Chapter 66
At the sight of Decan kneeling on the floor, the Fighting Dogs that were released from the enchantment were shocked and did not know what to do.
"What are you doing! You punks! Get down right now!" Decan yelled at them.
"Y-yes, sir!" the Fighting Dogs replied to Decan.
When the Fighting Dogs heard Decan’s yell, they shoved their heads onto the floor. Lee Shin, Mariel, Alice and Fletta looked at them, finding this whole scene ridiculous.
‘Ha…’?
Lee Shin sighed.
Lilian, the Vampire Queen, typically used enchantment as a basic passive skill. As a result, Lee Shin could not simply summon Lilian at any occasion. The power of widespread enchantment consumed too much of Lee Shin’s mana too rapidly whenever it was in use. Therefore, it was still quite difficult and overwhelming to have Lilian as a subordinate.
.
‘I better tell her not to turn into her original body for a while.’
It was not easy for Lee Shin to deal with Lilian because she often acted on her own will.
"Decan," Lee Shin called out.
"Yes!" Decan replied with a loud voice.
Whether Decan actually had no pride, or that he was too good at reading the situation, Decan was acting differently now.
"I am not thinking of saving you at all,” said Lee Shin.
"No, please… Keugh!"?Decan gasped and dropped dead.
At Lee Shin’s gesture, Lilian had formed thorns of blood which pierced through Decan and the Fighting Dogs’ bodies. Lilian tasted their blood as it was sucked out, then frowned.
"Tsk, that was nasty,” Lilian muttered.
The sight of her sucking the human blood would have given anyone who was looking goosebumps. However, Lillian still seemed beautiful to those who had fallen prey to her enchantment.
"Ms. Lillian! M-m-m-my name is… Flet—" Fletta spoke in a nervous voice, but he did not get a chance to finish his sentence.
"Hey kid, you should grow up a little bit more first,” Lilian replied.
After pushing Fletta away with her index finger on his forehead, Lilian disappeared in the blood-red fog.
"Huh? W-w-where did she go?" Fletta was surprised that she disappeared.
Ignoring Fletta, who was still unable to escape from her enchantment, Lee Shin approached Alice and Mariel. It seemed to Lee Shin that these ladies were having difficulty understanding what was going on right now.
"My skill, the Eyes of the Wise Man, did not work at all this time,” said Alice, puzzled.
However, that totally made sense, because Lilian’s class was significantly higher than that of Alice’s. The Eyes of the Wise Man only worked when the opponent was at most in a similar class as Alice.
"It was the first time it did not work on someone besides you,” Alice said.
Lee Shin already expected that the Eyes of the Wise Man would not work on him because he had the divine power. Besides, if she could use the skill of the Eyes of the Wise Man on Lee Shin and saw the truth, she would not have been acting this way.
"Who was that just now? The aura that I felt for a moment was even comparable to that of the archangel," Mariel asked Lee Shin.
"Well, I don't know. She's beyond my control," Lee Shin replied.
Lee Shin did not plan on revealing the identity of Lilian. There was no need for him to reveal that information; and besides, it was obvious that it would be more tiring for Lee Shin if they figured out who Lilian was.
The other three challengers did not ask Lee Shin any more questions, because his attitude already showed them that he was not planning on telling them anything further.
"I'll deal with the boss beyond this room on my own, so wait outside,” Lee Shin said.
"But I think it might be hard to do it alone.” Mariel looked worried and said.
"Yes that’s right, we can at least help a little..." Alice said.
"No, just look at your conditions right now. Mariel is fatally wounded, so it will be hard for her to recover. So just stay out of this,” Lee Shin explained.
At Lee Shin’s determined attitude, the others had no choice but to listen to him and follow his instructions. Mariel and Alice dragged Fletta out of the room, because he was still lost in the enchantment. Then, Lee Shin stood in front of Decan and the Fighting Dog, who were now dead.
Lee Shin called out Harpness and raised Decan up. Decan, who was surrounded by the black mana, was not as powerful as he used to be when he had been alive, but there was still a way for Decan to grow. Lee Shin thought about the skill that he gained from the last Random Card (Gold).
[Strengthening of the Corpse]
# You can strengthen the undead by consuming corpses.
The dead bodies of the Fighting Dogs were scattered all over the place, and using them as sacrifices, Lee Shin activated this new skill.
"Strengthening of the Corpse," said Lee Shin.
[You have used the corpse of Mulka to strengthen Decan.]
[The strengthening has been successful.]
[Decan’s Strength has increased by 1.]
[Decan’s Agility has increased by 2.]
[You have used the corpse of Vermango to strengthen Decan.]
[Decan’s Intelligence has increased by 2.]
[You have used the corpse of Divergoian to strengthen Decan.]
[Decan has acquired the 『Skill - Iron Armor』.]
[Decan’s Strength has increased by 1.]
[You have used the corpse of Gukang to strengthen Decan.]
[...]
Out of the nine bodies, eight of them were successful in strengthening the undead and one of them failed.
It was a fairly high success rate. It seemed like that was due to abilities of the Fighting Dogs were great in the first place, which was a reasonable conclusion because the success rate was less than 30% when Lee Shin used where Declan was.
[Decan]
# Strength: 151
# Agility: 189
# Intelligence: 102
# Indomitability: 21
This was the ability of Decan after he had turned into an undead. Even if Lee Shin had raised Decan’s ability using the skill [Strengthening of the Corpse] a while ago, that did not mean he had fully recovered all of his original abilities yet.
Still, Lee Shin could not believe that Decan had such a high level of abilities. What was more remarkable was the stat called Indomitability. When Lee Shin saw how Decan could endure Lilian’s enchantment, he had expected this skill. However, the stat was higher than Lee Shin had expected.
[Indomitability]
# You will not submit easily under any kind of adversity.
It had a simple description, but the use was not as simple. It was possible to withstand the enchantment of Lillian with this indomitable power. This stat was so crucial that it was said to be a necessity for combatants in related fields.
Since Lee Shin had taken away the dominance stat from Declan this time, Lee Shin had plenty of room in the shadow space.
‘Do I just need to deal with that one in there now?’
Lee Shin immediately pushed open the huge door. It seemed to open very easily for its size. Huge stone statues placed on the inner side of the door greeted Lee Shin.
Creak—
A total of ten huge stone statues turned their heads toward Lee Shin. Then, the stone statues that were holding various weapons, like a sword, spear, ax, and shield, started to move their bodies slowly.
Thud!
The huge door closed. The eyes of the stone statues started to give a strong glare, with light coming out. The stone statues here were almost incompatible with the main magic of Lee Shin, which included the thunderbolt and ice spells. This was a battlefield where black magic was more suitable than just basic spells.
From Lee Shin’s shadow space, the undead started to walk out. With the help of Harpness, Lee Shin opened the black portal from the World of Death.
# Your Dominance over the dead is strengthened.
[Due to the effect of Death Ruler, the required dominance for Warrie had reduced from 38 to 27.]
[Due to the effect of Death Ruler, the required dominance for May had reduced from 35 to 25.]
[Due to the effect of Death Ruler, the required dominance…]
[...]
The ordinary undead soldiers poured out from the portal along with Lee Shin’s subordinates including Warrie, May and Beltiar.
# There is a 10% increase in dominance when leading more than 50 military units.
With another increase in Lee Shin’s dominance, more undead were assigned to his corps than before.
Thump!
Out of the numerous undead, only Beltiar and Bark were the ones that were similar than the stone statues.
When a stone statue with a sword struck the ground with its huge sword, two of the undead were crushed in an instant. It seemed like the stone statues had extraordinary power at first glance. Among them, the stone statue placed in the middle of the place, which looked like a knight wearing a helmet, was outstanding in its strength and agility, and no other stone statues were comparable.
[Summoning of the World of Death]
This was not the time for Lee Shin to save his combat power. Originally, Lee Shin had considered dealing with the boss of this place on his own, but things were different now.
Thump!
One of the stone statues that was hit by Beltiar’s fist flew away and crashed into the wall. It was a fierce battle, and Lee Shin took out his Martyr and blocked the pieces of the stone statue that came flying toward him.
- Are you also going to fight, master?
"Yeah, I can't just watch them fight," Lee Shin replied to the Martyr.
- But it doesn’t seem like magic would work the best here.
"You’re right, I won't be using magic spells,” Lee Shin replied.
- But then, how are you going to fight?
"I guess I can fight with this?” Lee Shin said playfully.
Stunned by Lee Shin’s answer and tone, the Martyr shouted in disagreement, but it was useless.
"Hey, I’ve learned a lot about swordsmanship," said Lee Shin.
After saying that, Lee Shin held the Martyr and rushed toward the stone statues.
* * *
From among the horribly smashed stone statues, Lee Shin opened the door and walked out. Lee Shin was completely covered in dust.
When Lee Shin entered the boss room and began to fight, the other challengers who stayed outside could feel vibrations. Therefore, they went to the front of the door, waiting for the fight to end.
Through the wide open door, Alice and other challengers could see huge pieces of stone statues. When they saw how much of a mess the room was in, they could tell how fierce the fight had been.
"Lee Shin!" Fletta shouted when he saw Lee Shin walk out.
"Are you okay?" Alice asked with a worried look.
"Mr. Lee Shin…" Mariel said.
"I’m all right. Take these, these are the hearthstones," said Lee Shin.
Lee Shin handed out the blue stones to each of the three people who were waiting outside. There was one hearthstone for each stone statue, and only the statue of the knight, who was the boss, had three hearthstones with it. After the battle, Lee Shin had acquired twelve hearthstones, but he was planning on leaving the remaining eight hearthstones behind after distributing one hearthstone to each challenger.
"That’s insane… Did you really destroy all of those stone statues on your own?” Fletta asked with a surprised look.
"Who are you, really? Considering that my unique ability is not working on you…” Alice was puzzled.
"Umm… Mr. Lee Shin, do you happen to be of… divine blood?" Mariel asked Lee Shin with a careful look on her face.
They were only on the 16th floor, and it really did not make sense that a human could display such abilities. Since Lee Shin had displayed a great difference in ability even with Mariel, who was considered an outstanding warrior in the heavenly realm, she started thinking that he might really be on par with the archangel if Lee Shin continued to climb the tower this way. Mariel knew that it was a blasphemous idea, but that was how Mariel felt when she looked at Lee Shin.
"Divine blood? What’s that?” Fletta asked Mariel.
"Yeah, what’s that Mariel?" Alice also asked.
It seemed like the two challengers had no idea what that meant. However, as soon as Lee Shin heard the word ‘divine blood,’ his facial expression became a little stiff.
"Oh no! N-n-nothing! I think I made a mista—” Mariel started to apologize but she could not finish her sentence.
"No, I'm just a human,” Lee Shin replied.
"Really? Are you really just an ordinary person?" Mariel asked again.
"Yes, that’s right," Lee Shin replied.
Lee Shin smiled bitterly at Mariel’s reaction, because even Mariel, who was so kind by nature, subconsciously looked down on the human species. Besides, it was a general perception of the upper species that humans were weak and inferior to them.
"Human beings are a species with a lot of potential. They might be slow to grow, but they also learn and develop on their own,” Lee Shin explained to Mariel.
"I see. I think I was mistaken," Mariel replied and she really meant what she said when she met Lee Shin.
"Alice," Lee Shin called out.
"Yeah?" Alice asked.
"I’m not sure if I’ll be able to meet you on the later floors,” Lee Shin said.
"Huh? Uh..." Alice said.
"We have a problem in our dimension, so I won’t be able to reach you from the 21st to the 29th floors. So take good care of yourself, and never say anything about your abilities. Just don’t reveal them at all, no matter what happens," Lee Shin explained.
Confused by Lee Shin's sudden words, Alice hesitated for a second, but soon nodded. Alice just thought that Lee Shin was saying those things because he was worried about her.
"If you get out of this place, lay low until you reach at least the 30th floor. And leave me a message when you get to the 30th floor, alright?" Lee Shin said.
"Umm... Okay, I will," Alice replied.
Lee Shin could choose to take Alice safely to the 20th floor. However, Lee Shin was aware that it would make it more difficult for Alice to grow properly. Besides, Lee Shin did not have to worry about her meeting the guy who stole the Eyes of the Wise Man from Alice, because that had happened somewhere beyond the 30th floor.
After having asked Alice, Lee Shin grabbed the hearthstone.
"Well done, everyone,” Lee Shin said to everyone.
"Huh? W-what about me? Don’t you have anything you want to say to m—” Fletta seemed disappointed.
"To the 17th floor," Lee Shin said.
Lee Shin disappeared with the shining hearthstone. Fletta had been waiting for his turn to receive some advice from Lee Shin after Mariel and then Alice. Fletta turned around with a disappointed look. Fletta tried to talk to the ladies who were still there, but both of them were already ready to use the hearthstone as soon as Lee Shin had left.
Wooong— Whoong—
Fletta, who was left alone, muttered and disappeared from the spot using the hearthstone.
* * *
[You have cleared the 16th floor.]
[Your achievements will be recorded.]
[Amazing achievement! Many gods are paying attention to you!]
[Few of the gods want to talk to you.]
[You have achieved 242,800 points.]
[You have received 242,800 points.]
[Your Health Point has increased by 8,300.]
[Your Mana Power has increased by 15,980.]
[Your Strength has increased by 7.]
[Your Agility has increased by 8.]
[Your Intelligence has increased by 15.]
[Your Dominance has increased by 20.]
[Your Divinity has increased by 1.]
The gods, who had not asked for a conversation for a while, suddenly requested to talk to Lee Shin. The gods stopped trying to talk to Lee Shin because he never accepted any of their requests for a conversation. However, Lee Shin was aware that when the gods made such a sudden request, that meant that there was something in this stage that got on their nerves.
‘It’s probably the Eyes of the Wise Man or something about Declan.’
Lee Shin was the only one who received some information about the Eyes of the Wise Man and it made sense that the gods would be curious to know about that unique ability. If so, the gods would have asked Alice to have a conversation just like they had done with Lee Shin, but she would not have told them either, because Lee Shin had warned her already.
Lee Shin thought that the quick-witted Alice would have understood what Lee Shin wanted to say.
‘But if they want to talk to me because of Declan… then…’
The gods could have been curious about Lee Shin’s ability that surpassed the power of the God of Death. To be honest, the power that Declan had used might have been a very small speck of the God of Death. However, it was still a great deal that Lee Shin had defeated something of that caliber when he was only a challenger on the 16th floor, just a human.
"Request for a conversation?” Lee Shin asked.
[Will you accept the gods' request to have a conversation?]
"Bullshit. If you're so curious, use your karma to become an incarnate. Then I'll let you know," Lee Shin said.
Even if Lee Shin said things like this, the gods did not respond to these words. That was natural because they valued their own the most.
"But I guess the only one that’s somewhat like a god is the God of Death. Other than this one, none of them are anything like gods,” Lee Shin muttered.
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