A week passed steadily.
As the various purges continued, Damien and Alea put their all into conquering the First Dungeon. And since Damien's abilities now allowed him to maneuver the dungeon as he pleased, they were able to level extremely efficiently.
Currently, the duo was on the 74th floor. They finally finished clearing the most dangerous beasts living on this floor, and it was finally time to enter the final fourth of the dungeon.
Damien furrowed his brows in thought. Although it should've been a moment for celebration, he couldn't say he was happy.
'I still can't sense it.'
He tried to justify it as his own lacking abilities not being able to view the entire dungeon, he even tried to rationalize by saying that the dungeon's floor count was wrong, but he knew from the start these reasons were stupid.
The reason he couldn't sense the 100th floor was that there was an existence residing there that could interfere with his awareness, even when it was enhanced with World Force.
'The rumors must be true. Even if I can't kill them, high-level 4th-class beings shouldn't be able to obstruct my awareness when I'm using World Force. But…I don't know if we can make it down 25 floors of 4th-class beasts. Even if we can, it'll take too long.'
They only had until the subjugation ended to train. After that, it was time to move on to grander things.
'There's no need to think about this now. In the first place, it was never possible for me to visit a Demigod if they didn't want to see me. If we're fated to meet, I'll be called down eventually.'
Damien slowly opened his eyes, teleporting back a few feet the second he did so. Glaring at Alea, he spoke. "Didn't I tell you not to get too close? Never heard of personal space?"
Alea smiled and shook her head. "Nope! Not at all!"
"Keuk…!" Damien choked on his words. Ales was, at the end of the day, a wolf. Wolves were, in fact, pack animals who didn't know the concept of personal space.
"Tch, well you can learn it now. Just think about the night I rejected you and be angry at me instead."
Alea pouted to the side. "That hardly counts as a rejection. I could even say you're leading me on."
"You know what leading someone on means but you don't know about personal space?"
"Hm? Did you say something? Ah, I apologize, I think I heard a sound from the staircase to the 75th floor."
Alea quickly scurried away, leaving Damien shaking his head helplessly. He spent another week unintentionally getting close to this woman.
It had to be said, Damien was doing everything he could to fight this pull. Whether it be flat-out rejections as he had given Alea plenty of times already or even s completely avoiding her, none of the things he tried seemed to work.
The strange pull between them continued to affect him.
'Luckily, we're in the dungeon. If she wasn't busy hunting and I wasn't busy training…I just have to hold out until the Niflheim operation begins. At that time, I'll be so far away that this damn pull can't affect me anymore.'
Damien cleared his thoughts and followed after Alea, heading down to the 75th floor. Even though he didn't actively level up with her, he still followed Alea down the floors so he could witness the scenes of the dungeon that he didn't get to see last time.
Besides, the beast corpses in this dungeon were filled with Godbeast bloodline. For the Void Flame, these bloodlines were food for growth, especially fire-attributed ones.
Compared to its previous strength, it was already noticeably stronger. Sadly, Damien didn't find any attribute sources as they descended, so his lightning was still lagging behind.
On a more positive note, his space and time abilities were steadily increasing. Unlike his flames, which were birthed from external sources, and his lighting, which he acquired from the first wolf he killed, these two affinities were naturally a part of him since birth.
If they didn't progress more smoothly than his flames and lightning, it'd be more of a problem.
As he thought about what he should train next, Damien finished descending the stairs to the 75th floor.
And a whole new world opened up to him.
It wasn't much, but there was genuine flora in this space. Small lush trees, grasses and weeds grew through the cave floor, it was completely different from the previous floors. However, the most surprising part was…
"Is that a house?!" Alea's exclamation voiced Damien's thoughts.
Shoddy cottages that were made of the tree wood on the floor, dirt streets that separated different sections of the small town, even though it was only enough for roughly 10 people to live, it was more than one would expect from the lower floors of a hell dungeon.
Damien's gaze sharpened. It was obvious that things would become more morally complicated once 4th class beasts came into play. Unless they attacked first, killing them was like killing a civilian.
Alea's bloodlust surged as she looked at the houses. Her aura surged along with it, alerting the residents of the town.
"This is Zabragor's territory! Who dares show hostility?!"
A booming gruff voice responded. Along with the earthquake-like thumping of footsteps, the figure of a massive man appeared from the town entrance.
Yet, calling him a man wasn't quite accurate.
He stood at a good 10 feet, his body just as wide as it was tall. His body and even his head were that of a giant pig who started acting like a human.
'Partial transformation…'
Damien understood what was happening instantly. He learned quite a bit about beasts from the White Dragon King and the Phoenix Matriarchs.
Partial transformation was a state similar to the 11th and 12th Elder of the Xue Clan, except for beasts. It meant that although these beasts were 4th class on paper, their strength didn't match their title.
And it seemed Alea knew it as well. Before the pig who called himself Zabragor could even finish speaking, she pounced. Her nails extended into claws, she reached Zabragor's neck in an instant, and arrived behind him only a moment later.
In that single movement, Alea sent Zabragor's head flying into the cave ceiling.
"Hmph. Even if it's disappointing, it's the best prey I've had in years." Alea muttered to herself.
And her body moved soon after, invading the village and causing a rain of blood.
Apparently, the morality issue was solved quite easily. Alea simply didn't care about it at all.
Damien shrugged. 'Well, it's not like I'm the one hunting. She's one scary woman, though. I should pat myself on the back for deciding to stay away from her.'
He nodded to himself in satisfaction. There was no more need for him to stay here. While Alea went on another killing spree until she reached the 80th floor, he'd return to his training.
'My previous enlightenment taught me more about Laws than I ever expected. Although I can't use them yet, I can still infuse my comprehension into my attacks and exponentially increase their power.'
The current Damien was imbalanced. His comprehension was far above what even an entry-level 4th class could have, but his power didn't allow him to use the abilities he created through this comprehension.
Yet, he still couldn't level up. This comprehension boost was only in regard to space. His time element was still severely lacking.
Once the time element also reached the pinnacle of what he could make it through his current power level, it'd finally be time to take the last step.
Damien grinned. This kind of training, he missed the feeling of it.
And as he submerged himself in that long-lost feeling, the month flew by.
