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.

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 to gather 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 thin layer 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…”