Only I’m the solo player

Chapter 21 – Hysterical Strength

—–CROW—– 

A single moment’s misjudgment can lead to death.

This was a phrase often uttered by strategy-focused challengers aiming for high ranks in the Tower of Trials.

However, those strategy-focused challengers rarely died from a single mistake.

Because those challengers ultimately played in parties.

With reliable colleagues to make up for their mistakes, one or two blunders wouldn’t cause any major problems.

But as someone forced into solo play, I truly faced a life-threatening crisis from a single mistake.

There was a limit to how unfair things could be. This wasn’t just solo play, it was one-coin play.

-Crunch.

The wolf’s maw, sunk deep into my left shoulder and reaching my chest, easily crushed my armor.

Whether it walked on two legs or not, a werewolf was still a wolf. Naturally, its teeth were much stronger than its claws.

My bones near my collarbone were completely shattered with a crunching sound. A red effect burst out with a crackling sound.

The werewolf’s teeth had triggered a critical hit.

“Uh, haa.”

Where did things go wrong? What did I do wrong?

Forgetting that I had thrown my shield and trying to block the werewolf’s claws?

Being overconfident that I would win, just like in the 1st floor boss fight?

Misjudging that I could ignore the Kobold Riders?

Or not anticipating that the werewolf would enter its berserk pattern so quickly?

It was probably the last one. I should have realized it when my attacks were more effective than I expected.

I didn’t know I could deal enough damage to trigger its berserk mode with just a few dagger hits.

If I had taken a more defensive stance and fought once to gauge the situation, I wouldn’t have made this mistake.

No, if I thought about it like that, I had made a mistake from the very beginning.

I ended up like this because I was in a hurry to clear the 2nd floor quickly. Damn it, I should have just stayed here for a few more days, you idiot.

-Crunch, crunch!

The werewolf’s teeth dug in deeper and deeper. My bones were crushed by its terrifying bite force, and blood spurted out.

I had never felt the sensation of blood leaving my veins so clearly.

The sensation slowly changed direction. The pain, having reached its limit, allowed me to forget the pain itself and focus on other sensations.

-Thump, thump, thump.

My heart beat fast. It was the first time I had felt my own heartbeat so clearly.

The intense realization that death was approaching.

Ah, if I was going to die like this, why did I try so hard?

It would have been better to just rot away quietly in my room, browsing the community.

I knew how pathetic that was, but wasn’t it better than being chewed to death by a damn dog?

What did I hope to achieve by trying so hard? I didn’t even have a motive in the first place.

After my mother died, I thought a lot. After much thought, I concluded that I had to clear this tower.

Why was that?

My mother was dead anyway. She probably died thinking I would be trapped in this tower forever.

Even if I cleared the tower and went out later, that fact wouldn’t change.

I had been holed up in my room for so long that I had lost contact with my old friends a long time ago.

Even if I went outside now, there was no one to welcome me. So why did I want to clear the tower?

Ah, I remembered.

I wanted to become a decent person, visit my mother’s grave, light some incense, pour her a drink, and apologize.

I didn’t know if there really was an afterlife, but if there was, I probably wouldn’t be able to meet my mother.

What else would a piece of shit, unfilial son like me go to but hell? If I went to hell, I obviously wouldn’t be able to apologize to my mother.

So.

I couldn’t die in a place like this.

“Arghhhhhh!!”

-Crunch!

I roared and grabbed the jaws of the werewolf that was biting my shoulder.

I grabbed the upper and lower teeth, dripping with blood, and mustered all my strength to pry its jaws open.

Its bite force was strong enough to shatter my bones and armor in one go. I was half dead, and my strength was no match for it.

But I couldn’t just die like this. I had to get out of this tower, become a proper hunter, and meet my mother.

“Ugh, ah, ah, ah!”

-Creak!

I put strength into my tattered shoulder, ignored my screaming body, and continued to exert force. The embedded teeth began to loosen little by little.

Thud, thud. As the embedded teeth were pulled out, blood flowed from the wounds. My head was getting dizzy, and my vision was darkening.

That was fine. I could use even the strength I would have used to see to pry this bastard’s jaws off.

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Battle Awakening Level 3.]

My vision was blurring, but on the contrary, my grip was getting stronger. Was this the monstrous strength that appeared just before death?

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Battle Awakening Level 4.]

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Battle Endurance Level 5.]

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Indomitable Level 2.]

I didn’t need to think about the principles. Right now, I just had to draw out and use this power that was welling up in my body as much as possible.

Feeling the teeth that had been crushing my bones gradually loosening, feeling the werewolf’s jaws gradually opening.

Slowly, sensation returned to my body, and my darkened vision gradually brightened again.

-Grr, grrrr…!

My vision cleared, but there wasn’t much to see. The blood splatter was physically blocking my eyes.

Through that blood-red vision, I could barely make out the werewolf’s eyes, which were close by.

“Heh, haa, heh, heh, heh…”

Its pupils were shaking. Or maybe it was my vision that was shaking. Probably the former.

Why, were you surprised because you thought you had won, but you hadn’t? Did you think you were the only one with a berserk mode?

I realized something while fighting the wolves and acquiring passive skills. The Tower of Trials recognized the challenger’s changes and granted skills.

Then it wouldn’t be strange if I got a skill like berserk mode right now. In fact, blue windows kept popping up.

[…… …… …… acquired …… … ]

It was hard to see what I had acquired because it was obscured by blood, but I was definitely acquiring something.

Was it the effect of those skills? My grip on the werewolf’s jaws was getting stronger and stronger.

-Creak, creak!

I had forgotten all about the feeling of approaching death I had felt just a moment ago. All that remained was the joy of growing.

-Crack, crack!

With my increasingly strong grip, I continued to pry open the werewolf’s now fully open jaws.

My brain, soaked in the dopamine brought by the pleasure of growth, arbitrarily created language and spat it out.

“Die, you, son, of, a, bitch!!”

[You have acquired Passive Skill: All-Out Effort Level 1.]

-Crunch!

My hands ripped off the werewolf’s jawbone.

****

With a red effect signifying a critical hit, the werewolf fell.

It was a good sight to see it rolling on the ground, unable to make a sound because half of its snout had been ripped off.

But the problem was that the ground the werewolf was rolling on was completely red.

“Haa, damn, it.”

Was that all my blood? I didn’t know a human body could bleed this much.

It was said that you wouldn’t suffer a fatal injury until your HP reached 0, and I guess this was what it meant.

It was definitely enough blood loss to be fatal, but I was somehow still alive. It was a bit different from not suffering a fatal injury.

But I was really just barely alive. I was alive, but I couldn’t even move a finger.

Damn it, I needed to make sure it was dead.

“Po, tion, potion…!”

I opened my inventory, but since I couldn’t move my body, I had no way to take out a potion.

Damn it, I could move my arms until just now… Was that really me using every last bit of my strength?

Was there a way? A way to drink a potion without moving a finger… Ah, there was one.

-Crash!

I used the ‘drop’ option, which could be operated without using my hands, to summon a potion in the air and drop it.

The dropped potion bottle shattered, scattering its contents on the ground, and the location was just within reach if I fell forward.

It wasn’t a metaphor, it was literally within reach if I fell forward. That’s where I had dropped it.

“Huuup…!”

With the last of my strength, I leaned my body forward. My barely standing body fell forward towards the ground.

-Thud!

Damn it, I hoped I didn’t break my nose. Judging by the glass shards sticking into my face, the location seemed to be correct.

-Slurp.

I lay there like an idiot and licked the potion scattered on the ground.

Since I could curse, at least my tongue could move.

It was a bit pathetic, no, it was just really pathetic, but I was able to drink the potion somehow.

HP: 4/660

My HP, which had been on the verge of death, gradually recovered, and minimal strength returned to my body.

I slowly raised my body and this time, I took out a potion with my hand and drank it properly.

After recovering a bit more, I took out a sword from my inventory and finished off the writhing werewolf.

-Stab!

[Congratulations. You are the first to clear the 2nd floor of the Tower of Trials.]

The clear message and reward details scrolled down.

I was roughly reading them with my eyes when I remembered something I had forgotten and hurriedly lowered my head.

-Whoosh!

The halberd swung by the remaining Kobold Rider passed over my head. Damn it, this was really a thing.

If the boss was dead, shouldn’t the mobs just disappear on their own? What the hell kind of system was this-

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Intuition Level 1.]

-Nice, I had faith in you, damn it.

—–CROW—–