After Ten Millennia in Hell

Side Story Chapter 95 - Capture the Relic (6)

"Today\'s magic trick is~"

Kang-Woo raised two cups— one was empty and the other was filled with boiling oil.

"Making this boiling oil disappear!"

"A-Aaaahh." The apostle groaned in devastation. His lifeless eyes filled with fear. He desperately begged, "N-No. P-Please... stop!"

"Come on~ what\'s wrong? I haven\'t even shown you the trick yet!" Kang-Woo confidently pushed the two cups forward. "Alright, take a good look! I know you\'ll love it!"

He cleared his throat and raised the cup with boiling oil inside.

"As you can see, this cup contains boiling oil."

The magician was again performing magic tricks for his one audience member today. He knew only one person was watching but that did not erode his desire to make people smile with his magic tricks.

"If I tilt this cup and pour its contents into the other cup..."

Sizzle—!!!

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

The boiling oil barely missed the empty cup and poured on the apostle\'s groin like a fountain. The apostle convulsed violently as his eyes flipped backward.

"Ta-dah!!! Look!!! Both cups are empty!"

Kang-Woo showed the inside of the two cups to the panting and trembling apostle. They were naturally empty because Kang-Woo had poured the boiling oil on the apostle.

"Hehehe! Amazing, right? Hm?"

"P-Please... s-stop..."

"Huh? What do you mean? Is this not good enough for you? I guess I have no choice... I didn\'t want to show you this magic trick, but you\'ve forced my hand..."

"...ll me."

"It\'s called dismemberment magic. A person is put in a box and their limbs are cut off and then reattached— huh? What did you say?"

"K-Kill... me. Waaaaaahhh. Please, just kill me..."

The apostle of Oceiros lowered his head in tears.

"Bwehehehehe!" Kang-Woo laughed in satisfaction and walked leisurely toward the apostle. "Then you know what you have to do, right?"

"I-I\'ll talk... I\'ll tell you everything I know!!!"

"No need for that. Just spit out information about the ten-star relic."

Kang-Woo couldn\'t care less about anything else.

"I-I am not certain either since it is all based on rumors, but legends say the【Demonic Sword Midir】lays dormant in the northernmost ancient ruins of this floor."

"Demonic Sword?"

Kang-Woo frowned, feeling displeasure from those two words. He remembered being taken for a ride by Bael with Demonic Sword Ingrium, a sword made from a branch of the corrupted World Tree.

"And this Midir is the ten-star relic?" Kang-Woo asked.

"Y-Yes! According to the legends, one swing of the sword turns day to night, and a second swing covers the earth with a black sea!"

"Dayum."

Kang-Woo chuckled. The legend was obviously overblown from how abstract it was rather than in detail.

\'I mean, that\'s how all legends are, I guess. But still...\'

The fact that there were legends passed down about it confirmed how valuable the relic was.

\'I might be able to awaken five... no, ten Traits.\'

Kang-Woo couldn\'t choose the Traits but the more pulls he had, the higher the chances he had to pull a high-ranking one.

"Is ten stars the highest?" Kang-Woo asked.

He had been curious for a while about how high the star ranking went.

"O-Of course not. The highest is naturally... twelve stars."

The apostle stared at Kang-Woo, unable to understand why he would ask something so obvious.

\'Twelve, huh?\'

Kang-Woo\'s eyes shone with great interest. Seven stars could damage those with Deific Essence, so he couldn\'t imagine how powerful twelve stars would be.

\'Maybe...\'

It could be something that surpassed even Kang-Woo— something unfathomable that he had never experienced.

"Haaa," Kang-Woo exhaled heatedly as extreme hunger that he hadn\'t felt in a while burned his throat. He turned to the apostle of Oceiros as he greedily licked his lips and asked, "Does that mean there are twelve-star relics and apostles?"

"N-No, not anymore."

"No?"

"Th-The existence of twelve stars is just passed down as legends. None exist at this moment."

"Tsk," Kang-Woo clicked his tongue. "What about eleven stars?"

"Th-That does not exist either."

"Then is ten stars the highest among the existing relics?"

The apostle nodded.

\'That\'s a shame.\'

Kang-Woo quelled his extreme hunger and narrowed his eyes.

"That aside, why didn\'t you guys go to find the ten-star relic?"

There was no reason for them to be plundering here if they knew it was in the northernmost region. No matter how many three to four-star relics they collected, they wouldn\'t come close to a ten-star relic.

"Th-That\'s because..." the apostle averted his gaze from Kang-Woo and continued, "Th-The place is bustling with the demons of Pandemonium."

"Demons of Pandemonium?"

Kang-Woo recalled the Succubus Queen saying something about the demons of Pandemonium scouring the Tower for relics.

"Then you were stealing from the weak because you were scared of the demons?"

"Th-That\'s... correct." The apostle lowered his head in shame.

"I see."

Kang-Woo nodded; he more or less understood.

\'I don\'t think I can get much else from him.\'

It was time to fulfill his promise.

"Okay. Thanks for the info."

Kang-Woo placed his hand on the dejected apostle\'s head. He gripped hard and the apostle\'s head exploded.

"What shall we do now, my king?" Lilith asked after putting the relics they collected in a bag. "Will we be heading north?"

"No," replied Kang-Woo as he slowly turned around and shook his head. "I can\'t outright trust what this guy said."

He wanted the ten-star relic but he still lacked far too much information to just head north without looking back.

"Then..."

"I\'ll ask a few more of these guys whether or not it\'s true, and farm some more in the process."

Kang-Woo licked his lips and put the bag filled with relics over his shoulder.

***

Kang-Woo invested one more day into hunting the apostles of Oceiros and acquired four more relics.

"Hehe. Good, good."

They were all low-ranking three to four-star relics but it was an impressive haul considering how they had come up with nothing after the initial five days. Kang-Woo chuckled in satisfaction after stuffing eleven relics in two large bags.

"It looks like we took care of most of them," mentioned Cha Yeon-Joo as she stood up and dusted off her hands.

"Will we be heading north now?" Han Seol-Ah asked.

"Yup."

The information about the ten-star relic being in the north seemed to be true after asking a few more apostles of Oceiros.

"But Darling, aren\'t you tired? I can head north by myself, so why don\'t you head home first?"

"No! I\'m coming with you!" shouted Seol-Ah as if Kang-Woo was talking nonsense.

"You have a cooking class to get to, don\'t you?"

"I can skip it."

Kang-Woo stared at Seol-Ah worryingly. He only took the women with him because he didn\'t expect it would take this long, but he felt bad because they had not been able to wash and sleep at all.

"I don\'t want to make my Darling suffer."

Kang-Woo sighed as he rubbed Seol-Ah\'s soft hands. He couldn\'t help but be worried despite knowing she had long since surpassed human limits.

"Fufu. I\'m not suffering at all. How could I be when I get to be with you?"

"DARLIIIIIIIIIIING!!!"

Kang-Woo jumped into Seol-A\'s embrace and rubbed his head between her bosoms. The position was a little awkward because they were around the same height now.

"Sheesh, fuck around some more, why don\'t you?"

"You can go home and rest if you\'re tired too, Yeon-Joo."

"Forget it, you son of a bitch. I\'m skipping out on guild work so I might as well come back with some relics."

"Hehehe. You say that, but you just don\'t wanna be the only one left out, right?"

"Argh, fuck off!" Yeon-Joo shouted as she pushed away the clinging Kang-Woo and walked forward. "More importantly, let\'s be quick if we\'re gonna head north. Pandemonium, was it? The demons from there are after the relic too, aren\'t they?"

"Sure."

Kang-Woo grabbed Yeon-Joo and Lilith by the waist and flew into the air using the Authority of the Sky. Yeon-Joo could mimic flying by using her chains but it was more efficient for Kang-Woo to carry her when flying long distances.

"That aside, why don\'t you have wings when you\'re a demon, Lilith unnie?" Yeon-Joo asked.

Lilith smiled widely as her long hair squirmed. "Fufu. Not all demons have wings."

"Urgh. I hate having wings at times like this." Seol-Ah flapped her black angel wings and flew into the air.

"Alright, let\'s go!"

\'To Northrend!!!\'

Whoosh—!!

Kang-Woo used the Authority of the Sky to rapidly fly north. Although the inside of the Gate was as wide as the Korean Peninsula, they were able to reach it shortly.

"Where are the ancient ruins?"

"All I see are trees."

They couldn\'t see any ruins no matter how much they looked around from above. Kang-Woo used the Authority of the Beholder just in case but he couldn\'t find anything that looked like ancient ruins.

"Hm?"

Just then, Kang-Woo felt demonic energy from below. It was similar to the demonic energy he used but oddly different.

\'The demons of Pandemonium.\'

Kang-Woo\'s eyes shone as he flew down toward the place where he could feel the demonic energy.