[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]

Chapter 380

Are you really sure about this?

“This is our chance. Even if it’s not ideal, we need to take the gamble.”

That’s true, but…

“You don’t need to worry too much. I’ll wrap myself in the Genesis Device to conceal both my appearance and my information.”

The divine realm where they reside is an organized hierarchy.

Below the God,there is the Sovereign, the Demon King, and the Apostles.

Beneath them roam countless demonkin who have failed to transcend.

“Demonkin” refers to those who sold their souls and yet failed to ascend as Transcendents—thus falling into corruption.

These corrupted beings spend eternity as the servants of Transcendents.

It is nothing short of a horrifying fate.

Hmm… still, you should be fine since your dark energy is charged to a certain extent.

Currently, the level of pure dark energy that Jeong-hoon possesses is 78%.

Demonkin can sense how much dark energy others hold.

Since all Transcendents in the divine realm wield the power of darkness, the absence of this energy would be suspicious.

“I really need to get my dark energy to 100%.”

The force that originally corrupted creations into demonkin is the Power of Darkness.

That power drives the process of demonization and turns beings into demonkin.

Of course, unlike them, Jeong-hoon is gathering pure dark energy, so such a fall won’t happen to him.

Given the situation, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use the demonkin to help you accumulate energy?

“Accumulate energy?”

You’ve got the Absorption Technique, don’t you? Use it to absorb the dark power that the demonkin possess. If you filter it, you should be able to extract a small amount of usable energy.

Originally, the Absorption Technique could only extract attributes and experience from others.

However, now that his dark energy is reacting to the Power of Darkness, it forcibly absorbs it.

Of course, just because it’s forcibly absorbed doesn’t mean he can use the Power of Darkness right away—it must be filtered by Jeong-hoon himself.

‘Hmm… I’ll keep that in mind and try it if I get the chance.’

For now, the priority is to accumulate divine energy.

Currently, his divine energy stands at 47.54%.

It hasn’t yet passed the 50% mark.

How much will he be able to accumulate during this visit to the divine realm?

[Would you like to move to the Divine Realm?]

He opened the gate to the Divine Realm using his authority as its master and stepped inside.

The portal swallowed Jeong-hoon.

* * *

At that moment—

The Harpha race had reached the first checkpoint.

“Oh, hey, this is our script, isn’t it?”

“If we complete the missing part of the inscription, the barrier activates?”

“Nice. Let’s do it right away!”

Unlike humans, the Harpha didn’t even need to decipher it.

As soon as they filled in the missing script, a circular barrier was deployed.

“They said they’d give us a special advantage… Guess they weren’t lying.”

The wounded Phros forced a smile with difficulty.

"She's still not healed?"

Chopper snapped at Laura, who was frantically trying to treat Frost beside him.

"Ugh, this doesn’t make sense. It's just a gunshot wound, so why isn’t it healing?"

Worse yet, the wound was quickly festering.

At this rate, they might have to amputate her leg.

"Leave it. This kind of wound can’t be healed."

Frost, drenched in cold sweat, refused treatment.

"What are you talking about?"

"I’ve been a tank for years—I’ve taken injuries like this more times than I can count. But this gunshot wound... it’s different."

"Different how?"

"…Since earlier, it feels like something hot is spreading through my body. It’s hard to breathe, I feel nauseous, my head is spinning, and my vision is going dark."

"You should’ve said something sooner!"

"Sorry… I thought I could hold out since I’ve got high regeneration. I figured time would help."

"Cut off the leg, now!"

Chopper shouted, panicked.

Damn it, Frost, you idiot.

They thought it wasn’t that serious because it didn’t look bad on the outside, but this was worse than expected.

"Frost! I’m giving you anesthesia now!"

Laura quickly tried to administer anesthesia.

But for some reason, it had no effect.

"Khagh! L-looks like you’ll have to do it without anesthesia."

Every time the anesthesia spell entered her body, it felt like her entire being was burning.

"…Got it. Frost, I’ll make it quick. Bear with the pain."

"Aaaaagh!"

* * *

[You have entered the Divine Realm: Village of Udarc.]

Jeong-hoon appeared in the village of Udarc, a remote area far from the center of the Divine Realm.

This village was home to about a hundred demonfolk.

[3 hours remaining before you can return.]

Once inside the Divine Realm, one is unable to leave for three hours.

That meant he needed to keep a low profile for at least that long.

"That Psyche bastard… can we really trust him?"

Tenebris muttered with a skeptical look.

The guy not only gave them information but also promised to shield them from the gaze of the Named beings.

But why would someone who stabbed them in the back suddenly act so helpful?

No matter how you looked at it, this smelled like a trap.

"The die’s already been cast. You're with me, and just in case, I covered the Creation Device to conceal us doubly. We should be able to survive the three hours."

"…Alright."

"More importantly, you said you hid something here?"

The reason Jeong-hoon specifically chose the village of Udarc—

It was to acquire a hidden opportunity Tenebris had stashed away.

He had a habit of hiding valuable things, which is why the five Named often called him a bastard behind his back.

Yeah. No one knows about this place.

“…Can I really trust you?”

Hey now, what do you take me for?

“If this blows up, it’s all on you.”

There’s no way that’ll happen, so relax, will you?

“Fine. Just tell me the location.”

They had to hurry.

The goal was to absorb as much energy as possible while others bought them time in the first round.

“Huh? Who are you?”

As Jeong-hoon made his way across the village toward the place Tenebris had pointed out, a demon wandering the streets suddenly approached him.

“……”

Jeong-hoon silently stared at the demon.

The demonification process had progressed to the point that it clearly resembled a devil.

The left half of its face looked as though it had melted completely, and it gave off a foul stench—making it the kind of demon no one would want to approach.

“I just wanted to ask you something.”

Though it was mumbling, Jeong-hoon could still understand it clearly.

He tried to walk past the demon.

Even though one could draw upon the power of darkness from a demon, Jeong-hoon didn’t want to provoke it unnecessarily—especially not before discovering the hidden opportunity Tenebris had mentioned.

There was still enough time left, so ignoring it for now was the wise choice.

However, the demon had no intention of letting Jeong-hoon pass so easily.

“Hey, I said stop and hear me out, didn’t I?”

The demon placed a hand on Jeong-hoon’s shoulder.

This is seriously annoying.

Jeong-hoon grabbed the demon’s wrist and twisted it slightly.

“Gyaaak!”

The demon screamed and dropped to its knees.

“Shut up.”

With those words, Jeong-hoon kicked the demon in the stomach.

Thwack!

Its body folded in half and flew backward—slamming straight into a wall.

“What the—?”

“What’s going on?”

The small commotion caused doors of nearby huts to open, and one by one, other demons began spilling out.

To avoid their attention, Jeong-hoon used the Heavenly Demon Lord’s Dominion Footwork and quickly exited the village.

‘Will that be okay…? Maybe it would’ve been better to just kill him.’

Mukho muttered with a face full of regret.

“Killing him would’ve made things complicated.”

‘Complicated?’

“Yeah. They’re all connected.”

When Jeong-hoon had twisted the demon’s wrist, he’d noticed faint threads running from its body to somewhere else.

He immediately realized those threads were connected to the Apostles.

Well done. If you had killed it there, the Apostles would’ve sensed it immediately and reported it up the chain.

Even if demons fight each other, they're not allowed to kill one another.

As expected, simply subduing them was the right answer.

‘I see now. I understand.’

‘Master, but where are we headed right now?’

Far beyond even the village of Udarc.

The Forest of Demons.

That was their first destination.

* * *

“Ugh... I got hit…”

The demon who had been slammed into the wall let out a pained groan, the impact clearly having been significant.

“What the—who did this to you?”

“Ugh, my house… When am I ever going to fix this?”

Usually, failures who get pushed out to small villages like this one tend to have lower intelligence.

When a demon transformation occurs, there are inevitably side effects—and this was one of them.

“I don’t know… I couldn’t even see who it was.”

The demon who had been kicked in the stomach drooled and shook his head.

“Could it have been an intruder?”

“No, it wasn’t. It was another demon.”

“Hmm, then you must’ve messed up and got hit?”

“I just couldn’t remember the way home, so I tried to stop them to ask...”

“Then it’s your fault.”

So it wasn’t an intruder—he just got hit for bothering someone.

“Is that so… Anyway, do you know where my house is?”

“You idiot. How can you forget where your house is every single day?”

“What can I do if I just don’t remember…”

“I’ll tell you—so fix my house first!”

* * *

Forest of Demons.

This is a forsaken forest.

Its original name had been Black Forest.

But once Beelzebub laid his hands on it, it transformed into the Forest of Demons.

At one point, the forest overflowed with the power of darkness, and Beelzebub cherished it dearly.

However, as his power waned, his interest faded too.

Now, it was nothing more than a forsaken forest even Beelzebub had abandoned.

“There’s really nothing here.”

Other than the shriveled black trees, the forest was completely barren.

Could something miraculous really still remain in a place like this?

Jeong-hoon walked toward the place Tenebris pointed out.

Hm? Is this really the spot?

The problem was, so much time had passed that the forest itself had died—and with that, even the exact location had become uncertain.

“…Hoo.”

Going in circles around the same place, Jeong-hoon let out a sigh tinged with frustration.

W-Wait! I swear this is it!

Tenebris clutched its head in panic, trying hard to remember.

“Tell me when it comes back to you.”

With those words, Jeong-hoon took out a shovel.

Rather than waiting for a response, it might be better to move and investigate things himself.

Ideally, he’d use the Goblet of the Void and the Root of Good and Evil to create two clones and move together — it would be more efficient that way. But if he did, he might get detected by the enemy, so moving alone was the smarter choice.

Ah! That’s right. It’s here!

Just as Jeong-hoon raised his shovel to dig, Tenebris pointed to a spot.

It was right in front of a dead tree.

“You sure about this?”

Yeah. I hid it under that tree!

“Really? All these trees look the same… How did you recognize it?”

This one looks a bit different. See that scratch on the tree?

Just as Tenebris said, there was a faint scratch on the dead tree.

It formed an “X” — not something that could be passed off as naturally occurring.

“You made that scratch yourself?”

That’s right. I marked it so only I would recognize it at the time.

“…And you let me waste my time wandering around because you forgot?”

S-sorry. It’s been so long, I couldn’t remember clearly…

“Tch. Anyway, this is the spot, right?”

Definitely!

Jeong-hoon raised the shovel and began digging.

But even after digging for quite a while, nothing of note turned up.

‘If Beelzebub took it, I’m screwed.’

Please let it still be here.

Fueled by that desperate hope, he kept digging.

Thunk.

There was a dull sound — the shovel hit something and wouldn’t go any further.

Heh, told you it was here.

Tenebris flashed a triumphant smile.

“If it hadn’t been…”

Jeong-hoon used the shovel to uncover what was buried beneath the earth.

A stone, radiating in a brilliant array of colors.

This was the Divine Stone that Tenebris had mentioned.

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]