Chapter 140: Demon King

Come to think of it, Qiu Nuoya had just heard that dragon materials were worth a great deal of money. If this was a monster said to rival dragons, its value had to be unimaginable.

Qiu Nuoya hurriedly tried to appraise the monster.

The window that appeared on his screen displayed exactly what Viktor had said: Imoogi.

Qiu Nuoya could only stare at it in a daze.

"Wasn’t the Imoogi a Rank SS monster? Having something like that as a dungeon boss makes me worry about what awaits us on the next floor."

"Indeed. Without the two of us, we might have been defeated this time, or even worse. We were truly fortunate to have a dragon with us."

So dragons really are ridiculously powerful. I’m just glad Long isn’t our enemy.

"Hmm...? Come to think of it, the Imoogi is also a rare monster, isn’t it? Does that mean I should have tried to protect it?" Qiu Nuoya had completely forgotten, but he had been appointed by the Tamer’s Guild as a special protected species officer. If anything could be considered a special species, surely a Imoogi had to qualify.

"Ah, if that’s what you mean, then I don’t think we can protect monsters found inside a dungeon."

"Huh? Why not?"

"I’m not a Tamer, so I don’t know the details, but apparently monsters inside dungeons cannot be tamed in the first place. According to a Tamer I used to know, monsters born from a dungeon core have no hearts of their own. Since you cannot establish a connection with them, it is impossible to make them obey you."

Qiu Nuoya did not quite understand what Viktor meant, so he tilted his head in confusion once again. "Monsters are born from dungeon cores?"

"That seems to be the case with dungeon monsters."

"What about monsters outside dungeons? Are they different?"

"When carrying out missions, we sometimes come across what are known as monster nests. There, you can see the normal cycle of life. There are males and females, and offspring are born through mating. It is no different from us. However, the sexes of monsters inside dungeons are not even clearly distinguishable. Perhaps the correct way to think of dungeon monsters is that they are different creatures modeled after monsters from the outside world. It is strange that their materials are just as good, though."

What a strange phenomenon.

Qiu Nuoya had always thought dungeons were mysterious places, but now he had even more questions.

"Regardless, one thing remains unchanged. Dungeons are dangerous places. The monsters that inhabit them are more dangerous than ordinary monsters. There is even a theory that it is the Demon King who scatters dungeon cores throughout the world. According to those who support this theory, the monsters that appear in dungeons have no hearts because they are completely controlled by the Demon King."

"The Demon King!"

It had been three years since Qiu Nuoya had come to this world. He had heard that the Demon King supposedly existed, but this was the first time anyone had actually told him anything specific about the Demon King’s existence.

"Does the Demon King really exist!?"

"What, Nuoya? Are you interested in the Demon King?"

"No, not really. It’s just that I’d never heard about him before..."

When Qiu Nuoya had been sent to this world, God had told him that a Demon King existed here. When Qiu Nuoya said he wanted nothing to do with him, God had promised to arrange things so that he would have as little involvement with the Demon King as possible, even sending him to the place farthest away from the Demon King’s castle.

Because of that, Qiu Nuoya had completely forgotten about the Demon King’s existence until now.

"Well, even if you call him the Demon King, apparently it’s been a long time since he went around causing trouble and attacking people. These days, he’s supposedly just an ordinary king who lives with his monsters. The Velikorya Kingdom doesn’t exactly welcome demi-humans, but apparently demi-humans and monsters, collectively known as demonfolk, live peacefully in the Demon King’s territory. I’ve never been there myself, though, so I don’t know the details."

It sounded far more peaceful than Qiu Nuoya had expected.

He had imagined something more like a fierce war between demonfolk and humanity, with the two sides constantly at each other’s throats, but apparently that was not the case.

Besides, could people actually travel to the Demon King’s territory simply because they wanted to?

"But they send soldiers every year to defeat the Demon King, right?"

"Well, you could say that’s more like a festival." Igor nodded in response to Warren’s question.

Wait, the campaign to defeat the Demon King is a festival? What exactly does that mean?

"The king doesn’t seriously believe his army can defeat the Demon King’s forces. It’s probably just entertainment during the quiet season after the harvest. They can’t exactly let the soldiers sit around doing nothing, either. So I suppose it’s more like a joint military exercise that both sides have agreed to. The fact that it never reaches any conclusion and both armies withdraw every spring tells you everything you need to know."

Peaceful!

"So that’s how Igor thinks about the annual campaign to defeat the Demon King..."

"Well, isn’t that what it actually is?"

Viktor looked at Igor with an exasperated expression. "The king genuinely sends troops every year with the intention of defeating the Demon King."

"Come on. I’m not falling for a lie like that."

"It’s not a lie. There is a perfectly good reason why the troops are sent out during that particular season."

Igor stubbornly insisted that the campaign was nothing more than entertainment, while Viktor calmly explained the reasoning behind it.

"It is common knowledge that eighty percent of the Demon King’s forces are monsters. Some of those monsters hibernate during winter, and their movements also become sluggish. In other words, winter is the season when the Demon King’s army is at its weakest."