Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Dungeon, Repaired!
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Balak finished his ten thousand sincere gratitude punches and was taking a moment to stretch when he realized no shockwaves were coming from the training ground anymore. That's when Ferguson rushed into the training ground.
"Big Bro Balak!"
"Little Bro Ferguson? What happened to you? You're hurt?"
"W-Well, that is—"
What?! Because I was punching in here, the dungeon's a total mess?!
After hearing his second brother's story, he quickly headed out of the training ground to check the interior. The youngest was passed out, and not only the boss room but the entire mini dungeon was wrecked.
"Oh my god!!"
The whole dungeon interior was smashed to pieces!!
On top of that, the mini dungeon had its sky islands crashing down into the water below, unleashing an apocalyptic scene of islands sinking one by one.
What do I do about this?!
Can I even repair all this with the coins I have right now?
And if this happens every time I train, I won't be able to train in peace!
Damn it! Not only did a huge disaster strike, but is my growth stalled like this?!
F-For now, until everything's repaired, like in the early days, I'll have to stay in the first room—
"Balak!"
"Skeleton Merchant?! What brings you here..."
He'd said it would take quite some time for the magic tool for the third supreme training to get serviced.
Why was Karian here already?
After hearing the story, it turned out there was some anomaly in my dungeon, so he'd come to check.
And even better news arrived.
"Th-The dungeon merchants will repair all this for free?!"
"So, could you control access and keep anyone from entering the dungeon interior?"
"Of course!"
Damn! I knew I could count on the dungeon merchants!
While Karian handled the repairs in my dungeon, I waited at the entrance to the first room, fully armed.
"""Uh......?"""
"No malice here."
Puuuunch!!
Slash!!
Piiiing!
Sorry about this, but just think of it as an event where the dungeon boss mob is at the entrance, players!
Checking the entrance, something felt off.
That unknown wall from the early days felt somehow stronger?
Pondering it, as I grew stronger while running the dungeon, and with the dungeon's content constantly expanding, maybe the dungeon's rating got readjusted.
Ha, this messes up my plans again.
Just like I'm patching the dungeon in real time, they're patching it from the outside in real time too.
So once this mess is over, I need to look into that unknown wall and ways to get outside info.
A little while later.
"Balak, you're good to come back now."
"That's a relief...."
Sigh, what a sight.
At least I managed to avert a total disaster.
*********
As Karian said, entering the boss room to check the dungeon interior, most functions were restored to normal—thank goodness.
But a few sky islands in the mini dungeon had crashed into the water below and just became regular islands.
No helping that.
"From now on, the mini dungeon is shared content for sky and sea."
"Pardon?"
It'd be a shame to just discard those crashed sky islands right away.
And in my past life, what humans hadn't fully conquered wasn't just the sky.
The ocean too!
That's why, to feel the romance of the sky, humans do skydiving.
To feel the romance of the sea, they do scuba diving.
So, I'll use this incident to close the mini dungeon temporarily and plan some ocean content.
I'll discuss that later when I get dungeon consulting from Karian.
Right now, something more important!
"Thanks, Skeleton Merchant. And I owe the dungeon merchants a huge debt this time."
"Aw, no need for that between us."
"No. We need to make this clear. Skeleton Merchant, if you ever need help, I'll step in personally up to three times."
"Pardon?! D-Do you mean...."
When you go somewhere, something comes back.
It's the most basic way to build good relationships.
But most relationships fall apart from ignoring these basics.
To strengthen ties with these incredibly capable dungeon merchants, I should step up myself.
"I'll convey your words exactly, Balak."
"Good, I appreciate it!"
"And take this."
"This is...?"
"You already heard this happened from the vibrations during your training, right? With this, you can punch sincerely in the training ground without issues."
"Oooooh!!"
The dungeon merchants really have everything prepared!
Truly the GOAT.
More reasons to get even closer.
After that, while reorganizing the dungeon, I got advice from Karian on gathering info and dungeon consulting, with my brothers helping clean up.
During that, Zepira came over and asked how strong I was.
"Honestly, I don't know!"
"Eh?"
I get Zepira's question.
Where do I stand in this world?
It'd be nice to have a convenient status window, but sadly, no such cheat feature exists.
I even asked the dungeon merchants if they had some magic tool to quantify strength like a status window, but...
"That would be very difficult."
"Not possible?"
"Let's assume, as you said, your strength stat increased by 1. Figuring out the value of that 1, how it changes later, its numerical scale, relations to other stats—it's all too vague."
"Doesn't feel like stacking bricks?"
"That's exactly why a single stat point's value becomes so unique. You'd have to turn abstract concepts into reality."
They can't make a status window because they can't define what +1 to each stat means!
But Karian seemed quite interested in the status window idea.
"Researching this could be fun, though. I'm curious about your stats too, Balak."
"Does that mean!"
"For now, I'll discuss quantifying strength with the higher-ups, along with ways to get outside info."
"Thanks, Skeleton Merchant!"
If bosses like us could check status windows beyond just players.
We could maximize training efficiency by focusing on weak points.
Now the dungeon's back to normal.
Karian left to think about mobs to add to the mini dungeon's sea.
To prevent repeats, we set up a device to contact the training ground from the boss room, then I dove back into training.
*******************
This incident taught me a ton.
Any being grows by overcoming crises.
My path to strength is set.
First, I channeled qi into my fist.
A red star formed on my fist, exuding a ferocious aura.
Here, two ways for me to grow stronger.
First, make this red star even stronger—tempering my qi core, the simplest and best method.
So what's the second way?
Gaining new powers!!
I had an idea.
That being from the movies based on a certain comic from my past life!
The purple guy who embedded six gemstones with different powers into his gauntlet, grew stronger, then snapped his fingers to halve the universe.
If I became like that!
'B-Balak-sensei! What is that power!'
'Six stars on that guy's fist!'
'Now I'm an inevitable existence in this world.'
Ahh... this is the true final boss.
The ultimate strongest.
And mixing all colors makes black, so I can use that for my ultimate finisher!
Kya~ now that's true supreme power.
Anyway, my current qi power—the red star—is pure strength incarnate.
So how do I make other powers?
The answer came from this incident.
Vibrations!
Suddenly, I thought of that white-bearded pirate from a certain comic.
If that pirate had learned boxing, he'd have conquered the world, they say. I'll use him as inspiration.
Creating vibrations is simple!
Just shake the mana gathered in my fist like crazy.
Then throw a punch!!
KABOOOM!!!
"Yes!! This is it!!"
It doesn't match the power of a sincere punch wrapped in qi, but it's decent.
Starting off this strong? Special abilities are insane.
Experimenting with vibration power, I discovered something amazing.
"The shield on the sandbag... just shattered?"
Yes!! My second star—vibration power—is anti-shield!
And I picked its color.
With a red star already, blue as the opposite is natural truth.
Looking at my fist gradually turning blue felt good.
Can't use both stars at once yet, but I'm getting stronger!
*****************
While Balak gained new power through training.
Great news spread outside the dungeon.
"Breaking news!! Breaking news!! One demon realm has vanished!"
"The demon realm's been purified?!"
"No way...."
What is a demon realm?!
It sucks up all the land's mana, turning the area into a desert.
Twists the natural environment like a dimensional rift, endlessly spawning monsters with that mana—the worst kind of zone!
Yet one that was devouring the mid-worlds vanished!
"So no more monsters from demon realms to worry about?"
"And the surrounding mana will recover bit by bit."
"Heard the heroes formed an expedition and entered it, but who knew it'd be this successful."
"Man... only good news this year."
As everyone celebrated the demon realm's disappearance.
The hero parties that formed the expedition were, for some reason, resting their chins on their hands, deep in thought.
And that was!
"""Too easy..."""
Easier than any dungeon!
They'd geared up for the infamous demon realm, worried sick and packing everything.
But it was so much easier than expected, their hero party gear was useless. Now they pondered what to do next.
After, should they wipe out a few more demon realms before spring?
Or disband for now and regroup?
Unable to decide as time passed, one hero party gathered at a tavern.
"Herim, how about heading back to the Abyssal Pit?"
"Should we...?"
"We made good money clearing other dungeons. And now there's Abyssal Coins there too—worth a shot."
The expedition included Herim's Heavenly Warrior hero party.
Plus the original members who'd fought Balak first.
Like salmon returning to their river, heroes prepared to head back to Raider.