Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society

“Kang Shin, how is it?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

I answered half-heartedly and pointed below us where the magic circle had disappeared completely. Realizing that the raging demonic energy had calmed down, the surviving demons began to cast magic even whilst they were confused.

“For now, Greenland, done.”

Laki slowly descended. Feeling a surging flame energy around Laki’s mouth, Luna made cute noises and flapped her wings to strengthen it. Yua quickly ordered the mantises to fall back. Surprisingly, they were still fighting the demons.

“Almost no signs of life left, on the ground... Finish it in one blow, Laki.”

[Guooooooo!]

Laki roared with the intention of frying every demon left on the ground. At the same time, his mouth opened widely.

Immediately, intense flames that could scorch even death poured down. Demons frantically threw magic at the flames, but there was nothing they could do against a king’s flames.

One hour later, we happily hopped down on the still heated ground.

“Hmm, there’s nothing left alive on the ground.”

I spoke as I looked around and made a bitter smile. Daisy then rebutted me.

“Have to be, thorough. Demons, possess world’s power. Left alone, they’ll reproduce.”

“Don’t worry, they aren’t in Greenland.”

“... Is Greenland, small?”

“No, it’s 21 times bigger than Korea.”

“Then how, did you know?”

Daisy asked, but I was surprised in my own way.

“Eh, how did I know?”

“You shouldn’t, ask me that.”

Ye-Eun then hopped in. “Maybe Shin’s ability suddenly increased?”

“No. I’m still growing, but my detection range was only the size of Korea before. There’s no way it suddenly multiplied over 20 times.”

“I think that’s already amazing...”

Of course, the only thing that was different was the armor I was wearing.

“I see, so this armor can multiply my detection range?”

In any case, I was able to confirm that no demons were left in Greenland. If there was one and I couldn’t detect him, that demon had to be the Demon Lord.

Daisy then tilted her head and asked.

“It gave up, defense?”

“Of course not! I think...”

I shouted in denial. No matter how amazing this armor boosted my detection range, it would be useless as an armor if it lost its defensive power. Ye-Eun then held up her dagger and asked.

“Shin, should we test it?”

“... Should we?”

Though I was a bit worried, it was true that I needed to test its defensive capability. I held my arm out with a bit of nervousness.

“Go ahead.”

“Un. Eit! Kyak!”

After striking down with full strength, Ye-Eun suddenly screamed as she was shot back. Flustered, I shot forward and grabbed her before she landed.

However, the force she was under was stronger than I thought. Simply put, even I would be thrown back with her if I wasn’t careful.

“What happened?”

“I got flung back when I tried to attack. Hiing, that hurt!”

“It hurt?”

Could it be...? I looked down at my arm where Ye-Eun tried to hit. As expected, there wasn’t a crack, much less a scratch. I also didn’t feel anything touch me.

“It looks like it can reflect attacks too...”

Of course, the important part was how much this armor could reflect. At times like this, there was only one person I could rely on! The image of a draconian giving a thumbs up appeared in my head.

No, now that I thought about it, it wasn’t a thumbs up, it was a middle finger!

“That armor, how do you take it, off?”

“Now that you mention it...”

I was completely covered by the armor. There weren’t any holes in the joints either. Though that might sound like perfection in terms of defense, it meant hell when trying to take it off. Of course, considering how comfortable it was, there was no problem wearing it constantly, but that would be too embarrassing!

At that moment, as though it detected my mana entering a non-combat state, the armor let out a bright light. Starting from the boots, the armor turned into a sticky substance similar to tar and began to crawl up my body.

“Wow, Shin, it’s like a slime!”

“Don’t say that!”

My horn then let out a faint light. The tar climbing up my body reacted to the light and was sucked into the horn. Soon, the armor covering my body disappeared completely, and I could feel that it was inside my horn.

“Mm, I think I know now...”

“Know how creepy, the armor is?”

“No!”

Rather than an armor, it was more like a lump of energy with self-intellect that protected its owner. Being an armor was the most efficient way to do its job. It made sense why Sherafina couldn’t see through it.

The composition of this armor consisted of the demon’s power which nullified the dungeon’s power, and an immeasurable amount of mana and demonic energy. It even had the original power of Pure Black Desire, and the world’s power Eleine used to possess. In a way, this object was on a completely different dimension than the dungeon.

Pure Black Desire was an item Lin made using the materials I brought. As Lin desired to escape from the dungeon’s influence, it wasn’t strange that the result of Pure Black Desire’s evolution was this.

It wasn’t possible to check the information of this object. As Sherafina couldn’t read it, it couldn’t be put into stats or skills.

Since the stat boost Pure Black Desire gave was gone, under the dungeon’s system, it could be said that I suffered a severe loss. However, I didn’t think so.

Especially now when the dungeon’s position was unclear, becoming isolated from the dungeon’s influence was a good thing. Even without stat boosts, I knew the terrifying amount of mana it carried, and I knew it was using it to protect me.

Even if a monster ignoring the dungeon’s power appeared, there would be nothing it could do to lessen this armor’s power. This in itself made me satisfied. Of course, how the armor looked was a different matter!

With that, we completed our Greenland subjugation. I was used to fighting a king, a duke or whatnot whenever I went to clean up an area, but this time, we were almost all killed.

Because of the eerie words the duke said, it suddenly dawned on me that I would be meeting the Demon Lord soon. I had to finish what I could in the dungeon as quickly as possible. A strong hunch urged me on.

*

“So, this is the result of the evolution?”

“You’re looking at it.”

Lin scanned the armor covering my body and said with a smirk.

“Should I call you Kamen Rider?”

“Spare me.”

I couldn’t see Leon, who I expected to be with him. Noticing me looking around, Lin mentioned.

“Leon went to climb the dungeon. Every time he learns something, I’m sending him to the dungeon so he can experience it with his body.”

“I see... How is he?”

“Pretty good.”

Lin spoke briefly. He seemed to have thought it wasn’t a good explanation as he added a bit after.

“He’s better than I expected. His character is fantastic too.”

“That’s great.”

“But of course, he’s lacking compared to you. Still, he’s satisfactory. If you weren’t around, he might have been okay as the Hero.”

“Coming from Lin, he must be so good that you want to give him kisses and hugs.”

“What? Are you doubting my honest evaluation?”

“Well, isn’t Lin a tsun... No, nevermind.”

Lin glared at me for a moment and snorted.

“Anyways, come over here. I’ll look at it closely.”

“Thanks. There’s also something I want to request specifically. Can you see if it still has its skills?”

“Skills? You didn’t extract it?”

“Skills are part of an armor’s power. I didn’t extract it in case it would affect its evolution.”

“So you aren’t so stupid after all.”

I put my arm out, and Lin lightly struck it with a hammer. Immediately, he gasped and almost let go of his hammer. His strike had been reflected back.

“You didn’t say anything on purpose!”

“Yep!”

“You little...!”

After bickering for a bit, Lin began to re-examine my armor. His unique crimson aura seemed to caress my armor. After some time later, Lin let out a faint groan and took his aura back completely.

“A monster among monsters. That magical tool... I don’t know whether it was created to be like that, or if it somehow transformed because of the world’s power Eleine put in.”

“Did you find anything out?”

“Yeah. First, all the skills flew out the window.”

“God damn!”

I should have extracted Sacrifice at least! Desire Thorn, which amplified the power of charge type attacks and stole the enemy’s health, and Devourer, which stole the enemy’s health when my HP fell below 10%, were also amazing. But compared to Sacrifice which doubled my attack power, they were lacking. Of course, because my recent battles wouldn’t have ended pretty if I used Sacrifice, it didn’t see much use, but it was still regrettable.

“But there’s a new skill I could decipher.”

“You should say that first!”

“Rather than a skill, it’s an authority. Extort.”

“... Extort?”

“The attack reflecting power of this armor is a passive effect of Extort. Its stealing the enemy’s attack to attack them back. It looks like the skills that were in Pure Black Desire had some effect on it.”

“Extort... Now that I think about it, both Devourer and Desire Thorn stole health from the enemy. So they combined and evolved to become this ability?”

I closed and opened my left hand. Thinking back, I already experienced a portion of Extort’s power when the armor was created. Not only did it devour the remains of the demons, it even extorted the magic circle and made it its own power.

Not to mention, it even nullified the final suicide explosion the duke tried to do. Extort. It was indeed an ability befitting an armor made by collection of demonic essence.

“That thing is connected to you. It’s not an equipment that protects you externally, but something that’s become a part of you. Understand? It may look like an armor now, but it’s absolutely not an armor. Calling that an armor would be an insult to all the armors I’ve made so far.”

“I think so too. This isn’t an armor.”

“That’s also why I called it an authority. Extort can’t be used against something or someone stronger than you.”

“Haha, I didn’t think it could reflect the Demon Lord’s final attack or anything either.”

At that moment, Lin shoved his face towards me. His handsome face was twisted in a frown.

“That’s why it’s more dangerous. As you get stronger, Extort will also get stronger. Do you understand why I called it Extort? It’s because I can’t express it in a more detailed way. As long as you have the ability, this authority of yours can steal anything using any method. ... It’s in the realm of a god.”

“Can you move your face back first?”

I grabbed his shoulders and pushed him away.

“This armor has the power of a god? Like a true name?”

“It’s not the armor. It’s you, Kang Shin.”

“Huh?”

“I told you before. That’s not an armor, but a part of you.”

Lin spoke with a grin.

“You became a god.”

Author’s note:

That’s an exaggerated conclusion, he’s not actually a god!