Chapter 166
Chapter 166: Easy Pickings (6)
“The sun is merely nature, a phenomenon that does nothing but rise and set repeatedly. Or so the Possessors say.”
Provoking the Saintess with a Holy Object.
It was a fairly good method.
Erik added one more action to it.
It was like the sublime will of a god, to face the Saintess with “words.”
The Emperor was so irritated by the remark that moonlight reflected sunlight that he executed Possessors one after another-.
Might the Saintess show a similar reaction?
That was his thought.
But the Saintess just stood there with her eyes wide, unmoving.
She looked as if she had broken down.
What I see with the Discernment Eye is unchanged.
It was only that the Saintess's figure, as seen with the naked eye, had stopped; the flow of emotion seen through the [Discernment Eye] had not changed from before.
She's still itching to kill me.
The Saintess's hatred for him was vicious.
The world seen through the [Discernment Eye] was full of deep gray hatred, and its source was the Saintess.
It was at a level that could not possibly grow any larger.
Because it was similar in size to Ruelle's pink sky or his master's thick crimson sky.
Looking at the Saintess's state, Erik tried various hypotheses.
I need an alternative.
Hadn't a being appeared that even his own eyes, which distinguished truth from falsehood and like from dislike, could not read properly?
So even though she had stopped, he couldn't easily relax.
Erik had a clear countermeasure for this.
That was.
Swish-!
[Selective Trait Orb]
It was a way to add one of his traits.
He was already past Floor 10.
Since he could now add a Trait, he meant to use it right away.
Swish-.
[Discernment Eye]
[Sixth Sense]
[Death Sense]
***
A list of [Traits] flashed past before his eyes.
From among them, Erik chose one he had had his eye on.
Then.
Swish-!
[Erik – 4th Tier Divine Power]
[Skills Held: Creation, Wings of Radiance, Meteor Shower, Judgment, Share, Battlefield Blessing, Wrath of God]
[Traits Held: Discernment Eye, Sixth Sense (New!)]
[Gold Held: 55,551,824,300]
A status window that had grown considerably during the training period.
A new Trait had been added on top of it.
A realm of humans, a sense only humans can feel.
That was the Sixth Sense.
The Saintess had given an answer to an important question that the [Discernment Eye] could not read.
So he had prepared a countermeasure of his own.
And it would also become possible to make an “intuitive” judgment of how right the things he would do from now on were.
Sixth Sense now?
Erik felt a strange sensation.
Like laying down your cards at a casino.
A feeling as if blackjack were about to come up.
No, it was more intense than that.
Will it work? It feels like it will?
That was the feeling.
And I suppose this sensation means it's the truth.
The power that made you feel it would work in a situation where it would work was [Sixth Sense].
In other words, this was a good omen.
As if to prove it, the Saintess's mouth moved.
“Are you truly fifteen?”
Her face was still badly twisted, but somehow she looked like someone one could talk to.
“I am.”
“Hmm-. Well, the Sun said so clearly, so that you, Holy Son Erik, are fifteen must be true.”
The Saintess said that she would accept the truth matter-of-factly.
Then she tilted her head sideways.
“Even so, I can't believe it at all. At your age, I had the purity of knowing nothing but scripture……. How can you spit such venom-.”
“Didn't you say it yourself? A new Divinity. If you lived as a god's dog, didn't you even know when the master changed?”
The Saintess stopped again.
She looked as if she had truly broken down.
It was several minutes long.
Du-sik, hurry up and finish.
Erik had a separate reason for stalling.
Because a problem had occurred on Floor 18, where his party was.
Floor 18 was a honey-pot of a place well known even to the locals.
A place said to raise bonus Stats for Possessors and the achievement of effortless mastery for the locals.
To think a battle had broken out between Adventurers and Jang Du-sik's party there-.
Thud-.
“The young brat holds a blade in his tongue.”
In the meantime, the Saintess had come to her senses.
She raised her energy.
“What is the reason you're so set on killing that young brat?”
“The power of gods must not interfere in the mortal world.”
She told him the [Words of God] handed down to the Saintesses of the Lu-Solace church.
“It has been hundreds of years since Lu-Solace, who departed the world, stopped speaking.”
Yet there was one word left behind.
And that was-.
“If a new Divinity awakens, destroy it.”
Erik felt a chilling sensation.
It was as if he were standing at the edge of death.
This, too, was the effect of the Sixth Sense.
So he left words that say to kill exactly a being like me.
It was a moment when the god Lu-Solace, whom he had never even seen, felt spiteful.
“Then what is your younger brother?”
“Ray Solace……”
The Saintess's momentum eased.
Erik made his judgment by combining all the powers he had.
So this was the answer.
It felt like he had found a minimal point of compromise with the mad Saintess.
***
Whack-a-Mole.
It was Floor 18's nickname.
The reason was that it intuitively looked like that.
The floor, made of vast rock, was riddled with countless holes.
Round, boulder-shaped monsters appeared from those holes, and if you killed them with precise timing, you could obtain an [Orb of Growth] that gave bonus Stats.
Why are these crazy bastards fighting a war over a honey-pot like this?
The Possessor Park Chang-ho was losing his mind.
It was a Labyrinth enormously bigger than reality.
The Adventurer's Guild had claimed this place first, and instead of sharing the field, they had chosen to be hostile.
In other words, they meant to monopolize this vast floor.
-Tighten the formation!
Nine people led by Jackson, the [Guardian Knight], formed a defensive formation.
Following the Guild Voice instructions, the believers moved as one body.
At the very center of the formation sat the two little children.
-There are too many Adventurers!
There were four S-Rank Adventurers alone, and the A-Rank Adventurers numbered in the dozens.
There seemed to be no Possessors among them, as there was no sign of skills activating, but the assault of powerful Adventurers who made the Labyrinth their home was quite threatening.
“Uncle Du-sik is sparkling!”
“If you hit his head, gold dust falls!”
The two children, bright even in such a battlefield.
It was the very picture of laziness suiting them.
-Geez, I'm going nuts.
Jang Du-sik agonized over and over, looking at the two little girls.
Brother said not to be hostile to Adventurers, but-.
Of course, he had to follow Erik's words.
But the behavior of Adventurers who attacked even after seeing the two little girls was something he could never leave behind.
Couldn't they hold out forever while getting beaten?
That was what Jang Du-sik thought.
-If Brother were here, wouldn't he have killed them all?
Jang Du-sik's question was plainly aimed at Jackson.
But Jackson didn't answer.
Instead, with a face full of anger, he put a question to an Adventurer.
“What's the reason an S-Rank Adventurer attacks a group with young children?”
At that question, the Adventurer hesitated to answer.
Real children……
Being S-Rank meant a powerhouse who had crossed the wall.
So he had recognized that those children were real children.
But-.
“You crazy bastards are the ones who bring kids into the Labyrinth, so why blame us for it!!!”
However he thought about it, those who had brought children to a place they should never be brought were the problem.
To begin with, wasn't a Labyrinth a place where people killed and were killed over rewards?
At the Adventurer's roar, Jackson asked again.
“Then you mean to kill even these children?”
“It's only the problem of the guardians who brought them. We are doing what we must do.”
Saying so, the Adventurer drew his sword.
That was Jackson's limit.
Swish-.
Jackson's sword, mixed with Aura and Divine Power, slashed.
The head of the S-Rank Adventurer facing him was cut off.
Thud-. Thud-thud-thud.
With the head rolling across the floor as the signal, Jang Du-sik shouted.
“Hey! Kill them all!”
It was an order.
The iron rule of the [Subjugation Party] Erik had reorganized.
When the Raid Leader is absent, follow the Vice Raid Leader's orders without fail.
Having trained by dying and reviving, the Possessors' reactions were quick.
“Let's gooo!!!”
Nishida Ryo laid on its side the shield that had been standing upright.
It was to activate the effect of the [Shield That Grows Stronger When Hit].
[Shield That Grows Stronger When Hit +20]
[Accumulates damage blocked by the shield and reflects it at ×10 power]
It was a Legendary Grade shield, but it was equipment that could deliver Mythic Grade performance depending on who used it.
Even after losing weight, Nishida Ryo drew strangely large amounts of aggro.
Even while training, monsters attacked me first, and even in sparring, the others pointed their swords at me first.
It was the same now.
Of the dozens of A-Rank Adventurers, the majority attacked Nishida Ryo.
It would be understandable if he had used [Taunt], but right now he hadn't used any skill.
Yet it was a situation of facing dozens alone.
It was something like a constitution.
That was why Nishida Ryo had become the owner of this shield.
Swish-.
As Nishida's shield was laid sideways, the equipment's [Skill] activated.
Kaboom―!!!
With a huge explosion, the group of A-Rank Adventurers attacking Nishida Ryo was swept up in the blast.
The result was-.
“Well done!!!”
A result good enough to make Jang Du-sik beam.
An explosion followed the shape of the shield in front of Nishida, and the Adventurer group died, blown apart on the spot.
That was only the beginning.
“Take this!”
Kang Pung-ho raised her bow, charged in advance.
The moment she released the string, an arrow of overwhelming one-hit-kill power was fired.
Zwooooosh-!
Splurt-.
The rear ranks of the A-Rank Adventurers turned into lumps of meat.
It was only natural, since a blow strong enough to deal a heavy hit to the Floor 53 Floor Master Rockstar had swept over a mere human.
“Were we really this strong?”
“Chang-ho, how about you?”
Having faced humans, the Possessors realized how much stronger they had become.
They were A-Rank Adventurers, no less.
Weren't they the sort who entered the upper floors of the Labyrinth?
Whoom-.
Park Chang-ho, too, held two rapiers and dug into the gaps between the Adventurers.
Shk-shk-shk-shk!!!
His movements were like art.
It was a harmony of [Skill] and swordsmanship, the blossoming of the talent he was born with as a fencer.
The result was proven by the Adventurers' corpses, riddled with holes.
“Maybe we can handle even S-Rank?”
With that arrogance, the Possessors watched the S-Rank Adventurers' battlefield.
Who was their opponent?
“Hey!!!”
Jang Du-sik.
A crazy thug with full-sleeve tattoos on both arms, spamming the [Hellfire] spell and swinging a club.
“Hah-! G-get away!!!”
The S-Rank Adventurer fought back against Jang Du-sik, living up to his title.
He used every kind of item he had gotten in the Labyrinth, even used a [Scroll], and tried to flee from Jang Du-sik.
But-.
Crack! Thud!
In the end, he was squashed like minced meat.
“S-Rank is probably too hard for us.”
At a glance the Adventurers might look like pushovers, but Jang Du-sik had long since become a monster beyond imagination.
So lasting even a few seconds against such a Jang Du-sik meant being that strong.
“Phew-.”
And so the battlefield ended.
The dead were four S-Rank Adventurers and forty-three A-Rank Adventurers.
It was a massacre made by only seven people.
Then Erik appeared.
―Ten humans from the Empire. Welcome to Labyrinth Floor 18.
Erik surveyed the floor with a complicated expression.
“Brother! Look at this!!!”
Jang Du-sik beamed and brought the loot stripped from the Adventurers' corpses.
He also carried a bundle of [Orbs of Growth] they had collected.
Seeing that, Erik asked.
“Du-sik, didn't you say there were dozens of Adventurers here?”
“I did.”
“What did you do with them?”
Jang Du-sik blinked and pointed with his club here and there across Floor 18.
“Well, over there and over there-.”
They were all squashed corpses.
“Y-you killed all of them?”
Erik was startled.
Jang Du-sik hurriedly began to explain.
“Well, listen. Didn't they stab at us out of the blue?”
***
For now, Erik did not scold his party.
He thought something unavoidable had happened.
Are the local Adventurers trying to monopolize the Orbs of Growth while sending the Possessors to the upper floors?
That they had gathered this many meant a clear intent to take them outside.
Then that meant those who would eat the Orbs had been decided.
“The limit is 10 per person.”
Erik handed out the Orbs to Jang Du-sik and Jackson.
The [Orb of Growth] was an item of which only up to 50 appeared each time the Labyrinth opened.
Jang Du-sik, Jackson, and Erik himself would eat 10 each.
The remaining count was 20.
So practically every powerhouse in this world has eaten their fill.
Riferoze, of course, and every powerhouse who had cleared the Labyrinth had taken the Orbs to the limit.
With such people coiled on the surface, wasn't that why this world's balance of power had become so skewed?
The Saintess must be one of them.
“What do you think?”
Erik exchanged opinions with his party.
“Still, isn't that Saintess too much of a monster?”
“Hey, the fact that you, Brother, couldn't beat her to death and negotiated instead doesn't make sense to begin with.”
The two closest to Erik were showing reactions like that.
“What do you think?”
Erik put the question to the Possessors, who had been sneaking glances at the remaining [Orbs of Growth].
As if they had thought it was first come, first served.
“The Three Gods are all trash!”
Nishida Ryo shouted quickly.
Then, realizing something, he hurriedly corrected part of it.
“Two of the Three Gods are trash, and Astia is a truly great being who cares for the world.”
“So how are those two trash?”
Nishida thought for a moment and then began to explain eagerly.
“Almanism is drunk on money games, has dozens of children and forms marriage alliances, acting like the ruined nation of some crazy medieval Europe……. And Lu-Solace enslaves non-believers in a way similar to Earth's slavery system, doesn't it?”
It was a remark with some bite to it.
Erik seemed to sympathize, nodding as he went on.
“Religion always turns vicious once it loses its great cause.”
In Earth's history, religious corruption was commonplace.
In this world too, corruption would be happening in the two religions whose gods had left.
“Tithes and Indulgences are the representative symbols of corruption!”
The moment Nishida spat that out, silence fell.
Everyone's gaze turned to Nishida Ryo, and they were all looking at him as if he were a madman.
The Tithe is a major business our God runs……. And the Indulgence is an ambitious item he's preparing-.
Nishida Ryo gulped.
For the first time in ages, [Death Sense] rang an alarm.
“I-it's, it's about religions whose gods have left! Our God is here with us!!!”
Erik paused for a moment and then waved his hand, saying that was enough.
After that, he tossed the [Orbs of Growth] into his mouth one after another.
Then what appeared was.
Swish-!
[You have obtained a Fragment of Faith.]