63-64

Chapter 63: Rookie's Battlefield (1)

Demon King

Rookie's Battlefield (1)

[You have become a body blessed with mana! All magical abilities are amplified!]

[All movements have become lighter and quieter!]

[You have become more attuned to blood. The efficiency of all blood-related skills and artifacts increases. When exposed to a large amount of blood during combat, power, and resilience increases! When not exposed to blood, you are weakened.]

[Advanced Martial Arts has become Lv6!]

[Intermediate Lunatic Trickster has become Lv8!]

[Intermediate Flame Magic has risen to Lv10 and evolves into Advanced Flame Magic! By using enough magic power, you will be able to ignite a massive flame!]

[Lesser Shadow Step has risen to Lv10 and evolves into Intermediate Shadow Step! All actions become stealthier and quieter!]

[Intermediate Black Rose … …]

I brushed all the notifications off my face with the hand and turned my attention to Lee Chan-yu, who was still wary of me. The hellhounds beside him were growling right at me.

"You're fat."

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"It's me. Fate."

I showed him Blood Shadow. The Baptism of Blood and the Lesser Reaper's cloak were shrinking to fit my body. So why couldn't he recognize me?

Lee Chan-yu seemed like he was thinking hard.

"Boss?"

"Yeah."

He found it hard to believe me. He could have been thinking that I stole the artifacts I was wearing from myself. So I showed him skills that only I possessed. Lee Chan-yu had no choice but to believe me even though he was still a bit skeptical.

"You really changed a lot."

"I evolved into something other than a monster for once. No, this is the first time that it has happened."

I realized something after speaking. Special evolution was a little different from a normal evolution. It seemed like I was starting anew based on what I've done so far.

I was expecting that I might have become an advanced level monster, but life doesn't always give you what you want. Although I have grown in many ways, my strength has decreased considerably.

Am I an advanced monster? Just judging by my abilities, I couldn't hunt advanced monsters, but by pure physical abilities? I'd be dead in a flash.

I wasn't even a total monster. As the inhabitants of Hater in the previous districts called it, I am… Sub-racial.

"Long, pointy ears, an annoyingly beautiful face, Boss…. I think you're an elf."

"Figures."

The ugly word elf was preceded by the ugly prefix crimson. Lee Chan-yu was still unconvinced I evolved.

"This is a change, not evolution. Something like… rebirth! The time when the Demon King has become a warrior!"

"I still prefer just Demon King." I responded to Lee Chan-yu and looked at my reflection on a clear puddle of blood. For a moment, I was speechless.

It was a face that was similar to humans. Would I still be targeted if I went and gone into human society?

Compared to the scary face of my bugbear days, this one looked so innocent and fragile.

There was another reason I was surprised, though.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm…"

I remembered when I met L. The time when my face was too close to her, the time when I saw my soul in her beautiful eyes. The appearance of a person who looked so similar to when I was human.

The figure in front of me, with black hair that reaches the shoulders, and red and gloomy eyes, was me. The only difference was that my skin was redder, instead of being darker,

"Boss, were you this handsome before?"

"No way. I was below the Korean average."

"Oh, same. And now that I'm born a werewolf, I still looked the same."

We both laughed.

There was joy inside me. I had thoughts of returning to human society if only my long ears and reddish skin were conspicuous. It was unfortunate that I lost the bugbear's large and sturdy body, but now I'm probably about 190cm tall at best. Clearly closer to human-like.

Moreover, I was slimmer than most humans and a pretty handsome face. It was worthy of the word beautiful that we usually wish to see.

But then, the joy was soon stamped out sooner than I realized.

It was because I had no intention of returning to human society until I cleared this dungeon.

Moreover, there was no guarantee that I would become something similar looking to humans if I continued to evolve. And even the thought that I could have been anything else, I was just surprised that I became an elf out of all races.

Crimson Elf, there must be something I don't know about the unusual race name, but it didn't matter. This wasn't the stopping point for me.

I wasn't a monster, but I never thought it would limit my evolution. It was still too early for me to stop. Time to go further…

"You're looking like that again."

"What do I look like? My face is completely different from when I was a bugbear. Even when I was a bugbear, it was a bit difficult to recognize. But now that my face looks human-like, my expressions are more pronounced."

"What expression are you making now?" asked Lee Chan-yu, furrowing his brows.

"An expression that says I'm carrying the world alone."

"Really?" Lee Chan-yu took a deep sigh before speaking again, "If there's something you want, you take it seriously. How much can your mind relax? Whenever you're happy, be happy—kind of happy. We're delving in dungeons right now, and we'll be deeper in the future. But that shouldn't stop you from being happy."

"But there's a lot of dungeons left, and I'm still weak."

"If you keep pulling yourself down, you won't get any stronger faster than that."

I didn't refute him and just kept my mouth shut.

Does he really know my circumstance? He died and became a werewolf. He somehow managed to live within human society. But then his home was destroyed, and he lost his colleagues.

His self-loathing and anger towards the world was worse than my circumstance. It would have been painful to experience it myself, but while I didn't, he did.

Despite it all, he never lost his sense of humor. Does that mean that the burden in his heart became lighter? He tried his utmost to get stronger.

Yeah, he's right. Just because life is gloomy doesn't mean I have to. Why did I forget such a simple thing?

"Boss."

Lee Chan-yu tapped my shoulder. I forgot that I was shorter than him now and looked up.

"Congratulations on your evolution! Let's clear this dungeon and get stronger!"

"Okay. And thanks." I replied with a smile.

It felt like tears would come out of my eyes. I was really fortunate to have Lee Chan-yu with me.

[Kang Si-Ha (Fate)]

[Crimson Elf Lv90]

[Strength: 609 | Stamina: 718 | Magic: 828 | Luck-???]

[Skill: Ebon Heart, Predation Lv5, Advanced Martial Arts Lv6, Intermediate Lunatic Trickster Lv8, Intermediate Armor Defense Lv8, Advanced Regeneration Lv5, Advanced Flame Magic Lv1, Intermediate Power Attack Lv7, Intermediate Speed ​​Attack Lv7, Advanced Detection Lv7, Advanced Surprise Lv9, Advanced Fairy Tale Lv4, Intermediate Shadow Step Lv1, Beginner Ubiquitous Lv7, Advanced Leadership Lv4, Advanced Immunity Lv4, Beginner CONTINUOUS Lv8, Beginner Madness Noise Lv5, Lesser Stone Skin Lv2, Medium Blackmine Lv5, Intermediate Fire Magic Lv1, Lesser Healing Magic Lv2, Lesser Water Magic Lv2, Lesser Ice Magic Lv1]

The change in my status was extreme. My strength had decreased by a whopping 140, and my stamina increased a little. On the other hand, my magic increased by more than 300.

Of course, a strength of 600 wasn't enough to beat the monsters on the 4th floor, and it's a problem to reinforce the skills with increased magic instead of reduced strength. I had to adapt to this new change for the time being.

It's not because Crimson elves are a race that's weak physically, but because a bugbear's body was one that focuses on strength. In particular, a bugbear is fast as well as strong.

Actually, when I moved my body, the strength I could exert was less. But I was faster, probably due to this lighter body. And it's probably thanks to the muscles developed with an emphasis on speed that's faster than a bugbear's.

The changes in my skills were incredible. Almost all of them grew little by little. It was the ones needing magic that had a lot of changes.

In particular, I was happy that most of the magic in the beginner level quickly rose up to the next tier. The best part was that Flame Magic had become at the advanced level.

A question appeared as expected, but the conditions were absurd.

[Quest Assigned!]

[You started to walk a different path than anyone else. Your footprints are still faint, but the results will vary depending on your karma.]

[Predation of Black Palace 4F District 7 monsters 0/50,000]

[Predation of Curd Wight 0/50]

[Clearr the 3rd floor of Jinma's Tower 0/1]

[Win the second game in the Garden of Nak 0/1]

The monsters appearing on the 4th floor of the Black Palace are undead. Great!

Of course, some monsters weren't undead, and there weren't any undead at the beginning. I didn't notice at first, but it was a tactic to trick those entering the dungeon. The deeper you are in the dungeon, the stronger the undead becomes.

I clenched my jaw while remembering the undead back on the second floor of Jinma's Tower. It felt very nice. Not because A hates me, no. I hate myself. But apart from that, the trial was essential. It was good that I learned how to eat undead before I went down to the fourth floor.

It felt like the Black Palace is associated with A, Rain, and L.

"So…"

After explaining the results of the reconnaissance, Lee Chan-yu was annoyed. He, who doesn't usually use any weapon, was now wearing a silver claw in one hand. It was a weapon designed to kill the undead, but one had to be at a certain level to put one in their inventory. I would have done the same if I knew about the challenge at Jinma's Tower beforehand. But maybe A would have stopped me from using it.

"I think I have to regularly return to the entrance to the fourth floor for food. So, it would be nice if you could get food from that store you always go to."

"I could do that… But I don't need to."

"Why?"

"This."

I picked up bloody fangs and threw them using Throwing, Power Attack, and Blackmine. A bloody fang shot faster than a bullet and pierced the head of a ghoul that appeared at the end of the corridor.

I used Black Rose to latch onto the fang and pulled it, along with the ghoul, to me.

It didn't take long for me to retrieve the blood fangs. I looked at the ghoul and realized that it showed no signs of resurrection yet. Lee Chan-yu was disturbed and lifted his silver claw, but I stopped him.

"You don't have to do that."

"Are you going to…?"

"Yes."

"Oh, thank God."

"What?"

"I didn't say anything."

I ate the ghoul on the spot. Since I became an elf, my mouth became smaller, so it took a little longer. But it wasn't that difficult. After changing death energy into life energy, I was given some money and experience. There were more normal monsters on the third floor, but it had less high-leveled ones.

Judging from the ghoul, it seemed that the third and fourth floors did not seem to show much difference in difficulty.

[Predation of Black Palace 4F District 7 monsters 1/50,000]

I licked my mouth and looked at the ghoul. There was nothing left of it.

"Delicious."

"Are you proud of that? Please think of my position as I watched an elf eating a ghoul!"

The exploration of the fourth floor was smooth. My body felt really light, and monsters could no longer grab me. I could eat undead to my heart's content now, so there was no need to worry about food or become undead. Lee Chan-yu was the one who suffered from not being able to eat them.

And time passed.

From the time of entering the fourth floor, the pocket watch's hour hand went around fifty times. About 25 days had passed.

[You've leveled up!]

I finally reached level 100. It was hard to raise levels from 1 to 99, so I thought this was the limit. But gear level had risen, and there was still a little more left until the next evolution. I felt a little bit of pleasure that it doesn't stop at just 100.

[You can now enter the Rookie's Battlefield!]

Destiny just keeps making up ways to hit me on the head.

Chapter 64: Rookie's Battlefield (2)

Demon King

Rookie's Battlefield (2)

[Upon entering, you will be able to leave after twelve hours.]

[If you don't enter within three days, you will be automatically sent to the Rookie's Battlefield.]

I looked over to Lee Chan-yu, surrounded by three hellhounds, and currently in the middle of crushing a ghoul's head with his claws. No more enemies were in our immediate area.

"Did you level up? Congrats. Level 100 is mid-level for some of the large guilds out there."

"Who is the strongest?"

"What are you, a chairman? They don't tell people their skills, so there's no real way to know. Purely level wise, though, I want to say it's around 200." My eyes felt like they would pop right out of my skull. '200?' I had invested a whole week into going just from 99 to 100, fighting and devouring all sorts of monsters to do so. Lee Chan-yu could easily read my frustration.

"They've been that strong since the Great Fusion. Their levels haven't changed much since then."

"…I started at level 1…."

"I was 45…" He spoke inadvertently, looking away. He didn't intend to get on my case, no point kicking me while I was down.

"They've had to pay the price too."

"This is nothing new." From the moment the Great Fusion happened until now, even if you put it all in a book, it wouldn't be more than maybe two books. Not such a great stretch of time. But what had these people done? 'Did they really pay the price, enough of one to be able to look down upon me from such a lofty perch?' I didn't know. I couldn't judge it. 'So don't. Hold back from making a judgment call for now.' I just had to do what I could.

"Do you know what the Rookie's Battlefield is?"

"Hm…no."

"Alright." No information related to the Battlefield was available in my quest. The quest was about evolution, so I suppose it probably had nothing to do with this Rookie's Battlefield. The danger of Jinma's Tower and Nak's Garden couldn't be ignored, but at least they were being kept under control by my so-called helpers. However, Rookie's Battlefield was different. I had no information on it, and neither did Lee Chan-yu. It all had a weird, unusual feeling to it. I didn't have time to wait for him to reach level 100.

"Captain, is it a new place?"

"I think I need to do some scouting first. I'm going to go hunt alone for a bit."

"Alright. Be careful, boss." He smiled and nodded at me, waving for the hellhounds to spread out.

'Alright, so I have one option.' I went ahead and opened the door to the dedicated store.

"You're back, Fate." Rain greeted me with a comforting look as always; however, the interior of the store was not the same. An empty glass stood in front of him, and the chair was pulled back a little. Someone else was here recently.

"Are there other customers here?"

"Haha, no. The only customer of this exclusive store is you, Fate. One of my old acquaintances recently wanted to stop by for a drink." An acquaintance of Rain. 'Is it someone other than A and L?' I was curious but decided it wasn't that important. I went ahead and sat in the chair that was pulled back. Out of nowhere, a reverberation filled my body for a brief moment. L had been here.

"In the garden of Nak, it must have been a soul there…"

"It was the same for Fate, no? Like you, she also has a proper body."

"I thought there must be some special circumstances; that's why she was in that form."

"That was just to help with your training." Rain's explanation relieved me quite a bit, although I kicked myself once it occurred to me why I was relieved. 'I keep getting too distracted.' I needed not to be so shaken.

"It was depressing."

"Yes?"

"She was, L." Rain said, picking up the empty cup and began to clean it.

"I did not doubt in my mind because I believed that Fate would come to see me a couple of times a day."

"You need 100 gold to enter the Garden of Nak. I can't spend that much money just to meet with her, and time is short." My voice was terse and hardened, but Rain simply smiled cheerfully.

"It's probably because she wasn't waiting for you here."

"She left this here for me?"

"Cute, isn't it?" I had to admit it was. A bitter smile crossed my lips as her face came to mind. L. A woman who was so beautiful it hurt and, for some reason, likes me. It felt wrong. I couldn't help but question if it was right for her to like me. But that feeling, like she understood me… it scares me sometimes, but it also felt kind of good. I tried to shake off these thoughts and looked back at Rain.

"Rain, I have something to ask of you."

"Is it about L?"

"I'll meet with her and talk to her in person. What I need to ask you about is… the Rookie's Battlefield."

"…Hmm…" Rain's expression immediately hardened as he put down the glass. "Alright, so you've evolved into an elf."

"A Crimson Elf to be specific. Does this Battlefield have something to do with elves?"

"…I didn't think this would happen. Is this my fault for meddling in your training?" He let out the words with a faint sigh, taking a moment to think.

"Alright. I'll tell you what I know, but it'll cost you 5,000 gold." I went ahead and paid the sum. It was enough money for me to eat a thousand bowls of jajangmyeon noodles, but it wasn't worth the price of my life.

"Rookie is such an unassuming title. Long ago, some creatures among all those above and below ground called themselves as such because they most resembled God."

"Those were the elves?"

"Yes, or sometimes called Elyos. Either way, it is a title of pride and arrogance."

Elyos. When I heard that name, it somehow felt right. In Earth's past, some had claimed to be partners to demons. This seemed like it was similar. 'Then…Rain…?' I had thought about it before, but at that moment, I felt he must have been a demon.

"They are a tribe that rejects all but themselves. They bore some similarity to humans, of course, divided amongst themselves, much like humans. Some of them even walked alongside demons."

"So, the Crimson Elves are similar to demons?"

"You're correct. In a strict sense, demons refer to several races that evolved and developed over tens of thousands of years in the dark underground. Crimson Elves are listed amongst those numbers. However, they had fought many battles with other elves in the past, eventually perishing without a single descendant. For elves, the Crimson Elves were a stain that had to be erased."

"Then, what about the Rookie's Battlefield?"

"So, there's the problem." With a bitter smile, he poured me a glass of pinkish liquor. It was fragrant, and both sweet and hot. It reminded me so much of L. As I emptied the glass, Rain continued to stare at me.

"Fate. Was the fusion of Hater and Earth a disaster only for the people of Earth?"

"…" My head was filled with white. 'I've never thought about it…honestly.'

"For now, let's set aside why or how the Great Fusion happened. Instead, let's focus on the catastrophes it caused. Specifically, the elves who were connected to Earth."

"Why only elves?"

"Because they were the only ones who knew ahead of time that the Great Fusion would happen." Rain's tone was calm on the surface, but I could tell anger was boiling inside him. I raised my head to face him.

"Rain…"

"I didn't have a partner, and after the Great Fusion, I was able to maintain myself. The same goes for A and L."

"How is that even possible?"

"We are all bound to exist as individuals." He said this anger and conviction as he explained their partnership to Earth.

"You may think you understand your partner, but no."

"…If I'm wrong, that's good."

"I'll explain it more later. The elves knew when and how the Great Fusion would occur. It started with Earth, and they knew that their souls would be transferred, and only their bodies would remain. But then they learned that they would remain with their partner on Earth." From the start, a connection to a partner was key to transferring a Haterling's body to an Earthling. Personally, my partner was only a farmer, so I didn't see much use in it, but there were those who could use that connection to become stronger. They were the harbingers of the Great Fusion.

"So they arrived at a means to stop this from happening, the Rookie's Battlefield."

"Please explain it to me."

"It is a magical space that is created by the elves neither in Hater nor Earth." The elves had used their magic to pull their people into this space. It was a small world unto itself. Then the Great Fusion occurred. Naturally, the elves' souls had to be destroyed, and their bodies fused with their Earthling partner. But this space was created so that those held inside it wouldn't lose their soul or body. Therefore, the souls of the elves were not separated from them. No one other than the elves could enter the Rookie's Battlefield. It was a name that conveyed the elves' will to deny their destiny.

When an elf's body was no longer able to return to Earth, the opposite had happened. The bodies of their partners on Earth were destroyed, and their souls went to the Rookie's Battlefield. But they couldn't enter, as only those with both a body and a soul could.

"What happened to their souls?"

"Well, fun fact…" Rain laughed as if he were trying to find humor in the situation. "While the elves had succeeded in protecting themselves, there was one thing they didn't expect. The Earthlings' souls that were rejected entrance eventually transformed and wormed their way inside. Every single one of them."

"Then…?"

"I don't know. I wasn't able to see what was happening in there, but since then, some elves have left one by one. It must have become a real battlefield in there." Those who had completely destroyed their partner's soul and came to Earth with limited freedom were called 'Natives.'

"I can imagine why you can enter that place. They took in a wide range of elves, and there was no way the Crimson Elves they had decimated in the olden days had survived." Rain also assumed it was possible to enter at level 100, that was the minimum level needed for a newcomer to enter. It was fortunate that I hadn't been drawn there immediately when I became a Crimson Elf.

"It's a dangerous place, but I don't know if you can avoid it."

"I can't." Was this the price of a special evolution? For gaining power? A grim chuckle left me at the realization. I wasn't afraid. If it was just death, then I was already used to that hanging over me. It had just changed forms a little.

"Fate, they are enemies of the Fallen, of humans, of Crimson Elves, of the demons….and of you. Throw away any thoughts you have of fighting all of them; it is too dangerous. That place is not your battlefield."

"What do you mean?"

"You will have to face strong individuals. But fortunately, this store has wares that may be of service to you!" Rain laughed happily as I checked out the money I had in my inventory: 32,691 gold, 94 silver, and 17 bronze.

"I'll take all of them."

"Thank you for your patronage!" I prepared the best I could. With only 178 gold, 27 silver, and 38 bronze, I headed out to face the Rookie's Battlefield.