Leon Mortel clenched both fists.
I am the indomitable hero.
No matter what happens, I must never give up or fall... GUWEEEEEEK!
Unable to hold it in, Leon vomited everything he had eaten.
His eyes shook violently.
This was the first time.
He had never been defeated so helplessly before.
"Ugh."
Jinhyuk patted Leon on the back and spoke.
"I told you. You should eat after it's fully digested."
"Sorry, Moko. I didn't know it would be this bad."
Leon looked at the medicine bottle on the ground.
This thing was small but incredibly potent.
Elia, sitting beside him, rubbed her chin with a troubled expression.
"A lot of people said it tasted bad, so I tried adding a sweet and sour flavor with an Eagle Eye's gallbladder, but it's still not enough?"
Jinhyuk swallowed dryly and looked at Elia.
Did she really have to use something like that for a sweet and sour taste?! No, wait, do gallbladders even have a sweet taste in the first place?!
"Hey, Grandma Tomorrow! Even if you mix honey into shit, it's just shit with a little honey flavor! Don't make things worse by doing unnecessary things!"
"Eheh, turning the impossible into the possible is what this alchemist does, you know? What would a red panda with a brain the size of a mouse know anyway?"
"I'm not a red panda, I'm a raccoon!"
"Khancho, what's that?! You're a yodel!"
"Huh?! That's right! I'm a yodel!"
Khancho's ears twitched uncertainly, as if confused about his own identity.
Jinhyuk patted him firmly and continued.
"Leon, do monsters always swarm like that? When I came last time, it seemed like the world was at peace."
Leon shook his head.
"It wasn't like that before. Around here, unless you went looking for them, it was hard to even see monsters."
Leon pulled out a large map and pointed to the center of an area marked as the Empire's territory.
It was a place with a large tree drawn on it.
"It must have been long before I was born. They say the kingdom was turned upside down once. The World Tree, which supported the world, vanished without a trace from a distant empire."
At the word "World Tree," Jinhyuk and Elia exchanged glances.
Just like the monster earlier, it wasn't a misjudgment.
"I heard this story from my grandfather, but I didn't think much of it. I wondered what a tree disappearing from a faraway land had to do with us. But I realized a few years after Moko left that it wasn't the case."
"The contamination's influence has reached here."
"Right. The usually docile monsters started swarming. And the ones swallowed by the contamination were different. Even though they were species we'd easily hunted before, they were much stronger. Our village is here. It's the southernmost part of the kingdom, a place no one visits or has any reason to come. Yet, seeing monsters come like this, I can't even imagine what's happened to the kingdom. But I don't think it's completely lost its function."
Leon held out a crystal orb that protected the village.
"Last year, I think? A man who claimed to be the chief mage of the royal palace came and gave me this. He said reinforcements would come soon from the palace, so just hold on a little longer. Thanks to this, I could focus on the ones attacking without worrying about the village."
It was a rather considerate kingdom.
Coming all the way here with such a finely functioning crystal orb... *Crack.*
At the ominous sound, Jinhyuk lowered his gaze.
It wasn't completely shattered.
Just a piece of the crystal fell off with a *thud*.
"W-Why this...?"
Seeing him flustered, Leon burst into laughter.
"Don't be surprised. I broke it, so I patched it up roughly. It works fine."
"Phew."
Jinhyuk thought it was the aftermath of breaking the barrier with the Fang of Erosion.
He sighed in relief and raised his head.
He thought the clear condition would be met once the battle ended, but the world was still quiet.
'Actually, this is good.'
He had been hoping for this anyway.
That this floor would be cleared as late as possible.
So that enough time would be given.
"Leon, you haven't been able to work on the church construction because of the monsters lately, right?"
"Busted. I haven't been able to for years. I need to get it done soon."
"Alright."
Jinhyuk dusted off his pants and stood up, and Leon looked at him with a question mark.
Jinhyuk grinned at Leon.
"Let's go build the church. I'll help. Don't worry about the monsters. My friends will protect us."
Leon followed Jinhyuk's gaze.
Seira and Renya were leaning against the wall.
On the other side, Kamela was constructing a protective barrier.
Leon's face brightened.
The church he had left abandoned had always weighed on his mind.
Finally, he could resume it.
"Momo will do it too!"
Jinhyuk snatched Momo, who came running in a flurry, and placed her on his shoulders.
Momo, whose hands were very skilled and had been a great help during the house renovation.
She would surely be a big help in this church construction too.
"Then let's go."
Jinhyuk walked with a bouncing step for Momo.
Leon Mortel smiled and rose from his seat, following behind Jinhyuk.
It seemed like the construction would be noisier than usual.
* * *
*Thump, thump!*
Leon, who was hammering, turned his head.
"Khancho! Give Momo's hat back!"
"I brought it, so why is it yours?!"
"Momo was wearing it! Momo is the safety manager!"
"You secretly took it and wore it, and you call yourself the safety manager?! Momo's thieving hands are the most dangerous!"
"Give it back!!!"
At the chase that started again, Leon burst into laughter.
Momo and Khancho fought and bickered almost every day.
No wonder Jinhyuk pretended not to see.
He shifted his gaze to Dark, who was hanging from the ceiling.
Dark was painting a mural while supporting himself with chains.
Honestly, he was amazed.
Saying he was "good at drawing" was an understatement.
Even the finest artisans in the kingdom couldn't paint like that.
It was such an unbelievable skill that he wondered why Dark hadn't become a painter.
*Clatter.*
Dark spun around, jumped down, and spoke.
"The mural is done."
"Wow!"
A cheer erupted at the mural.
Even if the church itself was small, the mural might be the best in the kingdom.
"Leon! This side is done too! I've cleaned up all the remaining materials!"
Jinhyuk shouted, and Leon waved back.
"Here too! I just need to fix the cross, and it's done!"
Leon let out a small sigh.
Maybe it was because he had one last hammer strike left.
Memories of the past few days flashed through his mind.
-*Puhahak! Hey, Moya-ji! Why do you keep waterboarding me... *Gulp, gulp!*
They had worked together every day and then rushed to the lakeside to splash around.
-*Today, I'm eating octopus! I need to grill shrimp too!*
-*For snacks, it's roasted sweet potatoes!*
After that, they lit a bonfire and ate delicious meals and snacks.
-*Leon, if you're okay, do you want to look at this together?*
The hammer combat techniques he had learned from a powerful group called the Black Knights.
Moko Jinhyuk stayed with him late into the night to help him master the techniques from that book.
*Smile.*
Just recalling them warmed his heart.
*Clang!*
He swung the hammer high and struck down.
Finally, the remote church was complete.
"Everyone, good work..."
Leon turned around with a bright smile and stopped.
Moko Jinhyuk and his friends had vanished as if by magic.
He had vaguely sensed it.
That they would part ways once the church was finished.
He looked at the empty church for a moment, then smiled.
'Thank you, friends.'
He hoped to meet them again someday.
Moko Jinhyuk and his friends, who had left behind unforgettable memories.
* * *
A long time after the time period of the 29th floor, in the present.
In a kingdom located somewhere in the Tower of Myth, a woman with brilliant blonde hair appeared.
It was a place that ordinary people couldn't even approach, accessible only to a select few permitted by the kingdom.
The woman, walking barefoot, took a deep breath.
"If my sense of smell were even slightly less developed, I might have found this refreshing."
Covering her nose with her hand, the woman looked around.
Everywhere her eyes landed was a peaceful forest filled with healthy green.
Here and there, flowers bloomed profusely, adding vibrant colors.
The woman wore a strange smile.
Anyone else would have praised it as a truly beautiful place.
Not knowing that the inside was rotting away.
"Seeing this, they're quite timid. Normally, they run wild without a care."
Muttering, the woman extended her slender finger.
To the naked eye, it was empty space where nothing existed.
But as her finger touched it, a change began.
A faint golden ripple spread through the space.
Where the ripple passed, the forest's true form was revealed.
The healthy green was gone without a trace.
All that remained were branches stained a deep rust from contamination and soil that had rotted away.
*Crunch.*
She walked slowly, just as she had entered.
The rotten tree trunks and fluids surged toward her bare feet to contaminate the intruder.
But they never touched her.
As if blocked by an impassable wall, the remnants of contamination collapsed without getting any closer.
Humming a tune, the woman stopped in front of a door.
It was where the source of the contamination consuming the kingdom was located.
"It's been a while."
The woman smiled and greeted.
"Knight of Decay, once called the indomitable hero, but unable to overcome the contamination and rotted away."
Before the door stood the Knight of Decay.
Clad in full plate armor mixed with green and purple, wielding a steel hammer fit for a giant.
No answer came to her greeting, but she didn't mind.
She hadn't expected one anyway.
What answer could she hope for from someone who had succumbed to contamination and become a puppet?
"Was this the distance allowed to me?"
The woman's toes moved a little forward.
*Swoosh!!*
The hammer swung instantly.
Along its path, rust-colored flames burst forth.
"Ouch, I guess I stepped half a step too far. Sorry."
The woman laughed lightly and pulled her foot back.
'Troublesome.'
She frowned at the heat lingering on her toes.
Normally, this would have been impossible.
The unique space that nothing could approach was completely isolating her body from the outside.
But the flames of contamination the knight emitted were different.
A tenacious obsession that tried to seep through even the gaps in the isolation.
Because of that, the woman couldn't advance beyond the door, leaving it one step away.
"How pitiful. Stuck guarding the door forever for the princess who contaminated you. But don't worry."
The woman lifted the eyepatch she was wearing.
Beneath the eyepatch engraved with strange patterns, a golden eye was revealed.
But only one eye shone.
The other was blackened and had lost its light.
"The World Seeker, I twisted time even at the cost of my eye. So you'll be freed soon."
The woman smiled gently and slowly stepped back.
Soon, the Princess of Contamination would notice her intrusion.
*Rustle.*
The woman's body began to dissolve into small particles.
Even as she was about to disappear completely, she kept her eyes on the decayed knight.
A faint smile spread across her lips.
It was an indomitable existence she couldn't break through no matter what she tried, but there wasn't much time left.
The knight would eventually fall.
She had created a small but clear crack in the wall of contamination and decay that had no gaps to squeeze through.
"See you again."
She would soon enter.
Beyond that door guarded by the decayed knight.
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T/N:
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