Chapter 19: 19. Debt II

Dhampy looked at the daemon corpses littering the ground. She and her boss had been hunting for three hours. It was now night but despite that simple fact, they still killed without fear of the blood attracting other daemons.

Lilith was bold, attacking anything and everything that catches her eyes. But she was also cautious and would choose to retreat if things went awry.

Dhampy was aware that Lilith was simply being cautious because of her presence. Lilith continued on attacking weaker daemons ensuring Dhampy's safety.

'Such focus.' it genuinely impressed Dhampy seeing Lilith's command of the battlefield.

Add to that her inexplicable manipulative abilities leading on daemon as she made sure Dhampy would not be overwhelmed by higher-leveled daemons, only strengthened Dhampy's respect for her boss.

[Dhampy's Loyalty +1]

'Damn, it's increasing without reason… enough of that, hey Alpha, do you think I can haggle with Goddess?'

Haggling with the Goddess, Lilith was still 3,200 SP short despite the non-stop hunting she's doing. Given that she was hunting low-level daemons to avoid meeting any wanted trouble, it was still pretty much the same.

The Mana Core of daemons whether they be LVL 23 or 25 amounted the same, 200 SP. Though she did not like it, she at least appreciated the fact that she need not aim for higher-level preys just to earn some more SP.

That said, she still found it hard earning enough to buy what she needed. In the end, she resorted to haggling with the Goddess through Alpha.

 

[The Goddess said she will not lower the price of the items. Oh, she just sent us a letter, how about that.]

 

[] My dear apostle, please stop haggling with me. The Shop is fair and I will not lower the price. But given that you find it difficult and downright unfair, I will give you two benefits. First, I'll give you a voucher from time to time if you do something nice. Second, you can always take a loan out of me and I'll give you the item that you want. In return, that very loan will have a five-times increase every two months...

Lilith stopped reading halfway through the bullshit of the Goddess. Having a Goddess by your side was not always so good. She was too strait-laced and the leeway she gives was too harsh that Lilith did not want to take it.

If Lilith decided to take the offer then she'll be driven to the ground by the crippling debt she would incur. Also, she couldn't buy anything from the Shop unless she pays up the loan. It would be a shitty situation. The true definition of clutching on a knife.

"Dhampy, let's move, I only need 16 more Mana Core. I can finally earn my keep." Lilith left as a Nightmare Dragonkin.

Money, currency, and anything that had monetary value was not something that exists in the society of low-tier daemons. For Dhampy who heard Lilith spoke of earning money, she found it weird and outright bizarre.

As such, curiosity blossomed towards the unknown, and decided to ask.

"From what I learned, a daemon has no need of—"

"I won't lie to you; the Goddess favors me a lot and she asks me to do all this. It's like good points and if I gain enough of them, I'll be able to receive a reward that we can use to survive."

Dhampy didn't say anything. She felt that Lilith was not telling her everything but Dhampy didn't try and pursue what it was. She too had secrets, and thinking about it, what she said was also insensitive concerning how understanding Lilith had been with her.

'I am still lacking.' Dhampy knew she made a mistake. No one knew what she meant.

Like what Lilith said, both of them went and killed 10 more rare-tier daemons and 16 more common-tier before stopping. After killing everything she needed to kill a devious smile appeared on her face and she motioned with her chin for Dhampy to follow.

They neared the area where the dungeon was located and Lilith gave Dhampy the instructions to make sure that she would not make any sound. But then, as they entered the dungeon, Lilith's face changed.

"Someone's inside this place."

Lilith looked deeper into the dungeon, turning into a Nightmare Dragonkin, Lilith tried peering through the distance to see who it was that entered. But in the end, she saw nothing.

However, listening closely, she could hear the sounds of clashing steel mixed with explosions and shouts. It was dangerous to go forward, but Lilith decided to move forward.

"Dhamoy stay here, something's not right, the corpses of the Lamia I found earlier is missing, I want to sneak in as a Nightmare Dragonkin, but you might attract attention."

Lilith flew forth without waiting for Dhampy's answer. She knew that going in alone with enemies at the end of her destination was stupid, however, she had no choice. Lilith already decided to hunt the Virulent Serpent.

'The body of the Hunters is no longer scattered... it may be other humans.'

The bodies of the fallen Hunters lay still on one side of the dungeon. They were lined up and was covered with white sheets. 

'Hunters are in front of us, I am sure of it. They must be a part of these people's Guild. But they were not here earlier and as for the travel time, then, they must have retreated to gather themselves and returned after planning their revenge.'

Lilith's conjecture was, at the end of the day a mere conjecture. But there might be a team of Hunters nearby, or somewhere along these lines. A gathering of Hunters was never good for a daemon like her.

'Well, even in the past I was enemies against the Hunter's Association so what the heck.'

Nothing had changed. Lilith turned to the deepest areas of the dungeon. The deeper she went, the clearer the sounds of the battle. It was a very heated battle, grunts and shouts echoed all over the place.

Whilst Lilith was approaching, a burst of flame exploded out of nowhere and shook the entire dungeon.

"Blaze!"

"Mina! Go and heal Reginald! Lia and I will slow this bastard down."

A swordsman shouted. His vigor was amazing and his muscles proved that he was no slacker. The armor that protected him from any harm exploded into a brilliant red light and the red two-handed sword of his reacted as it igniting itself to burn!

The Sorceress called Lia, proceeded to cast [Fire Chains] to slow the Virulent Serpent down by a few seconds.

Chains conjured from flame appeared from the ground and the air. Latching onto the Serpent's body, it became an anchor and even damaged the beast.

ROARRRRRRRRRR!

The Serpent searched for the chains and as it caught sight of the Sorceress, it roared and spat out venom to kill the nuisance.

But the swordsman appeared from behind and pulled his ally back and then venom was cut in two. The venom evaporated soon after.

"Grand Blaze Sword!"

The swordsman dashed forward, ready to plunge his blazing sword to the Serpent. The Serpent was enraged; and in an act of desperation, it thrashed around and got out of the chains holding it down.

The Serpent smashed the swordsman's sides with its tail and sent him flying and spinning towards the wall. However, just as he was sent flying, the swordsman managed to throw the fire sword at the beast.

"KUACK!" He coughed out blood as his valiant sacrificed opened the path for his sword to pierce the roof of the Serpent’s mouth.

The force sent the beast flying to the dungeon's ceiling, nailing it there with a blazing sword. It flailed around, trying to break free, but only lost energy and eventually failed — it was slowly dying as blood escaped from its body.

The injured swordsman received some quick and simple healing then got up and watched the Serpent flail from a safe distance.

He looked at it in disbelief.

"Finally, we can return."

"With this, we'll be able to take the test of C-rank Hunters! What a haul!"

"Yes, that is good, but more importantly, we managed to avenge Jared, Rias, and everyone else! Taking the body of our brothers and sisters to their families is what matters most."

The swordsman Rivia said with a stoic expression, he wanted to control it but his tears still fell. He was a large man with a large build but he had a soft heart for a long of things, especially for his teammates who came to this island for this search mission.

All of them breathed a sigh of relief, everything was finally over. Some of them plopped to the ground, exhausted. With their backs on the ground, the dungeon's cold damp floor was about to become their bedding for the night.

But, as they raised their heads watching the ceiling with ragged breaths and smiles, a blue sphere found itself overhead and before they could even react—

You are reading story Empress’ Evolution at novel35.com

BOOM! 

It exploded after filling the room with blinding light.

The dungeon shook and almost fell upon itself. The tremors were felt even outside. 

The explosion was big and powerful enough to swallow everyone present in that battlefield where a grand hunt had been fought. Considering their state, no one in that group could have survived that.

But it was not clear if they would die from just that so...

"Fire Ball."

A ball of flames, about ten inches big appeared from out of nowhere and bombarded the vicinity...

It is not enough.

"Fire Ball, Fire Ball, Fire Ball...."

Five more Fire Balls were sent to make sure that everyone was dead and for some good measure—

"Miasmic Expulsion~"

Wait for at least ten minutes, and then finally, Lilith came out of her hiding place behind a rock as a Thunder Clap Leopard whom she transformed into just in case she needed to behead them herself.

She made sure that the daemon and humans were dead. She looked at the devastation and smiled, content with what she had done.

"There, good and safe."

[Level up x4]

[LVL 22 -> 26] 

[Virulent-Serpent LVL 31 Dead]

[] You killed someone 11 levels ahead of you, the Goddess commends you of your endeavor thus granting you the title [Hunter].

[] Hunter: a hunter hunts beings who are stronger than them using their wits. +10 MAG and STR when equipped.

The daemon she killed was 9 levels ahead of her, but one of the Hunters was at LVL 33.

She did not hesitate to bombard the area with the Low-Tier Magic Bomb she saved SP for, her Active Spells, and Poison/Miasma in order to make sure the humans were dead. She also threw the bomb right before the Serpent died so she got the EXP for it.

The hunters that averaged at LVL 32 and 33 and the single daemon that was at LVL 31 pushed her level to 26 without her doing much. She was happy and jumped for joy. But as she looked at the human corpses present lying burnt on the ground, she creased her brows.

"...I need to make sure."

She said and went to crush the heads of those who still had it intact. Lilith was a very thorough person, she had seen a lot of weird shits and learned of heaven-defying things.

Humans have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. Although daemons were superior to them when it comes to natural prowess, the human trickery was enough to supplement their lack of strength.

There's a chance that someone on the human side has the ability to kill her when they die, or momentarily come back to life to slay the one who slew them.

[You really are ruthless to your own kind... aren't you feeling kind of... bad? Didn't you want to talk to them?]

'I'm a daemon now, so no, why should I talk to them? They are better off dead as EXP than be spared and give them the chance to attack me because they see me as an enemy, which, to be fair, is understandable. And if they can attack me because of my race, I would gladly attack them because…I can that’s it.' Lilith didn't care if it was human or not. 

Daemons and humans, for better or worse, were EXP in Lilith's eyes. All is fair if she kills both sides.

After making sure all of them were extra dead, she checked the area and tried to see if there was any useful item that survived her onslaught.

[] You have picked up (damaged) [Magic Iron Shield], do you wish to turn it to SP? Y/N?

Lilith's eyes widened and immediately picked yes. She earned 1,000 SP for that shield. which dissolved into bubbles and disintegrated into nothingness... it was worth it.

"Hehehehe, it can be sold."

No explanation was needed and Lilith began going around the area scavenging for weapons and items she could sell. Other than a Pendant and a sword, she sold everything else.

The armor was too big for Dhampy so she let it go and everything else was not something she or any of her family could use so, she also sold it off.

Overall, her earnings were 7,600 SP.

"Oh shit, this is not the reason why I am here."

Lilith turned to the Serpent that had already fallen to the ground after Lilith took the sword from the wall. She looked at the snake and checked if it still had blood. Thankfully, the blood did not evaporate so she went out, called Dhampy and brought her inside to present her with the Serpent.

"You hunted this Serpent, boss?"

"I had some help."

Lilith motioned with her chin and pointed at the pile of dead bodies adjacent to the wall.

Dhampy's eyes twitched for a second after seeing the dead Hunters.

Her expression was not missed. But Lilith didn't really care about it, as long as Dhampy's loyalty was high enough, she would not care how she reacts to things. 

Dhampy should also get used to such a sight. After all, Lilith plans on taking on the world sooner or later.

"Dhampy, go and take the blood of the Serpent, we're getting out of here in a bit."

"Yes, boss."

Dhampy did what she was told and Lilith rummaged through the items of the humans and found their World Network. Sadly, all of it were busted so they were useless to her.

But she did find a bunch of Mana Cores in their bags. And without caring about it, Lilith went ahead and turned them into her SP.

[+ 2,800 SP]

By the time Lilith finished, she decided to head out and act as the look-out. It's better safe than sorry.

"Dhampy, I'll head out first, follow me after you are done."

Dhampy let out a groan to let Lilith know she heard her.

After Lilith left, Dhampy took 15 minutes to finish all the blood. Her stomach was a little bloated but she felt satisfied, more so than she thought she would be.

She was just about to head out, however, she stopped in her tracks and approached the dead bodies. Rummaging through their bodies, she found an insignia marked in their bodies that was in the form of a skull.

"Skull Guild...they are not a part of Penta."

Dhampy left soon after.