321. Demon Realm
321. Demon Realm
***
*
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—You have entered the Demon Realm.
【Several system functions are restricted.】
- Party invites and acceptance are unavailable within this area.
- Requests for help are unavailable. Upon death, a 24-hour penalty is applied before re-entry to the area.
- Logging out within the area is automatically treated as character death, applying a 24-hour entry ban and death penalty.
【Additional Benefits】
- An additional 20% drop rate benefit is applied for entering an appropriate-stats hunting ground.
- You are in a 3-person party. A 30% penalty is applied to Attack Power and Defense.
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*
Serin, who had been eyeing the hunting-ground notification that blocked her view, soon looked around.
The interior of the Demon Realm, which had appeared hazy before entering, now came into view with complete clarity once she stepped inside.
'This is almost exactly what I saw in Black Ark.'
Another World resembled Black Ark in many ways, and though there were differences, the places I had experienced were generally almost identical.
The Demon Realm was the same, and I understood it at once.
A gorge region blanketed in eerie, heavy darkness.
Given the numerous vents spewing sinister demonic energy here and there, the monster packs riddled with debuffs were probably the same too.
"Oh, that reminds me—is this your first time in the Demon Realm, Serin?"
When Sua asked with curiosity, a hollow laugh escaped me before I knew it.
'Me, a first-timer in the Demon Realm.'
The Demon Realm was where I had rolled around for at least a year in Black Ark.
"No, I've been here before."
"...Don't tell me, with that gear?"
At Yujeong's slightly surprised question, I smiled and nodded.
"I came here plenty of times with worse gear than this."
Sua's and Yujeong's equipment was so good that mine kept getting compared to theirs, but right now I was wearing Mythic gear and several Legendary pieces.
I genuinely felt no tension at all.
Back when I actually entered the Demon Realm in Black Ark, I had overcome it despite wearing far worse gear in far harsher conditions.
And now, with companions like Sua and Yujeong by my side?
'A penalty like that is nothing.'
Honestly, even the entry penalty from being in a 3-person party felt laughable.
"As expected of Rin, I should say."
As Yujeong murmured with a hint of admiration, Sua also looked at Serin with a surprised expression.
The Demon Realm was a hunting ground notorious as a party area, and until a few months ago it had been a top-tier hunting ground.
So hearing that she had experienced it with worse gear than now was hard to grasp.
With worse gear than now and no reputation, she couldn't have found a party. Which meant she had hunted alone.
'...Is that even possible?'
In theory, the Demon Realm was a hunting ground where even a single graze from a monster's attack meant death.
The monsters' damage itself was monstrous, but the debuffs added to monster attacks in the Demon Realm environment were utterly vicious. The moment a monster landed a hit, you were afflicted with multiple debuffs, and those debuffs never disappeared until you left the Demon Realm.
"And seriously, you two. Are you going to keep embarrassing me about my gear?"
At Serin's slightly sulky remark, Sua and Yujeong laughed softly and changed the subject.
Not one of the three had entered the Demon Realm feeling tense, and they chatted leisurely as they walked for a while.
Before long, the first monsters of the Demon Realm greeted them.
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[Hellhound]
—Level 82.
Damage +77%
Movement Adjustment +55%
Possesses 50% resistance to physical damage.
*Due to the Demon Realm environment, attacks apply debuff effects.
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*
A dog-shaped monster whose entire body was shrouded in pitch-black darkness, with a single massive blood-red eye where its two eyes should have been, boasting a vicious appearance.
After only a brief glance at the hologram, Serin raised her hand and grasped the empty air.
Whoosh!
As Durandal, with its blood-red blade, appeared in her hand, its effect activated and a small aura rose, enveloping the three of them.
Ding.
*
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*Legendary Knight's Fighting Spirit.
Resists all 'lethal' status effects, and possesses a certain level of resistance to other status effect skills as well.
Immunity to lethal status effects. 30% resistance to the effects of other status effects.
If party members or nearby allies are present, half of the effect is applied to them as well.
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*
"A sword?"
When Yujeong voiced her confusion at Serin suddenly drawing a sword, Sua spoke first.
"She said she'd mix in a sword for this raid too."
At Sua answering before I could even open my mouth, I let out a small laugh and turned my gaze straight ahead.
Grrrr...!
The pack of hellhounds, baring pitch-black teeth indistinguishable from the darkness, snarled fiercely and quickly began to surround them—there looked to be at least twenty of them.
"As for coordination, honestly, I've never fought in sync with anyone before, so I'll leave that to you two."
My goal in today's party hunt was to move without getting in the way of the other two, and I had no intention of making it a solo performance.
"Plea?"
At Serin's words, Yujeong spoke as if deferring the decision, and Sua smiled and parted her lips.
"Without breaking out of this encirclement, every woman for herself. How about it? We start by moving so we don't get in each other's way."
With that, she raised her rapier blade toward the snarling hellhounds, and the other two agreed without objection.
Grrrr...! Raaagh!
The hellhounds, all letting out bizarre and bloodthirsty sounds, lunged at them in unison as if coordinated.
The three immediately drew up their respective energies and responded.
Whoosh!
A blood-red aura instantly enveloped Serin's entire body, and she calmly swung her sword, precisely bursting the head of a charging hellhound as she held her position.
In contrast, Sua, wrapped in a brilliant golden aura, moved with ease, dotting points across the field as she precisely pierced the hearts of hellhounds lunging from all directions. Yujeong, as if melding into the darkness, was shrouded in black and raised her nails high into the air. With her sharply grown nails, she began tearing the hellhounds apart as she fought them.
Swish! Whoosh! Slaaash!
The eerie sound of hellhound flesh being sliced, the sound of instant piercing, the sound of tearing—all rang out without pause, and after a few minutes, the space was filled with blood-red stains and gruesome corpses.
Swish!
Serin flicked the blood from her blade with a single shake in the air and turned her gaze to check on the other two.
There was blood visible here and there on both of them, but it was all hellhound blood—neither of them looked injured.
'I don't even need to worry about them.'
True to Sua's "every woman for herself" suggestion, each of them had held her own position and defended her area, and it had gone incredibly smoothly.
"A 3-person party like this could actually be really great."
Sua smiled with satisfaction as she looked over the cleared area, while Yujeong was looking at me with surprised eyes.
"Rin, you have a talent for the sword too, I see?"
"I'm decent enough with it."
Even as I answered, I had no intention of being modest.
The feel for the sword I had developed while preparing for the scrim against Charlemagne had grown into a kind of confidence by now—I considered myself good enough to say I could handle a sword anywhere.
Yujeong, who had been watching her answer with such confidence, recalled the movements Rin had shown moments ago.
'Pure technique? There was definitely no movement that felt like she was being dragged around by her skills.'
It was the first time she had seen Rin use a sword, so her eyes had naturally been drawn to her.
And Rin, who had displayed restrained movements, had even shown composure. Enough to make her almost think Rin had been swinging a sword for a long time.
It was the kind of composure you only saw in ranker knights.
After the Crescent-Moon Weight, then the greatsword, and now she was even handling a one-handed sword as if to show off—the more you watched her, the more new sides of her seemed to emerge.
"The more I see of you, Rin... the more I look forward to what's ahead."
As Yujeong's lips moved with an odd expression, Serin nodded and found her gaze unconsciously drifting to Yujeong's lips.
'Is it just my imagination...?'
Strangely, as their time together increased, Yujeong was starting to feel special.
And with good reason.
The way she looked at me every time, the things she did—it felt like she was treating me the way a woman might treat a man she was trying to seduce.
Whether it was just her teasing, or some kind of habitual behavior... I still couldn't tell, and it left me feeling oddly unsettled.
...
Clang! Clang! Clang! CLANG! KRAAASH!
As the pitch-black ogre's club slammed into the ground without pause, explosions rang out continuously, bursts of light erupting like flames swaying in a typhoon.
Beneath it, a woman far too small compared to the giant ogre's frame danced as she parried the heavy blows—and that woman was none other than Serin.
"I did say she's good with a sword too, didn't I?"
"Rin... isn't just 'good with a sword.' That's not the word for it..."
As Sua spoke with satisfaction at Serin's display, Yujeong stared at Serin as if entranced and murmured blankly.
The current situation was this: while the three had been moving through the Demon Realm and syncing their teamwork, the topic had come up of how to handle the mid-boss they would face in the raid.
And it was none other than Serin who had spoken up first.
She said she would take it on herself.
And this was the result. She was now facing a Giant Ogre—a special specimen even within the Demon Realm—alone, using only her sword.
It was a kind of proof.
The bursts of light kept exploding. The Giant Ogre's attacks carried destructive power nearly on par with a boss monster, so encountering one was undoubtedly the worst of the worst options.
'...Parry, deflect, parry, parry.'
As Yujeong watched how Serin was receiving and countering those attacks, she felt momentarily speechless.
She had thought parrying with the Crescent-Moon Weight was possible because of her high proficiency with that weapon.
But.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Giant Ogre, enraged by the attacks being deflected again and again, brought its house-sized club down even more ferociously. But the result was the same.
Serin parried with the sword just as calmly—no, even more effortlessly than when she had wielded the Crescent-Moon Weight—and the sight was dazzling in itself.
Without any sign of pressure or tension, she swung her sword with such composure that the skill itself seemed almost divine.
'So this... is Rin.'
Now that she was facing Rin's true skill, she seemed like an endless abyss.
The more you learned, the more you realized you couldn't see her true depths—like an abyss that kept revealing something new.
Even if you brought in a ranker from the Knight Class, how many people could truly be said to handle a sword better than the Serin she was seeing now?
"Not allowing a single hit against the mid-boss..."
And she naturally understood why Serin had said she would take on the mid-boss.