The Seed of the Tenth Floor
Screeech!
Clang!
Block.
Deflect.
Crush.
Slash.
Failed creations of black magic kept emerging from the shadows.
But Roan's advance did not slow.
I'm busy. So busy. I need to move faster.
His eyes were filled with a mixture of urgency and anticipation.
Exploding slime, blood-soaked dolls, and various other monstrosities fell before him.
A quiet silence settled over the path he swept through.
"Pant, pant..."
Belog, chasing after him, suddenly felt a strange sense of cognitive dissonance.
Why isn't he wavering? Everyone who enters this place loses their footing...
"Hurry up and follow," Roan called out.
His breathing wasn't even labored.
He didn't even give Belog time to think.
Just keeping up with his pace was overwhelming.
The fifth floor, the sixth, the seventh.
Unidentified monsters appeared on every floor, but none posed any threat to Roan.
Boom!
Gurgle...
The monster's head split open, and silence filled the space once more.
In that brief lull, Belog finally managed to speak.
"What... what on earth are you?"
"Where is this coming from?"
"You carry a shield, yet you fight in a style that is neither Imperial nor Kingdom. And yet, you dispatch these things so effortlessly."
Belog pointed at a faintly squirming mass on the floor.
"This monster was a black mage. With the brain's limiters removed, they boast monstrous strength and mana. They are abominations that even the elites of the Magic Tower struggle to handle."
His words were laced with curiosity, not praise.
Roan shrugged and smiled.
"I'm flattered... It's been a while since I've been praised like that."
"It wasn't a compliment—"
"But in the end, they're still human."
Roan's eyes turned momentarily distant.
As if recalling existences from the past.
Shaking off the fleeting thought, he looked up again.
"Alright! Let's keep moving!"
His casual steps resumed.
"Tsk... You really don't give a man a moment to breathe."
Belog hurriedly scrambled after him.
Basement Floor 9.
The very air began to change.
"Inhale... Exhale... Gasp..."
The stench of blood washed over them, accompanied by a crushing atmospheric pressure.
So this is... the ninth floor.
The labyrinthine structure was tangled as deeply as the roots of a desert plant.
The violent energy he had felt intensifying with every step downward now enveloped his entire body.
It seemed to amplify the sense of despair.
Regardless, Roan merely scanned his surroundings as if looking for a path.
In that brief moment of respite.
"Wait. What is that?"
Belog narrowed his eyes, looking at Roan's shield.
The center of the shield.
The pale gemstone embedded there was emitting a faint glow.
"Oh? What's this?"
Even when Roan swung the shield around, the light pointed stubbornly in a single direction.
It was as if it were guiding them.
...What did he say again? That it was a gem that repels malice and darkness?
Suddenly, the blacksmith's words flashed through Roan's mind.
He wasn't one to blindly trust others, but since he had no other leads, there was no harm in believing it.
Let's follow it for now. I had to search all over the place anyway.
Making a swift decision, Roan moved toward the light.
As he walked, the light grew brighter.
The flashing light seemed to scream: It's here! The strongest bastard is right here!
And at that moment,
Crash!!!
A monster burst through the wall.
A massive torso tangled with countless heads.
It was a mass stained with malice and screams.
Crack. Groan...
Instantly mending the bones broken while smashing the wall, the creature stared at them with several pairs of eyes.
"Ugh... Urgh..."
The moment their eyes met, Belog's will completely shattered.
The pressure was just that immense.
"...A nightmare."
Overwhelming strength, size, regenerative power, and overflowing mana.
It was a despair that left him unable to lift a single finger.
It approached. No, it charged.
It raised its massive arm.
Ah. I'm going to die.
Clang!
"Gasp..."
His breath returned.
Clutching his pounding heart, Belog looked ahead.
Roan was there.
He had blocked that massive arm all by himself.
His unwavering stance and the lack of any destructive shockwave.
His two legs, firmly planted in the ground, seemed to say, You can relax.
"Hup!"
Slash!
A counterattack.
With a single strike, the monster's arm was severed completely.
"My god..."
But the severed arm regenerated in an instant.
In an even stronger, more hideous form.
A continuous battle.
A war of attrition disadvantageous to humans.
A cycle of despair.
Yet, Roan's face remained calm.
In fact, he focused on defense as if he welcomed it, as if egging the beast on to do more.
"What... what are you doing?! If it's impossible, give up! If you buy me some time, I can use a teleportation scroll—"
"Who said it's impossible? I've never felt better."
He didn't waver. Not even his voice.
"Because..."
Thuck!
His sword plunged into a specific spot on the mass.
It was the monster's core, which he had located while enduring its attacks.
Crack!
With a shattering sound, the creature's body slowly began to melt away.
"It proves that the path I chose wasn't wrong."
He pulled out his embedded sword.
"Done."
With that brief declaration, the hybrid of the ninth floor fell completely silent.
An indisputable victory achieved entirely alone.
Clink.
"Yes! I knew a strong bastard like you would have one!"
Roan picked up what had fallen to the ground.
His voice was so light it was hard to believe he had just been fighting a nightmare.
"This is it, right? A mana crystal."
"I-it seems so. It looks like the test subjects fused together around this."
"Whoa...! That was close. If I had destroyed this instead of the core..."
"...Still, what I witnessed with my own eyes won't disappear."
Saying so, Belog quickly turned around.
He seemed desperate to leave this place.
"Now, let's go report. Even Debi Jane will have to acknowledge this once she sees it."
But instead of an answer, something was thrust into his hand.
"...Why are you giving this to me?"
"I still have things to do here. Go ahead and deliver it."
"Things to do?"
"Yes. I need to find the tenth floor."
The tenth floor?
Belog knew nothing of the tenth floor or the destruction. All Jane had told him was to accompany Roan to obtain the ninth-floor crystal.
But he didn't bother to question it. He had seen Roan's strength with his own eyes.
"...Understood. I will go and report first. I'll take your coordinates just in case."
Complying, Belog cast a tracking spell on Roan's collar and withdrew.
Roan was left alone.
After scanning the suddenly quiet labyrinth, he tapped his shield.
No more reactions? Or has it not appeared yet?
The cultists of the tenth basement floor.
The seed of destruction that gathered sacrifices to open a gate to another world.
In truth, though he had regressed, Roan didn't know the exact date.
That was why he had been frantically collecting newspapers.
He had come based on the testimony that 'they built their strength on the tenth basement floor,' so perhaps they weren't here yet—
"Oh?"
It wasn't that the light had gone out. It was continuously emitting a faint beam.
This really comes in handy.
This is why one should always do good deeds.
Finishing his thoughts, Roan followed the light.
And the tenth floor, hidden from the outside world.
It's cramped.
Unlike the ninth floor, which branched out like roots, this space was narrow.
A space resembling a cave that someone had forcibly excavated.
In the center, a mass of black crystal was beating like a heart.
Thump. Thump.
A vibration too slow to be a heartbeat rippled through the air.
This is definitely it.
An incomplete seed.
Unable to swallow the surrounding air, it was spitting it back out, trembling weakly.
Amidst the vibrations, a faint whisper reached Roan's ears.
"The sacrifices..."
"Soon... it will open..."
Whatever.
Open soon, my foot. It's about to be closed permanently.
The cultists and the black crystal, mumbling away, completely unaware of his arrival.
It was at the exact moment he gripped his sword tightly to shatter them both at once.
Flash!
A burst of light spread from behind him.
Illuminating the pitch-black interior before fading, two figures appeared in its wake.
"...It was real."
Belog, who had withdrawn earlier, and—
"Ha, so it wasn't a lie?"
Debi Jane.
She had rushed here immediately upon hearing Belog's report.
"Hey, out of the way."
She said, just like that.
An arrogant, haughty command.
At those words, which perfectly matched her personality from his past life, Roan's lips curled into a smile.
"Sure! I'll leave it to you!"
Feeling a wave of nostalgia, Roan dropped his stance low.
Rumble!!!
Above him, a beam of intense, near-white heat erupted.
The compressed beam swept over the dazed cultists and the black crystal.
Without even a chance to scream, the seed of destruction was reduced to ashes.
"Tsk, over without even a fight. Pathetic weaklings."
Dusting off her hands, Debi Jane looked at Roan. He had already raised his head, staring at the devastation left by her magic.
"Hmph, surprised? You've never seen magic like this before, have you?"
Debi Jane puffed out her chest, expecting Roan's awe and flattery.
But the reaction she received was underwhelming, to say the least.
"Uh... yeah."
"What? That's your reaction after seeing this magic? Show some more surprise!"
Well, he couldn't help it.
In his past life, Debi Jane had been the finished product.
A thick beam that could melt even dragon scales, a fireball massive enough to swallow the sun.
...Though she was eventually consumed by destruction.
Roan fell silent for a moment, lost in his old memories.
Misinterpreting his silence, Debi Jane gritted her teeth in frustration.
After the commotion settled, peace returned to the Magic Tower.
Roan was currently in Jane's laboratory, watching her work.
After examining the mana crystal from various angles, Jane rolled it onto her desk as if it were useless.
"It's already been completely drained. Looks like that hybrid you dealt with used up all its power."
"That's a shame. It would have been of some help to you if it were intact."
Clicking his tongue in disappointment, Roan quickly brightened up and continued.
"But we're comrades now! We'll be able to find plenty of things like this!"
"...You've been saying that since the moment we met."
Jane grumbled, staring down at the crystal.
A brief silence followed.
After mulling it over for a moment, she finally nodded.
"Fine. Alright. I'll go with you. Judging by how you retrieved this, your abilities seem quite useful."
"Oh? Really?"
"Don't get any ideas. I'm joining because I want to."
Her tone was exactly as it had been in his past life.
Once again, a wave of profound relief washed over him.
"Wipe that annoying look off your face. So, what are we doing now?"
At Jane's question, Roan nodded immediately.
"We need to find our next comrade."
"Who? And why are we gathering comrades in the first place? Isn't that 'destruction' you kept talking about over now?"
"No."
There was still a long way to go.
Because every single event that had claimed the lives of his six comrades was a seed of destruction.
Roan briefly searched his memories.
"The Elford Knights."
He spoke the name aloud.
"...Huh? That order of knights was already wiped out."
"They belong to that order."
To be precise, they were someone who became a wandering knight after the order was destroyed.
"But before that, there's something we absolutely must do."
Saying so, Roan pointed at Jane.
"What? Fire magic?"
"No, your strength. You're too weak right now."
"...Do you want to die?"
The prodigy of the Magic Tower.
A master of fire magic.
Debi Jane, who had grown up surrounded by such praise and was packed to the brim with pride.
A vein throbbed on her forehead.