[Demon Force Supreme Commander, Count Nukuham]
[457Lv]
Vulcan’s eyes narrowed.
However, nothing changed.
Vulcan shook his head lightly.
‘Lee Jung-yup… No, this bastard is not even at Jang-ho’s height.’
Vulcan was caught off guard by his humongous height, but fortunately, he figured out Nukuham’s true strength now at least.
Count Nukuham taunted Vulcan in a loud voice,
“Kuhahaha! You dared to cause a ruckus like this! You must be out of your mind. Do you have several lives?”
“These people are sacrifices for the demon lord. I can’t afford to lose them! Shall we go to a different place!”
Nukuham raised his hand toward Vulcan, and an invisible force grabbed hold of Vulcan.
However, it didn’t do any damage to Vulcan.
Actually, going to a different place was what Vulcan wanted, so he chose to get tossed to a far-far distance.
Wheec!
Crash!
Vulcan, who was still flying, collided with a building and stopped.
Let alone any people, there weren’t even any small demons that were so common when he was on his way to Busan.
Watching him, Nukuham was impressed. Nukuham said,
“Huh! You withstood my telekinesis. You are quite the sturdy one.”
“According to the investigation, this world doesn’t have a god or any powerful warriors. I don’t understand why someone like you exist in this place. However, it is very intriguing.”
Nukuham examined Vulcan as if he was a magnificent horse.
He made a proposal that was most unexpected.
“Hey, you. Why don’t you join our demon force?”
“What?”
Vulcan had a look on his face that said he found Nukuham’s proposition to be ridiculous. Meanwhile, Nukuham didn’t care and continued.
“That’s right. It would be a waste for an existence like you to be stuck in a backward planet like this. You possess the strength to bring down demons with nobility titles. Your potential! I like it.”
“Instead of letting your talent to rot in a place like this, how about you start a second life as a royal servant of our great demon lord Marahamka?”
Vulcan shook his head left and right.
Vulcan figured Nakuham must be out of his mind.
‘He is facing an opponent he met for the first time today, and he is trying to scout me?’
Vulcan broke in to laughter. He felt like he was shooting a film for some war stories straight out of the book, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Noticing Vulcan’s laugh, Nukuham crumpled his face.
“Such insolence. Did you just laugh from what I said?”
“You wretch… You are just a human. I was thinking highly of you for having developed such a strength. For that, I was thinking about taking you under my wings, yet…!”
As if he got angry, his body, which was black, started to turn red in some places.
Even those from Beloong City, the ones who were pretty powerful, would have been nervous watching Nukuham’s overwhelming appearance. However, Vulcan just looked at him. Vulcan stood there with not a thing out of order.
Vulcan said,
“Just shut up and fight.”
“… You wretch!”
Count Nukuham was infuriated.
With a dignified expression on his face, Nukuham raised his left hand and pointed it to Vulcan.
“I was being generous and giving you one last chance, yet you dared to toss it away. There won’t be any more generosity!”
As soon as he finished talking, Nukuham’s entire body was engulfed in a red layer.
Vulcan, who was watching Nukuham with an expressionless face, used magic to fly up.
‘If I stayed on the ground, he might shatter the entire Korean peninsula with his sword.’
Although the country was already in ruins, Vulcan didn’t want to see it destroyed any further.
Vulcan, who rose to Nukuham’s eye level, said,
“I said just shut up and fight.”
“You bastard! I’ll turn you into dust!”
Nukuham, who looked like a giant volcano, swung his giant sword in a violent motion.
A violent intensity could be felt from his swing. It felt like a direct impact would make Vulcan turn into dusts, not just get cut.
Clank!
However, Nukuham’s attack was stopped easily.
Nukuham opened his eyes wide and looked at Vulcan.
Vulcan could see Nukuham’s face. His face looked like he just witnessed something impossible. He looked shocked.
“I… I’m going to use my true power this time! Obliterating Demon Sword!”
Nukuham, who talked like a cheesy villain from an old Murim fantasy novel, swung down his sword once again.
However, the end result was the same.
Clank!
“… This cannot be!”
Nukuham’s face solidified like an ancient Rome’s statue.
Like a man in denial, he repeated those words over and over.
“… This cannot be…”
From a common sense stand point, it was indeed a situation that did not make any sense.
It was like stopping a log with a toothpick. It was not normal.
In 500 long years, there was not a single human that blocked his attack. Also, he believed that there will never be one.
However…!
‘To think…. Something like this could happen…!’
Nukuham, finally having realized the seriousness of the situation, slowly retracted his sword.
Nukuham would not have felt so cornered mentally if Vulcan, a tiny human being, showed even a little sign of being tired.
However, Vulcan looked like he had so much strength to spare despite fighting against all of Nukuham’s might.
‘It feels overwhelming like… Facing the duke!’
Having thought this far, Nukuham started to put strength in his feet so he could escape.
However, there wasn’t any chance of escape to begin with.
In silence, Vulcan cast Ifrit’s Fist. He opened his left hand and put the palm side toward the front.
“… This is!”
Ifrit’s Fist was flying toward Nukuham in a diagonal path toward the sky.
Watching an object that contained more mana than anything he have ever seen in his entire life, Nukuham thought,
‘This is… Impossible…!’
BOOOOOOOOM.
[Experience points went up.]
Vulcan placed his blade back to its sheath and enjoyed the scene that he just created.
Watching Nukuham’s lower half falling like a giant mountain, Vulcan thought,
‘You were not even worth much experience points. You are nothing but talk just like Ho-gwang. Actually, you are worse.’
Vulcan watched Nukuham’s dead body for a while and picked up an item. Noticing that it is a junk item, Vulcan cringed as he turned his body toward Busan.
‘For now, I should talk more with the survivors and come up with a plan.’
Vulcan needed one year anyway before he could use the Cross-dimensional teleportation technique again.
He also had a reason to think about what to do when he goes back to Asgard.
He felt the need to take time and think about those things.
‘To take time and think about the plans for the future… I need information. I need to eliminate remaining demons as well.’
Vulcan quickly returned to the underground prison and was reunited with the survivors.
Like that, Vulcan became a ray of hope to humanity that was only waiting for its doom.
“… After that. I spent most of my time obliterating remaining demon force. Once I cleaned up powerful captains and high ranking nobility class demons that were difficult to deal with Earth’s weaponry, the resistance handled the rest on their own pretty well. Like that, I did manage to put an end to the situation.”
“That’s right. That didn’t bring back my dead family. It didn’t bring back the destroyed civilization either…”
Instead of the usual beer, Vulcan chugged on hard liquor and continued,
“On top of that, I think the invasion is not over. Don’t you think so too?”
“… You are right.”
Vulcan looked at Filder as if he was asking Filder to explain more.
Filder said,
“Most demon lords invade one of human worlds for the purpose of sucking the planet’s energy and growing their demon force. However, if they expect too much casualty on their side, they don’t invade in the first place. Unfortunately… In this case with Earth, because they already invested troops there…”
“There is a high probability that they will send more troops because they don’t want to let the destroyed troops to go to waste. Since Earth’s only real power is you alone… They will probably send someone who is powerful enough to fight you, such as a duke…. Or the demon lord himself might come. Although it might take time.”
The two didn’t say anything for a moment.
It was Vulcan who broke the silence first. Vulcan continued with an emotionless face.
“In the end, it looks like I’ll have to go to Act 2 for sure now. I need to do it in order to bring back my family and Earth’s destroyed civilization. I also need to go there to gain the power necessary to fight the demon force that will invade soon.”
“That’s right. A demon lord’s power rivals that of a god… Although his power will weaken a little when he crosses over into the human world, he will be still as powerful as me. I don’t know about it much, but…”
Filder agreed with Vulcan’s words.
Vulcan wasn’t going to Act 2 because he wanted to. He was going in order to overcome unspeakable disaster.
Filder was too much of a good man to be happy about the situation.
‘Although this is not like I cursed you… but I feel frustrated.’
Although Filder didn’t have to feel responsible for what happened, Filder’s heart felt heavy for some reason.
Because of this, Filder decided to actively support Vulcan and provide him with everything he could that may help Vulcan in clearing Act 2.
‘I was going to do that anyway, but…’
He decided to be even more supportive than what he planned on doing before.
The other members of The Six were beings that have not lost their humanity despite the weight of incredibly long passage of time that they endured.
If they heard about the misfortune that Vulcan was facing, Filder was sure that they would lend all the support that they possibly could within the allowed limits.
‘… Now that I think about it, Mr. Beruneru is a necromancer that came to Asgard after destroying his own world.’
Although that was the case, he became nicer.
Having thought this far, Filder thought about what he could provide for Vulcan.
Filder’s face stiffened.
Now that he thought about it, Filder realized there was not much he could provide for Vulcan.
‘There is nothing more that I could give to Vulcan about combat.’
Although The Six were at substantially higher height than Vulcan, Vulcan already paved his own path in combat style.
Still, it felt like it would not be enough if Filder just sent Vulcan on his way to Act 2 after giving him a load of specialty potions.
‘Is there anything else I can give him?’
Filder’s worry deepened. It was at that moment.
Vulcan, who was keeping silence, said,
“Mr. Filder. I need your help. Also, I need the help of all of The Six.”
“In that case, I’ll ask freely.”
Having heard what Vulcan said, Filder tilted his head to a side. He looked dumbfounded.
“If it is about information about Act 2… Haven’t I told you most of it before? If there is anything you have forgotten, I could tell you again, but…”
“No. They were valuable information. However, from a Player’s perspective, they were not perfect. I would like to gather and organize information that are useful for a Player and then challenge Act 2.”
Vulcan emptied the hard liquor bottle on the table.
As he looked at Filder’s eyes, Vulcan added,
“Let’s try making a guidebook for Act 2.”