Chapter 103

“Kuuuuaaaak!”

I saw the Mage collapsing to the floor as she coughed out blood . My mind felt numb .

Again? Why is she like that all of the sudden?

I pondered about it for a moment and disengaged the soul steal .

I paused for a second, before using soul steal again .

“Soul Steal . ”

[Kuuuu… Stop…]

“Ke… Kek…”

I could hear the screams from both the head of the doppelganger in my hand and the Mage who was convulsing on the ground . That complicated the situation even more . .

Before this, I had thought about the possibility of there being more than one doppelganger .

After defeating a doppelganger, we would waste time relaxing and waiting for the rescue party to arrive . After the rescue party arrives, I would fail to clear the stage because of the hidden doppelganger .

However, the fact that I was the doppelganger was a pretty mind-boggling trick in the stage already . Also, to think that there was yet another twist with there being more than one doppelganger…

As I thought, this is the Hell difficulty .

It seemed the architect was going to have a problem somewhere if the stage was easy . There was always trouble to the very end .

There was not just one doppelganger in the dungeon room . There were two .

One of them was the bastard that was hiding inside my body . The other one was the bastard that was twitching on the floor over there under the guise of the Mage’s appearance .

“What’s happening?”

“Why is the Mage acting like this?”

After the battle, the Holy Knight and the Knight were resting, but they came to me and asked .

I explained to them that I used the soul steal to weaken the doppelganger and the Mage started to experience pain because of it .

“Um… As I thought, the Mage was also a doppelganger? Mr . Apostle, I’m sorry, but could you disengage that spell for a moment and use it again later?”

As the Knight asked, I disengaged the soul steal for a moment and started it back up again .

When the soul steal was canceled, the Mage gasped for air and breathed desperately for air . When I started the soul steal again, she was screaming in pain .

“… Oh no…”

It seemed the Holy Knight was very disappointed . He faltered and covered his face with his hands .

Was it that shocking?

“Well, I am not all that surprised that the Mage turned out to be a doppelganger . I thought the Mage was a doppelganger from the start . ”

The Mercenary was here too before I realized and added a knowing statement .

As the Mercenary said, the Mage had done many things that made her a suspect for a doppleganger .

In multiple instances, she tried to use magic that was going to harm other people .

Moreover, she was seriously affected by the soul steal and had lost consciousness for three days .

When I was unaware of how much effect the soul steal had on the doppelganger, I simply thought it was because her mana ran out of control .

Now that I think about it, she was unconscious despite the Holy Knight’s healing . I wonder if the Holy Knight’s healing negatively impacted the doppelganger because of his holy power .

Lastly, she used a very powerful Blitz spell that was enough to make me faint .

Back then, I wondered if she made a mistake . However, now that I see her shuddering around on the floor, I am certain that she did it to kill me .

The doppelganger that was hiding inside my body also yelled and said, ‘Are you intending to die too . ’

Looks like I could have died .

I was too complacent .

Other than the Holy Knight, everyone stared at the Mage as if they were suspicious of her the entire time .

I was the same .

Watching the Mage in pain, instead of feeling pity, I just thought,

‘As I thought, she was the doppelganger . ’

Honestly, that Blitz magic earlier was obviously too powerful .

Anyway, this was like a cow walking back and accidently killing a rat .

I didn’t know that doppelgangers could be identified with this method .

Soul steal only affected the ‘enemies’ around me .

Because of this, when I used the soul steal on the first day, the doppelganger inside me was completely unharmed by the spell .

I was not even aware of the doppelganger inside me, so…

The doppelganger inside me probably view me as an enemy .

It probably saw me as just a host .

That means the doppelganger over there which assumed the form of the Mage was regarding me as an enemy all this time .

Well, I guess that is obvious?

In the beginning, I told everyone that I was going to find the doppelganger and kill it alone even if it meant killing everyone else in the process . That doppelganger probably thought it had to kill me somehow if it wants to leave the dungeon alive .

“Do you think the two doppelgangers knew about each other? I wonder if they could communicate with each other . I don’t think this is the case, considering that the doppelganger who assumed the form of the Mage had constantly tried to attack you . Maybe they formed an agreement that just one of them leaving the dungeon alive was good enough . Hut! Mr . Apostle, looks like that doppelganger won’t be able to stand this any longer . I think it will reveal its true form soon . Do you still have strength left for another battle?”

The Knight had been observing the Mage’s condition . The Knight asked me .

Do I have strength left?

Of course .

“Kuuuu… Kuuuk . ”

The Mage’s scream turned menacing . Her arms and legs were cracking and creaking . It was about to reveal its true form .

The Holy Knight on the side started to recite a spell . I urged him to stop . I told him there was no need for him to overexert himself when he didn’t even recover his mana yet .

In most situations, giving the time for the monster to transform was not a good idea .

However, in this situation, I was confident that I could beat the doppelganger even if I fought it ten times consecutively .

Since that was the case, it was better for me to let it finish the transformation so I could get more experience points .

I changed the Transmutable Thousand Arms’ dagger form into the long sword form again and concentrated .

There was no way I was going to taste defeat when victory was already guaranteed .

* * *

“Hey, Mr . Apostle… It’s time for you to get up… Huh? Were you already awake?”

It seemed that it was my turn to keep watch . I was lying down with my eyes shut but the Mercenary interrupted me .

“I just got up . I thought it was my turn to keep watch, so…”

“Haaaaaaaam… I’ll go to sleep now . You have done a lot today during the battles, yet you ended up with the watch duty at the most inconvenient time, so it must be tiring for you . Keep up the good work . ”

It seemed the Mercenary was very tired . He mumbled and stopped talking as he reached his spot and laid down .

As for me, regardless of exhaustion, I always had a hard time falling asleep .

When I was in the middle of a stage, I usually stayed up for days . I took naps at the Kiri Kiri’s field after clearing a stage or at the waiting room .

Standing watch was not all that tiring, considering that I’ve been doing this for fifteen floors now .

I was not intending to sleep anyway .

On the contrary, I was actually anxiously waiting for my turn .

During today evening, I wrapped my sword with the Holy Knight’s holy spell and defeated a doppelganger .

Of the doppelganger that assumed the form of the Mage and the doppelganger that was in my body, the doppelganger that was in my body was dead .

I wanted to ask all sorts of things to that doppelganger under the pretext of wanting to know about my past . However, it was not able to answer anything .

It was not that it refused to answer . It was not able to answer .

The reaction was similar to when I asked Idy things related to the Tutorial, so I am certain of this .

The doppelganger was not able to tell me anything about the past of the character that I was currently playing as in the 16th Floor’s stage .

I could understand why it couldn’t answer since this was related to the Tutorial .

However, the doppelganger couldn’t give me any information about the demons or hell either .

I think I should check out this problem later .

We didn’t kill the other doppelganger that was pretending to the Mage .

The Holy Knight had been suffering from dehydration since the evening due to excessive use of mana, so we decided to postpone using another holy spell .

I could destroy the doppelganger by continuing to use soul steal, but there was no reason to do that .

So, we left just the doppelganger’s head and trapped it inside the mana-restraining box that the Adventurer had . Since then, we had been taking turns to keep watch on it .

Now, it was early morning . Everyone was asleep, and it was finally my turn to keep watch .

In other words, only the doppelganger and I were awake .

I walked around and confirmed that everyone really was asleep before heading to a corner of the dungeon room .

I quietly opened the mana restraint box .

Although it was still alive, only its head remained .

[Kuuu…]

“Quiet . Now, listen very carefully to what I’m about to say . Depending on how well you do, I’ll decide how painfully you should die or if I should give you a chance to escape this place alive . ”

The doppelganger moved the skin on its face to acknowledge my threat without making any noise .

“Tell me about hell and the demons . ”

Of course, it was not able to explain them .

“Strike one . You lost one chance . If you disappoint me two more times, you will die right now . I won’t wait until the morning . ”

[Ah… That wasn’t on purpose…]

“Just shut up . Don’t make loud noises . ”

Actually, it didn’t matter if you made noises or not .

If the Holy Knight woke up because of loud noise, then he will complain that I’m listening to stories from a demon, but that was it .

Also, they had an intense battle against a doppelganger today, so they would be in deep sleep .

The doppelganger was not able to give me information about hell or the demons .

I couldn’t ask it about the human world outside the dungeon either .

What would be the point of asking it something it didn’t know?

I only had one thing left to ask .

The Mage’s memories and knowledge .

It even taught me magic under the guise of the Mage, so it should not have any problem teaching me magic .

Actually, the situation now is better than before .

The doppelganger wouldn’t be acting like a mute and write everything to communicate anymore . It is also not bound by the restrictions of the Magic Tower either .

Ugh, I’m getting infuriated all of the sudden .

“Soul Steal . ”

[Kek… Why… Why? Stop…]

“You little bastard . You are just a doppelganger, yet you tried to hide information about the Magic Tower or whatnot as the excuse? You brainless runt . What do you have to do with the Magic Tower? Also, why can’t you talk? … Now that I think about it, you are so infuriating . I cannot stand it . ”

I was well aware that doppelganger wouldn’t sustain much pain from a physical strike, but just to quench my anger, I pressed my knuckle onto its forehead .

I did it with middle finger up and my hand wrapped in mana . My knuckle had a substantial amount of force behind it .

The doppelganger was already exposed to the soul steal . It seemed that getting hit by an attack that was wrapped in mana was quite painful . It started to make cracking noise .

[Please… Uk! Uk… I’ll tell you want you want . I will tell you… So stop…]

The doppelganger pleaded, so I canceled the soul steal and said,

“That was strike two . You only have one chance left . If you disappoint me one more time, you will die right here . ”

[I feel so wronged… No . I was wrong . I’ll tell you anything you want…]

“I don’t need you to speak anymore . Can you write with this?”

I brought out a pencil from the inventory and asked .

[W… Write? You want me to write?]

“Huh? You can’t? If you cannot write, then tell me . It’s all right . ”

It was not able to answer promptly . It momentarily fell silent .

It definitely is not dumb .

If it said it could not write, then that was going to guarantee three strikes .

If it still wanted to cling on to life, then it had to write somehow .

[I can write…]

After the response, the doppelganger’s facial expression twitched . On the side of its face, the flesh expanded a little and it became a wrinkly hand-like form that was the size of a hand of a newborn baby .

As I thought, it could transform .

Before going to sleep, the Holy Knight said the doppelganger probably still have enough strength left to transform its body .

So, he said that we should take turns to watch it even if it is trapped in the box .

So far so good . It’s going just as planned .

“Now, write with that pencil, do you understand? I won’t have to tell you what you need to write about, right? It’s about magic . Write all information you have in your brain about magic . You got it?”

[… Excuse me . In that luggage, there are magic books that the Mage used to carry . Why don’t you take them instead…]

“Shut up . Are you going to talk back to me? Do you want to die or are you going to write as I told you to?”

[I’ll write . ]

As the doppelganger said, there were magic books in the Mage’s bag .

However, what use would I have with such books?

I couldn’t even take those books to outside of this stage .

So, I had to copy the content onto papers I prepared before coming into the stage .

However, I don’t even know their written language, so how am I supposed to copy all that word for word?

On top of that, do all that before the 16th Floor stage ends?

It was obvious . There was no way for me to get it done .

So, this was why I was asking the doppelganger to do it .

Kuuuu . It is such a logical and fitting choice .

[Where… Where am I supposed to write them?]

All right . This is very good .

Having heard the doppelganger, I opened the inventory and brought out gigantic notebooks that had been lying in the corner of my inventory .

They were notebooks I was going to send to the Order of Vigilance as supporting items .

Each notebook had over a thousand pages . I had 15 of these thick notebooks .

So, the total number of pages were over fifteen thousand .

Also, the pages were A2 size .

[PR: For reference, A2 is about 4 times the size of your regular 8 ½ by 11 paper . ]

“Now, from now on and before the morning comes, fill these notebooks with information until there is no room to spare . You can do it, right?”

[…]

“If you fill them properly, I’ll not kill you . I’ll let you live . ”

[Really… Are you really going to let me live?]

“That’s right, so hurry up and start . ”

The doppelganger fell silent again . It seemed to have realized that it had no other choice . Soon, it started to move the pencil and write on the notebook .

It was like a computer printer .

The pencil movement was incredibly, even mesmerizingly fast .

It had been a while since I ate a beef jerky . I brought some out from the inventory and chewed on it while watching the doppelganger write .

I watched it so it won’t do anything else or try to trick me . I didn’t forget to say something occasionally at it either .

“Don’t write again what you already wrote . ”

“Don’t go gradually increasing the size of the letters over time either . ”

“Minimize the spacing . ”

“Don’t do double spacing . ”

“When it comes to plots or figures, making it readable is enough . ”

“I will say this again . If you write something you already had written already, you will die . ”

“You will die also if you write it in crappy handwriting . Write it in neat handwriting so it’s comprehensible . ”

I was reciting the lines I heard from my main teacher from the middle school days for a surprise homework . I used the lines to whip the doppelganger into shape .

The Adventurer and the Knight were the people who were supposed to be the next watches after me . However, I didn’t wake them, so the doppelganger could write until seven in the morning, which was the time for everyone to wake up .

The doppelganger was only given a few hours, but in that short period of time, it managed to fill 13 notebooks with words with little room to spare .

Its writing speed was ridiculous . However, in the end, it couldn’t fill all 15 notebooks .

“That’s too bad, but you failed your objective . ”

[Wait . Wait! This was impossible from the start due to the time constraint…]

“Now, go back to the box . ”

I placed the doppelganger’s head inside the mana restraint box, locked it and closed the lid .

It was time for me to wake everyone and eat .

I’ll make it write the rest after the breakfast .

Like that, I faced daybreak in the sixth day of the stage .

* * *

After the breakfast, as usual, it was time for the Knight’s chatterboxing .

The man always talked a lot, but now that the threat of unidentified doppelganger was no more, it felt like the Knight had grown even more talkative .

Others were very relaxed as well .

They had been spending time anxiously all this time . With the problem finally solved, it seemed their hearts were feeling light . They laughed and talked easily .

Now, we just needed to wait patiently until the rescue party arrived, so the group even took off their armors and changed to comfortable clothes .

Of the group, we no longer had the Mage with us . However, the Mage was probably ambushed and killed when we were trapped here on the very first day .

Instead of being shocked by it or being saddened by it now, they calmly recognized it .

With the Holy Knight leading the ceremony, they held a prayer . We decided to deliver her belongings to the people of the Magic Tower . That was all .

After the meal, I threatened the doppelganger and made it record information into the notebooks again . I was watching it from the distance, but the Holy Knight came next to me .

Through the morning, everyone was taking it easy . However, Holy Knight looked very uncomfortable .

It seemed he was agonizing over something . He kept on sighing through the morning .

He suddenly came next to me, so I wondered what this was about .

The Holy Knight suddenly sat down next to me as if he was plummeting down a trap .

“If you have time, will you please listen to me for a while?”