Chapter 66

You have exited the『Gluttony Dungeon』

As Jae―with Bailey by his side―stepped through the portal, he found that their location differed from that of where they found the Dungeon’s entrance.

He said he attempted to force the exit to bring us close to another Dungeon. Did it work?

It could be that Gluttony’s plan worked. It could be a mere coincidence. In any case, once the notifications were all over―

Assimilation with「Gluttony」complete Title「Ruler of Gluttony」has been acquired 「Gluttony」has activated

―Jae’s stomach began to feel hollow. Shortly after, it made a resonating, deep rumbling sound.

Extracting hidden factors Factor discovered 『Gluttony's Authority』has been acquired

Without a smidgen of hesitation, Jae moved as fast as possible to grab every last crumb of food from the Inventory and stuff it into his mouth.

This wasn’t a direct effect of becoming the Ruler of Gluttony but was something he needed to do to offset those kinds of problems before they occurred and became uncontrollable, such as what happened with Wrath.

Fortunately, there wasn’t a problem in the end―there was sufficient food stored in the Inventory to satiate the voracious side-effect of Gluttony.

After quickly washing everything down with water, Jae had restored his condition. Now able to examine the immediate surroundings, the very first thing for him to notice was the whiteness of wherever they were.

“Master.”, Bailey suddenly called out from beside him, holding his shabbily protected arms and shivering slightly, “Please, do we have any other clothes? I’m freezing.”

Quietly exchanging his glance from the snowflakes falling from the sky to the boy, Jae only replied with three words, “Use Magic Armour.”, to which Bailey looked briefly confused.

“? Oh...!”

He soon seemed to realise what Jae was suggesting, however, and closed his eyes. Shortly afterwards, an invisible film covered his body from head to toe like a translucent silken barrier. Thereupon, Bailey stopped shivering, despite the continuous snowfall that brushed his bare skin.

Opening his eyes, he looked at Jae and spoke.

“Master, I didn’t know it stopped the cold.”

“You forgot, then. It was one of the first things I explained when I taught you two. Also, it doesn’t ‘stop the cold’; it just provides protection against extreme temperatures. Anyway, it’s a useful trick, right? But, it’ll continue to drain your mana during use, and it won’t help in gathering Resistances either, so if you’re not careful it will suddenly run out and you’ll freeze again.”

“Okay...”

The two glanced around once again, and the more they looked, the more they thought it was strange. Everywhere they looked, aside from the snow, there were dozens of white stones sticking uniformly out of the ground. They each appeared to have engravings on them, although neither of the two could understand the language.

Still, they didn’t need to know the local language to know what kind of place they were in.

―This is a graveyard.

Resting directly above the two’s heads, sat a nigh-endless sea of grey clouds. From it, countless soft flakes descended gracefully towards the ground.

The winter graveyard was vast, and, at first glance, there may appear to be thousands of white headstones standing proudly. Undoubtedly, whoever owns this place must invest heaps of resources to maintain it in such pristine condition.

Hm. It’s quite large...

Turning a full 360 degrees, Jae could see the same, substantial white headstones spread out in each direction. However, there was one direction in particular that stood out from the rest, and that was because the end of the graveyard could be seen.

Or, instead of the graveyard’s ‘end’, perhaps it should be called the ‘beginning’―a tremendous, pure white archway gate leading out of the graveyard presented itself with dignity.

For the first time since exiting the Gluttony Dungeon, Jae sensed around with magic. His main aim was to see if there really was another Dungeon around here, but in doing so, he discovered something else about this bizarre place.

What? Everything here is... All these graves are enchanted?

Jae, rightfully so, was confused. At first, it may not seem like such a big deal if it's just enchanting some graves with a few light protection spells, but when you consider that there was easily around ten thousand graves here, each with a thick coating of magic, then it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to claim it as impossible.

That wasn’t all, either. On top of the graves themselves, the ground beneath their feet and even the air that surrounded them felt different, although the latter two didn’t seem to be enchanted. There would be no reason or even a method for anyone to do such a thing from what Jae has soon so far, so for what purpose could this graveyard be like this?

He was thinking about the answer when suddenly, he realised something.

No, wait... The magic used is strange. It’s odd, and doesn’t this feel a little familiar...?

It wasn’t quite déjà vu, however, Jae did recognise the feeling as something he had experienced before. For some reason, he recalled it as being something unpleasant.

The magic didn’t feel like the kind of magic he was used to, and the more he realised it, the more Jae felt a tightening feeling within his chest.

“...Ow.”, he muttered unwittingly, “Why is this place so annoying?”

As a test, Jae wanted to try touching one of the enchanted headstones, so he slowly placed his hand on the nearest one, and as soon as he did―

*zap*

―What appeared to be a tiny bolt of golden electricity jumped out from the headstone and connected with Jae’s hand like a magnet.

Not hesitating, though, Jae continued to touch the grave, causing a stream of golden sparks to surround his bare hand and a sharp, stinging sensation to course through his body.

Out of realisation of the current situation, he quietly hissed, “...Shit.”, and a deep scowl was soon to appear on his face. As he removed his hand from the headstone, the sparks disappeared along with it.

Looking at his hand, scorched by the golden sparks that had appeared, Jae was silent. Ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been something that could have harmed him, but the sparks were able to without much of an issue. It wasn’t merely because the magic was that strong, either.

“...”

Jae clenched his hand and hid it from view after healing the scars with magic. Thereupon, he began walking towards the glorious archway that served as the entrance to the graveyard, having Bailey follow him from a safe distance not too far or close behind.

From what he gathered during the test just now, this place was highly likely to be particularly dangerous, so it was a rather simple precaution to ensure at least Bailey’s safety.

Walking briskly along the path, coated in snow, the two of them eventually reached the archway. Jae didn’t stop to examine it or anything, as he saw no need for it―all he wished for right now was to find the next Dungeon quickly.

Feeling a sense of urgency creeping into him, Jae hastened his steps. After passing through the archway, Jae and Bailey had officially left the graveyard. What was now in front of them was a long path leading to a broad staircase, both of which were snow-covered, white and unblemished.

Going along the path towards the staircase, Jae’s bad premonitions acted up again, but he didn’t take any immediate action due to the passiveness of「Instinct」.

All he did was stop moving and concentrate on the presence approaching him. Less than a moment later, their figure became visible to Jae’s eyes.

The first thing for him to notice was the person’s phenomenal, androgynous beauty, and flowing, platinum blonde hair. Strangely, however, they wore an ice-cold, utterly apathetic expression that gave her a completely unapproachable look.

“...?”

―But it also seemed that they noticed him simultaneously as the two gazes clashed.

There were a brief few seconds of silence, but it was quickly broken by Jae, who had a notification appear right in front of him.

Skill「Envy」has been blocked

He knew that he wouldn’t be able to see the stranger’s Soul State, yet still tried it anyway due to a very slight, unconscious belief that there might have still been a chance for it to work. Of course, it was an utter failure.

Following this, the stranger, who seemed to give off more of a feminine charm, descended gently down the stairs, step by step, with elegant movements.

And. As she slowly made her way in Jae’s direction, the rest of her body was revealed. Jae, who looked at her from top to bottom, didn’t even have to ask to know what kind of being she was.

Resembling a partisan or glaive, she grasped a polearm in one hand like it was nothing. Not to mention the lethality of the weapon, or the effectiveness of its enchantments, it was evident that the thing was an object crafted with utmost precision, skill, and focus.

In the centre of her forehead―visible through a middle parting in her bangs―a strange white marking, like a tattoo, could be seen.

Her clothes were on the simple side: a long, white dress designed to not impede movement, although decorated with golden threads along the seams. And, last but not least, was the defining feature that was what instantly gave away her identity to Jae...

...A pair of white, feathered wings that folded neatly on her back―the indication that this person was of the same kind as Ariel.

“Hello.”

――A Seraphim.

“I am Samael.”

The angel stopped just a few steps ahead of Jae and introduced herself as such, still with an expressionless face. Briefly confused, Jae merely stared at her before coming to his senses.

“My name’s Jae.”

“Yes. You devastated the human country a while ago.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Jae instinctively tried to jump away but stopped himself when he realised that Samael stayed stationary. She answered the perplexed look on his face after a moment of silence.

“I did not say I was going to kill you. Why were you about to run away?”

Delayed from confusion, Jae asked Samael, “You’re a Seraphim of the God of Light, right?”

Her wings shifted slightly as if offended by something, although her facial expression remained unchanged.

“I am. That is unrelated to the point before. I had more work because a country was destroyed, but I am not negatively affected by it, so why would I attack you?”

“...Well...”

“I do not have a reason to care if a country is destroyed. The exception is this country.”

“...”

Jae didn’t know how to respond to that. When she said it with such a cold and ruthless expression, she seemed far more terrifying than any monster.

It had not even been ten minutes since they met, and yet Jae could already see big differences between Samael and Ariel. She hadn’t yet mentioned anything about him having the ‘stench of sin’ either, which he was grateful for.

He just told Bailey to stay calm and not attack under any circumstances through telepathy when Samael abruptly called out to him.

“I am about to visit the deceased and pray. Would you care to join me?”

In all honesty, Jae did not have a single care in the world. However, he feared for his life what the consequences could lead to if he denied her proposal, so in the end, he was forced to accept.

“I... shall join you in that, then.”

“Alright. You should not die, even if you are the Apostle of Sin. Then, follow me. I shall show you around.”

With that, she brushed past Jae, past Bailey, and all the way down the path he just walked, through into the graveyard. Her height, which barely reached 160 centimetres, made her quite easy for the much taller Jae to catch up to.

“...Well.”, Jae said to himself. He tried his best to think optimistically of this encounter with the angel.

“Let’s just see how it goes.”

Meanwhile, Ryan’s party was busy brainstorming a way to get out of their current situation.

...

It started with Rena being the first one to jump through the Pride Dungeon’s entrance. Fortunately, she arrived in a safe location, away from harm.

She was only by herself for about thirty seconds, as Amelia and Kaitlyn soon arrived through the portal, followed by Nicolas another minute or so later, and by the time Ryan had arrived, more than thirty minutes had to have passed.

“Ohhh fuck. Ohohh fuck. Ahhh, uhhm, where are we? Does anyone know?”

Of course, Nicolas was the one under the most distress out of the group. Before he caused any trouble, however, Kaitlyn tried to calm him down a tad.

“Hey, hey, calm down, look. It told us where we are. We’re in something called the ‘Pride Dungeon’, right?”

“Huh? Well, obviously I knew that. I meant, what the hell is that?”

“Oh... I dunno.”

“...Of course.”

The calming method appeared to work? Once Ryan had finally arrived in the Dungeon, the group was able to come together to figure out the situation. And the first one to pitch in was Rena.

“Daddy was here!”

Nicolas instantly rejected it as if it were obvious.

“What? No, there’s no way that could be true, right? We were 100% the first ones to reach the top of the mountain. Since we are the very first, how could your dad have been here before us?”

It was a sound argument―

“““No.”””

―However, everyone else in the group disagreed with him. When he complained and asked ‘what the deal was’, Kaitlyn informed him.

“Nic, you did read the notifications we saw upon coming here, didn’t you?”

“Wha-- Of course I did! What does that have to do with it?”

“Are you sure? Because one of them said that the ‘Dungeon Clear Status’ was 0.15%. We only just arrived here and haven’t done anything at all that could be taken as ‘clearing the Dungeon’, so it’s only natural to assume that there was someone here before us.”

“...Oh.”

Once it was all agreed upon that someone entered the Pride Dungeon before they did, they went ahead with the assumption that that person was Rena’s father.

With that as their foundation, the group began to figure out what exactly their situation was.

“―15 more days’ worth of food, three days’ worth of clothing, about twenty Health Potions, and exactly ten Mana Potions. We don’t have to worry about water because of magic, so that’s all. Will this all be enough when split between the five of us?”

Amelia counted their supplies, ending the list by asking their party leader, Ryan, a serious question. He responded to her as if it wasn’t so much of a problem.

“It’s plenty. We can gather food in the form of fruits and monster meat. Clothing ain’t a problem so long as it can be washed, and Mana Potions’re useless anyway. Reserve Health Potions for emergencies only.”

Giving out instructions to the group on how they should be using their supplies sparingly, they had about three days of food altogether―that meant three days to find a source of food. Fortunately, they didn’t need to worry so much about water, as they were able to continue simply using Water Magic as they have been doing.

But, that doesn’t mean that food is the only concern. Of course, everyone knew that there were bound to be monsters in this place, and because it was a place―as far as they knew―only accessible by traversing the deadly planes of the Land of Beasts, the chances were that they wouldn’t be ordinary foes.

Thus, they would need to play at the top of their game. Or, at least, until they obtained a stable understanding of what kind of place this was.

From what they could currently see, there were already a few things that could be gathered about the Pride Dungeon. Ryan, of course, made doubly sure to note everything down within his「Great Sage’s Records」.

―The seven, multi-coloured suns that revolved around each other and shone brightly in the tinted sky.

―The harsh temperatures that never ceases to drain their energy and exhaust their vigour.

―The thick, almost overwhelmingly dense atmosphere, rich with mana, that they felt blessed merely to be able to breathe.

It all added up to create a place far more magical than anywhere they had been so far in this world.

Of course, aside from that, there was also the immediate surroundings to examine. When they entered the Dungeon, they appeared in a pleasant area, with plenty of lush greenery and a myriad of vivid flowers, as well as a beach with pure white sand and crystal waters.

In the far distance, mountains were also visible. As they looked around the area for a bit, Amelia eventually commented.

“It’s like... the world was split in half.”

It may seem that way at first glance. On the one side, it was only land, save for things like rivers and lakes, and on the other, it was nothing but an endless sea of water. Even as she sharpened her gaze and looked down the seaside, the beach seemed to go on forever.

Well, her theory wasn’t too far off in reality, as where the group currently stood was on the very border between the Pride Dungeon’s Inner Layer and Oceanic Inner Layer―the Merged Middle Zone.

After some time, they decided to move more inland to find some prey. It didn’t take too long to find it, as there were the occasional Young Wyverns flying through the sky and other reptile-type monsters travelling across the ground.

As they were all much weaker than initially expected, there was barely any trouble in catching them to eat. Additionally, Kaitlyn and Rena found some sweet fruits in the nearby forests.

Fortunately, both Amelia and Nicolas (albeit unexpectedly) were able to cook, at least to an ‘edible’ degree, so there was no risk of anything like food poisoning occurring.

Finding out that there were plenty of edible monsters in the Dungeon that they could catch, as well as, not only edible but tasty, fruit. With that, they had secured a method of obtaining food while they were in the Dungeon.

Then, all they had to worry about was sleep, which, thanks to the utility of Earth Magic, wasn’t too bad as they could construct their own huts out of sturdy rock.

――It meant they could sustain living here for the foreseeable future, at the very least.

...

Since then, a week or so of living like this has passed. The party continued to travel slowly, and cautiously, further inland.

They thought that, perhaps, they could find a way out of this place called the Pride Dungeon. And, if they did, they hoped it would be soon.

After all, Rena’s father seemed to have escaped the Pride Dungeon without clearing as much as half a percentage of the Dungeon’s total, right?

So, it shouldn’t take that long to get out.

Right?

...

Eventually, they came across a structure.

Since it was definitely not something they constructed, they became a little bit scared at first, but then reassured themselves by agreeing that it was something left behind by the previous person to have been here―Rena’s father.

When they entered the brilliantly-made structure, which everyone could only say was a work of art, they found evidence of people living there in the past.

The mere fact that it was made through Earth Magic and yet still so incredibly detailed signified that it couldn’t have been made by anyone except a world-class, phenomenal magician―something they believed Rena’s father to be.

Furniture such as chairs, tables, sofas, and beds could be found. The only strange thing was that there were always duplicates―for example, two beds. It was a rather small detail, but when they thought about it, it indicated that more than one person could have been living here at the same time.

Nicolas, the one who couldn’t help but spill his inner thoughts, surmised.

“So, what is this? Did Rena’s dad live here with someone else or something?”

Everyone nodded their heads in response with the exception of Rena herself, who seemed a bit out of it ever since discovering the house. The rest of the group didn’t even notice it, however, as for them, there was only one question left.

―――Just who was he living with here?