Walking to the entrance of the dark cave, what spread out in front of me was the sky. It seemed that the cave was located on a cliff and we were extremely high up. Walking slowly to the edge of the cliff, what I saw momentarily stunned me..
“What is this… Could my start in this new world seriously get any worse?”
Nothing. Nothing but a barren wasteland, filled with dead black trees and grey soil. The clouds were greyish red and no signs of life could be seen, although the occasional roar from far away, which could only be heard due to my super hearing, was present.
It was time to leave. With but a mere thought, a slight pain erupted from my back as enormous black bat wings grew out. Due to my experiences in virtual reality, everything seemed was extremely familiar and learning how to fly only took mere seconds.
Gliding across the barren wasteland, all I could see were dead trees and enormous carcasses of what seemed like beasts. Their corpses were hundreds of meters large and the mere sight of them made me wonder how strong they were when they were alive.
GRRRRRR
“What was that?”
A deafening roar echoed from the surroundings as the space around me reverberated. Gazing at the source of the sound, I spotted an enormous black shadow closing in from the distance, emanating a black, repulsive miasma.
“This is… who would’ve thought that I would meet a dragon so fast”
Very soon, a black scaled dragon towering a few kilometres in the sky appeared before me, with blood red eyes and razor sharp teeth, the hostility it displayed was evident. The miasma surrounding its body and breathed out by it’s mouth corroded everything around it.
“This was probably why there were no signs of life in this place, it seems that I have just found the cause for the formation of this barren wasteland. For it to do such a thing, it must be an extremely strong existence even in this world”
Suddenly, the dragon charged forward and opened it’s mouth, shooting out a massive black fireball near the size of it’s body. Instinctively, I swung Rashomon and immediately, cleaved the fireball in half, smaller flames scattering all around me.
“It seems that I’ve overestimated it’s strength. With only physical power, I was already able to block one of it’s breath attacks. Now to see how powerful my full ability is”
Concentrating all of my magic power in reinforcing my physical body, a silverfish purple miasma similarly emanated from my body and seeped into my giant red blade. Space distorted around the edges of the blade as the clouds above me began to disperse from the centre, pushed away by the immense aura.
“HAAAH”
Swinging downwards as fast as I could, I slashed at the black dragon’s incoming jaws as a purplish red beam manifested. The size was even larger than the dragon itself and the imposing beam cleaved through the dragon’s body easily as if it were a knife cutting through butter, spraying out blood in all directions.
However, the sword beam did not stop and continued for tens of thousands of kilometres and when it finally stopped, it imploded. The main strength of this strike was the explosion of the beam in the end, which I had originally prepared for the dragon but I did not expect it to not even be able to resist the slash itself.
BOOM
A massive explosion hundreds of times stronger than several nuclear bombs being detonated back on Earth spread out, destroying everything in it’s vicinity and sending strong tornados shooting out in all directions.
A black near invisible substance flowed from the dead dragon into my body. It was one of the special abilities that the Demon King possessed which allowed it to power up by absorbing the soul power of living organisms that it has killed.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Suddenly, a strange feeling welled up within me as a string of words manifested within my mind.
Evolution: Demon King --> Fiend (0.2%)
“This is…. The evolution system that often appeared when I was playing Auora Online? How can it be here. Even more importantly, wasn’t Demon King the highest evolution that could possibly be achieved? What was this Fiend race?”
In the end, it was a unexpectedly happy discovery once I realised that I could become even stronger. I did not believe that I was the strongest existence in this new world and so It was reassuring to know that even I could still grow.
“Well, an explosion of this calibre would evidently cause some unwanted attention. It is best not to stay in this area for too long and become noted as a suspicious individual. Before I understand more about this world, I should keep a low profile”
Looking back into my inventory I took out a large black cloak with a hood that completely covered my head. Putting on a stylish silver mask with golden symbols inscribed onto it, I decided upon my next course of action. Spreading my enormous black wings, I flew away in the opposite direction of the massive explosion at a speed nearing the speed of sound.
“For now, knowing that I can evolve even further than a Demon King, my highest priority is to become as strong as possible. While I concentrate on leaving this barren wasteland, whatever strong monsters that I encounter shall serve as good battle experience and help me to further become stronger.”
However, little did I know that the size of this desolate wilderness had far surpassed my expectations and that the black dragon that I had occurred on the first day was a monster existing at the very bottoms of the food chain….
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Half a year later
“AGHH IM FINALLY OUT OF THIS DAMNED PLACE”
It had already been over 6 months since I had arrived in this new world and the amount of things that I had experienced was just traumatising. My entire body was filled with wounds and purple blood was leaking from all of them like a waterfall. My current state was similar to when I had first arrived here in this world and it seemed as though I had passed through dimensions again. However, even after drinking several high class potions found In my inventory, the sheer number of fights I had encountered was absolutely insane.
In front of me laid a massive serpent several hundred kilometres long that had several deep slashes all across it’s body. It was the strongest opponent that I had ever faced in this world so far and it would not be an underestimate to say it was at least 100,000 times stronger than that black dragon I had fought in the beginning. It’s name was Ouroboros, a snake that had reached the level of half-god and had already achieved divinity. It had followed me for hundreds of thousands of kilometres, wanting to consume my flesh to increase it’s power and after several gruesome battles, it had finally fallen.
“Haahh Haah. Now that I am finally out of this barren wasteland, I can finally explore the world. I’m sick of not being able to sleep in peace and looking at the grey and black surroundings every single day. This feeling of fullness inside me also means that I should be reaching the requirements for evolution soon…”
Evolution: Demon King --> Fiend (99.7%)
Exiting from the miasma filled wastelands, what laid in front of me was a widespread wilderness filled with red soil. It was definitely not where humans would live, so I immediately came to the conclusion that it was the demon world. However, I could clearly sense the existence of life and there were even plants growing around. Suddenly, I sensed signs of people.
“YES. I CAN FINALLY MEET SOMEBODY! It’s about time I obtain some information about this world and I am also extremely curious about that barren wasteland I was stuck in for so long.”
Blowing off into the direction of civilization, my flight speed had far surpassed the speed of sound, an indication of just how much my strength had grown in this half year from killing several hundreds of powerful monsters. My mentality and battle experience had also grown several fold, and I felt that even if I had slaughtered several thousands of evil humans, I would not even feel a slight ounce of hesitation.
“I wonder how much stronger I would become once I evolve from a Demon King to a Fiend? Evolutions in races within Auora Online usually meant a difference of heaven and Earth but is honestly hard to believe that I can become even stronger that much”
Filled with anticipation, the location where the presence of people could be felt gradually came into my view. However, what appeared stunned me greatly.
“What? This is…a castle”
A few hundred kilometres in front of me, was an enormous city that seemed as though it would have a population of at least several billion. However, what surprised me was what was at the very centre of it. A giant castle standing several thousand metres tall, with an ominous atmosphere looming over it and thunder strikes flashing in it's foreground. Flames and scenes of warlike destruction were spread out all around the castle and explosions were occurring in all directions.
“This sense of familiarity… this is definitely the palace of a Demon King. And moreover, it is actually getting attacked by enemies?”