NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 27
Ding!
A quest completion message popped up before Suho.
[Quest: ‘Rescue the Survivors’ has been completed.]
[Rescued: 7]
Looks like they managed to escape from the dungeon safely. Suho nodded, thinking about the hunters who had carried the survivors out. They had promised to get to the surface as quickly as possible to avoid being captured by the demons, and it was now Suho’s turn to escape but on his own. But before that.
[You’ve received rewards for completing the quest.]
[Would you like to accept the rewards?] (Y/N)
“Accept rewards.”
Ding!
[The following reward will be given.
Reward 1: Attribute Points +3
Reward 2: 1 Random Box]
“A random box?”
The line caught his eye, especially the omission of “cursed” that had appeared in a previous reward. He wondered what could possibly be inside as he accepted both rewards. Suho invested all the ability points into the strength stat, and shortly after, a small random box appeared in his hand.
I wonder what’s inside. To his surprise, the box contained several shiny gold coins.
[You have obtained “700 gold.”]
“Gold coins?” Did it give me 700 gold for rescuing seven survivors? It’s surely not just a mere coincidence... he thought, seeing as he received gold as soon as the store function was activated.
A realization dawned on him—it seemed like the system his father had passed down to him was showing him kindness. Thank you for the allowance, Father.
The gold coins went straight into his inventory, where at the bottom, a notation appeared.
—700 gold coins.
“Open the store,” Suho summoned, and a new store window appeared.
[Store - Buy / Sell]
The store window was quite simple. Just as Suho was about to check the list of items he could purchase...
“Young Monarch.” Beru suddenly appeared and inquired, “How will you deal with that demon?”
Suho’s gaze returned to the female demon who seemed to be dying on the ground. Right, I forgot she was here.
An enemy’s enemy was a friend. She had been fiercely fighting off the lesser demons before he intervened, so he refrained from killing her for the time being. He knew he had to make a choice, but not before asking some questions first.
“I saw you talking to her earlier. Are you two acquainted?” Suho asked the ant.
“That’s right. The Radiru Clan was the only family that didn’t oppose my liege when he subjugated the demon realm.”
The Radiru Clan had acknowledged their weaknesses and volunteered to become Sung Jinwoo’s subjects. But if it wasn’t for Jinwoo’s capricious nature, their surrender would never have been accepted. He had annihilated their kind on the battlefield during his war with the Monarchs, killing all their nobles except the Radiru Clan. The lesser demons Suho and the others had encountered today had fled from the fight early like cowards and hid from the Monarch of Shadow’s sight.
“His Highness also captured the demon named Esil and used her as a guide.”
“Excuse me...” The demon lying on the ground called out to Suho with a fading voice as she bled out. “I’m sorry for interrupting your conversation but can we save me first? I think I’m really about to die.”
A rumbling sound suddenly echoed from Esil’s stomach.
“Huh?”
As Suho and Beru focused their eyes on her, the demon patted her hollowed-out belly with a look of embarrassment. “I’ve been hunted for a few years, and I didn’t have any time to eat...”
The death she spoke of was from starvation.
***
Suho ultimately decided to spare Esil. He had several reasons, one of them being to experiment with the effects of the potion he bought from the shop.
[Item: Low Grade Healing Potion
Acquisition Difficulty: E
Type: Consumable
This is a potion that can restore your health.
When consumed, it slowly recovers 500 HP.
It can be stored in the inventory but it cannot be transferred to others.]
Can’t be transferred to others? But what if I feed it to someone directly?
Suho approached Esil and poured the potion into her mouth. As the potion trickled down, her wounds began to gradually heal.
“Wait, you are a healer? But more importantly, what is your connection to Sir Jinwoo?”
Her eyes stared at him intensely but Suho ignored her question and focused solely on the potion’s effectiveness. Hmm. The healing speed is a bit slow. It might be difficult to use in the heat of battle. Leveling up is still the best option.
After some time, Esil’s condition improved to the point where she could move, but the growling sounds coming from her stomach were still quite loud.
“I can’t muster any strength because I’m so hungry...”
You had the strength to fight earlier though, Suho joked inwardly.
The second reason Suho saved her was because the energy he felt from her wasn’t particularly impressive. In other words, she was weaker than him. Even after recovering from the potion, he sensed that her energy was C-rank at best. He found it odd since Beru had told him that demon nobles normally possessed S-rank level strength. However, due to a myriad of complexities beyond Suho’s current knowledge, Esil’s power had been reduced by half.
But no matter how weakened she is, I can’t simply take a demon outside this dungeon, the thought made Suho eventually choose a different method.
[Would you like to enter the Shadow Dungeon?]
“Enter.”
Suho took Esil to the Shadow Dungeon where only shadow soldiers could freely enter and exit, making it an ideal prison for demons. But to the contrary, Esil’s reaction was quite bewildering to him.
“Oh, I’m back in the World of Slumber!” The demon began to express her amazement rapturously, taking in the monochrome world with glee. She continued to marvel at the sight until she turned to Suho and asked, “How can you possess the World of Slumber without being the Monarch of Shadows? What’s your relationship with him?”
“I’m his son.”
“Son? You’re Suho?!” Esil exclaimed in amazement, showing her surprise. “Oh my goodness! The little baby has grown so quickly. Humans really grow fast.”
Suho tilted his head in response. “Do you know me?”
Some of his long-sealed memories had returned to him but he couldn’t remember every face from his youth. After all, his father had commanded countless shadow soldiers, making it difficult to remember each one individually.
Suho turned his attention away from the excited demon and asked Beru, “By the way, what’s the World of Slumber?”
“It’s another name for the Shadow Dungeon,” Beru explained.
The terminology used to describe the world ruled by Suho’s father was quite diverse: The World of Shadows, the Realm Beyond Death, and the Land of Eternal Slumber.
The other monarchs also had their own worlds they ruled before they were defeated. However, Monarch of Shadows was unique in that he was able to encompass his entire world within his own shadow.
“So, the Shadow Dungeon is the world that I rule?”
“To be more precise, it is the world the Monarch of Shadows rules. Strangely enough, this world split into two when you were born. I guess it would be more correct to say it multiplied.”
Suho was satisfied with the answer and decided it was time to move on to more important matters. He looked at the lavender-haired demon and asked straightforwardly, “You said your name is Esil, right? Well, since I saved you, now it’s your turn to spill the beans. What are the demons up to on Earth right now? What has been happening in the demon world?”
“Well..” Esil reluctantly began to speak. “After the war ended, things were good at first. Sir Jinwoo had eliminated all the other monarchs, and my family became the top demon clan. He even let us stay in the World of Slumber when we had nowhere else to go.”
At that time, the demon realm had already lost its Monarch and was torn apart, drifting through the dimensional rift. As such, the Monarch of Shadows allowed the Radiru Clan’s demons who had helped him to reside in his own world. But it seemed that the arrangement had been short-lived.
“But we ultimately couldn’t become residents of the World of Slumber.”
“Because of your tainted souls?”
“Exactly.”
He knew that the tainted essence in their souls couldn’t be extracted as shadow soldiers due to mana contamination.
“We had no choice but to return to the demon realm. Well, to be precise, it summoned us.”
“The demon realm?”
“Yes. A red gate leading to the demon realm suddenly opened up in front of us in the World of Slumber and began pulling us in.”
Having lost its Monarch, the demon realm had torn apart and was drifting in the dimensional rift. A world without a Monarch was a world yearning for a new one. It was only natural for the demon realm to call upon the Radiru Clan, the only noble demon family left in existence.
However, the world of demons was maintained by the law of survival of the fittest. The dominant ruled with an iron fist, and without the assistance of the Monarch of Shadows, the Radiru Clan lacked the power to control the demon realm.
Once the dust of war began to settle, the demons who had been hiding from the Monarch of Shadows reemerged to challenge the feeble authority of the once 20th-ranked Radiru Clan.
“If we get rid of the Radiru Clan, we can become nobles too!”
“Let’s hunt the nobles and suck their pure blood! It will amplify our magic power!”
The lesser demons united as one to launch an attack against the Radiru Clan, and being the weakest noble family prior to the death of their original Monarch, they lacked the power to quell the rebellion.
“Weak demons don’t deserve to live in my world. We were caught and had our blood drained. Now, I’m the last noble demon.”
“So, that’s why you became so weak?”
“Yes. I nearly died several times, and I’ve suffered significant blood loss. That’s why I’m so weak right now.”
Beru, who had been listening, chimed in, “Demons are a race that clearly distinguishes hierarchy based on power from the moment they’re born. That’s why they differentiate pure-bloods from mixed-bloods. The foundation of their strength lies in the quality of their bloodline, so they become obsessed with consuming it.”
It sounds similar to the situation with Gray. Suho nodded. From what he’d heard, the case didn’t seem that different from the Fang Clan.
Esil nodded enthusiastically and added, “Exactly. That’s why demons fear their own weakness to the extreme. Whether noble or not, it is the weak that get eaten. Which makes the lesser demons that summoned me even more strange.”
“Strange?”
“Yes. They came to Earth and possessed the bodies of humans weaker than themselves. Making one weak is not very demon-like.”
Not very demon-like... Suho sensed what Esil was trying to convey. “Wait, are you saying that there might be someone in charge of these demons?”
“Yes. The way they summoned me was also peculiar. We demons excel at destruction and killing, but we’re ignorant when it comes to magic, especially ones that create dimensional holes.”
“So, you’re saying that someone taught them that?”
Beru let out a long sigh. “Could it be the Monarch of Transfiguration?”
“Who now?”
“Gate magic was a method frequently used by Yogumunt, also known as the King of Demonic Spectres.”
“Demonic spectres...” Suho contemplated, putting together the pieces in his head. “Are you suggesting that the demon realm and the world of demonic spectres have joined forces in secret?”
There was another variable at play, Stardust. The drug needed mist burns, which in turn needed blue mist—magic from outer universes that could dissolve the boundaries between dimensions.
“It seems like the forces of outer universes are using these lost soldiers for something more.”
“Yes, I think so too.” Beru nodded in agreement as his expression turned grim. “Perhaps... The followers of Itarim may have already infiltrated Earth.”
They concluded that an invasion had likely begun.