Leveling Up Alone

[Make him kneel before me right now!]

[Yes, Demon King!]

At last, the dark mages started to move at the Demon King’s command.

[Demons! Please grant our request.]

Zing!

The dark mages muttered as they formed a magic circle, and one by one, demons started to emerge from it. Soon, more than a hundred demons appeared.

[Kekeke! It’s been a while since we’ve been to the human world. Alright, what is your request?]

[Please kill that ignorant and stupid human.]

[Kekeke. Kill a human, huh? What an easy request. You know the price, right?]

[Kekeke, good, good. Very good!]

The emotionally charged world of humans was a more enjoyable playground for demons compared to the dull, uninteresting demon world. In addition, the easiest yet most expensive request, killing someone, was a favorite for the demons.

[Kekeke. Let’s go, everyone!]

[Yee-haw!]

The demons flew up in unison and charged at Han-Yeol.

Chaaa!

[Hehehe, let’s see some blood!]

[Huh?]

[Huh?]

The hundred demons flew toward Han-Yeol with a rather powerful spirit, but they couldn't help feeling uneasy when they closed in on Han-Yeol.

Gulp.

[T-T-This aura is?]

[N-No way?]

Gwoooo.

The demons could see the black mana flowing from Han-Yeol’s back, a powerful demonic aura they couldn't even look at, and the presence of a dark being that seemed to require unconditional obedience.

[S-Something seems to be w-wrong?]

However, it was already too late.

“Why aren’t they coming?”

The demons hesitated, but Han-Yeol had been looking forward to this fight. He stretched and cracked his neck.

Crack!

The demons didn’t answer Han-Yeol’s question.

[Agh!]

[...]

“Well then, I guess I’ll have to go. Let’s go, Tia.”

“Alright.”

“Ah, you too, Stewart.”

“It’s nice of you to take care of me, too.”

“Haha, stop overreacting.”

Stewart frowned again at Han-Yeol’s attitude.

The demons were a bit frightened at first, but they were a race that enjoyed blood and battle, so they didn’t embarrass themselves by running away in fear. In fact, some demons regained their composure and attacked as they became used to Han-Yeol’s aura.

However, that didn’t change anything.

Chaak! Chak!

[Khaaa!]

[Arghhh!]

Han-Yeol moved as fast as a lightning bolt, darting in and out of the gaps between the hundred or so demons summoned by the dark mages, unleashing his attacks.

‘Head Cutter!’

Whoosh!

[Kugh!]

The demons Han-Yeol beheaded with his sword turned into flames and were instantly summoned back to the demon world.

[W-What kind of crazy human is he?]

[Is this for real?]

Demons were known to look down on humans. According to the laws of the dimensions, when they were summoned to Earth, their powers were adjusted to match the level of the dimension they were summoned to, and the lower levels of the second dimension had a lot of sealing power.

However, the demons were a fighting race, and they laughed at the humans’ inexperience in battle. So even if Han-Yeol’s mana was overwhelming compared to theirs, they had faith in their combat skills and the fact that there were over a hundred of them. But within the first three minutes of the battle, Han-Yeol shattered their faith.

‘Mana Explosion!’

A huge explosion of mana burst out from the left side where the demons were gathered.

Boom!

[Khaaa!]

[On the left!]

Han-Yeol was moving so fast that it was difficult to locate him and fight him.

The demons skillfully used their numbers to distract him while they tried to find him.

Shaa!

[Huh? H-He’s not there! I can’t see him!]

The problem was that Han-Yeol was much faster than they expected. By the time they tried to locate him through sound and attack, he was already gone.

‘Flashing Stab.’

Gush!

[A-Agh!]

The tip of a sword jutted out from the chest of one of the demons on the right side of the group, completely opposite to where they were looking.

‘D-Damn it!’

Thud!

The sword had already pierced through its back and into its chest, so it could no longer stay and would soon be summoned back to the demon world. Still, a demon was a demon, and it couldn’t just give in, so it grabbed the sword that had pierced its chest with both hands to prevent Han-Yeol from escaping.

[There he is!]

[Now is our chance. Grab him!]

Swoosh!

The demons rushed at him as fast as they could to kill him, just in case he tried to use his speed to escape again.

Thud!

[A-Agh!]

Han-Yeol placed his left hand on the head of the demon that was tightly gripping its sword and trying to make its last move. He then grabbed its head and pulled it back slightly, then put his mouth close to its ear and whispered, “Did you guys think I was the only one here?”

‘W-What the…!’

The demon couldn't speak properly because of the pain. It coughed out a bit of blood and rolled its eyes at Han-Yeol, as it couldn’t see him properly and looked confused for a moment.

“What’s with the look of confusion? Take a good look before you're summoned back.”

‘Damn it! This is so humiliating!’

The demon was furious because its pride was hurt, but that was no concern to Han-Yeol.

Zing! Boom!

[Aghhh!]

[W-What the hell is that?]

A gigantic black mana sword that was at least ten meters long appeared among the demons charging at Han-Yeol, and it immediately exploded, scattering small sword fragments in all directions.

The effects were incredible, as it had pierced right through the center of the group of demons before exploding. About half of them were instantly summoned back, and the other half suffered small and large wounds.

Shhh!

The ashes from the demons being summoned back fell to the ground.

[Agh!]

Drip, drip.

The demons that weren’t summoned back also had wounds all over their bodies, and their blood dripped onto the ground.

“What the hell? Did these scum only pay attention to Han-Yeol-nim and not us?”

“Haha, I think so, Mr. Demon.”

Stewart appeared from the sky, and Tia appeared from the ground.

[Who are you?!]

It seemed like they had just appeared, but they had been there all along. The demons were solely focused on Han-Yeol, so they thought Stewart and Tia had just appeared out of thin air.

[Ugh, damn it…]

‘It’s only the beginning of the battle, and we have already taken too much damage. We can’t continue like this.’

The demons looked around at their group as fighting at this point had already become pointless. It was hard enough to deal with just Han-Yeol, but now there were two others who were also powerful, and with more than half their group gone, there was no point in fighting anymore. But even if they wanted to give up, they couldn’t.

‘Damn it, damn it…! I thought it would be easy to rule this world which is why I made an absolute contract with those lowlifes, but now I can’t even run away!’

Han-Yeol had made a simple contract with a demon, but for dark mages who could deal with demons and monsters professionally, there were many different types of contracts. Among them, an absolute contract allowed demons to have the most advantage, receiving the most amount of offerings per favor. However, high profits were dangerous, and once a favor was accepted, it had to be granted. If not, their soul would vanish, and they would disappear from this world completely.

Grit!

[Agh!]

Han-Yeol tightened his grip on the demon’s head. He broke its neck and it was summoned back to the demon world.

“Stewart, Tia, I can leave the rest up to you, right?”

“There’s not much left for us to do. We’ll catch up soon.”

“Hahaha.”

“Okay.”

Han-Yeol left the demons to the two and headed straight for the dark mages.

“I’m lazy, so just attack all at once.”

They couldn't understand each other's language, but what kind of world only spoke with words?

There were plenty of non-verbal ways to convey a message, and gestures were one of them.

[W-What the hell?!]

[Get that bastard down on his knees right before me right now!]

[Y-Yes, sir!]

The Demon King tried to look dignified, but he quickly became enraged at Han-Yeol’s finger-pointing provocation, thus revealing his original scoundrel-like personality.

Mutter.

The dark mages raised their hands in unison and started casting a spell.

‘What are they trying to do?’

The spell didn’t take very long, as they were high-ranking dark mages.

[Summon Great Demon Balbeget!]

Shoo!

As the dark mages finished their spell, a huge magic circle emerged from the ground, and a massive demon appeared from it.

‘Balbaget?’

[It's a demon that’s rare in the demon world. The word great in this case means big rather than high in rank, but it’s not just big. It’s also around the same rank as a king.]

Karvis was the one who answered Han-Yeol’s question.

‘Great Demon?’

[Yes, but it's not just big. It’s literally a king-rank demon, so its rank is slightly lower than Stewart's, yet it's so ignorant because it sacrificed its intelligence for combat skills.]

‘In other words, it’s useless except in combat?’

[That’s right. So it's one of those demons that live independently in the demon world, since no Demon King wants a stupid Great Demon that only causes trouble as their subordinate.]

‘Eh, they don’t usually do that?’

Although Han-Yeol had a lot of connections to the demon world as he had already made contracts with two Demon Kings, he didn’t know the details of the demon world. More precisely, he didn’t know because he didn’t need to know, but he knew the basics of their world. However, the demon world was far more intricate than the human world, so the information Han-Yeol possessed was merely a grain of salt.