Is My Score a Bug?

After the first void pond stabilized, I mounted Poppy once more and set out across vast distances. If too much time passed, the trees near the existing void ponds would wither completely, making resource gathering difficult. To achieve peak efficiency, the legion’s nests needed to be spread far apart.

I searched through forests and rivers until I had created three more void ponds. Then I found the terrain I had been looking for.

“Kieeee… keck.”

“Lizardmen… They definitely came from a C-rank gate, right?”

“Woof?”

An endless expanse of swamp stretched before us. Lizardmen nearly two meters tall wandered across it in scattered groups. They were monsters normally hunted by players who had just reached the middle layers of Hard difficulty or those who had fully cleared Normal difficulty.

The lizardmen noticed the intruders in their swamp and began moving toward us.

“Let’s pull back for now.”

“Woof.”

A few lizardmen would have been easy enough to handle, but the sheer scale of the swamp meant that any commotion could quickly draw an overwhelming swarm. I slipped away from the gathering lizardmen and escaped the marsh.

Once we were far enough from the swamp, the lizardmen stopped pursuing us.

This was the third time I had repeated the process since the expedition began. Previously I had only created them one at a time, but this round I produced seven at once. Seven void ponds now stood at regular intervals throughout the jungle.

While Poppy and I gathered resources, produced void insects, and cleared the surrounding area, the legion swelled at a rapid pace.

The terrain around the vast swamp was a dense jungle filled with towering trees, so collecting resources proved easy. The moment I judged that we had produced enough void insects and void hounds, I began manufacturing the more expensive units.

“Lizardmen should provide decent DNA, right?”

“Woof!”

Hundreds, thousands… an uncountable number of void crocodiles began roaming the jungle. Five hours later, the message I had been waiting for finally appeared.

“There we go. That’s what I wanted to see.”

Even when combined with the legions I had created in the forest, I had produced well over ten thousand void hounds and void insects, yet this was my first elite mob. Now that I had the offspring I desired, I recalled the legion that had been roaming the jungle. It was time to change the ruler of this vast swamp.

“Easy. Way too easy. At this rate, a B-rank gate doesn’t seem impossible.”

“Woof.”

Normally, C-rank monsters would have been difficult for me to handle at my current level, but they fell like autumn leaves before the sheer numbers of my legion.

In a one-on-one fight, a void crocodile would lose to a lizardman, but the crocodiles used their sharp claws and teeth to seize the enemy’s attention while the lightweight void hounds circled behind and tore into their legs.

From the second through fifth floors of the Tower, we had absorbed the DNA of marine monsters. As a result, the legion had adapted perfectly to water and swamp terrain.

Webbing had grown between the void hounds’ toes, allowing them to move freely through the marsh, while the void insects swam through the water and hauled corpses back to the void ponds.

“It should show up soon… There it is.”

After we had been rampaging through the swamp for some time, the opponent I had been waiting for finally appeared.

Thirteen elite lizardmen, each half again as large as the regular ones, and a creature twice their size—the true ruler of the swamp, the Lizard King—approached to eliminate the intruder.

“All right. Time to build a point-copying factory.”

The lizardmen that had followed the Lizard King filled the swamp, but even their numbers were only a fraction of the marsh’s true capacity. If I took down the ruler, the rest would be torn apart and devoured by the legion one by one.

“Poppy, handle the small fry. The big one’s mine.”

“Woof.”

In pure combat strength, the gigantified Poppy was stronger than me, but when it came to one-on-one fights against powerful enemies, I held the advantage. I left Poppy to rampage among the elite lizardmen and charged straight at the Lizard King.

The Lizard King wielded a three-meter iron rod that looked more like construction material than a weapon.

No matter how tough my chitin armor was, a direct hit from that blunt instrument would be meaningless. The massive rod sliced through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the air with a heavy whoosh.

The physical law that larger bodies moved more slowly had been broken the moment awakeners and monsters appeared.

The Lizard King charged at a terrifying speed that belied its enormous frame. I barely dodged the rod and threw a C-rank throwing dagger.

Clang.

The dagger, lacking any infused mana, bounced harmlessly off the Lizard King’s keratin armor. The iron rod swung again. I created distance, then gripped the Knight King’s one-handed sword with both hands.

This was the technique I had been preparing since the gate conquest. I peeled the dense mana settled in my heart and wrapped it around the blade.

For this ability, I had deliberately chosen not to use Mana Conversion. The B-rank sword accepted my mana smoothly.

Clang!

My sword met the Lizard King’s rod and sent it rebounding. Considering the rod’s weight and thickness, the sword should have shattered or chipped on impact, yet the mana-reinforced blade instead left a small nick on the iron.

Apparently shocked by the failed attack, the Lizard King put distance between us for the first time since the battle began. This time I took the initiative and charged.

Left side, waist.

Clang!

The rod that struck my waist bounced off the chitin armor without penetrating. Normally the overwhelming physical force should have shattered the armor to pieces, but mana had the power to turn the impossible into reality.

Using my heightened senses to predict the attack’s path, I partially reinforced my body and continued the fight.

Every strike I failed to read would have been enough to incapacitate me instantly. As the life-or-death battle intensified, my once-rigid mana gradually softened and flowed more freely.

“So this is why real combat matters.”

“Kieeeeek!!!”

I had used mana diligently even in F- and E-rank gates, but I had never faced truly dangerous enemies there. In contrast, the Lizard King was an opponent that required multiple mid-layer Hard difficulty users—or a full party of Normal difficulty clearers—to defeat through coordinated assault. I walked the edge of a blade, continuing the precarious battle.

I reinforced my body and sword with mana and borrowed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Poppy’s skills, yet the fight refused to end. It dragged on.

Thud!

“Ow.”

“Kiiik!”

As the battle stretched longer, my concentration wavered and the mana reinforcement lagged. My left arm’s bones shattered and the skin burst open. The Lizard King, certain of victory, let out a grotesque laugh, but—

The torn skin healed in an instant and the bones realigned. The Lizard King’s eyes widened in shock.

“Hoo… All right. This practice session ends here.”

I dodged the charging Lizard King and retreated. It swung its iron rod and rushed at me again, but—

“You really think you can focus only on me?”

“Krrwaang!”

Poppy, having finished dealing with the elite lizardmen, charged in from behind the Lizard King. At the same moment, an elite void crocodile bit down on its left arm and performed a death roll.

“Keeeeeek!!!”

The Lizard King’s left arm was torn off and Poppy’s claws sank into its waist. In panic, the Lizard King spun and swung its rod at Poppy, but—

“You can’t ignore me either.”

Having spotted the opening, I severed the Lizard King’s head.

“The points are lower than I expected.”

“Woof.”

Considering the Lizard King was far stronger than the mini-kraken or the humanoid whale, a mere three-and-a-half thousand points felt disappointing. Of course, this had already been explained by other awakeners.

“Well, the Tower gives bonus points based on combat power.”

Unlike the absolute evaluation of the expedition, the Tower used relative evaluation. When climbing the Tower, defeating the same monster while in a weaker state granted higher scores.

In that sense, it was less that the expedition’s scoring was stingy and more that the Tower’s scoring was generous.

“The Impossible difficulty is entirely expedition-based. Should I ask them to make it absolute evaluation? Or is relative evaluation more beneficial?”

I pondered which would be more advantageous for a moment, but the decision ultimately belonged to the Tower. I stopped wasting time on pointless speculation and began cleaning up the corpses.

While moving the massive Lizard King’s body, my regenerated left arm caught my eye. The torn hoodie had not yet repaired itself, leaving the pale skin of my left arm exposed.

“Now that I think about it, the necklace didn’t activate.”

The item that could block one fatal attack per day—Saint Aelia’s Necklace—had not triggered even though my left arm had been destroyed.

“Does that mean this level of damage isn’t considered fatal? Hmm… Some items do analyze the user’s abilities…”

Since I possessed Regeneration, perhaps the item judged this level of injury as non-threatening. I would only know for certain by taking a truly dangerous hit. Since I could not deliberately seek out such an attack, it was a question that would have to be answered with time.

When the Lizard King died, the remaining lizardmen scattered in all directions. The valuable points fled, but that was the legion’s share to claim. I dragged the Lizard King’s corpse to a void pond and extracted its DNA.

I melted down the other lizardmen as well and collected various DNA, but nothing on the level of the jackpot I had received from the lesser god.

It seemed there was considerable overlap between the marine monsters from the Tower and the swamp monsters here. Since the main goal of this swamp conquest had been points rather than DNA, I had no choice but to accept it.

This swamp terrain was an excellent hunting ground for rampaging void crocodiles. From now on, it would serve as a reliable point supply base for our legion.

“To find superior DNA, I’ll need to hunt more unusual species.”

“Woof!”

I closed all but one of the void ponds. I had already produced a sufficient legion here; it was better to establish new nests elsewhere.

After diligently creating more of the legion, gathering resources, and waiting for the void ponds to disappear, night fell and the first day of the expedition came to an end.

“Wow.”

“Woof?”

The most astonishing thing was the Empress’s score, more than double that of second place. Part of it was because this was the first day and everyone was in peak condition.

No matter how high a high-ranker’s Stamina stat was, it did not mean they could fight without rest for an entire week.

The others would have been managing their condition, while the Empress was famous for pushing herself without regard for stamina management. The gap would probably narrow over time, but…

“Even taking that into account, it’s still insane… But is my score really this high? Is this a bug?”

The number had pushed me right up against the top one thousand high-rankers from around the world. Moreover, my legion’s numbers would only grow as the days passed, so my ranking would likely climb even higher.

“High-rankers would probably crush a Lizard King without much trouble…”

I had struggled and ultimately needed the legion’s help to defeat the Lizard King. High-rankers were beings who could win even if thousands of Lizard Kings swarmed them. To have a score comparable to those monsters at 1,072nd place with 501,384 points was ridiculous.

“A little snowflake can still become an avalanche… So it really was possible?”

By simple calculation, the score was equivalent to killing 1.5 million goblins or 20,000 lizardmen…

“Wait. Can I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠actually pull that off?”

I already had more than ten thousand void hounds, several thousand void sharks, and several thousand void crocodiles. The realization hit me.

“Holy crap. This is even more broken than I thought?”

“Woof!”

I was essentially commanding more than ten thousand Hard difficulty lower-floor players. When I considered it that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way, the score actually seemed a little low. And the most important point was that the week-long expedition had only just begun.

“Impossible difficulty, sixth floor… Isn’t this becoming way too easy?”

“Woof.”

“You’re telling me not to let my guard down? I think I can afford to relax a little…”

“Woof! Woof!”

I stroked Poppy’s head and opened the shop window.

It was time to start rolling the snowball in earnest.