Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Chapter 44 Disaster-Grade Demonic Beast
'A land of death as the setting... how interesting.'
Baal and the other Demon Kings were enjoying themselves as they watched the trial of the Testing Floor Hell difficulty 4th floor.
Demonic beasts were originally life forms that occurred when the demonic energy of Demon Kings, which filled the demon realm, gathered densely with a certain probability.
The Land of Death was the region with the thickest demonic energy among the many demon territories in the demon realm, so nature didn't exist there, and the occurrence rate of demonic beasts was also the highest.
Demonic beasts ranged from lowest-grade to highest-grade, and after that they were called disaster-grade. The demonic beasts that occurred in the Land of Death started at minimum lower-grade and sometimes middle-grade ones appeared.
They had a mechanism of becoming stronger by eating other beings containing demonic energy, so demonic beasts were entities that always treated other demonic beasts or demons as prey, excluding themselves.
In reality, numerous upper-grade demonic beasts that had evolved by devouring each other existed in the Land of Death, and occasionally highest-grade demonic beasts would occur.
There were extremely rare individuals that evolved even to disaster-grade demonic beasts, and from that point, demonic beasts also possessed very high intelligence, so the nobles of the demon realm would sometimes scout them.
'I also went there once for predation.'
Demons, like demonic beasts, could gain power by consuming life forms containing demonic energy.
Baal even had Predation, so she could gain both power and potential simultaneously, making her growth speed several times different compared to other demons or demonic beasts.
Knowing how dangerous and barren the Land of Death was, she knew how difficult it would be to be dropped there with 32 times hunger and thirst.
'The Tower is really cruel. Not giving any supplies at that multiplier.'
The 4th floors of other difficulties also had survival as their theme, but the multipliers themselves were different from Hell difficulty.
As it went, Normal gave 2 times, Hard gave 4 times, Extreme gave 8 times hunger and thirst, and the lower the difficulty, the more periodic supplies that fell from the sky appeared.
Even at Extreme difficulty, supplies were confirmed to fall, and what appeared weren't even demonic beasts but monsters that only contained trace amounts of poison, so there were no food problems at all.
But Hell difficulty was the worst environment where the multiplier was 32 times and no supplies even fell, and demonic beasts appeared instead of monsters, causing extreme pain when eaten.
If one hadn't trained resistance on the 1st floor like Han Yeong-min, it was an environment where one would have no choice but to die from eating demonic beasts.
"No way, that eccentric behavior was the correct answer..?"
Zeus, who was watching alongside from the side, was also surprised and had his mouth hanging wide open.
It was clear to see what result would await someone who came up to the 4th floor without sufficient resistance.
"I can only admire that person's insight. To think he deliberately threw himself into traps and trained, having noticed that trials requiring resistance would exist later."
Shakyamuni was genuinely admiring.
'Fools. As if he would have done that knowingly?'
Baal clicked her tongue briefly.
They were just arbitrarily giving meaning to all his actions because they couldn't understand Han Yeong-min's eccentric behavior unless they thought like that.
From her perspective, Han Yeong-min was just someone obsessed with training. He had a personality that couldn't stand being stagnant.
He wasn't the type to use schemes, but he was someone who could do anything to become stronger if it was a legitimate method.
The fact that he had set his goal for his mental cultivation method as her, the strongest Demon King, meant he had no prejudices whatsoever.
And as if her thoughts were correct, Han Yeong-min's muttering was heard from beyond the screen.
-The toxicity and demonic energy shouldn't decrease. All of this is my resistance experience points. I should just eat it raw.
"What the... what..."
Even Agares, who was also a Demon King, couldn't help but be shocked, as if that level of thinking process was on a different dimension.
Normally, a person would naturally reduce the toxicity and demonic energy even a little and cook the meat thoroughly to add flavor before eating, but Han Yeong-min was chewing raw meat for resistance as if pain wasn't a problem at all.
Of course, demonic beasts also always ate meat raw, but Han Yeong-min was human, not a demonic beast.
Demonic beasts simply didn't know the method, but if even demonic beasts knew that cooked meat tasted better, they wouldn't eat it raw but would cook it. So what was that human?
The three characters of the name 'Han Yeong-min' were carved deep into the minds of the gods and Demon Kings like an inextinguishable ember.
*
THUD!
This time I brought down a crocodile-type demonic beast that was almost the size of a two-story building.
Perhaps because of its large size, it had a tremendous amount of meat and blood, and I immediately took a big bite.
"Ugh. Tough. Just how much did it evolve?"
For several days, I had caught and eaten really many types of demonic beasts.
The endless hunger and thirst, and the ever-growing craving for growth.
Perhaps because my body had learned that pain made me stronger, I had reached a state where I could sublimate pain into pleasure.
*'It seems like some strange potential has bloomed...'*
It wasn't simple masochism, but rather I only felt good from pain that accompanied growth, so it was fine.
From eating so much, my digestive ability also seemed to have improved, which was problematic. It was a good thing, but with 32 times hunger and thirst added, my stomach emptied much faster, so I had to eat without rest.
At first, I ate demonic beasts that were about twice the size of wolves over 2 hours, but if I ate that again now, I would finish eating and digesting it in 30 minutes.
Had some potential as a glutton bloomed? Actually, it wasn't a bad change for me.
Digesting quickly meant I could eat more demonic beasts, and eating more demonic beasts would continuously accumulate resistance and potential.
*'I'm starting to get the hang of it.'*
What I had vaguely felt when I first ate demonic beasts and absorbed potential was now being grasped more definitely.
In the tutorial, I gained new traits from the gods' avatars, but didn't I gain no traits from the Demon Kings' avatars?
At first, I thought the reason was that my body was already close to a Demon King, but it turned out that wasn't it.
It was simply that the number I had devoured was insufficient.
The number of gods' avatars was five, the number of Demon Kings' avatars was three. There was a difference in numbers from the start.
And I was now filling that gap with the potential of demonic beasts.
I didn't know what relationship demonic beasts and Demon Kings had, but I had a strong intuition that if I continued eating demonic beasts like this, I would bloom a new trait.
I needed more demonic beasts, stronger demonic beasts.
So I made a plan.
Like now, I would catch one giant demonic beast and replenish as much food as possible, then gather other demonic beasts and make them fight.
When I experimented earlier, when there were a demonic beast and me in the vicinity, the demonic beast attacked other demonic beasts before me.
Using that, if I drew the aggro of demonic beasts and gathered them in one place, wouldn't they devour each other? That was the conclusion I reached.
A kind of Venom Pot would be born. If they devoured each other, only the strongest demonic beast would survive, and if I ate that demonic beast... I could grow even more.
[Upper-Grade Comprehensive Resistance (Lv9)]
Besides acquiring traits, it seemed like it would be an opportunity for Comprehensive Resistance, which had stopped growing at level 9, to advance to Supreme-Grade.
After eating my fill, I sealed the remaining meat so it wouldn't smell and carried it while going around gathering demonic beasts.
I drew the aggro of various demonic beasts like wolf-type, lion-type, bear-type, crocodile-type, tiger-type demonic beasts and started running wildly, and eventually they started fighting among themselves.
And by continuously drawing new demonic beasts' aggro to the fighting spot and supplying them, the Venom Pot form I wanted was finally completed.
Whenever I got hungry, I ate one piece of sealed crocodile-type demonic beast meat, and when thirsty, I squeezed and drank the blood packed in bags.
*'Anyone who saw would think I'm also a demon.'*
The situation just made me like this, but I'm just an extremely ordinary human.
Even knowing all the truth, there wouldn't be anyone who would falsely accuse me of being a demon.
"Oh. It's almost over?"
Like that, the demonic beasts devoured each other and eventually only two demonic beasts survived.
Two entities possessing overwhelming power different from the demonic beasts I had faced until now.
*'Honestly, this much would be sufficient...'*
Just eating those two would probably be enough to obtain a new trait.
Both had power that was slightly weaker than Eve before she became my retainer.
As I was pondering what to do, the two demonic beasts started a territorial dispute as if this was their territory.
THUD! CRACK!
It was like watching a kaiju battle.
One side had evolved repeatedly from a crocodile-type demonic beast and now boasted a form close to a dragon, while the other was a giant tiger-type demonic beast like a mountain lord.
Truly a battle between dragon and tiger.
Perhaps instinctively feeling that the winner would monopolize everything, they fought with all their might to win.
They didn't care whether their bodies got wounded or not, and did their best only to destroy their opponent more.
Even if 10% of my body gets bitten off, it's profitable if I bite off 20% of the opponent's body.
I never expected to see Mutually Assured Destruction here. Since each other's attacks were fatal, neither even thought of dodging.
*'It would be logically right to intervene soon...'*
Now, when the two kaiju were fighting while only paying attention to each other, if I intervened and secretly helped the losing side, the fight would become even more intense and it would be much easier to land the finishing blow.
It was a method to devour both without difficulty. I could become stronger very easily.
[Remaining time: 7 hours 13 minutes]
The time that had felt so long was also running out, so if I finished off those two and devoured them, I could endure sufficiently until the trial ended.
But one crazy thought that I couldn't just let pass entered my head.
*'Just how strong would the one who wins between those two become if it eats its opponent?'*
If the guys who were already slightly inferior to Eve devoured their opponent and stole that power, I became extremely curious about how far they could reach.
I wondered if I might be creating a monster I couldn't handle, but I couldn't resist.
Giving up on intervention, the black dragon eventually bit the black tiger's neck and took its life.
And it devoured every drop of blood from the loser's corpse, expanding its existential status. Demonic energy burst out in all directions from its body.
A black cocoon made of demonic energy wrapped around the dragon, and I could feel that some change was happening inside.
It was like watching the rebirth and transformation of a martial artist who had just reached realm of harmony.
Since the total amount of power was different, that change seemed even more violent.
The last chance to stop it was now. If I broke that cocoon now, I could easily achieve victory.
But I didn't touch the cocoon.
*'Because that's not my path.'*
Only victory achieved through endless struggle has value. Easy paths have limits.
If I truly want to become strong, I must push myself to the limit. I learned that in the tutorial.
It's the only method for me, who has no talent, to surpass those with talent.
[All conditions for a Disaster-Grade Demonic Beast to appear have been met.]
[A special entity appears.]
CRACK.
Along with the message, the cocoon split.
A dragon emerged from within. Not something like a crocodile imitating that form, but a real dragon.
Yes. The most appropriate name to call that thing would be Demonic Dragon.
Surprisingly, the Demonic Dragon opened its mouth and attempted conversation as if intelligence existed.
"You've returned... Predator of all demonic beasts. Baal..!"
But the words that came from its mouth made me bewildered. Who is who?
"Huh..? Who?"
'We're meeting for the first time though...'
When I made an expression of not understanding, it spoke as if finding me ridiculous.
"Don't try to deceive me! Even if your appearance has changed, the power of that authority felt from within cannot be hidden! Did you think we demonic beasts wouldn't recognize you?"
'I'm telling you no. Damn bastard.'
The authority probably refers to Predation, but it's genuinely absurd that it's barking up completely the wrong tree while thinking it's the right answer.
Just where do I look like Baal?