Chapter 94: Demon (1)
“Merhen.”
—Yeah.
“By any chance, do you sense any strange energy from that orb over there?”
Merhen stared intently at the pitch-black orb.
It was only for a moment.
She tilted her head.
—… I don't know. Can't read inside it.
“Cedric, you?”
—Same here.
“I see.”
He stared at the orb.
Touching it would probably bring up the item info.
But he didn't touch it right away for a reason.
‘There could be trouble.’
Like in the movies, right? Touching some byproduct of an evil monster and getting sucked into a bizarre mental world or something.
This was a monster that handed out experience-copying bugs with just one orb like that.
No telling it wouldn't cause something similar.
“Hmm…”
—Minwoo. You want to check that thing out?
“Feels like I should touch it.”
—If you're that worried, I could try sealing it at least.
“Sealing?”
—Yeah. No idea how long it would hold since I don't know the level of whoever made it, but…
“That should be enough.”
Even if sealed, he could still see the item description. What he was curious about was the item's info. If it looked sketchy once he saw it, he could just toss it.
‘No need to stick it in my inventory.’
Inventory was usually safe no matter what you put in it.
‘But if it's something from an outer god, that could be a problem.’
Was this really made by an actual outer god?
In the worst case, putting it in his inventory could let it track his location. Even if inventory followed one of the system's rules, there was no guarantee it could block detection from an outer god-level being. Better to just discard it than take that risk.
‘Of course…’
Only if it was really made by an outer god, that is.
Either way.
He had no clue about the stature of whatever being created it, so a little caution couldn't hurt.
—I'll seal it.
Merhen reached out a hand.
Mana flowed from her.
Soon, her mana began wrapping around the pitch-black orb.
The energy from the orb and her own energy twisted together like snakes.
Before long, Merhen's mana fully devoured the orb.
—Minwoo.
“Yeah?”
—Not very strong.
“That thing?”
—Yeah. No need to worry.
Is that so?
He nodded and picked up the orb.
The item info appeared.
[Replication Orb (Temporarily Sealed)]
[Grade: Special]
[An orb that precisely replicates something. Currently almost out of charge. Temporarily sealed by Merhen.]
[Effect 1. Can be charged through prayer.]
[Effect 2. Can perform baptism with the charged power.]
[Effect 3. Baptized targets gain more experience.]
[Effect 4. Destroys when durability reaches zero.]
‘… Replication Orb?’
Kim Minwoo tilted his head.
Didn't this guy say he got it through prayer?
‘So he prayed and got a replica?’
Kinda weird.
Wouldn't that tank his faith instead?
‘Anyway, I get the gist of how it works…’
Charge it with prayer and bestow baptisms.
Simple setup.
Of course, simple or not, he had zero intention of actually praying.
‘No telling what could happen.’
Doing it just to snag some extra experience would be straight-up insane.
‘At least I get why Merhen said what she did.’
Just a replica, after all.
How strong could the power inside it really be?
That must be why she sealed it so easily.
“How long do you think you can keep this seal up?”
—Forever if I feel like it? Easy.
“Then make it permanent.”
—Yeah.
Merhen reached out a hand.
The orb's temporary seal status changed to permanent seal. Now it would stay sealed indefinitely.
‘Guess it's safe to hold onto for now.’
This orb didn't seem entirely useless.
Prayer?
Couldn't someone else do that for him?
It'd make for a beautiful picture if it was the guy he was planning to beat to death.
‘The baptism's the problem.’
No clue if it was safe for him to receive it himself.
Needed more analysis.
He placed it in his inventory.
He also picked up a variety of other items. Han Baekgil's gear was top-notch.
This guy's full set was worth more than the combined price of gear sets for the rest of the S-rank awakeners.
Plus all the light-attribute items he'd brought along.
Put all the prices together and it'd easily top billions.
‘Kinda sucks since it's all job-specific…’
Assassin, swordsman, mage, warrior, etc.
Mostly gear for mainstream jobs. In other words, stuff a necro couldn't equip.
The sorrow of non-mainstream jobs.
‘The accessories suck too.’
For Kim Minwoo, the most valuable accessories he could loot from awakeners were job-agnostic ones.
The kind with level-only requirements.
Those were sweet items even a necro could use.
But these guys.
As expected of top-tier awakeners, every single one was wearing job-specific accessories.
‘Makes sense, though.’
Job-specific vs. general accessories.
If they were the same grade, the job-specific ones always had better effects.
Only natural.
General accessories often came with options you didn't need.
Job-specific ones?
They came loaded with exactly the options that job needed.
No wonder job-specific accessories for popular classes cost way more than general ones. Naturally, Kim Minwoo wanted them too.
‘Just no stock available.’
So he'd filled the gaps with whatever decent ones he had.
“Cedric. Come here.”
—You called.
“Here.”
He handed over a ring.
[Sorn's Ring]
[Grade: Unique]
[Req: Melee jobs, level 200+]
[One of the rings worn by Minotaur King Sorn.]
[Effect 1. Stomp (A) usable]
[Effect 2. Strength, Agility +20]
Cedric silently alternated between staring at his face and the ring.
“What're you doing? Take it.”
—… Right.
The guy took the ring and slipped it onto a bony finger.
‘This guy's job is unnecessarily Dragon Knight.’
If necromancer was rare, Dragon Knight was straight-up endangered.
Gates overflowed with jobs, but Dragon Knight had never even existed to begin with.
The only usable stuff for him was these melee-general items. Necros weren't melee, so they couldn't equip them.
That's when.
—Minwoo.
A voice came from the side.
Merhen was staring right at him.
—Me?
“Uh, one sec.”
He rummaged through his inventory.
Happened to have a ring he'd gotten after beating down Wirung-gang.
[Blue Mana Ring]
[Grade: Unique]
[Req: Mage, level 150+]
[A ring embedded with a beautiful gem. Seems useful for mages.]
[Effect 1. Casting speed -10%.]
[Effect 2. Mana +30]
‘Archmage counts as mage, right?’
Looked like a superior job at a glance.
The only thing worth giving Merhen was a mage-specific ring like this.
‘Caster-specific ones are for me.’
Necromancer was an independent job class, not mage.
Fell under casters in the broad category.
“Got a spare.”
—Really?
“Here.”
He handed the ring to Merhen.
One thing he'd learned while crafting gear for ghost summons.
Normal ghost-types like specters or banshees could only equip special gear.
‘Not her, though.’
Merhen was different.
She could equip regular gear just fine.
‘Makes sense, since she looks human.’
Who'd peg Merhen as undead? Appearance-wise, she was just a normal foreign girl.
Banshee Queen.
Must be because of her high rank that she ignored those restrictions.
So he'd just gotten her a human-wearable set. The ring should equip without any tweaks. Merhen took the ring and slipped it right onto her index finger.
—Thanks, Minwoo. I like it.
“Good to hear.”
He planned to kit out his summons with accessories whenever possible anyway, so he'd hand over spares like this.
That's when.
[The devil to give the reward has been selected!]
[The devil is coming!]
A massive devil's image appeared before his eyes.
[‘Andromalius,’ one of the Devil Lords, has appeared!]
‘Devil Lord?’
Kim Minwoo tilted his head.
He'd run this gate a few times in the past. The highest devil score he'd gotten back then by triggering the gimmick was around 90 points.
‘How much despair you inflict on the enemy.’
One of the key factors for scoring. His past characters hadn't inflicted that much despair on enemies.
The reason was simple.
They weren't overwhelmingly strong like he was now.
He'd only jumped in because it seemed like an easy meal. He'd won back then too, but it'd been way more of a struggle.
This time, though.
‘Racked up a good score.’
Killed every one that came out in under ten seconds. Han Baekgil had taken the longest,
But he'd died tasting utter despair all the same.
Made sense. Sold his soul and didn't get to do shit before dying.
‘90 points got me an upper devil, right?’
Reward was a unique-grade weapon. Wrong job, so he'd sold it.
But this time, a Devil Lord?
First time seeing one of these.
‘Wonder if it'll give something good.’
He stared at Andromalius. A man who looked like he had a snake coiled around one hand. The guy was staring right back at him.
[‘Taker of Vulcan’s Eye’ effect activates!]
[The ‘devil’ before you feels immense intimidation!]
Vulcan's effect worked even on Devil Lords, it seemed.
—Ho… this is something. I was wondering why I got summoned out of nowhere, but I see it was worth it.
Andromalius smiled faintly and bowed at the waist in greeting.
—Pleased to meet you. I am Andromalius, 72nd in rank among the Demon Realm Lords.
‘Demon Realm.’
One of the stages that rarely popped up in gates.
And.
‘Vulcan's a Demon Realm devil too, right?’
He stared at the guy.
“Know a balrog named Vulcan?”
—Ah, that hothead? Oh, I know him well. He was pretty famous once.
Andromalius smiled as he spoke.
—Anyway, quite mysterious. I'm dying to know how you pulled off such feats in a dimension like this. How about a trade?
“Trade?”
—I can give you some of my authority.
“Authority what?”
—Don't you want to know who's behind some incident? Wish you could recover stolen goods? If that's not it, how about the power to find hidden treasure locations?
“What do you want?”
—I'd like you to fight as my champion.
“… Champion?”
—Hmm. Where to even start explaining. Very well, from the basics. The Demon Realm holds ranking wars. Wars where the 72 Devil Lords vie for position.
“They don't fight directly?”
—Haha.. That'd kill off tons of devils. Too big a price just to set a ranking, no?
“So?”
—We pick proxies instead. Proxy warfare becomes crucial the higher you go. Unless someone has overwhelming power, that is.
“So proxies fight and that decides the rankings?”
—Exactly! We don't pick just one proxy each, but the gist is the same.
‘Hmm.’
Kim Minwoo pondered for a moment.
Andromalius's authorities.
They seemed somewhat useful.
Especially the one for finding hidden treasures.
But…
‘Be his champion just for that…’
Kinda underwhelming.
First issue.
Was it a good deal fighting for a mere 72nd place?
Second issue.
What was his own market value in the Demon Realm?
No clue.
He could end up selling himself short.
There was an old adage for a reason: Never trust a devil's words.
Devils weren't devils for nothing.
No telling what kind of backstab this smiling Andromalius might pull.
So for now.
“Give me the 200-point reward first?”
Better grab the reward before any trades.