Too Stubborn to Die

Book 4: Chapter 36

As food flew all over the place and Aaron’s brow atop his whited-out eyes, a nauseating aroma began to radiate from the center of the castle. The powerful scent hung thickly in the air around his portable kitchen and had started to collect concerned looks from those who were fighting the waves.

But not from all. As the thick aroma struck their nostrils, the mouths of the thal’kesh began to water. The temptation of grilled murlock was absolutely tantalizing to their taste buds.

Some of the humans had to hold their mouths to stop themselves from being sick. But the thal’kesh seemed empowered by the aura and seemed to fight harder and faster. Although it was at the cost of their rumbling bellies and watering mouths.

The moment the wave was defeated, the thal’kesh rushed into the castle. And they brought with them the corpses of the beasts they had slain.

“That smell. It’s divine! Please, feed us!” One of the thal’kesh said, and Raksha and the other thal’kesh rankers nodded along.

Aaron was happy to feed them in return for the corpses. They ate ordinary serving sizes, while he literally was pouring shrunken food down his throat. He needed all the ingredients he could get if he was going to keep himself fed, and giving away a few regular-sized meals was a small price to pay.

The thal’kesh ate quickly and returned to the walls as the next wave was about to start.

Thanks to the exchange, he had far more murlock corpses.

Every wave had ten stages, each one lasting only a couple of minutes. This wave was murlocks, and each stage brought more of them, and stronger ones at that.

And so within a short while, he had a pile of the fishy corpses to cook with, and it looked like the thal’kesh were getting ready for seconds when they finished killing.

But he had a bit of a predicament. He didn’t just want to cook; he wanted to push himself. He had a spice bag, at least. But few other ingredients to create more complicated recipes.

Then again, he could push his use of energy. He had already been thinking about this as he cooked his first batch of food.

It was one thing to be a creative chef, but this was the multiverse, after all. And what had the multiverse done? It had provided people with extraordinary Skills and energy!

And it was exactly that energy that Aaron felt rushing through his body as he cooked, cycling it and pushing it out through his new mana anchors.

He wanted to push himself. To use every ounce of his being in his cooking. To transcend what a normal, mortal kitchen was, and to truly embrace the multiverse.

Mana and aether started to rush into his [ Spirit Hands ], [ Spirit Toes ], [ Spirit Tongue ]. This was it. He was going to push the spiritual and energy edge that his cooking had, and embrace the D-grade.

A wicked smile creased his face as abundant amounts of energy poured into both his cooking and the crystal.

It was madness. In a sense, he was risking his primary task of keeping the crystal lit by using his energy in his cooking. Luckily, he had plenty of food to keep himself powered, and it didn’t seem like there was going to be a shortage of it anytime soon.

And so if he was going to be stuck in place, with nothing to do but cook. Then he was going to make the most of it. And with any luck, he would push his cooking into its next level and bring it closer to where his Class and combat were.

Voidrin

Voidrin stood on the other side of the castle from the spear priestess. They were the two strongest of their world, and there had been incredible tension between Voidrin and Red Song.

Not that he could blame her. To be fair, he had killed a good number of her elite followers just before entering the dungeon.

It wasn’t until toward the end of the previous floor that they had learned that they would need to work together. Luckily, both had ambitions that went beyond defeating each other.

Because they quickly realized that they were up against fierce competition when they reached the fourth floor.

Between the two of them and their elites, the monster waves hadn’t proven anything too difficult just yet. That wasn’t what bothered them. Or the rankings. Yes, Voidrin was on top, but other groups seemed to have more people in the top ranks.

And while that was somewhat concerning, it wasn’t what bothered them or what got the two to put aside their lingering differences and form a proper alliance.

No, that was the crystal.

Only a couple of minutes after starting the fourth floor, their crystal had died out. At first, they had thought their plan was well designed. They had put their weakest party members in charge of keeping the crystal lit. That way, their strongest could all focus on the waves, and they could show the other worlds in their cluster just how powerful they were.

Unfortunately, those who had been set against the task had proven woefully incompetent.

There had been a brief discussion about just accepting it for what it was. Maybe it meant fighting more waves, but that might be the secret cheat of the floor. Those who took their time would fight more waves and gain more experience. And potentially gain more levels and be stronger for the later floors.

But Voidrin hadn’t liked that. He liked having a good strategy. One that focused on winning. And he had a feeling that the floor wasn’t to be underestimated.

After all, the previous floor boss had been rather strong. They had even lost people in the battle. And so the thought of intentionally dragging this floor out sounded beyond stupid.

Who knew how much the difficulty scaled, but Voidrin knew one thing: he didn’t want to underestimate it and find themselves struggling against waves that were stronger than expected.

And so he suggested rearranging their fighters. Instead of the weakest being in control of the crystal, they manned it with moderate talents who were known for their control of energy and their reserves.

And that strategy had proven better… somewhat better, at least. But it was far from perfect.

Voidrin glanced over his shoulder and watched as their crystal flickered again. The people charging it were once again rotating, and while the crystal didn’t go out entirely, it wasn’t a good sign.

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They’d only been at it for a few minutes, and showing signs of fatigue already was making him a little anxious.

This ain’t too good…

Frustrated, Voidrin turned his gaze to the horizon. There had been but one crystal that had remained lit the entire time. And sighed when he saw that it was still glowing as brightly as ever.

It hasn’t even flickered… not once! How is that possible? Haha. You bastard. This is your doing, isn’t it?

Voidrin smiled cheekily. He had a pretty good idea of what was going on, even if he was too far away to confirm his suspicions. And while it meant that his team was going to struggle to win this thing, it only made him that much more excited about the following floors and the auction.

A thick mist seeped out across the land, and Voidrin flexed as swords filled the air.

He could only do what he was good at. And he was a supreme energy master, but that didn’t mean he was going to sit around on his ass. No, there wasn’t a chance. He knew his rivals, both friendly and unfriendly, were getting stronger by the day, and he’d be damned if he was just going to let them leave him in the dust.

Elmira

Elmira had been excited to see the names of her friends from the trials in the rankings. What had started as an information-gathering scheme of Pentival’s had evolved into genuine friendship, and she was looking forward to seeing them again properly.

But in that moment, she was utterly focused on their own objectives. She knew of the talents she was up against. She knew that it was going to be difficult to beat Aaron and Mo’han, let alone whatever other great talents there were amongst the other sectors of their universe.

It didn’t matter, though. She had promised Pentival the win, and she was going to do everything in her power to claim it for him.

And despite the odds against her, she felt like she had a real chance. Not because she was necessarily the strongest warrior in the dungeon, but because she had a great team, and her Skills, her versatile runes, were just the key to elevating that amazing team of hers.

Cutting down a wave of murlocks, she looked back toward the castle. There had been but one uncertainty when forming her party. Lagora, the female ogre.

In truth, she had thought the ogre their one weakness. She had insisted they bring Lagora not because she was one of their top elites, although she was close to it, but because of her amazing potential.

Elmira had gambled. She had decided to bet on potential, even if it made them weaker in the short term. And she knew that because of it, they might lose this leg of the dungeon.

But she had accepted that. She was looking at the long-term strategy. And for that reason, she knew she had to have Lagora on their team.

She knew that if the ogre was given the opportunity, she would rise to the top. And they had more than one leg in this tournament. If they were going to win the entire thing, then they needed people they could invest in. It was silly to bring along top talents that lacked vision. Yes, they might have proven stronger now, but if they didn’t continue to scale, their inclusion would have been a wasted opportunity.

And so when Lagora started to prove her value beyond just potential, she couldn’t help but smile.

We really can win this thing, can’t we?

Her face brightened. Their crystal had been lit almost continuously and brought her great joy.

Of course, there were eleven others supporting her comrade. Eleven others from her world, some from imperial parties working for Pentival, and some from the far corners of the world that had yet to fall under his control.

But it was Lagora who was the standout. That much was beyond obvious. Thanks to her ogre traits, her Class, and her abundant energy, she was doing the lionshare of the task, and the results spoke for themself.

Their crystal had only flickered a handful of times since lighting it, and had never completely gone out. Even now, she could see several crystals along the horizon that were devoid of color, inspiring her to push harder.

Although there was one other. One crystal that had remained lit the entire time without flickering once. In truth, it was amazing. Even with such a well-balanced party, there was somebody else in their cluster who was performing even better than they were.

However, she had a sneaking suspicion she knew who it was. Her smile grew wider. If there were only one group ahead of them, and if it was the group she thought it was, then they were in prime position.

And they still had a damn good chance of winning this thing. And she had never felt prouder for following her gut.

You have surprised me once again, Lagora!

Raksha’s Mage Assistant

The young mage hadn’t known what to expect when entering the dungeon. It had all been a little scary at first, but it appeared that he had once again made the right decision.

Raksha had a vision, and seeing her command the other rankers around confirmed that he had been right to bow to her.

Not that he had much choice. When she found him on their world, he had been cornered by a massive D-grade bird that was about to peck his head off.

Still, it was nice to know that it had paid off.

And yes, there were some questionable aspects about the thal’kesh leader. She clearly seemed to care more for her own kind than she did others. As a human, he wasn’t even allowed into the inner districts of her settlement. The humans in her camp were expected to treat the tha’kesh as their superiors, even if they were considerably weaker. And the young mage had personally had to beg for forgiveness after offending an F-grade.

It was troubling, sure. And perhaps he would become a second-class citizen of this new world. But at least he’d be alive.

Not to mention, he was comfy and safe. He had his own house beyond the walls they had built, and was promoted into her elite squad thanks to the unique Skills he had acquired.

Now, however, he floated up above the battlefield, escaping from several murlocks who had surrounded him, and was now safely recovering his mana.

He wasn’t the strongest. Raksha kept him around because of his aura Skill that empowered her party and healed them passively. Unfortunately, that Skill cost him a lot of mana and didn’t leave a whole lot left over for himself. Not that Raksha cared. She just wanted him there for the aura that strengthened her.

As he eyed the battlefield from the sky, he nodded to himself. It looked like they were doing the best of all the groups in the entire cluster. And Raksha was at the center of the power structure, or at least that was how he interpreted things.

Looks like I bet on the right horse.

He strummed his fingers together, but then a curious sight dragged his attention away. It was that odd man who seemed to fluctuate between an obese couch addict and a gaunt homeless man. The one who had taken over the job of keeping the crystal charged with energy.

It was Aaron Dober. Of course, Aaron was obviously powerful. Far stronger than he was. But he was still below Raksha, and that was what counted. And that fact had been enshrined when he was forced into charging the crystal instead of fighting.

“Hang on a minute! What’s he doing with that pot? That is diabolical! That’s the food he’s been feeding the thal’kesh with, isn’t it? Why… he’s stirring the pot with his toes!”

The mage blanched. The thal’kesh were the future rulers of their world, and this stupid human was about to ruin it for all of them. He had the audacity to feed them food he stirred with his own toes. What an incredible insult! If he didn’t do something about it soon, Raksha and the other thal’kesh might just decide to take out their rage on all the humans.

I have to do something about this. The fate of humanity rests upon my shoulders…

The young mage trembled at the thought. Such a heavy responsibility had fallen to him.

And then, it got worse. The wave had been defeated, and the thal’kesh, led by Raksha, were rushing back to the man for more food.

No… this can’t be! If they find out the wrong way, we’ll be doomed!

Immediately, he deactivated his floating Skill and fell back toward the ground.

He got there just in time—halting inched above the ground as he reactivated his floating Skill and gently touched down between Raksha and Aaron.

“What is the meaning of this?” Raksha hissed at the distraction, a serving of the toe-stirred food in her hands.

“Wait! Mistress, before you eat!” He gulped.

“Yes?” There was venom in her words. As if she had never been talked back to by one of her servants like he had. But he knew it was in her best interest, and swallowed his fear.

“The food! He stirred it with his toes while cooking!”

Raksha turned to Aaron, who grimaced and shrugged.

“Ah, that, yeah…” Aaron trailed off. “I was going—”

“It’s fine,” Raksha said, and the faintest of faint red coloring appeared on her grimy, gray cheeks.

Is she? No… that’s not possible…

“And you, keep your silence in the future, worm,” Raksha snarled at him. “If I want to hear you speak, I’ll ask.”

The young mage sank into himself. What had just happened? And what trouble had he gotten himself into?