novelcrest Chapter 540 The Origin of the Dungeon!
Chapter 540 The Origin of the Dungeon!
Chapter 540 The Origin of the Dungeon!
"This is the seventy-second floor."
As the blinding light faded, Roy slowly opened his eyes, and what came into view was a stone maze. There were no monsters, and the silence was eerily quiet.
The others were forcibly separated.
The distortion that occurred in that instant made Roy, who possessed spatial magic, feel dizzy and disoriented, and in the end, he only managed to capture the frail Haruhime.
"Lord Roy." Haruhime gripped Roy's sleeve tightly, her beautiful face filled with unease.
Roy whispered, "Don't be afraid, I'm here!"
"Hmm!" The fear in Chunji's eyes gradually faded, replaced by unconditional trust in Roy.
The underworld is chasing souls!
Roy activated his skill, and a wisp of energy drifted through the air, penetrating thick walls and vast distances to sense the whereabouts of others.
The exploration team was divided into four groups: Finn's Loki Familia; Leon, Bell, and others; Ryu and Alphia, and others; and himself and Haruhime.
"Lord Roy, it's Lord Leon from the school district!" Haruhime excitedly shook Roy's body.
Roy followed Chunji's gaze and saw Leon walking towards him at the end of the wide passage. However, his expression darkened. Through the perception of "Netherworld Soul Chaser," he knew that the real Leon was with Bell.
"A deafening roar of light heralds the arrival of the Twelve Heroes!"
Round table of radiant light!
The mimic Leon chanted, the magic was activated, and the golden light of the lion gathered in his palm, forming a one-handed sword. Using the technique of "Afterglow," he swung it forward, tearing through the air with a slash, heading straight for Roy and Chun Ji.
Roy wrapped his large arm around Chunji's slender waist, initiated a high-position transfer, and disappeared from his spot just before the sharp slash came, narrowly avoiding it.
boom!
The lion-golden slash missed its mark, tearing apart the wall nearby and creating a huge crack.
"Lord Roy, what is this—?" Chun Ji was still in shock, unable to believe that Leon would attack them.
"That's not Leon, that's a monster from the floor!"
Roy answered, holding Chunji in his arms. The light and shadow shifted slightly, and the spatial fluctuations swallowed their figures. He teleported again and arrived in front of the mimic Leon.
The opponent reacted extremely quickly, raising his sword to strike.
Roy moved even faster, his right hand flashing out like lightning to grab the opponent's wrist holding the sword, twisting it violently with a sharp "crack" as the wrist bone snapped.
Despite mimicking Leon, his expression remained unchanged, as if he felt no pain, and his right leg swept out like a whip.
Roy neither dodged nor evaded, but instead clenched his right fist and slammed it heavily into the opponent's chest with the force of a gust of wind.
boom!
The mimic Leon flew backward and crashed hard into the wall behind him, sending pebbles tumbling down.
Instant kill!
Although the mimic doll possesses Leon's stats, skills, and magic, it is not even in the same league as Roy, who has reached LV.9. If Leon's "Round Table Flame" is fully activated, it might be able to hold out for a while longer, but the outcome will not change.
"So that's how it is. This is the labyrinth of the clone adventurers." Golden lightning surged from Roy's palm, transforming into a raging and terrifying dragon that blasted the clone Leon to pieces. He seemed to have understood the mechanism of this floor.
This is not good news.
He didn't care about the clones of others; Roy knew exactly how terrifying his own strength was.
Just as he could kill the clone of Leon in a few moves, his clone could also kill the real Leon in an instant, and others would become the targets of slaughter.
Without hesitation, Roy took Chunji and prepared to initiate the transfer to a higher position to reunite with the others.
And at that moment!
In the shadowy corner, a strange figure appeared like a ghost, shrouded in a thick fog, its outline difficult to discern, illusory and mysterious. It stood there, yet felt as if it were far away.
At first, Roy thought it was a clone of someone else, until his skill gave him a warning.
It's not "intuition," it's "god-killer"!
Roy quickly pulled Haruhime behind him, his eyes warily fixed on the dark figure. "Who is it?"
Chunji was secretly surprised to see Roy's solemn expression for the first time, and her petite figure hid behind her beloved's broad back.
The dark figure did not answer Roy's question, its eerie gaze piercing through the black mist as it stared at Roy: "I cannot see your past or your future!"
"and then?"
Roy pushed his "Intuition" skill to its limit, entering a state of foreseeing the future. He took out the Dimensional Array Shangri-La from his spatial ring, ready to transfer at any time.
The dark figure seemed oblivious to Roy's wariness, speaking as if no one else was around: "An unobservable and unpredictable unknown existence—that's what we usually call such an existence—a Level 1 Singularity!"
"By the way, you're the second one!"
"If that's the case, I'm a little curious, who's the first one?" Roy followed up on the other's question.
Upon hearing this, the dark figure remained silent.
A solemn atmosphere permeated the air.
After a long silence, just when Roy thought it wouldn't answer, it spoke again: "Chaos!"
"1
""
Roy's pupils contracted slightly, but returned to normal in an instant. He said with emotion, "It is truly an honor to be compared to that great being."
The dark figure whispered, "As expected, you knew of its existence. Just who are you?"
This time it was Roy's turn to remain silent. The gods can discern lies, and speaking carelessly is meaningless and will only cause resentment. One must be careful with one's words.
Roy asked, "Who are you? What do you know about the origins of the dungeons?"
"A trade? It is indeed a way of human communication." The shadowy figure understood Roy's meaning. If it wanted to obtain information from Roy, it had to utter information that would interest him.
"In that case, let's chat a bit more."
The dark figure spoke calmly: "My identity is insignificant; I am currently just one of the guardians of this vast labyrinth. As for the truth behind your so-called 'birth of the dungeon,' it's just a boring story—"
"This story will never be boring for the people of the lower world," Roy said.
Three thousand years ago, an underground city suddenly appeared, from which countless monsters emerged. Now they are found all over the world, completely changing the fate of the world. Countless people have been victimized. Who wouldn't be curious about the origin of the underground city?
"really!"
How could that dark figure not understand this reason? This was the sin of the dungeon, which had deeply hurt humanity. It had a duty to tell them. It spoke again, revealing to Roy and Chunji a past that no one had ever known before: "Gods are the strongest race, born from the world, immortal and indestructible. Even if they die by accident, they will automatically revive after a period of time."
"Countless gods indulged in revelry in the heavens. Hundreds of millions of years passed in a flash. The gods could no longer find new pleasures, and their hearts were empty and lonely."
"One day, the gods, bored out of their minds, came up with a new idea for amusement: to build their own paradise. But the world they set their sights on was too ordinary."
"They want more fun. What choices will humans make, showcasing the brilliance of humanity?"
"Only disasters can give birth to heroes!"
"They conspired to force a goddess to create a massive demon cave from which countless monsters emerged; to prevent the extinction of humanity, they sent celestial beings to help humanity; and after two thousand years of suffering at the hands of monsters, they themselves rightfully descended to the mortal realm to help humanity."
"The fierce battle continues to this day!"
Listening to the mysterious figure's narration, Roy remained speechless; it was truly a boring story.
In this story, the gods are the pure villains, controlling the birth of the dungeons while creating a system of favors tailored for the people of the lower realm.
In this way, many things can be explained.
No wonder the gods were so evasive about the truth of the underground city. If the people of the mortal realm knew about this, they would surely kill those unscrupulous gods on the spot.
When a goddess who has been forced to submit harbors resentment towards the gods and senses divine power, a black monster is born.
The dark figure continued, "Of course, some gods disagree. They are friends with that goddess and cannot bear to harm the humans in the lower realm, but ultimately they are outnumbered and powerless to contend with the gods."
Roy understood what the other person was saying; normal gods like Astraea and Artemis wouldn't agree with that.
That's a stupid thing to do.
Hestia, a recluse who hasn't left her house in millions of years, probably has no idea what happened.
"Is it over?" Roy looked at the dark figure.
"not yet!"
The dark figure shook its head. "What I said just now was only the surface reason. After seeing you, I can no longer observe the torrent of fate. The future has become blurry. This is the effect of the first-level singularity."
Hearing this, the other party practically revealed their identity; if Roy still couldn't guess, he might as well die.
As soon as he finished speaking, the dark figure stared intently at Roy, the meaning clear: I've said everything I needed to say, now it's your turn, to exchange information.
Roy grinned and asked, "You're the guardian of a certain floor. If we continue our conquest of the dungeon, you'll step in and stop us, right?"
The dark figure nodded: "Yes."
"There's nothing to say, wanna fight?" Roy drew his elven holy sword and pointed it at the dark figure.
"7
The shadowy figure was speechless at Roy's shamelessness, having been taken advantage of for free.
"The poor have no obligation to pay taxes to the rich, and similarly, the weak have no room to compromise with the strong. Compared to you, a god, I am just a weak human being. I'm sorry!" Roy laughed.
At first glance, it makes sense, but can it salvage your already precarious credit score? The dark figure sighed deeply: "I can guess a thing or two about your identity. Your destiny doesn't lie here. Make your choice; you stand at a crossroads of fate!"
As he spoke, the dark figure became transparent and vanished.
Its voice grew increasingly ethereal and elusive, lingering within the labyrinth.
When the dark figure completely disappeared, only Roy and Chunji remained in the wide maze passage.
"call!"
Roy breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the other party had no intention of starting a battle with him here. Fortunately, he was now facing that true god and had no chance of winning. He might even be killed instantly.
"Haruhime, we have to go. I wonder how much time that guy has been adjusting." Roy was very worried about the others. His conversation with the dark figure seemed brief, less than ten minutes, but he keenly sensed something was amiss; perhaps several hours had already passed.
Hearing his call, Chun Ji stopped in her tracks.
"What's wrong!" Roy asked, looking surprised.
"Lord Roy, is the dungeon really a conspiracy by the gods?" Haruhime bit her lip until it turned white, and crystal-clear tears welled up in her eyes.
The gentle and kind-hearted Haruhime's heart is riddled with wounds inflicted by the gods of the island nation. If the dungeon is also the work of the gods, she might truly break down. Just how many people has this demonic cave harmed?!
Roy paused for a moment, then patted the other's head. "You're just too trusting."
All of this is just the shadowy figure's side of the story. Although it is very reasonable and its various loopholes can be patched up, its credibility is not as high as one might imagine.
Roy was just listening to a story.
Besides, what difference does it make whether they believe or not? Are they going to raise their swords against the gods on Earth? Apart from Roy, everyone else and the gods are already in a relationship of shared destiny, where one's fate is the other's!
If the gods are sent back to the heavens, or killed on the spot, the adventurer's favor will be sealed.
In that case, it will truly cause pain to loved ones and joy to enemies.
Thinking of this, Roy felt uneasy. Could it be that those damned gods had foreseen that things would be exposed and deliberately designed the system of favors this way?
(I love seeing those expressions on people's faces—they hate them so much, yet they can't get rid of them.)
Roy didn't voice his guess, but merely comforted her. Chunji felt much better; otherwise, she would have found it difficult to face the gods on the surface of the earth again.
Then there's another concern.
Haruhime grasped the key point from the words spoken by the dark figure before it disappeared—Roy's ultimate destiny.
"Lord Roy—please don't leave us." Haruhime gripped Roy's sleeve tightly.
"Don't worry, I won't go anywhere. The Astrea Familia is my home!" Roy stroked her hair, his voice gentle yet resolute.
"Uh-huh!"
Chunji nodded vigorously, tears still glistening in her eyes, but a relieved smile spread across her lips.
Roy laughed, "Besides, have you ever seen a fool abandon so many beautiful wives and run away alone? I certainly wouldn't!"
"Pfft!"
Haruhime's worry turned to joy, and she smiled, agreeing, "Yes, Lord Roy would never abandon the beautiful Lady Astrea, Lady Artemis—Lady Alexie—Lady Kaguya!"
Roy smiled: "You're just as beautiful!"
"I----?"
Chunji's eyes brightened slightly, her fox ears perked up, and her tail swayed involuntarily. Her two small hands were clasped in front of her, her fingertips unconsciously intertwining, her expression conflicted. "Compared to Lady Astrea, Lady Ryu, and Lady Alphia—I'm far inferior—"
Roy's tender gaze seemed to melt her heart, and all her unease vanished.
Roy didn't say anything more, but instead showed his love through his actions. He hugged her waist tightly, lowered his head, and gently kissed the fox-girl's trembling cherry lips.
Chunji nervously closed her eyes, stood on tiptoe, and offered up everything she had.