"Wait, wait, wait, wait! We will bring you to the base overseer…"

"No, no, no, don't come over, we will escort you to the overseer and admit our wrong doings…"

"Please just stop…"

Since they took me for a pushover, I had a nice talk with them using 'Lightning & Thunder fist' and some 'Precise throw' to prove them wrong, and it did work out in the end.

After all, although their levels were comparable to the first floor's boss, their actual stats were a bower barely hanging at the twenties and below...

"Now then, you could have just done so from the beginning, but nooooo. However, since I'm feeling generous today, I will let you off the bat…"

"Please no, we didn't really want to do that from the beginning it was…"

"Shhhhhh."

"Oh?"

It seemed like the weakest one of them all, the lv.140 guard still didn't realize I stopped out of boredom as he was almost about to blurt something that he shouldn't have, but the guard commander stepped forward to shush him before he did so.

I could probably continue the talk and get the rest of the information straight out of their mouths, after all, these were demons, the invaders and corruptors plaguing the lost realm, so mercy wasn't a factor to consider when dealing with them.

But! Considering the fact I was using the identity of the so called 'Candidate' being the shadow assassin, along with the fact that this was the lair of the demons made the act interrogating them lose its worth, especially when I could already deduce how this worked.

It seemed like the corruption seed distributors weren't few in numbers, and they would give the actual locations of bases around, the receivers would enter such bases in several cases, such as completing their demonification perfectly and thus escaping to the these gates in fear of being hunted or to interact with their new communities.

Some would be escaping from life and death situations like the assassin planned to, and others might fail their demonification, achieving half a demon stats which would leave them with no actual chance of living with humans as half-demons were despised more than even normal demons.

Of course, as demons or half-demons who already had the special dark element of the demons, they would pass automatically to the second floor without having to go through the ardorous first floor.

As such, according to the hierarchy of the demons which is usually based on two fields, deception and strength, and considering that the half-demons or the escapee demons wouldn't be smart and deceptive to begin with unless some exceptions, the guards acted as the gate bullies who would literally murder the newcomers if they weren't powerful enough.

This was probably the base's overseer's way of screening the seeds that need to be cultivated and the seeds that needed to be crushed for compost…

So, as I already should have proved my strength, coupled with having a more authentic demonification aura with an elemental art of a high grade, I would have a better chance at passing as one of the better 'Candidates' and achieve my objective pretty soon!

"Just lead the way!"

`~~`~~`~~`

'Ok, I'm impressed…'

Was this truly just a base? I truly doubted that fact…

After all, after moving forward, we did pass through a city gate, entering into the supposed-to-be, only to find something at the level of a city, which could easily compare with ones like 'Starry Night city'...

It somehow felt like it was a true community living there, except for the fact that this community was working to destroy the human community... I mean race as a whole or rule it by turning us into inferior versions of them.

As such, I wasn't only impressed by how far they developed, but I was also alerted, it seemed like the demons plans ran quite deep after all.

Of course, according to my plan, I was still going to destroy this city-like base regardlessly!

"We are here."

Knock. Knock.

Standing in front of a small castle like structure, the guard commander knocked on the wooden gate.

"Yes?"

"It's me, mordoc, we seem to have a passing 'Candidate' who just came in, the overseer would probably like to meet him…"

"Ah, let me ask first."

Unexpectedly, the one who opened the gate was not one of these buff demons but a thin one, seeming a bit more calm and gentle acting compared to my barbarian friends here, yet they seemed to treat him with respect.

"Alright, the overseer has allowed the 'Candidate' to come in alone."

"That's how is it, this is as far as we can go…"

I disregarded the guard commander's comment as I followed the thin demon inside…

"Finally! We are done with this guy!"

"Don't speak too much, let's just leave here fast…"

'heh.'

Hearing their comments, I couldn't help but chuckle internally, bullying demons was much more proper, fun, and a good way to let it out some steam.

Guided by the skinny demon, we reached a hall inside the castle-like house, where a demon with a moderate build, which made him look more like a human than the rest of the demons I have seen so far in the base, was sitting on a chair, and moving chess pawns around from the chess set put on the table in front of him.

He then stopped moving the pawns as if he was frozen by something, before he looked at me so suddenly, as his cold eyes were slightly curved to give an amused look.

"Oh, I assume you are the 'Candidate' that I wasn't expected, you should be Jared, right? Judging from your clothes and body build you couldn't be Frick…"

"..."

"Oh, right, Sand, you can leave us alone for now! I would like to have a small talk with our guest here."

"It's as you said, I'm indeed Jared. I had some unfortunate encounters which only left me with no choice but to escape to this base, I hope I wouldn't be asking for too much by asking to join this base, as I still want to serve our great cause!"

"Oho?"

"Of course, if that's not possible, I would merely ask for accommodation until the start of the invasion, and I could manage on my own following that…"

"No, no, of course not, you are welcome to join my base, in fact I would like you to! I'm just a bit interested in your story of these 'Unfortunate encounters', that's only if you wouldn't be troubled by talking about it…"

"No trouble, no trouble at all! If you wish to know about my 'Encounters' then I would gladly tell you my story, it started with…"