Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: How the Rank 1 Hero Saves the World
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The foul stench clinging to my nose felt like it was invading my lungs. The energy wrapping around my hands and feet acted like unpleasant shackles, pressing me down toward the earth.
- Angelus's Blessing is protecting your body.
- Angelus's Blessing is protecting your mind.
But I wasn't completely crushed. Fortunately, I could at least breathe thanks to Angelus's Blessing.
However, even the archangel's blessing couldn't achieve more than that.
- Warning! The Demon Realm rejects the existence of Player, Wandering Pilgrim.
- If the Hero class enters the Demon Realm, stats will decrease due to class characteristics.
It really was the Demon Realm.
"Whoa..."
A faint thrill washed over me, but it soon faded.
Still, my all-day search through dungeon data across the country yesterday had paid off.
Just like in Tartarus, Korea truly had a dungeon leading to the Demon Realm.
Honestly, I'd been half-doubting it.
The Demon Realm was where the demon race, the demons, resided.
For me, a Korean, it didn't quite click conceptually, but I'd accidentally dropped into this place during my time in Tartarus, so it felt somewhat familiar.
Hoo, I let out a deep breath. The noxious air filled my body, leaving only discomfort behind.
"Now I just need to confirm this one thing."
Sring.
The sound of me drawing my sword weighed heavily on the surroundings.
The blade, emitting white light, shone with an even clearer glow, resisting the demonic energy surrounding us.
"Whether this is the same Demon Realm I came to back then."
When I'd fallen into the Demon Realm before, a demon had told me this:
Across all the countless dimensions, there's only one Demon Realm where 'demons' exist.
Of course, it was just offhand, and it was hard to trust a demon's words, so it was ultimately a gamble with low odds.
Naturally, it didn't matter if this wasn't the Demon Realm I'd visited.
As long as there was an intelligent demon race member here who knew the System well.
I'd just extract the info from them.
- All existences in the Demon Realm desire your death.
- Restrictions are placed on Player, Wandering Pilgrim's actions while staying in the Demon Realm.
Every living being in this world rejected me.
A malice and hatred so intense it wouldn't even allow me to breathe.
To fall, one needs righteousness.
Thus, in a world without righteousness, there is no fall, and without good, evil can't be distinguished.
This world, where only evil exists, denies the existence of a Hero.
So what?
"I feel the same, you crazy bastards."
I wanted everything in this world to just die too.
Glad we're on the same page. Right?
- Apex Holy Sword rejoices at your resolve.
As if agreeing with my thoughts, a clear sword cry rang out from its sheath. Thanks to that, breathing felt a bit easier.
But honestly, the biggest handicap I faced in the Demon Realm was my partner.
I could see the Demon Realm's energy clinging to the lightsaber at my waist like iron to a magnet. The sword trembled, sensing the demonic energy.
- Apex Holy Sword cannot exert its power in a world corrupted by demonic energy.
- Apex Holy Sword's trait, 'Subjugation,' cannot be activated.
I already knew that well. If there was a place where I'd be weakest, it was the Demon Realm.
In a normal world, a Hero could strike down fallen beings, but the Demon Realm didn't play by those rules.
In the end, I was the weakest here.
Crows sensing my energy began cawing over the dead brown earth and red sky.
Soon, monsters would swarm to devour the living.
- Dungeon Clear Condition: Defeat 30 B-rank Monsters
A system message announced the monsters' arrival.
I glanced at it and dismissed the clear condition message.
Thanks for the heads-up, but the condition I needed to fulfill wasn't the clear condition.
Boom boom boom!
The crows grew noisier, and then the ground-shaking sounds came from beyond the wasteland.
The black dots on the horizon grew closer, shaking the earth and radiating threatening auras.
Hunters who'd entered this dungeon before had to search exhaustively to find monsters.
But I didn't need to do that at all.
The moment I set foot in the Demon Realm, its inhabitants would detect my energy and come swarming.
No matter how vast this wasteland field was.
To them, I was the worst—and best—prey imaginable.
- A-Rank Monster, Manticore has appeared.
Monsters with human faces, lion bodies, and scorpion tails charged toward me in a pack.
Recognizing the first one rushing in, I grinned.
"Yeah, come on."
To me, they were just bait.
What I needed now was something intelligent that existed in the Demon Realm.
No 'person' to ask about the System, but something not human.
In other words, the Demon King ruling this Demon Realm.
"If I kill all the monsters in your territory, you'll have to show up."
The Demon Realm's penalty on me made my limbs feel heavy, but who cared.
Still, I had to come here. Even thinking it might be the Demon Realm. No, especially because of that.
Truth be told, if I could just return to Tartarus, even taking the Demon King's head would be nothing.
Isn't that what Heroes do?
* * *
Alicia was the one who taught me swordsmanship.
Before that, all I knew was the most basic swordsmanship from the System's skill tutorial—basically brute force swinging.
In contrast, Alicia stood at the pinnacle among swordsmen on the Tartarus continent.
She'd been wielding a sword since childhood.
Not because she was noble and given the opportunity.
Quite the opposite.
Ilias and Alicia had lost their parents in the early chaos of dungeons appearing and became orphans wandering the streets. To survive, they joined a gang that did everything from soliciting customers to pickpocketing.
But misfortune piled on misfortune: the gang, made of kids, was led by a lunatic who believed they had to fight the continent's doom—a ridiculous notion.
I call it ridiculous because the leader didn't raid dungeons himself but threw kids in, selecting and intensely training the survivors as 'talented.'
Ilias and Alicia survived that hell, and Alicia learned the sword. Thrown into a dungeon with a sword as long as her body, she was unfortunately a swordsmanship genius.
By twenty, no swordsman surpassed her.
And upon reaching adulthood, Alicia slaughtered all the gang's executives who'd raised her.
Others, horrified by the brutality, pleaded if there wasn't a milder way, but she just scoffed.
She truly walked the path of hegemony and carnage.
Years later, she claimed the title of Mercenary King.
Learning from such a woman, I naturally became, well...
As I crushed the innards of a manticore lunging for my flesh with my bare hand, I thought.
What was this called again?
Ah, right.
Brutal. Savage.
Words we heard often. Me and Alicia both.
Alicia taught me how to survive. It wasn't limited to swordsmanship.
Because she was an exceptional swordswoman but didn't obsess over the sword.
She always said:
You swing a sword because it's the most efficient.
But don't forget you have other weapons besides a sword.
Fists, feet, head, teeth—they're all weapons for survival.
Surviving is what matters most.
I agreed with her completely.
Stab!
A manticore's belly is softer than its back shell. Soft enough for my strength-enhanced nails to pierce.
The human-faced manticore screamed deafeningly. Meanwhile, another monster charged from beyond the corpse whose throat I'd slashed with my sword.
Too late to retrieve and swing.
No choice.
I slammed the hand still buried in the warm body down on the incoming monster's head.
Clang!
The manticore, struck by its kin's carapace, flew back. I pinned its wriggling body with my foot and crushed it.
Yeah, so I think Alicia would be proud of this scene.
I'm surviving just as she taught me.
"Kieek!"
My foot on the monster's body felt a squishy sensation.
This time, I grabbed the tail of the one whose face I'd smashed and rammed it into the face of another charging at me.
No time to rest. By the time I'd slashed three with my sword, five more rushed in.
- Angelus's Blessing is purifying your body!
Manticores eat flesh with human mouths and wield venomous scorpion tails.
Dozens of their venomous stingers were already embedded in my arms and legs—poison lethal even to most monsters, let alone humans.
Without Angelus's Blessing, I'd be dead from poison by now.
But its purification primarily counters demonic energy.
It has limits against toxins invading the body.
Plus, my body was still fragile right now.
Slamming my forehead into a charging manticore's head shook my skull instead.
So damn weak!
But fortunately, my sword—my partner—was doing its best.
It couldn't subjugate or purify fallen beings, but it faithfully blocked surrounding demonic energy. Thanks to that, breathing was manageable.
- Apex Holy Sword is dispirited.
Aw.
But what can you do? Against a swarm of small monsters—even smaller than humans—a sword isn't always efficient.
A sword's value comes after extending your arm, slashing, and swinging back.
Thrusts and cuts lose time retrieving due to body mechanics, creating openings.
In the end, you use fists, head, teeth—anything that works.
As my knuckles ached from smashing manticore heads, a system message appeared with an exit nearby.
- Dungeon Clear Condition: Defeated 30 B-rank Monsters fulfilled.
- Top Contributor: Wandering Pilgrim
I impaled the belly of the last manticore in the swarm with my sword.
Kiiik!
It let out a gruesome cry and perished.
Its scorpion tail, unable to even release venom, twitched and went limp.
"...Hoo."
I looked around, but no signs of life remained.
Maybe because the field was so vast. They'd clearly sensed my energy.
- Would you like to exit the dungeon?
- Y/N
Since I'd met the condition but showed no sign of leaving, the exit message popped up again.
"Not leaving yet."
With a brief respite, I did what I could. I checked my inventory and pulled out items for first aid.
First, I took a small knife and checked the skin around the stinger punctures, carving out the fully discolored flesh.
Using a potion on spreading poison would be disastrous.
Not a doctor, so I guessed how much to cut. But Angelus's Blessing should handle the rest.
Man, I shouldn't be living so carelessly.
Sorry, doc.
- Potion effect reduced due to class characteristics.
Plus, as the message said, the potion worked agonizingly slowly. Not a world for lingering.
I confirmed the flesh regenerating bit by bit, then dusted off my pants.
Still, I had no intention of leaving this dungeon until I got what I wanted.
Even if it meant exterminating every monster in the Demon Realm.
"...So when the hell is it gonna show?"
I'd made enough racket by now.
Is this not the Demon Realm I know? The ones I know would've appeared already.
Or do I need to cause more chaos?
That's when it happened.
A massive black shadow appeared over the horizon sky. It flew toward me at tremendous speed.
The message appeared later than I noticed.
- A-Rank Monster, Wyvern has appeared.
- S-Rank Monster, Death Knight has appeared.
Finally here.