Nedoth went past a few stores in his search for the tavern. One seemed to be very important, an alchemical shop.

He guessed that he could buy ingredients there for glyph making. Though it was debatable, if he could find ingredients for necromantic glyph making there. Nevertheless, it was certainly a store he should remember.

Since he was suited for umbramancy, he could probably buy ingredients there. Of course it could've been that the shop only sold ingredients for common alchemy, which would've been immensely disappointing.

And the reason for why he wanted to buy ingredients somewhere outside of the academy was simple. Competition.

He would be an utter fool, if he thought that at an academy for magical study wouldn't be fierce competition.

Sure, from the outside it looked like everything was in harmony, but he knew the truth for it was the same in hell.

Hell, and by extension the devils, seemed completely unified from an outside look but the truth was that backstabbing was the most common thing of all.

The reason why the archdevils or the higher ups from the academy covered such competition up was simply because they wanted others to feel both respect and fear.

Due to such covers, even the angels and demons feared the militaristic, tyrannic might of hell. Of course that wasn't to say that the devils didn't fear the angels or demons. They feared the angels for their actual unity and feared the demons for.. well, Nedoth didn't know the reason for that. Although he was both a devil and a demon once, he never understood why the devils haven't won the ancient war yet.

He didn't believe that just because of magical diversity, the demons could hold on for so long. Demons were far too chaotic for them to win through strategy, so they needed to have some other major advantage that he didn't know about.

As Nedoth was deep inside his thoughts, he saw in the corner of his left eye the tavern that he was looking for.

This event snapped him out of his thoughts, for he wanted to satisfy his hunger as quickly as possible.

As he entered the tavern, the mood inside it was joyous. A bard was playing her lute, people were laughing and drinking and fooling around in general. The stench of alcohol permeated the room, a drunk even puked his guts out in the corner.

Nedoth never was inside a tavern before but he could understand why people would go to such a place in the evening. After the work going with some friends to a tavern seemed like a relatively fun thing to do.

Of course Nedoth scoffed at this useless behaviour even though he understood why people would do it. Wasting so much time simply to drink away one's sorrows or stress was a waste of time and something entirely for the weak.

Nevertheless, he went one free table and one of the waiters came up to him. It was a middle ages man with an unshaved beared with a simple brown shirt on.

"What will it be dear customer? Are you here for the first time?" asked the man with a tired expression. The tired man was probably asking this for the hundredth time this evening.

"Yes I am. I am looking for something to eat. Please give me a dish that is the most nourishing." replied Nedoth.

"Something nourishing, eh? There are two dishes. One is for four copper coins and the other for ten. Would you also like a drink to wash down your food?"

"The cheapest of the two. And what is there to drink?"

"There are numerous alcoholic beverages and water." replied the bearded man.

Nedoth sank into his thoughts for a while. He never drank anything alcoholic before, and he always wondered why mortals loved to drink these particular beverages.

"I'd like the cheapest of the alcoholic drinks" answered Nedoth.

"Okay. One forest lizard stew and a glass of mead" the man noted down on his small notebook and walked away.

Now that he ordered his food, he could hear the humans around him talking.

Most conversations were complete rubbish. Most were simply words of horny or drunk morons but one conversation caught his attention. The conversation came from two relatively sober men at one table.

The two weren't loud, so Nedoth needed to concentrate to even hear them.

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"Hey Muker. Have you heard about Baron Pevuvil's task?" asked the shorter guy between the two. He was skinny, although he did have some muscles. He had black short hair, a small nose and long ears. He wore a brown leather tunic and grey pants that were torn at some parts.

"What do you mean Van? What task?" asked the human who was apparently named 'Muker'. This Muker fellow had brown hair that went to his shoulders, strong facial features and was very muscular. He also had a tattoo of some sort on his right arm's biceps. He wore similarly the same clothing as his friend with the exception that his tunic was also tattered, not just his pants.

Though it was apparent that his tunic got cut up by knifes. He probably got into a few fights where knifes played a part in it.

"It's about some serial killer that lives in the woods that are near our kingdom to the south. Some sick rogue mage. The bounty is amazing though. It's thirty gold coins Muker!"

Muker widened his eyes in suprise. "Thirty gold coins?! Who is that rogue mage?! No mere serial killer's head is worth thirty gold coins. C'mon, that mage must be special right?"

"Yea, you can say that. It's apparently a vile demon worshiper of the demon lord Irgec'h."

"Demon lord Irgec'h? Who is that?" asked Muker.

"Believe me, I never heard about him too before that task. It's apparently the demon lord concerned with flesh warping. Thus his worshipers are also flesh warpers."

Disgust appeared on Muker's face. "Flesh warping? No wonder the Baron wants that killer dead."

Van scoffed "Just wait, it gets worse. As if that wasn't bad enough, that serial killer is also a blood mage."

Muker frowned at this revelation "A flesh warper and a blood mage?" He let out a deep sigh before continuing.

"No wonder that demon worshiper is worth such a sum. No wonder.."

Van sighed too. "Yea, and there is no way we can take on that contract. It's such a shame, we really need that money."

"Actually, maybe we can complete it, if we get some mages. That should work right?"

Van frowned again at his friend's idea. He thought it would be far too risky, but.. maybe it would be a good idea?

They were broke at the moment after all.

Although he considered it, it was far too unlikely to get out of there alive. He shook his head. "No Muker. It's not worth losing our head for. How could we even get those stuck up mages to work together with us? And I'm not even talking about how they'll probably rob us even if we kill that rogue mage."

Exactly in that moment, Nedoth thought it would be a good idea to get into contact with them.

He stood up from his chair and walked up to them. Since they apparently didn't trust mages all too much, he needed to be very respectful. A common but effective tactic.

"My apologies fellow gentlemen. I heard something about a contract that I may help you with?" Nedoth said with a bright smile and kind eyes.

The human named Van raised his eyebrow and said "You heard us talking?"

Nedoth lightly chuckled "Of course, you weren't exactly whispering, were you? By the way, may I sit beside you?"

Muker and Van were both suprised by the polite speech of the mage. The mages they encountered all thought themselves better than them, which infuriated them, but they couldn't exactly do anything in the face of such power.

"Sure thing" said Muker.

Nedoth sat down on the only available chair beside them and started talking "As you may have already guessed, I am a mage. An umbramancer to be exact. A mage practicing the magic of shadows. I wonder if we could work together to accomplish this difficult contract of the Baron? I could use such strong men as you at hunting down this vile demon worshiper. Of course we will split the reward fairly among us afterwards."

The two men were humbled by the speech of Nedoth. Being called strong by a mage was quite the honor, and a very unexpected one on top of that. And the willingness of fairly splitting the reward instantly made the two men agree to it.

The two friends looked at each other and nodded.

Van said "Uhm, sure. What's your name?"

"My name is Nedoth, and yours?" he said, still smiling brightly.

"I am Van and my friend here is Muker"

"It's an absolute pleasure to meet you two. But I must admit that I fear that we three alone aren't strong enough to vanquish such a foul menace, you know? So I must ask, would it be alright for you, if I search for more mages that would be willing to assist us in this most difficult of tasks?"

"More mages? It'd be great, but how long do we need to wait? The more time passes, the more likely it is that others kill that demon worshiper." asked Muker.

"Hm.. a week should suffice. I am sure that no other would be able to kill that mage within a week. If we are lucky enough, others would weaken that mage while we finish off the job."

"A week huh. Alright, where should we meet in a week?" asked Van.

"I'd say within this tavern, no?" said Nedoth.

"Okay, let's do that" said Muker.

Nedoth chuckled while stretching out his hand to them "It is a pleasure to be working with you gentlemen. I apologize but I am quite hungry, so I must go back to my table again, we'll see each other in a week then, yes?"

"Sure thing. It's a joy for us too" said Van while shaking the mage's hand.

When Nedoth turned around to go back to his table, his bright smile and kind eyes instantly vanished. A look of indifference replacing them.

Mortals truly were easy to fool. Those weak morons actually thought that he would share anything with them.

He would sacrifice them and the other mages that he would find later to the demon worshiper. Or if the demon worshiper dies before all his tools die, he will simply stab them in the back afterwards.

After all, tools are to be used and thrown away when they aren't useful anymore.

Treachery and his silver tongue by extension were the most effective weapons in his arsenal. Murdering someone without having to fight at all is the best option there is.

Soon his food arrived.

The forest lizard stew didn't look like the most appetizing dish there was and neither did it taste any better, but it filled Nedoth's stomach, so he couldn't care less.

But when he drank a bit of mead, his stomach churned. This mead was both too dry and too sweet. He hated it.

And after he finished the entire glass of mead, his mind felt odd. He felt unfocused. It felt as if some kind of thick cloud was covering his damn brain.

Why anyone would ever drink this garbage, he would never understand. It looked like urine, tasted like urine and his mind felt as if someone urinated on it.

He felt horrible, but atleast he confirmed for the hundredth time that humans are utterly degenerate and completely beyond salvation, since they actually drink this willingly.