**Day 28 Dungeon Bottom Floor**
It is black. Pitch black. Absolute darkness. Is that a shadow?
No, just black, dark, pure void. A humanoid darkness.
Not merely black—something that devours light and erases it entirely.
Well—if I said my hooded black cloak makes me look suspicious, I'd probably get yelled at.
Because somehow, I'm always the one getting yelled at.
Even a darkness person might yell at me.
"Appraisal"
NAME -- Dullahan Lich No-Life King
AGE --
Lv 27
Job Labyrinth's End Labyrinth Emperor
HP --
MP --
ViT 179
PoW 259
SpE 291
DeX 297
MiN 297
InT 315
Luｋ 99
Martial Arts ??????????
Magic ??????????
Skills ??????????
Titles ??????????
Unknown ??????????
Equipment ??????????
Appraisal worked? Got the name and job—wait, it has a job? I don't even have one. And "Emperor"? Emperor-class?
It's strong. Lv27 but overwhelmingly powerful.
PoW and ViT lower than Goblin Emperor, but everything else is crushing.
Three race types?
Dark attribute, obviously.
Dullahan—knight. Head's attached, though?
Lich—magic caster, probably archmage or sage level or higher.
No-Life King—king of the undead. Immortal.
And the worst part: Every skills has a question mark.
Martial arts, magic, skills—all invisible.
Even has titles and Unknown.
Ultra-cheat.
Probably the kind of pure strongest that would wipe out even the otakus gathered together.
Not a cheat-killer like Whatshisname—genuinely strong.
Strong for a reason. Just strong.
Even without anything it'd be strong, yet "?" everywhere.
My "Tree Staff?" is the same—high-level stuff turns to "?" in appraisal.
Meaning its techniques, magic, skills, equipment—all top-tier.
And the bad part: ranged and melee, fast, smart.
Dexterous on top, and even has luck.
Well, luck is the one thing I can beat, as usual.
But still… this thing is strong…
Still, I walk forward.
Ever since opening the door.
Approaching.
Lich and No-Life King attributes.
Long-range magic fight? Instant loss.
Definitely magic-null and immortal? No way!
No chance against Dullahan either.
But there will be a fight.
Even if physical-null, I can club it to death.
Just seeing it stand there with a sword—it's strong. From another world entirely.
Terrifying death-god figure, yet its stance is beautiful.
I walk right up to it. The skull's eyes hold only darkness.
We lock gazes. The distance vanishes.
Even with "Divine Eye," only afterimages of sword clashes. Just fast. Just beautiful.
No wasted preparatory movement. No initial wind-up. No unnecessary tension. No mental flicker. Not a single flaw or excess—just motion.
Just cutting.
Nothing else. A strike stripped to its essence.
This is god-speed.
Only the completion of the cut exists.
By the time it moves, the cut is already finished.
No beginning. No interval. Only end.
Beginning and end are simultaneous.
"Divine Eye" probably has a tiny bit of future sight.
Just a little.
A teeny bit.
A weeny little bit.
We clash with that tiny sliver.
Because it's invisible.
By the time I see it, the cut is already done.
So I just keep parrying.
Like sweeping away sword strikes.
It's the immortal king—has infinite time.
So we clash infinitely. Eternally. Forever. No end.
How long has it been? No idea. Doesn't matter.
Right now it's infinite.
But unfortunately I'm finite.
Eventually stamina will run out.
Eventually mana will deplete.
Eventually mind will break.
Eventually consciousness will fade.
But until then—infinite.
Countless clashes.
Clashes too fast for blinking.
Clashes spanning nayuta of moments.
Clashes binding刹那.
Only in that interval is it infinite.
Probably infinite.
Muscle strength stopped mattering long ago.
The instant I think—cut.
The instant I feel—cut.
Not body speed.
Thought speed.
Impossible velocity.
If I moved my body I'd never make it.
I control it. At thought speed.
Body velocity irrelevant.
At the limit of thought speed.
During endless clashes, I realize the skull has no killing intent.
All while we clash eternally.
Probably the killing intent comes from the darkness. I'm cutting through that dark killing intent.
All while we clash forever.
I could have killed this skull. Easily. Over and over and over and over. Anytime.
All while we clash eternally.
The darkness is thinning?
Slightly.
Faintly.
Barely.
But certainly.
The tree staff is scraping it away. Stealing it. Absorbing it?
Scraping away undead dark attribute? Holy attribute?
But every clash.
Every sword meeting.
Every sharpening of blades.
Every crossing.
Every strike.
Every void.
And now—whenever "now" is—
The darkness vanished.
The darkness was overcome, but
I cannot overcome this skull's cuts.
The skull's cuts… huh?
…
…
…
Finally understood.
All this time, forever, right here—the skull has been waiting to be killed.
Someday, sometime, surely—waiting for someone to end it.
Otherwise it wouldn't have fought. Even controlled by darkness, it resisted the darkness. Refused to obey.
Waiting here forever—for someone to kill both the darkness and itself.
"...Domination"
The skull never intended to attack from the start.
That's why we could fight.
The skull never intended to battle from the start.
That's why we could clash swords.
The skull never intended to live from the start.
That's why…
I dominated it.
I didn't want to kill it.
For some reason, I felt I mustn't kill it.
Finally freed from the darkness.
So at least—I wanted to take it out of here.
**Day 28**