The False Hero, Volume 12, Chapter 8

Chapter 8

----- Lutz -----

“And that’s the end of this dungeon run.” My spear vanishes just as something heavy slams into the ground.

The Storm Titan is the final boss in this mountainous dungeon, boasting a level of 80. That makes it the highest possible level a monster can obtain within the system set up by the Goddess.

The titan is tough, but with our current strength, he’s just another boss on our farming rotation. Though in truth, the Storm Titan is one of the main reasons I chose to farm this dungeon to begin with. There aren’t many level 80 monsters around, even in dungeons.

Although I already know the answer, I bring up my Status Screen and check my level.

“Man, that feels good.” I continue soaking in the number displayed in my Status Screen.

“Did something happen, Sir Locke?” Miri asks.

“Yeah. As of this moment, I’ve reached the maximum level I can get inside of a dungeon.”

“Congratulations! I’m certain you’re strong enough to win now!”

“It’ll definitely help, but I still have tomorrow, so I plan to get even stronger than I am now, even if I can’t gain any more levels.”

Level 91. That’s the number showing inside my Status Screen. It’s a ridiculously high level, considering even the most powerful hero, Myra, was only level 80 during the first Great War. She was gifted that strength by the Goddess herself during the summoning, but she was already one of the highest level people in the world at the time.

Now, I’ve far surpassed even her, obtaining the absolute height of strength available to those who are trapped within the Mana Network’s system of rules.

Although I’m a Network Moderator, even I can’t break out of the cage that envelops this world, restricting people’s level, equipment, and available magic based on the settings chosen by the Administrators.

Given enough time, and with RAM’s help, perhaps I could build my own set of rules that coexist alongside the Mana Network’s. But something like that could take years, decades, or even centuries. That’s a vast amount of time for most people, but at the very least, I can count my lifespan in millennia, so the task of creating my own ruleset to live by isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Unfortunately, I don’t have centuries, decades, or even years. I have a mere two full days left until everything is decided.

“Whose turn is it this time?” Lumina looks around, though she clearly knows the answer to her own question.

“Ah, I think it was mine?” Malene says a bit awkwardly.

“Then you should enjoy it to the fullest!”

Malene was a guard from the kingdom of Flana whose city was under siege by a small army of fiends. After rescuing her, we essentially kidnapped her to power level and have her help in the final battle against Chaos.

We have the blessings of her king, of course. But since she was just the second-in-command of a medium-sized city’s guard, the king had no idea she even existed before I asked to recruit her.

She still hasn’t adjusted to the fact that she’s in parties with heroes and kings, but she’s slowly coming around. While she opens the final chest of the dungeon run, I check the levels of all the members here with me.

Many of the ones I brought were underleveled, like Wulf, Rin, and the elf warrior, Galan. Malene was in the same category, but she finally managed to break level 80, putting her at the strength of an Archfiend.

This entire dungeon run is mainly to power up our lesser-known cards in order to round out our battle strength. Most of them won’t be leading armies or giving orders, but having specialized forces outside the normal chain of command is always useful.

There are a few people here that I didn’t plan on bringing, but one of them really wants to be present at the final battle, so I have no choice but to level her up.

“Are you sure you want to go?” I ask the girl in question.

“Yes.” Miri nods with far more conviction than most would likely expect. “I have to see this war through to the end, even if there’s nothing I can do to help in the battle.”

“I know what you mean, so I won’t say no. But anything can happen in war, so make sure to follow Adel’s orders. He’ll keep you safe.”

Marquis Adel places his hand on his sheathed sword. “I may not be much of a warrior, but I have many of them at my disposal. I’ll keep her safe with me.”

Adel is also going to the final battle, even though he was never in the habit of fighting. It’s simply his duty as a noble who’s neck deep in this conflict, especially since the men from his province are going to be there. In this world, leaders command from the front. Else, they won’t be leaders for long.

I also didn’t plan to bring Edwin, Karina, or Baldrick today. Along with Adel and Miri, all of them stay in the city of Silvia, where my church is located. But once they heard Miri wanted to go, each of them decided to do the same. So here they are, leveling up and becoming some of the strongest people in the world.

I watched with half an eye as Malene retrieved the loot from the chest, so I know exactly what she got. Since none of it is an upgrade for me or my main party, I just tell the others to split it up however they want.

After stopping by Nasir’s forge this morning, I upgraded all of our equipment as much as possible. The chance of us getting something better from the dungeon has become so slim that it would make even a gacha game developer blush.

Still, there are a lot of people who don’t have best-in-slot equipment like the girls and I, so none of the items we’re farming will be wasted. Plus, I’m the only one who’s maxed their level. Everyone else is still growing, some more quickly than others.

“Well, let’s head back to my estate.” It still feels weird saying that, despite having lived there for weeks now. “I’ve got to get ready for another meeting.”

Since we’ve been farming this dungeon for a while, my [Fast Travel] Heroic Skill came off cooldown long ago. I use it without reserve, teleporting everyone to my estate’s backyard.

Although it’s not as fancy as a high noble’s garden, the hedges are trimmed and several paths allow for a nice walk around the yard. There’s still a lot of work to be done before the landscapers are finished, but things like flowers don’t grow in a few days, so all we can do is wait for nature to move at its own pace.

“Welcome home.” Lena gives us a bow worthy of her title as the estate’s head maid.

“Welcome home!” The young vampire, Kreslina, copies her greeting, just with a bit more enthusiasm.

“Thanks, and sorry for the crowd. It must have taken a long time to get all of this ready.” I take a deviled egg from the nearby table and pop it into my mouth. “Delicious.”

“It wasn’t a problem.”

“We worked hard!” As usual, their responses are quite different.

“Everyone help yourselves. It’d be rude to waste the drinks and snacks that they worked so hard to prepare.”

After a dungeon run, it’s nice to come back to a table filled with handmade refreshments. One by one, they begin to disappear as our large group picks through them.

Although it would be nice to take some time to relax, that will have to wait for another day.

“We’re on a tight schedule,” I say. “So whatever you have in your hand is coming with you because we’re going right to the next destination.”

It’s quite a crowd, with my main party, the two dragons, the hotspring crew, the guys from Silvia, and a few others like Julius, Rin, and Wulf. Compared to yesterday’s dungeon group, this one is still a little lacking, but that’s because the fewer people I bring, the more experience each member gets.

Regardless, it’s still large enough that it’d be crowded if we tried to all fit into one of the smaller rooms in my estate. That’s why it’s good that I chose a large room for one of my more recent projects.

“It’s down here.” I open a door, and a staircase appears, leading down.

“The basement?” Wulf looks through the opening and into the depths below.

“It’s the obvious choice for the spell.”

“What spell?”

“You’ll see.”

While most of the people with me know exactly what lies in the basement, a few newcomers have yet to see it. Of course, I plan to savor their reactions when they realize what I made.

The previous estate owner used the basement as storage, but we threw away all the useless junk and donated the rest to a local church. After clearing it out, we ended up with a lot of space to work with, which lets all of us fit inside without feeling even a bit crowded.

We’ve gathered around the center of the basement, where a familiar symbol radiates from the ground. To those without much experience with it, the glowing design looks normal, but Lumina picked up on the difference immediately, so it’s not impossible to know that something is odd about it.

“A teleportation circle?” Wulf asks, clearly showing that he’s not very familiar with them. “Surprised they let you have one here, even if you are a hero. Down in Belfast, even a noble couldn’t get something like this.”

“Well, I didn’t ask for permission, so when King Edgar found out, I couldn’t really describe his reaction as happy.”

“Guess if anyone can get away with it, it’d be you, eh? You even destroyed the entire Dragon Slayer guild in Belfast, and our king didn’t even care. Took your side, even.”

“That’s true. Those were fun times. Plus, I technically haven’t broken any laws with this spell, because it’s not even a teleportation circle.”

Wulf looks down at it again with his one good eye. “The hell you mean? Looks just like the ones I saw before.”

“It’s very similar, but I made some custom changes based on a special type of teleportation spell I saw somewhere else.” I motion to the glowing pattern on the basement floor. “It’s actually called a Gate, and it’s a completely different spell than [Teleport]. Therefore, I technically haven’t broken the law in regards to unregistered teleportation circles.”

“Got a feelin’ the king didn’t see it that way.”

“Well…” I think back to the day Edgar saw it. “You’re right about that.”

Regardless, the Gate is still here. I promised to get rid of it after the war, but until then, it’s simply too useful to give up.

I’ve only had it a few days, but it’s already paid me back in terms of the time I invested into making it. Then again, as with many of my recent projects, it didn’t take me long to finish because I had someone helping me.

RAM…

There’s nothing I can do about what’s already happened, so I focus on what’s coming up instead.

“Alright,” I say. “Rin, you’re first. Don’t wanna keep you-know-who waiting.”

She steps onto the pattern without reserve. “I have many tasks to finish before the day ends.”

“Figures. Attendants seem to have their hands full.” I ignore Elise’s gaze.

Alisha steps up alongside Rin, the two of them walking to the center of the Gate. One of the two waves energetically at me, while the other simply stares ahead as if this were a day like any other.

After they disappear, I turn back to the rest of the group. “Next.”

Wulf looks at the spot where the two girls just vanished. “I don’t see what’s so different about this Gate spell.”

“Ah, right. I guess I never really explained it. Basically, a Gate can be activated by a person over and over without a cooldown. So, it lets us teleport around without having to wait an hour between each cast. It also doesn’t cause a backlash, so it won’t lower our maximum mana temporarily like [Teleport] does. It’s quite handy, I’d say.”

“What!? Teleport as many times as you want, with no backlash!? Isn’t this thing way more powerful than a normal teleportation circle!?”

“Yeah, it is. But it has its own downsides, too. It requires an outside source of mana to power it, and it drains the energy fast. Even if we can technically teleport as many times as we want, in reality, we’d run out of power pretty quick. Still useful for speeding up our movement, so it’s worth using.”

The next group is Geralt and the rest of the hotspring crew, consisting of Kalyn, Ina, and Devin. Kymil didn’t come with them this time, as he’s working on gathering a final batch of elven goods that will be coming with him to the final battle.

Belle’s the one who transports the second group, going halfway across the continent in an instant. Although the Gate has a few downsides, it’s still far superior to a typical teleportation circle. We even changed some of our previous circles spread around the continent into Gates like this one, each powered with one of my mana batteries.

It lets us teleport around to connected locations almost at-will, which comes in handy when gathering groups for our dungeon runs.

“Hey,” Wulf says. “It’s not dangerous to have this thing here, is it?”

“Nah, the only way to activate it is to know the spell pattern I chose when I created it. And trust me when I say that the chances of someone randomly guessing it is low enough that I sleep very soundly at night.”

“All it’d take is for one person to share it, right? How many people know?”

“Including me, there are a total of seven people who know it. And that number won’t change because the other six are my closest companions.”

It’s obvious who I’m talking about. Laya, Alisha, Belle, Tylith, Lumina, and Elise each know how to activate the Gate, but there’s not a single chance any of them would share it with others.

In essence, I have a risk free, multiple use teleportation circle in my home that I can use to go all over the continent in an instant. Quite useful, indeed.

“Well, that’s everyone, right?” I watch on as Tylith disappears with Marquis Adel, who has business to take care of back in Silvia. “For everyone else, we’ve got plenty of spare bedrooms, all kept thoroughly clean by our hardworking maids. You’re free to do whatever you want, just make sure you’re ready for the next dungeon run tomorrow afternoon.”

With that, I’m also free. Unfortunately, that just means I’m free to get started on my next important task. In this case, it’s yet another meeting.

At least when the final battle starts, I won’t have to deal with any more meetings and parades.

Scratch that, there will definitely be a lot of celebrations once we win. I’m really not looking forward to that…