â} Youâre spouting off with only that much?â
Susanooâs 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.
âHe abhorred the weak and respected the strong. That much was certain.â
He didnât see the players on the lower floors as human. Youâd be lucky if he even treated you as an insect. Because of that, he was famous for killing any player he saw at random.
âWhy canât I?â
â} âŠI needlessly got excited.â
Susanoo crossed his arms and shook his head.
â} This isnât a place an insect like you can climb as you please. Monsters that canât even compare to those of the 21st Floor roam around here.â
âI already know.â
â} âAlreadyâ?â
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.
â} You donât have a party?â
Susanoo looked around, but as a simple manifestation of evil intent, he might not have been able to sense anything special going on.
âThereâs none. Iâm alone.â
Stepâ
YuWon started to move.
Susanooâs entrance had caught his interest, but that was it. He was just a manifestation that wasnât even alive. YuWon didnât think to face him, someone who couldnât impact the physical world, any longer.
Shwooâ
Susanoo followed behind YuWon.
Seemingly having changed his mind, his expression showed he was a little more interested than before.
â} Iâll follow you. It canât be helped as long as you have that fragment.â
âWhy?â
â} Thatâs just how the dungeon was created.â
âInteresting.â
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.
â} So youâre not a pureblood, right?â
Susanoo kept talking without stopping.
â} Where did you live? And where did you get the fragment?â
He was talking about the fragment of ăTotsuka no Tsurugi.ă
YuWon ignored him and kept walking. Even if he was bored, YuWon didnât want to continue this meaningless conversation with Susanoo. It was tedious, and he wasnât worth answering either.
â} This part is what Iâm most curious about.â
âIf I tell youâŠâ YuWon turned to face Susanoo. âWill you at least tell me the direction?â
â} Direction?â
âThe direction to the door or stairs to the next floor. These maze-type dungeons arenât difficult, but I hate them because they take so long.â
Even though he had [Sensory Field,] he couldnât 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.
â} Alright, sure.â
After looking around for a second, Susanoo pointed in a direction.
â} The door is that way. If you keep going down the path in that direction, youâll find the door that leads to the next floor.â
âThat wayâŠâ YuWon nodded. âAlright.â
Shwingâ
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.
â} Now answer my previous question. Where did you get that fragment?
âDo you remember the test on the 1st Floor?â
â} The Colosseum?â
âI got it from there.â
Bzzt, bzzzzztâ
Magic was pouring out through ăKyneÄ.ă He hadnât used [Hell,] but a sufficient amount of power was flowing into his sword.
â} I canât understand that. You earned it from a test on the 1st Floor?â
âBecause the head of that guy appeared in the last test of the Colosseum.â
After turning back, YuWon headed in the direction Susanoo pointed rather than the open pathways on the left and right.
âYamata no Orochi.â
â} What? Who?â
The questions continued, but YuWon didnât answer. Right now, maintaining his focus was of higher priority.
âThis isnât like the real Tower.â
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 âfindâ the right path.
However, YuWon had always found a different way through.
âThe pathâŠâ
Fwoooshâ
[Holy Fire] ignited his sword, and YuWon struck down the wall as hard as he could.
ââŠWill be made.â
Crackâ!
With the sound of an explosion, a crack formed on the wall.
YuWon swung again.
Bangâ!
Crumbleâ
The wall collapsed.
YuWon moved through the flying dust and swung his sword against the second wall.
Bang, bangâ!
Looking at YuWon as he started to break the walls, Susanoo wore a baffled expression. To make the path instead of finding itâŠ
Although he was just a manifestation, his mind started to turn.
â} Yamato no OrochiâŠ?â
A mere 21st Floor player. No, if what YuWon said was true, he had defeated Orochi on the first floor. Susanoo couldnât believe that such a thing was possible.
If he wasnât seeing the scene before him right now, he might have laughed it off as a bluff.
Bangâ!
He had already broken through three walls. But that wasnât all.
âKehe, heheheheââ
Spirits of the Dead had appeared with weary laughs. These monsters took the form of souls and came out like smoke, surrounding YuWonâs body.
In that momentâŠ
Bzzzztâ!
On YuWonâs hand, ăKyneÄă consumed the spirits.
â} What is that?â
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 spiritsâŠ
â} Heh.â
After silently looking at YuWon creating the path with his sword, a smile appeared on Susanooâs 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.
â} Iâm looking forward to this.â
* * *
Translator â Jreaming
Proofreader â BringTheRayn
* * *
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 floorâŠ
As YuWon continued to go up the floors, he could understand the special gimmick of Susanooâs dungeon.
âTheyâre all spirit or undead-type monsters.â
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.
âThey were killed by Susanoo.â
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.
âDid he gather the spirits of all the people he killed and make this tower?â
Although YuWon wasnât shaken by much, this was still a little spooky. It felt like he was climbing a tall mountain made of corpses. He couldnât ignore the feeling of stepping on a new corpse with every step he took.
âItâs disgusting.â
â} What do you mean?â
Hearing the nonchalant question, YuWon turned his head. Although he had ignored most of his words, it was hard to ignore this time.
âIâm talking about you.â
â} A disciple of righteousness, are we?â
ââRighteousnessâ?â
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 didnât think that.
He couldnât defeat his sense of guilt at having to kill another, and in the end, he couldnât do it. Because of this, they had all died, and YuWon had survived.
He wasnât righteous.
All who lived in this world were sinners.
HoweverâŠ
âIâve seen a lot of people, but youâre a first.â
Even YuWon hadnât seen someone like Susanoo before.
â} You sure act like youâve seen a lot when youâre just a brat at the 21st Floor.â
Apparently he misunderstood what Yuwon meant.
Although there was more to what he said, YuWon didnât feel the need to explain himself.
YuWon pulled open the door.
Creakâ
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.
âThe sixth to the tenth rooms arenât at the difficulty of the tenth floor.â
â} Iâll tell you something.â
Susanooâs voice had a laughing tone.
â} Just like youâre 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.â
Even after hearing Susanooâs 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.
â} Thereâs no way to save these guys, unless thereâs a better spirit master or necromancer than me. But theyâll be able to escape this place if you kill them at least.â
He was pushing for YuWon to not stop at the fifth room but to attempt the tenth as well.
â} What will you do? Are you just going to ignore them? Or will you keep going?â
It was an obvious provocation. But there was no reason not to fall for it.
âEven if you didnât say that, I was going to attempt them anyway.â
Clackâ
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 didnât 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.
âYou donât need to stand up.â
ââŠ?â
The Undead was about to stand, but an expression appeared on its face for the first time. It was asking what he meant.
ThenâŠ
Fwoooshâ
A purple fire attached itself to the Undeadâs body.
[Holy Fire]
Pssssshhâ
The fire melted off its white skin, and it started to burn up from the toes.
The Undead didnât scream. It couldnât feel pain in the first place.
[You have passed the first room.]
After confirming the elimination of the Undead, YuWon turned away.
âRest now.â
YuWon stepped toward the second room.
And in that instantâŠ
Hummmmâ
On his right hand, ăKyneÄă was illuminated with a soft light.
____
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