SWNOVELXO Chapter 117 - New Record (1)
Chapter 117. New Record (1)
Yuri stared at the words written on the paper for a while, then he let out a sigh of admiration.
“I’ve cursed people out of the blue before, but this is the first time I’ve been cursed at like this.”
Rather than feeling bad, he found it quite intriguing, given how refreshingly novel the insult was.
Yuri squatted in front of a small crack and examined it closely.
His golden eyes shone as they peeked through the narrow gap.
After squatting there for a long time, Yuri scratched his cheek.
“…I can’t see anything.”
Even when he enhanced his vision with mana, he couldn’t see anything beyond the crack.
So, Yuri pulled out a fine, long thread of magic and slipped it into the crack.
A faint airflow transmitted through the magic thread.
‘It’s just a long tube?’
There wasn’t enough space beyond the gap for a person to be hiding.
Only a long, arm-thick tube stretched upward, but it was blocked by something, preventing the magic thread from going any further.
Yuri withdrew the thread and unfolded the paper with the curse written on it once more.
‘But this note suggests that someone is there.’
He nodded, as if saying, “Of course.”
Once a mechanism had been used, it would close and undergo a period of maintenance.
This meant that someone had to be there to repair it.
Yuri had been extremely curious about who this “someone” might be.
‘The people who built this mechanism aren’t ordinary craftsmen.’
Yuri, more than anyone, understood this, having navigated through the mechanisms so far.
The traps triggered with precision at the exact same time, no matter how many times they were set off.
The angle and force were also consistent.
What was even more remarkable was that the same design applied to all 20 caves.
Even though slight errors could occur during the trap’s reinstallation or maintenance, Yuri had never detected a single error in his calculations.
As he navigated the traps, he often thought,
‘If I could learn this technique…’
And if he could apply it to the newly built fortress…
‘It would be pretty useful.’
For that reason, he had wanted to meet the people responsible for maintaining the traps. But over the past twelve days, he hadn’t seen a single person, not even a shadow.
Given the situation, he was beginning to doubt whether anyone was there at all and had almost given up…
‘But now they’ve made the first move?’
A sly smile crept onto Yuri’s lips.
He squatted down, brought his hands together as if whispering, and then yelled loudly into the crack.
“Is anyone theeeere!”
His voice echoed off the cliff.
Yuri squatted there, staring intently at the crack.
He waited for about five minutes.
He wondered if another note with writing on it would come out like before, but there was no response.
Yuri shouted again.
“I know you’re in theeeere!”
Silence followed once more.
But Yuri didn’t give up.
“If you keep ignoring me, something scary will happen!”
Despite his efforts to engage, there was still no response.
Yuri stood up, brushing off his clothes.
Clap, clap.
“I warned you. Something scary is going to happen.”
He gave the small crack an ominous smile.
Meanwhile, there were others watching him.
“…Why is he doing that?”
“I dunno?”
“No matter how good-looking he is… that’s a bit much.”
The three new recruits who had just arrived shook their heads in disbelief.
To their ignorant eyes, Yuri looked like a madman trying to talk to a wall.
* * *
Despite his warning that something scary would happen, Yuri didn’t take any drastic actions.
There was something more important right now than making good on his threat.
“Huu…”
Yuri exhaled slowly.
As he relaxed his muscles, releasing the tension from his body,
Flash—
Yuri’s eyes sharpened, and he pressed the start button on his watch.
Simultaneously, his body shot forward, and in an instant, he had reached the cave.
‘When you take the first step…’
Tap!
Yuri lightly touched the ground.
‘The mechanism detects the vibration, and the entrance closes.’
Boom.
The iron door behind Yuri slammed shut.
‘The side passage opens.’
A faint sound of an iron door opening came from beyond the wall.
Yuri’s eyes sparkled.
‘At the same time, all the traps are activated.’
But they were only being activated, not yet triggered.
For the traps to trigger, vibrations had to be detected in the specific areas where they were installed.
In other words, the traps were designed to detect and respond to vibrations caused by intruders, either individually or in combination.
The part that had given Yuri the most trouble in reducing his time was exactly that.
‘It’s not just about whether the traps are damaged.’
To be precise, you had to activate all 100 traps and avoid damaging them to score a perfect 100.
If a trap didn’t activate, it would result in a point deduction.
Furthermore, even if a trap wasn’t destroyed but was slightly dislodged from its place, it was considered broken, leading to a deduction.
‘The requirement is to avoid touching the traps at all.’
It was an incredibly tricky scoring system, where you had to activate all the traps but not touch them.
With such a system, it was no wonder that breaking the 10-second barrier was not easy.
‘From now on, not even 0.001 seconds of unnecessary movement is allowed.’
With all his senses heightened, Yuri even stirred up his magical energy.
His body flawlessly executed the movements he had drilled into it repeatedly over time.
A blade flew at him from the left.
Yuri dodged it with minimal movement.
‘0.07 seconds later, the trap on the 2 o’clock side will activate.’
No sooner had he avoided the blade on his left than another one came flying from his right.
To an untrained eye, it might have seemed like the two blades had been launched simultaneously.
But to Yuri, there was a clear time difference between the two attacks.
So he found the gap between the two traps.
Swoosh—
Yuri’s body, moving with the utmost precision in his Cloud Step technique, slipped through the tiny 0.07-second gap.
Swish—
The two blades came so close to Yuri’s neck that it seemed like they had brushed it, but they narrowly missed him.
Had he made even a slight mistake, he would have suffered a severe injury.
But Yuri calmly tackled the next trap.
One after another, dangerous moments continued to unfold.
Each time, his magic found the slightest gap, and his Cloud Step moved his body through those gaps.
Step by step.
Movement by movement.
As those fleeting moments connected, Yuri quickly rounded the halfway point, and his ghost-like movements propelled him forward.
Finally, Yuri passed through the exit.
Tap!
His hand pressed the stop button on his watch.
Click— clank!
The sound of the watch stopping clicked in the background.
“Hoo…”
Yuri exhaled softly and lifted his head.
The clock hand pointed precisely at… the tenth mark.
Creak—
“…I did it.”
He had finally broken the cursed 10 seconds.
Yuri clenched his fist with a smile.
But it was too early to celebrate.
With a tense gaze, he looked at the crack where the score sheet would come out.
And then,
Swoosh— smack!
The score sheet popped out.
Yuri carefully opened it.
【200.】
The look of joy spread across Yuri’s face as he finally achieved the score he wanted.
But it was short-lived; Yuri soon returned to his calm demeanor and gazed at the cave.
‘Still… I can reduce the time even more.’
He felt it when he broke through the cursed 10 seconds.
There were still unnecessary movements left in his technique.
If he could just speed up the execution of his Cloud Step, he could shave off more time.
‘I’ll keep going.’
Yuri’s challenge wouldn’t end until he was satisfied with his record.
And until then, there would be no record submission.
With that determination, Yuri pocketed the score sheet with 【200.】 and activated the clock for another cave.
* * *
Tap!
A swift hand pressed the stop button on the watch.
A satisfied voice came from Nellie as she checked the time.
“46 seconds.”
Swoosh— smack!
After receiving the score sheet that popped out, Nellie smiled and moved to a makeshift building with a leaderboard.
Just as she was about to reach her destination, Nellie hesitated.
Her smile deepened as she spotted two people bickering in front of the building.
“Already here, I see.”
At Nellie’s voice, Ivan and Pana, who had arrived earlier, turned their heads.
“Oh, you’re here?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
Nellie lightly acknowledged their greetings and handed her score sheet to a yawning man.
“Please register my score.”
“Haaaahm… There are a lot of visitors today.”
Peter, whose face was full of annoyance, took Nellie’s score sheet and unfolded it.
Pana, peeking at it from the side, whistled awkwardly.
“Whiiiu, 158 points? That should put you in the top 80.”
Just as Pana predicted, Nellie’s name appeared at the very bottom of the top 80.
【Rank 89 / 50th Term / Nellie Blanc / 158 points】
Barely making it into the top 80, Nellie might have seemed to settle for the 89th rank, but she was satisfied with her score.
158 points were the highest she had received since arriving at this quest site.
While Nellie gazed contentedly at the leaderboard with her name on it,
“I’d like to register as well.”
Ivan handed his score sheet to
Peter.
Peter glanced at it and scowled.
“You’re making me do this twice.”
“Sorry. I didn’t think she’d submit her score first.”
Although he apologized, Ivan didn’t look particularly sorry.
In fact, he seemed rather smug.
“Tsk.”
Peter, clicking his tongue in disapproval, created two new nameplates.
And once again, the leaderboard changed.
【Rank 88 / 50th Term / Ivan Baskin / 160 points】
【Rank 90 / 50th Term / Nellie Blanc / 158 points】
“…?!”
Nellie, now bumped down a spot, turned to Ivan.
Ivan’s smug face was so irritating that Nellie glared at him, but he merely shrugged.
As Nellie and Ivan engaged in a silent battle of wills, Pana’s voice rang out.
“Wow? You both made it into the rankings? So, when are you planning to challenge the 7-Star Cave?”
At that question, Nellie and Ivan turned to Pana as if they hadn’t just been at each other’s throats.
Ivan let out a bitter smile and said,
“7-Star? Is that even within our reach?”
Nellie nodded gravely, as if in agreement.
“We’re not strong enough yet…”
Usually, when someone like them got into the rankings, they would gain enough confidence to think, “Should I try the 7-Star Cave?”
But the two of them were clearly different from the fools who had attempted the 7-Star Cave and lost their lives.
It was thanks to a question they had asked someone and the answer they received.
[Hm? The 7-Star? Ah, that… Well, how should I put it… I’m not confident yet.]
The person who said he wasn’t confident enough to challenge the 7-Star Cave.
Nellie and Ivan’s eyes scoured the leaderboard, searching for his name.
And there it was, right at the top.
His name stood proudly at the very top.
【Rank 1 / 50th Term / Yuri Holland / 200 points (9 seconds)】
An extraordinary record that they couldn’t even dream of achieving was displayed for all to see.
That was why Nellie and Ivan had decided not to challenge the 7-Star Cave.
‘Even Yuri Holland, who set a record like that, hasn’t challenged the 7-Star Cave yet.’
‘And we, who barely made it into the rankings, are going to challenge the 7-Star Cave?’
Nellie and Ivan thought simultaneously.
‘No way.’
‘No way.’
Unbeknownst to Yuri, he had just saved two precious lives.
* * *
Yuri, having exited the cave, checked the time.
“…Still 9 seconds.”
It had been just yesterday when he had broken the cursed 10 seconds and managed to reduce it to 9 seconds.
Since then, he had spent the entire day trying to further shorten the time but had failed repeatedly.
Yuri nodded to himself.
‘This is… the limit.’
Until now, Yuri had been using the 2-Star Caves to train and improve his mastery of the Cloud Step.
As his proficiency with the Cloud Step improved, he was gradually able to shorten his time…
‘But now, I’ve become too accustomed to the 2-Star Cave, and my proficiency with the Cloud Step isn’t improving anymore.’
In other words, it had become difficult to shorten his time any further.
‘Well, I’ve gotten enough out of it.’
At this point, it was as if he had drained every last bit of benefit from the 2-Star Caves, squeezing out every drop of experience.
Thanks to this, his proficiency with the Cloud Step had greatly improved.
Now that Yuri felt there was nothing more to gain from the 2-Star Caves, he looked up.
‘It’s time to wrap this up.’
Yuri was confident that he could not only secure first place but also set a monumental record.
His gaze fixed on the cliff’s peak, where the 7-Star Cave awaited.