Selling your soul is an extremely controversial topic amongst adventurers and those whose living are tied to their strength. Many claim that the power they receive in their current state is more important than the afterlife. What isn't discussed when dealing with the Demons of Solomon is that your soul is then used to fuel their own powers, a plaything that can be tortured, abused, and even destroyed permanently. The religious claim that once destroyed, you are removed from the reincarnation cycle. Not to mention that the Demons of Solomon will measure the properties of your soul, which determines the deal they can give you. Those with special souls, (ie. talents, a righteous heart, or an extremely sinister mind) are often eligible for the best deals the demons can offer. Marbas, the demon of intelligence, has explained that the stronger a soul, the more they are willing to part with due to the return on investment. It is possible to free souls from their contracts, but only if a superior soul user or a specialized class (ie. Hexblade Warlock) interferes. As of writing this, it is hard to say whether there are people more skilled in soul magic than the Demons of Solomon who have existed for centuries. In the instances when they are freed, the soul has been shown to suffer from a conflict of ownership and agonizing pain due to a ripping effect in their very soul. Needless to say, only those with nothing to lose should make a deal with a demon.

~ A Soul Mage's Guide on Selling Your Soul by Ferreo Poche

Seeing a murderous robot rapidly approaching, Chester didn’t hesitate.

“RUN!”

He made a break for it, looking behind to see the others running away as well. They both couldn’t keep up with the illusionist, whose speed transcended theirs by a significant margin. Fortunately it was enough to widen the distance between them and the murderous bot. Its heavy stature prevented it from catching up.

It was barely able to fit in the tunnel, bending forward to squeeze in. The rapid clanging sound that its feet made as the monster gave chase only served to hasten their retreat. Damien barely missed a step while hurling spells at the monster behind them.

“Darkfire!”

A plume of black flames rocketed towards the monster, and it couldn’t dodge in such a tight space.

Even with the explosion it didn’t get knocked back. The vampire threw whatever he could, but the automaton seemed to readjust itself in response.

“Magic detected. Move Earth.”

The very ground began to rumble, and Chester watched in horror as the path back to the mine was sealed.

“Fuck! Earth magic?!”

The man turned to his group, who quickly caught up with him. With the machine in hot pursuit, it would only be several seconds before the automaton reached them.

“Minor Illusion. Invisibility. Christopher, go underneath the legs!”

A stone wall appeared before the robot, making it pause in its movement. It swung at the illusion only to see it disappear, revealing one target left.

Chester watched Christopher fade into existence behind the machine and Damien’s soft footsteps could be heard going under the bot’s massive frame unnoticed. Seeing that they were in the clear, he casted three more spells in quick succession.

“Darkness. Minor Illusion. Invisibility.”

As soon as the darkness enveloped the area, Chester dove between its legs, nimbly avoiding the sharp metal limbs as he crawled down to get underneath. The Darkness spell was a double-edged sword, rendering him unable to see. Luckily, he didn't run into its limbs while crawling underneath. He dispelled the Darkness spell, revealing a clone where he once stood.

All the robot saw was an unmoving illusion identical to the illusionist. It raised its arms menacingly, activating the saw blade on one of its three arms. While it was temporarily distracted, the group continued back into the tunnel where they had originally encountered it.

“Greater Haste.”

Your speed has been doubled for one minute. You will have reduced stamina for 3 minutes afterward.

Chester and Damien got a massive boost in speed. It felt as though the two had lost fifty pounds of weight in an instant. The priest warned them about the aftereffects, giving them an idea of what was to come.

"You'll feel exhausted afterwards. Get to the large area as soon as possible and prepare for battle. Also, mind carrying me?" Christopher asked, seeing that he was lagging behind the adventurers. His speed was exceptional, but it couldn't match the buffed adventurers. The illusionist tossed his bag towards Damien, picking the man up and continuing at a rapid pace.

“Targets confirmed. Extermination mode.” The machine intoned from behind them in an apathetic voice. It had noticed their ruse and began the chase once more.

Cursing, the illusionist asked if the priest had any mana potions. Ruffling through his own pack, Christopher poured the blue liquid into his mouth, replenishing his reserves. It was enough to top off his MP which he knew would be necessary in the upcoming fight.

Your mana has been restored. +100 MP

Seeing the monster gain some traction, Chester used one of his least frequently used spells.

Mana Blast Level 2

- Unleashes a non-elemental magic projectile upon target, dealing 50% of your total INT stat as damage.

-100 MP. 1 second activation, 5 second cooldown.

Despite only doing half of his INT stat as damage, it showed just as much impact as one of Damien’s Darkfire spells. The vampire joined him as they continued to run. With limited effectiveness, they unleashed a torrent of spells against the automaton hounding them. Their coordination was limited and so was their aim. But it was enough to impede the machine’s progress. Due to the poor lighting, they couldn't tell if it dealt any meaningful damage.

“We’re almost there! Get ready for a fight!”

Looking to make sure that no robots remained in the tunnel leading out of the room, they prepared to face off against the deadly machine. With the room littered with insect corpses and metal scrap, they had to watch their footing. Christopher rummaged through his bag, throwing around a few pellets that glowed brightly enough to provide them with ample lighting to fight in.

Damien raised his shield, steeling himself for a long battle. Chester began swinging his flail at rapid speeds, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

As soon as the machine stepped into the room, the two fighters descended upon it in a frenzy while the speed boost was active. Chester’s arms blurred as his Attainium weapon walloped his opponent in the head. Doubled speed combined with his freakish strength, he knew that his strike would've been more than enough to kill one of the lesser robots in one hit.

Instead of crushing the robot's skull, it left a sizable dent on the robot's head. Its neck barely budged from the powerful blow.

‘Hey, are you fucking kidding me? What type of hell did this thing crawl out of?!’

Damien parried the incoming sawblade with his shield, stabbing his sword straight into its eye. It pierced the weak point, sputtering out of power.

“Earth Tremor.”

The ground began to shake, destabilizing the adventurers while the machine seemed to dig itself into the dirt. Caught off-guard, Damien was snatched by the torso with its massive fist, and the saw blade whirred threateningly as it approached the vampire. The chain of his flail wrapped around the limb, and Chester pulled as hard as he could, stopping the blade from ending the boy’s life. His muscles fought on even ground with the massive robot, and he was successful in pulling it away with great effort. But it still had Damien in a crushing grip. A powerful Mana Blast to its arm was insufficient.

Damien used his shield to force the mechanical beast to let go, but was sustaining damage as its grip on him tightened. The vampire opened his mouth in a noiseless scream as the pressure increased to unimaginable levels. His ribs were beginning to creak under the massive force.

“Spiritual Weapon, Greater Restore.”

The boy could feel his bones mending, while a massive, incorporeal hammer appeared and slammed the machine's arm so hard it was dislodged. Sparks flew from the socket where its hand originally was, and the vampire was able to escape its grip.

Damien fell into a heap on the floor, struggling to regain his bearings. Chester shifted his Attainium and disengaged, picking the boy up and dropping him closer to the priest. Their boost had disappeared, and both of them could feel the lethargy in their very soul. Chester fought to keep his eyes open despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

“Get your shit together. I’ll hold it off for a bit. Can you use your hammer thing again, Christopher?”

“Twenty more seconds. Wait until then.”

The vampire couldn’t even respond before Chester dove into battle, summoning illusions to further confuse the dumb machine.

“Target confirmed.”

The illusionist tweaked his weapon, lengthening the chain but sacrificing the size of the spiked ball on the end. With greater range, he was able to float in and out of the robot’s attack range and kept it distracted. With only two arms, he had less to worry about. Christopher lent the vampire a healing potion, bringing his health bar to full capacity.

Damien returned to the fight with a great deal of caution in his movements. His shields parried any attempt to grab him, and he did his best to distract the robot while Chester dealt damage. Without its hand, it could only use the pincers to try and grapple, making the pattern much more predictable. Occasionally, an illusive decoy would appear and distract the robot, preventing it from fully focusing on either fighter.

“Spiritual Weapon.”

The hammer descended upon its target once again, right down on the robot’s head. It was a potent ability, bringing the machine down with a force that surpassed any of their previous attacks. The ground cracked as it struggled to maintain an upright position. Chester took advantage of this by tying up one of its legs and yanking as hard as he could.

“Critical condition. Support required.”

Just as the spell dissipated. Three robots came from the other tunnel leading to places unknown. Unlike the powerful mechanical beast, they were the same variant that the group fought earlier; bipedal and made of titanium and tungsten. But seeing them approach their support, Chester barked out orders as he tried to rip the machine's leg off with his chain.

“Damien! Stick with Christopher.”

The boy complied, engaging in battle against the machines that occupied the priest from a few meters away.

Chester eyed the massive robot before him. With one busted eye, disfigured limbs, and a heavily damaged exterior, it looked on the brink of collapse. The illusionist's flail strikes dealt insane bludgeoning damage, and with his illusions he knew that he had enough energy to distract it for some time.

The man tensed up as the robot’s pincer-like claws began to grab the scraps on the floor. Similar to what it was doing before, it placed them into a space inside of its chest cavity. It looked like it was fishing for certain materials, and he spotted mithril and orichalcum in its claws.

Not liking what the robot was up to, Chester casted Mana Blast to stop whatever it was doing.

It raised a wall of dirt in response, blocking the attack but destroying the dirt construct in the process. The machine began to shake like a scared dog, and Chester watched as the robot seemingly repaired itself before his eyes. The dents began to smooth out, and the limbs straightened out. Although it was still damaged, it was in markedly better shape than before.

“You’re fucking with me…DON’T LET IT TAKE THE SCRAPS! IT USES THEM TO HEAL!”

Before it could complete the process, he slammed his flail on its head. He spun around and dodged a strike from its saw blade, tying up its pincer arm as he weaved around its attacks.

Fueled with desperation, Chester threw his entire body into the move and tried to wrench its limb off. Trapped in a deadlock, the robot’s arm began to creak as Chester pulled out every drop of strength he had, gritting his teeth so hard that it began to crack.

With a yell, he fell forward as the pincer limb he had wrapped with his chain came loose.

His entire body was cramping up, but he had no time to rest. Chester could see that Damien was being overwhelmed, and Christopher was blocking one of the robots with his staff. They were in a stalemate against the three machines.

With the metal limb still stuck in his chains, he swung it as hard as he could at one of the robots the vampire was fighting and sent it crashing into the ground. The weight of the mithril-orichalcum pincer, along with the speed he had swung was enough to deform its torso.

Chester stepped on the lesser robot’s back and wrapped the chain along its neck, and twisted the head off with a great deal of effort. He realized that wrenching their heads off was much more efficient than trying to knock it off with sheer brute force.

“Holy Shield!”

Chester watched as the shield circled him, before something struck him from behind and sent him stumbling forward. Although the impact was great, he didn't feel much pain.

Holy Shield has negated 100 points of damage.

Although he was still slightly injured, the spell had protected him from a majority of the damage. Chester got up and saw that the robot boss had summoned a spiked wall of earth and sent it flying towards him. He dodged another piece of spiked earth, moving further away to keep Christopher out of its attack radius.

While the illusionist danced around the healed robot, Damien fought with greater ease. Seeing the priest disengage from his opponent and support Chester, he delivered a powerful blow to the robot's head before the machine could follow the healer.

The vampire hated how useless he felt. Without the needed strength, he could hardly deal enough damage to the robot’s outer shell. His sword was unable to pierce the lifeless machines and resorted to attacking critical points like their eyes with stabs. He relinquished his spells in favor of activating Mana and Dark Infusion at once, providing him with an ample boost. The lethargy from the Greater Haste spell was counteracted and he moved at greater speeds.

Seeing the robot topple over, Damien leapt onto its chest and slammed the edge of his shield into its neck. He repeated this again, before kicking the head hard enough to dislodge it completely.

Shield Mastery has now reached Level 2.

The priest had completely focused on aiding the illusionist in his battle against the main threat while waiting for the cooldown on his skill, Spiritual Weapon, to finish.

He did his best to remain further from the tunnel, unwilling to get ambushed again. Christopher drank another mana potion before continuing to support the illusionist, but keeping an eye on the vampire as he finished off the last lesser robot. Although none of them were badly injured, their stamina and energy were reaching critical levels.

“Earth Tremor.”

The ground rattled once again, but Chester dropped low to the ground, watching out for any attacks and summoning another clone to distract the robot.

It swung and missed, allowing the illusionist to tie up its last arm while it was stretched out. He dug his feet into the floor, jerking his chain violently in an attempt to rip the saw-blade off. In response, the robot’s mechanical arm twisted and grabbed the chain, pulling the man towards him. Due to the shaky floor, he wasn't able to resist the robot's powerful tug.

“Move Earth.”

As Chester stumbled forward, the dirt below him formed a sharp spike that he collided with. The illusionist took the stalagmite straight in the stomach. Even at the speed he was going, it didn’t impale him completely thanks to the superb toughness of his body. But it knocked the breath out of the illusionist, forcing him to stop his attack as a large piece of rock cut his stomach.

He disassembled the Attainium chain, letting it slip through the robot’s hands as it formed back into a hammer in his hands. Chester removed the portion of the stalagmite that stabbed him, retreating back to grab some healing potions from his bag.

The robot stepped towards him, but stopped upon seeing a pale-faced boy stand in its way. Damien dodged its attempt to grab him, weaving through the attacks in order to buy some more time. His stats had increased by 20% each thanks to Mana and Dark Infusion, giving him the ability necessary to avoid being hit.

Christopher’s Spiritual Weapon materialized once again, slamming down on its opponent while Damien peppered it with strikes.

“Hey, mind healing me up? Don’t want to waste too many potions.” Chester said, panting as he covered his stomach. The tunic he wore was stained with blood, but it was far from life-threatening. He had faced worse situations before.

“Cure Wounds.” The priest said, keeping a close eye on the battle taking place. "You'll have to be careful. I'm running low on mana, and I'll need time to recover after my next spell."

“Oh yeah? Well so am I.”

CHESTER EVERHEART

PERK(S):

Underdog II - Slay an opponent with a higher level and superior stat total. +10 to all stats. 10% increased damage dealt to opponents with a higher level or a higher stat total.

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Level: 22

Race: Human (Otherworld Variant)

Class: Illusionist (Unique) - 1.5x to the effectiveness of INT, 1.3x to CHA and AGI.

HP: 645/700 (3.5 HP regen/min)

MP: 297/1445 (6.8 MP regen/min)

PRIMARY

STR- 58 (68)

AGI- 64 (93)

END- 60 (70)

INT- 83 (144)

SPECIAL

CHA- 45 (68)

LUC- 8 (18)

ACTIVE

Change Self Level 4

Darkness Level 1

Invisibility Level 4

Improved Minor Illusion Level 2

Mana Blast Level 2

Mana Infusion Level 4

PASSIVE

Sword Mastery Level 3

Shield Mastery Level 2

Advanced Dagger Mastery Level 2

Advanced Flail Mastery Level 1

Advanced Illusion Mastery Level 2

Advanced Mana Mastery Level 1

Poison Resistance Level 2

Chester didn’t know how much longer they could go. Once his mana ran out, he would be forced to rely exclusively on his physical skills to dispatch the automaton.

With the wound on his stomach healed, he joined Damien to try and finish off the robot once and for all. The bot was persistent on bisecting the vampire, and Chester ran behind it to try and dislodge the threatening limb that buzzed menacingly.

Going invisible, he shaped the Attainium into a long, winding chain. He wrapped the saw-blade in chains once again. Placing one foot on its sturdy metal torso, Chester pulled while using the machine as leverage. Veins along his neck bulged as he tried to destroy the robot's structural integrity.

“Damien! Don’t let it hit me! AHHHH-”

The robot had noticed the pest trying to yank its last arm off, and had already begun to move. Chester let out a high-pitch scream as the buzzing saw-blade neared his face, the taut chain began to slacken. Damien blocked its attempt with the shield, putting his whole body in an effort to keep it from reaching Chester as he strained to rip the appendage. Sparks flew between the absurdly durable shield and the rotary weapon.

The limb groaned in protest, unable to move to its full potential when covered in chains. The man’s biceps squeezed and after great effort, the saw-blade was finally removed. He went flying along with the extremity tumbling onto the ground.

With no arms remaining, the robot was near helpless. It had resorted to using its legs to attack in tandem with its earth magic but was unable to hit the swift fighters that had grown used to the machine’s attack pattern.

“Fucking bastard. Stupid healing shit, earth-magic bullshit. FUCK YOU!” The illusionist yelled, angered at the grief the automaton put them through.

Chester returned his Attainium back into its flail form, preventing the automaton from doing anything. It couldn't even move it's spider-like limbs. Damien clambered onto its back and bashed its head in, taking advantage of its current state to deal as much damage as he could. Without any additional boost, the vampire was beginning to reach the limit of what his body could offer.

The shield had taken a severe beating. Its edges were bent in some areas, and the surface of its protective exterior was covered in scratches and dents; a testament to the mighty robot’s strength. The part of the shield which met the saw-blade had a deep gouge, but it was still usable.

"Mending."

Damien watched as his shield was slightly repaired, minimizing the gouge and smoothing out the minor scratches and dents it had suffered during the fight. He looked at the priest gratefully.

"Our products have life-long warranties. Just fulfilling my duty as per policy."

Christopher was running low on mana, but still provided Holy Shield which would protect the group from any surprise attacks. The two fighters noted that its standard strategy was to destabilize them with Earth Tremor and attack while they were off-balance. Knowing this, the duo stayed low to the ground and remained on-guard for the incoming spell. This minimized the chances of them getting impaled by stalagmites.

After a few more minutes of violent fighting, they managed to take it down.

“Ah.” It said in a drone-like voice.

That was all the machine said before collapsing, completely inert. The lights in its eye died out, never to return.

You have slain Scrap Bot - Earth Variant (Level 35)

You have leveled up! You are now Level 18.

Damien placed the ten stat points he had into END, realizing that he was far too fragile to fight against the likes of these enemies. He had learned his lesson against Jasiah, and he was forced to learn it again with the Scrap Bot. He weighed his options between STR and END, but prioritized survivability over offense.

The boy looked at his stats with a critical eye.

DAMIEN ROSE

PERKS:

Creature of the Night - Increased movement speed, HP/MP regeneration by 15% during nighttime. These are subsequently reduced by 10% during the daytime. Light magic deals 15% increased damage.

Genius II - Master 10 skills before the first level milestone. Skill proficiency will level up at a moderately increased rate.

Darkness Infused - Master 5 dark-element spells. 20% increased proficiency towards all dark-element spells.

True Vampiric Origins - HP/MP regen is doubled. Ingesting blood allows for HP regen. Going for extended periods of time without blood will result in reduced sanity and increased bloodthirst.

Level: 18

Race: Vampire (True Origin)

Class: N/A

HP: 438/539 (5.14 HP regen/min)

MP: 51/847 (8.08 MP regen/min)

PRIMARY

STR- 31

AGI- 68 (73)

END- 49

INT- 72 (77)

SPECIAL

CHA- 31

LUC- 13

ACTIVE

Darkfyre Level 5 MAX

Shadowshield Level 5 MAX

Shadow Bolt Level 5 MAX

Darkness Infusion Level 5 MAX

Mana Infusion Level 5 MAX

PASSIVE

Advanced Sword Mastery Level 1

Shield Mastery Level 2

Spear Mastery Level 5 MAX

Halberd Mastery Level 5 MAX

Dagger Mastery Level 5 MAX

Mana Mastery Level 5 MAX

Darkness Mastery Level 5 MAX

His stats had taken a significant jump, and his plan on becoming a spellcaster would have to take a backseat. Investing in his survivability was the optimal choice in this situation.

"Oh, how the fuck did I not level up? This is bullshit!" Chester said, aggravated. He kicked the head of his fallen opponent into the wall, cursing as his toe suffered the consequences.