Adam lifted the last crate, watching as it broke apart into small blue cubes that systemically absorbed the object before disappearing entirely into his inventory.
“I’m so grateful for our hero, the porter, who can save us from any demon that pops up from those legendary ancient seals,” Nilo joked, sprawled across Adam’s bed with her head hanging upside down. “And let’s not forget, he conveniently keeps all our belongings in his magical, infinite space dimension. Who wouldn’t want such a great hero?”
“You do know it isn’t actually infinite, right?” Adam countered, wiping his hands on his tunic.
“Why not? I swear you’ve stuffed every single item, big or small, inside of it.”
“That doesn’t make it infinite,” Adam replied, grabbing another crate and watching it dissolve into cubes.
Nilo flipped over onto her stomach, her expression a mix of curiosity and mockery. “Hey, why don’t you just do that while the crates are on the ground? Don’t you have a pretty low strength stat?”
“I’m just worried that the process- the cube-ification of the objects-”
“When they go into your magic-dimension inventory?” she finished his overly cautious explanation.
“Yes,” Adam said with a sigh, “each object turning into cubes that gradually break down and disappear into my inventory. I’m afraid it’ll eat away at the floor as those cubes chip away at the items entering my inventory.”
“Does it damage the environment when you do that?” Nilo asked, resting her chin in her hands, her eyes glinting with mischief.
“Yeah,” Adam admitted, “I found that out when we collected a large chest in Eruka’s dungeon, the one you helped me open.”
“Huh…” Nilo said, tapping her fingers against the bed frame. “So, does that mean you could use the inventory ability to take chunks out of monsters?”
Adam froze mid-action, his eyes widening at the suggestion. A slow grin spread across his face. “Oh, that’s a brilliant idea…”
“You’ve never thought about using your powers for evil?” Nilo gasped in exaggerated outrage. “Adam, I’m so disappointed in you.”
“Once we get Sebas back, there’ll be plenty of evil to go around,” Adam replied with a smirk, tossing another crate into his inventory. “God only knows he’s probably the worst person I’ve ever had the misfortune of working with.”
“You know,” Nilo said, stretching lazily, “you two always seem to act all fond when it comes to Sebas, but I’ve never heard anything good or redeeming about him.”
Adam hesitated, his smirk fading into a more thoughtful expression. “…Well, he is our party member, and it’s not like we outright hate the guy-”
“Yeah, I don’t really care that much,” Nilo interrupted, waving him off dismissively. “There’s no need to get all…” she gestured vaguely in his direction, “sentimental.”
Adam shook his head, trying not to grin. “Karri and Arietta will be back with the information we requested soon, so we’ll have a better idea of where to go. Do you still want to join us?”
“I don’t really know, I don’t have anything else to do… besides, don’t you guys need someone in case there are traps or something?”
Adam laughed as he wiped his hands on his tunic. “Nilo, you don’t need a reason to hang out with us. Friendship isn’t about value.”
“You’re being all cringe and loser-like again…” she said, staring up at the ceiling. “Wasn’t there some church that reached out to you? The Church of the Holy something?”
“The Church of Hero, or the ‘Holy Cardinals,’ yeah. They claim to be dedicated to world peace and want to help me meet my ‘real’ party.”
Nilo turned her head to look at Adam from her lounging position, throwing him an inquisitive look.
“There’s a Hero for each of the main Six races, and when the Demon King emerges, the Church of Hero is supposed to gather all of them.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It’s a fantastic thing, but… I don’t need a ‘new’ party when I have you guys.”
“Adam… I really don’t think I’m the kind of person you want with you when you’re out slaying kings.”
“Of course you are! I’d much rather have you and my ‘weaker’ friends than a bunch of powerful strangers.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet it almost sounds like you called me a weak friend.”
“Wow, would you look at that? They’re here!” Adam said, redirecting attention to the open door.
“Huh-”
Arietta peeked into the room before giving a light knock on the ajar door. She looked down at Nilo on Adam’s bed as he stretched in the middle of the room. “We’re back! Did we miss anything?”
Karri pushed past Arietta, forcing her way in with a stack of papers, cutting off the tattooed girl as she began pacing around the room.
“So, the bad news is that Sebastian Iore Aren got himself arrested for…” she flipped through the papers while humming thoughtfully, “Unauthorized Judicial Homicide for… one admitted count, and between twenty and thirty unconfirmed counts.”
Nilo snorted a few times. “Sounds like someone’s been a busy bastard.”
Adam shot her a halfhearted scolding look as she giggled on the bed.
Karri pressed on, ignoring Nilo’s interjections…
Karri continued speaking, ignoring Nilo’s outbursts “The good news is that, if you can believe it, Sebas is a missionary for the Church of Mercy; they will be assisting him with his “Religious Exemption,” if we leave now, we’ll make it towards Aeredale where he’s being held, it’ll take about five days to properly head out and reach him.”
“By foot?” Arietta asked curiously.
“No, it’s over two hundred kilometers to the south, you can drop me from the party if you want me to walk that far of a journey,” Karri said with an upturned lip, “my feet are already tired from getting lost in this place all the time.”
“Is there anywhere nearby that sells Carriages?”
“No,” Adam said, “they have a portal network, but when I asked how much it cost, they originally told me it was fifty gold… they found they were Kladia minted coins and said it cost five hundred,” he finished his sentence by sitting down.
“Oh, what’s this? Are the high and mighty elves actually racist? Who would’ve thought?” Nilo remarked with a sly grin as she stretched her arms overhead, securing her body. “Such benevolence from the grand and beautiful high elves…”
“Yes, yes, we all know inequality is a reality,” Karri replied dismissively.
“The real problem is that we might end up with little to no money left if we hire a carriage,” Adam chimed in. “So, as long as we’re all on the same page, let’s spend it.”
“Seriously? No money at all?” Nilo complained.
“You’ll still get your personal share,” Karri said, eyes closed as she spoke.
“When do we plan to leave anyway?” Nilo asked.
“Immediately, if we can help it,” Karri responded, still with her eyes shut.
“I’ve already got everything packed, so I’m ready whenever you are,” Adam said while stretching his muscles.
“Just let me know when you’re all set to go,” Karri said.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“Karri, you’re still sprawled out on the bed,” Nilo pointed out.
“No, I’m standing up, Just watch,” she replied, flopping one arm over her head dramatically.
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[Notice: Perspective Shift; Sebas Aren (LV 25)]
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A potion bottle clattered and cracked against the ground, and a small amount of green liquid pooled within the bottom of the glass and slowly leaked onto the floor.
[You have consumed a
Sebas groaned as the stinging pain flushed through his body and his internal wounds and sore muscles quickly healed in his body. He slid down against the wall of the cavern while popping small purple dried fruits in his mouth.
[The God of Afterlife asks if you had fun?]
“You’re such an asshole…” Sebas said weakly.
[The God of Afterlife chuckles.]
“That was worse than a hangover…”
[The God of Death asks how you feel?]
“I’m cold, my entire torso is bruised underneath my scales, I can’t feel my middle and ring finger, and there’s a slight ringing in my ears that if I pay attention to it, I can just barely hear it.”
Sebas groaned and slumped against the wall.
“I feel exhausted but I can’t fall asleep, I’m not hungry somehow; my stomach feels like it’s in a knot, and I’m cold.”
[The God of Undeath says that you said that twice.]
Sebas squinted and rubbed his nose in between his eyes before slinging the pack over his shoulder.
“I’m gonna go break the thing in the final room of the dungeon.”
[The Goddess of the Hunt cuts off Mercy, telling you to grab the handle of the Sword.]
Sebas carefully ducked inside of the broken spiral staircase chute, slowly and carefully landing against the wall as he dug his hand into the brickwork, “Why- wait… what sword?”
[The God of Humanity cuts off Mercy saying it’s the Dullahan’s sword that you broke in your Berserker's Frenzy and that it has uses.]
“What uses?” Sebas asked as he hopped over the body-sized gaps in the stairwell as he descended.
[The God of Humanity asks why he should tell you?]
Sebas decided to refrain from speaking further on the topic and continued his descent further into the third floor.
He marveled at the broken wooden chapel, admiring the shattered pews and the overturned iron cage that sat against the wall with a part of the throne that once sat on the dungeon floor.
“Damn… is this all me?”
[The Goddess of the Hunt nods, saying that you were very intense and extremely powerful, she’s so proud of you]
“Thanks, I guess,” Sebas said while walking through the hidden entrance behind the pipe organ, looking around at the broken statues and the shattered stone floor tiles that crunched underneath his feet.
“What did you want to say, Mercy? Was it going to be something along the lines of “Please go to sleep, I worry about you, you need to heal?”
[The Goddess of Mercy says that you do not have to be snarky about it…]
Sebas walked through the massive gaps between each dense bone lattice wall, looking around as he made his way further into the dungeon.
“Is there anything I need to worry about whenever I break this thing?”
[The God of Undeath says that the Dungeon will destabilize and that you will most likely be trapped to die if you don’t use the warp point to escape.]
“The what now?”
[The God of Afterlife says it is the large sigils that glow bright blue when you enter new floors and mid-floors.]
Sebas walked through the broken-down doorway in front of him and lifted the iron door up and out of the way. Underneath sat a large intricate circular slab, with a small rune inside a circle of glyphs sitting at the center that connected to an additional circle with runic etching and glides that also sat on the outer edge of the slab.
“This thing?”
[The God of Afterlife says yep while nodding.]
“Cool.”
Sebas looked up at the large lattice of bone that protected the Dungeon’s core, inspecting the wooden pillar that it sat upon before he turned his attention to the broken greatsword handle on the floor.
It had hardly an inch or two of blade left on the cross guard. Sebas picked it up, dumping out the food contents of the Shadow Sling on the floor before gently setting the broken blade inside, staring at it as the pointy pommel lightly poked out from its new scabbard.
[The God of Death says it isn’t exactly a holy sword.]
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
[The God of Afterlife says that she’s just being negative.]
“I don’t get what she’s trying to say in the first place?”
[The God of Undeath says that his siblings mean to tell you it has the potential to become a decent artifact.]
“Wow, the honor,” he said with indignant sarcasm.
Sebas flew up from the floor and grabbed onto the brass baton that lay crushed inside of the ceiling.
“How the fuck did I fight with this?”
[The God of Humanity says you fought like a monster.]
“Good,” he said as his hand rested on the crown of what was once a bell; yanking it out from the ceiling.
Sebas sent a gust of air with his wings to go backward as the ceiling cracked and ruptured into a mess of rubble.
“Nicely done… Me? Berserker me? Whatever.”
Sebas turned to the latticework of dried and bleached bones, inspecting it while he slowly flapped midair with both sets of wings. He struck, and a loud crack sounded as the wall of bone broke open, revealing a floating orb that shone and appeared to be a deep shade of midnight green.
Sebas tossed his baton to the floor and reached forward, lightly holding onto the core. His palm had to be splayed against it, as it was nearly the size of his forearm, and he focused his mind on it.
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[Dungeon Core]
{???}
Effect: ???
“Break the Dungeon Core to receive bountiful rewards; like a piñata.”
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“Hey, what the fuck is a Pinita?”
[The God of Humanity says that he does not know, but he does know that the one in charge of the item text is usually one who likes to play “jokes”]
“Jokes…” Sebas said to himself in half-hearted disgust.
A loud crack sounded from the floating orb as his hand tensed against it before falling to the floor and shattering. Blue flames burst out from the ground as the Dungeon around him began to rumble violently.
“Oh good, so you weren’t lying about it destabilizing,” he said as he crouched down, ready to pick up whatever objects came from the flames.
6 orbs sat on the ground, surrounded by dozens of large mana crystals, three were grey with a light blue glow inside, while the other three had a mixture of white and black meshing around within, in addition, a small ring and three large ovoid potions of yellow dotted liquid that seemed to glimmer, and lastly, there was a small silver necklace with chains that appeared to be carved with vine-like shapes that ran towards a teardrop-shaped crystal with rainbow lights inside that swirled around the center. Atop the clamp to the crystal sat a small inscription; a mixture of runes and a language Sebas didn’t know.
----------------------------------------
[Spirit Aegis]
{Rare Artifact}
Effect: +5 Wisdom
Once per day, the spirits within this necklace will surge forth to prevent a lethal blow that would otherwise kill the wearer.
“In your darkest moments, let this necklace be your shield and my gratitude your strength. Thank you, Sebas.”
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Sebas squinted at the text as he read it, and shrugged off the pang he felt when reading it, stuffing it, the skill orbs, the egg-shaped potions, and as many mana stones as he possibly could in his bag before a large chunk of stone rubble landed on the floor, filling the room with dust while silently telling him it was time to go.
Sebas leaped off the wooden pillar and bound for the sigil, leaped forward to smack his hand on it, and sat on the ground for a few moments before asking in a sharp and shrill voice, “Why isn’t it activating!”
[The God of Humanity tells you to use Mana to activate it while a sigh escapes his mouth.]
“Oh! I’m sorry! Am I inconveniencing you?” Sebas said angrily while fishing out a Manastone from his bag and crushing it in his hand before shoving its remains against the rune.
“Come on you sack of shit.”
Another blue fruit-sized stone was crushed under his palm as a large block of stone and wood slammed against his back, but Sebas shoved another Mid-Rank Manastone between his hand until the rune began to light up blue, and he teleported back to the prison where he was shoved inside of the dungeon.
Twelve elven guards held spears out towards him, where he sat perfectly still and looked around for a few minutes before asking “Am I free to go yet?”