Game of Divine Thrones

Chapter 143: Devil's Plague 4

Elf Queen Orphelia.

She was an overlord who was well versed in pure magic.

Pure magic signified magic of the attributes of water, fire, earth, and wind, the basic attributes.

While she could use divine magic, she was not as good as the imperial priests.

The elves worshiped the Mother God as their guardian deity and did not receive enough blessings from the God of Light.

However, since the God of Light was similar in nature to the indigenous god called the Father God, Orphelia was able to establish friendly relations with the Holy Aperian Empire from the beginning.

In the past, she had clashed against Woohyuk because he had preemptively attacked the Holy Aperian Empire.

In the eyes of the elves, the forest race, he was seen as a foolish secular lord.

Since the overlords of the demonic faction were allied with each other, they thought that the rest of the forces around the continent needed to unite.

But since Woohyuk had attacked the Empire, the elves considered him a nuisance and an idiot lord.

'But back then, the Holy Aperian Empire had already collapsed.'

The secular power represented by the emperor and the religious power represented by the pope had collapsed together.

They could not handle the allied forces of the demon faction, and their internal division and conflict had become far too severe.

Clipport’s Fruit, which was distributed in large quantities by Aleister Crowley, also played a big part in that collapse.

Eventually, Emperor Tiberius was defeated by Baal, the first-ranking Demon King, and Pope Ignatius was burned to death by the Witch of Pride Trivia.

Afterwards, Princess Eleonora and Rosenkreuz continued to fight, but their defeat was already set in stone, so there was nothing they could do to change the tides of the war.

It was safe to assume that the Holy Aperian Empire was already in the hands of the demonic faction.

So Woohyuk went to attack the empire despite the Elf Queen’s dissuasion, and eventually captured Delpheon, the capital of the empire in the central plain.

As a result, the succeeding Pope, Rosenkreuz, left in exile to the Croa Principality, and Empress Eleonora was captured by Woohyuk and confined in the Sage Tower.

‘Our relationship turned for the worse because of that.’

He was on very friendly terms with Orphelia back in the days when they fought against the Blood Queen Alice.

Their interests and benefits matched together at the time.

He had just returned from the Lioness Kingdom after a long period of training, and was looking for a base of operations, while Orphelia wanted to get rid of her old enemy Alice.

His alliance with her began thereafter and continued on even after the Enoa Kingdom fell into his hands after defeating the Blood Queen.

She sent reinforcements to come to his aid back when Logan appeared with an army of 100,000 undeads, and fought together to defeat Marcus' troops, who had attacked the Croa Principality after crossing the strait.

They were so close that if their races were the same, they would’ve gotten married to each other.

In fact, Orphelia was infatuated with Woohyuk.

Of course, that only lasted until he conquered the Holy Aperian Empire.

Helena spoke to him as he recalled the past during their march.

“We’ve arrived at our destination, but there seems to be one problem.”

Helena was pointing up the cliff.

The entrance to the Devil's Crystal Cave was located in the middle of the cliff, but they didn't have any tools for rock climbing.

"Don’t worry. There’s an easier way.”

Woohyuk summoned a three-legged eagle and placed Helena and Karin on top of it.

The three-legged eagle soon flapped its wings and soared into the air.

HIgh pitched shrieks of fear resounded everywhere around them.

“Kyaaaaahhhhhhhhh!”

“I, I’m scared!”

Both girls had acrophobia.

Reina sighed as she heard and saw their fear.

“Human women are pathetic.”

“You ride this one.”

Woohyuk summoned an undead gargoyle and placed it in front of her.

Reina immediately stepped back in fear.

“You, you’re telling an elf to ride an undead mount…?”

“It doesn’t matter, does it? Even the pirates didn’t find any charm in your body and left you behind on the ship.”

Reina had been sexually harassed several times while she was in captivity of the Blackbeard pirates on the ship.

She trembled as she remembered what had happened to her.

“Tha-that’s not true. I was molested a few times and my lips were taken away. I wasn't raped like other people though. I barely managed to avoid that.”

“That’s a blessing within misfortune. If you don't want to experience anything like that again, get on.”

If she was separated from Woohyuk's party right now, she could get captured again by nearby pirates.

At Woohyuk's warning, Reina's face turned blue and immediately climbed onto the gargoyle.

“Th-then are you taking responsibility for my safety?”

"Of course."

In order to maintain good relations with Elf Queen Orphelia in the future, he had to take good care of Reina right now.

When Reina flew into the air on the gargoyle, Woohyuk approached Allen.

“You don’t need a ride since you know flight magic, right?”

“H-how do you…”

“My knowledge is quite vast.”

Woohyuk put on Jake's airwalker boots and left Allen behind as he stood dumbfounded and surprised.

Afterwards, he performed aerial acrobatics and easily reached the cave entrance.

“All that’s left is to enter.”

“Why is this place so eerie? I can even feel some sort of gloomy energy.”

“Indeed. There are various types of monsters living here.”

Mandragoras were merely one of them.

Woohyuk made a torch and gave it to the party members one by one, and then stepped into the devil's crystal cave.

Tap. Tap.

The sound of his steps echoed inside the hollow cave.

“A-are there really medicinal herbs in this place?”

“Trust me. I am a legendary explorer despite my attitude.”

The title of Legendary Explorer could not be obtained by anyone.

It was only given to those who were the first to discover a ruin, a ruin that was impossible to reach through common sense, or obtained a top-notch artifact.

At Woohyuk's explanation, Karin looked slightly relieved.

“But I don’t see any monsters. I can definitely feel this uncomfortable energy though.”

“Watch your feet. There are many plant-type monsters amongst them.”

Woohyuk pointed to the ground further away with his finger.

A rather odd-looking plant was growing there.

“Is that… a monster?"

“It's a mandragora. Witches use it as an ingredient when making aphrodisiacs.”

This monster was probably used to create the love potion that Kriemhild used to seduce Sieg.

There were some things to be careful of when capturing a mandragora, such as its screams when it would get uprooted. A mandragora’s screams had debuff effects.

Therefore, from ancient times, renowned collectors used well-trained dogs to collect mandragoras instead of doing it themselves.

The dogs would receive the debuff attack on their behalf.

“How interesting. But we don’t have a dog with us, so what do we do?”

“That’s obvious. You will uproot it.”

Woohyuk looked at Helena with a cheeky smile on his face.

Helena couldn’t hide her shock.

“Why me? Melee combat is your speciality in this party.”

“Because you have the highest resistance against debuffs.”

Moreover, he couldn't receive Helena's divine magic buffs because he had two classes of darkness properties.

Since mandragoras couldn’t perform physical attacks, Helena alone would be more than enough.

Helena sighed as Woohyuk would not give in.

“Oh well, I have no choice. Allen and Reina are still weak in mind and body right now.”

“Just think of it as harvesting potatoes. Don't be afraid.”

“Who, who said they were afraid? I'm just reluctant because it feels like I've become a countryside woman picking her vegetables.”

Helena was proud of her noble lineage.

She took a deep breath and pulled the mandragora out of the ground,

"Kiyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

The mandragora’s scream echoed and cast a debuff spell.

Helena’s face went pale and she dropped the monster on the ground unwillingly.

“M-mommy…”

“Your courage is quite weak despite being a saintess.”

Woohyuk picked up the mandragora as he spoke in a sarcastic tone.

A plant-type monster in the shape of a human-like ginseng.

Everyone admired the bluish magic it emanated.

“It definitely looks useful as medicinal material. Let’s quickly make a cure to heal my brother.”

“But we shouldn’t rush ourselves. Although it’s a herb, it’s still a monster.”

“This may be the existence that Lady Orphelia saw in her dream. I should also take a few with me.”

The mandragora was a rare medicinal herb.

It would be beneficial to take as many as they could using this opportunity.

Woohyuk packed the mandragora that Helena had uprooted in the sage's pocket.

“With this much, we should have enough to make cures for three or four people. You can go back now and find other medicinal herbs.”

“H-how do I know what kind of herb I want?”

When Karin asked, Woohyuk took out a piece of paper with the recipe for the cure on it and gave it to her.

He had written this in advance as he had predicted that reaction.

“Are you going to explore this ruin? I guess you’re after an important item in here.”

“Yes, you’re right. It's an indispensable item.”

[Hydra’s Dark Breath].

It was one of the materials necessary to craft the Seven Color Rainbow Ring.

As long as he obtained it, there would be no other reason for him to remain in the Lydia Kingdom.

There was a lot of work to be done for the future, so he couldn’t delay his plans any longer.

'They may be in danger if I’m not around to protect them while I explore this place.'

Allen and Reina were weak in mind and body, and Helena and Karin were not suited for physical combat.

In order to avoid the worst case scenario, Woohyuk opened Lemegeton and summoned Demon King Amii.

“Escort these people, Amii.”

“…”

Amii made an unpleasant expression, but she obeyed Woohyuk's words.

She was afraid that he would whip her all day long again if she disobeyed him.

Eventually, when the party left the cave, Woohyuk summoned Demon King Volak this time.

“Pull it out.”

Since Helena wasn't there, he needed someone to uproot the mandragoras instead.

Triton was currently pulling the feathers out of the fire-winged birds on the wrecked ship deck.

Other vassals were also carrying out their duties, so he had to resort to Demon Kings.

“…”

Volak glanced at Woohyuk before picking the mandragora.

The mandragora didn’t even scream, as if it had realized that Volak was a being it couldn’t anger

‘It’s so much more comfortable to have the demon kings as underlings.’

Thanks to Lemegeton, he could now defeat the 72 Demon Kings much faster than in the past.

Even the Witches of the Seven Deadly Sins wouldn’t be much of a problem at this speed.

Helena said he would despair in the future, but for now, he didn’t have such pessimistic thoughts.

'Well, I just need to pay attention to Lilith and Aleister since I have Lemegeton.’

Woohyuk was curious about the hidden powers of Lemegeton.

It seemed to have the power to rule over the demon world, and hopefully, it could also grant the right to enter other dimensions.

There was also a strong possibility that new epic quests would be given him in relation to the Divine Thrones system.

While Woohyuk let his imagination run wild, Volak spoke as he harvested the mandragoras diligently.

“Umm… Lord Asura, I would like to express an opinion.”

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing bad, but… this task is not very difficult to accomplish, so we could finish harvesting the mandragoras faster if I mobilize the demons in my demon kingdom.”

It was possible for the owner of Lemegeton to indirectly control the sealed demon kings’ territory.

Woohyuk happily nodded.

“That is true. Then, let’s declare a mobilization order right now.”

“Tha-thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. You will continue working with them.”

“…”

Woohyuk didn’t think of giving him preferential treatment because he was a Demon King

Volak cried silently as he watched Woohyuk's stern expression.