After testing the Book of Safekeeping for a few minutes, I discovered that each card could only store one type of item. However, as long as the items were the same, said card could hold any number of them. I still needed some more testing to be a 100% sure, though.
For example, once I stored an ice chunk in a card, I couldn't stored my sword in there afterward—I had to use a different card. But when I added another chunk of ice into the same card, it got absorbed without any problem. No matter how big the ice was, or how much of it I added, the card absorbed it all without complaint.
Lastly, once I took everything out of a card, it returned to its blank state, ready to store something new again. Pretty convenient.
The book itself had 24 sheets, with one card on each page except for the last one. That made 47 cards in total. I assumed the number of cards would be increased by one for every 10 levels I gained—because I was currently at Lv473.
"I see…" I muttered. "This book was probably the reason Jack managed to reach the 4th floor."
"What do you mean?" Verdra asked.
"Assuming Jack got the same treatment as me, his level would've been reset to 1, and all his magic skills stripped away. So far, there's no food source in this dungeon. Unless you're like me—someone with a skill that could produces food and water and somehow didn't get taken away by those damned elves' ritual—you wouldn't survive down here."
"So you're saying Jack had some stored food and water in his book?"
"Yeah."
"But, didn't you say the elves cut your hands off? How did he survive the strong monsters of this dungeon handless?"
"He probably had a skill similar to my Level-up recovery… or he somehow got his hands on an Elixir of Life and kept it inside his book. Just a theory, though."
"I thought that was only you could get that item. I never seen nor heard about of it before meeting you."
"No, you can find it in deeper floors of labyrinth-type dungeons—or so people said, it's insanely rare apparently, I never got my hands on one outside of my skill either. They say, if you get even one, you'll have enough fortune to live comfortably for decades to comes."
It's also used in important political negotiations to smooth things over—or so I heard from that bitch princess. She even sweet-talked me into giving her as many as I could "for the sake of our people." she said. I ended up handing over 14 Elixirs of Life in total. Thanks to that, I barely had any currency left by the time I ended up here.
…God, I was so stupid.
"Fortunately for me," I said with a solemn smile, "Jack wasn't the one who found you."
She blushed slightly, turned away, and headed toward the exit. "That's enough talking. Let's go."
"Haha. Yeah—ah, wait a second." I stopped.
"What now?" she asked without turning back.
"Not much actually." I picked up the sword that Jack's doppelganger had used to summon that massive scale of lightning surge—the one he dropped when Verdra chopped off his right arm off. "Just taking this."
—————————————————
Raimei no Tsurugi
Lv: 4400
Class: Legend
Special Effect: Increase wielder's lightning resistance and releases a lightning surge with each swing.
—————————————————
"So that's why he was really resilient towards my Electrokinesis…" I muttered. "Wait—he hadn't even taken this sword out that moment. Then how…? Perhaps, he really was just that strong? Also, why didn't this boss drop a chest?"
"A chest?" Verdra turned around.
"You see, usually when you clear a boss floor, a treasure chest would appeared near the exit. But this one dropped nothing except for the boss' magic stone—Ugh... I should've waited until he pulled out all his weapons before killing him."
"Why do you look so disappointed?"
"Because there's no chest, and this is a Legend-class weapon! This is actually only the second time I've got my hands on one. So if he had another stored in his book, I want it!" I raised my voice and leaned in my face closer to hers to emphasis.
She blinked repeatedly, slightly taken aback. "You do know you only have a pair of hands, right?"
"Yeah. But I have this now."
I floated the Book of Safekeeping in front of her. I could control it freely with my mind—flipping its pages, moving it around, even making it hover around me.
"I wonder where Jack got his hands on this," I muttered. "He even had 2 of them."
"You said this is your 2nd Legend-class weapon. Now I'm kinda curious what was the first?"
"It's called the Rod of Absolution. A magic staff that amplifies the wielder's mana usage efficiencies and also strengthening their magic. The elves gave it to me…though, now they've taken it back."
"You…" she hesitated. "…can't use magic anymore, though."
"Nah. No need to feel bad about it." I smiled. "I've only been in this dungeon for about a month, and I'm already more than half as strong as I was after six months as a Hero. Plus, I got a new Legend class weapon. So it all good at the end."
"It's nice seeing you finally had a positive view of something, hehe." she said with a cute chuckle.
"Thanks to you."
"So… can we go now?"
"Yeah. We could go back up and farm some Yetis, but I'm also curious about the next save zone."
We exited the room and headed down the stairs. Ten minutes later, we entered a square-shaped, concrete room, similar to the 2nd floor's save zone.
< The Hellhole Dungeon: 4th Floor (Save Zone) >
There's a small fountain sat in the center, with a restroom in one corner. The only difference between this and the 2nd floor's was a pedestal in the opposite corner of the restroom.
"Hmm…" I squatted down before muttering to myself. "A teleportation circle. Wonder where it'd bring us… I already know, though."
"Where?" Verdra asked.
"You can't enter a boss floor from below once the boss respawns. So dungeons always had a teleportation circles like this in save zones after boss floors. It should take us back to the entrance."
"But there's no entrance."
"Then it'll probably send us to the first floor."
"And we're stepping on it, right?" she asked with a smirk.
"You understands me pretty well," I replied, smirking back.
"We didn't spend over a month together for nothing," she said proudly, hands on her hips. "Safety first. We need more levels before tackling the fifth floor."
"100 mark." I gave her a thumbs-up. "Besides, I'm sure we can come back here quickly, and it's seems there's nothing interesting in this room either, I'm a bit disappointed."
"You come?" I stood back up "There's still a chance this'll bring us to the outside."
"Of course, I'll follow wherever you go—I'm also really miss the sunlight."
"Yeah, me too."
I've been here for just slightly over a month and I already missed the Mr. Sun. Can't imagine how much I'd missed it after 2500 years.
Since it was just past noon, we tested out the teleportation circle. Too bad, it's only sent us back to the first floor— that's now completely clean for some reason. I guess dungeons somehow have their own janitorial staff.
We returned to the 3rd floor in under thirty minutes, rushing past most Minotaurs except for the boss to take his weapon, it could be useful in the future. After all, with the Book of Safekeeping, carrying heavy loot was no longer a problem for me, I will hoard as many items as the book could possiblity hold.
I have to thank Jack for that.
We could moved so fast because Verdra's clothes were already torn open at the back, leaving two massive holes. So she decided to just use her wings to carry us. Her mana was also at the point where it was stable enough to keep her Warmth spell active, she didn't need the Yeti cloak anymore.
She held me by hand and dragged me through the 2nd and 3rd floors. It looked ridiculous, sure—but it was a lot faster than walking, and no one was around to judge us, hence, no one cared.
We killed around 30 Yetis in just under 4 hours. Verdra even blasted one to death with a Hellfire sneeze as she promised, looking absurdly proud after.
Now, I'm strong enough to handle one of them with raw my strength alone too—though, Jack's Legend class sword did most of the heavy lifting.
After clearing the third floor, we called it a day and waited at the second floor's save zone for the Doppelganger to respawn.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next day, we flew straight to the fourth floor. Verdra annihilated the Yeti Shogun with another Hellfire sneeze, calling it a "lifelong accomplishment." and look absolutely proud about it— again.
She also managed to find a way to summon her wings without ripping through her clothes. It's all started last night, when I asked her why'd she could transform back into her chibi form and somehow store her clothes inside herself, yet couldn't let her wings out without shredding through her clothes.
She tried really hard that night—and finally, she succeeded in summoning her wings without shredding her shirts.
…After ripping through 3 shirts, that is.
Still, if it meant she could fly freely without worrying about anything, it was a cheap price to pay. I had plenty of currency these days anyway.
She could just transform into her True Dragon form, sure, but apparently that form wasn't cute at all for her, so she hated it. Personally, I thought it was insanely cool though, but I've long since given up on understanding a girl's heart.
Before facing the Doppelganger for the second time, I gave Verdra a Greater Agility Boosting Potion (High). With that, the boss never stood a chance.
The moment we entered the boss floor, Verdra immediately flew high into the air and—just as instructed—threw me straight toward the Doppelganger.
This time, his name wasn't "Jack's lingering sorrows and regrets," but "Yuu's Doppelganger" instead. Maybe because I was still alive and kicking, he didn't get saddled with such dramatic name. Although he's still jet-black all over, he was noticeably smaller this time… just like…me...
I guessed the Doppelganger copied the power of whoever last faced him. And thank god it wasn't Verdra—fighting a Lv666 Verdra would've been a problem for our current selves. A Huge problem.
My Doppelganger pointed a finger at me. I immediately sheathed the Yeti Shogun's sword and pulled out Jack's sword from my book—the one that increased lightning resistance. I knew what was coming. He was me, after all.
As expected, he launched a large-scale lightning attack while I was still in midair. Even with the sword's lightning resistance, it's still sent shivers through my body. I immediately activated my own Electrokinesis, wrapping it around myself to boost my resistance even further.
I flicked my lighter and burned him with the full potency of my Pyrokinesis. Before my flames even had time to fade out, Verdra swooped in and decapitated my Doppelganger with a Hellfire slash.
The entire fight ended in just under 10 seconds.
"It's scary to think how easily you could kill me," I muttered as the Doppelganger collapsed.
"Don't worry." she replied with a radiant smile. "I can't kill you, even if I wanted to."
That somehow made it even scarier, considering what she'd just did—decapitated my clone.
"I hope it stays that way," I said, slightly shaken.
This time, the boss dropped a treasure chest. Inside was a low-quality mana recovery ring—an item that increased wearer's mana recovery rate by 10%. I handed it to Verdra, and she looked genuinely delighted.
"Could you, um… you know—put it on my ring finger?" she asked shyly.
"Why do I had to keep getting dragged into these super embarrassing stuff…?" I complained—but did it anyway.
To my dear mother in heaven: your son just put a ring on an absurdly beautiful girl's ring finger. Please, bless me…
Somehow, after that prayer, I heard a voice, the like if an older woman whisper, "Good job, Yuu."
…Yeah. Definitely my imagination.
After collecting the treasure, we went back up to the 3rd floor and wiped out all the Yetis there to break even on the cost of the Greater Agility Potion (High). It's not like we had anything better to do anyway, and I wanted to max out my level before heading to the 5th floor.
We repeated our 'Wipe the 3rd floor + killing Doppelganger' routine for several days. Thanks to the massive experience from the 4th-floor's boss, it only take about a week worth of Doppelganger respawns for me to hit my level cap. Interestingly, the Doppelganger never copied Verdra—maybe True Dragons simply can't be replicated.
"We're ready for the fifth floor now!" Verdra said excitedly.
"Uhh… I hope you're right," I sighed. "If the pattern still holds, it'll probably be filled with Lv1000+ monsters. Uuuh… I'm not ready for this."
"Oh, come on! Be optimistic for once before entering a new floor, could you?" She smiled at me. "Didn't you say that since we have some SSS rank stats, level differences matter less the higher our level gets?"
"Well… yeah." I scratched the back of my head. "That's assuming monsters have lower stat growth than us. And don't twist my words—I specifically said that only applies to you. I've only got one SSS rank stats. The rest are probably below average of regular monsters."
—————————————————
Name: Yuu Yanagi (Human)
Vitality: F
Strength: F
Intelligence: SSS
Agility: E
Dexterity: C
—————————————————
"Then make full use of that one stats!" she said sternly. "Lately, I can see your so-called psychic power are getting stronger and stronger. Before long, you might even surpass me—so have more confidence in yourself."
She smiled with radiance, rubbed my head vigorously.
"Haha. Okay. I got it. Thanks for the encouragement, milady," I said playfully, then looked toward the exit of the boss room. "Shall we go? To the fifth floor."
"After you, my lord,"
And with that, we finally ventured into the fifth floor of the Hellhole Dungeon.