After Ten Millennia in Hell

The chilling sound of skin being torn apart and bones being crunched spread through the devastated plain.

The demons' bodies, souls, and demonic energy flowed into Oh Kang-Woo through the black smoke hanging over the field.

Riiing.

[Activating the Trait 'Reaper of Souls'!]

[Absorbing demon souls in their entirety.]

An astral energy that could not be seen flowed into him.

He had never been able to feel such a thing while using the Authority of Predation before because it had always mangled and ripped apart the souls that it had devoured.

'Ah.'

It was a mysterious feeling.

The demons he'd devoured only lived in the middle levels of Hell, so the energy wasn't that big. But even the light from a firefly could shine brightly if hundreds gathered. Even though they were small portions of energy, he felt a fullness spread through his body because he had absorbed hundreds of portions.

'It kind of feels weird.'

It was a sensation similar to lying in a hot tub with hundreds of small bubbles enveloping one's body. It felt indistinct yet heavy. It felt as if bubbles were tickling his body.

After a while, the bubbles tickling him seeped into his body, and a familiar message window appeared in front of him.

[The Trait 'Reaper of Souls' has been successfully activated.]

[You have absorbed souls and raised the quality of your own soul.]

[You have obtained a clue for the first condition of Demonic Soul.]

'Nice.'

Kang-Woo's eyes shone as he read the message windows that had appeared in front of him. The tips of his mouth went up. He opened his status window and checked the contents of 'Demonic Soul.'

[Information]

[Demonic Soul: The second step to becoming a 'Demon God.'

*Condition 1: Raise the quality of your soul (Unfulfilled)

*Condition 2: ???]

'I knew it was connected to my Seventh Awakening Trait.'

He had expected it.

He was now certain that the steps to becoming a Demon God and the Awakening Traits were connected.

Kang-Woo nodded in satisfaction.

'It's a condition I can fulfill.'

Kang-Woo decided not to think about the second condition hidden behind question marks. He decided to focus on the first condition, which he could actually fulfill.

He wasn't sure how many demon souls he had to absorb, but the way to fulfill the condition was very straightforward.

Riiing.

[Demonic Energy has risen by 4.]

"Woah, it even raised my stat."

Kang-Woo's eyes shone.

Raising his stat wasn't an effect of Reaper of Souls but the effect of having absorbed the demonic energies of hundreds of demons.

Four points. A smile appeared on Kang-Woo's face. He opened his status window and checked the stat.

"… Goddammit."

The stat was still at 120.

Kang-Woo recalled something he'd forgotten.

"This has become complete trash."

Kang-Woo looked at the Black Pearl Coat he was wearing.

The Black Pearl Coat boosted his demonic energy stat by five. However, its effect had become obsolete after the stat had surpassed 120. Hence, even if he took off the Black Pearl Coat, his demonic energy stat would stay at 120.

The stat boost effect of the Black Pearl Coat had completely disappeared.

"Tsk."

He wasn't sure if he should be happy by the fact that further increases in his Demonic Energy stat would be the base value or if he should be annoyed by the fact that the Black Pearl Coat had become useless.

'Well, let's think about it optimistically.'

It was something he'd expected after discovering that the stat boost from Legendary-grade and lower-grade equipment wouldn't apply after 120 stat points.

It had been bound to happen, so he just considered the issue as resolved.

Kang-Woo left the bittersweet feeling behind and stood up.

"That aside…"

He thought about the message that said the quality of his soul had risen. He still wasn't sure what effect it had.

'I should check.'

He closed his eyes and meditated, checking the changes in his body.

'Nothing has changed physically.'

There had been no physical changes like what he had experienced with the Ultimate Demonic Body, nor had anything new formed within his body such as with the demonic crystal.

'There has to be a change.'

He wasn't sure what kind of effect fulfilling the conditions for the Demonic Soul would give, but considering what had happened with the Ultimate Demonic Body, he was sure that it would give him great power.

Although he was still in the middle of fulfilling the conditions, it was weird that he hadn't felt a single change.

'Hmm?'

He felt something different about his body, something he hadn't felt before using Reaper of Souls.

It didn't take him long to realize what it was.

'The seal on the Ten Thousand Demon Core has weakened.'

Kang-Woo's eyes shone.

The seal hadn't weakened as much as when he awakened every ten levels, but it had definitely become weaker.

"This…"

A deep smile appeared on his face.

"The effect is greater than I imagined!"

The Ten Thousand Demon Core was the foundation of his power.

It'd been half a year since he'd returned to Earth. Although he'd obtained new powers he didn't have while in Hell, they still couldn't be compared to his original power.

The Ten Thousand Demon Core was a sea of demonic energy that not even he knew the full extent of; it was a complete enigma to him.

"Yeah, this is what I'm talking about, especially when I'm being blocked from leveling up."

A deep smile was drawn on his face. He almost wanted to start dancing out of happiness.

To him, there were two huge benefits to leveling up. The first was the Awakening Trait, and the second was the weakening of the seal on the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

He had been unable to weaken the seal any other way, so this was absolutely huge.

"Very nice."

He sat down while smiling in satisfaction.

If the seal on the Ten Thousand Demon Core had weakened, there was something he had to do immediately.

'I have to convert the released demonic energy into a stat.'

He had also done so when he'd achieved his Seventh Awakening.

'I can't depend on the Black Pearl Coat's stat boost anymore.'

From now on, any rise in his Demonic Energy stat would directly translate to his own power.

Kang-Woo closed his eyes and used the Heavenly Dragon Cultivation Technique.

He felt the demonic energy that had flowed out from the weakened seal on the Ten Thousand Demon Core. It wasn't an explosive amount compared to when he awakened, but it was still the demonic energy from the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

He was enveloped in an abundant amount of demonic energy.

The demonic energy of the Ten Thousand Demon Core started to melt into his blood.

Riiing.

[Demonic Energy has risen by 1.]

The ringing sound made him feel good.

"Wow."

He let out an exclamation. Although it had gone up by just one point, the change was impressive.

The demonic energy raged within him.

'The higher the stat becomes, the harder it is to raise, but the effect becomes even greater.'

He smiled while thinking about the most basic information about stats.

He'd used quite a lot of demonic energy during the battle because he'd used two big techniques consecutively, but it felt as if his demonic energy stores had already been replenished.

"I should head back."

The war against the demonic beasts should be over by now.

Kang-Woo stood up and looked at the destroyed plain that had become similar to Hell.

'It wasn't a bad harvest.'

The harvest was as he had expected, no, even better.

Kang-Woo lightly clenched his fist.

Getting stronger while stopping the Demon Cult's plan… it was like killing two birds with one stone.

He turned around, put his hands together, and bowed.

"Thank you for the meal."

Burp.

* * *

He returned to where the Korean and Chinese Players had been warring with the demonic monsters.

'It seems like it's over.'

As he had expected, the war had already ended. People were transporting the injured.

It was obvious the fight ended with an overwhelming victory for China and Korea.

Humans weren't weak enough to lose against a group of demonic beasts from the First Hell.

'There doesn't seem to be many casualties either.'

Most of the people walking around had bright expressions on their faces, meaning there hadn't been many casualties.

'I wonder what would happen if a war between the forces of the Ninth Hell and Earth's Players broke out.'

He didn't need to think too much.

No matter how powerful the Players were, they were no match against the forces of the Ninth Hell. It would be a one-sided massacre similar to what had happened five years ago on the Day of Calamity.

'But…'

Kang-Woo looked at the players busily moving about. They didn't seem happy just because they'd won the war.

"Finally! I got my Seventh Awakening!"

"Alright! Me too!! I'm finally free from this damn level cap!"

"Holy crap, my level went up by eight!"

Kang-Woo could hear their happy shouts.

The players had leveled up a lot from the battle; it had ended up being a huge EXP event, just like Cha Yeon-Joo had said.

'Players can grow.'

It wasn't just those who had participated in the war. Players all around the world were gradually becoming stronger.

Although they still had a long way to go before they could face beings from the Ninth Hell, Kang-Woo brought to focus the fact that they were getting stronger.

'And among them, there are special individuals like Si-Hun.'

For players, talent was very important. No matter how much time they invested, talentless players couldn't get stronger. Inversely, if one just had talent, one could get a lot stronger in a short period of time.

"Kang-Woo!" Yeon-Joo ran toward him. "Where were you? What about the demons?"

"I eliminated them."

"… By yourself?"

He nodded.

Yeon-Joo laughed in disbelief. "It's not like there were just a couple of them. There should've been at least a hundr—"

"To be exact, 237."

"How did you… Fuuu. Forget it. I don't want to ask." Yeon-Joo shook her head. She cleared her throat and looked at Kang-Woo. "That aside, you're not hurt, are you?"

"Of course not."

"I guess you really are okay, considering you're as arrogant as ever. Hmph, people like you need to break some bones to be brought down a peg or two."

She turned her head away while snorting. Unlike her cold words, the tips of her mouth were curled up.

Kang-Woo smirked and walked past her. After Yeon-Joo, Echidna came running toward him.

"Kang-Woo, I protected Seol-Ah just like you told me to."

Hm!

She snorted.

"Good job. Not much happened, right?" Kang-Woo asked.

"Yeah. Some flying demonic beasts attacked, but I got rid of them all."

She looked at him with shining eyes, just like a child waiting to be praised.

Kang-Woo gently patted her head.

"Echidna, you go help the injured too."

"Okay!"

The treatment of the injured and the restoration of damages took priority for now.

'And then…'

He fell into thought. He'd solved the Russia incident and stopped the invasion of demonic beasts and demons.

'I have nothing to do.'

Unless the Demon Cult ran wild again or exposed their tracks, Kang-Woo couldn't think of anything to do.

"Hmm."

Kang-Woo looked at Echidna, who was running to where the injured people were. Suddenly, a certain thought crossed his mind.

"Aha."

He took out his smartphone and checked the date.

'I think it's been about three months.'