Chapter 12: “Uh… Uh…”

“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 a.s.sume 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. .h.i.t 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 G.o.ds, 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 r.e.t.a.r.ded shield on my right arm.

Perfect.

I was fully prepared.

Now I just lumbered up and ma.s.saged a few sore spots on my body.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh………!

f.u.c.k. 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 s.h.i.t 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 a.s.s.

Aaannndd….. GO!

I sprinted with all my might.

I was at the red line at an instant.

d.a.m.n! 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.

d.a.m.n!

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!

f.u.c.k, 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 circ.u.mstances.

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.