A man, a cultist, wearing a black mask with a green triangle engraved onto its center stands inside of an empty tent. He is chanting to himself as a summoning circle glows a deep red at his feet.

  He isn’t a Demonic Summoner though, his class is a Dark Warrior. Despite his non-corresponding class, summoning a lowly Nav Imp is still within his capabilities. As it is for most with the class of Cultist.

  The magic circle glows brightly as pitch black hands sprout from the ground. Within the hand's grasp is a small creature with grey skin. His head is slightly taller than would be considered natural and he sits staring at the man, waiting for the summoning to complete.

  Soon enough the hands release the demon and he stands on his two small feet.

  (Nav Imp / level 21)

  The demon stares into the man and he shifts uncomfortably. He has done this process many times before but he is still unnerved by it.

  The demon is using some sort of analysis skill on him. He's judging if he can easily kill the summoner.

  If the demon decides to fight, the man will have to kill him and try to summon a new demon. If the demon manages to kill him, the first devils failsafe will activate and send the demon back to hell.

  The demon can’t leave the summoning circle until he decides on what to do. Either to fight, or-

  The demon grimaces “Let's make a deal.”

  The man sighs as the demon finally makes his choice. The cultist clears his throat. “I need you to find someone for me.”

  The demon chuckles to himself “Of course! It's always to find something or someone! Just tell me, who is it I need to find, huh?”

  The man frowns behind his mask “Nav Imps don’t usually ask who they're looking for. They just do the job to return to hell.”

  The demon scoffs “Yeah, my brothers and sisters don’t really take pride in their work. But I’m a curious one you see. And the fact you're hiding your race from those humans outback piqued my interest. Yeah, I know you’re an elf. Don’t think that mask will hide you from demons.”

  The elf hesitates for a moment, it seems he summoned a rather annoying demon. He contemplates just sending the demon back to hell or killing it, but at this point he can’t honestly be bothered.

  “Don’t let my secrets slip with your loose tongue, demon.”

  The Nav Imp raises his hands “I know, I know. We can include that stipulation with our bargain.”

  The elf studies the demon for a moment before sighing “I need you to find my sister, Eva Le’tain.”

  The demon's ears perk up from the name and smiles “Le’tain you say? The Le’tain? Of the Zeta Empire? And she’s your sister.” The demon’s long tongue licks its teeth “We must be on the Continent of Soteria then.”

  The elf’s frown deepens and he takes off his mask. He has a large scar running across his entire face and has a single glowing golden eye. His right eye is completely missing. His left ear is clipped in half and a cap rests on the end of the ear stump.

  He presents the mask to the demon. “My sister has a similar mask. Is that enough information to start tracking?”

  The demon hurumphs “Yeah, yeah, that’s plenty!”

  The elf puts his mask back on. “So I’ll take it you have accepted the bargain?”

  The demon spits at the ground “Yeah, I did! If I didn’t, I’d be eating your entrails right now! Just hurry up and finish the damn ritual!”

  The elf scoffs “Very well. Seeing that we'll be working together, what’s your name?”

  “What? Eh, whatever. It’s Geltor. What yours then.”

  “Toulif Le’tain.”

  The demon blinks at the elf for a moment then busts out laughing. “Haha. Your name is Toulif! That sounds like tool! Ha! You're a tool, Le’tain!”

  Toulif groans at the chuckling demon and finishes the summoning.

  ---

  38 hours later

  “What’s taking so long, demon?”

  Geltor looks back at the party of cultists. Toulif stands over the demon with irritation in his voice. Behind Toulif are 4 lowered leveled humans following closely behind and are carrying their supplies.

  The demon shakes his head “Evan is moving away from us. We’ll reach him eventually, but we need to be moving faster.”

  Toulif looks back at the humans. “You heard Geltor! Pick up the pace!”

  The human nearest to Toulif speaks up with a shaky voice “Yes, captain!”

  The humans shuffle as they retighten their grips. They start moving faster, but a few minutes later, Geltor stops. “Wait!”

  Toulif also comes to a stop and looks down at the demon. He tilts his head in confusion “What is it-”

  Geltor's head snaps towards the wall and starts straining his eyes. “Is that?” He slowly steps towards the wall and furrows his brows. After a moment he steps back and almost sounds shocked. “That’s a demon?”

  Toulif straightens “There’s another demon in the dungeon?!”

  The group of humans start glancing at each other nervously. Toulif glances back at the shuffling humans. “Calm down, we don’t know if it's hostile. Geltor, could this be the vice captain's summon?”

  Geltor frowns and looks back at Toulif “Unlikely, Evan is still far out from us. And this demon is strange. How is it channeling its essence so freely? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Toulif looks at the wall Geltor was staring at “Are you sure it’s a demon?”

  Geltor nods his head quickly “I know demonic essence when I-” Geltor looks back at the wall and his eyes widen “It comes to us.”

  Toulif grips his sword tightly and looks back at the humans “Prepare yourselves, there is a good chance that the demon is hostile. Gent!”

  A level 37 human perks up to attention “Yes!”

  “You’ll be with me, the others might be too low level to deal with it. So, it’ll be just us engaging the demon.”

  The human sets the supplies he’s carrying down and readies his wand “Yes, sir!”

  The human Gent joins Toulif’s side. Toulif glances back at Geltor “How strong do you think this demon is?”

  Toulif for the first time sees the demon almost look… uncomfortable. “Hard to say, the way it manipulates its essence makes it hard to get a good read. If I had to guess, maybe levels 30-60.”

  Toulif nods gravely. It seems that this is going to be a hard fight. Having such a large range of how strong the demon is, makes this troublesome. They can handle it fine if it’s on the low end, but if it's level 60 or higher, they would need to retreat.

  Gent speaks up to his captain “Uhh, do you think we should leave?”

  Toulif frowns back at the human behind his mask. Gent looks visibly worried and this causes Toulif to think one thing. Typical human coward.

  “No, we will not. We are not going to abandon the vice captain.”

  Gent looks appalled “That’s not-” but he stops himself. Gent shakes his head and readies his wand again. “Yes, captain.”

  Toulif nods back at Gent “Good.”

  Geltor speaks up and looks like he’s about to sweat “Guys, it's almost here.”

  Toulif draws his sword and points it at the open passage in front of them. Gent casts a spell and dark energy flows into himself and Toulif. The other humans prepare to run or fight.

  A glowing white light begins shining around the corner. It seems the demon has stopped just out of view.

  Toulif looks down at Geltor and whispers “What’s it doing?”

  Geltor in response just shakes his head “How should I know?”

  Toulif looks back down the corridor to find a woman's head peeking around the corner. Her face is covered in blood and her hair is disheveled. What’s most shocking is that her entire body seems to be ignited in black flames.

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  She seems to be completely unbothered by the state of her body as she looks at each member of our group one by one. Finally her dead eyes connect with Toulif and he readies his sword once more.

  The woman breaks into a deranged grin that sends shivers down Toulif’s spine. She steps out from behind the corner revealing the rest of her mangled body. Her left arm seems to be completely burned all over and the clothing she is wearing is damaged to the point that they’re practically rags.

  The most disturbing detail to Toulif is that she is covered head to toe in red and green blood. But what she says sends terror into his soul.

  In a strange and cheery voice, she speaks “You must be Eva’s friends!”

  (Monk / level 16)

  Toulif pauses “What?”

  ---

  (Cultist / level 14)

  (Cultist / level 18)

  (Nav Imp / level 21)

  (Cultist / level 17)

  (Cultist / ???)

  (Cultist / ???)

  “You must be Eva’s friends!”

  I found more cultists! What luck! If I bring them to Eva, I think it would help to get her to trust me. That mask too, I wonder if they are a she too.

  He, or maybe she, says “What?”

  I frown and glance around the group again. Everyone looks thoroughly confused. I notice the demon looking back and forth between me and the masked cultist. His soul is completely black, like mine.

  I look down at my aura. Do I have the soul of a demon?... Neat!

  The real demon suddenly speaks up. “You must mean their vice captain, Evan. Are you his summon?”

  I blink at the strange grey demon. Evan? Oh, right. That mask makes her seem like a guy! “Yyyes! I am his summon. Although our relationship is a little complicated right now.”

  The cultist with the mask looks directly at me, seemingly breaking out of their stupor “Where is he?! Did you kill him?!”

  Before I can answer the Nav Imp answers for me “Calm down, Toulif. If she killed him, she would have been sent back to hell.”

  Toulif seems to relax immediately “Right.”

  I however, freeze. Toulif? My gaze darkens and my body starts shuddering. I mustn't. It’s way too easy. My face starts to strain as I hold myself back. I need to at least try to maintain my cover.

  The Nav Imp seems to notice “You aight?”

  I speak with a shaky breath “Sounds. Like. Tool.”

  The Nav Imp explodes in laughter and that gives me the que to let the dam break. I fall on my back laughing. It's not even that funny, but trying to hold back and the demon instantly thinking it's funny as well!

  Even a few of the other cultists are snickering. Toulif however is less than amused. “Fucking, demons.”

  (Pain Tolerance) has leveled up! (4 → 5)

  I let out a sigh as I looked at the notification. Man, my body is seriously messed up. I have multiple broken bones and severe bruising everywhere. Let alone the state of my arm.

  I look over at the masked cultist. “Hey Toulif, I want to bring you guys to Evan, but I’m pretty banged up right now. Can we rest for a few hours, maybe?”

  Toulif looks down at me, I’m sitting at this point, and says “No, that's far too long a break. 20 minutes and we start moving again.” Toulif looks down at my body and something churns in his soul. Is it disdain? No, it’s something more primal than that.

  Toulif turns his head to another cultist. “Err- Whatsyourname- Charlie! Produce a bucket of water, and a change of clothes for the demon. Gent, set up the tent. I need to ask it a few questions after it's cleaned up.”

  I raise an eyebrow. A change of clothes? I look down at the state I’m in and realize that I’m almost completely exposed right now. I would very much like to squeal in embarrassment, but I stop myself.

  That Nav Imp isn’t wearing any clothes, so being embarrassed by a lack of clothing is probably unnatural. I say this with a dead expression “Thanks, Toulif.”

  The cultist that I assume is Charlie comes up to me with an empty bucket. “Um, could you?” He points at my aura.

  “Oh, right.” I deactivate SoulFire, but I still have my aura manifested for Aura of Vitality.

  He places the bucket in front of me and pulls out a wand. He points it into the bucket and chants something under his breath. A blue magic circle appears at the base of the bucket and then it is suddenly filled with water.

  There was no gradual filling of water or splashing. The bucket was empty one moment and filled with water the next. “Huh.”

  I quickly picked up the bucket and without a word I speed walked behind the corner that I came from.

  After I finish washing myself off I find some cultist robes at the edge of the corner. I put them on and now I really look like a cultist. I look back at my ripped up T and overalls. That’s the only stuff I brought with me to this world.

  I decided to at least take the white T with me. Maybe I can get it repaired somehow.

  I walk out from behind the corner wearing a whole set of cultist robes that are slightly too big for me. I’m holding a ripped up shirt in one hand and a bunch of psychedelic mushrooms in the other. I look ridiculous.

  “I’m really starting to wish I had a bag.”

  “It’s strange to see one of us care so much about material possessions you know.”

  The demon suddenly speaks up from my side. I wasn’t able to sense his soul until the very moment he spoke up. I nearly jump back, but I manage to keep a neutral expression.

  The demon licks his teeth and smiles “Was that fear? I could have sworn I sensed embarrassment earlier as well. What kind of demon are you?”

  Shouldn’t reading my mind be Impossible? I scowl at the Nav Imp “And why would you like to know?”

  The demon raises his hands “Don’t mean to make you uncomfortable by prying. The name’s Geltor.” he raises his small hand for a handshake.

  I decided to take it. “My name is Tiffany.”

  Geltor pauses and his soul dims for a moment. Then it ignites brighter than before and he grins “The thing that named you has an excellent sense of humour.”

  I furrow my brows at him “What do you mean-”

  I’m cut off by Toulif “Alright, demons! Get over here.” He is standing by a newly set up tent.

  I look back down at Geltor and he shrugs “You still have a lot of explaining to do.”

  I sigh and follow Toulif and Geltor into the tent. It’s completely empty on the inside and a little cramped for my liking. I notice Geltor smirking at me. Is he an empath or something?

  Toulif, to my surprise, takes off his mask “So, what do you mean by your relationship with my sister being complicated.”

  I stare at the elfs scarred face. Sister? Huh “Uhh… should you have taken that mask off?” I whisper “What if the humans see?”

  Toulif frowns at me “The tent is enchanted. They can’t hear us and they know better than to come in without alerting me. Now answer the question, what’s going on between you and Eva?”

  “What do you mean? I’m her humble summon!”

  The demon scoffs and Toulif face twists in irritation “Humble summon, bullshit! Tell me why Eva summoned you and what task she gave you. I doubt that it was just for you to find us and if it was, why didn’t she summon a Nav Imp? What kind of a demon is a Monk anyway?”

  I try to work my jaw, but I’m kinda panicking at the assault of questions. Luckily, Geltor speaks for me “Her race isn’t Monk. That’s her class and her race shows as human. Probably because she is taking a human form.”

  Toulif raises his single eyebrow at Geltor “Then what’s her race then?”

  Shit. I’m using Quick Thinking to the limit to see how I can lie out of this and get what I want. I remember what Eva said back when she tried to send me to hell. “Oh, I’m an Eldritch Horror.”

  Toulif and Geltor snap their heads to me and their souls dim by a large amount. Geltor blinks a few times “Are you serious? How is that possible? Eldritch Horror are not included in the first devil's pact.”

  First rule of improv, yes and. “I know! Eva did it anyway. She tried to summon a different demon I think and got me instead. She tried to send me back to hell, but whatever she did, didn’t work.” I shrug.

  Geltor looks at me with a new look I haven’t seen before. Looking at his soul I think it’s… Respect? Reverence? From Toulif however is something else, something dangerous.

  Toulif grabs the hilt of his sword “If she couldn’t send you back to hell she should have killed you.”

  I guess I tried “Go ahead and fucking try it!” I grin manically and explode into black flames. I can’t see his level, so if things get dangerous I’ll use Obscene Presence and run.

  Geltor yells out before it could get good “WAIT! Toulif! Your ear please?”

  I let my SoulFire die out as Geltor jumps onto Toulif's shoulder and starts whispering into his ear. I can’t hear what they are saying but Toulifs eye widens and darts toward me.

  He then squints suspiciously. Geltor jumps off his shoulder and Toulif clears his throat “Is my sister safe?”

  “Of course! I would never hurt her.” on purpose. It seems he had calmed down a bit from whatever Geltor told him. I start to relax and then realize something. “Oh shit. You’re her brother! If I killed you, Eva would have been pissed at me!”

  Toulif seems to tense at that and he shares a look with Geltor. Geltor nods back at him for some reason. Well, whatever. “Any more questions? Cause I sense that those Abominable Moles are almost here.”

  Toulif glances at me “What?”

  Before I can elaborate, yelling is heard outside of the tent. “Captain! We have monsters incoming!”

  Toulif quickly puts on his mask and steps out of the tent. I decide to leave my stuff inside and follow him.

  I look out to see the hoard of monsters approaching.

  (Abominable Mole / level 13)

  (Abominable Mole / level 14)

  (Abominable Mole / level 12)

  ---

  (Abominable Mole / level 18)

  (Star-Nosed Abomination / level 32)

  “Huh, I guess they don’t always come in pairs.”

  I feel another rib finally pop back into place as I stretch “Ooogh, this is gonna be good!”

  (Aura of Vitality) has leveled up! (2 → 3)

  Observe level func

  Level 1) class 20 levels - Level 10 levels

  Level 2) class 50 levels - Level 20 levels

  Level 3) class 80 levels - Level 30 levels

  Level 4) class 100 levels - Level 40 levels

  Level 5) class 100 levels - Level 50 levels

  Level 6) class 100 levels - Level 60 levels

  Level 7) class 100 levels - Level 70 levels

  Level 8) class 100 levels - Level 80 levels

  Level 9) class 100 levels - Level 90 levels

  Level 10) class 100 levels - Level 100 levels