Level Up Machine

Chapter 56 Armor of the Demon God (1)

The Northern Border.

It was a place known as the frontline where fierce battles were fought against powerful monsters descending from the north. Before the Earthlings came to the continent of Elnore, the monsters from the north had first attacked the Ingrimum Empire located in the center of the continent.

At that time, other nations, unaware of the seriousness of the situation, welcomed the monster invasion. They anticipated the weakening of the Ingrimum Empire, which held the most power on the continent.

This led to a major problem. Contrary to expectations, the Ingrimum Empire, which was thought to be capable of wiping out the invading monsters, collapsed due to the invasion.

The monsters that took over the central part of the continent split into three directions, simultaneously attacking the east, south, and west of the continent.

As the forces were divided, the strength of the monsters was significantly reduced, but the monsters remained powerful. The horde of monsters, strong to the point of being considered ‘abnormal,’ continued to occupy the east, south, and west with unstoppable force.

In the south, where the powerful Arnarn Empire was located, the monster attacks were somewhat successfully repelled, but the east and west were a different story. The west, in particular, was driven to the brink of annihilation by the monsters.

In this dire situation, the Earthlings began to appear. Utilizing their high levels, they drove away the monsters that were attacking various regions of the continent.

However, even with the power of the summoners, it was impossible to completely eradicate the monsters. The summoners borrowed the strength of the various nations to construct a massive wall.

Thus, the ‘Northern Border’ was created.

It was humanity’s final line of defense against the monsters that had already taken over the central part of the continent.

In the eastern part of the continent, three nations stood in a line, forming a diagonal Northern Border. The forces from the Ixion Kingdom in the north, the Elnote Kingdom in the center, and the Marsia Kingdom in the south maintained the Northern Border.

The center of the Northern Border in the eastern part of the continent, held by the Elnote Kingdom.

Various guilds, led by one of the three major guilds, the Leviathan Guild, and the Elnote Kingdom army were engaged in fierce battles against the monsters trying to cross the Northern Border.

Even in normal times, the place was frequently the scene of intense clashes with monsters, and now, horrifying screams echoed through the area.

“Ahhhhh!”

“Damn it! Hold them off!”

A ferocious fire blazed at the defensive line composed of the Elnote Kingdom army and the summoners. The intense heat was incinerating the bodies of the summoners.

“Where is the Leviathan Guild!”

A woman wearing a robe adorned with a red rose emblem shouted urgently. She was from the Red Rose Guild, one of the Six Strongest Guilds.

“All the core members of Leviathan have left on an expedition to a newly discovered dungeon!”

“Damn it! Why now of all times!”

A stream of harsh curses flowed from the mouth of Park Seol-yeon, the guild master of Red Rose. She grasped her blue-tinted hair with a desperate expression.

“Why is such a monster here…”

She muttered in a terrified voice as she gazed beyond the fierce flames.

Although the Northern Border held by the Elnote Kingdom was centered around the Leviathan Guild, it wasn’t supposed to collapse so disastrously just because the Leviathan Guild was temporarily absent.

At the Northern Border, there was the Andras Knights, an elite unit of the kingdom’s army composed of natives, and the Red Rose Guild, one of the Six Strongest Guilds. In addition to these, several elite guilds maintained the stability of the Elnote Kingdom’s Northern Border.

However, this stability crumbled with the appearance of one group of monsters.

“Dra…gon…ians…”

Park Seol-yeon muttered the name of the beings she saw beyond the flames with a horrified expression.

Dragonian.

They were extremely powerful monsters also known as Dragonfolk. Though they resembled Lizardmen, with a mix of reptilian and human features, they were on an entirely different level.

Their powerful bodies, infused with dragon’s blood, were covered in scales so tough that non-magical weapons couldn’t even scratch them. Each individual could engage in devastating melee combat and cast powerful spells, and they could even use a limited form of dragon breath, making them high-level monsters.

It took a party of at least six summoners of level 90 or higher to barely handle a single Dragonian, yet here, there were 30 of them appearing at once.

Among them, one figure stood at the center like a boss monster, and with its formidable breath attack, it broke through the Northern Border in an instant.

As the Northern Border fell, hundreds of monsters, as if waiting for this moment, rushed towards the wall. With the Leviathan Guild, the strongest force, absent, the Northern Border began to collapse rapidly.

“There haven’t been any boss monsters for a while…”

Park Seol-yeon murmured anxiously.

The appearance of a Dragonian boss monster was a bolt from the blue for the summoners who had let their guard down due to the lack of boss monsters in recent months.

“Guild Master! The third defensive line has fallen!”

A man approached her with an urgent expression, shouting.

Park Seol-yeon bit her lip harshly and opened her mouth.

“Spread the retreat order.”

“What? B-but if we do that…”

“Do you want to be annihilated right now?”

She snapped at him with a sharp expression. The man shook his head with a stiff expression.

“…Understood.”

Letting out a deep sigh, Park Seol-yeon turned her back on the battlefield where a fierce battle was raging.

* * *

Beyond the endlessly burning flames, a Dragonian stood with arms crossed, looking down at the battlefield with a ferocious gaze. The Dragonian, with an impressive large scar across its chest, was named Lekras.

He was the one who had created this horrific battlefield.

“Lekras, the human troops are retreating.”

A Dragonian who approached and knelt beside him spoke.

“Good.”

Lekras, with scales glowing red as if they would burst into flames and muscles bulging threateningly, murmured in a low voice.

“Rally the troops.”

“Yes, sir!”

The Dragonian who respectfully answered Lekras stomped his foot and roared. The ferocious roar spread across the battlefield, piercing the ears of the rampaging monsters.

The monsters halted their destructive actions and quickly gathered under Lekras.

Though he was only about two meters tall, relatively small for a monster, few could resist his command.

Hundreds of monsters bowed their heads before Lekras. He looked down at the monsters gathered in front of him with a sharp gaze.

“Our goal is singular! To kill all the humans hiding behind that crude wall, trembling in fear!”

-Roar!

-Grrr!

At his intense proclamation, the monsters howled and cheered. Lekras’s words, promising the ultimate prey and the chance to unleash their boundless destructive urges, naturally stirred the monsters into a frenzy.

“Go! Kill the humans! Break down the walls! Burn the cities!”

-Thud!

Lekras stomped the ground fiercely as he shouted. A massive ring of flames spread out around him. The monsters roared again, exhilarated by his powerful aura that made their skin tingle.

Lekras looked down at the monsters enveloped in madness and kept his mouth firmly shut.

Then, a peculiar question flitted through his mind. It was an odd question, out of place in the current situation.

‘Why am I trying to kill humans now?’

“Grrr?”

Lekras grimaced at the headache that started pounding in his head. Why was he trying to kill the humans? The answer was simple.

Because he had to. Because he was ordered to kill them.

‘By whom?’

Lekras’s face twisted with a complex expression. The only being capable of giving him orders was Kargas, the master of his soul.

But Kargas did not issue such meaningless orders to kill humans. To the ancient dragon who had lived for millennia, humans were insignificant.

If not Kargas, then who?

An endless chain of questions trailed through his mind. Lekras clutched his head, his headache growing worse. It felt like he was walking into a labyrinth shrouded in thick fog.

In that fog, a vague figure emerged.

The scar on his chest started to burn.

“Ugh…”

As he recalled the vague figure, Lekras’s body began to tremble violently. An overwhelming fear, a soul-crushing terror, pressed down on him.

It was a fear he had only felt when he first met Kargas. No, it was even greater than that.

“Grrr…”

Lekras stopped thinking there. He had a feeling that if he continued, he would “deviate.”

“Kill the humans.”

Lekras’s eyes twisted with madness. Muttering as if entranced, he began walking toward the Elnote Kingdom’s side.

* * *

“The Northern Border… has fallen?”

Tiria repeated the words that felt entirely unrealistic to her.

Han-seong’s voice continued from the communication crystal ball.

“Yes. I just received this information through an emergency transmission.”

“But isn’t the Leviathan Guild stationed at the Northern Border?”

She asked, looking puzzled.

The Leviathan Guild boasted three rankers: ‘White Sword’ Kang Ha-rin, ‘Warlock’ Park Sang-jun, and ‘Leviathan’ Park Si-a. Additionally, the guild included over a hundred high-level summoners and hundreds of level 50 summoners, making it a formidable force.

Even with such a monstrous guild present,

it was hard to believe that the Northern Border could be breached.

“The attack happened while the Leviathan Guild was exploring a newly discovered dungeon.”

“Even so…”

The Northern Border was not defended solely by the Leviathan Guild.

It was also protected by the kingdom’s strongest knights, the Andras Knights, and powerful guilds like the Red Rose Guild, Onnuri Guild, and Yeoubyeol Guild, all prominent in the east.

“A boss monster estimated to be above S-grade seems to have appeared.”

“S-grade…”

At his words, the expressions of the Salvator Guild members hardened.

An S-grade boss monster required hundreds of summoners, centered around rankers, to barely be dealt with.

“So, we need to hold an emergency strategy meeting immediately. Is your situation… under control?”

“Yes. Not completely, but it’s manageable.”

Tiria glanced at the fifteen remaining members of the Judas Guild as she spoke.

“Let’s head over and hold the strategy meeting right away.”

At her words, the Salvator Guild members nodded.

Yeong-sik followed behind Tiria, lost in thought for a moment.

“If it’s an S-grade boss monster…”

A deep smile spread across his lips. He wasn’t particularly interested in the S-grade boss monster itself. However, the ‘S-grade Memory Cube’ it might possess piqued his intense curiosity.