Demon Slayer: I Level Up Alone

Chapter 14

"Hehehe, little lamb..."

The Hand Demon mockingly chased after the fallen person.

"Little lamb, I'm coming for you..."

Four tentacles like hands instantly reached out towards the trial participant.

Although Akito was too lazy to save this person, he couldn't let the Hand Demon kill in front of him.

"Total concentration, Water Breathing, Second Form Water Wheel."

Akito leaped into the air, creating a blue water ripple circle that severed the Hand Demon's extending tentacles.

"Get lost, don't interfere with my hunt..."

Akito said Calmly to the trial participant who was already scared out of his wits.

"Th... thank you, I'll... I'll leave now..."

He said this and left without looking back, a hint of glee on his face.

Perhaps in his mind, Akito was just a big fool; he knew very well that the Hand Demon was definitely not something the trial participant could handle and that he would surely die here.

Seeing this, the Hand Demon felt no surprise, but rather became even more excited.

"Here you are again, my lovely little fox, hehehe."

The Hand Demon let out a mocking laugh, excitedly looking at the fox mask worn by Akito.

"Little fox, what year is it in the Meiji era now?"

"you foul Demon, it's now the Taisho era. How could you have been locked up for so long?"

Akito replied with a smile.

"Taisho?"

Then the Hand Demon let out a series of mad roars.

"The era name, the era name has changed again, it's changed again! I've been locked up for so long, and the era name has changed again, ahhh, unforgivable... Sakonoji bastard... Sakonoji bastard... Sakonoji bastard..."

The Hand Demon shouted frantically, the tentacles wrapping around its head constantly scratching its arms, blood flowing out, but the Hand Demon seemed to feel no pain.

"This Hand Demon is really crazy, like a masochist."

Akito looked at the gigantic creature in front of him; honestly, only by experiencing it personally could one feel that kind of pressure.

"Hey, enough already, you look like a big sandbag in my eyes, stop messing with me, okay?"

Akito interrupted the Hand Demon's self-indulgence.

The Hand Demon didn't understand what "big sandbag" meant, but from Akito's eyes, it could see the full disdain towards itself, which only fueled its anger.

"45 years, a full 45 years! Do you know how I got here? Sakonoji bastard brought me here, 45 years... ahhh..."

As the Hand Demon spoke, it began to shout again.

Akito found it a bit strange, as if he had heard a famous saying in his previous life...

"Back then, he was still hunting demons, in the Edo period. He captured me in this wisteria flower prison, and every year, little demons like you come to hunt us, but I've eaten 50 little demons, hehehe."

"1, 2, 3... 13, you are the 14th, hehehe. This is the number of Sakonoji's disciples I've eaten. Let me think, the two that impressed me the most, the strongest one had a rare hair color, light orange, with a scar by his mouth. The other one wore flower-patterned clothes, was a girl, very small, not strong, but very agile, hehehe."

As the Hand Demon spoke, it began to laugh.

Akito immediately knew he was talking about Sabito and Makomo.

"The mask on your forehead is a mark; I remember Sakonoji's swordsmanship with the mask he wore, just like the Tengu mask he wore. Didn't he say it was an evil-repelling mask? Because of these masks, they were all killed by me and ended up in my stomach, they were simply killed by Sakonoji, hehehe."

"After I finished saying this, that little ghost girl actually started crying, very angrily... Hehehe, after that, her movements began to stiffen... I just tore off her hands and feet, and then... Hehehe."

Looking at the hand ghost, Akito's gaze gradually turned cold, and he said, "Are you done? If you're done talking, I'll send you on your way."

But at that moment, Akito suddenly leaped to another spot; it turned out the hand ghost had started to ambush from underground.

"What a despicable tactic, hand ghost, you're really useless..."

Akito mocked.

"Alright, no more chitchat. You might as well obediently become the number of strikes under my blade."

"Total concentration, water breathing, third form: flowing dance."

Akito instantly charged towards the hand ghost, who unleashed countless tentacles to attack him, but all were evaded skillfully by Akito.

"Water breathing, fourth form: striking tide."

Akito leaped in front of the hand ghost, quickly changing his technique to slash at the hand ghost.

"Clang."

The Nichirin blade in Akito's hand was actually blocked, and this strike did not deal any damage to the evil demon, so he quickly retreated.

"Is it that tough? If that's the case, then I'll use a technique with more powerful damage."

Seeing Akito continuously slash at its neck, the hand ghost began to mock.

"It seems you little ghost are still useless... Hehehe."

"Shut up, you're so annoying."

Akito took a deep breath and once again executed water breathing, third form: flowing water.

He approached the hand ghost unscathed and then leaped.

"Total concentration, water breathing, tenth form: Constant Flux."

Akito's body began to spin rapidly, while blue ripples appeared on the blade, forming a blue-white water dragon that slashed towards the hand ghost.

The hand ghost instinctively tried to block, but it was of no use.

"Clang."

The sound of the sword sheath echoed.

Akito sheathed his sword.

The hand ghost behind him wore an incredulous expression.

"I... I... was my neck cut off...?"

"Why... why did this happen...?"

"Beep, congratulations to the host for killing a named demon, gaining 500,000 strikes."

"Beep, congratulations on obtaining the first kill of a named demon, system upgrade activated, new feature: all things mall."

"System is upgrading..."

"Huh? I didn't expect killing the hand demon could also upgrade the system. But will this upgrade affect my ability to gain strikes from killing demons...?"

Akito turned to look at the hand ghost turning to ashes; at this moment, the once mountain-sized body was now reduced to just a small portion, and the hand ghost's head was left with only half a face.

It stared at Akito, as if seeing the figure of Sakonoji from back then.

"Sakonoji... Sakonoji..."

In the end, the hand ghost turned to ashes, carrying the memories of its past human life, and vanished into the air.

...

At the peak of the Mount sagiri.

"He succeeded..."

"Then we should leave..."

"Master has taken in another new disciple..."

The figures of the thirteen children gradually disappeared into the bamboo forest.

In the following days, Akito continued to lure demons out using the same methods and then killed them.

What surprised Akito was that the system was still upgrading, but the strikes gained from killing ghosts remained the same.

In these few days, more than half of the demons in the fujisakane had been slain by Akito.

"Having killed so many, the Demon Slayer Corps won't come after me, right...? But it's also because of me that these people escaped a disaster and successfully passed the final trial. This time is truly a bountiful harvest..."

Looking at the strike count on the system panel, which had already reached over 4.3 million, Akito couldn't help but smile.

Everyone who had passed the final trial gathered in the square.

Even though Akito had slain most of the ghosts, a majority of people still died in this trial, leaving only a dozen others besides Akito.

Akito noticed that the person he had saved from the hand demon was also not present; he thought that person probably died again after leaving him.

"What a unlucky guy..."