Taking the demon's medicine is akin to surrendering one's life to him (2)

Chapter 18: Taking the demon's medicine is akin to surrendering one's life to him (2)

"This shit is mine!" Yale growled like a beast, stomping his way to a monster like an enraged bull.

His voice, demeanor, and movements were unbecoming of the best mercenary party's leader, for he took the lead without any thinking, smashing his enemies with heavy strength.

His sword carried that might, and as he lifted it high, pointing at the sun, Yale soon drew it back, halving the bear monster into two clean pieces.

The blood splashed on his maddened muscles and contorted with killing thirst face. He let his left hand go off the sword's hilt and clenched it tightly into a victory pose.

"So good! So freaking good! Gimme more! I want to kill more!" Yale's raspy voice bounced off the trees surrounding him and his teammates.

Beelzebub and the rest were on their way to a cave of infamous monsters, guided by no one other than The Ghost's leader and the forest… their speed would have been much faster if this man had not gotten drunk on battle excitement.

No one could blame him, though…

Yale had been staying away from fights for some time now, his flaws holding him back. Now that the shackles had fallen off his body, the man went on a rampage.

And no one could stop him… well, Beelzebub could.

'There's a party option in the system… but since no one has proposed it yet, I reckon it's a feature available only to players, which are known as heavenly bloodline now. Isn't it a perfect means to reveal my origins, then?' Beelzebub felt the loss of experience points with every fiber of his body, but his mind was busy with other thoughts.

Now that he found a feature to reveal his origins, Beelzebub no longer debated whether he should keep his entire power back to himself or not… his initial plan for this adventure was to secretly plan [Earth Seeds] in monsters to hurt them from inside, secretly gleaning experience points to level up.

Moreover, revealing his flames would make things so much easier!

And as residents of this world had more bottlenecks than scions of heavenly bloodline, Beelzebub had decided to no longer let the man rampant free.

"Hold down your horses, Yale, and leave some fun for us." Beelzebub noticed a presence ogling his party from afar and set on to deal with that monster.

Yale, Bruno, and others worriedly ran after him, only to get stopped by David himself. He glanced at them with his dark abyss eyes, then only invited Yale to his side, to which the man obediently obliged.

Soon, the monster's form became open to them — a black cicada was perched on a tree.

It seemed asleep and unaware of the foreign presence… alas for it, Beelzebub's instincts have been growing steadily as he leveled up and interacted with threats of the fantasy world. Not only did he remember the time when he couldn't rely on any skills to locate his enemies, but Beelzebub also adapted like a demon born to disturb the world's peace.

Beelzebub raised his right hand and spread his fingers… and then, the lines of his palm twisted to form something akin to a mouth… David then quickly clasped his right hand with his left, confining the building-up mana within his palms!

The temperature rose in the blink of an eye.

And then, the demon extended his hands forth to reveal the hidden content within. Green flames rushed in a straight line like wild horses fighting each other to win the race — their goal was naturally the black cicada.

Before the monster realized that there was a mage in the forest, the green flames hit its wings, splashing abundantly across its frame.

Having no need to keep the flames active, Beelzebub stood without any care for the world with his hands in his pockets.

The flames finished the job shortly after.

[You have killed Lv. 15 the black cicada.]

"It's so counterproductive to wield flames for an alchemist like me, don't you think so? I'm melting so many precious resources… well, it's not like we have enough storage to keep them all. The valuable vault is waiting for us." Beelzebub jested to The Ghost's leader with his lips curved into a little wider smile.

Yale stood as though the flames were blue and cold… "Y-yeah… right… so odd of you…"

He couldn't finish his sentence!

Beelzebub turned heels after dropping a chuckle.

How often did he tame people like Yale with his magic? He certainly couldn't do that on his fingers!

-

The new team spent three days camping in the open forest.

It was quite enjoyable as everyone was strong and more than efficient. Out of everyone, Bruno benefited the most from this setup, as The Ghosts had their own way of setting up camps and precious items, and Beelzebub's green flames dancing in the bonfire had made monsters go against their ravenous hearts.

Bruno wanted to be a genuine part of this camp, so he took the role of explaining their goal.

"We'll enter a cave known as The Underground Kingdom Of Blue Ants. Its first levels have been explored a few times by brave mercenaries, meaning a few marks understandable only to humans can be found inside. We can leverage them. Our main goal is to mine blue crystals, which naturally come to birth in the ant's kingdom. There are a lot of blue crystals inside now!" Bruno was in such a good mood that he wanted to ask a question such as 'Do you know why?' but as the most famous mercenaries were around him, to say nothing of the best and strongest alchemist, Bruno swallowed this playful question and continued after a short pause… "The Ant Queen's new children will soon hatch, so her army has prepared a lot of nutrients for her new forces! Some blue crystal might even roll down the tunnels as we speak now!"

Yale and his teammates gravely nodded. "I hate fighting bugs—" All eyes fell on a man with dark hair and eyes… "But now I want to slash them into pieces!"

Beelzebub's flames had left a lot of impact and confidence in the team's hearts…

And while it was true that loss of experience points hurt Beelzebub's heart, David used his flames to mess with the image of him everyone had in their hearts.

As a solo player, David was more than familiar with those tricks…

His magic was seemingly flawed… and so was his mana…

He also didn't mind revealing his stamina flaw and how he needed someone to tank a few monsters for him. But Beelzebub also felt free to reveal his flames more than he should have.

Those flaws and advantages had already done their purpose…

All that was left was to use them if need be.

"I can't wait to practice my magic again… ah, I wish every monster would gladly hop into the cauldron where my flames are at their strongest."

"Haha!" The whole party grinned aloud.

And while it was not meant to be a full joke, Beelzebub guessed he was kinda good at them.

The demon grinned together with them.