Hunting in the Obsidian Forest and the Omnipotent Magic Sword, Black Moon
When Go Yushin pushed open the rickety door of the shabby tavern in the demon trading village and stepped out into the darkness, the night fog settled so thick and heavy that each of his footsteps felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
The information he'd pried out of the tavern keeper for a handful of silver coins had been nothing but chilling, ominous tidings from start to finish.
At the far edge of the horizon loomed the blood-crimson fortress of the Amelia clan, glistening like gore in the light of the red moon, and wrapped around that castle like a besieging rampart sprawled the Obsidian Forest — a den of the former Demon King's lingering remnants.
It was a notorious deathtrap that even ordinary demonkin hesitated to set foot in.
...Lilith.
As he climbed the desolate hill at the village's outskirts, he couldn't stop picturing the silver-haired succubus he'd left behind alone that morning when he walked out of their cabin.
Those innocent, guileless eyes from the moment they'd first met. The obscene devotion of that tiny mouth and demonic tail wringing his cock until he'd emptied himself down her throat, gulp after gulp. And that clear yet bewitching smile — the one she'd worn as she shyly promised to prepare every delicacy rumored to restore a man's vigor, waiting for his return in the evening. None of it would leave his mind.
"I'm sorry, Lilith... I don't think I can make it back tonight."
His quiet murmur, scattered on the night wind, was steeped in deep apology and bitter regret.
He'd strode out that morning with such grand, confident bluster — only to abandon a bride he'd bedded for the first time the night before and set off on a journey with no guaranteed return. He couldn't help feeling pathetic about it.
He knew better than anyone that cutting through this treacherous forest to reach the vampire stronghold would be no journey of a day or two.
But not once did he consider turning back.
He was no longer a mere wanderer. He was a man carrying the Vessel of the Demon King, destined to become the true ruler of the Abyss.
To bring this untamed, dangerous dimension wholly under his command — and to seat Lilith, who had trusted him and offered her purity, in the position of rightful wife where no one would dare lay a finger on her — he had to keep moving forward.
Dinner... once I've seized dominion over this dimension, I'll come home with my head held high and eat it with her every night until we're both sick of it.
Jaw set hard, Yushin strode toward the Obsidian Forest.
The next morning, as the darkness lifted and the strange crimson sun unique to the Abyss began to bathe the land in its light, Yushin reached the edge of the forest — a dense thicket of obsidian-black, withered trees packed close as teeth — and Yurang-i's calm voice rang out beside his ear.
"Good morning, Master. Before you attempt entry into the Blood-Crimson Stronghold, I strongly recommend accumulating sufficient practical experience and mana here in the Obsidian Forest."
Hunt in the Obsidian Forest
📍 Objective: Slay the hellhounds tainted by the Demon King's remnants (0 / 10)
🔑 Key Condition: Complete exploration of the forest's heart and secure the hidden ancient treasure
"So you're telling me to carve my way through this entire forest and turn it into a sea of blood."
Yushin let out a dry scoff as he loosened his wrists.
"Yurang-i, yesterday you pointed out that my mana handling was inefficient. What exactly is the method for landing harder, more lethal strikes?"
"Your current mana handling, Master, is closest to a diffusion type — spreading your energy thinly across your entire body like a membrane."
"The diffusion type is advantageous for full-body defense and stability, but it suffers markedly in instantaneous destructive power and in the penetration needed to punch through the tough hides of magic beasts."
With Yurang-i's explanation, a structural image of mana flow crystallized vividly in Yushin's mind.
Water from a wide, shallow pond could not shatter a boulder — but a stream of ultra-compressed water forced through a nozzle no bigger than the eye of a needle could slice clean through a plate of thick steel in a single pass. It was the same principle.
"What you need at this stage, Master, is the concentration type — compressing your mana to a single point within your body and detonating it in an instant."
"Concentration type, huh... The power would certainly be devastating, but if I lose control, it could blow the meridians in my fingers or my arm clean apart, couldn't it?"
"Which is precisely why rigorous live training against monsters is essential. And it seems some excellent test subjects are approaching as we speak."
Ssssss—.
In the eerie stillness where not a breath of wind stirred, the forest's black shadows writhed, and pairs of crimson eyes began to emerge.
Hellhounds — hounds of hell whose flesh had rotted away to expose the sharp scaffolding of wolf bone beneath.
Grrrrrlll... Kyaaaagh!
The beast, strings of bloody saliva dangling from its maw, kicked off the ground with its massive hind legs and shot toward the nape of Yushin's neck like a bolt of lightning.
Yushin didn't flee. He steadied his breathing and dropped low into his stance.
Instead of scattering his mana across his whole body, he drew the blue energy up from the depths of his dantian and compressed it, fierce and merciless, into the very tips of the index and middle fingers of his right hand alone.
Crackle! BOOM!
The density of mana condensed at his fingertips warped the very space around them, raising a murderous ripple in the air.
"Pierce through...!"
FWOOSH!
With a sharp tearing shriek of ripped air, the lance of penetration-type mana fired from his fingertips drilled unerringly through the hardened skull of the charging hellhound, dead between the eyes.
THUNK! CRUNCH!
Dark red blood and brain matter erupted like a fountain, and the massive body of the beast pitched to the ground without so much as a dying shriek.
Thud.
The black smoke that rose from the dead beast's corpse was sucked into Yushin's dantian, where it was refined into pure, clean energy.
Concentration-type mana handling successful.
Hellhound slain (1 / 10). Practical experience acquired.
"Huh. That packs a way bigger kick than I expected...?"
Just as Yushin smiled, shaking out his tingling fingers —
Rustle, rustle-crash!
The undergrowth on all sides thrashed violently, and a pack of hellhounds, drawn by the thick reek of their fallen comrade's blood, came pouring out of the forest's darkness.
It wasn't just one or two.
Ferocious beasts with blazing red eyes and dripping fangs — more than ten of them — had surrounded Yushin in a wide, tightening ring.
Group encirclement engagement. Enemy mana sensitivity rising sharply.
"Yeah, I can see that, so shut your mouth!"
Yushin flung open every blood vessel and mana circuit in his body.
There was no more room for leisure.
KRAKAANG!
Against the fangs and claws of the beasts lunging from every direction, Yushin fired concentrated mana bullets and mana spears in a relentless barrage.
TAKATAK! KWAANG! THWAAAK!
"Grrrl... yelp!"
Hellhounds with shattered skulls and snapped spines went tumbling through the air and rolled across the forest floor.
But a chaotic melee fought at a crushing numerical disadvantage was anything but easy.
A beast that had slipped into his blind spot raked its sharp foreclaw viciously across Yushin's left shoulder.
SHRAAAK!
"Kgh...!"
Fabric tore away and hot droplets of blood sprayed into the air. The searing sting of sliced flesh stabbed into his brain — but far from shrinking back, Yushin's eyes flared wide and he burst into wild, manic laughter.
The dominant belligerence and a warrior's instinct for battle, flowing in the direct bloodline of King Gwanggaeto the Great, had caught fire.
"You dare scratch me...? You miserable mutts!"
KWAAANG!
Without retreating a single step, Yushin crushed the snout of the beast burrowing toward his wounded shoulder with his left hand, then drove the massive storm of mana condensed in his right fist straight into its belly.
KUGUGUGUNG!
Its guts burst outward, and a tide of blood soaked the forest floor.
Under Yushin's relentless follow-up assault, the last hellhound collapsed in a gruesome heap, its skull caved in.
When a profound silence finally settled over the entire forest, the mana surging within Yushin's dantian exploded outward one level larger, flooding through every meridian in his body.
"D-rank mana...!"
The overwhelming sense of liberation made him forget even the pain of the blood dripping from his shoulder.
Gulping down ragged breaths, he looked around — and there on the ground lay the gruesome wreckage of no fewer than eleven hellhound corpses.
Quest complete: Hellhounds slain (11 / 10). The excess kills have been fully converted into bonus experience.
Deep exploration of the Obsidian Forest complete. Hidden ancient treasure unlocked.
Tying off the wound on his shoulder tightly with a strip of his torn clothing, Yushin walked deep into the very heart of the forest.
There stood a colossal black-obsidian ancient tree, soaring magnificently toward the sky as though it had endured thousands of years.
And at the center of that great trunk's base, from a hollow that seemed to have been carved by deliberate hands, an old, heavy iron chest radiated a faint blue magical glow.
"This is your exploration completion reward. Do not hesitate — open the chest."
Steadying his pounding heart, Yushin carefully took hold of the lid and pulled.
Creeeeeeak.
The old hinges, heavy with the weight of ages, shrieked open, and from within emerged a strange sheath where pitch-black darkness mingled with a soft moonlight.
◈ Description: An omnipotent conceptual weapon whose nature and form shift without limit in response to its wielder's will, mana, and chosen thread of causality. Still in its unawakened state; as its master grows, its authority and destructive power will expand exponentially.
"Black Moon...?"
The moment Yushin cautiously reached out and closed his hand around the black sheath, a mana that was at once frigid and wickedly sweet bored into his palm, engraving itself deep into his soul and dantian.
Zzzt!
This was no mere lump of metal.
It was a bizarre shape of living darkness, fixed as neither blade nor spearhead — but when Yushin pictured a sword, a keen jet-black blade blossomed from it, and when he pictured a spear, it transformed into a long, deadly point.
A breathing, all-purpose conceptual weapon that shifted form freely at the will and mana of its master.
"Black Moon is a formless weapon of dominion that refuses any fixed shape."
"Depending on the path you walk, Master — your manner of battle, and your manner of dominating and subjugating females — it will evolve into its most cruel and beautiful form."
"And if I walk the road of the Demon King, how does this thing change?"
"It will awaken as an absolute demonic sword and instrument of dominion, one that exploits the mana and vital essence of your enemies and your female demonkin down to the very root. Master, you have already, on many occasions—"
"Many occasions what?"
"...Nothing. That information remains classified."
Yurang-i hastily mumbled her way out of it, but Yushin just curled his lips into a smirk and tightened his grip on Black Moon's sheath.
The instant he clipped Black Moon at his hip, the weapon resonated as one with the D-rank mana in his dantian, flooding his entire body with surging vitality.
"Good. I've got a weapon, my mana's grown stronger... Shall we go pay a visit to that arrogant vampire bitch's castle, then?"
Amelia Tia — Demon King candidate, owner of a supposedly worthless cunt.
Toward the blood-crimson stronghold where she no doubt waited in all her pride, Go Yushin, the Dimensional Wanderer, began to stride without hesitation.