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.

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, The Fallen, 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.