Chapter 124 – Class B, Year 7(1)

I am the overseer of all beings.

I am not the master of all creation nor am I the one who controls all that has life.

I do not have a physical form thus I mimic the species of every world. I could be a dragon or a human. A rodent or a tree. There is no limit.

I am all-powerful and omniscient that even the gods fear me.

I do not seek their subservience because I do not see the worth in making lower lifeforms bow to me.

I am not a King, not a God.

But I am always watching.

I am watching you as well, stranger. You, who are not from this world.

◇◇

◇ Sky God Dungeon – Lowest Floor(1st World) ◇

There was a girl who dreamt of becoming a King.

Her name was Shirley Renara Eidard of the Royal Family from the Demihuman Kingdom.

Why did she want to graduate the academy? Why did she bear with these seven years of hell? What was her goal once she finishes her career at the academy?

These answers were already figured out long before she started. That was because she knew what was best for herself.

She wouldn’t become like the wastrels that her parents were. The people who threw her to the streets for a loaf of bread.

She wanted to become a King.

Of course, such ambitions wouldn’t always come true. But for her—an adopted daughter of the Lion King, the monarch of the Demihuman Kingdom—it just might not be a dream after all.

She was the third adopted child of the King of the Demihumans.

Her father was known as a strange man because he chose not to impregnate others but adopted instead.

He only adopted demihuman or humanoid children of different breeds.

Shirley had lizardmen, bear-like and anthropoid siblings because of her father’s excessive adopting. Of course, he had a good reason for choosing not to plant his seed in women.

There was a fear that his offspring would overtake him if they are born with superior genes like himself. Her father was one of the handful level 100s on the continent.

His sacred power would also be used against him if his children were born with the same personalities as him—overly greediness and ambitiousness.

Shirley was one of the few he chose to teach his sacred power to. This power was the ability called [Instinct Primal]. She is able to enhance her senses thousandth-fold and her strength hundredth-fold.

Of course, this power had drawbacks. Shirley would have to give up her free will and intelligence to use this level of power. That was why she had never used it unless her life was really in danger.

Also, she would undergo a process called [Beastify].

“It’s no use!” A person screamed as he fired his magic in rapid succession, "This thing won't take any damage!"

“Should I transform, after all…?” Shirley looked at her hand which was shaking. Fur as silver as her hair was beginning to grow out of her arm as she thought about transforming.

“You cannot, lady Shirley!” A beastkin grabbed her arm, “I, as your royal guard have been ordered by your father to not allow you to transform! You may jeopardise everyone's lives by losing control to get strength!"

“Fecius…” Shirley gritted her teeth as she announced the young man’s name.

She looked around the gigantic cave which was almost submerged in water. She could see less than a dozen students from her class who entered this room with her.

“Fall back! Miss Shirley, I’m sorry but we have to regroup with the other teams!”

“Okay, Arthur!” Shirley shouted to the blonde haired young man. He wore the same academy uniform as her.

There was a red flag tied around his right arm. Shirley, along with the other students also wore the same thing. This was to separate them into groups by class using a colour.

The red squad was from Class B. Class C—or blue squad—had just finished trying to defeat the monster in front of them but couldn’t. This was the dilemma red squad also faced.

It was much too strong.

That was why they chose to fall back when they were given an opening.

A clang rang out as the giant door was shut. Multiple thumping noises came from the door. It sounded like something was trying to get out.

That something was the monster they just faced.

“Fuck! Why is that thing so tough!?” a tigerkin beastkin roared. He punched the cave wall and his face twisted horribly.

‘True. It’s skin can’t even be pierced. Is it because our weapons aren’t enchanted with runes? But my claws should be sharper than any normal sword.’

Besides Shirley, Fecius(her royal guard), and the tigerkin, there were only humans on the team.

Arthur was one of the humans. He was her classmate who was part of the knight division unlike her who practiced martial arts. Her main form of combat was using her claws while his was using a double edged sword. The two of them were two of the main vanguards of the party.

“We failed again…” Arthur mumbled to himself, “I… I told everyone that there was nothing to worry about today since we came up with the perfect plan… Flanking the monster on both sides was the perfect plan since it didn’t have eyes—or that’s what I thought at first. Its other senses are much too strong to evade easily..."

Shirley sighed.

She could feel the gloominess in the air.

‘How long has it been since I saw the sun…? My perception of time is completely screwed up.’ She collapsed against the cave wall and stretched her upper body.

“Class A will probably gloat at us,” said Shirley to Arthur, “It’s not the end of the world. We can still try again tomorrow.”

“Our lives depend on this, miss Shirley.” He retorted back.

“Does it really? I don’t remember hearing that we didn’t have a choice to fight whatever the hell that fetus-like thing is.”

The monster wasn’t on any of the encyclopaedias Shirley had studied of the continent. In fact, she hadn’t even heard of a fetus that could survive outside its mother’s womb.

Shirley noticed that she was sticky, “Ugh!” she shook her hands in disgust to get rid of the sticky goo.

“You already know what the book said that we found at the entrance of this dungeon…” Arthur looked down at the crouching Shirley, “’Defeat one monster boss then you shall leave this dungeon. You may choose no less than nine other people to gain the reward which awaits you’.”

“That sounds more like a trap to make our minds clouded with greed. Haven’t we lost 20 people from the original 60 students? That’s including us who lost nine.”

“It’s a clue left behind by the dungeon master.”

“Assuming there is one anymore…”

Arthur looked at Shirley with narrowed eyes, “Miss Shirley, this is only the first level. I know we don’t need to defeat the boss—or whatever that thing is—on this level to advance to the next. But what if there’s a catch?”

“A catch? Did you figure something out, elder brother?” a girl joined their conversation. She had the same blonde hair and blue eyes like Arthur.

In her hands was a staff with a big crystal floating at the top of it. She wore a mage robe over her academy uniform.

“Twin sister, are you feeling okay?”

He looked at her worriedly.

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“Yes, I only need some time to recover my mana.”

“I see. That is a relief, Anais,” Arthur kissed her forehead, “Anyway, I think I’ve figured something out but I’m not quite sure if I’m right.”

Shirley and Anais looked intently at him. The other seven also came closer.

“What if this monster is a test for the others that might come after this one?”

“What do you mean? Like they get stronger each floor?” one of the students asked.

“You know how we always kill the weaker monsters to increase our strength? What if we need to do the same but with the bosses because the end-game boss is the strongest?”

“…This dungeon is as strange as they come. I’ve never even heard of a dungeon having a low-level boss as strong as the one on the other side of that door. Imagine the nightmare the final boss must be.”

Their faces turned grim at Shirley’s words.

As she said, this was only the first floor of this dungeon—the Sky God Mountain. Yet, they couldn’t advance even by a little bit. The low-level monsters didn’t help even though they were stronger than they were when they first entered.

“Here’s the plan,” Arthur spoke. He seemed to be the only calm one among them, “I suggest we send two or three of us beyond the first few floors while the others stay behind."

“What!? Are you insane!?”

“That’s madness!”

“Please hear big brother out!” Anais screamed louder, “Let’s hear what he has to say at least! Didn’t we get this far because we listened to him?”

“But we also lost nearly 50% of all our members,” Shirley remarked which made his twin sister glare at her, “I’m not saying we shouldn’t listen to him. All I’m saying is that we shouldn’t blindly follow others without using our own brains. As you can tell, I am a demihuman so I follow my instincts. And my instincts are telling me that this plan is flawed.”

Shirley looked at him with a face saying: “Right?”

Arthur smiled wryly, “Miss Shirley can read some situations better than even myself…”

“Humph.” Anais pouted probably because she didn’t know what the two of them were talking about at all.

Arthur held up his finger, “As miss Shirley pointed out, this plan has flaws. One of them being the question of whether we can return after leaving this floor.”

“Ah…”

“So that’s it…”

The others finally got what Shirley meant by “flaws”.

“We can leave if we want to but that doesn’t guarantee we will survive if we don’t clear this floor. But what if there’s something useful on the next floor, like a spell or a weapon that might help us? Then there’s the worry that there might be even more dangerous monsters.”

“Uhm…” Anais looked blankly at Shirley and Arthur, “Does that mean the plan is no good?”

Shirley sighed, ‘This is why I hate spoiled kids. She has never known danger since she always follows her big brother. As a woman, I’m ashamed for her.’

“No, Anais. It’s a double-edged blade. Meaning that this plan has its merits and demerits. But we will only know what those aforementioned things are if we send someone ahead. Keep in mind that we shouldn’t tell the others. It’s a shame that we have to be this secretive but I want there to be as less sacrifices as possible.”

“I agree. If anyone else heard of this then there would be some fools who would act too drastically. We can’t have so many people’s blood on our hands,” Fecius agreed with Arthur.

“Right. I will only share this news when I’m certain that we have a chance to escape this dungeon. Our homeroom teacher sacrificed herself to let us live and I won’t let her death be in vain.”

“Big brother’s so cool!” Anais squeezed Arthur’s arm between her breasts and gave a pure smile.

Shirley turned her head away from the overly affectionate siblings.

She looked back at the giant golden door they just exited. Beyond that door was a monster they had never encountered in their lives before. No, perhaps no one had fought such a strange creature before.

It had multiple fleshy arms to attack them. Its teeth resembled those of humans. There was a thick and long tentacle that extended from the middle of the body which was probably the placenta.

The strange thing was how the monster that looked exactly like a fetus could live outside its mother’s womb. Did it even have a mother? What sort of creature was it? How long had it lived here? Did other explorers meet their doom even before entering the second floor?

None of these questions had answers. The book they found only told them about the fact that they could choose to fight the monster or leave the floor. The entrance that they used to come into the dungeon was already gone so those were their only options.

“What do you think happens if we manage to defeat a boss monster?” Shirley asked Arthur, “Do we simply get teleported outside?”

“I’m not sure myself. There’s also the fact that we’re such a large group. Will everyone be transported if one of the groups manage to defeat a boss? We have to take other things into account as well if we want to escape this place together.”

“Things like?”

“We should avoid fighting a boss all together. We lost many of our classmates because we didn’t take the monster’s abilities into account.”

“That acid ball is spits out is the most troublesome thing…” Fecius spoke, “It can melt skin in seconds. Even the armour of the tanks who fell in battle must have disintegrated by now.”

The tanks who were confident in their skills stood in front of the mages and swordsmen when the monster spat one of those balls. Of course, they had no way of knowing that it was the kind of acid that could melt enchanted armour and shields as well.

Because of this blunder, many had died by being cooked alive by acidic fluid. This was during the first two hours inside the dungeon—which was two weeks ago.

“Then there’s the problem of food. What can we eat and what we cannot.”

It was a valid worry since this dungeon was like an entirely new world to them. They had no idea what to hunt.

Of course, there were monsters that resembled animals like the Horned Rabbit which was the low-level monsters of the first floor. The problem with them was that they were too agile to catch. Only the fastest of them all—like Arthur, Shirley and Fecius—could kill those animals.

Although, the chances of catching one isn’t always a hundred percent.

“We’ll either die of starvation… or by that monster…” Anais muttered as tears fell from her eyes. Her knees gave in and she collapsed to the ground.

Arthur couldn’t bear looking at her so he turned his face away.

‘Is he blaming himself?’ Shirley had been in the same class with Arthur for seven years. She knew the kind of person he was.

He always helped others even if it meant hurting himself in the process. The fact that he couldn’t contribute to the team right not must be eating him up inside. He was too good of a person.

When Shirley was about to cheer everyone up, she heard footsteps echo down the hall of the tomb.

This alerted the group. No one should be down here besides them. The others were waiting at the entrance—well, where the entrance was. They were given clear instructions to not follow the red squad.

That could mean only one thing—a third party was coming towards them.

“Get behind me, Anais.” Arthur pulled out his sword.

Shirley and Fecius also got into a stance.

The footsteps got closer. The group noticed that it wasn’t one pair of footsteps but several.

Shirley gulped.

The ten of them all readied their weapons and magic.

The third party finally showed themselves.

All of them were long, slender figures who wore dark blue robes with gold embroidered in their clothing. Stone masks covered their faces and a banner of an insignia stood proudly behind each of their necks.

The figures were probably talking since they were nodding to each other and moving their hands. But even though they were so close, Shirley couldn’t hear a thing they were saying.

The figures noticed the group and stopped.

Thinking that the other group was hostile, Shirley sprang forward with incredible force.

She swung one of her claws at the figure at the front.

--~~~~~•■●●□■○

It spoke strange words before a triple-layered barrier suddenly appeared in front of the third party. Shirley felt like she was tearing through a surface stronger than any metal she had struck before.

“A layered spell!?” Shirley jumped back in surprise, thinking that the figure would use a layered attack spell too.

Layered magic allowed a magic caster to increase their spell’s efficiency and power. Only 8th star magic casters could use this kind of Magic Modification. Of course, that meant that the amount of mana being used was also tripled.

“T-That’s…” Anais suddenly spoke while pointing at the other group, “Believers of the Sky God?”

“Huh?”

“T-Those are the insignias of the old religion, the Skydism, I think?” Anais explained what she meant.

“What? You know them?”

“Y-Yes, miss Shirley. I take religious studies as an extra subject so I know pretty much all the old and new religions of different human gods.”

Shirley looked at Arthur. He nodded.

‘This girl isn’t useless, after all.’

“Who are they then, Anais?” Arthur sheathed his sword since the beings in front of them didn’t mean any harm.

Similarly, the three-layered barrier collapsed.

“I believe they are scholars who major in the Sky God’s religion…”

“They were alive?” Arthur said in disbelief, “Didn’t the Sky God die off even before the Demon King’s birth?”

The figures suddenly stomped their feet. The tomb shook with powerful tremors.

“T-They’re upset about what you said! Tell them you’re sorry, idiot!” Shirley bonked Arthur’s head.

“O-Okay!” Arthur got onto his knees, “I’m sorry for disrespecting your god! He lives on in your hearts! He’s not dead at all!”

One of them crossed their arms and harrumphed.

Shirley stepped forward slowly. Arthur and the others only silently watched, “Can you speak our language?”

One of the scholars came out of the group. They seemed to be the shortest out of all of them.

‘A human? The others must be giants since they’re far bigger than us.’

Giants were many times the size of humans. Perhaps they were a subspecies of giants? Their statures were like humans, but their lengths far exceeded any human.

The fact that they were alive for thousands of years only added to the strangeness of their origins.

“I. Speak. Human. Tongue.”

Shirley sighed in relief. The others did so as well. It felt like a burden was lifted from their shoulders.

“Hello, my name is Shirley. I am a princess from the Demihuman Kingdom beyond the Great Ridge.”

“Princess?” The person tilted their head. The human had the body shape of a woman but Shirley wasn’t sure. The mask was obscuring the person’s voice.

“And you are…”

“We. Have. No. Names. You. May. Call. Me. A. Disciple.”

“Are you a human? Or did you just learn the language from books?”

The disciple shook their head, “Human. Who. Came. Here. Long. Ago.”

“I see…”

‘Then how did she survive thousands of years? Maybe I shouldn’t question this dungeon’s logic.’

The dungeon was already weird to begin with. A human from the first age of empires didn’t surprise her that much. Then again, Shirley found it hard to believe that that person was a human.

“Then… who are those… personages behind you?” Shirley pointed at the giants.

“Race. Unknown. But. They. Are. Fellow. Disciples.”

“…” Shirley looked back at Arthur helplessly.

The person was giving them vague terms which they didn’t understand. If those things weren’t humans then they must’ve been classified as homunculi. Their body shapes matched those of humans but their height far exceeded one. Thus, Shirley saw them as such.

“Can… you help us?” Arthur spoke up this time, “We are trying to defeat that monster,” he pointed at the door.

“The child of… the old one?”

‘She’s speaking normally now. Is she getting used to speaking to humans again?’

“Old one? What do you mean?”

When the disciple was about to answer, a deafening scream assaulted their eardrums. It was coming from behind the disciple.

“W-What is it doing!?” Shirley could see that one of the giants were pointing at Arthur and screaming uncontrollably. It stomped its foot and pointed at Arthur aggressively. It was like it was trying to make the others understand something.

The other disciples hit it in the head because it was annoying. The homunculi giant stopped but it kept pointing at Arthur.

“What’s going on?” Arthur was the most confused since it was looking at him while it was screaming earlier.

The human disciple turned towards the red squad and silently looked at Arthur.

“Receiver of… our.. God’s blessing.” She approached Arthur and pointed at his chest, “Bear our god’s blessing… Suitable candidate…”

“What? What do you mean by suitable candidate?”

“Follow.” The disciple turned around and began walking down the hall. The others followed the human disciple.

“Hey! Answer me!”

“Elder brother!”

Arthur chased after the disciples, Anais following along.

Shirley sighed, “Let’s follow our leader. Maybe whatever they’re talking about might help us.”