Walking through the forest, I read through the book [Book on Demons & Hell].
And I must say, what luck must I have to stumble upon such a gift. As a Demon, this is truly a treasure. I have learned quite a lot of things from it.
For example, the main dimension of hell is a rocky landscape filled with lava lakes, rivers, and seas of lava, as well as forests and a lot of minerals not found in the overworld. This particular dimension is completely lawless and a think of it as the weakest of all. In actuality there are multiple hells, nine realms of hell, the previously mentioned dimension is not considered part of the nine realms of hell. There is also nine Princes of Hell that occupy and rule each realm accordingly. As well as there being a rumored "10nth realm" of the Demon King, appointed by the Demon/Chaos gods to rule the entirety of hell. But only the Nine Princes of Hell would know the truth, that if there is a Demon King or not.
Another example is that there are several races of demons, which are split into two species: The Underlings such as Imps, Succubus, Warrior, etc. Then Demons, yeah… they are called Demons, they consist of Infernals (Humanoid Demons made of Fire), Argosans(Tall and Bulky demons with red skin and spikes on their shoulders, head, and forearms), and much more. These two are ranked, Underlings having the weak imps and the Demons having the powerful Argosans. Myself, I do not know what I am for… it is strange since the book mentions only Archdemons being capable of having a "human" form. Thus, I should be a rare demon… hopefully.
Also, the reason I am having difficulty with maintaining my Demon Form, is because I am in the overworld. But this should not be a problem, with the powers I possess, I should be able to overcome this hurdle.
After the ranks of the demon species themselves, there is the evolutionary rank. And I must say the book isn't quite clear on the subject, which is strange as I have [Adaptive Learning]. The books says that there are around five evolutionary rankings. And some of the rankings are "intermingled" with honorary title ranking(nobility titles). There is the Underling, Demon, Archdemon, and then Demon Lord. These four are the mention evolutionary ranks.
Then there are the noble ranks, which majority are only plausible to achieve if you're a Archdemon. Starting with Demon Baron, many of the Demon Barons are Archdemons, some are high ranked and powerful, I mean really powerful demons, which can only be counted on two hands. Then you get Demon Count, Demon Marquis, Demon Duke, and then the highest, the Demon Prince. No one knows how the Demon Prince is chosen, for all of them are so old and ancient that majority of Demons have no clue, recollection, or any documentation of their ascendance.
Closing the book and putting it away, I look upwards at the sky, it is almost getting dark. How wonderful. I use magic to levitate pieces of wood sticks and small logs while heading towards a clearing ahead of me.
I find a giant log with a clearing around it. Setting my back on the log. I set the sticks and small logs in front of me. I point my finger at the fire camp and a small wisp of flame shoots towards it, igniting the sticks under the small logs.
Breathing once more, "Ah, such wonder, such fresh air. The smell of the fire and warmth of it. This is very cozy~." I say, smiling. It reminds me of my past life when I used to go camping.
I get comfortable as I am warmed by the heat of the flame and calmed by the crackling of fire. I lay and try to sleep… that is if demons sleep.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It is currently morning, and I am walking aimlessly through the woods, trying to figure how the hell I am going to proceed from here. There is just so much to do, so much to be weary and cautious of. Too much, just too much.
Ending up in a clearing, I sense multiple presences. Coming out the bushes, are at the least two dozen men, wearing ragged leather armor, with irons weapons, some with a shield some not. There are also archers in the back.
"Looky what we have here, a stranded wanderer perhaps~" says a man in an annoying and chuckling voice, he is the closest to me, about 5 meters away from me.
They all start to chuckle. "Come now, perhaps you have something of value, ah… I see the ring, give it to us and we'll let ya go, alrighty?" he says again, irritating me even further.
'This is very fucking cliché… are they dumb?' I think to myself. Looking at what I assume are bandits I glare intensely at them.
"Why so quite bastard? Are you so scared you can't speak?" He says, laughing in the end.
Raising my right and closing my fist upwards, I motion with my index finger for them to approach me.
He raises his eyebrows questioningly, smirks and says "It seems this bastard needs to learn some manners. Get em you two."
Two men from behind him approach me, they both have a bastard sword. As they approach me, I think of testing my strength, deciding not to summon my spear, and instead strengthen myself to be capable of using and master all weapons, even my hands.
The right one smirks and says, "Come now bastard.", as he is about to punch me with his right hand, that is holding a sword.
Looking at the approaching punch that is slowly coming to impact my face, I am puzzled to a degree. I expected them to maybe be more… tough, but it seems I was overestimating what humans, or any other race might be capable of in the overworld. Still won't let my guard down, I know how that ends.
Dodging to the left casually, I punch his abdomen with my right fist, as he falls down and vomits. His whole face is red, veins looking like they are about to pop.
The left one is aghast and what just happened, using the distraction, I approach him quickly and punch his face, using a little more strength. Breaking his face, really breaking it and he falls down spasming. Taking his sword I go back to the previous guy, as he turns around, I cleanly cut of his head.
'Oh… that was such a nice and clean cut.' I think to myself, grinning, whilst laughing inwardly.
Strangely, I feel nothing… nothing at all when killing humans. I feel like I have been cursing and feeling far greater emotions since I have reincarnated. Most definitely it is to be attributed to me being a demon.
Turning back to the group, I see them extremely surprised, some really showing fearful expression. Which makes me… happy seeing it. It makes me exhilarated in a sense and I feel empowered by it once more.
Looking at them, there is 27 bandits left. I grin and proceed to approach them. The one who I guess to be the boss starts to back away, motioning with his left hand for the group to what I assume is attack.
"Get this fucking bastard! All of you!" he screams, aware of the situation. It seems he is smarter than what I thought. I mean how dumb can this get, my eyes are terrifying, lava irises and grey sclera. Usually, people would immediately associate it with being demonic or something of the same.
The 8 archers at the back start to immediately draw their arrows and shoot. I stand still and use the sword to cut all the arrows. 6 men approach me and start swinging at me. I dodged the first 5 swings and then started attacking them instead.
The guy in front of me and behind me swings simultaneously, I evade both by titling my body to the right, grabbing the guy's hand who was in front of me, I pull him and slash his body apart. I feel the sword getting duller. It looks like I am putting to much strength into my swings.
Turning quickly to left, using the momentum, I give a clean and deep slash to the upper chest of the one behind me, and his upper torso falls off. I then procced to jump three meters high, dodging another two attacks behind me. The two guys fall down clumsily, I then procced to fall down, using my legs strength, I drop on their backs, breaking it completely, they vomit blood and stay still, gasping heavily.
Looking at the two in front of me, I speed towards the one on the left, cutting from his left hip towards his right chest and then using them momentum to cutting half of the head of the guy on the right, all in one full swing.
Turning back quickly I start approaching the rest. And oh boy, they are truly shitting themselves now, all that killing was in a span of what I guess to be less than 20 seconds.
"W-what the fuck are you!!!! SHIT SHIT SHIT! KILL HIM! I NEED TO REPORT THIS!" the boss starts screaming erratically, he turns around, trying to run away.
Tilting my left hand, using magic I summon shadow chains around his feet, dropping him down very hard, he starts to gasp for air as more chains start restraining him all over his body.
I procced to annihilate the rest of the group, using a variation of magic and sword skills.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After all the butchering, I felt that I have mastered the sword to a degree. Looking backwards at the restrained guy. Throwing the completely dull sword away, I approach him. Standing above him, I crouch down, looking into his eyes I say "You should've just left, but hey, I am not complaining. Your dead buddies over there were fun… and now you will be useful to me." and I grab his head with my right hand.
I use magic, and look through is mind, reading and consuming all he knows, all of his life. His eyes roll backwards as he screams and spasms. Finishing I stand up and dust myself off.
"So… there is more bandits here." I am currently in what is known as the Dyatreal Forest. A forest known to be inhabited by a bunch of monsters and more importantly a great number of bandits.
This guy apparently works for a bandit leader, who is under another group, whose leader is a bandit king. Yep, a Bandit King. Apparently, there are bandits of high caliber, of great strength and renown, they settle down in areas, build forts and so on. Sometimes even a bandit city is built if the said Bandit King is truly powerful. This forest has one, a Bandit King and he is in a fort not far from here.
Looking at the dead bodies, I grin and think of something fun and great. Lifting both my hands up, palms facing up. I summon necrotic energy, as they swirl around my hand, a smoky dark green color. I then proceed to bring my hands down smashing it on the ground as the necrotic energy spreads everywhere. The dead bodies start to twitch, limbs and heads going back to their original bodies. Placing themselves together.
Slowly, they start to stand up, dark green eyes. Withered and almost skeletal, these are the undead.
"Now, let us have some fun." I say, grinning.