Demonic Devourer's Development

Even when I walked inside, the dreaming demon didn't wake up from its fantasies. A deadly mistake. That the only reason this guy was still there, alive to dream them, was because his house was in the middle of the place full of nothing, and was full of nothing itself.

The demon himself was skin and bones, too, which was easy to see since he had no clothes and not enough hair to hide anything. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that he learnt how to survive on the heat of the fires from flamerocks alone. Otherwise, he must be something else. Starvation and thirst were some of the worst thing you could suffer through in Hell, where death was nothing permanent. And it didn't save you from them. If you died hungry, your soul stayed hungry… Some, caught in that death spiral, would die from hunger and thirst over and over until they couldn't take it anymore and went to rebirth.

There were no sources of water nearby, and no food. We were too far both from the Hell rivers and from the Abyss—both the main places where one could gain sustenance.

I walked up to the demon. Even when I leaned to look into its face, there was no awareness of me in his expression or in his thoughts. This was the first time I was ignored so completely without even trying to hide…

This would've been a perfect opportunity to slit the demon's throat, but I was so annoyed by being dismissed like this that instead I straightened up and cleared my throat. Nothing.

"Hello! You are being evicted. Are you going to wake up for it or what?"

That, finally, cast a ripple on the demon's thoughts. I waited impatiently for that ripple to clear up the guy's head, and for him to open his eyes and focus them on my face. I waited for his alarm, shock, fear… but there was only serenity and slight curiosity.

"Hello. Did you say something? I tend to drift away into my thoughts and miss on things…" he said calmly. Only his mouth and eyes moved—the rest of the demon was still like a statue.

I frowned. Until now, I thought he was a simple escapist—an uncommon thing, considering how hard Hell made for people to escape it—but not entirely rare. Now I knew he was at least somewhat insane. That, also, was common enough—but also dangerous. Mad people were predictable only as far as you could tell with their madness.

Good thing that I could just read the guy's thoughts. But with mad people, that wasn't always enough. Like that time. The demon had very few thoughts in his head present, as it was.

"I said, skinny guy, that you are being evicted. You have once chance to leave this house before I throw you out by force."

"Ah." The demon slowly blinked. "Please, be so kind. My joints had grown rusty. I don't think my legs will carry me far."

He wasn't even joking or being ironic. I sighed.

I lifted him by shoulders with two hands. He was as light as a feather, and still completely immobile. Maybe he calcified at some point. I carried him outside and placed him a dozen steps away from the stone dome.

"Thank you, kind stranger," the demon said. His thoughts were so hard to read—his mind was like a lake and I was unable to see its depths.

"For what?" I asked, stepping away from him. "Not killing you? I might change my decision at any moment yet."

"For bringing me out. It would've been painful for me to walk. And for not killing me, too. Kindness is a rare threat out there. Each piece of it matters."

Maybe I should kill and eat him. If he survived on some ability that gave him energy for free, it'd be useful for me, too. Though I'd be able to survive on rocks alone, so that wasn't a necessity.

I waved a hand at the demon. "Whatever. I will consider you my garden decor. Scream if someone attacks and you will be promoted to an alarm."

"I am proud to hear that someone considers me beautifying this place. Beauty is as rare as kindness here, and I'm happy to spread it." The demon's lips curved in the barest of smiles.

I gave him one last glance, shook my head and left him be. Arguing with mad people was a waste of time. Instead, I had some webs to weave.

One of the few good parts of being in Hell was that it was, basically, a giant cave until you got to the First Circle. The ceiling of it was high, about fifty meters much, but that was still close enough that I could put a web thread between it and the ground.

Making a full web there would've been a waste of too much time, though. But I put a few thick threads between the ceiling and the ground to serve as a support for a web tent around the flamerock dome. The fact that it was burning wasn't a problem—my webs, thanks to the "steel" upgrade, were fireproof.

During all the time I spent fortifying the place, the dreaming demon kept sitting without movement, his mind back in the world of fantasies again.

After all the web I spun I was hungry, so I ate some flamerock and then went inside and barricaded the door with more webs. It was time to spend all that EXP I got from Goddess of Wizards, and also explore the rest of the spells in her book. After that…

Grinding some EXP in Hell seemed like a great idea. There were few gigantic monsters that would give a lot of EXP, but some demons lived for such a long time that they gave plenty of EXP simply thanks to their insanely trained stats.

Which was another option for me. Grinding stats.

But first, evolving.

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