Chapter 89 – Floor 13: Reunion

Now that I’ve dealt with the Flesh Colossus, the apostate leader will use the Spirit Method to summon it when I go down to Floor 14.

However, there’s still much to do on this floor.

While the broken mine cart’s wild ride let me survey nearly 10% of Floor 13 in an instant, I hadn’t spotted the apostate gathering with Naud’s alcohol or Parasite Mage Mateo.

I walked while spinning a crown from the Flesh Colossus’s silver chest on my finger.

“Are you sure it’s alright to give all of this to me?”

“It doesn’t matter. This is what’s most comfortable for me right now.”

A black knight-like helmet decorated with flowing gold curves on black iron, and thick armor that made Albert’s already large frame appear even larger.

He seemed to have picked up various things along the way, which was better than being nearly naked as when we fought the headless ogre, but even so, it was just low-tier armor.

The silver chest contained either magic-imbued items or the highest tier of equipment available on the current floor, so this alone would provide better defense than all the equipment he had been wearing combined.

I shrugged my shoulders as Albert tapped the clanking armor with his fingers, then showed him the crown.

A sparkling silver crown.

“This is enough for me.”

“If you say so, I gratefully accept.”

The defensive equipment I was wearing was also all tier 4 from the Scout set, plus a stab-proof vest.

By picking things up as I traveled, opening every chest, and gradually purchasing from Maria, I could assemble a decent set regardless of drop luck.

More importantly, I needed to replenish the consumables used to defeat the Flesh Colossus.

I had spares, but they weren’t as explosive as what I’d used—just stat buffs or situation breakers.

It was painful that the silver chest only contained equipment and not high-grade items like the Time Freeze scroll, sheep bomb, or flame potion, but it couldn’t be helped.

“By the way, what’s that crown? Judging by how you went all out, it must be no ordinary item.”

“When did I go all out?”

“You clearly shouted ‘Dunkiyathou!’ and did a somersault in the air…”

Smack!

“Gah!”

I couldn’t help but tremble with fear and anger at the invisible ghost that caused Albert to suddenly clutch his hamstring and collapse.

What a vicious spirit!

***

“Twelve!”

Slash─

A massive trail of a cleaving attack appeared in the air, and a heavy ball fell to the floor and rolled before stopping.

The head of a person with a pained expression, tears and mucus streaming down.

“Whew- finally done.”

Albert shouldered his White-Winged Bird greatsword and opened his visor, dabbing away the sweat on his forehead with a silk handkerchief that was somehow still pristine white without a single stain.

Twelve bodies sprawled on the floor, with twelve heads separated from them.

Crunch.

One head was crushed under the pressure of iron boots, but I felt no sympathy for the sight.

These things rolling on the floor like garbage deserved their fate.

The group of apostates who had stolen Naud’s alcohol had been butchered by Albert, who was now armed with combat techniques and new equipment from somewhere.

‘I knew he was no ordinary man, but he’s even more impressive than I thought.’

In the sewers, he had just been wearing decent equipment but was merely a criminal, yet he managed to coordinate attacks against the Wanderer and land several effective hits on the King of the Sewers. In the tropical rainforest, he crawled through to the end with one arm severed and was even revived at the Healing Spring.

And now, though he fought alongside me, he had slaughtered most of the twelve apostates.

‘Is everyone outside like this?’

Of course, the answer must be no. According to him, he was formerly a Royal Guard.

Being a knight who protected the royal palace would naturally make him strong, but his performance seemed beyond what a merely strong knight could achieve.

‘Could he be a hero?’

The heroes of this otherworld that I’ve seen were either ghosts like Severa, diminished from their heroic days, or lacking self-awareness and under control like Kali, unable to demonstrate their full heroic abilities.

Considering Albert’s age, with his hair beginning to turn white, the idea of him being a hero past his physical prime fit perfectly.

“What are you staring at?”

“When did I stare? Anyway, we’re done here.”

I knocked on the oak barrel in the corner of the room.

Though saliva dripped from my mouth at the liquid inside, more precious than gold, I wiped it away with my sleeve.

“So this is the dwarven alcohol. Dwarven brewed alcohol always has a special taste. No wonder they’re called spirits of brewing rather than spirits of metallurgy.”

“You know it?”

“I bought a few bottles on the black market and drank them. It was always a memorable experience.”

Albert stared into space as if reminiscing about the taste, rubbing the ends of his beard, but I had no intention of letting him taste this barrel.

This wasn’t meant for human consumption.

“Alright, now we need to roll this.”

“I see.”

“What do you mean ‘I see’? Hey, come here and help lift the other side!”

“How harsh…”

***

Rumble rumble rumble rumble─

The cart, loaded with three heavy oak barrels making deep rumbling sounds as they rolled smoothly toward the deeper, darker parts of the abandoned mine.

Naud’s footsteps seemed twice as light as when we first met, having now collected three of the four barrels of alcohol.

“Sigh…”

“Rolling those heavy things at my age is hard on the back…”

I didn’t give a single glance to Albert, who was signaling his discomfort by rotating his waist or thumping it with his fist. Instead, I unscrewed my water bottle and took a refreshing gulp of sweet water.

Then, rummaging through the mimic, I tossed him a bottle of whiskey that had been next to the silver chunks we’d taken from the chest. Only then did Albert’s face brighten.

“Now I think I’ll have some strength.”

I stuck out my tongue at Albert, who was immediately uncorking the bottle and drinking despite not being able to dispel alcohol’s effects instantly like me.

“Keh─ This is excellent. The dwarven alcohol was impressive, but your liquor’s quality is also superb. Where did you get such a thing?”

“The sea.”

“If such alcohol came from the sea, I should have lived by the coast.”

Though it wasn’t the blue sea with salty air, but the sea of information, it wasn’t a lie.

I couldn’t exactly say I got it from Kilmarnock, Scotland, could I?

After tasting the results of 21st-century modern distillation techniques and quality control, Albert kissed the damp glass bottle lovingly and hung it at his side.

“Now, let’s go down.”

“You go ahead. I still have things to do.”

Albert, who was about to follow Naud pulling the cart, paused at my words.

“Will you be alright?”

“Yeah. If you can, escort that drunkard. It would be meaningless if he lost the alcohol again after all the trouble we went through to find it.”

Though he seemed to have some combat ability, he was fundamentally a brewer, not capable of slaughtering attacking apostates like Albert and me, so it seemed quite unsafe for him to be dragging a cart making such loud noises alone.

Albert seemed to understand my meaning, as he nodded and moved forward again.

“I’ll see you again up ahead.”

“It won’t take long.”

Without adding more words, Albert headed into the darkness with a clanking sound.

Only after his figure had completely disappeared did I quietly address a presence that had been waiting behind us.

“I’m alone now as you wanted. Still planning to hide?”

That unpleasant gaze I’d felt on the back of my neck since defeating the Flesh Colossus and recovering Naud’s alcohol.

Neither friendly nor hostile, that lukewarm gaze I’d been feeling—I pursed my lips and turned around.

“Mateo.”

“Good instincts… heh heh…”

There stood a man.

***

Parasite Mage Mateo.

An NPC who could definitely be encountered on Floor 13 of the abandoned mine area, a bizarre individual who cultivated grotesque magical parasites eating away at his own body to counter the god worshipped by the apostates hiding in the mine.

This meant that thousands or tens of thousands of parasites were living inside his body, which resembled a withered old tree.

“You seem to know me well…”

An unpleasant voice like scraping metal.

Something wriggling briefly appeared and disappeared inside the slightly open mouth straining to squeeze air from his vocal cords.

“I know you well. There’s someone I’d like you to heal. I came to ask for your help.”

“Oh… Someone you want me to heal… But I’m not a doctor? Besides, aren’t you alone?”

Mateo looked at me with eyes full of interest.

That sticky gaze was uncomfortable, but I’d seen far more disgusting things than this before.

“You’ve seen everything already.”

“Heh heh… A sealer with unusual power I’ve never seen before. In all my long years, I’ve never encountered such an ability.”

Mateo stroked his dull seaweed-colored hair that looked like it would break if touched, rolled his milky cataract-like eyes, and slowly walked toward me.

A grotesque appearance that made him look more like someone who would serve an evil god than the apostates.

An appearance that might momentarily tempt even a knowledgeable critic who stands one step away from my looks-based supremacism to harbor inappropriate thoughts.

Well… after surrendering his entire being to parasites, it couldn’t be helped.

“Now… show me. This special patient that even I, who am not a doctor, can heal…”

As he came closer, I hadn’t noticed from a distance, but his severely hunched spine still allowed him to look down at me due to his height, making me involuntarily step back.

But I couldn’t say “I’m intimidated by your appearance, so please cover your face,” so I pretended to be unfazed and opened the mimic.

“Kali.”

Flinch.

When I called that name, Mateo’s facial muscles, which had been as rigid as an old tree, twitched.

But showing no intention of stopping at that small change, a woman wearing lion-headed armor and a peculiar patterned blindfold descended with a tap- sound onto the floor.

Her beautiful deep wine-colored hair swayed, brushing her waist before gradually stopping.

“That rare hair color, the oversized greatsword though rusted..! Kali..! Is it really Kali! Still alive!”

Mateo’s reaction to seeing Kali was strange.

What?