《Fallen》 Chapter 1: Death ¡°Where were you?¡± A joyful and warm voice asked the white-robed person coming from a space crack. ¡°I prevented the worst from happening. There was a new soul in the cycle of reincarnation¡­ And it had an abnormal amount of divine power¡­¡± The white-robed person answered with a cold voice. ¡°Isn¡¯t it good? It might be a possible suitor for you, right?¡± ¡°It would have been the case if there was only that¡­ The soul had the imprint of the fallen.¡± ¡°¡­ What did you do then?¡± The joyfulness disappeared the other person heard the white clothed one¡¯s words, only deep hatred could be felt. ¡°I took it all. All its divine power. I left nothing, it should be glad that I didn¡¯t obliterate him on the spot.¡± ¡°You should have. Where is it?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t. If you do this, Mother will punish you this time. And I won¡¯t be able to help you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to destroy it. Just curse it, nothing much.¡± ¡°Oh, then I don¡¯t mind. If you go to the cycle site, you just have to look for a soul without divine power, shouldn¡¯t be too hard.¡± The white-clothed person looked at his sibling disappearing in a space crack, a wicked smile planted on his face. She didn¡¯t know how a mortal soul could bear the mark of her fallen brother, and it was complete luck that she had been able to see him. She wasn¡¯t supposed to pass by the cycle site now since she had been there recently looking for a potential soul who could be her chosen, but her instinct told her that she would find something interesting. And she did, but not in the way she wanted. A soul able to hold this much power couldn¡¯t be found anywhere. Unless it was created for this sole reason. However, if that were to be the truth, then it would mean that her father finally decided to partake in their business. Black lines appeared on her forehead. Her whole body trembled with fear and excitement. If he acts, I¡¯ll have some clues on how to find a way to reach Ascension! And I will finally be able to make it happen! But¡­ Facing father, this is not going to be easy¡­ However, since I made the vassal powerless, I wonder what he¡¯ll do next. After pondering for a while, the white-clothed woman shook her head helplessly and left in a space crack, a faint smile on her face and determination in her eyes. // 30 years later ¡°You¡¯re doing great madam! It¡¯s nearly done! One last effort!¡± A brown-robed woman tried to encourage the lady lying in the bed. The baby was nearly out. And after few more push from the future mother, cries could be heard in the room. The father who has been waiting outside entered the room, anxiousness could be felt all over his body. His wife was giving birth for her first time, and for many women, this could also be her last. When he saw the weak looking woman giving him a faint smile filled with joy on the bed, the fear in his heart greatly diminished. After bathing the newborn baby, the nurse brought it to its father. The couple had a son. Holding the baby, the father couldn¡¯t help but let out a small sigh of relief. He wouldn¡¯t reject the baby if it was a girl, but, they were commoners, and he couldn¡¯t let his daughter take over his job. As a hunter, there were many things which he found not suitable for girls. Though there were some in his profession, they lost most of their ¡®girly¡¯ nature in the process. He shuddered just thinking about a possible daughter of his ending up like this. ¡°How should we name him dear?¡± The man faced his wife and put their son in her arms. She lightly stroke the baby hair and rubbed his chin. She was so happy and tired at the same time that her body felt a bit funny. She closed her eyes for a while, thinking of something, then opened them again and looked at her husband. ¡°I think¡­ We should name him Luc¡­ What do you think?¡± ¡°Luc¡­ Yeah, I like that name.¡± Then the mother looked at her son with a loving gaze and gently touched his nose. ¡°From today onward, your name will be Luc Asfer, little thing.¡± After enjoying the presence of her baby for a while she handed him over to the nurse and went to sleep. The last hours had put a strain on her body that she couldn¡¯t ignore anymore. The father left the room and was called by a nurse to go to the office of the head nurse. His body became stiff. There was something wrong. Unless something important happened, the head nurse would rarely ask for a private talk with one of the parent. Wearing a gloomy expression, the father followed the nurse to the head nurse¡¯s office. ¡°Excuse me. Mr. Asfer is here.¡± ¡°Oh, let him enter.¡± Afterward, the Luc¡¯s father entered the office. The head nurse offered him a seat and something to drink as a courtesy. ¡°I won¡¯t beat around the bush Mr. Asfer, your wife condition is very strange and quite problematic. Her insides have been thoroughly perturbed by the delivery. She will probably suffer from multiple periods of extreme pain from now on but she will be able to live. I can only recommend you to get some pain reducing potions¡­ Of course, it goes without saying that she can¡¯t give birth from now on¡­ If she were to fall pregnant again, it will be necessary to terminate the pregnancy. She has 95% chance of dying if she were to give birth to another child.¡± Each of those words sounded like a death sentence for Luc¡¯s father. His wife was in such a predicament. He knew that he wasn¡¯t called for anything good, but he didn¡¯t expect this. She has already suffered so much and you¡¯re telling me that this is only the beginning?! ¡°Is there any way for her to recover? There¡¯s got to be something we can do for her right?!¡± The head nurse looked straight at his eyes, before shutting her eyes and leaning on her seat. ¡°Only a grade 3 healing magic can help her. At the very least. Even her mana and divine power are chaotic in her body. Her mana will stabilize with time, but I have high doubt for her divine power.¡± Luc¡¯s father body trembled. Grade 3 healing magic. This wasn¡¯t something he could afford even if he were to work for a lifetime. And the most important problem was to manage to find someone to heal his wife. Someone who could do execute grade 3 healing spell couldn¡¯t roam free in this world. He would have a high standing in his church and someone like him couldn¡¯t even think of talking to this kind of person, let alone ask them for help. Seeing the depressed look of the man in front of her, the head nurse let out a sigh. This matter wasn¡¯t easy for her too. The reason she strived that hard in her life to obtain this position, was to help people in need with her magic. But, in this situation, she was completely helpless. ¡°I think it¡¯s better if you get some sleep. It¡¯s late and worrying about this won¡¯t help you. You have another mouth to feed, now is not the time to fall in depression.¡± At those words, Luc¡¯s father gave her a somewhat wry smile. After asking some questions about where he could find the best and cheapest pain reducing potion, he left the head nurse¡¯s office and went outside to take a bath of fresh air. The chilly air penetrated his clothes and cooled down his body. His mind started to become clearer and his breathing slower. There really is no fairness in this world¡­ A tear flowed down his cheek. With this tear, everything he had hoped for disappeared, and nothing but the cruel reality remained. 1 years after. ¡°How was the hunt today honey?¡± ¡°Not good.¡± Luc¡¯s father, whose name is Gale, hunted low-level animals for their skin and meat in order to trade what they had in surplus for some money. But since a year, each time he went out to hunt, he could barely detect anything and all his traps were still intact. ¡°This is really incomprehensible. The other hunters don¡¯t seem to face the same problem, it¡¯s like I¡¯m really the unlucky one here.¡± ¡°It¡¯s going to be fine. In the worst case, I can just offer my help to clean some clothes and earn some bronze coins.¡± ¡°No! You¡­ I mean, your body just stabilized a bit recently. I don¡¯t want you to face any more trouble. You can already hardly sleep at night with the potions, I won¡¯t let you work in that condition. Final word.¡± ¡°Honey¡­ You know¡­ I feel a lot better recently, maybe it¡¯ll be fine to not buy any more potions than this. Our saving won¡¯t last more than two years at this rate. And Luc will be 3 years old at that time. We can¡¯t let him face any trouble while he is still so young.¡± Gale looked at his lovely wife Miranda, her long and silky black hair and bright blue eyes made her look enchanting. However, her pale face and skinny body showed that her body was not in its best condition. Each night her body will tremble unconditionally due to her mana and divine power wreaking havoc in her body and would cry out of pain. The pain reducing potion couldn¡¯t even let her sleep, they also needed to use sleeping pills normally used on beasts to calm her down. However, recently the rate of those painful moments reduced greatly and only happened once every two days and the pain reducing potions were enough to calm her down. They consulted the head nurse again at that time and she told them that Miranda¡¯s mana finally stabilized but she shouldn¡¯t use it too much just in case it could go wrong again. ¡°Please¡­ Miranda, listen to me. I¡¯ll figure something out by the end of next year. I promise.¡± She looked at him, deep concern in her eyes, before opening her arms and gently hugging him. ¡°I¡¯ll trust you¡­ But¡­ I am afraid for Luc¡­¡± ¡°I know. Speaking of him, where is he?¡± She pointed at the small bed at the corner of the living room where a small black haired boy could be seen, sleeping on sucking on his thumb. ¡°He is so cute.¡± Miranda''s voice was like a warm breeze to Gale¡¯s heart. A smile grew on his face with his wife between his arm and his son sleeping soundly on his bed. Their family wasn¡¯t poor but wasn¡¯t well off too. Their wooden house was close to the forest due to Gale¡¯s job and only had three rooms. Their bedroom, the kitchen and the living room. They thought about making it bigger but Gale didn¡¯t see any problem with Luc sleeping in the living room as long as he can sleep a whole night without waking them up. However, those days came faster than expected. After only a few months, he could already pass the night without crying. This clearly helped them a lot, since Miranda couldn¡¯t move too much due to her injuries, Gale had to take care of him day and night in addition to his job before that. ¡°How can he not be cute? Isn¡¯t he your son? He is as lovely as his mother.¡± ¡°I guess, and he isn¡¯t mischievous like his father.¡± ¡°What are you implying? I was a very calm kid when I was young.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what your mother told me¡­¡± Giving him a faint smile, she arranged his messy hair and gave him a light kiss on his lips. ¡°She told me that you were very bad. And, I also heard about a young boy trying to impress his big sister by showing her his 3 years old body.¡± ¡°What the¡­ Did she tell you about that? I¡­ It wasn¡¯t my fault! Celie was mocking me at that time, saying that I didn¡¯t have any muscle unlike father and¡­ I tried to show her that they were slowly forming¡­ Ahem anyway, this is in the past and I was a stupid kid, I didn¡¯t know what I was doing.¡± Gale diverted his eyes from Miranda¡¯s amused face. She is clearly enjoying this. She started to laugh at her husband shyness before coughing violently. Seeing his wife cough again, Gale hugged more tightly. His heart was sour from this helpless situation she was facing. When she calmed down, her face wore a pained expression while she was looking at Luc. ¡°Dear¡­ I wonder if Luc will be alright without any sibling¡­ I mean I can¡¯t imagine how my childhood would have been without my brothers and sisters¡­¡± ¡°We can¡¯t. What good will a sibling do for him if he loses his mother in the process?¡± Hanging her head down and biting her lips, Miranda¡¯s body began to tremble a little. Something hot coming out of her eyes fell on Gale¡¯s hand. The latter embraced her even tighter, trying to help her uphold the pain in her heart. Meanwhile, the ¡®sleeping¡¯ Luc was wide awake. He was simply in the most comfortable position for him while having his eyes closed. Since he was born, he could understand each and every word his parents and those around them spoke and the meaning behind them. He knew that his mother was suffering greatly since his birth and often found his father being depressed about it. But, something was bothering him. Each time he saw them in pain or in joy, he just couldn¡¯t understand. He wanted to ask them some questions, but something prevented him from doing so. What are they feeling? My father said that his heart was hurting him each time mother suffered at night, and mother said that I was the light which soothed her world, but I just don¡¯t get it. I have never felt any of those things. 5 years after, Luc was 6 years old. 6 years old was a very important age in Magnolia. At 6 years old, children will go to the nearby church and will get analyzed by a priest with the power of divination. This power could identify a person¡¯s blessing and his rank. Depending on someone¡¯s blessing, his growth when he will start to level up will be different and the rank of his blessing qualified the speed of his growth. Starting from Low-rank type of blessing to Chosen rank. A level 60 Low rank with a blessing from the god of Control could be said to be equivalent as a lv. 30 middle-rank blessing. And a level 60 Middle-rank blessing can be compared to a level 20 High-rank blessing. However, a Chosen was different. The fact that only one Chosen could exist for each god made them considered as divine beings. Their growth was abnormal. However, a Chosen can only have one blessing while others could have multiple blessing with a maximum of three, though they were rare. 2 blessings couldn¡¯t have the same rank within the same soul. Things worked that way in order for the blessed one to know which god was the more favorable to him. Furthermore, starting 6 years old, someone could finally have access to his status page and will notification from the System. The System was said to be created by the father of all the gods. It was something which was outside of the gods¡¯ range of power. No one could interfere with it unless its power could surpass its creator. However, since the creator was absolute, the System was also absolute. Luc followed his two parents to the caravan which will head toward the closest town with a church and a priest capable of divination, Velis. Since the journey would last for few hours and they weren¡¯t the only one who needed to go there, their village head organized a day for everyone who needed to go to Velis for a divination. There were already some people waiting inside the caravan. Inside, there were mainly mothers and their child. Fathers would usually stay behind since they had to take care of the fields or guard the village. However, Gale had to accompany them. His wife¡¯s condition was one reason. It would be unwise to let her travel alone in that state, and leaving her home alone wasn¡¯t an option either for him. Since three years ago, their situation started to worsen. Gale had to do some extra job in order gain enough money for his family since he had a hard time catching any preys recently. His body grew older quickly and he already started to see some white hair among his light brown hair at 27 years old. This made Miranda extremely worried for him. She was afraid that he¡¯d die from overextending himself and offered again to work a little to cover some funds. However, her condition hadn¡¯t improved at all so Gale was adamant in his first decision. However, this was the least of their problems. The real problem was Luc. When he was able to speak and walk at around 2 years old, they tried to make him play with other children in the village, but it didn¡¯t work out well. Since Luc was born, they noticed that his facial expression would never change, in any situation. They never saw him cry or laugh happily like other children. When he came back with a bloody forehead at home his expression was the same, those big eyes looking at you and wondering what happened. Once Luc helped a little girl to get some fruits in the forest, despite being forbidden from entering it. At the evening of the same day, when Miranda asked Luc how was his day, he just told her everything. That a girl asked for his help, and he just did. Miranda lectured him for a whole hour about that, thinking that Luc tried to get the little girl¡¯s favor. The next day she wanted to fetch Luc at their playing ground and have a talk with the little girl¡¯s mother at the same time, however when she arrived, she only saw him being left in a corner, beaten up. She nearly broke down on the spot and asked the parent of each child an explication. However, the mother of the little girl came at her and angrily said that Luc tried to poison her daughter. To this Miranda coldly snorted and only said that if she hadn¡¯t asked her son to look for some fruit for her in the forest she would have been fine, after that she left leaving a fuming mother on her spot. After this incident, a rumor like Luc would be a cursed child started to spread in the village. At first, it didn¡¯t really matter as it was only a rumor. However, as time passed, people started to notice that the boy was different. He was emotionless. Happiness, pain, joy, sadness, or any other emotion couldn¡¯t be expressed by the boy. This got amplified by the fact that their family was in a dire situation due to Gale suddenly being unable to hunt as much as before and Miranda¡¯s sickness. By the time he turned 4 years old, their entire family was ostracized. Some would still trade with Gale but would make it hard for him by buying everything he sold cheap and selling what they owned. However, some of Gale¡¯s friends were still friendly to them and would often help him when he was in need. But, things escalated last year when someone threw a stone at Miranda. Gale nearly shot the man to death when he heard about it, and the village needed to interfere otherwise someone really might had ended up dead. Since then, Miranda and Luc would stay home or not far from it and Gale would accompany them each time they wanted to go out for a little excursion. However, Gale was feeling uneasy in his heart. Their child is really emotionless. Miranda told him that whatever he is, he would still be their child and she couldn¡¯t understand why he will worry about it, the fact that he was different didn¡¯t mean that it was his fault. Gale could only accept her words, not because he was forced, but imagining that his son was the cause he had a hard time hunting was a ridiculous idea for him. Miranda¡¯s sickness might be related to his condition but in any case, it couldn¡¯t be his fault. Thus, with the rumor about Luc being a cursed child, making him travel with his mom alone was something Gale couldn¡¯t agree to. However, they were given a horse as many families refused to travel with them inside the caravan. Gale didn¡¯t see any problems with it, he was more concerned about what type of blessing his son would receive. He hoped that he would receive Desolation¡¯s blessing, which would help him. Since he planned to teach him how to use a bow and hunt after this trip, if he had the same blessing as him, he could endure the same training he did. Though, if he had Control¡¯s blessing like his mother, it wouldn¡¯t be too bad for a hunter too. He would just need to adapt his training with his growth. The journey to Velis went with less trouble than everyone thought. The town was close to the village but a bandit attack wasn¡¯t something which couldn¡¯t happen. And since there were few men with the traveling group, if some bandit found them, this many women and children could sell well as slaves in other countries which allowed human slaves like Baflor or Walpure. These two empires viewed human as livestock, Walpure in particular. Being mainly inhabited by vampires, they had a thing for human¡¯s blood. Thus, it wasn¡¯t uncommon for bandits to appear on well-known traveling road and plunder everything they could from travelers be it their belongings or their freedom. The caravan arrived at Velis by the sunset. Since this type of thing wasn¡¯t uncommon, they passed the security after filling the normal procedures and were provided with a place to stay for the night. They were supposed to leave after finishing their business with the church, and if they desired to stay for a longer period they needed to pay a fee. For that many people, the fee would be way over what they could afford.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. After parking everything to a designed place by the guards, their group was lead to a simple accommodation. However, when they got there, Luc¡¯s family was forced to find another lodging. The reason was the same. ¡°We won¡¯t live under the same roof as this cursed child! Throw him out and we can discuss that!¡± One of the women said in a fierce tone. And many nodded their head in approval. Gale gritted his teeth while Miranda was covering Luc¡¯s ears. The latter was still facing the disgusted gaze of the crowd of women and children with his usually calm face. The woman who spoke was the little girl¡¯s mother. She clearly knew that Gale and Miranda wouldn¡¯t abandon their child no matter what, so, she was clearly intending for the whole family to leave. The guard overseeing this frowned. This wasn¡¯t something he was used to seeing, but he couldn¡¯t let a village internal strife disturb the peace of the town. Thus, he interfered and allowed Luc¡¯s family to be in another lodging as long as they could pay up. Gale¡¯s face became devoid of emotions. He wanted to kill those bastards. His family was in a bad shape financially and he couldn¡¯t afford to waste any money, and now, because of their beliefs, he had to pay something he shouldn¡¯t have to. In the end, he did pay and went to another lodging under the laughing gaze of many. Luc was witnessing this scene with his usual calm heart, though he knew that something was amiss, he couldn¡¯t pinpoint what. That night, he finally decided to talk about it with his parents. ¡°Mother, father, why can¡¯t I feel any emotion? Why can¡¯t I feel anything even when you say that I hurt myself?¡± His father just shook his head and patted him. ¡°We don¡¯t know. But it doesn¡¯t matter. Having a calm heart like you isn¡¯t too bad either. You just need to be careful and not get yourself in trouble because you don¡¯t feel anything. Especially when you¡¯re bleeding. You need to treat your wounds quickly, you understand?¡± ¡°Hum. Yes.¡± That night, Luc decided that he wouldn¡¯t think about it anymore and just do what he was told by his parents. But, his father told him that he should make his mother happy, but with these people always making her cry when they called him a cursed child¡­ He wondered how he could make her happy. Early in the morning of the next day, their group went directly to the church since they needed to get back to the village as soon as possible. For once, this was a lucky day for them since there wasn¡¯t any need to queue for a divination. Luc followed a priest to the altar, where he will receive his divination. The priest started to chant something which Luc couldn¡¯t understand. Some light particles of different colors started to appear around him. There were twelve different colors and ten particles of each color. They gently hovered around his body before slowly closing the distance and started to rub his skin. All of them suddenly penetrated his body, and for the first time since he stopped crying, Luc suffered. Seeing this, the priest¡¯s face became stiff. This wasn¡¯t supposed to happen. However, only a few seconds had passed before all the light particles which had entered Luc body were expulsed, without any exception. This could only mean one thing. He didn¡¯t have any blessing. Luc had fallen on the ground his eyes close and his consciousness elsewhere. He was floating in a pitch-black place, and a black robed man sitting cross-legged was in front of him. Different types lights were flowing around him Seeing him, Luc became perplexed. ¡°Who¡­Who are you? Where am I?¡± The black robed man opened his eyes slowly, before giving Luc a cold smile. ¡°It¡¯s too soon for us to meet, boy. Look forward to our next encounter.¡± The man waved his hand and Luc¡¯s consciousness blanked. The next moment he opened his eyes. However, what awaited him was his body being embraced by his crying mother and the sorrowful gaze of his father. Unsure of what was happening to him, Luc wanted to ask a question, but a blue screen appeared in front of him.
Name Luc Asfer Title(s) The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck, The Bearer Of Sin, The One Rejected By The Divine
Class Villager lv.1 Bloodline Human (100%)
Blessing(s) None
Mana 30/30
Divine Power 0/0
Intelligence 11 Luck -10 000
Widsom 8 Magic None
Endurance 12 Aptitude None
Agility 10 Strength 9
Dexterity 5
Charisma 6
The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck -10 000 in Luck, those around you will encounter misfortunes
The Bearer Of Sin The host will become emotionless and won¡¯t be able to feel anything most of the times
The One Rejected By The Divine Your body can¡¯t hold any divine power and can¡¯t receive any blessings
Seeing all of this, Luc frowned. Why do I have all of this? This was all Luc could think of, he couldn¡¯t feel any grievance or any regret. He was just surprised at most by his status. Now he knew why his father had a hard time in his job since he was born, why his mother fell sick when he was born, why they called him a cursed child. He lifted his head and patted the head of his crying mother. ¡°Mom, do you see the blue screen?¡± His mom shook her head while sobbing, notifications from the system and the status page were only visible for the one concerned by it. She didn¡¯t know why her son didn¡¯t receive any blessing. This never happened before. And, even though this world wasn¡¯t in the chaos it was before, power still meant many things. And if her son didn¡¯t have any blessing he was fated to be bullied and under anyone in the world. After Luc fell in a coma after the divination, they took him and rushed back to their lodging. The reason was simple, the priest chased them away saying that their son didn¡¯t have any blessing and was thus rejected from the world. Their family was to leave as soon as possible and to never get close to this town ever again. Gale and Miranda were afraid for their son. This matter couldn¡¯t be kept hidden. So, soon after Luc regained consciousness, they left Velis at full speed for their home. They couldn¡¯t stay here. If a fanatic were to hear about this, he would come for Luc¡¯s life in the next moment and one would be able to save him. When they returned to the village, the village head was surprised to see them arriving so soon. Gale didn¡¯t give them too much explanation and just said that since they were the first one to finish, they had returned earlier. The village head was quite skeptical but didn¡¯t look into it too much. Until he noticed that Gale and his family were selling everything they owned and buying many expenditures for traveling. ¡°GALE! What are you doing?!¡± The village head couldn¡¯t keep ignoring this matter. Though he knew about the rumor, he didn¡¯t care much as long as they stayed. The reason was simple: their village was near a forest infested with monsters, low-leveled indeed, but still a potential threat. Each man in the village could fight somehow but those who could really defend the village were the hunters and the warriors present with the help of the nurses who knew some healing spells. If not for this, they would have moved out a long time ago. ¡°Since we¡¯re not welcomed here, we¡¯ll just leave. I can¡¯t thank you enough for what you have done for my wife and me, but, this place isn¡¯t for our son.¡± This was partially the reason. His true motive was that as soon as the other came back with the news that his son didn¡¯t possess any blessing, he would be happy if they didn¡¯t go straight for the kill. ¡°Gale. You know that this is only a rumor. Though your son is a bit special, nothing serious will be done to him. If you want, I can warn those women to keep their mouth shut.¡± Gale shook his head, his decision was final. He couldn¡¯t stay even if he wanted to. Seeing this, the village head sighed. I should have acted sooner. Now we¡¯re losing a valuable hunter. Since their family didn¡¯t have much, Gale managed to sell everything they wouldn¡¯t need and bought enough resources for a week. They decided to take two horses, one for the resources with Gale and one for Miranda and Luc. After bidding their farewell to the village, they left and traveled along the forest. 4 years after, Luc was ten years old. His family installed itself near the border of the Helun forest. The Helun forest surface was enormous, belonging to one of the three great green mazes of the world. This was also the same forest which bordered his former home. Now, they were in the middle of nowhere hundreds of kilometers away from the village. During those 4 years, Luc was trained as a hunter by his father. He learned how to create a bow from scratch, he learned how to distinguish the differences between a horned wild fox and an ordinary wild fox. He learned how to follow a monster¡¯s trail without losing himself in the forest. His father was greatly surprised. Although Luc was lacking in stats due to his lack of blessing, he wasn¡¯t any worse than some people with his level equal to his and even higher. He quickly found out that since he wasn¡¯t swayed by his emotions his mind was more reactive and keen to what was around him. He didn¡¯t let anything pass which made him able to use each of his abilities to its fullest. This was a good news to him. Luc quickly got the hang of a bow and started to accompany his father to hunt despite the protests of his mother. The only reason was because his father told him that to make his mother happy he needed to be strong enough to live well. Thus, he followed his father in order to gain more experience from hunting monsters. The system attributed experience when someone was training, killing or sometimes reflecting. For those who focused only on magic and on how it worked, could level up by gaining more insight into their research. Though the killing and training methods were faster, they weren¡¯t fit for some. In those 4 years, Luc managed to level and increase its stats and gain new skills as well. However, the lack of divine abilities limited his abilities greatly. He could now take on close combat 2 horned wild fox which levels were around 15 to 17. He also managed to unlock the perception status which was essential for a hunter.
System Your craftsmanship improved greatly. Dexterity +1
System: Your craftsmanship improved greatly. Dexterity +1 Nodding his head, Luc checked his status page.
Name Luc Asfer Title(s) The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck, The Bearer Of Sin, The One Rejected By The Divine
Class Villager lv.1; Hunter lv.20 (41%) Bloodline Human (100%)
Blessing(s) None
Mana 50/50
Divine Power 0/0
Intelligence 17+1 Luck -10 000
Widsom 13 Magic Stealth (Grade 9: 12%), Aiming shot (Grade 9: 26%), Magic arrow (Grade 9: 78%), Exploding shot (Grade 10: 56%)
Endurance 22+2 Aptitude Trained body lv.2 (+2 in strength, endurance and agility), Acute vision lv.1 (+1 dexterity +1 perception), flexible body lv.3 (+3 agility and +2 dexterity), Enemy detection lv.4 (+1 intelligence +2 perception)
Agility 18+5 Strength 21+2
Dexterity 22+3 Perception 11+3
Charisma 6
Stealth Grade 9 The user can clad his body in mana to reduce his presence in the surroundings. Will last as long as the user has enough mana to maintain the spell.
Aiming shot Grade 9 By injecting mana in his arrows, the user can make them compensate his lack of accuracy against moving targets.
Magic arrow Grade 9 Arrow completely made out of mana. Its density is still weak, though.
Exploding shot Grade 10 The user can gather mana at the tip of his arrows so they can have a decent destructive power.
His stats greatly improved. He could be considered weak for a lv.20 hunter but he only unlocked this one class. To unlock a class, you needed to either have someone pass it to you or meet the System¡¯s conditions to unlock it. When Gale passed his hunter class to his son, he unlocked the perception stats which was very important for all hunters. This stat improved their awareness and vision. His magic was still low grade since he only started to use it, and without any blessings, upgrading his skill took a longer time. Taking three years to reach grade 9 in aiming shot could be considered way too long. In three years, a blessed person could attain grade 8 without much difficulty as long as he trained regularly. This meant that Luc should forget about being above grade 7 in his life. Grade 1 was considered the pinnacle for a spell, mana or divine power dependent alike, while grade 10 was considered the beginner stage of a spell. The higher the grade of a spell, the more powerful and efficient it was. However, those with low-grade blessings could barely go above grade 5 in their life. Reaching grade 3 was basically impossible. To upgrade a spell, it was the complete opposite with leveling up. Understand the essence of the spell was more efficient than using it repetitively without understanding it. Furthermore, when one understood the essence of a spell, he would also gain some experience in the according class. {Stealth} was a spell his father taught him, while {Magic Arrow} was acquired when he got the hunter class, {Aiming Shot} when he got lv.10 with [Hunter] and {Exploding Shot} when he got lv.20. Today, Luc was in their courtyard gazing at the horizon, thinking about what he should do in the future. His mother¡¯s condition was still the same. And that was not for the best since they couldn¡¯t have access to pain reducing potions like before. Though Miranda still had a smile plastered on her face, Luc knew she was suffering every day. Gale¡¯s condition wasn¡¯t any better. In order to not depend on anyone, he needed to make sure that their new house was safe from any danger. He slept very little at night and passed most of the time making sure that the traps he set around it hadn¡¯t been triggered. He would also stay up all night as long as he heard any strange sound in the surrounding. He closed his eyes and let a warm breeze caress his cheeks and fluster his hair. His back facing the burning sun and the ground vibrating under him. Vibrations? Luc opened his eyes and saw black and white figures on white horses on the other side of the plain, coming toward their positions. Luc got up and went directly to his father and told him what he saw. Gale¡¯s face paled. From what his son told him, what he saw was the inquisition from the church of Order. Escaping wasn¡¯t an option. Gale didn¡¯t even think twice, he took Miranda and Luc in the forest and gave Luc his bow and arrows with a bag of provisions. ¡°Luc, you need to listen to me. Don¡¯t come back here and flee the far from here. You need to keep your mother safe. With your ability, you can manage in this forest and protect your mother, you understand?¡± ¡°Gale! What are you saying?!¡± Miranda¡¯s voice was trembling, she knew that the inquisition was coming, but she thought that they would flee together. ¡°If they find this place and there is no one inside, they would look for a chase. There are clear clues that this place was inhabited recently. However, If I stay behind and tell them that both of you are dead, they might not look for you. But you guys need to stay far away from this place!¡± Gale¡¯s voice was low but determined. What he said made sense but he omitted something that Miranda knew. ¡°They will still kill you!¡± Gale closed his eyes and hugged his wife. He couldn¡¯t do anything. Fleeing together wasn¡¯t an option. Staying meant their death. And abandoning Luc was out of the question. Seeing both his parents trembling in fear from those visitors. Luc couldn¡¯t feel any shred of tension hearing Gale¡¯s words, neither could he feel any sadness or pain from his father¡¯s desire to sacrifice himself. However, he didn¡¯t want things to end up that way. His mother won¡¯t be happy if his father dies. However, from what father said, they are stronger than us and more numerous. ¡°Father. Since they seem to be here for me, you could flee with mother. As long as they kill me they won¡¯t look for¡­¡± ¡°LUC! ¡° His father¡¯s voice was loud and powerful. His gaze strict and his black eyes locked on Luc¡¯s face. ¡°Are you going to disobey me?!¡± ¡°No but¡­¡± ¡°I said you will run away with your mother. Take her now. I made her sleep forcefully with some sleeping pills. Remember. Don¡¯t look back and never come back. If your mother wakes up and tells you to go back, don¡¯t listen to her. She won¡¯t be happy if she comes back. Did I make myself clear?!¡± Luc nodded. It was the first time his father spoke with this much force. He didn¡¯t why but he could guess that he had made his decision. He looked at his sleeping mother in his father¡¯s arms and took in a princess carry and headed directly towards the forest. With his current stats, he could carry his mother and run at full speed for at least half an hour without being tired. By then, they should be far enough to relax a bit. Watching the retreating back of his son carrying his wife, Gale had a wry smile on his face. He took a deep breath of cold air and went out in the courtyard looking toward the arriving cavalry. His eyes determined, he was waiting for his death. The inquisition arrived at their destination ten minutes after Luc had left with his mother and found a man sitting cross-legged in his courtyard his eyes closed, clearly waiting for them. ¡°Are you Gale Asfer?¡± One of the inquisitors asked. ¡°Yes. May I ask why the inquisition of the church of Order traveled all this way to visit me? I remember only having a low-grade blessing of Desolation, nothing worthy of being in your line of sight.¡± ¡°We¡¯re still here for you. And your son and wife. Your son is said to be without a blessing. Our Archbishops declared that he was a heretic, an outcast that no gods wanted alive. Then, he and his family needed to be eliminated.¡± ¡°Since when could the Archbishops of Order speak for every god? Is this known by all the churches?¡± ¡°A mere commoner has no right to doubt an Archbishop.¡± One of the inquisitors waved his hand and a gust of wind hit Gale in his chest and send him flying for few meters before he fell on the ground spitting out blood. ¡°Where are they? If you tell us, we can give you all a quick death.¡± ¡°They¡¯re already dead. You¡¯re too late.¡± Gale had trouble speaking since blood was accumulating in his mouth. However, he looked like a beaten man after he lost what was the most precious to him. ¡°Lying won¡¯t work. Sadly, I have a skill which can help detect lies from truths. So, tell us where they are, now.¡± These words made Gale dumbfounded. He couldn¡¯t be sure if the inquisitor¡¯s words were true, but he already knew that they were doubting his words, and wouldn¡¯t believe him no matter what he said. Gale spat out another mouthful of blood before his body trembled. There was corroding magic in his body. His organs were weakening at an alarming rate. Feeling the state of his body, Gale finally felt what it meant to be at death door. Then his shoulders started to tremble. He was laughing, laughing at his pitiful self. ¡°Go fuck yourselves!¡± Crash. Gale¡¯s body was smashed violently against the ground and he died on the spot. The inquisitor who was leading the expedition frowned and looked toward a woman who was standing next to him. ¡°Brenda. Why did you kill him? We still haven¡¯t finished interrogating him.¡± ¡°Hump. I don¡¯t care. His rotten commoner¡¯s mouth dared to insult us. He needed to die.¡± The woman¡¯s voice was cold and distant like she was stating the absolute truth. ¡°And we don¡¯t need him. It¡¯s easy to guess where they went.¡± She turned her head towards the forest while speaking. ¡°If they had fled in any other direction than the forest, then it would have been impossible for us to not notice it. Do what you guys want, I¡¯m going first.¡± After that, she vanished from her spot. The leader and the other inquisitors sighed. This woman was unruly and didn¡¯t know about the word ¡®respect¡¯ if it wasn¡¯t related to her. They decided to meticulously search around and inside the house for any kind of magic device where they could have hidden before burning everything to the ground. Noticing smoke coming from where they came from, Luc frowned. This couldn¡¯t be any good news for them, so he decided to quicken his pace. However, before he could take another step, his body was thrown into a trunk by a violent gust of wind. ¡°There you are, heretics.¡± His mother still in his arm, Luc looked toward the source of that voice with blood coming out of his mouth. A woman clad in a white armor with long blonde hair and vermillion eyes was leisurely walking toward them. Her face features were hidden by a white mask and only had sockets for her eyes and mouth. ¡°Are you from the inquisition?¡± ¡°Yes. We¡¯re here for you, the Blessing less.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°There is no need to tell you.¡± Casting his eyes down, Luc saw that his mother¡¯s body was getting more active than before. She was about to wake up. ¡°If I follow you, can my mother leave?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t for you to decide.¡± ¡°Where is my father?¡± ¡°You¡¯re asking way too much question for a little boy. Don¡¯t worry, you will have all the pleasure to ask all the questions you want to your father after I¡¯m done with you.¡± She clapped her hand and a magic circle appeared in front of her. From there, multiple small dark green figures emerged. Though Luc never saw them before he knew what they were. They were the most vicious and infamous monster in Magnolia. Goblins. ¡°You see, these insight creatures are sadly contracted monsters that I was forced to take. And if I want them to evolve into something more powerful I need something to meet some condition. And it appears that one of them can be done right now.¡± Suddenly, his mother¡¯s body left Luc¡¯s grip and flew over the woman. ¡°And that is to rape a living human. Don¡¯t mind if I take your mother for some time.¡± Luc looked at her with his same usual calm gaze. ¡°Rape? Will my mother be happy if I let her with you? She won¡¯t die right?¡± These words shocked the woman. This kid doesn¡¯t even know about that? And how can he be so calm? Is my pressure doing nothing on him? At that moment, a light laugh was heard. She was laughing. ¡°Yes, kid. I will let you watch your mother become happy and I promise that you won¡¯t see her dying too.¡± After that, she snapped her fingers and the goblins threw themselves on Miranda¡¯s body starting to tear her clothes and scratching her skin in the process. Miranda woke up from the sudden surge of pain and looked at those goblins trying to assault her body. She wanted to scream but noticed that no sound came out from her mouth. Only after that did she notice her son leaning on a tree, blood dripping from his mouth watching her with his usual face and a woman wearing the inquisition¡¯s armor next to him, grinning. Only then did she understand. She started to cry. She was going to be raped in front of her own son by some goblins, and she couldn¡¯t do anything. She couldn¡¯t stop him from watching. Seeing tears coming from his mother¡¯s eyes, Luc frowned. ¡°My mother is crying. She isn¡¯t happy at all. You lied to me.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± After that, Luc¡¯s vision blackened. He recovered after an unknown amount of time. When he opened his eyes, he could only see the bloody mess his mother¡¯s corpse had become. She covered in strange fluid mixed with her blood. She had wounds all over her body. And next to her was his father remains. His skull wasn¡¯t even complete. He could recognize his hair and eyes but his mouth and the back of his head was lacking. Many limbs too. Luc watched this, his eyes wide open. His emotionless face didn¡¯t even show any kind of emotions. He just frowned. Because he didn¡¯t understand what happened. ¡°See this. This is your fault little boy. If you hadn¡¯t been born, your parents would still be alive.¡± The woman appeared next to Luc and patted his shoulder. Luc wanted to turn his head but noticed that his body was bound in this position and that he couldn¡¯t look away or move a single muscle. ¡°I see¡­ But you lied to me. Twice. So, how can I know that you¡¯re not lying to me again?¡± The woman was dumbstruck. ¡°Because this is the truth. You didn¡¯t deserve any blessing, so anything related to you is unnecessary in our world.¡± ¡°No.¡± Luc''s voice was devoid of doubt. ¡°My parents didn¡¯t die because of me. My father said that it was the gods¡¯ fault to not have blessed me.¡± Though Luc couldn¡¯t turn his head, he could feel the anger emanating from the woman. ¡°Good, good, good. You really are a heretic. Now, kid, I¡¯ll let you enjoy your last moments with your parents before you meet them again in the afterlife. Since this is a purge, you will be burnt to death with everything related to you.¡± Luc couldn¡¯t even respond before his body and his parents¡¯ corpse started to burn. Although he could see his flesh being burned, he couldn¡¯t feel an ounce of pain. But he knew that he was going to die. He quietly watched the scene displaying in front of him, before being plunged into an abyss of darkness again. // This time, when Luc opened his eyes again, he was in that place again. The black robed man was standing in front of him with a light smile on his face. ¡°So, how was your life?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Did I die?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I see. Then shouldn¡¯t I leave for the afterlife now?¡± ¡°Nope. You will be destroyed right here.¡± Luc frowned. This was the third time already. The woman lied to him three times in a row. ¡°Well, you see. I enshrined myself in your soul to escape some unwanted attention. Oh! I should present myself. I am a god. God of Sin. The one responsible for your lack of emotions.¡± The black-robed man''s word didn''t surprise Luc. He had already guessed that his condition might be related to that man. He just didn''t have any evidence and couldn''t confirm it in any way. ¡°Ah. I see. So it was you.¡± ¡°Yeah. You see, we gods become more powerful with time and have no way of gaining more power besides waiting for it to grow. At least, that was what we thought. 10 years ago, I wanted to try something. Since my power comes from living beings¡¯ emotions, I tried to see if I will have a faster growth when I absorb it directly from one. And you see, you¡¯re quite the soft-hearted person. If I wasn¡¯t here, I am afraid you¡¯d have drowned in your own tears. However, this was quite a good experience. Since your feelings were so easy to stimulate, not only did I manage to confirm my experience I even managed to have more profit than what I thought.¡± ¡°So you succeeded... My father always told me to help those in needs, but because of you, they suffered... So I don''t know if it can be considered as a good thing.¡± The black robed laughed at Luc¡¯s words. ¡°You really look like a doll you know? Order took all your divine power and Luck cursed you and caused your family to suffer unnecessary hardships and I prevented you from loving your own parents or feeling anything toward them, you just depended on them, you followed them and obeyed their orders. You could only try to not disappoint their efforts with you. I wonder how your mother felt when she was raped in front of her son while he didn¡¯t care about it, thinking that she would be ¡®happy¡¯? You really made me laugh. Well, too bad you died that fast, I couldn''t harvest more. Anyway, since I enshrined myself in your soul when I¡¯ll leave your soul will shatter and nothing will be left. So, this is farewell, boy.¡± When Sin finished speaking, his body started to radiate before it disappeared, leaving nothing but darkness in front of Luc. This time, Luc really died. // "Oh. Sin you''re back. Where were you?" A white-robed woman asked the black-robed man who just entered the room. "I just took a stroll." The black-robed grinned before he released his aura. "This... How did you become this powerful in such amount of time? How is this possible?" "I need to thank you for that. Though I still could get more power if you hadn''t asked your servants to hunt down that kid." "You... possessed a human? What''s more the one I prevented from having a blessing? Are you rebelling?" The white robe''s voice became cold and killing intent was clearly visible in her eyes. The man in black just shook his head and put his hand in the air. "I wouldn''t dare! I was just conducting an experiment. Though it was somewhat successful, the soul of the boy was destroyed in the process. And it''s not something I can do again anyway." The woman''s eyes constricted, before turning her head to the side, ignoring the man and pondering about her matters. Hum, now that the soul is destroyed, I wonder what my father will do next... And even if it''s not destroyed, it can''t reincarnate. At least, I will know if it does, and I can just deliver another message to my followers to hunt it down again. Thinking that far, a smirk formed on her face. And the man who still hadn''t left the place shivered when he saw her smile. Chapter 2: Rebirth In a pitch black space, a little flame was burning with a pale blue light. Pain. Sadness. Hatred. The flame was feeling many different emotions for unknown reasons to him. It didn¡¯t know where it was neither how it ended up here. However, it wanted those feelings to stop. It could remember a time when he couldn¡¯t feel those feelings, but everything was fuzzy. It couldn¡¯t scream, it could just endure everything alone in this place. Time went by, and bit by bit, it got accustomed to those feelings, growing numb to them. At that time, its consciousness started to drift, and it went into a deep slumber. Time passed before it woke up again. And the same scenery was displayed before him. Nothing but darkness. It looked around itself. Gazing at the abyss around him, it searched for something different, something else which wasn¡¯t darkness. And with time, it found something. No, it found multiples things. Flames like him. However, their glows were frail. As if they were about to disappear. The little flame, reluctant to lose sight on something else different from the darkness surrounding him, wanted to help those flames. But how? It couldn¡¯t move. It could just see. No, it could do something else. The little blue flame stared at the darkness surrounding him. And before long, faint black lines started to surround him and enter him. System: New type of energy is entering the host. Evolution starting. A blue screen appeared in front of the flame, surprising it. It had never seen this before, but it could understand what was written on it. However, it couldn¡¯t do much. The flame was trying to absorb the darkness surround him to grow and help those other flames by sending them some of his energy. And the flame grew. Its size was comparable to an ant at first, but it was now as big as a human head. Its color changed also. From pale blue, it became gray. Feeling its growth, the flame was satisfied. But it hadn¡¯t finished. The flame sent waves of its new-found energy to those other flames. However, something unexpected happened.
System Assimilation complete. Host has evolved and is now capable of using a new type of energy. A name is needed for it.
Syetem A name has been given by the Creator. please check your status to see it.
System A Links have been established with the other fragments. Host is stable. Fusion possible. Estimated time for a complete fusion: 100years.
System Host will be put in a deep slumber in the mean time.
After it finished reading the last message, before the flame could think of anything else, its consciousness drifted away. Sadness. Regret. Sorrow. These feelings woke the flame up. It didn¡¯t know what had happened, but it could feel that it had become stronger. However, these feelings were becoming more and more powerful. It didn¡¯t know why it felt that way. However, its memories became clearer than before. Everything was still very blurry, but it could at least make out the outline of few things. It noticed that two bodies were particularly present in its memories. However, no matter how hard it tried, it couldn¡¯t picture their face or characteristic. It eventually gave up. The flame couldn¡¯t force its memories. They would surely come back to him in the future. After calming itself, it finally could regain the control of its emotions. Then, it stared at the scenery around him. Everything was different. There was no more darkness. Everything around him was completely white, while itself had become black. It could no longer feel the presence of any other flame around him. They had been absorbed by him. It was all alone. Again.
System Host has fully recovered. Host has stored enough energy to leave ***. Does Host wish to leave this place? Be careful, after leaving this place, Host will be unable to come back, and the destination is unknown.
The flame was shocked. It didn¡¯t expect this. However, some questions needed to be answered. Status. Soul Search
Name - Title(s) The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck, The Bearer Of Sin, The One Rejected By The Divine, The Shattered Soul, The Survivor, The First Devil Soul
Class - Bloodline -
Blessing(s) None
Mana -
Divine Power 0/0 Devil''s Power 999 999 999/999 999 999
Intelligence 23 Luck -10 000
Widsom 17 Magic -
Endurance - Aptitude
Agility - Strength -
Dexterity - Perception 35+20
Charisma -
The Shattered Soul You have been broken to the very core of your being. Memories of your pasts lives are lost.
The Survivor Against all odds you survived. Your danger awareness has greatly improved.
The First Devil Soul Devil''s Power is your origin.
The flame was curious. It knew that it wasn¡¯t the first time it saw this, however, those titles and this devil¡¯s power were something it couldn¡¯t understand. Why am I cursed? Why am I rejected? Did I do something which led me to this state in my past life? It tried to look through its memories once again in order to see if anything will become clearer with these new pieces of information. But it still couldn¡¯t remember anything else. Another matter perturbed it. The insane amount of devil¡¯s power in it. Though it wasn¡¯t sure that the darkness around him was the cause, it was the only thing it could think about. After pondering for some time. The flame finally made its choice. It didn¡¯t know what happened to itself in the past, but if it had ever done anything bad, it would try to atone for it once it comes out. It was something which seemed natural to the flame. Like someone taught it that in the past. Yes. I wish to leave this place.
System Please wait. Teleportation will nearly consume all of Host''s energy. As the process will leave the Host in a weakened state for a while. Host is advised to be prepared for that.
The little flame had strange feeling that what awaited him was another deep sleep phase.
System World Shift launched.
And this was the last thing he saw before his consciousness faded away once again. The flame was floating in a desolate room. It didn¡¯t know where it was, but looking at the things which were around him, it could more or less guess. The room it was in, was a mess. Multiple bricks were all over the place, the decayed corpse could be seen and vegetation started to grow over them. Torn banners were barely hanging on the walls. Most of the pylons had crumbled. However, the roof was still intact and didn¡¯t seem to be about to fall at any moment. And at the center of the room, there was an altar. The stairs were in pieces but its form was still visible. And a giant cross was planted at the top of it. This was the moment the flame saw her. A crucified old woman. Her limbs and head were severed but were pinned on the cross. Besides her dried skin, nothing remained on her bones. However, her white hair was still slightly moving in front of her nose, as if she was alive. The flame gently moved towards her while hovering. It was the first ¡®living¡¯ thing it encountered since it arrived here. It was curious about her. When the flame arrived in front of her, the head of the old woman lightly trembled. She was aware of his presence. Little by little, she opened her eyes, letting the flame looked at the abyss in them. Her appearance who could frighten the bravest knight didn¡¯t perturb the flame. It still looked at the dried face of the old woman without saying anything. ¡°Well, I wonder who you may be, black soul¡­¡± Her mouth was still closed. She was speaking with her own soul. Her voice was weak and ragged like she was suffering and was about to vanish at any moment. The flame was greatly shocked. It didn¡¯t expect the old lady to be able to communicate with it. ¡°Hello! I don¡¯t have a name, I just came here.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ I see. So what are you doing here?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. After I left that place I was transported here. Old lady, you look hurt. Do you need help?¡± The eyebrows of the old lady rose. She had been sealed here for years waiting for her soul to ultimately vanish. She hadn¡¯t expected that a nameless black soul could enter here and offer his help. She laughed. Mentally so that the flame could hear her. ¡°Little soul, you cannot help me. My soul is bound to disappear, my very essence has been destroyed and this is the result.¡± ¡°Let me try.¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The old lady was flabbergasted. Until her surprise turned into fear. The reason for that was that small black lines came from the black soul in front of her and started to penetrate her body. It was something she had never felt and seen before. ¡°What are you doing?! What is this?!¡±
System Target''s soul critically injured. Target''s soul belongs entirely to the divine. Recovery impossible with Host''s power.
Seeing the message, the flame felt dejected. It wanted to help but couldn¡¯t. ¡°Don¡¯t worry old lady. I didn''t want to hurt you¡­ I intended to heal your soul with my energy but it seems that I can¡¯t. My energy is incompatible with you.¡± Feeling the depressed tone of the black soul, the old lady¡¯s expression turned even more complex. Her guess was right. The thing the black soul used wasn¡¯t something she had seen before. There was nothing incompatible with the divine. And she wasn¡¯t ignorant in that aspect. After all, regardless of her current state, she was a goddess. ¡°This¡­ What type of energy is that?¡± ¡°Devil¡¯s power.¡± ¡°Devil? Never heard of it.¡± ¡°Really? It was all over the place back there. However, I only have so little left after coming here¡­¡±
System Devil''s power has been added to this world with our arrival. Host will passively absorb it at a slow pace and can absorb it faster if it is done actively. Please do keep in mind that Host requires Devil''s power to stay stable.
Oh! This is good. Well, not very good since I can¡¯t live without it, but there won¡¯t be any problem if I can find some here¡­ Though it doesn¡¯t seem that there is any in this place¡­ ¡°Bach there? You teleported here from another place.¡± ¡°Yes. However, it is very different from here. There isn¡¯t a thing at that place, completely void.¡± The old lady¡¯s head trembled slightly. Before a horrifying crimson gas started leaking from her body parts. Then, she began to laugh dryly. ¡°This is¡­ Really unbelievable¡­Hey little soul, how about we talk about each other for a while? I need some company.¡± The flame turned brighter as if it was excited. It has been long since it could talk with someone and was quite eager to meeting another being other than itself. And like that, days passed while the two of them chatted. The little flame was very happy while the old lady was laughing to her heart content in front of his lack of knowledge. She had a fun time telling him about her battles and experiences on the battlefield. ¡°Yes! I was bored back there! Here there seems to be a lot of fun things to do! But¡­ Old lady, what is happening to you? Your body is¡­¡± ¡°I am starting to rot. My time has come¡­ Just when I met you. But don¡¯t bother yourself with that, I am old enough and want to rest. However, I¡¯d like it if you could accomplish something for me.¡± The little flame gently moved as if nodding and waiting for her to continue. ¡°Become strong, strong enough to be unrivaled among the mortals and unrivaled among the gods, and take revenge for both of us.¡± The flame stopped moving. ¡°Both of us? What do you mean old¡­¡± ¡°My name is Slaughter, I was a goddess. However, since I belong to the neutral gods and refused to side with either Sin or Order, they hunted me down and destroyed my God Soul. This place is my main temple. It used to be brimming with my followers, now there is only their blood flowing in the depth of this land.¡± ¡°This¡­ But why did they do this to you? You said that you were neutral right?¡± ¡°Ownership. In order to ascend and attain the grade of a supreme being, there are some clues who led us, gods, to think that it was needed to establish complete dominance in among both mortals and gods. Order and Sin are the leading figures of the gods but since their strength is relatively equal, they are trying to dominate mortals through their followers. However, the churches of neutral gods couldn¡¯t keep their standpoint anymore they needed to choose either side or face retaliation from both sides.¡± ¡°Then¡­ Why did old lady not accept to join either one?¡± A crooked smile appeared on her dried face. ¡°Because I could kill to my heart¡¯s content. And, as a person, you, and especially you should aim to not follow any gods blindly.¡± ¡°W-Why?¡± ¡°How many points do you have in luck?¡± ¡°¡­ -10 000.¡± ¡°Do you know why you can¡¯t store any divine power? Do you remember your past life?¡± No. The flame didn¡¯t know. These were questions he asked himself before but couldn¡¯t come up with an answer. ¡°Order took your power. Luck Cursed you. And Sin shattered you. Your family was tortured and killed by their followers. And why? Because you could have become a hindrance, more than I was. Inside you, there is the legacy of our eldest brother and because of that, all those things happened. I know about you. You created quite the ruckus back then.¡± Each and every of her words struck the little flame consciousness like a bullet train. It had a hard time remaining calm. Flashbacks of his previous life would appear at the end of her words. The face of his mother. Her caring and loving face. Her frail ill body. She was raped in front of him and burned alive. His proud and strong father. He never abandoned them. He faced their hardships head on and took decisions to save them despite the danger. He protected them with everything he could until the end. His mother was sick because of his curse. His parents died because of Order¡¯s followers. And Sin prevented him to ever feel the warmth he should have felt in his home. Everything came back to him. The black swaying flame remembered. He knew now. Why all these emotions tormented him. The crimson gas coming out from the old lady¡¯s decaying body started to gather around the black flame. Little by little. The ground started to shake. Blood was coming out of the ground, like a snake it aimed for the dark red hovering ball in front of the old lady. The smile on the old lady¡¯s face grew wider and wider. ¡°Listen well boy, because these will be my last words. I will give everything I have to you. I will use my and my followers¡¯ blood to create you a body. I will also use my most precious blood for you. Your body will be like no one else. However, you will need time to grow. Don¡¯t even think about taking revenge right now. Your growth rate can¡¯t surpass a Chosen right now. And defying a church without being able to kill their chosen is nothing but suicide. However, when you will unlock me and my eldest brother legacy fully. No one shall stop you. You can make every one of them pay. If someone stands in your way, kill him. No matter who it is. This is the path of Slaughter.¡± Those were her last words at the cocoon of blood in front of her. She could not reincarnate. She would forever disappear. But she was happy. She was happy because she felt it. The bloodbath incoming. The chaos rampaging. A new type of being who could rival a god. A being who could slay one.
System Anew body has been found for the Host. However, the compatibility isn''t sufficient. Remodeling needed. Devil''s power required. Sufficient amount available. Does Host wish to begin the alteration?
Yes. The original blood red cocoon turned into a darker color. A gray gas started coming out of it.
System Body completed
System Host has achieved an unprecedented feat. Host has gone against the laws of this world.
System Blessing(s) has been removed.
System Sygil(s) has been added.
System Host has unlocked the title and class: Heir of Chaos
System Host has unlocked the title and class: Heir of Slaughter
System Host has unlocked the title and class: ???
System The following titles have fused: The Bearer of Sin, ???, Heir of Chaos, Heir of Slaughter, The One Rejected By The Divine, The First Devil Soul
System New title acquired: The Fallen
System Your classes evolved.
System First Door of the Fallen has opened. Adversary is now free.
System A name is recommended for both the Host and Adversary.
In front of a 6 years old looking boy, numerous blue screen appeared one after another. The little flame¡¯s new body was a red-haired boy. His face was good looking with its chubby cheeks. His left eye was blue whereas his right one was red. A black cross could be seen on his forehead while a black collar was visible on his neck. Despite that, his rosy skin and calm gaze made him look like an innocent little boy. ¡°Luc¡­ Asfer¡­¡± Remembering his old name, the little boy thought about how he should name himself in this life. A name which won¡¯t disappoint his deceased parents. ¡°My name shall be Lucifer in this life. However¡­ Who is Adversary?¡± ¡°I am.¡± A voice which sounded exactly like himself resounded in his head. ¡°Who?!¡± ¡°I am Adversary. Or shall I say, I am Lucifer too.¡± ¡°You are me?¡± Lucifer was flabbergasted. Did I go crazy?! ¡°No, not yet. You can say that you are the Original while I am the Adversary. I am you and you are me. However, we don¡¯t follow the same path, but we¡¯re seeking the same end.¡± ¡°This¡­¡± ¡°Look at your status page.¡± Lucifer went silent Status.
Name Lucifer Title(s) The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck, TheFallen,
Class(es) Devil of Slaughter lv.1; Devil of Chaos (locked); Devil of Origin lv.1 Bloodline Homunculus (??%), Dragon King (5%)
Sigil(s) No followers
Mana 200/200
Divine Power - Devil''s power 124/999 999 999
Intelligence 23 Luck 0
Widsom 17 Magic Mana Creation (Grade 10:0%);Blood Control (Grade 10; 0%); Sigil (Grade 1: Maxed)
Endurance 25 Aptitude Adversary, Adept of Blood, Will of the Devil
Agility 32 Strength 30
Dexterity 33 Perception 22
Charisma 57 Fury 0/100
Adversary Duality.
Adept of Blood You have control over your blood.
Will of the Devil Immunity against a god''s charm.
The Fallen You are walking on a lonely road. As the sole Devil in this world, you shall be feared and unrivaled. You have access to the Ten Devil''s Door. Conditions need to be met in order to open one. You can also impart your sigil on those you consider trustworthy. Those who bear your sigil shall be recognized as the follower of the Devil.
Mana Creation Grade 10 You can use mana to create objects and tools. They can''t last for a long time
Blood Control Grade 10 You can manipulate your blood at short range.
Sigil Grade 1 Your own power. Grant those who are loyal to you a part of your stats. The given stats point will be lost so be careful. You can choose the amount you want to give. You can communicate with your followers wherever they are and pinpoint their location.
¡­ This is¡­ insane¡­ What the hell is this?! Dragon King?! Devil?! ¡°I have the same status page as yours. However, I don¡¯t have the class: Devil of Slaughter.¡± ¡°So¡­ You have Devil of Chaos?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Lucifer turned silent. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because we¡¯re different. Though it¡¯s hard to tell right now, but our way of doing things is different. That¡¯s the only reason I can guess. I have a mindset suitable for Chaos whereas you have one suitable for Slaughter.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Lucifer closed his eyes. Thinking about his past life, a deep killing intent surged from his body, before it stopped. His new body¡¯s fitness was extraordinary. Many things crossed his mind, but he remembered the old lady¡¯s last words. He had already witnessed those followers¡¯ strength. His father who was 3 times stronger than this body also died. ¡°It¡¯s impossible to fight them. They are way too numerous and stronger than us and if we were to be caught this would only end up in our premature death. Though I am not the one in control of the body, I won¡¯t let you go on a suicide mission.¡± ¡°Yeah I know¡­ It¡¯s just that¡­ Wait a minute. You can control my body?¡± ¡°Our body. If you want me to because you need my power, you can switch with me by inverting the cross on our forehead. I can also end up in control if you fall unconscious or get weakened.¡± ¡°This¡­¡± ¡°I am not looking for the ownership of this body. Remember that we are the same person? I want what you want. However, our means to get it are different.¡± Lucifer nodded. The other him was stating the truth, at least, he could not feel any lies in his words. ¡°However, we will have to switch from times to times.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°I also want to move around¡­¡± Lucifer could only smile wryly. He was in his soul state for an unknown period of time, thus he knew better than anyone else how it felt to be able to walk around again. ¡°Hum¡­ Yes. We¡¯ll switch. However¡­ We need another name for you¡­ Calling you Lucifer would be quite disturbing for me¡­¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ But if we meet other people we can¡¯t say to them that we¡¯re both living in this body. And it¡¯ll bring confusion.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, but need a name for you, at least between ourselves. And¡­ It¡¯s better if we don¡¯t talk about our case¡­ I was already considered as a cursed being for being emotionless, I don¡¯t want to think about what they¡¯d call us for split personalities¡­¡± ¡°We will be thoroughly inspected¡­ However, we need to lay low.¡± Lucifer nodded before thinking about a name for his other self. He didn¡¯t know why, but the appearance of his other self brought him a pleasant feeling. He didn¡¯t have to be alone anymore. Though his location was unknown, the world around him unkind to his existence, he had someone to converse with and who knew about his past. ¡°I know. Your name will be Mephistopheles.¡± ¡°Why such a complicated name?¡± ¡°Like this, I can call you Mephis while you call me Luc. Using our full name to call ourselves will be too tiring so I chose a long name so I can use the shorter version as your surname.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Was I always that dumb?¡± ¡°Hey!¡± After quarreling with Mephis, Luc made his way toward the old lady¡¯s corpse. Looking at her pitiful state, there was something Luc couldn¡¯t understand but quickly stopped thinking about it. He then used his tiny body to take off each and every part of her bodies off the cross. His intentions were clear, she didn¡¯t die a proper death, but he would at least offer her a proper burial. I owe you a lot old lady. My mother always told me to be kind with those who are kind to me and my father told me to always make my mother happy and listen to her. I didn¡¯t manage to make her happy, but I will listen to her. However¡­ Old lady, I wish that¡­ I could talk to you again. Chapter 3: In a pinch ¡°Something¡¯s not right¡­¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you notice? We lost Soul Search when we acquired this body, do you know why Mephis?¡± After burying the old lady, Lucifer was sitting at the entrance of the temple, where he buried her. There was a reason for it. Lucifer wanted to find a suitable location for her, but who would have thought that her temple was in such a dangerous place. He hadn¡¯t even been 100 meters away from the entrance that his danger awareness was telling him to go back if he wanted to live. He didn¡¯t know why, but it seemed that the wilderness had developed itself around the temple and made the surrounding area brimming with monsters. And for someone with Lucifer¡¯s capabilities, this was no different than giving a newborn child a wooden stick and sending him in a troll¡¯s village. ¡°No¡­ But we might be able to regain it. Just try to do a soul search.¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll try.¡± Lucifer sat on the cold ground cross-legged. His breath was long but powerful as his mind was sinking into the depth of his body, looking for his soul. Darkness was surrounding him until he found it. A raging black and violet flame. Looking at it, Lucifer felt something strange. His heartbeat was accelerating while killing intent was seeping from his body. ¡°These are¡­ Their feelings?¡± The violet taint of his soul was due to Slaughter and Chaos legacies. Their power which had become his. However, that wasn¡¯t everything. Lucifer approached his soul, being few centimeters away from it, he stretched out his hand to touch it. A sudden burst of pain happened in his head, making him lose his focus and expulsing him from that place. ¡°AAAAHHHHH¡± Lucifer and Mephistopheles both screamed in pain. While holding his head with his two hands, Lucifer rolled on the ground. This suffering lasted for only a few dozens of seconds before it stopped brutally, leaving a tired Lucifer on the ground, breathing heavily.
System Host''s body is too weak. Assimilation with the memories of the fallen gods failed. Trying again in this state may lead to Host''s body early death.
Feeling dizzy, Lucifer opened his eyes and paled when he saw the message. This little experience made him understand many things about his current situation. It isn¡¯t that he lost Soul Search when he entered this new body, he lost control over his soul to some extent due to the legacies and couldn¡¯t use it to scan the surrounding like he did back in that place. Furthermore, it seemed that he couldn¡¯t get the full control over it anytime soon. According to the pain he suffered, if he had to be able to withstand it in order to assimilate those memories, he wouldn¡¯t be able to do it before a long time. Lucifer¡¯s heart sank. Soul search was something which could have helped him greatly. With it, he could detect every soul in the surrounding and prevent any type of disastrous encounters. ¡°Living here will be complicated¡­ We don¡¯t know how much we can survive without eating and drinking but I doubt we can last long. But¡­ Leaving the temple ground is also suicide¡­¡± Mephis'' voice resounded in Lucifer¡¯s mind. Lucifer could only nod in agreement. In a way or another, it seemed that monsters wouldn¡¯t get close to the temple ground. However, there wasn¡¯t anything to eat or drink here. He had unlocked a danger awareness which could help him but it was limited. At best, he could tell whether or not he was in a dangerous situation, he couldn¡¯t tell where his enemy was or if it had detected him. He was a blind man who had been thrown into a pit of monsters. Aware that he was deep in shit, but unable to tell when he was about to die. ¡°We need to leave. But before that, we have to unlock the hunter class.¡± ¡°I thought about that too but¡­ You know¡­ We don¡¯t have anybody to bestow us the class and we don¡¯t know about the conditions¡­¡± ¡°Let¡¯s try everything! We ca try to set up traps and craft a bow and some arrows and see if it amounts to anything.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ I just hope that we don¡¯t have to hunt anything as a condition¡­¡± Cold sweat ran down Lucifer¡¯s back. Forget about being the hunter, he would be happy if he wasn¡¯t the hunted one. Suddenly an earth-shattering cry resounded in the sky. Lucifer jumped in surprise and covered his ears. This was clearly a monster¡¯s cry. Lucifer¡¯s danger awareness was screaming in his head as if it was a little girl being violated by a big bad wolf. When the beast finally stopped roaring. Lucifer finally dared to look up toward the sky. Fear. Extreme fear. A gigantic being was hovering hundreds of meters above him, covered in black scale, his wings covering a portion of the sky, the crimson eyes of the dragon was shining with power, filled with disdain toward everything. Don¡¯t move, don¡¯t breath, don¡¯t move, don¡¯t breath¡­ Lucifer was trying his all to not be any different than a piece of stone to the dragon. He knew about them. Only people with high blessings, divine gears and at least 3 high leveled class could be a match with them. Those people had stats which were close to 4 digits each. Thus, let alone fighting it, if the dragon peed on him he could die. ¡°What the fuck is this place?! A dragon?! Where did Slaughter build her fucking temple?!¡±
System Location unknown to the Host.
¡°¡­¡± Lucifer didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry. Mephis was arguing with the System while he was trying with all his might to be considered as air by the dragon. The dragon drew circles in the sky as if looking for something for few minutes before it ultimately left. However, Lucifer didn¡¯t relax one bit. His danger awareness was still screaming in his head. A minute hadn¡¯t even passed that multiple dragons of different colors flew above him, heading in the same direction as the black dragon. ¡°This¡­ Are dragons a common thing now? I thought they were legendary beings!¡± Lucifer cursed in his mind when he saw them too. A person could consider himself lucky if he saw a dragon in his life and came back alive. However, seeing a plethora of them and staying alive was akin to being Luck herself.
System Luck +1
¡°¡­¡± // ¡°So, did you found out anything?¡± A white-clothed woman asked the standing yellow man in front of her after sipping her drink. ¡°Not really. This new energy is very strange and can challenge our divine power. Furthermore, it seems that it''s growing at a faster rate with each second. By now, it should had gained such a size that there is as much of it as there is of divine power.¡± The white clothed woman face turned grim. What is father thinking? A new energy which can oppose us? ¡°Did you find out if mortals could wield it?¡± ¡°No. It seems that they aren¡¯t compatible with it. The divine power in them seems to prevent it from entering them.¡± This is really strange¡­ Father wouldn¡¯t have created something useless. Humpf, he did give it a try with that little soul but now it''s gone. What can he be planning¡­ ¡°Thanks. You can leave. Tell the others to inform their followers to report to us if they see anyone using unknown energy or magic.¡± ¡°Yes. However, there is another I wish to talk about.¡± ¡°Please speak.¡± The yellow clothed man closed his eyes and reopened them with and a hint of fierceness in them. ¡°This is the first time in history that all gods have a Chosen in the same generation. Though they are still children, I don¡¯t dare to doubt that they will be able to grow. However, Life/Death is still missing. And we know that he also has a Chosen who should be 5 years old by now. He hadn¡¯t chosen a side yet. His power isn¡¯t something we can ignore, we need to hunt down those who belongs to his sect now before it''s too late¡­¡± ¡°No need. Unlike Slaughter, Life/Death is a pacifist. We already killed many members of his church but he didn¡¯t even retaliate, he even fled this realm. We managed to get rid of Slaughter, but killing Life/Death won¡¯t be as easy. We don¡¯t have any idea about his strength either. Though he should be weaker than me, I can¡¯t say that fighting him would result in no casualties.¡±Stolen novel; please report. The white clothed woman gave a meaningful look at the man. The latter¡¯s lips twitch but he didn¡¯t say anything. He just bowed his head and left in a space crack. Being left alone, the white-clothed woman closed her eyes and went slowly to sleep. I¡¯m waiting for your next move, Father. // The sun was setting down in the horizon, leaving the temple ground in the shadows of the trees surrounding it.
System {Stealth} has been successfully learned.
After the dragons left, Lucifer felt, even more, the need to leave this place and find a town or a village. Anything was fine as long as it was far from here. However, Lucifer felt that with his current abilities, everything could kill him here. And in order to leave, he had no other way than passing through the forest. Thus, the only way for him to make it through was to not get discovered by any of those monsters dwelling in there. Hopefully, he remembered the teaching of his father and managed to learn Stealth in few hours. Back then, it took him a week before he learned it, but since he had already grasped how the spell worked, he thought that this was the reason it was easier. ¡°With this, we should have a higher chance of surviving¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± Mephis remained silent for some reason, but Lucifer didn¡¯t mind it, and just tried to cast {Stealth} on himself but nothing happened.
System Host doesn''t have enough mana.
¡°¡­¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t notice but you wasted all our mana with your few attempts¡­ At least you managed to learn the skill, so we can use it without fail now.¡± ¡°This¡­ I didn¡¯t notice but now that you say it¡­ I was able to try more than before. Having 200 mana sure is a different thing¡­ I wonder how much time is needed for my mana to replenish itself.¡±
System 3 hours and 20 minutes are needed for a full recovery.
¡°¡­ The System is quite talkative.¡±
System Host''s devil power is only compatible with me. Other System can''t interact with you. So, the Creator made me your personal assistant.
¡°So that was the reason¡­ But, who is that Creator?¡±
System I can''t answer that question.
Mephis felt dejected when he heard that. He really wanted to know who was behind that name. The one who is supposed to be at the origin of everything. ¡°System¡­ Do you know a way to accelerate the mana recovery?¡±
System I don¡¯t know. Besides few things which the Creator gave me, my knowledge isn¡¯t too different from the Host. I can only advise Host to try to consider mana as devil¡¯s power and try to forcefully suck it from the surrounding. However, I am unable to help you during the process or tell you that it will be successful.
Lucifer wasn¡¯t too satisfied with that answer. He had hoped that he could cheat his way out that situation and have the System teach him skills since it was supposed to be his assistant. ¡°But, what is the difference between you and the others beside the things you said?¡±
System I can answer some of your questions. Systems only speak to their Host when something happened to their status page, no more no less. However, I am different. I am intelligent and can remember for my Host everything for him and answer his questions as long as he heard or knew the answer before. I can also guide him if it is within my capabilities.
Lucifer and Mephis were dumbstruck when they read this. They knew that the System was acting differently compared to their previous life, but they never expected that it would be to that extent. This System would be a great supporting tool for them in the future. Thinking about something, Lucifer sighed again. The night was coming, and he was out of mana. He could already feel the need to eat and drink, but there was nothing he could do about it. ¡°We need to find some fruits. They are our best option right now.¡± Mephis voice responded to his concerns. However, it didn¡¯t change a certain fact. He needed to venture into the forest to find some fruits. Though there was no need to kill them in most cases, if he stumbled upon any kind of monster in there, those fruits would be the death of both of them. ¡°I need to try to recover some mana before. With {Stealth} grade 10, we can use it for an hour or so with 200 mana I think. And we clearly need to be stealthy during the whole process¡­ The moment we run out of mana¡­¡±
System I should remind the Host that {Stealth} grade 10 does make your body invisible but doesn¡¯t erase your breathing, heat, and sound when you will be moving. Thus, monsters who are used to hunt will probably see through it.
¡°¡­¡± ¡°I knew we were in a pinch but this¡­¡± ¡°We gained +1 Luck earlier¡­ Let¡¯s try it out¡­¡±
System If Host intends to go on a suicide mission based on luck, I wish for Host to reconsider.
Lucifer gave a wry smile when he saw this, but he couldn¡¯t hesitate anymore. He sat cross legged and closed his eyes. He needed to be in a calm state and feel his surroundings. He entered a deep state and found himself in the same darkness where he found his soul. However, he wasn¡¯t looking for that. He wished to see every ounce of energy surrounding him. Feel their movements and variation. Until he saw. Three threads of different colors hovering around his body. One was golden, one black and the last one was translucid. He already knew the origin of the black thread, but what he was looking for wasn¡¯t that. He tried to touch the golden thread but felt extreme pain the moment his fingers grazed it. Divine power¡­ I really am not compatible with that. To calm the pain he felt, Lucifer tried to gather some of those black thread into his palm. However, they didn¡¯t act like he wished and instead fled his approaching hand. Flabbergasted, Lucifer looked at his hand and found some faint traces of divine power on his finger trying to enter his body forcefully by preventing the devil¡¯s power from entering and trying to expulse the one that was already within. Lucifer¡¯s soul sent a wave of devil¡¯s power to his hand and completely got rid of any divine power on it. This thing is acting like a corroding poison for me¡­ Lucifer¡¯s eyes flickered with a hint of killing intent. Everything owned by the gods wants me dead¡­ Let¡¯s see who will be killed in the end. The black threads which were reluctant to come near Lucifer¡¯s hand at first suddenly stopped before rushing toward him like hungry wolves on a hopeless lamb.
System Devil¡¯s power increased. 224/999 999 999
System System: Host has learned a new aptitude. Devil Absorption.
Devil Absorption In an ethereal state, the user can speed up his devil¡¯s power regeneration by directly absorbing it. +2 perception
Only this much? Well, the aptitude is great, a gain in perception is very welcomed. This will improve my detection range in the forest and hopefully it would be enough. After regenerating some devil¡¯s power and relieving the pain he felt, Lucifer stretched his hand towards the translucid threads. A very warm feeling invaded his hand as it was being surrounded by those threads.
System Host has learned a new aptitude. Mana Absorption.
Mana Absorption In an ethereal state, the user can speed up his mana recovery by directly absorbing it. +1 perception.
The bonus is weaker¡­ I wonder why Lucifer gathered as much mana as he could. When he opened his eyes, he could see that he had managed to recover most of his mana.
System 164/200 mana.
After stretching his body, Lucifer started to ponder on how he should proceed from here and what he should do if he could manage to get out of this place. ¡°Something¡¯s strange¡­¡± ¡°What is it Mephis?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you notice? When we tried to touch the divine thread, it didn¡¯t run away, however, when we were tainted by it, the devil thread wouldn¡¯t come close to our hand. Don¡¯t you find this strange?¡± ¡°Now that you mention it¡­ System do you know why?¡±
System No.
Looking at his tiny hands, Lucifer tried to find an explanation but couldn¡¯t come up with anything. The only thing I can think of is that it was unnatural. Something or someone must have caused this thread to act strangely. After shaking his head, Lucifer decided to stop thinking about it. I hope that I have enough mana¡­ A thing light veil started to form on his bare skin, turning his body invisible. With determination in his eyes, Lucifer went towards this green maze, under the glimmer of the setting sun. 15 minutes later. Powerful cries could be heard in the vicinity. Two beasts were fighting against each other. On one side was a gigantic silver crystal wolf. Its black fur was harder than steel while looking smoother than silk. White crystals were growing on its back, known for their high density in mana. Those crystals are the reason why those wolves are renowned. Not only are they empowering the wolves by greatly boosting their physical capabilities but they are also known as very good magic resources for alchemists and magic engineering. But, their might made them monsters which monsters which couldn¡¯t be hunted at will. Only very skilled people would dare to come into their territories to kill one. Those wolves would rarely venture alone, and it would be even less likely to find one alone in a dangerous place. However, this wolf had one of its eyes gouged out and blood was coming out from its eye socket and mouth. It had been greatly injured, and there were no signs of one of his kin in the surroundings, meaning that he was most likely alone. But its enemy wasn¡¯t in a better shape as well. The silver crystal wolf was facing a huge azure snake. Its bloodshot eyes were fiercely looking at the silver crystal wolf. Its body had deep wounds which were leaking a greenish smoke and blood. This type of snake usually lives in a region where they could find an abundant amount of water. Their species could use mana and be particularly strong with water and ice magic. Both of those monsters were glaring at each other, waiting for their opponent¡¯s next move to attack. Meanwhile, behind a nearby tree, Lucifer was looking at his mana going down each minute which passed. Please do something! If you guys want to fight, go fight somewhere else!
System I advise the Host to not get found out, otherwise an unwanted situation may arise.
¡°Oh really?!¡± Mephis exasperated voice resounded in Lucifer¡¯s head while the latter was trying his hardest to keep his breathing calm and bend it to the wind. Shut up you two! Beads of sweat were starting to form on Lucifer¡¯s head. Despite the temperature being relatively low and him being naked, his body didn¡¯t feel cold at all, but the complete opposite. He was feeling the abundant amount of mana coming from those two beasts and it was heating up the place. I need to do something¡­ If they decide to come over here and notice my presence, they¡¯ll kill me for sure. However, unknown to Lucifer, those two monsters had already sensed his presence. The only reason he was still alive was because neither of those two monsters could afford to bother about him. They could feel his fear and strength. If they wanted to kill him, it would be only a matter of seconds, however, if one turned around to kill him, the other one would use this opening and strike. Looking at those monsters which hadn¡¯t moved an inch, Lucifer¡¯s expression turned gloomy. He hadn¡¯t even found anything edible yet so his hunger was growing. The system had already told him during their journey here that as a homunculus, he was very humanlike while being entirely different. His body was 6 years old and would stop aging at the age of 25. His blood was more powerful than humans. For those who used blood, the strength of their blood would be essential. The reason was that, when their control would be good enough for them to manipulate others¡¯ blood, they wouldn¡¯t be able to do so one people with blood which is more powerful than theirs. The strength of a blood type depended on the bloodline and the endurance stat points. A human bloodline with 100 endurance would have a weaker blood than a dragon with 100 endurance, by how much, the System didn¡¯t know. And the particularity of the homunculus was that its blood depended on what it could absorb. A homunculus can have multiple bloodlines with the maximum being three. Thus, with his Dragon King bloodline, Lucifer was well off. However, his stats were still too low and he was still too young. In a few words, homunculus could be considered as advanced humans on that aspect. On the other aspect, they could be considered similar. Thus, he could really die of hunger if things went on. Let¡¯s try that¡­ Time was ticking and his mana was running out. With a dried throat, mana started to condense in his hand before taking the shape of a short bow. Chapter 4: Syndra Chapter 4: Mephistopheles¡¯ skill ¡°This is definitely a bad idea¡­ But I somehow like it.¡±
System Probability of Host¡¯s death: above 60%.
¡°I take it back, stop what you¡¯re doing right now!¡± ¡°WE¡¯RE DEAD IF WE STAY HERE WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING!¡± Mephis didn¡¯t respond. No matter how much he disliked Lucifer¡¯s idea, what he said was also true. Though they had no idea that they had already been found out by those two monsters, he knew that if either of them was to kill its enemy and found their whereabouts, they would die the next moment. Creating the short bow through {Mana Creation} reduced Lucifer¡¯s mana pool by quite a considerable amount, however, his choices were limited. Mana started to gather in his other free hand and took the shape of an arrow. This time, the mana required was clearly less than for the short bow, this made him sigh of relief. {Mana Creation} had a consumption which scaled with the object¡¯s size. This was a good news for him, he couldn¡¯t afford to use 30 mana for an arrow. Having finished his preparations, Lucifer started running around those two beasts. His steps were far from being concealed and his actions were easily spotted by the two monsters, but neither of them moved. Lucifer ran until he was behind the azure snake and took a shooting stance. His eyes focused on his target, he aimed at it. Perception was a stat which improved one¡¯s kinetic vision, resistance against illusions, acute vision, and accuracy. It could also influence one¡¯s sixth sense by making it sharper. In normal circumstances, his 25 worth of perceptions wouldn¡¯t be anyway near enough if he wanted to shoot down either one of those monsters. However, they didn¡¯t seem to want to move as they were facing each other, so this situation couldn¡¯t be more favorable for him. After calming his heartbeat, he slowly remembered what his father taught him. A firm grasp of the bow, steady hands, enshrined on the ground, arrow¡¯s tip slightly under the target¡­ And let go. A piercing sound was heard. The azure snake was surprised. The silver crystal wolf was surprised. Both of them had the same. This frail-looking kid dared to attack. Thinking that the arrow was aimed at him, the azure snake hardened his skin, bracing himself for the impact. However, when he saw the arrow go past him, a hint of surprise passed through his eyes, before it was replaced by a vicious light. The arrow was aimed at the silver crystal wolf¡¯s bloody eye socket. Feeling the incoming arrow, the silver crystal wolf¡¯s body trembled slightly before it moved its head to the side to avoid it. It could have easily deflected it, but it was caught off-guard so it could only avoid. However, being distracted for few seconds by this arrow was its mistake. In a flash, the azure snake appeared next to him and bit his neck with all its might. The silver crystal wolf let out a cry of agony. It angrily stared at Lucifer as if wanting to eat him alive with its glare. The wolf opened its jaw and a ball of light flew out from it, aiming at Lucifer. Shit! Before Lucifer could even move, the ball of light was already near him. At that moment, his eyes shifted, the blue one became red while the red one became blue, and the cross on his forehead inverted itself. Mephistopheles had taken control of the body. ¡°{Rift}!¡± A small space crack appeared and collided with the white ball. However, as the space crack only lasted for one second it only reduced the power of the white ball before it impacted with Lucifer¡¯s body. Mephistopheles let out a pained cry as he was blasted away due to the impact. His Devil of Chaos granted him a skill, {Rift}, which could create small space crack that disturbed their surroundings. They could be used either offensively or defensively. However, in order to maintain them, he needed a 100 mana for each second, this was restricting since their mana pool wasn¡¯t that large. The eyes colors shifted again and the cross regained its original form. ¡°AAAhhh!¡± Feeling the scorching pain all over his body, Lucifer greeted his teeth while letting out another cry. His vision was blurry, and his body was not responding as he wished.
System Host¡¯s body in a dangerous state. Recovery needed. Please use your devil¡¯s power to do so.
Seeing this, Lucifer didn¡¯t even think twice about it, and before even a breath of time passed, his body was covered in a black mist. A very pleasant and warm feeling invaded his body. Bit by bit, he could feel his body healing. The few bones which had been broken by the blast reattached themselves, the chaotic bloodstream in his body calmed down, and his ragged breathing slowly regained its normality.
System Host¡¯s body stable again. It is highly recommended to stop the recovery process.
System Warning! Devil¡¯s power reached a critical amount!
In a flash the black mist completely disappeared, leaving a sweating Lucifer with his eyes fixed on the blue screens as if he had seen a dancing goblin¡¯s ghost. Holy shit! I only have 20 left! I nearly died there! The healing process felt so good that he had forgotten about the fact that his soul would crumble if he ever ran out of devil¡¯s power.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. As Lucifer was trying regaining his calm, a huge figure slowly approached him, until it stopped only a few meters in front of his, staring at Lucifer with its eyes. Oh shit! I forgot about you! Remembering that there was a beast left, Lucifer¡¯s heartbeat started to accelerate once again. ¡°I-I...¡± Lucifer tried to speak but couldn¡¯t say any more. ¡°You smell like one of our kin¡­ What are you kid?¡± The wounded and bleeding azure snake stared at him with a cold glare, ready to attack him if Lucifer was to move in a suspicious manner. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­¡± ¡°How? Don¡¯t you know your race?¡± ¡°My bloodline is¡­ a bit special¡­ I only know that I¡¯m 5% dragon¡­¡± Hearing Lucifer¡¯s words, the azure snake hissed before getting close to Lucifer again. Smelling the strong scent of blood coming from the azure snake, Lucifer¡¯s mind turned a bit dizzy.
System Skill learned. {Blood Domain}
Blood Domain Grade 10 The blood of those you killed an area of twenty meters from you will empower you. +5% to all your stats per liters of blood, -10% mana required to manipulate blood.
Lucifer had no time to enjoy this news, a huge snake was ten centimeters away from his face and could eat him alive at any time. ¡°Dragon huh¡­ So that was that¡­ It seems you don¡¯t have the usual dragon bloodline too¡­ Speak!¡± ¡°Ye-yes! I have a dragon king bloodline¡­¡± ¡°You¡­¡± The azure snake was dumbstruck. It looked at Lucifer while thinking of something before it spoke to him once more. ¡°Kid, as you helped me before, I won¡¯t treat you badly. Come with me.¡± The azure snake raised its head, before turning away, seemingly anxious to depart. Lucifer swallowed his saliva after a huge effort. He got up on his feet and slowly walked toward the azure snake. At this moment something entered his line of sight. ¡°Hum, please wait a moment mister!¡± Lucifer went toward a humongous tree which had little rosy leaves and started to climb it. Looking at the little boy using its tiny hands and feet to climb such a huge tree made the azure snake chuckle. When Lucifer finally reached a decent height, his body was covered in light wounds it didn¡¯t bother him. He carefully selected a tree branch before going on it. Mana started to condense in his hand and took the shape of a little ax before he swung it down at the branch. His {Mana Creation} skill being still low grade, couldn¡¯t be used to form powerful weapons, thus it took a bit of time before Lucifer finally managed to cut down the branch. But before Lucifer gave the final swing, a blue screen popped in front of him.
System I wish to question Host¡¯s intelligence. As Host is currently on the branch, if it were to fall down, with Host being unable to fly or reduce the speed of his fall, cutting it like this is not the wisest idea.
As he didn¡¯t want to make a fool of himself, Lucifer wanted to get back on the trunk before delivering the last blow. However, when he tried to move away from his position, a cracking sound was heard, before Lucifer saw the ground approaching at a terrifying speed. Lucifer closed his eyes and braced himself for the incoming impact, but it never came. When he opened his eyes again, he realized that he was on the head of the azure snake. ¡°What are you doing kid?¡± ¡°Hu- Thanks¡­ I wanted to get a branch from this tree¡­ My memories are a bit fuzzy but I know that the sap of the chrysie tree can be used as an ointment to prevent wounds from getting infected¡­¡± Hearing the sincere tone of Lucifer¡¯s voice, the azure snake burst out of laughing. ¡°Kid, I don¡¯t know what you are trying to do here but l can tell you that I know you lied to me when you talked about having a fuzzy memory. I won¡¯t try to know your past since I don¡¯t care, however, if you try to lie to me again it won¡¯t end well for you¡­ However, I¡¯m grateful that you are concerned about my injuries but they will heal by themselves with time.¡± ¡°I-I see¡­ But, mister should still let me treat them, self-regeneration can¡¯t prevent a disease from entering your body!¡± Though Lucifer had been found out, he couldn¡¯t let this chance go. He didn¡¯t know why, but the azure snake seemed to see him in a favorable light, and if he could prove himself useful, it could help him back find a way out of this forest safely. ¡°Humpf! Do as you wish!¡± After the snake hissed those words, it let Lucifer climb down from its head with his branch in his hands. Lucifer had to use his {Mana Absorption} for some time since he was running out of it after multiples use of {Mana Creation}. After extracting the sap, Lucifer looked around for some clean and long leaves and covered them with the sap. Although the sap should be mixed with other ingredients, he couldn¡¯t afford to look for them now since he didn¡¯t know if he could find them in the first place here. He put the leaf covered in sap on the wounds of the azure snake, while the latter was looking at him with a surprised look. When he finished, the azure snake took him on his head again before moving toward an unknown location. ¡°Hum¡­ Mister snake¡­ What do you want to do with me?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll feed you to my child of course.¡± The face of Lucifer became pale in fright. Didn¡¯t you say that you wouldn¡¯t treat me badly? What is that then?! Kindness? As if it read Lucifer¡¯s mind, the azure snake began to laugh. ¡°I was just joking¡­ You look human but aren¡¯t one and furthermore, you have such a strong bloodline, I¡¯m more interested in having you as my son than a dinner¡­¡± Hearing his words, Lucifer wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and thanked karma for not messing with him. ¡°However¡­ It still depends if you¡¯re willing¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m willing!¡± Being the child of an azure snake? This kind of outcome wouldn¡¯t have crossed his mind before, but it was clearly worth it. ¡°Good¡­ Kid, do you have a name?¡± ¡°Yes, my name is Lucifer.¡± ¡°Not a bad name. Mine is Syndra. Did your parents abandoned you here?¡± ¡°No¡­ I don¡¯t know how I ended up here¡­ I was brought here without knowing anything.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re an orphan¡­ You can call me mother in the future, you a noble blood flowing in your vein so you¡¯re not unworthy.¡± Sadness was visible in Lucifer¡¯s eyes when he heard her last word before it was replaced by surprised. ¡°You-you are a mom-¡° Feeling the rising killing intent, Lucifer shut his mouth with his two hands. He couldn¡¯t see the eyes of the azure snake but he was sure that it was the kind which could kill just by looking at it. ¡°Oh¡­ Am I lacking in a feminine way?¡± ¡°N-No! Just that¡­ I heard that azure snakes were mostly male¡­ Because female azure snakes¡­¡± ¡°Are crazy? Humpf! We¡¯re not crazy, we just kill those bastards who only think about different women!¡± This was a fact that Lucifer knew. Female azure snake hated the male ones because they were all Casanovas. It wasn¡¯t strange for one to kill her mate because she found him cheating on her. Gale told him that only those who had power could afford multiple women, however, before he could tell him the reason why, his mother was behind him, a smile which wasn¡¯t one on her face as her eyes were knifing him alive. Thus, Lucifer¡¯s knowledge about a man and a woman relationship was insignificant. At best, he knew about friendship at some point, though he hadn¡¯t experienced that feeling at that time, but for everything else, he was completely oblivious. ¡°Why do they chase after multiple women? From my memories, my father was happy with my mother.¡± ¡°Because they can¡¯t keep their needs in check.¡± ¡°Needs?¡± ¡°You¡¯re too young to know¡­¡± Lucifer stopped asking and stayed silent. He looked in front of him as they moved through, thinking about nothing and everything. Until a matter came up. ¡°Mephis!¡± ¡°Hum?¡± ¡°Thanks for earlier¡­ You switched with me and¡­¡± ¡°Are you stupid? If you die I die, we are in the same body!¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s true¡­ But, without you, I¡¯d still be dead¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mind that¡­ Now we have some backup plan to go through this thing. But it really is a pity that we didn¡¯t get the finishing blow on the silver crystal wolf¡­ We would have leveled up quite a lot. And we might have unlocked the hunter class too.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Let¡¯s try it another time!¡± ¡°¡­ Kill me now¡­¡± A smirk appeared on Lucifer¡¯s face, teasing Mephis had become something he could do every day without getting tired of it. *growl* An unnatural sound resounded in the forest as if a monster was waging war against something. Syndra turned her head and looked at Lucifer with eyes full of disbelief. She just couldn¡¯t comprehend how such a small body could release such a terrifying sound. ¡°Ahum¡­ Well¡­ I am hungry¡­¡± With his eyes cast down and an embarrassed face, Lucifer looked like a little puppy who needed help, which made the impression Syndra had of him turn even more ridicule. An inheritor of the Dragon King looking as harmless as a cloud is dying of hunger on my head¡­ This kid is something. Chapter 5: First kills Lucifer soundly sleeping on Syndra¡¯s head. After looking for a while, they came across many fruits. Although some of them were poison to a normal human, Lucifer¡¯s body just went through a period of pain before being able to eat them as he wished. This was possible with the aptitude he gained after eating them: {Low Poison Resistance}. It didn¡¯t raise any of his stats but it meant that is body could handle most of the low leveled poison. At first, when Lucifer saw the System informing him about his new aptitude he nearly fainted on the spot. Syndra was the one who advised him to eat those fruits and when he felt his stomach burning in pain, she justified herself by saying that if he couldn¡¯t handle those things at his age, he wouldn¡¯t amount to much later and would die of hunger since most of the fruits in this forest could be considered poisonous for him. Hopefully, he managed to survive this ordeal and get the aptitude which will help him eating in the future. When he woke up, he found himself in a cave, faintly lit by the glimmer of the moonlight. Everything was barely visible for him right now.
System New aptitude acquired: {Night Vision}.
{Night Vision} Allow the user to see like in daylight as long as there is a source of light which isn¡¯t dimmer than that of the moon. Perception +2.
The surrounding suddenly lit up around him, and he could see what was around him without any trouble. Seeing this new aptitude, Lucifer was quite shocked. Normally aptitudes would only be obtained when through strenuous effort or by following a particular lifestyle. However, he obtained a new one like he just found a stone on the street. Although it surprised him, he wouldn¡¯t complain, {Night Vision} was something every hunter would want. At night, most monsters would need to rest and thus lower their guard. This was the best moment to hunt since some monsters didn¡¯t have {Night Vision}, their sense would be numb from their drowsiness and he could sneak up to them to give them a fatal blow. But, without {Night Vision}, he¡¯d be as blind as them and would need to use a torch or fire magic to lit up his way. However, these things will obviously inform his prey about his whereabouts. Looking around him, he found out that Syndra had encircled him with another egg with her body, and was sleeping with her eyes faintly closed. The egg was as big as Lucifer¡¯s leg and had a dark blue color. Thinking that it was the child Syndra was talking about, Lucifer didn¡¯t bother with it anymore. He extended his tiny hand on Syndra¡¯s body, he used his strength to pull himself up and started climbing her body. When he reached the top, he jumped on the other side before going out to explore the surrounding. His goal was simple, train and get the hunter class. In his past life, Gale started his training when he was 6, so he should know be able to do it. And since his stats were way better than before, he could even hope for doing multiple sessions in a row whereas he had to take multiple breaks between and during each session. Following the moonlight, Lucifer easily found the entrance of the cave and was able to exit the cave. He didn¡¯t want his training to wake Syndra up, so he decided to do it outside. When he went out, he found out that the cave entrance was facing a huge grassland while the back of the cave faced the forest from which they came from. Am I¡­ Am I out the forest? This was what he wanted, leave the forest. He wished to leave the forest and find out a race¡¯s settlement as a starter for his long way for revenge. However, for some reason, his feet weren¡¯t moving forward. He knew the reason, himself. Today he saw how weak he was. He was way stronger than the 10 years old him back then, but he was nothing in this world. He wanted to torture the gods but he couldn¡¯t even deal with a silver crystal wolf. Hunting and leveling up here were out of the question, but in the grassland, he might find some prey which he could deal with. Looking at his mana pool, Lucifer let out a sigh of relief. It had replenished and was full again. However, his devil¡¯s power had barely recovered. So, he sat down and started absorbing the devil¡¯s power in the surrounding before setting out for his hunt. ¡°Luc, we should save about a hundred mana points in case something unexpected happens. My {Rift} can reduce the damage from an incoming attack and save us. Though we¡¯re in a grassland and shouldn¡¯t get sneak attacked with {Night Vision}, we have no idea about what type of monsters there are in there.¡± After recovering about 200 hundred devil¡¯s power, Mephis¡¯ voice resounded in Luc¡¯s head. ¡°You¡¯re right¡­ Your chaos ability is really useful, whereas mine needs me to be bleeding to be of any use¡­ And I¡¯m scared to think about how much mana point it will consume¡­ Besides {Mana Creation} and {Stealth}, our skills have a high consumption rate.¡± This was something he came across in his past life, the lack of mana. The hunter class wasn¡¯t a mana based class so his mana pool was raised by one point for each level he gained. This was something that burdened him. The fact that he didn¡¯t have any blessing also meant that he didn¡¯t have any bonus stats point when he leveled up. He only gained 3 stats point for each level, whereas his father who had a low blessing gained 5 stats points for each level he gained. On the long run, he was doomed to be left behind by everyone. He couldn¡¯t strengthen his body as fast as others, he couldn¡¯t wield divine power and he ran out of mana after few skills. ¡®I don¡¯t have enough mana.¡¯ This sentence was something he said way too many times. Thus, right now he very wished to unlock a mana based class, but without anyone to bestow one upon him and being completely clueless about how to obtain one, he could only focus on getting the hunter class and level up to extend his mana pool. There were three things he needed: stats points, mana, and skills. His eyes filled with determination, Lucifer gazed at the grassland in front of him. Feeling the breeze of the night on his skin, mana started to seep out from his body, before covering it and making it translucid before turning it completely invisible. And as the wind blew, his body was running in the grass at full speed, looking for a suitable prey for him. And his wish came true. After running in a straight line in order to not get himself lost in the grassland, Lucifer found a group of vicious coyotes roaming in the grassland, probably looking for small monsters to fill their stomach. Vicious coyotes had levels which were around 20 in general. They were several times weaker than a silver crystal wolf which level would be in the eighties. The leader of the pack could be in the thirties sometimes late thirties. And the group in front of Lucifer was composed of 5 of them. He wasn¡¯t stupid enough to take on all of them when he was naked and without a reliable weapon. {Mana Creation} was really handy but he was limited by his mana pool. If he ran out of mana, he would die the next moment. Thus, he needed to find a way to deal with them without having to face them head on. However, it could be said that the grassland was an advantage and a disadvantage for him at that moment. With {Night Vision} he had a full grasp of what was happening around him, but he couldn¡¯t hide as well. And if he started attacking, his stealth would become useless. He could deal a preemptive blow at best but would have to deal with the five of them at the next moment. Therefore, there was only one possibility for him if he wanted to deal with them. A trap. ¡°A trap? With what? We don¡¯t even have the materials to build one and by the time we are done they will have already left. And we don¡¯t know where they are going so we can¡¯t even build a pit ahead of them.¡± Mephis was totally unconvinced. However, his arguments weren¡¯t baseless. Lucifer didn¡¯t have anything besides his body to build a trap and successfully predicting the path of the pack is very unlikely since he doesn¡¯t know where they are going. However, Lucifer didn¡¯t care. He was willing to wait for his revenge but wasn¡¯t willing to take the easy and long way. If he could shorten it anyhow, he¡¯d do it. The difference between him and the gods was way too huge. He couldn¡¯t even amount to one of the apostles, let alone compare to a god. Thinking about this, an unrestrained killing intent surged from his body as a long translucid bow appeared in his hand. When it fully formed, he created an arrow and directly shot it towards one of the vicious coyotes. The arrow created through his {Mana Creation} were weaker than common arrows since the skill was only in the 10th grade, thus when the arrow hit the fur of the coyote, only the edge of the arrow managed to penetrate its skin. Seeing this, the corner of Lucifer¡¯s mouth twitched. The coyotes quickly found Lucifer who was standing dozens of meters away on a small hill. Gritting their teeth, their eyes were filled with bloodlust and killing intent before they started running towards Lucifer. The latter didn¡¯t move and create a small dagger in his left hand before cutting his palm with it. His blood was dripping down on the ground. He let it drop for a moment before he created another arrow which he covered with his blood. I can¡¯t control my blood if it too far, so I need them to get closer. Readying his bow, he stood there, in a shooting stance, waiting for the vicious coyotes to get closer. The coyotes weren¡¯t stupid and clearly saw that he was ready to shoot, but judging from the previous shot, they thought that at best they would suffer from superficial wounds, thus, they didn¡¯t hesitate and kept running towards him. He was alone, there was 5 of them. He was weak, they were strong. They could only win and kill him. When they entered the ten meters range, Lucifer¡¯s breath started to quickened. A bloody light appeared in the dark night as it pierced through the body of the slightly injured coyote. It was so fast that the coyote had just enough time to move his head to not get a headshot and die one the spot. Looking at their kin lying on the ground, blood seeping from his body at an alarming rate, the coyotes were shocked. They had thoroughly underestimated their enemy¡¯s power. However, it couldn¡¯t be considered as them being careless for no reason, a 6-year-old looking human wielding a bow who previously shot at them and barely made a superficial wound couldn¡¯t be regarded as strong. However, during those seconds of thinking, Lucifer ran straight at them with his palm extended. The bloody arrow which was still in the body of the coyote moved around his body, completely destroying his organs and killing him. ¡°{Blood Domain}!¡± A coyote had few liters of blood in his body, thus Lucifer perceived an increase of 12% in his stats, however, he also saw his mana pool being rapidly drained. Activating {Blood Domain} and using {Blood Control} and {Mana Creation} at the same time was way too consuming. Feeling that Lucifer was getting dangerously closer to them, the coyotes regained their wits and prepared themselves to fight. But, when they turned their head and focused their attention on Lucifer, the bloody arrow came out of the dead body of the coyote and went straight at the rear of another one of them. A painful cry resounded in the grassland as the coyote could feel his backside being invaded by the arrow, piercing everything in its way. The other coyote couldn¡¯t afford to take care of their brother and went straight at Lucifer, hoping to kill him quickly and put an end to this. One of the coyotes jumps and bit Lucifer¡¯s shoulder nearly tearing it. Lucifer let out a cry as the pain runs through his whole body. With his other arm, he swings a bloody knife at the coyote who is biting him. The latter dodge by releasing his grip and jumping back. Seeing the mess which his shoulder had become, a drop of sweats started to appear on Lucifer¡¯s face. Soon enough, the blood coming out from his wound started to gather on his other hand to form a spear. With his left shoulder broken, he could only use his right arm at the moment. However, two of the five coyotes had become bloody corpses and were passively strengthening Lucifer. With one of his minds focused on maintaining the blood spear which was the biggest thing he ever created, the blood arrow and everything else had dissipated. The three remaining coyotes encircled Lucifer and walked in a circle, seemingly looking for an opening to jump at him. One of them suddenly jumped at him, aiming for his already broken shoulder, in order tear it down completely. Lucifer thrust his spear at the incoming coyote leaving his back open for the other two. The coyote dodged his attack and backed while the other two lacerated his back before backing away and encircling him again. A burning pain invaded his back as his wounds were severely bleeding.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. They were aiming to make a mess out of him by letting drown in own blood like he did with their two brothers. Lucifer gritted his teeth as the pain he felt was a first-time experience for him. Hopefully this body had extremely good stats, to begin with, otherwise, he¡¯ would have fainted from the pain. The blood spear in his hand dissolved itself and formed a pool of blood around him with the blood coming from his injuries on his back. Thinking that Lucifer had been seriously weakened, the coyotes didn¡¯t even think twice about it before jumping at him at the same for the kill. They couldn¡¯t let him the opportunity to recover. However, when their claws were about to tear Lucifer apart, the latter¡¯s eyes became slit like those of a snake and spikes of blood emerged from the ground and pierced the three of them. What was left was only a bloody mess with Lucifer in the middle, his body covered in blood, his eyes were looking down on the coyotes with a satisfied expression in them. The pain he felt was still piercing his mind, but instead of the pained expression which was on his face earlier, a crooked smile was visible on his face.
System Dragon¡¯s bloodline triggered. Awakening on hold until the Host¡¯s condition stabilize.
System Host successfully shot down his target. Host successfully managed to kill stronger opponents. Host successfully led his targets into a trap. Host¡¯s dexterity with the bow matches the requirement. Hunter class unlocked.
System Host failed to kill his target with a single thrust. ???. ???. ???. ??? class still locked.
System Host¡¯s Devil of Slaughter class leveled up 4 times.
System Host¡¯s Devil of Chaos class leveled up 3 times.
System Host¡¯s Devil of Origin class leveled up once.
System Host has 68 unallocated stats points. Please select which stats you wish to upgrade.
System Host¡¯s body in a critical state, Host¡¯s body will forcefully recover.
When Lucifer saw the last message, his vision turned black and he lost consciousness. The rays of sunlight were the one who woke Lucifer up. When he came back to his senses, he could feel the weariness of his body due to the fight the other night. However, what surprised him was that he found himself back in the cave.
System Dragon King¡¯s bloodline awakening completed. {Dragonification} available. Beware this skill consume devil¡¯s power.
Dragonification Grade 10 Double the user¡¯s stats and triple his mana pool. Dragon related skills can be used if learned. Duration 5 minutes, cooldown time 12hours. Fury can be consumed each time a Dragon related skill is used.
Fury Close combat related class required to gain some. Can be used to give a slight boost to skills.
The surprise he received earlier became nothing compared to what he was seeing in front of him. Holy potatoes! This is crazy! If Gods could be said to be at the origin of divine power, a dragon could be said to be at the origin of mana. Their mana pool was endless and the strength of their skill is said to have attained the legendary grade 0 which no member of the race could attain. ¡°You scared? Look at our mana pool.¡± Hearing Mephistopheles¡¯ voice in his head, Lucifer opened his status page and checked his mana pool. When he saw it, he sucked a breath of cold air. 390¡­ Just how much do I gain when I level up?
System Answering Host, Devil of Slaughter class grant the Host 12 unallocated stats point and extend the mana pool by 20 points for each level up. Devil of Chaos class doesn¡¯t grant the Host any stats points but extend the mana pool by 20 points for each level up. Devil of Origin class grants the Host 20 unallocated stats point and extend the mana pool by 50 points for each level up.
This is¡­ ¡°Insane. If we manage to raise Devil of Origin to level 10 we will gain an additional 400 mana points¡­ And here we were complaining about our lack of mana!¡± Lucifer was extremely happy when he thought about it. His level was far below his deceased father but his mana was already way over him. We may really have a chance to kill them¡­
System May I remind the Host that he killed 5 monsters which were 15 levels or more above him and only leveled up less than ten times in total?
Thinking about this detail again, Lucifer¡¯s expression turned gloomy. He risked his life in order to get stronger and get stronger. But the ratio between the risks taken and the rewards was scary for him. It only meant that in the future, he could level up only if he went through a deadlier situation.
System I strongly recommend the Host to not rush and take his time. This method sure is faster but the probability of the Host keeping his life by the end of the year is 0.
¡­ You have so little faith in me¡­
System Host is misunderstanding. I am completely aware of Host¡¯s capabilities, however, if I follow Host¡¯s train of thoughts, Host would end up facing silver crystal wolves as if they were common monsters by the time he reaches level 10 with Devil of Origin. And, by all means, overestimating one¡¯s capabilities is a mistake I¡¯d like the Host to avoid making. Host had already been lucky enough that those vicious coyotes didn¡¯t use any magic and decided to try to finish you off with physical attacks, otherwise, Host would have met a terrible ending.
Sighing, Lucifer could only agree with the System¡¯s word. He couldn¡¯t recklessly try to outdo stronger opponent before stumbling upon an impossible fight. Leaving this matter aside, Lucifer focused on his unallocated stats point. After thinking for a moment, he allocated his stats points in a way which will benefit his hunter class the most. He knew that he failed to complete a condition related to another class related to the spear but he couldn¡¯t afford to focus on a weapon he barely knows anything about. Status
Name Lucifer Title(s) The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck, TheFallen,
Class(es) Devil of Slaughter lv.5; Devil of Chaos (locked); Devil of Origin lv.2; Hunter lv.1 Bloodline Homunculus (??%), Dragon King (7%)
Sigil(s) No followers
Mana 390/390
Divine Power - Devil''s power 14/999 999 999
Intelligence 30 Luck 0
Widsom 20 Magic Mana Creation (Grade 10:86%);Blood Control (Grade 10; 34%); Sigil (Grade 1: Maxed); Stealth (Grade 10: 94%); Dragonification (Grade 10: 0%); Blood Domain (Grade 10; 21%)
Endurance 35 Aptitude Adversary, Adept of Blood, Will of the Devil, Devil Absorption (Perception +2), Mana Absorption (Perception +1), Night Vision (Perception +2); Low Poison resistance
Agility 50 Strength 40
Dexterity 40 Perception 35 +5
Charisma 57 Fury 0/100
Looking at his stats, Lucifer had a wide smile on his face. He was a little surprise seeing that his dragon''s blood had gained in density but thought that the awakening was the cause. However, seeing his devil''s power being so low he could feel cold beads of sweats on his back. ¡°Oh, I wonder what is making you so happy after nearly losing your life in the grassland?¡± Hearing the tone full of anger of Syndra behind him, Lucifer¡¯s body trembled. He was 80% sure that it was Syndra who found him in the grassland and brought him back here, and though he didn¡¯t know what he had done wrong, he knew that he was in for trouble. ¡°Sy-Syndra¡­¡± Turning his head slowly to face her, he met with the deathly glare from the azure snake. ¡°Mo-Mother¡­¡± Though the word was a little hard for him to pronounce, he needed to try anything within his grasp to sooth her. And it worked. This simple word made Syndra look at him as if he was a bullied child who needed his mother protection, but thinking about the fact that this child killed 5 vicious coyotes the other night in a deathly battle with a 6-year-old body, her glare became sharp again. ¡°Now you see as a mother? Humpf, then why did you leave without permission in the middle of the night?¡± Lucifer was flabbergasted. He just didn¡¯t expect that she would have been angry because he slipped out of the cave without telling her. ¡°I wanted to train¡­¡± With his eyes cast down, he looked like a little puppy which longed to be hugged. This image dealt a severe blow to Syndra¡¯s mother heart. Her child hadn¡¯t even been born yet, and she longed for the moment she would be able to spoil her. Letting out a sigh, she looked at Lucifer, blaming with her eyes. ¡°You could have trained without risking your life. Just because you got a little stomachache yesterday you are going to throw away your life?¡± ¡°N-No¡­¡± ¡°Humpf! No lunch for you! You can go out and try your luck! And don¡¯t even think about going to the grassland!¡± Hearing her words Lucifer shivered. If he couldn¡¯t go to the grassland, this only meant that he had to go towards the forest. This meant only one thing. His death. ¡°M-Mother, please¡­ I won¡¯t do it again! Forgive me¡­¡± Though she could feel the reluctance in his voice and a lack of sincerity, Syndra felt that it was better than nothing. Her tail threw a branch full of beautiful white berries in front of Lucifer. The latter paled when he saw those berries. They were the cause of his stomachache the day before. Although he could eat them now with less trouble, he could still remember his stomach tightening and cursing at him for being stupid enough to have eaten that. However, he couldn¡¯t argue for more and started to eat the fruits reluctantly. When he was done, he went out of the cave, and this time he stayed in front of the entrance. Lucifer¡¯s goal for today was to develop his body and forge his first bow with real arrows. It would reduce the amount of mana spent in his fights. After stretching his sore body, Lucifer started to begin his training by doing laps around the cave. Looking at him, Syndra was silently happy. She secretly left this place and went toward the forest. When she arrived at her destination, she was greeted by a pitch-black snake with golden eyes. A terrifying aura was emanating from the black snake, an aura befitting of an absolute ruler. ¡°So, how is that kid?¡± ¡°He looks like you. Stupid and reckless but knows how to act cute when he needs it.¡± ¡°Jokes aside, is he truly my descendant?¡± ¡°Yes. He awakened yesterday. Though I don¡¯t know the origin of the mist which surrounds his body each time he hurt himself, the purity of his mana and the smell of his blood is very similar to yours.¡± ¡°Impossible¡­ I can¡¯t have any children, and the Creator knows how much I tried to have at least one!¡± ¡°Humpf!¡± If there was something Syndra hated in the black snake character, it was his unconditional love for women. ¡°Sigh, I have already lost my position, thus it doesn¡¯t matter¡­ Hey, I got an idea, you decided to adopt this child but since he possess my blood shouldn¡¯t I help you?¡± Syndra¡¯s eyes flashed with killing intent. She was not a match for the black snake, far from it. She couldn¡¯t even withstand one of his blow, but, she could not allow herself to love more than one man in her life. ¡°In your dreams! You can come and see him and tutor for all that matters but you can forget about touching me, if you dare try, I would kill myself on the spot!¡± ¡°Calm down! I was joking! Why are you always on the edge¡­ However, you got a great idea there, I will train him, but not now. He¡¯s too young, he should enjoy the pleasure from being taken care of by his lovely mother.¡± ¡°He is currently doing body fitness in front of the cave right now. And he has a hard time seeing me as his mother.¡± ¡°¡­ Are you sure he is a kid?¡± ¡°You only realize that now? A 6year-old boy facing 5 vicious coyotes can be considered as a kid but you only doubt that fact when I say he is training?!¡± ¡°I was also looking for fights when I was younger¡­¡± Syndra gave the black snake a glare. Her beautiful eyes, filled with disdain, made the black snake feel the absurdity of what he just said. After coughing dryly, the black snake evaded her gaze. ¡°Nonetheless, he is sure a strange boy. Are you sure you can¡¯t tell his other bloodlines?¡± ¡°No. I don¡¯t have the appraisal skill and with what I smelled, he is not human, neither a beast man, demon or vampire and it is impossible for him to be a titan.¡± The black snake eyes shone with a strange light. As if remembering something. ¡°This was here place after all¡­¡± Muttering something, the black snake eyes shone with delight. ¡°He really is my son if that is the case¡­ But how did she do it?¡± ¡°You know who the mother is?¡± The black snake nodded slightly. ¡°I am not sure, but it is the only possibility I can think of. However, it doesn¡¯t make much sense¡­¡± ¡°Why? You don¡¯t remember screwing her?¡± ¡°No! I never fucked her, to begin with!¡± ¡°I see¡­ So she was the one who pushed you down?¡± ¡°Humpf! We never had that kind of relationship. I mean, no one could take on a woman like her¡­¡± ¡°Then, how was he born?¡± ¡°No idea.¡± ¡°So, you desired a child for dozens of years and when you managed to have one you abandoned him and his mother, furthermore, you had no idea about it?¡± ¡°This¡­ sounds strange. As I said, she must have conceived it somehow, I wasn¡¯t aware of it¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care. He is mine now, I¡¯ll take care of him.¡± ¡°¡­So¡­ I can see him?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The black snake¡¯s eyes lit up before his expression turned gloom again. His appearance could be maintained for a year at most before he turns back to his original appearance. And when he¡¯ll turn back, he¡¯ll be chased all around the world by them. Although he finally managed to have a son, he would never be accepted by them since his origin were unclear. And if his mother was the one he was thinking of, they would kill him before he grew up. ¡°Let¡¯s go. I want to see him now.¡± Syndra didn¡¯t bother responding. She just turned her body and went toward the cave. She didn¡¯t want him to taint the pure little boy with his dirty mind but she couldn¡¯t say no. If the black snake wished to see him, she couldn''t do anything about it, and he the little boy was his child somehow, thus, she just conceded in her mind. At least, Lucifer was still a child so she thought that he wouldn¡¯t be interested in the wicked interest of his father. // When she came back with the black snake, they found a little red haired boy doing pushups in front of the cave. When Lucifer saw Syndra he ran at her and gave her a hug with his small arms. ¡°Mother are you still mad at me?¡± Although his voice was still shaking, Lucifer tried to consider her as his mother. Unbeknownst to him, he very wished for her to be his mother. He had one before, but couldn¡¯t feel the warmness of having. His memories were only memories, he could try to feel that feeling, but couldn¡¯t do it perfectly. Besides the hatred and pain which were easily felt, the joy and everything else was frail. This made a hole in his heart. A hole he unconsciously wished to fill. Syndra¡¯s gaze soften when she heard his words. ¡°No, but you have to promise me that you won¡¯t try this again. Vicious coyotes are far from being the strongest in the grassland. You¡¯d die if you face a wandering titan.¡± ¡°Titan?¡± ¡°They are huge human shaped beast, boy.¡± The black tired of being ignored spoke out and finally made his presence clear. He could clearly see that the two of them weren¡¯t that close yet, but the little boy was slowing trying to shorten the distance between them and it was facilitated with Syndra entering her motherhood recently. Noticing the ominous black snake, Lucifer¡¯s heart stopped. All his senses were telling him that he was too strong. His all body was trembling as it held on Syndra tighter. He already felt a similar aura. The aura he felt back at the temple when the black dragon was hovering above his head while he was trying to make himself nonexistent to them. ¡°Draw back your aura, you¡¯re scaring the kid.¡± Syndra gave a hateful glare towards the black snake. She could feel Lucifer¡¯s body trembling from fear. ¡°Sorry, little one. My name is Vel, you can call me uncle if you want.¡± Trying to give his best smile, Vel was displaying his sharp teeth for Lucifer to see. The latter was frightened by their length and could only think about how easy it would be for Vel to just stab him to death. Chapter 6: Staff Armageddon A week has passed since Vel and Lucifer met. It took few hours before Lucifer managed to calm down in front of Vel after the latter introduced himself. Although it could have taken much less time, Vel couldn¡¯t help himself but tease Lucifer from time to time despite being reprimanded by Syndra. Afterward, Vel offered his help to train Lucifer. Lucifer felt goosebumps on his skin when Vel said that but accepted under the encouraging gaze of Syndra. And, he thoroughly regretted that the very next day. The ¡®training¡¯ Vel made for him was everything but that. For a whole week, he had to go in and out of the forest in order to find some weird plants left and right while fleeing from any creatures he encountered on his path. The first monster he encountered besides Vel, Syndra and the dead silver crystal wolf was a golden furred ape. He had no idea about what type of monster it was neither about how much strength they possessed and their average level. He wouldn¡¯t have bothered with it if it wasn¡¯t sitting on the nebula petunia he had to bring back. Lucifer could feel the pressure emanating from the beast and couldn¡¯t think that he could kill it. But he just needed to distract it and lead it far away from the nebula petunia to collect it. Thus, he thought about using his blood to bait it outside. Though apes weren¡¯t famous for being a carnivore, the scent of blood would pick his interest and force them to check if everything was alright. This was a complete blunder. When he gathered his mana to form a dagger, the golden-furred ape sensed it and released a powerful cry before chasing him. That day, if it wasn¡¯t for the surrounding trees obstructing his path and Lucifer recent level ups, he wouldn¡¯t have managed to leave the forest before being caught. As soon as he left the forest he called for Syndra and Vel with all his might. Vel came at once and released his aura, scaring the shit out of ape which ran back from where he came from. Syndra cursed at Vel for half a day for asking Lucifer to collect a flower which was very emphasized by the strong beast for its effects on stabilizing their mana and accelerating their recovery process by at least two folds. When Lucifer heard this, his eyes shined but quickly became dim when he heard that a very severe backlash would happen if anyone with an endurance below 200 were to consume it directly. 200 endurance wasn¡¯t something he was remotely close to, so he could just give up. His mood became slightly better when he thought that he couldn¡¯t obtain some in the first place since monsters like the golden furred ape were guarding the place where you could find some. Nonetheless, after running for his life for a whole week, his {Stealth} had ranked up and became grade 9. It could slightly reduce his presence beside turning him invisible. By reducing the sound he made while moving and breathing, though he couldn¡¯t sneak up on anything in the forest, it was sufficient to allow him to move freely as long as he stayed far away from any monster. {Mana Creation} ranked up also. The mana required to create things increased, which made Lucifer¡¯s mouth twitched, but the durability and toughness of things he created also increased. At the same time, Lucifer discovered that the {Magic Arrow} skill, which every hunter should acquire once they got their class, was absorbed by the {Mana Creation} skill. This was simply because {Magic Arrow} was a way weaker version of {Mana Creation}. Besides those facts, Mephistopheles and Lucifer came to an agreement which would be that they will switch before going to sleep. The reason was simple: Mephistopheles was laughing his ass off while watching Lucifer running away for his life. Things would be different if there weren¡¯t Vel and Syndra to save them just in case, but since he knew that as long as Lucifer managed to flee everything would be fine, he didn¡¯t restrain himself from laughing. However, Lucifer quickly got tired of it and switched with him. It has to be known that Mephistopheles was aiming to be a skill caster instead of going for a more physical approach like Lucifer, he raised his stats accordingly. Though they shared the same body, besides their starting stats and their class/aptitudes, things were different. Thus, Mephistopheles wasn¡¯t able to use {Mana Creation}, {Stealth} and blood-related skills. He did have {Dragonification} skill and {Sigil}. However, his other skills were completely different. Besides the {Rift} skill he had due to his Devil of Chaos class, he also had {Wind Magic} and {Earth Magic}. Both elemental magic managed to rank up to grade 9. For an unknown reason, it seemed that Mephistopheles couldn¡¯t use {Stealth}, thus when he had to roam in the forest, he could only use {Earth Magic} to create a board with which he used {Wind Magic} on to float. This prevented him from making noises but the mana fluctuations and the fact that he was visible made him went through a lot of difficulties. Unlike when Lucifer uses {Stealth} when Mephistopheles uses his magic, the mana fluctuations from it will be felt by experienced monsters, which represented 90% of those living in this forest. ¡°Luc come out!¡± Vel¡¯s voice could be heard outside of the cave. Drops of cold sweats appeared on Mephis¡¯ forehead. Today was his day, and Lucifer was already sleeping in their sea of consciousness, thus he couldn¡¯t escape. When Mephis came out, the faint rays of sunlight greeted him, before being blocked by a towering black snake. Vel¡¯s body radiated a strange light and his body started to shrink. Mephis was surprised, it was his first time seeing this. Vel had never transformed in front of either one of them. When the light dimmed, Vel had a human body covered in black scales. He was 2 meters tall with a muscular body. His face was masculine and his expression was fierce. A wooden staff was held in each of his hand before he threw one in Mephis¡¯ direction. ¡°Take it. It will be your weapon now. However, I¡¯d like to ask you something before we start.¡± Mephis was still shocked while his eyes were shifting between Vel¡¯s new appearance and the wooden staff. It was only after few minutes passed that he could finally react.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°H-Hum, yes?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but your mana imprint keeps changing. Though the difference is a minute, it is still there¡­¡± Mephis who managed to recover went straight back in a state of shock. The fact that Lucifer and he shared the same body and could be considered as the same person was one of their biggest secrets. ¡°This¡­ I don¡¯t why. My body is a bit special, my abilities change from time to time¡­ This might be the reason¡­¡± Mephistopheles could only give him that kind of answer. He knew that trying to deny Vel¡¯s doubts would amount to nothing so he just gave him a reason. And since he said the truth, Vel could only accept it. He truly didn¡¯t know the exact reason for the difference in mana imprint. He didn¡¯t even know what a mana imprint was, to begin with. Vel closed his eyes, seemingly pondering about something before he gave Maphis a wide smile. ¡°Well, let¡¯s start. Your body¡¯s condition is a bit strange but whatever. The staff in your hand was crafted by me with my most precious material. Its durability and toughness are second only to a god weapon. Its weight would vary according to the strength of the user so that it won¡¯t become useless by the time you get stronger. Oh, you can inject a part of your soul in it so that it will become your soul weapon.¡± Hearing this, Lucifer woke up, Mephis¡¯ was fundamentally shocked. Soul weapons were only available to those in the upper echelon of a church or the nobility. Gale told them about those weapons in the past. But his knowledge about them was scarce. Besides knowing the fact that they were powerful weapons which were only owned by few people, he also knew that they were renown to be bound with their user in some way. ¡°Now, close your eyes and try and to feel the depth of your being. When you come across something strange, imagine the most important feeling you¡¯ve experienced and sent it to your staff.¡± Mephis nodded before closing his eyes. In fact, Vel wasn¡¯t expecting for him to do it on the first try, since perceiving one¡¯s soul wasn¡¯t an easy task. However, for Lucifer and Mephis, their soul had no secret for them and entering an ethereal state was as easy as breathing. Mephis and Luc found themselves in front of their soul once again. The feeling which describes us the most¡­ Looking at the child in front of him Vel wore an astonished expression. This kid did it on his first try¡­ A wry smile appeared on his face. This wasn¡¯t a small achievement. He had to try for few hours in the past before managing to grasp the ethereal state. Of course, he couldn¡¯t know what Lucifer experienced before, so he could only view him as a genius in that aspect. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine. The space around Lucifer was making cracking noises. The air was filled with a deep stench of blood. A black mist was slowly forming around the staff. The soil under him was withering at a frightening speed. The cross tattoo on his forehead had become a pentagram. This is¡­ Bloodlust. Bloodlust wasn¡¯t a thing Vel had never felt before. He just had never felt such an intense desire to kill coming from a 6-year-old child. After some time, the bloodlust settled down, the mist dispersed and the environment around Lucifer returned to its normal state. The pentagram shifted back to an inverted cross, and Mephis opened his eyes.
System Binding successful. Please check your weapon status.
Mephis glanced at the staff in his hand.
Weapon type Bo Staff
Name Armageddon
Grade Devil''s weapon
Stats point absorbed -
Bonus -
Active skill(s) Shapeshift; Devour; Consume
Passive skill(s) Weight management
Shapeshift The length and the thickness of the staff can be modified. 1 mana point for each centimeter in height and 10 mana points for each centimeter in radius. Current state: 120-centimeter-tall and 1,5 centimeters radius.
Devour Can absorb 30% of the stats point of killed enemies.
Consume For every 10 stats points absorbed, grant +1 in a specific stat.
Weight management the weight of the staff will evolve according to the user current strength. Current weight: 2,5 kilograms.
The heck?!
System It seems that the staff evolved into something different from a soul weapon.
Mephis was shocked senseless, Lucifer was observing from the inside while trembling mentally. ¡°Well, it seems that you succeeded. You should have noticed that your weapon has been linked to your soul. What it means that you will be able to sense it if someone were to steal it from you and people wouldn¡¯t be able to get the bonus from it. Since you just awakened it, there should be none at the moment, but if you come across some mana crystals you can use them to grant your weapons some bonuses.¡± Mephis had a wry smile on his face. I don¡¯t need mana crystals, I just need to kill. His eyes fixated on the staff, Mephis gripped it with more strength. Looking at the child in front of him, Vel sighed. During this past week, he had come to understand that he was hiding many things from them. Although he managed to confirm his guess, there were still many questions for which he couldn¡¯t find an answer by himself. However, if his guess was right, then, maybe he knew why Lucifer could release such a frightening bloodlust. ¡°Listen to Lucifer, I don¡¯t know what happened in the past and I am not going to let go of it¡­ But, I won¡¯t teach anything if I tell you that you¡¯re among the weakest one right now. Thus, I can only tell you to keep training and progress. You have the potential for you to become someone who can stand at the top. However, you should also know that your strength will be limited no matter what. Unless you are the Creator himself, there will be always something holding you down, thus, in the future, I hope that you can rely on others¡­ Like when you rely on Syndra and me when you¡¯re getting chased.¡± A naughty smile was planted on Vel. Hearing his words, Mephis and Lucifer didn¡¯t know what to say but kept them in their heart. Only after some time passed, did Mephis speak. ¡°Uncle¡­ Do you think gods can be slain?¡± ¡°No.¡± With his face down, Mephis was trying his best to hold his feelings hidden. ¡°In order to kill a god, you need to erase its existence and the source of his soul. The first condition requires the Chosen to be killed and the second requires to go to a god¡¯s domain and directly destroy his divine soul. While the former could already be considered near impossible, the latter really is impossible since barging into a god¡¯s domain is impossible for the likes of us.¡± The eyes of Mephis shined. I managed to come back in this world with devil¡¯s power, passing through the layers between where I was and there¡­ So, I should be able to use it to break into their world, right? ¡°It will take a while before we can recover a sufficient amount of devil power for that¡­¡± Lucifer¡¯s voice echoed in Mephis¡¯ head. We have time¡­ ¡°Now then, let¡¯s get started. But, before I teach you how to fight with a staff, I¡¯ll need you to get me some silver grass in the forest¡­ You need to exercise a bit before we get down to business.¡± His back drenched in cold sweats, Mephis¡¯ mouth twitched multiple times. A bit? A BIT!? Fuck you! Chapter 7: A year of pain... and pleasure? A different POV A cold wind was blowing in the slums. Step by step, a little girl was walking towards the light coming from the market area. Her hair was darker than black, her eyes were like small pieces of gold, her beautiful face was stained with mud and blood stains. Her body looked so frail that no one could imagine that she was already 7-year-old. Step by step, she was getting closer to her goal. She was hungry. Silently, she has approached the marketplace. Many magic lanterns were illuminating the street. However, no matter how much light there was, nobody seemed to be able to see the little girl walking past them. Finally, she found what she was looking for. Something to eat. A smile full of white teeth appeared on her face. She walked toward a corner of the marketplace, where the light was dim and sat there. She waited. Minutes passed, until an hour or so went by. Then, a man, with his clothes in complete disorder entered the corner where the little girl was. The man stank of alcohol and women¡¯s fragrance. He was looking for a place where he could rearrange his composure before going back home. However, as he was trying to condense mana to sooth his mind a bit, he could feel a tiny icy cold grip on his leg. A chill ran down his spine as he quickly retreated by few steps before falling on his back. The cloudiness he felt earlier was completely cleared by the fear in his heart. The leg which had been touched earlier had become completely numb. He couldn¡¯t feel anything past his hip. His body was shaking uncontrollably while beads of sweats were rolling down his body. ¡°H-Help¡­ Please¡­ Stop¡­.¡± However, no one heard his plea. At least, no one who could come to help. The little girl walked up to the man, her golden eyes still locked on his face, drool coming from her mouth. Her slender hand reached the other leg and in a flash, both legs of the man were paralyzed. ¡°Please¡­ Spare me¡­ If you want something please tell me! I¡¯ll give you anything!¡± The man had already lost his wits completely and was earnestly begging for his life. The little girl tilted her head and started thinking. Seeing this, a ray of hope flashed through the man¡¯s eye. ¡°Can you¡­ become tastier?¡± Hearing her angelic voice, the man was first charmed before being thrown ruthlessly back to reality. Ta¡­ Tastier? She wants to eat me?! ¡°W-Wait! Is milady a vampire? If you want blood I know some people worthier of milady than me!¡± ¡°No¡­ I am¡­ not a vampire¡­¡± The man thought that she belonged to those creatures which fed upon the blood of the living, that way he could maybe bargain his way out. However, when she contradicted his belief, the man became startled. ¡°W-why¡­¡± Darkness invaded his mind, as his soul was being sucked dry by the little girl. ¡°Not really tasty¡­¡± In front of the little girl, a mummified version of the man¡¯s remains was left. Meanwhile, the black hair of the little girl started to glow before turning completely white. Her complexion became way better. Her frail body became more fitting for a girl of her age. She seemed to have recovered from a serious disease as if nothing ever happened. Her eyes still fixated on the man in front of her, the little girl let out a small sigh. ¡°It didn¡¯t taste good¡­¡± // It has been a year already since Lucifer met Syndra. He had grown slightly taller but still looked like the child he was. His innocent smile had become deadly for Syndra. She had become more and more attached to Lucifer and Mephis. Indeed, she was at first suspicious toward Lucifer when she found him talking to himself when he thought that he was alone. It was only when she heard Mephis¡¯ name that she finally understood that Lucifer had some kind of split personality, and her beliefs were affirmed by Vel since he too noticed that depending on his eyes color, and the shape of the cross on his forehead, his abilities were different. This, only made her feel even more pity for him. She decided to adopt him first because he possessed the blood of one of her kin, but mostly because she didn¡¯t want to see a child run toward his death. The latter was mainly due to her motherly instinct which became more rampant since her child would soon be born. She thought that she couldn¡¯t let her child let himself be blinded by his feeling and try something reckless. Thus, she intended to stop Lucifer when she saw him leaving the cave at night on the day they met. But she decided to just follow him and intervene only if he was in danger. And when he was fighting the vicious coyotes she also refrained herself from helping him, she wanted him to experience his own foolishness. She wouldn¡¯t have done if she didn¡¯t have the means to heal him afterward. But when she saw that he somehow managed to kill all of the vicious coyotes and partially heal himself with the gray mist. She was thoroughly shocked at that moment. Although she had witnessed the same thing earlier that day, she had just thought that it was related to some kind of treasure he held on him, not something which could be activated every time he wished for it. A child like him possessing such strong a self-regeneration ability made her mouth twitch for a while before she brought him back home. Since then, she decided that she should just scold and punish for that night matters and not let him endanger himself again recklessly. However, she hadn¡¯t expected that the very next day, Vel would send the child in the forest as an errand boy. And no matter what she said to persuade him to not do it again, Vel just promised her that nothing would happen to him while he was here. So, she just gave up and let him did his things. However, after two weeks, nearly all the monsters in the forest knew about a human shaped child who has had the smell of a dragon and was being protected by two powerful snakes. Thus, they started to ignore him when they saw him roaming around as long as he didn¡¯t harbor any malicious feeling toward them. This news was like a blessing for Lucifer, he nearly cried a tear of joy when he noticed that they didn¡¯t want to chase him to the end of the earth again. However, Vel didn¡¯t like that news one bit. Thus, he decided to switch his ¡®training¡¯ regiment. That was the excuse he gave to Lucifer for what he did. ¡®During those past two weeks, you may not have gained any stats but you familiarized yourself with your body by and now you know your limits.¡¯ When Lucifer heard this, he bit Vel¡¯s thigh with all his might. He needed to vent out his anger on Vel for playing with his life when he could have achieved his goal in a safer way. However, he soon wished for those days to come back again. Since Vel couldn¡¯t have fun looking at him risk his life for his errands, he decided to directly start his training. Although he gave Lucifer a staff to fight, he didn¡¯t teach him anything at all, because he was too lazy to think about it. But, the main reason was that he found it way more fun for him to ask him an impossible task. Thus, since sending him in the forest couldn¡¯t entertain him anymore, he decided to take Lucifer¡¯s training seriously.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He divided Lucifer¡¯s daily routine in multiple segments. In the morning, Lucifer will have ¡®body tempering¡¯. Since Lucifer¡¯s body was a bit special, Vel just used that fact as an excuse to explain his ¡®righteous¡¯ methods. In few words, he overextends each muscle of Lucifer¡¯s body until the latter couldn¡¯t move. Afterward, he¡¯d wait for him to recover before following up with the ¡®speed test¡¯. This ¡®test¡¯ was basically Vel firing spells at Lucifer and the latter needed to run in order to dodge them. For that, he chose to use water balls. When Lucifer saw that they were as big as a peanut, he wanted to laugh at Vel since water balls were renown for not having too much firepower. Until the latter shattered the ground next to him with it. Since then, Lucifer didn¡¯t dare look down on any kind of magic anymore. At least, when Vel was the one casting the spell, it was too ridiculous for him. The ¡®body tempering¡¯ and the ¡®speed test¡¯ were there to ¡®lightly¡¯ start the day. Those words were spoken by Vel, and of course, no one believed it. Even the System which was silent about it for a long time, reacted when it heard those words.
System Host should stay far away from this creature named Vel. Safety will be increased by three folds.
Lucifer wanted to flee when he saw that message, but how could he while Vel had his gaze locked on him? So he could only endure and suffer. After the ¡®warm up¡¯ was done. It was time for martial art. Martial arts¡­ I always wished I could learn some but father didn¡¯t know any. Hum¡­ And from what I¡¯ve heard before, it should not be dangerous as long as I don¡¯t try some moves which are out of my reach. Those were Lucifer¡¯s last good thoughts on martial arts. The best way to learn how to fight with a staff is to feel your shortcomings with your body and compensate them with your staff. Be it in offense, defense, counters or preemptive strikes, you can use a staff for every of those things. And Vel taught that to Lucifer the hard way, by making him fight him for every single day. His goal was simple. Make him stronger and use to fighting someone stronger than him. However, his means were ruthless. In their first fight, let alone attacking with his staff, Lucifer couldn¡¯t even keep it in his hand. Each time Vel struck, he¡¯d try to defend to avoid being it at full force but he would lose his grip on his staff afterward while being blasted away. And this went on for few days before he could keep his staff while being blasted away. This was basically what Lucifer¡¯s morning was about. After a year, this training allowed him to unlock many things. Such as the title {Masochist}.
Masochist Pain has thoroughly enshrined itself in your body. Pain has become something you can find pleasure in.
Tears have been spilled the day Lucifer unlocked this. He felt as if he had lost something important. At least, besides that title, he had unlocked many useful things. Among his aptitudes, he unlocked {Resilient Body}, {Minute Subtlety}, {One With The Staff}, {Undying Will}.
Resilient Body The User¡¯s body has been through something which his on the edge of sanity but his body has become stronger in the process. Strength +7 Endurance +7
Minute Subtlety The User has reached a state where he has perfect control over every move of his body. Dexterity +5 Agility+5 Perception +2
Undying Will Despite the rashness of what he experienced, the user never gave up. Intelligence +1 Wisdom +1
One With The Staff Your staff has become an extension of your body. Skills related to it will have a faster growth.
As for skills, Lucifer had to admit that, in a very crooked point of view, Vel was a good teacher. Since Vel didn¡¯t make him follow any kind of technique and let him develop himself by creating his own moves in order to ¡®fight back¡¯, Lucifer unlocked {Fallen Star Style}. Unlike most skills, martial arts-related skills were composed of ¡®volumes¡¯. At grade 10, the user would have access to the knowledge for a move related to that martial art, and he will unlock more moves as his proficiency, thus grade, goes up.
Fallen Star Style grade 10 The Devil¡¯s own style to shake his world and crave a crimson path towards his goal.
-Limbo¡¯s Touch: Use your mana to make your strikes impossible to defend against. -???
The first thing Lucifer thought when he saw this was: overpowered. However, when he tried it for the first time, let alone the 150 mana points he needed to consume were enough to frighten him, with his current strength he could even leave a single scratch on Vel even if the latter was letting himself get hit. However, this year worth of morning practice was definitely worth for him. And thankfully, Mephis also benefited from it. Sine Vel changed their daily routine and his stats distribution were more mana management oriented, he couldn¡¯t survive through the living hell in the morning. At noon, Syndra would take care of him and bring some food. She also decided to take on a human shape in order to try to cook for him. Since she was used to eating what she hunted raw in her snake form, her culinary skills were another type of challenge for Lucifer. Enough of a challenge to upgrade his {Low Poison Resistance} in {Medium Poison Resistance}. But, since she made all these efforts in order to make him something good to eat, Lucifer would always show a satisfied smile when he was eating, though his {Masochist} helped him a lot from the moment he got it. The afternoon was dedicated to magic practice. This was Mephis¡¯ turn to take over the body. Vel offered to Mephis the possibility to learn other types of magic as long as Mephis could manage. Since possessing two different elements was already considered quite good in the outside world, he didn¡¯t know to what extent he could teach him. However, since he was his ¡®son¡¯ he didn¡¯t doubt about his proficiency in magic. However, as always, his teaching style was one to be feared. Since Maphis could already use wind and earth magic, in order to increase his control over those elements he gave him multiple ¡®minor¡¯ tasks. For instance, he had to use his wind magic to cut, polish and transport large quantities of rocks. Then, he had to rely on his earth magic to shape each rock in specific objects which were previously chosen by Vel. And he had to do as many as possible without wasting any mana. Using both elements successively many times in a row took a huge toll on Mephis psyche but this allowed to familiarize himself with multiple casting. With time, his control became better and both magic ranked up to grade 8 by the end of the year. However, it was Mephis wishful thinking if he thought that things would stop here. When Vel offered to him to unlock fire and lightning magic, Mephis had stars in his eyes as he very wished to learn those. ¡°The best way is to feel them.¡± The smile on Vel¡¯s face was as friendly as a smile could be, but the meaning behind his words made Mephis had a shiver run down his spine, while Lucifer was shutting down his senses, too afraid to see what will happen next. Mephis tried to escape, before being struck down by a lightning bolt, multiple times, while Vel was asking him if he was feeling the depth of the lightning element. Syndra was alarmed when she saw those lightning strikes coming down one after another. Vel had told her earlier that day that he¡¯d use the most efficient method since his time was limited, but she didn¡¯t expect that it¡¯d be to that extent. However, she restrained herself and didn¡¯t act, thinking that it was for Lucifer¡¯s wellbeing. It took a whole week of consecutive electrocution for Mephis to unlock {Lightning Magic} and another week of burning hell to unlock {Fire Magic}. Vel offered his help for other types of magic but Mephis flat out refused. He was starting to lose it with the {Masochist} title. Then, this was the daily life of Mephis and Lucifer for a year. Both lightning and fire magic ranked up and became grade 9, and they were also available for Lucifer. Whereas wind and earth magic weren¡¯t. Today was the day. Vel will leave and Lucifer would start his journey. At first, he didn¡¯t want to leave yet. He was having a good life with Syndra, and his little sister was about to be born. But Vel insisted that he had to leave and explore the world, broaden his horizon and do what he wished to do. These words reminded him, his origins and why he wished for strength. He had never forgotten and never would, but during this year, he set it aside, focusing himself on what was happening around him. However, he couldn¡¯t stay idle anymore, he needed to leave and start his vengeance. Vel taught him about the current state of the world. It had evolved in way too many ways. The power of the churches was even more frightening than before and was growing stronger with time. If he wished to kill all those who stand between him and the gods, he didn¡¯t have any more time to waste. Thus, after convincing Syndra that he needed to leave, he decided to prepare for his trip. And he needed only one thing: clothes. Simply put, he was butt naked for a year already. At first, he found it strange but quickly grew accustomed to it. However, if he were to meet with the members of the races while being naked, it might be bad. Vel brought him some nice clothes. Black boots, red pants, black belt, white shirt and a black vest. Those were ordinary clothes, but altogether, they looked a bit strange on a 7-year-old boy. ¡°Luc, you need to come back at least once a year, okay?¡± Syndra was intently looking at Lucifer eyes, making the latter advert his gaze in embarrassment. ¡°Yes¡­ I will! I still need to see my little sister!¡± ¡°Humpf! At least you know what¡¯s good for you. If I don¡¯t see you in a year¡¯s time, I¡¯ll come for you and spank your ass in public and in front of your little sister!¡± A wry smile appeared on Lucifer¡¯s face. I can¡¯t feel pain anymore¡­ A shiver ran down his spine as he didn¡¯t dare to think any further. ¡°Luc, before I leave, I¡¯ll give you something.¡± Vel handed a little bottle with a red liquid in it to Lucifer. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°My blood. You can use blood skills, right? Well, if you run in a dire situation, I think my blood will be of a great help to you. Although I don¡¯t know to what extent, at least I think you should be able to make something out of it.¡± ¡°Thanks, uncle!¡± Lucifer received the bottle and with a wide smile, while Vel was crying in hisheart. I am not your uncle! But your dad! You ungrateful brat! At least recognize me! Vel wished to tell him the truth about him, but it would only bring him trouble, no, it would the reason of his death with his current strength. Chapter 8: Encounter Before leaving, Lucifer, with Syndra¡¯s help, created a bow. Since he still hadn¡¯t unlock any class related with his staff, he wanted to use the bow as a main weapon for the time being and level up his hunter class. However, he was limited in his materials. Although his bow was made with a strong branch and the string came from the web of a spider monster, it was limited to his current strength. Since his stats were low, he couldn¡¯t use the best he could harvest in the forest. As for his arrows, he had to make do with regular wood arrows with the tip attached to a sharp stone. It wasn¡¯t anything out of ordinary for simple villagers. Using steel or other types of metal to craft arrows wasn¡¯t something he was used to. Although his current life was different, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to ask from Vel or Syndra some metal to craft arrows. What would he do If he ended up losing them or worst, destroying them because the outer shell or the defense of the enemy was too strong? It¡¯d be too wasteful. However, he was thick skinned enough to shamelessly act some money from Vel before leaving. When Lucifer came to him with his big eyes looking like an adorable puppy, Vel already knew that the little kid was up to no good, but when he heard him asking for money Vel nearly vomited blood out of anger. He had already gifted Lucifer some nice clothes but the latter was actually begging for money as if he didn¡¯t have anything and could not live without it. However, Vel couldn¡¯t say no, thus, he handed 5 silver coins to Lucifer. When the money ended up in his hand, Lucifer¡¯s eyes lit up before he put the money in his pocket and turning his head back on Vel, asking for more. Seeing the greed and the stars in Lucifer¡¯s eyes, Vel wanted to know who taught this child to love money that much. If he knew that Lucifer¡¯s former father taught him that he shouldn¡¯t act reserved with a family member, he¡¯d curse him to death. Since Sin was preventing him from feeling anything, Lucifer didn¡¯t know how much he earned for money. His former father used to tell him about how much wonderful things they could do if they had money, as curing his deceased mother and living far away from their precarious conditions. Thus, his interest for money grew without him being aware of it. But Vel had none of it. A strong gale impacted Lucifer as his body was sent flying toward the wilderness. ¡°You¡¯re too young to try to extort money from me!¡± Legends usually say that a dragon¡¯s treasure could be considered as his most valuable possession. No one really can¡¯t confirm if it is right or wrong. Since those who tried to steal their treasure aren¡¯t of this world anymore, except for one, who is completely unaware of it. After landing on his butt with full force, Lucifer rubbed it and cursed at Vel before tidying his clothes. Feeling the calm wind of the grassland and the multiple hills in front of him, excitement filled his body. His staff in hand and his bow and his arrows in his self-made quiver, he sprinted towards the horizons. Few days later A caravan which was transporting multiple types of goods was on its way to Tsein. Tsein was the closest town on this side of the Quesh Kingdom. It was famous for being the closest town from the Forbidden Forest. It was a very infamous place as it used to be where an evil church used to reside. Furthermore, A and S class monsters were abundant there. It was definitely not a place one could venture in. It also served as a geographical border for the Quesh and Firma Kingdom. Nearby towns usually have a vanguard role in case a monster break should occur, but none have happened in these recent years. However, these matters were the least of those travelling merchants and adventurers¡¯ problems. Up ahead, hidden in the ground under a carpet of soil, were multiples hobgoblins waiting to ambush them. Hobgoblins came from goblins, the differences between them lied in the amount of mana they could have and their stats growth speed along with their base intelligence. Goblins were unable to use magic, but to compensate that, they had good natural regeneration. However, hobgoblins were bigger, stronger and could use magic, they were in all way superior. Therefore, they understood that if they didn¡¯t want to be preyed upon by those filthy members of the race, they had to attack them. Weaken their cities, kill their leader, steal their equipment and food supply, and most importantly, raise their strength by leveling up and aim to evolve once more. The hobgoblins warrior gripped their swords and the mage readied their wand to blow away their cover and attack afterwards. They just needed to wait for the caravans to walk past them and attack. By the time those members of the race could react, they would have already killed some of them. They had the advantage in number and the element of surprise. Unless a strong enemy appeared, they shouldn¡¯t lose. As the caravans was getting closer, the ground underneath them was shaking more and more. And it happened. The shaking became stronger. As if a real earthquake was occurring. This startled both the hobgoblins and the travelers¡¯ group. They all looked toward the grassland. The tremor was getting stronger and stronger, until they could see what was happening. In the horizons, a red haired human child was running as if his life was depending on it with a staff in his hand and behind him, there were 3 obsidian horned rhino running after him. Obsidian horned rhino were famous for their strong natural defense and their deadly horn which was extremely poisonous. Meeting one could be considered as bad luck, meeting three of them was definitely terrible. The human child was running toward them at full speed. For a while, time seemed to have stopped for both the hobgoblins and the travelers. What the fuck?! Why are there obsidian horned rhino here? How is he that fast?! Seeing the caravan up ahead, Lucifer didn¡¯t think twice about it. He ran at full speed toward them, leading the infuriated monsters behind him towards them too. The complexion of the adventurers paled instantly. This fucking brat is leading them here! ¡°Hey guys! Prepare for battle! This damn brat is getting us involved in his shit!¡± The adventurers who were resting inside the caravan got out while those already outside readied their weapon and armor, preparing themselves for the upcoming battle. The hobgoblins were in an even greater pinch. If Lucifer wasn¡¯t going to change its trajectory, they were going to be stomped by the obsidian horned rhino. There was no other outcome than death if that were to happen. The leader of the operation gave the signal to move. The hobgoblins mages blew away their cover, revealing their position. The adventurers were stunned due to their appearance before breaking out in cold sweat. If it wasn¡¯t for those rhinos coming their way, they wouldn¡¯t have discovered those hobgoblins and might have died by their hands. The hobgoblin leader thought about for few seconds, before his eyes became colder. With his sword raised he gave the order to attack the adventurers. Lucifer, noticing that something was wrong since the hobgoblins revealed themselves, kept running towards them nonetheless. However, the surprise in his face was quickly replaced by a grand smile, before his complexion became gloomier. While his thoughts were wandering for a few seconds, his running speed decreased and the rhinos behind were closing the gap at a frightening pace. Mephis switch with me! It¡¯s your turn to kill. In the moment, Lucifer¡¯s eyes flashed and the cross became inverted. Mephis used wind magic to cast a strong gale under his feet before soaring in the sky. Seeing their prey jumping that high, the rhinos didn¡¯t falter and still charged in front of them, hoping to catch the child when he¡¯ll come down. However, as they finally took notice about what was happening in front of them, the rhinos snorted with disdain. For them, killing a hobgoblin was a small task and there were three of them here. Even if the hobgoblins greatly outnumbered them, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult. However, the adventurers could end up being a problem if they teamed with the hobgoblins to deal with them, but they were fighting among themselves, which was clearly the stupidest choice. As Mephistopheles was in the air, he started to gather mana on his free hand. Feeling the accumulation of mana above them, the mages in both the adventurer and hobgoblin group looked up. What they saw was a huge ball of fire which size was as big as the child casting the spell. The swiftly reacted by creating a mana barrier around their group, waiting for the child to cast his fire ball. And Mephis did. However, he only aimed at the hobgoblins. His fire ball impacted the mana barrier but didn¡¯t leave a single scratch on it. It had been formed with the help of two hobgoblin mages. With his {Fire Magic} being only at the ninth grade he couldn¡¯t do much about it. He turned his body midair with the help of the wind and changed his direction. With a tap of his foot, his body was propelled toward one of the hobgoblin mage. The latter, snorted, while waiting for the child to crash on the barrier. However his complexion changed when he saw the staff in the child¡¯s hand getting rapidly longer and turning slightly translucid. He quickly formed another barrier around his body just in case something unexpected happened, but it was useless. Mephis thrusted the edge of the staff towards the head of the mage and it went through the mana barrier and the mana shield as if they didn¡¯t exist. This was the effect of Limbo¡¯s Touch. The staff hit the eyeball of mage and penetrated his skull before piercing another hole in the back of his head and plant itself on the ground. Mephis was using both his hand to stabilize his body on his staff which had become 3,5 meters long. The surrounding hobgoblins were dumbstruck for a while but quickly recovered. The leader signaled to the archers to aim at the human child and kill him quickly. However, how could the adventurers let a chance like that slip by? While the hobgoblins were distracted by the child, the warriors and knight charged towards their vanguard while the archers and mages started using their skill to weaken their barrier and destroy it. Usually, a mana barrier would be use after the enemy¡¯s vanguard had been defeated. The reason was simple, its mana cost was huge and would definitely reduce the amount of mana available for the mages. Furthermore, a mana barrier was more sensible to physical attack, thus the need to take care of the front lane first. The obsidian rhinos had massively closed the gap and were about to encounter the hobgoblin before their horn started to shine and emit an ominous light. Maphis who was still hovering in the air while smashing the weakened mana barrier with his staff felt a chill ran down his spine and turned his gaze towards the rhinos. ¡°Not again!¡± Without hesitating, Mephis put himself between the adventurers and the hobgoblins. The latter felt that something was amiss and quickly discovered that the rhinos were about to unleash a skill. The hobgoblin leader didn¡¯t have enough time to give an order to defend before a dark spear shot forth from the obsidian horns, aiming for the child behind them. The black spears shattered the mana barrier and pierced through some unlucky hobgoblin. Seeing the incoming black spears, Mephis fully concentrated on them. Only when they were about to hit him did he react.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. A space crack appeared in front of him and directly swallowed the black spears before closing immediately afterward. Looking at his remaining mana, Mephis made a wry smile. Even after those level ups this thing is running out faster than a cup of water in a desert. Looking at the adventurers, Mephis made the cutest smile he could for a child of his age. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry for the inconvenience but¡­ I hope uncles and aunts can deal with those monsters! As for me, I¡¯ll have to excuse myself.¡± After giving them an apologetic bow, Lucifer turned his head and tried to run away from this place before the rhinos recovered. But before he could make a step, he found himself inside a cage made of stone. Feeling the icy stares in his back, Mephis turned his head, while keeping a face of a bullied child. The face of the female adventurers twitched a little but they kept sending daggers at him. Annoyance clearly visible in their face. You bring all these monsters here and you want to leave juts like that?! Humpf, stop acting cute! As if a normal child could kill a hobgoblin mage like that and deal with {Black Poisonous Spears}! ¡°I-I really can¡¯t stay¡­ I don¡¯t have any mana left¡­¡± A man who seemed to be the leader coldly snorted before tossing a bottle with a greenish liquid in it. ¡°You put us in a very tough situation kid. You will help us, right? Drink this, it will accelerate your mana recovery.¡± Although the man didn¡¯t want to involve a child in this fight, after looking at all the things he had done, letting him go just like that would only be their loss. Furthermore, he was completely at fault here. Meanwhile, stars appeared in Mephis eyes. Mana recovery potion! I had never seen one before! He quickly opened it and drank it. An extremely sour taste invaded his mouth nearly making him puke on the spot, but he kept drinking until the end. Horrible taste!
System Mana recovery increased by tenfold for 10 minutes.
Although Lucifer didn¡¯t speak, Mephis could feel that he was too shocked by the effect of the potion. And only four words were present in both their mind: ¡®Need more of this!¡¯ The hobgoblins being the only ones having suffred losses so far were in a very fool mood. The leader signaled to the other survivor that they needed to retreat now. They were no match for the rhinos and they wouldn¡¯t be able to kill anyone under those circumstances. Cursing his luck, the leader gave a last glance at the child sitting cross legged in the earth cage before taking his leave with his kin. Seeing the hobgoblins fleeing for their life, the adventurers didn¡¯t relax. The worst had yet to come. The rhinos charged towards them, increasing their speed after each step. When they were in reach for the mage, the leader yelled at them. ¡°Those who knows earth magic make the land slide under them! Archer aim for the eyes when they¡¯re down! Vanguard don¡¯t move before I say so!¡± The rhinos suddenly felt the ground under them becoming unstable before losing their balance and fell. The face of the mages were covered in sweat as the ground was very difficult to move without pouring a lot of mana since it supported the weight of the three rhinos. The archer didn¡¯t stay and quickly prepared their bow, but before they could fire a single arrow, Mephis had already made his move and was in front of the rhinos. The rhinos, though on their side, move their head and preprared to send another {Black Poisonous Spear}. When the adventurers saw this, they became instantly frightened. Those who had shield quickly made their way to the front and unleashed their skill for the incoming attack, meanwhile Mephis who was the target of their attack kept running straitgh towards them. The rhinos instantly fired their spell. Seeing the incoming black spears, Mephis had two choice: dodge and let those behind get hit or use his current mana to create another {Rift}. He decided to dodge. A gust of wind burst forth on his feet as he soared in the air before landing behind the rhinos. And with swift and accurate movements, he stroke each rhino in their rear. The disadvantage of the staff was that it didn¡¯t could pierce through their tough skin. However, there were parts in their body which weren¡¯t as tough. With the current length of the staff, Mephis didn¡¯t have trouble going all the way to their head while destroy multiple organs in the way. The rhinos went in deep agony as they suffered serious inner injuries. But right before they died, a sword light flashed above their head and killed them. Seeing this, Mephis¡¯ mouth couldn¡¯t help but twitch. Hey! You stole my kills! The one who delivered the finishing blow the rhinos was the same man who gave him the mana recovery potion. After taking a closer look at him, Mephis suddenly realized something. He wasn¡¯t human. He was a blond-haired elf with a handsome face. He seemed to be near his thirties, and his emerald eyes were sharp. He was wearing a black steel armor and had a titanium sword. Looking at the dead rhinos, the complexion on the man lighten up before looking at Mephis while giving him a glare. He wanted to reprimand him for not protecting them once again against the black spears but the words wouldn¡¯t come out of his mouth. For a single reason, his pride couldn¡¯t let him rely on a kid. Earlier he wanted him to help distract the rhinos if his plan failed. But not only did it fail, the child also managed to deal a deadly blow to them. ¡°Why did you do this?¡± Mephis asked him while looking like a kid who just had his best toy taken. ¡°Tch! You brought this upon yourself for involving us in your mess! Look at what you did!¡± The man pointed at the collapsed knights who had their shield destroyed due to the impact with the black spear fainted mages who used every ounce of their remaining mana to cast multiple layers of mana shield in front of the knights. Looking at them, Mephis felt a bit apologetic. But he still lost a big amount of experience and stats points, which was a fact he couldn¡¯t let go too. ¡°Let it go. Next fight would still be your turn.¡± Hearing Lucifer, Mephis could only let out a sigh and walked towards the corpse of the hobgoblin mage he killed earlier. He planted the staff inside its body before it started to decay slowly. This scene made those who were still conscious frown. The fuck is that kid?!
System Armageddon absorbed 66 stats points.
System Hunter class leveled up once.
After assigning his 3 recently gained stats points, Mephis took a peak at his status
Name Mephistopheles Title(s) The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck, TheFallen, Masochist
Class(es) Devil of Slaughter (locked); Devil of Chaos lv.7; Devil of Origin lv.4; Hunter lv.9 Bloodline Homunculus (??%), Dragon King (7%)
Sigil(s) No followers
Mana 599/599
Divine Power - Devil''s power 4562/999 999 999
Intelligence 84+1 Luck 0
Widsom 83+1 Magic Wind Magic (Grade 8:16%); Earth Magic (Grade 8; 12%); Sigil (Grade 1: Maxed); Fire Magic (Grade 9: 44%); Dragonification (Grade 10: 74%); Rift (Grade 9; 27%); Fallen Star Style (Grade 10: 98%); Lightning Magic (Grade 9; 51%)
Endurance 50 +33 Aptitude Adversary, Adept of Blood, Will of the Devil, Devil Absorbtion (Perception +2), Mana Absorbtion (Perception +1), Night Vision (Perception +2); Middle Poison resistance; Resilient Body ( Strength +7 Endurance +7); Minute Subtlety (Dexterity +5 Agility +5 Perception +2); One With The Staff; Undying Will (Widsom +1 Intelligence +1)
Agility 50+5 Strength 60+7
Dexterity 40+5 Perception 65 +7
Charisma 60 Fury 0/100
These days in the grassland were worth it. Should we keep increasing our endurance with Armageddon? ¡°Yes. It is something which benefits both us the most right now.¡± Ok. After using {Consume}, Mephis looked at the current Armageddon.
Weapon type Bo Staff
Name Armageddon
Grade Devil''s weapon
Stats point absorbed 6 (Remaining)
Bonus +32 endurance
Active skill(s) Shapeshift; Devour; Consume
Passive skill(s) Weight management
Nice growth. Still, what a shame we had to forsake our bow¡­ When they were chased by the rhinos, the bow in their back was reducing their speed, thus they had to throw it away in order to keep a decent pace. ¡°Hey kid! Why are you here alone?¡± Hearing the voice of the man who stole his kills, Mephis became a bit irritated but didn¡¯t show it. ¡°I lost my parents when I was younger¡­ And I am looking for a town right now¡­¡± An image of Syndra, Vel, Gale and Miranda appeared in his mind, making his voice sound distant. Looking at the child in front of him who was already an orphan, the heart of the elf man softened a bit. ¡°How about coming with us? We¡¯re heading towards Tsein right now. It¡¯s close, we should arrive there before the sunset.¡± Mephis looked at him as if he saw his savior. Truth to be told, the reason he passed so much day in the grassland, was that he didn¡¯t know where to go and kept wandering there without any goal. Vel completely forgot to tell to keep heading toward the sunrise in order to find the nearest city. Yes. He ¡®forgot¡¯. After Mephis and the elf man came back, those still conscious who witnessed what happened to the mage hobgoblin became warry and restless when they heard that this human-shaped monster was travelling with them. ¡°Hello again uncles and aunts. My name is Lucifer. I am sorry to have involved you in my trouble.¡± His voice was like a mosquito and made those adventurers relax a bit. He¡¯s still a child. An extremely weird one, though. ¡°What is a human doing here?¡± Lucifer who had already taken control again looked toward the man who just spoke. It was a black weretiger who seemed to be a warrior specialized in wielding an axe. ¡°I am not human.¡± While tilting his head, Lucifer answered as if it was the most natural thing. His eyes became slit like those of a snake while looking at the weretiger. The weretiger was startled and he wasn¡¯t the only one. He thought that Lucifer was a snake man, however, snake men were reputed to not mix themselves with another member of the race. ¡°Oh, so that was it! My name is Vlad, I am an elf and a C class adventurer.¡± The blond elf finally revealed his name. Lucifer¡¯s complexion turned to that of surprise before he looked at Vlad as if he was a rare animal. ¡°C Class? Uncle, you¡¯re so cool!¡± A child. The last bit of suspicions towards Lucifer was cleared that easily. And the latter clearly felt the muscle of the surrounding adventurers relax after he said that. Vlad who had never been looked at with an admirating gaze like that felt as if he was in heaven. He he! Finally! A fan! ¡°That¡¯s not all. I am also the leader of this expedition!¡± Vlad started to flaunt his merits and achievement to Lucifer who looked like a kid to whom you were telling fairy tales. Although the surrounding people had a hard time to control their laughter looking at Vlad being so smug, they couldn¡¯t stay idle any longer. After dismantling the obsidian horned rhinos and taking the valuable of the dead hobgoblins, they resumed their journey towards Tsein. After few hours of travel, the expedition finally arrived at the city gates. They had to go through a rough inspection before entering, it should have been without any trouble, however, someone in their didn¡¯t have any identity card. ¡°You said that you found this child wandering in the grassland after he lost his parents?¡± The guard gave a dubious look to Vlad who had a wry smile on his face. He explained their encounter with Lucifer while omitting some unnecessary details as him being able to kill a hobgoblin mage in a single strike. Those types of details were definitely not welcomed. After convincing the guard, they managed to enter the town with the condition that Lucifer had to register at the city hall. The person himself was sitting on the edge of the driver seat with his staff in hand while looking at what was displayed in front of him. Everything¡­ really changed. Although the armors and weapons of the adevnturers surrounding him weren¡¯t that much different from the his past life, the structure of a town had evolved greatly since then. The walls surrounding the city were mainly made of metal and huge holes were present on them. Vlad told him about canons. They were installed inside the walls and were to be used in case someone wished to attack the city. From what Vlad told him, their explosive power was extremely frightnening but they had bad mobility, which made them only effective for defending or sieging cities or towns. In a world where movement speed was a decesive factor for a battle, they couldn¡¯t be used for any types of battle. After entering the town, Lucifer was even more shocked. The road which used to be made of soil was now composed of hard rock. The town was a lot more hygienic than he thought. Seeing Lucifer turn his head in amazement to every single thing, the surrounding adventurer couldn¡¯t help but find this situation a bit funny. A child as strong as him was only a country bumpkin. After delivering the caravan to the merchant guild, the adventurers headed towards the guild of the town. Lucifer followed them since he had nothing better to do and Vlad wouldn¡¯t let him do otherwise anyway. After entering the adventurer guild, alcohol and sweat could be smelled in the air. The sun was nearly down so most of the adventurer had already got back to their inn or went to the bar, but their stench still remained. This didn¡¯t bother Lucifer in the least, he looked as carefree as ever. Vlad was talking to another elf who was wearing an uniform. She handed him a bag of money before taking his adventurer card as well as the card of the others. Lucifer, having nothing better to do, got closer o Vlad and could feel that something was amiss. ¡°Uncle! Why are you looking at that aunt¡¯s chest?¡± The sound of a pin drop could be heard in the guild. Vlad who though that he was being discreet froze in an instant. The female receptionist put a hand in front of her mouth before giggling. ¡°Uncle, why are you not moving? Did aunt petrify you?¡± ¡°Ahum! Lu-Lucifer you shouldn¡¯t speak nonsense. I wasn¡¯t looking at Clara¡¯s chest.¡± ¡°Really? You looked like you wanted to touch though¡­ maybe I was mistaking¡­¡± Hanging his head down, Lucifer thought hard about where he made a mistake whereas Vlad was sweating bullet. After coughing dryly, Vlad tried to clear his name. ¡°Clara, you shouldn¡¯t listen to this kid, he¡¯s talking nonsense.¡± ¡°Oh, so does it mean that you have no interest in my chest?¡± ¡°Of co- I mean, what I am more interested in is yourself not a piece of your body.¡± ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Clara left her position and crouched in front of Lucifer looking at him with interest. ¡°So you¡¯re the child Vlad found near the grassland.¡± Lucifer nodded his head. ¡°Aren¡¯t you a cute one!¡± She took him in his arm while burying his face in her breast. Vlad¡¯s mouth twitched multiples times. Clara was girl he met since he began his days as an adventurer. Since he saw her, like many before and after him, he vowed that he¡¯d do anything to have her become his wife. She was elegant, her navy hair and crystal blue eyes combined with her mature face and voluptuous body were the source of lust of many men. Meanwhile Lucifer was suffocating in her embrace.
System Dangerous being detected. I advise the host to take his distance from the woman named Clara.
However, Lucifer couldn¡¯t see anything in front of him. Only after repeated struggle did he manage to break free. Woman¡­ Scary¡­ ¡°Mother¡¯s scary too¡­¡± Mephis was talking about Syndra. When she was angry, he¡¯d rather try his luck in the forest than staying home. ¡°Vlad told me that you have some abilities, however you seem too young¡­ I don¡¯t know if I can register you as an adventurer¡­¡± Before Lucifer could say anything, small footsteps could be heard coming from the stairs in the back. A small girl, who seemed to have the same age as Lucifer was going down. Her white hair descend to her waist and her golden eyes were looking around the place. When her eyes fell on Lucifer, both of them felt something deep inside of them. Kill. Magnolia : 1st Record. At the very beginning, there were only two beings in this world. Nothing else. Those two beings decided to change. They wanted to see how much they could influence themselves. They changed their world. They created and destroyed as they wished. Until one day, they decided to create something else. Something close to them. They decided to form their ''children''. They had 13 children. They each held in them a fraction of their power. Chaos, Order, Sin, Life and Death, Time and Space, Destiny, Light and Darkness, Slaughter, Element, Control, Desolation, Karma, Lawless. Those two beings then decided to leave their world to their children. However, as the children had their own will, they decided to restrict them. But, their power was growing at a constant pace.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Two children, in particular, aimed to be like their parents. Omnipotent. However, there was someone who will always be above them, someone who could restrict them before their parents acted. Their eldest brother, Chaos. Therefore, they decided to make him disappear. And they did. They killed him after forcing him into a corner. Seeing his children killing their own sibling, one of the creators punished them and decided to give them some responsibilities. They had to make people believe in them and love them. But, it didn''t go as planned. Since they couldn''t fight among themselves directly, they used those people as intermediaries to deal with their enemy. It was at this moment, that an abnormality happened. A strange soul appeared. A soul which could destroy the current balance between these children. However, it was destroyed forty years after it appeared. Leaving the world as it was before his arrival. Since then, the children''s war intensified. The two children who aimed to be like their parents pressured the other to chose a side. Order and Sin created their own camp. Element and Control joined Order''s side. Desolation and Lawless joined Sin''s side. The others, forming the neutral side, had their believers hunted down in the mortal world. Those who had multiple blessings from differents sides needed to either hide or choose to forsake one of their blessings. In this war among the gods, Chaos and Slaughter were the first victims. But things were about to change. Chapter 9: Soulmates No. It was different. While the little girl felt as if something dangerous but incredibly sweet was right in front of her. However, she needed to kill the boy if she didn¡¯t want to end up suffering afterward. Whereas, Lucifer felt as if he was a meaty horned rabbit in front of a batch of hungry vicious coyotes. But, he was a horned rabbit which could kill the coyotes and escape safely. While he was still stunned by this strange feeling, the girl jumped from where she was and landed in front of him. She started smelling him before her eyes shined in a dangerous way. ¡°I want you!¡± Vlad was stunned. Clara was flabbergasted. The others felt like they had just seen a naked old man turning into a beautiful woman. Unable to tell what they should feel about her words. However, Lucifer was thoroughly afraid. He jumped back and placed his staff between him and her. ¡°Don¡¯t approach me!¡± Vlad was close to vomiting blood out of anger, he wasn¡¯t the only one. Fuck! A girl of your age tells you that she wants you and you reject her as if she was a plague! The little girl was a bit surprised by his words but didn¡¯t mind them. She took out a dagger from her dress and pointed the tip at Lucifer¡¯s left chest. ¡°You¡¯re the only one who made me feel like this! As if I¡¯d let you go!¡± Vlad didn¡¯t know what to think anymore. He could only wonder if he was born at the wrong time. The little miss sure is bold¡­ Clara could only sigh, but she had to stop these two from going any further. They¡¯d hurt each other at this rate. ¡°Young miss, you shouldn¡¯t use-¡° Before she could say anything else, the little girl body rushed towards Lucifer, dagger in hand. Lucifer saw her coming and swung his staff, intending to knock her down, and maybe killing her at the same time. However, his attack was blocked by the blade of the dagger and only managed to send the little girl flying toward the counter making her crash into it. Seeing this Vlad and the other were too stunned to move. They hadn¡¯t expected that Lucifer would seriously hit her. Thus, they had no time to react when they saw him charging at her with a sword made of mana at her. The little girl quickly regained her wits after the shock she suffered after being hit. She hadn¡¯t expected Lucifer to be this strong. She had underestimated him. But now, she wouldn¡¯t make the same mistake twice. Daggers made of darkness were sent directly at Lucifer. The latter made the mana sword in his hand disappear before taking his staff with both hands to deflect the incoming daggers. However, one managed to cut the back of his hand, letting out smalls drop of blood. ¡°WHAT IS GOING ON DOWN HERE?!¡± As the two children were about to continue their battle, a bald bearded old man was going down the stairs to see what was the source of all this ruckus. When he caught a glimpse of the state of the counter and the disheveled hair of his lovely daughter, he couldn¡¯t help but grow angry. Seeing the anger written all over the face of the guild master, Clara, and the others couldn¡¯t help but feel their legs grow weak. ¡°G-G-Guild master¡­ This is¡­¡± ¡°Dad! It¡¯s his fault!¡± While pointing at Lucifer, the little girl said in a grieved tone and tears started to appear in the corner of her eyes. She was faking it. 100%. ¡°What! You¡¯re the one who attacked me first!¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who fled after making me feel like this¡­ You¡¯re the one that I need¡­¡± Let alone the guild master who hadn¡¯t been here since the beginning, even those who witnessed everything were easily misled by her words. ¡°Y-You! What did you do to my baby daughter?!¡± An incredible amount of anger was sipping out of the guild master¡¯s body, while Lucifer was tilting his head unable to understand what made him this angry.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything yet. However, if she keeps this up I might end up killing her.¡± The little girl giggled at Lucifer¡¯s words while everyone else had a shiver running down their spine when they noticed that the temperature of the room had gone down by many degrees. ¡°You¡¯re mine! So, I¡¯ll be the one killing you.¡± While licking her small rosy lips, her gaze became as sharp as her dagger before she jumped toward Lucifer with clear intent to kill. However, she was caught midair by a slender hand. She was first surprised before fear invaded her face when she noticed who dared to stop her. ¡°Mama¡­¡± A tall woman with a blueish skin and fairy wings on her back was standing behind the little girl while holding her in the air with a hand. Her eyes were closed but it seemed as if she could see anything around her. Unlike Clara who exuded a fiery charm, her clothes and aura made her look like an ice empress, dignified and mature. ¡°Stop causing unnecessary trouble. Dear, look at what you have done spoiling her. Now she goes around saying words like ¡®kill¡¯ and her speech is clearly unrefined.¡± The woman¡¯s voice was neither loud nor low. However, every and each of her words had more strength than that spoke by the guild master. The latter who had been blinded by anger earlier was now sweating bullets when he noticed that his wife was here. ¡°Honey¡­ It¡¯s not what you think¡­ Apparently this brat-¡° ¡°Had done nothing wrong. I was here since the beginning. It¡¯s our daughter who¡¯s at fault here.¡± After putting down her child on the ground, she approached Lucifer¡¯s location with steady steps. Looking at her, Lucifer was feeling unwell. I didn¡¯t detect her presence. Did she use {Stealth}? If she did, she must have reached a way higher grade than me¡­ After giving a sweet smile at the child in front her, everyone in the room felt their heartbeat accelerating a bit, even Clara. However, Lucifer grew even warier and pointed the edge of his staff toward her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the trouble our daughter brought to you. Although my apologies can¡¯t compensate for the fact that she tried to harm you, I wish that you could forgive her.¡± ¡°No. She¡¯s crazy and dangerous.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s crazy? You¡¯re crazy!¡± She didn¡¯t refute for the ¡®dangerous¡¯ huh? Vlad who had been watching from the sideline since earlier cleared his thoughts before finally interfering. ¡°Sorry vice guild head, Lucifer will obviously forgive her¡­ Ahem, in fact, we came here to register him as an adventurer so that it could serve as his identity card.¡± While giving a meaningful glance at Lucifer, Vlad tried to sooth the situation. Lucifer knitted his eyebrows since he really didn¡¯t want to be involved in a guild where he might end up being with this white haired crazy girl. ¡°I know already. Clara, you should have complied with Vlad¡¯s request. You should know that as long as one has the ability, he can become an adventurer. My daughter is an example.¡± ¡°No. I don¡¯t want to be in the same place as this girl. Why would I stay with someone who wants me dead?¡± Hearing Lucifer¡¯s refusal, Vlad¡¯s face became complex. He couldn¡¯t retort. However, the woman who called herself as the little girl¡¯s mother was still smiling. ¡°I see. What if I promise that from now on she won¡¯t try to harm you in any way or another?¡± Lucifer didn¡¯t believe these words. He could still feel the gaze of the little girl on him as if he was a delicious cooked chicken running around in a street of beggars. ¡°I don¡¯t believe it. She¡¯ll try to kill me, thus, I¡¯ll do the same.¡± ¡°But, I can really solve your problem if that is your only reason for refusing to join our guild.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± The smile on her face grew even wider. Lucifer felt as if he was being led into a trap. ¡°Become my daughter¡¯s soulmate.¡± Lucifer tilted his head hearing those words. Clara fell butt first on the floor, her legs had given up on her. Vlad was filling dizzy, multiples stars were dancing around his eyes. These two were lucky, the bystanders choked on their foods while the guild master fainted on the spot. The little girl tilted her head too. Unable to understand the meaning behind her mother¡¯s words. ¡°What is a soulmate?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing much. It¡¯s like a bond linking two people by their soul making them able to share both their strength and some other things. And it prevents the two concerned people from killing each other.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ Such a thing existed¡­¡± ¡°But mom! He¡­ smells so good¡­¡± Her last words were only whispers that no one could hear but from seeing her drooling face, some people started to question the sanity of their young miss. However, after thinking about his a little with Mephis, Lucifer shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t become her soulmate.¡± The woman¡¯s smile fell. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°I just can¡¯t. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to. I just can¡¯t.¡± ¡°Well, you don¡¯t know if you don¡¯t try, right?¡± ¡°No. I know. She has a lot of divine power, right? Way more than what could be considered normal or rare.¡± Hearing his words, the body of woman trembled a little. Does he know? Impossible! Even apostle wouldn¡¯t able to tell! Looks like I really can¡¯t let you, little boy¡­ ¡°Yes, she was lucky enough to be granted a strong blessing. However, I really doubt that it could prevent you from being her soulmate.¡± Since she was still persistent, Lucifer decided to ask the System itself. System, can I become her soulmate?
System It is indeed possible. And since Host has unlocked {Masochist}, no pain will be felt in the process.
Hugh....How? I thought that my soul couldn¡¯t hold any divine power.
System It is right. However, Hos has forgotten that host held within him fallen gods¡¯ soul fragment. Host can form a link between himself and the opposite part through it. However, Host needs to be low on devil¡¯s power in order to reduce the resistance.
This isn¡¯t good. After making his decision, Lucifer looked at the woman¡¯s beautiful face. ¡°I can¡¯t make it right now¡­ I need to prepare myself otherwise it won¡¯t be possible¡­¡± ¡°Oh, of course. But please, do register. Like this, you won¡¯t get into trouble if you''re questioned by the guards for your unusual appearance.¡± It was only then that Lucifer finally noticed. Besides the guild master and the little girl, no one in the room seemed to be human. At first, it was only a hunch, but now it became clear to him with the woman¡¯s word. This kingdom was not human dominant. Chapter 10: Night Visit After finishing their business at the guild, Vlad, no, Lucifer followed Vlad and said that he will go to the same inn as him. Vlad didn¡¯t object but something was telling him that this setting was fishy. And his guesses proved to be right when they reached the inn. ¡°Oh, I forgot but do you have enough money to rent a room?¡± Lucifer shook his head. ¡°Wait. Then why are you following me?¡± ¡°You stole our-my kills earlier today, so you¡¯ll have to take responsibility.¡± Vlad was speechless. This brat! He wants me to pay his stay! Goddamn it! I knew it! He wasn¡¯t up to anything good by following me¡­ However, Vlad couldn¡¯t bring himself to throw Lucifer, but he didn¡¯t pay for another room. Instead, he asked if they could switch his current room for another one with two beds. After the waitress managed to take off her eyes from Lucifer, she quickly agreed. Vlad had to pay a supplement since he was changing for a bigger room. Looking at the copper coins being leaving his pocket because of a child, a manly tear appeared at the corner of his eye. Meanwhile, Lucifer was very happy that he managed to save money. He hadn¡¯t lied to Vlad. He didn¡¯t have enough money to rent a room, he had enough to rent multiples ones. He just ¡®forgot¡¯ to mention it. After getting to their room, Vlad quickly undressed without caring if Lucifer was here or not and headed towards the bathroom. When Lucifer made sure that he wasn¡¯t here anymore, his face turned grim. He looked at the still present wound on the back of his left hand. These daggers are dangerous¡­ The bleeding stopped but the wound is still present. Is it the so-called divine imbued magic? A normal flesh wound like this could heal in a matter of minutes for Lucifer, however, it¡¯s already been hours since he got it and it still hadn¡¯t fully healed. The only possibility he could imagine was that there was divine power inside the black daggers. He already felt that the little girl was holding within her body an abnormal amount of divine power. He hadn¡¯t asked since it was impolite back then to ask about someone¡¯s blessing, but when he looked at Vlad and the other adventurers, what he felt wasn¡¯t even close to a hundredth of what the girl was holding within her. She was inferior compared to Slaughter, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to tell how much. Thinking about her again, Lucifer felt a bit depressed. His power could help him accomplish his revenge, but he couldn¡¯t help those he wished to help. Besides him, everyone had divine power within them, making him an oddity. ¡°We just have to find some subordinates. Although I wish we won¡¯t need to use it, I think we should consider selecting those who could be helpful in the future. However, right now, neither you or I can afford to take someone.¡± Losing stats points, right? Yeah, it¡¯s not something either we wish to do now¡­ Then we just need to feed Armageddon and level up. The System said that we weren¡¯t restricted in how many classes we could get, we just need to get them now. ¡°How about asking Vlad?¡± Hum¡­ I¡¯ll try. Lucifer and Mephis thought about using his sigil on some monsters after taming them when they encountered them in the grassland. However, the fact they needed to sacrifice stats points always discouraged them from doing so. They weren¡¯t among the strongest, and the monsters they could tame or at least try to could only be weaker than them. Thus, neither of them wished to weaken himself for something which might die on their way. As for class restriction, it was common sense that the more classes you have, the harder it is to level them up. This wasn¡¯t valid for Lucifer. He could get as much class as he wanted but would only get what someone without blessing would have when leveling up. Someone without blessing would get only 3 stats points for each level up. Someone with a lesser blessing would get 5, an intermediate blessing would get 10, a high blessing would 15 and how much a Chosen would get was unknown for him. However, it was said that their growth rate was extremely terrifying. Enough for them to be able to be on par with a dragon when they reached their late teens. They were simply out his league. Thus, before starting to look for potential allies, he wanted to raise his level and unlock as many class as he could. Afterward, he could bestow a sigil to his most faithful allies. Slowly, but surely, Lucifer wanted to develop his own followers. Not for the sake of ruling over anyone. He wanted for him and his followers to share the same goal: Eradicate the churches of those gods who played with their lives only for their own sake.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. His eyes looking at the ceiling his room, bloodlust was coming out Lucifer¡¯s eyes. Was it fun? Ruining my life. Well, I don¡¯t know if hell exists, but I shall make it. And You guys will be among my firsts guests. Unknown to Lucifer, his body was slowly changing. // In a place where time and space aren¡¯t a thing. A place where He is everything. He trembled. Well, well¡­ This boy of mine sure is growing fast. Let¡¯s see if you¡¯ll serve your purpose, my fourteenth child. // A feeling of endless hunger invaded my me. I want him¡­ ¡°Your Holiness shouldn¡¯t have acted that way.¡± The one who just spoke was the woman who interfered earlier in Lucifer and the little girl¡¯s fight. ¡°You can¡¯t understand! He¡­ He is the one! His soul is just too delicious!¡± The woman kept shaking her head in disapproval. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that if your Holiness tries to eat his soul, nothing good would come out of it.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Something¡¯s strange about that boy¡­ Although I can¡¯t clearly tell what it is, I feel that his soul holds secrets we aren¡¯t aware of! Otherwise, how could he send your Holiness flying with one strike despite the fact that both of you are similar in age?¡± ¡°It¡¯s true¡­ He is not a Chosen. Did you guys check his race?¡± ¡°According to Vlad, he is a snake man. However, I doubt that claim. Snake men aren''t known for their strength.¡± ¡°Maybe a dragon?¡± ¡°Impossible. Even when a dragon use {Metamorphosis} they wouldn¡¯t be able to reduce their mana pool to only this much.¡± ¡°Anyway! I don¡¯t care! I want him!¡± Letting out a heartfelt sigh, the woman could only shake her head. ¡°Your Holiness, I knew that you¡¯re going through a difficult period of your life right now, but we can¡¯t risk anything. If we make one wrong move, we might alert the church of Desolation. If they found out about you, I am afraid that they would send a Vulture to capture you.¡± Hearing the woman¡¯s word, the girl cast her eyes down. She knew about Vultures. They were the one who killed her biological parents. Their existences were second only to the Chosen. They were above a pope and only received orders from their Chosen or their god. They could only be compared to the Seraphim. They could be considered the same, only their names differed since they belonged to different factions. They were a strength to be reckoned. Kingdoms and Empires could deal with a pope, but a Vulture/Seraphim, let alone a Chosen, wasn¡¯t something they could cope with. Offending one wasn¡¯t an option. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Hilda. I will behave.¡± Puffing her cheeks, the little turned her toward the window of her room, looking at the stars in the sky, her flickering with a strange light, as if sensing something. ¡°Thank you, your Holiness.¡± After wishing a good night to her ¡®daughter¡¯ Hilda left the room. The little girl waited a few hours before making her decision. Her hair became darker than black, and her golden eyes were shining a bit. She changed into more comfortable clothes to move in and opened her window before heading toward an inn in the south of the town. When she arrived in front the inn, he was already in front her, as if he knew she would come. However, something about him seemed different. ¡°You, who are you?¡± He asked. ¡°Hee¡­ I am the one you met earlier this morning.¡± With the cutest smile on her face, she faced him, a bit troubled by his words. However, Mephis just shook his head. ¡°No. Same body, but you¡¯re not her. Which Chosen are you?¡± As if she was offended, the little girl puffed her cheeks. ¡°How mean! You already forgot about the girl who took a big interest in you¡­¡± ¡°Answer me.¡± Seeing that her cute play was useless, the little girl¡¯s eyes became cold. ¡°Tch. You¡¯re no fun. So, what if I am a chosen?¡± ¡°Depending on which god you¡¯re affiliated to, you might today, no¡­ you might become a hindrance in the future so killing you now is the best choice since it seems that it won¡¯t be possible to wait for us to become soulmates.¡± ¡°You, you¡¯re not from any church?¡± A smirk appeared on Mephis¡¯ face. ¡°No. Don¡¯t feel it? I don¡¯t have any divine power in me.¡± I told you! He is blessing less. Next time you better listen to me Life! A long white rapier appeared in the hand of the little girl. ¡°I never thought that a blessing less would be the one with the best smelling one.¡± Before she could even move, lightings, fires, and winds were circling around Mephis body. Looking at this, the smile on the little girl face¡¯s disappeared. She hadn¡¯t expected that he could use this many magic while being a blessing less. She thought that Strength was his only strong point. She had no choice. His soul was powerful. So powerful that she might make the breakthrough she needed to become unrivaled among the Chosen. She couldn¡¯t let him go that easily. As they were about to go at each other, a white-clothed woman appeared among them. Seeing her, Mephis was greatly surprised, meanwhile, the little girl only cliqued her tongue. ¡°Children shouldn¡¯t fight among themselves.¡± Trying to resolve the situation peacefully, Hilda was putting herself between them. She had been following stealthily her ¡®daughter¡¯ every time she went out. At the beginning, she wanted to bring her back to her room, but ultimately, she let her go before following her. And she didn¡¯t regret it, she had found out valuable information. ¡°Lucifer, no, may I know with whom I am talking to right now?¡± Mephis¡¯ face remained expressionless, however, the grip on his staff became stronger. It was the first time someone had found out about them. Noticing the change within the boy in front of her, Hilda made an innocent smile. ¡°I am not here as an enemy. You see, my daughter could be considered to having a similar situation to you¡­¡± ¡°I know that already.¡± Despite hearing his cold words, Hilda¡¯s complexion remained the same. ¡°Well, you see, my daughter and I have some grudges against the current churches. Although we could be said as belonging to one, we are no different from heretics in the eyes of the world.¡± Seeing that the child in front of her didn¡¯t react, Hilda continued. ¡°My daughter and I have received the blessing of the god of Life and Death. However¡­ Since our church didn¡¯t associate itself with a faction, those who hold the blessing of our god need to hide that fact and lay low. But, the churches are becoming more and more active, they are starting to develop something which could them identify from which god someone has received his blessing, making us feel the urgency of the situation. That is why those of us, need to combine our strength to resist their oppression and-¡° ¡°Not interested.¡± She was stunned. As a blessing less, she thought that he would understand that his fate was worse than their and if he could find a powerful side to protect him, he would choose it. ¡°What you guys want is form a faction which will be on equal ground with those oppressing you.¡± ¡°Yes, that is why you should-¡° ¡°I don¡¯t want that. We don¡¯t want that.¡± ¡°Then what is it that you want?¡± Some irritation could be felt in Hilda¡¯s voice. She was offering him the opportunity to join them since he could be a strong leading figure in the future but he wasn¡¯t even considering it. ¡°I want to thoroughly kill each and everyone one of them.¡± Chapter 11: Paint the town red (Part 1) ¡°Greetings, Lord Cassis.¡± A middle aged blue robed man greeted the man sitting on the iron throne in front of him. ¡°Get to the point.¡± The man named Cassis didn¡¯t spare him a glance and coldly said. ¡°After further research, we have found out that this new type of energy could be transplated in living beings as long as their divine energy was completely depleted and¡­ with some luck.¡± Seeing that no response came from the man sitting on the throne, the middle aged man continued. ¡°We don¡¯t really know how it works but this energy seems to be able to substitute our divine power. However, we¡¯ve also found that those who managed to store this energy would lose their blessing right after it settled down in their body. And according to these people, this energy is named ¡®devil¡¯s power¡¯.¡± Hearing the other party explanation, the man on the throne frowned. If what he said was true, it meant that this energy had the ability to make them lose their blessing, thus defy the laws of the god within them. This was definitely something which couldn¡¯t be made light of. ¡°How many of you know that fact?¡± ¡°Hum¡­ Counting me, there are seven of us working on this new energy.¡± ¡°Kill the other 6. No information about your discoveries should be leaked outside. This is a matter which can have effects you guys can¡¯t even imagine.¡± ¡°L-Lord, they won¡¯t betr-¡° ¡°I said, kill them. Or do you need me to personally make a move?¡± Lowering his head in shame, the blue clothed man tightened his fists until they became white before taking his leave. ¡°Send a shadow to monitor him. I need to meet with the others.¡± If someone saw this scene, they would think that he was talking to himself, however, a small gust of wind could be felt. After making sure that he was alone, the man on the throne waved his hand and a man appeared in front of him. The man had long silk black hair and sharp black eyes. Death could be smelled around him. ¡°How is his holiness training?¡± ¡°It¡¯s going well. His holiness reached lv.20 for his main class, 14 for his secondary class and just unlocked the third class today.¡± ¡°Good. You can slow down the pace. His holiness will be receiving his tutors in a few days, he has to get used to his new schedule so that he can make the most out of it.¡± ¡°As you wish, Lord Cassis.¡± Afterward, the man disappeared in a flash. After his departure, the man sitting on the throne got up and gazed towards the horizon through the window of the room. ¡°The Church of Element should have discovered a thing or two about this new energy¡­ However, if we could manage to control it and use it as we wish, we might be able to break the current balance of the world¡­¡± After walking a few steps, the man was already near the window, his face only few centimeter away from the glass. His breathing was uneven due to the excitement he felt. ¡°The ability to erase someone¡¯s blessing¡­ How did something that terrifying ended up in our world?¡± // Hilda was back in her room where her husband was waiting for her. ¡°So, how did it go?¡± Seeing her pale face, the guild master wanted to know how their second meeting ended. Their goal being to assure a powerful partner for their holiness. ¡°He is¡­ not good.¡± The guild master was flabbergasted. He had witnessed Lucifer¡¯s strength earlier and was sure that he was worthy of being used by their holiness. ¡°Why? We will surely never find another talented young man like him who isn¡¯t emitting any divine power like him! Are you sure about this?¡± Hilda gently shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s not that he knows how to conceal his divine power, he doesn¡¯t have any, to begin with.¡± This time, it took some time before the guild master could accept the fact that a blessing less young boy could rival with their holiness. ¡°Then, is that the reason why he is no good?¡± ¡°No. The reason why he is no good is that¡­ He is-¡° Suddenly the door of their bedroom was blasted away, revealing a young girl with tattered clothes and bruises all over her body. Her black hair was disheveled but her golden eyes were glowing in a mysterious way. ¡°This guy is a complete brute.¡± While crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks, the little girl looked at the guild master like she had been offended.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Did he do that to you, your holiness?! It seem that I need to beat some sense in that kid un-¡° ¡°Stop right there. She was the one who wanted to fight, thus it¡¯s her fault.¡± ¡°He cheated! That staff of his is ridiculous! And how can the magic of a blessing less be so powerful? How much mana does he have? Even for a snake man, he is completely out of the norm!¡± The guild master¡¯s mind went blank at this point. He could still accept it if a blessing less who had gone through a ridiculous training could end up with enough strength and agility to cope with their holiness since she had not leveled up much, but he couldn¡¯t picture a blessing less who could beat her on every field. ¡°This¡­ Is this the reason why he is no good?¡± ¡°No. This kid¡­ He has a few screw loose¡­ I don¡¯t know who told him he could do it but, this kid wants to kill the gods.¡± At this point, the guild master had to sit down to not fall on the ground at any moment. ¡°Kill¡­ The gods?¡± ¡°Yes. Instead of making him an ally, we should kill him. We can¡¯t let someone that dangerous grow near her holiness.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you kill him back there?¡± His voice contained a bit of irritation as he didn¡¯t understand why she would let someone that dangerous alive and close to their holiness. Hilda didn¡¯t answer but only looked toward the little girl who was still muttering curses about Mephis. ¡°Your holiness?¡± ¡°Hum? Yes. You guys can¡¯t kill him. I want him as my soul mate.¡± The complexion of the guild master turned grim. ¡°Your holiness, I don¡¯t want to be rude, but do you know what ¡®soulmate¡¯ means?¡¯ ¡°No. But if my soul is connected to his, I will be able to uncover the secret of his strength and I¡¯ll be able to beat him! Or I¡¯ll let Life do it.¡± ¡°Your holiness¡­ A soulmate is someone with whom you will bond spiritually, mentally and¡­ physically¡­ If he becomes your soulmate, as long as you guys aren¡¯t against it, feelings of love will slowly grow between the two of you. However, Hilda told me that she intended to use the fact that your soul was much stronger than him to subdue his to yours¡­ But according to what she said, his soul isn¡¯t any weaker than yours¡­ Maybe he is even stronger.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ That¡¯s why he smelled so good¡­ Hu? Wait! Love? I-I don¡¯t want to love this brute! But¡­ I guess that I love his smell¡­ No no! I don¡¯t want to be his soulmate anymore!¡± While some drool was leaking out of her mouth while she spoke, her face was red as she finally understood the meaning behind her words earlier. ¡°However¡­ If he is my slave¡­ Yes, that much I¡¯ll allow it¡­ Since he smells so good maybe I can let him be my butler? Yes, it seems good too¡­ But lover? No no¡­¡± While she was speaking with her tiny voice, Hilda had a desperate face. The guild master had even more black lines on his forehead. ¡°Dear, you should have killed the boy anyway!¡± ¡°I tried. But I failed.¡± ¡°How?!¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t get close to him¡­ It¡¯s like my body was refusing to approach¡­ Like I was throwing myself into a pit of raging lava, waiting to be reduced to ashes.¡± ¡°What the¡­¡± The guild master was speechless, he couldn¡¯t say anything else. ¡°Although he is weaker than me¡­ Something in him made me warry¡­ He is dangerous.¡± After thinking for a while, the guild master came to a conclusion. ¡°Leave it. I know what to do. Your holiness should go to her room and have some rest. We still need to wake ourselves early tomorrow.¡± ¡°Huh? About that thing? I don¡¯t want to! I¡¯d prefer staying at the guild and having to deal with that brute!¡± ¡°We can¡¯t ignore the Marquis¡¯ request. You just have to be present and drink some tea with his son, nothing your holiness should worry about. Furthermore, we can¡¯t afford to offend the marquis right now. The Desolation church in the city is more active than before, bringing unwanted attention wouldn¡¯t be good.¡± ¡°Tch! Okay¡­ But if he tries to touch me, I¡¯ll eat his soul on the spot.¡± After saying those words drenched in kiiling intent, the young miss left for her room. Looking at her petite figure disappearing in the corridor, the guild master lets out a sigh. ¡°In what era are we living I wonder¡­ Every church has a Chosen, the eldest being 8 years old and the youngest 6 years old. Now they might not be a threat but they are brought up in a way to make mortal gods out of them¡­ And now there is a little blessing less freak who wants to kill them and their gods? The fuck is wrong with this world!¡± ¡°Stop swearing darling! I know how you feel too¡­ If things keep on evolving this way¡­ In ten years we might witness the beginning of the greatest war in our world¡­ And our holiness will have no other choice but to be part of it¡­¡± Seeing the crestfallen face of his wife, the guild master got up and embraced her with his arms. She trembled first after being interrupted in her thoughts before relaxing her body in her lover¡¯s embrace. Slowly, the hands of the guild master started to crawl down toward her perky butt as his lips were getting closer to hers. ¡°I want to sleep with you!¡± Hearing the clear and young voice of their young miss, the couple quickly separated. While Hilda was still blushing from being seen by the little miss, the guild master was cursing at every god he knew for sending this little girl to cockblock him. // As Vlad was waking up, he felt that something was off, though he couldn¡¯t say what. After washing his face and putting his equipment on, he went downstairs to have breakfast. When he reached the giant living room where the other tenants are having breakfast, he finally knew the reason why he had this bad feeling earlier. When he woke up he didn¡¯t see Lucifer on his bed. The reason for that was right in front of him. This little rascal! Lucifer was wolfing down a huge portion of soups one after another as if he was a swallowing beast. Looking at the dishes next to him, what he ate was clearly over the limit of a normal breakfast. Vlad could only cry in his heart as he was thinking about how much he would have to pay for that much extra. Seeing Vlad standing few meters in front of him sending him an accusatory gaze, Lucifer just shifted his gaze and continued to eat. Mother told me that if I am hungry I should eat as much as I can while minding the money. Since I don¡¯t have any money to mind, shouldn¡¯t I eat until I am full? System: Host is becoming more and eviler. + 1 Luck. ¡­ ¡°Does this even make any sense?!!¡± Mephistopheles was starting to doubt if this System of theirs knew about logic. After paying a generous sum to the proprietress, Vlad went to the guild to claim his reward for fulfilling the request. Lucifer said that he didn¡¯t want to go with him and that he¡¯ll take a stroll in the town. Vlad was glad to let him go. As long as he wasn¡¯t associated with him, he wouldn¡¯t need to have his money drained by a red-haired leech. Although letting a child alone in the street wasn¡¯t a good idea, it was only true for those who couldn¡¯t protect themselves. Thus, he was more scared of Lucifer creating trouble than anything. However, while he was still wondering how he should deal with the kid who was bent on using him as a living wallet, Vlad arrived at the central square. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, listen! Our lord organized a tournament at the arena for those brave and strong enough to bet their life through heated battles! You may want to say that your lives are important to you and your strength is far from being sufficient to achieve anything but fear not, as long as your performance and talent are sufficient, the lord will offer you a job among his personal guards! Man or woman, young or old, as long as you think that your talent and determination are sufficient, you can apply and try to grasp this opportunity!¡± Vlad didn¡¯t even stop while hearing this. Many followed his example because they knew the truth about those types of events. Only fools would try that¡­ Once you¡¯re in the arena¡­ You¡¯re as good as dead. These wealthy merchants and noble in the town are using this type of advertisement to bait those innocent commoners to their imminent death. What opportunity? In the beginning, they will fight among themselves before having to fight against veteran gladiators. This is just a simple and straightforward slaughter. Chapter 12: Paint the town red (Part 2) ¡°Thank you again for your hard work Vlad, here¡¯s your reward. Your guild card has been updated and Lucifer¡¯s card will be finished by this evening.¡± ¡°Thank you again, Clara¡­ Hum¡­ You know yesterday I hadn¡¯t got the chance to ask you but¡­ Are you free tonight? I mean after your work is done. I planned to invite you to a dinner with what I gained with this quest.¡± Giving him a gracious smile, she lightly shook her head. ¡°Vlad, the guild master already told you that relationships with receptionists are forbidden. Not that I dislike you, but with our current job, unless we both go to another guild, it will be impossible. And if the guild master learns that I want tochange location because of you, I¡¯m afraid that your ashes will be the only thing remaining.¡± Keeping her business smile, she rejected him. Although she also wished for something to happen between the two of them, so far, she only saw him as a friend. Well, maybe closer than a friend, but clearly not a lover. Thus, she didn¡¯t want to stir any trouble for both of them. ¡°Humpf! Just you wait! When I¡¯ll be stronger than this old man you won¡¯t have any more reason to reject me.¡± When he said those words, the other adventurers who were talking among themselves while looking at the mission board suddenly quieted down. Clara¡¯s complexion turned pale as well. Seeing this, Vlad raised his eyebrows before looking behind him. There, stood the guild master looking at him with a grin. ¡°Oh, you want to surpass me? Then let¡¯s have a spar at the training ground, to see if you have improved since the last time.¡± ¡°I-I was just jok-¡° ¡°No need to be so shy! Come, it¡¯ll be my pleasure to be your training partner. I need to let out some steam with yesterday¡¯s night matter¡­¡± While strongly gripping Vlad¡¯s shoulder, the guild master dragged him towards the training ground, which was underground while Clara was waving her hand at Vlad wishing him good luck. He needed it. // Lucifer returned to the inn crestfallen. There was a tournament which was organized by the wealthy of Tsein. He wanted to participate since it was an event where killing your opponent was allowed. And since he returned, Lucifer had never killed a member of the race, thus he very wished to see what would happen if he did. However, when he tried to sign up, he was denied the entry because he was too young. He protested by saying that he wasn¡¯t weak but the manager didn¡¯t spare him a glance afterward. Since he didn¡¯t want to cause a commotion, he just gave up while those behind him were chuckling and mocking him for trying to do more than he should. Furthermore, Lucifer encountered another setback. He dropped by the merchant guild and wanted to apply for a merchant card. Although he was interested in money, he didn¡¯t have enough knowledge about managing it and developing it. His father always told him that successful merchants had enough wealth to be on par with the most prestigious noble and their influence was only second to them and the royal/imperial families. This time, not only did they mock him for his age, they even told him that unless he was a graduate from school, he couldn¡¯t think about applying for a merchant guild card. With his age and lack of knowledge drawing him back, Lucifer was depressed. He took the rest of the day looking for information about a school in Tsein, but none of them were among that recognized by the merchant guild. Since Tsein was a city which belonged to the first line of defense against a monster tide coming from the Forbidden Forest, it was more battle oriented. Thus, schools who taught the basic for being a merchant were nonexistent. If he wanted to find one, he needed to head toward a town deeper in the mainland. While sulking about how much of a fail he was today, a very familiar emotion surged in his heart causing a gray mist to form around his body. A bone chilling hatred was sipping out of his body while devil¡¯s power was slowly aggregating around him. After calming his beating heart, Lucifer asked Mephis if something happened, but the latter was as surprised as he was. Even the System didn¡¯t find anything strange with him. Thus, Lucifer just ignored that matter. He knew that his emotions were unstable, but as long as he didn¡¯t do anything extreme, they should have been under control, not running rampant like a few minutes ago. Remembering that Vlad should have received his reward for his quest, Lucifer thought that he suddenly felt like he was hungry, very hungry. // ¡°My Lord, I received a report from the subjugation team. They successfully captured a young specimen which could be tamed after killing its protector.¡± Afer respectfully bowing to his master, the butler told the news he was told. ¡°Good, tell them to come back. The tournament will be in a few days and my son needs his special prize.¡± ¡°As you wish, my Lord.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Before going back, how is it going between my son and the little miss?¡± ¡°¡­¡± The heck you want me to say?! You perfectly know you¡¯re forcing a little girl to bear with your unbridled son and she hates it! She even told you herself that you were a pig and your son was worse than a pig! Did you think a few candies will make her change her mind? ¡°I dare not say anything inappropriate but I think my Lord should instruct young master on how to entertain a lady.¡± ¡°Ahahah, they¡¯re still young! He¡¯ll have plenty of time in the future to learn how to entertain her, for now, he should just let her get accustomed to him.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Without saying a word, the butler excused himself before going out. Being the only one left in the room, the lord, Marquis of Tsein, Herald Cardis, a tall brown haired man with bits of fat present all over his body, was sipping his tea while revealing a pleasant smile. With an intermediate blessing of Desolation and two mid-level classes, he was considered as one of the most powerful men in the town. He ruled over the nobility and the commoners within the town. The only ones who escaped his control were people from the church. The church. To nobles, the church was their biggest enemy. They held way too much power for an organization which should be concerned about the wellbeing of their believers. Although it should be the royal/imperial family who should dominate in their land, the church was always the one who held the true power. For two reasons: Chosen and Vultures/Seraphim. While the latter could still be challenged by some hidden experts, the former was just way too ridiculous. Herald had never seen the power of a Chosen but his father did. And the only thing his father said about them was one word: Unstoppable. Unless another Chosen acted, a Chosen could pretty much do however he liked. He was the closest being the gods, he was sheltered and trained to the utmost of his capacities since he was very young. And by the time they reached the age of 15, they could already step on nearly anyone¡¯s face without putting much of a fight. This was the reason the nobles hated the church. They had a power which could give them supreme authorities. However, since it would lead to a world war if a church tried to expand his influence seeking world dominance, they always stayed ¡®low-profile¡¯. But Herald could feel the change incoming, like any other noble. The fact that all churches had a Chosen at the same time, the fact that many churches have disappeared and were living a stray dog life, everyone could tell that something was going to happen. And he was getting prepared for it. The next war wouldn¡¯t be between kings or emperors, but between Chosen. A war in which people like them wouldn¡¯t want to take part to. But no one could show their true feeling about this. As someone blessed with an intermediate blessing he was offered the possibility to join the church of Desolation since it was the minimum requisite to enter, like any other church. Those with a low blessing couldn¡¯t enter. Those with a high blessing were personally invited unless they belonged to royal or imperial families. In which case they would have the choice to stay with their family, otherwise, the church would put a lot of pressure on the family to force them to part with their child. A high blessing was extremely rare. Thus, the church was even more reluctant to part from a child who obtained one. And no one could deny them, because of those who were at the top of the church. Vultures/Seraphim. Even emperors needed to kneel in front of them, let alone those pitiful nobles. Thus, they hated the church. For stealing their power, for restraining them, for acting all high and mighty wherever they went. So, they were looking forward to the war. A war in which, maybe, those at the top may fall, and those at the bottom may rise. Many plans were prepared in advanced and some were still in development. They just couldn¡¯t afford to make any mistake. If money could be considered as the fuel of the world, strength was its gears. Those who had strength could decide to choose the gear with which they wanted to make the world. They had the fuel but not the gears. For now. // Days passed. Vlad enjoyed those days. He learned a valuable lesson. Never pick a cute looking little freak at the grassland. No, never think about taking care of them because you felt pity for them. Because they didn¡¯t felt any pity in plundering all of your money. When he got back to the inn after having a ¡®gentle spar¡¯ with the guild master, Vlad found out that Lucifer had eaten 3 silver coins worth of food. The face of the receptionist looked like one who just saw a treasure, but for Vlad, he was a walking disaster. Since then, Vlad gave the instruction that they should not serve him more food if he does beyond the 30 coppers limit. And the very next day, he discovered that Lucifer ate 2 silver worth of food for breakfast. The waitress told him that she just couldn¡¯t resist the grieved face he made when he was told that he couldn¡¯t ask for more and went a bit overboard. But since it was her fault, he didn¡¯t have to pay for it. However, this matter gave Vlad quite the idea. He asked Lucifer to accompany him while he had to buy some commodities since he needed to replenish his stock after his last quest. They first went to the alchemist shop. When they entered the shop, Lucifer was holding a tiny stick in his hand and his clothes were dirtied while Vlad looked even more of a beggar. The shop manager, who was a middle-aged demon lady, felt her heart sink a bit when she saw their state. But, since it wasn¡¯t uncommon for commoners like them to end up like this, she was just slightly moved. However, that was until Lucifer displayed his talent. When Vlad asked for how much the pain reducing and mana regeneration potion cost, she wanted to say 5 silver coins but seeing the pitiful and haggard look on Lucifer¡¯s face, she felt heartless for asking so much. But, Vlad¡¯s plan failed the very next moment. The reason was because the alchemist who created these potions was coming out of his room and happened to saw him. When Vlad saw the alchemist, he made a wry smile and was already prepared to run. Vlad knew him since he was young and always tried to gain some type of discount from him but he never agreed, heck, he even kicked him out the shop when he tried to cry to persuade him. And since he became a C class adventurer, he became even more hellbent on making him pay each potion at the highest price. Thus, when he saw that his newly hired shop manager was going to reduce the price for Vlad, the latter could already feel the temperature rising. So, he took Lucifer and ran off without bidding his farewell, just in time to dodge the incoming fireball. ¡°This old geezer will never change! I spent so much money in his shop and he stills treat me like an eyesore!¡± While Vlad was cursing at the old man, Lucifer didn¡¯t care about his problems and was only looking forward to his reward for his contribution. The shop manager¡¯s face had lost all colors when she saw the huge fireball went past her. She knew that the old man was an extremely powerful mage besides being an alchemist but she had never expected him to use such a powerful spell against a beggar. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about him. This brat was trying to trick you. He wouldn¡¯t have died even if he was hit by my magic. This brat is thick skinned enough to take 2 or more of my spells.¡± The shop manager could sigh while shaking her head. As if someone can take your spell while being fine! Few things Some might have noticed but I released mysecond novel. Thus, I should explain what it implies. First, I won''t post any chapter about the second novel as long as my schedule doesn''t allow me to do so, and I will keep publishing 1 chapter or more of Fallen each week.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Furthermore, how can you be sure that I won''t drop this novel or anything? Simple reason: it had already been written in my MAIN language. This is true for both of them. However, since translating everything in Englisheat way too much of my time as I add and delete things left and right.( I wrote those novels a year or two ago) So, DON''T POINT ANY SPEARS AT ME! Anyway, as always, see you on Monday~~ Chapter 13: Paint the town red (Part 3) Inside the living room of the Lord¡¯s mansion, a man whose one of his harm was missing was bowing his head in an apologetic manner to his master. The master, who was the Lord of Tsein, had a grim complexion. ¡°Explain yourself. And don¡¯t even think about omitting a single detail.¡± ¡°Y-Yes milord. As you know, we told you in the previous report that we managed to kill a guardian beast which was protecting a recently born beast. Since we had managed to secure what we were looking for, we didn¡¯t idle there any longer since no one among us wanted to stay that close to the Forbidden Forest. However¡­ When we got to the grassland¡­ It-It happened¡­¡± ¡°A giant obsidian snake?¡± ¡°Y-Yes¡­.¡± ¡°ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!¡± The Lord threw a punch at its subordinate to vent his anger. He was already rejoicing about having been able to secure a beast from the Forbidden Forest as a present for his son, but he hadn¡¯t even got to see it that he had already lost it. ¡°Obsidian snake only lives near volcanoes or in the depth of the earth. They seldom come out and even if one came out, HOW CAN YOU BUNCH OF RETARDS DIE WHEN THERE WERE 30 OF YOU?!¡± The subordinate was already suffering from trauma since that event, and the way his lord treated him didn¡¯t improve it. His body was trembling all over and no words could come out of his mouth. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that he was the scout, thus he was ahead of the main group, he would have suffered a horrible death. Death wasn¡¯t something he was afraid of. However, the way his companions died terrified him. The snake, no, the monster they met was enjoying it. He saw everything. His companions didn¡¯t run or tried to defend themselves. When he came back, he saw them immobile, like they accepted the fact that today was their last day. And one after the another, the black snake used dark blades to slice them bit by bit. He first took their eyes, then their genitals. After he took their finger and their toes. He heard their screams. But despite all the things the black snake did to them, they didn¡¯t flee or retaliate. They suffered like they ought to. Seeing this, he wasn¡¯t stupid enough to challenge the black snake or try to wake them up from their abnormal state. He ran away. And as he thought that he was safe, a black blade came from behind and severed his right arm. This wound nearly cost him his life. Since he didn¡¯t know any healing magic and didn¡¯t have any potions on him, he had to make do with his clothes to stop the bleeding and drag his weakened body back to Tsein. But he fainted few kilometers away from Tsein. But luckily some adventurers noticed his body soon enough and brought him back and he was saved afterward. However, now he had to face his master¡¯s fury. After calming himself, the Lord closed his eyes and started to ponder about something. ¡°Send a request to the adventurers¡¯ guild. An obsidian snake in the grassland needs to be hunted down. Reason: dangerous for others¡¯ wellbeing. Reward: 1 platinum coin.¡± ¡°L-Lord¡­ We can¡¯t kill it¡­ People will die trying!¡± ¡°As if! I don¡¯t believe those ruffians would refuse my request with such a reward. And as soon as he is killed, we will be able to find its lair and get the beast back. Now, GO! Since you failed this mission, you¡¯ll better not disappoint me in the future. Your job will be to keep an eye of each group of adventurers which take on this mission and make sure they don¡¯t kill the young beast. Failure isn¡¯t allowed.¡± After giving his instructions, the Lord left the living room and returned to his study room, leaving the subordinates whose face had already become as pale as it could be. ¡°Fuck this¡­¡± // ¡°Let¡¯s go to the guild.¡± ¡°No, I want to participate in the tournament!¡± ¡°Good kids listen to their elders.¡± ¡°Good elders are wise and powerful¡­¡± This morning, Vlad finally grew tired of lazing around and intended to take a quest. He wasn¡¯t short on money since he managed to deal with his most important source of expenditure which happened to be his roommate. On their way to the guild, Lucifer tried to convince Vlad to participate in the tournament, thus he could take his place. When Vlad heard this, he nearly choked while drinking his cup of water. And even after thoroughly warning Lucifer that this tournament was just going to be a bloodbath to entertain those wealthy people, the latter was even more elated. Seeing this, he could only sigh and thank whoever made the rule that children couldn¡¯t participate. Nonetheless, on their way to the guild, Lucifer kept trying to convince Vlad to register for him. It¡¯s been a few days already since the last time he interacted with the strange girl and her mother. He managed to scare them off by releasing his devil¡¯s power the last time, but since that day he looked around the city to look for methods to improve himself quickly and efficiently.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! And he only found two methods so far. The first one was to kill his way to the top at the tournament. The second one was togather strongly enchanted equipment. The former was impossible because of his age, and the latter was impossible because he didn¡¯t have the money to afford those types of items. Their worth was in golds. With his funds, right now, he could at most afford a ring which will slightly increase his speed. It wasn¡¯t worth it. He thought about learning how to do enchantment himself, but no one wished to teach him. After asking Vlad for the reasons they rejected him, Vlad laughed so hard that Lucifer kicked him out of the room before he stopped. According to Vlad, no one would teach his techniques to someone who doesn¡¯t look like he has any money or doesn¡¯t intent on being heir successor. Thus, the only way for those youths who were curious about everything and anything to learn a thing or two was to find an academy who had those subjects as materials. With this in mind, Lucifer had a better understanding of how things worked. He and Mephis finally came with a plan about what they shall do after making sufficient preparation here. However, even if the matter about the enchantments could be dealt with later on, the matter about the tournament was becoming more and more urgent. But no matter how many times he insisted, Vlad wouldn¡¯t give in. So, they reached the guild hall with a pouting Lucifer and a Vlad with a beaming smile and scratches all over his face. ¡°Clara! It¡¯s so nice to see such a beautiful woman like you in the morning!¡± ¡°Oh, Vlad. Good morning. I appreciate the compliment.¡± ¡°No need to be shy, no one in the guild is more beautiful than you, this is something which could be considered as general knowledge!¡± ¡°Ara, so I am inferior to Clara¡­ Did your hear that husband?¡± ¡°I did. It seems like someone didn¡¯t learn anything from the last he sparred with me.¡± Feeling like a giant ice blade had penetrated his back, Vlad had beads of sweat running down his spine as he slowly turned his head to confirm the identity of the two persons who just spoke. Fuck! How can I be so unlucky¡­ ¡°Ahum¡­ Guild master, Lady Hilda, please do not take what I said seriously, you know that I was just joking right?¡± ¡°So, I am not beautiful? How sad¡­¡± Hearing the grieved voice of Hilda, Vlad didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to go. ¡°Humpf! Since you dare mistreat our guild receptionist, I guess that you will have to accept a personal request of mine. Of course, refusal isn¡¯t an option.¡± Vlad had a bad feeling hearing this. It could be said that his sixth sense was telling him to run without looking back. ¡°Well¡­ what is it about?¡± ¡°An obsidian snake slaughtered a part of the Lord¡¯s personal troops in the grassland, and I want you to investigate about it with other adventurers before deciding about how we¡¯ll manage the raid.¡± At the very next moment, a burst of mana gathered in Vlad¡¯s body as he was intending to use one of his skills to escape, but before he could make a step, a giant shadow hand restrained his feet. Seeing what was restraining him, Vlad could only look helplessly at Hilda¡¯s beaming smile. ¡°You guys¡­ I won¡¯t accept that quest. Are you crazy? Investigating about a monster which can decimate a bunch of well-equipped and coordinated guards? I¡¯d rather spar with the guild master all day!¡± ¡°We¡¯re not asking you to fight it, just get some information about his whereabouts.¡± ¡°No way! Obsidian snake? Those things have such a strong sense of smell that I¡¯d be discovered before I could even see his scales!¡± ¡°The reward for the quest is one platinum coin.¡± ¡­ ¡°He¡¯ll accept.¡± ¡°Luc-¡° Vlad wanted to rebuke Lucifer, but when he saw his eyes, no words would come out of his mouth. Just like the first time he met him, they were vertically slit and looking at him as if he was a tasty horned rabbit. ¡°Good. Now, you should go and look for adequate teammates for the investigation.¡± ¡°Wait!¡± Lucifer¡¯s voice reverberated in the guild hall. It wasn¡¯t loud but everyone heard him and felt something strange within them. ¡°Can you tell us more about this quest? Why is there a need to hunt down that obsidian snake?¡± The guild master frown hearing Lucifer¡¯s tone, but after remembering what his wife told him, he still answered without complaining. ¡°Like I said it killed numerous people and its strength is a threat to this city.¡± ¡°Monster of his caliber wouldn¡¯t mindlessly kill people, unless for a certain reason.¡± ¡°There is none. The knights dispatched by the Lord were only transporting a newborn beast which was supposed to be used as a reward for the champion of the arena. Besides that, from what the Lord told me, his knights didn¡¯t engage with the beast neither did they offend him.¡± Every word pronounced by the guild master felt like needles in Lucifer¡¯s mind. The thinlayer he built around his hidden feelings cracked. In a flash, Mephis took control over the body and used his wind magic to get out of the guild hall as fast as possible. Looking at the fleeing Mephis, everyone wondered what happened to him. However, besides the fact that he was a snake man, they didn¡¯t get why he was so agitated by this matter. Snake men were related to those snake monsters at some point, but unlike them, they¡¯ve been blessed with divine power. Thus, they considered themselves as superior. So, they didn¡¯t understand why he would react that way. Meanwhile, outside the city, deep in the underground, Mephis had created a small cave for them. The cave had originally a surface of 10 cubic meters, but now it was more than a hundred. Mephis was in his dragon state as he punched the ground until his hands were bloody. He would sometimes lose control and Lucifer would take his place and wreak their cave even more. It took them a full hour before they could calm down. ¡°Hey, Mephis.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I never liked this town.¡± ¡°Me neither¡± ¡°But I know a way to make it likable.¡± ¡°¡­ What is it?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll paint this town red. In a very beautiful one.¡±
System Second door of the Fallen has opened. Confusion acquired.
System Confusion goes against the law of the world, making it follow the Devil¡¯s will. Therefore, it will use devil¡¯s power.
Confusion (Grade 1) If your target has less (Intelligence+Wisdom) than you, you can prevent him from using any skills requiring mana, otherwise, the user can only disrupt their senses for certain amount of time depending on the gap between them and the amount of devil¡¯s power invested. You can also sever the space around you from any source of divine power, the bigger space is, the more devil¡¯s power it will consume to maintain it.
Looking at his new skill, Lucifer couldn¡¯t find any happiness. Sitting cross-legged in his cave, he thought about Vel¡¯s words and sealed once again the wrath which was rampaging in the depth of his soul. He couldn¡¯t afford to go on a rampage now. Not yet. There were only four days left before the tournament. He needed to keep a calm mind during these four days and prepare for the worst. ¡°Mephis. I thought that only the church was our enemy¡­ But it seems that it¡¯s not the case... We don¡¯t belong to the races, we don¡¯t have any blessings and those who care for us end up dying¡­¡± Tears ran down his cheeks. ¡°Leave it to me¡­ With this new skill we got, I am more qualified to be in control for the time being.¡± ¡°Okay. You know what to do.¡± ¡°Yes¡­ Since the Lord of this city thinks he can act without minding the consequences, I¡¯ll show him that uncle Vel is the last thing he should care about¡­¡± Chapter 14: Belphegor ¡°Father, can I ask you something?¡± A neatly dressed child asked after slowly wiping his mouth. The Lord of Tsein who was still eating looked at his son before nodding his head. ¡°I¡­ *I was wondering if I change my main cl-¡° ¡°Bruce! What did I tell you?¡± ¡°¡­ Tamers are unrivaled as long as they possessed strong monsters¡­¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°That you would help acquire them¡­¡± ¡°Then what are you complaining about?¡± ¡°¡­ I want to be strong right now! Chiva is way stronger than me and¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bother yourself with that. She must have a middle or high ranked blessing. Although I don¡¯t from which god, it¡¯d explain why her parents tend to avoid matters related to the churches. And ultimately, she is a lone girl, you, on the other hand, will have the support of multiple powerful monsters. Don¡¯t be impatient, in the future, you will be way stronger than her. For now¡­ How is your relationship with her?¡± ¡°¡­ She treats as a weakling and doesn¡¯t bother saying more than few words¡­ And¡­ Recently she always says ¡® I would rather be with the freak than you¡¯!¡± ¡°¡­ Girls nowadays lack proper manners. Don¡¯t let it bother you too much. Soon enough, she would only feeladmiration towards you.¡± I hope, if not, she will have to be your concubine whether she wishes for it or not¡­ // A rotten smell filled the air of the slums. People with worn out clothes were leaning on the tattered wall of their ¡®house¡¯ while looking half alive. If one took a closer look, it could be seen that besides the fact that they are suffering from hunger, they were also feverish. This type of fever could be dealt with if left alone since the metabolism of most races living in the Tsein were quite resistant to it. However, they were in a very weakened state and could only wait for their incoming death in this black pit they considered their home. A boy with blazing red hair was walking down those streets stained with differents type of liquid. Those who saw him were surprised by his clothes which were in a good state. Some¡¯s eyes shined with greed while a few of them even had a bit of lust. However, the moment their eyes met with the young boy, they felt fishes being attracted by an attracting bait, which would lead them to an earlier death. None of them blocked the path of the young boy and let him pass. The boy reached its destination. A house who looked even more desolate than the others. As he entered the house, he was greeted by room bathed in a green light. Inside, there was a man. His body looked frail despite his height which nearly reached 2.5 meters. His red-brown fur was filthy and on his head, one of his horn was missing. The man was facing the wall in front of him and didn¡¯t bother turning his head when Mephistopheles walked in. ¡°What do you want?¡± With a dry voice, he asked Mephistopheles intention by coming to his house. ¡°My name is known as Lucifer. I¡¯ve come here because I want to offer you a chance, Belphegor.¡± ¡°Leave¡­¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t reject me so soon¡­ A week from now, a merchant named Gadius came here, he used the fact that you were indebted to him to force you to participate in the upcoming tournament, however you refused. But, this merchant didn¡¯t take no for an answer and kidnapped your only daughter and your wife¡­¡± ¡°Shut up¡­¡± ¡°Both were sold as slaves to an influent family and you don¡¯t even know whether they are still alive and well.¡± ¡°I TOLD YOU TO SHUT YOUR MOUTH KID!¡± The bull man finally turned around, his eyes bloodshot while breathing roughly. However, Mephis didn¡¯t waver. Killing the man in front of him wouldn¡¯t be difficult considering his state, thus he was unaffected by his surge of killing intent and kept looking at him. The bull man felt his rage growing stronger the longer he stared at the kid in front of him. All those which were enshrined in his heart started to bloom at a frightening speed, slowly taking over his mind. ¡°I am not here to laugh at you. I¡¯m here to make a deal with you. I will give you the opportunity to get back everything you lost, with interest.¡± The bull man felt as if a bolt of lightning struck him. His unrestrained feelings started to calm down as he looked curiously at the child in front of him. ¡°I don¡¯t which god gave you your blessing, and I don¡¯t care. I am here to offer the opportunity to follow me instead of your pathetic god.¡± The bull man complexion turned in one of pure disbelief. ¡°You¡­ You are a Chosen?¡± Hearing his words, Mephis revealed a smile which suited a child of his age, however, the tone he used afterward didn¡¯t fit his age.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°I am not. However, I can offer you the ability to wield a power which can make able to challenge those at the top of this world in the future. Are you interested? I mean, do you have anything left to lose?¡± ¡°¡­ A child shouldn¡¯t speak th-¡° Before he could finish his sentence, a terrifying pressure pressed him down the ground making him unable to move. ¡°Can you feel that? It isn¡¯t mana, and it isn¡¯t your ¡®divine power¡¯. It is something else, something people would fear, something people don¡¯t know of. I can offer it to you. You just need to abide by my 3 rules. 1st, never lie to me. 2nd, never betray me unless you want to forfeit your life. 3rd¡­ If you accept my power, you can only kill those I deemed unworthy of their life. As long as you respect those three rules, you can do whatever you want, I don¡¯t care.¡± However, as Mephis waited for the bull man to answer he forgot for a moment that he was still pressuring him with devil¡¯s power but he managed to stop before Belphegor¡¯s bones turned into a pile of dust. ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t even have a choice¡­¡± A satisfied smile appeared on Mephis¡¯ face. ¡°But first, let me tell you that I am sorry. I could make you even more powerful but I¡¯m quite limited at the moment, so I can only allow you to wield my power¡­¡± While saying this, a gray colored glyph which had the form of an eye of a snake appeared in Mephis hand. The glyph slowly levitated toward Belphegor before stopping in front f him. ¡°Accept it. Making this deal with me will change your life.¡± As Belphegor looked at the glyph, the smile of his wife and his daughter appeared in his mind, making him shed tears from his dried eyes. After a few breaths, with a clear mind, he extended his hand and grasped the glyph. Suddenly, he felt like something inside of his body break. Multiple blue screens appeared in from of him.
System You¡¯ve accepted the Sigil of the Devil.
System Low Blessing of Sin has been obliterated.
System Divine¡¯s power has been banished from the user¡¯s body.
System Devil¡¯s power found its dwelling inside user¡¯s soul.
System User¡¯s bloodline has been affected. Bloodline {Beast Man- Bull race} has evolved into {Devil¡¯s Spawn- Minotaurus}.
System Basic stats have been enhanced.
System All requirement have been met, Berserker class has been unlocked.
System Since user¡¯s accepted the Devil¡¯s Sigil, Berserker evolved in Chaotic Brawler.
And another bunch of blue screens regarding skills and aptitude appeared as Belphegor was screaming. The pain he felt through his body from his blessing being shattered was too intense. The change in his bloodline and aptitude were forcing his body to be modified, transformed into something he could have never imagined. Looking at Belphegor¡¯s metamorphose in front of him, the smile on Mephis¡¯ face grew wider. The first step for his plan was a success. He needed to do much more things before the fated day. At first, he wished to storm in and wreck everything during the tournament but the fact that many powerful figures would be present and oversee the event was enough to calm him down. However, if he couldn¡¯t do it, it didn¡¯t mean that nobody couldn¡¯t. After discussing with the system, he discovered that binding someone with his sigil didn¡¯t need him to absolutely forsake some stats for it, however, they wouldn¡¯t receive an extra boost. But this wasn¡¯t the decisive factor for his plan. While he was looking at Belphegor, a dark violet grimoire suddenly appeared in front of him. Seeing it, Mephis¡¯ eyes shined. Necronomicon. The book was filled with blank pages, with the first being an exception. On the first page were a picture of Belphegor¡¯s face and his characteristics. Necronomicon registered every person he contracted with and would allow him to interact with them, know where they are and summon them at will. With this, he could make a plan which would help him achieve his goal without putting Belphegor in too much danger¡­ Normally. After some time, Belphegor¡¯s screams stop. Steam was coming out of his body as a gray mist was slowly circulating around him. His body had been through a drastic change. Although his height was the same as before, he didn¡¯t look as frail as before. Every cell of his body was brimming with an unknown strength. His horns which were only a few centimeters tall before now pointed toward the sky with their 25 centimeters of length. His fur which was brown red before had recovered their previous color, a beautiful crimson. However, his black eyes turned sky blue. If his previous body was put alongside his new body, no one could guess that they were the same people. Looking at his first servant, Mephis was satisfied. ¡°So, how is it? Are you dissatisfied with this new power?¡± Belphegor didn¡¯t respond. His senses were acuter than before making him feel a bit dizzy. It was only after some time passed that he slowly nodded his head. ¡°And this is not all. As I said, I¡¯ll give you the opportunity to get back everything, with interest as long as you follow me. But, for that, it is necessary for you to participate in the tournament.¡± Hearing his words, Belphegor¡¯s face became dark. ¡°You¡¯re misunderstanding something. I don¡¯t especially want you to win the tournament. But I need you to make it something people would never forget. It is necessary for my plan.¡± After explaining his plan to Belphegor, the latter¡¯s eyes became bright with excitement and a glim of killing intent could also be visible. With both his knuckles on the ground and his face facing down, Belphegor acknowledged Mephistopheles as his Lord. ¡°Lord has given me a power which I couldn¡¯t even hope to have before. Lord is willing to comply with the wishes of this lowly one. Then, from now on, this lowly shall be always loyal to Lord.¡± However, Mephis waved his hands. ¡°Those who makes a deal with me are free as along as they abide by my rules. I don¡¯t need you to be loyal but someone¡¯s true to his desire. I won¡¯t restrain your freedom with the best of my abilities. If you want to go against me or don¡¯t agree with my methods you¡¯re free to say it and act according to your beliefs. Why? First, we made a deal, I helped you, you will help me. Second, because I hate those who dictates people¡¯s life. Those who thinks they¡¯re free to do whatever they wish with other¡¯s lives but cannot be touched. If you kill be prepared to be killed, no matter who they are, Chosen or gods¡­¡± // Inside his room, a man was sleeping on his bed, multiple lines of divine power surrounding his body. A foreign strand of divine power suddenly appeared in his room and entered those divine lines. This woke up the sleeping man. His eyes slowly opened as he analyzed what just happened. ¡°My blessing¡­ was removed? A god managed to find a way to remove others¡¯ blessings? This¡­¡± The complexion of the man turned grim as he imagined many possibilities. ¡°It seems like this game is coming to an end¡­ Someone¡¯s growing without anyone of us aware of it¡­ I hope it isn¡¯t a god of that bitch¡¯s faction.¡± Magnolia: 2nd Record The Dragon King. An existence which is considered as the absolute sovereign among all monsters and beasts. His might being, at least, on par with an adult Chosen, it was the biggest threat which the members of the race had to face. If a Chosen wished to slaughter every monster in the continent, he wouldn''t be able to do so as long as the Dragon King stays alive. If a Chosencould be considered as those who ruled over the divine among mortals, the Dragon King was the sole ruler over mana. A dragon is originally a beast with a humongousamount of mana. Vampires who are those who hold the most mana among the member of the races usually have around 10-15 thousand mana by the time they reach adulthood. Whereas, an adult dragon had millions of mana. A certain legend says that their body could be considered as being fully made of mana which had been transformed into flesh and scales. However, no one had the luxury to perform enough research on a dragon''s corpse to find out anything before being killed.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. And the ruler of these terrifying beasts, the Dragon King, held a power which no other dragon could go against. The King''s Crown. Dragons, like nearly every being in this world, were limited. However, with the King''s Crown, the Dragon King could surpass his limiter and his strength would evolve exponentially. The Crown was his symbol and source of absolute strength. But it came down with a price. The Dragon King couldn''t wear the Crown for more than 100 years. And afterward, he would be greatly weakened until his death. Thus, during their reign, Dragon Kings would usually try to groom a descendant to whom they could pass down the Crown, who happened to be in most cases their own son or daughter. However, there was once a jet black Dragon King who didn''t have any successor. For some unknownreason at that time he wasn''t able to conceive a child with any woman. But his reign was coming to an end and he needed to select someone as the next Dragon King. Those who called themselves his friends tried to influence his judgment. The black Dragon King decided to leave his palace and roam around the world, before making any decisions. Those who didn''t know of his intentions thoughts that he wanted to select someone from the outside and were enraged about this idea. They then decided to follow the Dragon King in order to know which dragon he would select as his descendant. However, the outcome of this selection was one which they would have never been able to guess. Chapter 15: Tournament (part 1) The citizens were cheering for the contestant willing to risk their lives today. Yes, today, multiple freemen and slaves would fight until submission or death. Their goal was to obtain some fame or the special prize which will belong to the only one who will never be defeated. During this type of events, those who possessed unique talents and managed to become powerful despite their starting being at the bottom, could show their prowess and try to get close to those influential people who organized this event. While others were here to try to gain their freedom by gaining fame for their master. But among the participants, there was one more person who had a complete different goal. His build looked imposing, his aura was domineering and the black steel axe on his back looked deadly as if it couldn¡¯t wait to tear through the body of everyone here. Lucifer was the citizen, seated near Vlad as he would watch the event. While coming here, they bumped into the little monster and her parents. It appears that they were invited by the lord of Tsein to watch the event from their seat, in the VIP room alongside some influential of the church. They didn¡¯t seem too happy about this but they still agreed. As they went with the butler who came to inform them about the lord¡¯s invitation, Lucifer made sure that Vlad and he went in the opposite direction. Being the furthest away from the people from the church was the best option for him. Today would be a special day and he couldn¡¯t afford to make any grave mistake. Mephistopheles had passed the last two days finalizing his plan before letting the control to Lucifer. And now, he was seated among the other citizens. Although some were a bit surprised about his presence they didn¡¯t care about it too much. Letting a young child like him witness the bloodbath which would soon happen would at least make him mentally prepare for the future. When there was no more place left for people to come in, and all participants were present, a dark elf appeared at the center of the arena, his blue eyes warmly looking at everyone. His navy blue suit and the imposing aura he was releasing caught the attention of everyone present. Those who were still chattering with their friends or family turned silent while watching him, as if they were mesmerized by something. ¡°I thank you all for being present here to witness the courage and the strength of the warriors and mages of our beautiful city. Today, is a day where heroes can make a name for themselves by shedding their opponents¡¯ blood. Although killing isn¡¯t necessary, it can¡¯t be helped if someone were to die in today¡¯s event, and I hope that everyone here is aware of that¡­ However, it isn¡¯t in vain. Today, one of them will stand alone at the top and will be rewarded with a soul weapon, 10 gold coins, citizenship if the champion used to be a slave. And now ladies, gentlemen, young and old, I wish for you to enjoy what is to come.¡± His voice made many women present blush while the man only silently looked at him with jealousy in the eyes of some. The only one who was making a real displeased face was Lucifer. The spell the dark elf was using to focus the attention of everyone on him required divine power, thus, since it had an area of effect Lucifer could feel the divine power trying to enter his body. But this much couldn¡¯t do anything on him besides pestering him. He only wanted to release some devil¡¯s power to bath in it. But he couldn¡¯t afford to act this early, so he patiently waited. After explaining the rule, the dark elf let all the participants enter the arena. The reason was simple, each participant will introduce himself before those who wished to bet on who¡¯ll be the final winner. In total, there was nearly 80 of them. Demons, beast men, elves, and even some humans from what Lucifer could see. And among those participants, a beast man who seemed to be from the bull race with a frail looking body, was coldly gazing in a certain direction. The beast man was Belphegor. Strangely he could revert back to his former appearance, which was a great news for Mephis. This way, he had even less worry to have about concealing Belphegor in the future. However, at this very moment, he was standing inside the arena, looking for a certain man. And Gadius was also looking at him with a surprised expression. He didn¡¯t expect to see Belphegor here, but he quickly focused his mind on another matter as he was laughing in his heart. At first, he was a bit afraid that he would end up doing something out of desperation, but since the man himself chose to participate in this slaughter he could only be happy. He had forcibly taken away his wife and daughter hoping to threaten him with their life, but a friend of his took a liking to the pair and he had to agree giving them to him as slaves. Although he hadn¡¯t wished for such an outcome he could only accept it. However, he couldn¡¯t use them to threaten Belphegor anymore since they were no longer in his possession.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. When he told Belphegor about this, he was afraid that the latter would try to do something and shouldn¡¯t. Because he knew that despite looking like that, Belphegor used to be an experienced warrior. Although he didn¡¯t know how he ended up in the slums, he learnt as a merchant that underestimating his opponent would lead him to a premature death. So, he asked someone to stay at the entrance of the slum and to report back to him on each time Belphegor went out and where he went. This is the reason why he was surprised when he saw, since there was no news of him going out of the slum to sign up as a participant. But now, his worries about him were soon to be over. Finally, after Belphegor introduced himself, a black-haired miss with dark eyes who looked like she was human, stepped out and presented herself. ¡°My name is Alice Asakawa, 17 years old, B rank adventurer.¡± Her short presentation shocked everyone present. First was her family name that was way too uncommon and secondly was her adventurer rank. Being a B rank at 17 was something that rarely happened, it could even be said that no one present had yet to see one yet before today. However, Lucifer¡¯s face was grim when he looked at her. He could only feel that she was dangerous. In a second, Mephis took over the body. Belphegor, if you ever face this Alice, concede. Why milord? She¡¯s dangerous for us¡­ I don¡¯t know where she comes from, but she isn¡¯t someone we can kill upfront¡­ I¡¯ll personally deal with her later. Does milord need to act himself? With the power milord gave me, I think I can- I¡¯ll deal with her. The amount of divine power in her body is too abnormal to be left alone. With the amount of knowledge I acquired these last two days it is impossible for her to be a Chosen, but the feeling I get from her is that she is a threat of the same caliber¡­ I understand, but wouldn¡¯t be better if I were to injure her first? No need. I will deal with her without letting her any way of escaping. Since Belphegor contracted with Mephis, they discovered that the two of them could talk through devil¡¯s power as long as they weren¡¯t too far away from each other. The arrival of this new factor named Alice Asakawa gave Mephis a bad feeling which he needed to deal with quickly. But not far from him, a woman who seemed to be in her early twenties looked coldly at Belphegor. She was wearing a wooded cape on her body to prevent attracting unwanted attention with her abundant curves, however, anyone looking at her hooded figure could tell that she had to be one of these women who were often considered as goddesses of beauty. She had caught the murderous intent flashing in Belphegor¡¯s eyes for a short time when the latter glanced in Alice direction. Her origin was still unknown to anyone present even the members of the adventurer team she belonged to. Her reaction could be considered as someone overprotective because of her love, but the reason was something entirely different¡­ After every participant introduced themselves, the tournament finally began. In order to greatly reduce the number of participants, eight teams were formed. Each team member will fight among themselves and only the last one standing will be allowed to continue. To Mephis¡¯ pleasant surprise, Belphegor was in a different team from Alice. After confirming this, he left his seat and told Vlad that he was going to the bathroom. Vlad wanted to spank Lucifer when he heard those words. He was dragged here because of him and now this brat wasn¡¯t even here when the event will finally start. Mephis just ran away while being squeezed by the masses. For him, the beginning of the bloodshed will be the start of this little game of his. // ¡°Try touching me again and I¡¯ll cut off your hand.¡± The coldness in the voice of this little girl didn¡¯t fit her age. Hilda and her husband were accompanying their holiness to the Lord¡¯s room. The Lord of Tsein had invited them to let the children spend some time together while his son¡¯s representative won the tournament. However, not only was the little girl bored right after the first person introduced himself, she was making sure that Bruce was at least multiples feet from her. The latter reluctant of staying so far away, decided to get close and take her hand, but she retracted her hand as fast as possible while sending daggers with her eyes at him. ¡°Sorry¡­ But we shouldn¡¯t be so distant toward each other, in the future, it is possible that we will have to stay together.¡± ¡°Dream on. Unless you want to die, you should stop thinking this.¡± ¡°If you think that I am unsuitable for you because I¡¯m weaker than you, I¡¯ll show in the future that I can beat you without lifting a finger.¡± The little girl didn¡¯t say anything but she was laughing in her heart. Her hair was as white as snow at the moment, her golden eyes were filled with disdain when she looked in Bruce¡¯s way. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that her guardians told her to not act rashly here and the nearby priest and arch priest of the Desolation church, she would have long since then killed this kid in front of her. She sat on a chair and let her thoughts run wild. Before long, the face of Lucifer appeared in her head and she thought about her fight with him and the one against Mephis. A faint smile appeared on her lips while reminiscing these. She was getting hungry. // The first group had begun the festivities. And from the 10 participants present at the beginning, only four remained. Two of them were beast men of the tiger race, one of them was from the demon race while the last one from the human race. Both beast men were using a claymore as their weapon, while the demon used a long sword and the human a battle axe. What surrounded them was the remains of five other participants. Since magic was authorized during the tournament, none of them dared to show some kind of restrain. Thus, some of them ended up obliterated because of their carelessness. However, the sixth one quickly surrendered after one of his limb was cut off to avoid any further injury. Only by surrendering soon enough will someone keep his life during this tournament. The scent of blood was filling their nostril as the ground under their feet seemed to slowly attract them. The cheering coming from the public couldn¡¯t be heard by the participants, only their rough breathing and the movements of their opponents were important in their world. But none of them dared to move first. They looked at each other like this for another minute before it happened. The eyes of one of the beast man turned blood red. He was in a berserk state. His muscles became sturdier, his battle awareness became sharper along with his five senses. And most importantly, his urge to kill soared. Small notice To put it simply, I won''t be posting this week and maybe next week chapters due to a serious lack of time. Too much work and need to catch up >.> Of course, I plan on releasing multiple chapters afterward to compensate but right now I need to focus on my studies for a while. I sadly can''t afford to be late otherwise I''ll never be able to catch up in the future. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Chapter 16: Tournament (Part 2) Madness powder. An item used most of the time against intelligent monsters. It has the ability to make fall under an abnormal state of mind depending on the situation. For instance, if the monster was sleeping, he wouldn¡¯t wake up no matter how hard one tried to wake him up and would do so only naturally. Furthermore, after the monster awakens, his sense of touch would be numbed making him unable to feel any kind of pain, which is very useful if one wished to inflict serious injuries on sleeping monsters without waking it up. However, right now, in the middle of a tournament where only one skill and abilities are allowed, someone used madness powder on one of the contestants. But no one noticed it. They couldn¡¯t feel any foreign mana or divine powder so they just thought that the contestant possessed a skill which allowed him to enter the berserk state. No one could suspect the young red haired boy standing near the border with a small pouch in his hand to be the culprit of this situation. Not only they wouldn¡¯t pay attention to him, they couldn¡¯t even imagine him bypassing the surveillance of so many experts. But someone had been looking at the boy for a while, and a smile grew on that person¡¯s face. Meanwhile, things were going according to the plan, Mephis was wondering how he should deal with Alice. But his thoughts were interrupted by a flying crushed skull which struck the barrier surrounding the arena. The demon man was caught off guard by this sudden transformation coming from the tiger man and couldn¡¯t cope with his explosive speed. The latter just gripped the demon man¡¯s head and separated it from its body while pulling out his spine in the process. The grip was so strong that the skull was half crushed and blood was already coming out of every orifice. The headless corpse collapsed on the ground, letting the sand of the arena quench its thirst. The other two contestants were frightened. When they saw the tiger man enter a berserk state they had no idea of how dangerous he¡¯d become. Since they were at a standstill until now, they thought that regardless of his berserk state they will be able to suppress him if they ganged up on him. However, not only did they not have the time to suppress him, he had killed one of them in less than a breath of time. This meant that since the beginning he was restraining himself and wanted to hide his strength. This was a good tactic since having the opponent underestimate oneself would sometimes lead him to leave more openings for you. But right now, both of them only cursed their luck and wanted to flee as fast as possible. As one of them was about to raise his hand to forfeit, the arm to which the hand belonged to, was violently torn apart from the human¡¯s body. And before he could utter a single sound from his mouth, the berserk tiger man bit his neck and twisted it, killing the human while horror and shock were visible on his face distorted by the pain he felt. The remaining tiger man screamed ¡®I give up¡¯ multiple times while putting as much distance between him and the other tiger man when he saw this. The examiner announced the end of the battle but it was useless. For the first time, the berserk tiger man walked toward his next prey at a slow pace. Seeing this, the examiner coldly snorted before mana chains came from the ground and restrained the berserk tiger man. The latter had his limbs firmly shackled making him impossible to move them any longer. He let out a terrifying howl who shook the soul of the surrounding living beings. Everyone was scared that he might free himself and start a butchery even among the citizens. More chains appeared and forced the berserk tiger man to be firmly bound to the ground, even his head was shackled, letting him only the possibility to breath as his bloodshot eyes were coldly looking at the escaping tiger man in front of him. Seeing this, Lucifer was wondering if he should recruit him or not. But he sadly had no idea if he could in the first place. Although people who participated in this tournament should have circumstances which would help him form a contract with them, not all of them were as desperate as Belphegor. Lucifer could only sigh as Mephistopheles really lucked out on that one. After restraining the berserk tiger man, the examiner thought that something was strange about his situation and inspected his body with magic. It didn¡¯t take him a long time before he could find some remaining madness powder near his nostrils. This fact made his heart grow a bit restless. They had thoroughly checked each participant to prevent them from bringing any foreign substance inside the arena but he found some on the tiger man¡¯s body. This meant that someone provided him this madness powder during the match under everyone¡¯s surveillance. And To bypass their security that someone ought to be extremely powerful or skillful, maybe both. Thus, he planned to report this matter but didn¡¯t want to meddle with it anymore. His superiors might be able to deal with the culprit but they couldn¡¯t guarantee his life if information about him discovering the evidence leaked.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. In the end, he chose to report about this matter as he still needed to give some explanation about today¡¯s incident. This was the safest choice he could take at that moment // The tournament was stopped for half an hour in order to calm the situation and prepare the second group. The explanation given to the citizens was that the participant broke the rules and thus was disqualified. Therefore, the tiger man who managed to keep his life by the end of this became the winner of the first batch. However, he retired from the tournament right after the announcement was made. Some people called him a coward while others could only wryly smile in understanding. He had been scared out of his wits a few moments earlier and they could guess that his mind hadn¡¯t completely recovered from the previous shock. And participating in this way was lowering his chance of survival, let alone his chance of winning this competition. When the second batch entered, Mephis eyes were fixated on one person: Alice Asakawa. For this fight, he only wishes for one thing: to see the how strong she was. He still had many potions left to toy with the participants for that, he just needed to wait for an opportunity. With the announcement the staff delivered earlier, he knew that they found some trace of madness powder on the berserk tiger man, but he also knew that they had no way to find out that he was the culprit. And besides interrogating everyone present they wouldn¡¯t be able to find. And even if they did start interrogating the citizens, would they suspect a child who looked weaker than them? The answer was obviously no. Even if they did, their pride wouldn¡¯t tolerate it. Everyone knew that powerful mages were overseeing this competition while hiding their selves. So, they would notice if a child manipulated mana in front of them. Mana, that is. While looking at the fight earlier, Mephis had noticed that multiples threads of mana were constantly moving all around the arena. It wasn¡¯t transparent like usual. No, it was, but it had like an ¡°aura¡± which gave it some brilliance. Mephis deducted that this ¡°aura¡± meant that the mana was connected or used by someone and not some ¡°stray¡± type of mana. Since he wished to walk on the path of magic as a Devil, he wished to know more about those. He wanted to try to touch them, absorb them, steal the ¡°aura¡± away but he couldn¡¯t. If he did, he wouldn¡¯t be able to escape. So he could only look at those dancing threads in front of him while keeping all of his future experiments in the back of his head. The battle finally started after some time. The arena has been restored to its previous state as if nothing happened earlier. The different participants were unknowingly forming a circle as they didn¡¯t want to let anyone enter their blind spot without them noticing. However, no one took the initiative to attack for a whole minute. They just stayed there, staring at each other, waiting for an opportunity. Alice made her move and shook her rapier in her hand. A hurricane suddenly appeared at the center of the arena, attracting the participants. Alice moved and went to the person on her left, the latter quickly reacted and used the halberd he held in his hands to defend against her strike. Despite her slender body, the strength behind her strike managed to make her opponent take a few steps back as incredulity was visible on his face. But he quickly regained his wits and counterattacked her after stabilizing himself. As she saw the incoming halberd, Alice wanted to side step to dodge the strike but her sixth told her otherwise. She quickly erected a {Divine Shell} to cover her body to block both the halberd and the fire lance aimed at her. The one who tried to get her with a surprise attack was the woman who stood on her right when she did cast the hurricane. Seeing her back exposed, the latter decided that a person who could create a hurricane in such a short amount of time needed to be eliminated early otherwise she¡¯ll definitely win. Thus, she waited for her target to focus on something else and show an opening before attacking. She was sure that she saw her opponent go for dodge instead of defending, which is why she fired her spell. But things ended up being different. The {Divine Shell} raised by Alice was a spell only those blessed by the goddess of Order could use, and its efficiency depended on how much divine power was used for it. And the fact that it could easily fend off two different type of attacks at the same time meant that it was a very strong one. Alice didn¡¯t intend to use her divine power in this tournament but was forced to in just a few seconds. She thought that she may have underestimated this battle a bit too much and needed to take it more seriously. So, with her rapier in hand, she coldly glanced at the woman behind her before disappearing from where she stood. A painful cry resounded in the arena as the woman was stripped naked and her body was covered in multiples wound. Each being small holes in her body where blood dripped. Seeing this, Mephis had a smile on his face. Now he knew how to deal with, and if he managed to kill her, he should have enough point to reach their first goal with Armageddon. Putting his hand in his clothes, Mephis opened one of the pouches hidden within. And with the help of devil¡¯s power, he slowly took out the content, before spreading it in the entire arena while avoiding a specific spot. Where Alice stood. ¡°Let¡¯s see how she deals with that.¡±