The Hell-Maw didn't care that I had just summoned an SSR-Rank Valkyrie. It only cared that there was fresh meat in the pit.
The rotting carcass of the Level 2,400 Rot-Beast Chimera was melting into a puddle of purple sludge, but the stench of its acidic blood had already rung the dinner bell. From the suffocating darkness of the cavern, hundreds of pairs of glowing eyes snapped open.
"Master," Valeria said, her voice a calm, melodic hum that completely contrasted with the sheer size of the battle-axe resting on her shoulder. "We are surrounded. Scanners indicate approximately three hundred hostiles. Average power level is 1,500. Shall I exterminate the filth?"
She looked at me with those glowing crimson eyes, practically vibrating with the desire to prove her worth. I could tell she wanted to dive into the horde and paint the cavern walls with their insides. It was honestly a little intimidating. I was just a high schooler a few hours ago, and now I had a six-foot-tall gothic warrior maid asking for permission to commit a massacre.
But I looked at the horde, and then I looked at my MP bar.
[Current MP: 4,999,990 / 5,000,000][Mana Density: EXTREME. Regeneration Rate: 10,000 MP/sec]
"No, Valeria," I said, raising my hand. "Stand down. Save your energy. We need to be efficient."
Valeria blinked, her expression shifting to one of profound awe. "Efficient... Ah. Of course, my Lord. Why dirty our hands when the Supreme Creator can simply wipe them from existence? I am humbled by your wisdom."
No, I'm just incredibly lazy and don't want you getting hurt, I thought, but I decided not to correct her. If she wanted to view my extreme pragmatism as divine wisdom, that made my job easier.
The horde charged. There were things that looked like giant centipedes with human faces, wolves with three eyes and scythes for tails, and massive, lumbering golems made of stitched-together flesh. It was a nightmare parade.
I didn't flinch. I just pointed my finger at the rushing wave of monsters.
"[Paralyze]."
A wave of violet energy rippled outward from my fingertip. It washed over the first fifty monsters. They froze instantly, their momentum carrying them forward until they crashed face-first into the bone-littered floor, skidding to a halt like grotesque statues.
"[Paralyze]. [Paralyze]. [Paralyze]."
I spammed the skill. The mana cost was negligible, instantly refilled by the dungeon's dense atmosphere. Within thirty seconds, the deafening roar of the charging horde had been replaced by a dead, eerie silence. Three hundred high-level monsters were locked in place, their eyes darting around in absolute panic. They were completely helpless.
The Goddess Vicius had called this an E-Rank trash skill. She had laughed at me. The elite 'Concord' party had broken my legs because they thought I was useless.
Who's laughing now?
I walked up to the nearest monster—a massive, three-eyed wolf. It growled silently, foam dripping from its paralyzed jaws.
"Now for the fun part," I muttered. "[Poison]."
The wolf's fur instantly turned a sickly, necrotic green. Smoke began to hiss from its pores. But I didn't stop there. I remembered the exponential scaling from the Chimera. What if I stacked more effects?
"[Sleep]," I whispered.
The wolf's three eyes fluttered shut.
[Status Synergy Achieved: Nightmare Toxin][Target HP depleting at 400% rate. Target cannot awaken.]
The wolf melted into a puddle of goo in less than ten seconds.
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 1,200,000][LEVEL UP!]
I grinned. The smile stretching across my face felt dark, completely foreign to the kid who used to sit in the back of Class 2-C trying not to be noticed. But that kid died when Garret shattered his ribs and kicked him off a cliff.
"Valeria," I said, turning to my maid. "Do me a favor. Walk through the crowd and gather them up into a pile. I'm going to set up an assembly line."
"An... assembly line, Master?"
"We're going to grind," I said, my eyes glowing in the dark.
For the next four hours, the bottom of the Hell-Maw became an industrial slaughterhouse. Valeria, using her immense strength, dragged the paralyzed monsters into massive piles. I stood in the center, acting as the executioner. I cast [Paralyze], locked them down, hit them with [Sleep], and applied [Poison].
It was a perfect loop. They couldn't move. They couldn't fight back. They just slept and melted, feeding me an endless river of experience points.
[LEVEL UP!][Current Level: 850][Current MP: 45,000,000 / 45,000,000]
I finally lowered my hand, panting slightly, not from physical exertion, but from the sheer mental overload of absorbing that much power. The cavern was empty, save for a massive lake of bubbling purple sludge and a mountain of dropped loot—monster cores, fangs, and dark crystals.
Valeria stood at the edge of the sludge, her armor pristine, looking at me as if I had just parted the Red Sea.
"Magnificent," she breathed, dropping to one knee. "To slaughter an army of Abyss-dwellers without taking a single step... You truly are the Pale King of the Void. Your cruelty is a work of art, Master."
"It's just math, Valeria," I sighed, rubbing my temples. "But thanks. Now, we have a problem. We need shelter, and we need food. I've been running on adrenaline, but my stomach is starting to eat itself."
I opened my interface. My MP was massive now. It was time to test the [Infinite Abyssal Gacha] properly. The SR and SSR banners were glowing brightly.
"Let's see what forty-five million mana gets us."
I pressed the mental button for a [10-Pull SR/SSR Banner]. The cost was 10,000,000 MP.
The shadow reels spun furiously. Gold and crimson light strobed across the cavern walls.
CLUNK. CLUNK. CLUNK.
Ten cards materialized in the air and floated down into my hands. I flipped them over one by one.
[SR Item: Abyssal Wagyu Burger Combo (Infinite Freshness)][SR Item: Canteen of the World Tree (Infinite Clean Water)][SSR Item: Capsule Fortress - 'The Obsidian Manor'][SR Item: Automatic Laundry Washing Machine][SR Item: Stack of High-Grade Towels][N-Rank Item: A rubber duck][SSR Companion Summon: The Gluttonous Void Slime] ...and a few more miscellaneous survival tools.
I stared at the cards, a hysterical laugh bubbling up in my chest. "A washing machine? Really? I'm at the bottom of the deadliest dungeon in the world, and I pulled a washing machine."
"Master?" Valeria asked, tilting her head. "What is a 'washing machine'? Is it an instrument of torture for our enemies?"
"No, Valeria, it's for cleaning clothes," I said, shaking my head. I activated the Wagyu Burger and the Canteen. Instantly, a tray holding two massive, perfectly cooked, steaming hot cheeseburgers and fries appeared in my hands, alongside a crystalline canteen of water.
The smell of seared meat and melted cheese cut through the stench of the dungeon like a holy sword. My stomach gave a violent rumble.
I handed one of the burgers to Valeria. "Here. Eat. You did good work gathering up the trash."
Valeria took the burger as if I had just handed her a holy relic. Her hands were trembling. "For... for me? You would share your divine sustenance with a mere weapon like me?"
"You're not a weapon, you're my maid. And my only ally right now. Just eat it before it gets cold."
I took a bite of mine. It was the best thing I had ever tasted. The juices exploded in my mouth. I practically inhaled the rest of it. When I looked over, Valeria was eating hers with tiny, hyper-refined bites, tears streaming down her pale cheeks.
"It is... exquisite, Master," she wept. "I will slaughter a thousand nations for you."
"Let's start with just one," I mumbled, my mouth full of fries.
I wiped my hands and picked up the next SSR card. [The Gluttonous Void Slime].
"Release," I commanded.
The card shattered into black light. A glob of dark, gelatinous liquid dropped onto the floor with a wet splat. It was about the size of a basketball, pitch black, with two glowing white dots for eyes. It wiggled, looked up at me, and let out a soft sound.
"Squeak?"
I blinked. "It's... a slime."
Valeria immediately raised her battle-axe, stepping in front of me. "Master, step back! That is a Void Devourer! A creature of pure annihilation! If it touches you, it will consume your very soul!"
The slime wobbled, looking terrified of the giant axe, and tried to hide behind my leg.
"Squeeee!"
I looked down at the quivering mass of 'annihilation'. I reached into my inventory, pulled out a leftover monster bone that hadn't melted, and tossed it to the slime.
The slime caught the bone. In less than a second, the bone dissolved into nothingness with a harsh sizzling sound. The slime burped, turned a happy shade of dark purple, and rubbed itself affectionately against my boot.
"Well," I said. "It's a garbage disposal. Good. The dungeon was starting to smell." I knelt and patted its squishy head. "I'll call you Gloom. You're going to eat all the evidence when we start hunting my former classmates."
Gloom squeaked happily.
Valeria slowly lowered her axe, her crimson eyes wide. "You... you have tamed the Devourer of Worlds with a mere scrap of bone. Master, your dominance over the dark forces is absolute. I must study your methods."
"Please don't overthink it, Valeria," I sighed. I took out the final important card. [SSR Item: Capsule Fortress - 'The Obsidian Manor'].
I walked over to a relatively clean patch of stone near the cavern wall and threw the card onto the ground. "Activate."
The ground shook. Magic circles exploded outward in a radius of fifty meters. Stone, steel, and dark glass rapidly materialized, building themselves upward like a time-lapse video. Within thirty seconds, a massive, three-story modern gothic mansion stood in the middle of the Hell-Maw. It had spiked fences, glowing purple windows, and automated turrets on the roof.
I walked up to the heavy oak double doors. They opened automatically, revealing a plush, immaculate interior with leather couches, a massive fireplace, and a grand staircase. It was fully furnished, completely defying the reality of the death-trap dungeon outside.
"Home sweet home," I muttered.
Valeria stepped inside, her boots clicking softly on the marble floor. "A fortress materialized from nothingness... Master, you have built us a castle."
"It's just a base camp," I said, walking over to the couch and collapsing into it. The cushions were so soft I almost passed out immediately. "We stay here. We grind levels. We build an army. We learn how to use this Gacha to break the rules of this world."
I looked up at the ceiling, thinking of the Goddess Vicius, of Garret, of the S-Rank hero Kirihara who had looked at me with such disdain.
"They threw away an E-Rank piece of trash," I whispered to the empty room, my eyes heavy with exhaustion. "Let's see how they handle a Demon Lord."
I closed my eyes, letting the absolute safety of the Obsidian Manor wash over me. Tomorrow, the real work would begin. Tomorrow, I would start rolling for the apocalypse.