LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 99 - The Absurd Existence
< Chapter 99: The Absurd Existence >
[Hey, but]
[Then what the heck is that dungeon?]
[What kind of dungeon is it that entry is possible at level 20]
[But once you enter, it turns out to be a level 40 dungeon]
[And when you go to the boss room, there’s a level 70 boss fishing for players?]
[Is the dungeon itself just a manifestation of malice?]
[Did the game developers create this dungeon to pick fights with the players?]
[If I hadn’t started playing the game, I wouldn’t have wasted my time…!]
[The only salvation… euthanasia for players…]
[No lol]
[It’s just that the guide is the problem]
[That you must go at level 40?]
[Yeah, that guy lol]
[If you play normally]
[You’re supposed to go to that dungeon only after surpassing level 70]
[But that mf who wrote the guide found a way to scam low-level players with the Phibian necklace]
[And that’s how they lure kids]
[What’s the original quest?]
[If you take the Phibian route]
[Around level 70, you get an event where you go on a date with Phibian in the forest]
[Then coincidentally, that necklace gets unlocked]
[And together, they enter the dungeon to tackle it]
[Defeating the boss, the Gluttonous One, is the original story yeah]
[Ah lol]
[?]
[Ah ffs]
[What’s with the spoiler?]
[You asked for it;;]
[Ah lol]
[This is ridiculous;;;]
[Now that it’s come to this]
[Just tell me the whole quest story]
[Am I Siri, you ****?]
[You really left that reply to such a rude dude lol]
[Please tell me, bro;;;]
[lol Okay]
[Let’s do this right lol]
[It’s revealed later but]
[He’s telling me this again]
[Tsundere?]
[You idiots]
[Anyway, that dungeon was originally used as a hideout by a group of criminals]
[But after being subjugated outside the dungeon, the dungeon keys held by the boss and the vice boss got scattered elsewhere]
[One, as you know, ended up with the Leolalian family]
[The other somehow ended up with a group of dark magicians]
[Then those dark magicians activated the key first and discovered the dungeon]
[They remodeled it into a monster farm they were raising]
[What’s that group of dark magicians?]
[The Blackroot Sect yeah]
[Ah]
[Them]
[The one who took over that dungeon is the high priest of the Blackroot Sect]
[And the monster they were raising]
[Was the incarnate of the demon count, the Gluttonous One, summoned through their rituals yeah]
[No;;]
[That’s a big deal;]
[A count is like semi-final boss level, isn’t it?]
[Since it’s a main quest for the latter part, yeah]
* * *
“Let go of me! Why are you doing this! Why are you being so cruel to me!!!”
The knight in armor made not of steel but flesh struggled, suspended in midair.
It was the first time the monster, with the voice of a child, showed a helpless appearance fitting of that voice.
All because of an ominous masked figure of considerable size that had suddenly appeared.
The absurd monster that had taken their all-out attack as mere amusement was now being overpowered so helplessly.
“How…”
Phibian muttered as if in a dream.
“Ah! Is this perhaps a game? Are we playing now? Ahahaha! How fun! It’s a game! My mom is too busy to play with me and always just gives me toys!!!”
-Gulping sounds-
Numerous ‘mouths’ sprouting all over the flesh armor burrowed into the flesh armor like worms digging into the ground.
The worms gathered at one place, towards the monster’s neck.
And they merged.
A gigantic mouth, seemingly formed by the amalgamation of all the mouths, sprouted on the monster’s neck.
The mouth opened as wide as possible, showcasing its large, yellow teeth with bits of flesh stuck between them and dark red stains.
-Bang-
With a single bite.
A loud noise and shockwave erupted as if a giant hammer had struck a mortar placed on a rock.
The dark wires hanging the monster were effortlessly severed.
The flesh puppet, its strings cut, plummeted to the ground.
The monster regained its freedom, standing on two legs once again.
“I love games! I want to play! I want to! But, I’m hungry right now! I want to fill my stomach first!”
The monster withdrew its gaze from the masked figure and turned towards Phibian and his companions.
“Um… Ah! You! You look tasty! I want to eat you!”
The monster, like a child running to be embraced by its mother, extended its arms and charged at Hallow.
“…!”
Hallow, who had been staring blankly, snapped back to reality.
He raised his shield.
Years of battle and countless fights had honed Hallow’s intuition.
Hesitate now, and you die!
“Urararararara!!!”
With a roar akin to a battle cry, Hallow charged at the monster.
This was not a sacrifice meant to block the enemy’s movement as the party’s vanguard.
It was a charge filled with the will to destroy, the intent of violence.
Mana-less iron could not even scratch it.
The 5th class magical beast known as Steel Hide Bear, named for its steel-like leather.
Even the Steel Hide Bear would be fatally wounded by such a strike, its insides thoroughly shaken.
“A vanguard gazing at the realm of heroes, Hallow can unleash the strongest of moves.”
“Euratcha!!!”
At the moment when the distance to the monster was reduced to three steps,
Hallow launched himself forward.
His body, shielded in front, became a mass of violence as he charged into the monster.
“Huh?”
At that moment, Hallow let out a dumbfounded noise.
It felt like he had swung his hand through thin air with all his might.
The moment Hallow’s shield touched the monster,
All the force behind the blow vanished.
-Click! Click! Click! Click!
The monster’s large mouth, having snapped off the dark wires, was greedily biting.
=Hahaha! Look at this! You taste delicious! Delicious!!!
Hallow felt the monster’s biting through the shield.
With every bite, he felt his strength and mana being chunked away.
“Damn it-…!”
Hallow hastily tried to escape from the monster.
-Splat
The monster’s meat gauntlet grabbed Hallow’s shield.
=Where are you going! I’m going to eat you!!! Don’t you want to be eaten by me?
The monster exerted force to snatch the shield blocking between Hallow and itself.
At that moment, the strength drained from Hallow’s hand holding the shield.
The shield was effortlessly taken away.
The monster flung the shield carelessly.
-Click! Click! Click! Click!
With the shield gone, Hallow’s eyes met the monster’s large mouth.
“Ah.”
In this moment,
Hallow painfully realized
how absurd this monster was.
=Kehet!!!
How absurd the creature that easily subdued this absurd being was.
The moment the monster’s teeth almost touched Hallow,
It was once again pulled up to the ceiling and hanged.
The dark wires once again entangled around the monster’s neck.
=What! I untied this! This is cheating!!! Not fun!!! You’re cowardly!!!
The monster’s large mouth again snapped off the dark wires.
=Huh?
Next were its limbs.
The four black lines that had been entangling the monster’s ankles and wrists from some point tightened sharply.
‘It’ was made to adopt a ‘大’ (big) posture in the air.
It looked like a neatly trimmed and spread-out beast’s hide.
But it didn’t end there.
The stranger moved his fingers connected to the wires,
Like controlling a puppet.
-Gwaaaak
The wires tightened further.
They pulled as if to tear off the monster’s arms and legs.
-Squeak
The wires burrowed into the monster’s flesh armor.
Ultimately tearing it apart.
-Snap
-Snap
Blood flowed down the wires from the flesh armor and dripped down.
=Ah, ah- ah!!! It hurts! It hurts!!! That’s too much!!! Why are you being so cruel to me!!!
The monster briefly wailed miserably like a child.
=Kyaaaaaak!!!!!!!!!
Then, throwing away the child’s voice, it screamed in what sounded like a woman’s voice being torn apart.
=Let go of this!!! Let go!!! You cursed bastard!!!
It spat out curses at the stranger with a venomous voice.
Struggling with all its might to snap the wires,
The wires then burrow deeper into the flesh armor.
-Gulp!
-Gulp!
Blood pours out from the deepened wounds like a waterfall.
Meanwhile, the dark wires show no sign of breaking.
Eventually, the monster changes its tactic.
=Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Heave-ho!
The monster, reverting to a child’s voice, made a cheerful sound.
At the same time, it began to rub and twist its wrists and ankles against the wires.
-Screech
-Screech
Using the wires as a saw, it began sawing through its own wrists and ankles.
-Snap
=Ah! Done!
Finally, the monster frees itself from the wires by abandoning its wrists and ankles.
If left as is, the monster’s body, now missing hands and feet, would have pathetically crashed onto the cave floor.
Before that could happen, the monster’s flesh armor stirred.
The severed surfaces of the wrists and ankles spewed out flesh.
This flesh quickly extended to elongate the arms and legs further.
-Snap
Landing on the ground, the monster no longer stood upright on two legs like a human.
If one were to name the appearance of its elongated pair of legs supporting it on the ground, perhaps ‘desk bug’ would be fitting?
=You vile thing!
The monster spoke in an angry man’s voice.
=You’re a bug! I should tear you apart first!
The monster, with its bizarre movement enabled by four pole-like long legs, approaches the stranger.
“…!”
Watching this, Phibian and his companions felt an unbearable disgust and fear.
Even when moving slowly in human form, the monster was terrifying.
Now, it was moving rapidly in a grotesque form.
“…”
The stranger simply watched the monster,
As if looking down at a bug crawling on the floor.
=Haha!!! Now it’s my turn~ My turn~!
The monster, having approached close to the stranger, lifted its forelegs like a horse.
Just as its tips, sharpened like awls, were about to strike the stranger-
It stopped unnaturally, as if caught in a net.
The monster thought it was again entangled by the stranger’s wires.
It wasn’t.
They were tentacles.
The tentacles had grabbed the monster’s forelegs.
Then, they grabbed its hind legs.
Thick pairs of tentacles.
And that was just a fraction of the whole.
“Eek…!”
“What, what is that!?”
Phibian and his companions, terrified, gathered toward the entrance of the cave, into the light.
The inside of the cave, which had been filled with darkness just moments before, was now brimming with dark tentacles.
The darkness within the cave had birthed these dark tentacles.
These dark tentacles, in turn, gave birth to more dark tentacles.
Countless dark tentacles writhed, filling the inside of the cave.
After a considerable amount of time had passed,
=You insect-like creature!!!
The monster began to swell.
Like a dam releasing water.
The vast amounts of flesh compressed inside the monster overflowed.
The wave of tentacles was pushed back by the wave of flesh.
It was only for a moment.
=How could!!! With this level of power!!!
The tentacles-
The dark tentacles-
The darkness.
Flowing flesh engulfs and approaches the monster.
=Stop!!! Please, stop!!!
The monster, having become a giant of flesh, swung its arms in a futile resistance.
The dark tentacles swiftly covered the masses of flesh.
Soon, the monster was engulfed by the dark tentacles again-
=Please!!!!!!!!!!!!
A final struggle.
The face of the flesh giant shot towards the owner of the tentacles, the stranger, like a spear.
In the stranger’s hand was a greatsword forged from darkness.
He swung it lightly, as if it were a dagger.
=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!
The face of the flesh giant sprawled on the ground screamed as if it was being torn apart.
=You! You!!! You!!!!! It was you!!! The one who killed Un, the White Snake!!! Save me!!! Please!!!
-Crack!
The stranger stomped on it with a disdainful kick, crushing it like a bug.
At that moment.
The magical energy of the monster that had dampened the place dispersed.
The dark tentacles dispersed.
The place covered by the tentacles.
Where ‘it’ had been, there was nothing left.
“Ah!”
Thud.
The battle between beings beyond the human realm.
Fleeing the tumult of power, at the entrance of the cave-
Phibian and his group leaned forward as the barrier that had been supporting them disappeared.
With the death of ‘it.’
A way out opened.
But they couldn’t flee.
They immediately turned to look inside the cave.
“…”
The incarnation of darkness.
The being that manipulates absurd power was looking at them.
What would happen to them now?
It was when they were shivering in fear.
“Lagadiereas…”
Daltasian murmured in a choked voice.
Then, something unbelievable happened.
“Egonoeireas.”
The transcendent being bowed, responding to Daltasian’s words.
Daltasian and the transcendent being communicated in an unknown language.
The group looked at them with faces filled with astonishment.