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.

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, The Fallen, 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.