The carriage rattled over the cracked obsidian road of Nokaar.
I leaned back, rubbing my eyes. My vision was tinged with a faint green hue. This was [Night Vision]—a natural racial trait for High Demons. It was useful for seeing in the dark, volcanic smog of Gehenna, but it gave me a headache if I kept it active for too long.
"We have arrived, My Lord," the driver called out, his voice trembling.
I stepped out onto the jagged cliffside.
Below us lay the Deadlands. Above, the crimson moon of the Demon Realm cast a blood-red light over the valley. And right in front of us stood my new home: Castle Nokaar.
"Wow," I said flatly. "It's a dump."
It was a ruin. The main tower had collapsed. The walls were full of holes. But as I looked at it, I brought up my System Interface.
This blue window was my secret. In this world, nobody else saw floating text boxes.
The people of Aethelgard measured power in Stages:
Warriors use Aura: Ranked from 1-Star (Soldier) to 9-Star (Demigod).
Mages use Mana: Ranked from 1st Circle (Apprentice) to 9th Circle (Archmage).
A 3-Star Warrior could smash a boulder. A 6-Star could cut a building in half.
But my System? It translated their vague "feeling" of power into hard math.
I looked at Malak, the Necromancer we had just "hired."
[Name: Malak the Rot]
[Class: Necromancer]
[Rank: 3rd Circle Mage (Approx. Level 30)]
3rd Circle, I thought. That makes him dangerous to normal people, but weak compared to the High Nobles who are usually 6th or 7th Circle.
And me?
[Valerius Lucifer]
[Strength: 7]
[Mana: Level 3]
"I'm barely a 1-Star Warrior," I sighed. "If a real fight breaks out, I'm toast."
"Master!" Malak scrambled down from the carriage roof. "Shall I summon the cleaning crew? I can raise some Ghouls to scrub the floors."
"Do it," I ordered. "And fix the throne room. It has a tree growing in it."
"At once!"
I walked toward the castle gates. Rax, my lizardman servant, was clinging to my coat.
"Master, please," Rax whimpered. "We cannot stay here. This place sits on a Mana Well. The Dungeon in the basement never stops spawning monsters!"
I stopped. "A dungeon?"
"Yes! The Crypt of the Forgotten. Monsters crawl up the stairs at night and eat people!"
I smiled. A slow, predatory smile.
To Rax, a dungeon was a death trap. To me? It was an XP Farm.
"Rax," I patted his head. "Unpack the bags. I'm going to check on the basement."
[The Castle Basement - Entrance to the Crypt]
The air down here was freezing. The stone stairs spiraled into darkness.
I stood at the heavy iron door. It was dented from the inside.
I pushed it open. Creak.
[Entering Zone: Crypt of the Forgotten (Floor 1)]
[Recommended Strength: 15 (1-Star Warrior)]
"Recommended Strength 15," I muttered. "I only have 7."
Technically, I shouldn't be here. But I had [Gluttony].
Click. Clack.
From the shadows, five figures emerged. Armored Skeletons. They wore rusted breastplates and carried heavy axes.
[Enemy: Armored Skeleton]
[Estimated Power: High 1-Star]
They saw me. Their eye sockets flared with blue ghost-fire. They charged.
I didn't draw a weapon. I didn't have one.
"Let's test the scaling," I whispered.
[Gluttony: Devour Mode.]
I extended my hand. My shadow didn't just cast on the floor; it coated my arm like a gauntlet of black liquid.
The first skeleton swung its axe.
A normal human with Strength 7 would have been cut in half. But I didn't block with my arm; I blocked with the Authority.
CRUNCH.
The iron axe hit my shadow-gauntlet and shattered. The shadow "ate" the kinetic energy and the metal essence instantly.
"Nice," I grinned.
I lunged forward and grabbed the skeleton's skull.
"Mine."
SLURP.
The shadow surged. The skeleton dissolved into dust.
[Consumed: Armored Skeleton]
[+1 Strength]
I felt a jolt of electricity in my muscles. My Strength jumped to 8.
"So that's how it works," I realized. "I don't need to train for ten years to become a 2-Star Warrior. I just need to eat a hundred of these guys."
The other four skeletons rushed me.
I laughed.
I dodged a spear (thanks to my high Agility), swept the legs of a zombie, and slammed my palm into its chest. Gone.
I ducked under a sword and uppercut a skeleton. Consumed.
In two minutes, the hallway was empty.
[Combat Ends.]
[Results: Strength +3, Agility +1]
I dusted off my hands. "I'm almost at 1-Star level already."
I walked to the end of the hallway. There, sitting on a stone pedestal, was a chest.
"Loot time."
I kicked the lid open.
Inside, resting on a velvet cushion, was...
A Smartphone.
"What..." I whispered, picking it up. It was a sleek, black rectangle. The screen was cracked, the battery dead.
I turned it over. Scratched into the metal case on the back were words in English:
"If you can read this, run. - K." *
My blood ran cold.
Another transmigrator? Before me? "K"?
Suddenly, this fun RPG world felt a lot more dangerous. If "K" had a System too... and he died... then I wasn't invincible.
"Well," I said to the empty darkness. "It seems I have a predecessor. And judging by the fact that his phone is in a loot chest... he probably didn't get a happy ending."
I pocketed the phone.
"I need to charge this," I muttered. "And to do that, I need money to buy a lightning crystal."
I turned back to the stairs.
Leveling up was nice. But now I needed cash.