As Asher looked at his wounds, the hardened expression on his face quickly turned grim. He was still suffering from the lingering status effects of his battle with the Blood Claw Demon. But instead of resting after killing it, he had been forced into continuous combat. Now, the bleeding in his arms and legs was getting worse.
There were no hospitals here. No emergency services.
Knowing things could get ugly fast if he didn't stop the bleeding, Asher brought up his only hope.
"Status," he called.
******
[Name: Asher Vale]
[Race: Abyssal Imp] (Contract Summon/Clone)
[Rank: Common ★]
[Level: 1 (20 / 200 EXP)]
[Talent: Evolve Through Plunder (SSS)]
[Evolution Value: 4.5/10]
[Strength: 7.3 (↑2.3)]
[Agility: 8.3 (↑2.3)]
[Constitution: 7.2 (↑4.2)]
[Intelligence: 10.2 (↑0.2)]
[Health Points: 20 / 72]
[Mana: 102 / 102]
[Free Attribute Points: 4]
[Skills: Spike-Tail Whip (E), Rending Claws (E), Adrenal Surge (E)]
His condition was terrible. The only reason he hadn't collapsed already was because of his boosted Constitution and Health Points.
If he could rest and tend to his wounds, his demonic body would probably heal on its own. But Asher wasn't satisfied with waiting around.
[Constitution: 7.2 → 10.2]
[Health Points: 20 / 72 → 50 / 102]
The moment he allocated the points, warmth and strength flooded through his body. A faint itching sensation spread as the bleeding around his wounds dried up.
Asher exhaled, caught between relief and awe.
This was the magic of the Awakening System.
A wondrous mechanism far beyond human understanding.
It was the power that allowed humans to stand against dragons, yet now, somehow, it was working inside the frail body of an imp.
After a while, his new demonic body, bolstered by higher Constitution, began knitting itself together. The bleeding stopped. His breathing steadied.
Seated on the obsidian rock, Asher gazed down at the endless carnage unfolding below. The battlefield was a brutal frenzy of claws, teeth, and blood. His body was healing, but his thoughts were restless.
'Is this going to go on forever?' Asher wondered.
He didn't know what this place truly was. But if there was no escape, then the only choice was to dive back into the chaos, farm more experience points, grow stronger, and level up.
After all, in a bloodbath like this, if he was careful whilst hunting, his level could rise faster than a rocket!
But before he could act on that thought, the ground shuddered.
A deep, pulsing tremor rolled through the cavern floor. Asher staggered, one hand slamming against the stone wall to keep from falling.
Overhead, the massive red crystals embedded in the ceiling flickered violently, throwing distorted shadows through the mist. The air thickened as the bloody haze churned.
Then came a sudden, unbearable sound, one high, piercing.
The sound seemed to set off a feeling inside of all of the demons; even Asher could feel something stirring inside of him.
As Asher was having this strange feeling, the shrill screams of hundreds of little demons echoed through the cavern.
Regardless of what was happening, the demons all stopped fighting at once, and every head turned in the direction the quake was originating from
Then, without any warning or explanation, they all turned around and exploded into a chaotic scramble!
Some of the demons sprinted on all fours like feral beasts. Others flapped their useless wings, barely managing to hover. Smaller demons hopped across the backs of their larger kin, surfing the wave of bodies.
No matter how they did it, all of them surged in the same direction
Asher, at this time, didn't think too deeply. He didn't hesitate and started running too.
[Agility: 8.3 → 9.3]
He didn't know what was coming. He didn't know what they were running from. But if every abyssal demon's instincts screamed run, he wasn't about to stand still and argue with evolution.
The ground trembled again, sharper this time. Cracks split across the cavern floor, exposing veins of pulsing, blood-red magma. The chamber lit with a crimson glow, throbbing like a dying heart.
By now, some of the slower demons were swallowed by the bloodfire, shrieking as their bodies dissolved in the boiling red puddle.
The air thickened, the boiling red steam clinging to Asher's skin like burning oil. His wounded shoulder screamed, but he grit his teeth and pushed on through the hellish mist.
Then, up ahead, the demon swarm split and started disappearing, and after reaching their position, Asher quickly understood why
Vents tore through the cavern walls, gusts of air howling into descending tunnels. Some vents carried demons left, others right. The swarm didn't care. They dove in blindly, vanishing into the rushing currents as if tossed down slides at some nightmarish theme park.
Asher, however, was not so bold. He slowed at the ledge, tail bristling. But hesitation wasn't a luxury he could afford because the stampede behind him shoved him off.
He plunged, swept into a torrent of air that roared like a living beast. His body tumbled, twisted, spiralling upward through a volcanic pressure vent.
Then—WHOOMPH!
A geyser of red steam erupted beneath him with the roar of a dragon.
The cavern floor detonated.
Asher was launched, flung through the shaft alongside shrieking demons. The world spun into choking mist and heat, then everything went white.
—
When Asher opened his eyes, he was weightless
No… he was airborne!
For a heartbeat, a foolish thought even crossed his mind:
Then reality slapped him across the face.
Fly? What the hell was he thinking?! The time he blacked out hadn't been long enough for him to magically grow a pair of wings, so unless gravity suddenly went on vacation, he wasn't flying.
He was falling.
"Ah, shit—!"
Wind shrieked past his ears as he pinwheeled through the air, flailing like a broken kite. In blind desperation, he prayed to every god, goddess, and half-baked pantheon he could remember, hell, he even prayed to the great obsidian table, begging for the sacred blessing of feather falling.
He was desperate, okay?
CRASH!
Asher slammed into mud and underbrush, tumbling through roots and moss before skidding to a painful stop at the base of a massive tree and falling into a vine and leaf covered ditch
He groaned. Everything hurt, but he was alive. Somehow. Against all odds, he had avoided the worst possible outcome, instant death by fall damage.
Others weren't so lucky.
Just like him, many demons rained down from the sky like hail. Some splattered against the earth, broken and still. Others crashed through trees, slowed only slightly by branches before hitting the ground with a sickening thud. The luckiest landed on top of their kin, using their bodies as a sacrifice to cushion their fall.
Asher barely had time to process this carnage before he heard it—A low, guttural sound.
From the shadows, they came.
Monsters.
Gnarled beasts with jagged skull plates and stretched, membranous flesh. Their eyes glowed faintly as they prowled on clawed limbs, jaws opening at unnatural angles.
Asher buried himself deeper into the ditch, his tail coiled low when one of these horrifying beasts trotted past, so close he could swear he felt its breath.
Just as Asher thought he had escaped
The horrifying monster paused and sniffed. It was about to turn around and start heading back into Asher's direction when a loud demons screech took its attention and then darted away chasing after the sound
Asher didn't dare move, he didn't dare to even breath Not until the silence pressed back in.
Now. Move.
He darted upward, climbing into the branches. With predators prowling the forest floor, wandering below was suicide.
Asher scurried through the canopy like some twisted monkey-lizard, never looking back.