The Forest of Darkness

"Greetings, my Lord."

"Hello," said Astaroth in an authoritative tone

looking down at the woman, only then did he realize she had two relatively skinny horns on her forehead, they were placed on the edge of her forehead and were about 10 cm, to put that in perspective Astaroth had two horns that were twice the grith of hers and were 30 cm long, plus his were on the sides of his head not his forehead.

As he looked over his new subordinate he soon wondered if she had a name already and if he could look at her status, and soon his questions were answered with a notification...

[What would you like to name your new assistant?]

"Hmm, what should I name her? I don't want to choose a stupid name, but I also don't want to give her a crude name as well, ah I see let's go with... Lapis, due to her beautiful blue eyes and hair as well as the faint blue hue her skin has."

"From this day forward, your name shall be Lapis, may you serve me to your utmost ability and stand by my side for years to come."

[Congratulations! you have named your first subordinate!]

[New skill unlocked! (Appraisal Lvl 01)]

[Subordinate [Lapis] has been granted your blessing!]

As he saw the new notifications, he soon became confused, why would something as simple as a naming give her his blessing? And how did he unlock the Appraisal skill? And what does it mean to receive his blessing? Although Astaroth had all of these questions there was nobody to answer them, so instead of dwelling on it for too long, he used (Appraisal Lvl 01) on Lapis.

[Name: Lapis]

[Race: Blue Demon Noble (Rank: Duke)]

[Main Class: Mage]

[Sub Classes: (Secretary) (n/a) (n/a)]

[Magic tier: peak 1st circle]

[Innate Skills: (Basic Mana Control Lvl 01) (Basic Mana Meditation Lvl 01)

[Passive Skills: (Basic Fire Magic Lvl 01)]

[Active Skills: (Basic Heal spell Lvl 01)]

[Blessing of Demon Lord Astaroth: Makes evolution 50% easier as well as gives a boost to exp for skills]

When he looked at her status, he was a little surprised to see she had not one but two classes, plus she had a new innate skill (Mana Meditation) when Astaroth saw this, he was a little confused, because he didn't know why those two skills were innate for her and not passive.

(A/N The ability to use magic itself is going to be a passive skill, more specific uses let's say fireball or magic arrow will be active spells, in other words, the magician can passively use that element of magic as well as the mana in nature, hope this helps!)

After he was done looking at her status Astaroth decided to see what kind of knowledge she has, he didn't want an assistant who had the same amount of info as a toddler, so he decided to ask her.

"Lapis."

"Yes my lord?"

"What kind of information or knowledge do you have that can help me?"

"I know all of the basic info of this world, for example, I can draw a map of the world, I can also draw the borders and names of the various nations as well as name their main race and ruling dynasty, I also have basic info on the different races and creatures of this world, I also know about how to run a dungeon as well as financial skills, to sum it up, I was created with all knowledge needed to be a good servant to you, my lord," she said with a neutral expression

"Hmm, okay first things first there are some things I'm a little curious about."

"Ask me anything, my lord," she said while bowing

"Okay, first, what are these marks that are on the other demon lords and I and what do the colors mean, secondly what are the differences between blue, red, and grey demons, thirdly, can you draw up a map of the world as well as the location we are at?"

"Of course, firstly, those "marks" are what signify what type of demon you are, this explanation will also sum up the answer to your second question as well, you see, there are many types of "demons" however there is one race that is your run of the mill demons, they are called the demonkin, demon lords like you my lord is the highest in evolution a demonkin can go, of the demonkin, there are the red demons who excel at physical strength as well as using aura, the blue demons such as myself excel at using mana and magic alike, however, we are weak physically, then you have the grey demons, they can use both mana and aura and excel at assassination and rogue like roles, then you have the purple demons such as yourself, my lord, purple demons are rare and are said to be the direct descendants of the first naturally occurring demon lord, purple demons excel at all aspects, such as mana, physical prowess, and if they train enough even assassination techniques, when it comes to purple demons there are no limits only how hard they are willing to work to gain true strength, and yes i can draw up a map for you, my lord."

"I see."

It took a few minutes to process what Lapis had just explained, while Astaroth was thinking she just stood there politely with her hands in front of her clasped together like a true secretary.

"Then what's the deal with hair color, eye color, and skin color?"

"You see, the lower rank the demonkin is, the more prevalent the color of their skin is, for example, a lower-ranked demonkin soldier would be almost completely red or blue or whatever color they are, and their eyes will match that same color, the brightness of the eyes is how most determine the potential of the demonkin in question, and so as the demonkin evolves and rises in rank their skin will fade to where once they reach the level of Demon Archduke their skin will be pale with a hue of their respective color, and in the case of demon lords like yourself my lord, your skin is a regular pale color, the marks on your body, as well as the highlights in your hair plus the eye color, is what differentiates what kind of demonkin a demon lord is, and like lower-ranked demonkin, the brighter the eyes as well as the markings, the greater potential a demon lord has. You can also tell a demonkin's rank based on their horns, the only rank who has horns are, Demon Dukes, Demon Archdukes, and Demon Lords, and each rank the size of their horns goes up by 10 cm, the placement of horns are completely random, but they will always be on the demonkin's head."

"Thank you for the explanation Lapis."

"Of course, my lord."

After that Lapis gave Astaroth a quick bow then walked around the castle inspecting it from top to bottom, as well as she seemed to be charting out the dungeon floor the castle was on, and once she finished that she drew up a map of the world.

(A/N a map of Terra will be in a comment right here --->)

Now that he had his first subordinate as well as a map of the world Astaroth decided to look over the map and find his position as well as the different nations of this world...

"Hmm, so I'm pretty much smack dab in the middle of the "Forest of Darkness" tch, what a cliche name. Hey lapis, do you by chance know what kind of monsters and beasts live in the forest?"

The Forest of Darkness was a huge forest that was centered in the relative middle of the biggest continent, he was essentially at the center of the world, now this forest wasn't small by any means, in fact, it was huge! the forest in total was about 3000 km in horizontal length which is about the distance from Brest, France to Moscow, and the vertical length is 2500 km, so this "forest" was probably bigger than Europe

"Yes, my lord I do, in no particular order we have the many goblin tribes and clans, a savage race of creatures who live for pillaging and procreation, next there are the kobold tribes, who like the goblins are savage by nature but are a little more intelligent, next there are the orcs, while they are also savages they have developed more intellect then goblins and kobolds, there are various warring tribes and clans in the forest, next we have the only semi-kingdom of the forest and that is the High Orc kingdom of Draxia, named after their founder Drax the Bold, he achieved this name by driving out the Werewolf clans who once lived here 1,000 years ago, there are also various beasts like wolves, tigers, and even lions, there are various tiers of creatures in the forest with the strongest being lord class."

"I see, so there shouldn't be any shortage of minions, right?"

"Yes, my lord, however, these "creatures" only respond to strength and forgive me my lord, but the current you don't stand a chance against some of the stronger leaders in the forest," Lapis said awkwardly

"Hmm, I expected as much."

Now that he thought about it, there's no way they would just roll over because he's a demon lord, hell he's sure most of them would love to kill him and parade around with his head, also he noticed the disdain in Lapis's voice when referring to the denizens of the forest, while he doesn't know what that's all about, he figures he should leave it at rest, for now.

"Wait I just realized, you said Lord class, what does that mean?"

When Astaroth was still James, they just grouped the beasts and monsters into tiers 1-10, so hearing this new classification felt a little weird to him.

"The residents of Terra classify monsters and beast alike into the following tiers, G, F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, Lord, High Lord, Demi-god, to put it into perspective, each rank corresponds with the human ranks, for example, a peak 1st circle mage could kill an early - middle G rank beast and so on, the rule of thumb is a peak rank human can only kill an early - middle-ranked beast of the same level, monsters, however, are different, since they have some semblance of intelligence they are more unpredictable."

"Hmm, and how many Lord class monsters are there in "The Forest of Darkness?"

"There are 4, and there are also 10 SSS Beasts here in the forest."

After getting to know the new info Astaroth went back to the map to see which kingdoms and such were near him, much to his chagrin, there are 5 human kingdoms, 3 beastkin kingdoms, and the Iron Federation led by dwarves, the human kingdoms are always at odds with each other, whether it's over what gods they worship or resources, they always find a win to go to war with each other, each kingdom is around the size of Germany or France from the earth, while the Iron Federation is the size Portugal give or take a few hundred kilometers.

[Alert! Alert! 6 enemies are entering your dungeon!]

"Huh! where!"

[First Floor]

[Would you like to pull up the dungeon feed?]

"There's such a thing? this will make it way easier to gauge intruders and see if I can defeat them or not."

As Astaroth and Lapis looked at the feed, they realized the intruders were a small Warband of goblins sent out to hunt, while he wanted to go out and slaughter the lot of them, Lapis made him stay back since he had yet to get stronger and hasn't circulated mana yet.

Despite his protests, Lapis left him in his run-down throne room, and all he could do was watch...

Once she had gotten down to the first floor using the portal doors, she soon came across the ugly little creatures, they were around 157 cm, they had circular heads with two ears that pointed out, they had sharp mangled teeth that could shred any kind of meat, they wore basic furs around their waists as clothing with no armor, and for a weapon, they carried either stone axes or clubs.

Once the goblins saw Lapis, they immediately liked their lips in anticipation. The only thing going through the goblin's heads was lustful thoughts about ravaging Lapis, and she saw that look and gave a disgusted sneer.

Without hesitating, Lapis started chanting and in 2 seconds three azure blue fireballs around 1 meter in size each were conjured and fired at the goblins, while 4 of them were able to get out of the way in time, the slower 2 weren't so lucky when the fireballs hit them 1 goblin was fried to a crisp while the other lost his left arm and leg, once the goblins saw their "friend" get roasted alive and the other wailing in pain, the hesitated for a second but in the end they chose to charge at Lapis and try to overwhelm her with numbers.

The 4 goblins split up and tried to surround Lapis to stop the splash damage from the fireball taking all of their lives, little did they know she was quite nimble for a mage, just as one of the goblins was about to strike her on the head with its club, she rolled to the side narrowly escaping, however, she wasn't in the clear just yet, right when she landed and tried to get her balance, two more goblins converged on her and swung their stone axes, while she barely dodged one, the other clipped her shoulder and left a cut 4 cm deep.

While this was going on, Astaroth was watching anxiously at the battle unfolding in front of him, while he wanted to help, he knew the current him was too weak to even fight a goblin, so instead of sweating buckets while watching he decided to try his best to circulate mana so he could get down there and help, so he sat down in lotus style, put his hands to his side and started to meditate, while to the newcomers this may be hard, Astaroth already knew what mana felt like so he concentrated on the mana in the air and tried to have it wash over him, after a few minutes he actually managed to do it, however when he felt how thin the mana was he couldn't help but frown, while he was told beforehand it still disappointed him.

And so, once he was done circulating mana through his body, he created the first ring or circle around his heart, however, he didn't stop there, he soon created the second and almost finished the 3rd circle but stopped at two, he had reached peak 2nd circle! Which was plenty to kill those goblins.

once he opened his eyes, he saw the notifications come in right before his eyes...

[Congratulations! you have broken through to peak 2nd circle!]

[Congratulations! you have learned (Basic Mana Meditation Lvl 01) (Basic Mana Control Lvl 01)]

[Skill (Basic Mana Meditation) has leveled up from Lvl 01 -> Lvl 4!]

[Skill (Basic Mana Manipulation) has leveled up from Lvl 01 -> Lvl 5]

Once he saw these notifications, he couldn't help but smile, although he was a long way from how strong he wanted to be, this was at least a first step for him. Before he could be of help though he needed to control an element of using mana, so he decided to choose the element he was most proficient in when he was alive and that is... Lightning!

After a few moments of messing around with the mana in the air and visualizing the lightning crackling off his hands he felt the mana gather up into his palm and then he finally did it, he formed a ball of lightning! and with that, a new notification popped up which shocked him.

[Congratulations! you have learned the skill (Basic Lightning Magic Lvl 3)]

Although he doesn't know why the skill started at level 3, he wasn't going to complain because now his proficiency with all lightning magic had risen.

"Now, let's go help Lapis."