Chapter 62: Demon Acolytes

Aelonen and Kelvin, together with their group, continued hunting through the forest for another few hours. This time, however, they were much more cautious, making sure not to take unnecessary risks whenever possible.

"Say, Kelvin, do you think the others are having as much luck as we are? Our progress has been insane. It’s hard to believe we’re the only ones getting this lucky," Aelonen asked.

Kelvin nodded. "Indeed, the others should be making similar progress. All the more reason for us to work hard and not waste our time while we’re here."

Suddenly, they heard hurried footsteps coming from the forest behind them. Turning around, they saw three young men rushing towards them.

"Third Prince! I have big news for you!" the young man in the lead yelled.

"Hmm? Norman, was it?"

The young man stopped in front of them and nodded repeatedly while catching his breath. "Yes, yes! It’s Norman! I’m flattered that you remember me, Third Prince!"

Kelvin nodded. "You seem to be in a great rush. What’s the problem?"

"It’s like this. The First Prince and his party managed to find some ruins not far from here. We stumbled upon them while making our way through the forest, and they instructed us to find as many people as possible to spread the news."

Kelvin raised an eyebrow. "My older brother sent you? That doesn’t make any sense. If he found something valuable, he would definitely keep it for himself."

The young man nodded. "I think so too, Third Prince, but this time it’s different. There’s a gate preventing them from entering. No matter what they tried, they couldn’t open it even slightly. Even after joining forces with a few other groups, we couldn’t make any progress. Now we’re looking for more people to help us."

Kelvin and Aelonen exchanged a look.

"If what he says is true, I think we should go and take a look. It might be a great opportunity," Aelonen said with a nod.

"I agree." Kelvin nodded as well.

"Also, Third Prince, there’s some bad news," the young man suddenly added, wearing an awkward expression.

"Hmm? What news?"

"More and more people are going missing throughout the dungeon. We encountered some smaller groups that had recently separated in hopes of hunting more beasts, but they soon lost contact with their other members. They aren’t responding through their tracking devices at all."

"That’s... unexpected. Could some powerful beasts have hunted them down?"

The young man nodded. "That’s a strong possibility, but we don’t know for sure. What’s even stranger is that when people tracked their devices, they found them lying on the ground throughout the forest. There were no signs of a fight anywhere nearby, nor was there any blood. It was as though they had simply disappeared into thin air."

Kelvin’s eyes widened. "It seems that whatever is hunting them must be a dangerous beast." His expression then turned cold. "Or someone who has prepared for this."

"Third Prince, you don’t mean to say that some people are hunting the others?" The young man’s eyes widened.

"Who knows? I wouldn’t be surprised." Kelvin shook his head. "For now, it’s best to stay in a group and avoid separating from one another."

The three young men who had just arrived shivered slightly before nodding.

"Alright, lead the way, then. Let’s see those ruins my older brother found."

"This way, Third Prince! I’m sure the others must have found more groups to help by now as well."

....

Time slowly passed.

After who knew how long, Chris opened his eyes as he felt the energy stop coursing through his scales.

Ever since he had entered the pool of strange liquid, the sensation had been growing stronger and stronger.

He could clearly feel his scales becoming thicker and stronger with each passing minute.

Another thing that surprised him was that while his scales absorbed the liquid, he barely had to use any mana to sustain them, allowing him to continue absorbing it for as long as he wanted.

He looked around and, noticing that all the liquid in the pool had been absorbed, slowly stood up before looking at Azreon.

Azreon looked the same as before, but Chris knew that his scales had definitely become stronger. Possibly even stronger than his own.

"No wonder those ants were so tough when they had a treasure like this."

Looking around, he could see many strange gray rocks scattered everywhere around the now-dried-up pool. He remembered seeing the ants searching for these stones and carrying them back to their colony.

’Could it be that they made this pool using these stones?’

Thinking about it, he took out a few spare storage rings he had gotten from Aldric and stored all the stones inside, intending to study them later.

He smiled before opening his system panel to check their new levels. Soon, however, he felt slightly disappointed when he saw that they had only reached Level 53.

But then a smile returned to his face. He had managed to increase his level rapidly in a short time, and he shouldn’t feel bad about it. That was a bad mentality to have.

He had even reached the next evolution, making both of them considerably stronger, and that was more than enough.

Even though he had killed countless ants, most of them had been below Level 40, making it impossible to gain any XP from killing them. He knew he could only gain XP from killing monsters that were up to nine levels below him. Any lower than that, and he wouldn’t gain anything.

Not to mention that beasts with levels below his own always gave so little XP that it was negligible.

’I will definitely need to go much deeper into the Wilds this time. I won’t be able to progress otherwise.’

Soon, his attention was drawn to the new ability he had received. The Fire Dragon Domain had surprised him during the fight, and he needed to study it more closely.

[Fire Dragon Domain: User creates a zone of fire with a short radius, applying the *Burn* status effect to enemies inside and dealing 100 fire damage per second. User deals 10% extra damage to enemies affected by *Burn*. Enemies slain within the domain restore 5% vitality to the user and his allies (if the vitality is full, 5% of stamina will be restored). Cooldown: Once a day.]

"HISS!"

Chris’s eyes widened. The ability was simply too good.

Now he finally understood why he had been so pumped up during the fight and why he still had so much energy after it was over. The domain itself had constantly been restoring his vitality and stamina, making it almost impossible for him to get tired.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What an awesome ability!" He laughed heartily.

However, as he slowly stood up, he noticed something strange.

His legs were becoming heavy, and his strength seemed to be diminishing.

"Your body is being invaded by demonic energy!" Suddenly, he heard Aura’s voice in his head.

"Huh? How can that be!?" He was startled.

"It seems that the liquid you absorbed was already polluted with demonic energy. Once you absorbed it, it began influencing your body."

He quickly enveloped his body in Gwenor, expelling the demonic energy within seconds before doing the same to Azreon.

Chris raised an eyebrow. "So there are demons in this dungeon? Interesting."

"Hmm, I don’t think so," Aura replied.

"What do you mean?"

"The energy isn’t pure. Real demonic energy should be purer than this. This one feels... polluted. It was definitely a human using this demonic energy, not a real demon."

"Huh? Humans can use demonic energy?" This was the first time he had heard about something like that, so he was naturally surprised.

"You already know about the Fallen. What makes you so surprised? The Fallen used to be powerful human warriors once, before they changed their allegiance and aligned themselves with the demons. That’s why we call them the Fallen."

"Ohh? So that’s how it works?" Chris’s eyes widened. "So there must be many of them, right?"

"There used to be even more once upon a time, but after the demons were sealed away following the Great War, the Fallen were hunted down and killed. There shouldn’t be too many left."

Chris nodded. "Were they corrupted by demons, or did they change their allegiance of their own free will?"

"Some were corrupted by them, but most joined them willingly. Demonic energy works differently from normal energy. When someone begins practicing demonic arts, they are no longer bound by their class rank or level restrictions. They can grow stronger by consuming the life force of others." Aura’s voice was serious as she explained.

"So humans who were obsessed with strength but couldn’t increase it through normal means defected to the demons in hopes of reaching greater heights, no matter the cost." This time, her voice turned sorrowful and regretful.

Chris could tell that she had many bad memories connected to the subject, so he decided not to ask about it.

"I assume there’s a price for that, right? How can someone gain strength without sacrificing something?" He would never believe that something can be gained for nothing.

"As expected, you’re smart. Only real demons can do that without suffering side effects, as their race is accustomed to it. For humans, however, the side effects are quite severe. As they consume more and more life force from others, they become addicted to it and increasingly evil. Given enough time, their minds become so corrupted that they turn into mindless beasts. That’s when the real demons take over and control them like puppets using demonic energy."

"Hiss!" Chris couldn’t imagine what that would feel like. "And people still wanted to join the demons despite all those side effects? For what? Were they willing to lose themselves just for the sake of becoming stronger?"

"Of course not. Back then, they had no idea about the side effects. By the time they learned the truth, it was already too late. Once humans found out about what happened to those who practiced demonic arts, fewer and fewer were willing to join them, as nobody wanted to lose their minds and become puppets."

Chris nodded. "That makes sense. Even someone truly obsessed with strength wouldn’t want to become a mindless puppet."

"But that didn’t stop the demons and the Fallen from attacking human towns and villages, capturing innocent people and corrupting them into puppets. Other races were affected as well, not just humans," Aura said, sorrow evident in her voice.

"What’s the point of corrupting them? I understand that they wanted to take powerful human warriors and turn them into Fallen, but what use did they have for weaker humans?"

"It was a strategy. The weaker ones didn’t become Fallen. They became what we called Demon Acolytes, or simply Acolytes. They looked like normal people, except their minds were corrupted, making them serve the demons. They would secretly infiltrate the governments of numerous countries and manipulate them from within, helping the demons win wars without even fighting the battles themselves."

Chris’s eyes widened. "There was such a thing? That’s terrifying."

"I’m suspecting that many of them remained in the world and passed their beliefs down to their children, then their grandchildren, through generations. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the countries were already infested with Acolytes, patiently waiting for the demons to return."

Chris wore a troubled expression. "What could we do to stop them?"

"Stop them? With your current strength? Don’t even dream about it." Aura mocked him. "If you really want to help, you should focus on getting stronger."

Chris thought about it for a moment and nodded.

"By the way, it surprises me that you’re actually showing concern about this. I thought you wouldn’t care whether the people around you lived or died," Aura suddenly remarked.

He shook his head. "It’s not just about the people." He looked towards the forest in the distance. "I love this world. I don’t want it to be corrupted and destroyed."

He then looked at the ring on his hand. "Besides, I think people aren’t as bad as I used to think. There are still some good and sincere people out there."

Aura laughed. "Hoho? The lonely guy made some friends and changed his mind?"

Chris looked at the pouch on his belt with disdain. "Little fox, do you want me to burn the pouch? Or should I mix some fire with Gwenor the next time I heal you?"

Aura shivered inside the beast pouch. "N-no!"

"Hmph..." Chris shook his head, deciding he had enough of the conversation.

"Azreon, buddy, let’s go."

*ROAR!*

He jumped onto Azreon’s back, and they quickly ascended into the air.