Chapter 593: Ashen Furnace

Translator: imperfectluck  Editor: Kurisu

The Chaos Abyss would naturally be forever chaotic. However, even the most chaotic of locations would still have relatively safer places.

The Ashen Furnace was the name of a city on the 100st level of the Chaos Abyss, the Ashen Plains. The Ashen Furnace was a must-visit location for any Chaos Abyss dimensional traveler.

This place was the land of giants…

The gigantic metallic buildings were so tall that you couldn’t even see the roofs. Endless giant buildings covered half of this entire dimension. If you looked at the sky, all you would see would be distorted gray together with black metallic color. Since smoke and metallic sounds were here all year round, the entire city seemed like a gigantic furnace.

Some people said that this was a Titans’ ruin. However, even the Titans would probably think that these buildings were too big.

Some people said that this dimensional level was connected to the Mechanical Planes. However, it would be impossible to explain why a Mechanical Plane would appear in the Chaos Abyss, when Mechanical Planes were pure Order dimensions.

How many residents lived here? That was probably impossible to answer.

This city didn’t have a border or any walls. Nor did it need them. But, if you wanted to walk into the Ashen Furnace and travel by foot to the other end, well, it was probable that any short-lived species would probably die before they reached the other end of the city.

It was said that there were thousands of districts in this city. Every district would be equal in size to a human country. Each district had its own rules and ruling species. A fenced in metal district would sometimes be a small kingdom for a weaker species.

There was no dimensional ruler for the 100th level. However, there were countless big bosses from all the factions. There were no laws or rules that could be enforced. However, there would be very few weak adventurers here. Anyone who had already reached such a deep location in the Chaos Abyss had already proved their own strength.

This was a paradise for adventurers. Countless dimensional travelers would gather here in the Ashen Furnace, where countless miracles awaited them.

Of course, misfortune would always come far swifter than fortune. Countless newcomers to this city would vanish in this gigantic city’s alleyways and gutters.

And now, just like always, new adventurers arrived today…

“I think we should almost be at the Dragontail Bar in the 11th district of the Ashen Furnace…”

After I killed the third local hoodlum that pretended to be warm and welcoming, and after Little Red lost her patience and killed the thirteenth individual that attempted to kidnap her, I felt like I had finally found the right direction… By the way, wasn’t she simply in the appearance of a little girl? Were there that many gentlemen these days?

No, true gentlemen should only observe from a distance! Those who dare to try and touch wouldn’t deserve the title of gentlemen! They deserved having their penises viciously kicked in by Little Red before their deaths!

“Although I don’t know why you suddenly have such a proud look on your face, let me remind you that this is the 5th time you say you’ve found the way. And, trouble has come for us the previous four times already,” Harloys said, yawning.

The first time, we had entered a dark elf gang’s territory. The second time, we had entered a frost giant’s nest. The third time, we intruded on an illegal sacrificial ceremony being performed by dark cultists… Hey, wasn’t that only three times?

“Did you forget about that group of Holy Knights? They were ridiculously tense. They definitely would have attacked you if you hadn’t shown Holy Light in time.”

Oh, now I remembered. It was truly incredible to see a medium-sized team of Holy Knights here in the Chaos Abyss. They had indeed seemed overly tense. The moment that I got close, they were pulling out their swords to attack me. They had probably suffered too much from the residents here.

Even though I showed them that I was a Holy Knight, they still showed no friendly intentions towards me. It was quite surprising that they still seemed to be highly on guard against me.

No matter which God you served, or even if you only worshiped Holy Light, Holy Knights always had a good relationship with each other due to mutual respect and piety… They could have fun chatting about their difficult lives of being so poor that no women would want to be with them, and complain about how they chose the wrong job class. At any rate, it was quite easy for Holy Knights to strike up friendship with each other.

“They must be here to carry out a mission from some God. Their team had more than thirty Silver- and Gold-ranked Holy Knights, along with two Myth ranks, and even a SemiGod. That’s truly a powerful team to send…”

The Holy Knights had erased all traces of any emblems from their armor and weapons. This meant that not only were they here on a suicide mission, nobody would even admit who they were after their death. They would become nameless, with nobody claiming their bodies. Since Holy Knights were also knights who viewed honor far above their own lives, this meant that their mission’s success was far more important than anything, including even their own lives and honor.

I was slightly curious what would cause such a group of Holy Knights to abandon everything for a suicide mission in the Chaos Abyss. Yep, I was only curious, and didn’t intend to cause any trouble! I definitely didn’t see Harloys sending some clones to sneakily follow them!

“Is there any information?”

“None. Those Holy Knights are ridiculously cautious, to the point where they don’t seem like Holy Knights. They’re not saying even a single word to each other. However, it looks like they’re constantly searching for someone or something.”

In any location down here in the Chaos Abyss, having power would forever be the only way to go around unimpeded. I was in no hurry to meet with Adam and the others. Based on how much time had passed, I felt it was likely that they were still on their way here. It would be quite fun to tour this chaotic city filled with countless species and cultures.

However, out little vacation was once again interrupted by a scream of pain.

“Awoooo!”

I turned around, only to see a furry fellow rolling around on the floor while Little Red constantly used her tiny feet to kick him.

“…Is this the fourteenth? He sounds like a wolfman. Yeah, but after a few more kicks, he’ll probably become a pigman.”

“The sixteenth. Little Red killed an ogre and a Berserker Demon by crushing their genitals while you weren’t paying attention,” Harloys told me.

I could only shake my head helplessly as I watched the tiny dragon girl get even angrier. This would have been slightly better if only Little Red had chosen an elf or beastman humanoid form. But, she now looked like a tender young human female, which would be an incredibly exotic species down here in the Chaos Abyss.

Although there were indeed some who were incredibly powerful despite having loli-like appearance, Little Red was wearing nothing but a tattered cloth while silently walking behind me. She looked just like a little slave following a slaver.

This wasn’t because I had such interests or anything like that! It was simply that she had shrunk far too much. All of her old clothing that she had was no longer wearable. We had also rushed all the way over here in order to avoid any other Devil Lords, so we didn’t have any time to purchase clothing suitable for young children. Thus, Little Red had still been wearing nothing more than a tattered cloth for all this time…

Little Red constantly kept her head lowered ever since she entered this city where everyone stared at her. She had been slowly following me without saying a word. She looked just like a weak and cowardly human girl, which attracted lots of attention from all the slavers here.

To be honest, she was wlaking slowly because she needed to hold on tightly to the tattered cloth. She would otherwise expose herself to any slight breeze when it came. She kept her head lowered without saying anything because she was already angry to the point of almost exploding. She was doing her best to suppress her draconic might. Her eyes had already transformed into dragon eyes, filled with furious flames that might shoot out from her eyes at any moment (okay, I admit I was just making this last part up).

…For the sake of my personal safety, I decided to stay farther away from her.

“You must be taking revenge on her. I refuse to believe in such a coincidence that we found zero tailors on the way here, or that all backup clothing just happened to be burned up while you two were messing around.”

“That’s right, this is my revenge on her. It’s her fault for trying to make me into a laughingstock in her stead…”

On that day, since Little Red tried to forcefully steal my time ring for the right to be an “adult”, we had a difficult “battle” and “negotiation”. In the end, my ace which helped me defeat her was the sentence “All of our food is in my dimensional storage bag. Do you want to starve to death as a flat-chested loli dragon? That would be utter humiliation!” But even though I won our battle, I would never be satisfied until I had some revenge.

“Actually, she could simply transform into her infant dragon form…”

My expression distorted as I hurriedly stopped Harloys from saying anything else in our soul connection.

“You can’t tell her!”

“…I know. She’s probably almost at her limit. If she learns that all of her suffering along the way was needless, and mostly because of you, she’d definitely explode.”

I shook my head as that wasn’t what I was thinking about. Little Red was the type who was stubborn and wouldn’t easily change her way of thinking.

“It will be more fun once I tell her when we arrive at the Dragontail Bar!”

Harloys paused in surprise, and then shook her head helplessly. She could no longer be bothered to participate in this boring clash that was on the level of a fight between elementary schoolers.

I didn’t ask the residents here for directions. That was because it would be obviously unwise to reveal to the locals where we were going. I had previously visited the Dragontail Bar twice before, so I figured I would be able to find it if I looked around a little more.

“Are you certain that you don’t just want Little Red to suffer some more?”

“That’s just out of convenience. I won’t be able to make her suffer much longer. Information spreads very quickly here. Soon, there won’t be any more idiots coming to meet their deaths.”

“…Information spreads quickly here?”

Harloys nodded to herself, seemingly thinking of something. She didn’t ask anything else, as she had apparently understood my intentions.

Places such as taverns and bars had many people coming and going. Many information brokers and underworld merchants would have permanent posts at the larger taverns and bars. I had chosen a bar as our meeting place primarily because it would be easy to obtain information there. And if our luck was good, we would even be able to trade with previous information brokers that we already knew.

For any veteran adventurer, information was life itself, especially in an unfamiliar and hostile environment.

If Adam and the others arrived early, they would surely gather information and hire informants. I hadn’t disguised my appearance, so Adam and the others would naturally receive information that I had arrived in the Ashen Furnace. I was making all of this complicated because…

“You’re using yourself as bait, trying to fish up your enemies…”

That was right, we were in the open, while Adam was concealed. We had also come into this city separately. Those who weren’t familiar with us would never know that we were secretly allies. It would be such a pity to let go of such an informational advantage.

If anyone was trying to follow us, or if some powerful enemy was lying in wait here for us, they would naturally be exposed if they tried to follow us.

For instance, all the Devil Lords, Demon Lords, Undead Emperors, and Chaos Evil Gods that I had previously antagonized… When I counted about all the potential enemies I might meet down here, I could only sigh that I had truly made many friends down here who truly missed me (fine, they all wanted me to die). I kept feeling more and more like this decision of mine was wise.

As long as there was an appropriate opportunity, Adam would also make quite a suitable assassin hidden in the shadows.

“What if they haven’t arrived yet? Or, what if you’re just being overly paranoid, and none of our enemies are here?”

“Then this will simply be some fun while watching Little Red suffer. Don’t you agree that it’s quite amusing?”

I watched as Little Red appeared to finally have an idea. She began taking off the clothing from the wolfman that she just killed. However, the moment that she got closer and had a whiff, she wrinkled her tiny nose, and unhesitatingly kicked the stinky clothing far away into the sky.

At this same time, Harloys smiled rather strangely. She was currently seeing several hundred different images like compound eyes would. These were all images from her clones left along the way.

All of these “security cameras” that we left behind were indeed effective. The seemingly sleeping cat on my shoulder had actually been constantly observing this entire city. At this moment, one scene raised Harloys’ interest.

“Roland, this time you weren’t too paranoid. However, it’s truly your good luck that caused you to fish up a whale.”

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