Otherworld TRPG Game Master

Chapter 135: Tower of Trials Floor 2_Shoot Towards the Sun - 2

Tanker : -

Ballista handling : Luna, Envers, Selvier

Thump. Thump. The ogre trampled the forest as it moved. Huddled together in the bushes, the three whispered.

"In this forest packed with trees, just how are we supposed to hit⋯⋯ an ogre that just wanders wherever it wants?"

“There is, a pattern. But random.”

Luna roughly sketched out a map of the ogre's movement on the dirt.

“Shut up.”

"But I have said naught⋯⋯."

Though the drawing was crude, the plan was clear enough. The ogre moved in large, concentric circles, with the ballistas placed at 120-degree intervals.

“If we’re unlucky, we would have to wait quite a bit⋯⋯  but we just have to predict as we and shoot. Where did it pass last?”

“Just now, moved. Here.”

Luna pointed to the ogre’s footprint. Selvier sprinted to the nearest ballista, calculating the angles. She aimed for the ogre's head. After setting the aim, all they could do was wait.

After a long time had passed.

Thump. Thump.

At the sound of the ogre approaching, the three of them held their breaths and waited. When it finally passed the tree they had marked, Envers triggered the ballista.

Ting! Whoosh──!!

Thud.

“Uaaaaaak──!!"

“What? It didn’t die?!”

The ogre howled, staggering with the giant arrow lodged in its skull, then it turned—charging furiously in the direction of the ballista.

It was because the distance was too far. The shot didn’t have enough power to take out the ogre in one go!

Luna calmly gave out orders.

“Reload.”

“Un-Understood. Reloading⋯⋯!!"

“Hurry up, it's right on top of us⋯⋯!"

“It is impossible to go any faster than this!”

As Envers fumbled to reload, the ogre closed in with terrifying speed.

Swoosh-!!

The club came flying in, obliterating the ballista.

The challenge was over—If the ogre caught up and engaged them directly or if they stalled for time, it counted as a failure. The frustration finally boiled over as Selvier unleashed her magic.

“Honestly fuck this── agh!! We waited for so long, 『Explosive Bullet』!!"

Boom──!!

A red fire arrow shot through the air and then exploded. Along with the smell of charred flesh, the ogre’s headless corpse crashed to the ground.

Floor 2, Normal Clear.

===============================================================

Since they couldn’t kill the ogre in a single hit with their current strategy, they needed a new plan. How could they find the clear angle?

“Because the distance was too far, we couldn't finish it off in one shot, and we can’t let the ogre stray from its path—so what are we supposed to do?!”

“And on top of that, as soon as we fire, we are exposed. Even if we practiced reloading, it does not seem like we would be able to fire another shot before the ogre reaches us.”

“Two rounds, are left.”

Luna held up two fingers. They wouldn’t be given two extra shots without reason. And in this forest, there were three hidden ballistas in total.

“Each time I shoot, hand it over.”

"⋯⋯Hand over what?"

“You must be talking about the ballista?”

The plan was to fire from a calculated angle and then immediately retreat. The enraged ogre would destroy the ballista, but by that time, they would have already escaped.

Repeat this process three times.

Selvier sighed, the thought of the grind filling her with dread.

"Just how much time are we supposed to pour in⋯⋯."

“There doesn’t seem to be another way.”

"⋯⋯It’s fine as long as there’s an alternative method, right?"

To avoid the painfully long wait times, Selvier quickly came up with a new plan: strengthen the ballista arrows.

“Whether we enchant it or attach a scroll, we just need to take the ogre down in a single hit!”

“Dwarf. Boomer.”

“She is right. I doubt the dwarf would approve. He’s been watching us constantly since he first popped out of the hole⋯⋯."

“That’s exactly it. That dwarf is stuck underground until we find him!”

Selvier snapped her fingers. That was the loophole she was trying to exploit.

After the second floor begins, an arrow is already loaded in one of the ballistas. That arrow existed before the dwarf even entered the picture—outside of his line of sight.

“We enhance the arrow in advance. Obviously, we can’t make it explode or anything. If the arrow explodes, he’ll get all angry saying ‘you guys did something to weird my arrow!’”.

"Meaning⋯⋯?"

“We need to enchant it quietly, a single-use spell that’s undetectable⋯⋯something that completely fools him, so all he’ll find is the dead ogre’s body!”

"⋯⋯⋯⋯!!"

Luna quietly raised a double thumbs-up. This seemed like it could work!

Envers' face lit up as well. He felt like it was a light shining through when there seemed to be no answer in sight. There were still many floors left to conquer. They just had to keep moving forward. He wanted to prove his abilities to his master.

“Then enchantment would be the problem.”

“We’ll ask the top student of the Gold Tower for help! Surely it’ll be clean enough that the dwarf won’t notice it at all. And then it’s goodbye to this forest⋯⋯."

“Question.”

“Eung?”

Luna hesitated for a moment, glancing between her companions before making a small hand gesture, forming a circle with her thumb and index finger.

“You have money?”

"⋯⋯⋯⋯."

"⋯⋯⋯⋯."

Having been essentially disowned by his family, Envers had nothing. Selvier, while a rising talent in the Red Tower, was still not a top pupil and had long since spent her support funds on personal research.

Selvier asked with a nervous expression.

"Perhaps Luna has money⋯⋯?"

"⋯⋯⋯⋯."

Luna gestured to her clothes. The reason why she always wore such light, form-fitting clothes was simple—budget constraints.

If I had the money, I’d be decked out in high-grade, flexible armor. Do you really think I’d be running around in this skimpy gear── was what it meant.

The youths with no money to their names depressively stared down at the ground.

"⋯⋯Should we go back to making plans?"

“Eung.”

"That seems to be a good idea⋯⋯."

The meeting continued with a slightly damp atmosphere.

In the end, they decided to fire all three ballista shots. However, Envers felt a strange uneasiness. For some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that things wouldn't go well.

He had faced the ogre countless times while climbing the Tower of Trials, and though he couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, his body remembered something important.

※ SYSTEM_INFO -----------

[Lost Ogre]

Vitality : Average

Mana : Does not use

Strength : 4 / 10 (High-mid tier student)

Agility : 2 / 10 (Low-mid tier student)

Intelligence : 1 / 10 (Low tier student)

Trait : Bloody hide

=> The hide becomes stronger as HP decreases.

※ ---------------------------

He felt like this ogre’s hide got tougher as it took more damage──.

¹

◆Third Attempt

Tanker : -

Ballista No. 1 handling : Luna

Ballista No. 2 handling : Envers

Ballista No. 3 handling : Selvier

Selvier fiddled nervously with the trigger of the pre-loaded ballista. They had waited so long for this moment, and she could only hope that this final shot would end it.

“No. 1 and No. 2 have already fired, right? Understood. Eung. I can see it too. The ogre’s grown two new horns. Now I’ll have to make that three⋯⋯!!"

Piuuuuuung──!! Thud!

The arrow flew, and struck the ogre’s head. The ogre bled everywhere and stumbled back and forth. Selvier prayed really desperately⋯⋯!

“Uuugggghhh⋯⋯."

“Die, please just die!”

“Uu, Uugg, Uuugghh⋯⋯."

“Die!!”

But the ogre didn’t die.

It survived all three ballista shots to the head⋯⋯somehow, it grasped the meaning of survival itself in its hand! Watching from a distance, Envers couldn’t help but be moved by its sheer persistence.

He thought it might bleed out, but its natural healing outpaced the blood loss. It refused to die.

She squeezed her eyes shut at the cruel design of floor 2. The ogre’s passive damage reduction meant that even all three arrows weren’t enough to finish it off.

She expressed the anger boiling from the bottom of her gut with magic.

"『Explosive Bullet』!!"

A red fire arrow shot forward and exploded, roasting the ogre’s head until it was charred black.

Floor 2, Normal Clear.

===============================================================

The Shoot - Wait - Shoot - Wait - Shoot tactic had clearly failed.

Despite firing all the ballistas, the ogre’s passive ability, combined with the long delays between shots, allowed it to survive each hit. So, what was the solution to this cruel puzzle?

In the control room, the Crazy Wizard, who had been observing their struggle, lamented their approach.

“Please, just pay attention to the story.”

You crazy skip-lovers. How could you all just take the arrow and leave so cold-heartedly?

He wasn’t even asking for much. They just needed to ask a couple of simple questions out of common courtesy.

"Since the dwarf is the judge, if they asked him how he started this and asked why he was hunting the ogre, raised his affection level a bit, he might've been more lenient. It would have ended nicely with him thanking them for catching it⋯⋯."

Perhaps

"Or, if they really didn’t care about the dwarf’s backstory, they could have tricked him. The dwarf judges through his telescope. They could've just knocked him out, made it look like the ballista killed the ogre! I’d even accept that⋯⋯."

Or.

"He said he's chasing an ogre with a scar on its eye. But the one in the forest is a normal ogre. That’s a clue! The dwarf’s blinded by revenge, obsessed with an innocent creature while his real enemy is long dead⋯⋯If they helped him let go of his anger."

The Crazy Wizard put his hand on his forehead. Yes, he knew. The hints given to the trio were weren’t exactly crystal clear.

He should've emphasized that the Tower of Trials favored the 'narrative' rather than the 'clear methods', so that the kids would hurry up in making guesses or try out different methods.

However, he also had something that he felt chagrined by.

"Selvier⋯⋯!!"

He had planned to drop foreshadowing on floor 1!

The orc at the end of that level, after going berserk and venting its rage, was supposed to mutter something about how it was dragged into the arena and how he wanted a fight that tested everything he had. Then he would thank them for granting his wish.

This was supposed to suggest to the players that maybe there was some kind of story here.

Selvier’s pattern skip caused a bug.

The Crazy Wizard was a little pissed—about as annoyed as when that Pink-Haired Lesbian stole the dress shirt he loved.

Normally, he’d start dropping hints or push out a real-time balance patch by now, but he wanted to watch them suffer for a little while longer. And he had one more reason for just leaving them be.

As the GM, his duty was to intervene only when the players ‘loses their way’.

When players start thinking, What now?, that’s the moment when you start guiding them toward the right path. Or in other words,

It was unromantic to interrupt the player who was trying hard to do something, At least the Crazy Wizard believed so.

And right now, those three hadn’t given up.

It looked like, they had some kind of plan⋯⋯.

===============================================================

◆Fourth Attempt

Tanker : -

Ballista No. 1 handling : Luna

Ballista No. 2 handling : Envers

Ballista No. 3 handling : Selvier

In the forest where the ogre prowled, the three of them gathered and began their strategy session, convinced that a solution existed somewhere.

“Can’t we just make more arrows? Ask the dwarf to make some more!”

“No—facility.”

“What if we just beat the ogre to death with the ballista?”

“No—strength.”

"Or, since it doesn’t have to be just the three of us, what if we got a few more people from outside⋯⋯."

They wouldn’t make us do something impossible. As Selvier eagerly tossed out ideas, Envers was carefully weaving his own thoughts together.

Looking at it from a broader perspective, it was martial arts—a sparring match with specific conditions.

They could shoot three times.

But if there was too much time between shots, they wouldn’t bring the ogre down.

Its defenses and ability to recover were too strong.

The trick was to concentrate on a single point, like an awl chipping away at a stone.

To do that, they would either need a miracle, like the legendary archer who could split an arrow with another, or...

Thinking more simply.

"⋯⋯Don’t we just need to land all three shots at once?"

"⋯⋯⋯⋯?"

"Possible. In theory."

“You can say anything’s possible. But you remember we're in a forest, not on open plains, right?”

He knew that.

The reason they waited between shots was to find the exact moment when they could fire, avoiding the trees, aiming for when the ogre and the ballista were at their closest.

“Then how about a curved shot? It won’t get stuck in the trees,”

“You want to curve a ballista shot and hit the ogre? If we could do that, we would not be sitting here with a knife in our hands! Plus, the ogre moves unpredictably. Unless there’s some gigantic target above it, how could── huh?"

"⋯⋯There is, a target."

All three of them look up at the sky simultaneously.

The strangely close sun was swaying back and forth. It had been their way of tracking the ogre’s location.

The ogre was always ‘directly beneath the sun’.

"⋯⋯Bring me a few branches I could use to draw.”

“I shall bring them quickly!”

The wizard’s mind raced. After three hours of intense calculations, Selvier scribbled several formulas into the dirt.

They could see hope!

“If it doesn’t work this time, I’m just gonna kill the dwarf⋯⋯ and then borrow some money to bring that kid from the Golden Tower. “

“If it comes to that, then I shall help even with the money I do not have.”

“Same here.”

The three of them memorized the different angles, each based on the sun’s position, and spread out to activate the ballistas.

The ballista that fired the kabura-ya² was the furthest away from the sun.

Selvier was in charge of it.

The bullshit and suffering of the last few days rushed to her mind. After all the accumulated effort, the moment to finally see the results had arrived once more. Her heart pounded, and her palms were slick with sweat

“Operation name⋯⋯ Shoot Towards the Sun!”

Selvier stared at the sky, then enthusiastically activated the balista.

Toooong──!!

Toong, tooong──!!

Three arrows shot towards the sky in quick succession. They soared into the air, tracing a dizzying arc before gravity pulled them downward.

Swooooosh──!!

The ogre, wandering the forest, felt the sun’s heat more intensely than usual. Curious, it looked up at the sky.

There was a weird speck in the sun’s glare. The ogre squinted, trying to figure out what it might be. But death arrived quicker than understanding.

And, three arrows struck its head in rapid succession.

Puk, puuk, puk!

The ogre collapsed without even being able to scream.

Watching through his binoculars, the dwarf’s jaw dropped. What did I just witness?

===============================================================

Splat!

"I had no idea you guys were such skilled archers. I apologize for making you use my crude ballista. Thanks to you, I've seen something extraordinary⋯⋯."

The once headstrong dwarf now bowed his head to the group.

Selvier was grinning ear to ear, and even Envers and Luna couldn't hide their smiles. How much had they suffered because of this stubborn old man?

Still, after succeeding they felt refreshed⋯⋯ but more than anything.

“That was cool as fuck.”

"⋯⋯Eung, it was cool."

They felt immense satisfaction. If they could, they’d preserve the ogre’s corpse to show it off. It was almost a shame they couldn’t.

“Thank you for avenging me.”

“Yes, well⋯⋯ you worked hard too, sir.”

“The ogre is gone, so maybe it's time to live outside.”

“Not mushrooms, meat.”

Flaassh──!!

Light burst from the dwarf’s chest, ascending into the sky, just like the orc before. A radiant glow engulfed their vision, blinding them as it exploded──.

The Tower of Trials, Floor 2 – Cleared.

===============================================================

[My Clothes Don’t Get Wet Even if I Walk In the Rain : Survive over 10 minutes during Jenny's 2nd phase opening pattern on Floor 3]

"⋯⋯Just how are we supposed to clear this?!"

“I concur. What is ‘Jenny’s true appearance’ in the first place?”

“Dunno.”

Their attempt at conquering Floor 3 was off to a shaky start. Because the majority of students didn't even know Jenny had a second phase.

1. ===============================================================2. whistling arrow used to signal the start of battle