Ten levels in a single breath.
A level-up like that in the triple digits.
The experience had been enormous. This man was far stronger than the invaders I'd encountered on floor 60, just as I'd expected.
But since I'd killed him with the Void Scythe, I couldn't turn him into an undead thrall.
The only reason I'd been able to kill him at all was because the Treasure Keeper had left him on the brink of death. Even so, it seemed the experience hadn't been split.
Thud—!
I landed on a pile of gold coins and swept my gaze around the room.
To the left, the Blood Knight was holding off a swarm of skeletons.
To the right, the Treasure Keeper lay collapsed, bleeding heavily from grievous wounds.
*He can't die yet…*
With that thought, I moved toward the Blood Knight first.
Clang! KRRRANG—!
Skeletons were surging toward the Blood Knight in an endless tide. He smashed and cut them down with his greatsword, but they kept rising again.
The old man behind them was resurrecting the skeletons one after another.
After the man the Treasure Keeper had been gripping died, the old necromancer seemed to have fallen into a panic—he was pouring out mana even more furiously than before.
I reached the skeletons and swept three or four half-circles through the mass.
Shhhk—!
Shhhhk!!
Shhhhhhk—!
I carved through the horde.
They crumbled where they stood.
The old man tried to breathe mana back into them, but they didn't rise again.
He looked back and forth between his own arms, bewildered.
He seemed to have realized that the resurrection had been blocked.
He poured mana into the pile of bones once more, but the bones didn't so much as twitch.
I walked toward the old man.
"So there are situations where this scythe's effect actually comes in handy."
The moment his eyes met mine, he dropped to his knees and prostrated himself on the spot.
"̵̨̞̬̪҇̿̓̍P-please̵̛͈̥͛̃͜,҈̧̖͎̗̆̇͡ I—̴͖͆͢͠
Begging for his life, it seemed.
Since he wasn't moving, that was just fine.
I raised the scythe high and brought it down onto the crown of his head.
KRRAAANG—!
His skull split open and blood sprayed across the floor.
"…"
Why was that? Still, I felt almost no guilt.
Anyway—at last, every last invader who had stormed floor 100 had drawn their final breath.
A system window appeared.
[You have successfully repelled the invaders.]
[The Demon King's bounty will be paid out!]
[Calculating difficulty…]
[Calculation complete.]
[1,500,000G disbursed!]
[The Demon King has granted a reward vacation!]
[Guardian duty is temporarily suspended for 23:59:59!]
A bounty of one and a half million gold.
And twenty-four hours of leave.
But I had no time to relax and stare at system windows right now.
I spun around in a hurry.
"Treasure Keeper!"
I rushed toward the figure sprawled on the ground.
The state he was in was devastating.
His chest had been riddled like a beehive, and black blood was pouring from the cross-section where his arm had been torn away.
His heartbeat was faint.
His breath teetered on the edge of stopping at any moment.
"Don't die…!"
He couldn't die.
His lock would disappear with him. And then the Golden Chest would be impossible to open.
He only revives after I've climbed to floor 101. If he dies now, I'll never see him again.
I thrust both hands out in a rush and pressed them against the Treasure Keeper's chest.
I spun the 2nd circle in my dantian.
"Blood Command!"
Wiiiiiiing—!
My mana bored into the Treasure Keeper's body.
I forcibly hauled the blood that had spilled onto the floor back up and crammed it into the severed cross-section.
*I have to match the timing of his heartbeat…*
And then, in sync with the Treasure Keeper's pulse, I pumped the blood with my mana and forced it to circulate.
The damaged blood vessels and organs scattered throughout the giant's body mapped themselves in my mind like a cross-section diagram.
My mana used the blood as a medium to stanch the bleeding throughout the Treasure Keeper's flesh.
"Please…!"
His insides were already exposed, but I made the blood flow.
That was when it happened.
⟨Cough…!⟩
The Treasure Keeper hacked out a cough and barely managed to cling to consciousness.
*Got it!*
I'd succeeded in forcibly keeping him alive.
He couldn't move, but he wasn't dead either.
Now no one could interfere with me.
I could finally open the Golden Chest.
All I had to do now was search the remaining sections and find the lock.
Keeping Blood Command active with one hand, I began digging through the gold coin sections I hadn't searched yet with the other.
Fwash— Pak pak—!
Gold coins flew in every direction, ringing and clattering.
Just then, the Treasure Keeper coughed and opened his mouth.
⟨Aah… Inspector… I don't know how to express my gratitude… Thank you for saving my life.⟩
"… It's nothing."
I dug through the gold coins with one hand and answered curtly.
Had he not noticed?
I wasn't healing him. I was keeping him alive by force so I could find the lock.
Clink, shhhhhh.
The sound of coins being raked through rang out noisily.
The Treasure Keeper wheezed and spoke again.
⟨It's remarkable that you weren't hurt at all in that explosion…⟩
"Yeah. Unlike you, weakling."
Pak pak.
I answered absently, sharpening the sensation in my fingertips.
⟨I am truly grateful that one so powerful fought alongside this humble one…⟩
"……"
I stopped moving for a moment.
Hearing that, irritation surged up inside me.
Genuinely.
Did he still not realize?
"You idiot."
I grabbed a fistful of gold coins and hurled them aside as I snapped.
"What are you thanking me for?! I'm digging through your gold like this and you still don't get it?"
⟨……⟩
"I'm looking for your lock right now!! I'm not an inspector. I'm an invader who came here from the very beginning to rob your Golden Chest!"
I fumed and pressed him.
The Treasure Keeper didn't so much as stir.
After a moment, a quiet voice came back.
⟨I know…⟩
"I figured! Then why aren't you angry? Curse at me or something! It's making me uncomfortable as hell!"
⟨Perhaps because I've grown used to it.⟩
"Used to what?"
⟨I have already… been betrayed before.⟩
That was an answer I hadn't expected.
Beneath the Treasure Keeper's disheveled hair, regret seeped through.
He fell silent again for a moment, then began to speak.
⟨It was by a man who plundered the chest four hundred years ago.⟩
"…You mean the man who wore the hood?"
⟨Yes. And he was the ancestor of the young man among the invaders just now. He wore the same hood, and by his presence I have no doubt they were blood.⟩
"…"
⟨Four hundred years ago, that man played with me here in this lonely place, day after day.⟩
His voice trembled faintly.
⟨Just as you fought for me a moment ago… that man also fought alongside me every time other invaders came. Gradually I came to trust him… and I believed we had become the closest of companions.⟩
It seemed that man had used a method similar to mine.
"…One day he found all the locks and killed you."
⟨That is correct. The moment I saw that descendant just now, the memory of that time came rushing back and my blood ran cold.⟩
My brow furrowed.
"Then why aren't you angry at me…?"
The Treasure Keeper answered slowly.
⟨Did you not confess to me first that you had deceived me…⟩
I was at a loss for words.
"I only confessed because you had no way to stop me anymore!!"
⟨That man…⟩
The Treasure Keeper's remaining hand closed around a fistful of gold coins.
⟨Deceived me until the very end. Even in the moment my last arm was torn away… he smiled and kept lying to me.⟩
"……"
I was speechless.
He was naively trusting to a fault.
He had clearly wanted to believe in that man until the very last moment.
It seemed the same had been true of me just now.
And only now could I understand it.
Why I had felt so little guilt when I killed that man and his companions just a moment ago.
It was because those invaders had attacked this foolish giant. I had wanted to protect him.
*And here I've been deceiving him all along.*
I laughed at myself.
And finally managed to open my mouth.
"…I'm sorry."
⟨……⟩
It was an apology utterly devoid of any meaning.
I had no way of knowing how he received those words.
But the foundation of my own feelings was clear.
"But I can't help it. I need to take what's in that chest and grow stronger."
⟨…Is it to kill humans?⟩
I had simply grown tired of deceiving him any further.
"No. I'm going to kill the Demon King."
The Treasure Keeper's blood surged violently.