CHAPTER 24: Reaching The Limit

I hear birds chirping above me as I slowly wake up stretching my arms. “Nghh that was a good nap.”

I look up and see a bird-chirping non-stop above me. The same bluebird I saw a year ago visits me every day waking me up. I looked at the bird as it twitches its head side to side looking at me straight in the eye.

“Why the hell do you keep waking me up in mid of a good nap. Shoo, shoo.” I whisper waving my arms for it to fly away. I didn’t kill it since it did save my life a couple of times by pecking on my cheek while I was asleep as I was surrounded by enemies. I slowly stand up stretching my whole body before walking towards the lake to wash my face. Using both my hands, I cup the clear water and splash it on my face. The cold feeling of the water brought my senses to full gear as I look up and the sky is as blue as ever.

“One year in here and I still can’t get used to it. This place looks nothing like the inside of that sky king dungeon.” I say as I stared at different birds flying around the sky. The cool breeze rustles the trees as I sat near the lake and soak my feet in the shallow end. “Ah…this is life.”

I have been here for almost a year now. Time flies in this damn hell hole. I whisper in my mind as I laid on my back feeling the grass beneath me. The timer’s going to run out soon.

“Fuck, this was hell in the beginning but after killing everything…this place is like a paradise.” I say as I close my eyes reminisce my time in here. When I got in the dungeon, I was automatically attacked by kobolds. Rat wolf looking human hybrid abomination. It didn’t take me long to murder them all and after they all got annihilated, ogres started spawning everywhere. Then the werewolves, and as I progressed further, it got tougher and tougher as stronger monsters appeared. I fought so many different enemies I lost track of everything and focused on killing one after another till my arms gave out. Luckily during the night, monsters would sleep but would come back at random times cutting my rest short. The last enemy I had to deal with was an overlord.

“Damn that overlord, well, he did give me a nice sword and this nice garb I'm wearing," I say inspecting my clothes coexisting with my guild’s color, a cyan blue that shines under the sun or moonlight. I picked it up after killing the overlord and it resized into my size as repaired itself to its original state. I take out a pure black sword out of my bag that looks like a katana. The blade, the hilt, the housing, everything was black to the core. I briefly unsheathe the sword and the blade was so dark I couldn’t see my reflection.

"Show weapon description," I whisper as I held the sword towards the sky.

Dark Blade

Type:

One-hand

Durability:

2000/2000

Quality:

Mystic Rare

A price possession of one of the overlords.

“Dark blade huh…tch….I killed everything here so I got no one to rule. Laaaaaaaaame!” I say as I sheathe back the blade and throw it inside my bag. “Dungeon timer!”

Time till completion

Remaining Time: 7 hours

“Hm, what shall I do for the meantime...” I whisper as I stand back up and walk around the whole dungeon just in case, I left an enemy alive, but nothing. Nothing except that stupid blue bird the hovered above me. There's also fishes in the lake which I let live. I cooked almost all of the meat but some of them I cooked rotten since it was impossible to cook everything while fighting. And by the time I finished killing every single monster that attacked me, a lot of the corpse rotted into something unrecognizable. Sometimes I’d go for days without touching the fire as I get attacked one after another. But once everything was over, I cooked every single corpse that I can find. I had enough time to cook everything since I finished the dungeon a month early from the time limit.

I walked around the dungeon rummaging through the rubble as I whistled trying to keep myself busy.

“La~ la~ la~ la~ I beat the dungeon~ la~ la~ la~ who’s the best?!” I say throwing a pose into nothing like I had the audience. “Me~ la~ la~ la~ la~”

I continued to sing and skip around the dungeon. The whole place itself is a mess. Bones, destroyed trees, craters, everything looked like three to four world war happened all at the same time. Trying not to smell the rotting cooked meat, I piled what I can pile towards one area far away from the lake and burned it to the ground. But sometimes the wind will carry the remnant odor towards where I camped making me gag at times. Yet, the only intact area is that one single giant tree by the pond I tried my best to keep in one piece. Once I got here, the dungeon looked like a remnant of a civilization and now, that’s even unrecognizable.

“Yasu, you ruined a piece of history," I tell myself remembering my battle. It’s either I get lunched to a section or my attack miss an enemy, and everything would go up in flames or explode upon impact.

I can’t wait to get out of here. I whisper as I look at the giant door that seems to be in the middle of nowhere still intact and without a single scratch.I go back towards the tree and sat under it leaning my back at its roots. I rummage through my bag and I take out a couple of giant diamond rocks that I found and inspected it under the sun I still have some of the kobolds swords and I even scavenged their leather armor since it's the only material I can still pick up and equip. All the weapons I was able to get, I stored in my bad and all the armor I couldn’t pick up, I left lying around where it was last used.

“I can probably sell later on. Ah~ thank god you’re still alive” I say, and I take out my old beat up frying pan and kiss the bottom of the pan. “You shall be put to good use!”

I placed the pan bag in my bag and used my bag as a pillow while I laid under the shade. One year has passed but it seemed like yesterday I was left in the dungeon to die. My hatred towards everything is still the same yet it managed to evolve into another feeling. A feeling I couldn't wait to act upon as it brought my skin to itch from excitement. Yet, there were times I felt the loneliness of not having the ability to talk with anyone. I would go through different emotions from sadness, anxiety, depression, yet it all ended into feeling anger as I rage through my enemies killing them to appease myself.

"I had no one to talk to except myself and that fucking bird," I whisper to myself. "Maybe I'm not normal. Meh, who gives a crap.”

I looked up and remembered how it baffled me, in the beginning, this place has a sky and a sun. There’s no cave walls, no roof, nothing except the vast desert beyond the area and if I go further out, I appear back on the other side like I'm Pac-Man.

“Oi! Bird! Where are you?! Get ready you fuck! We’re leaving in a couple of hours!” I shout towards the sky and the bird somehow flew down and landed in front of me and started picking at the ground. “You understood me?… I wonder what Mr. birdy taste like.”

The blue bird flies away and lands on top of a tree as if it understood me making me laugh out loud. Feeling a bit hungry, I take out a couple of smoked meat in my bag and started eating them. I cooked so much of my enemies that it’s always a surprise what I pull out of a bag. All the smoked meat looks the same and I couldn’t picture a single entity to take out of the bag.

“Hmmmm…this taste…. must be those damn werewolves….” I mumble as I know what they taste like. Like a juice piece of paper. “Man, this is nasty, why am I even still eating these fuckers.”

I decided to throw it away as I spit out whatever’s in my mouth. All of the meat from the monsters either tasted like dirt, pork, and even the overlord tasted like I was eating tofu sprinkled with spices. But the best one out of all of them is the Karkinos. Karkinos are these giant crabs that moved so fast making it harder to kill them. Their shell was so strong that a couple of swords broke upon impact so dealing with them was really difficult. But after killing them and eating them, their meat tastes like it's the highest quality crab you could ever eat as it melts in my mouth.

After eating one of them, I made sure I cook as much of their meat as I can. I also learned new cooking skills like stew and boiling and a lot more things. I boiled most of the crabmeat since I didn’t really have enough jars to fill up the stew. I sat under the tree as I closed my eyes trying to remember my last fight with the Overlord.

“He must have been a demon," I whisper under the tree as I slowly open my eyes looking at the rustling leaves of the giant tree. “The overlord huh…”

Yasu's Memory

“Who’s next?!” I shout in anger after killing the last remaining Shadow lurker. I lodge my sword down the ground and slump right next to it as I pant trying to control my breathing. Nothing is spawning anymore, and I felt like my body went through rigorous beatdowns as my joints ached and my muscles hurt for not having time to regenerate. I scream at the top of my lungs trying to let out all my frustrations and all of a sudden, a bright light erupted from above as a giant circular rune filled the sky and turning it purple. Slowly, a hoof came out of the rune and descended like it was coming from heaven.

“What the fu-“ I jumped to the side as it descended down towards me at high speed almost stomping on my head. The explosion it created was big enough to send me flying and I managed to lodge my sword down the ground deep enough to hold on. Everything was filled with smoke. I tried to get a glimpse of what beyond the dust clouds as I see a figure slowly walking towards me. It suddenly screamed and the shockwave of its voice cleared the dust in an instant.

“Satan?” I whispered tilting my head as I stare at a horned creature looking like he just came from the pits of hell. He had tails and his horns were similar to the Minotaurus that I killed a couple of days ago but his skin is blacker and shinier. His eyes had red iris with black sclera. He had wings similar to a bat and I can see a tail sticking out of his ass. His skin was red and had black long hair.

It has a nice garb. My favorite color… I whisper in my mind as I eye its clothes and weapon.

“Human. I congratulate you for bringing me out!” It shouted out and its voice resonated a shockwave that I briefly felt with my skin.

It talks?Holy fucking balls! It talks! The first enemy I have come across talking! I say in my mind as I slowly stood up smiling.

“To bring me out. One of the overlords. The ruler of the southern demon tribe. Me! The great general of the demon clan!! For my name is Adr-“

While my seismic step was activated, I stepped close and swung at its face sending the overlord flying towards one part of the ruins.

“Who gives a shit who you are!! Pound!” I shouted my skill as I launched myself towards it. I can see he’s regaining his balance and when he saw, His hands lit up red as he clenched his fist.

“You puny human!” He cursed at me as I brought my fist down towards him and he does the same. Once both our first connected with one another, the surrounding area erupted and trees, rubble, rocks, dirt, everything was blown away. He was sent flying more and I was sent back where I started crashing onto the remaining trees. I stomped both my feet down the ground but the impact was too much I crashed into a big rock destroying it in the process. Before I would have been badly hurt by crashing into things, but I got a new skill called chef’s coat which basically encases me with an invisible force field that receives most damages on impact. But it doesn't mean I won't get hurt. I just won't get severely hurt.

“Ack! Shit!” I tried to cover my eyes as more rubble comes flying my way hindering my vision. I caught of glimpse of something red and my face felt like it was hit by a cannon. The force sent me flipping backward towards another ruin and I can feel my skill wearing off.

“Chef’s coat!” I shouted right before impact to protect myself since I couldn’t stop my momentum as I came crashing down on the ground destroying everything in my path. I see him fly to the sky as multiple tiny runes appeared around him. Suddenly fireballs came out of the circular rune like a gun as a rain of flaming balls came towards me.

“Shit! Tenderize!” I shout my skill as I punched the air nonstop. Red orbs came flying out of my fist like a bullet and I tried my best to hit each and every fireball he sent at me. Each attack I recoil my arm like a gun, and I can feel the strain up to the marrow of my bone.

“You missed me!” I laughed like a maniac as I bombard his attacks with mine. The impact of every attack created an explosion the shook the whole area. The recoil on every attack kept pushing me back as I tried my best to stand my ground. I can see he’s struggling to keep up the rune circles, but I just kept going as I re-activated my skill over and over again. I can see he’s exhausted, and I guess the attack took a toll from his stamina as my attacks didn’t even dent mine.

He dodged my attacks as he flew towards me and the minute, he got close, I jumped back barely dodging his fist as it dug to the ground.

“Well hello there Satan~” I whisper as I clenched my fist and swung while I took a step forward. My seismic step skill was still activated, and I closed the distance so fast he didn’t have time to react as face met my uppercut. His body went flying upwards at he flipped nonstop before descending down the ground at a distance. “Rule number one! Make sure your enemy is dead!”

“Roger!” I answered myself as I jumped up the sky placing myself over him. As I descended towards him, I took out the dragon slayer in my bag and placed the sword in front of me. “Heaven’s slice! Dragon’s breath!”

I felt my lungs heat up as I inhaled as much as I can before breathing out into the sword. The blade turned amber red and I can feel the handle heat up as it burned my skin. It suddenly burst into flames as I swung at full force downwards towards the demon. My attack went flying down towards him and the explosion it created was like a miniature atomic bomb as I was caught up in my own blast sending me flying back up into the air. I descended down the ground and I swung my fist while activating pound to break my fall. I look at the area where he was, and it was covered in flames that got as high as a two-story building.

"Burn baby burn! Hahaha, you fucking piece of shi-“ I stopped as he cleared the flames with one single swing of his sword. “Tch! Rule number one! Make sure your enemy is fucking dead!”

It quickly closed the distance between us two and was already swinging his sword downwards. In the short moment, I had no time to do anything but block his attack as I placed the dragon slayer in front of me. The ground beneath us erupted upon impact and it felt like I just caught an elephant. His force was so strong that I got to my knees as the surrounding area around me erupted.

“Sky king’s wind!” I shout and my dragon slayer was encased with a strong gust of wind deflecting his attack in an instant. Without waiting for him to swing again, I swung upwards. “Heaven’s Slice!”

His hand recoiled back exposing his stomach and I clenched my fist as I ducked down putting all my weight towards my left foot.

“Tenderize!” I shout my skill and my hand glowed red as I aimed it towards his abdomen.

“Arghh!!” He screamed in pain as he flew away from me. My attack is meant for long distance as I felt a part of the attack damaging my arm. But I have no time to stop now, I needed to go all out.

“Ahahahahaha!” Its voice was so strong it shook the whole place and I felt the vibration pass through my body. “Human! You are a worthy foe! Let me give you the position as a general in my army! Let us rule over- guak!”

I punched it again mid-sentence as I closed the distance using seismic step and I sent him skidding a few feet away from me.

“Hahahaha! You are amusing!” It screamed as it flew to the sky.

Ah…I forgot.It had wings.It doesn’t matter, I’ll just have to fly up there and rip it off. I gave it a big smile and then I jumped towards it at an incredible speed. I can feel my body is getting weaker from exhaustion from fighting the Shadow Lurkers right before him. No matter how strong my skill has gotten, it will become useless if I can't move.

Since I know if I keep fighting like this, I won’t be able to move due to stress my body is going through, I just decided to go out with a bang and take my chances and rely on my luck that I kill that thing before I become immobilized.

“Overdrive!” I shouted out and my whole body glowed red as my lost energy came back in an instant. It sees me coming towards him and he brought his sword down to meet me. As I flew up, I gripped on my dragon slayer and swung upwards meeting his. I only get one chance from this. I have to do it at the right time. When my sword hit his sword, the impact sends both of us the opposite way. He was sent flying back up and I was sent flying back down.

"Tenderize~" I sang quietly so it doesn't hear me and my hand glowed black. Using overdrive, my skills become a different color. I aimed at the ground and punched with all my strength. The explosion caused me to take damage as I was sent flying back up at high speed.

Towards the sky. Towards him. And he’s not expecting it. I flew so fast that when I reached him, we both were sent flying up more as I grabbed onto him. He tried to struggle but I had a firm grip on something he can’t shake me off of.

“Remove your dirty hands off my wings you human!” he said as he violently trashed in midair trying to throw me off.

“Hhahaha Why?~ Are you afraid?” I whisper into his ear.

“Afraid of wha-“Without waiting for him to finish his sentence, I pulled its wings apart and blood spurt out of his back. “Arghhhhhhh!!!!!”

I felt something wrap around my waist and it flung me down the ground placing me under him as we both fell. I see his palm glows red as he held it out towards me and I crossed my hands trying to. Protect my face.

“Chef’s coat!” I shouted my skill as he sent black flame towards my face and even with the chef’s coat, it felt like I was being cooked alive. “Sky kings wind!”

I swung my sword dissipating the flame and as soon as I got a clear view, I can see a lot of circle purple runes circles like before.

“Oh hell….” I whisper before the fireballs made an impact and the next thing I know, everything around me exploded as I hit the ground hard. It kept going and the explosions ruptured my ear drum, and everything went silent. The attack stopped and my whole body wouldn’t move. My shirt, pants, everything was burned away. Even though I had chef’s coat activated, I still had burnt marks everywhere yet, it was enough to protect my hair from being obliterated. But each and every fireball felt like a punch strong enough to be a professional boxer’s ultimate move.

“F-f-fuuu….ck….” I tried saying by even my voice feels tired. I see him walk over me with blood dripping from his back and I smirked at him as he picked me up by the neck. I couldn’t hear what he was saying as I kept smiling. He probably noticed as he waved his hand and my hearing came back as good as before.

“Hahahaha! This is what you get! Know your place human!” He says looking at me. “If you have chosen to follow me as my subordinate, your life would have been spared….human.”

“R-r….ru…..le………n-nu….numb…..er…..one…..m-make…..su……re………you….re……..en….nemy……i-is……dead…” I tried saying as he gripped my neck hard trying to choke me to death.

“Any last words human?” He asked me as I felt his grip loosen letting in a bit of air into my lungs.

“Yeah, overdrive.” I felt energizing as my whole body was covered in a dark red glow. Before I was only able to use it one time, now I’m able to use it two times. But the second time is way more dangerous than the first. I grabbed his horns and he tried to struggle but I quickly overpowered him as I brought his head to the ground. Using all my might, I snapped his horns from his head and one managed to rip off half of his scalp. He was too busy cupping his face as I grabbed his sword and swung towards his left leg. He fell to the ground screaming as he sent a fireball my way. I didn't feel anything as I walked towards him. He tried to send another fireball, but I quickly gut of his arms and kicked him in the gut forcing him to roll onto the ground before stopping with his chest facing the ground.

Without saying anything, I jammed the sword right into his back and pushed it as far as I can, until it went in up to the hilt of his sword. He shouted in pain as he tried trashing around and I took out another sword stabbing his arm in place.

“Stop!” He shouted at me as he tried to thrash around but the sword was lodged in deep enough that he couldn’t move. He kept screaming and shouting at me but I can feel fear from his voice. I took out one more sword and I slowly stabbed his left leg making him scream more which was music to my ears. I want it to feel fear. I wanted it to fear my existence.

I see its tail and I cut it as it started to loop around my left leg. Using another sword in my bag, I swung at the base of his tail cutting it before he tightened the grip on my leg.

“My tail! What have you done?!!!” he tried to break free again and I can see his body twitching from the pain. Now that I look at it. He looks like a frog ready to be dissected. I walk towards its face and I look at it in the eyes with the same hunger I have always had. A hunger to kill my enemy before me. A hunger to bring death upon him. I inspect its health.

LORD Rakh no’r tunuma (Overlord)

17,876,345 / 18,000,000 HP

“I-I-I beg you human. R-release me and I-I will spare you!” He says making me laugh out loud with his choice of words.

“Spare me?! Me?! I don’t think you’re in any position to say that~” I sang as I walked around him. I noticed my dragon slayer where I dropped it earlier and my just looking at the sword, I thought of another idea. I went and picked up the sword before stepping over him standing on top his back.

“Now…where we’re we….ah! I was telling you about my rules!” I say and I stand on top of him pointing the tip of the blade on top his back. “Rule number one, make sure your enemy is dead. Rule number two, make sure…your enemy is dead. Rule number three! Want to take a guess?”

“M-m-make s-s-sure your e-e-enemy is d-d-dead?” He tells me and I can feel the fear of his face as he feels the tip of the blade hovering above him. “I-is it? Damn you human! Rakh mork-mnhhhhh!!!”

He tried saying some words I couldn’t understand and not wanting to get hit by so many runes, I walked over his head and grabbed his tongue pulling it as far out as I can before stomping on his head making him bite it off. I walked back on top as he screamed, spitting blood everywhere.

“Rule number three! Never turn your back on an enemy!!” I shout as I pushed down the dragon slayer towards his back, stabbing him through. He screamed at the top of his lungs as I slowly push it as far as I can. I know this is not enough to kill him, but the pain will probably make him want to die in an instant. “Dragon’s breath!”

I blew onto the blade and it turned red right before it burst into flames. It started hearing sizzling noise and I see smoke coming from his back. He kept screaming non-stop as he tried moving but my swords bind him in place. I see his health is getting lower and lower as my flames burn him alive from where the sword entered.

I’m going to kill him this way.I whisper in my mind as I watched negative numbers appear above him as I held the sword in place. Feel the despair as it slowly consumes your life.

"Feel it!" Using all my strength, I push the sword deeper into the ground casing a critical strike to appear randomly. She screamed in pain screaming incomprehensible words, but I know sooner or later, it all will stop.

I’m going to keep this up until I’m sure he’s dead. I whisper in my mind as I smiled seeing him suffer. Once he gets to the afterlife, he's going to regret going against me.

End of Memory

“Well...he did deserve it. Bastard threw fireballs at me, good thing I drank that potion on time.” I say to myself. “But then again…what if I could have tamed him…as a pet?”

.

.

.

“Nope… impossible. Really impossible.” I say to myself remembering what he looked like.

Just thinking of having him follow me around is scary enough… Is there a pet system in this world?I say in my mind. Then I quickly remembered Mole making me feel sad all over again. I lay down toward the grass and let the wind breeze through my hair. The wind is cool enough under the shade I quickly fall asleep. Even though being passed out for three days after my battle with the overlord, I still feel exhausted.

I woke up and it was nighttime inside the dungeon. I quickly look into the dungeon door and I can see it open. I must have slept through the time limit and luckily it didn’t close on me.

“Finally~” I sang as I stretch out my arms. “I can finally get out of this forsaken place.”

I hear a fire crackling and don’t remember lighting up a campfire before I slept. When I turned, I had to slowly adjust to the light of the fire. Once my vision clears, I see a campfire was made and a couple of fish on a stick was cooking near it makes me remember when I saw outside for the first time.

“Well well well, I didn’t want to wake you up when I saw you sleeping. How’s my favorite player?” He says as he sits by campfire holding a stick with fish in it.

“Was doing well till you showed up. Luro.” I told him walking near the fire grabbing one of the fishes cooking and turning them myself.

"Well, that's good kekekekekekeke.” He says and his laugh reminds me of a hyena.

“I have been here for one year and you never showed up once. After I finish, now you do. What the fuck do you want?” I ask him as I take a bite out of the cooked fish.

“Kekeke~ Well, I just brought new people here to play with all of you.” He says and I didn’t really care as I focused on the fish. “There’s a lot of them! Two groups! Both groups woke up in each dungeon as you all did!"

“Ha, and which planet did you take them out from? Jupiter? Mars? Your anus?” I asked him as I grab one of the fishes and briefly placing it on the fire to remove any poison by cooking them myself.

“Bwahaha! That’s a good one!” He says as I see him stand up and walk towards the exit waving his hand with his back towards me.

Rule fucking number three, never turn your back on your enemy.I say in my mind as the urge to stab a sword in his back made me itch to call out my dimensional bag. I watched him walk away till he completely disappeared in the dark hallway where I came from a year ago.

.

.

.

Who he did he bring here this time?I say in my mind. I tried to shake it off, but my legs started being restless as I wanted to get out of here and check. Knowing him, he must have brought some people we know and if he did, the thought of her coming here is making me more anxious. I place the fish down and stare into the fire as it slowly ate the wood. If there are any other gods in this world.I pray to them that, that Luro doesn’t bring my mother into this world.