Community chat,

Every 1st attempt had to be completed within 30 days .

The penalty for not clearing the 1st floor within 30 days was still unknown to us .

You could be ousted from the Tutorial due to failing, maybe even receive judgement due to failing . Who knew?

This only meant one thing . I had to clear this floor today, tomorrow, or at least by the day after tomorrow .

I took out the water bottle from my inventory and splashed water on my face .

A small burst of renewed energy surged through me as the cold water touched my face .

While jumping up and down, I checked my status .

There was no problem with my focus, and I wasn’t bleeding too much . There were no weakened senses either .

There were 2 arrows pierced through my right arm .

Throughout my time here, I had grown a considerable amount and experienced multiple traps . Despite this, I still wasn’t able to get through this stage without taking any harm .

I couldn’t produce a strategy in time, so I just tanked a few arrows instead of dodging and subsequently, even though I knew they were coming, they naturally found their way through to me .

This was the time when I was barely able to tell the difference between different types of arrows that were fired .

If the first arrow was shot from a damaged long bow, the later traps felt like they were shot from a powerful recurve bow . Some of them were fired with such power that it made you wonder if there was a ballista lying around .

Truth be told, I’ve never seen a longbow or even a recurve bow but I’m going to assume that this was the force those respective bows would exert on their arrows .

Luckily I levelled up just a moment ago, so I only have 2 arrows pierced through me .

Ah, I could only imagine how good it would feel if there were no arrows in me .

Whatever, this was still good .

I’ve been hit by so many arrows that being hit by just 2 felt like just a minor injury .

“Phewww-“

As I looked towards the ground I saw a red line drawn .

It was just screaming to me ‘Theres a trap here!’ . This was the only trap in Tutorial where it actually warned me that there was one .

As soon as I crossed the red line arrows were flying towards from up down left and right .

The scary part of this was, there was no pattern in which how the arrows were fired .

This trap was a close second in terms of danger compared to the cliff trap earlier on .

On my first attempt, I was hit by so many arrows that I looked like a hedgehog and dressed in my swimming gear trying to cross the River Styx .

Thanks to my luck of the gods, I levelled up and was able to survive it .

For my second attempt I memorised the ‘pattern’ that I had experienced in my first attempt .

Since there were arrows shot in every direction, I couldn’t memorise the order of all the arrows, but after memorising the arrows that were aimed towards my critical points I attempted the trap .

In result, I nearly died .

The arrows that were fired other than the arrows I had memorised were deadly .

I couldn’t respond to them in time .

The outcome . I got hit by double the amount of arrows I got hit in the first attempt .

This time I pretty much crossed the River Styx and held hands with my great grandfather .

The whole time it’s been about patterns!

Why are there no patterns out of the blue?

Wasn’t this just a bit too much?

If I didn’t see it ahead of the trap after my first attempt, I would’ve died just there .

Now this was my third attempt at this trap .

First, I roughly broke off the arrows in my arm .

I couldn’t take them out and heal myself at this very moment so I broke them off so they wouldn’t get in the way when trying to move .

It was impossible to move my right arm to swing the sword due to the damage from the arrows . My limit was to just hold the sword in my hands . I’ll use my right arm and the sword like a shield .

A round shield on my left arm . A retarded shield on my right arm .

Perfect .

I was fully prepared .

Now I just lumbered up and massaged a few sore spots on my body .

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh………!

Fuck . You can do this Lee Ho Jae .

Who cares if there isn’t a pattern . You can do this . No, you have to do this .

Even doing pointless shit like psyching myself before the trap took up some time .

Although there was still some time left to clear the 1st attempt, I wasn’t sure how long it would take to fully clear this .

I needed to be more resourceful with what time I had left and move with haste .

Ok, let’s go .

I realised something after my first two attempts of this trap .

Arrows were fired only 3 seconds after I had crossed the red line .

In other words, I had to gap as far as I could in those 3 seconds .

I took a few steps back from the red line .

After I controlled my breathing, I got into a ready position for running that I had learned in high school .

Now was it hands at shoulder width?

Argh, it was hard to get in the position with the sword and shield .

With one knee bent .

Now raise your leg and ass .

Aaannndd… . . GO!

I sprinted with all my might .

I was at the red line at an instant .

Damn! This felt like doing long jump off a cliff!

This was the greatest high I’ve ever felt!

Tat!

I crossed the red line .

I didn’t slow down .

I couldn’t stop now!

Three!

Two!

One!

Nice! I’m already past halfway!

As soon as I reached zero on my countdown I saw a flash of an arrow tip ahead of me .

I jumped to slide tackle across the floor .

From there, lots of arrows were fired at a low height .

There was no need to pay attention to the arrows coming from behind and from the sides .

I was going forward at a very fast speed .

Slowing down wasn’t an option, so I ended up rolling without control to try and dodge the arrows .

With a PABABABT I heard arrows getting stuck in the ground .

I deflected arrows on my left side with the shield as I was rolling .

I felt a dull pain in my wrist .

My wrist must’ve been twisted due to the shield strapped to my arm when I was rolling along the floor .

I ignored the full pain I felt and ran forward .

I couldn’t stop for even a moment in this trap .

Since there were arrows being fired from every direction I had to maintain a high running speed forward so I would be hit by less arrows from the back and sides .

If I got hit around my waist or my legs by at least one arrow I wouldn’t be able to move and my chances of dying would increase greatly .

It was a price to pay when you could detect pretty much everything in your path with heightened senses .

Tong!

As I blocked the arrow that flew to the left side of my face with my shield, another arrow flew to my bare stomach .

I panic and blocked it with my right arm .

With a pook sound of my muscles tearing, the arrows pierced through my right arm .

Damn!

The arrow had pierced near where the previous arrows were already stuck in and that exponentially increased the pain .

I was trying to maintain my speed without stopping once, but due to the pain and shock I stopped for a split second .

POOK! POOK! POOK!

A few arrows were fired from behind .

I bent over to the side to dodge the arrows, but due to the slowed speed I was struck by one arrow to my back .

ARRrrrghghhhhh!

Fuck, now there was no choice .

I had to carry on running forward blocking the arrows I saw and tanking every other arrow like a rampaging hulk .

Forward!

Instead of trying to dodge the arrows aimed at my face, I raised my arms and shield to block it .

One careless head tilt to the side of an incoming arrow that wasn’t in my field of vision would be the end of me .

Pook, pook .

A few more arrows struck my body .

Ignoring the pain, I carried on .

It felt like every step I took tore my back muscles due to the arrowhead stuck in there .

Pook .

An arrow struck my left calf .

As the arrow struck deep in the muscle, my left leg ceased to move for a moment .

In that one moment, my rhythm got tangled and I ended up falling .

I stood up instantly with death flashing right in front my eyes as motivation and began to run . It was more like a half hop with speed .

Arrows weren’t flying towards me from just the behind…

Ahead!

At the very moment my focus was slightly hindered, I tried to dodge an arrow coming from ahead by tilting my head, however it ended up piercing my ear instead .

Arrrgrhgh!

I was losing vision and my balance . Then .

Pook!

An arrow struck my right heel .

Ahhh great, now I couldn’t use both my legs .

I thought to myself, ‘Was this really how I’m going to die?’

I threw my body forward with all my energy .

Puck!

Eeeuughhh!

Since there was nothing sound about giving up, a forward roll as a landing was a luxury that I couldn’t even dream of in these circumstances .

And,

Pshhhhhhh… .

I heard water .

I must’ve cleared the trap .

I lived again…

[Healing Well]

Description: Heals when consumed or rubbed . It may work for your bald head too… .

When I had taken more damage in the second attempt compared to the first attempt of this trap, it was the healing well that allowed me stay alive .

I slowly crawled to the Healing Well .

With what strength I had left, I threw my body into the healing waters .

And just like that, I lost consciousness .