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Solo Leveling Novel Chapter 53 Average 5 / 5 out of 1
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Summary
Fangs’ power, having been buffed up by the item ‘Bead of Avarice’, was gobsmackingly incredible.
Fuu-woop.
Fangs sucked in so much air that the temperature of the surroundings momentarily dropped to a bone-chilling level. And then…
Kuuuuwuuuu….
He spat out a massive pillar of flames from left to right and literally vaporised all enemies before him.
[You killed a High-Ranked Demon.]
[You have earned 1,700 experience points.]
[You killed a Superior Demon.]
[You have earned 2,200 experience points.]
….
…….
[You killed a High-Ranked Demon.]
The messages telling him that he killed a demon and earned some experience points endlessly popped up in his view. And the tti-ring, tti-rings of the mechanical beeps didn’t want to end for a while, too.
Jin-Woo was all smiles, though.
‘I’ve hit the jackpot!!’
His Mana must’ve run dry, because Fangs stopped attacking.
A single shot from Fangs managed to vaporise the majority of the attacking demons’ group, but there were a few lucky ones who managed to somehow survive the fiery massacre. Jin-Woo simply ordered his Shadow Soldiers to go and get rid of them.
Quietly watching over one hundred of his Shadow Soldiers marching forward in perfect order, Jin-Woo finally felt like the ‘Shadow Sovereign’.
[You killed a High-Ranked Demon.]
[You killed a High-Ranked Demon.]
The feel-good messages continued on. Jin-Woo didn’t even lift a finger and used only his Shadow Soldiers to annihilate the monsters. The biggest contributor among them was, of course, Fangs.
‘Fangs, you beauty….’
Jin-Woo looked behind him – or, more specifically, way up behind him.
He then saw the gigantified Shadow Magic Soldier, previously a High Orc Sorcerer, and the ‘Bead of Avarice’ that had also been enlarged to match his size.
That bead was an item capable of doubling the power of its holder’s magic attack. From Jin-Woo’s perspective, it looked like that bead shored up Fangs’ powers quite nicely, which would’ve been nerfed somewhat after becoming a Shadow Soldier. And it looked like there was some room to spare too.
‘Looks like I’ll have to entrust the ‘Bead of Avarice’ to Fangs for a while.’
Even though he was also a mage-type, he possessed not one skill that might enjoy the amplification effect, so he didn’t have much of a choice here.
Jin-Woo opened his own Skill Window.
[Number of shadows that can be extracted: 127/820]
[Number of shadows that can be stored: 127/155]
‘Shadow Extraction, Shadow Storage, and Sovereign’s Territory.’ All three skills were unaffected by the ‘Bead of Avarice’ whatsoever.
If he wanted to increase the number of slots for either the extraction or storage for his shadows, the sole method available currently was to increase his Intelligence Stat.
Jin-Woo closed the Skill Window.
Meanwhile, the soldiers gathered one by one in front of Jin-Woo after mopping up their quarries.
Seeing the mountains of demon corpses piled up like that, the corners of Jin-Woo’s lips arched up considerably.
‘With this many demons, I get plenty of loot as a result.’
Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring….
This time, an endless stream of item acquisition messages popped up in his view.
‘Well, I got everything I can from here….’
Jin-Woo smiled deeply as he went about acquiring all the loot, and after finishing that up, he climbed up on the back of ‘Tank’, his trusty Ice Bear Shadow Beast Soldier.
The so-called ‘Entry Permit’ allowing him to move to the next floor hadn’t come out yet. Which meant, he had to kill more monsters on this floor.
Jin-Woo ordered his troops to move out.
“Giddy up!”
Tank slowly began trotting forward, and the Shadow Soldiers all followed after Jin-Woo in an orderly fashion.
‘The whole army moving around together is inefficient.’
Jin-Woo thought that all 120 Shadow Soldiers acting as one unit was not quite efficient enough. If the individual soldier was weak, fine, this tactic made sense. But, even the regular soldiers had gone up several levels now and they could more or less hold their own against the demons and still achieve some success.
Not only that, he even had assimilated monsters from a rank A dungeon into his Shadow Soldier army, too. Quite obviously, the overall quality of the soldiers had risen up by a lot.
“Kiiieehhk!!”
“Kiiaahk!”
[You killed a High-Ranked….]
[You killed a…..]
What with his soldiers boasting such a mighty combat prowess, the time taken to move around and search for monsters turned out to be longer than it took to actually kill them.
The thing was, each floor of this Demon’s Castle was as wide as an average city.
‘This will take forever at this rate.’
Jin-Woo divided his soldiers into six groups of twenty. And then, had them scatter around to hunt down monsters.
He gave them two orders.
‘One, kill every enemy you can find.’
‘Two, if the entry permit for the next floor is found, let me know straight away.’
It may not be possible to hold a conversation with his soldiers, but he could still communicate by using simple hand gestures.
Since the soldiers couldn’t pick up any loot, he had to go there personally if he were to acquire the entry permit. Sure, he’d have to give up on other loot beside the ‘floor entry permit’, but his current priority was to get to the top floor as soon as possible.
“Begin.”
With his command, all six groups went their separate ways.
And, a short while later….
[You have earned 1,500 experience points.]
[You have earned 1,500 experience points.]
[You have earned 900 experience points.]
[You have earned 1,100 experience points.]
Experience points began raining down on him from literally everywhere.
‘Looks like my shadows have begun hunting, huh.’
Jin-Woo watched his experience points climb up and formed a pleased expression. However, he soon discovered that something was off.
‘The amount of experience points I get has decreased?’
After arriving on the upper floors, he never once ran into the commonly-found low or mid-ranked demons from the lower floors.
High-Ranked Demons appeared most of the time now, and every now and then, he would find a couple of Superior Demons mixed in among them.
The amount of experience points earned after killing a High-Ranked Demon was 1,700. And from the Superior Demon, a creature one rank higher than High-Ranked Demons, he received the fixed amount of 2,200 points.
However, the amount he was getting at the moment fell far, far short of those numbers.
‘Could it be that the further away they are from me, the less experience points I earn?’
Jin-Woo quietly observed the experience points messages popping up non-stop for a while. The amount earned had definitely decreased, albeit by a small margin. It seemed that he was right about the distance affecting the amount of experience points he could earn.
‘I got to learn about something useful.’
He wouldn’t have found out about this fact without the unique set-up of the Demon’s Castle, which let him know of the information regarding experience points.
He also thought that, he did the right thing by not letting his soldiers go out in groups to hunt on the lower floors. Back then, he wanted to refine his combat style even further by personally fighting the monsters, as well as not wanting to miss out on a single ‘Demon’s Soul’, the so-called quest completion ‘items’.
Still, he didn’t think the reduced experience points weren’t much of a loss.
‘Sure, I’m getting less experience points, but….’
Now that much more efficient hunting was taking place over a greater expanse of the hunting area, the overall rate of the experience points earned was actually a lot faster than before. Even now, the experience points messages were raining down on him.
With the situation being like this, his level that had stayed still since the first battle of this floor suddenly gained a lot of momentum.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
Jin-Woo clenched his fists tightly.
‘Nice!’
Sure, he felt a bit sore about giving up on loot, but…
‘Levelling up and fast clearing speed, I shall catch these two birds in one go.’
Jin-Woo smiled in satisfaction as he confirmed his level jumping up by two.
His plan was on the money. He got to climb up to the 80th floor much faster than anticipated.
As soon as arriving there, he summoned his soldiers once more.
Shururuk.
119 Shadow Soldiers were summoned simultaneously.
The soldiers and their levels had all climbed up pretty nicely after going on their own groups to hunt monsters and earn a ton of experience points for themselves.
‘Oh? Since when did Tank gain over ten levels?’
Jin-Woo’s eyes opened wider.
Maybe it felt happy after his owner’s interested gaze fell on it, Tank, who had reached level 28 only yesterday, stood on his hind legs and let out a roar of ‘Wuuong’. Jin-Woo wasn’t the only one to enjoy the fruits of the efficient hunting, as it turned out.
He grinned brightly.
“Alright, then. Let’s go!”
Just like before, he divided his army into six groups and had them set off. He then took off alone, as well. He was familiar with acting alone anyway, and he also didn’t really need the soldiers’ help, either.
Excluding Fangs buffed up by the ‘Bead of Avarice’, he was pretty confident of fighting the whole Shadow Soldier army and winning.
However….
‘If Fangs is included?’
In that case, who knows?
If Fangs was indeed included, then things could get really interesting, that’s for sure. In the end, though, it was just him imagining something improbable, anyway.
‘Was it a week or so ago?’
Out of sheer curiosity, and also a bit as an experiment, he ordered Shadow Soldiers to attack him. For the first time ever, the soldiers disobeyed him.
‘I couldn’t tell whether that was from their loyalty to me, or because of another power restricting them….’
They didn’t budge an inch, in the end. Well, as the guy using them as his subordinates, that result wasn’t such a bad one.
Regardless of all that….
‘How come I can’t see any demons?’
After summoning ‘Baruka’s Dagger’, Jin-Woo lightly tossed it over his head and caught it a few times while searching for the presence of monsters.
‘I can tell that they are nearby, but….’
Jin-Woo took a quick look around. He could definitely sense their presence nearby, but he couldn’t spot a single monster.
When was it again?
Didn’t he experience something similar to this before?
It was then, the ground seemed to undulate violently a couple of times, before the earth suddenly shot up.
“Kek, kek.”
“Keeheehee….”
At the same time, three Superior Demons emerged from the ground and surrounded Jin-Woo while letting off rather unpleasant cackles.
Jin-Woo frowned deeply. Demons took that as the sign of their prey being scared, and they scrambled among themselves to throw their wide open maws first at the head of the prey.
It was to call dibs on the tastiest part of a human, the head.
However, when that prey jumped up and spun around once in the air…
Swiiiish!!
Even before Jin-Woo’s feet landed back on the ground, heads of the demons fell with soft thud, thud!! first.
[You killed a Superior Demon.]
[You killed a…..]
“Ah!”
Jin-Woo lightly clapped his hands.
He finally recalled when it happened – it was the last rank C dungeon he cleared with Yu Jin-Ho.
‘Right, those Stonemen back then were hiding underground before bursting out like this, weren’t they?’
Jin-Woo’s expression that had darkened from failing to remember brightened up immediately. It sure felt like he had gotten a load off his chest.
Jin-Woo took care of the loot from the monster corpses, his face still bright, and began walking away again.
But, only after taking a handful of steps, he stopped again.
“….”
Jin-Woo’s eyes were now nailed to the ground.
While glaring at the ground beneath his feet, he spoke up.
“By the way, why aren’t you guys coming out already?”
No one could tell whether the thing that trembled just then happened to be the ground or the demons’ eyes.
Jin-Woo wasn’t able to easily leave the 80th floor.
‘Is there a group of really strong monsters somewhere on this floor?’
Yet another of Jin-Woo’s group returned back to him as shadows. He had no choice but to call them back because his Mana couldn’t sustain the rate of the soldiers’ destruction and revival anymore.
This would be the first time this happened.
From the 76th to 80th floor…
The method of hunting in dispersed groups during the past four floors had yielded the highest efficiency.
‘Is it because fighting against Superior Demons is still too much to ask for?’
For sure, it were the Superior Demons and not High-Ranked Demons that appeared on the 80th floor most of the time. Heck, these Superior Demons even employed petty tricks like hiding under the ground, too.
Even then, he didn’t think these Superior Demons possessed such powers, to be able to push back his soldiers to this degree.
‘Not only that….’
There was something weird here as well. And that would be the groups of soldiers getting attacked all happened to lack a ‘captain-class’ among them.
The groups with Fangs, Igrit, Iron, and Tank were all perfectly fine, but the other two with no captain-class got annihilated.
‘Wait, could it be that the enemy is deliberately attacking the weakest groups first?’
If so, this could only mean that a monster possessing high-enough intelligence to detect the opponent’s weakness existed on this floor. Not only strong, but it even possessed intelligence.
He obviously didn’t know who it, or they, were, but without a doubt, they were proving to be a bit of a pain in the neck.
There were four groups remaining. If he were to include himself, then five.
‘If the enemy has figured out the soldiers’ movement pattern, then their next target is pretty obvious.’
The moment he thought that, Jin-Woo disappeared from the spot.
Jin-Woo quickly arrived near where Tank’s group was.
In the not too far distance, he spotted the Shadow Beast Soldier squad half made up of black bears with black steam rising up from their bodies, and High Orcs covered in armour from head to toe.
Right in front of the pack, Tank was walking slowly but steadily forward.
‘I’m pretty sure the next target will be this group.’
Tank was originally the pack leader of the Ice Bears. When it was still alive, he was strong enough to easily overwhelm the Shadow Soldiers. Even as a shadow, not many soldiers could defeat him in terms of sheer physical strength.
Unfortunately, the comparison didn’t favour him this time.
First of all, the captains of the other groups, Iron, Igrit, and Fangs were different ‘grades’ to begin with. Even though Tank’s level was high, at the end of the day, he was still an elite soldier grade.
But, both Igrit and Iron were knight grades, while Fangs enjoyed the prefix of ‘elite’ tacked onto his knight grade, too. Meaning, there was no comparison here.
Since the enemy seemed to possess enough intelligence to detect weaker opponents, as well as to identify the movements of the soldiers, their next target had to be here.
‘Let’s observe for a little while.’
Jin-Woo hid his presence to the best of his abilities and, while maintaining a fixed distance, he followed after his Shadow Beast Soldiers. His own soldiers didn’t even realise that he was following them.
And so, just how much time passed them by?
Even after a long period of waiting, no enemies showed themselves, and Jin-Woo began tilting his head.
‘Was I wrong about this whole thing?’
He began suspecting that, rather than powerful enemies, there just so happened to be a big concentration of enemies in the location of his soldiers getting annihilated – but, then….
Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed to a slit.
‘…..Here they come.’
Maybe the enemies were also concealing their presence until the soldiers got closer to them, Jin-Woo had discovered them a bit later than usual. He closed his eyes and focused his Perception.
His shockingly enhanced Perception began sweeping over all the presences found within the vicinity like a radar.
‘Four presences approaching. My soldiers, 20. Demons hiding underground, five.’
Jin-Woo opened his eyes. He decided to get rid of the five demons playing possum underground a bit later, and then….
‘Stealth.’
Shururuk….
Jin-Woo activated the Stealth skill to become invisible and approached his soldiers. And soon enough, he got to confirm the enemies’ appearance with his own eyes.
‘….They are riding on horseback??’
Rumble, rumble….
‘Not only that, they are armed, too?’
Not just the riders, but even the horses they were riding on were armoured.
When the enemies came close enough, their names became visible.
He was thinking that these guys were way too different from the regular demons that walked around ‘naked’, whether they be low or high demons, and now he could even see that their names were different from the rest, as well.
‘….A Demon Aristocrat, and three Demon Knights?’
The names he saw for the first time were written in black and very clear to see. He sensed strong hostility from all four of them.
‘It must be those four that attacked my boys.’
They all possessed powerful auras and strong hostility. Jin-Woo decided to maintain ‘Stealth’ and observe the situation for a little while longer.
‘Let’s see what happens next.’
Since these monsters were new, he wanted to check out their skills and battle styles with his own eyes first.
‘Monsters capable of massacring Shadow Soldiers, is it….’
He was also feeling a bit expectant, too.
Jin-Woo stopped at a suitable position where he wouldn’t get in the way of the battle between the Shadow Beast Soldiers and the new types of demons that was about to get underway.
Growl?
Tank finally discovered the demons.
Once the demons got close enough, they dismounted from the horses.
‘Huh. So, those rides were simply a means of transportation.’
Jin-Woo continued to stare at the demons with a great deal of interest.
Soon afterwards, the Beast Soldiers became excited by the entrance of enemies, roared out, and attacked first, signalling the beginning of the bitter, violent battle between these two groups.
Rooooaaaar!!
Tank took to the front.
He shot forward with every ounce of power provided with his four limbs, and when he arrived in front of the enemies, he reared up on his hind legs.
A regular person would’ve fainted from the enormous pressure alone. However, the four demons remained steadfast. Even when Tank swung his massive front leg like a baseball bat, they didn’t even blink.
Whooooosh!
Tank’s front paw scythed the air. It was an agile attack that belied his massive frame.
However….
Tank’s target, the Demon Aristocrat, easily jumped over the swung front paw with a light but quick movement.
‘…..!!’
Jin-Woo’s brows shot up.
That wasn’t the end of the surprising spectacle, either. The Demon Aristocrat then spun in the air and thrust forward the spear held in its hand at Tank’s chest.
Kaboom-!!
The fierce attack containing magic energy put a watermelon-sized hole in Tank’s torso.
From that small-ish frame, an explosive aura could be felt rather clearly. And on top of that, it also possessed beautifully simple and clean movements, too. Jin-Woo grew even more interested by then.
‘Yup, not a regular monster, alright.’
It wasn’t just the Demon Aristocrat either, but the three Demon Knights were also eye-wideningly strong, as well.
The battle was one-sided. In short, the Beast Soldiers were no match for the demons.
Quite unlike the Superior Demons, which were only big in size but rather easy to hunt, these so-called Demon ‘Aristocrats’ or whatever and their humanoid appearances simply toyed around with the Beast Soldiers.
‘This was why the rate of regeneration couldn’t keep up.’
Jin-Woo’s expression gradually hardened.
“Roar!!”
“Keuahahk!”
Even before the Beast Soldiers could regenerate, they were cut and sliced apart and stabbed through by spears and swords.
By then, Jin-Woo was carrying a crumpled expression. He knew very well that, as long as his MP supply held up, his Beast Soldiers were practically immortals. Even if his MP did run out, they would simply return to him as shadows.
“Kuwaak!!”
However, he sure as hell didn’t feel pleased watching his own boys getting pummelled like that. Was this how an older brother would feel when his younger sibling came home all beaten up black and blue?
‘That is enough.’
Jin-Woo couldn’t stand it anymore and recalled his Beast Soldiers. They reverted back to their shadow forms and quickly moved below his feet, and absorbed back into his own shadow.
As soon as the Beast Soldiers disappeared after seemingly failing to endure the attacks, the demons gazed at each other and nodded their heads.
It was as if they were celebrating their third victory on the trot.
However, it happened then.
Shururuk.
Jin-Woo undid his Stealth in the midst of the demons.
Flinch!!
The demons were greatly taken by surprise, but as expected of ‘pros’, they immediately sensed Jin-Woo’s hostility and attacked him right away.
Slam!! Kwang!!
Jin-Woo punched down bare-fisted on the two knights beside him, and then, grabbed the last one rushing at him and slammed the sucker down hard on the ground.
CRACK!
The spiderweb-like cracks formed on the ground and a message popped up in his view.
[You killed a Demon Knight.]
[You have earned 3,000 experience points.]
The exact same messages repeated three times.
Each of his attacks killed one of his enemies. In less than one second, he cut short the lives of three monsters.
‘These guys were side distractions, anyway. The real deal is that guy.’
Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to the Demon Aristocrat. After their eyes met, the Aristocrat flinched rather grandly and pointed at him with its spear.
‘I always wondered whether monsters could feel fear or not….’
But now, he was pretty certain of it.
Different from back when the Demon Aristocrat was pointing the spear at the Beast Soldier group, the tip of the weapon was trembling ever so slightly. Well, being able to sense the opponent’s strength was also a part of one’s skills, after all.
‘I ain’t going to go easy on you because of that, though.’
Jin-Woo dashed forward. At the same time, the Demon Aristocrat thrust the spear forward.
Jin-Woo evaded the attack by tilting his head out of the way.
Surprisingly, though – the spear changed directions multiple times and continued to harass him slightly.
First, it was his face, Next, his neck. And right after that, his heart. As if this wasn’t something learned overnight, the demon’s movement was smooth like flowing water.
However, the spear was constantly blocked by Jin-Woo’s weapon, ‘Baruka’s Dagger’.
And when the final attack aiming for his heart was parried off, ‘Baruka’s Dagger’ sliced the spear’s shaft in two.
“….!!”
The Demon Aristocrat froze up after seeing its broken spear.
With that, this battle was over.
‘Well, not even three, or four, rank A Hunters would be able to win against you, but….’
Jin-Woo rated the demon’s abilities pretty highly. Too bad, today’s match-up was all wrong for the monster.
Jin-Woo reached out and grabbed the enemy’s helmet with his left hand.
“Keuk!”
The shocked enemy immediately went into panic mode. It tried to pull its head back, but couldn’t do anything from Jin-Woo’s powerful grip. He was thinking of yanking the helmet loose and cut the head off, so he strengthened his left hand some more.
As expected, the helmet came off rather easily. And, Jin-Woo raised the ‘Baruka’s Dagger’ high up.
“I surrender!! I will surrender!!”
Jin-Woo frowned and stopped moving.
“….A female?”
The face underneath the helmet definitely belonged to a female.
Actually, Jin-Woo didn’t really care whether a monster was a male or female. But the thing was, the monster quickly lifted its hands high up in the air and declared its intentions to surrender, making him realise that he could initiate conversation with it. And right after that, ‘she’ even fell to the ground in a kowtow, too.
‘……’
So, naturally, he felt a bit put off by the idea of stabbing ‘her’ with his dagger for the time being.
“P-p-please accept my apologies! We were in the wrong! P-p-please spare my life!”
Not only had she changed her stance in the blink of an eye, but she was also now even begging for her life?
A monster was doing what now???
“Hah…..??”
With a disbelieving expression etched on his face, Jin-Woo stared at the petite back of the ‘monster’ still prostrating before his feet.
***
Since intelligent monsters could be found in regular dungeons, it wasn’t so strange for intelligent monsters to appear in these instant dungeons, as well.
Even then, this creature… was a strange one.
‘…….’
Left feeling a bit speechless, Jin-Woo pondered what he should say here for a while, and eventually, he opened his mouth with some difficulty.
“You attacked my soldiers, yet you want my forgiveness?”
“W-we have committed a grave sin.”
The Demon Aristocrat planted her forehead on the ground and continued on.
“However, as our clan is tasked with protecting this place, we couldn’t simply let some basta…. Heok! I, I mean, we couldn’t let any great beings go on a demon hunting spree without doing anything. I’d be eternally grateful if you forgive us.”
Oh, well.
From the demons’ perspective, it was reasonable for them to think of this whole thing as a bit unfair. After all, it was he who just barged in here totally unannounced to hunt and massacre demons one-sidedly, right?
So, Jin-Woo changed his question slightly.
“Is it alright for you to beg for your life from someone who killed your own soldiers?”
“The main role of the knights are to protect their lord. As long as I’m safe, they should be happy with the results.”
Jin-Woo scratched his temple for a little. He was even more speechless now.
‘I can’t tell whether she’s thick-skinned, or just way too optimistic.’
The Demon Aristocrat slightly raised her head and tried to read Jin-Woo’s reactions.
‘Heok!!’
She couldn’t help but feel that the situation was getting gradually worse for her. She kowtowed even harder than before and spoke in an urgent voice.
“If you spare my measly life, I shall give you anything you want.”
Jin-Woo placed his hands on his waist.
This Demon Aristocrat was a powerful monster, yes, but what with her armament now stripped from her, killing her was now easier than drinking cold soup for Jin-Woo.
‘So, what should I do with this one, then?’
Jin-Woo was in a dilemma.
And that wasn’t to do with letting her go or not – no, he was simply trying to think of something more valuable than the experience points and possible loot he could get his hands on after killing her.
‘….Ah.’
There indeed was one such item.
“I want the Entry Permit.”
“Excuse me??”
Swish.
The Demon Aristocrat raised her head and stared at him with a surprised expression. Her face was shaped completely like a human’s, excluding a pair of sharp incisors he saw when she opened her mouth just now, of course.
Jin-Woo disinterestedly asked her.
“Can you get it for me?”
“…”
When her gaze met Jin-Woo’s, her complexion paled even more and she planted her forehead back on the ground.
‘Oh well. I should’ve known that monsters weren’t aware of what items are.’
The negotiation was over with that.
Jin-Woo recalled ‘Baruka’s Dagger’ back from his Inventory.
He didn’t know why monsters possessed intelligence, and were able to use that intelligence to beg for her life like this, but he had not one thought of giving up on the potential experience points.
‘A Demon Knight gave three thousand points, so how much will she give me?’
Who knows, the Entry Permit might appear after killing her, too.
However….
“I, I shall give it to you.”
“Give me what, exactly?”
“The… the Entry Permit.”
The ‘monster’ raised her head and immediately began shedding cold sweat drops after spotting the deadly-looking dagger in Jin-Woo’s hand.
“You can give me the Entry Permit? Really?”
The Demon Aristocrat hurriedly nodded her head.
“It’s in safekeeping by our clan. If you allow me to safely return, I shall hand over the permit.”
Demons were guarding the entry permit?
Jin-Woo slowly scratched his chin.
For sure, it had been a long time since he arrived on the 80th floor. And not to forget, lots of demons were hunted down so far, too. Yet, there hadn’t been a peep about the news of the entry permit.
‘I thought the drop rate had worsened because I’m in the upper floors, or that a mid-boss was carrying it around, but now….’
If she was telling the truth about monsters hiding the permit, then, well, the current situation made a bit more sense.
Seeing that Jin-Woo was silently pondering his options, the Demon Aristocrat felt even more desperate than ever before and quickly added some more ‘encouragement’.
“I also know where you can locate the Entry Permits on the upper floors as well. If you guarantee my, and my clan’s, safety, then I shall safely escort you to where they are.”
The light shining in Jin-Woo’s eyes changed a little bit. Now that offer was a bit more enticing.
To Jin-Woo’s ears, who wanted to get to the top floor as soon as possible, her suggestion of guiding him to where each floor’s Entry Permit sounded rather attractive.
However….
‘The question is, can I really trust her?’
Jin-Woo reached down and lifted the demon’s chin. She was clearly panicking, but he didn’t lessen his strength. He then looked straight into her eyes.
‘Intimidation.’
[You have activated ‘Skill: Intimidation’.]
Swwwoooosh….
A chill-inducing aura emanated from Jin-Woo’s eyes. The Demon Aristocrat was so terrified that her lips were trembling involuntarily.
“Can I trust you?”
“I, I, I am not l-l-lying.”
He made a pledge to himself back when he received the power of the System.
‘Give and take.’
Even if his opponent was a monster, his principals wouldn’t change. If a monster kept her side of the bargain, so would he.
“Alright.”
Jin-Woo withdrew the ‘Intimidation’.
“You hand over the Entry Permit, and I’ll quietly leave.”
“T-truthfully?”
Jin-Woo nodded his head.
It was a bit of a waste to give up on the potential experience points gained from this demon, as well as those monsters supposedly guarding the Entry Permit. But then again, he found it even more of a waste to spend time searching for the permit himself.
He had been delayed for much longer than expected on this 80th floor already.
Besides, if this female demon was thinking of tricking him, well, he wouldn’t be too unhappy about that, either. Because, if she did, then he’d get to go all out in the monsters’ main camp, now wouldn’t he?
“Thank you very much!!”
The complexion of the Demon Aristocrat brightened so much that he couldn’t help but notice it.
Was she just honest with her emotions, or was she just a simpleton?
Jin-Woo inwardly clicked his tongue, but still, didn’t forget to ask her something he was curious about for a while.
“Before all that, though…. Just what are you?”
< Chapter 53 > Fin.
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