—30 minutes ago.
Theo waited, holding his breath.
"The Grandmaster will be pleased once he hears of your feat."
"Hahaha, does that mean I'm one of you now?"
"As long as the Grandmaster agrees."
Roygerd was having a short conversation with someone before he finally left. Before Roygerd reached the corridor where Theo was hiding, Theo slipped into a room to avoid meeting him.
He waited in the stifling silence until the echoing footsteps finally faded into nothingness.
Carefully, Theo opened the door. He checked the corridor. Finally, Roygerd had left.
But just to be safe, Theo waited another five minutes before rushing toward the room Roygerd had just come out of.
There were two men with Gemguns of the same model as Theo's, so he couldn't take them down as easily this time.
He pulled the trigger twice, shooting both men in the forehead, before evading a return shot.
"Intruder! An intruder attacked us!" one of them shouted to warn the other thugs.
Finally, Theo couldn't stay as stealthy as before. Sooner or later, more of them would come. He had to finish this quickly and get whatever was inside the room.
But Theo maintained his calm.
He aimed the muzzle at one of the thugs with a Gemgun, shot him, then quickly sidestepped. A shot landed where he'd been standing a moment ago.
_I really have to kill the gunner first!_ Theo thought as he raised his Gemgun again.
However, a thug swung his sword down at him, forcing Theo to abandon the idea. He evaded the thug's swings as he racked his brain and analyzed the situation.
_Three killed. Seven left..._
When he glanced at the corpse of the gunner he'd just killed, he noticed one of the thugs reaching for the Gemgun, which meant the gunner count would be back to two soon.
Their second gunner shot at him again. Fortunately, Theo managed to evade the shot once more.
"Tch."
Even more fighters were coming to attack him, hindering him from shooting their gunner.
Realizing the situation would only get worse with time, Theo decided it was time to make a quick decision.
He measured the distance between the walls of the corridor. This corridor was cavernous, a stark contrast to his cramped quarters back home.
Normally, a person wouldn't be able to jump that far, let alone use the walls as stepping stones to reach the enemies' rear line. But with Theo's Levitation, he could nullify his body weight and the influence of gravity, which naturally increased the distance and height of his jumps.
After evading another shot and swing, Theo ran toward the wall on his left, jumped off it, applied Levitation to himself, then jumped to the other wall. He continued in a zig-zag pattern until he reached the gunners.
The second gunner could only widen his eyes when he saw a punch approaching his face.
Theo's knuckles collided with their jaws with the force of a battering ram, the impact echoing through the cavernous hall.
As a Dungeon Diver who had cleared the 45th floor of a high-level dungeon like The Beast Mountain, his strength was almost superhuman compared to normal adults like these thugs. His punches were enough to end their lives.
The remaining thugs were stunned after seeing Theo kill their comrades with a punch. One of them even knelt on the floor when Theo pointed their comrades' Gemguns at them.
A series of suppressed _whizz_ sounds later, they were all lying on the floor, dead.
Theo only collected the two gunners' G-bullets before entering the room. They had only two G-bullets each, not as loaded as the one Theo had knocked down earlier atop the wall. Combined with the three G-bullets he had left after shooting people until now, he now possessed seven G-bullets, excluding the one already loaded into his Gemgun, with 17 shots left.
What greeted him inside was a short man who reminded him of Goffekarg, but fatter. He was cowering under his table when Theo entered.
_So he is the Boss of The Rats. As expected, they're just a small, annoying criminal organization. But what kind of relationship do they have with The Abyssal New Gate?_
"W-who are you?" the man asked.
Theo responded with his Gemgun's muzzle.
"Give me every document about your organization's illegal activities. Now, or die."
Roygerd could be back anytime soon, and other thugs might already be on their way to this room after hearing the commotion, so he didn't want to waste any more time.
The man flinched and trembled when he looked at the muzzle. But he hesitated, looking uncertain.
So Theo let him taste pain first by giving him a shot in the shoulder.
"Arrgghhh!!" the man shouted in pain, clutching his bleeding shoulder.
"Be quick," said Theo, warning him that it was his last chance.
Finally, the man obeyed. He crawled out from under the table and began rummaging through the drawers. He pulled out a pile of documents and placed them on the table.
"H-here, sir," the man stuttered, clearly unwilling but without any other choice.
Theo hummed as he picked up the documents. He quickly checked them. Trafficking, slavery, and other questionable transactions.
"Alright, that's enough."
The man sighed in relief after hearing that, but then Theo aimed the muzzle at him and shot him.
At the same time the shot killed the man, the door of the room was crushed from the outside.
"Oh, am I late? How unfortunate."
Theo immediately turned around and aimed the muzzle at the man who had just crushed the door and its wall with his bare fists.
The muscular man in a tuxedo adjusted his necktie before smiling at Theo.
"May I know your name? Knowing the names of people I deem strong is my base principle as a gentleman."
Roygerd Fotavich.
Theo's lip twitched after he saw him.
_Ah, well, at least I already got what I needed to destroy the Rats,_ Theo thought positively to cheer his dimming motivation.
Theo forced a smile.
"That's right... Well, you can call me Abyss Crusher."
The man's face immediately turned cold the moment he heard those words.
"What a dead joke, just like the one who uttered it. I, Roygerd Fotavich, now state that I'll kill you here no matter what."
Theo responded with a shot.
"Bring it on."
...
Meanwhile, outside, Goffekarg and his group finally returned to the mansion.
His subordinate was just about to tell his fellow Rats member what had happened to them, but then they heard a shattering explosion from the mansion.
They exchanged confused glances, disbelief written all over their faces.
_Which madman dares to attack our base!?_ They all thought the same thing.
All of them immediately rushed back into the building.
The commotion came from the fourth floor. But as they finally arrived at the scene, they immediately wanted to run away.
Two men were fighting. But not fighting normally. They were fighting like two destroyers. One was an embodiment of strength, capable of crushing walls with his physical prowess. The other was like a slimy human, jumping to the ceiling, walls, and floor as if his body were not made of flesh, but of feather, a feather armed with a Gemgun, shooting with unbelievable precision.
It was Roygerd and Theo.
"Wh-who are those two!?" Goffekarg asked his subordinate.
They could only identify Theo as the boy they had failed to capture before, while not a single one of them recognized Roygerd. And that was normal, since the Boss of the Rats, the man Theo had just killed, only let a select minority of his subordinates know about The Rats' relationship with The Abyssal New Gate.
And unfortunately for Goffekarg, he was not one of the chosen ones, even though the Boss was his brother.
Theo landed just behind them at that moment to reload his Gemgun.
"Tch. His Magic truly is tough," he muttered, before looking at Goffekarg's group. "You better get out of this place immediately. If you don't want to get killed by that bull."
Roygerd then arrived. His soles dented the floor as he stopped just before them.
Then, before they could even say anything, the man immediately grabbed the head of one of them and threw him like a bowling ball toward Theo. Theo casually evaded the body, but the man Roygerd had thrown was dead as a result, his body splattered against the wall.
Goffekarg's group's faces instantly turned pale after seeing the tragic end of their comrade. Without wasting any more time, they ran away.
"Weak and annoying, akin to rats..." said Roygerd while watching them flee.
"Well, that's why they call themselves The Rats," Theo replied, before aiming the muzzle of his Gemgun back at Roygerd.
The bigger man's eyes narrowed at the pistol.
"Why insist on using that weak weapon? You wouldn't be able to hurt me with that."
Theo smiled in response.
"Who knows, right? Perhaps..."
Then he pulled the trigger, sending the elemental bolt at Roygerd.
"It'll work if I keep shooting."
The bolt landed perfectly on Roygerd's forehead, but no hole was made, only slightly reddened skin. While it indeed didn't do any damage, Roygerd still felt irritated after continuously receiving Theo's shots. His cold eyes said everything.
"Haha! Unfortunately, I couldn't 'one shot, one kill' you with this."
"I'll kill you!"
Roygerd launched his body forward, his fist slowly turning red like hot steel as he swung it down.
With a boom, the floor exploded from his punch. Still, no matter how strong his strength was, if he couldn't even hit his target, then what was that strength for?
An elemental bolt hit Roygerd's forehead again.
His killing intent surged, burning the air.
"Uwarghh!"
He began smashing everything as he chased Theo around. From corridor to corridor, room after room.
However, this chase that felt endless was actually happening intentionally. Orchestrated solely by Theo. With the sole goal of destroying The Rats' base and attracting the attention of the Dungeon City's guards. He himself couldn't destroy a mansion by himself, but Roygerd with his Body Strengthening Magic could.
_More, more, more! Destroy even more of it!_
Theo was ecstatic inside while keeping a calm face outside. Manipulating someone never felt pleasant, but if the 'someone' in question was a villain? It was guilt-free!
Panicked shouts and yells filled the fourth and third floors. All the thugs were in disarray and could only run around like chickens without heads while Theo led Roygerd to smash everything.
If things continued like this, surely, the mansion would collapse.
Before that, Theo had to evacuate Tizmilly and the others first.
So, just as they arrived at the second floor after crushing most things on the fourth and third floors, Theo stopped running.
"Finally tired of running around?" Roygerd asked him with cold eyes.
Theo shrugged. "A little..."
They locked eyes.
Roygerd with his fists and his Magic, Body Strengthening.
And Theo with a Gemgun, mini pistol caliber, one shot left, with only one G-bullet spare in his pocket, and his Magic, Levitation.
Finally, Theo decided it was the right moment to kill Roygerd.
The air around him changed as his leisurely pose was replaced by a more deadly posture, like a hunter who had finally decided to hunt his prey.
Roygerd's left eyelid twitched.
Drops of sweat gathered on his cold face.
Then—
Theo took a step forward. No, it wasn't a step. It was more like a rocket launch than a step.
Levitation combined with his explosive muscle prowess.
That was the result.
Roygerd's pupils contracted. The image of a punch was mirrored in them. The punch hit him in the face. It was fast. And heavy. It threw him away like he was nothing, sending him crashing through walls before finally stopping.
The punch hadn't actually damaged him that much, but it could throw him away even though he had used all his weight to anchor himself.
Theo had completely caught Roygerd off guard.
Then Theo appeared again and immediately shot him in the eye. Fortunately, Roygerd reacted fast enough and blocked the bolt with his palm. Otherwise, he would have lost half of his vision.
Roygerd stared when Theo pulled a new G-bullet from his pocket.
Before he could reload his Gemgun, however, Roygerd had already slammed his fists onto the floor with all his might. For some reason, he didn't want Theo to reload that weapon, which was supposed to be useless against him until now.
The floor gave way before his might in an instant, collapsing a big hole not only on the second floor, but also on the first floor.
The two then fell, landing amidst the rusted chains and iron maidens of a sunless torture chamber.