After passing Final Selection, Luke’s main quest updated—and its scope felt enormous.
[Main Quest (Final Phase): Demon Slayer]
Quest Objective: Kill Muzan Kibutsuji, leader of the Demon faction, within three calendar months.
Quest Difficulty: Hard—Certain Death
Quest Reward: Return qualification, World Core
Failure Penalty: -1 to all attributes
The objective was simple and brutal. It was not the kind of quest where failure meant instant death, and for Luke, whose stats rose quickly, losing a point in every attribute was not an unacceptable penalty.
But Luke felt that the lighter the penalty, the more that meant this quest would be difficult.
Besides, he did not really have a choice. Even if he did not go after Muzan, the Explorers in Muzan’s faction would not let him go.
If he failed to complete the quest, Endspace might not even need to punish him.
Judging from this world’s maximum difficulty, it was very possible that second-tier Explorers had entered it. The Explorers in Muzan’s faction had already received enhancements. Even if Luke held a stat advantage among first-tier Explorers, whether that advantage would remain against second-tier Explorers was hard to say.
If the other side had second-tier Explorers, then with base attributes above thirty, Demon Blood strengthening their bodies, and super-speed regeneration, they would likely be even stronger than some of the Upper Ranks from the original story.
He could not complain about the situation, either. He had chosen this difficulty himself, and he enjoyed challenging powerful opponents.
There was also a chance that killing Explorers in this world would drop a dead man’s treasure chest. He was confident he would make a decent profit.
Without considering the enemy’s strength, Luke felt the most troublesome part of this quest was the time limit.
If a coward like Muzan kept hiding in the Infinity Castle and Luke could not find the place, there might really be nothing he could do to that boss of his.
So he needed to do some “world planning.” He could not let Muzan become so scared that he hid in the Infinity Castle and refused to come out.
"Senior Brother Luke, what did you just say?!"
When Zenitsu heard that Luke intended to seek out the Twelve Kizuki, his voice jumped several octaves.
"What are the Twelve Kizuki?"
Tanjiro asked with an innocent look on his face.
Only then did Luke remember that Tanjiro did not yet know what the Twelve Kizuki were. Come to think of it, the former Water Hashira had really failed to explain a lot of things to Tanjiro.
"They’re the twelve strongest Demons!"
Zenitsu explained, then looked at Luke worriedly. "Senior Brother Luke, you just passed Final Selection. How can you go looking for Demons that dangerous right away? It doesn’t matter how strong you are—it’s too dangerous! Those are Demons only Hashira can handle."
He had heard about the Twelve Kizuki from his grandfather. They were said to be terrifyingly dangerous and had devoured countless people. The Lower Ranks were manageable, and the Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps could still deal with them. But the Upper Ranks had not changed for centuries. Even a Hashira who encountered one alone would have only one outcome: death.
He believed his senior brother was powerful, but he did not know how Luke compared to the legendary current Hashira. He saw both his grandfather and his senior brother as family, and he did not want to see either of them fight such terrifying foes.
"The twelve strongest Demons..."
Tanjiro murmured. Could those Demons know a way to turn a Demon back into a human? His sister Nezuko had been turned into a Demon. The reason he fought so hard now was to make Nezuko human again.
"Brother Luke, can I come with you?"
Tanjiro asked.
"No."
Luke refused simply and directly. "You’re all too weak."
With that, he headed down the mountain alone. "Zenitsu, remember what I said. Consolidate your strength first."
He did not want his kind-hearted junior brother to come to harm, but he could not stay at Zenitsu’s side as his bodyguard forever.
The best way to protect his companions was to kill every enemy.
"Senior Brother Luke..."
Zenitsu watched Luke’s departing back. Recalling how bluntly his senior brother had rejected Tanjiro, he knew that Luke had not only rejected Tanjiro. He had rejected Zenitsu as well.
Zenitsu had become a Demon Slayer Corps candidate only after being deceived by a woman, falling into debt, and getting hounded by collectors until his grandfather rescued him. But he also knew that most of those present had joined the Demon Slayer Corps because Demons had destroyed their families and stolen their happiness.
He had known Senior Brother Luke for a long time, yet he had never known what Luke had gone through to make him so eager to join the Demon Slayer Corps.
Seeing Luke so determined to seek out the Twelve Kizuki today, Zenitsu believed that his senior brother must also have suffered a painful past that he could not bear to look back on—a past in which Demons had deeply hurt him.
"I’ll train hard, until I can be of help."
Zenitsu muttered to himself, making up his mind.
...
After descending the mountain, Luke had no intention of reporting to the Demon Slayer Corps.
He directly took away the ore he had chosen under the confused gazes of the two little girls. He did not need a Nichirin Blade; Prison Demon was more than enough to deal with the Demons of this world.
Joining the Demon Slayer Corps had merely been a faction-alignment quest. In practice, he did not need to submit to any of the Corps’ restrictions. How he acted from here on out was entirely up to him.
And right now, every second counted. After several days of adjustment, the Explorers transformed by Muzan should have stabilized their strength. They should already be taking action.
As fellow Endspace Explorers, it was easy enough to guess what the other side was thinking.
To win this faction war, the weaker Explorers would most likely hunt the protagonist group while they were still growing, whereas the powerful Explorers would choose to hunt the Hashira.
On the surface, this was a three-versus-thirty-three faction conflict. The enemy Explorers’ first priority would definitely not be killing Explorers. Explorers were hard to find, their targets were small, and their strength was unknown.
The Hashira were different. Their strength was already known. Compared to promising saplings like Tanjiro, they were trees nearly ready to bloom. Killing them would effectively reduce the Demon Slayer Corps faction’s combat power.
Besides, judging from Luke’s side quest, the side quests of the Explorers in Muzan’s faction were very likely rewarding them for killing the nine Hashira. They would certainly make their move.
Beyond eliminating the Demon Slayer Corps faction’s active forces, the other side would likely try to preserve Muzan’s high-end combat power. The Upper Ranks might be warned, given intelligence on dangerous Hashira, or even relocated from their established territories.
In the original story, the territories of many Upper Ranks were unknown. Only one was relatively clear: Upper Rank Six, the twin Demons. Gyutaro and his sister could be located in Yoshiwara.
Luke likewise had no effective means of finding the enemy Explorers, so all he could do was hurry to Yoshiwara and take a look. If he caught them there, all the better.
And he did not think he would come up empty-handed. Even if Gyutaro and his sister had already moved, he was still likely to run into Explorers. They also knew that Yoshiwara was the only Upper Rank Demon territory exposed in the original story. They would assume Explorers from the Demon Slayer Corps faction would investigate it, so they might set up an ambush in advance and surround the Corps’ powerful fighters.
As Luke traveled, news of his passing Final Selection by wiping out every Demon on Mount Fujikasane spread through the Demon Slayer Corps by Kasugai Crow.
The news that an exceptional newcomer had joined the Demon Slayer Corps made ordinary Corps members marvel at how unreasonable geniuses could be, while the nine Hashira looked forward to seeing the Corps’ new powerhouse in action.
On Mount Peach Blossom, Jigoro looked at the letter with a face full of gratification. "That child went too far. He’ll probably give the current nine Hashira quite a headache. Capturing Demons is troublesome work, after all."
He had never doubted that Luke could pass Final Selection, but he was still somewhat surprised that Luke had completely cleared Mount Fujikasane.
He was delighted by the strength Luke had displayed. Perhaps before long, the nine Hashira would become ten.
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