Of course, I didn’t just march straight into the dungeon. I had to see my guild members, and, more importantly, I had to hold a funeral for Ren’s father. His corpse was still in my inventory. Daisy drooled after hearing that I had a Hero’s corpse, but there was no way I could let her use a friend’s father as an undead. However, I still promised her that I’d get her a similar corpse one day.

“Previous Hero… Strong, warrior…”

Even as we cremated Ren’s father, Daisy murmured with regret. It was a bit creepy.

As Lebuik and the children had to be at the funeral, it couldn’t be held at the dungeon’s Residential Area or the resort area. In the end, we gathered others who wanted to come and held the funeral at a nearby mountain on Earth. Since it would be hard to explain if an ordinary person saw us, I had Hwaya cast magic to prevent people from approaching the mountain. Naturally, Hwaya became the first to hear about what happened.

She gasped, “I didn’t think you’d defeat a world’s enemy.”

I shrugged. “The conditions were favorable. That’s it.”

Hwaya smiled slightly before she continued, “I’m extremely curious. Who knows, maybe it’ll help us deal with the danger Earth is facing. Tell me about it in detail when we’re alone later. Along with a drink, of course.”

I nodded. “It wasn’t anything special…but sure.”

All of Revival’s members attended the funeral even though it wasn’t mandatory. Part of the reason why they participated was to meet Ren, the newest member. When the female members saw the little children, they were all extremely elated.

One whispered, “Look at those rabbit ears.”

Another replied quietly, “She’s shaking. I want to hug her…”

“So cute!” a third exclaimed.

Of course, the children got scared and hid behind Ren, Lebuik, and me. There was a little accident where Ina almost froze Elfa accidentally when she ran towards me, but everything else went smoothly. Ren could send his father off, which I was sure would serve as a good way to solidify his resolve to take on the mantle of a Hero.

Oh, there was one other blip that occurred. Since Ina was about the same age as the children from the Panan continent, she got into a little conflict with them.

Ina yelped, “Daddy, who are they? Daddy’s Ina’s!”

Hwaya gently chided, “Daddy isn’t Ina’s. Also, they’re friends from the Panan continent.”

“Daddy? Shin oppa is a daddy?”

“That’s a lie!”

“It has to be a lie! They don’t have the same hair color!” Elfa pointed out after she heard Ina call me ‘daddy’. The other children stared at Ina and me, surprised. Ina puffed her cheeks and put her arms around my neck.

She proclaimed smugly, “Ina is Daddy’s daughter!”

I weakly replied, “Y-Yeah…Ina is my daughter.”

It felt a bit weird saying it, but I had no other choice. I didn’t want to open Ina’s emotional wound again. I patted Ina as she held onto me like a koala bear and announced to the others that I was her father. I wanted to die when I saw the surprised children from the Panan continent jumping up and down while flapping their ears,

After that, the funeral ended. I did catch Daisy trying to put her hands on the ashes, but we managed to clean everything up. After that, I had to deal with the problem of where Ren and the children would stay. As they couldn’t all live in my house, we decided to simply buy a house near my family’s.

When Lebuik became aware that Ren and the eight children would live by themselves in a house, she came up to me with a determined look in her eyes.

She said flatly, “I want to enter your guild.”

“You want to live with Ren?” I asked, anticipating her reaction.

“Whoa!” It did not disappoint.

I teased, “It’s written all over your face!”

Although her motives were impure, it wasn’t a bad idea to have a woman in the house, especially with Ren being insensitive about certain things. Like the saying said, the more the merrier. Furthermore, she was a skilled First Dungeon explorer on the 69th floor. After a bit of talking, Lebuik left the Demonic Girls guild and joined mine.

Only after that did I feel like everything was taken care of. I had to spoil Ludia and Ina as I hadn’t seen them for a while, but that was it.

“So, you came to climb the dungeon right away?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

A serious expression appeared on Loretta’s face after she heard what had happened. Then, she said something that really didn’t match her solemn attitude, “First, congratulations on defeating the world’s enemy of the Panan continent. That is truly a great achievement. It’s not something you can disclose carelessly, but at least the dungeon’s administrators all know about it. Especially the ol…Lord.”

“Thanks. So…when will you let go of me?” I raised an eyebrow.

Loretta strengthened her grip on my wrists after hearing my question and continued, “But Shin-nim, you have to be careful. Not all of the world’s enemies are the same. Don’t think that Earth’s problems can be solved as easily as the Panan continent’s.”

I grinned. “I know. I’ll stay with you for an hour before I go. Happy?”

It was a complete non-sequitur, but it must have been the correct answer. Loretta immediately let go of my wrists and smiled brightly. She dragged me along to a table, sat down, and tapped on the seat next to her.

“Then sit here and tell me everything that happened!”

I sighed. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Ehehe, hurry!”

So, I had to wait another three hours before I could go up to the 59th floor. Since I ended up getting the Queen Elf’s Blessing, I wasn’t particularly unsatisfied. Of course, I didn’t do any other strange things. Yup.

The 59th floor wasn’t anything special. It only had an increased number of golems compared to the previous one, so I broke through in two hours. Immediately afterwards, I entered Beyond’s 9th floor. Each floor of Beyond was bigger than the previous. Without Mana Detection, it was practically impossible to advance onward. Of course, Mana Detection was something one naturally learned the first time one entered Beyond.

“Kugyaaaaa!”

“Human, see the power of Lizard Knight!”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m happy to see you guys too.”

After fighting annoying enemies like the Mana Eater and El Patiz, seeing Dark Ratmen and Lizard Knights gave me a sense of comfort. I felt depressed like I’d taken the wrong road somewhere when I realized I felt like this in Beyond. Now, even if two hundred Orc Lords appeared at the same time, I had a hunch I could deal with them without breaking out in sweat.

[You have cleared Beyond’s 9th floor. You have obtained the qualification to challenge the dungeon’s 60th floor.]

[Your maximum HP and MP has increased by 2%. You have obtained 5 bonus stats.]

[Experience has been added to the skills you frequently used to progress through Beyond’s 9th floor.]

[High-rank Provoke has reached level 7! Your existence itself is a provocation. Perhaps, even lifeless objects might get angry and attack you.]

[Wind King’s Rage has reached level 3! Damage increase per monster has increased to 15%, and the maximum amplification has increased to 200%.]

“Whew…”

After decimating hundreds of Dark Ratmen and Lizard Knights with Crimson Roar, I let out a satisfied sigh and checked the message window. It was now time for the 60th floor. Once I defeated the Floor Master, Ren’s thrashing phase would begin. A smile bloomed on my face when I thought about how much Ren would grow after this.

At that moment, someone sent me a message. I flinched, thinking Ren had somehow found out what I was thinking and messaged me about it, but it wasn’t him. The message was from someone that I couldn’t remember when I had added him to my friend list.

[Oi, the armor’s finished.]

[I’ll come right away!]

The moment I saw Lin’s message, I left Beyond through the gate and rushed to the Residential Area. I had felt like something was off while I was breaking through the 59th floor and Beyond’s 9th floor. Now I knew that I didn’t have my armor the entire time! I was wondering why it hurt so much when I got hit!

When I arrived at Fairy Garden, I asked around and headed to Lin’s workshop instead of going to Loretta’s cabin like I usually did. Although the building looked like it ruined Fairy Garden’s natural beauty, no one paid any attention to it.

Everything looked natural in Fairy Garden, so Lin’s workshop was the lone modern building that ruined the environment. There was a chimney that spewed out black smoke and extreme heat could be felt all around the building. It was only after seeing Lin’s workshop that I could picture him as a blacksmith.

“Oh, you came here quickly.”

Lin greeted me. He had on loose, well-ventilated clothing and his usual cigarette in his mouth. Next to him was a new armor in its bracelet-form, similar to how the Crimson Dragon Scale Armor could compress itself. Interestingly, this one was jet-black.

He bluntly said, “It’s made out of the materials you brought me. Just because I’m a descendant of a red dragon, it doesn’t mean everything I make has to be red.”

I nodded absentmindedly. “Ah, that makes sense…Well, thanks, Lin. You did all this for me.”

“It’s not for you. It’s for noonim, tsk.”

Lin flicked away the cigarette ashes and murmured curses. However, I noticed a small, satisfied smile on his face.

“Do you like Loretta?” I suddenly asked.

He snapped, “Shut up and take the armor. Thanks to my outstanding skills, it turned out better than what’s possible from the materials.”

Did I hit the mark? But he plays around with other women too freely for that to be true… Maybe, it’s something like respect and admiration rather than passion. Fairy Garden’s inner workings seemed to be complicated, but since it wasn’t any of my business, I just took the black bracelet and examined it.

[Pure Black Desire (Legend)

Durability – Indestructible

Defense – 7,500

Equipment Requirement – Kang Shin

Option – All stats +30. Decreases damage taken from all basic attacks by 50%. Decreases damage taken from all attack skills from 30%. Chance of receiving a critical hit increases by 50%, but the chance of dealing a critical hit increases by 200%. ‘Desire Thorn’ activates when using a charge type attack. ‘Sacrifice’ can be used when using any attack skills. ‘Devourer’ activates once per day when HP falls below 10%.

Desire Thorn – Can be activated once per day while using a charge type attack. A countless number of thorns shoot out from the armor, absorbing the HP from enemies hit by them. The amount of HP absorbed is half the damage dealt. As such, the targets will end up receiving 50% more damage.

Sacrifice – Usable with any attack skill. Receives half of the skill’s damage, but doubles the skill’s effect. The damage received by Sacrifice cannot drop your HP under 10%.

Devourer – After choosing a target, all attacks completed absorb a portion of the target’s HP to recover your own. However, over absorbing the target’s HP may cause mutations to your body. This change can be purified by highest-grade holy magic or an Elixir.]

“Legend!?” I exclaimed happily.

Lin shrugged. “What, I upgraded your cape to Legend too. Do you not want it?”

I shrieked, “I want it! Give it to me now!”

Two Legend-grade equipment! I feel like I can conquer the dungeon’s 100th floor right now!