The Damned Demon

After walking through a dark tunnel, Asher entered a spacious hall with an ominous atmosphere.

There were dark red lights lighting up the black walls and the entire hall. Yet the entire place had a dark impression.

The entire gray stone floor was adorned with a variety of mystical symbols and banners hanging from the ceiling, bearing the insignia of the tower.

Many other demons also walked in along with him, giving him strange looks mixed with hidden contempt and ridicule. And the fact that such a pretty busty maid was following him only made their eyes glow with envy. But seeing how she was a werewolf, their eyes glinted with a dark light.

Asher couldn't care less about their stares and saw multiple queues of demons in front of him.

In front of these queues was an elevated platform on top of which a large circular box chamber made of glass was placed and looked quite eerie. The glass chamber looked large enough to accommodate around fifty people.

But what made his eyes harden was upon seeing Rebecca in front of the glass box, and as he knew already, she was in charge of the orientation or the first trial.

Every demon standing in the queue was nervously standing without daring to utter a single whimper. How could they dare to show any kind of disrespect before such a powerful royal member who was known to have a short fuse?

Asher inwardly scoffed as he was sure she knew he had come but was pretending as if he didn't exist to purposefully make him wait.

How annoyingly childish can this old bitch be? He knew no matter how pretty she looked on the outside, she was very well the oldest in the hall. Someone once said to him that wisdom need not increase with age, and only now he realized the truth of those words.

But he didn't care since he wanted to first observe how the other demons fare in this first 'trial'. The fact that the orientation itself was a trial where the most number of demons die was something that could frighten off any ordinary person.

Because of how terrifying the first trial was, he could see that the majority of the demons that entered this tower either had some experience already or were equipped with the necessary gear to deal with the trial.

"You said this trial is to test the quality of our bloodline, right?" Asher asked Merina, who was standing behind him with her back slightly bent.

"Yes, Master. Those born with a higher-quality bloodline would naturally have more talent than those born with an ordinary bloodline. So this trial would help us see where we really stand."

"Hmm, maybe later I should also try and see which all pathways my mana circuit can potentially hold. Do you know what pathways Rebecca's mana circuit holds?"

"She has a mana circuit with two pathways that allows her to use Blood magic and Pure magic. But it's very rare for a demon to have more than one pathway. Those with two pathways which include something powerful as Pure Magic, are greatly respected and feared. This is one of the reasons that allowed her to become the Floor Warden of the first floor," Merina conveyed her words through her mind with a tense look.

She didn't like to be anywhere near such a frightening woman but had no choice.

Asher knew that every floor had a Floor Warden who basically called the shots on that floor to a certain extent. The position of Floor Warden was one of the most prestigious among others. However, he wasn't surprised she managed to become one considering her background, the trials she finished, and the fact that she had the ability to use Pure Magic or, specifically, dark magic due to her bloodline, allowing her to practice death arts that perfectly makes use of her Blood magic too.

"I see..." He felt that this was a good opportunity to know his own potential as well. Since he was too busy for the past month, he never got the opportunity to discover the potential pathways his mana circuit could hold. So far, he knew he possessed a single elemental pathway, fire. He wanted to know if he had more, just like he had as a Hunter.

"Enter the chamber already. I don't have time to waste with your antics," Rebecca said with an annoyed look upon seeing a young woman from the vulpinari race fidgeting in front of the glass chamber. She had seen the horrors that happened earlier, and now she was having second thoughts.

But upon seeing Rebecca's frightening expression, she meekly entered the glass chamber, upon which the glass chamber was shut closed immediately.

"This is a special chamber, right? What're the origins behind it?" Asher asked since he felt quite fascinated after hearing the details of this glass chamber.

"We call it the Chamber of Hell. It is also the name of the first trial since you either come out of this chamber alive or you don't. This chamber was said to be born from the tower itself. Based on the myths, it is said that this chamber summons demonic spirits from the Abyss though none can verify since nobody truly knows how this chamber works," Merina explained with a hint of fear in her eyes.

Asher already knew that this Chamber of Hell summons demon spirits inside to test the candidates. Those who fail to conquer the spirits they face off would die, of course.

*Rinnnn*

A subtle humming sound echoed from within the Chamber of Hell as a dark blue rune circle shone on the glass floor.

Asher saw the fox girl becoming even more nervous when the chamber got activated while the demons standing in the queues observed closely. Almost all of them wished her to die since it could potentially lessen the competition in case they got to climb to higher floors.

The fox girl weakly assumed a battle stance upon seeing the rune circle glow brighter and brighter. But suddenly, it dimmed, and a water slime the size of a fist manifested in front of her.

Asher had a confused look since he was expecting some big-ass scary demon but what he was looking at was a cute water slime.

Merina saw the royal consort's confused look and said, "Master, this is how the trial starts. It always begins with a weak spirit, and if they defeat it, the chamber will summon a stronger demon, and this keeps on repeating until they pass. To pass, one should defeat the third spirit the chamber summons. We call it the third summoning."

"I see...then what happens if someone wants to quit after they defeat the first spirit?"

"I don't think anyone would do something that unwise since it would be considered that they are forfeiting the trial. If they do that, they will never be able to enter this tower again unless they are able to take on the trial with double the difficulty. At that point, it would be just highly impossible to finish, and nobody would want that," Merina said with a slight shake of her head, unable to imagine how terrifying that would be.

The fox girl tried to swat away the water slime with her hand, expecting it to dissipate away. But to her shock, the water slime wrapped around her wrist and began to suck all the water from her body, turning her skin dry by the second. And the more it sucked the water from her body, the bigger it became.

"Noo!! Get off me!!" She didn't expect this weak water slime to be such a nuisance, and with a panicked look, she dispelled a burst of mana from her hand and managed to destroy the water slime.

Asher couldn't believe she made a water slime look like it was dangerous. Still, he knew just like how humans with all kinds of talents existed, the same went for demons as well. But what he realized was how brutal it was for demons to have their talent gauged and recognized unlike how it was for humans where they didn't have to really risk their lives to do that.

The fox girl's face regained some confidence since she managed to defeat the first spirit. The dark blue rune circle glowed again as it produced thin strings of water that coalesced in the middle to form a water imp with a nasty face. It had a small tail, sharp teeth, a blue body, and a tiny spear in its hand.

The fox girl had an uncomfortable expression just looking at this thing.

*KREE!!* It let out a shrill scream as it charged at her to stab her legs so that it could make her fall down and then finish her off.

"Don't come near me!" She screamed as she raised her leg to kick it away, thinking she could then stomp it to death, considering its small size.

*Kekekeke!* The water imp let out a burst of unsettling laughter as it simply raised its spear and pointed at her foot that was trying to kick it away.

*Splutch!*

The fox girl's eyes widened in horror upon seeing its spear puncture her right foot and come out the other side, letting out a gush of blood.

"AAH!!!" She cried out in pain and stumbled back, making her back hit the glass. Her face was filled with disbelief, as if she had never expected such a little imp to be so dangerous.

Asher shook his head, seeing how she made the elementary mistake of underestimating that thing based on its size. In his experience, it was dangerous to even underestimate a demon the size of an ant without knowing anything more about it.

The water imp didn't even let her catch her breath as it took out its spear and stabbed her other foot, digging its sharp water spear into her flesh till it touched the glass floor.

"I will kill you!" The fox girl exploded in anger, fueled by her fear, as she aimed her palm, releasing a strong jet of water.

The imp howled as it tried to dodge, but the jet of water was too fast, blasting it away and smashing it against the glass wall. But it still jumped back on its feet and charged at her again to stab her legs.

"Just die!" The fox girl kept spamming jets of water from her hands to keep this nasty imp away from her.

*Ploom! Ploom! Ploom!*

Finally, after blasting it away a couple times, the imp's body was crushed under the multiple blasts of attacks from her, marking its defeat. However, the fox girl's face was pale, making it obvious that she had expended a lot of mana just to defeat that thing.

Asher shook his head, seeing how foolish she was. Instead of simply spamming elemental attacks that don't have any advantage over the imp's element, she should have simply used pure force of her mana to destroy it. Otherwise, her power over water must overwhelm the imp, which was not the kind of ability she possessed based on what he saw.

The fox girl let out a loud sigh of relief upon seeing that she had managed to defeat the second demon. But both her feet were seriously injured, and she couldn't stand without slanting against the glass wall.

She felt like quitting, but the thought of giving up her prospects made her remove that thought from her head.

But just as she wished she could get a minute to compose herself, the dark blue rune circle lit up again. And this time, the chamber subtly vibrated as it let out spheres of water which began to coalesce in the middle to form a figure that was half as tall as her but with four arms, each having a machete-like blade in its hand.

Asher narrowed his eyes, and based on the pattern he observed, he felt that the strength of the demons increased drastically after each round. Before this round even started, Asher could already guess the outcome.

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