Re: Devil - Volume 1 Chapter 25

“Oh really? Tell me more” I asked while I grinned inside.

Vein popped on his head as his ugly smile turned into a passable frown and he finally snapped.

“It seems that someone need to teach you how to behave you little shit!”

“Wait! Count Jakath ordered you to take me back to him alive.” I quickly said while I was pretending to be scared.

“Too late! you should not have angered me! Count Jakath should forgive me as long as you are still alive.” he said as he clenched his club hard, raised his arm and wante to smack me.

I, of course, easily dodged it due to my nimbleness and body size.

“Hold still you imp!” As he continued to swing his club wildly breaking his surrounding and making me took a step backward to avoid his reckless attack.

I put one of my hand behind my back and silently casted [Fire Ball]. As he kept trying to hit me, I finally took the chance and threw the [Fire Ball] at his face.

The [Fire Ball] burst on his face and with the momentum and the surprise factor of the attack made the [Hobgoblin] slipped and fell down.

“Oops… I didn’t mean to hit you with that much power, I swear really.” I tried to explain myself while trying to hold back and concealing my laughter.

The [Hobgoblin] swiftly stood up with his burned face and faced me angrily. His eyes turned bloodshot red and maybe he already lost his rationality as this time he looked at me as I was his prey.

I turned serious and stopped playing around though after seeing how he swung his weapon many times, the speed was manageable and I could even predict the trajectory of where the club would land.

However, I needed him to be alive because I wanted to ask a few questions and it was also regarding my survival here in Hell.

As the [Hobgoblin] was inherently weaker than the [Hell Fire Lizard] that I had just fought, I immediately knew I needed to disable his weapon first because a weaponless [Hobgoblin] was only a stronger and taller version of a [Goblin].

I used [Enhanced Shadow Claw] on my right hand before I slashed the hand holding the club and cut it off.

The club fell down with the arm and blood was spurting out endlessly from his once fully intact arm.

“Gah!!!” he was shocked and horrified because he didn’t expect he could lose an arm to an imp. I was sly enough to not wait for him to recover and again sliced his other arm.

Dense red blood was flowing more and splashed at my face.

“Yuck!” I quickly wiped my face with my elbow.

For the finishing touch, I casted two [Fire Ball]s and burned the mutated arms to stop the bleeding and hopefully prolonged his life at least until my curiosity was satiated.

“Now then, can you tell me what I want to know?” I asked smilingly with my slinted eyes as the [Hobgoblin] was horrified seeing me like a demon although he was one too.

I kicked his leg and made him kneeled on the hot rough ground and looked at him in the eyes.

“What exactly is Count Jakath planning to do? Can he just teleport me?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” I stabbed his thigh.

“Sorry I slipped my hand, I assure you I really didn’t mean it.”

“I really don’t know! Maybe one of the higher ranked demon or longer lived demons might know, I am just here to take you back!” He finally answered.

“Hmm… Next questuon, How do you find me? Wait that is a dumb question, Count Jakath can find me wherever he wants as long ad I am here in Count Andromalius’ territory. Where in the Hell can you get all of these equipments? A [Hobgoblin] should not have this extravagabt armor.”

He glared at me this time and we could not have that, do we? So this I stabbed his other thigh and burned the other bleeding thigh.

“Mercy! Mercy! After getting into higher floor in the tower, sometimes treasure chest can appear and you can take the items inside back to Hell.” He quickly replied.

[Hoho… interesting, now you can find treasures in the tower? How many floors do I need before I can take some treasures]. My eyes shined thinking and looking forward to it.

“It reminds me… So how long before the next war start?” I asked again.

“I don’t know, I should take you back before the war starts but because you are in the outskirt of the territory and so far away. Maybe less than a day left?” he said.

[Good thing I get the time. I don’t want to be interrupted amidst hunting or even worse when eating or sleeping].

I touched my chin thinking about the next question what I wanted to ask before I noticed that the [Hobgoblin] was becoming weaker. I was unsure but I could have sworn I heard the word why coming out from the [Hobgoblin] mouth before his body fell down listlessly.

I had forgotten to burn the wound and due to blood loss the [Hobgoblin] accidently died. I was staring at the dead corpse for a while before denying that I didn’t really like to play with my opponent to death and usually I killed them neat and quick.

I blamed my mischievous imp’s side that Impuji had said to me.

[Did I enjoy that? … Na who cares? This is Hell. Probably it is best for me to think about the impeding war than this].

So I pushed aside my thought and denial and decided to try searching for food before the war would start.

Before that, I ate the whole Hobgoblin’s corpse and it tasted a bit worse than the [Hell Fire Lizardling] but better than a [Goblin]. A notification block popped up after I ate the whole corpse without leaving nothing behind.

[Lesser Blunt Weapon Mastery] acquired.

[Status]

Level 71 – No Name – Lesser Challenger

Species: Lesser Infernal Imp (Uncommon)

Unranked

Hell’s Authority Rank I: 12%

Skills

Insight

Enhanced Shadow Claw

Lesser Flame Body

Lesser Skin Hardening

Compound Eyes

Lesser Speed Movement

Lesser Swordmanship

Lesser Dagger Mastery

Lesser Strengthening

Lesser Blunt Weapon Mastery

An unexpected gain from killing a [Hobgoblin]. “Wait…”

I tried to take the club that fell down with my one hand and it was very heavy.

I realized that the club that the dead Hobgoblin was holding was so heavy that I needed two hand to even barely life the club and that was the reason why he swung so slow.

It hindered my mobility greatly and only made me easier to be killed. I still preferred using my claw like dagger imitating a thief that I had fought in the tower.

Damn, this was just a scam. When I needed something useful like [Fire Ball], I needed to kill many [Hell Fure Lizardling]s and even one [Hell Fire Lizard], pay the price almost with my life and then there was still a chance of not getting the skill.

On the contrary, the [Lesser Blunt Weapon Mastery] was not what I needed the most and I easily got it just from killing a [Hobgoblin].

The shoulder pad was too big and uncomfortable and I would not take his loincloth.

I sighed regretfully and slumped my shoulder for a short moment before I needed to prepare for the tower and the post tower, of which I didn’t think about it that much until I realized the gravely situation that I was in.

When I indirectly killed the [Hobgoblin] would Count Jakath be offended and I be killed? The only fortunate thing was that I was now in the outskirt of Count Andromalius’ territory. I was thinking about becoming a rogue demon but no this abrupt.

Truth to be told I was a bit reluctant to leave but if I followed him back, the bad feeling was getting stronger and probably I would regret it later.

[Thinking about it will not do anything. The only guarantee that I can stay alive is to be strong. Hearing the words spewed out from the [Hobgoblin]’s mouth strengthens my belief that the tower is also something that can change fate and maybe the clue of that woman].

With a renewed resolve, this time I must prepare as much as possible for the tower and for later. Maybe the situation would not be so bad but no one could say what would happen.

…

[You are summoned by Hell to partake in the war. Checking demon… Unranked demon… Obligatory participation… under Count Andromalius…]