Predation

It was a Magic circle.

The shape drawn by the Sealed Land’s cave was simple, but it clearly had the form of a Magic circle.

A Magic circle has appeared on the [Map].

But so what?

Splash, splash.

Amel circled around the cave, searching for the place where the [Key] was hottest.

She could feel the heat of the [Key] changing as she moved through the Magic circle. This heat was probably the path to the real entrance of the Sealed Land.

As Amel advanced with the [Key] leading the way, she encountered a section where the heat dropped.

Even when she went in a different direction, she arrived at a place where the heat dropped.

Looking at the [Map], it was the center of the Magic circle.

Textbook if anything.

“….”

The discovery message that appeared when she found the [Dream] didn’t appear.

Looking down at the [Key], her gaze reached the floor beside the [Key].

Could it be? With that thought, she compared the heat of the [Key] from the ceiling to the floor, and the heat really did change with the height difference.

“The floor, huh.”

The Sealed Land was below this.

She circled the Magic circle one more time.

Thump, thump.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen the waterway for a while.

The waterway continued to the entrance of the Magic circle, and she hadn’t paid much attention to it since then, but she met it again after circling around.

“Hmm…”

The thought kept nagging at her, but intuition was important in this kind of pathfinding.

She followed the waterway and found a downward slope leading underground that she hadn’t noticed before.

Like the entrance to this cave, a Cognitive interference barrier was hiding the entrance to the downward slope. A Barrier that would be missed if you didn’t know, but would be seen if you suspected it.

It could be easily broken through depending on perception, but if not, it would naturally deceive you.

“Good trick.”

She knew the theory, but it was somewhat shocking that it could deceive even her senses.

She went down the slope. It wasn’t a staircase, but a flat path leading underground.

There was no light at all, so she couldn’t see anything, but when she scanned the surroundings with [Electricity]… a quiet atmosphere prevailed.

The only thing she could hear was,

Trickle, trickle.

The sound of water flowing down the slope.

The water from the waterway mixed with the water pooled below, making a sound.

She used Magic to create a light orb, and when she illuminated the underground space, she saw a long stretch of scenery with a calm surface of water.

Only the ripples caused by the flowing water faintly flowed along the surface.

“….”

She immersed herself in the pooled water.

She held the [Key] in one hand.

The water pooled underground rose from her calves to her thighs, then submerged her waist.

As she moved further, it rose from her waist to her chest, and her chest floated on the surface. It rose from her chest to her shoulders, then to her face.

Only when she lifted her feet could her face barely rise above the surface.

“Hwah…!”

She took a breath.

She dove.

If Win were here, she would have used Magic, but even though she had gained [Magical Power] as a Lord, there was no sign of Win returning.

She dove and illuminated the inside with the light orb.

There was more inside, and,

The depth became much deeper as she went towards the center of the Magic circle.

She could hold her breath longer than she thought, and since she could just start over if she died, she continued to move forward.

Kicking her legs to generate propulsion, she was able to reach the center, and at the bottom of that center was a deeper hole.

Even though the light orb illuminated the water, a hole filled with darkness was drilled deep into the bottom.

“….”

Ah… her breath.

Her complexion worsened, and she wanted to go up immediately, but she held back.

She applied Magical Power.

It was an instinctive action.

She used [Heal] to heal her body, which was being destroyed by oxygen deprivation.

She felt the sensation of being healed, but the pain from suffocation did not subside. It seemed that she wouldn’t die if she just endured it, so she decided to endure it until she died.

“Ugh…”

She turned her head down and went down into the deep hole.

The [Key] became hotter and hotter.

And,

[Key to the Great Devil’s Sealed Land]

[The Gluttony Great Devil has been discovered.]

Found it.

[The Gluttony Great Devil is a Slime.]

[Born in the ancient era when there were no natural enemies, it is the first Slime to greedily devour all water.]

[It has grown without limit and gained overwhelming mass and size.]

[Using the Key will open the entrance to the Subspace where the Gluttony Great Devil is Sealed.]

She opened it.

A current began to form in the deep hole underwater.

Amel entrusted her body to the current.

This feeling was that.

Falling.

The water pressure that had been pressing on her chest lessened, and with the sound of a waterfall—! She fell onto the surface of the water at the bottom.

“Phuah!”

Air!

She took a deep breath.

Cough, cough!

“Haa..! Haa..!”

It was possible to endure with [Heal].

It was possible, but,

‘It hurts!’

She floated on the surface with her face towards the ceiling, catching her breath.

“Is this the Sealed Land?”

The Great Devil was near here.

It was the Gluttony Great Devil, so [Gluttony].

[Gluttony] was said to be a Slime.

She had fought Slimes several times.

The last Slime she fought was probably the one she fought in the Tower.

That was probably the first time she used her Awakened Ability to defeat it.

Should she do the same now?

But,

‘That’s not enough.’

She needed the [Sword God].

She had to fight as the [Sword God] at least to fight on equal terms.

Even the weakest of the Great Devils, [Dream], had endured and even counterattacked against Chris and Hong Joo-ah when they came to reality.

[Sword God].

As she became a Lord, she received [Magical Power] from the Spirit Vein as a Lord.

She had crossed over to the Subspace, but the pillar of water falling like a waterfall. It was connected to the Spirit Vein through the entrance to the Subspace.

It seemed that wireless connection was possible even with some distance.

Floating on the surface, she looked at the ceiling.

It was bright.

She could see the ceiling from the blue glowing surface, and it was quite high.

But considering the pillar of water pouring through the entrance, that height would be filled quickly.

That aside,

‘Why is a Slime pouring water?’

Moreover, that Slime was [Gluttony].

Wasn’t water supposed to be its target of Gluttony?

She didn’t know what the people of the past had done to take such a Seal.

It was a game, so there was no need to think deeply, but there had to be some kind of setting that matched the Seal.

First of all, what she could tell from the name was that this Great Devil had the name [Gluttony].

If it was as the name suggested, it was the type that became stronger by eating something. A common strongest power in manga and novels.

Slimes tended to be seen as mobs, but in reality…

[Gluttony]?

‘Not Voracity?’

In the Seven Deadly Sins, the sin of craving food is called gluttony, overeating, or, in a fancy way, voracity.

Gluttony was different.

It was just eating.

If the name [Gluttony] wasn’t used thoughtlessly, then it wasn’t a being that ate endlessly like that.

In fact, the voracity expressed in manga and novels was absurd.

Not only physically, but surprisingly, [Gluttony]’s weakness might be voracity.

‘So, are they pouring a large amount of water on a Slime that will eat water?’

What was [Gluttony]’s ability?

Was it the ability of the object it ate…? Huh?

Splash.

The surface rippled, and then pulled Amel underwater as if enveloping her.

The surface became calm.

───Crack

Sparks flew.

Crack.

Crackle.

Amel generated [Electricity].

She had been swept away by something in the water, and she added [Chill] to the [Electricity].

When she lightly generated it, the jelly-like water that covered her body scattered.

She stopped being dragged.

‘What is it.’

Is it a Slime?

Amel took out the [Black Sword] from her Inventory and generated [Sword Aura].

Storm [Sword Aura].

A strong vortex arose in the [Black Sword]. It drew in the surrounding water, and gradually… gradually the surface of the water sank.

Just as a vortex forms and the center sinks when water is rotated quickly.

A vortex arose around Amel’s center.

The [Black Sword] became the apex of the vortex.

It went down,

It went down,

It went down deeper.

‘How far down is it going?’

She poured more Magical Power into the [Sword Aura] to create a stronger hurricane and vortex.

The hurricane, which had broken free from the frame of the [Black Sword], created a pillar of air in the center of the vortex and reached the bottom.

When she stepped on the bottom,

It was smooth.

‘What…’

She took out the [Key] from her Inventory.

[Key] (!)

[Would you like to awaken the Gluttony Great Devil from the Seal of Nature?]

Was it sealed in multiple layers?

When she took out the [Key], a keyhole appeared on the smooth floor.

She could just insert it and turn it, but…

‘Before that.’

There was something she had to do.

[Sword God]

But she lacked Magical Power.

‘It’s hard to do it alone.’

Her head became complicated because she was calculating this and that to generate Electricity.

Until now, she had been using [Electricity] and capturing the moment when Electricity was generated and maximizing it.

With Hong Joo-ah, it was firepower.

Firepower in the Dream World too.

With the Death Knights, she spontaneously created a storm and used wind power.

She generated power in a form different from typical thermal power generation and wind power generation, but it was closer to a feeling of “I did it and it worked?”

What about now?

Hydroelectric power generation?

But hydroelectric power generation was a method of producing Electricity by rotating a turbine and rotating a magnet.

It was different from thermal power and wind power…

‘…Same?’

As mentioned earlier, Amel’s power generation method was different from the typical method.

Thermal power was power generation using temperature.

Wind power was the same method as the formation of lightning.

Hydroelectric power was rotation?

‘I can feel it subtly.’

Electricity was generated from the subtly rotating water…

“…Tch.”

It didn’t work.

It was difficult to generate Electricity from water itself, unlike steam.

It was possible to forcibly produce it using her Awakened Ability, but it would be absolutely insufficient as energy to reach [Sword God].

Magic ultimately followed the law of conservation of energy.

If you used 100 Magical Power, you could only get a maximum of 100 power.

There was no such thing as 101.

To reach [Sword God], it was ultimately impossible for Amel to do it alone.

To become [Sword God] alone, she had to accumulate that much Magical Power.

Or use the energy given by natural phenomena. But even that was difficult to see as having done it alone.

Using natural phenomena or using the enemy’s power was ultimately the same in that it drew power from the outside.

Excluding those two, it was physically impossible to reach [Sword God] alone.

“Is it not possible?”

Use the enemy’s power.

In the end, the only way was to become [Sword God] while fighting [Gluttony].

She inserted the Key into the hole in the floor, and,

She released the Seal of [Gluttony].