It took far too long for Thozronnath to actually agree on a quest with Prisaela. She had to read them each individually and explain any words he was unfamiliar with before Thoz could even understand the job being offered. They still hadn’t come to an agreement by the time Zak finished pressing their ID plates. Though he did make things easier for them.

Zak laid out the details of adventuring ranks from brass upwards. The two monsters had received copper ID tags since the brass rank was reserved for children. This put them at the literal bottom of the official ranks. “F Class” Adventurers, meaning those with copper plates, could only accept quest postings of their own rank, or one rank higher if they could form a team of two or more.

Brass rank jobs were reserved exclusively for children attending the academy, but every rank above that could accept any job of their level or lower, which meant copper plates had the lowest selection of potential offers.

Several of the quests Prisaela had previously explained now had to be crossed off the metaphorical list. The duo was actually only left with a handful of options, several of which didn’t seem like they could be completed by the end of the day, so their choice was practically made for them.

Truthful, it sounded boring and mundane to have to walk out of the city and back into the forest just to look for some particularly rare herbs someone wanted. However, do to recent rumors regarding a certain “Devil of the forest” the reward on this particular job had been increased twice already in attempts to entice more people into reading it. It would also serve to give Thoz and Prisaela an excuse to get out of the city and back into the forest to check on Zildoxoxi. Hell knows that that jiggling miscreant had gotten into while they'd been in the city alone for the past several hours.

*

Maintaining focus like this was hard. Make Zild brain hurt. Brain goop? Does Zild have brain?

These were only some of the overwhelmingly idiotic thoughts zipping through what Zilodoxi the Ooze attempted to call a mind. He’d been left in the forest without supervision for several hours at this point, and for better or worse that meant he was alone with his thoughts. In this case that was undeniably worse.

The prince of goop was not a brilliant strategist by any means so when he heard the approaching footsteps through the forest, he had one plan and one plan only. Sit and wait. This was his first, last, and only contingency. The massive pile of goop and slime shambled around the forest slowly making the incredibly simple preparations for his ambush.

When mother and father were still around, Zildoxoxi had used his skills to hide whenever they told him to, this was his first time actually doing something by himself. It was so exciting! Through a combination of the stealth skill, and his naturally oozy Natural Disguise, Zildoxoxi moved into place and stretched out over the road. In this state he hardly looked like more than a faintly oily puddle of mud, nothing out of the ordinary at all.

The king of unpleasant textures almost wiggled with delight when he saw a group of humanoid approaching. Their weird friends were strapped to a cart though and walking around on all fours. Were they slaves? That seems mean. Zildoxoxi didn’t like it when father talked about being a slave.

They were in fact horses, and Zild had never really grasped the concept of domesticated animals, so his confusion was understandable for a creature that had about one thought every five minutes. In fact, his train of thought was so utterly slow that he hadn’t fully noticed the horses, their cart, it’s three passengers, and the four guards that had all approached his puddle form and started to cross.

His own oozy form was strikingly similar to mud and grime without any modifications, and as luck would have it the process of being walked in and on was tickling him enough to mimic mud splashing around as he wiggled. A bit of fluid replication to add brackish water in the surroundings and he was a perfectly passable puddle.

Several times as the wagon wheels rolled over particularly sensitive portions of goop Zild almost sprung his trap early. Almost. As we discussed previously, Zildoxoxi had successfully evolved into an Amber Ooze but unlocked the variant of “Huge” Amber Ooze. His current form was thousands of kilograms of ooze, he could stretch himself out exceedingly thin to gover dozens of meters rather easily. Right now all he had to do was focus on making sure all the humans were standing on him before he sprung. Rather easily done with his Ooze sight keeping track of all of them.

His Corrosive skill began eating through the cart wheels and all the walking shoes, effectively trapping the caravan in his mire. It was then just a matter of using Natural Weapons to subdue everyone trying to escape while simultaneously dissolving them in his acid. Screams could be heard for several kilometers, and it would have alerted everyone if they hadn’t been in the forest away from town. There was a flood of damaging notifications, and several other pop ups that Zild didn’t entirely understand, but he felt the happy rush of XP as the humans began dying. Mother and Father would be so impressed!

Once his merciless slaughter came to an end, the creature merely continued to devour the caravan, leaving no trace and slowly healing his very minor wounds with the mass he was being fed.

Gluttony Accepted!

Level up!

Level up!

Congratulations! Level Maximum has been reached!

And now father could help Zildy change again!

*

Just as Prisaela and Thozronnath stepped out of the guild hall themselves, the devil received his own flood of messages.

Sin Encouraged!

Level up!

Level up!

…

Level up!

Congratulations! Level Maximum has been reached!

Congratulations! Proficiency gained!

Progenitor of Sin is now level 4.

Requirements met for variant evolutions.

Please confirm evolution.

“Fuck.” The devil murmured, defaulting to his favorite expletive.

“We need to get to the forest, Zild ate something.” Thoz informed his companion, leading Prisaela out of Rovale at a hurried pace he was busy explaining their situation through his telepathy skill. Admittedly useful since this was practically the first time he needed to communicate and had to worry about being overheard.

*

Once they finally arrived in the forest, Zildoxoxi was strangely clingy to both of the more sentient monsters. Thozronnath only interpreted this as a desire to evolve, and mentall confirmed Zildoxoxi’s evolution prompt as he discussed his own options with Prisaela.

“If I evolve, I’ve got a new form. It may become easier to hide in plain sight, but it could also pose new challenges” He muttered at first, looking up at the new doppelganger.

“There’s also the decision of a new minion, and all I have to go off of is their ‘sin’” Thoz explained, this time in a more adequate speaking voice.

When her master finally paused in thought, Prisaela took an opportunity to speak up. “Would another member of our team make it more difficult or overall easier to get xp as a group? Because right now you and the ooze are on your fourth forms and I just recently broke past my second.” Admittedly showing a bit of a worry at being left behind by a puddle of shit.

“The Progenitor of Sin skill is clearly sharing xp gain between me and the two of you, though I have no way of knowing in what fractions. It should stand to reason that I can find a way to funnel XP back to you….” he pondered in answer.

“And a new minion would be starting from scratch, we’d need to keep an eye on them and keep them safe while we level them up. Which sin do you think has the highest likelihood of blending in?” He asked his measurably much smarter ally.

Prisaela paused on the question a moment before answering. “Sloth? The sin of being lazy only really becomes a sin if you’re not pulling your own weight right? That implies the existence of others being taken advantage of, which is a very human concept”. Her answer was far more philosophical than Thoz would have liked, but it was an answer he trusted at least partially.

“Okay. Once I evolve, I’ll summon the minion of sloth, and the priority will move to leveling up you and it while we continue to build our presence here. I need to find out how much mortal magic has changed since the last time I was summoned, if they can still summon me from here, it would be a problem If I showed up dressed as a human.” His confirmation came.

Standing up, he undid his human form from the Shapeshifter skill, and confirmed the evolution.

The new evolution wasn’t nearly as painful as the last few, he didn’t have to lose much skin even though his tail came off, and he thankfully maintained a humanoid shape as his previously purple skin darkened back to a red that reminded him of his days as an imp.

Proficiency gained! Cold resistance is now level 1!

Proficiency gained! Telepathy is now level 3!

Proficiency gained! Chains of torment is now level 1!

Proficiency gained! Magic resistance is now level 3!

Proficiency gained! Natural Illusionist is now level 1!

Congratulations! You are now a level 1 Ascendant Torment Devil!

“Oh, that’s interesting…” Thoz practically purred, casually activating his chains of torment skill and summoning quasi-spectral weapons that draped naturally from his arms and shoulders, ending in fierce barbed hooks.

Please choose a minion from the primordial sins:

Pride

Sloth

Wrath

Greed

Lust

Gluttony

Envy

“Sloth!” he confirmed without hesitation.

Choice registered! Minion summon under way.

There was a tense moment, but no noise whatsoever until a follow up message registered.

Congratulations! You have successfully summoned Uzdaax!

Your new minion can be inspected to view its status.

Thoz would have been pissed off about getting a dud summon that he couldn’t even see, but his mind was preoccupied by the distant rustling of branches that heralded the arrival of a group of creatures he did not have time for right now. Afterall, they followed him from the gate, around the town, and then eventually to Outpost Omega as well. If they were just ruffians, this surely could have been sorted sooner, but they were avoiding populated areas and had followed them out of the city as well. Now, with three men approaching him and his makeshift team as they stood alone in foreign territory, Thoz was quickly panicking and trying to redo his shapeshifter skill to apply the disguise. That is until he heard a voice, like a barely audible whisper carried on a distant wind.

“Massster? Sshall I take care of thisss problem for you?” it asked without so much of a hint of emotion. “I woouuldd like tomorrow off though if you wouldn’t mind…” it continued, the sin of sloth already bartering for less work not even five minutes after being brought into Thoz’s service.

Stats:

General Stats Classes Level Name: Thozronnath Strength: 50 Torment Devil 1 Species: Ascendant Torment Devil (Lesser Devil) Dexterity: 30 Legionary Devil 20 (Max) Sex: M Resilience: 40 Wing Devil 20 (Max) Age: 13530 Intelligence: 15 Imp 20 (Max) Affiliation(s): Hell Wisdom: 20 HP: 245/245 (+4.7/sec) Charisma: 20 MP: 85/85 (+1.5/sec)

Imp Skills

Level

Special Skills

Level

Invisibility

2

Progenitor of Sin

4

Stealth

2

Subterfuge

3

Wing Devil Skills

Silver Vulnerability

1 (Max)

Poison Immunity

1 (Max)

Fire Immunity

1 (Max)

Telepathy

3

Shapeshifter

3

Magic Resistance

3

Eyes of Hell

1 (Max)

Sting

3

Legionary Devil Skills

Blood Frenzy

2

Torment Devil Skills

Chains of Torment

1

Natural Illusionist

1

Cold Resistance

1 (Max)

Zildoxoxi

General Stats Classes Level Name: Zildoxoxi "The Gluttonous" Strength: 55 Purple Ooze 1 Species: Purple Ooze (Lesser Ooze) Dexterity: -2 Amber Ooze 20 (Max) Sex: N/A Resilience: 50 Absorption Ooze 20 (Max) Age: 9861 Intelligence: -3 Ooze 20 (Max) Affiliation(s): Thozronnath Wisdom: -2 HP: 260/260 (+5/sec) Charisma: -2 MP: 10/10 (+0.01/sec)

Ooze Skills

Level

Absorption Ooze Skills

Level

Acid Resistance 1 (Max) Poison Immunity 1 (Max) Cold Resistance 1 (Max) Absorption 4 Fire Resistance 1 (Max) Fluid Replication 2 Ooze Sight 1 (Max) Liquid Form 1 (Max) Amber Ooze Skills Corrosive 5 (Max) Duplicate 2 Natural Disguise 2 Vulnerable Core 1 (Max) Stealth 2 Lightning Resistance 1 (Max) Natural Weapons 4 Blind Immunity 1 (Max) Deafen Immunity 1 (Max) Charm Immunity 1 (Max) Fear Immunity 1 (Max) Fatigue Immunity 1 (Max) Prone Immunity 1 (Max)

Uzdaax

General Stats Classes Level Name: Uzdaax "The Slothful" Strength: -5 Specter 1 Species: Specter (Lesser Undead) Dexterity: 23 Sex: M Resilience: 10 Age: 1 Intelligence: 10 Affiliation(s): Thozronnath Wisdom: 10 HP: 60/60 (+1/sec) Charisma: 10 MP: 60/60 (+1/sec) Specter Skills Level Non-Resistance Specter Skills Level Elemental Resistance 1 (Max) Hover 1 Mundane Resistance 1 (Max) Ghost Sight 1 (Max) Poison Immunity 1 (Max) Incorporeal 1 (Max) Death Immunity 1 (Max) Sunlight Aversion 1 (Max) Charm Immunity 1 (Max) Call of Death 1 Fatigue Immunity 1 (Max) Paralysis Immunity 1 (Max) Petrification Immunity 1 (Max) Prone Immunity 1 (Max) Restriction Immunity 1 (Max) Sleep Immunity 1 (Max)