- Dragon Demon King) Beltui – Have you decided who to do the interdimensional trade with~?

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) Not sure yet. Still kinda ambiguous.*

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – If you’re worried about losing your life, I have something to give you~.

...Huh?

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) What is it.*

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – It’s my blood~.

...Blood?

ㄴ Sword of Light) ? You’ll die.

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – Look at it objectively~. My blood will be very helpful in this kind of unexpected situation~.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) What effect does it have.*

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – Think of it as producing a similar power to that 'Extreme Breath' that a climber once consumed~.

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – Except it has far less recoil or aftereffects~.

ㄴ Archmage) The amplified power itself would be stronger with your blood, right?

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – That’s right~. Especially things like raw physical strength will dramatically surge in an instant~. The density and efficiency of mana within the body will also rise~.

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – As expected, the Archmage knows how to make objective judgments~.

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – The dosage I’ll send is enough to make the climber’s body go pop if you take it all at once, so take only half per dose~. You can use it twice in total~.

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – And once Dragon Blood flows through your body, your physical durability will increase permanently~. Mana control will also improve slightly~.

ㄴ Sword of Light) ...Yeah, with this level of effect, it makes sense for you to accept it. Han Yuseong.

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – See? Even Sword agrees, setting aside personal feelings for the sake of what the climber needs~.

ㄴ Sword of Light) You’ll seriously die.

ㄴ Dragon Demon King) Beltui – Beltuihihihit~

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) OK, then one is confirmed to be your blood.*

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) The other one, I’ll keep considering.*

ㄴ Archmage) But hey, Sword, have you tried using dimensional trade again for the Holy Sword Fragment?

ㄴ Sword of Light) Nope. As expected. It won’t even register in the item listing window.

ㄴ Admin) Probably means they won’t let you use the same method twice.

ㄴ Archmage) So I guess now you’re going to repair it again...?

ㄴ Sword of Light) Yeah, gotta repair it now.

ㄴ Still didn’t repair it yet...

ㄴ That broken holy sword is basically an angel. An angel.

***

Flinch—

A woman was fidgeting deep within a cave. 【Dragon Demon King】, Belortea, scratched her red hair.

“Hm...! Is it too filthy to send blood like this?”

Belortea clapped her hands. Suddenly, a torrent of water poured down from the cave ceiling.

She clapped again, and the stream wrapped around her body, then slowly evaporated after a moment.

“Hmhmmhm.”

Belortea tied up her now-dry red hair into a ponytail.

“It’s been so long since I’ve extracted blood~.”

She raised her snow-white left arm. Then—

Kiiiing!

She picked up a stiletto-shaped blade from the floor.

“Sterilization...!”

She lightly heated the blade and pricked the inside of her arm. There was no real need to sterilize it, anyway.

She collected the blood in a small vial.

Swish—

“Would it be nice to add some sweetness~?”

Belortea stared at the vial for a long time, lost in thought.

“To think my blood will swim through the climber’s body...! It makes me feel sooo good~!”

A rare thrill shimmered in her eyes.

***

The Dragon Blood from senior Belortea was received later that very night. What she wanted in return... was ramen.

She seemed curious about how ramen tasted. She mentioned she added sweetness to the blood, but I still had no idea what that even meant.

I’d only know once I actually consumed it.

It had been four days since the first root was paralyzed. The progress of paralyzing Dranas’s roots was going smoothly.

Two out of the remaining five were paralyzed.

Now, only three remained.

Originally, I had planned to deal with one per day by myself. But thanks to those damned Formed Fragments repeatedly blocking the path—both for the Silane warriors and for me and Ban Iner—it became impossible.

Of course, I still checked the gallery in the meantime.

- Heavenly Demon) What do you think of that Ban person’s potential? I didn’t sense anything worth calling Pandemonium-level talent.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) Nah, you’re wrong.*

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) ?

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) Her footwork is definitely different. I didn’t notice on the first day, but when fighting multiple opponents—it’s obvious.*

ㄴ ‘?’

ㄴ Whoa, rebutting Heavenly Demon himself.

ㄴ Shrine Maiden) Hawawawawa! Kyahaha~!

ㄴ FamousPerson) The Shrine Maiden’s laughter is quite hearty, indeed.

ㄴ Archmage) LOL okay that was kinda funny.

ㄴ Just jumps in saying “the footwork is different” lmao~~

ㄴ Spear King) Hahaha.

ㄴ Even as a Murim guy, at least laugh with a bit of dignity.

ㄴ I was walking past Yue’s family just now, and her laughter echoed like hell. Not just five, more like ten-levels loud.

ㄴ Man, our climber’s already rebutting like that on the 13th floor. By Floor 50, it’ll be “No, you’re wrong!” fights every day, lololol.

ㄴ Sword of Light) He did look composed in the earlier footage.

ㄴ Gutter Swordsman) Yeah, looked like he clearly knew how to extend his attacks.

Well.

It’s not like I was crazy enough to claim what the Heavenly Demon said about martial arts philosophy was right or wrong.

I just commented because I had clearly seen something in Ban Iner that others didn’t.

Over the past five days, I saw that Ban would scale her abilities in proportion to her opponents’ strength. Hide 30% of your strength.

That’s one of the martial doctrines the Heavenly Demon once talked about. And it looked like Ban was putting that into practice.

Whenever something unpredictable happened, she adjusted the release of her power accordingly. That was how Ban Iner seemed to fight.

So three days ago, I asked Ban to teach me her swordsmanship.  Her reaction was lukewarm.

“Why would you learn my sword style? Yours is better.”

She said that, though while fiddling with her sword sheath, as if pondering something, then added—

“Light swords and curved swords... I could teach you those.”

And so, Ban taught me swordsmanship. Continually.

“Narrow your shoulders more. That allows more efficient movement.”

“Got it.”

Starting with stance.

“Slice wide, horizontally.”

She taught swordsmanship well, but what Ban really wanted to teach me... was archery.

“Firing a bow brings peace to the mind and body.”

Ban explained, her blue eyes gazing at me, as she handed me a spare bow and arrows from her inventory.

“When you draw and shoot, you have to focus on that moment. It clears your head instantly.”

She was incredibly passionate about explaining archery. It came through.

“You need to judge the wind, the distance to the target. Take a deep breath.”

She corrected my posture.

The warmth from her hands flowed into me.

“Now let the string go.”

The arrow flew forward in a fluid arc.

“Let’s shoot together now.”

Ban Iner stood side by side with me and drew her bowstring.

“Be aware, but don’t focus. It sounds contradictory, but since you’ve used the sword a lot, you get it, right?”

“Yeah, I get it.”

I didn’t actually have that much sword experience, but I understood what she meant in principle.

Slaaash—

Ban and I watched the arrows trace their trajectories.

Just like Ban said.

Creak—

Nocking, drawing, and releasing—the whole process calmed my body and mind. The surroundings were always silent.

The Silane warriors kept a respectful distance and didn’t interrupt us.

“This is a gift.”

Ban handed me a quiver filled with arrows.

The bow was named [Xian of the Other Shore].

“Thanks.”

“No need. We’re a team once we get to Floor 14 anyway.”

I widened my eyes at that.

Could we really be?

...If we could, I thought, that would be really nice.

Once again, Ban and I stood side by side and released our arrows.

Three more days passed.

We paralyzed one more root.

Only two roots remained now.

“Alright! Let’s energetically go paralyze another root today!”

Turiana raised her hand and shouted with vigor.

“Yeah.”

I wondered if all Silane were this high-energy, but no—it was just Turiana who was abnormally hyped.

Once again, we left the Fragment swarm to the thirty-two Silane warriors and headed inside the cave toward the pillar.

The Worst lunged at us.

A massive sweeping attack that filled our entire vision.

Ban and I leapt up ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) at the same time.

Leaving behind a chilly arc, we sprinted forward together.

After the first root paralysis, we’d restructured our battle method.

We now fought The Worst together. Then, once it was injured enough, one of us would move to paralyze the root.

Ban and I stepped forward simultaneously.

This time, The Worst had a bright red body.

Ban’s sword slashed diagonally. I slashed horizontally.

I was startled. And it looked like Ban was, too.

An illusion.

This fifth Worst moved like a ghost.

The skill level was clearly above that of the previous four.

Tsstssts...!

The Worst began spreading a red domain across the floor.

“Ban, that.”

At my words, Ban nodded.

“Yeah. Looks like a Domain.”

...You bastard.

Weren’t the Worst not supposed to be able to use Domains?

We had a real variable now.

I immediately pulled out my terminal and activated Visographica.

Just then—

Crackle! Snap!

A rift tore open in the air.

Another Worst with an ant head appeared.

Kirrk.

Four of them in total.

Beneath their feet, the same red aura churned.

Five Worst, all seemingly at Sixth Rank.

Why did someone as powerful as Ban Iner die on Floor 13?

I thought—maybe this was the reason.

Even if she’d succeeded up to this point, she would’ve died here.

Even I felt like I was facing death now.

Shlup—

I jabbed the Dragon Blood serum into my side.

And then the Extreme Breath as well.

- Dragon Demon King) After the Extreme Breath ends, the rebound will be suppressed by the Dragon Blood~.

Crack!

A jolt of pain split through my brain. A twisting sensation surged from my toes upward.

But now wasn’t the time to care about that.

First—I had to survive.