A Reincarnated Demon’s Life of Wonder

I threw myself to the floor to escape the large mouth of the snake, aka, Glavras. 

*CRASH!*

Is it normal for snakes to eat someone they meet for the first time!? From the looks of it, the charge must have hurt the snake as well. Part of his mouth is bleeding, and his HP went down another 10 points...10 points!? 

Looking at his condition, I can see that the [Berserk] skill is activated. It's kinda obvious, but the skill drastically increases your physical abilities in exchange for not using other skills and a reduction in defensive- and mental abilities. This guy's got almost no other skills than [Berserk], and his INT is already zero...

Alright, this is too weird! First, why is most of his stats at 0!? That doesn't make any sense! And if he's been living for over 1.000 years, then he should have obtained at least one more title than those! And why's [Identification Detection] amongst the few skill he has!? Ah, gotta stop Identifying him. With that high skill level, I'm essentially negating my stealth abilities here.

...So why's he keeping on chasing me even when I've turned off the skill!? I thought it was supposed to only allow you to detect when and where someone used an [Identification]-type skill on you! Ah, can it be that with a high skill level, you'll know where the rude fellow is for a short while? Then I can't do anything but run!

I ran across the shore to escape the berserking dragon, but that turned out to be a bad move. Glavras followed after me as I ran, meaning he left the poisoned lake. Tch, and here I was betting on it weakening him even more...damn.

The poison has disappeared. Did the Dungeon do that, or was it the poison that was too weak? I hope it's the latter. I've got two more bottles in the Storage after all.

And here I'm sure I can beat it if I could get some sneak attacks on it. Its HP is lowering due to the poison, and he's not as strong in defense as the Queen either. Beating this guy will be easy the moment the stealth skills get usable again... unnaturally easy even.

As said before, this guy's something that has lived for over a thousand years. And creatures can obtain EXP simply by living in aether-rich areas, even if it's several, if not hundreds, times slower than hunting monsters or whatever. And I'm not gonna buy some excuses like "he had evolved just recently". 

Then there are his skills. A "Pure Lake Dragon" should have some Water attribute skills, right? Not having that is stranger than having so few of them. And [Dungeon Create] is too strange.

I made a quick [Identification] of the skill before I was forced to turn it off, and the result told me that it was a skill to change the Dungeon one is a Dungeon Master of.

That's too strange. Dungeon Masters are supposed to be able to change their Dungeons without the help of skills and such, so why's something like that existing? It feels kinda unnecessary.

As I kept on running over the shore, I noticed a fatal fact about my plan. The wounds on Glavras' face, the ones he had done to himself with the first charge, have healed. 

I'm not saying I didn't expect that to happen, skill or not. It's a dragon after all, so I could accept that its ridiculous high lifeforce could heal it or something, but that's too fast. Did the Dungeon heal it? Like some auto-healing service that the Dungeon gives for certain species?

If so, then no way stacking sneak attacks will kill it. I'll need to kill that thing in a single blow with enough power so it won't help no matter how much the Dungeon can recover Glavras' HP...why am I always fighting stuff like this lately? I miss the fight with the Wild Hunt Lord. 

Glavras went for a lightning-fast chomp again, so I jumped to the roof, then I used [Sky Jump] and [Blink] to get behind him. While over him, I shot some Gloom Bullets at him, but no damage. Tch, this skill lacks power so much that it's to laugh at.

After I landed, the Darkness Bullet spell I had worked on while in-air finished, which had [Chaotic Concurrence] to back it up. Five dark magic circles appeared and shot bullets made of darkness, not that different from the Gloom Bullets, only bigger. The bullets smashed into Glavras with more force than the Gloom Bullets could from the sound of it, but yeah. A level 15 Darkness spell ain't gonna cut it here.

Already expecting that, I ran away the moment the magic was unleashed. And I think I got an idea just now! 

I fired more Gloom Bullets and Dark Bullets to keep the snake after me. Our game of chase lasted for a little while, and to be honest, I'm starting to feel the pain of using [Energy Warfare] all this time. But there's the goal!

I made a sharp left into the opening of the wall and Glavras followed. After reaching the end, I kicked the wall to change directions toward Glavras. The monster snake opened its jaws in hope of swallowing me whole, but I used [Sky Jump] to jump to the wall instead, forcing Glavras to swallow the present I left behind when I did the double-jump.

Not wasting a moment, I hurried out of the cave, just in time to escape the explosion from inside Glavras. Pieces of meat, blood, and fat flew out the opening to the cave as if a scene from a splatter movie was being filmed there.

Does that mean I did...wait! I didn't say that line! I didn't set up any cliche flags! None at all!!...Huh? Hey, where's the EXP? No way that big guy isn't enough for even one level.

I glanced inside the cave and saw the corpse of Glavras. His neck had been blown off from the bomb I made him swallow, so I think it's safe to say he's dead...unless he's like that famous undead, the Dullahan.

"DAMN IT ALL! AND HERE I THOUGHT THAT THE BODY COULD FINISH IT OFF IF I ADDED THOSE SKILLS TO IT!" - ???

Whoa-!? A loud voice came from behind me all of a sudden. But when I turned around, I saw no one... except for the supposed Dungeon Core shining in the distance too far away for me to recognize its shape.

"WHATEVER! IT DID BUY ME ENOUGH TIME." - Dungeon Core(?)

Oi, that line... and that he called Glavras "the body"...don't tell me-?! No, seriously don't tell me that something like that's allowed!

In my shock, I turned around to confirm that the snake was dead...only to be met with the sight of a large amount of salt in the shape of a snake. Then...aw, come on! 

That guy left his freaking body to become his Dungeon!? That's cheating! How are you supposed to kill a Dungeon?

Grr, but there's one fatal flaw with whatever that plan of his is-!? A magic circle? Wait, wait, wait! Just let me use these-

---

The Dungeon Core, no, Glavras observed the white-haired demon disappear in a dark purple magic circle.

Teleportation type...from the divine realm...and that color...no matter. That pest will never be a problem for me again even if she survives the night or not.

Glavras thought so while checking out the situation in the Dungeon. To his surprise, there were no living creatures left in the Dungeon. Did the gods evacuate all the monsters, even the ones still loyal to Glavras? Even so, he had no reason to keep them around even if they were. 

The former dragon chuckled to himself in the gods' vain attempt of opposing him. How could the gods ever harm him after all his preparations?

Obtaining the Dungeon Core which is a piece of the Chaos God himself, integrating it with the Ruins of Rebellion to inverse the Core so it would become impossible to be affected by the Ultimate Gods, analyzing the remnants of the Genesis God that made up the "Devil's Spire" mountain right beside the Dungeon, hacking the Terra Sol World-System through the information obtained from the Genesis God to create the [Dungeon Create] skill to cover for the loss of being able to use the Dungeon normally, and finally, harvesting all the hundreds of tons of water that made up the lake region of Velantas to fuel his plans of becoming a god of water. 

It was not a foolproof plan, as evidenced by the intrusion of the Black Baron who Glavras had tricked into cooperating with him, or the ghost of Avalar who had been a sort of guardian deity for the Ruins of Rebellion. And worst of all was that wretched demon...

Glavras couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that thing exiting the same cave as his former body now lay in. It had by no means any strength, but something was wrong with it. As if it was the carrier of a lethal disease.

Due to the Dread Spirits that infested the underground lake at that time would strike at the Dungeon Core if he didn't protect it at every possible moment, Glavras couldn't take any measure against the demon that wandered towards the upper levels like a scared ant. 

The demon turned out to be both a pain due to helping the Ultimate Gods' campaign against Glavras and a helping hand in eliminating or driving off certain troublesome individuals, including the Black Baron, the ghost of Avalar, and even less important individuals such as the Crushroach Queen that had infested the upper levels.

Even so, it was also an enemy that destroyed several important resources of Project: Apotheosis. Glavras tried to use the empty shell that used to be his body before transferring his mind, soul, and even his aether to the Dungeon Core. Despite fashioning the body to be an opponent the demon would have difficulty beating, it was splendidly destroyed without much difficulty. 

No matter, that is no longer a problem. Nothing is anymore.

The former Pure Lake Dragon, a creature that was essentially a big frog in a small well who had been furious over the world containing so many greater existences than him and swore vengeance against those who were unjustly better than him, the lord over an extremely small part of the Velantas lake region, laughing madly in his vanity.

---

Garami's PoV:

When the light faded, I noticed I was somewhere on a mountain? The wind's biting cold and the seven moons in the night sky illuminate the black rocks that are part of the mountain that extends to the sky like a spire...wasn't there something wrong with that line just now? Or, that's not so important right now.

Several, screw that, tons of colored lights appeared from the ground at the foot of the mountain. It was mostly blue lights, with two especially big ones going a different way than the smaller ones. Except for that, there were black lights that were aimed at random it seems, along with a few brown ones mixed in. And one of them, a dark purple one...is landing here?

When the purple light struck the ground, a magic circle appeared and revealed...Gust!? I must have been transported the same way then.

"Garami! Where's this? Are those guys here!?" - Gust

...Did the two Dungeon bosses give him a trauma or something? I can see his feathers being drenched in water, and the bird himself looks like he's been through a horror movie marathon. I don't know much about the hydra, but the King Cobra is scary as hell, so I can't make fun of him.

"Only us here. But what about the others?" - Garami

"Phew, they are not here... oh, Virt and the others? They all evacuated to Floor 6 to escape the Dungeon bosses. There were some wounded ones, but no one died." - Gust

And those blue lights...have already left the area. Guess it's all over then.

The whole deal with the Dungeon ended with a disappointing end, but what can you do? I'm not going back in there. Too many scary things in there, both stuff that originates from the Dungeon and not...

*Rumble, rumble, rumble...*

A quake shook the earth down below, but the mountain I was on looked like it was not affected. Kind of a weird feeling. 

An explosion happened where the Dungeon should have been, and from the depths of the earth rose something made of earth. Its size was around 100 meters, and as I kept on looking at it, its dirt-based body changed into...water?

As the transformation continued, the structure changed its shape. Its body turned elongated and slim, like a snake. Several tentacles started to sprout out from its body, deformed batwings too small to carry its big body appeared on its back, a jaw like a crocodile with rows of teeth similar to a shark appeared on its front, and aqua-green water converged and formed its multiple eyes spread around its body at random. It looked like some Lovecraftian monster had been merged with a spirit of water.

So it was Glavras. Seriously, that's too freakin' cheating. A "False God", are you kidding me? They even changed the Quest from "Urgent" to "World". 

"Wha-, wha-, wha-" - Gust

And this guy's out of commission. Must be due to the sudden rush from the Dungeon bosses to this guy. Should I visit that grand library place and ask for a refund?

I was looking for somewhere to hide while the big guy would leave to crush some innocent city someplace else when a large noise destroyed the tranquility of the night.

[O-hohoho! Finally dug yourself out of your snake hole, eh? Glavras!] - ???

...I know that voice. I've only heard it one time in my life, but the event that happened due to this guy...due to this guy's subordinates have been etched into my heart...mostly due to irritation and rage.

I looked at the sky and saw something that looked like a flying battleship. They weren't the type you can see in sci-fi stories, as these had magical runes all over their bodies and the engines looked like precious gems with a rotating piece of metal around them. They were at least more fantastical than the robots that were on Floor 3 at that time.

There were three of these flying machines, each with its characteristics. One of them, the mid-sized of the lot, was silver-colored and filled to the brim with gunports and other weapons. The smallest one was colored in rusty red and looked like someone had drawn graffiti on the ship's armor.

The third and final one was bigger than both the previous ones and painted in dark-blue colors, close to black. The loud voice from before had originated from the speakers attached to this ship. Then that's...

"Black Baron! Still trying to make me pay up?" - Glavras

[You better believe I do! Do you know how much those Transport Units cost to build!?] - Black Baron

Why must today be filled with bad news only!? As for the bird, he seems to have fainted on his feet, mumbling something about an A-Rank criminal. I moved him into one of the caves with the opening not facing the ships and the so-called God to prevent any stray shots from hitting him. 

"And just how are you supposed to do that? Just look!" - Glavras

With that, Glavras proceeded to strike the ground with one of his tentacles. The place that was struck started to change. The solid ground had been changed to crystal-clear water.

"See? No matter what my body touches, it will turn into water, be it the ground or even attacks! And as a god, I have complete control over any water! Nothing can defeat me now, not even the Ultimate Gods! Nothing-" - Glavras

While in the middle of his speech, Glavras was suddenly barraged by shots from the silver-colored ship. Despite bragging about his invincibility, the bullets struck his body without being turned into water.

[Oi, Assault! Don't fire before I give the orders!] - Black Baron

[BRAGGING DRENCHED WITH VANITY AND NARCISSISM IS NOT WORTH OF HEARING, SO THIS UNIT DECIDED TO CUT IT SHORT] - Assault

[That's still not a good reason to ignore orders... is what I would say usually, but this time, I'll allow it!] - Black Baron

You'll allow it!? But I agree with both of them. That Glavras-fellow seems to be a complete idiot.

[Huh? Oh, the speaker's still on!] - Black Baron

*Click*

...Guess birds of a feather flock together in this world too. 

Where was I? Right, Glavras ain't as invulnerable as he has people to believe. The bullets of the Black Baron's team must be of some special metal alloy that prevents Glavras' powers to work on them. As the fireball-like attacks from the ships also damage him, energy-type attacks also seem to be effective. Water evaporates after all. Wonder what would happen if he was exposed to a freeze-beam?

Even so, he's worthy of the name "God". Despite all the bullets,  either material or energy-based, he has been hit with,  there's no inkling of him growing weaker. 

Ain't that weird? Then I looked at the ground he was standing on and guess what, the ground beneath Glavras is turning into water and makes that a part of him to compensate for the bits that get blown off from the Baron's attacks.

...Then what if this keeps on going until Glavras reaches the lithosphere? Oh crap, that's bad!

Prophecies of world destruction aside, how can I fix this mess between two superpowers without getting killed myself? One side is a group of magical war machines led by a freak in military uniform, and the other is a God...or is he?

...I think I can do something about this. But first, dinner. I'm starving due to the speed run down to the underground lake. Gotta refuel before charging in. Glad I got some dried meat from the Sahuagins. And I got the fight of the century as entertainment to boot. Can it get any better?

...I should keep the escapism to a limited degree...*Sigh*. Why do I have to be involved with this~?