Chapter 616
Leveling with the Gods
[Level Up with God Side Story Episode 92]
* * *
Hwii-.
The sound of the wind tickled my ears.
When I came to my senses, Ananta was standing somewhere.
It was not under the sea of Tartarus.
I could feel the feel of the hard ground and the smell of dirt through my nose.
âWhere is it? âThis place.â
Did I even fall asleep?
Or did I end up here in the blink of an eye?
As I looked around, I saw dead black bushes and trees, and a purple sky.
And audible.
Meeee-.
The sound of a mountain goat.
It wasnât one direction.
The sound of mountain goats coming from all over the forest gave Ananta an unfamiliar kind of chill.
And that moment.
A final memory appeared in Anantaâs mind.
âIt was clear thenâ¦â
Something huge was opening its mouth beneath his feet.
He thought he would be eaten and swallowed by it, but his body was fine.
The same was true for the wound on his stomach where he had been pierced by a spear.
It wasnât completely cured, but as time had passed, the bleeding had stopped to some extent.
âIs it because of the wound?â
stroke-.
I turned my head to the familiar voice.
Right behind.
There was Yuwon, leaning against a tree.
âItâs too late to come to your senses.â
âWere you hiding here?â
âDoes that sound a bit strange?â
Yuwon asked back as if it were absurd.
âWhy did I hide, why did I hide, to avoid you?â
ââ¦.â
I had nothing to say.
Clearly, until just a moment ago, the victory was tilted toward Yuwon.
Ananta knew that too.
I only said that because Yuwon disappeared.
âWhere are we?â
âBlack Forest.â
âBlack Forest?â
âThatâs where those guys used to live. âWith their mother.â
Meeee-.
Meeeeeee-.
Mountain goats bleating as if responding to Yuwonâs words.
Their cries continued to give Ananta a strange feeling.
Even though I wasnât afraid of the goats, my whole body felt creepy.
But it didnât matter where there were or how many mountain goats there were.
âWhat would be different if we changed the location?â
Chiji chijiji-.
For some reason, the wound on my stomach has improved considerably.
I also had enough stamina. My condition wasnât bad to fight again.
but.
âWill it change?â
There was a reason Yuwon called him here, even giving Ananta time to recover.
âYes. a lot.â
Cheok-.
Startle-.
Ananta winced as he felt the same feeling as before.
Under your feet. The land turned black.
Inside, I saw something huge, indescribable, that I had seen before I lost consciousness for a moment, with its mouth open.
âAs I said before, this is a place called the Black Forest.â
Jeopuk-.
Yuwon turned his back from the tree he was leaning against and approached Ananta.
âThere are things everyone doesnât know. âWe mistakenly believe that the strength of the Outers we overcame is due to all they have experienced.â
As Yuwon said that, he thought to himself.
âSo did I.â
It was something I had no choice but to not know because I had never experienced it before.
It was natural.
Because no player has crossed the wall created by Azathoth.
However, after obtaining Azathothâs memories, Yuwon was able to learn one shocking fact.
âThey have a hard time breathing comfortably inside the tower. âItâs natural that the forces that form the foundation of the world are different.â
Outside of the tower.
The power used by the Outers had a completely different nature from the âmagic powerâ that made up the world of the tower.
Just like fish canât live outside.
And just as humans cannot breathe underwater, they also could not breathe comfortably and use their strength inside the tower.
Thatâs why they needed âYog Sothosâ.
Sky of the world.
The roof of the world where they can breathe comfortably.
âAnd that goes for me too.â
âYouâ¦â
My body feels
numb .
Ananta realized the identity of the creepy feeling he had been feeling earlier.
A forest where the ground and trees had turned black.
This was not a simple place.
âThe forest is alive.â
The goat of the Black Forest with a thousand cubs.
The name representing Shub Nigguras was not simply the name of a thousand goats. The
real power of the name lies not in âa thousand cubsâ but in the âBlack Forestâ. There was.
Jiik-.
Horns sprouted from the trees of the Black Forest.
Under the sprouted horns, the head and body of a goat grew, and a small mountain goat appeared.
Meee-.
The goat that had come to life blinked. He cried for the first time.
Ananta, who had seen the process of a mountain goat being born in the Black Forest for a moment, opened his mouth in bewilderment.
âWhat theâ¦â
âAnyone can become a mountain goat here.â
Yuwon spoke while stroking the head of a newborn goat.
âThe power and soul of the living. And using flesh as fertilizer, this forest moves infinitely.â
There were countless bodies and souls melting in the black forest.
This forest was that kind of place.
âYou could be more valuable than tens of thousands of rankers.â
Chick-.
Ananta lowered his head in surprise at the sound he heard beneath his feet.
Scratch marks on the ground.
It was like I took a step back to get away from Yuwon without realizing it.
âYou have to run away. No, can you run away?â
Running away wasnât the problem.
Ananta was not so irrational that he risked his life for things like pride.
Rather, he pursued utility more than anyone else.
If you donât think you can win, just back out.
I had done this once before, so it wasnât a difficult choice.
but.
Things are different now than then.
âIt should have been like this from the first time I went to get you.
âI should have dragged him here first and made sure he could never escape.â
Yuwon recalled the first time he went to catch Ananta.
Even at that time, Yuwon was confident.
No matter how much of a monster king he is, he will never lose.
But he made his own mistake.
Ananta chose to run away.
Moreover, he strived for perfection even to the point of giving up half of his hair.
Itâs okay to lose in power.
If you donât have enough strength, just increase your strength.
If you canât do it alone, gather some colleagues.
But no matter how much I thought about it, the mistake I made at that time was unacceptable.
I was able to catch enough.
If only we had prepared a proper fighting platform like usual.
âNow choose.â
With the hand holding the knife lowered.
âShould I fight more or give in?â
Yuwon asked him with a visible gap.
Are you still planning on fighting?
What decision will Ananta make to that question?
Even Yuwon couldnât know that.
However, I thought it didnât matter either way.
You either decide to fight despite the gap or you just give in.
There was nothing strange about either one.
And a few seconds later.
Ananta made a decision.
Kwarung-!
Ananta suddenly unleashes an electric shock towards Yuwon.
Tsutsutsu-.
And the name of âFoolish Chaosâ stood in front of Yuwon.
The erupted electricity was blocked by chaos and disappeared as if it had never existed from the beginning.
And at that moment, as if there was no need to hear any more answers, mountain goats jumped out from all over the black forest.
Meeeeeee-.
Meeee-.
The mountain goats of the Black Forest recognized the person with the name as their mother.
They were angry at Ananta for attacking their mother.
As the entire Black Forest became commotion, Ananta felt even more chilled than before.
âThis is the answerâ¦â
Anantaâs body radiated light and transformed into the shape of a dragon.
Kyaaa!
Again.
A golden dragon whose entire body was covered in electricity appeared in the black forest.
With hundreds of heads.
-Letâs try again.
* * *
Anantaâs resistance was fierce.
Kurung Kwauung-!
Flash-!
Even though he lost a significant number of his heads, he blew out breath with his remaining heads and flew into the sky like Zeus. It brought about a thunderstorm.
However,
more than anything else, the place was bad.
All of Anantaâs attacks could not pierce the foolish chaos surrounding Yuwonâs body.
The teeth of chaos bit into his entire body, and the mountain goats attacked Anantaâs body. It ate his eyes and flesh.
Maaaaa!
The mountain goat, which had suddenly become bigger than Ananta due to its unnamed gigantic size, grabbed Anantaâs torso.
And in the meantime, it
took another shot at Yuwon, who was unable to concentrate for a moment. A spear flew in.
[âNirâ starts up.]
Tsutsutsu-.
Quauung-!
The spear accelerated along with the javelin and pierced Anantaâs torso.
Even though he wasnât, Ananta had suffered countless wounds.
And that Ah . For Ananta, Nirâs start was enough to be the final blow.
Gii-ing.
A bright light enveloped Anantaâs body once again.
Soon, he returned to the appearance of a man who was badly injured and his entire body was in tatters.
He could no longer stand up . As if he didnât have the strength to stand.
He
collapsed on the floor.
The teeth were trying to swallow Ananta.
Yuwon quickly waved his hand.
âNo, that. Donât eat it.â
[âAmorphous Spiritâ â tilts its head.]
[âAmorphous Spiritâ â complains of hunger.]
âIf you want to eat, Iâll give you another one. âJust wait a moment.â
[âAmorphous Soulâ â is troubled.] [
âAmorphous Soulâ â nods its head.]
Suuuu-.
The huge tooth that appeared in the black forest has disappeared.
In the first place, Ananta was a being inside the tower.
Although he had great power, he was not the type of person to swallow amorphous chaos.
The real meal is next time.
Yuwon took down his name and looked at Ananta, who was completely devastated.
âHonestly, Iâm shocked.â
There was a bigger hole in my stomach than before, and my arms and legs were so tattered that it felt like they would tear off if I squeezed them with my hands.
He looks like he canât fight anymore.
He looked down at the hole in his stomach, which was the biggest wound, and muttered in a self-deprecating voice.
âI knew I couldnât win, but I never thought the difference would be this big.â
Fighting when you know you will lose is never a pleasant feeling.
Still, I couldnât run away.
This was because I knew that this entire forest was the territory of the amusement park.
It is right not to fight losing.
Nevertheless, the reason Ananta was able to fight was because he read Yuwonâs mind.
of course.
âI knew you had no intention of killing me.â
Yuwon also knew of Anantaâs confidence.
Killing him doesnât do much good.
From the beginning, Yuwon reached out to Ananta.
Help yourself fight.
If you do that, they will give you freedom under certain conditions.
This fight started over that.
At least for Ananta, it is a fight that is very advantageous to him as his life is guaranteed.
Knowing that, Ananta was able to fight without giving up.
And the result.
âI lost completely.â
Ananta had no choice but to submit to Yuwon.
âI wish it had been like this from the beginning. âIsnât it a waste of all the hard work you put into it?â
In this fight, Ananta lost half of the hair he had collected.
And that meant that Anantaâs power, which grew stronger by eating the lives of others, was reduced by half.
But just because it was Ananta, it didnât mean he didnât know it.
âWe just need to collect that again. The prey is spread out there.â
There were no shortage of ways to recover.
Ananta looked up at Yuwon and grinned as if he knew everything.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
âIsnât it obvious that this is what you will do anyway?â