Chapter 107
“> You’re spouting off with only that much?”
Susanoo’s tone changed. Just a second ago, he was looking at YuWon with an expression of intrigue and seemed entertained, but his gaze suddenly turned to that of scorn.
It was a reaction YuWon expected since Susanoo was a fighter that even Asura acknowledged.
‘He abhorred the weak and respected the strong. That much was certain.’
He didn’t see the players on the lower floors as human. You’d be lucky if he even treated you as an insect. Because of that, he was famous for killing any player he saw at random.
“Why can’t I?”
“> …I needlessly got excited.”
Susanoo crossed his arms and shook his head.
“> This isn’t a place an insect like you can climb as you please. Monsters that can’t even compare to those of the 21st Floor roam around here.”
“I already know.”
“> ‘Already’?”
Susanoo felt something was off. He had forgotten for a moment after seeing the 21 on the player kit, but outside this door were packs of Vampire Hyenas. These monsters were the ones that guarded this dungeon he had constructed. They were monsters that could only be seen after the 40th Floor, and there were quite a number as well.
“> You don’t have a party?”
Susanoo looked around, but as a simple manifestation of evil intent, he might not have been able to sense anything special going on.
“There’s none. I’m alone.”
Step—
YuWon started to move.
Susanoo’s entrance had caught his interest, but that was it. He was just a manifestation that wasn’t even alive. YuWon didn’t think to face him, someone who couldn’t impact the physical world, any longer.
Shwoo—
Susanoo followed behind YuWon.
Seemingly having changed his mind, his expression showed he was a little more interested than before.
“> I’ll follow you. It can’t be helped as long as you have that fragment.”
“Why?”
“> That’s just how the dungeon was created.”
“Interesting.”
YuWon kept moving as he gave half-replies to Susanoo.
The interior of the dungeon was quiet.
He first thought it was a maze, but seeing some furniture scattered around, it was as if he was in a giant house. Of course, it was far too disproportionately wide to be called a house.
“> So you’re not a pureblood, right?”
Susanoo kept talking without stopping.
“> Where did you live? And where did you get the fragment?”
He was talking about the fragment of 「Totsuka no Tsurugi.」
YuWon ignored him and kept walking. Even if he was bored, YuWon didn’t want to continue this meaningless conversation with Susanoo. It was tedious, and he wasn’t worth answering either.
“> This part is what I’m most curious about.”
“If I tell you…” YuWon turned to face Susanoo. “Will you at least tell me the direction?”
“> Direction?”
“The direction to the door or stairs to the next floor. These maze-type dungeons aren’t difficult, but I hate them because they take so long.”
Even though he had [Sensory Field,] he couldn’t figure out all the paths with it. It would take a few hours if he was lucky, and if he was unlucky, he might get stuck on this floor for more than a day.
If Susanoo was the one who created the dungeon, he must have known its layout.
After hearing what YuWon said, Susanoo thought for a moment before nodding.
“> Alright, sure.”
After looking around for a second, Susanoo pointed in a direction.
“> The door is that way. If you keep going down the path in that direction, you’ll find the door that leads to the next floor.”
“That way…” YuWon nodded. “Alright.”
Shwing—
He unsheathed the sword that he had put back after the scuffle against the Vampire Hyenas, and Susanoo repeated his question since he had given YuWon a hint.
“> Now answer my previous question. Where did you get that fragment?
“Do you remember the test on the 1st Floor?”
“> The Colosseum?”
“I got it from there.”
Bzzt, bzzzzzt—
Magic was pouring out through 「Kyneē.」 He hadn’t used [Hell,] but a sufficient amount of power was flowing into his sword.
“> I can’t understand that. You earned it from a test on the 1st Floor?”
“Because the head of that guy appeared in the last test of the Colosseum.”
After turning back, YuWon headed in the direction Susanoo pointed rather than the open pathways on the left and right.
“Yamata no Orochi.”
“> What? Who?”
The questions continued, but YuWon didn’t answer. Right now, maintaining his focus was of higher priority.
‘This isn’t like the real Tower.’
The tower at the edge of the world. Instead of that one time where it crumbled by itself, other than the outer wall that no one could break, all the other walls were breakable.
It was a maze, a test where you needed to ‘find’ the right path.
However, YuWon had always found a different way through.
‘The path…’
Fwooosh—
[Holy Fire] ignited his sword, and YuWon struck down the wall as hard as he could.
‘…Will be made.’
Crack—!
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With the sound of an explosion, a crack formed on the wall.
YuWon swung again.
Bang—!
Crumble—
The wall collapsed.
YuWon moved through the flying dust and swung his sword against the second wall.
Bang, bang—!
Looking at YuWon as he started to break the walls, Susanoo wore a baffled expression. To make the path instead of finding it…
Although he was just a manifestation, his mind started to turn.
“> Yamato no Orochi…?”
A mere 21st Floor player. No, if what YuWon said was true, he had defeated Orochi on the first floor. Susanoo couldn’t believe that such a thing was possible.
If he wasn’t seeing the scene before him right now, he might have laughed it off as a bluff.
Bang—!
He had already broken through three walls. But that wasn’t all.
“Kehe, hehehehe—”
Spirits of the Dead had appeared with weary laughs. These monsters took the form of souls and came out like smoke, surrounding YuWon’s body.
In that moment…
Bzzzzt—!
On YuWon’s hand, 「Kyneē」 consumed the spirits.
“> What is that?”
Just what kind of item was that? Now he had gone past the realm of curiosity into confusion. Susanoo thought he knew everything in the Tower, but in this short period of time, he had been surprised multiple times.
To have an item that could consume monsters created from spirits…
“> Heh.”
After silently looking at YuWon creating the path with his sword, a smile appeared on Susanoo’s face.
This was entertaining.
He was entertained from seeing something new for the first time. Even beyond that, he felt something grow inside his non-existent body.
“> I’m looking forward to this.”
It had only taken about an hour to pass through the first floor with this method.
[Your level has increased.]
[Dexterity increased by 1.]
[Constitution increased by 1.]
[Perception increased by 1.]
While he was passing through the first floor, his level had risen. It was because he had hunted quite a few monsters, and his experience was probably nearing a level-up.
And after that, the second floor, the third floor…
As YuWon continued to go up the floors, he could understand the special gimmick of Susanoo’s dungeon.
‘They’re all spirit or undead-type monsters.’
It was rare to see spirit-type monsters. This was true for undead as well. Although there was a big difference in having a corporeal body or not, both of them had souls. Well, dead souls.
Also, it was quite obvious where these souls were from.
‘They were killed by Susanoo.’
Susanoo was a master swordsman acknowledged by Asura. On top of that, he was one of the top spirit masters and necromancers in the tower.
And he was a mass murderer that killed the most people in the long history of the Tower.
‘Did he gather the spirits of all the people he killed and make this tower?’
Although YuWon wasn’t shaken by much, this was still a little spooky. It felt like he was climbing a tall mountain made of corpses. He couldn’t ignore the feeling of stepping on a new corpse with every step he took.
“It’s disgusting.”
“> What do you mean?”
Hearing the nonchalant question, YuWon turned his head. Although he had ignored most of his words, it was hard to ignore this time.
“I’m talking about you.”
“> A disciple of righteousness, are we?”
“‘Righteousness’?”
YuWon furrowed his brow.
Was he truly on the right side? Strictly speaking, since he was moving to save the world, he could be considered righteous. However, YuWon didn’t think that.
He couldn’t defeat his sense of guilt at having to kill another, and in the end, he couldn’t do it. Because of this, they had all died, and YuWon had survived.
He wasn’t righteous.
All who lived in this world were sinners.
However…
“I’ve seen a lot of people, but you’re a first.”
Even YuWon hadn’t seen someone like Susanoo before.
“> You sure act like you’ve seen a lot when you’re just a brat at the 21st Floor.”
Apparently he misunderstood what Yuwon meant.
Although there was more to what he said, YuWon didn’t feel the need to explain himself.
YuWon pulled open the door.
Creak—
A staircase appeared. After following it up, he arrived at the next floor.
[You have arrived at the 10th floor.]
On the tenth floor, there were ten rooms, all of them labeled one to ten.
[Enter the first room and defeat the corresponding enemy.]
[After passing the first room, the second room will open.]
[After passing the fifth room, you may move on to the next floor.]
It was strange.
There were ten rooms, but you only needed to pass through the fifth one to advance. In a situation like this, there was only one answer.
‘The sixth to the tenth rooms aren’t at the difficulty of the tenth floor.’“> I’ll tell you something.”
Susanoo’s voice had a laughing tone.
“> Just like you’re thinking, all the things here are people I killed when I was alive. Whether spirits or undead, I just grabbed all of them. The oldest one here has probably lived as an Undead for over 5,000 years.”
Even after hearing Susanoo’s words, YuWon was calm. He had already expected it. There was no need to become angry again. However, the time was a lot longer than he initially guessed.
Perhaps because Susanoo was a little surprised at YuWon being calmer than expected, he spoke up as YuWon moved towards the first room.
“> There’s no way to save these guys, unless there’s a better spirit master or necromancer than me. But they’ll be able to escape this place if you kill them at least.”
He was pushing for YuWon to not stop at the fifth room but to attempt the tenth as well.
“> What will you do? Are you just going to ignore them? Or will you keep going?”
It was an obvious provocation. But there was no reason not to fall for it.
“Even if you didn’t say that, I was going to attempt them anyway.”
Clack—
The door to the first room opened.
Inside was a man with long hair and a haggard face. His face was white and so thin that he didn’t even seem like a human.
An Undead.
The room was big enough to fight with about 20 meters to each side.
The Undead of the first room saw the door open and slowly raised its head. Its face had lost all expression. Most likely it had been stuck in this small room for hundreds of years.
“You don’t need to stand up.”
“…?”
The Undead was about to stand, but an expression appeared on its face for the first time. It was asking what he meant.
Then…
Fwooosh—
A purple fire attached itself to the Undead’s body.
[Holy Fire]
Pssssshh—
The fire melted off its white skin, and it started to burn up from the toes.
The Undead didn’t scream. It couldn’t feel pain in the first place.
[You have passed the first room.]
After confirming the elimination of the Undead, YuWon turned away.
“Rest now.”
YuWon stepped toward the second room.
And in that instant…
Hummmm—
On his right hand, 「Kyneē」 was illuminated with a soft light.
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