Chapter 186: Floor 17 Hidden (3)

“How in the world... did you do that...?!”

After confirming that it really was Carlos’s head, Gakil asked in a trembling voice.

“I told you. I’m pretty strong.”

“...”

“Now hurry up and tell me which way the dragon is, too. I’ll make it quick.”

I urged Gakil on.

Still looking bewildered, he pointed in one direction.

“South... It is extremely far away. You would have to pass through human territory and continue all the way to the southernmost reaches of the land...”

“Distance doesn’t matter. I’ll be teleporting.”

“Such long-range teleportation magic exists...? Just who are you?”

Forget all that. Just tell me roughly how far it is, old man.

The farther the distance, the harder it was to arrive precisely at my destination, so I needed to estimate the direction and distance as accurately as possible.

“Do you happen to have a map or something? A map?”

At my question, Heilin hurried off somewhere and quickly returned with a map.

Gakil spread a large map across the table and explained.

“...This is the Land of Fire. I have never been there myself, so I cannot say exactly how far it is. But judging by the distance from here to the Central Continent... if you traveled on foot, reaching the southernmost edge of the land would take at least half a year.”

On the map, a vast region at the southern tip was colored red, with a mountain drawn in its center.

Half a year on foot.

Would that make it more than ten thousand kilometers?

If it was that far, I could probably just warp the maximum distance first and figure things out from there.

“I have heard that the Red Dragon makes its nest in a massive volcano at the heart of the Land of Fire. But stories of the Red Dragon are little more than legends and rumors, not reliable information. I cannot even say for certain that a dragon truly lives there, and as for the wager...”

“Understood. I still have to give it a try.”

They said there was no other way, after all. I might as well give it one try.

Still seeming unable to keep up with everything that was happening, Gakil spoke.

“Do you truly intend to go? Even if you really do encounter the dragon, your life will be in danger. No matter how strong you may be, a dragon is...”

“H-He’s right. It’s far too dangerous! Father, is there really no other way?”

Heilin anxiously joined in.

Paying them no mind, I activated the Warp Device.

A dragon was bound to be strong.

‘Would it be stronger than me?’

I didn’t know, but I wasn’t worried.

Unless it was a monster even stronger than the Demon King, my life probably wouldn’t be in any real danger.

[0:01]

The timer ran out, and I warped.

When I arrived, dark-red earth stretched endlessly in every direction.

Even the sky was completely red, as though it were burning.

Was this the Land of Fire?

At least it seemed I had successfully arrived within the region.

I flew high into the sky.

As I surveyed as wide an area as possible, searching for the volcano where the Red Dragon supposedly lived...

‘Is that it?’

Far in the distance, I spotted a mountain towering over the land.

It was incredibly far away, but the mountain was so enormous that, combined with my superhuman eyesight, I could still make it out.

I charged the Warp Device and warped again in that direction.

Then I covered the remaining distance myself.

At the summit of a volcano that looked even taller than Everest was a massive crater.

Inside it, I saw an enormous red creature curled up asleep.

‘It really is here.’

The Red Dragon.

Thud.

I landed in front of the dragon.

Only then did the dragon open its eyes and stare at me with vertically slit pupils.

Strong.

Going by what my Sixth Sense was telling me...

This dragon really was incredibly strong.

It wasn’t so strong that defeating it felt impossible, but it was strong enough that it would be one hell of a fight.

If I had to put a level on it, maybe somewhere around 250?

Crrrrk-

Then the dragon’s body suddenly began to shrink, gradually changing into a human form.

In his place stood a red-haired man dressed in clothes that looked like something straight out of Greco-Roman mythology.

...Was this polymorph?

As I stared in surprise, the dragon spoke.

“It has been a long time since a human came all the way here.”

For now, I greeted him politely.

“Hello. My name is Kim Seo-hyeon.”

I had come to ask a favor, so I should mind my manners.

The dragon asked,

“Tell me what you seek that brought you all the way to my nest. Treasure? A magical tool? Power?”

“Ah, nothing like that... I came because I wanted to ask if you could polymorph me into a Demon.”

“Polymorph you?”

The dragon raised one corner of his mouth and folded his arms.

“Very well. If you defeat me in a wager, I shall grant your wish.”

Hmm, just as Gakil said.

Either way, it looked like all I had to do now was win the wager, and I’d be able to polymorph.

“But should you lose, you will not leave this place alive. Do you still wish to wager?”

“What kind of wager?”

“I will test your wisdom with three questions. Answer all three correctly, and you win. Get even one wrong, and I win.”

Three again, just like with the Demon of the Scales.

I answered,

“I’ll do it.”

The dragon chuckled and gave me the first question.

“There are three closed boxes. Two contain venomous snakes, and one contains gold and treasure. You choose one box, after which one of the remaining two boxes containing a venomous snake is opened.

“You are then given the opportunity to change your choice. If your goal is to choose the box containing the treasure, is it better to switch or to stay with your original choice?”

I’d been planning to stop time and think if he gave me something difficult...

But this didn’t require any thought at all.

This was the famous probability puzzle, the Monty Hall problem.

“It’s better to switch.”

“...Why?”

The dragon seemed slightly taken aback by my immediate answer.

“Do I have to explain the reasoning for it to count as correct?”

“Of course.”

“When I first choose a box, there’s a two-thirds chance I picked one containing a snake. Once one of the snake boxes is removed and only two boxes remain, the other unopened box has a two-thirds chance of containing the treasure. So switching is better.”

At first glance, it was easy to think, Aren’t the odds the same whether you switch or not? That was exactly the intuition the problem was designed to fool.

The dragon’s expression stiffened slightly before he nodded.

“Correct. Now for the second question.”

The dragon extended a hand, and a balance scale appeared in front of me.

Another scale?

Beside the scale were eight small metal balls.

“Seven of these eight metal balls weigh exactly the same, while one is slightly heavier. Using the scale only twice, determine which ball is the heavier one. You have three minutes.”

Hmm.

Once again, I started moving without giving it any thought.

This wasn’t a difficult logic puzzle either.

I placed three balls on each side of the scale.

The left side was slightly heavier.

I took two balls from the group on the left and placed one on each side of the scale. Their weights were equal.

I picked up the one ball from that group that I hadn’t put on the scale and held it out to the dragon.

“This is the heavier ball.”

“...”

The dragon stared at me, looking considerably more flustered this time.

Was he shocked that I was getting them right so easily?

These were the kind of questions anyone on Earth who liked puzzles would know.

“...Correct. Now for the third and final question.”

The dragon glared at me as he spoke.

“There is a mirror that can reflect anything in the world, but cannot reflect me. What mirror is it? Answer within three minutes.”

Huh?

This time it wasn’t a logic puzzle. Was it some kind of riddle?

The answer didn’t immediately come to me, so I stopped time.

A mirror that can reflect everything in the world but can’t reflect me... What is it?

The Demon King spoke.

- Isn’t it an eye?

‘Ah.’

Right. An eye.

You could see anything in the world with your eyes, but you couldn’t directly see your own appearance.

‘Thanks.’

I resumed time and gave my answer.

“The answer is an eye.”

Easy win... or so I thought.

The dragon stared at me for a moment, then suddenly raised one corner of his mouth.

“Wrong.”

“...What?”

“The correct answer is a magic mirror that I possess.”

The dragon pulled something else out of thin air.

A full-length mirror appeared in front of him.

But the dragon himself wasn’t reflected in it.

“As you can see, this magic mirror reflects everything except me.”

What the fuck...

That was complete bullshit.

Utterly dumbfounded, I said,

“Doesn’t an eye count too? You can’t see your own appearance with your own eyes.”

“You can. If you wish, I shall pluck out your eye myself and use it to reflect your own image, thereby proving that your answer is wrong.”

“...”

“Besides, an eye is not a mirror to begin with. Do you not even know what a mirror is?”

Hearing that ridiculous argument, I realized something.

This bastard had never intended to let me win the wager in the first place. He’d only wanted to toy with me.

Even if I’d answered “magic mirror”, he probably would’ve said the correct answer was an eye.

The dragon sneered.

“Answering two questions correctly was impressive. As promised, I shall now take your life.”

“Haah...”

I sighed.

If that was how he wanted to play it, I had no choice but to go with Plan B.

I’d just overpower him and threaten him.

If I used the Demon King’s power at full strength, subduing him would be easier than blinking.

But I didn’t want to waste time waiting out Radiant Incarnation’s cooldown afterward, so I decided to use another method.

And since fighting him myself looked like it would be tough too, I had no intention of fighting him in the real world.

Flash!

I put on Pankera’s Crown and used Phantom Shift.

I suddenly closed the distance to the grinning dragon and reached out a hand.

“...!”

Before he even realized what was happening, the dragon was dragged into the Mental World.

The grin on his face turned to bewilderment.

“...What is this? What have you done?!”

He transformed out of his human shape and returned to his true reptilian form.

I stopped time in the outside world and said,

“Beat the shit out of him. Just don’t kill him.”

“Very well.”

And then the pitiful screams began, echoing without end.

The Demon King’s ice magic mercilessly pierced and shattered the dragon’s body.

Even Seri had been no match for him, so naturally the dragon couldn’t offer the slightest resistance.

“S-Stop! Please, stoooop...!”

Only after quite some time did the dragon finally surrender and begin begging.

He must have genuinely felt that his soul was on the verge of collapse.

I stopped the Demon King and spoke.

“See? This is why you should keep your promises. That last question was obviously bullshit, wasn’t it?”

“Y-Yes! It was! I am sorry! I was being unreasonable!”

“So I won, right?”

We returned to reality.

“Haaah...”

The dragon collapsed onto the ground as if completely exhausted, apparently having taken considerable damage to his soul.

I looked down at him and said,

“Polymorph me like you promised. And make it so I can maintain it indefinitely. If you suddenly tell me now that it’s impossible...”

“I-It is possible!”

His face full of fear, he nodded frantically and hurriedly pulled something out of thin air.

It was a red bracelet engraved with glowing patterns.

[Special Item: Red Dragon’s Polymorph Bracelet]

A bracelet engraved with polymorph magic that allows the wearer to transform perfectly into any race. You can transform into the same race as a target within a 10-meter radius. Maintaining the transformation consumes 50 Willpower per second.

“Oho.”

So he was giving it to me as a Special Item?

“N-Now that you have what you wanted, please... just leave...”

The dragon practically begged me.

Of course I would leave. I’d gotten what I came for.

I put on the bracelet and took out the Warp Device.

“I’ll put it to good use. Thanks.”

After charging the Warp Device, I returned to the reception room.

The two of them jumped when they saw me.

“A-Already? What happened...?”

Let’s see.

I designated Gakil as the target and activated polymorph.

Crrrrk-

A strange sensation ran through me as my body began to change.

My skin turned pale, and two horns sprouted from my head.

Gakil and Heilin stared blankly at me.

Did it work?

I walked over to a mirror hanging on one side of the reception room and checked my appearance.

My original facial features were still recognizable, but otherwise I looked exactly like a Demon.

Nice. Perfect.

I turned back toward the two of them, who were still staring in a daze.

“Let’s go. To Kagolak.”

*

Preparations didn’t take long.

With only three days remaining, Gakil decided to depart for Kagolak with me immediately.

Screeeeech-!

In front of the castle gates, Gakil summoned a Familiar.

It was a Pterosaur as enormous as a building.

“We’re flying there on this?”

“We should be able to make it in time.”

Apparently Kagolak was quite far away.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t take anyone else with me when I warped, so we had no choice but to travel using his transportation.

Gakil and I climbed onto the Familiar’s back.

Two knights accompanied us as well, though they rode different flying mounts.

They were huge birds that looked somewhat like ridiculous oversized seagulls.

Apparently Demons tamed monsters like these and used them as flying mounts.

“Please be careful on your journey! Kimsuhyun, you take care of yourself too...!”

Heilin saw us off with tears in her eyes, waving a handkerchief.

She had insisted on coming with us, but Gakil had adamantly refused to allow it.

Fwoosh-!

The Familiar spread its wings and soared into the sky.

Our flight to Kagolak began.

Gakil didn’t ask me much.

Of course, he was still curious about who I really was, and he remained wary of me.

That was only natural. I’d lopped off Carlos’s head in an instant, returned with a polymorph item from a dragon, and done one impossible thing after another.

So I had simply made one thing clear to him beforehand.

I had no intention of harming the Dafria Family. If he simply granted my request, I would leave quietly afterward.

In any case, as long as I had presented the Dafria Family Ring, he seemed to be obligated to grant my request.

We flew across the continent for a long time.

I casually asked Gakil,

“What exactly does it mean to ‘decide whether to revive the War Demon God’?”

There was no harm in learning as much as possible before we arrived.

Gakil answered,

“It means exactly what it sounds like. The Family Heads of all Twenty-Six Families will gather and decide whether or not to perform the ritual to revive the War Demon God.”

“Hmm... But what exactly is the War Demon God?”

I didn’t even know that much.

Gakil turned and stared at me in disbelief.

“Are you joking? You do not know of the War Demon God?”

“There’s quite a lot I don’t know.”

I gave an awkward smile, and Gakil began explaining.

“Bahel, the War Demon God. He was the Demon King who led the Demons through their golden age fifteen hundred years ago. Among all the Demon Kings in history, he was the first and last to ever be called a Demon God.”

“He must have been incredibly strong.”

“...Do you truly know nothing about history? Even so, how can you not know of the War Demon God?”

“Pretty much.”

Gakil let out a disbelieving sigh and continued his history lesson.

“During the War Demon God’s era, when the Demons were on the verge of conquering nearly the entire continent, the humans’ Sword Saint barely succeeded in killing the Demon God. He pierced the Demon God’s heart with the ancient Divine Artifact, ‘Ryuon, the God-Slaying Sword’.”

“What’s a Divine Artifact?”

“...An object containing the power of a god.”

The power of a god.

Gakil continued in a more subdued voice.

“As you know, humans and Demons are currently at war. As the human nations began forming alliances one after another, the Demons gradually found themselves at a disadvantage, and recently, even the Demon King was killed at the hands of the Knight King.”

“That is why the families are feeling such a great sense of crisis. Ryuon, the God-Slaying Sword, is currently in Demon hands, so they intend to use it in a ritual to revive the War Demon God.”

“How?”

“I do not know either. The House of Grand Duke Keilteir would know the details. Reviving their ancestor, the War Demon God, has long been Keilteir’s greatest ambition.”

I asked,

“But if they’re deciding whether or not to revive him... that means the Demons themselves are divided on the issue, right?”

“Indeed. There is no guarantee that the resurrection ritual will even succeed, and even if it does, there is no telling what sort of calamity it may bring.”

To summarize the lengthy explanation that followed, things were like this.

The Demons were currently divided into two factions.

Grand Duke Keilteir’s faction, and Grand Duke Bilford’s opposing faction.

Keilteir supported reviving the War Demon God, while Bilford opposed it.

Demons were a race governed entirely by the logic of strength, and normally all decision-making authority rested with the Demon King.

But the Demon King had died suddenly not long ago, leaving the throne vacant.

Under normal circumstances, they would have held a Demon King Succession Duel to choose a new Demon King...

But with the war against humanity still underway, they couldn’t afford to do that.

Traditionally, a Demon King Succession Duel required the Family Heads to fight until only one remained, and this was hardly the time to bleed away their own strength in an internal struggle.

So instead, each Family Head had agreed to bring one Champion, and those Champions would duel.

The victorious family would then gain the right to use Ryuon, the God-Slaying Sword, which was required for the resurrection ritual.

There was also a reason the Demons were in such a hurry.

“The remains of the War Demon God still lie at the very center of the Demon Realm.”

“The Demon Realm? The one with the Demons?”

“There are Fiends and Demons there as well.”

The War Demon God had supposedly died fifteen hundred years ago after Ryuon, the God-Slaying Sword, pierced his heart, yet his remains still lay at the center of the Demon Realm.

And apparently, this really was the same Demon Realm where I’d made my wager with the Demon of the Scales.

Anyway, normally it was impossible to enter the Demon Realm, but at regular intervals, the dimensional barrier between it and the mortal world grew thin.

And right now was one of those periods.

In about another month, the gateway into the Demon Realm would close, making it impossible to perform the ritual to revive the War Demon God.

If that happened, they would have to wait several more decades.

‘I think I get the picture.’

After hearing the entire explanation, I had a rough understanding of what was going on.

So should I be trying to stop the War Demon God’s revival after all?

‘Demon King, if the War Demon God comes back, are you confident you can beat him? They say he’s a Demon God who was even stronger than a Demon King.’

I asked half-jokingly.

But instead of getting angry, the Demon King answered seriously.

- If he is truly a god, I cannot defeat him.

‘What?’

- If this War Demon God is a genuine god, then I absolutely cannot defeat him.

All of the Demon King’s usual arrogance was nowhere to be found. He had even gone so far as to say absolutely.

...Were gods really that strong?

Come to think of it, the Demon King had talked about gods before.

He’d once said something about becoming a god if I wanted to overcome the limits of my lifespan.

‘How exactly does someone become a god?’

- Three conditions are required.

‘Three?’

The Demon King said,

- The first is ‘Faith’. Whether that feeling is adoration or fear, at least several hundred million Lesser Beings must know of your existence and stand in awe of you.

- The second is the ‘Vessel’. A Vessel capable of containing Divinity. It is something one must be born with. If you are not born with the Vessel, there is nothing you can do to become a god.

So basically just raw talent?

‘What’s the last one?’

- The third is ‘Divinity’. As the name implies, it is the stature of a god.

‘...And how do you obtain Divinity?’

- It differs for everyone. Some attain it by reaching the absolute pinnacle of swordsmanship. Others reach the very limits of magic. Still others attain Divinity through spiritual discipline alone.

The Demon King continued.

- If even one of those three elements is missing, one cannot become a god. I possessed Faith through the reverence of all my subjects, and having reached the pinnacle of magic, I possessed Divinity as well. Yet I was not born with a Vessel, and thus I could never become a god. Even if one attains Divinity, without a Vessel, one can hold no more than a single speck of it. Such meager Divinity is insufficient to become a god.

Come to think of it, the Demon King had once said he’d barely managed to put one foot into the realm of godhood.

So that was what he meant.

‘Vessels, Divinity... pretty grandiose stuff.’

Anyway, going by the Demon King’s explanation, there was no way I would ever meet all those ridiculous conditions.

I needed to find a way to restore my lifespan soon.

But for now, I should focus on clearing the hidden route.

We landed from time to time to rest, then took off again, and a full day passed.

Black, barren land.

Far in the distance, a massive castle began to come into view.

“We have arrived.”

“Is that the castle?”

Gakil nodded.

“The Demon King’s Castle.”

Ah, so Kagolak was the Demon King’s Castle.

We had finally reached our destination.

⚬──────────✧──────────⚬

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