The ultimate goal of the Fantasy Institution was to defeat Demon Lord Parmamon for world peace.

  However, when it transitioned from its 4th to 5th curriculum, chaos and war became rare guests in the world of Fantasy.

  “The biggest reason for that was Pedonar’s disappearance 2,000 years ago after being defeated by the Great Hero. Since then, the number of demons and their followers has been steadily declining. However, we now face an even greater threat. The person who defeated Pedonar became the very being he had sworn to destroy! I can’t even begin to imagine how strong he has become,” explained Saintess E.

  “My wife and I were in his party 2,000 years ago. A trap caught Snow Woman, and I went to rescue her. That prevented us from witnessing their final battle. Regardless, I can say, with absolute confidence, that his power is immense. Moreover, even his wisdom and cunning are comparable to his strength. As a hero, he possessed charm, charisma, determination, and vigor… It’s difficult to find fields where he wouldn’t excel at,” added Sword God Alex.

  Listening to their words, Sieg then asked, “Who will be stronger if you fight him now, sir Alex?”


  “You mean the Demon Lord?”


  “Yeah.”


  “… There’s no point in talking about it. I cannot fight him. If I go into battle, my wife will be the first to suffer.”


  “And if you do fight?”


  “There will be no such thing. Until he touches Snow Woman, I will never show any hostility towards the Demon Lord.” Alex replied with an evident frown.

  But Sieg didn’t give up that easily.

  “What if you took Lady Snow Woman to safety shortly before the final battle?

  “… You’re stubborn.”


  “That’s just the way I am.”


  “5 seconds.”


  “… 5 seconds?”


  “That’s how long I can hold out against Demon Lord Parmamon using all my might and skills.”


  “But you’re so powerful…” Sieg said, looking at the mountains upon mountains of monster corpses around them.

  While camping, Snow Woman started fidgeting in her sleeping bag, saying, “Alex, I can’t sleep. It’s too noisy here.” Hence, Alex dealt with all the monsters in the area.

  Their size, strength, numbers, and skills didn’t matter. Before his sword, all monsters were equal.

  “I’m not as strong as you think, Hero.”


  “Really?”


  “Shakespeare, the Great Sage of the Western Continent, can erase any continent in an instant with the flick of his finger. I’m not even exaggerating. Phoenix, the Giant King of the Southern Continent, exceeds my physical capabilities by about a hundred folds.”


  “…”


  “Then there is the godlike child who crushed him in a second with just his buttocks. Finally, Noebius, the Supreme Dragon of Oblivion of the Central Continent, is a being so powerful even Demon Lord Parmamon avoids confrontation with him.”


  “… It is now clear why this world hasn’t yet been destroyed.”


  Sieg was shocked.

  ‘Hey! Alex, why are you scaring my junior so much?’


  Not noticing the Hero’s reaction, the Sword God didn’t stop.

  “Just as I remain neutral to protect my beloved Snow Woman, they remain neutral to protect what is dear to them. Great Sage Shakespeare treasures his wife, the epitome of beauty of the Western Continent, and the Supreme Dragon Noebius treasures Erdanti, the Divine Dragon Queen. Giant King Phoenix is quite ambitious, but he behaves himself out of his fear of the Great Child, who’s now the revered deity of a religion widespread on the Southern Continent and opposed Mollan’s Teachings, which dominates the Northern and Western Continents.”


  “The balance they created is amazing.”


  “And it has been maintained for 2,000 years.”


  “… I’ve never heard anything like it.”


  He meant he had never seen such information in his mollanphone.

  No Hero had managed to recruit Sword God Alex as their companion yet.

  More accurately, no one was going to.

  Because none of them wanted to take his armless wife into their party only to watch their love drama unfold every day.

  “I’m glad you know now. Therefore, Hero Sieg, it is you who must become stronger, not me.”


  “Can I really become that powerful?”


  “He did.”


  “The Demon Lord?”


  “Yes. He worked seven days a week. He didn’t even pay attention to my beautiful wife and instead focused everything he had on making every effort to establish peace and save mankind. He was a real madman in this regard,” Alex said, slicing a jerky and feeding it to Snow Woman, who complained that she was hungry.

  “Was he single like me?”


  “No.”


  “… No?”


  “His wife was the second most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Even the ruler of the Empire of Eternal Night, considered the epitome of beauty on the Western Continent, is no match against her. Oh! Of course, my wife is the most beautiful for me.”


  “…” Snow Woman had notoriously brainwashed him.

  How could that stupid bird be the best and most beautiful among all females?

  It sounded as ridiculous as could be!

  From the Righteous Hero’s objective perspective, the most beautiful being to ever exist was Trainee Teacher.

  That much was undeniable.

  “Any more questions, Hero?”


  “You know quite a lot, Sir Alex.”


  “I made good connections throughout Fantasy back in the day, so it’s not that surprising.”


  “Wow…”


  If I were Sieg, I would have made the information public immediately via the mollanphone, but he didn’t even seem to have the desire to share it with others.

  That was typical of him.

  “Hmm. Let me ask you a question, Sir Alex.”


  “I’m listening, Miss Distoria.”


  “Do you think there’s a way to defeat the current Demon Lord?”


  “… That’s hard to say. I know about everything that happened before Parmanon awakened until his castle collapsed and a huge tower was erected in its place. I don’t know much after that. However, I’m certain that he can’t be easily defeated.”


  “I see…”


  “I see no hope…” Sieg muttered.

  He diligently scanned through the mollanphone community.

  ?Sieg: Junior Sieg asks the seniors for help. I need a strategy to fight Demon Lord Parmamon. Any details are important.

  ?Odin: Wow! Junior Sieg! We haven’t seen you in so long. I have not personally met the Demon Lord Parmamon since I was stopped on the 10th floor of his tower. Fallen Elf Hero Silerion’s swordsmanship is just too insanely powerful.

  ?Allah: I left the 10th floor to my companions and broke through further. On the 20th floor, I found Silerion’s wife, also known as Elfheim’s younger sister. She was completely immune to magic. I couldn’t go further.

  ?Zeus: Guys, is it even possible to graduate? I got to the 30th floor. I won’t be sharing the strategy I used for the lower floors, but on the 30th floor, I ran into Boris, the strongest golem I’ve ever faced. He is practically invincible.

  ?Isis: Hi. I am the student council president of secondary education. I see you are sharing interesting information here. Perhaps I will join. For reference, I was stopped on the 40th floor.

  …


  The more he read on, the more Sieg’s expression worsened and darkened.

  The reason was simple.

  Luke: Is that information about the 40th-floor boss true?

  ?Reina: Wow! It ignores stats?

  ?Robin: I still won’t give up.

  ?Lucia: Even the 10th floor is already too hard…


  The difficulty level of the tower bosses was too high.

  However, a few senior students managed to reach the 40th floor, which made it evident that clearing it wasn’t impossible.

  Disco also glanced at Sieg’s Mollanphone.

  At that moment…


  ?Satan: I am currently on the 70th floor. I am ready to share information. 50th floor - intermediate recreation area. 60th floor - fallen angel Potato. 70th floor - Former Demon Lord Pedonar.

  The advanced student named Satan was a pioneer who surpassed all others.

  A whopping 70 floors.

  Ssosiel apparently added bosses without telling me and even used the image of her father, which I didn’t think she’d be capable of.

  Hmmm. Was that my cowardly wife’s way of passive-aggressively getting?

  Reading Satan’s message, Sieg smiled. “No Hero has fought the Demon Lord yet, but it looks like I have a chance. There’s a senior student who’s already reached the 70th floor.”


  “A chance?”


  100th floor was most likely the end of the tower.

  He wanted to challenge the Demon Lord simply because someone had reached the 70th floor, which wasn’t even near the top?

  He seemed to have lost his sense of reality.

  “Don’t worry so much, senior. Our party is extremely powerful.”


  “I know. I’m the one who recruited them all, after all.”


  “But I was the one who brought you to our squad! Based on that, we can label this as my merit!”


  That wasn’t right either.

  I volunteered to join his party because of the ongoing inspection.

  But now wasn’t the time to argue with him. Doing so would only cause Disco to grow suspicious of me.

  ‘Calm down, Kang Han Soo.’


  “Okay, Sieg. It looks like you’ve gathered quite a bit of new information through your mollanphone. What are you planning to do next?”


  “Based on my seniors’ information, the 10th-floor boss is a fallen Elf Hero. The problem is that he’s using an ancient Holy Sword. I can only fight against a Holy Sword with the help of another Holy Sword. That means…”


  Sieg unmistakably laid out the intel he had gathered.

  But he made it look like he came up with the plan himself.

  ‘Oh. I need to stay calm.’


  If Disco gave him a positive assessment, everything would be fine.

  “Gathering information is also a skill. And your ability to collect such companions, even if it’s a lucky coincidence, is also impressive.”


  Disco, considered strict, unexpectedly praised him.

  I felt a little relieved.

  “After getting my hands on Mollancoin, I will conquer the Demon Lord’s Tower!” Sieg arrogantly shouted.

  “Kyu-kyu!”


  Now that I had decided to step back a bit and watch from the sidelines, I wanted to say something to my stupid junior.

  We all had a plan.

  ***

  “Glory to the Great Child!”


  It took as long as nine years, which was due to Giant King Phoenix’s bad mood. It made him give Hero Sieg a test that consisted of a number of impossible tasks.

  Sieg needed to:

  1) Win the culinary contest.

  2) Win the marathon.

  3) Win the fishing competition.

  4) Win the food-eating contest.

  5) Become the champion of the arena.

  6) Win the swimming competition.

  However, the culinary contest used a huge frying pan that could easily fit even a full-grown human.

  The marathon stretched along most of the coast of the Southern Continent.

  The fishing competition was unwinnable unless he used ogres as bait.

  The food-eating contest pitted him against giants whose stomachs were about 100 times the size of humans.

  The arena became much harder to conquer due to the difference between his and his opponents’ weight categories.

  The swimming competition had had giants participating. They treated the vast ocean like a pool.

  “Ugh…”


  “Well done, Sieg.”


  The most difficult of them all was the food-eating contest.

  Because even if he ate as fast as giants, the amount of food that could fit in a person’s stomach was minuscule in comparison.

  Nevertheless, Sieg did it.

  Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Fantasy skills that defied the laws of physics.

  ? Race: Elfish Human

  ? Level: 999+

  ? Job: Hero (Experience 500%)

  ? Skills: Male Energy ZZZ, Evasion ZZ, Endurance ZZ, Gluttony ZZ, Fishing Z, Running Z, Small Z, Friendship Z, Sword Mastery Z, Cooking Z, Swimming Z, Fortitude MAX…


  ? Status: Joy, Overate, Holy Sword

  “Hmm! Not bad.”


  Giant King Phoenix handed over the Holy Sword that he was keeping.

  The Holy Sword of Giants, Mollancoin.

  The Hero could freely change the size and shape of its blade.

  And it was nigh-unbreakable.

  The Holy Swords, protected by the Fantasy system, could never be destroyed through conventional weapons or means.

  At least in the Fantasy dimension.

  Raising Holy Sword Mollancoin above his head, Sieg roared, “Let’s go to the Tower of the Demon Lord!”


  “… Hey, Sieg.”


  “What is it, senior?”


  “Your sphincter’s ruptured. Either clog it off with something or seek proper medical attention for it.”


  “What? Oh…”


  Hero Sieg’s adventure resumed a year after the rehabilitation of the sphincter.

  We finally reached the Demon Lord’s Tower!

  I didn’t expect much from Sieg, but I assumed he would make it to at least the 30th floor.

  What would the outcome of his journey be?