Unlike other Demon King Castles, there are no residences for a certain distance outside the Great Demon King Ai Yue’s castle. It is mostly composed of forests and lakes.
Of course, the environment near the Demon King Castle is naturally anything but ordinary. Even though knights or other members of the Demon Race occasionally take the time to clear out monsters that attack people at random, the average wandering monster is at least Level 40 or higher. Without proper preparation, an average Player would essentially be throwing their life away. Even high-level Players at Level 61 or above must be well-prepared, or they could be killed at any moment by something appearing from out of nowhere.
As for why monsters like Goblins can be accepted by the Demon Race while those in the forest are exterminated, it mainly comes down to their degree of rationality.
Most monsters that are accepted possess enough rationality to not attack people indiscriminately. However, those targeted for extermination are different; they are essentially no different from wild beasts. Therefore, within the Demon Race, the latter are generally referred to as “monsters.”
Naturally, the Human Race and other races ignore these distinctions. To them, both the Demon Race and monsters are enemies. In this regard, one could say the Demon Race is much more civilized, as they do not slaughter other races without reason.
“Where did this stray dog come from? Get lost!”
Kurimu kicked a monster wolf that was pouncing toward her.
With her Demon King-level strength, a casual kick from Kurimu was enough to send the giant wolf, which was several meters long, flying directly into the distant sky. It pierced through the clouds to stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun, eventually becoming a tiny, invisible star.
Given that level of force, it could only be said that the demonic wolf’s body was sturdy for not exploding on the spot.
“That looked like a Soul-lock Demonic Wolf. Its strength was likely Level 60,” Bululu said, identifying the wolf that had flown off to who-knows-where. A B-Rank demonic wolf was strong enough to trade blows with the weaker Maid Guards, making it likely a boss-level monster for this area. Yet even so, it couldn’t last a single move before the Second Demon King, Kurimu.
Perhaps it was because they had trespassed into the demonic wolf’s territory that they were attacked. Now that Kurimu had settled the matter in one move, it was unlikely that any monster with a brain would dare to lift a finger against them.
Consequently, they could focus on what they wanted to do, which happened to involve testing items.
“Alright, what are we doing now?” Kurimu turned back to look at Ai Yue, her sparkling eyes full of anticipation.
“Well, don’t be in such a rush. Aren’t I preparing right now?”
With that, Ai Yue reached out and withdrew various tools and weapons from what appeared to be her Magic Space, though it was actually a space created using an item.
“First, let’s try this.”
Ai Yue selected a transparent sphere from the items. The core in its center constantly emitted electrical currents that struck the inner walls of the sphere. At first glance, it looked like a static plasma ball.
When she threw the sphere toward a nearby tree, the transparent outer wall shattered instantly. The moment the electrode core made contact with the tree, it erupted with a powerful current, forming a spherical plasma torrent approximately 1 meter in diameter. The high temperature and energy contained within the range vaporized everything instantly, and the light it emitted even made the sunlight filtering through the leaves seem dim.
*Crack, crash…*
Because more than half of its trunk had been vaporized by the plasma torrent, the tree blasted by the Plasma Bomb collapsed with a roar.
“So cool! Although the range isn’t large, the power is at least enough to break… uh…”
“Probably Level 60,” Ai Yue said. “As long as it hits, seriously wounding someone of that level isn’t an issue.”
The item Ai Yue had just thrown was a Plasma Bomb, which concentrated a lightning-attribute magic of the same level into a single sphere. Because the power was entirely focused within a range of about 1 meter, the attack power was significantly increased.
However, such high-power items were naturally expensive to produce. Unless someone was a heavy-spending player, they wouldn’t be able to rely on simply throwing these bombs to resolve their enemies. Furthermore, due to the compressed range, the accuracy was quite worrying.
Essentially, this type of item was used to supplement damage and had relatively low versatility.
As for why she had such things? Naturally, she had taken them from the Demon King Castle’s treasury.
Due to the events that occurred recently in the Audience Hall, Ai Yue increasingly felt that, in her current state where she was temporarily unable to use her power, she was too prone to dying suddenly. It was indeed better to prepare things that could increase her combat effectiveness or serve as protection. Thus, she had gone to the treasury and made off with several things she thought might be useful.
In other words, while they were here ostensibly to play with Kurimu, Ai Yue actually wanted to test the items and weapons she had acquired.
She had originally wanted to take more defensive equipment, but since she was currently in her Succubus Race form, she couldn’t remove her bound equipment and had to give up on that idea.
“Is there more? Is there more?”
“There is, don’t worry.”
Unable to withstand Kurimu’s excitement, Ai Yue took out a stack of shurikens, but this time she placed them in Kurimu’s hand.
“Here, you try this time. Just throw it over there.”
“Okay! I’m throwing it!”
Her voice was adorable, but her actions were anything but.
With a light toss from Kurimu, the seemingly ordinary shuriken instantly pierced through the distant trees. The air pressure it kicked up even left a trail ahead as if it had been crushed by a giant monster, gouging out the ground and trees along the way.
Rather than a shuriken, it was more like a cannonball.
But the attack didn’t stop there. The shuriken, which had flown a certain distance, suddenly split from one into two, then two into four upon hitting an obstacle. They scattered in all directions, turning the original straight-line trail into a fan-shaped mark with numerous branches, resembling tree limbs or roots.
“Not bad. The Splitting Shuriken is functioning normally, and it even inherited Kurimu’s attack power.”
Ai Yue watched the scene of terrifying destruction before her and calmly gave her assessment.
Normal items usually have their own independent attack power and other stats, and the item’s power would not be influenced by someone without special effects. However, the ones Ai Yue had given to Kurimu were special.
It seemed that because ordinary shurikens were too weak, a splitting version had been added later, but after trying it out, it still wasn’t quite enough.
After all, it was essentially just a plain piece of metal with nothing much to say for it. For that reason, the previous Ai Yue had implemented a setting where certain items could change their stats based on certain values of the user.
This was also one of the reasons she had brought Kurimu along—to test the tools and weapons.