And at the same time, a small fragment pierced through the chest of the Lizardman.
Gooooh─
‘It’s so radiant.’
The fragment, emitting a beautiful light to the point that I wanted to gift it to Yeon-hee, flew into my hand and was immediately stored in the space.
I had neatly recovered the corpse of the Lizardman, whose head was crushed, and watched as something like a black hole began to form in the air.
– Energy of emptiness detected.
– Third dimensional channel discovered!
– Would you like to challenge the hidden quest?
‘…Is this how it goes? Alright, let’s do it.’
Perhaps recovering two lives helped, I didn’t feel much burden in challenging it.
I immediately threw myself into the Black Whirlpool.
* * *
‘Kuh… My head. Where am I now?’
When I opened my eyes, my viewpoint was elevated.
Below me lay a landscape filled with not-so-tall stone buildings clustered together, slightly floating in the air.
‘There are many people. They look familiar…’
These were the inhabitants of another world I had seen a few times before.
They were very tall, with brown hair and considerable magical power.
‘It smells good… Is this a market?’
Rows of small shops selling food lined the street, and I found myself on the roof of one of those shops.
The people seemed to be chatting and laughing, enjoying their happy lives, and I felt like I had come to a place I shouldn’t be.
But suddenly, the strange energy that draped over my senses was dark and damp enough to snatch away their peace.
Creeeak── Crack──
The blue sky began to fracture, and something that made up the sky shattered like a glass window and poured down to the ground.
‘Wait… Was this inside a barrier?’
The outer space visible through the broken sky was as dark as the sky at dawn, and the inhabitants, who reacted a moment too late, began to scream and hurriedly run toward a single direction.
There, a massive structure had begun to rise, unlike the simple shapes of the surrounding buildings, looking like a very sturdy fortress with geometric shapes.
‘Familiar movements… It seems they had laid out escape routes in advance.’
The expressions on the inhabitants’ faces didn’t reflect the shock of encountering something unexpected. They looked determined as if they were finally facing an inevitable event.
I widened my senses to the max.
‘So this… Is the last ark of the inhabitants?’
An unbelievably massive castle filled my senses halfway.
Designed with an incomprehensible magical structure that I couldn’t even begin to fathom, it was a vessel that boasted technology beyond the commonsense of our world.
‘To have even manifested ecology and weather… In a way, this space itself is one massive magic.’
– Recover the fragment of the seeker colored by chaos!
‘…Here it comes.’
[Crurrrrrr….]
Suddenly, something with a gigantic eye started to poke its head through the crack in the sky.
‘Is that a quest to kill that thing?!’
It certainly resembled some kind of snake, but its gigantic body, reaching 7 to 8 meters, had scales similar to those of fish scattered all over, exposing bones in many places.
Its face was adorned with numerous tentacles, and at the ends of each one, human faces screaming were formed.
[Kyaaaaaaaaaaak─!!]
‘Not just resembling human faces…’
As the faces on the dozens of tentacles screamed in unison, the inhabitants collapsed to the ground, covering their ears in agony.
Creeeak──
‘What…!’
The monster climbing along the ceiling showed no hesitation in its actions.
It opened its maw wide, attempting to spit out something horrifying.
I soared into the sky in an instant, but there were already inhabitants who had reacted and taken a combat stance.
‘Oh… I don’t have to fight alone?’
Inhabitants equipped with mechanical devices resembling wings took to the sky and spread out in a circular formation.
Kwahhhhh───
Soon, the monster’s breath, aimed at them, erupted violently, and they implemented hundreds of formed defensive barriers to barely withstand it.
‘If I jump in recklessly, I might disrupt their formation.’
I decided to observe them for a moment.
The mysterious monster held combat power slightly above that of the Lizardman I had faced just moments ago.
If a race with such technology could build this level of world, then that beast should be—
– Kyaaaaaaaaaa!! No more! I can’t hold on!!
– I can’t endure this!!
– For now, let’s retreat and look for another opportunity!!
‘……Huh?’
Contrary to expectations, the inhabitants retreated before even lasting a minute.
‘What the!! If they just run away like that!!’
As they dashed away, the monster’s tainted breath fell right where they had been, causing the remaining people to panic and jump out of the way.
‘Wow- still, even regular folks are managing to dodge that thing.’
I activated [High-speed Flight] and charged at the monster as it tried to continue its attacking breath.
I swung my sword fiercely.
Shshhhh──!
[Kaaahhhhh──!!]
‘Shit-! Its tentacles are as tough as steel!’
Although I aimed to decapitate the monster in one stroke, hundreds of tentacles moved in an instant to block my attack.
It was a relief that I managed to cut off the majority of the tentacles.
Just as I was following up with more attacks—
[Khaaaaa──]
Shivers ran down my spine.
Suddenly, I sensed another presence behind me where nothing had been just moments ago.
Kwahhh──!!
Hit by a massive forepaw, I was sent flying, losing a bit of health.
‘Urgh…! My head.’
I crashed into the terrain a little distance away from the inhabitants’ city and hurriedly surveyed the sky, where another tentacle monster, identical to the first, had appeared.
And atop the head of the second tentacle monster, I spotted the figure of a humanoid being.
‘What’s that…?’
– The seeker fragment, ‘Mostalia Deathwaker,’ tainted by chaos, recognizes you.
‘Whoa- So I don’t need to kill that tentacle monster, but the woman? Crazy…?’
The woman named ‘Mostalia,’ whose skull bones were starkly exposed at the back of her head, blinked slowly before opening her mouth.
[Skeleton Soldier…? Why do you not bow to ‘Death Raiser’?]
‘Death Raiser? A necromancer, huh? Bow? That’s ridiculous!’
[Flame Shot]
Kwahhh──!!
A brilliant flame shot towards Mostalia.
And suddenly, smaller tentacle monsters manifested along the path.
‘How many does she have?!’
That woman was not just a level of a necromancer capable of raising corpses; her power was not much different from my summoning of minions.
Boom- Boom──!
The two tentacle monsters pierced through and disappeared as they erupted into flames.
Monsters attacked me wildly, but I was already in an invincible state, having swelled up like a house.
[What, what the hell is that monster?!]
‘You and I are the same. We’re both monsters! Die!!’
Bam bam bam bam───!!
With the release of magic, thousands of projectiles began to fill the sky of this other world.
I was greatly exhausting my mental power to narrow the angles of the projectiles to avoid harming the people below, but it was still a sufficiently threatening attack.
[No way! What is happening?! How could this be!…]
‘Hah-! Even to the last moment, you’re still blabbering. Spill your blood!’
I cleanly decapitated the terrified woman as she came closer.
Shshhhhh──
Even I, who was suffering from pain, was recognized as a living being by the system; that’s why I could dispose of her with such offense.
– The fragment of the seeker tainted by chaos has been recovered. (2/3)
– Two lives restored!
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