With the urgent business taken care of, I could finally talk to Kain. He had returned to the dungeon when the fight at the Vatican City ended, and now he had come to Marianne"s Garden after I requested him to. When I called him to the reception room and sat him down, he suddenly asked an unexpected question.
"Don"t you have too many women?"
"Let"s talk about other things."
"You have Loretta, but you sure are greedy."
"Let"s talk about other things."
Greedy… I couldn"t say I wasn"t greedy, but this was the best for everyone! … Still, saying that p.r.i.c.ked my heart.
Was it wrong to want to make everyone happy!? … Well, maybe it was.
d.a.m.n it! I can"t even come to my own defense! I still hadn"t gotten myself out of Korean mindset. Who could blame me? I was Korean after all!
"I understand. I"ve experienced similar things. Still, it"s your fault for being born this way. It shouldn"t have been hard to reject them early on."
"I didn"t know things would turn out this way. Besides, I wasn"t born like this!"
I didn"t invite him to ask for romantic advice, so I changed the topic.
"Did you make up your mind?"
"I was genuinely surprised. Compared to your enemies, you and your allies are shockingly strong. I was even doubting whether the dungeon set its mind to develop you all."
I grinned. If that"s what it looked like, it was probably because Earth"s power was distributed to select ability users when monsters first invaded Earth. Unlike in other worlds, these abilities let many of us grow stronger more quickly.
That said, since mana cultivation methods weren"t widespread on Earth, this couldn"t be called a huge advantage. Moreover, this wasn"t the work of the dungeon, but the work of someone else, who wielded Earth"s power and gave it to us.
"We pretty much cleaned up most of the monsters" forces. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of thousands of demons, or perhaps even more. We haven"t even met the most important Demon Lord yet."
"Demon Lord… I might have fought against demons in the past."
With that, he made a bitter smile.
"As you know, I don"t really fear many things. Let us cooperate… For what lies beyond."
Before I noticed, Kain was holding two gla.s.ses in his hand. For a moment, I thought he took them out from his inventory, but that wasn"t it. It was a spatial magic. Using his magic power, he created an external s.p.a.ce connected to him that allowed him to store and take out items. The inventory would be an evolved version of this magic.
I knit my brows.
"Did you learn that from Loretta?"
"You don"t need to get jealous. You"re the one she loves now, and for me… she was just a kind shopkeeper noona and a teacher that taught me many things. That"s it."
Shopkeeper noona. To be honest, hearing that from someone else made me feel strange. Not to mention, the look in his eyes and his manner of speech…
I snorted.
"Don"t lie. I didn"t come all the way here being a child."
"… Regardless, she wasn"t my lover."
He didn"t deny my accusation and evaded the topic. Then, he took out a bottle of liquor with an unknown label.
"I don"t need any more love. Revenge. That"s enough. For that, I will cooperate with you."
"What"s that?"
"The last bottle. It"s from my world. Consider it honor."
This bottle had to have a special meaning for him. I took the gla.s.s from him without a word and let him pour the bottle"s content in it. I then took the bottle from him and poured it into his gla.s.s. With that, we toasted.
As I gulped down the liquor, an indescribably pungent smell of a strong liquor invaded my nose, and as if to appease this feeling of suffocation, a spicy sweetness spread down my throat. My chest felt heavy. Something seemed to fill up my insides and in an instant, it burst.
I remained calm with my eyes closed and savored the shock this single gla.s.s of alcohol gave me. Soon, I opened my eyes narrowly and asked him.
"… Can a drink"s alcohol content go over 100%?"
"What do you think? Don"t be stupid and take another gla.s.s."
I felt relieved that Father and Walker wasn"t here. Eventually, Kain and I emptied the bottle of liquor, and I went straight into the dungeon. If Father found out, I was afraid he would attack me.
Monsters appearing in Beyond"s 31st floor was none other than Succubus Queens. Compared to the Succubus Queen appearing as the First Dungeon"s 65th Floor Master, Beyond"s Succubus Queens seemed to have higher charm on top of appearing by the hundreds. For ordinary men, this place was worthy of the name Heaven. Though, of course, they would get chased out soon after having their vitality sucked out.
For me, however, this place was one of the easiest floors of Beyond.
"Kyak!"
"How could this be!?"
"Aah, strength is leaving my body."
When the Succubus Queens saw me, most of them used Sweet Nightmare and with my charm being absurdly high, they received the penalty for their skills failing and blanked out. I simply had stabbed them with my spear and moved on.
The purpose of Beyond"s 31st floor was most likely learning how to attack the Succubus Queens while dodging their Sweet Nightmare attacks. For me, none of this mattered. I swung my spear practically randomly as I charged towards the Succubus Queens.
"I can"t believe it, but that man is well beyond our capabilities!"
"As expected of our first customer!"
"Curtain of Night!"
"Kiss of Death!"
About half way through the 31s floor, the Succubus Queens began attacking me with different methods. I knew from Licorice that Succubus Queens were also skilled in normal magic. However, Licorice was special even among Succubus Queens, and even though they were strengthened by Beyond, their magic wasn"t capable of reaching me. Absolute Soul perfectly defend against any of their mental attacks, and their attribute magic could be easily blocked with Ruyue"s power. Even in the worst case, I just had to use Sharana"s power to strengthen my defense.
"Aah."
"I"m not strong enough to fight him."
"Even if we try to hold him back, we"ll only be wasting our time."
"I can feel his aura is similar to ours."
When I seemed close to breaking through the 31st floor, Succubus Queens began to step back like they lost their spirit. It wasn"t like they used Sweet Nightmare, so what was happening? Just when I was thinking that and tilting my head, one of them stepped forward towards me.
"By any chance, did you form a contract with another Succubus Queen?"
"Yeah, I did."
When was the last time I had a conversation in Beyond instead of fighting? Slightly taken aback, I replied obediently. To show that my guard wasn"t down, I gripped my spear tightly and spun it in my hand. I then stared at her and asked my own question.
"How did you know?"
"Those of us called to Beyond are lacking in purity, but most of our abilities and memories are remaining."
She smiled lightly. There were others who smiled at the same time as her, and I noticed that the Succubus Queens looked similar. The Succubus Queen in front of me seemed to have noticed my eyes shining, as she nodded her head.
"Right, they"re all me. After all, how could there be so many Succubus Queens in Enesis? To be precise, they"re fakes created with mana and slightly altered souls. If you ask which one is real, we can"t answer you because even we don"t know."
The price the losers had to pay was even more cruel than I thought. That said, I imagined it would be something like this. Even though I knew Enesis was the one that invaded Elesia, I couldn"t help but sympathize with them. Of course, if they showed any sign of hostility, I was fully prepared to smash their heads with my spear.
"Thankfully, we"re on a high floor, so we haven"t regenerated yet and our thinly scattered soul is preserved. I think someone might have mentioned it before. You see, you"re our first customer."
This was the first time I was officially notified that I had achieved the highest level anyone has ever climbed to in Beyond. Of course, as I didn"t expect another explorer to have surpa.s.sed Kain, I wasn"t too surprised.
"I"m going to cut to the chase. Does the Succubus Queen you"re contracted to have pink hair?"
"Yeah."
A strange air flowed among the succubi, but that was only for a moment. Soon, all succubi nodded altogether and stepped back.
"Then as we thought, you can"t be measured with our abilities. Go to the 35th floor. She"ll be waiting for you there."
"She?"
"The ruler of us all."
The Succubus Queen sparkled her eyes and spoke.
"Lilith. The one you guys would call world"s enemy."
I flinched. I was caught off guard in the most unexpected place. I already had a skill called Lilith"s Temptation. If I could meet her in Beyond"s 35th floor and defeat her…
"I"ll tell the incubi about it, so you can just pa.s.s through them. Though… some of them might not accept it and attack you."
"I"m not scared at all."
"Yeah, that"s what I thought you"d say. You can go now, charming boy."
If it was the past me, I would have hunted down even the monsters that didn"t resist. But now, I was different. Knowing that these guys were once Licorice"s comrades and the tragic fate they had to endure, I didn"t really feel like fighting. After talking to them, I didn"t feel like it even more.
Most importantly, I wasn"t so rich in time to fight ones that didn"t pick a fight with me. Not to mention, succubi and incubi were monsters with extremely high attainment in charm rather than martial arts. I didn"t think fighting them would let me surpa.s.s my limits in any way. That said, I was looking forward to meeting this Lilith on the 35th floor.
Furthermore, it seemed there really were worlds" enemies waiting on the higher floors of the dungeon. At this point, I had a suspicion that the dungeon wasn"t made for explorers to climb fully. It felt like unpa.s.sable floors were created just for the sake of having more floors.
As I thought of these useless things, I bid my farewell and pa.s.sed by the Succubus Queens.
"By the way, can you do us a final favor and sleep with us just once—"
With one Succubus Queens being knocked down and dragged away by the others, all monsters slowly disappeared from my sight.
Then, the gate to the First Dungeon opened.
"Alright, let"s go again."
First Dungeon"s 82nd floor. Waiting for me there should be an even stronger version of 81st floor"s Crimson h.e.l.l.
The peak of the dungeon, what once felt so out of touch, was now fully within my grasp. Day by day, I could feel myself getting closer to it. It wouldn"t be long. Until I reached that place and until they reached me.
I stepped forward.