[5 minutes after Tae-Gyu's death]
"No way…" Baek Yoonho stood over the corpse of one of his closest friends with tears streaming down his face. He dropped down to his knees and cradled Tae-Gyu's body.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!" Baek yelled in agony. Choi Jong-In, too, was saddened. He took off his glasses to wipe his tears. In sheer rage, Yoonho transformed.
"I WILL FIND THAT BITCH MYSELF, I PROMISE I'M GOING TO RIP HER TO SHREDS!!" Yoonho wasn't taking no for an answer and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, the culprit was overlooking the city, "System. Distribute 23 points into INT and the rest equally."
[Affirmative.]
[-48 SP]
Lilith felt a powerful magic dashing around the city, "That's probably another S-rank looking for me. Now the real game begins, don't worry though once I return I'll be your match." Lilith used the Key of the Underworld and a black portal opened and sucked her in.
She was spit out into a red hellish landscape. Lava spewed out of the ground, winged demons ravaged lesser demons, and souls wailed. In the center of all this carnage was a gigantic column of light.
[Main quest: Clear all 100 layers of the Underworld and defeat the God of Death, Hades.
Quest rewards: 20 level-ups and ???]
"I accept." Lilith said as she equipped her grimoire, cloak, and gauntlets.
"SKRAAAHHH!" A winged demon tried to scoop her with its large talons. Lilith grabbed his leg and slammed him down into the ground.
He died instantly and a red soul sprouted from his body, which reminded her of the souls she got earlier.
"An S-rank and A-rank soul has to be delicious!" Tae-Gyu's soul was much bigger than the C-ranks she ate, probably closer to a basketball in size. Lilith ate the soul in one gulp and fell down to the floor in pleasure.
"HOW WONDEROUS! IT WAS WORTH ALL OF THE WORK!" Lilith exclaimed with red cheeks. After a few minutes, she relaxed and looked at the notifications.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[+6 SP!]
[Skill gained: [Magic Arrows]]
"Ouu, I got a useful skill." Lilith used her new skill and created five purple arrows between her fingers. She aimed at a winged demon and all her arrows struck true.
Lilith then consumed the A-rank soul and felt a jolt of pleasure course through her, "If human souls taste this great I wonder what a god's soul tastes like."
[Level up!]
[+3 SP!]
Lilith then ate the demon's soul and was disgusted, "This tastes like burnt meat…bleh!"
"Oh right, I raised those two, didn't I?" Lilith summoned her new minion. Suddenly two pale hands sprouted out of the ground. They were quickly dressed in shadowy armor and bowed down.
"Greetings Your Highness," Tae-Gyu's corpse said. His hair was white and his eyes were red, the same thing goes for the A-rank woman.
"Oh, you can speak? I guess that's a perk of you being stronger," Lilith looked at the A-rank woman, "Do you speak?"
She shook her head.
"Hmmm, well welcome. Your name will be Cross," she pointed at Tae-Gyu and then looked at the A-rank, "and your name will be Blade."
[Cross - Level 30
Blade - Level 17]
"Level 30? Good thing I caught you off guard I would've had a tough time," Lilith laughed.
"Alright Cross, I want you to kill every demon to the west, Blade you kill every demon to the east, and I'll handle the north and south." Lilith gave her commands and her minions dashed in the directions they were told.
Lilith sprinted south and slaughtered every demon in her path, "These guys are so weak, surely this isn't all there is to the Underworld?"
She looked into her inventory which was full of demon souls, "Do I really wanna subject myself to this disgusting shit?"
[150x Lesser demon souls]
"All in the pursuit of strength." Lilith began eating the souls one by one until all 150 were gone.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[+9 SP!]
[Level 20 reached! System shop unlocked!]
[Skills gained: [Fire Breath], [Savagery], [Fire Immunity]]
"Fucking disgusting!" Lilith gagged as she looked at her notifications.
"System shop? Open."
[System shop:
Regular iron sword - 10 G
Regular iron dagger - 10G
Regular iron spear - 10G
Low-level health potion - 50G
Low-level mana potion - 50G
Mystery Box - 1,000G
Lucky Box - 100,000G
Gacha Ticket - 1,000,000G]
"Woah, the prices for those boxes are no joke! But what in the world is a gacha ticket?"
[A gacha ticket is similar to a skill rune only it will give you a skill from a fictional universe.]
"Ohh, okay. And I'm assuming my low level is the reason why everything I can buy is trash?"
[Indeed.]
"Alright! Let's level up more so I can buy something good!" Lilith jumped off the mountain of corpses she was sitting on and made her way toward the giant column of light.
"Also I have to ask, do I really have to kill every demon on every layer to ascend?"
[No, you only must obtain an [Ascenion Permit]]
"Okay, thanks." Lilith finally arrived in front of the column of light. Sitting in front of it was a giant red demon holding an equally giant axe.
[Gate Guard, Farlah. Level 40.]
His name was in red, which Lilith assumed meant it was going to be a hard battle…if she fought fairly. The demon looked down at her and prepared for battle. Lilith was about to blind him but he vanished from his position.
"What?!" Lilith then felt a powerful magic behind her and saw his giant fist headed towards her body. She immediately put her arms up to guard.
*BANG*
Lilith flew across the hellish landscape and crashed into a nearby mountain.
[-120 HP]
"Blegh! He hits like a truck!" Lilith spit out blood and slowly got up. Her arms were purple where she blocked his attack along with her head leaking blood. Lilith jumped out of the crater she was in and saw Farlah staring her down.
She summoned a fireball and pumped 200 MP into it, turning it blue.
"[Hex: Curse of Paralysis], [Hex: Curse of Rot]," The fireball in her hand turned purple and emanated a black miasma.
"Eat this!" Lilith shot the fireball at Farlah. He deflected it with ease using his axe. Lilith was shocked but didn't lose her resolve.
"Cross, Blade. Come forth." At her words, two red pentagrams appeared, and out came Cross and Blade.
[Cross - Level 32
Blade - Level 19]
"I want you two to distract him." At her command, both of them charged Farlah. Cross fired his signature arrows at Farlah who used his arm to block them. Then Blade came from his right side and tried to cut his right arm off. Farlah slammed his axe on the ground, making her lose balance. Before he could swing his axe on Blade, Cross fired arrows into his eyes.
"RAAAAAHHHH!!" Farlah yelled in agony. He wailed his arms around wildly trying to swat Cross. Blade then cut his Achilles making him lose balance.
"[MANA CANON]!!" Lilith then fired a fully powered [Mana Canon] through his chest, leaving a gaping bleeding hole. Farlah's giant body fell back in death.
[Level up! x6]
[+18 SP!]
[+1,000 G]
[Item gained: [Ascension Permit]]
"Phew! That was a hard battle!" Lilith laughed as she walked over to Farlah's body.
"Come Forth." She used [Raise Undead] on Farlah.
[Unable to raise!]
"Ah, what the heck dude?!" Lilith yelled and pouted, "Fine then! I don't need this stupid oaf anyway!"
She walked over to the column of light and placed the [Ascension Permit] inside. Then a flash of light took her and she was on the second layer.
This layer was a forested area only the trees were black and had flaming leaves. Then out of nowhere, a two-headed wolf came out of the trees and tried attacking her. Lilith sidestepped its lunge and killed it instantly with a [Decaying Bolt]
[+2 G]
[+1 Hound demon soul]
"Oh wow, feisty little guy huh?" Lilith laughed as she twirled its red soul in her fingers. She ate it and shook her head in disappointment, "Disgusting."
"If this layer is full of furred demons it's going to be a breeze thanks to my title." Lilith smiled and made her way towards the center of the layer. She killed any and every demon in her path and once she walked over a hill, she saw a giant wolf guarding the column of light.
"System, distribute points into all my physical attributes, my INT is high enough." Lilith said as she bought a sword from the system shop.
[Affirmative.]
[-36 SP]
[-10G]
She cursed her iron sword with rot and paralysis, making it ooze a black miasma. She walked down the hill and eventually got in eyeshot of the wolf.
[Guardian of the Second Layer, Sifer. Level 45]
The wolf had black fur, red eyes, and its saliva looked like lava. It was over 20 feet tall and it was snarling at Lilith. Lilith's cloak blew in the wind and a smile crept onto her face.
Sifer charged forward hoping to smack Lilith with his giant paws. Lilith barely dodged it and swung her sword.
*TINK*
Her sword bounced off Sifer's thick fur and he smacked her away with his tail. Lilith rolled on the ground before using her blade to stop herself.
[-75 HP]
"Tch, not sharp enough?!" Lilith gnashed her teeth and dodged another paw. She created five magic arrows in her hands and launched them at Sifer. The arrows were strong enough to penetrate his skin!
Lilith smiled and got an idea. She created five more arrows but they had a twist.
"[Hex: Curse of Rot]." The purple arrows turned black, making Sifer weary of this next volley. She threw them at him but he deflected them by shooting a plume of fire from his mouth. He expected Lilith to be burnt but she was gone. He smelled her scent and she was behind him with the same black arrows.
He quickly turned around and deflected those with the same technique.
"Damn, he's not as stupid as I thought!" Lilith said as she hid behind a tree. Then another idea popped into her head, if mana arrows can pierce through him, then that means it's about the concentration of the mana.
Each mana arrow costs her around 15 MP and with the curse applied it's 30. So what if she applied the same formula to pure mana on her sword?
Lilith coated her blade with the same amount of mana she uses for her arrow and a thin blue light outlined her blade.
[Skill learned: [Mana Reinforcement]]
[Mana Reinforcement: Apply mana to a weapon or piece of armor to make it harder or sharper.]
"Alright!" Lilith celebrated her theory being right. She then dodged another paw from Sifer who was growing more angry. She applied twice the amount of mana needed to use [Mana Reinforcement], making the outline on her blade thicker.
Sifer fired a plume of fire out of his mouth again. Lilith rolled out of the way and used that opening to charge him. She swung her sword at his front paw and she sliced it clean off.
The curse of rot did the rest of the work and Sifer was reduced to a pile of goop. Lilith smiled brightly, "HELL YEAH!!!"
[Level up! x6]
[+18 SP!]
[+1,000 G]
[Items gained: [Ascension Permit], [Hell Hound's Cape (A)]
[Hell Hound's Cape (A): A cape fashioned from the Second Layer Guardian, Sifer.
+100 DEF, +20 AGL, +15% Fire-based DMG]
A black cape with a wolf head appeared on Lilith's shoulders, replacing her previous cloak. Lilith gathered his soul and advanced to the next layer.