ch. 22 Awakening Dungeon?

'My past lifes world truly is invading this one!' John felt his body go cold at this revelation.

In the back of his mind, John already knew this thanks to living Armour Velonin know about his sword technique, and the fact that Roukel knew the language that appeared in the Dungeons.

'Earth's power pales in comparison to the might of Gaia's. We might have the atomic bomb, but they have hundreds of dragons that can easily tank those attacks, and they fly nearly at light speed!' John felt himself shaking even harder, and fell to one knee at that realization.

'This world is doomed...' John's face fell down in despair.

The image of Roukels final moments flashed into John's brain as his fist coiled into a ball in anger, but his head still remained downward as his anger meant nothing in the face of overwhelming strength.

John remembered those two phoenix guild members that he teamed up with and how they would have died in that weak dungeon without him, he remembered the support mage Joseph who he saved from being PKed. John even remembered Thomas, the first man who acknowledge John and even died defending him from the Living armor when he was just a pathetic D ranked healer.

John could feel his eyes stinging with tears as he realized this world is destined to be conquered, with everything being pointless. All of the pain, death, and struggle, all the sacrifices people had made for humanities progress, everything would be nothing the moments they decided to invade.

'If even roukel couldn't stop them, what can I or other hunters even do? If we are destined to die, what's the point of fighting i-' the image of Johns smiling brother, Walter, flashed before his eyes.

Despite having one of the most fatal cancers in existence, his brother didn't complain or accept his death as his brother hadn't given up on him. Even when he was in severe pain, he would force a smile to comfort his big brother.

'Now that Walter actually has a chance at recovering and living a healthy life, the world is going to end gruesomely... I WONT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN!!' John swore in his heart that he'd never give up, just like how his brother never gave up.

'IF ROUKEL COULDNT STOP HIM, I JUST NEED TO BECOME STRONGER THAN ROUKEL!' As John came to this conclusion, a wave of cold calculated logic overcame him.

'My synchronization rate is only 10%, I'll need to increase that.'

John couldn't even imagine how strong he would become once he reached 100%, so he returned his attention to Rishubalt.

"What can I do to increase my synchronization rate?" John asked deadly seriously.

"Besides increasing your mana capacity and your physical body, their is one other way....." Saying this John could tell multiple emotions were shifting on the Rotten Knights face

"I can open gate to.....let call it an 'awakening Dungeon' for convenience sake...."

"Awakening Dungeon?" asked John skeptically.

"I'll can open these 'gates' once you exceed a certain level of synchronization and are

strong enough to face them. If you endure the test you are given, you'll become stronger." Rishubalt spoke in vague, cryptic words.

"That's fine and all, but I can't just walk out of the dungeon with a rotting knight at my side, people will cause a ruckus."

"Please do not worry." Saying this, Rishubalt started turning into mana and flew into the summoning ring.

"Whenever you wish I can exit this ring and appear before you, however in this ring state, I can still speak to you without anybody else listening to u-..." John felt his summoning ring move slightly.

"What the hell are you?!!....The almighty Roel?! A mere blade has such an impudent and arrogant name! And how dare you interrupt me when speaking to my lord.... Such a crude vile blade! My lord, you must rid yourself of such a thing at on-....." John felt an overwhelming evil malicious feeling decend upon his ring, as he felt the ring shaking in fear before it stopped suddenly

"P-perhaphs I spoke in ignorance my lord. This blade means you no harm." John just nodded in understanding to Rishubalt, he learned quickly not to speak Ill of Roel.

Walking towards the entrance of the dungeon, John waited at the exit as Rishubalt calmed down Enough to speak.

"What was I like in my previous life?" John asked in genuine wonder. He knew how Roukel acted and felt towards his own people, but he never understood how others felt about him.

"Most of my memories have disappeared but there's one thing that's clear. As the king of Humanity and the leader of the Thirteen Knights, you were respected by all as the one who had reached the peak of swordsmanship, the Sword King," said Rishubalt.

"If that's the case, I want to ask you something. Amongst all of the people I was closest with, who were the ones that betrayed me, the once Sword King?" John questioned as a slight anger was in his tone of voice.

Rishubalt replied after a few second of silence "....Everyone."

'I guess betray can only come from those you trust...' John thought with clenched fists.

"You don't know any specifics on why I was betrayed?" John asked

"No my lord, but youll surely remember once your synchronization rate is high enough." Rishubalt replied.

He expected him to say that. Grasping his sword, John spoke again

"Let me ask you one final question. What do I get for clearing these 'Awakening Dungeon'?"

Rishubalt replied, "Your synchronization rate will rise, your body will strengthen further, and you will gain new memories."

"Why would that happen in these 'awakening Dungeons'?"

"I cannot tell you my lord, perhaps it is better to see for yourself. With your current synchronization rate, you can go through the first gate, my lord."

John was in the Boss Room of the C-rank dungeon he had just cleared, he spoke to Rishubalt inquisitively.

"You mean I can I go in now?" he asked.

"Your synchronization rate satisfies the requirements for the first gate and in a suitable area, If you'd like, you can enter immediately. You should know my Lord, you can go through the second gate at 15%"

"... Then let's go."

"I shall initiate it post haste!" Appearing out of John's Ring once again, Rishubalt's fingers started shining brightly as he poked the wall.

The mana from Rishubalt's finger spread out like a wave across the dungeons cobblestone wall, cobblestone was stripped away as it started to change shape and reconstruct itself into a smooth marble and wood.

When John finally got ahold of his senses, his surroundings had completely changed.

He was just in an underground labyrinth just a little while ago, now he was in the hall of what looked like an aristocrat's mansion.

Looking at the design of the mansion wall and feeling the different level of mana in the air, John felt an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia wash over him

"To have such a sophisticated setting, fhis isn't an A-rank dungeon, right?" John asked but subconsciously already knew the answer.

A-rank dungeons or higher had various different landscapes, different from the same underground dungeon that one would see from the F-B rank dungeons.

John saw the extreme change and could only assumed that he was in an A-rank dungeon.

"This is just a....special feature of the Awakening Dungeon. I don't know much about those ranks you speak of, but this should just be a notch stronger than where you once were." Rishubalt said.

"So around B rank? In that case, this looks like it'll take some time..." John said in worry.

He didn't eat or drink the entire day and he did pack any water or food as it was just a C rank, and this dungeon looked very big. He was a little afraid he was going to have to resort to using healing magic just to counteract dying of thirst.

This would also be the first time he had soloed a B-rank dungeon, and it was a unique Dungeon.

That being said, failure wasn't even on his mind as he overflowed with confidence that he'd defeat the dungeon.

"You shouldn't worry about time my Lord, whilst in this awakened Dungeon time is frozen to the outside world. As long as you have enough food and water, you can take your time since not even a second will pass on the outside," Rishubalt explained obliviously

'Im not actually worried about the time idiot, but becoming extremely dehydrated from how long this take! Once I get out ill have to force Rishubalt to learn earths customs and speech'

John was shaking his head when at the end of the hall, he sensed something.

"They're coming, can you participate in the battle?" John asked as he drew Roel

"I can my lord, however being an undead knight means that I'm much slower and would have a tough time against our enemies. I also firmly believe that you should fight in these awakening Dungeons alone if you want to reap the benefits" Rishubalt replied.

John nodded his head silently as he glared at the incoming enemies.

As the door at the end of the hallway open, John saw a group of humanoids running towards him.

"A person?" wondered John.

They wore thin breastplates, military uniforms and intricate weapons. They weren't mindless monsters, they were definitely 'humans'.

"Zabmalby]#%!"

"Zabmalby]$%!"

They used a language that he didn't understand and pointed their spears and sword at John as they slowly closed the distance between them.

"That's not humans....they are just monsters that appear in human form" Rishubalt said.

".....Rishubalt, do you think I'm an idiot?! Even if I'm missing memories I know I'm back on Gaia, and these are just normal guards following orders."

"....yes." Rishubalt said apologetically as he entered the ring.

With a grimace in his face, John pulled out Roel and listlessly walked towards the soldiers.

'Im sorry nameless soldiers, but your world is invading mine. If killing you makes me strong enough to protect my world, then you must die...' John knew these guards were just doing their jobs, but their world was invading his and are now trying to attack him.

Walking towards the Mansion guards, John tried to rid himself of the idea that they were still apart of his domain that he swore to protect as he gripped his blade and swung.

The lead spear-wielding soldier tried to defend against Roel, only for him to snake past the speartip and decapitate the soldier in one stroke.

"Jfne!"

"Jfne!"

It sounded like they were speaking a different language, but John could still understand the fact they were screaming the name of the dead soldier.

Hardening his heart, John didn't hold back as he wanted this fight to be over with as quick as possible.

With a herculean strength behind his every swing, John easily began severing the soldiers' in half, cutting through their weapons and armour without even using any aura.

Just like that, the eleven Mansion guards became corpses in a little over a minute as there bodies laid bisected.

"Absorb!"

Falling to one knee, John had to focus every ounce of willpower to focus his healing ability through the all consuming pain that engulfed his being.

The magical healing was just barely able to offset his mana container from exploding from the increased mana, he could only focus and continue stretching his container through brute force.

As the pain receded and his Mana container stopped expanding, john wordlessly swept off the blood on Roel in one swipe and walked deeper into the dungeon.

Bells were going off in the Mansion as more and more soldiers ran at John, which would be their last mistake as he ended their lives just as quickly as they appeared absorbed their Mana.

The further John walked into the Mansion, the more armoured the soldiers became and began to force John to use his Aura on the tip of Roel to punch through it and end them swiftly

This entire dungeon was a blur for John who was on autopilot as he went around killing the human soldiers in the mansion, it felt John was watching himself kill these people in a third person's perspective.

"@$w8+%^!"

The last remaining soldier, a young one was struck by fear, he dropped his spear and started to run away.

The dagger in John hand quivered as he barely stopped himself from killing the fleeing soldier. As the soldier turned the corner and disappeared, John put down the dagger as the ring on his finger began vibrating slightly.

"...My Lord Roukel.... I know that your memories are missing, but these are our enemies and killing them will strengthen you. How can you take your revenge if you let fleeing soldier live, you need follow him and kill him!" As he said this, John stopped in his tracks

"Rishubalt... WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?..." An overwhelming authority poured out of John as he manipulated his Mana to press down onto the ring, bending the metal slightly and threatening to crush it.

"A MERE KNIGHT DARES TO ORDER ME, THE SWORD KING, TO KILL THOSE WHO I PURPOSELY SPARED? DO YOU THINK YOURSELF BETTER THAN ME!"

John knew he had to nip Rishubalt complacency and attitude in the buds, so he pulled out his past life arrogant and authoritative speech to put the ring in its place.

"O-Of course not m-my Lord, I was just saying... FORGIVE ME!" John could hear the sincerity in the rings voice, and a bit of happiness. Rishubalt felt the embers of his once great sword king still flowing in John, exciting him.

John simply shook his head at Rishubalt as he stopped using his Mana to oppress him, looking up as he sensed multiple soldier grouping together up ahead and decided to see what they had in store for him.

Unlike mindless mobs, mansion soldiers were a lot more proactive than the monsters in the dungeons. Rather than simply guarding a specific location, they moved and perfomed tactics to meet their enemy in a more advantageous position.

"*9¥{$%!"

"%!^%$!"

Entered the large hall, John was met with five archers and three heavily armoured knights.The confident knights elatedly drew their swords, their confidence likely due to the five archers behind them on the guardrail of the second floor.

"!3(?%%@!" After yelling out something incomprehensible language, the archers started acting.

They drew their bowstrings and John reacted by drawing his dagger that hung on his waist, throwing it as the heavy knights slowly charged towards him.

The dagger soared through the air and pierced the archer's chest, causing the archer to fall flat on his face while the other archers immediately released their bowstrings.

John immediately put Roukels battle experience to use as he quickly deduced where the arrows are traveling from the angle at which they were aiming at him.

John evaded two of the Large steel arrows and swung his sword to in one swift motion to deflect the other two to the side.

"!%@$!"

"%!$^!"

"Return!" he said.

John could hear the astonishment in the archers' voices as the dagger burrowed it's way out of their dead comrade and began flying towards John's hand. By the time they went to draw another arrow from their quivers, John threw his dagger and toppled another archer.

"$!%!$!"

Before he could retrieve his dagger, the heavy knights intervened and approaching John with their thick armor clanking as they walked.

*Koong! Koong! Koong!*

Their steps were heavy, though their movements were conversely quite nimble for their weight, as expected of skilled knights, but it was still far too slow in Johns eyes.

The knights pulled John into close quarters combat in order to stop him from attacking the archers, not realizing close quarters combat is the exact opposite of what they want to happen.

Raising his sword in the air, John controlled his aura to just form at the front edge of his blade before cutting off their heads in quick succession.

The knights raised their swords to defend themselves against John's attack, only for John to not care and slice through the sword and then through the armour.

The archers were clearly afraid and flustered after he slaughtered the knights, but John didn't care as the muscles in his legs bulged slightly as he jumped up to the second level in one leap. The archer scrambled to pull out their side arms but it was too late, John had already ended them before jumping back down to the first floor.

Looking around at the other world Humans dead at his feet, John found it harder and harder to conjure up emotions of disgust or sadness. John didn't know if it was the more memories that he was gaining from absorbing their mana, or if he was simply becoming more desensitized about death.

Using his healing magic to counteracting his exploding Mana container after absorbing all the soldiers, John looked down at the ring on his finger.

"Mana Absorption is quiet the convenient technique."

"Well it is a technique that you invented, my lord. After witnessing a Vampire absorbing the stamina and vitality from a human, you had an epiphany and would eventually create the Mana absorption technique." replied Rishubalt

"Really? A Vampire gave me the idea?" John though as he walked through the beautiful Mansion.

"Yes, you even told me in secrecy that you only taught a downgraded version of the Mana absorption technique to other! I'm sure the further you progress and more you remember, the stronger your mana absorption technique will become" Rishubalt said.

John was shocked, how could his Mana Absorption technique get even stronger?

He had been surprised when he had heard that his synchronization rate was only at 10%, and even now… Today was full of surprises!

---------

It felt like he had spent several hours in the Awakening Dungeon, other Hunters would have taken a break but John used healing magic and Mana Absorption skill to recover, thus he didn't need to take a break.

The soldiers ceased to appear before John as he wandered, so he arrived at the end of the mansion unimpeded by any more guard.

After walking up two flights of stairs, John appeared in an empty corridor and saw a large wooden door in front of him with an old pattern etched into it.

John closed his eyes and concentrated.

'There's only one presence behind this door. Is he supposed be the "boss" of this awakened dungeon?'

He felt the Boss had a restrained killing intent, so it seemed like whoever was in there was prepared for battle and was merely waiting on him to enter.

"This door....." Rishubalt said as he got lost in thought.

"What's wrong, Rishubalt? Is there an ambush?" John asked, but Rishubalt denied it

"No. It's just, the symbol carved on the door… it's familiar from somewhere."

"Was it a symbol that existed in our kingdom?" John said as his memories couldn't recognize the symbols.

"I'm unsure. I apologize."

Without anything left to do, John forced the door open and went inside only to be greeted with an extremely large office.

Although the office was worn out and old looking, it still gave off a feeling of royalty as there was a giant desk full of amenities and multiple filing cabinets with papers sticking out.

"!æ!@!/;!$%!" A man who looked to be of European descent said, his cloths looking like a medieval aristocrats as a sword hung at his waist.

John had become somewhat familiar with the language after listening to it for several hours, yet he couldn't decipher what the man was saying. However, John could tell that he sounded angry when he looked at him.

"It looks like he's ang-....You little!!" Rishubalt controlled his anger as Roel cut him off.

"I agree with Roel, Rishubalt. You don't need to commentate on every little thing, especially stuff that is obviously happening." John said crabbily as he took a defensive sword stance.

Despite not having any armour, John was even more worried about this man compared to any of the previous knights he fought. Unless one's armour was made of the best of the best materials, then a powerful Aura covered blade would hack through it no problems.

This was why John wore his light and flexible cloth armour instead of wearing heavy and more durable armour, as his level of opponents would easily slice through it and any armour wouldn't make a difference.

Seeing as how his opponents also avoided heavy armour, one could deduce that that level of opponents he normally faces could slice through metal armour with ease!

The knight in front of him calmed his breathing, then his body shot out like a bullet towards John.

There was a bright blue aura around the blade of the knight and it moved so quick that John couldn't completely track him with his vision, it was only through pure instincts and experience that's John knew exactly where the blade was aiming for and prepared to defend.

The knight's attack went the exact way he had predicted and John coated Roel in the blue aura as well, only for-

"Ugh!"

"My lord!" cried Rishubalt.

"Remain in your Ring Rishubalt!" John yelled out, his left hand desperately holding his intestines from spilling into the floor.

It turned out that the attack that John thought was normal, Had been a feint!

As John groaned at the intense pain in his abdomen, he felt a frightening feeling wash over him as he took a few steps back.

The clothes Knights blade slashed the spot where his neck once was, slightly nicking John's throat instead. If he hadn't retreated, his head would've been rolling in the floor

'This a swordsmanship that I'm familiar with... Extremely familiar with!' John withdrew his sword and widened the distance.

In general when he crossed swords with someone, John/Roukel would be able to read his opponent's movements mid combat and counter it, but his opponent's swordsmanship just now… it was way too familiar.

'The he holds his blade, the ways he moves, his gait, the way he positions himself and that stance he uses.... It's the same as mine, that's Roukels technique!'

"My lord!"

"I know!" John responded to Rishubalt's warning.

Although the swordsmanship his opponent used wasn't as refined as John, it seemed like it was Roukel's combat swordsmanship, or at the very least heavy based upon Roukels swordsmanship!!

"&@#π%!"

Using Roel to defend, John couldn't find a way to counterattack with the constant barrage of attacks coming his way. The hole in his stomach was getting deeper as he moved and stretched the wound as he fought.

'This fucker is definitely tougher than any B ranked boss, you dumbass Rishubalt! Calm down John, Focus!' John knew this knight was about as strong and fast as the average B ranked Boss, but his skill with the blade had far surpassed B and even A ranked hunters, Rivialing S rank hunters!

John watched as the Boss grabbed the lower half of his swords handle, his wrist in a twisted position that struck a cord with John.

'This stance!' despite having a deep internal wound, John's had to actively forcing himself not to smile.

As the Boss stepped forward to pierce John, John perfectly predicted the knights next attack and struck the flat of his sword with the back of his hand, cutting deep into his flesh before knocking the blade to the side.

The Bosses eyes widen but he quickly and calmly drew a secondary knife and coated it in Aura, arriving just in time... for nothing to happen.

The Boss looked up, expecting to see Roel soaring through the air and on its way to kill him, it instead he saw Johns bulging leg coming colliding directly into his thigh!

His kick tore through the Boss's muscles and broke his femur bone, only for John to hop back on one leg as his fot was overwhelmed with pain.

The Boss Knight was completely confused by what happened, John had a deep wound and was dying from blood loss, his left hand crippled but instead of going for a fatal attacking to try and end the fight, John instead goes for a thigh kick that injured both of them!?

The Boss knight watched curiously and cautiously as John hobbled away on one foot, using Roel like a cane, and arrived at the wall of the large office.

If the Boss was confused before, now he was completely flabbergasted as to why a fatally injured opponent wouldn't try to end the fight quickly but instead draw distance between the two, but the Boss would quickly get his answer.

A vibrant light green light began pouring out of Johns body and coalescing on his left hand, abdomen and foot!