Death Leveling Chapter 33

[ … words ]

“Wow, Dante, you caught a deer?!” yelled Ku in awe.

This prompted Nemo to walk up to us as well; I suppose my farces with Soyeon can rest for now.

Looked at him and softly chuckled, “yup! I got a bit lucky, but at least now we’ll have something nice.”

Nemo proceeded to step right next to the deer, then put his hand on it.

“Yeah, this is a good catch, Dante—good job”; his voice was strangely empty—feel bad for the animal?—vegan much?

Whilst they were cooking the deer, I was out of it—floating in my mind, experimenting on the raven.

*Skreee!! Skreeeeeee!!*

“God, these ravens give me the creeps…” stated Ku.

I glanced at him, “do they now?”

It is true that there’s an uncanny amount of them around here—does it have anything to do with the organ hunters?—I wondered, putting a thing or two together.

“Food is ready, everyone!!” “Wooooo!!”

Nemo summoned some plates using his System and then, as usual, took his food and bounced—what’s he hiding underneath his mask?—he certainly doesn’t hide not having balls, so surely it can’t be that bad, right?

Soyeon was handing out the meat.

“Dante,” she said and extended a plate for me; immediately, I held up my hands and waved them with insistence.

“Oh, I ate some apples and berries while hunting—I’ll skip on the food this time.”

“Huh, again?—you passed on food yesterday as well.”

Then with a faint shrug, I replied, “yeah, makes you wonder who’s on a diet here.”

She tilted her head, bemused.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

From the corner of my eye, I could see a rather smug smile on Ku’s face—lips pressed together—it seemed like he was trying to suppress a laugh.

Once we got done, we finally set out for the final destination: a small town titled “Dream Town.”

Just like rypU Town, it seemed rather medieval—this inconsistency between technology made me ponder without any significant depths—is it also gatekept?—what about bigger towns and cities?

This time around, everyone seemed normal—what were we even thinking during the incident?—how come we got so deep into that town without picking up on all the abnormalities?

“I’m telling you, the Eastern field has better potatoes! Stop selling this crap in my neighborhood!”

As we walked across the town…

“Fresh Potatoes! Fresh Potatoes! Come and get your fresh Potatoes!” A guy dressed up as a potato turning and dancing with a sign…

Now, this is how a town is supposed to be… no exploding humans, you know?

“Potato Energy! Potato Energy! Our energy drink gives you wings!”

After what felt like an eternity, we got to the place… an adventurer’s guild? I wonder what kind of package we’re even delivering.

We entered the place and, as you’d expect, it was rather cliché—a bunch of muscle-for-brains with swords, ragged and—to anyone but me—intimidating.

I looked around and there were a bunch of posters—quests and whatnot, dead-or-alive wanted posters, and so on.

“Oooh, Dante, you want to check these out with me?” asked Soyeon.

“Sure,” I replied nonchalantly and then peered at Ku.

Meanwhile my raven was flying all over the town—I was picking up all types of MANAs in this town: weak, bizarre, depraved and… even powerful…mmmhm…

Suddenly, I licked my lips and let out a small moan.

“D— Dante?” she concerningly stated, looking at me puzzled.

Oh… shit…

“Ignore that, I accidentally thought of someone…”

She didn’t answer for a second.

“Someone?” asked in curiosity.

Then Ku went and interfered.

“Must be his boyfriend or something,” he declared sarcastically yet void of any sarcasm in his voice.

I raised my palms and jokingly answered, “oops— you got me—my boyfriend.”

He actually did—if I said I like women in this context, I’d seem defensive; my goal was to see if I could make Soyeon slightly jealous, but it backfired on me. Fucking Ku.

Though… I do sense someone rather delicious in this town…

I need to restrain my bloodlust from coming out… can’t be daydreaming; I’ll keep a careful watch on this girl.

We started looking at the posters while Nemo delivered the package—he was still in the building, just in a different room.

“Black Death… wanted only dead.”

No picture attached—just pitch-black, this drew a rather offputting contrast to all the other wanted posters that had clear and high-quality pictures.

I took the wanted poster and began scrutinizing it—this was X’s goal, killing this thing.

“Difficulty Level: Natural Disaster.”

Whatever this thing is, Xter was out of his mind trying to go for it—makes sense though since that’s the reason why he was even in the Im City.

Does make me wonder… why did I inherit the memories of both Ella and Xter, yet receive nothing but mild power when I devour randoms?—is it because of emotional connection?—knowledge?

Then a dim grin emerged on my face.

“Soon enough, I’ll know…” I mumbled quietly enough that only an animal or someone else like me could overhear my words.

“Fuck this thing…” abruptly, Ku let out, grabbing the wanted poster.

Instead of reacting to that, I simply glared at him.

“You got beef with him?” I asked… chalantly.

“Doesn’t everyone?” he answered at once, without so much as thinking about what to say.

“Hmm…”

Ku proceeded, “it’s called the Immigrant City, but it’s closer to being the orphan city… half of the people there got taken in as babies or children—guess the reason why!”

Certainly, ominous.

“They gather around campfires and tell scary stories about Black Death, it’s that bad,” stated Ku, this time with a pensive and faintly defeated tone.

“So, you’re a victim of this as well?” I asked.

He replied yet again instantaneously, “yeah, but I don’t particularly hold a grudge— it’s not like I remember my parents or anything, and either way I prefer seeing this as a natural phenomenon rather than some person.”

This prompted a small smile to leak out of me, particularly because of X and the difference between the two: X was vengeful, bitter and upset, whereas Ku simply lives ignoring what happened without letting it interfere with his life.

“You guys are from the Im City?”

All of our eyes suddenly locked on the woman that uttered this line.

“Yeah, what about it?” Ku answered.