"EEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!"
*Clang! Clatter!*
I flung the scythe away.
"I can't do it, I can't…"
Of course I can't.
How is anyone supposed to slice their own throat while in their right mind?
I'd been way too cocky.
Something like that—you can't do it sane.
And I happen to be pretty sane.
"Okay. Fair enough. I'm not that kind of person."
The Gallery people kept hyping me up and I almost started believing it, but I'm nowhere near the level of a deranged lunatic.
Safety was my creed from the very beginning.
I can't forget the original reason I wanted to climb past floor 100 as fast as possible.
The reason I skipped training and pushed my ascent speed wasn't because I was some kind of speed freak—it was to stay ahead of the Hero.
'…Hmm.'
'Sane mind… safety…'
"…!"
An idea flashed through my head.
A situation where I'm no longer in my right mind.
Pursuing safety.
Something that satisfied both conditions at once had just occurred to me.
*Can this work?*
I wrote a post.
______
Title: Wait, this though…
Author: Anon (9F)
Feels like this could be useful in a fight.
Dying and going to the Death God Realm… can't that be used as an "invincibility frame"?
…If I self-decapitate right when the enemy attacks, doesn't that nullify the hit?
And once I wake up with an instant-kill skill, I can just immediately kill whatever's in front of me.
What do you think?
_____
[Comments]
Anon (412F): What kind of headache-inducing nonsense is this, newbie…
Anon (331F): At least you're not dead lmao
Anon (351F): The imagination on this one lmaooo
Anon (338F): Why are you trying to run a circus?? lmaooooooooo
Anon (431F): You're saying do this right before a monster kills you?
└ Anon (9F) (OP): Yeah
└ Anon (431F): And that's supposed to work?
└ Anon (710F): Why not just learn regular Black Magic now? The Death God curriculum is brutal af.
______
*Can't work?*
I was thinking that when Teacher's reply came in.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: …It is possible.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Remarkable… to have independently arrived at Death's Edge Invincibility (*Sajeolyeong*).
└ Anon (710F): Another genius move lmaooo
└ Anon (621F): Why is a Death God who hasn't even learned an instant-kill skill developing techniques on her own lmaooooo
What even is Death's Edge Invincibility?
Teacher continued his explanation.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Death's Edge Invincibility is a secret art of the Death God clan, developed by one of the primordial Death Gods. It can nullify an enemy's attack for a single instant.
Exactly what I had in mind.
It was wild that this technique already existed. Goes to show there's no such thing as an original idea.
Teacher went on.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: However, this technique cannot be used repeatedly.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: The time one spends in the Death God Realm grows shorter with each visit. The likelihood of waking up while the enemy's attack is still in progress increases.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: In other words, the difficulty of using it rises with each use.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Most Death Gods who relied on Death's Edge Invincibility met miserable ends.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: There is a reason I did not tell you of it. Ignorance is the cure when it comes to Death's Edge Invincibility.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): Ah… I see.
Suicide invincibility.
The technique I'd conceived—Death's Edge Invincibility—seemed to have the properties of a drug.
*Makes sense…*
Once you use a broken, busted invincibility frame like that, you'd want to keep using it.
But eventually, the shortened invincibility window would get you killed twice over.
I'd just resigned myself to that conclusion when—
└ Death Note Grand Canon: However, I will permit you to use Death's Edge Invincibility.
└ Anon (341F): ???
└ Anon (9F) (OP): Oh, I can use it?
Permission I hadn't even hoped for came back.
What was the reason?
└ Death Note Grand Canon: It is said that the very Death God who first conceived of Death's Edge Invincibility still makes use of it to this day.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Meaning—Death's Edge Invincibility belongs not to those who learned it, but to those who arrived at it themselves.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: To have reached it on your own means you already possess the vessel to bear its cost.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: And so I will not stop you.
I was dumbfounded.
I had permission, but it still felt like some kind of forbidden technique, and that made me nervous.
But.
"Killing myself raw is scarier."
There's no way I can self-decapitate while in my right mind anyway.
It's only something you can do when you're already on the brink of death.
└ Anon (574F): Sweet deal then, just keep pushing ranked matches until you hit a wall gg
└ Anon (574F): From now on you should mix in some Sense stats too. You'll need the reaction speed to suicide on cue.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Sense stats, indeed. I concur. Those will be necessary for Black Magic later as well.
Huh.
First time I've ever seen these two agree on something.
The comment section had the same reaction.
└ Anon (731F): What's going on. Why are these two teaming up. Not fun, keep fighting.
└ One Who Savors a Cup of Black Tea: How lovely. Stay on good terms. ^^
The plan was set.
1. Keep climbing the tower as-is.
2. Suicide when it looks like I'm going to lose.
3. Get the instant-kill skill and escape the crisis.
Step 2 has a slight feasibility problem, but that's something I can manage by not being greedy.
It's not like a game where I have to aggro-ping-pong and wait until I'm at 1 HP before attempting the suicide.
If I can just tell by looking that I'm going to lose, I can go for it then.
I'll try it at a comfortable, safe timing.
*Saying "safely commit suicide" sounds a little off, but…*
Either way, now there's truly no one who can stop me.
"Full throttle until I park at floor 100."
I wrote one last post.
______
Title: Gonna keep doing ranked matches until I hit a wall
Author: Anon (9F)
Instant-kill plus invincibility combo, what's there to be scared of?
But how should I be allocating stats?
[Comments]
Anon (574F): Put 1 into Sense every time you level up.
Death Note Grand Canon: From now on, distribute 1 point each into Magic Power, Intelligence, and Sense.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): Don't need to raise Strength or Agility?
└ Anon (574F): Don't. You'll need Black Magic after the instant-kill skills.
└ Anon (431F): Sounds like you got a taste of the STR/AGI rush and now you can't let it go lmao
___
Stat points gained per level-up: 3.
Magic Power 1, Sense 1, Intelligence 1.
Noted and locked in.
Anon (9F): Heading out now.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Take care of yourself.
└ Anon (433F): Take care of yourself (said by the guy who just recommended suicide)
I closed the hologram and headed for the next floor.
"Ranked match request."
The staircase descended.
Floor 10, the long-awaited.
Here we go.
*Creeeeak—*
With a heavy grinding sound, the door to floor 10 swung open.
In the center of the floor.
[Defender: Skeleton (10F)]
A skeleton gripping a chipped greatsword stood waiting.
*Finally, a monster that actually looks like a monster.*
*Clatter.*
The skeleton clacked its jawbone and raised the greatsword.
"Oh."
Different from the vermin before it.
It had taken a proper combat stance.
I was still admiring that when it came charging.
*Whoosh.*
It kicked off the ground, and the greatsword swept across my field of vision, crashing down toward the top of my head.
Fast.
But.
I'm faster.
*CLANG—!*
I twisted the scythe's haft and deflected the greatsword's trajectory.
A faint tingle ran through my wrist.
For a pile of bones, it had real force behind it.
But I'm the superior model.
I'm not just bones—
*Swish—!*
I've got muscles too.
Slipping into the gap left by the deflected greatsword, I spun my body.
The scythe blade, loaded with centrifugal force, came screaming toward the skeleton's midsection.
*CRACK!*
*CRUNCH!*
With a shattering sound, the skeleton's upper and lower halves split apart and flew into the air.
The bones that hit the floor crumbled apart without a fight.
One hit.
Still completely early-game monsters.
The power I'd dumped into Strength and Agility up through floor 5 was still holding up.
[Floor 10 Skeleton defeated successfully]
[Victory in a duel against the floor's master. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion reward: 900G acquired!]
[Level Up! 9 Lv → 10 Lv]
[Stat Points +3 acquired!]
I opened the stat allocation window.
[Magic Power stat increased by 1.]
[Intelligence stat increased by 1.]
[Sense stat increased by 1.]
A contradictory allocation.
Right now I'm not using a single spell or skill.
But everything hinges on the late game, so it doesn't matter.
I slung the scythe over my shoulder and headed for the next staircase.
Floor 11.
Floor 12.
Floor 13.
Still one-shotting everything.
The same pattern on repeat—cutting them down on the strength of raw stat superiority.
Every time a door opened and closed, monster remains scattered across the floor.
[Level Up! 12 Lv → 13 Lv]
[Stat Points +3 acquired!]
[Magic Power stat increased by 1.]
[Intelligence stat increased by 1.]
[Sense stat increased by 1.]
"Oh?"
The fourth time I raised Sense, my vision seemed to open up.
It felt like sounds and presences became sharper and more distinct.
In terms of how noticeable it was, it came right after Strength.
Intelligence and Magic Power, on the other hand, still gave me absolutely nothing I could feel.
"You two better pull your weight later…"
Carrying that expectation, I climbed the tower.
"Ranked match request."
My unstoppable momentum up the tower—
[Defender: Mini Stone Golem (20F)]
—came to a grinding halt when I opened the door to floor 20.
"Oh come on, seriously…"
*Boom! Boom!*
A golem made of massive boulders slammed its fists down.
It was slow.
Its trajectory was obvious to my eyes by now.
But the durability was the problem.
*Clang! Clatter! Clang clang clang!*
I swung the scythe at it relentlessly, but sparks just flew—it wouldn't cut.
"Just die already!"
*Thud!*
I decided to target the joint sections and started hammering them exclusively.
Even that wasn't easy.
*Thud!*
I jumped lightly again to dodge the golem's stomp, and jammed the scythe into the gap at its knee joint.
Failed again.
Even if the golem was slow, trying to hit the joint gaps of something actively moving in real time was hard.
Probably because my Agility stat wasn't that high.
But it was the only option.
I kept swinging the scythe without rest.
*Scrape.*
"Got it!"
Finally, the weak point at the joint tore away, and the golem dropped to one knee.
That exposed the back of its head.
"Isn't that basically a free hit?"
I leaped up onto it and drove the scythe straight down into its skull.
*KABOOM—!*
The massive boulder shattered into fragments and dissolved into cubes.
[Floor 20 Stone Golem defeated successfully]
[Victory in a duel against the floor's master. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion reward: 1,900G acquired!]
[Level Up! 19 Lv → 20 Lv]
[Stat Points +3 acquired!]
Stat allocation.
[Magic Power stat increased by 1.]
[Intelligence stat increased by 1.]
[Sense stat increased by 1.]
"Hah… hah…"
I collapsed onto the floor and sucked in ragged breaths.
It hadn't been dangerous. I hadn't come close to taking a single hit.
But it took way too long.
For the first time, I'd actually burned through stamina.
"Sweat?"
My frilled dress clung to me, heavy and damp.
I rested long enough, then pushed myself back up.
"Keep going."
Floor 21.
Floor 22.
Floor 23.
[Level Up! 20 Lv → 21 Lv]
[Level Up! 21 Lv → 22 Lv]
[Level Up! 22 Lv → 23 Lv]
Unstoppable momentum.
And then floor 24.
[Defender: Orc (24F)]
"Oh… might actually die here?"
Something that looked genuinely strong had appeared.
A brown-skinned orc.
The moment it saw me, it came charging with its axe swinging.
"Slow on the approach though?"
I swung the scythe at its neck from outside its attack range.
*Swish—!*
The head should have gone flying.
"Huh?"
Blood sprayed, but I hadn't cut through the bone.
*Didn't die?*
The early-game power I'd dumped into Strength and Agility was finally running out.
*GRAAAH!*
The orc roared and brought its axe crashing down.
I lurched backward and drove the scythe haft up into its jaw.
Using the moment it staggered, I slashed at its neck again.
*Scrape.*
Two hits.
The orc slammed face-first into the floor.
"Starting to feel some resistance…"
One-shots were no longer happening.
But it wasn't bad enough to warrant suicide yet.
I didn't feel my life was in danger.
The problem, if there was one, was that fatigue was spiking to incomparable levels compared to the floors before.
*Vitality stat was never even mentioned…*
I can't put points into other stats.
In the end, after opening the door to floor 25 and cutting down the monster—
[Floor 25 Red Wolf defeated successfully]
..
.
.
After allocating stats, I dropped.
Sprawled flat on my back on the marble floor of floor 25.
Lying there, I pulled up the hologram.
I took a screenshot and checked my status.
___
[STATUS]
Race: Death God (死神)
Floor: 25
Level: 25
Condition: Fatigued
Strength: 18
Agility: 23
Vitality: 7
Intelligence: 43 (▲16)
Sense: 38 (▲16)
Magic Power: 32 (▲16)
Luck: 9
Defense: 3
Magic Defense: 13
Remaining Stat Points: 0
Trait: Unawakened
Skills: None
Weapon: Death Scythe
___
"Raised a lot…"
I felt proud.
But under 'Condition,' it said: Fatigued.
"Ugh…"
The moment I got that diagnosis, my muscles screamed like they'd been waiting for permission.
Not even enough strength left to twitch a finger.
My vision started to blur.
"Gallery… gotta post… then sleep…"
I lifted my heavy arm and tried to pull up the hologram in the air.
My fingertips, drifting through the air, dropped with a thud to the floor.
Heavy eyelids fell shut.
***
*Lick!*