Damn Necromancer

Chapter 421: Ascension Ritual (2)

The middle of the disastrous 130th-floor square.

Kyle stood blankly, strength drained from his two legs.

The gatekeeper of the void he had cut down with all his dying might.

The sight of that massive boss-level monster's head bursting like a watermelon from a single light hand gesture of a country old man leaning on a cane remained like an afterimage.

Kwajik.

That one short syllable of a rupturing sound turned all the pride Kyle had built up his entire life into dust.

'This makes no sense.'

The Sword Demon of the dragonkin.

A top-tier ranker of the 3rd dimension. A genius who had devoted his entire life to the sword.

Such a gatekeeper that he had to give his all to barely cut down, that country old man handled as if taking a stroll while humming a tune.

Of course, from Cedric's perspective, it was a result as natural as breathing. Because his master Kim Minwoo put on the restraints, the stats of the Legion Commanders subordinated to him had also plummeted to the bottom.

However, just because stats were reduced did not mean they regressed from the fundamental stage of the liberation of seals.

Currently, Cedric was in a state where his 3rd seal was released.

The enlightenment etched deep into his soul could not be covered up by something like a system penalty.

Moreover, in the eyes of an existence that had already broken through limits and crossed the wall of transcendence, the gatekeepers who hadn't even stepped over that threshold were no different from oversized sandbags.

'H-how is that possible.'

Kyle stared blankly at the old man's back.

Cedric, no, the old man was already moving his steps leisurely on the stairs heading to the next tier, as if climbing the mountain behind his neighborhood.

Far away near the 150th floor.

"Keoheok! S-save……."

Melorn, the successor of the Ice King race who had come up from another dimension, vomited blood and collapsed.

In all directions around him, five massive gatekeepers in the form of flame golems were pressing down on him.

"Keoheoheok……."

Melorn's frost magic was no longer manifesting as his mana had already run out.

To survive, someone's help was desperately needed, but the challengers who had climbed up to the 200th floor were all too busy finding their own ways to live.

It was the moment the blazing massive fists of the golems were about to fall toward him.

—Pat.

Melorn saw something in the corner of his vision.

A painfully skinny human woman who looked like only bones were left, wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses.

That gloomy country bumpkin everyone had sneered at in the waiting room was passing by him holding open an old book as big as her torso.

Saaaaa—.

An ordinary hand gesture, just like turning a page in a library.

However, with that single movement, the air itself within a 100-meter radius froze to absolute zero.

Jjeojeojeojeok!

The five ice golems pressing down on him simultaneously shattered and scattered as dust.

It was an absolute frost that seemed to distantly surpass the authority of freezing that had protected him his entire life, elevating it to its apex.

The successor of the Ice King race stood blankly, losing his mind.

The frost magic he had honed his entire life was trampled incomparably by a single hand gesture of that painfully skinny human woman.

'Just now…… that woman……?'

The woman had already passed him and was heading to the next tier. As if she was a person who didn't even realize what she had done, she just walked slowly with her nose buried in the thick book.

When Kyle regained his senses at the 130th floor.

He was already hurriedly moving his steps, unable to shake off the remnants of the shock.

'……I must follow that old man!'

His instincts were shouting.

He didn't know what that old man's true identity was.

But if it was a person with such an out-of-standard status, perhaps they could safely take him all the way to the end of these hellish stairs.

His pride was hurt.

To think that Kyle, who had lived haughtily his entire life being called a genius, was reduced to the position of looking at someone's back and following them so disgracefully for the first time.

But surviving came before pride.

Kyle bit his lip and hurriedly began to chase after the old man.

And it was the moment he set foot in the territory of the tier the old man was climbing.

Uuuuung—!

The magic circle engraved on the marble floor fluctuated roughly and spewed a blood-red flash.

The vicious spawn system possessed by this Stairway of Struggle.

It was a rule where as the number of challengers entering a given area increased, the amount of monsters spawned also surged in direct proportion.

Kugugugu!

The space blocking the old man's front distorted, and massive gatekeepers, doubling the existing number, densely formed a barrier.

It was a terrible pressure that made one choke.

'Oops……!'

Kyle's complexion turned pale white.

Because he had followed the old man, the difficulty had doubled.

To those gathered here, other challengers were merely potential competitors.

If it were an ordinary challenger, it was a situation where they would have immediately drawn their sword and cut down the baggage trailing behind them first.

Wasn't the Ascension Ritual a competition in the first place?

There was no existence that would leave alone a sneaky freeloader trying to comfortably suck honey.

Kyle reflexively gripped the hilt of his famous sword tightly and took a defensive stance.

However, the old man's reaction was vastly different from Kyle's thoughts.

Leaning on his cane, he glanced back and merely let out a pishik laugh toward the completely frozen Kyle.

'……?'

There was neither anger nor murderous intent.

It was a nonchalant reaction as if he had just discovered one more pebble rolling on the side of the road.

The old man turned his head back and drew his old cane in the empty air with a light gesture, no different from a moment ago.

In the face of overwhelming power, whether there were ten or twenty monsters, it was merely that the amount of dust swept away by the broom increased slightly.

Saaaaa—.

Beyond the remains of the monsters scattering like dust, the hunched back of the country old man silently climbing the stairs was seen.

However, in Kyle's eyes, that back was never hunched.

It was the back of a legendary martial god, as massive and broad as a great mountain holding up the sky.

As if telling him to follow if he could, a silent permission that only the strong could bestow.

Kyle smoothly released the strength from his hand gripping the sword.

Completely losing his mind, he stared at that broad back and blankly moved his steps following behind.

As Kyle passed the 180th floor while treading the safe trajectory the old man had passed through, he stopped in his tracks once again.

In a corner of the square, a middle-aged woman wearing baggy monppe pants was swinging a market basket.

At that unseemly single motion, the chests of three massive boss-level gatekeepers simultaneously caved in, and they were sent flying tens of meters away and plummeted.

Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!

The hard marble square floor was hollowed out like a massive crater wherever they fell.

Kyle's wide-open mouth did not know how to close.

＊ ＊ ＊

At the same time. The control room of the golden altar overseeing the entire progress of the Ascension Ritual.

Dozens of angel administrators were busily processing data in front of massive mana monitors.

"Chief Administrator! Something strange is happening!"

"What is it?"

"That…… the clear speed of some districts is abnormally fast. It hasn't even been an hour since the ritual started, but some challengers have already entered the 200th-floor section."

"……What? Where?"

"It is District 1. The other districts are at normal speeds, but only here is exceptionally……."

The Archangel flinched and straightened his posture.

"Pull up the data."

"Yes!"

A massive hologram unfolded, displaying the progress of Kim Minwoo's party.

An old man crushing a massive boss with an old cane, a painfully skinny student freezing an entire square just by turning a page, and a middle-aged woman smashing a boss into a crater with a market basket.

"……Hoo?"

An interesting light appeared on the Archangel's face.

"Interesting. It's not even just one person?"

"Yes. It's a whopping five people. They are each challengers registered from completely different dimensions, but all five are passing through the 200th-floor section as if taking a stroll."

"Each from different dimensions?"

The Archangel stroked his chin and stared at the screen.

"…The talents in this year's round are crazy."

"Yes. In fact, all five of them far surpass the genius level of average round challengers. How they all flocked to the same round like this……."

"The causality of the universe sometimes causes such anomalies. Five geniuses of a level hard to see even one of in a single round."

A satisfied smile spread across the Archangel's lips.

"But Chief Administrator, with that kind of clear speed, it seems they will just stroll through up to the 250th floor."

"Hmm."

"Doesn't that lower the status of the ritual? Geniuses should receive trials fitting for geniuses for it to be meaningful."

"That is true."

The Archangel flicked his finger.

"For geniuses of that level, ordinary trials are a waste of time. Let's set up a separate stage to test their true status."

"……Separate?"

"The hidden named boss for breaking through the 500th floor. Release that in advance in the 150th-floor section."

"The 500th-floor boss?"

The administrator raised his head in surprise.

"In simulations, that is an instant-death trial for general challengers……."

"General challengers? Are those passing through the 200th-floor section in an hour general?"

The Archangel snorted.

"It will be an appropriate test for those five. Whether they show their true status, or despair right there on the spot. Either way, good data will accumulate."

"……Understood."

The administrator swallowed his saliva and manipulated the console.

The Archangel looked at the screen with satisfaction and added one last word.

"A good talent discovery report will come out. This round is one that even the higher-ups will find interesting."

＊ ＊ ＊

Kim Minwoo, wearing the mask of a farmer, also climbed the stairs comfortably.

A faint admiration lingered around his mouth.

'Ananke's mask, the performance of this thing is truly more amazing than I thought?'

The disguise mask he was wearing.

And the chaos attribute of Hayangi, who had transformed into a pigeon on his shoulder.

As these two created a synergy, not only was he disguised himself, but the aura of chaos naturally permeated the four Legion Commanders as well, causing the system to recognize them as separate challengers registered from different dimensions.

Added to that…….

'There's no particular restriction from the system's side either.'

At this point, it meant the system couldn't even detect their disguised intrusion.

Nor the fact that the five of them were the same party.

Nor what level their true status was.

A satisfied smile formed on Kim Minwoo's lips.

The disguise kit and chaos. And a 4-stage combo weaving even the thread of fate.

It was an elaborate combination where not a single one could be left out.

But…….

'But, isn't it too easy?'

Kim Minwoo stopped in his tracks.

It didn't even take an hour to reach the 150th floor.

While the Legion Commanders had slaughtered the weak, essentially, the difficulty of this trial itself was too ordinary.

The Ascension Ritual.

The stage of a cosmic trial said to make even an orc into an apostle.

If so, there was no way it would stop at this level.

There had to be something more.

'Or is it this easy because it's still just the first stage at best.'

When he, having thoughts that would make other participants freak out if they saw, was about to climb the next stairs.

Jjeoeeoeoeoeong—!

The sky near the 200th floor began to tear as if slashed by a massive blade.

Beyond the gap of the torn dimension, a massive shadow wrapped in dark red demonic energy slowly descended.

A massive demonic dragon with three heads.

It was a disaster-class boss monster spewing a ferocious aura that could crush a planet.

[Warning! 1,322nd round difficulty adjustment applied!]

[A special named boss of the 500th-floor section descends!]

[The Three-headed Demonic Dragon, the Shadow of Zargas, tests the challengers of the 1,322nd round!]

Kuuuuuung—!

The massive shadow of the demonic dragon covered the square pitch-black.

At that overwhelming pressure, the surviving challengers held their breaths in unison.

"D, damn it……."

"Why is a named boss for clearing the 500th floor here……."

Amidst the screams of the challengers, only Kim Minwoo slowly moved his steps and adjusted his grip on his old sword.

'As expected. It's not a trial to just pass by.'

He smiled with a pik.

Perhaps the system also judged that they needed a test fitting for those who passed in an hour.

Whatever the reason…….

'The board is set.'

A situation where the gazes of the capable participants were flocking toward the Three-headed Demonic Dragon and himself.

It seemed like it would be a good opportunity to recruit believers.

Outwardly disguised as an old sword, Hell Rhapsody began to spew a pitch-black aura above his hand.

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