Without worry, and in a single fluid motion, Thozronnath broke the lock off the basement door leading into the underground base, flinging it open. He didn’t want to give the criminals he was pursuing a chance to react, and with his strength stat nearing 60 the rusty metal stood no chance. As the trap door clattered against the adjacent wall and settled into a resting position, the devil peered into the darkness below as far as he could manage with his [Eyes of Hell] skill. No signs of anything. No sounds either.

Too good to be true.

Either there was no one down there and this entire trip had been for nothing, giving Thoz a good excuse to slaughter Adam like a pig, or the syndicate heard the scuffle upstairs and were currently preparing an ambush.

Not great either way. Nothing he could do about either one.

So, without hesitating any longer and risking giving his enemies an advantage, Thoz jumped down into the opening, ignoring the ladder and landing unceremoniously on the floor some ten feet down. His ankle made an ominous cracking sound, only to be immediately followed by a portion of the floor under his left foot depressing slightly.

“Fuck” Thoz sighed as the system messages began playing in his head.

You have suffered a minor injury. -5 hp

Then in almost the same exact moment, the trap he’d triggered swang through the dimly lit hallway and impaled him with a crudely constructed spear. Right through the left shoulder.

You have suffered a significant injury. -25 hp

As expected, this single trap was more than enough to kill his former imp form and he just tanked through it like it was a bee sting. At this point 30 hp was less than an eighth of his total pool. It still hurt like a bitch, and it was still definitely concerning, but he wasn’t just instantly dead anymore. Now, his left arm was practically out of commission and he had taken the hit to his health pool but as far as Thoz was concerned he didn’t need two arms to swing a sword and he still had hp to spare.

Thozronnath was not entirely an idiot though. Very few people would argue that he wasn’t an idiot at all, having the relative intelligence of some human children, but he knew when something was holding him back. Having an arm hang loose at his side was distracting too. Thankfully though that was a problem he could address himself.

None of the monsters in his little band of horrors was a support focus truthfully, but their powers? If Thoz had been able to access their powers earlier then things might have been much much easier.

With a subtle movement that only produced a faint flicker in the darkness of this tunnel Thoz dismissed the shortsword he’d summoned with [Sword of Sin].

He hesitated for a moment, trying to think of his best option and what would allow him to fight best in this tight enclosed space. Nothing new came to mind so he stuck with the basic shortsword he’d been using to that point with some minor adjustments. He made the blade just a hair shorter, less than 15 cm at that, and broader. When it materialized he was holding something more akin to a gladius than the basic original shortsword.

It also appeared to be changing its appearance to fit the sin it was currently attuned to, something Thozronnath hadn’t noticed before but admittedly he hadn’t used the sword all that much. In the form of Gluttony, as he currently had it, large chips in the blade were broken off as if rusted or eaten by time. The metal itself was black and pitted, seeming to drip occasionally with thick black oils.

For lack of a better comparison, it looked like Thoz pulled the sword out of his slimy summon Zildoxoxi. Which made sense given that Zild was the sin of gluttony in the first place.

It is here that we take a brief step back and talk about the very minimal training Thozronnath had done with his sword skill until this point. He’d been hunting and tracking humans for days, but the sword very rarely got any legitimate action. He of course had tested the sins available to him, both on humans and the occasional tree. This taught him more or less their basic effect, but not what would occur from prolonged use.

Specifically, the sword of gluttony would leech resilience stat from the targets it injured. Instead of just boosting Thozronnath’s resilience though, it seemed to consume it and feed it back in the form of raw vital life force. Hit points. The sword of gluttony on more than one occasion had allowed Thoz to hold more hit points than his maximum pool should theoretically allow. They faded over time of course, but it was very enticing as an ability.

All the same, Thoz didn’t have any time to delay. He gestured silently ahead of him for Uzdaax to scout ahead, mentally cursing that the ghost couldn’t trigger or detect hidden traps, while slinking slightly forward through the tunnel to give space for Prisaela and Zild to fall in behind him. His minions took up their positions exactly as instructed and the group began stalking the hallways under Uz’s guidance, protected from rear assault by an ever increasing swath of decompressing caustic ooze. Zild’s ability to deny an area from enemies was sure to come in handy not only today but for future endeavors as well.

As the group continued pushing forward, Thoz would occasionally get whispered inputs from Uzdaax about the layout of the compound. Which hallways at a fork led to what and so on, all while they practically crawled along, diligently checking for traps. Thoz was clearly getting better about noticing the traps before he sprung them, but that was only after the first few had been completely activated. Thankfully the second and third traps he sprung were both poison based and he only took minor wounds from the small projectiles they launched while his [Poison Immunity] skill neutralized whatever toxin they were carrying.

Still, it was more damage to the metaphorical pile and if Thoz died from a thousand paper cuts he’d still be dead at the end of the day. He needed to find his targets soon before they had any more opportunities to prepare for his assault. A fact he stayed laser focused on while quietly creeping forward.

“Maasster.” Uzdaax whispered softly, gently interrupting the methodical creep forward through enemy territory.

“There aare three humaans in the hallway ahead, they’ve sset up a barricade” The invisible spirit informed the group. This prompted a worried grimace from Thoz. He was confident they could handle most human enemies in a normal situation, but until now the group had relied on ambush and stealth tactics. Combine the apparent combat experience of the guards outside, the barricade, and numbers less favorable than he would like, and Thoz was visibly worried.

“Listen up.” Thoz called out softly, crouching down near the floor as he laid out a plan for the group.

“This isn’t going to be perfect but it will have to do. I’ll take the enemy on the left, I have the highest levels so I’ll just have to make do while you all struggle. Prisaela, Uzdaax, you two are the weakest in combat right now so you two will take the enemy on the right. Try not to fuck it up. Zildoxoxi has the one in the middle, turn off your [Compression] skill and you should be able to overwhelm them.” He continued, detailing a basic strategy that did little more than guarantee they wouldn’t get in each other’s way.

“If you get in trouble, deal with it. If you’re about to die, don’t. I’ll move to help as soon as I kill the first one” Thoz sighed. He was obviously taking these humans a bit more seriously than he would like to, but on some level he still knew they worked for Varekoth and had doubts they would all be weakly leveled. It wasn’t a risk he was confident enough to take, his old Pit Fiend boss wasn’t even here and was still inspiring fear in Thoz. Maybe one day he would overcome it. Maybe.

That was a problem for another time. Right now, Thoz had to focus on the immediate problem, and rounding a corner he came face to face with it immediately. Standing there, behind a makeshift barricade of piled crates and barrels was a trio of human thugs, lightly armored and heavily armed.

Thozronnath hesitated a moment as he saw their armor, a momentary flicker of greed in his eyes as he realized these men were lithe enough compared to the burly guards outside that he could feasibly liberate some armor from their corpses when the battle was done. That momentary delay in his charge was enough to give the enemy a moment to spot him, and while they didn’t unleash a volley of prepared ranged attacks, what Thoz did receive was arguably worse.

Attention!

Foreign magic detected.

Charisma stat insufficient to overcome hostile [Appraisal].

Stats

General Stats Classes Level Name: Thozronnath Strength:

60

Torment Devil 18 Species: Ascendant Torment Devil (Lesser Devil) Dexterity: 43 Legionary Devil 20 (Max) Sex: M Resilience: 50 Wing Devil 20 (Max) Age: 13530 Intelligence: 20 Imp 20 (Max) Affiliation(s): Hell Wisdom: 23 HP: 227/260 (+5/sec) Charisma: 23 MP: 110/110 (+1.5/sec)

Imp Skills

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Level

Special Skills

Level

Invisibility

2

Progenitor of Sin

4

Stealth

3

Sword of Sin

1

Subterfuge

3

Silver Vulnerability

1 (Max)

Wing Devil Skills

Fire Immunity

1 (Max)

Poison Immunity

1 (Max)

Shapeshifter

3

Telepathy

3

Eyes of Hell

1 (Max)

Magic Resistance

3

Sting

3

Legionary Devil Skills

Torment Devil Skills

Blood Frenzy

4

Chains of Torment

3

Natural Illusionist

2

Unlocked Skills

Cold Resistance

1 (Max)

Strategy

1

Leadership

1

Zild

General Stats Classes Level Name: Zildoxoxi "The Gluttonous" Strength: 98 Purple Ooze 10 Species: Purple Ooze (Lesser Ooze) Dexterity: 6 Amber Ooze 20 (Max) Sex: N/A Resilience: 80 Absorption Ooze 20 (Max) Age: 9861 Intelligence: 5 Ooze 20 (Max) Affiliation(s): Thozronnath Wisdom: 6 HP: 410/410 (+8/sec) Charisma: 6 MP: 35/35 (+0.5/sec)

Ooze Skills

Level

Absorption Ooze Skills

Level

Acid Resistance 1 (Max) Poison Immunity 1 (Max) Cold Resistance 1 (Max) Absorption 4 Fire Resistance 1 (Max) Fluid Replication 2 Ooze Sight 1 (Max) Liquid Form 1 (Max) Amber Ooze Skills Corrosive 5 (Max) Duplicate 2 Natural Disguise 2 Vulnerable Core 1 (Max) Stealth 2 Lightning Resistance 1 (Max) Natural Weapons 4 Blind Immunity 1 (Max) Purple Ooze Skills Deafen Immunity 1 (Max) Compression 1 Charm Immunity 1 (Max) Fear Immunity 1 (Max) Fatigue Immunity 1 (Max) Prone Immunity 1 (Max)

Prisaela

General Stats Classes Level Name: Prisaela "Sin of Lust" Strength: -1 Doppelganger 15 Species: Doppelganger (Lesser Shapeshifter) Dexterity: 45 Skin Shifter 20 (Max) Sex: F Resilience: 25 Age: 1 Intelligence: 30 Affiliation(s): Thozronnath Wisdom: 30 HP: 135/135 (+2.5/sec) Charisma: 70 MP: 160/160 (+3/sec)

Skin Shifter Skills

Level

Doppelganger Skills

Level

Subterfuge 3 Charm Immunity 1 (Max) Stealth 2 Shapeshifter 3 Skin Changer 5 (Max) Ambush 2 Mind Read 2

Uzdaax

General Stats Classes Level Name: Uzdaax "The Slothful" Strength: -4 Specter 10 Species: Specter (Lesser Undead) Dexterity: 33 Sex: M Resilience: 13 Age: 1 Intelligence: 20 Affiliation(s): Thozronnath Wisdom: 13 HP: 75/75 (+1.3/sec) Charisma: 13 MP: 110/110 (+2/sec)

Specter Skills Level Non-Resistance Specter Skills Level Elemental Resistance 1 (Max) Hover 2 Mundane Resistance 1 (Max) Ghost Sight 1 (Max) Poison Immunity 1 (Max) Incorporeal 1 (Max) Death Immunity 1 (Max) Sunlight Aversion 1 (Max) Charm Immunity 1 (Max) Call of Death 2 Fatigue Immunity 1 (Max) Paralysis Immunity 1 (Max) Petrification Immunity 1 (Max) Prone Immunity 1 (Max) Restriction Immunity 1 (Max) Sleep Immunity 1 (Max)