Chapter 203. Second Season (6)
Four days after the thrashing phase began, with Ren finally reaching the 60th floor, I decided to fight the 60th Floor Master with him. Since I had to grind the Floor Master anyway, if I brought Ren in, I could save Party Member Scarecrows and train Ren at the same time. It was killing two birds with one stone! Of course, I didn’t forget to tell Ren about ‘Ten Times a Day, You Monster…’ and help him buy them.
Though Ren was a bit lacking in qualifications, it seemed that staying as the last explorer in his world while protecting children earned him some favors. More importantly, as he had become a Hero, he could buy ‘Ten Times a Day, You Monster…’ more easily.
“… Why didn’t you change this thing’s name yet!?”
“You’ll get bad luck if you change the name of a finalized product!”
“Don’t lie!”
“It’s true! Though the product is still relatively new, so it might be okay… But Eleine said I can’t change its name even if I died! She said something about it being a revolutionary name that was hard to come by… I wonder, is there a special language spirit in it? But it’s rare for there to be a language spirit I don’t know of…”
Wait, did Loretta not realize the euphemism behind this name!? This small yet not so small difference between Eleine and Loretta… It almost made me cry. Seeing Loretta tilting her head, I lightly patted her head.
“Loretta, I’m happy that Loretta is Loretta. Don’t change… At least, don’t change when I’m not watching.”
“W-What!? Even if you say something so sweet, I won’t give you anything! Ehehe… Here, here.”
Though that was what she said, she flapped her ears as if to fly away and picked up items like potions, entrance tickets, and Party Member Scarecrows and put them in my hands. I was worried she might be fired from her administrative guild master position at this rate. Or maybe, Loretta wanted that to happen.
Then, when I was organizing the handful of items I got from Loretta with mixed feelings, Ren asked me.
“Crown Prince, there’s something I want to ask.”
“What is it, Ren?”
“Can you help me understand what’s so strange about this ‘Ten Times a Day, You Monster…’?”
I paused with my hand still in my inventory and fell silent. Ren’s ears perked up, seeming to say, ‘I’m listening, Teacher!’ Looking at his innocent face, I spoke seriously.
“… That’s not something to brag about, Ren. It’s really not! I mean, it’s not something people who understand can brag about either, but… Damn it!”
“C-Calm down, Crown Prince! Uwuuuuuk!’
With Ren with me, the already quick Floor Master battles ended even quicker. We each just had to hit it once or twice and it was over. After using Frozen Roar to increase our abilities for 5 minutes, we defeated the Floor Master twice. Although it would’ve been nice if we could use Ren’s Golden Lion’s Roar, he said it was only usable when he was using Deific Manifestation. Considering how powerful the skill was, it was understandable.
“He is my ancestor, the Golden Lion. It really is an honor. Though, I never understood why he came to me instead of my Father who was the Hero.”
“Wait, ancestor?”
“According to the legend, he was blessed by the gods and had the ability to transform into a Golden Lion in battle. With the body of a beast and rationality of a human, he ruled over the continent as the strongest warrior. My unsightly display was because I couldn’t accept his power completely. It’s really quite embarrassing.”
As I didn’t know how to respond, I simply nodded and urged him.
“Then let’s continue with our fun thrashing time so Ren can wield his power better.”
“Crown Prince is… evil! But sorry, I have to go make food for the kids.”
“Eh?”
Right! Ren wasn’t alone. Along with Lebuik, he had to take care of the livelihoods of seven children. I nodded feeling awkward.
“G-Go ahead. I’ll see you later then, Ren.”
“Do you want to come also? I’m going crazy because Elfa keeps crying, saying that she wants to see Crown Prince. She won’t stop talking about Crown Prince.”
“Mm, later. I’ll bring presents.”
“Hm, okay. I’ll tell Elfa that Crown Prince will come by within 4 days.”
“Eh? Wait, Ren!”
Ren left the dungeon before I could stop him. Damn, he got me. Now that things turned out like this, Elfa would hate me if I didn’t come visit within 4 days. After telling myself that I’d reward Ren with thrashing full of love, I headed back to the guild house.
“Daddy!”
“Ina.”
The moment I entered the guild house, Ina ran into my embrace. Although she could fly if she wanted, she still liked to run as it was a habit from before she got her ability. Since she likely ran into her parents’ arms when they were alive, it made sense.
“I heard you were working hard.”
“Un! I worked hard and became Gold rank!”
In other words, she had broken through the 50th floor. I knew she was climbing fast, but I didn’t think she’d be this fast. I also realized that the freezing energy she was giving off had gotten stronger. I softly stroked Ina’s white hair and spoke.
“Looks like Ina’s going to catch up to Daddy soon. Good job, it must have been hard.”
“Not at all. It was fun! I can handle ice better now!”
Right. All of Ina’s abilities received support from the dungeon’s system. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Ina received the most benefits from the dungeon’s skill system. If she continued to work hard, she would be able to come in contact with ordinary people without fear of hurting them. Right, she just had to put in a bit more effort.
Thinking about the day she would become independent, I hugged Ina tightly and rubbed my cheek against hers.
“Thank you for working hard, Ina.”
“Un. Thank you too, Daddy.”
With us treating each other like real father and daughter, I felt like she had really become my daughter. Even though that wasn’t possible, it was as if I was putting myself under a hypnosis.
In truth, I was a bit surprised at first when Ina called me Daddy, but now, I didn’t think it was so bad. Ina had gone through many hardships and had lost many things dear to her. If I had something she wanted, I was more than happy to give it to her.
“I’ll try harder. I’ll get stronger and protect Daddy.”
“… Is that what Mommy said?”
“Un. Ina and Mommy will protect Daddy.”
Hwaya, this girl, is she planning on making me a princess? I swore revenge and told Ina.
“Don’t push yourself. Daddy will be sad if Ina gets hurt. Got it?”
“Un. Mommy, Ina, and Daddy can then be happy together!”
Though her words made me happy, Hwaya and I weren’t real husband and wife, and I had to make Ina realize it one day. Thinking about how she’d react, a sigh naturally came out. Of course, this was a matter for the far future. Since it was unclear whether our future was secure, it would be too overzealous on my part to be worrying about this at the moment. As such, I simply held Ina tighter without any words.
Then, I handed Ina off to Hwaya and went back into the guild house with a final look. Ren would arrive soon. I had to prepare myself to beat… to train him.
Just like that, a week had passed since the start of the thrashing phase.
“You’re wide open!”
“Kuk, I knew you’d attack there!”
“Purposefully showing an opening and drawing in your opponent is an excellent tactic, but don’t forget, there are people who can easily see through something so basic!”
“I won’t lose! Kuaaaang!”
An important element in a fight between two people was seeing a few moves ahead of the opponent. If one could predict how the other person would move, it became much easier to achieve victory. Of course, even if one could read the other person, if he was lacking in speed and power to deal a fatal blow, it was useless.
“Kuhuk!”
My wooden spear hit Ren’s vital point, causing him to fall. As he had gone through a thrashing phase before, he could control himself to a certain extent. However, once his beast-like instinct showed signs of appearing, it was easy to provoke him and cause it to explode. I sighed. Then, just as I reached my hand out to help Ren up, I realized that there were people watching us.
“What’s everyone doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious? We’re watching you fight.”
“Beating him… to death? If he dies, tell me. Golden Lion, good undead material.”
“I won’t die!”
No matter how much Ren respected Daisy, it seemed he didn’t want to work under her as a undead. Ren gritted his teeth and took up his stance again.
“Come, Crown Prince!”
“If you’re so worked up, it’s going to end quicker than the last round.”
“I’ll show you that’s false!”
Of course, after that, Ren ended up being knocked down in just 35 seconds. Other than little problems like this, the thrashing phase was progressing smoothly.
However, not everything could work out so well and there were things that had to be taken care of no matter how painful it was. Around the time the 60th Floor Master grinding was ending, Hwaya gave the suggestion.
“It’s about time to let everyone know.”
“About the dungeon?”
“And about us and the danger, Earth is facing. It’s time. Our guild is in the right position.”
At her words, I remembered something from what felt like a long time ago. When we first spoke, she said she wanted to create an organization of dungeon explorers to solve the danger Earth was facing. The organization she talked about then wasn’t too different from Revival. If there was, it was who the guild master was. Interestingly enough, I did say that I’d accept her offer if I became the organization’s leader.
“Revival’s members are all strong. As we are now, we won’t lose to any external influence, be it Freedom Wing, Guardian, or countries. More importantly, we can’t let people continue to do stupid things. The world could potentially end, and there are way too many people wasting military strength and fattening up monsters’ bellies for short-term profits.”
“You’re right. We only have 23 months left too.”
This wasn’t new. I had considered the matter long before Hwaya mentioned it. However, there were too many obstacles to do so at the moment.
“Will they believe us? It seems a bit absurd.”
“What the world is going through is already absurd. What we’re about to add isn’t going to make it any more absurd.”
“You have a good point.”
“There’s power behind the words of the strong. Of course, there’s responsibility behind it as well. And you, you are the world’s strongest. The Untouchable.”
“Stop, that makes me cringe.”
This wasn’t something only Hwaya and I could talk about. We immediately gathered everyone at the guild house and carefully discussed the details. Once we revealed the existence of the dungeon, the biggest problem would be appointing the explorer. There would undoubtedly be millions of people wanting to become explorers. Among them would undoubtedly be powerful influential people.
“We have to set a requirement. It’ll be near impossible to control every single explorer. What we need is a large number of powerful explorers.”
“Right, let’s not make all new explorers join Revival. Revival is a select group of the most powerful elites. The requirement to be an explorer will first be one’s brains, then one’s strength and potential for growth.”
“Un. Our goal has to be increasing the number of explorers. At least for this part, we have to make sure to use Soul Contracts to control them. We can’t let them waste explorer appointments on people that don’t meet the requirements.”
For now, we decided to ban non-ability users from becoming explorers. Of course, it was still entirely possible that there might be ordinary people with extraordinary talent. I was like that initially. However, the chance of too small. It was overwhelmingly better to appoint someone with an ability. That way, they would surely become stronger and increase the number of explorers.
“The contract we’re going to make people sign is also important.”
“We have to give up what we need to give up. We can’t force them to throw away their lives when the world’s enemy comes, and we can’t force them to climb the dungeon 12 hours a day.”
“We can just choose ability users that are already actively fighting monsters. People’s personalities don’t change that easily.”
“Someone like France’s Laz Michel, huh.”
“We’ll only require two things. First, purposefully not climbing the dungeon will be prohibited. Second, the explorers they appoint will have to be approved by us. Just this will increase the number of explorers on Earth and help us reach our goals.”
“Edward, if that’s the case, it’ll be better to put it details numbers for the first clause. We need to make sure that people don’t feel like we’re controlling them while making sure that they don’t neglect their duties as dungeon explorers.”
While everyone was busy climbing the dungeon and training, they still made time to help with the contract and discuss how to tell the world about it. Yua was extremely happy that she was included in this talk.
“If I didn’t become an explorer, I would have never known about such an important talk. Ehehe, I’m happy I can be of help, Oppa.”
“You’re always helpful, Yua.”
“Oppa…!”
“Hold it!”
Ludia quickly put her hands between Yua and me. How dare she misunderstand the love between an Oppa and his younger sister!
Anyhow, the contract went through several revisions and discussions before it was finalized. Meanwhile, I finished grinding the 60th Floor Master with 15 point increase to both magic and charm; killed the Thunder Power Knight, Beyond’s Floor Master that was the combination of the Dark Ratman and Lizard Knight; as if that wasn’t enough, I broke through the First Dungeon’s 61st floor, Beyond’s 11th floor, 62nd, 12th, 63rd, and 13th. This all happened in just 2 weeks.
By the time I began climbing the First Dungeon’s 64th floor, the contract was finished. As Revival’s master and explorer of the First Dungeon and Beyond, I stood in front of the whole world.
“We only have 2 years left. We have to protect Earth. We can’t waste our time on useless things!”
The days when people scrambled to stop the onslaught of sudden monsters was long over. It was now time for us to make our appearance.
“If you’re confident in your strength as an ability user, knock on Revival’s doors at any time. The dungeon will help you become an excellent warrior that can sweep through the monsters and dungeons invading our world!”
Starting from now, humanity will strike back. All ability users will sweep away monsters invading Earth from a different perspective. The war between humanity and monsters, the second season had only just begun.