Side Story: Chapter 2

“You are brave but that is foolish courage! You have taken the wrong path! I, Quezas, will lead you to your death!”

 

“Servant of the false god! Face the great power of the abyss! Only one absolute good that exists will be the salvation of this absurd world!”

 

The final goal of the 6th floor stage, Tutorial Hell difficulty:

 

Quezas, the head of the 16 priests, is a very talkative guy.

 

He says a lot of weird nonsense, and the problem is that the nonsense causes a very serious level of irritation.

 

I’m tired in both body and mind, and he’s been dragging his time with drivel; who would possibly enjoy this?

 

“Fool, beguiled by the delusion of eternal life! Behold, this is the true image of me, Quezas!”

 

He even transformed into a giant squid at the last minute.

 

I hate the boss fights that suddenly transform and enter a second phase right when I kill them.

 

The hell.

 

They should just come out like this from the beginning. By the time I have killed them, they transform and heal all damage.

 

So mean.

 

The annoying Quezas is now spitting black blood out of his mouth, with his chest pierced by the skeleton knight’s heavy sword.

 

What is it, ink?

 

After transforming into a squid-like thing, it seems that his species has become a squid too.

 

“Wa, warrior……!”

 

Pookh!

 

This guy is going to talk about nonsense again.

 

He can speak even though he has a huge heavy sword in his chest like a vampire pierced by a stake.

 

His tenacity for chatting is surprising.

 

I picked up the heavy sword embedded in Quezas’s chest and stabbed it into him again.

 

Quezas had a seizure, then again vomited black blood.

 

“…In my life, I’ve never seen a man who was as brave and strong as you…”

 

I guess so.

 

I haven’t seen one either.

 

“Warrior. Please do not be deceived by the deceptions of false gods…. The only good that exists in this world is… Keuhaak!”

 

It’s called death.

 

I’ve had enough of that damn death admiration.

 

I even got to memorize some lines.

 

Pukh! Pukh! Pukh!

 

Again, I punctured Quezas’s chest and made him pay the price for this annoying nonsense.

 

Even at this point, Quezas did not die.

 

Rather, I should say that he cannot die.

 

When I looked at Quezas’s face distorted in pain, it seemed right.

 

I spent some time torturing Quezas like that for a while.

 

Leaning on a heavy sword holding a cane.

 

When only the black blood bubbles on Quezas’s mouth came out, and no sound was heard.

 

When my trembling knees got closer to the floor.

 

[Acquired Curse Resistance Lv.7.]

 

The message I was waiting for appeared.

 

The reason why I remained here even though I had beaten all the stages on the 6th floor.

 

It was a message informing that the curse resistance skill had risen by one level and reached level 7.

 

It was a message letting me know that I had nothing left to get from this stage on the 6th floor.

 

It was also a message to let me know that I was ready to move on again.

 

Finally.

 

It’s time to leave this place.

 

I stepped on Quezas’s head and smashed it.

 

He was tough and able to hold on to his life, but even he couldn’t live after his head had been smashed.

 

Immediately a message appeared.

 

[You have cleared the 6th floor of Tutorial Hell difficulty.]

 

[All conditions and injuries are recovered.]

 

It was a clear message.

 

Immediately, the healing effect was activated.

 

The wounds that had been inscribed on my body healed, and the feeling of fatigue that had covered my whole body disappeared.

 

It was weird.

 

After clearing the 6th floor, I thought I would be very happy.

 

I wondered if I would run around excited and cheer like a child.

 

When I was training alone, I sometimes imagined that.

 

The appearance of myself who cleared the 6th floor.

 

But contrary to my imagination, my mood was calm.

 

I shook my head.

 

The feeling was also strange.

 

My fatigue was gone.

 

In fact, there was no discomfort when moving my body.

 

But it wasn’t refreshing.

 

There was no difference from a little while ago when I was crushed by fatigue.

 

It was just that my body moved much more smoothly.

 

It was strange.

 

[The God of Slowness is paying attention to you.]

 

Paying attention.

 

Immediately after clearing the stage, a message appeared asking if I would try to become an apostle of the God of Slowness.

 

[The God of Adventure is also paying attention to you!]

 

[The God of Adventure pays attention to you eagerly.]

 

In addition, the God of Adventure.

 

It seemed that the God of Adventure was just imitating the God of Slowness.

 

The concept of an apostle appeared, which made me quite embarrassed.

 

As I attacked the 6th floor, I knew that the interests of the gods were increasing day by day, but I didn’t know that something like this would appear.

 

I thought about it for a while and came to a conclusion.

 

Let’s ask Kirikiri.

 

Thinking that way, I tried to step up on the portal that appeared right in front of me.

 

Then I realized that I had forgotten one thing, and I was flabbergasted.

 

8 months, it has been too long.

 

Thanks to that, I forgot.

 

Kirikiri hates when I come into her fields with blood on.

 

She hates it so much.

 

When I cleared the 4th floor with blood on my body, Kirikri even backed away to avoid me.

 

I took a towel out of my inventory and wiped the blood off my body.

 

It was easy to clean because my wounds had already healed and the bleeding had stopped.

 

But it couldn’t be completely wiped off.

 

The blood that was too old had already dried up on my skin and was not easily cleaned.

 

After trying to clean, I was able to get on the portal.

 

The portal started to glow brightly.

 

My eyes, which had been accustomed to the dark cave for such a long time, frowned due to the sudden light.

 

I felt a brief dizziness, and soon I could notice that I was standing somewhere other than a cave.

 

Instead of the bloody scent and rotten odor that had been in the cave, I smelled the scent of grass.

 

The sunlight from the sky was mild, unlike the light of the portal that hurt my eyes, and brought warmth to my cold frozen body.

 

It was so beautiful and peaceful.

 

It looked even more so when contrasted to where I was before.

 

In the middle of a bright, open field, I cried unconsciously.

 

Had it not been for the rabbit girl who shook her arms and ran, I may have been doing that for a long time.

 

* * *

 

“Ahahang.”

 

Kirikiri, who quietly ate the cake, laughed briefly as if she had thought of something.

 

Soon she started to scoop the cake again.

 

And.

 

“Ehahahang. Hooooo-jaaaeee was crying!”

 

“Noisy.”

 

“Crybaby!”

 

I can’t.

 

I took the fork from Kirikiri’s hand.

 

Although I was thinking of taking the fork I had taken as a hostage, Kirikiri didn’t stick to the fork and began to scoop the cake with her bare hands.

 

Oh, she eats anything with her bare hands.

 

The triumphant smile on Kirikiri’s face was extraordinarily disgusting.

 

On the side, I watched Kirikiri suck her finger loudly, and I thought about the need to take away the plate.

 

I decided to stop.

 

As long as it’s been a long time, Kirikiri probably hasn’t had a cake in a long time.

 

I returned the fork to Kirikiri.

 

“Hihing.”

 

Kirikiri turned her head round and round and smiled.

 

It is unusual for Kirikiri to turn to something that isn’t on a plate while eating a cake.

 

“Why.”

 

“Hi-hing, do you have anything you want to ask me?”

 

Kirikiri asked.

 

Of course there was something I wanted to ask.

 

“It’s okay to ask now!”

 

Kirikiri exclaimed exultingly, pushing her chest out.

 

I knew how great the decision in that statement was.

 

Kirikiri is putting off the cake.

 

Kirikiri, who is proud of her role as a manager and advisor, seems to want to tell me this and that after a long time.

 

I couldn’t make that decision go away.

 

I asked what I was most curious about.

 

“The Knights Order.”

 

“Eing?”

 

“What day does the Knight Order arrive?”

 

The primary goal of the 6th floor was to hold on until the arrival of the Knights.

 

However, in the cave on the 6th floor, I have never seen a grave robber, let alone the Knights.

 

“Is that what you’re curious about?”

 

Then what should I be curious about?

 

Until I finally gave up on waiting, it was my biggest concern as to when the damn Knights would come.

 

I even wrote a journal alone.

 

This time it lasted a long time.

 

The Knights did not come.

 

Let’s endure ten more days next time.

 

Probably, the Knights will come on the tenth day.

 

Well, like this.

 

Every time I updated the record like that, I didn’t know how crazy I was.

 

No way, don’t tell me the Knight Order came-

 

“Day 30!”

 

Yeah, so it’s the last day 30.

 

Damn it.

 

Do they really come on the last day?

 

Who the hell designed this tutorial?

 

You have to be moderately absurd and irrational to….ahaha… I see… I’ll just move on.

 

It was designed so that it would not be possible to exhaust them without being very crazy.

 

* * *

 

I asked Kirikiri for some information.

 

As the 6th floor was so difficult, I thought I could hear a lot of information.

 

The information that can be heard was limited again this time.

 

“Because it’s very expensive information.”

 

First, it was information on the soul exploitation skill obtained as a reward for clearing the 6th floor.

 

You can go to the waiting room and check the details.

 

Next was information on the ‘Apostle Proposal’ of the God of Adventure and the God of Slowness that appeared immediately after clearing.

 

Kirikiri did not explain in detail, saying that information about gods was expensive.

 

But I could hear a minimal explanation for basic understanding.

 

It was the information that if you accepted the offer, you could get one more power skill and that even if you accepted the offer, nothing would change immediately.

 

Accepting the offer means you must meet the conditions for becoming an apostle.

 

The conditions vary greatly depending on the individuality of each god.

 

That is all the information I heard from Kirikiri

 

Let’s think about it a little.

 

Choosing a god or religion to worship, and gaining some abilities in return is a common setting in many games.

 

Nevertheless, in many ways, I was reluctant to become an apostle of a god, but Kirikiri advised that it would not hurt.

 

If Kirikiri said that, then there would be nothing wrong with being an apostle.

 

I believed so.

 

After all, in this crazy tutorial that forces people to come and challenge the stage and die out in succession as a result, Kirikiri was the one who felt guilty and regretful about the fact.

 

I knew the humanity she had.

 

It was unlikely that Kirikiri would give any advice that would really hurt the challenger.

 

Let’s say I accept the offer.

 

So now the question remains as to whether to choose between the God of Adventure and the God of Slowness.

 

The basis of judgment was about two things: the god’s personality and the power skill as a reward.

 

Then,

 

[The God of Adventure looks at you.]

 

Kirikiri was also sitting across from me wondering which god I would choose, watching with deep eyes.

 

In fact, there was nothing to worry about for long.

 

If you compare the two gods, the answer is already decided.

 

I will choose the God of Adventure and the God of Slowness.

 

[The God of Adventure was shocked.]

 

What do you mean ‘shocked’?

 

It was an obvious choice.

 

There was a clear difference in performance between the blink skills presented by the God of Slowness and Talaria’s Wing Skills presented by the God of Adventure.

 

Talaria’s Wing skill is definitely a good power skill, but blink is too overpowered.

 

Even when I thought about the gods’ personalities, it was so

 

Why would I choose a god that seems to be staring at me all day, without doing anything?

 

[The God of Adventure is embarrassed.]

 

[The God of Adventure pleads that that is not true.]

 

Since then, the message of the God of Adventure continued to appear, but I decided to ignore it.

 

What to do?

 

Should I make a choice here right now?

 

I can also choose after learning more about the gods.

 

If I choose right away, there is an advantage that I can get one more power skill right now.

 

However, due to lack of information, there is also the downside of choosing a god that does not fit me.

 

“What shall we do?”

 

When there was something I didn’t know, it was most comfortable to ask Kirikiri.

 

Kirikiri replied, as if waiting for me to ask.

 

“Of course, it’s better to learn more about the gods and choose! The best thing in the world is to be safe!”

 

Kirikiri even hopped while preaching her opinion.

 

They say that the fast guy always has the fastest way to go; you have to look at life for a long time.

 

Well, it wasn’t wrong.

 

Should I postpone the choice too?

 

“Yep!”

 

But there was one disturbing matter.

 

It was the next floor, the 7th floor stage.

 

Like the 6th floor, the 7th floor was a stage requiring party play.

 

It took 8 months to clear the 6th floor alone.

 

It would be really difficult if it took a similar amount of time to clear the 7th floor.

 

At this speed, I will grow old and die before completing the 100-floor tutorial.

 

I thought it might be better to get one more power right away for clearing the next stage.

 

“No!”

 

Kirikiri screamed.

 

“Hooooo-jaaaeee has to trust himself more! He will be able to clear the 7th floor in no time! Now! Go ahead! Go ahead!”

 

Kirikiri grabbed my hand and forcibly lifted it above my head and waved it, telling me to do my best.

 

It was arbitrary support.

 

I answered that I knew and got up from my seat.

 

Now it was time to go back to the stage.

 

I thought as I approached the portal.

 

Is it really okay for me to become an apostle?

 

It was a bit uncomfortable.

 

Of course, Kirikiri said there would be no harm.

 

Maybe I should live like a monk.

 

If you have to live by being a devout religious person and obeying hard doctrines.

 

I really don’t think that’s right.

 

While contemplating that, I tried to step up on the portal, but Kirikiri spoke abruptly.

 

“The gods know that much.”

 

“…What?”

 

I asked a little belatedly as I was startled.

 

Sometimes I was surprised to know that Kirikiri could read my thoughts.

 

“You can’t stand a quiet, peaceful, monotonous life.”

 

It was true, but it strangely sounded like a curse.

 

“And it’s okay, you don’t have to worry that the gods will force you to fit.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

Kirikiri said, staring at my face.

 

“The position of the apostles of the gods that you have proposed will fit well with your disposition.

 

“With my disposition?”

 

“There’s no way a god would want to make a human their apostle who doesn’t fit their disposition. The suggestion means that the appearance of Hooooo-jaaaeee that they’ve seen so far and his future actions match what the gods want.”

 

I paused and spent time understanding Kirikiri’s words.

 

My appearance and my actions matched what the gods wanted and liked.

 

I thought about what I’ve been through and what I’ve done since I entered the Tutorial.

 

I soon realized one thing.

 

Both the God of Slowness and the God of Adventure are not sane gods.