The Curse of the Malicious One

The third day has ended.

As the third day came to a close, the high rankers gathered near the kingdom’s capital found themselves buzzing with the same topic day after day. The subject was a newcomer who had broken into the rankings, pushing aside established high rankers.

There wasn’t a single person who didn’t know that the nickname belonged to the sole survivor of the Impossible difficulty.

“Sister May, what do you think? Could that really be an Impossible difficulty user?”

“Well, the Tower does allow duplicate names. But it doesn’t seem likely to be anyone else.”

Most of the current top-tier awakened had gained their power during the first or second mass awakening. Those who awakened later had the benefit of information from the vanguard, allowing them to climb the Tower more easily. Yet the Tower’s evaluation was always relative.

Without accomplishing something exceptionally dangerous or difficult, it was nearly impossible to earn a high score.

On top of that, the primary goal of Tower strategies was to increase player survival rates. As a result, those who awakened during the third and fourth mass awakenings enjoyed far higher survival rates than their predecessors.

In exchange, it had become extremely rare for any of them to break into the existing rankings.

Because of this, most high rankers already knew one another, and the ranking window was always filled with the same familiar names.

Then came the one who had cracked that list.

All eyes among the high rankers turned toward the Impossible difficulty user.

“They should only have cleared up to the fifth floor…”

“Who knows? Maybe they cleared the sixth and just stayed out of the rankings until now?”

“Does that even make sense?”

Ji Yeeun listened to her guild members’ chatter and turned her gaze toward the Empress. The woman she had been speaking with had already moved on to strategizing the next monster nest raid with Cheon Seoah.

“Let’s use Strategy Twelve. I’ll break through from the east.”

“We’ll enter from the south and north at three-minute intervals. The Guild Leader will take the north…”

In Cheon Seoah’s hands was a thick manual. It was the very book containing the monster nest strategies Lee Haram had written while working for the Cheongung Guild.

“Since their main forces use long-range weapons and spirit magic, we’ll utilize Tactical Manual 8-2 to…”

“The Cheongung Guild was short on wind mages, right? We’ll provide support from our side.”

Ji Yeeun turned her head away from the conversation that was already giving her a headache. Since Haram wasn’t an awakened, he couldn’t join the expedition. During raids, they had always carried the tactical manuals he recorded on special items.

After a short while, Cheon Seoah finished the strategy meeting and stepped out of the temporary tent.

“We move out in ten minutes! Everyone get ready!”

Seeing this, Ji Yeeun approached the Empress.

“Sister May. The Impossible difficulty user must be a summoner, right?”

“Hmm? You’re still on about that? Yes, it’s highly likely they’re a summoner.”

The Empress opened her system window and looked at the updated rankings.

“The expedition is a playground for summoners. Even the world-ranked eighth, the Puppet King, can beat you here.”

“Tch. If we make it to the last day, I’ll win, you know?”

In an expedition where killing as many monsters as possible mattered most, summoners who could command multiple summoned creatures were the ones who shone brightest.

“Whether that Impossible difficulty kid is a summoner or not doesn’t matter. We need to kill the High Elf Queen within a week.”

“I heard Captain is joining too… It’s been a while since the strongest people on Earth gathered in one place.”

“We’re heading out! Guild Leader and Empress, please come outside!”

Hearing Cheon Seoah’s voice, the Empress and Ji Yeeun left the temporary tent. The appearance of a new high ranker was always noteworthy, but to the high rankers, the points right in front of them were hundreds of times more important.

At the same time, in the inn of the city where Haram had begun his journey.

The Elan Guild’s Degore team, having finished their third day of exploration, gathered for a meeting to prepare for tomorrow.

“Boss, it looks like we’ll get one more C-rank skill by tomorrow.”

“Nice. Anyone else?”

“I think I’ll need until the fifth day.”

The expedition grew stronger every day as points were tallied. Degore, who had been organizing his teammates’ skills and abilities, reached a conclusion.

“Good. At this rate, we should be able to challenge the mid-level zones of Hard difficulty on the final day.”

“Isn’t that too dangerous?”

The large Black man, Leo, frowned.

“No matter how much potential the boss has as a high ranker, you’ve only cleared up to the twelfth floor of Hard. The mid-level zones are recommended only after clearing past the thirtieth floor…”

“Enough. This is an opportunity we don’t know when we’ll get again. If we wanted to play it safe, we wouldn’t have challenged Hard difficulty in the first place.”

Leo’s expression softened into a smile at Degore’s words.

“Hahaha! That’s our boss for you!”

“It’s not a reckless challenge. Through the Shield Guild’s new recruits, I confirmed that the monsters in the nearest Hard mid-level zone are venomous spiders. With our flame mage and healer, we can clear it.”

“Well, we’ll just do whatever the boss says.”

Leo leaned back in his chair, tension easing from his body as he stretched his stiff muscles.

“Speaking of which, I heard the Shield Guild guys ran into a Void Eater Legion in the forest?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah! I heard about it too. There are sighting reports coming in from all over, not just the Shield Guild.”

The quiet red-haired woman who had been listening stood up.

“The Void Eater Legion appeared in the lower zones?”

“Well, not every soldier in a Void Eater Legion is strong, right? Void Hounds are basically fodder, so it’s possible.”

“Hmm… Still, something feels off…”

“I heard something a bit different,” Leo said, leaning forward after finishing his stretches.

“According to the Shield Guild kids, these Void Hounds looked different from the ones that appear on the ninetieth floor. Of course, they probably haven’t seen the ninetieth-floor ones themselves…”

“If it’s the Shield Guild led by Captain, they’re more trustworthy than random nobodies.”

“It wasn’t just their appearance. Everyone who encountered them said all the Void Hounds ran away the moment they saw them.”

“The Void Hounds ran away?”

Unable to make sense of the phenomenon, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Degore shook his head.

“There are always plenty of unexplainable things during an expedition. We’ll proceed with the plan as is.”

There was no need to waste mental energy on unknowns. After ending the meeting, Degore dismissed his guild members and headed to his room to prepare for tomorrow.

“I don’t even know anymore.”

I shook my head as I looked at the new report card.

The third day had been slowed by fighting the corrupted elves, so point gains had been sluggish. Even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so, I had earned far more points than the previous day. This was because new legion members were still continuously being produced from the Void Pits.

Once the resources around the Void Pits were depleted, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠production rate would slow. But the Void Pit skill and sheer numbers covered for that to some extent. Even the first Void Pit I created was still steadily spitting out new legion members.

Of course, quite a few of them died during hunts. Still, the legion currently on this planet had to number at least over a hundred thousand.

“It’s a shame it doesn’t show how many legion members I have here.”

“Woof!”

“I really don’t know anymore. If it gets too bad, the Tower will probably stop it!”

I briefly wondered if I should seriously worry about environmental pollution, but there was no room to care about such things when the dimension would be destroyed by monsters if left alone.

First, I raised the Void Hound’s level. Although Void Sharks and Void Alligators had appeared, the core of our legion was still the Void Hounds.

Void Hound Lv.40 → Lv.41 [100,000 points]

I purchased the Thorn Hammer Tail, consuming 50,000 points.

“What? Why did it suddenly get this expensive?”

My eyes fixed on one spot.

The cost that had been doubling—two thousand, four thousand, eight thousand, sixteen thousand—had suddenly jumped to one hundred thousand. Considering that the Void Pit’s level 41 cost, which had been increasing similarly, was only thirty-two thousand, this was a strange change.

“Is there something at level 50? Hmm… What should I do?”

Remaining points: 2,214,801

I still had over two million points left.

“Ah, whatever. Void Hounds are the core of point generation anyway.”

“Woof!”

Poppy protested, demanding to be strengthened too, but I lightly ignored her. While Void Sharks and Void Alligators were good at hunting monsters, the overwhelming difference in production cost meant their point generation efficiency couldn’t even be compared.

Void Hound Lv.50 [max]

“So this is the Void Hound’s ceiling.”

“Woof!”

I had been curious about this for a while. If points were infinite, would the legion grow infinitely as well? Although the ceiling for Void Hounds and Void Flowers was low, the story would change if they could grow infinitely with points.

This was something I couldn’t determine even by comparing them to the Void Eater Legion from Hard difficulty’s ninetieth floor or the creatures I had seen on Impossible difficulty’s first floor.

“Lightweight ambush type, heavy assault type… The Void Hounds from the ninetieth floor don’t have these, do they?”

“Woof?”

Since I hadn’t seen them myself, the information might be wrong. But according to the guild members who had cleared the ninety-first floor, there was only one type of Void Hound. Elite Void Hounds were occasionally found, but they were closer to mutations than a new species.

“The only time I’ve seen a Void Eater Legion in person was on Impossible difficulty’s first floor, so the information was too lacking.”

“Woof!”

I reopened the Detector’s shop window, which I had put off because it didn’t seem important.

The Detector that had detected me when I used stealth on the first floor and placed a curse on me. That curse had been separated into a special upgrade, which was why our legion’s Detectors didn’t have it. This meant that my legion and the Void Eater Legion had different abilities.

If I showed my Void Hounds to a high ranker who had cleared the ninety-first floor, they would probably notice the differences from the ones that appeared there.

“Well, the conclusion is that you can’t become infinitely stronger just by having a ton of points.”

“Woof!”

“Poppy, you’ll reach your limit someday too, right?”

“Woof woof woof!!!”

Poppy insisted she had no limits, but the end would come eventually.

“Then… collecting DNA is even more important than I thought.”

The way to overcome that limit was to gather superior DNA and grow stronger. Of course, I was still far from the maximum I could achieve with points, so it was too early to worry.

I purchased Mana Engine Activation, consuming 1,000,000 points.

Remaining points: 219,583

Whether a monster or an awakened could utilize mana or not made a world of difference. Although the Void Hound’s growth had stopped here, I would now be able to push through C-rank gates using only Void Hounds.

I turned my gaze away from the system window and looked at the soul of the Kraken Lord, which was greedily devouring corpses. The egg was absorbing the surrounding corpses and growing larger. What had once been the size of an ostrich egg was now bigger than I was.

“Well, there is another way to get stronger.”

“Grrroar!”

After raiding the corrupted elf village, I had created three more Void Pits and offered the corpses of hunted monsters as sacrifices. As a result, the rate at which legion members were produced had slowed, but I was able to gather sacrifices quickly.

Crack.

Large fissures spread across the massive egg, and a white hand reached out from within.

“Huh?”

I had naturally expected a kraken’s tentacle, but what emerged was the hand of a child.

Crreeeak…

The egg split in half, and the being inside stepped out.

“Hello?”

“Uh…”

The child only came up to my waist. White hair, purple eyes. A white hoodie that covered their body. Standing before me was a child who looked exactly like me if my age had been cut in half.

“…”

“Were you surprised?”

“Is this your true form…?”

I almost spoke casually but barely caught myself. If this was a lesser god, they had lived for at least a thousand years. To use the wish ticket efficiently, I needed to maintain a good relationship with them.

While there was a minimum the other party had to grant simply because it was a wish ticket, the reward would increase if we were close or if they were in a good mood.

I maintained my composure as much as possible and waited for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their answer.

“My true form? Of course not. I’m in a soul state right now, so I copied the appearance of the strongest human I’ve ever seen.”

“Ah…”

“By the way, you’ve been treating our little Malicious One quite cruelly, haven’t you?”

“That’s…”

The Kraken Lord approached me with a smile. The karma from my past tightened around me.

‘Looks like getting friendly is out of the question…’

It seemed the service was completely off the table.