Demon Lord Taloth paced around his throne room, furious. The outpost he'd been building on the baby world that had just begun integration into Ra'ahal had been destroyed. He couldn't even believe it when the system had informed him that his followers had been completely cleared out.
Taloth was at court with the other five demon lords and ladies when he'd first been sought out. They were six in total at the lord and lady rank—not six individual lords and six individual ladies, no. Just six demon lords and ladies: four lords and two ladies.
The demon princes and princess were also in attendance. Five princes and one princess, and to complete the court, a single demon ruled above all: Demon King Zephyr. The 6-6-1 configuration had been maintained throughout demon history.
There could be no king and queen; only one demon could rule all of Hell at once, be it a queen or a king.
Taloth had felt one of his minions praying to him for help while at the court and almost dismissed it. But he could tell it was one of the tokens he'd given his Master Imps before sending them to meet the smaller imps in the baby world.
On a whim, he divided his attention—one part of his mind paying attention to Demon Prince Sayen's words, the demon prince giving a report on his war efforts on another world. At the same time, he listened to the lesser demon calling for him, using the token it had used to contact him as an anchor to launch part of his consciousness to the other realm.
The moment his consciousness solidified, he found in front of him an alien, probably the inhabitant of that world, drenched in black blood, a sword by its side, equally covered in blood. The ground around the creature was littered with the bodies of his followers.
Anger quickly seeped into his mind, and he activated one of the few skills the loopholes they'd found in the system would permit him to do there.
[Malevolent Gaze (IV):
Cast a 20% debuff on all stats on an enemy for two minutes
This skill can only be used once every 24 hours
You must be 10 levels higher than the target for the skill to work]
The moment he felt the spell take hold, he withdrew himself from the world. No doubt the system would soon have booted his consciousness away from the world. As a higher-level entity, he wasn't allowed to be in the world, yet. The system took its time when it came to populating baby worlds.
A seven-day spawning protocol was the usual thing for new worlds. During this period, the system would offer world leaders the chance to send their kin into the new world. The system tried to be merciful to its host, only allowing lower-leveled creatures into the world at first, as it would give the inhabitants of the world time to settle down and acclimatize before the real heavy hitters could land.
What this meant for Taloth and the other demons gathered there was simple. They wouldn't be able to gain access to the new world immediately by themselves. However, they could act through proxies, and that was what Taloth had done.
Sending those imps to build him a territory in the new world, he needed them to prepare for his coming. He'd been picked by the Demon King himself to ensure that the demons gained a foothold on that planet, and he would not fail.
Taloth broke the wooden round table in his throne room in a fit of rage. He'd sent the other demons away just so he could vent. The loss of his outpost would set him back days' worth of predictions. Not to talk about all the Ra'ahal coins he'd lost sending those muscle-brained imps into the world.
He'd known that he should've waited a little while for the level restrictions to be raised and then sent harpies instead of those brainless imps, but he didn't. What did it matter which demon he sent? The world's inhabitants were still in tutorial mode; the system had said so itself. Only those foolish enough to skip the tutorial would be out at this point.
Those who'd done that should've been no match for his imps, even as foolish and worthless as they were to him. In the numbers he'd sent them, he was sure that nothing would challenge them and survive. But that... thing had. It eradicated his presence in that world, setting back his progress bar. No worries though.
The next teleportation array was scheduled to send more of his demons in the next five days. He already had its face down and a spiritual lock on the thing—and the thing probably didn't even know. The only good thing was that his shrine was still intact at the outpost, so it'd be easier to just send his followers there and give the commander the means to track down that creature.
That damned thing better not get in his way of ascending to demon prince. Taloth needed a strong base for when he'd eventually go over to the world. He needed it to grow stronger so that he'd be able to challenge a demon prince for its position. To lose would mean death, and Taloth didn't lose.
I never lose.
The thought calmed him down. He stepped away from the destruction he'd wreaked on what was formerly his round table, making his way towards his throne where he sat, all regal-looking. He'd started learning to comport himself as a future Demon Prince. After all, no one would respect a demon prince who whined and damaged properties whenever things didn't go his way. No, he needed to command respect and equal parts fear, lest his commanders seek to usurp him when he ascended.
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He raised his chin, overlooking the empty throne room. He wouldn't be brash; he wouldn't be a muscle-brain. He'd use the most important thing that had gotten him this far up the ladder: his cunning. The creature would pay for its insolence.
---
Nathan stared at the weird-looking fruit in his hand as he contemplated if it was safe to bite. His face scrunched up as he looked at the fruit intently, hoping that a blue screen would pop up.
He didn't even need the system to tell him if it was a special fruit; he just needed to know if it was poisonous or not. He might as well have been staring at the dirt. It would take the bird about thirty minutes to become ready for eating, but Nathan was ready to eat right now. His entire being was shaking because of how famished he was.
All the while, the answer to his question could be in his palm—all he'd have to do was take a bite. The thing was that Nathan wasn't himself when he was hungry. He wasn't so smart when his stomach led the way instead of his brain, and this was one of such times.
Nathan bit into the fruit. The juices filled his mouth as a flavor exploded in it, but Nathan was too hungry to savor it. He consumed the weird fruit without pause, the fruit having neither seed nor pit, making it easy for Nathan to consume.
Still chewing, he brought a second to his mouth, biting into it with less vigor than the first. He was still hungry, but the feeling had begun to subside. Nathan finished the second within moments, only feeling reasonably sated after consuming a third fruit.
His belly felt a little weird from eating the foreign fruit, but at least he wasn't doubling up in pain or puking. Which probably meant that the fruit itself wasn't poisonous—a fact that relieved Nathan. His stupidity came with the clarity that a sated stomach left him.
Well, that was dumb.
It was, it really was. Nathan could've died because he didn't want to wait thirty minutes more for the bird to be ready (actually twenty-seven minutes if you were being technical). He couldn't blame himself, though. He'd been fighting for almost two days on an empty stomach, having emptied his stomach even before his first fight.
He'd have to do better next time, but right now a treasure trove sat before him. Considering the lack of pain that should've come, Nathan had just found an alternative source of food. A crib-like structure was used to store massive amounts of the fruit, and judging by its height and weight, he assumed that the crib itself was probably holding about two to three hundred fruits.
Nice.
Nathan couldn't help but smile at his current predicament. Now all he needed was a place to store the fruit to prevent it from rotting.
An idea started to form in his mind, and he was way too giddy to put it to the test.
Picking up a fruit, he took out his bag of holding, slipping the fruit through the mouth as he imagined storing it.
Poof
Just like magic, the weight of the fruit disappeared from his palm. He pulled out his hand and confirmed that the fruit was gone, sticking his hands back into the bag until it’s seams. The fruit had really gone into the storage space.
Time for test two.
With his hand still in the bag, Nathan envisioned the fruit in his mind, and voilà! He could feel something weighing on his palm. Pulling it out, he saw that it was the fruit.
This could work.
It was quite simple. Nathan would chuck the fruits into the storage thingy and keep the bag on his person, ensuring that he always had food on him.
The bag itself was actually a sack, and Nathan supposed it should've been called the "Sack of Holding" instead. He wouldn't judge, though. The sack, as empty as it had been, could be easily folded and kept in the pockets of the magic pants he'd been given without appearing too obvious.
Time to get to work.
In theory, chucking almost three hundred fruits into the magic storage space would be simple. In reality, it was way more stressful than imagined. Nathan started by going one fruit at a time, which was a drag before he discovered that he could stuff the bag with as many fruits as it could hold. Then he'd imagine them going into the storage space, and voilà, empty sack. The sack could only contain thirteen fruits at once, so it was tiring.
However, since he had a working formula now, all he had to do was rinse and repeat. Over and over again, he repeated the motion until he no longer had to. Three fruits remained at the bottom of the crib, and Nathan was way too tired to repeat the monotonous motion he'd been cycling through over the last few minutes.
Instead, he did what every other teenager would've done in the same situation: picking up the fruits one by one, tossing them into his mouth, and chewing them one after the other—and he wasn't even hungry.
I wonder if I can see what's in my Bag of Holding.
Nathan hoped the thought would provoke the system into providing him with a screen that would show him what was available to him. It didn't.
Oh well, you can't win all the time.
Nathan rolled his eyes at the thought, his brain already calculating his next moves. He needed to see what quests he had available.
Quests
Active Quests:
1. Conquer a dungeon (0/1)
Special Quests: N/A
Locked till level 50.
Nathan wasn't surprised at the response to his query. He'd been hoping that he'd get new quests since he'd completed the three others, but it seemed as though the system didn't work like that.
With a shrug, Nathan dismissed the stat screen. Leaving the kitchen, he made his way to where his bird was cooking outside. The liquid was already starting to calm, indicating that the bird was ready.
Nathan couldn't find a spoon or fork to eat, so he decided he'd wait for the bird to cool down before digging in as it was in the pot.
In the meantime, he'd rather not let the fire go to waste. He'd already thought about it and had come to the conclusion that this place could become his base. However, he wasn't going to live in any of the current buildings that had been constructed by the imps. For one, he didn't trust their craftsmanship. The second reason was more of an aesthetic one: Nathan didn't see himself sleeping, eating, or relieving himself in any of those buildings that strongly smelled of imps.
Plus, there were the imp bodies and blood to consider. He'd have to burn the whole place down to the ground, and he knew the perfect place to start.
The shrine.