=====Narrator POV=====

Coming out of the store, the mysterious fur-coated 'demon' soon disappeared into the street crowd, leaning onto his dull-black sword like a walking stick.

The scavenger market occupied a large portion of the city's land area. After all, the entire city was built near an apocalyptic wasteland in order to accommodate these dungeon explorers.

Outside of the main equipment market, most of the rundown buildings on the sidelines were repurposed as inns and restaurants, serving a variety of hideous-looking dishes to the hungry scavengers.

After wandering around the area for some time, the fur-coated 'demon' discovered a narrow, empty alleyway, before unhesitantly walking straight into it.

The damp and smelly alleyway was littered with broken pieces of decaying wood from the nearby buildings, as well as some other, unidentifiable trash lying around.

The dim red suns in the sky did nothing to illuminate the way, as his unsteady footsteps echoed off the walls of the dark alleyway, along with the scraping noise of his seemingly cheap iron sword being dragged on the ground.

...*step*...*step*...*step–!*

As the raucous noise from the market slowly grew distant, the cloaked 'demon' suddenly paused in his steps.

Turning around, he swept his gaze over the path he had taken, before opening his mouth.

"...Aren't you guys going to come out anytime soon?"

His low, raspy voice echoed in the empty alleyway, causing a few rodents to scurry around in surprise and knock down a few decayed wooden boards to the ground.

"…"

But other than that, nothing else changed. His words were met with complete silence.

"...Haah, why do I feel like I'm being ignored all the time these days?"

The cloaked 'demon' sighed, before crouching down to pick up a few pieces of stones from the ground and standing up again.

"Ugh. F*ck, these damn injuries.... Hup!"

Grumbling about something in an unintelligible voice, he pulled back his arm a little, before forcefully throwing two pieces of stones successively in seemingly random directions.

*BA–BANG—!*

The stones cut through the air like bullets, before accurately striking two wooden boards in the distance and then breaking into pieces.

*Bam–!*

"Gah! B-Boss! H-He found me!"

Immediately after the impact, he heard the sound of someone collapsing behind the wooden board, before a low-pitched voice cried out in panic.

"Tch. Get up, you idiot. So what if he found us?"

An annoyed female voice chided the other guy, before pulling him up and walking towards the cloaked 'demon' together.

The thin layer of miasma was always restricting how far one could see ahead, so even though the 'demon' could see their body outlines, he wasn't able to see through their physical features.

...*step*...*step*...*step*...

As the pair of stalkers stepped closer to him, he was finally able to clearly see their faces.

One of them was a tall, green-skinned Hobgoblin with a spiky mace in his hand.

His yellow eyes darted around restlessly, stealing a few glances at his beautiful-looking companion before looking ahead once again. The vicious weapon in his hand was caked in a faint layer of dried blood, despite his apparent attempts to clean it.

The other one was a cold-faced human, but with a pair of wolf ears on her head and a furry tail dangling from her lower back.

She held no weapons in her hands, but looking at the canines slightly protruding from her lips and the sharp claws she was brandishing right now, she didn't appear to have any need for anything else.

"Huh. A Hobgoblin warrior and a Lycan. Quite an unusual pair, I must say."

The cloaked 'demon' exclaimed in apparent surprise while studying their features in detail.

The Lycan woman's eyes sharpened at the nonchalant tone of the 'demon' in front of them, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't figure out the source of his confidence.

'An empty bluff!'

Her deduction was quick and precise. Seeing that the 'demon' was struggling to support his body while leaning onto his sword, she didn't pay any further attention to his confident facade.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"I'm not going to repeat myself twice. Quietly give up everything you have on you, and I'll let you live."

With a mocking sneer on her face, she simply made her demand with a cold voice.

"*Cough*...*cough*... Oh, so you guys are robbers, then? But I don't have much on me right now. Not to mention I'm quite injured. If you take away everything, wouldn't I.....die anyway?"

"If you're going to die anyway, isn't it better to die painlessly?"

The Lycan woman showed a slight grimace on her face as she replied to his pained, yet polite words.

"Heh, do as the boss tells you to do! Or else, my mace hasn't tasted blood for a while now…"

The Hobgoblin next to her took the hint, showing off the bloodied mace with a menacing look on his face.

"Ahh, okay, okay. I'll give you everything! Just don't bring that thing near me."

Seeing the 'demon' flinch back in 'fear' and caving in quite easily, an imperceptible smile broke out on the Lycan woman's face, feeling proud of her deductions skills.

"Good, then bring out everything you have. Quickly!"

"Yes, yes."

The 'frightened demon' pulled out a loaded pouch filled with yellow-colored Abyssal coins, and dropped it on the ground in front of him.

'Boss, you're awesome!'

The Hobgoblin male looked at the Lycan woman with pure admiration in his eyes, seeing how easily she was commanding the same demon he was panicking over a few moments ago.

"Take out all your artifacts too! Don't try to hide anything, or else..."

Pleasantly basking in the look of admiration she was receiving, the woman once again glared at the cloaked 'demon', this time with her fangs bared.

The 'demon' froze for a moment, before shaking his head and taking out a barbed crimson vine from under his cloak.

"Um.... I only have this one artifact other than my old sword. You can even search me if you want. I really don't have anything else..."

Both the woman and the Hobgoblin male's eyes shone when they landed on the faintly glowing barbed vine in the injured 'demon's hands.

They exchanged a quick glance between each other, conveying their shock with wide-open eyes.

'Is that an epic-grade item?!'

'A jackpot!'

Despite her shock, the Lycan woman quickly calmed herself. Even if she got hold of this item, she wouldn't be able to sell it at its actual price.

The world of demons was unforgiving to the weak. Just like she was robbing this injured demon here, someone else would come to rob her as soon as they got news of her trying to find a buyer for this weapon.

And there was no guarantee that the buyer would pay her at all. Epic-grade items were extremely rare and sought after, even by the higher-ups of the Demon Realm.

Still, she would be a fool to let this chance get away from her. Even if she couldn't sell it, she could offer it to a nicer high-rank demon and get under their wing.

"Busir, go get it."

With a hardened expression on her face, she called out to her heavily breathing subordinate and made a gesture with her chin.

"Yes, boss!"

With an unconcealed look of greed on his face, the Hobgoblin warrior stepped toward the cloaked 'demon'.

"Hehehe..."

*step*

The Lycan woman pressurized the 'demon' from the Hobgoblin's back, brandishing her fangs and claws and warning him not to make any sudden moves.

*step*

The cloaked 'demon' stood petrified on the spot, seemingly too frightened to even move a single muscle.

*step–!*

'We are rich now! Hehe!'

Just as the Hobgoblin warrior took the next step gleefully, the petrified 'demon's hand that was holding onto the barbed crimson vine suddenly lashed out without any warning.

*crackle~*

'...eh?'

Before the two demon robbers could even understand what was happening, the barbed whip landed on the Hobgoblin warrior's body, coiling around his torso from the residual momentum of the swing.

"Tsk, tsk. I told you not to bring that thing near me."

Just for a moment, both of them caught sight of the 'demon' smiling under his shadowy hood.

"[Bind]"

"Arggghhh!!"

Suddenly, the vine seemed to come alive with an eerie crimson glow, rapidly constricting around the dumbfounded warrior's body with vicious momentum.

"What are you–?! NO!!"

The Lycan woman finally caught on to what was happening in front of her eyes.

With a pair of bloodshot eyes, she madly dashed at the Hobgoblin warrior, seeking to free him from the clutches of the vine.

"[Vampirism]"

But the cloaked 'demon' simply mouthed another word, doing nothing to stop the Lycan woman.

By the moment she reached her subordinate, the spikes on the crimson vine had already elongated, viciously stabbing into the warrior's flesh and sucking out his lifeblood in a brutal fashion.

"GAAAAAHHH—!!"

The warrior cried out in agony, unable to withstand the inhuman pain of having his lifeforce forcefully sucked out.

"Stop! Stop it! PLEASE STOP!!"

The Lycan tried to free him by pulling on the vine with all her power, but the crimson-glowing vine didn't budge a single inch.

"AAAAHHH–!"

"Please, NO—!"

She could only look on helplessly as the vine sucked out the last drop of lifeforce from her subordinate's body with merciless efficiency, leaving his once dark-green skin in a lifeless dull-grey color.

*thud*

Soon, the Hobgoblin warrior's lifeless body collapsed to the ground with a dull thud. Dead. His usually shifty pair of eyes listlessly looking ahead without moving, out of focus.

"No... what is... w-why... Bu-Busir..."

The Lycan trembled in horror, looking at his still pair of eyes.

A sudden gust blew, removing the hood from the mysterious 'demon's head.

"Haah... Finally, a nice HP potion. The pain was really killing me all this time."

...Revealing a pair of blood-red eyes that were smiling under the shadows, seemingly feeling content as he saw the rosy complexion returning to his skin.

"Now, what should I do with you?"

The newborn Devil contemplated, looking at the figure of the devastated Lycan on the ground.