novelThe Second Companion to Join Roland
| ← Ch.563 | Ch.565 → |
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
"Why do I feel like you're having more fun in the Chaos Abyss than in the mortal plane? You weren't that bored up there, were you?"
"I think that since I left the mortal plane, I don't have any more pressure or concerns. Every day down here, I never know what I'm going to experience today. Don't you agree that this type of expectation feels just like taking a vacation... ?"
"... Being in the Chaos Abyss feels like taking a vacation? Only you would think like that."
Although it sounded ridiculous, I indeed felt far more relaxed over the past few days. I didn't need to worry or care about anything, and I could just go wherever I wanted.
If it wasn't for the fact that I still had some troublesome issues that I needed to deal with, I would probably be having the time of my life down here.
"Well, aren't you having lots of fun regardless? You intentionally leaked your own name. Did you feel that your vacation was too boring, so you wanted some people to come looking for you?"
It was impossible to expect that the Onibabas would keep my name a secret. After they suffered at my hands, it was almost certain that they would try to take revenge on me somehow as the Onibabas were famous for holding grudges.
The easiest way to take revenge on someone who was too strong to personally deal with would naturally be to notify that person's mortal enemies.
And it seemed that I indeed had many mortal enemies in the Chaos Abyss. All of Lorci's Follower Gods (even though Lorci was long dead already) probably counted. I had also antagonized the elves to a great extent, plus I had Harloys, so Anslo, the Elf Main God who had betrayed the Order Faction and joined the Chaos Abyss, probably also hated me. Not to mention, I antagonized all those Chaos Main Gods who previously visited me in Hell... It seemed that just about all the most powerful entities in the Chaos Abyss were my mortal enemies.
"... I won't be able to finish counting all my enemies down here even if I use all my fingers and toes, so forget it. Besides, there's no mistake with treating anyone who comes for me as an enemy. Is there any place in the Chaos Abyss that isn't hostile towards outsiders?"
"I've seen so many powerful individuals choose incredibly suicidal methods for cultivation before. I can also understand that you want to become stronger as quickly as possible. But, aren't you worried at all about going overboard and getting yourself killed? This isn't the mortal plane where power levels have upper limits. If you meet a Chaos Main God who's capable of using his full power down here, it should be quite difficult for even you to escape alive."
I shook my head at this. If it was only a single Chaos Main God, I actually wouldn't be that afraid. I had plenty of aces up my sleeve. Even if I couldn't win in a fight, I would at least be able to escape.
And even in the worst-case scenario, I had my bug-like personal world of Hell with a Main God level existence trapped inside. I could pull any other existence into it for a fight that would likely end in defeat for all sides.
I doubted that two Chaos Main Gods would simultaneously come looking for me. That was giving me far too much worth. I wasn't that valuable...
But right as I told that to Harloys, I suddenly felt like perhaps I was subtly jinxing myself yet again.
"Did I just jinx myself again? I have such an ominous premonition..."
"The young are so reckless. Let the tumbleweeds blow past."
I was seriously trying to think about which enemies would give me serious trouble, while Harloys was insulting me while laughing on my shoulder.
"You two! Could you please be more serious! We're in a battle!"
Hakas's angry roar came from in front of us while I walked casually behind with the black cat. Even though we were currently on a battlefield, I felt zero interest in the battle due to how low-level the opponents were.
I was currently trespassing on the outskirts of the Bloodspear lizardmen tribe's territory. However, there weren't even any lizardmen here. Instead, there were some enslaved Inferno Dogmen standing here as the border guards.
These weak little things supposedly had a dragon bloodline. As they were demonized, they could also cast some magic spells. Witch doctors and warlocks were far more common among the Inferno Dogmen compared to humans. However, even though they had a good species bloodline, Inferno Dogmen forever remained as slaves to other species. This was mainly because of one of their racial traits...
"Get out of my sight, worms!"
The black dragon Hakas was an acceptable cannon fodder— er, I meant contracted fighter. A single angry roar from Hakas was enough to send the Inferno Dogmen scattering everywhere and barking in fear.
The sword and shield wielding Inferno Dogmen clutched their heads while running away. Some crossbow-wielding marksmen threw away their weapons in order to run away faster. The Inferno Dogmen warlocks ran faster than anyone.
Some of them tripped over and fell on the ground, collapsing while frothing at their mouths or showing their eyes' whites. This wasn't because Hakas did anything to them. These Inferno Dogmen had simply fainted or even died due to extreme terror.
The Inferno Dogmen were on average less than 1. 2 meters tall. They were quite vicious warriors in any fight which they were winning, and also quite skilled in setting traps and ambushes. However, they suffered from a racial trait of extreme cowardice. Any time that they came across an enemy stronger than them, if only two of their Inferno Dogmen acting as tanks were defeated, it was likely that the entire Inferno Dogmen tribe would instantly lose all morale and hope.
And since the Inferno Dogmen had a minor amount of dragon blood in them, their bloodline would even be suppressed when faced with a true dragon. Hakas simply had to release some draconic might, and the already cowardly Inferno Dogmen army immediately saw their morale fall down to zero. The Inferno Dogmen all started running away without Hakas doing anything else at all.
"This level of weak opponent is probably too useless to even grind Fate Points."
[You obtained a glorious victory that has given you 10, 000 Fate Points... Did you think I would say something like that? Even if you kill every single Inferno Dogman here, you wouldn't even obtain 10 Fate Points! Try harder against more difficult opponents. ]
"Tsk, the Chaos Abyss is too random."
The Chaos Abyss was completely unlike video games where you would only encounter monsters of a set level in each area. The level of enemy you encountered depended entirely on your luck. It was quite common that an Evil God would live in the same area as the weakest Inferno Dogmen. How long you could survive often didn't depend on how powerful you were, but instead on how lucky you were.
Right now, I really needed to grind Fate Points and combat experience. Rather than trying my luck at meeting strong enemies, I felt that it would be far faster to toss my name out there so that strong enemies would automatically come to me.
That was why I robbed— er, I mean, I had some friendly negotiations with the Onibabas and left them alive. I then left right after (together with a bunch of the Onibabas' items. Was I supposed to wait around there for others to rob me?), and now I intended to go have a friendly negotiation with the dark dwarves to see if I could borrow their teleportation portal.
But what happened was that right after I set out, before I even got close to the dark dwarves' territory, this large group of Inferno Dogmen kept barking while rushing at me.
And then I released my pet dragon, and then the Inferno Dogmen were all defeated, and then I obtained a glorious victory, and then my System told me that I would barely receive any points...
"They're only the outside ring of scouts. We've already been discovered. It seems that the Bloodspear lizardmen tribe wants to make their move against the dark dwarves since they've sealed the canyon path that leads to the dark dwarves' territory."
Perhaps the news that the dark dwarves obtained a "Sword Saint's powerful martial arts technique" was the straw that broke the camel's back. Or maybe the lizardmen tribe had finished their preparations and the time was simply ripe. It seemed that the Bloodspear lizardmen tribe wouldn't simply wait around anymore. They sent out their cannon fodder subordinate slaves as scouts on the outskirts. It was likely that the lizardmen and dark dwarves were already at war inside.
Hakas was about to kill all the Inferno Dogmen with some dragonbreath when I stopped him. These weak creatures that were only slightly demonized were quite appropriate experimental subjects for one of my new powers.
"Awaken, Light of Salvation."
............. .
Roland had already gotten accustomed to this swamp, and was looking for the teleportation portal leading downwards. But, unbeknownst to him, a beautiful creature had just arrived, and was now struggling in this swamp.
"My beautiful scales that resemble flame itself! Roland!! You're going to pay for all my cleaning costs, lost salary costs, and haircare costs... Which means that you owe me a minimum of three months' worth of alcohol!"
In the end, all of Little Red's complaints changed to the topic of alcohol. Back when she was still adventuring together with Roland, the alcoholic Little Red had always vented her displeasure in this exact same way. Perhaps, the main reason why she was one of the extremely few red dragons who were friendly to other species was because other species were far more skilled than she was at alcohol production.
However, this Immemorial Red Dragon currently had a rather wretched appearance. Her head was barely staying afloat in a swamp, her large wings were stuck in the trees, and her perfectly clean nails (claws) were completely soaked in mud.
Little Red didn't enter the Chaos Abyss through the random teleportation portal currently being controlled by the wood spirits. Dragons were naturally skilled at dimensional teleportation, so it was possible for her to arrive in the level she wanted as long as she knew which level to go to.
However, she was truly unlucky when she'd arrived here. A requirement of dimensional teleportation was that you could only teleport while in your true form. Since Little Red was teleporting herself in dragon form, it was impossible for her to die from the fall, so she teleported herself to some coordinates that would be high in the sky. However, she just happened to teleport herself into the middle of an explosive dark cloud.
And then, her magic spell became the catalyst to activate all the lightning in that cloud...
A powerful electric storm instantly attacked her furiously with all sorts of chain lightning attacks. Little Red was instantly paralyzed by all the electricity.
She was scorched almost to the extent of becoming cooked dragon meat. And so, the red dragon twitched all over in paralysis while falling straight out of the sky and into the swamp, covering her entire body in mud. It was as if the red dragon had transformed into a black dragon. No wonder Little Red was so furious, for she had always loved to be clean.
However, the very fact that she had been able to survive the thunder cloud was the best evidence of how powerful she was. The lightning here was far stronger than the one in the mortal plane.
The explosive lightning here represented the rage of the Chaos Abyss. For any normal dimensional level, the power of nature itself would naturally be impossible to directly fight against.
"Damned Roland, it's all your fault that my nails are filled with mud..."
Even though she kept complaining out loud, her lips were arching upwards without her realizing it. Perhaps she was smiling because the last adventure which suddenly ended due to a certain accident had now mysteriously begun again.
Certain gears of time which had stopped for so long were now beginning to turn again. Perhaps this adventure would have a much better ending.
| ← Ch. 563 | Ch. 565 → |