Chapter 80
Chapter 80
Translator: Penny
Chapter 80
In front of the Arcamel Empire's sea, there lived a legendary figure bordering on myth.
A man who suddenly appeared ten years ago and single-handedly swept away the monsters and Demonic Beasts that filled the sea.
And he also crushed the pirates who interfered with maritime trade.
【Pioneer】
Verdin, a man with blonde hair and green eyes, gazed out at the sea.
He wasn't in a particularly good mood.
"Ban Ineoreu."
He had never forgotten that name.
Because she was the savior who had saved his life.
***
Pioneer, in the past.
« Hard Difficulty 16th Floor, Climber - Verdin »
« Current Location, 10th Floor Exchange Meeting. »
A rough voice reached Verdin's ear.
"That bastard, he's a weirdo. He slices up Monsters just fine, but he's terrible at dealing with people."
Crack!
Intense pain surged from his back.
Verdin gritted his teeth.
Both of his ankles were brutally cut, leaving him unable to walk.
He was in a situation where his breath could be cut off at any moment.
The spark of hope had long been extinguished.
His mind was already halfway into hell.
He had trusted Hairgen, a Climber from Normal Difficulty, who had been quite kind to him.
But that kindness was just part of a scheme to find an easy prey.
It was a Dungeon-type gathering.
True to its name, the difficulty of the Dungeon itself wasn't very high.
Just Goblins. Although they were facing a Goblin Lord as the boss Monster, it was an enemy that the current eight members of the Exchange Meeting could sufficiently handle.
Verdin glared at his arms, bound by Restraints made of a special material.
Rank 3.
The stage where Magic Power could be released outside the body.
So he released Magic Power, but the Restraints didn't come undone.
Hairgen swung his right hand holding a short sword.
The short sword plunged into the neck of the player lying next to Verdin.
The player's body twitched as if convulsing, then slumped.
The Cube spat out by the dead player rolled next to the corpse.
"Karnak, you kill this one. We need to distribute the experience fairly, right?"
"Was there anything useful among the items?"
"Yeah, even just the sword that guy used to fight the Goblins was something different. Even though he's lying there so pathetically, he's a Hard Difficulty Climber like you, that guy."
"Got it."
Verdin had to vividly feel the unpleasant mix of their voices and the smell of blood, along with the overwhelming sense of despair.
"What's the point of being Hard if you're going to die like this to a Normal? When you think about it, Difficulty doesn't really matter. Right? It might be troublesome if he struggles, so we should cut off his ankles first."
Immediately after Karnak finished speaking.
A voice reached all three of them.
"Hey, why are you lying there like that?"
Karnak and Hairgen simultaneously turned their heads to the right.
A woman with silver hair and blue eyes was striding towards them.
"Looking at you two fighting the Goblins just now, it seemed like you were better at fighting than those two, so why are you subdued?"
The woman tilted her head, genuinely puzzled as to why Verdin was restrained.
Karnak and Hairgen were simply dumbfounded.
They couldn't help but be taken aback when someone they hadn't even paid attention to suddenly approached and started talking about who was stronger.
Verdin, lying on the ground, recalled the name of the approaching woman.
'Ban Ineoreu.'
She was someone who had fought alongside him at the beginning of the Exchange Meeting.
Her residential floor was the 12th floor. To put it in terms of the Low Mountain's mouth, she was Rank 2.
He had thought her movements were clean for a Rank 2, but she had never shown power far exceeding Rank 2.
Clearly, she didn't have the power to intervene in this situation.
"They backstabbed you?"
Slash!
"Keuk!"
Karnak slashed Verdin's shoulder with his sword.
"Wait a moment, I'll kill that bitch first and then deal with you."
Swish!
Hairgen drew his spear.
"If that crazy bitch was only moderately crazy, she wouldn't have charged in like this. She must have completely lost her mind."
Ban Ineoreu slowly closed the distance between them.
Ban Ineoreu's right arm moved.
The trajectory of the sword brushed past the swords and axes that Karnak and Hairgen were holding.
Crack! Snap!
"Uh… uh?"
A dumb voice escaped from Hairgen's mouth.
A stream of blood spurted from the right side of Hairgen's neck.
Ban's sword had pierced Karnak's heart.
"Since a few players died, you were prepared to die like this in reverse, right?"
Those were the last words Hairgen and Karnak heard in their lives.
Verdin barely saw Ban Ineoreu's movements.
Ban Ineoreu hadn't even coated her sword with aura.
Yet, she instantly killed Karnak, who had unleashed Sword Qi, before he could even do anything.
And then she consecutively cut off Hairgen's breath.
It was impossible unless there was an overwhelming difference in skill.
Verdin blankly stared at Ban Ineoreu, who had approached him.
"Keep training, kill the bastards you need to kill. You have a lot of potential. It's hard to believe you're just a former sailor."
Clang!
Ban Ineoreu cut off the Restraints binding Verdin's hands with a sword imbued with Sword Qi.
"…Thank you."
"Well, you should be thankful for this."
Verdin smiled bitterly.
Ban grinned.
"A very appropriate angle of the arm, movements that instinctively and meticulously target the Goblins' weaknesses. Not just anyone can imitate that. You have talent. Definitely."
Verdin took a breath and stared at Ban Ineoreu, whose face was covered in blood.
"Why did you hide your strength?"
"To kill the bastards who underestimate me and charge in. But it seems like those bastards ran at you first."
"Can I add you as a friend?"
"Why?"
"I feel like I need to repay the debt for my life."
Ban chuckled.
"Oh, are you going to repay it at the next Exchange Meeting?"
"Yes."
"I'll look forward to it."
Verdin asked a question he couldn't help but be genuinely curious about.
"Do you really think I have talent?"
Ban chuckled at Verdin's question.
"Yeah, why don't you believe me?"
"Yes, that's actually the case."
"Believe it, these are the eyes of someone who's heard they're a genius so much that they're sick of it."
"…I understand. Thank you."
"No need to thank me. Oh, we're about the same age, so use informal speech next time we meet."
Verdin, not wanting to speak informally to his benefactor, scratched the back of his head.
"…Yes."
Pandemonium.
Verdin, who had added Ban as a friend, learned that Ban was a Climber of Pandemonium difficulty.
"What's the difficulty of Pandemonium like…? I still can't believe there's another Difficulty above Hard."
Ban sighed at Verdin's words.
"It's damn hard. The Difficulty itself is hard, but what's even worse is that there are no comrades by your side. None. I've just been climbing alone."
Verdin couldn't even begin to imagine the Difficulty Ban Ineoreu was experiencing.
"Well, I doubt I'll die, right? I want to live."
Verdin remembered.
"I hate meaningless deaths."
The sight of Ban Ineoreu continuing with a bitter smile.
And a few days after the Exchange Meeting ended.
The name slot of Ban Ineoreu in the friend list turned gray.
That meant her death.
***
While gazing at the sea and lost in thoughts about the past, a voice came from beside him.
"Captain, pirates who are simultaneously moving between the kingdom and the empire, and who have been marked as enemies by both, have appeared on the sea."
Verdin, whose Transcendental Gallery username was 【Pioneer】, slowly opened his mouth at the words of Magus, a Rank 6 Swordsman who could be considered his right-hand man.
"Estimated Rank?"
"According to the words of our subordinates who are confronting them, it's estimated to be Rank 7. It seems too high for a human doing strange things, so I'm suspicious, but."
Verdin didn't doubt what his subordinates had judged.
He had already thoroughly experienced during his time climbing the Tower that there were many mentally unstable individuals among those who had reached Rank 7.
"Originally, the higher the Rank, the more crazy bastards there are. I'll go."
Magus didn't question the sudden disappearance of Verdin's figure.
This wasn't the first or second time Verdin had disappeared like this.
The place where Verdin reappeared was the sea.
Above the sea.
Three ships were advancing side by side.
"…What?"
Gelford, a Rank 7 warrior pirate standing on the largest ship in the center, looked up at Verdin.
Gelford's brow furrowed.
He couldn't rashly speak, as the aura emanating from Verdin, who was fluttering his pure white coat and looking down at the ship, was ominous.
"The identities of those you are currently holding captive are."
Verdin's gaze was directed towards the men and women tightly bound at the bow of the ship.
Gelford grinned so deeply that the long scar on his cheek twitched.
"Isn't selling those we plunder the right of the invaders?"
"It seems like they're missing a hand each."
Gelford stroked his chin at Verdin's words.
"Isn't cutting off the hands of those who don't listen also the right of the invaders?"
Verdin's emotions didn't waver.
Having reached the realm of Rank 9, many things had changed compared to ordinary humans.
The emotion of anger wasn't easily expressed.
To be precise, the total amount of anger he could use for such things had run out.
Because he was already angry about something else.
Gelford continued.
"I was looking for the owner of this great sea. I heard some nonsense about a Rank 9 monster."
"That's me."
Gelford chuckled at Verdin's simple confession.
"That's perfect, if you're the owner, you won't resent me even if I bury you in this deep sea, right?"
Streams of water soared from both sides of the ship Gelford was standing on, as if tearing the sky.
« Unique Domain, Leviathan. »
The currents surged.
A reality-altering Unique Domain that could create a sea even if there wasn't one.
Now, the power of the Unique Domain was maximized in a situation where the space was originally the sea.
The range of the current manipulation, one of Leviathan's abilities, was approximately 150m.
Contained within that current was the aura that Gelford had built up.
The number of forms water could take was nearly infinite.
From small bubbles rising to the surface to swirling currents.
And a water slash sharper than any Sword Strike surged from the sea.
Kugugugugugugu!
Hundreds of forms of seawater with high lethality surged towards Verdin.
The attacks fired at Verdin weren't just seawater attacks based on the Unique Domain Leviathan.
The long-range slashes fired by four Rank 4s and one Rank 5 were also aimed at Verdin.
As were the subtle attacks fired by the remaining lower-ranked subordinates.
The moment all that power was about to strike Verdin like divine punishment.
Gelford's pupils dilated.
"…This."
Something was wrong.
"What─."
The sea.
His sea, wasn't moving.
Not even a single drop of water.
An alien presence had covered the entire area of Leviathan.
Not a single current, not a single drop of water was under Gelford's control.
Verdin slowly moved his right index finger.
Swish…
The seawater moved.
Not according to Gelford, who had deployed the Unique Domain Leviathan, but according to Verdin's will.
« Unique Domain, Wandering. »
Verdin's Rank 9 Unique Domain had completely covered the area of Leviathan.
Verdin had easily understood the structure of Leviathan, Gelford's domain.
And in a state where Verdin had activated the Unique Domain 'Wandering', understanding another's domain meant.
< Right Usurpation >
Usurping the rights of a Unique Domain of a lower Rank than oneself.
The surging currents all turned their course in the opposite direction.
All the currents were reversed.
Kwaaaang! Kwaaaang─!!
The towering waves swallowed the ship, and Gelford's crew were torn to pieces, shedding red blood as they sank into the sea.
Among those who shed that blood, there were none who could be called hostages.
Floating…
The twenty-four hostages who had been captured by those bastards floated next to Verdin, whose body had been in the air for quite some time.
Without any harm.
Verdin had lifted them up with extremely meticulous Magic Power control.
"Uhhh…."
The men and women took awkward postures, as if trying to get their bearings in the air.
"You can stay still. I'm maintaining the balance."
"Yes, yes…."
"Yes!"
They bowed their heads in front of Verdin, expressing their gratitude in trembling voices.
Verdin condensed Magic Power and moved them to the relatively intact ship to the east.
Sssss-
He placed the twenty-four on the ship.
And.
"Cough! Hack!"
He slightly lowered his body and looked down at Gelford, who was vomiting blood on the deck.
"You're still breathing."
But he would soon die.
His body was pierced by all sorts of currents that had been wielded with aura.
It was literally a butchered body.
The only thing that was relatively intact was his head.
"How…did you do that."
"I maximized the difference in Rank."
"I…couldn't see the end of the world."
"That's because your eyes are still shallow, so that's how it looks."
Gelford's eyes were still full of questions.
Cough-
Gelford's head drooped after spitting out blood once more.
He met his death still consumed by that question.
The hostages trembled and looked up at Verdin, who was still standing on the ground in the sky.
"Thank you. Second God…."
Verdin narrowed his brow.
It wasn't a very pleasant title.
Rank 9.
A 'Transcendent' who has achieved Rank 9 is close to a god.
In the eyes of others who are not Transcendental.
Perhaps, objectively speaking, that would be the case.
The power that a Transcendental possesses is close to that of a god.
But is that really the case?
Aside from other Transcendental, Pioneer himself ultimately considered himself not to be a god.
Does being beyond mortality mean that one can be defined as a god?
Only about three people came to Verdin's mind as being truly close to a god.
Sword of Light, who is called the 'First God' by the people of the continent.
And Jjuhdak, who has not yet publicly revealed his power, but has contributed to the order of this land.
And Heavenly Demon, who is now in another world and cannot be seen.
However, to be honest, even those three were comparable to gods, but it was questionable whether they could be called perfect gods.
Verdin thought of Ban Ineoreu again.
It was truly a damn thing.
He, who had his life saved by her hand.
While witnessing Climbers of the same Difficulty who were superior to himself making misjudgments and dying.
While witnessing them dying from recklessness, he eventually passed their corpses and climbed all the way up.
But Ban Ineoreu died.
He had become much stronger than Ban Ineoreu.
A long time ago.
The power of Ban Ineoreu, who had been his savior at the Exchange Meeting, could now be suppressed with just one finger.
The world was so unfair.
She was someone with more talent than himself. To have to die because the summoned Difficulty was 'Pandemonium'.
If Ban Ineoreu had been summoned to at least Hard Difficulty, she would have definitely survived.
She wouldn't have had to be resurrected on the 13th floor of Pandemonium and die again.
And she would have come out of the Tower in a state much stronger than he is now.
Even this was just meaningless delusion.
However, he couldn't help but feel bitter.
He could only earnestly hope.
That someday, as Ban Ineoreu had told him.
- I hate meaningless deaths.
That she didn't feel it was a meaningless death herself.
***
A Terminal that can use the Transcendent Gallery.
Who the hell designed it so that I could have this on the 1st floor?
The top floor that came out of the administrator Flishek's mouth. Was it one of the beings on that top floor, or was it the Pandemonium Tower itself?
Or was it another being outside of that?
It was a topic worth thinking about, but it wasn't a topic that would immediately yield an answer even if he pondered it.
Now, he couldn't even tell whether this damn Tower was trying to lead him up or drag him down.
Anyway, he had to go up.
Because the reasons to go up were gradually increasing.
I operated the Mana within my body.
Rank 6.
In order to grasp the direction for that.
The pillar next to the Aura Circuit that holds the central axis of the body.
Successfully creating the third pillar meant entering Rank 6.
But the path to Rank 6 was arduous.
I clearly realized that I had to first complete the Vessel called Rank 5.
Bleeding.
Gathering the achievements gained while being broken, I solidified my Vessel.
Senior Sword of Light's Sword Manual, the sentences written on the Dragon Slayer Sword flashed through my mind.
-
There is no special Mana Manipulation Method.
-
You have to create your own Mana Manipulation Method to reach Rank 6 anyway.
I must know all of myself.
The helpless me.
The me who has strong parts.
The time of agony flowed like a fleeting moment.
[The Tower Exchange Meeting will now begin.]
The Exchange Meeting began again.