Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society - Chapter 277

Chapter 277

Chapter 277 . Third Season (2)

To be honest, I didn’t want to stay in the Edias continent any longer . I wanted to finish what I needed to and quickly go back .

I told Paul that the Hero had lost his power and transferred the world’s power to Ellos . If I announced it publicly, it would only have served lowered their morale . It was best to not tell anyone, but I felt like I needed to tell Paul .

“So it really was like that…”

After listening to what happened, Paul wore an uncharacteristic solemn expression . I held him by his collar and shook him .

“It really was like that? Did you know something!?”

“No, no! Just that… Ever since Ellos lost Baruella, he’s done many things without telling me . He lost his usual laughter, and he got stronger even though he didn’t enter the dungeon… I also couldn’t talk to him like I could before . That was it!”

Indeed, it was hard to suspect someone just because of that, especially if that person was someone he was close to . I accepted Paul’s explanation and let him go . After letting out a dry cough, I continued .

“In any case, I have your world’s power right now . ”

“Ah…”

Paul made a nervous expression . If I were in his position, I would have immediately thrown me in the prison until I spat out the world’s power . That was how important the world’s power was . The only reason Paul wasn’t doing anything was that no one was strong enough to restrain me .

Eventually, he opened his mouth carefully .

“Hey, Kang Shin . ”

“We need to pick a new Hero from your continent . I’ll transfer the power to him . ”

“Ah . ”

He looked openly relieved . Then, he suddenly paled . I didn’t know who put him in the position of a crown prince, but that person must have wished for the empire’s doom .

“A new Hero? But who?”

“Ah, I already decided, so you don’t need to worry about it . ”

“You’ve already decided? But Ellos and I are the only ones you know from this continent!”

“Yeah, I also don’t want to make someone I don’t know into the Hero . That’s why I picked someone I knew . ”

“… Eh?”

Paul tilted his head . He blinked his eyes a few times, then widened his eyes and shouted .

“M-Me!?”

“Yep!”

“You want me to become the Hero? Hell no!”

“Don’t worry . You might not know this, but you don’t have the right to refuse . ”

I grinned at Paul who was frantically shaking his head .

“It takes a long time to transfer a Hero’s power . That means I’ll need to take that person to Earth, and I absolutely refuse to bring someone I don’t know to Earth . ”

“I refuse! I don’t want to, I can’t . ”

“Then you want me to go back to Earth with this power?”

“There’s this excellent knight! I’ll recommend her in my place!”

“Just get packing . ”

“But she’s an absolutely beautiful female knight!”

“I don’t care . Go pack . ”

Paul seemed to be going insane . He muttered more nonsense before he dropped his head and spoke .

“I can’t . I’m too weak . ”

“I agree, you’re weak, but humans aren’t strong from the start . ”

I grabbed his shoulders and spoke seriously .

“There’s something I’ve prepared for you . ”

“You? For me?”

“Yeah . ”

I announced with a solemn expression .

“I call it the thrashing phase . ”

With that, I dragged Paul back to Earth . The Edias continent’s people protested, so I cleaned up the invaders for a day with Lotte and Licorice while I waited for Paul to get ready .

Even though the density had decreased, Edias continent’s atmospheric mana was still on my side . Using it, I annihilated many invaders .

“With this, you won’t have to worry about anything for a while . Their leader is also dead, and I should have killed at least a tenth of their overall number . ”

“Are you saying you annihilated 10% of them in a single day?”

“No, of course not . The 10% is including the ones I killed on the way to Peruta Mountain Range . ”

Paul opened his mouth with a dumbfounded expression .

“You’re not human . ”

“I’ve been thinking that recently, too . ”

In any case, after I returned to Earth with Paul, I visited Eleine to report what happened . I didn’t go to Fairy Garden and went directly to the Lost Valley guild area . Eleine had told me how to get there last time we talked .

When she found out that the Hero was already dead when I got there, she couldn’t hide her shock .

“They’re even more skilled with magical tools than me? I thought for sure that he was still alive…”

“They had a way of tricking the dungeon’s system, so that much should have been nothing . ”

“Haa, Tian…”

Eleine dropped her head and quietly murmured what seemed to be the Hero’s name . Was that enough? She soon raised her head and continued .

“In any case, you completed the mission perfectly . I’ll make sure to give you the MVP reward . ”

“But I couldn’t save him . ”

“But you tried . You did everything you could for Edias continent . I’m sure Tian would be thankful to you, too . ”

When I became lost for words and just stood there silently, Eleine chuckled and put her hand on my head .

“You’re a good Hero . It reminds me of the time when I was a Hero . ”

“… Thank you for the compliment . ”

“But you’re not good enough as a man . I want to see Lin right now . ”

“Sorry, but I don’t find that regretful . ”

She frowned at my response and took out a small bead from her pocket . It had strange runes scribbled on it and was radiating a mystical glow .

“What’s this?”

“Mm, that’s a bit hard to answer . Right, I’ll tell you how it was created . When I transferred the world’s power to my continent’s successor Hero, I used the tiny bit of world’s power remaining in my body to make it . It’s a magical tool . ”

“Won’t you get in trouble if someone found out?”

“No one did, so it’s okay . So what this does is…”

She confessed her crime nonchalantly and continued .

“It forcefully raises the power of an object to its next level . I don’t know how to explain it . Not even Lord could name this item . ”

“It’s an enhancement stone . ”

“Enhancement stone?”

“No, nevermind . ”

I took the bead from her and appraised it . As expected, it was full of question marks just like when I first appraised Radiance . I was surprised that Eleine was such an amazing magic artificer . Even if it was made using the world’s power, making an item that surpassed Sherafina’s ability… I saw her in a different light now .

“Huhu, you’re grateful, right?”

“Yeah, thanks . It looks like it was worth risking my life . ”

I wasn’t being sarcastic . It was a reward that surpassed my imagination . As I received the enhancement stone, all kinds of thoughts ran through my head . Could I use this on myself? If I couldn’t, where do I use it? Chaotic Spear? Pure Black Desire? How was I supposed to activate it?

When I realized I couldn’t use it on my body, it was decided . I had to use it on Pure Black Desire . Chaotic Spear could still evolve on its own, but this was the only way for Pure Black Desire to evolve .

“Then that’s it for the reward . Bye-bye . I want to hurry up and meet Lin . ”

“Ah, let me go, too . I have to ask Lin something . ”

At that moment . Eleine’s scowled like a frog that ate a stinkbug .

“Oh? Eleine was hiding something like that?”

Lin grinned and stared at Eleine .

“I didn’t think you’d do something like that . ”

“I didn’t keep a portion on purpose . I wasn’t good at controlling the power at the time . ”

“Well, it turned out to be a good thing for this kid . So, you said you wanted to enhance Pure Black Desire with that thing?”

“Yes . ”

I gave him both the enhancement stone and Pure Black Desire . He took the enhancement stone and examined it for a bit . Then, he shook his head .

“I don’t think this is something you can just use . ”

“Do I need to do something special to get it to work?”

“Something like that . ”

I stared at Lin blankly . Then, I glared at Eleine . She shook her hands immediately .

“W-What? No! I didn’t put in any strange conditions!”

“What Eleine made is certainly a magical tool that enhances, no, evolves, objects . But it can’t be used on anything . It looks like it has several complicated conditions . I can only see through a couple of them . First, the object you’re using it on has to have an appropriate league . Your Pure Black Desire barely passes it . ”

“What’s the second?”

“The second one is a bit iffy . It’s kind of like your Chaotic Spear, but a little different . Pure Black Desire needs to go through many battles and build a record of blocking all sorts of attacks . As they say, objects have memories too . This magical tool raises the league of an object by using the object’s battle experience with its owner .

“It sounds complicated, but in the end, it’s all about EXP . ”

“Mm?”

“Just something from Earth . ”

I received Pure Black Desire and the magical tool .

“I made a slight modification to Pure Black Desire . When it’s time, it’ll glow . You just have to smash Pure Black Desire with the magical tool . Smash it hard, like you want to break it . ”

“Oh, as expected of Lin . ”

“Yeah, I’m pretty amazing . Anyways, good job on your Dimensional Mercenary mission . Hurry up and bring that gun-user to me . Ah, it was good seeing you too, Eleine . ”

He chased me away naturally and did the same to Eleine . Eleine frowned and shouted .

“Argh, I came to see Lin! I need Lin to console me!”

“Loka is still pregnant . Even I wouldn’t do it with another woman at this time . ”

“But I’ll die if Lin’s not here!”

“…”

For a moment, Lin made an extremely tired face and puffed out smoke .

“Then you can stay for tea . I’m saying this beforehand, don’t expect me to put a hand on you . ”

“Un!”

“That means you can’t touch me either . ”

“… Un?”

“Otherwise, you can go . ”

“No, I’m kidding! I’m kidding!”

Did she like Lin that much? I made a wry smile and quietly left . I suddenly wanted to see Loretta, but now wasn’t the time . I had to something to give to someone as quickly as possible .

“Hungry . ”

When I went back to Marianne’s Garden, Daisy was sprawled on the kitchen table as always . I made a wry smile and asked .

“When did you break through the 16th floor?”

“Two hours… ago . I haven’t, eaten anything, during that time . I’m, starving . ”

“Wait a bit, I’ll make you something . And here . ”

I took out the dragon bracelet Lin made with Radiance and handed it to her . When she received it, she looked at my own wrist fixedly . I added with a bitter smile .

“I fully absorbed mine . You’ll probably absorb it too . ”

“Absorb…? Tsk . ”

Daisy made an inexplicable sound and immediately equipped her bracelet . She did it so quickly that I didn’t even have the time to warn her .

The change was immediate . Daisy fell from her chair and rolled around on the ground without a word . It would’ve been better if she said something, as the complete silence was frightening .

Seeing Daisy roll around the ground so energetically, I thought about tying her to a mop . Suddenly, Daisy shot up . She seemed to be doing her best to maintain a calm expression, but she was clearly teary . It seemed it hurt a lot .

“You tricked me . ”

“You put it on before I could say anything . ”

“Kang Shin, bad . ”

“Yeah, yeah, my bad . ”

“Punishment, make me, delicious food . ”

“If it’s ramen, sure . ”

I spoke with a grin, and Daisy quickly nodded .

“From now on, Kang Shin is, forever my ramen chef . ”

“… Forever?”

“Forever . ”

In any case, it seemed Paul’s thrashing phase would need to wait a while .