Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer

"In the end, I failed to win even once against that fire demon," Tenji muttered to himself just as he finished making the corn soup.

He’d have more than ten matches in the 24 hours. While Flame Demon being overwhelmingly powerful was one reason, Tenge had never won even once.

He suddenly glanced at the house’s wall clock, it was still around 10 o'clock.

"Hmm, there's still some time until Chisato-chan wakes up. I guess I will whip up a couple more dishes," Tenji opened the fridge and thought about what else to cook.

There was leftover French bread and bacon, so he decided to make garlic toast with bacon on top. Deciding on it, he started cooking again.

The chill coming out from the fridge reminded Tenji of Snow Demon's hell quest.

"......Ah, I have to make sure to pack winter clothes for Snow Demon's hell ques from the next time, otherwise I will become popsicle. Death for sure."

The hell region of the blue demon species, where Snow Demon lives, was located in a slight distance from the red demon species's hell region. The weather was extremely chilly, it was so cold it made Tenji's teeth clatter.

If he were to put up an analogy, Snow Demon's hell region was akin to Mount Vinson in the Antarctic on earth. The temperature was extremely low, so much that Tenji had once almost died due to the intense cold.

The condition for Snow Demon's hell quest were such;

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«Available Hell Quest»

Quest Name - Encounter with the Blue Demon Species ~Prison Guard Edition~

«Achievement Condition 1»

------Plank exercise for 5 hours.

«Achievement Condition 2»

------Cube Sense for 5 hours.

«Area Achievement Condition 3»

------Play with Snow Demon for 24 hours.

«Necessary Condition4»

------Food Digestion

«Quest Reward»

1. Unlock 4th Grade «Snow Demon»

2. 4th Grade Weapon «Snow Demon's Roar»

3. 4th Grade Equipment «Snow Demon's Rosary»

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The first achievement condition was pretty straightforward, as its name implies.

The plank was a very common type of core exercise, where one supports their body from the toes and elbows to wrists, engaging various muscles such as the rectus abdominis, obliques, and transverse abdominis. That being said, straightforward didn't mean easy, It was quite challenging to do it for 5 hours non-stop. Even the general people or athletes do it while taking intervals between 1-minutes exercise.

"It should be...... the hardest hell quest for sure. I definitely don't want to do it again."

He was having a hard time on how to put it into words. Planks were incredibly easy that even an amateur could perform easily. But it was that easy part that made it the hardest, in his case, he wasn't allowed to move.

Squats etc normal muscle training involves 'movement', but Plank doesn't. Staying completely still was what made it so unbearable. After completing the first achievement condition, he began the next two quests which were, quite strange to say the least.

"As for the cube sense, that was quite a fun task."

If plank quest was the hardest, then this cube sense---whose detail was hard to make out from just the name alone---was the most enjoyable hell quest for Tenji. So much so that he even forgot the passing of time.

When Tenji prompt for the quest to begin, He was instantly surrounded by six pure white ice walls. It occurred so suddenly he didn't even get the chance to see exactly they popped out. The walls were riddled with an inumerable numbers of holes which released the light.

The achievement condition 2, cube sense, was basically about touching that light radiates from the wall's holes. In short, it was a test about his agility, spatial perception and stamina. The details of the quest, since it was the first time there was a game-like element, piqued Tenji's interest as he chased after them with undivided attention.

However it was the third quest "Play with Snow Demon» that posed the biggest hurdle to him. The details were in stark contrast to flame demon quest, to the point he even felt like he was seriously going to die.

"......I almost died at the summit of «Mahapadma Ice Mountain». No, didn't I completely lose my consciousness for once? Most likely."

A pretty snow demon had suddenly appeared, and said to him, "It's quite a comfortable coldness.......You, who holds the king factor. Let's climb the ice mountain together. The mahapadma melon you can get at the summit are the bestest."

In this way, dressed in normal summer clothes, he began scaling the ice mountain. He growly lost the sensation of his limbs, his throat felt frozen, his eyelashes and hair frozen sharp like the back of a hedgehog, and he even nearly died falling into crevasse......and almost lost his life to frostbite.

"But that mahapadma melon was indeed the greatest sweet I ever had......"

Tenji reminisces about the 'Mahapadma Melon', a natural fruit growing on the rare tree called hell ice tree at the summit, that he had eaten after somehow managing to claw his way to the top of the mountain. Not only was it delicious, it even restored all sensation in his body.

According to the snow demon, mahapadma melon had such an excellent healing effect that it was widely famous even in hell. Even though Tenji was at the top of colder than snow summit, eating mahapadma melon had caused his body to generate so much heat even the extreme cold of mahapadma ice mountain felt like he was taking a sunbath, and he nearly wanted to remove all his clothes.

In the end, after forming a contract with the snow demon through 'Gullet', Tenji had flawlessly cleared the second hell quest. From that day, thanks to the hellish wisdom of the snow demon, they began to call them with 'Sensei' honorifics.

Tenji was down in his bitter memory lane when he heard a lazy sound calling out to him.

"Yawn~. Good morning~.......Hmm? This smell...... What a luxury to have corn soup right from the morning. Who is it? Who is deliberately showing-off...... ah, is it me?"

Chisato, dressed as provocatively as usual, descended down the stairs while rubbing her clean white belly. And as soon as she took notice of the corn soup's smell already wafting in the living room, her eyes shone in realization.

After a leisurely morning, Tenji left for the inhabited precipice area on the 62nd floor to experiment with Flame Demon and Snow Demon.

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