The envoy’s first encounter with demons didn’t remain the last one. It was the start of a daily occurrence, transforming the envoy’s journey to the Beastlands from a peaceful trip to a dangerous odyssey.

Sometimes, the envoy was forced to fight a small Demon horde in the morning and another one in the afternoon or evening. Their encounters with hundreds of Demons at a time didn’t make any sense as the number of Demon sightings across the Kainesh Kingdom didn’t increase. If anything, the number of sightings decreased.

There are always one or multiple Enhanced Infernal Lairs. It feels like they manifest wherever we’re going it is almost like–...

Percy couldn’t finish the thought because the Blueflame Hawk informed him about another mass of purple and black dots, forcing him to focus on the fight ahead.

“The Blueflame Hawk discovered another Demon horde. This one seems to be bigger than the others,” He informed the others, who could only sigh deeply. They were tired and would much rather evade the Demon horde – most of them, at least – but if they’d learned something about the crown prince in the last few days, it was that Percy wasn’t going to make a run for it. He would face the Demon horde alone if necessary.

“The hawk is getting closer to determine what we have to face…but it looks like there is no Greater Demon among them,” Percy added, which cast a smile on the nobles’ faces. However, Percy couldn’t smile at that. His eyes narrowed to tiny slits as a few more images popped up in his mind, “There…is a human among them.”

The smiles crumbled as fast as they blossomed.

“Is someone under attack?” One of the nobles asked, clearly hoping that some other Adventurer team was in a fierce battle with the Demon horde. That was a better option than the horrible things the others imagined.

Percy shook his head to which Melissa replied with a sigh, “Is it one of the hooded Demonic Gifted?”

More images popped up in Percy’s mind, showing the Demonic Gifted as he jumped through one of the three Infernal Lair that had been neatly planted next to each other. However, instead of joining the Demon horde, the Demonic Gifted jumped through the Infernal Lair’s portal, leading him to the Seven Hells, right before the portals collapsed.

“It was definitely a Demonic Gifted…and he jumped through the Infernal Lair to travel to the Seven Hells…” Percy mumbled, a bead of sweat trickling down his temples.

The Demonic Gifted must have heard about the envoy…and they tried stopping us.

“They created the Demonic hordes to stop the envoy,” Fiona said what Percy was thinking.

“Does that mean the Devil is afraid we will establish an alliance with the Beastlands?” Melissa asked in a whisper, her head flicking to Percy.

“That’s possible,” Percy nodded even though he didn’t think it would be that simple, “Or the Devil wants us dead, thinking we are a major threat to its rise.”

It was just another possibility, yet neither of the two options seemed feasible. There had to be more to it.

“Let’s not think too much about it. We have a Demon horde to eliminate, and the appearance of a Demonic Gifted near the border to the Beastlands to report. One step at a time,” Melissa declared, but the last bit sounded like it was something the young Reeze had to say to herself as a reminder.

“This should be our last fight with the Demons before we reach the borders. Let’s make sure we won’t lose anyone in today’s battle either!” Percy declared before summoning the Gnoll Warrior and Dragon Fang.

Once again, there are no winged Demons. Isn’t that too much of a coincidence? Well, it is not like it matters whether there are Archyeas or not.

Percy shrugged inwardly and turned to the others once he retrieved the Gnoll Warrio’s Silvron Sword Artifact.

“Blue thinks there are less than 150 Elite Demons, leading roughly 1,000 Lesser Demons. I think, Duke, the Glacier Lizard, and Blue will be enough to kill the Lesser Demons, but a handful of you can focus on the Lesser Demons as well if you want to do so. If you fight Elite Demons, don’t forget that Lesser Demons can also wound you. Just because they’re weaker, doesn’t mean they cannot take you by surprise. Don’t ignore the Lesser Demons!. If you sustain an injury, pull back and let Fiona heal you before the Lifefeeder starts feasting on your lifeforce. As for everyone else…kill your enemies as fast as you can if you do not want Lifefeeder to devour your prey’s lifeforce. We had that problem once and…”

Percy didn’t have to finish the sentence. Everyone remembered their second encounter with a Demon horde and what happened to the Lifefeeder who’d been cornered. The Lifefeeder had been feasting on their allies, recuperating from the wounds it sustained before gaining sudden boosts in power.

If the Lifefeeder hadn’t been killed in time they would have accumulated the prowess of a Greater Demon, which was definitely not something anyone present wanted.

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“We will be careful,” The Viscount’s son said, but the confidence and battlelust flickering in his eyes was worrisome.

Percy sighed inwardly, but checked his interface to calm down and see if there was anything to improve before the battle started.

『Percy Kain』

[Ego – Coin of Prosperity]

[Tier] – [Master-4]

—

[Dragon Fang (Syreablade)] – [Growth⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐], [Dragonblood ⭐],

[Gnoll Warrior (Evolved –⭐⭐) – [Master of the Blade⭐⭐],[A Hunter’s Smell⭐], [Intermediate Strength Boost⭐⭐⭐⭐], [Berserk ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐]]

[Blueflame Hawk (Evolved –⭐⭐) – [Hawk Eyes ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐] – [Cyromancy⭐], [Intermediate Agility Boost ⭐⭐⭐⭐],

[Silent Reaper ⭐⭐] ]

[Capture Card – No Inhabitant – Mythical]

『Coin of Prosperity』

Prosperity: 28,221,235

➛Consume

He was still a 4th Rank Master, but after eight battles with Demon hordes – every single Demon consumed and transformed into Prosperity – Percy wasn’t too far to rank-up. However, ranking up once would be an insignificant improvement compared to the gains he attained in the last few days.

First, both Monster Cards’ potential was upgraded to [Evolved-⭐⭐]. They still didn’t evolve, but Percy was certain the next potential enhancement would initiate the evolution of both Monster Cards. After all, the potential enhancement for both Cards was more expensive than the remaining 28ish million Prosperity he had left. Percy didn’t lack much to upgrade their potential once, but he was not in a hurry. After today’s battle, he should have enough Prosperity to congratulate Blue and Hyean for their evolutions.

But there was a lot more to congratulate than some evolutions. Percy invested more than 140 million Prosperity to upgrade the Monster Cards’ Augmentation. [Blade Mastery] reached the peak and evolved into [Master of the Blade], [Basic Strength Boost] and [Basic Agility Boost] had been upgraded until both Augmentations advanced to [Intermediate], which happened to [Frostbite] as well. However, instead of evolving into [Greater Frostbite] or something along those lines, the Augmentation evolved into [Cyromancy].

[Cyromancy] was several times stronger than [Frostbite], but it was also ‘different’. Percy didn’t have to go out of his way to control the ice element as he pleased. It heed his command in simple fashion without draining much mana.

Percy also upgraded [Hawk Eyes] and [Silent Reaper] a bit, but their upgrades weren’t as extensive as the rest. He could now walk around by muffling the sounds in a larger proximity, if he wanted, or do the opposite and silence only his immediate surroundings. [Hawk Eyes] improved, but it didn’t unlock more powers since Percy had been able to see the streams of mana for a while now. Under normal circumstances, this ability should have only unlocked with [Hawk Eyes] at a higher level, but Percy awakened the blood of the Azure Dragon.

His entire body was filled with pure mana and his mana perception was overly sensitive – it had always been. It was no surprise Percy could see mana with [Hawk Eyes] even before it reached 5-Star.

The others summoned their Monsters and retrieved their Artifacts to prepare for the battle ahead. They were certain to survive this battle as well even though the enemies’ numbers were greater than before, but nobody was as confident as Percy.

It would have been great if I could enhance the others’ Artifacts and Monster Cards, but it is not like I own their Monster Cards like I own Bert’s Cards.

Percy was interested in inspecting the Monster Cards of the other nobles and Imperials and to upgrade them, however, that wasn’t feasible. It was unfortunate, but that left more Prosperity to invest into his equipment and Monster Cards.

He jumped down from his majestic mount, patted the horse gently and inserted some mana into the animal to calm it. The majestic horse wasn’t a monster. It had a mana reservoir, but it was minuscule and barely notable. That was the norm for ordinary animals, even if it was rare. Riding with his horse into battle would only kill the mount and maybe even Percy. It wasn’t a warhorse made for battles, especially not for bloody fights with demonic creatures.

Percy took a deep breath and stepped forward, Melissa riding on Duke, Fiona on the Holy Triceratops, and others with summoned mounts trotting next to him.

The Demon horde was not yet in their sight, but that changed quickly within ten minutes. The line at the horizon transformed from a beautiful emerald green into a sickly purple, mixed with large black spots.

The Demons were coming for them.

They spread out in a massive line, shoved each other aside to be the first to reach their foes, and accelerated until the slower demons were either split from the rest of the horde. The Blueflame Hawk used this opportunity. It waited until the slowest Demons were far behind the horde and unleashed batches of icicles to the backs of their heads and necks.

[Cyromancy] aided the process. Not only were the manifestations of [Cyromancy] several times stronger than [Frostbite]’s icicles, but they were also much easier to control and didn’t cost more mana. Blue had a pleasant time silently circling above the battlefield via [Silent Reaper], hunting the slowest Demons in the back parts of the horde where nobody would miss them.

Percy chuckled sensing Blue’s excitement and accelerated as the horde closed in.

He used the gains of [Intermediate Agility Boost] to the fullest and transformed into a flash, forcing the others to urge their mounts to full speed to keep up with him.

“Aren’t you way too excited, Percy?” Melissa shouted from the side seeing the overflowing excitement in Percy’s face.

“I am?” Percy responded, the corners of his lips curling upward.

“I guess, I am excited.”