Whoooooosh.
As the wraith quieted, Hong Ichan slowly opened his eyes.
“Ah……”
Everyone stared blankly at Ichan.
A noble young master with dark-toned skin gazed ahead with a deep, mysterious look.
“Whoa!”
“Who’s that?”
Hong Ichan ran his hands over his own body with that profound gaze.
“Huh, I got a bit taller?”
Then, at once, his expression turned familiar.
“I got big!”
Hong Ichan threw both hands up and cheered with all his might.
“Hyung! Look at me!”
He bounced up and down, showing off his height.
“Now you’re a little shorter than me, hyung!”
Sinhyeok realized that only his appearance had changed.
He didn’t go anywhere. That airheaded way of talking.
[Status Window]
Name: Hong Ichan (LV.254)
Class: Legitimate Heir of Night (Demon King)
Strength: 2532
Agility: 2654
Stamina: 2431
Spiritual Power: 4456
Traits: Lord of Night, Shadow Monarch
[Owned Skills]
=================
[Main]
Spirit Eye (LV.99)
Necromancy (LV.55)
Shadow Domination (LV.MAX)
Command of Night (LV.1) - Vassals: 1
=================
In Sinhyeok’s eyes, Ichan’s changed status appeared.
‘His level went up a lot.’
What stood out in particular were his traits.
That “lord” one felt like an Origin.
“Ichan. Proceed with the rest too.”
“Okay! Hyung! But a bunch of weird new stuff appeared. The more vassals I create, the more my Origin grows?”
The system read out what had newly appeared for him.
“Check it later. Hurry up and proceed. Tell me when you’re done.”
“Okaaay.”
Sinhyeok called Akashic.
“What’s the remaining process now?”
[You only need to extract the Administrator’s core.]
[I will take full charge of the remaining process.]
“Fine. I’ll pull them out quickly. How many?”
[The more, the better. For now, please extract just ten.]
He immediately extracted a portion of the Origins he had stacked neatly in his lower dantian.
‘Ten.’
[Extracting a portion of Origin.]
[Extracting a portion of Origin.]
……
[Extracting a portion of Origin.]
[Extracting a portion of Origin.]
It repeated continuously.
Before long, ten had piled up, and Akashic immediately collected them.
[Selecting demons.]
Akashic selected suitable talents and marked them in Hong Ichan’s field of vision.
“Hyung! I just start with these guys?!”
“Yeah!”
[Please select the corresponding talents first.]
“They’re all succubi and incubi.”
Strangely, they were all dream demons who crossed in and out of dreams.
“Now then, dear guests.”
Tremble, tremble.
The captured demons shook.
“Y-you insane elf!”
“Get away! Let us go, I said!”
“Ahh! Lord Astarto!”
Hong Ichan slowly unwound the Yamyo Honsik wrapped around his arm.
Then it soon wrapped tightly around the demons.
“You guys should join us too.”
At Ichan’s words, all the captured demons’ eyes became dazed.
“Yes, Master……”
Watching from the side, Baek Arin looked disgusted.
“Ew, ‘Master,’ they say. That’s so Hong Ichan’s taste.”
While dominating the demons, Hong Ichan suddenly protested.
“W-why! It’s not like I made them say it!”
Baek Arin found it awkward looking at Hong Ichan, who had grown two heads taller.
“You’re kind of ambiguous now.”
Hong Ichan looked down at Baek Arin, who was now smaller than him(?).
Then he gave a sly, crooked smile.
“Hah~ You’re so tiny I can barely see you. Now that I look, you’re a total pipsqueak!”
“Hah!?”
The enraged Baek Arin reflexively kicked out.
“Guh!”
Hong Ichan, struck in the center, trembled.
“Y-you!”
“Have fun. With your toys.”
“Ugh.”
Hong Ichan endured the pain and straightened up.
“Hah! That’s all you’ve got!”
“Ichan, stop fooling around, and if you’re done, send them over.”
“Okay!”
Ichan finished the domination seriously.
He immediately sent the dominated dream demons to Sinhyeok.
In Sinhyeok’s hand were the results designed by Akashic and run through simulations.
“Now, welcome.”
The dream demons looked at him with puzzled expressions.
“Take one each and swallow it down.”
“Yes……”
The dominated dream demons obediently swallowed them.
“Ghk.”
“Huuugh!”
Then a reaction came.
They all showed discomfort and clutched their chests.
‘It’s not going to fail, is it?’
[The probability of that artifact successfully settling is 84%.]
‘So you’re saying 10% will fail.’
[Yes.]
The answer was far too shameless.
[It probably won’t fail.]
“Urk, uh…… Gaaah! Y-you bastard!”
One demon vomited blood and its eyes returned to normal.
Then it collapsed to the floor and breathed its last.
“You said it wouldn’t fail.”
[It was merely the 10% failure.]
“Ghuugh……!”
Another collapsed.
[Failure probability correction.]
[In this experiment, the failure probability has been observed to increase to 20%.]
“You really adjust it however you like.”
Still, the remaining eight survived.
[Status Window]
Name: Liliana (LV.1)
Class: Succubus, Alchemist
Strength: 125
Agility: 122
Stamina: 124
Black Mana: 235
Mental Power: 152
Traits: Dream Walker, Subjugated One
[Owned Skills]
=====================
[Main]
Synthesis (LV.1)
Dream Walking (LV.1)
Soul Link (LV.1)
[Sub]
6th Circle Black Magic (LV.1)
=====================
When he opened one of their status windows, the skills had been properly embedded.
[The alchemy skill has successfully settled.]
[Artifact: Mind-Gathering Art activating.]
Wooong.
A vibration arose through the mana.
[Soul Link is manifesting.]
[Multiple Soul Linkers confirmed.]
[Soul Multi-Link is activating.]
[Mental Power is being shared.]
[Mental Power is temporarily increasing.]
“It works.”
His mental power was inflating.
[Status Window]
Name: Bu Sinhyeok (LV.67)
Class: Alchemist, Notedrasil Administrator
Strength: 546
Agility: 415
Stamina: 654
Mana: 1054
Mental Power: 214 + 1823
Traits: Mana Coagulate, Supreme Dragon’s Protection, Akashic Cabinet
When Sinhyeok quietly opened his own status window, his mental power had increased.
“Good. Akashic.”
[What would you like to make?]
“Let’s modify the self-propelled artillery. Modify that so it operates autonomously. It’s possible now, right?”
[It is possible. I will set it to an autonomous drive method incorporating black magic.]
[Commencing production of autonomous self-propelled artillery.]
Wooong.
Black mana was sucked into the eyes of all the dream demons.
They all moved their hands this way and that, busily synthesizing something.
Some melted things, some reattached them, and some were enchanting.
“Wow, what a spectacle. But I think we need to build a separate building and keep them there.”
[It would be better to place them temporarily on the airship.]
“Send them there. You’re controlling them right now, aren’t you?”
[Correct.]
Tap.
All the dream demons smoothly began to move.
Watching them walk in a line, he confirmed that it was operating properly.
“We’ve really caught the wave.”
Sinhyeok steeled himself at the thought that he could now truly cut loose.
‘Now all that’s left is to sweep everything up.’
[Notification.]
[Insufficient resources.]
[Requesting acquisition of large quantities of iron ore, rare earths, and mana stones.]
“Ah?! There’s trouble somewhere else now?”
[Production speed cannot keep up.]
“What about the mining robots?”
[They are currently mining at the maximum capacity Opsir can operate.]
—I’m busy.
A single sentence filled with many of Opsir’s emotions flew in via telepathy.
“Ugh, then we’ll have to go outside and explore. We’ve got no choice but to go out too.”
[Strongly recommended.]
[Please go out and earn some.]
“Fine, let’s go earn.”
Sinhyeok considered the team that would go exploring.
‘The giant hyung is included, and then naturally Namgung hyung will come too.’
As for who else would be good to add.
His eyes turned to the remaining members.
Perhaps sensing something, everyone’s eyes sparkled.
“Hong Ichan! You’re chosen. Since you became the Demon King, let’s go test your abilities.”
“Okay~”
Just then, someone flew in and launched a dropkick.
“Haaaat!!”
“This is easy now~”
Hong Ichan nimbly twisted his body and slipped into the shadows to dodge.
“Heheh! You can’t touch me anymore!”
Certainly, Ichan’s reflexes, now physically matured, were overwhelming.
“Don’t get cocky. If I had enough holy power, you’d be dead. You know my swordsmanship has gotten pretty decent lately, right?”
Baek Arin, thinking she might as well learn swordsmanship in her spare time, had been honing her sword under Namgung Sohye and Jegal Seyun.
“Still can’t touch me~”
Ichan teased her with an excited face.
“Ahjussi. Me, not him.”
“Ah, why! Let me go out for once!”
“Shut up. If he goes out, things get awkward. Who’s going to guard this place? Everyone else is more or less the same.”
At the words “more or less the same,” everyone quietly accepted it.
The old knight who had been watching cleared his throat.
“Ahem. Priestess, we are not that weak.”
“I know. But you’re just a little lacking.”
No one denied those words.
“That is true, though……”
Sinhyeok turned his gaze to Hong Ichan.
Ichan had been thinking he would go out and try using his power, but now he looked as if cold water had been dumped over him.
“I was trying to get in the mood.”
“Heheh~ Stay here, kiddo.”
Hong Ichan rose onto his toes, making himself even taller, and said,
“Who’s the kiddo? Huh!”
“Haa, this is annoying.”
Baek Arin seethed inside at the clear difference in height.
“I’ll cut off your ankles one of these days and make our heights match.”
At Baek Arin’s chilling comment, which seemed to be filled with sincerity, Ichan subtly stepped back.
“Hyung! Look at her! She’s saying crazy things!”
“Ichan, take good care of the house. I’ll be back.”
Sinhyeok simply stopped paying attention.
It wasn’t as if the two of them fighting like that was anything new, so he didn’t particularly want to get involved.
“Ah, seriously! I’m bored! You should take the Demon King with you, why! Why are you taking a half-baked hero!”
“Wait quietly, baby.”
Baek Arin teased him and followed after Sinhyeok.
The giant, Namgung Jincheon, Baek Arin, and Sinhyeok.
Thus, the four of them moved to find additional resources.
* * *
“Good grief, it’s a complete mess.”
Since resources had been mined nearby, the area around Fergana was in chaos.
“They really dug everything up.”
The ground had been completely torn apart.
—All resources within a 10 km radius have been mined. A new mine or vein with substantial deposits is required.
—The required minerals are iron ore and rare earths.
Opsir immediately poured out the needed resources.
—The mana stone mine will also be fully mined before long, so additional sources are required.
“What a mess. We solve one thing, and another problem pops up.”
Sinhyeok moved to resolve the problem that had come crashing down on him.
‘Since giant hyung is here, we can’t fly around in the spaceship.’
It felt a bit wrong to slyly tell him, “Please come on your own~”
“Sir Einri. Do you happen to know any place nearby with a lot of things like iron?”
He asked the one who had been here the longest.
“Mmm……”
He pondered for quite a while.
“There is one. I do not know about iron, but I know a place with strange stones.”
At the words “strange stones,” everyone’s eyes turned to him.
“What kind of stones?”
“An island is floating.”
[There is a high possibility they are floating stones. They are minerals that defy gravity. They are rare minerals also used in spaceships. If we secure a large amount, construction of additional spaceships will also become possible.]
Akashic excitedly explained everything in rapid succession.
‘So you’re telling me to secure this no matter what.’
[There is a high possibility that many rare resources exist nearby. Floating stones are generally often found deposited together with various rare minerals.]
‘In short, it’s a bonanza.’
They absolutely had to go.
“Let’s go there. Is it far?”
Without saying much, the giant lowered his hand first.
At that, Sinhyeok and Namgung Jincheon made troubled expressions.
“Ah, so it is far.”
“Very far, it seems.”
Baek Arin climbed on without a word.
“Why? It’s comfortable. Why those faces?”
Sinhyeok and Namgung Jincheon looked at each other and spoke.
“She wasn’t there the last time we jumped together, was she?”
“She wasn’t. She was only there at first, when we were walking calmly.”
Both of them grinned.
Not knowing the meaning of those smiles, Baek Arin looked at them as if they were pathetic.
“Oh, please. You cowardly ahjussis. How are you going to do anything big like that?”
“Hahahaha.”
“Hohohoho.”
The two of them merely laughed, climbed onto the hand, and gripped the giant’s fingers tightly.
“Lady, I hope you maintain that confidence until the end.”
“Arin, I hope you went to the bathroom in advance.”
“Oh, please~”
The giant covered his hand with a film of mana and said,
“Then we go, friends!”
“Yes! Giant oppa, depart!”
The excited Arin immediately shouted.
Sinhyeok and Namgung Jincheon silently gripped the fingers tightly and lowered their bodies.
The giant bent his knees, rose, and jumped, piercing through the clouds.
“Ghhhhh.”
“Hup!”
“Kyaaaaaaaak!”
Baek Arin had been standing calmly, but she slammed into the mana barrier.
“Kyaaaak…! What is this! S-save me!”
Buuung, kwaaaaaaang!
When they landed on the earth—fell—Baek Arin rolled across the giant’s palm.
“Ghk.”
Soon, she came to her senses and tried to stand while pretending to be calm.
Then the giant jumped again, and Arin’s body floated high into the air.
“Huaaaaaaak!”
Sinhyeok and Namgung Jincheon laughed at each other.
“We’re~ al~most~ there!”