142. Trade with Belkoseu
"Do you know how I lasted in the demonic realm?"
"……"
"This body was not meant to become one of the demonic chiefs or the demon king. At least it was? I was a low ranking monster, similar to the Puppet Goblin that travels with you."
"Sounds like you"re talking about a past far away?"
"However, now I have become someone that even the demon king wishes not to face. Isn"t that strange? Despite being on the lowest of the food chain in the past, now I am able to stand as equals against the demon king. All monsters have their powers determined at birth. So is the amount of magical energy they can hold……"
"Is it because of your Authority?"
"Kuhu. Guess your race are quick on the uptake. That"s right. Thanks to the Immortal"s Authority, I have made it this far. My first death and kill activated it. I wouldn"t lose to any attacks, and I was able to retaliate against my foes after reviving. However, that wasn"t enough….. Even with my undying body, if my capacity for holding magical energy was low, I would be cursed to live an eternity as one of the weakest creatures."
"Then, perhaps…"
"That"s right. The monsters that I kill, I can take all their magical energies."
"So why are you telling me this?"
Belkoseu was far more dangerous that I thought he"d be.
Right now, the conditions required for his growth was not met, but he had enough latent potential to take the t.i.tle of demon king easily.
Not only immortal, but he had an infinite capacity for growth.
However, to become stronger, he would need strong monsters as sacrifices for him.
For example, those monsters would need to be strong as Zekill or Berdan.
From what I heard from Belkoseu, I a.s.sumed that his offensive capability was pathetic at best.
It would make sense, since if he was only able to reach this far with an ability like that, then his attacks had to be weak.
That must be the reason why he wanted to trade with me.
With immortality and a lacking offensive capability, he would be stuck as a weakling for eternity.
With his eyes glued to me, he continued to speak.
"I"ll be straightforward."
"Yeah. No one likes being overly complicated."
"Human, become my ally. Obtain what you wish from me."
"What I want….. The eradication of monsters in the human realm, right?"
"Didn"t you say that"s what you were fighting for? If I become the demon king, I shall do just that."
"Hm…… Then what do you want in return?"
"I"m glad that we"re on the same page. I want your strength. Use your strength to bring me powerful magical energies, so that I can absorb it. If you do so, I shall defeat Ladin and Jamon that you cannot defeat."
"I have only taken down the Lich King. You"re judging my powers based off of that?"
"Pfft. You know humility, human. However, how will you explain the magical energy flowing within you? As I said before, I can sense the magical energies of Zekill and Berdan. To put it shortly, it means that you defeated them."
"The ability for monsters to read magical energies is quite annoying. To think that my lie would be exposed so quickly. So, you need my strength?"
"That"s right."
"You know how you told me to gather magical energies into you?"
"……"
"What exactly do you mean by that? Do you want me to bring monsters like the Lich King to you?"
"With monsters weak as that, it"s hard to antic.i.p.ate much growth for me……"
"Then?"
"What I need are monsters born into the fate of becoming the chiefs. Even now, many are being born, and I need their strength….."
"So you"re not interested in other monsters?"
"That"s right. I think I understand what you"re trying to ask me. When I first saw you, I found one thing amusing."
"……."
"Something poured out from the Lich King"s defeat. And it seemed that whatever came out, it was precious enough for you to have your servant rush collecting the items in question."
"As with your astute observations, I admit that that is one reason why I am agreeing to become allies."
"The items that pour out only do so if monsters are killed by humans, right?"
"Ha…… You"re sharper than I thought. Seems I"ll need to keep my mouth shut."
"I shall promise that as well. It doesn"t take much effort to summon monsters of that ranking. Whenever you want and as much as you want, you can kill them to your liking."
"Good. However …"
"Hm…?"
"You already know how strong I am, but I don"t know how strong you are, right? I understand that you have an Authority that prevents your death. But how about you strength? Don"t you need to show me how strong you are? I can get artifacts from hunting, so there isn"t a reason to just feed you as you wish. I heard that this is how trading is supposed to work."
"Pfft. Are you telling me to show my strength? Seems the trade is halfway done."
"Well, you can say that, I guess."
"Then I shall show you. Come. Give me all you got!"
"I haven"t done any practice fighting before. It could become as dangerous as real fight, ok? So make sure to not die. Don"t regret for not listening to me."
"Kuhahat! Sure, I shall keep that in mind."
Finishing our chat, he stopped crossing his arms and prepared to fight.
His eyes that were calm like the still surface of a lake turned into that of a prowling hunter.
It was the same with me. I didn"t have any plans of giving him leeway.
If it was possible to kill him now, I had to do so.
His offer was tempting, but helping him was akin to raising a tiger cub.
Belkoseu wanted magical energies.
Not high ranking monsters like the Lich King and such, but he wanted the magical energies of monsters with the potential of becoming leaders of their race.
I had more than enough strength to take down Berdan, so it was easily doable.
He said that he would rise to the rank of demon king and wanted to take control over the demonic realm and its monsters.
After that, he promised to get rid of monsters appearing on Earth once and for all.
However, who in their right mind would just go ahead and believe that?
I just needed him to trust me for a bit and use him as needed.
If it went as I planned, I would gain a great amount of benefits.
I would be able to obtain a vast amount of artifacts and jewels easily and without having to run around searching for monsters.
And even while I delivered him magical energies to feast on, I would be using Karin to keep tabs on his magical energy levels.
I could not stand by idly and let him grow to a point where I could no longer handle him.
Belkoseu spoke once more.
"What are you doing? Did you say that you wanted to test out my strength?"
"Rightly so……"
"Give me all you got. We don"t want to take too long and risk having the Demon King and Ladin show up to interrupt us."
"Right. Then let"s….."
"Magic resistant? Physical resistance? He probably has one at least."
I needed to find out which one he was resistant to.
I decided to open up with a physical based attack.
Casting Piercing Sword, I held tightly onto the Butcher"s Sword.
I casted Mana Shield, Reflect Shield, and Iron Skin as well.
I expected his attacks to be pathetic at best, but I needed to stay on the side of caution.
A vast amount of swords with a glowing red aura floated behind me.
Letting out great amounts of killing intent, they seemed to wait for my command.
Strong gusts of wind began to blow around Belkoseu.
I had casted Typhoon Wheel.
He was trapped within a whirlwind of razor sharp winds, spinning at an incredible speed.
With that much rotational force coupled with Piercing Sword, most monsters would instantly perish.
I was already at my limit on how many skills I could cast at once, but he would also have to take on my sword swing backed up by 3 million worth of strength stats.
Running towards him, I let forth a wave of swords behind me rush forwards.
Moving at an incredible speed, all the swords. .h.i.t him directly.
Typhoon Wheel was also causing constant damage with its razor sharp winds.
While the winds were ripping him apart, I continued my a.s.sault.
-Clang!
"d.a.m.n…."
"I told you to give it your all……"
My sword was stopped by his armor.
It didn"t even pierce his body and had been stopped dead in its tracks.
Piercing Sword and Typhoon Wheel were meeting similar results.
Chipping away at his armor and cape, both attacks had failed to do any real damage to him.
Kicking him, I retreated backwards to make distant between us.
Realizing that physical attacks didn"t work, I had to make s.p.a.ce for my next attempt.
After receiving my first attempt at attacking, he stood there with a relaxed smug grin.
It was to be expected, since he had received my first volley of flashy attacks without taking any damage.
Tossing the cape that had been shredded into a rag, he spoke to me.
"Not sure what happened there. Your attack had no effect on me. The only thing it did was to damage this cape."
"Physical attack resistance?"
"Hm? Do humans have a lot of limitations in their attacks…."
"Are you beginning to doubt my skills?"
"Pftt. It"s too early to do so. I know you have more attacks to show."
"You know it. It won"t end with just your cape this time, so you better be ready."
"I look forward to it."
My main spell, Meteor, filled the sky.
6 meteors bathed in intense black flames flew down from the sky.
I threw them at him, along with Chain Explosion and Fire Shock at the same time with my two free hands, charging at him.
That"s right. I threw my body towards him, where the meteors would land.
The meteors would deal an insane amount of damage, but as long as my Mana Shield was on, I wouldn"t take any damage from it.
The moment that Meteor struck him, Fire shock followed suit.
And Chain Explosion caused explosions of various elements to come forth from my body towards him.
With my best combination of an attack hitting him, he began to croak out a pained moan.
With these attacking working on him, it confirmed that he only had resistances against physical attacks.
"Kuhack! KUWA!"
"I told you. Told you to prepare yourself."
"Kuughk…."
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