The More the Healer Gets Hit the Stronger He Become

26 – Should I Give It a Try Too?

“Sigh… Damn.”

Thud! Thud!

A horizon with a piercing view, just looking at it made the heart feel like it was being pierced, at a beach where the emerald sea shone brilliantly.

Thud! Thud!

Wearing tattered clothing, Kangwoo swung the Morning Star with all his might.

“aaargh!! Seriously! This is insane-!!”

Swoooosh-.

Thud-!!

After enduring all sorts of hardships, Kangwoo, having toppled a massive tree, sat down right there.

“Insane trial. Seriously, isn’t this crazy? What kind of trial is this…! I’m so dumbfounded, I can’t even speak.”

The sunlight was unreasonably scorching, and even the slightest movement caused sweat to pour down.

Wiping off the sweat gathered on his forehead, Kangwoo manipulated the ring on his left index finger and took out a water bottle.

“Cheers-. I’m alive.”

[Inferior Spatial Ring]

When one talks about this ring, it was an item Kang Woo purchased with determination from the 15th-floor safe zone.

About the size of two double-door refrigerators, it was an inferior spatial ring worth a whopping 15,000 points, where time didn’t flow inside, preserving food from decay.

“Didn’t expect to step in this crap on the 19th floor while climbing up.”

This was a trial on the 19th floor, a daunting ordeal.

It had been 40 days since Kang Woo ventured into the trial of the 12th floor.

His daily life until reaching the 19th floor consisted of a series of battles, big and small.

Taking on missions to exterminate skeleton soldiers, he’d confront them with a crazy grin, shattering their skulls as if possessed.

Unable to find those darned stones, he went mad, tasked with finding five white stones, wandering the caves only to be surrounded by bat monsters spewing magical rays from their mouths, nearly dying before landing solid blows.

In another trial demanding ten boar tusks, he engaged in chilling pursuits, chased by giant boars and chasing them, barely surviving by plucking out remaining paralysis poison arrows through the trial’s hardships.

Struggling hard to climb to the mountaintop as a mission, only to encounter a wolf with claws and teeth like steel blades, fleeing from one swing of its paw, then witnessing the whimpering wolf after accidentally hitting it with a swing, chasing it down the mountain to its base.

But, honestly, challenging the trials from the 12th to the 18th floor combined, none were as dogged as this one.

[You’ve Challenged the Nineteenth Trial.]

[Mission: Reach an island with sacred trees while avoiding sea monsters.]

At first, upon entering the trial, he momentarily paused at the beautiful scenery, thinking it might be a challenge but reaching that island should suffice despite potential traps.

How foolishly mistaken he was.

“I should’ve realized the system meant avoiding sea monsters.”

A clank.

Back then, finding an island with sacred trees wasn’t hard for Kang Woo.

At the trial’s location, visible when he raised his head, lay a small island, merely 150 meters away across the sea, where a resplendent tree stood rooted, emitting light.

The location of the island was found. Now, all that was left was to reach that place.

A mere 150 meters. With his current abilities, he was confident that he could reach it in less than a minute if he swam with all his might.

The system did mention the presence of marine monsters, but when had there been a trial without monsters? Today might be doggedly similar, but somehow, he had to skillfully avoid and dispatch them to move forward.

Having made all the preparations, Gangwoo dived straight into the seawater.

However.

The marine monsters, invisible when he scrutinized the ocean with his eyes on the surface, crowded around him without any gaps the moment he entered the sea.

Gangwoo realized.

Why the system had said to ‘avoid’ marine monsters.

Since then, every day became a relentless succession of agony.

Every time he entered the sea, those relentless beings rushed at him from head to toe without a single blind spot, brutally tearing apart the intruder at every moment.

He even tried using bait with dried meat, just like on the 5th floor, but the clever trickery didn’t work on them.

Frontal assault was impossible, and bait didn’t fool them.

He briefly considered going into the sea to kill the monsters little by little, but it seemed quicker for him to cross the threshold of hell himself than to wipe out those endless hordes.

Neither this nor that worked. After contemplating all possibilities with a throbbing headache, he reached a conclusion.

In the end, the only way was to follow the system’s advice and avoid the marine monsters.

‘Considering what the system said, there must be a way to avoid those monsters.’

He couldn’t help but think that way.

Unless the system had prepared something, it was hard to imagine a way to reach the small island with the sacred tree, amidst the plethora of monsters scattered in the sea, without half a thought of fish or flesh.

And so, Gangwoo embarked on exploring the island he found himself on, and after half a day had passed.

Having surveyed every nook and cranny of the island, Gangwoo came to a few realizations.

This island, which was his starting point, was not as grand as the island with the sacred tree over there, but it was no less small.

There were no monsters on this island.

And there was no safe harbor to arrive at, avoiding sea monsters, until the island with the sacred tree.

Just.

Except for a few unnecessarily majestic trees, there was really nothing.

Noth.ing. At all.

“What the hell?”

The 19th-floor trial.

After entering the tower, he couldn’t figure out how to break the trial for a long time.

After spending a day sitting on the island floor and letting time pass meaninglessly, Kangwoo finally got up, grinding his teeth.

“It’s been five days already. I really need to do something now.”

Every time he went into the sea and came out, the experience of being covered in blood as if there were no sacred places held his steps, but there was no other way.

Spending time for days and days on a mere 19th-floor trial was not an option.

Jumping into the sea unarmed, Kangwoo ignored all the monster attacks and began to swim.

“aaah! Damn!”

… But he couldn’t.

Monsters also had to let go to some extent. The flesh-eating fish that enveloped his whole body were no different from the thick barrier in the sea.

To make matters worse, trauma was formed due to the sharp teeth that filled the field of vision.

“I… I have confidence that I can arrive within 10 seconds if it’s not the sea!”

Even though the end of the trial was right in front of him, he couldn’t grasp it!

Already at the 19th floor, his muscle strength, which had been increased, was merely 5.

After enduring such arduous and desperate battles, he was still stuck in the same place!

“aaah-!!”

He attempted several more times afterward, but the results remained unchanged.

On the 8th day of facing such trials.

In Kangwoo’s eyes, worn out by accumulating frustration and failures, all he could see were the trees densely covering the island.

Majestic and incredibly sturdy trees.

“There are so many. If I cut them all down, I might get a boat…”

“…Or not?”

He didn’t want to believe it. Could it be? Were these trees the challenge that the system had set up for him?

If that were true, then despite having the key to clear the trial right in front of him, he had spent the last 8 days in vain!

However, the more he thought about it, the more the unlikely became a growing certainty. As a test, he knocked down one tree and threw a piece into the sea.

A piece of wood floating on the water. No marine monster dared to touch it.

“aaah! Damn it-!!”

And so, time passed, reaching the present.

As the 19th-floor trial began and ten days went by, the fragments of the tall, magnificent tree that once stood around Kangwoo were rolling on the ground.

“I finally did it.”

Kangwoo’s eyes sparkled with determination.

“Today, I will definitely escape.”

When he confirmed that marine monsters did not attack this tree. At that moment, he briefly considered having to build at least a makeshift raft.

The intention of the system was clearly to make a raft and arrive at the island with the sacred tree.

However, soon enough, Gangwoo abandoned the idea. There had already been a considerable delay, and he felt there was no need to go through with it.

“The party guys might have built a boat, but I don’t need to do that!”

With madness in his eyes, Gangwoo threw the pieces of wood into the sea as soon as he grabbed them.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

When all the carefully cut pieces of wood were thrown into the sea like that,

The seemingly randomly thrown wood pieces formed a bridge with a certain interval, leading to the island with the sacred tree.

“Kahahahaha!”

It was impossible to swim across the sea teeming with disgusting fish, but crossing the sea with no obstacles could be done with eyes closed.

After landing on the floating pieces of wood with force, Gangwoo jumped straight towards another piece of wood.

After a very brief moment passed like that,

[The trial is ending.]

[Contribution measurement for rewards is starting.]

The trial ended so quickly that the hard work during that time felt disappointingly futile.

***

19th floor’s safe zone.

In a space where thirty-four dedicated lower tents were situated, numerous Awakened individuals were bustling about.

Among them, in one corner of the lively safe zone where the most people were gathered,

About ten people engaged in heated discussions about ‘that person’ who had been continuously clearing trials alone for nearly a month.

“Did that person not come today either? Is he really dead?”

“I cast my vote for death. Are those who died on the 19th floor just a couple? Surely that person must have jumped into the sea, and then they would have died instantly, right?”

“Well, those monsters… Ugh. Even thinking about it gives me the chills.”

“Oh… Didn’t you say you jumped into the sea, got healed, and barely survived?”

As if recalling a dreadful memory, everyone looked at the man rising from his seat with disdainful eyes.

In the turbulent sea infested with marine monsters, he had jumped in directly.

Since everyone gathered here had cleared the trial on the 19th floor, they all knew.

The horrific sight of a party member being torn apart by hidden monsters after entering the seemingly clear seawater, relying only on the visible.

“No matter how you tweak the hope circuit, you can’t survive the 19th floor without a healer. I also cast my vote for death.”

Amidst everyone firmly believing in ‘his’ death, a voice of opposition was heard.

“If you cleared the trial alone, wouldn’t you have taken all the monster defeat points for yourself…? Surely, there must have been at least one intermediate healing potion?”

“Oh, and now that I think about it, didn’t that person roam around without a backpack…?”

“Wow, don’t tell me they’ve already bought a pocket dimension ring?!”

What madness. Just how many points did they accumulate?

Amidst the uproar and astonishment echoing from all directions, a small voice interjected.

“To challenge the trial alone… Should I give it a try too?”

“….”

So faint that you wouldn’t hear it if you didn’t pay attention, the small muttering disrupted the noisy surroundings.

The bustling noise quieted down in an instant in response to that small voice.