Chapter 215: Sick and Tired
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 215: Sick and Tired
“Aven! It’s Aven, right?!”
“Rubia, it’s been a while.”
“Whoa... it really is you... What kind of skill did you get this time?!”
“Haha, it’s the same as before.”
“Liar! You couldn’t summon monsters like that back then!”
I had lost all sense of time while training inside Iris’s subspace. Time flows strangely in there; sometimes I’d emerge to find much more time had passed than I thought, and other times, I’d be surprised by how little had gone by.
Generally, a day inside the subspace felt like about two hours on the outside. I’d been so absorbed in my training that I’d completely forgotten I was supposed to participate in the Labyrinth Opening. I’d rushed to the guild just to check the location and flown straight here.
“It’s more like a derivative ability of the skill.”
“Hmm... Is that skill of yours just weird or what?! Why does it keep gaining new effects?!”
“I wonder that myself.”
Most of the training I conducted inside involved learning how to utilize the monsters I possessed to their full potential. It was about mastering the way the original owner of this skill used to operate.
While it was always possible to pull out the monsters I had swallowed in their original forms, controlling them was an entirely different matter.
So this is what it means to expand an ability.
As Ravi had mentioned before, the more I used the ability, the more the skill circuits engraved on my body expanded. By repeatedly attempting it, things that were impossible before began to work.
I had successfully gained perfect control over the monsters I had once devoured. This was likely only possible because I possessed Amelia’s mana core, which far exceeded the mana capacity of even typical Stratum Bosses.
I suppose that’s why she was stationed in the Labyrinth in the first place.
As I continued my training, I also became able to retrieve severed body parts with fluid ease—something I previously had to manually place inside my ‘stomach.’
Of course, I couldn’t dismantle and analyze someone else’s body to suck it in like that just yet. Still, for a monster the size of a Megido Serpent, spitting it out and swallowing it back down was quite a chore.
“What brings you here, Rubia?”
“Hehe, see this? I’m Rubia Spanya! A Cobalt-grade explorer, thank you very much!”
“I see. Good for you.”
“Your reaction is so lackluster...”
“Haha, truly, congratulations. You’re on the same level as me now.”
“Ugh, as if anyone would actually think that!”
Rubia stuck out her tongue and waved her hand dismissively, telling me not to talk nonsense. I had spent nearly three weeks inside the subspace Iris created without entering the Labyrinth at all, so my score and grade remained unchanged.
“Come to think of it, I heard three people were coming from Calax.”
“Ah! Right! Why were you so late?! Rike! Over here! Over here!!”
“Rike?”
Rubia stretched her short frame and hopped up and down, shouting toward a certain direction. I looked that way as well and saw a woman standing there, hesitating as she looked toward us.
“Come here, quick! This is Aven!”
“Uuu...”
“This is Rike! Aven, she says she’s your fan!!”
“A fan? My fan?”
By now, quite a few people in Calax recognized me. Considering the poor information dissemination of a medieval-esque world, the rumors seemed to have spread remarkably fast.
“Nice to meet you. Your name is Rike, right?”
As the woman named Rike trudged closer, I reached out my hand for a friendly handshake.
“H-Hieeeek!”
“Oh.”
“Huh?”
Rike recoiled in horror. Despite her somewhat sluggish impression, she moved with surprising agility as she scrambled backward.
It couldn't be helped. I was used to this reaction by now. My Combat Form looked like a total monster, and the way I used my abilities was rather gruesome.
“Rike? What’s wrong? This is Aven.”
“I-I wasn't told he looked like this...!”
“Ah! He looks a bit scary when he fights, right?! It’s okay! I was shocked the first time I saw him, too! Look, his face is just a normal human’s, see?”
“N-No, that’s not it...”
Rike shook her head at Rubia’s words.
“I-I can’t talk to handsome people...!”
“Eh?”
That was a first.
“Why...! Why do you look so much like a human... uuu...”
As it turned out, Rike had become a fan after seeing me in combat, and she had expected me to have a terrifying, monster-like face even in my normal state.
“Uh, well... let’s do this then.”
I eventually shifted into my Combat Form and held out my hand.
“E-Ehehe... It’s Lord Aven...”
Rike came trotting over and took my hand in both of hers. Judging by her expression, she genuinely liked this appearance. She certainly had unique tastes. Could this be the influence of a curse skill?
After chatting for a while, things settled down. Mages who appeared to be from the Page of Arcana approached hesitantly, much like Rike had.
“Uh, excuse me... are you perhaps the explorer Aven?”
“Yes, I am Aven.”
“I-I see.”
In my Combat Form, my body grew larger as more muscles and organs were packed in. Naturally, I had to look down at them, and as I tilted my head slightly, the horns entwined with blue flames shifted with a rattling sound.
“Gasp! That...!”
“Ah, one moment. I’ll change it.”
The reason the mana radiating from my body had turned entirely blue was that I had begun to perfectly master the mana of the Knight Lord, Hersha. Originally, the purple mana from Tenebrax’s Dragon Heart had dominated all other mana in my body, giving it a violet hue.
However, Hersha’s mana was inherently of a higher grade. It was the difference between a 65th-floor Mid-Boss and an 80th-floor Stratum Boss. This was how it was supposed to be.
Furthermore, Queen Arachne’s exoskeleton, which had changed color due to Tenebrax’s mana, had faded into a bright, metallic dark silver.
“We, uh, saw you enter the Labyrinth just now...”
“Yes, that’s right. I heard that if I went in and took care of the monsters, we could wrap this up early.”
“Uh... does that mean... you killed every single monster inside...?”
“I did. You see the boss entities over there?”
I pointed toward where the Labyrinth Portal had been. I had spat out the boss entities I defeated as soon as I emerged from the portal. Lower-grade explorers and mages were currently swarming over them, struggling to move the massive corpses.
“I-I see... But what about the common entities that were inside...?”
“I ate them all. Do you need those too...?”
As it turned out, the rewards for the explorers mobilized for the Labyrinth Opening, the mages’ wages, and the cost of the magic crystals used for the barricades were all funded by selling the monster carcasses obtained from the opening.
I had planned to save them for later use, but I suppose I had no choice.
“There’s quite a lot of them. Where should I put them?”
“Do you... perhaps have all of them with you?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Uh, well...”
After agonizing over it for a while, the mage ordered other mages who seemed to be his subordinates to clear a space by felling some trees and then guided me there.
Rumble...
In an instant, a mountain of monster corpses piled up. Normally, this was a task that would have taken at least ten days of gradual dismantling and processing, but since the entire supply had been released in a single day, it was bound to be a major headache.
Merchants who had come to buy monsters at bargain prices were camped outside the 5km diameter danger zone. This would likely be a windfall for them.
“H-Heh...”
“May I leave now?”
“Pardon? No, well, there are many things we need to verify...”
“Is it illegal if I refuse?”
“It’s not exactly that, but...”
“Then I’ll be going. I’m quite busy.”
They likely had many questions. However, I didn't have the luxury of time to sit through a Q&A session right now.
“Rubia, take care of yourself. You’ve got a lot of scratches.”
“Y-Yeah! Where are you going?”
“Back to the Labyrinth. I haven't been in for a while, so I need to do a proper raid.”
“I see... Make sure to visit our clan next time! Promise?!”
“Of course. Ah, and... Ms. Rike? I’m leaving now.”
“Uuu... okay...”
* * *
Step, step...
“This should be far enough.”
I moved away from the site of the Labyrinth Opening and reached a spot out of public view.
Thud!
“It was a bust.”
“Ow.”
“I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Liar.”
“I mean it.”
The area was a dense forest surrounded by trees. I brought out Iris, whom I had stored away using my ability.
“Here, put your clothes on.”
“Dress me.”
“Ha, there you go with the nonsense again.”
Having spent nearly a month, Iris Albresto had recovered most of her original mana. Her title as the last monarch of the vampires, who had reigned as the Ruler of the 90th Stratum, was clearly not just for show.
“So it was a bust.”
“Yes.”
From now on, I had to actively participate in Labyrinth Openings and check every newly appearing Labyrinth one by one.
“But are you sure about that?”
“About what?”
I was referring to Iris’s hypothesis.
“That other Legion Commanders will emerge through Labyrinth Openings.”
“Yes.”
At the level of a Legion Commander, they could hide their mana from humans as much as they wanted. They could pretend to be a 10-floor Labyrinth Opening while the Demon King’s subordinates—possessing power equivalent to at least an 80th-floor boss—sneaked onto the surface in disguise.
She suspected that the Succubus Queen had escaped using that very method. Historically, there had almost never been a recorded instance of a Labyrinth Opening of the 80th-floor class or higher.
Just in case something like that happened during this opening, I had gone in first and slaughtered everything as Iris suggested, but nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
“Now, let’s go eat something new.”
I hadn't been able to consume many new monsters for three weeks because of Iris’s scolding to master what I already had instead of just eating more. I had occasionally eaten things Iris gave me, but I was feeling a bit unsatisfied.
“We’re going to Calax.”
“Okay.”
Naturally, I hadn't ignored the Antonio Brotherhood during that time. I had been busy with intelligence work using my abilities and the powers of the now-recovered Iris.
I had discovered that in exactly one month, the Succubus Queen intended to sacrifice life force to summon her treasure from the Demon Realm.
To be safe, the deadline was once again three weeks. A truly loathsome number.
“Next is the 50th floor... Horus, was it?”
I had to become as strong as possible before then.