After creating a bloodbath, Seo Jun-Ho went back to Paradise and began to rescue the imprisoned Players.

“Sob… I thought I was going to die here…”

“Thank you so much. Thank you…!”

“P-please help me out, too!”

The people who had been recently kidnapped were in a comparatively better state than the others. At the very least, they could all use human speech.

The issue was with those—those who had been here for a long time.

“Eu…Grrr…”

“Kaaaak!” 

They were restrained on their beds, with dozens of needles piercing their skin. They all had red eyes, and part of their bodies had transformed to resemble a monster’s.

‘This is…’ 

They hadn’t just been fed demon’s blood. Just like the way the fiends implanted demon jade in monsters, these were the remnants of a human experiment trying to fuse Players and monsters into one.

“What would you like me to do?” he asked respectfully after removing their bindings.

“Guuuooo.”

The Players had been subjected to human experiments by the fiends and even had their skills extracted. They couldn’t even speak like humans anymore, but thankfully their intelligence remained intact.

“...I see.”

Seo Jun-Ho unsheathed his sword, looking conflicted. There was a mixture of sadness and gratefulness as tears fell down the monsters’ faces,

‘A lot of blood was spilled today.’ 

There wasn’t even time for the blood on his blade to dry.

As the air around him grew heavy, the healthier survivors hesitantly approached him.

“Um… We will bury them.”

“You rescued us and even gave us food, so this is the least we can do.”

“...I’ll be counting on you, then,” Seo Jun-Ho said.

They dug a hole on the grounds of Paradise and began to bury the Players who had chosen to die as humans. Seo Jun-Ho watched them for a bit and silently headed up to the upper floor.

‘The people of the empire should be up here.’ 

He did a lap around the floor and let out a sigh of relief. “I did see this in Guladin’s memories, but…”

The nobles were in a lot better shape compared to the Players, as they didn’t become fiends even after drinking demon’s blood.

‘But…’ 

Instead, they were suffering from pain worse than death. Their broken screams ringing across the entire floor were proof of that.

“I should hurry.”

Seo Jun-Ho rushed over.

***

According to Guladin’s memories, they had recently captured over a hundred people of the empire. However, when Seo Jun-Ho arrived, only thirty-two of them were still breathing.

“Phew…”

[Magic power increased by 0.1.]

[Magic power increased by 0.4.]

[Magic power increased by 0.2.]

…

For two hours, Seo Jun-Ho worked busily to save them. He succeeded without a single casualty. Thanks to that, the survivors fell asleep with peaceful faces for the first time in a long time.

“...Today was exhausting.” Seo Jun-Ho slumped into a chair, looking tired. The day started with a battle, and then there was a chase, massacre, rescue, and even treatment… It had been a while since he thought about the old days like he did tonight. “I must be getting old. Back then, this was my everyday life, but now, I’m already tired.”

“You would be a monster if you were not tired after everything. You did well today. Very well, indeed.” The Frost Queen was usually stingy with her compliments, but even she gave him two thumbs up.

“There’s still some time until Gilberto gets here…”

The Players seemed to have finished burying the others, and now, they were carrying the empire’s people down the stairs. As they did, a few people approached Seo Jun-Ho and gave him something.

“Um… This is my Guild’s business card. Please contact me in the future. I won’t forget what you’ve done.”

“If you ever come to the States, please contact me ahead of time. The Association will give you the best of service.”

The Players started to thank him after belatedly pulling themselves together.

“I will…”

Seo Jun-Ho turned his back on their kind, respectful gazes and went up to the uppermost floor. His destination was the Chef’s office, which was located there. The door opened with a creak, revealing a tidy kitchen.

“Contractor. Why is this person using a kitchen interior in his office?”

“...He’s the real deal.”

This was true lunacy, one that couldn’t be imitated by those only half-mad.

Seo Jun-Ho marveled as he slowly began to search the office. There was only one thing he was looking for in this room.

‘Higher Level.’ 

The bait that had caught the Players and the citizens of the empire. Seo Jun-Ho didn’t believe it existed before reading Guladin’s memories. ‘

I thought it was a scam to lure Players and people who wanted to become stronger…’ 

However, he was mistaken.

“I didn’t think this actually existed.”

“But it is such an amazing item… Shouldn’t the fiends have taken them all already?”

“I don’t know.” Seo Jun-Ho shook his head. The potions the Chef had released to the market thus far were all of the lowest grades. “At best, it raised an F-grade skill to D-grade or created a new F-grade skill. It was only at that level.”

Still, even that was an incredible item enough to shake up the market. However, the Chef didn’t want money. He wanted to create the highest dish.

“The Chef was ordered by the Heavenly Demon to flawlessly recreate my—Specter’s—skill.”

“But the Heavenly Demon is dead…” The Frost Queen pointed out.

“Well, the Chef has already spent over ten years researching this, so I guess it felt like a waste to just abandon it.”

The Chef had attempted to create Watchguard of Darkness by combining various skills, but he failed every time. So, he created Higher Level as the second-best solution.

“How is that the second-best solution?” the Frost Queen asked.

“Well… Before I met you, I fought two fiends called the Shadow Brothers at the Eastern Sea Gate.” They had received shadow elemental skills from the Chef. “But the Chef called them failures.”

Compared to Watchguard of Darkness, their shadow-based skills were extremely weak. The Chef had to have come to a conclusion after continuous failures.

“If he couldn’t make the perfect darkness-based skill, he would try to use the shadow element once more, even though he had already considered them failures in the past.”

“Hmm, so he was trying to force the shadow element to reach a higher level.”

“Everyone knows that Watchguard of Darkness is S-grade. That was his goal,” Seo Jun-Ho explained.

If you told a Player that there was a potion that could raise a skill from A-grade to S, they would point at you and laugh.

“But… He managed to do it,” the Frost Queen said.

“That’s the point.” Though others may not know, Guladin knew of a specific potion that the Chef had recently made. “A Higher Level of the highest grade can raise an A-grade skill to S-grade.”

If it were offered at an auction, the bids would easily be in the billions.

“Ah, so…”

“I was hoping that there might be at least one here,” Seo Jun-Ho said. Of course, there was a high probability that there wasn’t any of that potion here. If it was such an incredible potion, the Chef had to be carrying it on his person around the clock.

‘But he may have stored one of them in a safe place.’ 

And that safe place was none other than a hidden safe.

Click. Click Click. 

Seo Jun-Ho turned the gas burners in the correct order, and the wall opened to reveal a safe. He was very lucky that Guladin had seen the Chef take out the safe before.

“But what will you do now?” the Frost Queen asked. Obviously, Guladin had no idea of the password. “According to the video, this safe scans his body, fingerprint, and iris, does it not?”

“Of course, it does.” If even one of the three were missing, the safe would disappear into an artificial space the Chef owned.

Seo Jun-Ho clicked his tongue. “Hm, how should I do this?” The cake was right in front of him, but he couldn’t eat it. It was more frustrating than if there was no cake at all.

“Do you think Freeze would work?”

“Yeah, it does ignore the attributes of the target… But the demonic energy protecting the safe is too powerful.”

“Still, you should try it. ‘Just do it’, right?”

“Where did you hear—never mind. That’s not important right now.’

As she said, if Freeze didn’t work, he wouldn’t be able to open the safe at all.

Seo Jun-Ho’s hands became enveloped in a jet-black energy as he took hold of the safe. As he did, three messages appeared before him.

[Body scan failed.]

[Fingerprint scan failed.]

[Retinal scan failed.]

“Dammit!”

He watched as demonic energy exploded, about to swallow the safe.

[The effects of Demons’ Foe have been activated.]

[Demon’s Bane has suppressed the demonic energy.]

“...Huh?”

A pure energy poured out of his body, preventing the demonic energy from coming any closer.

“Contractor! Hurry! The box!” the Frost Queen urged. And as if he were possessed, Seo Jun-Ho reached out and ripped off the safe’s door, which resulted in three items falling out of the safe.

“A money pouch… And two wooden boxes?”

Just as he caught them, the demonic energy inched closer and engulfed the safe. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared without a trace. Seo Jun-Ho stared blankly at the space where the safe had been.

“I see. Demon’s Bane has the power to suppress demonic energy,” the Frost Queen remarked.

“Wait… this is so sudden.”

The effects were similar to the Blue Dragon Sword, which he had used to fight the Heavenly Demon.

‘Oh, now that I think about it, I think it was described as a sword that purifies all evil.’

How had he forgotten that?

He looked dejected, but the Frost Queen tugged at his sleeve. “Contractor, open the box and let us see what is inside. I am very curious.”

“Just a second.” Seo Jun-Ho quickly evaluated the wooden box.

“Item information.”

[Higher Level]

Grade: Unique

Effect: Raises an A-grade skill to an S-grade skill.

[Higher Level]

Grade: Rare

Effect: Raises a C-grade skill to a B-grade skill.

“Oh! Ohhh!”

“Wahhh!”

Both the human and the Spirit screamed as they hugged each other.

“Contractor, you are a genius! How did you know that these would be here?!”

“I-I didn’t! But they really were here!”

He collected the items and erased his traces from the room whilst in a daze.

“You are quite thorough,” the Frost Queen commented.

“I have to be. Once this is over, the Chef will definitely return to Paradise.”

“I am sure he will. After all, he left those items in the safe.”

And when he saw that the safe in his space had been stripped clean, he would surely go on a rampage.

“What a shame. If I knew this would happen, I would’ve left a note in the safe.”

“A note? What would you have written?”

Seo Jun-Ho grinned, feeling the weight of the wooden boxes in his pockets.

“To come find me if he had any complaints.”

***

Gilberto brought back the knights of Dustang instead of Players. He had decided that he shouldn’t bring with him Players from a city where he had no idea who was a fiend and who wasn’t.

“Things worked out well, thanks to you,” he said.

“I don’t know, I think I should be the one saying that,” Seo Jun-Ho replied.

“Zzz…” The Frost Queen had started to doze off like a baby chick as soon as they mounted the carriage. Now, she was asleep.

Seo Jun-Ho covered her with her blanket and took out a wooden box. “Here, take this?”

“What is it?”

“Higher Level.”

Gilberto stiffened. “...I can’t accept this.”

“No, take it.” Seo Jun-Ho didn’t back down. “Listen, I already got my own Higher Level, and it’s a lot better than yours.”

“I still can’t. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that you did all the work today.”

“Hm, that’s weird. I’m pretty sure I got scolded a few hours ago for not listening to other people’s opinions and making decisions by myself.”

“...”

“You really helped me a lot today. You deserve this.”

“I would still rather have you take it.”

“Look, it’s not like that. This is a potion that raises a C-grade skill to B-grade. But the only C-grade Skill I have right now is Thunder Resistance,” he reasoned. Even if he raised the rank of a resistance-type skill, he still wouldn’t get to use it often. Meanwhile, Gilberto had plenty of useful C-grade skills. “See? Don’t you think you should take it now?”

“...” Gilberto hesitated for a moment before letting out a long sigh and taking the box. “When it comes to you, I have always been on the receiving end of things.”

“...I don’t think that’s true.”

“What do you mean?”

“Dunno,” Seo Jun-Ho said coolly.

He closed his eyes. He was too shy to thank Gilberto again for his hurtful but critical advice.