"Do you have any books on imps?"

We were at the library in Calerion. When I think of imps, I think of very small, weak creatures that used numbers to their advantage, and liked collecting things.

This was probably not accurate, and neither of my party members knew about them either, outside of what they looked like.

"We have a lot of books regarding imps. Are you looking for fiction or non fiction? Perhaps we can ignore the book for now and go do something a little more..."

She let her gaze drop to my waste. I guess the librarian is a pervert.

Elena glared at me, while Ember stood to my side looking excited.

"We just need information on imps, thank you."

The librarian looked a bit disappointed, and led me to an aisle towards the back of the library.

"This is all the information we have on imps, if you need help with any other... issues, feel free to let me know."

The perverted librarian gave me a wink and walked off to stock some more aisles.

It's strange, the people in this world don't speak english, but I understand what they're saying and I'm able to speak back to them fluently. That being said, I can't read their language, but I guess that's covered with some kind of magic as well. Every time I look at the strange written language, it twists itself into an english translation before my eyes. This phenomenon usually takes a few seconds to kick in, but it always happens.

I really do miss having access to the internet, this would have been much quicker.

Shuffling through the shelf, I found a book titled "The extermination of imps, and what to expect."

Apparently imps were small creatures, about a third the size of an adult human male. They were ugly, they were basically small demons with grey skin. Imps tend to breed in caves, and survive off of livestock stolen from the surrounding area. They would sometimes pillage weaker villages if they were confident in victory. No way of communication was known, or at least public enough for people to care. I doubt many have strived for peaceful relations with them.

The book listed the various different imp types, it went along the same platform as the rest of the trouble types in this world. You had lesser imps, imps, greater imps, imp lords, and the imp king. The imp king was described as a demon lord with the appearance of a human. The book says;

'Should you encounter this imp king, do not attempt to fight. Do not attempt to cause a distraction. Do not sacrifice yourself to allow your friends to escape. Turn around and run as fast as you can in all different directions. If you do this without the thought of anything else in your mind, there is a small chance of escape.'

A grey skinned demon lord with the appearance of a human. I wonder the possibility that demon Limone is our imp king.

That was beside the point, we knew that he stayed at that dark castle, so we didn't need to worry about him right now.

Greater imps were around level 20 on average. Those were the highest level creatures we would see, and there probably wouldn't be more than two or three.

With the information we needed, it was time to depart the town and head to the imp cave.

The imp cave was about two hours north of the town. We took the trip early and made it around noon. Imps are nocturnal so they should sleep during the day. That doesn't mean they won't wake up, but they'll be groggy for a bit and it can give us an edge.

We entered the cave in a slight wedge. Ember took point with me slightly behind to the left. Elena was following in the rear and had cast a support spell on us to see in the dark. It had the effect of making everything grey, but we were able to make out all the small details.

Slowly, we crept down the cave, careful to watch for traps and flanks. It seemed to be straight for the most part, but I wanted to make sure none of the imps surprised us from behind.

Eventually, we saw a large opening in the cavern. There were two imps posted guard at the entrance, so we took the opportunity to hide behind some stalachtites. I signaled Elena to cast her sleep magic, and heard her softly chanting.

Thankfully, sleep magic causes you to lay down quickly, but doesn't necessarily make somebody pass out. It's more of an intense desire to go to sleep right where you are. If somebody is riled up already it won't work, so it isn't suited for combat. It is, however excellent on stealth missions where you don't want to be heard. The two imps were fast asleep on the ground and we continued on.

I couldn't believe it.

The large cavern I saw before was even larger than I thought, and on the ground before me were at least a hundred sleeping imps.

Talk about light security. Elena didn't have a spell that would take all the imps out at once, so we would have to go around slicing throats. Imps are technically demons, so I have no issue wiping them out with extreme prejudice.

Before we started, elena set a barrier trap at the entrance that would set fire should any imps attempt to escape. This was going to be a massacre.

One by one, Ember and I sliced the necks of the imps. We had killed about 50 of them when one of the remaining imps woke up. Upon seeing what we were doing, it let out a loud scream to alert the rest of the sleeping imps.

One by one they all rose, we were running through them at this point, slaughtering imp after imp. About 15 of them ended up getting away, and immediately fell prey to Elena's flame trap.

About a hundred dead imps surrounded us. Flames were still bursting from the trap, toasting the still dying imps.

*tap*

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

*tap*

*tap*

The sound was coming from a tunnel leading further in the cave, and slowly coming closer to us.

*tap*

*tap*

After about a minute of this, we saw the source of the noise.

A short, grey figure about Ember's height revealed themselves from the tunnel. It had a large shield in one hand, and a claymore in the other.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

This wasn't a greater imp, there was no way a greater imp could wield a claymore with one hand.

This was an imp lord. From the book I read it had an average level of 40, and was generally a skilled fighter.

Why was there an imp lord here? Is that why the quest paid so much?

I didn't have time to ask those questions. We had practiced our battle formation prior to coming here.

"Ember, Elena, get ready to fight"

I gave direction as clearly as I could. The two of them moved in unison to their positions.

Elena had learned a new magic, but it required a chant so, we needed to buy some time.

""

We closed our eyes simultaneously to avoid the flash of light. It seems this creature isn't stupid, as it did the same.

I guess we need to fight with everything we have. Cheap tricks won't work"

""

She yelled as she leapt forward towards the enemy. Flames surrounded her sword as she swung downwards from above.

The enemy parried the attack with it's sword like it was nothing, and used it's shield to nonchalantly deal with the aftereffect of the flames.

While it was distracted, I pushed into the fight, diving low and slashing at the opponent's knees. It jumped back just in time and snarled at me. We needed to continue the assault and keep it from counter attacking.

This time I was at the front. I darted forward with all my might and dealt a side swipe with my blade. The enemy connected his blade to mine and sparks flew between them.

Was it smiling? Is this monster enjoying this?

I'm going to kill it.

While my blow was parried, Ember came at it relentlessly from the left. The first attack was a bashing move with her shield, where she lifted it and struck with the side. This was immediately followed by another blow from her sword, and the flames that followed.

Taking the distraction, I grabbed hold of the shield the enemy held and moved towards it to escape the sword arm, as I had done in the fight with Ember.

The imp lord pulled away, thrusting it's giant sword as it did. My arm was caught in the crossfire and my right shoulder was slashed. Blood spurt out.

"Klein!"

Ember looked worried.

"I'm ok, don't lose focus."

""

Six giant icicles appeared, and immediately moved to impale the monster from above.

Then it disappeared.

It didn't disappear, but moved so fast that our eyes temporarily lost sight of it. This must be a special skill. The imp lord was still here. We needed to get an advantage, quickly. If we didn't, we would all die here.

It reappeared in front of Ember. I looked over to see her shield cut in half and blood spraying from her chest.

Crap.

Just as I thought that, I suddenly felt a presence. I looked above me to see the claymore falling towards my shoulder.

""

I had learned a few spells before we came out here. The adventurer's card has a skill point system, so you can pick different skills related to your class as you level up. This particular spell caused a wall of stone to encircle me completely.

There was a smashing sound, and I saw a small piece of rock fall from the barrier. It had been hit hard and probably wouldn't last another hit. I removed the effect and moved away a few feet.

"A battle mage? I've never faced one, this should be fun."

This thing can talk?

Another assault found it's way towards me, and I used magic to encase my left arm in steel.

""

The claymore was blocked, and I counterattacked with my own sword. The imp lord blocked my strike with his shield.

This is bad, I'm running out of moves here.

"What a pity, if only you had more time to get stronger. You might have won."

"Come at me and try to settle this then."

I saw Ember move slightly. Thank god she's alive. She had a strong will, and it seemed she wanted to get back up and help.

"You will die if you keep fighting him, leave this to me."

She looked sad that she couldn't help, but I know she'll get stronger. I just need to make sure she has the opportunity to.

"Very well, battle mage. I will kill you in the next attack."

The swing was fast. The fastest movement I had ever seen, and it was directed to my throat. I had to block it, if I can block this swing, I can win.

""

The spell came from Elena, as a four inch wall of ice came directly between my opponent and my neck. The claymore smashed through the ice and continued moving towards me.

Maybe this is the end. Maybe the dream I had after death has come to a halt, and my life will end here.

I'm not gonna let that happen.

""

My sword slashed down from above

Abyss contacted the slowed enemy sword, and sliced through the blade like butter. I kept pushing forward, and my blade ended up slicing through the shield he had blocked with, deeply cutting across his chest.

Blood sprayed when my sword made contact. That wound had won me the fight.

Pulling back a few feet, I continued to stand on guard.

"Huhuhu...*cough*...huhuhu"

He laughed as he clung to his life a few more moments, the imp lord choked out a few words.

"What a strong human."

I'm glad we bought the healing potions we did, or Ember probably would have died. As soon as the fight was over, I rushed over and gave her a minor healing potion.

Her wounds closed, but she was still hurt and would need a while to recover. We might be able to buy a greater healing option to speed the process, but they're expensive.

Come to think of it, the adrenaline had worn off and I had an excruciating pain in my left shoulder. I downed another minor healing potion for myself, and we got ready to leave the imp cave.

"Wait, we have to explore a little."

Ember was oddly enthusiastic for the state she was in a moment ago.

"Why? We finished the quest so I really don't wanna be hanging around here."

"You read the book too, imps hoard valuable stuff."

Oh.

We ended up going down the path the imp lord came from, and eventually found a door.

Why is there a door in this cave?

Opening it, we found a room that was completely out of place. A large bed was in the center, with a few various portraits mounted on the wall. There were a few drawers and chests in here, and a magic light that illuminated the entire room.

"Woow"

The two by my side were impressed with the room, and immediately began tearing through the drawers and chests.

Honestly, it felt like I was robbing a house. We ended up finding a few valuable looking weapons and accessories, a few were gold with some diamond, but some of them ended up being enchanted in one way or another. The adventurer's card had a function to appraise items. While it was sometimes a rough estimate, it told us the items stats as well.

I ended up taking a necklace that increases mana. Elena found a bracelet that increased the power of destruction magic, and Ember found a defensive pendant that made her shield stronger.

At least it would when we got her a new one.

Our first quest had turned really dangerous. 50,000 Peli and the haul we got from looting the imp's room was worth it though.

When we got back to town it was early evening, and the guild was still open. Thankfully, shops in this world weren't on the same awkward schedule from the ones in mine.

After collecting the 50,000 Peli, we went to a few shops and tried to sell as much of the stuff we got as possible. After a while, we ended up with a total of 15,000 peli. This would last us for a while, so we decided to get an inn and rest for a few days.

The first quest we had was complete, and my level had grown to 25 after defeating the imp lord.

This is a massive jump, but for perspective sake, hero adventurers were usually around level 250. I can only assume the demons I saw were similar.

I still have a long way to go.

The three of us had made it a habit of sharing a room to save money, so we took the opportunity to get the same fancy inn from before.

The hot tub felt amazing for my sore muscles, and I think I was in there for a long time.

When I finally got out, Elena and Ember were already fast asleep. I crawled into bed and shut my eyes.

The sounds of the city alarm woke me up, and I looked up to see the two girls next to me gone.

"Klein, get up! The city is under attack!"