Chapter 12

Bane was silently starring at Ragen. Even tough Ragen was five meters away from his master he could feel the anger. One minute passed, two minutes passed, and nobody moved. Even breathing became hard for Ragen. Finally, after a short while which felt like an eternity Bane started to talk. “I know you are young, and you want to prove yourself and so on. BUT! Never ever disobey me again! Never! Did you understand me?” “Yes master, I am so sorry.”-Ragen. Bane looked him in the eyes. “I will punish you for this mistake. When your punishment is finished then I hope you have learned your lesson.” Ragen never expected his master to punish him, but he accepted the punishment. His master told him to follow him and they entered a cave near the waterfall. In the cave was a hole and down there were some weird plants. His master turned around and said: “I wanted to train you in the self-regeneration skill but without much pain. Due to your misbehaviour you will now learn it the old way. Take this magic stone with you. Inside the stone is the magic which activates the self-regeneration. When the plants start to eat you, then you activate the magic. Sooner or later your body will start to regenerate without the stone. Don’t come out without the proper skill. I will test you. Now jump down!” He took the stone and jumped into the hole. At first nothing happened but then the plants started to move themselves around his body. Small needle from the plants started to invade his body. He could feel a sharp pain and then the plants started to eat him. Under extreme pain started the self-regeneration stone to work.

He didn’t know how long he had been in the hole, but it felt like weeks. Everyday was filled with pain. Finally, after a long or a short time he wasn’t sure anymore, started his body to regenerate itself. At first it was just the small holes from the needles of the plants but then after some time the scratched places on his body started to heal. He heard a sound and saw the message from the system.

Player has acquired the skill [Regeneration] (novice)

But he knew that novice was too low to heal bigger wounds. So, he had to stay and wait. Not till he could heal missing limbs would he leave the hole. He guessed that day passed until he was finally satisfied with the skill level. He thought status and looked at his stats.

Name: Ragen Lv. 10 Title: None Race: Human Exp: 120/1500 VIT: 124

STR: 145

WIS: 108

INT: 167

AGI: 84

LUC: 4 Skills:

[Archery] (adept)

[Language Translator] (passive)

[Demon eyes] (sealed)

[Shadow Knife] (master)

[Poison Resistance] (novice)

[Demons Wrath]

[Magic Arrow] (fire) (adept)

[Regeneration] (adept)

[Tracking] (apprentice)

[Learning] (adept)

[Domination] (rare) (novice)

[Appraisal]

[Magic Shield Dome] (novice)

[Soul Collection] (novice)

[Necromancy] (novice)

Now it was enough. Besides the skill [Regenerate] he also had a higher pain resistance. Even though it was not showed in the skill list he was sure now to withstand stronger pain.

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A confident young boy left the cave and walked toward the waterfall where Bane often meditated. He saw his master and sat near the waterfall down and waited. After a while his master got up and walked towards him. He just asked: “Are you finished?” Ragen nodded. All of a sudden, his master pulled out his arm. Even for the harsh training which Ragen attended, this was quite extreme. And so he cursed loudly when he saw his arm in the hand of his master. Despite the curses and the extreme bleeding remained his master calmness. He observed how the arm started to regenerate. When the missing arm slowly but steadily was replaced by a new one he started to show a pleased expression. “I hope you have learned your lesson. In tree months you will be allowed to return to that special forest again. Until then your friends must wait. Did you understand?” Ragen was shocked that Bane knew about his friends. “Yes master, but how do you know that?” His master looked at him and then replied: “My disciple, you should know that there are some people who have the skill [Mind Reading]. I know everything about you.” Ragen again was shocked. His master knew from the beginning that he was a ‘player’. “My disciple, I will train you that in such cases like this, you are able to defend your mind. But for now, we just train your physical body. I have created a quest for you. Fulfil the quest every day. When you are finished then find me and we will train you fighting abilities.” When Bane finished talking, Ragen heard a sound and saw a message.

Player got a new daily quest:

Finish these exercises everyday:

- 20 kilometres running

- 100 push-ups

- 200 sit-ups

- wear 30 kilograms during the training

Rewards:

+ 2 VIT

+ 2 STR

+ 3 AGI

If the ‘player’ does not fulfil the quest everyday Bane will punish him.

He was stunned but then accepted reality. His master handed him some special clothes where the weight was, and some special spells were engraved.

Ragen started his physical training. At first it was like hell to him. Every inch of his body hurt when he went to sleep and, in the morning, he had to fight some stiff muscles and limbs. When his physical training was over, he had to spar with Bane. For that he used the daggers and fought fiercely. Bane won every time they sparred and didn’t show any mercy to Ragen. So, besides the [Shadow Knife] skill he also trained [Regeneration].

When three months passed, he could see the fruits of his training. The results of his training were amazing. His vitality went up to 304, his strength went up to 325 and his agility went up to 354. It was just amazing. He had long struggled to improve his stats and he just knew that it was possible trough levelling, but that was just one part. Even though he was just level ten, he felt like level 15.

His master came to him and then said: “I know that you have the scroll ‘path of a demon’. Now you are strong enough to open the scroll. For a weak physical body, it would be unimageable to wander on this path, but with our training you should be finally able to walk that path.” Ragen was surprised he hadn’t thought about the scroll and had even forgotten about it. The scroll was stored in his mind and so he had to think about it. It appeared in his hands. The scroll was heavy and was made from leather from different races. Perhaps even humans. He opened it and there was a lot of text:

Hello wanderer of the demon path

You have finally reached the first step. With the following instructions your body will evolve into the stage between a demon and a human. But be reminded that there is no going back if you follow this instruction.

When you turn into a full Demon, then will you not only lose your race but also your name. Every Demon gets his name from the God of the Demons on their awakening.

If you are sure follow these steps.

…

The scroll had a clear instruction for how he could reach the first stage, but he would need some ingredients to reach the first step. When he wanted to ask his master for the location of the ingredients, his master started to grin. He said: “Happy birthday Ragen. As a gift, I will give you this ingredients, use them wisely.” Bane opened his eyes and showed him a hand full of weird plants and stones. There were some red plants which were the so called the fire roots, and some grey leaves which were the ashen hands. The stone was blue, and it must be the magic stone which was mentioned in the instruction.

He thanked his master and then took everything into the cave where he lived right now. On a big stone he started to grind the root and the leaves. The colour was red mixed with brown. It smelled good, like a campfire. He brought some water and mixed everything, then he drank it. His throat was on fire and the taste was bad. It tasted like ash and he didn’t know how to describe it but the most similar thing would be fire. When the fire finally ended in his throat he noticed a burning feeling in his whole body. Then he felt like his whole body was on fire. That feeling continued until a certain moment came. He noticed the letters which started to appear on his body and he knew that the right moment came. He teared his chest open. He knew, without the pain training and the [Regenerate] skill it would be impossible for him to do this, but now he did it. He felt his heart beating fast when he took the magic stone and started to fuse it with his heart. He never felt as much pain as this. His heart was torn into pieces while his whole body was on fire.

He didn’t know how much time passed or how he could remain sane, but he started to lough out loudly, when the process was finally finished. He had become a half demon. He felt how his skin had changed and his heart was connected to the magic stone. He was now a step closer to become a Demon Lord.