《Transformation of Fuderpsy》 Rewrite Chapter 1: Rough A small amount of people in this world, Fuderpsy, has something called SP, Soul Potential. For some is a blessing and for others a curse, however, this special ¡®feature¡¯ is so rare that is said that only one hundred people in the whole world have it. Albeit it isn¡¯t like having it will certainly make you more powerful, the biggest example being the Emperor of Drakar that doesn¡¯t have SP and is the considered the most powerful person in the world, but someone that has SP is certain to become famous one day, be it for their glory or gruesome death. One of the holders of this feature in his Gift, a system created by someone that decided to only be remembered as ¡®Bob¡¯ and is capable of showing the people¡¯s progress through the form of black windows at one¡¯s front, is a black-haired boy named Alderam that was currently being held against his will by several men and women cursing at him. ¡°He is a heretic. Captain, let us kill him right now. If he was involved with Demons we could endure him, but involving himself with a Devil is the worst sin someone can commit, even worse than kinslaying.¡± Would they think less or more about me if I told them I killed my sister and want to kill my father now? Alderam tried to activate any of his [Abilities] but failed, they most likely had some kind of device in the shackles to not permit him to use them. The said captain of this group formed of [Guards] and mercenaries that were entrusted with the task of delivering Naturals¡¯ meat to Alderam¡¯s village after the Extermination week, looked to the desolate burned village. It was full of mangled bodies in the village¡¯s center and surprisingly, or strangely, two houses were left intact without a single scratch. ¡°By the flames and remains of Black Qi, it is certain a Devil is the culprit. However, that frail Rank H Devil and this Rank G man are too weak to cause this disaster.¡± ¡°But Captain, it¡¯s impossible to a [Human] have a hair color so deep black and strange eyes, even if he isn¡¯t the main culprit, he is beyond question an accomplice.¡± One of the guards wearing plate armor stamped with a rose figure in her shoulder pads said pointing to Alderam¡¯s appearance. Alderam was wearing a haggard robe full of claw and burn marks, he would have a complete normal villager¡¯s appearance if he hadn¡¯t his short black hair and piercing inhuman silvery white eyes with black vertical slits as pupils. It wasn¡¯t like he always was in this way, yesterday he was still a normal man with ivory hair and brown eyes like his mother had. Everything was his SP and Soul Skills¡¯ fault, and of course, he couldn¡¯t forget of attributing the fault to the slow Devil that let herself be captured and spoil his plans of fleeing from these [Guards]. Soul Potential: [Black Soul] +1. [A soul transformed, capable to store and materialize all that has the keyword ¡®Evil¡¯. All Black Abilities are easier to increase and grow.] [The + represents the number of stocks on the [Black Soul], it has now Black Elementals.] Soul Skills: [Evil Commune] (Primal) Lvl 4: [You have gazed at what existed beyond the Abyss, but you had been contaminated.] [Ability to share thoughts and feelings with what the Gift associate with the keyword ¡®Evil¡¯. Warning: May create [Soul Corruption] if the sharing is too deep or used too much. Toggled On.] [You have chosen to Struggle, setting a foot on a path that will only lead to Destruction. You can see and feel Black Elementals.] [You can now temporally control a Devil with low raw power and high standing, but a [Familiar Bond] will be formed. The Transformation has started.] [Soul Corruption] (Primal): [You have chosen to Struggle, setting a foot on a path that will only lead to Destruction. Further corruption is inevitable. Emotional damage and psyche breakdown are amplified beyond the limit.] [But as you have mastered your corruption, permitting you to modify it. You changed it to disable the ¡®emotional damage and psyche breakdown are amplified beyond the limit¡¯ function.] The captain took Alderam out of his thoughts. ¡°You are right, let¡¯s just first make sure we aren¡¯t committing a mistake.¡± He drew his long sword and pointed it to Alderam¡¯s throat. ¡°You have five seconds to show me you Gift Window and its notices to discover if you are an accomplice or not. Fail to do that and you will die.¡± If I show you my Gift, death will be least of my problems, it will even be a salvation. Alderam glared to the captain whilst trying to find an escape to this situation. Name: Alderam Udalth II Race: Human 15% Age: 17 Title: [Devil Bonded], [The One Beyond Insanity] Job: [Novice Mage] 0% Rank: G Familiar: Laylasoderscim (Rank H) Welfare: Injured Mana: 90/90 SP: [Black Soul] +1 Constitution: 9 Mind: 30 Black Force: 10 Strenght: 5 Charisma: 1 Willpower: 15 Dexterity: 5 Luck: 1 Abilities: [Production]: Painting Lvl 1 [Auxiliary]: Manual Labor Lvl 3, Reading Lvl 7, Cleaning Lvl 3, Cooking Lvl 4, Artistic Intuition Lvl 1, Mana Insight Lvl 1 [Combat]: Combat Arts Lvl 1,Mana Empowerment Lvl 1 [Manifestation]: Mana Aura Lvl 1, Water School: Water Ball Lvl 1 [Transcendent]: Soul Corruption, Evil Commune Lvl 4, Familiar Bond Lvl 1 Quests: Promotion: [Painter], [Laborer], [Scholar], [Caregiver], [Devil Tamer] There is no way I can explain the percentage on my [Race] or my [Abilities]. ¡°Five.¡± How can I survive this? ¡°Four.¡± If I use the Black Elementals in my [Black Soul] will I be able to flee? ¡°Three.¡± Before the time could run out or Alderam could find the solution, five people appeared after finishing the village¡¯s investigation. ¡°Guards¡¯ Captain, we found some interesting things in one of the unscathed houses.¡± The leader of the mercenaries, Berk, said with his comrades in tow. ¡°Uncle Toivo, show him what we found.¡± Toivo, a man with blue hair and muscular build without wearing any kind of armor, brought out painting tools and two Skill Books, ¡®Common Basics of Mana to Morons¡¯ and ¡®How to Let Everyone Soaked with your Water Magic¡¯. ¡°Besides them, there were various horrible paintings of an amateur, with exception of one that really made my thought someone is a better painter than I. And no being strange enough to two Skill Books exist in a frontier village, I found a recently badly made grave behind one house.¡± Alderam flinched, his emotions easily perceptible to anyone seeing him. They went to his house and got his grandmother¡¯s painting tools, Skill Books he received in his birthday from his mother, Celia, and mayor, Olirwen. His heart sunk imagining Toivo accidentally breaking or messing with his precious tools and paintings by not appreciating it by his commentary of being of an amateur. Which is true, I am indeed an amateur, but it hurts when someone talks bad about my and grandmother¡¯s paintings. ¡°As I thought, they are yours, aren¡¯t they?¡± Toivo smirked as he moved the painting¡¯s tools with his arms to the sides and Alderam closely followed his movements. ¡°Come on, Uncle. Stop pestering the poor boy.¡± Berk said. ¡°And you forgot of showing the most important thing we found.¡± ¡°I know,¡± Toivo said, taking away his false smirk to be replaced by a serious look. ¡°Baruchard, knock him out like you did with the Devil. You already made another of those pills by now, right?¡± He called out the skinny man with curly blond hair and smooth brown complexion. As Baruchard walked out with a beige small pill and smashed it over a loincloth, no guard tried to stop him, a reputed pill conditioner, no even the guards¡¯ captain that was threatening Alderam with his sword. Smiling, Baruchard with a melodious voice said. ¡°Go sleep now, boy. You deserve a rest.¡± The substance on the loincloth that was for sure not chloroform as it takes at least five minutes to act, immediately knocked out the struggling Alderam when the loincloth touched his nose. ¡°Care to explain now what this all about, Berk?¡± The Captain didn¡¯t dare of questioning Baruchard''s actions. ¡°Yes, it is easy. Uncle only didn¡¯t want to Alderam be awoke when we bring out this.¡± Berk took a blood-red book from Toivo¡¯s backpack. ¡°The content of this book, The Jester, that is about how a jester got betrayed by everyone after saving them isn¡¯t the important part. What¡¯s important is that a woman and Alderam had a strong attachment to this book and it was close to them when everything went awry in the village.¡± ¡°So we can use your comrade¡¯s [Job] to find out the truth?¡± The Captain looked at the woman Foxfolk that was close to a Dogfolk, they are Berk¡¯s newest comrades. The woman was special as she had a mask on her head and had the rare [Adept Puppeteer Bard] Job, being able to show the history of an object she touches. As soon as the brown Foxfolk, Morgiana, touched the book, everyone present saw scenes of a woman and heard her screams while being tortured by a red-haired man with a flame ax. Minutes passed as the man cut out her legs and took her eyes while saying strange things like NPCs, PvP, Assimilation, Association¡¯s writers. When he finished, a powerful Devil in its Shadow Form appeared and began to destroy everything.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Later when the woman was almost losing her consciousness to the pain while holding the book, the Devil came back and didn¡¯t let her and other four people rest as it completely maimed and tortured them with its big claws and dark energy surrounding its ebony wings. When the people present outside of the ¡®object''s history¡¯ thought it was over, Alderam surged with the woman Devil and fought against the bald Devil using the woman Devil as a meatshield. ¡°Guards¡¯ Captain, is it enough proof to you that despite him being involved with a Devil, he isn¡¯t the reason or an accomplice to the this village¡¯s destruction?¡± Berk asked. The guards complained about how that series of images couldn¡¯t prove anything substantial, but their captain shut them up and let Berk continue talking. ¡°But being involved with a Devil is still a grave sin, how about you let their custody to us? We will test them and see if they worthy of being left out alive as our mercenary group¡¯s new comrades. It isn¡¯t like we can permanently kill a Devil anyways.¡± Berk took in his arms Alderam, ignoring the protests of the guards. ¡°And I can¡¯t see what is wrong to study how one of them works with a Rank H Devil in our hands. So even if she flees from us, she wouldn¡¯t cause too much damage being Rank H.¡± The Captain despite the complaints of his subordinates let the mercenary group go away with the weak Devil and Alderam, principally because Baruchard was already carrying the woman Devil with an amused smile on his face. ¡°Forget all about the Rank H Devil and the black-haired man, let¡¯s go back to the city and just report a bald Devil from probably the Greed or Pride Layer destroyed the village.¡± He ordered, not wanting to go on bad terms with that woman¡¯s prot¨¦g¨¦. ¡°Uncle, I hope your decision of not telling them you and Uncle Baruchard used [Full Appraisal] on Alderam and Laylasoderscim to see their Gift Windows be the correct one,¡± Berk said, looking with pity and fear at Alderam. ¡°You worry too much, Berk. And look at Baru, he is like he found a jewel in the middle of thrash, and I¡¯m too like him for finding such a bad painter but that is capable of showing so many emotions in his paintings. It will be all fine. I assure you, [Quests] never guide you to the wrong place.¡± ¡°... I hope so.¡±
Alderam drowsily woke up in a place stinking with blood and piss. The first thing he noted when waking up wasn¡¯t his Familiar looking relieved at him, but a piece of paper stuck in his robe. With his brain still not working properly he picked the paper and began to read it without caring about his current situation. ¡°Little Ald, we saw your and Laylasomething¡¯s Gift Windows. We know you guys are slowing losing your own Races and that you two have a [Familiar Bond] that permits a Devil like her to receive the Gift and be understood by us, normal Gift bearers. This is a peculiar and impossible situation that ¡®Bob¡¯ wouldn¡¯t permit as he considers Spirits and Devils too boring and too attached to concepts of ¡®Evil¡¯ and ¡®Good¡¯ to give them his Gift.¡± Alderam drowsiness disappeared whilst he ignored Layla tugging his robe to call his attention. ¡°Your existences are incredibly interesting and at the same time dangerous, so we thought of a test to see if you two will become our newest comrades in our mercenary group. You can¡¯t escape from here without completing the test and remember we could have killed you but didn¡¯t because we are your allies, but we need proof of your''s worth. Good luck reaching the end of this small Dungeon with Laylasomething. We are waiting for you there, you have two days-¡± Dungeons are traps made to capture and hold Naturals, the ¡®cousins¡¯ of Monsters that have two kingdoms in the southern continent. The difference between them is that Naturals have Cores, a round object, in their bodies that make them empty-headed, exclusively following their instincts like normal animals. ¡°Ald!¡± Layla shouted in his ear to take his attention to the looming presences going after them. She pointed to a group of small green furless beings running to them in their four legs. ¡°More Naturals to kill, what an original concept of a test. It is just like my [Job] requirement.¡± Alderam didn¡¯t go into despair for having to prove himself to be left alive by people stronger than him or for having his secrets uncovered. To him, it is just another day of his life like when he had to obey his father to not be killed by him or when his father discovered his secret that he was giving food and becoming ¡®friends¡¯ of Layla, the Devil in their basement. Alderam found his weapons outside of his reach, if he tried to pick them in this situation the Naturals would reach him faster than he could run, so he looked at Layla. She was a ridiculously weak Devil, had a round face fitting her chubby form, raven short hair and really small jet black wings on her back full of strange symbols that marked her as a Devil. In short, she was useless with the exception of one thing. ¡°Layla, try to hold them off for as long as you can.¡± Alderam hugged Layla at her waist with her crying already knowing her fate, and spun. Throwing her right at the center of the Naturals¡¯ horde. The Naturals seeing free plump meat to them feast, forgot about the skinny man that was picking his poor magical sword and dagger at the ground unperturbed by Layla¡¯s screams of pain as the Naturals ate her and destroyed the dress Alderam stole from Olirwen to give to her in her birthday. Wait... don¡¯t I have magic now? I didn¡¯t even need to throw Layla there, I could just stall them with [Water Ball] or [Mana Aura]. Some habits are hard to die, I will probably use her as a meatshield at least more three times before getting used to being more powerful than a normal Human. [Laylasoderscim died, sending her soul to your SP instead of the Aether.] But what a shame, a good dress was ruined for nothing. Alderam put his hand at his front and chanted. ¡°Water Ball.¡± Around his body four azure balls made of water appeared, draining him of more than half of his Mana. He willed them to propel themselves at the Naturals as he ran with his sword raised and his [Mana Empowerment] activated. Mana Empowerment (Common) Lvl 1: [Full body internal augmentation is now passively possible. Cost less mana and increase the efficiency of empowerment by 5%.] The water balls burst out the brains or chests of more than ten Naturals as they continued to penetrate all the bodies in their way. The four left Naturals stopped their feast and turned to the running Alderam that had his weapon ability activated. Water Extension (Common): [The spreading of Mana is 10% faster. Able to store water beforehand to enlarge the weapon up to a maximum of a third of its original extension.] Alderam threw his dagger to pin the feet of the first green Natural with its Core exposed on its naked chest. He then quickly decapitated it and kicked the face of the nearest Natural to give him space to move. The Natural at the left back that had a piece of Layla¡¯s dress on its mouth jumped at Alderam whilst the one at the right tried to bite him. This is the reason you guys won¡¯t ever become like Monsters, you are too stupid. Alderam just raised his sword by suddenly extending it with the water blade stored on it, the Natural fell to its death being unable to move on the air with its throat pierced by the blade. And before the Natural at the right could bite him, Alderam quickly activated his pricy [Mana Aura] to scare it. Mana Aura (Common) Lvl 1: [Your surrounding will be coated with your type of Mana desired. Effects will vary depending on the type, being more easy to use certain types of transformed Mana.] From Alderam, Black Mana in the form of a round field of energy surged and when the Natural got close of it, the green thing scampered off by fear and feeling its skin withering. Alderam temporarily ignored the feeling Natural, he concentrated on the Natural growling at him that recovered its bearings with its protruding fangs shaking after being stunned by Alderam¡¯s kick. Alderam got bored of the deadlock he was with the Natural glaring at him and for sure ready to avoid his sword swings, I¡¯m a mage, this sword is actually to me just use when my Mana ends. He shot a [Water Ball] at it, and it wasn¡¯t capable of escaping the high speed condensed ball of water, miserably dying. The black-haired man could try to chase the fleeing Natural or trying his luck with [Water Ball] at it, but decided to not do it. Not for mercy or pity though. I simply don¡¯t care about it. He had an exact amount of Mana to shot his last [Water Ball] and didn¡¯t want to waste it on the Natural, he needed Mana to resurrect Layla, after all. And the consequences of letting free a Natural never got through his head, if someone died because he didn¡¯t kill that Natural he would only blame them for entering this Dungeon and not being prepared to properly fight. These Naturals aren¡¯t that strong anyway, at best Rank H. Job: [Novice Mage] 0% ¡°It seems killing things isn¡¯t the mage¡¯s job, to my job¡¯s percentage raise I will need to train the abilities that rely on Mana rather than going on a killing spree.¡± Thanks to the Gift, beings from the Material Plane had the capability of receiving [Jobs] after completing a [Quest]. Those [Jobs] give them extraordinary abilities and it is possible to evolve their own [Jobs] by doing what the Gift consider as actions of your [Job]. Improving Mana abilities or studying everything related to Mana, a wondrous energy that exists almost everywhere, in the case of a [Mage]. Alderam went close to the rest of Layla¡¯s corpse and transferred her soul to it while giving to her his Mana and Essence. Normally when a Devil dies and their body is left here in Fuderpsy, their soul is sent back to Aether, the Immaterial Plane. But because of Alderam¡¯s SP that can store anything with the keyword ¡®Evil¡¯, Layla¡¯s soul is sent to him and thus is capable of reviving her whenever he wants. Gazing at the body being stretched, stitched, healed and reformed, he checked one of his suspicions since this is the second time Layla actually died while being his meatshield. Race: Human 15% to 3% Will I die if it reaches zero or¡­ Layla gave a shrill scream of pain when waking up. ¡°Ald, it is hurting so much and even the dress you gave me is ruined.¡± She sobbed. ¡°Why did you do that? Couldn¡¯t you just kill them with your magic instead of sacrificing me?¡± ¡°Sorry, I forgot I had magic. And some habits are hard to get over.¡± Alderam said, gathering the Cores of the dead Naturals with his dagger opening their bodies. ¡°And stop whining about pain, different from me you have [Pain Resistance] Lvl 4. You shouldn¡¯t even feel nothing when someone cuts off your arm.¡± ¡°I have resistance, not immunity. I still feel the pain and I don¡¯t like it.¡± She stood up and went to one of the backpacks the kind blond man gave her. ¡°I¡¯m not one of those kinky Lust Devils that can for some reason feel pleasure in midst of pain, I¡¯m just a normal Gluttony Devil.¡± While Layla searched for clothes in the backpack Alderam didn¡¯t see, he picked Black Elementals from his SP and used them as Black Qi to finish healing Layla¡¯s body to full health by touching her still damaged parts. ¡°From whom is this backpack and steel spear?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know their names, but they seemed kind enough to me since they didn¡¯t torture me when I woke up. Before throwing us here for a ¡®test¡¯ a blond man give me this backpack and spear to protect myself, and have supplies enough to survive here in the Dungeon.¡± Layla changed her clothes to a skin-fitting full-length garb that didn¡¯t disturb her movement. ¡°Why you weren¡¯t with the spear in your arms when we were attacked?¡± If she had it, maybe Alderam would trust her enough to guard him until he picked his own weapons instead of using her a meatshield. ¡°Didn¡¯t I teach you [Combat Arts] and how to kill someone to this type of situations?¡± Layla stayed silent for a moment before saying. ¡°...This was actually the first test those people gave to us, the blond man said you would fail if you used me as a meatshield.¡± She picked a paper on the backpack and gave it to Alderam. ¡°I wanted to warn you beforehand, however, you were too engrossed in your own thoughts to pay attention to me¡­ sorry.¡± Alderam gave a cursory glance at the paper before throwing it away. Objective One: Don¡¯t make your Familiar go into suicidal missions, she has feelings too, don¡¯t you know? Objective Two: Reach the end of the Dungeon. Objective Three: If possible try to treat- ¡°Bullshit. Let¡¯s go, Layla. We will flee from here and go to Free Cities to gather power and kill my father.¡± And if possible gather money too, so I will be able to pay a painting teacher to teach me. Alderam began to follow the arrows sculpted on the Dungeon¡¯s brown walls to get out of it. Without them, it will be easy for anyone delving into the Dungeon get lost in these almost same infinite brown tight corridors. ¡°But¡­ what about the test? You will die outside without their protection. I know people from the Material Plane don¡¯t like someone that is a friend of a Devil.¡± Layla followed him with the backpack and long spear in hands. ¡°It¡¯s true I can die outside before reaching Free Cities, but I don¡¯t trust those people to protect us. And Layla, what¡¯s the meaning of fighting to win someone¡¯s approval? Moreover, from someone we don¡¯t even know.¡± Alderam looked at Layla¡¯s auburn eyes with determination and to make her focus on the most important thing. ¡°Layla, the only thing we most care is to our survival. Principally yours, if a High Priest gets near you, your soul will be destroyed before going back to me. You will be lost forever. What guarantee we have they won¡¯t have a priest waiting for us when we reach the end of this place be following their orders?¡± Layla quivered, the mere thought of her immortality being stolen from her and really dying without completing her dream of opening the biggest restaurant in the world or accomplishing nothing after being locked away for more than two hundred years shook her very being. She nodded at him, ready to obey his instructions and not caring more about that gentle blond man¡¯s approval. ¡°Good, that¡¯s the look I like to see in you. Let¡¯s go, Layla. We will flee from here and survive.¡± Although I won¡¯t say to you that if they wanted us dead, they could have just killed us while we were sleeping instead of making this test. But you are too useless when not motivated, so pardon me for this small lie since I know we can¡¯t leave this place without completing it. Rewrite Chapter 2: Sweet Touch [You can¡¯t leave a ¡®White Land¡¯ Dungeon without completing it. Please go back and finish the Dungeon with the rest of the party you entered together.] ¡°Ald, so the last hour we spent walking was for nothing?¡± Layla dejectedly asked when she and Alderam touched the Dungeon¡¯s exit, enormous brick walls, and received the Gift¡¯s message. ¡°Not necessarily, my Mana recovered a little and now we know we have to obey those guys and complete the Dungeon, the test they gave to us is another thing though.¡± Alderam picked the map he discovered that was on Layla¡¯s backpack and began to trace the shortest path to the Dungeon¡¯s end. ¡°And with the information ¡®White Land¡¯ I know now where we are.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I was going to ask. What means ¡®White Land¡¯ Dungeon?¡± Before Alderam could look annoyed at her for not knowing basic things about the Gift or the world, he remembered Devils normally don¡¯t have the Gift and that Layla lived a good part of her life in Fuderpsy locked. ¡°Dungeons are traps for Naturals and some of the Dungeons can be made artificially, however, the most common type of Dungeon is the one that has a ¡®white land¡¯ surrounding it. ¡°In that land, for some reason still not discovered by any of our researchers, the existence of Mana is negated, so it is the best place to trap Naturals as they immediately die when not provided with Mana or when in a place without Mana.¡± As they walked following the map, Alderam also explained this Dungeon was the one near Redspring since his Empire, Wizcalen, only has two ¡®white land¡¯ Dungeons and the other one is in the capital far away from his frontier village. He doubted they were unconscious for long enough to reach the capital. ¡°Ald, I¡¯m sensing two forms of life at our front. And I think they are Naturals.¡± Layla said, flickering her small wings. ¡°Since when can you detect life?¡± Alderam asked, skeptical. ¡°My [Talent] received an upgrade after we defeated that Greed Devil. Since I accidentally absorbed a little of his Essence.¡± Alderam opened her Gift Window to confirm. Name: Laylasoderscim Race: Devil 60% Age: 429 Title: [????? Bonded] Job: None Rank: H Welfare: Healthy Mana: 9/9 Talent:[Black Wings] Constitution: 3 Mind: 3 Black Force: 50 Strength: 4 Charisma: 111 Willpower: 9 Dexterity: 3 Luck: 666 Resilience: 8 Abilities: [Production]: None [Auxiliary]: Pain Resistance Lvl 4, Manual Labor Lvl 1, Mana Insight Lvl 1, Black Force Manipulation Lvl 1 [Combat]: Combat Arts Lvl 1 [Manifestation]: Evil Charm Lvl 1 [Transcendent]: Familiar Bond Lvl 1, Black Coating Lvl 4 Quests: Promotion: [Novice Evil Enchantress], [Novice Black Guardian], [Laborer] Why she has interrogations in her title which she probably gained when becoming my Familiar? ????? Bonded: [You are the first to bond with the ????? Race, tainting your own existence. Increase the grow of the ?????.] How strange¡­ Layla¡¯s Gift currently doesn¡¯t know my Race? Alderam stopped to think but decided to see what he initially wanted. Black Wings: [The Devil¡¯s font of energy that permits its immortality and ability to travel between planes. You can using it sense life to corrupt and also fly if your wings¡¯ grow get past 50%. Current Wings¡¯ Grow: 2%. (Please corrupt more beings from the Material Plane or at least kill them if you like more of seeing their blood flowing in your claws.)] ¡°Can you discern how strong they are?¡± He asked. ¡°No. Only their distance to us and how close to the death they are.¡± ¡°If there are only two, I will take care of one and you will use the other to train. You need to kill Naturals for any of your Job¡¯s requirement, after all.¡± Alderam walked until he was able to the see the silhouette of two Naturals in wolf form with brown fur on their elongated faces and red fur in their tails, ears, and paws. A strange combination of colors if someone asked about Alderam¡¯s opinion on their color scheme. It would be better if they were only of one color to combine with the dull brown and gray color of the walls. ¡°... I will try.¡± Layla said with her voice cracking. Alderam wanted to recover more of his Mana, so he did the usual attack pattern that let him kill Naturals for more than ten years. He threw his dagger at the left wolf Natural that was eating the body of a mangled woman and advanced at it while it couldn¡¯t recover and act properly. Meanwhile, Layla clumsily rushed at her enemy at the right, still not used to the feeling of using [Combat Arts] she received after being tutored by Alderam despite the Ability¡¯s description saying it would be intuitive to her fight. Combat Arts (Rare) Lvl 1: [Combat is intuitive to you as breathing, get on the journey that is known as fighting, glory, and power are yours if you have the courage to go beyond your peers. You can at a basic level use all kinds of weapons.] Alderam is so used to killing low-rank Naturals alone that didn¡¯t take no even a second to him see through the next Natural¡¯s attack and kill it with a side slash on its heart after avoiding its desperate attack. Layla, on the other hand, was embarrassingly using the spear¡¯s shaft to hold back the wolf¡¯s jaws threatening to rip off her throat after she failed on her surprise thrust at it. Alderam sighed seeing that and began to take the Core off the Natural to it not revive after gathering enough Mana from the air. It seems it will take a while to her finish that. Layla with a yell used all her small strength to kick the wolf at its stomach, throwing it out of her but not far enough to have an advantage on the fight. She couldn¡¯t wrap her head around what she wanted to do and what her body wanted to do, both were out of synchrony. And the Natural took advantage of her distress, never letting her rest to think properly. Its eyes only saw the plump meat at its front, it couldn¡¯t care less if maybe it would die for the more powerful man. It wanted to taste that bountiful meat before dying in bliss. After more than ten minutes of fighting and injuries accumulating on both sides, Layla finally began to use [Combat Arts] slightly better when she accidentally saw the bored look of Alderam sitting on the ground almost yawning. She got enraged at herself for making them lose so much time and threw the caution to the wind, making her understand why [Combat Arts] wasn¡¯t working earlier. Despite being immortal, she was fearing being hurt when fighting because of how she lived until now. The fear didn¡¯t let her use all her power in the fight and obstructed the use of her abilities. Principally the ¡®courage¡¯ part in her ability showed that. Layla let the Natural bite her leg and almost take a chunk out of it, and thrust with her spear at its throat while enduring the pain with Willpower and [Pain Resistance]. The wolf tumbled down, squirming until it died. Helping Layla in her Quest¡¯s requirement. ¡°Only more sixty-nine to go.¡± She said, awkwardly skinning the wolf off its Core and going to Alderam''s side to see how will they continue their travel. ¡°With this amount of injuries can you by yourself heal them with your Black Qi?¡± Alderam asked. ¡°Yes, just give me some minutes.¡± Layla brought from within her wings a small dark energy and passed over injuries. Black Qi was a type of Qi, a energy that different from Mana come from within oneself thanks to the wondrous training that fighters and brawlers do, that only served to increase the healing rate of the user and to a smaller degree to increase one¡¯s bodily defense or strength when used.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. However, only Devils can use it and Black Force, the primal form of the Black Arts which increase the power of abilities with the keyword ¡®black¡¯, too. Alderam is the only person known that can mimic those powers thanks to the Black Elementals in his SP. ¡°Did you decide what Job will you take? [Novice Evil Enchantress] or [Novice Black Guardian]?¡± Alderam asked when Layla finished healing herself. [Novice Evil Enchantress] Requirements: Kill 3/333 Naturals, Kill 0/6 of Material Races, Mana Insight 1+, Evil Charm 2+, Dancing 7+, Assassination 1+. [Novice Black Guardian] Requirements: Kill 3/72 Naturals, [????? Bonded], Pain Resistance 2+, Black Coating 2+, Combat Arts 1+, Choose the Main Element of your Black Force. ¡°Yes, I will become a Black Guardian. I don¡¯t see myself gaining so many levels on [Dancing] and I want to¡­ you know¡­ protect you?¡± She said, uncertain. ¡°Without you alive in the moment I die, I¡¯ll be sent to Aether to be reformed there and this is the last thing I want since it will be impossible to me come back here to the Material Plane to accomplish my dream.¡± ¡°You know that you already said the second part earlier, right?¡± Alderam stood up and put all his loot on the backpack since he didn¡¯t want to reveal a power from his SP to the people may be watching him. ¡°Let¡¯s go, it won¡¯t be me the one to say that you wanting to protect my frail body will be a bad thing. I want you until this night to be capable of killing these weak Naturals without receiving a scratch.¡± Layla¡¯s excitement died out and she dragged her feet while feeling despondent at Alderam¡¯s high expectations about her, it is completely impossible for her to do what he wants her to do. Why must he have so much confidence in her? Alderam more or less felt Layla¡¯s thoughts because of their [Familiar Bond], yet didn¡¯t say anything about her worries, Layla was the type of woman that if left alone becomes lazy but if always making her reach expectations she will eventually do anything to be recognized. In other words, she was a deplorable and pitiful woman that will always be used by the others. But the only flaw in her that Alderam saw was that she was too kind for his tastes, making him many times doubt she was really a Devil as he talked with her when he was younger. Familiar Bond (Common) Lvl 1: [The yoke of two souls, recognizable as the unbreakable vow even to Deities. Share telepathic link, increased growth of abilities, and Gift Window in case one of the yoke''s ends doesn''t have the Gift. You can see whenever you want your Familiar¡¯s Gift.] Alderam and Layla continued on their long journey to the end of the Dungeon, luckily this wasn¡¯t an artificial Dungeon with traps and puzzles that could easily wipe them without them even putting a fight, until they began to grow tired they continued to walk and slay Naturals. Layla never won a fight without receiving an injury and her urgency to do so increased at each moment, at least her Job¡¯s requirement was being filled and was now at 52/72 thanks to some help from her Bond. Alderam saw Layla heavily breathing and using her spear to sustain her body after walking and fighting for so much. ¡°Let¡¯s rest now, tomorrow we will continue to explore the Dungeon and reach its end.¡± ¡°I can still go-¡± ¡°I said we will rest.¡± Alderam slowly said each word while tightly grabbing her shoulders and smiling. ¡°We need to be at our best before the final battle to escape from here. Knowing when to rest is also an important ability to have.¡± ¡°Y-Yes, Ald.¡± She stammered, not because of the pressure but because of Alderam¡¯s serious eyes that she still now wasn¡¯t used to be so cared for. He can try to fool himself and even throw her to her death without any hesitation, however, she knew how he deeply ¡®cared¡¯ about her since he stealthily gave food to her on the basement and principally because she was his only friend still alive. ¡°Take the bedroll from the backpack those guys gave to us and sleep first, I will watch over you and later we will change places.¡± Alderam chose a place where the obscure walls from the Dungeon formed an almost closed cube to him only need to keep watch in one direction. I could just kill her and have her tiredness ¡®reset¡¯ but that won¡¯t do good to her mental health, it is one thing to die in the middle of a battle, and it is another completely different thing to die without being in danger. Even I have some lines I won¡¯t cross. At least I think so. Who knows? Layla tensely entered the frill bedroll that looked like something made for a woman, not to the man which she received it from. She tried to close her eyes and think of good memories before being imprisoned, but she was too hungry for it and full of annoying thoughts of how her life will be after fleeing from that house together with Alderam. ¡°Can¡¯t sleep? Wants me to sing another lullaby like when I was younger?¡± Alderam noted her restless. Layla got red being caught not doing what she was ordered to and also at remembering that wonderful night which she first met him, and also the night she in more than two hundred years ate anything. ¡°It was just one time I needed that. Your memory is so bad, and yet you always remember that, I can¡¯t understand this nonsense.¡± ¡°What can I say? I guess that night was too memorable to me, it isn¡¯t every day you see a Devil drooling for only an apple, after all.¡± Alderam laughed, momentarily relaxing before paying full attention once again to signs of Naturals coming after them. Layla''s small wings beneath her slightly flapped and she hugged herself in contention as if trying to grab the fleeting happiness she is feeling. Although she liked the rigid Alderam that had only thoughts of fighting, she liked more the relaxing and gentle Alderam when fighting isn¡¯t his main priority or when taking care of her needs on the basement. The stark difference between both of them to at least her made them almost two different people. ¡°Do you remember what I said about what happens within Free Cities? There they accept everyone, even outcasts like us as they only care about you not being racist or disturbing the cities¡¯ operations. So what is the third worst taboo there?¡± Alderam said. ¡°... To mistake the Myth Race which is sometimes called of Monsters with the Naturals?¡± ¡°Good girl,¡± Alderam patted her with affection. ¡°It is unknown why the Naturals look like the Myth Race, the dragons and others wondrous creatures, and the Myth Race hates the most is to be compared with the brainless core-creatures. ¡°Being not strange to view an Orc using an ¡®orc¡¯ Natural skin to demonstrate the Myth Race are different or superior. So you must promise me to never talk to them like they are Naturals. Although I don¡¯t see a problem of you doing that only in your head if you have some kind of prejudice against the Myth Race.¡± Layla nodded and continued talk about anything that came to her mind after receiving once again the warning, and eventually calmed enough to sleep, she only needed to eat something and question him one last thing. ¡°Ald, what do you think about the information we discovered from that Greed Devil? About the only reason he was still alive was that Wizcalen¡¯s [Heroine] didn¡¯t finish him off? I don¡¯t think someone so powerful would commit such mistake.¡± Alderam tensed up and memories of how Bashaag killed his mother came to him, he would one day after taking care of his father go even to the Nether to ¡®talk¡¯ with the Greed Devil. ¡°Devils aren¡¯t exactly known for telling the truth, but I can¡¯t see why he would lie about that. Maybe that summoned being had gone soft on him or just forgot of purifying Bashaag to him not gather Black Mana to be resurrected without going back to the Nether. ¡°Either way, I hope to never meet with such sloppy [Heroine] who let the Bashaag go destroy our village. If he wasn¡¯t fleeing from her, Mother wouldn¡¯t have died despite the injuries caused by Alastor.¡± Alderam¡¯s voice got really cold before going to normal as Layla mentally cursed herself for being too stupid to touch on this subject. She doesn¡¯t care or understand the appeal of parental figures, but she forgot to Alderam his mother was what brought joy to his simple and hard life living on the same roof as Alastor and having to be subjected by the village¡¯s experiments to find a way out of their curse as a frontier village. Layla wanted to apologize, however, Alderam didn¡¯t give her a chance and soothingly said like in the way he would do after she was tortured in the basement by Alastor. ¡°Anyways, stop worrying about that. Let¡¯s just focus in our immediate future of getting out of this place, and to do this you need to sleep. Anything you else you need before finally sleeping?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ can you give something to eat? I¡¯m hungry.¡± She said. I don¡¯t want to those guys discover about my little trick to store things, but it should be fine if I do it hidden. ¡°I will drop them within the bedroll and you will eat them without letting the guys spying on us see them, okay?¡± Alderam put his hand on the bedroll and concentrated on his SP, he could do it without concentrating but he wanted to make sure nothing strange will occur. He felt like he sank through a blank layer with his entire body, where pitch black balls are in constant multiplication revolving on eight directions differents trying to form some image. They are Black Elementals of his stock on [Black Soul]. Elementals are the materialization of Mana existing between the planes of existence influenced by terrain, power, and feelings. Spirits and Devils are created by the accumulation of them on Aether. After doing a quick search he found in the corner of [Black Soul] a bunch of food corrupted by Black Elementals and willed them to appear on his real hands. Layla began to urgently put all the corrupted vegetables and meat on her mouth, as she was hiding from everyone within the bedroll she didn¡¯t care about appearances and acted just like the Gluttony Devil she was without any grace in her movements. ¡°I¡¯m going to sleep now. And Ald, I know you want to hide the fact about your [Black Soul] but aren¡¯t all Black Elementals invisible to everyone with exception of us? Just don¡¯t make anything corrupted suddenly disappear and no one should notice your storing power.¡± She said before going to the land of dreams. Alderam¡¯s eyes widened and his mouth uselessly fell open, how could he not notice or remember that? Even with his Mind Attribute growing and slightly increasing his cognitive faculties, it wasn¡¯t still enough with his bad memory which was an abnormal side-effect of the experiments he had to follow through. As he watched over their position, Alderam began to bring Black Elementals and use them to corrupt everything he could see, even the walls and the very air itself. As they were corrupted it meant that he could use his SP to store everything he used Black Elementals on since his SP said that the [Black Soul] could store and materialize everything with the keyword ¡®Evil¡¯. And unsurprisingly, something corrupted was considered ¡®Evil¡¯ to the Gift. It was the trick Alderam wanted to hide if not people would think he had something like an interspatial ring that can store almost anything and only the royal family has interspatial objects. Time passed and when it was almost time to Layla and Alderam change places his training paid off with him receiving a new Ability. Black Force Manipulation (Primal) is now Lvl 1: [You can control the Evil itself, but only its base form is available to you. Expand the possibilities of the creations of abilities based on Black Force. + 5 to Black Force. +15 to Willpower.] No matter what I do everything seems to lead to me losing my humanity as it is supposed to only Devils manipulate Black Force and convert it to Black Mana or Black Qi, at least the percentage on my Race didn¡¯t get lower. Alderam went to sleep as Layla substituted him, he easily went to the land of dreams but his journey there wasn¡¯t of the best. Quick visions of how he couldn¡¯t do anything to save his mother and how he had to kill his traitorous sister appeared to him and tormented him, he only calmed down after an enormous black glob with eyes created by only his imagination within the dream surged and looked kindly at him, it was if the black ball was looking to someone dear, almost family even but at the same time not. Eventually, Alderam woke up and together with Layla they continued to explore the White Land Dungeon while wondering why they hadn¡¯t met anyone else yet that could also be exploring the Dungeon, it wasn¡¯t like this Dungeon was a private property, after all. Maybe it was because of the killing machine wandering through the Dungeon and fighting everyone it meets by the orders of someone¡¯s voice that no even Baruchard, the Empress¡¯ brother, thought it was possible to reach the Empire he lives in the middle of the current World War. Rewrite Chapter 3: No Rest For The Corrupted Alderam and Layla were reaching the Dungeon¡¯s end and even encountered another type of Natural which was a blue strange gigantic insect, Layla struggled to make her spear penetrate them, forcing Alderam to do all the work. They were just doing a short rest before a room and Alderam caught himself thinking how he felt using the [Water Ball] on those insects Naturals, the feeling was different of how he normally uses his spell gave by a Spell Book. Abilities gained through books created by [Extractors] have a side effect of making it limited in its uses and impossible of increasing the ability level. This happens because the book forces the knowledge in the head, being especially worse when high-grade abilities are implanted. Normally you learn a spell by studying its formula, adapting it to your comprehension and body. Despite the side effects, Spell Books and others Ability Books are highly sought by nobles trying to raise their protection. Thankfully, Alderam had erased the side effects on his body by entering in a trance before fighting Bashaag and it seemed that he was entering once again on that wondrous state which makes to increase abilities to be easier than normal. He squandered another [Water Ball] and tried to understand how the Mana and runic formula moved inside of his body. ¡°Mana is everywhere, it is the source of life. There is no entity without Mana. Take all the Mana of someone and they are essentially dead.¡± Alderam said with his eyes losing the focus and Layla looking at him with worry. ¡°Mana is a pathway.¡± Mana Insight (Common) is now Lvl 2: [The first step to understand the world and its transformation. Increase mana regeneration. The sharing with the Destruction is closer and deeper. +6 to Mind.] ¡°The rune for water is an inverted triangle. The formula for water spells should be an amalgamation of inverted triangles, ever-changing.¡± ¡°The water always flows, even when it looks it isn''t.¡± ¡°Taking shape only when it is needed.¡± Understanding about the magic element, Water, deepened. +1 to Mind. Water Manipulation (Uncommon) is now Lvl 1: [Arriving at the ¡®common¡¯ conclusion of the ability of water to have myriad forms while applying it to your magic itself and discovering your own representation of water on infinite inverted triangles, you gained the ability to control water to some degree and materialize it through Mana. +10 to Mind. +3 to Willpower.] Calculating new possibilities¡­ You can now transform your current Job to [Novice Water Mage]. Warning: Specializing to Water Mage will make be impossible to continue on the path of All-Rounder that is the [Novice Mage], able to cast any type of magic. In contrast, your water abilities will be easier to raise and will receive a boost in all its aspects of 10%. Wants to proceed? Yes/No. ¡°Yes.¡± Alderam absently said. You are now a [Novice Water Mage]. Calculating percentage gained by raising skills... Job: [Novice Water Mage] 33%. +3 to Mind. +2 to Constitution. Alderam leaving his trance caused by studying the Water Ball, blinked several times to end with the strange displacement he felt. ¡°Layla, although I¡¯m happy for getting more powerful even with the trance forcing me to specialize, do you remember what happened in the last time I got a power-up? It was fairly recent, just some days of difference.¡± Alderam said without any trace of happiness present on his angular face. ¡°...Bashaag appeared?¡± Layla said after also feeling the change in the air after she noticed the truth. ¡°Exactly, as a blessing befell on me, another disaster came to fix the things. Aren¡¯t you also seeing the pattern here? Principally with your cursed luck that instead of helping you, it always mess with you?¡± ¡°But it until now only occurred two times, isn¡¯t too early to assume how the world works?¡± Layla said more to reassure herself than to convince Alderam. ¡°I can only hope so, but you can¡¯t be too careful. Let¡¯s slow down our pace.¡± Layla nodded and lamented the fact her Job¡¯s requirement wasn¡¯t totally filled yet to have more power at her disposal to protect her safety line. Before entering the open room, Layla warned Alderam. ¡°I¡¯m sensing six living forms that aren¡¯t Naturals near us, three of them are in the open room probably fighting Naturals and for some reason, the other three are behind them. I don¡¯t understand why those three aren¡¯t near the others.¡± ¡°TheY came while I was in trance?¡± Alderam said. ¡°Yes, but it has been only fifteen minutes since they entered the room full of Naturals that we were expecting to lure and bait them out of the room one at a time.¡± After a whole day of not meeting no one, we are suddenly meeting with six of them and this arrangement¡­ it is fishy, but it isn¡¯t probably for us. There are more chances to it be a trap for the ones fighting the Naturals ¡°We will advance, but I want you to walk with me near the walls and always hiding behind those carcasses.¡± Alderam picked one of the insect Natural¡¯s dead bodies and slowly walked to the open room hid behind them. Layla did her best to follow him and use the bad illumination of the Dungeon to not make too obvious two people were behind the carcasses, using the [Familiar Bond] she sensed Alderam seriousness about this whole situation and didn¡¯t talk after obeying him. This was a situation more serious that she could understand, or at least it was she thought albeit Alderam knew this situation could only get dangerous if Layla messed up. At the open room with four exists to it in the cardinal directions, a group of teenagers full of injuries was fighting the very same insect Naturals Layla had a hard time dealing with it. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we help them?¡± Layla quietly asked before being told by Alderam with his eyes to her shut up. The fight got gradually worse with Layla¡¯s worry only growing. Those teenagers were likely at the same Rank as Layla and were having problems to deal with Naturals at the same Rank because of their inexperience and bad weapons, Alderam wondered how they got so far in the Dungeon and could only assume those three hidden people were at fault. Ranks are not absolute, they only represent the raw power we have, being a good way to assess our power. The Gift in some way calculates it using the four main Attributes any being has to have, they are Constitution, Strength, Dexterity, and Mind. Being of the same Rank should make things pretty even, but two of them are too worried about the girl and this will cause their- ¡°Fio!¡± Both guys with swords in hands shouted as the girl with blond hair and a religious symbol on her back accidentally fell down and the Naturals swarmed at her. Not only the guys tried to come to her rescue, Layla also had tried but was stopped by Alderam who put his hand over her mouth and hugged her waist. ¡°Endure, this is a trap. All of them are doomed to die with us saving them or not.¡± He whispered to her as Layla thrashed around. As always you don¡¯t act like a Devil, why must you be so soft-hearted? I will never understand how you can be so gentle even after being tortured by more than two hundred years. Alderam sometimes envied the naivety of Layla, rarely though. Fio screamed in forlorn as the Naturals began to eat her part by part just like they did with Layla when she died earlier and the guys couldn''t do anything as they wept together with Layla at the pitiful death of the girl. The others Naturals entered in their way and soon enough their fate will also be sealed together with the girl. And it wasn¡¯t even at the mandibles of the Naturals that it happened, two azure scorching rays of pure magic came from one of the room¡¯s exits and killed everyone on the room, the guys and the Naturals. ¡°She finally naturally died at the place ordered by our Goddess, it was so hard to endure this little theatre.¡± A man with clerical low-ranking clothes from the church of Uphion, the Goddess of Magic and Lunacy, said with his superior in tow.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°Indeed, now we just need to take care of the little mice over there.¡± A woman with the prestige of being a priest with her eyes having divine symbols of Uphion glowing in them, said. Alderam couldn¡¯t do anything to prevent him receiving a bash from something behind him. He was thrown into the middle of the room and quickly stood up with blood falling down from his head. Flustered, he turned to look to his assailant and had to control himself to not immediately throw a [Water Ball] at the assailant, he was now outnumbered and outranked. How could Layla not¡­ oh, I had shut her up so she couldn¡¯t warn me. It is my fault then. Alderam was beginning to calm down to assess the situation but it was then that he perceived who was holding Layla by the throat. It was a slender man holding a staff from Uphion and was clearly another priest, and by Layla¡¯s body slowly becoming motes of light as she cried it was easily seen that the priest had the ability that only High-Priests were supposed to have, he was probably the student of a famous High-Priest and secretly learned with his high talent the most powerful Ability to deal with Devils. He was using [Soul Purifier] to destroy Layla¡¯s corrupted soul in a way that Alderam wouldn¡¯t be able to ever resurrect her again. ¡°Today we got ridden of a heretic and also soon of a Devil and its spawn. Today is really a blessed-¡± I don¡¯t care. ¡°It is funny how this stupid Devil and its spawn thought we wouldn¡¯t be able to see them behind some carcasses. We have [Evil Sense]-¡± Stop, that woman is the only thing I have remaining- Something inside of Alderam broke as he saw Layla suddenly smiling at him with tenderness and relief that he wasn¡¯t the one to be grabbed, it was as if she was happy and dying in relief that he wasn¡¯t hurt since his soul could also be destroyed by the priest, it was as if she didn¡¯t have any regret dying in this way despite her dream remaining unaccomplished. ¡°Take your hands away from her!¡± It was the first time Alderam showed genuine concern about Layla¡¯s well-being without any ulterior motive with exception of the time they first met. Familiar Bond (Uncommon) is now Lvl 4 and Ranked Up: [Increase the grow of abilities and you can now sense the location of your Bond. While in the presence of your Bond alive you receive a hidden bonus to your attributes, the stronger you care about your Bond and as the Ability grow the bonus will increase. The bonus is now twice as strong. +4 to Charisma. +4 to Luck.] Abnormal grow of the Ability detected! Preparing a Trial to investigate its true level when one of the Bond reach Rank D. And it showed as the [Familiar Bond] went straight to Level 4 from Level 1. Alderam summoned two [Water Balls] and prepared to launch them at the priest who is destroying Layla¡¯s soul. The other two members of Uphion¡¯s church saw this and with their better mastery over Magic they quickly used small, less powerful, versions of the attack that killed the Naturals and teenagers earlier to not let Alderam disturb the priest that was concentrating on the [Soul Purifier]. Alderam grunted like an animal as he felt organs that he doesn¡¯t know the name being penetrated but he ignored the pain and launched the [Water Balls] without interruption at the priest holding Layla. Regan, the one holding Layla, got surprised by the tenacity of the Devil¡¯s spawn and as he was concentrating on [Soul Purifier] he couldn¡¯t use any other Ability or move agilely, this was the reason [Soul Purifier] is normally used only after defeating the Devil. He saw that the [Water Balls] are coming to him only in places the Devil wasn¡¯t covering him so he put the Devil at the front of his vitals to make the Devil¡¯s spawn stop the attacks, since he couldn¡¯t evade them and he knew that a Devil¡¯s spawn cares too much about the Devil to actually hurt it. It was then that he made the worst mistake of his life, Alderam only cared about negating the [Soul Purifier] and killing him, everything else what out of Alderam¡¯s mind. Instead of the [Water Balls] have their speed reduced they got even quicker and Alderam altered their trajectory with [Water Manipulation] to guarantee Regan¡¯s death with him hiding behind Layla, Alderam aimed now his spell at Layla¡¯s heart and head. Regan, full of disbelief, watched the area near his lungs and his own throat behind Layla¡¯s heart and head being perforated by the balls of water, he knew that it was impossible to the novice spell have so much power and only near his death he noted that Alderam without noticing mixed something nefarious within the water. Regan and Layla dropped dead on the ground, with the priest cursing in his mind how he couldn¡¯t even bark orders about Uphion¡¯s strange hints to his subordinates before dying and Layla happy of being freed from the fate of having her soul destroyed and coming back Alderam¡¯s SP. Alderam seeing his target dying and feeling Layla¡¯s soul within him, became cool headed again and turned to the others clerics from Uphion¡¯s church whilst the effects of [Familiar Bond] ended. He knew after calming down that he was lucky that the priest couldn¡¯t use his powers to disrupt the spells and that his weak [Water Ball] wouldn¡¯t work with watchful clerics of the church from the Goddess of Magic and Lunacy. Alderam ignored the rage and grief shouts coming from the clerics seeing the tenth in the succession line dying and advanced against them, with sword in hands and throwing his dispensable dagger at one of them. The low-ranking cleric fumbled but was able to use a shield spell with his staff to block the dagger meanwhile the woman priest with a scowl in her beautiful face threw other less concentrated azure rays of light at Alderam that seemed to be the only effective spell of her despite being follower of the Goddess of Magic, maybe the lunacy aspect was at fault here. Alderam using [Combat Arts] understood the trajectories of the rays and only slightly moved to make all of them miss his vitals and not lose momentum whilst activating [Mana Empowerment]. As more blood poured out of him and him being more lunatic than others followers of the Uphion¡¯s church at the eyes of the low-ranking cleric, he became close enough to use the ability of his sword and take the female priest by surprise by suddenly extending the sword and cutting deep into her body. ¡°Do something, if I die do you really think a Devil¡¯s spawn will let you unscathed?¡± The female priest shouted with defiance in her eyes at the low-ranking cleric as she retreated without even wincing at the deep wound in her body and began to finally prepare the powerful version of her rays that killed all Naturals and teenagers earlier. The low-ranking cleric roared to give him the courage to attack the unguarded Alderam, but it was then that a well-timed [Mana Aura] came from Alderam. The cleric felt as if staring at his deepest fears as he accidentally looked into Alderam inhuman piercing eyes and had his skin withered in mere moments the [Mana Aura] was activated in its round black form. Alderam took this chance and without any mercy in his heart, he made a short hop and cleanly decapitated the frightened cleric with the water blade. The last thing the dead cleric saw with his head spinning in the air was the smirk on the female priest as she fired a charged [Water Soul Beam] at Alderam thanks to him distracting the Devil¡¯s spawn. Alderam without any fear gazed into the mass of deadly azure light and knew it was impossible to survive it even if he used the low-ranking cleric¡¯s body as a shield. So before the ray hit him he used everything at his disposal to withstand the spell ranking higher than him. He used the cleric¡¯s body, his sword, activated [Mana Aura] and even brought enormous quantities of Black Elementals from his SP in hopes the Black Elementals had power enough to shield him since they could be converted to Black Qi which is good at protecting the user¡¯s body. Alderam¡¯s vision became a pure blue as he got swarmed by the mass of light, the cleric¡¯s body evaporated and his [Mana Aura] shattered, the sword with its magical nature was capable of enduring the blow but received another crack near the one it received against Bashaag. As his skin burnt and before his clothes could be disintegrated, the Black Elementals finally showed their worth. The presence of a Divine¡¯s might irritated them and they began to actively fight against it, protecting Alderam¡¯s body in the process but it wasn¡¯t still enough to completely protect him. Focusing on the Black Elementals he formed an image of a round shield like of the [Mana Aura] surrounding him, thanks to his high Willpower, the attribute responsible by the power of images, and his corrupted soul the Black Elementals obeyed him in a way he never thought to be possible until they actually tried to protect him. Black Force Manipulation (Primal) is now Lvl 2: [Increase the multiplication of Black Elementals in the [Black Soul]. Impossible to increase it even more before choosing a main element to your Black Force. +10 to Black Force. +30 to Willpower.] Job: [Novice Water Mage] 62%. +5 to Mind. +5 to Constitution. Coating himself on the wickedness of the Black Elementals and thinking how Black Qi is capable of healing, he formed a perfect shield capable of withstanding attacks and even auto-repair. Before the female priest could complete her gasp of surprise at discovering Alderam alive, he used his trained skill from killing Naturals with his throwable dagger which wasn¡¯t good enough to give him an Ability but was enough to deal with a stunned target, and threw his sword right at priest¡¯s breasts. Alderam¡¯s strength wasn¡¯t that good considering his Rank, so the sword only did a shallow cut, however, it was enough to make the female priest tumble and for the first time show signs of pain. Alderam dashed towards her and with his sword in hands he twisted it inside of the priest¡¯s body, cutting deeper and constantly stabbing her until she was dead. He neglected all kinds of pleas coming from the woman and practically tortured her with his hatred and ruthless finally showing up after he almost lost Layla, the last being alive that he can consider a friend. To confirm the priest was dead he also decapitated her after his frustrations dried out and picked his dagger near the where the low-ranking clerical body should be if it wasn¡¯t destroyed by the ray of light. We should avoid meeting Uphion¡¯s followers, their mastery over Magic is a bad match-up to me. And what happened to me earlier? This amount of anger at someone hurting Layla isn¡¯t normal, at least, the bonus I received from the new [Familiar Bond] is quite useful despite we needing to pass a Trial later. Now I just need to revive Layla and get out- From beyond the shadows of the only exit of the open room that nobody came out, a giant green segmented tail with a stinger appeared and pierced the side of Alderam¡¯s abdomen. Alderam coughed blood while being raised in the air by the green stinger and feeling his body being invaded by something that was paralyzing his entire body. So you are the real disaster coming at me after I received a blessing? The green segmented tail then spun Alderam and threw him to the ground, if he had his health numbered like the Heroes he would be able to see that he had lost more than two-thirds of it thanks to the sudden attack. Slowly standing up using the sword as a prop, Alderam only had a thought going through his head, I think ¡®Bob¡¯ took the idiom, ¡®no rest for the wicked¡¯, a little too far. I know I¡¯m the bad guy here, but can¡¯t I even change to more comfortable clothes or eating something before you trying to kill me again? Rewrite Chapter 4: Chimera Cometh An annoying male voice talking in a strange language, but understandable to Alderam, came from nowhere. ¡°Interesting. Still alive? It seems this prototype needs even more adjustments than I had thought. Boy, do not get me wrong. I hate to kill innocents, however, for science''s progress and my wife¡¯s happiness, you will have to fight this prototype based on one mythology of my world, its name is Chimera. ¡°Good luck!¡± With the end of the words from the annoying voice, a giant creature emerged from the shadows and entered the open room, it was so tall that it almost reached the Dungeon¡¯s ceiling. The creature had a muscular build covered in a dark blue exoskeleton, three enormous green feral legs, four arms with two arms of the right side being paws of wolves and the left side having two forelegs of the blue Natural that Layla failed to kill. Its head was a jumble of Natural¡¯s parts, being impossible to distinguish what part came from with the exception of its eyes. It had the eyes from feral green Naturals, wolves and the blue insect Naturals. Its jaw was unnaturally opened with venom dripping from an opening under its chin. And last but not least, the Chimera had a long green segmented tail with a stinger full of Alderam¡¯s blood. Alderam didn¡¯t see how he would win and fight with something so horrendous coming from a nightmare so he tried to scare it with his [Mana Aura] and discover any kind of opening to him take advantage of. ¡°Oh! A fear-inducing ability, it looks like the skill of the Devil I made a deal some days earlier, but,¡± the annoying voice of the man came again while the Chimera dashed to Alderam and punched him using its wolves paws, sending him flying to the Dungeon¡¯s walls, ¡°my prototype is not a living being yet, so your ability is useless.¡± From the debris, Alderam appeared unhurt thanks to the power of the remaining Black Elementals instinctively protecting him. He had fear in his heart not because of the imminent danger to his life, but because the Chimera was too near Layla¡¯s dead body and there was a chance the venom dripping from the chin could corrode her corpse. It was technically possible to him put Layla¡¯s soul in another body later, however, it came with a lot of problems and variables he didn''t¡¯ want to deal with. Like for example, would he one day find a body suitable and compatible with a Devil¡¯s soul? Or what would happen to Layla¡¯s soul is she stays too much time in his SP without a real body? ¡°Splendid. You are even capable of using the aura as a shield, you are going to bring me a lot of useful data.¡± The annoying man made a humming sound. ¡°How about a trade? I won¡¯t let the Chimera attack this half-beast and you in exchange will not run from the Chimera and will kill it.¡± The Chimera pointed its stinger to Layla¡¯s corpse and before Alderam could bluff, the annoying man continued. ¡°Do you think I didn¡¯t see how much you care about this half-beast? And how you¡¯re capable of reviving her in a way unknown to me?¡± At least he didn¡¯t discover she is actually a Devil because of the priest covering her corpse, I can¡¯t understand why he is thinking she is a half-beast though, maybe because he thinks I¡¯m also one with my inhuman eyes? ¡°Come on, don¡¯t look with such hatred at my prototype. I swear it won¡¯t damage your woman. I¡¯m kind of the villain this time, but I¡¯m a man of word, just accept the deal.¡± The annoying man said. ¡°...Okay.¡± Alderam said through gritted teeth. ¡°Are you inside this creature?¡± ¡°No, but I can control it from distance. You don¡¯t need to worry because I won¡¯t cheat and control all its movements in the fight. I want to test its ability to fight alone. I am sure if you try hard enough you would be able to defeat it. The Gift wasn¡¯t able to give it an accurate Rank, however, I think it is lower than Rank E.¡± The annoying man snickered. ¡°You said something about a deal with a Devil, what was the deal?¡± Alderam said as his silvery white eyes began to flood with a different type of hatred. ¡°Sorry, business secret.¡± ¡°Can I ask you one last thing?¡± ¡°Yes, but after it, you will fight.¡± ¡°The Devil you made a deal was bald and you made this deal in this week?¡± ¡°It was two questions, but yes. Why do you ask?¡± ¡°Nothing, just wanted to confirm something.¡± Alderam¡¯s hatred began to raise after discovering something related to the reason of the bald Devil attacking his village that wasn¡¯t about Wizcalen¡¯s [Heroine], making his black aura became so baleful and powerful that everything in its radius started to wither and disintegrate. On the end of Alderam¡¯s conversation with the annoying man, his aura became so defined that was possible to see a symbol with eight arrows being formed at its center and his Mana storage reaching its middle and stopping there. Mana Aura (Common) is now Lvl 3: [You can now use without problems any kind of Mana you desire to the world be coated with. Increase Mana regeneration and effects of the Mana Aura. + 1 to Constitution. +25 to Mind.] Race: [Human 2%] Job: [Novice Water Mage] 100%. +15 to Mind. +10 to Constitution. Impossible to evolve the [Job] or change it before raising the levels of [Water Ball] and [Water Manipulation]. Rank: [F.] Alderam imitated Layla¡¯s Black Qi to heal his pierced abdomen while launching five normal [Water Balls] at the arms and exoskeleton of the Chimera to test how hard they are. He felt so powerful right now that his spell didn¡¯t take that much of Mana he thought it did. The creature used the forelegs of the insect Naturals to slice apart the [Water Balls] while the paws of the wolves only guarded against them and the last [Water Ball] only useless bounced on the dark blue exoskeleton. If I don¡¯t concentrate the power of the Water Balls, I will only be wasting Mana. The problem is this Chimera won¡¯t give me time to do it. The Chimera advanced and used its feral green legs to kick Alderam. He ducked and tried to slice the ankle of the Chimera¡¯s legs with his sword. Unfortunately, it only made a small cut and the long green tail following the spinning movement of the Chimera¡¯s body after kicking, swung to hit Alderam¡¯s abdomen again. Alderam reinforced the aura together with more Black Elementals still irritated by rest of Divine might in the room, making it sturdier to receive the blow. Whilst the tail bounced on the black aura, the annoying man made a commentary. ¡°While you concentrate on the property that makes the aura act as a shield, its aspect of withering and disintegration reduces exponentially. ¡°By the data here, the tail and the wolf paw only lost some hours of life, completely different from the debris you emerged earlier. I can use this data on my super secret weapon! It would be just like the last boss of some old RPG. Today is really a good day, I am burning with excitement!¡± Alderam ignored the annoying man¡¯s nonsense and with his [Mana Empowerment] always active on his legs, he kicked the Chimera¡¯s abdomen with the aura on his legs using the effect of withering to try to slowly destroy its exoskeleton. His strike made the Chimera move some centimeters from its position despite his low Strength and a crack appeared on its dark blue exoskeleton because of Alderam¡¯s withering aura. The creature looked at the crack and roared in sorrow while the strange man continued chattering. ¡°Strange. I have thought I have destroyed its sense of value and feelings of pain. Actually, could be I only forgot about doing it? But if so¡­ the explication I gave of the fear-inducing ability not working would become contradictory.¡± He sighed. ¡°I will need to revise the project from the beginning and understand why in this stage it is alive.¡± Don¡¯t get distracted during a fight, Alderam using the time the Chimera¡¯s grief gave him, produced and improved seven [Water Balls] launching them principally at the crack he made at the dark blue exoskeleton. The creature howled in real pain and made its green tail coil around a nearby debris created by the fight, throwing it at Alderam. Alderam once again strengthened his black aura and called the Black Elementals to endure the throw as the Chimera¡¯s action was too quick to him react with his low Dexterity.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The debris were destroyed and cracks began to appear in the aura. ¡°Everything in the universe has a limit.¡± The annoying man said as the Chimera rushed at Alderam and started to shower blows on him coming from the paws of the wolves. Alderam wasn¡¯t capable of doing anything while the aura endured the strikes and he was thrown all over the place without time to recover to do a counterattack. Finally, one of the insect¡¯s forelegs made the final blow and shattered Alderam¡¯s aura. Before the Chimera could kill him, Alderam used the small interval of time of it being delighted of destroying his aura and of not being punched all over the place, to pick his dagger and throw it at one of the creature¡¯s many eyes. The Chimera screamed and retreated in agony. ¡°Marvelous, it is even capable of regenerating itself.¡± The annoying man said as Alderam recovered his breath and the black [Mana Aura] was slowly being repaired. The Chimera thrashed around until it was able to retire the dagger from its eyes, giving Alderam time enough to rebuild his aura. ¡°I really need something like this in my super secret weapon, so... sorry. To properly use any kind of power, you first need to know all its weakness before its good points. I already almost discovered everything about your aura, but there is one last thing I need to know to construct one by myself, so I will cheat a little, okay?¡± The annoying man finishing his talk, the Chimera jumped and in the air it spun its long tail to strike the ground with all its Strength, making a gigantic cloud of crumbled Dungeon¡¯s stones and debris be sent at Alderam. Alderam used the aura as a shield to defend himself from the large debris, but no matter what he did he couldn¡¯t stop the dirt and tiny debris from entering the aura¡¯s radius. A lot of particles of dirt began to enter into his eyes and lungs, making him temporarily blind and have problems to breathe. Why? I have thought I had protected myself. Alderam couldn¡¯t move away from the cloud because the Chimera would be waiting for him to leave, so he changed the aspect of the aura to withering to try to disintegrate all the dirt and used [Water Manipulation] to clean his eyes. Unfortunately, the withering didn¡¯t destroy any dirt and before he could use [Water Manipulation], an enormousferal leg appeared and kicked him. Sending him flying and making him lose another good part of his healed health because he wasn¡¯t using the aura as a shield. ¡°You know, I was thinking how you would be capable to breathe while using the aura as something to repel the attacks and principally when using the aspect of withering.¡± The annoying man made the Chimera stop. ¡±Your aura circulates you just like a ball, so I wanted to know what it let pass through to reach you, be it on the shield or withering state. In this little experiment, it was made clear its weakness and all characteristics.¡± Alderam raised his body, coughing blood and not understanding how the Chimera found him in the midst of the cloud of dirt. ¡°By your face, you still haven¡¯t understood, then let¡¯s do a basic science lesson!¡± The creature clapped its wolf paws despite being on the same side of the body. Alderam tried [Water Manipulation] again to clean his eyes and to expel the dirt inside of his lungs. ¡°Even though this world has this strange thing known as Mana to sustain our bodies, it can not escape from some basic rules. I won¡¯t use more accurate and technical terms to you be able to understand better what I am saying. ¡°To live, you need of ¡®air¡¯ to breathe and this ¡®air¡¯ is around us. So when you create a circle that repels or disintegrate everything on its radius, it would make this ¡®air¡¯ be repulsed or disintegrated too¡­¡± There was so much dirt in Alderam¡¯s lungs that he couldn¡¯t expel everything through normal means, therefore he used [Water Manipulation] to fill his lung with water to retire the dirt. ¡°So how would you be normal after using this aura? I then thought, your aura uses some kind of criterion to decide what would be affected by its powers¡­¡± Filling his lungs with water made him throw up everything. ¡°That was the reason dirt was allowed inside of your aura, did you listen to everything I have said? In short, we can say your aura is incapable of affecting anything that is necessary for you to live, even if such things are contaminated. Following this line of thought, things like temperature, carbon-¡± Alderam laughed looking to the water he threw up, I see the only way to win this fight! There is no other way I can think of to kill this creature that is stronger, quicker and harder than me, with it being capable to in some intelligent way bypass my aura and I being so weak that I do not know any spell different of [Water Ball]. ¡°Hey! Do not interrupt the teacher when he is talking. I¡¯ll tell you, these children of today¡­ if it was on my parent''s time you would be carrying buckets outside of the classroom.¡± Alderam neglected all the ¡®lesson¡¯ of the annoying man, he only got that his aura has limits and he shouldn¡¯t trust on it too much when dealing with things too small. He put his left hand behind his body and deactivated his aura and empowerment. Alderam used [Water Manipulation] on its maximum to create the largest amount of water possible on his hand, but without completely manifesting and releasing it, making the Mana be accumulated to it in one moment liberate all the water in one go. ¡°We are fighting for some time already, but I still don¡¯t know your name, can you tell me?¡± Alderam talked to the annoying man to have time to complete his plan with [Water Manipulation]. ¡°My name? It is Shiro Mallory Stein.¡± ¡°Oh, you have quite a long name. Why?¡± Alderam¡¯s Mana dropped to his new forty percent while the paralyzation of the venom continued to go through his body. ¡°Ah, it is because I am a half, my mother is from Japan and my father is from Hungary.¡± ¡°What are the words Japan and Hungary?¡± ¡°They are countries from my world.¡± The annoying man said with a tinge of pride perceptible in his tone of voice. ¡°Then¡­ are you a summoned [Hero]?¡± ¡°Yes. I am the hero of the elves. My wife is an elf, her personality is flat but she is a glorious woman.¡± Shiro¡¯s voice had an even higher distinguishable pride when talking about his woman. ¡°Can you really not talk about the deal you made with the Devil? Two days ago, a bald Devil appeared in my village and killed everyone I cared for.¡± Alderam made a false tear appear while the pressure on his hand started to hurt when his Mana arrived at twenty percent. ¡°What?! No. I was certain that bitch has killed Bashaag. It can not be. Are you not mistaken?¡± Shiro¡¯s voice entered in disarray and perhaps because he was controlling the Chimera, it started to do strange poses and movements. ¡±For science, my wife and daughter, I am capable of killing innocents, but what I will tell my daughter when she grows up, ¡¯because of a miscalculation of my part, innocents were killed without a proper reason¡¯, she doesn''t deserve this kind of father!¡± ¡°Hey. Did you know you are really annoying?¡± Alderam dropped the pretense when he only had ten percent of Mana and dashed to the Chimera. ¡°Well, actually people tend to tell me this and that I use ¡®actually¡¯ too much, but what is it related-¡± Shiro became silent after Alderam began to climb the Chimera and put his left hand into its open mouth. Alderam with his left hand as far as possible inside the mouth of the Chimera and the venom of the Chimera corroding his hand, shouted. "Be flooded.¡± All the water accumulated on his hand was released inside of the Chimera. It completely filled the Chimera, making the creature because of the weight drop to the ground. The amount of water made the Chimera increase in height in a way that became impossible for its arms reach Alderam to get him out of its mouth. Clicking his tongue in annoyance he thought. One was not enough¡­ why am I feeling a d¨¦j¨¤ vu? Nevermind, let¡¯s go with plan S (Sacrifice). Alderam charged his hand with water once again with the rest of his Mana. ¡°What are you doing?! Where did-¡± ¡°Shiro, you like lessons, right?¡± Alderam picked his sword with the right hand and used it to pierce under the soft chin of the Chimera, reaching his arm and then penetrating the roof of the mouth of the Chimera while the sword was slowly being decomposed. ¡°I will give you a lesson today!¡± Alderam with his arm inside of the Chimera, using the sword and his body, he was capable of completely seal the mouth of it and cover its many noses. ¡°You are crazy. It couldn¡¯t be, are you trying to- Chimera chew-¡± ¡°Too late! What do you think will happen when you fill something with a liquid and it has not a way to escape? Let me give you the answer, it explodes!¡± Alderam laughed hysterically. Alderam released once again with the rest of his Mana a great amount of water. The Chimera¡¯s body was already at the limit with the first time he did that, so with Alderam covering its mouth, nose and even sacrificing his arm do it. The Chimera finally exploded with its insides being splattered through all the Dungeon. The pressure and the explosion made Alderam fly without his left arm, but he couldn¡¯t care for it or the pain he was feeling before nearly going unconscious. He slowly stood up with Shiro absolutely stunned by what happened, Alderam dragged his feet towards Layla, only Willpower moved his body full of venom and with his lost left arm endlessly spouting blood. Why with this amount of pain I¡¯m enduring and almost going unconscious, the first thing I think is to revive Layla? Self-preservation? To her arrange a way to save me albeit knowing it is impossible with this injuries? Alderam reached into the special place he made into his SP and placed his right hand on the mirror created by the two serpents to bring Layla¡¯s soul and put it on her body without a heart and a broken neck. Since mother died everything is so strange for me, I don¡¯t have anyone more to give me orders or really quench my search for affection. Free will isn¡¯t great as I had thought, I¡¯ve been just making stupid decisions or being slowed down by- Alderam coughed more blood and his face became whiter than ashes as his Essence and the little of Mana that was regenerated poured on Layla to reconstruct her dead body, with his Essence being more poured more than normal since he didn¡¯t have Mana enough. Layla, my only hope now is to you having the perk of never agingto gather strength to kill Alastor for me. I¡¯ve so many regrets, and principal one aside not killing Alastor, is to not become a painter like Grandmother tried before being thrown in Ironcrest. I don¡¯t want to die, however, this seems the deadline for me. Goodbye, my fellow caged friend, ¡®our flight together ended¡¯ just like in that Jester book, although I never regretted setting you free or corrupting my soul just for our [Familiar Bond]. Race: [Human 1%] Alderam fell down unconscious without caring why his [Race] got lower for only one percent instead of the normal twelve percent. Rewrite Chapter 5: First Change Layla as soon as she woke up with her clothes still tattered by the [Water Balls], hugged Alderam and cried more than the first time she was tortured. She tried to make her Black Qi go to Alderam and heal his lost arm like Alderam could heal her, but it didn¡¯t work. The Black Qi is an energy created by the Devils fundamentally egotistical, selfish and solitary; Layla can be an anomaly in her Race, however, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that beings from her Race can¡¯t use Black Qi to heal others which is considered in their culture as a taboo and treason to the High Mother that created them. Layla saw everything that occurred after she died while being in Alderam¡¯s SP, her fists bleeding with the amount of Strength applied on them and with her eyes tightly trying to close themselves as more tears fell down. She cursed at her own weakness and how the reason for all Alderam¡¯s suffering was because she let herself be captured by that priest. If she hadn¡¯t been captured and forcing Alderam to receive injuries to save her from eternal death, maybe she would be able to help him fight the Chimera and not ending up in this state, where his death is near. She thought in despair and almost going mad at the death of the only being which accepted her for who she is and comforted through the last thirteen years. I¡¯m so sorry, if possible I would trade anything for you not die. Why must you be the one to die? If only I had something miraculous- Layla suddenly snapped back to reality and tears stopped flowing as hope was rekindled in her eyes once again. Didn¡¯t the kind man that brought us here used a pill to knock me out? Could be he has a miraculous pill that can heal Ald? I need to immediately find him on the Dungeon¡¯s end, but will Ald survive until then? The measly hope she had became weaker as she saw the constant flow of blood coming from Alderam, making her even wonder how he was still alive. ¡°Oh, sorry. I was so flabbergasted by Alderam¡¯s way of winning that I forgot of stopping the bleeding, let me fix this, albeit only temporarily.¡± Shiro said despite the Chimera already being dead. Layla''s hairs straightened up and for the first time in her life she felt hatred against someone, she never felt like this even towards Ironcrest that tortured her for more than two hundred years. ¡°Relax, I won¡¯t do anything more. I will be busy with other projects that aren¡¯t the Chimera. This project was a complete failure, I have used a green low-quality core seen in Naturals of Rank E, but the prototype became weaker than a Natural with a red high-quality core.¡± ¡°Shut up. If you hadn¡¯t attacked us, Ald won¡¯t be in this situation.¡± Layla shouted. ¡°Well¡­ true. But you will need this core to make the antidote to your lover, little Devil. So Laylasoderscim, stay still for a moment while I put the Core.¡± A deep green round Core that comes from Naturals appeared and got stuck on the rest of Alderam¡¯s left arm. The bleeding strangely stopped and albeit Alderam was still with his face pale than ever, his breath stabilized and the expression of pain coming from him disappeared. Layla felt so relieved seeing this with her hope coming back to her, but she still furrowed her brows. ¡±How do you know I am a Devil? Earlier you referred to me as a Half-Beast.¡± ¡°Come on, do you really think there is a [Hero] without [Appraisal]? I only said in that way because I didn¡¯t know if Alderam Udalth knew you are a Devil or his exact Race. Actually, I just didn¡¯t want to meddle in your relationship.¡± Shiro didn¡¯t care about why Layla knew what happened after she ¡®died¡¯. Why he used ¡®actually¡¯? I would still understand the phrase without it. ¡±I don¡¯t have time to deal with you.¡± Layla picked Alderam¡¯s body and later also her spear. ¡°If you are thinking of re-encountering with any friends of yours, give up. I¡¯ve have killed everyone else on the Dungeon and if they were at the Dungeon¡¯s end, they aren¡¯t more there as one of the Divines claimed this place and expulsed them just now. You can¡¯t feel it, but I as a [Hero] know it.¡± Shiro said with a map near him in the place where his true body is. ¡°Then¡­¡± Fate seemed to like to toy with her heart, giving her hope only to crush it immediately after. Those points in Luck never seem to work properly just like Ald said. ¡°If you come to my place-¡± ¡°No. I won¡¯t trust Ald¡¯s life to you.¡± ¡°I thought so. If you answer a question of mine I will give you a hint of how to save Alderam, he impressed me after all, with his fight and love for you.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Layla answered, not seeing another alternative and trying to ignore the commentary about love. ¡°Was it true that Alderam¡¯s village was destroyed by Bashaag?¡± ¡°...Yes.¡± ¡°...¡¯#@&##@¡¯...¡± Shiro used words that hadn¡¯t meaning to Layla with a melancholic tone. ¡±Sorry, I accidentally deactivated [All-Language Translator]. Go to the Dungeon¡¯s end, my theory is that after an heir to be Uphion¡¯s avatar died she used that as an excuse to claim this Dungeon as her own. So now an Avatar of her is at the Dungeon¡¯s end doing something that I, unfortunately, can¡¯t see.¡± ¡°How meeting a Divine will help me? I¡¯m a Devil and her priests just tried to murder me earlier.¡± ¡°Let me finish, these children nowadays¡­ Uphion is a complete lunatic and don¡¯t care much about ¡®Evil¡¯ or Races, she is the Master of Magic and with an Avatar is certain she is capable of helping you if you give a little sacrifice to her, although maybe she won¡¯t be capable of completely healing Alderam, she should be capable of stabilizing him until you meet a Healer or Pill Concocter-¡± She began to run as soon as she got the information she needed and didn¡¯t even think about thanking the man that caused her Bond¡¯s predicament. Layla vaguely remembered the Dungeon¡¯s layout from the map and didn''t have much trouble to navigate herself in this primitive almost straight Dungeon. Her speed constantly increased as she got more worried about Alderam¡¯s wellbeing and the power of [Familiar Bond] was activated with an intensity even higher than when Alderam was fighting the Uphion¡¯s priests. She ran like a mad beast with only a single thought of saving Alderam and her Devil¡¯s mind degraded to its most primal state before even Gluttony corrupted her, Ald, Ald, Ald- She repeated his name over and over but even this powerful state ended as she laid her eyes on the door to the Dungeon¡¯s end and to who are guarding it, she gently placed Alderam down, knowing it would be impossible to get past her enemies without risking Alderam getting more injured. The door was ethereal, constantly going between being a full white jeweled door to a normal wooden door while three Naturals were feasting on the bodies of wolves and scorpion-like-Naturals. The three Naturals at the same size of a wolf had lustering blue exoskeletons covering their bodies and six legs, with two of the legs on their fronts being higher and curved than the others to be used as a support to lower their heads. They also had three soulless eyes on each side of their head and menacing three green mouthparts to eat their prey. Before the Naturals could notice her while they were busy, Layla rushed raising her spear to strike the nearest Natural straight on one of its eyes. The inattentive blue Natural savoring its previous prey, only noted Layla when was too late and received a full strike of Layla¡¯s spear. ¡°I missed the brain.¡± Layla clicked her tongue in a way not belonging to her usual kind and meek self, retreating as the blue Natural pierced hasn¡¯t died even though a spear was embed through its head and was roaring in pain while its comrades began to run after her with their abdomen dragging on the ground. ¡°Fight,¡± Layla shouted amidst blocking the advances of the forelegs of the Naturals that when attacking looked more to be sickles of death that would easily cut her head if not for the spear she held. ¡±I need to fight to save Ald. Analyze their movements and go beyond them.¡± One of the forelegs got past her defenses and injured the left side of her body as the wounded Natural joined the fray. She continued to scream at the mindless Naturals to give herself more mental strength and forget the pain. ¡°I can¡¯t stop with only this. I need to stop being so coward and advance to my target.¡± Layla continued to shout to herself while receiving more wounds on her entire body. Layla¡¯s fight began to come close to Alderam¡¯s position. She looked at Alderam with eyes that seemed to be screaming to him, ¡®I will defeat them by myself, no matter what I will save you¡¯. The first injured Natural used its forelegs to attack Layla¡¯s legs, she braced herself while receiving a gash on her legs and for the first time in this fight, she counterattacked. Layla using her legs as a bait, stabbed at the side of the Natural¡¯s jaw. ¡±If thrusting at your brain won¡¯t kill you, let¡¯s see if with the body split in two you would still be able to move.¡± She shouted as she used all her strength with Black Qi and Black Mana covering her arms, and moved forward with her spear cutting the Natural in two from the jaw to its tail. Layla was so quick in her strike that only her spear had the venomous green blood of the Natural. After her blow, she stopped in place and the other two blue Naturals plunged at her with their jaws opened while secreting venom. Layla spun back with her movements completely different from her fights in this day, she dashed and dodged the jaw of the blue Natural on the right while ducking and hitting her spear on the exposed gut of the Natural on the left, making it squirm in pain and miss its bite. The ability [Combat Arts] finally accepted her and gave its full power to her. Layla retired the spear of the Natural on the left and kicked with her leg covered with Black Qi the side of the Natural¡¯s head on the right that had lunged at her again. Meanwhile the kicked blue Natural was stunned, she thrust her spear at the Natural with a hole in its gut and killed it in the same way she killed the first, by splitting it in two.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. When the last Natural rushed at her, she more used to fighting these Naturals, evaded its forelegs and spun her spear covered in Black Mana and Black Qi to sever its head, finishing the fight and cutting its body in two to make certain it wouldn¡¯t be able to move even after losing its head. Layla¡¯s joy in finally defeating the same type of Naturals that defeated her was short as she remembered her important mission. Save Ald. She put him once again in her back and fearlessly opened the door to the Dungeon¡¯s end, being almost blinded in the process by the pure and Divine light coming from the room where the Uphion¡¯s Avatar was. As soon she entered in the seemingly normal Dungeon Room and looked at the beautiful Uphion¡¯s Avatar, from Alderam¡¯s body came an endless amount of Black Elementals that covered his body and irradiated the maximum of their power in hatred of the Divine at their front. They didn¡¯t hurt Layla but didn¡¯t protect her either. They wanted more than anything to kill Uphion¡¯s Avatar yet knew they were too weak to do so, making them focus in only defending their current host. ¡°Welcome, Dede¡¯s little child. I was expecting you.¡± Uphion¡¯s current Avatar said without caring about the Black Elementals¡¯ hostility and beaming at Layla. She had flowing blue-white hair and eyes so penetrating and golden that could only be described as otherworldly together with her beauty which Layla thought could only be compared at the Lord of the Lust Layer. Although Uphion¡¯s Avatar''s ample bosom was being shown with her being naked, Layla felt no reverence or lust towards Uphion¡¯s Avatar as many would do no matter the sex and gender, Layla also couldn¡¯t understand why would Uphion have the title of Lunatic as her habits seem to be similar to many Devils. ¡°I know why you are here, I watched everything, after all. But stay still while I make you behold this wonder.¡± Uphion¡¯s Avatar pointed to the floating enormous White Crystal near her that Layla ignored after entering. ¡°This is what makes the sealing white land near the original Dungeons and is something that no human or any kind of being that isn¡¯t a Divine ever saw thanks to its power of hiding itself. Aren¡¯t you honored, Dede¡¯s little child, Laylasoderscim? ¡°Had you never wondered why the original Dungeons seem so weak and primitive in relation to the artificial Dungeons despite them having power to unlimited evolution? If you have some brain cells in your head corrupted by love you should be capable of understanding, so I won¡¯t explain more than this.¡± Uphion¡¯s Avatar clapped her hands when Layla¡¯s urgency got bigger and wasn¡¯t caring about the hint she was giving to her about this world¡¯s secrets. ¡°Now that I indulged you in my little habit of spoiling everyone¡¯s plans, let¡¯s get to business before I can¡¯t control more my true self. ¡°What are you prepared to sacrifice to stabilize Alderam Udalth II¡¯s life? Let me warn you that I¡¯m not a gentle Divine or have the power to completely heal him as it''s outside of my area of expertise.¡± Uphion¡¯s Avatar extend her hand and gently touched Layla¡¯s face as her eyes glowed and the might coming from a Divine appeared to subjugate Layla. ¡°...E-Everything.¡± Layla said without hesitation but stammering by the pain being brought on her by the Divine at her front. ¡°Just take whatever you want and heal him already!¡± ¡°My, my, what change of actions in comparison to when you entered the Dungeon, I like it though. So I will ask you for only two things, you have to pray to Caelum, the Lord of the Ether and Spirits, and let me absorb a little of Alderam¡¯s ¡®lunacy¡¯.¡± Uphion¡¯s Avatar asked with a joking tone despite the severity of her requests. If Layla pray to the archenemy of Asmolor, the Nether¡¯s leader, she will feel pain beyond the scope of the [Pain Resistance] directly to her soul, having even a good chance of completely destroying her soul. ¡°I will do it.¡± Layla took a deep breath. ¡°Even if I die, you will still save Alderam, right?¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯m called of a crazy bitch but never of a liar.¡± ¡°Then, I will begin.¡± She place Alderam down at her front between her and Uphion¡¯s Avatar, Ald, for you I will do anything with exception of giving up in my dream. Even if I die, to save you is a small cost. But....I don¡¯t want. I still want to live with you, travel, open a restaurant, start a f- I need to stop, if not, I will lose the courage to do it. ¡°Almighty Caelum, I pray you would move my Spirit more boldly in my life.¡± Layla squirmed amidst light coming from Uphion¡¯s Avatar, feeling her soul began to crack. It is hurting! Race: Devil 57% ¡°Grant me tenacious winsome courage as I go through this day.¡± Blood began to flow from her wings. The wings! No, stop! They are important to me. Race: Devil 55% ¡°Be my protection against the wickedness-¡± She coughed blood all over the place and her soul cracked even more, ¡±and the snares of the Devils.¡± Her entire body unnaturally contorted. It is hurting so much, why am I even doing this?! Please stop. I can¡¯t endure anymore. I feel my insides burning! Race: Devil 53% If you continue you will lose your Existence. ¡°I pray against the temptation to sin.¡± She heard the sound of something important shattering while she felt her insides exploding and becoming a disgusting pulp. I just wanted to be free, have friends, construct a place where I won¡¯t ever feel hunger once again. How can be enduring this horrible pain be worth anything? I still haven¡¯t yet started a family or even confess to Ald- Yes, how could I forget? I¡¯m doing this for the one that set me free, corrupted himself for me and comforted me whenever I was feeling down. I¡¯m doing this for the Ald I know since he was a pure gentle child. Race: Devil 50% ¡°Come on, spiritual bird of shit. Bring it on! Do your worst.¡± Layla lost the vision as her eyes melted and her sanity too. ¡°When I am tempted to give up, help me to keep going!¡± Her body and soul lost all the strength. Layla¡¯s body began to fall with her arm raised to her front as if her prayer was to someone special that wasn''t the Lord of Aether¡¯s upper part. Impossible to drop even more the Race¡¯s percentage because of the unbreakable vow that is the [Bond]. The [Bond] will only exist if Laylasoderscim is a Devil since the [Bond] is using the SP of Alderam. By Bob¡¯s standards below 50% is no more Devil. Contradiction! The prayer will drop the Devil¡¯s Race percentage, but the [Bond] and Bob¡¯s standards do not permit it. Calculation resolution... Please select a new Main Race to finish your prayer. Three vertical options appeared on the front of Layla¡¯s raised arm. [so???] [Eldling] [Human] Because of the angle she was falling, her pointed arm arrived close to the upper option, but her finger slid in the option as if she was not allowed to select it. With the speed of her fall, her finger that had slid over the upper option ended up arriving at the middle option and the Gift considered as if she had selected it to urgently end the contraction that is messing up with the low-performance system. You are now a Half-Eldling! Please choose your new racial skills when you have time. Layla¡¯s body that was falling began to raise and was wrapped in a purple cocoon. She felt her soul and body being mended, reshaped and rebuilt. Uphion¡¯s Avatar began to laugh, already seeing where this is going on and yearning for the future arrive soon. Layla recovered her strength and shouted. ¡°Let me rest and be refreshed. By the Holy name of Caelum.¡± Finishing the prayer. Because you are part Devil, the effects of the prayer are negated and you didn¡¯t receive the [Blessing of the Spirits]. ¡°Wow, what a strange feeling.¡± Layla said emerging from the purple cocoon with her form transforming to of a grotesque abomination, but after less than a second, she transformed again as if that form never existed. With her new form, her deep and large eyes now had violet vertical pupils and had their colors changed to pure jet black. Stretching a little she perceived her small wings had grown enough to finally wrap herself and Alderam together. And that her wings had lost the black color of it and the inverted pentagrams covered by her Black Mana. Now her wings are darkish purple and had spirals all over them. I don¡¯t know what they mean, but for now is better to cover them. What happened to me? Let me check the Gift¡­ an Eldling? What are they? I have never heard of this Race, however, right now I am too happy to care for it. She smiled touching her new wings, I finally lost the inverted pentagrams and wings¡¯ black color. Now no one will be able to discover I am Devil because even the Gift is saying I am a Half-Eldling not a Half-Devil. Will Ald like this new form? Apart from the Black Force and my Sin, I have lost all the characteristics of a Devil. So Ald will be more comfortable being at my side because he won¡¯t anymore always remember of that Greed Devil when looking at me, I am sure he will love it. She tried to convince herself whilst Uphion¡¯s Avatar went to touch Alderam. The Black Elementals acted in defiance and two intertwined black serpents came from Alderam¡¯s body and tried to bite Uphion¡¯s Avatar. ¡°How stupid, reacting in this way just makes want more to see what he is hiding.¡± Uphion¡¯s Avatar drew more power from her nature that she hates the most, the Divine of Magic, and forced herself into Alderam¡¯s body by destroying all the surrounding Black Elementals and the serpents. She soon appeared into another world and briefly say many flashes of images together with Alderam¡¯s Gift. ¡°So it¡¯s like I thought, splendid. I found the second one to fulfill my plans, this should be enough for the next phase. Dede¡¯s little child, did you know that everything in this universe is just numbers? ¡°Even a strange concept like ¡®lunacy¡¯ is and you also know that everything also has a limit? So in this universe, if someone goes beyond that limit in anything, it actually goes back to normal at ¡®state zero¡¯.¡± She didn¡¯t say that it wasn¡¯t true in other worlds beyond this in which when someone goes beyond the madness, they sometimes just get madder or stupid. Uphion¡¯s Avatar randomically saw Alderam with his emotional damage and psyche breakdown amplified two times as he cut a small little girl, at six times with him decapitating a burnt body belonging to a girl of his age, at beyond numbers intelligible to even a Divine when hugging the body of a woman with ivory hair, and at three times when killing every mangled villager of Ironcrest that appeared at his way. Finally Uphion¡¯s Avatar reached the concept she wanted to absorb from Alderam, the one bearing the title of [The One Beyond Insanity], she tried to take everything but there was so much that even she felt like vomiting after a while and stopped the absorption with Alderam still bearing his title and having more lunacy that this simple low-performance universe can compute. Nonetheless, she didn¡¯t feel disheartened as her power grew and was a little more difficult to keep in check her true crazy self. ¡°With this, the sacrifice is completed, time to do my part now.¡± Mystical azure water came from her and enveloped Alderam, curing all his injuries and stabilizing his health but not curing the venom still inside of him. Uphion¡¯s Avatar opened a door of light for Layla while the new Half-Eldling was crying tears of joy besides Alderam¡¯s body. ¡°Now you just need to get rid of the venom and he should be fine. One of the people I got out of my new Dungeon seemed to be someone capable of doing that, just follow my instructions and you should be able to find him after you leave the Dungeon, you need to¡­¡± Layla attentively listened to the instruction and went into the door of light with Alderam¡¯s unconscious body while thanking the Divine of Magic and Lunacy. Uphion¡¯s Avatar smiled and turned to the Dungeon¡¯s White Crystal, her smile deepened, her eyes squinted and her hands trembled in excitement as her true crazy self took over. ¡°Now, we are finally alone, little Fio and Regan. Don¡¯t worry, I will be sure to take care of you two and also give a explanation to that annoying Wizcalen¡¯s Empress.¡± On the White Crystal appeared the intertwining bodies of the dead Fio and Regan in their soul forms and full of hatred against each other. At the base of the ¡®floating¡¯ White Crystal, there was the other two priests and the teenagers that were together with Fio who were dead, holding the White Crystal in their soul forms while full bent down towards the ground. ¡°Time to initiate Phase 2, it shouldn¡¯t be long before you reveal your true worth.¡± The way Uphion¡¯s Avatar looked at the souls, made them dread for their future and at least hope it isn¡¯t bleak as some of the punishments the Goddess of Magic and Lunacy did in the past. Rewrite Chapter 6: Rings On Fingers Layla appeared outside of the land that was completely white, even the trees were, and began to run in accord to the instructions of Uphion¡¯s Avatar, avoiding any Natural or distraction in her way. Soon enough she saw the walls of Redspring, they were three enormous walls made of red cores coming from Naturals and gates on all four cardinal directions to enter the city. Before she could continue, suddenly she could hear the land shaking as many [Guards] in tamed horse Naturals surged on the other end of the open plains she was, their speed and her location made her know it was impossible to really hide or outspeed them. She was already detected so she hoped for the success of the diplomatic route. A woman lead these [Guards], she had an enticing and dangerous beauty with her long red hair and arrogant demeanor. She wore an armor that seemed to be useless in actual combat and strange expensive four rings in her hand. Behind her there were four handsome men all coming from different Races and wearing a ring in their left hand, there was a Human with black complexion, a Bear Beastfolk, a red-skinned Demon full horned, and a Race that seemed like a Human but was actually an alien being slightly taller and with long pointed ears, an Elf. ¡°Heroine, I feel corruption and the touch of Devils coming from the Half-Beast male that the female is holding. I suggest his extermination, what do you say?¡± Several priests that were accompanying the [Guards] claimed the same thing while not noticing how Layla actually is a Devil. Layla prepared herself to make a run and evade them, she felt the woman leading them was especially dangerous. She knew now the identity of the very woman she wanted to never meet as she didn¡¯t want to increase the list of people that Alderam will have to kill. We are still Wizcalen so she can only be the said [Heroine] that let Bashaag go kill Ald¡¯s loved ones. I can¡¯t let both of them meet, for Ald¡¯s sake and this woman also too. Ald can be pretty scary when trying to kill someone, after all. Rachel, the one leading the army, said. ¡°Is that so? Let me check, but first I need to cancel her Charm, some men are drooling.¡± Rachel used her SP to cancel the Charm Layla inadvertently caused by appearing almost nude with her bosom and ¡®dangerous¡¯ parts showing up since she didn¡¯t care about her clothes¡¯ state after Alderam got hurt. Her clothes were totally tattered by Alderam¡¯s [Water Balls] and the wounds caused by the insect Naturals she fought before meeting Uphion¡¯s Avatar. Many men before Rachel¡¯s pink smoke covered them had been drooling and looking lustfully at Layla thanks to her high Charisma with even intentions to rape her but fortunately, all of their intentions instantly disappeared after Rachel used her SP. Rachel activated [Full Appraisal] and read Alderam and Layla¡¯s Gift after she finished dealing with the minor problem that cropped up. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard about an Eldling but that surname I¡¯ve had.¡± Rachel creepily smiled without the priests seeing. ¡°While its true that man is corrupted and full of sin, how can you guys not be moved by the actions of this pure girl?¡± Rachel¡¯s voice contained indignation as she began to cry false tears. ¡°Can¡¯t you see how this girl had to suffer to carry her friend to safety? She is all tattered, bleeding and even almost nude! Telling me to kill the man she tried so hard to protect isn¡¯t a little too much?! Where¡¯s your pity, empathy, and honor?¡± She let her words echo through the heads of everyone around her before continuing her speech for various motives and also achieve another good action by saving Layla since she needs of three more good actions to finally level up, after all. ¡°I refuse to hurt even a strand of hair of her, if I do so how can I be called of this world¡¯s [Heroine]? The one that will bring hope and peace to everyone? Don¡¯t you all think so?¡± Everyone cheered on and felt the shame of their earlier actions, even the priests were appalled and were actually crying by feeling emotioned by Rachel¡¯s speech and monstrous Charisma. ¡°Guards, let her go and give to her an eternal free pass to any city she might visit, principally Redspring. Priests, please forgive the sinful man she carries and hope for her pure devotion to him make him one day regret his ways. These are my orders as Wizcalen¡¯s only [Heroine] and carrying the Empress¡¯ Seal. Anyone against this?¡± ¡°No!¡± The land shook by the power of the voices of the entire army of Redspring. ¡°Go now, child. To where you must go, and if you need our help to heal you or your friend just say it now.¡± Rachel beamed in a way similar to how Uphion¡¯s Avatar did when meeting Layla for the first time while thinking about letting a good font of Exp grow a little more before harvesting. ¡°Thank you very much, Heroine.¡± Layla passed through the soldiers and continued in her way to where Baruchard is. She really seems like a good person, now I want even more to Ald never meet her. ¡°Now my men and women, let¡¯s go back to our main mission given by the Empress. We still need to verify why Uphion stole one of this Empire¡¯s Dungeons.¡± Rachel led the soldiers once again and one of her husbands that she until now doesn¡¯t remember well his name came to her. ¡°Why you actually let them go?¡± The Demon asked. ¡°What are you talking about? I didn¡¯t let them go, I¡¯m planning to sent spies to watch every step of them and apprehend them when they began to grow too dangerous, like let¡¯s say¡­ Rank D? I will order the spies to principally take care of the man, although Drakar¡¯s Hero is known for being cruel and almost a true monster, his son will still serve as some kind of bargaining chip when needed. Thankfully, I¡¯ve researched about him and discovered he had one day lived near Redspring.¡± Rachel couldn¡¯t hide the smug look she let out and her creepy smile from her third husband. The Demon fearfully nodded, only wanting to his sweet wife to go back to normal, where did all the days she only cared about flirting with him without scary expressions had gone? Meanwhile the army advanced to the Dungeon, Layla was finally reaching Baruchard''s position. After some minutes of avoiding the square evergreen Posk trees, Layla saw a mysterious gigantic bubble holding the mercenaries that went to Ironcrest and as soon she neared the bubble it exploded and liberated the people within it. ¡°Please help Ald, he is poisoned,¡± Layla shouted to call the mercenaries¡¯ attention as they struggled to come back to their senses after being suddenly teleported out of the Dungeon before they could see the Chimera attacking Alderam and Layla. Baruchard and Toivo were the first ones to come back to their senses and rushed to Layla when they heard that, Alderam and Layla were too important to them, their only chance to finish their Quest and also finally have disciples. ¡°I can¡¯t produce a new antivenom without the original venom and the aggressor''s appearance, but this thing should help a little.¡± Baruchard took the core from Alderam¡¯s arm and no blood come out from the closed lump that was one day Alderam¡¯s left arm. ¡°Mor, come here already. We need you.¡± Toivo urgently called Morgiana that was still recovering together with Yunan, the blond Dogfolk, and Berk. Morgiana¡¯s eyes beneath the mask seemed to be shifting, and she suddenly straightened up and stoically walked to near Toivo¡¯s position as she never had been disoriented by the bubble. ¡°My dear, can you show us this object¡¯s history? Toivo needs to see the being from where it came to help me cure Alderam.¡± Baruchard handed over the green Core to Morgiana while Layla was holding her breath in anticipation and trying to not disturb anyone¡¯s work in curing Alderam. Morgiana nodded and her eyes seemed to shift once again, this time her posture got less stoic and more natural, being still possible to see a little of disorientation coming from bursting out from the earlier bubble, but she was still capable of activating the abilities of her [Bard Job]. She touched the Core and everybody present saw scenes of a strange monster being throw in the Dungeon, killing everybody in its path and finally meeting Alderam until it got killed in a creative but silly way. They were incapable of hearing the conversations of Alderam with Shiro as something, a Hero¡¯s ability, disturbed the functioning of Morgiana¡¯s Ability. So they had to ask Layla about the name of the creature made of different bodies to Toivo began to work. ¡°Thank you, Mor. But Chimera? What a familiar and peculiar name. It had a Core so it is a Natural anyways.¡± Toivo took out a canvas, painting tools and a chair from a translucent red ring full of engravings. ¡°It won¡¯t be a problem for someone of my caliber to draw this strange creature.¡± What¡¯s that? Does it works like Ald¡¯s SP? ¡°It¡¯s a space magic tool I made, one day you will also be capable of creating one of those and if you are a really good girl I will give you one before that.¡± Baruchard said smiling while surprised Layla¡¯s Race changed to something called Eldling by using his [Basic Appraisal] but this didn¡¯t change the fact of what made her so interesting to him, she was a Devil when he discovered she loved Alderam and had the Gift despite ¡®Bob¡¯ forbidding a Devil to have one as a Devil is an existence ¡®too boring¡¯. Layla didn¡¯t understand Baruchard''s implication and just nodded along to have the blond man not so close to her. Toivo began to paint and everybody watched in awe his abilities and supernatural speed he was finalizing the painting, Layla principally couldn¡¯t understand anything he was doing but as the minutes passed the painting of the Chimera looked so alive that it could at any moment jump out from the canvas. ¡°Amazing. Completely different from the ones Ald had painted.¡± Layla was so flabbergasted that she ended up complimenting Toivo while comparing him to Alderam. The blue-haired man smirked and lifting the paintbrush off the finished painting, shouted. ¡°Activate [Rivest Self-Created Style]. Came out with the most possible characteristics of your venom, Chimera!¡± The painting rippled and from it, a mini Chimera jumped out while roaring. ¡°I-It really jumped out from the painting.¡± Layla stammered. ¡°And it is so tiny.¡± Toivo easily picked the mini Chimera and threw it to Baruchard. ¡°So this is the owner the venom.¡± The blond man said while examining it and breaking parts of it inside of his tools that he brought from his red ring near the golden shimmering ring on his ring finger. ¡°Mister Toivo, what is Mister Baruchard doing?¡± Layla said. ¡°He is trying to discover the original venom of the Chimera to cure Alderam by using my creation as a base.¡± ¡°Why?¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°Since he asked me to help him, probably the original venom is so strong that it would destroy his tools, not letting him test its reactions in contact with certain mixtures to make a precise antidote or actually, antivenom.¡± Toivo stored all the painting tools and the canvas. ¡°So he is using the ¡®image¡¯ of my creation together with the Core you brought to make an antivenom based on its possible characteristics.¡± Amazing, if only I had a way of curing Ald in case of a similar situation happening. Toivo continued while looking straight to Layla. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Trust in my husband¡¯s skills. With Willpower everything will be okay. He will make a miracle and save Alderam. He won¡¯t even need to test if the pill will work with his [Appraisal].¡± ¡°How Willpower will save Ald?¡± Layla curiously asked. ¡°Girl, you don¡¯t know the proverb passed on through the whole universe?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then, let me tell you.¡± Toivo opened his arms. ¡°¡®There is nothing that with Willpower you can¡¯t do!¡¯ with exception of resurrecting dead people, go back in time, stop the time¡­¡± He listed a lot of things that Willpower can¡¯t do for some minutes and gave a great laugh in the end. Aren¡¯t there too many things Willpower can''t do? Layla sighed, am I really trusting Ald¡¯s life to these people? I am kind of losing the confidence in them right now. Baruchard injected some of the venom he artificially made in himself before extracting his blood from a specific part of his body. ¡°I¡¯m done,¡± Baruchard said carrying a white pill with his blood and putting it inside of Alderam¡¯s mouth. ¡°The antivenom will dissolve itself on Alderam¡¯s mouth and then cure him. I assure you.¡± Layla came close to Alderam and felt his breathing becoming more normal. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to thank you enough for saving Ald.¡± ¡°How about paying a blue Core for our services? I also accept one billion of F. Coins.¡± Toivo moved his hand just like a stereotyped loan shark. ¡°Blue?!¡± ¡°Hey.¡± Baruchard hit Toivo¡¯s head. ¡°Stop joking with Layla.¡± ¡°Ouch. I only wanted to see her surprised face. There is no way I would ask for such high price. Why can¡¯t you endure a little joke?¡± Toivo with his muscular build and chiseled face pouted as Berk sighed at the little theatre and Yunan maintained on guard near Morgiana. ¡°Layla, you and Alderam only need to help in the store we have in Redspring for some days or pay thirty red cores of low-quality.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Layla bowed, what to do? Even though the necessity of me and Ald traveling to Free Cities has lessened because of my new Race, I don¡¯t think Ald would want to continue in this Empire that everyone he knew is dead. So probably the plan of going to Free Cities will continue the same. But I don¡¯t want to continue the same! If Ald in the trip is poisoned once again or is afflicted with something that Black Qi can¡¯t heal, what will I be able to do to save him? Nothing. I don¡¯t want to see Ald dying with me not able to do anything for him. There is only one man that I know able to teach me how to cure Ald if something like that happens again. ¡°Mister Baruchard, can I tell some truths about me and Ald?¡± Layla said knowing the only way to make Baruchard help her is to being honest. ¡°...Yes.¡± The blond man said with confusion clear on his face, didn¡¯t he know almost everything about them because of his Quest? ¡°Ald¡¯s village was destroyed by the same Devil that had attacked Wizcalen¡¯s Heroine and in that village I¡¯ve been tortured for many years until Ald freed me and corrupted his own soul to destroy my biddings, creating a [Familiar Bond] with me in the process and also giving me the Gift, something forbidden to someone from the Aether.¡± ¡°Serious?¡± Baruchard and Toivo asked at the same time to maintain the facade since Layla had a pretty solemn face on her while talking. ¡°Yes. And Ald¡¯s father is a really bad villain we need to get stronger to defeat, he is currently at the Drakar Empire by what Ald said to me.¡± ¡°Wait, correct if I am wrong.¡± Toivo said already knowing the truth, being part of the reason he will take Alderam as his disciple, he is just as stupid as him. ¡±Are you saying that Alderam after his village was destroyed by a Devil, he had saved you, a Devil, from the Chimera. And because both of you have a [Familiar Bond] he still consider you as at least his friend, even though you are from the same Race that had ruined his life?¡± ¡°Well¡­ when you put the things in this way, becomes kind of hard to even myself believe, but yes. And I think he likes me as much I like him. Although I¡¯m not too sure with him being really shy about his feelings since a child and with what happened with Rhigon.¡± Layla said while blushing. ¡°And I¡¯m not a Devil anymore, the Gift said I¡¯m a Half-Eldling now.¡± ¡°Oh my holy fucking Bob!¡± Toivo groaned while Baruchard was smiling to Layla. ¡°You don¡¯t need to say anything more.¡± Baruchard said. ¡°Knowing you have the Gift it is enough to win my trust for now. You are telling us this because you have some kind of request to ask for, right? Do it soon, I don¡¯t think Toivo will withstand more of your love stories with Alderam.¡± ¡°Why it is so alike?¡± Toivo rolled on the ground, shouting. ¡°I can¡¯t take it anymore. This damn Quest is making me remember the past. What embarrassment.¡± He squirmed while saying nonsense words like ¡®wryyy!¡¯ or making strange poses with his hand in front of his head. ¡°Just ignore him, he is remembering the good old past.¡± Baruchard looked at Toivo with tender eyes while showing a sentimental smile. ¡°No matter how much time has passed, he hasn¡¯t changed, he is still so childish for making these references while remembering of his first youth. But this is one of the things I love about him.¡± Layla ignored the strange display of the blue-haired man and dropped to her knees while lowering her wings and head to appear subservient as possible. ¡°Ald and I are going to the Free Cities. I don¡¯t want to lose Ald because of some unexpected situation occurs and I am incapable of saving him from anything that the Black Qi can¡¯t heal. Please until Ald is ready to travel again, let me be your disciple.¡± Baruchard wide-eyed took a step back and put his hand over his stomach while unrestrainedly laughing. ¡°This is really happening despite Berk¡¯s intentions of making you two part of the group.¡± So is it impossible? I am not even a Greed Devil, but I was too greedy, I should be satisf- ¡°Perfect. You from now on is my first and last disciple.¡± What? So why are you laughing? Baruchard turned to Toivo while crying of laughing too much. ¡°It is already time for us to rest, don¡¯t you think? Alderam and Layla are our best choices. For your earlier reaction, I don¡¯t think you will oppose my decision and it seems Alderam also paints, how about you becoming his master and finally end everything?¡± Morgiana and Berk understood Baruchard¡¯s meaning as they are the only ones that knows his and Toivo¡¯s secret, making Yunan be left out of the situation. ¡°End?¡± The blue haired man raised his body off the ground. ¡°But I haven¡¯t properly talked with the boy yet, what if I don¡¯t like him?¡± ¡°With you two being so alike, do you really think you are going to hate him? Also, you have already said to me you are tired of our type of life.¡± ¡°That is true¡­¡± ¡°Now let¡¯s go back to Redspring. Berk, don¡¯t worry. I think it is still possible to Alderam and Layla join you when we retire to see other countries.¡± Baruchard patted Berk¡¯s shoulders. ¡°For now, let stay still on the shop, is it a problem?¡± ¡°No, Uncle Baru. And if they become yours disciples at least they will be for sure a good addition and this case, a substitution to the group.¡± Berk shrugged and was going to take out a carriage from his royal ring but perceived they were close to the city. ¡°We can walk to the city, it isn¡¯t even sunset now.¡± He looked to the beautiful sun hanging out there and the famous square Posk Trees. As they walked, Yunan offered to carry Alderam but Layla denied it, she wanted to be the one to be carrying her Bond, she didn¡¯t perceive until now because she was only worried about Alderam¡¯s safety but now that she calmed down she observed that having him so close to her made her feel warmth coming from her heart and secure about the future, never did she feel so close to him and she wanted to enjoy this mysterious feeling more. Before reaching the row to enter Redspring through the West Gate, Baruchard gave Layla a vest to cover her exposed body, making her aware of her state and quickly covering her body. I¡¯ve ruined another clothing, why is this becoming a pattern? After passing the row and paying the tax to enter the city, with Layla exclusively not paying it to the [Guard] using a full armor of iron, enchanted with innumerable engravings and a coat of arms of a flower being held by a woman while killing a man with magic. Incredible, the Heroine had already warned them about my appearance, how could she do that if she is still so far away from here? Layla explained earlier the little encounter with Rachel so the group weren¡¯t that surprised about what happened. ¡°So this is Redspring, this is my first time in a big city.¡± Layla looked around like a tourist all the architecture that seemed to like of red triangular roofs and white houses, squinting her eyes a little she was capable of seeing another two set of walls in the distance. ¡°Layla, what do you know about the Empire, Wizcalen, we live? Do you know for example that the cities has stratas that people non-authorized can''t go? And in the first strata, the mayor normally lives there and he or she to be the mayor of a city with walls made of Natural¡¯s cores, need to be at least Rank C and have [Guards] of minimum Rank F, meaning any random [Guard] can easily kill you.¡± Toivo seeing Layla¡¯s curiosity, said. ¡°I don¡¯t know much because my knowledge about this Empire is of more than two hundred years ago and Ald just superficially explained to me.¡± Layla paused to think what she knew about Wizcalen and said. ¡°How this Empire lives based on a Matriarchal Society? On the Nether things are all about power, not gender.¡± ¡°Well, we just have the basic rights to everyone with a little more to women, not enough to cause a rebellion from part of the men but enough to women be considered special, like giving the right to women have a legal harem of men, different from the Drakar Empire which is heavily patriarchal. We also are proud of being the only Empire in Fuderpsy that abolished slavery and permitted same sex marriages.¡± Baruchard took the chance to explain with pride of his sister that is governing over Wizcalen. ¡°What an marvelous Empire, so is it perfect?¡± Layla innocently asked. ¡°Unfortunately, no. There are still basic enormous differences between the rich and poor people since we are in an Imperial system, natatility is sometimes really low and Racism is pretty strong still.¡± Toivo said and pointed to a small Human walking far away from them. ¡°Wizcalen is still racist against someone that isn¡¯t Human or our allies, the Beastfolk. So look at that Human, he is so small that he is constantly mistaken by the Dwarf Race, which is a Race similar to Human but their adult state¡¯s height is of our normal children''s height. ¡°Can you see a card written ¡®I¡¯m Human¡¯ in his shirt? The Empire gives that to some people to them not receive bullying or different treatment just because of some of their qualities can be mistaken to another Race. And this is just the iceberg¡¯s point of how Racist Wizcalen is, in some cities Elves, Dwarves, Demons and their half children are still bullied and killed.¡± ¡°How sad is to be killed and tortured by just being of another Race. I know well that pain.¡± Layla expertly crushed the easy-going atmosphere within in the group and was awkward to anyone in the group to bring another topic to the conversation, so they maintained silence until reaching the shop. ¡°This will be your new house.¡± Baruchard stopped at a four-story white building full of decorations of red flowers like the ones on the coat of arms of the guards and a symbol of a red ax inside of a brown square at the top side of the store. ¡°Toivo, take Alderam and put him on his room and you my disciple, I¡¯ve prepared to you your first lesson.¡± ¡°Yes, Master.¡± Layla enthusiastically said and was forced to let of Alderam. I will do my best. ¡°Let¡¯s go, my disciple.¡± Baruchard took Layla with him to the third floor. ¡°For your first lesson, we will take a bath together.¡± Layla¡¯s master smiled. ¡°To improve our relationship.¡± ¡°Why?!¡± ¡°Because the masters from another world said so.¡± Baruchard said trying to make his nonsense appear mystical and profound while caressing a nonexistent beard. ¡°Who are these masters? This makes no sense!¡± ¡°One day you will know what I am talking about.¡± The new master of a Half-Eldling deviously smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I am a homosexual. There is no problem.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you being homosexual is the problem here!¡± On the next day after receiving a traumatic memory, Layla killed a lot of Naturals. And after two days of being unconscious, Alderam finally woke up. Interlude 1: The Other Sides The final area of Redspring within the third red Core Wall was bustling with movement after was confirmed why Uphion took one of the Empire¡¯s Dungeons but thanks to Rachel Winship, the most beautiful Heroine of all, the situation was mostly appeased with Uphion promising to still let people go there to train and gather resources but this didn¡¯t change the fact it was needed extensive investigation to discover why a successor to a Divine¡¯s Avatar had died. ¡°Heroine, I have a report and orders from the Empress.¡± The ugly priest from the second church shouted and interrupted the living Goddess Rachel¡¯s beauty sleep after she had sex with her four husbands. ¡°Okay, just wait a moment.¡± Rachel arranged her silky red long hair and with her half-closed limpid golden eyes she went to open the door of her room while ignoring the Charity Spirit that is trembling and mumbling, ¡®it was born! It had born! I can¡¯t aggravate it! If I do it, the end of my Race will be nigh!¡¯ ¡°Can you wear some clothes?¡± The priest put his hand over his eyebrows. ¡°No, after this I will continue to sleep or go for another round.¡± Rachel sweetly replied while thinking, annoying. Why can¡¯t I just kill him? Ah, the Levels, I almost forgot about them after all the affection I received today. ¡°The frontier village number three hundred and thirty-three, Ironcrest, has been destroyed. It is close to here and because of traces of the Gate being opened, it is believed that Bashaag has not died.¡± The brown man said while giving her a written report. Rachel silently looked at the paper report that she had received, fuck! I messed up. Did I lose any Levels because of it? Rank: [B.] Level: [17,546] She cried over the report, oh my God... I lost fucking three hundred and thirty-three Levels. What is with the fucking coincidence of numbers? Is it your revenge? For letting you guys die? You bunch of NPCs! Motherfuc- ¡°I can understand your pain.¡± The priest said, crying for another reason. ¡°They were honorable citizens that had sacrificed their lifespans to protect us from Naturals and alert us when some empire attacks. They didn¡¯t deserve to die! If only we were able to properly kill Bashaag.¡± ¡°...yeah! They didn¡¯t deserve this, if only I was stronger.¡± Rachel followed the priest¡¯s misunderstanding. ¡°But we still have Bashaag¡¯s corpse, how did he destroy the village? There is a cooldown for a Devil to come back to the Material Plane after it had lost a part of its power when forcibly sent to the Nether. So it means, I haven¡¯t killed him, however, this makes no sense.¡± ¡°We checked with the Divine of my church, the Goddess of False Death and Solitude, and it seems Bashaag had an ability called [Shadow Form] that let his soul escape his body and take a weaker black form of himself. He probably used it to feign death and then attack Ironcrest to gather Black Elementals to go back to Aether without receiving a drop in his power.¡± ¡°He got us.¡± Rachel just wished the [Soul Purifier] ability was more powerful and good to use in the middle of the battle. ¡°Yes¡­ what is strange is that there is a body buried in Ironcrest and there is an empty still intact house. Villagers from the Frontier Villages shouldn¡¯t have the habit of burying people, never there was someone there to teach this custom, we only pass to them a selected reviewed knowledge to not make them grow culturally, how did they learn this custom?¡± ¡°Hmm, maybe a villager was able to defeat the weaker form of Bashaag or someone passing through ended up burying a villager by pity.¡± Good job, NPC. If I had SP like the heroes of the elves, dwarves or the Myths, I would have been able of killing Bashaag. I have to feign to have one to make the people trust more in my power but why don¡¯t I have it? Is it some kind of bug that the Association forgot? I remember that Alastor and the one in the Beastfolk''s place also hadn¡¯t what- ¡°Aside from it, the Empress said to you continue here for the time and help the mayor of here to take care of invading Myths. You and your Spirit are still hurt so the Empress¡¯ objective is most likely to have you rest.¡± ¡°Okay, I will stay here.¡± And have a lot of sex, never I had a chance to satisfy my lust so much, I need to enjoy every second of it. ¡°And the [Guards] also said that the girl you talked about was given a free pass.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ good.¡± I kind of forgot about her but this is good, with this there are only two more good actions to do before leveling up or I could just go and kill things to receive XP¡­ meh, too boring. ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to us go and discover if she is a Devil or that the boy is a Devil corrupting her?¡± The brown-skinned man asked with concern. ¡°Nah¡­ ahem.¡± Rachel coughed to disguise her slip-up. ¡°I mean¡­ the girl is probably only unlucky for arriving here at this time and her Rank is only H, no need to be cruel to that pure girl that worked so hard to protect her friend.¡± ¡°What a kind [Heroine], forgive me for doubting you.¡± He bowed. ¡°It is fine, you can go now.¡± Rachel smiled. After the priest excused himself, Rachel¡¯s smile disappeared while her Spirit that instead of pupils, had inverted triangles in its eyes, denoting it as a Water Spirit. It has changed the disk and was talking now, ¡®why have I been created with [Soul Over Sensitive]? Now I know that monster was born ahead of the time!¡¯ Should I care about its nonsense? Hmm¡­ Nah! It is probably just another bug and I am too lustful right now to care for- ¡°Do you want another round?¡±The husbands 1 to 4 called her from the bed. ¡°I am going num-¡± oops, almost used the numbers I gave them on my head. ¡°I am going now.¡± This game has its bugs, but here I can have sex with four guys and they still love me the same. Banzai to polyandry. This is heaven. ¡°I like you much more in this way, calm and happy just like I first met you.¡± Third husband, the Demon, caressed Rachel and began the action with joy of temporally having his easy-going and gentle wife back again. ¡°I also like more when I don''t have to kill anyone and just be a normal girl,¡± Rachel replied as her lust dominated her. While Rachel was having another round with her husbands, the Charity Spirit reached a conclusion. ¡¯I just need to not tell anyone about it. Nothing can stop that monster, even Lord Caelum or Bob can do it. So I will use my Charity Powers to take the Pity Route by helping him and the monster won¡¯t note me when he destroys everything in his path. I will survive!¡¯, it crazily laughed. *** The Aether. The home of both Spirits and Devils, the ones created by the only two Superiors Gods in Fuderspy. While the Spirits on the Ether part of the Immaterial Plane were living in tranquility, the Devils in the Nether of the Immaterial weren¡¯t so much as this was season to their Lord, Asmolor, began to rape to all female Devils with hopes to the fourth Devil coming from an actual womb to be born, Asmolor don¡¯t consider that failure of nature as something of his blood, and to also kill any male Devil in his way to absorb their power with another hope to finally defeat his Archenemy, Caelum. All the more powerful Devils had hidden deep in their layers with exception of Asmolor¡¯s brother and the Lord of the Lust Layer, this season was the reason Bashaag tried to escape by staying awhile in the Material Plane but it was almost in vain as he got killed by that impertinent child and traitorous weak Devil. Imp, the first Devil and elder brother of Asmolor, silently observed the whole process with clear disgust in his face. He thought, Sloth and Lust had really won, he not even wants more to materialize himself. Asmolor stoically did the ¡®service¡¯ without even having a form, he was just an amorphous black sludge moving around without the grace and beauty of being the Lord of half of the Aether. Asmolor, I despise you. Instead of ruling above your Sins, you are being controlled by them. Our Goddes watching us inside of her seal must be regretting creating you. She didn¡¯t create us to what you made the Nether be, it was supposed to only the Demons in the Material Plane to have the roles of ¡®Villains¡¯ to the Material Race, and what happened? Now the roles are all reversed. What an irony, the- ¡°Imp, come to meet me at the vault. I¡¯ve finished for now and need of the ¡®Moon¡¯ to find a suitable seed to be born.¡± Asmolor transmitted his thoughts to Imp as he disappeared from the Pride Layer. Imp sighed and began to flap his small black wings to his inevitable death at the hands of his brother. It took me two days, but I have handled Bashaag using my Authority of being the first Devil and sent him to a random warlock capable of teleporting himself, to make certain that Greed Devil won¡¯t meet Asmolor and screw up my sacrifice. He used the power of his Dark Star Eyes and opened a portal to the chamber where Asmolor is, niece, since you have not appeared here after being hit by the flames of Bashaag, means you have survived and my sacrifice won¡¯t be in vain. Caressing his bald head, he remembered of the hardships that his niece had to bear, I¡¯m sorry for not being able to protect you. The best I could do was to use my Authority and completely erase the worst memories that would make you think of committing suicide. But I couldn¡¯t erase everything because if I did that you wouldn¡¯t be you anymore. I¡¯m a failure as an uncle. I never was able of diminishing your pain and the only thing I did was making certain you would continue as the only Devil outside of the Concept of Evil and Damnation branded on us when we are created by Black Elementals or by our Goddess. Imp for his niece that he finally discovered where she was, sent to her the Artifact which will make her life easier and for doing that is certain that Imp will die today. He doesn¡¯t want to the only real family of him to suffer again and he lived long enough to not have much more regrets. Arriving at the Silver Crescent Moon¡¯s chamber, he began to slowly drag his small build by the floor of an ocean of blood and bones from the [Warlocks] that have gone against their contracts or dared to contract a Demon instead of a Devil. Walking to his execution he thought about his more than two billions of years of existence, it were quite long and hard years, it is kind of lonely being the only Devil without a Sin and not having that desire to kill everything, if I hadn¡¯t been granted with Authority because of our Goddess¡¯ pity, I don¡¯t think I would have survived until now.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Our Goddess made a mistake and the first Devil was a failure, but the next one that she made was the pinnacle of everything, the second Devil had all the Sins and was granted with the Evil Throne. Imp chuckled, the pinnacle of everything? Only if you don¡¯t consider the ability to be a good father. He looking up saw the bloody vault of this chamber together with his brother waiting for him still not materialized. Imp began to fly to meet his brother while continuing to have an imaginary conversation with the niece that he had let escape years ago. Be careful in the Material Plane and don¡¯t be captured again, being alive for so many years made me be able to learn somethings about the Gift with the [Warlocks] I made contracts. You can never let a priest force you to pray to Caelum or let them use their soul purifying techniques. When they do any of these things I have described, your Race percentage will drop and if it reaches zero¡­ in that moment there is nothing able to save you from being ¡®erased¡¯ by Bob. ¡°Imp, why you were away for two days?¡± The sludge rippled with Asmolor¡¯s voice. ¡°I was just taking care of a troubling contract.¡± Could be he had already discovered? If so, I will destroy my soul and- ¡°This time I will make a perfect Heiress that will match my current Heir,¡± Asomolor said after his small curiosity was satiated without caring for what Imp is thinking. ¡°Now I have more experience of going against the Concept that Devils can¡¯t be ¡®born¡¯, only created. I assure you, it will only take me ten thousand years to make another heiress.¡± ¡°Eternal glory to the wielder of the Evil Throne, he will...¡± Imp sang the stupid anthem created by a tone-deaf [Warlock], well, he will kill me and make another deplorable niece, but the Nether needs another heiress, so I have to sing this horrible song to congratulate him. ¡°This song is always perfect, no matter how many times I listen to it.¡± The sludge ¡®bounced¡¯ in joy. ¡°Imp, you are my most loyal Devil and my only true brother. You even used your hands to get rid of that disgusting defect heiress. After I discovered its thoughts, I couldn¡¯t even bear to be in the same Layer that thing was.¡± ¡°I only did my job and brothers are there to help each other. I recall our Goddess always said that.¡± Imp showed a false smile. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to thank you enough for all your years of service. You will always be my beloved brother.¡± Do you even know what is ¡®love¡¯ to call me ¡®beloved¡¯? I don¡¯t know what ¡®true love¡¯ is, but I at least know what parental love is because of my niece. The loathsome sludge turned to the vault. ¡°My brother, open the vault. I will pick the reformed artifact of our Race.¡± Imp used his Authority to open the bloody vault while making his final wishes. Niece, I hope that you find happiness in the Material Plane. Now it is time for this old man discover where the souls of Devils go when they truly die. Goodbye. A blazing silver light came from the opened vault, scorching all the blood and bones in the chamber. This light is! ¡°Our artifact [Silver Crescent Moon] is showing its noble light. It must be really pissed off by the last being I tried to put it on to her receive [Evil Charm].¡± Asmolor absorbed the tiny silver crescent moon, not giving chance to Imp see its engravings better. ¡°Why are you so surprised?¡± Asmolor asked Imp. ¡°I-I just was surprised to see its powers. You know I am easily impressed.¡± Imp gave an excuse while hiding his widened eyes. What happened? Now it was time for me die, how can the Artifact I sent to niece be here? ¡°I am going now to the Lust Layer to see its Lord, who do you think it would be better to govern the Nether while I am absent?¡± ¡°Give it to the Sloth manager or the Pride manager,¡± Imp said after recovering his composure and making theories about what exactly happened with the Artifact. ¡°Sloth then. Pride Devils are too stupid. Goodbye, I am going to copulate now.¡± Asmolor disappeared and Imp losing his strength sank in the ashes made by the light of the moon artifact. I have survived, but¡­ how the Artifact- ¡°Could be my niece was truly killed by an archbishop? If not, the only other alternative is that someone outside Fate and Destiny and with a [Job] has made some kind of miracle or that the Artifact didn''t want to merge with her. ¡°I will have to investigate. I wouldn¡¯t be able to sleep without discovering what happened to her and I am kind of worried about what she is eating, maybe souls or Black Elementals?¡± ¡°Now, where I would go if I was my niece? She is in Wizcalen and hates [Warlocks], so¡­ Free Cities!¡± I forgot about explaining to her about that place! Imp¡¯s body was surrounded by pure Black Force and he raised his body with motivation not seen normally within him. ¡°Niece, I am coming to you!¡± Unfortunately, as he raised his body, the Gate, a purple pentagram, to the Material Plane appeared beneath him and began to suck his body while draining him of a good part of his power. ¡°Impossible! How can there be still someone alive that can summon-¡± Imp disappeared from Nether and the only remaining thing in his original location was a piece of paper with a drawing of smiley faces and rainbows made by a child within it. *** Two days earlier than the other events, Shiro with his angular build and long blond hair began to save all the data of the fight with Alderam Udalth, he thought, he has the same surname of Alastor, could the two of them be related? I hope not, nothing of good comes when you become close to an Invader. The only Invaders I know of are Alastor, Rachel and possibly the hero of the Beastfolks. What a strange coincidence now that I think about it, the three empires that the Invaders belong to are in alliance in this World War. These Invaders seem to think that Fuderpsy is just a game, He sighed, I can kind of understand why, there are messages with numbers and Demons, Myths and Dwarves. But the Invaders to me¡­ I don¡¯t know, they feel to me as if they aren¡¯t from the same Earth that I came from. And why the Gift regard them as ¡®Invaders¡¯ or why they don¡¯t have SP? A man with bl-, no. I hate you. I forgot you are here. You don''t deserve to be described, to me you are only the nickname I made for you, ¡®Kuzo¡¯. ¡°What incredible numbers, with all this data the Project Chimera will be a success,¡± Kuzo said with his bl-, stop. You won''t be described, motherfucker. ¡°...Yeah.¡± Shiro gave a dispirited answer. ¡°Although Alderam has killed the Chimera in a crazy way, actually, I don¡¯t even know how it was possible. I understand the physics behind the concept, but there is no way he knew it and how the Chimera¡­ ¡¯exploded¡¯ because of it, it is just impossible¡­ I will just take that magic in this situation was above physics, if not...¡± ¡°But with this information, we will be able to correct the Chimera¡¯s weaknesses, like the hole under its chin because the flesh tissue was not able to withstand the poison on its jaw,¡± Kuzo said. ¡°Kuzo, why we didn¡¯t correct the hole before sending it to fight?¡± ¡°Father-in-law, my name is not ¡®Kuzo¡¯ and I think you were distracted after playing a round of Uno with my wife by the mana projector.¡± ¡°Who are you calling father-in-law or wife? My daughter is still a child, you ped-¡± ¡°Father-in-law, she is already an adult by Elves¡¯ standards and any other standard, and we love each other. Marriage is not further away.¡± ¡°Shut up! I will kill you.¡± Shiro activated his SP. ¡°No, you, an ¡®Owl Father¡¯ won¡¯t. Because you know your daughter will be sad about me dying.¡± ¡°I really hate you, Kuzo.¡± Shiro clicked his tongue in annoyance. ¡°My name is not ¡®Kuzo¡¯. And I like you, my teacher.¡± Kuzo smiled. ¡°We won¡¯t be working for some time in the Chimera, I am kind of under the weather right now,¡± Shiro said sinking into his chair and deactivating his Soul Skill. ¡°Because of Alderam Udalth¡¯s village?¡± Kuzo looked at the record of the fight. ¡°I am also with a bad taste in my mouth.¡± ¡°Yes, in war is expected to innocents die. If it is because of orders or my ideals, I would be able of shouldering their lives and swear to properly end the World War to make their sacrifices worth. But there is no meaning in killing Alderam¡¯s village and it was caused by us underestimating Bashaag¡¯s power.¡± Shiro closed his lime green eyes imagining their deaths. ¡°Only a Devil would attack a frontier village, the Empires already has taken their lifespan, talents and even the possibility of the villagers to obtain a combat oriented [Job]. All of this to bring safety to the others Empires¡¯ citizens. But because we let loose a Devil, we now even took their lives.¡± Hmm, how Alderam had [Water Ball] or that spell he used to kill the Chimera? Isn¡¯t it impossible to him also leave the villager no mattering if it is destroyed? ¡°Not even dare to tell this to my daughter. I deserve to be hated by her. However, I don¡¯t want her to lose the faith in our Empire¡¯s orders.¡± Shiro said pointing an imaginary gun at Kuzo. ¡°I won¡¯t. It would bring her too much sorrow. She is the friend of someone in a frontier village of our Empire. In the end, why we attacked the [Heroine] of Wizcalen using a Devil? You didn¡¯t tell me anything, it were orders from the higher-ups?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Shiro frowned. ¡°Before I explain the reason to attack Rachel, how about a history lesson first?¡± ¡°I¡¯m all ears.¡± Kuzo shrugged while perceiving the pun he made. ¡°My world had several wars and some almost lasted a millennium to end. There is some disagreement among scholars about the exact years, however, you got my point. But Fuderpsy is technically at World War state for more than ten thousand years with short intervals of rest. Why do you think there is so much difference between the duration of the wars of my world and of Fuderpsy?¡± ¡°Hmm, the Divines?¡± ¡°They are part of the reason because they were once the more powerful in this world. But the real reason I am talking about is¡­¡± Shiro made a dramatic pause. ¡°Fear.¡± ¡°Of what?¡± ¡°Mutual Assured Destruction, M.A.D., the Emperors, Empresses, Caelum, and Asmolor are so powerful that if they fight or use hidden Artifacts, the whole Fuderpsy would be destroyed. So the war never had a grand fight or the Divines were needed to intervene. That is the reason there are only ¡®small¡¯ conflicts and the war until now hadn¡¯t finished.¡± ¡°So when will this war end?¡± ¡°If this war continues with the Humans allied with the Beastfolks. The Demons neutral. The Dwarves and Elves allied too. And the Myths as separate power alone. The war at this rate would end in ¡®peace¡¯ in some centuries. Just like the Cold War.¡± ¡°But there are ¡®variables¡¯ that won¡¯t let the war end in peace, right?¡± Kuzo asked. ¡°Yes, there are [Heroes] just like me that their existences are unbalancing the fine equilibrium that the nations are, by making the stagnated technology progress or gradually raising the scales of the conflict. And the biggest variable is Free Cities. Nobody can really understand what that thing is.¡± ¡°So that was the reason to attack Rachel Winship. To kill her.¡± ¡°No, you''re still too young. You don¡¯t understand the adults¡¯ thoughts. If we kill a [Heroine], another will just be summoned in the place and the fallen [Heroine] will become some kind of martyr. You need to kill the [Heroine] after the final battle or just before it.¡± Shiro corrected Kuzo while shaking his head at the stupidity of his student. ¡°Father-in-law, I am certain that I am at least twice-¡± ¡°Whatever. You are still just a student.¡± Shiro coughed. ¡°Back to the subject, we made a deal with Bashaag to make Rachel be wounded and stay at Redspring for at least two months, but we¡­ underestimated Bashaag¡¯s power and¡­ you know.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I understood your meaning.¡± ¡°With Rachel staying at Redspring, we will be able to accomplish two objectives using the [Royal Guard] Slime to attack her at the end of the next month.¡± ¡°Oh. That thing. Lately, the Myths are really being unlucky.¡± ¡°Yes, after the slime attack, the relationship between Wizcalen and the Myths will become worse and we will discover if the Eternal Slime Queen is still alive or not. There is no way with her powers she won¡¯t know that her [Royal Guard] is receiving damage at another empire. So, even she appears all the objectives will be accomplished.¡± ¡°The higher-ups are amazing to think of this plan.¡± ¡°I am tired. I don¡¯t want to work for some time.¡± ¡°So what will you do?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s just activate the slime and schedule to it attack Redspring at the end of the next month. After it, we will immediately go back home.¡± ¡°Already?¡± ¡°Yes, I want to see my daughter to recover my mood.¡± ¡°I also want to do it,¡± Kuzo said. ¡°You have a daughter?¡± Shiro asked knowing that with Kuzo¡¯s age is not abnormal to already have a daughter. ¡°No, I am talking about your daughter,¡± Kuzo smirked. ¡°Kuzo!¡± Shiro shouted activating his Soul Skill. ¡°I will kill you!¡± Kuzo laughed as he evaded the attacks of his infuriated teacher. Rewrite Chapter 7: Easy Stupid Girl or E.S.G., Weight Loss Is The Dream The ¡®Sharing¡¯ of the [Evil Commune] has finally broken through the Bobnium walls of the cage of Evil????. It has accepted the sharing of thoughts and feelings. Because of the strength and depth of the Bobnium walls, Evil???? will have to make sacrifices and it will take time for it to connect to you. Time remaining: One month or thirty-three days and eleven hours. I forgot I have to deal with this, it has been more than ten years since I made a [Familiar Bond] with Layla. Alderam groaned like an animal as he raised his body off the soft bed that he for some reason is. My head is spinning, I shouldn¡¯t have raised myself so quick and¡­ my memory is fuzzy, what happened? He brought his right hand to his head to try to stop the spinning and then when he thought of raising his left hand too, he felt an empty response from it, making him look at his left side and discover that his left arm was completely gone. Ah, that happened. Well, I already saw Layla grow fingers so an arm should be possible too. When you have regenerative powers is kind of hard to care about missing members. But... where am I? Alderam looking up saw the most beautiful painting in his life. The technique, strokes, shapes and most importantly, the emotions portrayed are all above the first painting he saw in his life that made him gave up the path of a brawler and was also the spark of his lifetime dream. In the painting flying above his head, he could feel the angry emotions that the artist portrayed with the rising tides of an ocean together with the warming feeling of being loved because of the golden sun shining above everything else, Alderam could also¡­ This is beyond everything I know, how can such thing exist? I can feel this painting is the closest to my ideals, if the artist etched it on a metal and was also a mage¡­ my dream would be fulfilled. But why is it floating? ¡°Did you like my magnum opus in this ¡®world¡¯?¡± Toivo appeared from thin air in front of Alderam and made the painting disappear. ¡°The painting¡­¡± Alderam exclaimed in dismay almost crying for the change of his ideal painting to a middle-aged blue-haired man. ¡°What are you? A character of a comic strip from the fifties? I never thought I would hear in my whole life someone saying ¡®aaugh¡¯.¡± Toivo rubbed his forehead. ¡±Don¡¯t cry, I will show it again later.¡± Alderam in his joy of once again seeing the painting ignored Toivo''s nonsense commentary and asked the most important question when you wake up in a strange room with a floating painting. ¡±Is the painting''s name ¡®Magnum opus¡¯?¡± ¡°No, magnum opus means that painting was my greatest work and if anyone asks about me, they would first remember that painting rather than my other paintings.¡± Toivo pointed to Alderam. ¡±Shouldn¡¯t you be asking what happened to you and Layla?¡± ¡°Is Layla okay?¡± Alderam hurriedly asked. ¡°Before asking if you are cured of the poison, you are asking about the safety of an immortal ¡®monster¡¯ in the Material Realm? How stupid and naive you can be.¡± Toivo snickered. ¡±Since you are not going ask, let me explain to you what happened. Layla brought you and we cured you for a little price we will talk about later.¡± So without too much of Mana she was still capable of bringing me to these guys at the Dungeon¡¯s end, she deserves a praise later and is better to gather information with this man by going with the flow of everything he says, so¡­ ¡°Thank you for saving me.¡± Alderam bowed. ¡°And you are right. I am stupid and naive. There is no reason to worry about Layla, since our survival only depends on me-¡± Toivo¡¯s face contorted with rage and he spun his body to uppercut Alderam. The black-haired boy with his head bowed did not see the uppercut until was too late, making him take a step back because of the strength of the blow. Looking at his front, he perceived that Toivo was going to continue hitting him, so he thought of using [Mana Aura] to repel the attack and then kill the blue-haired man, but, he seems to be the reason I am still alive, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. Alderam raised his right hand and blocked Toivo¡¯s punch. He asked while holding Toivo¡¯s hand. ¡°What is the meaning of this?¡± The muscular man towering above Alderam only said. ¡±My bad.¡± ¡°My bad?¡± Alderam snapped. ¡±So why are you still increasing the Strength in your right arm?¡± Toivo had his usual eternal smug expression while Alderam continued. ¡±Are you going to explain the reason for this or not?¡± The blue-haired looked straight to Alderam. ¡°Layla did her best and didn¡¯t care about any pain to save you, and you talk about your survival only depending on yourself. Moreover, you even say that was stupid and naive to care about her safety.¡± He glared while using more Strength. ¡±I am sorry, but everything you do is so alike my first youth that I couldn¡¯t hold back and ended up hitting you. She almost died to save you, you little shit.¡± ¡°Died? If so, she would only-¡± ¡°I am talking about having her soul destroyed. She had to pray to Caelum by Uphion¡¯s orders to the Divine stabilize your health, because-¡± ¡°What did you just say?¡± Hatred began to brew inside of Alderam¡¯s heart and appear in his silvery white eyes while [Familiar Bond] activated. ¡±Layla had her soul what?¡± ¡°Good! These determined and wrathful eyes suit you more than that vacant eyes you had when you woke up.¡± Mana began to surge from Toivo¡¯s body. ¡±I am beginning to like you once again. You know, I have never liked passive people.¡± ¡°Enough of your chitchat!¡± Alderam activated [Mana Empowerment] through his whole body. ¡±What exactly happened to Layla? Answer me. If not, you will go meet the extinct Order God in the oblivion.¡± This is not the time to be feeling a d¨¦j¨¤ vu. I need to know what happened to Layla. ¡°Make me answer.¡± But before their argument could develop into a full fight, Toivo remarked. ¡±By the way, do you like Layla?¡± Alderam silently looked at the blue-haired man as if regarding him as the greatest fool in Fuderpsy and then deadpanned said. ¡±Of course I like her. Could be you are the real and only idiot here?¡± The surge of Mana in Toivo¡¯s body disappeared while Alderam felt the Strength in the blue-haired man¡¯s right arm lessening. ¡±Why only now you are being different from me? It is unfair to you be able to acknowledge so naturally you like her. It is a cheat! You can¡¯t go against my script.¡± Alderam feeling the hostility of Toivo disappearing, he let go of Toivo¡¯s arm while still maintaining [Mana Empowerment]. ¡±I don¡¯t know why you are comparing yourself to me, however, if I didn¡¯t like Layla would I at my last breaths try to revive her or ask about her safety when I woke up?¡± ¡°But, you.¡± Toivo trembling pointed to Alderam. ¡±Then why would you say that is stupid and naive to care about Layla or to not sacrifice yourself to her and-¡± This man really likes to point to the others. ¡°I only said in that way to agree with what you have said earlier, making easier to me gather information about what happened to me.¡± Alderam sighed. ¡±Don¡¯t you perceive that we are repeating ourselves and everything you did was contradictory with what you just said? Could be you have more memory problems than I have?¡± Toivo gasped in disbelief while shaking. Alderam rubbed his forehead. ¡°If you are worried about Layla¡¯s mental health, don¡¯t worry I will try not to make her always a meatshield.¡± He grimly said. ¡±It is revolting to me say this, but if Layla dies in some attack protecting me or for inattention, I can¡¯t risk myself to save her. If she dies, she will suffer a lot but because of her death there will be a hope of me surviving the enemy''s attack and encounter with her once again.¡± ¡°What if in the future she dies so many times that you would stop caring about the pain she feels when dying and because of it you would always send her on suicidal missions?¡± The blue-haired man asked. ¡°This situation is highly probable considering the type of person I am. Because Layla¡¯s death is not the end of our relationship, but if I die, it will be the end of everything. So in the end, I would harden my heart and send her in these ¡®suicidal missions¡¯. But if I ended like that I would pretty disappointed in myself for not gathering power enough to this situation never happen.¡± Toivo¡¯s expression became gentle. ¡±So that is your determination? To forgo your humanity if necessary to receive power enough to Layla never need to sacrifice herself again?¡± What is the problem with this man? He is putting words in my mouth and trying to make me look like a good person by twisting my logic. ¡°Don¡¯t call what I am going to do of such beautiful thing as determination. I am just using Layla to protect me until I kill that Devil and Alastor.¡± ¡°It seems I can¡¯t judge you based on my own standards.¡± The blue-haired man turned to the door at the front of Alderam. ¡±Layla is safe. She will be here in some minutes, come down to eat something, you have been unconscious for two days.¡± With Toivo turning to the door with his back to Alderam, the black-haired boy felt relieved at knowing Layla is safe, however, he began to notice how strange was his conversation with Toivo. Why did he repeat himself so many times and show inconsistencies in his actions and words? It was then that Alderam¡¯s confusion and head spinning stopped. He became wide-eyed and perceived more important points in his conversation with the blue-haired man. Why was I so honest while talking to him? It is not normal to me talk so much about myself and Layla with a man that self-claimed curing me. Was I drugged? Wait a moment. The blue-haired man regarded Layla as ¡®immortal monster¡¯ and he said something about Caelum and the Gif- Alderam instinctively created five Water Balls to kill Toivo, this man knows Layla is a Devil and has the Gift! He can not be allowed to leave this room alive. Toivo continued to walk to the door as if not noticing the disturbance in the room¡¯s Mana. When Alderam was close to launching the Water Balls, for the first time in his life he heard his conscience saying something. ¡¯Do not kill him.¡¯ His conscience took Layla¡¯s form and appeared between him and Toivo. *Don¡¯t-* Fuck you! Where were you when I killed the boys bullying Rhigon or when I was testing my dagger techniques in Naturals without members or when I was ordered to kill trait- *No, no, no. Bitch, please.* The conscience shook Layla¡¯s fingers to the sides. What? *It was not my fault you did all these things without any scruples, I didn¡¯t even exist at that time.* So why did you appear now that I am going to kill a middle-aged man? *I was created after you met Layla and obtained the title [The One Beyond Insanity].* Hmm¡­ okay. I will accept your excuses for now. So tell me the reason to not kill this man. *Phew. I am kind of new to being a conscience so I was worried you wouldn¡¯t hear me.* Just fucking go on. *Sheesh, calm down.* The conscience coughed while Alderam perceived that the world was so slow that Toivo¡¯s foot was still suspended in the air moving to the door. *Remember the vow you made to Layla?¡¯ Vow? Be more specific, I have at least three vows with Layla, you can¡¯t expect me to remember them all the time with my bad memory. The conscience groaned like an animal in the same way Alderam did when waking up. *I am talking about the one you won¡¯t cross the line and kill innocents or do really bad things, remember?* Oh. I remember now, but how is this middle-aged man innocent? He knows Layla¡¯s secrets. *Did you try to thought why he know it or why you and Layla are still alive after he discovered it?* Well¡­ Alderam became flustered. *You didn¡¯t, right?* Okay, it is your win. Continue with the explanation. *After knowing everything he still hasn¡¯t reported you and Layla or killed you while being unconscious, so he can be regarded as a friend even though you and he had fought. Then killing him is crossing the line, so you will not kill him.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. *Repeat with me. I will not kill him.* I will not kill him. *Repeat again.* The conscience in Layla¡¯s form smirked. Don¡¯t over push it. I already got your point. The conscience shrugged. *When you see Layla try to be gentle, her screams were too horrible, it still frightens me until today.* The conscience shivered. What are you talking about? Aren¡¯t you supposed to be my conscience? How do you know something I don¡¯t? *Your brain doesn¡¯t stop working just because you are sleeping. Although I couldn¡¯t ¡®see¡¯ what happened, I heard everything. I even know somethings of the past that you don¡¯t remember or saw.* It opened its arms. *Do you want to know the true reason to why you have a bad memory and a twisted mind or how it was possible for you not creating something so natural as a conscience?* You got my interest. Spill it out. *All these things are all your parents¡¯ fault.* The conscience shouted with hatred possible to be felt from its tone of voice. Eh? Are you not mistaken? My family before Alastor¡¯s body- *I am not mistaken. In short, the reason you have a bad memory and a perturbed mind wasn¡¯t just because of the experiments, it got worse when Alastor stopped to try to diminish the side-effects and still hit you almost every day.* So- *I did not end!* The conscience shouted so loud that its Layla¡¯s form began to undo. It huffed and recomposed itself. *Sorry for the outburst.* ...Okay. It must be not easy being a conscience of someone like me. Alderam backed off a little. *Thank you for your understanding. It becomes hard to calm myself when I remember your mother and brother.* Brother? *It¡¯s a story for another time. Because of your family¡¯s actions, principally your mother¡¯s ones, it became impossible for you have a recuperation and you ¡®decayed¡¯ enough to not even create a conscience.* Hey. My mother- *Shut up, Mama¡¯s boy* It howled. *You haven¡¯t become a complete serial killer because of Rhigon. If she didn¡¯t exist you would be right now killing anything that moves within your radius of vision. And you only began to question yourself after meeting that painting and [Illusionist], if not, you wouldn¡¯t be capable of considering Layla a friend. So don¡¯t dare to talk good about your mother in my fucking presence.* Calm down, I won¡¯t say anything more about my mother when talking with you, are you happy? Alderam tried to gently appease his conscience while feeling that the roles have inverted. *Sorry, I won¡¯t shout anymore in this session.* It for some time took deep breaths to calm itself. *The time is ending because of my consecutive outbursts, do you have any other questions?* I have many, but the principal is how did you take Layla¡¯s form and appeared at the front of me while slowing down the world? I don¡¯t think is that what happens when someone has a conscience. *Hmm¡­ it was probably because of the title [The One Beyond Insanity] and your high Willpower. Remember that Layla¡¯s Gift said that Willpower raises the power of ¡®Images¡¯ and the title increase the effects of Willpower ¡®abilities¡¯. If I am not an ¡®Image¡¯, I don¡¯t know what I am. *And the slowing down¡­ who knows? Don¡¯t you think talking with your conscience in this way shows how crazy you are and the title just made the things crazier?* I will never understand that title, it makes no sense. How someone is above insanity? *I didn¡¯t completely understand either. This seems like some bullshit someone invented to not have to think too much about the title.* But why did you take Layla¡¯s form? *I didn¡¯t choose this form. You instinctively choose Layla¡¯s form because you knew Layla would be the only one you would obey to not kill Toivo. You didn¡¯t choose your mother¡¯s form to calm you down, but of a woman from another Race that you considers useless in most of the situations, don¡¯t you think it means something?* I- *Sorry, the time ended. I will meet you again when you think of murdering someone. Why do I think it wouldn¡¯t take too long to it happen? *Bye.* Coming back to the real world, Alderam made his Water Balls disappear and followed Toivo while still maintaining [Mana Empowerment], never hurts to be a little careful. ¡°I am glad you, in the end, is completely different from me. This choice you just made I will make certain you won¡¯t regret it. How I regret not making that choice in my first youth.¡± Toivo muttered. ¡°What did you say?¡± Alderam asked while following Toivo to a hidden door on the first floor of the store. Is this place I am a general store? It¡¯s full of shelves filled with miscellaneous items. ¡°I said, I am sorry for giving you a test when you just woke up.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Alderam frowned. ¡°I was so inconsistent in our conversation to see your response to my words and actions. I used my painting to make you at the start have a favorable impression of me and Baru has used a truth pill in you to make you answer every question I made with honesty. Although I was surprised with how naturally you answered some questions.¡± Toivo laughed. ¡°Baru? And wait... why did you give me a test?¡± ¡°Baruchard is the name of my husband. The test I will explain after you eat the breakfast. And since you haven¡¯t asked, I have repeated your words to make certain Baru and Layla had heard them on the floor above ours.¡± ¡°Layla is above me?¡± Alderam after Toivo finished talking, used the [Bond] and felt Layla above him, although her presence was different. ¡°Why couldn¡¯t I sense her there before? We have a [Fammiliar Bond], so it shouldn¡¯t be possible.¡± ¡°I forgot to say to you, but I have used a special pill that messes with your senses, why do you think your head was spinning?¡± ¡°I have thought I had raised myself too quick, so-¡± ¡°You confused the effects of a super expensive pill with-¡± Toivo couldn¡¯t hold back his laughter. ¡°Don¡¯t laugh. It is completely normal to me thought that. When I normally woke up, the spinning sometimes is even worse.¡± *Hahaha* His conscience laughed even louder than Toivo while actually saying the words ¡®hahaha¡¯. Hey, shouldn¡¯t you appear when I am about to killing someone? Stop laughing! *Sorry, I couldn¡¯t hold back. Because-HAHAHA.* I just¡­ whatever, I don¡¯t care anymore. Alderam ignored Toivo and his conscience¡¯s laughters to make himself feel better. After some more laughs, the blue-haired man opened a red door behind the store¡¯s counter. In Alderam¡¯s vision, an enormous room appeared, full of chairs and one gigantic table. On the table, there were all the types of Natural¡¯s meat roasted, fruits he never saw, bread and apple juice. ¡°Layla should arrive when you finish eating. I will explain everything after it.¡± Toivo said sitting on a chair and motioning to Alderam do the same while already eating the breakfast. Alderam savored the food while trying to see if he could make them better with his [Cooking] Lvl 4. Tired of waiting for Layla and already satisfied, he asked where the bathroom is. ¡°It is behind me, just go straight and you will find it.¡± After walking through the long corridor and relieving himself, he noted, strange, this room is too huge to be behind a general store. Alderam sat again on the chair and had an idle talk with Toivo until the red door opened. ¡°Heavy.¡± A blond Dogfolk with an also blond man with brown complexion shouted, carrying Layla and placing her at the side of the door. Alderam hurried to her side, seeing how weak and skinny she was. It was possible to see even the bones. ¡°Ald, I am happy¡­ you have woken up.¡± She weakly said. ¡°Why are you so weak?¡± ¡°It seems I am more dependent on your food than I have thought. I became like this after hunting Naturals yesterday.¡± She sweetly laughed. I am not comfortable with showing all my cards, but this an emergency. She is so weak in my arms that I feel if I am not careful she would crumble with just my touch. Alderam took all the food from the [Black Soul] and made Layla eat everything. ¡°Give me in the mouth. I am weak.¡± Layla opened her mouth. Alderam abided by her wishes, however, even after eating all the food in the [Black Soul], Layla still continued weak and hungry. ¡°I will use all your food.¡± He said to Toivo, the blond man and the Dogfolk he ignored after Layla appeared. ¡°Okay.¡± They said with their eyes widened at the display of Layla eating so much food that appeared from thin air. ¡°So this is why she was so fat earlier, but is she so heavy even starving?¡± The Dogfolk wondered. ¡°I can¡¯t feel a Space Item, how did he make the food appear and why this food seems so creepy to me?¡± The blond man shivered. ¡°This makes the things more interesting, don¡¯t you think?¡± Toivo said. ¡°It is unfair to you steal my normal lines.¡± Ignoring the men, Alderam used Black Elementals to taint all the food on the enormous table. ¡°I want to see if you will be able of eating all this food,¡± Alderam remarked. ¡°It is actually easier than you think,¡± Layla smirked after eating a third of the food and recovering some strength. Looking at Layla devour almost all the food on the table made Alderam finally perceive how different she became. Layla¡¯s wings grew and became darkish purple while her eyes now have violet vertical pupils and changed colors. And she seems to be more confident and elegant, although still chubby because of all the food she ate just now. ¡°Nice to properly meet you, Alderam. My name is Baruchard and I cured the venom in your body. Before you ask, I know your name because Toivo and I have [Appraisal].¡± The blond man with a normal white vest said. ¡°And the Dogfolk¡¯s name is Yunan, he doesn¡¯t talk much but is a good guy and is currently dating Morgiana, she is a Foxfolk you will meet after she and Berk, my nephew, come back from hunting.¡± ¡°Thank you for saving me, Mister Baruchard. Can you tell what happened while I was unconscious?¡± ¡°Of course-¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Layla said after finishing all the food on the table. ¡±I and Alderam need to have a little talk first.¡± She confidently raised off the chair and motioned to Alderam stand at her front. *She didn¡¯t call him Ald, she is going to do it. She finally found the loophole in one of the effects of the [Familliar Bond], if she really does what I am thinking, her position in my heart will raise. Go. Become the Action Girl! Although that is probably impossible as you are still useless and really meek when not under pressure.* What the- ¡°Alderam, concentrate on me,¡± Layla said interrupting Alderam¡¯s thoughts. ¡°You have high Constitution and seems to be using [Mana Empowerment], so you wouldn''t be harmed with the hit of someone with four of Strength, right?¡± ¡°Yes-¡± Alderam stupidly said. Layla quickly raised her right hand and slapped Alderam. Just as Layla said, Alderam hasn¡¯t been harmed by the slap and he remembered one effect of the [Familiar Bond] with its clear loophole in Layla¡¯s subordinate side. You can¡¯t consciously harm your Master Bond. The word ¡®bond¡¯ isn¡¯t in brackets, so it can be interpreted as the ability itself or myself and since I am not ¡®harmed¡¯, therefore she can slap me. But¡­ why am I feeling so hurt by it? ¡°Never again use your body to protect me,¡± Layla shouted while weeping. ¡°Do you know how worried I was when I saw your body being raised in the air by that hateful stinger? Or when you decided to fight instead of feeling just because of my corporeal body?¡± She embraced Alderam while never stopping crying. ¡±Did you think I would be happy by your protection? I never in my life became so confused and angry at the same time. Ald, I am kind of immortal, so you don¡¯t need to worry about me. Even if I had to be stuck in your [Black Soul] for an eternity without a body I wouldn¡¯t care if you were still alive and capable of reviving me.¡± Alderam looked at her deep and large eyes spilling tears without stopping, and all his confusion and hard feelings about being slapped disappeared. ¡°I am sorry for being so reckless, Layla. You are the only thing remaining I have, even my birthday sword got destroyed, at that moment I just couldn¡¯t bear seeing you dying with me incapable to do anything. I think mother¡¯s death still haunts me and this manipulated my decision.¡± Since when Layla is so ¡®assertive¡¯? She never has truly questioned my actions. *Disappointed. I was expecting something more brutal. Well, I will take it as ¡®baby steps¡¯. Layla, I have faith you will one day become the Action Girl. No matter how much time takes, I''ll be rooting for you.* Alderam¡¯s conscience pumped its fists in the air to cheer Layla. Soon enough Layla calmed down and Berk together with Morgiana arrived from their hunting. Everybody sat on the available chairs and Baruchard explained what happened with the Dungeon thanks to Layla¡¯s inputs about Uphion. Half-Eldling? Well, it seems our journey to Free Cities became even more necessary. However, to make the painting become alive¡­ it is really closing to my ideals, despite going in an alternative way. And Layla is becoming the apprentice of mister Baruchard, so should I try with mister Toivo? We started really bad, but I will at least try. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going anywhere without an arm anyway. ¡°But why did Layla become so frail and weak? She was only like that when she went more than two hundred years without eating.¡± Alderam said. ¡°I also don¡¯t know, yesterday I was so excited to have the second lesson with my disciple, but after killing Naturals she appeared like that at our front. She said if you woke up everything would be okay, so I accelerated the effect of my pills in your body and unintentionally removed your entire left arm.¡± Baruchard said with a smile. How did you unintentionally remove an arm? ¡°Glupuh. I will explain.¡±Layla said, making a strange sound. ¡°Devils have some kind of Sin. In my case I have Gluttony. And after becoming a Half-Eldling, the effect of abstaining of it together with [Black Coating] seems to become even worse. So from now on if I stay more than one day without eating I become like that.¡± ¡°I will try to remember it and put it besides all the other needs you have as a Devil, no, as a Half-Eldling now,¡± Alderam said. Berk wanted to talk about Layla and Alderam entering his group and now seemed like the best opportunity so tried a small talk to ¡®soft¡¯ Alderam for his request. ¡°You know one my habits and main hobby is to write everything about the places I go, principally about the people that live there and their relationship.¡± Berk took out a notepad and pen from his royal ring that immensely surprised Alderam. Is he an Imperial Prince? No wonder he is a mercenary, male royal descendants don¡¯t have any kind of right, don¡¯t serve as bargaining chips and staying at the capital will just make them realize how bad their lives are. ¡°So I want to know more about you that lived in a Frontier Village, like for example, what¡¯s your real relationship with Layla? It can¡¯t be just friends, right? I¡¯ve seen many relationships and I can practically smell ¡®love¡¯ from both of you.¡± Berk holding his notepad meddled in Alderam¡¯s private space, eager to record everything Alderam say. ¡°I I like her,¡± Alderam said as Layla got red and embarrassed. ¡°Just like? Are you sure there isn¡¯t anything more than that?¡± Berk insisted, already neglecting his original objective by feeling his curiosity grow thanks to Layla¡¯s reaction. Alderam tilted his head to the sides. ¡°I probably love her, I guess. If not, I can¡¯t explain my previous actions in the Dungeon.¡± But am I someone that is capable of easily overcoming my previous girlfriend¡¯s death and moving on? It has been more or less only three days, if I can overcome Rhigon so easily, did I really love her to begin with? The room was silent with exception of Layla erratically moving her arms around in surprise and happiness, and all of them just wondered one thing. How can this man say that with a straight face and almost no emotions visible in his face? ¡°I¡¯m not dense, so I know Layla loves me although I don¡¯t know the reason. I just never cared about it. I mean, it¡¯s just love, right? Not a necessary emotion to survive but good enough to appreciate it sometimes as I did with Rhigon. But unfortunately, I don¡¯t feel any lust looking at Layla or the need to make it a ¡®real relationship¡¯. If she wants to become something like my girlfriend, I will accept it but not be particularly happy or eager about it.¡± Alderam looked at Layla and saw her face deep in happiness. ¡°What? Do you really want now to become my girlfriend? If you want it, I don¡¯t see any reason to recuse you but also I don¡¯t see a reason to be happy about it.¡± ¡°Yes, please!¡± Layla shouted with determination in her face to make Alderam one day actually want to be with her, she could see seeds of doubt within Alderam and wanted to make use of it. ¡°Be warned though I¡¯m not a romantic guy so don¡¯t expect me to show too much affection to you day-by-day or even take you to a date,¡± Alderam said and Layla visibly deflated as she received the grim news. ¡°...You guys are really a weird couple, I will be sure to note it down.¡± Berk was scared at Alderam¡¯s capacity of saying such things with a straight face and so expertly destroying a maiden¡¯s dreams, everyone else than Alderam and Layla also wondered if they actually know what love is or about a girlfriend/boyfriend¡¯s normal ways of acting. But Layla looked so eager that they couldn¡¯t bring themselves up to tell her the truth that she isn¡¯t likely to be the actual girlfriend of such emotional broken man like Alderam who doesn¡¯t really love her. Familiar Bond (Rare) is now Level 5 and Ranked Up: [You¡¯ve passed the barrier of Lvl 4 and Uncommon rarity. The bonus to your Attributes will be exponentially increased and now permanent no mattering if your Bond is close or not thanks to the powerful relationship you both share.] So the Ability can also be increased in this way? Good to know, I will try to indulge a little in her fantasies to make it grow. Laylasoderscim is now Rank G. Oh, convenient.