Chapter 21: The Andras Guild (3)

The Andras guild...

It was one of the biggest mid-sized guilds, and there were many shady rumors around it.

The guild's leader, Jo DeokHyun, was someone who was being watched closely by the Hwarang Squad.

Because they were in such a situation, their guild house was located in a secret place where there wasn't anyone around.

"Stop."

The man glared at the figure that had suddenly appeared.

After checking out who the other person was, he lowered the guard.

"Kang CheolHo?"

"Y-yes."

"Didn't you go for offering hunting with Seo TaeHo? What took you so long?"

"Th-things happened."

Kang CheolHo looked down at the large suitcase he had with him.

Since he looked a bit different from usual, the person guarding the door tilted his head.

"Things happened? But more than that, where's TaeHo?"

"TaeHo died..."

"What? He died?"

The man looked at Kang CheolHo in disbelief.

"Didn't you go to a D-rank gate? Seo TaeHo died at the hands of someone who had just barely done the second awakening?"

"There was a high-level player mixed in the group. I barely managed to kill him and was able to bring the one to use as an offering."

"Huuu..."

"I'm going to give the report later on. But first, take the offering."

Kang CheolHo pushed the suitcase to him.

The man who received the carrier looked at Kang CheolHo with suspicious eyes.

"You're acting strange today."

"It's because of TaeHo's death..."

"Hmm. Well... Since you two were close, I guess it makes sense. The ceremony is about to start, so I'll hear what happened later."

"O-okay. Then I'll..."

Kang CheolHo turned around as if he didn't want to be there.

The man guarding the door grabbed his shoulder.

"Come in and join the ceremony."

"I... I'm okay."

"Huh? What are you talking about? You were the one who got the offering, so you should be baptized. Haha. How lucky. If you receive some more demonic energy today, maybe you'll even be able to use a bit of the Authority."

"I... I don't need it!"

"...?"

The man frowned as if he couldn't understand Kang CheolHo, who was just shaking his head.

The ceremony was the most important event for them.

Through the ceremony, they got something called demonic energy, which was an energy that had more destructive power than mana.

The power of demonic energy was similar to drugs.

Along with the sense of your body becoming stronger, your desire to live became deeper. One just couldn't replace those sensations with something else.

"Something definitely happened, right?"

The man looked at Kang CheolHo suspiciously. After all, he had no reason to refuse the ceremony.

He knew Kang CheolHo wasn't a good enough person to refuse that power just because his friend had died.

Kang CheolHo turned around while dripping cold sweat.

"N-nothing happened, so deal with the offering yourself."

"Hmm..."

The man looked at Kang CheolHo, who quickly walked away; then he opened the suitcase he had left behind.

There, he saw the body of a young man who had sharp looks—he was covered in blood and was unconscious.

"The offering seems right."

After checking that the young man was still breathing, he took the suitcase and entered the guild house.

As he entered the guild house, a thin man wearing a robe walked toward him.

He saluted him with a nervous expression.

"Guild leader! Here's the offering!"

"It arrived late today."

"They were interrupted in the middle by a high-level player."

"Hmm. So?"

"Seo TaeHo died while fighting him."

"I see."

Jo DeokHyun didn't seem to care that a member of his guild had died. He just turned around while making an apathetic look.

"Bring in the offering. The ceremony is about to start.

"Yes!"

After answering with a loud shout, the man took the suitcase and entered the room where the ceremony was going to take place.

Creak-

In the room behind the door, eight members of the Andras guild were kneeling while wearing preist robes.

They were one of the few guild members who knew about the real identity of the guild.

"Oh!"

"Great Andras!"

After seeing Jo DeokHyun enter the room, the members of the Andras guild got down.

Their eyes that were looking at Jo DeokHyun flashed with madness.

Rather than a guild with players, it looked like a cult.

Jo DeokHyun made a fishy smile while looking at the room where the guild members were gathered.

'Everything is progressing smoothly.'

It had been one year since he'd started preaching.

The people who followed him had been slowly but steadily increasing.

"Hahaha."

Jo DeokHyun's eyes flashed with madness.

It wasn't hard to make players fall for the power of demonic energy.

Most players wished to have more strength, and demonic energy had the power to fulfill those desires.

'With a little more effort, I'll be able to turn everyone here into a fiend.'

The more demonic energy a human received, the closer that person became to a demon.

In the case of Jo DeokHyun, 20% of his body was a demon's, so he had become a fiend.

His goal was to create a strong force made of fiends.

'The strength of the Authority is getting stronger.'

He smiled excitedly while thinking about the one who had told him about the ceremony.

* * *

That person wasn't wrong.

The more ceremonies he did and the more offerings he gave, the more demonic energy he got; thus, he became consistently stronger.

The power that a demon's Authority gave you made a player's attribute look insignificant.

'I'll become a full demon.'

Eternal youth and power...

Becoming a demon was the only way to escape a mortal's miserable lifestyle.

"Then let's start the ceremony."

After saying that, he hit the ground with a dark brown cane.

Stomp-

"Oh."

"Ah! Demon King!"

After hearing the command to begin the ceremony, the members of the Andras guild, who were wearing robes, began hitting the ground with their heads while screaming.

"Prepare the mana stones."

"Yes!"

He placed the young man who would be used as the day's offering on the altar; then he opened the safe that was under the altar.

Inside it, there were thousands of mana stones.

They were the mana stones they'd bought by using all the funds that the Andras guild had available, they were going to be used to create a 'crack.'

'With these mana stones, we should be able to do at least 30 more ceremonies.'

Jo DeokHyun smiled while looking at all the mana stones he had under the altar.

"Whose turn is it to be baptized?"

"It should be Kang CheolHo... But he said that he wouldn't participate in today's ceremony."

"Really?"

Jo DeokHyun nodded while frowning.

"Then no one's going to be baptized today."

"Ah..."

The guild members seemed disappointed at those words.

The eyes of the members became full of desire, and the excitement grew.

"Quiet!"

Slam-!

"..."

"If you want to be baptized, bring in an offering and mana stones. Those who don't move don't deserve to be baptized."

"Yes!"

Jo DeokHyun smiled after hearing their answers.

'Today, I'll be able to hoard the strength all to myself.'

He became excited at the thought of the demonic energy he'd get from one offering.

"Let's begin."

Whir-

Jo DeokHyun moved the mana inside the mana stones by following the magic circle, just like he'd learned on the day he'd received the 'revelation.' A few of the thousands of mana stones lost their light.

The magic circle under the altar began to shine, and a small distortion appeared in the air.

Swoosh-!!

From the small distortion, black energy began to flow out.

Demonic energy...

It was more destructive than mana, and it was an absolute energy that could turn humans into demons.

'Good.'

He smiled, satisfied after seeing the demonic energy successfully flowing out.

The ceremony began by creating a crack that led toward Hell.

Once demonic energy flowed out of the crack, they had to conduct it toward where the offering was.

The reason was that, if you took the demonic energy directly without using an offering, you would die while twisting your body in pain.

Once you lead the demonic energy to the offering, the ceremony would end, and you just had to wait for the offering to be filled with demonic energy and die.

'Today, I'll be able to drink all the blood.'

If you drank the blood of a corpse filled with demonic energy, you could safely absorb it.

He didn't need to share the blood with his underling who had brought the offering, so he was going to monopolize the demonic energy.

"Fufufu! Die already!"

He led the demonic energy more aggressively at the thought of monopolizing the offering.

The demonic energy that emerged out of the crack started to be absorbed by the offering at a faster speed.

'He's resisting quite a lot.'

Jo DeokHyun was surprised by how the person used as an offering barely moved despite all the demonic energy entering him.

The amount of demonic energy a person could absorb differed from case to case.

Some people had been able to resist just a second.

'Is his attribute maybe A-rank?'

Usually, people with higher-ranking attributes could resist more.

'If he can resist for so long...'

Naturally, the demonic energy inside his blood would also be thick.

Jo DeokHyun smiled excitedly after seeing that the offering kept absorbing demonic energy.

The magic stones they were using to maintain the crack quickly lost their light, but they could still go on for a bit.

'Haha. Luck is on my side!'

The young man on the altar was the person who'd been able to resist demonic energy the longest.

To think that the day when he could monopolize the blood, that the offering would be someone capable of absorbing lots of demonic energy...

It looked like an opportunity given to him by the heavens so that he could absorb lots of demonic energy.

'I'll be able to absorb 10 times... No! 15 times the normal amount of demonic energy at once!'

Jo DeokHyun was thrilled.

"Hahaha! Come on, open your eyes and scream in pain!"

He spoke out what he was thinking by mistake.

He wanted to drink the blood of the offering right at that moment.

"Hahaha!"

The demonic energy flowing from the crack kept flowing into the body of the offering.

"Good! Very good!"

While laughing out loud, he was waiting for the young men to scream in pain.

"Huh...?"

But it didn't matter how long he waited—the young man didn't open his eyes.

"What's happening?"

The demonic energy flowing from the crack kept entering the young man's body.

"Why isn't it stopping?"

It kept going on.

"W-wait."

Endlessly...

"S-stop!"

Without stopping...

"Stop it!"

The demonic energy flowed into the young man's body that was on the altar.

All the mana stones he'd bought by everything the Andras guild had lost their light.

Once all the mana stones lost their light, the crack that had appeared in the air vanished.

"Huh...?"

Jo DeokHyun muttered in confusion as he watched an amount of magic stones that was enough to perform over 30 rituals disappear all at once.

The young man that was on the altar got up slowly.

He looked at his surroundings with great interest while smiling brightly.

"Woah. Thanks to this, my stat has gone up by 20."

The young man burst into laughter as if he'd just won the lottery.

Jo DeokHyun couldn't close his mouth at the surprise.

"Can you do this ritual one more time?"

"..."

A heavy silence fell over the room.