Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Spawn Kill, Its Two Meanings
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The night of Dimension 34.
Gazing up at the night sky of this transcendent world—which felt so artificial, like being trapped—I sank into thought.
It’s my first time seeing night in another dimension.
Having killed everyone in this dimension, I reflected on the disappointing haul.
Leveling up isn’t easy anymore, even after wiping them all out.
Well, at level 29, that’s probably to be expected.
The experience requirements jumped 2 to 3 times higher in the stretches leading to levels 10, 20, and 30 compared to other ranges.
I’d confirmed that precisely at level 19 using an Experience Confirmation Scroll.
It sure felt that way back at level 9, too.
But there was an even bigger reason leveling had gotten so tough.
I’d grown way too fast for day 10.
I’d claimed Zone 3 two whole days early and racked up a massive five levels in the tower.
Killing off folks who were roughly level 10 or weaker just couldn’t keep up with my level anymore.
Still, if I wrapped up tomorrow’s hunt, level 30 seemed within reach.
I toyed with using an Experience Confirmation Scroll but decided against it. With the event over, no need to crunch exact numbers into my plans.
I scanned the area and started gathering the items littering the ground.
The legacies of dozens of people.
Forcibly created legacies, that is.
‘Feels like my first real human farming.’
Not stuff like Weapon Selection Scrolls, but plenty of shop gear and item materials.
Disappointingly, no elite monster drops in sight.
As I picked them up one by one, confirming their info along the way...
I spotted something strange.
It was wriggling faintly, almost like it was alive.
I approached the odd shape cautiously, on guard.
Up close, it looked like a chunk of human organ.
Corpses and monster bodies were supposed to crumble to dust, though?
To play it safe, I wrapped my hand in demi-god power before lifting it.
The texture was utterly bizarre, and a metallic tang of blood wafted up.
I even tried stashing it in my inventory.
And surprisingly, it worked.
It had properly itemized.
Right there in my inventory.
‘What...?’
The details were downright shocking.
A unique ability?
Unique abilities could drop?
It was a unique ability. Or more precisely, a mutated one.
I’d taken down plenty of unique ability users before, but nothing like this had ever dropped extra.
Mutation...
Did it mutate and drop because of that?
What even is a mutation? How do you trigger one...?
Unique ability mutation.
Itemized because of it.
I reread the entire entry from top to bottom.
91%?
That’s a pretty high number...
I kept staring at the item, lost in thought.
“No known method to remove the mutation yet.”
That line really grated on me.
I even considered popping it like a pill to snag the ability, but with the mutation... who knew what effects it’d bring?
Would eating it even grant the unique ability?
And that “yet” felt like a warning.
Implying it might become possible someday.
I had those secret pills from the tower I could’ve tested, but...
I trusted the system’s word more—it basically said there was no way right now.
I finished harvesting the rest of the items.
The mutated unique ability was the only one of its kind.
Insanely low drop rate? Or some special condition?
The chance at snagging another unique ability wouldn’t leave my head.
For now, I tabled it for later.
After farming an entire dimension clean for the first time...
I’d scored heaps of item materials and shop gear.
Could’ve sold it all for gold, but they might come in handy someday, and I wasn’t hurting for cash, so I just stashed them.
And yeah, I’d suspected it from the start.
Now it hit me: this dimension was anything but normal.
The population was suspiciously low to begin with.
And zombies clashing with others? Not your everyday sight.
Those zombies looked like actual people, not summons.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have varied so wildly.
The summons on tower floors 1 and 2 all looked pretty uniform.
Decomposition was barely advanced, too.
This dimension was riddled with weirdness.
And the weirdest bit? This item.
Odds are, nobody knows killing people drops unique abilities.
The item was labeled Blood Kin Ghost, and judging by that sinister name...
Its original owner had to be tied to whatever sparked the zombie outbreak.
Dimension 34 was deep in some freakish crisis.
Shocked I hadn’t pieced together all these clues sooner.
Mentally drained from the giant fight? My injuries had mostly healed, though.
Either way, I needed proper rest. I headed to the cheapest inn in the village and crashed.
A few hours later, I stepped out.
It was already dark, but I had a ton to sort through.
No putting it off.
Time to reanalyze the items and titles from the tower.
Knowing your abilities inside out was the foundation of all growth.
Titles first, maybe?
Sucked that I didn’t clear floor 5 for that title.
Just as I pulled up the tower titles...
The first one I ever got jumped out: Path of Evil 2.
It’d been ages since Path of Evil 1 after those initial 10 kills.
I remembered needing 100 total kills for the next reward.
Path of Evil 1’s prize: the [???] Key.
My absolute core item.
So what was Path of Evil 2’s reward?
10 kills for a key... what about 100?
Excitement bubbling, I instinctively tapped the details.
And I was floored.
The title had fresh info.
I’d only ever checked Path of Evil 1 once and never bothered after, so this was news to me.
I skimmed the details fast.
58 kills. All those bodies were paying off. A few days, and I’d hit 100.
Yeah, same old up to here.
I jumped to the new stuff.
Highest kill count...
Makes sense now.
The update probably kicked in because people in other dimensions started racking up bodies.
Kill competition.
I knew it was special, but a whole system like this...?
I kept reading.
This system was insane.
Did they hand out a dimension-hopping tool for Path of Evil 1 just to encourage globe-trotting massacres?
Damn...
I hadn’t figured the system wanted such blatant competition.
Brushing aside the sheer malice of it, I studied the rankings.
Competitors, huh.
On top of my level rival at #2, now I had title rivals too.
Degenerated versions probably came with similar rewards. Maybe even a degenerated key.
Meaning others could hop around killing too.
But the community was dead silent on it.
Did someone else wipe a dimension that fast? Nah, their counts were pitiful.
No matter how I sliced it, info was too scarce right now.
Path of Evil 3 might spill more on the rankings.
That’d give my guesses some legs.
I closed the title window, mulling it over.
Good thing I checked now. Could’ve lost the title blind.
The pressure of competition sank in.
My growth path got crystal clear.
Got to kill more people...
But I didn’t stop there.
...
...
Head to Dimension 64... and wipe ‘em all?
...
No. Bad idea.
Dimension 64 was manageable on a schedule. Theoretically, every quest clear there benefited me.
The real wipe targets were everywhere else.
I’d tested the key properly once. No reason not to use it now.
A few hangups had kept me from using it before, but trying it cleared them up.
Key’s dimension travel cooldown: 10 days.
Seemed long, but for wipe runs, it was a steal.
Other dimensions from here on: wipe-only.
Reasons were obvious.
Needed the kills for progress, plus Soul Origin farming.
Exp and gold would outpace even full-day hunts.
This Dimension 34 was a special case.
And if I hit a dimension with powerhouse unique users—or ones useful to me?
Still better to wipe.
Couldn’t bring ‘em along, and hitting fresh dimensions beat backtracking later.
Unless it was some freak scenario, no survivors. Ever.
Key’s bonus: return to Dimension 64 after 24 hours.
Walking quietly, I pondered.
Tomorrow, back to 64.
Up to now, it’d been hell. Now? Might feel like paradise by comparison.
Least I wouldn’t get wiped there.
As I plotted to become every other dimension’s apocalypse, I strolled the village’s central road.
Before I knew it, I’d reached the spawn point and halted dead center.
The spawn under my feet sparked the thought.
Spawn kill.
Ever since day 2, I’d spawn-killed countless souls.
But now it meant two things.
The basic: kill ‘em the instant they spawn.
And: warp to another dimension’s spawn and slaughter everyone there.
Oh Heon gazed up at the sky and thought.
From now on, this world would know two kinds of spawn kill.
《Spawn Kill, Its Two Meanings. / Chapter 1-1 End》