The Swarm Grows
The second-floor stage was set against a vast forest. Deep within the woods, far from the village, a massive mound of sawdust had piled up next to a green pool, forming a small hill.
Creeeeak—crack!
As the wide-jawed Void Grubs gnawed through the base of a tree, it groaned and toppled sideways.
Dozens of Void Grubs swarmed the fallen trunk, instantly devouring it.
Having stuffed themselves to the brim, the grubs scurried back to the Spawning Pool and regurgitated fresh sawdust onto the growing mound.
Hundreds of trees were falling and being consumed in real-time. With thousands of Void Grubs relentlessly gnawing away, the once-dense forest was rapidly thinning out.
The woodland was being devastated as if swept by a localized hurricane.
Within five green Spawning Pools, eggs bubbled up in a continuous stream. The newly hatched Void Hounds, operating under the telepathic commands of the Elite Void Hound, pushed sawdust into the pools at regular intervals.
If this world had environmental activist groups, they would have been foaming at the mouth at this sight. But there was no one in this forest to stop them. The legion continued to devour the forest, steadily expanding its ranks.
When you find a lost child, what is the very first thing you do if you want to help them?
"Hey there, how did you get lost? Where is your mommy?" Naturally, finding the child's guardian is the top priority. After that, you identify them and send them back to their original home.
But the villagers here had never once asked who I was or where I came from.
"She must be asleep..."
Which meant they had absolutely no intention of sending me back from the very beginning.
"Hehehe... For a sacrifice to wander in on her own right before the festival, He will be most pleased."
The raspy voice of an old woman drifted into my ears as I lay there, eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. It was the old crone I had met earlier at the entrance of the village chief's house. She was standing right next to Rina.
"She possesses incredibly pure mana. She cannot be compared to these simple country folk."
"Is she really that special? I heard she used a stealth skill..."
They even know about that?
Come to think of it, there was no reason they wouldn't. After all, it was the hunter who had dispelled my stealth skill in the first place. They had treated me like an ordinary child, making me wonder if there was some other motive, but it turned out they were just playing dumb to lure me into the village.
However, only the hunter had witnessed me using the stealth skill. And he hadn't had any opportunity to speak to Rina about it.
Just as I thought...
The hypothesis I had been mulling over since entering the village began to solidify. The villagers who all seemed to be in league with one another. The SSS-rank skill possessed by the 'One Who Dreams of Defying Heaven'. The black books in the chief's house. The complete absence of monsters for some reason. And now, the 'sacrifice' mentioned by the old woman. A group that commands monsters, offers sacrifices, and dreams of defying heaven... This was a textbook cult worshipping an evil deity.
Poppy, take the newly spawned recruits and scour the forest.
Although the Void Grubs were rapidly deforesting the area, there was still no news of any monster encounters.
The stages of the Tower grew larger as the difficulty increased. The second floor on Hard difficulty was roughly the size of a small mountain. While Impossible difficulty would be vastly larger, new Void Hounds were pouring out of the Spawning Pools even now.
With thousands of Void Hounds roaming the forest, it wouldn't take long to map out the entire area.
While I was issuing my commands, several men with gruff voices entered the room.
"Move her to the sacrificial chamber."
"Yes, sir."
They lifted me onto a stretcher and began carrying me somewhere.
The fact that they used sleeping poison means they don't plan on killing me right away.
I was already about ninety percent sure, but it was always better to confirm things with my own eyes. If the enemy's true identity aligned with my theory...
Ha. No wonder the hunter was so strong, and there were so many villagers.
I probably wasn't the only one in the sacrificial chamber.
The men carrying me descended a seemingly endless flight of stairs. Since my eyes were closed, I couldn't pinpoint our exact location, but given that I hadn't heard any doors opening, there was likely a secret passage leading directly from the chief's house to the altar.
Creeeeak. After descending for what felt like an eternity, the men finally opened a door.
A moment later, a cold, hard sensation pressed against my back, and the floating sensation vanished as they set me down.
"Whew... Let's get back quickly and prepare for the festival."
"Indeed. There's really not much time left now."
The sound of their footsteps echoing up the stone stairs faded into the distance. I slowly cracked my eyes open.
I was in a massive cavern, completely devoid of natural light. Two torches mounted on a distant wall were the sole source of illumination.
I averted my gaze from the torches, peered into the darkness, and opened the system window.
The second floor operated on a survival system where surviving for a set duration automatically cleared the stage. Even if every single NPC died, the stage would still be cleared as long as the climber remained alive.
What would have happened if I hadn't come to the village and had spent the two days hiding in the forest instead? Would the second floor have just cleared without a hitch?
Not a chance.
If the climber didn't intervene to stop whatever was brewing, some sort of instant-death event would likely trigger. The most logical assumption was that something catastrophic would occur during tomorrow's festival.
As I pondered, my eyes adjusted to the gloom, and the surroundings gradually came into focus. The cavern was even more colossal than I had initially thought. And scattered across the floor were people lying on white stretchers, just like me.
Holy crap.
Nearly four hundred people were lying asleep in this cavern.
I sat up and began examining the faces of the sleeping crowd. Amidst the sea of strangers, I spotted a familiar face.
It was the boy who had approached me earlier when Rina was leading me away. Is he a sacrifice too?
However, looking at the person lying right next to him instantly debunked that theory. It was the hunter who had killed my Poppy No. 2—or rather, someone who looked identical to him.
As I scanned the rest of the cavern, more familiar faces appeared. The men I had met at the village entrance. The old crone from the chief's house. Rina, who had guided me. The villagers I had passed by along the way...
Mana Conversion (C-rank)
Conversion Efficiency: 80%
Mana 100 → Perception 80
Once my Perception stat surpassed 100, the layout of the cavern became crystal clear. I could make out a faint silhouette near the torches, and the stretchers, which had looked plain white before, now revealed intricate patterns faintly etched onto them.
This is...
I knew exactly what those patterns meant. A Life Force Absorption Circle?
Most of Earth's Awakened cast magic directly through their status windows. While some learned the principles and structures of magic from otherworlders they met during expeditions, most didn't bother studying the mechanics when they could just use convenient skills.
But I hadn't been an Awakened back then. I had studied various magical theories in hopes of finding an alternative way to cast magic. And this bizarre pattern before me was one I had seen during a past Gate raid.
A distorted circle with multiple branches extending in a single direction. It was a magic circle designed to siphon the life force of nearby living beings and convert it into mana.
There should be a central totem acting as the anchor.
Based on my past experience, this magic required a totem to act as a transmitter. I turned my gaze toward the torches. Through the flickering flames, I caught the shadow of an elongated object.
Stepping closer, I found a slender stone statue resting on a small table. Is this... a tentacle?
It wasn't the smooth tentacle of the Head Collector, but a bumpy one covered in suction cups. A faint, ominous mana radiated from the palm-sized statue.
Now, all the puzzle pieces fell into place. The inexplicably powerful NPCs. Of course they're strong—they aren't NPCs, they're monsters.
The enemies occupying the village were monsters disguised as humans. And as for why there were so many villagers... The more villagers there are, the more organic batteries the enemy has.
Far from being helpful allies, the sleeping villagers were biological batteries meant to fuel the enemy's mana. Since a larger population only disadvantaged the climber, the number of villagers was far higher here than on Easy difficulty.
Having found the answer, I opened the Transcendent Gallery and shared the situation.
Anyone could enter a Gate, even if they weren't Awakened. However, much like the Tower, only relatively simple items like clothing or food could be brought inside. Since modern weaponry was strictly prohibited within Gates, ordinary civilians rarely entered them unless they were working as porters in low-rank Gates.
Though I was a bit of an exception.
I had entered as a tactical analyst, combat commander, and magic mechanics expert, but in terms of not participating in direct combat, I wasn't much different from a porter.
In truth, I had participated not just in low-rank Gates, but in S-rank Gate raids as well. But getting carried isn't exactly something to brag about, so why bother mentioning it? I decided to let the minor misunderstanding slide.
Fortunately, the feedback was positive.
The only wild card is the enemy that saw through my stealth...
After some deliberation, I concluded that it wasn't the hunter himself who had detected me. It was likely the evil deity he worshipped using the hunter's eyes to channel its power. If the evil god descended in person, no amount of legion units would save me.
But surely an evil god wouldn't manifest on the second floor... right?
On Hard difficulty, divine entities appeared on the 50th floor at the absolute earliest. Just to be safe, I asked the Transcendent Gallery.
The fact that it had cast a skill through the hunter meant it had already projected its power.
The primary objective of this floor was survival. No matter how desperate I was for points, my life came first. Of course, if a true evil god descended, running would be pointless anyway... Rather than worrying about things I couldn't control, I needed to focus on the reality before me.
Since there was still time before the operation began, I chatted with the Transcendents while waiting for the decisive moment.
The darkest hour before dawn. Atop the wooden palisade, young men stood holding spears, staring out into the pitch-black forest.
It was the night of a new moon. Aside from the small halos of light around the torches mounted at regular intervals along the wall, the forest was swallowed by an impenetrable darkness.
"Tomorrow's finally the day."
"We've waited so long... Though, I would've preferred a female body."
"Be glad you got a young male body. James had to settle for an old man because there weren't any bodies left."
Secure in their belief that they would never be attacked, the men let their guard down. In that moment of arrogant complacency, dark shadows crept out from the forest.
"Did you see that girl from earlier? They'll probably clone her too. If I could have a body like that..."
"Shh."
The brown-haired man cut off the dark-haired man, who had been speaking with an excited flush.
"I heard something..."
The brown-haired man thrust his torch over the edge of the palisade.
Crunch!
"Huh?"
A Void Hound leaped from the darkness and tore out his throat.
"Enemy—!"
Before the dark-haired man could even finish his scream, another Void Hound clamped its jaws shut over his entire head.
"What's going on over there?!"
A man dozing in a nearby watchtower peered down.
On the palisade, two men were being brutally mauled by Void Hounds, and more beasts were continuously scaling the wooden wall.
"E-Enemy! It's an enemy! Oh, God!"
The moment the man in the watchtower shrieked, his eyes flared with a deep indigo light, dispelling the darkness.
The forest lit up as bright as day.
"W-What in the..."
In every clearing and gap between the dense trees, as far as the eye could see, there were Void Hounds.
Total Units: 102,857