With school going on, I'll try to at least push out one chapter a week. Enjoy the chapter

Quote:“Live as long as you please, you will strike nothing off the time you will have to spend dead” - Michel de Montaigne

Drip. Drip. Drip. Beads of water fell from the cave ceiling and splattered onto Shin’s cheek. Unperturbed, Shin remained motionless. Feeling the mana around him, Shin continued his training. In his mind’s eye, streams of energy coursed through his body like small rivers. Drip. Drip. Drip. Shifting his mana to his right hand, a ball of dark energy appeared but quickly disappeared after a minute. Drops of water mixed with beads of sweat dotted Shin’s face.

“Tch, almost got it,” Shin said under his breath. Gathering mana again, Shin visualized a spear. The ball of dark mana took the shape of an elongated sphere with pointed ends. Breathing steadily, Shin threw the [Demon Spear] at a wall. The wall disintegrated; small spheres of black light rose maliciously from where the wall once stood. A smile could be seen on Shin’s face as he finally learnt the Demon Magic. Ever since Nana began to release his seal, Shin has discovered that manipulating basic elemental mana had become as easy as breathing. Shin was now learning the Demon Arts from Nana. Every morning he would wake up with different memories of the previous Demon Lord, and slowly he learnt the skills of the Demon Lord. Though they were still rudimentary it will suffice.

Shin concentrated again. Enshrouding his body with mana, Shin created long cracks on the rock walls around him. An overpowering aura choked the area; small animals quickly went into hiding. As the aura became darker, black smoke covered Shin’s body and the small animals began to slowly die. As the smoke dispersed, Shin’s irises were blood red and runes crept up from his neck to his cheek, pulsating red with energy. The dispersed smoke formed a raven that sat obediently on Shin’s shoulder while maintaining a semi-solid appearance.

“To acquire [Demon Transformation], albeit half-complete, in only three days as expected of my Shin!” a girl’s voice resounded in Shin’s mind.

“The transformation requires a constant supply of mana; currently I can only maintain it for around ten minutes before being left drained. But the massive increase in combat capabilities is rather unexpected,” Shin replied.

“Do not worry! After the seal is completely released you’ll be able to maintain the transformation indefinitely,”

Shin said nothing and focused on maintaining the form. After a while the transformation was released and Shin fell on all fours panting. Steadying his breathing, Shin sat back up and began to practise his mana manipulation. Guiding the remaining mana in his body, he practised shifting it from his abdomen to his finger tips to his head. Shin continued to repeat the practise as he waited for his mana to recover.

Back at the royal castle, the atmosphere had been heavy for the past three days. When knights and adventures were sent out to search the forest, no traces of Shin could be found. The trio was silent during training and they could all see that the one that was most affected was Royal Knight Captain Marcus. Though Shin wasn’t as adept as the other three, he was still a student that Marcus taught. Marcus would often daze off during training as he felt the deep sense of regret due his inability to protect the children. Ever since he was promoted to be the Royal Knight Captain, he had never felt the feeling of powerlessness, but on that day he could do nothing but watch as his student disappeared in front of his eyes.

“-ir, Sir!” a voice pulled Marcus back to reality.

“Sir, I have completed the tasks you have set,” Jason looked at Marcus with a face full of concern.

I must not let them worry, I am their teacher! ,. Steeled by this thought, Marcus ordered another 5 laps around the training ground. Jason followed the task obediently. Marcus was amazed at the pace of Jason’s learning; currently he could match most of the knights and even proved to be a tough adversary for the veterans. Similar things could be said for the other two; Lori has mastered all the spells up to C-rank, while Steven could put even the royal archers to shame. Ever since the incident in the forest, they had refrained from doing another quest, thus stagnating at C-rank. Another reason is that the story of Shin’s disappearance had spread to all the adventurers in the guild, and the adventurers were visibly relieved that the heroes’ burden had disappeared.

Marcus watched Jason complete the laps without breaking a sweat,. As Jason finished his run; Marcus tossed a wooden sword towards Jason. Knowing exactly what was going to happen next, Jason picked up the sword and faced a veteran knight that had a peculiar moustache, who also walked forward with a wooden sword. This training has had been repeating itself for the past few days, with a different knight challenging him after Jason finished the drills.

“Begin!”

Jason immediately slashed at the knight. Advance. Not giving up ground. Keep the guard up. Words of Marcus’s teaching resounded in Jason’s head as he followed up his attack. The knight parried the attack and returned with a jab. Dodging the jab, Jason activated [Body Strengthening]. Feeling his strength increase, Jason rushed the knight with a flurry of blows. Barely able to defend against the attacks, the knight was quickly pushed back. The knight also attempted to activate [Body Strengthening] but couldn’t concentrate due to Jason’s attacks. Wham! Silence followed. A dull thud interrupted the silence as the ends of a wooden sword fell to the ground. The wooden sword in the knight’s hand was cut in half and Jason’s sword was at his neck. Raising his arms, the knight surrendered.

Unbelievable, amazing, awesome; such words were reflected in the eyes of the spectating soldiers. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Jason gulped water down from a water skin nearby and began to pack up the wooden swords. As the duel occurred, Lori was busy conducting a mock mage battle with a soldier mage. During a mock mage battle, each mage will erect a magical barrier around their body and fire off magic at each other, the loser is determined by the one whose barrier was first broken.

Taking a deep breath, Lori gripped her stave to steady her trembling hands. The mage facing Lori was a man that had survived countless battles and had made a name for himself. Chanting the [Barrier] spell, Lori felt the mana leave her body and solidify as a barrier around her. The mage did the same.

“Oh flames of destruction, strike down my foe! [Fireball],” Lori quickly chanted and launched a ball of fire towards the mage. The mage dodged but Lori had already chanted a new spell.

“[Earth’s Clutch]!” tendrils of earth crawled up the mage’s legs and sealing his movement.

“Disrupt thy magic! [Dispel],” the mage invoked an anti-mage magic. The earthen tendrils fell apart.

“Come forth, rage of winter! [Blizzard],”the mage chanted as icy winds blew at high speeds carrying innumerable amounts of [Ice Spears]. Lori poured mana into her barrier as the spears battered her. The blizzard began to subside, the mage was surprised that she still hasn’t broken from a high-rank spell. Quickly chanting another spell, the mage collected his mana. Lori refused to give him a chance.

“[Iron Maiden]!” shortening the chant, large amounts of mental fatigue assaulted Lori’s body. Like the jaws of a predator, an earthen spiked shell snapped up and quickly encased the mage. Dull thuds could be heard until a glass-like shatter followed shortly. The earthen shell fell apart, revealing the mage with his broken barrier. Lori quickly fell forward, relieved. Finally she would no longer be a hindrance to Jason. Court Magician Martha quickly caught and praised her ability to shorten chants, but what was most surprising was Lori’s breakthrough of C-rank when she used the B-ranked spell [Iron Maiden].

“You’ve done well, Lori,” Martha softly whispered as she supported Lori.

Steven did not fall short of the other two. Being the most diligent of the three, he had devised his own training program during his spare time. The training required him to shoot rapidly moving targets while he stood on a board that constantly shifted at an increasing difficulty. His instructor, S- ranked archer adventurer Joseph, attempted the training and shot down over 100 targets - even when the ground was shifting erratically like an earthquake.

Steven stepped onto the board, and small spheres began to fly around using a magic stone with flight magic embedded into them. Slowing his breathing, Steven drew his bow. Nock. Draw. Release. One down. The ground started to shift in an attempt to throw Steven off. A sphere was flying past at high speeds, only to fall down with an arrow in it. 5. Steven was beginning to have trouble with maintaining his balance. Nock. Draw. Release. Another sphere spiralled down. 10. 20. 30. 40. Slowly the numbers rose up. The shaking of the ground has gotten to the level of a magnitude 6 earthquake. Nock. Draw. Release. 50. Steven managed to shoot the 50th sphere down before he could no longer maintain his balance and fell.

Clapping, Joseph approached Steven as he helped him up.

“You did well there, Steven,”

“Thanks, sir, it was only possible with your teachings,”

Flattered by Steven’s praise, Joseph decided to teach the boy a couple of things about picking up women. Contrary to Joseph’s appearance of a sensible man, he was in-fact a skirt-chaser that often used his status as an S-rank adventurer to pick up women though he had been turned down several times, most times, violently.

“Hey boy, wanna learn some things about dealing with women from your teacher?”

“No sir,” Steven collected the spheres and arrows as he turned down the offer.

“Tch, no fun,” Joseph clicked his tongue as he helped pick up some arrows on the floor.

Back at the cave located in the centre of the Dead Zone, Shin trained his body to better accommodate his demon form. Doing push-ups and other exercises, he slowly built up his body. When he was taking a rest, he pondered whether or not if he should re-join with the heroes or set out on his own. Shin evaluated the merit and demerits of each decision. If re-joined the heroes, he’ll be able to monitor the heroes and the country, however it will restrict his movements for the future. If he sets out on his own, he will be able to gather information on the world and head to the demon realm to assume his position but he’ll neglect the heroes. After weighing his choices, Shin decided that he will head out and only re-join the heroes after he had attended to all his Demon Lord duties. Getting up and dusting his pants, Shin realised that his clothes were all torn to the point where it could barely be called clothing. As he looked around he saw the black robe that the ex-Demon Lord left behind after the body turned to dust. The robe was clean even after hundreds of years; upon closer inspection, the robe possessed high magic and physical attack resistance. When putting it on, Shin feared the robe would be too big but the fear was quickly dispelled when the robe shrank to fit his body. Another useful function that Shin found about the robe was its ability to conceal the wearer’s face under cowl at will, so unless the cowl is taken off no normal means could be used the see the wearer’s face.

Donning the robe, Shin exited the cave. When asking Nana where the city was, a thin trail of light appeared and led into the forest.

“In RPGs, the hero often receives guidance don’t they?” was her response.

Following the trail, Shin exited the Dead Zone unharmed but encountered a pack of Dark Wolves, numbering 12 in total. Normally, fighting twelve Dark Wolves alone was considered suicide but Shin was the Demon Lord. No Demon Lord should fear such small fry. The wolves snarled at Shin as he got closed. Smiling, Shin nonchalantly walked towards the Dark Wolves while releasing his killing intent. The wolves immediately began to whimper and cower in fear, as the dense killing intent pierced their brain.

“Rejoice, for becoming my first kill as the Demon Lord. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten,”

It was massacre, the wolves desperately tried to fight back but Shin pleasure in killing each one of them.

“Not so high and mighty now, are we? To think such insects gave me a hard time,” snapping the pack leader’s neck, Shin stepped over the carcasses and threw the body away.

“Don’t you think that was an overkill?” Nana asked in Shin’s mind.

“Not at all, I had to test out at what level my combat capabilities are. They were just too weak,” Shin replied.

Shin continued to follow the light, as he walked, a trail of monster bodies accompanied behind him. When he finally exited the forest, he had found himself in front a giant gate and a thick 7 metre wall. Soldiers were stationed at the gate and on top of the wall. One soldier on the wall noticed Shin and called out to him.

“Oi, the person over there, state your name and business!”

Several soldiers eyed Shin suspiciously, but were quickly dispelled when Shin showed them his guild plate. Though he wanted to avoid revealing his identity, Shin had no choice as he hadn’t yet made prior preparation. Shin told the soldiers that he was an adventurer and was hunting monsters in the forest but got lost and found himself here. The soldiers bought the story and let Shin through the gate into the city. Though it wasn’t long since he had last been in the city, the sight of civilisation made Shin relax his stiff shoulders and let out a sigh of relief. As Shin was planning on heading to the demon realm, he had to pack rations and prepare appropriate transportation. But before all that, he must buy new clothes and clean himself. There was a public bath in the city that Shin could use for free, but clothes were costly and he did not possess a single coin on him. He could take a job from the Adventurer’s Guild but that would reveal his presence. Pondering his options, Shin walked down an alleyway. Suddenly he collided with a small girl in tattered clothing. The girl was around 10 year old and had a pair of dog years. Before the girl could run away, Shin nabbed the collar of her clothes.

“Hey, brat, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Let me go! Let me go!” the girl tried to bite Shin’s hand but his grip just tightened.

“Oi, the slave is over here!” a man suddenly appeared before Shin.

So this kid is a slave, Shin thought. The beast-girl became more desperate and struggled even harder. The man approached them.

“Thank you very much, this brat has been giving us a hard time. You’ll be handsomely rewarded by our boss, now hand the kid over,”

Hearing this, an idea clicked into Shin’s mind.

“Your welcome, may I ask what organization you belong to?” Shin asked politely.

“We’re of the Medusa Company, one of the top 3 most powerful companies in this city,” the man puffed out his chest with pride. What an idiot, was the only thought Shin had man easily revealed their affiliation.

“And can you tell me where your headquarters are? I’m looking to buy some slaves myself,”

“It’s one of the biggest buildings in the city, it has a snake sign you can’t miss. Can I have that kid now?” the man asked with his hand out expecting Shin to hand the beast-girl over.

However Shin did not even react: “Thanks, but I’m not handing her over,”

Hearing this, the man was extremely confused, but before he could realise Shin had stabbed his hand through the man’s chest, crushing his heart. Shocked by the sudden attack, the man’s companion froze on the spot. The man was pretty well known in the company and was a B-ranked adventurer, but to be so easily taken out; the group was on high alert.

“I do have to thank you for giving me some information, now that you have outlived your usefulness, please die,” Shin removed his hand from the man’s chest, with a thud the body fell to the ground and remained motionless.

“Ki-ki-Kill him!” one man screamed out.

The group swarmed Shin all holding swords and knives. Without even moving, Shin released his aura and blew the men away. Seeing that the men were all knocked unconscious, Shin summoned a ball of water to wash away the blood on his hand. When he turned around the beast-girl was trembling from fear. As he no longer had any business with the girl, he ignored her and left for the organization’s building.

Shin had no money, and no actual means to obtain it. Robbing someone was something that Shin looked down on so he had decided to wipe out the Medusa Company. As extreme as that sounds, the company dealt with slaves and no doubt must have participated in the underworld, thus they should have a bulging treasury. The company dealt in child-slavery, as evident of the young beast-girl before, which Shin saw as a logical reason to exterminate the company. When he arrived at the tall building with a snake sign, there were many rich nobles looking at slaves, some human and some beast-men.

Shin walked up the stairs towards the third floor of the building. When he arrived at the third floor, guards attempted to ward Shin off as the third floor was prohibited to normal visitors. Knocking the guards out, Shin walked towards the door that the guards were trying to protect.

Ruseth Chrisse, was a born winner. He was born into a noble family; he lacked neither money nor power. His swordsmanship was top class and few could match his talent. However, one day he decided that it wasn’t enough, thus he started his own company called Medusa Company. Using his connections and money, the company quickly expanded and grew into what it was today. On the surface it was normal company that dealt in slave trading, but underneath the façade was a malicious company that dealt in many illegal activities. Loan sharking, kidnapping, bribery, forced prostitution, and drug dealing, to name a few. Currently, Ruseth was enjoying a glass of expensive wine while being attended to by beautiful women slaves. They all possessed life-less eyes and had given up on living. Rich nobles and merchants were in the room with him, indulging in their desires. They were laughing at a beast-woman that had tripped over her shackles when man in a black robe entered the room. A rich son an aristocrat got up and confronted him.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing? This place doesn’t welcome strangers, scram before I tell my dad to turn you into a slave,” laughing haughtily the son of the aristocrat threatened the man. Expecting the person to cower and run away, the son of the aristocrat turned away but the man was unmoving.

“Are you deaf? If words don’t get to you, how about my fists?” being the son of a rich family, he was confident in his fighting skills, just as he was about to throw a punch, the man grabbed his arm and twisted it. The sounds of bones breaking could be heard, the man released the boy. The boy that was about to throw a punch was on the ground sobbing.

Shin was annoyed at the boy in front of him. He hated people that were only spouted empty words and held no power themselves, so he broke his arm. Dropping the boy, he walked forward while releasing his killing intent.

“I’m a little short on cash, so I’ll be taking your company,” Shin said as the people in front him finally started to comprehend the situation.

“Hiii, guards! Where are the guards?!” a pig-like man that was feeling up a female slave before Shin entered began to call for guards. When guards rushed into the room, Shin ignored them. Seeing that they have been ignored, the guards charged forward, ready to cut the man down.

Shin turned around and caught a blade in his bare hands. Crushing the sword, the sword shattered and fell to the ground. The guard that swung the sword fell on his buttocks as he realised that the man in front of him wasn’t an ordinary person.

“You are in my way, die,” Shin summoned a wave of ice without chanting and encased the guards in an ice-like coffin. Releasing the magic, the ice coffin along with the guards shattered and fell to the floor.

“Wh-why are you doing this?!” the pig-like noble squealed.

“Well, you see, I don’t have any money, and since your organization bothered me, I felt like destroying it,” Shin merely shrugged like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Witnessing the power of the man in front of them, the nobles and merchants quickly fled through the door. Ignoring them, Shin faced the man in front of him.

“I’m sorry for all this mess; I am this company’s president, Ruseth Chrisse. You can call me Ruseth. About your earlier comment on destroying my company, I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Ruseth got up and drew his sword on the table next to him, “My A-rank isn’t for show you know.”

“I would have appreciated it if you didn’t try to resist and led me to your treasury, you could have at least died a painless death. But what a pity,” Shin sighed.

Ruseth chanted his magic and fired wind blades at Shin. Dodging the wind blades, Shin coated his hand in magic and struck at Ruseth’s heart. Clang! Blocking Shin’s attack, Ruseth slashed. Catching the sword in his hand, Shin’s hand bled. Surprised by his blood, Shin took a step back.

“Seems like you realised, my sword is a relic from an ancient dungeon that I took great pains to acquire. It’s been enchanted with the ability to ignore magic coatings. You can’t win,” Ruseth said as he readied his sword for another strike.

“A bothersome sword,” Shin muttered.

“Shin, can you win?” Nana who was watching the battle from Shin’s mind asked.

Maybe, if I transformed but I’ll prefer not to, Shin replied in his mind.

Dodging each slash, Shin was amazed at the Ruseth’s abilities. So this is an A-ranker, Shin thought. After analysing each attack, Shin jumped back.

“You’re done already?” Ruseth mocked.

“No, this fight has already been decided,” sticking three fingers, Shin continued: “First of all, you rely on your sword too much and your body has dulled. Second of all, you are a creature of habit, you are too repetitive - too boring. Third of all, you can’t win.”

“What are you going on about? Are your trying to drag this fight out? Rejoice, take pride in being able to get me to fight,”

Sighing, Shin invoked [Demon Transformation]. The atmosphere grew dark and black mist filled the room. A smoke-like raven sat on Shin’s shoulders, the runes on Shin’s cheeks pulsed with power. Shin’s red eyes troubled Ruseth as red eyes are characteristics of demons.

“Just what are you?” Ruseth raised his sword while activating [Body Strengthening].

“The winner of this fight,” said Shin before vanishing.

Feeling a heavy killing intent, Ruseth raised his sword and blocked a blow from a sword made of black smoke. Ruseth was sweating heavily, the attack just then would have killed him if he didn’t raise his sword. Shin reappeared behind Ruseth. Ruseth turned around and attempted to slash at Shin, but his body wouldn’t move. Tentacles made of smoke wrapped itself around Ruseth, completely immobilizing him.

“Become my stepping stone,” Shin commanded. Ruseth’s body was then swallowed by the black mist before he could make a sound. Cancelling his transformation, Shin sat on the table while fighting the fatigue that quickly followed. As he got up again, he found a key on the floor where Ruseth’s body was before the mist swallowed him. Looking around the room he found a key hole in a wall. Inserting the key, Shin twisted the key and a section of the wall swang out and revealed a room filled with gold coins and several magical relics. Grabbing a bag full of dragon coins, and a sword that caught his eye, Shin left the room.

When he went down to the first floor, a large group of guards surrounded the building with all the slaves and nobles nowhere to be seen. It seems that the guard and nobles that escaped quickly reported Shin. Once again invoking [Demon Transformation], Shin turned into his demon form and teleported to behind the small army of guards – testament to Medusa Company’s wealth.

“Shatter,” Shin uttered and the building along with the guards shattered like glass and was eaten by the black mist. The priceless relics inside the vault, the gold, the rare paintings that decorated the walls of the building. All gone. Shin teleported into a nearby alleyway and cancelled his transformation.

“Shit, so I still can’t properly use the transformation for more than once a day,” Shin said as he wheezed.

“Was that really necessary?” Nana scolded Shin.

“We have now debuted as the Demon Lord. I can’t make it half-assed, my pride doesn’t allow it,” Shin responded. Nana sighed. Thus having obtained the money, Shin quickly left to find an inn.

StatusName:ShinAdventurer Rank:F-rankLevel:3Class:Demon LordRace:HumanGender:MaleHealth:3000/3000Mana:3000/3000Strength:150Agility:100Vitality:160Magic:150Defence:100Magic Resistance:100 (+100)

The above is Shin's stats as his seal is slowly being released. The brackets are the boosts from the robe.