Chapter 281: Third Season (6)

"Shin is so mean."

"I messaged you first though."

"There's a big difference between seeing Shin-nim's face and just hearing Shin-nim's voice! I can't be assured that Shin-nim came back safely until I see Shin-nim and touch Shin-nim with my hands!"

Loretta fretted like a child and hit me lightly. A 'light' hit from Loretta was enough to massacre several hundred Orc Lords, but I endured the pain. Even if we did something couple-like, our bodies made it more extreme. I spoke as I did my best to hide my pain.

"Kkeung. I just wanted to finish everything I had to do before I came to see Loretta. That way, I won't be distracted by other things."

"... Until when?"

Loretta suddenly became quieter as she asked with sparkling eyes. It was extremely cute.

"All day."

"All day!? Really?"

"Yes."

"Yay!"

Seeing Loretta clap in happiness, I smiled awkwardly. Loretta pushed herself towards me and asked with a flushed face.

"What should we play? What should we play?"

"Playing is nice, but there's actually something I want to learn from Loretta."

In an instant, Loretta's face became rotten.

"Shin-nim, is it fun inflating my expectation and bursting it in a moment?"

"It is, actual... Sorry."

After barely consoling Loretta, I had her sit down next to me. Of course, I had to suffer through unspeakable pain before then.

"Fine, but only because I'll be spending time with Shin-nim."

"Right, so what I want to learn is..."

"If it's punching people, I'm really good at that."

Loretta smiled sweetly and threw several jabs. With even a single jab being potentially lethal, I realized Loretta was still slightly angry.

"That's nice, but I want to learn about Dimensional Travel."

Loretta face stiffened.

"You're kidding, right?"

"I'm not."

"... Hold on."

Loretta got up and circled around the room. She then went into the kitchen and boiled red tea. After wandering around for 10 minutes without saying anything, Loretta filled her teacup and took a sip. Only then did she finally say something.

"Fine, but only because I'll be spending time with Shin-nim."

"You're going that far back!?"

"I don't know, you can't!"

"I want to learn it."

I looked at Loretta with a serious face. Loretta then humphed and snorted.

"No!"

"Why not?"

"The difficult of the magic is too high. Also, crossing a dimension with one's own power rather than using the dungeon's power takes an enormous amount of mana! It's impossible with Shin-nim's current strength!"

"But I still want to learn it. If I do, I'm sure it'll be useful one day."

Loretta wore a exhausted look and asked.

"At least tell me the reason Shin-nim wants to learn it."

"I want to be able to use the skills the dungeon gave me on my own power."

"Be more honest."

"I also thought about being stuck in a foreign world where the dungeon's power didn't work."

"That's not... impossible, I guess."

Loretta turned back from trying to shoot me down. She knew what I had gone through.

The balance between attack and defense was twisting in a strange way. The Demon Lord wasn't the only world's enemy trying to analyze the dungeon's power to overcome it. Unless I planned on quit being a Dimensional Mercenary, I wanted to learn how to use Dimensional Travel on my own.

"But Shin-nim, it will be really hard. It's not something you can master in just one or two days."

"I'm prepared. I'll come learn it from Loretta even if I have to squeeze my available time dry."

"..."

Thinking about it now, Loretta seemed to have liked what I just said. Loretta ears were perked up. She fell in thought for a moment, then finally nodded.

"Don't tell this to Lord. Only tell her after you fully master Dimensional Travel."

"Got it."

Loretta sighed. She then tilted her head and asked.

"Shin-nim, how did you know I could use Dimensional Travel? Even amongst dungeon administrators, I'm the only one other than Lord who can use it."

"It's that hard!?"

"Ah, so you were just mistaken on how hard it was."

Loretta gave me a stare urging me to give up now, but I only grinned in return. Loretta then suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"Shin-nim, now that I think about it, is that a proposal? It's the same thing as 'I'll be with you forever,' right?"

"I want to learn it quickly, so cut the nonsense"

Loretta's tutoring starting just like that. In parallel with Dimensional Travel, I also practiced making other skills I learned in the dungeon mine. As long as I could protect myself from Loretta, who was eyeing my body like a predator eyeing a prey, she was the best mentor.

Ren and Paul's thrashing phase, Revival members' Peruta Circuit lessons, learning Dimensional Travel from Loretta, and making Ciara into a person with Hwaya.

There were many things I had to do, but that didn't mean I could stop climbing the dungeon. I was sure that my current self wasn't strong enough to defeat the Demon Lord.

Not to mention, the Demon Lord wasn't the final boss. I had to defeat the one above the Demon Lord, and even then, I couldn't be sure that Earth would be completely safe. Even though I said I would defeat foreign worlds' enemies, invading their territory was different than them invading mine. Furthermore... No, even if I thought about that one, I couldn't do anything about it, so let's set it aside.

In any case, I headed to the dungeon. First Dungeon's 81st floor. It was the true upper part of the dungeon belonging to Platinum rank explorers.

[If Tamer is not your main class, the number of tamed beast you can take to the 81st floor is limited to one.]

When I stepped on the stairway with Licorice and Lotte, message noona... Sherafina's alert rang out in my ear. I halted my steps and glanced at Loretta who was happily waving her hand from the Floor Shop. Loretta tilted her head for a moment, and hit her left palm with her right fist like she just remembered something. Then, she stuck out her tongue.

"Ehet."

Inexcusable. Still, since she was cute, I decided to forgive her.

"You forgot again, didn't you?"

"Yep! It's been a while since I dealt with a new Platinum rank explorer!"

I sighed and looked back at Licorice and Lotte.

"You two should go train by yourselves. Tell Plene to work hard too."

"We're both going back?"

"Yeah. Since it's like this, I might as well try it on my own."

Licorice seemed a bit disappointed, but Lotte simply shrugged.

"It'll be fine if it's Hero. Then I'll head to Resting Place of the Angels."

"I'll go back to Earth."

The two of them nodded and headed back. After sending them off, I looked back at Loretta who was still grinning happily and smacked her forehead with a light aura ball. Loretta frowned and shouted.

"Shin-nim is so mean! Give me one hundred kisses as punishment!"

"That's a reward, so no."

"... Eh?"

After hearing what I said, Loretta titled her head for a moment. Leaving the then blushing Loretta behind, I went up to the 81st floor. Loretta was definitely stupid.

[You entered the 81st floor. Yell 'commence exploration' to start exploring.]

The 81st floor carried an eerie atmosphere. It felt like ghosts would pop out of the large hallway at any time. It wasn't just the atmosphere that was eerie. The mana in the hallway was also chillingly cold. I had to summon Ruyue to lessen its impact.

"If it's like this from the beginning, it won't be easy... Commence exploration!"

As soon as the words left my mouth, the hallway's atmosphere changed and its mana pressured me with a killing intent. I poured mana into my choker and summoned Chaotic Spear. At that moment, I felt something falling on my head.

"Haa!"

I shot my spear up fiercely. However, I didn't feel my spear connecting. I jumped back and checked my spear.

There was a lump of blood stuck on my spear tip.

[The blood is moving.]

Ruyue briefly spoke. It was as she said. Blood dripping from the ceiling, blood coursing through the walls, and blood crawling on the ground. They were all aiming for me. First, the blood traveling up my spear handle was the biggest problem. I quickly swung my spear, but I couldn't shake it off.

"Is this even a monster!?"

[I can feel a powerful mana! It's similar to a elemental!

"Ruyue, freeze it!"

[Un!]

Ruyue immediately frozen the spear handle. Surprisingly, the blood absorbed Ruyue's ice and continued to creep towards me. Mana eater, this was a mana eater! I clenched my teeth and roused Lightning God's power. Finally, a little bit of the blood evaporated. However, what I did was like peeing on a field of ice. Compared to the amount of mana I spent, the blood only incurred a tiny loss.

"So troublesome."

I couldn't just let it continue crawl up the spear handle. When I poured in more of Lightning God's power, the blood shot up with a crackling noise. It headed towards my face, and I smacked it down with my spear blade filled with Lightning God's power.

"Ruyue, stop the blood falling from the ceiling! Peika, Sharana!"

[From the 81st floor, you cannot have three elementals out at the same time.]

Along with Sherafina's explanation, only Peika appeared in front of me. When she saw the blood creeping towards me from all sides, she freaked out and released lightning.

[Creepy! Burn up!]

"Peika, they're mana eaters. You need to use a lot of power!"

[Got it!]

While Peika and Ruyue frantically stopped the blood from encroaching, I hurriedly took out a mana potion and gulped it down.

Meanwhile, more and more blood appeared. Seeing a stream of blood shooting up from the ground underneath me, I got startled and stabbed it with my spear. When the property of a liquid mixed with the property of a mana eater, it became extremely tricky to deal with. As I couldn't just stand here and block them forever, I began to run. As I saw more and more blood filling up the hallway, I became a bit tired.

"What the hell are these things!?"

I considered using Elemental Tempest, but gave up as I was afraid of the mana eaters annihilating the elementals' existence. In the end, I used Heroic Strikes to cut apart the flood of blood and shouted in annoyance. Although I wasn't expecting an answer, a voice replied to the annoyed shout.

[They are 'Crimson Hell', the world's enemy that almost ruined the world Pantiran.]

... Say what?