Chapter 306: Tutorial 59th floor (4)

“I offer my soul!”

I don’t need it. I almost said my thoughts aloud without thinking. Why would you dedicate your soul to me in the first place?

Ordinary human souls were not very useful, even if you collected billions of them. They could be considered a toy at best. If you had the power to handle souls, human souls would make an efficient fuel. I, for one, was able to do and use the power of the soul and the soul sword, but using souls did not have much effect and was not that efficient.

The only useful power involving souls that the god of death gave me was the exploitation of the soul. The rest only granted me with a title, and their utility value was low. Compared to the power given by other gods, it was seriously useless.

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[The God of Death is perplexed.]

[The God of Adventure is in high spirits.]

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The number of souls that were sealed in the soul sword right now… Wait, hold on.

[What’s wrong with you?] Ahbooboo asked when I stopped thinking. There was one thing that I had missed: I had never extracted a soul from a living human.

[Do you really want to be a demon? Why don’t you go ahead and sign a contract?]

A contract? That doesn’t sound too bad. If a contract was established, I could sacrifice something in order to harvest souls.

The Demon King, who I met on the 25th and 34th floor, had been summoned beyond the dimension due to the personal appeal of the people. He was brought by offering something to the God of Sowing.

If somehow I could make a contract with a soul like a demon, this could be a new direction of development.

[Whew…]

Of course, I didn’t know how to. I was oblivious of how to make a contract with a soul, or what to sacrifice in the contract.

I should ask Kirikiri about this later. Was there any way I could get that kind of power?

“Oh, demon,” Jengent called me with a slightly uneasy look. During the conversation, I had dazed off, leaving him perplexed.

I put on a serious face and said, “Oh, yeah. Contract. You’re betting your soul on it? Can you guarantee that?”

Jengent looked stiff, but nodded his head. His determination was great. He looked so satisfied, that the corners of his lips were tugging up in a smile. If I had some time before the end of this stage, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take him back to experiment with soul-related powers.

[Sir, please don’t act like a real devil. I’m the Holy Sword…]

And? So what if you’re a Holy Sword? Don’t sell drugs in the name of holiness. [1]

[….]

“I know very well that you have the courage to stake your soul. Then it’s time to hear what you want.”

Whatever Jengent wanted, I had the ability to achieve it. Of course there was a stage limitation, so I wouldn’t be able to listen to it all. I could only assure him that his wish would be fulfilled.

I made my voice low, so that I seemed a little bit more evil. Increasing the pressure on him, I slowly let out a bit of my power. For Jengent, this wouldn’t just be felt as pressure of mana, but as a supernatural element.

“Jengent. Say what you want in return for your soul.”

Upon hearing my words, Jengent gulped down his saliva and said in a determined voice, “What I want is destruction of the gods that have destroyed the kingdom of Rossina. I would like to take revenge on the cruel gods who have pushed their worshippers and thrown them away as if they were just weeds in the fields. I want their annihilation!”

What Jengent asked me for was neither wealth, honor or strength. He wanted the fall of these native gods. Luckily for him, we shared the same wish.

Hence, I shouted with joy, “The contract has been made. Your wishes will come true!”

* * * * * *

The goal of the 59th floor stage was to protect the source from the numerous people who coveted the power of the source. If this was all, the stage was too easy. In this case, it wouldn’t have been called the 59th floor for nothing, and could have very well been a stage that might appear on the 9th floor.

But the stage had a level of difficulty that matched the 59th floor because of the existence of two native gods that would appear at the end.

The two gods were clearly aiming for the power of the source, and they were at odds with each other. If one got in the way of this event, they’d sweep everything away with force.

The challenger must protect the source from the two native gods from the gods who, if necessary, would not hesitate to exercise their powers and could even step on their own believers without any second thoughts.

In this way, I thought the difficulty level was set too high. All the gods that had appeared on the Tutorial stage had rewarded me after the stage was over. But this time the gods were directly related to the stage, and I had to collide head-on with them.

Perhaps I could utilize the time before the gods came to persuade the people who sought the source out faster than the gods. I could find a way to hide from them or persuade them. Anyway, most of the people who were gathered here were followers of native gods, but I didn’t try to find that way even though I thought so.

This was an opportunity. A chance to kill a god at least once.

[What kind of chance is this?] Ahbooboo grumbled.

It was a great chance. The presence of native gods, who were on bad terms compared to the gods from the temple, was definitely a message that suggested a clash with the gods, a delightful opportunity.

[There was no message anywhere telling you to kill the gods, Warrior. It’s really dangerous. You could die here, really.]

I won’t die.

Even in the midst of my talking to Ahbooboo, Jengent was talking about himself. He didn’t even notice that I wasn’t listening to him, and seemed to be absorbed in narrating the story.

“That’s when the gods appeared. We all cheered. The archmage, who was confronting the demon, was in a strange state, and I thought the gods had finally come forward. I thought it was to bless the struggle of the archmage. But the two gods collided over the capital, and in the aftermath, the capital was literally swept away.”

Jengent continued his story. He said he was in the capital of the Rosina Kingdom when it had been ruined.

“I realized the situation was strange and tried to evacuate people somehow. But evacuating the crowded people of the capital without any preparation… I still remember the scene clearly whenever I close my eyes. People trampled each other and ran like crazy cows. The fireballs that fell on their heads… And those who prayed to the gods who were killing them… And-”

Jengent paused for a moment, and his voice choked for an obvious reason.

If you were a god that cared about your believers, you wouldn’t fight over people’s capital. No matter how hard you prayed in the mess, the gods wouldn’t care. The people of the capital city continued to die, and the misery would only become more and more horrendous.

It was a tragic accident, but it was also betrayal: betrayal to a man who believed in God. God had no interest in him, and the man couldn’t curse out at God because God could always cut the man’s head off. You could say that gods didn’t really love their believers, and they just wanted power from faith. That was the reality.

“The doctrines were all lies. Everything I had believed in had been a deception. The gods didn’t care for their believers at all.”

I felt that this commander, Jengent, was originally a very faithful man. When he was disappointed by the gods, he wasn’t just devastated. The thought of revenge burned in him. It was unusual. Seeing God as the object of revenge was as reckless as wielding a sword to stop a typhoon. In fact, Jengent may not have wanted to tear the gods to death, but instead, only wanted to tear down his past.

“I cannot tolerate or forgive the gods. I want revenge, demon. I’ll achieve it even if I have to burn my soul.”

Yeah, yeah. I’d heard that before. Now that I listened to him, it was my turn to speak.

“How?”

“Yes?” Jengent made a dumb face at my question. He wasn’t that smart. Haah. And I even thought of signing a contract with him.

“How did you intend to kill gods? Your plan wasn’t to only ask the demon, was it?”

“The soldiers under my command.”

Soldiers? He didn’t mean to order soldiers to attack the gods, did he?

“They’re all ordinary human beings.”

“There’s about 40,000 of them. And some of them were with me from the capital. Most importantly, we have a large fleet of artillery.”

Guns? You’re going to fire cannon at the gods?

“The shooting itself doesn’t mean anything, but we’ve already cast a spell on the shells. There will be damage. Definitely,” Jengent said with an earnest look.

“Can magic do harm to the gods?” I asked Jengent.

He replied that he was confident, which was ridiculous. As far as I knew, the sorcery of this world came from the power of the native gods, but he was saying that the native gods would be harmed? That was another thing to study later.

[What are you going to do now?] asked Ahbooboo.

Somehow, I couldn’t let this idiot run against the gods. It was meaningless. He had to be told to give up.

“Looking at you reminds me of a man I met a long time ago,” I said.

“Do you mean the founding king?”

“Well, do you call the man the king of the place where I was sealed?”

The hunter whom I met on the first day had told me the behind story of the kingdom. In fact, the kingdom was founded by the power of the ancient demon, and the royal family has sealed it for generations. I didn’t know if it was true, but the mere fact that such a theory was circulating was enough. Actually, Jengent was an idiot to believe I was an ancient demon.

“Don’t you want to be like him? Don’t you want to be a new king?”

“But revenge on the gods…”

“Oh, of course that’ll be there too. I’ll take care of the revenge, so you don’t have to worry. It’s a story for the future.”

“Then…”

It was not like he was not greedy. He was quite an interesting human being.

“There’s something you have to do.”

“What’s the matter?” asked Jengent, tensely.

I said, looking at his face that seemed worried, “Collect faith.”

* * * * * *

I led Jengent back to the spire room where the commanders were still whispering, and the sorcerers were still busy writing. First I put the commanders together.

“Is there still any lingering fear from that monster?” I asked, pointing to the source hanging from the wall.

There was no answer.

“I have one suggestion for you.” When I said that, hope shone on the faces of the commanders, who were previously terrified. Would they bargain for a ransom?

“Run away.”

“Save me!”

A commander suddenly knelt down and shouted in a desperate voice. That was the prince I had talked to.

“Save me!” After the prince, all the other commanders knelt down and shouted to me. It was absurd. I was going to let them run away, but they wanted me to save them.

“No. Run by yourself.”

“I know no matter how many times I run away, I will never get away from you. Please, please. Just my life. Or the soldiers…”

What are you talking about?

“Hey, I’ll let you go. Run away,” I said.

“Please, please.”

[Warrior, the demon tells his most hated enemy to run away. After he says so, he will soon follow and kill them in the most terrible way, so they’re scared.]

< Tutorial 59th floor (4) > Finished

Note from Imagine:

[1]: The reason Hojae stated that is because usually if a normal person were to use ahbooboo he eventually corrupts your mind with his power to the point you become his doll.