This Suits Me Just Fine

This suits me just fine.

His combined stats were simply not in the same conversation as anyone else's. They sat higher than those of most level 500 players, which meant the dungeon had grown that much harder to clear. He didn't care. Stats had never been his only weapon.

The lanterns hung throughout the dungeon vanished.

First came a shroud of darkness, meant, it seemed, to rob him of his sight. However brimful the black became, Yujun still had the trait Keen Senses. He could wander a dungeon dark as pitch as easily as his own house.

Last time this was A-rank, wasn't it.

He had come to this dungeon during War of the Gods as well, and at a considerable ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠level even then. The odds were good it would not match ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the one he remembered. Yujun walked with care.

Traps first.

Sure enough, a whistle of cut air prickled his skin with goosebumps. He threw himself into a roll and slipped three arrows that came screaming in one after another. Fired from the dungeon's mechanisms, they moved at an absurd speed.

Not so fast I can't dodge them.

His reflexes had long since left the human range behind, and even if an arrow did land, his defense was high enough that he had little reason to worry. He blew through the trapped stretch in short order.

A fat monster some two meters tall appeared—a Kiotsk. Not one. About four of them, the instant they saw Yujun, began spewing acid from their mouths.

"Urk! Hurk!"

A wet spray lashed the air, and a horrific stench clawed at his nose. The reek was so fierce that his sense of smell shut down almost at once. Yujun slipped their attacks with ease and swung.

Steel sheared through. All four Kiotsk lost their heads in a single stroke and died where they stood.

His level had risen from killing a mere four of them, and the reason was simple. Every Kiotsk was over level 450.

An S-Rank dungeon, all right.

After that the Kiotsk came in packs. Yujun moved first and cut them down before they could spit anything from their mouths, purely as a matter of hygiene.

Not a single attack so much as grazed him. It wasn't that the Kiotsk were weak. Yujun was simply far too strong. Every swing sent another head tumbling through the air.

No need to worry about my level. What he was looking forward to now was the skill he would get.

In no time at all, Yujun reached the end of the dungeon. Only the boss remained.

He stopped before the boss room, and a vile stench shuddered through the air on every side.

Definitely something related to the Kiotsk.

Yujun sighed. He would rather have fought something far stronger. Filthy things were nothing but a nuisance.

"Paranet."

"Yes!"

Paranet, summoned before the word had even finished leaving his mouth, answered at once.

"Go in first."

"You may place your trust in me alone!"

Paranet opened the door of the boss room and went inside. A moment later he came back out, groaning.

"Urgh. What is that thing."

"Why?"

"It is hideously formed."

If even an undead said so, what on earth did it look like? Yujun stepped straight into the boss room.

"Ugh…"

The smell he could set aside. The boss's appearance was every bit as startling as Paranet had claimed. It was a colossal living mass, as if every filth and scrap of refuse in the world had been piled into one place. Even the air was thick and fouled. Stay here long, he thought, and he would regret it.

"Better finish this fast."

"That would be wise. Urp…"

"What's wrong with you? You can't even smell."

"It is simply too grotesque. I fear the aesthetic sensibilities I possessed when I was human cannot abide the sight."

"That so."

Yujun surged in.

He closed on the boss with Rapid Advance. And then—

"KRA-A-A-A-AK!"

"Ah. My ears."

"KWEEEEEEHHH!"

The thing let out a shriek that meant nothing, and clumps of filth began to scatter in every direction. The boss room filled with the spray. Paranet scurried about on both feet, fleeing for all he was worth.

Paranet's no help in here.

Yujun slipped the filth whirling through the air and came right up against the boss. He swung again and again. Dozens of chunks of flesh tore free, and the creature was so vast that it hardly showed.

Where's the weak point?

He couldn't see anything that looked like a head. He called on Keen Senses and tracked the place from which the thing was watching him.

The belly?

The Filthling had hidden the part that served as its head inside the thick flesh of its gut. That was where hot air blasted out with every heave of its breath.

So that's why the sound was so muffled.

Yujun stepped onto the Filthling's leg and climbed toward its belly. The monster kept spewing highly toxic filth to drive him off, but it could not stop him. He stabbed the belly again and again. The sheer bulk of the body kept the blade from reaching the head, so he started carving the flesh away. A few turns of his wrist, and slabs of belly came free.

"KROOOOOGH!"

Whether from the pain or not, it shrieked again. The sound was very close.

Almost there. This might have been the hardest moment of his life. He wanted the dungeon cleared, and not for the reward. For the smell.

The instant the Filthling's head came into view, he invoked the skill.

The impact detonated, and one strike was not the end of it. He chained Slash again and again, and the Filthling's body caved in, visibly, until that enormous head lay fully exposed. He packed the sword with mana and drove it in. The blade sank deep.

"KWOOOOGH! WAAAAANG!"

"Hey. You're gonna blow my eardrums out. Just die already."

He stabbed again. And again. The thing's vitality was stubborn. Not entirely invincible, though. Around the eighth thrust, the Filthling went still.

"……What. That thing was a divine beast?"

A divine beast usually meant an animal imbued with divine power.

Where exactly was that an animal?

Had the power of a god really settled in it? Either way, he had done what he came to do. The dungeon's exit opened. He could not simply walk out.

Yujun ransacked the boss room from end to end.

If I'm not seeing it…

His head snapped around. The place where the Filthling had been.

Don't tell me I have to dig through that.

No wonder it had been rated an S-Rank dungeon. Regret arrived all at once.

"Paranet."

"Yes."

"Go rummage through that."

"Pardon?"

"You heard me. Don't pretend you didn't."

"……Must I?"

"Hold on. Unbelievable."

"…"

"A summon ignoring an order? After everything I've done for you?"

"Th-that is true, but—"

"Don't want to? Then hand over the Mythic ring."

"I shall! I will do it! Entrust it to me alone!"

Paranet shot off and began pawing through the Filthling's body.

"Should've just done that from the start."

Paranet muttered, very small.

"A devil, and no mistake."

"What was that?"

"Nothing whatsoever!"

"Hurry up."

"Yes, sir!"

Paranet threw himself into the butchery. Yujun was not about to stand around idle either. He checked behind the Filthling's corpse.

"Hm? Here it is."

He had found what he wanted. A Skill Archive. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠He'd gone and dumped all that work on Paranet for nothing.

A Skill Archive appeared when certain event dungeons were cleared. Calling it an archive didn't mean there were shelves. The chamber itself was a room whose walls were solid gold. Step inside, and the System would guide you, and a skill would be yours.

"Paranet! Get over here!"

"Yes?"

"You should grab a skill too."

That was the good part. He was not the only one who could take a skill. The more summons he had, the more skills he would gain—one per being, no more.

Shame I didn't make more summons. Too late to regret it. Yujun stepped into the Skill Archive.

Same as before. Perfect.

The Skill Archive traded items for skills. Offer a single Legendary-grade item, and the best you received was an A-rank skill. Two of them still would not buy an S-Rank skill. It demanded more. Thought of that way, the place was hardly a bargain. Yujun, however, was grinning wide.

For me, the terms couldn't be better.

Hardly anyone could make proper use of a place like this. His inventory was currently littered with Legendary-grade items he would not use in a lifetime.

Time to clear the inventory out properly.

One by one, he began setting items on the altar inside the Skill Archive. Every last one was Legendary.

The grade shot to S in a single bound. Yujun's smile deepened.

Already S-Rank. And he had only put up a few. He kept drawing items out and laying them on the altar, until that broad stone was buried under them. Then he looked at the hologram window.

Forty Legendary-grade items, piled up, had bought him that.

He could have stopped there. But—

A Skill Archive is almost impossible to find. I have to wring every last drop out of this place before I leave.

Without hesitation, he drew out a Mythic-grade item. It was a piece of armor that would have fetched tens of billions of points at the very least on the Black Market auction floor. He set it on the altar.

The hologram window did not change.

Can this thing even reach EX?

In truth, he had never obtained an EX-rank skill from a Skill Archive. The items had been too precious, and back then he had already possessed more skills than he knew what to do with. He had never felt the need to surrender equipment just to gain another. Now was different. What he needed, more than anything, was skills. Legendary-grade items, Mythic-grade items—he could offer as many as it took.

Land even one good EX-rank skill, and you can overturn a war fought by tens of thousands.

In the Tower of Infinity, a player who held an EX-rank skill or trait was called one chosen by a god. They were that rare. More than anything, the power and versatility of such a skill could not be compared with the grades beneath it.

It won't climb to EX unless I force it.

Yujun drew out another Mythic-grade item. Armor again. Nothing changed. Irritation crept across his face.

"Haa…"

No. No.

I've got Mythic to spare anyway. No point being stingy.

He had just set one more Mythic-grade item upon the altar when the window answered.

"…Huh?"