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◈ Leveling with the Gods

Chapter 150

“Welcome to Hell.”

“…”

“I’m cringing just thinking back to it now.”

At YuWon’s silence behind him, Hargaan didn’t say anything for a long time. His face was distorted and red. He was probably embarrassed by what he said.

“I said it because it was good to see you.”

“So you do that when you’re happy to see someone.”

“No…”

There was nothing he could say. No matter what he said, even he knew what he said was embarrassing.

Saying ‘Welcome to Hell.’ If he had said this on any other floor, he would have been made fun of even more than this.

“It’s just that this world is called that.”

“That’s true.” YuWon agreed on that point. L“It’s an embarrassing name, but it’s also a definitely scary place.”

“Caw—!”

A bird flew through the air.

As they looked up at it, half of its body had rotted away, and its bones were showing. Its size was bigger than most adult humans, and this world was composed of things like that.

‘Ignoring the lack of greenery and food, even breathing is hard here.’

A truly barren world.

Hargaan was guiding YuWon through such a place.

“But is it really ok?”

“About what?”

“You. I heard something happened on the 33rd Floor?”

As expected, Hargann had sharp ears. He had a pretty good source of information from inside Olympus.

Hargaan was climbing the Tower quite quickly, and as his rankings recorded on each floor increased, so did the number of Olympian rankers trying to make connections with him. In truth, Hargaan was attaining higher rankings than when Zeus was a player.

“Did I?”

“There probably isn’t a guy who has opposed Olympus as much as you. So…”

“I’m not changing my decision,” YuWon said as he looked at the cave he could see in the distance.

It was a peculiar cave. In this flat, empty wasteland, a single cave mouth that led underground could be seen.

That was the entrance to the real part of this world.

Step—

Seeing YuWon take the initiative and walk in front, Hargaan sighed. But since YuWon himself had made the decision, there wasn’t a particular way to stop him.

Well, even though he knew all this, Hargaan was the one to contact him first.

‘I didn’t really expect that he would pick up though.’

Hargaan ended up deciding to follow behind YuWon.

The mouth of the cave was wide. Seeing it from up close, it was probably a few dozen meters long.

As soon as he stepped inside the cave, a bottomless stone staircase that led down appeared.

Step, step—

As he walked down the stairs, the silent cave echoed.

How many minutes had passed?

YuWon looked at the endless staircase and asked, “Are you sure this is the right one?”

“I am.”

“Looks like you’ve been here a few times.”

“Well, yeah. This is a symbolic place within Olympus afterall.”

Since he was certain about the path, they were going down the right one. But YuWon felt something was off.

‘It’s still too deep.’

A staircase that continued on for dozens of minutes.

YuWon had come to the 42nd Floor once before. Since it was an unpleasant world, he had only passed through once while climbing the Tower, but he hadn’t returned a single time after.

There were multiple entrances into Hell scattered throughout the world. A cave-like entrance underground like this one wasn’t that rare either. YuWon had thought that this cave was another one of those entrances, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“What a grand greeting.”

“What?”

“Those guys.”

“Grrrrrr—”

At the bottom of the stairs, in a place so dark that his eyes couldn’t see yet, he could hear the cries of some beasts.

“Were there always that many?”

Bzzzt—!

At YuWon’s question, Hargaan immediately spread his electricity out to their surroundings. With that, the heads of the huge beast showed themselves under the continually long staircase.

Sniff, sniff, sniff—

“Bark, bark, bark—!”

“Huh…?”

Fifteen heads. But unbalanced with that number, there were only five bodies.

The monster with three heads and one body—Cerberus.

“Why are there so many of them?”

Cerberus was known as the guard that inhabited the lowest level of Hell. These three-headed beasts were famous for their near-immortal life force.

“…This is a problem.” Hargaan seemed troubled.

He was a skilled being, currently at the 62nd Floor and possibly the one who would become the fastest ranker in history. However, even he was troubled by Cerberus.

It wasn’t simply because the sky was dark that the world of the 42nd Floor came to be known as ‘Hell.’ This world was filled with dangerous monsters that would normally appear on the highest floors of the Tower.

‘Is it like a welcoming ceremony?’

YuWon felt the gaze of someone looking at him. It was like saying that he would only be worthy of entering if he was able to deal with at least this much.

If it was anyone else, he would’ve considered it ridiculous, but the one who existed below had more than enough rights for that.

‘I should reply in kind.’

YuWon stopped himself while pulling out his sword. He had thought of something.

‘Let’s try that.’

Shwoo—

He took his hand away from his sword and started to walk down the stairs.

Immediately…

[Your body has been imbued with the strength of a giant.]

Pfsssssh—

Blue mana flowed from YuWon’s body and spread out like steam. The three-headed dogs that were approaching him flinched and backed off.

“Grrrrrr—”

They bared their fangs while growling threateningly.

YuWon stretched his hand towards one Cerberus.

At that moment…

“Bark—!”

One of the dogs lunged its heads at YuWon. The moment its pick-like, sharp teeth surrounded his head, YuWon’s fist moved.

Crunch—!

“Whine—!”

The sound that came out of Cerberus’s mouth was uncharacteristically quite cute.

Its body was shunted upwards, and as if taking that as the signal, the other dogs also attacked YuWon.

“Bark, bark, bark—!”

“Kuang—!”

A total of fourteen heads were now attacking YuWon.

YuWon didn’t go anywhere and stood his ground. The only things that moved were his fists.

Crack, punch, smack, smack—!

Crunch—!

The heads that charged in were crushed, and teeth were shattered by his fists. Another head was squeezed under his armpit.

Crunch—

“Knng, whimper—”

Cerberus cried in pain.

YuWon expected the other ones to charge right after him, but their reactions were different.

[Cerberus becomes suspicious of your nature.]

[Cerberus is fearful of ‘Gigantification.’]

They were afraid.

The ones that, even if they died, would not give up their roles of being gatekeepers. But these Cerberus had become afraid of YuWon.

“What?” YuWon increased his strength, squeezing Cerberus’s head while staring at the others. “Does it remind you of old times?”

“Whimper—”

Cerberus bowed their heads.

YuWon looked at them and let go of the head that was being crushed.

Flop—

The Cerberus that had been flung by his punches sat on the ground. It was a sign of surrender.

‘That worked well.’

YuWon relaxed the arm that he used to squeeze one of the heads.

These guys were all seeing someone within YuWon.

Hercules.

The hero of Olympus that led the Gigantomachy to victory. Long ago, he was the one who taught hundreds of Cerberus a lesson using only his body. The ones here would have been part of that lesson.

YuWon thought that Hercules’s conditioning went very well.

“This much should be enough.”

YuWon looked at the dogs that were bowing with their tails tucked between their legs, then turned his head.

“What do you think?”

In the opposite direction of where the Cerberus were. An empty space with nothing in it.

Fwoosh—

Looking at that space, YuWon’s eyes turned red.

* * *

[Cinder Eyes reads the truth.]

[Cannot be read.]

Flicker—

Something in his vision faded.

Although something was definitely there, he couldn’t see through it at all.

But of course, he did know what was there.

“As rumored, you have a good eye.”

Fwoosh—

The shifting, flickering space opened, and someone walked out.

The Cerberus that were lying low all got up one by one and got behind him.

If YuWon was able to subjugate these Cerberus with strength, this man was able to suppress them with just his existence alone.

A tall man, two meters in height. Black hair and a mustache that flowed far below his chin. One cloak of black fabric that covered his body.

The “Ruler of the Underworld” and one of the “Big Three Gods” of Olympus, Hades patted the heads of Cerberus.

“You guys got hurt needlessly because of me.”

“Whimper—”

“Knng, kng—”

Unlike in front of YuWon, Cerberus turned into puppies before him. It was because he was the owner of this world.

‘That’s Hades.’

This was YuWon’s first time directly seeing Hades. Unlike other rankers of Olympus, Hades didn’t really move outside. However…

“A guy you can trust within Olympus…”

After receiving a request to recommend an internal helper from Olympus to YuWon, Chronos picked one person.

“Hades. That guy will be decently trustworthy. He won’t break the rules, and he’s honest to a fault.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“Didn’t I tell you?”

That day, YuWon was able to know how Chronos was able to get outside his world.

“The one who saved me and the one who was imprisoned by Zeus was that guy.”

The one who saved Chronos even while fighting Olympus.

Among the “Big Three Gods” of Olympus, the only high-ranker who was sane.

Also, the one worthy of the title of No.2 in Olympus.

Hargaan came down the steps and greeted him while bowing.

“I, Hargaan of Olympus, greet the ‘Ruler of Darkness.’”

“I’m getting tired of that greeting after hearing it so many times.”

Hargaan seemed nervous as he didn’t immediately stand straight and waited.

In an instant, the stuffy air became heavier. Hades didn’t say anything, neither did he raise his energy, but the force of his existence couldn’t be hidden.

And some time passed.

“Stand straight.”

At Hades’ command, Hargaan stood upright and looked at him.

“It must have troubled you coming here. My apologies for making it inconvenient.”

“No. It was fine.” After sternly replying, Hargaan looked in the direction YuWon was standing. “My friend here did all the work anyway.”

“Well,” his eyes looked at YuWon’s face, “that is true.”

He had been observing YuWon and Cerberus’s fight.

The player that he had only heard about through rumors. Since he was the strongest player, there were many stories about him.

As someone who knew the internal affairs of Olympus very well, Hades had known that YuWon was also the one who blocked Zeus’s [Lighting Bolt].

But there was a major difference between hearing about something and seeing it with his own eyes.

Was YuWon just as he had heard about? Did he have the skills to fight against a ranker of Olympus and win, even being skilled enough to block Zeus’s [Lighting Bolt]?

Hades wanted to check and had tested him using Cerberus.

“So how was I?” YuWon asked Hades, knowing that already.

Then…

“I can’t believe it even after seeing it with my own eyes.”

The response wasn’t that different from what he expected.

“That this was the guy that blocked Zeus’s Lighting Bolt.”

____

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