Kapitel 2: Chapter 2
Progressing through increasingly dangerous and complex dungeons has made me rethink my opinion on stale, straight-forward and unchallenging grindfest-like dungeons common in Gamer stories.
Don't get me wrong. I am still of the opinion that no one cares about some random dude going through a dungeon and facing artificial difficulties as they fight against the monsters within them, after all, all the readers already know the main character is going to survive anyways.
In short, it can be said that I had a bad opinion of the usual Gamer-styled dungeons where you kill enough mobs or explore enough of the place… then BLAM! The boss appears or you find them in a boss room!
The current state of my dungeon-meta makes me want to return to those simplistic days.
"Why! Won't! You! Die!!!"
I slammed the stolen giant blade's pommel atop the [Abyssal Knight]'s helmet, continuously stunning it as I kept myself on it's back through wrapping my puny legs around its neck.
It's hands reached up to throw me off and I struck at them, painting the floor with it's black blood. The huge demonic knight roared in pain and I continued to strike at it until it fell.
"Finally…!"
Wrenching off it's helmet, I stabbed the blade into it's now vulnerable head.
Upon the monster's death all its equipment and associated drop items faded away and was deposited in my inventory. Similarly, the stolen blade also disappeared from my hands.
"And I was just starting to like that sword." I grumbled as I quietly continued down the ruined hallways, emerging from the dark fort to the sight of the main castle sitting atop a forbidding dark mountain, connected to the mountain where I was situated at only by a tiny bridge laid over an impassable deep chasm, guarded by [Abyssal Dragons] and various different soldier types waiting to ambush me from under the bridge.
And to get to that bridge I will need to climb all the way up to it by a ladder placed there. That is, after passing this narrow hillside pathway, guarded by demons, crossbowmen and sorcerers.
My [Detect Danger] skill pinged just as my [Heightened Senses] picked up movement behind me, I turned around to face the threat seeing as there was too little ground for me to evade, only to have my face bashed by a greatshield.
[Abyssal Shielder Lvl 85]
And now I was falling to my death, for the fourth fucking time.
I immediately took out a [Fire Elemental Core] from my inventory and then crushed it in my hand, using the humongous burst of heat to propel me all the way back up at the cost of a lightly burned hand.
Landing on the wall above the area where I was bashed off the cliff, I waited for half-a-second for the Anti-Wall Run mines attached to the wall to detonate before using the explosion to launch myself downwards at the newly appeared enemy.
Twirling in the air, I evaded it's attempt to strike me with its weapon and shield, then got behind it and kicked it into the chasm of death.
"Take that! Fuck you!"
I really, really, really, really, really hated this dungeon.
This marks the fifteenth time I've challenged this dungeon.
Were it just the difficulty of killing an enemy with my bare fists or stolen weapons I wouldn't have much of a problem, thing is, all the mid to high leveled dungeons have gotten larger in scale, tacks on special rules or environmental hazards that made life increasingly difficult for me.
As for this dungeon, aside from being forced to fight naked there were the absurd number of frustrating features just to fuck with me.
Use a combination of magical talismans to fly all the way to the top floor of the castle, skipping the bridge of death? Lol, there's an invisible ceiling, gravity trap in the sky and multiple flying enemies spawning on you.
I survived that ambush by getting on one of those flying demons and riding it all the way to the cliffside, then climbing and running up the wall (while avoiding death by explosive mines hidden in the walls).
Skipping over some of the monsters on the way to the bridge of doom also results in similar traps and ambushes, and if I leap too high before I reach the ladder up to the bridge then the castle all the way on the other side will start shooting hypersonic ballista bolts at me!
I may have been faster than the speed of sound around 40 levels ago but these dungeon traps were definitely meant to simulate a Gamer's experience in a FromSoftware game where you have little to no time for avoiding a swift death!
Thankfully, my HP pool was high enough to survive that stuff, and I could immediately chow down on chocolate while dodging monster attacks to recover my HP.
And then there were the Dark Souls-tier traps everywhere…
Were it not for the many resistance skills I've grinded across the dungeons before this one then I would have died before I regained my gamer's intuition / paranoia.
"Alright, let's get this over with."
Once I'm done with this part I'll have to climb up, by my estimate, 10 floors up the castle in order to get to the boss room. In my last round I completed the 9th floor and was about to take the stairs up to the 10th floor, only for a teleport trap to activate, sending me back to the start and respawning all the monsters and traps.
"... The reward better not be clothes."
Two Hours Later…
Pulling the giant [Abyssal Mosquito]'s stinger-like mouth out of my shoulder then squashing it repeatedly into the wall was not exactly the kind of pre-entry activity I envisioned before entering the 10th Floor doorway.
But that's just reality. The sheer variety of monsters here requires a similarly large number of ways to efficiently slay them.
Demonic knights, zombies, skeleton knights, sorcerers, skeleton sorcerers, car-sized rats, giant leeches, cow-sized mosquitoes, flaming direwolves, magic casting slimes, Basilisks, Minotaurs, dragons, ghosts, infectious screaming mushroom men, possessed chandeliers…
If it weren't for the fact there were a few more higher leveled dungeons then I would have believed that this is the Final Dungeon!
I pushed open the ridiculously tall doors apart and saw a very boss battle like area.
Namely, it was a very decorated hallway, with intricate tapestries, paintings and giant statues placed by the walls all the way up till the final door at the end.
I glared at the statues.
"You're going to come alive and try to kill me, aren't you?"
Not if I kill you first!!!
I quickly leapt into the air and unto one of the statues arms, then broke it off before it could come alive, taking its giant sword for my own and began to smash everything in the room.
I could safely say that I wasn't surprised when the paintings and tapestries also came alive and tried to kill me.
The Mimic-like monstrous mouth from the floor, on the other hand, wasn't in my calculations.
"Eat this!" I threw some elemental cores into its mouth as I held it open with my two feet (as I was trying to not get eaten), then grabbed the animated tapestry trying to choke me to death and tore it apart.
After the explosion within the [Abyssal Floor Mimic]'s stomach happened, I used the brief window of time to escape its jaws before ripping it out of the floor so that I could kill it properly.
Finally, I made it to the end of the hallway. My HP Regen and Mana Regen ensured that I was in tip top shape after waiting for a few minutes.
Activating all the internal enhancement skills that used my MP, yet apparently doesn't count as magic (let me make my own fireball damn it), I completed my buffing sequence within the span of a few seconds and opened the door to the boss.
I bet it's some sort of sorcerous overlord given the quality of mooks before me.
"... Is that a tank?" That's a weird ass looking cannon.
A dark figure emerged from the darkened machinery and began shouting in some foreign language before taking out a pair of machine guns!
[Abyssal Warmaster Lvl 90] [Abyssal Sentient Railgun Lvl 90]
"Are you fucking shitting me!?"
The boss was a complete let-down after all the shit I've faced earlier on.
Okay, fine, the rapid-fire railguns almost got me.
But I suplexed that motherfucker real good before dealing with the boss using magically enhanced modern weaponry.
Gods, I didn't think I had to deal with guns again after that Nazi Zombie dungeon… I can still hear the Hitler speeches in my head.
The chest appeared in the middle of the room.
I heaved a sigh of relief when it showed up.
Finally, after these long weeks of running this dungeon, failing, training, planning and trying again… it's finally over.
I walked up to the treasure chest… then dropped, reached behind me and threw the offending assassin into the ground. Then I started beating it to death.
[Abyssal Assassin Lvl 88]
"I FUCKING KNEW IT!"
Killing the boss monster only for a normal mook to shank you when you think you're safe is the oldest trick in the book.
When I was done with it, I used my usual anti-mimic tricks on the chest, then finally collected my rewards when it turned out to be safe.
["I cleared the Abyssal Dungeon!" T-Shirt (Legendary)]
"NYEHHH!"
I tossed the damn T-shirt to the side!
"DAMN IT ALL!"
After huffing and puffing for a while I decided to put on the T-Shirt anyways in spite of the design being the symbol of my suffering.
I can't deny that a flat 10% Dodge Rate isn't amazing.
With the special rules disabled upon clearing the dungeon, I quickly put on the rest of my equipment before I gained an [Exhibitionist] skill. Those sorts of skills should only be gained by female Gamer's… for obvious reasons, heh.
Now then… time to sort out my update windows.
[Congratulations for achieving Level 100! You have received a free +10 to all your base stats]
[You have maxed Paralysis Resistance!] [You have maxed Poison Resis-]
How the hell did I get that all maxed out? Oh yeah, X5 EXP multiplier to skill level ups plus lots and lots of annoying monsters. Heck, most of my VIT stat grinding is from resisting status effects and not getting killed.
A couple of new skills were created, a good amount of them were essentially prestige versions of those status resistance skills. My [Magic Resistance] was at quite a high level too, though it wasn't anywhere near maxed out.
As for my stats… let's just put in those points here and there… all done.
Luck was now at 110 thanks to the Level 100 bonus. INT and WIS are now at 200 each, STR, VIT and DEX at 350 each. Lastly, I added the rest of the points to my already high AGI stat to make it a nice 500 points.
A month ago I wouldn't have invested so much on INT and WIS, but on a particular day I recalled that Campione "Magic Resistance" works by having a huge increase of magical power condensed into a tiny mortal body.
After a bit of testing on some of the magic casting monsters upon triggering the acquisition of my 100 INT and 100 WIS passive skills ([Advanced Magic] and [Advanced Magic Control]), then successfully confirmed that I did take reduced damage after the change (after discounting magic resistance, of course).
I didn't want to put too many points since I would make it hard to level my actual [Magic Resistance] skill if the damage was reduced too much (especially when I grinded on the weaker magic casting mobs), but now is as good a time as any to place some of those points.
[Ultimate Magic skill gained!]
[Ultimate Wisdom skill gained!]
[Mythical Muscle Power skill gained!]
[Mythical Reflexes skill gained!]
[Mythical Recovery skill gained!]
[Mythical Endurance skill gained!]
[Legendary Speed skill gained!]
Okay then. Time to get out of this hellhole.
It took less than a minute to run back to the entrance with all the traps disabled.
I was brimming with happiness as I exited into Sweden, specifically, a place where a funerary monument was located at.
All is well with the world.
And then my [Magic Detection] skill triggered.
Of course.
I saw an old robed man laying by one of the funeral stones, seemingly hurt.
["The Hooded One" Lvl ???]
Well Fuck. I know where this is going.
… I'm trying to jog my memory of what kind of god would be associated with that name.
Normally I would contemplate assassination, but that kind of strategy is way too high risk especially given my limited means to hurt a god, and it might make the god angry enough to go all out on me.
What I need to do is make sure a deity underestimates me or decides to give me a fair chance in fighting them due to seeing me in a favorable light, at least, in comparison to other puny humans.
I walked toward the hooded one, unarmed, while still keeping my ridiculous outfit combination (I was still going to keep my best defenses on me) on me.
"Hello there. Do you need any help with that shoulder?"
I understood the pain of having your shoulder abused by enemies very well. Almost as well as Nightwing, I dare say.
The old man turned towards me, showing me a part of his wizened face under his hood, he smiled genially, "No, no I'm afraid you won't be able to do much about this, young warrior."
Of course, I wasn't expecting a god to be fooled with such a thin disguise, so I simply asked what happened.
"Hmph! A fight between old men, that's what happened. That pompous, braggart, dim-witted, skirt-chasing-"
Aaaaaaand he's going on and on about some other god that pissed him off.
"Do you know who I am?"
"I can certainly guess."
Two ravens flew down from the sky and perched from his shoulder.
Fuck my life. Why couldn't I get a god that wasn't the head of their mythology?!
Well, I wasn't going to run away now. Especially when he has an injury from another god. I won't get another opportunity like this so easily.
Might as well flatter him a bit and see what he's about before challenging him.
"You are called Glad-O-War, Grim, Raider and Third. You are One Eyed, you are also called Highest And True-Guesser, you are Grimnir and the Hooded One, you are All-Father, Gondlir, Wand-Bearer. You are Odin."
The old man stood up immediately and threw his hood back, revealing himself in all his one-eyed glory, power radiated from his being and all my detection skills were screaming at me to not fight this guy.
Then the part of me that strives for greatness told them "I refuse"!
"HAHAHAHAHA! I like that one! I'm going to have to take that for myself."
"Well, don't take it from me. That was just a part of an introduction from a TV show around two decades from now, where an actor portraying you did the most epic divine identity reveal ever."
"From the future? Ah, a wanderer through time! How fortuitous. So, tell me, in the future… between my son and I, who is more popular?"
I'm pretty sure there's only one son that's relevant here.
"Thor is more popular, mostly because he gets his own movie series as part of a hugely successful cinematic universe."
"Tsk. Should have known. And what about… the ruler of Mount Olympus?"
His eyes narrowed at me even as his tone darkened at the mere mention of Zeus.
Remembering an idle google trends search of mine while knowing that whatever wisdom skill he might have will tell him if I'm lying or not…
"In 2005 onwards, due to a popular book series of a Demigod son of Poseidon… the Greek Gods gained much renewed public interest. Uh, suffice to say, during those periods Zeus was searched up online more than Odin by anywhere around 2 to 6 times more? Oh, but it does get evened up in the later 2010's."
"... Thank you. Well, guess it's time to give humanity a grim reminder."
He brought out his spear and started walking towards the nearest settlement.
I stepped in his way.
Odin sighed in slight disappointment, "Are you trying to kill me?"
"If you're going to do what I think you're going to do… then yes."
"Don't lie to me. I know that you would certainly like to regardless of my plans. I know you would. I can feel your desire for blood, it gives you focus, makes you… stronger."
"The only blood I desire is that of gods and monsters, not of innocents."
"So you have chosen death."
Whitting sliced through the air as I took a step back, narrowly getting out of Gungnir's range. The force of his sudden attack erased parts of the hills and trees behind me. I only took minimal damage thanks to my strong defence and evasion of the main attack.
Conversely, the air pressure generated by my swing did no visible damage on the deity even though it carved parts of the ground behind him.
Odin began to grin in anticipation, "I thought you wanted to kill me. Become one of those accursed devil kings… yet you step back, why?" He began pacing around while keeping his one eye on me like an animal circling its prey.
I began to move about as well, moving us away from the funeral monuments lest we desecrate the dead. Odin understood my motives immediately and acknowledged them by playing along.
"Your spear will always strike it's target. True. But a spear still has a range, if I'm not in it then there is no target to be struck."
I was using the same logic applied to Fate's Cu Chulainn Noble Phantasm. Gae Bolg won't activate if the target is outside it's range, so it stands to reason that Gungnir wouldn't do so either.
Or at least, it was a hopeful assumption that turned out to be correct.
"Good. I was hoping for a bit more than an insect to strike down. Let's see how you fare against my magic then."
He began to speak some spell-words and I quickly buffed myself to the max as I prepared to evade his attack.
The moment I saw a spark of flame I threw out as many Ice Elemental Cores as I could alongside flame warding talismans-
-everything was white for a brief moment, parts of my arm and face were charred, but otherwise I didn't take too much damage from that thanks to my resistances and damage mitigation strategies.
Seeing the still-flaming forest all around me, it looks like I won't be able to avoid his AOE magic as well as I hope for.
Whitting's light grew brighter.
"An imitation of Bersi's blade will do naught to me. Are you really fool enough to stake your hopes on a miracle that the gods provide?"
"I will be the one to decide that. In the end, humans are the ones that make use of miracles."
The light of my blade grew brighter and brighter as he threw magic against me again and again.
With my great speed, a bit of luck and by using up the many magical items in my inventory I managed to stay just ahead enough to survive.
The entire landscape had changed into a field of ice and fire, lightning fell from the thunderstorms above, the remnants of Odin's failed bindings were littered across the battlefield.
More spell-words from Odin came as he hefted a crossbow with ten arrows.
With a flash the ten arrows were shot into the sky, and with a gesture, they fell just as quickly as his hand. Every single arrow seemed to split in different directions, with my enhanced eyesight I could see that each had a different shape, texture and movement pattern.
Some arrows had disappeared entirely, as if they had blinked out of existence.
Three of which had split into thousands of arrows. Getting out of the area of fire for that one was the easy part, dealing with the rest of the arrows directed towards my escape area turned kill zone was another matter.
"Careful boy! You might not die from some of those arrows but if you get unlucky…"
Odin laughed as his piece of entertainment (me) danced across the battlefield like a monkey, avoiding the glowing arrows as if they were hot lasers (which they were, at the bare minimum).
I managed to trick a homing arrow into striking the ground instead of me.
The whole ground beneath me shattered and a massive chasm began to form.
A wind elemental core crushed in my hand propelled me away from falling into my death.
But Odin's arrows would not give me such a reprieve. It took multiple fire elemental core propulsions and lots of skill to make it to safe ground without being killed several times over.
Two of the arrows were tracking me as if they were Omega Beams.
Naturally, I ran towards Odin, reaching him in a blink of an eye thanks to a passive skill doubling my speed (especially since I'm still 'dodging' an attack'), his spear made to strike me but I leapt out of range just in time.
The two arrows struck Odin's shoulder.
"Argh, not again!"
"I know the feeling! My shoulder was dissolved to the bone once!"
"You lucky boy!"
The four missing arrows reappeared in mid air, surrounding me in all directions. I twisted and pushed my body away as much as I could, but the resulting explosion still enveloped me and shredded through my defences.
One side of my body was gone with parts of my ribcage being exposed to the elements.
Thanks to one of the benefits from a VIT passive skill I could still move and fight as if this was a minor inconvenience. I quickly drunk several bars of pure hot chocolate, recovering from the attack with only a couple of burns left, which my regeneration was also working to heal.
"You're not human!"
"My parents were perfectly normal humans thank you very much."
Whitting was glowing like a bright star in the sky now.
Odin sang more spell-songs and then charged at me with his spear. I took out another powerful magic to use as I didn't want Whitting to clash against Gungnir at this stage of the fight.
A quick look at his status and I could tell that he just gave himself defensive buffs and various other battle enhancements. He was still taking it easy on me and was laughing the entire time we exchanged blows.
I managed to keep out of range while deflecting the force of Gungnir with my other magic sword, which was already on the verge of shattering.
And so when my blade inevitably did so I just brought out another weapon.
When I got a chance I gained some distance and shot at Odin with my [Hellfire Machinegun], which I looted off the Nazi Demon Cultists.
He just stood there as the bullets stilled in front of him before dropping to the floor.
"A fifth I know: when I see, by foes shot, speeding a shaft through the host, flies it never so strongly I still can stay it, if I get but a glimpse of its flight." Odin sang with a smug expression on his face.
"Right, of course you have Protection from Arrows. And of course it works against bullets."
"Is that all your tricks, human?"
"Not at all. But I think it's about time to bring this to a close. What say you? My strongest against your strongest?"
"You think yourself worth my best? Well, since you have entertained me so, I suppose I shall grant you the highest honor I can!"
Power far above anything I could have outputted smothered the air around us.
The two of us raised our weapons, readying ourselves for our strongest attacks.
"I'll carve your heart out!" I yelled out, hoping to influence his decision ever so slightly.
"Your heart is mine!" Matching my declaration, Odin declared that he would do just that.
Just as planned.
Runes, spell words that I could scarcely comprehend, they surrounded the God of War and gave him power beyond measure.
I held Whitting in one hand and placed my free hand upon my chest.
Let's hope this works out.
I pushed forward with all I had to reach Odin as he released the spear!
Blood flew out of the gaping hole in my chest as Whitting shattered upon Odin's skin.
"Ah-!"
I released the handle of my blade, letting it fall down into Odin's pierced mouth and throat.
Whitting's light shining forth from within his body after shattering into pieces and destroying the god's body from within.
The trail of destruction behind me was tremendous as Gungnir struck its target, my heart, after I had ripped it out of my body and threw it as far away from me as I could.
Gungnir would always strike a mortal blow. Gungnir would always strike it's target.
If the spear is thrown then it doesn't matter where the target is, as it would destroy it's target no matter the distance.
Naturally, the answer was to take that target and move it as far away from my body as possible.
Odin's body faded away and my body began to fail.
I could feel another powerful presence making it's way here. On the off chance it was a Campione or another god, I teleported away to my first dungeon, then crawled out of the entrance.
I died with a content smile on my face within a city's sewers.
"You know... you wouldn't have gotten away with it if he wasn't so stubborn and asked Mimir for advice."
It was as if my mother was lecturing me after I did something really stupid that worked out but was still dumb nonetheless. Kinda like not studying for a test but acing it anyways.
I was more aware than I thought would be for this out of body experience.
"I didn't see the severed head attached to his belt or anything."
"That's because it got damaged in his fight with Zeus. He could have still used it but nope! He decided to act like a reckless young warrior instead of the advisor of war he was renowned for. But that's what Heretic Gods are about, what can you do?"
The pink-haired loli was pretty upbeat about the whole Deicide thing.
"That's what I was counting on. I could tell that he was really salty over being upstaged by Zeus and Thor, his son being known for martial prowess. As a Heretic God he might also have been raging against the All-Father title brought about as Christianity was spread around instead of his origins so he would be more inclined towards more warrior-like behavior."
In a rather sweet yet annoyed tone, Pandora said, "You took big risks on a lot of what-ifs. Haa, I'm still glad it all worked out."
"Me too… and I can't wait to check out my loot."
"Gods rarely leave their things behind when killed, though some subordinate gods and divine weapons with a strong enough legend is a different matter. But you seem to know something I don't. Hmph! You shouldn't keep things like that from your mother!"
"Mother huh… I'm infinitely far away from her now… I'm getting adopted then?"
"Just like you wanted! That is what you wanted… right?"
Finding the strength to stand up, I reached down to hug my new and only mother.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's right mom. If anything else, it sounds like we'll have a grand time together. I promise to remember this."
She smiles in a way that was filled with both joy and sorrow, "Ah, you're quite perceptive aren't you? Well, I get the feeling you knew about that beforehand."
"I did. But with the way I am, I'll cheat so hard until I can say 'screw the rules, I am the rules'! Break in here and come to visit you. Or maybe let you come visit me? Actually, I need to do a bit more reading on that."
"Hahaha! Sorry, sorry, I'm just a little overwhelmed. You are the first to have actually called me that throughout the millennia and is thinking about all these things."
Pandora brings out the Circle of Usurpation and… pauses for a moment.
"E-eh, why are some of them being auto-assigned?!"
"Hahaha, I told you, I'm a cheater. I'm guaranteed twice the loot you know?"
"Mmm… at this rate it might seem as if I am playing favorites with my children."
"Screw everyone elses opinion. Besides, I don't mind being a favorite child, especially when the others aren't the type to feel sad about not being the favorite."
"True enough. And you earned your reward by winning fairly so they shouldn't have any right to complain! Good luck, my child."
She flew up to kiss me on the forehead and the world began to dissolve into white mist as I left the place.
"... Yup, still remember."
I may not have Gamer's Mind, but it seems that my 'Outsider' nature has its benefits.
I took a deep breath and immediately regretted my actions as I took in the rancid sewer air.
The first thing I did was to sneak into a resort and take another shower before taking a brief trip to Japan for some glazed donuts from Mr. Donut to celebrate.
I continued my celebration by taking an impromptu Asian food tour, once that was done, I stopped atop a mountain somewhere in Japan (since I had a dungeon there) as I contemplated my next moves in regards to the powers I had.
Gungnir was fully bound to my will as one of the few items I looted off Odin.
Runic letters danced in the air around me as I marveled at the magic I was now capable of.
Odin's Eighteen Chants made out the majority of my First Authority, the capability to use runes and govern over all runic magic was simply a secondary benefit of having that authority, but it was a boon that I planned to make my own.
Taking out a warhammer from my inventory, I whispered the secret of the runes at them, adding enchantments to it for greater power and to keep it out of the hands of my enemies.
"Whosoever holds this hammer, if he or she be worthy, shall possess the power of Bobby B."
I giggled as the spell was inscribed into the weapon.
"Oh yeah, I always wanted to do that."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein