Duo Leveling LITRPG | Post Apocalyptic | SYSTEM-Chapter 184 - 231+232

"Let's go over the situation again."

At the bottom of the underground stairwell, Jhin glanced around cautiously, then spoke in a low voice.

"So Count Camriel is Millie… and the Princess is…"

"What, what? You got a problem with that?"

At Tempah's grumbling tone, Jhin gave a bitter smile.

"Not at all, Mr. Tempah."

To sum it up: the dazzlingly handsome Count Camriel, who'd look good from any angle—even to other men—was in fact Millie. And the delicate Princess Violeta, who looked like she might shatter at a touch, was actually Tempah.

Honestly, it wasn't that shocking.

After all, a human turning into a dwarf wasn't even the weirdest transformation. A gender switch was practically modest in comparison.

The real issue lay elsewhere.

"…You're saying the king is Lutz."

"I didn't realize you all were this close, either."

Who would've thought—Lutz as the king. It was something no one had seen coming. Everyone had simply assumed he was an NPC.

If the king's a player, then who's the representative figure on the NPC side?

In simple terms, the one who should stand as the natural counterpart to the vampires was "the king of the kingdom."

Like how there was Atlas in the lizardman well.

But if that king was a player… that threw everything off balance.

"Is it possible the NPC side's representative is vacant in this scenario?"

"…No way."

Jhin's eyes shifted toward the distant knights standing guard.

Could it be one of those knights…?

He shook his head.

The representative should be the most powerful entity within this dungeon. A mere knight didn't quite cut it.

Could the answer lie in the secret organization "Shadow," which had operated with Millie?

No. She said they were all under Count Camriel's command.

Millie bit her lip and said softly, "In the end, if we just follow the quest, it'll all come together. There's no need to stress over it too much."

She had a point.

Just being reunited with comrades—after all the chaos, all the changes, the scattering—was already a stroke of luck.

Jhin decided to calmly lay out what he'd discovered.

"From what I've gathered, the vampires' goal is to destroy a 'sacred relic' hidden somewhere here. Our scenario is to stop them."

Everyone nodded, accepting both the information he'd overheard and his deductions. Jhin continued, more confident now.

"Whatever the sacred relic is, it's clearly something deadly to the vampires."

A C-rank themed dungeon.

With character stats and skills sealed away, players were granted certain special advantages in return.

Usually, those came in the form of items—and chances were, the "sacred relic" filled that role.

"All we have to do is find the relic."

Jhin stared into the darkness that cloaked the underground space.

It was time to resume the assault.

The royal castle's underground was a tangled labyrinth.

It was dark—so dark you couldn't see an inch ahead—and the air was cool and clammy.

The deeper they went, the thicker the scent of blood became. And then the vampire-infected began to appear, twisted and grotesque.

Butlers and maids.

Knights with no names.

All of them now vampires, screaming wildly as they lunged forward.

"Did the people living here seriously have no idea there were this many vampires beneath the castle?"

"Hard to say."

"A vampire stronghold right under the palace—while they're supposedly fighting against vampires above ground…"

Jhin furrowed his brow. He had spotted one of the infected lurking nearby.

"Hu-human…"

CRACK!

In a blur, he dashed forward and slammed a knee into the vampire's head. He followed it up with a spinning kick to seal the deal.

BANG! CRACK!

Right behind him, Millie moved swiftly, her rapier flashing as she pierced through another vampire's torso.

It didn't take long to take down all five of them.

Then Lutz asked, a little hesitantly, "…Weren't you playing a blacksmith character?"

He had extended his hand forward, scattering magical energy. With each movement of his fingers, the ground trembled. Jutting spikes of rock burst up and skewered vampires mid-charge.

King Damon.

A magician with all stats focused into mana, a monarch whose prowess lay in earth magic.

Lutz let out a small sigh.

"I really thought this would be my chance to finally be useful to you, Jhin."

"You're always helpful."

"That's… not really what I meant…"

His sigh carried more weight than his words, but Jhin chose to ignore it. He had other, more immediate concerns.

He glanced toward Tempah.

"Grghhh…"

In that frail princess body, he was charging at vampires with his fists. He was somehow dodging their attacks, but it was dangerously close.

If even one hit landed, it could spell disaster.

The ones truly suffering were the knights stationed at his side.

"Princess! Please, retreat!"

"It's too dangerous, Your Highness!"

Tempah yelled back, face flushed red.

"Will you stop calling me Princess already?!"

The dainty princess's fist struck a vampire's neck. She spun, landing a clean kick to its stomach.

Then she kicked out the knee of the one beside it, threw her arms up, and drove her knee into its face, yanking its hair to angle the blow.

Her combat technique was, frankly, impressive.

The problem was that Princess Violeta, Tempah's character, was not—unlike his real self—a melee combat expert.

Jhin leaned in and asked quietly, "...You're not going to use magic?"

The original Princess Violeta came with the label Light Mage.

"How would I even do that?"

"…You combine magical formulas and release them using power—"

"And how exactly do I extract mana?"

"Ah."

It was unfortunate, but Tempah had never once handled power in his life.

Let alone shaping magical formulas and crafting spells on the fly.

He was a man who tackled hardcore difficulty levels using only physical prowess, enjoying all combat with bare-knuckle brawls.

Looking at it now, magic had never really suited him.

Well, it's true that playing a magician in a themed dungeon is notoriously tricky.

Of course, for players not familiar with playing a mage, the game provided guidelines.

Just follow those.

That's how Lutz was managing to cast spells.

But Tempah couldn't even manage that much.

"Ughhh! Damn it!"

"Your Highneeeeeess!"

As one of the knights finished off the vampire Tempah had knocked away, the fight finally settled.

The princess's delicate hand was swollen and bruised.

At least, the class Light Mage came with a naturally faster physical healing speed.

While it was nothing compared to Tempah's "Regeneration" skill, at least her condition wasn't worsening. That alone was a relief.

Millie flicked the blood off her sword.

"I've heard there's a hidden altar beneath the royal castle."

Now that she mentioned it, they'd said the dwarves were being taken for some kind of ritual at an altar.

So they kidnapped the dwarves to destroy the sacred relic…

Jhin turned to the others and spoke.

"Everyone, stay sharp. This is where it really begins."

The altar was tucked away at the end of a labyrinthine corridor, nestled like a ruin swallowed by time.

They pushed open a heavy door, and inside, someone was slowly tilting a blood-red goblet.

Only the wall-mounted lanterns gave off a faint glow.

"Uninvited guests, I see."

As he turned his head slowly, his face looked like a blank, white sheet of paper. Crimson ink dripped steadily from the corners of his lips.

[Elite Monster 'Pureblood Vampire Red Cell (C)' has appeared.]

An elite monster.

While all the vampires they'd fought up until now were merely infected humans, this one was a vampire from the start.

A true host.

"You dare interrupt this sacred rite?"

In the corner of the altar chamber, Jhin spotted trembling dwarves.

"S-Sin?"

But they couldn't reach them just yet. Red Cell stood squarely in their path.

"Your sin will be paid in blood."

For a moment, everything blurred—and in a flash, Red Cell was suddenly right in front of them. Millie whipped out her rapier to parry, sparks flying wildly.

SHING!

"Let the earth tremble. Earthquake!"

Lutz's voice rang out as the floor quaked. The tremor threw Red Cell off balance—Jhin seized the moment and dove into the fray with a punch.

"Impudent wretch!"

But his attack hit nothing. Red Cell's body dissolved into shadow.

It was as if he had merged with the darkness. When he reappeared, it was behind one of the knights.

"GRAAAH!"

A pair of fangs gleamed in the dark.

The knight, who had fought beside them all this time, was felled in a single blow—his body shriveled and dry.

And then, once again, the creature slipped into the shadows.

Millie murmured.

"…I know that name. He was in Camriel's reports."

A vampire who walks the shadows—Red Cell.

And as it happened, there was only one known way to defeat him.

"His weakness is light magic."

Jhin looked over at Tempah, who was still swinging blindly at the shadows.

They did have a light mage with them.

But—

"…I don't think that's going to work."

Red Cell emerged again, fangs bared, only to be driven back by Millie's sword.

More futile clashes followed.

The knights were the ones paying the price, falling one by one to protect the princess.

"We need to find another method besides light magic. Were there any other weaknesses?"

Jhin activated his Black Iron Suit to its limit, pushing back Red Cell just before it could reach Lutz again.

The vampire snarled, then turned his attention to Lutz as his next target.

Millie dashed forward, her sword intercepting him once more.

"…No. That's all the info we have on him!"

Jhin clicked his tongue, staring at the flickering darkness.

In the end, there was only one path forward.

It had been designed that way from the start.

"There's no other way. It has to be light magic."

"Mr. Tempah can't pull it off."

"I know. That's why we'll need to cheat a little."

He turned to Tempah, who looked thoroughly disgruntled.

"Can you explain how light magic works?"

"…What?"

"Just try reading out any glowing text you see."

Though clearly not happy about the situation, Tempah started explaining without resistance.

"To generate light, you have to draw out power from your dantian and trace a line exactly 0.2 millimeters wide in the air to complete the magic circle… Want me to draw it for you too?"

"Tell me everything."

Even as Red Cell's attacks kept crashing into them, Tempah continued his lecture—delivering explanations that, frankly, made no sense to Jhin.

Once he'd said it all, Tempah looked at him, exasperated.

"So now what?"

"I'm going to cast the spell."

"…You memorized all that?"

Jhin shook his head.

"No. That's not my role."

Tempah looked utterly confused, but Jhin simply shrugged and darted toward the altar.

To the corner where the dwarves had been left.

He approached the youngest one—Kol.

"You heard all that, right?"

"H-Huh?"

"Start drawing. Now."

Kol was the genius who had pulled the Black Iron Suit's design out of Jhin's brain and made it real.

He might not look like it, but his talent in this area was beyond extraordinary.

"Just give me a sec…"

Red Cell must've sensed something—it started approaching them.

"What trickery is this?!"

"Not so fast!"

But the others weren't about to sit still.

Lutz's earth magic surged, surrounding the area, while Millie's rapier flashed to intercept the enemy again.

Kol's drawing was done in no time.

"Finished!"

Jhin gave him a thumbs-up as the dwarf, using spilled blood as ink, completed the array on the ground.

Then he deactivated his Black Iron Suit.

"Why are you taking the suit off?"

"If I'm going to use magic, I have no choice."

The thing guzzled power just by moving. Using magic while wearing it was out of the question.

Lutz hesitated.

"…Wait, is that even possible?"

The dwarf Sin had zero talent for smithing—but he had a monstrous 495 powerstat.

He was intimately familiar with how to control it.

He'd never cast a spell before—but Jhin was confident.

Sin's stats.

And Jhin's experience—

"I can do it."

At least, if all they needed was a guided light spell.