After leaving the ruins zone, I headed toward the upper area.
"Soul Eater, huh."
The Dark Hero, who was called the strongest.
The monster that even that person couldn't defeat.
Well, whether it's actually a monster or not remains unclear for now…
The Dark Hero had exhausted his strength in the ruins area.
After encountering the Soul Eater and sustaining injuries, he fled all the way to that room.
And then he died.
That's roughly the situation I can infer.
Soul Eater.
I can imagine it's an extremely dangerous monster.
Is it possible to escape without encountering it?
"If it were possible, the Dark Hero probably would have done it…"
He was called the Great Sage, after all.
He must have been far more sharp-minded than I am.
So I should assume that encountering it is unavoidable.
I lower my gaze to my hand.
"I hope I can manage it with these status ailment skills."
If there's something like resistance to magic…
If it can't penetrate that resistance, there will be no effect.
That incident where it didn't work on the goddess still bothers me.
Is it really only the goddess who is immune to status ailment skills?
The opponent who cornered and ultimately killed the strongest man.
Soul Eater.
On the flip side, if my skills work on it, I'll gain some confidence.
After all, if they work on the opponent who brought down the strongest man, then…
"..."
This battle might become a crucial turning point for the future.
An important watershed that will show what "level" my status ailment skills have truly reached.
▽
I climbed up two levels.
I still haven't encountered any monsters.
The passage was made of stone.
It wasn't naturally formed.
An unnatural passage.
In other words, a civilized passage shaped by human hands.
I also confirmed stairs between the two areas.
Just like the ruins zone earlier, there are remnants of human activity.
This place probably wasn't originally meant for discarding people.
"This ruin must have felt pretty unlucky too, getting named a 'discarded ruin' and drawing the short straw— whoa…"
I press my back against the wall of the passage.
I poke my head out to observe.
An open area.
It isn't shrouded in darkness.
The walls are faintly glowing… perhaps?
Maybe the material reacts to magic essence?
In any case, it seems like a place that doesn't require light.
Structures that make it convincing as a ruin surround the entire area in a circle.
Exposed dirt walls where the artificial surface has peeled away.
Fragments of man-made wall material are scattered all over the ground.
It looks like the aftermath of a small earthquake.
And—human bones.
About four sets, maybe?
At least four discarded people had reached this place in the past.
No—five, if I include the Dark Hero.
Were they companions of the Dark Hero?
Or did they climb up separately?
As long as they had suitable combat ability and food supplies, it should have been possible to climb this far.
In my case, my combat relied entirely on skills…
Still, even without fighting, convenient magic might have allowed someone to escape from monsters.
Even so,
"..."
It must have been frustrating.
To have finally climbed this far, only to meet this fate.
I shake my head.
This isn't the time to get sentimental.
I continue observing.
In the depths, I can see stairs leading upward.
Beyond the stairs, there is a large door…
Is that the way to the surface?
But if so—then if it's here,
It would be right here.
The Soul Eater.
But—where is it?
From the name, is it some kind of spirit-like thing?
Even when I look around carefully, I don't see any monster that fits.
I stick my head out a little further to peer in.
Then it must be over there.
There seems to be another area recessed deeper in.
From this angle, I can't see it directly…
I place the faintly glowing leather pouch on the far side of the passage.
Then I return to the previous passage.
I begin moving along the wall edge, trying not to stand out.
Without incident, I arrive near the other area.
From a position where I can just barely peek over the wall by showing a little of my face.
It's quiet…
I slowly lean out over the wall to look.
What's this area like—
"!"
What the hell is that?
A face?
For example—like a Buddha statue or a Virgin Mary statue.
That's the first thing that came to mind.
A gigantic stone face is embedded in the dirt wall.
There's something like a golden gem set into its forehead…
I gasp and turn back.
At the center of the closed door beyond the stairs.
That indentation's shape…
I check the stone face's forehead again.
I see.
To open the door, I need to embed that stone into the forehead.
"..."
I let out a small breath.
This is basically set in stone, isn't it.
No matter how I think about it, that thing—is the Soul Eater.
If I go to retrieve the gem, it will definitely move.
It will absolutely move.
There's no way it won't.
I cautiously extend half my body from around the corner.
Just enough to extend my arm.
I thrust my hand toward the stone face.
"[Para—"
Shuuun!
"—!? ...Agh— aaah!?"
I reflexively pull back and hide.
"Guh, agh!? Agh—!?"
Drip, drip…
Several drops of blood fall to the ground.
"—っ… It hurts… damn it…"
I had a bad feeling and instinctively yanked my hand back.
But if I had been even a little slower,
I might have lost everything from the elbow down.
I check the bleeding spot.
…Good, it's fine.
Only the tip of my finger—the nail and a bit of flesh—got torn off.
At worst, it feels like having a fingernail ripped out.
It just throbs painfully.
I've experienced the pain of having a nail torn out by my own parent before…
It's just familiar pain, nothing more.
I take the cloth scrap I had prepared from my pocket and quickly tie up my fingertip.
Tighten.
So—what was that attack just now?
It felt a little similar to Kirihara's unique skill.
A beam-like attack.
For an instant, the dirt wall seemed to glow.
Then I was suddenly shot.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Light speed, maybe you could call it.
It fired before I could finish saying my unique skill name.
It's reading me.
Just as I can sense the prelude to its movement,
It sensed the prelude to mine.
In other words,
I was preempted.
The moment I form the intent to attack, that beam activates.
There's no opening for me to take the initiative.
What do I do?
To escape, I presumably need to obtain that gem.
If I can kill the stone face, I should be able to get it immediately.
But against that beam, I can't complete the process to activate my unique skill.
Activating it requires verbally stating the skill name.
It also requires a certain volume of voice.
These facts were confirmed during the verifications I did while climbing up.
What do I do?
Is the breakthrough to raise my status even higher?
Return to the ruins area to resume leveling?
Or try to raise my skill levels?
Bet on learning some unknown new skill and resume leveling in the lower layers?
No—first of all, I can't even activate the skill.
In that case, should I raise my own level first to boost [Speed]?
Go back to an area where monster presence has vanished and spend all day hunting monsters?
Or go even further down where experience is lower?
Go back—how far?
"Or perhaps—"
Become a resident of the ruins and live here?
"…No way."
Living leisurely in that ruins area is out of the question.
I need to obtain power to use against the goddess and crush that shitty goddess.
To achieve that, I have to reach the surface first, or none of it matters.
Gogogogogogogogogogogogo…
Hm?
"What's that?"
A rumbling…?
Part of the stone wall surface in the area starts peeling away further from the vibration.
It's coming out, huh.
Probably because I showed no movement toward it?
It seems to have begun moving from where it was embedded.
"..."
That interception speed that felt like the speed of light.
In terms of status, its [Speed] must be on a completely different level?
Its reaction performance surpasses even the reflexes I built up in the lower layers.
The instant I point my arm, it intercepts immediately.
In a sense, its consciousness has no gaps at all.
In short, no openings.
I look at my throbbing fingertip.
The discarded people who made it this far must have had considerable ability in terms of status.
But even they were done in by that thing.
It repelled even the man called the strongest.
Soul Eater.
Probably the existence that reduced the survival rate of discarded people to zero.
No doubt about it.
The master of this ruin is that thing.
So this is surely—
"The final survival competition in the discarded ruin."