[28th Round] Hero > Hero + Companions
“I perfectly understand that it’ll be difficult for you students to recreate this new strategy to clear the 80th floor, so I’ll give you a special demo.”
I sent the couples back to the 50th-floor lounge, giving them time to spend their last moments together before the end of the world.
The Guardian didn’t have anyone, so I entrusted her to Green Cake.
(Thank you very much for taking care of her.)
‘Be diligent if you’re thankful.’
I showed unprecedented mercy by doing this favor to Lanuvel’s daughter, who was pretending to be sweet.
Anyway, before I proceeded to the boss room, I strengthened Mollanstar by making it consume the weapons of Alex, Kang Han Soo, and the Guardian.
Holy Demon Blade Swordmaster: Light and Darkness.
Celestial Runelord Sword: Inner Strength.
Elemental Sword Endymion: 5 Attributes.
Earth, fire, wind, water, soul, light, darkness.
My sword now possessed all attributes, and as a bonus, it also enhanced my inner strength.
Its name also changed slightly.
Mollanstar G.
After that, I moved forward with only Disco accompanying me.
With the help of my newly enhanced Holy Sword and the Air Devil, we easily reached the 80th floor’s entrance.
I provided much-needed clarification for the students here.
“As everyone already knows, you’ll have to deal with your own clone and its five companions on this floor., which is why the most popular tactic right now is leaving the Hero to fight their own doppelganger while their companions fight the rest of the enemies. Theoretically speaking, it’s not bad, but it takes too long to gather enough companions to execute such a strategy.”
⤷ Allah: Is that why he’s going to do it alone?
⤷ Odin: What’s his point? Can’t he count?
⤷ Amon: I don’t understand this either.
⤷ Zeus: Hero vs. Hero + Companions. It’s not that hard to figure out who would win.
BOOM!
Booed by pessimistic students, I opened the door on the 80th floor.
I understood how they felt.
After all, they were fools who couldn’t even distinguish mollan from mullan.
They left me no choice but to demonstrate it in person, though.
“He came alone?”
“I doubt it.”
“Instead of talking among ourselves, use detection magic already.”
“Beware of traps.”
“His allies might be hiding.”
I faced my clone and his party.
I could take advantage of God’s Favor to create the power gap I needed, but this was a live broadcast. I had to teach the students a lesson.
I let our combat powers remain absolutely identical, but there was still only one difference.
Companions.
He had five combatants on his side, while I didn’t even bring a support group.
Regardless, my copy still couldn’t believe that I was alone.
That was important.
It might seem like a small factor, but my victory or defeat depended on it.
“Air Devil!”
Fshuh!
As soon as Mollanstar G’s blades had been unleashed, I ignored their introductory speech and charged in their direction without hesitation.
“… Air Devil!” My clone shouted after a slight delay.
The system copied me completely, allowing him to decipher my plan.
But he realized too late that I challenged them alone.
“Ph?!”
“Why…?”
“What’s going on… Kh!”
“No!”
“You traitor…”
This was why I held that certain element of doubt with high regard.
He managed to kill two of his fake friends, while I, acting a moment earlier, killed three.
They injured my shoulder, but it was nothing but a minor inconvenience to me.
All that mattered was that I killed more people than my duplicate.
⤷ Luke: What’s going on?!
⤷ Baal: Why did the boss kill his companions?
⤷ Zeus: What is this madness?
⤷ Allah: Turning my brain off and not thinking about this situation altogether would probably make me understand it better than actually trying to analyze it.
With the students watching our battle stunned by their sheer amazement, my clone and I charged at each other.
Bam— Bang— Clink— Boom!
We both aimed at each other’s spines, but there was a tiny gap between us that gradually widened.
I killed one more person than the boss, which was what caused that slight advantage. By absorbing more experience, I grew a little stronger than him.
That made all the difference I needed.
His scratch turned into a minor injury, which became a grave wound, then grew into a fatal laceration not long after. In the end, that fatal laceration was what led to his tragic death.
“Kh… How vile…”
“Done.”
In the end, my clone fell to the cold floor with a broken spine, his final expression filled with indignation.
I didn’t know how long we had been fighting.
“Just as I demonstrated, students, the correct strategy for this floor is to challenge the boss without companions.”
⤷ Odin: He made it look so easy.
⤷ Zeus: Hero > Hero + Companions. Someone please explain how that’s possible. What kind of equation is that?
⤷ Allah: Let Satan explain it! He’s the one who spread the wrong strategy, after all!
⤷ Baal: I second that!
⤷ M. Satan: I’m very sorry for causing such an uproar…
I absorbed my doppelganger’s experience points, and Mollanstar G absorbed the fake Mollanstar G, doubling its strength.
That wasn’t all.
Fighting a perfect replica of me was a good opportunity to recognize my shortcomings and improve my combat skills.
I tilted my head to face the ceiling.
“Your clone copies not only your abilities but also your thinking. However, it only copies who you were when you entered the 80th floor. From there, the two of you will develop separately. Students who aren’t as good as me can enter the boss room with their own companions and immediately kill them. In doing so, you’ll be guaranteed to be stronger than your opponent, not Simple, isn’t it?
⤷ ID: It’s so simple that I can’t fully comprehend it.
⤷ Sieg: Something’s wrong with this teacher.
⤷ Isis: I don’t think you have any right to say that, Sieg. You haven’t even made it to the 10th floor.
⤷ Luke: After thinking about it, I’m still not sure I understand…
⤷ Shiva: I’ll try it later.
After providing the students the right strategy for this floor, I continued climbing.
Disco, waiting for me on the 79th floor, followed me with a displeased expression.
“I’m ready to listen to any of your complaints, Disco.”
“… You’re doing something stupid. I don’t understand why you’re rejecting your destiny. You just had to surrender at the very beginning, back in the Holy Empire.
“Surrender? Because of such an easy adventure?”
“You have strange standards! The Fantasy Institution’s current teaching method isn’t at a level the average student can handle!
“Don’t be absurd.”
“…”
“I just took advantage of public knowledge and applied it effectively. Knowledge is power.”
“Even so…”
“You’re way out of line. Have you forgotten that we’re live? All you’re doing right now is insulting the students’ hard work by saying they can’t cope.”
“…”
I turned away from Disco, who could no longer find a rebuttal, then slowly climbed to the 89th floor.
The boss rooms, located on every 10th floor, were the most difficult, but this didn’t mean the rest of the tower was unworthy of attention.
The students mistook me for a “teacher,” so I took advantage of that to provide a little explanation.
“The Demon Lord’s Tower recreates the various locations and situations that a student might encounter while exploring Fantasy.”
After all, I decorated each floor based on my experience during my 1st round.
“To avoid wasting my time, I break through the floors in between boss rooms swiftly and without much thought, but if you take each of them seriously, pondering their significance, you can attain great enlightenment even without Mollan’s Teachings.”
⤷ Luna: Teacher is so cool today.
⤷ Isis: I agree ^^
⤷ Sara: So focusing on bosses alone is wrong.
⤷ Lilith: Is he married?
90th floor of the Demon Lord’s Tower.
This was the real final exam.
Anyone could get this far with a little effort. This floor itself, however, was different.
I gave them more insight.
“This floor, immune to all tricks, will serve as a testament to your skills. Beginners who entered the tertiary education course without knowing anything should be able to cope with all the difficulties here after about 200 years of effort. Trust me on that.”
That was because the 90th-floor boss was “me” with 200 years of experience.
Of course, they wouldn’t probably need that long anymore. During my time, the education system just wasn’t as good as it is now.
Lanuvel and my companions constantly interfered with me back then, and Parmael’s prejudices prevented me from graduating.
Compared to that, the current Fantasy Institution was a real paradise.
The students now had the Mollanphone Community, which allowed them to share information with their fellow Heroes.
They were also now guided by Green Cake, who, unlike Lanuvel, actually helped them, and I even asked the rulers of every continent to actively aid them on their adventures.
Didn’t I already make it easy for them?
“Well, the time has come!”
‘Morality Teacher! Morality Teacher! Encourage me as you used to in the old days!’
▷ Encouragement: Be careful. After getting married and retiring, your movements have become a little stiff.
It couldn’t be!
The time I spent playing with Lanuvel’s spine in the Demon Realm seemed to have dulled my senses.
I thought I had fully recovered from that incident, but Morality Teacher’s words told me otherwise.
If I weren’t careful, I’d die.
“… Hey?”
Kang Han Soo, who, sitting on the toilet in front of me, was a copy of my version just before I became “Demon Lord Parmamon.”
It wasn’t that long ago.
He was very close to who I was now.
Opening his eyes, he said, “If you want to go higher, leave your spine as payment. Pretty simple, isn’t it?”
▶ Race: United Spirit
▶ Level: 9999+
▶ Job: Ascended (Hero = Demon Lord)
▶ Skills: Gifted ZZZ, Divinity Z, Fabrication Z, Favoritism MAX, Immortality MAX…
▶ Status: Dragon Scale
His stats weren’t high based on the tertiary education course’s standards.
My best friend Noebius, Married Man Alex, Connoisseur Shakespeare, and Giant King Phoenix were far more dangerous since they had G-rank skills.
However, the problem was that he was still better than me.
▷ Race: Adored Human
▷ Level: 2950
▷ Job: Apostle (Favor = Ability)
▷ Skills: Faith GGG, Cooking ZZ, Dexterity Z, Endurance Z, Intelligence Z, Extermination MAX…
▷ Status: Holy Sword, Devotion
Faith wouldn’t work against him, a true Mollanist, since it only held absolute power over heretics.
It seemed he had just finished analyzing my stats as well.
“GGG-rank Faith? Judging by your body, it appears you’ve properly internalized the teachings of Master Mollan.” He said, his tone sounding surprised.
“Something like that.”
Witnessing how “I” praised “myself” with the Righteous Hero’s smile made me feel strange.
It was like looking in a mirror.
“… Interesting. Let’s find out which of us is the best student of Master Mollan, shall we?”
Kang Han Soo got off the toilet.
He still had the Righteous Hero’s smile on his face, but I already knew he was far from delighted.
The best student of Master Mollan.
He didn’t like the fact that some show-off was trying to deprive him of that title.
There was nothing I could do about it, however.
It didn’t matter if he was my past self. I couldn’t just give up that title.
“Mollan.”
I clothed my body with Favor.
He hadn’t yet unfurled his Righteous Hero’s Wings or covered his body with the Noebius’s scales, but I couldn’t help myself.
I was using a vessel I trained for only less than a year.
Fshuh!
He pounced at me, targeting, as expected, my cervical spine.
But in this fight, I had an overwhelming advantage.
After all, he was me. I knew his methods.
On the other hand, he knew little about me.
That was the difference between an original and a fake.
Bang!
“… Phah?!”
What was wrong with me? How was I being beaten?!
▷ Anxiety: Be careful. When you were still a student, Councilor Kang Han Soo, you were truly amazing.
Was I weaker than before?
This was shocking!
