The Birth of Blood Seed
There’s no way I’m a villain!
Countless system messages flooded my vision until it was almost impossible to see, yet every ounce of my attention stayed locked on the feeling at my fingertips and the hot rush of blood through my veins.
It was pure ecstasy, as if every drop of blood in my body had been rewritten into cells of raw pleasure.
I drifted in that dizzying delight for a moment before I came back to myself, staggering as I turned toward the crowd staring at me in blank silence.
The exhausted raid members and the monsters that still hadn’t been wiped out all met my gaze.
Or rather, they didn’t meet my gaze at all. Every single one of them looked at me like I was the monster.
As someone with a kind heart, that might have stung a little…
Hehe.
I let out an awkward laugh, wiped the blood from my cheek, and raised my sword again.
The perfect high.
The fatigue weighing on me felt so good I could have fallen asleep and called it a dream, but the fight wasn’t over.
Heavenly Slaughter Star
The battle still raged.
I swung my blood-soaked blade in lazy arcs and slowly advanced on the monsters filling the hall.
Tired or terrified, it didn’t matter. Slaughtering the writhing creatures took less than a minute.
After exterminating every last remnant and leaving the dungeon, we set up camp again at the same spot where we had pitched our tents the day before.
If I had been alone, pushing through the mountains to finish the mission would have been easy, but the others needed rest.
They all looked like they had a mountain of questions they wanted to ask me.
Kemel and Jason in particular kept glancing my way.
Still, the moment I showed any sign of exhaustion they gave up and started preparing to sleep.
I rinsed the blood and gore from my gear and body with a quick splash of running water, then crawled into my tent.
The moment I wriggled into the warm sleeping bag the fatigue finally hit me like a wave.
Back in my hikikomori days I could just pass out without a care in the world…
Now that I had somehow become a dedicated explorer, I kept just enough awareness to wake at any approaching presence before I let myself sink into sleep.
The very next morning the raid party tore through the floor’s monsters like a storm.
The floor mission had been to wipe out the goblin and orc settlements. Thanks to the hunting we had already done two days earlier and the fully recovered stamina of the group, it ended almost too quickly.
It was such a dull conclusion for a three-day journey that it was hard to believe.
“I will report to the lord myself.”
After the raid was finished and we returned to Cromwell through the portal, everything was handled cleanly.
Knight Kemel announced he would head to the lord’s castle to deliver the report. Jason and the wizard siblings seemed to be heading for the explorers’ guild.
Everyone’s roles and destinations were clear, and the goodwill they showed me was equally obvious.
“Sir Undertaker, thanks to you I gained great enlightenment on this journey. I am truly grateful.”
Kemel stared at me with strangely glittering, almost manic eyes and gave a solemn nod.
His gaze was a little scary, but he said he would handle everything without needing any further input from me.
Jason, listening beside him, immediately shouted that he would submit my report as well.
For me, it was a welcome offer.
After three days of hard fighting everyone was exhausted, yet they were volunteering to take care of the paperwork.
I just hope they don’t skim any of my contribution points.
As long as that was safe, the people of Cromwell really did have generous hearts.
Or maybe they just enjoyed working.
Either way, it suited me perfectly since I hated anything troublesome.
If this neutral city on the lower floors had been an ordinary fantasy world, I might have stayed a long time.
Anyway, the dungeon loot and the weapons or rewards I would receive from the lord could wait. For now we decided to split up and rest.
We had slept inside the dungeon, but it hadn’t been enough to completely shake off the fatigue of three straight days of combat.
Even talking felt like too much effort.
I wanted to sink into a soft bed and drink a cold mug of beer.
But the first thing I did after returning to the inn wasn’t any of that.
Maybe it was because I was still a hardcore gamer even after changing bodies.
Or maybe I had come to enjoy polishing my own abilities more than anything else.
I sat alone on a chair in my inn room and turned my attention to the blinking system message in the corner of my vision.
Special Mission Complete.
Achievement Unlocked!
Player Undertaker has been recorded in the Hall of Fame.
Once again I had cleared a floor achievement and been entered into the Hall of Fame.
It wasn’t a speed clear, but an achievement for clearing a dungeon with only five people.
The solo speed-run record I could claim later on my own.
Since I could retry as many times as I wanted, that was one of the nice things about the lower floors.
It was a title earned by soloing a giant-type monster whose level was higher than my own.
The effect granted additional combat bonuses when fighting monsters larger than myself.
It wouldn’t be an overwhelming advantage, but since it worked against most monsters it still held meaning.
Just watching titles stack up in my status window was enjoyable in itself.
“Status.”
Soloing that troll had raised my base stats considerably.
Thanks to the floor restrictions my level hadn’t increased, but my pure stats were already approaching thirty.
I now had three titles in addition to my traits.
At this level, the specs were luxurious even for the upper floors, let alone the lower ones.
Who would look at this and think I was still a level-one who hadn’t even left the lower floors?
“The only disappointing part is the skill slot.”
Everything else was packed full, but that single empty space felt so regretful.
Yet that lingering disappointment was about to end right now.
Special Mission: Investigate and eliminate the tunnel that has appeared in the Forgotten Temple on the 9th floor.
Reward: Skill (Random)
Mission Complete.
Would you like to claim the mission reward?
[Y / N]
“All right, let’s see it.”
It had better be an SSS-rank skill.
No matter how random it was, I had suffered plenty on the lower floors. They wouldn’t give me something useless.
With that expectation I claimed the reward, and the world around me was instantly swallowed in golden light.
The Dimensional Roulette begins to spin.
Searching for a skill suitable for the player.
Heavenly Slaughter Star resonates with fate.
Blood Seed
A few days after the raid party returned, stories of their heroic deeds spread like wildfire through the streets of Cromwell.
A city explorer had cleared a rare dungeon that had appeared on the lower floors.
That alone was astonishing, but the fact that one explorer had slain the boss troll single-handedly was even more so.
The neutral city of Cromwell buzzed day and night with the incredible news.
Everyone, our city’s explorer cleared a dungeon! And she even killed a troll by herself!
Such tales raced through the city in the blink of an eye.
Bards sang, and in every tavern the story of the “Promising Talent” Liz never ceased.
“Aigoo, that troll was so fierce, swinging its massive iron club down with every smash, but Bloodthirsty Liz didn’t get hit once and just went slash-slash-slash with her blade!”
“Ooooh!”
“Slash-slash!”
“So what happened after the slash-slash?!”
It was a little exaggerated and distorted, but since it had been officially recognized by the lord’s castle, the uncles gathered in the taverns could simply enjoy telling the story without restraint.
A newcomer explorer’s tale resembling a heroic epic, her meteoric rise!
Imagining how far up the tower she might climb was a truly thrilling topic for the idle rich of a city with few entertainments.
While the people of Cromwell drank and spun their tales, the official distribution of merits was also finalized.
There had not been many casualties, and clearing the dungeon itself was a joyous event for the city, so the lord’s castle decided to celebrate it grandly.
In other words, they threw a party.
“…Hic, Liz. You would have looked so incredibly beautiful in a dress…!”
“I’m comfortable like this.”
“…Aaaah!”
The girl currently on everyone’s lips simply shrugged, wearing her usual cloth armor.
The beautiful blonde receptionist Ellis wailed at the cruel decision, but Liz turned a deaf ear to the scream as if blocking it out.
Dresses, or rather skirts, were simply unfamiliar territory.
It was her final line of psychological resistance.
In the extravagant banquet hall, the only girl dressed in plain traveling clothes suddenly checked her status window out of long gamer and possessor habit.
The fact that the only empty slot had finally been filled was definitely worth celebrating.
Whether it was actually useful I would have to check later, but at least the name sounded impressive.
The only part that gave her pause was the skill’s description.
Blood Seed
A secret art of the Blood Heaven Cult Leader. Creates unique subordinates from the blood of enemies personally slain by the user.
Resonates with Heavenly Slaughter Star.
The bloody stench of the soul grows even thicker.
“Hmm.”
Liz frowned slightly at the brutal wording that didn’t suit her kind nature at all.