The Demon King is Unfathomable

Five covered wagons pulled by oxen stopped at the abandoned inn outside Northpeak Shaft.

Several ferocious-looking men alighted from the covered wagons and dragged crates of goods into the stable behind the inn. Following that, they retrieved several sacks of gold from under the haystack.

Jack waited nervously beside the covered wagons.

When he saw his subordinates walking over, he immediately asked, “How much did they pay?”

“I just finished counting… There’s a total of 50,000 Ors silver,” the profusely sweating subordinate replied.

It could be a necromancer quirk, but the money they received was all in loose change coins.

To date, the Ors Empire had minted over fifty generations of silver coins, with each generation’s coin having different dimensions and thus containing different weights in silver.

Copper coins, on the other hand, were more commonly used, so the Ors Empire granted each region the right to mint their own copper coin. The Lyon Kingdom had its own copper coin, and so did the Campelle Duchy.

While Jack’s subordinate was counting the money inside the sacks, he found an ancient sixth-edition silver coin, which dated back to the earlier days of the First Epoch!

Jack wasn’t bothered whether the other party was paying him in terms of paper notes or coins; they would all be converted to gold bars when he stored them in the bank anyway. He breathed a sigh of relief.

On the one hand, he was relieved that the esteemed necromancer was earnest about trading with him instead of one-sidedly extorting from him.

On the other hand, he was also relieved that he had suppressed his fleeting greed to compromise on the equipment’s quality.

50,000 Ors silver—that was 5% higher than market prices.

The necromancer obviously had a good grasp of Thunderbuzz City’s commodity prices!

After factoring in the stocking and transportation costs, his profit margin was around 25%. This was a trade worth making despite the risks. If nothing went awry, he didn’t mind continuing this relationship in the long term.

Just then, Jack noticed a man with a greatsword standing beneath a tree. That man wore a hooded cloak that covered his face, but he could still tell the other party was Bant.

Upon meeting eyes, Bant suddenly turned around and walked into the mining shaft.

Jack understood from this gesture that the necromancer was calling him over, and he smiled bitterly. Despite his incredible reluctance, he told his subordinate to deal with the situation here and mustered his courage to follow Bant.

Bant stopped at the entrance of the mining shaft.

Jack respectfully lowered his head like a devoted worshiper and asked, “Sir Roan, is there anything I can do for you?”

Like before, the mysterious necromancer didn’t reveal himself and instead spoke through the zombie, “Is the money enough?”

“Of course, of course!” Jack anxiously nodded. “When do you need the next batch of goods?”

“Three days later,” Bant replied hoarsely. He suddenly changed the topic, “You are a Bronze-tier warrior?”

Jack was stunned. He didn’t know what the rationale behind this question was, but he replied with a nod, “Yes, I am… May I know why you are asking that?”

“You know any skills?” Bant continued asking.

Jack nervously nodded. “Yes, I know a few… But only the basics.”

He had retired from the frontlines since becoming Black Viper’s chief. It had been a long time since he fought, and whatever skills he had were from his adventuring days.

Transcendent powers were of limited use in the underground street.

Those who wielded great powers could have sought an audience with the fief lord and joined Saint Sisto’s Knight Orders; there was no need for such people to associate with the likes of them.

While Jack was confused by the abrupt question, he suddenly heard words that shook his soul.

“Slash me.”

Jack’s face twisted in fear, and his legs went jelly. He frantically racked his brain as he muttered, “E-esteemed necromancer, I don’t know where I have offended you b-but…”

Bant stared at Jack and frowned.

“You’re overthinking it. I’m just curious to know how you fight. Don’t waste my time and draw your sword.”

Seeing that the zombie before him had already drawn his greatsword, Jack bitterly prayed to the Demon God as he pressed down his rising fear and drew a one-handed sword from his waist.

Bant held the greatsword horizontally before him as he relayed the Demon King’s order with a hoarse voice, “Good. Unleash your strongest attack on me… Be fast. I will make my move if you continue dawdling.”

“Yes, yes!”

Jack frantically got into his attacking stance.

He took a deep breath, gathered his concentration, and channeled his transcendent power into his blade as he desperately raked up the skills he had nearly forgotten from the recesses of his mind.

Meanwhile, from the shadows of the mining shaft, Roan held a recording crystal with his right hand while observing the flow of Jack’s transcendent power with his Eye of Truth.

There were two schools of warriors in this world.

One was the Divine Temple School, and the other was the Dragon God School.

The former comprised holy knights, templar warriors, inquisitors, and others who were loyal to the divine temple. They wielded power bestowed by Saint Sisto and fought under the holy light’s radiance.

The latter used combat skills passed down from the Age of Legends, the First Epoch. They utilized ki in combat, which was a type of energy emulated from the dragons.

As for magic swordsmen, magic archers, and magic gunmen, those were unorthodox jobs in this world.

When Roan first learned about all these, he thought that ‘ki’ was a special type of energy that lay dormant inside the human body. However, after hearing Youyou’s explanation, he gained a newfound understanding of this power.

Be it ‘ki’, elemental energy, or other transcendent powers, they all came from the same origin.

It had no particular shape and couldn’t even be seen under normal circumstances, but it was a force that surely existed in this world. It was capable of sensing and resonating with the psyche of sentient beings, and it could be manifested as observable phenomena.

This force was initially used by humans to spark flames, pray for dew drops, or pluck apples from the trees.

But humans began desiring more.

They tried gathering everyone’s ‘psyche’ to create gods, and, through the power of gods, both restrain and concentrate transcendent powers.

Instead of every individual struggling to manifest their own raindrops, it would be much better to gather everyone’s powers to summon a hearty rain.

Upon gathering everyone’s powers, humans slowly learned that this great power could do far more than summon rain or incinerate a city.

As long as they willed it, they could summon the sun or keep the moon from ever rising again. They could ensure that kind people continue reincarnating into good households, turn humans into wild beasts, or attain longevity.

They could even complete the laws that the creators had left unfinished!

“AHHHHH!”

After gathering his energy, Jack took a step forward and swung his blade. A sharp projection of force was unleashed with unstoppable might toward Bant.

As Roan had predicted, this attack was neither a shockwave produced by an immense force nor the release of incredibly compressed energy. It was purely the manifestation of a transcendent power known as ‘ki’, the power developed by the Dragon God.

Even with Roan’s buff, Bant practically depleted all his strength receiving this attack. There was even a scratch the width of a forefinger left on his steel blade.

Roan was startled. He didn’t expect this seemingly cowardly man to wield such prowess.

Little did he know that Jack was even more shocked than him.

Jack might not be some legendary prodigy, but he had been a Bronze-tier warrior for many years now. He didn’t think that anyone of the same tier could withstand his Execution.

Most people either retreated out of his attacking range or pressured him so that he couldn’t charge up for this move, and it was for a good reason that they had to do so.

‘Is this necromancer capable of summoning Steel-tier zombies?! How powerful must he be then?!’

Jack’s head was ringing.

He was a brute who had spent most of his life struggling in Thunderbuzz City’s underground city, so his understanding of necromancy was only at the level of hearsay.

“Mm, it’s passable.” Roan had Bant plunge his greatsword into the ground before offering a nonchalant appraisal. “What do you call this move?”

“We call this skill Execution.” Jack nervously eyed the greatsword even as he gasped for air. “I’m sorry about the damage… Can I compensate you with a new one?”

‘That huge steel sword must be anything but cheap.’

The thought of handing away a fourth of his profit pained Jack. He consoled himself by thinking it was an investment for the future.

‘It would be much more terrifying to get on the necromancer’s bad side.’

Roan didn’t reject the offer—he had Bant nod in silence before continuing, “How does the move work? Is there an incantation or a trick to it?”

Most skills from the Divine Temple School needed to be shouted out like an incantation, but he had heard that skills from the Dragon God School didn’t require incantations. All one had to do was follow the ki circulation method imparted by the Dragon God.

Jack scratched his head. “There is no incantation… The friend who taught me this move said that one just has to focus their ki on the blade and slash with all their might.”

Roan took out a palm-sized mirror from his pocket and looked at Youyou. The latter responded with a conjured thumbs up. So, he stowed away the mirror and the crystal ball.

With this, they should be good to go.

Meanwhile, Bant gave Jack a nod and said, “Good. You may leave now.”

Jack was relieved that the necromancer was finally letting him off the hook. He felt like someone had removed a thousand kilograms of weight from his shoulders.

Looking at Bant, who stood completely still at the mine entrance, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked, “Esteemed Sire Roan, may I know why you are asking these questions? Ah, please don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean to pry into your private affairs. If you are interested in adventurers’ combat skills, I can bring related books and recording crystals to you.”

“Experiment,” Roan replied through Bant.

Jack immediately shut his mouth, not daring to utter another word.

The last thing he wanted to know was what the necromancer was experimenting.

However, the necromancer showed enormous interest in his suggestion.

“Bring me those things along with the next batch of goods.” There was a brief pause before Roan continued through Bant, “Don’t forget the greatsword.”

“Understood! I’ll take it to heart.” Jack nodded with a beaming smile before respectfully taking his leave. “It is my greatest honor to be of service to you, milord!”

In the meantime, Autumnleaf was carefully browsing the goods at the demon king domain’s only NPC store after receiving his rewards for benign the Demon King’s monster bait.

He and Twilight were the only ones who had the means to purchase anything from the NPC store at the moment.

Dragonmyriad watched him in envy.

‘What a pity. There are too few people in the server now, or else I would have bought hell coins at a 1:1 ratio.’

He believed that as long as his offer was high enough, someone would surely cave into the temptation and sell him their hell coins.

While Autumnleaf was conflicted between buying a steel spear or saving up till the developer added wands to the NPC store, an ink-green notification window suddenly appeared before him.

【a.0.3 Update: Skill System!】

He was not the only one who received the system notification.

A huge commotion broke out in the demon king domain!