"Derecho—"

　　The king starts saying something, but that pause is all I need and more, and in the single second that he took to say it, I`ve already bound across the hall and stabbed my entire hand into the supple throat of the level fifteen, and without a single pause in movement, I swirl around to aim for the level sixteen, but they have a moment to react, though not enough to foresee my crouch into the fetal position before rolling around to his back and leaping up, slashing his neck from behind.

　　Sharp Claw Lv.2>

　　The third and last one readies his sword. He`s only a level higher than me. Negligible.

　　He`s the only remaining fighter, so there`s no need to fear wounds. Throwing caution to the winds, I leap at him and do the ol` shishkebab manoeuvre, which predictably enough stuns him good enough for me to slip my fingers into the gaps beneath his helmet to tear out his arteries.

　　The exposed vessel bleeds thumping sprays of blood for a few seconds before he, too, falls.

　　And now, there are only a few left. Man, I`ve gotten really effective, huh?

　　On the verge of humming, I do away with the king`s remaining subjects, and when I then take one final breath, the only smell remaining is of the king, and blood. I turn to him. His eyes are so wide. I didn`t know eyes could go that wide, but here we are. Hm, I wonder how I should best do this? There are still a few hours until the conference, so there`s no need for me to kill him straight away. If I instead use him as a punching bag of sorts to test out my skills, maybe even increase the level of TRT, then I could spend these hours productively.

　　At least, that`s what I think.

　　Well, no need to dilly-dally. Let`s get right to it! I take a step towards the king.

　　&Hm?

　　I look back towards the entrance.

　　&There`s a goblin there. It`s pointing at me. Did nobody teach it that it`s rude to point?

　　I take a step towards it.

　　Another step.

　　Another.

　　One more.

　　Now I`m standing right in front of it. It`s very small, almost more so than most goblins. It points up at me, but its hand trembles.

　　This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

　　I grab its wrist.

　　I can feel the bones creak inside my grip. But it`s weird, because I can`t smell it, and no pop-up is appearing above its head, so I can`t tell what level it is, which in turn means I won`t know if it will give me a nice amount of exp. How weird. It`s very strange.

　　It points at me with the fingers of its left hand.

　　The gemstones adorning the rings on its left hand all explode into dust. Weird. It`s a lot of weird stuff.

　　I toss the goblin to the side, feeling the way its right wrist breaks as I do.

　　In that case, I might as well do away with the king right away. This all feels too strange. I turn to the king.

　　Appearing in front of him, I lay my hands around his neck and squeeze. His face slowly turns darker and darker, and then he stops moving, and then it`s done. I can`t smell him anymore. I can`t smell anything in the city. Nothing at all.

　　Choke Lv.6>

　　<[Level Up]>

　　Strength has increased by 3.

　　Stamina has increased by 2.

　　Magic Power has increased by 1.

　　Disassemble has increased by 1.

　　Choke has increased by 1.

　　Eviscerate has increased by 1.

　　Stealth has increased by 1.

　　Sharp Claw has increased by 1.

　　Clutch has increased by 2.

　　Brain Damage Resistance has increased by 2.

　　Coma Resistance has increased by 1.>

　　Ahh, sweet status screens.

　　points for clearing the floor.

　　You have received an additional

　　1 000 points for being the first to clear

　　the floor.>

　　you will receive an additional reward.>

　　Has taken interest in you.

　　You have received 500 points.>

　　<2 Gods have shown a positive response to you.

　　You have obtained 2 000 points.>

　　<18 Gods have shown a negative response to you.

　　18 000 points have been deducted.>

　　A special skill instead of the

　　normal Stage Reward.>

　　So far, there`s only been one correct answer to that one, so I`ll obviously have to go ahead and accept it.

　　"Yes." I poke the yes button.

　　19 to 1

　　in favour of granting the skill.>

　　[The Knowledge of Time Before Babylon (Lv.MAX)]>

　　&The knowledge of what now—

　　"Y-, you really are a demon!"

　　I freeze in place. It`s like my veins fill with liquid nitrogen. Slowly, shakingly, I turn around.

　　Simel is crying.

　　"I thought—I knew I was stupid, but I thought, maybe, just maybe, I don`t know, you were what you were made to be! But I was wrong!"

　　I stare at him. But I`m also staring at the screen in front of me.

　　18 to 2

　　in favour of extending time

　　spent on Floor 3 of

　　the Hell Difficulty.>

　　00:04:58>

　　<[Enjoy your time!]>

　　What& is this?...

　　This isn`t right. This isn`t how it`s supposed to be. The stage ends when I beat the boss, it doesn`t just keep on goi—

　　"I-, I even protected you, you know? They wanted to execute you right away, put you on display like a freak animal, to show off this weird pale stub-eared demon, but I told them not to. I said—I said, no, there`s more than that in there. I tried to explain, I went and I even said, if he wanted to kill me, it already would`ve. But now I know better. You`ve taught me better. Right, demon? You didn`t kill me not because you didn`t want to, but because you wanted to savour the kill once it really mattered." Every word he speaks drips with venom.

　　The regal carpet beneath my feet sways.

　　That isn`t true. I didn`t kill you because it wouldn`t have been right. I couldn`t kill you because&

　　"I don`t even know what manner of creature you`re supposed to be, but I was a fool to think you sentient just because you had two legs and a face." My heart sinks through my chest and through the floor and into the core of the world. "You`re a beast. That`s all you are, and that`s all you ever were. I knew you couldn`t understand me, your feeble brain was too simple to, but I thought I could at least teach you a little. And yet& And yet&!"

　　My legs move beneath me. The world I walk on shifts and sways with every step I take, making me stumble drunkenly, my brain a feverish, fizzy nightmare, everything whirling and burning and turning like a summer tornado.

　　I`m standing close to him now again. It feels weird to look down at him. I shouldn`t be looking down at him. It`s wrong.

　　The perspective is wrong.

　　"If I had known that this is what you were going to do, what you were going to become, I would have told Percht to kill you right there and then. That`s all you deserve. Being put out of your misery."

　　00:00:13>

　　I squat down in front of him until we`re at the same exact height and our eyes are level with each other and then I give the biggest grin I can muster and I grab his shoulder with one hand and then I point to myself with the other, and I say, with a voice so drunk on joy it slurs, "Lee Ho-Jae," and then I put my clawed and bloodied hand on his chest and say, "Simel," and then, finally, I put both of my thin spindly arms around him and I pull him into a tight embrace that puts us so close we might as well be one, and breathily, like a bird taking to song for the first time, I cry, "Friends!"

　　00:00:00>