Solo Leveling: Digispirit.

A/N: Hello guys, thanks for the support, and also for forgiving the little mistakes I’ve made. like the E rank. Now I understand that the real readers are the ones we meet along the way, (little reference)

The idea for the next Chapters is to improve the world-building, give more clues about the setting, and explain things gradually without overwhelming everyone with info dumps—just enough for readers who aren’t hardcore Digimon fans to understand. The goal is to make this a good novel, so even if I don’t reply to every comment because there are so many, I do my best to read most of them.

start of the Chapter:

Takuya considered LoaderLeomon’s words for a moment before sitting down.

"You used to live here with the Drimogemon, didn’t you?" he asked. "You were one of them once, weren’t you?"

"That’s right," LoaderLeomon replied. "A long time ago, I was a Drimogemon. I loved mining so much that I kept eating every kind of ore I could find. Eventually, I unlocked this evolution and became a LoaderLeomon."

"In that case..." Takuya said, standing back up, "why don’t you come with us?"

"I’d like to," LoaderLeomon answered with a bitter smile. "But as you can see, I’m tied up like a cocoon so unless you free me..."

"That’s not a problem," Takuya replied. "As long as you don’t mind a little heat, I can get you out."

"I’m fine with that," LoaderLeomon said. "Just... make it quick."

Without wasting another second, Takuya walked over to the largest chain, the one wrapped tightly around LoaderLeomon’s neck. It was anchored deep into the cavern floor, preventing the giant Digimon from even lifting his head.

Takuya placed both hands at the base of the chain, as close to the ground as possible, and released his flames.

Slowly, the metal began to glow.

Red...

Then orange...

Until it was nearly white-hot.

The chain weakened enough that the combined force of Takuya’s strength and LoaderLeomon’s pull finally snapped it apart.

Clang!

The lion’s neck was free.

With that restraint gone, the tension on the remaining chains shifted.

Takuya immediately moved to the next one, repeating the process over and over, melting each anchor until LoaderLeomon gradually regained more freedom of movement.

Finally, only a handful of chains remained.

This time, LoaderLeomon didn’t wait.

The mechanical mane around his neck began spinning at high speed, while the massive wrecking ball at the end of his tail swung with tremendous force.

Crash!

Crash!

CRACK!

One after another, the remaining chains shattered.

For the first time in who knew how long, LoaderLeomon stood on all four legs.

He stretched his body, letting out a deep growl as his joints cracked from years of restraint.

"...Freedom."

His golden eyes sharpened, filled with determination.

"Now," LoaderLeomon said, "we’re going to kill those bastards., if not because the ambush me 4 against one, I could have killed them all."

He looked at Takuya.

"If you’ve already taken down one of them, then we’ll do the same to the others. We’ll ambush them one by one and make sure they never see it coming."

His tail slammed into the ground with enough force to shake the cavern.

"After that..."

"We kill the rest of the vermins."

He turned toward a tunnel leading deeper underground.

"We move tomorrow or after tomorrow," he declared. "Follow me. I know a place where they truly won’t come looking for us."

Takuya and Pumpkinmon looked at each other, shrugged, and followed LoaderLeomon deeper into the caverns.

After a while, LoaderLeomon, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped. With a casual swing of the massive wrecking ball at the end of his tail, he collapsed the tunnel behind them.

"So this is the power of a Perfect-level Digimon..." Takuya muttered.

The rock wasn’t ordinary stone. It was as sturdy as the walls and floors inside dungeon gates. Yet LoaderLeomon hadn’t even seemed to put any real force into the blow before the passage caved in.

Now that I think about it...

There had been something in the Solo Leveling world about mana reinforcing the environment itself. The Digital World seemed to work in much the same way. Everything here was far more durable than in the Human World before the gates.

Pumpkinmon interrupted his thoughts with a single sentence.

"You know... I’m also a Perfect-level Digimon."

"Oh... right." Takuya scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "It’s just that he’s... pretty intimidating. Even more than Enbarrmon."

Pumpkinmon laughed and nodded a couple of times.

"...I can’t even argue with that."

They continued walking until they reached another tunnel.

Without a word, LoaderLeomon blocked that one as well, bringing down another section of the cave with his tail.

Takuya couldn’t help feeling a little uneasy.

I’m practically trapping myself inside a mine... following a Digimon I met less than an hour ago.

Isn’t this situation just a little too risky?

Before he could dwell on the thought any longer, the tunnel suddenly opened into a vast chamber.

Warm sunlight illuminated the cavern.

Takuya instinctively looked up.

Far above, natural light filtered through countless cracks in the mountain, bathing the hidden chamber in a soft golden glow. Moss, small plants, and patches of grass covered the ground, making it feel less like a cave and more like a secluded valley hidden inside the mountain itself.

"We’re at the heart of the mountain," LoaderLeomon explained. "Natural light reaches this place through the cracks above. Unless you already know the route, it’s almost impossible to find."

He looked around before continuing.

"Even the Drimogemon get lost trying to reach it sometimes."

A confident smile appeared on his face.

"So there’s no chance Fantomon or his lackeys will find us here."

He sat down with a heavy thud.

"Get some rest."

His gaze shifted toward Takuya and Pumpkinmon.

"When you’ve recovered..."

"We’ll plan our attack."

In the end, they rested for three days before making their move. The reason was simple—it was necessary. Takuya still hadn’t fully recovered from the previous battle, and LoaderLeomon had spent who knew how long chained underground.

Once they had finalized their plan, they finally set out.

LoaderLeomon guided them back to the surface through a different route. There, the three split up. Takuya returned to his human form and headed toward the pseudo-city alongside Pumpkinmon.

Of course, they weren’t foolish enough to charge in blindly.

The first step was reconnaissance.

If everything went according to plan, they could end this today.

Now, with two Perfect-level Digimon on their side—and whatever Agnimon technically counted as—they actually had a chance.

The security had increased dramatically.

At least twenty Bakemon patrolled the outskirts of the settlement, and among them stood Giromon.

Keeping low to the ground, Takuya and Pumpkinmon carefully advanced, making sure not to be spotted by the patrols.

"There’s one of our targets," Takuya whispered. "He isn’t that strong. He usually stayed by Fantomon’s side, but with Enbarrmon gone, it looks like he’s been put in charge of the camp. They even gave him more guards."

"He attacks with explosives," Pumpkinmon warned. "We have to be careful."

" And What about the Bakemon?" Pumpkinmon asked. "How are we dealing with them?"

"Can you handle them?" Takuya replied. "Giromon isn’t especially powerful. I think I can hold him off—or even kill him, I think his attacks will be weak against me—while you deal with the Bakemon."

"I can do it. Bakemon aren’t exactly smart. Besides, if you beat Giromon quickly, we win easily. Yup, yup."

"Good."

Takuya nodded.

"Let’s split up."

In the next instant, they moved in opposite directions.

Takuya transformed into Agnimon mid-run and charged straight toward Giromon.

The moment he entered range, flames erupted around the machine Digimon, forming a blazing barrier of fire that isolated him from the surrounding Bakemon.

At the same time...

Pumpkinmon began the massacre.

Giromon reacted immediately, launching a barrage of Deadly Bombs toward Agnimon.

Takuya answered with Fire Darts, detonating each explosive in midair before they could reach him. Without pausing, he followed up with Burning Salamander, sending a torrent of flames directly at Giromon’s body.

This time, Takuya deliberately chose overwhelming firepower.

His opponent specialized in bombs, explosives, and a massive chainsaw.

Getting into close combat would only play to Giromon’s strengths. There was a high chance the Digimon could trigger point-blank explosions, making melee far too dangerous.

Fortunately...

Fire was the perfect answer.

Burning Salamander after Burning Salamander rained across the battlefield until the entire area became an ocean of flames.

The temperature climbed so high that Giromon’s bombs exploded before they could even reach Takuya.

Not only had Giromon’s attacks become useless...

The explosions only fed the surrounding fire.

A vicious cycle.

The more Giromon attacked...

The stronger Takuya’s flames became.

For the first time, Giromon realized he was being completely overwhelmed.

There was no obvious way to counter this strategy.

Suddenly, Giromon stopped firing.

He closed his eyes.

Then he locked onto Takuya...

...and charged straight at him.

His entire body began to vibrate violently.

At that instant, every instinct Takuya possessed screamed at him.

Danger.

Without hesitating, he used his flames to propel himself upward. Fire burst beneath his feet, launching him into the sky like a rocket.

The next second—

BOOOOOOM!

Giromon exploded.

A self-destruction attack.

The shockwave blasted Takuya even higher before he crashed back down onto the burning battlefield.

The instant he landed, the D-Scan registered the kill.

Giromon had chosen to blow himself apart in a final attempt to take Takuya with him.

Takuya barely had time to catch his breath.

This wasn’t the moment to analyze what had happened.

Pumpkinmon still needed help.

Takuya rushed through the sea of flames he had created, but instead of directly engaging the Bakemon that Pumpkinmon was fighting, he simply kicked the closest ones into the inferno. What’s more, he manipulated the fire with his own control, causing the flames to surge forward and engulf most of the Bakemon at once.

That gave Pumpkinmon a much-needed opening.

From then on, every Bakemon that managed to escape the flames was quickly finished off by either Agnimon or Pumpkinmon.

In less than two minutes, the battle was over.

"You weren’t exaggerating when you said Giromon was the weakest," Takuya exclaimed, letting out a deep breath.

Then, from above, something entered their field of vision.

A massive sickle came crashing down.

Fantomon had arrived.

Using Soul Chopper, he slashed downward, trying to cut both of them in half. Takuya and Pumpkinmon immediately jumped aside, barely avoiding the attack as the blade carved a deep scar across the ground.

"So, you were the rats who attacked us three days ago," Fantomon said. "We searched everywhere for you, and all we found was that idiot Leomon had been freed. Where were you hiding, little rats?"

"None of your business!" shouted Pumpkinmon.

"Ah, you..." Fantomon turned toward him. "The one who could have evolved alongside us, yet refused. Bad choice. A very bad choice."

As he spoke, he slowly spun his massive weapon.

"Well, whatever. You’ll both die today. After that, the Leomon will die as well. The fewer mouths we have to feed, the faster we can gather the resources we need to evolve."

"What’s the rush to evolve?" Takuya asked. "It’s not like you’re about to die."

"You don’t know shit!" Fantomon snapped. "You don’t know what it’s like living under the command of a fool. I wasn’t born to serve—I was born to command." then he continued

"And when I evolve into Mugendramon, and matadormon evolves into Gokumon(reapermon), we’ll eliminate that idiot. We’ll kill ShinMonzaemon, take control of his territory in the Proxy Pass, and I won’t have to follow anyone’s orders ever again. I’ll be the one giving them!"

Takuya couldn’t help but feel grateful.

The Digimon was practically giving them free information.

"The Proxy Pass?" Takuya asked.

Fantomon laughed.

"Hahaha! Right... you idiots from a LAN entry couldn’t possibly know. You’ve never even witnessed the terror of an Ultimate-level Digimon... or seen what lies beyond this island."

Takuya slowly turned toward Pumpkinmon.

"...You told me this was a continent."

"I thought so too," Pumpkinmon replied awkwardly.