Chapter 100 Level 1

The Nine Hells was one of the Outer Planes beyond the Material Plane.

It was also the home of devils, creatures known throughout the world for cruelty, treachery, and evil.

Meteors falling from the sky.

Broken weapons and rotting corpses.

Swamps of magma.

Frozen plains.

Desolate wilderness.

Jagged stone peaks.

Dead wastelands.

With the River Styx roaring through the realm and carrying the aura of death, almost every hostile environment imaginable could be found somewhere within the Nine Hells.

Even the air was different.

Highly concentrated magical particles filled it in proportions unlike those of the Material Plane, giving rise to countless deadly monsters.

Those creatures grew through slaughter.

Through battles to the death.

Through constant pressure from an environment that tried to kill them every moment they existed.

Compared with the monsters that survived there, most creatures born on the Material Plane were flowers raised in a greenhouse.

Soft.

Delicate.

Fragile.

The Spined Devil was one of the lowest-ranking monsters in the Nine Hells.

To higher devils, they were little more than irritating flies.

A casual command from a powerful devil could send thousands of them swarming into battle, where they became cannon fodder in the countless meat grinders that scarred the infernal planes.

In the Nine Hells, one dead Spined Devil was not even worth noticing.

But once one arrived on the Material Plane?

It became a monster capable of wiping out an entire adventuring party.

The reason was simple.

The Nine Hells had forged the species for survival.

Boiling rivers of lava.

Lethal gases.

Extreme heat.

Toxic air.

Spined Devils were born with immunity to ordinary fire and poison.

On top of that, they possessed a degree of resistance to ordinary slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage.

Then there were the pale clusters of bone growing from their joints.

The spines along their backs and tails that could be fired like arrows.

Everything about them seemed designed for one purpose.

Killing.

Xia Nan stood with his body tense and his guard high.

The Decapitating Longsword rested diagonally in front of him.

Every scrap of his attention remained fixed on the Spined Devil.

Especially its tail.

Another bone spine could come at any moment.

His expression was grim.

The creature’s immunity to fire had completely disrupted the rhythm of the fight.

Xia Nan had planned to exploit the brief window while it burned, rush in, and widen his advantage.

That opening no longer existed.

Instead, he had been forced back again.

Worse, the two remaining Incendiary Oil Bombs in his waist pouch had effectively become useless.

They would do nothing in this fight.

But even that was not what worried Xia Nan most.

What truly bothered him was the creature’s reaction speed.

The Spined Devil was already badly wounded.

Its body had been infected by spores.

Its combat ability had clearly fallen.

Half a wing was broken, robbing it of its most troublesome advantage: flight.

Yet despite all of that, the creature still possessed physical ability far beyond Xia Nan’s.

It had raised one elbow and blocked [Spinning Slash] head-on.

Cold sweat crept across his skin.

Xia Nan did not even want to imagine facing one of these monsters at full strength.

If this Spined Devil had been uninjured, he might never have gotten a chance to fight back at all.

It could simply stay airborne, beat its wings, and fire spine after spine from above.

Meanwhile, Xia Nan would be nothing more than a moving target.

Thwip!

The thought flashed through his mind.

The air suddenly burst.

The Spined Devil’s hunched body blurred and vanished from where it had been crouching.

The stench of sulfur rushed toward him.

At the edge of Xia Nan’s vision, the creature’s long tail swept in like a whip.

Sharp bone blades lined its length.

The strike could cut him in half.

Xia Nan did not dodge.

Instead, he gripped his sword with both hands and stepped straight into the attack.

Hum…

Ochre-red light surged around his body.

Magical particles in the surrounding air gathered all at once.

[Deathline] Ring: [Deflection Field]!

The tail struck the field.

Its enormous force vanished.

It was as though the bone blade had hit a perfectly smooth curved surface.

Translucent ochre ripples spread across the barrier, and the tail slid upward at an angle, missing its original target completely.

The magical accessory could be used only once per day.

Xia Nan spent that precious use without hesitation.

Because it bought him exactly what he needed.

Distance.

Or rather, the lack of it.

He was now inside the Spined Devil’s guard.

Cold light flashed across the Decapitating Longsword.

The smell of sulfur and blood became almost suffocating.

Xia Nan could clearly see the thick saliva dripping from the creature’s mouth.

He could even see the dark, forked tongue twisting between its teeth like a snake.

Then he thrust.

He already knew the Spined Devil’s hide was too tough to pierce easily.

So Xia Nan did not aim for intact flesh.

In that fraction of a second, he adjusted the point of his sword and drove it directly into the bloody wound in the center of the creature’s chest.

Hiss!

Thin smoke rose.

Yellowish-green pus sprayed from the wound, carrying a faint corrosive sting.

The longsword sank in.

Xia Nan felt as though he were forcing the blade through thick mud.

Dense muscle resisted every inch.

The thrust slowed.

Slower.

Until…

Clink.

The sword point struck something hard.

Bone.

It stopped.

[Just a little more!]

If he could force the blade through whatever was blocking it…

If he could punch through the cartilage and reach the heart…

Xia Nan tightened his grip.

Then a piercing shriek tore through his skull.

The Spined Devil’s thin hand moved through the blind spot beside his vision.

Its claw stabbed toward his ribs in a vicious, compact arc.

A cold warning swept across the back of Xia Nan’s head.

He abandoned the second thrust instantly.

His left hand released the sword.

His arm snapped sideways.

Bang!

The claw struck the smooth surface of the Snake-Scale Arm Shield.

It failed to penetrate.

The resilient scale taken from a giant serpent of another world was not something an attack like this could break.

The claw did not even leave a scratch.

But blocking the edge did not remove the force.

The impact slammed into Xia Nan’s forearm and jolted his entire body sideways.

His center of gravity shifted.

Danger.

Xia Nan pushed off the ground and immediately tried to retreat.

He needed to break away from the Spined Devil’s relentless pressure.

Even one breath would help.

He had barely taken two steps when the creature’s tail snapped forward.

A bone spine tore through the air.

After several exchanges, Xia Nan had already developed a rough sense of how fast those projectiles moved.

His sword was already raised in front of him.

He adjusted the blade to block.

Then flames erupted around the incoming spine.

Its speed exploded.

Its trajectory shifted.

Too late.

Xia Nan had time only to turn slightly.

Whoom-bang!

The bone spine had partially melted, glowing within the flickering flames as it slammed into his body at an angle.

His light plate armor, tough enough that ordinary swords could barely scratch it, was pierced instantly.

The spine punched into the metal like a skewer through meat.

Clang!

A sharp metallic scrape rang out as the bone struck the rings of the chainmail beneath.

Burning pain tore across the side of Xia Nan’s chest.

The spine continued through.

By the time Xia Nan looked down, it had already buried itself in the ground beyond him, stained with bright blood and fragments of melted iron.

Only his last-second turn had saved him.

If he had reacted even slightly slower, the spine would have gone straight through his body.

Even so, it had pierced both layers of armor and carved into his chest and abdomen.

How badly?

He had no idea.

And he did not get time to check.

The foul stench of sulfur struck him again.

A shadow swept over his body.

The Spined Devil’s remaining thick membranous wing came crashing toward him.

The thing stretched more than twice the length of its body.

Bang!

A brutal impact thundered through the night.

Xia Nan was launched off his feet.

Still gripping his iron-gray longsword, he flew backward and crashed into the ground.

The taste of blood flooded his mouth.

Thick.

Metallic.

Like rust.

Pain tore through his entire body.

It was not as bad as the time he had faced the Basilisk, when he had been beaten so badly he felt as though his soul were about to leave his body and his ability to fight had vanished completely.

But this was still terrible.

There was no time to check himself.

No time to figure out how many bones were broken.

Xia Nan clenched his teeth, planted the Decapitating Longsword against the ground, and forced himself upright.

“Ptui.”

He spat a mouthful of bloody saliva into the dirt.

His dark eyes locked onto the hunched monster crouching ahead like a venomous snake.

[It’s already badly wounded…]

[And the gap is still this big?]

Tactics that had once turned battles around no longer worked.

Techniques that had once let him crush weaker enemies could not erase a fundamental difference in combat strength.

For the first time in a while, Xia Nan felt lost.

He still had one trump card.

The Coin of Fate.

Three uses remained.

So far, the only method he had discovered that worked with absolute certainty was using the coin to trigger the physical-damage immunity from [Bronze Sinews and Iron Bones].

But…

The immunity lasted only an instant.

One attack.

That was all.

Could he really turn one moment of invulnerability into victory?

Translated by Bcatranslations. Read it at bcatranslation.com

[How do I win?]

[Where is its weakness?]

[What do I have to do to survive?]

Then, from far behind him…

The wolf howl changed.

It rose.

Higher.

Sharper.

Until it seemed to tear across the entire night.

…

The outskirts of Kalanfor.

The peaceful cottage and its surrounding flower beds were gone.

Nothing remained but fragments scattered across scorched mud.

No plants.

No walls.

No furniture.

It was as though the collision of two overwhelming forces had ground everything nearby into dust.

Only a wide stretch of blackened earth remained, still radiating heat.

Farther away, terrified cries and sobbing rose from Kalanfor.

But the sound seemed muffled by the dense purple spore mist, distant and indistinct.

An icy storm howled across the battlefield.

Snowflakes carrying a bone-piercing chill fell from the air.

Before they could reach the ground, the lingering heat in the earth melted them into tiny droplets.

A thin layer of steam spread low across the black soil.

“Grrrr…”

A deep wolf growl sounded.

A Winter Wolf drifted lightly across the field.

Its body had expanded to many times its normal size.

Translucent silver-white fur rippled around its graceful frame, making the beast look almost like a spirit.

Its powerful legs touched the ground.

Ice formed beneath every paw.

Between its gleaming fangs hung a mangled corpse, torn apart by repeated bites.

Fragments of robes still clung to the body.

A bloodstained golden holy symbol of the sun slipped free and landed silently in the mud.

“The helper you found wasn’t much.”

Forgan stroked the Winter Wolf’s head with his left hand.

In his right, he held the Obsidian Handaxe.

A clear layer of ice had formed over the weapon’s dark surface.

Protected by frost and ancestral spirits, Forgan looked almost exactly as he had before the battle began.

Only a faint scorch mark along one arm proved that he had fought at all.

“The Sun God’s radiance is no more.”

An old, rasping voice came from ahead, like dry bark scraping against dry bark.

Strangely, there was even a hint of agreement in the words.

As though the dead man had not been an ally fighting beside him.

As though he had been no more than some disposable stranger.

“His worshippers are only good at throwing their weight around in front of commoners who don’t understand anything.”

Dark thorns twisted through the mist.

Purple spores filled the air.

Standing among them was Kalanfor’s gravedigger.

The Mire Druid Bartholomew of the Circle of Spores.

Fine dark purple particles covered his face, hiding his expression.

But beneath the wrinkled, gray-spotted skin of an old man, another face could faintly be seen.

Younger.

Much younger.

The moment his words fell, a cutting wind swept across the battlefield from nowhere.

Behind Forgan, a cluster of black thorns that had silently crept into his blind spot froze solid in an instant.

Bartholomew chuckled.

“How many years have you been using that same old trick now, hmm?”

The Druid’s smile deepened.

“If it works, it works.”

“Back on the icefields, I once met an old man. A Frost-Spirit Priest.”

“He was already touching the threshold of Legendary rank.”

“Didn’t matter.”

“I caught him anyway.”

“Wrapped him around a totem and made him watch every last person in his tribe die before he finally closed his eyes.”

Bartholomew paused.

Then laughed softly.

“Oh, right.”

“I almost forgot.”

“You probably knew him too.”

“Heh.”

Forgan’s icy blue eyes remained fixed on the decaying purple figure before him.

His expression did not change.

The provocation did nothing.

He simply lifted the left hand that had been stroking the Winter Wolf’s head.

Brought it to his mouth.

Rrrip.

A section of his little finger fell onto the frost-covered ground.

Scarlet blood poured from the wound.

Then some invisible force caught it.

Guided it.

Across the snow, the blood spread into the shape of a beast’s paw with five curved toes.

Something changed.

As though an existence hidden in a divine kingdom beyond the plane had turned its gaze toward this place.

Bartholomew’s aura shifted abruptly.

The spores around him began to tremble violently.

“Why go that far…?”

His voice lost some of its casual amusement.

“A soul already close to Legendary rank.”

“Is it really worth staking that?”

Frost spread over Forgan’s wounded hand.

The bleeding stopped almost instantly.

A few days ago, he had passed through Rivervale Town.

Three months ago, he had entered the Kingdom of Servia.

Many years ago, he had walked out of ruins buried beneath wind and snow.

Since then…

For the first time, Forgan smiled.

Blood still stained his frost-white teeth from where he had bitten through his finger.

“Worth it.”

Awooooo!

A shrill wolf howl exploded across the battlefield.

The blizzard surged with it.

…

Awooooo…

The distant howl carried something strange.

Something that reached beyond sound.

It pierced Xia Nan’s skin.

Passed through flesh and bone.

And sank into his heart.

The chaos in his mind vanished.

Instantly.

All the fear.

All the calculations.

All the frantic questions.

Gone.

Only cold remained.

Silent.

Clear.

Xia Nan tilted back the last half bottle of Healing Potion and swallowed.

The empty glass bottle slipped from his fingers and rolled across the ground.

A piercing shriek came from ahead.

The choking stench of sulfur followed.

The Spined Devil’s hunched, jagged body blurred as it rushed toward him at terrifying speed.

Xia Nan did not move.

His eyes were slightly unfocused.

Inside that distant wolf howl, he seemed to see another world.

A snowy plain high in the mountains.

A Winter Wolf crouched low against the snow.

Hunting.

Muscles shifted and swelled beneath thick fur.

Sharp fangs reflected cold light.

Its eyes held no emotion.

Only focus.

The pupils narrowed slightly.

Beneath Xia Nan’s boots, the muddy earth began to freeze.

The remaining cold wind of the Northlands.

The power Forgan had replenished before they parted.

Behind Xia Nan, high in the branches of a towering oak, a drop of resin came loose.

It fell.

Bang!

The earth beneath Xia Nan’s boot sank into a tiny crater.

Dust floating through the dim air seemed to freeze in place.

Blood thundered through his veins so loudly that his ears rang.

The air around him thickened.

For one instant, it felt almost like water.

His muscles stretched to their limit.

Fibers tore.

Pain flickered through them.

The rings of his chainmail strained against one another.

His scabbards knocked together.

Every metallic sound seemed to fall into the same rhythm as his pounding heart.

His eyes opened.

Closed.

The world blurred.

For an instant.

The drop of resin touched the grass.

Hot blood slid down Xia Nan’s cheek.

His awareness snapped back into focus.

The Spined Devil was no longer screaming.

Xia Nan turned.

Leaves and shredded grass filled the air.

A straight trail had been ripped across the ground as though an invisible plow had carved through the meadow, exposing the dark, wet soil underneath.

At the end of that path lay a winged corpse.

Headless.

Yellowish-green pus sprayed from its severed neck.

It did not move.

Translucent characters flashed before Xia Nan’s eyes.

Proficiency +1

[Fang Hunt] Lv1: (1/100)