Karol picked up the piece of meat wing from the ground, examining it closely. The surface was pocked and covered with fine bite marks. Initially, Karol thought the sparse feathers of the monster bird demon were natural, but now it seemed they had been wounded by something else.
The injuries must have been severe, enough that the monster bird demon, even if it survived, was gravely weakened, reduced to feeding on newly born lesser demons. It was akin to a once-advanced player in an online game having to return to the novice village to farm experience by killing chickens.
Karol reminded himself that he didn’t believe anything capable of letting the monster bird demon escape would pose any threat to him. He continued onward, standing at the cliff’s edge. The volcanic range seemed near, but only upon entering the valley did he grasp its true depth.
Flying low in such a dangerous and unfamiliar abyss was wise; exposing himself in mid-air would be foolish. Not long after he entered the gorge, he encountered another demon.
This one was a particularly ugly greater demon, its skin a rocky gray, rough and cracked, with a toad-like head and a mouth full of sharp teeth. It towered over Karol, who stood over two meters tall, reaching nearly three meters with its stout limbs and sharp claws.
With eyes no larger than mung beans, the greater demon stared greedily at Karol, drooling as its long, wide tongue flicked about. “Flomi is hungry...” it muttered darkly, eyes glinting with greed and cruelty. “Flomi will eat you...”
“Oh really? I happen to be hungry too,” Karol replied, curling his lip slightly at the mismatched intelligence and size of the creature. “But you don’t look particularly appetizing.”
The greater demon paid no mind to Karol’s words, fully consumed by hunger. It emitted a loud gulping sound before lunging at Karol.
Its bulk dwarfed Karol, attempting to embrace him entirely before tearing him apart to savor. Karol snorted, and a long, black scythe that seemed to constantly ooze blood slid into his hand.
He bent slightly to dodge the greater demon’s grasp, casually reversing the grip on the scythe and slicing through the air. It felt like cutting through butter, briefly encountering resistance at the demon’s spine before slicing cleanly through to emerge on the other side.
The foolish greater demon halted, looking down in confusion at the faint red line marking its robust chest. Before it could grasp what had happened, Karol kicked it to the ground, cleaving it in two. The cut was smooth, dark red blood and assorted innards gushing forth.
“Flomi...” the greater demon’s face twisted in pain, but before it could scream, Karol finished it off with a swift scythe strike, severing its head.
With instinctive combat prowess and the Scythe of Jealousy, dealing with such a muscle-bound demon was as easy as eating or drinking. Flomi’s death netted Karol fifteen hundred experience points, but he had little interest in the demon’s flesh, only taking its heart to consume.
The heart was the source of a demon’s power, and most of its essence condensed there. Karol gained an additional five hundred experience points.
At this point, his experience was just shy of sixty thousand, still a short distance from mid-tier greater demon status. This valley, frequented by numerous newly born greater demons, appeared to be an excellent place for him to increase his strength. Rich in experience and with weak foes.
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Karol estimated his current strength; mid-tier greater demons wouldn’t stand a chance against him. As for high-tier demons, he’d need to engage them to assess his odds...
Lost in thought, he heard rustling in the darkness ahead, accompanied by faint growls—likely other predators drawn in by the scent of blood and flesh.
Karol’s eyes gleamed with a mix of excitement and cruelty; perfect—no need to hunt them down one by one.
The air was thick with the metallic scent of blood, an aroma irresistible to demons, drawing in waves of greater demons like flies to rot, each becoming part of the macabre feast.
A small figure emerged from the shadows, sniffing the air like a dog. Piled before it were a dozen greater demon corpses, their guts spilled out, with the topmost still steaming. Blood flowed in streams to the newcomer’s feet, which it greedily licked.
This demon was quite diminutive compared to typical greater demons, its dark blue body lean and elongated, yet its belly was excessively bloated. It had a single, oversized eye, beneath which was a ring of mouths lined with sharp teeth.
Unlike earlier arrivals, this cunning greater demon did not lose its senses upon seeing the spilled blood of its kin. It realized it was a trap but was unwilling to leave due to its innate greed. Its sole eye darted around, finally resting on a large, dark red rock beside the pile.
“Gukasmuton...” it muttered, reciting an awkward incantation, its eye beginning to glow faintly blue. The next moment, a brilliant deep blue beam shot from its eye, striking the rock.
The beam attached itself to the rock’s surface, resembling a glob of disgusting mucus, emitting a sizzling sound as the hard rock corroded and melted away.
“Heyrohasray...” the crafty demon began to prepare a second spell, readying itself to strike at any lurking threats behind the rock.
However, beyond the corroded stone lay nothing but emptiness. The demon choked on its incantation, frozen in confusion. Was there nowhere else to hide?
Without warning, a long scythe appeared silently at its neck from behind. The threat of death jolted it back to reality, its head twisting at an impossible angle as it hurriedly began to chant, gathering blue energy.
Karol raised the scythe, and the demon’s rounded head tumbled to the ground.
The spell wasn’t fully prepared; the built-up blue energy was prematurely released, shooting out a small distance before splattering onto Karol.
Karol’s muscles instinctively recoiled, but the short distance meant that some blue goo still splashed onto his shoulder.
Furrowing his brow, Karol wasted no time in slicing off the tainted flesh; it hit the ground and was instantly corroded away, leaving a small pit in its place.
This was his first injury of the day and his first encounter with a “caster-type” greater demon.
At this moment, the blood moon hung high in the dark red sky, having completed its fifth cycle, marking the end of a day in the abyss. During this time, Karol had traversed multiple locations within the circular valley, hunting down at least dozens of greater demons.
Now safely at mid-tier, he stood taller and more refined, thanks to the modifications from the fruits of sin, appearing not only lithe but also strikingly handsome, even by demon standards.
“Intelligent demons must have their essence in the brain,” Karol mused, picking up the severed head and cracking it open. Inside was a gelatinous, deep blue substance.
Suppressing his disgust, he swallowed it, gaining two thousand experience points. This was also a mid-tier greater demon, and even its brain held considerable experience.
“Time to change locations...”
Karol had planned to hunt here until he advanced to high-tier, but just then, a buzzing sound filled the air. It was as if countless insects were fluttering their wings, creating a nauseating din.
A shadow collided into him, and upon grabbing it, he realized it was a dark brown flying insect the size of a cockroach.
It resembled a cockroach but was far more ferocious, with sharp teeth tearing at Karol’s skin.
With a slight squeeze, he squashed it into a smelly paste.
In the next moment, countless similar flying insects flooded towards him, coalescing into a demon formed entirely of insects.
“I wondered why the number of lesser demons in this area has significantly decreased lately. Turns out it’s you causing trouble,” the insect demon croaked, its empty eyes crawling with bugs, giving a chilling sight.
A memory flashed through Karol’s mind: this was the Gupanpi demon, composed of countless Gupanpi larvae, a type of abyss demon.