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[Oh, my king.... May I be permitted to address you regarding a certain matter?]

Beru contacted Jin-Woo out of the blue.

What did the most powerful Shadow Soldier, tasked with leading the ant battalion to kill monsters far away, want to say to his master?

'What's going on?'

Jin-Woo inwardly asked him. Beru then cautiously sought out permission from his master.

[May you be gracious enough to drive the prey to this servant's location?]

Drive the prey to his location?

The 'prey' Beru was talking about was, of course, monsters that roamed outside of the Gates after the various dungeon breaks took place. It implied that the former ant king wished to take care of all the monsters by himself.

Even Greed couldn't compare to Beru in terms of power, although they were supposed to be in the same Commander-grade. So, it was unlikely that his subordinates started a rebellion or some such and he wanted to do things alone now.

Jin-Woo pondered the reason for this request for a bit, but then, a certain possibility quickly entered his head.

'Could it be....??'

[Every time I defeat a prey, I can feel a sensation similar to 'moulting' throughout my entire body, my king.]

As he thought! His guess turned out to correct.

'Moulting', Beru said. Meaning, he was about to break through to the next stage.

Ever since his inclusion into the Shadow Army, Beru stood at the forefront, always, and fought off more enemies than anyone else. And finally, he was being rewarded with an opportunity to advance to a higher grade.

When recalling how much stronger high-grade soldiers like Igrit and Iron became after the advancement.....

'....This is wonderful news.'

Beru was already strong enough to toy with rank S Hunters even before he became a part of the Shadow Army. His current grade, too, was the highest among all of his existing Shadow Soldiers.

'Does this mean I finally get to see the grade above 'Commander'?'

Jin-Woo was getting really curious about just what kind of changes Beru would go through after his stats jump up greatly via his advancement. He quickly replied to his ant soldier, no doubt anxiously waiting for his king's answer.

'Alright. Let's do it.'

[Oh, I thank thee, my king. I shall send back the ant battalion to your side right away.]

'No, there's no need.'

Jin-Woo smirked to himself. Of course, Beru wouldn't be able to see the expression his Sovereign was making, since they were dozens upon dozens of kilometres away.

'Shadow Army.'

Jin-Woo called out, and his soldiers, almost 1200-strong, responded back to him simultaneously.

From Igrit, in charge of leading the knights, Fangs leading the High Orcs, Jima leading the Nagas, No.6 leading the giants, Tank leading the Ice Bears, and even Greed leading the leftover soldiers.

He thought he could hear their loud roars. Every single one of them began focusing all of their attention on Jin-Woo's summons. He sensed their tension oh-so-clearly, even this far away.

While enjoying this feeling of satisfaction, Jin-Woo issued his new command.

'Everyone, withdraw.'

[....!!]

'I want you guys back.'

The moment his order was given, the entirety of the Shadow Army began moving again. Soldiers all reverted back to their shadow state and rapidly headed in the direction where Jin-Woo was waiting for them.

[Oh, my king.... Why have you recalled your loyal soldiers?]

Jin-Woo replied with a chuckle at the surprised-sounding Beru.

'From here onwards, only you and I will defeat the remaining monsters.'

This seemed to be the best option available in order to speed up Beru's advancement.

Just like how a high-levelled player helped out the lower-levelled friend in a game, he was planning to fight alongside Beru and greatly speed up their hunting speed, gifting a whole bunch of experience points to his subordinate in the process.

He was going to 'power level' Beru, in other words.

There were still quite a few areas where dungeon breaks had occurred, so if the two of them went around clearing them, the required level cap would be met pretty soon.

Of course, as the ground they had to cover was vast, the efficiency of this method fell far behind the one with sending out his soldiers to sweep the enemies clean, but Beru's advancement was the priority here.

[Oh, my king....]

Beru couldn't finish his sentence, his voice overflowing with emotions.

'Hah. This guy.'

Seeing that his emotions had become richer as time went on, there was little doubt that he had been hiding in the shadows watching TV the whole day when he was supposed to protect his mother and Jin-Ah at home.

As the recalling of his shadows was just about complete, Jin-Woo asked the question to his soldiers.

"Is there anyone else beside Beru who feels that their advancement is just around the corner?"

Perhaps inevitably, there was no reply. It wasn't easy to advance to the next grade, after all. And one would need an excellent perception to sense the approaching advancement, too.

There was a reason why only Beru could sense his own advancement out of all his Shadow Soldiers.

Just as his thoughts arrived at this point...

Shururuk....

As Beru stood there, itching to go on the intimate solo hunting with his liege, yet another Shadow Soldier emerged from the ground next to him.

While a look of disappointment flashed on Beru's face, Jin-Woo's own expression brightened up even more.

"Nice."

As he would do normally, Igrit politely knelt down on one knee.

Jin-Woo always felt kinda uncomfortable with Igrit's unyielding dedication to the formalities, but still, seeing the gesture again after a long while made him happy regardless.

Igrit's advancement – that too, was something he had been looking forward to, wasn't it?

"Alright. Let's get started."

Jin-Woo summoned the 'Demon King's Shortswords' and smiled deeply.

What an amazing rate of reproduction this was – it hadn't been that long, yet new sprouts were rising up from the scorched-black remains of the tree monsters.

"Kiiieehk!"

"Kiiehk!"

There were around 40 or so dungeon break locations left to clear in Japan beside this one.

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