"Yin Energy +6900"

"Yang Energy -8000"

The Pseudo Sword Aura was surely overpowered, but it also consumed an insane amount of yang energy.

It would be a pain in the butt if I used this ability against a strong opponent and couldn't kill them quickly.

For the next few minutes, I sat leaning against the tunnel wall and absorbed yang energy until it was filled to the brim.

"Are you planning to assassinate me?" I asked Alex, opening my eyes as he kept throwing daggers with his eyes while sitting on the opposite side of the wall.

"Why would I? Not like I have the ability even if I wanted to," he muttered.

"Th-that last sentence scares me. You're saying it like you would've killed me if you had the ability," I fake-stammered, teasing him.

Seeing him neither reacting nor responding, I changed the topic.

"How far is the boss room from here?"

"One kilometre."

"Alright then, let's see why the troll king wants to meet us so badly," I said, rising to my feet.

I began moving toward the inner side of the tunnel, but after taking a dozen steps, I realised Alex hadn't moved an inch from his place.

"What are you doing, spacing out? Come quickly," I said, my voice a bit louder to make it reach him.

"I followed you till here because those fifty trolls would've been problematic for us if we stayed there," Alex revealed, his voice cold. "But now you're deliberately going into the boss room, already aware that the monster there is stronger than you. I don't want to risk my life for your stupid bravery."

"Oh, you're a calculative one, eh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "But what if the boss monster decides to come here itself?"

Alex gave me a dumbfounded look, as if I had said something ridiculous.

"Do you think you can fool me just because I'm a few years younger than you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I replied with a question of my own, genuinely confused.

"The boss monster cannot leave its room," Alex said, letting out a sigh. "Even a three-year-old kid knows that."

That was truly news to me! This information made things conveniently easier. However, before making a plan with this information in mind, I had to confirm something.

"Is that case also true for the Black Gate?" I asked.

"I don't know," Alex replied with a shrug. "Very little is known about Black Gates since only two have appeared before this one. Strangely, the Black Gate that emerged in China shared one similarity with this one—it also contained trolls as upgraded monsters.

However, when a squad of high-ranked Awakeners entered to clear it, they found no troll boss at all. Instead, there were only a handful of troll monsters and thousands of E-Ranked creatures. In the end, the only boss discovered was the original EEE-Rank monster—the one that was supposed to be the boss if the dungeon hadn't evolved into a Black Gate. Once that monster was slain, the gate closed."

Taking a few seconds to digest this information dump, I thought inwardly, "either way, I have to reach closer to the boss room. It has already been four hours since I entered the gate. If I don't clear it before the day finishes, then the quest will fail since it's also a kind of daily challenge."

I had entered the gate at noon, so I only had eight hours to clear this dungeon.

"You can stay here if you want," I finally said. "But keep in mind—no one can protect you if I die there because I lacked the information I needed from you."

After saying my part, I began moving forward, my hands resting behind my head.

When the distance between us increased by thirty feet, he let out a groan and began following me from behind.

"If you don't move faster, I'll be forced to use the throw-and-catch method again."

He let out another groan, louder than the previous one, and increased his pace.

It took us ten minutes from there to reach the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel's end revealed a bright hall decorated with numerous crimson-painted Soul Stones.

The hall was surrounded by over a hundred trolls, and in the middle of the front wall, on a raised platform, stood a throne of bones.

On the throne sat a humongous troll wearing a necklace of human skulls. His tusks were longer than my arms, and his round belly was huge like a tomb.

The entire hall was decorated in the same crimson design as the Soul Stones, making it feel as if I had descended into the courtroom of hell.

"Grrrrrr… why haven't Kragul and the others returned yet?" the troll sitting on the throne rumbled through his tusks. "I only told them to bring those puny humans to me. What's taking them so long, grrrrrrr!!"

"King Grendel, should I go and check what happened?" one of the trolls from the council offered. This one seemed a bit different from the others—he wore armour made of bones and carried a mace fashioned from the leg bone of some large creature.

After a brief pause, Grendel said, "Tsk, forrrget it. I waited forrr many yearrrs to taste a living human, grrrr… I can wait forrr a few more minutes."

"Hah! So that fatso wanted to eat us," I scoffed, eavesdropping on their conversation from the tunnel.

"You can understand their language!?" Alex gasped under his breath, suppressing his voice to make sure the trolls wouldn't hear him.

"Their language? They're speaking basic English," I said, confused by his reaction.

"They definitely are not!" Alex snapped, his voice still low. "I can't understand a single word these monsters are saying."

He quickly retreated a few feet, his gaze sharpening as he looked at me.

"Don't tell me you're also a troll disguised as a human and brought me here to your king," he said, giving me a suspicious look.

Pow!

"Idiot! Stop spitting nonsense," I muttered, hitting his head.

"Aghh! My head—"

"Grrrraahaha! I smell the sweet, tasty aroma of live humans from there," Grendel laughed, pointing his finger toward the tunnel where we were hiding.

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