While the robots Dortu took control over began to attack, I also made my move. It would just be sad if the robots we worked so hard to take over were simply shot down.
Dortu’s plan seemed to be infecting other robots by shooting them with bullets imbued with his power. Having even one less robot would mean the rate of infection of slow down.
Thus, I was kept quite busy. Rather than attacking, I was focusing my attention on defending Dortu’s robots.
[I am Dortu. Master’s movements are precise and careful. As expected of Dortu’s Master.]
“I’m just running around aimlessly.”
As these robots weren’t living beings, I couldn’t treat them like normal monsters. Still, it was true that they had mana in their bodies. Whether it be bullets or cannon shells, whatever they shot also had mana imbued in them. Although it was hard to respond to it at first because it was unfamiliar, after fighting them for well over a day, I could predict the mana’s movements to a certain extent and act correspondingly.
First, I raised Absolute Soul and my mana detection ability to the peak, and as Peruta Circuit raised my physical abilities to the peak, I prepared myself to use Divine Speed in an instant. Once I reinforced my spear to become capable of cutting apart any bullet, my preparation was finished. Next up was pinpointing any bullets close to hitting Dortu’s robots and cutting them down.
“Easy pickings!”
[I am Dortu. Master is strong. Master evolved.]
[Master was always strong, idiot!]
With me hard at work, Dortu’s robots were rarely shot down. Meanwhile, they shot their own bullets endlessly. It seemed Dortu was making their bullets with his power, as they seemed to have an endless supply.
Of course, underneath all this was my mana’s sacrifice. Several thousands of mana points were being taken every second. Including the amount I spent for myself, the terrifying amount of mana would have made the old me froth at his mouth.
Luckily, I wasn’t the old me. With Peruta Circuit and Absolute Soul’s harmony, I absorbed the same amount of mana from the surroundings as Dortu used. As these two skills didn’t care about living beings or inanimate objects and worked against any target with mana, I could keep up with Dortu’s massive mana usage without a problem. In other words, I was taking the enemy’s mana and using it against them!
In any case, the endless barrage of bullets by Dortu’s five robots helped create a path for us charge through. Just this significantly helped my current situation but, as Dortu said in the beginning, his real purpose for controlling the robots wasn’t to just increase our own firepower. It was to use the enemy’s forces against them.
It didn’t take long for the change to happen. Just like the first three robots we took control of, more robots began to blacken. These robots then joined our side and began to shoot their former allies. As they didn’t or couldn’t express any emotion, they couldn’t be more reliable.
[I am Dortu. I’m speeding up.]
“You’re doing great, Dortu.”
I also got busier. I didn’t want to let a single robot get shot down.
I had already spent one day and a bit over five hours on the 86th floor, but I have yet to even see a glimpse of the86th Floor Shop. As I rarely spent so much time clearing a floor in the First Dungeon, I couldn’t help but feel stifled.
Any other explorer would have berated me for such a comment, but I was serious. The dungeon was indeed different from the 81st floor, and I had a feeling things would be even more different from the 91st floor.
Sherafina had to have more prepared. The dungeon likely had many terrifying monstrosities like Crimson Hell that even Sherafina couldn’t fully control. The dungeon wasn’t a place to just give out rewards to explorers. It was a place to test them. Since the founding of the First Dungeon, no one had ever gone beyond its 92nd floor. Knowing this, spending several days on the 86th floor felt like a waste of time.
[I can’t... see Master.]
[I’m getting dizzy, Master! I’m getting dizzy!]
Little by little, I became more experienced in using Divine Speed. Not the skill version of Divine Speed, but the Divine Speed that was the result of knowing its principle and flow of mana, a result achieved through using the skill thousands of times.
Once my body grew familiar with Divine Speed’s flow of mana, Peruta Circuit, and Absolute Soul incorporated it as a natural flow. Along with Talaria, I freely soared across the sky. Talaria was the perfect tool to support Divine Speed.
When I mastered Peruta Circuit, the way I controlled mana changed and I became capable of flying even without Sharana. But of course, I couldn’t fly as freely without Sharana, and Talaria was a godsend aid in this situation.
Now that I had gotten used to using Hermes’ power, I could maintain Talaria for an hour! I could now understand where I needed to block the bullets the moment they left their barrels, and Talaria transported me to wherever I wanted. With Divine Speed and Talaria, I was just too fast.
At that moment, a completely unexpected feeling of freedom rose up within me. I felt like the wind that could fly to anywhere I wanted. I immediately understood what this feeling was, but as I was in the dungeon, Sherafina kindly explained it to me.
[You perfectly took in Hermes’ power. As a result, Hermes’ authority strengthens. Your speed increases by an additional 10%. Talaria’s duration increases to two hours per day. You obtained a new authority, Petasos.]
[Petasos refers to the travel hat worn by the Messenger God Hermes. A symbol of Hermes on the same level of fame as Talaria, Petasos cannot display its full strength alone. It can only be summoned for 10 minutes a day while Talaria is active.]
[While Petasos is active, your speed will triple. This speed applies to both movement speed and attack speed, as well as the processing speed of your brain. As it places a heavy burden on your body and brain, your body and soul must be sturdy and of a high league to use it.]
“What...? Triple the speed and it doesn’t even turn me red...!?”[1. This is some Gundam reference (author going full Gundam recently, huh).]
Now that I thought about it, Hermes’ winged hat was just as famous as his winged sandals.
Korea’s famous search engine[2. Naver.] also referenced Hermes’ hat for its logo. In any case, I blamed myself for only having unlocked Hermes’ final power now.
“There were many situations in the past where I needed to move quicker...”
The fact that I only obtained Petasos now could only mean that I always had a sense of leisure somewhere in my heart!
“I only obtained all of Hermes’ power on the 86th floor. How can I not be disappointed with myself?”
Even as I said that I was cutting apart hundreds of bullets while flying around the sky with Divine Speed. The number of robots was increasing. Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind. Wasn’t this the first time I used Divine Speed to this extent? Not the skill version of Divine Speed, but the Divine Speed I learned with my body.
“Not to mention, Sharan’s not here too.”
Perhaps, not relying on Sharana’s power and using my own ability with Talaria was what unlocked Hermes’ final power. Of course, the truth was in the dark. What was important now was that I was like the Red Comet[3. Looks like it was a Gundam Unicorn reference? I didn’t watch the show so I wouldn’t know]... Err, that I could move extremely fast.
Since I didn’t know how long I would stay on the 86th floor, there was no reason for me to hold back this newly acquired power. After all, I could use this power once per day!
“Petasos!”
Along with my courageous roar, a white light enveloped my helmet. In a moment, a small pair of feathered wings grew behind the helmet. At the same time, I felt like I was struck in the head with a hammer.
“Ah, right! The speed of my conscious... triples too!”
My head became filled with all sorts of thoughts whenever I entered a battle, but now, it was even harder to cope with everything in my head and I felt a splitting headache. All sorts of thoughts rose up in my mind and were amplified endlessly. If used wrongly, this power could cripple a person!
However, I was someone who had climbed 86 floors of the First Dungeon. I couldn’t bow down and kneel because of my own power. Not to mention, I was in a battlefield raining bullets! I quickly expanded Peruta Circuit and created a giant whirlpool to shield my body. At the same time, I tried my best to push away all the useless thoughts that popped up in my head. Then, I began to fill my head with what I needed to do.
My intelligence stat, boosted by many titles, was finally making full use of its strength. I didn’t think intelligence would help me clear my mind this much. If nothing else worked, I would have even tried punching myself!
[I am Dortu. Master, are you okay?]
[Master, you got hit several times! Are you really okay?]
I replied calmly.
“I’m fine.”
Getting hit by a few bullets wasn’t enough to kill me. Although I would be injured, no attacks could break through Peruta Circuit’s whirlpool and maintain enough force to deal a fatal blow. I set priorities on thins I needed to do and focused on one thought at a time. With my quickened conscious, I could make decisions more quickly, and as my movement speed was also increased, I didn’t suffer from any lag in carrying out my thoughts.
The result was excellent. I blocked all the attacks I wanted to block and destroyed attacking robots at a speed even I found shocking. However, the most important thing was finding the stairway to the next floor! I recalled the layout of the floor I mapped out over the last day and calculated the path we needed to take.
Petasos could only be maintained for ten minutes. I had to come up with a conclusion and set up my course of action during this time.
“Dortu, how long do you need to dominate all of them?”
[I am Dortu. After destroying about 40% of their current forces, I will need 28 minutes.]
“Good, then we’ll go with that.”
During this ten minutes, we’ll go wild and pave our way forward!
I also wanted to find out how they were shooting up from the ground. Although it wouldn’t help us deal with them, it would undoubtedly help me when I fight the Eliminator’s main body on the 90th floor.
“Dortu, I’m going to lessen that time by a third, got it?”
[I am Dortu. What should I do?]
“Do what you did before where you detonated a few of them. I’ll transfer the detailed plan to your head, so you can just carry it out. Got it? Elemental Tempest!”
First, I sent a special massive-scale Elemental Tempest that took 370,000 mana points at the army of robots.
Immediately afterward, Dortu received my command and mana, and he instantly strengthened three of his robots. While I guarded them against the enemy’s attacks, Dortu’s threw them into the enemy’s forces. Then, he detonated them! Although this resulted in our forces being temporarily weakened, the mana massively released from the explosion wore down countless robots. When Dortu’s other robots shot follow-up bullets, many more robots turned to our side.
[I am Dortu. Propagation speed increased.]
“We’re going to keep doing the same thing, Dortu. Don’t worry about my mana.”
[I am Dortu. Dortu really likes Master.]
Detonating a few robots and pulling in even more robots to our side. This method wasn’t particularly difficult to pull off. But the reason we could only do it now was because of my mana. As this method constantly used a huge amount of mana, Dortu’s robots would eventually run out of bullets.
Now that I had Petasos, things were different. I was taking in more mana than Dortu could spend. When my quickened consciousness and quickened Peruta Circuit harmonized with Absolute Soul, an enormous amount of mana that felt almost like all existing mana in this place came under my control. Could this be Petasos’ real ability?
In truth, I was a bit let down that Hermes’ final authority only tripled my speed, but I was gravely mistaken. Petasos was Hermes’ most violent ability. It was an absolute power that let me imitate a god!
... Of course, the downside was that it had a time limit like Overlord.
“All of you, die! No, become mine!”
I shouted excitedly. The feathered wings adorning my helmet spread out beautifully, and the sound of detonating robots resonated throughout the battlefield. To me, it sounded no different than a touching ballad.
Just 28 hours afterward, I successfully broke through the 86th floor. However, there was something I realized only afterward. The army of robots Dortu and I spent so much effort to amass couldn’t be brought along to the 87th floor! Since we couldn’t even bring them with us to Beyond, we had to destroy them all before we left the 86th floor.
“...”
[I am Dortu. Must we start from the beginning on the 87th floor?]
“Yeah, Dortu.”
I replied dejectedly.
“People call this a waste of time.”
[I am Dortu... Dortu hates wasting time.”
The master and servant reached a strong agreement.
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