Chapter 81: Tower Dungeon (2)
—
Things don't always go according to plan, do they? It was a bit strange seeing a monster, who I was about to kill, talk all of a sudden, but this was still within my boundary of expectations.
Since Dungeon no.11's Boss had sentience, what stops the higher dungeon monsters from obtaining it?
I followed the green-skinned female Ogre a few steps behind, my senses cautious as I carried Cat-Kurai on my shoulders who purred in my ears randomly.
I decided not to kill the Ogre. This dungeon was my EXP farm, and I will have to hunt each monster for my growth, but if I can get help from one of the factions at the beginning stage, I would need less time than usual. After that, if needed, I can just kill the aforementioned faction too.
So for now, I have decided to follow her.
But I am sceptical. She said I now have control over her life, and since she was the Chief of the Ogres, I also rule over her tribe. Is she lying? I have no way to confirm.
There is a reason why I ran from the two Sirens. Not because they were both higher levelled than me, but because there was a chance of multiple enemies hiding underwater where my Echolocation magically bounced off from.
That's why I fled. There was bound to be more people underwater if they were going far enough to put a barrier around it.
Yet, now I was heading to a village full of monsters, where at least a few levels 100+ should be present since their Chief is so high.
Going there is dangerous, moreover when I have no assurance of a monster's words. But let's see where this all leads to.
Fortunately, I have some spare cards. Such as the [Quirk Exp Card] and the [Random Skill Card] I got from the quest.
I didn't use the Quirk card already because according to the System's calculations, using it won't make my quirk 'Evolve' right now. So that's an emergency card instead. If I get a new power right now, I would have a hard time managing it. I have my plate filled already with my Vibration powers right now.
But the Skill card… I don't need to preserve it. Let's just roll with it.
I slipped my hand into inventory, still walking, and took out the shining golden card with black lining around it.
It looked almost like a YuGiOh card. It was blank on one side, but had some text explaining the card's powers on the front.
[Random Skill Card: A card that works like a gathca token. Upon using it, you may get a random skill with a random level. The chances of obtaining a Max levelled skill is very low.]
Hmm… How do I activate it? In coupons, I just had to tear the paper apart. But this card doesn't seem like it would be torn apart bluntly... Ugh, do I need to insert mana? Do I make Kurai do it, then? No, that would make her get the skill instead.
System?
[You just had to ask me, Master.]
With a brilliant golden light, the card dissipated in the air. The Ogre woman turned at me, but I motioned my chin at her and she stiffly turned forward again.
I then focused on the message flashing in front of me.
[Luck plays a role!]
"..."
[You have acquired a Max levelled skill!]
[You have acquired the Passive skill, "Last Man Standing"]
[Last Man Standing [MAX]:
You're a man, a man won't go down easily. You can trick death once every 24 hours. As in, when your HP drops to 1, you gain invulnerability for 5 seconds and attain immunity to all attacks.
Cooldown: 24 hours.]
Ah… A passive skill, yay. And the description, good lord, what the hell is that?! It's like that invincibility from my reincarnation.
Unfortunately, the skill is MAXED, so the 5 seconds timer can't increase. Unless I find some way to evolve the skill. As far as I know, there is no limit to skill level up in Gamer System. When it hits a cap, it just evolves. That's clearly not the case here… but I will figure it out somehow.
Using the card right now wasn't a mistake. This is a really overpowered skill. It would save my life thousands of times in the future, I can see that already.
Hah, I guess I am ready to see what's in the village this woman is taking me to.
—★—
A circular terrain cleared off any trees stood in the middle of the forest. Small round huts made of dry leaves and one especially big house made of white marbles that was crafted amateurishly stood in the middle of the small village of Ogres.
The entire village was surrounded by a wooden fence through which the three of us entered the village.
I was in full cautious mode just as the Orcs and Ogres working around the village turned at us, their eyes hostile for a second before they saw we were led by the woman in front of us.
Orcs and Ogre, they were here together. It was clear the Ogres were the rulers here and the Orcs were workers, slaves even. But the matter of fact was, almost all of them were above Level 70. I could even see some level 100s…
Summing all the monsters present, there were at least 4 dozen of them.
I don't know how I held back from just jumping in and starting to kill them. They were living exp bags. I am sure along with the Ogre chief, these many enemies will get me to Level 120 easily.
But let's hold back for now.
A short, old pink-skinned humanoid pig with a beard reaching his stomach ran here and stopped in front of the Ogre woman, bowing deeply.
"Chief, welcome back." He said. "It's sorry to see you have returned alone."
He added in a squeaky but unconcerned tone, I found no tingle of sadness in his tone. Hah, they were monsters. Didn't even flinch learning their own people died. Though they can't be blamed, they should be more than used to it by now.
He then raised his head to meet my gaze, careful to not frown. We didn't seem like prisoners, so acting hostile to us in front of his chief would be stupid.
"And they are…?"
"A human." Mursha, the woman, replied softly, which caused the old man to freeze for some reason. "An actual human and his demonic beast."
Kurai growled at the call but said nothing. She was Divine Beast and a future Goddess, not a demonic beast… Then again, anyone who saw the red-eyed panther slaughtering Orcs; would assume the beast to be a demonic monster.
"I was…" She trailed off before sighing and shouting. "Everyone, gather around!"
If not for that I didn't feel any malice in her shout, I would have poked her chest from behind by now.
Soon we were surrounded by 4 dozens of monsters, all of them muttering and chattering to each other.
With them gathered, Mursha turned to me and crouched on her knees. Before she lowered her head and met her forehead with the ground, I saw her face. She had a solid expression, no sense of shame present there. In fact, she almost looked… proud?
Mindless monsters, I was right.
"I, Mursha, a distant descendant of the Vikings and direct defendant of Ogres, the ruler of the Taktoya Ogre tribe, bow in gratitude to my lord for sparing my life. From now onwards, you have complete control over me, and my tribe. Nobody shall oppose you here, if they do, you are free to do as you please." She pressed her head harder. "Please, accept my gratitude, My Liege."
A Viking, she said. So there are Vikings in this world? This is getting too real. I need monsters, not humans. Killing sentient humans isn't fun, not at all.
I will do it, of course, I am in desperate need of power, but it's not something I am fond of. Sigh.
Instead of accepting the words of the woman directly, I looked around me first, observing the face of the monsters. The Ogres' faces were pretty humane so I could still read their expressions. The Orcs' pig-like faces, on the other hand, were unreadable.
"Nobody has a problem with that?" I muttered softly. "If you do, come in front of me right now. Challenge or whatever, I want to end it all here."
Nobody came in. Instead, they fell to their knees and hit their heads on the ground.
"W-we don't dare." The old man from before said, also bow-towing. "Having a human as our ruler is a blessing if anything else."
Uh… "What?"
As far as I know, humans are at the bottom of every food pyramid in fantasy worlds where Dragons and Phoenixes reside. They only survive because of their large numbers. Then…
"What's so important about humans?" The Ogre woman raised her head at my question. "Explain."
The old man was about to speak, but the Ogre woman raised an arm and started talking instead.
"My liege, are you not a human? But I don't see any sign of a mixed-race in you."
...My Liege?
"I am a human," I answered. "I guess a bit above that even."
The woman frowned, almost as if I was saying blasphemy.
"Beyond human?"
"I am a high human," I replied softly but the reaction I got was… far from soft.
The woman's eyelids widened and a flicker of doubt flashed on her eyes before it vanished. Instead, a red hue appeared on her green cheeks as she trembled.
Her doubt-filled eyes suddenly turned weird and hot smokey breath left her mouth. She spoke between breaths,
"Please, b-breed me."
"..."
...What a slutty girl, Jesus Christ.
—★—
A tempting offer it was, but unfortunately, beside me, Kurai was. So I had to order the woman to stop but she only stopped after I threatened to kill her.
What the fuck? What's happening here? This is confusing.
"Elaborate," I asked the woman who sat on her knees, staring at me as I sat on the chair. Her eyes sometimes lowered on my crotch. "Don't make me repeat myself."
"Y-yes."
She gulped and nodded. Talk about inconsistent characterization. She was brawling with me like a beast half an hour ago, now she was rubbing her thighs together…
"In the distant past," She started, taking a calm breath in. "The world was attacked by Outer Gods. They started to hunt and kill every living being on the planet, and all the races were on the brink of extinction. At the last moment, before the world could end, a group of 50 High Humans rose from all over the world. Only after half a month of fighting, they made the Gods flee."
That's... unbelievable. I thought this world was inside the System's territory, made by the system even. So how did 'Outer' Gods invade here?
[Your questions will be answered after you clear the Tower.]
...Okay.
Though how much stronger are High Humans compared to normal humans for them to be able to make Gods flee?
I didn't get any answer this time, and instead, the woman continued.
"At the end of the fight, only 5 High Humans remained. In the World back then, a small portion of each race remained, but all the normal humans were extinct. The High Humans formed 5 Empires after that and took in males or females of their preferences as their wives and husbands. New races started to appear after that. They were stronger than the others, but still below High Humans."
After a silence, she looked into my eyes.
"That's… all I know. As a monster in the wild, I have no further information, my liege."
I nodded after a while. "Do you know what's so special about High Humans?"
"Mostly rumours." She gulped. "I am not sure if my liege would like to hear mere rumours."
Eh… it's kind of weird being talked to like this. I nodded nonetheless. "Speak your mind."
After a deep breath, she continued. "High Humans had a great amount of mana, just like you."
"...How do you know I have a great amount of Mana?"
She looked at me weirdly all of a sudden before a look of realisation hit her… Almost as if she was thinking I am testing her.
"Every life form has mana in them, just like that cat on your shoulder. Strong people can sense the Mana present in people's bodies easily, moreover that only increases when they sit face to face like we are doing. But I can't do that to you. That's why I didn't even notice you at first on the battlefield, and when I did, I just thought you were a weak Demi with very low mana." She went silent before gulping. "Am I right?"
That's… good. Very a good alibi. If everyone misunderstands that I have so much mana that they can't even sense how much, then I can catch people off guard easily. This misunderstanding would help.
I smiled. "Very perspective. You are right. Continue from before on what makes High Humans so special."
She nodded slowly. "Generally, humans are naturally weaker than most other races. Physical strength-wise, they are just above goblins. But High Humans are strong, so strong that some have even clashed with dragons just with their bare fists. They have both great mana capacity and strength."
That's great too. But is that enough to make some monsters respect me like I am Jesus? No.
"Continue."
She nodded. "But most importantly, the reason why everyone respects High Humans so much; is because of their… seeds."
"..."
"As you must know, every being has a level cap based on their race. Normal Ogres have a Level-Cap of 200, but since I have part of Viking blood, I could reach 30 extra levels. But even I have hit a cap." She lowered her eyes again. "I-if I were to have just a drop of your semen, then that Cap would increase."
...Who made this world?
I shook my head off her words and asked the important questions first. "But why did you respect me so much even without knowing I am a High Human? As you said, normal humans were merely better than Goblins."
She stiffened but talked nonetheless. "Humans have gone extinct, as I said before. Even those mere humans might become a High Human one day. When I realised you were a human, I wanted to c-capture you at first. But then, you just defeated me. Even we monsters have pride. Serve the strong, that's something we were taught from birth. It's only fair for the people of this tribe to respect you after they learnt that you defeated me, a Level 230 part Viking."
Ah. They were happy that the person who defeated their Chief was a human, a being who could one day become a High Human.
That's a good enough reason, feeds my paranoia.
I nodded at her.
"So, my liege." The woman looked at me, pleading, just as her eyes lowered at my pants again. "C-can I have a mouthful of your seed?"
"..."
I won't deny it. I didn't expect a woman who was trying to capture and enslave me just half an hour ago to suddenly start and beg for my cum. This was hotter than I expected.
Fortunately, Kurai was busy outside the tent.
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Author's Note: Happy new year everyone!
I saw a bad joke a while ago. 2022 is actually "2020 too". Ugh.