84 – Past… Destiny? (3)
The man in the reversed hood, observing over a dozen villages already destroyed, came to a clear realization.
“Someone is deliberately erasing the summoning arrays I created and going about.”
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If only one place with the summoning array had been attacked, the man might have overlooked it.
In the end, the places where he hid the summoning troops were mostly Hwajeonmin Village or the territories, as they were susceptible to being exposed and causing variables due to external factors.
However, if the number of attacked villages and territories exceeded one digit and changed to two digits, it could no longer be attributed to coincidence. So the man quickly began his investigation.
Soon, the man in the hood was able to find the existence of someone who was actually destroying villages.
“Don’t interfere!”
“Are you not the one interfering!?”
Kwaaang!
The two heroes rampaging in the middle of the sixth Hwajeonmin Village he found.
‘What are those guys?’
The man casually looked at the two heroes.
‘…I don’t know about the black hero, but the one with the hero is the one with the red eyes.’
The man, who quickly grasped the existence of the two heroes who were destroying the village at an unbelievable speed that even his eyes couldn’t easily follow, soon had a puzzled expression.
At least, as far as he thought, there was no clue as to why the hero with the red eyes, whose identity he hadn’t properly grasped, was interfering with his plans.
However, it was really natural that the man didn’t think the two heroes would let their plans be disrupted.
This plan was very important to him, but at the same time, it was also very important to the demons.
“If you can’t properly chase after us with your short legs, then stay away, you idiot!”
“Shut up, you bastard!”
Whether the man came to destroy the village or the two heroes fighting each other, the fact that they destroyed the Hwajeonmin Village in a matter of minutes and disappeared made the man immediately gather his magic power.
Ssshhhhh!
As soon as the man gathered his magic power, black magic power burst out.
The magic power that seemed to contaminate the surrounding land just by being scattered and spread, was more sticky and disgusting than what the absolute ruler of darkness emitted, and it quickly gathered in the center of the man and began to form a sphere.
–
From the man’s mouth came a voice that humans could never understand.
“Can you hear me?”
The man opened his mouth as he looked at the massive figure shrouded in shadows, which appeared on the black sphere floating in front of him.
[Hm? What is it, Kelbain?]
“Yeah. Can you hear me clearly, Merba?”
Along with Kelbain’s short response, the massive figure quickly lowered its sight, as if it was amused, and replied with a laugh.
[Yeah, I can hear you well, but why did you contact me? Didn’t you dislike connecting directly from the Middle Realm to the Demon Realm?]
“That’s true, but the situation forced me to contact you.”
[Hm?]
“Well, I have the luxury of explaining in detail, so let me get straight to the point. I’ll be summoning you soon, it won’t be long now.”
[Me? But I’m not fully prepared yet.]
“Even if the summoning is a bit unstable, there’s something you need to take care of.”
[Me?]
Merba replied with a tone that clearly showed annoyance, but then he sighed as if he couldn’t help it and continued.
“Do I have to stop what I’m doing just for those insignificant creatures, even if I’m summoned in an unstable state?”
“Yeah, they’re ruining our plans.”
“Tsk, I guess there’s no choice.”
Upon hearing the man’s words, Merba muttered as if there was no other option.
“Alright, I got it.”
With those words, he vanished.
Swoosh-!
The man, who was gazing at the completely disappearing black magic that ended with those words, soon smiled as he looked at Merilda and the absolute ruler of darkness running beyond.
Kelba couldn’t immediately assess the precise strength of the heroes, but he was certain they wouldn’t easily pass the next village.
It made sense because the entity Kelba was considering calling, even within the Demon Realm, was evaluated as quite formidable, practically stronger than a grand hero – the ‘Merciless Merba.’
‘Even if it couldn’t ascend to legion commander and manifests in an imperfect form, it should be an easy task to capture just one or two rampaging heroes.’
With such thoughts, Kelba began to quietly cast a spell, recalling the summoning array in the village where the two heroes were heading.
####
A few days had passed since Elena and her party lost contact.
—-
Lartania Territory.
Territory Development: 1499
Residents
[Humans: 8156]
Owned Buildings
[Lord’s Castle LV1 ＞＞＞ Upgrade in progress 99% [Temporarily Suspended]]
[City Wall LV3]
[Residential Zone LV4↑]
[Blacksmith LV4]
[Barracks LV4↑]
[Tavern LV2 ＞＞＞ Upgrading 60%]
[Market LV2]
[Lumber Processing Workshop LV1]
[Restaurant LV2 ＞＞＞ Upgrading 55%]
[Leather Processing Workshop LV1]
[Stone Processing Workshop LV1]
[Trade Center LV1]
[Secondary City Wall LV3]
[Inn LV2↑]
[Administrative District LV2↑]
External Buildings
[Mercenary Guild LV0] [Under Construction]
[Tower of the Magician Branch LV0] [Under Construction]
[Blacksmith Guild Branch LV0] [Under Construction]
Military Forces
– Regular Soldiers 200
– Trainee Soldiers 200
—-
“Hmm.”
Kim Hyun-woo smiled as he looked at the information window he hadn’t checked in a while, and at the newly written sign for the Blacksmith Guild Branch in the external building.
‘It really won’t take long,’ he had said, and indeed, it was in the blink of an eye.
Kim Hyunwoo didn’t expect it to be fast, given his earlier conversation with River about how building wouldn’t take much time.
But River seemed to have been eagerly waiting, swiftly bringing in materials the moment Kim Hyunwoo yielded the land, constructing the building faster than any external structure.
If one were to ask how much time had passed, it was only a few days since the start of the work that the rough outline of the building could be seen through the terrace of the Lord’s Castle.
“…”
Observing the blacksmith guild being diligently constructed even at this moment, Kim Hyunwoo, standing on the terrace, made a somewhat peculiar expression. Suddenly, he looked towards the worn inner walls of the Lord’s Castle visible beside the terrace.
‘Come to think of it, I should upgrade the Lord’s Castle too.’
Currently, Kim Hyunwoo had practically upgraded the Lord’s Castle to 99%, but he hadn’t raised it to the next level yet.
Of course, the reason wasn’t that Kim Hyunwoo liked the level 1 Lord’s Castle.
Raising the Lord’s Castle level meant an improvement in the quality of Kim Hyunwoo’s life, especially as the level increased.
However, the reason he delayed the Lord’s Castle upgrade was precisely because if he upgraded it, he wouldn’t be able to enter the Lord’s Castle for a day.
The Lord’s Castle undergoes a magical transformation process using the power of the territory stone, according to the setting.
…Anyway, thanks to that setting, he had been postponing the Lord’s Castle level-up until now, but recently, Kim Hyunwoo was contemplating the need to upgrade the Lord’s Castle.
Initially, to raise a building classified as the third tier for the territory, the Lord’s Castle also needed to be upgraded slowly.
Therefore, Kim Hyunwoo, who had started contemplating when he could stop making these monotonous magnifying glasses and start a journey, found himself.
[Territory Development Level has reached 1500.]
“Oh.”
As the information window was displayed, the development level reached 1500, and unknowingly, I let out a satisfied sigh.
At that moment,
[Quest: Achieve the limited condition of rebuilding the territory ‘Larutania’ and eliminating the labyrinth.]
[The quest to rebuild the ‘Larvania’ territory is complete.]
[Congratulations. You have qualified.]
“?”
Kim Hyunwoo, with a puzzled expression unconsciously forming at the notification window that suddenly appeared before his eyes, didn’t have a chance to continue his thoughts.
—-
The first clue.
You can obtain a clue when dealing with the higher demon that first descended into the intermediate realm.
—-
“…?”
The notification window, which Kim Hyunwoo had been seeing since coming to this world, changed its text for the first time.
####
Honestly, the situation didn’t sit well with Merba of Slaughter.
‘Having to undergo an imperfect summoning, of all things.’
Originally, Merba should have taken more time to resurrect.
Even though the number of sacrificed humans for Merba’s summoning exceeded several hundred, he could only be summoned in an unstable manner.
The reason was simply that Slaughter’s Merba was too powerful.
Therefore, Merba, who was somewhat irritated, felt satisfaction immediately after being summoned to the intermediate realm.
As someone who had lived in the demon realm for a long time, he realized this as soon as he came to the intermediate realm, despite the imperfect descent.
It was because this world was not one where stronger opponents existed in abundance.
That’s why Merba was confident.
He was someone who enjoyed tormenting others more than genuinely enjoying fighting with them, a true embodiment of a demon’s nature.
In addition to that…
[Huh, so Kelba was talking about you guys.]
The reason Merba was feeling delighted was because of the two heroes who had opened their eyes wide and were looking at him as soon as they were summoned by the summoning circle.
Although they were only about half-human and half-wolf with crimson eyes, the heroes with demon blood in them were staring blankly at Merba.
“De, demon?”
As soon as he heard the trembling voice of the wolf, a smile that seemed like it would tear his face apart formed on his lips.
At least to Merba, the trembling voice of the wolf seemed to be filled with fear towards him.
While smiling, Merba, who was about to speak to the two heroes who were looking at him in surprise, realized something.
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?
Something was strange.
No wonder, because he thought that the voice was trembling, he thought that the wolf was definitely trembling in fear. But he couldn’t feel any fear that the wolf was feeling towards him right now.
No, rather, Merba…
“This, this is a demon, right? The kind of trashy trash that does all sorts of trashy things.”
“Don’t you recognize it just by looking? Isn’t it obvious that it’s a demon?”
“Right? A demon, isn’t it? A demon, that’s correct?”
– From the two of them, he could feel intense joy.
“Yes, it’s a demon.”
“With a very infamous reputation.”
At the same time as those words, Merba realized that the wolf had thrown something at him and immediately grabbed hold of it.
Oooh-!!!!
As soon as the demon grabbed the stone, it turned blood-red.
And…
“Awesome-!”
A smile as deep as it could be formed on Merida’s lips.
Itadakimasu… sob!!
Rip merba :))