Chapter 27

Ring!

Just in time, the quest was also completed.

[You have completed 'Quest: Rescue the Victims'.]

[Number of rescued victims: 7]

'Looks like they got out of the dungeon safely.'

Suho thought, remembering the hunters who carried the survivors on their backs.

He promised to let them get out as soon as possible so as not to be caught by the demons, and now only Suho had to escape on his own.

'But, before that.'

[The quest completion reward has arrived.]

[Do you want to check the reward?]

( Y / N )

"Yes."

Ring!

[The following rewards are prepared.]

Reward 1: Ability Points +3

Reward 2: 1 Random Box

"Random box?"

Suho got curious.

An ordinary 'random box' without the word 'cursed'?

He had no idea what was inside.

Suho accepted all of the rewards.

All the ability points were allocated in the muscle strength stat, and after a while, a small random box appeared in Suho's hand.

'What's in it?'

He quickly opened the wrapping paper, and unexpectedly, there were several shiny golden coins inside.

Clink.

[You have acquired '700 gold'.]

"Gold?"

Did they give him 700 gold because he saved 7 victims?

It was very coincidental to receive gold for use in shops as soon as the shop function was activated.

'A coincidence… of course not.'

Suho was also dimly aware of it now.

In the level-up system inherited from his father, he felt the 'goodwill' toward him.

'… Thank you for the allowance, father.'

All gold coins received went into the inventory.

At the bottom of the inventory, there was a mark that said 700 gold.

"Open the Shop."

A new shop window opened in front of Suho.

[SHOP]

Buy / Sell

The shop window was extremely simple.

The moment Suho was about to check the purchase list to see what items he could purchase.

[Young Master.]

Beru suddenly appeared and asked.

[What will we do with that demon?]

Suho's gaze returned to the dying female demon who collapsed on the floor.

'Come to think of it, there was still that demon.'

The enemy of an enemy is a friend.

She was a devil who fought hard against low-level demons until a while ago, so he left without killing her. But now, it was time to make a choice.

He needed to check something first.

"I saw you a little while ago, and you were talking. Do you two know each other?"

[That's right. The Radiru Clan was the only one that did not attack His Majesty when he subdued the demon realm.]

The Radiru Clan were demons who acknowledged their weakness and volunteered to become Sung Jinwoo's slaves.

However, their surrender would never have been accepted if it had not been for Sung Jinwoo's whims.

In fact, most of the demons that Sung Jinwoo encountered were dead.

Or, just like the low-level demons they encountered today, only the cowards who ran away from the battlefield early and hid out of Sung Jinwoo's sight were still alive.

[His Majesty forcibly captured that demon named Esil and used her as a guide.]

"Excuse me…"

Esil, who had fallen on the floor, called for Suho with a dying voice, bleeding profusely.

"I'm sorry to disrupt your conversation, but could you please save me first? I really feel like dying."

Right then.

Rumble-!

A sound echoed from Esil's belly.

"Huh?"

As Suho and Beru's gaze focused, Esil caressed her sunken belly with an embarrassed expression.

"I starved for a few years because I was being chased…"

Ahh.

When she said she was going to die, she must have meant that he was going to die of hunger.

* * *

In conclusion, Suho saved Esil in the end.

There were many reasons, one of which was to test the effect of the 'potion' he bought at the store.

[Item: Healing Potion]

Difficulty to get: E

Type: Consumables

A potion that can restore health.

Drinking it slowly restores 500 HP.

It can be stored in the inventory, but cannot be transferred to others.

'It can't be transferred to someone else. But, is it possible to feed it to them directly?'

Suho approached Esil and poured the potion into her mouth.

"Ah…!"

After drinking the potion, Esil's wounds began to heal gradually.

"Wait, you're a healer? How are you related to Jinwoo, by the way?"

Suho was quite surprised and yet ignored Esil's gaze.

He just focused on the potion's effect.

'Hmm. The healing effect is a bit slow. It would be difficult to use it in a hurry during battle. Still, leveling up is the best.'

After a while, Esil's condition improved to the point where she was able to move.

But, the sound from her stomach was still loud.

"I'm so hungry I have no energy…"

'She fought well a while back though.'

For the second reason why Suho saved Esil…

It was because the energy he felt from Esil was not that great.

In other words, it would be easy.

Even after drinking the potion and recovering, the energy he felt from Esil was still at most C-Class.

According to Beru's explanation, demon nobles originally had to have S-Class strength to be normal.

However, due to various complex reasons, Esil's power was reduced in half.

'But no matter how weak she is, I can't just keep a demon out of the dungeon.'

For that reason, Suho made a choice.

[Would you like to enter the Shadow Dungeon?]

"Yes."

Swoosh!

Suho took Esil to the Shadow Dungeon.

The Shadow Dungeon is a space that is not freely accessible except for shadow soldiers.

It was the perfect prison to confine the demon.

However, upon entering the Shadow Dungeon, Esil's reaction was not what he expected.

"Ah, I can't believe I'm back in the world of rest!"

Esil exclaimed with an ecstatic expression after seeing the world in black and white.

Then, looking back at Suho, she asked.

"How can you go into the world of rest through your shadows when you are not even the Shadow Monarch? What kind of relationship do you have with Jinwoo?"

"I'm his son."

"Son? Oh, you were Suho?!"

Esil said in a louder voice.

"Oh my god! That little baby is already this big? Humans grow really fast."

"Do you know me?"

Suho tilted his head.

No matter how much of his sealed memories returned, he didn't remember all the faces he had seen when he was young.

On top of that, there were so many soldiers living in Sung Jinwoo's world.

Suho looked away from Esil, who was happy to see him, and asked Beru.

"What is the world of rest?"

[It's another name for the Shadow Dungeon.]

Beru answered.

The identifiers referring to the world ruled by the Shadow Monarch varied greatly.

Shadow World.

Realm After Death.

And, the World of Rest.

Other monarchs who are now dead had their own worlds like this.

However, the Shadow Monarch was the only one who carried an entire world in his shadow.

"Is this Shadow Dungeon a world I rule?"

[To be precise, it is the world ruled by His Majesty. But somehow, when the Young Master was born, that world was split in two. It would be more accurate to say that it proliferated.]

"So, one of them has become my shadow."

Suho nodded.

The small talk was over, and it was time to get to the main point.

Suho looked at Esil and asked directly.

"Did you say your name is Esil? Anyway, I saved your life, so now tell me everything you know. What are the demons up to on Earth? Did something happen in the demon realm?"

"The thing is…"

Esil was hesitant.

"After the war, everything was fine at first. Sung Jinwoo killed all the other nobles, our dear Radiru Clan became number one in the demon hierarchy. He made our homeless family stay in the world of shadows."

At that time, the demon realm had already lost its demon monarch and was torn to pieces, wandering through the dimensional rift.

In such a situation, Sung Jinwoo let the demons of the Radiru Clan who helped him live in his world.

But that was only for a moment.

"We couldn't become inhabitants of the Shadow World after all."

"Because they are contaminated souls?"

"You know very well."

As Suho experienced, demons were basically mana-tainted spirits, so they could not be extracted as shadow soldiers.

"As a result, we had no choice but to return to the demon realm. No, to be precise, the devil realm called us."

"Demon Realm?"

"Yeah. A red gate leading to the demon realm suddenly opened in front of us who lived in the shadow world. And suddenly it started sucking us in."

A world that has lost its monarch calls for a monarch.

It was natural for the demon realm to call the Radiru Clan, the only existing demon nobles.

However, the demon realm was a world maintained by strict laws for the weak.

Had it not been for Sung Jinwoo's help, the Radiru Clan, who were only ranked 20th, would not have the power to dominate the demon realm.

The demons who had been hiding from the Shadow Monarch throughout the war crawled out again when the war was over, and began to challenge Radiru's seemingly formidable authority.

'If only the Radiru Clan is gone!'

'We can become nobles too!'

'Let's eat the nobles and drink their pure blood!'

'If we consume pure blood, our demon energy will be amplified!'

… All the demons became one and started attacking the Radiru Clan.

They were the weakest among the nobles in the first place, so they lacked the strength to stop the rebellion.

"A demon with weak power does not deserve to live. The Radiru Clan was overpowered just like that, and their blood was consumed. Now, Esil was the only surviving Demon Noble."

[Is that why you became so weak?]

"… Yeah. I almost died several times, and I lost a lot of blood. That's why my strength has weakened."

Beru, who was listening by the side, spoke.

[The order of power for the tribe of demons was determined from the time they were born. It's not like they're purebloods or hybrids for nothing. Since the basis of power is in the blood, they are frantic to drink blood.]

'It's similar to Gray.'

Suho seemed to have understood.

Esil nodded enthusiastically at Beru's statement.

"That's right. For that reason, demons are extremely afraid of their power being weakened. Whether you're a noble or a hybrid, it's a world where if you're weak, you'll be eaten. That's why the people who summoned me earlier are really strange."

"Is it strange?"

"Yes. Because they came to Earth even possessing the bodies of people weaker than themselves. To have a weak body is not a demonic behavior."

Suho understood what Esil was trying to say.

"Are you saying that there is someone else behind the demons?"

"That's right. Actually, the way they summoned me earlier was also strange. We demons are good at destroying and killing, but they don't know how to use a magic skill that forcefully opens a dimensional wall."

"Then what? Did someone teach the demons? Who?"

Beru, who was listening to the conversation from the side, let out a long sigh.

[… Could it be a transfiguration?]

"The chaos world?"

[Gate magic was originally a method often used by Yogumunt, Monarch of Transfiguration.]

"A spectre."

Suho pondered Beru's words and drew a picture in his head.

"Then the defeated soldiers from the demon world and the chaos world joined hands."

One more thing.

'Stardust.'

Mist Burn, one of the ingredients for stardust.

No, 'blue mist', the main composition of Mist Burn, was the magic of the universe that seeped through the boundaries of dimensions.

"… It seems that they are plotting something using the defeated soldiers here."

[Yes. I think so, too.]

Beru nodded with a calm expression.

[Who knows… They might have already gotten on Earth.]

It seemed that the invasion had already begun.