Chapter 218: What's a Hero Anyways? (4)

When I came back to the guild house after finally freeing myself from Loretta, I met Hwaya who looked unusually happy.

"Hwaya?"

"Shin! Listen, I became a Dimensional Mercenary!"

After hearing her, I checked and saw that she had become a First Dungeon Gold rank explorer. Before I climbed up to the 65th floor, I had heard that she was near the end of the 79th floor. Before I noticed, she had broken become a Platinum rank in the Second Dungeon and had advanced to the First Dungeon.

If she became a Dimensional Mercenary, it meant she had obtained the magic she lacked, Dimensional Travel. In other words, she had defeated the 50th Floor Master Wendigo alone. Of course, it wasn't surprising as Hwaya should have been the ice-wielding Wendigo's natural enemy. In fact, it might have been killed the moment the fight began.

In any case, after reporting to me, Hwaya shouted energetically.

"Let's go take on a Dimensional Mercenary mission! With just us two~!"

"My Dimensional Travel still has over a month long cooldown."

"Can't you do something about that with your skill points and will?"

"Nope."

"Tsk."

She clicked her tongue openly. Then, she suddenly tilted her head as she stared at me.

"Shin, did you change somehow?"

"Oh, I just obtained a new skill. A pretty good one."

"Mm, for that to be true, you look more than a little stronger... Hmph, I'll surpass you when I obtain a god's true name. Got it?"

Hwaya really was sensitive to mana. Seeing Hwaya clenching her fists, I replied with a smile.

"Yeah, I hope you do."

"Uuu, that way of talking... Whatever, join me for a drink. You won't refuse this too, right?"

"That doesn't have a cooldown time."

It seemed I wouldn't be able to enter the dungeon again today. As I followed Hwaya who led me forward excitedly, I made a bitter smile. Well, I could just rest today and work harder tomorrow!

The next day, around noon, I messaged Lebuik.

"How was it?"

[... H-H-How what?]

"Seeing from your reaction, it looks like Ren took my advice."

I didn't want to think this, but perhaps Ren really was an idiot. No, perhaps he was Ren because he was an idiot!

With a smirk, I interrogated Lebuik.

"What happened?"

[H-H-How can I tell anyone that! Not... Not that anything happened.]

"... Eh?"

Not believing my ears, I asked again.

"Nothing happened?"

[Y-Yeah. We just slept in each other's arms."

"... You want me to believe that?"

[What else was I supposed to do!? I was already frozen from nervousness! In fact, I deserve praise for being able to be with Ren-nim for that long without fainting!]

"Ah..."

Can a grown-up woman and man just sleep together in bed without doing anything? Well, I guess if they were tired... No, even so...

"Just when I gave you the perfect opportunity..."

[Rather than that, I'm more worried that Ren-nim slept so peacefully... He must not see me as a woman...]

"Geez, that doesn't matter. You should just..."

[Can I tell the other girls what you just said?]

"No, please save me. I'm trying to help Lebuik here! Also, I'm different from Ren!"

"Hmph, that's what you get for speaking as if it's easy. But still, thanks...]

"Ehew, good luck."

Not knowing what to say, I hung up. Regardless of what happened, with this, she should have gotten closer to Ren. I predicted that Ren would start visiting Lebuik's bedroom more often. Then, one day...

Although I would need to wait longer until the day I ate banquet noodles came, the current situation wasn't so bad. With that thought, I went back to the dungeon.

The 66th floor surprisingly had bats once again. I could easily predict what monsters I would face. Though I couldn't confirm my suspicion as the 66th floor only had bats, I knew someone who could tell me the answer.

"Yep, you're right. It's the incubus."

"I knew it!"

After reaching the 66th Floor Shop in just one hour and a half, I could get a confirmation from Loretta. Filling up 10 floors with just bats and Mares, isn't that being too cheap? Kuhum, I mean, it's true that just sending out succubi is unfair.

"Resistance against charming is very important. It's something both male and female explorers need to possess."

"That's true. I've been seeing the charm stat in a new light recently, but still... incubi..."

"Uhuhuhu, you want to know what happens to female explorers charmed by incubi?"

"No!"

I blocked my ears, and Loretta made a cute smile and replied.

"They only get their life force and mana drained to death. For the record, it's the same for male explorers who get charmed by succubi. Shin-nim just never got to experience it. The dungeon is a place to help explorers grow, not a place to toy with their hearts and body. Are you perhaps disappointed?"

"My friends are climbing the First Dungeon too. My sister and daugh... Ina included!"

"Oh? Hohoho, aren't you glad I let you know before you started worrying profusely?"

Loretta made an awkward smile and looked away. Though I gave her a glare, it was true that I considered joining the girls if needed. Relieved, I left for Beyond.

Beyond's 16th floor had the Dullahans... Right, Dullahans, plural.

[Human, fight me one on one with honor!]

[Are you a knight? Fight me!]

With over a hundred so-called knights asking for 'fair' fights, I gave up on fighting fairly immediately. Since I knew I would face Dullahans, I already had a plan in mind. Resolved to stay on the 16th floor for a long time, I initiated my plan - setting things on fire.

"Haaaaaaaa!"

After enveloping my Chaotic Spear with a whirlpool of chaos flames, I shot it forward. Of course, just once wasn't enough. With everything that happened, I had over 110,000 mana. I swept through the entire floor by pouring in mana to create chaos flames.

[Kak!]

[These flames!]

[Outburst!]

Hit by the chaos flames, the Dullahans panicked. They didn't even think to charge through the wall of flames, as they tried to attack me with their skills.

However, the rock shards created by Outburst became tiny fragments as they burned up when they passed through the chaos flame wall. By the time they hit me, they were no different than ant bites.

"Wait, what's that?"

[Kuaaaaaa!]

A strange scene entered my eyes, and I shook. The floor's special property! I'd been looking down on the 16th floor's special property! On the 15th floor, monsters split when they hit the walls, and even the Dragon Zombie's bone spears multiplied and shot out. The 16th floor's, on the other hand, fused everything that hit it. For example, the rock shards that fell to the ground after hitting me returned to floor and restored the hollowed walls.

The reason I used the term 'fuse' instead of 'absorb' was because even the chaos flames I shot out fused with the floor. The entire floor became hotter and was dyed in a more reddish-black color. If every magic and techniques I used transformed the floor's environment, it was possible for me to be hurt by my own attacks.

That said, I was thankful that I found out about this now rather than when I used a different attack. Although chaos flames burned indefinitely, they could never hurt the me, their creator.

[Kuaaak! Painful!]

[Extinguish this flame! If you're a knight, fight me fair and square!]

"You shouldn't say that when there's over a hundred of you!"

Even though I didn't do anything, the floor affected by chaos flames caused the Dullahans to writhe in pain until they died.

It seemed that they realized that the chaos flames would disappear if I died, as they charged at me. However, I had no fear for the Dullahans without Outburst. I simply fought them altogether with Lightning Spear Storm and used Heroic Strikes with chaos flames to finish them off.

[He's strong! Attack with Outburst!]

[But if we do, the walls will fuse again...!]

[Knights don't fear death! Knights only fear cowardly defeats!]

It seemed the walls' fusion property didn't activate randomly. In the first place, everything was designed to give the monsters an advantage. The fusion took place when the Dullahans used Outburst. I understood that through their conversation, and seeing the thousands of rock shards caused by the Dullahans that didn't fear death, I created specially large chaos flames without hesitation.

[Kuaaaak!]

[Coward!]

[I might die here, but I didn't lose!]

To be honest, it was stupid.

Regardless, because chaos flames spread across the whole floor, I broke through Beyond's 16th floor by simply running for 5 hours, all the while thinking that this might be a new record.

After leaving Beyond, I drank the 10 gold worth Fatigue Recovery Juice as I always did and headed to the guild house. Surprisingly, Yua was there as well.

"Yua, shouldn't you be at school?"

"Oppa, it's 9 P.M."

"Eh?"

I checked the clock, and it really was 9. With how much time I've been spending in the dungeon, I seemed to have lost my sense of time. With a bitter smile, I patted Yua who approached me.

"My bad."

"Wasn't Oppa going into Beyond? What happened?"

"Mm, well, I got lucky, so I finished it quickly."

"Oppa really is amazing..."

Nice! I raised Yua's respect for me naturally!

"Oppa, I became Gold rank today."

"Already!?"

She defeated the Wendigo!? Of course, Yua must have grown stronger, but the Wendigo's freezing energy shouldn't have been so easy to deal with... In shock, I examined Yua from head to toe. Yua then spoke with a hint of embarrassment.

"I'm fine, Oppa. I'm not hurt."

"Really?"

"The Floor Shop owner treated me kindly and sold me equipment to deal with the freezing energy for a cheap price. Our guild is really amazing."

"Uh, yeah."

Loretta must have done something in the background... Since I didn't want to ruin Yua's good mood, I chose to stay silent.

However, I soon noticed Yua staring at me intently, almost as if she wanted to ask something of me, but was hesitating.

"Um... Oppa."

"If there's anything you want, tell me. For you, I can even pluck the moon."

I was truly confident in being able to do so. Although it would be difficult to pluck both moons, Earth's original moon should be possible if I use all my power...! However, Yua laughed and shook her head.

"I'm happy with just looking at the moon. We don't have anywhere to put it anyways."

"Right."

"Instead... You see, I want to tame monsters other than mantises. I know I can get stronger than way... If Oppa is busy, it's fine, but when you have time... can you go with me to monster territories on Earth?"

I replied without a shred of hesitation.

"Actually, Oppa's been planning on taking care of a few monster territories. How's a week later?"

"Really? I love you, Oppa!"

Just like that, the reclaiming of the Philippines began.

Author's note:

I know many people don't like Yua, but it's necessary for the story so please bear with it. This author has put in too much personal taste for this character, so I can only apologize. But still...

Yua's cute!

Yua's cute!!

Yua's cute!!!