11. Murderous Oni

"Gyaaaaaah!"

I dodged the sluggish attack of a club swung down by a blue-furred giant, and in the same breath, slashed diagonally from shoulder to flank with my samurai sword.

I continued, testing how quickly I could unleash a series of consecutive attacks.

"One flash, two flashes, three flashes, four flashes, five flashes, six flashes, seven flashes—"

I continued to swing my samurai sword while calmly counting. The white blade gleamed in the dim dungeon, a tactile sensation of slicing through flesh.

Before I knew it, what had been a brute troll had transformed into a pool of blue blood and chunks of meat.

It was large and imposing, but all show. Too slow, too weak.

Next, next...

I released unnecessary tension, loosely gripping the unsheathed samurai sword, and lightly dashed through the narrow passages of the labyrinth.

Before my wandering blade, this time, stood an earth-colored ogre wielding a stone hammer.

A humanoid monster with huge horns, an Earth Ogre.

A worthy opponent.

I let out a piercing cry and, with the momentum of my dash, flashed my white blade.

"Take this!"

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

Letting out a high-pitched scream, the ogre tried to flee. What a coward. Perhaps startled by the surprise attack, the Earth Ogre turned its back.

To show its defenseless back, a foolish monster.

Diagonal slash, reverse slash, diagonal slash, reverse slash, diagonal slash, reverse slash...

This time, training my counter-attacks. Every time I swung my samurai sword in a crisscross pattern from upper to lower and lower to upper, earth-colored fluid splattered.

At first, I had imitated the sword fights from period dramas, but halfway through, there was no form or anything left. Just as my heart dictated, I kept slashing with all my might, carving through the tough flesh.

An enemy who showed their back in fear was nothing but a scarecrow!

I would have them serve as a target for my test cuts at best, continuously slashing them, not even allowing them to fall to the floor.

Finally, I swung down with all my strength in a straight line, cleaving the Earth Ogre's body in two.

*Bisha!* A large amount of the Earth Ogre's bodily fluid showered over me.

I licked the earth-colored fluid that had gotten on my lips.

The bitter taste of a monster's fresh blood, even that felt pleasant now.

"Kukuku... Kuhahahaha! I am the strongest!"

Since no one was watching, I struck a pose and boasted my victory. I was aware that I wasn't as strong as I claimed, but this was the power of a Samurai Swordsman.

If you suddenly class-changed to a higher-level job at the third underground level, of course you would become the strongest.

My body felt light, like that of a warrior race freed from supergravity.

At least in a one-on-one fight, no monster on this level could properly fight me.

Of course, that wouldn't be the case if I charged into a large room and got surrounded and beaten to a pulp, so I couldn't be too boastful.

The exhilarating feeling of unilaterally slicing apart something in human form was more intense than I had imagined. I had to fight more coolly, without drowning in passion.

The fact that I was enjoying defeating enemies too much was also a problem.

I didn't intend to become a pleasure killer...

"Well, that's fine too, I guess."

After all, only I and the enemies I had to defeat existed here.

I suddenly looked down and saw earth-colored slimes swarming over the Earth Ogre's corpse.

The scavengers of the labyrinth. Scavenger Slimes. Thanks to these guys eating the corpses, the labyrinth's dead bodies didn't stay around forever.

But if they entered my sight, I would kill them. When I thrust my sword into a slime, the earth-colored object, like a jellyfish abandoned in a harbor, collapsed and turned into just a puddle of water.

Cut, cut, cut and kill every living thing that entered my sight.

This was my only way to survive.

Thankfully, there were endless monsters to defeat.

Just a little further and there was another new monster.

While cleaving in two from head to tail a snake-like tentacled creature that stood before me, I was thanking whatever wonderful world I had come to.

Yes, thanking. I didn't know if the invitation to this world was from a god or a demon, or whose skill had accomplished it.

But I was simply grateful to have been invited to the garden of battle, and for my own arm that could deliver a single strike against a clear enemy.

What a pure, simple, and beautiful world this was.

Endless monsters welled up to be defeated, and I was here to cut them down.

In the silence that was deafening, I continued to walk alone through the dimly lit labyrinth.

My existence, having become a machine for cutting down monsters, was simple.

This was what I wanted.

I swung down my samurai sword and then swung it up again. With every flash of the white blade, the flesh of the monsters was torn apart, blood splattered, and bones shattered.

I swung up and down my sword with all my might. This simple action resembled a devout prayer.

This intensity was what I wanted.

Let's kill more, let's slaughter more, let's show them more of my cuts.

I, stained with the blood of monsters, offered a prayer of gratitude to the god of the Genocide Labyrinth. Let's pile up more blood offerings, more flesh offerings.

Everything I desired was here.

My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would burst, yet my head was surprisingly cold.

The brain's own drugs were flowing out of my ears.

I knew I should stop soon, but the trembling of my hand seeking the pleasure of slaughter wouldn't stop.

In samurai novels, there was an exaggerated expression about being bloodthirsty, but it was actually real.

If living was the instinct of living things, then slaughtering was also an instinct of living things.

I wouldn't mind being swallowed up by this great vortex of joy and dying buried in the colorful blood and flesh of the monsters.

Having continued to fight to my limit and exhausted all my strength, I finally collapsed on the spot, expelling all the breath from my body.

Beside me, where I thought I couldn't walk another step, lay the corpse of the giant poisonous worm I had just cut down.

"Come to think of it, worms were edible..."

Looking at the cross-section of the grotesque giant poisonous worm, a mix of red and green, no one would think this meat was edible.

But it was edible. The knowledge of Genoria didn't lie.

I bit into the piece of meat in front of me.

The taste of the giant poisonous worm spread in my mouth with a *juwa* sound. Normally, there should have been a strong, peculiar insect smell, but I didn't notice it at all.

"Delicious."

I wiped the monster's raw juices from my mouth and started eating again.

The reason it tasted good was because it was high in fat and moisture. My sense of smell was already messed up, so I probably didn't really know the taste.

All I needed now was moisture and nourishment to get my body moving again.

The worm meat was soft, filling, and existed everywhere. For me, who was bloodthirsty, it was a feast.

After gorging on the worm meat and taking a breather,

Having regained my reason, I made a detox potion because I had eaten a poisonous insect.

"Elementary Low Poison Release React."

I gulped down the orange liquid that had accumulated in the flask.

It was incredibly bitter.

"Ugh... somehow, this feels more like poison."

Perhaps the worm only had poison glands in the fangs around its mouth, and the meat of its body was not poisonous.

Maybe I didn't need to drink the detox potion anymore.

"Raw poisonous insect meat is delicious, but detox potion is disgusting."

My sense of taste might have been completely messed up. Maybe I could even live in the African wilderness now.

Thinking that, I felt a little amused.

It meant I had completely fallen for Genoria, and there was nothing more joyful than that.

I no longer had to play the ridiculous human being called 'Shinjo Wataru' from the past, living dragged along by someone else's will.

The rotten outer skin had peeled off cleanly, and I felt like I had become a new me.

I was a beast, a creature that only killed and ate enemies.

"Alright, one more time!"

After fully recovering my health and stamina with a potion, I stood up again and continued walking.

A green, amorphous creature like a swaying curtain, called a Shrieker, came towards me.

It shot out poisonous pebbles from the holes in its fluttering curtain.

This was also a kind of poison magic.

"Uaaaaaaah!"

I quickly dodged the flying poison bullets and slashed at the blue tentacles the enemy extended.

　　　　　※※※

How much had I killed, how much had I eaten?

Overcome by an unbearable, intense drowsiness, I again rolled into the safe zone behind the switched door, gulped down the spring water I had drawn earlier, and fell asleep like a log.

Intelligent creatures could open the switch on the door and enter, but the low-level creatures around here couldn't.

Even though I thought I had to be careful, it was careless of me to fall into a deep sleep.

"I still have a long way to go..."

But thanks to sleeping soundly, my stamina had recovered, and I felt my body becoming even harder and stronger.

Having powered up this much, I might as well challenge the third floor boss.

"I kind of feel like staying on the third floor and being invincible forever though."

The third floor had few traps and a variety of enjoyable monsters, but I couldn't do that.

My goal was to become strong efficiently, so I couldn't stop in the shallow levels.

Somehow, I wasn't that afraid of dying anymore.

But if I died, I wouldn't be able to kill anymore, so I wanted to play in a place with a moderate sense of tension while maintaining a safety margin.

Alright, I was ready. Let's challenge the third floor boss.

The third floor boss was the Murder Troll.

I had used cheese strategies utilizing traps on the first and second floors, but from here on out, it would be a serious fight.

While selecting usable items from the treasure chests that kept appearing after my slaughter and stuffing them into my backpack, I made and drank as many agility and strength-boosting potions as I could.

I would face the boss battle at full power, with layers of doping.

Even though the third floor had been so full of monsters, not a single one approached the area around the boss's room.

The Murder Troll, an extremely ferocious and cunning mutant of the troll race, was called that because it killed any living creature that approached it.

There was no such explanation in the game, but I had read about Genoria's hidden settings in a资料集.

First strike was crucial. I kicked down the wooden door and entered, where a man wielding a long sword about as long as me was waiting.

There were no openings. This was different from the brute trolls and earth ogres, humanoid monsters I had faced so far.

A Murder Troll with green skin.

A smooth bald head, sunken cheeks, and intelligent light in his bloodshot red eyes.

Despite not being particularly large, his stance with the tip of his sword pointing slightly upward showed that he knew swordsmanship, and the fact that the vital points of his arms, shoulders, torso, and thighs were protected by steel equipment made him seem very formidable.

Steel couldn't be cut with a samurai sword, so I had to aim for the gaps in his armor to attack.

"Well, well, you've come this far, adventurer."

"It talked..."

I was speechless. Until now, the monsters had been unthinking beasts.

I should have fully understood the setting that they were cunning, but I never imagined they could talk.

"What? Is this your first time seeing a monster that can talk? If you have intelligence, it's not that difficult to master human language."

"You're smart."

I didn't feel any fierce killing intent from him, like he was about to attack immediately. It seemed he was in the mood to talk.

Surprised, I regulated my breathing so as not to be caught off guard and replied to him, renewing my resolve.

"I'm not just smart, I'm strong. Killing people is different from killing monsters that are close to animals. Every time I slaughter adventurers in real combat, I learn and become stronger."

"How many people have you killed?"

"Hmm, I stopped counting around a hundred."

"You've killed a lot."

I thought it was probably a bluff to say he had killed a hundred adventurers.

He probably hadn't actually killed a hundred people, and a lot to him was probably a hundred.

Otherwise, he would be too strong for a third floor boss.

Don't be taken in by his bluff. This was supposed to be a cunning monster.

"There haven't been many adventurers lately, so I was bored and had a long chat with Tano. Well then, shall we kill each other?"

The moment the Murder Troll said that, an intense killing intent washed over me. The enemy hadn't even moved yet.

As if drawn by the killing intent, I had already slashed.

With a *clang*, the Murder Troll's long sword blocked my attack.

Of course, it would be like this if I just carelessly charged in.

While we locked blades, the green-faced oni-masked man grinned, as if he understood that I had lost my composure.

His ferocious smile was a sign of his intent to attack.

"Uraaaaaah!"

I let out another piercing cry and, leaping back to create distance, once again brought my samurai sword down in a straight slash.

Of course, such an attack would be blocked.

I immediately backstepped and slashed again.

This time, a horizontal flash!

With a *clang*, the enemy blocked my slash with his steel gauntlet.

Not bad, but one more time!

"Muuuh!"

When I pulled back again and slammed down my samurai sword, the enemy groaned and his confident smile crumbled.

Certainly, steel armor was excellent for defense. However, my hard leather armor was superior in speed.

That's right, speed and footwork. I could parry or deflect the enemy's attacks. The original fighting style of a samurai was to attack with many strikes, continuously slashing.

Hit and run. I barely avoided the heavy blade of the long sword that the Murder Troll swung to crush me, by a hair's breadth.

*Whoosh whoosh*, the sword swung by the Murder Troll passed just inches from my body, cutting through the air.

I had already seen through the enemy's attack range. I unleashed another slash while screaming.

"Guoooooaaaaaraaaaa!"

I slammed down a powerful diagonal slash.

Of course, the enemy's steel armor didn't let the slash through. But it couldn't negate the impact.

The force caused the enemy's stance to falter.

Even if my hand went numb, I didn't care, and I slashed diagonally in the opposite direction again.

The enemy's leg staggered from the impact of the blow.

That's when I thrust the tip of my sword with all my might into his throat.

That area wasn't protected by steel. The blade would go through the throat.

My desperate thrust deeply gouged the Murder Troll's throat.

"Gofu..."

The long sword the enemy swung desperately grazed my torso, but that was it.

The Murder Troll spat out blood. The dark red liquid felt like real blood to me, not a monster's bodily fluid.

With a *dara* sound, the strength left the Murder Troll's limbs, and the long sword fell from his hand.

"Haa haa..."

I forgot to deliver the finishing blow and just stood there for a while with the blade pierced through his throat.

It might have been just a moment, but it felt like a very long instant.

Silently, I pulled the samurai sword out of his throat, and with a *thud*, the Murder Troll's body fell to the ground.

The sensation of killing a sentient being that could speak.

I see. Maybe this was what the Murder Troll meant when he said he got stronger every time he killed a person.

It felt completely different from killing animals-like monsters that just screamed, ran away, or attacked.

In the moment his throat was pierced, the Murder Troll even seemed to understand that he had been killed.

I fully felt with all five senses the moment the light of life disappeared from his cloudy, bloodshot red eyes.

A deep, deep sigh, so strong it felt like my soul was leaving my body, escaped me. I almost collapsed on the spot and thrust my samurai sword into the ground.

I had finally done it.

I had killed a sentient being. If I didn't feel anything from this, I would be no different from a ferocious monster.

He wasn't human, but he understood the same language as humans. Moreover, the feeling of killing someone I had spoken to even once remained in my hand.

Perhaps the shock of killing was the greatest trap of the third floor of Genoria.

"They talk about the resolve to kill, but..."

There was no such thing. It was kill or be killed, I just desperately killed him.

However, there was a sense of reality that remained after killing him.

...Ah, I killed someone with a will.

Even though I hadn't cared about the bodily fluids of other monsters, I cleanly washed the blood-stained samurai sword in the spring water that welled up in the boss's room.

The steel equipment worn by the Murder Troll's corpse was high-durability, not sold in stores. The balance of weight and defense was also good.

I peeled it off the corpse to take a look, but I didn't think I needed it for my agility-focused fighting style.

For a moment, I thought about taking it to Seki, but I shook my head.

What was I getting weak-hearted about? I was proceeding with the resolve not to return, so what was the point of fleeing back to the surface at just the third floor?

I decided to leave the full set of steel armor in front of the boss's room.

I wouldn't use it, but someone who came later might. Or, I could pick it up and take it back if I ever wanted to return to the surface.

"Alright, the treasure chest..."

Inside was a curved sword with an unusual, snake-like blade shape, not quite a katana. Its winding design meant it wouldn't fit in a scabbard, and you would have to wrap it in cloth just to carry it.

However, it was a fine samurai sword. Its inscription read Spirit Blade 'Onsetsumaru'.

It was more accurate to say it specialized in undead. Made of holy silver, its dull, magically imbued blade could even slice through incorporeal wraiths.

Since there was a weapon with similar performance for warriors called the Bopar's Sword, I wondered if getting the Spirit Blade was lucky, or if it was designed to appear according to the job.

"The fourth floor was the zone of the dead, wasn't it?"

A land of the dead overflowing with undead. As a measure of relief, a weapon suitable for killing undead was made available here.

Also, the 'Troll's Key' to open the door to the fourth floor was inside.

"I should resupply here."

I rummaged through the boss's room, found another giant rat thigh meat, ate it, and then drank my fill of water before leaving the room.

I inserted the key into the door to the fourth floor right next to it and descended the stairs that followed.