Floor 34: Sewer Cleaning (3)

Contrary to my worries, the scientist showed no hostility.

Even after seeing the monster corpses, all he did was click his tongue briefly.

"Tch, what a waste. A perfectly good specimen, and it couldn't even sense danger coming?"

The scientist grumbled, and then his gaze shifted to me. His pitch-black eyes, with no distinguishable pupils, narrowed slightly.

Just who the hell was this guy?

I focused intently, but no status window appeared. The one thing I could say for certain was that the pressure of his presence was overwhelming. Aside from the Spirit King and the Deity Seats, he was the strongest being I'd encountered since coming to the Tower.

Without realizing it, I bit down on my lower lip. He was shabbily dressed and small in stature, yet he was someone the current me could never defeat.

What on earth is the hidden mission?

It couldn't be to fight the scientist and win. That was simply impossible.

Then was I supposed to receive some kind of request from him? For example, capturing monsters and bringing them here—

While I was thinking, the scientist asked a question.

"So what are you supposed to be? Weak as you are, you're no Isengard guard or Grand Warrior... Some deity-seat's abandoned slave, are you?"

The guards of Isengard? A slave abandoned by a Deity Seat?

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I couldn't keep silent forever. How should I introduce myself?

"I'm a cleaner. I take care of the monsters in the sewers."

"Ah, a cleaner. Every now and then some grubs do wander down into the sewers. But you came into raw sewage to hunt monsters? Are you completely out of your mind?"

"I was just chasing a monster, and—"

"So you fought your way through the secret passage maze and made it all the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way here? Lucky for you, I suppose. Or maybe unlucky..."

The scientist frowned. There was no hostility in it, but he clearly found me a nuisance. Fortunately, my excuse seemed to have worked—just as he'd said, I was weak, so he apparently didn't suspect much.

Shaking his head, the scientist carefully set down the glass vial.

An opponent I couldn't possibly match. And on top of that, his mind didn't seem entirely sound. There was no predicting what he'd do next.

Naturally, every muscle in my body tensed. He might attack me at any moment. I started thinking through escape routes fast.

First I'd use Flash Step, sprint backward, grab Dobby...

Then I could open the bidirectional portal and escape to the spot where I'd first been summoned. No matter how fast he was, he couldn't leap across space.

The scientist heaved a sigh.

"Ugh, this just got complicated. If the cleaner doesn't go back, it'll raise suspicions. Hmm..."

If the cleaner doesn't go back?

Didn't that mean he intended to deal with me?

Tensing my leg muscles, I hurriedly changed the subject.

"...What is this place, anyway?"

"This place? Well, I suppose there's no harm in telling you."

The scientist twisted his mouth into a crooked smile. My certainty that he wouldn't simply let me walk away deepened.

I needed to wedge Flash Step into a gap in the conversation.

"The pleasure asteroid Isengard. Even if the high-ranking Deity Seats don't come calling, the lower Seats and their Grand Warriors visit from time to time."

Just as I'd suspected—a place where Deity Seats and beings beyond the norm gathered.

The scientist went on with a thin chuckle.

"And that means whatever the lower Seats and their Grand Warriors leave behind drifts down into the sewage. I extract the infinitesimal traces of ■■■ that remain. Oh, oops."

The scientist hastily picked up the vial and poured it into another one.

I thought this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠might be the perfect moment to run, but curiosity wouldn't let my feet go.

Besides, Dobby's intuition and my own gut had both factored into the decision. If I were going to die here, Dobby would have told me not to come, and my instincts would have screamed at me too.

The mumbled syllables meant nothing to me. It was a word the Tower seemed to have deliberately suppressed. Hearing it for the first time, I was caught off guard.

"What is that?"

"■■■? Hmm, so a lower life form like you doesn't know?"

The scientist moved the vial of red liquid over a low flame. Then he dropped a blue orb, no bigger than a fingernail, into it.

"Some call it causality... but simply put, it's the power of a god. The power the Primordial God once possessed. Well, the Primordial God is gone now."

The power the Primordial God once possessed?

Was it different from a Deity Seat's power?

The instant the question formed in my mind, the scientist turned to look at me. His eyes had gone sharp.

I rose slightly onto the balls of my feet, coiling my leg muscles.

"Do you know why I'm being so kind as to answer your questions?"

"...I do."

"So you're not entirely clueless after all—"

Before the scientist could finish, I activated Flash Step. At the same time, I twisted my body toward the iron door.

A full-speed sprint. But the scientist was faster.

Before I could even reach it, the iron door slammed shut with a bang. Had he used magic?

Damn it, if I can just get there first and open it—

I pushed my speed higher, then was forced to a halt.

The scientist had moved faster than me even within my Flash Step. Despite my head start toward the door, he had circled around and now stood blocking it.

"Heh heh, and where do you think you're running off to..."

The scientist let out a soft laugh.

I couldn't beat him in a head-on fight. With my escape route sealed, all I had left was the bidirectional portal. But his agility was beyond anything I'd imagined—using it right in front of him carried far too much risk.

I had to create an opening.

"Who are you?"

"Me? I was once a Deity Seat's Grand Warr— you little!"

I lunged mid-sentence. It was just to disrupt his breathing even a little, but it didn't seem to do much.

Gripping the axe short, I swung it straight along a diagonal line. Lightning crackled wildly across the axe head, but the scientist batted it aside with his bare hand.

CLANG—!

No—he hadn't batted it aside.

At a flick of the scientist's fingers, half the axe blade simply crumbled away.

Oh, come on!

I'd expected him to deflect it, but the axe shattering hadn't even crossed my mind... Still, there was no time to be rattled. I had to stick to the plan.

I thrust a shadow arm out from behind my back and went for the nape of the scientist's neck.

The scientist tilted his head and hammered his other fist into my waist.

"Kgh—!"

A bone-deep impact, and then I was flying. It was the first raw, naked pain I'd felt in a long while.

And yet I laughed.

Because the shadow arm had left a wound on the scientist's nape.

Now all I had to do was open the bidirectional portal and run. Destination: right in front of Dobby. Considering the mana stored in my Mana Accumulation Gauntlet, I could manage one more portal. Escaping to my original summoning point would be no problem at all.

"You little bastard!"

The scientist's roar rang out crystal clear. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hurriedly opened the bidirectional portal. One more second and I'd be through.

I looked back at the scientist and raised my middle finger. The smile was a bonus.

Well, even if the culture was different, he'd recognize an insult when he saw one.

BOOOM—!

That was when the ceiling came collapsing down.

Through the shattered wreckage, a golden being descended. An overwhelming presence. The radiance was too bright to see clearly, but I could make out a massive horn rising from its head.

"This piece of garbage dares—on MY planet!"

Oh, hell...

In the same instant, I crossed through the portal.

I was still mid-flight, so I had no choice but to roll across the floor. Dobby shrieked.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Kkiik! Suyeok! Heal your wounds!"

The golden radiance settled onto my waist. I threw a glance back through the closing portal.

The golden being was severing the scientist's neck.

And though I hadn't intended it, the bidirectional portal vanished on its own.

Ding—!

What? Floor 34 was conquered? And what's all this about hidden missions?

I couldn't make sense of what was happening. I had clearly failed to reach the assigned quota of one hundred monsters. I had never destroyed any monster habitat, nor captured any queen of the monsters.

But regardless of my confusion, the notifications kept updating.

I was back in the Waiting Room, but my head was still spinning.

I hadn't killed a hundred monsters, and I hadn't done any of the hidden missions the notifications spoke of. Yet the floor had ended far too abruptly.

That said, I had a pretty good guess.

The ■■■ the scientist had mentioned, and the being that appeared at the very end. "This piece of garbage dares—on MY planet!"

It had said my planet. Definitely a Deity Seat, then. And the Tower had said 4th-Grade Deity Seat "Unceasing Banquet" had provided the additional compensation, so it was probably the same being. The name "pleasure asteroid" and the Seat's name were clearly connected too.

Most likely the ■■■ was what had made the Deity Seat intervene in such a hurry. It seemed to be important—far more than I'd imagined. Important enough for the trial to end and the Seat itself to show its face...

Hold on, now's not the time for this.

The air membrane was still smeared with filth. I'd been yanked into the Waiting Room so suddenly that the floor was dirty too, and in a few minutes the whole place would reek of sewer.

"Dobby! Hurry!"

I grabbed Dobby and rushed into the bathroom.

Cleaning up took a considerable amount of time. First I scrubbed the air membrane spotless, then cleaned the filth off the Waiting Room floor. The scientist's attack had splattered grime on my armor too, so that needed wiping down as well. I'd rushed into the bathroom, but since the Waiting Room still smelled, I had to break out the deodorizer too.

After that, I talked things through with Ha Heijeong and sorted out everything that had happened on Floor 34.

The first god, who no longer exists.

Even Ha Heijeong said she'd never heard of such an entity. But she'd reached the exact same conclusion as me: the ■■■ was what had ended the floor early.

Well, it hadn't turned out badly for me. I'd received a massive haul of rewards.

Hidden missions I never completed had been marked as done, and apparently because of that, my achievement points were far higher than usual. I'd even picked up a new skill, Gambler's Poise.

And honestly, it had been dangerous, too.

The scientist was stronger than me. Ha Heijeong and I had discussed it, and we agreed that the scientist probably wasn't a trial the Tower had arranged. If he were, there'd have been no reason for a Deity Seat to appear and for the floor to be shut down so hastily—it would have simply said I'd completed a hidden mission connected to the scientist.

Still, there are a lot of monsters out there stronger than I imagined.

A mysterious scientist hiding under the sewers had been stronger than me... I couldn't even bring myself to think about combat training. Even if I'd lowered the difficulty, I would have lost for sure.

Truth be told, I'd been running roughshod over every floor lately, but now I wondered if I was just a frog at the bottom of a well.

That's a problem for later.

I still had plenty of time to grow stronger. I could climb calmly, with Ha Heijeong's help.

"Hm?"

As I was thinking, that foul stench wafted over again. Irritably, I spritzed the deodorizer I'd left on the desk.

"Ah, damn it. Why does it keep coming back?"

"Kkiik! Wait!"

The moment the complaint left my mouth, Dobby leaped down from the bed in a hurry.

Hm? What now?

"Dobby, what is it?"

"Kkiik! Dobby forgot something!"

Dobby scampered over to the chair and snatched up his belt. Then he pulled something out of the pouch—a black, ball-shaped lump—and the moment it appeared, the stench doubled.

Ugh, what the hell is that? A lump of sewage?

Revolting, I instinctively backed away two steps.

So that's where the smell had been coming from all along.

I'd bought him a fairly nice belt, and it had even masked the odor. Had I wasted good money? If I'd figured out the source of the smell sooner... A sigh escaped me on its own.

"Ugh, throw that thing out already! Why did you even bring it?"

"Kkiik! This is an elixir! It burst out of the monster when it died!"

"Hm?"

My eyes went wide without my meaning them to.

An elixir? That thing that looks like a lump of sewage?

When I asked with my eyes, Dobby nodded his head vigorously.