Chapter 172: Evil Gaze

Donald had originally been transported from the lord’s manor to Redhammer Town because one of his subordinates reported seeing flames and black smoke in the mountainous area east of Redmaple Town, suspected to be a volcanic eruption. To be honest, Donald had never witnessed a volcanic eruption in his entire life, not even in his past life, so he decided to come and see it for himself!

Unexpectantly, he ran into those three individuals by chance and also learned about the presence of demons. It was said that there used to be a small abyssal passage here, but it disappeared completely after a volcanic eruption. Now, with the sudden appearance of minor demons and even a giant demon, Donald was convinced that they must belong to that Demon Baron’s group.

But what were they doing there? Could it be that they wanted to open another abyssal passage? He planned to capture that Silver Demon in one go. However, after seeing the three adventurers leave, he didn’t act immediately. Instead, he returned to the lord’s manor first to summon Uther and Kelthas before teleporting back here.

His upgraded group teleportation spell was even more convenient—its range had increased to 1,500 kilometers, and its cooldown time was reduced to five minutes. Five minutes was a very short cooldown time for such a powerful skill, so Donald could easily wait.

Five minutes later, Donald reappeared at the location where he had met those three adventurers. With him were Uther in silver armor and Kelthas, whose entire body was covered by a cloak and mask.

“The three adventurers are over by the volcano, where we saw that Silver Demon. Let’s go and deal with it right away!” Saying this, Donald first used his flight spell and flew toward the volcano. Kelthas followed closely behind. Although Uther couldn’t fly, with his strength, he could run at full speed. Even with trees in the way, he was much faster than the two flying above.

This was the advantage of the warrior class—with their strong bodies and sword energy support, they far surpassed mages of the same level in close combat and physical endurance.

Compared to those three panicked adventurers, Donald and his companions reached the other side of the volcano in a very short time. By then, the eruption at the crater seemed to have stopped, with only faint red lights flickering and some smoke still rising.

Yet, they didn’t see a single trace of the demon the adventurers had mentioned, whether it was a minor demon or a powerful Silver Demon.

“What’s going on? Those three adventurers probably don’t have the guts to deceive me, and from their expressions, it seems they’re not lying. So, has the demon left?”
As he pondered this, Kelthas pointed to a spot not far from the volcano and said, “Look there!”
Donald glanced in that direction carefully and saw an unremarkable shadow among the rocks—something that would easily be missed if not looked at closely.
“This way.”
When the three of them approached, they realized it was the entrance to a hidden cave, with traces of many creatures having passed by.
“So it came from below—no wonder it could disappear so quickly!”
Donald said, stepping into the cave first. Uther and the other didn’t dare delay and hurriedly followed their master inside.
This cave was much larger than the one they found in the northern forest; seven or eight people could walk side by side comfortably.
After walking for a while, they encountered another fork in the road. All three passages showed signs of use, making it impossible to tell which one the demon had taken. Donald had no choice but to summon owls to scout ahead.
After a short while, the owl on the left spotted the demon—several small demons were moving deeper into the cave. Donald didn’t act immediately but waited until the other two owls also searched for a while without finding anything before leading his two men into the left passage.
When they caught up to the small demons, Donald didn’t attack right away. Instead, he gave Uther a few instructions through telepathy, then stepped back slightly with Kelthas.
Uther, clad in armor, moved like a phantom, making no sound at all as he knocked out and captured the three small demons ahead.
Donald smiled approvingly at Uther, who returned with the three unconscious demons, then took them and stored them in his storage space to kill them there. He chose not to kill them on the spot because demons were highly sensitive to the smell of blood—whether in a narrow underground passage or in the open forest, the scent could be detected from miles away.
After several such covert attacks by Uther, a total of twenty-one small demons were eliminated before the three of them caught up with the main group at the entrance of an underground cave. The demons hadn’t realized that at least one-fifth of their numbers were missing.

Taking all the little demons with them, Donald and his two companions climbed behind the rocks at the entrance and peeked inside. They saw a massive demon lord raging there. The demon appeared as a burly, bald humanoid with pale skin and sharp claws at the ends of its arms—clearly designed to tear apart enemies. A pair of messy wings stretched upward from its shoulders, and a third eye was embedded in the center of its forehead. It resembled a Force Demon greatly, but was twice as large, with a more human-like face and much tougher, smoother skin. Most importantly, ordinary Force Demons were only at the black-iron level, considered lower-tier demons. Yet this one seemed exceptionally powerful, at least at the silver level, with a thick aura of evil energy surrounding it like a halo, covering an area of ten feet around it. Under divine vision, every movement of this giant demon was clearly visible to Donald. To possess such a strong aura meant it was either a demon with a noble lord title or at least at the gold level—so this must be the actual Demon Baron. This cave was very similar to the one where they found the altar and the abyssal passage, but it contained many more wooden items and furs, suggesting that many people had once lived here. Donald immediately guessed that this might be the original tribe of those black-scaled lizard people. Donald signaled to his two subordinates and thought to them, “Ignore those little demons. We’ll deal with that big guy directly.” After planning their action, the three rushed into the underground cave filled with dozens of demons. Faced with the suddenly appearing humans, the little demons screamed in terror and scattered in all directions. “Shut up!” Standing on a stone platform a foot above the ground, the giant demon waved its hand, crushing several screaming little demons to pieces—its brutality showing no sign of kindness or care for its subordinates. “Haha! It’s three humans! Delicious prey that came to us on its own! How unexpected!” Before the silver demon could finish speaking, Kelthas, who had already closed in to thirty steps away, banished it into an ethereal state. Ignoring the fleeing little demons, Donald and his companions attacked the Demon Baron, who had now become an ethereal being unable to attack.

Uther swung his long sword, its blade covered in a holy light. The sword energy, imbued with divine power, pierced diagonally beneath the large demon’s relatively fragile ribs. In his ethereal state, the Demon Baron swung his claws at Uther, but it was as if he were grabbing air—completely ineffective. Meanwhile, the Demon Baron himself took a solid hit from Uther, letting out a painful scream, clearly suffering severe injuries. Soon after, Donald’s Frost Nova and Kelthas’s Flame Strike also struck the Demon Baron.

“Damn you, humans!” The Demon Baron screamed as he vanished from his spot and reappeared on the other side of the cave.

These were spell-like abilities possessed by powerful demon species. Many abyssal creatures above the silver rank had spatial spells, such as basic teleportation, advanced chaotic teleportation, and precise teleportation.

When he reappeared, he had returned to his solid form. Though he still had burns and frostbites, and a bleeding wound beneath his ribs, his face showed a cruel smile after the initial shock and anger.

“So in this state, I can’t attack, but I can still cast spells. You little insects are doomed…”

With that, his eyes fixed on Uther, who was the most obvious target and charging at him again. Two red-hot beams of light emanated from his eyes.

However, Uther, enveloped in that light, only paused briefly before breaking free. He took the chance to inflict another wound on the Demon Baron. Though this sword strike also carried his holy sword energy, it only penetrated five or six inches before getting stuck in the demon’s tough muscles and ribs. Uther quickly pulled his sword back and leaped aside to avoid the Demon Baron’s retaliatory claws.

“How is this possible! Why isn’t my gaze having any effect on you? I’m already a Gold Demon, far stronger than you humans. Why aren’t you affected by my gaze?”

This evil gaze was a supernatural ability possessed by the Demon Baron. Any creature within thirty feet that came into contact with its red-hot gaze would instantly become weakened, their strength dropping by a significant rank. Those with weak minds might even feel fear and be unable to launch effective attacks.

Such abilities could generally only be mastered by demons with great talent or those at the level of demon lords, and they only worked against opponents of similar or lower ranks. But if the target had an extremely strong will or relied on other forces to resist the gaze, it would be completely ineffective against them next time.

Obviously, Uther not only had a strong mind but also the power of holy light to resist the negative effects of the evil gaze, allowing him to instantly break free from its influence. Unlike the other opponents of the Demon Baron, who were caught off guard, weakened by the evil gaze, and lost their fighting spirit, ending up dying at its claws.

While the Demon Baron was speaking, Donald and the other mage had already rushed over, coming within fifty steps of him.

“The estimated strength of the target is incorrect; proceed with Plan B!”

Hearing the Demon Baron claim he was already at the gold rank, Donald realized that the information obtained from interrogating those minor demons was clearly inaccurate. He had miscalculated from the start—although a gold demon might be suppressed by the rules of the main world and only be able to maintain a peak silver-level strength, its power was still comparable to that of an ordinary human gold-level warrior. Fortunately, they had discussed a backup plan before taking action.

They originally thought that a expulsion spell combined with Uther’s main attack and the two’s supporting attacks would be enough to deal with this Demon Baron. Now, they could only try to weaken it as much as possible, then use Uther’s sacred shield to prevent it from counterattacking, while the two spellcasters unleashed powerful spells to kill it.