Showtime.

Nathan did something that he hadn't ever done in his life—he cackled. Not a shy and reserved one, no. He cackled like a madman, his laugh echoing in his brain. The tides of battle had turned in his favor.

He'd gone from a 20% debuff to a 10% buff on all stats. The interesting part was that Nathan wouldn't even need the 10% buff from blood rebellion to take care of this bozo. His normal stats at level ten were enough for him to chop this monster up like it was a filet. The buff was going to make it seem like overkill, but he wouldn't mind.

Nathan charged at the Master Imp, hatred burning in his eyes. The damned thing had tried to kill him, and now there'd be hell to pay. It tried to scramble back, sensing the power shift, but Nathan was way faster now. He swung his sword, cleaving through the legs of the Imp. Its mouth opened to presumably let out a screech, but Nathan didn't let it—his sword flashing up and decapitating the Imp before its stumps could even hit the ground.

Pathetic.

Nathan looked at the Imp in disgust; it had decided to toy with him rather than go for a swift kill. A mistake that he'd punished without hesitation.

When you come for the king, you better not miss.

Nathan's facial features went from dead serious to relaxed in seconds; he even let out a low chuckle at the line he'd quoted from somewhere. He couldn't remember the exact source, maybe a movie or a book he couldn't pinpoint. Shrugging off the question from his mind, he took a step towards what he'd identified as the kitchen area when the blue screen appeared in his vision.

Active Quests:

1. Slay 35 imps (35/35 - Reward available)

2. Slay 5 Master Imps (5/5 - Reward available)

3. Conquer a dungeon (0/1)

4. Eradicate the Mayhem of Imps (1/1 - Reward available)

Special Quests: N/A

Locked till level 50.

Receive all available rewards?

Nathan stared at the screen a little dumbfounded. Rewards, just like he'd hoped. The system would reward him for fulfilling his quests.

Hell yeah.

A wooden chest appeared in front of Nathan out of nowhere, almost half the size of a crib. He approached it warily; no locks were visible on the chest, so Nathan used his sword to flip it open, just in case.

Nathan went to look into the box when nothing seemed to attack his sword. At first glance, he noticed that the big chest only contained three items. One for each completed quest, he surmised. He had no idea why he'd been expecting many more rewards, but the system seemed to have a 1:1 ratio—at least for these quests.

In the chest was what looked to be a book with a weird cover, a bag which was empty by the looks of it, and the final item was a pair of trousers. Nathan had to check again to confirm; yeah, the system had given him trousers. He wondered which of the quests had given him this seemingly useless yet useful item.

With a sigh, Nathan picked up the book. The cover was made with a material he had no idea of; he tried to focus on the details on the cover, and a notification popped up.

Skill book

That was the only information the system gave him on the weird-looking book. He couldn't even understand why it had even bothered. Bracing himself to open the book, another notification filled his vision.

New skill Available

Basic Analyze (I): Analyze foes, friends, or objects between levels one to thirty. This skill requires you to focus on your target intently to analyze and receive a report on them.

Do you wish to learn this skill?

Hell yeah.

Nathan felt it as new information poured into his brain. Like he'd just finished reading a dictionary and learned all these new words and concepts, the feeling subsided in a moment. The skill book had disintegrated into nothing, and Nathan was left looking at his empty palm.

The system probably didn't want multiple people to utilize a skill book that one person would be rewarded with. Pretty harsh if you asked him; humans would grow much faster if they could share their resources, but rules were rules, and the system had found a way to enforce its own.

Nathan's eyes switched to the bag, intently focusing on it as he hoped to test out his new skill.

Bag of holding (common):

This bag is a pocket space storage where whoever holds it can deposit items for storage. The bag cannot take in live entities, and neither can it harbor you.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The bag will immediately reject items that are too large and will not allow in any more items when it is full.

To put an item in the bag of holding, simply put the item in the mouth of the bag and watch it disappear if it doesn't trigger any constraints.

To recall any item thrown into the bag of holding, simply stick a hand in while envisioning the item you wish to recall, and it should be within your grasp.

Nathan let out a triumphant smile at the information displayed by the system. Turns out his new skill might be more useful than he thought; the bag, on the other hand, had high potential—it'd certainly save Nathan a lot of stress.

At least he now had a way to store the blade. He'd gotten quite tired of having to lug around the sword; it wasn't that it was heavy, but a couple of hours holding even a straw in hand while walking about would tire anyone out.

Nathan pulled out the last item in the chest. The pants looked roughly his size; they might've been a little big in the waist, but he could manage. His current pants couldn't even be called that at this point—the clothing he'd arrived here with had been turned to ribbons, courtesy of the imps. He focused on the pants, letting his new skill work.

Traveler's pants

Magic pants that reknit themselves back to pristine condition every 24 hours. This item can be stolen from the wearer as it is not soul-bound.

Of course, there was a but. The pants seemed to solve one of Nathan's most recurring problems. He'd been leaving fights with less and less fabric than he went into them with, so this made life a little easier for him. The only niggle in the item was the fact that it could be stolen from him. With how the world worked, he was pretty sure that it would be something worth killing for. He did find it a little intriguing that the pants didn't have a grade attached to them, no "common" or anything like that. It probably meant that the pants weren't upgradeable.

Nathan quickly stripped, taking off his pants and, after a second thought, his hoodie too. The clothing had lost its use as it'd been torn to shreds by the Imps. For the first time since getting here, he got to look at his body; not only had he gotten stronger, but he'd also added more muscle mass. He hadn't been in bad physical shape since he'd been a starter on his high school football team, but he'd grown a little lax after leaving school. His abs had become less visible as he had less time to exercise and less motivation to do so anyway.

Right now, his body looked like he'd been training for a year straight. His abs were not only visible but also well-defined, the same with his chest and biceps. The muscles on his legs made it look as though Nathan hadn't skipped leg day for the last three hundred and sixty-five days. His traps were huge.

Nathan was in shock—when had all these changes even happened? He'd gone from average physical features to beginning bodybuilder stature. Putting a hand on his face, he realized that he'd even lost some of his baby face fat.

At least I'll look good when this is over.

With a shrug, Nathan put on his new pants, wondering what it'd take to get magic underwear and a shirt. Maybe a new hoodie too. Something like that would definitely fetch him a lot in the markets when the government fixed whatever was going on. The blue screen flashed as a new notification popped up.

New Soul Imprint acquired - Demon Slayer

For slaying fifty-plus Demons, you have received the soul imprint - Demon Slayer. As the first of your kind to achieve this feat, you receive maximum buff against demons.

+10% boost to all attacks directed at Demons

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Nathan almost did the griddy at the badass imprint he'd just acquired: Demon Slayer. The fact that he was the first to achieve it wasn't bad at all. He wondered what the next person would get as a boost, and then the next after that person. Would the system stop giving boosts after the third person, or was everyone going to be a winner? Nathan's eyes widened as the text on the blue screen was replaced.

You have killed many followers of Demon Lord Taloth, eradicating his outpost on earth and earning his ire. He shall seek recompense for the loss of his followers. All followers of Taloth will attempt to kill you on sight.

Of course.

Nathan couldn't even believe what his eyes were seeing—these things had been followers of a demon lord, and it would be coming after him. If the minions of this demon lord were the same level as him, what would be the exact level of the demon lord himself? He couldn't bother himself too much though; he'd cross that bridge when he got there.

Nathan dismissed the notification. He had more pressing issues to sort out right about now, like doing something about his rumbling belly. He was famished, and so Nathan began walking towards where the imps' kitchen was, the wooden chest already disintegrated into nothingness as soon as he'd taken the pants out of it.

It didn't take him long to make it to the cooking area as he'd already been there before. He searched the place, finding a couple of buckets of that black tar, some firewood, a few weird-looking mango-shaped fruits, some stuff that looked and smelled like spices, and—surprise, surprise—his bird. Feathers already plucked and already washed, just waiting to be cooked.

Nathan didn't need any more motivation. He searched for water, finding a vat in a corner of the kitchen. He took a pot, poured water into it, and took it outside where his nest waited for him, starting a fire with a rock.

The Imps had already implemented a working system, so all he needed to do was chuck in a few more pieces of firewood and pour some tar on them after arranging them in a rough circle. He took the bucket of tar far away from the fire, not sure how flammable it was. Picking up both rocks, he set them close to the tarred wood and struck them together.

Fire erupted, and Nathan couldn't help but smile—step one complete. He put the pot on the makeshift burner the imps had made and left it to boil. Making his way back to the kitchen, Nathan used his sword to cut up the bird. Working for Mr. Wong had taught him a few things about preparing poultry.

Within moments, Nathan had the bird boiling in the water, and against his better judgment, he picked up the spice-looking powder and tossed it in for flavor. Hopefully, he wouldn't come this far to die of food poisoning. Then Nathan sat as he watched the bird cook, his hunger getting worse the longer he stared at the pot. Nathan wished it could boil faster; the fruits in the kitchen looked tasty, but he didn't know what they'd do to him if he consumed them. After a minute or two of staring at a boiling pot with his stomach growling, Nathan decided to wing it, making his way into the kitchen for the fruits.

________

While Nathan considered what he was going to do about his hunger, a demon lord couldn't fathom what the system was telling him.