Once again, I opened my eyes and found that Meradis and I had returned to the dark room inside the pyramid. Everything felt like a dream.
I was back in my spider form again.
Even though I really enjoyed the feeling of being human, I couldn't keep troubling Meradis forever. On the contrary, having experienced the human form like that only made me want to evolve even faster.
"Hey Meradis, are you alright?"
Meradis had also returned to her small corporeal spirit form. It felt a bit unfamiliar to see her like this again.
"My injuries are manageable, but I won't be able to fight at full strength for a while and will need time to recover." Meradis said with a bitter smile.
"Eh… is there any way to heal it completely?"
"Most of the injuries were healed by Shiraori earlier, but the mark carved deep into my soul can't be removed. The only way is to defeat the one who created it, then my father will be able to help me fully recover."
There's something like that...?
"Does the mark have any effects?" I asked.
"If it's not suppressed, it will continuously drain my life force, but I've already sealed it away. The worst part is… I could be controlled by that person, so when we get there, I must avoid confronting him."
Oh.
If Meradis gets controlled, I won't be able to handle it alone. So the most important thing now is to keep leveling up.
I opened my status screen again.
Ah!
I realized something. Even though the journey was long and I fought to the brink of death multiple times, my level and skills didn't change much because I wasn't the one who dealt the final blow to that snake.
Ah!
I'm so pissed off.
At this rate, this whole trip would have been for nothing. I stomped on the spot a few times to show my frustration.
"Don't be mad, the Grand Dungeon has the highest number of monsters, so there are plenty of opportunities for Shiraori to level up."
"I know. Meradis, you should focus on staying safe too. From now on, stay inside the virtual world. Unless it's urgent, don't come out."
That would be the best choice for her.
Meradis tilted her head, thought for a moment, then agreed. She thanked me and entered the virtual world. Once inside, she immediately entered a meditative state.
Hmm, looks like I'll be going solo for a while. But that's fine! I still have my two friends here.
"You still remember us?"
Ah!
It's you, Seina.
How's the Inference System?
"It's working normally again. Seems like because you went back in time, its future prediction function couldn't operate."
Seina gave her analysis.
Hmm?
So it has a function like that?
"I'm not entirely sure, but anyway, it's fine now."
Good, that's a relief.
"By the way, did you realize… that all this time you completely forgot about us?"
Huh? Really?
Now that you mention it…
I thought you two were just busy with your own tasks, so I didn't want to bother you. Plus, the situation outside was urgent too, so… I could've forgotten.
"You didn't forget — the connection was forcibly cut! While I was investigating the cause, I had something I wanted to discuss with you but realized I couldn't contact you. Everything inside the virtual world was functioning normally, but only the link with you was severed."
Naiwa!
That really happened…?
I was too careless.
"Yeah, Suzu hasn't woken up since then, so there's nothing more to say. I've just been focusing on the Inference System while waiting."
Hmm…
Is this the result of my time travel, or did someone interfere…?
I have no clues at all. While I was there, the person I interacted with the most was Meradis, and I'd already checked the others carefully — there's no way they could've slipped past me.
"Anyway, be careful. Now go start grinding!"
You're right.
Not gaining even a single level after such a long journey is really unfortunate, but that's all in the past now.
I left the pyramid, placed an anchor there, and then went to the twenty-sixth floor to establish a work battalion for myself. I did the same on the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors.
That should be fine.
Since this group will take some time to gather prey for me, I'll go back to the previous floors first.
I visited each anchor to inspect them and— oh my god!
The number of monsters here left me speechless. Each anchor must have around several thousand monsters!
Some of them were already dead, but that didn't matter. With all of this, I hope I can at least reach level twenty.
Alright, let's dig in!
Starting with the twentieth floor.
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I used elemental magic and easily wiped them all out.
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Naiwa!
I leveled up sixteen times!
But unfortunately, none of my skills are high enough to evolve yet. And I also realized that many of my skills are already quite high-level, so even when I level up, there's a chance that none of them will increase.
Sigh, it's getting harder and harder.
Let's keep going!
There are plenty of monsters on the fifteenth floor too, but since it's a lower level floor, the amount of experience I receive isn't as much as before.
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Whoa, two stat-boosting skills leveled up at the same time!
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Oh nice, I got one evolved skill. And I gained a level in Support Evil Eye too…
Now I have to decide which skill to support next… It should be one that's already at level nine. It'd be better if it were a combat skill…
But I still want to choose this one…
Agh… let's just go with it!
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That's the best outcome.
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Huh?
There are other conditions too…?
This is the first time I've ever seen a skill fail to evolve. Doesn't that mean I wasted a support attempt!?
Aghh! Stupid system…
Forget it.
Off to the tenth floor.
On this floor, there are slightly fewer monsters because the orcs and goblins helped themselves to some of them, but whatever. Let's just count that as the fee I paid them.
Even so, the remaining number is still huge.
Let's dig in!
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Nice.
Another evolved skill.
This leveling spree feels amazing.
While I was there, I dropped by to greet the orc king and goblin king, then teleported back to the fifth floor. Since these are the early floors and my level is quite high now, even though there are tons of monsters, I could only level up once.
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That's that.
This harvest trip turned out pretty well, so I consider it a compensation for the twenty-fifth floor. Now I think I should continue going deeper.
I teleported back to the twenty-fifth floor and left from there.
The floors from 26 to 29 didn't seem very special, so I'll just head straight to the thirtieth floor since my current goal is to reach the fortieth floor as soon as possible.
Of course, before getting there, I want to evolve once more to strengthen myself.
A good number of my skills are already at level nine, and reaching the max level takes a long time, so the best route is through evolution.
Let's do this!
After a day, I finally reached the twenty-ninth floor. I got sidetracked a lot by curiosity, so it took a bit longer than expected, but anyway, the thirtieth floor is right ahead.
Let's keep going.
The twenty-ninth floor didn't have anything valuable. I used Heaven Eye to scan the area, but all I found were rocks and more rocks, and a few weak creatures not worth mentioning.
Could it be that I've just gotten too strong…?
Oh?
Something's showing up…
On my Sensing skill, there's a large cluster of creatures gathering at one point — looks like there's some kind of battle happening. I immediately turned my gaze in that direction and used Heaven Eye again.
Huh?
Are those… humans?
I've seen humans before, so I'm certain I'm not mistaken.
I've only just returned not long ago and already I've run into humans again.
Could this be… fate?