Satahia, who had been looking around curiously, lit up at my words.
She had just turned her head when she suddenly came face-to-face with a massive object, and her expression immediately shifted into something serious.
“Demonization is essentially the result of being completely eroded by demonic aura. The target loses its original rationality, its body undergoes certain changes, and at the same time, the eroded person or monster gains demonic power.”
“Why does that sound a bit like that?” I muttered.
“That?”
“It’s a special transformation of magical girls.” Seeing Satahia’s innocent expression, I calmly explained without blushing or missing a beat.
When it looked like Satahia was about to ask more, I quickly steered the conversation back. “So it’s basically the same as demonic creatures, right?”
“It’s not the same. Demonic creatures are born that way. Demonized beings are mostly transformed through erosion by demonic aura, and their strength can even surpass natural demonic creatures.”
After hearing Satahia’s explanation, I more or less understood. One was naturally formed, while the other was artificially created.
“So that means the undead we saw earlier weren’t eroded deeply enough?”
“That makes this quest seem a bit difficult.”
Although the demonic aura inside the Mihri Ruins was unusually dense, the fact that no demonized creatures had emerged from the sheer number of undead earlier suggested that such monsters were quite rare.
Trying to find and kill demonized creatures amid swarms of undead would obviously be no easy task.
Just as I was thinking this, Satahia’s voice suddenly rang out from not far away, carrying a hint of surprise.
“Demon King, over here.”
At some point, she had already returned from the platform to the second-floor corridor of the building and was gesturing for me to look down.
Following Satahia’s gaze, I noticed that below us was a space resembling an indoor plaza.
At the center of the plaza, several silver-gray skeletons stood out starkly from the surrounding undead.
Two warriors, one mage, and one archer.
Demonized Undead Patrol Soldier: Level 20, HP: 1200/1200
Demonized Undead Archer: Level 20, HP: 1000/1000
Demonized Undead Mage: Level 20, HP: 800/800
The demonized creatures I had thought were scarce appeared all at once—four of them—and my eyes immediately lit up as I carefully observed them.
Compared to ordinary undead, their HP pools were much thicker, and their once-fragile bone frames now gleamed with a metallic sheen, looking far sturdier.
Their attack and defense had clearly been enhanced.
They probably still didn’t measure up to elite monsters, more like sub-elites, but there was also the possibility that they possessed special abilities.
“These four need to be dealt with,” I said. “The numbers are manageable for the two of us, and it’ll help us gauge the general strength of demonized creatures.”
“But there are quite a lot of monsters around them.” Satahia blinked as she looked at the undead wandering through the plaza.
After watching their patrol routes for a moment, I came up with an idea. “We can pull their aggro away.”
I thought for a bit, then took out an item from my backpack that looked small and animal-like.
In reality, it was something called a clockwork mechanism.
This was the most expensive one-time consumable Satahia had ever bought from a hidden shop, costing 20 silver coins.
It wasn’t always available either, due to its powerful aggro-attraction ability.
I wound the spring on its back, set the route, and tossed it down into the plaza.
Click.
As it landed with a solid sound, the clockwork mechanism immediately began darting through the plaza at incredible speed.
In an instant, it attracted the aggro of every undead in the area, drawing them toward the outside of the building.
Naturally, that included the four demonized creatures, but thanks to the route I had deliberately set, they ended up trailing at the very back.
“The clockwork mechanism can probably last two to three minutes at most. Satahia, deal with the mage first and draw their aggro,” I instructed, switching to my Rogue class as I spoke.
I vaulted over the railing, landed lightly, and quickly slipped into stealth as I closed in.
Satahia acknowledged, raised her hand, and began preparing a spell.
After a brief incantation, a flame-wreathed bird streaked through the air and slammed into the demonized undead mage whose aggro had been pulled.
Flame Pigeon.
One of the Fire Mage’s highest-damage skills at Level 10, and in Satahia’s hands, it became outright lethal.
-417
The flames collided with the demonized undead mage’s skeleton and erupted into brilliant sparks, tearing away nearly half its HP.
Not only that, but fragments from the explosion splashed onto the other three demonized undead, causing damage numbers in the low hundreds to appear.
Their aggro immediately snapped toward Satahia, and they began striding in her direction.
Although this inevitably drew the attention of over a dozen ordinary undead, it was still within a controllable range.
While Satahia prepared her second spell, I had already slipped behind the undead mage.
I raised my dagger and drove it straight into its fragile spine.
Stun.
A stun icon popped up over the mage’s head, and my hands didn’t stop moving.
With horizontal slashes and vertical thrusts, I unleashed my remaining four skills within just two seconds.
Backstab, Gouge, Bone Pick, Strangle.
With the right movements in between, this formed the fastest early-game burst combo for a Rogue—the same combo I had used earlier to instantly kill that unfortunate thief.
What I didn’t expect was that after all four hits, the demonized undead mage still wasn’t dead.
Its HP dropped to 1, and a transparent shield appeared around its body.
It was obvious that my supposedly lethal damage had all been absorbed by that shield.
So this was the demonic power it possessed?
Just as I realized this, the two nearby undead patrol soldiers swung their blades at me.
I snapped back to my senses and used Blink to retreat, avoiding being surrounded by ordinary undead at the same time.
-97
Unfortunately, the moment I landed, a sharp arrow pierced straight through my arm, instantly wiping out a quarter of my HP.
Guaranteed hit!?
I downed a health potion and looked toward the undead archer in the distance.
For veteran archers from my previous life, predicting a target’s landing point wasn’t difficult.
But for a mindless skeleton, it should have been impossible.
That left only one explanation.
I had to take that one out first.
“Satahia, fire wall. The mage is yours,” I ordered through the party channel, slipping back into stealth at the same time.
“Understood, Demon King.” Though deeply curious about adventurers’ abilities, Satahia knew better than to mess around at a time like this.
Scorching flames surged up from the ground, instantly forming two intersecting walls that cut off more than a dozen monsters in the plaza.
With the demonized patrol soldiers and other undead temporarily restrained, it was the perfect chance to close in.
Even if the process looked a bit rough.
An arrow shot through the flames and buried itself deep into my shoulder.
“So even stealth doesn’t work?” I frowned, breaking out of stealth.
I avoided an attack from a nearby undead assassin, used an Instant Recovery Potion, and continued charging toward the far side of the fire wall.
At that moment, another sharp whistling sound split the air.
The demonized undead archer had clearly drawn its bow again.
But I had already caught the trajectory.
Without hesitation, I used Shadow Assault toward a specific direction, taking advantage of its invincibility to avoid the damage while instantly closing in behind my target.
Sudden position changes always caused a brief moment of disorientation.
The sensation of my blade piercing bone, however, was unmistakably real.
Even though my skills were still on cooldown, a Rogue never lacked ways to attack.
Especially a Rogue with extensive experience in hunting and dueling.
No Stun? Then elbow strike it was.
As control landed, I followed up with Backstab, whose cooldown was extremely short, and then Bleed.
Skeleton-type enemies didn’t have blood, so the bleeding effect wouldn’t apply.
But all I needed was the skill damage.
The control duration from Elbow Strike wasn’t as long as Stun, and the demonized undead archer quickly recovered.
I tanked its close-range attack head-on, then finished off its remaining HP with a basic attack followed by a freshly cooled-down Gouge.
[System]: Over-level monster kill bonus 200%. Gained 1800 XP.
It seemed that compared to ordinary undead, the experience rewards were several times richer.
Looking over at Satahia, she had already finished off the mage and the remaining ordinary undead.
Only two demonized undead patrol soldiers remained, charging toward me after the fire wall’s duration ended.
Against heavy warriors, the usual approach was warrior versus warrior.
Clearly, I didn’t have the power to face two patrol soldiers head-on, so after waiting for combat to disengage, I immediately switched to Dark Word Mage—my most familiar class.
Repulsion Aura.
A pale gray aura bloomed around me, instantly pushing back the two charging patrol soldiers.
At the same time, Dark Word Imprint spread beneath them, enveloping both within its explosion range.
-181
-132
Two damage numbers appeared simultaneously, and I immediately noticed something odd.
There was a clear difference in the damage they took.
Did one of the patrol soldiers have magic damage reduction?
Just as I realized this, I caught movement at the entrance of the plaza.
Damn it, the monsters lured away by the clockwork mechanism had dropped aggro.
I immediately shifted my attacks to the patrol soldier on my left.
“Satahia, focus fire on the target I’m marking. The other one has magic damage reduction.”