The camp that Hektor and his minions reached was a small one, far smaller than the one that captured him all those months ago. It seems that their main fighting force was the one that planned on attacking Hektor from the footpath.

The demons and his insect soldier decimated the camp.

Souls: 91 -> 114

Hektor didn't even need to move a finger, whatever spoils the small camp had was his for the taking. An assortment of weapons, food that could last his group for weeks and a magical trinket that one of the flame sprites found. A ring in the shape of a snake.

"I'll have to get it appraised… Caster come here for a moment." Hektor has taken to calling the goat demon Caster, simply due to his role in the group.

"Yes, my liege?"

"Do you know what this is?" Hektor presented the ring in his palm.

"A ring of Vasilak, it is normally used by mages to enhance their spells master." The minion explained, it seemed indifferent to the item.

"Who is Vasilak?" Hektor was curious, it seemed like the name of a noble house or an individual in his ears.

"A founding mage of the Markluzian Empire, a mage that taught magic even before the status screens were gifted to all sentient creatures."

"I think I can sort of deduce the rest, they either killed a mage and took their belongings or this was something they stole from a group of merchants." The spearman paused before asking "Would this be useful to me?"

"With the spells you currently have at your disposal, this is useless." The demon was brutally honest.

"I see, keep it then. Since we're on the topic of magic, are you familiar with mana circle creation?" Hektor was now well-read on the topic, It was something that he needed to be familiar with especially since it was one of the few things keeping him from summoning the middle-class presets at will.

"They are extensions of the human's mana capacity, also referred to as Magic Circles in some literature. The process of creating one is familiar but demons like myself naturally form similar structures without the need for such a thing. I do not believe that I am qualified to even try this procedure, my liege. I will not risk the life of my master." The caster bowed.

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'I really need to get to Lumont then, with the coin and loot from these bandits we're half way to funding that goal.' Hektor thought to himself while the minions cleaned up the area.

Filling two wagons with the supplies and the assortment of weapons and trinkets that he found. He was just a few more days away from Belugrass. His mana restriction would end that evening, the next few days as they journeyed to the town Hektor used all of his souls on new summons.

60 souls were used to supply him with 12 new birds, 50 were spent on 10 new imps in his small battalion. He now had 14 birds, 12 Bulky Imps, 1 Insect Soldier, 1 Goat-demon and 4 elemental sprites.

Souls: 114 -> 4

His main forces without counting the birds and sprites can be said to be equal to a small platoon. "But with no random souls gained in the past few days, I can only assume that the worst has happened to the imps that I left behind."

Based on the notification screens that he counted out of the 25 that he sent into the forest, about 15 should still be alive. But the fact that they haven't given him any souls recently was alarming since it was the only mission that he gave them.

He arrived in the deserted town of Belugrass, a few of the buildings were damaged but no demons or monsters were present. "They likely evacuated due to the fall of Teblez, Look for a carriage and try to see if they left some horses and any form of food."

"Fwooo." Hektor called onto a handful of crows and ravens. "Head to the forest north of here, tell the crows that I'm here. Bring me the last of the imps from that region."

The imps he called for arrived just a few hours later. A few of them were heavily injured, one had a broken arm another lost its tail. At the front of all of them, a slightly larger imp was kneeling. A large slash mark was present on his face.

"Caster."

"Yes, Master."

"You can translate demon tongue right?"

The goat demon nodded. "What made you stop hunting in the north?" Hektor asked, curious about the reason why. By his estimates a lot more of them should have survived.

The imp leader began his story. The demon spoke for about a few minutes, Hektor just waited for the Caster to translate.

"It appears that a few high-class demons own the area up north my liege."

Hektor blinked slowly. 'That justifies it, High-class demons are the same ones that pushed the nobles back during the battle of Teblez.'

"High-class demons that we can't challenge at the moment." Hektor knew the implications. Even a thousand imps would be child's play for such creatures.

"They must be the reason why this area seems to be mostly untouched by the horde." Hektor concluded.

Hektor then motioned for them to follow him. "I promised a name for those that survive, You seem to be the strongest among this group."

He looked at the scarred imp. "I'll appoint you as the leader of all of the imps."

"Tonight everyone will be informed of my plans, a few strict rules will be in place. The last thing we want is for the kingdom to brand me as some sort of Cultist."

That night a few rules were hammered into the minds of his minions.

Number 1 – Steer clear of humans unless stated otherwise.

Number 2 – Keep yourselves hidden and always follow instructions from one of the assigned leaders.

Number 3 – When the first two fail, collect the soul of whoever finds out about you.

Hektor now commanded 27 imps. His minions were finally reaching numbers that he was happy to see.