Chapter 1: Long sleep after long duty

Legul Ranan, a demon king that has ruled the demon territory and has put fear in the hearts of humans for over a millenia.

He bears many titles that grant him power. The titles he bears are "Demon of conquest", "Master of mimicry", "Bearer of ill", "Descendant of a demon god", "Abominable terror" and many more. But none of them can compare to the title he is most well known for. The title of "Demon king of abomination" brings horror to humans and admiration to demons.

He has seen many foes fall before him and he by his order many have died. Because he is sitting on that throne, the demon territory is larger than any other territory.

The neverending war between demons and other races seems to have been in demons favor for a long time. So long in fact, that many have questioned why the demon army hasn't eradicated the other races by now.

The truth of the matter is quite simple. The gods had created a pact between all the races. The pact says that "No total domination is tolerated". This pact means that should demons seize the whole world, the gods would intervene and make sure that the demons shall be smitten. This pact applies to every race in this world and the consequences are the same for everyone. This pact is only known by the matriarch of each race. The matriarch is often the leader of their race, but it is not a necessity.

The life of Legul had been long even for a demon. His noble blood is what has kept him alive so long. But time is running out for Legul. For him to live longer, he has a skill that allows him to rejuvenate his body back to his prime. But the cost is long and deep sleep. It is unknown how long it will take for him to wake up, but all the people who are in the know know that it is a very long time.

Before he left, Legul gave his gave up his position of demon king over to his second oldest son. He had other children, but the second oldest was most promising. He told the secret pact between the races to his two oldest sons and one of his daughters. He did not tell anyone where he will go to sleep so that none can disturb him when he is at his weakest. He left in the hopes that the demon race will thrive in this world even in his absence.

So he went to an undisclosed hill in demon territory and burrowed deep down. At the end of the cave, he disguised himself as a stone wall so that he could sleep peacefully. Thanks to his inborn skill that allowed him to change to any shape he wanted made the disguise unrecognizable by any eyes, be it the sharpest of all, the magical sight or the bearer of the skill "Appraisal".

And so the deep sleep began.

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A long time has passed as Legul woke up from his slumber. When he woke up, he saw that the cave was filled with regular goblins. He also noticed that the goblins had painted drawings on the walls that included himself.

Legul did not blame the little ones and he thus slithered away without them noticing. The goblins did become a bit confused after the room suddenly got bigger and some of the drawings disappeared.

Once outside the cave, Legul noticed that the demonic energy was a lot weaker than it had been before. This indicated that demon territory was pushed away from this area. The little demonic energy that Legul could feel was mostly ambient energy that appears naturally.

Then Legul used a skill to search around the area if there were any settlements nearby. He found one and decided to go there.

Once he was close enough, Legul changed his appearance to a human. He was thinking of changing to a humanoid demon that is more liked by humans than demons that don't look like them. His appearance was a about 20 year old human man that had black hair and violet eyes.

He got closer to the village and he asked the first human he saw "Excuse me. Where am I exactly?" The man who was working the field greeted him by saying "You are in Jyui village. Are you a traveler?"

Legul stopped and thought for a moment before saying "I… Well, sort of. My name is Lucas Knave and I come from a remote area that usually doesn't accept visitors. Because of the place I'm from, I don't really know how things are outside, so could you please fill me in about the general knowledge." The reason why he said that he came from a remote area was so that he can explain his lack of knowledge of current events. This can backfire as he doesn't know if the person he is talking to knows any possible places or the reason why it is this village he is coming across first.

The man says "I see. Must be a strict place. And a last name must mean you are a noble of some sort. Or maybe it works differently where you come from. Anyways, this village is located in the southern part of Alnias kingdom. I dare say that Alnias is the most prosperous kingdom there is." Legul figures out that the kingdom he is in matches with one of the kingdoms that was bordering the demon territory.

Then Legul says "I know about the conflict between demons and other races. How is it going currently?" The man says "Demons have a very small area to themselves nowadays. They were pushed back after their grand invasion was stopped by the alliance that was blessed by gods around 300 years ago. Demons are a rare breed nowadays in these lands."

Legul then thinks that he has been asleep for at least 300 years. The fact that demons were pushed back after they tried to invade more territory is something that troubles Legul a bit. He thinks "Did I not inform my son about the pact that the races made?" Then he asks "How are demons treated in this era?"

The man answered "Unfortunately, most demons are shunned by other races. It doesn't help that the trend of calling humans a superior race is on the rise right now. Honestly, why can't we just live in peace?" Legul mutters "Glad to know that demons weren't the only ones that thought themselves superior." The man asks "What did you say?" To which Legul answered "Just remembering an old tale about demons."

Then Legul concluded that the punishment from gods was affecting the demons of this era. He thought "Since demons became arrogant at some point and tried to invade more land, it is no wonder that gods are letting demons suffer from the actions of their predecessors."

The man then presents a question to Legul by asking "Where are you headed young man?" Legul responds with "I don't know. I guess I will just wander around for a while before I find a reason to go somewhere else."

In truth, Legul had already thought of going somewhere. If it has been a little over 300 years, then an old elf friend of his could still be alive. If he finds them, he would be able to know more about what has happened during his sleep. Then there is the option to go to the remaining demon territory and ask for their story, but at the moment Legul is not sure if he can ask the man in front of him where it is.

Legul then asks the man "How's the fieldwork going?" The man answers with "It is alright. We are expecting a good harvest in the near future so things are looking good." Legul asks "Do you only farm in this village?" The man answers, "We do have the hunter Joe and his sons with us, so we get some meat every now and then."

Legul then asks "Do you not always get meat as food?" The man answers with "We do almost every day, but the amount we get varies from day to day. Some days there is a lot of meat on the menu and others not so much. You know how it can be sometimes."

Legul then says "I do sense that there are a lot of animals around to hunt. I wonder if the monsters in the area cause you to lose some of your food." The man says "You are right. I don't know how you can tell, but there are monsters around these areas. They are weak compared to those monsters in the east, but they do cause us some trouble sometimes."

Then a loud bang is heard from the forest and Legul asks "What was that?" The man says "It was probably the sound of Ulias's rifle." Legul asks "A rifle? What is that?" The man says "It is technology that was invented around 60 years ago. They are basically sticks or pipes that are hollow and the middle goes boom and because there is a metal ball in there, it flies at amazing speeds."

Legul is fascinated by this and says "I haven't heard of this technology." The man says "It is relatively new and not many commoners can use them. Ulias just happened to work with the military and he got permission to use it after he left. He still has to pay for the maintenance, bullets and the gunpowder, but he doesn't mind. He has even learned to handle those things himself. Well, to some degree."

Legul is intrigued by this new technology. And when he was about to change the topic, the man said "You might be surprised by the magic tools that have been made nowadays. You told me that you are from a secluded place, so I doubt that you have seen them." Legul says "I do know that magic tools exist. But are you referring to something that is new?" The man says "Indeed. The magic tools today are something even commoners can use. They range from lights, stoves, showers and more." Legul is fascinated by the fact that people have learned to use magic in such a fascinating way.

Then a woman comes and searches for the man Legul is talking to. She says "John, why are you working in the fields again? You were supposed to handle those papers before anything else. And who is that man?" The man, who appears to be named John, says to the woman "Oh, I'm sorry. I just thought that I should help my people some more." The woman is agitated and says "Well you should help by looking at the papers. Again, who is this man?"

John introduces Legul "His name is Lucas Knave and he has been wandering about when he came across our little village." Legul then says to the woman "Indeed. I am Lucas Knave and I have come here from a secluded place so I might not know the current events of the outside world."

The woman then calms down a bit and says "My name is Maria Frisk and I am married to this man over there." Then John realizes that he hasn't introduced himself and says "Oh, I haven't introduced myself haven't I. I'm sorry, my name is Jonathan Frisk. You may call me just John like everyone else."

Legul then asks "I heard that commoners don't get last names out here. Does this mean you are from a noble house?" John smiles and says "Well, sort of. I am a son of one of the knight families and I worked with many other knights in my time. I now live in this village since I'm getting old and my injury is making me unable to fight like I used to. Now I'm here and I have to do some paperwork that my brother sends me every now and then."

Legul thinks that "Is he being used by his brother or something?" Then he says "Can you show me that injury. I might be able to heal it." John says "Sure, but many healers have looked at it and none could heal it fully. They did ease the pain for a moment, but it just returns as soon as I try to exercise more roughly. Let's get to my house first."

John and Maria start to go to their house and Legul follows them. Once inside, John takes his pants off and sits down. The wound seems to be from a powerful monster that has a corrosive acid on their claws. Legul deducts that it was from a darkdowner tiger. He then puts his hand near the wound and starts to heal the wound. The problem that comes from the healing process is that the toxin never fades off regularly. Legul has to remove the toxin via transfer it outside the body by controlling every drop of the toxin individually. This is impossible to an ordinary person, but since Legul is no ordinary man, it is a piece of cake.

Once Legul is done, he opens the window and evaporates the toxin so that it won't be able to harm anyone too badly once it dissipates to smaller doses. Then Legul tells John "It is done. You should be able to move normally now." John rises up and is surprised that there isn't any pain in his leg. He says "There is no pain. Every healer I've been through still left me with some pain, but I don't feel any at all." He then runs out and starts to do laps around the village.

Half an hour later he comes back and says "There is no pain. I'm actually healed." Maria starts to cry and John goes and hugs her. Both are now crying tears of joy as the pain that they have carried for a long time has vanished. John then says to Legul "Thank you kind stranger. I… no, we won't ever forget this deed."

Legul notices that it starts to get dark and he wonders where he should sleep tonight. John notices his worry and says to Legul "Feel free to sleep at our house tonight." Legul says "There is no need. I can sleep outside like usual." John says "You cured me from a years long blight and you are saying I should let my savior sleep outside? Nonsense, we have a quest room just for these kinds of occasions and now is the perfect time to use it." Legul is hesitant, but ultimately says "Okay. I accept your offer." John smiled and then they went inside the house.

When he was lying in the bed, he decided to use an appraisal on himself and see if anything had changed. Usually people can't see their own statuses without any special equipment if they don't have an appraisal skill. He noticed that he had acquired the skill "Heavy sleeper" presumably from the long sleep he had before. He also had upgraded his previous title "Healer of forlorn" to "Healer of damned". What it does is that it boosts his healing ability the worse the damage he is healing is.

He thought for a long time, and he eventually got to the conclusion that he should hide his true identity from possible people who might want to use appraisal on him. He then used his skill "False knowledge" to change his name, skills, titles and statuses. It won't change what he can actually do. He is just hiding his true abilities from possible snoopers.

From hence forwards, the name Legul Ranan is changed to Lucas Knave. The only thing that can change this fact is if he meets people who can recognise him.

Afterwards, Lucas thought about how low of a possibility a person having the appraisal skill actually is. Since it was a low possibility, he felt that he might have rushed a bit. But nonetheless, he will keep his identity as is.