25. The Corridor of Flames

As I descended to the eighth floor underground, it was a scorching hell.

In places, fiery red magma flowed, and walking on it caused damage.

"Seeing this for real is an amazing sight. The area below the underground water is this hot... wouldn't the water above boil and evaporate?"

Perhaps it was some kind of magic.

Or maybe the water accumulating above was somehow shutting out the effects on the upper floors.

Come to think of it, the water above did feel a bit lukewarm.

Maybe the moderately warm water was why piranhas and such were breeding there.

"If they're going to do that, they should keep crocodiles too. And plant some banana trees for good measure."

While saying such carefree things, I calmly walked on the lava.

Every step made a sizzling, unpleasant sound, but there was no damage. That was because I was wearing the 'Boots of the Water Spirit'.

They were high-performance as normal equipment, but the most significant effect of these rare boots was that they neutralized the damage from the Corridor of Flames.

Only the parts of my body covered by the boots became immune to fire attacks.

When I stepped on the lava with the 'Boots of the Water Spirit', only that spot cooled and solidified into black rock.

It would probably return to lava over time, but I could keep going like this.

This eighth floor underground had pools of lava that obstructed the path, forcing you to walk a long zigzag route to avoid them, but being able to go straight like this was a considerable shortcut.

Since I was in a competition with Nanami's group party, this advantage was quite welcome.

"Uoooooooh!"

Suddenly, men engulfed in flames, letting out such a roar, came running towards me across the lava, making a disgusting sizzling sound of burning flesh with each step.

I was a little startled, but they weren't just balls of fire; they were humans with their bodies on fire, and they shouldn't be very strong enemies.

"Firefighter!"

That was the name of the monster.

It was just a man with his body burning jumping at you, but... seeing it in person was incredibly frightening.

"Uoooooooh!"

"I don't understand you! Die!"

I swung 'Solitude' around and kept slashing. Enemies that could be cut down surprisingly easily once you managed to hit them.

Their attacks were just running at me while screaming and jumping at me; it was eerie and scary because it made no sense.

Their behavior was somewhat similar to zombies.

Moreover, unlike the slow-moving zombies on the fourth floor underground, these were the type of monsters that sprinted at full speed.

"Uoooooooh!"

"Damn it! Die!"

They didn't even carry weapons, disregarding their own lives to launch incomprehensible self-immolating attacks. They were completely insane.

I wasn't particularly afraid of anything, but I was bad with monsters that were biological yet moved in an anti-biological way, like these.

For example, spiders without heads where you couldn't tell which was the front or back.

I didn't dislike insects, but creatures that moved in ways that made no sense to me, making me wonder what they were thinking as they lived, felt somehow disgusting.

Conversely, this could be a good opportunity to cure my phobia.

I calmed my breathing and tried to quiet my mind especially. With the resolve to let them come at me as much as they wanted, I kept slashing at the men running at me while burning, hitting them as they came.

Because they charged in with such force, their severed arms and legs violently collided with my body, but I endured both the impact and the unpleasantness.

If I developed a physiological aversion to such attacks, it might become a weakness.

A small weakness could later become fatal.

I had to have an unwavering spirit, a mind that wouldn't be intimidated by any unexpected attack.

"Uaaaaaaah!"

"Hah, is that all you've got!"

If I cut them, they died.

For these humanoid enemies, if I severed their heads with my sword or pierced their hearts, they would die surprisingly easily.

By engraving that simple fact, that simple function, into my body, the fear disappeared.

Kill the enemies that face you, kill the enemies faster than you think.

Before I knew it, the surroundings had turned into a mountain of charred flesh.

If there was a scorching hell where sinners were burned by flames, it would surely be a scene like this.

"I guess that makes me the oni of hell."

Since the floor was lava, I couldn't kneel. I leaned my back against the wall, regulated my breathing, and recovered my health and stamina with potions.

"Alright!"

Next. No dangerous enemies would appear on this floor until the boss's room. As a mental training exercise, I decided to proceed without taking breaks as much as possible.

I switched my weapon from 'Solitude' to the spirit sword, Onsetsumaru.

As expected, what appeared further ahead was a Fire Elemental.

It was a monster like a relative of the Water Elemental from the floor above, but these were shaped like fiery lizards.

Salamanders, perhaps?

What I had to be careful about was that these were also spirits and could only be killed with magic.

"Fo-fo-fo."

Along with a strange cry, the Fire Elemental spat a Fireball from its mouth. It was low-tier in size, but two of them came at once.

"Still no incantation, huh? I envy that."

While dodging the incoming Fireballs, I ran in close and raised my left hand, chanting the Fireball spell myself.

"Low-tier low, Fire Ia, Soar Foi!"

Right in front of me, Fireballs of the same rank collided and canceled each other out.

The enemy shot two at a time, so one would hit me, but I took it with my 'Diminish Mantle' and swung Onsetsumaru.

After two swings, the Fire Elemental's form turned into smoke and vanished.

It was disappointing that there was no solid feeling of having killed a spirit.

"But this will be good training for fighting mages."

I thought the speed at which I could swing my heavy nodachi had improved considerably, but I couldn't keep up with the speed of no-incantation spells.

That was why I needed more training in exchanging magic. Enduring Fireballs to the point of not dying would also be training to raise my fire resistance.

"Oh, two more already?"

Two Fire Elementals appeared around the corner. I ran towards them while rapidly firing low-tier Fireballs as much as possible and slashed at them.

After taking one down, three Fireballs came flying.

The Fireballs I barely dodged sizzled my bangs, but without paying it any mind, I swung my spirit sword at one of them and made it vanish.

But... in the meantime, I directly took a double shot of Fireballs from the other one.

"Gah, I need to get used to this!"

Even if I took a direct hit from magic, I couldn't falter. If I created an opening because of that, I would be killed by being struck there.

An unwavering heart, an unwavering spirit, was what would raise my magic resistance.

Unwavering spirit.

While receiving a violent impact on my body, I swung Onsetsumaru with all my strength and made the second Fire Elemental vanish.

I was wearing the 'Diminish Mantle', which had heat resistance and reduced magic damage, and underneath that, I was also wearing chainmail.

Careful not to let the violent explosive impact shake my mind, I slashed at the second one.

I quickly recovered my health and stamina with a potion, and then I proceeded through the scorched Corridor of Flames, finding and killing Fire Elementals.

"Whoops."

I saw another new enemy in the distance.

I quickly sheathed my spirit sword and drew 'Solitude' from my back.

What appeared was a Flame Face.

It resembled an ogre, but only in its body; its face was huge.

That large, ugly face, about a meter in diameter, was fiercely burning like a ball of fire.

The lower half of the eerie, large face split open. It seemed to have opened its mouth.

"Fugegya, bugerya."

Along with an incomprehensible cry, a *whoosh* of Fireball spewed from the Flame Face's large mouth.

"Nuu!"

I barely dodged, but the blast was tremendous.

It felt stronger than mid-tier middle. It probably wasn't as strong as high-tier high, but it was a powerful burst of flames. This might not just look like a Fireball; it might be a fire breath.

Now, how to kill it?

I didn't want to take that Fireball head-on.

If I shot a mid-tier middle or high-tier high Fireball from my side, it should be able to cancel it out, but I had come this far without rest, so my mana was already running low.

Not being able to see my total mana was terrifying.

In a dungeon, if you didn't have enough mana when you needed magic, it could directly lead to death.

"Then, how about this?"

I forcefully kicked the large Fireball that came flying at me.

It disappeared with a sizzling sound.

It worked; the 'Boots of the Water Spirit' were effective against incoming Fireballs too.

I rushed in and kicked the Flame Face's face with all my might.

It felt like kicking a soccer ball. The Flame Face, losing its balance, fell over with a *thud*.

Since its face was more than a third of its body, it probably had bad balance.

Its pathetic figure flailing its limbs involuntarily made me want to laugh, but without hesitation, I brought 'Solitude' down on its large head with all my strength.

Like splitting a watermelon, its large head cleanly cracked open, and red blood splattered out.

The Flame Face, its head split open, twitched its limbs for a while but soon stopped moving.

"What? That was nothing."

In the end, the monsters on this floor were only this much if you could handle the Fireballs well.

My mana was also running out, so it was helpful that they were weaker than they looked.

I went around kicking the Flame Face's faces like splitting watermelons and then slicing their heads open.

I had already cut straight through the Corridor of Flames, and the goal was near. At this rate, the boss's room would be just ahead.

I had mostly cleared out the enemies, and I was quite mentally exhausted. Should I take a short break to recover my mana in preparation for the boss?

Just as I thought that, I was struck with terror.

With a *clank*, a large knight in black armor walked through the Corridor of Flames.

Black Death Knight. A powerful monster that shouldn't appear on this eighth floor underground.

For a moment, I thought I was hallucinating due to the heat of the Corridor of Flames. I immediately realized it was an 'Invasion'.

The Black Death Knight was the boss of the tenth floor underground.

No, there was no way a boss who was a guardian of a door would 'invade'. It must be one of the general monsters that existed from the fourteenth floor onwards.

However, an 'Invasion' from the fourteenth floor underground to the eighth floor was normally impossible. But thinking about it could wait; I had to deal with the reality in front of me.

The moment I thought that, I involuntarily froze. Even though I had told myself not to create an opening by being surprised.

From the other side of the Black Death Knight, another knight wearing the same black steel full armor appeared.

"Unbelievable..."

Two 'Invasions' at once were absolutely impossible.

Because that would mean the collapse of the game balance.

One powerful enemy was fine. If it was just one, as long as I was careful, there was a way to escape behind me.

That was within the range of what could be called fair as a game.

But if two 'Invasions' came, there was a risk of being surrounded by monsters with far higher ranks.

The precarious balance that Genocide Reality maintained.

A monster that could destroy that order was glaring at me with murderous intent from the depths of the slits in its black helmet.

The Black Death Knight, seeing that I had frozen, drew its sword and swung down the ominous Black Death Sword with mechanical movements as if being manipulated by invisible threads.