episode_0003

Leveling up in [Demon King and Hero Party] is quite difficult. First of all, the maximum level is only 100.

Because it wasn’t even made to reach level 100.

For example, I never reached Lv100 even once while trying 999 tries.

No, there are only a handful of people who have reached the early Lv90s, let alone 100.

Even the final boss of this game, the Demon King, wasn’t Lv100.

In addition to the highest difficulty, even if you release the Demon King’s seal to its limit, you will not reach Lv. 100.

Even if I try, I’ll probably end up in the late Lv90s.

Leveling up in this game is so hard.

Thanks to that, I can now say with certainty.

“Impossible.”

Early morning, in the back alley of a tavern.

I muttered as I sat there, in that place filled with dirty trash.

This was the conclusion I reached after thinking about it all night.

No matter what hidden piece you obtain, or what Nodaji dungeon you discover.

It is absolutely impossible to reach Lv70 in just 2 weeks.

Even if I had fallen from being a human who did 999 tries to being a loser who did 9999 tries, it was clear that that wouldn’t change.

“It doesn’t make sense in the first place.”

At around Lv70, it was almost the strongest line.

Do you know how much of a difference there is in levels here?

Lv10 level is the level of a normal person.

When you reach level 20, you are treated as a relatively strong soldier.

Even if you only reach level 30, you can easily obtain a suitable knighthood. When you reach level 40 or 50, you can easily become an elite knight or the guild leader of a decent mercenary guild.

Even if you only reach Lv50, you will receive that level of treatment.

The further you go up from there, the more inflation there is.

Once you reach level 60, you can climb to a position like the Magic Tower.

At Lv70, you could aim for the title of strongest player in a small country.

The phase of level 70 is about that much.

‘But that.’

You want me to take a picture?

And that in just two weeks?

It was impossible. It was crazy.

Even if my current level is a bit higher, I don’t know… My current level is a pure Lv1 that is not tainted by anything.

It’s so pure that it’s enough to make you want to curse.

How on earth do I even begin to tackle this?

Even in the original game, the minimum level starts at 10.

“··· Ha, I guess I should try anyway.”

But after complaining like this for a while, I eventually had no choice but to get up from my seat.

Because even if things remained like this, nothing would get better.

And at least as far as I know, [The Demon King and the Hero Party] never presents an impossible problem.

At first glance, it may seem like there is no answer, but upon closer inspection, there is a hole to dig into.

And to be honest, I had a rough idea of how to dig into it.

‘Status window.’

As I say that to myself, a translucent window appears before me.

When it comes to game bings, there is something called a status window that is usually installed as a basic option. Fortunately, it exists here as well.

But the system of [Demon King and Hero Party] felt a bit special.

———-

Name: Luke

Lv: 1

[Skill]

Power of Sacrifice Lv.MAX

———-

A simple status window consisting only of name, level, and skills, without any details such as stats or characteristics.

It looked exactly like the status window I usually checked while playing games.

No separate stats are displayed here.

Because here, the level itself is a measure of strength.

Level is the experience and history that a person has accumulated, so there is no need to display something like stats separately······.

‘That was the game company’s response.’

Actually, I just didn’t want to show it.

Even though level is a measure of strength, there was clearly a difference in compatibility.

For example, a wizard has high magic power, a warrior has high stamina, etc.

Such obvious stat differences do exist.

But since they just said, ‘Just figure it out by level’… I couldn’t help but get annoyed.

Well anyway, I could see that the status window was just as I knew it.

‘It looks like the name is set to Luke.’

This isn’t that important either, so let’s skip it for now.

The important thing was the ‘Power of Sacrifice’ attached to the skill.

A skill with a name I’ve never seen before. The only perk I got when I chose the hidden route and fell here.

As I looked closely at it, the status window suddenly changed randomly and showed an enlarged version of the ‘Power of Sacrifice’.

+

[Power of Sacrifice Lv.MAX]

It is a power that contains a fragment of God.

When you show your will earnestly, the world will be impressed and willing to listen to your will.

Of course, it’s not free.

Whatever it is, whenever you give something, you get paid accordingly.

+

And when I saw that, I immediately frowned.

“What a fucking skill.”

At first glance, it seemed like a good skill.

No, it would definitely be a good skill.

Although the description is a bit vague, since you get a reward every time you sacrifice something, it would be incredibly versatile.

However, it wasn’t a skill I really wanted to use.

‘Why do I have to sacrifice something?’

What good will it do if you just give it to me?

In that case, it would have been better to just give them a national skill like [Eternal Flame] or [Cheongpung Sword Technique].

If it’s them, we’ll be able to get through the first half without any problems.

“Tsk.”

Well, since I had obtained it, I couldn’t let it rot.

I should at least try it.

[Would you like to offer it?]

I spoke out loud, telling them what I would give and what I would get.

.

What I will sacrifice is my life.

Life was a pretty good sacrifice.

Because it is invisible, not easily felt, and even if it disappears, there is no immediate visible damage.

It is perfect for experimentation.

Of course, it was not without its regrets… but in this situation, it was an inevitable choice.

“I dedicate 5 years of my life to raising my level.”

And at that moment.

‘···!!’

An extremely unpleasant sensation took hold of my body.

It felt as if the scythe of the Grim Reaper had briefly swept across my neck. A strong sense of emptiness took over my entire body, as if a part of my soul had been ripped out.

But that was only for a moment.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

.

.

.

.

.

Immediately, this system alarm popped up and filled my vision. It felt like a group of holy lights were hovering around me.

With a lifespan of 5 years, you can go up to 14 levels at once.

It’s almost like gaining the experience from childhood to adulthood all at once.

It was certainly a tremendous growth, but… I couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

‘This is… I don’t know whether to say it’s good or not.’

Because the cost-effectiveness was a bit ambiguous.

Life is a precious resource. Although it has no form and cannot be seen, life is certainly important.

I just gave up my limited resource of life force. In martial arts terms, I used up all my innate energy.

But I only went up to level 13.

Even though it is a low level section where leveling up is possible.

“Tsk.”

Wrong.

It was uncertain whether I could reach Lv70 with this method even if I sacrificed my entire lifespan.

In the first place, sacrificing my life to complete quests is too inefficient, and I don’t want to feel that shitty feeling again.

‘We have to find another way.’

With that thought in mind, I walked out of the back alley.

Now that I’ve confirmed what skills I have, I’m going to go around and work hard.

Catching monsters, finding coincidences, training, etc.

Well, there must be an answer.

That’s how my life of leveling up began.

*

······Let me start with the conclusion.

It failed. And it failed so badly.

It’s been ten days since I’ve been wandering around here and there. During that time, I’ve only managed to get to level 10.

That’s all there is to it for over a week.

Even though I gave an extra five years of my life, it was like that···.

It was a truly disastrous result.

There were three reasons why the 999 Try veteran could only achieve these results.

First of all, it seems like I don’t have much talent.

First of all, I swung my sword every single day for ten days without missing a single day.

This is because training, including swordsmanship, is also converted into a type of experience.

Thanks to this, there were people who had outstanding talent and became the commander of the knights simply by training.

But I didn’t gain a single level during those ten days of training.

Of course, it was only ten days, but even though I was a candidate for the title of warrior… I couldn’t even level up by one.

I couldn’t help but feel regret.

I was able to gain one skill though…

+

[Swing Lv.1]

The wild swings like a beast have become a little more stable.

Just a little bit, literally.

+

It was an ability that seemed completely useless at first glance.

I frowned.

‘Who are you kidding me with…’

Anyway, the first reason is that I have no talent.

The second reason was that I didn’t get the hidden piece.

First of all, I roughly knew the locations of the opportunities that could be obtained in the beginning.

The problem is that most of it is not obtainable under the current conditions.

Most of them required a lot of money, had powerful monsters inside, or were too far away.

It was not possible to spend two weeks or so just moving around to get a chance.

It’s good that the starting point is a city in the empire.

Unfortunately, I barely had enough money to pay for transportation.

So now I was in a state where I didn’t have any chance.

The last third.

‘The monsters are too strong···.’

Even though this is a safe city, there are bound to be mobs if you go out to the outskirts.

I planned to level up by hunting those monsters, but they were stronger than I thought.

Of course, there are things I can’t fight at… but this was bigger than that.

[Warning! The difficulty of monsters increases significantly!]

Before I fell here, I vaguely saw the system text. This world was faithfully carrying out those words.

The monsters I knew were at least 1 or 2 levels higher than the base ones, so they weren’t easy to catch.

In this world, there wasn’t much to do at just Lv20.

Thanks to that, later on, I was able to say things like this.

“Ha··· Should I just give up?”

It’s a quest that seems impossible from the start.

He asked me to take the title of the strongest player in a situation that was as good as bare ground.

It was a quest that left me speechless and even speechless.

At first, I thought I’d just play games in the corner of the room.

Who would have thought that I would suddenly be dropped into the real world?

So it would be okay to give up. Then the world would end in the end… What do you want me to do?

It’s at a level where you can’t even see the answer from the beginning.

But even as my mind was leaning towards giving up, there was one thing that bothered me.

‘Then what about them···?’

What happens to the heroines here if I don’t complete the quest?

When I thought about their future, I couldn’t help but hesitate······.

As I was gradually sinking into a swamp of worries, a voice rang out from behind me.

“Hey, bro. Do you think this is someone’s territory and come in without permission?”

A carefree tone of speech that seems as if it were drawn in a picture.

When I turned around to find the voice, I saw four rather bad-looking men looking at me.

One of them, a particularly large man, speaks.

“If you came in without permission, you have to pay the toll.”

Looking at him mocking me with his face covered in mud, I could tell he was a typical back-alley thug.

When I saw that, I sighed.

“Hoo···.”

Seriously, when things don’t seem to work out, everything just sticks.