Chapter 176

Chapter 176: Resurrection

Gufadgarn, the evil god of labyrinths

Having cleared the illusion of fear trial on the 95th floor by destroying an entire floor with Hollow Cannon, a Hollow King Magic spell that possessed enough destructive force to distort space itself, Vandalieu and his panions proceeded forwards and continued smoothly clearing the Dungeon.

Things went so smoothly because the monsters on the 96th floor and below were terrified of Vandalieu and fled for their lives as he approached them.

“I wonder what happened to the Dungeon’s mind-controlling effect?” said Eleanora.

“Perhaps it was loosened when the power of Bocchan’s Hollow Cannon created a hole in the Dungeon,” said Saria.

“That’s just a guess, though, since we don’t know how Dungeons control monsters’ minds,” said Rita.

The party watched the Demons from behind as they scampered away as fast as they could, letting out screams that sounded like cloth being torn.

… All of them were a minimum of Rank 10; a single one of them could almost destroy the entirety of a small nation. Even a large nation would lose several towns and villages in the time it would take an A-class adventurer to arrive on the scene. These were monsters that were thought of as natural disasters rather than living creatures, but…

“They’re even more scared of you than the ones in the Palace of Hell in the Majin nation, aren’t they, Your Majesty?” said the Liberating Princess Knight Iris, who was now a Succubus.

“Yes… Maybe I’m just imagining it, but the fleeing Demons look like they have tears in their eyes,” said Vandalieu.

“I would never have even imagined that tears could appear in Demons’ eyes,” said the Ghost Scylla Orbia.

With Iris and Orbia on either side of him, Vandalieu seemed strangely depressed; he looked at the Demons with a somewhat sad gaze.

You don’t have to be that scared of me, he thought.

He hadn’t minded the Demons lining up in rows in the Palace of Hell, but it seemed that he didn’t feel any positive feelings from seeing Demons desperately fleeing from him as fast as they could.

“If they are causing you to bee upset, we can go and hunt them,” suggested Bellmond.

“Bellmond-jouchan, don’t let your guard down. Once they’re far enough from the kid, they’ll return to normal and turn to fight you,” Borkus warned her.

“That’s what Demons normally do, after all,” said Vandalieu.

Demons were supposed to be fearless even when facing clearly superior foes, laughing as if enjoying themselves until the moment they turned into dust and disappeared.

Even with the Dungeon’s mind-controlling effect on them disrupted, they would normally never flee from anything in fear.

“Hmm, is it possible that they are merely pretending to be afraid, and they are actually making fun of the boy?” said Zadiris.

“Mother, as a humble warrior, I’ll tell you, that’s not possible. Look, that Demon over there that’s failed to start running away in time is showing its belly to us in surrender,” said Basdia, pointing at a Rank 10 Ark Sword Demon that was lying face-up on the ground.

This monster, which possessed blades instead of hands protruding from both wrists, knife-like claws on its feet and a tail that looked like many small blades linked together, was immodestly exposing itself to the party.

Indeed, this did resemble a wild animal attempting to surrender.

“Basdia, it looks to me more like it’s playing dead,” said Orbia.

Indeed, with fluids dripping from every orifice in its face as it lay on its side, the Demon’s behavior looked more like a small animal feigning death.

“It’s not moving an inch; maybe it’s actually just lost consciousness…” Basdia murmured.

“Bocchan, should I turn it into Experience Points?” Rita suggested.

“… Maybe not,” said Vandalieu, shaking his head. “Though I wouldn’t hesitate if we were outside rather than in a Dungeon.”

If they were to encounter an Ark Sword Demon outside a Dungeon, Vandalieu wouldn’t hesitate to finish it off. If they didn’t kill it, it would clearly endanger many lives.

But inside a Dungeon, no matter how many Demons he exterminated, the Dungeon would continue to replenish them. Their numbers needed to be kept down so that they didn’t overflow out of the Dungeon, but Vandalieu and his panions had done more than enough of that in the floors leading up to this one.

On top of that, they were not delicious monsters to eat. Thus, Vandalieu didn’t quite feel like fighting them.

“Well then, perhaps we should talk about the divine protection,” said Zadiris. “Boy, do you really not know what it is?”

“As far as the timing goes, I think it’s related to when you collapsed previously,” said Rita.

The two of them had acquired a new divine protection immediately after Vandalieu lost consciousness in the illusion of fear trial. But they had heard strange announcements in their head and realized something when they checked their Statuses.

And the strangest thing was that the name of the being who had given them this divine protection could not be read. Only a single letter was visible, and the rest were hidden.

“That should normally never happen,” said Jeena, the Saint of Healing. “Divine protections are things that gods bestow upon their followers, so there’s no point in concealing their names.”

“But according to legends and tales, it is not without precedent,” said Iris.

There was a famous tale of a man who went through a period of unhappiness, lost his faith and begun living a wild lifestyle as a mercenary. With a great deal of luck, he survived multiple battles. His heart was touched by the brave actions of a young boy whose sister had been kidnapped by a Vampire, and he took up his sword in the young boy’s place. It was only then that he realized that he had acquired Alda’s divine protection, and that Alda had been watching over him the entire time.

“… Well, there’s no proof that it’s a true story,” said Iris, who had once been a fervent believer in Alda.

Even she knew that it was more than likely that the story was a hoax created for religious propaganda.

“But there’s no proof that it’s pletely made up. On Earth, true stories were exaggerated quite often. Not that it was limited to just religion, though,” said Vandalieu. “But even though we don’t know the being’s name, isn’t it fine since it doesn’t seem to have any problematic effects?”

“No, Vandalieu-sama. We have a very good idea of whose name it is,” said Eleanora.

“That’s right; we can only read one character at a time, but all of the characters are different,” said Basdia.

“Yeah, there are some of us that have overlapping letters, but if you put all of the readable letters together, it reads, ‘Vandalieu’s Divine Protection.’ What do you think about that?” said Borkus.

“Gishaaah,” Pete hissed.

“Eh, Pete, you can read letters?” Vandalieu asked.

“Gishah.”

Pete, the centipede monster with lightning-spouting horns, had apparently learned how to read at some point. His ladder-like nervous system seemed to have evolved.

“That’s amazing. Let’s celebrate when we get home,” said Vandalieu.

“Wait, kid, the more important thing is the divine protection –” Borkus began.

“I… do have some idea in regards to that,” said Vandalieu.

After he lost consciousness in the illusion of fear trial, he had seen pieces of himself that had broken off and scattered onto the ground in a dream. He remembered going around and handing them out, not wanting to waste them.

He had done this before, too. He had gone around giving his panions the horns and scales of Garess, the god of warriors, and Lioen, the crystal-horned dragon god, and he had also torn off pieces of himself to give to Vigaro and Pauvina.

“As I thought,” said Vigaro. “So, this divine protection is Vandalieu’s after all?”

“But there’s no proof of that, is there? Maybe there are gods with names like Vandarion or Fantalieu that we don’t know about, and they gave their divine protections to everyone separately and concealed their names,” said Vandalieu.

“Muh, I suppose we cannot rule out that possibility,” said Zadiris.

“No, there’s no chance of that. What are you talking about, Zadiris?” said Eleanora, looking at her through half-closed eyes.

“But still…” Zadiris murmured vaguely. “I acknowledge that the boy’s theory is implausible and full of holes. But considering that the boy is not a god, I cannot decide whether him granting us his divine protection is more likely or not.”

Bestowing divine protections upon others. That was an authority of gods, like Skills such as Familiar Spirit Descent.

Divine protections generally shared the same base effect; they lowered the difficulty of overing walls that impeded progress in Attribute Values and Levels. In addition, they made it easier to acquire Jobs related to things ruled over by the gods, as well as making it easier to acquire and increase the Level of related Skills.

It was normal for divine protections to have different effects depending on the god who granted it and the individual to whom it was granted.

And the effectiveness of the divine protection depended on the power of the god who granted it.

“It is true that Danna-sama is a god-slayer, but since he is not a god himself, it would be mon sense to think that he would be unable to grant divine protections as Unique Skills to others,” said Bellmond.

“With that in mind, my far-fetched theory is more likely… No, I think that’s impossible, so please fcomet that theory,” said Vandalieu, rejecting his own theory as he perhaps realized that it was simply too unlikely.

“Furthermore, Danna-sama is a being who generally exceeds what most consider to be mon sense… or rather, wanders the realm beyond it,” said Bellmond, knowing that mon sense did not apply to Vandalieu.

Seemingly aware of this, Vandalieu didn’t object to that statement. “It’s like I’m a creature from another dimension,” he muttered.

“Well, as long as we know that it is Vandalieu who has given us his divine protection, then that is enough for now. It is more forting than thinking that a divine protection has been forced onto us by an unknown god,” said Zadiris.

“That’s right. It’s just like a continuation of the dream I had when he gave me the Spirit Form and Materialization Skills,” said Vigaro.

It seemed that Zadiris and the others had wanted to confirm who had given them this divine protection. Perhaps they were overthinking things, but there was a chance that an evil god that was a remnant of the Demon King’s army had placed it on them to hinder them.

But they could feel at ease if the one who had given it to them was Vandalieu.

Though they were surprised, they thought favorably of it, as Vandalieu was almost guaranteed to bee a being even superior to a heroic spirit in the future and there were already some, like some of Legion’s members, that worshipped him.

“Well then, I’ll go around handing things out again the next time I’m dreaming,” said Vandalieu.

“Next time, you have to appear as human as possible so that you don’t surprise everyone,” said Darcia. “Don’t appear in a strangely flat shape or as a liquid, okay?”

“Yes, Mom.”

After that, Vandalieu and his panions continued clearing the Dungeon smoothly from the 97th floor. The Demons that were supposed to get in their way fled and scattered, and the only monsters left behind were mindless magical creatures like Golems. For some reason, the floors went on and on with no real trial in them.

It was as if they were traversing a deserted plain, or rather, an uninhabited labyrinth.

“It is a little unsatisfying in terms of Experience Points, but it’s best if we proceed quickly,” said Vandalieu. “I’m used to the Demons running from us now, but why are there no trials?”

“I think it’s perfect that there are no Demons, you know!” said Privel as the dragon-head ends of her tentacles released a cold breath that froze the limbs of a Rank 10 Mythril Statue, a statue of a knight made of Mythril. “Ice Beast Flood! … Damn, it’s not working!”

She released a water-attribute Spiritual Magic spell, unleashing a swarm of icy beasts, but only the surface of the Mythril Statue was damaged; it was not defeated.

“That is to be expected. Cutting Rain!” said Myuze, unleashing an Empusa-specialized Unarmed bat Technique martial skill that turned the Mythril Statue into a pile of metal. “Mythril may be exceptionally solid, but it is known as a metal with an even more exceptional ability to repel magic. No matter how skilled you are with magic, it would have been impossible for you to defeat this foe with magic alone, Privel.”

“Muh, says the one who just used her own sickles to turn that exceptionally hard metal into pieces,” Privel said, sounding dissatisfied.

“That is because I performed a surprise attack from hiding, gaining the bonus of Assassin Technique… It is thanks to Vandalieu-dono and Lioen after all,” said Myuze, raising her prided sickle-arms.

She had bee a Crystal Empusa due to her divine protections. There wasn’t a single nick in her transparent sickles despite having sliced straight through Mythril.

“Well, I was only able to perform my attack because the enemy was unable to move,” Myuze added. “This is the power of working together. That is right, is it not, Vandalieu-dono?”

“Statue-type Golems are less robust because they are human-shaped, but their movements are faster for it. I think you’re exactly right,” said Vandalieu.

“I see! If there are any more Mythril Golems, I’ll focus on stopping their movements, so I’ll be counting on you to finish them off~♪” Privel said happily, her mood improving.

Her dragon-head-shaped tentacle ends lifted Vandalieu in their jaws with joy as well.

With the original intended difficulty of this floor, having Privel and Myuze on the frontlines wouldn’t have been enough. But the Demons who would normally be an obstacle to challengers with their special abilities and magic had fled, leaving only Golems with no special characteristics other than the metals that they were made of, so the party had started leveling again like they had on the middle floors.

It was unlikely that they would be able to defeat Orichalcum Golems, but only Mythril and Adamantite Golems had appeared so far.

“e to think of it, about the trials… maybe there are some trials that Gufadgarn decided not to put there for us?” Privel suggested. “It’s strange that there’s just floor after floor that only test our strength.”

This would normally be unthinkable, but Vandalieu and Myuze quickly accepted this theory.

“I see… That’s possible,” said Vandalieu. “I suppose I went a bit too far.”

After all, he had pierced the ceiling of a Dungeon, which was normally supposed to be indestructible. In return, Vandalieu had lost consciousness for about an hour due to having exhausted all of his Mana, but one could say that it was quite a low risk to take to destroy a Dungeon floor. It meant that he would be able to make more than twenty holes in the Dungeon every day.

Gufadgarn wouldn’t be able to withstand such an event happening repeatedly.

“… Though it would be problematic for us as well if the Dungeon were to collapse, so I don’t intend to repeat it,” said Vandalieu.

“But from Gufadgarn’s point of view, it would not do to simply believe in your self-control and try to take advantage of it,” said Myuze. “Considering that, it is possible that the event that happened when we first entered this Dungeon was the removal of a trial.”

“Ah, that thing where we felt a bit strange for a moment?” said Privel.

The moment the party entered this floor, the 100th floor, they had experienced some kind of dizziness for a moment. But that had stopped as quickly as it had begun, and there was no trace of it now.

It was too unnatural for everyone to experience it at once for it to just be a trick of the imagination or some ordinary dizziness, so while they had been wary for a while afterwards, nothing had happened.

“You might be right,” Vandalieu nodded vaguely, but Myuze’s guess was indeed correct.

This trial was forcibly teleporting only the challengers’ minds to a special space where they would have nothing but their mental fortitudes to defeat Mind Demons, a special kind of monster that nested in human minds.

But immediately after the trial started and the Mind Demons saw Vandalieu’s mind, they had lost their will to fight and immediately ended the trial.

It seemed that the fear felt by the Mind Demons, who only existed within minds, was far greater than that of the ordinary Demons that were fleeing for their lives now.

“By the way, Bocchan, is not about time you changed Jobs?” said Sam, just as the staircase to the next floor came into view.

Vandalieu had in fact already reached Level 100, but would the Demons not turn and begin fighting the moment he disappeared into the Job-changing room that he had installed in Sam’s carriage? Being wary of this, he had decided to stay outside and observe the Demons.

But now that they had e this far, it didn’t seem like there was anything to worry about.

“Yes, you’re right. Well then, I’ll go and change Jobs,” said Vandalieu, climbing into Sam’s carriage as if he were very accustomed to doing so and entering the Job-changing room. “I think there will be a new Job like Hollow King Mage or something, but…” he murmured as he touched the crystal ball.

《Jobs that can be selected:【Disease Demon】,【Spirit Warrior】,【Whip Tongue Calamity】,【Vengeful Berserker】,【Dead Spirit Mage】,【Dark Healer】,【Magic Cannoneer】,【Dark King Mage】,【Divine Enemy】,【Creation Guider】,【Fallen Warrior】,【Insect Nin】,【Destruction Guider】,【Enchanter】,【Dungeon Master】,【Demon King】,【Chaos Guider】,【Hollow King Mage】,【Eclipse Cursecaster】【String User】》

Vandalieu saw the Hollow King Mage Job displayed in his head as he had expected, as well as new Jobs that he had not expected.

“I suppose they are read ‘shokujuji’ and ‘genjutsushi?’ Well, the one I’m going to choose this time around is Dark Healer, though,” he murmured to himself. “I select Dark Healer.”

TLN: These are the Japanese readings of the kanji. As far as I’m aware, there isn’t anything really notable about these readings except the String User Job, “genjutsushi,” would probably normally be translated to “illusionist” if it had the more mon kanji for that reading.