SBTYD 12

Chapter 12

 The First Year, and

The world is largely made up of three lands.

The heavenly palace where the Twelve Gods live. Beneath it, the enormous Mount Olympus seems to look down over the continent.

The western continent, where many polis kingdoms have developed, including Olympus, the huge city-states of Athens and Mycenae, and Sparta, famous for its warrior tribes, is called Greece.

On the eastern continent facing it is the great Troy Empire.

To the south lies the island of Crete.

There are countless islands in this region surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, but if one were to choose the three most representative regions, they would be these.

The Twelve Gods of Olympus rule over all civilizations.

However, north of Olympus.

Something was breathing in the unexplored land where human hands had yet to reach.

“Thana-tos, daughter of Nyx, the goddess of the cold night, and the Grim Reaper who announces the end, offers her greetings to the great Mother of Wisdom.”

A storm raged, and lightning fell from the dark clouds.

It was truly the end of the world.

Thanatos politely bowed her head at the edge of the cliff.

Rumble!

The earth shook as the ground rose.

It felt as if a gigantic mountain itself had moved.

The enormous mountain, which seemed to vaguely resemble a woman lying on her side, opened its mouth.

—It has been three hundred years since we last met, my lovely niece Thanatos. Have you been well?

“Have you also been at peace, Aunt?”

When she nodded, the whole world trembled.

The person Thanatos had come to see was none other than Gaia, the great goddess of the earth and the first primordial god.

—Looking at your face, it seems you have not been at peace.

Thanatos bit her lip.

Thinking about Hades’s atrocities made her emotions rise, but she had to endure them in front of the Mother Goddess.

—What is it that you wish to ask for?

Gaia asked generously, as if she immediately understood Thanatos’s feelings.

“The atrocities of the Twelve Gods of Olympus have gone too far. Their arrogance reaches the heavens, and humans are dying in pain and injustice, to the point that I cannot even collect all their souls.”

—Zeus.

Rustle.

The trees of the mountain range shook, dropping their leaves.

—It has been a long time since Zeus and his brothers and sisters took the heavenly palace. Originally, nature should flow according to the natural order.

When Gaia sighed, a strong wind blew.

—In the beginning, there was Chaos, and from it, my siblings and I created the world. You, the daughter of Nyx, know this well, do you not, Thanatos?

“A god governs the natural order and watches over it so that the laws of the world flow correctly.”

—It is fortunate that you are still doing what is right. But that does not seem to be the only reason. I can feel the same anger within you. What is the real reason you came to see me?

As befitting a primordial god, Gaia possessed great insight.

Thanatos slowly opened her mouth.

“They committed an injustice against my friend. They placed the blame for their own mistakes upon him.”

—The one who declares the end of all things came to me, the Mother Goddess, for the sake of another. Who is this friend?

“His name is Sisyphus.”

—A human?

“……Yes.”

At the unexpected answer, Gaia let out a soft laugh.

—I understand. I, too, have a personal grudge against Zeus.

“You mean the Titan God?”

The Gods of Olympus had waged war against the previous generation of gods, the Giants and Titans, in order to take the current thrones.

They were all Gaia’s sons and daughters.

—Zeus did not stop at cutting off the head of my son Cronus. He tore his soul into pieces and imprisoned it in Tartarus. And that was not all. He imprisoned or drove away all the Titans.

Rumble.

The earth trembled.

—Olympus has abandoned its duty. I must give a prophecy.

Rumble!

The storm raged.

Gaia made her solemn declaration.

—The Titans shall rise again. Flames shall rise within the Palace of Olympus.

The prophecy of the Mother Goddess would surely come true.

As she watched the scene of heaven and earth being overturned, Thanatos thought of the one human who had been kind to her.

‘Wait just a little longer, Sisyphus.’

After clearing the 6th floor, I moved on to the 7th floor.

After doing this for so long, I was getting better at it.

My confidence was growing, too.

I took a refreshing drink of water while watching the rising sun.

It tasted like honey.

“Wilson, do you know?”

🙂 ?

“Today marks one year since we first met.”

🙂 !

“Congratulations, you bastard.”

I wasn’t sure if it was really something to celebrate.

Still, I happily gave Wilson a high five.

I could feel its cold surface.

At first, its surface had been completely smooth, but after rolling and rolling all this time, it was now covered in scratches here and there.

It was the history we had made together.

“Do you think we can get out once we reach the top?”

Honestly, considering the structure of this malicious prison, I thought the chances were low.

Even in the original story of Sisyphus, the rock he pushed to the top simply rolled down the other side.

But once I reached the top, there had to be some opening I could use to break through.

If it didn’t work once, I would try twice.

If twice didn’t work, I would try ten times.

Surely there would at least be some kind of special achievement.

🙂

Wilson was cheering me on.

For some reason, I had this baseless confidence that I could do anything as long as I was with him.

“Then let’s go, Wilson.”

🙂

[You have entered the 7th-floor Rocky Mountain.]

Rattle, rattle, rattle……

The entire area was made of pitch-black granite.

Was this a volcano?

The rocky mountain was uneven, so I had to move slowly.

If I let my guard down, it was the kind of terrain where I could easily bounce around in all directions.

─Boom!

“Ah, hot! Tsk.”

Lava suddenly erupted from an unexpected place.

The soles of my feet became scorching hot.

[Warning: The plantar fascia has been damaged.]

[Mana is being used to repair the skin.]

[Stamina has increased by 1.]

I considered making shoes and trying again, but there was no point since the vines wouldn’t be able to withstand the heat anyway, so I gave up on the idea.

[Beware of monsters.]

The eerie warning sign was still there.

Still, since I had already fought one on the 6th floor, I had a little more confidence.

I avoided the areas with steep, uneven terrain and continued upward.

“Is this some kind of first-anniversary gift? Somehow, it feels like we’re going up pretty smoothly, Wilson.”

🙂

One year.

To some people, it might be nothing more than a single year that passed in the blink of an eye.

Even I couldn’t remember how my first year as a lord had passed.

But the one year I had spent here felt almost like ten years.

The only thing I had to do was the mindless task of pushing a heavy rock up a mountain.

Whether I exercised or made something, I had to do everything alone.

Any object that I didn’t touch would remain exactly where it was, no matter how much time passed.

It was a very strange feeling.

The suffocating feeling of hard breaths rising all the way to my throat.

Now I understood why the Chinese character for human, 人, looked like two people leaning against each other, and why the character for between, 間, was written the way it was.

Humans are creatures that cannot live alone.

(:

If Wilson hadn’t been here, I might have gone crazy long ago.

Without realizing it, I became increasingly anxious, and I put more strength into the arm supporting Wilson.

Had it been about twelve hours since entering the 7th floor?

I had gotten quite used to this area, and I was climbing upward at a faster speed without any trouble.

Then—

Tap.

“Whoa.”

Wilson seemed to have gotten caught on a large rock, and I couldn’t push it forward.

Just as I was about to change direction and move on—

─Rumble!!

“Huh?”

A sudden earthquake startled me, and I crouched down.

Worried that Wilson might fall, I stretched both arms out and supported him.

“What is happening?”

Rumble, rumble.

The vibrations grew stronger.

It would have been reasonable to expect to encounter an unexpected trap.

I should have retreated a few meters down the slope with Wilson right then.

Was it because the fact that today marked one year had made me unconsciously anxious, telling me that I needed to hurry even more?

Or was it because I had become too dependent on Wilson?

My judgment was about five seconds too slow.

And that hesitation brought about a tremendous consequence.

─Goooooo……!

There was only one reason for the vibration.

The rocky mound I had bumped into suddenly rose in an instant, creating a gigantic shadow.

It was perhaps ten meters tall.

A monster that poured red light from its eyes and dripped deadly lava from its limbs.

It came down upon me like a disaster itself.

Only then did I realize that, despite the warning about monsters, I had not encountered a single monster throughout the entire 7th floor.

But it was already too late.

“Damn it!”

I immediately turned around and ran down the slope.

I knew what that thing was.

Pente had once explained the types of dangerous monsters to me.

A golem.

A monster created when the spirit of a rock became ferocious.

And this one was even more dangerous—a Lava Golem born in a lava zone.

‘It’s disaster-class……!’

It was on the same level as the Bicorn that had turned our territory into a wasteland.

It was something Pente had only been able to defeat by joining forces with the other heroes.

‘How does it make sense for a few snakes to show up and then suddenly throw a disaster-class monster at me?!’

No matter how unreasonable it was, the situation had already happened, so I had no choice but to run.

But after only a few steps, I felt something strange and stopped.

The golem showed absolutely no sign of chasing me.

What was even stranger was—

I couldn’t hear the sound of the rock rolling down.

“Wilson?”

I raised my head and looked up the slope.

The golem’s enormous, solid hand.

It had already picked Wilson up and was bringing him toward its chest.

“Wilson.”

I had a bad feeling.

I could feel that something was wrong.

What was the purpose of this hidden golem’s trap?

The role of an obstacle was to prevent the rock from reaching the top.

Thinking about it that way, the golem’s next action was simple.

“Wilson.”

I ran back up the slope I had just descended.

Toward the golem.

But before I could do anything—

─Crack.

The golem applied force with its hand without hesitation.

─BOOM!!

“Wilson!!!”

Something unbelievable happened.

Crash.

Wilson.

Pieces of what had been Wilson fell down.

Just moments ago.

We had been happily talking together.

We had promised to reach the top together.

“Y—”

My vision turned bright red.

My head became hot.

It felt as if my brain was being cooked by my own body heat.

I didn’t even know what I was doing.

“You bastard!!!”

When I came to my senses, my fist was already clenched.

─Whoosh!

I kicked off the ground.

─BOOM!!!

And had already thrown my fist toward the golem.

─Gooooo?!

Fragments of rock whirled through the air.

A hole was blown through the golem’s calf.

The monster staggered.

[I have learned the skill ‘Boom.’]

[Combat against a disaster-class monster has begun.]

[You have inflicted 20 critical damage.]