CHAPTER 133.

She is here…

I can sense her…

The Demon of Chaos, ruler of all Chaos craned his head towards the horizon where the sun was currently rising. He set his gaze on the dawn of a new day, and he quickly frowned because of what he sensed a moment later.

And she has changed drastically…

Amber had become more. That was the whole reason he had even been able to sense her in the first place from such a distance in the first place. But he wasn’t worried about that, because he was certain of one thing.

He was now stronger than ever. Much stronger than he had ever been before. And this time, he had proper access to Essence unlike previous times. This time, Amber stood no chance against him. This time the person that ruined him stood no chance.

He gritted his teeth remembering what happened in Ill’hine, remembering what the Demon God he served had told him.

“You’ve failed to kill the person that the spirits favor twice, your subservience is no longer of use to me. Demon of Chaos.”

With those words, his contract had been broken. With those words his life as he had known it had ended. Even though he tried to argue, even though his Demon God never made it known to him he wanted Amber dead⁠— even in spite of many things he was cast away. And all the other Demon Gods did too.

All of them…

And now, he was here in Vir. Having taken his last chance to take back what he had lost. Contracts were essential to demons, a core part of who they were. Not having a lord for long would spell the end of his existence.

The Demon of Chaos gritted his teeth and turned around where he saw the gigantic Demon of Genesis, white robbed men lying at his feet as he laughed. In Ill’hine he wasn’t that much weaker than it, but here it was a different story. He had been working to regain his strength, but the Demon of Genesis was going much faster, because that was needed for Oracle’s plan.

Finally, his eyes landed on the man that had summoned him, who had a thoughtful gaze. Unfortunately, for him to act, he first needed to inform the man and have his departure be accepted, all because of the contract he had to accept.

All because he’s the pawn of the Demon Gods…

The Demon of Chaos approached, his steps heavy as they passed by the pools of blood from what had once been religious humans cursing their existences for bringing curses upon Vir. Though he didn’t care about that, all he cared about was that girl that had ruined his life.

“Oracle,” he said with a growl, his voice catching his attention. “I’ve sensed that woman who ruined your plans. I’ve sensed the woman I stated I want to kill in my contract conditions, Amber. And I wish to depart now.”

Oracle paused, then ruffled his long white beard as he looked over skeptically.

“Are you strong enough to take her? She survived an encounter with these people before,” he gestured at the white-robbed people. “And you’ve lost to her before.”

The Demon of Chaos laughed for a moment before turning serious.

“I’ve learned from my failures, and I know roughly how strong she is right now. There is no mistaking it…”

His voice lingered as he met Oracle’s gaze coldly.

“I’d crush her.”

“If you don’t wish to reach level 350 first, then go ahead,” Oracle said, turning back to the Demon of Genesis. “Then you shall return to help me with the summoning.”

“You humans don’t understand that there is more to power than the System.” He shook his head. “Numbers are merely trivial.”

With those words, the Demon of Chaos set off. He didn’t care in staying around and helping with the grand plans that the Demon of Genesis and Oracle had set up, and considering they were quite a ways away still, it didn’t matter for his contract.

While right now, they were at the edge of the Republic of Mercenaries and near the ocean, and Amber was right at the start, he could still sense her direction clearly. Such were the powers of the contract he had undertaken.

Even if it takes me more than a month to reach you…

He looked at the rising sun, his eyes narrowing.

Know that this time things will not go your way, Amber…

* * *

Amber yawned, she had already reviewed the information that had been provided to her, and there were a lot of things she made note of. First was Eisheth, also known as the Calamity.

Marking her words, the entire report about her was less than an entire sheet of paper. And it went as follows:

First, she was a woman with a horned helmet, and in the few accounts of her she is referred to as a true demon, someone that was unkind and ruthless. Someone whose skin was red. It was said she traveled all eight continents and met every single primordial in the world at the time, but she vanished shortly after accomplishing that.

The only recounts of her legacy ⁠— based on nothing but legends and rumors passed through some tribes ⁠— is that she left a single divine artifact behind, one that is said to be lost to time but whose location is rumored to be within one of Ishtar’s journals.

That information alone greatly interested Amber, but the last tidbit truly made her quite surprised.

‘Eisheth is rumored to be one of the few humans to have reached the level cap of 500; known as the last unattainable advancement.’

Perhaps it was universal knowledge to the natives of Vir, but she never expected for a level cap to be there. Or more like a universal bump that no one publicly had gotten past. That greatly interested her. Because well.

Every single person that passed through the Gate of Stars did it as well.

It had been opened a grand total of five times in history, as for whether multiple people could cross or not; she didn’t know.

As for Ishtar’s information, there was a lot to unpack. It even included his date of birth and his upbringing⁠— the entire report was twenty pages⁠— and close to half of it was his early life. He seemed completely ordinary until he disappeared for a year, and when he came back.

He had leveled over 200 times…

She frowned at that. It was much faster than her, as for whether he did it with help or without, she didn’t know. The report went on to narrate how he killed the current emperor and took back his kingdom, but that he grew bored of worldly pleasures ⁠— such as women ⁠— and soon enough he disappeared.

Yet, every time he reappeared or made a notable appearance he was considerably stronger. And unlike Eisheth there were no records of him ever meeting a Primordial Spirit. However, there were records of his journals and also their locations.

One left in the Arthra forest inside of the tower…

It was a mere rumor, but there was no way Ax’thra hadn’t taken it for himself. Or wiped it off existence. She didn’t actually know how Ax’thra felt about those topics all that much, other than some kind of ambivalence towards demons. As for other locations, there were two in Arveil ⁠— in places she didn’t recognize ⁠— ten in the main continent and⁠—

More importantly.

There was one here in the Republic of Mercenaries.

Many people had hunted his journals throughout thousands of years and yet few had been found, in spite of the fact that each journal had clues towards other journals. So much so that it was rumored none actually remained around, that it was a cruel joke by the infamous emperor. But apparently the existence of the remaining ones had been confirmed by the Primordial Spirit of Arveil and Lathyzia, the magic loving one. Words by Primordial Spirits were supposed to be absolute in the eyes of the natives⁠—

Plus, there is no point in lying about that.

She wished she could go and ask Val’leri but given she was at least a few weeks away running that was a bit difficult. Maybe when she eventually learned long-range teleportation it would happen.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

As for the location of the journal?

It’s in the sunken spirit tower of the Republic of Mercenaries.

While she didn’t have confirmation about it, she was quite sure it was in the same place where the Primordial Spirit had been sealed. Which wasn’t a huge deal because it most definitely received plenty of visitors so her visiting it wouldn’t be enough to break a seal. If it worked like Asil’s seal she’d have to manually interfere with it, so as long as the journal wasn’t in the literal seal she should be able to get her hands on it.

If it existed anyway.

The main allure to Ishtar’s journals was the knowledge and treasure offered within them, though some were said to contain portals to deadly dungeons which⁠— Amber wouldn’t exactly mind taking actually. The idea of opening a book and ending up in god knows where sounded somewhat fun.

Plus there were a ton of ruins belonging to ancient civilizations she wanted to take a look at. Now all in all the journals didn’t sound too great, except that according to every single account that could be traced had one recount in common, regardless of it was information, teleportation to a dungeon or an artifact.

Finding a journal is as good as a Class Advancement on its own.

This was said by people of level 300 and above, according to the report, but the thing with the report was that it had its own footnotes and references. Meaning that she could, technically speaking, verify it was telling the truth. And more than anything from what she could tell, if there was anything that Remmel was prideful about was his information network.

Meaning that if I get my hands on a journal I’ll actually benefit from it in a meaningful way. She closed her eyes with some excitement.

She wanted one.

She wanted to see what it would offer her.

But that said, that would have to wait for a bit of time.

A small sigh left her, there were just so many things to look forward to. The scuffle that happened in the Sacred Forest was nothing but a memory for her now. She simply felt happy.

Though, the report never mentioned anything about him summoning a Demon God. If it was such a historic event then, surely there would have been some records of it.

Though according to Remmel no such thing ever happened in the history of Vir.

Which means either it got erased from history or the vision was wrong…

In the end, even if that aspect was disappointing, she had still gotten plenty of information and had also digested it. As for keeping Remmel idle? Of course not, she immediately requested for him to look into information about two things.

First was the Primordial Spirit that had been chained up; of course she just told him the appearance of the spirit and told him to figure it out given she still couldn’t really speak of it.

The second thing was a lot more straightforward.

How to summon demons.

She had gotten a skill for contracts, she was going to damn use it.

Amber smiled to herself, and a moment later she finally closed her eyes and rested. She wasn’t fatigued, nor was her mind, but her soul told her she needed it.

And so, listening to her deepest desires, she fell asleep.

* * *

Amber awoke to falling on the ground. Quite literally. The carriage had disappeared, and Frei helped her up with a pillar of darkness.

“God, at last you’re awake, we’re here,” Remmel snorted. “You slept for two damn days.”

“Huh?”

Two days? Well that was a first. Maybe she had entered hibernation or something considering the cold temperature. Though in the end, she decided to not question whatever her being required and instead she looked ahead.

And in the distance there was a rather small settlement. Well it most definitely had the population of a couple of thousands but it didn’t compare to any of the cities inside of Cytel. That said she still admired the crude architecture, which consisted of incredibly thick logs used for the barrier of the village.

And there were outpost towers as well as wooden buildings peeking over it. It was almost nordic to her, and given the tundra-like surroundings, it felt just right. That said, the settlement was the size of her thumb in the distance, so they were quite far away all things considered.

“Done admiring? Let’s go, I want to sleep in an actual bed,” Remmel said.

And Aveline followed after him. Both of them in cloaks. Amber also took out the Cloak of the Twin Moons, which got Frei to give her a look.

“You know, with your level and presence you may just pass as a member at this point,” she said before letting out a small chuckle.

Amber nodded in response, and smiled having an idea.

“Maybe you can take me to those fancy places the council uses for leveling, we can pretend I’m your new partner.”

“That would also get me killed, but I don’t think passing you off as a member is a bad idea. Your new class is just Cursed Berserker and your Legacy Branch is strange enough to the point one won’t realize straight away⁠— your looks also changed,” Frei chirped. “Kinda jealous though.”

“I’m sure there is magic to improve one’s looks,” Amber waved dismissively.

“Yes but it’ll dispel as soon as I run out of mana, which happens often enough,” Frei sighed. “It’s a pain to get it just right so redoing the transfiguration is a laborious process.”

“Is that so?”

“Indeed…”

Amber found herself conversing with Frei about magic of all things, and eventually they moved to discussing her bone carving plans. Apparently Frei already had a sketch with decently accurate proportions to her body, which was a great starting point.

So, they simply discussed what Amber wanted to get out of this, and she also explained how she wanted the runes laid out⁠— given Essence followed meaning rather than logic ⁠— which got a lot of:

“That won’t work.”

“That’ll certainly blow apart your rib and your lower back by causing mana nodes.”

“No, that makes no sense, those runes would cause interference.”

In the end, however, logic couldn’t be applied to these things and she made sure to remind Frei that this was for her body. Which the elven Archmage begrudgingly accepted. By the time they moved to actually drafting runes for each bone of her body⁠— which was surprisingly a lot of runes, they were already just a few dozen meters away from the settlement.

By which point Remmel raised his hand for them to stop and a moment later, arrows hit the spot in front of their feet.

“Halt!”

Amber just blinked as a bunch of gruff looking adventurers came out to see them.

[Shield Warrior. Lvl. 192]

[Toxin Mage. Lvl. 221]

[Lightning Mage. Lvl. ???]

…

Varied levels all around.

But the highest level of them all immediately stepped forward, and spoke, mainly regarding Remmel who was on the front.

“State your reasons for entry, unknown party.”

“Food and shelter,” Remmel replied before raising a bag. “I’ve got coin to pay for all my party members.”

The highest leveled person, the Lightning Mage stared at him with scrutiny but ultimately nodded, then his eyes fixated on Aveline, this time lasting for much longer before he spoke.

“Do not use your class inside the town, understood?”

She flinched. “Y-Yes…”

Finally, the old and wizened mage looked in their direction, first fixating on Frei and frowning deeply before grinning.

“You may also enter, Frei.”

“Thanks,” she smiled. “Long time no see, Thorn.”

“Tell me about it.” The man laughed.

The interaction blindsided everyone but Frei simply smiled and explained herself, looking mainly at Amber.

“I’m friends with all the renowned mercenaries in the republic, since I was raised here and stuff.”

The man grinned before turning to Amber and… his face immediately fell. Her face wasn’t exactly visible, her classes however were a different story.

“Frei, this woman is…”

“Oh, she’s my master!” Frei chirped, grabbing Amber by the shoulder. “And I guarantee you she is the most trustworthy person out there.”

The mage frowned, fixating on her. “She is a Cursebearer with a Legacy Branch related subclass, you must be joking.”

Amber could sense the growing tension, as the other people tensed. She supposed it made sense, but at the same time well, it irritated her a tiny bit. After all, Frei had such a dumb way of speaking that it always made it hard to tell she was being serious.

Still, she wasn’t going to let Frei explain it, instead she took a step forward as she raised her hands in a placating manner.

“Don’t worry, I’ve even gotten a title for killing demons before,” she said before pulling out the Demonic Mana Stone she had gotten from the Server of Chaos. “Does this serve as any kind of proof?”

The man frowned and scrutinized the stone from afar, but when that didn’t seem to be enough Amber threw it over casually.

“If you need further proof then tell me if there are any demons nearby, there is something I’d like to test out with them,” she said simply.

The man sighed and threw it back before turning around.

“There is no need, you may go in. Demonkiller.”

Amber smiled, and the party walked after the group of mercenaries which seemed to finally relax at their presence. Well, except for Amber’s she got weird looks all the way through, but she didn’t really care at this point. Instead she approached the Lightning Mage.

“I’m still interested in my offer, any demons nearby? Well monsters higher level than me are nice too, kinda itching to fight,” she said with a small hint of happiness in her voice.

The man chuckled dryly at that.

“Berserkers, you warriors are really rare. That said…” He placed a hand on his chin. “Why is your class Cursed Berserker if you’re already level 200? That’s weird.”

“Because I obviously have a super rare class that is disguised by some miracle,” she replied with a smile.

The man cackled at that. “Sure, sure. Sorry for being so hostile earlier.”

“So about my request?” Amber prodded.

By this point they were crossing the city gates, being received by wary looking mercenaries. Most of them seemed to fixate on Frei⁠ which made sense given 2nd Rank Appraisal was rare. The village itself seemed surprisingly unpopulated to her, though she didn’t pay too much attention as she instead paused. She turned to the Lightning Mage who seemed to be thinking about something deeply, before finally he came to a stop.

“Well, there is something but you’re definitely too weak to handle it…”

“What is it?” Amber asked.

“No, it’s fine.” The man smiled and tried to walk away. “You’re Frei’s friend, we shouldn’t burden you with some of our worries. Besides, it’s being dealt with even if it’s a big deal. Let’s just get your lodgings.”

Amber however teleported in front of him and spoke, her voice turning serious.

“Unless it's the Demon of Genesis, it won’t be a problem. I’m not weak, so just let me deal with it, okay?”

Her voice carried a hint of authority that gave the man pause but he simply sighed and scratched the back of his head.

“Fine if you insist, but know that you’ll probably die…”

And soon, he began to explain the situation with the demons surrounding the town, and all Amber could think about was one simple fact. One that made her excitement go over the roof. And that fact was:

I’ll finally be able to test my advancements!