138: Chapter 138 The All-Purpose Excavator

"As I thought... it is the Philip I know."

Although Fu Hao had only met Philip in person once, he recognized him immediately, even from a distance, despite his changed appearance.

Despite the drastic changes to his skin tone and other physical features after becoming a demon, the facial contours from his human days remained.

More importantly, the "Philip" nickname clearly displayed above his head showed he had no intention of hiding his identity.

While Philip wasn't on par with the Five Great Guilds back in the human world, he was still somewhat famous as one of the first nobles and the leader of a top-tier guild in the Rowen Kingdom.

Therefore, if he were to encounter any of the 500 Five Great Guilds players who later entered the demon world, his identity would likely be exposed.

Even so, he couldn't be bothered to change his nickname—after becoming a Demon King, he almost never left the Demon King Castle.

Of course, as a Demon King ruling a region of the demon world, it was inevitable that other NPCs would mention him, but he was more often referred to by his title, "Growing Demon King," rather than his nickname, so as long as he didn't face the Five Great Guilds players directly, he had no fear of his identity being exposed.

The only situation where he might run into Five Great Guilds players was if new demons entered his territory.

Currently, the 500 Five Great Guilds players were searching all over the demon world for their initial titles, and no one could guarantee they wouldn't swarm into Philip's territory.

Therefore, every time Philip accepted new demons, he would carefully check to see if any players had mixed in.

Even so, he ultimately couldn't stop the "rule-breaker" Fu Hao—who would have thought a +10 disguise item could simulate an NPC name? If Fu Hao hadn't revealed it himself, no one would have noticed.

"That Philip became a Demon King..."

Before entering the territory ruled by the "Growing Demon King," Fu Hao did a little investigation and learned that this Demon King was a recent newcomer, ranked at the very bottom among Demon Kings.

Fu Hao, who was originally searching for materials to craft artifacts and incidentally wanted to defeat a few Demon Kings to boost his stats, wouldn't have cared about a mere bottom-ranked Demon King. However, discovering that this Demon King was a player—and none other than Philip, with whom he and the Five Great Guilds had deep grudges—complicated things.

"How did he become a Demon King so quickly?"

It took Yongyuan over a year to be reborn into the Elf Kingdom and become the Elf King, and even a "top-tier rule-breaker" like Fu Hao had spent over three months from level 1 to founding his nation.

Yet Philip, who had been defeated by Fu Hao and once fallen into ruin, had ascended to the throne even earlier than him. This growth speed was hard for even Fu Hao, who believed that "anything is possible in the otherworld," to believe.

Fu Hao believed that rash action was not the best strategy before fully understanding Philip's intentions and influence in the demon world, so he decided to continue disguising himself as an NPC for the time being until he had gathered enough information.

Fortunately, the "involutional" growth environment Philip had cultivated meant Fu Hao didn't need to waste time—

"Fatter than the monsters at the demon world border?"

Fu Hao used his +10 Holy Water to slaughter high-level monsters like he was mowing grass, frantically gathering experience points and experience boost potions, unable to hide the joy on his face.

Although he had to be cautious of his surroundings while hunting at the demon world border, the monster density and level here were higher, and his leveling speed far exceeded what it was before.

"If only I could stream, I'd really want to grind here to my heart's content." Looking at the potions gradually piling up in the corner of his inventory, Fu Hao finally understood the secret to Philip's rapid growth in such a short time.

"Assuming the demon race also shares title conditions... the current number one in level should be Philip."

This gave Fu Hao another reason to get rid of Philip.

Although he possessed the godly skill "Growth Speed 200%" and becoming number one in level was only a matter of time, if he left Philip to chug growth potions unchecked, that day would be a long way off.

Although he didn't know the specific effects of the "Number One in Level" title, it was bound to be beyond imagination, just like the "Beginners Trial" title. Therefore, Fu Hao was eager to achieve it, and Philip had become an obstacle that had to be removed.

"Wait... if Philip gets the 'Number One in Level' title, does that count as helping me?"

Fu Hao suddenly realized that regardless of whether Philip intended it or not, if he became number one in level before dueling Leonhardt, it meant he had snatched the title from Leonhardt's hands, and perhaps his own victory was thanks to that very fact.

Of course, this didn't make Fu Hao lower his guard—looking back at Philip's past actions, there was absolutely no possibility of reconciliation between the two. Regardless, defeating Philip and reaching number one in level was an inevitable goal.

Maintaining his demon NPC disguise, Fu Hao frantically grinded monsters to collect potions while quietly gathering information from other demon NPCs, eventually reaching a conclusion: he had to present a large amount of experience boost potions to Philip.

Philip had turned his territory into a "meritocratic society," where "ability" meant the ability to collect potions or assist in collecting them—as long as the ability was strong enough, even a late-arriving demon could replace the Four Heavenly Kings.

Therefore, if Fu Hao wanted to become one of the Four Heavenly Kings staying by Philip's side, he had to offer a massive amount of potions.

Ironically, Fu Hao, who aimed for number one in level, had to offer potions to Philip, who seemed to have already achieved that goal, but for the sake of the big picture, this was a necessary evil.

However, even relying on Holy Water to grind monsters, collecting enough potions to be promoted to the Four Heavenly Kings in the short term was still no easy task.

"This isn't enough." Fu Hao looked at the potions stuffing his inventory and shook his head.

Although the amount he had collected alone in just three days was already considerable, it was still not enough to surpass the current Four Heavenly Kings, who collected large quantities through various methods.

"To collect faster, I need Little Gold to help."

But even with the Holy Water buff, there was a limit to just grinding monsters. Fu Hao realized that even with the risk of exposure, he needed to summon Little Gold.

However, now was not the time—the current hunting ground's terrain was like an abandoned mine, and there wasn't even space to cast large-scale magic, let alone summon Little Gold.

It wasn't that Philip's territory lacked open hunting grounds, but even without considering the risk of exposing Little Gold, the quality and density of the monsters were about the same as the current site; changing locations would just be the same old thing.

"What should I do?"

Fu Hao couldn't stay trapped in Philip's territory forever; he had to find a new way to approach his goal as soon as possible.

After racking his brains without success, he began to check the +10 artifacts piled up in his inventory one by one, just as he always did—after all, it was precisely an artifact that had helped him resolve the deadlock with Mei not long ago, and he still held high hopes for them this time.

Fortunately, this time, an artifact once again promised to resolve his predicament.

The two items Fu Hao selected were: the monster detector he had personally grinded for, and the "Universal Excavator" that Loki had transferred to him in exchange for the research rights to the Mimic.

"There must still be undiscovered hunting grounds in the demon world."

Just like how the Wind Guild discovered the Mimic dungeon belatedly after players had searched the human areas for two years, new hunting grounds were constantly being found.

500 players had only recently flooded into the demon world, so it must be hiding undiscovered sites.

Fu Hao guessed that if there were any hidden hunting grounds, they would mostly be located underground, and as it turned out, that was the case.

Fu Hao frantically exchanged various monster materials using experience boost potions (which could be used as currency in the material shop) and repeatedly put the monster detector in and took it out.

Soon, a large number of monster reactions appeared directly beneath the current abandoned mine hunting ground—normally, one would need to take a long detour and enter through the underground entrance at the demon world border, but Fu Hao, possessing the +10 Universal Excavator, didn't need to go through such trouble.

He took out the Universal Excavator, which looked like it could only dig small holes, and instantly burrowed underground like a mole, quickly arriving at the target underground hunting ground.

Before landing, he hung from the cave ceiling and looked down—the cave was the size of a small arena, packed with ugly monsters that were both terrifying and repulsive, but the first thing Fu Hao felt was joy.

Based on his limited experience in the demon world, the uglier the monster, the stronger it was, and "strong" meant generous rewards.

[Summon 'Golden Dragon'.]

"Little Gold, it's been a while since you leveled up, let's have some fun!"

"Roar—!"

Perhaps stimulated by seeing other dragons on the Dragon Continent, Little Gold roared with full fighting spirit.