The change that had taken place after I ate the demon had shocked me. Because I ate the demon, my stats were increased considerably―except the intelligence one. I guess demons don’t really have intelligence. Of course, there was no way to confirm this as there was nothing such as stat window here. However, I could feel that I’ve become stronger, faster and my movements smoother. Maybe I can even fight on even grounds with Deml now.
But for now, I’m not concerned with that. I’ve managed to climb up two levels in these five days. Although I’m confident in my abilities that I can take out the small monsters of this floor and all the above ones, I’m not willing to risk fighting a boss. If I’m around the 40th level, the boss will be incredibly strong. It will prove impossible defeating him. Thus, I advance slowly, being very cautious.
I’ve formed some possible scenarios in my head. Deml and others must have thought that I’m dead so they didn’t rush to rescue me, or Deml used me as an example to teach others that it is important to listen to him so that they don’t die. He also knew that I wasn’t even slightly motivated to do anything for this world. It is entirely possible that abandoned me to teach them a lesson. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that nobody would have cried over my death (according to them). Claire might have cried since she is weak-willed, but she would have cried regardless of who died, so she’s not included. Well, I don’t mind since I didn’t have any close friends in my class.
Two demon foxes jump in front of me. Their size is at least twice of the normal foxes, and they don’t really resemble foxes that much, but it’s convenient for me to name them like this. They are four legged creature with black skin. It is hard to see the black lines on them due to their black skin, but they are definitely there. When they charge in, I fall back, wielding my daggers, I slash across the belly of one fox. He cries in pain, falling back instantly with its high agility. Still, you might have four legs, but your agility is not a match for me!
This time, I charge in to kill the demon fox, but the other demon fox jumps on it and pushes it away from my path of attack with a body slam. “So you didn’t abandon him,” I say to the demon fox who rescued his comrade. It feels weird that even demons have better ideals than humans. I know that he cannot comprehend my words, but I speak again. “So you didn’t abandon him.”
It growls on me, taking a defensive stance. Apparently, he intends to protect the injured one. I sigh slightly. I turn away from them, having lost a reason to fight.
In a few seconds, the sound of growling fades. I turn back and see nothing. I see a huge staircase going upstairs. I climb it, thinking that I’ve climbed yet another floor. Only about 38 floors or so to go. I wonder what my classmates are doing. One possibility that I’ve always considered in the back of mind that they somehow got wiped in between the floors of 20 and 40 while they were climbing down to rescue me. But, that cannot happen. Deml is far too strong to be beaten on levels like those. I have managed to defeat all the normal monsters on these levels with ease. For Deml, who might be several floors above this along with 30 people, it is not a difficult job.
When I finish climbing up the staircase, the first thing I see is a medium-sized demon. It’s a bit larger than fox, but still not very large. And it has four legs. Somewhat looks like a unicorn, although it has almost pure black skin. A black unicorn, I guess. There is also a horn on its head. It charges at me with incredibly velocity. Since I was not expecting this, my reaction is a bit delayed, and it rams me and I roll down the stairs. I taste blood in my mouth. I slowly get up, swaying a bit. The unicorn-like demon glares at me. However, I do not falter.
I slowly start walking up the stairs, this time, fully prepared. That unicorn must be a sub-boss. It starts dashing down the stairs and I start dashing up the stairs. “The meal for today is ready”, I mumble to myself. I haven’t eaten anything since the boss demon 5 days ago, so I want to eat. My mouth starts watering. Before I’m able to strike it with my dagger, it jumps over me and gives me a kick from behind. I groan in pain, my back greatly injured. But I manage to turn back and block one of its kicks just in time. It seems unpleased with the result and tries to shake free of my grab, but I do not let it go.
I smoothly take out a dagger and keep slashing it in its legs. The unicorn falls, fully unbalanced with one leg injured and the unevenness of stairs, not able to stand up quickly. So, I charge in without mercy, and slash through its back, making black demon blood spill on me. And then, I start eating it, bit by bit. It is too big to carry, so I decide to take as much as I can after eating a fair amount of meat.
I was expecting a horrible taste, but it surprisingly tasted delicious. In a fortnight, I’ll be out of this dungeon. It would feel so good to have warm light shine on my skin again. I continue venturing inside the dungeon, retreating upstairs continuously.
When I’m around 25th floor, I feel as if something is watching me. I immediately turn back to find a short-heighted girl standing there. Her hair was short, too, and they were red like mine. Her eyes, pale blue, were staring right into my eyes. She was dressed normally, in comfortable leather clothes to fight against the demons. I stood frozen for a second watching her, but I immediately regained my calm and approached her.
Before I could speak anything, she asks me, “Oh, finally a demon with some intelligence. What brings you here?”
“I’m lost,” I reply, honestly.
She looks at me without any change in expression and continues, “Why did you enter this dungeon in the first place?”
I reply honestly, once again, “To get stronger.”
She nods . “I’m Rhea, one of the strongest vampires in this world. Don’t be so surprised,” she says again, “Vampires age very slowly. I’m at least 550 years ago. What clan are you from, demon? You don’t seem like from the incubus or the goblins. Not the zombies, either.”
“I’m human,” I reply. She doesn’t say anything. Before I notice it, some part of my left cheek gets scratched. Black blood starts running through it. “You lie,” she affirms, “You’re a demon. I can sense demon blood in you.” I instantly take a step back. This entity is dangerous. If she could scratch my cheek without me noticing it, she probably would be able to rip me apart easily.
“You don’t have to lie, you know, if you don’t want to tell your clan.” Rhea says, without a change in expression. “If you don’t want me asking your intentions, I won’t. But tell me, where is your destination?”
“The surface.”
“Just what would you achieve by going up the surface? It’s filled with greedy humans. Better settle down on the lowest floor. The demons in the depths do not attack and live in harmony. Although before you reach the depths, there are hundred floors full of aggressive demons.”
“I guess, yes. You’re rather talkative, aren’t you, Rhea?”
Her expression doesn’t change but I feel as if she’s annoyed. When she opens her mouth, I notice her abnormal teeth ―No, rather, fangs ― for the first time. The ends of are long and sharp. Perfect for digging into someone’s neck.
“Didn’t your clan teach you to pay respects for someone that is superior to you?”
She is too strong for now. I should avoid fighting her. She’s even more danger than any of the bosses here. “A-ah, right,” I reply hastily, “I forgot. Please excuse my rudeness.”
She instantly grabs my collar and repeats her question, “Which clan do you belong to?” God, she’s stubborn.
Then, she suddenly lets go of me. “Oh, how stupid of me,” she mutters to herself, “I finally get it. You’re a stray demon, right?”
I’m not sure, but stray demon probably refers to a demon that does not belong to any clan or a demon who was banished from his clan. Either ways, it works for me.
“Ahahaha, you’re right.” I reply back, sort of trying to make a smiling face while being cautious. Even a hundred Deml’s won’t be enough for this monster. Strangely, everybody in this world spoke English ― Demons, humans and all types of species. Well, those who can’t speak, don’t, though. Like, a dog barks in here too instead of speaking in English. I’m talking about the magical species that can speak. English isn’t regarded as the human language, but rather the universal language in this world.
I wait for her to speak because I think I’ll screw up on paying respect when I speak. When neither of us speaks for a couple of minute, she turns away. I instantly say, “Please stop.”
Stop, I want to say to myself, but my body moves nonetheless. My chest tightens up thinking the horrible thing I’m about to do later. Stop moving, my body. Please stop. She turns back towards me, still as expressionless as usual.
“May I have the privilege of accompanying you?” What the heck are you asking, you dumb retard. Apologize right this instant and continue advancing upstairs. How did such a horrible thought enter my mind?
She ponders for a while, and then, nods― not questioning me about the change in my plan or anything. She just says in a quiet voice, “You may follow me.” Perhaps the reason she does not view this as abnormal is because there have been many people in the past who have travelled with her. Or maybe she doesn’t think me accompanying her will change anything. “However, I’m not responsible for anything.” She speaks.
A shiver runs down my spine.
A shiver runs down my spine because of what I am planning.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
She doesn’t notice anything, and just continues walking, taking long strides, and I change my route again, advancing to the bottom of the dungeon. Sweat starts running on my face, even though it’s not even hot in here. She just walks, not even bothering to look back.
And that’s better for me.
It’s been two days since I’ve started accompanying Rhea. I don’t dare taking her name out, and I hardly converse with her. Even if I talk to her, I only use ‘you’. Because I have no idea how to address her. She spoke something about demon customs and stuff, but I really idea what they call their superiors. ‘Elder’ Rhea? ‘Miss’ Rhea? ‘Legendary’ Rhea? Though all of them are better rather than just addressing her as Rhea without any honorifics, they sound retarded.
“Do you know why there are aggressive demons for the first hundred floors?” I ask her.
“Although humans aren’t as strong as demons, they are intelligent and can form a large group. As I’ve told you before, there exists a demon colony below this dungeon. The first hundred floors are to drive out humans or any beings that are not needed down there. Even demons have to descend one hundred floors. There’s no shortcut.”
I nod, and notice a jewel fallen on the floor. I pick it up. I’ve picked lots of stuff that look pricey so that it may help me later on.
Due to Rhea’s extraordinary abilities, we’ve managed to descend fifty-six floors in just 2 days. When she deals with the demon that attacks her, I pretend to take a break and eat a part of the demon’s flesh. As such, my stats rise immensely without having done any practice. She defeats the bosses of each level easily. In two minutes of time, she’s done killing a boss monster.
What she claims about being one of the strongest vampires must be true after all. I was around the twenty-fifth floor when I met Rhea. And we’ve descended 56 floors since then. Then we must be around the 81st floor now. In half a day, we will probably be at the last floor of this dungeon, the 100th floor. Well, at least I hope that. So, I must muster up my courage in this half a day.
Before advancing on the 100th floor, Rhea stares at me and says, “The next floor is really hard to clear. I cannot guarantee your safety. Rather, I cannot even guarantee my own safety. It is the last and strongest resort against humans.” When she says that, I tense up. A floor which even one of the greatest vampire has difficulty clearing? That sounded like a real challenge. It turned out to be like she said. It was completely different than the 99th floor.
When we arrive on the 100th floor, my eyes are wide open. The reason being that this floor is distinctively different than all others. It’s a spherical coliseum, extending to a large width. The walls of the coliseum are a shade of white and blue, making it seem like ice. In contrast to the walls, the floor is still the same dusty brown.
And in this spherical battlefield, there are only 5 entities. Me, Rhea, and three other demons. I think one of them is the boss and the other two are the sub-bosses.
Maybe you’d expect some huge looking titans on the 100th floor, but these demons were small. Well, not really. Not really that small. Somewhat small size for a demon, I mean. They were down on all fours, and looked at us, intrigued. I could relate them to polar bears, given their bear-like structure. One of them was larger in size than the other two, and he also had pure black skin as compared to the grayish skin of the two others.
They gave off so much bloodlust that one could tell by looking that these demons were way much different than that of 99th floor. For a moment, Rhea seemed amazed, even though her expression did not change. Suddenly, she accelerates and dashes in. She’s going in for a kill.
She moves towards one of the sub-bosses first. Since two of the three monsters look totally alike, I’ve come to a conclusion that both of them are sub-bosses and the remaining one is the boss. Even I know that it will be hard for Rhea to take on all of them at once, so I try luring out the sub-boss. My stats were raised considerably because I had eaten monsters of these lower levels, like, level 99th for instance. Even if all of them weren’t boss level monsters, any normal monster on 99th level is bound to be as strong as the boss of the 45th level.
She possesses no weapon, but only uses her claws and spells to attack. I did not notice it at the time when she scratched my cheek, but that was indeed done by the claw of her index finger. She jumps over the sub-boss, pretty much ignoring the laws of physics which are very well made. Then, she rolls and lands on its back, digging her nails in his body.
Her nails normally do not look abnormally long. However, when she battles, they grow to a good length and strengthen enough to dig into a beast. Must be a skill or something. The sub-boss becomes enraged and uses momentum to shake her off, and then stomps over her. That’s the first fatal blow dealt to Rhea since I’ve met her. She frantically tries to get up, while I try to reach her while avoiding the sub-boss that is trying to chase me.
That instant, the boss moves. He hurriedly covers the distance and both of the demons double team on Rhea. “Well, this is better,” I mutter silently. I try to deal a fatal blow to the sub-boss, but it either keeps blocking them or dodging them. Annoyed, I fall back and try to regain my calm. However, it doesn’t let me rest and charges in faster than I fall back.
“Screw you,” I say loudly. I try imitating Rhea, and jump over him. The maximum height that my jump can reach turns out much less than Rhea and I end up crashing with the demon’s neck. Somehow, even though I did not insert much power in my jump, the demon seems to be in pain.
Ah, I didn’t realize this simple fact earlier. Even demons have weak points. And usually, for any animal or human, the neck, especially the back of neck is a weak point ― the nape region. So, I should abuse that fact, but not now. Or else what I’ve been preparing for two days will be in vain.
I must wait. I must strain out this battle.
I take a glance at Rhea and find out that she’s having a great deal of trouble fighting both the demons. Although it appears that her position is better than mine. Ah, that’s not good, is it? After all, she needs to be exhausted when this battle is done. For my plan to work, you need to tire her out, demons. To prolong the battle I only dodge and strike at places where the demon wouldn’t particularly get hurt.
Once again, I take a glance at Rhea. The sub-boss has fallen and she’s only battling the boss. However, she looks exhausted. She’s fighting the boss at par. The boss is slightly weaker than her, but since she’s exhausted, he’s slowly gaining an upper hand.
The demon tries to kick Rhea with his right front leg, but she dodges to the left and injures the boss from below him. The demon tries to move from that position so that he can see Rhea and attack her, but she skillfully keeps hiding between his four legs.
I start speeding up and try damaging the sub-boss that’s attacking me. However, it’s too strong for me. Even Rhea had a problem dealing with it, who is at least 5 times as strong as me. However, I must escape him quickly. And so I do.
I run towards Rhea who is battling the boss. Actually, they’re pretty much done. In the earlier battles, Rhea was going straight for win. But now, she’s desperately trying not to lose.
I approach her, jump, and land a blow on the boss. She stays silent for a while, but then heavily damages the boss while I act as the decoy. And before the other sub-boss approaches us, we’re done with the boss.
And then she leaps at the sub-boss, too, and slams down his abdomen. The demon falls down, toppling badly, but still alive. And then he manages to kick Rhea. She goes up like a projectile, hits the wall of the coliseum and falls down, her back to the ground. Some boulders fall down on body, blocking her way out.
“Help me out,” She says, still expressionlessly. Apparently, the last blow really hurt her. Normally, she wouldn’t have any problem for slamming out of the way, but she was tired, exhausted and hurt. “I can’t get up,” she informs me expressionlessly. Her tone doesn’t sound like someone pleading for help.
I approach her and stare down at her. “What’s wrong? Won’t you help already?” She asks expressionlessly.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“For what?” She asks me back.
“For devouring you.”
She looks at me, confused, but still expressionless on outside.
“You know,” I say, “It somehow stroked my mind that you were a really strong demon. So, as such, I really couldn’t… get over the urge… to devour and eat you.”
Then, for the first time, her expression changes. Massively. Her expression turns to that of a frightened rat. She tries to resist and get up, but my dagger pierces her heart. I attack her again and again, making sure that she is dead. Can’t be taking risks with vampires.
In this time, the sub-boss gets up too. But I don’t let him advance. I instantly deal coup de grace to its neck, and it falls down, tumbling.
And what is left is me, and four dead bodies of demons.
And in three weeks, only I’m left.
Next Chapter
==================Author's Note==================
Probably will release chapters biweekly/weekly. What do you want to see ahead ^_^?
Thank you Coreh_ for proof-reading.