Nameless King

Wain has leveled up to 13 and has only two more steps to take before he can begin to evolve. It would be the most crucial step in his post-apocalypse life, even more, important than discovering the second form.

'Unfortunately, I don't know anything about how evolution happens, but it sure must be something amazing. Only a few people in my world have been able to evolve, and they weren't going to share their secrets with anyone.' Thought Wain and headed on his way.

He was pleased with the amount of Soul Essence he had received. The Merfolk Warriors were strong opponents, but for Wain. That said, they had a fairly high level. After a while, each of them would be able to evolve.

So Wain could gain a significant amount of Soul Essence while fighting opponents that weren't particularly strong for him. 

A level one monster and a level twelve monster were no different for Wain in terms of difficulty. Of course, there were exceptions, and a lot depended on the Soul Rating.

This Dungeon was the place Wain was looking for. Initially, he thought he would find a Dungeon or Nest in the woods, but the reality turned out to be a little different.

After getting his soul, Wain headed on, this underwater temple had many rooms in each of which enemies were waiting for him.

For the next two hours, Wain spent destroying his enemies one by one. These fights were not exciting and seemed boring to Wain, but he quickly gained souls with plenty of Soul Essence.

Unfortunately, Wain didn't get the Spiritual Box anymore, and all the souls were Destroyed states. 

Wain was not upset, he realized that rank-and-file monsters like the Merfolk Warriors were in the thousands or more at this point. With such large numbers, it was problematic to get Whole Soul.

As Wain killed another group of monsters, he muttered, "This Dungeon is much bigger than the last one. I am wandering around for hours and haven't met anyone but Merfolk Warriors. This is beginning to bore me."

Unfortunately, there was no change over the next three hours. Wain had to fight the same monsters repeatedly, and he realized that it wasn't as easy as he originally thought.

Wain was starting to get tired, he barely spent any energy to kill one monster, but he had already killed several hundred in a couple of hours. This slowly wore him down both mentally and physically.

Wain was a man who liked the variety and constantly wanted to see and feel something new. This included both physical phenomena and emotional ones. 

He liked to travel, but he didn't mind reading a book for a couple of days or playing a game for hours on end.

So, this kind of routine only made him feel tedium. He had never experienced anything like this before, as he had never had to kill several hundred people back. 

Even for him, it was something out of the ordinary, not because it was cruel, but because it was hard for Wain to imagine a reason why he would have to kill so many people.

However, after the apocalypse had begun, he had a reason to kill thousands or even millions of monsters and maybe people.

"Eh, too bad I can't get a soul by killing people, that would be interesting. In that case, though, people would kill themselves. Our greed knows no bounds." Wain muttered and headed for the next room.

To his surprise, the place was empty. Wain was immediately wary. He realized that it was unlikely that Dungeon would have had such a room and not had a trap in it.

However, Wain did not notice anything strange. No one attacked him, and no trap was activated. It was weird, but Wain decided to move on.

He strolled forward, and as he passed the room, he thought to himself, 'Am I being paranoid? Damn, I've spent so much time getting ready to attack or activate a trap, and nothing happened!'

Wain was angry. He felt like a fool at that moment, even though he had actually done the smart and rational thing. He couldn't find an explanation for the fact that there was no one in the great hall, and it annoyed him.

Wain walked down a long corridor that was illuminated by a few blue crystals. They didn't shine very strongly and were like dim torches. After a minute, Wain reached the next hall.

"I see. I'm not paranoid after all. These bastards decided to ambush me." Proclaimed Wain was looking at more than fifty Merfolk Warriors. They were all waiting for Wain to arrive.

Wain prepared for battle. The plasma sword appeared beside him, and he was ready to attack, but suddenly he felt strange.

'They're not attacking. What are they up to?' Thought Wain and swung his hand. 

The plasma sword flew toward the monsters, but one of the Merfolks struck the ground with his spear at the exact moment. The other monsters did the same, and at that moment, a large magical circle lit up on the ground.

A barrier formed around the monsters, and the plasma sword could not penetrate it. The weapon bounced aside as if it had been knocked away by a powerful blow.

Wain attacked a few more times, trying to break through the barrier, but was unsuccessful. Then he was about to use the skill, but suddenly Wain stopped. The actions of his opponents seemed strange to him.

'They have hidden behind this barrier and are not trying to attack. What's the point of their actions if they can't attack me?' Thought Wain, but then he began to understand what his opponents were up to.

'They can't attack me. Their tactics don't make sense, but what if they aren't defending against me? Then...' Wain thought, and suddenly the hall trembled.

Then there were many cracks in the walls, and the hall slowly began to fill with water. A loud cracking sound was heard, and a huge creature destroyed the room's left wall.

"An octopus!?" Wain said in amazement as he looked at the creature that caused intense destruction.

Wain did not consider his opponent and tried to retreat. It was to his disadvantage to fight in the water against creatures with gills and a giant octopus. Moreover, this was no ordinary octopus living in the sea. It was also a monster.

Outwardly it was not much different from its brethren, but it was much bigger and stronger. However, that alone was enough to instill terror in many.

"Damn!" Said Wain looking at the torrents of water coming from the other side. At that moment, he realized that he could not escape from this trap.

The worst thing that could happen to him was a flood, and it happened. Wain wasn't prepared for that. He didn't think there could be an enemy outside in Dungeon.

'I was too frivolous. I thought these rooms were the boundaries of the Dungeon like it was with the ant colony, but it looks like that turned out not to be the case. This octopus lives in this Dungeon, which means there is a large space around this temple where various sea creatures live.'

Initially, Wain thought the Dungeons were a maze or something similar. He thought it was a chain of rooms and a passageway at the end of which was a boss. But now he realized he was thinking too primitively.

His belief that the structure of all Dungeons was the same had gotten him into trouble and put him in such a dangerous situation.

Wain wasn't afraid he couldn't handle the Merfolk Warriors in the water. He was sure he would be stronger even in their territory. But, he didn't know how much water there was around him, which made him wary.

He could hold his breath for no more than five minutes. That was pretty good for a human, but in terms of time, it wasn't much. It was impossible to swim vast distances in five minutes.

Water filled half the hall after a couple of seconds, and the Merfolk Warriors canceled the protective barrier. The octopus was not with them. It was a third party who could attack both Wain and Merfolks.

The monsters were closer, so the octopus attacked Merfolks first, but they quickly backed off. By then, seventy percent of the hall was filled with water. 

Wain was off to the side, trying to think of a plan of action, but first, he needed to see what was around this temple.

Gradually, under the onslaught of water, the rest of the building began to collapse. Then the water swamped the entire space, and Wain had to hold his breath.

He looked around and saw glimpses of sunlight high up. Wain frowned as the water around him was dark and murky. This meant that he was in deep water.

At the exact moment, the Merfolks attacked him. Wain didn't have time to fight them, so he swung his arm, and the plasma sword came down on them. 

But, the Merfolks were much faster in the water. They attacked Wain swiftly and swirled around him like a deadly vortex.

The Merfolks had to kill Wain before the octopus got to them. Wain initially wanted to kill them, but he couldn't hurt them. The Merfolks were too fast in the water.

Wain could hardly dodge their many attacks and block them with his sword.

'Curse, I can't use Lightning Lizard's Dash, since that way I'll hit myself. Electricity and water don't mix well, damn it!'

In that situation, Wain had virtually no choice. He had to hold his breath, dozens of monsters were attacking him, and a huge octopus was slowly approaching him. It was a pretty bad situation.

But, for situations like this, everyone had to have a trump card to help him survive, and Wain had such a card, even two.