Rise Of The Hoarder

My current Level was 535.

While this seemed like plenty, I was lacking in many aspects. As a result, I was only confident in directly fighting with Grade 4 Demons and below. Anything beyond that would be risky.

Which was why, even with Helios floating right before me, I couldn’t make any careless movements.

I used the <Appraisal> Skill, which I got from Niggaruth after completing the 91st Floor, and found out a bunch of things.

Helios was strong, sure, but not impossibly so.

The issue was his equipment.

He was donning a robe that fully covered his body. The Robe—Mantle Of Death—had a pesky ability of Damage nullification. In essence, no matter how much damage I dealt to the bastard, it wouldn’t shave off his Hp.

MP, on the other hand, had to go down. Still, powerful beings like Helios had to have auto-recovery abilities. So, even if the robe used his MP to block all attacks, he could recover.

That practically made him invincible, no?

Well, not really.

‘Attacks on the Soul should still work, and if the damage received on the robe is more than his rate of recovery, then it would be pointless to rely on it.’

The problem was… did I have enough power to push things that far? Well, maybe, but that depended on whether Helios would stay still and let me hit him. He had higher Stats, after all.

In the end, there was no need to overthink things. Victory was mine from the start.

>SHUUUUUU…<

Instantly, something like purple-black mist surged from me as several beings appeared. First were the twelve champions I had.

A Fallen Dragon—Barbados.

A Legendary Heroic Soul—Legion.

A High-Tier Living Corpse—Bahumat.

An Elder Hydra—Zetsu.

An Elder Kraken—Kahn.

A Desert Serpent—Luci

A Sultry Siren—Del

A Nightmare Manticore—Devan

A Grand Wyvern—Resios

A Hell Pegasus—Serio

A Frost Giant King—Gu

An Elder Chimera—Kazzen

They were all decent Grade 4 Demons, and while working together it wasn’t impossible to defeat a Grade 5. Still, this was Helios I was facing.

Since the other Death Generals praised him so highly, I figured he had to be strong enough to warrant it. Plus, after seeing him for myself… I had to agree.

So, with that as my rationale, I summoned all seven Generals to the stage.

The Ancient Vampire—Niggaruth

The Ghost Queen—Leah

The Puppet Master—Pinocchio

The Dullahan King—Dulham

The Lord Of Rot—Zebdal

Master Of Graves—Grundy

Elder Lich—Ikaris

And, I was about to add one more to my collection. How neat was that?

Soon, I would have The Grand General—Helios—under my wing.

And so, with 19 of my strongest monsters all lined up before the Boss of the 99th Floor, I grinned sadistically at the robed figure.

“You… how could you betray our master?!” Helios bellowed out in fury, glaring at the Generals—no, basically all my minions.

They all shrugged.

‘Pfft…’

“Human, you have enraged me! How dare you?!” He growled.

“Yeah, yeah. Start fighting already. Oh, but first…”

A smile appeared on my face as I eyed his pretty gear.

Not only did he have the Mantle Of Death, but I could also see a necklace and also a bracelet which were well hidden with him.

Plus, Helios summoned a staff as he readied to fight—making four gear. And the best part was that they were all Grade 5!

‘Sweet! Don’t mind if I do!’ I grinned.

In an instant, I used the <Retrieve> Function of [Subspace] and stole all the equipment my dear Boss had.

A wave of shock filled the air as he was stripped naked, revealing his true self. Even I was surprised. After all…

“YOU’RE A GIRL?!!”

“KYAHHHHH!!!”

“The fvck?!”

“Why didn’t you guys tell me Helios was a chick?”

“W—we didn’t know!”

“He—I mean she—was always in that cloak.”

“Wow, she’s even prettier than Leah!”

“Hey!”

“Holy shit! I didn’t know things would end like this…”

“Eeek! What have you done?!”

This whole exchange was enough to fluster me, but after mustering all my willpower, I regained composure. This whole thing had me stunned for a second, but…

“Whoah, I still can’t believe this…”

Standing before me was a naked, pale-skinned girl. She didn’t even look twenty, but considering the nature of undead, I wasn’t really using that to determine her age.

She had pointy ears, white hair, and pretty eyes—bright red and purple were the color of her respective retinas. Her body had nice curves, to be honest. The way her wings emanated from her back made her look all the more glorious.

With her whole package displayed in front of me, it was a shame not to look, right? Plus, my mind was currently being sharpened by the [Merciless] Title, so I was fine.

Still…

“You have a great body.” I said with a lecherous look on my face.

‘… It’s been a while since I’ve seen a girl naked, after all…’

Grinding nonstop gave me no time to indulge in my urges. Could anyone blame me? I was a growing boy, after all.

“Eeek! You filthy human!” Helios covered her goods with her two wings and tightened her legs to hide whatever was locked between them—of course, that meant she had to descend from her heights.

‘What good would that do? Pfft!’

If I wanted to, I could easily rip both wings by taking them into [Subspace] and gain a good view, but… I wasn’t going to ruin the fun. Even as she tried to cover her shameful self, the girl was still quite attractive.

“M—Masked Hero!!!” I heard a voice from behind me, causing my skin to jump.

A chilly gaze was set on me from behind, and I slightly gulped—well, not really.

It wasn’t out of fear, but slight worry.

My fangirl, Tia, was glaring at the Demon before us, and also staring at me with a disappointed face. What if I were to lose her trust after this?

‘Urgh! I don’t want to look for other people.’

I could mind control her, but I was certain the Tower System would figure that out. Threatening her would be efficient to, but that meant I would need to silence her later on.

That would be bad for my Alignment.

That meant I had to play nice… for now.

“Relax, Tia…” I used my composed, heroic voice.

Her cheeks flushed bright red the moment I turned in her direction. My next statement was critical—it would decide my future with Tia. If I scored extra points with her, then all the better.

‘Girls love compliments, right? In that case…’

“You have a much better body!”