Logic dictated that Nathan should be able to easily go head-to-head with the remaining Master imp at the camp. The minions following the Master Imp shouldn't even be worth mentioning at this point.

At least he hoped so, as he'd finally located the remaining mayhem of imps—or if you wanted to be technical, they'd located him. No doubt the multiple screeches had drawn the imps to come to investigate and die at Nathan's hands while doing so.

Nathan was way too eager to test his new strength that he didn't even wait for the imps to attack because he no longer had to. He should have the upper hand now, and these imps wouldn't know what hit them.

For the first time since getting his class, Nathan began a fight by going full berserker mode, charging straight at the imps that hurried to get into formation or something that faintly resembled that.

His blood pumped faster and his mind felt alive as he unleashed the primal version of himself. He cleaved through the minion imps at the front line, decimating them. Within seconds, the mayhem of thirteen imps had only one left.

Nathan had a few tears on his skin where a couple of imps had managed to claw at him before ultimately losing their lives. Nothing major there though—he still hadn't gotten a message informing him that he'd dropped below seventy-five percent, so that probably meant the damage had been minimal.

Nathan watched the Master imp with intensity. The Master imp, or big ugly 3 as Nathan would nickname it for the time being, seemed to be inching away from him, which made Nathan chuckle inwardly before he refocused on the imp.

Master imp (lesser demon)

Level 8

The imp's level wasn't a surprise to Nathan; he'd already expected something like that to be the case after all—the other imps were the same level. Big ugly 3 looked ready to bolt, and Nathan wouldn't blame the demon. To it, Nathan probably looked like the Grim Reaper, covered in black blood as he was, his hair matted with the stuff.

He still wasn't going to let it go though; he'd witnessed what could happen when you let an enemy live. Those kinds of enemies often returned to claim their pound of flesh. Nathan rushed at the demon, sword already beginning its arc. The demon crossed its hands in an X against its chest and stayed completely still, probably trusting that its skin-related skill would be enough to save it from Nathan's blade.

Good.

Nathan wanted to know if he'd actually become strong enough to break through that skill. His sword completed an upward crescent. Two clawed hands dropped to the floor even as Nathan's sword tore a little into the imp's chest as it completed its crescent.

Big ugly 3 let out a blood-curdling screech, the sound carrying into the forest. Only this time, Nathan suspected it was more of a cry for help to the other imps absent from his visit. He appreciated the effort to help him, he really did. If its screech alerted the other imps to return to camp, it'd save him a lot of trouble.

He still went for the kill though. A new corpse joined the rest of the imps—a headless one. Nathan watched as the head of the Master imp rolled to a stop a few feet from where he stood.

Kill or be killed.

Nathan wouldn't be on the raw side of that deal, ever. Nathan heard footsteps heading in his direction. Had the imps already made their way to him? He sure hoped so. He couldn't wait to put the experience behind him.

Turning to face the direction of the footsteps, he discovered that it was just the imps stationed at the gate that had come to answer the call. Nathan mowed them down within seconds, a little disappointed that they weren't the imps he was expecting.

With the knowledge that the only living thing in the camp was him, Nathan let out a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding in. His entire being quaked in exhaustion. Not bodily exhaustion, but more of the mental type. He'd have loved to say that he was a weak-hearted person who was new to killing, but the truth was that he wasn't.

He'd seen a lot of death back when the world was still normal, and to be honest, it was something that Nathan didn't want to think about. He moved away from the dead bodies. The smell had already started to get to him, adrenaline wearing off and all.

Status

Name: Nathan Orion

Moniker: N/A

Level: 9

Archetype: Blood Berserker

Class: Blood Pawn

Imprints: Balls of Steel, SkullCrusher

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 10

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Vitality: 11

Constitution: 8

Perception: 7

Dao: N/A

Ra'hal coins: 10,900

Free points: 1

His stats weren't bad. He’d probably increase his constitution the next chance he got. Those claws might not have drained much of his health at the end there, but they'd still hurt. Prevention was better than cure after all; he'd rather avoid unnecessary pain—he wasn't a masochist. Running a hand through his face, he pulled it back; his hands felt slimy.

Blood.

Lots and lots of it coated his face, which was to be expected if he was to be honest. He'd done a lot of pest control tonight. Some of the blood was even his. Where he'd had his face raked by claws earlier, it'd healed up leaving no scar behind, but the memory still made Nathan wince.

Nathan's stomach rumbled, reminding him that he was famished. Now he had to wonder if it was rage that had been fueling him or hunger. The question caused him to chuckle, but seriously, he needed to eat. He hoped the imps hadn't already eaten his bird; if they had, he'd follow them to hell and kill them again.

With nothing else to do as he waited for the remaining imps to return to camp—either because of the alarm or for a shift change—he decided to search the camp. Hopefully, they had some good stuff here.

The first place he sought to look through was the big huts he'd seen the two Master Imps come from. The huts were devoid of any sort of furniture, which was surprising since he'd been expecting to see thrones of fire with white-hot lava pouring through them, as they belonged to demons after all.

In place of the lava thrones he expected, there were mud chairs, five in total—one for each Master imp if his guess was correct. Nathan's eyes roved the throne room, as he'd instantly dubbed it, seeking treasures or anything valuable, but it seemed as though the imps were just as broke as him.

It was difficult for Nathan to even see well, as the only source of light was a hole in what passed as a ceiling, letting the glow of the purple light fill the chamber. The place held the stench of imps. Nathan highly doubted that it'd clear out anytime soon.

If I was an imp, where would I keep my treasures?

Probably not in my throne room and definitely not in a shared throne room for that matter. Nathan himself wouldn't do something like that, which meant that they probably had a vault. No vault was too advanced—maybe a storage room, or maybe it was just in their living quarters.

Nathan exited the throne room and began to canvas the area, searching for any mud building that looked like a storage space or personal quarters. The search was quite... interesting, for lack of a better word. He went from mud building to mud building, seeing things that could've traumatized him. During the period of his search, he'd come across horrors. Any environmental inspector would've burned this place to the ground.

It was a hovel; all the mud buildings reeked of imps. He had a hard time thinking about how he could even live in such a place. His nose felt like it would fall off, and he wondered how exactly the imps themselves had survived living in this filth—they had better noses than him. Surely they had to have come to the same conclusion as him, or did they just not care at all? Nathan couldn't tell. Perhaps sanitation wasn't a thing for them, but Nathan couldn't judge too much as he probably smelled worse than shit with all the fluids that covered him.

So far he'd managed to find their restroom—the sight of it was something that would haunt him for a while. He'd also found their mess hall (the kitchen was out in the open), a massive sleeping area for imps, and a place that looked suspiciously like a shrine. Nathan got out of that place as fast as he could; it gave him the creeps. The smell of blood was powerful there.

He didn't doubt for a second that those imps had been into some weird shit. Demons making sacrifices was quite the cliché. He made his way into a large hall—he assumed it'd probably be a hall considering the size of it. But when he stepped in through the main door-like opening, he saw five more door openings across the hallway.

Jackpot.

He'd hopefully found the living quarters of the Master imps. The fact that they lived together made it quite weird. Well, that was irrelevant; what was important was searching for hidden things in the rooms—valuables to be specific. He wasn't interested in finding trash items.

He went to the first room, rifling through it. The only thing he managed to find was a metallic token with the image of a demon etched into it. Unlike the Master Imps which only had stubs, this one had two horns protruding from its head. The token itself was almost the same size as his hands. He had to curl his fingers around it. He focused on the details of the token.

Token of a demon lord

Demon lord:?

Artifact (Grade: ?)]

Very helpful.

Nathan snorted at the notification from the system. It certainly hadn't told him anything useful or anything he hadn't been able to put together by himself.

Token of a demon lord.

Nathan held onto the token in hand as he searched for more valuables. After a couple more minutes of searching, he turned up with nothing.

Four more to go.

Nathan kept his hopes up and headed to the next room, beginning his search. He soon finished that before going to the next, and then the next, and then the next until he was done. Nathan exited the building with four more tokens, identical to the one he'd seen as the first.

The system only gave him the same description as the first time. It wasn't helpful at all—token of a demon lord, okay. What demon? What kind of artifact was this? These were the kinds of questions that Nathan needed the answers to.

Nathan chucked the other four into the hallway; he only needed one, and it wasn't as though he could carry them all. His hoodie had turned into ribbons, and the pockets on his pants had been ripped up too.

Meaning he'd have to carry the token in one hand and his sword in the other. With all the searching done, he supposed that it was time he found something to eat.

Where did those uglies drop my bird?

A loud rumble filled the air, and Nathan looked at his stomach—surely that sound couldn't have come from his belly. A screech followed the rumble. Nathan turned in the direction of the screech.

Two Master Imps stood at what was roughly the wall-less entrance, their squads with them, fangs bared, looking in Nathan's direction. Nathan glanced at both Master imps, their red eyes meeting his. Then their eyes dropped down to what was clutched in Nathan's hands, and they let out what would pass as an outraged screech.

Shit!

Nathan dropped the token like it was a hot potato. The way their ugly faces changed when they spotted him with it wasn't good.