SSS-Class Revival Hunter-Chapter 158: The Great Snail Empire (1)

Immediately after clearing the stage, I was teleported to the thirty-second floor. My fellow Hunters and the Mirage-Walking Princess were waiting for me there. The princess was hugging a unique-looking pillow this time.

“That’s...”

When I looked closely, I saw that it was a snail doll. I couldn’t believe it. I could understand her hugging a goblin doll maybe, but a snail...?

“I also have a goblin doll.”

“What?”

The princess took it out. “Here.”

The doll really resembled goblins with its long nose and ears, as well as its bulging cheekbones.

“W-where did you get this...?”

“I made it,” the princess answered.

“Can you show me...”

Just as I was about to make a very legitimate request as the Goblin God, someone intervened.

“What are you doing?” the Black Witch asked, looking at me in a dumbstruck manner. “If you have time to play with a Constellation, then you also have time to move on to the next stage. It took twenty-four days just to conquer the thirty-first floor. That’s way too long... No, maybe my common sense has become skewed since it took years to beat the tenth stage.”

“But, Black Dragon Master, you’re also holding something in your arms,” I countered.

The Black Witch hid the bat doll behind her. “T-this is for data research.”

Both the Countess and the Paladin were also playing with an elf doll and a mermaid doll respectively.

“I’m looking at it as a potential product. A Constellation made it, so it’s rare.”

“The item description is also true to its quality.”

These guys...

“Well, the faster we clear a stage, the better.” I received the goblin doll and held it in my arms as I looked around.

The world was pure white, as if a piece of paper stretched out endlessly. We were the only ones standing in the middle of it.

“Is this the thirty-second floor?” I asked, although I could feel that it wasn’t.

Sure enough, the princess shook her head while hugging the snail doll. “It’ll be easier to understand if you think of this place as a type of waiting room. In order to materialize the thirty-second floor, all of you have to clear the stage before it. Oh, as for the Viper over there, he stayed here for fifteen days waiting for you.”

The Viper frowned from where he was sitting down. “I was itching so hard that I thought I was going to die from frustration! Why are you guys late? You just had to take care of your species and get out as quickly as you can. Ugh, I couldn’t even observe what you were doing there, so I just meditated.”

“With the dokkaebi doll?”

“It helps me meditate better. Anyhow, I’ve been approaching the stage from a very pragmatic point of view, so what have you been doing? Seriously, you guys immersed yourselves too much in this—”

The Paladin sighed. “No, you’re the one who missed the point. The princess told us when we entered the thirty-first floor that, from the thirty-first to the fortieth floors, it’s a species war. In other words, it’s possible that the thirty-first to fortieth floors are part of a sort of series. We may continue to rule over the species we selected on the thirty-first floor.”

“Huh?”

“If only the thirty-first floor involved species, Sect Master, then we can take care of your species with minimum effort as you said. However, it's different if we’re going to rule them until the fortieth floor. We have to prepare our species in advance so they can develop on their own even while we’re away.”

The Viper blinked his one eye. “W-wait, she said that?”

The Paladin sighed deeply. “It was obvious. Try to figure out this kind of stuff on your own, Rao Fan. You tend not to think too deeply about matters that aren’t related to martial arts.”

“Is that true? Is that why you have all been sitting on your asses for fifteen days?”

The Viper looked around in distress with a desperate look in his eye, wishing one of us would say “no.” Unfortunately, no Hunter here lacked brain cells to make the Viper’s wish come true.

I smiled kindly and patted him on the shoulder. “Sect Master, it’s okay.”

“D-Death King... There’s no way that’s true, right? The Paladin misunderstood, didn’t she? I’m not the only idiot lagging behind... right?”

“Even if your species goes extinct, there are still six species left.”

“Shit!” The Viper covered his face with his hands.

The princess laughed mischievously as she watched us fool around. “Don’t worry too much. All your species made it to the next era, which is the thirty-second floor. Thanks to all of your hard work, the prehistoric era ended quickly. From now on, we’re onto the historic era.”

There was a considerable gap between the thirty-first and thirty-second floors.

At least thousands of years had passed.

I was worried that the goblins had faded during such a long period of time, but I felt a little relieved because the princess confirmed they had survived.

“Now that everyone is here, I’ll unlock the next stage!”

The princess climbed on the floating snail doll. Like a cavalryman on horseback, she shouted and raised an arm. However, she then made a completely unexpected remark.

“The events of the thirty-second floor take place two hundred years after the thirty-first floor!”

Silence hung between my colleagues and I.

“What?”

Two hundred years, not two thousand? This meant only two hundred years separated the prehistoric era ended and the historic era began only in two hundred years.

“Only two hundred years have passed? Princess, are my ears failing me? Are you sure you weren’t supposed to say two thousand years?” I asked with disbelief.

In the past, even when the Fire Emperor used all his points to train the elves, the gap between the thirty-first and thirty-second floors was over a thousand years. Even if I was somehow misremembering, at least five hundred years were supposed to have passed, yet the princess said only two hundred years had passed? Did we take really good care of our people?

The princess offered a beaming smile. “You heard me right. I was surprised too. I knew you guys were good, but I had no idea your species would evolve this fast. Well, I guess, for some of you, time passed quite slowly... Well, sometimes detouring can be the fastest shortcut.”

“What do you mean?”

“You will find out when you go to the thirty-second floor.” The princess placed the goblin doll down on the white floor and opened her arms wide. “I’ll unlock the thirty-second floor now!”

“Please wait a moment,” the Black Witch said. She, too, was puzzled by the small time gap between the eras. “Not all of us are here yet. The Inquisitor is missing.”

The Black Witch was right. There were only six of us in the waiting room, including me. One of us, the Inquisitor, had yet to show up.

“We should go to the thirty-second floor only after he clears the stage.”

“Ah. You don’t have to worry about it. It’s okay,” the princess said with a shake of her hand. “I said earlier that everyone is here. If this Inquisitor you’re referring to is your Rank 4 Hunter, he’s waiting for you guys on the thirty-second floor already.”

“What?”

The princess smiled. “Like I said, you’ll find out when you go.”

Woosh!

White light enveloped us.

***

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

When I opened my eyes, we were floating in the sky, the world stretching below us. The majority of this world was made up of oceans and vast forests, but time had passed since we were last here. I saw no forests, streams, or sunlight streaming through the leaves. Even the “sky” we were in wasn’t real.

“Oh my god,” the Black Witch muttered. “What is that?”

The world below us and the landscape that the Black Witch was referring to was an underground city that I had never seen or heard of before. I could hear people speaking.

“Life is hard because the way home from work is so long, Lime.”

“I heard that a new tavern opened near the Big Lot...”

“I’d like to postpone the volunteer work this year, Lime.”

Creatures were crawling through the city. Yes, they crawled, not walked. Upon closer inspection, I noticed they were snails. These translucent creatures moved around, carrying large shells on their back.

“What the hell?”

The underground city, or rather the underground world, was completely different from our world. First of all, there were no roads. The snails traveled by clinging onto walls instead.

“Don’t cling to our wall, laime!”

“You have to be kidding me. All walls in the polis are public property, Lime! The god decides my destination, but I decide how I’ll crawl there, Lime.”

The snails were crawling freely left, right, up, and down. In the huge underground world, there were plenty of stone buildings that appeared to be over twenty stories high scattered around, but I couldn’t spot any stairs. The snails simply climbed up the walls and entered their homes through a window.

“The monthly rent has gone up so much these days, Lime... ”

“It’s unfortunate, but we have to spend this winter at the Old Home[1].”

There were even homeless snails. They huddled together in a small cave and burrowed into their shells. They gave and received minerals that glowed bright blue. As a homeless snail swallowed the blue rock, they gained a blue glow.

“Lime... I endure today for this one bite, laime...”

“Judging by your bright light, it looks like you found something nice, Lime.”

“I was lucky. The merchants these days really have no business ethics, Lime. How can they tamper with stone cigarettes? It’s just not something decent people would do, Lime.”

“Let me just take one bite too...”

It didn’t end there.

“Move those already, Lime!”

A snail waved their tentacle.

Slosh!

The creature who was hit by the tentacle groaned and loaded heavy stones onto the wagon. Skians—the dokkaeebi, once ruled by the Viper, were hard at work.

“Really, all Skians are lazy, Lime!” The snail that appeared to be the manager grunted. “They’re so damn expensive to take care of, but if I look away one minute, they immediately procrastinate, laime. We feed, clothe, and provide beds for them, so I don’t know what their problem is.”

“You’re right. Seriously, these slaves will immediately take advantage of us if we treat them well just a little bit. They’re lowly species that don’t even have shells. I don’t know what they’re so confident about.”

“Hey, slave. Try saying ‘Lime.’ If you know how to pronounce it properly, I’ll let it slide this time.”

The Skians were as big as orcs and had a single horn on their foreheads. However, they were at a loss around the snails, who weren’t even at their waist level.

“R-raimi.”

“Look at that! The slaves can’t even pronounce Lime properly! Lime, their race is so puny that they can’t even speak the sacred word. You lowly creatures, get back to work!”

“Ugh...”

Oh my god. Those snails were enslaving the Skians.

The Viper’s jaw dropped to the floor upon discovering his species had become slaves. “What...? Why...? T-This doesn’t make sense! I-I did a lot for them before I left the thirty-first floor! I made them swords and spears, taught them how to fight... So what the heck is this? Why are they slaves? Did my species really become slaves?!”

“Oh, I missed you guys!!” the Inquisitor shouted. “Hahaha. I see. Has it finally been acknowledged that we entered a new era? I would say the process has been either slow or fast depending on how to interpret it. Well, if I evaluate it objectively, I think it should be considered fast!”

The Inquisitor was his usual self, wearing his familiar black priest uniform and flashing the same smile as always. Because of this, the Viper didn’t notice anything abnormal as he rushed at the Inquisitor.

“Hey, you psychopath!”

“Yes?”

The Viper grabbed the Inquisitor by the collar and shook him. “What the hell happened? Why has my species become your stooges?”

Despite the shaking, the Inquisitor didn’t wipe the smile off his face. “Easy! The snail civilization I have built requires a substantial amount of labor. Slavery is a pretty useful institution for providing labor! Coincidentally, the Skians conducted a large-scale invasion 112 years ago, so we defeated and captured them all!”

“W-what...?”

“Haha, don’t worry. It was difficult to tame them because they are a very proud species. It’s still difficult to tame them, but we succeeded in subduing their fighting spirit to some extent! Perhaps we will be able to change the nature of their species in three more generations.”

The Viper opened and closed his mouth, looking like he couldn’t follow the Inquisitor’s words at all. The other Hunters understood what happened to some extent and looked at each other in silence.

I came forward on everyone’s behalf. “Mr. Inquisitor, I’d like to ask you something.”

“Ah, Mr. Death King! Yes, ask me anything.”

The Inquisitor smiled. If he had a puppy tail, he would be wagging it passionately right now. That was how lively his smile was.

“After we said we cleared the thirty-first stage, we moved to the waiting room, but you weren’t there. The princess said that you were the first to arrive at the thirty-second floor... What does that mean?”

The Inquisitor tilted his head to the side three or four times. “Hmm? Ah, I see. Haha. Strictly speaking, that’s technically an incorrect description. I didn’t get to the thirty-second floor first. I’ve just been staying on the thirty-first floor until now!”

After a short silence, I asked, “What?”

“Exactly what I said, Mr. Death King! I know that you cleared the stage one after another because the Tower told me. But I thought that if the thirty-first floor is connected to the next floor, there is no need to declare it clear.”

I blinked at him, too stunned to speak.

“I’m aware of the way human history has unfolded on some level. This knowledge was sure to be of great help to the development of the snail civilization! Therefore, I told the Tower that I won’t say I cleared the stage.”

“Then...”

The Inquisitor beamed. “Yes, I continued to stay by my Shellmounts and take care of them! Welcome, everyone! Ah. It’s been two hundred years, six months, and twenty-one days since I last saw you! It’s nice to see you after such a long time!”

Holy fuck.

1. This seems to be refering to snails’ shells. ☜