The Demon King is Unfathomable
Chapter 13: Overcoming the Bottleneck! Here Come the Players!

“Call me demon king.”

An authoritative voice echoed throughout the pitch-black tunnel, like a warm wind blowing against those ghastly pale faces.

Chris fell to her knees with fear inscribed in her eyes. Despite the many years she had spent adventuring, this was her first time seeing the legendary demon king.

To survive, she forsook her dignity and pressed her forehead firmly against the ground.

“D-D-Demon King, I was blind and foolish! P-please have mercy on me…”

She had no idea what the other party had done, perhaps due to her lack of understanding of necromancy, but for some reason, she couldn’t exert even an ounce of strength. She wobbled even in a kneeling position.

Tears, snot, and saliva flowed freely.

Even her crotch was wet.

This could have been the side effect of ‘Soul Siphon’. Losing too much of her life force could have eroded her self-control.

Roan also noticed that his faith had stopped growing.

‘Looks like there’s only so much energy a person can offer… Perhaps it’s tied to their soul tier.’

His gaze slowly fell on each member of the Silver Scimitar.

His earlier declaration was intended to engage the players rather than terrorize these small fry.

When he brought out the crystal sphere, the number of online players in 《Calamity Online》 quickly shot up. These players then charged back to the official forum to rant.

“Holy shit holy shit holy shit!”

“What’s going on?!”

“Is the server about to be opened?!”

“Let me out! Let me out! (Shrieks)”

The ruckus they kicked up was reminiscent of homeless undead.

Roan first eyed the prostrating adventurers before glancing at the skeleton soldiers. It just so happened that the undead he had summoned via the demon king domain’s core numbered a hundred!

These skeleton soldiers were standing in a daze, awaiting his orders.

As the most elementary necromancer summon, the initial stats of a skeleton soldier was even lower than that of an old farmer—2/3/1/0/0. (T/N: Constitution/ Strength/ Agility/ Intelligence/ Psyche) ṟ

Their lack of intelligence meant they could only carry out basic orders, so they often served as cannon fodder to draw firepower on the battlefield.

According to the Calamity system, he could transfer the players from the Soul Mirror into the skeletons through a ritual. That would allow these skeletons to grow like natural-born undead. They would be able to level up and execute more complicated orders.

What if the undead refused to listen?

Roan didn’t have a solution to that. It was his first time being a demon king and 《Calamity Online》’s dogshit developer.

‘I’ll take a step at a time!’

“…I hope you’ll be useful.”

He opened his suitcase to take out a mana chalk. He first drew a perfect circle before filling the inside. When he was finally done, he placed the turbid crystal sphere into the formation.

A dim green light glowed, adding a sinister air to the atmosphere.

Chris widened her eyes in terror. She wanted to know what was going on but dared not open her mouth.

Roan clapped his hand, and the green light in the magic formation receded.

“Come out, my claws.”

Sssss—

Sparks emerged from the crystal sphere and first revolved around the magic formation before scattering like fireworks. These fireworks surged toward the skeleton soldiers, diving accurately into their skulls.

Seconds later, the skeleton soldiers jolted violently like they were being electrocuted. Their joints began creaking.

Hugo eyed the pickaxe pressing against his neck as his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. He was frightened that these skeletons would suddenly hack his head off.

Fortunately, the skeleton soldiers’ abnormal condition didn’t last long, and they soon reverted to normalcy.

But the normalcy only lasted a few short seconds.

The skeletons in the tunnel suddenly swung their creaking arms around and cheered.

“GRARRRRR!”

“All hail the dogshit developers!”

“I can move now!”

“Shit! Why am I a skeleton?!”

“Where are the succubuses?! I don’t want to be a skeleton! I want to be a succubus!”

“Boo! Why don’t I have a dick?”

“Pants… Wait, where are my pants?! This is bullshit! How am I supposed to take off my pants when I don’t have any on?!”

“Wuuu… It’s real! A full-immersion, virtual reality, online game… I never thought I would get to play it in my lifetime!”

The skeleton soldiers roared and danced all around the tunnel as if possessed.

Roan understood the players’ words, and he had expected this level of jubilance from them too. He had been the one hyping them up for this, after all.

However, the members of the Silver Scimitar felt completely different about this situation.

They couldn’t comprehend the skeleton soldiers’ words, or rather, they weren’t even sure whether they were communicating or not. The creaking noises produced by the skeletons just sounded like friction to them.

The dancing skeletons renewed Hugo’s fear, and he mustered all his strength to pull away from the skeletons.

It was the same for Chris too. Her sanity took a nosedive when she saw the skeleton soldiers approaching her, their jaws moving incessantly as if they were going to devour her. In the end, her eyes rolled up and she fainted.

The skeleton players hadn’t expected this game to be so realistic, and they were hurt when they saw an NPC fainting because of them.

Orcknight: “Damn! Did we scare her unconscious?”

Minowarrior: “It’s all your fault, you ugly freak!”

Orcknight: “Fck! You speak as if you’re some hot stuff!”

Orcknight: “%￥#@!”

The two skeletons frantically moved their lower jaws, spitting non-existent saliva at each other.

Meanwhile, several other skeletons noticed Bant’s corpse.

Some of them retched at the sight of his mashed-up corpse, having never seen such gore before. However, some daring ones also squatted down and observed him in interest.

“Uweh!”

“Disgusting!”

“Does this game not censor at all?!”

“Come out, dogshit developer! I swear I won’t beat you up!”

“Ey, this guy died in such a pitiful manner.”

“Wait a second… my pickaxe has blood on it. Did I kill him?”

While a group of skeletons were commenting on the corpse, a skeleton suddenly exclaimed in delight, “Look what I’ve found!”

The other skeletons looked over.

The skeleton raised the retro flintlock he had picked from the ground. It was probably a loot from the corpse.

“There must be bullets on him.”

“Quick, look for it!”

Seeing that someone had already picked up equipment, the other skeletons realized they were too passive in their play style.

They quickly snapped out of their daze and searched the corpse. It only took them moments to strip the heap of meat paste.

It could have been due to the game framing, but these players displayed no fear or disgust when ‘picking loot’. That saved Roan a lot of trouble.

Thinking back on how he had struggled when he first learned necromancy, he couldn’t help but be impressed by them.

When the last player logged into the game, an ink-green notification popped before Roan.

【Mission: Prepare mobile bodies for the gamers (100/100) (Completed!)】

【Reward: 10,000 Faith】

10,000 faith was added to Roan’s account.

Without any hesitation, Roan opened his character page and tapped on the ‘Upgrade’ button for his soul tier.

The moment he tapped the button, a surge of ink-green energy flowed out of nowhere and gushed into his chest. The satisfaction he felt from the enrichment of his soul was so intense that he unknowingly let out a pleasurable groan.

‘Ahhh, this feels so good! My body and mind have never felt better!’

Before the players’ eyes, Roan completed his evolution from Copper-tier to Steel-tier!

His overflowing experience points immediately propped him up from LV30 to LV31, crushing the bottleneck he had been stuck at for the longest time.

【ID: Roan

Race: Human

Soul Tier: Steel (Level Cap: 50)

Level: 31 (+1)

Experience Points: 0/300,000

HP: 1300/1300 (+500)

MP: 3600/3600 (+1000)

Constitution: 13 (+5)

Strength: 13 (+5)

Agility: 13 (+5)

Intelligence: 35 (+10)

Psyche: 36 (+10)】

Roan was so moved by his updated character page that he nearly burst into tears.

After eighteen years, he finally broke through the Copper-tier ceiling limiting him!

He had no idea when he reached the limits of Copper-tier, and he didn’t want to waste his time figuring that out either. He just wanted to quietly enjoy this moment, as his cells were nourished by powerful energy.

It might sound like an exaggeration, but that was how he felt in this instant.

“…I didn’t expect a breakthrough from LV30 to LV31 to grant me so many stats. That’s an entire 25 stat points!! I wonder how many stats I will earn from overcoming Steel-tier.”

With the massive growth in his psyche, Roan couldn’t wait to try out the Steel-tier spells he had learned long ago but couldn’t use due to his lacking mana.

Just then, an ugly skeleton soldier staggered up to him, got down on a knee, and said creakingly, “Esteemed Demon King, I am your loyal servant, Autumnleaf! I already know the mission I shoulder, so please skip the background introduction and assign me any task!”