[ has been aquired. Requirements for has been met. Commencing upgrade of the system…]

Did I just hit the jackpot? Another system upgrade from wearing a ring found in a treasury, I guess luck was on my side today. As I examined the ring to see if it had any special physical effects, I heard many notifications coming from my system.

[ has evolved into ]

[ has been increased by 1000.]

This is definitely the jackpot, I’m glad I didn’t kill that demon or else I would’ve missed out on a lot. Now, instead of feeling the chaos in the air I could feel a different, more evil energy and it was more potent as well. So that would be darkness, feels more powerful and there’s more of it as well.

{Ryan’s Stat Page}

1750

11000

[Active Skills]

Stealth (MAX)

[Passive Skills]

Absolute Defense (MAX) Absolute Strength (MAX) Mastery of Weapons (MAX) Darkness Manipulation (MAX) Persuasion (MAX) Resistance (MAX) MP Recovery (MAX)

|Demon Synchronization| (25%)

Hmm, along with my power level and MP increase, my demon synchronization went up by 20% just from a simple upgrade. I still don’t know if the transformation would be good or bad for me, but I guess only time will tell. Since I finished choosing the item I wanted, I left the treasury and was greeted by a snoring Demon King on the ground. Drool was flowing down from his mouth, but when I got close enough he sprung onto his feet alert and got into in a fighting stance.

“Oh sorry, I thought you were a robber but then I remembered that I let you in there,” the demon said while rubbing the back of his head in an awkward manner.

“That’s fine, I found the item I want so you can close the vault now,” I exclaimed

“Why did you choose that ring though, it isn’t valuable and it doesn’t do anything.”

“I thought it looked good,” I said even though that wasn’t my reason for choosing it. This leads me to believe that this system is better than I thought because there might be other items similar to this ring that only I can take advantage of.

“Well now that you’re done choosing your gift, let’s head over to my private quarters to make sure you sign the contract,” the Demon King suggested.

“What is your name by the way? It’s weird calling you Demon King all the time,” I said.

“My name’s Bugat, and how about you?”

Should I come up with another alias or just tell him my real name? My real name is kind of plain, so I’ll think of a cool alias instead. That way, if someone happens to become my enemy, I could just change my name again and no one would be able to track me. Now that I think about it, I should do this more often.

“You can call me Dark Orchid,” I disclosed in a casual manner.

"If you didn’t know already Dark Orchid, you’ve been appointed as the new General of the North,” Bugat stated.

I nodded my head in response as Bugat opened the black stoned door that led to his quarters. Inside was the same as the bedrooms of royalty back in the Northern Kingdom, but everything was made of a smooth black rock and rubies. It was like a room of a castle in hell, but I guess the demon realm was basically hell so it made sense why everything was coloured red and black. I breathed in the air and it smelled cleaner than outside where everything was sulfuric—even the smell of the room was more pure, but compared to the human realm still life threatening.

“Welcome to my quarters, just follow me to my office so you can sign the correct contracts,” Bugat suggested.

I didn’t know demons had offices, guess there’s more to them than savage monsters that love killing. The office I entered was just like the bedroom, black and red materials for everything and the chairs didn’t look so comfy. Luckily, I didn’t have to sit because Bugat told me he just had to get something and that the process would just take a few minutes. This was a good chance to test this darkness energy, let’s see what I can do if i enhance my vision with darkness instead of chaos!

Instantly the world was turned dark, and not dark like there being no light. Everything was pitch black, not a single speck of light anywhere. It was like the colours of the world had all disappeared and all that was left was the darkness of nothingless. For some reason though, I could still see perfectly since all the furniture that was in the room was outlined by a white line fitting the frames of everything. I turned my head in a circle and found out that I could see through things as well since I saw Bugat in a different room gathering some scrolls. Unlike the furniture, I could see this coloured light inside Bugat that gave me an ominous feeling.

{Bugat}

[Title] Demon King

[Power Level] 957

[Threat] Medium

Can manipulate Chaos Energy Controls an army of demons

Isn’t this Darkness Energy too overpowered? I literally found out everything I needed about that demon in a few seconds, can’t believe this evolution is this much more powerful and useful. I’m so glad I trusted my intuition and followed that dragon here or else this beneficial event never would've happened. Well, I may have gotten pretty powerful but what use is there living without a goal. My previous goal was accomplished so what now, just wandering around doing nothing would be a waste of time so how about a new goal for me.

I’ve gotten even stronger and there might be more realms to explore other than the Demon Realm. I still have a grudge against humans so maybe I should destroy another kingdom by leading a monster invasion, I’m pretty sure the Demon King would like that choice too. Speaking of Bugat, here he comes with the contract scrolls.

“Whoa Dark Orchid, your eyes were emitting strands of a dark energy,” Bugat exclaimed as he walked back into the office.

“It was nothing, just lost control over my power for a little bit,” I replied.

“You better not try anything you hear?” Bugat declared coldly as he let a wisp of chaos energy form around his hand. “Or else you’ll get punished severely.”

“I understand your majesty,” I whispered even though chaos energy wasn’t even a threat anymore. If Chaos energy was a 10, Darkness energy would be 100. A very huge difference that couldn’t be closed through normal means.

“Good,” Bugat said as the chaos energy disappointed once again. “Now let’s get you signing these contracts with your blood!”

I proceeded to let drops of my blood splatter on the scrolls proving my loyalty. All that was written was that I had to obey the current Demon King’s orders until the next Demon King was chosen or the current one dies. Another perfect situation huh, hope all this luck doesn’t backfire one day and I end up dying from a petty paper cut.

“Now that you have signed the contract, we an officially announce you as a General, but we are sadly back at square one,” Bugat groaned.

“Sorry for that, but you were trying to kill me so I had to defend myself,” I said bluntly.

“I didn’t know you were that strong though!” Bugat said jokingly as he poked my arm and laughed. “Don’t go gunning for my position ok?”

I disregarded his comment and just followed him to the army quarters to make the big announcement of a new general being appointed and another general’s death. As I looked down from an elevated podium, I could tell the army’s quarters were in horrible shape compared to Bugat’s private quarters. A rancid smell floated in the air, the walls and floor were dirty and worn down, and the furniture in the area was a complete wreck. It made sense if you looked at who was inhabiting the area though, this was the monster’s way of living anyways so I guess it was better like this. Goblins, trolls, all the monsters I saw roaming outside were gathered here except these looked stronger than normal. I could just sense it somehow, it might be due to this darkness energy but I can instantly measure their ability.

Soon, the monsters noticed the presence of their king, they lined up in rows as quickly as possible, and bowed their heads while greeting their king in unison. It seemed like this was a common occurrence because every single monster was bowing, showing their utmost respect towards their leader.

“I have some news for you guys,” Bugat declared loudly without bothering with greetings. “We got a new guy to replace the General of the North guys!”

Cheers of joy came from below as I revealed myself to the monsters looking up. Suddenly, for some reason the cheers died down and was replaced by a sudden silence instead. That was when a large cyclops that looked felt like the strongest out of all the monsters started speaking towards Bugat.

“Y-Your majesty,” the cyclops said while trying to hold back the killing intent clearly showing in his face. “But why have you brought a human here as a replacement?”

“If you believe he is a human, then do what you want…but,” Bugat said mysteriously as he paused. “Take a sniff at the air, do you smell the scent of a human or something else?

At once, all the monsters on the ground started sniffing the air and results started appearing within a few seconds.

“I don’t smell a human!” one troll said.

“Me either!” an orc shouted.

“He may not be human, but he isn’t a monster either,” the large cyclops from before inquired. “He looks very much like a human too, I doubt he can even understand us right now.”

Because of that statement, all eyes in the room pointed towards me and I felt a sense of pressure that I hadn’t felt in a long time. But Bugat looked smug and even gave me a pat on the back as if saying good luck. Well, I guess he could be like that since he knew I could understand the language they spoke. I didn’t even realize that the languages I communicated with were that different, it just kind of flowed out of me in response to others.

“Well, I can no doubt understand you but can you understand these words I’m speaking right now?” I asked while projecting my voice throughout the room.

Instantly, the doubt on the monster army below turned into expressions of relief and joy. The cheers resumed and the atmosphere became festive all due to there being a new General that was appointed. I didn’t know that Generals meant this much to Bugat’s army, but now that I think of it it really does make a difference. A general essentially has the power of a whole army, so the addition of a new general increases the strength of the forces by a huge sum. No wonder they’re celebrating—I wonder how they’ll react when they realize nothing really change cause the number of generals is still the same. I waved my hands around like I was greeting my fans as Bugat prepared to deliver the bad news.

“Sorry to destroy the festive atmosphere, but there’s some bad news as well,” Bugat said gloomingly. “Unfortunately, the General of the East died in battle.”

The mood shifted suddenly again, it was a downcast and gloomy atmosphere this time as the monsters all sulked and some even began to cry. Monsters had feelings too? I guess light novels and the such are biased, only capturing the bad side of monsters. Tsk tsk. Well, at least that pitiful Demon King thought about me before making that announcement, or else I could’ve gotten into some big trouble with my new allies.

“Let’s just forget that bad incident and celebrate our new General of the North! His name is Dark Orchid, but refer to him as sir from now on ok?!” Bugat declared loudly enough that every single monster could hear.

“As you wish, your majesty,” the monsters said in unison.

“Now welcome the General of the North,” Bugat said.

“Welcome, sir. We will be your loyal followers until the day we die,” they said with the utmost respect while maintaining a bowed position.

“I’m glad to be here too,” I replied in a seemingly honest tone. Got to make them believe I truly want to be here and that there’s no chance of betrayal.

It seems I finally get to experience controlling my own personal army. What would the future be like I wonder, I always thought I would be on the side of humans but now I’m allying with monsters in a Demon King’s castle. I can’t wait to see what happens in this new life of mine, especially since I’m in the Demon Realm where Kingdoms and Adventurers from light novels don’t exist . My adventures in this second life have only just begun.