Chapter 36
There was no time to hesitate over whether it would work.
“Everything I’ve envisioned in my head so far has worked.”
When the necromancer Gonic explained the Blood Spirit Tea Ceremony, he added that, besides feeding blood to a corpse, one could also directly use parts of the corpse itself.
I had never practiced it, but my intuition guided me.
The corpse of the crumbling Sword Wolf, and the corpse of the Griffin that had died when its heart burst.
I stood between the two.
“Blood Drain.”
I drew blood from the Griffin’s corpse.
Keeping a massive droplet of blood suspended in the air, I rotated the Second Circle in my dantian and forced my mana into it.
Then I injected the blood into the Griffin’s body, making its blood circulate.
I drew it out again.
Then, transparent reddish-brown spirit blood took shape.
A horrifying ordeal.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened my mouth.
Gluuuuuurk-!
An enormous amount of spirit blood slammed into my esophagus and windpipe.
“Mmmph...!”
Although what had entered me was clearly a liquid, I felt a pain as if my lungs were burning away.
But it wasn’t enough.
If this was all the pain I felt, I wouldn’t make it in time.
I accelerated the Second Circle even further.
Whiiiiir-!
“Mmmph!!!!”
After circulating the spirit blood through my body at a faster speed and synchronizing it with my mana...
“Uweeeeegh-!”
I vomited every last drop of the imprinted spirit blood onto the Griffin’s corpse.
That had taken barely fifteen seconds.
Ssssssizzle-!
The spirit blood poured over the Griffin’s corpse.
Now was the moment.
Before the blood coagulated around the Griffin’s body.
“Blood Command!”
I clenched both hands tightly and twisted them.
The wings attached to the Griffin’s back.
I severed the blood and muscle at their connecting points.
Craaaack-!
The pair of wings, controlled by my mana, floated up into the air.
I dragged those wings over and drove them down onto the Sword Wolf’s crumbling spine and wounded areas.
Squish!
“Connect!”
I snapped my fingers and accelerated the blood flow madly.
The spirit blood inside the Sword Wolf and the spirit blood in the newly grafted Griffin wings tangled together and began fusing into one.
Krrrkkk-!
The severed bundles of muscle knitted themselves together, while blood vessels carved out new paths and extended toward the wings.
I could feel each and every one of those paths.
“That’s it... Just wait a little longer.”
Sweat dripped from my forehead.
Even as I did this, I wondered whether it wouldn’t be more rational simply to command the Griffin instead.
There was no reason to revive the Sword Wolf with a technique I was attempting for the first time, especially at such a risk.
But that was precisely how I realized it.
The very fact that I had thought of attempting this was proof that my heart had already leaned toward the Sword Wolf.
I owed the Sword Wolf a debt.
It had bothered me that I had escaped the attack alone with Black Shift.
And if I hadn’t controlled it then, the Sword Wolf might have avoided the attack.
So...
This was an apology.
Ssssss...
The body of the Sword Wolf, now bearing the Griffin’s wings, regained its shape, and fur began sprouting across it.
“Did it work...!”
Just as I was sweeping my gaze over its face to inspect its condition,
The sword attached to its jaw caught my eye.
Seeing it reminded me of the Blood Knight, which had lost its weapon.
“...Since I gave you wings, this should be okay, right?”
I pulled the greatsword embedded in the Sword Wolf’s jawbone free.
“So that’s how it turned out...”
Yelp!
Snap!
Then I approached the Blood Knight standing behind me.
“Could you give me your hand?”
I pushed the greatsword’s hilt into the gauntlet on the Blood Knight’s right hand.
Then I activated Blood Command and temporarily melted the blood in the Blood Knight’s gauntlet and palm.
I made the greatsword’s grip and the Blood Knight’s red armor adhere as though they had been welded together.
And then.
Whiiiiir-!
I accelerated the Circle and circulated the sword’s spirit blood through the Blood Knight’s body.
The spirit blood circulating through the Blood Knight’s body flowed out through the blood mist around its neck and wrapped around the sword’s blade like a coating.
Sssshk-
It was astonishing.
“No... It looks like it was your personal weapon all along.”
The presence of the Blood Knight holding the greatsword became incomparably heavier.
It seemed to be exuding its true power, which it had been unable to display while holding an iron sword.
I turned my head and looked at the Sword Wolf again.
The fusion was complete.
The sword it had been holding in its mouth was gone, and it had become a wolf with Griffin wings growing from its back.
“Since you’ve taken on a new form, I should change your name too.”
No matter how I looked at it, a Sword Wolf without a sword made no sense.
Sky Fang.
Wing Wolf.
Names like that flitted through my mind, but somehow they didn’t roll off the tongue.
Seeing it approach with its tail wagging and lick my cheek, I felt that a rounder, cuter name would suit it better.
Since it had wings, meaning it could ride the wind.
“Barang.”
When I called it that, it barked and folded and unfolded its wings.
[The undead entity ‘Sword Wolf’ has evolved and been renamed ‘Barang’.]
The holographic message floating in the air announced its success.
<...Master...!>
Its voice sounded more mature than before.
“Have you grown up a little?”
After feeding all of the Griffin’s spirit blood to Barang, I hopped onto its back and gripped the reins.
Floor 97. Floor 98.
It was the most comfortable promotion match I had ever experienced.
All I had to do was fly through the wide-open air of the chamber.
Shiaaaak-!
The ride was comfortable too.
“Wow!”
Thanks to Barang’s speed, even ranged monsters’ attacks couldn’t graze me.
Kwaaaang-!
The Blood Knight’s destructive power had also increased dramatically after changing weapons.
Kieeeek-!
The monster on Floor 98 fell after the Blood Knight swung its sword once.
And then, Floor 99.
[Defender: Lava Golem (99F)]
The Floor 99 monster was a tank that looked quite dangerous at close range.
It didn’t seem to have any ranged attacks.
After putting the Blood Knight on Barang’s back as well, I remained airborne and engraved a Death Mark every twelve seconds.
The Lava Golem could do nothing below us.
[■]
Thump-!
[Successfully defeated the Floor 99 Lava Golem]
[Level Up! 99Lv -> 100Lv]
[Obtained 3 Stat Points!]
“Finally, Level 100.”
I checked my stat points.
I considered going all-in on Intelligence to reduce Death Mark’s cooldown further, but there was no need.
The cooldown reduction efficiency wasn’t that good.
More importantly, my greatest trump card, [Death Sentence - Slash (斬)], ultimately required enough physical stats to support swinging my scythe.
“Let’s keep it even.”
I distributed the remaining stats equally among Strength, Agility, Senses, and Intelligence.
“And stop for now.”
I landed Barang in the middle of the Floor 99 chamber and climbed down from its back.
“We’ll prepare here before moving on.”
I presumed the fatigue limit was set at twenty-five floors per day, but given the floor number, now was the time to make every preparation possible.
It was Floor 100.
The symbolic floor where the unit changed.
The floor that had stopped every intruder in history.
There was no telling what kind of gatekeeper awaited us.
I set up a tent and chair and prepared a late meal.
“Slurp.”
As I drank the warm ramen broth, I opened the gallery.
I was about to write a post to give my report.
I was a little excited, so for the first time, I came up with an excessively dramatic title.
[Title: Everyone in the World, Look Here, Finally at the Door to Floor 100!!!!!!!]
The Floor 99 door.
I took and uploaded a picture of the undead entities, whose forms had changed slightly, and wrote down everything that had happened.
The comments began pouring in as soon as the post went up.
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ(346F) : You’re really fucking fast lololol
ㅇㅇ(351F) : Finally Floor 100 omg
ㅇㅇ(418F) : How many days did it take you to get from Floor 1 to Floor 99?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(335F) : It’s Day 5 right now...
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(153F) : In less than a week, he got a Unique item, the Second Circle, two instant-death skills, and climbed to Floor 99 lolololololololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(634F) : Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.
They were the reactions I had expected.
Fenrir : Wow, wings! That’s fucking awesome. How’d you do that?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(437F) : The possibility freak is insane.
ㅇㅇ(702F) : ...So you even succeeded at the advanced course of the Blood Spirit Tea Ceremony. I won’t tell Newbie anything anymore.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(354F) : What?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(435F) : What are you gonna do if I get sulky? lololololololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(647F) : Let’s stop after one round. This is getting boring.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(337F) : Seriously, how much more offended are you going to get? The talent gap was already settled.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : No, that’s not it... It’s because I don’t have anything left to teach him.
“Huh?”
“You don’t have anything left to teach me...?”
KnowsTheLeisureOfATeacup : ...It seems you’ve now learned the entire concept of the Blood Spirit Tea Ceremony. ^^; You’re truly amazing, and I admire you, Newbie...^^
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : You haven’t properly taught him a thing since the first post lol He’s figuring it all out by himself lol
It seemed I had learned the entire concept of the Blood Spirit Tea Ceremony.
Now it seemed all I had left to do was raise my Circle to create more undead entities and improve my Blood Command proficiency so I could control them more precisely.
“Directly controlling several of them in my head at once would be really difficult, wouldn’t it...?”
Practicing something like that would have to wait until after Floor 100. For now, I only had two.
ㅇㅇ(643F) : Seriously, let’s just get past this final floor. From Floor 101 onward, trust us.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(435F) : Yeah, get ready to memorize the patterns by heart.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(146F) : Everyone in the Demon Army Gallery is cheering for Newbie’s climb to Floor 100.
Most of the comments were encouraging me.
But there were also a few voices of opposition.
ㅇㅇ(335F) : You must have quite a few revived monsters piled up as breakwaters by now... Can’t you learn some more magic before moving on?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(297F) : Seriously, this is way too fast.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(638F) : Newbie learns everything right away, so can’t someone teach him something else?
I had considered that too.
If I could learn at this speed, I could spend more time preparing for the sake of safety.
But it would be better not to.
ㅇㅇ(99F)(Author) : Can I quickly learn a movement skill faster than Black Shift or an attack stronger than an instant-death skill in my current situation?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : You do have a point.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(436F) : What about defensive skills...?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(99F)(Author) : I’ve got an invincibility skill called Envoy Realm.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : Didn’t you say you’d be in big trouble if you went to the Reaper realm? lolololololol
ㄴ Fenrir : That skill set really is legendary. Teleportation, instant death, invincibility... lol
I already had excellent combat techniques against single targets.
On the other hand, I was vulnerable against groups.
And, as I had experienced, intruders were likely to come in large numbers.
Furthermore, even if the monsters had begun respawning from Floor 61 onward, it would be dangerous to assume that the intruders had no means of recovering their fatigue inside the Demon Tower.
Therefore, there was no reason to postpone challenging Floor 100.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(99F)(Author) : I’ll never lose against a single monster. I can use Black Shift, then hit it with an instant-death skill.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(468F) : It even nullifies resurrection, apparently lol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(287F) : But if it nullifies resurrection, it won’t respawn, so doesn’t that make clearing Floor 100 pointless?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(99F)(Author) : Even if it doesn’t revive, successfully clearing the promotion match will make me stronger, so it’ll be safer.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(335F) : Okay...
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : But if that’s the logic, shouldn’t you keep climbing past Floor 100 too? lolololololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(432F) : Seriously, if you kill the Floor 100 monster with your scythe, there won’t be a gatekeeper again lololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(99F)(Author) : Correct.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(246F) : Huh?
I had known that from the beginning.
If the Floor 100 monster was strong enough that I had to kill it with Slash, Voidside’s resurrection nullification would activate, meaning I wouldn’t be able to set that powerful monster up as a breakwater.
And I regarded that as the baseline.
Disappointment comes from expectations, after all.
But if the Floor 100 gatekeeper died to Death Mark rather than Slash...
I would be able to set that monster up as a breakwater.
Then I would reach a truly safe floor.
Whichever way things turned out, I was mentally prepared.
That was why I simply wanted to find out as soon as possible.
Fenrir : If you took down Floor 99 that easily... it probably is better to go up now.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(435F) : Do you think intruders are going to keep coming?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : Since one came once, it’s only right to assume they’ll keep coming.
I swept the tent and equipment into my inventory and gripped my scythe more tightly.
“Let’s go.”
The Blood Knight and Barang stood beside me.
[Apply for promotion match]
Kkirikirik-
I climbed the stairs descending from the ceiling and finally stood before the door to Floor 100.
“Let’s drink a little first.”
I took a fatigue recovery potion out of my inventory and drank about a third of it.
I had set the interval for relieving fatigue at every twenty floors, but given the floor number, I made every preparation possible.
Then I climbed onto Barang’s back in advance.
I planned to engrave Death Mark and take to the sky the moment we entered.
I finished my preparations.
And finally.
I pushed open the door to Floor 100.