The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound
chapter-333

Chapter 333: Mating Room (1)

The sound of waves crashing against the cliffs, breaking into foam.

[Weren’t things bad when we were together? Let’s not see each other again?]

The voice of a fairy echoes in Vikir’s ear.

-Ding!

[Exiting the 4th floor, ‘Island of the Black Sea’]

[Exiting the 5th floor, ‘Desert of Fever’]

[Exiting the 6th floor, ‘Sunken Forest Sinking Zone’]

[Exiting the 7th floor, ‘Snail Mucus Ruins’]

[Exiting the 8th floor, ‘Ruins of Human Hunters’]

[Entering the 9th floor, ‘Demonic Dragon’s Laboratory’]

Simultaneously, Vikir feels his body descending below.

‘Ah, this is how skipping floors feel like.’

The sensation going from groin to scalp, experienced when riding a high castle elevator downward, falling from top to bottom on an amusement ride, or leaping from a cliff during training, tingles sharply.

Before Vikir’s eyes, the scenery rapidly changed, several brutal landscapes passed by like a panorama.

A desert where nothing remains except sand and burnt trees due to the extreme heat and aridity.

A swamp densely populated with tall trees and waist-deep muck.

A ruined city covered in eerie slime.

An ancient civilization teeming with barbaric cannibals.

After passing through them, Vikir finally fell through the gate of the 9th floor.

From here on, it’s a zone managed not by the fairy, but by it’s superior.

…Thud!

As Vikir hit the ground, he rolled to minimize the impact.

Raising his head, he saw strange things around him.

A cuboid room surrounded by translucent walls.

The spacious interior was filled halfway with soft sawdust.

Wood chips, the size of fingernails, were shaved thinly like pieces of calligraphy paper.

With them stacked high, it felt snug and cozy somewhere.

In the corner, there was a large bowl with several red, green, and blue candies rolling around.

Opposite that, a pipe dripped water droplets rhythmically, and beside it, there was a large wheel for running inside.

This scenery was like…

[It’s like a hamster enclosure.]

[Squeak-squeak-]

Decarabia and Baby madam each commented.

Vikir could only nod his head.

Whether narrow or wide, it’s a space. Sawdust piled quite high. A feeder with a water supply. Even a wheel.

No matter how you look at it, it’s a hamster enclosure.

Squeak-squeak-squeak-

Like hamsters digging tunnels in sawdust, Vikir did the same. Instinctively, he created a burrow with a slope made of sawdust hills. Entering the inner room and lying down, he felt cozy and warm.

‘Come to think of it, this floor was called a laboratory.’ It was a breeding ground set up by Demonic Dragons for experiments. Presumably, it was a place to raise and nurture something necessary for experiments.

Recalling information from the memoirs of heroes he read before regressing, Vikir remembered details about this floor.

‘Descendants of the dragons who joined hands with demons, the place of Demonic Dragons. Beings that ordinary adventurers dare not challenge.’

This floor was essentially a laboratory, operated by an absolute entity. Just as humans rear lab mice in a laboratory, there’s always a breeding ground in research or experimental rooms.

‘…I remember hearing about it. A place encountered randomly by all challengers at some point. A space where experiments using sentient beings from all floors of the tower are conducted. A laboratory for breeding bosses and ordinary monsters to be placed on the stage, creating subspecies, subordinates, and variants.’

This floor might not necessarily be the 9th floor. Someone might enter from the 2nd floor, someone from the 13th, and someone from even from the 50th floor. But one thing is certain: the mission difficulty of this floor is either ‘all or nothing.’ It’s either extremely easy or extremely difficult.

Vikir exerted force, striking the translucent wall in front of him. …Thud! As expected, the wall was solid. Without master-level strength, breaking it seemed impossible.

[Indeed. The fairy had it’s doubts. I think it thought sending us directly here could impede us.]

Decarabia’s words were correct.

Vikir had been perfectly trapped inside. Like a hamster in a cage.

“…No need to rush then.” No matter how much he raged, he couldn’t break this wall. Knowing this fact from the heroes’ memoirs, Vikir began to stroll leisurely around the perimeter of the enclosure.

Passing through sawdust hills up to his knees, past the feeder and water supply, past the wheel, he soon saw a tall wall in front of him. Vikir brought his face close to the wall. Suddenly, he began to faintly see the landscape outside the enclosure through the translucent wall.

‘…Ancient language?’ Signs written in the language of the long-extinct Empire were visible. With the little knowledge he gained from his cultural studies class, Vikir began to cautiously read the inscriptions on the signs.

[Hatchery]

[Harvesting Room]

[Egg-laying Chamber]

[Bloodletting Chamber]

[Combat Arena]

…

Behind those signs were enclosures made of translucent walls, each labeled accordingly. The current location where Vikir was trapped looked similar. In the hatchery, countless unidentified eggs were laid out. Beneath the dim lighting, the veins on the eggshells seemed to pulse as if ready to hatch at any moment.

In the harvesting room, monsters captured from each floor were rampaging around. Insects, beasts, flying creatures, aquatic creatures, crustaceans, and others… Among them were some ogres, all sitting hunched over in corners of the room with vacant expressions, seemingly already broken.

In the egg-laying chamber, monsters appearing pregnant were breathing heavily, preparing for childbirth. Each of them had grotesquely swollen bellies, likely injected with some strange substance.

In the bloodletting chamber, numerous monsters were being drained of blood, resembling dried husks. Each of them seemed to crave death immediately, but were kept in a state of constant agony.

“….”

Among them all, what piqued Vikir’s interest the most was the space opposite.

In the combat arena, countless monsters were fighting tooth and nail, clawing and butting heads as if to kill each other.

Thud! Roar…!

Judging by the significant tremors occurring, it seemed like none of them were ordinary beasts. As if believing that only the one individual who ultimately survives can escape this indestructible space, they were truly fighting fiercely.

And besides that, there were various enclosures with unreadable inscriptions scattered around. The current space where Vikir was trapped was just one of them.

“What purpose could this space serve?” Vikir raised his head and looked up. Lo and behold, there was a sign attached to this enclosure too. Vikir cautiously read the faintly visible words.

“…Mating Room?” Mating, sexual activity between male and female creatures for the purpose of reproduction.

“I see. So it was a factory where monsters captured from outside the tower were bred and reproduced to produce various subspecies, subordinates, and second-generation variants.” Humans also operate such facilities for livestock.

However, being inside felt different from what Vikir had expected. In the neighboring mating room, several monsters seemed to roam anxiously. But there was one crucial difference between the mating room where other monsters were trapped and the one where Vikir was trapped.

‘Why am I alone here?’ Vikir pondered for a moment. One cannot mate alone. Surely, there must be a female specimen here to pair with.

But within this enclosure, there was only Vikir.

“There must be another challenger who was trapped here before me… If there’s a woman who arrived here before me, I can gather information from her. Information about what is needed to escape from here. But this would be the best-case scenario.”

In the worst-case scenario, the woman here might already be mentally unstable or filled with malice. Who knows what horrific experiences she might have had on her way here.

‘Perhaps her normal personality and values have already collapsed,’ Vikir thought. Without a heroic level of mental fortitude, it would be impossible to maintain sanity within this tower.

So Vikir remained vigilant, wary of his surroundings. After all, he couldn’t predict when or where a hidden threat might strike.

But then…

Zzzing!

A gate suddenly opened beneath the hill where Vikir stood. And out rolled a person.

“Ow- Where am I now?”

The person, rubbing her head filled with white glossy hair, stood up, was unmistakably wearing the dress of the Colosseo Academy. As she looked around with an anxious expression, Vikir couldn’t help but let out a small sigh at the familiar face.

‘…Shit’