The Demon King is Unfathomable

“You want to go out to chop trees?”

In his workshop, Roan stopped what he was doing and cast a surprised glance at the skeletons before him.

Faced with the Demon King’s questioning gaze, Sinkingwhale respectfully lowered his head and explained, “Yes, esteemed Demon King. Your servants lack equipment. More than weapons, they need backpacks, bandages, and many other things too. These equipment will greatly raise your servants’ efficiency in exploring the labyrinth.”

Sinkingwhale did a brief pause here before adding, “As your most loyal servant, I would like to share your burden.”

Roan nodded. His eyes fell on Hungryhungry, who had spider webs wrapped around her like a cocoon.

‘I see. Were they inspired from this fellow?’

Necropolis’ market demand had been lackluster as skeletons were fueled solely by faith; they didn’t require food or water to survive. This made it hard to kickstart industries.

Starting from textile might be a good idea, assuming someone knew how to make them.

“That’s a good idea, but do you know how to weave cloth? That’s a highly demanding skill that’s not any easier than fighting monsters,” Roan asked.

“There will be a way out. I have researched blueprints of early days spinning jenny, and I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to recreate them. Please give us your support. We won’t disappoint you,” Sinkingwhale replied with a smile.

‘Right, players can go online. Even if they don’t know how to make it, they can just search up some Tiktik or Yutube craftsmen and copy them step by step. And it’s not like their failure will cost me anything.’

“I permit it.”

Roan didn’t want to expose Necropolis’ existence yet out of safety concern, but they couldn’t keep holing themselves up in the mining shafts either.

‘Fine, I shall send soldiers out today!’

“There is a forest further north of Northpeak Shaft. The monsters there aren’t interested in skeletons. You can harvest wood from there. Do not head southward, and avoid humans as far as possible. If you can’t avoid a battle, capture your opponents if possible.”

“Understood!” Fallingshark excitedly clasped her fist and replied on behalf of Sinkingwhale.

There was a pause before Roan continued, “We will require wood to reinforce the newer sections of the mining shaft too. Since you have brought up this matter, let’s resolve this together as well. I’ll send out a quest to hire woodcutters later. Keep a look out for Necropolis’ skeletons who are skilled at woodwork; they might be able to help you with what you need.”

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Right as he finished those words, Youyou sent out two quests, ‘Wood Gathering’ and ‘Woodworker Recruitment’.

Not many players had axes. Those who took on this mission could collect an ax and receive permission to venture out of the mining shaft.

This mission also advised players to stay in demarcated areas. Those who died outside of the demarcated area would receive an additional death penalty, and they would have to find a way to pick up their axes after reviving.

“Ahhh! We’re indebted to you!”

Both Fallingshark and Sinkingwhale’s eyes gleamed in excitement.

‘We can indirectly trigger quests through the Demon King in such a manner?! That’s an incredible discovery!’

The three skeletons thanked the Demon King before exuberantly rushing out to find the cat ear NPC to collect axes and saws for woodcutting.

Shortly after, a player registered for the ‘Woodworker Recruitment’ quest.

“This matter should be settled… The players are quite innovative to think about using crypt spider webs to make backpacks and bandages,” Roan commented in delight as he watched the three skeletons rush through the mining shaft via his mirror. Ṟ

‘My pawns are moving on their own accord and growing in ways I had never thought of. Good.’

“Demon King, has no one in the underworld ever thought of weaving with crypt spider webs?” Youyou was perplexed.

“It’s the underworld for a reason. Do you know how hot that place is?” Roan replied.

“But… the place you reside in seems still fine.”

“That’s because the Demon Capital is protected. The environment outside the Demon Capital isn’t as kind.”

Crypt spider web was highly flexible, resilient, and water proof; other threads couldn’t hold a candle against it on those aspects. However, its extreme stickiness and elasticity made them a huge headache to deal with when trying to use them as a material.

Such properties made it hard to collect and process crypt spider webs.

The players’ idea was not bad, but they were underestimating the difficulty of this undertaking.

Fortunately, these didn’t pose a problem to Roan.

It was not without a reason he was the top scorer for theoretical exams in the Demon King Academy. He could easily such minor issues in a heartbeat.

In truth, a long time ago, someone in the underworld had already researched weaving crypt spider webs into textile. They even developed a potion recipe that removed crypt spider webs’ excessive elasticity and stickiness while preserving their resilience.

The only problem was that even though crypt spider webs were water resistant, they were flammable. That made them useless in the underworld, a place that only rained not water but fire sparks.

On top of that, the underworld and the surface had been at war all along. Highly-valued items were sometimes smuggled from one side to the other, but there was no large-scale trade.

So, this research ended up going to waste.

Roan had stumbled upon this research in the Demon King Academy’s library. He still remembered the key ingredients of the potion recipe—though he couldn’t remember their exact proportions anymore—and most of them could be harvested from crypt spiders.

He should be able to complete the recipe with a bit of trial and error. All he had to do afterward was to drip a bit of the potion on the spider webs after they were harvested.

Roan was revved up. He took out his potion-making crucible and beaker and began warming up his shoulders.

“Very well, I shall lend them a helping hand this time.”

…

Two skeleton soldiers were exploring the underground sewer.

They had killed so many slimes along the way that they were running out of places to store the harvested magic crystals.

Along the way, they stumbled upon an adventurer’s corpse enveloped by several slimes. The slimes had digested the corpse’s clothes, leaving behind only the harder-to-digest leather boots, belt, and fanny pack.

Autumnleaf made quick work of the slimes before collecting the leather belt and fanny pack.

Inside the fanny pack were some private possessions and copper coins. He returned the private possessions to its owner before stuffing the magic crystals he had collected with Twilight into it, at long last freeing the latter’s hands.

Out of curiosity, Autumnleaf squatted next to the corpse to examine its condition.

This corpse had been mostly broken down by the slime, making it impossible to make out its original appearance, Autumnleaf could still make some deductions from the undigested bones.

“That bone was severed.” Autumnleaf traced the fracture in the corpse’s ribcage with rising excitement. “It doesn’t seem to be the slimes’ doing!”

‘My deduction is right! There are other monsters in the underground sewer!’

“It looks like it was caused by a claw…” Twilight also examined the fracture. “What do you think it is?”

“Life forms with claws that dwell in underground sewers… I can only think of lizards, though it could be a fantasy creature too.”

‘And this monster should be stronger than the crypt spiders.’

The thought of that didn’t induce fear in Autumnleaf. On the contrary, he couldn’t wait to meet the new mob!

‘I wonder how much experience points they give.’

He continued probing the adventurer’s corpse with his right hand, slowly moving upward before eventually stopping at the back of the latter’s neck.

“This is… a magic crystal?!” Twilight exclaimed with widened eyes when he saw Autumnleaf pulling out a crystal from the corpse.

‘Do humans drop magic crystals too?!’

“Mmhm, it should be a magic crystal.” Autumnleaf fell into deep thought looking at the ink-green magic crystal.

He suddenly recalled a part of Calamity Online’s lore that he had read on its official site. It was talking about how death and reincarnation were no longer equal for all entities after the demise of the Netherworld God.

‘Where do humans in this game go after they die? Or do they transform skeletons like us…’

Goosebumps covered his body as he marveled at the meticulousness of the setting.

‘Just how much more information have I failed to decipher from the lore?’

In the shadows, a pair of amber eyes were staring at the two skeletons as its forked tongue flickered with incredible finesse.

‘A necromancer’s servants here?’

It spent some time weighing in options, but the crawling life form decided against making a move. Instead, it turned around and slowly retreated further into the shadows.

Its job was to hunt adventurers, and these bone sacks were not part his diet.

A storm was brewing in the labyrinth, so they had to maintain the highest level of vigilance toward everything… even if their earth dragon clan had a huge lead in the race to becoming the rulers of the labyrinth’s first floor.

‘The appearance of these undeads are likely tied to the ratmen stampede not long ago. Someone who has the power to induce panic in a rat tribe that has a god elect… We should tread carefully here.’