I walked through the fog, which had cleared somewhat.
Since I had left a corpse behind, monsters had gathered over there, and I didn’t encounter any myself. Still, weaving through the wiggling trees in the cleared fog was exhausting.
Usually, there’s a shortcut in places like this, but in this forest of confusion, there’s nothing of the sort.
You simply have to take the shortest route.
“Well, that’s why it was the least popular place in the game, but—huh?”
As I pushed my way through the tall, thick grass, I suddenly felt something strange.
It was like… I’d lost my sense of where I was, or maybe it felt as though I’d wandered into another world. In any case, it was an eerie feeling.
I glanced around, trying to pinpoint the source of my unease.
And then I noticed it immediately.
“…A cave?”
A cave that had been hidden under the tall grass was emitting a strange, eerie aura.
What’s more, there were no monsters around, not even insects or birds, and not even the wind blew in this area.
“…Was there a place like this in the game?”
I searched my memory, trying to recall this cave.
And surprisingly, it didn’t take long for me to remember.
“Oh, right… This was a dungeon.”
In this world, dungeons exist.
I’m pretty sure this cave was called something like “Forgotten Legacy of the Past” or some other strange name.
The monsters inside this dungeon were all over level 130, and there wasn’t even a boss. Actually, all the monsters were as strong as bosses, making it a notoriously brutal dungeon.
However… this eerie stillness didn’t seem to be just because of the dungeon.
For a while now, I’d felt an overwhelming sense of malice, but there were no monsters in sight.
“Ugh… I can’t even figure out what’s causing this malice. I guess I’ll just—whoa!?”
Just as I reached out toward the dungeon, a sword aimed at my body swished right past me.
I hurriedly turned to look in the direction it came from, and there stood a knight.
But unlike an ordinary knight, its body was strangely translucent and brimming with murderous intent aimed directly at me.
“Kill humans… kill humans… kill—humans!”
“Could this be the ‘evil spirit’ that old man was talking about?”
Indeed, when I think about it, the knight’s bizarre appearance, its broken speech, and the intense hatred and malice it was directing at me made sense.
Evil spirits are apparently born from the accumulation of negative emotions from living beings, so it also made sense why monsters and animals, who are sensitive to emotions, would avoid this area.
But now that I know it’s an evil spirit—
“—I’ll have to take it down. Bring it on, you ugly monster.”
“Kill all humanssssssss!”
The evil spirit, hellbent on killing humans, readied its sword and charged at me with incredible speed, swinging its blade to strike from my blind spots.
Its movements were sharp, almost as if it had absorbed the emotions of a skilled swordsman.
I blocked the attacks coming from my blind spots with a magical barrier while throwing a punch.
As expected—
“Well, of course… physical attacks don’t work.”
As I thought, my punch passed through the evil spirit without any resistance. My fist went right through its body.
I activated body enhancement magic on my legs to get some distance, kicking off the ground.
“If physical attacks don’t work… how about magic?”
I pointed my palm at the evil spirit and activated a spell.
“Thunderbolt!”
With a crack of thunder and the sound of electricity splitting the air, the spell hit the evil spirit faster than a blink, making it disappear in an instant.
The anticlimactic result left me feeling uneasy for a moment, but then I recalled the old man’s words that this was a weak evil spirit. I realized he had been telling the truth.
It seemed I had overestimated evil spirits a bit.
“Well, now that the nuisance is gone, I guess I’ll go in.”
I stepped into the ominous-looking dungeon.
The first thing I felt after entering the cave was an overwhelming sense of emptiness.
I’m not even sure how to describe it, but I can’t think of any other word for it.
The inside of the cave—unlike in the game—was pitch-black, with no signs of life, just an endless space that stretched on.
I get that the game took place several years after this point, so I suppose it’s not surprising that it feels different, but… this still seems a bit too strange.
“What could possibly be—huh?”
As I continued cautiously, a light suddenly appeared from nowhere.
It wasn’t just a single torch flickering; it was a strong, bright light like the sun.
Thanks to that, I could now see the inside of the cave, but… I instantly regretted it.
“Whoa, what’s with all these evil spirits?”
Surrounding me were dozens, no, hundreds of evil spirits.
As soon as they noticed me, they attacked all at once.
I immediately enhanced my entire body with magic and leaped into the air.
But even in the air, more evil spirits, shaped like various creatures, swarmed around me, leaving no escape.
“What a pain… In that case, all of you can die at once—’Lightning Strike’!”
In an instant, the thunderous roar shook the space, and a massive bolt of lightning wiped out every evil spirit in my line of sight.
Most of the spirits were obliterated by the overwhelming power, but a few managed to block or dodge the attack.
For those that survived, I instantly closed the distance with a combination of magical barriers and body enhancement, delivering point-blank lightning strikes.
There was no way the evil spirits could keep up with the speed of lightning, and they vanished without a trace.
“Now, you’re the last one, huh?”
“…Kill the intruder and present them to our master…!”
Well, this one seemed more intelligent than the evil spirit I encountered outside.
Its appearance resembled that of a general, suggesting it had been quite strong in life.
“Dieeeeee!”
The evil spirit drew a jet-black sword from its sheath, and with a sudden flicker, it vanished from sight, reappearing right in front of me.
I was momentarily startled but immediately deflected the sword with a magic-infused fist and followed up with a lightning-charged punch.
However, it blocked the punch with its sword and even parried it, throwing me off balance.
Naturally, the evil spirit didn’t miss this opening. It swung its sword, now cloaked in some kind of dark magic.
At that moment—my instincts screamed that I had to dodge this attack at all costs.
Following that instinct, I enveloped myself in lightning, moving at lightning speed to avoid the strike. The evil spirit, confused by my sudden disappearance, moved in slow motion as I unleashed hundreds of punches in rapid succession, reducing it to ash in an instant.
“Aaahhh…”
“Well… that last one was pretty strong.”
I wasn’t sure what that one strike was, but it felt incredibly dangerous.
If an evil spirit is this strong, how powerful must an evil god be?
I began to wonder if I had accepted this task too lightly, feeling a twinge of regret as I steeled myself and headed toward the most unpleasant area of the dungeon.
