Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society - Chapter 296

Chapter 296

Chapter 296 . Coming Closer, Going Farther (2)

“Thank goodness . ”

Seeing the zombie explode into pieces, I sighed in relief . That curse was just too dangerous . If I didn’t push it to something else using the black snake’s power, it might have been difficult to use other regeneration abilities .

“Daisy, Sumire… Ah, the messaging system doesn’t work right now . ”

The Death King wasn’t dead yet . His influence was still spread out across Vatican City and Rome . I had to destroy this life vessel thing as quickly as possible .

Using Peruta Circuit, I began to fill up my drained mana . After blowing away a tiny wisp of the curse left on my hand and cleaning up some of the nearby zombies, I shot up into the sky .

“The monsters in the sky are… mostly taken care of . ”

I could still hear Laki’s heartful roar . Laki was truly powerful, as he was still beaming with strength after dyeing the death-filled sky with lava . It looked like I didn’t need to worry about Father or Ye-Eun .

I wanted to go help Hwaya and Ina… But it looked like this domain of death would only disappear once the Death King died . In that case, it was more efficient to join Licorice and Lotte to search for the life vessel . Daisy and Sumire would likely do the same .

“Alright, let’s go . ”

The whirlpool shrouding my body alleviated the fatigue I suffered from the curse and continued battles . At the same time, it filled me up with a new power . Reinforced with the Beast King’s mana, my body full of energy once again . It was a different feeling than when I used the dungeon’s power . This power completely followed my command and seemed to have its own will . I was in my peak condition .

“Dear Husband!”

When I was flying towards the presence of Licorice and Lotte, Licorice found me first and headbutted into my embrace . I received her gently and patted her back with a bitter smile . Soon, Lotte who was in her wyvern form came next to me too .

[I knew Hero was safe . ]

“Yeah, I’m happy you’re safe too, Lotte . ”

[But… I failed . ]

Lotte who was happily greeting me slumped her tail . I had an idea what she meant . I gave Licorice, who was sniffing my neck, a smack on the head, and asked .

“You didn’t find his life vessel?”

“Owie, that hurt… But no, we didn’t . It’s too hard . If I knew beforehand, I would have gone looking for it we killed him . Daisy said he had a magic that could forcefully sever the contract Lotte and I had with Dear Husband and told us to get back . ”

“I see . ”

“But even without the contract, Dear Husband is the only one for me! She’s so rude!”

“There might have been more to it than just having our contract severed . Regardless, it’s good that nothing happened . ”

While necromancers could command a large number of undead, they also had numerous curses in their arsenal . Daisy probably knew what the Death King was capable of based on what she could do herself .

“It’s good that Daisy was here . ”

What he had done to Vatican City didn’t seem so simple . As a necromancer herself with knowledge in this field, Daisy had taken the appropriate action to minimize the damage .

“There’s a lot we have to talk about, but that’ll have to wait until we finish up the Death King . ”

“Un . He should be nearby, but I can’t find him no matter what magic I use . ”

Even if his life force was contained in a separate container, it was impossible to move if the container was too far . Consequently, a lich had to hide his life vessel on himself or nearby . It was natural for a lich to be weaker the farther he was from his life vessel . The Death King I faced just now most likely couldn’t show his full power . Otherwise, no matter how amazing Dortu’s attack was, it would have been impossible to metallicize him that fast .

“Eh?”

A thought suddenly flashed through my mind . To put this thought into action, I whispered .

“Dortu, you here?”

[I am Dortu . Always by Master’s side . ]

Dortu immediately replied . He talked succinctly without any fluff . A more important characteristic he had was being invisible . At first, I didn’t even know Dortu was born . Only when I got a message asking if I wanted to form a contract with a new elemental did I realize the metal egg I carried around no longer existed . This had happened only a few days ago .

Well, perhaps it was wrong to say he was invisible . Dortu had the ability to turn inanimate objects into metal and could infest all metals . At the moment, he was likely staying in my armor, spear, or even my earring or necklace .

“Dortu, you said you could turn any inanimate object into metal, right?”

[I am Dortu . Affirmative . ]

“Then can you turn this entire area into metal?”

[I am Dortu . Requires lots of mana . ]

I grinned and immediately activated Succubus Queen’s Tattoo . Previously, using Dortu’s power to metallicize the Death King took most of my mana . Even after some time had passed, I had only recovered to about 50% . But with that amount doubling instantly, I was once again overflowing with mana . Just in case, I gulped down a mana potion and ordered Dortu .

“You can take as much mana as you want . Dortu, go wild!”

[I am Dortu . Executing Master’s order . ]

Dortu’s reply was relaxed yet full of energy . Immediately afterward, the ground below me began to metallicize . The black earth filled with an aura of death started to turn silver .

“Wow, he’s amazing! But Dear Husband, what happens to the organisms living underground?”

“I’m a liberal art major so I don’t know . ”

I replied with a serious face . Presumably, organisms living underground would die as everything around them turned into metal, but since I wasn’t sure, I didn’t say anything . Meanwhile, the silver color spread farther and deeper .

“He sure buried it deep . ”

“… Shiny . ”

Daisy and Sumire arrived . There was also a silver lich shining brightly .

“Hey . ”

“I understand Kang Shin’s feeling . But dead undead, good undead . ”

“An undead is dead anyway…”

I made a groaning noise but didn’t say anything more . I knew Daisy was far more knowledgeable than me when it came to the undead . If she said it was safe, it was . But I couldn’t see Mother, who Sumire should be protecting .

“Where’s Mother?”

“Yungoong-nim took her and left . Most of the monsters in the air were cleaned up, so Laki and Ye-Eun are enough to deal with the rest . Since there might be traces of the curse left on Shin-nim’s mother, he took her to see Ludia-nim . ”

“That’s a good idea . It’s not like having more people would help in finding the life vessel . ”

Daisy came up next to me .

“A life vessel is, a lump of life force . Impossible to metallicize . Good plan . ”

“Yeah, but what if it isn’t here? I can’t do this that often you know . ”

Everywhere I looked was filled with silver light . By now, it stopped expanding outward and was digging deeper into the earth . Daisy stared down at the ground and soon nodded .

“It’s okay . Found it . ”

[I am Dortu . Mission complete . ]

Their voices overlapped . Immediately afterward, Daisy put her hand on the metal ground and closed her eyes .

“There’s a big resistance . Prepare to defend . ”

Sumire raised her shield and stepped forward in front of Licorice and me . Daisy then started to mumble words I couldn’t understand, and the ground began to shine brightly .

“Reason he said we won’t find it, I understand . ”

Daisy spoke calmly . The earth rumbled and the vibration spread out into the air .

“He made, thorough preparations . He divided, his life force . ”

“Isn’t that a Horcrux… No, nevermind . ”

Soon, something resembling a grain of sand popped up above the metal ground . When Licorice reached her hand out, a rainbow-colored fog sucked it in and trapped it . Daisy nodded her head and continued her work . More and more grains of sand appeared above the ground and Licorice promptly retrieved them with her fog .

Thanks to Licorice helping out with her powerful magic, their working speed slowly increased . The grains of sand flying around the rainbow fog resembled a starry sky . Seeing these brightly shining dots, Licorice gritted her teeth .

“Without Dear Husband, we wouldn’t have made it in time . ”

“Dortu, hax . ”

[I am Dortu . Not hax . ]

“It’s reacting! Get ready!”

After collecting some portion of the life vessel, the metallicized ground began to turn black . It was as if the Death King was making a final struggle, preventing us from taking more of his life force . However, Dortu wasn’t slacking off .

[I am Dortu . I execute Master’s command . I transform everything into metal . ]

Silver light began to cover the ground once again . Soon, the ground began to turn gold . I asked Dortu just in case .

“Is that pure gold?”

[I am Dortu . Pure gold can’t change . Once something changes to gold, even Dortu can’t change it . Pure gold is the metal with highest mana resistance . It also has a high magical ability . It requires lots of mana . ]

So he didn’t need to turn the ground into gold before, but he had to now to stomp the lich’s final struggle . At this moment, I realized something . If I understood him correctly, as long as I gave Dortu mana, he could change even a simple stone into gold!

“Sorry Dear Husband, but if this elemental can really change stone into gold, he can’t be ordinary . ”

Gold wasn’t just valuable on Earth . Even in other worlds, it was at the apex of precious metals . It was also why the dungeon used gold as its currency . Although I had uncountably many gold in my inventory, there was a difference between having a large amount of gold and being able to make an infinite amount of gold .

Just like Dortu said, gold was a magical metal . Although it couldn’t compare to Lukadion, which made up the Luka continent’s holysword, or the famous mithril, just the fact that gold was used a universal currency across countless worlds showed how valuable it was . Now, I could simply make gold through my elemental’s power .

Where did I get Dortu’s egg from again? If I remember correctly, it was from Luka continent, during Syrmia Bamirtuno’s funeral . She said she was from a world called Xenon . Were there more elementals like Dortu in that world? … Impossible . If that were the case, the value of gold in the dungeon should have fallen when they connected with Xenon . In any case, it seemed I needed to visit this Xenon world one day .

While I was thinking about all this, the ground had completely transformed into pure gold . Past a certain point, the land remained in its black color of death, but within a certain radius of us, no speck of black color could be seen . It was quite ironic considering that the Death King’s life force was sleeping underground .

“There . This is the end!”

Daisy raised her foot and stomped down . The metallic ground sunk in and rolled like a wave . From underneath her foot, something began to charge towards her .

“Just die obediently, give it to me . ”

When Daisy spread her arms open, silver light gathered on her hands . I instinctively knew that this was Hecate’s power . Daisy had saved her power to thoroughly end the Death King’s life .

[KAAAAAAAAAAAAK!]

A loud death throe shook the earth . The most tenacious and nerve-wrecking king was finally dying .

The pieces of the life vessel trying to assault her burnt up under her silver light, and the same happened to the sparkly grains of sand in Licorice’s rainbow fog . When Daisy cusped her hands together, the fog moved towards her hands and shone periodically .

Some time later, Daisy opened her hands . There was an octagonal translucent silver object floating inside . Daisy spoke contently .

“Remote controller . Meli’s remote . ”

“… Is that short for Metal Lich?”

Daisy jumped in shock and looked away with a flushed face .

“Kang Shin, you know me too well… Do you like me, that much?”

Silence descended . If Licorice didn’t try to give Daisy a Hectopascal Kick, we would have all stayed frozen for a bit longer .

Regardless, we managed to finish off the last remaining king .