Chapter 40: The Power of Demons (II)

Donald scanned the battlefield. The Fire-Demon had been subdued, its magic nearly exhausted, with little flame remaining on its body. There were also two Bronze-tier Dog Demons—once fearsome demonic creatures that made people tremble—but they had encountered Cavern Demons of the same tier who could counter their abilities. Trapped in the webs of the Spider Monsters, the battered Dog Demons no longer had the strength to struggle.

The Cavern Demons’ attacks were poisonous. Although this wasn’t shown in the game, and it wasn’t fatal given the demons’ strong physical recovery abilities and resistance to toxins, the combination of injuries and toxins was enough to weaken the two Dog Demons to the point where they could no longer resist.

The last two enemies were the Mage Naron and the Snow Mage. From the start, they had been suppressed by the two Tree Fairies, unable to cast a single effective spell before becoming exhausted and out of breath. Without the Tree Fairy girls even intervening, they were already powerless to resist. Now, they were held at gunpoint by the two Tree Fairies with wooden spears pointed at their throats—any slight movement would result in instant death. Their frustration was indescribable.

He stepped forward about ten steps to the spot where the light was shining and found several items scattered among the wild grass. One of them was a palm-sized silver badge; it was its reflection of sunlight that allowed him to spot them.

Picking up the items one by one, he discovered three badges and a scroll of parchment. He sent out a Sentinel to confirm that the sorcerer had truly fled and that there was no one else within a kilometer. Only then did Donald take the items to examine them.

There were two Bronze badges and one Silver badge, each engraved with demonic symbols and obscure spells. These must have been the sorcerer’s tools for summoning demons. Then there was a map depicting unknown terrain, marked with ancient runes. Donald recognized them as the magic script of ancient archmages, but he didn’t understand their meaning.

Unbeknownst to Donald, the sorcerer, who had fled several miles away from the battlefield, suddenly reverted to his normal form. Although the two blood wounds seemed severe, they had already begun to heal thanks to the power of his bloodline, which allowed his demonic body to recover quickly. Yet, using this bloodline power came at a cost—after returning to his original body, Gohan became weak and powerless, with no magic left to cast for at least three days.

Suddenly, he felt something as he touched the pocket hanging at his waist. It was torn open, and its contents were gone—everything was missing.

Seeing this, the sorcerer’s anger surged, and he spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot.

“My dear!”
For that thing, he was willing to betray his teammates, take enormous risks to attract the pursuit of justice, and endure a month of rough sailing to reach the northern lands of the continent. He never expected that a simple task of killing a minor mage would cost him four demon badges in a row, with even his most important treasure lost.
Recalling the incident, Gao Man realized that it must have been the failed Wind Arrow from the other party that tore open the deerhide pouch hidden at his waist, causing the items to fall into their hands. Though extremely unwilling, he was now weak and powerless. Returning would only mean handing over his life for nothing. It was better to wait until he recovered fully before trying to retrieve his treasure!
Not to mention the sorcerer leaving in frustration and anger, on the battlefield, Donald was quite pleased with these unexpected gains. But now was not the time to deal with them. He stored the items in a spatial seal and then turned to the two senior mages.
“We are mages. You must hand us over to the Kingdom Mage Association for trial. You cannot resort to private punishment!”
“We only accepted this task at the invitation of the Black Knights Brotherhood! Please don’t kill us…”
“The Black Knights Brotherhood?”
One of the mages was feisty on the surface but timid inside, while the other pleaded humbly. Yet Donald could see the resentment hidden in their eyes. If it weren’t for their hatred toward him, they would never have agreed to kill a mage, no matter what the cost.
The attitude of the Black Knights Brotherhood was somewhat unclear—were they helping or harming him?
The two mages had caused him trouble many times, and this time they had even joined forces with the sorcerer to try and stop him. This made Donald realize he couldn’t keep these scoundrels around, or they might cause more problems.
Since the assassination attempt last time, he had realized that this world was different from Earth in his past life. If he continued to act based on his past experiences, mistakes would eventually occur.
“After all, incidents of kidnapping, robbery, and murder were common in my past life too. But like most ordinary people, I lived in a relatively peaceful area, far away from evil and chaos, so I never really experienced it firsthand.”
“Where there are people, there are conflicts. Mercy toward enemies is cruelty toward oneself!” These words echoed in his mind, and Donald quickly made up his mind.
With a sneer, he said:

“Well, since you’ve decided to go after me, be prepared to fail and pay the price. There’s no one in this wilderness—if I kill you, who will know? You chose this place to surround me precisely with that intention in mind, to kill me, right?”
“Another thing—this has nothing to do with the hatred between us. As mages, you’ve allied yourselves with sorcerers and demons. You two don’t even deserve to be called mages, let alone humans. Give them a swift end!”
The elf warrior beside him immediately raised his circular blade and without hesitation severed the heads of the two old mages.
At the same time, the Book of Truth absorbed the souls of these two powerful beings.
Mages were among the rare professions with little faith, so the Book of Truth could safely absorb their souls.
Although Snow Mage and Naron weren’t very skilled, the combined soul power of these two mid-tier black iron mages was almost as much as what it had gained from one bronze-level demon before!
After ordering the dungeon demons to clean up the bodies of the two mages, Donald stepped forward to the Fiery Demon.
Although its summoning method differed from the energy creatures summoned by the Book of Truth, demons, as a type of summoned being, could be made to disappear at any time by their summoner if not controlled by spells that prevented them from returning to the abyssal world.
But now that all three demons were under control and their summoning items were in Donald’s hands, he could focus on his own tasks.
After confirming once more through the sentries that no one had approached, he didn’t want anyone to witness him killing the mages and absorbing the demons’ power just now.
After becoming a demon hunter, the first demon power absorbed was quite important. If the target was a demon with great talent and abilities, it would greatly enhance the demon hunter’s strength and determine their future development path.
So Donald abandoned the idea of evolving physically and focused on two lower-level hound demons instead, choosing the higher-tier Fiery Demon, which combined magic and combat skills, as his first target.
Although it was easier to absorb the power of bronze-level hound demons, the high rank of the Fiery Demon made the process extremely painful and difficult. But how else could one achieve great gains without taking risks?

Seeing the human mage approach, it said nothing but smiled while looking around, its smile resembling that of a villain about to take a girl’s virginity. That smile made it feel a bit terrified. Though it couldn’t break free, Fireburn Demon struggled hard, cursing in a timid yet fierce tone, “Damn humans! What do you want? If you’re sensible, let me go. I’m a great demi-god, an officer under the Lord of Abyssal Flames. If you release me, perhaps the Lord will reward you with great power, elevating you straight to golden rank…”

Hearing Fireburn Demon’s sense of humor, Donald couldn’t help but tease it. “You’ll find out what I’m going to do in a moment! But I highly doubt your lord would grant golden-level power in exchange for the freedom of a silver-ranked subordinate! By your own words, your status seems so important in that Flame Lord’s eyes—could it be you’re his illegitimate child?”

Not to mention submitting to demons and sacrificing one’s soul and faith for power—was such a practice really worth it? Just the idea of handing over one’s soul and life to someone else made Donald unwilling to try it, even if it were a powerful demon or even a true god. What’s the point of living without freedom and self?