Chapter 120 – 17th Floor.

A sophisticated silver trajectory contacts an unholy thing with rotting flesh, and without resistance, it glides through, leaving a long line from head to groin before touching the floor.

Slash—

Only after a considerable delay does the corpse split into two parts and collapse, spreading foul rotten odor and viscous putrid blood.

The sword that displayed such artistry was smoothly retrieved by a knight clad in plate armor that was visibly sturdy at a glance.

“Hup..!”

The knight didn’t stop there.

With a short battle cry, the heavy body exploded forward with force that seemed impossible, kicking off the ground and advancing while skillfully rotating the sword that had been drawn back and pointed forward at head height, creating a powerful horizontal slash enhanced by the centrifugal force.

Swoosh—!

Once again, a silken silver trajectory spread through the air.

In an instant, three heads of the undead—twisted and dried beyond recognition, animated by unholy magic—flew through the air.

Roll-roll-roll—

The heads rolled on the floor like balls, and the dolls that had been blocking the way collapsed.

And before those corpses could kneel on the floor.

Bang!!!

The emaciated body shattered into fragments, bursting into pieces of flesh that showered onto the silver knight.

And hiding within that shower, approaching, was a black blade filled with death.

But the knight was a veteran who had survived a lifetime on the line between life and death. His instincts rather than thoughts moved his body to detect and counter the killing blow hidden among the showering flesh pieces.

At the same time, with the self-confidence to easily see through this level of killing intent, he did not go against those instincts.

The elegant silver sword and the gloomy-colored blade full of malice crossed each other, sweeping past like a man and woman dancing the waltz, their blades sliding against each other.

Srrrrring—

A long metallic cry.

“If you’re trying to kill me with a surprise attack, you’re 100 years too early!”

With the knight’s roar, flesh pieces heavily soiled the smooth surface of the plate armor, and with a clang clear sound, the crossguard of the Death Knight with red glowing eyes clashed with the crossguard of the knight exuding a cool presence.

Swords deeply intersecting to form a cross.

In a struggle between the living and the undead, such a position is disadvantageous for the living.

For this reason, the knight stepped back while pushing up with force on the handle to keep the blade from reaching his neck, lowering his posture.

Kigigigik—!

However, the Death Knight was once a knight who protected someone or stood at the vanguard.

Displaying his lifetime skills, he pressed down from above while simultaneously raising his knee to deliver a kick to counter the old knight’s response.

If he dodges the kick, the sword will strike down on his weakened arms; if he continues to resist, his posture will collapse.

A situation where neither choice is good, a forced selection of 1.

Nevertheless, the knight wasn’t particularly anxious.

“Can’t even sense presence when you’re dead? Indeed, this world is better than the next, even if it’s a field of dog shit.”

Pheeeeeeeee—

A sound like blowing a grass whistle, thin and high-pitched.

But what the source of that sound created was not as trivial as the sound itself.

Bang—!!

With a sound like a large bomb exploding, the head of the Death Knight, who had been wearing a thick helmet, disappeared from its place as if snatched by a hawk catching a rabbit, becoming like Dullahan from legend.

“Don’t you agree? Lizard monster.”

“If you wanted to die so badly, I should have just left you to die, old human.”

Thud.

The old knight roughly pushed over the headless corpse, letting it fall to the floor, and as he rotated his stiff shoulders, he turned his head toward the source of the voice, where another knight existed.

A dragon-knight with prominent large black horns and a thick tail—a form mixed with something inhuman.

And in the dragon-knight’s empty hand, the spear that had just been thrown appeared as if it had always been there.

“So how many did you get?”

“More than you can see here.”

Behind the dragon-knight stretched a path of flesh pieces torn and crushed beyond recognition.

The old knight nodded once after looking at his own path.

The dozen or so meat cubes he had cleanly cut didn’t bleed as much.

‘Is this all you get even after drinking the potion? What a monster…’

Despite the prime power overflowing from his body, the clear difference meant this lizard had transcended the realm of ordinary creatures. Rather than comparing and feeling inferior, it was best to just curse once internally, spit on the ground, and ignore it.

“Tsk… It’s strange how they keep coming endlessly as if they know where we are. And there’s no sign of the young man. So what are you doing standing there?”

The dragon-knight had been turning his head around, but at some point, his gaze became fixed in a certain direction, and he had been staring into empty space for quite a while.

Seeing the dragon-knight distracted as if something were there, the old knight scratched his helmet with his pommel, then placed his sword on his shoulder and walked toward the dragon-knight.

The placement of the undead, as if they knew they would come this way.

The waves of undead being consumed to push them to their limits made the old knight’s tongue occasionally dry up.

Moreover, without seeing aaaa, who could be considered the center, it would be safer to stick together.

“Can’t you see it?”

“See what exactly?”

Approaching the dragon-knight with such thoughts, the old knight couldn’t help but make a slightly annoyed expression at the dragon-knight’s incomprehensible words.

Of course, it wouldn’t be visible behind his visor.

“The movement of souls. Souls from the corpses we just crushed are flowing in one direction, old human.”

“I can’t understand… You can see that?”

“Mm. It seems to be an ability I gained after becoming this body. Above, they would just float around and disappear somewhere, but here it’s different.”

At these words, the old knight could only scratch his head, even removing his helmet this time.

For him, an ordinary human, it wasn’t particularly easy to understand.

“Then we should follow it.”

The old knight thought that following it might lead to a path down or traces of the Necromancer that aaaa had mentioned.

The dragon-knight, who could see the path of translucent, painfully howling souls, felt the same way, so their direction was decided.

Clank The sound of armor joints folding and metal hitting the floor echoed through the long corridor, and soon the two knights, having stopped in their tracks, let out different exclamations of wonder.

“My my…”

“How dreadful.”

What the two pairs of eyes captured was a single pillar.

A massive pillar made of a material that looked like transparent glass or crystal, reaching up to the ceiling, allowing what was inside to be seen.

And…

Help me it hurts why let me out it hurts I’ve done nothing wrong please at least save my child I’ll give you money it’s a monster don’t kill what are you doing is there no knight out there mommy help me it’s hot my arms won’t move………

Murmurings so small that they would be dismissed as noise if not listened to carefully came from inside the pillar.

Most were life-begging or tear-mixed screams.

With each one that rose, a face appeared as if rubbed against the pillar wall, showing its owner, then disappeared, repeating this cycle.

“What on earth is this object…”

“A soul prison, perhaps.”

The dragon-knight discerned the identity of this pillar with his own eyes.

More precisely, it was close to what he had expected, but if that was the right answer, it wasn’t wrong either.

“It seems the souls we tracked were sucked into this.”

“…Such a thing can’t be possible.”

“Old human, I won’t dissuade you from judging with your limited insight, but denying something that clearly exists before you isn’t very desirable.”

The old knight’s gaze fixed on the dragon-knight, but as if unconcerned, the heavy footsteps advanced forward once.

And the sharp spear was aimed at the pillar.

“I will destroy it.”

Kwaaaaaaaang———!!!

With that declaration, the 17th floor of the Infinite Gallery of Knowledge, the Art Gallery, shook violently.

With a massive shockwave, Levand, with fire under his feet, headed toward the hiding place using the path-breaking guy as a guide, unable to spare the leisure to deal with the bastard’s antics of joining him, grinding his teeth loudly.

Kwaang—!!

“Hey, friend. If you grind your teeth like that, you’ll suffer in old age~”

“Shut up..!”

How prickly he is. Is there anyone else who cares about him like I do?

That’s why he has no friends.

Well, he probably killed them all anyway.

Regardless, I very comfortably followed behind Levand, who had already smashed the seventh wall with just a wave of his hand, as if I were sightseeing.

Though he tried to shake me off by sending spirits or corpses, I wasn’t so pathetic that I couldn’t keep up with him as he slowed down to deal with such things by smashing walls one by one.

‘If I can’t handle this after coming down this far, I’d have to restart.’

17th floor. In other words, the late tens is the timing to complete the build and then focus on internal stability.

If you’ve succeeded in stable growth according to plan, the early stages are a survival story of barely staying alive, the middle stages are about growth, and the late stages approach hack-and-slash.

Of course, with the peculiarity of Onahole, I was already at a level where I could massacre.

“Hrngh..!”

And so, after more than a dozen times.

After breaking that many walls, a massive presence of power was finally felt.

Behind a pure white art gallery wall with no particular distinctive features other than darkened blood droplets dried on it.

That’s where Levand’s source exists.