The next day.
I went downstairs for breakfast, and old man Gordon was waiting for me on the first floor of the inn.
He had started eating before me, but judging by his expression, the inn's food didn't seem to suit his palate very well.
I ordered the same dish from the landlady and sat down across from the old man to eat.
'It tastes fine, so why the face?'
I guess being from the imperial family, his tastes were quite different from mine.
Anyway, these upper-class bastards.
How picky can you be about food?
- Clack. Clack.
The sound of cutlery filled the first floor.
- Poke.
Gordon speared a boiled egg with his fork.
He bit into it, made a disgusted face for a moment, then set down his fork with only half the egg eaten.
When I checked, the egg was hard-boiled.
'Hard-boiled is crossing the line, I'll give him that.'
The old man rinsed his mouth with water, wiped his lips clean with a napkin, and spoke to me.
"The Hero and his party have cleared the first floor. I'm sure you know enough about the dungeon by now. Please begin scouting the second floor as soon as possible today."
Then he stood up from his seat.
"I'll take my leave."
There was something familiar about how he only said what he needed to say and left...
Anyway, as Gordon turned his back to me and walked toward the door,
"Ah,"
he paused briefly.
"The Hero asked me to tell you that your information was helpful."
"Huh?"
"....."
The old man left after saying that.
"Hmm."
I stared at his retreating figure and thought for a moment.
'So the Hero's party is already here.'
I don't know where they are.
It's a small village, so I feel like I could find them if I tried, but
'Do I really need to?'
I didn't think anything good would come from it.
Call it a gut feeling.
If we were meant to meet, we would have already met.
It seemed the imperial family had adjusted the Hero's party's schedule so they couldn't run into me, so would I intentionally seek them out to make contact?
'That'd be pretty tactless.'
And people without tact usually disappeared suddenly one day.
I wouldn't be any different.
Especially with the imperial family as the opponent.
A life tormented by assassins until you're on the brink of death.
I didn't want to live a life trembling in fear of when and how I might die.
Scouting the dungeon was already dangerous enough;
I didn't want to invite more danger outside of it.
"Sigh... Let's just get to work, Chunsik."
I grabbed my bag from my room and headed back to the dungeon.
At least he said my information was helpful.
I should get it done and hand it over as quickly as possible.
***
- Clomp. Clomp.
After entering the dungeon,
I was looking around the first floor that I had scouted once before.
"Wow... what the fuck is all this."
This place used to be covered in dense forest...
Now there was nothing but an empty field there.
No, since every single blade of grass was cleanly erased, the term "barren plain" would be more accurate.
I walked slowly toward the door leading to the second floor, surveying my surroundings.
Then I suddenly wondered exactly what kind of destruction could create a landscape like this.
I felt like that man I saw in the vision could do something like this.
Did that mean the Hero's party had already reached that level of combat power?
Suddenly, the Hero's party felt truly great.
When the newspapers were making a fuss about being chosen by the Goddess and all that, I had thought it was a bit of an exaggeration.
Like I said before, rumors tend to spread greatly exaggerated.
Especially regarding the Hero's party, there was a high chance it was for propaganda purposes.
'But I guess they were just writing it exactly as it happened.'
Normally, there was a chance the door to the second floor wouldn't open.
I had explained before that for the door to the next floor to open, all monsters on the current floor had to die,
and if I was unlucky, monsters might have respawned after the Hero's party cleared this place.
Then I'd have to kill those monsters alone and go to the second floor.
But,
'Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. Thank goodness.'
The moment I returned to the first floor, that possibility was immediately erased from my mind.
Maybe the Hero's party had burned away the entire forest as a consideration for me.
Imagine if the forest was still here and monsters had respawned.
If one was hiding somewhere, I'd have to search the entire forest to find it.
New monsters could even respawn during that time.
But because the Hero's party had eliminated the entire forest, I could tell at a glance whether monsters had respawned, and if they had, exactly where.
- Creeeak.
As expected, the door leading to the second floor was naturally open.
'Alright... let's go.'
I stepped through the doorway.
***
"Hssss..."
Fuck, where the hell is this place now.
- Whooooosh.
"Huh??? Fuck!!!!!!!!!!"
I had been trying to slowly look around and get my bearings, but the dungeon didn't give me that luxury.
Before I could even check where I was, a strong gust of wind swept in and I slipped, falling somewhere.
"Kuaaaaargh!!!!!"
- Thud!!!!!!!!!!
"Ungh...!!"
Fortunately, I spotted a crevice I could grab and managed to catch it immediately,
but I had to sacrifice one arm in exchange.
'A fracture at minimum... I think it's even dislocated at this point???'
"Agh... fuck... it hurts like a bitch, you fuck..."
- Rustle.
Stone fragments fell below me.
Pain was pain, but...
to survive this situation, I needed to assess it first.
Actually, well... I already had a pretty good idea.
I slowly looked up.
The place where I had been standing the moment I crossed into the second floor.
There had been a ledge there just barely wide enough for a person to stand.
I must have been stupidly standing there without immediately grabbing the wall, and that's how I ended up like this.
Still.
'My obsessive level of preparedness is the best!'
They say you can never be too prepared when your life is on the line.
I truly don't regret it one bit.
Since I had packed various climbing equipment the moment I learned that Abraxas's nest was on a cliff, I grabbed the gear attached to the side of my bag with my right hand.
And,
- Click. Click.
I kicked my foot to the side.
Then a blade popped out from the front of my shoe.
'Perfect.'
- Thwack!
I plunged the blade as deep into the wall as I could and began climbing.
I felt like it would've been pretty hopeless if I couldn't find footholds in this situation,
but fortunately there were plenty of unnecessary cave-like openings around me.
"Haa... haa..."
Having barely crawled up to a cave, I caught my rough breath.
After calming down a bit, I opened my bag and uncorked a healing potion without hesitation.
- Glug. Glug.
My left arm recovered miraculously the moment I drank it.
It was indeed an intermediate healing potion.
Of course, it cost me a month's salary from my mercenary days in one go.
Low-grade ones are enough to get by with, but from intermediate onward, they aren't... hehe.
So I only had one more intermediate healing potion left in my bag.
'By the way, this cave is bigger than I thought?'
I furrowed my eyes to look deeper into the cave.
It vaguely felt like Abraxas's habitat, but it could be another monster's habitat, just in case.
If I was lucky, it might just be empty.
- Sss... Fwoosh!
I made a torch to explore the cave interior and threw it inside.
- Clack. Clatter. Clack.
Fortunately, the flame didn't weaken and burned well, so there seemed to be enough oxygen.
I picked up the torch I had thrown and entered the cave interior.
'Claw marks... and branches.'
The moment I saw those two elements inside the cave, I realized.
That there was a high possibility the next floor after this one was the boss room.
Or if there was another floor, maybe just one more at most.
Hatchling -> Habitat (estimated) -> Abraxas's Nest.
If it flowed like this, it would fit perfectly.
I nodded and tried to proceed deeper to continue exploring.
But,
- Thud!
"Ack!"
- Clack. Clatter.
Surprised, I dropped the torch.
'What did I hit?'
I carefully brought my hand forward as if performing a mime.
Then I realized there was a transparent wall-like thing blocking further entry into the cave.
The moment I realized this, I felt like I understood the condition for clearing the second floor.
'I need to find all the caves on this cliff and find the door to the next floor. That's certain.'
If the door simply opened there, I'd be grateful.
But what if there were monsters on this floor too?
Of course, there was a high probability they existed, but anyway, if there were, I'd have to find them all and kill them.
Then the difficulty of this floor would spike drastically.
'Let's move for now. I need to check other places too.'
I went outside the cave and started climbing again.
'Nothing here either... and there... and here too...'
After checking about six more places, I saw neither door nor monster.
I decided to move only to the front of the next cave to check and then rest.
Perhaps because I had gotten used to it, climbing the cliff didn't take that long, so I thought it would be cleaner to go and rest there.
- Glug. Glug.
After arriving at the next cave,
I gulped down water and attempted to enter the cave interior again.
The method was the same.
- Sss.
Light a torch like this and throw it inside the cave,
the oxygen is plen...
"Kweek...?"
Right. You were curious about the torch?
That makes sense.
Do you want to play with that for a bit? I just remembered I have something busy to do, so I'll come back later.
Please.
Please...!!
"Kweeeeeek!!!!!!!!"
Fucking hell.
- Tatatatat!!!!!
I tried to leave the cave at full speed...
'No, if I go out, it'll logically be even more dangerous!'
If I tried to climb the cliff to shake him off, the initiative in the fight would completely pass to him.
'That's a mature Abraxas. If I get attacked while hanging on a cliff, I'm done for.'
If so, there was only one correct decision.
I had to kill it right here, right now.
Fortunately, the inside of the cave was an advantageous environment for me.
That big bird chick had restricted movement, while I was relatively free.
Since this was a difficult dungeon even among intermediate ones, I wasn't guaranteed to easily kill it even under these conditions, but,
- Fwoosh.
anyway, I stopped thinking and focused on radiating aura.
'I can do this much too. It's just one bird brain.'
I glared at Abraxas with my eyes wide open.
Then let's g...!!
- Kweeeeeeeek!!!!!!!!!
"Urk!"
A sound attack...?
The cave interior, which I had thought would be disadvantageous because the cries resonated off the walls and amplified, turned out to be a mechanic that doubled the effect.
- Thud.
Unable to bear the dizziness, I fell to one knee.
It was an attack that could have made me lose consciousness, but I had barely endured it with my willpower.
You could say I had endured pretty well.
But that wasn't enough.
Abraxas didn't let its guard down and attacked me while I was half-defenseless.
- Boom! Boom! Boom!
Just pecking with its beak, yet the cave walls were being hollowed out.
'What the hell kind of thing is this!!!!!'
Fortunately, I recovered my senses before being pushed all the way to the cave entrance.
'Meditate... Meditate... Strong will...! Focus!!!!!'
- Fwoosh!
An aura with firepower similar to when I fought Grover erupted from my sword.
At the same time, my feet took footwork and advanced forward.
"Shoutian Shenghuo Jian, First Form: Shenzhao Kaihuo!"
- Shiiing! Fwoosh!!!!!
A horizontal streak of the day's first sunlight spread in a curve, separating Abraxas's head from its body.
- Thud.
"Haa... fuck."
The moment I killed Abraxas, I slumped to the floor.
It seemed aftereffects of the sound attack still lingered a bit.
"I said the first floor was too easy."
When things go too well, something is going wrong.
Just like right now.
This floor... felt like it was going to be an extraordinary fight.