CH9: The Abandoned Village

The mines were dark and filled with terrified, jumpy goblins that gave us a wide berth. Yellow eyes watched our weapons from the shadows with crude stone spears in hand, but they never approached. We crossed through tunnels, some mined for silver and others decorated with bone and animal hide fetishes, marking them goblin. As we walked through a section of widening tunnels, I spotted a small altar to a deity of some kind off the trail with food left in stone-carved bowls.

Lifael said something and I cupped my ear in her direction. All noise was drowned out by the screeching of the axes.

How could I leave two enchanted weapons behind?

I felt like a plow horse as the blades cut deep trenches through the stone, leaving two long rows behind me. When I tried to carry them, my mental strength began to falter. Pushing grace to flood my system with a cocktail of painkillers and steroids wasn't sustainable.

Halfway through the cave, when we passed by an old tunnel leading to a dead end, Lifael shouted over the noise. "I need to relieve myself."

I gave the lovely elf girl my most confused expression. "Elves don't shit they are too pure."

"Really, boss, that's amazing. Does that mean they absorb all nutrients and leave no waste?"

"You're about to find out how wrong you are in person," Lifael said.

Siegfried shook his head in exasperation, and Jean sighed. Lifael started to sweat, and Jinxara just grinned, happy to be in the middle of the chaos.

Ruel 1 of dungeon diving: don't split the party. "The second we turn our backs, those goblins are going to snatch you. Jinxara, go with her and make sure that doesn't happen."

"On it, the boss; I'll stake my life and ensure the elf doesn't get caught by the gobs," Jinxara said.

"I have to do business too," Jean said.

I waved her on. Jean was helpful as an Elementalist, but in the dark cave, she was as blind as Siegfried. Jinxara led the girls away from their group further into the cave. Princess Charlotte glared at our party members before shaking her head.

"I went in the catacombs while no one was watching."

"Well, with demons are there it's not like the place can get more desecrated. So what are the odds the goblins try something?" I asked.

"I'm glad we have four people with dark vision in our party," Siegfried said.

"Should I wipe them out to be safe?" I asked.

Seigfried looked troubled. "No, I would prefer it if you did not. In our ancient past, heroes wiped out entire clans of the green skins to quickly gain levels in combat jobs. In those days, every hole in the ground was more likely to hold a goblin than a rabbit. Only in this enlightened age have we humans learned to restrain ourselves to allow populations of monsters to recover. This war for survival may end with the extinction of many monster races to gather strength in a few individuals."

"The empire herded the unicorns into massive herds and drove them off cliffs for their massive XP output. Few unicorns survived the hunting that made the Great Khan and his men so fierce." Charlotte said.

A world that encouraged mass slaughter all to create tyrants to impose their will upon people was the calling card of an Archon. They fed on despair to live. When this world became a hell world, it would be cut off, and the archon would wither and die.

As for the XP problem, I didn't know if solving it would even be worth it. Let's say I use my grace to make a unicorn slime hybrid that gives tons of xp, eats garbage, and can clone itself. One group would horde them for themselves and declare anyone who tried to grow strong enough to overthrow them by killing other creatures outlaws. The despair would still flow feeding the archon who created this world.

But would that matter if it was to defeat the demon lord?

I shook my head. Doing something like that with grace wouldn't be easy, to say the least.

"I know it sounds bad, but"

I interrupted Seigfried. "It is what it is. Let's leave the goblins to do what they do. There are plenty of demons to go around."

"Speaking of demons, we have a situation."

"What happened?"

Siegfried looked away, embarrassed. "It's about my jobs. After the last battle, I gained some experience from defeating the fiend." The knight looked away in shame.

"Don't worry about it. I don't use your system, so XP is useless to me. If that's been bothering you then you don't need to work yourself up over it. If you gained something from that fight, I'm happy for it."

Siegfried looked like he was trying hard not to grin. "That's not the problem. I gained an option for a T3 job that combines my knight and demon hunter jobs. It's called Hell Knight, and combining two jobs is the dream. I could learn nearly anything with a free slot open but I don't know anything about the job."

"It sounds like a knight class that is either very good at handling demons or it can use demonic power. If it's the former, then there is nothing to worry about. You'll eventually become a demon if it's the latter." I said.

"Take it the god of the world wouldn't give you the option if it wasn't needed for the war." Princess Charlotte said.

I shrugged at that. Archons had a clear need, but this was a battle for survival.

"I'll take it." Before my eyes, Siegfried bulked up to the point he almost ripped through his armor. His muscles had muscles, and a red glow surrounded him, much like the power of the fiend before. On the bright side, I didn't sense any demonic power from him. "This power has such a steep mana cost."

Did the archon copy a demonic technique and gave it to Siegfried?

The girls returned with Jinxara licking her blood-splattered lips. Behind her, she dragged a goblin with bites taken out of it. Was she having fun driving an endangered species closer to extinction?

…

We made it out of the mine and into the fading light. The closest house in the abandoned village, a large brick monstrosity, was used for shelter. We found beds covered in dust with few rats or other vermin.

"I'll volunteer first watch," Seigfried said.

I fell into a bed and slept like the dead.

I dreamt of a white void with a halo hanging above my head like the sword of Damocles. Instead of the solid black representation of demonic power, there were eyes, mouths, and gnashing teeth. Limbs were broken and bent to fit within the lines of each ring. In the first ring, I saw the body of a haunting, carnage, covetous imp and its green flesh and bony appendages. The second ring, while larger, crushed them more thoroughly. The were hellspawn like the beserkling, Vanity Sprite, and Grudge Spawn.

My grace contained them, held them away from my body and soul, and prevented them from influencing me. Within the white expanse, a small golden spark hovered, waiting to be used.

I couldn't help but smirk.

There were potions in this world that could heal someone from the brink of death. My grace was ready to grant me an ability any ability I wanted. The demonic power had helped by giving it something to fight against, and it had already been used to resist demonic power. Regeneration wasn't an issue, but why not improve on something already there?

But the broader the power, the more grace was needed to make it happen. If the ability was only something I was already doing in some way, then it had something to work from. I grinned in the void.

Physical Adaptation 

The small spark of grace diminished as threads of power weaved through my soul into my body. Of course, I needed to push myself to reach where I wanted to go. There was no free lunch.

When I woke up, my head was pounding, and people were arguing.

"If you have any compassion in your hearts, you'll leave before that thing brings more of its kind here."

Siegfried's tired gruff voice was so loud it made the boards of the walls thrum from his volume. "I told you we aren't leaving until we get some rest."

I rolled and fell flat on my face. It seemed that my grace did more than I thought. I was just getting hurt, and my grace was too weak to pull upon. This was what I wanted: an ability to enhance myself. Unfortunately, I wouldn't get far without a healing factor and tons of food.

"What's their problem?" I asked.

"You're up, good." Siegfried pointed at me. He's our demon expert. Question him since my words as a knight aren't good enough."

The person he was talking to turned out to be a man in his 20s with his hair tied back in a man bun. He was fighting age and healthy but hadn't joined up with anyone for the war effort. I considered that a bad sign. But I was only just stepping into this mess. Maybe he was a brave resistance fighter.

"Good, then, tell this imbecile that the demons will sense their own and find us."

"You're wrong," I said.

"What are you talking about? I've seen it before: those female demons act like they want to help us until we bring them into our camps. Then they call the riders, and the people are either killed or enslaved."

"This case is different," I said.

"How explain to me how this is any different from every horror story I've heard on the road or that I've seen myself?" The boy asked.

I looked between Jinxara and the guy. "She loves me," I said.

I walked over to Jinxara and hugged her in front of the angry mob. "It's true I would do anything for the boss."

The guy screamed at the top of his lungs. "Liar! You're lost. Those things can't love."

"Boss I know how we can convince them. Make out with me it's the only way." I smacked her ass.

"Knock it off. I saw what your venom did to the goblins."

"You're letting her kill the goblins. How could you let those innocent creatures be hunted? Do you have no shame?" The guy asked.

My head continued to pound. Adaption wasn't making it any easier to deal with this guy. I was sure he was a demon spy. Maybe it was the fact the guy was handsome, and I looked a little ragged.

"Siegfried, take a break, I'll take over the watch," I said.

The boy looked smug. "So that's it you can't even argue my point."

I bet the guy was in love with a demoness, and she corrupted him. But the crowd wanted answers, and I was still booting up.

"Since when does arguing change anyone's mind?" I looked behind him to see a woman and young girls gathered around, watching. Some boys around his age were in a group armed with spears, and one had a sword on his hip.

They aren't alive because they were skilled or lucky enough to escape demon patrols. The demon lord let several survivors escape and congregate behind their lines for when they need to replenish their numbers. It was better to have their broodmares in one place; several men were required to provide for them. There were fewer suicides with this method.

Honestly, it was impressive that a demon lord was so forward-thinking. Most of the time, they just use up all their resources when using this strategy, leaving them with nothing if the planet manages a black phoenix event and stalls the conquest.

"You're just scared to converse with me."

Jinxara walked up behind me while chewing on the bones of the goblin she killed. "Do you want me to spit in his eye?"

"No, that will blind him, and he's already deaf, so there is no need to make him more of a burden on those around him."

It would rot his skull into mush and kill him in less than a day, but I chose my words wisely.

"Are we going to let these outsiders bring a demon in our midst?"

"Oh, before I forget, you have my permission to rank up now. You better do that while we have time. I'm sure this guy already told his handlers we're here. A small band of demon riders is probably on their way," I said.

"You think this idiot is the spy," Jinxara said.

I imagined there were many. This one who drew the short straw.

"Yea, he's the useful idiot that will be raped to death when the demon lord gives the order to liquidate assets before the campaign ends."

"Boss, what happens to the imps after a campaign? No one ever told us."

"They'll be liquidated to increase the points the demon lord has to work with for his next campaign. These worlds are often sold to higher nobles like earls or, in rare cases, princes, and they prefer their breed of imps. Sitri Imps, for example, are adapted to water magic and have powerful affinities."

"What about you?"

The guy swung with a brick in his hand, as chains wrapped him and his allies up.

I gave Jinxara my full attention. "You'll come with me to the next world."

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