Gonna Be a Demon King!
Chapter 79: A Long Journey Ahead

Chapter 79: A Long Journey Ahead

"You can already move?"

"Cheated my way a bit. Try sitting up. If that doesn’t work, circulate your magic power rapidly; it’ll help loosen your muscles."

Ilya followed Xaren’s instructions and, to her surprise, didn’t need to use magic circulation. She managed to sit up on the bed and rest her back against the wall behind it with little effort.

She had been awake for a while, and her body had also ’woken up,’ though she hadn’t realized it since she still felt pain in her limbs and assumed moving would only make it worse.

Her legs, however, still needed some time before they’d move as easily as her arms.

While she did all that, Xaren turned his gaze to the clock on the wall to check the time and date.

"Oh, it’s only just been a day."

Xaren’s words made Ilya turn her gaze to the wall as well, where she read the time and date on the clock: 4 pm, April 18th.

Technically, it had been more than a day. After all, their battle against the half-giant had taken place before noon the day before.

But leaving that aside, Ilya’s thoughts drifted to something that happened after the battle—the last thing she remembered before losing consciousness.

"The person who put us to sleep, it was that High-Rank demon, was it not?"

"Yeah. I think Floch called him ’Sir Naephas’."

Xaren responded as he stretched his arms, recalling Naephas’ voice saying "Sleep", right before everything went black.

It was obvious that the magic power infused in his voice had been what shut their bodies down.

"...to think he did that with just magic power..." Ilya muttered this to herself, her eyes narrowing slightly.

In truth, there had been more to it than just magic power, but neither Xaren nor Ilya were attuned enough yet to sense what that was.

"Captain Vollm did send out an SOS, but I didn’t think it’d be him who’d show up," Xaren said after Ilya’s mutter, glancing toward the window.

He shook his head with a sigh as he recalled Naephas’ order to Floch.

"The Dark Elves are probably all dead by now."

Naephas had, in effect, ordered a death sentence on them.

"They arrived faster than I expected. But I have no idea how much time passed since we blacked out after that sudden attack on the Captain."

Xaren still didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious between the giant’s attack on Vollm, to his waking up and finding angel beasts heading in his direction.

’Doesn’t really matter much now.’

He pushed those thoughts aside and focused on something different, his lips parting as he asked a question.

"Hey, you saw that fireball that Floch shot out from his finger, right?"

His question made Ilya freeze for a moment, but she slowly nodded. Seeing this, Xaren asked again.

"You felt how much power it contained, right?"

"mhmm..."

"Damn, I want such power for myself."

"...so do I," Ilya responded after a momentary silence.

The image of the massive explosion that completely obliterated the dark elven village and sent powerful shockwaves reaching them even from afar was still very fresh in her mind.

"...that was the power of a Mid-Rank demon."

There was something in Ilya’s voice, a strange emotion Xaren couldn’t put into words.

Was it the dawning realization of the vast gap between the ’Low-Rank’ and the ’Mid-Rank’ of the Demon Hierarchy?

If so, he felt she shouldn’t be using Floch as the baseline.

He remembered something that happened during their Wing training, where a few Mid-Rank demons were chatting with Floch when he was on duty to clean up the training grounds.

One of them had said something that caught his attention.

’You’ll become a General when you Promote, huh? Don’t forget me then.’

They were clearly talking about a Rank Promotion. But considering the context, and the way the word ’General’ was said before the word ’Promote’, Xaren had the strong sense that it wasn’t Military Ranks they were referring to.

That left only one possibility—Hierarchical Rank Promotion.

This allowed Xaren to infer that Floch was likely already at the highest peak a Mid-Rank demon could achieve, with one foot already placed in High-Rank territory.

Using him as the benchmark for Mid-Rank demons wouldn’t be fair to the rest.

’That doesn’t change the fact that they’re all ridiculously powerful compared to Low-Ranks.’

"Xaren."

Ilya’s voice brought Xaren out of his thoughts, and he turned to meet her gaze as she asked.

"Ever wondered how long it would take to gain that kind of power?"

"I don’t have enough information to make any proper estimates, but it should be a decade, at the very least."

Xaren shrugged as he gave a rough guess. The humans he had seen who were as strong as Mid-Rank Demons in his past life had all looked like they were in their thirties at most, but considering a higher level also meant a longer lifespan and slower ageing, Xaren doubted they were as young as they appeared.

"The Mid-Rank starts from level 700 and above, right?" Ilya asked.

"Yeah. Can’t remember the exact reason, though. Something to do with ’Laws’. Because of that, anything below Level 700 is still ’Low-Rank’."

Ilya frowned slightly at Xaren’s answer.

"Even after 600 levels, you’d still be a Low-Rank?"

It sounded ridiculous, but that was the way the system worked.

"That’s why there are some unofficial rankings. Some of those above Level 500 refer to everyone below as Sub-Low Ranks."

It was an informal and dismissive term, fitting the elitist attitude of higher-levelled demons.

"They probably have the same thoughts as you do, feeling they shouldn’t be lumped in the same category with anyone below Level 500 given the level of power they’ve attained."

Then again, one couldn’t really blame them for feeling that way.

Ilya didn’t respond immediately. She just looked off into the distance, her brows slightly furrowed as if imagining a version of herself ten years from now, lobbing city-flattening energy blasts with a flick of her wrist.

"...I mean, that’s a lot of time," she muttered.

"Yeah. But it’s not like we’ll be weak until then," Xaren replied, folding his arms behind his head and leaning back slightly before continuing.

"Level 140 isn’t a joke either. At that point, one can already flatten small buildings with a single strike."

"I guess. But it still doesn’t compare."

"Of course, it doesn’t. There’s always someone stronger. It’s just how the Hierarchy is built. The higher you go, the wider the gaps become."