Damien Veyne: Hellbound
◆ Trial Stage / Physical Enhancement:
First Circle/★☆☆☆☆☆☆ (1 / 7 Stars)
◆ First Circle XP:
0.5
◆ Weapons:
• Common Dagger (1/7 Stars)
◆ Starting Sin:
Deception
◆ Sin Ability:
Deceptive Gamble — Your lies become 70% more likely to succeed; however, there is a 1% chance that your deception will rebound upon you, ensnaring you in its web.
◆ Starting Shackle:
The Veil of Lies — When you embrace deception, the Veil encircles your body and soul, inflicting searing pain with every falsehood.
– Error: Without a magical virtue, the Veil's effect cannot diminish your spellcasting power.
◆ Starting Virtue:
None
◆ Virtue Ability:
None
◆ Corruption Ratio:
100%
'Trial Stage / Physical Enhancement: 1 out of 7 stars.'
Damien studied the line, eyes narrowing slightly.
'Makes sense. One trial stage, one star. Seven trials, seven stars. It's a progression system—linear, simple. Evalyn mentioned that before.'
His gaze drifted lower, landing on a different set of runes.
"First Circle XP."
That one made him pause.
'So the system converted that half-star mutt into XP… must be what First Circle XP refers to. I killed a half-star hound, and now I've got 0.5 XP. That confirms it, XP scales to the creature's rank.'
But something still tugged at his mind, an itch he couldn't quite scratch.
'First Circle XP… so does that mean it resets after each trial? Is XP confined to the circle it's earned in? Or is it cumulative, just labeled per region?'
He sighed slightly, eyes flicking to the numbers again.
'And more importantly, what does it do? In most games, XP equals power. You level up, resulting in stats going up, but I don't feel any stronger.'
He clicked his tongue, annoyed.
'Maybe I need more of it. Or maybe this system doesn't hand out rewards that easily. Either way… I'm going to find out.'
Damien closed the runes and looked around.
Two craters marked the battlefield, each filled with torn, smoldering remains, at least thirty Hellhound corpses, their bones shattered and flesh half-incinerated. Just above the crater's rim, directly beside him, two more bodies lay twisted in the sand, ones he'd killed by hand.
Across the battlefield, on the opposite side of the craters, the Grey Monk sat in silence. Three Hellhounds surrounded him, each one neatly slain. He knelt between their corpses, blood on his robes and shallow cuts on his sleeves, whispering some quiet prayer.
Damien's gaze drifted left, farther off into the untouched green of the oasis.
Jenna.
She was still stuck, standing in knee-high grass, yanking on a thick branch overhead with one hand, trying to wrench her legs free from the clinging earth. Next to the oasis were the two bottles of water, bread, and the tent.
'The stick can wait,' Damien thought, returning to the corpses.
He began absorbing them one by one, skipping only the three that the monk had claimed. Maybe it was greedy, maybe it violated the spirit of the trial, but that didn't bother Damien. If anyone deserved the spoils, it was him.
Without his quick thinking, using Jenna's blood to create a fruit bomb, they'd all be dead. And he wasn't about to let her, of all people, profit from a problem she helped cause in the first place.
One by one, the monsters vanished in golden light.
When the last corpse dissolved into motes of energy, Damien summoned his runes again and checked the XP counter.
◆ First Circle XP:
17
'That's thirty-four monsters absorbed… and I still feel the same. Not stronger. Not faster. Nothing.'
He narrowed his eyes, theories already forming.
The first, and most depressing possibility: XP only fuels virtue-based magic. For most Hellbound, that wouldn't be a problem. But for Damien, who lacked even a sliver of virtue, it meant the XP was worthless.
The second theory: XP does affect physical strength… just not until you've absorbed a ridiculous amount. That, too, would be miserable. This encounter was a fluke; Jenna's ability had made the explosions possible, and her being stuck gave Damien first claim on the kills. Opportunities like this wouldn't come often.
But it was the third theory that held his attention.
XP doesn't do anything until the trial ends.
Until then, it's just stored.
Once the trial is complete, and you proceed to the subsequent trial, the system multiplies that XP against your next physical enhancement, a reward delivered only at the finish line.
'Makes sense,' Damien thought. 'The monk was stronger, but I was faster. Enhancement must be a multiplier, not an equalizer. Which means… if I finish this trial with 400 XP, and it multiplies my second circle physical enhancement, I would gain a serious boost.
This theory carried more weight than the others, especially the first.
'If someone could boost the strength of their virtue ability without actually embracing virtue, it would defeat the entire point of the system.'
He exhaled, long and slow, the breath rolling through gritted teeth.
'Still, even this theory isn't ideal.'
'Just like the second, it hinges on my killing a mountain of monsters just to keep up. Other Hellbounds will have the advantage with their virtues, and by the start of the next trial, they will undoubtedly have more XP than me.'
A bitter smirk curved his lips.
'Whatever. I don't care.'
"Life's never been fair to me, and I still became the Devil. Feared by many. Killed by none…"
He laughed, low and bitter.
"Well… I guess one. Summer."
His eyes flashed as he closed the runes.
"Let them cling to virtue. I'll conquer this system without one. Nothing will stop me from being reborn."
…
It had taken the Grey Monk and Damien hours to free Jenna from the garden. The earth hadn't just held her feet; it had latched onto them with unnatural strength, as if the roots themselves were trying to keep her. And unfortunately for Jenna, agility was not among her limited virtues.
Each time she managed to lift one leg, she immediately stepped back down with the other, re-trapping herself. Over and over again. A frustrating, tedious cycle of failure. The Monk handed her a spear to leverage herself upward, but her movements were clumsy and ineffective. It wasn't until both men worked in unison, pulling, lifting, and guiding her every step, that she was finally dragged free.
Now, night had fallen across the desert. The stars were faint and scattered across the sky, and the temperature had plummeted below freezing. The trio had set up camp just outside the oasis. Jenna and the Monk slept inside the tent, their breaths fogging the air, while Damien sat alone outside the tent, eyes scanning the dunes, watching again.
This time, he wasn't exhausted.
The fruits had done their job, his strength had returned, his senses sharp as blades. He felt alive again.
Jenna had offered to take watch earlier, but Damien shot that idea down with a flat "No." He didn't trust the stick, but he did make her useful by having her drag her bloodied arm around the perimeter, laying traps in a wide circle around the tent. If any monsters wandered too close, they'd explode.
Camping beside the garden was a calculated risk. The lush green haven would almost certainly attract more beasts.
But the rewards outweighed the risk.
XP and fruit.
Both ripe for the taking.
Damien exhaled, watching his breath coil into cold mist. The night bit into his skin, but he didn't flinch; instead, he stared up at the near-starless sky.
'I wonder what's happening with the organization...'
His mind wandered to Earth. To the shadows and glass towers. 'Summer probably has a new partner by now. Unless they killed her.'
It was a genuine possibility. The organization had no room for traitors.
But strangely, he hoped they hadn't.
Not because he cared for her. No, he wanted her to live long enough to see him return. Just long enough for him to see the fear on her face.
The betrayal in her eyes.
The horror.
Damien smiled to himself at the image.
But then, a sound shattered the quiet.
A laugh.
Not just any laugh, but a shrill, ragged cackling—loud enough to echo across the dunes like dry bone scraping glass.
The same cackling he had heard the night prior.
Damien stood immediately, instinct taking over. He scanned the horizon, eyes slicing through the dark.
It took him a moment, but he saw it.
Something far off.
A walking flame in human shape.
He tilted his head slightly.
'What the hell…?'