## Chapter 70 – 70. Escape
#70. Escape
Incarnations.
Also known as angels.
Since ancient times, they were celestial guardians who conveyed God’s will to the earth and obeyed His commands.
However, most of them lost their lives or had to leave this land due to a war that occurred tens of thousands of years ago.
After the war was declared over, and after an extremely long time had passed.
The stories of incarnations are now relegated to old murals left in ruins and oral traditions considered legends.
Nevertheless, it was clear that there were still incarnations remaining on this earth to uphold God’s will.
“…”
Deep within the underground dungeon.
An elf was intently gazing through a small mirror.
In the distant past, when even memories had faded.
She, who had been guarding the deepest part of the dungeon according to the command of the World Tree, her mother and her god, sensed someone invading the dungeon a few days ago.
At first, she thought it was just a common grave robber and quickly lost interest.
After all, such beings would not even cross the threshold of the first floor and would disappear, becoming nourishment for the dungeon.
But this grave robber was different.
Clearly, when he was fighting the monsters of the first floor, he was too weak.
She was convinced that he would not last long and would die if he encountered the gatekeeper.
But.
“…?”
The guy who was struggling even against ordinary monsters defeated the gatekeeper of the first floor in an instant.
What changed?
Did he gain some kind of enlightenment in the meantime?
It was a surprise she had felt for the first time in a long time, but it was still at a level she could just shrug off.
After all, with his skills, he wouldn’t be able to reach this place. Due to the special nature of the dungeon, it was impossible to bring an army.
She was a little surprised by the actions of the grave robber who had come after a long time, but in the end, she believed that he would die before long.
She had no doubt about it.
However, when he retreated from the dungeon for a while to reorganize and returned, an issue arose that she could not ignore.
“…That is.”
She felt the divine power of the World Tree from him.
Although the lingering divine power was so faint that it did not even reach the level of an ordinary priest, he was more closely connected to the World Tree than anyone else, perhaps even more than the Elf Queen.
What that meant was only one thing.
Besides the saints and saintesses who were directly chosen by God, he was a being with the strongest fate.
He was a hero.
But the World Tree had never chosen a hero until now. Moreover, the opponent was a human.
It was a situation that she could not believe even though she was seeing it with her own eyes.
Yurein’s eyes narrowed at the sight.
In fact, when he returned to the dungeon, he had become stronger than ever before.
Although she didn’t feel any divine power from the tip of his sword, it was clear that he had something if he could become so strong in such a short period of time.
Such thoughts stirred complexly in her mind.
If he was indeed the World Tree’s hero, why did he come here?
Did the World Tree need the sacred object she was guarding?
If that was the case, instead of sending a hero who had not yet grown to the dungeon, the World Tree could have given her a revelation as before, and the problem would have been solved.
“Growth…?”
At that moment, one hypothesis flashed through her mind.
What if the reason the World Tree sent a hero who had not yet grown here was for growth?
And if it was to reach the deepest part someday and take her away?
After an unimaginably long time, a different light settled in Yurein’s eyes.
Then she had a duty to help the new hero of the World Tree grow.
“Surely… the gatekeeper of the 3rd floor was a Minotaur.”
There were not many elements that could interfere with the upper floors from the deepest part, but it was possible to strengthen the monsters.
She strengthened the Minotaur with the authority she had received from the World Tree and watched the situation closely.
As Yurein expected, the hero’s current skills would not be able to handle the Minotaur. Of course, she saw a small possibility while watching him accompany a summoner who looked like a beastman, but it would not be easy.
Nevertheless, heroes are always those who break through difficulties and create miracles.
‘I just need to help him not die.’
Even if the hero lost to the Minotaur, she had no intention of letting him die.
His life and death were to be decided by the World Tree.
She was just helping him grow a little.
She manipulated a golem to attack them from behind and gave it a concealment function so that it would not be detected by magic detection.
As she expected, the two people, who were already exhausted, began to run away from the monsters.
It was not difficult to guide them to a certain point as they ran away frantically.
And she sent the Minotaur, who would normally be guarding the stone gate, to them.
In a situation where they had to face a strong enemy that they could not be sure of winning even in perfect condition, what would the hero do?
Honestly, she expected him to struggle.
But as if to mock such expectations, the two people succeeded in driving the Minotaur to the brink of death.
The beastman’s strike, which seemed to have broken through the limit momentarily, and the hero’s lightning showed tremendous power that would have killed the Minotaur before she strengthened him.
Although the beastman collapsed and the hero’s body became tattered, the teamwork the two showed was enough to embarrass her.
Of course, it seemed that the victory or defeat was visible as the Minotaur recovered from his injuries, but he had already succeeded in proving his qualifications as a hero.
‘Now I just need to save him…’
The moment she was about to put the Minotaur to sleep and heal the hero with her remaining authority.
A situation unfolded that she could not believe with her own eyes.
The hero, who had suddenly recovered his physical condition, began to confront the Minotaur alone. At first glance, it looked like the hero was pushing the Minotaur.
Surprisingly, he was still hiding his strength.
He was steadily cutting away at the Minotaur’s life by becoming a streak of lightning, but even that was gradually reaching its limit.
As soon as she saw him in a near-death state due to the Minotaur’s attack, she regained her senses and reached out to save him.
But.
‘His eyes…’
The clear light beyond his eyes made her fingertips tremble.
Eventually, the lightning spear he created succeeded in blowing away the Minotaur’s left arm, but that was it.
He seemed to have no more strength to move.
On the other hand, the Minotaur did not seem to have much difficulty moving. Moreover, since he was recovering from his injuries with regeneration, the aftermath of his last attack would soon be in vain.
She thought it was over now.
She clearly thought so.
But it was a fleeting moment.
He, who had recovered his physical condition with the Queen’s blessing, plunged into the Minotaur’s arms like a flash and split his waist.
And in that fleeting moment, he was steadily heading to the next level.
Yurein stared blankly at the sight for a while.
***
1,000 coins.
That was the reward I received for defeating the Minotaur this time.
It was definitely more compared to when I dealt with the High Skeleton Mage, but that was only relative.
It was too little considering how many times I almost lost my life.
But paradoxically, thanks to that, I was convinced.
‘So, you’re not going to forget your identity as a dating app.’
In fact, I was being matched with women who were in particularly difficult situations, but if I had been matched with ordinary women, I wouldn’t have been earning coins as hard as I am now.
I could simply have a few conversations, laugh and joke around, and then get paid, but of course, I didn’t regret meeting Iris and Chun Yeo-hwa.
Anyway, considering that, the amount of coins paid for matching wasn’t small.
In comparison, hunting monsters was difficult and dangerous.
But I had to accumulate coins through repeated hunting. It was as if the management team was intentionally tampering with the amount of currency supply for the market economy in an RPG.
‘…Still, if you catch a monster, you get expensive magic stones.’
Like this one right now.
Ting-
[Information about the newly acquired item is being collected]
[A-grade Magic Stone]
[Grade: Epic]
[This is a magic stone obtained by defeating the A-grade sub-boss entity, Minotaur]
[The purity is very high, guaranteeing high value in many ways]
An A-grade magic stone, and it came from a sub-boss entity.
Honestly, I kept thinking it was strange while fighting.
No matter how much there was a racial correction value, the Minotaur was too strong compared to the 2nd floor gatekeeper.
But all of that could be explained if the Minotaur was a sub-boss entity.
What a pain in the ass.
Of all the things, that kind of thing came out as a boss.
“Well… this isn’t a game, and there’s no way the difficulty would increase step by step like climbing stairs.”
Besides, if I objectively recalled the situation, I could have caught the Minotaur faster.
The blessing Iris gave me.
If I had fought the Minotaur in this blessed state, which still had this ridiculous effect, the result would have been very different.
I didn’t have to dope myself with dangerous elixirs.
From the beginning, it was strange that the gatekeeper didn’t guard the gate to the next floor and came to catch the intruder.
If it wasn’t for that, I could have recovered my stamina and caught him without much difficulty in a blessed state.
Thinking about it again, it’s really a pain in the ass, but what can I do about my fate?
I can’t even complain to my deceased parents.
“Sigh.”
Still, this made me feel a little better.
Ting-
[Information about the newly acquired item is being collected]
[Old Thread]
[Grade: Epic]
[Finds gaps in the barrier]
As soon as I saw the item description, I knew that this was the artifact that the World Tree was talking about.
The description may seem weak with only one line compared to the Epic grade, but on the contrary, it also meant that everything was focused on that one ability.
1,000 coins, an A-grade magic stone from a sub-boss entity, and an artifact that would allow me to escape from the underground community with Iris.
At first glance, it seems that this is all I got from this battle, but the biggest thing was still left.
I lightly reached out to an empty clearing.
[Fire Ball]
The fireball that was created in an instant flew away in the blink of an eye.
Kwaang!!
A tremendous storm and high-temperature heat, which could not be compared to the previous fireball, swept through the wind.
While watching the scene, I closed my eyes and focused on the mana circle.
Generally, what represents the realm of a wizard is the number of rings surrounding the heart.
“…Is this even possible?”
No matter how many times I checked, nothing had changed.
The rings, which were clearly only two, had somehow increased to four.
