Ch.197197. The Ecosystem of the Succubus Field

I had known that the reward for finding the rules would be extraordinary.

Considering that the Dark Spiritmaster hadn’t freely shared this information, I figured it must be something valuable enough to warrant attacks from others.

But this.

“I’ve obtained something beyond my expectations.”

When I gently infused it with mana, the Lemegeton resonated with me, emitting a subtle black light.

Having used this for some time, I could be certain.

It was the real Lemegeton, known as the Stone of Necromancy.

Yet I couldn’t help but wonder if something of this caliber could be created so casually.

‘No matter what, it couldn’t possibly be mass-produced.’

Nevertheless, the sensation in my hand and its effects clearly identified it as the Lemegeton.

“How curious.”

This mansion.

Though I’d only been in the Demon Realm briefly, it was certainly a peculiar place.

Historical figures were present, yet there seemed to be no restrictions on sharing information about the future with them.

And items like the Lemegeton were handed out as if they were trivial rewards.

As I pondered these inconsistencies…

CRASH!

A violent impact sound came from outside.

Judging by how the wall shook, something had collided with it.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

But the impacts didn’t stop there, continuing one after another. A woman’s scream tore through the air.

I hurriedly opened the door and stepped outside. In the corridor, a massive man was blowing steam through his nostrils while pinning a woman against the wall and swinging his fists at her.

“Say it again! I dare you to say it again!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The bronze-skinned man appeared to be another guest. Though I didn’t recognize his face, I knew the woman he was beating.

She was the woman who had been stitching her own hand when I first arrived here.

After her initial scream, she couldn’t even make a sound as she continued to take the beating.

Her body was grotesquely twisted, and she seemed to have lost consciousness after that first scream.

I considered intervening, but the other people who had peeked out or stepped out of their rooms were just watching stoically.

I was surprised to see everyone from elderly people to small children, but regardless.

“Say it again! What? My bones what? What were you going to do with my skin?”

It seemed the woman had commented on this man’s physical form just as she had done with me earlier.

CRACK!

The violent sound of breaking bones finally confirmed she was no longer of this world.

As the man lowered his hands with a snort, the woman slid to the floor in a heap.

“Hah! Trash woman.”

The man, who had been dusting off his hands with satisfaction, noticed us watching and ground his teeth in warning.

“What are you looking at? If you don’t want to end up like her, avert your eyes.”

At the man’s growling threat, only one small child who had been peeking out retreated into their room, while the rest remained.

Among them, a young man with a ponytail, hands behind his back, asked with a smile:

“Judging by your bronze skin, are you a hero from the Kingdom of Zerman?”

“Huh? Yes, I am Zortu of the Zerman Kingdom.”

The hulking man introduced himself as Zortu. The ponytailed man smiled and replied:

“I am Hanso of the Han Empire.”

“Hanso? What Hanso?”

I knew who Hanso was. He had been mentioned in the game, but more specifically, I had helped his soul find peace once.

‘He was a victim of Magan’s banquet.’

Hanso had been part of a delegation from the Han Empire. By the time I got involved, he had already been defeated and killed by Magan.

He had been quite a wrinkled old man then, but seeing him young now suggested this was Hanso in his prime.

Zortu stroked his chin and looked at Hanso with a curious expression.

“The Hanso I know is a middle-aged man.”

“I see you haven’t properly grasped what kind of place this is yet.”

Zortu, angered by Hanso’s laughter that seemed inappropriate for such a young man, immediately swung his fist, but—

THWACK!

With a speed too fast to follow, Hanso’s fist had already struck Zortu’s solar plexus and withdrawn.

As Zortu fell to his knees, I turned my head slightly, thinking the outcome had been decided rather anticlimactically.

In truth, what had been catching my eye all along was the thoroughly broken woman.

‘There’s too little blood.’

Given her condition, the floor should have been soaked, yet very little blood flowed from her.

As I pondered this while checking on her, I noticed she had already crawled away toward her room, 108.

Creak.

Bang.

The woman, who had appeared certainly dead, entered her room without even a groan.

I had been sensing it, but now I was sure what kind of person she was.

‘A necromancer.’

I wasn’t certain whether that was her real body or a corpse she was using as a vessel.

Either way, it meant that despite Zortu’s efforts, the woman’s life wasn’t in serious danger.

“Urgh! Huurk!”

Meanwhile, Zortu was curled up and screaming, having received a few more blows from Hanso.

Then.

SHUNK!

A black blade erupted through Zortu’s hunched back, shattering his spine.

Hanso, who had been smirking, stepped back in surprise.

Zortu spat blood from both his back and mouth before closing his eyes, and behind him came the cold, measured footsteps of the 18-year-old Dark Spiritmaster.

“Noisy.”

At her chilling warning, all the other guests who had come out, except for Hanso, retreated back into their rooms.

The ominous energy unique to necromancers rippled through her shadow, spreading to the surroundings.

“No matter how evil a person may be, can you take a life so carelessly?”

Hanso, the only one who hadn’t backed down, frowned and warned her, but the Dark Spiritmaster didn’t flinch.

“No one treats life as casually as a necromancer.”

“I hope you treat your own life just as lightly.”

“Cutting your throat would be no different from slaughtering a chicken, you should know.”

As the two glared at each other without backing down, I watched silently.

Zortu’s blood, which had pooled on the floor, began to rise into the air and form words:

-22. Deceased guests leave behind rules they knew.

-23. The belongings of deceased guests remain in the mansion without an owner.

-24. When a guest dies, their room becomes accessible. Until then, entry is forbidden even with the room owner’s permission.

“So this is another way.”

The Dark Spiritmaster stroked her chin with interest as she observed the blood-formed letters floating in the air.

The bloody text that had been suspended in the air fell back to the floor, soaking Zortu’s body even more pitifully.

After confirming the rules, Hanso and the Dark Spiritmaster looked at each other again.

“If you’re thinking of killing someone else to learn more rules, I advise against it.”

In response to his stern warning, the Dark Spiritmaster gave a chilling sneer.

“From what I can see, this guy was also causing trouble because he just learned about other rules and wanted to use them.”

“…”

I thought the same.

It seemed reasonable that Zortu had realized he could learn rules and get rewards by killing guests, and had deliberately sought an opportunity.

Unable to deny this, Hanso pressed his lips together.

“It seems if someone has already discovered a rule, there’s no separate reward.”

The Dark Spiritmaster muttered, disappointed but noting she had learned something.

I realized again how different her demeanor was from the Dark Spiritmaster I knew, and she even warned me, who was standing neatly behind Hanso:

“I helped you earlier because we’re both necromancers. But if you get in my way, you’ll get the same treatment. Don’t expect special treatment.”

Seeing her bristling like a hedgehog made me immediately appreciate how much the Dark Spiritmaster had mellowed in my time.

But I didn’t particularly care.

That was closer to bluster than anything else.

She was warning that anyone who recklessly challenged her after discovering such life-threatening rules wouldn’t escape unharmed.

As I listened to her prickly words, I naturally turned my attention to Zortu, but thinking she was being ignored, the Dark Spiritmaster added:

“What? Afraid he’ll become an evil spirit? His type usually does whatever they want in life, so they don’t carry the kind of lingering attachments needed to become an evil spirit.”

She spoke dismissively, as the Dark Spiritmaster could only see evil spirits with strong attachments and grudges.

But with my spirit vision, I could naturally see all souls.

‘No soul is visible.’

I wasn’t sure if Zortu had been a soulless being, or if his soul had been absorbed somewhere before I could notice.

After all, Ophelia’s lover had also been soulless.

“Hmph, boring.”

When I showed no reaction, the Dark Spiritmaster headed upstairs to the second floor.

Come to think of it, she had first appeared coming down from the second floor, so I needed to check what was up there.

Just then, maids appeared from somewhere.

Dressed in neat, old-fashioned maid uniforms with skin so pale it looked white, perhaps from heavy makeup, they bowed deeply to Hanso and me.

“We will remove the corpse.”

“We apologize for the inconvenience.”

As I absently watched them clean the blood from the floor and remove Zortu’s body, Hanso approached me.

“Hello there, Room 110 means you have the last number.”

“I just arrived.”

“Hmm, might I know your name?”

Hanso asked politely.

It felt extremely strange knowing the fate of the man standing before me.

“Deus Verdi. I’m from Norsweden.”

“Norsweden? Griffin? I apologize. My knowledge is limited, and I don’t know who you are.”

Of course he wouldn’t know.

At Hanso’s current age, Deus hadn’t even been born yet.

Hanso probably knew this and was giving me an opportunity to introduce myself.

But my eyes kept drifting toward Zortu’s corpse rather than focusing on Hanso.

For some reason, I felt I shouldn’t take my eyes off it.

“Hmm? Is there a problem?”

I maintained my silence at Hanso’s chattering question, watching Zortu’s body being carried away on a stretcher.

I wondered where they were taking the corpse.

At that moment,

Drops of his blood fell to the floor and began to move, forming words:

-28. There are no servants in the Demon Realm.

Swish!

The maid’s mop instantly erased the words.

Slowly raising my gaze along the dirty mop, I found the pale maid’s round eyes staring directly at me.

With eyes so wide they looked like they might pop out if someone hit the back of her head, she stared at me like a doll, without blinking.

She was probably gauging whether I had seen the message.

Maintaining a poker face is, unfortunately, my specialty. Rather, I stared back at her as if asking what the problem was, and she tried to continue mopping the blood, but—

CRACKLE!

The space in front of me rippled, and then a long golden staff emerged.

The reward for discovering a rule had been granted.

“The Heavenly Void Staff?!”

Hanso exclaimed in surprise, recognizing the weapon.

But the chilling gazes of the two maids were already fixed on me.

“You saw it.”