“Hmm? What’s a human doing here?” When Logier woke up, he didn’t spring up to act immediately as I had thought. He first observed the dried-up husk looking human before asking me who was sitting between them. Suddenly his beady eyes brightened as if he ‘figured’ out what I was thinking. Coming a little closer to me he whispered, “it’s for me right? You know I like tender human flesh so you have brought this young human woman for me to eat, how thoughtful of you.”

I was thinking what he would say, turns out it’s actually this… good thing I was sitting in the middle. Looking at his happy face, I replied dully, “Obviously it’s not for you.”

“It’s not?” his ears drooped. He looked like a child whose toy had been snatched. If I could, I would have smacked him at that time.

“This la…human woman was attacked by those goblins and was on the verge of death. I saved her. I feel like she would come in handy when we decide to eradicate the goblin habitat.” I had to make up some story so that this orc would stop bugging me about eating a human. Frankly speaking, it was unnerving to even talk about that.

“This human?” Logier gave the green-haired lady a once over, “she looked like she would blow away from a sneeze from me, how can she of any help?” That questioning look on his face gave me an urge to just poke a stick to his eye. He was a just a mere orc with single-digit IQ, how dare he give me that look?

“Haha, I have seen her fight against those goblins. She alone had killed more than you did.” I shrugged pointing a finger towards the hallway, “if you don’t believe me, you can go and check the number of bodies strewn across the floor.”

“Is it true?” Logier seemed like he believed me when I asked him to check, “I couldn’t tell from her thin and lean body… Did she pack so much punch? Don’t tell me she is one of those mysterious ability users?”

“Mysterious ability?” Was he talking about magic users? I couldn’t tell because I don’t know much of the monster speak. I could only understand it vaguely just because I was too a monster. Narrowing my large eyes I asked, “Are you talking about using fire or other things?”

“Yes, I have seen a few humans with those abilities once” the big orc shuddered as if he remembered a bad memory, “They were so powerful!! They killed so many of our people… even we all tribes banded together; still couldn’t beat them. Ultimately we had to run and hide until they left.”

It surprised me a lot. He was talking about magic it seems… but magicians were so powerful? Although I have seen this green-haired lady fighting against so many goblins, it was still unbelievable for a magician to defeat so many orcs. Was I being too conservative with my views on this new world? Are people here stronger than I imagined?

Questions started to buildup in my heart. At the same time, I started to restructure my whole revenge plan against the kingdom. If such powerful people exist in this world, it might be impossible to achieve my goal alone in a short period of time.

This was… worrying…

Shaking my head to get rid of these thoughts, I looked at Logier, “Yes she is a mysterious ability user and a very strong one at that. Don’t you think if we can make her help us, we stand a chance even against the Bloodyvores you are so afraid of?”

Planting ideas and brainwash subtly… that’s what I was doing with Logier. With his low IQ it was very easy to convince him to do as I wish. In fact, I wasn’t blowing hot air here. I indeed had plans to use this woman’s help. Looking at her strength and status, I could use two kinds of help from her. One, I could ask her to help us eradicating the goblins… two, I can ask her to buy me things from the human market. I was more inclined towards the second type of help, however. Not only it would help me with the army building plan I had hatched, but also this way the woman would feel like she had not done much and would stick with me for longer.

This way I can use this woman’s strength for a longer period of time.

Manipulative? Perhaps I am… what happened these few days already made me jaded. The feelings and morals I had as a human had transformed and somewhat entered the gray zone. Sometimes I had this weird feeling that the human memories in my head weren’t real, it’s a part of an elaborative dream which made me more ‘intelligent’ as an Imp. Especially I had this kind of thought after hearing everything about Monsterdom. What if I was a so-called “unique class” and my time as a human was just an illusion conjured from the process of my awakening?

It wasn’t funny even to think about it so I stopped going that direction. It somewhat became a forbidden zone for me. Even if it’s true or false, I didn’t want to know the truth. Let it be a phenomenon of Schrödinger’s cat.

Logier’s eyes brightened when I mentioned the Bloodyvores. As expected of a pig with low IQ, it was very easy to make him think in the direction I wanted him to. Scooting close to me he asked with an eager expression, “Can she really help us with our revenge?”

“That depends on how you want her help.” I showed a smile, the rows of the zagged tooth in my mouth made a very terrifying image. I looked the orc in the eye and asked, “if it’s you, how will you use her help?”

Logier took some time to think about my question and then answered: “I will make her help me kill the Bloodyvores.”

An expected but straightforward answer, as expected of an orc. I shook my head and thought in my heart, ‘That’s why you guys are bested by humans, even though you are larger in number and have the inborn advantage of strength. Well, it’s a good thing too…’

“That’s why I said leave the thinking part to me.” I started, looking at the woman from the corner of my eyes. She was still sleeping or might be pretending to sleep. I don’t believe she had dropped her guard before two monsters while she was at her weakest. Shaking my head, I stood up and urged Logier to do the same, “Alright, let’s go and harass those green things.”

After that both Logier and I did the exact same thing half a day ago, engaging in a hit and run with the goblins in their outer periphery. I had decided to fill the EP bar before returning. Killing each goblin awards me 2 EPs so all I need was to kill thirteen more to achieve the goal. Even though we are wreaking havoc, this time no powerful goblin or their army was mobilized. Perhaps they were short on manpower after their brush in with that green-haired woman’s assault.

On the other hand, I was getting better and better at using [Cast Illusions] the more I battled. I became creative and even could control an ‘enchanted’ goblin the way I wished for a short period of time with this skill. Although I was nowhere close to level 3, the skill’s usage was increasing the WIS. Which was also another hidden benefit I discovered. The more skillfully and creatively I use my magic, the more WIS would increase.

A higher WIS not only increased my maximum MP but also decreased the regeneration time. That day when I struck the pole into the eye of the thirteenth goblin, a few changes occurred. Since the EP reached fifty points, a new option opened before me.

You have reached the required points to open your evolution tree. Your current race is Imp, and status is Infant. The following paths are available before you:-

Juvenile Imp (!) – 17 EP Adult Imp (!) -25 EP Infant Dream Weaver (!) -40 EP Infant Two-Tailed Kitsune (!) -40 EP

Note: You can only choose one evolutionary path and each path would cost EPs to activate.

Finally, the very thing I was waiting for. But this wasn’t exactly what I had in the mind though. I expected a unilateral path, but form the looks of it, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Moreover, instead of like experience points, these Evolution Points were more like currencies. Currencies that I can use to choose a path of evolution. Although this thing seemed like a game interface, there’s more to it than it appeared.

“Logier, let’s return,” I called out to the orc who seemed to been enjoying his time with these goblins.

“Eh? So soon? I just started to enjoy it…” Logier looked pitiful to which I only shook my head and said, “Alright, you enjoy your fight, I am going.” Without waiting for his reply I ran away towards my hole. Giving the woman who was still lying unconscious one last look, I entered inside and looked at my options again.

To the four options before me, I pondered for a period of time. Leaving aside the two Imp options and the Infant Dream Weaver about which I don’t know anything, Two-Tailed Kitsune was famous back on earth for their mischievousness, illusionary and shapeshifting powers. Now that I think about it, Imps were also regarded as monsters of mischievousness. It all made clear to me now. I understood the mechanism behind the evolution tree that was mentioned before. So all in all, depending on which stat I improve, the next evolutionary choice will heavily be influenced by it. As an Imp, I gave more emphasis towards illusions, INT and WIS, therefore the four choices before me were all illusion based monsters. This also made me wonder if I had given more emphasis towards physical attributes, would a different path appear before me?

I concentrated on the Infant Dream Weaver, trying to see if I could get some insight on that. Suddenly the ‘!’ to the end of it lit up as few lines appeared before my eyes.

Race: Infant Dream Weaver

A rare race of Imps that thrive on other’s dreams and nightmares. Despite being physically weak, this race was known for their ability to take the form of their opponent’s worst fears. They are nigh impossible to defeat alone unless the target gets over their fear.

Perk 1: +10 INT, +5 WIS

Perk 2: learn skill Nightmare Manifest (!)

Perk 3: Passive- Nightmarish Body (!)

That’s interesting. Seeing the two skills and a passive one to boot, my mind wavered. I concentrated on the passive one first, trying to know more about this skill.

Nightmarish Body (Passive)

After the cast of skill Nightmare Manifest, the user can automatically take on the form of the very thing the target fears. In this form, the user will be immune to all physical and magical attacks, but also couldn’t deal any physical damage to the other targets who weren’t affected by the skill.

This passive was a complementary skill to the active skill. Even so, it was strong… overpoweringly strong if used correctly. But for some reason, I felt really underwhelmed at the racial description. To manifest the opponent’s worst nightmare may sound cool, but what if more than one enemy attacking me? Wouldn’t I become a toast?

Let’s see the active skill description and hope something good pops out.

Nightmare Manifest (single target cast) (MP: 50/cast)

Upon activation, the caster will be able to peer into the target’s worst fears and bring it to reality. While the skill is in effect, the target on which it was cast on will be summoned to a nightmare world while its real body remains in a frozen state. Each minute the target remains in the nightmare world, it will take 40% of the caster’s full HP as magical damage. Cooldown time: 10 seconds.

Op!!! This was the only thing came to my mind after I read through the description. This Dream Weaver was a hidden race of Imps, but they were far stronger than what an Imp could achieve. Although I had not opened the two Imp options, from the number of EPs required to activate them, I could tell their weakness in comparison to this Dream Weaver.

Now my eyes landed on the only remaining and somewhat familiar option before me.

Race: Two-Tailed Kitsune

Completely unrelated to the Imp race yet share the same mischievousness and illusionary abilities, the Two-Tailed Kitsune is one of the lesser variant of the legendary Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. They were agile, manipulative and very lazy. Often times they would rather prefer to sleep than attacking another being. They could also shapeshift to anything they see once per day.

Perk 1: +5 INT, +5 WIS, +5 AGI

Perk 2: learn skill Shapeshift (!)

Perk 3: Learn skill Replica Fox Fire (!)

Shapeshift (self-cast skill) (20MP/cast)

Able to take the form of anything the target saw in greater detail. It consumed 20 MP to cast the skill and further takes 1 MP per hour to maintain the skill. Note, the effect will be broken if the caster receives a heavy blow or comes in contact with a higher magic source. Cooldown time: 24 hours

Replica Fox Fire (AoE) (7 MP/cast)

Upon activation, seven balls of green ghost flames resembling the legendary Fox Fire conjured around the caster, aiming to whichever target that came within five meters of the caster. Upon a successful hit, it will deal 5 physical damage and 20% of the target’s full HP as magical damage. CD: 15 seconds