Beneath the fourth level, on the 36th floor of Amon's keep, lies a gloomy forest of dead trees and charred earth, now the scene of a confrontation between two powerful monsters.
The first is the serpent demon who reigns over this forest and the other is none other than a young, beautiful woman with a dreamlike body and curves from hell. Her long black hair flowed down her back, and her beautiful eyes had dark black pupils, as if they reflected all the darkness of the abyss of this world. What's more, she was wearing a black dress that hugged her body and was well suited to combat.
The demon snake is known to be a relentless predator. Thanks to its camouflage techniques and grey skin, it was at one with its habitat. It was impossible to spot it as soon as it melted into the background with its camouflage set, making it invisible to the naked eye. It kills itself in its hiding place and waits patiently for its prey to fall into its trap, and then it just takes a bite out of it. At least, that's how he usually operated and it worked well.
Except that this time, his opponent quickly spotted him hiding between the trees, on the defensive. The latter didn't wait a second to bombard him with explosive attacks from a distance. She stood on a tree branch and unleashed a torrent of explosive fire on the snake.
Attacks rained down from all sides and every time the snake tried to get close to its enemy, the latter took its distance to avoid hand-to-hand combat, jumping behind it towards another tree branch. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to approach the snake, and after suffering a number of explosions, the snake decided to change its approach and get down to business.
Ignoring the explosions that were targeting him, the snake went into total cover before starting to coil himself up while taking on the explosive attacks of his adversary. Coiling like a rope to the point of forming a gigantic ball in the forest, the snake was concentrating all its strength as it prepared its next attack. Constantly taking explosive fire from his enemy, he managed to peer out through one corner of his coiled body to see and identify his opponent's position. After which, he raised the tip of his tail and struck the ground violently with it before stretching and dashing towards his target with impressive speed.
Seeing the snake charging at her with monstrous speed, the latter tried to jump back again to put some distance between them, but she was too slow and before she had even reached the next branch, the snake was already on top of her, its mouth wide open as it tried to swallow her whole.
Finding herself completely at the mercy of the great snake and its stinking mouth, the young woman smiled. Immediately a magic circle appeared under the tip of her left foot and with a simple gesture, leaning on the magic circle, she made a great leap towards the sky, avoiding the snake's attack at the same time.
The speed with which she did this was such that the snake saw nothing and crashed into the forest on its own, before quickly straightening up to stand guard as the young woman climbed back down onto the branch of another tree, far enough away from the snake's position but still close enough to observe it.
As soon as he had regained his position, the great snake launched himself at his adversary again. He crossed the distance separating them with incredible speed before quickly finding himself below the tree his enemy was standing on. This time, he used all his strength to launch an extremely vicious upward attack on the young woman. But once again, she dodged using the same technique, but this time to move at high speed to the left of the snake and avoid the latter's upward assault, which only succeeded in tearing off the tree branch where she was standing.
The young woman thought she had managed to avoid the snake's attack, but the snake had also anticipated her opponent's dodge by using its tail to attack the snake on its left and hit it full force, sending it tumbling between the trees. The snake's attack sent the young woman flying between the trees of the forest, but she quickly recovered by straightening up in the air and stopping the glide she was undergoing.
She seemed to float in the air before flying high to stabilise herself above the forest. The snake took advantage of this to hide in the forest again, using "camouflage".
The young woman remained levitating for some time before descending back into the forest at high speed. Once again, she had pierced the snake's camouflage, even though it was well hidden. As she descended upon it from the sky, she recited a magical formula
- Red scarier than blood and more beautiful than dusk. The path of nothing and the hope of everything and nothing. I ask for your radiance: Scarlet face.
Immediately, two small bright scarlet balls appeared in the young woman's hands. Taking advantage of her speed, she charged straight at the snake, which had taken up a fighting stance in response to her attack. When the girl got within range, the snake puffed itself up, catching its breath before spitting out a cloud of poison combined with a burst of wind to unleash a veritable tornado of rising poison directly at the young woman, who took it head-on. But as if the attack hadn't caused her any damage, the girl leapt out of the poison tornado to emerge just above the giant snake's head, slamming down on it with her two orbs and causing a gigantic explosion of flame and scarlet lightning in the forest.
The blast swept away the tornado of poison. An ominous smoke accompanied by electricity rose from the site of the explosion, while the young woman was still levitating above the forest. She observed the damage she had just caused with her explosion while looking for her opponent, if he had survived.
It was then that the snake's tail burst out of the cloud of smoke to strike her full force, sending her waltzing into the forest before crashing violently to the ground, followed by a roll on the ground before she was able to right herself by crouching on the ground. She slid a few metres from the point of impact before coming to a screeching halt, the fingers of her left hand gripping the ground.
She then looked up to see the snake, which had escaped alive with a few severe burns on its body.
The creature let out a terrible shriek before gathering all its strength and darting back at full speed towards its target, like a relentless and determined predator. It charged at full speed towards its target, which had recovered from the previous attack without suffering much damage. But as this ferocious, furious monster charged at her, the young woman smiled and said
- Are you sure? Can you really afford to run headlong into it?
Blinded by his rage, the giant snake had not yet noticed the many little red fireflies flying all around him. When he finally realised, it was already too late. With a clumsy gesture, his tail had touched one of the fireflies, which immediately exploded, creating a chain reaction with the other fireflies all exploding one after the other. In itself, the explosion of a single firefly was not very powerful, but in quantities as large as the thousands that were scattered throughout the forest, the explosion was just so enormous that it covered almost half the forest.
- Fireflies from hell! It's a skill that summons thousands of fireflies that all explode in a chain after you've hit just one. You didn't really think you could hit me without hearing a counterattack! What a stupid creature.
Despite being hit by the first explosions head-on, the snake decided to flee into the ground to escape the aftermath of the explosions. He charged into the ground, but before doing so, his exceptional hearing enabled him to clearly hear these words spoken by his adversary
- Bad decision! You've just dug your own grave.
When the snake realised, it was too late. His body had already entered the ground, which immediately began to explode in a chain as if mines had been hidden there in advance. Once again, the series of explosions was gigantic and covered most of the forest.
The explosions continued with a release of black smoke that darkened the forest and the sky, in addition to the flames that spread through the large trees of the forest, which were uprooted and set alight as they crashed into each other.
Everything in the forest was turned upside down. The young woman stood in this battlefield filled with smoke and flames that were burning brightly. She seemed to be protected by some kind of energy barrier. After more than five minutes of non-stop explosions, calm returned to the forest as the explosions ceased and the tall trees fell. The ground was turned upside down, giving the impression of a ruthless war zone. The young woman walked serenely through the devastation, thinking to herself
- Well yeah, just now when I was sliding along the ground, I took the opportunity to invoke a mine zone in the ground at the same time as I invoked the fireflies. If you could detect mana, you'd have been able to see it clearly. But alas, you had other more pressing concerns... didn't you?
The young woman was continuing her serene walk in the area when, without her being able to react, the snake sprang up from the ground just behind her feet, its mouth wide open before hurling her into the sky and swallowing her whole.
Then the snake came crashing to the ground, its body covered in wounds. It was barely able to move because its wounds had made it suffer like a martyr.
Just a few metres from the war zone, on a hill, stood the demon king and guardian of the fourth tier, Sins, who was watching the battle intently. With a quizzical expression, he said
- Nice fight! She's made progress since last time. But it looks like it's already over.
No sooner had he finished his sentence than the snake was already falling apart. Its body was exploding from the inside. Several cracks appeared on its scales and from these cracks, blood spurted everywhere. The snake squirmed as if it were living its last moments. In addition to the cracks and blood, its flesh also began to explode and detach from the rest of its body. Bits of flesh jumped everywhere as the creature tried as best it could to flee. The snake's suffering was such that it finally gave up and lay on the ground in agony.
A few seconds later, another explosion ripped it to shreds. The snake's blood decorated the ground on which stood the young woman who had just emerged from the animal's belly. Not a single drop of blood stained her dress. She was surrounded by a sphere of mana on which the giant snake's blood was flowing.
The young woman took out a small bottle, into which she drew some of the snake's blood before walking away. She headed for the hill where Sins, the demon king, was waiting.
When she arrived at the foot of the hill, the demon king came down to greet her, clapping his hands.
- Well done, Mistress Hella. With this magnificent victory, we can say that the training is definitely over. Congratulations! It took six months.
- Thank you and catch. This is the blood you asked me to collect. Six months, huh? Yes, it's true. It's already been six months since I arrived in this world and faced my first adversary: a slime. You could say that things have changed a lot now. It took me six long months to master my powers well enough. Between learning magic lessons, studying magic books, learning combat styles, learning anti-mage and anti-warrior techniques, the art of combat and magic strategy, as well as practical work... it wasn't easy. I nearly lost it countless times. Especially the part about fighting your Golems. That was really the hardest. So, what's your prediction?
- Well, your fighting style is still classic but I think that with time, it will become more developed and more complex. Otherwise, you've already got the basics down and that's all you lacked, so I'd say...I can't wait to see the result in a real situation. Now, I'll be able to finish the anti-poison potion which will allow you to control the eye of the gorgon thanks to the blood you've collected. It'll make you even stronger technically.
- Make it quick then. I can't wait to use this eye. It'll save me a lot of unnecessary fighting if I use it right. By the way, how did you convince Medusa to give you her left eye?
- I just made the request in your name and she agreed. If we add this left eye of the Gorgon and the cursed right eye that I gave you, you'll have formidable pupil powers.
- Indeed, I was able to see this while fighting this snake. The cursed eye's ability to perceive is truly amazing. I could see his mana, how much he used for each attack, how much he had left, his physical and mental state, the nature of his skills before he even used them and I could even see through his camouflage. It was as if I already knew him before I even fought him. Otherwise, that snake was your subordinate, wasn't it? Besides, during those six months I spent my time killing demons who were under your orders and that didn't bother you?
- Not really, they're easily replaceable and besides, they're not my subordinates, they're yours. If you weren't wearing that bracelet, none of them would have attacked you under any circumstances.
- Now that you mention it. Well, I don't care. I'm going to take a well-deserved shower and tell victus to spare me his food for the evening. I'm in danger of having an eating attack because of this food. And also tell whoever you know to be there for the meeting later.
- Well done!
With that, Hella left Sins on the fourth floor to return to her room using her key. She immediately undressed before taking a shower and relaxing in her bath for almost two hours. In her large bath filled with water and soap suds, she closed her eyes and thought of the world she had left behind. She thought inwardly
- Six months already. I wonder what's become of Anne. Is she still worried about me? I should have left her a message. Eh...silly me, I haven't had time to get dressed so... Leave a message hahaha haaa Anyway, I don't have the slightest regret. In my world, I never had the time or even the luxury to treat myself to a bath like that, but of course that'll all change when I get back, because I'm going to be able to live the life of my dreams with all the money I'll have earned here hahaha.
Afterwards, she got out of the bath and walked naked to her wardrobe. She opened the large drawer in front of her and started looking for something to wear.
- I'm going to have to change the colours a bit here. All this black is a bit too gothic for my taste, and what's with the granny panties and old-fashioned medieval clothes? Seriously, it's really lame but, well, I don't have much choice. It's either that or walk around the dungeon naked. Although I'd be tempted.
She ended up choosing one of them to get dressed in and leave her room. She then started walking down a long corridor lit by torches before arriving in the throne room. When she arrived, the room opened up and she was let in. In this great hall, she was awaited by some very special individuals.
For six months now, Hella had been in charge of the administration of the dungeon. At the same time, she had been following the sins' training programmes to gain in strength and power. She made all the decisions concerning the dungeon, and was advised and assisted by four other creatures from the dungeon.
When she arrived in the throne room, the four creatures were already present and stood up to welcome her. They were Sins, the demon king who administers tier 4. There was also victus, Sins' right-hand man, and a wooden puppet made by Amon to manage the dungeon's foreign affairs. In addition to them, there was also the great white dragon, master of the 8th tier.
He appeared in the form of a great white armour three metres tall. Unable to pronounce his name, hella referred to sins as "the one you know" for the nameless designer.
Hella immediately took her place on the dungeon throne. She crossed her hands over her legs, which were also crossed, before saying
- Right, let's get started! If nobody has anything to say first, then I suggest we start by listening to Pinocchio's news.
"Pinocchio?" everyone wondered as she added
- That's the name of the puppet Amon had created. Since he didn't have a name for it, I gave it one. Does anyone mind? Right, let's get on with the meeting.