Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Chapter 27

Ding!

Just in time, the quest has been completed.

[You have completed the quest: Rescue Survivors.]

[Number of survivors rescued: 7]

“They must have made it out of the dungeon safely.”

Suho nodded, thinking of the hunters who had carried the survivors out.

They had promised to get to the surface as quickly as possible without getting caught by the demons, so now Suho only had to escape by himself.

“But before that…”

[Quest completion reward has arrived.]

[Would you like to check the reward? (Y/N)]

“Check the reward.”

Ding!

[The following rewards are available.]

Reward 1: Ability Points +3

Reward 2: Random Box x1

“A random box?”

Suho’s eyes widened.

Was it just an ordinary random box with no “cursed” modifier? He had no idea what could be inside.

Suho accepted all of the rewards.

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

“I wonder what’s inside.”

He tore open the packaging and was surprised to find several shiny gold coins inside.

Ching!

[You have acquired ‘700 gold’.]

“Gold?”

Did he receive 700 gold for rescuing seven survivors?

It was extremely ironic that he received gold that could be used at the store as soon as the store function was activated.

“It must be… Of course, it’s not a coincidence.”

Suho was beginning to vaguely realize something. He felt a sense of “goodwill” towards himself 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 store.”

A new store window appeared in front of Suho.

[Store]

Purchase / Sell

The store window was very simple. As Suho was about to check the purchase list to see what items he could buy, Beruga suddenly appeared and asked, “My lord, what about that demon?”

Suho’s gaze fell on the female demon lying on the ground dying, who had been his enemy just a moment ago. “Come to think of it, she was there.”

An enemy’s enemy is a friend. Although she was a devil who he had fought fiercely against until a little while ago, he didn’t kill her and left her alive. But now, it was time to make a choice. However, there was something he needed to check first.

“But I saw you talking to Beru earlier. Do you know each other?”

“Yes, my lord. The Radrir family was the only family that did not attack the lord when he subjugated the demon world.”

The Radrir family were demons who acknowledged their own weakness and volunteered to become slaves of Seong Jin-woo. But, if Seong Jin-woo had not been capricious, their surrender would never have been accepted. In fact, most of the demons who faced Seong Jin-woo in the war died. Alternatively, the cowards who ran away from the battlefield like the lesser demons Suho fought today were the only ones who survived.

“And the lord forced the demon named Esil to be his guide.”

“Um…sorry for interrupting the conversation, but could you please save me first? I really feel like I’m going to die.”

Esil, who was lying on the ground, called out to Suho with a voice full of blood.

“That’s it…”

Corrrrrrr-!

A loud noise echoed from Eshil’s stomach on the boat.

“Huh?”

As Suho and Baeur’s gaze concentrated, Eshil awkwardly patted her flat belly.

“After wandering around being chased for a few years…I starved to death…”

Ah, she must have meant that she was so hungry that she felt like she was going to die.

To cut to the chase, Suho eventually saved Eshil.

One of the reasons was to test the effect of the “potion” he bought at the store.

[Item: Lesser Healing Potion]

Acquisition difficulty: E

Type: Consumable

This is a potion that can recover health.

When consumed, HP slowly recovers by 500.

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

“Can’t be transferred to others? Can I feed it directly to someone else?”

Suho approached Eshil and poured the potion into her mouth.

“Ah…!”

As Eshil received and drank the potion, her wounds started to heal.

“Wait, are you a healer? By the way, what’s your relationship with Jinwoo-nim…?”

However, Suho ignored Eshil’s surprised gaze that pierced through him and focused only on the performance of the potion.

“Hmm, the healing speed is a bit slow. It would be difficult to use it hastily in the middle of a battle. Leveling up is the best after all.”

After a while, Eshil’s condition improved enough to be able to move around.

However, the rumbling noise from her stomach on the boat still echoed.

“I’m so hungry that I have no energy…”

“But you fought so well earlier.”

And that was the second reason why Suho saved Eshil.

Her strength didn’t feel particularly powerful.

Even though she had recovered after drinking the potion, her strength was at best C-class.

According to Beru’s explanation, demon nobles should have had S-class strength as their normal level.

However, for various complex reasons, Eshil’s strength was only half of half.

“However weak he may have become, I can’t just take the demon out of the dungeon recklessly.”

That is why in the end, the method Suho chose was to enter the Shadow Dungeon.

“Would you like to enter the Shadow Dungeon?”

“Yes.”

Shuwaak!

Suho took Esil to the Shadow Dungeon.

The Shadow Dungeon was a space where only Shadow soldiers could freely enter and exit, and was an unsurpassed prison for confining demons.

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

“Ah, I’m back in the world of rest!”

Esil, who saw the black and white world, began to exclaim with a rapturous expression.

Then Suho turned to him and asked.

“How come you’re carrying the world of rest in the shadow, even though you’re not the Shadow Lord? What’s your relationship with Jinwoo?”

“He’s my son.”

“Your son? Oh, are you Suho by any chance?!”

Esil was surprised and exclaimed.

“Oh my goodness! Has that tiny baby grown up already? Humans really grow up so fast.”

“Do you know me?”

Suho just blinked at Esil’s words.

Although his sealed memories did come back, he didn’t remember every face he saw when he was young.

Besides, there were so many soldiers living in Jinwoo’s shadow world.

Suho turned his gaze away from Esil, who was happy to see him, and asked Bae.

“But what is this world of rest?”

“It’s another name for the Shadow Dungeon.”

Bae explained.

There were many expressions to refer to the world ruled by the Shadow Lord.

The world of shadow.

The world beyond death.

And the realm of rest.

Even other lords who were now dead and gone had their own worlds they ruled.

However, only the Shadow Lord carried the entire world in his shadow.

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

[More accurately, it is the world that Your Majesty rules. However, for some reason, when the Young Lord was born, that world was split into two. To be precise, it might be more accurate to say that it multiplied.]

“Anyway, one of them became my shadow.”

Suhoh nodded his head.

Small talk was over, it was time to get to the point.

Suhoh looked at Eshil and asked directly, “You’re Eshil, right? Anyway, since I saved you, tell me everything you know. What are the demons plotting on Earth right now? What happened in the demon world?”

“Well…” Eshil opened his mouth bitterly. “After the war ended, everything was good at first. Thanks to Lord Seong Jin-woo, our Radir family became the top demon rank because he killed all the other nobles. Plus, he allowed our family, which had nowhere to go, to stay in the shadow world.”

At that time, the demon world had already lost their demon lord and was wandering through dimensional cracks, torn apart into pieces.

In that situation, Seong Jin-woo allowed the demons of Radir family, who had helped him, to reside in his world.

But that didn’t last long either.

“We couldn’t become residents of the shadow world after all.”

“Because our souls were contaminated?”

“You know it well.”

As Suhoh experienced, demons were fundamentally unable to extract shadow soldiers because their mana was contaminated souls.

“So, in the end, we had to go back to the demon world. No, to be precise, the demon world called us.”

“The demon world?”

“Yes, suddenly, a red gate that leads to the demon world opened in front of us who were living in the shadow world. And then, we were suddenly sucked in.”

The demon world, which had lost its lord, was wandering through dimensional cracks, torn apart into pieces.

A world without a lord had to call for a new one.

It was natural for the demon world to call the only demon noble, the Radir family, who existed in that world.

However, the demon world was a world maintained by the law of the strong, where there was thorough cannibalism and the survival of the fittest.

Without Seong Jin-woo’s help, the Radir family, which was only ranked 20th, lacked the power to dominate the demon world.

Then, demons who had been hiding from the shadow lord throughout the war came out again after the war ended, challenging the seemingly powerful authority of the Radir family.

“If we can just get rid of the Radir family!”

“We can also become nobles!”

“Let’s eat the nobles and suck their pure blood!”

“If we consume pure blood, our magic power will amplify!”

…and so all the demons joined together to attack the Radir family.

The Radir family was originally the weakest among the nobles, so they lacked the strength to prevent their rebellion.

“A weak devil is not worthy of living. We were eaten and drained of blood by them. Now, I am the only surviving devil noble.”

“So, is that why you became weak?”

“Yeah. I almost died several times, and a lot of blood was sucked out of me. That’s why my power has weakened.”

Beruga, who was listening next to him, added a comment.

“Devils, as a tribe, have a hierarchy of power that is determined from birth. It’s not just about pure-blood or hybrid. Because the foundation of their power lies in their blood, they become obsessed with drinking blood.”

“It’s similar to Gray’s situation.”

Suho nodded his head.

Listening to Beruga’s words, Esil vigorously nodded in agreement.

“That’s right. Because of that, devils are extremely afraid of their power weakening. In a world where the weak are eaten, whether they are nobles or hybrids, that’s why the guys who summoned me earlier were really strange.”

“Strange?”

“Yeah. They came to Earth by possessing the bodies of humans weaker than themselves. It’s not very devilish to make oneself weak.”

Not very devilish behavior.

Suho realized what Esil was trying to say.

“Are you saying that there is someone else behind the devils?”

“Yeah. The way they summoned me earlier was weird too. Originally, we devils are good at destroying and killing, but we don’t know how to use magic to force open the dimensional wall.”

“Then? Did someone teach the devils how to do it? Who?”

Beruga, who was listening to their conversation, sighed heavily.

“…Is it the Otherworld?”

“The Otherworld?”

“Gate magic was originally a technique used frequently by Yoggmunt, the lord of the Otherworld.”

“The Otherworld, huh.”

Suho pondered over Beru’s words.

“Then, the foot soldiers of the devil world and the Otherworld are joining forces behind the scenes.”

And one more thing.

“Stardust.”

One of the ingredients of Stardust was Mist Powder.

No, the main ingredient of Mist Powder was ‘Blue Mist,’ which was the cosmic magic that melted the boundary of dimensions.

“…It seems like the guys from the Otherworld are using these foot soldiers for something.”

[Yes. I also think so.]

Berdo nodded with a solemn expression in response to Suho’s conclusion.

[Perhaps… the invaders may have already infiltrated the Earth.]

It seemed that the invasion had already begun.