The Demon King is Unfathomable

The hall drenched in fresh blood was filled with skeletons soaked in fresh blood too.

It was such an intimidating sight that envoys from the Drake Clan and the Weaving Shadow Nest held their breaths.

Skeletons were nothing rare in this world, and their strength was not worth a mention.

Most of them had incomplete souls and underdeveloped intelligence. Even Copper-tier and Steel-tier skeletons struggled to draw out their true fighting potential in battle. It was common for them to be destroyed by adventurers with lower soul tiers.

But the undead here were different.

Arakdor could sense they were different from their stone-headed, useless counterparts.

‘Not only are they using the skills of adventurers, but they are also dissecting monster carcasses like them! It’s almost like they are alive! The Drake Clan must have noticed that something is off too, which is why they sent envoys over…’

Arakdor discreetly eyed one of the lizardmen in vigilance.

Having sensed his glance, that lizardman looked back at Arakdor with cold eyes as if the latter was nothing more than a worm. He didn’t see Arakdor as a threat at all.

That frustrated Arakdor, but given the bloodline suppression, he could do nothing but tolerate this grievance for the time being.

Arakdor’s decision to avoid a confrontation only deepened that lizardman’s disdain, and he smugly raised his tail.

A leader’s attitude is bound to influence their subordinate.

Seeing how arrogant their leader was, the other lizardmen also raised their heads and made provocative gestures at the Weaving Shadow Nest’s envoys.

Arakdor and his hunters were infuriated, but they dared not speak up against it. They could only hiss in warning.

To the lizardmen, it just sounded like the crypt spiders were begging for mercy.

Roan watched this rivalry between the two factions unfold in his demon king domain via Youyou’s ability.

It was not an easy feat for a human to grasp the subtle expressions of monsters, but the eighteen years Roan had spent in the Demon Capital had familiarized him with the habits and nature of those living in the underworld.

The lizardmen’s smug attitude showed that they thought nothing about the crypt spiders.

Be it on earth or in the otherworld, lizards were the nemesis of insects. To make things worse, the lizardmen here were capable of wielding human tools as weapons.

Roan recalled what he had learned in the Demon King Academy and quickly devised a plan.

‘I’ll exploit the danger faced by the spiders to rally them to my side, then borrow the humans’ strength to suppress the lizardmen tribe. With that, I’ll be able to make a huge stride forward in conquering the labyrinth’s first floor.’

“It’s about time for me to make an appearance… Stone Skin!”

Roan stowed away the mirror, took out his wand, and started stacking twelve buffs on himself.

“Fleetfoot!

“Magic Amplification!

“Gale Barrier!”

“…”

Roan proceeded to siphon away Chris’ vitality before leaping into the pit connected to the labyrinth’s first floor.

Usually, he wouldn’t have recklessly jumped from a height of fifteen meters, but now that he was layered with buffs, he wouldn’t mind jumping from an even greater height. 𝖗

The moment he landed, Gale Barrier blew the surrounding dust ten meters away.

All eyes fell on him.

The crypt spiders and lizardmen revealed frightened looks, whereas the players couldn’t have been more thrilled.

‘The Demon King is finally here!’

The cutscene had loaded for so long that many thought their game had hung.

“I hear someone wants to meet me.”

Mana rippled from Roan’s black cloak. Standing amidst white bones, he looked like the ruler of the cemetery.

The lizardmen couldn’t see through his depth, but his overflowing mana relayed that he would be a fearsome adversary.

“This humble one is Oktor! I’m the champion of the Drake Clan and Lord Sanu’s envoy!” the leader of the lizardmen spoke with a deep voice reminiscent of an ancient bell.

He fell on one knee, lowered his head, and placed his right hand on his left chest. That was the proper etiquette for servants to greet their master.

Roan gazed down at the lizardman champion with frosty eyes before chuckling softly. “Drake Clan? Lord? I must be hearing things. A four-legged snake dares use such terminologies in my presence. I see Dracul has failed to teach you humility.”

Lizardmen had two sore spots.

One was to be called lizardmen without discrimination for their breed, and the other was to be called four-legged snakes.

Also, Roan kindly instructed Youyou to add subtitles for the players so that they could keep up with the conversation. None of them were versed in the native human tongue.

Unsurprisingly, the lizardmen were infuriated to hear Roan’s insult.

A lizardman with a bare top angrily retrieved a short bow from his back and nocked an arrow. But before he could fire the arrow, a scaly head flew off his neck and rolled to the corner of the hall.

“Ugh…”

Orktor was horrified.

He quickly turned to the side and saw a zombie wielding a greatsword. The zombie looked back at him with such impassive eyes that he could have been looking at a carcass instead.

Orktor’s scales stood up. He anxiously leaped backward to create some distance between him and the zombie while reaching for the dagger on his waist.

‘When did this fellow get so close?!’

Orktor tightly gripped his dagger. His amber eyes flickered between the unmoving zombie and the necromancer as his heart pounded hard like a drum beat.

This abrupt show of might terrified the monsters present. Their eyes narrowed in shock, fury, or fear…

Even Arakdor was startled as well.

Even though he was more than happy to see those lizards suffering a setback, he hadn’t expected the Demon King to ignore their envoy status and outright execute one of them.

Meanwhile, the eyes of the frozen players gleamed in excitement.

‘Is this Calamity Online’s power ceiling? The pressure exuded by the Demon King is incredible!’

“That’s a good look on his face,” Roan glanced at the decapitated lizard head and casually remarked. He sounded like a tyrant. “He passes as a corridor ornament.”

The lizardmen were so agitated that they were on the verge of rampaging, but Orktor stopped them in a fluster. His subservience ironically resembled the crypt spiders he looked down on.

“Wait—!” Eyeing the Demon King’s wand, he once again fell on one knee and spoke with a quivering voice, “Esteemed Demon King, please allow me to finish my words! We have come in seek of peace!”

He finally put down all airs and outright acknowledged Roan as the demon king.

But Roan didn’t think the lizardmen would submit to him that easily. He gazed down at Orktor and asked with a light-hearted tone, “You’re seeking peace?”

“Y-yes, milord!” Orktor squeezed out an amicable smile. He mustered his courage to raise his head and say, “The threat posed by the surface is greater than ever. Now is not the time for us to be fighting among ourselves. We should stand united against the humans! Lord Sa—I mean, our clan leader hopes to establish a permanent peace treaty with Your Majesty!”

The so-called peace treaty was just an attempt to probe Roan.

No true fief lord would sign that farce with their subordinate. In the underworld, contracts were nothing if one didn’t have the power to enforce them.

Accepting the peace treaty was an admission of weakness.

This would give the Drake Clan plenty of room to maneuver around, be it eliminating this threat once and for all or using the demon king as a proxy to conquer the labyrinth’s lower floors.

And if the demon king refused the peace treaty, it would suggest that he had to strength to dominate them. Be it a feint or not, they would have to tread carefully around him.

This was their clan leader’s scheme.

They had to first get a gauge of the demon king’s strength before deciding their next move.

Arakdor was also patiently waiting for the demon king’s answer.

‘The Demon King might not have realized it yet, but the lizard kneeling before him has no intention of submitting to him… and that is the will of the entire Drake Clan.’

He was curious to know what the demon king would choose, and that would determine his and the Weaving Shadow Nest’s loyalty.

While the cunning monsters were waiting for a response with bated breaths, Roan chuckled.

‘Do you think I can’t see through your thoughts? What do you think I have been learning in the Demon King Academy?’

“…This is the most hilarious thing I have heard all day long—a four-legged snake talking terms with me.”

Ignoring the furious yet fearful Orktor, Roan turned to the crouching crypt spiders and asked with a scarily soft voice, “What about you? Are the eight-legged creatures here to talk terms with me too?”

He was employing Professor Enos’ hand-taught Intimidation. He had reached a high level of mastery in it, where he could release and retract it at will.

Arakdor’s body stiffened before those cold eyes, and he couldn’t help but whimper.

‘There’s no mistake—this demon king is the real deal! He is far stronger than Her Majesty Alakinse!”

“We, the Weaving Shadow Nest, pledge our loyalty to the Demon King! The labyrinth belongs to the underworld, to His Majesty Demon God, as well as the Demon King! We have been awaiting your arrival, esteemed Demon King!”

He spilled out all the bootlicking words he could think of on the spot.

‘A true hero knows how to read the tides… I’ll surrender on Her Majesty’s behalf! She did agree to my plan of feigning surrender anyway…’

“Coward!” Orktor cursed as he shot back to his feet.

‘The probing failed. This is the worst-case scenario!’

The demon king had shown no interest in negotiating with them. He shrugged off their peace offer with insults and refused to even hear their proposal.

Clearly, the demon king’s strength surpassed their wildest imagination, so much so that he couldn’t be bothered to play mind games with them. Rather than their loyalty, he would rather make an example out of them so that others would fall in line.

“Prepare for battle!!!”