[Ishmael]

  Ten million XP.

  That was my reward for holding up my end of the challenge for the Zero Car. I thought I should have gotten it earlier. New Hell Expresses had arrived before I left. But, it appeared that my training in Control’s dimension invalidated those rules and kept my timer running. It didn’t bother me, it would have felt shitty to talk that big game and then earn it while inadvertently hiding like a coward.

  As far as I was concerned, I got it right when I needed it; a little extra power to evict the demons infesting my castle.

  The castle’s defenses turned out to be a poor appetizer. I pre-emptively leveled up several times and filled up the reserves of my [Hoard] thinking that I would need to do at least that much to survive initial contact.

  Turning that demon into meat paste set a disappointing precedent. The rest of the subsequent killing ended up feeling like a chore. Punching someone to death was treated with the same excitement as when I had to clean the bathroom. Mindless rat bashing in slow motion, my new max speed was too high for them to react to.

  I even tried to slow down slightly, punch a little softer to see if that could make things more entertaining.

  It didn’t.

  All I had managed to do was annoy myself further. Greater handicaps didn’t bring more satisfaction, it just turned out to be more boring. I didn’t feel that near-death rush knowing I had an extra gear stored away. It was better to just speed things up and get it all over with.

  So there I was, in the throne room with the remaining bodies of the defenders scattered at my feet. One of them was the leader. I wasn’t sure which one though. At this point, they were all just meat splatters on the stone surfaces. My annoyance chopped all the fanfare short. I didn’t give them the chance to announce it and they weren’t strong enough to take up any space in my memory.

  The mess was being rapidly cleaned by several mouths appearing from the walls and floor of the castle. The body slipped away, and my stats increased. It really was the ideal ability.

  Skills

  The Devouring - Active

  The Dragon who Heralds the End seeks to remove everything in its path to the summit of Hell. It had a problem. So many corpses and only one mouth to eat them with. And so, he created new mouths, enough to swallow the entire world. Those who are eaten may never see the light again.

  +100 All Stats

  Demons consumed by The Devouring will be transported to a special [Dimesion[. "The Digestive Tract." [Dimension will melt all inhabitants with acid every ten minutes.

  The Devouring counts as an act of eating. [Corpse Eater] is compatible.

  It continued to confirm that my assertion that stats were everything. The XP I was now gaining from this and [Hoard] was turning into an absurd amount of stats. Compared to the amount that I gain from leveling up, I would be the same as Level 200. The triviality of this fight brought me the joy that came from being right with the crushing disappointment that the fight was boring as a result.

  “You look sad,” Charles commented as he and Mutya entered the room.

  Charles seemed to hover over the mess I left behind, his shoes looked pristine even when marching over pools of blood and viscera. Mutya just stomped through without much care. Actually, I believe I saw her go out of her way to stomp organs that the mouths and yet to devour. A small smirk crossed her lips.

  “I am sad,” I replied, lifting my arm and placing my limp wrist to my forehead like a stressed out actress from the fifties. “I leveled up for no reason. I might as well been beating mannequins to death.”

  “There was no way to determine how ferocious these rats were going to be,” Charles said with a chuckle. “Isn’t it better that there were no difficulties?”

  “The struggle is the entire point,” I replied with a sigh. “I should have savored that minotaur more.”

  “You never savor it,” Charles commented. “You are psychologically incapable of holding onto those fleeting emotions you felt in the heat of battle. Even if you were to have a fistfight with the strongest being in the universe, you’d forget it as soon as your adrenaline died down.”

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  “If a lion felt satisfied after eating one antelope, he’d die of starvation.”

  “It’s the lionesses that do most of the hunting,” Charles countered. “I saw a group of them rip a wildebeest apart while I was on a safari. It made me consider purchasing one and feed it on people who disappointed me. But the wife was allergic to cats so I just stuck to the classic gunshot and chemical bath.”

  “Riveting,” I said, my wind out of my sails. “How did the elf do?”

  “Serviceable once she got some proper equipment,” Charles remarked. I saw Mutya shrink slightly at the criticism, but I was used to Charles cowing others with each of his breaths. “From an economic perspective, I see the benefit of raising someone with a cloning ability. One demon’s worth of XP to get thirty demons worth of return. Not to mention, she can copy artifacts on her clones. I didn’t think you were so financially savvy.”

  “I didn’t care about any of that,” I waved my hand dismissively. “She just had the eyes of a remorseless killer. I can spot them well.”

  It was something easy to spot once you had met enough sport killers. It was the smiling expression with the dead eyes. Even now, her self-satisfied smile didn’t extend above her nose. Cold shark eyes observed me; analyzing me. She still thought she had a chance of killing me. Good, it wouldn’t be fun if she gave up.

  “Well, how about it?” I asked Mutya. “Does this new position suit you?”

  “I will do as I’m asked,” Mutya said with a bow.

  Though, what I didn’t quite have an explanation for was why she looked at me with a softer expression than the one she used just thirty minutes ago. Maybe she was the type who held an attraction to her victims. I didn’t quite understand it, but I wasn’t the type to point my nose up at what got someone into fighting.

  “Anyways,” Charles said, clearing his throat. “Did you receive your millions yet?”

  “I did,” I replied coldly. “How much are you looking to siphon off of me?”

  “Is this how you’re going to behave now that you’ve gotten a whiff of power?” Charles questioned with an annoyed tone. Black tendrils slipped from behind his back but were quickly recalled. This is why I could never stand the nouveau riche.”

  “I kid, Charles,” I replied, placing my hand on his shoulder. “I know that I emptied out your vault. How much do you need to start making money again?”

  “Four million,” Charles answered without pause.

  “Fine,” I replied, letting go of the money without even an argument. “I hope you don’t regret not asking for more.”

  “You’re the one that should be careful that this XP isn’t going to be the very same used to bury you in the future.”

  “I eagerly look forward to that day.”

  By now, the mouths had finished their work and the castle was left without a single trace of the previous occupants. From now on, this was the base of operations of my forces. My final race to the top would begin here.

  Charles snapped his finger and a massive stone table rumbled up from the floor. A piece of parchment the same size as the table unrolled itself atop the stone surface.

  It was a massive map of the region. In the center rested the mountain that housed the throne. Around the perimeter were numerous dots of different sizes and colors. The biggest cluster resided on the northern side of the mountain while other, smaller clusters cropped up everywhere else. On the far south side of the mountain rested a pin shaped like a dog’s head. I frowned at Charles’ name choice for my faction, but I would let him have this petty satisfaction.

  “We’re pretty far away from the action,” I said with a disappointed tone. “We’re in one of the most desolate places on here.”

  “You’re the only one who’d consider that a disadvantage,” Charles said with a sigh. “As we stand now, being close to the main faction war would just have us be consumed and destroyed.”

  “I think we’d do fine,” I argued. “The best training is going up against the best. Even if we all die a million times, we’d be far better equipped to take them down than the ones who hide out in the boonies with their dicks in their hands.”

  “You’d do fine,” Charles corrected. “The rest of Herzblatt’s followers are not ready for that level. Your faction would be conquered and killed in days. I don’t need to remind you that a faction is required to advance. And, no, a faction of one is not officially considered a faction. I consulted the system in the minutes between my arrival and yours.”

  I sighed in disappointment. What was their purpose in advancing at all then? It was clear that they lacked the ambition and skill to get to the peak, so why would the Follies allow them to climb up at all? It just seemed like a waste of time to me.

  There was no witty response from the Follies to explain themselves and admonish me for being so small-minded. I guess they were as busy as Nostalgia said that they were.

  “So, we get to visit all the nearby outposts and obliterate them?” I asked, motioning at the disparate tiny dots that surrounded us. “Doesn’t appear to be much meat on the bones, but it’s better than nothing.”

  “No, we’re going leave that to Herzblatt to train and bolster the forces,” Charles rejected. “You getting stronger does us no good.”

  “Does you no good,” I mumbled under my breath. “Then what do I get to do?”

  The numerous dots of outposts and bases disappeared and were replaced by far fewer pins scattered randomly over the map. The pins appeared to be color coded to represent difficulty in the same way that item rarity was managed.

  My eyes immediately catalogued all of the black pins.

  “There are a few Dungeons nearby that we need to scout out for training viability,” Charles suggested. “We are looking for bosses that leave abilities that can assist with group combat. As far as we should be concerned, Herzblatt and his followers are a single entity. There isn’t anyone that we should prioritize over anyone else.”

  “And what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to establish some influence up here,” Charles explained. “I need to figure out what people here desperately need and how I can get my hands on it first. Find a few desperate demons that are ripe for exploitation. Prepare for Herzblatt’s arrival. Things that you would never be interested in doing yourself.”

  “Fair. What about Mutya?”

  “She’s my one-woman defense force,” Charles answered. “You don’t actually want to bring her along with you do you?”

  “Of course not, then I’d have to share my spoils.”