I will be the Strongest

Chapter 38

"What happened...? Did you defeat the boss? The system is going crazy, so many messages, I'm confused..."

With one hand over his eyes, the man entered through the door while squinting due to the pain he was feeling. He looked around and, still groggy with a headache, took a moment to notice the strange conditions of the room.

"What... What happened to this place...?"

As he moved away from the light coming through the door and toward the slightly reddish portal, his hand completely disappeared, causing him to pull it back in alarm. Due to his curiosity, this happened a few more times, both with his hands and his legs.

"We don’t know either, it was like this when we arrived," Samantha replied, walking toward Hye. "Maybe the boss exploded and destroyed everything along with him."

"I see... good thing, he must have been very strong, and it would have been difficult to face... Maybe it was luck, right?"

"Luck..."

After clicking her tongue, Samantha went through the portal first, followed by Hye shortly after.

'Hmm, it’s a shame you don’t have more time. There were some interesting replicas in the small storage of this place, and maybe you could have taken them as rewards.'

'Replicas?'

'Yes, although they are weak, they could have been useful to you. Oh, and that reminds me... were the wolves or he... who did I trade last time...? Oh, yes, it was him. Be glad, these last two floors will be faster compared to the previous ones.'

An icy dimension rose before their eyes. Mountains, plains, fields, and... lakes? Everything exuded such a low temperature that, although naturally unaffected by it, even Samantha felt the effects with trembling hands.

"Are you okay? The temperature doesn’t affect you much, right?"

Walking to the edge of the hill they were on, Hye nodded.

"But what?!"

His knees gave way to the cold, hitting the ground and cracking. Despite the absence of pain, it was unimaginable how distressing and mentally painful the experience of seeing his entire body freeze before his eyes was, as such occurrences are rare even in dungeons.

"Damn it! What the hell is happening?! Why isn’t this happening to you?! Help me, please...!"

Following the example of his legs, his arms cracked, separating from the rest of his body and falling to the ground.

"HELP ME...!"

His body fell, colliding with the icy ground and breaking easily into several pieces like a heap of glass.

This was not just ordinary cold, and that’s why, although it doesn’t usually happen, his body reacted so strongly. Still speechless from what he had just witnessed, Samantha looked at Hye, who, after the body fell to the ground, didn’t even bother to continue watching her.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright...?"

"Yes, but more importantly... I think we’re going to end up n***d if we move again..."

Indeed, when he raised his arms, the sleeves of his shirt cracked, and small fissures spread across his chest. However, it didn’t last long, as, at the moment the creature's kick hit him, throwing him across the river and cracking one of his arm bones a bit, all his clothes disappeared.

"Hye!"

Samantha shouted but didn’t even have time to look his way. With blue skin and a medium-sized humanoid body, the creature leaped toward her and delivered a powerful punch, causing a wave of destruction that obliterated everything behind her and shattered the ice beneath her feet.

'Oh yes, although it’s not very strong, it’s quite fast, isn’t it?'

"Not very strong...? Cough! Cough!..."

Wiping the blood from his mouth, Hye rose from the crater created by his collision with the mountain. The glow around Samantha spread, and before his eyes, he saw her make the monster fly across rivers and mountains with a single punch. Even from such a distance, it was undeniable that he could hear part of the creature cracking with the impact.

'Well, yes. So much so that it doesn’t have a mark.'

"Mark...?"

A whistling intensified rapidly, reaching its peak with a thunderous sound, as the mountain was pierced by the creature, which continued to be pursued by Samantha at a speed Hye couldn’t even follow with his eyes.

'From what I remember, the strongest of this race have a kind of tattoo, usually on the forehead, that serves as proof they belong to the top of the hierarchy.'

Following the marks left by Samantha, both from the times she threw the creature around and when her punches hit the monster, creating a huge hole below, Hye finally found her, lying near a gigantic crater where not even the body of the monster could be found.

"Wasn’t that a bit... excessive?"

Looking around, with no more intact mountains, rivers, or plains, everything had been destroyed by Samantha’s attacks and the monster’s body in a matter of moments.

"Are you okay?! That kick didn’t hurt you, right?!"

"Oh, I see, you’re paralyzed again, right?"

When Hye picked her up in his arms, Samantha didn’t pay attention to anything other than the literally imperceptible noise that was made at that moment.

"What was that? Did you break an arm? Or was it just a bone? Does it hurt? No, put me down right now! Of course, it hurts!"

"It’s alright, I’ll fix it soon."

"What...?"

[All injuries to your body will be healed]

A comforting warmth spread through every corner of her body, intensifying in the areas where the damage was most critical, such as her torso, and being almost imperceptible in areas like her toes.

"See? You can hear, right? There’s no more problem."

"How... was it your strange system again? Wait, where are you going?"

"To the next floor, time is almost up."

[The portal to the sixth floor will close in 00:13]