Demon King

“I’ll be back.” I turned away from the fortress to a scene of an underworld full of fog.

“Given your excellent sensing ability, I don’t think you will be in any particular danger. But as I said before, the underworld is quite unpredictable. There will be warped creatures created by the Great Fusion, just like there were on the battlefield. Be careful.”

“I’ll remember that, thank you. And thank you for taking care of Mireina.” She was now entirely under my control due to some circumstances I didn’t fully understand, but she did. At first, I just wanted her to not get in the way, but now things were a bit different. I could no longer enter the Rookie’s Battlefield, which meant Mireina was my only link to it. Learning what the Elakatra were doing, what they wanted… given the way Mireina was currently, it would be impossible to learn those things. Nevertheless, she was still the only one who could return there and gather that information.

“Go ahead and use my money to strengthen Mireina.”

“By your command, I will prepare a room for her to train in.” If Rain said he would do it, then I could trust it would be done. I nodded and looked back out of the castle. A didn’t seem to want to meet me and was hiding at the top of one of the spires. He was one thing, but if I left without stopping by to see L, she would get angry, even if I wasn’t going far. I didn’t have time to stop by every time I visited the castle, so I decided to deal with that later. If I looked at her face now, I might want to stay here longer.

“I’ll be waiting.”

“Yeah.”

I arrived in the blood-stained underworld that was covered with a red mist. The sight reminded me of the last dungeon of an RPG game. The mana in the air was still familiar to me, but the castle’s calm atmosphere had been replaced with an eerie one that was as thick as the fog. I activated my senses and expanded them, clearing my mind as I needed. The Wings of Jinma spread out from my back, stretching out. It was an odd feeling as I let them out as if I had an extra eye or ear. I became more sensitive to the world around me, and I could tell my ability to handle mana increased dramatically.

‘The difference really is incredible.’ It was just going from inside to outside the wall, but as soon as I spread the Wings of Jinma, I could feel the gathering of enemies toward me from all sides. Monsters strong enough to be incomparable to the Chaos Souls; Beings that were greatly distorted, too mutated to be considered alive.

‘So the castle is a sanctuary.’ The castle where I had just been was protected by strong barriers and magic. It was thanks to the fact the owners of Jinma’s Tower, the Garden of Nak, and the Dedicated Store were all gathered there. They weren’t able to go outside, but they could exert their full power within that castle. I couldn’t help but wonder how it was related to me; If that would change if I continued to grow and put them under my command one day.

‘Under my command…’ Me, who couldn’t even properly grasp their power. No, I supposed I would be able to, eventually. I had gone from being a goblin to grabbing onto a fragment of Jinma in the course of a year and a half, after all. I could definitely go beyond in the future.

[Can I eat you?]

Among the gathering dark monsters, a tall humanoid one resembling a Pierrot approached me. His long-tongue lolled out of his mouth as he spoke to me, black water droplets dripping off him. In a flash, the droplets burst toward me; terrible poison meant to kill me. However, just before I could use Ubiquitous to evade, the crystal that was floating invisibly around me, The Goddess’ Touch, absorbed the poison. It happened too quickly for me to detect any mana flow, so I wasn’t sure what happened.

[Look?!]

For just a moment after the poison was absorbed, the crystal spat out a brilliant light. It left a feeling of warmth in me as it faded as if it had never happened in the first place. The monsters around him, however, had shrunk back from the light. I didn’t know what was happening, but I recognized the opportunity. I drew the Twilight Sword on the Pierrot monster first, the sword even more destructive now that I had evolved. I struck out with my sword, the power of Reaper destroying the monster’s poison as I carved a deep wound through its face at the end of my sword’s trajectory. But the monster didn’t die right away, and I was still surrounded by all sorts of monsters.

[What a delicious meal!]

[I want to eat too.]

[I want some too, even one toe will do.]

Even the weakest among them still had a strength higher than 180. They were the type of foes I could kill with a single sword strike or spell. I remained calm and narrowed my detection range to around myself so that I could figure out the number of enemies and their method of attack. Three came at me from above: stinger, whip, and sword. I could feel the ground vibrating below me, deformed claws aiming at my legs as explosive clouds spread around me. I started my counterattack by spreading my mana outwards, blocking the brunt of the attacks. Confusion quickly spread amongst my enemies, which was exactly what I wanted.

I made full use of Ubiquitous to move through the gaps between them. An alter ego remained in my place, using Belkena spells and Lunatic Trickster to hold them off. That wouldn’t last long, though; I had to press my attack. The moment stretched out to eternity as I sharpened my Reaper skill, focusing on the tip of my blade as I let out a battle cry.

[Kyaaaah!]

[It hurts, it hurts so much!]

The screams of the monsters around me were a welcome sound, almost as much as the bits of flesh and bone that flew off of them with each attack I made. I spread out my dark smoke, greedily consuming every piece of them as I moved about. Each time I used Ubiquitous to dodge their attacks and cut through their ranks, the confusion among them only intensified. I ran through them like a wolf in a flock of sheep, cutting through the necks of each and every one of them.

[You received 37 gold.]

[You received 28 gold.]

It suddenly occurred to me that my alter ego was using magic according to my will as if it were perfectly natural. It had used physical power before, but this was new. I didn’t know when it started, but I wondered if it was because I was getting used to the skill. Or maybe because I evolved? This was the first time I had used my full power since I evolved, so it was hard to say. Regardless of why, the end result was that it would make my tactics more diverse and effective. The battle became effortless with the use of my alter ego casting magic as well.

[Just a little bit…let me eat…!]

The last monster was a huge humanoid monster with goblin-like horns. My sword cut through where its heart should be, its body slumping to the floor as my energy swallowed it whole.

[You received 29 gold.]

[You received 31 gold.]

A simple notification window popped up, informing me that I couldn’t get experience from monsters of this level. I needed to fight an entity from the higher system, after all. Their level was high, though, so the mana I recovered from devouring them was significant.

‘This money though…just gold? No silver or bronze…’ I wondered if it had anything to do with Rain’s words. He said gold was permanent, after all. Maybe it had some magical value? I groaned at the fact that I didn’t know as I moved forward. I didn’t sense any more monsters nearby, which was a good thing. It would be annoying to keep fighting those monsters that couldn’t give me the joy of growth.

Deciding I should find water, I started to walk through the distorted world. It took me four days in the end, to find a monster strong enough to gain experience from. Even in the underground, higher-level entities weren’t so easy to come by.

I walked and walked, sometimes using Ubiquitous to break the monotony, through this world without beginnings or endings. Eventually, I came across an oddly massive temple built in the middle of a mountain range. It was there where, for the first time, I encountered another higher-leveled entity.

[How did you find your way here to this closed place?]

It was a monster in the form of a giant spider.

“Closed place?”

[The underground here is distorted. The space beyond this room is connected to the unknown chaos. And every time I tried to leave, I would be blocked by a wall. This space has been closed off until now when you arrived.]

“…” I felt like Rain’s words made a bit more sense now. The environment itself was distorted, and space would get jumbled up. Places would be connected or disconnected from each other, like what had just happened. Perhaps I wouldn’t be able to return to the castle by going back the way I came. It was a good thing, with that in mind, that I had the ability to open the door to the castle from any place. Rain knew that, so he let me go without worrying about it.

Pulling myself out from my thoughts, I felt briefly awkward as I noticed the spider had been staring at me the entire time.

“Why aren’t you attacking me?”

[Why should I?]

Only

It was the first time I heard such a response from a monster, and I felt somewhat embarrassed to even ask. However, as I examined him closer, this monster wasn’t quite like the other ones I had encountered. It was a giant spider, for sure, but it didn’t look as grotesque or distorted as the other ones had.

[I can feel the energy of Jinma in you, deep and pure. There are too many other things for me to hate to be bothered with you.]

“Other things to hate?”

[Those bastards, the Elves.]

Lightning flashed through my head as it occurred to me. Of course, it was natural that it was this way. The inhabitants of the underworld would undoubtedly be hostile toward the elves and the Elakatra. And among them, there would no doubt be many monsters and demons that had never been connected to a human as a partner. I wondered what exactly that would mean.

“You… do you want to get out of here?”

[…You have my attention, Jinma.]

Maybe this was a great place to find some colleagues and subordinates.