There was no time to hesitate over whether it would work or not.
"Everything I've been running through in my head—it's all been done before."
When the necromancer Anon had explained Spirit Blood Enhancement, he'd mentioned that beyond simply feeding blood, there were methods that directly utilized parts of a corpse.
I'd never practiced it, but instinct led me forward.
The crumbling Sword Wolf and the griffin's corpse—its heart burst, dead.
I stood at the exact midpoint between the two.
"Blood Drain."
I drew the blood out of the griffin's corpse.
Suspending a massive droplet of blood in midair, I spun the 2nd circle in my dantian and forced my mana into it.
Then I injected the blood back into the griffin's body, setting it circulating.
I drew it out again.
And there it was—a translucent reddish-brown. Spirit Blood, complete.
A horrible few seconds.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened my mouth.
Glug glug glug—!
An enormous volume of Spirit Blood slammed down my esophagus and airway.
"Mmph…!"
It had entered as liquid, clearly—yet I felt a burning agony tearing through my lungs.
But it wasn't enough.
If it only hurt this much, I wouldn't make the timing.
I pushed the 2nd circle into even greater acceleration.
Whirrrr—!
"Mmmmmph!!!!"
I circulated the Spirit Blood through my body at greater speed, synchronizing it with my mana—then:
"Bwuuuuuuugh—!"
I vomited every last drop of the imprinted Spirit Blood onto the griffin's corpse.
All of that had taken barely fifteen seconds.
Tsssssss—!
The expelled Spirit Blood poured over the griffin's body, coating it.
Now.
Before the griffin's body could congeal with blood.
"Blood Command!"
I clenched both hands hard and twisted.
The wings attached to the griffin's back—
I severed the blood and muscle at their connection points.
Crrrack—!
The pair of wings, controlled by mana, floated upward.
I dragged them over and drove them down onto the Sword Wolf's spine and wound sites, where its form was already collapsing.
Squelch!
"Fuse!"
I snapped my fingers and sent the bloodflow into a frenzy of acceleration.
The Spirit Blood already inside the Sword Wolf and the Spirit Blood of the newly grafted griffin wings began to tangle together, merging into one.
Creak creak creak—!
Severed muscle bundles wove themselves back together; blood vessels carved new paths and stretched out toward the wing joints.
I could feel each and every one of those paths.
"It's working… just a little longer."
Sweat dripped from my forehead.
Even in this very moment, doing all of this, I found myself thinking—wouldn't it have been more rational to just reanimate the griffin?
There was no reason to take on this risk, attempting a technique for the first time, just to save the Sword Wolf.
But that was precisely how I knew.
The fact that I'd even thought to try this—that itself was proof I'd already grown attached to the Sword Wolf.
I owed her a debt.
It had been nagging at me—the way I'd used Black Shift to pull only myself out of the attack's path.
And if I hadn't been controlling her at that moment, the Sword Wolf might have dodged on her own.
So…
This was penance.
Swish swish swish—
The Sword Wolf's body, now bearing the griffin's wings, reclaimed its shape as fur began to rise across its surface.
"Did it work…!"
I was scanning her face to check her condition when I noticed it.
The sword attached beneath her jaw.
Seeing it made me think of the Blood Knight, now without a weapon.
"…I gave her wings, so it's fine, right?"
I pulled the greatsword free from where it had been lodged in the Sword Wolf's jawbone.
"Well, that's that…"
Clang!
Snap!
I walked over to the Blood Knight, who had been standing behind me.
"Give me your hand."
I slid the greatsword's hilt into the Blood Knight's right gauntlet.
Then I deployed Blood Command, temporarily liquefying the blood in the Blood Knight's gauntlet and palm.
I made the sword's grip and the Blood Knight's crimson armor fuse together as if welded.
And then—
Whirrrr—!
I accelerated the circle and circulated the sword's Spirit Blood through the Blood Knight's body.
The Spirit Blood flowing through the Blood Knight seeped out through the blood-mist at his neck and coiled around the sword's blade like a coating.
Shhhhh—
Remarkable.
"Wait… it's like this was always your weapon."
The Blood Knight's presence, greatsword in hand, grew incomparably heavier.
It was as though his true power—something he'd never been able to draw out with an ordinary iron sword—was finally being unleashed.
I turned my head and looked back at the Sword Wolf.
The fusion was complete.
The sword she'd held in her mouth was gone. In its place, a wolf with griffin wings sprouting from her back.
"She's got a new form, so she needs a new name."
No matter how I thought about it, a Sword Wolf without a sword made no sense.
Sky Fang. Wing Wolf.
Names like those flickered through my mind, but none of them felt right on the tongue.
Watching her wag her tail and trot over to lick my cheek, I thought something rounder and cuter would suit her better.
She had wings now—so something that meant riding the wind.
"Barang."
The moment I said it, she barked and folded and spread her wings.
[Familiar 'Sword Wolf' has evolved and been renamed 'Barang.']
The holographic message floating in the air announced the success.
⟨…Master…!⟩
Her voice sounded more mature than before.
"Finally growing up, are we?"
I fed all of the griffin's Spirit Blood to Barang, then swung up onto her back and took hold of the reins.
Floor 97. Floor 98.
An ascent more comfortable than any I'd had before.
All I had to do was fly through the wide open cavern space.
Shaaaaa—!
The ride quality was excellent.
"Whoa!"
Thanks to Barang's speed, even ranged monster attacks couldn't graze me.
Boom—!
The Blood Knight's destructive power had risen sharply with his new weapon as well.
Skreeee—!
The monsters on floor 98 went down in a single swing of his sword.
And then floor 99.
[Defender: Lava Golem (99F)]
On floor 99, a tanker monster that looked genuinely dangerous up close.
It appeared to have no ranged attack options.
I loaded the Blood Knight onto Barang's back as well, kept us airborne, and planted Death Mark every twelve seconds.
The Lava Golem could do nothing from below.
[■]
Thump—!
[Floor-99 Lava Golem defeated]
[Level Up! 99 Lv → 100 Lv]
[Stat Points +3 acquired!]
"Finally, level 100."
I checked my stat points.
I'd considered going all-in on Intelligence to shave more off Death Mark's cooldown, but there was no need.
The cooldown reduction efficiency wasn't that good.
More than anything, my most important finishing move—*Sentence of Death – Slash*—ultimately required physical stats to back up the scythe swing.
"Same distribution as always."
I split the remaining stat points equally among Strength, Agility, Perception, and Intelligence.
"And stop there for now."
I landed Barang in the middle of floor 99's cavern and dismounted.
"We prep here before moving on."
The fatigue limit was estimated at 25 floors per day, but right now was the time to be fully prepared.
Floor 100.
The symbolic floor where the unit changes.
The floor that had repelled every invader in recorded history.
No telling what kind of guardian was waiting.
I set up the tent and chair and prepared a late meal.
"Slurp."
Sipping warm ramen broth, I pulled up the Gallery.
I'd been about to write a post to give an update.
Feeling a little giddy, I wrote my first ever over-the-top title.
[Title: EVERYONE LOOK AT THIS I FINALLY MADE IT TO FLOOR 100'S DOOR!!!!!!!]
The door to floor 99.
And a photo of my familiars in their changed forms.
I uploaded it and wrote out everything that had happened.
The moment the post went up, comments came flooding in.
[Comments]
Anon (346F): holy shit she's insanely fast lmaooo
Anon (351F): floor 100 finally damn
Anon (418F): how many days did it take to get from floor 1 to 99?
└ Anon (335F): she's on day 5 rn…
└ Anon (153F): under a week and she's got a Unique item, 2nd circle, two instant-kill skills, and she's at floor 99 lmaooooooooooooo
└ Anon (634F): let's gooooo let's gooooo let's goooooo
The reactions were exactly what I'd hoped for.
Fenrir: woah wings!! that's insane. how'd you do it?
└ Anon (437F): this girl is actually cracked lol
Anon (702F): …so you've mastered the advanced course of Spirit Blood Enhancement. I won't say anything to newbies anymore.
└ Anon (354F): what's that about?
└ Anon (435F): what are you gonna do if you get salty lmaooooooo
└ Anon (647F): one verse and done, this is getting old.
└ Anon (337F): fr how far does this go, the talent gap is already confirmed.
└ Anon (702F): no it's not that… I just don't have anything left to teach her.
"Huh?"
"Nothing left to teach…?"
One Who Savors a Cup of Black Tea: …It seems you've now grasped all the concepts of the Spirit Blood Tea Rite. ^^; Truly astonishing and admirable, Newbie… ^^
└ Anon (431F): I mean she hasn't actually been properly taught anything since the first post lmao she's been figuring it all out herself lmao
It seemed I'd learned all the concepts of the Spirit Blood Tea Rite arts.
From here, it was just a matter of raising my circle to create more familiars and grinding the proficiency of Blood Marionette Control—the fine-grained manipulation of familiars.
"Directly controlling multiple of them in my head at the same time is going to be genuinely brutal…"
Practicing that would come after floor 100. For now I only had two.
Anon (643F): just get past this one last floor and from floor 101 onward we've got you covered.
└ Anon (435F): yeah start memorizing the patterns.
└ Anon (146F): the Demon Army Gallery collectively cheers Newbie on for her floor-100 climb.
The mood was mostly supportive.
But there were a few dissenting voices.
Anon (335F): there's probably a decent wall of respawned monsters built up by now… can't you learn a bit more magic before going?
└ Anon (297F): fr it does feel too fast.
└ Anon (638F): newbie learns so quick, can't we teach her more?
It wasn't like I hadn't thought about it.
If I was learning this fast, I could afford to spend more time for the sake of stability.
But it was better not to.
Anon (99F) (OP): is there any movement technique faster than Black Shift or any attack stronger than an instant-kill skill that I can realistically learn quickly in my current situation?
└ Anon (643F): fair point.
└ Anon (436F): what about defensive techniques…?
└ Anon (99F) (OP): I have Death's Edge Invincibility, it's an invincibility skill.
└ Anon (643F): wait but you said going to the Death God Realm would be a disaster lmaooooooo
└ Fenrir: her skill lineup is genuinely legendary. teleport, instant-kill, invincibility… lmao
I already had excellent combat techniques for single targets.
On the other hand, I was weak against multiples.
And as I'd experienced firsthand, invaders were likely to come in numbers.
Furthermore, even if monsters had been respawning from floor 61 onward, it was dangerous to assume the invaders would have no means of recovering their fatigue in the Demon King's tower.
Therefore, there was no reason to delay the floor-100 challenge.
└ Anon (99F) (OP): I can't lose to a single target. use Black Shift then hit them with the instant-kill. done.
└ Anon (468F): and she even nullifies resurrection lmao
└ Anon (287F): but if you nullify resurrection then they can't respawn, so what's the point of clearing floor 100?
└ Anon (99F) (OP): even without respawning, if I clear the ascent I get stronger, so it's safer either way.
└ Anon (335F): ok…
└ Anon (643F): but by that logic don't you have to keep climbing past floor 100 too lmaooooooooo
└ Anon (432F): fr if she kills the floor 100 mob with her scythe there's no guardian left lmao
└ Anon (99F) (OP): correct.
└ Anon (246F): excuse me?
I'd known this from the start.
If the floor-100 monster was strong enough that I had to kill it with Slash, then the Void Scythe's resurrection nullification would activate—and I wouldn't be able to station that powerful monster as a barrier. That was the problem.
And I was treating that as the default assumption.
Disappointment comes from expectation, after all.
But if the floor-100 guardian happened to die to Death Mark rather than Slash…
Then I could station that monster as a barrier.
And I would reach a truly safe floor.
Either way the situation played out, my head was prepared for both.
Which was exactly why I just wanted to go check as soon as possible.
Fenrir: if floor 99 was that easy… yeah, going up now is probably the better call.
└ Anon (435F): you're assuming invaders will keep coming?
└ Anon (643F): one wave already came, so yeah, assuming they keep coming is the right call.
I swept the tent and supplies into my inventory and tightened my grip on the scythe.
"Let's go."
The Blood Knight and Barang took their places at my side.
[Ascent Challenge: Initiate]
Creeeeak—
I climbed the staircase that descended from the ceiling and finally stood before the door to floor 100.
"Let me drink a little first."
I pulled a Fatigue Recovery Potion from my inventory and drank about a third of it.
I'd set my fatigue recovery intervals at every 20 floors, but given what floor this was, I made sure to be fully prepared.
And I mounted Barang's back in advance.
The plan was to plant Death Mark the instant I entered and take to the sky.
Preparations complete.
And finally.
I pushed open the door to floor 100.