Chapter 94

[Translator – Prøks]

[Proofreader – Prøks]

Chapter 94: Demon (1)

“Merhen.”

—Yeah.

“Do you feel any strange energy coming from that orb?”

At that, Merhen stared intently at the black orb.

For a while.

She tilted her head.

—….I don’t know. I can’t read it.

“What about you, Cedric?”

—Same here.

“I see.”

He Stared intently at the orb.

If he touched it, item information would probably appear.

There’s a reason why he didn’t touch it right away.

‘There could be a problem.’

Don’t you usually see stuff like that in movies? Touching the remnants of an evil monster and getting trapped in a strange mental state, that sort of thing.

It’s a monster that spreads an experience duplication bug with just one of those orbs.

There’s no guarantee that won’t happen.

“Hmm…”

—Minwoo. Do you feel like you need to check it?

“I guess I should touch it.”

—If you’re really worried, I can try to seal it.

“Seal it?”

—Yeah. Though I don’t know what level the person who made this is at, so I don’t know how long it will last….

“That’s good enough.”

Even if it’s sealed, he can see the item description. He was curious about the information on the item. If it looks suspicious, he’ll just abandon it.

‘There’s no point putting it in my inventory.’

It’s not like anything bad will happen if he puts something in his inventory, but…

‘It could be a problem if it’s something from another world.’

Is this really something made by an otherworldly being?

If he is unlucky, putting it in his inventory could lead to its location being tracked. Even though the inventory is one of the system’s rules, it’s unclear whether it can block the tracking of otherworldly beings.

It was better to just abandon it than to risk that.

‘Of course…’

But only if it’s really made by an otherworldly being.

Anyway.

Since he didn’t know the level of the being who created it, it can’t hurt to be careful.

—I’ll seal it.

Merhen reached out her hand.

Mana flowed out of her.

The black orb was immediately enveloped by her mana.

The aura emanating from the orb and her aura intertwined like snakes.

Then, Merhen’s mana completely devoured the orb.

—Minwoo.

“Yeah?”

—It’s not that strong.

“What?”

—Yeah. I don’t think we need to worry about it.

Is that so?

She nodded and he picked up the orb.

Item information appeared.

[Duplication Orb (Temporary Seal State)]

[Rank:Unique]

[An orb that meticulously duplicates something. It is currently almost depleted of its charge. It is currently temporarily sealed by Merhen.]

[Effect 1. Can be charged through prayer.]

[Effect 2. Can perform baptism using the charged power.]

[Effect 3. The target of the baptism will gain more experience points.]

[Effect 4. It will be destroyed when its durability reaches zero.]

‘Duplication Orb?’

Kim Minwoo tilted his head in confusion.

Didn’t this guy say he obtained this through prayer?

‘So, he prayed and got a copy?’

That’s a bit strange.

Wouldn’t receiving a copy decrease faith?

‘Anyway, I get the general idea…’

Charge it through prayer and perform a baptism.

The process was simple.

Of course, simple didn’t mean he was going to offer real prayers.

‘Who knows what could happen.’

Trying to gain some experience points that way was crazy.

‘I understand why Merhen said what she did now.’

It’s just a copy.

How powerful would the power contained within it be anyway?

That’s probably why it was easier to seal than he thought.

“How long do you think this seal will last?”

—Forever, if you want it to? It’s easy.

“Then will you do that for me?”

—Yeah.

Merhen reached out her hand.

The orb’s temporary seal state has been changed to a permanent seal state. This will keep the orb sealed indefinitely.

‘I guess I can store it for now then.’

This orb didn’t seem to have any use at all.

Prayer?

Can’t someone else do that for him?

If the one to be killed is the one praying, the picture is quite beautiful.

‘The problem is the baptism.’

He was not sure if he could receive it himself or not.

This was an item that needed more analysis.

He put it in his inventory.

He also collected various other items. Han Baekgil’s equipment was very good.

This guy’s full set even exceeded the price of the rest of the S-rank Awakened’s item sets.

On top of that, He gathered up all the light attribute items he had.

If he added up all the prices, it would easily exceed the tens of millions.

‘It’s a shame that they’re all job-specific items though…’

Most of them were equipment for the mainstream ranks: assassin, Swordsman, mage, and warrior.

In other words, they were useless for Necromancers.

It was the sadness of the non-mainstream ranks.

‘No luck huh!!.’

For Kim Minwoo, the most valuable accessory he could get from the Awakened was a job-universal accessory.

The only requirement was level.

Those were the honey items that Necromancers could also wear.

But these guys.

Probably because they were worried about being called low-level Awakened, they were all wearing job-specific accessories.

‘I guess that’s normal.’

Universal accessories versus job-specific accessories.

If both are of the same rank, the effects of a job-specific accessory are better.

That’s obvious.

Universal accessories often have options that are useless to you.

On the other hand, job accessories?

They come with the exact options you need for that job.

Naturally, popular job-specific accessories are much more expensive than universal accessories. Kim Minwoo naturally wanted to get such accessories.

‘The problem is that there are no listings.’

So he was just filling in the gaps with whatever accessories he could find.

“Cedric. Come over here.”

—You called?

“Take this.”

He handed him a ring.

[Ring of Thorn]

[Rank: Unique]

[Restriction: Melee Class, Level 200 or higher]

[One of the rings worn by Thorn, the King of Minotaurs.]

[Effect 1. Kick (A) can be used]

[Effect 2. Strength, Agility +20]

Cedric stared silently at the ring and his face back and forth.

“What are you doing? Take it.”

—…Fine.

The guy took the ring and put it on his bony finger.

‘This guy is uselessly a knight.’

If Necromancers are a rare breed, then Knights are on the verge of extinction.

No matter how many jobs there are in Gate Hunters, the Knight class didn’t even exist in the first place.

The only thing this guy could use was an item that was for all melee classes. Since Necromancers are not melee classes, they can’t use it.

—Minwoo.

A voice came from beside him.

Merhen was staring intently at him.

— What about me?

[Translator – Prøks]

[Proofreader – Prøks]

“Uh, wait a minute.”

He rummaged through his inventory.

Just as he was about to give up, he found a ring that had been hidden away.

[Ring of Azure Mana]

[Rank: Unique]

[Restriction: Mage, Level 150 or higher]

[A ring inlaid with a beautiful gem. It seems useful for mages.]

[Effect 1. Reduces casting speed by 10%.]

[Effect 2. Mana +30]

‘Archmages are mages too, right?’

At first glance, it seemed like an upper-compatible job.

The only thing he had to give Merhen was this mage-exclusive ring.

‘I need to use caster-exclusive items.’

Necromancers were one of the independent job groups, not mages.

In terms of broad classification, they belonged to casters.

“This is a Spare.”

—Really?

“Here.”

He handed the ring to Merhen.

There was something he had learned while making ghost-exclusive equipment.

Unlike spectres and banshees, which are ghost-type undead that can only wear special equipment,

‘No, that’s not right.’

Merhen was different.

She could even wear normal equipment without any problems.

‘Well, she does look human on the outside.’

Who would think of Merhen as an undead? By appearance alone, she was just an ordinary foreign girl.

Banshee Queen.

It seemed that she was not subject to such restrictions because of her high rank.

So he just picked out something that humans wear and set it up for her. The ring should also be able to be worn without any special work. Merhen, who had received the ring, put it on her index finger.

—Thank you, Minwoo. I like this.

“I’m glad.”

Anyway, since he should set up accessories for the summons as well if possible, he had planned to give them away one by one if he had any leftovers.

Just then.

[The demon that will give the reward has been selected!]

[The demon is approaching!]

The figure of a huge demon appeared before his eyes.

[One of the demon lords, ‘Andromalius’, appears!]

‘Demon lord?’

Kim Minwoo tilted his head in confusion.

He had played this gate a few times in the past. At that time, the maximum demon score he could get by activating the gimmick was around 90.

‘How much despair does it give to the opponent?’

This is one of the important factors in determining the score. The characters he played in the past couldn’t give that much despair to the enemy.

The reason was simple.

It was because they weren’t overwhelmingly strong like Kim Minwoo now.

What was the reason for the raid in the first place?

He came in because he thought it was something he could easily get. He won even then, but he had a much harder time than this.

On the other hand, now.

‘I did get a lot of points.’

Each one that came out didn’t even last ten seconds before he slit their throats. Han Baekgil took a bit longer,

The guy tasted extreme despair before dying just like the rest.

No wonder, he sold his soul and ended up getting killed without even trying anything.

‘At 90 points, a superior demon came out, right?’

As a reward, he received a unique-rank weapon.

He remembered just selling it off since it didn’t match his job.

But this time it was a demon lord?

He had never seen one of those before.

‘I wonder if they’ll give me something good?’

He stared intently at Andromalius.

A man who seemed to have a snake wrapped around his hand.

He too was staring intently back at him.

[The effect of “The One Who Took Balkan’s Eye” is activated!]

[The “Demon” in front of you feels a considerable amount of pressure!]

It seemed that the effect of the Balkan eye’s title worked even on Demon Lords.

—Hoo… Well, this is quite something. I wondered why I was summoned out of the blue, but I guess this makes sense?

Andromalius bowed with a wide grin and greeted me.

—It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Andromalius, the 72nd in the hierarchy of Demon Lords.

[TL/N: The Demon Rankings which I know of, Andromalius was always one of the high ranking demons but why tf is he so low leveled I have no idea]

‘Demon Realm’

It was one of the stages that appeared very occasionally from the gate.

And there.

‘Isn’t Balkan a demon from the Demon Realm?’

He stared at him intently.

“Do you know a Balrog named Balkan?”

—Ah, you mean that brute? I know him very well. He was quite famous once.

Andromalius said with a wide grin.

—But it’s really quite mysterious. I’m really curious how you managed to achieve such feats in this dimension. Why don’t we make a deal?

“A deal?”

—I can grant you my powers.

“What kind of powers?”

— Aren’t you curious about who is behind a said crime? Don’t you want to get back your stolen items? Or if not that, then what about the power to find places where treasures are hidden?

“What do you want?”

—I would like you to play as my player.

“……Player?”

—Hmm. Where should I start my explanation? Alright. Let’s start from the basics. There is a ranking tournament held in the Demon Realm. It’s a tournament where the 72 Demon Lords participate.

“Don’t you fight each other directly?”

—Haha. If we did that, countless demons would die. Isn’t the price too high for just determining one’s rank?

“So?”

—We decided to choose proxies. The higher you go, the more important mercenaries become. That is, if no one has overwhelming power.

“So the proxies fight each other to determine the ranking?”

—That’s right! Of course, we don’t just choose one proxy, but the overall structure is similar.

‘Hmm.’

Kim Minwoo thought for a while.

Andromalius’s powers.

It seemed a bit useful.

Especially the part about finding places where treasures are hidden.

But…….

‘Just to get that, I have to play as a player…….’

Isn’t that a bit underwhelming?

First problem.

Is it a good thing to play as a player for a demon ranked only 72nd?

Second problem.

How much is his worth in the Demon Realm right now?

He didn’t know that.

He could end up selling himself at a cheap price if he wasn’t careful.

There is an old saying that has been passed down since ancient times. Don’t trust a demon’s words, unless you have to.

Demons aren’t demons for nothing.

He didn’t know what kind of tricks that Andromalius guy, with his nice smile, was planning to pull.

So for now.

‘Will you give me 200 points as compensation first?’

He should get compensation instead of a deal.

[Translator – Prøks]

[Proofreader – Prøks]