Chapter 28 - Entering the Domain of Pride
In front of me, a girl stood with her back turned.
It took me a second, but I quickly recognised her―that familiar above-average height and waist-long chestnut hair flowing loosely couldn’t fool me for long.
Well, the height and the colour of the hair were fairly ordinary, but above all, I could feel a sense of vivid familiarity despite not being able to see the person’s face.
“Amelia...?”
There were no thoughts such as ‘Where am I?’, or ‘How did I, she, or we get here?’.
Taking a step forward, I reached my hand out; as I did, she turned to face me.
And my body froze.
“Jae.”
I was unable to make out her face as it appeared blurred, but it was undoubtedly her. My brain could subconsciously realise that much.
Somehow, I couldn’t even think to respond and merely stared like a fool without realising it.
Of course, I was shocked, but the confusion itself was probably what rooted me in place.
Not bothering to wait for me to move or say something, she asked me in a terrifyingly cold voice.
“Where did you go?”
It was a tone of voice that only emerged whenever we had gotten into an argument, and it made me shudder every time.
"Why did you leave?"
Naturally, I wanted to retort.
’I didn’t choose to leave.’
‘I don’t know where I am.’
‘Everything happened so suddenly and so abruptly. I didn’t even have time to consider a lot of things.’
However, something made me unable to speak.
Or rather, whenever I opened my mouth, the words that exited were simply silent.
Hers, on the other hand, were not.
“I’m sure you left because you couldn’t deal with me any more.”
“I’m sure you went off to a place I would never find you.”
Why was it being made out that I’m a bad guy? Should I feel guilty?
"......"
As similar thoughts invaded my self-conscious mind, "Amelia" suddenly said.
“Jae.”
She approached my frozen body and lightly pushed me backwards by my torso. I tried with all my might to resist, but for some reason, it was as if all the strength had been stripped from my body and a sense of dizzying vertigo dominated me.
Gazing coldly down at me as I fell an unusually long distance down, far beneath the empty space I was previously standing, she muttered.
“Suffer for what you’ve done.”
My vision went black as I hit the ground.
----------------------------------------
All of a sudden, I re-opened my eyes, but no light entered my retinas.
In fact, I couldn’t see nor feel anything but pain.
Taking a reflexive gasp, I felt only the stomach-churning sensation of some sort of viscous liquid filling my lungs.
“Heuk-- Gurgle...!!”
Skill 「Pain Tolerance」 has levelled up [Lv.5]→[Lv.6]
Pain.
Conditions met. You have acquired the Resistance Skill: 「Heat Resistance」
Conditions met. You have acquired the Resistance Skill: 「Acid Resistance」
Burning.
Skill 「Pressure Resistance」 has levelled up [Lv.1]→[Lv.2]
Pressure.
Conditions met. You have acquired the Resistance Skill: 「Drown Resistance」
And drowning.
Experiencing a terrible amalgamation of all of these nauseating things at once, like a tsunami, it took less than a second for my mind to get dragged under the depths once again.
It wasn’t even long enough to register that I had woken up, and a message soon appeared above my ruined corpse.
You have died
Sometime later, as I regained consciousness, I was immediately hit by another wave.
―Pain.
―Burning.
―Pressure.
―Drowning.
Skill 「Pain Tolerance」 has levelled up [Lv.6]→[Lv.7]
Skill 「Heat Resistance」 has levelled up [Lv.1]→[Lv.2]
Skill 「Acid Resistance」 has levelled up [Lv.1]→[Lv.2]
Skill 「Pressure Resistance」 has levelled up [Lv.2]→[Lv.3]
Skill 「Drown Resistance」 has levelled up [Lv.1]→[Lv.2]
This time, it took two-and-a-half seconds for death to take me.
You have died
In such a fashion, the cycle continued; I regained consciousness again later and lasted five seconds. With brief flickers of consciousness in between, each period extended in length as various resistances increased.
The more they increased, the longer I could last in the next cycle―and the longer I lasted, the more they increased.
Thus, my skills grew exponentially, and the gaps between the times at which the notification of my death appeared naturally widened alongside that.
Because of all the flickering in and out of consciousness, I didn't know how many times I died in order to accomplish it, but I eventually lasted long enough for my brain to process that I had woken up.
And that’s when the true hell began.
“!?”
I woke up and jolted at the sudden, excruciating pain all over my body.
I instinctively felt that I could tolerate it if I tried, but that was an incredibly difficult thing to do for someone who just woken up.
“---!!”
I tried to scream, but the only noise escaping my mouth was horrific gurgling as some kind of thick and vile acid rushed to fill every crevice of my insides, invading every orifice and scalding me all the way through.
There was a simultaneous influx of notifications, but the constrictive feeling of something pounding on my brain made me too disoriented to read them.
Even though my scorched eyes weren’t working, I should’ve been able to see them despite that, but I rapidly felt faint, and soon, I lost consciousness once more.
You have died
I don’t know how much time passed in that state.
It felt endless, painful, and indescribably confusing, but regardless, I eventually opened my eyes.
“...?”
My eyes were not instantly seared, though I was still submerged in a viscous liquid that I couldn’t see through, and for some reason, I was fine breathing despite my lungs overflowing with the icky substance. It also felt a little tingly on my skin, and a bit worse on my insides, but other than that, I barely felt any pain at all―the little that I did was easy to bear.
The intense pressure previously hounding my head and body all over, was also gone like an illusion.
Conditions met. Skill 「Enhanced Lung Capacity」 has been acquired
After a while of lying still, this skill appeared, but I wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.
Activating Wrath to try and illuminate the surroundings, flames erupted from my body and filled wherever I was in the blink of an eye.
Rumble...!
Immediately, my world began shaking and the liquid I was bathed in bubbled and boiled. I thought it was a good sign, so I continued.
If I keep going like this, something will happen, and I’ll eventually be able to escape. I don’t know if I’m in a tiny cave or what, but I’ll find a way out.
Rumble-!!
The tremors were growing more intense, so I upped the output of Wrath.
Good, like this.
Hopefully, the path forward shows itself before I run out of m--
You have died
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I woke up again.
“......”
Staring at the unfamiliar, orange sky above, I didn’t even have any thoughts of where I was or how I ended up here.
Just, it felt as if I had finally escaped a horrible, vivid nightmare.
“Ffuuuh...”
Heaving a sigh that seemed to contain the entirety of my soul, I felt a burning desire to take some time to rest at least a little, but I reminded myself that I didn’t have such a luxury. I didn’t know where I was, and danger could come at any time.
Thus, there was a need to figure out my current condition.
“...What the hell?” I opened my Status and reflexively exclaimed.
Too much had changed from the last time.
"Pain Tolerance max, heat res max, acid res max, drown resistance..." And even some unrelated skills were added.
“What is this...? Ugh-- Hm? There’s a funky smell, too...”
I had long grown used to vile stenches that could make even a grown man puke, so maybe that’s why I only belatedly realised it even with Smell Enhancement. Still, something about it was different compared to the usual goblin funk.
Pushing against the ground―soaked with a mix of blood and some other liquid I didn't want to know about―with my hands, I lifted my body, which had become completely naked from the corrosive acid, and looked around.
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“Woah...! What happened?”
I was met with the aftermath of a massacre―large chunks of butchered flesh and severed bone strewn gruesomely around the place. It was far worse than any crime I had committed to a goblin in the past. And, speaking of ‘place’...
“Where the hell...”
My words naturally trailed off as I jumped to my feet and swivelled my head. Perhaps quite naturally, my mouth slowly gaped as I observed the new environment.
“I was... In a cave, right...?” I muttered, unable to process what happened.
It was inexplicable, but there was no way I could've gone from a cave to this.
Above me, I saw a painted orange sky with no clouds to speak of, and before me, a vast, rocky wasteland was spread out. A bizarre-looking white mountain, or hill, sat in the nearby distance and towering thin rock spires like needles that seemed to pierce the sky sporadically decorated the barren... wherever this was.
Moreover, if I looked at the sun and squinted, I could see seven of them...
Am I on drugs?
No.
Seven suns, all of varying hues―six of which revolved around the centre one, which was larger in size compared to the others and dyed an unnatural purple. Strangely, even though only one out of the seven suns was orange, the sky adopted only that tint.
"...No, that wasn't how it worked."
Well, I don’t really remember what I was taught in science class, but maybe the sun isn’t what gives the sky its colour after all? It was related to the frequency length of the light waves or something or other, right? Who knows, I don’t care.
Anyway, it wasn’t a hallucination, but it didn’t feel like a mere illusion either.
“Huh...”
Thankfully, I don’t feel that hot compared to before―Although I do possess Heat Resistance at max level now, so I would honestly be surprised if I did.
I know I’m not tripping; there was definitely only one sun before I entered the cave, and I lived for almost an entire month outside, so I'm certain.
I don’t know what happened after the bastard Goblin Lord one-shot me, but I for sure am not in that cave.
Scratch that, I appear to be in a different world entirely.
But, that couldn’t be possible, right...?
“I had only just been transported to another world not that long ago...”
You’re telling me it happened again? And so soon? No way.
“...Though, I guess I don’t even know how that kind of thing would happen in the first place, so maybe it’s possible...?”
Anyway, I suppose it didn't really matter at the moment. Glancing back at my Status, which had numerous points of contention I felt the need to discuss, I first turned to the shredded carcass behind me.
Looking at its full body, which amounted to the size of a building of more than just two or three storeys, my eyes widened.
“...Dragon?”
Muttering the first thing that came to mind, I thought it had to have been.
The (dead) creature’s body was sickeningly mutilated, so it was difficult to tell, but judging by what was left of the giant wings, as well as the shiny red scales that littered the surrounding floor, each the size of a hobgoblin, I thought it couldn’t be anything but.
It was so huge that at first I thought it was the sight of multiple dead creatures, but I could certainly only find two pairs of limbs, one set of wings, and one messed-up dragon-looking head.
“Hm...”
Crouching down, I attempted to lift one of the scales, but even if I stood it on the ground it reached roughly up to my collarbone. There was no way I could carry something like this around with me everywhere, so I hurriedly discarded it despite the waste.
It wasn’t as heavy as I expected it to be, but my god was it too big to loot.
"Tsk. How do they always carry so many of these in a stack? Even though it's pretty light, they're so damn big that even a sub-dimensional inventory shouldn't have so much space."
No matter how much I joked about it, this was not a game. It was a shame, but without upgrading my carry weight limit somehow, it was no good.
“...Wait. If this was a dragon, then...”
Belatedly, something occurred to me, and I found myself frozen in place.
“Was I... Eaten?”
Now that I thought about it, it had to have been. The circumstantial evidence was screaming.
I was swallowed and stuck in the stomach of a dragon. Then, when I used Wrath on its insides, it had a tantrum? Something unexpected happened to kill the creature, and I escaped.
That’s probably how it went, right?
Contrary to what I would expect, my body was surprisingly clean as if I had just showered, but I felt that was due to the resurrection more than anything else. The hard ground of this place had not a speck of dust, either, so I didn’t get that dirty by lying around if you exclude the blood and gastric juices.
In any case, let’s not get distracted... Although. To be honest, I feel like it’s probably fine to finally relax for a bit.
After all, if I can survive being swallowed by a dragon in my sleep, I can survive anything.
First off, the final test I wanted to do before diving into my changed Status was simple.
“Hehe, it’s time~”
Picking up a small chunk of meat among the countless pieces that cluttered the floor, I chucked it into my mouth without hesitation.
“Mmmh~!? Ho-ly! Dhish is good...!”
The taste was incomparable to even the marginally better-tasting hobgoblin meat, but the most important part was what came next.
"Come on, come on, come on~! Show me the money...!"
Obviously, I had high hopes for what skill would come from consuming dragon flesh, and I found it impossible to contain my excitement.
Gulp.
Unfortunately...
Skill 「Gluttony」 has activated
Skill level too low to perform this function
My expectations were thoroughly crushed.
“Ah! What, are you kidding me?! Fuck off, you stingy bastard.”
It was the same message that showed whenever I tried to use Envy on myself. I guess the fact that I can do it when I level up was a silver lining, but still...
“Damn it, this stupid balance.”
Missing out on a skill from a dragon sucks, but there was nothing I could do. Clicking my tongue, I turned my attention back to the Status menu.
“...Uh, seriously, there’s a lot. Isn’t there a way to check all the changes individually? I might miss something...”
I only muttered to myself, but as if responding to my wish, a secondary window opened showing the logs of all the notifications I recently received.
“Hah, wow. That’s convenient.”
Scrolling through the System notification logs on the side, I went through everything in order, and the very first thing I saw caught my attention.
You have entered the 『Pride Dungeon』
Current Dungeon Clear Status: 【0%】
“Oh, what...?”
It was a pair of notifications I had never seen before, but I instantly understood what it meant.
“This is... A ‘domain’, right?”
The thing Envy mentioned ages ago―the sins’ personal domains. It was a topic never brought up again after that time, but it had always been in the back of my mind. I thought I wouldn’t be able to find one of these in months, but did that goblin bastard just throw me in here out of the goodness of his own heart?
For free?
“Dungeon...”
It was a typical videogame term and boasted a 'Clear Rate' to boot. This way, I’ll never miss out on everything this place has to offer.
I'm really not sure if it wants me to think this is a game or isn't.
Either way, everything clicked―Now it finally made sense why I was in a place that looked so bizarre like another world. I still wanted an explanation as to why and how the hell I got here after the Goblin Lord killed me, of course, but maybe I would find out soon.
"Is the lord related to the sins somehow...? He seemed to know something about it before, but I'm not sure..."
In any case, I don’t remember everything that Envy said about it at the time since it was quite a while ago, but I’m pretty sure there was something like a reward in these domains, right?
If that’s how it is, I’ll do my best to get everything I can and clear it.
With an excitable grin plastered on my face, I continued scrolling through the notification log.
“Hmm~ Loads of resistances-- Oh, wow, Bleed Resistance evolved? I only got that one, like, the other day. Let’s see, Haemorrhage Resistance and Greater Bleed Resistance, hm? Nice, nice... Oh damn, Tough Skin hit max and evolved too! ‘Iron Skin’, huh...”
I lightly tapped and pinched my arm a couple of times, and it really did feel like my skin had gotten much firmer.
More than just not suffering from papercuts, I felt that it would be impossible to accidentally cut myself with a kitchen knife while cooking any more.
“This is some good shit.”
The skills were all well and good, but the real problem lies elsewhere; as my gaze moved to the ‘titles’ section, my beaming expression quickly crumbled.
“Resurrected... times ten.”
Turning my gaze, I read the System logs of my tenth resurrection.
You have died
Title 「Apostle of Sin」 has activated
“Aha! So, the culprit was that accursed title after all. I knew it.” Murmuring to myself, I carefully read every line of what followed.
You have reached a Title-related milestone
Conditions met. You have acquired the Title: 「Denier of Death」
Conditions met. You have acquired the Resistance Skill: 「Death Resistance」
The effectiveness of all Sin-series skills will be strengthened
Your Race will be adjusted
“Ah!”
That!
It was that last thing!
‘Your Race will be adjusted’! What the hell? What the hell???
Don't get me wrong, the title is cool and all, and Death Resistance of course sounds metal as fuck, but my race? I’m human-- er, Humanoid, aren’t I...?
Needless to say, I was wrong.
Race : Undead
“......”
It happened...
It finally happened...
I looked human, I felt human, I certainly acted human―I felt hunger, perhaps too much in fact, and I didn’t perish under the sun or anything―however, in reality, I was anything but that.
In the end.
I have become...
Zombie.
“What bullshit is this...”
My parents would sometimes refer to me as a vampire when I sat in my room and played games for an entire Sunday, but I never thought it would turn out like this.
Is that what it is? I was sure this only occurred thanks to that no-good Inhuman title. Things were only getting worse and worse.
“Fucking hell. Am I gonna have to watch out for holy water now? Anti-undead barriers, priests with holy magic, and fire?”
It was a dreadful thought. Suddenly, the face of Chris flashed through my mind.
“Ugh.”
My head dropped in lament.
I didn’t feel jealousy or anger anymore―only a pitiful sense of defeat.
As the Hero, I’m sure that guy’d love to chop an undead like me right up. Or, maybe not because I still look human... Well, I guess I’d revive anyway, right? So, it doesn’t matter even if he did.
Regardless, this was terrible.
No one can dispute that with a straight face.
“Damn it. I was already having trouble with a cursed body and cursed skills, but now my existence itself is cursed. Haa, man, you can’t be serious.”
I heaved a deep sigh, but I would not give up.
Just because I had lost my humanity didn’t mean I had lost my spirit.
“Hoo, that’s right. Can’t stay down forever. Keep going and everything’ll be fine. Surely.”
Hopping on the bus, I would let my Steadfast Mind carry me through to victory; the one and only blessing that has kept me going from the beginning.
There remained a few issues, however.
I didn’t know where I was; I had no clothes; I had no clue where to go, et cetera... But, well, I’m sure I’ll figure something out.
I called the sins a few times for good measure, but they were still gone somewhere.
Lazy bastards.
Although, that was probably for the best.
"Hm. Well, where do I go now?"
Looking around, my gaze fell upon the humongous, oddly-shaped white mountain.
It was the only real point of interest that I could see and a clear landmark, so I thought that would be my first destination.
Even though I was most likely alone here, I still felt uncomfortable about being naked―picking up a nearby dragon scale, I awkwardly held it in front of me like a shield for my nether region.
“Mmm... Yeah, this ain't gonna work. I need to get some clothes, fast.”
Something about it felt almost more shameful than if I were to be without it, but it was all I could use to cover myself up, so I put up with it and started walking.
Thankfully, the chances of there being other people in this Pride Dungeon were slim.
So, let’s just go. Quickly.
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I thought it would take something like an hour to get there, but I soon arrived at the white mountain.
As I got closer, I found it to be much larger than I thought, so it wasn’t actually that far away. It also looked more egg-shaped than it did before as if the mountain itself had moved, but I couldn't tell if it actually had moved or if I was just seeing things.
In fact, even the surface of the mountain looked strangely smooth and ridgeless...
I chalked it up to my eyes playing tricks on me as I sprinted my way over, however, since it couldn’t possibly be a real dragon egg or something. After all, that dragon from before was big, but it wasn’t that big, so there was no way.
This was, simply, a mountain.
“......”
...Right?
Rumbleee...!!!
“Woooaaaah, fuuuck...!?”
An earthquake reminiscent of the shaking I experienced within the dragon’s stomach occurred, except this time, it really was the entire world that was trembling.
My balance was completely disrupted by all the tremors. I struggled to stay standing even by using the dragon scale to lean on and eventually fell on my ass with the scale dropping on top of me.
“Oof-!”
Raising my head from my spot on the floor, my mouth subconsciously gaped.
"Oh, what the f-..."
The mountain.
Rumble-!!
It really was moving.
“......”
The event in front of my eyes was so unbelievable that not a single thought ran through my head. With my jaw dropped, I stared up as the deafening earthquake slowly ceased and a freaky silence dominated the atmosphere.
Technically, I was correct.
Because what stood in front of me was not a dragon egg.
It was, simply...
Gulp.
A dragon.
“Ah...” A small noise unintentionally escaped my mouth, but I was too flabbergasted to even notice it.
'Monster'.
That’s all I could use to describe the absolute behemoth before me.
Nothing like a mere goblin, hobgoblin, or even the Goblin Lord―this thing couldn't be compared to any of that.
It had to have been at least a few hundred metres tall, this beast staring down at me, its two golden eyes gleaming as they penetrated right into my soul.
Like a white giant gazing down upon an ant.
“......”
Well...
Fuck.