135 – Tower Of Trials 2Nd Floor_Shoot For The Sun -2
◆Second Attempt
Tank: –
Ballista Operators: Luna, Embers, Selvia
Thud. Thud. The ogre passed by as it trampled through the forest. The three hids in the bushes and whispered to each other.
“In a forest full of trees, how are we supposed to shoot an ogre that’s wandering around as it pleases… with a ballista?”
“There’s a pattern. It’s random, but it’s there.”
Luna drew a simple diagram of the ogre’s path on the dirt floor.
“Quiet.”
“I didn’t say anything…”
Even though it was a poorly drawn diagram, the general idea was clear. The ogre was wandering around the forest on a circular path, and each ballista was positioned at a 120-degree angle.
“No matter which ballista you use… the ogre will eventually appear in the line of fire!”
“We might have to wait a while if we’re unlucky… but we can predict it and fire! Where did it just pass?”
“Right over there.”
Luna pointed to the ogre’s footprints. Selvia ran to the ballista, calculated the angle, and took aim. She was aiming for the head. Once she finished setting up, it was time to wait.
After what felt like an eternity.
Thud. Thud.
The three held their breath as they heard the ogre approaching. And as the ogre passed the tree they had marked earlier. Embers fired the ballista.
Twang! Swoosh──!!
Thud.
“Grrr──!!”
“What the heck, it didn’t die?!”
The ogre staggered as it screamed with a ballista bolt stuck in its head, and its eyes flashed white as it started to charge towards the direction the ballista bolt had come from.
It was because of the distance. The ballista, which had been fired from a distance, didn’t have enough power to kill the ogre in one shot!
Luna calmly gave the order.
“Reload.”
“Oh, I got it. Reload──!!”
“Hurry up, it’s already right in front of us…!”
“I can’t go any faster than this!”
While Embers was frantically loading the bolt, the ogre had already reached the ballista.
Whoosh──!!
The club came flying and smashed the ballista to pieces.
It had been out of the question to buy time in the first place, so the challenge was already over the moment the ogre had spotted them. Selvia let out a frustrated growl.
“Dammit─oh!! We waited this long, 『Peony Bomb』!!”
Boom──!!
A bright red flaming arrow flew and exploded. With the smell of something burning, the headless ogre’s body staggered and collapsed to the ground.
2nd Floor, Normal Clear.
—- —-
Since they couldn’t kill the ogre in one shot with their current build, they needed a new strategy. How could they clear this stage?
“We can’t kill it in one shot because of the distance, and we can’t make the ogre leave its path, so what are we supposed to do?!”
“And we get caught as soon as we fire a single shot. Even if we practice reloading, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to fire multiple shots before the ogre gets here.”
“We have two left.”
Luna held up two fingers. They wouldn’t have given them two extra shots for nothing. And there were three ballistae hidden in the forest.
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“Run away after each shot.”
“…Run away?”
“The ballista, I mean.”
“Okay.”
They would fire at the calculated angle and run away immediately. The enraged ogre would destroy the ballista, but the players would already be gone, so they wouldn’t get caught.
They would repeat this three times.
Selvia made a bored expression at the thought of the tedious grind.
“How much time are we going to have to waste on this…”
“But there’s no other way I can think of.”
“…If only there was another way.”In order to avoid the long waiting time, Selvia quickly racked her brains and came up with a new strategy. It was to strengthen the ballista arrows.
“Whether it’s enchantment or attaching a scroll in front, as long as we can kill the ogre with one shot!”
“Dwarf. Stubborn.”
“That’s right. He probably won’t admit it easily. He’s been watching us since we came out of the pit…”
“That’s it. That dwarf is hiding in the underground cavity before we find him!”
Selvia snapped her fingers. That was exactly the point she was going to attack.
After the second floor started, one of the ballistas was preloaded with an arrow. The arrow existed before meeting the dwarf, so it was an item ‘out of sight’.
“Strengthen the arrow in advance. Of course, things like explosion bonus are impossible. If the arrow explodes, he will be furious and say, ‘You guys did something strange to my arrow!'”
“Then what?”
“Quietly, an enchantment that the dwarf will easily fall for… It’s a one-time thing. Nothing but the corpse of the dead ogre can be found!”
“……….!!”
Luna quietly raised her thumbs. This seemed to work!
Enbus’s face also brightened. It felt like a light was shining in the midst of not being able to see the answer. There were many floors to conquer. He had to keep going up. He wanted to prove his abilities to his master.
“Then the enchantment is the problem.”
“Let’s ask the disciple of the Golden Tower for the enchantment! He will definitely do it cleanly enough for the dwarf not to notice. Then we can say goodbye to this forest…”
“Question.”
“Hmm?”
Luna looked at the faces of the group one by one and made a cautious gesture. She made a ring by connecting the tips of her thumb and index finger.
“Do you have money?”
“……”
“……”
Enbus had no money as he had been abandoned by his family. Selvia was a promising candidate who was somewhat favored in the Red Tower, but she was not yet a disciple – and the support she received had long been spent on her own research.
Selvia asked with an anxious expression.
“By any chance, does Luna have money…?”
“……”
Luna pointed to her clothes. The reason she wore light clothes that clung to her body was because of budget issues.
If she had a lot of money, she would have worn armor made of expensive materials – which would also be flexible – instead of sitting and dancing in such a revealing outfit── That was what she meant.
The poor youths with no money looked down at the ground with gloomy faces.
“…Should we continue with the plan?”
“Yeah.”
“That would be better…”
The ensuing meeting had a slightly damp atmosphere.
In the end, the idea of shooting all three ballistas was adopted and put into action. However, Enbus felt a strange sense of unease. For some reason, he had a feeling that things would not go well.
He had fought dozens of times while climbing the Tower of Trials. So even if it wasn’t accurate, there was something he could vaguely sense from the experience left in his body.
* SYSTEM_INFO ———–
[Lost Ogre]
Health: Normal
Magic: Not used
Strength: 4 / 10 (Upper middle class of students)
Agility: 2 / 10 (Lower middle class of students)
Intelligence: 1 / 10 (Lower class of students)
Characteristic: Bloody skin
=＞ The strength of the skin increases as HP decreases.
※ —————————
This ogre seemed to have tougher skin as it got more wounds──.
—- —-
◆Third attempt
Tank: –
Ballista No. 1 operator: Luna
Ballista No. 2 operator: Enbus
Ballista No. 3 operator: Selvia
Selvia fiddled with the trigger of the preloaded ballista. She had really, really waited a long time. She could only pray that this last arrow would end it.”Launch completed for units 1 and 2? Got it. Yeah, show me. Oh , the ogre has two horns on its head. Now we need to make it three…!!”
Pheeewoooosh──!! Thud!
The arrow flew and hit the ogre’s head. The ogre staggered around, bleeding profusely. Selvia prayed earnestly…!
“Uwaaa…”
“Die, please die!”
“U, uwa, uwaaa…”
“Die!!”
It didn’t die.
The ogre survived after being hit by three ballista bolts to the head… and clutched onto the value of its life! Envers, who was watching from afar, was impressed by its tenacious vitality.
It seemed like it would die from blood loss, but its natural healing rate was greater than the bleeding, so it didn’t die.
Selvia squinted at the malicious design of the second floor. The ogre didn’t die even after being shot three times because of the passive damage reduction it had.
She channeled the anger boiling in her dantian into magic.
“‘Firecracker’!!”
Kaboom──!!
A bright red flaming arrow flew and exploded. The ogre’s head was charred black.
Second floor, normal clear.
—- —-
The method of shooting – waiting – shooting – waiting – shooting failed.
Because of the waiting time + passive effect, the ogre didn’t die even after using all the ballista bolts. So what was the solution to this malicious design?
The crazy wizard, who had been watching the three people struggle in real time, lamented in the control room, leaving the following words:
“Please just look at the story.”
You crazy skip-happy people. How can you just take the arrows and go out like that?
I didn’t ask for much. I just wanted you to ask a couple of questions out of courtesy.
“Since the subject of the judgment is a dwarf, why did the dwarf start this in the first place? Why is he trying to catch the ogre? If you ask questions like that and raise your likability, the judgment will become more lenient. It would end warmly with him thanking you for catching it…”
Or.
“If you’re really annoyed and don’t care about the dwarf’s circumstances, it’s okay to deceive him. Since the judgment occurs when you observe with the telescope, you could just knock the dwarf out and make it look like he died from the ballista, and it would be accepted…”
Or.
“He said he was hunting an ogre with an eye injury, but the one in the forest is a normal ogre. This is a hint that the dwarf is blinded by revenge, that his real enemy is already dead, but he’s fixed on the wrong guy… If you could just help him with that.”
The crazy wizard rested his chin on his hand. Yes, he knew that the hints given to the trio were a bit lacking.
If he had told them that the challenge of the Tower of Trials emphasized ‘narrative’ more than ‘clearance method’, the kids would have tried to guess quickly or come up with a method.
But he had a grievance too.
“Selvia…!!”
He had planned to give them a bone on the first floor!
When the orc finished venting and died from the frenzy, he would be dragged into this arena and say something like, I was brought here because of this fight, I wanted a fight that would bring out everything in me, thank you for granting my wish .
He had intended to convey to the players that there was some kind of story going on here.
Selvia’s pattern skip had caused a bug.
That’s why the crazy wizard was a bit pissed off. It was similar to when Pink Valleys stole his favorite shirt.
Normally, he would have given them a hint or made a real-time balance patch, but he thought he’d watch them suffer a little longer. And there was one more reason why he left the kids alone.
The timing for a GM to help is ‘when the player is at a loss’.
The moment they think, what do we do now, what do we do, you must show them the way forward. In other words, this means.
It’s unromantic to interfere when a player is trying hard to do something. The crazy wizard believed that.
The guys hadn’t given up yet.
It seemed like they had some kind of countermeasure…
—- —-
◆Fourth attempt Tank: –
Ballista 1st unit operation: Luna
Ballista 2nd unit operation: Embers
Ballista 3rd unit operation: Selvia
In the forest where the ogre roamed, the three gathered together and began a meeting. Believing that there must be a way somewhere.
“Can’t we make more arrows? Ask the dwarves to make them!”
“No facilities.”
“How about killing the ogre by piercing it with a ballista?”
“No physical strength.”
“Well, it’s not necessary for all three of us to do it, so how about a few more outside…”
He wouldn’t have asked for the impossible. While Selvia was enthusiastically coming up with ideas, Embers was expanding the branches of his thoughts.
This is also a great martial art. It was a martial art with conditions.
You can attack three times.
However, if you attack with a gap in between, you will not be able to defeat your opponent.
Because the opponent’s defense is strong and its resilience is high.
A rock is broken by an awl. Concentration is needed.
To do that, like the legendary archer in the old story, you need to show the skill of splitting arrows with arrows.
Or, to put it simply.
“…Can’t we just hit it with three arrows at the same time?”
“…?”
“Possible. Theoretically.”
“Anyone can say anything. But remember that this is not a flat land but a forest?”
I knew.
Isn’t the biggest reason for repeating waiting and shooting to find the right timing to shoot and hit while avoiding trees, the moment when ‘the ogre and the ballista are closest’?
“Then how about a mortar? It won’t get caught in the trees.”
“Shoot the ogre with a ballista mortar? If that was the case, we shouldn’t be holding swords here! And the ogre moves randomly. We can’t do it unless there’s a big target on the ogre── Huh?”
“…There is a target.”
The three looked up at the sky at the same time.
The strangely close sun was moving around. The sun that was used as a marker to find the location of the ogre.
The ogre is always ‘directly below the sun’.
“…Bring me a branch to write with a pencil.”
“I’ll get it right away!”
The wizard’s brain was spinning. After about 3 hours of calculation, Selvia came up with a few formulas, and the ground was full of traces of calculation.
There is hope!
“If it doesn’t work this time, I’ll just kill the dwarf… I’ll borrow money and bring the guy from the Golden Tower.”
“If that happens, I’ll add a penny to the money I don’t have.”
“Me too.”
After memorizing the angle settings according to the position of the sun, the three dispersed to operate their ballistas.
The first to shoot the signal is the ballista farthest from the sun.
It was Selvia.
The past time of hardship and suffering passed by. After piling up efforts, it was time to check the results once again. My heart was pounding and my hands were sweating.
“Operation name… Shoot towards the sun!”
Selvia stared at the sun and operated the ballista with force.
Twang──!!
Twang, twang──!!
Three arrows shot into the sky with a time difference. The arrows, which were flying in a dizzying curve, began to fall to the ground due to the influence of gravity.
Screech──!!
The ogre wandering through the forest looked up at the sky as the sunlight was unusually strong today.
There was a small dot on today’s sun that I had never seen before. The ogre narrowed its eyes and tried hard to figure out what it was. But death was faster than the answer.
And then, three in a row were stuck in the face.
Thud, thud, thud!
The ogre collapsed without even screaming.
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The dwarf watching the scene with a telescope dropped his jaw. What did I just see?
—- —-
Smack!”I didn’t know you guys were such skilled archers. I’m sorry for making you use my crude ballista. Thanks to you, I got to see something amazing…”
The short dwarf bowed his head to the group.
Selvia smiled broadly, and Envers and Luna’s lips curled up slightly. How much they had suffered because of this dwarf’s stubbornness.
Still, it felt good to have succeeded… and above all.
“It was awesome.”
“…Yeah, it was cool.”
The sense of satisfaction was overwhelming. If possible, they wanted to preserve the ogre’s body as it was and show it off. It was a shame that they couldn’t.
“Thank you for avenging my enemy.”
“Yes, well… You worked hard too, old man.”
“Now that the ogre is gone, it would be nice to come out and live.”
“Not mushrooms, but meat.”
Pwaaat──!!
A light shone from the dwarf’s chest, and like with the orc, he ascended to the sky. And then a bright light burst forth, blinding everyone──.
2nd floor of the Tower of Trials cleared.
—- —-
[Walking in the rain without getting your clothes wet: Survive for more than 10 minutes in Jenny’s 2nd phase pattern and clear the 3rd floor]
“…How the hell are we supposed to clear this?!”
“I agree. In the first place, what is ‘Jenny’s true form’?”
“I don’t know.”
The conquest of the 3rd floor was difficult from the start. This was because most of the students didn’t even know that Jenny had a 2nd phase.