Chapter 74 - ? ? ? ?

Living beings were quite simple.

When they received an unbearable shock, they either died outright or even if quickly treated, they often bore wounds that could never be erased for life.

I stomped on the gray-haired man writhing under my feet and sneered.

Because he talked a lot, I thought he might have some decent abilities, but it was quite laughable that he collapsed with just one swing of a weapon.

I'm not sure if I've gotten stronger or if this guy is just weak.

Of course, logically speaking, it was stranger not to collapse when a hammer was driven into a person's head, but since what I was dealing with was a black mage, not a human, I thought he could withstand this much.

Because he was weaker than I had expected, I clicked my tongue and shook my head, then glanced ahead.

So how should I catch that thing?

Since it was a giant worm, it would be good to burst its body to catch it…

The problem was that the moment I knocked down the black mage, it seemed to have noticed my strength and started running away.

Thinking its survival instinct was excellent if nothing else, I was about to follow the worm when Siren stopped me and said, "Wait... there's something more inside."

Not just something, but “more”.

That meant there was an extremely high possibility that there were several worm monsters like that.

I thought it would be fun and was about to do a point explosion when suddenly a thought arose in my mind.

I wonder if those guys would become quite useful if I put them in shadows and raised them?

It was a somewhat interesting thought.

If it came possible for me to tame those guys, or at least use them…

I thought I might be able to do things I couldn't do before due to various problems.

For example, if I release the worms in the North, I could mess up the North without getting my hands dirty.

Or I could cause massive damage to the church or imperial side and then consistently play dumb, which was a very interesting thing I could do.

I raised the corners of my mouth, thinking it would be quite fun.

Then shall I take them for now?

Of course, to take them, it was important to understand what state the worms were in now.

So deciding to follow the escaped worms first, I explained the plan to Siren.

"Okay. Got it."

Siren seemed to want to do anything I said, so she nodded without a moment's hesitation.

Ruen also didn't want to object much to my words, so she nodded and fully endorsed my opinion.

Seeing this, I thought if Liana were here, she would have shouted, "What are you saying!" and walked forward.

***

It wasn't very difficult to find the escaped giant worms.

I just had to leisurely walk along the huge tunnels the worms had dug.

Of course, they could set a trap and wait.

I had asked Siren to keep using search magic.

So I was advancing after perfectly preparing for any possible dangers, so the possibility of a crisis approaching was extremely low.

With that thought, as I was slowly advancing, what I saw was a huge cavern.

It seems to be a laboratory...

It would be right to see it as a laboratory for creating worms.

At the sight reminiscent of a livestock farm raising animals, I felt somewhat interested, then calmly turned my gaze and looked up.

Thousands of eyeballs.

I didn't know if they were attached for surveillance or some other purpose, but thinking it wasn't a very good sight, I said to Ruen and Siren, "If it seems dangerous, get out right away. I can escape on my own."

"Okay."

"W-wait a moment. Wouldn't it be better to escape together if it's dangerous?"

Siren nodded without any objection, probably because she had seen my shadow ability and the power of the point explosion I had set off earlier.

In Ruen's case, probably because she hadn't properly seen my abilities yet, she conveyed her worry to me in a voice full of anxiety.

I smiled brightly to indicate it was okay and said, "I'm not saying this to ease your worry. I really can escape alone."

"If that's the case, then that's good, but..."

Her expression was quite stiff for someone who was supposed to be reassured.

To relieve Ruen's tension, I playfully poked her cheek.

Ruen was flustered, but thanks to my prank, her tension seemed to ease as she smiled slightly and said to me,

"...Still, please try to escape together if possible."

I nodded and reassured Ruen, then took out my mace.

Since I plan to raise the worms, rather than smashing everything with a point explosion... it would be better to assess the situation first.

That way, I could seize these guys as intact as possible.

With that thought, the moment I moved forward, I heard a strange cry of "Kieeek" from far away.

Even one was loud enough to numb the ears.

With dozens of them, the sound was so loud it was momentarily deafening.

I laughed hollowly while listening to these sounds, then wanting to make them shut up, I drew up my power and glared at those guys.

"..."

As if an alarm had rung, the worm monsters instantly shut their mouths and froze.

Seeing the huge monsters acting like prey that had encountered a predator, I laughed hollowly, then looked at a building nearby.

There's a high possibility the manager is in there.

So thinking I should search there first, I was moving forward when blood started pooling in the thousands of eyes above.

It stretched down long and started creating countless Chimeras or monsters.

Seeing this overwhelmingly cruel yet impressive sight, I stared blankly.

Thinking I had gotten a pretty good idea, I smiled and decided to try imitating this later.

Later, if I can create soldiers with shadows or something, I should try summoning them like that.

By that point, it might look no different from being a Demon King.

But what was important was how much one broke the enemy's morale in battle.

Thinking it would be good to learn these kinds of productions, I nodded.

Well, anyway, what's important now are the enemies gathering.

While I was pondering how to deal with those guys this time, I saw a skeleton holding a huge scythe approaching me from far away.

Seeing a being that wasn't even human anymore approaching me, I laughed hollowly and was about to face it when Ruen beside me said in a surprised voice, "...It seems to be a demon race."

I didn't expect a demon race to appear instead of a black mage.

Surprised by those words, I asked her again.

Ruen quickly nodded and explained the information about this.

"Yes. While black magic is dark-aligned, it's based on mana and uses mana... but in the case of demon race, they use demonic energy."

I wasn’t sure, but it seemed there was a big difference between black magic and demon race magic.

I nodded at those words and asked for more details.

After pondering for a moment, she told me important information.

"One of the characteristics of demonic energy is that it feels like drawing power from negative emotions. At first glance, it might seem similar to black magic, but black magic converts negative emotions into mana and then uses it as an energy source."

"You mean demonic energy uses negative emotions as they are?"

"...Yes."

I couldn't understand exactly what this difference meant, so questions arose.

But those questions could be resolved by catching and interrogating that skeleton guy glaring at us from the front.

So I decided to think about these things after dealing with the opponent first and moved forward.

As I moved forward like that, the skeleton pointed at me with its bones dyed black and said, "■■■?"

It seems to be speaking, but I couldn't understand what it was saying at all.

Wondering about that voice that sounded like a metallic noise, a scream of agony, and a howl all at once,

The skeleton gripped its scythe more tightly and shouted something at me again, "■■■■!"

I didn’t know what that meant, but it didn’t seem to be saying anything good.

So deciding to smash the skeleton first and think about the rest later, I started putting power into my mace.

Feeling the intensely resonating vibration, I raised the corners of my mouth in satisfaction.

Then I calmly walked forward and said, "Come at me."

"■■■!"

At my provocation, the skeleton let out a loud cry, then took one step forward and kept shouting something.

Since these were words I absolutely couldn't understand, I ignored them all and lightly set off a point explosion using my mace.

Boom!

Probably because I struck with moderate power to avoid shattering the cavern, which would be quite troublesome, the skeleton blocked it more easily than expected and swung its scythe at me.

It wasn't very difficult to dodge, but I could clearly see the demonic energy Ruen had mentioned remaining along the path where the scythe had been swung.

Realizing this was an enemy that would become quite troublesome the longer the fight continued, I smiled.

This is fun.

Thinking there would be a taste in figuring out how to deal with it, I licked my lips.

Just then, Daisy, who was in my arms, poked her face out and…

"Myaang?"

She shook her hair and stared at the skeleton.

Then, as if she had seen something she shouldn't have, she became very angry and said something to me, "Kwang! Myeok!"

Judging by her saying, "Kwang," it seemed she wantsedto say we must absolutely eliminate it.

I secretly patted her head, finding it funny that she could speak human language but still said "myeok".

Daisy, who was laughing "myeheheng", suddenly made her body pop out and…

Whoosh!

She started quickly burning the surroundings and pressuring the skeleton.

To be honest, I judged it would be difficult to kill the skeleton with this level of fire, so I was about to attack the skeleton without paying much attention when

The moment the skeleton approached Daisy's fire, it started burning bright blue and screaming.

"...?"

Then not long after, it turned into pure white ash and poured onto the floor.

I made a reluctant expression seeing the skeleton's anticlimactic end.