Adventure of SSS Rank Idiot

The Dummy That Would Not Die

Chapter 1

The air inside the underground chamber always smelled of blood, ash, and something older than both. Black stone walls stretched high into the darkness, carved with broken runes that no longer held meaning. In the center of the wide floor, chains of mixed holy and dark energy pulsed faintly, holding down a figure that should have been dead long ago.

The figure was tall, its body covered in cracked black skin that looked like cooled magma. One arm was missing. Half of its face had been burned away. White markings that once glowed with power were now dull and broken. Every time it tried to speak, blood and black mist spilled from its mouth.

"Please…" the voice was low, broken, almost human. "Just end it. I cannot… I cannot do this anymore."

Miko crouched a few steps away, elbows resting on his knees. His black hair fell messily over his eyes. He wore a simple dark sleeveless shirt and loose pants, both stained with old blood that never fully washed out. He tilted his head, studying the creature the same way a craftsman studies a tool that is starting to dull.

"Still talking," he said quietly. "That's new. Usually you're quiet by the third round."

Behind him, Raizu leaned against a pillar, wiping his long sword with a cloth. The blade had no single form. It shifted slightly every few seconds, edges multiplying and fading like afterimages. He did not look up.

"Maybe it's learning," Raizu said. "Or maybe it's just tired of dying."

Killy sat cross-legged on a raised platform, one hand glowing with low orange fire. She used the flame to light a thin cigarette she had stolen from a dead merchant two weeks ago. Smoke curled up toward the high ceiling.

"I say we increase the heat next time," she muttered. "Last regeneration took too long. Waste of morning."

Jusmiyo stood near the chains, palms open. Soft white light flowed from his hands into the bindings, keeping the creature sealed. His expression was calm, almost gentle, the kind of face that made people trust him too easily.

"If we push harder, the seal might break completely," he said. "Then we have to rebuild it. That takes time."

Kordil was the only one moving with real energy. He paced in a wide circle around the chamber, stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders. His grin was wide and wrong.

"Come on, just one more round before lunch. I still haven't tried the new hunting sequence. I want to see if I can take the other arm without killing it too fast."

The creature on the floor trembled. Its remaining eye, a pale and empty thing, looked at each of them in turn.

"You… do not understand what you are doing," it whispered. "I am not—"

Miko raised one hand. The creature's voice cut off as if someone had closed a fist around its throat. A thin thread of dark mana connected Miko's fingers to the seal. He did not even stand up.

"We heard you the first fifty times," Miko said. "You keep saying the same thing. It's getting boring."

He stood slowly, brushing dust from his pants. The others watched him without speaking. They had done this enough times that no one needed instructions anymore.

"Reset it," Miko said.

Jusmiyo nodded once. The white light around the chains brightened, then reversed. Black energy flooded back into the broken body. Bones cracked as they realigned. The missing arm grew back in a wet, ugly sound of flesh and cartilage reforming. The burned half of the face smoothed over, though the cracks in the skin remained.

Within thirty seconds, the creature was whole again. It still looked half-dead, but it could stand. It did not stand. It stayed on its knees.

Raizu pushed away from the pillar and rolled his neck.

"My turn?"

"Go," Miko answered.

What followed was short and efficient.

Raizu vanished from his spot. One moment he was ten meters away, the next he was behind the creature, sword already moving. The blade split into seven afterimages, each one cutting a different angle. The creature tried to raise a barrier of pure abyssal energy. The barrier lasted less than a second before the swords tore through it like wet paper.

Black blood sprayed across the floor.

Killy flicked her cigarette away and raised both hands. A concentrated spear of white-hot fire formed above her palm and shot forward. It struck the creature in the chest and exploded inward, burning from the inside rather than the outside. The smell of cooked flesh filled the chamber.

Kordil laughed and dashed in low. His hands glowed with a strange mix of healing and killing energy. He drove his fingers into the creature's side, not to heal, but to disrupt the regeneration at its source. The creature screamed, a raw sound that bounced off the stone walls.

Jusmiyo never moved from his position. He only adjusted the seal, making sure the creature could not escape or fully die.

Miko watched everything with quiet eyes. He did not join the attack this time. He only observed the flow of power, the way each of their abilities connected through the invisible threads of his Bond Skill. Every strike they landed fed information back to him. Every injury the creature took was recorded in his mana.

When the creature finally collapsed again, its body broken in twelve different places, Miko raised his hand once more.

"Enough."

The others stopped immediately.

Silence returned to the chamber, broken only by the wet sound of the creature trying to breathe through a ruined throat.

Killy stretched her arms above her head. "That was better. Regeneration slowed down by almost forty seconds."

Raizu cleaned his blade again. "Still too durable. We need a cleaner way to disable the core without full destruction."

Kordil wiped black blood from his cheek with the back of his hand and grinned. "I almost had the spine that time. Next round I'm taking it."

Jusmiyo released the excess energy from the seal and exhaled slowly. "We should stop for today. The chamber's residual corruption is rising. If we keep going, it will start affecting our own mana circulation."

Miko nodded. He walked closer to the fallen creature and crouched again. The pale eye stared up at him with something that might have been hatred, or fear, or both.

"You're getting weaker," Miko said softly. "That's good. Means the method is working."

The creature's lips moved. No sound came out at first. Then, barely audible:

"I… am… the…"

Miko tilted his head.

"What was that?"

The creature tried again, but Jusmiyo's seal tightened automatically, cutting off the words.

Miko stood up and turned away.

"Leave it. We'll continue tomorrow."

They left the chamber the same way they always did — without looking back.

The upper levels of their base were quieter. What used to be the throne hall of the old demon capital had been cleared of most debris. A long cracked table stood in the center, surrounded by mismatched chairs they had collected from ruined cities over the years. Maps of Aztral were pinned to the walls with knives. Some maps were accurate. Most were not.

Raizu dropped into a chair and put his feet on the table. "We're running low on real food again. Dried meat and whatever Killy burns doesn't count."

Killy kicked the leg of his chair. "I don't burn it. I cook it with precision."

"You cooked the last boar until it was charcoal."

"That was an experiment."

Kordil laughed and opened a wooden crate in the corner. Inside were several bottles of cheap liquor they had taken from a merchant caravan three months ago. He pulled one out and uncorked it with his teeth.

"We should go to Prolin soon," he said. "I want new hunting tools. And maybe a proper bed. Sleeping on stone is starting to hurt my back."

Jusmiyo sat down more carefully. "Prolin is under military lockdown. There are rumors of movement near the eastern border. If we show up, people will notice."

"They always notice," Raizu said. "Then they either run or try to pick a fight. Both are entertaining."

Miko remained standing near the largest map. His eyes moved across the marked cities — Pargy, Prolin, the Ice Dynasty, the Magma Dynasty, and the black zone that represented the Demon Continent. Their home.

He spoke without turning around.

"We're getting too comfortable."

The others looked at him.

"We've been here almost fourteen months," Miko continued. "The residual demons are getting weaker. The dummy downstairs is adapting slower. If we stay like this, we'll stop improving."

Killy blew out a stream of smoke. "So what do you want to do? Go pick a fight with an entire dynasty?"

"Not yet." Miko tapped the map once. "But we need new variables. Something stronger than what we have here."

Raizu grinned. "You're bored."

"I'm always bored when we're not moving forward."

Kordil raised his bottle. "Then let's go make the world interesting again."

Jusmiyo was the only one who looked uneasy. "If we leave the continent, the guilds will start asking questions. They already think Bond Skill users are weak. If they see what you can actually do…"

Miko finally turned around. His expression was calm, almost empty.

"Let them think whatever they want. It doesn't change anything."

He walked to the table and sat down. For a moment, no one spoke. The only sound was the distant wind moving through the broken upper halls of the old demon capital.

Then Killy laughed under her breath.

"You know what the funniest part is?" she said. "If any of those high-rank bastards from the cities saw what we do to that thing downstairs, they'd probably shit themselves. And they'd still call your skill trash."

Raizu smirked. "Let them. More fun when they find out the hard way."

Kordil took a long drink and wiped his mouth. "I hope someone tries to test you soon, Miko. I miss the sound of buildings collapsing."

Miko leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

"They will," he said. "Sooner or later, someone always does."

Outside, far beyond the black mountains of the Demon Continent, the rest of Aztral continued its usual games of politics and power. None of them knew that five people who had already surpassed almost every living adventurer were currently arguing about whose turn it was to cook dinner over the broken body of a god.

And none of them knew that the first Reseter had already opened its eyes.