Ding!

You have leveled up to level 10!

Ding!

You have reached level 10 and can now choose to undergo maturation.

Do you wish to mature

Yes

No

Akor was unconscious when the messages suddenly began to flow in his sleep.

His level went up with the hunting from his minions which activated the system to mature him to Tier 2. His mind was racing but he accepted since he had no reason not to.

Examining choices and achievements

‘Good Demon’ title, ‘10 Strength’ achieved, ‘20 Intelligence’ achieved, ‘Faithful of Pyarus’, ‘Prays to the Good God Faction’, ‘Obtained ‘Demon Lord’s Aura’ skill’.

You have achieved the conditions for several maturation choices

Great Imp

The most common maturing path of an Imp. They gain 100 hp and 1 stat bonus for all stats upon reaching Tier 2.

Blue Imp

A race of intelligent imps. They focus on magic and have a fixation on all things magic related making them great magic researchers. They gain 100 mp and 3 stat in Int and Wis when reaching Tier 2

Red Demon

A new unknown race. They have been analyzed as a combat race of the good faction. They are intelligent and powerful with a high growth rate but a low birth rate equal to an elf.

They gain 50 hp and mp and 2 stat on all physical stats when reaching Tier 2

Akor did a quick count on all the races and didn’t feel much as he picked Red Demon. First off, it was a Good faction demon race, something he hadn’t seen before, second, it gained 8 points in stats instead of just 6 with the blue imp or 7 with the great imp. Although the HP and MP buff was less, he gained both of them instead of just one of them.

Because the changes from an Imp to a Red Demon are so large, the player will be logged off and the avatar will enter a hibernating state to undergo the changes.

Five seconds after the message came, Lucas awoke in his living room blinking. The partially empty room filled his view as he sat up and rubbed his head. “This game really isn’t as simple as i thought. It needed time for maturing and all that.” he said and opened his video feed to see the changes in his avatar.

What appeared in his view was his bedroom in the game. On the bed he had been placed at, he was glowing with the aura. His body was quickly changing. His lean muscles began to increase as was his height. His three fingered feet became a five fingered and his tail began to thin out into a long black leathery tail. On his head, the two large horns moved from the side of his head to his forehead. Finally long black hair began to grow out of his head and his bright red skin took deep blood red color.

The changes were quite large but didn’t change his facial features but his avatars height had increased to 190 cm tall which was considerable for the current demons.

Lucas sighed but he saw that the entire evolution of his avatar was far from finishing and would actually take hours so he didn’t log in since there was no point.

Coming off the video feed, Lucas looked around confused by what he could actually do for the next few hours. He assumed his avatar will be out for around one game day so around 6 hours.

He turned on the Tv because he was actually a little lost in his daily functions. Most of his life he spent working to sustain himself but now he finally had a moderately stable life. As he flipped through the channels he finally came upon the channels of one of the studios which were showing the players.

“...oll just can’t handle the Paladin John Rips! As you can see, paladins hybrid classing is quite amazing as both a tank and healer, it is a must have in a party. At the same time the priests are even better depending on their gods. From what is known, combat god priests all have stronger stat buff spells that buff from 20-50% better than others while element priests are better as attack mage.” the man was saying.

Lucas flipped the channel and saw most of the stations were all about players. One thing he noticed was that the channels even gave advice in almost all of them but lord class players didn’t get this.

He actually became curious about this and suddenly pulled up the sites of the ten studios and began to look at the videos of the lords.

The videos had quite a few comments and chats but what he found among them were rants and insults about how bad the lords were. Complaints, insults, shouts. Of course there were those who were good but because it was too early they simply lacked leaving more for the rant and hate comments.

He pulled up a demon character and saw the savage style which focused 80% on combat research.

Lucas looked at the videos and formed a confused expression before he pulled up the comment box, “If you continue following this style, you will lack food and your army will be only shock troopers. You should retire your general and build a stable system while focusing on support classes and building research to form a foundation.” he said and posted.

He didn’t really put that much in mind but he went to a dwarf this time, he was very curious about the other races.

He logged into to VR system but not the game so that he could have more hours to watch the videos and began to discover how the other races worked.

The reason why elves and dwarfs are called Great Tree Lord and Mountain Lord when they reach a true ‘lord’ class is because they take that to the limit.

The game is quite equal for all players. Demons get to access the demon heart early on because they are born weak so they get the buff quickly as well as the fact that they are Tier 1. The sentient races on the other hand are all have basic 10 across the board so they start off with more difficulties. Of course that doesn’t mean they are exempted, Elves plant the great tree and get buffs like demons while dwarfs have what is called the Mountain heart. Just like a demon heart, dwarf lords literally connect to the mountain after digging their village within its center and connect to the mana spring deep underground closer to its center.

Animal and Monster lords vary depending on their race as do humans.

Humans aren’t a magical race even if they have the ability to use magic they can’t handle that much mana like the other races. Animals and some monsters are similar so different from those who ‘plant’ connection items, these other races create what are called ‘seals’ which connect to the lords who can access the power like large bursts of power.

In quite a number of peoples videos he gave a brief appraisal but it wasn’t like he really cared if they were taken into account, after all the lords were competitors. He didn’t even know if the others would see his comments.

Among the people he looked at, he actually paid more attention to the weaker lords with chance of failure. ‘Those who learn from their failures are smart but those who learn from others failures are wise’. This was his mentality as he watched their videos. He picked out the weaknesses in their foundation and left comments based off what he saw.

After a few hours, he grew bored and decided to go out and jog.

Because he had poor health before, his physical body was weaker than normal. When he remembered this he thought about jogging to raise his physical proficiency to a more normal level for him.

He put on an old pair of shoes and left.

The other reason was to look around his home which he had not done even now.

He took a taxi to a local nature park and spent his time in the natural environment. The dirt road, large trees and great shade from the canopy.

Sha! Sha! Sha!

Suddenly something in the trees drew Lucas’s attention. He looked up and his jaws dropped at what he saw.

What he witnessed look like something out of a martial arts movie. Several men and women were jumping off tree trunks towards another or grabbing the branches and swinging from one to another. They came and went in moments.

Some of the people around saw his shock and chuckled, “Is this your first time seeing Superhumans jogging?” the man asked.

“Jogging?!” Lucas said his eyes widening.

The man laughed, “Those are some good young men and women, this is their daily routine to maintain their physical bodies from what i understand.” he said.

“H-How long did it take for them to get… like that?” Lucas asked looking at them.

“They got it naturally of course. Just like any of us jogging and training for a marathon, they just trained normally until they reached athletic grade.” He said. “Of course, to become athletes with their racial background needs a strong financial background as well but which superhuman doesn’t have lots of money since most of them have military background?” the man laughed and jogged off with his friends leaving Lucas.

Lucas balled up his fists when he heard that and although his face didn’t show it, his teeth were clenched hard. He looked at where the superhumans vanished in the trees feeling the dispersity between them because of money.

He sighed but his eyes burned with desire to be a normal superhuman and not a regular human.

Still he knew his limits, he was only equal to a human and would not be able to match the weakest super human until he regained full health.

When he returned home, he was really hungry and sweating heavily. He took a bath before he cooked up some food. The amount was quite small because of the bar he ate in the morning.

After eating he finally logged on and woke up as a Red Demon.

Ding!

Congratulations! You have matured into a Red Demon

Red Demon

A demon of the good faction, can only be born in a nation blessed by a good faction god. They are an intelligent race and one of the most humanoid of all demons. Their matured DNA now prevent their body from drastically growing due to the change in stats and will be similar to other sentient races.

These can be considered the sentient race of the demon kin.

Despite being an intelligent race, they are a race who specialized in combat and possess very high potential for close range combat and some potential for magic.

Racial buff: 50 hp/mp, 2 stats in all physical stats

He checked the detailed information and smiled at his choice which came out to be the right choice. He checked his status next.

Status

Name:

Akor

Race:

Demon Lord (Red Demon)

Class:

Demon Lord

Race Tier:

Tier 2

Level:

10

Exp:

0/4000

Hp:

380/380 hp

Mp:

270/270 Mp

HP regen

115 hp/m

Mp regen

120 mp/m

Stat points

18

Strength:

12 (10)

Wisdom:

20 (4)

Agility:

12 (9)

Intelligence:

20 (4)

Constitution:

12 (11)

Dexterity:

12 (9)

Charisma:

15 (16)

Compared to when he began, his stats were far better. With 18 free points, he maintained his current path and distributed 3 points to each of the main stats. This put him at 15 for physical stats and 23 for the mental ones not counting the demon heart buff.

“This is really good.” He said as he got up and started to feel his improved body. The height was far above his normal and but he felt no discomfort despite that. He tried to control his aura and a black aura formed in his fist forming a faint pressure as well but he also felt a faint pressure on his body. “So despite having a large power, i need to have a body to handle this power. I guess it goes to show the balance the system made for it.” He muttered but he didn’t mind.

After some exploring on the net, he discovered this black aura was demon mana. It may seem contradictory but not all demons can use demon mana. Demon mana was similar to holy mana in that it was a higher quality mana which could buff and improve upon the power of other magic. Although many demon lords existed that didn’t mean many of them would survive or be able to properly use this. At the same time, even though there are few holy tree lords among the elves they will probably be able to learn because elves protect and favor this lord and will teach him extensively.

It is a matter of background really, elves will have a wealth of knowledge while demons will have to face their own race to survive which went to show the difference.

“Alright, let us go see what we can do.” He said feeling very confident in himself at this point.

Again there were more imps to bind and he was able to accomplish this with ease for two reasons. Tier 2 demons didn’t need to exert themselves much to make Tier 1 demons submit. There was a biological attraction of demons towards those of higher bloodlines and when Akor appeared, the struggling infant imps and minogida were halfway to submitting and when he expressed his aura, they gave in.

“My lord, you have matured but i do not recognize your race.” She said walking around him.

“It is called a Red Demon. It requires the ‘Good Demon’ Title and praying to a god of the good faction instead of the active evil ones.” He said.

“Oh! I see.” She said amazed by the transformation yet the appearance he had and the long black hair gave a very humane majesty like the noble devil races do. This was very weak though because his charisma was very low but she could already see a possible king in him.

“What does my lord want to accomplish today?” She asked.

“Gather the imps, we are going to capture the nearest imp camps closest to the town. They will make up a big bulk of our numbers in what is to be a large struggle.” He said.

Valring nodded. “Which should we attack?” She asked.

“All of them.” he replied.

He was planning to appear and pressure the imps. What he most hoped for was a Tier 2 imp or minogida because if he could get those, he will be able to unlock the Tier 2 nest and house for his minions allowing him to raise the quality of his minion by a whole grade.

All at once the town went wild. The reason was because the full town guard was mobilized but not only that, a mission went out to all the active players in the town.

Territory Quest:

Territory Clearing

The Lord of Sanity has commissioned all demons to aid in the efforts to suppress and capture the nearby demon tribes.

Objective:

Help Capture 0/6 demon tribes

Reward:

100 exp, 20 copper coins

Although 20 coins seem cheap but this is a lot of money in this poor village. The players already realized this point because even the money drop rate was very low with the animals dropping between 2-10 coins each, even the Yak which was the strongest creatures within a nearby perimeter of the capital has a low drop rate.

When the quest came out, the players went crazy, it had been boring for the last few days besides them hunting alone under hard conditions that existed for the demon race since party system didn’t distribute exp. They already realized the quest system was the only way out. Sadly the exp gained is also scarce for demons in this method as seen.

The quest was done so that the subordinate grade players could make up numbers, although it doesn’t seem like much but there were a few hundred players in the town alone. The number of minion guards numbered a little over 60 while there was around 120 subordinate guards. The addition of the players was meant solely to intimidate the imp tribes.

In other words, Akor was paying the players to make up numbers.

He called his royal mage Adok and left Valring to manage the town.

In a few minutes, the guards were all gathered up by rank. The subordinates were in the back like a mob using simple clubs and weak bows. They were just split by class. In front of them is the soldier rank minions in line as Akor had taught them to do. They wore a copper helmet, gauntlet and boots while holding a copper sword. In front of each squad was the Sargent level guard who had an additional chest plate and shield. Finally there were three commanders who held a copper spear.

“Today we will take control of the land under my rule!” Akor shouted.

“For the master!” the three commanders shouted.

The other minions and subordinates shouted and growled.

On the sides the players were looking at the minions with envied expressions seeing the guards with armor. It made sense because this was the stats of the copper weapon and armor set.

Copper Sword

Normal Quality

A sword made with novice level smithing skill. It has no structural problems.

+12 dmg

Copper Shield

Normal Quality

A sword made with novice level smithing skills. It has no structural problems

+12 def

Copper Spear

Normal Quality

A sword made with novice level smithing skill. It has no structural problems.

+15 dmg

Copper Armor Set

Normal Quality

A set of copper guard armor.

Set Bonus:

Half Set bonus - +2 def

Full set bonus - +4 def

Helmet - 7 def

Breastplate - 10 def

Gauntlets - 5 def

Boots - 5 def

The high defense stat of a full set made the commanders quite strong compared to their weak counterparts. Also for the imps to become a commander, they actually have to be good at leading troops, it is the reason they have full armor, since anyone remotely smart will go after them when trouble comes.

As for the players, they were even more poorly equipment than the subordinate guard demons. They only had crude clubs since metal weapons were not for sale in the town yet. What Akor was hoping for is that he will discover a different source of armor while hunting. How this is done is what Valring told him about.

Each tribe will also research technology, as such, it was the main method for lords to rapidly gain research. If he gained copies of research it was even better because by gathering enough, he could merge the existing copies with the original to advance the level of the research and rapidly improve certain research topics.

Akor was waiting for a small time before Adok, his first royal, appeared.

“Master, here is your staff!” he said grinning as he walked with two staffs in hand. One he was keeping for his own use as both a crutch as well as a staff and the other handed to Akor.

Akor was not a front line fighter, he had learned all things related to magic since they were researched. Finally when the research for magic staffs was complete he commissioned a staff for him and Adok but it was actually time consuming to make.

Only now it was done and Akor took the staff.

Demon Essence Staff

Normal Quality

A staff made of Demon wood and the essence from refined copper. This is a weak magical staff meant for a novice.

+ 20 dmg

“What is this ‘essence’?” he asked Adok.

“Essence of copper. It is special magical material produced by sacrificing 100 units of copper ore to make one orb of copper essence.” Adok said.

The staffs body was made 150 cm long twisted black wood and at the end was a metal orb which glowed a weak orange light while being stuck in the grip of five finger like branches.

“O-One hundred units!” Akor said paling at the consumption. This was a very expensive staff because two units of copper could make 10 copper coins. Within 100 units, it meant this staffs magic conductor orb at the top alone was 500 copper and the wood had to be refined to channel mana which was a very difficult process. The price of a staff like this easily reached 1,000 copper coins.

Although the staff was expensive to make, Akor still tried it out to see the performance.

As for the spells he has researched, they are mana bolt, mana shield, fireball and Magic arrow.

They were lackluster really and he could summon one for each casting but when he cast fireball with the staff, he actually summoned two fireballs and they were twice the size of his normal ones.

“This is good!” he said smiling.

When the players saw how he was using the staff, their eyes turned red with envy.

“Fuck, the lord is a scrooge! He is keeping the best stuff!” one of them cursed.

“Not like this place has much anyway. If we had started at the dark lord lands we would have had established everything.” another one complained.

Akor saw them whispering discontent but didn’t mind.

“I should probably start selling better weapons to players. They will be a main source of goods income. I think a simpler staff, bow, normal quality clubs, hammers and more should be good. Setting up a system shop and blacksmith duo will be perfect for the start of circulation of money.” he thought. “Alright, we are leaving!” Akor shouted.

Storing the staff, he finally set off towards the nearest tribal village that held a few dozen demons.