The ‘Puppet of Elrika Kingdom’ a quest, which was difficult to perform with its triple S difficulty.

But the reason for the difficulty didn’t seem to be because of the monsters that were considered to be strong.

Remus gave the quest, according to the information of the secret passage, the monster that would make an appearance in the dungeon appeared to be much weaker than the level of the undead.

Then the reason why the quest was termed to be difficult could be inferred in another way.

‘It would be the difficulty to avoid falling in the sight of the NPCs in the castle. If I get caught, I’ll suffer a lot.’

Determining that, Ian, without any party members or retainers, followed Remus.

It was because he thought that having too many people would make it harder to clear.

However, there was only one party member and one retainer.

“Lugarix, you can do well, right?”

“Of course, Ian. This time I’ll show what my true black magic skill is like.”

Lugarix clenched his fist with determination.

Elcarix who was on Ian’s shoulder put on the best smile and cheered.

“Oppa, fighting!”

“…!”

Red color tinted the cheeks of Lugarix.

The reason Ian was traveling along Lugarix wasn’t so hard to guess.

Among the high-level warlock skills that Lugarix could use, there was a very useful magic skill called the ‘Dark Illusion’.

The ability to hide the members within the scope of a period of time, Ian felt that it was going to be necessary to use that to continue the quest.

Of course, even the warlock Hoonie had the Dark Illusion skill.

Nevertheless, the reason for bringing him was furtherly simple.

The level of Lugarix was so high.

He wasn’t that much powerful when compared with Hoonie.

The fatal weakness of the Dark Illusion was based on the level of the caster.

‘The Dark illusion is useless for the warlocks who are the same or higher level as the caster.’

If Hoonie uses the Dark Illusion, warlocks with the level similar to that of Hoonie or higher would end up destroying the party within seconds.

Detecting wouldn’t work.

But Lugarix’s level was 500.

Perhaps the only warlock who could break the Dark Illusion of Lugarix was the Lich King Chalian.

With the Dark Illusion of Lugarix, the stealth quests would be a step lower than the normal difficulty.

Then why bring along Helliem?

It was because of the synergy between Lugarix and Helliem.

If there was any kind of wide-ranged black magic, then with Lugarix, the ‘Dark Vision’ of Helliem would shine.

Of course, the desire to use the newly acquired retainer played a pivotal role in tagging him along.

“Lugarix, what’s the range of Dark Illusion?”

At the question of Ian’s, Lugarix responded immediately,

“Well… it will be around 5 meters.”

“How long is the duration?”

“If I don’t move out of the spot or consume the whole power, the illusion won’t be broken.”

“That so.”

The Dark Illusion was a channeling skill.

The caster can’t perform anything else while the skill was being cast.

After grasping the weakness of the Dark Illusion, Ian began to step into the passage.

‘After entering the castle, I should summon Ly and Halli. I can have Karceus or Elcarix in the polymorphed state.’

Large pets can’t hide in the Dark Illusion, so there were several restrictions.

“But there won’t be a problem here, right?”

Seeing the monsters start one after the other inside the dungeon, Ian’s mouth curled up.

In the secret passage, he didn’t have to worry about the soldiers of the kingdom, so he could fight to the fullest.

Remus who was next to Ian spoke slowly.

“It’s a Lava Drake, right from the start. It looks like there are much more powerful guys than what I had thought?”

Remus seemed a little worried.

Ian however, wasn’t the kind to feel upset about it.

The level of Lava Drake in front of them was over 400.

Clearing the underground prison—Ian’s level too was 399, so the level of the monster was similar to that of his.

“Don’t worry Remus. I’ll sweep it away in an instant.”

At the confident reply from Ian, Remus nodded his head.

“Well, Ian I believe you.”

Then, right before Ian’s eyes, a system message came to his mind.

Tring-!

[NPC ‘Remus (Lv. 379)’ joined the party.]

At the same time, Ian’s hunt began.

* * *

[You have successfully cleared the quest ‘Dark Pact (Epic)’!]

[The dimensional door will open.]

Kung- Kukung-!

In the temple of Daedmon where the red color danced through—was a majestic atmosphere.

A group of Asmodian users was waiting for something while standing.

And in the middle of them was a dark energy spreading.

Kwooo-!

A loud vibrating noise rose through the entire temple.

A ray of light began to glow around the dark energy.

“…!”

The Asmodian users turned shocked almost immediately, but a moment later, they knew the identity of the person.

‘He’ appeared with a red light, the person the Asmodian users were waiting for.

[Great, my sons. You didn’t mislead my expectations.]

The appearance of a handsome man with red hair.

He was an NPC that hadn’t made an appearance in front of the users till the moment, yet the users couldn’t immediately identify him.

It was because ‘He’ was the one who had given them their ongoing quest.

“Devil God, Daedmon.”

“It is an honor, Daedmon.”

Numerous Asmodian users were kneeling and spoke,

It was a very spectacular sight that denoted power.

Among them were Irahan and Martin and rankers including—Samuel Jin were included.

As they were all on their knees, Daedmon’s words continued,

“Thanks to you, I was able to avoid the sight of the celestial world once again. However, it clearly violates the causality of the dimensions.”

Except for that loud and clear voice of Daedmon, the sound wasn’t heard anywhere in the temple.

Daedmon spoke again.

“If we don’t make use of the opportunity, then we don’t. When we’ll have the chance to open the door of the dimension and it will no longer be heaven.”

Pitch darkness swirled intensely.

Slowly approached Daedmon.

The red energy sucked into his hand after he stretched it out.

Kwa-Kwak-!

The sound was huge enough to tear off the eardrums, huge explosion sounds were resonating inside the temple.

Daedmon opened his mouth.

The human world was in chaos because of the Lich King and it was the perfect opportunity.

One of the users slowly rose from the knelt position and approached Daedmon.

A man wearing a red armor with a large sword on his back.

He was Irahan.

“Yes, Daedmon. We will never disappoint you.”

With a satisfied expression, Daedmon replied,

“I like that, I will believe you. This time, be sure to succeed in the invasion of the human world and show them the power of the devils!”

Kwakwang-!

Once again a loud explosion sounded throughout the temple.

At the same time, the whirlwinds of darkness moved in all the directions and space began to twist.

In that space, the dimensional door got created.

“Go, my sons. Wait for the right moment! When the legion of darkness vanishes with the corpses of humans, that day, the heaven for the Devildom will open!”

* * *

Along with the many RPG games, Kailan was too exponentially increased the experience required to level up at the higher levels.

However, there was a section in which the amount of experience required was particularly high, specifically when the number of digits changed to a hundred level.

For example, the level of experience at 199 to the level of 200 was five to seven times the experience required from changing 198 to 199.

This section was the most painful one.

It applied to Ian who was at the level of 399.

‘Huhu, it has been three days since I entered the 90 percent range, and it still needs to go up.’

Confirmed by Ian after looking at the gauge that was in the corner of his field and took his weapon while shaking his head.

Ian’s experience gauge was at 96.7 percent.

Looking at the numbers—it seemed like he would level up soon enough, but if one looked at the amount of experience remaining, that would change their thought.

Ian calculated the time required for the leveling up, and it seemed like he would be lucky if he could level up before the quest ended.

It was a bit comforting that the ‘Secret Passage of Remus’ dungeon was pouring out experience much more than Ian had expected.

It wasn’t that the monster that was coming out was high in experience points.

There were more monsters than he had thought, but because of the synergy between Lugarix and Helliem, it was a good turn of events.

The breath of Bbookbbook which had the attribute of water and ice helped quite a bit.

“Lugarix, Dark Swamp!”

Grrrk- Grrrrk-!

The moment the Dark Swamp got triggered, sticky pitch-black energy began to swell from the bottom.

From the hands of Lugarix came out a wide range skill with dark attributes.

The other orders of Ian followed.

“Helliem, Dark Vision!”

As if he was waiting for it, the Dark Vision ability of Helliem exploded.

Helliem’s unique ability to teleport forward and deal powerful damage to targets with ‘dark’ attributes.

Of the seven drakes that got trapped by the Dark Swamp, the most forward one had a rise of dark energy.

Srrrk-!

Dark energy rose from the air and Helliem appeared over there in an instant.

The very same moment, purple energy flashed and a huge sword fell.

Kwaang-!

[The unique ability of retainer Helliem ‘Dark Vision’ has been triggered.]

[The retainer Helliem inflicted tremendous damage on the ‘Lava Drake’!]

[Lava Drakes vitality has been reduced by 1,998,039.]

Lugarix had a lot of powerful magic attacks.

But nevertheless, there was a reason for the use of Dark Swamp which wasn’t a high tier offensive magic.

Firstly, because of the low cooldown of Dark Swamp, and secondly, the Dark Swamp provided various debuffs.

The damage dealt by the Dark Swamp wasn’t such a significant one.

The most important one of it was to ‘buy time’ for the dark attack on the enemy.

Immediately after using the Dark Vision, Helliem had given it a tremendous amount of destructive damage due to the attack.

The Lava Drake, a Lv 400 monster was sliced in an instant.

Kwang-!

Purple glow flashed in the air, and a total of seven roars reverberated.

And that was the end.

The sword of Helliem who slashed through the darkness turned the seven drakes into ashes.

Of course, the Drake didn’t die with a single strike.

Ian’s other summons wasn’t staying still while Helliem was active.

But with damage of 2 million with the Dark Vision, almost most of the vitality was erased.

“Clean finish…!”

Hummed Ian out of excitement.

Excluding ‘Remus’ who wasn’t of much help, the party of Ian wasn’t anything less than perfect.

“Remus, don’t stop, drive those monsters away.”

“That, that, okay.”

At the words from Ian, the former king Remus went to the monster with sweat.

Him following the order of Ian was more than just stimulating because of the affinity they shared.

In the perfect party where everyone engaged in perfect battle, there was one who was enjoying it.

After just one round of hunting, Ian asked Remus.

“Remus, how much more left?”

“To the secret passage?”

“Yes. How much longer do we have to move to the Phoenix?”

“Don’t concern yourself with that Ian. We will arrive soon. I think we broke through much faster than expected.”

Surprised with the ability of Ian, Remus raised his thumb with a smile.

But even with the praise, Ian didn’t look so glad.

“Uh, already…?”

With the experience buffs that came in with the first discovery, Ian expected that he could stay in the dungeon for a while.

However, without knowing about Ian’s thoughts, Remus shook his head and started to hunt separately.

30 minutes passed?

Creak-!

At the end of the dungeon passage—was a huge iron gate that was shining with a bright white light.

At the center of the light source was a huge tree, the size of it was something that had never been seen before.