Chapter 276: Third Season (1)

"... Ah."

In Licorice's hands were Pure Black Desire, which had reverted to its bracelet form, tattered Felixes' Lava Cape, and my other items. When my body was reconstructing itself, Pure Black Desire and my other items seemed to have fallen down. Thankfully, Licorice had picked them up.

Pure Black Desire had an indestructible effect, so I didn't need to worry about it. Felixes' Lava Cape could also auto-repair itself even if only a single piece of it remained. Unfortunately for the other equipment...

Ugh, did all my other items go to waste? For a moment, a chill went down my back. Hoping that it wasn't true, I caught the bracelet Licorice threw at me and equipped it.

I felt my physical ability heightening in an instant, as a black metal covered my body. Uuu, it felt cold against bare skin.

I lowered my altitude slightly and faced the two girls. Licorice gave me the rest of the equipment wrapped into a bundle by my cape. From a glance, it looked like the cape was salvageable, but the accessories were the problem.

Items I obtained not too long ago like Shadow-Hidden Blade, Thorn Throne, and Echo Ring seemed fine. Thankfully, their disabilities had held out. On the other hand, not even a trace of Golden Teardrop or Flesh Golem's Second Finger remained. They were low-grade accessories, and the stats they gave didn't affect me that much either. Still, I still felt like I suffered a loss as they had been with me for a long time.

"What a waste."

"Yeah, what a... What are you looking at?"

It seemed Licorice was regretting something else. Realizing that her gaze was fixated on a certain part of my body, I smacked her head. Just like how I couldn't go back in time to be naked again, the broken accessories couldn't be reversed. I just had to take care of the ones I had left.

"Hero, what happened?"

Lotte asked inexplicitly, and I replied in an extremely simple manner.

"Everything other than me disappeared."

"..."

Lotte became lost for words. I made a wry smile and opened my inventory. Right, it opened. It had to. The invaders' magical tool, the violet crystal, no longer remained on this continent. I put all the equipment and accessories in my inventory and stretched. As I closed the inventory, an enormous power poured into me.

Obviously, it was the power of the explorer given to me by the dungeon and by Sherafina.

"What happened to the world's power, Dear Husband?"

"I sucked it in too. I couldn't isolate it given the circumstance. Still..."

I closed my eyes. The moment Ellos died, the world's power left his body. Immediately afterward, the surrounding current of mana swept it away, and my whirlpool eventually trapped it. Just like that, it became a part of me naturally.

I managed to prevent it from mixing with the world's power I had, but now that it was inside me, it wasn't going to leave easily. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Ellos, this bastard. As a Hero, he used himself as a suicide bomb. I knew he loved Baruella, but that was overdoing it! And... and!

"Aaaaah, damn it! That son of a bitch!"

"Calm down, Dear Husband, your mana's erupting out."

"Ah, right. Sorry."

I calmed myself down thanks to Licorice. A truly enormous amount of mana was used during the process of reconstructing my body from scratch, but the amount of mana still circulating around my body through Peruta Circuit's path was still nothing to scoff at. It seemed to roughly be double the amount I had before...

"Sherafina should have seen through me by now, right? Let's see."

For the first time in a long time, I opened my status window.

[Name: Kang Shin Race: Human Sex: Male

Class: Elementalist (Sub - Skill Mixer, Tamer) Title: Lightning God Rank: Platinum 9

Level: 81

HP - 352,180/352,180 MP - 497,590/497,590

Strength - 539(+215) Dexterity - 572(+195) Constitution - 763(+71)

Intelligence - 144(+70) Magic - 879(+185) Charm - 407(+130) Luck - 182(+90)

Normal Skills - High-rank Martial Arts (Master - Attack power, attack speed +20%), Peruta - Mad Typhoon (Lv 8), High-rank Crossbow Marksmanship (Lv 2), Wind King's Rage (Lv 5), High-rank Heroic Strike (Lv 5), High-rank Provoke (Lv 9), Divine Speed (Master), Return (Master), Peruta Circuit (Master), Dimensional Travel (Lv 5), Overwhelm (Lv 7), Absolute Soul (Lv 7), Weapon Swap (Lv 7), Captivation (Lv 5), Deific Manifestation, Riding, Mistification, Breath of Death

Class Skills - High-rank Spirit Mastery (Lv 9), High-rank Spirit Aura (Lv 9), High-rank Elemental Control (Lv 9), High-rank Elemental Contract (Lv 9), Lightning Spear Storm (Lv 7), High-rank Elemental Blade (Lv 7), High-rank Elemental Tempest (Lv 8)

Subclass Skill - Endow Skill, Skill Synthesis, Taming (Master), Spirit of the Collector, Spirit of the Mixer, Spirit of the Tamer (Master)]

After checking out my status, I made an exclamation of surprise.

"Wow."

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This was the result of the dungeon's power being added to my body's true strength. There wasn't a single stat that didn't go up. Intelligence increased by around 50, magic and charm increased by around 100, strength and dexterity increased by around 200, and constitution and magic increased by around 400. I could clearly see which areas this bodily reconstruction strengthened.

"Nah, let's forget it. They're just numbers."

I couldn't overestimate myself just because of stats. After closing the status window, I made a vow to myself. A power that solely belonged to me. If I could use the dungeon's power, I would gladly use it, but when I couldn't, I had to rely on my own power to defeat the enemy. The Demon Lord most certainly had a method of nullifying the dungeon's power.

"She even measured my skill growth. What a frightening woman."

I looked at the mastered Peruta Circuit and smiled. She could have said something, but she didn't. I found it pretty cute.

"Dear Husband, are you okay?"

"Ah, yeah... Nevermind Ellos. Let's go back, I'm exhausted."

"Go back? Where?"

I pondered for a moment before I spat out.

"To the empire."

On our way back, we noticed the decrease in the density of atmospheric mana.

"Wow, it's finally breathable!"

"Is it?"

For me, I felt it was a shame considering how well I could wield that mana. Of course, since I didn't plan on living on this continent, that feeling didn't last long.

"Dear Husband is really terrifying. Did you take the entire continent's mana...?"

"No, probably not. The mana density will probably go back up the farther you get from the mountain range. Eventually, it'll balance itself out with only being thinned out slightly."

"Did Dear Husband expect this to happen from the beginning? Since entering Edias continent?"

"If you lower the scale to a fifth of what happened, then yeah."

I expected to fight the world's enemy, and I vowed to find Peruta's vestige. I suspected that Ellos may have changed, and I felt like I would grow stronger once again.

Everything I expected to happen did happen, just in a far explosive scale. This was the result.

"If Ellos didn't make Kahar's power go berserk, the magical tool wouldn't have exploded, and if the magical tool didn't explode, Hazen would have been fine and I wouldn't have grown to this extent."

If Ellos didn't do what he did and I had to fight Hazen, I would have needed to use Shiva's Eye. Could I have won? I wasn't confident. Hazen was powerful, and he even had the power of the Destruction God Etos. Even if I won, I would have had to bare a huge sacrifice. Even if I found Peruta's vestige, I might not have mastered Peruta Circuit.

Back then, I was completely devoted to Peruta Circuit with my life on the line. It only made sense, as failure would have meant death. Thankfully, Peruta's mana cooperated with me, and I managed to go beyond making Peruta Circuit totally mine and achieved a type of evolution.

"Dear Husband really changed."

"Yeah, I did."

I nodded in agreement. I couldn't lie. After all, I had transformed from head to toe.

"You look tired, Dear Husband."

"... Licorice."

It seemed that wasn't what Licorice meant. She was talking about something other than just my outer appearance.

"You can trust me. Got it, Dear Husband?"

With that, Licorice embraced my back. I didn't say anything in response and simply accepted her. Her body's natural scent seemed to console me.

"Dear Husband is my most precious person... Okay?"

"What about the other succubi?"

"Dummy, is now the time to talk about that? Just accept that Dear Husband is my most precious person!"

Indeed, my question was kind of dumb. I smirked and reached backward to pat her head.

"Thanks, Licorice."

[Bat... Now isn't the time to flirt.]

[Birdbrain, this is the best time.]

"Of course, I trust Lotte, too."

As I reached out with my other hand and patted Lotte, I thought about Ellos. Ellos who had lost Baruella, Hazen who had never considered Ellos' feelings, and myself who somewhat understood it but still couldn't forgive him.

Right, for example, just as an example, suppose Hwaya died. If I could involve my friend and get my revenge, would I have done what he did? What if Ludia died? What if it was Ye-Eun or Daisy? What if it was Father, Mother, Ren, Leon, Sumire, Lotte, or Licorice?

What if Yua and Ina died?

After thinking about it that far, I raised my head.

"I see."

They were all who I had to protect. I couldn't sacrifice any one of them to avenge someone else. Not even Walker.

Some of them might be more important to me than others. After all, I was only human. I couldn't possibly say I thought of everyone equally. Still, taking revenge by sacrificing their lives, that was something I couldn't do.

In the end, that's what it was.

I wasn't someone who Ellos had to protect.

"What... What did I think about Ellos?"

Were we even friends?

We met for the first time on the dungeon's 5th floor. He was kind, and even after his party moved on and I had no other choice but to remain on the 5th floor, he continued to contact me and encourage me. When we met the second time, I positions had swapped. Still, the way we treated each other hadn't changed. We respected each other and hoped we could both protect our worlds.

Now I thought about it, that was it.

We didn't share any special bond, nor did we spend enough time to trust each other unconditionally. Not only that, I was suspicious and wary of him.

That was all there was between us.

"Dear Husband, you can't protect everyone you come to know. It's even harder to connect with them emotionally."

"Yeah, I know... Even though I know that..."

Now that my anger had subsided, all that remained was emptiness. I felt empty like I didn't want to do anything. I wanted to throw this world away and just return to Earth.

But I couldn't do that. Just because Ellos threw away this world, I couldn't do the same. I couldn't make everyone struggling to survive in this continent despair because of two irresponsible Heroes.

"They need hope, too. They also need a new Hero."

"Yeah."

I looked up and scanned our surroundings. Right, I couldn't stay down forever. I was going to give them hope. A new hope.

Instead of a Hero who died and a Hero who abandoned himself and his world, I had to make a new Hero with the heart to protect his continent. It might take some time, but it should be possible. I hoped so. If I couldn't find someone like that, that would be the end for this continent. After all, this continent still had an absurdly long road ahead.

I thought of what Hazen said. I recalled his hate-filled face, as he said he would need to infinitely fight with other worlds to survive.

It was easy to regard everything as a lie and forget. That was better for my heart, too.

But, if he was right...

If it didn't end...

If, even after defeating the Demon Lord and all monsters, a pathway to another world opened and enemies poured in...

I clenched my fists.

"Licorice, let's survive until the end."

"Un."

"Until the end. The end of the end."

"Un."

"No matter what..."

I could see the empire's palace. Now, it was time to go see the new Hero candidate.