Chapter 52

[Demon Force Supreme Commander, Count Nukuham]

[457Lv]

Vulcan’s eyes narrowed.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again. He was wondering if he didn’t see it correctly.

However, nothing changed.

Vulcan shook his head lightly.

‘Lee Jung-yup… No, this bastard is not even at Jang-ho’s height.’

Vulcan was caught off guard by his humongous height, but fortunately, he figured out Nukuham’s true strength now at least.

Count Nukuham taunted Vulcan in a loud voice,

“Kuhahaha! You dared to cause a ruckus like this! You must be out of your mind. Do you have several lives?”

“…”

“These people are sacrifices for the demon lord. I can’t afford to lose them! Shall we go to a different place!”

Nukuham raised his hand toward Vulcan, and an invisible force grabbed hold of Vulcan.

Along with Nukuham’s shouting, Vulcan was tossed to the distance.

However, it didn’t do any damage to Vulcan.

Actually, going to a different place was what Vulcan wanted, so he chose to get tossed to a far-far distance.

Wheec!

Crash!

Vulcan, who was still flying, collided with a building and stopped.

He dusted off himself and came out of the rubbles. He looked around the area.

Let alone any people, there weren’t even any small demons that were so common when he was on his way to Busan.

Vulcan nodded.

Watching him, Nukuham was impressed. Nukuham said,

“Huh! You withstood my telekinesis. You are quite the sturdy one.”

“…”

“According to the investigation, this world doesn’t have a god or any powerful warriors. I don’t understand why someone like you exist in this place. However, it is very intriguing.”

Nukuham examined Vulcan as if he was a magnificent horse.

He made a proposal that was most unexpected.

“Hey, you. Why don’t you join our demon force?”

“What?”

Vulcan had a look on his face that said he found Nukuham’s proposition to be ridiculous. Meanwhile, Nukuham didn’t care and continued.

“That’s right. It would be a waste for an existence like you to be stuck in a backward planet like this. You possess the strength to bring down demons with nobility titles. Your potential! I like it.”

“…”

“Instead of letting your talent to rot in a place like this, how about you start a second life as a royal servant of our great demon lord Marahamka?”

Vulcan shook his head left and right.

Vulcan figured Nakuham must be out of his mind.

‘He is facing an opponent he met for the first time today, and he is trying to scout me?’

Vulcan broke in to laughter. He felt like he was shooting a film for some war stories straight out of the book, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Noticing Vulcan’s laugh, Nukuham crumpled his face.

“Such insolence. Did you just laugh from what I said?”

“That’s right. Were you thinking it would make common sense for me to accept a proposition like that?”

“You wretch… You are just a human. I was thinking highly of you for having developed such a strength. For that, I was thinking about taking you under my wings, yet…!”

As if he got angry, his body, which was black, started to turn red in some places.

It was like red hot lava flowing through a black field.

Even those from Beloong City, the ones who were pretty powerful, would have been nervous watching Nukuham’s overwhelming appearance. However, Vulcan just looked at him. Vulcan stood there with not a thing out of order.

Vulcan said,

“Just shut up and fight.”

“… You wretch!”

Count Nukuham was infuriated.

With a dignified expression on his face, Nukuham raised his left hand and pointed it to Vulcan.

“I was being generous and giving you one last chance, yet you dared to toss it away. There won’t be any more generosity!”

As soon as he finished talking, Nukuham’s entire body was engulfed in a red layer.

It was an aura that was unique to high nobility demons. It was the kind that was enough to make any living being feel overcome by an ominous sensation. However, it was not threatening Vulcan in any way.

Vulcan, who was watching Nukuham with an expressionless face, used magic to fly up.

‘If I stayed on the ground, he might shatter the entire Korean peninsula with his sword.’

Although the country was already in ruins, Vulcan didn’t want to see it destroyed any further.

Vulcan, who rose to Nukuham’s eye level, said,

“I said just shut up and fight.”

“You bastard! I’ll turn you into dust!”

Nukuham, who looked like a giant volcano, swung his giant sword in a violent motion.

He swung it down as if he was beating on a firewood. His swinging motion contained fury.

A violent intensity could be felt from his swing. It felt like a direct impact would make Vulcan turn into dusts, not just get cut.

Clank!

However, Nukuham’s attack was stopped easily.

Vulcan, with an uninterested face, raised his Heavenly Lightning Blade, and Nukuham’s giant sword, which was being swung down with a force that felt like it could squash anything in its path, was stopped mid-air. It was unbelievable.

Nukuham opened his eyes wide and looked at Vulcan.

Vulcan could see Nukuham’s face. His face looked like he just witnessed something impossible. He looked shocked.

“I… I’m going to use my true power this time! Obliterating Demon Sword!”

Nukuham, who talked like a cheesy villain from an old Murim fantasy novel, swung down his sword once again.

The swing was a lot faster and more powerful than the last one.

However, the end result was the same.

Clank!

“… This cannot be!”

Nukuham’s face solidified like an ancient Rome’s statue.

Like a man in denial, he repeated those words over and over.

“… This cannot be…”

From a common sense stand point, it was indeed a situation that did not make any sense.

Nukuham’s 20-story tall sword was blocked by a blade that was barely over three feet long.

It was like stopping a log with a toothpick. It was not normal.

On top of that, the one that attacked with the giant sword was none other than Count Nukuham, a renowned demon.

In 500 long years, there was not a single human that blocked his attack. Also, he believed that there will never be one.

However…!

‘To think…. Something like this could happen…!’

Nukuham, finally having realized the seriousness of the situation, slowly retracted his sword.

His face was already filled with fear. His confidence, which was overflowing only a moment ago, had shriveled to a size of a bean.

Nukuham would not have felt so cornered mentally if Vulcan, a tiny human being, showed even a little sign of being tired.

If Vulcan made any grunting noise or his stance faltered, if there was a small chance of victory, Nukuham would have bravely swung his sword again.

However, Vulcan looked like he had so much strength to spare despite fighting against all of Nukuham’s might.

‘It feels overwhelming like… Facing the duke!’

Having thought this far, Nukuham started to put strength in his feet so he could escape.

He figured that, no matter how strong Vulcan was, considering the difference in height, Vulcan would not be able to catch up to him.

However, there wasn’t any chance of escape to begin with.

In silence, Vulcan cast Ifrit’s Fist. He opened his left hand and put the palm side toward the front.

“… This is!”

Ifrit’s Fist was flying toward Nukuham in a diagonal path toward the sky.

Watching an object that contained more mana than anything he have ever seen in his entire life, Nukuham thought,

‘This is… Impossible…!’

BOOOOOOOOM.

[Experience points went up.]

Vulcan placed his blade back to its sheath and enjoyed the scene that he just created.

Nukuham’s upper body was gone as if it had been erased clean using an eraser.

Watching Nukuham’s lower half falling like a giant mountain, Vulcan thought,

‘You were not even worth much experience points. You are nothing but talk just like Ho-gwang. Actually, you are worse.’

Vulcan watched Nukuham’s dead body for a while and picked up an item. Noticing that it is a junk item, Vulcan cringed as he turned his body toward Busan.

‘For now, I should talk more with the survivors and come up with a plan.’

Vulcan needed one year anyway before he could use the Cross-dimensional teleportation technique again.

He had to think about what to do until then.

He also had a reason to think about what to do when he goes back to Asgard.

He felt the need to take time and think about those things.

‘To take time and think about the plans for the future… I need information. I need to eliminate remaining demons as well.’

Vulcan quickly returned to the underground prison and was reunited with the survivors.

Like that, Vulcan became a ray of hope to humanity that was only waiting for its doom.

***

“… After that. I spent most of my time obliterating remaining demon force. Once I cleaned up powerful captains and high ranking nobility class demons that were difficult to deal with Earth’s weaponry, the resistance handled the rest on their own pretty well. Like that, I did manage to put an end to the situation.”

“However…”

“That’s right. That didn’t bring back my dead family. It didn’t bring back the destroyed civilization either…”

Instead of the usual beer, Vulcan chugged on hard liquor and continued,

“On top of that, I think the invasion is not over. Don’t you think so too?”

“… You are right.”

Vulcan looked at Filder as if he was asking Filder to explain more.

Filder said,

“Most demon lords invade one of human worlds for the purpose of sucking the planet’s energy and growing their demon force. However, if they expect too much casualty on their side, they don’t invade in the first place. Unfortunately… In this case with Earth, because they already invested troops there…”

“…”

“There is a high probability that they will send more troops because they don’t want to let the destroyed troops to go to waste. Since Earth’s only real power is you alone… They will probably send someone who is powerful enough to fight you, such as a duke…. Or the demon lord himself might come. Although it might take time.”

The two didn’t say anything for a moment.

Vulcan was busy thinking about the ramifications of what Filder just said. Filder was waiting quietly for Vulcan because he wanted to be understanding of Vulcan’s situation.

It was Vulcan who broke the silence first. Vulcan continued with an emotionless face.

“In the end, it looks like I’ll have to go to Act 2 for sure now. I need to do it in order to bring back my family and Earth’s destroyed civilization. I also need to go there to gain the power necessary to fight the demon force that will invade soon.”

“That’s right. A demon lord’s power rivals that of a god… Although his power will weaken a little when he crosses over into the human world, he will be still as powerful as me. I don’t know about it much, but…”

Filder agreed with Vulcan’s words.

Although Vulcan ended up going to Act 2 as Filder wished, the situation was not something that was making Filder feel all that great about.

Vulcan wasn’t going to Act 2 because he wanted to. He was going in order to overcome unspeakable disaster.

Filder was too much of a good man to be happy about the situation.

‘Although this is not like I cursed you… but I feel frustrated.’

Although Filder didn’t have to feel responsible for what happened, Filder’s heart felt heavy for some reason.

Because of this, Filder decided to actively support Vulcan and provide him with everything he could that may help Vulcan in clearing Act 2.

‘I was going to do that anyway, but…’

He decided to be even more supportive than what he planned on doing before.

Also, he figured that he was not the only one that would feel this way.

The other members of The Six were beings that have not lost their humanity despite the weight of incredibly long passage of time that they endured.

They could not be called saints, but they were far from evil.

If they heard about the misfortune that Vulcan was facing, Filder was sure that they would lend all the support that they possibly could within the allowed limits.

‘… Now that I think about it, Mr. Beruneru is a necromancer that came to Asgard after destroying his own world.’

Although that was the case, he became nicer.

Also, he thought of Vulcan as his own prodigy student. Filder was certain that Beruneru would pour Vulcan with every support he could possibly give.

Having thought this far, Filder thought about what he could provide for Vulcan.

Magic, swordsmanship, his specialty potion…

Filder’s face stiffened.

Now that he thought about it, Filder realized there was not much he could provide for Vulcan.

‘There is nothing more that I could give to Vulcan about combat.’

Although The Six were at substantially higher height than Vulcan, Vulcan already paved his own path in combat style.

Also, since Vulcan had the synergy of his natural born talent and SYSTEM, there was no need to worry about Vulcan running in to a wall he cannot overcome. It was pointless to teach him anything more.

Still, it felt like it would not be enough if Filder just sent Vulcan on his way to Act 2 after giving him a load of specialty potions.

‘Is there anything else I can give him?’

Filder’s worry deepened. It was at that moment.

Vulcan, who was keeping silence, said,

“Mr. Filder. I need your help. Also, I need the help of all of The Six.”

“Yes. Of course. The moment you came to Beloong City, I decided to provide with the best support I could provide.”

“In that case, I’ll ask freely.”

Having heard what Vulcan said, Filder tilted his head to a side. He looked dumbfounded.

“If it is about information about Act 2… Haven’t I told you most of it before? If there is anything you have forgotten, I could tell you again, but…”

“No. They were valuable information. However, from a Player’s perspective, they were not perfect. I would like to gather and organize information that are useful for a Player and then challenge Act 2.”

Vulcan emptied the hard liquor bottle on the table.

As he looked at Filder’s eyes, Vulcan added,

“Let’s try making a guidebook for Act 2.”