Chapter 4

"Hey, it's cool here..."

When I opened the wooden door and went inside, it was dim and cool.

"Does it smell like wine?"

As I went in, I found a large amount of wine.

"Hmm, the labels are... 'Diablo,' 'Bahamut,' 'Leviathan.' I've never heard of these wines?"

Originally, I could only drink wine during festivals. Even then, it was just third-rate stuff bought in barrels. The bottles here were lying carefully on their sides in non-transparent containers. They were undoubtedly high-quality, but...

"I can't get drunk until I get out of here."

I started to stockpile the wine one after another.

- Diablo Wine × 500 (Ultra-Premium)

- Bahamut Wine × 500 (Ultra-Premium)

- Leviathan Wine × 500 (Ultra-Premium)

"Alright, I've collected these, so let's move on to the next place."

Looking at the inventory screen, it was already filled with various items I had collected so far. My storage capacity had increased to 775 when I leveled up, but I had already used half of it.

"It's tough not having any food, though..."

I decided that once I got some food, I would stockpile a lot of it.

"Huh? What's that?"

After descending several flights of stairs, I arrived at a spacious floor. The ceiling was adorned with chandeliers, and a red carpet was laid on the floor.

It looked like a ballroom. And at the back, there was a larger door than the others.

"Could this be it?"

With hope, I pushed the door open.

"Finally... I'm out."

The blinding sunlight shone down. It had been days since I last saw the sun.

I stepped out and looked back. There it was...

"Wow, it's a huge castle. This was the evil god's dwelling place?"

It was so massive that it dwarfed the castle of the Ilkuts Kingdom, towering so high it seemed to reach the sky.

The building had windows, but I hadn't seen any rooms with windows during my time inside, suggesting that they led to rooms that were locked and inaccessible.

"No wonder it took so long to move around."

The room where the evil god resided was likely on the top floor of the central, towering building. From there, corridors extended to other buildings, and I had escaped from one of them.

I looked around the area surrounding the castle. High walls encircled the castle, asserting its presence to deter intruders.

I intended to escape quickly and headed toward the walls, but...

"Is that... on the trees?"

On both sides of the path leading to the iron fence, there were trees with something growing on them.

"Could it be food?"

I stopped heading for the iron fence and approached the trees.

"Is this... fruit?"

The trees bore fruits of various colors, including gold, silver, rainbow, red, blue, yellow, and green.

"I'll try one."

I climbed a tree with golden fruits, picked one, and took a bite.

"Wow, it's delicious. I've never tasted such delicious fruit."

The sweetness of the fruit spread throughout my mouth. It was so refreshing that it moistened my throat, which had been dry from not eating or drinking for a while.

Even without considering that it was my first meal in a long time, the fruit was delicious.

"Let's stockpile some."

Curious about what it was, I stored it and checked the description.

- Golden Fruit × 1 (Increases all stats by 10)

"Should I check the others too?"

I climbed the other trees, picked the fruits, and stored them.

- Silver Fruit × 1 (Increases magic by 10)

- Red Fruit × 1 (Increases health by 10)

- Blue Fruit × 1 (Increases agility by 10)

- Yellow Fruit × 1 (Increases strength by 10)

- Green Fruit × 1 (Increases defense by 10)

"Could these be stat-boosting fruits?"

Apparently, fruits sometimes drop from monsters or dungeon treasure chests. Eating them slightly increases your stats.

I had never seen them before, but the description seemed accurate.

"But the stat increase is a bit too much, isn't it?"

According to rumors, stat-boosting fruits usually increase stats by only 3 points. This one increases them by 10, which is clearly abnormal.

"Let's collect as many as possible."

Food is never a bad thing to have in abundance. There were quite a few trees, so I should collect from them.

"By the way, there's still the rainbow fruit, right?"

I stored the remaining rainbow fruit and checked its description.

- Rainbow Fruit × 1 (Increases charm by 100)

"Charm? I've never heard of such a stat. I'll try it."

It was even more delicious than the golden fruit.

"Well, let's see how it affects me."

I opened the status screen.

- Name: Ert

- Title: Townsman, God Slayer

- Level: 774

- Health: 1561

- Magic: 1561

- Strength: 1561

- Agility: 1561

- Defense: 1561

- Charm: 110 (New)

- Skills: Agriculture Lv2

- Unique Skill: Storage (444/775)

[Storage]

- Evil Beam × 9998

- Perfect Heal × 99999

"It really increased..."

I had never heard of a "charm" stat, but it wasn't something to worry about. I decided to collect the fruits.

"Alright, I'm done collecting."

It took a considerable amount of time to climb the trees and collect the fruits, but it was worth it.

- Golden Fruit × 789 (Increases all stats by 10)

- Silver Fruit × 1104 (Increases magic by 10)

- Red Fruit × 2400 (Increases health by 10)

- Blue Fruit × 2397 (Increases agility by 10)

- Yellow Fruit × 2405 (Increases strength by 10)

- Green Fruit × 3002 (Increases defense by 10)

- Rainbow Fruit × 108 (Increases charm by 100)

With food secured, I decided to go outside.