"Phew—"
Jin-Woo let out a short sigh of relief. From the first floor of the Castle of Demons to the hundredth, his long journey had finally come to an end. He closed his eyes for a moment to steady the flood of emotions, and his mother's face appeared before him.
'...'
When he opened his eyes again, System messages that hadn't yet disappeared filled his vision. Four Level Up notifications had appeared in rapid succession.
'Four levels at once?'
Jin-Woo's face brightened. Considering how sluggish his leveling had become after passing level 90, this was an unbelievable feat. He immediately checked his status window.
[Level: 97]
His level had gone up exactly four points.
'Yes!'
Jin-Woo clenched his fist. On top of the relief from clearing the Dungeon, a rush of exhilaration washed over him. But he put that joy aside. Right now, there was something far more important than leveling up.
'Purified Blood of the Demon King.'
The final piece needed to craft the item 'Elixir of Life.' Jin-Woo removed the bandage wrapped around his hand and reached toward the glinting lights on the corpse of the Demon King Baran.
[Item: Demon Monarch's Ring discovered. Would you like to acquire it?] [Item: Demon King's Greatsword discovered. Would you like to acquire it?] [Item: Demon King's Dagger discovered. Would you like to acquire it?] [Item: Demon King's Dagger discovered. Would you like to acquire it?] [Item: Baran's Horn ×2 discovered. Would you like to acquire it?] [Material Item: Purified Blood of the Demon King discovered. Would you like to acquire it?]
Watching the item discovery messages pop up one after another, Jin-Woo felt not joy but anxiety—because the item he wanted wasn't among them. Then, when he saw the material item 'Purified Blood of the Demon King' appear last, he let out a cheer.
'Done!'
Jin-Woo acquired all the items first, then picked up the one that looked like the Purified Blood of the Demon King.
[Material Item: Purified Blood of the Demon King] Acquisition Difficulty: ?? Type: Material A liquid refined from the blood of 'Baran,' the Demon Monarch. It contains powerful mana, but residual toxicity remains even after refinement. To use it as a medicinal ingredient, you will need 'Fragment of the World Tree' and 'Spring Water of the Echo Forest' to neutralize the toxin.
The red liquid inside the transparent glass bottle sloshed with every shift in angle.
'This is the Blood of the Demon King...'
The other materials—the Fragment of the World Tree and the Spring Water of the Echo Forest—were already prepared. What was there to hesitate about? Jin-Woo called up his crafting skill.
[Crafting Skill] Consumable: Elixir of Life (3/3)
Unlike the last time he checked, the words 'Elixir of Life' were now blinking. He looked into the details and noticed the phrase "craftable" standing out.
[Elixir of Life] - Craftable - Materials Purified Blood of the Demon King (1/1) Fragment of the World Tree (1/1) Spring Water of the Echo Forest (1/1)
[Would you like to craft the item: Elixir of Life?]
Eager to see the result, Jin-Woo selected craft without hesitation.
"Craft."
-[Crafting item: Elixir of Life.] -10, 9, 8...
Jin-Woo held his breath and waited.
-7, 6, 5... -The 'crafting success probability' and 'number of crafted items' vary depending on the creator's Intelligence stat.
Jin-Woo's eyes went wide.
'The crafting success probability and the number of finished products depend on my Intelligence stat?'
So if you're dumb, you can't even craft properly? ...Somehow, that was oddly convincing, and Jin-Woo nodded. Even as he did, the countdown continued.
-4, 3, 2...
Why did the phrase "success probability" bother him so much? The only comfort was that he'd invested all his points into Intelligence, realizing its importance—albeit a little late.
-1, 0. -Crafting complete! -Crafting successful! -[Item: Elixir of Life] ×6 acquired!
"That's right!"
Jin-Woo, who had been waiting with bated breath, threw both hands into the air the moment he saw the success message.
'Huh?'
Then he noticed something strange. The bottle of Demon King's blood was still in his right hand.
'The blood did decrease a little, though...'
Jin-Woo tilted his head and retrieved the Fragment of the World Tree and Spring Water of the Echo Forest from his inventory. However, on the ground lay only the Fragment of the World Tree, with a portion carved away. He opened his inventory and rummaged through it, but the spring water was nowhere to be found.
'No way...?'
Suspicious, he checked his crafting skill, and sure enough, his suspicion was confirmed.
- Materials Purified Blood of the Demon King (1/1) Fragment of the World Tree (1/1) Spring Water of the Echo Forest (0/1)
Only the Spring Water of the Echo Forest had changed to zero.
'So it doesn't consume all the materials—only exactly as much as needed?'
Unlike the other materials, which still had portions remaining, the Spring Water of the Echo Forest had run out, causing crafting to stop. The Demon King's blood apparently required only a small amount per craft, and the Fragment of the World Tree had been an enormous chunk of wood from the start. It made sense that the Spring Water of the Echo Forest, which had been stored in a small bottle, would run out first. Jin-Woo smiled.
'That's not bad news.'
If he could find more Spring Water of the Echo Forest somewhere, he could craft more Elixirs of Life. No—getting more was a problem for another time. He'd been desperate for even a single bottle of Elixir of Life, so seeing six wooden bottles lined up neatly at his feet, he had to force down his pounding heart.
[Item: Elixir of Life] Acquisition Difficulty: S Type: Consumable A mystical potion that heals all ailments with the power of potent magic. Its full effect is only realized when an entire bottle is consumed.
Could this item really cure his mother's illness?
'...I'll find out today.'
His heart raced. Jin-Woo carefully sent the six bottles of Elixir of Life to his inventory, along with the remaining material items. Even so, plenty of items still remained.
'A ring, a greatsword, two daggers, plus two miscellaneous drops.'
An S-rank Instance Dungeon boss really did drop a lot. The generous haul was pleasant to look at, but he had no time to examine each piece right now. Getting out of here and seeing his mother was the priority. Jin-Woo shoved the items from the Demon King's corpse into his inventory as well, then dusted off his hands and looked around.
'I was told to keep an eye out for...'
He couldn't afford to miss anything. After all, there was that saying about slow and steady winning the race. When Jin-Woo turned, the Shadow soldiers who had defeated over ten times their numbers stood lined up in neat formation. Behind them lay the scattered corpses of the demon soldiers.
'What about the wyrm?'
Jin-Woo's gaze swept the area for the monster the Demon King had been riding. But no matter where he looked, all he saw were piled-up demon corpses—no sign of the wyrm.
'Did it get blown away in the fight?'
His worry was brief. Iron came dragging a limp corpse behind him. It was the wyrm Kaisel.
"Iron, what brings you here?"
Jin-Woo's rare compliment made Iron scratch the back of his head sheepishly—or at least the back of his helmet. Jin-Woo gave Iron a pat on the shoulder, then stood before the wyrm's corpse.
'Just as expected.'
Just as he'd guessed from its name and appearance, black smoke curled upward from the wyrm's body. That meant Shadow Extraction was possible. Jin-Woo reached out.
"Rise."
Thanks to the massive leap in his level, the Shadow Extraction went smoothly. A beast-like shriek rang out, and from the wyrm's shadow, a creature shrouded in dark gas crawled upward. The wyrm's shadow immediately recognized its master and approached Jin-Woo, bowing its head.
[Please name the soldier.]
'Oh.'
Jin-Woo raised an eyebrow in surprise. He'd thought it was just a mount since he'd never seen it fight, but it must have been quite skilled in combat—the wyrm's shadow was Knight-rank. That was remarkable, considering even Igrit, the ace of the Shadow Army, had only recently been Knight-rank. Then again, a creature like the Demon King wouldn't have ridden anything weak. Satisfied with his new soldier's rank, Jin-Woo answered the prompt.
"Kaisel... no."
He suddenly felt that four syllables was too many.
"Kaisel."
The newly christened wyrm's shadow raised its head and let out a long cry into the void. Kieeeeeek—
"Well done, everyone."
With those words, Jin-Woo recalled all of his Shadow soldiers—including Kaisel—back into his own shadow. It was time to leave the Castle of Demons. One task remained. Jin-Woo opened his message inbox, where the quest completion notification awaited.
[Normal Quest: Collect the Souls of Demons! 2] has been completed. [Completion reward has arrived.] [Would you like to check the rewards?] (Y/N)
'Yes.'
As soon as he answered, a list of rewards appeared one after another. Ding.
[The following rewards are prepared:] Reward 1. Highest-Grade Rune Stone Reward 2. Bonus Stats +30 Reward 3. Undisclosed Reward
[Would you like to accept all?]
'Shadow Exchange.' What on earth was that? Jin-Woo selected the Highest-Grade Rune Stone first—the one whose identity he'd been curious about since first receiving the quest.
'First, reward number one.'
Ding.
[Highest-Grade Rune Stone: 'Shadow Exchange' has been granted.]
Once the message faded, he felt a small, stone-like object in his palm. He opened his hand and saw a rune stone of an entirely different color from ordinary ones—a deep black. Its hue was incomparable to any mundane black; it was mysterious and otherworldly. Crumble. Unlike before, when he'd had to shatter it with force, this time the rune stone crumbled the instant the thought crossed his mind. The black energy that rose from the stone enveloped his body and was quickly absorbed. Jin-Woo immediately checked his skill window.
[Skill: Shadow Exchange Lv.1] Class-exclusive skill. No mana required. Swaps the position of a designated Shadow soldier with that of the caster. After each use, a 3-hour cooldown must pass before it can be used again. Cooldown decreases with skill level.
'Huh!'
Jin-Woo's eyes widened as he read through the skill description. It had a minor constraint in the form of a cooldown, but the skill itself was so powerful it practically required one.
'So I can swap positions with a Shadow soldier no matter where they are?'
Depending on how it was used, this was practically teleportation. Jin-Woo briefly considered pulling out a soldier to test it right away, but quickly changed his mind.
'If I'm going to test it, I should use someone farther away.'
He happened to have soldiers left outside the Castle of Demons. One group had been planted in his brother's shadow, and the other had been patrolling the neighborhood.
'No need to even think about it.'
He had no idea what kind of aftereffects the skill might have, so he couldn't recklessly teleport near his brother. Never mind scaring him—that was putting it mildly. So Jin-Woo locked onto the signal of one of the five Shadow soldiers patrolling the neighborhood.
"Shadow Exchange."
The moment Jin-Woo spoke the words—
"Huh, wha—?"
He was pulled downward, as if by intense gravity, vanishing into the shadow beneath his own feet.