1 - THE RED REAPER

Cold, this was his only feeling while looking at the ceiling of the cave, it has been a few hours since he awoke in this place but he had yet to move any muscle. He was still trying to understand what happened.

Gods are real, reincarnation is possible, and now he had a new life, who would believe such things without experiencing them themselves? He wouldn't. He was an atheist before dying, and his greatest reason for not believing was humans' situation at that time.

But he was glad that his actions made the difference, he was happy that he managed to protect his loved ones, it could be said that he fulfilled his life's purpose and died without regrets...

His thought was interrupted by a shrill scream that came from the entrance of the cave, getting up he walked through the cave while examining it, he didn't know where exactly he was, but based on his knowledge it should be an underground cave, otherwise, there was no way so many tree roots would exist inside of a cave.

After a while, he stopped in front of a disgusting sight, standing in front of him was a weird humanoid lizard with red scales was touring apart the body of a man with its fangs, the blood flowed through the man's open chest, he could even see the bones and organs.

Looking at his side, he found some sort of sword with an emblem at the blade, it looked like two hammers crossed with a flame between them, when he took the sword he was surprised by how heavy it was, this thing was probably more than 3 kilograms.

Although swords had become a common weapon back in his previous life, due to technological advancements and new types of alloys and ores found outside the planet they were much lighter than common swords while also being much sharper and more durable.

At that moment, the Lizardman noticed his presence and with a roar it ran towards him, seeing the beast movements he was surprised with its speed, 'How is this creature so fast? It's almost like the genetically improved humans!'

The lizard had a shield and a sword with it and didn't hesitate to use it at all, and although its movements were mechanical and easily predictable, Harrison who had years of training and experience facing alien enemies knew when to recognize powerful adversaries, this lizard in front of him had enough strength to punch through a cement wall with ease.

Since he didn't know how strong this body of his was, he had no other choice other than use light Yin sword techniques, those were focused on using the enemies strength against themselves, it's popularly known as the weak sword.

As the lizard swung his sword at Harrison, he used his footwork to place him in the appropriate position to control the flow of his enemy attack with his own sword, the moment when both weapons met sparks came out of both blades.

Feeling the beast's strength Harrison frowned, he was clearly at a disadvantage here, luckily he made the right decision from the start.

Tilting the angle of the sword he caused both of them to descend towards the ground, only removing his sword a few seconds before the creature hit the ground. Taking advantage of the moment when the lizard's sword was stuck there, he retracted his sword and using every muscle in his body attacked the monster in the neck, cutting a large piece of meat, but that was not enough to defeat this monster.

Screaming in pain, the lizard pulled out his sword that had previously been stuck on the ground, and using a force that he had not yet shown he attacked with such force and speed that Harrison was caught off guard.

Seeing how the attack was approaching he tried to retreat but it was too late, the blade cut through the flesh and bones, severing his arm completely.

As he backed away from the monster, sweat poured down his face, the blood leaking continuously from his arm made him remember the first time he lost a limb during the war, he was assisting a mecha pilot when the enemy attack pierced through the mecha's shield, that destroyed half of the mecha and destroyed his leg as well.

Thankfully, biomechanical improvements were something that anyone could have access to so long as they were soldiers. But here in this foreign world, he didn't know if such a thing existed considering the dead man medieval clothes...

The pain was almost unbearable, but you got used to it after two or three times... He was about to do the first aid but he stopped when he noticed something extremely weird, his arm and the piece of clothing on it that was on the ground suddenly became ashes and disappeared with the wind currents, soon after his arm and clothes started regrowing out of nowhere, seeing this he opened his eyes wide and watched with his mouth agape that mystical scene that was happening with him.

Soon his clothes and arm were back as if nothing had happened at all... 'What sort of magic is this!? Could this be the gift that the man gave me?'

While he thought about this, the Lizard without a great piece of it's neck finally fell on the ground, its attack was its last effort to kill him before dying.

Shaking his head, he decided to put this at the back of his mind, for now, he had more important matters to deal with first. Looking at dead man, he went to him and started taking anything that could be useful, such as his greaves, gauntlets, and pauldron, they were in a good state and he could wear them over his clothes.

After searching his body for some time, he found what seemed to be a stack of maps, some sort of flask with weird liquid in it, and a silver pendant with the initials J and A engraved on it.

Sighing he decided to look at the first map, on top of it you could read the title. "20th-floor map", seeing this, he thought for a moment and concluded that he was in some sort of building... probably, and seemingly inside the 20th-floor as well considering this was the only map that wasn't closed on his bag. After looking through the other maps he concluded that in order to leave this place he would have to go up, sighing he took the man's bag and used it to store the useful things and after grabbing the man's sword and the lizardman shield, he started walking through the cave while following the map's direction to the exit.

...

A month later.

On the entrance leading to the dungeon, some adventurers were discussing a recent rumor. A few weeks ago, some people started talking about a demon, he was described as a tall man covered in blood that slaughtered his way through every floor he appeared, he never bothered to talk to anyone and never looted the monster he killed. Some say that he is an evil immortal spirit, it's said that those who were fortunate enough to seem him fighting with the goliath were scared shitless because of what they saw.

They said the man was smashed to pieces with a single attack, but shortly afterward his body returned to normal as if nothing had happened, and for 4 hours, the man fought the Goliath over and over until he finally managed to kill him.

It is said that the aura of death around his body is above anything anyone has ever felt before, and as his legend spread, some people have associated him with an ancient myth, which spoke about the cursed reaper, a being cursed with immortality that seeks to reap the life of every living creature.

From this came his nickname, the red reaper. Recently the guild started sending people to investigate the matter, but the red reaper was too slippery, no one ever managed to track him down, because no matter what methods they used, he always seemed to be a step in front of them.

They were worried about this man's existence, recently weird things started to happen inside the dungeon, and although no one saw him killing other humans, on the lower floors there were some humanoid beings as well, and some had weird behaviors. But he was much more dangerous than any monster of the lower floors.

How to defeat something that can't be killed? As for their reason to believe he was a monster? Based on his description, the guild made an investigation and concluded that no one had ever seen this man before, his features were too easily distinguishable for anyone to mistake him for someone else.

Out of nowhere, an elf entered an extremely luxurious room and bent down in front of a man with white hair and a white beard wearing a cloak.

"Ouranos-Sama! The red reaper is currently on the first floor, the Loki Familia has intercepted him!"

Hearing his words Ouranos nodded and after thinking for a few seconds he said. "Very well, keep bringing any new information you manage to gather."

The elf bowed to Ouranos and left the room.