The raid that felt exceptionally long had ended successfully. Yura smiled as she shared Grid’s joy and soon sat down. The mental exhaustion wasn’t a joke due to the continuous crises. In fact, she was worried about the high fatigue Grid would feel since he fought Marchosias alone.
‘...Should I show him some cuteness to cheer him up?’
She had been practicing for a long time in case this happened, but, well... she was nervous.
“......?”
Yura puffed up her cheeks and prepared her mind. Then she looked back at Grid and became dazed. It was because Grid was fine. No signs of exhaustion could be found. He looked like a person who slept well and was refreshed after waking up.
It was natural. Grid had the best mental power even when he was an insignificant level 73 warrior. He got lost several times searching for the North End Cave and challenged it again without giving up despite dying dozens of times. No matter how difficult the process, his mental power quickly recovered as long as the raid was successful. It would’ve been the same even if the raid failed.
‘It has been a long time since it has felt so rewarding.’
Grid was smiling. Marchosias was someone who stood up and endured dozens of times. The guy who summoned hundreds of thousands of demonic beasts was a raid opponent that maximized the effect of enlightenment. He was an extremely good punching bag. Grid had gained four levels because it was considered a cla.s.s-specific activity and he continued to gain experience due to the enlightenment effect. Therefore, he felt it was a windfall.
‘The dropped items are also great.’
The item that Marchosias dropped was the Petrified s.h.i.+eld. Not only was the s.h.i.+eld’s defense the best, it also petrified a part of the wearer’s body and strengthened the defense of a specific area by a percentage. Furthermore, there was a high probability of petrifying the target facing the s.h.i.+eld, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to call it a weapon as well as the strongest s.h.i.+eld.
‘The performance is truly great and is worthy of an item dropped by a great demon.’
He wanted to make good use of this s.h.i.+eld. It would be nice to explore the s.h.i.+eld techniques for a while.
‘I was already in a good mood because the Holy Light Armor set upgraded. Now something good happened.’
Thanks to Grid’s recognition of Pagma as a hero, the legends of Pagma had become deeper and more widely known. As a result, all the works that Pagma left behind had their rating upgraded by one. Just look at Yura’s magic engineering gun. Wasn’t it showing a power that was incomparable to before? Grid was smiling with satisfaction when a new notification window appeared in his vision. It was a world message...
[The 29th Great Demon, Marchosias, was killed in h.e.l.l.]
The reason why the message emphasized that the location was ‘h.e.l.l’ was simple—even Sword Saint Muller had never killed a great demon in h.e.l.l, and with the exception of Demon Slayer Alex, this was the first time humanity had defeated a great demon in h.e.l.l.
[This is an achievement of Overgeared King Grid, the Lantern of Humanity.]
[His work that makes the enemies of h.e.l.l nervous deserve praise from all humans in the human world.]
Then after the string of world messages was over...
[Reputation throughout the continent will rise by 1,000,000.]
Grid was wide-eyed at the huge amount of reputation he gained. It was nearly three times the reputation Grid had built up so far.
‘If it is one million then can’t I do the draw 1,001 times?’
No matter how unlucky his hand, wouldn’t he be able to receive something if he did the lucky draw more than 1,000 times? Grid thought about it before shaking his head.
‘Gambling is prohibited.’
If he was obsessed with content that required luck, then he would only receive regret. He would be boarding an express train of regret if he wished for good luck when there was only a 1%, 0.1%, or 0.0001% probability. Grid resolutely cut off the impulse surging in his heart and searched through his memories.
‘There was a rumor that new items had been added to the reputation store.’
His wallet was thick and he could buy items no matter how expensive they were—Grid was filled with antic.i.p.ation as he summoned the reputation store, but it was impossible in h.e.l.l.
[This is an area where the golden carriage can’t be summoned.]
“I have to postpone it until next time.”
The disappointed Grid looked back at Yura. The reason he succeeded in the Marchosias raid was due to Yura’s help. It felt like he was monopolizing the world message reward by himself. Yura read Grid’s concern and told him, “It is the Demon Slayer’s job to defeat great demons. I’ve gained a lot of stats and acquired new skills as a reward for defeating Marchosias.”
Just as Grid was able to defeat Marchosias with Yura’s help, Yura defeated Marchosias with Grid’s help and was able to clear one of over 30 cla.s.s quests. It was good for both of them. Grid felt like he was stung. ‘I didn’t know Yura’s quest was to defeat the great demons and tried to benefit alone.’
In the future, he should be with Yura every time he raided a great demon...
Grid made up his mind, but Yura shook her head. “You don’t need to be so considerate. It is because the vacant spot of the great demon will be quickly filled up. Even if I didn’t partic.i.p.ate in the Marchosias raid, I would just wait for the new 29th great demon to appear before raiding it.”
In fact, the atmosphere of the 29th h.e.l.l was unusual. The demon army that scattered in all directions found new leaders and started gathering again, each group led by a great demon candidate, aiming for the now vacant throne.
“The empty throne is mine!”
Demons with different horns and skin colors started to fight in various places. However, the demons who appeared near Grid’s group temporarily entered a ceasefire and attacked them.
“This is tough.”
Mental strength and stamina were separate issues. Contrary to his mood, Grid’s body was heavy and the great demon candidates couldn’t be underestimated. They could be described as dungeon bosses with an average level of 450 and some of the high level ones had power comparable to a great demon. It was actually difficult to endure the attacks of the demon army when Grid and Yura’s skills were on cooldown. The two of them were gradually being pushed back when the red-skinned Glant fell between them.
“You should’ve said it straight away. Isn’t your final task to clean the h.e.l.l of a great demon?”
A demon who stayed alive for thousands of years—few demons had survived for such a long time, and the reason why Glant was able to survive for so long was naturally because... he was strong.
Glant released a red current that caused a shock wave. Then he stared at the convulsing monsters and kept talking, “Hey, Grid. If you want my master to complete the task, be sure to be with her whenever you defeat a great demon. It will take hundreds of years to complete the task if she has to wait for a new great demon to be born, fight against the great demon again, and purify h.e.l.l. Is that possible with a human lifespan?”
It was Glant who told the truth on behalf of Yura, who didn’t reveal the details because she didn’t want to hold Grid back.
Grid placed his hand on Yura’s shoulder as she glared resentfully at Glant. “I’m grateful and happy that I can be with Yura.”
He had confirmed that he couldn’t win alone against Marchosias. However, with Yura, he was convinced that he could defeat even the great demons beyond Marchosias. In the first place, the reason Grid tried to do the raid alone was for him to grasp his skills, not out of greed. There was no reason to insist on continuing to fight alone.
“I also like it.”
It was like a flower had blossomed in h.e.l.l. Yura smiled brightly as she used h.e.l.l Regulation, Boundary Destruction, and h.e.l.l Purification. The 29th h.e.l.l lost its master and couldn’t deny her influence. It gradually lost its demonic power.
“Dammit! I was one step too late!”
“Glant! This dirty guy! Go to heaven!”
A h.e.l.l that lost its demonic power had no value to demons. Those who had lost the meaning of fighting started to leave the 29th h.e.l.l without any regret. The demonic army, once again without a master, wandered for a while before scattering in all directions.
Grid saw the sky start to turn blue and asked a question he had been curious about, “What exactly can you do in a cleansed h.e.l.l?”
"You can make it a neutral area and bring in demonkin. Ultimately, a city will be formed, taxes can be collected, and specialties formed.”
“The other great demons will just watch silently?”
Yura replied, “I said it before. There is an unwritten rule that the neutral areas shouldn’t be touched.”
Glant interrupted, “Grid, can you easily induce the reason?”
“......?”
“Did you see any statues in each city in the neutral areas?”
“Is it the statue of G.o.d Yatan?”
“That’s right.”
“I see... that’s the reason.”
Absolute G.o.ds who had existed since the beginning. It meant they could exist without human faith. However, Rebecca was obsessed with human faith. It was because the more faith she built up, the more power she gained.
‘It is also true for Yatan.’
The ordinary demonkin (people of h.e.l.l) living in neutral areas served Yatan and made Yatan stronger. As Yatan became stronger, the creatures of Yatan (demons) also became stronger. Therefore, the great demons didn’t touch the neutral zones.
Grid gained a deeper understanding of h.e.l.l and quickly developed a plan. “Let’s clean up the h.e.l.ls in their 30s. There is no need to be scared by the great demons in the 30s after killing the 29th great demon. Right?”
Grid hadn’t been very interested when Yura introduced the 32nd h.e.l.l as the h.e.l.l branch of the Overgeared Guild. He couldn’t see the value of the desolate fields and occasional sightings of demonkin. Now the story had changed. After learning that h.e.l.l was also a territory that could develop into a city and wealth could be obtained, Grid wanted to expand the Overgeared h.e.l.l branch as much as possible.
“Ah. I’d like to stop by the smithy first...”
It was tiring to be held back by stamina every time. He wanted to try and make items to help with stamina recovery. Grid was preparing to return to the human world when Yura told him, “h.e.l.l has a smithy.”
‘Helmis!’
h.e.l.l’s only blacksmith. Grid’s eyes shone as he remembered the demonkin he briefly met a few years ago. “Do you know where it is?”
“Yes. I’m a regular there.”
“......!!”
***
There was only one downside to being Baal’s Contactor—it was impossible to hunt in h.e.l.l. Unless it was a special case, all the demons and demonic beasts of h.e.l.l served Baal, and were friendly to Baal’s Contractor. It meant that for Agnus, the demons of h.e.l.l were judged as NPCs, not monsters. Agnus had to search for a new hunting ground in the human world, not h.e.l.l.
[News has arrived that the 29th Great Demon, Marchosias, has been killed by humans.]
Agnus received unexpected news as he arrived in the Chaos Mountains, but he wasn’t shaken. From the time he saw Grid fighting Andras, he noticed that Grid’s skills were far beyond a great demon, especially with Demon Slayer Yura next to Grid.
[He was an underdog who was used to insults and contempt.]
[A loser who was exploited and couldn’t stand alone.]
Agnus recalled Grid’s first epic that once echoed through the canyon and his expression was colder than the snowstorm swirling in the mountains.
‘You’ve lived the same life as me...’
How could Grid trust others to be with him? How could he say his present self was due to them? If so, was Agnus’ life where he was still alone a failure?
Stop.
Agnus’ footsteps paused as he was walking up a cliff. A man carrying a huge sword on his shoulder was looking down at him from the middle of the mountain. It was Chris, second in the unified rankings and one of the symbols of the Overgeared Guild.
“Agnus?”
“The Overgeared members are everywhere. If you don’t need anything, then get out of the way.”
"......!"
Chris was fl.u.s.tered as he prepared for the attacks of the death knights and lich seen throughout the mountain. It was because Agnus pa.s.sed by without attacking him. The mad dog who attacked people who made eye contact with him was nowhere to be found.
Chris was absent-minded for a while before calling out to Agnus. “Agnus, why are you here?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“This is the Overgeared Kingdom. I need to know the purpose of the visitor before deciding whether to grant access or not. Isn’t that right?”
There were many reasons why a kingdom or guild controlled a particular area. In some cases, it was simply to monopolize the hunting ground. However, it was mainly to suppress conflict and maintain security. In that sense, there was no kingdom in the world that would welcome the visit of the troublemaker, Agnus. Of course, the same was true for the Overgeared Kingdom.
“Permission? I have to get permission from you?”
The snowy area around Agnus started to shake. Chris confirmed the armor of the skeleton soldiers that rose and his eyes widened. “You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
The skeleton soldiers’ armor was engraved with the symbol of the Overgeared Kingdom and Earl Steim. They were armor worn by Frontier’s soldiers. A ma.s.sive landslide occurred as Chris’ 1,000 Ton Sword swept through the snow.
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