SL:R

Chapter 25

Beru recalled an old memory.

The Demon World had been destroyed twice by the Shadow Monarch, Sung Jinwoo—the first time was in the Demon Castle Dungeon, and the second time was after everything had been reset.

In the war between Sung Jinwoo and the Monarchs, demons were nothing more than experience points for Sung Jinwoo to gain. So the demons died over and over again…

Ultimately, only one family could survive in the Demon World, the Rank 20 family, Radiru, the only demons to side with Sung Jinwoo.

Had that family been destroyed?

[… It seems that something has happened to the Demon World in the meantime.]

Beru narrowed his eyes and looked at the dead body of a low-level demon. In order to know the inside story, ‘Gluttony’ was the best method because it allowed him to read the memories of the consumed being.

[Little King, can I eat that demon?]

Sooho’s gaze turned to the demon’s corpse.

[It’s impossible to extract a shadow from a target with polluted mana.]
Sooho tilted his head at the message floating before him. “So demons cannot be extracted as shadow soldiers?”

[That is correct.]

Apparently, since the shadow ability extracts the opponent’s soul, extracting the demon’s already corrupted soul seemed impossible.

Sooho nodded.

“Then go ahead and devour it.”

[Kyaawup!]

As permission was granted, Beru’s mouth opened wide, and he tore into the demon’s corpse. He wanted to swallow it in one gulp, but…

Chomp, chomp, chomp!

Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp!

… It seemed like it would take a little longer since his mouth was too small.

[Kiekhehe!]

Putting aside the slightly gruesome scene that might need mosaic processing, Sooho turned to the gazes that had been focused on him since earlier.

Since some time ago, the Hunters of both retrieval and attack teams had been looking at him with astonished expressions.

“Um…”

“H-how…?”

In this confusing situation where nobody knew what to say first, Assistant Professor Im, who had seen this side of Sooho before, stepped forward. “Sooho, are you okay? Are your wounds healed?” Although all his wounds had been healed with the level-up, the blood on his body hadn’t disappeared. Sooho looked like he was about to collapse from being covered in blood.

“Ah, yes.” Sooho casually wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand at Assistant Im’s concern.

“Um, excuse me…” The raid captain approached him hesitantly. “Maybe you should go to the Association and get reevaluated…”

Aside from his summoning skills, there was no way Sooho, who had hunted a C-rank demon alone, could be ranked as E-rank. There was definitely some kind of mistake.

“That’s not important right now.” At that moment, Assistant Im picked up the empty potion bottle the demon had eaten earlier and looked closely at it. “The effect of stardust isn’t usually this strong… What the hell is this?”

“Do you know about Stardust?” The expression on the captain’s face became serious. He himself had felt something was off since earlier.

Assistant Im nodded. “Well, many low-ranked Hunters use it, so of course. Just a few days ago, the collectors who went missing claimed to have obtained Stardust and were overjoyed…”