Not a god, nor a human.
Both a god and a human.
A hybrid born between gods and humans.
To put it nicely, a half god, half human.
My name is ‘Azelas’.
I, Azelas, have been in anguish for a long time.
Where exactly is the boundary between gods and humans?
As time passed, the answer didn’t come easily.
At first, I thought it was just a difference in power.
Like the strong distinguishing the weak.
I thought the difference between gods and humans was merely a gap in abilities.
Let alone the destruction gods.
They wield incredible power, but can they truly be called gods when they solely indulge in destruction?
No.
They were simply beings born with excessive power by sheer luck.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Of course.
The existence of creator gods, who create worlds and breathe life into them, is worth acknowledging.
But even their creations were far from perfect.
The created worlds and lives were incomplete.
Envy, jealousy, hatred, slaughter, greed…
All these filled the created world and tainted it with chaos.
Therefore.
The creator gods were also just ordinary beings who were lucky enough to possess creation abilities. They were profoundly inadequate to be called gods.
Whether they were gods with the power of creation,
Or the artificially created humans they produced,
Or the naturally born humans existing from the beginning of the world,
Or the homunculi and androids created by humans,
They were all merely beings with the same imperfection.
I arrived at the conclusion that essentially, they were not different at all.
It was a thought only I, who was neither god nor human, but a half god and half human, could have.
*
While endlessly agonizing over gods and humans,
I stumbled upon the world known as the Ancient Labyrinth.
And I heard that if I became an explorer there and transformed into the Ruler of the Ancient Labyrinth, I could become a perfect god.
Unlike the imperfect false gods of the heavenly realm.
A truly complete and real absolute god.
I craved that position.
A being with the blood of both gods and humans.
A being whose human soul and divine soul were intertwined.
I believed I was most suited for the position of an absolute god.
Because I could understand the essence of both sides and view everything objectively.
From that moment on.
All my efforts were focused on finding a way to the Ancient Labyrinth.
However, the road to it was not easy.
Even the god who governs dimensions declared that they could not access the Ancient Labyrinth.
And spoke.
There are three ways to reach the Ancient Labyrinth.
Either be invited by an explorer.
Or receive an invitation from the Ancient Labyrinth itself.
Or be caught up in a dark portal.
In the end, it meant that only the chosen ones, those lucky enough to be selected from all dimensions, could become explorers.
Yet, I did not give up.
I believed that if I longed for it enough, someday my heart would reach the Ancient Labyrinth.
And truly, did my earnest heart reach the Ancient Labyrinth?
One day suddenly.
I became an explorer.
*
Explorers could choose one of three traits.
Lone One.
Ruler.
Supported One.
The power each trait possessed was kindly explained by the Ancient Labyrinth.
However, the explanation regarding the conditions for using the traits was not kind at all.
How should I put it? The explanation was vague?
Lone One is a trait that gains strength by consuming opposing monsters.
The additional condition is ■?■■?.
Ruler is a trait that rules monsters by ■■?■■?■■?.
Supported One is a trait that becomes friends with monsters.
The condition is to bow in front of the monster.
Not just once, but a certain number of bows were needed to tame it.
The reason the explanation was a bit unkind is probably due to the level of the soul.
I’ve heard that the Ancient Labyrinth favors and prefers those with high soul levels.
However, they don’t invite only those with high soul levels.
It’s said that opportunities are provided equally to all.
Anyway, this was not bad enough.
Even if the condition descriptions were unkind, it wasn’t to the point of being incomprehensible.
For someone like me, who has a fairly high soul level, this level of explanation should mean that there are those who see no explanations at all. For instance, only the trait names could be visible.
After a brief concern, I chose the Lone One trait.
The Ruler trait had no proper explanation visible.
And the Supported One, which had all the explanations visible, had conditions that sounded ridiculous.
The Lone One was relatively clear compared to the Ruler, and I liked the idea of growing stronger alone without anyone’s help.
As soon as I chose the trait.
The additional condition for the Lone One trait appeared before my eyes.
The additional condition was as follows.
==================
Eat excrement.
If eaten, you will absorb the monster’s power and grow stronger.
However, as you grow stronger, both your body and mind will change like a monster.
Hint.
Monsters have strong mental fortitude, so transforming into a monster mentally is attractive.
Warning.
Greed is forbidden.
Rapid growth in a short span will cause mental collapse.
==================
Eating excrement as a condition.
It wasn’t a particularly difficult condition.
This much, no problem.
As long as I don’t get greedy, there wouldn’t be a collapse of my mind.
I can grow slowly, very slowly.
There’s plenty of time.
*
Around the explorer, the power of monsters weakens.
The strength gained from the Lone One trait was similarly affected.
Absorbing power in a weakened state was natural.
After all, I am absorbing the power of monsters in a weakened state, not their true strength.
Even if the owner of the excrement was far away, nothing would change.
This was also natural.
Given that the monsters around me were in a weakened state, it would be unfair if I could exert my power without being weakened.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Becoming the Ruler of the Labyrinth would surely free the limits of my power.
Ah. By the way, my life in the Labyrinth was very smooth.
I could easily annihilate most monsters.
Not with the power gained from the Lone One trait.
But because of the inherent powers I already possessed.
This was likely a privilege of being an explorer.
While drifters also see their power weakened…
This was a different kind of privilege.
At least the drifter didn’t have the ability to weaken monsters like explorers. Having their power remain strong, they would still have to face strong monsters.
Isn’t it possible to team up with explorers?
No.
When drifters get near explorers, they too get weakened like monsters.
However, I remained unaffected by my inherent power even if I met other explorers.
Thanks to that, I could wander through the labyrinth, easily taking out most monsters.
Then one day.
I suddenly felt anxious.
Am I really getting stronger?
Doubts began to creep in.
The strength obtained from the Lone One trait was still in a weakened state.
The power absorbed through the trait was weaker than my inherent strength.
Since I couldn’t properly gauge the power I currently held, I continuously questioned whether I was indeed getting stronger.
I wanted to be stronger.
More than I am now.
Someday, becoming a ruler would naturally release my powers, but waiting until then was hard.
Desire gradually bloomed.
Eventually, I made the worst choice.
I consumed the excrement of a monster whose power was equivalent to or even greater than my inherent strength, not weakened.
And I felt something was wrong.
The limits of my power began to lift.
The strength gained not from my inherent being, but from the Lone One trait.
The monsters nearby also found their power limits released.
At last, my inherent power and the Lone One’s power intertwined.
I felt that I was surely much stronger than when I first became an explorer.
At the same time, a splitting headache consumed me.
And my breath quickened, making my vision blur.
It felt like my soul was being engulfed by darkness.
Who am I?
Where is this place?
What is my purpose?
Was eating excrement the reason for my life?
My name is…
Now, my memories are a confusion, and my self is beginning to vanish.
It was the moment my qualifications as an explorer were revoked.
I instinctively knew that I was finished.
Before losing my self completely, I left a note.
Hoping that the next explorer would not repeat my mistakes.
And wishing for peace to be brought to the monster I had become due to mental collapse.
Afterwards.
I, Azelas, fell and metamorphosed into a monster with little reasoning left… a creature with barely any sanity.
An outcome wrought by excessive greed and foolish choices.
*
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I want to die.
I must eat excrement.
I move.
“Excrement…”
I move. I want to die. I see something. I must eat excrement.
Only simple thoughts dominate my brain.
And only the desire to eat excrement leads me to wander around the labyrinth as a monster.
The former explorer.
Azelas suddenly noticed a strange sensation while dealing with monsters attacking him.
Something was stuck to his back.
He hadn’t felt any killing intent, so it took him a while to realize.
He could have easily removed it right away…
But he didn’t want to take it off.
“…Alright.”
A pleasant sense of stability washed over him.
His mind felt clear and sharper.
Ultimately, lost in the cozy warmth enveloping his entire body, Azelas decided not to remove the arm that clung to his back.
As a day passed, Azelas’ memories began to gradually return.
“I am, still… alive… truly, I have survived for a long time.”
And two days later.
“This power is from a Supported One…”
He recalled who he was.
And he understood the reason for the phenomenon happening.
Azelas walked.
He kept moving forward.
To meet the ‘friend’ who had rescued him from the long darkness.
*
*
*
Azelas arrived at Kang Geon’s hideout.
Kang Geon was chewing on meat alongside monsters.
Azelas slowly took in his figure.
More trustworthy than anyone he had met so far.
A familiar feeling akin to an old friend struck him, bringing stability to his heart.
“Hey, you made it?”
Kang Geon waved his hand towards Azelas.
As if enchanted, Azelas slowly moved his feet to approach him.
“Wow, I was starting to wonder if you’d find your way here, considering it had been a while since you appeared on the list of tamed monsters.”
“…”
Though Azelas had lost his qualifications as an explorer, had no more chances, and had forgotten his original purpose,
the moment he faced Kang Geon, a new goal awakened within him.
“Sit here. For now, let’s eat some meat together. We can talk while dining.”
“…”
“You’re not picky about food, are you? If it’s excrement you want, I can gather some right now.”
“Want… to eat meat… not dung…”
“Ah. The Dog Spider has already relieved itself, but if you don’t want that, what can I do? I can feed you Blamasu instead. But why does your speech sound so sluggish? Has your intelligence returned?”
“Memory… has come back. Intelligence… isn’t… fully back… yet…”
“Do you remember your name?”
“…Azelas.”
Azelas sat next to Kang Geon.
And turning his gaze towards him, he made a vow.
To assist and support this person, and make him the Ruler of the Ancient Labyrinth.
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Lone One (Azelas)
—Actual Danger Level: SS-Class.
—Current (Nerfed) Danger Level: A-Class.
—Ability: Heavenly Martial Arts.
—Special Notes: Former explorer.
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