Damon faced a devil situated on a pedestal. The devil wasn’t actually a devil, the material it was made out of was stone, and no body parts could be seen moving. It wasn’t alive, but the voice was still coming out from the statue, which probably meant that there was magic involved that was transmitting the voice. The statue was about 5m tall, and it was shrouded in a black mist. A pair of huge black wings protruded from its back, and a face resembling that of a human let out its voice.

[Welcome to Hell Damon. That damn fairy notified me that you were coming here to become stronger right?]

“Y-Yes, she d-did.” Damon could not help but stutter in the presence of this otherworldly being calling itself a devil.

[Your goal is to stay alive until the set amount of time runs out.]

[You will become stronger, yes, but you will change in not so positive ways too.]

“W-what do you mean ‘not so positive’?”

[You’ll see after.] One could almost hear laughter coming from the stone statue. Probably because of the unknown fate of the puny teenager that dared to take up it’s challenge..

“Wait! Answer my questions!” yelled Damon, but the devil statue spoke no more. It was all silent once again, and there was now time for the silver haired boy to take a look at his surroundings.

It was.... Hell.

The ground was made of red sand, there was a red haze in the air which contrasted with the black mist emitted by the statue, and black jagged pieces of rock littered the walls and ceiling. It seemed Damon was underground, but he couldn’t tell, the red haze messed with his vision. The vastness of the space could not be seem, the ground seemed to stretch on forever

Fuck, what do I do!

Damon looked around for possible exits out of here, but there were none. The portal he had arrived in had disappeared, and not a single structure was built nearby.

How the fuck do I survive here with no food and water. There’s literally NOTHING!

As if to prove him wrong, a loud growl rang out which startled Damon. Wondering about the source of the noise, he walked closer to investigate. After about 10 meters though, he had this strange premonition that shouted out for him not to get closer. It was his body telling him to not get closer to whatever had made that sound, because he would likely be in danger if he got any closer.

His body screamed for him to get out of there, but his curiosity won over. If something made that sound, that meant it was alive. Therefore, he could eat and survive if he caught it.

I have to catch it!

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Damon prepared to activate stealth, but in those few moments, something pounced on him from its hiding spot!

“Gahhhh!”

Damon tumbled down the hill with the thing on top of him, but it didn’t make any moves. Not yet at least. He was lucky, because he didn’t get impaled by any of those sharp stones on his way down, but the possibility of him still to survive from this encounter was not looking good.

Once the two stopped rolling down the hill, which seemed to take forever to Damon, the thing stood on top of him. This thing was definitely a monster, anything that could survive in this hellhole was probably one. It’s red fur allowed it to perfectly blend into the surroundings, which had helped in its ambush on Damon. Sharp canines protruded from its mouth, and dirty claws were attached to four legs.

Damon had never seen this kind of monster before, and his monster training class never mentioned anything about it before. Was it a new species living in this weird place? Damon put that question aside because he had a more pressing matter to deal with right now.

Why isn’t it attacking? It’s a monster, right?

The phenomenon Damon had experience many times already happened again. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t shivering in fright right now. The feline like creature sniffed at Damon for a while before getting off of him. Standing up, it seemed to be around the same height as him, but if it only stood on its hind legs, it was probably double his height.

As Damon slowly tried to get up while not making any movements that might anger the beast, he examined his body. It wasn’t that injured, only a few minor cuts and bruises could be seen, and a little bit of blood that could be tasted inside his mouth. Probably him biting his lip on the way down the steep hill. Since he stood up properly, internal injuries wasn’t a problem.

After his quick inspection of his body condition, Damon looked at the giant, red.... wolf? Its species wasn’t known, so he just decided to base it off of a similar animal he had seen in a zoo on Earth.

The wolf in question, was standing still, as if waiting for Damon to greet it. Instead of it baring its fangs, they were tucked back into its mouth like it had turned passive all of a sudden. Instead of the ferocious growl from earlier, a purr fitting of a cat registered in his ears.

To take a closer look at the creature, Damon put his doubt to the side and approached it cautiously. Up close, it didn’t seem as menacing. It’s eyes didn’t give off an aura of ill intent, and its posture screamed obedience. This caused him to lower his guard just a tiny bit.

Now that the initial encounter was over, there was enough time for Damon to think over his situation.

Should I kill it for food? That might not be a good idea. If this thing is like the other monsters from before, it would actually be more beneficial to keep it with me.

The wolf had been living in this place for a long time. That means it knew the layout of the land, places for food and water, and it could even offer protection as Damon walked.

“I’ll call you Buna,” said Damon, all traces of unease gone from his voice.

The wolf looked at Damon as if it liked the name. It even came close and started cuddling with his face. This implied that it understood him, even though it wasn’t possible for it to communicate back.

Guess it isn’t hostile anymore.

“Show me where the food and water is Buna. Also, protect me from other hostile monsters,” ordered Damon. If there were any others that were willing to listen to Damon, he wanted to meet them and make them do the same as Buna. He could eventually create a monster army!

That dream of his was near impossible on Earth, but in this place… it just might be possible.

Buna nodded its head in agreement.

“Now, are you a girl or a boy?” wondered Damon. It would be nice to know, so Damon looked toward its rear. “A girl it is.”

Having found out a lot about his new subordinate, Damon followed the wolf, Buna, hoping to find some food and water. Just standing in this humid air made him thirsty, so Damon urged Buna to be quicker.

[Special Stat *** (2/5) unlocked. 3 more narrow escapes from death needed to unlock the Special Stat ***]

It seems like my system deemed this as a narrow escape from death. If was any other person and this strange phenomenon didn’t happen again, they surely would have died.

Having understood the message for once, Damon continued being led around by Buna. While this continued, a being was watching Damon from above, while staying hidden.

[Oho, it seems you got a few unique traits there, human boy. Not only the legendary Omega System, but ‘that ability’ as well.]

Giant black wings flapped in the air, as this familiar devil watched the human boy’s progress through the devil’s territory.

[I wonder how long you’ll last here boy. It’ll be interesting to watch you attempt to survive in my world.]

With a small smile on the corner of the devil’s face, it continued to follow Damon from far above without the boy knowing at all.