Rise Of The Hoarder

I advanced through the Floors by myself, returning the Automaton to watch over me—or whatever.

I could give a million excuses as to why it could not record for some time, but personally, I didn’t care any longer.

Since my Alignment had become Neutral—correction, Chaotic Neutral—I could do whatever I wanted as long as it wasn’t direct.

‘Who would have thought indirectly killing that Vivian lady would make me turn Chaotic, though… wow.’

This was a sleepy slope, but as long as I stuck by the rules, I would be fine.

Currently, I was on the 60th Floor and my Golem was fighting the Boss monster.

The Golem was going to win, obviously, so I simply took my time to sort through all I got.

They were mostly junk, so I would be selling most of them.

Hoarding was only nice if the item was powerful or rare.

Of course, most of these were unique treasures, but they would become trash in the upcoming scenarios.

Selling them now that they were in high demand was the wisest choice.

While the Automaton/Drone was within my [Subspace], I used my Control Function over the interface to check it out.

I found out some pretty interesting stuff.

‘Well, let’s leave that for now…’

It was pretty weird that the paths hadn’t crossed yet, or… was it that I was way ahead of everyone else?

One of my abilities allowed me to know the exact location of my properties.

So, by checking the Map, I realized that they were on lower Floors.

“Hmm… they’re slower than I expected…”

What was going on?

I thought the ‘Pariah’ guy was up to something, but it didn’t seem like he was planning on taking action anytime soon.

‘Well, let’s just keep this up…’

My initial goal was to get to the Hidden Floor. Anything that got in the way of that would be cut down.

Even if it was a former comrade.

My grin grew wider underneath my mask. It was getting hard to control my impulse, but I held it in.

‘He’ll come to me… I simply have to wait. Hehehehe.’

*******************

>SWISH!<

Pariah dealt the final blow to the Boss on the 50th Floor, gaining victory.

A screen was displayed by his side. Lily’s figure as she defeated a Boss of the 49th Floor came into view, making the white-haired man leak out a smile.

“Good one. See? You can do it if you just try.”

“But, I want to do it with you!”

Once she said this, the smile of Pariah widened a bit.

“Well, I suppose we can get to that now. I have a pretty good grasp of everything now.”

“So, you confirmed it?”

“Yeah. It’s the same Jeremy I know, alright. He even has that annoying [Subspace] ability.”

Pariah knew how that worked as well.

It could store items in a special space.

He needed physical contact with the object, though, so Pariah felt he was fine.

Besides… even if Jeremy tried that on him, it wouldn’t work.

“He’s not the only one with the backing of the Gods, after all…”

After being tossed to die, Paul received a little assistance from some unknown entities. With that, he had been able to win against the Kobolds back then.

Even now, he was receiving their assistance.

The best part was that this unknown entity, known as God, was also interested in seeing Jeremy getting killed.

“Alright, Lilith. It’s about time. Let’s wrap things up.”

The girl on the other end of the screen nodded.

“We’ll use the Bypass Stones. You already have your locked location, yeah?”

“Yes. I do.”

“Great. You should go speak to the others he has deceived. Let them know the truth about their Masked Hero. As for me, I suppose it’s time to reintroduce myself to our dear Hoarder.”

The girl behind the screen gave a smile that showed both confidence and worry—if that was even possible.

“You’ll be okay… right?”

“Yeah. I will. Once you’re done on your end… come join me. We’ll advance together.”

Lilith/Lily nodded to her everything’s words.

“Okay. See you soon!”

She understood her mission.

She was supposed to singlehandedly dispose of all the Hoarder’s minions who were latched on to all the other members of the group.

The innocent Gifteds weren’t even aware that they were disposable hostages.

By releasing them from their bondage and showing all of them footage of Paul’s confrontation with Jeremy, she would be able to reveal the truth to them.

That was her role to play.

It was a bit hectic but, compared to her partner, she had it easy.

‘Paul is going to face that monster again… the one who made him nearly lose everything!’

She knew how much he agonized over his enemy—to the point of obsession.

If Lily had her way, she wanted to be there with him while he confronted the monster known as Jeremy.

However… Paul needed her for this! And so, that was what she would do!

***************

‘Now, then… I should begin on my end…’

Paul brought an item from his Cache Ring, an item that stored certain ores indefinitely.

Once he opened his palm, the item appeared atop it.

The Bypass Stone!

Just as there were Return Stones that allowed someone to prevent further danger by sending them to the starting point, this one served the function of sending Gifteds to various Floors within the tower.

One could be transported to a marked area on any Floor of the tower—so long as it was a Lower Floor.

It could also take its user to higher Floors.

However, unlike the former, Bypass Stones could only take a Gifted past 10 Floors per use.

And they were even rarer and more expensive than their counterpart.

The most disadvantageous thing about it was that it made Gifteds miss the EXP and Reward waiting for them in the Floors they bypassed.

However, Paul didn’t care about any of that now.

He could simply return to clear these Floors—after he had conquered the Hidden one.

For now, he had to focus on a single thing… his target.

“It’s time for a reunion, Jeremy!”