Ber recalled an old memory.
Twice in total.
The demon world has been destroyed twice by the shadow lord ‘Seong Jin-woo’.
At first in the Demon Castle dungeon.
Then once more after everything has been reset.
In the war between Sung Jin-woo and the monarchs, the existence of the devil was nothing more than an experience that Sung Jin-woo just stepped on.
So the demons die and die again… … .
In the end, only one family was able to survive in the demon world.
That was the 20th ranked ‘Radir’ family, the only one among the countless demons to side with Sung Jin-woo.
But that family was destroyed?
[… … It seems like something has happened in the demon world.]
Ber squinted his eyes and looked at the corpse of the dead lower-level demon.
To find out the inside story, ‘predation’ was the best.
Because you can read the memories of the being you eat.
[Your Majesty, may I eat that demon?]
At those words, Suho’s gaze turned to the demon’s corpse.
[It is impossible to extract the Contaminated Manara Shadow.]
Suho tilted his head at the message that appeared before his eyes.
“Can’t demons be extracted as shadow soldiers?”
[That’s right.]
Since the power of shadows was to extract the souls of the opponents, it seemed impossible to extract the souls of demons that had already been tainted.
Suho nodded.
“Then eat.”
[Kyaawp!]
As soon as permission was granted, the corners of Ber’s mouth split and he bit the corpse.
I wanted to swallow it all in one bite.
Yom yum!
Yom yum yum!
… … I thought it would take a while because the mouth is small.
[Hehehe!]
Leaving behind a slightly gruesome scene that seemed to require mosaic processing.
Suho looked back at the gazes focused on him.
All the hunters, whether scavengers or raiders, had been looking at him with astonished expressions since a while ago.
“that…….”
“Uh, how… … .”
A confusing situation where you don’t know what to say first.
Assistant Lim, the only one who had seen Suho like this before, stepped forward.
“Suho, are your wounds okay?”
As soon as I leveled up, all my wounds were healed, but the blood on my body did not disappear.
At first glance, Suho looked like he was covered in blood and about to collapse.
“Oh, yes.”
At Assistant Lim’s concern, Suho indifferently wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand.
“That, that place… … .”
The raid leader approached him, timidly.
“You should go to the association and get re-examined… … .”
Regardless of the summoning skill, there was absolutely no way that the guardian who hunted a C-class beast alone would be an E-class.
Clearly, there had been some major mistake.
“That’s not important right now.”
At that moment, Assistant Lim picked up the empty potion bottle that the demon had just consumed and thrown away, and looked at it carefully.
“The original stardust effect wasn’t this great… … What on earth is this?”
“Do you know much about stardust?”
The raid leader’s expression became serious. He himself had been wondering about this for some time.
Assistant Professor Lim nodded.
“That’s because there are so many people among the lower-level hunters who use it. Just a few days ago, the scavengers who had gone into hiding today were grinning happily, saying that they had a hard time obtaining stardust… .”
Stardust was mainly used by lower-level hunters rather than upper-level hunters.
Why do lower level hunters use more stardust?
That’s because the amplification power of stardust is limited.
Stardust is an amazing drug that can instantly turn an E-class hunter into a D-class hunter if consumed, but it is not to the extent of inflating a D-class to a C-class like before.
Of course, it was possible for hunters who were D-class because their magical power was slightly less than that of C-class.
And they were the main customers of Stardust.
They would eat stardust and go to the association instead of the dungeon. Then, they would have their magical power re-measured and their rank changed to C-class.
“… … So, among the stardust users, those who became more greedy tried to increase the amplification power by drinking several bottles at the same time, and also tried to take it steadily. However, they all failed and only lost money.”
In addition, there were rumors that the developers were continuing research to increase its amplification power.
But no one knew who was actually developing stardust.
“But how about a little while ago… … .”
[Remember-]
At that moment, Berga stood up and groaned loudly.
Then he muttered as he scanned the puzzles of memories that had come into his head.
[Of course. Stardust is a medicine created by demons, so it is bound to be more effective against demons.]
“What, what?!”
“The demons created the stardust?”
The hunters were shocked by the shocking truth.
“Is that true?”
[Yes, that’s right.]
In response to Suho’s question, Ber nodded with a serious expression.
[But that’s not the problem.]
No matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to read all the memories of the prey you’ve eaten.
But even those fragmentary pieces of information were too shocking.
[It seems like the ingredients for the stardust are… … .]
Ber’s subsequent explanation was truly shocking and terrifying.
The process of making stardust was as follows.
1) Making firewood: Catch an unawakened person and forcefully inject blue fog into them to create ‘Mist Burn’.
2) Increase Firepower: Throw humans as firewood to Mistburn to maximize its firepower.
3) Roasting: Roasting the ‘Magic Stone Soaked in Devil’s Blood’ over a blazing firewood fire until crispy.
… … The charcoal that was created in this way was ground up and made into powder, which was stardust.
“And the solution that is dissolved in water and diluted is distributed in this potion bottle?”
[yes.]
The hunters who heard Ber’s explanation began to tremble.
“This is ridiculous.”
“The stardust was created by burning humans alive?”
“Then why is this devil here… … ?”
I thought I knew this without even asking.
Ber turned his gaze and stared into the tunnel where the demon had first appeared.
[If you follow that road, there seems to be a demons’ ‘factory’. They even capture civilians to make firewood.]
That was when.
Tiring!
[Quest: Rescue the survivors.]
There are people nearby waiting for your rescue.
Rescue as many of them as possible.
Compensation varies depending on the number of people rescued.
-Current number of survivors: 7
-Currently rescued number: 0
‘There are still 7 people alive?’
Now that the quest has appeared, there is no reason to delay any longer.
Suho’s eyes sparkled.
“I’m going to rescue you.”
Thump.
The moment Suho takes a step towards the tunnel.
“Hey, wait a minute! Suho!”
Assistant Lim grabs Suho’s shoulder from behind in a hurry.
Suho turned his head and looked at him.
“Assistant teacher, you run away first.”
“… … No, this time I want to go too.”
‘hmm?’
What’s going on with this coward?
Assistant Lim opened his mouth with determination, his mouth trembling in fear.
“With my skills, I think I can carry at least one person and run.”
Where Suho was going now, there would be many more demons like those from before.
It was clear that Suho alone would not be enough to rescue the people caught there.
Sigh.
‘Carry it and run… … That’s a good idea.’
Suho picked up the crow mask that had fallen on the floor and turned his gaze to the hunters who were looking at him.
“Then let’s come up with a plan.”
* * *
The long railway line of Seoul Station.
As you walk along the long tunnel, there is a huge bunker built for war or disaster.
Normally used as a workspace for construction purposes, this was where the demons’ factory was located.
“Why is the youngest so late?”
The factory demons began to get annoyed when the youngest one, who had gone to throw away the trash, did not return.
“I guess I ran into a demon on the way here.”
“That lizard… … .”
That was when.
The iron door opened and the youngest, wearing a crow mask, walked into the factory.
But, inside the cart that the youngest was pulling, there was a group of people haphazardly loaded into it.
A strange light appeared in the demons’ eyes.
“Oh, what is it?”
“Where did you get all that firewood?”
“We ran into each other.”
The youngest nodded and stopped the cart in the corner of the factory.
Dull.
Even though the cart shook, the hunters whose bodies were covered in blood did not move an inch, let alone groan.
The demons asked.
“You didn’t kill him, did you? The effect would be reduced if he did.”
“I guess I’ll still be breathing.”
“Oh, that’s right. Our youngest is good at it too.”
There was a brief exchange of pleasantries among the demons, as they were running low on firewood.
And the identity of the ‘youngest’ person standing blankly in front of the cart and watching their conversation was none other than Suho.
He came here on his own two feet, covering his face with the mask of the demon he had killed.
And the ones currently piled high in the cart, pretending to be dead and covered in blood, were the raid hunters.
The reason they were able to attempt such a bold infiltration was because they had roughly figured out the situation at the factory from the memories of the youngest member of Verga.
‘The demons identify each other by their crow masks. They don’t care much about details like appearance or voice.’
The reason this was possible was because the demons in the factory were not the main body at the moment.
‘The demonic spirits that were wandering through the dimensional rift possessed humans and took over their bodies.’
Verga said that even monarchs once hid on Earth by possessing human bodies.
To enter the body with such great power, one would have to drill a huge hole in the Earth, which would have been a much more cumbersome method.
But it seems that the demons really hated the sight of the weak human bodies they had taken away.
So, they were embarrassed to even show their appearance to each other, so they usually hid their appearances tightly with black robes and masks.
Besides, the demons knew each other’s identities not through visual or auditory information, but through the magical energy they felt from each other.
“Hmm? Youngest, you… … .”
One of the demons tilted his head as he felt the guardian’s aura.
Suho swallowed dry saliva.
“yes?”
“What’s that black thing? Does it look nice?”
Currently, the horn of Volcan, which devoured the ‘youngest soul’, was tied to Suho’s back.
The demons instinctively noticed that the material of the sword was unusual and approached Suho.
“That sword… … .”
That was when.
“Okay, enough chit-chat.”
The crow mask, which seemed to have the strongest aura among the demons, clapped its hands once, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Everyone, get ready. The gate is about to open.”
‘what?’
At those words, Suho opened his eyes wide and looked at the place.
At that moment, even the hunters who were pretending to be dead and being carried on the cart could not help but open their eyes wide and look at the place.
Fired! Fired!
A space with red energy rippling through the empty wall was being forcibly torn apart.
‘This is crazy.’
This information was not even in the youngest’s memory.
I don’t know if it was because I lost my memory or because I was the youngest and didn’t know what was happening.
‘oh my god.’
At that moment, they realized everything.
What the devils have been doing in this factory all this time.
‘The last ingredient of stardust.’
A magic stone soaked in the devil’s blood!
However, since the demons here were now taking on human bodies, they were directly summoning demons within to drain their blood.
Fired! Fired!
The red gate with an ominous feel!
At this very moment, a dimensional hole was created connecting the demon realm and Earth.
‘These guys are really crazy!’
“Okay, everyone, prepare for battle. I don’t know who’s going to show up, but we have to kill them in one go!”
Quaoooo!
The demons prepared for battle as they watched the red light swirling around the Red Gate.
And finally.
An unidentified demon wandering the demon world was summoned before them.
“… … .”
Thump.
Charangi has purple hair.
Slender arms and legs.
‘female?’
The Red Gate closed again, and the female demon that had descended in front of it was in a miserable state.
Covered in blood, as if he was about to collapse at any moment, having been badly beaten somewhere.
But even in the flowing blood, his eyes were shining brightly.
“Who summoned me?”
The purple devil looked at the devils surrounding him with haughty eyes.
And the corners of my mouth curled up at the distinct hostility I felt from them.
“Huh. Are you after my life too?”
Chomp!
The purple demon bared his teeth, aiming the spear he was holding at the demons.
“Yes. Come as you please! I am Esil, the eldest daughter of the Ladir family! We will fight to the end until the moment my life ends.”
