Chapter 106: Hierarchy Advancement (1)

Chapter 106: Hierarchy Advancement (1)

The demons had to incarnate themselves without fail to operate in the middle realm.

While lower-ranked demons could traverse the middle realm without incarnating, higher-ranked demons must go through the process of incarnating via sacrifices to materialize their bodies in the middle realm.

Since the demons are said to exist on a dimension above Arteil, they inevitably require sacrifices.

Thus, even when the demons began to act in earnest, only the Third Legion Commander had descended to the present world, and since dying to those two heroes, not a single Legion Commander has descended to the middle realm.

More accurately, it would be correct to say that they were unable to do so.

For the legion commander-level demons to manifest, they need numerous sacrifices and negative energy that can be obtained through war.

However, at the current moment, though they could obtain quite a lot of sacrifices through subjugating territories, they still haven’t obtained enough negative energy.

The reason is that, since a month ago, after Landaron swallowed up the Norba Kingdom, wherever demons were sent, two heroes appeared and killed them.

Therefore, Kelva ultimately made a decision.

Even if it was a bit of a stretch, he decided he had to hunt those two down.

“......”

In his eyes, he saw countless demons moving in groups, too numerous to count.

If it was those two heroes moving to eradicate infamy, that number was so great they couldn’t help but to appear.

Furthermore,

“Is everything ready?”

“It’s done.”

Currently, Kelva, with the help of a lord under Duke Landaron, has formed a massive large-scale encirclement near where demons are heavily gathered.

The reason was, of course, to prevent the two heroes, who had sensed something, from escaping.

In addition, Kelva had pushed most of the demons here to capture the two heroes and had even temporarily halted the war elsewhere, just in case the two heroes decided to go somewhere else.

In other words, for Landaron and Kelva, who value time as gold, maintaining this situation itself means they are at a loss.

However, Kelva decided that it was right to unconditionally accept such a loss if it meant capturing the two heroes.

At least, in Kelva’s judgment, the existence of those two heroes proved too harmful for him.

It was a problem that they were hastily disrupting the process of subjugation to eliminate infamy.

It was also a problem that they were certain to interfere when he moved to kill the outsider.

Therefore, he had laid a trap to kill the two heroes, even if it meant suffering a great loss right now.

Currently, he was even in a state of incarnation.

“Huh-”

Kelva let out a low sigh and checked his body.

At a glance, his body was not the humanoid form he had seen before but resembled that of a beast.

Both legs and arms had sharp claws like a beast’s, and there were black wings on his back.

And with horns as long as those of Agares, the Third Legion Commander, atop his head, he showed a satisfied expression at the fulfillment he hadn’t felt in years, yet he also sighed.

While incarnating to kill the two heroes and feeling his original senses after a while was satisfying, due to Kelva’s traits, a limited incarnation and not a perfect one, was quite a loss for him.

Initially, due to his special circumstances, incarnating in such a manner would cause the incarnated body to evaporate due to a lack of magical power in just a few days, and thus, it would be deemed destroyed, resulting in a permanent loss of power.

Moreover, since it takes a certain amount of time to incarnate and they attacked at speeds previously unseen by them, he had to incarnate in advance.

‘The moment they fall into the trap, I will definitely kill them.’

Kelva smiled as he looked at the well-laid trap.



A few days later.

Originally planning to visit after a day or so, Kim Hyunwoo, dealing with selecting administrative personnel and various tasks, decided to visit the Mage Tower branch about three days later.

Before visiting the Mage Tower branch,

“Huh-”

After making all the Magnifying Glasses, Kim Hyunwoo, who had selected administrative personnel on the first day, heard that the soldiers he had mentioned separately had been gathered and opened the troops window.

Regular Soldiers: 1200

Apprentice Knights: 200

Having gathered the originally intended 1,000 soldiers in just a few days, in line with the population, Kim Hyunwoo smiled satisfactorily and soon upgraded the soldiers.

Regular Soldiers: 1000

Guards: 200

Apprentice Knights: 200

As Kim Hyunwoo made the adjustments, a window with rapidly changing text popped up in front of him.

Troop Type: Guard

Leader: Gouka

[Proficiency 0/100]

Number of personnel:

200

[View details]

Combat Efficiency: Average

–Basic Equipment–

Head: Iron helmet

“Size? Hmm... Well, they can be quite large.”

“Can you also make them inside the Labyrinth?”

“The Labyrinth?”

Shadra asked back with a puzzled expression.

But soon,

“Ah.”

Realizing something, Shadra laughed,

“Hee-”

and quickly asked with a bright face,

“You want help with conquering the Labyrinth?”

“Um... Was I too obvious?”

At Kim Hyunwoo’s words, as he glanced away, Shadra laughed and said,

“It’s okay! We’re in this together, Dad!”

“...Really?”

“Of course!”

Seeing Shadra’s confident smile, Kim Hyunwoo felt inwardly relieved.

The truth was, while his purpose for today was indeed to have a conversation with her, he also intended to ask for her help with the Labyrinth.

After all, the way to earn more Magic Stones at this point was to quickly conquer the Labyrinth and summon higher-grade mercenaries to Lartania.

Thus, with a smile, Kim Hyunwoo said,

“Ah, but in exchange! Grant me one wish too!”

“A wish?”

“Yes, a wish!”

At the mention of a wish, Kim Hyunwoo glanced at Shadra, but soon nodded in understanding, seeing her innocently smiling face.

Along with Shadra’s action of hugging Kim Hyunwoo tightly once more, as if she had accomplished something, she beamed a bright smile.

Thump-!

Once again, a tremendous noise was heard.

“...?”

Kim Hyunwoo felt puzzled again, but Shadra, who was hugging him with her arms around his neck, blankly stared out the window behind him.

Grin-!

Seemingly having realized something, she hugged Kim Hyunwoo even tighter, revealing her sharp fangs with a grin.

“...Shadra?”

Startled by the sudden increase in pressure, Kim Hyunwoo asked, and Shadra said,

“Dad, you know...”

“Hmm?”

“You said you don’t particularly like dogs, right?”

“...Dogs?”

“Yes, dogs.”

“...I’m not particularly fond of them. If I had to choose, I’d say I prefer cats.”

“Right? Then, what about breasts?”

“...Huh? Breasts?”

“Yes, women with large breasts or small ones. Which does Dad prefer?”

“Huh? Why do you ask this all of a sudden?”

Kim Hyunwoo clearly looked perplexed, but Shadra, with her characteristically innocent expression, persisted,

“So? How about it? Dad, do you like them big or small?”

She asked as if her face bore the innocence of having not even 1% of impure intentions,

“...Well, I prefer femininity.”

Although Kim Hyunwoo gave Shadra a peculiar look, she giggled at his response.

And at that moment,

Merilda and the Absolute Ruler of Darkness, who had created two large craters on the hill and had been causing a commotion until just a moment ago,

“...Hate dogs...?”

“...I am average, I am average, I am average, I am average-”

Seeing them murmuring with expressions as if they had lost the world, Loriel and Giral turned their gazes blankly towards the Mage Tower branch,

“......”

“......”

and seeing Shadra, who was looking accurately at their location, revealing her fangs and smiling mischievously, Loriel and Giral couldn’t help but think,

‘Isn’t this dangerous?’