7

"So what are you?" he drains an entire bottle of wine.

thinking it over there is no reason to lie with my goal being to get him to sign a contract with me. the more he likes me the more likely that is to happen, still need to convince him he is sealed here by ancient runes though, the only bad part of that is I don't know any ancient runes and I also can't see them myself. trying to sense the sin around him he is leaking both greed and pride which should be the norm for dragons if I had to guess.

"I am a devil, my kind live in hell."

"Devil from hell, never heard of either and I have been around a while. but also I have never seen someone like you either so maybe you're telling the truth." he seems to go into deep thought.

"Well, I could demonstrate something to prove my point if you are interested." I have been getting a steady trickle of sin from him which I believe is him trying to poison me.

"Yea? what can you show me that would make me believe you?" he has a look of amusement that lets me know he will at least hear me out if I can entertain him.

"Nova! take Alice and retreat I will hold him off." the valiant Athena raises herself while wobbling like a drunk. she raises her sword but then we hear Paglio snort and the sword begins to melt, but before anything more can happen I speak up to diffuse the situation.

"Athena you should stay calm sir poison dragon here would have killed us if he wanted us dead before we even knew what was going on." Athena looks at me then back at Paglio and then her eyes go wide before she stumbles without anything to support her. she is pretty tough for someone around peak intermediate demon or is she a higher demon at this point I can't remember but I need to learn how to gauge power levels before I get killed by someone.

"So you can tell I am a poison dragon huh? neat trick but how are you going to show some proof you are a so-called devil?" I remember that he originally wanted to make a contract with Athena to help him get free but then Chen Rui impressed him into an equal contract.

"Well if you want you could try to use your best poisons on me and they won't work. Devils are immune to poisons but that also makes us immune to some medicines sadly." trying to make it sound believable and maybe grab a lot of Sin from him unleashing higher quality poisons on me.

"Immune to poisons, let's see about that." with a cruel smile I feel my vision start to fog before it disappears and a look of surprise flashes on Paglio's face before he smiles wide and my vision goes completely black. Before I can panic thinking I relied too much on a stupid system I see a screen.

[ Detecting abundance of high-quality poison, congratulations on meeting the requirement! ]

[ Trait unlocked - Stolas - Toxicity ]

My vision comes back and with it a rush of knowledge from the Stolas trait including some special tricks with my body fluids. Grinning at finding a new way to unlock Traits is game-changing. if I can gain traits by having an abundance of something can I unlock Sitri by swimming or would I have to drown? before I begin to think of unique ways to almost kill myself for power I remember now's not the time and look up toward Paglio with an unreadable expression on his face.

"That venom attack would even take a peak demon overlord some time to shake off and you merely stumbled... what kind of cheat are devils?" he mumbles the last part but I hear him and he thinks about something before he suddenly stands up and approaches me. " how strong are you? if you sign a contract with me I will treat you right you just have to do something for me."

--Athena pov--

Athena on the side has a look of exasperation, this is a poison dragon a real dragon and here this presumably weak guy is just shrugging off his poison attacks like they are not there. if he can do that how strong is he? Does he have bad intentions toward the dark moon why is he here? but remembering how they are out away from the city with no guards and he didn't try anything she calms down. if he wanted to hurt the dark moon he could have killed Alice now and no one would even know and maybe even my dad would be accused of helping the assassination with how I was ordered to not bring Alice out after the incident in the black rainforest.

Slowly moving toward Alice the poison dragon looks at me and I can't even move anymore.

"Don't think I can't see you trying to wiggle out of here just sit there and don't do anything stupid or I will melt you like your sword." That would be a pretty bad way to go but I still need to get princess Alice out of here she is in danger and it's my fault.

"Wow hold on buddy they can't be killed they are important people." did he just call the dragon his buddy?

"These weaklings are important? oh well, let's discuss some things come over here." as Nova follows the dragon to the side and I can no longer hear them he gives me a thumbs up behind his back. I guess all I can do is hope he gets us out of this situation I unknowingly pulled us into. next time Alice begs me to go somewhere I will just ignore her! * Hmmp * at least he is better than Alan that coward would have tried to run as soon as he thought he was in danger. now he looks to be arguing with the dragon, does he even fear death at all?

--Nova pov--

"So I am going to need you to help me out of this dang seal so I can leave this accursed lake." he looks around for a bit. "I will have you sign a master-servant contract which is a good deal it won't limit as much as a slave contract and we can work together to get rich." he must think I am a dumbass

"How about we do a equals contract instead. that way we can split the gains in our venture even ways."

"Even ways! who do you think you are your probably only higher demon rank at best what makes you so confident to negotiate with me? I am the peak of demon overlord with thousands of years of experience." he turns his nose up.

"Well if you sign an equal contract I can tell you about why I am so confident but as things are you just need to know I am more than capable of climbing to demon overlord within a few years. and demon overlord, hah you should be sealed with at least two seals so who's to say that you are even still that strong?" let's see if he can conclude he's sealed by ancient runes on his own with a little help.

"Two seals, who told you that?"

"Well if you are peak demon overlord how could you be sealed and not able to escape by just another overlord with his lock of light and dark?" he contemplates for a bit before his eyes go wide.

"You are right how could I be sealed without even wakening up? I must have already been sealed and that explains why my memory is so spotty. but if that's the case who could of and how.. oh no if it was her then I am screwed." he looks genuinely depressed after coming to some conclusions.

"Her? who was it that sealed you?"

"The most dangerous woman in the demon realm, we were once allies to obtain a treasure but after getting it I snagged it from her and ran." is this something to look so proud about? he is even leaking an abundance of pride sin like Shea. "alright my name is Paglio Sandro Achilles I will sign an equals contract with you so you can have the best chance of living long enough to compete with her. if you are confident enough to reach demon overlord in a few years then you should be able to compete with her in one hundred years. with the contract with me, you will gain a dragon aspect and live for hundreds of thousands of years." as a devil I could live that long anyway I think.

In front of me appears a golden contract with the title being equal contract. pushing my demonic power into it, it ignites and I feel a connection to Paglio form.

[ Detecting abundance of dragon aspect, congratulations on meeting the requirement! ]

[ Trait unlocked - Bune - dragon Form]

Another trait?! feeling the rush of knowledge I know that I now can disguise myself as a dragon. using this trait I also have a high affinity to dragons as a so-called dragon tamer and in the dragon form, I have a few bonuses like damage resistance. it's not a full dragon body I can take on but I will gain dragon wings and scales on my arms, legs, and chest. what a huge gain, this is better than I could have hoped for with gaining Paglio as an ally.

* Sniff sniff *

"Huh you kind of smell a bit different now, what's that about?" Paglio has an odd look.

"It would seem your dragon aspect has given me a pseudo dragon form of sorts." he looks shocked

"Damn what kind of cheat is being a devil! show it to me." I motion over my shoulder toward the observing Athena and he nods. "Show me when you come back I need to start teaching you the dragon langue so you can go to my treasury in silent night wasteland to grab some things for me."

[Shop - Sin total = 1340

Tier up - 10000 sin

Contracts advanced - 1000

Magic circles advanced - 5000

Garden - 1000

Temple of Sin - 1000

Evil piece

Queen - 5000

Rook - 2000

Bishop - 2000

Knight - 2000

Pawn - 1000 ]

"Paglio can you use some poison on me I want to test something." he nods but I don't feel anything and am disappointed an infinite Sin glitch isn't working. "never mind it didn't work."

"What was it?"

"I gain power from different sources and I was gaining it from your poison but it seems after that last venom attack I can't gain anymore from it." hearing Paglio mumble about being a cheater I remember the lake is full of sin and look over at it again and it's still a mosh pit of colors swirling around. maybe because he never moved much while sleeping or some other factor but it seems a good bit of sin is trapped within the lake itself. before walking over I need to let Athena know all is going to be fine but when I turn around I see she is knocked out maybe she couldn't resist the poison any longer. " hey can you wake them up after I try to absorb some power from the lake?"

"Yea no problem but we need to play a trick on that great demon so she doesn't run her mouth off about what she saw. and then you need to make her yours so she won't betray us, great demon woman only ever loves one man and she would never say anything about what she saw if she was in love with you. also, she has the potential to be a good ally to help you get what I need from my treasury." pretty similar to what he said to Chen Rui but still weird to hear how cruel he can be.

"Don't worry I got it, she won't be a problem." Paglio flashes a wide grin with his unusually bright white teeth.

"Alright, I am going to try to absorb what's in the lake."