Chapter 9 - Encounter
Demons. Some believed that their very existence was evil. As most demons killed whoever displeased them and seized whatever they wanted, it wasn’t a surprise for people to see them as sinful and vile. However, some worshipped the demons for their absolute strength. Most demihumans who put strength before anything else were a part of the latter group. To these demihumans, the demons were the equivalent of gods.
Apart from their overpowered physical and magical abilities, demons were also immortal— they would not die unless they were killed (just stating the obvious). And what sort of being would even be able to slay these demons? You would have to borrow the help of gods or angels to even stand a chance.
It was not a stretch to say that demons decided the fate of many other races. Especially on the Oris Continent— where the Reneruth Kingdom was— where there were no other races that could rival the demons.
⧫
Swandale—a city in the north of the Reneruth Kingdom—was much different from Altean City. Unlike Altean city which had a sea to its north, Swandale had a mountain range to its north. And on the other side of the mountains was the Elfararic Empire. Being the city closest to the northern mountain ranges of the Kingdom, it was a strategic point that could be used to block invasions from the Empire As wars frequently broke out between the Kingdom and the Empire, the importance of Swandale city was shown every few years. It was impossible to take the northern region of the Kingdom without taking Swandale city.
Like Swandale, there were also several other cities spread out near the border where the Kingdom's military forces were stationed. These cities were like watchtowers across the border which served as a wall.
Being a military base, Swandale city had around 5,000 soldiers who could be deployed to the border at a moment’s notice. Apart from soldiers, there were also over 7000 citizens— mostly family members of the soldiers. This meant that Swandale was a fairly large city.
Inside the city, there were also hundreds of storage houses for food and weapons. If the city got besieged, these supplies could be used to last the soldiers until reinforcements came from the south.
The city also boasted an impressive eighty-meter tall wall. The wall had eight major gates and seventy-two watchtowers, encircling the whole city— including the residential area and military base.
However, even with the imposing walls and the many soldiers patrolling it, Swandale had fallen to Enosis and his army. The orcs, centaurs, and the naga had joined forces under Enosis and had invaded Sundale with a 20,000-strong army. Needless to say, the eighty-meter wall had proved to be a problem for the demihumans. So Enosis had destroyed a part of the wall with a magic spell.
The city was now under the control of Enosis. Inside the castle—which used to be the residence of the city lord—, the demon was seated on a stone chair. Its body was a black wispy smoke that constantly shifted and changed shape. A purple aura radiated from its strange body and a single eyeball floated among the smoke. Even the word grotesque was far lacking to describe the monstrosity of the creature. At one glance, anyone would realize that this being was evil; something that should not be provoked.
A large figure entered the room and kneeled before the Demon. Fitted in bronze armor, the figure had green skin and bulging muscles. It was an orc; kind of like an oversized goblin.
“Lord Enosis. We have checked the area around Altean City.”
“And?” A deep voice came from Enosis. It was a slow guttural sound that humans were not capable of producing. Or rather, it didn’t even sound like a living thing. If there was a deep abyss that could speak, it might produce the same sound.
“We did not find anything.”
The orc’s name was Arg. He had been chosen by Enosis to be the commander of the orc army. He was extremely honored to serve under Enosis but also afraid at the same time. His fear stemmed from the fact that Enosis had killed one of the other commanders a few hours ago.
The mermen in charge of capturing Altean City had made a blunder and lost most of his men. He had run away from the enemy and had come back to Swandale city to report to Enosis. Enosis had cruelly killed him in front of all the other demihuman commanders.
“So you came back here without finding out anything useful?”
The huge orc visibly trembled under Enosis’s questioning gaze. Despite being much larger, Arg could feel a sort of chilling pressure from the demon.
“Th-that… pl-please spare us… We’ll keep searching the area.” the orc bowed and scraped the floor in a desperate attempt to please Enosis.
“No matter. I did not expect much from you lot anyway.” said the demon as he stood up from his stone chair.
“Wh-what do you mean, my lord?!”
The smoke making up Enosis’s body started to quickly condense. The creepy floating eyeball melted and a different shape started to form within the black vapor.
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After the whole process, what stood in place of the demon was a male human. “Oh? A human body is not so bad either.” It was Enosis who had transformed into a human. Even though it had transformed, the voice was still the same. “I will go to Altean City myself.”
“The-then we’ll accompany you…” Arg stuttered.
“No need. You and your army stay here.”
With that, the demon walked out of the room.
As the suffocating pressure disappeared from the room, Arg took in some deep breaths in relief. He had been subconsciously holding his breath in front of his lord.
⧫
Enosis walked through the empty hallway of the castle in his human form. Along the way, a shadow appeared behind him.
“Asthenia. What is it?” he addressed the shadow without turning around.
“I was bored so I came to play! Are you going somewhere?” It was the high-pitched voice of a young girl.
“None of your business.”
“Uu… Why so cold? Big sis is wondering how your plan is going. Are you having trouble? Having trouble with humans?”
“Shut up…”
“Uuu… such a bore. You don’t have any complaints if I just follow you, right? Just think of me as an observer.”
“…”
⧫
“Aika!” Karna shouted.
“
All the plant monsters turned to Aika; some threw vines and some charged.
Karna threw a punch with as much force as he could muster. A section of the ground was carved out and all the plants within the range of his shockwave were torn to shreds without any chance to resist.
{Next.}
Karna turned to the next batch of plant monsters. As Karna couldn’t hit Aika, he had to go around her and throw multiple punches to wipe them out.
The siblings were currently in a field close to Varun village hunting strange plants that could move. Two days had already passed since the battle at Altean City. They had spent all that time farming levels and experimenting with the System.
Almost everything was still the same as from the game except for the fact that they could now feel pain. At least for Karna. Karna could feel pain just like on earth but Aika was different. Probably thanks to her full-VIT build.
An orc had hit her with a metal club a day before and Aika had only lost a small chunk of her HP. Aika had said that it only felt like getting punched by a toddler. It made Karna wonder how she had even died back in the dungeon when they were still in Xion Online.
Even at the very moment, Aika was engaged in a slapping competition with some of the plant monsters.
The plants were using their vines and leaves to hit her but except for an occasional 11 or 12, most of the damages done to her were in the single digits.
“Aika, move.”
“Roger.” Aika jumped away from the last batch of plants which were quickly blasted apart by Karna.
“I think that’s all of them.” Karna wiped the sweat that had formed on his forehead during the battle.
Ding! It was the sound of leveling up.
Karna’s vision was already filled with messages of defeating the plants which were apparently called Dandrathema Vines. He checked his status menu.
Karna
Level 23
HP:2300/2300 MP:2300/2300
STR:10
DEX:210
AGI:10
INT:10
VIT:10
FREE ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 30
Karna hadn’t allocated all his status points yet because he wasn’t sure if he should invest in other statuses too. Even though DEX gave him a lot of damage, he was worried about situations where he would need other statuses, For instance, if there was a very quick monster, Karna might not be able to even hit it without any AGI. He did not have to worry about STR and DEX because his shockwaves weren’t categorized as physical or magical attacks and could work on monsters with physical/magical damage immunities. Another viable option was VIT. Having to fight without worrying about pain was a huge advantage. Even if Aika had the skills to draw aggro, there was no harm in upgrading his own defense. Now that he was no longer inside the game, he would have to think about these kinds of things seriously.
The other concern Karna had was that he still hadn’t gotten any new skills even though he had gotten to level 20 since a day ago. If the class system was still the same as in Xion Online, Karna would have to unlock advanced classes to get new skills. And the way to unlock these classes was to fulfill certain requirements such as getting status to a certain point or defeating a certain number of monsters. At least that was what he had read from the guides about Xion Online. There was no guarantee that there were even advanced classes in this world.
{I just have to go around testing everything then. Not that I’m complaining. That is also fun in its own way.}
“Brother. Let’s go back. I’m getting hungry.” said Aika, interrupting his thoughts.
Karna closed his status menu. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
Just as they were about to head back to the village... “Are you the ones sneaking around and killing my subordinates?” A deep voice interrupted the siblings’ conversation.
{Who?}
Karna tried to look for the person who had just spoken. He found two figures in the distance and just as he was looking, the figures blurred and vanished.
They appeared a few steps in front of Karna. One of the figures was a man wearing a black suit. His companion was a little girl who looked to be in her early teens.
{What was that?!}
Before Karna could react, a hand came at his face at an unbelievable speed.