Dragon King: Throne of Demons and Gods-Chapter 80: Convenience

Back in the dungeon, Bel clenched his fist.

The massive ice formation he had created earlier groaned and began to fracture.

Cracks spread like veins through the surface, then, with a rumble, it shattered.

Giant blocks of ice rained down, crushing and obliterating the frozen monsters sealed within.

[Level Up!]

Bel’s eyes lit up.

"Hah. That makes forty-nine. So easy now..."

He opened his hand and summoned the blue system screen, flipping straight to the [STORAGE] tab.

He planned to place his two new swords inside to move more freely, but then he froze.

"What the...?!"

[Inventory Slots: 100/100]

His storage was full.

Rows and rows of random junk-like items filled the space. Broken claws, cracked fangs, scales, monster bones, shredded pelts, and more cores than he could count.

His eyes scanned the clutter.

"All this... came from those monsters?"

He blinked, then slowly started to put the pieces together.

"Every single one I killed dropped something... and it just came here on its own?" He tilted his head. "That’s... kinda amazing. But also kinda annoying."

He looked at his swords, one in each hand.

"So where do I put you two now?"

He sighed. He had planned to store his weapons and use the remaining space for synthesis materials later.

But now the whole inventory was full of drops, and he couldn’t tell how useful they were unless he checked them one by one.

He sighed and opened one of the glowing magic cores in the list.

[Minor Magic Core - Category D]

Type: Synthesis Material

Effect: Item for weapon refinement.

He stared at it.

"Sounds useful... But, that many..."

Silence.

Then, he shrugged and bit into it.

Crunch.

A spark of energy ran up his spine.

[Intelligence +1]

He blinked.

"Wait... really?"

He looked at the other cores, then at his remaining storage count. Slowly, he began pulling out the magic cores one by one and eating them like crunchy candy.

[INT +1][INT +1][INT +1][WIS +1][AGI +1]

After eating most of the cores, he finally stopped to catch his breath.

[Inventory Slots: 79/100]

He put the last core in the storage.

"Okay, well... that helped. But damn, farming is gonna be depressing if I have to eat my loot every time just to make space."

He stared at the remaining clutter.

"Still... at this level, these can’t be that important."

He paused.

Then it hit him.

"Wait... I froze an army... And now they’re dead."

A smile crept across his face, slow and impressed.

"My, my, my..."

He opened the [SHOP] tab, impatient to see what was waiting for him, and as he had expected, his gold had risen again.

[Current Gold: 1,236]

Several new items had appeared on the list, including a mix of materials, weapons, and potions:

[Stormguard Shell (Uncommon)]

[Cost: 450 Gold]

Effect: Reduces lightning damage by 20% when equipped. Increases resistance to paralysis.

[Cracked Iron Blade (Common)]

[Cost: 150 Gold]

+15 ATK

Effect: None. Basic weapon used by novice adventurers.

[Charged Fang Dagger (Uncommon)]

[Cost: 360 Gold]

+28 ATK

Effect: On hit, 10% chance to shock target and reduce movement speed.

[Minor HP Potion]

[Cost: 30 Gold]

Effect: Restores 500 HP instantly.

[Minor MP Potion]

[Cost: 30 Gold]

Effect: Restores 400 MP instantly.

[Minor Stamina Potion]

[Cost: 30 Gold]

Effect: Restores 300 Stamina.

[Conductive Shell Fragment (Common)]

[Cost: 120 Gold]

Effect: Slightly boosts lightning resistance when used in synthesis.

[Charged Beast Core (Uncommon)]

[Cost: 200 Gold]

Effect: Increases lightning elemental affinity during synthesis.

Another breath of good surprises. Everything was just perfect, and because of this, Bel stopped smiling.

For the first time, he frowned.

"Lightning...?"

His eyes moved through the shop menu slowly. Stormguard Shell, Charged Fang Dagger, Conductive Shell Fragment, Charged Beast Core...

Every single new item was lightning-related.

He looked back at the frozen battlefield behind him. Every single monster he’d fought used electricity in some way.

He narrowed his eyes.

"No way that’s a coincidence."

His thoughts raced. When he used fire and ice, he got fire and ice loot. He even got an abyssal fire item. And now that he faced lightning enemies...

"The shop... is reacting to me in some way?"

His gaze turned cold.

"Does that mean the system knows? Like someone was... Watching?"

A pause.

"...Is it sentient?"

He rubbed his jaw slowly, thinking.

"If it was really trying to help me, wouldn’t it just give me the strongest stuff for free? I’m not sure to understand anymore... But now the fact that it’s so easy to understand is a problem. What’s really going on?"

He stared at the glowing screen for a while, then sighed.

"Whatever... I can’t figure it out now. But if this is what I need to move forward..."

He began tapping purchases.

[Purchased: Stormguard Shell - 450G]

[Purchased: Cracked Iron Blade - 150G]

[Purchased: Conductive Shell Fragment - 120G]

[Purchased: Charged Beast Core - 200G]

[Purchased: Minor HP Potion x1 - 30G]

[Purchased: Minor MP Potion x2 - 60G]

[Purchased: Minor Stamina Potion x2 - 60G]

[Current Gold: 166 Gold]

Bel placed the synthesis items into his storage.

The lightning-based materials and cores? Useless for now. If everything here was lightning-related, then the boss had to be lightning too.

Using lightning against lightning? That would be dumb.

Only one thing really mattered.

"Stormguard Shell," Bel muttered, equipping the item.

A soft glow pulsed through his chest.

[Stormguard Shell Equipped: Lightning Resistance +20%, Paralysis Resistance Increased by 15%.]

Then, suddenly, the item seemed to vanish.

"Huh?" Bel blinked. "Where did it go?"

He looked around, confused, then instinctively focused on himself, and then, something different happened.

A new panel floated beside his system interface, showing active effects.

[Active Buffs: Stormguard Shell] [Status: Lightning Resistance Active]

Bel blinked again, then slowly smiled.

"...Now I can see my buffs too?"

He chuckled, rubbing his forehead.

"Seriously? It’s like the system’s rolling out features one at a time... Every time I think I figured it out, it gives me another surprise."

He shook his head, half-annoyed, half-amused. Everything had become weirdly convenient since he became a Demon Lord.

"Vezalia... you weren’t just being dramatic, were you? It really was a gift I needed."

His smile sharpened.

"Now I understand why you were afraid I would betray you."

He turned to the far side of the dungeon.

That direction, the one all the monsters had poured from.

"Time to finish this."

He stepped forward.

With each movement, he leapt from floating stone to floating stone, boots tapping across the cracked terrain like a quiet drum.

The air around him thickened with a strange aura. The sky overhead began to darken. Gray clouds rolled in, then deepened to black.

Thunder rumbled.

The dungeon was reaching its climax as Bel reached its peak.

He kept jumping, floating stones stretching across the void like broken stairs.

Below was an endless drop, above a maze of clouds, and ahead, something waiting.

He finally landed on a massive landmass covered in spiky, jagged rock. The terrain was uneven, riddled with cracks and thin ridges.

Bones lay scattered across the battlefield.

Monster skulls impaled on spikes, bones scorched and charred.

Some cracked from lightning, others melted from energy.

Bel gazed ahead, his hair pushed back by the rising wind.

He took a step forward.

Lightning struck the tallest peak of the rocky land.

And then, it screeched.

A giant bird loomed atop the summit.

Its feathers shimmered blue and white, glowing with arcs of electricity. Each wing was like a thundercloud, sparking and twitching with violent power.

Its eyes were like twin bolts of lightning.

It opened its wings wide.

CRACK

A massive bolt split the sky, lighting up the dungeon.

"There you are," Bel whispered.

The giant bird, the boss, let out another shriek. Electricity rained from its wings, surging across the sky.

Bel didn’t move. On the ground below, his hand shimmered with system light and reached into the screen.

[Inventory: Abyssal Ember Blade]

He pulled the weapon out slowly, its blue fire flickering in the wind.

The flames curled around the blade as if eager.

He pointed the blade toward the giant beast.

"Let’s dance."

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