I Can't Possibly Be a Heavenly Demon!
There's no way I could be a mad demon!
It felt like the final drop falling into a puddle already filled to the brim.
I had slain the demonic riders without any particular excitement, yet the reward seemed far too generous.
The message I had been waiting for so eagerly had finally come to me.
The explorer has accumulated far too many achievements!
The Dimensional Tower is shocked and is updating the great explorer's information!
The title New Star has consumed the achievement and upgraded to Fierce Star!
LV. 2 → LV. 3
The explorer's rank has risen by one stage!
Awakening unique job!
“……Hmm.”
I was happy, but it had happened so suddenly that I paused for a moment.
The old woman must have found it strange, because she frowned, turned around, and asked.
“What in the world are you doing over there? Do you need to relieve yourself? If so, I don’t want to see it, so hurry up and disappear into the bushes.”
“……No, Granny. What are you even saying?”
My gender-swapped body only needed dew to survive and didn’t bother with anything as vulgar as poop. (Of course that was a lie.)
Still, the old woman’s nonsense had completely ruined my mood, so I snorted and spurred my horse forward.
Clip-clop—
As the horse ran I rose and fell in the saddle, now a person who could check her character sheet whenever she felt like it.
‘My level really went up.’
It was only the nineteenth floor, but considering I hadn’t even reached the middle layers yet, the achievements I had piled up were absurdly numerous.
It wasn’t like that Poison Demon whatever-his-name-was, but I never expected to level up just from killing demonic riders.
Well, it was something I had predicted well enough.
‘Already level three. Leveling up doesn’t suddenly double all your base stats or give you some ultra-overpowered upgrade. Still, in games the stat efficiency used to rise by about 1.2 times with every level. I wonder how it works here.’
I clenched and unclenched my fist several times, testing the feeling, then came to a conclusion while hoping another group of demonic riders would appear so I could try out my new power.
Anyway, it was a good thing. The improvement wasn’t limited to stat efficiency.
If level two triggered the awakening of internal energy, then level three opened the job system.
Awakening unique job!
If translated literally, I had become a crazy demon.
‘Hmm. What is this?’
Was this the tower’s revelation telling me to simply go insane and rampage? Or had killing that Poison Demon guy stained me, like the saying “one who stays near ink gets stained”?
I wasn’t crazy, nor was I vicious like a demon, so this was a rather troublesome job to have.
‘Wait, is this even a proper job in the first place?’
Knight commander, grand mage, or saintess I could understand, but was “mad demon” seriously a job?
“Ugh!”
A huge question filled my mind and distracted me; I nearly bit my tongue from the horse’s jolting gait, but transcendent reflexes barely saved it.
Frowning, I calmed myself first and examined the job’s effects.
Yes, substance mattered more than the name on a business card.
Mad Demon
All combat activities are strengthened. You gain the ability to control your own madness.
“……Is this a good thing?”
“Why are you muttering to yourself again!”
“Ah, be quiet! Granny!”
I snapped at the old woman who kept shattering my concentration, then spent a while turning the job effect over in my mind.
The combat bonus was basically standard for any combat job, though the exact amount varied… The “control your own madness” part was what bothered me.
‘I’m not crazy though?’
Heavenly Slaughter Star, Blood Seed, Asura Divine Art, and now Mad Demon Hand all had some side effects, but was it really bad enough to need a job effect for it?
Was my condition that serious…?
“You damned bitch! What are you doing over there! The sun will set while you’re lost in a daze!”
“Tsk.”
Come to think of it, maybe it really was necessary?
Seeing the violent urges bubbling up toward the whining old woman in front of me, it seemed like a pretty decent effect after all.
Yes. If I hadn’t been able to control the madness inside me… that crazy old woman would have died by my hand long ago.
“Yes, I’m coming right now! Let’s go!”
Anyway, jobs changed as you climbed floors and levels, so I could just switch to something cooler and more stylish later.
‘Since it’s already full of Chinese characters, how about Heavenly Demon?’
Even someone like me who had never read martial arts novels knew that the Heavenly Demon was a beautiful woman, a popular streamer, a dungeon-destroying superhuman who could also bake perfect pastries.
If I tracked down the Heavenly Demon later and killed her, could I become the Heavenly Demon myself?
Deciding I absolutely had to kill her in order to escape the Mad Demon title, I rode up beside the grumbling old woman with a clip-clop of hooves.
There had also been messages about my spirit stat increasing and the title New Star consuming an achievement to become Fierce Star, but those were minor details I could check later.
For now I had to look after the whining old woman first.
By the time the early sun had dyed the sky a pale blue-white.
We had crossed Qinghai, passed the capital, and were nearly into the Shaanxi region.
The man assisting the guardian messenger examined the campfire remnants on the ground and murmured.
“They were here until about an hour ago.”
It seemed they had rested through the night and left at dawn.
The Divine Cult’s guardian thought of the person who must have been here and nodded slowly.
White hair spilled from beneath her cotton veil.
“We’re almost there.”
Even as the Left Guardian spoke, she couldn’t quite tell who she had truly come to find. There was the mission to hunt down and kill the previous guardian, but as a martial artist it was also true that competitive spirit stirred within her.
The higher she climbed, the fewer beings worthy of meeting her eyes remained.
“Let us go drop a star from the sky.”
Perhaps this would be her last chance before ascending beyond the heavens.
After a night of camping that felt far more relaxed than the first, we set out on the road again today.
The old woman said we had nearly reached the famous Zhongnan Mountain and Wudang Mountain.
I didn’t know much about Wudang, and Zhongnan felt a little obscure, but I let it pass.
The crazy old woman had looked at me with an expression that said, “Surely even you know this much.”
Either way, we had entered Shaanxi territory and were approaching the end of the mission.
You have entered the 19th floor, Sichuan.
Clear Mission: Sichuan
📍 Objective: Locate the Black Hand Old Woman of Chengdu and protect her for seven days.
We had already killed the great boss of Sichuan and left its territory behind, but that was fine.
After all, we had fled the city and ridden hard without stopping.
The warning that leaving the region meant certain death seemed more like a field concept than an absolute rule. I could simply take it as recognition for having worked hard on the mission until now.
“……Hmm.”
While we continued galloping forward, the old woman who had been slightly ahead suddenly let out a groan and reined in her horse.
Every time that old woman made that sound I felt a wave of anxiety.
The strangely weighty atmosphere annoyed me, so I asked in a deliberately stern voice.
“What is it this time? Why do you keep groaning like that?”
“I am reading the heavenly signs, so be quiet for a moment.”
“Huh?”
It seemed the old woman had finally gone mad. Otherwise how could she speak that way to me after I had fed her, put her to bed, and taken care of her for six whole days! (Of course the old woman, who had money from the Central Plains, had paid for both horses and all the lodging.)
Still, after all the sincerity we had shared, to use such harsh words…!
Just as the madness inside me began to swell, the old woman murmured in a grave voice.
“They’re here.”
“Pardon?”
“It seems the pursuers from the Divine Cult have arrived.”
“No way.”
We had fled through the mountains for days, riding hard, only to be caught on the final day? This game was completely broken.
Of course, I had no intention of being captured quietly.
“Well, I did expect them to come eventually.”
“That is true.”
The old woman nodded.
“The Divine Cult has always been a tenacious bunch.”
“They’re not cool at all.”
“Cool?”
“It means they lack refinement.”
“Young people these days use all sorts of strange words. Is that western speech…?”
Muttering to herself, the old woman dismounted and relaxed her body, stroking her neck and arms.
“There are two of them. I will take the weaker one.”
“Sure, sure.”
At least the old woman seemed to know her own limits.
As I got off my horse and gripped my sword, a strange phenomenon occurred in the field ahead.
The air rippled, split open like a door, and two figures stepped out from within.
‘……Wait, that’s not martial arts.’
Even I, who had never read martial arts novels, could tell. That wasn’t footwork or instant movement techniques—it was straight-up teleportation magic, wasn’t it?
While I was thinking that, the man panted and retreated. The one wearing the cotton veil stepped forward and bowed.
“It has been a long time, Grand Mother.”
Her voice was clear and pure, like jade beads rolling across a plate.
‘Wait, Grand Mother?’
Wondering if she was referring to the old woman, I glanced sideways. The old woman was staring at the veiled pursuer with violently trembling eyes.
“……Why is it you!”
“Because I am the strongest, of course.”
What was this? Were they close? Feeling as if I were watching some melodramatic soap opera, I looked at the pursuer again. She grasped the cotton veil covering her head and revealed herself.
“Left Guardian of the Sun Moon Divine Cult, Yeo Hwi-bin.”
Hair as brilliant and white as the Milky Way, silver eyes, and a beautiful face gazed at us.
“From now on, I shall correct the order of the world on the ground.”
A transparent sword cast its shadow across the world.
A sudden chill ran down my spine. I raised Cromwell’s sword to block in front of me.
In that instant, the enemy’s blade was already before my eyes.
Entering combat.