The Demon King is Unfathomable

Autumnleaf was right—they had overlooked many good stuff.

But this wasn’t a problem for the esteemed Demon King. Roan had not overlooked a thing at all.

‘Those lifestyle players complained about having no work, right? Fine, I shall give you work.’

…

A large group of black skeletons obediently stood in a neat line at the entrance of the labyrinth, before the hall covered in spider webs.

They were black because they had come from the coal mine. There were a couple who weren’t too black—those were the ones who mined metal ores instead.

On this note, Roan had much to complain about the quality of bones buried in this mining shaft.

Maybe it was because the skeletons had been left lying around for too long, but some players would suddenly crumble while mining, leaving half of their bodies scattered on the ground.

Roan couldn’t bear to take the contribution points of those who were unlucky to die in such a manner, so he made a special exception and allowed them to compensate for it using their hell coins instead.

As for why he didn’t just exempt them from the death penalty, it was because some frontline players complained that it was unfair unless they were exempted from the death penalty too. Roan had no choice but to find a middle ground.

‘It’s only hell coins anyway. It doesn’t affect me. Whatever floats their boat.’

“Is everyone here?”

Arriving with the airs of a boss, Roan did a head count and realized that more players than expected had joined the team. Among them were not just players in the ‘mining department’ but also those from the ‘war department’.

He nodded in satisfaction.

Before the players could reply with a resounding ‘Here!’, he delved straight to the heart of the matter.

“Good. Dissection is a profound field in the underworld. The tough living conditions there demand most resources to be obtained from monster carcasses. The most important resource that can be obtained from them is magic crystals.”

From minor things like the magic crystal chalks used for drawing formations and the bulb in magic lamps to major things like the operating units in war beasts and the demon king domain’s core, magic crystals were needed everywhere.

And the most mysterious thing of all is that magic crystals only formed with a monster was dead. Roan suspected that this was yet another law set by a god in the First Epoch.

But that was not important now.

The important thing was that he was going to teach the players how to harvest magic crystals from the crypt spiders’ carcasses.

He whipped out a wooden board and started drawing on it.

“…Harvesting magic crystals is a profound skill. Skilled artisans can remove a magic crystal within three cuts while preserving the monster’s body to the greatest extent, not damaging other valuable materials.”

Roan’s artwork was so abstract that it was hardly comprehensible, whether it was the players obediently listening to his lecture or the worried Youyou.

In the end, the nosey Youyou couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Um, esteemed Demon King, you can demonstrate it via a recording crystal, and I will upload the tutorial. The way you are teaching it now is incomprehensible to even me…”

Roan was still lecturing animatedly a second ago when his expression suddenly stiffened up. He even forgot what he was going to say next.

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None of the players could see Youyou, so he was left standing awkwardly there.

“…Fine, I get it. Shut up. I’m just getting started. Stop getting so jumpity over everything!”

Roan angrily shoved aside the wooden board, took out a crystal, and walked up to a crypt spider carcass.

“…That’s the end of our theory lesson. Now, I’ll demonstrate the dissection process.”

He took out his wand and cast ‘Levitate’ to flip the crypt spide carcass over. He also cast ‘Levitate’ on the recording crystal to keep it floating beside him. Then, he took out a silver knife and started cutting open the back of the spider’s head. Ȑ�

There was a thumb-sized, ink-green crystal hidden in the back of the spider’s neck.

He first loosened the crystal with a gentle slice before prying it out and displaying it to the players.

“Look, it’s that simple.”

Fearing that the players couldn’t see it, he even lit up the campfire with his wand.

The players applauded in amazement when they saw the Demon King’s dexterous skills.

“Ohhh!”

“So that’s how it works!”

“As expected of the Demon King!”

Choosing to ignore the voices shouting “Skip” and “Fastforward”, the corners of Roan’s lips crept up in glee.

‘You’re looking at the man who scored full marks in all theory lessons.’

“Good. Now that you have learned the way, it’s time to get to work. Remember, you are to remove the magic crystals while preserving the carcasses to the greatest extent. There are many valuable parts to crypt spiders, be it their glands, teeth, silk, or keratin…

“Forget it, there’s no point saying so much to you all. You just have to do as I say.”

Before the players could try walking with their hands, Roan released their frozen legs with a wave of his hand.

The players scattered like a bunch of joyful ducks. They dashed toward the closest available crypt spider carcass and tried slicing it with the daggers they had stolen from the ratmen. Each of these monster ‘tumors’ was worth a single rat tail!

And they would receive additional contribution points if they gathered a hundred of them!

This was an incredibly lucrative mission!

Looking at the busy players, Roan nodded in approval.

The low intelligence of summoned creatures had always been a headache to summoning-type classes. Bant was a good example of that.

He could use his psyche to micro-control Bant, but that was troublesome, and it would impede his spellcasting too.

‘Unlike my cute little players. They are better AI than AI. My good ol’ Machine God brethren has truly left me something good.’

“Demon King, why are you collecting these magic crystals?” Youyou asked out of curiosity.

Roan replied with a smile, “Oh, there are plenty of uses for them. The most direct one is to sell them for money.”

Adult crypt spiders dropped far larger magic crystals than skeleton soldiers, and it went without saying that those were worth much more.

From interrogating Chris, he learned that a crypt spider’s magic crystal could be sold for 100 copper coins at the Adventurer Guild, and a higher-quality one could fetch 120 copper coins.

It might not be much, but it could compensate Necropolis’ red finances. He was planning to partially pay his dedicated vendor in magic crystals for the next batch of goods.

The exchange rate for Ors Empire’s copper coin to silver coin was 100:1.

Rumors had it that the exchange rate was 25:1 two epochs ago.

The official reason behind the change was inflation, but ‘intermediary charges’ was a huge factor too. The emperor mixed copper into the minted silver coins, so the nobles factored it in the exchange rate.

Over time, it became as it was.

It was said that the northern academy cities had enough of the empire’s secret rebates, so they chose to replace silver coins with magic crystals as their everyday currency. Those regions were filled with mages and mage towers anyway.

In contrast, the underworld, which had only one currency—kyrat—faced no such issue.

Whenever there was inflation in the underworld, the prices of all items would go up together. Conversely, the prices of all items would remain stagnant together. Unlike in the Ors Empire, there wouldn’t be a case of bread prices going up while wine prices remained stagnant.

This phenomenon was commonly joked about by the humans dwelling in the underworld, though Roan didn’t get the humor in it.

Youyou quietly asked, “…But you are the Demon King. Is human money that useful?”

Roan nodded matter-of-factly. “Of course it is. I can’t buy goods with kyrats in the human world, right?”

‘Construction is incredibly expensive, you know! Building teleportation formations and monster-summoning altars can easily cost as much as a world heritage site! And spreading faith is a money-burning activity too. Clergymen and preachers have to be paid too!’

His domain might have only skeletons at the moment, but it would not remain the case forever. He had ambitions as a demon king too!

While Roan was dreaming up a bright future for Necropolis, he suddenly noticed a skeleton standing still. Its username was weirdly pitiful too—Hungryhungry. it sounded like the player had a huge appetite and rarely got to fill their stomach.

Looking at the stiffened skeleton, Roan heaved a sigh and said, “You… can clear the spider webs instead.”

He was planning to modify the labyrinth entrance anyway, so some cleaning up was required.

‘Even if she can’t stand spider carcass, surely she can at least clear some spider webs, right?’

“Understood, Demon King!” Hungryhungry breathed a sigh of relief before joyfully running over to clear the webs.

‘Is this a PUA tactic too? Both are things she hates, but because one is comparatively less detestable than the other, she ends up happily doing it.’ (T/N: PUA is short for pickup artist)

Roan suddenly felt guilt.

‘Good, this means I am doing a good job.’

…

Roan spent some time watching the players and found them faring better than he had expected. So, he returned to the demon king domain, dove into his workshop, and began concocting more potions.

‘The underworld’s ‘beast potion’ should be worth more than magic crystals. I have so much material; it would be a waste not to concoct some. Maybe I should video it down so that interested players can give it a try too.’

Shortly after Roan left the labyrinth, the Weaving Shadow Nest’s Arakdor and his hunters arrived at the labyrinth’s entrance hall.

This was part of the territory their empress had expanded to. The adventurers call this place ‘Northpeak Shaft’s entrance’, though Arakdor had hardly seen any adventurer entering via here.

As soon as they stepped into the area, they witnessed a sight that would haunt them forever.

Mountains of carcasses!

Clumps of blood stuck to the ground like a dried-up stream!

But what shocked it more was the army of dagger-wielding skeleton soldiers dissecting their comrades’ carcasses like the adventurers outside!

“These bastards…”

Some of the hunters were infuriated. Were it not for their discipline, they would have charged forth and ground those sacks of bones into powder!

But there were also some hunters whose eyes shook with inconcealable fear.

Skeleton soldiers were lower than the ratmen on the hierarchy; no one except for slimes would bother with them. Yet, these brainless piles of bones were displaying intelligence on par with the humans!

This made them fear not just these skeletons but also the necromancer who summoned them.

Just how powerful was that necromancer?!

“Retreat!”

Having understood the severity of the situation, the horrified Arakdor immediately issued the order to retreat.

The group hurriedly scurried out of this godforsaken place, not daring to stop in the least until they were finally back at the Weaving Shadow Nest’s heart, Alakinse’s lair!

On a dense and sturdy spider web, the humongous Alakinse was picking its fangs as she reminisced the flavors of the male crypt spiders from earlier.

Bearing the risk of being devoured by its queen too, Arakdor prostrated his trembling body and reported, “Your Majesty, I have scouted the sentry post per your instruction!”

Alakinse lazily eyed her subordinate. “Speak. What’s going on there.”

“It’s a necromancer!”

Alakinse immediately straightened her body, her face reflecting fear. “Necromancer?! How could there be a necromancer here?!”

The main human factions wouldn’t raise those filthy things, and those filthy things had no reason to intrude on the labyrinth either.

There was only one possibility—the necromancer was from the underworld, and the chances were that he was the new demon king dispatched here to take control of the labyrinth!

“That necromancer is exceedingly powerful. The skeletons he summoned are intelligent, and they wield Bronze-tier or even Steel-tier transcendent powers. One of my hunters, Araklulu, died in their hands!” Arakdor reported his findings with fearful eyes.

“He must be it… He is the successor sent by the underworld to replace Lej Dracul as the new demon king!”