Chapter 671: [Athena's Ancient Temple]

“Jackpot!”

[Water Style-Aqua Exploding Bullet] bullets containing the destructive power of water. When it pierces through its target, the water-energy within the bullet will explode like a grenade, dealing a terrifying damage. And furthermore, this kind of bullet deals double amount of damage compared to normal when used against Fire-type creatures!

Allen also used [Water Style—Ice Break Bullet], freezing them and breaking them apart like blocks of ice. Even the ones who weren’t frozen became sluggish.

Tens of acid sprays shot over, and he quickly leaped back. He was hit three times, corroding his clothes but it couldn’t pierce through his body, only leaving a pink shade sizzling burn which immediately recovered. Even his clothes regenerated.

Then, he somersaulted avoiding a spear-like tentacle from the [Lava Walker] and pointed his both guns towards it in retaliation. Bullets shot towards it and smashed into the [Lavawalker’s] head. The damage was extremely high. Allen descended on the ground like an Immortal and when he tapped the sole of his foot, the ground around him began to dry and faintly burn in snow-white flames. A hazy snow-white pattern could be seen covering an area 20-30 meters across.

Suddenly, flames emerged, spraying out violently like a fountain.

There was a howl of grief.

Although the [Lavawalker] has a heaven-defying resistance to fire, Allen’s Ice Phoenix Flames, was a combination of the Firebird and the Ice Queen’s power, it immediately turned into a large block of Ice and then being tortured with flame toxins that seemed like your nerves and cells being burned one by one. Pointing [Ebony] at its direction, Allen grinned coldly, “Adios,”

Booooom!

The large block of ice was reduced into small pieces of ice shards.

Allen saw several lights shining around it.

With a wave of his hand, these lights shot towards him.

Drop items…

As expected of a Boss level monster, it was quite generous~

[Flowering Decay ]—An ability that enables the user to transplant corpse-flower that blooms on the enemy’s chest, sapping its vitality through air-borne or oral infection.

[Agony Hex]—An ability that curses the enemy to reel from the pain of even the most minor wounds.

[Paralysis Resistance]—Reduces the duration of paralysis.

[Light Wisp ]—An orb that can give 200% additional speed to the wearer. It also gives the bonus effect of covering every attack dealt with a light attribute. Skills: [Light Array Strike] [ Light Speed]

[Bramble Vest]—60% damage reflection and 20% Damage has a chance of converting into Health. Skills: [Forest Empowerment] [ Stinging Thorn] [ Plant Golem Summon]

…it alone actually gave five items; 3 skill books and 2 items. Allen smiled satisfied and turned his gaze towards the other monsters littered around and his eyes gleamed savagely.

“It’s Showtime! Mother fu*kers!”

His body flickered.

… …

Allen passed through the ruined garden and discovered some ghosts floating around the palace. They occasionally appeared in the sky. Floating white spirits and their anguished wails.

“Who would have thought that inside would be such a different scene.” Allen raised his brows. He had used identification and had learned that they were elite vengeful spirits or wandering spirits.

These spirits and evil souls have a very large damage attack and can even affect his mentality and Soul. If not for his Solomon’s Wisdom and the Lord of Spirits and Demons titles, giving him quite a huge resistance to these kinds of monsters, even with his power, he wouldn’t be able to even hurt much less kill these intangible monsters.

It would be fine with holy power but without it? Even if they are Gods, they would still be at a loss.

“They even give curses, huh…”

A troublesome enemy indeed.

Worst was that their numbers are increasing as one goes deeper.

Fortunately unfortunate, they encountered was none other than Allen.

The wandering spirits were easily dealt with by Allen with his Holy power. Although not as great and strong as Pure Angels, but he was still, after all, a Half-Angel. The curses directed at him were like throwing stones at the ocean, useless. In fact, even it had even strengthened him a bit due to him being a Half-Demon as well as Solomon’s Dark Attribute Power. He captured and stored those seemingly unique and useful Evil Spirits on his Orb and destroyed the others with his Demon Pistols; [Ebony] and [Ivory].

Allen thoroughly searched the area around the palace, clearing it of enemies, as well as chests and harvestable items, leaving not a single spirit or items of value behind. During this time, Allen received many Rare and Unique quality items.

There were even some who were graded as Legendary Tier such as the Legendary Sword; [Gram] he had found impaled in a humanoid like-skeleton wearing golden armor. When Allen identified the Armor, it was actually the [Armor of Fafnir] created from Fafnir’s scales and flesh by the Hero Seigfried.

A legendary Dragon Slayer Armor.

As to why these legendary weapons are here, Allen couldn’t understand and was also at a loss.

What had happened in this place...?

Then, he finally set out for the palace.

When he entered the Palace, Allen saw that the sculpture by the entrance had its lower and upper half separated. There was a hand in the corner, and a head completely covered in moss. It was hard to tell, but it was probably a sculpture of a female…or Allen thought but when he walked over, to his surprise, he had recognized its face: [Athena].

This is a Temple for Athena…?

Why is it here?

And what is it doing in this kind of place…?

Just what had happened here…!?

Allen had tried investigating carefully but he couldn’t find anything anymore. The entire place was clean from any kind of additional information aside from the vicissitudes and garbages from a war. “Thinking out here won’t do me any good. Might as well proceed further. I would definitely find some clues inside…” Allen sighs as he passed through it and walked towards the inside of the Palace.

Allen passed through at the entrance that was over 10 meters tall. In the darkness were wandering spirits. Allen began to tidy them up, searching room by room. However, many of the temple’s supporting pillars were broken.

In some places, the collapse made rooms and tunnels inaccessible. He had to circle around to the other side of the blockage. Then, he found a library-like room. The room was full of cobwebs and old, broken bookshelves. Allen took the books and flipped through them.

The documents on the outer rooms were all illegible, many had rotted away, and others - though intact - still weren’t completely readable. Most of them appeared to be songs and fragments of history, which allowed Allen to roughly understand the past inhabitants.

This place is indeed—the old [Pantheon of Athena] as to why it was here, it was not recorded anything, only the history of the Ancient War could be found and be understood.

Wooosh. Allen looks on the ground and saw the ground cracked open emitting sulfuric gases. Lava can be seen from deep within it. Allen was not surprised anymore. Along the way, the ground he was standing will often shift like platonic plates, creating cracks or fissures, revealing the flowing magma. This seemed like a volcanic area. However, for this place that was once the dwelling of the Goddess Athena be sent in this kind of place, it truly is somewhat pitiful…

Allen continued to flip through the other books, but only got some unimportant information. What gave him a happy surprise, however, was that he found a skill book.

[Fragment of Akashic Key]— This ability allows the user to find information that he seeks by tapping into the Library of Absolute Wisdom [Akashic Records] for a moment. Caution: Dangerous as the vast amount of knowledge might cause the mind of the user to be destroyed.

Allen was surprised and immediately sweeps through the books to find any other skills books and once again, surprised to see three other skill books that were actually all related to the Greek Wisdom Goddess; Athena!

[Transfiguration]— An ability that enables the user to alter the form or appearance of an object or person, via the alteration of the target’s molecular structure.

[Aegis Fragment]— An ability to summon a slightly weaker version of Aegis and use it.

[Amokinesis Immunity]—Derived from Athena’s Wisdom and Magic. It enables the user to be completely immune to any kind of Charm Magic or Romantic Curse and those powers that arouse romantic love and passion in others. Although not as strong and powerful as the user, one can also grant blessings to other people for them to have high resistance to Charm and Love Magic.

…And there they are such convenient and powerful abilities…!

Allen was completely astonished to find these skill books within the Library.

As expected of Athena’s dwelling though—it gives him a very generous present!

Allen vowed to give thanks to Athena when they met. They are kinda hard to resist and due to their rarity and convenient effects, Allen learned all of them without hesitation.

Without anything new to learn and find, Allen left the library and went out to search for any other rooms, giving him several excellent quality weapons and armors. He even found some treasure chests full of jewels, gems, accessories, silver and gold coins. He also found several small bottles of Ambrosia. Known as the nectar of Gods—although cannot give immortality, it can cure almost any injury. However, too much can make a Superhuman feverish and kills ordinary mortals. It also has the effect of increasing one’s longevity by a hundred years. It was a very rare God Potion.

After leaving the room, Allen suddenly stopped. He saw that the cracking walls were covered in some sort of fleshy stuff with pulsing veins. Allen squatted down and touched the sticky liquid on the ground. “Oh? If I’m not wrong, this is from an insect. These disgusting organs like walls are a lot like the ones built by the maggots from before, however, this place looks much more intricate. The inside should be some sort of an insect type existence…”

Is it the final boss…?

But what is this feeling of crisis…?

As Allen walked in, he could see that in the darkness, there were egg-like things on the floor. “Eggs…” From the ceiling, a clump of sticky liquid fell on his face. He couldn’t help but scowled while quickly wiping it off, and complained, “This is somewhat disgusting!”

However, he wasn’t a girl so he only feels disgusted but didn’t react exaggeratedly. His priority is to seek information that is useful for him. He looks around the place, crouched down and examined an egg. He used a little awl to poke a hole and see inside. He didn’t dare to cause a commotion by smashing it open as he doesn’t want to cause a commotion.

Who knows what kind of Boss is there…

This is the fiftieth layer and surely, the Boss here would surely be strong…!

He then saw a beetle type creature covered by a red-colored carapace in the sticky liquid. Beetle shaped? That meant that their defense was high.

If it’s a boss, then it’s a completely different story… As he was contemplating, a mantis-like blade popped out of the eggshell. Allen immediately tilted his head, receiving a long scar on his face. Allen’s brows furrowed and his longsword quickly struck the egg a few times, settling it…

It actually managed to cut my face off…?

What terrifying sharpness…!

His eyes narrowed and surveyed the entire room. He then saw the fleshy walls on two sides and the ceiling was also full of eggs. An enormous sculpture of Athena was also covered in eggs and sticky liquid. His eyes turned to the hole near the goddess statue.

It was at least 10 meters wide and was so full of eggs that it looked like it was spilling out. When Allen surveyed the entire place, a sharp sound pierced his ears. All the eggs began to break.

“…it would be troublesome to leave them alone…” While saying that, Allen’s hands started to glow brightly. And then, snow-white flames immediately covered the entire surrounding, burning and incinerating the eggs as well as those who were about to break out.

Allen could hear some agonizing shrieks and screams but he didn’t stop. The Snow-white flames covered the entire room and as well as the next room, freezing everything it touched into blocks of ice.

The entire temple hall was like a hell filled with cries of suffering insects. Allen didn’t stop and almost set the entire temple hall ablaze. The fleshy walls cracked and the floor shook. Allen’s eyes turned towards a giant creature that looks like an insect from the next room which was filled with eggs and disgusting mucus. It was struggling within the raging flames—crimson fire and snow colored flames coiled around it, seemingly trying to disperse Allen’s Ice Phoenix Flames using its own flames. But could it do that? This is Flames of the Ice Phoenix!

Under the light of the flames, the bloody goddess looked extremely malevolent. The layer of sticky liquid only made it even more hair-raisingly terrifying.

The floor continued to quake.

One, two, three—there were actually five, five to six-meter tall beetle-like bugs monsters rushing from the next room.

Allen didn’t dare let them all out and recover as his demon pistols both aimed at the incoming monsters—[Light Style—Holy Spear Bullet] Bang! Bang! Bang! Sacred power surged out and over ten Holy Spear shot out from the muzzles of [Ebony] and [Ivory] piercing through the bodies and heads of the struggling Insect Monsters.

Allen didn’t let the Insect Boss Monsters retaliate as he immediately slaughtered them all by showering them with holy light bullets, killing them instantly.

These monsters can only blame themselves for meeting an abnormal existence. If it was other people, these monsters wouldn’t be much weaker than an event boss. That nearly invulnerable shell of theirs is the biggest threat. But in front of Allen, it’s nothing but a piece of paper…!

After half an hour of nonstop showering of bullets and bombs, the monsters started to fell down one by one.

When Allen was done, he looted the place and found a Treasure Chest hiding behind Athena’s Statue and found some interesting skills. He then left the place satisfied and went to another place.

Allen passed through the outer palace and arrived in a garden that had been overtaken by weeds and cobwebs. Under the dim light, it was clearly untouched for a long time. From what Allen could tell, it must have once been a beautiful garden, but now there was only a fountain trickling water. Following the road of weeds, while slaughtering monsters he encountered and picking useful items, he entered the inner palace.

From here, it began to look more dignified. The decorative objects on the surrounding pillars and statues became more gorgeous at the same time. Under the dim light around him, the murals and sculptures looked refined.

However…unbeknownst to Allen, what awaited him within the Palace was actually something he would have never expected…

.. …

In front of the huge Palace, a pair of Crimson-blue doors stood to wait for him. The carvings on the door were similar to the ones on the pillars and murals he had seen along the way. Just standing by it, an inexplicable aura seeped out of those doors.

“This is probably the Boss Room. This is already the fiftieth floor so whether it still goes beyond it as expected and ending with the classic hundred floors, or not will be known after this…!” Allen muttered with a wry smile.

He had already fulfilled Romeia’s wish, saving the souls of his comrades and he was just continuing till now because he wanted to conquer this Dungeon and obtain many benefits as well as useful items and skills to be used in the war. Of course, a part of the reason is that, due to him having started the Dungeon, obviously he wanted to conquer it completely.

It was what he wanted to do; it was just his egotism, the worst egotism.

But so what? It’s not like it was a problem…

With his right arm clenched in an unusual of nervousness, Allen took a deep breath and touched the iron door with his left hand. If his body was still of that normal Superhuman, his palms would be flooding with sweat right now.

As Allen slowly put more strength into his hand, the door, which seemed to be at least three times his height, opened with surprising ease. Once it started moving, the two doors opened so quickly that Allen became a little bewildered. As he stood there holding his breaths and expectation, the huge doors finished moving with a final crash and revealed to him what was inside.

…but upon seeing it, Allen’s eyes widened in shock…

… …