There was a certain degree of pain even in a virtual reality game. However, the pain was applied at a reduced level so as not to cause major damage to the player’s mind. . . . . .

In this world, there was no such reduction function, and all pain was vividly transmitted, making his mental state almost collapse. If he hadn’t had the psychic and composure stats. . . he might have already collapsed.

“ It’s not going to be easy from now on, is it?”

From the 2nd basement floor onward, there were more beings as powerful as the Phantom Knight. He had used up around 200 silver bullets and four bottles of holy water in the fierce battle on the 2nd basement floor.

Oswald decided to take a short break at a suitable safe point.

He made do with the dried provisions and jerky he had prepared in advance and drew a protective circle using blessed salt to prepare for any surprise attacks.

Oswald began to recover from his fatigue while closing his eyes. . . but he had to get up from his seat soon after, as he heard the earsplitting screams of specters.

“ Ugh. . . . . . . ”

The specters that were screaming while stepping on the blessed salt, Oswald silenced them using the Winchester V10 he was holding in his arms like a lover.

Then, he lay back down and tried to sleep.

How long had he slept? Oswald got up from his seat and retrieved as much of the salt as he could before moving along the path leading to the 3rd basement floor. Specters and skeleton soldiers appeared here and there and pestered him. . . but he was able to defeat them easily.

Finally, on the 3rd basement floor, Oswald was greeted by a vast square that could hardly be called the inside of a building.

It was about 30m tall. . . and with giant pillars erected here and there, it reminded him of the mining city of Moria in 「The Lord of the Rings」.

As expected, there was a bustling group of skeleton soldiers just like in Moria. . . There were undead legions ranging from skeleton spearmen to swordsmen, shieldmen, skeleton knights, skeleton archers, and skeleton wizards.

He had a means he had been saving for times like this: the fire-based superior spirit ‘Phoenix’.

“ Summon Phoenix.”

Whoosh! Kee-ahhhhhhh!

The blazing flames gradually increased in volume until they were the size of a person and soon took on the form of a bird.

The summoned Phoenix immediately began to move according to Oswald’s will. Just by flying, the ground it passed by caught on fire, and when the Phoenix flew over the undead legions, the undead below caught on fire.

The Phoenix, which became a wide-area skill just by flying around, annihilated the undead. The Phoenix’s flames of purification completely eradicated the evil and malicious auras.

“ If I were to convert that into experience points, it would be huge. . . . . . . ”

If it were a game, he would have heard the sound of leveling up. . . but this place was another world with the worldview of a game. He could use the system like a kind of authority, but. . . that was all.

The Phoenix flew around for almost 20 minutes. . . Oswald, who confirmed that about half of the charged mana had been consumed, recalled the Phoenix.

[𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐱’𝐬 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐭][𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐢𝐜]

[𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐱. 𝐈𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐫.]

[𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝟒𝟖/𝟏𝟎𝟎]

“Looks like we can get through this easily. . . . . .”

The burning ground did not inflict any damage on Oswald, who was wearing the Phoenix’s Bracelet. Because it was a spirit’s flame created by a spirit, Oswald, the owner of the bracelet who was under the spirit’s protection, did not take any damage.

Oswald leisurely passed through the 3rd basement floor and went down to the 4th basement floor. There weren’t as many undead here as there had been earlier. . . but each one was a tricky being to deal with.

First of all, the headless horseman Dullahan was a prime example. Next was the Phantom Knight he had first encountered on the 1st basement floor. The Phantom Knight was tricky, but the Dullahan was just as tricky of an undead.

To take care of a Dullahan, one had to smash the skull the Dullahan was holding. . . but because it guarded its skull very protectively, it wasn’t easy to deal with.

He currently had three explosion magic bullets left, and he had to save them all to use on the boss of the 5th basement floor, the Plague Chaos Knight.

‘𝘓𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 4𝘵𝘩 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦.’

Fortunately, there weren’t that many Phantom Knights and Dullahans in this wide space, and there were many rooms where he could hide, so Oswald, who managed to avoid the beings appropriately, was soon able to arrive in front of the stairs leading down to the 5th basement floor.

He was overcome with fatigue. . . but Oswald, who had drunk holy water to recover some of his stamina, soon went down to the 5th basement floor.

Unlike the undead that had been here, the Chaos Knight was the only one of the chaos demon race. As befitting the seed of the plague, he had a greenish skin, a face covered in blisters from smallpox, and various infectious diseases.

【𝘼𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙧?】

The Chaos Knight, who was sitting on the throne placed in front of the altar, pressed down on his helmet to cover his disgusting face. Soon, the being holding a large flamberge that had been leaning next to the throne got up from its seat and walked toward Oswald.

“ Phew. . . . . . . Let’s get this started.”

Ta-ang!

Oswald fired a silver bullet first to start the attack.

Swoosh! Kwa-ang!

“ To deflect that with a sword. . . seriously. . . . . . . ”

Oswald felt dizzy as he tried to fight a being with reaction speed good enough to deflect bullets with a sword. He continued to pull the lever and pull the trigger, launching consecutive attacks.

The being blocked the bullets with its sword every time, and the being soon advanced to right before his nose, and Oswald seized the opportunity to throw the bottle of holy water tied to his waist at the being.

At that, the being swung its sword as if it were used to it and broke the bottle of holy water, but the problem was that the holy water inside the bottle had gotten the being’s body wet when the bottle broke.

Sizzle! Whoosh!

Smoke began to pour out, and soon, pure white flames arose and engulfed the Chaos Knight’s upper body.

【𝙂𝙮𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖!】