Chapter 220. What’s a Hero Anyways? (6)
Chapter 220. What’s a Hero Anyways? (6)
[Another man…]
“You’re too honest!”
The 70th Floor Master was, unsurprisingly, the Incubus King. With stylish clothes and handsome features, he indeed possessed looks that could capture any women.
Although his high charm could affect both men and women, I was unaffected thanks to my high charm.
[I do not enjoy fighting. I would rather whisper into the ears of beautiful women.]
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re a creep. Come.”
[I especially hate men who give off enticing scents like you! They steal my women!]
“Mind your own business!”
The Incubus King charged at me with an ornate longsword. When he swung his sword, thousands of ice spears appeared in the air. If anything, I had to recognize his boundless mana.
[My ice spear will penetrate you!]
“Can you stop making everything lewd!? Also, I’ll be the one penetrating you with my ice spear!”
I smirked and charged forward. At the same time, Ruyue flew up. In her beast girl appearance, Ruyue shouted.
[Anyone who bullies Shin, I’ll teach you a lesson!]
Immediately, the thousands of ice spears flying toward me halted. Then, along with Ruyue’s hand gestures, some became bigger and some combined with others. The Incubus King waved his sword around with a shocked expression, but it was too late. He had completely lost control of his ice spears.
[A mere elemental dares to go against me!]
“If you look away, you’ll die!”
Not that he wouldn’t die if he didn’t look away. While he staring at the ice spears in the air, I used Divine Speed and shot a Heroic Strike wrapped in chaos flames. The attack drilled into his shoulder and created a huge hole.
[Kuaaaaak! My noble body!]
“Didn’t the other men that went through here do the same thing?”
[Are you looking down on me for being restrained by the dungeon? You’re no better, a mere human being played by fate!]
In his rage, the Incubus King charged towards me. I grinned and held up my spear.
Chaos flames and white aura mixed together, burning in a hard to describe form. I then charged toward the Incubus King fuming with a navy demonic energy.
“Go to hell with your fate bullshit!”
At the same time, hundreds of ice spears strengthened by Ruyue descended. The Incubus King swung his sword and created a barrier. He then used magic to break the incoming ice spears, but his face was grim, as if he already knew he would lose.
He wasn’t wrong. He had already used quite a lot of his mana to create the ice spears. When it failed, his defeat was only a matter of time.
[Human, human, humaaaaan! Despair! Surrender to fate! Become a loser and forever slumber in resentment!]
“Stop talking about yourself!”
The ice spears then broke through his barrier and struck his body. His beautiful clothes became shredded as his limbs also became severed. Coincidentally, only his face remained unhurt.
[Kuhuk… I won’t forget you!]
The Incubus King coughed out black blood and glared at me. I struck my spear into his face and replied.
“Bullshit to the end. Even when I see you Floor Masters 10 times a day, none of you remember me.”
[A Grand Achievement! You defeated the Floor Master, ‘Incubus King’, alone! Amazing!]
[You became level 71. You obtained the qualification to challenge Beyond’s 20th floor.]
[You obtained 5 bonus stats.]
[You obtained the title, ‘Incubus King Slayer’. All stats permanently increase by 1. This effect will apply even if the title is not equipped.]
[You became Gold Rank 2. Congratulations.]
[You defeated the Incubus King alone. You obtained the special reward, ‘Superior Incubus King’s Top.’]
[You obtained 500,000 gold.]
[Choose your reward.]
[1. Captivation Magic Book.]
Unlike the Succubus Queen, it seemed somebody had already claimed the first reward for the Incubus King. In other words, an explorer who had been bewitched and killed by the Succubus Queen had slain the Incubus King in cold blood. Incubus King, you poor guy…
Regardless, the solo kill reward was the important thing. Captivation Magic Book. Another item beyond my expectations had come out. I couldn’t refuse the reward either. Thinking I might need to learn to control my charm again, I sighed as I chose the reward.
[You learned the passive skill Captivation. Captivation strengthens your charm. At level 1, it increases your charm by 10%. Against members of the opposite sex, your charm will have double the effect.]
“I knew it.”
If this effect multiplied the amplification I got from the Succubus Queen’s Tattoo, then my charm would have quadruple the effect to females. Even if the effect worked additively, it would still be triple. Since the skills I obtained from the dungeon all worked additively, my charm most likely tripled instead of quadrupling. The 60th through 70th floor really increased explorers’ charms. Hwaya must love it.
Regardless, since my charm reached a troublesome realm once again, I had to control my charm before I headed out to the Floor Shop.
“Welcome back, Shin-nim… Uuu, your charm increased again!”
“If you want to resent someone, Loretta, resent the one who made the dungeon like this.”
“Why would I resent anyone? I’m fine as long as Shin-nim doesn’t go around seducing women. In fact, I have to thank the Lord for this!”
“At least you’re honest…”
At my wry smile, Loretta puffed out her chest proudly.
“Being honest is my good point! Then, Shin-nim, now…”
“See you later.”
“I knew you’d say that. I hate you!”
Leaving Loretta behind, I went back into the Floor Master room to fight the Incubus King again. To implement my plan in time, I had no choice but to work hard.
Two hours afterward, at the guild house on Earth, I checked the guild members who wanted to participate in this expedition. I had already notified everyone on the day I talked to Yua, and after I cleared the 70th floor earlier than expected, I told whoever coming along to finish their preparations by today.
The result was that it would be faster to count the number of people not here. No, wait…
“… Everyone’s here?”
“We’re going to reclaim a country. Isn’t it obvious that we’d come?”
Hwaya spoke as everyone’s representative. She was wearing formal attire and was holding a long silver stick in one hand. She stood next to a empty wall, ready to give a presentation.
Michel and Leon also nodded.
“She’s right. I joined Revival because I believed we would drive away the monsters from Earth. This is the first step. There’s no way I can miss it.”
“Well said, old man! Besides, if I don’t help, I’ll feel weird receiving help to reclaim Texas or California.”
“Kuu, having California taken by them was indeed a great catastrophe…”
“Haha, it’s fine, it’s fine! Although we can’t bring the dead back to life, lost lands can always be reclaimed!”
Over 10% of U.S. population lived in California. When Two Moon occurred, a large scale monster attack decimated half of California’s population. Even those who survived had lost their families, properties, and hopes of living.
“We’ll go to California soon, so don’t worry, Leon.”
“I believe you, friend!”
“Shush.”
Hwaya silenced us and projected a screen onto the wall.
“The place we’re going to today is the Philippines.”
“Philippines…”
“Because of monsters, 90,000,000 people lost their lives in the Philippines. That’s 90% of their population. It was one of humanity’s greatest catastrophes. ”
“I’ve seen a satellite image. It’s full of vegetation like it has traveled back in time.”
“It’s possible that it’s part of another world’s natural environment. Even if you’ve been to the Philippines before, don’t think the Philippines we’re about to go to is the same Philippines as the past.”
Hwaya spoke with a stern tone and pointed to the Philippines on the screen’s map. Then, a few pictures popped up on the screen. Tall trees and dense vegetation made it look like we were looking at a scene from the Jurassic Period. Inside the forests, we could see giant monsters roaming about.
“They’re pictures taken during the Philippines during the catastrophe. At the time, three SS rankers including me fought against the monsters there. Back then, we had to retreat without even killing 10% of the monsters in the coast. Like the other occupied countries, Philippines’ monsters are rather high ranked. The weakest are A ranks with 60% being S rank, 10% being SS rank, and 1% being… above that.”
“Only that…? Ow!”
“Don’t look down on others just because you’re strong.”
Ludia hit my head. I reflected.
“They might have gotten even stronger by now. We can probably safely assume that most monsters had a half rank increase. The succubi battle units recovered most of the islands other than the mainland, and their reports prove that this is true.”
“Right. The monsters there were unusually strong. Dear Husband, this Philippines… I think there’s something in its center region. I felt a powerful aura that made me tremble.”
“It could be a commander level monster. In any case, this operation can’t be done without Shin. As you know, Shin, your Evil Eyes will be important.”
“Leave it to me.”
I could petrify all monsters below SS rank without having to use mana. However, as monsters with relatively high ranks could naturally cancel the petrification over time, we had to go through the process of shattering their petrified bodies.
Hwaya then showed us more pictures of the Philippines, explaining the monsters endemic to the area. With the Philippines being an island nation, even coastlines had powerful oceanic monsters. As for deeper inland, there were many powerful mammalian monsters, insect monsters, and harpy type monsters. There really were monsters of all sorts.
“There’s also the matter that served as the how this operation started – finding elite monsters for Yua. Daisy, you stop drooling.”
“Good monster are, dead monster.”
“Your definition of dead monsters is undead monsters.”
“Meki, strong because dead. Other mantis, weak because alive.”
“Is Meki the name you gave to the Evil Mantis Queen?”
“Kang Shin, smart student…!”
While I smacked Daisy’s head, Hwaya’s explanation was reaching its end.
“We’ve already explained the situation to Guardian and Freedom Wing. The media will talk about us around dinner time. There are some volunteers from various agencies…”
“Reject everyone under SS rank.”
“That’s everyone then.”
Hwaya burned away some of the papers in her hand. Now that I thought about it, the only SS rankers not part of Revival were the ones we made into First Dungeon explorers. They were undoubtedly still busy climbing the dungeon.
Once the papers in her hand became cinders, Hwaya’s expression became serious.
“Let me confirm one last time. We aren’t forcing anyone to participate in this operation. If you’re unsure of your abilities…”
While Snorting, Ludia retorted.
“You might want to go with Shin alone, but I won’t let that happen.”
“Tsk, even if I wanted to, sister-in-law is coming anyways…”
Hwaya turned away and grumbled. Yua tilted her head and asked Hwaya.
“Sister-in-law? What does that mean? My understanding of this must be wrong… Can you tell me?”
Scary. And cold! Thinking perhaps it was just me, I looked at Hwaya who was a SSS rank flame ability user. Seeing how she was also trembling, it seemed the temperature around us had gone down.
“Yua, don’t be so scary. I want to get close to you. Why do you not like me?”
“There’s no way I don’t like you, Unni. Haha… So, what’s the other meaning of sister-in-law?”
Don’t bully Hwaya, Yua! Her life points have already hit zero!
“Reclaiming a country with just us… It’s almost like we’re superheroes from comic books.”
“You’re not wrong, Kang Yungoong. We’re this world’s heroes!”
“Shin, Yungoong1. What choices of names…”
“Who cares! Shin, Yungoon! What better describes them!?”
“Men, stop blabbering like idiots. We’re heading out now!”
All 17 members of Revival immediately set off to the Philippines.
From this moment on, we were the main characters of this heroic tale.
1. Shin means “god” and Yungoong means “hero” in Korean.