The next day after my date with Hana:
"I think that's enough, we need to go", – Hana woke me from my deep sleep.
"Give me 5 minutes."
Hana left the room and was alone; I needed to change and prepare for the day.
I descended the stairs to the main dining hall of Fumiko's mansion. I sat near Hana and began eating first before heading out to Lord Kara's domain.
"So, I got to ask how your date was yesterday?"- At the dinner table, there are Fumiko and Ayame and Alma.
"Nothing that special, Ayame, just a regular date. We made some good memories together.
"Happy for you two. But now, I suggest you be careful with this contract with the demon. I suggest you are a demon, too, making contracts with impossible conditions that initially seem easy. Maybe we can get rid of some opponents this way" – Ayame said all this without flinching an inch; some people get scared by the mere idea of killing someone, but not Ayame. I don't know much about her history besides that she is an assassin and wants to help us.
"At least let them eat, Ayame! Let's leave the worries behind while we eat at East; we already have enough to worry about!" - Fumiko commented back at Ayame. Meanwhile, Princess Alma was quietly eating and minding her own.
"Anyway, how are you today, Alma?" I turned toward Alma to ask her, only to see that she had already finished half of her serving.
"I am okay, Hikaru. Thanks for asking. If you wonder why I am always quiet, I don't like talking as often. After eating, I will be off helping Fumiko complete some documents alongside Hanako and Masamune. Those two work hard; they wake up early to cook for everyone, eat first, and then get to work." I applaud them for that. It is hard for them as well to do this, but I think they can manage some stuff on their own
"That's good to hear, I might raise their pay a little if they keep it up like this, they always do an exemplary job" – Fumiko started to eat again, talking with her mouth full.
We finished the rest of our meals and then headed to Lord Kara's domain.
"So, we go back to Lord Kara's domain and meet the demon you had a contract with, fight monsters to evolve and then back home, right?"
Hana and I are walking towards Lord Kara's domain. Hana holds Katana close to her, almost like she is ready to strike at any time.
"You seem to be on your guard. We are still in a safe area. We took care of some threats that might harm us. I don't think you should be this tense. The road ahead is long; try to preserve your energy. If you are going to consume it all now, we will be at a disadvantage later." Her stance made me paranoid about something following us to see us train or whatnot. I don't know what to say about this. But I am getting uneasy; my hands begin to sweat, and my body is heating up.
"You may be right but something is following us. I can feel the pressure from something very strong that seems to be following us. I don't know what to do either. We better rush to Lord Kara's domain and meet up with that demon you have a contract with."
"Thank god for the telepathic network; we would have been screwed if whatever is following heard us."
We picked up the pace and walked to Lord Kara's domain; we were exhausted when we arrived. This is a wrong move regarding whatever was following us; we may have let it know that we knew it was there. Usually, you shouldn't let anyone who follows you like this know that you know that they are there, but that was our best option.
"Well, you are here earlier than I had expected"- I hear the demon's voice from behind. Maybe it was he who followed us.
"I think we are late by a few days. First, we got what we promised. See!"- I opened my spatial storage and showed him all of the food and clothes that I brought for him. Everything is in place for us to go on and evolve; he has to hold his part of the bargain.
"Well, these are more than enough; thank you, you two. Lord Gloxina sure has some pretty generous and kind replacements" – Who is that? I never heard that name before
!Gloxina, the previous demon queen who brought the demons out of the demon realm onto the human realm for the first time, died assassinated by humans!
"Mind telling me more about you?" - I asked the demon while extending my hand with a smile.
"Well, time to tell you the truth; I don't have a name anymore since my master, the previous demon queen and demon lord of the world, Gloxina, died. I knew right away the two of you held the Demon Lord Sproutlings. Inside you two, I wanted to test the kind of people you two are. You are very kind and generous; these clothes, food and whatever else you brought cost a lot, so I thank you. Going out of your way for a stranger like myself is a big deal, a quality every demon lord and hero should have. But these days, you'd rather trust a demon lord than a hero" – The demon finished his speech and sat on the dry ground.
"Thank you. Now, can you help us evolve? We are not surprised you know all that, but we must move against Ifrit and her followers.
"Well, good. It's time for me to keep my promise: I will attract a lot of monsters, and you guys will fight them. I will lower my aura, and then you can begin your exp-earning spree"- The demon sat down, closing his eyes. He continued to sit on the ground. I don't know what he is doing, but it works since monsters appear.
The first horde of monsters is formed of Magi Wolves.
!Correction, those are wind magi wolves. They can control the wind element and have intrinsic skills: Wind Manipulation and Air platform!
Hana and I split up and dealt with 1 half of the wolves.
They are faster and more agile than we are; even with their levels being lower than ours by 15, it is still challenging to beat them.
"To your left, Hikaru!" - I need to concentrate and be in the moment. My head moved to my left, and I directed my shadow tendrils toward the wolves coming from there. Then, to my right, repeating the same pattern, then 3 of them were heading right for me; I extended my shadow tendril toward one of them, but it somehow anticipated the attack and dodged it, 2 of them charged at me and bit my arm It hurts like hell, my arm stings. Still, there is no large wound like the one you would expect from a bite.
!You have been infected by a poison the wind magi wolves carry; it's your chance to attack while you can!- The wolves are retreating; it's time to use the shadow tendrils. I got on my knees, extended my shadow tendrils to the wolves, and impaled all 3 of them.
#Skill gained: Poison Resistance #- I feel my body recovering a little after acquiring this skill. I recovered enough that it would let me move.
Hana is doing better than I expected. I turned my back for 1 second to look at her; she had managed to kill 12 wolves. Her movements are swift, and she doesn't think much before attacking; she makes these decisions in a split second, much faster than I make them; no, I should focus on supporting Hana; we need to do this in a team. Otherwise, we will exhaust ourselves faster.
A sharp pain ran through my back; it was like I was hit by a rock at high speed.
"Keep your eyes on the fight; she can handle herself."
I turned back to see a minotaur and around 20 goblins helping it.
"Sia, time to use some magic. Doesn't matter how much mana I will expand. I have no attacking Primordial skill. Can you manage to cast while I fight?"
!I recommend you use your shadow tendrils as a shield against the attacks and wrap Hana in them; she will have greater attack resistance.!
I was about to lose my footing. I have to dodge the minotaur, that beast; it's vast and fast at the same time. This isn't good; monsters are attacking from all parts, and I don't know what to do now. We may get overwhelmed if we don't do something about it.
!You are ready to cast magic. You can also use your ice mastery skill to get the same effect!
*Use skill: Ice Mastery, Ice Field*- The entire ground became cold and icy; the monsters on both sides were trapped and encased in ice. This offered us the opportunity to deliver the finishing blows
"There are still more to come. Expect a lot more than these"- After the demon spoke, we caught our breath for a few seconds.
But before all that, I wrapped myself, Hana, and my shadow magic to increase our physical and magical damage resistance; it seems I can do a lot of fighting for a support class.
The next wave already started before we could get up. I received a punch from a goblin, and the rest of the monsters began using ranged attacks against us. The punch or the attacks didn't hurt or hinder us much since we were wrapped in shadow magic.
We managed to fight for hours on end; the rest of the details were that it was too chaotic fighting all sorts of monsters to remember them all, but I can remember how things ended. We are beat up and can't do anything more than wait until we hear the evolution message.
Hana and I are standing back to back. I am fighting more with my shadow tendrils and hands now; instead of using them for protection, I no longer have enough stamina to run around or dodge.
Damn it.
"Well, looks like the 2 of you need some help"- The demon got to us and started to battle the monsters with us. He has stronger skills than we do, or he possesses more potent magic than we do.
!Affirmative!
"Thank you"- Me and I rested while the demon was taking care of the monsters.
One hour passed, and I felt better, and Hana was also up. To my surprise, the demon is still holding them off; he didn't kill any monster, strange.
"You 2 should deal the finishing blows."
Hana and I got up for 1 last fight against the monsters; the demon deliberately left them alive for us to kill them and earn exp points.
"Thank you for this" – We both used our strongest attacks against the monster horde on its last legs, and we finally managed to slay all of them.
"We need some rest" – Hana and I said before blacking out for some time.