Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 270

It had a head like a cross between a dragon and a snake—basically, the head of a giant snake but with dragon horns. From the shoulders down, its body looked like a leopard or a tiger, but instead of the claws of a large feline, it had the hooves of a stag.

‘What the hell is that?’

It was gigantic. Just as the dungeon Gate was huge, so was the body of the creature trying to get out of it.

‘Wait… How can a monster be that tall? It is as tall as the dungeon Gate!’

?Hm… That is…?

‘Cheok-Liang, do you recognize that?’

?I think it is a creature from the legend of King Arthur. It looks a lot like the Questing Beast that was said to bring about the destruction of nations. Or maybe it is?Mushkhushshu?from the Sumerian mythology…?

‘I guess we have to see which one it is when it comes out. Wait, no, we can’t let it come out! I need to strike first. I’m not one of those cheesy anime villains who wait for the protagonist to transform into their super-form.’

“I’ll go first, just like before… And then—”

“And then you are going to summon me, right? I’ll be waiting right here!” Reable said with a smirk.

Ji-Cheok nodded, then immediately crossed space. He moved into the atmosphere above Antarctica and pulled a number of items from his Shadow Pouch. They were the spiral spears that he used for orbital bombardment.

He charged dozens of spears with mana. Geometric patterns formed on the spiral spears, and power surged through them.

Then, he crossed space again. He landed on the ground in Antarctica, a few hundred meters from the giant dungeon Gate.

The searing heat was even worse than he had thought. A normal person was bound to collapse and die of heat stroke within minutes here. However, that much heat did nothing to Ji-Cheok. He was already in the state of Diamond Body, so this kind of heat could not harm him.

He stood up against the heat and looked ahead. He saw the giant monster with a body several kilometers tall struggling to get out of the Gate.

Its eyes met Ji-Cheok\'s.

“Cheok-Liang.”

?Yes, Master.?

The fennec slipped from Ji-Cheok’s neck and raced through the air. In a few moments, he reached the top of the dungeon Gate and stood there.

?I am ready, Master.?

‘Good. Let’s get started, shall we?’

“Fall!”

From far away, the dozens of orbital bombardment spiral spears he had scattered through the atmosphere responded to his command. They plummeted into orbit, packed with power. Then the head of the snake that was peeking through the Gate took its eyes off Ji-Cheok and turned to the sky. It was recognizing Ji-Cheok’s attack as a threat.

Light shone from its horns and eyes, and a veil of violet light appeared in the sky.

“Hey, asshole! You shouldn’t take your eyes off your opponent!”

Ji-Cheok had once more assumed the Sword Drawing Art stance.

‘Heaven and Earth Chaotic Dual Polarity Slash! Double Strike!’

Flash!

Crack!

The scales on the monster’s massive neck were sliced off and fell down, leaving behind gaping wounds and fountains of blood.

Splash!

“Huh?”

As it dripped down, the blood of the monster transformed, becoming small insects and snake-like monsters. Their numbers quickly increased from dozens to hundreds and then to thousands.

Since the blood flowed from a massive wound on the neck of a gigantic monster, it was only natural that there would be a ridiculous amount of it—naturally, this gave birth to a mind-numbing number of creatures. Even worse, they were all clearly venomous.

As they hit the ground, the heat and their incredibly toxic venom combined to create toxic fumes that spread all over.

‘Holy crap, they’re annoying.’

“Reable!”

“You called, Master?”

“Don’t call me ‘master’ when I’m not your master. You don’t even think of me as your master, so what’s up with that?”

Reable crossed the space and stood beside him. He was bathed in black energy, and his appearance was unearthly, as if he was wearing a suit of armor made of pure darkness. He definitely looked like the Demon he was.

“Is this your combat mode?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“You can say that. This body is my avatar, but it’s not very good. It’s not like I can evolve into a cultivator like you, Mr. Um, so I have to wrap it up like this.”

“I see. Just do your job then.”

“Huhuhu. I see those are the venomous insects and snakes of the Evil Poison Dragon. Do you want me to kill the dragon also?”

“If you can, please. But before that…”

Ji-Cheok measured the time. From beyond the green veil in the sky, the volley of spears that he had unleashed was coming in fast.

‘Cheok-Liang, start it.’

?Yes, Master! Space! Expand limitlessly and endlessly!?

Apparently, among the formation skills he had learned, there were also some spatial formations. There were also special magic spells that could reinforce said spatial formations.

‘And what is my power? I can use all kinds of skills and spells!’

The power of a spatial formation and the power of spatial magic combined to create a huge spatial rift in the green barrier above the monster.

Woong.

An instant later, a huge spatial rift appeared in front of the monster too. Ji-Cheok’s spears of doom, falling from the sky, were sucked into the rift created by Cheok-Liang.

Ji-Cheok could see the panic in the monster’s eyes.

‘Too late, asshole!’

BOOM!

The hole in front of the monster was directly connected to the one in the sky. The orbital bombardment spears, which had fallen into the latter, burst out of the former with zero loss of inertia. In other words, what had been falling vertically now flew horizontally, their power unabated.

The spears slammed into the creature, ripping into its head and chest and tearing off its hooves, whether of a deer or horse or whatever they were. After passing right through the monster, the spears continued straight into the dark Gate behind it.

[MOOOOOOOOUHHH!]

Half of the monster’s head was blown apart. Bones were exposed, and blood and scales scattered.

Still not dead, the snake-headed monster screamed in agony. More venomous insects and snakes fell to the ground, but they too were torn apart by the bombardment.

When the bombardment ended, the creature collapsed back into the Gate and vanished. All that remained were the surviving insect and snake monsters.

“Wow~ I guess it was not necessary for me to come~” Reable said.

“No. We need you.”

Ji-Cheok raised a finger and pointed to the dungeon.

“We need to destroy that thing.”

“Aha! Just the two of us?”

“Yes. Just the two of us.”

“Huhuhu. Great! Then, what are we waiting for?”

Reable floated up into the air. Ji-Cheok also followed him up. He sheathed his swords, then he clenched both his fists as he pulled his hands back.

Boom! Boom!

His Fist Qi extended from his hands as he punched the air, and all the monsters still peppering the area were blasted into a pulp.

‘Cheok-Liang, call A/B or Ji-Han and tell them to do something about these toxic fumes. If we leave them, they could spread to who knows where.’

?I will message them right away, Master.?

‘Okay. I also need you to stay and keep an eye on the outside. If something happens, you will have to take action instead of me.’

?Leave it to me, Master.?

‘Then, I’ll see you soon.’

Ji-Cheok immediately launched himself toward the dungeon. Reable followed him, and the two of them flew through the Gate of the giant dungeon and into the sub-dimension within.

Roar!

The heat was unbearable. The high temperature that Ji-Cheok had felt outside was child’s play in comparison—a normal person would have been cooked alive upon entering this place.

Ji-Cheok looked around and saw nothing but lava, flames, and rocks in between. There was the snake-headed monster lying in the middle of the lava, writhing in pain from its grievous wounds.

‘Is that thing still alive? By the way, this environment…’

“Isn’t this environment a disadvantage for you, Reable?”

“It is unfavorable because Undead and the fire element don’t get along~ Well, you know what they say~ If you don’t have your gums, you gotta do it with your teeth!”

‘Wait, isn’t it the other way around?’

“Huhuhu. You don’t think I am just an ordinary Necromancer, do you? Since you have become more powerful, I can also do things like this! Watch!”

Darkness emanated out of his body. The dark energy quickly made its way to the ground, covering the lava and the rocks.

Then, a terrifying power surged back up and gathered in the sky, forming a black-colored celestial body that Ji-Cheok instantly named ‘Dark Moon.’

The lava on the ground cooled and hardened into solid rock. The darkness spread like a massive bubble, turning everything gray around them. It was such a bizarre and mighty display that Ji-Cheok could not help but be stunned.

‘What the hell…’

“The negative dimension is a world without a lot of things, and I was born in a world like that. When you connect the negative dimension to a world that is full of energy, it sucks all the energy out of it. It is like when you go out into space without any gear and space sucks out all your body heat.”

“And the Dark Moon?”

“Well, that is the means by which energy goes to the negative dimension, but it is also a reservoir that stores energy in case there is a use for it~ If you blow it up, for instance, you could blow apart this whole sub-dimension! Pretty cool, huh?”

Ji-Cheok’s mouth dropped ajar. The ability to unleash hundreds of thousands of Undead soldiers was one thing, but this was something straight out of a cosmic horror flick.

‘So this is the power of a God after all…’

“By the way, we have some guests,” Reable said while pointing his finger into the distance.

One by one, the inhabitants of this world of lava and rocks appeared.

They did not look like they belonged in this world, however. They were all exactly the same as what Ji-Cheok had seen outside, venomous insects and snakes.

‘That’s weird… In the other dungeons, at least the monsters looked like they belonged in their respective environment. Why the hell are the environment and monsters so mismatched here?’

“It’s weird, right?” Reable asked.

“Huh?”

“The environment and the monsters do not fit together. That’s what you were thinking of, right?”

“You’re a freakin’ mind reader. So, do you know why they’re so different?”

“Sure. This is a dungeon created by more than one God, and it’s very clearly designed to fuck with humanity.”

Then, Reable waved his arms like a conductor at a concert.

“Let’s kill mankind! This dungeon is so well-made. Look!”

He pointed at the monsters.

Venom was oozing out of the bodies of venomous insects and snakes that were rushing toward Ji-Cheok. The venom fell into the lava and instantly vaporized into a toxic cloud.

‘That’s what they did outside. No way…’

“The world of the dead. Some people call it the Death World, or the Dead World. Most living things need oxygen, right? So they try to fill the air with poison to kill the living. Then the corpses rot and give off toxic gas while decaying. And the cycle repeats.”

“......”

Reable chuckled softly and continued to talk.

“The result is a Death World that is uninhabitable to normal life! Oh, and it’s a bit different from the negative dimension because all those dead things are still good nourishment for the Gods.”

Reable grinned sinisterly. He even started mimicking munching on something, and it made Ji-Cheok’s blood boil.

“Those assholes… I just wanna…”

“The majority of the Gods see humans as nothing more than a tasty lunch. That’s the law of the universe.”

The law of the universe Reable was talking about seemed important, but right now, Ji-Cheok needed to focus on what was in front of him. The venomous monsters looked dangerous and powerful at first glance.

The good news was that the gray area created by Reable was expanding very quickly.

‘I just need to do one thing…’

1. The barrier was violet 30 seconds ago. Maybe it’s the poison?

2. This is a Korean proverb that conveys a similar meaning to “Make do with what you have.” The actual proverb is “If you don’t have teeth, use your gums,” but Reable switched the order.