Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Chapter 196: Under The Spire [V]

Harper burst out laughing, it was a melodious sound that momentarily chased away the crushing gloom of the dungeon.

’What’s so funny?’ Silas sighed as he crossed his arms with his face remaining perfectly stoic, though a faint hint of annoyance touched his golden-ringed eyes.

He honestly wasn’t sure if he had eaten a single real meal since he had first stepped foot into the Secret Realm days ago.

Lords with higher possessed incredibly dense bodies that didn’t strictly need normal food for long periods, sustaining their cellular function purely on mana.

But Silas wasn’t even past the first Core Refinement stage yet; his Gold Core burned astronomical amounts of calories to maintain his Body’s physical output.

"We need protein," Silas admitted. "I feel my body getting sluggish."

"We should cook the Dire Wolf meat now," Harper suggested eagerly, shifting her position on the stone floor. "Even if we only ate the meat without proper grains, the high nutritional content will repair our muscles and help us prepare for whatever we have to fight tomorrow."

As she spoke, Harper deliberately reached up to the collar of Silas’s trench coat.

She slowly unzipped the top of the heavy coat a bit further down her chest, intentionally letting the cool cavern breeze touch her bare skin.

The movement caused the heavy fabric to ride up her legs, fully exposing her long flawless and perfectly smooth pale thighs in the dim blue light.

She leaned back on her hands, looking up at him through her dark purple eyelashes with a dangerous smile.

"You know, Silas-kun..." Harper purred, her voice dropping into a thick whisper. "When we are done eating, and our stamina is recovered... you could take me right here. The blue light lasts for hours so we have nothing but time."

Silas stared at her exposed thighs, then looked up at her flushed face.

He rolled his eyes so hard it physically hurt.

"I am not interested, Harper," Silas told her, his voice echoing with uncompromising rejection.

Harper pouted, her shoulders slumping. "Why not? Am I not attractive enough for you?"

"It has nothing to do with your face," Silas lectured her. "Even if I was interested in compromising my awareness to sleep with you, look around us. The sand and stone floor in this cavern is covered in ancient moss, stagnant water, and probably ten thousand years of microscopic flesh-eating infections. What kind of absolute idiot has sex on a bare filthy dungeon floor?"

Harper blinked, looking down at the grimy stone beneath her. She hadn’t actually thought about the hygiene aspect.

’But still... if a girl keeps throwing herself at me like this, who am I to say no?’ Silas thought and though he didn’t tell her out loud, he was also actively calculating the moisture levels.

He was going to try and manually compress the water vapor to make a small Ice House... exactly like what Mia usually did for them to stay inside safely before he even considered resting properly.

"Get the wolf carcasses out," Silas commanded, walking toward the center of the ring. "Let’s eat."

Harper sighed, resigning herself to the culinary task. She waved her pale hand with her Lord inventory interface glowing blue.

THUD! THUD!

Two massive, headless carcasses of the subterranean Dire Wolves materialized directly onto the stone floor with their thick black fur matted with frozen blood.

Silas didn’t have a conventional hunting knife so he raised his right hand, forcefully drawing a sphere of dense moisture from the damp air.

"Ice Transformation," Silas muttered.

The water violently flash-froze, condensing into a perfectly balanced razor-sharp hunting knife made of solid blue ice.

The blade trailed freezing vapor as Silas knelt beside the first massive wolf carcass.

He possessed a deep awareness of how to butcher and process monster meat like this, having closely observed the huntresses in his territory handle massive boars and wolves back at the Blessed Land.

"Come on..."

With precision, Silas drove the ice knife under the wolf’s thick hide.

SHWK!

He drew the blade in a long flawless line down the beast’s abdomen, effortlessly parting the tough skin from the dense red muscle beneath without piercing the internal organs.

RIPPP!

He gripped the fur with his calloused left hand and forcefully tore the hide away with a sickening sound, exposing the rich mana-infused meat.

"Ummmm..."

Harper shuffled over on her knees to join him.

She wanted to help and to prove her worth beyond just her lightning magic so she grabbed a chunk of the heavy hide, pulling it back to expose the flank.

However, Harper was far less experienced in butchery.

Her hands slipped on the frozen blood, and as she struggled, the heavy trench coat actively rode up higher, completely exposing her bare hips and the smooth curve of her perfect thighs to the freezing air.

Silas ignored the distraction with his golden-ringed eyes locked entirely on the meat.

He rapidly carved out the cuts... the heavy tenderloins from the spine and the thick flank steaks from the hindquarters.

He tossed the massive, ten-pound slabs of raw red meat onto a clean slab of ice he generated on the floor and then he washed them after cutting up the other one.

"We can’t eat it raw," Silas noted, tossing the ice knife aside. "It’s too tough."

He reached into his own spatial ring.

Before the dungeon raid had commenced, Martha, his diligent maid back home, had forcefully packed his inventory with basic culinary supplies, refusing to let her Lord starve in the wilderness.

’Unfortunately I forgot to take the lunch she had made...’

Silas pulled out a small glass vial of refined olive oil and a leather pouch filled with crushed sea salt, dried rosemary, and crushed red pepper.

He poured the oil over the raw slabs of wolf meat, vigorously rubbing the thick liquid into the muscle fibers with his bare hands.

He generously coated the steaks in the spices, the savory aroma of the herbs instantly cutting through the pungent stench of the dungeon.

"Alright," Silas said, wiping his hands on a rag. "Roast it and don’t turn it to ash."

Harper smiled, her purple eyes glowing with excitement.

She loved showing off her magical control.

"Okay my love~"

She held both of her pale hands over the massive slabs of seasoned meat however she didn’t summon a catastrophic blast.

Harper closed her eyes, dialing down the raw voltage of her core to an incredibly precise microscopic fraction of its true power.

BZZZZZT.

A web of thin, incredibly precise purple electrical currents arched from her fingertips, sinking directly into the raw meat.

The high-frequency electrical resistance instantly generated extreme internal heat.

The water molecules inside the wolf steaks began to violently boil.

The fat rendered perfectly as the spices sizzled and popped against the searing meat, filling the damp cavern with a mouth-watering, intoxicating aroma of roasted garlic, pepper, and searing steak.

Within two minutes, the outside of the meat was perfectly seared with a dark caramelized crust, while the muscle was roasted to a flawless medium-rare.

"Done," Harper declared proudly, cutting the current.

Silas utilized his water magic again, rapidly condensing moisture from the air to create two wide fflat plates made of smooth, polished ice.

Harper carefully used a pair of ice tongs to transfer the steaming massive cuts of roasted meat onto the plates.

They sat side by side on the cold stone floor with their backs leaning against the cavern wall, exactly in the center of the blue Safe Zone ring.

"Bon’appetit Silas-kun."

They tore into the food with their bare hands.

The wolf meat was incredibly chewy and bursting with a rich, savory flavor that instantly flooded their exhausted bodies with a rush of nutritional mana.

"Mm~ We outdid ourselves, Silas-kun." Harper said and Silas sighed.

"You’re right..."

Silas ate like a starving beast, stripping the meat down to the bone.

As they ate, the crushing isolation of the dungeon seemed to fade. The romantic tension Harper had been desperately trying to force earlier organically softened into genuine intimacy.

’I think I can take a break from this mission for now...’ Harper thought, it didn’t matter if Silas was the Lord of Blessed Land or not.

The purple haired woman couldn’t bring herself to even think about hurting him.

’I might have to tell Papa I quit... and instead I’ll just marry Silas-kun for real.’

Harper finished her portion, sighing in contentment as the warm food settled in her stomach.

She shifted her body closer to Silas.

Without asking permission, she casually lifted her right leg, placing her smooth bare thigh directly over his lap.

She leaned her weight against his side, resting the side of her head comfortably against his broad chest.

Silas stopped chewing for a second. He looked down at the beautiful lightning Lord currently using him as a heated mattress.

He let out a long, long sigh but he didn’t push her away. He simply let her rest, staring out into the dark corridors beyond their blue ring.

"My stamina is regenerating," Silas broke the silence. "Once I rest a bit, I’m going to step out of the Safe Zone... I am going to find the Lesser General, kill it, and take its treasure."

Or at least Silas thought it had treasure, he really didn’t know.

Harper tilted her head up with her purple eyes widening in alarm.

"Can I fight it with you?" Harper asked immediately, her hand gripping the fabric of his shirt. "My core is recovering and I can provide support."

"No," Silas shut her down instantly, his voice brokering zero debate.

Harper frowned. "Why not? I am a—"

"Because you have risked your life too much already," Silas told her, his golden-ringed eyes meeting hers. "You nearly died trying to protect me on the surface. You were impaled and your body is still traumatized. You will stay in the Safe Zone and cover my retreat if things go bad."

Harper’s breath hitched.

She stared into his eyes with her heart fluttering wildly in her chest.

’Why does he make my heart beat so much...?’ What is wrong with me?!’

He wasn’t rejecting her out of disdain... He was trying to protect her.

Her heart thumped wildly, why was he so amazing?

They rested in silence for a bit and the blue light above them was slowly beginning to brighten.

"I think the night is at it’s peak..." Silas noted.

He stood up, gently shifting her leg off his lap. Harper sat up, pulling the trench coat tighter around herself.

"Good luck, Silas," Harper wished him softly, her purple eyes tracking his every movement.

"Thanks..."

He walked toward the glowing blue line of the Safe Zone perimeter.

’I need to be careful.’He reached down to his hip, drawing his heavy mythril longsword from its scabbard.

SHING!

The sound echoed sharply in the quiet cavern.

The moment the tip of Silas’s heavy boot crossed the blue threshold, stepping into the unprotected dark stone.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

The dead god’s voice instantly boomed from the walls, vibrating with overwhelming joy.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The next second, the stone floor directly beneath the stairs violently exploded upward.

A massive condensed pillar of solid black sand erupted from the ground like a geyser.

The attack had come completely out of nowhere, bypassing Silas’s perception.

The force of the sand pillar slammed directly into Silas’s chest before he could even raise his sword to block.

"Silas!" Harper screamed out his name in absolute terror, scrambling to the edge of the Safe Zone ring.

Silas was violently launched backward through the air. He soared down the massive winding stone staircase with his body crashing against the stone steps but he didn’t panic.

He hit the stairs rolling, his Gold Core instantly flooding his muscles to absorb the blunt force trauma.

SHWK! SHWK! SHWK!

Massive razor-sharp spikes of hardened black sand violently shot out of the stairs, attempting to skewer him as he tumbled.

Silas violently twisted his torso mid-roll, dodging the lethal spikes by mere millimeters.

He forced himself onto his feet, his boots sliding against the dusty stone. He thrust his left hand forward.

"Abyssal Sever!" Silas roared.

He blasted three highly pressurized crescent-shaped blades of water down the staircase.

The water spells sliced through the pursuing sand spikes, completely obliterating them into wet mud.

Silas leaped backward, soaring over the remaining stairs and landing heavily on the smooth stone floor of the lower cavern in a perfect three-point combat stance.

He raised his mythril sword with his golden-ringed eyes narrowing.

At the base of the stairs, the wet mud and the swirling black sand violently coalesced.

The sand rapidly gathered together, compressing and solidifying into a massive, eight-foot-tall humanoid figure.

The creature wore intricate ancient armor forged entirely from hardened desert glass.

It didn’t have a face, only a smooth, featureless mask of swirling grit, and in its right hand, it wielded a massive, curved broadsword made of jagged obsidian.

"Intruder," the sand figure spoke. Its voice was not a roar, but a calm deep harmonic that resonated from the walls.

The General slowly raised its obsidian blade, pointing it directly at Silas’s chest.

"I am Xerxes," the figure introduced himself. "Lesser General of the Eternal Sands... Though I hold a lower rank within his divine army, do not mistake my power. I once stood by my Lord’s side, and I actively participated in the slaying of a Lesser God during the Ascension War."