A red bat-shaped exclamation mark appeared beside Duoluolisi’s level bar.
[Debuff: Seal of the Blood Demon God]
‘Seal of the Blood Demon God?’
‘Where is it sealed?’
‘It’s not sealed inside her, is it?’
Duoluolisi quickly checked her body all over, but after searching for a long time, she couldn’t find any markings like a sealing magic circle on her.
‘Where exactly is it sealed?’
‘Oh no, now I really can’t find it.’
After searching several more times with no results, she turned her gaze to the line of text behind it.
[Due to suppressing the Demon God, Duoluolisi’s experience gain is reduced by 90%]
‘How much?’
‘Ninety percent?’
So that’s why she had only leveled up once after killing so many monsters.
The monsters summoned by the Demon God gave half experience, and with this debuff reducing it by ninety percent, in total, she only got the equivalent of one normal monster’s experience for every twenty she killed—a ninety-five percent reduction.
‘How the hell am I supposed to play this?’
‘If the game in my past life did this, I’d create a bunch of alt accounts and give it a flood of bad reviews.’
‘Wait, the description says Duoluolisi’s experience gain is reduced. What about Xi Ya?’
She switched to Xi Ya’s panel to check the level bar.
Xi Ya’s experience and level were shared with Duoluolisi’s—both were level 2.
Luckily, Xi Ya did not have this debuff.
‘That’s a relief…’
‘Relief my ass!’
‘Isn’t the game system forcing her to level up using her original form?’
‘But with her original body’s frail build, who can she possibly defeat?’
‘So here’s the problem: to avoid the experience penalty, she has to not transform, but without transforming, she can’t defeat monsters, so she gets no experience. To defeat monsters, she has to transform, but then she gets the experience penalty…’
‘Isn’t this a death loop?’
‘When playing games, you should smile and play with a smile…’
‘Play my ass!’
‘Calm down, calm down…’
‘At least she unlocked the weapon panel, right?’
‘Maybe the weapon will have a tenfold experience boost or something?’
Duoluolisi carefully read the description again.
Though it wasn’t the tenfold experience boost she had imagined, she still let out a huge sigh of relief.
First, the best news: she finally knew where the Blood Demon God was sealed.
It was actually sealed inside this sword.
‘Suddenly the sword feels way too hot to hold. Should I throw it away?’
Duoluolisi shook her head. If she threw away the sword, she would have no weapon.
When she first learned this news, she almost did throw the sword away.
‘Too dangerous. Holding this sword is like holding a time bomb. Maybe one day the Demon God will break the seal and blow up with me.’
Fortunately, this seal also had a game mechanic behind it.
She could replenish magic power into the sword to reinforce the seal.
As long as the magic power was sufficient, the Demon God couldn’t break through.
And there was an unexpected bonus: as the seal weakened, she could borrow power from the Demon God.
The weaker the seal, the stronger the power she could borrow.
‘It’s like using a credit card—overdraw the seal to gain power. The more you unseal, the more magic power you need to recharge later. Unseal too much, and the Demon God inside will come to collect the debt—directly taking my life.’
‘Maybe I can use the Demon God’s power to level up in my original form?’
Next was the mechanics of this sword.
She already knew the sword’s name: Castillo.
It was once a mythic-grade holy sword that followed the Silver Blade Maiden for many years.
When sealing the Blood Demon God, it exhausted its energy and its quality degraded to broken.
Now this sword could gradually improve its quality as she leveled up, from broken to common, then rare, epic, legendary, and finally back to mythic grade.
‘Although this path seems a little long, it can still return to its former peak state.’
Switching to Xi Ya’s side, the weapon became a magic staff.
This magic staff was called Belmont, a name she hadn’t heard much in the game.
The description mentioned that this staff was the Holy Staff of the Dark Night Witch, and like Castillo, it was named after her surname.
This holy staff had almost the same mechanics as the holy sword, and could also improve in quality.
But the Dark Night Witch was rarely mentioned in the game.
She was said to be on the same level as the Silver Blade Maiden—one a Sword God, the other a Magic God.
Other than that, she knew nothing.
The Silver Blade Maiden had statues in the academy appearing over several chapters, while the Dark Night Witch’s four-character title hadn’t even appeared twice.
If you skipped through the story quickly, you might not even know such a person existed.
‘Forget it, who cares who she is.’
‘Anyway, I know the staff’s name now. When my magic runs out, I can just recite the name and transform back.’
***
The road back was very easy.
Duoluolisi felt like she had finished her work and was about to clock out.
How comfortable~
It was already the middle of the night.
The town’s patrolling guards were much fewer than when she had come out.
She quickly avoided the patrols and returned near the inn.
‘Perfect, my magic power is just used up.’
‘Next, I just need to climb over this wall, sneak up to the third floor, and slip back into my room!’
“Captain… you’ve had too much to drink.”
“Nonsense! Who… who’s had too much?”
The armored leader shoved away the companion supporting him, stumbled two steps, and nearly hit the wall beside him.
He steadied himself and slapped his chest plate hard, making a “clang clang” sound.
“I’m telling you… mere monsters, I… I could take on ten of them!”
After saying that, his body swayed, and he grabbed his companion’s shoulder with his left arm to keep from falling.
“…Even if twenty, thirty come, no matter how many… I’ll fight…”
“Captain, I’ll take you back now.”
His companion also seemed to have drunk a lot.
The two of them, hunched over, staggered in an S-shape down the street.
Duoluolisi saw them walking toward her.
She was exasperated.
‘Why do I always run into people at crucial moments?’
“You are, you are a student from Thorne Academy…”
The leader looked up and saw Duoluolisi, raising his right hand to point at her.
“A few greenhorn students… I’m not convinced! Why can you… defeat monsters so easily…”
“If you’ve got guts… then have a go with me!”
‘Not good, this guy is drunk and crazy.’
Duoluolisi considered whether to just climb over in front of them.
After all, they were so drunk they probably wouldn’t remember this tomorrow.
“Don’t go… don’t go…”
“Don’t say that, they’re here to help after all… Huh? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
The companion supporting the leader stepped forward with the leader, trying to get a clear look at the girl before him.
“There’s a pink-haired one, a brown-haired one, and a black-haired one… How come I haven’t seen you, the white-haired one?”
‘What?’
‘Are you really drunk? How are you so clear-headed while drunk?’
‘No, she has to get out of here fast.’
Duoluolisi took half a step back, turned, and ran.
But who would have thought that the drunk leader suddenly let go of his companion, lunged to the wall in one stride, and raised his sword to block her path.
“Don’t you dare leave! Today… I absolutely must have a match with you!”
‘Holy crap, why did he draw his sword?’
Duoluolisi tried to go around him, but the man refused to budge.
‘Come on, I really don’t want to cause a scene here. Just let me go, okay?’
“Take this!”
The leader charged directly at Duoluolisi.
Duoluolisi had no choice but to ready her sword to block.
But the next second, a pink figure dropped from the sky, landing in front of her.
“Old man, drawing your sword on a girl is not polite, you know~”