Sorry for the lack of chapters all week, classes started again, I'm fucked. This chapter was quite difficult to write; several times I had to check previous chapters to see if I had written certain things or not, in order to maintain consistency. If you notice any errors, leave a comment and I can still edit it.
//
The tunnels followed one another without significant change. Narrow passages gave way to wider corridors, only to close in again moments later.
Luki moved forward with Lili secured to his back. Whenever a monster appeared, he dealt with it quickly. Some were cut down before they could get close. Others were simply avoided. There was no reason to prolong unnecessary fights.
The path was chosen by instinct rather than logic,whatever came first he was walking through it. Turns were taken without hesitation. A dead end meant turning back and choosing another route. Traps were stepped over, jumped across, ignored or just bypassed entirely.
No matter the obstacle, the goal remained the same, keep moving forward.
He didn't know how long he'd been doing this; the seemingly unchanging and repetitive corridors didn't help him keep track of time, he only knew it had been a very long time.
Surprising? Too easy? Boring? As expected. In three months, Luki had gone from prey to hunter, becoming the naturally strongest being in the Upper Labyrinth.
In terms of raw power and combat skill, there was nothing capable of stopping him head-on, aside from exceptional cases. Like Draconian monsters who stood on a different level altogether, as dragons always did in any fantasy world. Elemental monsters were another matter, nearly impossible to deal with directly.
In short, as long as he didn't suffer the misfortune typical of a shounen protagonist, everything should go well.
But who is gonna tell him...?
...
Luki continued moving at top speed, his legs nothing more than a blur, worthy of a cartoon character.
He charged straight down the corridor as usual, then his expression twisted into something between surprise, disbelief, and sheer despair.
— Huh…? WAAAAAAIT!!! — he shouted.
He slammed his feet into the ground, skidding for several meters as friction tore against the stone floor. Smoke billowed from the soles of his boots as he struggled to stop.
— Luki-sama, what happened? Monsters? — Lili asked anxiously, startled by the sudden halt.
Without answering, he spun around and sprinted back the way he came. Once again, he skidded to a stop, this time right in the middle of the corridor, and lifted his head.
Above them, cutting cleanly through the stone ceiling, was a massive cylindrical hole, stretching upward until darkness swallowed its end.
Not that the place was bright to begin with, Luki just has such good eyesight that he doesn't even notice, but even to him that darkness seemed, well... dark.
Anyway, that's beside the point. The point is-
— A hole! — Captain Obvious shouted.
Lili blinked on his back.
— A… hole?
— A big hole! I mean- a huge hole! No, wait- an exit! I found an exit!
— An exit…?! Luki-sama, really!? — Lili's voice immediately rose, bright and full of hope.
— Yeah! I'm serious! Look! — he laughed, leaning his upper body forward so she could see properly.
Her reaction was instant, her breath catching as her eyes locked onto the ascending abyss above them.
— Ah…! It's… it's really an exit…! Oh my God, Luki-sama, a way out! A real way out! We're finally getting out of this godforsaken place! Luki-sama!
Her voice echoed through the corridor, barely able to contain her excitement.
— See? I told you we'd get out of this! — Luki said, laughing along with her.
A small tear formed at the corner of his eye. No, at both of theirs.
They couldn't help it.
After three months of wandering, searching, and finding nothing, hope had slowly worn thin. Even though Luki had never stopped saying they would escape, even he had been forced to acknowledge the possibility of the worst outcome, something he stubbornly refused to accept.
Even if it's just an passage to the next level and not the real exit, it's still a thing.
For a brief moment, it almost felt comical. Like in those anime time-skips where the protagonist spends months, sometimes years, off-screen doing something important, yet the moment they return to the story, things start moving at an absurdly faster pace. He had searched for an exit for three months without success, only to stumble upon one almost immediately once he was "back on screen".
If that was how it worked, wouldn't it have been easier if there hadn't been a time-skip to begin with?
It almost felt like the Dungeon was doing it on purpose. Which, let's face it, was very likely true.
Anyway, back to the main issue.
— But, Luki-sama… how are we going to get up there? — Lili asked, her voice carrying a mix of uncertainty and growing disbelief.
— Uhm… now that you mention it… — Luki looked up again, then around them.
The hole was directly above them. There was no ladder, no rope, and Luki wasn't exactly a ninja who could run up walls. For once, he was genuinely at a loss, his thoughts failing to line up into anything useful.
— We'll figure it out. We've come this far, the worst is over. Now we just have to reach the top. The monsters should be weaker and less numerous, and the floors slightly smaller. From here on out, it'll be easier.
— Huh, Lili agrees with Luki-sama. There must be a way up. The Dungeon wouldn't make a passage like this for no reason.
Dungeon: Uhm… I made this to go down, not to go up.
So, using the full potential of his two barely functioning neurons for an incredibly long two minutes, Luki finally reached a conclusion.
One he had never arrived at before, and quite possibly the most brilliant idea of his entire life.
Honestly, he was even a little proud of himself for thinking of it.
His solution was…
— Nope, I'm not stressing myself with it.
Lili facepalmed, well, not literally. Being restrained made that difficult. But if she could, she absolutely would have.
— Luki-sama… we need to talk about your… speed when making decisions, — Lili said, sounding less tired and more resigned.
If there was one flaw she could point out right away about Luki, it wouldn't be his terrible luck, his childish lapses on certain topics, or even his lack of common sense. No, it was his alarming tendency to stop using his brain the moment a problem became even slightly complicated.
Someday, that was going to get him into serious trouble, if it hadn't already. Which was very likely.
— Don't worry. Everything's under control, — he replied confidently.
Then, with a silly grin on his face, one that reminded her painfully of a certain goddess, he sheathed his sword at his waist, took a few steps back, eyes fixed upward, silently calculating.
Judging by his posture, the position of his arms, and with the same certainty that the sky is blue, Luki could only be preparing fo-
Crack!
The ground fractured beneath his feet.
He jumped.
Luki shot upward in a violent burst of force, ascending more than ten meters in a single motion.
For reference, a normal untrained person could barely jump thirty centimeters. Even professional athletes rarely exceeded their own height. But with the blessing of the gods enhancing his body, something like this was just the expected.
He rose high enough to fully enter the vertical shaft rather than merely reaching its edge. At the peak of his ascent, when his velocity slowed to near zero and gravity prepared to reclaim him, he swung both arms forward, fingers bent like claws, and drove them into the stone.
Crack!
Crack!
Bam.
Bam.
His hands tore into the rock just enough to hold.
— Ugh… — he groaned under the strain.
Slowly, he adjusted his position, pressing the tips of his boots against minor imperfections in the wall. The muscles in his back flexed continuously, veins standing out beneath the strain as he stabilized himself against the perfectly vertical surface.
Then, with absurd naturalness, he simply began climbing the wall like a lizard.
And fast.
— Huh? Luki-sama, since when do you know how to climb this well? — Lili asked, genuinely curious.
A fair question. Climbing wasn't exactly something one casually picked up like riding a bicycle.
But for Luki…
— Nah, it's easy. I'll teach you later, — he replied with shameless confidence, all while digging his fingers deeper into the rock.
Digging his finger... in the rock...
Anyway.
He climbed steadily at impressive speed. One arm. One leg. The other arm. The other leg. A smooth, relentless rhythm.
Strangely, but fortunately, the inner walls of the shaft weren't made of the usual Dungeon bricks. The surface was uneven, rough, full of small protrusions and shallow indentations that made for convenient footholds.
Why? Aesthetic choice? Dungeon laziness? Some invisible game mechanic marking where climbing was allowed?
It didn't matter.
What mattered was that things were going far too smoothly.
And neither of them trusted the Dungeon enough to believe it wouldn't interfere.
Crack! A fissure split open in the wall not far from them.
Something forced its way out.
A corpulent lizard crawled free, its body resembling a exotic mix between a Komodo dragon and a gecko. Jagged crystalline rocks protruded from its back, like a parody of armadillo.
Hard Armored.
Luki slowly turned his head toward it.
His expression was that of a man who had already accepted disappointment as a lifestyle.
— Damn it, Dungeon. Go to hell, Dungeon. Not there... — he complained, murmuring, the sadness clear in his voice.
— Luki-sama, monsters are appearing! — Lili warned fearfully.
— I know, I know. — Luki replied calmly, then, he looked up and resumed climbing, this time even faster.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
A bunch of fractures appeared and several Hard Armored creatures began to emerge throughout the area.
Funny how they were all Hard Armored, lizard-based monsters that are very good at walking on walls; no Silverbacks, Lizardmen, or even Imps appeared, only the demon lizards.
If this wasn't intentional, then politicians aren't corrupt.
Clack, clack, clack… Sound of dry feet against stone.
— HSSSSSSK! — The first Hard Armored hissed as he approached rapidly, its physique offering superior mobility compared to Luki's attributes.
— Argh, fuck this. — Luki said irritably.
He dug his right hand's fingers even harder into the wall. Then, with his left arm free, he drew his sword with some difficulty and prepared to face the monster.
The lizard opened its jaws wide, fangs ready to tear fle-
BAM!
Its skull imploded under the strike.
The impact crushed bone like wet clay. Blood and fragments burst outward, splattering the wall. The body went limp instantly.
With no strength left in its claws, the corpse peeled away from the stone and fell into the abyss below.
— Luki-sama, two coming from the right! — Lili warned.
Luki turned quickly, noticing the approaching monsters. He sheathed his weapon and switched his supporting hand.
— HSSSSSSK!
— HSSSSSSK!
The monsters hissed, and when one of them came close to attack, Luki intercepted it with a punch.
The monster staggered from the blow, but quickly recovered and tried to attack again, only to be met with another punch.
A right to the snout, another to the side of the jaw, and yet another hook below chin.
However, he was not alone, and Luki noticed the second lizard approaching vertically from just below the one he was beating.
— Rrrah!
Luki threw another punch to disorient the beast, then forcefully pulled it away from the surface, adjusted his grip on the monster, and used it as a club to strike the second one below.
Both monsters fell to certain death.
Without wasting any time, Luki continued to climb, but this time he launched himself forcefully upward, stabilized in place for a few seconds, and then launched himself again.
It seems unrealistic, but he really was going faster.
Along the way, monsters kept appearing to stop him, and Lili did a good job of always alerting him to where they were coming from.
Using her sword to attack from a safer distance, grabbing the monsters and making them fall, delivering punches to their ugly faces. Everything followed a perpetual rhythm of climbing and fighting.
For a moment, he felt like a character from a hack-and-slash game like God of War or Dante's Inferno.
— Luki-sama! There are monsters in the air!
But this was no game, and the Dungeon would make sure to prove it.
Luki turned to look, holding himself with his left arm.
In the air, he spotted a giant dark bat with red eyes; higher up, more of them emerged from the walls to join the fight.
Bad Bats.
'Fuck...' he thought, beginning to sense the difficulty.
There are few monsters in the Dungeon that can stand up to Luki, most of them only due to compatibility issues or some exotic ability. Bad Bats were one of them, flying monsters with a scream strike, an omnidirectional long-range attack.
The vibrations pierce through armor and flesh, directly hitting the internal organs, causing dizziness, headaches, a horrible sensation of having your organs churned inside you, not to mention the obvious possibility of deafness.
Not to mention that Lili wasn't in any condition to take a blow like that.
Initially, Luki planned to tear a piece off the wall and hit the monster in mid-air, but that wasn't possible.
— Luki-sama, below us!" Lili screamed desperately, noticing the monster at the last moment.
Suddenly, something attacked it, biting one of its legs and forcing it downwards.
— Ghh!
A heavy weight dragged at his body as a violent KRSHH- GNNRRK echoed beneath them, the sound of jagged fangs grinding against metal.
Another GRAAASHH KRRRNNN reverberated through his leg as the creature tightened its jaws.
A Hard Armored had emerged from a fissure right below them. That was why Lili hadn't saw it approaching. The Dungeon spawned the monster right on the.
— Tch… Nghh…!
Luki grunted, veins rising along his arms as he forced his muscles to contract. He tightened his grip on the wall, fingers digging into stone, shoulders trembling as he fought against the monster's pull.
The bite was powerful. Luki could clearly feel the pressure of its teeth crushing against his armor, the vibration traveling through steel and into bone. For a split second, a cold thought crossed his mind.
'If this breaks…'
But thankfully, even a little worn down and without proper repairs, the armor was still sturdy enough to withstand the assault. The metal groaned under the strain, yet it held.
If it hadn't, Luki would probably have lost a leg right there.
'Lost a leg…' He thought.
'Lost a leg…' He thought again, but something was different.
'Lost a-' The thought wasn't finish.
Time did not exactly stop, but the seconds seemed to stretch into something immeasurable. The faint light around him vanished. Everything in his field of vision dissolved into darkness and… something else.
The sounds faded one by one. The grinding of fangs. The distant screeches. The pulse in his ears. The pressure on his leg disappeared. The weight of Lili on his back disappeared.
From another perspective, everything would have looked the same.
But from inside, something had shifted.
At that moment, Luki could fee- no, he could clearly see, from all sides, from every angle, the "emotions" within him shifting in real time.
It was as if a substance was surging from somewhere and spreading throughout the rest of his body, then reactions began to appear all over his system.
Perhaps hormones? Probably not; it was too strange to be just hormones. But what mattered were the things he was feeling in that endless second.
Chaos, caused by the belic environment that prevented him from fully reflecting.
Calm, a forced feeling within him like bad medicine; the situation hadn't improved, nor had a solution emerged, he only felt a sentimental emptiness.
Confusion, after properly absorbing the information from his surroundings, especially the fact that the monster was biting his leg hard enough to sever it.
Fear, with the idea of losing a limb gradually taking root in his mind, though perhaps the fact that this limb was specifically a leg made this information stick even more strongly.
Rejection, a strange urge to not accept reality, without any clear thought behind it.
Anger, a burning flame that surged in his chest, scorching any rationality and any other underlying feeling.
And finally, hatred, an inexplicable impulse of aggression and destruction, like the greatest pyre that obscured all thought except the most basic functions.
It was then that something inside him snapped.
Pa...
Luki wasn't reacting at all at that moment; his thoughts couldn't keep up with whatever was happening, but he could swear he heard the sound of something rupturing inside him.
Then, everything started moving again.
— Luki-sama! He's go-
Lili was saying something, but Luki was already acting.
BAAAM!
DOOOOM!
The impacts roared through the Dungeon wall like thunder trapped underground.
In a sequence of rapid, fluid movements, as if every action had already been planned long ago, Luki twisted his hips and delivered a brutal kick with his free leg straight into the Hard Armored's face. The monster's skull jolted under the force, its jaw loosening slightly, yet its fangs still scraped against the armor.
He didn't stop just there, the blows came one after another, strong and hard.
Pain finally made the creature falter. Its bite wavered. The teeth dragged harshly across the metal before slipping free.
But Luki did not pull his leg out of its mouth.
FWSHHH!
The air split sharply as he moved in a single explosive motion.
KRAAABOOOM! - RRRRSHHHH!
With his foot still lodged between its jaws, he kicked upward with overwhelming force, ripping the Hard Armored out of the fissure like a vegetable torn from the soil. Chunks of rock and debris cascaded down as the monster's body was launched upward.
The moment it reached the height of his arm, Luki lunged.
His hand clamped down on the creature's face.
The rough, mineral-like hide distorted beneath the crushing pressure of his grip, its snout warping, eyes bulging grotesquely as its features were twisted out of shape.
Then he smashed it against the wall.
BAAM!
The monster's head burst apart like a watermelon thrown against stone. Dark blood, bone fragments, and pulp splattered across the walls and sprayed against Luki's back, running down his already battered armor.
The body twitched once.
Luki moved again.
THUD!
The punch was fast and devastating.
His fist ignored the mineral armor entirely. There was no noticeable resistance, only the sensation of tearing through layers until his arm pierced straight through the monster's torso.
It emerged from the other side like a spear, for a brief moment, he could feel the cold earth against his skin through the hollowed body.
— ...ing to scream! — The rest of Lili's words came out; what just happened was so fast that she didn't even have time to react.
Above them, the Bad Bat prepared to attack, but not as one might imagine. Although it was a powerful attack, it was merely a scream. The monster simply flew like a real bat closer to them, entering the lethal range of its strike, and opened its mouth.
The muscles along its throat contracted, lungs compressing to expel the sonic blast which could very well burst a person's entire auditory system.
— !... — The air had not even begun to leave its lungs.
FWSSSHHH!
Luki leaped from the wall, soaring several meters into the air. In the blink of an eye, he crashed into the monster midair.
One hand clamped around the Bad Bat's throat, fingers digging deep into the coarse flesh beneath its jaw. His other hand seized one of its wings, gripping the joint where bone and membrane met.
— SKRREEEEEEE!
— KRRRAAAAHH!!
The Bad Bat shrieked in raw panic, its attack collapsing before it could even exist. Its wings flailed wildly, beating the air in erratic bursts as it twisted and thrashed, trying to tear itself free from the sudden predator clinging to its body.
— L-LUKI-SAMAAAAAAA?!!! — The scream was torn from her throat.
And before she could even understand what the hell was happening.
They fell.
— AAAAAAAAH!!!!!!
— SKREEEEEEAAARGH!!!!!
— Ugh...
The wind howled past as they plummeted down, toward the opposite side of the vertical tunnel, about to devour a triple red velvet flavored pâté on the wall.
— SREEEEEEE! SREEEEEEE! KIH! KIAH! — The Bad Bat clawed at Luki, screeching, biting, flapping with desperate, uncoordinated force.
Luki answered with force.
The muscles along his shoulders, chest, and back bulged violently as he pulled in opposite directions.
For a moment the monster tried to resist, but to no avail; Luki was simply too strong.
— WOAH! — Then, with sheer, monstrous force, Luki tore the creature apart down the center of its body.
KRAAAACK- SHRRRAAAK!!
Wet flesh ruptured, bone snapped, organs burst free, blood and viscera exploded outward, all things scattering through the air in a gruesome spray.
Perhaps he got momentum from somewhere, or something else illogical, but Luki ascended a few meters as if he had jumped and followed a new arc trajectory to the wall, this time it seemed more intentional and controlled.
Bam
Bam
Luki landed safely on the wall, had it been planned? That was what Lili was wondering too.
Pa...
That same sound again.
— Huh? — He let out a questioning sound, as if he had come out of a trance.
Luki looked from side to side, then stopped, as if questioning what had happened, whether he had really done all of that.
— Luki-sama, are you crazy?!!! I think I peed myself! — Lili protested, her face red; whether from emotion, anger, or embarrassment is another story altogether.
— Huh, what? I-I'm sorry, Lili, I didn't think straight. — He apologized, still a little confused by everything, but he'll survive.
— Then you better think of something soon because they're coming this way! And I need to take another shower!!! — She got even more red.
Luki turned around and observed his surroundings.
Now on the other side of the hole, there were fewer monsters around him, but it was only a matter of time before they circled back, before the other Bad Bats came down.
How was he going to get rid of so many monsters? Repeating what he had just done? No way, he didn't even know how he did all that in the first place, let alone repeat it.
'Throw something at them? But what, pieces of the wall? But I'm not in a good position to do that, I would need something to stand on.' Luki started thinking of a plan, his mind racing.
The god Takemikazuchi and Lyu both said he has a good talent for improvising things mid battle, hopefully that's true.
'Make a gap in the wall? That would take too long. Mount one of the monsters? Unlikely to work. Think, you blockhead, think!'
No fruitful ideas; it's difficult to improvise something when you have almost no resources. It's not like he could stick his sword in the wall and stand on it.
Oh, wait, he's already doing that.
Luki shifted his grip on the wall, leaving his right hand free.
Shhk
The blade left its sheath in one smooth motion and without hesitation, he drove it forward.
CLANK!
Steel bit into stone, easily piercing the stone and becoming fixed to it like a rebar.
Luki pulled himself upward, left hand only, until he managed to lift his body higher and he stepped onto the embedded blade.
He adjusted his stance carefully, shifting just enough to create space behind him.
— I never thought I'd say this… but I've never been so grateful that you're so big. You fucking beatiful meter and forty centimeters tall piece of metal! — He said jokingly.
The little runes across the blase seemed to shine in response, just a little.
The atmosphere seemed less tense, and Luki allowed himself to smile a little, a smile that gradually became somewhat... diabolical.
Crunk
Crunk
He ripped two chunks from the wall behind him with his bare hands, chunks of soil as compact as rock, if not rock itself.
He bent down slightly, the devilish grin on his face widening even further.
— I've always wanted to do this... — He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and...
...
— ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA!
FWHH! FWHH! FWHH! FWHH! FWHH!!
SHHHK! SHHHK! SHHHK!
KRAAASH!! SPLAAAT!! CRRRAAACK!! BLRRAAASH!! SKRUNCH!! SPLRRRT!!
Chunks of compact stone tore through the air like cannon fire.
The first Bad Bat didn't even have time to shriek. The rock struck its torso mid-flight.
KRAAAK!
And its body folded inward grotesquely before bursting apart in a spray of dark blood and inward.
Another tried to veer away.
SPLAAASH!!
Its skull imploded under the impact, fragments of bone and brain matter scattering as its wings spasmed uselessly.
But aerial targets weren't the only ones; anyone who thought the Hard Armored would be spared was very mistaken.
KRAAASH! KRAAASH! CRRRAAACK!
The stones struck in rapid succession, like a savage barrage. With each impact, pieces of its armored plating shattered away, scales bursting loose as fractures spread across its defense until finally.
KRRRAAAK!!
The last projectile broke through what remained, smashing the creature flat against the wall. Its body collapsed with a wet crunch, blood spreading across the stone as it slid downward, becoming nothing more than a red stain fused to the tunnel.
The tunnel filled with the wet percussion of bodies being destroyed mid-air.
And still.
— MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! — he kept throwing.