As expected, Anomalocurus did not understand what Vulcan meant.
He didn’t necessarily want to understand it, either.
It didn’t bother him to not understand, as long as he was able to escape from the grasp of the incomprehensible boss monster that was so powerful.
However, that was not to be.
Anomalucurus would not put up a meaningful counter move at the forceful piercing attack launched at him right after he was done speaking. And unfitting to the elaborate title and reputation which he was enjoying as a true demon, he lost his life so quickly.
Puck.
[You’ve earned large quantity of experience.]
[The remaining number of true demons to complete the quest: 20]
“Phew. I was concerned because it was the first time two of them came at the same time.”
Fortunately, they were the weakest bunch of all the true demons I have ever encountered.
Vulcan had such a thought, and he also put away the item into the inventory, which had appeared when the corpse vanished.
And with the authority of the boss monster, he surveyed the lightning and fire temple, and thought.
‘Too bad….the number of true demons in the temple is 12. Should there be exactly 20, I would not even have to go outside of the temple in order to complete the quest….Well, doesn’t matter. After taking care of the twelve of them first, I could go out and look around the vicinity of the temple. And if the number was still deficient, I will return to the boss room, do some more training, and then hunt them some more.’
Vulcan was thinking positively as he watched the true demons moving about inside the temple.
After suppressing any sign of his presence as much as he could, he approached the true demons who were hunting in the nearest vicinity.
All the twelve true demons were hunting at a fixed distance apart from each other, as if they each had designated hunting area.
Perhaps, they got tired of competing with each other with respect to hunting that they appeared to have agreed to certain terms.
And that worked in great favor of Vulcan.
The probability that he could end up the victim if he was to face a group of true demons at once would be high, but he was 90 percent sure that he could defeat them as long as he faced them one at a time, in separate areas.
‘On top of that, they would not be able to defend themselves because they would never guess, in a million years, that a boss monster would exit the temple and cooperate with ordinary monsters, either.’
Yet, overconfidence was a taboo.
In order to minimize any potential risks, Vulcan kept replaying the soon to be ensued battle against the true demons in his head as he walked, and finally, he was able to locate a true demon positioned closest to him.
The bastard seemed to be relaxed the whole time as he was going against the two spirit gods, the ordinary monsters, in the lightning and fire temple.
However, his level was 1,315, far below Vulcan’s.
Vulcan was slowly moving closer to the bastard with a dark smile on his face as if he was an assassin in a dark alley, all the while keeping dead silent.
And as soon as he showed his back to him, Vulcan dashed forward and struck him with his lightning sword.
Padddd.
“Krrrrrruuhk!”
With the attack, which was incomparably powerful to those of the ordinary monster spirit god, the true demon Laura was cut in half at the waist.
He located Vulcan as his vision turned dark, and said in a dying voice.
“What….the heck….happened….”
Pazzzzz.
“Sorry.”
Vulcan crushed Laura’s head with the thunder sword.
He pleasingly verified the experience level which was rising in large quantities, and again silently moved forward.
He took care of two, three, ten true demons that way….
Finally, Vulcan took care of the eleventh true demon without any incidence.
However, there remained one, the most difficult one.
The most powerful true demon, among all the demons, he has faced so far in the lightning and temple was taking his position at the entrance of the temple.
The result of examining the bastard’s movement, with the authority as the boss monster, showed that he wasn’t at the level of Kaozinta, yet he was no doubt an ultimately powerful one at the level of 1,400.
Of course, Vulcan strongly felt that he had skills of equal or better him, and in a 1 to 1 battle, he was amply confident that he could defeat the bastard.
However, having sparred hundreds of times with Kaozinta, who was stronger than that bastard, Vulcan didn’t necessarily want to engage in a fair battle with him.
By now, Vulcan has set his eyes on the goal of finishing the quest as quickly as possible.
There was no reason for him to take a riskier way when it was not necessary.
As a result, as he approached the bastard in total silence like he has been doing, he controlled the ordinary monsters to launch full assault against him.
Kwakwakwang!
Puuuuung!
Vulcan launched an attack against the true demon by controlling five, ordinary monsters, the spirit gods, which was the maximum number that he could control at once.
He made the spirit gods to launch attacks which were most spectacular and loud, hence optimizing the conditions for getting undetected, while he slowly approached closer.
[True demon Vicerreuth]
[1403 Lv]
[Character: Evil]
[Potential: Maximum]
* Virucal dimension’s demon king and a true demon.
* He is happy as more preys have become available.
‘Certainly, the bastard’s level was over 1,400. Well, I don’t think I will lose to him in a fair fight…..But, let me take the easy route!’
After justifying himself of what he was about to do, he immediately drew his lightning sword and dashed forward with the explosive power of his legs when he decided that he had sufficiently closed in on him at which point he could deliver the most effective impact.
He was like a knight on a horseback holding a huge lance in a joust duel!
Even though his actions were no different than that of an assassin, on the surface, he looked great like that of a mythological hero destroying demons.
Of course, from the true demon Vicerreuth’s perspective, it probably was more shocking than getting hit by lightning on a clear day.
Well, how could a monster, which was clearly much stronger than the other monsters, come out of nowhere, and assault him!
Based on the energy, being spewed out of in the form of flame and lightning from that sword, he was sure that the monster’s power was as strong as his own.
‘Damn it, I have not heard of such a monster was alive!’
In an instant moment, Vicerreuth, who had so many thoughts in his head, redirected the energy which had been targeted at the spirit gods, and flooded it towards Vulcan, by using bloodless king’s authority.
However, as Vulcan waited until he could maximize his attack power before actually launching an attack, it became obvious that he was no match as he was being pushed back by Vulcan.
In the end, his right arm hung loose, and he had no choice, but to stutter about twenty steps backward.
On top of that, that wasn’t the end of it.
Seven comets fell on him in series as if Vulcan wasn’t going to give him any time to catch his breath.
Seeing that, Vicerreuth turned pale in astonishment, and he quickly retreated, taking backward steps.
He thought to dodge and escape from the lightning and fire temple, at the same time.
However, Vulcan, his adversary, was not such an easy opponent.
Pazzzzz.
The horrifying monster approached closer and closer, moving left and then right, by executing dragon dash, not allowing him to even guess the direction of the movement.
Greatly fluttered by that, Vicerreuth brought all of his internal potential energy and indiscriminately used combustible attacks in every which way, in forward direction.
As he could not read that monster’s maneuvers in his current condition, he chose to attempt at an all out attack maneuver.
However, as the focus of the attack has been dispersed, instead of being directed at a single target location, Vulcan did not suffer a major damage.
After accepting a certain level of damage from the impact, he got closer to Vicerreuth in much shorter time, and in a clean, single movement, he swung down his sword at Vicerreuth’s neck.
Vicerreuth recognized that there was no way for him to defend against it.
He quickly spun his head, and thought of the worst things he could say to provoke Vulcan in the worst way.
Then in a desperate voice, and just before his death, he spewed the words that he has thought of.
“You coward and shameful bastard….”
Pazzzzz.
Whirrrrl.
Shook.
[You have gained a large quantity of experience.]
[Level Up!]
“…..”
Vulcan has instantly raised his level, even though he hasn’t been out of the boss room for that long.
Under the ordinary circumstances, he would be whistling, singing delightfully, but Vulcan did not do that.
That was because the words that he heard from Vicerreuth, the demon, just before he fell to his death has pierced his heart.
‘Shameful….Me?’
As if he has been standing still like a rock on the spot for over 100 years, he regurgitated Vicerreuth’s words in a frozen state.
He felt hurt beyond his imagination.
The reason was because he has never heard the words of ‘shameful’, ‘cowardly’ in his entire life.
However, it might as well apply to him with certainty.
That was because all of his countless victims had lost their lives before they were able to say those words.
Hence, he has never had a chance to contemplate whether his past actions were either shameful or cowardly, as of yet.
He had just thought that they were the actions in order to fulfill the objective of clearing the stages in more effectively.
However, as he thought in depth from the perspective of Vicerreuth, who was just been killed by him, he could truly see how awful and vile his past actions were.
“….Powell has been telling me in an incredibly round about ways, all this time.”
Of course, fairness did not apply to the disposition of lightning and fire temple.
Powell, too, always advised me to act violently, without remorse as I saw fit, rather than advising me to act in the righteous ways.
However, even after that….,
‘Shameful flame…. Shameful lightning sounds like something very terrible, it seems…..’
It was the one time that Vulcan truly revisited his own character and identity.
Thinking about Vicerreuth who has died by his surprise assault, he slowly exited the temple with bitter taste in his mouth.
Of course, as that one word wasn’t, so bitter, as to cause him to change his way in complete 180 degrees, he hunted the remaining nine true demons in similar ways, for now.
After summoning the hell hunting dog Doori, and had him to cause a ruckus so that the true demons would be preoccupied by Doori, he cleanly severed the bastards’ heads.
That was how Vulcan gained the incredible quantity of experience as the quest successful notification rang, and he continuously leveled up.
After reading the message which said that his activity area has been expanded, he thought.
‘Sorry, Vicerreuth. Old habits are hard to break. However, as I was getting killed many times by Kaozinta…. At least to a certain degree, I’ve fixed the habit of running away if there was no chance of winning, I guess I could be seen as being less shameful than before. Hope you see it my way.’
Vulcan made an apology to Vicerreuth who was already dead.
Rather than becoming a shameful and cowardly Vulcan, he has decided to become an indiscriminately belligerent Vulcan for the purpose of his own growth, and then he verified the next quest by opening the system window.
[Quest initiated!]
[Ordinary quest – Naraka’s ruler]
[Difficulty – A+ level (Demon world standard)]
[Reward – Great quantity of experience, the key allowing one to become a true god]
* Raise the level by hunting the true demons in the widened activity area. Every time a true demon is hunted, large quantity of experience would be rewarded, and the activity area will widen even more. When you become a being which is able to overwhelm Naraka, the quest will end. Much more experience could be obtained as a reward when the quest is completed.
* The probability of succeeding the quest will rise as the Naraka’s infamous true demons are taken out.
As opposed to his thinking of soon to be going in, in demon mode, the system kept providing quest which needed to be tackled in series, in god mode.
Vulcan thought after examining the content of the quest.
‘A being that is able to overwhelm Naraka…. As the ancient gods’ levels weren’t that high, the true demons’ levels were also at a standstill, too. The bastard with the highest level…. Had 1,467 or so? Not too sure. At any rate, the quest is somewhat abstract, this time around…..’
Unlike all the other prior quests which were offered in Naraka, this particular quest did not have clear standard.
However, it wasn’t much of a concern as the instruction to hunt infamous true demons was attached.
“All right, I could really get killed many times, this time…. I must accept that risk, in order to grow to the level of Powell, I suppose.”
Putting on an optimistic expression, Vulcan began to move as he hung the thunder sword on his shoulder.
Vulcan has become the most powerful bug monster in Naraka’s history.
There was no hesitation in his journey, at all.
As Vulcan’s evil influence slowly extended further out from the lightning and fire temple, the lives of the true demons fell like leaves when they first encountered the bug monster.
The next targeted true demon which was stronger than the previous victim wasn’t strong enough to withstand Vulcan, either.
The true demons had to engage Vulcan who showed up unexpectedly at the most unexpected situation, and place, so most of them could not employee any form of normal fighting abilities before getting their heads severed.
In the end, even among the true demons which information was not shared, at all, the situation has become so dire that rumors about Vulcan spread rampantly, and previously rare situations in which they formed a party of two or three as they hunted have become normalized. Yet, all those attempts were futile.
As far as Vulcan, who entered Naraka in god mode, was concerned, being the monster was his basis, and that the number of his lives was unlimited, also.
There never was any probability that the true demons would defeat such an illogical being in battles, from the beginning.
“Damn it! I killed that bastard earlier, why is he back!”
“Ahhhhh! Get lost, please! What the heck is that, anyway! Even the update information board did not have anything on him!”
Furthermore, unlike the other monsters, Vulcan was endlessly getting stronger through continuous training and leveling up.
Contrary to that, the powerful true demons that could stop Vulcan’s actions were getting reduced in their number.
Most of the true demons who were able to engage Vulcan in fights died away due to the tenacious rushing attacks in Vulcan’s disregard for his own life, or they have ended up returning to their own demon worlds due to the unfair conditions of Naraka.
Understandably, those weaker true demons, too, had no choice, but to return to their own demon worlds, as well.
As absurd as it might be, the great world of Naraka was at the cusp of obliteration because of one single bug monster, known as Vulcan.
What remained in Naraka were only those true demons that had just recently come up without knowing about the being, called Vulcan, as they had spent a long time in their own, respective worlds before entering.
Still, those who fell inside Vulcan’s radar were instantly killed, in the end.
After spending about 50 years, like that, Vulcan had reached the level equaling to 1,485!
Nearing 1,500, it was the highest of any demon kings or true demons have attained, up to now.
However, there was no sign of the quest nearing the end, and with little bit of anxiety, Vulcan was spending the time, practicing his depth thunder sword which had a lot of issues when used in real battles.
It was at such time when Vulcan was spending endless time waiting for the chance to complete the quest.