Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 131

Chapter 131: Episode 39: The Underworld (2)

I already had such an experience. The recovery rate was amazing. I felt like my body was trying to get back to its original state. Every day counted. On the very first day of recovery, I could barely walk. However, I gained a lot of muscles during the last two days.

‘It wasn’t a normal preservative,’ I thought.

In particular, the branch called ‘Jellim’ was effective.

The branch helped me regain my strength, which boosted the recovery process. I also regained some mana. I couldn’t use any skills yet, but it was only a matter of time.

‘Rage and the Sword of the Emperor,’ I mused.

Were these two weapons this heavy?

The two weapons felt solid and were also very heavy to me.

Slash!

I couldn’t swing the swords as I used to. I felt like I had never swung a sword before, and I couldn’t help but laugh at myself.

“This is exactly how I felt when I first swung a sword,” I told myself.

I was 12 years old when I swung a sword for the first time. A war broke out, and I was drafted. Then I received a sword during training, and it was when I drew a sword for the first time in my life. There were about 30 demons, who were around my age and received training. Out of the 30 demons, only two survived and became soldiers.

I persisted. Never had I grabbed a sword, but I tried to learn as fast as I could. I need to survive.

To this day, I could clearly remember the eyes of the drill sergeant. They glowed as if to tell me that he had found a useful soldier who would die for him.

“I hated his stare,” I said.

Then after we won the war, I challenged the heavily drunk drill sergeant to a duel and bested him.

My instincts told me that he would continue to exploit me otherwise.

Then I struggled to survive. Wars took place very frequently in the Devildom. Only the truly powerful ones could enjoy freedom.

“I guess I grew very quickly back then,” I realized.

I didn’t have anything, but I was very determined. Who would have known that such a blowsy demon would conquer a castle called Bruciel? The owner of the castle wasn’t the best demon, but he was still one of the top 72 demons.

The secret to my success was the strong determination to be more powerful. Then I met Archdukes, and my motivation died out. Thanks to the demon god’s offer, I did get more powerful on Earth. However, I always thought that such empowerment wasn’t the result of my effort.

Of course, I did put in efforts to be stronger, but I wasn’t as motivated as I was when I was lingering in the battlefields of Devildom. And I lost… I lost because I didn’t put my soul into it. I could have gotten stronger, but I limited myself and my potential.

‘I tried hard after I came back to this life. At least I did better than in the previous life. However, I still have this feeling that I’m not there yet,’ I contemplated.

Compared to my previous life, I had gotten much more powerful, and I became arrogant. I couldn’t look at myself objectively back then.

Unfortunately, I relied too much on the additional statistics rather than the intrinsic statistics.

And I thought that I was above other Archdukes. As a result, Oculus easily crushed me.

Had I been sterner, more disciplined, I could have been different.

Of course, such a scenario was one of many other possibilities. In order to realize such a plan, I needed to surpass my limit.

Since I was still in the process of recovery, I decided to focus on my intrinsic abilities and not rely on other external help.

I grabbed Rage and the Sword of the Emperor again.

“Highendall,” I uttered.

I couldn’t completely imitate him even when I transformed into the darker version of myself.

I tried to internalize his swordsmanship.

I glanced at the sky, bow my head down, and spoke, “The Moon rises here, too.”

It was late in the evening.

I was practicing my moves under the moonlight.

I pushed myself until my body begged me to stop. However, I continued practicing.

Six days passed by.

I was getting used to the weight of the swords.

“Is it because of transforming into a darker version or some other reasons?” I speculated, swinging my two swords on a cliff.

I got curious about the reason why I was weakened when I entered the Underworld.

I could feel my body; the mana was there, and so was the heart of Hell Lord. However, when I woke up, all of my muscles were gone. Something must have happened when I transformed or when I fought Contegnome.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t transform again. It was too dangerous. I had to set aside my curiosity and focus on recovering.

Then I looked around.

‘Jeff,’ I thought.

I remembered Jeff, who was an undead.

The slender undead was busily swinging his broken sword.

He was making a lot of noise. The undead must have learned some swordsmanship; his poses were good.

Jeff had been practicing for the last two days.

When he saw how I practice, he came up to me and talked about wars. Then he started shouting during his practices and looked at me once in a while.

He was obviously showing off his skills to me.

The undead wasn’t bad, but I would have to hold my judgment until I saw him in real combats. Of course, I could tell how good he was just by looking at his poses because I myself was a pretty experienced swordmaster.

“Why don’t we duel?”

I lowered my sword and approached him.

I had recovered quite a bit, and I had also gotten used to my swords.

The last piece of the puzzle was real fights. I needed to get used to actual combats with this body.

Then Jeff slightly smiled.

“Are you going to be okay? It seems that you have recovered a bit, but your skills aren’t that good…yet.”

The undead had watched me for a few days, but he did know how good I was.

I could understand him to some extent. After all, the swordsmanship of Highendall was complicated. If someone who wasn’t exposed to such swordsmanship had seen another practicing it, they could have thought that it was a form of dancing. I was also taking my time, making slow progress, and Jeff wasn’t at the level where he could distinguish subtle differences in different types of swordsmanship.

“Are you worried that I might beat you?”

“What? Me? Ah…I have killed more than a hundred in battlefields. They tell me that I’m worth a hundred! Yes, that’s me!”

He banged his chest.

The undead was confident about his skills, and he looked arrogant.

“Fine. Then let’s have a deal. The winner asks whatever he wants from the loser. How about that?” I calmly spoke to him.

“The winner can take anything he wants?”

“Yes.”

Jeff looked at my swords.

The two weapons looked unusual to Jeff, and so were their mana.

Any swordmaster would want these.

It was amazing how he had just been watching me so far. He appeared greedy, at least to me, and I thought he would try to take my swords from me.

If he tried, though, I could have easily killed him. In fact, I let him see my swords on purpose to incite nervousness in him. Unfortunately, my plan didn’t work.

Now, I officially gave this undead a chance.

Jeff licked his lips.

“I want the two swords. If I win, I’ll take both swords. What do you want, Randalf?”

“I’ll tell you when I win.”

“Then I’ll never hear your wish,” he replied with a smug.

Jeff increased the distance between us.

He grabbed his sword, which looked like a scimitar with a bent blade, and he snickered.

The undead must have thought that he would surely win.

‘I’m slightly worse than him as of now,’ I pondered.

I assessed myself objectively. I did get used to the two swords, but I was still not there yet. However, I believed that such a challenge would help me improve quickly.

Fights, where I would surely win, weren’t entertaining.

“Come at me first.”

“Ha! You’re going to regret saying that.”

When I shrugged my shoulders, Jeff clicked his tongue.

The first one to attack had a higher chance of victory in all fights.

The undead must have thought that I was out of my senses.

However, I wanted to save as much energy as I could.

Luckily, my plan worked out, and Jeff charged at me.

“Ha!”

Jeff was a good swordmaster.

He seemed to have experienced many combats.

It was no lie that he killed a hundred men.

However, that was about it. The undead was lacking sophistication in his swordsmanship.

Although Jeff could catch one off guard, he couldn’t efficiently penetrate his strength nor could he foresee the next few moves.

I slowly cornered him as if I was hunting an animal. At last, I found myself pointing my sword at his neck.

‘It’s hard,’ I admitted.

Although I only fought for about 10 minutes, I was completely exhausted.

Besides, I, too, received many injuries on my body, because I only guarded important parts of it.

“Nonsense! I was winning!”

Jeff was shocked.

He must have thought that he was winning throughout the fight.

The undead was winning on the outside, but that was a part of my plan.

Lowering my sword, I told him what I want, “This is my wish: For the next 30 days, you’ll have to fight me.”

I was recovering very quickly, and Jeff was useful for checking the progress.

As days went on, the fight became fiercer. My body was getting better every day. The combat was getting shorter, and Jeff became more desperate to win.

“You’re crazy!”

Clang!

After 20 days, Jeff threw his sword on the ground.

We fought for 20 times, and Jeff lost in all of them.

Now he couldn’t even last a minute, and he was getting tired of losing.

“Just kill them then! Stop humiliating me!”

“No… I can’t.”

“Ugh! You’re crazy. I would rather kill myself.”

Jeff, lying on the floor, sighed.

Clap, clap, clap!

At that moment, Torium appeared.

“You’re indeed amazing, and you’re getting better every day.”

“What’s the occasion?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t visit you anymore.”

Torium looked concerned.

When Torium finished talking, Jeff also bent his head.

“Something is going on, I guess.”

“Magdalene, the commander of the central region, is advancing towards the south. Jeff and I need to get prepared.”

“Prepare?”

“We must defend ourselves and our homes here. For the last 50 years, we have transformed the barren land of the south into what is now our home. We can’t just give up.”

Torium looked determined.

He had a strong will to defend his home and his land.

“Did you find a way for me to return?”

If Jeff and Torium went out to fight, I must find a way to return by myself. When I asked Torium if he found one, he looked a bit excited.

“I’ve tried my best to find a way, and I did find something…”

“I want to know.”

“I’ll be honest with you. I haven’t told you everything about this world. I was ashamed to tell you about this, but nothing matters at this point.”

I crossed my arms and waited for his revelation.

Torium began talking again.

“This world is fake. The Hell Lord made it.”

“The Hell Lord?”

I was familiar with the name.

Torium remained serious.

“The Hell Lord is also known as the Shadow Emperor. He’s quite dangerous. The Hell Lord told us that the undead, if they come to this world, would become gods and lead the world in right directions. We bought his words and came to this world. In fact, Jeff and I have never seen the Hell Lord ourselves. Anyway, the commanders guard this world and the Hell Lord’s treasures. They’re forever bounded to such tasks until the Hell Lord returns someday. However, as time passed by, the commanders have changed.”

Torium sighed deeply.

“All of the commanders became greedy about the treasure, and every one of them claimed that he was the ‘true’ commander of the Hell Lord. However, one could open the treasure house of the Hell Lord only if all of the commanders agree to open it. Now that’s the way you can return. If the treasure house opens, this world will change.”

Torium shook his head.

“In other words, if you kill all of the commanders, you can solely open the treasure house yourself. Some commanders had already noticed this fact, and they started wars. Such was the beginning of the never-ending war.”

“The Malicious Commander Maxium,” I interjected.

Then Torium’s eyes widened.

“How do you know that name?”

“Is he also in the central region?”

“Why, yes! He was the commander who started the war!”

Ah… everything was starting to make sense.

This place was closely related to my heart.

And the Malicious Commander Maxium was a knight that I summoned in the Achievement Store.

I was getting hold of the situation.

I first thought that I ended up in a completely unknown world. However, I could guess the reason why I got here.

Torium, whose face was grave, continued.

“I’ve never even mentioned that name. How did you know? Even speaking the name of that commander brings terror to us. The commander has never participated in the war, and it was said that only a few had seen his true worth. However, talking about him is still a taboo. I don’t think Jeff talked about him…”

Then he cautiously turned around and looked at me.

I raised the Sword of the Emperor.

This sword was Maxium’s. He gave it to me. And the true owner of this sword was the Hell Lord.

“Torium, I will fight in this war, too,” I told him, trying to sound as calm as possible, but my words carried much weight.

If there’s only one way to return, I would have to make that happen myself.