Chapter 40: Demon Lord's Castle 7

Though the trait of Lord seemed overpowered, there were still a few limitations.

You could only give limited orders to a strong clansman whom you had given the symbol to.

Since if the order is too extreme then their self-defense mechanisms will activate and break the symbol.

And there was also a limit to numbers.

Due to a few more limitations other than these, even a Lord couldn't show invincible-like abilities in an area of people around the same skill level as him.

But like every other skill or psychic power, the trait's level was the most important thing and few Lords with amazing potential appear from time to time.

People who bloom the trait much faster and use this as a base to start with a huge head start compared to others.

<Dark Mad Lord> was one of them as well.

While the others could barely control 100 people, he had a powerful control over 200 people to the point where he could order them to commit suicide and had stood out starting from the tutorial.

Though he was a crazy bastard.

And even more regrettable was that this guy was part of his own tutorial group.

Out of the 9000 people who had gotten to the second tutorial area, only 300 people, excluding the 200 of his clansmen, survived due to this guy.

Since he had killed them all.

And with a very simple philosophy as the basis.

<Potential rival, if I kill the ones with similar psychic powers as me when they're separated and monopolize the advantages they would've received in the tutorial then I could make the 200 I control much stronger and then pass through the tutorial with ease. This is stronger than a 1000 man army I cannot trust.>

A result that came out from a personality that could not trust others, amazing potential and ruthlessness.

He had thought that the real enemy in the tutorial area was not the monsters but rather humans who had the possibility of causing riots, he used this as the basis and had thought to kill off every potential rival.

Usually people prepared and grouped up in large mobs after calculating the fact that they had to fight against the people who had gone missing before them but this guy was not like that.

<Everybody who participates in the tutorial could only survive when they go out if they combine their strength? There's no way that would happen.>

Make them not able to compete against the people ahead because they can't combine their forces?

Would they have made it so they would survive if they grouped up in a crowd of 3000 but kill them if they roamed around alone?

After setting up the tutorial like this?

If there was some sort of consistency in the fairy's actions then such things won't happen.

There will probably be an area where the people who had arrived earlier wouldn't be able to lay hands on them right away or prevent them from doing so for a while.

An area which would make it possible for the newcomers to be able to rival the people ahead.

And he was a successful man, he had followed the above reasonings and had succeeded in eliminating his rivals with his own power.

And his calculations weren't wrong, he had gained an infamous title by the time he had arrived at the purple area just within 5 years of coming out of the tutorial area.

<Lord Slaughterer.>

An infamous title which he had received after hunting down Lords fervently due to his personality, which hated Lords to the point where it was weird, despite him being one, along with his notions of destroying possible future rivals.

Thanks to this guy, most of the Lords in the same group as him had died.

He had even killed normal adventurers whenever he saw them with the reason of them having the potential to become dangerous as well.

<It'll be tiring once you get there. Since the Dark Mad Lord would act out and you have to clear the Final Dungeon as well. But remember.

The most important thing in the tutorial area is the Final Dungeon. Prepare well for the Dungeon. He is after.>

Keldian's words came to his mind.

'Tsk. It'd have been better if we were to fight now though.'

But it'll be a huge loss if he didn't get the thing he was going for while following that guy around.

He might've skinned him off slowly, like peeling an apple, and destroyed him if it wasn't for the structure of the islands but this was not possible since there were set islands which he had to go to.

He had to differentiate clearly between the main mission and sub-missions.

And his path wasn't clear anyway since there were almost no survivors.

Since everyone who had met with his clan had died.

So he had focused on the dungeon first.

But there was one place where his objectives of the Final Dungeon and that guy's path would cross for sure.

<Central Island>.

A place where the biggest amount of Lords had gathered.

And a place where you could massacre a large amount of Lords if you use a Fraud Lord.

If he had some form of logic then he would've taken the Lords as hostage and would have used their forces but this guy would kill them all since he hated them to no end.

Hansoo had never stopped being on guard against the Tower even when he was hunting.

He had set them up so they grouped and guarded against each other and had always hunted near the dungeon so he could rush back because he didn't know which one of the twelve was the Fraud Lord.

Since the hardness of Crystal was not something somebody normal could smash, it was only because it was him that he was able to smash it apart.

'I had thought that he didn't exist because he didn't come out...'

<If I was him... I would probably attack from the back during the most dangerous time. Since that's the only way to kill them all if there are many clans.>

It seemed like he had been looking for the final chance like Keldian had said.

And because of this Hansoo had never created a dangerous situation.

Since it wasn't possible for him to act when there was no danger.

'But it's a little too much to do that while fighting Demon Lord.'

He wasn't sure because the decision of using up all their mini-crystals was a very reasonable method but Guktae was the Fraud Lord.

'Let's see. How do I deal with this.'

He couldn't stay away from the Demon Lord for a long time.

If this guy gets released then all the Special Forces would get shredded.

And if he were to dash up there then they just needed to do one thing.

They would make the other clansmen attack him by threatening the Lords held hostage.

'It would be troublesome if that happens. First... I will open a path for you to live.'

Hansoo smiled as he shouted loudly while continuing to fight the Demon Lord.

"Woah. Don't get too excited. Calm down for a second."

"...?"

Guktae, who was about to order the Special Forces to cut off the Lord's heads, flinched at these words.

'What else could he do in such a situation?'

Guktae had unconsciously gotten curious because Hansoo was such a unique guy.

And the next answer was something which exceeded his calculations.

"Let's trade. You wouldn't want to die either."

Guktae flinched at these words.

Who in the world wanted to die.

He was acting like this because he couldn't go against his Lord's orders.

Hansoo spoke as he looked at him.

"There are crystals on me. I will give them to you."

"..."

'Is he crazy?'

What kind of nonsense was this?

Hansoo spoke again.

"I don't know who your Lord is but wouldn't it be better to take those Lords and use them instead of killing them all?"

Everyone nodded at these words.

If they take the Lords as hostage then all their forces become part of Guktae's Lord.

Since there wasn't anyone who wouldn't comply if there was a blade up against their necks.

Hansoo spoke as he looked at him.

"The terms are very simple. First, you take the Lords up with the crystals. Then you threaten the Lords up there and order the special forces to kill the Demon Lord with me. Simple right? Then every force here can go through the crystal and survive."

"..."

"Then your Lord is basically gaining nine Lord's worth of forces. And I get to hunt the Demon Lord.

The remaining people could survive. It's a win-win. Even you can live. It was tiring anyway because the others were pulling their forces back."

"..."

Guktae clicked his tongue inwardly.

His words were wrong.

Since his Lord had hated Lords to the point where it was weird.

If these guys go up then they would all die.

But the temptation of crystals were too strong.

And something else which was even more alluring.

'If I go up, hunt the Demon Lords with the clansmen of these guys and kill him by attacking his back at the last moment?'

Would they be able to resist if he orders them with blades against their throats.

Take the forces of the Nine Lords up, use them for a while, kill them off, collect their artifacts and runes and give them to Wongyung and kill the Lords too.

'It's perfect.'

But the one who had moved first was Taejin who had been fighting with him.

"Hansoo man. How can you trust him?"

Guktae shrugged at Taejin's words.

It seemed like they have seen through his thoughts already so it was time for him to push strongly.

"Don't trust me then. If you don't want to then we'll just kill the nine according to the plans and I can also just die like that. And the remaining 1000 here would all die. Maybe it's not even 1000 anymore. I'm not sure if you guys can hold out, it seems like there's still 20 minutes left."

"... This son of a bitch."

'Damn retards... getting caught as hostages.'

Their actions weren't to Taejin's liking from the start but he didn't fail to disappoint until the end.

Hansoo chuckled at Guktae.

"I'll take it that you agree then. Take them."

Guktae, who had received the crystals which Hansoo had thrown carefully using the special forces, hurriedly used the crystals and the 10 special forces, 9 Lords and Guktae started to get covered in light.

'Goodness... for it to play out so easily.'

Guktae cheered inwardly as he selected the destination point.

'Destination is... Island of the Tower!'

The light which came out from the mini-crystals soon covered the 20 of them and soon afterwards they coudln't be seen within the Demon Castle anymore.

"... Dammit. I don't care anymore then."

"Don't worry too much. He looked pretty naive. He will keep his promise."

Hansoo, who had shrugged his shoulders, looked up at the Island of the Tower and then shook his head.

'It's done. It seemed like he wanted to live. He would have realized that some things were fishy if he had thought about it for a moment.'

But he had cleared it.

'It seems like I can focus a little bit now. If he is that guy's subordinate then... he would go to the Island of the Tower.'

And it didn't matter because he had already worked on that separately.

Hansoo finished his thoughts and turned around.

Then he started to slash apart the Demon Lord seriously

............

Hoooouug

The disappeared Lords, Special forces and Guktae had appeared within a dark space while bathing in light.

A location where they moved to if the mini-crystals were activated.

'Perfect.'

Two Lords had survived but it wouldn't be easy for them to survive either.

Since he would give the orders now.

"It seems like you would need to comply for now. Hurry and give the order. First attack the Demon Lord and once you kill it, attack Hansoo."

The special forces pushed the blades against the Lords' necks.

"Tsk."

The Lords nodded despite clicking their tongue.

They couldn't do anything else because they were held hostage but it seemed like he wouldn't kill them.

They could always look out for chances as long as they were alive.

'Dumbasses.'

And this was why his Lord was trying to get rid of them whenever he had the chance.

He could already hear their eyeballs rolling about. (*TL: Korean Saying for planning things out)

While Guktae was smiling, a man's voice was heard behind them, who were on the ground.

"Huh. Look at these guys."

When they turned around quickly, a person with a weird mask was approaching them.

"Who are you?"

The man smiled as he was about to speak out his name but then stopped.

Then there would be no point of putting the mask on.

He had disguised himself in order to not show the relationship between him and Hansoo.

'But they really did come? He had told me that they would come if I waited here.'

The man spoke out after mumbling inwardly for a while.

It's not like the psychic power is being marvelous only once or twice.

He just needed to do what he needed to do.

"Mmm... no need for names. We won't be seeing each other for long anyway."

'I just need to cut off their necks and take the things that come out right?'

Kudududk.

"This crazy bastard!"

Sangjin, who had cut off a Lord's neck with one swing of his sword, laughed coldly at Guktae who was screaming.