I was Mistaken for a Noble Hunter

Ding!

 

Just in time, the quest was also completed.

 

 

[You have completed ‘Quest: Rescue the Survivors’.]

 

[Number of rescued survivors: 7]

 

 

‘They made it out of the dungeon safely.’

 

Sooho nodded, thinking of the Hunters who had carried the survivors out. They had promised to escape from the dungeon as quickly as possible without being caught by the magic beasts, so now Sooho only had to escape alone.

 

‘But before that…’

 

 

[The quest completion reward has arrived.]

 

[Do you want to check the reward?] (Y/N)

 

 

“Check.”

 

Ding!

 

 

[The following rewards are prepared.]

 

Reward 1: Ability Points +3

 

Reward 2: 1 Random Box

 

“Random box?” A thought popped up in Sooho’s mind. Was it an ordinary random box without the label “cursed”? He had no idea what could be inside.

 

Sooho accepted all of the rewards.

 

He invested all the ability points in his Strength stat, and shortly after, a small random box appeared in his hand.

 

‘I wonder what’s inside.’

 

When he ripped open the packaging, to his surprise, several sparkling golden coins were inside.

 

Cha-ching.

 

[You have obtained ‘700 Gold’.]

 

“Gold coins?”

 

Did they give him 700 gold for rescuing seven survivors? It was extremely cunning that he received gold that could be used in the store as soon as the store function was activated.

 

‘It’s not a coincidence… obviously.’

 

Sooho was starting to realize it too.

 

He felt the’ goodwill’ toward him in the level-up system inherited from his father.

 

‘…Thank you for the allowance, Father.’

 

The received gold coins all went into the inventory. Then, a notation of 700 gold appeared at the bottom of the inventory.

 

“Open the shop.”

 

A new shop window opened before Sooho.

 

 

[Shop]

Buy/Sell

 

 

The shop window was extremely simple.

 

Just as Sooho was about to check the purchase list to see what items he could buy…

 

[Little King.]

 

Beru suddenly appeared and asked.

 

[What will you do with that demon?]

 

Sooho’s gaze turned to the female demon lying dying on the ground.

 

‘Come to think of it, there’s that too.’

 

The enemy of an enemy is a friend.

 

He had fought fiercely with the lesser demons until a while ago, so he hadn’t killed her, but now was the time to make a choice.

 

Before that, there was something to confirm.

 

“By the way, I saw you two talking a while ago. Do you know each other?”

 

[Yes, that’s right. House Radiru was the only family not to attack my liege when he subjugated the Demon World.]

 

House Radiru were demons who admitted their weakness and volunteered to become slaves to Sung Jinwoo. However, if Sung Jinwoo had not been capricious, their surrender would never have been accepted. Most of the demons who had faced Sung Jinwoo in the Monarchs War had died. Or, like the lesser demons they encountered today, only the cowards who ran away from the battlefield early and hid out of Sung Junwoo’s sight were still alive.

 

[And my liege had forcibly captured that demon named Esil and used her as a guide.]

 

“Excuse me…” At that moment, Esil, who had fallen to the ground and was bleeding profusely, called out to Sooho in a dying voice. “I’m sorry to interrupt the conversation, but can you save me first? I really feel like I’m going to die.”

 

At that moment.

 

Rumble-

 

A booming sound echoed from Esil’s belly.

 

“Huh?”

 

As Sooho and Beru’s gaze focused on her, Esil awkwardly held her rumbling stomach.

 

“After being chased around for a few years, I’ve been starving…”

 

Ah. It seemed that she was saying she was starving to death, not that she was actually dying.

 

***

 

To cut to the chase, Sooho eventually saved Esil. There were several reasons for this, one of which was to test the effect of the ‘potion’ he bought at the shop.

 

 

[Item: Lesser Healing Potion]

 

Acquisition Difficulty: E

 

Type: Consumable

 

A potion that can restore health.

 

When consumed, HP slowly recovers by 500.

 

It can be stored in your inventory, but it cannot be transferred to others.

 

 

‘Can’t be transferred to others? Then is it possible to feed it directly?’

 

Sooho approached Esil and poured the potion into her mouth.

 

“Ah…!”

 

Esil’s wounds began to heal as she drank the potion.

 

“What, are you a Healer? By the way, what’s your relationship with Sir Jinwoo…”

 

But Sooho ignored Esil’s gaze, which was staring at him as if she could see through his face, and focused only on the performance of the potion.

 

‘Hmm, the healing speed is a bit slow. It will be difficult to use it in an emergency during combat. Leveling up is still the best.’

 

After a while, Esil’s condition improved enough to move around, but the growl in her stomach was still loud.

 

“I’m still weak from hunger…”

 

‘You fought well earlier.’

 

And that was the second reason why Sooho saved Esil.

 

The energy he felt from Esil wasn’t that great, meaning she was relatively weak. Even though Esil had recovered after drinking the potion, the energy he felt from her was only around C-rank.

 

According to Beru’s explanation, demon nobles should have had the power level of S-rank to be considered normal. However, for various complicated reasons, Esil’s power was only a fraction of a half.

 

‘But no matter how weakened she is, I can’t just take a demon outside the dungeon recklessly.’

 

For that reason, the method that Sooho ultimately chose was:

 

 

[Do you want to enter the Shadow Dungeon?] (Y/N)

 

 

“Enter.”

 

Shwaaak!

 

Sooho took Esil to the Shadow Dungeon.

 

The Shadow Dungeon was a space where only shadow soldiers could freely enter and exit, and it was an unsurpassed prison to confine demons.

 

However, Esil’s reaction was quite surprising once they entered the Shadow Dungeon.

 

“Ah, to come back to the Realm of Rest!” Esil, who saw the black-and-white world, started exclaiming in admiration with an ecstatic expression. Then she looked back at Sooho and asked, “How come you have the Realm of Rest within the shadow, even though you’re not the Shadow Monarch? What is your relationship with Sir Jinwoo?”

 

“I’m his son.”

 

“Son? Oh my! Are you Sooho, by any chance!?” Esil exclaimed in surprise and admiration, “Wow! That little baby has grown up so much already? Humans really do grow up fast.”

 

“Do you know me?” Sooho just blinked in response to Esil’s question. Even though his sealed memories were slowly returning, he didn’t remember every face he had seen when he was young. There were too many soldiers living in Sung Jinwoo’s Shadow World.

 

Sooho looked away from Esil, who was happy to see him, and asked Beru, “By the way, what is the Realm of Rest?”

 

[It’s another name for the Shadow Dungeon.]

 

Beru explained.

 

There were many different expressions for the world ruled by the Shadow Monarch: the Shadow World, the World Beyond Death, and the Realm of Rest.

 

Even other Monarchs who were now dead also had worlds they ruled, but only the Shadow Monarch carried his world within his shadow.

 

“So this Shadow Dungeon is the world I rule?”

 

[More precisely, it’s the world that my liege rules. But for some reason, his world was split in two when you were born. To be more exact, it multiplied.]

 

“In any case, one of them became my shadow.” Sooho nodded.

 

Enough with the small talk. It was time to get to the point. Sooho looked at Esil and asked her straightforwardly, “You said your name is Esil, right? Now that I saved you, tell me everything you know. What are the demons doing on Earth? And what happened in the Demon World?”

 

“Well…” Esil opened her mouth bitterly, “After the war ended, everything was fine at first. Since Sung Jinwoo killed all the other nobles, House Radiru became the top demon in the ranking. Moreover, he let our family, who had nowhere to go, stay in his Shadow World.”

 

At that time, the Demon World had already lost its Demon King and was wandering around the dimensional rifts in pieces. In that situation, Sung Jinwoo allowed the demons of House Radiru, who had helped him, to reside in his world.

 

But that was only temporary.

 

“We couldn’t become inhabitants of the Shadow World after all.”

 

“Because yours are polluted souls?”

 

“You know it well.”

 

As Sooho had experienced, demons were basically mana-tainted spirits, so they could not be extracted as shadow soldiers.

 

“So in the end, we had no choice but to return to the Demon World. No, to be exact, the Demon World called us.”

 

“The Demon World?”

 

“Mm. Suddenly, a red gate leading to the Demon World opened before us who were living in the Shadow World. And then it started sucking us in.”

 

The Demon World that had lost its Monarch was wandering around dimensional rifts, torn apart into pieces.

 

A world without a Monarch would inevitably call for one.

 

It was only natural for the Demon World to call upon the only demon noble family that still existed, the Radiru family.

 

However, the Demon World was maintained by strict laws of survival of the fittest and might make right. Without Sung Jinwoo’s help, House Radiru, who was only ranked 20th, would not have had the power to dominate the Demon Realm.

 

Then, the demons who had been hiding from the Shadow Monarch throughout the war came out again after the war ended and started to challenge the Radiru’s seemingly weak authority.

 

‘If only the Radiru family disappeared!’

 

‘We can become nobles too!’

 

‘Let’s feast on the nobles and suck their pure blood!’

 

‘If we consume pure blood, our magic power will amplify!’

 

… And so, all the demons united and began to attack House Radiru.

 

House Radiru was originally the weakest among the nobles, so they lacked the power to stop the rebellion.

 

“Weak demons have no right to live. We were devoured like that, and our blood was sucked. Now I’m the only surviving demon noble.”

 

[So, that’s why you’ve become weak?]

 

“… Yeah. I almost died several times, and much blood was sucked from me. That’s why I’ve become weak.”

 

Beru, who was listening nearby, added a comment.

 

[From the moment demons are born, the power hierarchy is determined. It’s not just about pure blood or mixed blood. Because the foundation of power lies in their innate blood, they become obsessed with consuming blood.]

 

‘It’s similar to what happened with Gray.’

 

Sooho nodded.

 

Upon hearing Beru’s words, Esil vigorously nodded in agreement. “Yes, that’s right. That’s why demons fear becoming weak so much, regardless of whether they are nobles or mixed-bloods, because it’s a world where the weak are devoured. That’s why the ones who summoned me earlier were really strange.”

 

“Strange?”

 

“Mm. They came to earth by possessing the bodies of humans weaker than themselves. It’s not a very demon-like behavior to make oneself weak.”

 

Not a very demon-like behavior.

 

Sooho realized what Esil was trying to say.

 

“Do you mean to say that there is someone behind the demons?”

 

“Mm. Actually, the way they summoned me earlier was also strange. Although us demons are good at destroying and killing, we don’t know how to use magic to open dimensional walls forcefully.”

 

“Then? Did someone teach the demons? Who?”

 

Listening to their conversation, Beru sighed deeply.

 

[…Could it be the Phantom World?]

 

“Phantom World?”

 

[Gate magic was originally a method frequently used by the King of Demonic Spectres, Yogumunt.]

 

[T/N: The ‘Spectre’ here originated from the word ‘환계’, which is a term that refers to a fictional or imaginary world. It can be translated as “illusionary world,” “phantom world,” or “fantasy realm.” The concept of 환계 is used to describe a parallel universe or alternate reality that exists alongside the real world.]

 

“The Phantom World.” Sooho mulled over Beru’s words and drew a picture in his head. “So, are the soldiers of the Demon World and the Phantom World working together?”

 

And one more thing.

 

‘Stardust.’

 

Mistburn, one of the ingredients of Stardust. No, ‘blue mist’, the main ingredient of Mistburn, was the magic of outer space that dissolved dimensional boundaries.

 

“… It seems like the extradimensional beings are using these defeated soldiers for some purpose.”

 

[Yes, I think so too.]

 

Beru nodded solemnly.

 

[Perhaps…the outer beings have already infiltrated Earth.]

 

It seemed like the invasion had already begun.

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