Chapter 152 - Toward the Ruins of Darkness (1)

‘Louise is a Demon.’

If he were an Asrian human, he would've felt betrayed after realizing that.

…But Hyun was a user; he was different from NPCs.

To him, both Angels and Demons were just Transcendents.

Of course, he had bad memories of Deception, but his hate was directed only toward her and not the entirety of the Abyss.

'This… Is incredible!'

Hyun's body trembled in excitement.

The Transcendents were not only the strongest beings but building a good relationship with them was also very hard.

What if Louise was really Darkness, the highest-ranking Demon? Hadn’t he already built a great relationship with her?

[Blessing of Darkness]

- Since you will become like the energy of Darkness… Those that belong to the Heavens will be scared of you; those who serve Darkness will feel close to you.

He even got a new skill.

It was a skill that made those that belonged to the Heavens scared of him and those that belonged to the Abyss feel close to him.

It seemed like he had fulfilled a certain condition, and a job skill had been unlocked.

He could turn it on and off of his own volition, so Hyun decided to try it immediately.

Paf-!

When he activated the skill, a magic circle appeared under his feet and disappeared.

"Hmm… did you do something?"

Hyun was surprised.

Ain was looking at him right next to him.

Her expression seemed different from usual… Her eyes were shining as if she were about to devour him.

Ain's faction was the Heavens. Then she should be scared of him…

"Use «Assimilation» on me!"

"Right now…?"

"Yes, right now!"

Hyun used «Assimilation» at the sudden pressure from her.

Through «Assimilation», he felt that her body was trembling a bit. It felt like her blood was going through her body faster than usual.

Hyun was surprised and «Disassimilated». He heard Ain complain.

"What, why did you «Disassimilate»?!"

Hyun opened the skill's window while ignoring Ain complaining and asking him to use «Assimilation» on her again.

'There's something strange…'

He looked at the skill's description once more.

He wanted to check if it produced another abnormal status on the target besides fear, but there was nothing like that.

Was it a side effect of a skill that controlled emotions? But the developers said that there wouldn't be side effects…

Hyun had to read the skill's description carefully after witnessing Ain’s odd reaction.

But he still couldn't find anything special.

* * *

The Duke's celebration party ended late at night.

TarrTarr had already logged out, so Hyun was forced to broach the topic.

When he asked about the Ruins of Darkness, the Duke nodded.

"Okay, I'll guide you there. Just as promised."

"Thank you!"

"That place is very far away. You won't be able to return for a while, so you better get some preparations done."

"Yes? But there's teleportation…"

"Haha, teleportation, huh?"

Bahmir laughed at Hyun's question.

"The fog is thick in the land of Darkness. Not only can you not teleport there, but you can't even open a portal. Getting in and out of there isn't easy."

Hyun listened carefully.

The Symmetrical World was a place that didn't exist in Asra Online, so there were many things that not even Hyun or Ain knew about.

"Oh, by the way, be careful that you aren't swept away by the fog. If you fall into it, I won't save you."

"What happens if we fall into it?"

"Even I would be in danger if I stayed there for a long period… so you'd probably die."

It seemed like, near the ruins, the fog rose or fell as if it were the tide.

Some places were so dangerous that they were forbidden to even devils.

"Are you done with your preparations?"

Hyun nodded.

Most of the important items were inside his inventory, so there weren't many preparations he had to finish.

"Then let's go."

Bahmir crossed with Mablen and Rublen, who were in their respective bat forms.

The rest of the group that followed him were lost for words at the view that unfolded before them.

All they'd seen of the Symmetrical World was Kaidan castle—a place with a chilling atmosphere that was full of devils, but the atmosphere of the place in front of them differed from what they'd imagined.

"A train station…?"

"It seems so," Hyun replied to Ain.

Judging by how the black sun was above them, they were still in the Symmetrical World.

They had expected the civilization there to be somewhat developed, but they never thought it would have such a peaceful atmosphere.

"A skeleton is selling tickets! And there are lots of weird guys forming a line!"

"Ugh…!"

Ain was having fun looking at the surprising view in front of them, but the moment Louise saw the devils around them, she got scared.

It was normal for her to react like that. After all, skeletons had always been a symbol of danger to her.

A skeleton that was next to Louise waved its hand.

"It seems like it's greeting you."

"What should I do…?!"

"I'm not sure…"

Hyun thought that Louise was Darkness, so he wasn’t sure what to say.

"Why don't you try waving your hand?"

After thinking for a while, Louise awkwardly waved her hand.

The skeleton that was greeted kept clacking his teeth, but he soon went on his way to finish what he had to do.

Surprisingly, none of the devils looked at them as if they were menacing.

Their reaction was too natural for the reason to be that the Duke was with them.

"Get on."

The group got on the train.

Louise seemed happy at the thought of being free from the crowd of devils, but her expression soon changed after realizing that the train was also full of devils.

Ain kept looking around.

Louise could only relax after they got inside a luxurious train car by themselves.

"Interesting…" The Duke suddenly mumbled while looking at Louise.

"What's your name?"

"M… Me?"

Louise's face went blank after the Duke called her name. She replied after looking around nervously.

"M-my name is Louise…!"

"Louise."

As the Duke approached Louise, Hyun also became nervous.

He didn't know why the Duke was approaching Louise.

"Fufu, it's nothing relevant. It's just that I felt a fond feeling. It's been a while since I felt like this."

The Duke placed his hand on top of Louise's head.

Although it might have looked weird from the outside, the Duke strangely looked kind, so the picture didn't look bad.

Of course, Louise's expression hardened… Thankfully, the Duke quickly pulled his hand away.

Rublen, who had returned to her maid-uniform-wearing vampire form, approached the Duke and murmured.

"To think that Mr. Bahmir would take an interest in a human user, I’m surprised. Are you trying to make your underling?"

"It's nothing like that."

"Then maybe a lover…?"

"It also isn't like that."

Rublen kept asking until Mablen stopped her.

There was a chance that not even the Duke knew why he felt like that, but Hyun thought that he might know the reason.

After all, the Duke was part of Darkness's forces, so it was understandable for him to feel familiar with Louise, who was Darkness herself.

'I wonder if this will work?'

Hyun used the 'Blessing of Darkness.'

According to the skill description, it would make the Heavens scared of him and the Abyss comfortable with him.

After making a decision, Hyun activated the Blessing of Darkness.

'Blessing, On.'

As a dark magic circle appeared under Hyun's feet and disappeared, the Duke shrugged and asked him a question.

"What did you do?"

"Oh, it's nothing important. It's magic I often use habitually."

"Uhm, well, I guess it may be possible since you're a user."

It was a skill that didn't use much mana or Demonic Energy, so the Duke soon lost interest.

From an NPC’s point of view, there were many cases in which they had a hard time understanding the users’ behavior.

'Did it work? I'm not sure.'

Hyun took a glimpse at the Duke.

Judging by how weirdly Ain reacted, it might not be so useful with the Duke.

Hyun had no expectations when the Blessing of Darkness started to take effect after a short while.

"What's your name?"

The Duke, who hadn't been interested in Hyun until then, asked for his name out of the blue.

"My name is Hyun."

"I heard that, in the castle, you were the one who led the users. Are you the guild's leader?"

"Yes."

When the blessing activated, Ain's eyes flashed, but he couldn't afford to care for her at the moment.

The Duke suddenly started talking more, and Hyun had to reply to him.

The Duke asked him mostly non-important things.

They were basically chit-chatting.

"Recently, a game between users has been gaining popularity. Do you know how to play poker?"

"Poker?"

"Seeing your reaction, it seems like you know. Good. Mablen, take that out."

As the Duke waved his hand, Mablen, who was at the table next to them, created a deck of cards out of the air.

There was a spade, clover, heart, and diamond card.

The moment he saw the symbols of the trump card he knew very well, Hyun couldn't hide his surprise.

'It really is poker…'

The real world and Asrian were separate worlds.

In Asra, that had never happened, but in Asrian, the NPCs were made using a better AI, so it could be possible that they accepted things from the real world easier.

After all, Bahmir and all of the Dukes were created using a generation-and-a-half AI.

"There was nobody better than me around. I wonder how good a user is. How about it?"

Bahmir smirked and proposed a game, but Hyun recognized that as an order he couldn't refuse.

A poker match took place on the train out of the blue.

They gambled only a few gold coins.

What surprised Hyun was how bad the Duke was.

'Was there really nobody better than him? No, they probably lost to him on purpose, right?'

If Hyun wanted, he could give the Duke a nightmare he wouldn't be able to forget.

But even Hyun, who didn't have that much real-life work experience, knew that if he did that, the atmosphere would worsen.

It was time to entertain.

When he received a good hand, he put out a nervous expression on purpose and put more money on the table. If he was sure about the Duke bluffing, he waited until the end to finish the play.

An hour passed, and a smile appeared on the Duke's face.

"Hahaha, it seems that not even a user can be a match. Although this was an expected result."

"As expected, you're amazing."

"Impressive."

By investing a few hundred gold coins, he was able to increase the Duke's interest.

The Duke had lived for hundreds of years, so he seemed hungry to learn new forms of entertainment brought in by users that didn't exist in Asrian before.

He was asking lots of things to Hyun with a smile on his face.

'It seems like I increased his interest rate.'

The Bahmir he'd seen until then just looked like a crazy person who laughed a lot, but now he looked like a pleasant old gentleman.

Next, Hyun clearly felt the effect of the blessing.

"I heard that you played a huge role in recovering the castle. Is that true, Mablen?"

"At least from what I saw, yes," Mablen respectfully answered.

Although he escaped while in the inner part of the castle, from what he'd seen until that point, Hyun looked like a great leader who’d perfectly led everyone.

He couldn't help but talk about his role in the short report he gave to Bahmir.

"Haha… It was nothing, but it's true."

As Hyun nodded, Bahmir smiled in satisfaction and asked him something.

"Don't you want to become my knight?"

Ting-!

[Duke Bahmir has offered you a knight position! Will you accept? Y/N]

That time, even Hyun wondered if he'd heard correctly.

High-ranking NPCs were all very prideful, and among those, Bahmir was one of the hardest ones to please.

But to think that he would offer him a knight position without hesitating… It seemed like the blessing was really taking effect.

It didn't just make NPCs friendlier with you, but it rapidly increased their interest in you.

That was the real way to use the 'Blessing of Darkness.'

"Thank you… but I'll have to refuse."

"That's too bad. If you change your opinion, tell me any time."

Hyun thought carefully, but he had to refuse the Duke's proposal.

Although he had been rejected, Bahmir didn't seem bothered.

On the contrary, he sometimes hummed until the train reached its destination.

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