Chwaaaa…
A ship, breaking apart, slices through the waves.
Despite water continuously flooding in, the ship doesn’t sink and keeps moving.
Kukung… Kukung…
Before I know it, the sky of the halted space darkens, and ominous clouds begin to form.
It resembles the signs of a Kraken’s emergence.
[What’s going on?]
[Isn’t it discovered?]
[Feels like we’re doomed.]
[Let’s just smash everything.]
[A hit with the hammer should clean it up.]
[Scary, Lily, hug me.]
[Hahahahahaha]
“Hmm…”
While I was admiring the sea for a moment, I immediately summoned the White Guardian.
A pure white hammer was grasped in my hand, and as I infused it with holiness, a powerful explosion of light erupted in the dark space.
At the same time, a cloned White Guardian prepared to attack beside me.
Soon, the hammer smashed the ship to pieces…
“It might be better to stop.”
“?”
Before I could do anything, someone halted me.
A man standing at the edge of the ship.
The man in a purple robe glanced at me, eyes hidden beneath his long purple hair.
The sudden appearance of this being exuded a palpable power.
‘Sorcerer.’
The most important figure of this dungeon has appeared.
“You must be the sorcerer.”
“The destination of this ship is a world destroyed by disaster. If you don’t want to be swept away, it’s best to let it drift.”
“Destruction? Are you talking about what the Kraken did?”
“……”
The one presumed to be the sorcerer silently gazes towards the sea.
The ship, which still should not move, parts the waves as a tense standoff continues.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s good that you suppressed the Sea Disaster. But that alone isn’t enough.”
The sorcerer’s purple eyes fixate on the distant horizon.
Heoooo…
Strangely approaching legs and eyes.
“The disaster you suppressed is merely the tip of the iceberg. No, it’s less than that; just a lowly creature. The true disaster is like a gigantic star.”
“What’s its identity?”
“This place is a world where the disaster has achieved its purpose. If you hadn’t intervened, it would have happened.”
“……”
“Do not concern yourself with external matters, and do your utmost in your own tasks. You, a mere creature, should be grateful for surviving against the existence of a star. Thus—?!”
Kwaaaang!!
I smashed the sorcerer with the hammer, causing him to lose balance and tumble over.
“What are you doing! You ignorant—”
“One more.”
Kwaaaang!!
The sorcerer is hit again, this time by the cloned White Guardian.
This time, he completely collapses and rolls somewhere on the ship.
I roll around somewhere in my belly after collapsing completely.
[Hahaha!]
[Wow!]
[So much swagger, huh?]
[Feeling great, haha!]
[Great Lily!]
[Yeah~ Kraken Lily knows it better~]
[You little creature, right? Hahaha!]
[You really got smacked for just blabbing, huh?]
[Why aren’t you answering the questions? ;;]
[Professor Lily’s super mad!]
[Isn’t this a fail? Haha?]
Whoosh! With the hammer retrieved, I approached the pitiful sorcerer while draping the White Guardian over my shoulder.
By the way, I activated the 4th state, so I’m not hurt.
Just collapsed from the shock.
“I’m sorry. My hand just slipped!”
“…Are you insane?”
“About half?”
I don’t think it’s normal.
“…Insane.”
“How about it? Still think I’m a little creature?”
“……”
The ‘Lily’ the sorcerer saw was the Young Lily.
Weakly receiving what little of my power was left, a young girl who still doesn’t know what her heart desires.
In contrast, I’m now in a state that is immeasurably stronger, both inside and out, compared to her.
The sorcerer’s violet eyes widen, and then he glares at me, surprised.
“…You’re not that child.”
“That’s right.”
In the previous round, he spotted me just from reading a letter and managed to fail, but this time is different.
I came here not by tearing through with power, but by ‘disarming’ a trap, which is why the sorcerer thought I was the Young Lily.
‘A somewhat intelligent girl with a degree of strong power.’
But within her was the Dreamland Fairy, a time-looping returner.
Of course, Young Lily might learn the sorcerer’s true nature, so there’s a chance of failure…
“…It’s done. Since I’ve come this far, it doesn’t matter.”
Once he’s entered my home room, he can’t just kick me out.
The sorcerer shakes his head and stands up.
“Mustn’t hurt, but you’re playing the victim.”
“…You’re definitely an outsider. What’s your identity?”
“I asked first! If you tell me, I’ll tell you!”
“……”
The sorcerer walks again and stands at the stern of the ship.
“…Do you know about disaster?”
“Of course.”
Though he asked questions without waiting for my response, I didn’t particularly want to avoid answering.
I might not know other monsters, but I have quite a connection with the Kraken.
The Kraken was one of the countless monsters I battled, having almost equal skill with a win rate that was nearly 50% until it died.
Of course, I became quite strong after the Kraken’s death, but I lost my power, while the Kraken, on the other hand, grew stronger than before.
The Kraken has become stronger than before.
[No, answer my question.]
[I think I need to hit you once more.]
[Let’s hit the hammer again.]
[Lol.]
“There’s probably no one who knows the Kraken as well as I do. Especially not now.”
“If that’s the case, this should be easy. That guy is spreading his avatars all over the world.”
“I’ve seen that.”
There are already over 30 sea dungeons discovered.
The difficulty, dungeon mechanics, and playtime all vary, but it’s for sure that they’re all connected to the Kraken.
The sorcerer nods.
“Each of its avatars possesses different powers. Some avatars are so weak that a single knight can defeat them, while others have the strength to sink an entire subcontinent.”
“……”
“I hear that if we leave some aside, they might not be that threatening.”
But.
“The towns that encountered weak avatars fell because they had no knight-class powerful enough. Conversely, the towns facing strong avatars also met the same fate because there was no one strong enough to oppose them.”
“……”
“Of course, there are times when external strong ones like you come to defend, but even that has its limits. Gradually, the number of avatars is increasing. What will happen if this continues?”
If the number of sea dungeons keeps rising, to the point where it becomes hard for users to handle?
“…They’ll burst out.”
On that day, January 1st.
At the moment the Great Cataclysm occurs, dozens, hundreds of avatar Krakens and the real Kraken will reveal themselves in Deoen.
To sink the entire continent into the sea.
And this halted place…
“This is a world that collapsed because it had no knight-class strength. Truly a futile end.”
Screech… screech…
Splash…
A port with a sinister sea and barely a trace left can be seen.
Perhaps it’s a place similar to Young Lily’s village.
The Kraken itself was much stronger near Lily’s village, but the difference was that I was there in that place.
Screech… splash!
But I wasn’t here.
Perhaps this place had been a dungeon previously visited by users, but maybe they were complete beginners or quit for some reason.
Splash…
I pass the ruined port.
In the distance, I see the faint eye of a Kraken.
I lifted my hammer just in case an attack might work, but since this place seemed already ruined, it seemed that my attack wouldn’t land.
Something was blocking me.
If I acted even slightly threatening, a failure message would probably pop up immediately.
“It’s already a story that has ended. It’s best not to disturb it.”
“So who are you? How do you know about all this?”
Knowing about the disaster isn’t an issue, but the fact that the Kraken is making avatars and spreading them throughout the dungeons isn’t something the residents should know.
It’s not exactly the kind of thing that residents would know – that gods are being created and scattered throughout the dungeon.
But it’s something the Outsider, aka the User, might be aware of.
But how in the world does the sorcerer in front of me know such information while wandering through this destroyed world?
[Who are you?]
[Not a User?]
[???]
[So the Kraken really is strong after all.]
[Is the sorcerer the mastermind? LOL]
[Wasn’t the sorcerer the mastermind?]
[Wait, was he actually a good guy?]
[?]
He quietly closes his eyes and speaks.
“…The place I was in was one where a disaster capable of submerging the small continent resided.”
An Abnormal Creature with 20% of its main body’s power.
Despite having strong power compared to others, he did his best with the Outsider who came to help him, but ultimately couldn’t prevent destruction.
After numerous challenges, the Outsider died and escaped from the dungeon, while the remaining sorcerer had to witness the world’s ruin with his own two eyes.
Normally, the sorcerer would have died too and become a wandering soul in the sea, but he was different.
“The Outsider possessed a special technique called the ‘Hidden World.’ Before he left, he revealed the secret of that technique to me, and based on that, I succeeded in creating a space where time flowed incredibly slowly.”
When he finally emerged from that Hidden World after enduring for so long, everything was over.
The continent had turned into a sea, and the towering disaster above couldn’t even be touched due to some form of suppression.
In the moment where he had given up everything, including revenge, he encountered a Golden Raccoon floating in the void, surveying the disaster.
Upon seeing him, the extremely flustered raccoon freaked out, wondering how he was still alive…
“Another raccoon?”
“Yeah… uh?”
“No. No, keep talking.”
[LOL]
[Wow, there are a lot of raccoons popping up.]
[What’s going on? LOL]
[The real mastermind is the clan of the Golden Raccoon.]
[Raccoon man, you scoundrel!]
[Seriously, are the raccoon kids not doing their job? Ah, LOL]
[You’re here too, Raccoon man?]
“…The Raccoon with divine powers proposed to me. It asked if I would help those suffering under the disaster in another world.”
“…….”
Seems like it was just trying to cover up its own mistake with that.
“So that’s why you did all this complicated stuff.”
“Yeah. There was a word to not reveal my identity, and I had my own limitations too. Well, now that we’ve come this far, it shouldn’t be a problem to reveal it…”
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