Chapter 326. With Your Own Power (6)
Paul went back to Edias immediately. As he had gotten stronger while toiling with Revivalâs members, I knew he would do just fine.
After sending Paul off, I went down to the training room. As expected, Father and Sumire were sparring. I waited until their spar ended to reveal my presence.
Sumire stabbed her spear into the ground and leaned against it to catch her breath. When she saw me, she jumped up in surprise.
âS-Shin-nim! You were here!?â
âYeah. You sure are improving fast. Iâm happy to see youâre trying hard.â
While embarrassed, Sumire couldnât hide her happiness. But Father, who was standing next to her, clicked his tongue.
âThatâs no way to woo a woman. Instead of exchanging your spears, you should take her out for tea or something.â
âSumireâs my discipleâŚâ
I retorted back at his nonsense, as I immediately went up to spar with Father. Leaving mana and skills aside, we fought purely with our physical strength and spear technique. As Father was also high up in the dungeon, his physical strength was suitably great. As he was the one who taught me spearmanship, his spear technique didnât need to be explained either.
But of course, I was now much stronger than him.
âMonster⌠I gave birth to a monster.â
âYou didnât give birth to anyone, Father. It was Mother.â
Although we only sparred for a short five minutes, Father fell to the ground covered in sweat. I then turned towards Sumire, whose eyes were sparkling with excitement.
âAlright, letâs see how much you improved.â
As Sumireâs style was different than Fatherâs, sparring with her was more fun. Attacking with her spear and defending with her shield. However, her offense and defense werenât limited to these obvious methods. If the chance arrived, she freely attacked with her shield and defended with her spear.
Her shield technique was in a realm I couldnât offer any advice on, and she was firmly establishing her one-handed spear technique style. Thankfully, I could still help her in this aspect, and I helped her fix several problems throughout our spar.
âThank you for this match! Shin-nim really is amazing!â
âWhy didnât you say that to me?â
âAh, Second Master is amazing too!â
âThanks⌠So Son, when are you going to the dungeon?â
âAfter swinging my spear a couple times, and if possible, after seeing Hwaya and Ina. Iâm planning on clearing Beyondâs 39th floor, First Dungeonâs 90th floor, and Beyondâs 40th floor in one go.â
Father nodded, then spoke firmly.
âMy new daughter has been busy with Ciara recently. You should go to Earth if you can.â
When I gave Sumire a glance, she nodded without hesitation.
âIt seems Unni is trying to predict the next wave of Event Dungeons.â
Indeed, that was one of the most important tasks. I wanted to head to Earth immediately, but because what I said about swinging my spear a couple times made Sumire look at me with eyes full of expectation, I had to carry it out with a bitter smile. It was the purely physical technique that I had gotten fairly used to by now.
Of course, if I really concentrated all of my power, the guild house would crumble, so I had to hold back.
Sumire began to call me Takemikazuchi and seemed ready to ask me to show it one more time until the end of the night. Thankfully, I managed to get away from her and return to Earth after showing her a few more times.
When I entered the guild house on Earth, I heard a clacking sound in the kitchen and a smelled a sweet aroma. When I entered the kitchen thinking someone else other than Hwaya and Ciara was here, I found a rather unexpected sight.
âIna, donât eat that yet.â
âAre we waiting for Daddy?â
âWeâre going to put it on the cake. Wash it clean and chop it. You can do it, right?â
Hwaya was moving around busily in an apron. The source of the sweet aroma was a cake batter full of sugar, which Hwaya was swirling.
âMommy, when is Daddy coming?â
âSumire said sheâd hold him back. If we fail, we have to make it again, so hopefully Sumire will do a good jobâŚâ
âDoes Daddy like cakes?â
âShin eats everything. Apparently, he likes sweet things the most. Yungoong Ajusshi⌠Father said so, so it must be true.â
Hwaya had an extremely bright expression. She looked especially cute when she smiled.
âHuhu, Iâll show him I can do it too! Since itâll be a joint attack with Ina, he wonât be able to withstand it.â
âInaâs attacking Daddy with Mommy?â
âWeâre going to attack his heart with this cake. Ina likes it too when Fatherâs happy, right?â
âAh, donât cut grape seeds! How did you even cut it!?â
âI froze it and split it in half. Iâm good, right?â
After watching until this part, I silently left. The past me might have barged in to see Hwayaâs flustered face, but now, the first thing I thought of was to let myself be surprised. But will I be able to act naturally? That was the only thing in my mind.
âWell, looks like Iâll have to take Hwaya failing into account and go to the dungeon.â
I could also feel Ciaraâs presence in the guild house. Sumire probably wasnât lying when she said Ciara was trying to predict the next wave of dungeons. Once I came back, I would be able to hear about the result.
Humming happily, I headed to the dungeon. Even while breaking through Beyondâs 39th floor filled with Death Knights and Vampire Lords, I couldnât be more light-hearted.
[A challenger really appeared.]
Past a certain point, monsters in Beyond were all shocked when they saw me. It wasnât because I was strong, it was just because I made it here.
[Heâs trying to go higher.]
[Envy is driving me on. Letâs make that man kneel down in despair.]
[Our swords hold our resentment from being left without a choice. Are you strong enough to accept them?]
âStop being so noisy and just come.â
I pointed my spear towards them and ignited chaos flames on its tip. Beyond was long. If I walked through it as though it was a park, I would need several days to go through it. I had to use Divine Speed constantly to break through in a day.
âYou guys canât give me what I want anymore.â
[H-How can a human possess such an overwhelming magic power!]
I kicked off the ground. Chaos flames rose up after sucking in my magic power and shot towards the Vampire Lords and Death Knights. Chaos flames scorched everything it touched. Although a few lucky Death Knights managed to dodge the flames, when they tried to attack me with their swords carrying death aura, Steel simply sucked in their auras.
âThanks for the death energy.â
The powers I had all worked well together. Absolute Soul and Crimson Hellâs power, and now Steelâs Extort. They stole mana from anything and anyone that attacked me and made it mine in the blink of an eye.
âYou can have it back.â
Without integrating the absorbed mana, I directed it to my spear and stuck it inside the monsters in front of me. Attacking all enemies with fast consecutive stabs, it was Lightning Spear Storm.
As expected of monsters in Beyondâs 39th floor, the Death Knights and Vampire Lords had high magic power and defense. However, there simply wasnât anything they could do against me. Any monster that appeared in front of me turned into particles of light and disappeared thereafter.
[You dare insult the knights who rule over death!? I will show you the true power of death!]
Death Knights began to form a magic circle using their death energy.
Though that was what I said, the swords they summoned were quite good. It seemed they had to consume their death energy permanently to make them, but they attacked their enemy without having to be held by the Death Knights.
As there were many Death Knights, the number of swords flying around numbered several hundred! As they also used their special skill, Death Collection, I couldnât tell whether these guys were knights or sword collectors!
âBut thatâs still nowhere close to being enough! Show me more! Donât tell me this is all you can do with death energy?â
[Kuaaaaa, fine, we will!]
When I mocked the Death Knightsâ power, they became enraged and began to pour one black magic after the other.
As expected of death energy, it could form many different kinds of curses. I looked intently at the magic circles they drew and asked.
[How can you be fine after taking all these curses!?]
A Death Knight asked in shock. I nodded and replied.
âThatâs because Iâm immune to curses.â
âWell, that was a good lesson. Thanks!â
When dense death energy flowed into my spear, the Death Knights flinched and stepped backwards. Using my spear, I drew a giant magic circle in the air.
[He can wield death energy!]
From the black magic circle I drew, many greatswords began to pop out. Although the Death Knights lacked the death energy to summon more than a couple swords at once, I was different. I possessed so much death energy that I had to compress it multiple times.
As I was generous with the death energy I used, several hundred greatswords popped out of the magic circle and hovered above the air. I then added Dortuâs power into the swords. Be it Death Knights or Vampire Lords, they couldnât shut their mouths watching this scene.
[Didnât you guys teach him!?]
[Shut it, you annoying mosquitos!]
In the end, they began to fight among themselves. I leisurely shot my greatswords at them with a smile.
âNow, now, if you have anything else you havenât shown, please do so now!â
Two hours afterwards, after learning all the ways that Death Knights used death energy in, I freed them for eternity. I then left Beyondâs 39th floor. It was now time to eat cake!